It's a 4 Ring Circus!

of cats, teeth, and groceries

{Delaney and the neighbor's cat -- has nothing to do with this post, but I liked it, so, there you have it.}

I took the little girls to their regular dentist appointment this morning (no cavities, yeah!, but Ava has a crossbite already, boo -- before too long we'll be camping at the orthodontist with all of our kids), and on the way home I finally stopped by a new store over there called Newflower Farmers Market.  It was pretty cool, kinda reminded me of Trader Joe's (although TJ will always hold a special place in my heart, sigh).  It's basically a smaller Whole Foods with much better prices.  They had a large produce section, large "natural" health/beauty section, and a pretty good variety of other things (including what seems to be a good selection of gluten-free stuff, for those so inclined).  Also has a good looking butcher section.  Anyway, here is a sample of the deals I got today:

• Oak Farms skim milk for $2.99 (I usually see this for >$4)
• bagged salad for $1
• Kashi Go Lean cereal for $2
• dozen organic-y (free range maybe, can't remember and I'm too darn lazy to go downstairs and check) eggs for $1.50
• boneless, skinless chicken thighs for $2.69/lb

I will be adding that store to my list of places to check in on when I get the chance.

Dear Trader Joe's executives:
Will you pretty pretty please put a store in Austin??  I'll be your best friend forever.

they love it when Denny is home

{enjoyed a nice sunshiney afternoon with the kids yesterday}

fingers crossed

Things seem to be looking up.  It helps that the weather is beautiful here this time of year!

After playing around with this picture, I had a thought -- when all of my girls get old enough to wear make-up, we're going to be going through a lot of mascara around here.  Cuz Texas girls, we love our mascara.  In fact, I think I better add that to our 72-hour kits.  :-)

lice theory

(to go along with Ben's germ theory)

I have overcome the urge to strip all of our carpet, replace all of our furniture with plastic IKEA versions, and install a detox shower in our house.  Between our encounters with lice, and the fact that all kinds of nasty flu, strep, and stomach cooties are striking all around me, I feel a wee bit paranoid.

I have still not found a single live bug this round, but have found a couple of eggs here and there on the two girls throughout the week.  I know that it's going around in our area, so I really don't even know if this round was from something in our house or they got lucky and picked something up somewhere else.  My brain is a pile of powder from figuring out where I could have missed something.  I know, I need a chill pill, bad.  Nonetheless, I took advantage of Ryan's presence this weekend and had him totally remove the girls' beds from their bedroom (they're taken apart and sequestered to the garage) and then vacuumed and steamed their carpet really good.  I am planning to paint the girls' room finally while they're out of there, and then sometime soon when Ryan brings our stuff back from CA they will use the beds from out there.  I have psychological issues with their beds here now.  :-D

I ordered a super duper magic lice comb that will come this week.  I also spent a good chunk of yesterday reading about and then ordering some magic lice potions, that will also come sometime this next week.

Lice -- BRING IT.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

For those of you who would like to close your ears and sing LALALALALALALALALA really loud when I talk about that, here is a nice picture of my kitty.

She doesn't give a diggity dang about lice.  Or germs.  She sneaks into the bathroom after someone uses the shower, and licks the leftover wet spots.   Mmmm.

I'm gettin old, dang it

I used to be able to get away with the $5 flip flops.  They were my go-to shoes all year long.

Then my feet let me know, time is marching on.  Welcome to my first pair of old lady flip flops, substantially more than $5.

My feet are very appreciative.

I think I'm on the downhill slide now.

i heart homeschooling (most days)

Actually, what I love is that we've been doing this long enough to know what works for our kids.

We just got in another Professor Noggin game, this one goes with our ocean study.

Delaney just started the next level of Explode the Code, and Sadie is coming along with her reading enough to start the series herself.  Of course, Ava couldn't be left out, so Delaney found an ETC preK workbook that wasn't used yet and now Ava can be a big girl, too.

Valentine's/Dallintine's

Ryan's brother & family from CA came out for Valentine's/Dallintine's/President's Day weekend.  (My nephew Dallin's birthday is Feb 14th, hence, Dallintine's Day.)  Lucky for me, Ryan came back on Wed night last week, then worked on the north side of town both Thursday and Friday.  That is lucky because (1) we are old and boring and can't face the Valentine's Day date night crowds and (2) Cheesecake Factory is on his way home from that office.  So, Thursday night was our V-Day and we put the kids to bed early, had a scrumptious candlelit CF take-out dinner, and watched Intolerable Cruelty that arrived via Netflix.  It was perfect.

Saturday morning was Dallin's birthday party.  I won't steal La Nan's thunder by posting a write-up of her party, but the kids had fun.  Ryan enjoyed toting our niece, Eden, around.

Someone put The Three Amigos, wait, The Three Stooges, the brethren in charge of the pinata.  By the end, poor pregnant La Nan was mauled by lots of candy-hungry little munchkins, while the brethren watched nonchalantly from above.  :-D

Cute little Rhett.
Too bad I missed my chance to get a picture of him later, fetching a large kitchen knife so as to have fun popping birthday balloons.  :-)
(Don't forget, La Nan's having another boy just in time for summer.  hee hee)

The birthday boy got lots of new LEGOs to entertain him for quite awhile, so it was a good day.

I think that by the end, though, La Nan was having some familiar thoughts about kids' birthdays.

more slumber parties

Well . . . Monday evening I discovered about 5 nits (lice eggs) on Delaney's hair while I was getting her ready to go somewhere (I have been checking everyone regularly and we'd been free for 2 weeks).  I had a semi-nervous breakdown, but I got over it.  Either that night or the next morning I found a couple on Sadie's head, too.  No actual bugs, mind you, but obviously there must be a couple in my house, somewhere.  So -- back we go with all of the laundry, etc.  I am starting to wonder if there is something in the girls' mattresses, even though I have sprayed them again with the chemicals, so for now we are back to camping out in the living room on an air mattress.  Their real mattresses are going to be sequestered for three weeks to make sure that there is nothing alive in them before they are returned to their rightful owners.  Joy.

At least THEY think it is fun!

And note Delaney's kitty blanket and pillowcase that Grandma made for her birthday -- she loves them.

dippy

This girl loves her bean dip!

kitty watches momma on the computer