Root Canal

Yes...I am getting a root canal done today, at Dr. Martin's in Duvall. That's where Dr. Magelsen referred me due to a curve in my roots. It seems that I need a dentist that specializes in doing microscopic dentistry. Joy.

When the assistant called yesterday to confirm the appointment, she asked how I was doing. I told her I was fine as long as I was taking drugs every 8 hours. “What? What? You’re taking drugs?” Incredulity in her voice! “What drugs are you taking?” So I told her I was taking the drugs recommended by both her and Dr. Magelsen…namely 2 ibuprofen and 1 vicodin, as they work together to stop pain. The relief in her voice when she determined that I wasn’t taking something stupid was evident! Then she asked me that if I needed to take them so often, did I want to come in if there was a cancellation? Now, if she had asked me this earlier in the week, I would have tried to work myself in…as it was, with only one day to consider this option, I decided that my schedule was just fine as it was. I had enough of the drugs to last at least two more days…so I was fine.

Let me tell you…taking just the vicodin does NOTHING! But when you combine it with the ibuprofen…wow! It truly makes a difference!

Now…tooth pain and its subsequent root canal are not the only things happening in our lives…but I am not going to take up all my time writing about them unless you ask me to. So here is a list to choose from:

· Stephanie’s infected toe not healing and my taking her to Children’s hospital (it’s a long story that I will probably give the tale when it’s finally over)
· Steve going to Los Angeles, California for a “Dr. Who” convention
· Scott getting Hives
· Not knowing if Steve will have a job next week
· My own inability to find a job
· Eva came over to sew
· Stephanie Ganger and I went to Deseret Industries and found a full “work” wardrobe
· Primary issues (please don’t ask about this one…it can be very confusing even to me…at times)
· Scott finishing his art assignments from school (this is an on-going subject)
· Surviving Valentine’s Day
· Cutting out material for making up several bags…gift bag size
· Working in the yard and trimming the trees in the back…you can now truly walk the path!
· Getting a new rake from Dad (Thanks Dad!)
· Having my brother Doug and his family…and Mom and Dad…over for dinner one night.
· Stephanie starting Young Women…a program at church that started when she turned 12
· Determined to work out at the YMCA 4 days a week
· Cutting out a bag from scarves with a new and complicated pattern…and actually learning new skills in the making of it (this will be an entry all of its own, but wanted to mention it here too as it took me all day to get the thing done!)
· Scrapbooking at a friend’s house
· Baking cookies to give as gifts for birthdays
· Scott’s Cub Scout stuff…he is a Bear now!
· Watching the Super Bowl and cheering on the Pittsburg Steelers, only because we have two of the “Terrible Towels” and could use them to cheer them on
· Getting a cortisone shot in my heel to make the “plantar fascitis” go away (it worked!)
· Reading lots of books from the library
· Making a bag big enough to hold both my calendar and my journal…they each have their own pocket and a pocket for the pencils…I never use ink in my calendar!

Okay…that’s enough…let me know if you want to know the “whole” story of any of the above…

Surprise!

We actually managed to truly surprise Stephanie with the birthday party! Here are the girls posing for a picture while waiting for Stephanie to arrive. When we heard the garage door opening, they then, like all giggling girls, hid behind the couch and yelled Surprise!

The girls played 'Apples to Apples' before we brought out the cake...and Stephanie in one blow took care of all the candles.

The girls know that Stephanie likes to draw...she received two different art pads and pencil sets, in different sizes.

It was an emotional day for me as in the morning I had no idea if it would actually work out. We had only known of two girls that could come, so I sent email to Crystal asking if Sophia could come too...and she did, with a friend, Andrea...and we loved having them! Also, at the last minute, two others RSVP, so things were really working out well.

Me? I was up at 4:30 in the morning, baked the cake and then hid it. And in order to hide the scent of the cake, proceeded to bake some cookies...Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This is the first party I have given where I didn't have to spend a penny. The invitations, the baking and drink supplies were already in house! What more do you need???

Another nice birthday present??? Steve has an interview scheduled for Wednesday! Let's pray that things work out there too!

Scarves for Sale

I have opened a store in ETSY.com to sell some of my scarves. Knitting the scarves was the easy part. Teaching Stephanie how to be a model...that was a challenge, but I think she did pretty good.

Then there was the time to just set up the store itself. Thankfully I have a husband who understands all of that and really made it easy for me. He also looked up all the shipping info for me. You also have to set up the store, take the pictures, re-size the pictures and then decide which ones will actually be put in the listing. You can only show 5 pictures max for each listing. I spent half my day...Saturday afternoon and early evening...just getting the scarves listed.

So if you are interested...or know anyone else that might be interested in buying a homemade scarf, my store is listed at: http//sweetrt.etsy.com

I'm really hoping that they sell...and soon. Monday I will be listing some of the bags I have made too. So keep watching the site.

These are the actual pictures we took...in the listings, they are cropped and sized smaller. I just didn't think you would want to see only the chin of Stephanie... :)

Stephanie teaches her Mom a new trick...

We have lived in this house for 11.5 years and I have used this stove-top all this time. There have been a few times when I thought we might have to replace the stove-top as the element for the big burner would sometimes not completely work. Sometimes only the inner element would get hot.

Well, last night, Stephanie was in the kitchen helping me prepare dinner, it being her month as kitchen helper. This time she wanted to be involved in all aspects of it...and I was delighted to have the help!

While I was preparing the potatoes for frying (peeling the baked potatoes and cutting them up), I asked Stephanie to get out the two frying pans and put them on the stove. We needed to cook the bacon first, so I asked her to turn on the burner for the big frying pan on the big element to get the pan heated up. I watched as she pushed the knob down and then turned it to the left until it was at the medium high spot. Now, I usually turn it to the right, but didn't really think anything of it...just as long as the pan heated up.

This time, it seemed like the pan was taking a very long time to heat up, but I put in the bacon anyway. I was right...only the center of the pan was hot...and checking the element below noticed that only the center was getting red. At this point I bemoaned to Steve that yet another thing is broken and might be needing to be replaced! We already have three other things in that catagory! (Air conditioner, lawn mower and computer monitor). Replacing the stove-top is not high on our list at this time!

So I switched the pan to the left burner, which is a bit smaller than the pan, but would be better than the small element currently working. During this switch, Stephanie noticed something I had never looked at before. Just above the knob for the bottom right burner, there are drawings to indicate that if you turn it to the right, the big element would work. If you turn to the left, only the smaller inner element would turn on.

Yeah for Stephanie...I can now cook a small pan on the big element! Or rather the inner element on the front. I am sooooooo willing to learn from my daughter!

Flood Waters

This morning I called my brother, Doug, who lives next door to the river in Carnation (I don't know if it's the Tolt river or the Snohomish river), he said that he would send me a picture of it. Here it is. :)

Then I got to thinking...I should go and get some pictures of my own from here in Monroe. It is my "play" day and I haven't done any playing yet...so let the adventure begin... :)



First I picked up my best friend, Stephanie G, and we headed to the town library. I knew that if you stood on the berm next to the parking lot that you could see the river in the distance, especially in the winter when the leaves are gone. Well, we are standing on the berm and the river has come to meet us.

Part of the adventure here is that I had to climb over a bank of snow first, and promptly fell onto my knees. Stephanie had to get out of the van and come rescue me. It took me a while to stop laughing.



We then headed over to Sky River Park where you couldn't even get into the park...all the playgrounds are flooded.

Our last stop was at the park on Lewis Street, just as you come into town on State Route 203. There too the roads were closed to thru traffic.


In this picture, the bridge is SR 203 and the Skykomish river is running very high!

Now I'm sung at home, eating home made bread and basking in the thought of chicken strogonoff for dinner.