Broken tooth, black eye, Normal, and Halloween.

So I have this front tooth that is my weak link. I broke it 5 or so years ago and as a result I have to get it "fixed" about once a year because the filling pops off. Well, Sunday night, the tooth broke. It's amazing how you can instantly feel hideous. I found a random dentist in the phonebook (chose her because she had a cute picture) and my tooth was fixed by 11 on Monday. Yeah, back to normal. Until, at 2 that day, it broke again. Hideous, again! The dentist couldn't get me back in till Wednsday. Meanwhile, I had already made an appointment with another Dentist for Tuesday to have some other stuff done. Then back to the other dentist on Wednesday. When I showed up I told her of this burning sensation I had been feeling on my upper gums. She took a look and there were these like singed/burned canker sores up there. For extra fun, I am one of the rare percentage of people that has an allergic reaction to the cotton they use. So, needless to say, this time the dentist was extra careful:) Finally, at 930 on Wednsday, I was back to normal. And this was all done without tears or laughing gas to calm me down. Everytime I go to the dentist I think this is the time I am going to have them gas me up but I always tough it out. I leave with sore shoulders and a tension headache. I don't know what has happened to me in my adult like but I really really really don't like the dentist. I don't even have real teeth problems but something about the sounds and smells and thought of teeth breaking just makes me a little sick.
Too bad I didn't still have my broken tooth Wednesday night because that is when I received my first black eye. Seriously! I have a pretty bad black eye. I am taking Chloe to a little swim class and she threw the ring and it connected with my cheek bone. I thought I was blind! I jumped out of the pool so fast and ran to the bathroom with her in my arms. I half expected to see blood but instead I saw an already large lump forming below my eye ball. And this is how I looked in the morning.

NORMAL. Brad and I just found out we will be living in Bloomington/Normal Illinois for the next to years of our medschool experience. The town we are in is too small to give all the med students ample medical training and hands on experience so all the students move to several locations around the country. We get to move to this cute town about 4 hours east of us. We are excited to be 2 hours south of Chicago and 2.5 hours north of St. Louis. We will still be 2 hours away from Nauvoo but in the other direction. What a new adventure to anticipate.
And these are just a few halloween pictures of our little MONKEY.

I don't know why we don't plan our costumes earlier than 5 minutes before. I know I am going to dress up so I really need to plan next year. But luckily we always have a few things around the house we can throw together. Doesn't my black eye add to the makeup effects? And brad...what a cute cowboy.

Karo Syrup and crayons.

Chloe is a really good drawer. I may be slightly biased because I really want her to be a good drawer, but she really is good. We can tell her to draw a circle and she will, a line and she will, and "dot dot" and she'll do it. She even holds her pen all nice and delicate. I think it was in kindergarten when Mrs. Nichols told me that I had to learn how to hold my pen correct or she would keep making me write with a big fat crayon. The kids with the fat crayons were the ones who couldn't write properly and the ones with pencils had mastered the hand position. Now that's a way to build self esteem for a 5 year old! Chloe won't be in the "fat crayon" group in kindergarten.
A couple of days ago, Brad came home to watch Chloe during lunch and guess what we found when we went to get Chloe? She had pushed the kitchen chair over and dumped the entire contents of the Karo syrup bottle all over the counter, floor, and for extra fun, herself. That stuff is like glue to clean up.

When I was in college...

When I was in college I carried a book around with me all the time. This book was just a book of blank white paper that I filled up with endless thoughts and pictures and quotes. I remember specifically choosing a book without lined paper so I didn't have to "follow the rules" and "stay within the lines". By carrying these books around, I used to be more keenly aware of my surroundings and the characters and objects within it. I remember laughing as I sat on the quad at Utah State as I watched the birds sit above a group of girls eating their sandwiches on the bench. The birds, above, seemed to be mimicking the girls, below. They were girlfriends and they were bird friends. I remember writing about a certain professor's quirkiness that amused me and distracted me but encouraged me all at the same time to come to class and be attentive and listen and score awesome on his exams. I remember listening and watching and recording each emotion and sense that entered my brain, filled my eyes, and transfered to my hands to be recorded forever on the paper in my finger tips. And I vividly remember this one puddle that formed because of one section of the sidewalk being lower than the two connecting sections of sidewalk. I saw so many people step in that deep puddle thinking it was just a shallow skim of water. I stepped in the puddle on a number of occassion as well.
This brings me to my blog. We created this blog so that family and friends in utah could see how the little Chloers is growing and changing and occasionally we'd throw some pics of our self and the dog in there. And I'm pleased with how the blog is going, but I think I may just start using the blog as my blank book. Stop by for a visit, anytime.

The Murdock family comes to visit.

My sister has had this family trip planned for almost a year and I was soooo excited for them to finally get here. Even though they were only in Kirksville a short stop on their fun family trip, we had a great time and were so glad they spent time with us.
Here we are at Thousand Hills. Seems like whenever people visit it's too cold. Thankfully, it cleared up long enough for me to show them the lake and we went on this short little "hike" through the pretty wooded forest.

Aren't these steps magical. My sister and her family.

The girls.

Immediatly, Chloe fell in love with our nephew Adam. She wanted him to read to her, sit in his lap, eat by him, and hold his hand. It was pretty adorable.

More of the Murdocks

Chloe and I spent Friday night with them in Nauvoo. I'm sure they really loved our company but not the early wake up call (Chloe!!)

We walked around downtown K-ville. I walk by this pretty tree almost everyday so we had to stop to take a photo of the kids.

Chloe and Adam.

This was the Halloween craft that I mentioned on a previous post. So easy. It works better with material but you could use a light weight paper.

A cowboy roundup.

Brad's school has this event called Still-a-bration and we went with full force this year. Last year, Chloe didn't really appreciate the kids activities but this year it was super fun with her. First we went to the Kirksville High Homecoming parade in the downtown area. The highschool kids would come up and personally put candy in Chloe's little bag. It was fun and just the right amount of parade for us. Then we went over to the Still-a-bration. They had pony rides and this was a first for Chloe. By the way, we dressed her in her cowboy clothes. She even got to wear a little red cowboy hat and a blue bandana later on.

Here I am teaching Chloe the right way to make a smore. Ahh...teaching her to love the goodness while she's young.

I love this picture for a couple of reasons. 1. The lady watching. She kept getting a kick out of these kids. 2. Chloe and Luke. Luke is Chloe's little friend. We love the Humphry's because they attend all the same things we do and we always get to see that little Luke. Isn't he cute? 3. Chloe loved the balloon. She kept squeezing it and making "ohhh" sounds and giving it a hug. It popped later on.

Nothing beats a free night out, right?

A fun craft.

At church, on Wednesday, we made some fun Halloween crafts. If you are looking for something to do with the kids and you've already frosted the cookies, and picked and carved your pumpkin, these are a fun aftenoon activity.
I just made a purple Royal icing. You use 1lb. bag of powder sugar, 3 eggs whites, and 3 tsp. of cream of tartar. You whip it with a hand mixer or in your kitchen aid mixer for about 5-7 minutes. It should form peaks when it's done. If you aren't going to use it right away put a damp cloth over it. While the girls frosted we kept the cloth over the middle of it just to ensure that is would work for them before it dried out. This frosting dries very very hard. We decorated with: candy corns, Peeps, Hershey's bars, chocolate licorice, tootsies, marshmallows, fudge oreos, and some fun ghost sprinkles.

Another fun craft is to wrap empty toilet paper rolls with cute halloween material and ribbon and add some stickers or marker it to say a halloween phrase. Tie the hanging ends of the wrapped fabric with a ribbon and you have what looks like a big piece of candy. We filled them with candy last night, also. I'll try to post pics of mine later.