The girls and I have been “land locked” for almost a week now. The car we affectionately call “Dave’s” car is having radiator problems, and is essentially out of commission until Dh’s next day off. Meanwhile even our van has had it’s share of maintenance issues. Including a dead battery and more recently a punctured tire. Dh has been using the van to get around, and as a result we (The kiddos and I) have had to cancel all non-essential trips. Including trips to playdates and LLL.

So, to assume we are a bit stir-crazy would be an understatement. The blanket of boredom has stretched to such a point that my two eldest are practically wiggling out of their skin with suppressed hyperactivity.

Yesterday, my eldest was bored and as a result she was doing everything in her power to “mix things up a bit.” At one point, after witnessing her knock her little sister down and listening to her screech nonsense at the top of her lungs, I sat her down and told her, “Listen, I know you are bored, but if you don’t make better choices you are going to land yourself in hot water.”

Her eyes got really wide and she paused.

I assumed I had made my point and was surprised when I heard an awed little voice behind me whisper, “Wow, in hot water. Do I get to play with the hot water or do we add ice?”

I explained to her, “Honey, ‘hot water’ is what people say when they mean that you are going to get in trouble. It is not literally a tub of hot water.”

She nodded knowingly and walked away.

Later that night as I was herding the crew into bed, my eldest touched me on the elbow and asked, “Since we didn’t get to do it today, can tomorrow we get into hot water?”

!

Sometimes I have no idea what to do with her.

My husband readily admits he doesn’t like the title of my blog. He thinks I’m hardly a “drop out” and wishes I would find a new title. I told him the only other name in contention would be “Monica’s Closet.” (Ala “Friends” and the episode where Joey and Chandler discover neat-freak Monica has a messie secret closet.) Unfortunately, renaming the blog “Moncia’s Closet” requires a continual explanation as to WHY my name isn’t “Monica” and all the backstory that goes with that. So, I’ve never made the change. And this site remains “Domestic Drop Out.”

However, in the spirit of this blog and all things domestic, I’m showing off my recent efforts. Including a trip last night to CVS. Also known as “CVS Trippin.”

For those who are not in the know, CVS has a cult following of couponers. These couponers practically speak a new language and take coupon shopping to a new art form. Including pie graphs and spreadsheets. I would not call myself a hard core CVSer… but admit to “dabbling” a bit. After all, it’s hard to pass up a bargain.

Take for instance, my most recent trip. I bought $65.00 worth of goodies for just a little over $3.00. I would have walked away spending nothing, had I read my Herbal Essence coupon better. But still, it’s not a bad score for the $$ invested. Plus! I walked away earning $20 in Extra Care Bucks. Setting me up nicely for the next trip.

In related domestic endeavors… My sister and I recently dyed two dozen unbleached Indian prefolds. We wrapped them up, tossed them in the buckets, and spent the afternoon stirring diapers. They came out really pretty. All tye-dyed and ready for baby Jaz. Whenever she decides to make her appearance.

Yesterday kicked off the Olympics. (In case you were hiding under a rock and you missed it.) I wasn’t planning on watching the opening ceremony. For no other reason except for I get totally annoyed that it takes so stinking long to get to “United States of America” during the Parade of Nations. As it turns out, though, my two eldest were interested in the fireworks (giant exploding footprints… doesn’t get any cooler.) So, we left it on and watched the ceremony. At least we watched most of it. I kept it on through a third of the Parade of Nations and then had to convince the girls to go to bed.

Ironically, we still missed the US entrance, even with the unique character stroke scoring system they used (instead of the standard Alphabet listing.) So this morning we watched the important portions that we missed on nbc’s olympic site: www.nbcolympics.com

Olympic kick-off aside, the girls and I also celebrated 08-08-08 by going to the Children’s Museum with a friend and her kiddos. The girls really enjoy the Children’s discovery area. They have a new hot air balloon exhibit that fascinated both DD1 and DD2. We talked a little bit about hot air rising and they enjoyed pressing the button and watching the whole process in practice.

If I remember, I plan on taking them back to the Plano Balloon fest again this year. We went last year when DD3 was just a few days old. I know they’d enjoy returning and seeing life size hot air balloons in action.

A long time ago I started phasing out noisy toys from the girl’s toy room. I can’t handle the incessant noise. The tingly sounds of canned music just grates on my nerves and eventually ends in my ceremoniously sweeping said toy into the closet and declaring it “off limits.”

Which, is unfortunate for my eldest because she seems to crave that noise. She will sit and press the noise button over and over and over. Putting her ear against the toy and giggling. And yes, I’m talking about my four year old.

You can imagine that her craving for jangly noises and my extreme aversion to them, do not mesh well. At. All.

My solution has been to not buy noisy toys and to let batteries die & toys come to a quiet end. This solution has worked well for me. So much so, that I had a lapse in judgment and purchased, for DD1 and DD2, the Bella Dancerella box set for Princess Dancing. It was clearanced for $3.00 and I knew the girls would enjoy dancing to the DVD. What I failed to take into account, is that the box set came with one magic wand.

You do the math. One noisy magic wand. Two daughters who believe they are genuinely princess.

So all morning I have heard the loud jingle of a magic wand being activated -over and over and over- all the while two girls scream about “MY TOY!” “NO! MY TOY!”

My head is literally splitting in two. And I find myself cursing Bella Dancerella and at the same time contemplating buying ANOTHER box set so that both girls can have wands.

Bright and early this morning I hear my youngest daughter, DD3, holler “Ahdoo-et! Ahdoo-et! Ahdoo-et.”

Knowing the translation for “Ahdoo-et” is really “I do it” I looked around the sofa and saw DD3 chasing DD2 around. DD2 is holding onto a little plastic babydoll that DD3 has claimed as her own. Apparently frustrated by her older sister having “her” doll, she had decided to chase DD2 down while screaming at her to essentially return the doll.

I corral both girls and ask DD2 if she would please give the baby the dolly. DD2 drops the doll and runs off laughing. So I picked up the doll and handed it to DD3 explainig, “Here you go. Here’s your dolly.”

DD3 smiles, looks at me and says clear as a bell, “Dolly.”

Surprised I reflected back, “Yes, Dolly.”

DD3 mimics, “Yesh, Dolly.”

Then DD3 pokes at the dolly’s blinking eyes and I explain, “eyes, eyes.”

Happily DD3 licks the dolly’s eyelashes and declares over and over, “ah-eees, ah-ees, ah-ees, ah-ees.”

Add her verbal skills to the fact that she took her first steps at 9 months, that she’s a very apt little bubble blower, and that she’s such an independent little thinker. I can tell already that this baby is going to stretch my mothering resources.

There are two really amazing contests going on right now. One is from Nature’s Child. The winner gets a bumGenius 3.0 Starter Kit: 18 diapers, diaper sprayer, a dozen cloth wipes, and a bottle of odor remover.

You just have to answer the question:

1) It’s hot. So hot you force your kids to share the kiddie pool with you, only after adding a couple pounds of ice. What do you do to beat the heat?

If that wasn’t enough, Along for the Ride is also hosting a summer contest. Winner gets:

Winner will receive the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride. The essential babywearing stash includes one Gypsy Mama Wrap, one Hotslings pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Beco Butterfly, and one ZoloWear Ring Sling - in their choice of any in-stock colors or patterns.

Do you have ANY idea how stinking cool it would be to win that stash of babywearing items? I think I would fall over from sheer shock!

Entry is simple. Just share your best babywearing advice. “Share the tidbit with us that has saved you with that babe in a carrier.”

Both entries have a closing date of Midnight on the 31st of July. I suggest entering today. lol.

For the lazy:

How Martha Stewart teaches T-shirt folding, explained by videojug:

Well, I spent the morning on the phone and ended up canceling the root canal scheduled for tomorrow, and instead I got a last minute exam for this afternoon with a second holistic dentist office.

Let me first say, I knew I was out of my league when they offered complimentary drinks in the waiting room. If I had read the website well enough I would have seen the following description of their facilities and services:

From your first call to our concierge to book your visit, you begin to notice the extras we offer our guests such as the First Class leather airline seats in the reception area, your choice of movies during treatment, Bose sound-canceling headphones, hot towels at the end of the visit, and all that insurance red tape handled for you by our insurance specialist.

After arriving, I was given a tour, including a room called the “Oasis” where they sat and chatted with me about my dental health. They had a special room with a view for cleanings, a special room for general work, and then a specific room for removing amalgam fillings. It is a beautiful place to go and feel pampered.

Add to that, everything I saw and heard aligned very closely with my own health philosophy.

By the way, I did ask about pulling all my teeth out and getting dentures. I think I shocked the woman who was helping me. She said the procedure would be horrendous, as would the healing time, and that she would never recommend doing that, nor would their office support that choice.

So whatever that means.

Anyway, they said some things that made sense to me. Including three things I’d never really heard mentioned before with regards to amalgams and mercury.

1) Mercury is toxic. (Okay, I’ve heard this before. lol. Just never heard a dentist admit it.)

2) Mercury expands with age. (Which explains why inevitably my teeth crack around the filling.)

3) Mercury never properly bonds with the tooth, which creates opportunity for bacteria and eventually decay under the filling.

The X-Rays confirmed their assertion. You can see where my teeth are decaying BELOW the fillings. Almost from the inside out. This office wants to remove all the mercury from my mouth and replace it with hypo-allergenic stuff. The idea is that bacteria begets bacteria, and that the amalgams in my mouth are creating sort of a vicious cycle of bacteria/cavities… So the plan is to remove the amalgams and then target a change in PH in my mouth through cleaning, diet, and hygiene.

It was so interesting talking to a dentist who did not swear by fluoride. In fact, they insisted I avoid it.

The dentist also mentioned that my teeth are softer than most peoples. Which explains why the cavities deteriorate so quickly. It’s just going to be a fact of my life that I’m always going to have to be more vigilant than other people. The good news, though, is that I have really healthy gums and strong bones. For whatever that’s worth.

The point of prayer in all this is the price. Over $13,000.

Eep.

I just have no idea where we’re going to get that cash. We’ve been working so hard on debt snowballing, and now I feel overwhelmed. If there is ANYTHING about Dave Ramsey that I find annoying is the lack of advice on what to do when you are maxed out, and your health care craps out on you.

Bleck.

The dentist office has the whole process broken down into about six visits. The first visit will cost me $1500. They will file it on my insurance and I will get $700 back. The second visit will cost around $700. So there is the remote possibility that I can get MOST (Not the crowns or bridges) done for the top of my mouth with the stimulus check we were going to throw down on the van. (Still haven’t talked to Dh about that…) But after that, I just don’t know what I am going to do.

The biggest expense is going to be the bridges and crowns. If it weren’t for them, I think we could figure out a way to do this.

I tried not to cry. Again. When she showed me the numbers. In fact I held it together until she said that they want to wait to remove the tooth that is bothering me until AFTER all the mercury is out of my mouth. (Something about the possibility of mercury getting into the cavity where the tooth was pulled if it isn’t healed properly and we remove fillings…) I know they felt bad for me. The woman kept saying, “Just do this in small chunks.”

She has no idea how LARGE their “small” chunks are to our household.

Please, be praying with me as I find direction. I can’t do nothing. I need to find a path, a game plan, and forge forward.

Back in December my dentist had noted that the filling on one of my teeth had cracked, and told me to make an appointment for a cleaning and an exam. Well, they didn’t have an exam or cleaning appointment available and put me on a calling list. I contacted them in January about the cleaning appointment and was assured I would be called. Well, as it happens time flew. We either didn’t have the $$ to do the work, or the time… Excuse after another, until I noticed about a week ago that a tooth was bothering me.

I called and made the appointment for today and was told that the decay had progressed to the point that a root canal would be needed. He drilled the tooth, covered it with a temporary filling. Told me not to eat or drink on that side. Not to floss the tooth. And explained the root canal needed to be done ASAP because from now until then I would be in pain. He then handed me a prescription for Vicodin.

I was stunned.

As I sat there, frozen with questions. He proceeded to admonish me for being addicted to sugar and for eating so much sugar. He told me I needed to stop drinking soda, eating candy, and scarfing on ice scream.

It was like I stepped into a warped universe!

WHAT SUGAR!

GAAARRRRRRRRRRR!

I tried to explain that we are HFCS free, that we don’t drink soda, we don’t eat out. The few times we eat “forbidden foods” are few enough between occasions that I would hardly blame it for the state of my teeth! I told him about how often we brush and floss, I told him about using MI paste and doing oral dysinfections. I explained that the gum I eat is Xylitol based… the whole deal.

He shook his head and declared, “Well your mouth says differently. You have more cavities now then you did in December. At the rate your going you are going to have a lot more root canals on the future. This root canal alone is going to cost you -out of pocket- over two-thousand dollars. And that doesn’t even include the crown.”

It was at this point where I just started crying. I couldn’t even stop myself.

I feel so defeated.

I’m angry at my body for having teeth like this. I’m angry at the dentist for accusing me of somehow neglecting or willfully contributing to poor dental health. I’m angry that health insurance doesn’t cover TEETH. Since WHEN is the tooth NOT a part of my body and thereby a part of my overall health. HOW can it be legal to specifically exclude teeth from coverage?

Needless to say. Today I’m grumpy, and angry, and I just want to crawl into bed with my painful tooth and just ignore the world. I find myself wishing all my teeth would just fall out. They say that a third of the population will end up with false teeth. We all know it’s an inevitability for me. Especially at the rate I’m going. Why wait? Surely it would be cheaper in the long run?