Dentist

I used to love going to the dentist.  Not any more!  I probably used to love it so much because all I ever had done before today was teeth cleaning and the occasional cavity filling when I was a kid and was given laughing gas to help with the procedure.  Well, today, I didn't have anything enjoyable done.  No, nothing about it was fun.  Nothing felt good.  And even my pocketbook HURTS now.

Last week a bottom tooth on the right side just broke.  A piece came off while I was eating pretzels.  I thought at first it was a huge chunk of hard salt.  When it wasnt I just took it out of my mouth and was mad that the pretzel makers would have a rock in their pretzels.  I was even thinking of writing a letter to the manufacture to check their quality control.  When I was done eating, there was something sharp on one of my teeth.  I tried to pick it out with my fingers for a second....that's when I realized there was a big chunk of tooth missing.  This all happened on a Thursday evening, so I couldnt go to the dentist then.  My dentist is closed on Fridays, so I had to wait until today to get it looked at.  When I called for an evaluation, I just figured they would look at my mouth and then set an appointment for the work that needed to be done, but, no, they said they could fix it TODAY.  I was happy right about then because my tongue was getting very scratched up and food kept getting stuck there.  I had also thought that there would be a bunch of decay, but the dentist said that the part of my tooth that was left looked great.  He also said that he'd "clean it up a bit"....which was code for "drilling and sanding and sawing".  He numbed my whole jaw, with many many shots, which hurt....but which also didnt really numb everything ALL THE WAY.  With all those shots, you'd think my whole body would be numb!  I could feel tooth particles flying all over the place and he told me to shut my eyes to keep the dust out.  I could smell a burning smell during what sounding like a sanding procedure.  Then he took molds which hurt because they were heavy and held my mouth open for long enough that my jaw really hurt.  Then he put in a "temporary" which also hurt.  Then I had to go back to work with a very numb jaw/face!!!  That wasn't fun either!!!!  I go back in a few weeks to get the porcelain crown permanently fix the tooth.

Advice to all----TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEETH....you will look better, feel better, and have more money if this never happens to you!!!

I do not like "GO FUND ME" accounts.  I've only thought about donating to one of those once, the others make me feel like saying "go get a job"....like the people who bought an extravagant car, but had a go fund me account for us to contribute to them attempting to have a baby.....but, I was thinking today, after my appointment, "Now, this here, THIS would be a time for me to set up one of those accounts."....haha....kidding....but dental work is EXPENSIVE!!!  (but necessary)

Hey, William, if you are reading this, will you please become a dentist?!?!!!??!!!!!

getting olddddddddddd

I don't like getting old.  My hair is turning gray....not a fan of gray hair.  I am getting fat....not a fan of fat.  I have to take thyroid medication....hassle, but necessary.  I didn't have it for a few weeks and I could tell a difference in my energy level and moods.  Now, today, soooooo frustrating, but one of my teeth BROKE.  Oh MAN!  And we don't have any kind of dental coverage, so it's not going to be cheap to get fixed, but I don't think it's a good idea not to fix it.  Not too long ago, one of Scott's teeth broke and he just had it removed.....not sure if I should do that, but since he did, to save our family money, I probably should, too!!!!! 

On a different note, I started exercising yesterday.  I am going to stick with it and hopefully get in shape.  I haven't really exercised since Andrew was two (he's 13 now).  I used to play indoor soccer, outdoor soccer, and coach soccer (played with my teams at practice), so back when Andrew was a baby, I was in pretty good shape.  Then I tore my ACL.  It's been down hill since then.  I know I will never go back to play soccer, but my knee is all better, so I have no excuse not to exercise! 

Andrew has basketball practice twice a week, so I decided to walk while he is inside playing.  (Stole the idea from a friend who used to sit while her son practiced football.  Where they practiced there was a track, so she walked laps....before the season was over she was jogging, now she runs!)  I don't think I will want to become a runner, but I can definitely be a walker.  My work is 3 blocks away and I go there three times a day.  It takes me about 6 minutes to walk there, so if I do it 6 times, that's over a half hour of walking.  I also walk for over 2 hours at yard duty.  I found a route around my neighborhood that I can do in 15 minutes, so I can walk during hockey intermissions.  I also noticed a lot of super neat houses in our neighborhood that I've never noticed before! 

The exercising will help my health....too bad it wont repair my tooth or turn my hair brown!!!! 

Game Night

We have an Apples to Apples game....but it's been in the back house for a few years.  We brought it in about a month ago, but no one ever wants to play at the same time.  I finally convinced (forced) everyone to sit down and play last night and it was really fun.  Well, not for me, only ONE time did my card get picked in two games.  Bradley won both.  But I think this is more a game of luck than skill.  I mean, if you get all bad cards, they aren't going to fit in any category.  And, a bunch of the cards are actors the younger crowd has never even heard of, so they will never get chosen!  It's a fun game.   It's a lot faster than Monopoly or Risk.  We should play it more.

More Sharks Thoughts

I wont have to feel sad when the Sharks lose in horrible ways in the playoffs this year because they probably aren't going....when I say "probably", that really means "surely".

But I have a few thoughts before the season is over. 

The rookies weren't ready for the big leagues.
Burns should be a forward.
John Scott is a waste of a roster spot.
Teams do need a captain.
The only time to change a captain is when the current captain leaves, retires, is traded.

I feel SO SOOO SOOOOOO sorry for Ben Smith, who had to come to San Jose from Chicago....he was on a "winning" team, now he is not.

Most all the guys who left the Sharks at the trade deadline get to play on playoff teams, they are so lucky!!!! 

Some fans hope the Sharks lose the rest of their games to get a better place in the draft, but I still hope they try to win.  I will still watch the rest of the games.  I will still be a Sharks fan. 

GO SHARKS!

Plus, I read on Twitter, they still have a 1% chance to make it to the playoffs!

I REALLY hate the word "choke" and SUPER REALLY hate when people accuse the Sharks of "choking", but I still think this is funny!  (or sad!)

HOCKEY

The Sharks have been having a rough season and are on the brink of not making the playoffs.  Their losses have been hard to watch.  Realizing that the hockey season is almost over is not fun!!! 

 

 

 

I have a 2nd favorite team, the Penguins.  I know that's not really something a true fan would do, but I really like Sidney Crosby.....ever since that Olympics when the press really kinda centered around him, then he scored the game winning goal in the gold medal game.  Anyway, I was just looking at the standings and the Penguins making the playoffs is not a sure thing either! 

October is a LONG way away!

 

Well, the MLS season has begun and the Quakes don't look as terrible as they were last season, so that's good.  Soccer is only once or twice a week, though, so I guess I need a new hobby.

 

I was looking at one of the old scrapbooks I made for Bradley and it was really cool.  Scrapbooking is fun, but a lot of work and it's expensive.  Anyone know of any other hobbies I could try? 

 

 

Soccer Camp

It's Spring Break here in Chico.  We didn't go anywhere or do anything big, but Bradley worked at a soccer camp Monday through Friday from 9-12:30.  I think it was a volunteer "job", but last year they took all the helpers to 6 Flags afterwards for "payment", so maybe they will do that again.  I think Bradley would be happier with money, though.  My photos are pretty far away, but they are pretty cool because you can see the whole park, or most of it.  It's a great park, we are so lucky to have so many parks in Chico.

I think he was just making this face because I was taking a photo, not because he was unhappy to be there!

The "campers"....some kids came all week, others just picked a day or two.  One day they had 54 kids participating! 

I kinda got a smile photo-

Sushi- Raw Bar!

After the hike, everyone was hungry.  The girls all wanted sushi.  Andrew had never been out to sushi or had even ever eaten sushi, so we decided to go.  I'm glad we did.  It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious.  And because we asked for a child's menu for Andrew, the cost was really not too high.  Andrew kept going on and on about how delicious the food tasted.  I joked to everyone that he doesn't get out much....but it's true, typical going out to eat in our family is Taco Bell and a big deal out to eat meal would be In and Out.  We will probably go back....they didn't have hamburgers, but Scott can get the ribs! 

Upper Bidwell Park

We have in Chico the 2nd largest park in the US after Central Park in New York.  It pretty much goes through the whole city with a lower part and an upper part.  I know that our family doesn't take enough advantage of it as we should.  We've never really used the thousands of bike trails.  We hardly ever swim in the creek.  We don't hike much.  But, yesterday the Young Women group from our church (just a few of them) went to Upper Park for a hike.  It's spring break here.  Andrew had sat on the couch all day.  He had fun hiking on Saturday, so I dragged him along. (I didn't really inform him that it was a "young women's activity".)  I think he had fun, though!  We walked from the parking lot below Monkey Face all the way up to Bear Hole and back.  It took us about 2 hours.  Great exercise, beautiful surroundings.....we should definitely do it more often!

Machete

My dad gave Scott a machete yesterday.  We have a tree in our front yard that is like a giant weed. We don't want it, but it just grows and grows.  So we cut it down, but it comes back.  I told Andrew he could machete it down, so he did.  He had fun.  I got some photos-

Scott's Truck

I took some photos before and as Scott drove away to take his beloved truck to the junk yard.  It has over 360,000 miles on it and has been part of our family for almost as long as Bradley.  But it was time for it's life to end....nothing on it really worked any longer.  We are lucky it made it 3 miles to the junk yard!!! 

I wanted to try to list all the things wrong with it, but I have laundry to fold.

It would be easier to list the things that still worked, here they are-
1.)________________

yep, couldn't even think of one thing!

Everyone in town could recognize this as Scott's truck, "Duckaholic" written on the side.  Matching dents on both sides.  No grill.  Doors with locks from fences/bungy cords/etc to hold them together.  Just an UGLY truck! 

Funny things about the matching dents on each side, one side Melanee did, the other, Scott did, but he told the kids, "Don't tell mom, she probably wont notice."  I don't know if he thought I'm just not observant or if I just wouldn't ever look at both sides at the same time, so I'd never realize the dents were on both. 

These Ram trucks look unique or special because their shiny grills, well, Scott's didn't have one, for YEARS!!!!!  No dash board, either.  You didn't need a key to drive it.  The tail gate wouldn't easily go down, or back up if you did get it down.

We have taken the truck on MANY memorable trips/vacations/places.  It's carried our camper, towed our jet ski, ATV, and many loads of everything imaginable.

Scott is already looking for a replacement!

Monkey Face Hike

Andrew, Phoenix, and I hiked to the top of Monkey Face Rock today.  We were bored and wanted to get out of the house.  They both wanted to drive to Sacramento and go to SkyHigh (trampoline place), but I wanted to do something free.  We had fun.  The hike is both easy and good exercise.  It was an 80 degree day, so great hiking weather.  The sky was pretty.  We never saw any ourselves, but everyone we saw told us to watch out for rattlesnakes.  Then we went to the park.  The boys climbed ON TOP of the play structure....wonder if they are getting too old for the park???

Campout

 

Don't really have time to blog right now...but I wanted to put up a picture so that we don't have to look at that delicious broccoli soup anymore when coming to my blog! 

 

Andrew decided last night to attend this weekend's scout campout.  He hasn't even been going to scouts lately.  He hasn't liked it for a while.  Probably because it's not fun and because last time there was a campout, the scouts were told not to bring anything but what they could fit into their pockets.  It wasn't even a warm weekend.  Andrew stuffed his pockets full of food and water.  Then, when everyone arrived at the church, I saw them putting sleeping bags and bags into the leader's car.  I asked him about it and he just told me that he ok'ed it for if they became "necessary"....we didn't have time to run home and get Andrew anything...and were not told to bring stuff "just in case"....so off they went.  AND I found out later, EVERYONE else had a sleeping bag and one of the leaders even had a blow up mattress....Andrew had NOTHING....Andrew froze and was on rocks all night.  NOT NICE.  So, he packed WELL this time.  He is going to be warm and comfy and fully fed! 

broccoli soup

Who needs carrots and nutmeg, I just made this delicious soup without them!

cinnamon rolls

Here are the cinnamon rolls before I frosted them (there is also another pan!).  

I want to blog about them because Melanee has to make cinnamon rolls for a baby shower on Saturday so she might want to use this recipe, since it doesn't take a lot of time to rise, kneed, etc....

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water
• ¾ cup room temperature buttermilk
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 3 TB regular yeast
• ½ TB salt
• 2 eggs
• 5-6 C. bread flour

Filling

• 3 TB butter, melted
• ⅔ cup brown sugar
• ⅔ cup sugar
• 3 TB cinnamon

Frosting

• ¼ cup butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• enough milk or half and half to make it spreading consistency.

Instructions

1. In a bowl, mix together water, buttermilk, sugar, melted butter and yeast. Allow to sit for 15 minutes..
2. Add in salt, eggs and flour. Mix for 10 minutes and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
3. Prepare your filling by mixing together melted butter, brown sugar, sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
4. On a floured service, roll dough into a 12 x 16 inch square.
5. Spread your filling over the top and roll up. Cut into 12 large rolls.
6. Place rolls on a cookie sheet covered with a silpat or parchment paper.
7. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.
8. While baking, mix together your frosting ingredients. Spread on warm rolls and serve.

Here's what I did differently.  For the "Buttermilk" I put 1 cup of milk in a cup, then added one tablespoon of lemon juice and let that sit while i gathered everything else (then before adding it to the recipe you measure out 3/4 cup of this "buttermilk"....it calls for room temperature milk, so get it out way before making it, or just make the water hotter than "warm", that's what i did.  

I didnt use my mixer, just mixed with my hands.  

I beat the eggs in a bowl before putting them in.

I used half regular flour and half bread flour, because regular flour is cheaper and because I wanted to save my bread flour for bread.  

I didnt measure the filling, just put in a bunch of sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and the 3 tablespoons of butter.  

When mixing for 10 minutes I mostly just worked it around in my hands, adding more flour when it was too sticky (had to get andrew to throw more flour in at first because my hands were covered in dough).  I put it in a bowl to rise, I greased the bowl with butter and flipped the dough over after setting it in.  It is cold in our house, so it didnt rise at all in 10 minutes, and we had to leave for bradley's banquet, so I put it in the oven and turned the oven on its lowest setting (ours is 200).....i opened the door after a while and it seemed really hot, so I turned it off.  The dough was only in the oven about 10 minutes, maybe a little more, but it did rise practically double, so I rolled it out, filled it, rolled them up, cut them with thread, then placed them in the pan, there was enough for a 9 x 12 pan and a little one.  I cut them pretty thick, though, so I would say there is enough for two 9 x 12 and that would be better because they wouldnt have to be cooked a lot on the outside to get the inside cooked all the way.   (the recipe calls for them to be put on a cookie sheet, i guess you could do that)

End of Season banquet

Bradley's team had their banquet tonight.  It was held at Italian Cottage.  A big portion of the team was there, but not everyone.  Not all the parents came, either.  I'm glad we did, though.  The food was good.  We sat at a table with fun people.  There was a slide show.  And it was fun to see the players together one last time.  The coach didnt talk about everyone, just the seniors....but if he would have, we still would have been there.....there are 26 boys on the team!!!!!

In his speech, the coach said that this was his best team in all of the 17 years he has been coaching!  He cited facts to show that it just wasnt his thought....they scored the most goals, had the least amount of goals scored against them, had the most shut outs, and the most wins!  Best team EVER.