Saturday snapshot ~ Grandma

We're vising Grandma and Grandpa this weekend.  Annika has been so excited all week.  Friday morning, while packing the van, she said "It will be so good to spend some time with Grandma."

Cute Things Abigail Says (Part Four)

Sometimes it`s really hard to stay mad at your kids even though they do something that IRKS you.  Today was such a case.  I went into the living room where Miss Abigail was drawing me a picture using orange marker....on the couch.

Me:  "Abigail!  What are you doing????"

Abigail:  She looked at me for a second, then threw her hands up in the air and said  "Ta-Da!"

Operation TV Room Organization

Part two of the downstairs living room organization is coming to a close.  You can read Part One here in case you missed it.  We had this on our wall. And yes, it usually is that messy.

 It was attached to the wall at one time....but it isn't anymore.  Clark was nervous that one of the kids would bump into it and the whole thing would come crashing down, so I decided to make something different out of it.  Originally I wanted to make this.

Source

But, after I got my bookshelf on its side, I realized that it was quite high, so the girls would have had to have a stepstool to get up on it, and so in my mind, it didn't really look like it should become a bench.  For now it is just cubbies to hold our DVD's...and maybe I'll figure out what to do with the top at a later time.

I made up four areas.  From left to right, area #1 is the kid's movies they are allowed to watch.  Area #2 is Clark's movies, area #3 belongs to my movies, and area #4 are our Wii and XBox games.  I like how everyone has their own area and that all of the movies are actually in their proper cases....for the moment anyway!  Annika and Abigail already know that they aren't allowed to play with the DVD's, so hopefully that will last longer than a day!

I really like how it turned out.  

Another helpful hint from my kitchen

Once upon a time, I stumbled onto a cooking blog.  So, I started reading it.  It's really good.  I've used multiple recipes of hers.  I've told other people to use multiple recipes of hers. 

One day, she posted about how to make whipping cream.  I was slightly shocked at this post, because I thought that everybody knew how to make whipping cream.  In the Pennies on a Platter universe however, I guess that was not the case.  I told my sister that I thought it was the weirdest thing to write about (since I knew how to make my own whipping cream) when she came back with the comment, "Why?  You don't know how to make oatmeal."  Point taken.

Anyway, so while making meatballs this morning to put into my crockpot, I brainstormed a new way to make my breadcrumbs.  Chances are, most people probably already know this trick, but it's just possible that there is one person out there that hadn't thought of it and so I'm writing to them.  Just like the person who will one day write a post about how to make oatmeal.  I will read it and then I will know how to do it myself. 

Growing up, whenever we had to make something that would require a rolling pin, my mom would take wax paper, fold it in half and then put whatever we were wacking in the middle of the wax paper.  Examples:  candy canes or soda crackers
While doing this, the wax paper usually would get little tiny holes in it and then it was useless, so you had to use more wax paper.  I have eliminated the need for wax paper.

Heavy duty freezer bags.  Don't seal up the top or the bag will explode on you...but it works so much better than wax paper.  It doesn't make holes because the plastic is a bit more durable, and when you go to pick up the bag, the stuff you were smashing doesn't fall out the sides.  I'm only sorry I hadn't thought of this earlier.

Saturday snapshot ~ Sleeping Beauty

Annika has gotten into some very weird sleeping positions before...but I have never seen her sitting up on her knees.

I'd rather have a root canal

My goodness.   Two weeks ago I had posted about my new dentist, nicknamed "Last Dentist".  I was cautiously optomistic last Thursday when I went for my first of two appointments with him.  However. 

I stopped working almost 5 years ago when Annika was born, and when that happened, I took my watch off and stopped writing the date multiple times a day.  Half of the time I have no idea what day of the week it is, let alone the day of the month.

Last Thursday at 8:30 in the morning I headed on over to see Last Dentist.  It turns out, that my appointment was actually for this Thursday.  As in, today.  I was devestated.  My teeth were aching, I wasn't sure I could handle another week of pain before things could start getting fixed.  I think the ladies behind the desk were feeling sympathetic because they went to the back and found another dentist who wasn't busy and he got me in.  I'm going to call him Super Dentist.

Let me tell you.  He did a root canal on me.  Well, first he hit my teeth with a little metal hammer to see if it hurt.  It did.  He then put a Q-tip with something cold on it on my teeth.  I was supposed to tell him when it started hurting and when it stopped hurting.  Well.  When he hit the tooth that he eventually ended up working on, the pain was excruciating.  I think it lasted for over 5 minutes.  However, before the pain had ended, he had numbed the area and put a needle in my lip, so I stopped feeling it.  Then, I got a root canal. 

This was by far the BEST root canal I've ever had.  I went home with a funny feeling in my left nostril because he numbed that as well...but after the numbness wore off, I was pain free.  I didn't need any painkillers, and I was able to resume my life.  I could drink hot and cold, eat sweets and smile when it was windy.  What a great feeling!

This Thursday I went back to see Last Dentist, since I had more work that needed to be done.  I have to admit I was disappointed.  I was in the chair for the same amount of time and had 3 fillings done this morning.  But, if I had a choice, I would rather have had a root canal with Super Dentist. 

So, I switched dentists and the next two appointments that I was supposed to have with Last Dentist are now going to be with Super Dentist.  We'll see how he does with just normal fillings. 

I felt a little bit guilty when I was switching over to Super Dentist, but the receptionist told me that I wasn't the first person to do this and I wouldn't be the last.  It makes me feel slightly better. 

The Restful Vacation: Part Two

Here's some more pictures from our vacation for you...and a story.  I'll start with the story since it's from the way up.  Clark and I differ on our opinions of this incident, so he suggested I blog about it and ask your opinion.  I even drew a picture for you!

While driving on the highway Car A started to pass Car B and a very slow moving truck (C).  While A was in the passing lane, Car B decided that they didn't want to wait for A to pass, so they also sped up and cut Car A off.  I think if A hadn't reacted quickly and slammed on their brakes, there would have been an accident.  Car A then proceeded to honk the horn to Car B.  I think that is justified because maybe they weren't paying attention and didn't see Car A in the vicinity.  However, Car A kept honking their horn for a very long time...and then when they passed Car B a couple of minutes later, they honked their horn again.  I think this was a bit excessive and could be termed road rage, Clark thinks it was justified.  What do you think?  Curious minds want to know.

Here comes the fun part of the post now, the pictures of cute children and wildlife!  Tyler all ready for a road trip.

We got to share the road with some bighorn sheep. 

This was the third bear that we saw on our trip.  The girls thought that was pretty cool!

I made the girls get out in the cold with me so I could take a picture of one of them in Alberta and the other in BC with me in the middle.  They weren't very happy with me.

Abigail was not a fan of being so high up.

Pork jerky from Costco.  It seriously is like eating cake in jerky form.  SO GOOD!

And finally, here's a video of our littlest munchkin.  He does this funny thing with his tongue where he moves it from side to side.  It is so cute!  Watch closely for it around the 30 second mark!