Braces and Dumplings

The first big news of the week is that Sharon is getting braces on her teeth! She is currently enjoying the fun that is having spacers in her mouth. She can't chew on anything harder than Cream of Wheat right now, so she's having a pretty miserable time. She is at least to the point that they don't hurt all the time, but she'll be glad when the spacers are out and the braces are on. We're looking at two solid years, and she'll have to have four teeth extracted as we go along. But it won't hurt for her to bite down when this is all over, and that is the ultimate goal. Thank goodness for insurance!

We had some friends from work over for dinner last night, the Barkers. They're always a lot of fun and their two kids, Destiny and Rylynn, are just as cute as anything. In the picture Rylynn is the one with the big huge cheesey grin and Destiny is trying to hide behind her spoon. When they left Destiny suggested that maybe one day we could have breakfast or lunch together. We thought that was a pretty good idea! They were quite pleased with just looking at our big dogs through the safety of a sliding glass door, but every few minutes we'd have to get up from the table so they could say hi to them. They have the best manners, always saying yes sir, no sir and yes ma'am no ma'am. A pretty good parenting job by their parents, because those two are full of energy. We did chicken and dumplings on the hope that Sharon would be able to eat at least some of it. She could eat everything but the carrots, so I figured that was a success. And yes, in case you are curious, that is Nehi Peach soda that Sharon and I are drinking. Hey, when in Arkansas ...

I'm going to attempt to put in a slide-show that shows different pictures of our house. We've had some requests to see what it looks like. Sharon bought the house a year before we got married and painted the entire enterior. It was kind of a battleship gray beforehand, and that wasn't going to work. Sharon recommends making sure windows are open if your'e going to repaint your entire house, as the fumes can do funny things to your head. Over the course of the two years we've been married we've repainted the master bedroom, both guest bedrooms, and both bathrooms. We both love the gold in the hallway and that deep pretty red in the kitchen that spills over just a bit into the living room. It's a great location, with a brand new elementary school on the same street as us, just about a mile down the road. In between us and the new school our church is building a new chapel. So from a location standpoint, we're doing pretty good! If you examine the pictures too closely you'll notice the ocassional damage to a wall or a door jam caused by a Mastiff going through a puppy/chewing phase. Luckily now the only phase he is going through is a laying around and doing nothing phase, which should last him for the rest of his life. We much prefer this phase. And yes, you may notice that there are covers on our sofa that are never there when people come over. Let's just say that a Mastiff produces a lot of drool, and nasty things tend to hide in his jowls and fall out whenever he lays down for any leangth of time. I found I had to shampoo the furniture a lot less once we adopted a "total coverage system" for the furniture when the dogs are hanging out with us. And it assures you, gentle reader, that you won't be sitting in dog drool when you come to visit the Gosneys. Everybody wins.