Tales of a Shoebox Princess

Stupid tooth #15. It broke today while I was eating dinner. A split second before it gave way, I had a flash of foresight: "Your tooth is going to break...right......NOW." And then it did. I knew it was coming. The tooth has been whining for nearly two years. Cold beverages irritated it, and just last Christmas Eve, I believe the final spiral descent into breakage happened when I chewed a tasty mushroom. Why a mushroom and not when I chew ice (Mike has told me in a superior voice that I deserve a broken tooth for chewing ice)? I don't know. Want to see the chip? Ignore the chapped hands in the picture. It's a pretty significant portion--pretty much the entire mesial buccal (or MB as we like to say in the dental biz) cusp--of #15. The 25-year-old amalgam filling in that tooth is still in the tooth, but I wonder if that will have to be taken out when I get the tooth crowned? NOTICE: Incoming whine. Mike, don't read this. It feels funny now. I'm afr...

I know everyone already is aware of Paul's mission call, but I wanted to share the video of him opening the letter. We didn't get to see EJ open his letter (which was fine because we weren't around when the letter came and EJ couldn't wait to open it. Who can blame him?), so it was fun to see Paul open his. Here is the link to the video: LINK Please ignore the loud, overbearing mother noise in the background (or foreground. I'm pretty loud in this video and possibly real life). If I could learn to keep my trap shut, the video would have been much nicer. Anyway, Paul is pretty happy about his assignment. Peru will be an adventure. We discovered from the internet (source of all truth) that Piura Peru is the oldest Spanish settlement in South America. July 17th 2013 is the date Paul reports to Lima Peru to start his mission. I'm open to suggestions for Paul's future mission blog title. I thought I'd just mimic the one I have for EJ, which is EJ go...

Some of you might know about my traditional Valentine's day treasure hunts for my kids. This is definitely not that. This is for people who kiss each other a lot, for example, married people. I do not want my children (except the one who is married) playing this game. This is an idea I have had in my head for a few days, one that I shared with someone recently. I told this someone that first you get 3 dice. They don't have to be matching. Heck, you can even use those ridiculous 20-sided ones if you choose, although I would recommend that two of the three be the regular 6-sided ones. Steal them from the Yahtzee game you have lying around. Don't have a Yahtzee game???? What? Every household needs a Yahtzee game! Go get one! One of the dice will remain as it is (if you have a 20 sided one, that will be the one that will remain untouched). Get a pen and some paper. I'm using pink and purple cardstock just because it was the first paper I found. Cut out 12 squ...