It started with part 2 of the fight with the dentist office that I am NOT going back to. I went with Kayla, for the second appointment day since they could only see 2 people on any given day. I would have canceled it but I didn't think to before Larry confirmed it when they called to confirm we were going..
Arrange Larry's schedule (ER, love the flexibility) so he's there watching the others and when we get there, power trip receptionist says 'we told you last week, you have to have someone here to watch her when she's done' and I say 'you told me only those with appointments are allowed in the back, we both have appointments' Needless to say, I have a few thoughts and will probably end up writing to their corporate office, but I suspect they may already know there's a problem... they have been kicked off base, effective next month and a new dental practice will be in their place.
It went really well, in a way that I think only this office could have achieved. I wasn't seen because I didn't bring a babysitter.. but I stayed with Kayla to see what horrors they were going to do to her. And.. I wasn't disappointed.
The hygenist made her throw up- not once but twice. In brushing her teeth, they went a bit too far back and she gagged and breakfast appeared. And saying, 'oh, that's never happened before' repeat on the other side of her mouth and what ever was remaining in her stomach came up. Lovely. I couldn't ask for a better first dental experience for my 3 year old. Covered in vomit and looking and smelling lovely... And since I had 1 kid and Larry's car, I didn't even have the spare set of clothes to change her into in the parking lot.
Followed by the highlight of our week- the mystery food coop box. Similar to SHARE or Angelfood ministries, it's a box purchased for less than retail. Unlike SHARE or Angelfood which are national, this is a small local one that I don't have to be organized enough to sign up ahead of time and pay for it ahead of time. And it's weekly whereas the other 2 are monthly.
So, anyway, the way it works is you go to the place and wait your turn- no ordering, no volunteer time requirement, no choices in what you get.. just be there at the right time and place - which happens to be at the parking lot at the entrance to our neighborhood. I'd been driving past it for months thinking 'that looks like a food coop' and thinking I should look into it.
The cool thing about it is that it usually includes alot of organic foods (milk, juice, cereals, crackers, veggies) we wouldn't ordinarily buy due to cost. Well, that's that I think is cool, the kids love that often times we got a box of sugar cereal and little containers of yogurt or juice (organic, lol). And last week chocolate covered donuts. I'm learning to cook from what we have rather than going to the store with a list.. it's made for some interesting concoctions. For example- we have 3 boxes of instant potatoes. I think they're gross. And while I intend on donating the food we're no-way, no-how going to eat.. (like the soup with tripe in it) I wonder what to do with instant potatoes (other than try to make them- I tried to make instant mashed potatoes and well... blech) Thus far I've tried making potato pancakes. Several times. And having never eaten or made them before, I'm not entirely sure what they're supposed to taste or look like. Some pictures look like hash browns, some like pancakes.. And none of what I've made make me say 'oh yum, I want to eat more of that.' It seems there is a box included every week, so if we continue doing this coop, I think the food bank will be getting a box weekly from us.. unless I find a way to cook them to make them edible. Otherwise it's a lot of random stuff, some of which we love, some of which we don't. And I'd never eaten dandelion greens before...
The week ended with the Marathon health appointment day yesterday. Larry and I both had appointments and mine being nearly 2 hours away gave me the longer straw in the-drawing straws-for-taking-the-kids. In trying to live somewhere within our means, hiring a babysitter for the day would be as expensive as a week's worth of groceries.. so it was the kid/parent swap thing. Unfortunately for me, I thought that meant that he was going to get the kids up, get them dressed and out the door. HE thought I'd have all that done before leaving at 7am. Ahh, yes.. communication. gotta love it. I was gleefully going to bed amusing myself with thoughts of Larry trying to brush the girls' hair and say something to the effect of 'I have all their clothes laid out on the couch for you for the am' and get a stare of shock back. Oh well.. At least he took them with him.
And he got a bit of attention from those he works with for it- unlike the attention I get, he gets the "I can' t believe you have 4 kids, you look so young" comment. (I'm thinking they've aged me more than him, since they're with me 99% of the time.. and he got botox last month..- an entirely different topic on how he no longer has the perma-scowl on his face for the next 4 months or until the botox wears off..)
Which was a good thing he had them..since my test didn't go as planned and after getting pinned and poked the machine couldn't read what it was supposed to.. and involved waiting for hours.. for them to finally think they'd be able to retry in another hour once the particular defective item was brought to the autoclave, autoclaved and returned...) which would get me home an hour too late for Larry to report for what he needed to. (there was no option to not report) Panicked calls to both babysitters on file and my one friend also failed to get a live person on the phone or a call back before the critical hour I had to leave to get back. It was a big disappointment, especially since I have to go back there next week to let them re-try. 3-4 more hours in the car, driving towards LA in rush hour, arranging for Larry to have the am off to watch the kids, this time with babysitter back up should I not be back in 6 hours.
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