A new look!

Jesse was suppose to have her braces taken off on April 5th. However, last week the orthodontist office called to see if we wanted to bump the date a bit. It seems many people did not take spring break into account when making appointments so they canceled.

She has been enjoying the freedom: DOTS, gummies, caramel, etc.

We've been doing a bit of college research for Jesse over the weekend. Looks like she'll be applying to a couple of places south of us. South, as in Florida. {sigh} So far away...and not in-state. Oh well. We also did some investigating on what she needs for application. Her portfolio is a high priority over the next few years.

Chloe is already thinking she'll attend USC for business so she can run the dairy goat farm successfully. I have been looking for a local goat farm to see if she can do some volunteer work, but so far I haven't found the right fit. We are not giving up though.

Our last week before crazy!

This last week was our last week before Wizard rehearsals begin.

Monday, we took Chloe to see Dr. J. about braces. He said her mouth looks great, so she is on there growth program. She'll go in every once in awhile just to make sure she is still going down a good path. She is excited to be a patient now; we think she'll be able to enter the monthly contests now.

The rest of our week was the usual: taekwondo, volunteering and school work. I spent a great deal of my time working on a high school schedule. I think we've mostly narrowed down everything for Jesse's freshman year. We still have to order books, but we are mostly there. I think.

Friday we had Meet the Masters. It was the first Meet the Masters we had since, well, I don't remember. That long ago! I enjoyed it because the tables and chairs were already set-up when I arrived. Usually we arrive ten minutes early and most everyone else is ten minutes late. Friday, we were the last ones there. We were two minutes early! And the tables were set-up!

Today, the girls went to a birthday party at HiWire. I don't think I will ever go back there on a Saturday again. They have a volleyball league so we had to park across a three-lane road at Academy. Unreal! But the party went well. Chloe, however, sprained her ankle. She is not a happy camper right now.

Sadly, it is official

My verbena, by the mailbox, is dead. I talked to Dad when we visited Sunday; he agreed that by now it should be showing some green. {pouting} Well, life can be short. We enjoyed it for about five years. Today, the girls and I bought some petunias to fill in the space...for now. I'll come up with a plan for it by next year, hopefully.

This morning, the girls and I ran errands. The first stop was Dr. J. Jesse has had a wire continuously come out all weekend. The clipped it. Her back tooth has moved much faster than the one in front of it, so once the second tooth catches up, they will put the wire to the back tooth again.

We also went to Lowe's. Yes, we live there. lol  We bought the final bags of dirt to fill the raised bed. We planted the marigolds we bought last week. A steal! Those marigolds were in the bigger pots and were marked down to $1! All they wanted was water. Of course, they wanted that today too. I watered them this morning, but by the time we planted them (3 hours later) they were dry as a bone again. I watered them again tonight, and fed them, and found them dry again. I need to put the soaker hose on the raised bed tomorrow to get it nice and wet.

Typical day

Today has been rather mundane. Chloe finished most of her school work this morning while Jesse volunteered. I actually got some grading done too, and almost finished writing up a history test for Jesse. I had three pages left to review when she finished working. Darn it! lol 

Jesse's mouth is feeling somewhat better, but she still is not eating solid (yes, you have to chew it) kinds of food yet. She is totally enjoying mac and cheese every day for lunch. Yep. She is a mac and cheese girl. She said her mouth is feeling much better. I'm hoping by the weekend she'll be able to chew some foods.

Everything else seems to be running smoothly. I did, however, forget to thaw out chicken for dinner so I'll have to figure something out there. We'll see how that goes later.

Well, I'll get back to working now. I still have a few papers to grade and that test to finish.

Jesse got her braces on!

Yes, today was the day Jesse got braces on. We took her in this morning. She was fine (with the pain) until this afternoon, when the Tylenol started wearing off. She has been eating, somewhat. Tonight for dinner we had Chinese food and she had the noodles. Poor girl could not eat her eggroll; they are her favorite food ever!

I have to say, so far, we are really impressed by Dr. Jernigan. Our first visit was in his brand new building, and it is beautiful. You can tell he really took his patients and their families into consideration with the design. He also has a new 3D imaging machine (I can't recall the exact name) that not only has "a fraction of the radiation" of his old 2D machine, but it also means no more "molds" of your mouth. Jesse actually saw a video of it and was glad she was not going to have to do that.

We were sitting around the living room when the phone rang about twenty-five minutes ago. It was Dr. Jernigan. Not one of his employees, but the man himself! He was calling to check on Jesse. Amazing! I'm so glad we didn't listen to the girls' dentist or mine (neither recommended Dr. J. even though he is on our insurance provider's list). What sold us was everyone we talked to, two close friends of mine and several of John's co-workers all used him and highly recommended him. I'm so glad we listened to friends rather than those who may have been trying to line their own pockets.

Here she is!

 

Yes, she is making faces at me. What else did you expect? lol

Another beautiful day!

We started a little earlier today, than we did yesterday. We made our Lowe's trip early. Of course, that store was out of the mulch we needed too. But they'll have more Tuesday. The sale ends Monday...of course! Oh, well. We'll get mulch later in the week, or try a third Lowe's. lol

We bought quite a few plants today: a tomato, marigolds, pickling cucumber, dill, basil, green pepper and three irises. The only plants that have been planted today, so far, are the irises. If you know our yard, then you know where the hosta/hydrangea bed is located. We had a few hostas that were in a part of the bed that got too much sun for hostas. I moved them this morning, then planted the irises in that spot. The irises should love it there. The hydrangea is growing nicely and the hostas are too.

John and I started working on clearing the area around the fence. John actually worked on it yesterday. Today, we split up. John continued working on the side he started yesterday and I started working on the pool side. It looks pretty good. We still have about 100 feet left to clear, then we'll start felling more trees. We are mainly going to get rid of the pine trees. (I'm allergic to their pollen, so they need to go!).

We finally got the girls to agree on a color to stain the swing set. While John and I cleared land, they started staining.

The one plant in our yard that didn't need any work done was the phlox. Every year they spread out more and more. I just love them!

I also realized today that I mentioned, months ago, about starting to use our Disney cups for utensil holders. I can't remember if I ever put a picture on the blog, so I'm adding one now.

Jesse goes tomorrow morning to get her braces. She is more focused on her favorite things she won't be able to eat for awhile: Dots and Milky Way Midnight bars. We bought her two boxes of Dots last week. She's had quite a few Milky Way Midnights lately too. I'll try to remember to have her some waiting in the car when she gets her braces off.