I SurVivEd!

So...Here I am 55 years old (don't look at the color of the hair) and have never had a root canal. I was told a year ago that I needed one but because of fear I would talk myself out of the tooth pain I was feeling at the time. For the past month I've had a dull tooth ache and decided to bite the bullet and get it taken care of. Now, I really can't say that I Hate the Dentist because, after all, I'm sure he's a nice sadist with a family. But I hate going to the dentist; the drill, the shots, the expense and if you decide to watch the TV that's up on the ceiling you can't hear it over the drill or see it because the dentist and his assistant are blocking the view. How aggravating is that?


So, here I am before I went in! Just a little history. I met this dentist 2 weeks ago. All he did was put cold on my teeth and I writhed in pain like a real wimp, then I almost bit his finger because he decided to put his hands in my mouth when I decided to talk. What does he expect? Anyway, I think if we could see a picture of him before I went in, it would look alot like this...except younger, with dark hair, male, and with more money.

I got the root canal done and a FREE bottle of water! Woo-hoo!

Look how happy I am now!

I was feeling pretty good until I was told that getting the crown is even worse! Oh well, that just means more laughing gas!

Let's Get the Job Done!

I just returned from a welfare meeting where we talked about Self-Reliance. The definition that was used at that meeting is: "Using all of our blessings from Heavenly Father to care for ourselves and our families and to find solutions for our own problems."

I realized that I saw self-reliance in action Saturday night while tending two of my grandchildren, Corban and Isabelle. We were "playing" Scrabble and I spelled Corban's name and put it in one of the letter holders. I began to spell Isabelle and found all the letters but a B. Corban took the B from his name to put in Isabelle's but I told him that we need to find another B, not realizing at the time that all the other B's in the Scrabble game were hiding somewhere else in the house. After turning over all the wooden squares and no B was revealed, Corban took one of the wooden squares and ran in to the kitchen. I thought of following him to make sure he didn't put it down the disposal or throw it out the window, but decided to stay with Isabelle in the living room. He came back shortly with an orange colored pencil in one hand and the Scrabble square in the other. Scrawled on the square, in 4 year-old hand writing was an orange letter B. He handed it to me and said, "There, Grandma Connie. The letter B."

"To find solutions to our own problems."

What a guy!

Knowledge

I posted this cute picture of Emily and Rachael petting the bunny because I needed the most recent picture I have of my oldest granddaughter, Emily. She's 6 years old and in first grade. She likes the fact that many of the kids on her bus thinks she's in 2nd grade because she's so tall.

Today I was sitting in the car with her. She looked at me and said, "Grandma, I want you to color your hair brown again." I asked why and she said, "Because I don't want you to be an old grandma with gray hair because that means you're going to die soon!" I told her that having gray hair doesn't mean that I'll die soon. She said, "Uh-huh!" "I know everything!"

I thought it was 16 year olds who knew everything!

Make Room for Nostalgia

When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn't the old home you missed, but your childhood. -Sam Ewing

This honey of a stereo has been in my life since 1959 when my parents bought it from Sears. I remember, as a teenager, lying on the couch listening to "The Doors", "The Who", "Crosby Stills Nash and Young", "The Beatles", and "Three Dog Night," just to name a few. Thanks to my parents and my nephew, it now has a spot...I mean a whole wall in my living room. It is nestled in our 1970 house amongst the 1930 furniture from Aunt Ruth, a chair that supposedly came across the plains, and a curio cabinet made in wood working shop by my son.

The top middle of the stereo opens up to reveal the radio and turn-table. My mother had a stiffly starched doily placed in the center with a lovely silk flower arrangement Every time we wanted to turn on the radio or play a record, we had to move the doily and flower arrangement The speakers are so big that when we turned up the "Loudness" knob, (yes, it has "LOUDNESS" written by the knob) someone would yell, "turn it down!" or "turn it off!"

A box of LPs came with this stereo. I was so excited to see my favorites but was surprised to see albums such as these! What? Where are my groovy records?

How times have changed. Now we can blast our ear drums with our favorite music while walking around and no one else can hear. I wonder what Jacob is listening to...Maybe just for fun I should yell "turn it down!"
It's fun to have the stereo in our already crowded living room. It brings back many memories. I'm going to go starch a doily.

Take one for the team

I rediscovered my passion for volleyball. For the past 2 months, we've been meeting together on Thursday nights from 8:30 - 10:00 to play volleyball. I probably wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for Camille. She's younger and can actually bend her knees and use her arms in a coordinated manner and wanted me to go with her to the volleyball games. After the first night I was hooked! Mostly I just stood in my spot and added commentary to the games-"Way to go, nice hit, now that's a volley, Woo-hoo!" You get the picture. If the ball did come to me I'd move my feet a little, hit it and pray it would go over the net or to a person who could help it over the net. Last Thursday, the game was a little different. When Camille and I arrived, there were only 3 women. My team had 3, the other, only 2. We played for 45 minutes with this number. Standing and commenting was out of the question. I had to run and hit and serve--alot! This night I was actually sweating. We were all exhausted then a few more women came and we had 5 on each team. I wanted to quit, after all, I did my duty. If I quit to go home, Camille would have to leave too, since we came together. It would be harder for the others to play with fewer people, the original 3 were exhausted too, so I kept on going. I had a good time, a nice bruise, a sore back and even a sore jaw when finished. We all have to take it for the team. As a mother, father, spouse, sibling, co-worker, church member, friend, neighbor, we have all had to make sacrifices so others are happy and healthy. We may not like it but at times it's necessary. I appreciate the sacrifice others have made for me.
Next week I'm wearing long sleeves to the volleyball game.

We're the Same Age!

David turned 29 on March 20th! As you can see by these pictures, he's an adorable child, always busy, full of life and full of fun! (That's probably not the only thing he's full of)During high school David wrestled, drove cars, had lots of friends, made me laugh, made me cry, made me crazy! I don't know what life would have been like without him!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, David! I sure love you!

Living Dangerously

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day. I had the day off work so I was busy cleaning, running errands, cooking, etc. While delivering a visiting teaching paper to a woman, I was accosted by an adorable, brown-eyed, black haired, 9 year old girl who asked if I'd like to buy some lemonade. I walked to her lemonade stand and saw some cups sitting on the small table filled with an orange liquid. I asked her about the lemonade and she told me it wasn't really lemonade but more of a juice. As I gave her the money and chose my drink, wondering how long it had been sitting uncovered in the sun and imagining how it was prepared, I had second thoughts about drinking it. I drank it anyway. I got in my car, realizing that I may have just consumed a lethal dose of kid germs. I drove the rest of the way home without a seatbelt.