Happy Thanksgiving!

What a nice Thanksgiving we had this year. My mom went by herself to Memphis to visit her parents, April stayed with us, and Cody & Nick stayed home. I had Cody, Nick, & Andrew over for dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday! My mom was back in time to join us on Friday, and we finished off all the leftovers from Thursday.

Here's what I fixed for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday:
Turkey
Ham
Dressing
Mashed potatoes
Turkey gravy
Green beans
Shells & cheese
Parker house yeast rolls
Grapes & oranges
Celery with cream cheese
Cinnamon baked apples
Vanilla ice cream
Pumpkin pie (Mom's homemade from homegrown pumpkin!)
Brownies with fudge icing

It was delicious! Andrew brought the ice cream, and he also rented some movies for us to watch after dinner - Spiderman 3 for all, and Ocean's 13 for the over 16 crowd. Friday after dinner, we all played charades - something Cody, April, & Connor had never played before. It was fun having the family time.

It was good that we experienced this holiday in a slightly unusual way, so it wouldn't be so obvious that my dad was gone. My mom needed a break and a chance to visit with her parents. With all the kids here, I didn't have a chance to think about much else besides kids, food, & cleaning up.

I need what???

Wednesday I went to the dentist. I really like my dentist (Dr Mary Beth Peaks), and the visit was going very well until the hygienist told me we really should schedule the root canal I need. WHAT??? I was in shock, and told her so. The hygienist I normally see has never mentioned this to me, nor has the dentist. I asked which tooth, and she showed me. I asked her to describe exactly what needed to be done, and she showed me, using the Xrays and a little model. Oh my, I was trying very hard not to cry. I couldn't believe I let my teeth get so bad. I always had great teeth, but with each baby, I end up skipping the occasional morning or nightly flossing and sometimes even brushing! I really couldn't understand why I was scheduled next for some surface treatment that included that tooth. Why bother if I was going to have this other thing done.

So, I said go ahead and remove what's currently scheduled and let's make an appointment for the root canal. The way she described it, the longer I waited, the more painful it was going to be. She kept trying to do the rescheduling, but the computer wouldn't let her. I sat and watched her try again and again. Finally, she nonchalantly said, "oh, you're right. I was looking at the wrong Xrays."

"What??" I wanted to make sure I understood what just happened correctly. "You mean you were looking at the wrong Xrays and I do NOT need a root canal after all????"

"That's right," she said. "You don't need it at all. I was looking at someone else's Xrays."

I wasn't the least bit angry with her. I was VERY happy that the computer had some sort of checks built in and wouldn't let her schedule the root canal needed on one Xray for another person. I also felt like I had been given another chance to save my tooth!

I floss and brush with renewed energy now. And I've added an extra little thank you into my prayers.

Wordless Wednesday

Bath Time Fun

Connor & Noelle love to take a bath.

On a side note...

Noelle is doing very well going to bed now. My new routine with Noelle flows like this: dinner, bath, PJs, dark room, soft music, nursing, crib. She is doing so much better falling asleep. I think all kids are different and you have to find what works best for your baby (and family). Connor did okay with co-sleeping, and I thought I would never be a cry-it-out mom. Noelle was simply not getting enough sleep when co-sleeping with me, and neither was I. I somehow survived the week and a half of long cry-it-out nights. I learned that going in periodically to lay her down or pat her back just prolonged the agony. Every time I left she got mad again. So, for us, leaving and not coming back is the only thing that worked. She is now doing very well going to sleep. Tonight she had 20 minutes of crying, but most nights she cries less than a minute before falling asleep. Yea!

Now, back to my bath time topic...

Tonight, Connor was having fun in the bathtub serving us his make-believe refreshments. He loves to make up his own names for the pretend drinks he was serving us. Our favorite was something called "chance-a-ray" and we said no-thank-you to something called "bum-chocolate."

Happy Halloween everyone!

Connor went trick-or-treating dressed as the original Spiderman. Here are a couple of photos of before & after.

Noelle was still a little congested, so she stayed home, helped to hand out some candy, and was asleep by 7:30. Poor Trevor was sick in bed all afternoon and evening.

We didn't have as many trick-or-treaters as we thought we would have, which means we have a little too much candy left over. Mmmm... frozen Reese's cups...

What to blog about first?

I have gone weeks without blogging, and now that I have a chance to post something, I don't know what to talk about first. Maybe I'll just give a few highlights:

Bad news: Test results show that April has lupus. It is a genetic type of lupus that has caused her kidney damage. Please pray for her and for my mom. More about that later.

Good news: I have been so stressed out over trying to get Noelle to sleep in her crib, what with the lack of sleep and heartache of listening to her cry it out. Finally we seem to be reaching the light at the end of the tunnel. She was asleep tonight by 8:30 pm, and only whimpered a bit when I laid her in her crib. Of course, watch this be an anomaly... but still - I'll take it.

Interesting news: We piled in our new minivan and took a road trip to Albuquerque this month. We visited Lance's family, and took in the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta and a challenging corn maze.

Concerning news: Have you heard about the new Nicole Kidman movie coming out called The Golden Compass? I haven't researched this on my own yet, but I've been told that it's based on a children's book series by atheist author Philip Pullman whose purpose in writing the books is to "kill God." Evidently the movie is very mild and can trick parents into thinking it would be okay to let their children read the series.

Local news: Don't miss out on the current Just Between Friends consignment sale at the Camp Jordan Arena. It's happening right now. http://chattanooga.jbfsale.com/

Name Tag

Keri tagged me for this, and I have been trying to come up with something ever since. Describe yourself using each letter of your name:

L oves to hear my children laugh
A wake way too often during the night with baby
U sually running late
R eally enjoys hiking
A lways tweaks recipes