A Toothy Fairytale

Once upon a time there was a teenager who needed root canals on each of her two front teeth. Her dentist suggested it may have been due to having braces, but her orthodontist got pretty defensive about this (he was worried about a lawsuit maybe?) and insisted it was because of the five years she had spent playing the clarinet. Regardless of the reason, the girl trusted her pearly whites to her beloved dentist, and the work was done.

Years went by, and with the passage of time, the girl noticed something strange. Whenever she saw herself in photographs, she noticed these same teeth getting darker and darker. It wasn't something she thought about all the time, just in the occasional picture. After a while, though, it began to bother her, and she wondered if that was all people could think about when they saw her smile.

More years passed, and while she had regular dentist appointments, she had not yet found someone she could trust as much as the dentist of her youth. Then a young, newly married couple entered her life. As their friendship developed, she discovered that the young man happened to be in dental school. Of course he noticed her teeth, and they talked about treatment options. It seemed far off, though, and was put on the back burner.

Eventually this young man graduated from dental school, trained with knowledgable dentists, and opened up his own practice. The idea of fixing this girl's teeth started to become more of a reality, since she had finally found someone in whom she could trust with her teeth. Appointments were scheduled, teeth were bleached, impressions were made, and two weeks of fluoride treatments ensued. And the day finally arrived.

The girl spent four hours in the dentist's chair, had multiple shot of novacaine, felt her two front teeth whittled down to stubs. She watched as her dentist friend designed her new teeth on the computer, and waited for him to add his artistic touch. At last she looked in the mirror, a bit skeptical about how big of a change there really would be. She was amazed, excited, and overjoyed to see the result. Her custom-made teeth were so natural looking and brightened her whole face. She was so proud of her friend and the work he had done. She left that office with a lighter step and stole several looks at her new smile in the rearview mirror on the way home.

So now this girl will no longer wonder what others are thinking when she talks or smiles. She won't cringe at pictures of herself and lament how dark her two front teeth are. And even though she may not always put on makeup or fix her hair (especially on days when there is more than a foot of snow outside and she won't be leaving the house for two days), she will now have the self-confidence that comes with a bright, beautiful smile. CinderAmy has found her Fairy GodDentist.

There's Snow Business like Snow...

Doesn't it seem like lately I've had a lot of posts that have to do with snow? Well, at the moment snow is what our world is revolving around. It has been snowing constantly for the past 33 hours. Church meetings have been cancelled for the weekend, Glenn has been out twice to shovel, just trying to keep up, our heater has been running all day, and most of the day it has looked like white-out conditions. To paraphrase the very excited weather people, this is a storm we won't soon forget. (This is the kind of thing our meteorologists live for...the Cali weather guys wish they could have as exciting a report!) Since this white stuff isn't going to be melting anytime soon, there could very well be more snowy pictures, so be prepared. Global warming, my foot!

Iron Chef Westlake

Tonight we took a page from the Chatterton tradition book and played "Iron Chef" with the kids. Their secret ingredient was turkey meatballs, and it was mine and Glenn's job to come up with a meal. In 30 minutes we made our version of Spanish meatballs (Nate will have to verify their authenticity) with a secret ingredient of our own--ginger ale (we were fresh out of white wine). The six of us sat down to a candle light dinner, complete with glass plates and glass glasses. The judges gave their approval to the meal, and we all toasted the snow, the love of our family, and meatballs.

A HUGE snowstorm and other stuff, By Emma and Leah, Typed by Emma

Today there is a HUGE snowstorm going on outside.We're expected to have 7-14 inches. At times like this we'd like to be in sunny, non-snowy California. But a wonderful thing about Ohio is that the weather changes in all of the seasons, although one time it snowed in May or June, according to our old and boring music teacher, Mr. Tinter. Mr. Tinter was a nut, especially about Elvis Presley. He had a big, cardboard, life-size cut out of Elvis! Every year, on Elvis' birthday, he lectured about Elvis' life, from his still-born twin Jesse, to how he died on a toilet from a heart attack. He lectured us on the same thing, on the same day, every single year!!! Mom doesn't even know who Jesse is(or was), and who needs to know??????? Mr. Tinter was our music teacher for 4 years, and this Elvis thing was getting pretty BOR-ING!!!!!!!!!! He was also Dad's music teacher when he was at Holly Lane, and the students back then probably had to hear it too! Come on, Mr. T., just because Elvis is your hero doesn't mean we have to suffer through a looooooooooooooong lecture about him! How many of you peeps would like to hear the whole story of Elvis' life? Raise your hand. Thank goodness for Miss Griffin! Well, we're getting waaaaaaaaay off topic. And we don't even have the time to talk about Mr. Pearson. We'll have to explain his case another time. For now, back to the snowstorm! The snow is piling up very high, and if Leah and I stepped in it now, it'd be up to our knees!The snowplows have plowed the streets, but who'd want to go out in such blizzardy weather conditions? The owner of a blue minivan with snow piled on top of it, that's who! (Seriously, Leah did see one just now.) The cars will only get more snow on them while they're parked! There are some cars at the church, so people are probably setting up for stake conference tonight. While Mom and Dad go to stake conference, Tyler will kid-sit us, but we might not even have stake conference! Right now Mom and Dad are putting the furniture back where they belong. Brooke and Andrew are playing school in the basement. Angel is sleeping in her box. That's just about it! See ya next time, peeps!

Ice Ice Baby

The only thing our recent ice storm was good for was making our trees look like they came from Tiffany's!

Note to Self--

Next time, don't take a nap at 7:45 in the evening. Just stay up a little while longer and go to bed at a normal time, like 9:45, 10:00. Don't fall into bed when the house is finally quiet (no matter how exhausted you feel) and wake up when your husband gets home from a meeting to watch TV with him. Otherwise you are going to be up all night, mind racing as you think about blog entries and American Idol, and your plans for the next day, and if you can handle another day of the house being torn up after the carpets were cleaned because you have to wait 48 hours to put the furniture back, or if any of this even matters because you are not sure if you'll even survive the next winter storm warning and the accompanying snow. Oh you'll sleep a little, because you'll remember a weird yet creative dream that if the details weren't so fuzzy could translate into an award-winning movie or book. But when it is time to roll out of bed the next morning, it will feel like you haven't slept at all. Trust me.

So I have been stuck in my own little head today and I am going to use this blog as a way of straightening myself out. I am starting to feel a little stressed out about stuff, but for some reason I don't think that anything is really that big of a deal. You know how it gets...things tend to get blown out of proportion when it's just you and the conversations you have with yourself, and then you kind of say, Wait a minute. Are things really that bad? Let's discuss....

Things I am stressed out about:

1. There's always this.....

2. Buying a new couch. I am meeting Glenn today at 11:45 to seal the deal. We have looked at a lot of places and I think we have come to a decision. But it is a big purchase that I want to be happy about for many years to come. So here is what we have decided on:

I like this set because of the chair-and-a-half. It also has a love seat. The color which is actually darker/more brown in real life goes nicely with our art work in the living room. It is microfiber, which was the only option for me. So there are a lot of advantages...but...am I going to like it next week? Is is too much furniture for the room? Is it too cheap? Or too expensive? Kill me.

3. Because of getting a new sofa, I need to call and schedule a carpet cleaning first. That is a pain. Glenn does not want to move the huge jumble of wires and equipment that is the entertainment portion of the room, I know, but it has to be done.

4. The school called me today to come pick up Emma because she has "pink eye." This was a surprise to me, seeing as how I saw no evidence of this before she left for school. Yes, her eye is red, but I see no gunk coming out of it. But she and Leah have doctors appointments this afternoon, so we'll see then. And besides, she is keeping Andrew busy this morning.

So what am I complaining about, anyway?


See? I knew it wasn't that bad. It's just when you start to think of all the little things like how you should be taking vitamins but are too lazy to sort them out into the little pill sorter thing so you just don't take them, or how you are so tired after spending an hour on the treadmill that will most likely NOT translate into any pounds lost at Weight Watchers this week, and how that same hour on the treadmill (along with the stresses related above) is making you so hungry that you just want to eat everything in sight but you don't on the off chance that you MIGHT lose weight at WW but in the meantime you are pretty grumpy and are living for the ice cream you are going to eat during The Biggest Loser tonight, and how there are a million other little things you have thought to do or should do or need to do and you are constantly rearranging the schedule in your head to make everything fit...........can you see how a girl might go mad?

In the meantime...I have to get Andrew on the bus. Only 30 minutes till Glenn and I kiss our tax return good-bye. I am sure it will be worth it next week when I am watching TV in ecstacy--no piece of wood in my back, clean carpets, healthy kids, and 5 pounds lighter.