Ten for Tuesday

Here is a list of things that have been going on around here.

1. Brianna had her teeth fixed yesterday. She broke 4 adult teeth in the scooter accident. Unfortunately, she will have to go back when she is an adult because they can't do porcelain work this young. For the molar in the back that means a stainless steel crown. I will post pictures of before and after later.

2. Arick and I will also be visiting the dentist this week. Arick is happy about his appointment while I am not happy about mine. Arick will have his braces removed. He is so excited, especially to be able to eat the restricted foods again My visit ioday was to deal with cavities. I loathe going to the dentist. Ugh.

3. Andrew has had some great success getting grass to grow in the bald areas of our lawn. Maybe by this time next year our lawn will be perfect. We can always hope.

4, I started making pasta from scratch this week. I made ravioli with a shrimp filling which came out pretty good. My ravioli were not pretty at all, but at least they were tasty. Yesterday I made fettuccine noodles with a lovely Bolognese-inspired sauce. Inspired because I didn't use the 2 cups of red wine called for in the original recipe. It was a huge success. Brianna wants me to try to make herb pasta where you include the herbs in the pasta dough. We shall see.


5. Andrew and I celebrated 13 years of marriage last month. Maren babysat for us while we enjoyed a night out. We went shopping at a mall which felt luxurious without kids. We got to go to all the stores we wanted to that kids would have been downright bored in. After the mall, we headed to PF Changs for a romantic dinner for two. We chose a late reservation to avoid big crowds and it worked out great; very few people were there. We really enjoyed the food, especially the honey chicken and the cakes at the end. I love going on dates with Andrew.


6. Our gift that we chose to mark our 13th anniversary was an ice cream maker. While shopping at the mall, we went into Williams and Sonoma and immediately fell in love with this. We would have purchased it there, but I have learned never to pay full price, so we decided to find it cheaper and then we could purchase it. We didn't have to wait long. I found it the next day at Costco for $30 less than Williams and Sonoma. Score! We have made 4 batches since then and it is true that you can never make a bad batch of ice cream. The thing we love about this model is that it is two quarts, which is perfect for our family of six.



7. I am still busy with photography. I still have two years until Ella is in school full time, so I don't do any marketing as I am not ready for full time work. The above photos are of a recent client and her newborn baby.


8. This has been my favorite summer with the kids yet. I have tried to do lots more fun things with the kids. One of the fun things we do is to go bowling. We signed up for the Kids Bowl Free program and it has been a lot of fun. The kids get two free games and 4 tokens for the arcade. I do have to rent the shoes but the cost is still pretty low. I bought a pass so Andrew and I can bowl too. Of course, I am terrible at it which the kids think is funny. I will have my revenge though when they bowl without bumpers and realize how much harder bowling actually is.

9. We went fishing on Friday night. Arick caught three blue gills and Brianna caught one. We then sat and enjoyed a great fireworks show that the local yacht club hosts every year.

10. We spent the 4th doing lots of things. Andrew weeded for 3 hours and patched holes in the walls. He also performed in the band concert at the town party. I spent the day making ravioli and rolls to bring to the party at my mom's house. We headed to the party at 5 and enjoyed lots of great food and fireworks (when it wasn't raining). We also watched Home Alone 2 with the kids and we were all in hysterics. The kids thought it was so funny!