The weather really warmed up this week…just in time for a serious torrential thunderstorm and cooler, stormy weather thereafter. You can tell summer is officially arriving on Saturday!
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I started off the week with some baking. I got a really great new cookbook called 101 Things to Do with a Cake Mix. It got great reviews on Amazon.
I let Hayden pick the first recipe, and he wanted this Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake. The recipe was super simple, like all the other recipes in the book, so I threw it together in no time, and here’s how it turned out.
It was so yummy! It wasn’t overly lemony ,not too sweet, and it was super moist. Even my husband, who is not a big fan of lemon, really liked this for all the same reasons I just mentioned. I would definitely make this again! I’m looking forward to trying out lots of these recipes. They are so quick and easy to make and require so few ingredients that I could see this cookbook being a great resource for future potlucks at church.
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I also picked up a new cookbook at Ollie’s Bargain Warehouse for just $5 called Cooking Light Comfort Food. I let Hayden pick something out of it to make for dinner, and he picked the Tuna Noodle Casserole.
It was just what you’d expect…like a homemade version of a creamy Tuna Helper. It wasn’t anything exciting, but it was homemade, and the kids liked it. Sometimes that’s all I can hope for! My daughter is a big fan of tuna, and she really liked the albacore tuna in this.
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On Tuesday, I took the kids to the dentist for all of our checkups. As usual, Haylee and I came out unscathed, but the boys were a mess. Hayden got two fillings while we were there, and I was informed he needs to see an oral surgeon to have all of his wisdom teeth removed because they are impacted. Sigh. He still needs braces, too.
Holden, poor kid, just can’t seem to win. I brush and floss his teeth religiously, and he used fluoride rinse every day. He doesn’t eat a lot of dessert, and he has about 4 oz. of juice once a week. There’s really nothing else I can do for this kid, and yet he has the worst teeth you could imagine. He’s had so much dental work done already for a little kid of 6 years. But now the molar that has already had a baby root canal and 2 huge fillings has to be extracted! He has infection in it, and a fistula has formed on the gums beside the tooth. No wonder he’s been telling me it is sore when I brush and floss there at night! In addition, he has another molar behind that one that needs a filling, and an upper molar on the other side with major decay that needs a baby root canal and a stainless steel crown. ARGH! So for all of this work, he’s being referred to a pediatric dentist who can give him nitrous oxide so he doesn’t struggle with his strong gag reflex.
I called and set up a consultation for Hayden in early July with an oral surgeon, and they expect to do the surgery shortly thereafter. I researched reviews on pediatric dentists for Holden because I didn’t like the one we tried before, and I found one will all 5-star reviews. We went in for a consultation and really liked her! The work will be done in 2 visits, and he’ll have anesthesia both times, which is not covered at all by my insurance. Figures. But my total out of pocket will be about $600. He will probably need to get a space maintainer for the extracted molar when we’re all done, and I have no idea what that will cost. I swear, it’s always something!
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Wednesday was a whopping 97 degrees with a heat index of 101! It was the perfect day to ask my husband to take the afternoon off from work and join us at Ocean Breeze Water Park. He never takes off work, so this was a big deal that he actually went along with the plan! It was SO incredibly hot and oppressive that day with the high humidity from all the sudden rains that kept appearing throughout the week, but it was so refreshing spending the whole afternoon in the water! It was very busy, but we had a fabulous time!
Steve was so happy that he took the time off from work, because he really enjoyed himself with the kids. And of course, they loved having him along!
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By Friday, the kids had finished off the bundt cake, so I’d already had Hayden pick out the next dessert he wanted to try. He went with this simple Pineapple-Cherry Dump Cake. Boy, was this one easy to make! I’d heard of dump cake before, but I’d never actually made one myself. This had only 4 ingredients, and all you had to do was dump half a dry yellow cake mix in a greased pan, then layer a can of crushed pineapple with its juice, then layer a can of cherry pie filling, then layer the other half of the dry cake mix, and then lay thin slices of 1/2 stick of butter on top and bake it for almost an hour. Bam! This delicious, sweet & tangy cobbler was the result!
Boy, was it tasty! I have my doubts about this even lasting 24 hours in my house! It was ready as we were going out the door for the evening, but Steve and Hayden ate almost half of it late that night when we got home! Steve is not big on sweets at all, but I overheard him telling a reluctant Haylee that he was certain his life was better for having eaten it! 
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Friday night, we headed out late in the evening for Ocean Breeze Water Park, not so much to get in the water, but for a special movie night they were having. They had a huge inflatable movie screen set up by the wave pool, and you could pull up the lounge chairs and enjoy the Lego Movie for free. What fun! I had take the kids to see that movie at the theater recently, and we absolutely loved it, but Steve hadn’t gotten to see it yet. We’d told him how good it was, so he was really looking forward to seeing it.
It was really fun! They all played in the wave pool beforehand, but I opted to sit and enjoy my iPad for a bit…after a huge storm the night before that blew down our back fence and downed lots of trees in the area, the weather had really cooled off, and I wasn’t up for getting wet and then freezing to death during the movie! We ate and had popcorn and funnel cake and soda and hung out enjoying the movie together outdoors. It was neat because it reminded me of going to a drive-in movie as a kid, which is an experience that no longer exists around here. It was really pleasant, and we all enjoyed ourselves. I’m sure we’ll be going again soon, as they’ve scheduled Frozen for the next movie night, which my daughter loved.
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That was enough excitement for one week! Please tell me somebody out there has kids with teeth that are cursed by bad genetics!
See y’all next time.
I’m so sorry you had to go through all those dental problems, Kelly. I can only imagine the efforts you’ve been taking to help your kids maintain a sound oral health. Do you have relatives who have experienced the same situation? I'm asking so as to rule out genetics. Anyway, I hope you will still continue to guide them in flossing and brushing their teeth. At the same time, I hope you’ll try to minimize their sugar intake, though I know it’s hard to resist your homemade treats!
ReplyDeleteDominic Woods @ Metro Dental Associates
That’s a lot of teeth quandary for a child. Despite the costs, I really think that it's worth it to have all those procedures done while he’s still young, rather than let it turn worse and lead to more permanent complications in the long run. Anyway, I hope his new pediatric dentist has figured out a way to fix everything. Thanks for sharing that! All the best!
ReplyDeleteStuart Fleming @ Dr. Hatfield