We've got 4 extra bus tickets to go to NYC tomorrow at noon from Philadelphia. The cost= $FREE.99. Who wants to come with us?

I don't know what tipped her off this morning, but it has been a hard day so far...



(This tantrum all sprouted from me taking an important piece of paper from her hands. Where did this attitude come from? She's not supposed to get it until she's TWO! The hardest part was trying not to pick her up to soothe her. So I distracted myself by filming it for posterity.)

This will be the last post I write in a long time, say, a week. (oh yeah, and it's gonna be short.)

We are moving. Not too far, thankfully; we found a place on the other side of the golf course. There are many good things about moving to this place. It is a full house (for the same price as our current rent,) it has a big kitchen, a garage, 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bath, a dishwasher, Central Air, and a washer/dryer. You can't beat it, so we made the decision to go for it.

The bad things: we have to leave the neighborhood (I will, however, make the effort to visit our friends here often,) and everything associated with the actual move (change utilities, possibility of higher car insurance bills because we will be in the actual city of Philadelphia, packing/unpacking and cleaning the house.) I think it is worth it, though.

We move out at the end of June. Wish us luck!

Siena can crawl now. And she eats lentils...



...and that's all she wrote.

Today was Siena's 9-month check-up. Yep, the title says it all... ear infection. Luckily, it is still acute and with the medicine they gave her, it should clear up soon. Siena has been a pretty good sport about the whole thing; she didn't cry when they pricked her finger for blood samples today and she only cried for about 20 seconds when they gave her the Polio/Hep B vaccine, and other than her tugging at her ears, the ear infection hasn't seemed to bother her.

Siena can now crawl-- backwards. This is very ineffective for her because everything she wants is in front of her. She also does the army crawl-- backwards. Hmmm, I still have time to figure out how to baby-proof those stinkin' lamps....

So, the other day I went to the dentist. My chipped-tooth filling came out a few weeks ago, so I needed to get that repaired. I was a little frustrated. First of all, the first time she repaired it was in November, so it wasn't that long ago; secondly, it was the first time I had seen that particular dentist and I wasn't too impressed by the overall experience (2 hour ordeal just for a 15 minute appointment, etc.)

Well, now I had to go in again to get the same thing repaired and it was dramatic. Besides the fact that they called me in an hour earlier just to see me at my original scheduled time in the end, the actually appointment was shady. All the dentist had to do was re-fill my filling. Period. She decided to do it with mechanical as well as chemical retention (which was fine), but she ended up pulling out a needle.

Shock!

This needle was the kind they give you when you go in for root canals. Not joking.

Now, those who know me know that I am a little weird because my favorite part about going to the dentist is getting dumbed. (Not the poke, but the numbness afterward. Seriously, Juan and his friend gave me topical Lidocaine samples from the Reps for my birthday.) But after I saw the needle, I was NOT looking forward to it. By the way, I should mention that for this particular mechanical retention, this needle was totally unnecessary.

She first sprayed a local anesthetic in my mouth, and then proceeded to insert the 50-foot long, aforementioned needle. With every inch of my mouth that it penetrated, I could hear her laugh with devilish delight, "Mwah, ha ha ha ha!" Okay, not really.

This next part is something that all future and present dentists should pay close attention to:

After my face started tingling (but while she was still jabbing around my mouth,) my lovely dentist starts asking me questions like, "Are you taking any medications", "Are you pregnant or breastfeeding", "Are you allergic to anything", and so forth. Flashing Red light! If I actually answered yes to any of those questions, she could get sued for malpractice, ESPECIALLY if something went wrong. She was supposed to ask them before anything went into my mouth.

In the end, it wasn't a big deal; however, I realized a few things about the medical profession. You cannot make a mistake. Oh yeah, and you shouldn't use big, horrible needles unless necessary.

Oh, and one more thing for the patients... EAT before going in to get numbed. It's a loooong wait afterwards.

It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood today. When I woke up, my house smelled like rain and the temperature was wonderful. Yes, it is humid; but when it is coupled with 70* weather, there is no need to complain. My favorite part about this morning was hearing the birds in the trees outside. There must have been about 10 different species of birds in our front yard tree alone because all of them had different calls. It reminded me of the little bird sanctuary right off the Provo River Trail near our house. Considering the size of the nature reserve, birds there are plentiful and diverse. I wonder if there are any aviaries around here....

(This blog looked a little too "Price-is-Right-y" so that's the reason for the sudden change.)

(Amber, I was inspired by your blog...)


This is something I will really miss when we move: Produce Junction. Now I know I have ranted and raved about this place, but once again, I have to brag about our experience there today. Here is the breakdown:

Item .........................(price at local supermarket)

• 3 lbs. of carrots ......................................$3.00
  
• 3 yellow squash -------------------------$1.50
  
• 10 limes ...................................................$6.90
  
• 1 crown broccoli-------------------------$2.00
  
• 6 Anjou pears..........................................$6.00
  
• 1 bag sugar snap peas-------------------$8.98
  
• 3 avocados ..............................................$3.00
  
• 1 lb. strawberries -----------------------$2.50
  
• 1 bunch Italian parsley..........................$1.00
  
• 1 bunch cilantro -------------------------$1.30
  
• 3 heads sweet corn ................................$1.20
  
• 2 crates cherry tomatoes --------------$6.00
  
• 1 bag baby spinach................................. $1.69
  
• 1 bag black seedless grapes ------------$4.50
  
• 1 box baby portobello mushrooms......$4.00

TOTAL: $53.57


Can you guess how much it cost me? (scroll down to be shocked.)









$23.50

Yep. We were pretty proud, especially considering that all of the produce we bought was fresh and beautiful (but not in a waxy kind-of-way.) I'm hooked.

Over 50,000 people attend this festival every year and it literally covered half a mile of Walnut Street. Because I do not feel like typing anymore today, I'll just send you to the website if you're curious as to what it is....

When I was sick in bed a few weeks ago, I watched a couple Don Knotts movies and remembered how much I like his movies. So, here are a few of his movies (and show) that I really enjoyed and if you haven't seen them, I highly suggest watching them if you need a good laugh. (Oh, and for all the Temple Dental students, wives, etc. I suggest watching "The Shakiest Gun in the West" because it starts out at the Philadelphia School of Dentistry (which is now The Kornberg School of Dentistry at Temple. Hilarious!)

The Ghost of Mr. Chicken
The Apple Dumpling Gang
The Shakiest Gun in the West
How to Frame a Fig
The Reluctant Astronaut
...and of course, The Andy Griffith Show

Siena is starting to wave "hello" to people. It looks like she's trying to "raise the roof" with one hand, but whatever... IT'S STILL SO CUTE! I'll try to capture it on video so you all can see.