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I think the fact that  our trip is so close isn’t very real. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that in a week we’re off and that our bags need to be packed appropriately. I’m always a bit overwhelmed with packing for a longer trip and with it being January (and thus less predictable, weather-wise) it’s hard to get motivated to even start.

I’ve written a packing list within the last 10 minutes and made a list of sorts for Walmart to assist in the getting of stuff. This is the part of a vacation that is not fun.

scraggly 14-year-old Tiger

This weekend I’ll also give my scraggly elder (and older) cat a bath. He hates baths but he’s forgotten how or no longer cares to groom himself so that leaves us to do it for him. Can’t send him over to  my parents’ house looking homeless. Tiger spent the first year of his life in their house and I’m curious if any part of his cat brain will register a familiarity with it.

Gonna be a busy week between gymnastics two nights, a condo board meeting another and then my mom’s birthday another. Should help the week go by faster, which will be a good thing.

I’ve got an evening with friends today, which I’m really looking forward to. Pizza is on the menu and I”ve been dreaming about it all week.

Speaking of food, after several days (couple of weeks even) of freedom from reflux symptoms I’ve gone on a bit of a junk food binge and paid dearly for it. 3 days in a row of my lovely apple-cider vinegar concoction. Blech. Today, aside from the pizza, I need to eat with my poor esophagus in mind. I’ve been off meds for a long time now (used to take Prilosec every day for several months) but with the the vaca looming and no easy access to apple-cider vinegar I’m going to need all the help I can get. Going to be hard to eat 100% healthy on vacation.

Despite my junk food binge the scale has revealed low (for me) numbers. How does that work? Could be the vinegar actually. Studies show it aids in weight -loss, though I suspect only if used the right way, which is taken 30 minutes prior to a meal. When taken that way it acts as an appetite suppressant. Thus far I’ve only managed to take it as a defensive maneuver. So, I don’t know why I don’t weigh 5 pounds more than I actually do.

The dutch oven arrived a few days ago. I’ve used it twice now with moderate success. The first recipe called for 1/2-3/4 pound of steak and instead I used at least 1lb of  pork tenderloin, so the cooking time was much higher than the recipe called for. Despite the massive amounts of vegetables (which, if you know me, are not my favorite things) it tasted all right. Last night I made pasta with meatballs. The meatballs were made with lean ground turkey, and thus were dry and rather bland. I should have added more spices or something to make it tastier. The whole dish would have been better with ground beef but since I can’t resist the occasional cheese burger I try to cook healthy recipes with healthy ingredients.

I do what I can.

I’m off to try and read more of the never-ending “The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb. Enjoyable, but not a page-turner. I’ve got some good recommendations for books to get before the trip so I’ll try and remember to mention what I’ve read and if it was any good or not.

Happy weekend people!

Had a big orthodontic appointment last week. Not only was it the 6-month benchmark but my broken and worn down front teeth got “built up”. Essentially the lengthened the teeth (to the length they should be) with a temporary material. I was excited about it but now I’m super self-conscious because the material is not exactly tooth-colored… at least not my teeth. It’s quite obvious on the broken tooth. Guess I just have to live with it! Take a look for yourself. The first image is just after getting braced 6 months ago, the 2nd is just a day before my appointment last week, and the 3rd was taken yesterday (a week after the appointment).

June / before build-up / after build-up

I switched TMJ/TMD doctors as of last week. I’m seeing a doc at UW medical center who is my mom’s TMJ/TMD doctor. Hoping to really get a hold of my discomfort while I work through orthodontics. He’s got me testing my meds to see if they’re doing me any good at all. So far I’m a few days off of my muscle relaxer and I can’t tell a difference. I am not surprised though because a couple of months ago the muscle relaxer stopped doing any good and that’s when I started on a 2nd med.

If it’s not one thing it’s another.

Nearly time for vacation. Final documents arrived in the mail today. I was concerned our luggage tags weren’t going to show in time. These luggage tags make it so our luggage once checked in at Sea-Tac disappear from our site and don’t appear again until at our resort room. It’s magical.

I’ve printed out our touring plans and now I need to work on packing check lists.

Ooh! I’ve cooked some interesting things. I made these chicken pot pies, which was easy, but I needed more dough. This one came out perfect though:

And I roasted cornish game hens not too long ago. They are too cute! But not too cute to eat. They were also quite tasty.

I’ve got a couple of things coming in the mail tomorrow that I’m excited about (UPS, actually). We’re redoing Ella’s room just a bit. More like a refresh. New bedding, room rug and table lamp. Very ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’.

My first dutch oven is also on it’s way. I’m excited to cook with it. Photos to come!

Goodness me. Only 2 weeks left of fall and Christmas is nearly here. This is by far my favoritest time of year. Normally I dislike extra clutter in my house but after 5 weeks of Christmas decorations the sparceness left behind from the clean-up on New Years day is downright depressing.

I guess that’s one reason to make sure you’ve got something to look forward to not long after the holidays. Our next family vacation is coming up. Where to you ask? Don’t you know us well enough by now? Where else would we go but to a Disney park? Back to sunny Florida we head where we’ll spend a handful of days at Disney World followed by 3 nights on a Disney cruise. Super excited as always.

Ella’s doing well in school. I think. Her student-led parent/teacher conference went well. I think. I was informed well enough on the things the class had been working on and I did get a report card but otherwise the teacher didn’t speak on Ella’s performance in class. I guess no news is good news?

I’m well past time for a braces update. I took pictures at the time of my last adjustment, which was October 30th. I’m a deadbeat braces updater. I know. I guess I’m feeling past the initial excitement of it all (are we therrrrre yet?). The next set of before/after will be something to behold though (January 5th). The orthodontist will be building up my front teeth. Which is to say he’s going to fix (if only temporarily) my broken and worn down teeth.

Now, when looking at the following photos I think the easiest thing to look at are the wires and the placement of the brackets. Initially the wire was up and down and all around crazy. Brackets were high and low and squished together. You can see things have sorted themselves out pretty well. I’ve probably still got 2 years to go so don’t be surprised at the state of my teeth still.

Week 19

Of course the other miraculous thing at this point is the full appearance of the tooth that had been hidden behind my right front tooth (top).

chicken stock

I felt compelled to blog this evening because I undertook a large cooking project. I’m going to start doing this cooking club and the next meeting is Jan. 10th at my brother-in-law’s girlfriend’s place. Each meeting has a theme and the next one is soup & salad. A bit bummed this is the theme for my first cooking club meeting as neither soup nor salad are my faves. I’m set on doing a soup (you try eating lettuce when most of your teeth don’t touch), and so today I tried out a chicken and noodle recipe. I did everything from scratch, from making my own chicken stock, to making my own noodles. It took 3.5 hours overall, but most of that was simmer/cook times.

My sister now makes what my great-grandmother was famous for (well, famous amongst the family at least), and that is homemade chicken and noodles. It’s the best thing on the planet. Even though my head knew the recipe I made today would in no way taste like my sister’s noodles, I think my heart still hoped and so I ended up a bit disappointed. Which is unfortunate since there is now a large tupperware bowl full of it in my fridge.

I’ll have to look for another soup recipe. Maybe some sort of cheddar/bacon thing. How can you go wrong with that???

home-made noodles

Parmesan bread

finished bowl of home-made chicken noodle soup

I also found a recipe for the Starbucks Cranberry Bliss bar that I’m going to do for Christmas, and I’m going to try and make the cookies my sister (there she is again… when did she turn in to one of the best cooks I know???) made 2 Christmases ago. She could seriously make me a large batch and present them as my present and I’d be as happy as a clam. Best cookies ever (yes, even better than the ones I made for my friend’s baby shower). I’ve tried them once but they just weren’t the same. Worth a second shot!

It’s December 6th and I’m done shopping for Christmas presents. Yea! Waiting on 3 packages to come in the mail before I start wrapping things up.

Happy Holidays!

If you don’t feel up to reading a blog post that’s written for the purpose of gushing about my child you might want to skip this one.

Fair warning.

When Ella was 2.5 I started taking her to gymnastics, one of my favorite sports (I was always jealous of my sister’s gymnasty ways but being an athlete was never in my cards). So saying I’m living vicariously through Ella is just stating the obvious.

When they’re 2.5 gymnastics consists of nothing more than bouncing around on a trampoline and doing log rolls down a wedge. Fun, but nothing more than an organized obstacle course. We had to cut it out when times got a bit lean.

2 summers ago we tried an acrobatics class that the city of Des Moines put on for part of it’s summer parks program. She was 4 at the time and maybe it was the teacher and how the class was organized but Ella seemed to lack serious focus (didn’t help there were giant mirrors in the room  - Ella spent pretty much the whole hour preening in front of them).  Here, see for yourself: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4350285428851399119&hl=en#

It wasn’t pretty so I waited a bit before putting her back in to something. Isaac and I have called Ella our monkey since she was a baby and if you could see some of things she does you’d see what a monkey she really is. I could just tell we needed to give gymnastics another try.

We’ve gone twice now to Metropolitan Gymnastics in Kent. Well, 2 classes and an open gym just for fun. The coach has all ready decided to move her from a purely recreational class for 4-5 year-olds to a level 1 class. Gymnastics has 10 levels. Ella is just loving it and her coach is very happy with her.

I’ll have to take my camera next week. She’s so cute in her little leotards and pony tails.

On a different note, Ella has completed a full week of kindergarten. She only missed the morning bus once. Okay, so that’s partially our fault but also the  bus consistently comes 5 minutes earlier than it should. Ella seems to be loving school and I can tell what she learned in pre-school is really getting cemented in as she’s asking how to spell things and NOT asking us what a certain letter looks like, which is a change. She’ll be reading soon! I’m so excited for her. Isaac and I are big-time readers and we hope she loves reading as much as we do.

Ok, I think I’m done gushing for now.

I’m personally excited about some shows I get to see this fall. Tomorrow evening I’ll be seeing “Wicked” with my friend Jaime. Yea! Jaime is my music buddy. We’ve seen several shows together (Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Count Basie Orchestra, and Neil Diamond. I feel like there’s something else I’m forgetting). In October Isaac and I will go see Mika. Mika is more for me than Isaac but he finally admitted that he likes him too. Mika sings happy music and even Ella likes him. In fact, her “favorite” song is a Mika song. She requests it nearly every time we’re in the car. I have had my Mika cd in my car constantly for over a year now. I never get tired of it.

Then in November Isaac and I will be seeing comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. That’ll be hilarious.

Good times ahead. I love fall!

I had many rambling thoughts tumbling through my head so it makes sense to “write” them down and then maybe my brain can move on.

Yesterday was a bit bipolar. Something rather unpleasant happened and unfortunately I can’t share the details on that because a blog, though an “online journal” is certainly not private. I’ll just say it ruined my day and tainted my time off. Wishing that bit of unpleasantness could have waited a few days. Don’t worry, I’ll survive.

I’m taking 3 work days off around Labor Day weekend which means 6 days in a row with no work. Hooray!

Yesterday evening then kicked off my time off with the circus. Who doesn’t love a circus?! Well, PETA doesn’t. After getting past them to get in to Kent’s ShoWare we witnessed The Greatest Show on Earth for the 3rd time with Ella. I love the Tiger act. And there was another stunt in which I had 5 or so mini heart attacks. It was a good but late night for us.

Today Isaac and Ella head off to Osoyoos, British Columbia (just north of North-Eastern WA) to go camping. I don’t camp. I’m going to take this time to probably get my hair taken care of, see some free movies, do some freelance work.

I also feel like doing some shopping damage this weekend. Considering heading to the outlet stores in Marysville. Wishing North Bend’s outlets were as good as Marysville’s because it’s closer but that’s just not the case.

I got a nice surprise when I hopped on the scale this morning. I assumed I’d see it up a bit from yesterday but I’m down. I haven’t been eating very healthily and I figure I’m probably retaining some water right now but I’m still eating far less in quantity than pre-braces. I’ve lost a pound a week since getting braces and actually it might be more than 12 pounds total because I didn’t weigh myself the day I got braces and didn’t get on a scale until week 3 of braces. I figure I’ve probably lost 15-17 pounds in all. Woot! The key is to slow down and take tiny bites when eating. I am forced to do this because of the braces but I know this is one of those “tricks” you hear about.

Curious to see how it all plays out.

Here’s to a great Labor Day weekend!

This next Thursday (today is Tuesday, September 1st) I will have been in braces for 12 weeks (3 months). I realized yesterday you count time in braces like you do pregnancy.

I had my first adjustment yesterday and it’s like being back to square one in terms of discomfort. Maybe worse, as I’ve got a heavier wire in place now. The orthodontist seemed genuinely pleased with my progress so that’s good. Even I can see what drastic changes have occurred in just 3 months.

I had this one tooth that was partially hidden behind a big tooth and it’s nearly completely out. It had this small bracket called a “cap” on it and a spring wire that went from the neighboring big tooth to the neighboring canine (incisor, I think?). This spring wire was pushing those 2 neighboring teeth apart so the little hidden tooth could come out to play. Now that there’s enough room they’ve put a regular bracket on.

It’s upside down though. Should I be worried? Not a single other bracket is upside down. I have to trust my doctor though, right?

That same hidden tooth was looking a little wonky as it had a groove at the bottom and my doc did a little cosmetic dentistry that I didn’t even notice until today. Nice rounded smooth bottom edge now.

The ortho practice has 3 doctors and I’ve now been assigned the senior doctor (also the father of the other two docs) as my one and only doctor. I think I’ve got a regular ortho assistant (Jennifer) also. My case has been a bit… different, so they want to keep the same people on it every visit. I feel special.

Time for a comparison shot. My teeth are still wonky, but huge changes are obvious.

Top photo is just 2 days after getting braced, below is today, 9.1., 11.5 weeks later.

What other news you ask? Ella has just 1 week left before kindergarten.

We’re doing a land/sea Disney vacation in January.

Life is pretty good.

I almost titled this “Ranting, blog-style” but thought better of it.

Did you know this about me? I carefully think through nearly everything I think and do. I don’t “knee-jerk” anything. I think things through. It’s frustrating when such careful consideration and thought get misconstrued.

I have not yet arrived at that point in my life where I don’t care if people like me or not. I care A LOT. Love me, please! I would never say or do anything to intentionally hurt you. So if you feel slighted by me at some point, please know I had no idea I did it.

On a similar note, do you know how hard it is to have conservative leanings in the state of Washington? I have no idea how many people total read this blog, but I’d still wager most of you have more liberal leanings. When the election was going on I had to think hard about whether or not to contribute to things on Facebook that would boldly state which candidate I was for (McCain, since we’re on the subject). In the end does it even matter? I don’t read nor watch the news (another thing to know about me, I like to be entertained, and I do not find news amusing) but I get the sense that as of yet things aren’t going how people had hoped with Obama at the helm. It would be no different if McCain had one, except people would be grumbling about a different set of problems. I guess I’m just afraid people would be upset with “my” president. How silly is that?

I had such high hopes for my evening. Ella and I went to Target and got school supplies. You should know this about me (and it kind of goes along with everything else) but I don’t do things last-minute. I haven’t heard from the elementary school yet which class Ella will be in let alone given a supplies list. I did however find a year-old list on the school’s web site. There is no list for the kindergartners, just a note that says the list would be given out on the first day of school. As if I’m going to wait until the first day of school. Now, considering this is old information I could still receive in the mail at some point a list of school supplies, but I very well could wait in vain, and I don’t do waiting. I figured a year-old 1st grade supplies list can’t be much different from the kindergarten list so with that in hand we went shopping. Not 5 minutes from the house my tummy started rumbling, and I got a nasty text from some one. Let’s just say my high hopes made way for a grumpy and sick-feeling person. So we rushed through Target and headed home. I was supposed to have gone to the store too because we’re out of milk and coffee (2 morning essentials as far as we’re concerned) and I wanted to take Ella out to eat somewhere. Now I’m just very tired and nauseous. Boo.

Changing the subject drastically. Hope you don’t whiplash.

I built a web site today at work for the first time in at least 2 weeks. Work goes in waves… tons of design work, followed by tons of builds. At the start of today I had 4 builds on my plate. It’s a lot at once, but doable. I get in to such a groove when I do these that I don’t think to pause to eat or anything. I had started “Edward Scissorhands”, which I had never seen before (I know, can you believe it? It’s Tim Burton and Johnny Depp for crying out loud) and long before I was done building the web site the movie ended. I must have let the menu screen and it’s fantastical music run for 45 minutes. I just tune that stuff out. If Isaac had been home he probably would have turned it down for me.

Whiplash, straight ahead.

Ella  literally just said this to me: “Mom, did you know that Hello Kitty is a kitty?” No, really?

So a couple of days ago I randomly took pictures of some of my plants. I can never remember their names, so if you recognize some, let me know. There is this kind of bush that I have 3 of, but 3 different types of it. They do so well and just grow and grow. I bought my first one last year and it surved a year under my care. I have a jasmine as well that survived a year with me and even bloomed. It looks pretty wily though… should I be pruning it? I’m afraid to take scissor or shears to my plants.

My wiley jasmine. It's had lots of growth. Kind of like a haircut gone untamed.

I forget one this one is called, but it has lovely purple fuzzy things. It's grown a good deal since I bought it a month or so ago. Perfect for that tall planter.

My 1-year-old Japanese Maple. Happy I haven't killed it.

I have 3 of these now. This one I've had a year. It's gotten huge and has TONS of new growth on it.

close-up of the new growth on above plant. Just hundreds of these all over it.

2 outside vines are clematis. they grew quickly then stopped. Why?! I don't remember what the vine in the middle is (except it is not an evergreen) but during the summer it is glorious. Supposed to get white blooms, but they never showed last year or so far this summer.

Also have a baby rhododendron which I swear got sunburned last week, another clematis, and a large grassy plant, which has also survived a year of me. Seems pretty hardy.

I’ve decided I only want Evergreens. Costs too much money to replace plants.

And that, is as much ranting and rambling as I’ve got in me. It was enough.

Don’t worry, I’m slapping my own wrist. I really thought I’d blog at least once a week about the braces but I haven’t. I have, however, taken pictures every Thursday so that at least I can compare and view the progress. I’ve got then a photo to show you. The first is from the day I got the braces and the 2nd is (actually) today. Major (in my opinion) changes are all ready clearly visible.

In the first pic the braces and wires are just all wonky. They’re still wonky, just less so. The biggest differences are:

1. Top front 2 teeth, notice the wire was once angled steeply and now it is flat. Bottom edge of the large tooth on the left (in the picture, in actuality it is my right tooth) has moved far down where the bottom edges of both teeth used to be even. I’m a little freaked because in all honesty I think it looked better before but I’m only 6 weeks in to 2 -2.5 years. It’ll all be ok in the end. My top front left tooth broke many, many years ago and now it’s painfully  obvious. Guess who’ll be looking for a cosmetic dentist when this is all done?
2. Front bottom 2 teeth: brackets were so close they touched and I couldn’t floss between them. They are now separate and not touching and flossing is a breeze.
3. Harder to see, but there are gaps between my bottom teeth that never existed before.
4. Back to the top teeth, the little guy next to my full-size front tooth: in the first photo you could hardly see the bracket on it, and now it’s in full view plus more of the tooth is viewable.

4 more weeks and then I get my first adjustment. Truthfully, 2 weeks ago I went in because a band had come loose and while I was there, that coil of wire that goes from the big top tooth over to the canine got “reactivated” to open up that space further for that hidden tooth to come forward, so I’ve all ready had a baby adjustment. Teeth hurt for a couple of days though.

The crazy Herbst in my mouth is really the biggest pain. Food gets stuck in it and between it and my cheek. Sorry for those who have to dine with me and watch me fish food out. My cheek never really heals either from the joint of the Herbst digging in to it. I’ll have it for a year abouts. Life would be so much easier if I didn’t have it.

Food… what can I say. I’m eating a lot of ramen and mac n cheese not because I can’t chew, but because it’s easy. I don’t eat much read meat at all, except for hamburgers, which I eat with a fork and a knife. Steak is just too tough. I am eating less simply because it takes so long to eat. I get bored and stop. I’m eating how people are supposed to eat. I’ve lost some weight because of it. Would be nice to keep the losing going. Was a bad food week though.

It all started with Claim Jumper last Saturday. And this brings me to the “7-year itch”, which is really just a funny term and I thought it worked in the blog title. There is no itch, but Isaac and I celebrated our 7-year anniversary this last Monday. We celebrated on Saturday while Ella spent the night at her grandparents’. Claim Jumper that night, 2 nights later it was Red Robin, then Viva Mexico a couple nights after that (thanks to the heat), then Qdoba today for lunch where I met up with co-workers and met some people I hadn’t met yet. Bad food week.

Oh, and going to my favorite pizza place tomorrow night. I’ll be good after that. I promise.

Also in the last 6 weeks we attended my nephew’s baseball game, went to Port Townsend, Ella took a friend to a sprinkler park, and she threw a tea party. While summer is NOT my favorite season it’s been a good one, with the exception of the impossible hotness that was our weather this week.

I’ll definitely post again in 4 weeks after my ortho appointment. If anything noteworthy occurs before then I’ll let you know!

I think every one who reads my neglected blog now knows about the braces. This is just about the only news-worthy thing that has occurred since my last post in February. Summer solstice has come and gone, but that’s not really about me so much as the simple passage of time.

So as much as it may gross some people out I want to watch my teeth progress and I don’t want to wait 10 weeks for my next appointment with the orthodontist (when they’ll take a picture) so, I need to post befores and durings. Skip ahead if you must and I’ll try and drudge up some info about what has gone on around here.

First, nice smiling face shots!

Before braces:

With braces:

A close-up, 4 days in:

In case you wondered, I have Damon System Braces. Click the link if you want to learn more. They’re not your mother’s braces.

So, ok, while braces has been all-consuming for me I guess a few things have gone down since February. Ella turned 5. That was a big deal of course and we threw her a party with her little friends. A Wizard of Oz party. Cutest little Dorothy you ever will see!

We went on a road trip Memorial Weekend and checked out the North Cascades Highway on our way to North Eastern Washington. Washington has ghost towns. Bet you never would have guessed it, but it does, and we checked some out. We think the living residents of some of these “ghost towns” should be offended at the insinuation that they and their town are dead though. No wonder they’re grumpy at the odd ghost-hunter.

Ella graduated from pre-school. We’re now just 2 months from full-day kindergarten and lots of money back in our own pockets (and right back out again, but for good causes like getting out of debt).

I went to Las Vegas to meet some friends for the very first time. To make a long story short I met 6 women on a message board full of women with babies born the same month/year as Ella. We bonded, splintered off to our own board and have been chatting all these 5 years. We had a really great time and are all ready looking forward to our next meeting. It’ll be a trip when we get our families together and see our kids play together. We’re thinking when they’re 10 we should get together. At that age I bet they splinter off boys vs girls with Ella palling around with Avery and Evy (the girly girls of the group). Am thinking when the kids are old enough we moms set them up with a board and they can chat and complain about us. Of course we’ll all have put keystroke software on their computers so we’ll know every word they type. The imagination runs wild just thinking about it!

That pretty much sums up the last few months. I know, I should blog more often. I haven’t been cooking much and especially now that my choices are limited I’m not feeling terribly inspired towards culinary adventures. I’m hoping we 3 Louie’s are going to Mt. Rainier this weekend so maybe in the very least I’ll have pics from that day trip to share. And check back once a week for braces updates because I’m hoping to take new pics every Thursday to monitor my progress. From what I’ve read by the time 6 months have gone by there should be a big difference. Yippee!!

Spring is here? I know that technically it is, and according to at least one of my plants it must be true. So many of the plants I bought last year are dead, but I’ve got this one that is hearty as hearty can be and it’s blooming! I’m thrilled, and you can bet I’m going to buy another one shortly. Seeing as how my fuschia bush did not survive I will be replacing it with another one of these:

There will be hundreds of those little white blossoms all over this. The branches kind of droop with the weight of them. It’s lovely. I don’t even remember what it’s called but I saw it at more than one garden center so I should have no problem finding another one.

Don’t be surprised if this blog goes from being about food to being about plants. I’ll try and mix it up though!

Not a lot going on around here. Thus no blogs. Isaac and I did have ourselves a nice night out the other day while Ella spent the night with her grandparents. We went to Harbor Lights in Tacoma for dinner (us and a bunch of senior citizens, considering it was only 5pm). It was the 3rd Thursday of the month, which in Tacoma means you can get in to the Museum of Glass, the Washington State History Museum, and the Tacoma Art Museum all for free from 5pm until 8pm. We hit to the 2 former. Glad I didn’t pay full price for either. Honestly. The glass museum was cool but rather small.

Gotta run. Saturday is calling.