The tooth fairy didn't show up.

I have to vent. I had a dentist appointment this morning, which made me happy.

To understand why I could possibly be happy having gone to the dentist, let me explain:
The only dentist I had ever had was my pediatric dentist until I was 17 or 18 years old. Yeah, I’ve been slack, but for most of those years, I didn’t have any dental insurance. Paying full non-insured price was out of the question. I slacked off and gained a few cavities in the process.

I wasn’t even going to go last year until I felt a ridge on one of my teeth. I found out later, it was a cracked tooth due to my wisdom teeth compressing my bottom jaw. Over time, my weakest tooth cracked (having a cavity there didn’t help) and that’s what the ridge was. Finally, I had a hole back there and had to deal with it. Talk about sensitive, too!

I basically picked a dentist out of the phone book to have that procedure done, since it was an emergency. I couldn’t find my pediatric dentist anymore, so I didn’t have a choice.

I have increasingly sensitive teeth since my wisdom teeth have wreaked serious havoc on my whole mouth… especially my bottom row, which has moved forward about ½ cm since then. My once decent row of almost straight teeth now look like my car floorboard when I have to slam on the brakes and all of my belongings in the passenger seat go crashing to the floor. LOL

Due to sensitivity, I can’t even have happy 6-month cleanings without pain. Dental floss is an avoidable situation there as well. I do it at home b/c I know how much I can handle, but they don’t know that there.

Anyway, I went to the “throw a dart in the phone book” dentist, where everything seemed to be ok, but he wouldn’t use the gas to prep me for shots b/c “he didn’t believe in it” and wouldn’t give me enough shots in my jaw anyway. I guess he thought I was a junkie when I told him I needed more. Bad thing is this: I have a low tolerance for pain, but a high tolerance against medication.. Anything, if it even works in the 1st place, has to be taken at double after the first dosage or I get no effects. Finally, he decided to give me more when AFTER he drilled, I had tears coming out of my eyes. He had to rebuild the broken tooth, so I was there awhile and the shots started wearing off, too. The good thing is that he did refer me to a wonderful plastic surgeon for the wisdom teeth surgery (why it was a plastic surgeon, I’ll never know, but he really took care of me).

I told my co-worker, Danielle, about my dental nightmare yesterday. Today I went to Danielle’s dentist as a referral. Here’s my experience:

I showed up, filled out new patient paperwork and waited an acceptable amount of time to be seen. I sat down and noticed that the chair had a BACK MASSAGER/HEATER on it. Oh, I was in heaven! They used the “happy gas” on me for my cleaning, which relaxed me to the point where I didn’t care that they were scraping my already sensitive teeth, which normally feels like they’re pulling the root out from the top.

Other dart-dentist news: He didn’t completely get rid of the decay from the broken tooth. I found that out today, which is why I said “vent” earlier. So now I have a cavity under my filling. A filling which, by the way, I didn’t even want as a metal filling, but as a white, but he “didn’t believe in that either.” Geez…

I had better not need a root canal… it’s a possibility.

Grr.

I shopped anyway

Well, since I didn't have enough $$ to shop like I wanted, I had every intention of staying home on Friday, but Pier One Imports has this brilliant marketing scheme called subscription email that beckons me to go shop anyway.

The bad thing is that Pier One is in the same vicinity as the mall, which brings up parking issues and Josh's mall temptation.

I have not really like the mall since two SHOOTINGS have occurred there. I avoid it while school is out (both have been gang-related, but there are slight odds that those kids might be in school every once in awhile). Police monitoring has not seemed to quash the problem, so I typically avoid the mall unless it's midday in the week.

Josh just wanted to go, though; so I indulged him. Parking was a b****. I finally found a spot after avoiding oncoming idiots rubbernecking to find a spot while attempting to drive. In the mall, shopping was not bad, since ppl were divided among many different shops. I did find presents for my grandparents and another huge idea for Josh, so the trip wasn't a bust.

Oh yeah... Lucy has started pulling ornaments off the tree. I already have a 1/4 naked tree (the bottom 1/4) due to trying to avoid these problems, but she actually gets up on her hind legs (we call it prairie-doggin') and goes for the higher ones.

Macy hasn't touched the tree yet. I think he learned his lesson last year.

Pid Bloggin'

Mommy, I want to help trim the tree!



New stuff to chew on!



1st attempt at photographing the elusive "Christmas Tree"



2nd attempt: Got the lights this time!



Fun with the new toy... er, tree!



Nappy time/hide my face in a cute way after a hard night of tree-trimming



How cute is this?



Aww!!



Goodness!



Mommy taking advantage of the situation - making a Christmas Kitty!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Howdy, folks. :) Sorry I haven't written in so long. Truth be told, I was extremely busy and dizzy LOL. Exciting symptom called Vertigo hit me hard these past two weeks. But hey, all's well anyway!

I was going to hit the early morning shopping tomorrow, but I have yet to be paid for the last two weeks of band. There goes that. They're actually costing me $$ now for delaying.

Turkey Day was excellent! Though, we stuffed our faces. I made "Carri's Super-Duper Cookie Squares" for both families (Josh's and mine).

Check out http://laurenwings.blogspot.com if you want to see pics from today. I am SO not re-posting those!

Have fun shopping tomorrow - I'm staying home!

Hoo-ha!

Harry Potter was freakin' AWESOME! It was the best movie yet. Of course, I knew it would be... in my opinion, it was the best book also.

Poor Fred

10:29 AM: I feel like poo-poo today. What’s the deal? Normally, I’d be just fine on a rain-forecasted day.

LOL – we found this crazy karaoke guy on the internet at work today. Check out some of his songs – he’s killing them all!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3615283141154191108&q=fred
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3749287716428630300&q=fred
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3847555131827961929&q=fred
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1483126109004145166&q=fred
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4392878485024781684&q=fred
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6392767249654673270&q=fred
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7580184637381750574&q=fred
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2711954803372709080&q=fred

I’ll find more another time – right now, I’m crying from laughing so hard.

While Driving

These were all taken while I was driving - either by me or by Josh in the passenger seat. #1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9 - I guess you could still call me a Sunday driver LOL

#10

#11 - Not anymore!

#12

#13

More Cutie Pics!

These are cute enough to post for no reason at all!

Cutey likes to sleep on us!

Cutie Pics

Here's one of Lucy when she had her surgery - poor baby!

Mommy, I love the new curtains!

Sleepy baby

Here's one of Lucy when she had her surgery - poor baby!

I'm so comfortable :)

Yawn - I love this one!

Leave me alone - I'm sleepin'!

Monday

I got a surprise when I came into work today – my co-worker is on vacation! I didn’t know about it, so now I have double work for which I was unprepared. Normally, I would have taken it the day before vacation time and get a head start, but not this time.

Now, it’s 3:45 and I’m just now getting to MY daily work. It’ll be fine tomorrow, but today was crazy.

4:45: Technically, I’m still not doing my work. I was at first, but I had to go back to CWs due to problems. Grr.

Anniversary!

It's our anniversary! We've been married a whole year today. :) It's hard to believe that it has only been a year, though! I love him so much. :)

Josh is getting a video game for our anniversary - Jak and Daxter 2.

The traditional present is a clock - whatever, we already have one. LOL

HTML Trouble!! Help!!

What did I do wrong? I don't even know where to begin!
My archives are screwed up now.

You don't have to be soma nice to me

Ha ha - cryptic title. Actually, not really. I have had a horrible tear or muscle pull or something in my upper back behind my right shoulder blade for about 6 weeks now. During band season, me and some other people were collapsing the drum major's aluminum stand when someone "forgot" to do their part and the corner next to mine came crashing to the ground. I instinctively reached out for it and yanked (can't really think of any better word for that) my shoulder really hard. I have been trying to ignore it, but it really has been hurting almost every day ever since. Today, I just remembered that my old prescription of Soma from getting my wisdom teeth pulled was in the linen closet! It was originally given to me to make me stop clenching my jaw at night... I was having much more pain than normal people who recovered from having their wisdom teeth taken out due to the clenching. I took one about 30 minutes ago, and now I don't want to get up out of my chair! Truth is, it has taken me a long time to write this much, so looking at my paragraph and assuming I'm in my top state of mind isn't the best thing to do. My reaction time is doubled, at least, and I have had to seriously proofread this thing before sending it out. 2:32pm

2:41: We don't need no stinkin' muscles.

I can sit here perfectly fine without having to use any voluntary muscles except my mouse trigger finger LOL.

2:54: I'm also not clenching my jaw either!

Yeah, yeah

I know, I know. I had too much fun with Picasa last night. I had forgotten about using it! Using Blogger pics is fine, but when I want to post more than five pics at a time, I’m going to use Picasa. As far as I can tell, Blogger pics stops you from posting more than five at a time, so Picasa/Hello it is!

8 days til Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire comes out! I’m going to find more pics tonight, hopefully. I love spoiler pics… well, only for movies that I already expect to know well (probably b/c they’re either historical or they’re books)… Titanic, Harry Potter, The Lovely Bones (thank goodness PJ decided on this one instead of wasting his time waiting to never do The Hobbit – I’m really anxious to see TLB), Lord of the Rings, etc.

Finally – I have been able to move my phone and inbox to my left-handed configuration! My old phone cord didn’t allow me to do that last time, so I have been backward for six months! I never got used to the other way, and always tried to pick up the phone on the wrong side. Today, I picked it up perfectly. Hoo-ha.

LOL - I just played 4 levels of Collapse on my cellphone in the bathroom.
That being said, I get excellent reception in the bathroom ROFL... 1:12pm

1:34PM: I just wrote on my French fry.

The parents here got to bring their kids in for cubicle trick-or-treat! These are my favorites.

A baseball and glove!!

Precious!!

This is definitely my favorite! :)

I like this one b/c of the smiley-face skeleton. LOL

Mulan!

Raggedy Ann - how sweet! This girl definitely has parents my age!

Duckie Baby - dressed up about as much as some babies will tolerate - LOL!!

This might be one of the cutest costumes I've ever seen!

Aww!

One of my favorite sales rep's little boy!

What a cutie!!!

Pretty pumpkin!

Radish, maybe? Precious :)

Somebody brought their sweet little poodle! 

These are pics from my j-o-b's Costume/Skit Contest. Here's Beaker from the Muppet Show!

LOL - Kitty Litter!

The whole Muppet Show! they won the contest.

This was one of my favorites!

Doc Holliday - of course, my absolute favorite!!