Monday

Monday night, 8 pm. I'm guaranteed an hour of computer time (not that I can afford to be on here that long) because it's time for "24" and Paul and Will are glued to the tv set. I think David is starting to get into that show, too. I just can't.

Went to a new dentist today. I had seen this beautiful brick building going up all last spring and summer down in Pleasantville, right off Hwy 5. It soon became a dental office and I thought I'd give it a shot. My last dentist was a nice guy, but his hygienist was a sadist with a Russian accent. I'd leave feeling like she had flossed my teeth with baling rope, all the while scolding me (less than half of which I actually understood) about how I needed to floss better and demanding to know just how it often it was I was flossing! This place is 5 minutes away, which is wonderful. Anyway, the interior was just as beautiful as the outside and I was really impressed with the dentist and the staff. Best of all, I don't have to go back until next August!

Made a new cookie recipe tonight - cashew crisps. They're ok, but nothing special. I'm not going to make them again. I got the recipe out of a Hannah Swenson murder mystery (series of books written by Joanne Fluke). Hannah is a cookie store owner and she's always finding dead bodies. They're fun books. I'm being deliberately vague to the rest of the family about what is in the cookies. If they know there are ground up cashews in them, they won't touch them. David already suspiciously asked me what this little piece was he pulled out of his! I also made a smore cheesecake. I'm going to have to get another spring form pan. This is the second time that I have had a leaking problem with that thing. The last time I set the floor of the oven on fire. This time I was smart and put the pan on top of a foil lined cookie sheet.

Well, it looks like we are going to go away overnight for our anniversary. Paul set it up with a family at church to take the 3 younger ones overnight (they already have 7 of their own - I guess 3 more isn't that big of a deal!) and got his on-call dates switched. I just need to check with the family of one of Will's friends and see if he can spend the night and Sat. with them. The youth group is going skiing that Friday so both boys would be busy with that. I sure hope Will doesn't break a leg doing that. He's never skied before. And we have to figure out just what it is we're going to do with our time away from the kiddos.

Sam has been throwing potatoes this evening. He calls them "balls" and gleefully pitches them onto the floor. I told Paul that we'll have to tell him someday that we were so poor we couldn't afford to buy him toys and he had to play with potatoes instead. Paul muttered something about him bruising food but I noticed he didn't make him stop.

I think I'm going to go ahead and wind down towards bedtime. Tomorrow is Sam's 15 month check-up. I wonder what he weighs now - something close to a ton, I'm sure. They'll be lucky if they can get him to sit still long enough to be weighed. The insurance thing didn't work out with that chiropractor in Ankeny so I may ask Dr. Steinmann if he has any recommendations for us - maybe we could find another chiropractor that could help Ben with his allergies and maybe it would be closer than Ankeny! All I can do is try.