Long, boring dentist blog

I have had a hard time fitting in blogging lately. My days have been crazy for some reason. Probably, because I scheduled a bunch of overdue dentist and doctor appointments, not to mention the "usuals" ie; exercising, my calling, three children, therapy, piano, dance etc etc etc.

Here was my Wednesday

4:30AM- woke up to go pee; couldn't fall back asleep
5:00 AM- get up- get ready for boot camp
5:30AM- 6:30AM- boot camp
7:00 AM- shower- get ready
7:45- Ella wakes
8:00- Kaden and Hailey wake; help Kaden get ready for school
8:45- Kaden leaves; get Hailey and Ella ready (baths etc.)
9:25- drop Hailey and Ella at friends house
9:45- dentist appt. for me
2: (flippin) 05 pm- FINALLY done with dentist appt- will blog about this later!
2:20pm- mad dash to pick up Hailey and Ella, apologize to friend for taking so long, take her daugter and Hailey to dance
2:35pm-arrive 5 minutes late to dance (by the way missed Ella's therapist at 12:30pm, because dentist took so long)- eat lunch at Subway during dance class
3:20-40pm -drive back home, drop friend's daughter off, mad dash home to beat Kaden home
3:50- Kaden's home- snack, homework, chore etc.
4:15- Leave for piano lessons
4:30-5:05pm- piano lessons
5:25- home, make dinner (I call this chaos hour- the kids are usually bouncing off the walls, everyone wants my attention, everyone's hungry, Thayne's not home yet)
6:15pm- Thayne's home- HALLELUJAH!
6:45pm-head to Young Women's activity
7:00-8:30pm-Young Women activity
8:30pm-mad dash home to see who won American Idol (ok-pathetic, but AZ is happy)
9:00pm-family scripture study- bed.... for the kids (I'm still not done)
9:15pm-head out to return dvd that is due
9:30pm-we're out of produce, so I stop at grocery store
10:20pm- home- unload groceries, throw some laundry in the wash, enter into computer everything I ate that day, get ready for bed (a chore in itself)
11pm- bed- totally exhausted from getting up so early, but it still takes a while to fall asleep!


Okay- I wasn't going to blog about the dentist yet, but I have a few more minutes, so I will.

When we first moved here there were no dentists in Surprise, so we found one in a neighboring city. Well, now there are probably 15 dentists in Surprise- half of them LDS- trying to start up their businesses. Needless to say, we get a million coupons in the mail for dentists. One of them had a free Zoom whitening worth $500, so I thought I'd give them a try, and save myself from traveling.

A little dental history. I never had a cavity until I was an adult. I think I finally got some because we stopped going to the dentist. I went once in the first six years of our marraige, which is dumb, because we had insurance in California, and never went. Anyways- when we lived in Saratoga Springs I finally went to one in Lehi. It turned out to be some cocky new dentist, who seemed more interested in the three dental assistants flirting with him, than my teeth. He did a few fillings in my mouth.
Then we moved here- and went to the dentist in the neighboring city. He seems really good- his office is real high tech and the staff is nice. He asks, "Who did your last fillings? --- it seems they did a "not-so-good job". One of my fillings was getting so decayed underneath that I needed something called an "inlay"- it was also spreading to another tooth, so that needed a filling. Five hundred bucks later and a third of my tooth gone-- filled with an Inlay (supposedly like half a crown), I'm all better. However, the dentist said, "I hope I made the right decision, we could've just gone straight for a crown, but I wanted to save your tooth."

Okay- now to this past week. I go to the new dentist here- seems like a nice guy, (found out he is Lds) office is also high tech. My x-rays show that the supposed "inlay", has a big jagged gap in the bottom of it, and it is getting totally decayed to the bone. I now need a crown, and an old filling is cracked and needs to be replaced. Another $445. This dentist says, "Somebody made a bad decision on this tooth and just did a big filling!" I said, "He called it an inlay." He kind of said, "Oh" (meaning that is not an inlay).
So, my Wednesday dentist appt. He redid the old cavity and the crown. This is supposed to take about 2hours, but took more like 31/2 hours (and another 1/2 hour of waiting before and after). First off, I couldn't get numb. This has happened before. The outside of my face and lips are totally numb, but I can feel my tooth. So, he had to renumb about four times- and wait a little after each. Secondly, he wanted to make sure the decay didn't go to the root, which means root canal. He said, "it was at the top of the root, he had to do all this special stuff to it, to make sure it doesn't spread. Then my gums were growing into the decay???? ... so he had to take care of that. Then, we had to redo my tooth impression about three times, because a bubble kept getting into it. ETC, ETC. By the end of the appointment, my mouth had been open for three and a half hours. He told me to take ibuprofen, because my jaw would probably be sore. It was; but I was more sore at the corner of my mouth, where an instrument was pressed for three and a half hours! I had a cut there.

Here is my hope- that the next time I go in they don't tell me I need a root canal on this tooth. Who knew that one stinkin' tooth can cause such drama and cost sooo much money! If it had been done right the first time, maybe it would have spared me. By the way, I have a temporary crown on, the new one takes two weeks to get back, which means we will be in Cancun. I hope that this doesn't fall off in Mexico! He said the temporary ones are not as strong.

Ok- long boring blog, but while on the subject, I have to ask, "what do you guys look at and think of when you are in the dentist chair, mouth wide open, nostrils and chin raised to the ceiling?"

I don't know where to look. Luckily, this guy gave me sunglasses to wear, to block the light. I don't want to look directly at the people doing the work. That seems awkward. Sometimes, I'll look at the instruments going into my mouth, and I wonder if I look cross eyed. I counted the lights and tiles on the ceiling, but that got boring. They need to put a tv up there or something.

I also wonder what they are thinking, - can they see every zitt, hair and booger on my face? Does my breath smell ok. I try to take care of these things before I go in. :)

I love it when they talk to you, or tell a joke, while you have a bunch of instruments in your mouth. Like I'm really going to carry on a conversation.

Crystal, by far has the most embarassing, or maybe I should say nasty dentist experience. They were doing major work in her mouth, and she had a plastic dam covering everything in her mouth but the tooth. She tried to warn them, "I'm going to throw up." "What" they asked. "I'm going to throw up." "Quick, get the dam off her". Too late, she vomited all over everybody. Now, that is worse than a little drool.

Family Pictures

Well, we finally got some real family pictures done last night! I now remember why I don't love doing them. It is such a chore! Planning the outfits, ironing them all, telling Kaden to stop jumping on the newly ironed clothes, timing the babies nap (which unfortunately didn't work very well), bathing the kids, doing everyone's hair, telling my kids to stop doing somersaults while in their outfits and nice hair, getting everyone to keep their pose and smile, trying not to get stressed so that everyone is happy etc. etc.

Thank goodness for digital photography--- supposively this lady is good about cutting and pasting. Ella was being a pill, but I hope she got a couple of good ones of her. It seemed that everytime she would smile, she would stick her tongue out.
A girl in my ward flies this photographer down 1-2 times a year from Utah. She isn't cheap, but I've seen some pictures of families in my ward and they turned out awesome. Here is her website if you want to check her work out. I'll keep you posted (pun intended) on how they turned out!

Happy Mother's Day, mom!

Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful mother (inside and out)! I wish I could be there to help pamper you, because you deserve it!

Kaden says,"Grandma D is 'the best'!"

Hailey says, "I love Grandma D, she made a pillow for me!"

Ella says, "lu you."

Thank you to my sweet mother who has always been my number one cheerleader! I feel blessed to have you in my life. I know you lost your own mother at such an early age, and I can't imagine not having you here to talk to. You always have a listening ear and are the first person I want to talk to when I have something exciting to share, something to gripe about or need advice. You are a great example to me. I have this visual of you kneeling at the side of your bed each morning, saying your prayers. You are a woman of great faith, who has had many trials. You have endured them well-- you're spirit is strong. I love you very much and hope you have an awesome Mother's day!

Busy, busy, busy! I can't tell you exactly what I've been busy with, but it has something to do with these little boogers (and one big booger- that would be myself).

Yes, this picture is old- it is no longer sweater weather here.

A couple of things we've been doing--

*The Phoenix Zoo- We had free tickets to the Phoenix zoo on Monday through Ella's intervention program. I decided to let Kaden play "hookie", since these tickets are normally 18 bucks. This is a different zoo than the last one. It was very fun- the sponsor gave away free snacks and drinks. (Ok- I am a cheap skate and still get excited about "free" stuff).

The kids riding the train. Thank goodness for this! This zoo was too big to walk with three kids by myself. I am glad the zoo had lots of hands on things for the kids to do, because the majority of the animals were napping behind some object! On this tram ride the guy kept saying things like, "pretend you see a cheetah".

Ella with her drenched shirt---she spilled her sippy cup.

*Hailey wants to tell you her exciting news. She learned to ride a two wheeler last week! Here she is ridin' away! Check out how fast she goes.





*And finally- I did join bootcamp! My first class was this morning. All I can say is, "thank goodness for ibuprofen, I am sore!" I think she worked us a little too hard-- even those who were in shape felt like they were going to throw up.

Time keeps on ticking

What to blog??? How about "getting older". I remember thinking that 30 something was so far away. It sure came fast. At first I thought, I don't feel any different (mentally) than I did ten years ago, but the more I think about it, the more I realize life experiences have helped me learn a lot-- alot about myself as well.
Here are some things I have learned in the past ten years.
*tons about purchasing a home, refinancing and financial planning.... and still learning
*that being a good wife and mother is not as easy as I thought
*that not only is each child different, but that they change from year to year
*that my love for my children is unconditional
*That I love my husband more and more
*that I don't have as much patience as I thought
*that teaching youth has become easy
*that we will never lease a car again
*that being assertive brings more results
*that doctors certainly don't know everything
*to stay away from german shepherds
*that we have been blessed beyond belief
*that just because you feel right about something, doesn't mean it's going to work out the way you thought
*that my siblings, parents and in-laws (and of course, my hubby) are my best friends
*that it gets harder and harder to lose weight
*that I do like lasagna
*that I love to go on trips and be outdoors (as long as it's not 100+ degrees)
......and the list goes on and on

Speaking of "it gets harder and harder to lose weight"-- I have been working out 4-5 times a week, and watching what I eat for about a month. I have only lost 4lbs! I am hoping my muscles are getting stronger, but in my twenties, I would've lost 10lbs by now. I am thinking of starting "bootcamp" this Monday, put on by my gym. It is three times a week at 5:30am (ouch). They work you out good! They also weigh you and measure your body fat and inches, before and after. It costs extra, but it might be worth doing for a month. I just hope I don't injure myself!

I have been in the YW program for eight years now. I started in California when I was 24-25 years old. I remember some youth writing a nice note, saying "we can always pay attention to your lessons, because you're like one of us. You understand us." Then in Utah at youth conference, I remember a youth saying, "you're not one of the 'old leaders", you're like a big sister to us." Now in Arizona, I am one of the 'older leaders' (we have a pretty young ward). One of my sweet beehives, whose mother is only a year older than me said, "I consider you my second mother." It was actually very sweet, but weird that I could be her mother! Man- where does the time go!
The thirties are great! Can't wait for the forties (ok- that's a lie, I can wait).