A Whole World of Pain

I've made the trip back to the office of Young and Beautiful Dental Professionals again, this time with Sian in tow. The girl needs a root canal and crown, bless her, at the tender age of 16. She's meticulous about brushing and flossing, so she's understandably annoyed that she ends up with cavities while her younger sister, who isn't quite so fastidious, never has any.

As it turns out, I, too, need expensive dental work done. A while back, I had a tooth break apart while I was eating a burrito, and now that tooth needs an implant. I know I should have visited the dentist right away, but as I wasn't in any pain, I kept putting it off. I think another bit of the tooth must have fallen out because suddenly I'm in agonizing pain at times. The dentist looked at it and said, "How are you sleeping at night? The nerve is exposed!" and promptly prescribed antibiotics and a narcotic pain killer. The antibiotics have certainly helped alleviate that tight, feverish feeling I had developed, but the pain killers make me loopy and dizzy so I only use them at night if I really, really need to and rely on ibuprofen during the day. For now, I have a barometer jaw. If we have a storm front coming in, I can tell you about it as soon as I get over the desire to scream.

Sian is getting the root canal done today, and I'll have this troublesome tooth extracted in a few days and begin the process of getting an implant. Funny that I just wrote a couple articles about dental implants not that long ago. It helped me sound somewhat intelligent during my dental visit. I also managed not to burst into tears when they handed me the papers outlining the costs, so I was really on a roll.

A couple weeks ago, Sophia, Elannah, and Joseph tried out for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Sophia and Elannah both made it in this time, and Joseph was perfectly happy with his consolation prize: a VIP ticket for the performance. Sophia was Phineas Finch, avian friend to Snow White, and Elannah snagged the role of Bob the Head Dwarf.

Sophia is the bird in bright orange, which I think is a great color on her.

Elannah is on the upper right, sporting a black beard and unnaturally rosy cheeks.

They auditioned and began rehearsals on Monday and performed on Saturday. Husband, Little Gary, Sian and I went to see it, and since we could only get seats in the back, I plopped Little Gary on the floor at the front so he wouldn't get bored and start wandering. It worked. He stayed there the whole time, completely fascinated.

I found this when I was uploading the pictures:

Mom: Superhero

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. She's only 10 years older than I am, since she's holding at 39 and I just turned 29 again. Funny how that happens.

My mom is one of my greatest examples of charity. Since I can remember, she's been serving other people. She'll help whenever and wherever she can. She has spent hours and hours doing things for others that will alleviate suffering, bring joy, help out in a time of need, and make people feel special. She'll help to the point of exhaustion, in fact, and she's had to learn to take care of herself, too. She's a wonderful woman, and I love her so much. Happy birthday, Mom!

RaNdOm

Since I didn't take a picture of any of the kids in their Halloween costumes, this is definitely not a post about Halloween and trick-or-treating or anything. It's not cause I don't love my children; it's just that I have a blank spot when it comes to grabbing the camera and taking lots of photos to provide happy memories for years to come. I think if you opened my brain (assuming I was not currently using it, which might be more often than I care to admit even if I'm breathing), you'd see a big open area where good scrapbooking skills are normally kept. There's nothing there. Just a big hole.

I'm currently fighting a pie craving. Well, to say that's only a product of recent days is misleading, since that particular craving is usually on the ebb side of ebb and flow. Just when I think I've got it licked, back it storms. I should probably ramp up my Zumba efforts.