Going to the Dentist and Fun with Bubble Containers

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I blogged! Get ready for my odd soapbox...we just had a good time last night on our family outing to the dentist:)

...well, not the normal dentist....

We go to the University of Southern Indiana Dental Clinic. We don't have dental insurance so instead we take the kids to the university and let dental hygiene students practice on them-haha-I'm laughing to myself because it sounds like something dangerous but it's so great. The students really know what they are doing b/c they've already been trained and are doing 'clinicals'. They spend 2 1/2 hours (I know this sounds ridiculous but wait till you hear the price) in the chair and the students do the most complete examan I've ever seen. And the kids get all that time one on one with a college aged person who just showers them with attention. They EAT IT UP! Check this out: (I'm way too excited so bear with me)

Price of a dental exam and cleaning at the pediatric dentist: $80 per kid
Price of X-Rays at the pediatric dentist: $25
Cost of a Fluoride treatment at pediatric dentist: $15

Price of a dental exam and cleaning at the university: $5 per kid
Price of X-Rays at the pediatric dentist: $15
Cost of a Fluoride treatment at pediatric dentist: included in the $5 fee

Luke is so young that they did his x-rays for free and the other 2 didn't need it.
So, instead of $310 we would have paid at the pediatric dentist, we paid $15 and each kid left there with at least $5 worth of prizes and teeth care supplies. Now you tell me how worth it that is to drive 30 minutes from home and read magazines for 2 1/2 hours while your kids get showered with attention.
And we left there with 5 travel toothpastes, new toothbrushes for all three kids, floss for all three, stickers, posters, and free little dental tools for flossing(with refills)...

and their teeth get 10 times cleaner b/c they're in the chair for so long! Plus, a real dentist does the final exam.

If you consider that we paid $15 but left with 3 kids with clean teeth and $20 worth of stuff, it's like they paid us to clean our kids' teeth.

Luke's hygienist was especially smitten with him and we took his picture...how funny is this? It was taken with her camera and she emailed it to me-haha-he was having way too much fun with the air sucky thing. he probably did it 20 times and she'd just laugh at him...Oh, the things that entertain you when you have kids...

Speaking of entertainment...listen to what the boys did to entertain themselves a few weeks ago...One day I saw a 2 gallon bubble container they were messing with and didn't recognize it so I picked it up and looked inside. The contents were odd looking so I took a big wiff...urine. I looked at them with those eyes that moms give their sons when they do something like this and they admitted to peeing in the empty bubble container. Then I notice it's filled with tools. Yes, they'd peed in there and dropped their good tools in it. I told them to dump it out. They dump it in the middle of the yard, clean up their tools and we don't think much else of it..until the next day when Daryn comes home from work and says, "Honey, why is the grass dead right there?" Of course, it's where his sons emptied the bubble container. (sigh)...that's my life-haha... :) And I love it...

Bald Sons

It's 10 days before preschool pictures.
I came home from running errands today and the boys had gotten into the scissors.
It's not because they were unattended.
Daryn was here, and my mom and sister.
15 minutes alone is all it took.
Huge patches out of their hair.
Now Anteneh is bald-I had to shave it all off to make it look right.
Like, really bald-I'm not exaggerating.
Luke looks like he's going into the military.
Ah, the joys of having 2 four year old boys.
It was only a matter of time.

Purdue

Well, we just got home yesterday from a GREAT weekend at Purdue. Look at two of Purdue's running backs, class of 2024...

More later on our trip...I forgot my camera so we're waiting on people to send us pictures!

How Grace defines herself

I loved the paper that Grace brought home from school today...I love to read the way she defines herself... here is what her paper says:

The One and Only Grace!

This is what I look like: I have brown hair. I have green and brown eyes. I am tall

These are people in my family: Luke, Anteneh, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Papa, Eli, Meredith, Rachel, Ethan, Ava, Mathew, Aly, Scott, Camille, Jocelyn, Megan, Levon

These are some things I like to do: I like to play soccer, swim, go to parties, and read

These are some places I like to go: To the movies and to Florida

Here is more about the one and only me! I love animals. I adopted. I have a dog. I am a Christian

To me, this is a really special paper...I am going to love to look back with her at this paper when she is a grown up and see the way she defined herself at 6 years old...I love her last answer. That is her...she is all about animals...and the fact that her brother is adopted is PART of WHO SHE IS...she is a dog owner...and loves Jesus...I love her.

First of the First

Well, yesterday was the FIRST day of FIRST grade for my little baby Grace!
How cute are these kids? The boys and I drove Grace to school and walked her to her classroom...
Daryn and I woke up at 6:15am and Grace was already dressed and brushing her teeth-she was SO EXCITED for her first day of school! I have been dreaming of packing her lunch for probably the last month. The first day I was so excited that I tied her little baggies with ribbon and put a very special first day of school note from Mommy and Daddy in there...after school she said, "momma-I loved my note" (tear....) Grace putting on her backpack...special lunch box from Aunt Tracey-she was the coolest girl in school with THAT lunch box!
I think I'm going to make the self portrait and annual thing before every first day of school...beginning with Kindergarten...this was 1st grade...and below is last year's Kindergarten self portrait! Grace looks SO MUCH OLDER this year...and somehow I look less wrinkly...that's strange! The funniest part of comparing these two pictures is Grace's shirts-Grace picked out a teal horse t for the first day two years in a row-bahaha-I love her.

All Natural

OK...so, I'm making dinner last night and my recipe calls for 'breadcrumbs'...I was about out of bread so instead of making my own I glanced in the pantry to see if I had any canned. And I did. And then I read the label. Here is what it said:

Ingredients: Enriched flour(four, malted barley, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamine mononitrate[vitamin B1], riboflavin[vitamin B2], folic acid), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil(soybean and/or cottenseed and/or corn and /or canola oils), water, yeast, salt, brown sugar, honey, molasses, sugar, wheat gluten, whey, soy flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour, corn flour, oat bran, cornmeal, rice flour, potato four, butter, dough conditioners (mono and diglycerides, sodium and/or calcium staroyl lactylate, soy lecithin, calcium carbonate), yeast nutrients(ammonium sulfate, calcium sulfate, momocalcium phosphate), distilled vinegar, skim milk, buttermilk, lactic acid, calcium propionate (preservative), potassium sorbate(preservative), may contain sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds.
Now, that just took me 5 minutes to type....literally...does that sound appetizing!? I just wanted some CRUMBS OF BREAD!UGH...needless to say, I left the storebought breadcrumbs unopened and toasted my own 100% Natural Farmer's 12 Grain (w/ no trans fat, no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors)for breadcrumbs...
And taking the advice of a good friend who would rather stick a random picture on a post than post something that's just words...here's a shot of the boys torturing their dog:)Look at Shadow-under their blankies...this picture makes me laugh so hard...
PS-I just did spell check on this post and the spell checker couldn't recognize NINE of the words in that ingredients list...why do we as Americans eat like this? Maybe most of those things aren't bad for you but what ever happened to a few simple, healthy ingredients?

246 pictures

Literally. That is how many I took. I have 3 8"x11" frames around my kitchen table that have been empty since November when we moved in. It's pathetic. And with my best friend, Tracey, coming to visit(w/ her cute hubby, of course), I had to fill them. So, the kids and I braced eachother for a 94 degree photoshoot yesterday-they were good sports and all I had to do was bribe them with some gum! Haha. So, here they are: the best of the 246 from yesterday! Not bad for just sticking them in front of some of our flowers...I think in a few weeks we may go to the park and so do a few more:)



This last one was literally the last picture I took...see, they are all still smiling after 246 shots! See, I'm not too cruel!