Rats!!!

Last week my Girl Scouts and I walked in 17 degree weather and delivered 100 fliers asking for donations for an animal shelter. We are trying to earn our Bronze Award and this was there service project choice. Then on Saturday we took Jeremy's truck and drove around to pick up the donations. Every house was empty. They were supposed to put the donation on the porch and no one had anything on there porch. When we got to the top of the second street we saw a plastic bag sitting on the porch. FINALLY!! Jessica jumps out of the truck and runs up to get the bag. Next thing I know the bag goes flying in the air and she is shaking her hands saying "ewwie ewwie" and runs back to the truck. I ask her what was in it and she says a rat. I start laughing and asked her are you sure it wasn't a "toy rat" after all we are looking for donations for an animal shelter. She tells me there is not way she is going to go and double check so with much laughter we drive away. When we realized we were done and no one set out any donations for out troop's service project I said "well rats, girls" Jess gets the heebie jeebies and says "mom don't remind me". Ha. Bottom line is I have a very disappointed girls and we have to go out again in January to another neighborhood. Cross your fingers for us that this next neighborhood will feel more giving.

My first complaint

Sometimes I have no backbone. I am sure most of you are not surprised at all. I get very upset with myself for some of the things I put up with. Like the time I was at Wal-Mart and the lady grab the twisty bag holder thing and twisted it aggressively and using a mean voice to yell at my daughter then froze to realize she twisted it out of my hand. I should have asked for a manager right then and there, I should have left the store without making my purchases. I really should have done something but instead I tried to give her a look of disappointment. It didn't work because she wouldn't look at me for nothing after that. I am learning my lessons.
So this last weekend I went to Joann's fabric store (mind you I love Joann's and I don't usually get negative attitudes form most of the employees there. I assume that she is a hired on seasonal helper because she is new and it's that time of year.) I went to get some fabric cut. The counter was full so I had to grab a number. Jessica squatted down like she was tired and didn't want to stand but changed her mind and stood up. Well on her way up she bumped a shelf and it made a loud ruckus. Everyone looked at her and she turned a million shades of red and ran to hide behind me. One of the lady's cutting fabric looked at me with a glare and said "she deserves it". Holy Cow deserves what!!!! She didn't do anything wrong. So I thought maybe just maybe she wasn't talking to me. So I was watching her out of the corner of my eye and she was continuously casting glares my way. So I assume she had to be talking to me about Jess. Jess didn't see or hear this lady and she was already embarrassed and I didn't want to call more attention to her so I just waited until my fabric was cut (by someone else) then I went around the long way to cash out so that I could see her name tag. I waited until I got home and I called the store to complain about this. The manager was in SHOCK and apologized and reassured me she would be getting a talking too. I don't think that she should have said that too me even if Jessica was being obnoxious and did deserve it.

Jessica's Performance

Jessica was is the Up with Kid production of Enchanted with Alvin and the Chipmunks. They spent 9 months working on this performance. Of course my daughter was awesome. She has a minor roll of Dorthy. There were a few kids who were INCREDIBLE. Josie was great and boy can that girl sing. Her mom say some days it gets old though because she will sing every word she speaks. Being that it's not my daughter and I don't have to deal with it I think it cute and funny. I am sure I might not think so if Jessica did that. There were some others that did very well like Tinker Bell but I don't know them as well as Josie. Over all I was quite disappointed in the performance. Given that the had 9 months of practices I expected more. Especially after Lori had 3 months to put together our church's Christmas program and it was pretty much flawless. All except one of the only 2 adults had a brain fart and forgot for a second what his next line was. But I wont say who. (I love you Jer.) Jessica has already decided not to do this again next year. She thinks that she might like to have some piano lessons for a while. I guess if she does a piano performance I might have to learn to put video on here.

April Fool's

Jessica really wanted to get her brother and father in an April Fool's joke. Her rules were not hurting anyone and no making food taste yucky. She got an idea from the Disney channel to switch the cereals to different cereal boxes, i.e. the Trix cereal was put into the Lucky Charms box and vise versa. This morning both kids arived to the counter at the same time and Jessica patiently waited for her Brian to choose his cereal. When he did he became confused and Jessica's tiny morning voice said "April Fools". Brian just smiled that ' you got me' smile and went about with his breakfast. She counldn't see her dad's reaction because she had to go to school but I was getting ready to take a quick shower when I here "Why is the Lucky Charms in the Trix box" in a very accusing tone. I told him "Oh yeah, Jessica told me to tell you April Fools" I could tell he was proud of her behind his smirky look. I also know my husband well and Jessica watch out dad is going to be thinking all day long how to get back at you.

Brace Face

Here is the before picture. It just wouldn't seem complete with out one. She is so beautiful to me and I can't wait to see her with her new smile although as beautiful as she is now I fear how much more beautiful she will be and I do not anticipate the boys that will be lining up at the door.

Here she is getting started. Now this is a blackmail picture if I ever saw one. HUMM maybe if there are too many boys I might just post this picture on the door and they might change there minds. What do you think, will it work? They forgot to put Vaseline on her lips so this was very uncomfortable after a while.

Poor thing she was such a trooper, but it did become a bit painful especially when they started the back teeth. They have to dry the teeth very well and then they put on some sour stuff. I think so that the cement will adhere better. Then they go through tooth by tooth an add the cement and bracket. With Jess they also had to add a very stiff wire in the front to push teeth aside because she still doesn't have enough room for those darn eye teeth to come in. I guess the second tooth in front is being moved to go almost behind the front tooth then when the eye teeth come in and can be braced, then they will work on moving them all back into place.

Here she is all braced and done. She chose orange and black rubber bands for Halloween. they typically have an appointment every 4 weeks so she can change for every holiday. At least there is some fun to go with braces. She has been pretty sore. We are sticking to a soft diet pudding, applesauce, yogurt, mac n cheese, and Tylenol around the clock. I was just drifting off to sleep last night when I heard her whimpering I woke her up and she had accidentally bumped her mouth with her hand and it hurt. Thankfully we have been through this with Brian and I know that it only last this bad for two days. And I also was more prepared with the applesauce and Tylenol.

Swim Lessons

This summer Jess did swim lessons. It was fun for her to get out and do something. It was hard to do things this summer, with the price of gas as high as it was Jer drove my car to work to save us a bit of money and I don't like to drive the truck, so we stayed home a lot. She did very well and learned to dive. She loves it. And with the olympics on she is finding it fasinating to watch as well. Maybe one day we will have a little diver in the family. On the last day the kids had a free day where they were able to go down the slide. She also got brave enough to go of the high dive. Hope you enjoy her pics.