just chewing gum.... soooo... the good thing is, no pain, since this had undergone root canal treatment back in 1994 (it´s a miracle that filling lasted THAT long, really!)... my options were extraction or a temporary filling. went with the temporary filling, it was not a convenient day for an extraction (it was 3:30, I had to pick Ale after school, I was driving myself, and, let´s not forget that I take a lot of Aspirin for my migraines, not to mention that I need to precertify this sort of thing for the insurance to cover it...)...so $70 (which is expensive for me, but, I know will sound like super-cheap for some of you!) this covered the X -ray, removing what was left of the old filling, application of a topic antibiotic and the new filling)....AND, I only had $25 on me, so I paid that, and signed for the rest (I have been going to these same dentists since they were students, so they let me do that)... Oh, and Ale says one of her wisdom teeth is coming out, so I need to take her next payday to have it evaluated!

I was supposed to go to the supermarket on Saturday and, of course, with Ale (and now myself, too) being sick, I didn´t... so, we are almost out of food! I wrote a check and sent niece to the supermarket. She should come back with about $5 change... the good thing is, she´ll get a dose of reality as to how much things cost! (especially since I´m sending her with cash... she does go to the supermarket with sis, sometimes, but, since sis charges everything, she hardly ever looks at prices-- I know!--) so, now niece REALLY has to LOOK at the prices... she took a calculator. LOL! Why LOL? Well, whenever I go to the supermarket, I make Ale keep count... in her head... or in paper... not exact counts, everything gets rounded up, but, Ale can do it in her head and she writes down the resulting number next to the last item bought, just in case she forgets!

Anyway, this should be a valuable lesson for niece! (I sent her with $90 and a very detailed list)

Well...we took care of the eye doctor last Saturday (I spent $22.60 to have the Dr. tell me Ale has 20/20 eyesight...and that, as far as he can tell, she has not "inherited" my tendency to myopia or astigmatism... Yay! those must be her father's genes!- he still has 20/20 eyesight at 35!)
She so desperately wanted glasses (and I sooooo desperately DIDN'T want her to need them! LOL!)....
And I already made an appointment for us both at the dentist's for Friday. This is just a "diagnostic" visit, so the Dr. can see what she needs to do... I'm hoping in Ale's case it'll be just a clean up and then maybe schedule a visit to the dentist's husband, who is an orthodoncist...yep, even I can tell she needs it!)... in my case... I KNOW there will be LOTS of work! I've always had terrible teeth...

I also have to start allocating some money to pending vaccines for Ale...

O U C H ! (in more ways than one!)

One of the new translators tempted me: asked me if I'd like to upgrade my computer, then went on to say a fried of his refurbishes used laptops and offered me a "new" one for $350....

I've been toying with the idea... but, at the same time...it's $350...wouldn't that $$$ be better invested in...say...me? and Ale? (our teeth, specifically... we haven't been to the dentist's for ever...)

so... that's been in my mind the past couple of weeks... and, when I was this [] close to calling the translator and tell him if his friend still has the laptot, I want it...I ran into my dentist at the drugstore around the corner from work!... hmmmm... I'll take that as a sign!...

For the time being, I'll take those $350 and allocate them to the "Teeth" fund (God knows it probably won't be enough!)...My old laptop works just fine...plus, if that guy's friend refurbishes laptops, he probaly WILL have others later on!

I was looking at my blog and it seems I was nesting last January (2008)...now I'm nesting again!
Like momsents, I'm craving spending...
My obsession right now is Ale's room.
To curve the spending, I decided to MAKE the stuff rather than buy...that way, I get to buy the materials (so, about 35 skeins of yarn + burlap + other stuff as opposed to 1 rug... cost is about the same as a brand new one + labor...BUT, it keeps me busy so I don't go out and keep buying, so it's worth it!)...
I think I'll be done with the rug in about 2 weeks (I've been working on it for 3 weeks now, so the rug has effectively kept me out of the shops for 5 weeks... yay!)...
NEXT, I want to order her books on top of the headboard (it's one of those with little spaces for storing things), so I offered to make her some bookends...we settled on elephant bookends... soft ones (saw the idea somplace)... the great news is I have most of the materials I need already (except for the sand to fill them....) I could either use the fabric left over from the ballet bag, or I could use another fabric I bought at the same time (which I really love,and was hoping to use to make something for myself, maybe a bag...) I can always ask my sis for the right color thread (she sells industrial thread, and she has oodles and oodles of samples...)
which would mean I would achieve my "nesting" goal (something NEW nice and very special for Ale's room)without spending any money! (yay!) ... I have even been working on my pattern...
Now, mind you, this is a project to be stared once the rug is finished! I'll post pictures! (this is what it WILL look like, but the pompons aren't sewn in place yet!)


Oh, ref> the fabrics....
As you can see, the rug is very colorful (one might say technicolor! LOL!), so if I use the hot pink fabric, I'll be "picking up" the pink from the rug...If I use the other fabric... it's bright red (also on the rug) with multicolor mandalas... so...either could work... I'll let Ale decide once I have given her the rug

I would also like to go to the dollar store for some cheap picture frames to build a nice display on her wall... but that IS money...
Oh, and I also saw this wonderful idea
for displaying children's art in their room....they put a "clothesline" against a wall (so, a piece of yarn suspended from 2 nails), with wooden clothespins, and the drawings were hung with the clothepins! so clever... and it looked great, too!)...another NEW thing for Ale's room that wouldn't cost me any additional $$$$ (I do have all the materials!)

HELP! ...oh, and, no, I haven't been watching HGTV, we don't have cable! LOL!

he,he,he...this is what I told Ale when she showed me- again- the dream doll house...little does she know an identical one is sittin in my sister's closet...
I have almost all my presents...including my nephew's!!!...
the one I'm missing is tricky...it's Santa's "family" present... a big box containing 1 present for each one of us... in past years it has been easy, as there were only 4 women/girls in the house...now with nephew things get complicated... I'm thinking perhaps towels... (in the past, the 4 presents were identical, or "related", only different sizes and/or color)
Oh, I also have to shop for Nanny's Xmas dinner and present...but that one is easy!

My house was starting to look like it could rival the Munster's, so I set aside some money to buy paint and hire painters (we've tried DIY in the past, and we are just TERRIBLE!...not to mention the fumes give us all headaches and then we end up painting only 1 coat!!)...Also, that is X amount of hours of my already overbooked day... did I mention on top of the 8-5 job and the translations (read 8-11pm) job, I am trying to make the ballet bag for Ale? Oh, and a fish blanket... Oh, and I also want to try and see if I can make a chicken pie like the ones Mom made?? (I'm good, whenever I try things like that they are ALMOST...almost, but not quite... as good as hers)...
Back to house painting: that type of work is not really awfully expensive here, so I just made sure to wait until they had the paint special they ALWAYS have at the end of the year (buy 5 gallons, get 1 free) and bought 12 gallons of paint (paid only for 10!)
That is just to paint the outside of the house, fron and back, and the living room... I will wait a couple of months before doing the bedrooms...although, they are having 'Shopping nights' this week and everything will be 35% off... I could get the paint and keep it stored for a month or two... If only I could be assured that mischievious hands will NOT attempt the DIY thing!!

Hmmm....cellphone company #1 is offering $0.01/minute calls for up to 5 "frequent" numbers...If I switched, I could put the office cellphones on that plan (4) and add sis....If I did decide to go with a contract ::shudder::, they have them starting at $5/month...then calls to office cellphones would be free (since I would be contracting it through the office's acct exec, and would be in the embas sy's plan)...then I could add sis and niece on the $0.01 thing...I'd still have 3 slots....best friend? would have to find out if she uses that company, but definetely a possibility...

hmmmmm....I guess I have until next Tuesday to decide (sales exec comes every Tuesday)

The Dress...the typical volcaneña dress I bought for Ale last year was "lost"...I arrived early enough to still catch Nanny at home (sis hadn't arrived home yet), and I had her look in all the weird places in which she generally stores things that are not in use...sure enough, there was the dress, which was bought just a bit larger than needed to be last year, so that it could still be used THIS year! HA! ...now, I do need new shoes to go with it! (last year's fit just barely, and hurt Ale when she walks...and, this year, they're DANCING!)...so, off to the handicrafts market I go (next weekend)
I'll take pictures of her in it and post them!

I submitted a medical expense claim to the insurance company today, for a total of $251...we'll see how much (if any!) I get back... I think the deductible is $74/year, but not really sure...this is for 2 neurologist visits / tests/ medicines, so it's really not bad!

Yep. She needs new ones...she outgrew most of the stuff...
she is down to 1 skort, 1 shirt, 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of pants...

I already bought the material to have 1 skort made...and I gave her $25 today, which I hope will cover 1 shirt, 1 t-shirt and 1 pair of paints...if not, I told her to get the shirts and I'll give her the money for the pants later on (PE classes on Fridays and Tuesdays, only, so...)

In February, Ale needed new shoes for school. I bought her a size 2 pair, which were a bit large for her at the time, and, since they were having a 2X1, I bought a size 3 pair for the new school year (starting next week)...sis said I was exagerating and that I would probably have to save the size 3 shoes for the FOLLOWING year (Aug 09)...turns out, I was right! Those size 3 shoes are the perfect size right now (which means I will probably hit the 2X1 sale in Sept/Oct for a size 4 and size 5! LOL!)...oh, yes, those size 3 shoes also fit my sis! LOL!