Today is supposedly the final day of the finishing work on my fake teeth!  I know I'm dental phobic, but I must be a really horrible patient to have the dentist do things in such little spurts.  Either he can't take ME for long periods of time, or he really thinks *I* need the breaks in between and he feels sorry for me.  He told me THIS time to take four Valium instead of three.  That's to get me through an "hour" visit to "finish up the rough edges!"  No fillings or teeth cleaning today.  I misunderstood. 

I go in at 2:30 and they want me to take the Valium at 1:30 so "it's working" by the time I get there.  Or, maybe so they don't give me too much gas and kill me!  I don't know. 

Everyone reading this knows I'm a talker.  Last time 15mg of Valium and tons of gas didn't shut me up.  I continued a constant stream of uncontrollable questions and opinions about world peace, why I wear a headcovering, to subjects like Janis Joplin & San Francisco in the late 60's.  You know, important stuff!!!!!!!!!!!  I was able to get up 3 times and skip to the restroom without feeling tipsy.  I'm a hard one to take down!

I don't know if 20mg of Valium is to give the dentist peace and quiet, or if he really feels bad that I'm so high strung, leaving claw marks in his ceiling every time I visit him!

Can't say I'm nervous this time.  I've had so many visits recently and have the greatest dentist of all, it's just the moment I sit in that chair - terror reigns!

The b-day party was a success last night.  Rissy got a San Francisco Music Box Co. snow globe with a carousel horse from us.  It was the first gift she opened and she was so happy (and touched) that I thought she was going to cry.  She just loves that gift and thinks it is beautiful. 

Beating the pinata was a hoot.  Since they were all so young, we didn't bother with a blindfold.  They took turns, youngest to oldest, at hitting and hitting the spinning star.  Stephanie commented that somehow this didn't seem very healthy, teaching our children to beat and beat something with a stick just to get candy; but beat it, they did!  Poor cat thought she wanted in on the excitement and couldn't find her way through our ankles to get back inside the door!  All very comical!  The cheers  and screams of, "Hit harder!  Do it again!  There you go.  Now it's Luci's turn to hit!" coming from our closed up garage must have raised suspicions with the neighbors.

By the way, Jesse had never filled a pinata, so that ALSO became my job.  I found out a pinata has a very, VERY small opening and requires candy and surprises to be inserted into it ONE AT A TIME!  Very tedious!  I'm so glad I filled it several days prior to the party!

After the dental trip today and Thursday's and Friday's psychologist appointments, I'll have to turn my attention to Annamarie's b-day (March 29th).  Then, mine, then Steph's, then JanaLyn's . . . .

In my home, life is ALWAYS a party!  

Today is Rissy's 6th birthday.  Her stomach is still bothering her, so our "Mexican fiesta" will consist of chicken & noodles instead of tacos & cheese dip with chips!  HER idea, totally!  She said it, "made more sense!" 

Plans for the pinata still stand.  Bad stomach or not, I guess she can still whack the thunder out of a pinata if it holds prizes and candies!

Big story about her birthday cake.  She has "only" talked about having an "Ariel" birthday cake at her next birthday since about August of last year!!!!!  As I have repeatedly said, she has looked at the cake decorated with "Ariel" each and every week we are in Wal-Mart's bakery.

We went in yesterday to order the much coveted Ariel cake.  As I summoned the bakery lady to place our order, Rissy put her hand on my arm and said, "Wait!"

I thought she wanted something special written on her cake.  I turned to asked her what she wanted and saw her eyeing a NEW cake!  This one had a plastic, bejeweled silver crown and wand you could wash off and actually wearing.  ALLLLLLLL pink and girlie frosting and trim!

"Mmmmmmom," she asked with those huge brown eyes, "would it be okay if I changed my mind?  THIS is the cake I really, really, really want!"

The bakery lady was wonderful and brought out the plastic crown and the Ariel figurine that went on top of each cake so she could see for herself what she would be getting.  I knew she'd change her mind and go back to Ariel as soon as she saw the darling mermaid sitting in a clam shell.

"I want this one.  I'm quite sure I want the crown and wand, Ma'am," I heard her say to the patient bakery lady!

So, girlie AND pink win out once more.  All of her packages are wrapped in some type of pink paper with pink ribbons.

Do I know my little tomboy (with pink roses) Rissy, or what? 

Jesse went to church without us this morning (Rissy has been complaining of a stomach pain) and then he went to the pawn shop for the afternoon.

The girls and I watched some of the movies I recently ordered from eBay.  First was the musical, "Into the Woods" - they LOVED it and I enjoyed it as if it was the first time I had seen it!  Then a PBS movie called, "Goodnight Mr. Tom" and another PBS movie, "David Copperfield" which we have on "pause" right now.  All very good movies and worth the money, because I know we will watch them over and over.  Much better quality than cartoons and most of what is on TV these days.

I just put a prime rib roast in the oven and scooped out my baked potatoes to make twice baked potatoes for our dinner later on.  Jesse has the girls in the garage "helping" him - probably has them moving firewood piece by piece!  They don't care.  They adore their time with him and if he asked them to cut the grass with cuticle scissors they would be thrilled as long as he was with them!

I got a bit of my desk cleaned off today.  I don't know the origination of my stacks, but at least I know what things are in each stack.  I'm afraid after cleaning today, I'll be lost if I'm asked to put my hands on something quickly!  I left the bills in the same stack.  It's almost time to pay them and I surely don't want to misplace THOSE!!

I love this "no pressure" day I've assigned myself!  I always have a list of things to do and I think I don't take enough time to spend with our children.  This is the time in their lives when so much can be taught about life and making right decisions.  I should schedule these down times with them more frequently.  The movies we watched today opened up a lot of discussions.

I'm starting to feel the reality of all I have to do next week!

Monday, I have a medical appointment for Luci, her monthly check up.  She's back to some sporatic "fits" here and there and I'm really hoping the good behavior wins out!  She's still off all medication and I'm not going to approve the doctor's suggestion of starting her back on medication again.  I think we still need to give her more time without being on drugs.

Tuesday, I have Rissy's birthday party to set up, cake to pick up, and food to purchase.  Since we're having a Mexican fiesta, she wants tacos and cheese dip with chips.  I'm thinking pineapple chunks might be good, too.  I haven't wrapped one gift and I haven't even looked at the party favors to divide them into gift bags.  There will be a pinata.  It needs to be stuffed with candy & toys but I'm thinking that can be Jesse's job!  What do *I* know about pinatas???!!!  I found out, AFTER I bought the party favors, that two additional children (Jesse's friend's children) are coming.  I'll figure some way to stretch the sets of 4 favors between 6 children!

Wednesday, I have an afternoon (2 hour) dental appointment.  He will finish the work on my NEW teeth and then clean all of my teeth.  I think it's been close to 15 years since they've been cleaned.  The dentist can't believe my teeth looked so good after 15+ years!  I am also having him fill two small cavities.  Might as well take care of everything at once and maybe I won't have to go back for another 10 years!!!

Thursday, the girls' play therapist comes to our house for two hours. I have an appointment (for me) with Luci's pyschologist later in the afternoon.  I LOVE this pyschologist and wish my children didn't require her services.  I'd like to be "friends" with her.  Ethics-wise, it's best left on a professional basis for now.   I will get home late and do the chili dog thing for dinner!

Friday, Luci has an appointment with the same gal pyschologist and that will put me home late, again.  I guess it will be chili "cheeseburgers" on that night!  I'm really a gourmet cook these days, wouldn't you say??!!

The season for American Idol has begun.  I'm already "hooked" and not wanting to miss a show.  This is the only show I follow and it lasts a few months.  Guess we'll record it the night of Rissy's party.  There isn't anything else on TV that I feel I HAVE to see, except the weather!

I'm already wondering how I'll get the week's laundry done, the grocery shopping done, general house cleaning done, and keep me from beginning to spin!!!  I can only do so much this weekend.  My main goal is to finish the girls' laundry and wrap Rissy's gifts.  I'm afraid if I don't do it this weekend, I'll panic when they have nothing to wear and Rissy has no gifts to unwrap!

We had a nice time last night with the pastor of our church and his family.  We met at a cafeteria and talked until they started cleaning the EMPTY dining room!  We had my friend's (Tangi) daughter babysit the girls.  She's a sweet girl and our girls adore her.  She's always so good to say "yes" when I ask her to babysit last minute.  We rarely go anywhere without our girls and this was a nice break for us.  Jesse talked to me on the way to the restaurant, and I got to talk to him on the way home!  Not once did we hear "Mommy!" "Daddy!" or "Excuse me . . . "  Precious stolen moments in time!

Almost forgot . . . Friday, I woke the 2 older girls up earlier than usual and took them to see Seusical at the high school Tangi's boys attend.  One of her boys was in the play, as well as some other children we know.  Rissy and Annamarie enjoyed themselves.   It was so entertaining and brought back memories for me.  This is the same school Stephanie attended eons ago!  I ran into the drama teacher, the same one Stephanie had, and spoke with her briefly.

Last piece of news - Jesse has made the final decision to sell his half of the pawn shop and is concentrating on his lawn service.  It's that time of year and he has made some bids, one of them a small city.  It would be great if he could get a contract with that city and provide 12 months of service to them.  He has no regrets selling the pawn shop or opening it in the beginning.  The stress was such that this will be a huge burden off of him.

I suppose I should get off of this keyboard and start the laundry.  The sooner I quit using the washing machine, the sooner the girls and I can all have our showers!  Maybe someday we'll have a hot water tank on each side of the house!

It's been a while since my last entry.  What in the world have I been doing in the interim???

We had more cold weather last week and burrowed into our house, as much as our appointment schedule would allow!  We kept the fireplace roaring and tried to stay toasty.

Luci's daycare had a Valentine's Day party.  Even though, in our home, we don't really do the whole Hallmark Valentine's Day thing, Luci took individually wrapped fruit snacks with little red squares of fancy-cut construction paper (hot glued to the snacks) for each of her friends.  "To: Bob From: Luci" was the extent of her "cards" for the party.  She was pleased and that was all that mattered.

I spent the afternoon on Valentine's Day in the dentist chair getting my permanent caps cemented into my mouth.  I'm so glad I don't have to take the time to "glue-in" my temporary caps each time I need to leave the house.  I was using Fixodent and if I slightly touched the back of the caps with the tip of my tongue, they fell out!  I couldn't eat or drink in public once I "put in my teeth," and putting on lip gloss could easily pop those teeth right back out onto my lip!

Luci's been doing GREAT!!! these past few weeks.  No more half hour fits (they've been chiseled down to 2 minutes - max) and she is so much more agreeable.  It makes it easier to have conversations *with* her, rather than feel like I'm barking orders and edicts *to* her.  We're amazed at the VERY sudden change in her behavior.  She's the cutest little thing and a huge tease!

Jesse took off Saturday and we went shopping together.  Just errand-type stuff, but it was nice to have him with us.  He treated us to lunch at Chili's.  But . . . his stamina failed him after our Sam's shopping trip and he never made it next door to Wal-Mart!!!!  He went home with some of the children and I think I ended up with just Annamarie at WalMart. 

Luci had spent the first half of the day alone with me.  Luci and I went to Toys R Us to get Rissy (and Annamarie, whose b-day is next month) some gifts.  Luci was great!  Didn't ask or whine for one thing.  I've never taken her to Toys R Us and she might have been overwhelmed at the size and selections!!!

Yesterday, Sunday, we did nothing except watch one movie after another while Jesse was at work.  I've been on a movie ordering frenzy trying to find suitable movies for the children.  The older girls are getting too old for cartoons and need something more stimulating.  I was able to buy Seasons 1-3 of The Waltons, Seasons 1-3 of Little House on the Prairie, a set of 12 Shirley Temple movies, and 3 individual movies from PBS.

All three girls LOVED Shirley Temple.  I asked them if they had any idea how old she is since the movies were made before I was born.  Rissy was pretty sure Shirley Temple must be about 6 years old by now . . . maaaaaybe 7!!!  I told them Shirley Temple was as old as Grandma Theurer or Aunt Doris.  After hesitating a moment and thinking about what I had told them, they burst out laughing and told me I hadn't fooled them one bit!!!  "Verrrrry funny, Mom!"  So, Shirley Temple remains immortalized as a 6 (or maaaaaybe 7) year old!  Now Rissy is tap dancing on all of our tile floors and up and down on the step-up stool in the kitchen!  Bojangles, watch out!

Yes, "schmaltzy" . . . that's me.

You get to be 50-something and think you know yourself.  At least, I thought I knew myself.  Not much of a crier (ever).  Not prone to be emotionally moved by movies.  Very practical and more reality based than sentimental.  Yep, knew myself well.  I say "knew" because . . .  

I watched The Notebook lastnight and now my opinion of myself has changed!!!  A very touching movie about enduring love (a rarity among humans) and beautiful scenery to occupy the eyes.  I just love the South!  The young male lead sounds just like my dentist who is from Mississippi (giggle).  Gentle southern drawl.

I was so touched by the story and such a little boo-hoo cry baby throughout the entire second half of the movie!  I had the story figured out, but it held some sort of grip on me and I became totally lost in it.  Such an ironic, happy ending!  If the story had to end, Nicholas Sparks picked the perfect ending!  I couldn't believe it was after midnight when the movie was over and I never felt sleepy. 

I guess, despite my crusty exterior, I am really Jello-y deep inside and (much to my surprise) enjoy a schmaltzy love story!

Well here is my Day 2 entry. 

I'm still clueless but acting with confidence so people reading will be impressed!

Jesse left for Texas last night and we will be bachlorettes for the next few days around here.  That means meals he hates for dinner, meals he hates for breakfast . . . you get the picture!  Donuts, breakfast for dinner, spaghetti (don't know why he doesn't like that) and lots of popcorn!

I got up bright and early this morning to get all the girls dressed so we could take Luci to daycare (one of Jesse's jobs).  We came home and ate breakfast (cookies!).  Then it was time to drive to town and give our pediatrician a birthday present.  She was pleased, hugged us all, and then we turned right around to come home!

We stopped at a warehouse of crafts and home furnishing and Rissy picked out her birthday decorations (February 27th).  She wants a "fiesta" which was all her idea.  She even wanted a pinata!  So, that's what she got!  I thought for sure she'd see the girlie pink things and change her mind - but fiesta won out.

We drove through a fast food place by the house and brought lunch home.  Even splurged and had Pepsi's for lunch.  Ahhhh, we're living it up while Jesse is gone!

Now, after 2 hours at home, it's time to pick up Luci for her weekly pyschologist appointment.  I plan to homeschool the other 2 girls while we sit in the reception room waiting for Luci to finish up.

It's cold here.  30° but feels much colder.  I supposed we'll come home after Luci's appointment and make spaghetti for dinner then watch a movie.

This is my first attempt at "blogging" and I must admit . . . I have no idea what I'm doing or even what the word "blogging" really means!  My plan is to limp through this first attempt and pretend I'm computer savy and really cool!  Yeah!  Right!

I've spent the evening reading about "skins" (still have no clue) and learning about HTML text (still have no clue).  My head is swimming and I should be in bed instead of experimenting with skins and HTML thingies. 

These late hours are the hours I usually do my finest work - when everyone else is sleeping!  I guess I'll stop here tonight on the off chance I've done everything wrong.  I would hate to be typing my little heart away only to find nothing posts when I hit the magical key.

Gosh, I just realized . . . I have no idea where the magical key to save this prattle is located.