Art, Crowns, and Beth at Work

Beth went back to the dentist today to get the permanent crown put on her back tooth. I could tell she was a little nervous but I told her it would be much faster than the last appointment.

When we got into the room she immediately decided to go use the bathroom. I'm sure she was thinking of the last time when they stopped the procedure so she could go. 

She got settled in and they began.

They took the temporary crown off and cleaned the tooth up a little. She was still nervous though because she was holding on to that arm rest.

But, it only took a few minutes and we were out the door and on our way home! Everything went well.

Last Thursday I was able to get a few pictures of her at work. She empties the trash in our preschool classrooms, then takes it out to the dumpster. I caught her coming out of the elevator but she doesn't look too happy to see me.

I followed her outside and noticed the lids were down on the dumpster. I watched to see what she would do and she got right up there and tried a few times to throw it in! I was already half way there when she got frustrated. I was holding the lid open (just barely - those bins are big!) and we ended up laughing as she would throw the bag and only get a corner over the edge, then I'd use one hand to try and help get the rest of it up and over... we were quite the team! 

Another thing she just started doing is delivering printer paper to the third floor work room. She gets the paper from the second floor work room, takes it up the elevator and into the office wing. We're always running out of paper up there so the third floor staff is going to love her for doing this!

Beth has another appointment the end of next week, and then Diana and Peter are coming for a visit! We are so excited to see them!!

Oh, I know what I wanted to show you. Our middle daughter Sharaya loves to paint and draw, and she posted this the other day, titled 'Michael.' I just keep staring at it.

Well, I should go start dinner so I'm going to close this. I hope you all have a blessed day! 

Interesting Appointment

Hey everyone ~

Beth had an interesting dentist appointment the other day. She has a broken tooth way in the back, on the top, so this was the first of two appointments to get a crown. 

She's not thrilled about going to the dentist but she's not scared either. She was in a private room, separate from everyone else who just getting a cleaning. She struggled a little to get into the chair but finally got comfortable.

She fell asleep waiting for the dentist to come in

 

They did an impression of the tooth where you bite down on that gooey stuff. She made a face when they pulled out the mold.

The tooth was hard to get to and they had to work to get it cleaned out and ready for the temporary crown. It took them a while but they finally got it done, then left to give her a short break. While they were out of the room, Beth began to cough. Just a little at first, then more. I opened the door and called them back, they felt so bad! (Our dentist and his team are fantastic. We've been going to them a long time and we love them. They're so good with Beth.) 

I think it was just due to all the stuff they'd had in her mouth. They sat her up, got her some tissues and water. Then she had to go to the bathroom. 

When they finished and put the temporary crown on, it had been almost two hours! We left there just a few minutes before they closed. We got home and I suggested she go into the bathroom and rinse her mouth really well. But she turned to me and asked me to check the tooth. 

"Sure."

Kind of muffled she said, "It fell out!"

Sure enough, there was the tiny crown between her teeth and gums! Thankfully we live right down the street, you can see the dentist's office from our mailbox. We quickly put it in a baggie, jumped back in the car, went back to the dentist, and she was back in the chair.

This time they glued it on. So much better. She hasn't had any pain and is eating just fine. Her next visit to get the permanent crown is in three weeks. They've assured us that appointment will go much better! 😊 

What We've Been Up To

August 31 was my moms birthday. It dawned on me recently that she's been gone for 19 years. Her birthday has been less significant as the years go by but for some reason this year I've been thinking about her a lot. It blew me away when I realized it's been nineteen years. I'm really missing her this year.

 

This was around 1978

 

 

Let's see, we've been to the dentist; did some grocery shopping; checked the mail; just basic day-to-day stuff ~

 

 Our church held it's annual water baptism service in the Puget Sound. I heard the water was 56 degrees! 😬 But we had 16 people get baptized! There's always a lot of people from the congregation that come out to cheer them on, it's such a joyous time!

 

 

Chuck, Beth and I went to see The Forge. Have you had a chance to see it yet? It's the story of a mom concerned about the path her young adult son is taking. It's about mentoring, and forgiveness and the power of prayer. It reminded me that every person has a story. It's really good. We all cried.

And, our church had a week of prayer and fasting. We had prayer meetings every morning and evening at 6AM and 6PM. We set up 100 chairs in the foyer and the very first morning they had to set up more. We ended up with 150-175 every single meeting! Morning and evening. That's never happened before. Usually it trickles off by the end of the week to just a handful of people but it didn't this time. (Chuck went to some of the mornings and all of the evenings. Beth and I didn't make it to any of the morning meetings. I knew I wouldn't make it the whole day if I did, so I just prayed at home.) This picture didn't capture everyone, there's more people to my right, a few more rows in the back, plus people in the stairwells to my left, it was so powerful!

 

Chuck and Beth both take meds that require food so it's difficult for them to fast food. Chuck suggested we have dinner at the kitchen table (we usually eat in the living room) while reading the prayer guide they gave us and praying over each item. Beth would read the prayer points out loud and then pray with us. (I'm glad I was able to sneak this picture. She was praying out loud when I took it.)

 

 I'm writing this on Labor Day. We slept in today, watched a movie, and just got to be lazy all day! I hope you had a relaxing day too.

 

One Happy Custodian

 And now it seems my background has disappeared! 😆 I love technology!

 

Thank you for your suggestions on my last post. I shouldn't write this because you'll see just how bad I am at computers. It's crazy, I'm on a computer all day at work: Excel, Word, Publisher, I work on my budget, I do payroll, purchasing... but at home? I sometimes get nervous trying to do things I'm not familiar with.

 

I bought some things for Adelaide a couple weeks ago, got it all shipped off to their house and could feel the knot in my stomach. Then... day of arrival... they shipped the wrong thing! I ordered a blanket and stuffy. They sent espresso pods. So back to the computer to figure out the return process... ugh. Poor Diana and Peter had to take it to Kohls...

 

Anyway back to your suggestions. I'll need to figure out what Google photos is. And I've heard of a CD drive, a thumb drive but I honestly didn't know there was a Google drive. Or a Microsoft One drive?  

 

'I send it from my phone to the Cloud.' I'm embarrassed to eve ask this but how do you get to the cloud? Is it a website? A download? These are just things I've never looked into.

 

And Shutterfly. I've created a few books through them but I didn't know they would actually store your photos. (Or are your photos just stored there because you've created books?) I made a book once through collage.com. It came out really nice but they've since gone out of business. Same thing with My Publisher. 

 

Thank you again for all your suggestions. I'll look into it and figure out what I want to do. Right now I'm just uploading the newest pictures onto the new computer and will go from there. Now to figure out where my background went! 

 

I took Beth to the dentist a couple weeks ago to get a temporary crown. She lost an implant a month or so ago and was finally able to get it fixed. She goes in Monday for the permanent crown. Anyway, when she got in the chair, the hygienist handed her the sunglasses. After she put them on she gave the Hang Ten sign! The hygienist and I laughed so hard! Beth just smiled! Wish I'd gotten a picture of it.

 

 

We recently got new badges at work. We're tightening up on security so everyone from pastors to baristas, custodians to admin, we all got our pictures taken and had new badges made. Beth doesn't like to take her work keys home so she leaves them in her 'mailbox' by my desk. When we come to work she comes to my desk and we sign in together, then she grabs her keys and gets to work. When my boss gave me her badge I put it with her keys and when we got to my desk I got my camera ready...

 

 She is one happy custodian!

Grandkids, Dual Appointments, and Hair Stylist?

I must tell you our computer has been acting up lately. It's so slow, the page you're working on will suddenly go black, and the 'w' doesn't always work. So if you see a word that doesn't look right, see if adding a 'w' somewhere will help. 😊

 

Ally and I went out for lunch last week. I picked her up from school, we got some lunch and went to Target. It was so good to hang out with her again. I'm always thankful when she's willing to hang out with this old Nana.

 

 

Their cat recently got into trouble so her punishment was... love. Moxie hates to be held!

 

 Then Ally decided to 'style' Sharaya's hair. Hmm, not sure it'll become a popular look...

Diana's been sending pictures of Adelaide. It's amazing how fast she's growing and how much she's learned in just a couple months. Can't wait 'til our visit in June!

Beth and I had dentist appointments on Monday, one right after the other. We both needed fillings too. So she sat in the little wooden chair while I got my tooth worked on, then we switched. Thankfully we were only there about an hour. People are always laughing and relaxed. When I was in my early 20's I realized, "I'm an adult. I don't have to go to the dentist!" So I didn't for many years. Then I thought, 'I'm an adult. I really should go to the dentist.' Took me a while to find this guy and he's the best. We love our dentist!

 

 Beth also had a doctor appointment last week. Just a routine visit so the doctor could see her and get some lab work done before giving more refills on her meds. Her A1C is improved; thyroid is low... we'll be adjusting some of her meds for a while and check back in a few months. But basically, everything looks good.

 

That's all from here. It's late and I need to get to bed. The older I get I seem to have increased energy in the morning but by 6:00 in the evening I am wiped out! Hope you're doing well. Have a great day! 

Bubbles, Furniture, and Anesthesia

We have learned that the pets love bubbles. Well, Poppy and Moxie love them, Maya isn't too sure about these glistening things that float and then disappear right before your eyes. See Maya protecting herself in the cardboard fort?

 

Poppy is an absolute maniac with them. We get the bubbles out about once a day and give these guys a workout!

 

Some friends were getting rid of an old table and I've been wanting one behind the couch for keys and stuff right by the door. Now the cats use it as a perch to look out the window and earlier today we were looking for Poppy and Chuck spotted her laying under it. It's getting a lot of use!

At Beth's last dentist appointment he mentioned she had a cavity and the tooth needed to come out. He said the tooth looked really fragile and he was afraid it would break into tiny pieces so she had to have oral surgery. I was nervous about it so I waited until the morning of the appointment (the 25th) and tried to be casual (she knew she was going to the dentist to have a tooth pulled but that was all) when I told her the doctor was afraid the tooth would break so they were going to give her special medicine that would let her go to sleep and when she woke up we'd go home. She was very nervous when we were walking into the building.

We got her checked in and they let me come back to the room. I could tell it was sterile so I just stood at the door while they put on the BP cuff and put a paper hat on her. I told her I needed to go move the car (I had actually parked in the wrong area) and I'd be right back. I sat in the car for about 10 minutes, went into the waiting room, grabbed a magazine, and I'm not kidding, the nurse came out before I could even open it, to tell me they were done and she was ready to go! 

They wheeled her out and helped her into the car. She was so groggy! I helped her into the house and as I'm unlocking the door she quietly says, "I just wanna take a nap." I laid her on the couch and she was out! The next day she said she didn't remember being in the wheel chair!

The tooth came out in one piece, there was very little swelling, and she hasn't had any pain. I gave her ibuprofin before she went to bed that night but she hasn't had any pain at all. All of these things were such an answer to prayer!  She stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday, and she's doing great. Looking forward to church tomorrow. That pink thing on her arm is the stretchy gauze stuff that covered the IV site.

A Little of This and A Little of That

We got new window coverings installed last week. Oh my goodness they make such a huge difference in here! (I still have to remove the curtain rod hooks.)

 Beth had another visit with the endodontist.

They numbed the area, then cleaned out the teeth. They stopped for a minute and I really think she fell asleep! You guys, she was getting TWO root canals!! All of the sudden she relaxed and her breathing got loud... how does she do that?!

 I peeked into the nest yesterday and... it's happening!

 We had about 2 weeks of gorgeous sunshine recently. That is very rare in April around here.

Sharaya and I are going to Pennsylvania in a couple weeks. We're going to help Diana with wedding planning! Chuck's taking a couple days off work to stay here with Ally and Beth so it'll just be the three of us. We'll go dress shopping and get Rita's Ice-Custard and I think we'll get to see the venues... we've only got a few days but I'm really looking forward to hanging out with them!

I Think the Crows Read My Blog

Beth had another dentist appointment this week. She's got to have a total of 3 root canals plus a crown. This was her second visit for all of this work and I'm nervous for her, but she's perfectly fine with it. The endodontist keeps talking about how good she is as a patient. We got there early and she fell asleep in the waiting room.

 

I made a few more greeting cards. I really love doing this, it takes me out of my routine and I get to be creative. It really is therapeutic.

In my last post I wrote about how the crows were dive bombing this poor hawk. I really think the crows are the bullies of the bird world! Well, Beth and I ran some errands after her dentist appointment and a crow pooped on me!! We were walking out of Safeway and had just cleared the roof when... splat!! It was like he was waiting for me! And it's a brand new sweater, the first time I'd ever worn it!

 

I cleaned it with cold water before throwing it in the wash. Thankfully it all came out and it looks like new again. 

Have you ever had a bird poop on you?

What do you do to relax or get out of a rut?

The Really Frightening Part...

 I took Beth to the dentist on Wednesday. Well, actually it was the Endodontist. She has to have a root canal on a tooth that already had a root canal.

She's been on state health insurance and she wasn't getting the best care so we switched her to Chuck's insurance and now she's getting some real work done.

 This time they just took some x-rays with a fancy 3-D machine (that cost us a lot out of pocket, I had to sign the okay before we went back to the room) so they knew exactly what treatment she would need. Her next appointment is on the 31st and that one's not going to be as fun. But this stuff truly doesn't bother her. She's perfectly fine going to the dentist. What really scares her is when they raise or lower the chair without telling her!

 The older she gets, the more she loves Starbucks!