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...

I have come to realize that even though I keep reading Les Miserables , I will NEVER finish! It's like that non-real-world math problem of the person trying to get across the room by taking steps that are half as long as the step he previously took and technically would never reach the other side of the room, only approaching infinitely close to the opposite side. (Read this next part to the Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop theme, "This is the Song That Never Ends) This is the book that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends. V Hugo starting writing it, not knowing what it was, And he'll continue adding words EVEN THOUGH HE'S TOTALLY DEAD. Really, book. Stop already! Everyone is falling over themselves crowing about how wonderful the movie is. I've seen the musical once a while ago and boy, did the musical people cut a lot out of the book stuff out and rearranged and condensed the story. BIG TIME. Maybe if Victor had envisioned the musical first, he woul...

Paul finished his application to serve a mission today! The last thing he needs is an interview with the Stake President, which he hopes to do tomorrow. And then the wait for the letter will begin. His friend Tommy just got his mission call. His wait was nearly a month from submission to letter in hand. I wonder if Paul will have to wait that long. EJ waited about 2 weeks. Let the guessing begin! Where do you think Paul will go? Stateside or foreign?

(Alternately titled "If I Only Had a Bassoon") Hayley participated in another band concert last Monday and I've been told by a certain husband that I should post a certain video I took of a certain daughter playing a solo in a certain medley from a certain movie "The Wizard of Oz," in the interest of showing it to a certain mother-in-law.  And that I should stop typing "a certain." I can't post the video directly on the blog because it's too long, but I uploaded it to my dropbox account, which allows me to share a link to it with you and the certain mother-in-law. This is the link to that video. Enjoy. Here is a picture of Hayley during the concert for those of you who don't like pictures to move: Yes those are, in fact, skulls on her knees. Skulls with heart-shaped eye sockets.

Last night Jim and I lay in bed watching a movie (and because I love parentheticals, I will now digress)(Yes, we have a TV in the bedroom,, which means we have 2 TVs! We are now living in the 1980s! Matt once came home from school with news of a group activity he participated in where he found out he was the ONLY kid in the classroom who had 1 TV in the house; more often than not there were 4 or 5 in his classmates' households. Woe was us, he was convinced). Anyway, it was a dumb movie from the 80s (I'm going with an 80s theme perhaps?) called Peggy Sue Got Married which starred some fake teeth and a very silly voice (both via Nicolas Cage) and featured lots of gray and pastel yellow costuming and 80s-style 50s big hair (see if you can work that one out). I wouldn't even mention having watched the movie but for one thing. There is a scene where Peggy Sue and her boyfriend are in his car parked by a body of water and they are talking about having sex. As they get furth...