There are some things that are making me unhappy.
Very.
Very.
Very unhappy.
I will tell them to you quickly, and then we won't speak of them anymore, okay? We'll talk about happy things, like cookie dough ice cream and finding money in your coat pocket. Okay?
1) I dropped $1300 at the dentist today, for one child.
In about two weeks, I'll have the unmitigated joy of shelling out another $600 for his older brother's mouth. No dental insurance + an unfortunate inheritance of poor mouth chemistry = one very empty pocket book and one very sad kiddo. He said, and I repeat, "but you make me brush every day and don't even let us have any high fructose corn syrup! How can I have cavities?"
Stinking genetics. That's about the best answer I've got.
The up side is, we love our dentist. She's so great with kids that even fillings are kinda fun.
Kinda.
For my James, the upside is the crazy good bragging rights that come with having a "silver tooth" (cap). His brothers are insanely jealous, which meant that after the whole puking reaction to the sedative and hours of "mama! my libs are tingling!" he was 10 feet tall and staring in the mirror at his wondrous new bling. If I heard, "wanna see my silver tooth?" once, I heard it 10 times.
2) And because bad thing #1 wasn't bad enough... rats. Yep, rats. RATS IN MY STINKING ATTIC!!! Apparently Central Texas is experiencing a rat tsumami. It must be true, because we've lived here a pretty long time and never, EVER, dealt with such a thing.
While I was writing a check to the dentist, my husband was writing a check to the pest control man.
Funny isn't it, how the things that make adults cringe, can delight the bejeezus out of children?
Not only do my kids think that the silver tooth is totally rockin', they also think that rats twitching in their traps are pretty freaking fantastic too.
I worry about those boys sometimes. I really do.
Now that we've got that over with, let's return to our regular programming, shall we?
Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. I'm thinking happy thoughts.
I'm happy that my oldest is making his famous cinnamon cookies again. I love that kid!
I'm happy that we found an old favorite book of mine, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and are taking turns reading it to each other.
I'm happy that when it's not my turn to read, I've finally begun working on something that I've, up to now, been too chicken-livered to attempt.
I'm making each of my fellas a needlepoint stocking.
I expect to have them done around about the time that they marry.
I'm happy too, that we covered the tables in brown paper, just for creating fun, and that white crayons make such great snowy scenes on said brown paper.
I'm happy that my oldest two have discovered the joy of drawing jaggedy christmas trees with multicolored balls, and also snowmen and stars. I hear them at the table chanting "make a mountain, cross the mountain, cross back again, then ski down" as they practice making the thousandth star of the day.
I'm happy that even though we live in Texas, there are snow flurries to be had..
Of the paper sort,
and even a few of the natural variety too!
I can't remember the last time we had sleet and flurries in December, and yet tonight there were little men lined up at my back door, watching the ice turn our deck white, and listening to the roar of a crackling fire.
It might have been perfect, like Christmas card perfect, were it not for the mood shattering, "hey mama, do you think that there's any dead rats in our traps?"
But we're not talking about that are we?
Oh no we're not.
