The Answer

So many nagging questions left unanswered for so long.  No fear, Libby has the answer!


What's for dinner?
Does this need salt?
Are we out of salt again?
Where's Daddy's other boot?
What is in this boot?
Where's Libby?

My Disneyland Birthday

My husband asked me the other day, "What do you want for your birthday?" And I replied with all sincerity, "I want to go to Disneyland!"  So, I did!

We have annual passes to Disneyland, but they are only good for 170 days of the year (as opposed to the 365 days that my calendar claims are in a year, but I'm way too cheap to buy the Premium Pass).  After being blocked out all summer, we finally were allowed back in! 

All week long it was over 100 degrees here.  I was afraid we wouldn't be able to go; we went last year when it was over 100 and I swore I'd never do that again! Way too hot!  But the weather worked out nicely for us yesterday. It was 94 when we left the house at 10am and it was 81 when we got there!  So nice!   Oddly enough, it was those same temperatures when we left and got home again.  Ten degrees warmer at home. I'm sure it was over 100 at home while we were in Anaheim, but we didn't have to suffer in it, so all was well.  The dog might disagree though, she had the unfortunate experience of being shut in the house after I turned off the air conditioner. Poor fur-ball.

The day was great! We saw a lot of characters, which surprises me since it was so hot. Gracie was hoping to see Daisy Duck. I don't recall ever seeing her, that would be fun. We didn't see her this trip either.  We saw Donald Duck, Chip 'n Dale, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, White Rabbit and Queen of Hearts, Woody, Jessie, Fairy Godmother, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Snow White.  We were able to visit most of them, but a few of them we just waved instead of standing in line to see them.

We didn't go to many attractions. We went to the Tiki Room, Small World, Talk to Crush, and Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. For some odd reason, we just didn't get into many attractions.  We did spend an hour or more in Bugland at Princess Dot's Splash Garden.  We've never done that before and the kids loved it on such a hot day! We did catch a little bit of the Glowfest show while we ate ice cream and then we caught our bus back to the parking lot.

The day flew by so quickly! 

Now that we've done so many different things at Disneyland and California Adventure, the kids want to do it all each time we go back.  We just can't do everything so I told them to think of one thing they wanted to do but we didn't get to and we'll be sure to do it next time.  Gracie said she wanted to ride "Winnie the Pooh".  And then I asked them what was their favorite thing we did all day long. Gracie replied "Princesses" and Libby said "Minnie Mouse".  They just love the characters!

My Big Blog Business Profits

Did you hear what happened in Philly?  I'm a long ways from Philadelphia, but that doesn't mean much these days.  Philly Bloggers are being told to pay for a business license!

Read about it here:  Philly Requiring Bloggers to Pay $300 For Business License

Good thing I never did figure out how to monetize my blog!  Besides, I didn't figure I would ever make much from putting Google ads on my blog, maybe a few pennies per year.  Hardly worth it for me to have it full of advertisements.  I prefer my blog to be ad-free.

But, I was thinking of montezing my other two blogs.  I write one about all the fun places I take the kids, so it is a tourist review type of blog.  And the other one is product reviews.  I have not been writing much lately on any of my blogs, but I'm always thinking of great things to blog about. I keep thinking that someday I'll get caught up and I'll put Google ads on my review blogs. 

Hmmm, maybe I won't!  My blogs are certainly not a business!  I'm not out to get "customers".  Should be interesting to see where this story goes. My guess is it will be a nice liner for a bird cage.

I'm a Grandma!

Meet my new grandson.  His name is Charlie.  Born 9 days overdue on August 16, 2010 at 8:17pm.  He was 8 pounds and 5 ounces and 20.5 inches

Venturing out on a Dental Adventure

That's right, I said "Dental Adventure".  Sure wish I would have said "Disneyland Adventure" or anything more fun than a dental adventure, but it's time for me to face the fact that I do own teeth and they need occasional care. I'm bucking up, putting on my brave face and going to the dentist.

I took the girls to a babysitter and headed over to the torture chamber.  After twirling around and around the strip mall where I thought the dentist's office was, I tried another one, and another.... found it!  Got to my appointment 20 minutes late.  They said that was ok, just sign in.

I actually had two appointments, one at 10:30 for an orthodontic consultation and the next appointment at 11:30 for something I wasn't clear about on the dental side. 

I didn't wait long, and then they called me back to the Orthodontic room.  Lots of chairs all in one room, kind of weird, but whatever.  The dentist came over and looked at my teeth, had me bite, open, bite, open... and then he made some notes and dished out the news. Bad news:  My teeth are crooked.  That was hardly news to me! 

Then I went to the office to discuss the cost and payment plan for orthodontic work. If I get braces to correct my bite and straighten 'em up it will cost $3800.  I about crapped!!!  That is $1200 LESS than what it cost to put Katie in braces when she was 13 yrs old.  Why is everything (except salaries) so much more expensive in South Dakota than it is in California?  My insurance, which I was told is amazing coverage, will toss in $1500 leaving me with the balance. She thinks I'm having sticker shock, and I am but not like she thinks so I just keep that little tidbit to myself for now.  So, the question is... Do I want clear (nearly clear) or metal with colorful rubber bands?  Hmmmm...  Colorful would be fun.  Clear might be more mature.  I have to think about that.

 Time to go to the dental side of the office. I had to go back to the waiting room and sign in again, then right back down the hall to the room across the hall from where I just came from.  I guess the jog up and down the hallway was good for me even though I thought it was kind of silly.

I sat in a little tiny room with an xray machine and got a ton of  "bitewing" xrays done.  Those are brutal. I think I have bruises inside my mouth from biting on the stiff square things.  Why do they make them square? The corners just dig in and it hurts to get those xrays!  I might be a wimp. 

When that was done, I was escorted to another big room full of chairs but this time they each had a little wall divider between them.  Well, that'll save the others from hearing me scream.  The lady offered me a magazine because I would be waiting a while for the dentist.  I had a book, so I opened that.  I read one page and here comes the troops.  Ugh.  It's time.  I screamed in my mind.

Had to give myself a quick little pep talk as the monsters, er, dentist people, came toward me.  Be brave, Mary, be brave.  You can do this, or, at least pretend you can.  Buck up, Mary.  Ugh, they were upon me.

An office lady, a hygienist (I think?) and the dentist. Office lady explains that she will be taking notes for billing purposes, hygenist sits behind me and says absolutely nothing, dentist says "Open wide".  ugh.  Right away, I'm impressed that the chair has a dip in it for my pony tail. The dentist pokes and prods and blows air on my teeth.  Ouch. Ouch. Wince.  ouch.   This seems to take forever. He looks at my xrays. Apparently, I have hundreds of teeth, like a shark.  I resist the temptation to bite him.

My teeth

Exam done.  Tiime for the bad news.  I don't even pretend that I am expecting good news.  My teeth hurt.

The guy says "For someone who hasn't had a cleaning or exam in ten years you have very good teeth"  I say in my defense, "It might have been 9 yrs ago and I did try to go 5 yrs ago but I panicked and they asked me to leave before anything got done".  Great, now he knows I'm a freak as well as negligent.  I should know better, people who work in dental offices go to the dentist every day, no way would they  understand how ten  years can just "slip by" between visits.  I decide to shut up and listen.

The guy says "You only have 6 cavities!"  Only? Ugh. No wonder my teeth hurt. He says "They are all small and you don't need any root canals or crowns".  Oh goodie. "And you only need one extraction".  Wh-wh-what? 

He reminds me that I have one lower wisdom tooth already extracted, leaving the upper one without a mate.  It is descending and part of the root is exposed.  He says it will be an easy yank.  Yank?  Oh geez.  I told him how the lower extraction went and really, I don't care to relive that experience.  So, if there is any chance that I need the other two wisdom teeth out, I want to do it as an oral surgery and not have to experience any of the extraction.  Getting that one out was like pulling a car out of my mouth.  My teeth are huge and well anchored. He says this one is big, true, but it is not well anchored.  The other two are just fine and removing them will not benefit me any as they will not give me more room for my overcrowding issue and they do not have cavities.  Amazing because I can't get a toothbrush way back in there.

So, he says, you need a cleaning and fill the cavities and extract the one tooth. He just needs a minute and he'll get right to it. 

Now?  OMG!!!

But first, they want more xrays.  Ugh. Nooooo.  I am taken to another xray room with a different machine.  This one is for the orthodontist.  And I just had to stand there and a big machine whirled all around my head.  It was painless and easy.  They did a panoramic xray.  Very cool! Oy, very crooked. You can really see it in the xray.  Wowza.

After this, they take me to the orthodontic side again and take pictures with a little camera of my teeth. Nice.  I have always wanted close up digital photos of my teeth.  Love the flash going off an inch from my eyeball. 

Now that I'm blind... they want to clean my teeth and fill my cavities.  Wait, wait, I'm not ready for that.  I need to know what time it is and go get my kids from the sitter sometime before the day is over.  So they say I should come back this evening or tomorrow or Saturday or next week.... I say "two weeks".  I think they were afraid I'd never come back.  So, I explain, I'm busy.  I have a daughter starting preschool next week and another daughter having a baby on Sunday if not before, and I have to arrange babysitting for my toddler... my turn to see them with the shock look on their faces! ha!

So, I am getting the left side cleaned and filled in 2 weeks and then the other side probably a week later.  After the health issues are fixed, I get the braces put on. 

Before I am let go, they want to make impressions of my teeth.  It'll just take a minute.  Ugh, Ok, fine.  one more thing and then I'm out.  I had been there almost 3 hrs and quite frankly, I was just done.

This guy fills up a tooth shaped tray with foam which had a strong bubble gum smell, ewwww, and shoved it in my mouth.  Gag!  I might die!!!  He babbles on and on about how his buddies and him would practice this on each other at dental school.  Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!  He takes it out, whew!  Noooo, gotta do the top teeth now.  We repeat the torture and as he's choking me to death and I'm resisting the urge to puke all over the place, he continues to tell me all about how him and his buddies would make the mix too thin and then it would run down their throat and they'd puke on each other... seriously, dude, shut the hell up. 

Finally, that was done and I was set free.  I had bits of bubble gum foam all over my face and I fled like the place was on fire. 

Got in my van and I didn't even care that I left my water bottle right in sun and toxic plastic chemicals probably leeched into the water, I just drank up that hot water and it never tasted so good!  Blech, the dentist goo was gross!  It was after 1pm and I'm sure Libby needed to get home for a good nap by now. 

My big crooked divit filled teeth hurt. 

Manning up

My pink baby swing was just too girly to pass along to my daughter for her new baby boy (who has still not arrived!).  It needed to "Man-Up".

It used to look like this: (I had to find an image on google because I forgot to take a before pic, but this is the exact swing)

I very gently removed the seat and the mobile and smoothed them out on the table, then I laid tissue paper over them and attempted to draw a pattern of the various pieces. Then I tried laying the tissue paper under the swing seat.  All I got were crazy scribbles.  Sooooo.....

I ripped the thing apart.  Using each piece as the pattern for a new piece turned out to be the best way to get the proper shape and fit.  And, I just peeled off the pink top layer leaving the padding, backing, snaps, tabs, and straps that came with the swing originally!  Bonus!

Putting it back together was a challenge.  I forgot to take "before" pictures, and I forgot how the pieces all came off!  This turned into a swing seat puzzle.  I contemplated running out and buying a new swing.  $129.99 for a swing!  Egads!  Ok, motivation returned.

I even decided to try piping, something I've never done before.  It turned out pretty good!  I'm happy with it, but next time I will make the effort to go find my zipper foot before I do the piping.  Might make sewing it a lot easier.  And I really like the piping of the solid brown to break up the "wild" look just a tad.

I did it!  I put the pieces together, sewed the back attaching pieces on, added the bias tape trim and straps, put it back on the swing frame, snapped it and there it is!  Yippee!  Now, let's just hope it holds together.

I had a volunteer to test it and see if it would hold.  Only took about a minute and she was fast asleep!  Hmm, maybe I should keep the swing after all!

It's not totally done yet.  I still have to "Man-Up" the pink head stabilizing pillows and the mobile.  I'd better hurry, my little grandbaby boy will be here soon! He's overdue!

Conversations with a 4 yr old

I'm just going to type what comes out of her mouth in the next few breaths.  Here we go!

Mom, Why my grandpa died when I was a baby?
Is Pumba a pig?
Look there's a fly on the wall.
I have two tisters, Katie and Lexie.  Libby is my baby.
Why does Lexie like boys?
I'm going to school in August.
I want nothing to eat.
Mom, where's my jelly samwich?
Last morning, I had a bad dream.
What's Dad doing?
I have uncles?
You're cute, mom.
Mom, why Sandy is nine?
What does Sandy start with?
Well, Gracie starts with a G!
Why does Tinkerbell have pointy ears?
I wanna be upside down. I'm not going to fall!
Um, I was wondering why Lexie wants to be a mommy.
Want me to tickle your armpit?
How about if you don't be a Grandma. You can be Aunt Mommy.

Mom, what are you doing?
Why you like pony tails?
Mom, you need a new car?
Mom, you need a new mop?
Mom, Cealis is ready when you are. You want that?
Hey, I liked that channel. What's this? Yay, cartoons!
Where's my flip flops?
Can we go to Disneyland tomorrow?
How about next morning?
Hey mom, Oxnard!  hahahaha!
Remember when a bird came in our house?
Oh that was so funny!
Mom!  Will you wipe my butt!

Whew!  I can't type as fast as she can fire off questions!

What's on the other side of that mountain?

The laundry is not a pile, it's not a mound, it's not anything that can be described by a lesser word than "mountain".  If you turn your head, you can see the dishes in the kitchen are piled up in the sink about the same height.  Mountainous!  I'm going to have to get some hiking boots and ropes and scale my mountains today. Ah, the adventures of motherhood are taking me to new heights!

There is a reason for the pile-up.  Several, actually. 

Last week Gracie wet her bed twice and had a bloody nose so many times I lost count. The sheets and blankets piled up and that's all I did for laundry last week, leaving all the clothes to wait their turn in the washer.  This built the foundation of today's mountain. 

This week we went camping at Big Bear.  Do you know how musty and dusty three sleeping bags smell when  you haven't rolled them out for a couple of years?  Ewww.  Those darn things along with our camping clothes and towels were tossed onto the laundry mountain.  And the pile of dishes grew.

We went to Oxnard this week too. Another quick overnighter.  We went to visit Grandma, Aunt Patty and cousin Jennifer who were visiting Cousins Jason and Jenni.  For this trip, we left Daddy at home to fend for himself. Since I wasn't home to keep the dishes and laundry going, it piled up some more.

Also, my brother came to visit last weekend.  I didn't waste any time doing housework while he was here, just had a nice time relaxing with my little brother.  Dishes multiply in the sink.  When he left, I tossed his towels and sheets from the bed he used onto the laundry hill.

For three weeks we had Lexie's friend staying with us, and her husband and their little girl.  A nice little family of three.  They cleaned up after themselves nicely by doing their own laundry and adding their towels to my growing mound.  And they helped out with dishes a bit too. If not for their help, I'm sure we would be buried by now!  They just left our home and I have hurled to the top of laundry mountain the sheets from the bed. 

Guests, traveling, camping and just our general every day living have created these mountains of crud and grime.  I am ready to go forth and conquer!  First, I will climb to the summit and view the world from the highest peak.  Might as well enjoy the view in this great adventure!