Not a good day for the mall either

I took Evan to the mall after dinner with the hopes of getting him a haircut, shoes (of course), and a gift I forgot to pick up the other day. We came home with a haircut.

There was ONE person cutting hair and ONE kid ahead of us...he looked to be older than Evan and had almost the same haircut as Evan, but he whined the entire time and then insisted on having his hair washed afterwards so we had to wait like 20 minutes. Grrr.

After the haircut (which took us about 6 minutes), we went to Payless and found shoes for both kids (buy 1 get 1 1/2 off sale). The pair for Evan had a sale tag on them, but it wasn't ringing up on the register. THE LADY WOULDN'T GIVE ME THE SALE PRICE. Seriously. And if she did give me the sale price, I wouldn't get the discount on the second pair. Seriously! So no shoes were purchased, even if just as a matter of principle.

By this time, it was too late to run the last errand, so we came home. Add it to the growing list of things I need to accomplish this week :-)

A little chilly for the sprinkler

Somehow I have the responsibility to water the newly landscaped lawn (hint, hint). And somehow, I cannot water the grass without watering myself--and it's not quite as warm out tonight as it used to be!!

Here's the result of the hard work (pictures courtesy of hubby...)

Ooh...pretty sod!

Retaining wall and grass where the rocky muddy mess used to be

Some new friends for what used to be one lonely bush...

Also have some better pictures of the kitchen...

Posting about not posting

Just to put to rest any fears that I have broken all my fingers or that our internet is down...it's been a busy weekend. Worked Friday night (as in I returned home at 4:30 AM), paintball/NFL draft on Saturday which left me with the boys except for a jewelry party at a friends where I found a lovely Mother's Day gift for myself, and family events on Sunday. Ethan was the first person to wake up in our house this morning--at 8 AM. We were a tired family.

Landscaping is done and beautiful and if it stops raining, I'll take some pictures tonight. But I won't be upset if it keeps raining because it's good for the grass :-)

Happy sigh...

I'm so happy...the kitchen is so pretty!! Unfortunately, there will be no progress for the next week while we wait for the countertop to come in (had to measure/order after the cabinets were installed), but the fridge and oven/stove are hooked up and I realized that I could put the pantry back together, so that cleared a little bit of stuff out of the dining room. And I can probably start filling some of the cabinets too!

There's the fridge!!! And the under-cabinet lighting!!

Under-cabinet lighting rocks

And this...well this just causes a wave of happiness to wash over me.
Kind of makes me want to go grocery shopping so I can fill 'er up!
And those things on the left door? Beer holders. Kick ass.

Tomorrow starts part 2 of our mass renovation adventure--landscaping! I used to keep a pretty garden out front, but have lost the time/motivation/patience in the past few years and it's looking pretty crappy, so we thought we'd turn it over to the professionals. Some before pictures...

The barren front of the house

The ginormous mudpit that keeps oozing onto our patio

The dirty patio surrounded by weedy grass

Not a bad day either

I was very pleasantly surprised to find ALL the cabinets attached to the walls when I got home...these guys can move!! A few snafus which will hopefully turn out to by minor (one door on backwards and 3 cabinets have a wood divider between the doors when we thought we were getting cabinets with no wood divider). But they look pretty awesome and even though our contractor was not too excited when we showed him the color (red = more work), I think 'farmhouse red' turned out to be a great choice!!

Stove/microwave will go in the hole in the middle...

Check out the big space for the fridge!!

The stove...where my kitchen table used to/will be :-)

And good morning to you too!

In a rare moment, the first child (Evan) woke up at 7:30 this morning. He snuggled into bed with Ethan and I (I have to be in the middle Mom, or I might fall off) and asked me to please not breathe on him because my face smelled bad. And his stuffed monkey took an alligator bite out of my nose, which tasted like bananas. And Ethan's nose tasted like apple pie. And then there was a loud harsh knock on the front door.

I know it can't be the kitchen guys because 1) it's too early and 2) they would just use the key to let themselves in, but somehow, I know that what is on the other side of the door is going to be no good.

It's the cabinets. A ginormous 20-foot truck full of them (and probably some other people's cabinets). And I'm standing in my pajamas with uncombed hair and unbrushed teeth, squinting at the bright overcast sky outside. Apparently we're the first delivery (how come I'm never 1st when I'm actually waiting for a delivery??) and these guys are ready to roll. So in they come and start stacking boxes all over the kitchen and dining room, while promising to leave us access to the refrigerator and the front door.

And then another truck pulls up. With the appliances. I contemplated becoming a coffee drinker because clearly I need to wake up NOW. But the delivery guys were awesome and brought everything in and even though the new fridge is sitting in the middle of my dining room covered in tape with no doors? I LOVE IT. Love love love it. It's a huge thing with french doors on the top and a drawer for a freezer. Seriously...love.

Fast forward a couple of hours, when our contractor calls me while he's driving to the house. He wants to know where the bathroom faucet is because they're ready to put the sink in, and they also need to replace the water line under the toilet because it was running a little longer than it should have. I tell him the cabinets arrived at 7:30 this morning and the line goes silent. Finally he says, "forget everything I just said about the bathroom, sounds like there's plenty to do." Apparently I wasn't the only one surprised to see the cabinets/appliances show up at 7:30 this morning :-)

So depending on the progress today and the number of boxes tonight, there might be some good pictures tonight!!

Kitchen pictures

Everything is out, the tile is in, next week is grouting and painting!!

Ooooooh....

Cabinet lighting wires have provided a wonderful opportunity
to teach Evan about the dangers of electrocution
(Ethan's idea, not mine)

**There was no fire, but if I took the fire extinguisher out of the kitchen, there probably would be a fire and I'd never remember where I put it so the guys working on the kitchen just keep moving it around so it's not in the way**

Her-sh-ee-Par-k

The effort to help Eric speak more clearly (and drool less) has become a family affair. Ethan and I try to break things down and have Eric repeat a few words at a time (i.e. "May I"..."get down please?"). Evan likes to take words and have Eric repeat a syllable at a time, and sometimes turns one syllable into multiple ones (i.e. "Hap"..."py"..."Bir"..."th"..."day"). It loses it's cuteness pretty fast, but Eric's speech is getting better, so I try not to interfere.

But yesterday was Hershey Park day and absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside. Eric rode the "horsies" (carousel) three times and I'm pretty sure it was his favorite ride...he had the sweetest expression on his face when the ride started...both kids ate as though we hadn't fed them in a week (entire adult-size meals, plus an icee, pretzel, fruit cup, ice cream and then dinner!).

The boys before lunch...Evan was hungry and GRUMPY!!

Much happier!

Eric and his favorite horsie ride!

A hundred and one!

We watched 101 Dalmatians on the was home from Hershey Park yesterday...so now I am inspired to see how long my list can get (hopefully not up to 101). So, here goes, 101 is the number of times...

1. Evan and Eric asked to watch 101 Dalmatians aka "Puppies" today
2. #1 was shot down
3. #2 resulted in whining, crying, or a tantrum of some sort
4. #3 resulted in someone being sent to their room or to go read a book
5. Mom had to step aside and count to 10 to regain her sanity
6. Things got WORSE during #5
7. Evan was told to put his shoes on
8. Eric was told not to take his shoes OFF
9. There was a fight over who had who's identical stuffed monkey
10. Eric asked for a tissue
11. Eric pooped (okay, not quite 101...but it was a LOT!)
12. Eric asked to get down from the table
13. There was a thunderstorm
14. The front gutter overflowed and sent water directly onto our front window
15. Cole meowed to go outside
16. Cole was sent outside
17. Cole meowed to come back inside
18. We sang "Old MacDonald" aka "EIEIO"

Okay, so I'm not going to make it to 101...but 18 was pretty therapeutic :-)

Feel the burn!!

I am loving the warm weather...I was out running some errands at lunchtime yesterday with the sunroof open and I actually felt the skin on my arm burning from the warm sun. Made me want to keep on driving to a beach to get some sun on my pasty face :-)

Also loving my commute home and the fact that my vehicle has a sunroof (which I would not have gotten except it was part of the package). I skip the highway (and the toll) in favor of the back roads with some gorgeous scenery and LOVE zoom zoom-ing along with all the windows down and the radio blaring!! I never used to keep my windows down because what was the point when you're on 495 with a bunch of stinky trucks around you?

Kitchenless week 1

We have survived our first week sans kitchen. I have learned to live with the inch of dust on the floor, and have even given up wiping down the couch/chairs when I get home (leather, so not too hard). We've enjoyed some fine meals of pizza, chicken nuggets/sushi, pizza, chicken & pasta (LOVE Harris Teeter), and chinese food. After a month, I wonder if I'll even have the desire to cook again? Dishes haven't been too bad, as one of our neighbors is out of town and we're in charge of their cat. So after dinner, Evan and I head over with whatever is dirty (mostly silverware), wash dishes, visit with Polly. Very friendly cat, and Evan is much more interested in petting/holding her than Cole, probably because Cole doesn't really like to be held/pet.

No pictures, because the camera battery died, but the crew is making some awesome progress. Came home today and all the tile was laid, so next week is grout/paint. And then things will be slightly usable again?

Good neighbors are hard to find...

I received a vague voicemail on the home phone from one of my neighbors today: "Hi S's, it's the H's. Give a call when you have a chance, nothing important." This woman has called us like twice in the 4 years they have lived there, so I immediately called her. She saw someone walking into our house and was concerned about it because there was no car/truck parked in front of the house, and they closed the door behind them which looked a little suspicious. I assured her it was just the contractors and they were probably working on the bathroom (so the front door would need to be closed), but it's good to know she's looking out for us!!

And she did clarify the "nothing important" was just in case we had an answering machine and the potential robbers could be listening in--smart lady!

Gifted

My husband has a gift. He can go into any store for any item and pick out the most expensive one.

• He goes to Home Depot to buy trash cans and without missing a beat, picks trash cans that are twice as much as all the other trash cans. And will still smell like trash in a week.

• Knowing this gift, I suggested he should go to DSW to get some new shoes for work. He finds the most expensive pair in the store. Way more expensive.
  

• The latest adventure was to find/buy tile for the kitchen/bathroom renovation. Hubby knocked it out of the park and found something nearly identical to our 'sample' tile. For twice the price of all the other tiles we had looked at. But some of my 'frugality' must be rubbing off and hubby managed to get the perfect tile for half the price.

The man has a gift, but this time--it was a very good gift to have :-)

It's only day one?

I was out of the house for less than 6 hours today. By the time I got home, the (old) cabinets were sitting on the sidewalk, along with the floor. The wall space above the cabinets was torn out. The toilet was in the kitchen. And dust was EVERYWHERE...apparently they took a tarp down to bust up some tile and forgot to put it back up again. I resisted the urge to clean (too much), but will be picking up some some supplies tomorrow. Luckily I had closed all the bedroom doors and closed the vents, so the dust wasn't too bad upstairs, although Evan was complaining that his room 'smells funny.' I think he just opened the door and poked his nose into the hallway.

We did manage to avoid the house for the evening though, and celebrated a birthday for my twin cousins who turned 4. With the exception of the car rides, it was a good time and a great escape from the dusty house!! Eric has mastered "GIMME!" and "MINE!" and alternated yelling those for most of the ride over. And on the way back he was just tired and mad because I took his balloon away after handing it to him for the 11th time in 3 minutes.

And Evan asks a lot of questions. Seriously, I thought the kid went through the 'why' stage when he was about 3, but that is nothing compared to lately. That's a whole other blog though.

All set!

Tomorrow starts the long-awaited kitchen remodeling project. I took a set of pictures in June, so we've been planning at least that long, probably even longer. We (okay--I) have gone through various stages of decision making and whether or not to rip out walls or put in windows. In the end, the structure of the house (and kitchen) will stay the same...pretty much just a face lift.

So most of the contents of my cabinets are packed into boxes and stashed in the basement. Our kitchen table is in the living room. The dining room table has become a countertop. I somehow managed to squeeze most of the contents of the kitchen fridge/freezer to other fridges/freezers in the house. The worst part will be when I have to empty have the pantry so the floor can be re-tiled, but that should be temporary.

Anyway, sorry for the boring post, but it's been a busy weekend...but looking forward to the end result!!

The obligatory 'before' photos:

I wonder if Crate & Barrel is hiring...

Finally got in touch with our contractor today to find out he is planning on sending his crew out on--surprise!!--Monday. Which means I need to empty the kitchen and speed up my plans to figure out how to live without a kitchen for a month. And Ethan needs to go find the tile because the closest tile I could find was not close enough. And I'm going to stop before I start panicking again.

Anyway, I did a lot of wrapping of glass in newspaper and truly felt as though I should have been behind the counter of a Crate & Barrel. We have a lot of glass. Glass glasses, glass plates, glass bowls, glass wine glasses, glass beer glasses, glass baking dishes, glass platters...did I get everything? Ah...and glass coffee mugs. Amazingly enough, I found a huge stack of newspaper in the fire 'stuff' box, and I've been stockpiling boxes for the past couple of weeks, so it's all good so far. Except I've only done about half the kitchen and I only have 2 boxes left. Yikes!! There are some other alternative storage areas, so not too worried. And technically maybe I could get rid of a few things, but why would I do that when I'm going to have an extra foot of cabinet space around the entire kitchen?? Don't answer that--let me live in my dream world!!

Unrelated, it was absotively bee-yoo-tee-ful! outside this afternoon, so we enjoyed some running around time before dinner hoping to get everyone's appetites going. Eric licked his hamburger roll but devoured an ear of corn while Evan was sent to his room for excessive whining (but eventually came back and ate a little dinner--thinking his allergies have started up and we'll know in a few days once the Claritin starts kicking in!).

Goooooooooooal!

Seriously, even I forget just how cute my kid is sometimes!!

The great dinner dilemma

Eric refuses to eat dinner. This has been going for at least a week, maybe longer. He did eat a couple of bites of pizza on Monday night, but that's the most I have seen him eat while seated at the table at dinner time in a while. I'm not really worried about the not eating part--he's clearly growing and gaining weight, per his recent doctor's visit. He seems to eat well at daycare for lunch/snacks and does okay at those meals during the weekends at home. Now that I think about it, maybe he's just not eating at home? Anyway, I'm not worried about him going hungry or suddenly becoming malnourished--he drinks as much milk as we will give him and then water after that.

So what am I complaining about, I'm sure you want to know.

What do I do with the kid at dinnertime? We start every evening the same, everyone at the table with a plate of food (his portions are getting smaller and smaller)...we pray, we eat and talk about our day. Eric slugs down his milk (also a small quantity) and promptly asks for more. We refuse to give him more until he has eaten something and that's it, he's done. He pushes his plate away until we finally remove it and tell him "If you push it away, you're all done, ok?" And he nods his head and says "Ok. Down please?" We've tried keeping him at the table and sometimes he's fine and sometimes he screams. Either way, he repeatedly asks "down please?" knowing that's the only way to get down. I've tried getting him down as soon as he refuses his plate and having him go into the living room, but I'm worried Evan will get the idea that he can skip eating for playing and he (usually) eats pretty well.

And if we have fruit after dinner (which we try to do)--Eric comes back to the table and wants to eat it and I go back and forth on giving it to him. I'd rather him eat the chicken/rice/veggies, but on the other side it IS fruit. And if he wants to eat it, that means he must be hungry so why in the heck won't he eat the regular dinner?

I know this isn't just my cooking, because 1) I am an awesome cook :-) and 2) this has even been happening with things I don't cook like pizza and dino-nuggets. And he LOVES dino-nuggets and pizza. We've been making dinner a little later since the time change with the hopes he'd be hungry by then, but much later and the kid will have to eat in his pajamas.

Sigh. These are my dilemmas in life.

Dinner with Murphy

I mentioned we went out to dinner last night and how much I love my blue cheese crusted steak...I forgot to mention Murphy. You all know Murphy...the guy who makes things happen at the most inopportune time?

The guy who makes you think "nah, I don't need to bring a diaper bag, I'll just throw a few toys in my purse" and then causes your child to poop 15 seconds after arriving at the restaurant. When said child has already done his afternoon business at the same time that he always does. And you are dining at a restaurant is in the mall that does NOT have a drugstore. And when you call your husband to stop at home to pick up a diaper/wipes, you realize he's already in the parking lot of the restaurant and has to go back home during rush hour traffic?

That's the same Murphy that joined us for dinner last night. Luckily, he left when Ethan arrived with the fresh diaper and wipes and Evan only yelled "EWW!! ERIC POOPED!!" like 6 times in a really loud voice. Sigh. But there was blue cheese crusted steak and Eric stayed in the high chair with no complaints for 2 hours...I think I'll bring a diaper next time. Maybe even two :-)

Come on, Kansas!!

I am at the top of the group in our family March Madness tournament...and if Kansas wins? I take home the trophy for the year. And if Memphis wins, then one of my uncles gets the victory, and I'm okay with that. But I hope Kansas wins ;-)

Tonight we celebrated another (final) birthday dinner with my mom for Eric. Food was awesome, and the kids were shockingly good. We spent 2 hours in the restaurant and there was only one meltdown at the very end--and it was Evan!! Who would've thunk it? Anyway, my stomach is blissfully full of blue cheese crusted steak with mashed potatoes and hopefully Kansas takes the championship...

So, I missed a day

And I had no energy to even pretend I posted yesterday, so it is what it is. We celebrated Eric's birthday (again) on Saturday with the extended family, and the day just got away. I think I went to bed before 10:00, I was so beat. But it was a good time and the birthday boy and his big brother have been enjoying the additions to their 'Little People' collection, as well as some books and Potato heads and Thomas bath toys (and if you're reading this and I forgot your gift--sorry!).

Today? We were pretty lazy and good for nothing. My cousin Teresa stayed with us for the weekend and we had good intentions of getting up and going to see the cherry blossoms this morning (at a nearby park), but the rain kind of squashed those plans. So we played "bolleyball" with the balloons and left the boys at home while we did a girls lunch out before heading to the airport. Got pulled over for speeding on the way home, but I think the officer was more annoyed that I kinda sorta cut him off as he was trying to merge onto the highway. Oops. In any case, he sent me on my way with a (verbal) warning to slow down. And when I came home and we were lazy again, letting the kids watch a movie and run wild around the basement while I finished my book club book (awesome story!) and Ethan played on the 'puter.

And now I just finished our taxes which is becoming increasingly more confusing as the years go on, even though our situation hasn't really changed. It worked out well enough in the end though and we can still afford our kitchen renovations :-)

Back to work tomorrow...nooooo!

Things I learned at the doctor today

So we had the ever-exciting 2 year old checkup for Eric this afternoon, which ended up going very smoothly. I'm generally not a fan of afternoon appointments because 1) the doctor has been running late all day and 2) it messes with nap and/or snack time, neither of which should ever be messed with. But today was an exception. I did have to wake Eric up from a nap, but only a few minutes, so he was in his post-nap chatty mood. He didn't even scream when they put him on the scale--he always screams because more often than not in his life, the scale is followed by a thermometer poking him in the butt. But today he was happy. The terrible twos are going to rear their ugly head soon enough, I'm sure.

So, interesting things we learned at the doctor today:

• Children/people who step with their toes inward tend to be very good athletes. Ethan swears Eric's toes point in when he walks, but the only time I see this happen is when his shoes are getting too tight. He is pretty good at kicking a ball though, so now both my kids have pretty good odds of making it big in a professional sport and paying for my retirement.
  

• Eric's drooling may be caused by the fact that he doesn't talk enough. Because I need 3 people in my house asking me questions and telling me what to do around the clock?? Oy.

• If you stroke the inside of a male's thigh, it causes the testicle on that side to 'jump up' into, well, wherever they go. I kid you not, these are the things the pediatrician talks about during my child's appointment. And don't worry, it was a she ;-)

Going to sit back and wait for my hubby's reaction to that last one...

Happy Birthday to you, Eric!

Some moms write these long, beautiful letters to their children on their birthdays, commemorating the past year(s) and sharing other warm gooey thoughts. And then there's me.

Eric, today was your birthday, and different from any other day except for the fact that every day with you is a different day. What made today so special? (Other than the obvious birthday of course):

• You woke up before 7 AM with no desire to go back to sleep.
• There was a giant stinky mess in your diaper when I went in to get you out of your crib (explains why you had no interest in going back to sleep)
• You snuggled in our bed, between Daddy and I (and then Evan), quietly saying "Happy Birthday!" to yourself.
• You did not pour your cereal on yourself, or require a change of clothes before going to daycare.
• You had "Happy Birthday" sung to you by TWO different classes, as you are about to go to a new class and have been spending a few hours a day in the new room (yay!! Mom and Dad love Miss Kay's room!!)
• You had a cool crown to wear, which you promptly tore into shreds in the car during the 3 mile, 30 minute ride to Bertuccis.
• It hailed today. Hail. In April. Totally weird.
• At Bertuccis (aka "GG's Restaurant"), you ate a tiny bit of pizza and even less ice cream...guess the cupcakes at daycare were enough for you?
• Even though the service at Bertuccis stunk and they didn't give you a fraction of the attention you deserved, you were still a perfect angel. Except for when we finally took the barely eaten ice cream away, but close enough.
• You gave your 'Little Einsteins' cup/plate/bowl and obligatory glance before tossing it back on the table like the kids in 'A Christmas Story' with the sock presents.
• You loved the Pirate Ship, especially when your brother showed you how to put the people in the cannon and shoot them across the room instead of the cannon ball.
• You really loved your new green Rody, that is all yours and there is no longer a need to share the blue one with your brother. Except now Evan wants a red Rody.

Happy Birthday, little man!!

There is absolutely no reason to panic

Beware, I feel a to-do list coming on. The kitchen/bath remodeling has taken a turn and I'm not sure in which direction. Trying to convince myself it's good. Shelled out a huge chunk of money last week as a deposit for the cabinets and were told they would arrive in 4-6 weeks. After hounding kitchen lady's assistant for a week about the delivery date, decided it was time to escalate to kitchen lady. Surprise! They'll be here in less than 2 weeks. Crap, crap, CRAP!! Called the contractor to see if he could start working earlier (he wasn't planning on ripping things out until beginning of May)...not confident that will happen and if it does happen it will probably take him longer to do it because they have other jobs going on. Called kitchen lady to make sure we could extend the 2 week storage period since the cabinets were going to arrive FOUR weeks early (seriously lady, you're killing me!!). Shouldn't be a problem. But, on the off chance the contractor gets his butt in gear and does get here 'early,' we need to find the tile that matches the downstairs bathroom, agree on paint colors for the kitchen/bath, get the sink and faucet for the bath...ack!!

There is absolutely no reason to panic.

Eric's birthday party is this weekend so we have various family members coming over to help celebrate and as of 4 PM today I had not really made any progress on preparing for that. Thankfully, his birthday present and our produce delivery were on the front steps when I got home, I picked up party supplies (puppies) on the way home, and squeezed in a trip to Giant after the kids went to bed. If you have a Giant near you, Perdue chicken breasts are on sale for $2/lb, which is AWESOME. I bought enough to scare Ethan, but he knows we'll use them, especially since we'll be living off the Ziploc steam bags sooner than expected.

Still not panicking.

Evan was helping me un-tie Eric's birthday present (why the toy required 17 pieces of wire to hold it in the box, I have no idea), and then informed me that HE needs to get Eric a birthday present, and he would like to get him a Leo toy. Good grief! Target's website has an entire section devoted to Little Einsteins!! Thankfully, I convinced Evan I could go pick out a Leo toy tomorrow, because if I took him with me, he would pick the toy that HE wants. Hmm...maybe they'll have the Brainiac Pillow, which would get quite the reaction out of Ethan :-)

Whew. On a slightly more calming note, I feel 500% better this morning--lets hear it for steroids!! Thought about going to the batting cage and swinging a few, but seriously, who am I kidding? Me? In a batting cage? But if I had the Wii, I could be doing some serious boxing right now...

Excuse me, is this a Super Target?

I love Target. I do more grocery shopping there than I do at the grocery store, and am dangerously close to spending more there than I do at Costco. And we don't even have a Super Target, much to the disappointment of the poor sucker I saw wandering around looking for bananas. He was on the phone with who I assume was his wife, and I hope to hell she was on bedrest, because if I had to talk my husband through an entire grocery shopping trip via cell phone and was not on bedrest...well...it wouldn't end well. If I were capable of going to the store, I would hang up after 12 seconds and go do it myself and if I was so sick that I couldn't go to the store, then I wouldn't really give a hoot about what he was buying. But this guy...he even asked someone if it was a Super Target and I'm pretty sure only a store employee would tell him "yes" because after listening to him tell his wife for the 6th time that he couldn't find the bananas I took pity on him and told him he wasn't going to find bananas in this store. Then he referred to me as "this nice young lady" and proceeded to go searching for applesauce, and dinners in a box. Unfortunately, my grocery list only kept me about an aisle away from him, so I had to listen to this the whole time.

But Target still rocks...they have $4 generic prescriptions, and one of the prescriptions I filled today only cost $4!! Woo hoo!! And while the doctor doesn't know why I have had a sore throat and swollen glands for 3 weeks now, they did confirm it wasn't mono. A little weird--isn't that something high school and college kids get??