Teeth and trees and dishwashers too

We have been spending some down time at the house for the last few days due to the weather and my head. To explain the head part I have to go back to last Tuesday 12/22. I had an appointment with the Dentist to have a root canal fixed. They popped Pretty Woman in the DVD player (that's right this dentist plays whatever movie you chose while they work on you) and layed back. Unfortunately after he got in there he discovered that my tooth was already broken and it would make more sense to pull it rather than try to rebuild it which probably wouldn't last long also unfortunately he didn't have all the supplies he needed to pull it right then so I had to make an appointment to come back on Monday 12/28, which I did.

my mouth hurt for a few days after that because of all the pulling on things they did to get in to my tooth but was ok by the next appointment. On Monday I went back and had my tooth pulled, it is all the way in the back on my left side. Since then it has been hard to talk and eat, I am on antibiotics and pain killers though I am feeling better and better, the first day I spent mostly on the couch but the last two days we have been up and about but I am still taking it easy when doing anything with my mouth. It should be all better soon, I go back to have my stitches taken out on the 11th then in a few months we will start the process of having an implant put in to fill the spot and eventually a crown put over that. It's a long process but this way should last about 30 years rather than the 2 years the Dentist estimated if we had tried to go ahead with the root canal. I am just happy to not have to worry about it after we finish with the implant and crown.

In other news, Chance has been happy and healthy and full of fun. He goes and goes and goes... It doesn't matter whether he sleeps till noon (like that ever happens) or gets up at 5am (much more likely) he is maving all the time. In the first picture you can see he crawling inside a tree when we were walking in the park the other day. In the second picture he is playing outside, The jacket he is wearing is pretty special too. It used to be Scott's it has a sailboat on it with a big 'N' on the sail. It has to be pretty cold for Chance to want to wear a jacket at all and on this day it was so cold Mommy didn't even go outside, this photo was bravely taken by Daddy. The third picture is of our new dishwasher. It was delivered yesterday, I am so happy actually we both are... we have been washing dishes by hand for nearly two months now and we were finally able to get a new, nicer one for Christmas. The one fits so much more and has double the jets of our last one. I never thought I would get so excited over a dishwasher but I truly am.

Chance and Daddy have been spending a lot of good quality time together recently and I have been doing my best to document it. Chance copies everything he Scott does. It is so cute to watch him watching Scott. Chance didn't used to cuddle as much with Scott but now not only does he jump on him and play wrestle with him more he also climbs up and sits next to him and lays on him more.

They play and have a good time together being silly and as Chance gets more of a sense of humor he is playing around with Scott more in that way too.
They have something else in common too, Dr. Who. I like Dr. Who but Scott and Chance really like Dr. Who. They sit and watch the old 1970's episodes all the time, Chance wants his own TARDIS. Scott's TARDIS makes noises and lights up whenever you plug in a new device to the USB hub, Chance wants to know why it doesn't disappear and start to fly.

Early Christmas Continued

We thought about it and since we don't really have any big celebrations or visitors planned for Christmas day or eve for that matter we decided to go ahead and open the rest of the presents on Tuesday. Like I said Chance was really into opening presents this year and every time we handed one to him he would tell us what was inside before he opened it. He would say "cars, trains, fire truck, toys" then he would start pulling the wrapping paper off, sometimes he was right and sometimes he wasn't but either way he enjoyed whatever he got.

He played and played with all his new toys. I can tell you there is going to be some rearranging done in his room, some things might move to the attic and I am very happy we have our next swap and trade playdate planned for January 2nd so we can pass along some of the older things that have been replaced this year.


And Chance isn't the only one who got awesome things for Christmas, Scott got a TARDIS USB hub and a Wii and I got a new really nice Dishwasher, it won't be delivered till next week but I am so looking forward to it's arrival. We were all lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family who make the holidays shine bright every year. Thank you so much.
Picture # 1: The way it looked before we started opening presents.
Picture # 2: Chance and Scott building a robot tower with Chance's new Legos
Picture # 3: Chance playing with his new Dinosaur from Aunt Jenny (the Brontosaurus). He really likes this one, it walks and roars and laughs. He immediately started it walking then went to get his T-Rex so they could be friends. We sent them walking back and forth across the floor.



Picture # 4: Chance playing Wii Golf. When we first set up the Wii we waited till Chance was napping to play. Scott and I played boxing and tennis and lots of other games. It is so much fun! Both of our arms are sore from playing so much and we have only had it two days, I can see how Wii Fit works, you could definitely lose weight and build at least some muscles this way. After we tested it out we let Chance play, he really likes golf, I think because it doesn't require him to coordinate with the ball to hit it (like tennis or baseball) he just hits the ball when he is ready to swing and he actually gets it in the hole about half the time. I see lots of Wii-ing in our future.

Picture # 5: Scott's TARDIS
Picture # 6: Chance playing with all his new mountain and other additions on his train table.

Chance's Birthday

For Chance's birthday we had a party at our house. He turned 3 years old today, though he still says he is 2 and a half. Nana sent Chance this wonderful Thomas the Tank Engine playhouse with Anne and Clarabell which we have been hiding behind the futon for a while now. Instead of wrapping it we just set it up after he went to bed last night so it would be sitting in the front of the house waiting for him when he woke up.

When he saw it he just stopped and said "wow" then started playing in it. We left it set up for the party, it was a big hit. We had cake with a number 3 candle in it then we handed out slices of cake that I had already spread a thin layer of icing on top for all the kids to decorate with multi color sprinkles. Look at how grown up the little guys are getting...they are all using their forks instead of fingers.

Everyone had a good time playing with all the toys, eating cake, opening presents and running around. After the party Chance took a very short nap, then opened the rest of his presents from family. For dinner we went to Bywater BBQ which is walking distance but since Grandma was with us we drove the car to make it easier. That place is sooooo tasty. Then he wanted to watch TV so we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

At the end of the day Chance was ready for bed. He had a great birthday. Thank you to everyone who helped make it special for presents and for your company.

Christmas Comes Early

On Sunday we spent the day hanging out with my Mom and Grandma, we went to a park and after a while we decided to open more presents. My Mom usually brings presents every year for Christmas and we are never sure when to open them, before she leaves on the 22nd or wait and save them for Christmas day. Well since we are more into celebrating the season instead of a specific day we decided to go ahead and open the presents from my family on the 20th. Chance really got into opening presents this year. He already understood what to do and once we said it was ok to unwrap them he was ready to go. It was funny though because he would open something then ask us to set it up or help him take it out of the box.

Then he wanted to play with it and had no interest in opening another thing until he was done playing with what he had just opened. It is actually a good thing that he enjoys his gifts and doesn't just tear through them. Scott and I got to open our presents too which was lots of fun, Scott favorite gift of the day was a Banjo and mine was two sets of Flannel sheets, I will have nothing but flannel sheets now, Oh I love them!! Another really awesome thing my Mom got us was a CD of music. It isn't just any music and I will put up a whole post about the CD in a few days.

Scott has wanted a Banjo for a while so it's great that my Mom got him one this year. It isn't a fancy one just something he can learn on and see if he likes it. He is very good, it is everything I had hoped for when he got his Banjo. He is practicing a lot and sounds better than he did just a few days ago.

After we opened presents Chance didn't want to leave the house and we were all a bit worn out so we ordered delivery food and had dinner here at the house.
In picture #2 Chance is wearing the goggles that came with the workbench he was opening in picture #1. Picture # 3 you can see Scott is concentrating it's his first time playing a Banjo but he is already really good.

Rayna's Birthday

Today is Rayna's birthday. I should just say my birthday since I am the one writing this. I had a really great day. My Mom and Grandma drove up from Florida last night so everyone was here to wish me happy birthday. I opened my presents in the morning, a netbook with an external DVD ROM to watch movies and things and a $25 iTunes gift card to buy whatever music and things I want which was really nice since I never feel like I have the money to buy the songs I want. I can finally retire the laptop that I have been using for the last six months with missing keys, a broken screen and a nonworking DVD drive. It will be nice to push the power button on my laptop and know for sure that it is going to actually turn on. Scott took the time before I even opened the laptop to take it out and connect it to our network and install iTunes and Office and other things on it, so nice. I also got a whisk and can opener from my Grandma and a tent from my Mom. I can't wait for the good Spring weather to come back so we can go camping, it's going to be so much fun. We had planned to go see Lovely Bones for my birthday but turns out is only opened in select cities on Dec. 11th (NOLA isn't one of them) and doesn't open nationally till Jan 6th so Scott and I went out to lunch instead at a place that is supposed to have great chicken wings but we had never been to before. It was all I had heard, really great food and nice atmosphere, we will definitely be back. Scott got a wonderfully decorated cake for my birthday so after we arrived back home from lunch we had cake with candles and everything. It was great. Chance sang Happy Birthday too and help blow out the candles. We mostly just hung out for the rest of the day and when Chance gave me a hug before he went to bed he said, Happy Birthday Mommy without any prompting which was so sweet.

More Photos of Christmas "snow"

so much to say and so little time, a lot has happened in the past few days but we are going to go back in time again to share it all in order. So you can see from the video in the last post that we went on a Christmas themed adventure. It was kind of chilly but Chance and I were brave and rode the streetcar to and from the house to see the "snow." Where we went was Miracle on Fulton Street which is a a block of one of the local streets that is closed off and completely decorated for the holidays.

On top of lights and trees they have a real gingerbread streetcar and trains and every hour it "snows." We set up a playdate there for everyone to enjoy. Since we had never been there before we weren't sure exactly what all this "snow" was about but we really wanted to find out.
Turns out the snow is really foam that rains down from the canopy every hour. The kids loved the lights and running around the trees but lost interest in the "snow" within a minute. It does look like real snow in the pictures though. It was fun but I am not sure if it satisfied our want to see snow this year so we will have to go in search of that a little later this season.

The first pictures don't really need captions but this last picture is Chance bundled up for the walk back to the streetcar, he has hijacked my gray hat, but it fits him and keeps his head warm so I don't mind.

I took this video yesterday of Chance, Octavian and Lilly running around and around one of the Christmas trees on Fulton Street where we went with our group to see the snow. They have snow falls every hour for the holidays. I will put up another post soon with more info and pictures.

Christmas Caroling in Washington Square Park

Last Chance and I walked to Washington Square Park to participate in the annual caroling in the park. This was the 25th year for caroling in this park. The party starts early in the morning with an Arts Market. We didn't go to the arts market because we had a playdate in the morning but after Chance's nap we got ready and walked over for the festivities. In the afternoon, there is live music we had a good time listening to the music and seeing what there was to see. There was an ice sculpture that Chance was very interested in, it was pretty and with the lights under it, the whole thing glowed brilliantly.
for a dollar donation we were able to color a snowman ornament to put on the big Christmas tree in the park. Chance didn't want to stop to draw but he told me that the snowman needed eyes and a nose, which I gave him along iwth a mouth and Chance's name. Then Chance hung him on the tree.

Santa was walking around the park handing out lollipops to the little girls and boys. We didn't even try to get pictures with Santa this year given the way Chance has had an aversion to pictures recently so it was a pleasant surprise when he walked right over to Santa to get a lollipop and even turned around and stood next to him letting me snap this great picture.



After we visited with Santa we purchased a giant chocolate chip cookie, picked up a song book and candle then made our way over to the stage where they would lead the caroling. On our way over, I asked Chance to hold my half of the cookie so I could take my jacket off, he was so excited to have his hands full of cookie that he danced around in a circle.


When the singing began we lit our candle and followed along, the third song was Jingle Bells which Chance knows so he started swaying and singing along, I took a video which actually turned out pretty good considering the circumstances. The light on his face comes from our candle. We both had a really good time, the only thing missing was Scott, he would have really enjoyed it, maybe we can all go together next year. On an up note though he comes home Thursday, we can't wait.

Flying his TARDIS

We watch Dr. Who a lot and Chance really likes the older episodes and the animated series. He often thinks Port-A-Potty's are the TARDIS but now he has his own, he has decided the that Armour to his doll house is the TARDIS, today he was flying it around the house singing the Dr. Who theme. The video color is awful but you can hear him singing the theme.

Rain, Rain, Rain

It has been raining all day long and yesterday too. pretty much non stop, finally today our street flooded again. Our neighbor was kind enough to venture out and drive our car up on the sidewalk, just in time too because when he opened the door a little water splashed in but it hadn't started to really get inside the car. After two days spent mostly inside the house we are in need of a sunny day. It is a lot warmer outside now than it was this morning and I am hoping that it stays warm for tomorrow and the rain clears up so we can get out, Chance really needs to run around. With out day inside we crafted snowmen and snowflakes from construction paper to tape to our windows and had a good time playing with cars and cleaning the house and playing hide and seek. Chance is just starting to get into hide and seek which is lots of fun, he likes to count while I hide. Also today he brought me a pretzel shaped like the letter Y, he was holding it up in the air saying "Y, Y, Y". I think he might be ready for alphabet soup. He's not a huge soup fan but he might be if it has fun letters in it, I'll get some next time we are at the grocery store and we'll find out. Picture # 1: this is what happens when you are inside all day, he starts sitting on tables, he's still trying to hide his face so I don't get his picture. Picture # 2: if he is sitting on the couch he just lays down when you try to take his picture

used one of my book reviews

Hi, I have been writing another blog for a while reviewing the books the I read, recently I reviewed A Wife's Guide to In-Laws by Jenna D. Barry. Let me just say I love my inlaws and don't have any issues with them I received this book to review by the author. Today I learned that the author chose to use part of my review on her website, it isn't a huge deal but it is the first time one of my reviews have been used in this way so go ahead and check out her website scroll about halfway down and you can see my review or you can go here and read the whole thing as written in my book blog.

Bubbles, Hats and more organizing.

Today is already off to a good start, first we made some bubble solution from stuff we have here at the house. I had to buy some glycerin the other day for another project so now we can follow the directions I have found on the internet. It works, but not quite as well as store bought, oh well. Next while Chance was playing outside with Deedle and his bubbles (the weather is so wonderful today we are in short sleeves) I moved the washer and dryer over to one side of our utility closet to make enough room to store bigger things. Before we had a little room on each side enough to slide a broom in but now that I moved the appliances over to one side I can actually walk in the other side and turn around, there is a lot more space to store things in there. There are pictures at the bottom of the page which a lot like Chance's room won't look like much to most of you but those who know can see the difference. After Chance came back inside we ate a big lunch, cheese and hotdogs and apple sauce and milk then Chance put on his jester hat and wondered around the house with it.

He kept taking it off when I came near him with the camera so I bribed him with a cookie to leave it on for me to take his picture (such a bad mommy, oh well he ate a good lunch...) Now he is napping and after his nap we have plans to run to walgreens, get the mail and make Mango juice and some more homemade Christmas presents to get ready to send out.

Zoe's Birthday Party

Yesterday evening we went to Zoe's birthday party, she turned one year old over the weekend. Zoe is one of the little girls in our playgroup who holds a special place for us for two reasons. The first reason is her Mom, Jen is the only person living in the area who I knew before we each have kids (we both worked at the Barnes and Noble here) and I still know now that we are both Moms, which is really great for me, unfortunately for us we just found out they will be moving to California in January, I am very happy for them but a little sad for myself. The second reason they are special to us is that Zoe is the first friend's name Chance said, and after that all babies were Zoe for a long time. Jen and her husband Adam co-manage a U-Haul in Kenner, LA which means they live in the apartment right above the U-Haul office, I have always wondered what those apartments are like and I can now tell you they are pretty nice, spacious and well laid out plus it's free for them to live there.


All the kids had a great time playing with all the "new" toys that they had never seen before and the adults all had a good time just talking. And of course all the little guys enjoyed eating cupcakes and watching Zoe open her presents. Zoe was so cute eating her birthday cupcake and getting it all over her face. We will definitely miss Jen and Zoe, but there are a few more playdates between now and then so we will see them again before they go.

Rearranging Chance's Room

Today we rearranged Chance's room to make some room for things he may be getting for his Birthday and Christmas. His room is pretty full of toys and stuff, we are definitely going to be thinning things out after the holidays, but for now we are moving things around to make space. These pictures are taken all around the room, I could make a virtual tour with them but I am not sure how so here they are in order.














Chance kept running around to get IN the pictures this time. For those of you who aren't intimately familiar with Chance's room it probably doesn't look much different but for those who are (like Scott who is in Charlotte, NC) you will see the differences.

Traveling Fates Show

On Sunday we were invited to a concert that was being held just a few blocks from our house. The band is a great group of ladies who I had met in March when they were part of an awesome book tour/show that came here. They are friends with my longest bestest friend, Kythryne and a new friend of mine, Song who I met in March and who I also was able to hang out with in May when I went to New Hampshire to visit for Kyth's birthday. Anyway, we sort of know each other through mutual friends.
We dropped Scott off at the airport earlier in the day and so it was just me and Chance for the concert. We got all dressed up and took the car, we could have walked but it was cold and dark so we drove.




The concert was held in a place I had never heard of before, The Backyard Ballroom. It is basically a black box theater that has been built in someones backyard, which was great. Brilliant idea! They usually house theater productions but tonight it was all music, the group is three ladies with their own solo projects who travel and perform solo as well as do tours as the group we saw tonight. It was lots of fun, I am a fan of two of the three of them individually (S. J. Tucker and Bekah Kelso) and the three of them together are excellent, hopefully one day I will be able to actually buy their albums.



Chance liked the music too, he was dancing in the aisle and clapping his hands, he even sang along to one of the songs. There was also a funny moment when they told a joke on stage and no one in the audience really laughed not because it wasn't funny but because people were being quiet, then in the silence following the joke Chance said "That's funny" then everybody laughed, he might not have known why it was funny but he understood that it was a joke and so it was funny. As the only little guy there he also got a song dedicated to him.
I picked a spot on the aisle in the back row, by the door just in case he was too loud or something and we needed to make a quick exit and even though that was only 4 rows of folding chairs away from the stage we were too far away for Chance, as you can see in this last picture he moved on up and took a seat in the front row all on his own.

Beanbag Chair and the Christmas Parade

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There was a lot of activity going on today, first we went to the main library where they were giving out a free book and beanbag chair to kids who promised to read (or be read to) for 5 minutes every day, and had their own library card. Well as you all know Chance already has his own library card and he gets much more than 5 minutes of reading every day so we definitely qualify. Chance got to pick his own book (SpongeBob) and any color beanbag chair he wanted from the pile (red). Picture #1 and # 2 are Scott and Chance in line at the library. We had to get bundled up because it was cold, it snowed 2 -3 inches Friday night just a few miles away from us but the downtown area only got rain. We were looking forward to snow but we've decided if we don't get any this year we are going to go in search of it in Jan/Feb (I see a Tenn road trip in our future) but that's another story.


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They have really been working on revamping the downtown area, cleaning it up, having free concerts and other entertainment, getting shops to open back up... back in the day (way back) Canal street was a shopping place to be, like main street in a smaller town, everyone did their shopping there for Christmas and otherwise, they are trying to make that happen again so the Christmas Parade was brought back last year and it runs along Canal Street. This was great for us because the library is just a few blocks away so after we pickup up out book and beanbag chair, then dropped them back at the car we walked a couple blocks to Canal Street to watch the Christmas Parade. It wasn't quite there yet so we crossed the street to check out what Chance called a castle with Santa on top which was kind of what it was just smaller (than a castle), I think it is set up for people to take pictures under but it was too cold and Chance doesn't stay still long enough for me to find the perfect shot. Picture # 3 is Santa on top of the castle and picture # 4 is Chance under the castle.



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Then we walked back across the street (to be on the side our car was on) to watch the parade pass by. it wasn't very long but it was fun, there were bands and floats with Santa riding on the last float. We caught some beads a few with big commemorative medallions that are now part of our Christmas decorations and a really yummy praline which we ate on the way home. Picture # 5 is Scott trying to keep Chance out of trouble while we wait for the parade. I wonder how cold it has to be before kids stop trying to make trouble?



When we got home Scott showed Chance how to sit in his chair, turn around and jump, Chance has been having a great time jumping on it them sliding down and off.