Random ~ Update, Some Blogs to follow, New Designs, & Cookies

Thank you all for the great comments and emails about my adventure this past week. I will give you a little update. Today is Sunday and since Tuesday (my dental apt.) I have flossed daily, brushed my teeth twice a day with my new Oral B electric toothbrush and used the Crest Pro Health mouthwash. I also switched toothpastes. My whole life, or at least the majority of my 33 years I have used Close Up. It is a cinnamon flavored toothpaste. Most people probably have never heard of it! I am not a mint flavor girl and prefer the cinnamon taste. Whenever I tried others I felt like my breath wasn't as fresh come morning. When I was at Target getting my new dental regime arsenal I saw there were at least 5 kinds of Crest, Colgate and Aqua fresh toothpastes but only one type of Close Up. It made me think maybe I should give up my cinnamon toothpaste and go for a 12 hour minty brand. So far so good. I will let you all known the results of my new system once I see the dentist again in 4 months.

I enjoying writing my blog and I try to dedicate time to it. I also enjoy reading and commenting on lots of great blogs written by some very talented women.


A dear friend of mine, Emily has recently created her blog, Emily Hagerman Design. She is a very talented woman and I highly recommend you follow her blog to learn more about her amazing design skills. You can see some before and after photos of a house renovation and some great insight into the world of designing and redesigning.

A different Em from Life Liberty and the pursuit... has a great post on her blog right now about healthcare. I have had a post for my blog in the works but it is still in the works. It seems to get fueled when I get frustrated or fired up about the direction we are going right now. So check hers out and stay tuned from my take on why a socialized health care system is not the best option.

I found Em from SITS (The Secret is in the Sauce) if you blog or are looking for some great blogs to follow then SITS is the place to look. This amazing Sitstahood of women is a group of bloggers dedicated to supporting one another by leaving comments. Lots and lots of comments.

Another blogger that I discovered is Melissa's Heart & Home. Melissa shares some of the neatest home decor items and where she finds them so we can all try to make our house as pretty. She is very sweet and I enjoy checking in to see what she has discovered.

Did I did warn you that this post was random? I did a market tote this week in a design that previously I had only done on a cosmetic bag. It turned out amazing. I love it when my customers bring me an idea. Thank you Shannon for a great idea. One of my best selling items is the Mommy and Me apron sets. I received this great idea from a customer also. Thank you Kim Marie for starting a great gift item for mommies and their daughters.

Speaking of little kitchen helpers. I made cooked with Liberty my 3 1/2 year old. It is not the first time we have baked together however it is the first time that she stayed and baked the whole recipe. Of course there was more of a mess on the counter but for the most part 90% of the ingredients made it into the bowl. She did dip her fingers in the measuring cups of brown sugar, white sugar, butter and flour, not to mention he chocolate chips. It’s a good thing the cookies were for us only and not to be shared with the masses. We would have some quality control issues. We had a great time and it was fun to bake with my little helper. We made Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. If anyone has an amazing recipe for THICK CHEWY oatmeal chocolate chip cookies PLEASE share it with me. I have tried and searched for so many. I am looking for a thick chewy bite down into it type of cookie. Not a flat one. Speaking of recipes I have a great recipe book for baking that has an amazing pecan cookie recipe that I am in the works of asking the author if I can share her recipe and plug her book. So stay tuned for that too.

Okay I think I should sign off for now but I really do have lots more I could share... but I will save it for another day! Thanks for stopping by.

My Day, My Blog, My Adventure

Today was just one of those days that I could laugh, cry, get really mad, throw up and have a stiff drink! So I thought what better thing to do then blog about it! I will try to make it easy to follow with some headings. Blog Issues Earlier I accidentally set my blog to a new template instead of backing up my template. (Read previous post.) It drove me crazy being at the dentist and then having a busy day knowing my poor little blog was a blank white sheet all day. First off Thank you to Unknown Mami and to Melissa. Unknown Mami ~ Thank you for the help and great info! I was so frustrated today that I needed to take a break. Thankfully it is all back. I decided to take the opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons and changed it up with a new background and added some orange in! Thanks for the encouragements. Melissa thank you for your very sweet sentiments. I found my blog background at Hot Bliggity Blog isn't that the cutest name?

Lesson Learned
BACK UP YOUR BLOG REGULARLY!
My most recent backup was 3 months ago...that is bad! So learn from me and back it up.

Dentist
So I go to the dentist and I get my normal hygienist. the last time the lady was rude abrasive and mean. I don’t like her at all so I made sure I got the nice sweet lady again. I even told her that the other lady was this way. I thought she should know that I requested her and I liked the way she treats her patients. At my last appointment they said I had gingivitis(gum disease) and that I HAD to floss every day. I have never in my life flossed every day. But I did floss for 8 weeks straight every day. I was so proud of myself. Then after that I didn’t floss everyday for 2 months. I did it 3 or 4 times a week which I thought should be good since I have greatly improved on the flossing thing. Well no! My sweet lady hygienist tells me that my gums have gotten worse and I need to have a procedure done that will cost $400. The full cost was $850 and my insurance was paying the rest but that was my cost. I asked for a minute and I called my sweet husband because I knew I was about to cry. I was a crying mess trying to explain to him that I flossed for 2 months and then didn't keep it up and know my gums are worse and they told me to take better care of them and know we have to pay this and it is my fault. He told me not to beat myself up over it that I should be very proud of myself that I did floss the amount I did. He said it's okay and asked if I was going to be okay. The hygienist came back in with me wiping my tears and asked if I was okay. I told her I thought I tried so hard and here I am still in worse shape. She gave me a hug and said Oh honey it's okay. I am sure she thought I was a hormonal crazy lady. I then told her about my blog to the best I could so she would know what I was talking about and how it was just not a great day and here it was only 11 AM.

Lesson(s) Learned
(1)Floss EVERYDAY - I discovered that if you floss every 24 hours you stop the bacteria from growing. *Gross alert* The bacteria in your mouth doubles after 24 hours so to floss 3 times a week will not stop the bacteria you need to do every morning or every night but keep it to a 24 window.
(2)Get an electric toothbrush. I thought those were expensive and not necessary. Well $50 for an Oral B toothbrush sounds cheap compared to my dental bill!


Target
This afternoon I went to Target to get an electric toothbrush which they had on sale from $69.99 to $49.99. My sweet hygienist told me that an electric toothbrush gets the bacteria that a regular old fashioned brush can never get and she said that with flossing is the best way to prevent dental issues. So I am willing to give it a try. Tonight should be fun flossing and a new fandangled plug in toothbrush. I sure lead an exciting life! My 3 year old Liberty also got a battery operated Hello Kitty brush so we can start her young. Maverick my 14 month old got his first toothbrush toady. We had been using a face cloth but he is a biter so a toothbrush is probably wise! As for Ron my dear sweet husband well he never gets cavities or has any teeth issue so for him we will stick with the old fashioned. I did tell him I would get him one if he wants one but he said nope. Maybe he needs a visit to the unfriendly hygienist?

The rest of the day was rather calm and I had no more tears and I did avoid any stiff drink so I think I came away from the day mostly unscathed. My sweet little 3 year old told me she had a tummy ache when my computer wasn't cooperating but she didn't tell me because she thought I was not happy. I gave her a hug and said you can always tell mama when you have a sore tummy.

I hope y'all got a little snippet into my day and I hope your days were all just as interesting.