White Christmas

We had a very nice quiet Christmas at home. I took Christmas Eve afternoon off so that Jennifer and I could take a quick drive to Billings to do some last minute shopping. Billings was pretty busy, but we managed to get around without any problems. Just had to be patient. Our first stop was the mall. I had to get some last minute presents for Gary. I told Jennifer that this was her last chance to get her photo with Santa taken.

When she was little she was afraid of Santa and would never sit on his lap. I do have one photo of her but that was the year she was born. I even tried getting her to sit on his lap with her brothers at her side, but no go. She would kick and scream and it just wasn't worth it. So all these years I don't have a photo of my youngest with Santa. Now that she is grown I tease her about it.

When we got done in the mall, she was hungry so we stopped at Applebee's for lunch. She ate while I just had a soda. After eating we made our way to Wal-Mart. It was very busy in Wal-Mart. We didn't need to get much but had to stand in the check out line for about 20 minutes. Just our luck, we get behind a woman who had one item without a price tag. The checker had to run and get a price tag put on the item. Then we made our way home. We got home around 6:00 pm.

Once I got home, I wrapped up the last of the presents and put them under the tree. Then it was just time to relax. Jennifer and I had plans to go to midnight mass, but we were just too tired to go.

For Christmas we opened our presents and then Jennifer and I went to church. After church I fixed our dinner and we spent the rest of the day grazing on food. Got phone calls from my family and I even talked to my future daughter in law.

This morning we got back into our normal routine, when we went to go swim it was snowing again. It snowed all day long and we got about 6 inches today. In total for the month of December we must have a good two feet of snow on the ground. We got more snow this month than we have had in the last two winters total.

Gary shoveled snow this morning as he had the day off, but he has to work tomorrow. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Mom's neighbor will shovel her walks. I checked on her mail today and they shoveled a small path but only from their driveway up to her steps. They didn't do the rest of the walk. I hope they do it tomorrow so that I won't have to.

Cabin Fever

After spending five days inside the house, I am getting cabin fever. I have ventured out in public twice already. I went to tae kwon do class last night. Gary signed up two new students who also need uniforms and he has no clue on sizes for the kids. Now that I saw the kids, I know what to get them. The uniform sizes are not what the kids normally wear. I love them because I wear a size 5.

It was funny because the first things the kids noticed was that my mouth looked different and I talked different. At least they can understand me. They did ask what happened to my teeth. The woman who was with me when I fell just feels so bad that I had to have my teeth pulled. She still feels that it was her fault that I fell. It's not like she pushed me or anything like that.

Today I went to the bank. I put my teeth in had to have them in for five hours today. Towards the end I was ready to take them out. All that plastic in my mouth is just annoying. It is just going to take time. Anyway I was able to drive around and get some fresh air. Need to start getting back into a normal routine. I haven't worked out for over a week and feeling it.

I have been eating soup all week, so tonight I was able to eat a hamburger. It took me a while to finish eating, but I managed to eat real food. It sure was tasty. It is going to be a while before we can go out to eat, but once I get my partials that is going to be on the top of my list, going out for a nice dinner.

Tomorrow Gary and I are going to Billings, we have two Patriot Guard missions at the airport. The missions tomorrow are the good kind. One of for a kid who is coming home from boot camp and the other is for a kid coming home from Iraq for the holidays. Both are going to be at the airport, so we will be indoors and not freezing outside. It snowed this afternoon and it supposed to be cold tomorrow, below zero again. This will be a huge test for me with my teeth, but I need to get used to having them in all day anyway. I can drink with them in, just not eat.

Feeling Better

It has been 4 days now and I'm feeling much better. I no longer have to take the pain pills, in fact I only took those for the first two days. Monday I needed two pills and on Tuesday I only needed one and that was at night.

Every day I put in my temporaries an hour longer than before. Today I'm up to 4 hours. I am getting better at getting them in, but it is going to take some time getting used to having all that plastic in my mouth. Right now it feels like I'm wearing mouth guards. At least when I talk now, Gary & Jennifer can understand me. I have to wear the temporaries for 6 weeks. I will just get used to them and then have to get used to my real partials. Those won't have as much plastic at the temporaries.

I'm still eating "soft" foods like soup and oatmeal. I haven't tried eating any solids yet, will have to get brave and try something, but probably over the weekend. I can't eat with the temporaries in, as they cover over the top of my back teeth, but I can drink with them in. I have to take very small sips, so it takes me a while, but I can do it.

I am going to venture out today, will be picking up Jennifer from work. I haven't had fresh air since Monday. I will be ready to go back to work on Monday.

Yesterday Was The Day

Yesterday I had my teeth pulled. It really wasn't that bad at all.

The night before I took one of my happy pills, boy did I sleep good Sunday night. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, after all getting 10 teeth pulled would make anyone shudder.

Woke up as usual in the morning and it was cold -20, but I got ready. Mom drove up from Wyoming to take me to my appointment. She got here on Thursday before the frigid cold and storm hit. We left town around 8:45 am. I had to go to the post office to get some stamps and then before we hit the road, we got one of our fru-fru coffees. I don't know when I will get another one any time soon. Besides I had to take the last happy pill an hour before my appointment.

I ate pretty good over the weekend. On Friday I went to Taco John's and had a nacho's navidad, then on Saturday was our Christmas party for tae kwon do and I ate a pretty good dinner, even had red velvet cake for dessert. On Sunday when we went out for coffee I had a McDonald's cinnamelt. It was all very yummy. I must had gained 5 pounds over the weekend.

Got to my dentist's office and checked in. We got there about 10 minutes early. I told Mom that if she had anything to do it would be ok for her to leave because it would take a couple hours for me to get done. She had everything done, so she stayed. Good thing she brought a good book to read. We were there for three hours.

The dentist asked me if I was ready for all this. Not really but lets get it done. The shots in my mouth hurt worse than the extraction itself. Nothing like getting shots in the roof of your mouth, not to mention that my top gums are still sore from my fall in August. Before I knew it, he had all my front teeth out. Didn't feel a thing at all, very easy extraction. He pulled my wisdom tooth last, he was pretty sorry that even though my mouth was numb, he can't numb the sound. That is the worst.

My face was numb from my nose to my chin. The dental staff kept talking to me and I would answer, but it was very difficult. There was one point when I told the dentist that I could feel a flap of skin on my lower gums. That was my lip. My mouth feels pretty weird now.

It took about an hour for him to get my temporary teeth in. It is just a plastic tray with teeth in the spaces I need. I have to wear these for six weeks until my partials come in. I can't eat with them in. They just fit over the top and snap into place over my teeth. The dentist wants to make sure that my gums are healed very good before they come in. Said that it would be easier to have them fit right the first time instead of coming in to get them fitted. This way gives the swelling time to go away.

I had to wear the temporary's for an hour yesterday, which was pretty easy on the way home. They had to come out right away, it was pretty bothersome. Going to take time to get used to that. Mom dropped me off at the house and I gave her my prescriptions for Gary to fill. I have to take amoxicillin and hydrocodone. The antibiotics I take until they are gone. He gave me those because of so much dental work done to fend off infection and the pain pills I only have to take as needed.

Mom even came back to the house to stay until Gary got off work. I told her that it wasn't necessary as I would be taking a nap and by then Gary would be home with the pain pills. But she came and did her mother duty.

I took a pain pill when I woke up after my nap, was able to eat a bowl of soup and drink some water, then I took another pain pill before I went to bed.

So far this morning I am feeling fine. However, I'm not looking forward to putting in the temporaries today. I have to wear them for 2 hours today and increase the time each day. I don't think I can get them in, but will. May have to take a pain pill for that.

I really do look different. It is strange looking in the mirror, I have straight teeth. This will all take some time to adjust, but at least the hard part is done.

I go back to the dentist in 3 weeks for a check up and also I need to have some more fillings. Great, more shots in my mouth and drilling.

I Won

Yesterday Gary got a phone call informing him that I had won two free tickets. The phone call was from the Harley dealership. Anyway, he called me at work and asked me if I had remembered filling out slips of paper at the dealership. I did, but it had been last month and I had forgotten about it.

I had to call the dealership back and let them know that I wanted the tickets. Who in their right mind would not accept two free tickets. I called them back and verified my information and they are going to mail me the tickets. I thought they would be in the mail today, but no such luck, should get those tickets tomorrow.

Now our dilemma is what to do with these two free tickets. When I filled out the slips of paper, we said that we would never win. We never win anything like this.

I know you wondering what I won. I won two tickets to the Denver Bronco-Buffalo Bill game at Invesco Field in Denver on the 21st. We won't be able to make it to Denver, so will probably send them to Gary's brother. What a surprising Christmas he will have.

This would be a dream come true going to a pro football game. Neither one of us is a Bill or Bronco fan. The timing is not going to work out. Now if the Bronco's would be playing Green Bay that is another story. We would be doing everything in our power to go.

Right away Gary had offers to buy our tickets at the store and I have offers at the court house. The right thing to do would be to give them to his brother, but first Gary needs to call him and see if that would work for them.

Just my luck, I win something very exciting and I can't use it. Not in the cards right now, but someday we will make it to a pro football game. Our goal is to go to Lambeau field.

Fondue Party

Last night Gary and I went to a fondue party. My old boss and his wife host this party which they started last year. This time there were 5 couples in all. Our job was to bring the wine. We had bought three bottles, chardonney,riesling and a red rose. Not only that but the host had a bunch of wine too. Their house is just around the corner from ours so we just walk.

We had shrimp, beef and venison marinaded in different marinades and some veggies. We also had a broccoli rice dish and another salad. For dessert we had chocolate cake with whipped cream topping. It was all very tasty.

It was alot of fun, you cook your own food. They had three fondue pots ready to go, she even had a batter for us for the veggies. You get to eat how much you want.

Gary and I were the second ones to arrive and the first thing we had to do was have a drink. Gary had a beer while I had a glass of red rose wine. For dinner everyone drank some of the chardonney then we ended up drinking some cabernet sauvignon. That one is a very dry wine, then we finished off the chardonney. In all I had 6 glasses of wine and Gary had 5.

It's a good thing that we didn't have to drive. We were both feeling pretty good. We were at the party for just over 4 hours. Had alot of good laughs and great conversation. We did sleep very good last night. Also walking gave us a bit of fresh air which felt very good.

Woke up this morning with a slight headache, but once we got some fresh air we were both fine. We had gone to McDonald's for some coffee.

We really enjoy this party and now we want to get our own fondue pot, this would be a great thing for Super Bowl.

I Can Finally Get Audio Books

Good News, I can finally get audio books. I was in my office talking to my boss about not being able to get audio books and it has been forever. Every time I go in the library I'm told that they are having problems with the computers. I've been waiting very patiently for about three months to get audio books. My boss is on the library board.

It just happened that one of the librarians was in the court house and she stopped in my office to visit. I was telling her how disappointed I was in not being able to get audio books. She looked at me like I was crazy, what was I talking about.

She showed me how I can check out audio books right from my home. I used my work computer with the ok from the boss. Went through all the steps accordingly. Now I have a problem with the work computer, keep getting an error notice about the digital rights management component. I tried downloading the program every which way I can think of, read all the instructions and I followed the steps to a t. Even my boss was having problems.

She called the head librarian and told him about our problem. The librarian told us that we can check out audio books from our own home, just can't use the library's computers. Those aren't working. Apparently if you are a state computer you can't get the program to work. The only thing we can figure is that the state has a block so that employees can't download copyrighted material.

I downloaded the program from home and guess what, it works. All I have to do is log in, chose my local library and then type in my card number and I'm ready to go. The system is pretty screwy though. Seems like there is only one book available to download. If I find a book that I want to listen to and it says to add it to my list, that means that someone else in the state has already checked it out. If I put the book on my list, then I will get an e-mail notice letting me know that it is available and I can then download it onto my computer. If the book says add to my cart, then I can get that book right now. Now that I can get the audio books from home, I don't need it at work.

You get the books for two weeks and then they get checked back in, the funny part is that I can't check the book in early, I get it for two weeks no matter what.

I don't have my new MP3 player yet, I've been waiting for the library to get in gear. I'm so happy, now I can go get my new player. I know what kind of files that are used and I just have to get a player that is compatible.

Right now I am downloading the books onto my computer and listening while on the computer. It works for now. I can also burn the books onto cd's besides my player. Here is the funny part. Everything I have read says that after two weeks the books will just disappear. Will have to see on my computer, but if you have the book on your player or copied to a cd, they are hoping that you are honest and will get rid of them.

Not all the books are downloadable to the players. Some you can only download onto your computer. Some won't let you burn onto a cd, you have to read the digital management information. It all depends on what the publisher is allowing the reader to do.

It is going to be convenient not having to go to the library all the time. Their hours not really user friendly. The hours are Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm. There are times when this just doesn't work.

I will still go to the library and actually check out books that you have to actually read, but it is nice to know that I can now get the audio books for when I go on trips. Now I just have to get my new player and that in itself will be a new venture.