Can You Spot the Difference?

Can you see it???

What's the whoop? Mika got her braces taken off this afternoon. Woohoo! First thing I did was to give her some chewing gum. She kept chewing gum through her softball game (until I finally made her spit it out, because she was blowing bubbles!)! She had a good game (she hit another triple today), until the very end - when she was the very last out, with the bases loaded. She totally cracked under the pressure, starting to cry after she had 2 strikes on her. At that point, we knew it was over. Somehow, she can't pull herself back together after she psyches herself out. *sigh* Oh, well... there is no way her team will end up in 2nd place (only the top two finishers get a regular season trophy), so their other bet for a trophy finish will be the championship (which, in all honesty - still aren't very good chances).

Patterned paper (MME Fine & Dandy True Blue), flowers and buttons (MM Panorama), metal embellishments (MM Bravissimo), ribbon (MM Paper Reverie Brun), glitter (Stickles), lollipop sticks (Wilton), green floral foam, hot glue

The cropchocolate.com challenge for this week was to create a project using blue and brown as the main color choices. Since today is our wedding anniversary and I hadn't gotten around to making DaddyDude a card (*gasp*), I figured it was a sign from above, when I received my BHG.com newsletter this morning and there was a paper cupcake project by Leah Fung on the front. Who doesn't like a calorie-free cupcake?

Happy Anniversary, DaddyDude! I love you!

Feeling Kind of "Fine & Dandy"... :)

The monthly challenge for the CropChocolate.com focus group was to create a project with stitching on it. I added some hand-stitches to the flourishes on this 12x12 Fine & Dandy Tickled Pink paper (by MME). Other materials included: 6x6 Fine & Dandy Tickled Pink paper pad, Bazzill cardstock (diecut with QK Cotton Candy), DMC floss, DYMO labeling tape and Crystal Stickles.

By the way, Mika had her appliance removed a few weeks ago, which was a nice relief for her. Right now, she is sporting some patriotic braces (red, white & blue). :)

A new smile :)

Hey, do you notice anything different...?

Here she is... just before 2 pm today...

And here's a close-up, less than an hour later! Look at that! Braces are so fancy these days - she got to pick two colors (Go Bears!). She's back for a check-up in 6 weeks and - get a load of this - she can get a "new wire" and "new colors" if she wanted. I just stared at the tech like she was crazy. I mean, I know I had braces almost 30 years ago and things had changed, but... REALLY?!

Marika has braces envy. Just this morning, she mournfully said to me, "Mika's SO LUCKY she gets to wear braces..."

REALLY?!

(But I suppose if my big sister came home with an iPod Touch, I might think like her!).

Okay, they've had the iPod Touch for about a week and it's still in one piece. However, they've discovered how to take pictures and videos and are having WAY too much fun with those functions... one of these days I'm going to find a video of myself on youtube doing something really embarrassing... please warn me if you do! :)

After the Storm...

Comes the rainbow! We had the pleasure of seeing a rainbow on the way home today. It even became a double rainbow for a little while, but was too faint to capture on film.

The girls and I had a fun afternoon - since Daddy Dude is still out of town on business, we decided to celebrate the end of a long week by going shopping (the girls have their own allowance money and can earn "extra" with doing additional chores or performing well during their softball games - Mika, for instance, earned several extra dollars by turning a double-play in her last game, as well as helping another teammate turn two double-play in the game before that). After shopping, we treated ourselves to Arby's. Ah, how lovely not to cook on a Friday night! In the picture above, you might be able to see that Mika's got a big gap between her front teeth now. She's in "phase I" of her orthodontics treatment - she is wearing a rapid palatal expander appliance and currently, we are in week two of turning the key. As the orthodontial treatment coordinator said, "it'll look worse before it looks better" - hence, the gap between the front teeth. In a few months, she'll get a few braces on top and bottom and treatment will eventually be over in about one year. Once all of her baby teeth are gone, she'll get her braces. Time to start saving!

Speaking of expensive items... look what Miss Mika got from the orthodontist! Yes, that's an iPod Touch! I was flabberghasted last week, when they gave it to us - apparently, they were having some sort of a promotion. In all honesty, we were thinking about getting an MP3 player for the girls, but Miss Mika is a pretty destructive kid (Marika would have been fine, I think). We haven't given it to her yet (Daddy Dude needs to finish loading up all of the High School Musical and Grease soundtracks on it) but will very soon. We keep telling her, "now remember - this ISN'T a 'free' iPod - it was very expensive!"

*note - if you look at her top front teeth in the picture above, there is no gap - this was the first day the RPE appliance was installed. We noticed the gap developing within 1 week, which seems amazingly fast. So overall, Mika is coping well with the orthodontial treatment - although, she is lisping heavily now (hopefully this goes away as she becomes accustomed to the device) and having some difficulty finding yummy things to eat that aren't on the forbidden list.

However, if you look at Mika's teeth in this picture, you can see a prominent gap already. It makes me wonder what she'll look like in another 1.5 weeks (which is when we hope the expansion will be done)!