Poor Ruthanne

I'm not sure if you can tell but her left cheek is swollen. She had been complaining of her mouth hurting for a little while and we kind of ignored it, thinking it was just her molars or something. Well, today she woke up with this swollen cheek so we decided it was time to take her back to the dentist. She had just had some fillings done in the past couple of weeks and we thought maybe it was related. Yep, she has an abscessed tooth. The decay had gone down to the nerve and they didn't notice it when doing the filling. So, now she has to take antibiotics and then have a pulpotomy (or something) to clean out the nerves and then put a filling on top of that. Ugh. That happens in a couple of weeks. Luckily she should be feeling better within a day or two of the antibiotics. The unlucky thing is I had them call it in to Walmart and it was not ready even two hours later, so I will be picking it up in the morning. Grrr Walmart pharmacy!

On other news John just keeps on talking up a storm. Lately he is all about the baseball. Luke and John have been watching some playoff games and John really likes it. He started asking when we could buy him a baseball bat. Luke told him sometime. Well, after that every time John woke up he would ask me if I had bought him a baseball bat. Luke decided to take the kids out to buy a baseball bat while I was at church Tuesday night. Before they left John wanted to make sure that Dad had money so that he could buy it. I guess he thinks Mom is the only one who knows how to spend money! They bought a (you will never guess!) Spiderman bat and ball. He loves it! Of course now he just asks me when I will buy him football pants and football shoes. Give it up already boy!

What did the Tooth Fairy Bring?

Well, I was going out to Wal-mart the night the tooth came out. Luke was getting the kids ready for bed as I was leaving. Ruthanne asked me if I was going to get her something for losing her tooth. I said, no, the tooth fairy brings something. Ruthanne said, well, thats just money. So, I decided I had a couple of little princess dress up toys stowed away in the closet I had gotten for cheap (like this, but smaller, and WAY cheaper!).

The tooth fairy also left a note saying that this was a special gift for the first tooth and that all other teeth would get money. And how much money will the tooth fairy be giving out per tooth? Probably a dollar. Ruthanne was very happy about the toy and has been playing with it constantly. Too bad new toys lose their charm after a few days around here! Anyhow, yesterday Ruthanne reminds me that we have a Belle toy just like this. Shoot (I had bribed her with one of these princess toys when she got her 5 year old shots, more than 6 months ago)! I told her that yeah, we'll just have to give that one to someone else! Maybe I'll pretend I sent it to Lilian! I never thought she'd remember I had those toys!

One Tooth Gone!

In quite dramatic fashion, per Ruthanne's usual!

We sat down to dinner (corndogs, I know, real fancy). The prayer had been said and then Ruthanne takes her first bite and starts freaking out! She's saying her tooth is on her tongue. I guess it was kind of laying there? It was also bleeding a little. She was not happy, just wouldn't swallow, drink. I was telling Luke to just pull it out (it was really just hanging by a thread and by the time they get to that point, you might as well just pull it!). Well, she didn't want anyone to pull it either and was afraid that it would hurt. So eventually amid all the drama, Luke is looking at it and decides that it isn't attached anymore and just fishes it out of her mouth. I immediately shout Yay the tooth fairy gets to come! That gets her a little calmer, but we still have to calm her down and make her drink some water.

I then had to cut up her corndog for her to eat, I guess she thought it would be too weird to eat missing a tooth. When going to bed, she was so excited for the tooth fairy to come I had to tell her that the tooth fairy would only come if she is asleep. Gosh, it feels like Christmas! Here is a picture of her new smile.

Yummy Apple Pancakes!

One last post for today. I'm on a roll I tell ya!

Ruthanne wanted pancakes for dinner, and I get bored flipping pancake after pancake on the stove, so I decided to try dutch babies (aka german pancakes). We had an apple in the fridge so we added that to be fancy! Here is what it looked like right out of the oven.

Its nice and puffy right out of the oven and then deflates in a couple of minutes.

Here are my modified directions, from this allrecipes.com recipe.

Put 2 tbsp of butter in a glass pie plate in a 400 degree oven.

Then slice up an apple (fairly thinly) with or without skin, your preference.

Wisk together 2 eggs, then add in 1/2 cup milk, and 1/2 cup all purpose flour. I add in a little vanilla too. Oh, and the salt (forgot that last night!).

When the butter is sizzling slightly in the oven, pull it out and place the apples in the pan. Sprinkle with a little cinnamon. Pour in the egg mixture gently (to not disturb the apples) and put it back in the oven until nice and brown (between 20 and 30 minutes). You can sprinkle with powdered sugar, then slice and drizzle with syrup! Yummy!

Ruthanne's Flower Painting

Yesterday Ruthanne asked to do watercolors, so I gave her four pieces of paper to do. One of them was this very good flower. I was pretty impressed and I thought ya'll might like to see too!

Sick Day!

We're having a sick day here. Well, John is anyways. He just lays around and has been running around a 101 degree fever so far. No other symptoms, but I'm still waiting so I can figure out what we are all going to get! Here are the kids vegging out on the couch watching the Incredibles, John's choice.

John started feeling better, or maybe just got inspired by the movie, and decided he needed to put on his new Spiderman costume I bought him for Halloween. Spiderman is his new thing. Bye bye Elmo, hello superheroes! Ruthanne joined in with her Cinderella costume.

Another Good Recipe

My friend Amanda mentioned wanting a recipe that we made one night. It is amazing that this recipe got made more than the first time my Mom made it. When she first made it, it did not turn out the best. My dad and brother were apparently a little disappointed, to put it mildly (I was away at Mercer). She went on a cooking strike and told them that they needed to help decide what was for dinner. I think the cooking strike lasted about 2 weeks. Anyhow, with some minor tweaks, making sure the tortilla pieces were all well coated with sauce, solved the problem, and my family still enjoys this meal today.

Mexican Lasagna (this is what my family calls it, the original name is Soft Tortilla Bake or something)

8 soft taco size flour tortillas, cut into 1-1.5" squares
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup salsa
1.5 cups grated cheese
1 lb ground beef, browned with onion & bell pepper, if desired

Combine cooked ground beef, salsa, milk, tomato soup, and about half the cheese. Heat and stir until combined. Add in tortilla squares and stir to coat. Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350, covered. Take out of the oven and top with additional cheese then put back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.

Dinner the whole family ate!

It seems like there are few meals that everyone will eat willingly. I made Mexican Tortilla Casserole the other day and the kids both ate it up. Ruthanne wasn't a big fan of the ground beef on top, but she scraped her leftover meat onto John's plate and he ate it! He thought it was sloppy joes. Here's the recipe:

Mexican Tortilla Casserole

1 lb of ground beef or turkey
some chopped onion of you want
16 oz of tomato sauce
8 oz of cream cheese (light is fine)
12 tortillas
1.5 cups of grated cheese
2 tsp taco seasoning (to taste)

Cook ground beef with onion until brown. Drain beef. Add in tomato sauce and taco seasoning.
Meanwhile, spread a thin layer of cream cheese over each tortilla and then roll very tightly and put into a 9x13 casserole. Put the ground beef mixture on top and then top with grated cheese. Bake in a 375 oven for about 25 minutes, or until bubbling and cheese is nice and melty!

Vowels are important letters...

there's a vowel in each word!

If you are not into pop children's music, this is from the They Might Be Giants, Here Come the ABCs album. We were listening (and I was singing) to this catchy little tune in the car on our way to Publix. Ruthanne realized what I said and was really surprised that there was a vowel in every word. Before we even got out of the car she was saying, school doesn't have a vowel. I said, well what makes the oo sound. She would realize it was a vowel and try to think up another word that doesn't have a vowel. Then we got to Publix and our whole trip was spent with her looking at all the words around us trying to find a word without a vowel. She was not successful, by the way! You know, sometimes y!

Save Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward's Point of View)

This is for those addicted to the Twilight Series. As most of you probably know, Midnight Sun was due to be out soon. Stephenie Meyer had put a chapter up on her website, but then the first half of the book was leaked onto the internet. Stephenie was really upset and has put completing the book on hold indefinitely. She has also gone ahead and put the piece that was leaked onto her website (www.stepheniemeyer.com).

My sister in law, Jaime, and her husband Matt have created a website to save Midnight Sun by showing Stephenie how many would love to have her finish the book. So, if you are a fan, please go visit http://www.savemidnightsun.com/. Thanks!