Samara's new braces

Samara is definitely MY daughter. She looks like me, she acts like me, and most recently - she has my teeth. Poor girl! I suspected this so we made an appointment with the orthodontist a few weeks ago. She has all the same crowding and bite problems that I had (and had years of orthodontic work for, to no avail). The process started with having 4 baby teeth removed (just like I did), and was followed yesterday with an expander that will widen her top jaw (just like I did) AND braces - which I did not have, at least not at the same time as the expander. So hopefully this will actually work for her.

She was SO excited yesterday when she came out to show me that she had braces - complete with bands alternating shades of pink to match her shirt! Her friends all thought they were so cool, and when she got home from school she had to call Paul and tell him too.

Now that she has had them on for a day she is not quite so thrilled. She's pretty sore, poor thing, and the expander is a pain because food gets caught under it. Ah, the price of beauty...

And all this comes at quite a price. We have dental insurance, but it doesn't cover orthodontic work. And this is just phase one...

My annual day of celebration

The first day of school! Here are my 2nd and 4th grader - can you believe it? They're getting so old - sniff.

Daniel was ready to go too.

It was such an amazing day. Daniel actually played with his toys, he took a 3 hour nap this afternoon (which he hasn't done in, hmmm, about 3 months...) and didn't scream the entire time the girls were at school. It's not that I don't like it when they're here, it's just so peaceful when they're not!

Paper or Plastic - NEITHER!

I got an email recently from a friend of mine that included a link to a video montage about the evils of plastic bags. It was VERY effective. It was full of information that I guess I already knew, but that I needed to be reminded of. The thing that was most revealing to me was the fact that it costs more to recycle plastic bags than to produce a new one. I guess I had been under the false notion that I was saving the environment by dumping my excess plastic bags in those receptacles at the grocery store. The truth is, plastic bags are the bane of my existence. I hate the fact that when I go grocery shopping I end up coming home with SO many plastic bags that (I swear) reproduce under my kitchen sink. I don't think I need mention why plastic bags are so bad for the environment. I do think it is worth mentioning that plastic is made using petroleum products, and we need to reduce our dependency on petroleum.

So I started searching for some reusable shopping bags, and as it happens, they are becoming increasingly available and affordable - at least in my area. I spent $1 a bag, and I love them! They are much stronger than plastic bags, so you can fit more groceries into one bag. It's easier to carry the groceries into the house, I no longer have plastic bags jumping out at me when I open the cupboard under the sink, and cashiers have been surprisingly cooperative about using them. I highly recommend them.

The Hannah Montana party

Samara and Lindsey's combined birthday party is tomorrow, so I am up to my eyeballs in Hannah Montana paraphernalia - heaven help me. Although I am certainly NO fan of Hannah Montana, I am pretty proud of the invitation.