October

 Now that I have a functioning computer AND keyboard -- AT THE SAME TIME!  I'm going to try to play some catch up.  Yes, I'm about 2 months behind.  Tough.

Here are a couple of more unique items I made: the pretzels really did taste as good as they look.  The "spiders" are hot dog chunks (good ones, for the sake of the parentals) with spaghetti noodles poked through them, then boiled until the pasta was done.  Served with alfredo sauce.  It was surprisingly good!  I was prepared to deal with it for the sake of the girls, but I'm not even opposed to doing it again someday.  It was a fun tribute to Halloween one night.

 I don't remember whether I've covered this or not, but Lizzie had her first chance to attend General Conference with Aunt Janice and Aunt Jennifer.  Her cousin T was her conference buddy this time.  She absolutely LOVED it!  These two pictures are screen-grabs from when she was shown on TV during conference!  This was immediately after President Monson announced the change in age for full time missionaries.

These pictures are from the Aunties.  Lizzie was wowed by her visit to The Roof restaurant.  I am so grateful my girls get these opportunities!  I never would have dreamed to be so close to the General Authorities and First Presidency when I was their ages.

On a random change of subject -- We knew Sabrina was in need of some urgent dental work.  She already had her first work done (already posted) and we had appointments scheduled for all the rest.  Then over one weekend she started to complain a lot about pain in some teeth.  Then she developed a nasty fever and when I checked her mouth again there was a bad abscessed pocket on her gums.  We got her in to the dentist the next day and my brave girl had 3 root canals and a filling all in one appointment, all on the left side.  If the swelling had been worse she would likely have ended up in the hospital for IV antibiotics.  Thankfully some oral antibiotics "stat" took care of it.

 Lizzie and Sabrina were both scheduled for a lot of dental work and Kate started to complain about a sore spot in her mouth.  I checked and noticed some molars coming in and said she'd be fine.  By the weekend she was complaining again.  Finally on Saturday morning (of course, no dentist available!) Michael noticed that one side of Kate's face was swollen.  Badly.  I took a look in her mouth again and discovered a HUGE abscess.  Thankfully she didn't have a fever, but she sure had the swelling going on!  We could not get in touch with the dentist so we finally gave up and took her in to the emergency room so she could get started on antibiotics.  Good thing, too!  If she had developed a fever then SHE would have been planted in the hospital on IV antibiotics.  Between Sabrina and Kate we'd have had a much worse couple of weeks.  Thankfully getting in to the dentist on Monday they fixed the bad tooth and the antibiotics did their work.  And no, there is absolutely nothing contagious about abscesses.  They're not even that common!  We're just THAT GOOD.  (Yes, this is despite regular brushing, flossing, and flouride.)  So glad to have teeth more or less settled for now.  Knock on wood.