Making Macarons

If you know Rylee, you know she has a slight Macaron addiction.  Not to be confused with macaroons.  Maracrons are hard to get and are expensive.  I did google how to make them and it looked overwhelmingly complicated, so I refused to.  

Rylee is nothing if not persistent.  I'm sure it comes from being the overlooked last child!  She nagged for months. She printed out the recipe and made sure we had all the ingredients.  So finally, I told her she was welcome to make them.  I figured if they came out terribly, that was okay, then she'd know how hard they were to make.  

Her sisters assisted with reading and following the directions, and lo and behold!  They came out nicely!  If we'd figured out how to make them the right size, they would have been perfect.  As it was, they looked nice and tasted delicious.  I was really impressed!

Delaney

I got to go to the Award Assembly for Delaney.  She got good grades.

And she was just thrilled to go up and get a certificate that says so.

 She did give me this cute smile.

But she refused to pose after with the certificate. 

 She also has managed to damage herself.  Something about landing badly doing a round-off and then having to do jump-rope in gym caused a sprain.

It is not broken, but is causing a lot of pain and discomfort, mostly to Delaney but she's happy to share the unhappiness.

What's happening at our house

Marian and I went to some thrift stores and we had a marvelous time.  This hat was awesome. 

I don't know that I mentioned our freezer died.  I am assuming that being on the back porch and losing power multiple times (either due to a neighborhood wide outage or the outlet shorting out) had something to do with it.  But the freezer did stop actually freezing, and I was sad.  I was at the store for something else and saw that freezers were on sale, so we took advantage.

 And to prevent future unexpected power losses due to outlets shorting out, I purchased this waterproof cover from Amazon.  I had grand designs to install it myself, but discovered that the covers already installed were incompatible.  I emailed the Housing Office who told me I had to fill out some form, but then they sent workers over.  The workers looked at it and then installed it for me.  Yay!  So now I have a freezer keeping my Turkey frozen till Thanksgiving.

Rylee has a little too much fun with my phone. 

My new favorite shirt. 

I decided I am going to make a T-shirt quilt.  I have tons of race shirts that I never wear because they never actually fit.  So I have begun the complicate process of figuring out the best way to do this.   

 I made my first purchase with what I like to call, "The Sandy Fox Legacy Fund".  I have been coveting furniture like this for years, and could not justify spending the amount of money necessary to make it become mine.  With Mom's life insurance, I decided I could.  So now every time I walk by my gorgeous cabinet and cute chest of drawers, I am thrilled- because I still love them so much, and because I think of Mom when I look at them.

It is always fun when every phone in the house goes off with an emergency alert.  It is even better when you remember that there is a practice drill happening.  There was an earthquake drill that morning, but apparently the sirens were only suppose to go off for 2 minutes.... not 40!  

Fun at the Dentist

Rylee got a filling on a baby tooth while I was out in Mountain Home.  She complained about it off and on, that it felt "cold" or weird.  The complaints became more frequent and she asked to have it looked at.  We have several awesome dentists in the branch, including the pediatric dentist who put the filling in.  He suggested taking her in for Sick Call and he would consult with the on duty dentist.  So we did that yesterday.  Consensus was that the filling may be close to the nerve and the recommendation was to just pull it, as a new tooth would grow in there in 2-3 years, and that would solve all problems.  Or, she could schedule a crown, but that would take a few weeks.  I might have pressured her for the extraction, but down the hall some kid was screaming bloody murder and it made me want to cry. And Rylee was rather opposed to getting the tooth pulled- mostly because she did not want to miss school, or her after school club, to Activity Days that night.  So we scheduled the crown for the day before Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, by the time Rylee got home from school, her tooth hurt. And it did not feel any better after Activity Days.  And I was up in the middle of the night for almost 2 hours with her and her sore tooth.  So, this morning, I was frantically trying to figure out how to get this done.  Our Pediatric dentist friend was not going to be at the clinic, and could not help till Friday.  So I messaged the darling wife of the guy who removed Josh's wisdom teeth.  I feel horribly guilty using friend and church connections, but desperate times call for desperate measures!  And they do not get the general dentists use nitrous.  I could not imagine trying to get her tooth pulled without it!  Our oral surgeon friend came through and had us come in at 8:30.  He gave her oral sedatives and I thought things were going to be great.  

It started off well.The meds kicked in and Rylee thought it was SO funny that the window blinds looked close enough to touch.  She giggled hysterically.  Unfortunately all giggles stopped when the work began.  I went into the hallway and she howled like a banshee when he did the shots and then cried hysterically.  I felt bad.  She continued to howl and I listened to the dentist, "Rylee, I'mnot even touching you."  Screaming response.  "Rylee, nothing is touching you."   Still screaming.  "Rylee, this is what I'm going to use, there is nothing sharp."  Still wailing.  I was getting concerned that he may not get it done, and she was still making a ruckus.  Then I heard, "I'm all done, you can stop now."  She did not stop for a bit.  She cried and cried and cried.  Those loopy meds made her loopy and sad!  The procedure itself was less than 3 minutes, but she took a lot longer than that to be okay.  They took her to the car in a wheelchair and she cried off and on all the way home.  And she cried off and on for the next 2 hours.  Poor baby.

On the plus side, she doesn't remember much of it and she's feeling pretty good.  Only one round of ibuprofen that I made her take before the numbing meds wore off, and she hasn't needed any since.  But wow, what an ordeal!! And I'm slightly bitter that she made me miss a hike with my friends this morning for all this.  Sigh.  But it is done, and it is over!

And she has recovered nicely.  

A little Cinderella

It was my favorite time of year- Marine Corps Birthday Time!  Dan's Unit's Birthday Ball was early this year, the first Friday of October.  There are over 200, I think, that are put on Between Oct 1 and Nov 30, so it is a little crazy!   Dan is part of MCIPAC, so that's the Ball we attended.  This year, Marian said yes, she was interested in coming too.  So she did.  And she said it was more interesting and fun than she expected.

Callie was our official photographer.

It was hard to tell when she was taking pictures, or even if she was taking pictures!

So some of them were a surprise.  Actually, looking at the 25 pictures was kind of a surprise.

And the fact that these are the best ones.... well, you get what you pay for!

Marian, enjoying her shrimp cocktail.

My place setting

And you know I stayed for the cake!  It was unexciting, but tasty.  And it was Birthday Cake!

Dan, in a co-workers shot at the end, as we were trying to run away.