An Adventure to the Dentist

When I first got my job there were a million different things that I had no idea what I was doing and health insurance was one of those. Our dental insurance was choosing between one of two options: the cheap option and the more expensive options. As I had never had this before I did what anyone would do and I choose the cheap option.

Cue a year later and I had still had yet to make an appointment so I scour the database of options and realize that I have the wrong plan but I still need to get my teeth cleaned so I choose what I deem to the best of the terrible options. One of my options was a huge conglomerate dental service so you just get crappy service so they were out. I choose a single dental office where there was just one dentist.

On a nice Friday morning I got up early and got ready and did some work before I headed down to the dentist. Once I finally found the office, it was tucked away in a super small nook inside a relatively small complex. As I walk in... I am immediately concerned about the dust bunnies and the decor. However the cute dogs that were there readily distracted me while I filled out the paperwork.

I finally finish the paperwork and the other patient (the one in the room), yes that is right there was only one other patient in the office at that time, comes out to pay and leave. A few moments later the front desk lady walks me back to the room... at this moment I seriously regret my decision to get my teeth cleaned. As I look around the room, I reach over to put my purse and backpack down (I didn't want to leave my laptop in the car, the area didn't look safe enough for that) and she takes them with her to the front room. Really, uhh that was strange but whatever I just wanted clean teeth. Perhaps she took them away since my phone would interfere with the instruments... I took this with a large grain of salt since there weren't really any instruments.

Now I am in the chair and I have met the dentist. First impression: seems like a creepy old man, who whined about my firm handshake. As I sit down one of the dogs wants to get into my lap, now I am grossed out about the dog since this is soo unsanitary. I let that go as the woman drags her dog out of the room. Then the dentist starts looking over the paperwork that I gave him, at this point I am wondering where the hygienist is but who knows what is going on. I tell him not to be surprised but I am missing a few permanent teeth, nothing exciting. He then asks me a series of questions and does not listen to the answers. THEN he touches my teeth without gloves on... are you kidding me?!?! At this point I am afraid that I am going to get a disease but I just want my teeth cleaned as quickly as possible.

He finally puts on a mask and cleans some of my teeth.. not all of them just some of them. I considered commenting on this but again I just wanted it to end so quickly. Eventually with only half of my teeth cleaned he finally says you can get your stuff and go. As I walk to the front to grab my bag I realize that I haven't been given a toothbrush. I am annoyed by this but I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

Here are the highlights of my trip:
-touched my teeth with his finger
-the rooms were decorated with clowns
-and I didn't get a toothbrush.

I will be looking for a new dentist ASAP...

A few Lily pics

As I am sure you have noticed I have been a little lax in posting on here, I don't have a whole lot going on. I have several posts that are in process and they are getting close but they still need just a bit of work. I am determined to post four times this week so in the interest of getting that started I thought that I would just give you a few photos. 

One morning before work Lily curled up on my pillow and just looked at me saying things like... it must suck to have to go to work. Haha I am going to just sleep all day party all night!

This is from one of our trips to White Rock Lake, she looks so angry or just confused. I like this one.

My friend was in town last week and snapped this cute pic of me and Lily. For once she doesn't look like she is dying when out picture was taken... Love it

Just a few cute pics to keep you happy. Hopefully I will have more to say soon... I need more fun things to do.

A quick and easy dinner

As I headed home from work on Wednesday I was starving and I realized that I had forgotten to grab the chicken out of the freezer. As I drove and visited with one of my best girlfriends I also inventoried my freezer to see if there was a hairbrained idea that I could make that might not take very long. Eventually I realized that it was probably going to be chicken nuggets and tots when I remembered that I had all of the stuff to try a recipe that I had seen online and I had been pretty skeptical about since I have been failing more often than not these days.

In the end this took a few minutes to prepare and they were super good. The original recipe is here. The only change that I made was that I used shredded mozzarella cheese since I never have cheese slices and I wasn't about to go to the store.

This was a great meal, the leftovers were wonderful too. I will admit that the best version was the fresh version when the crescent rolls were crispy since from the microwave they are softer. A few other things were that I don't know that the chicken strips that I had were all that good, some were too big for the crescent and others were too small (sounds like goldilocks). I will continue to investigate this as I always have nuggets or strips in the freezer. Also, make sure that you only buy the tyson brand anything else is nasty. I got the Target brand of chicken strips and they were greasy and mushy. It was terrible.

This was a pin success and I was so appreciative of that, I needed a quick easy dinner and for the most part I always have the stuff at hand. I might try to make them with biscuits at some point as I think that would be pretty good but who knows I will have to let you know how that turns out. Let me know if you try this.

My 29th Birthday

A few days ago I turned 29... yeah I was convinced that I was going to only be 28 this year and not be 30 in less than a year but that was a lie. After all of that I was not super enthused about having a birthday this year. I don't know if it was the fact that I feel as if I haven't reached any of the milestones that I should have reached or if I just don't want to be almost 30? Who knows.

This was the first year that I really got to celebrate with my family and that was amazing. It did start to seem like this was the birthday that wouldn't ever end but that isn't really a bad thing. I had a wonderful time with my parents the weekend before and some great times the weekend after with more family.

A new coffee mug from my folks

The girls from work got me some flowers

Birthday shot with the big brother

At the end of the night, we had so much fun

It was a wonderful birthday spent with as many friends and family that I could get a hold of. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with so many different people in celebration of my birthday. It is so nice to be closer to the family, I had forgotten how nice it is to be able to spend time with the family as often as I want. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family that I love so very much. I am looking forward to the next moment when I get to see family.

Banana Pudding Poke Cake

Before Easter my group at work had a potluck, as you know I use this as a chance to test any new recipes that have been running around on my pin boards or things that I have really wanted to try. This time I opted for the Banana Pudding Poke Cake, seen here. The picture of the finally dessert made my mouth water every single time that I saw it so it seemed that this was going to be amazing.

I followed the directions to the best of my ability but you never know how that is going to go since some of them were just a tad vague but that happens. For the most part it was really easy, my pokes into the cake don't look nearly as good as hers did but that is OK because I poured pudding over it. From there it was very simple and relatively easy. I topped mine with crushed vanilla wafers because it was cute.

worst poke cake job ever

The group thought that it was pretty good. I think most of them liked it. I, however, hated it. This was one of the worst things that I have made in a long time. I don't know if I don't like the concept or if I don't like this version. Here is what I really didn't like
-banana pudding smells like death. When I opened the packages it was horrible, they smell like fake bananas and I don't like that smell. To me it smells like chemicals, apparently that really bothers me. Who knew.

Smelled terrible

-To me it was dry cake with weird pudding on top. Not a good combo. This does suggest that I might be able to make a different version that would be better.

I ended up tossing the rest of the cake because it just wasn't good enough to share with others. I will probably try another version at another time, maybe a yellow cake with chocolate pudding. Who knows this was not all the way to a fail but it wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped it would be.

Do you like poke cakes?

Spring Garden

For many years I have been planting a small garden on my patio. These gardens have been ravaged by many different things: small kids, squirrels, rabbits, and my negligence. With so little success in my past I figured that I would give it another try. Typically, I can keep the flowers alive but the veggies not so much.

I had heard that there was a sale on plants at Home Depot so I hopped right on over there to pick up a few plants and some dirt. Of course like any home improvement project I spent twice as much as I meant to. I mean there was a sale but yet I still spent lots of money.

I got 2 tomato plants, green bell pepper, flowers, basil, more flowers, and parsley. I also snagged two new pots and a huge bag of dirt.

My little helper

I am pretty excited about this years garden and Lily loved having a chance to hang out on the porch with me for a few hours on Saturday.

It took a while to get all of the dirt in the plants and to figure out where I wanted everything. I try and mix things up so that I don't have a pot full of all the same flowers although sometimes that is nice. I often forget that the herbs all come with several different subunits and it is best to separate them out so that you will have more of the stuff. In years past I have way over bought to the point where there are too many flowers I didn't do that this year. I think I got just the right amount of flowers. 

New planters, containing flowers herbs, and the green bell pepper plant

My winter flowers: pansies and hyacinth

Tomato plants: patio tomato (L) and cherry tomato (R)

I have already enjoyed my flowers and it has only been a week. I really love being able to walk out every morning and see what is going on. We had a bit of a cold snap this week so I dragged most of the pots into the bathroom so that they wouldn't all die. I am so excited to be able to use fresh tomatoes in everything and make all kinds of yummy stuff. I will be sure to post pics of the fun stuff that happens with my garden. What do you plant in your veggie garden?

Easter Weekend

For the first time in a few years I had a chance to go home for Easter weekend and it was amazing. I loved the chance to get together with my family and spend a few days with all of them and we even had a chance to celebrate my 29th birthday!

On the way down I had a chance to get together with one of my college roomies for breakfast since we were in the same state for once. It was wonderful to see her, Denny's wasn't all that awesome but seeing her face and hearing about her upcoming jelly bean was amazing. Love you Kleck!

Loving the open road

Once I finally got on the highway I started thinking about what I wanted to have for lunch... there aren't too many places to stop on the way home but that is OK I knew there was a Cane's along the way. We decided to grab the food and sit by the river in Natchitoches and eat our lunch. She loved all of the chicken nuggets. Then it was time to get back on the road and head for the house. 

She loved the break from being in the car

Friday night I got a chance to hang out with my brother before he hit the road to go trucking. It was a great chance to hang out with him and all of his family.

Dinner of champions

On Saturday the parents and I did some shopping and just some general hanging around. We snagged some gifts for my birthday and just enjoying each other's company since we had more time together. After a long day of shopping we decided to have some crawfish for dinner. We had an early dinner due to fears of a shortage and it was a wonderful thing.

Look at the family

I look terrible in this, but Mason looks cute

It has been many years since I have had any crawfish. It was worth the wait and I loved them. If you haven't ever had them you twist the body and pull the tail out, then you peel the shell off of the meat and eat it. Now if you are my sister-in-law you can eat the insides and the brains (I don't care for this but she loved it), this is called sucking the heads (it is not for me). 

Family Pic

She was so excited!!!

After we stuffed our faces with so much crawfish we went back to the house to hangout for a little while. They also gave me a few gifts and then we had some CAKE! We had a funfetti cake, and it was everything I could have imagined. My sweet mom even sent some of the cake home with me!

Happy Birthday to me

The next day was Easter and it was a great day to spend with family. A friend of mine mentioned that Easter isn't really a holiday that makes you feel lonely but being with family is so sweet. It was fun to celebrate the sacrifice that our Lord made for us. 

More family time

After church and lunch I hid some eggs in the backyard and had a blast watching my nephew try to find them. I think I hid them perhaps just a little too hard but it was still so much fun to watch him run around finding the eggs.

Looking for eggs

Even Lily got excited about the outside time. I don't think she really enjoyed it but at the same time she knew she had been bad earlier that day. Shortly after this she got a bath since she was having a great time out in the yard rolling around in who knows what. At least she got clean before she got in the car or in my bed.

Happy Easter!

Easter Egg Dying

While I was home for easter my mom wanted to dye eggs for Easter. We only had a few hard boiled eggs to dye so we didn't really want to use vinegar so we thought that we would test the pin about dying eggs with shaving cream that you can find here. The directions look really simple:

1- Mix color with shaving cream, roll the eggs around in the colored shaving cream, wait 4-5 minutes

2- Wipe the shaving cream off (there wasn't enough color so we rolled them back around and left them there for about 45 minutes. 

 3- After we wiped them off they look pretty good and lots of color.

 4- We then rinsed them off...

And then they were not nearly as pretty as they were before. The one in the purple looked the best but who knows how we got that to happen. What I can tell you is that this did not work nearly as well as I expected but as I told my mom that this is why it is called "pin failing."

The only one that worked we actually did just a tad differently. What we did was after we dried it off it didn't need to go back into the shaving cream since it was relatively dark already so it sat on the plate for about 45 minutes before we rinsed it off. Who knows that could have been the thing that made it work... or it just could have been a fluke.

It was so much fun to do a craft with my mom, it would have been awesome if it had actually worked but that is the nature of pinning.

Nat's in town!

I don't know if you remember a few weeks ago when my friend couldn't make it into town due to the snow but she made it in for a few days. As this was my very first guest that wasn't family so I was pretty excited about trying something different. The majority of the weekend we just hung out and talked about all of the things that have happened since we last saw each other. 

Note the lack of shade

On Friday we went to Klyde Warren Park (link) to hit up the food trucks. It was the first really warm Friday that we had here in Dallas so the park was packed. There were several different things to see down at the park and many different types of food to try. I opted for the Butcher's Son and had a quesadilla. It was OK but I probably should have gotten something more adventurous. Since the trees hadn't gotten any leaves yet it was a little warm and I got a sunburn (I should have known better... oops).

On our was out of the park we stopped by the Trailercakes Truck and snagged several mini cupcakes to have later. We waited on these until the next afternoon, but they were really really good. If you see their trailer you should stop and get a few.

Later that night we decided to be bold and head to Fort Worth and hit up Billy Bob's. I am sure that you  have no idea what it is, it is the honkeytonk. This is a super famous country bar where lots of the top artists perform for relatively cheap. I think several live albums have been taped here so it is a great place with lots of history. We saw Kip Moore, my favorite song of his is the Beer Money song. He is pretty cute and it was worth the money to be close enough to see his face and tight jeans! I will admit that based on the songs that I had heard I expected for it to be a fast set of songs but I was wrong. It was pretty slow and I didn't know that many of the songs.

For $18 we got to be close to the stage

Before the show we saw a few bull riders, they were terrible

Waiting for the band to start

Kip Moore singing about Beer Money

I am pretty sure that I will be dragging more of my guests over to Fort Worth to see the historic Stockyards. It was a great thing and this has been on my bucket list for DFW so it was fun to check this off with someone else who enjoyed it. This is definitely a must see if you come to Dallas and enjoy country music at all. This was a great adventure.

On Saturday before she had to get back on the bus we went out for some BBQ and then decided to hit up IKEA for something to do. I will admit that I had never been to IKEA so it was fun to go with someone who had been to one before. Now for the moment when I break your hearts, I don't think I like IKEA. I really disliked it. I felt that so much of there stuff was made for smaller people, for instance I thought that the silverware made me feel like a giant (and in a horrible way). But so much of there kitchen stuff was nice and pretty well priced so I grabbed a milk steaming cup for my expresso maker and a million straws.

Our weekend ended just after that and it was the perfect weekend. I loved every single minute and I hope that she comes back to town soon. This also means that Casa de Malcolm is officially open for business and I would love for you to come to town.

Snapshots in Charleston

I have tried to group so much of what we saw throughout the city into groups so that it isn't just a bunch of random stories that don't go together. I think we have reached the end of the organization and I just have a few little random tidbits left to share then it is back to regular life. I will try to make this have some type of order but I make no promises.

Look at them standing out on the battery

I love these porches, I just want to sit out there and drink wine

These doors onto the porches were different but the look so fun you can sit out there and be private

I love these flowers

The clouds were pretty from above on the way home

We are so cold but super cute

I wish I could find more to write about this but mainly I just wanted to share a few more pictures since I took a million to share with you. This was a wonderful trip and I loved every single moment that I had in the city. I am looking forward to going back someday and seeing even more houses and eating more stuff. 

If you ever go to Charleston let me know what you loved and what you disliked.