Look, Mom - no cavities!

I feel the need to brag a little bit. I had my six-month dental cleaning yesterday and had no cavities. But what's really impressive is that I've NEVER had a cavity. Not one. No fillings either.

Which means that if I can make it to my next cleaning in six months cavity-free, I can proudly claim to have no cavities at age thirty, ahem, twenty-nine. I consider that a pretty impressive feat! But do you think cavities are inevitable? I mean, how long can this continue, right?

From age seven to sixteen, I had some kind of metal in my mouth at all times. My teeth were a real train wreck and needed lots of help. I had expanders, retainers (front and bottom), lip bumpers, head gears (oh so attractive) and braces. I still have a permanent bottom retainer today. I guess I adopted good brushing habits from hearing my orthodontist preach to me enough times about how important it is.

However ... I don't floss. Ever. Gross, I know. There's just something about watching food particles fly out of my mouth and stick to my mirror that makes me cringe. I usually floss the morning of my dental cleaning (like I really expect that to fool them?), and when I'm in the chair I vow to the hygienist that I'll do a better job, but by the next day, I'm over it. The hygienists always comment on what beautiful teeth I have, but when they start the dreaded plaque scraping, my sensitive gums bleed and my whole mouth turns into a horror film.

But if I want to shoot for the Guinness World Record of Oldest Person to be Cavity-Free, then I really need to get serious about this whole flossing thing. Kent flosses almost every night and puts me to shame. Should I tape a reminder to my bathroom mirror? Put floss on my pillow every morning so that I can't go to sleep without flossing? How do you hold yourself accountable for things that you HATE doing?

Insert witty, creative blog title here

I've been wishing lately that I had given more thought to our blog before I started it almost two years ago. I come across so many blogs with catchy, clever titles .... ours, not so much. I was just so anxious to join the world of bloggers that I just threw a lackluster title up there in order to fill in that required bit of info to complete the set-up process.

And as much as Kent enjoys reading "our" blog, he's not exactly a contributing writer ... so should I transform it more into "my" blog? It doesn't help that I have total blogger's block when I try to think of a creative title. I can't change it yet, because I have yet to come up with a title that I am in love with. But if/when I do, should I take the plunge and make the change?

Help, I'm having a blog-life crisis, and could use some advice!

Down to the Wire

Whew! We completed our flooring redo with just minutes to spare. Did I mention that we had a deadline of a week and a half, because we were having 13 family members over on Father's Day? Oh yeah, minor detail.

Kent was still grouting the last room less than 24 hours before our get-together, and I was still hauling leftover tile, tools and junk out of the house, oh about two hours before our company was due to arrive. Yikes! But we did it, and we're thrilled with the results. I feel so much more productive in our "new" office, our master closet seems bigger and the new tile in the bathrooms give the rooms a richer look. There's still some minor finishing work to do, like the baseshoe, but the hard part is done. Check it out:

How about those new toilets, huh? They're flush-riffic! (Yes, we realize that we are a little too excited about our new high-efficiency porcelain thrones. It's not normal, but we're OK with that.)

Huge props to my hubby! I'm so lucky to have such a handy guy!

Bad Neighbors?

How friendly are you with your neighbors? I always thought that we were "above average" on the friendliness scale. We wave whenever we see them outside, we stop and have the typical lawn/weather chat every now and then, and we even gave Christmas goodies to our neighbors on our immediate left and right.

Yes, I thought that we were good neighbors. Until yesterday when I walked to our group mailboxes a few houses down. On my way back, I stopped to say hello to our neighbor caddy-corner from us who was working in her yard. A few days before, I noticed some orange spray paint on our curb, and saw that she had the same paint on her curb. I asked her if she knew anything about it (she always seems to know everything that happens on our street), and she said that the city was going to re-do our curbs. I didn't feel too out-of-the-loop at this point, because apparently she and her husband were the ones who complained to the city about the curbs being poured wrong initially. They complained enough that the city agreed to re-do them. So, I considered that insider information.

She then informed me that our immediate neighbors to our right are expecting their first child. Oops. Didn't know that either. That bottle of wine with attached spices for mulled wine that I gave them for Christmas probably wasn't a big hit! I think she's almost six months pregnant now ... but she's been hiding under sweaters and coats for the past few months. Eventually I would have noticed ... right?

We continued to chat and she mentioned that her immediate neighbor (our neighbor directly across the street) might cut some of his trees down. He never liked the ornamental pear trees, but his wife had wanted them planted a few years ago. But now that she had passed, he might cut them down. What?!? How could I not know that my neighbor had passed away? And not just recently, a few months ago. Granted, she rarely came outside when she was alive. Almost all of my interactions with them was chatting with the husband about plants and trees (yes, he's elderly). But I still felt really bad. I should have known. I should have taken over food. I should have done something. Maybe I still will. Is it too late? Are we bad neighbors?