I speaka da English

Your Linguistic Profile:

60% General American English

25% Dixie

10% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Makes sense living near an urban area, growing up in VA, with parents from the Northeast. How 'bout you?

Elizabeth's Baptism

Betta was baptized awhile ago...March 3. We asked good friends of ours, John and Nicole Freeman, to be godparents to Elizabeth Claire. I don't have too many photos, but here is one that shows off the gorgeous baptism gown.
My mother in law made the gown from my wedding dress. There is also a matching bonnet to go with the coat and gown.

The baptism was lovely. Many good friends and family came. We enjoyed having everyone. I really love baptisms. I love welcoming a new member into the Body of Christ; I love that the little one is now free from the stain of original sin; I love having a living saint in my house.

Root Canal Woes 2

Have the temporary crowns in and must go back in for the permanent crowns...

I show up for the appointment and the dentist appears rubbing his hands together gleefully. He says, "Good, now that I've got you here, I'm taking a full x-ray of your teeth."

My initial thought is, we've hit our cap, I'm out of pocket, what's the going rate for x-rays?

He continues, " You've been pregnant for the last two years, you know. Everytime you've been in, it's been for an emergency, so we've taken precautions and only taken a limited x-ray just to get a picture of the bad tooth. You've got a lot of old fillings and dental work. Some of it will need to be replaced, I'm sure. I want to see what I'm dealing with and devise a plan for treatment."

We get the full set of x-rays, and the visit progresses. They pop out the temporary crowns and put in the new ones. They also do a quick cleaning. No fuss, no muss.

Then we're almost done. The dentist shows me my x-rays.

"You see in these pictures you have a lot of old fillings. They look good, they'll hold up. We don't need to worry about them cracking or breaking until next year when your insurance will cover the work again. But look here..."

He points to the tooth that is sitting directly underneath the tooth that started this whole mess.

"You see this filling right? Underneath it is all cloudy. That's a cavity. I'm surpised you're not in pain right now. That will need a root canal, but because it is so deep and close to the jaw bone, the gum will need minor surgery to push it away so that the crown will cover the whole area and keep your tooth intact and your jaw safe from infection. You're young, so I would have to leave it untreated and have to pull the tooth. Then we're talking bridge-work."

He tells me a few more things about how long we could hold off on treating it and why that might not be a good idea; a good person to do the work. I'm sure I asked a few other questions but that's lost in thinking about what an out-of-pocket root canal and crown would cost.

The epic of the styrofoam teeth isn't over yet. We'll need to figure out the best way and time to treat this last tooth. After this, I think I'm going wood. All hardwood teeth throughout a la George Washington.

Root Canal Woes

Oh yeah, the continuing saga of my styrofoam teeth!

Had to retreat the tooth, wait 2 weeks and go to the dentist.

Went to the dentist. He did an Xray to make sure the treated tooth looked fine and could be crowned. The teeth right next to it also needed work. One needed a filling, the other also needed a crown. If this was a retail store, I'd be thrilled, go in for one crown, come out with two!

He took several molds of my teeth to make sure the temporary crowns (we're talking in plurals now) would fit. He applied the temporary crowns. He took several more molds of my teeth to make sure the permanent crowns would fit. None of this hurt, it just took time.

Then he puts in the new filling. The drill is the worst. The absolute worst. My root canal didn't bother me but the quick little filling did. I cannot abide the drill.

I must stay, my dentist is very good about being as gentle and as thorough as possible. He spent a lot of time to make sure the bite was good for the temp. crowns and filling.

The two crowns and fillings hit the cap on my dental insurance for the year. Everything else is out of pocket.


Stay tuned, there is more to tell...

I feel loved

Always one thing coming right on the heels of another around here these days. I have several things to post about, both big and small, but never feel like I have the time to devote to it. So I'll do a quick small thing.

Annie likes me. She likes being in my lap. She let's me know by pulling on my pj bottoms and yelling, "Mama, sit down! Sit down! Sit down NOW!"

Tech Shootings

I live in Virginia, so it means I have family and friends that have or do attend Virginia Tech.

Everybody I know is OK, but I know someone will end up being involved some way, if only mourning and grieving for the death of a friend.

The latest from the Washington Post is here.

Little BLog

Little Blog oh how I neglect you. I must go on retreat this weekend and there are so many things to do to get ready. When I come back feeling restored I promise to sit down with you and tell you about so many of the interesting things happening here. I promise I haven't forgotten you little blog.

Oh, Happy Birthday to Me!

and my nephew Joey who turns one year old today!


I turn 26, but that isn't nearly as interesting as number one!
Party this weekend (for the one year old)!!

Blog Neglect

I have been neglecting this poor little blog lately.
Some places my time has gone
1. In the hospital with Annie due to a bad bout of rotavirus
2. Sick in bed with a milder case of the same thing
3. My first ever NINO meeting
4. At Dawn's
5. Outside while the nice weather lasted
6. Worrying about my mom--health is a little topsy-turvy right now. Doctors are dealing with it, but we don't know the final outcome yet.

Some things I should post
1. Pics of Elizabeth's baptism
2. Websites were I waste too much of my time--so you can waste your time too!
3. ...

Further Accountability

Ok, so the root canal is looking good. Just need to do the temporary and permanent crown with the dentist and this whole debacle is filed under Lesson Learned." Ask me next week if I've made the dental appointments so I don't drop the ball again.
Update:
Barring any Act of God, illness, death or destruction, I have dental appointments scheduled to take care of my styrofoam teeth

Lent

Ash Wednesday was this week. The family went to mass. Husband and I got the ashes on our forehead. Annie was fascinated and kept pointing to Husband's head and telling him, 'yucky' over and over again. She thought it was great fun.

Since Lent is a time of penance in the liturgical calendar, it's common practice to sacrifice, pray, and do charity in preparation for Easter. This year for Lent I will
-give up soda
-pray a divine chaplet each day
-make a meal or baked good to give to one family each week

So far I've flubbed on the soda and I haven't prayed yet. I have baked some bread, I just need to deliver it soon. The flub on the soda was actually pretty funny. Went to the mom's group and picked up McDonald's afterward. Ordered a soda without even thinking about it. After lunch, I went to Giant to pick up a few things. I bought soda for Husband, thinking "It's not really Lent and I'm not really giving anything up if it isn't in the house and isn't a temptation" all the while completely forgetting that I'd been sipping on a coke the whole way to the store. It was only when I was unloading the groceries and the McDonald's wrappers that it occurred to me that I messed it up. I gave up computer use for that day to make up for it though. Feel free to ask me how I'm doing throughout Lent, keep me accountable to my Lenten promises people!

The Little Artiste

Annie really like to draw with markers, pencils, pens, crayons, and even my lipliner. She usually draws on paper, sometimes in her books, and as often as not, on herself. Today she took a pen and drew on the side of the trash can. I figure it's a short leap to coloring on the walls. I got the crayola tub crayons (basically soap and dye) but she doesn't seem to understand that these are just for the tub. She wants to carry them all over the house and let the soap drip on things, like the bedsheets.

Went out today and got her some Colorwonder markers and paper by Crayola. We'll see how it goes.

Don't Be Me

Remember this? So I had a root canal. There is the actual appointment for the root canal, with a couple more appointments to get the temporary crown and later the permanent crown. The temporary filling really shouldn't stick around for more than two months before the temporary and permanent crowns go on. I had appointments to take care of the crown, really I did. But for one reason or another (a good reason at the time, but since I can't remember why, it must not have been so good a reason) I cancelled the appointment. Then I had a baby and was really distracted for several weeks.

Finally got around to going to the dentist two weeks ago. Only I was way, way too late and the tooth had an infection in it. Treated the infection with an antibiotic but had to go back and have the tooth retreated. I'm not messing around this time and the appointemtns to finish the work are already scheduled. Don't be me and neglect your own medical care--even if you get busy by having a baby!

A Round of Doctor's Visits

I've noticed before that doctor's visits seem to happen all at once. We're in the middle of a marathon of doctor's visits now.

Last Thursday --We had the ER visit
Last Friday --We had to follow up the next day with Annie's pediatrician
Monday --Elizabeth's well baby visit and immunizations
Tuesday --Retreat my tooth
Next Monday --Annie's well baby visit and immunizations
Next Wednesday --Follow-up on the tooth
Next Thursday --Get a temporary crown put on
With other dental appointments for the permanent crown, then the cleaning, then any subsequent dental work.

I wish I got stickers like Annie does when I have to schlep to the doctors.

Emergency Room Visit

Had to rush to the ER Thursday afternoon. I woke up that morning with a sinus-headache that was painful to the point of distraction. Since I had to look after the girls, I took some Tylenol. Left the bottle on the bathroom counter & didn't think anymore about it.

That afternoon, I was settling both Elizabeth and Annie down for a nap in my bed. After both the girls went down, I also dozed off. Woke up a few minutes later to the phone ringing. I got up to answer the phone and was met by Annie coming out of our master bathroom, holding the bottle of adult tylenol with red dye all over her hands. The pills weren't spilled on the floor, no pills were half eaten. A single pill lay on the floor of the bathroom. She must have climbed up on the toilet, to the sink-top, across the sink, and grabbed the bottle. Also safely and noiselessly climbed back down.

I asked her if she'd eaten any, and she said, "Yucky Bottle." Not a direct answer to my question, but through deductive reasoning, how would she know the bottle was full of something yucky tasting if she hadn't at least tasted it?

Put a call into Poison Control. They said based on her age and weight, if she had consumed 4 tablets, she would be facing a serious overdose. Since there was no way to be certain that she hadn't eaten any pills, we had to treat it as a worst case scenario. I needed to take her immediately to the emergency room.

Called Husband, quickly gathered up the girls and went to the hospital. Husband was hot on my heels through the ER door. Annie was sent to triage very quickly.

The steps to treat a potential overdose of tylenol:
1. Drink activated charcoal to absorb the stomach contents & pass through the digestive system with nothing being absorbed into the body.
2. Take a blood draw to test Tylenol levels in the blood
3. Pump in IV fluids to make sure the body is well hydrated
4. Take an EKG of the heart to check for normal function
5. Take an x-ray of the esophogeal area to make sure no pills or tablets are still waiting to drop into the stomach
6. Take a second blood draw 4 hours after the Tylenol was first consumed to make sure there are still no traces of Tylenol present in the body.

Annie had to drink 60 ccs of activated charcoal, a black, sticky, chalky, sweet mixture. She cried and Husband and I coaxed her to swallow all but a few drops. The technicians then wrapped her in a sheet & held her arm to insert the IV and do the first blood draw. She cried and they put in the IV. She cried as they splinted her arm so that she could not bend it and pull out the IV. After this the technicians left the room. Annie put her head on my shoulder and dozed off. She wasn't deeply asleep before the technicians came back to do the EKG. She cried while they did the EKG. Again the technicians left for awhile. Annie perked up then and we were able to feed her a little food. The technicians came back & took her for an X-ray. She cried. They returned her to the room & the last technician came in to do the final blood draw. She cried while they did a second needle stick to draw the second blood test.

The ER doctor came, said neither blood draws indicated that any Tylenol what-so-ever was present in her system. The EKG was normal, and the X-ray was clear. We were free to go.

Annie DID NOT EAT Tylenol, but gave us a good scare. Fortunately things are now back to normal.








I'm so mad at myself for not being more careful.

Sidebar Restored

I updated the format of the blog, using one of the templates provided by Blogger. I really like the design and color scheme of this template, but I was disappointed that this template did not include in it the sidebar headings with "Fun Links" or the like. Thanks to my brother-in-law Justin, he whipped out the HTML code so that I once again have more fun items in my sidebar than just the archive of previous posts. I still need to add a few links and headers, but the necessary code is there. Thanks!

Update:
I've added a few new headers with a few more links for you to clicky-click. Enjoy.

New Living Room

Remember this?

I wanted to do a before and after shot, but didn't have any decent before shots that really showed the damage well. Instead, I'll share with you that the repair guys came. Fixed the hole in our ceiling, repainted, and cleaned the carpet. Since our old couch was soaked from the pipe leak, we also picked out a new couch. We went to Mastercraft Interior, which was liquidating all it's assests since it was going out of business Here's what our living room looks like now...



We went with color recommendations from my sister-in-law, Jen. Before anything was done in this room, we had the cranberry colored window treatments. She suggested that good colors to set the cranberry curtains off would be a warm-toned green or yellow/gold color. We ended up choosing a green for the living room, a yellow/gold for the hallway, and a trim that complemented both colors. She also suggested bringing the gold color from the hallway into the living room by selecting a couch in the same color. We followed her suggestions and are very happy with the end result. She's in business as an interior designer. Leave a comment if you'd like to get in touch with her.

Pants with a button only, please.

Now that Lizzie is born, I'm excited about ditching the pants with elastic in the waist for pants real people wear. Zipper, stretch, and even a button. Bring on pants with a button! For Christmas, I went shopping for real, genuine pants with a button. Here's what I found:



I'm just like real people.

Hugh Hefner Christmas

Annie got several great gifts for Christmas. You can read about the one of her gifts here. We didn't get a lot of great pictures over the last few days, but here she is modeling the robe she got, Hugh Hefner style.

Diaper Business

My family sees fit to keep Pampers in business. Not only are both girls still in diapers, Elizabeth has seen fit start the monster baby poos. In the course of one changing, she had
1. the original dirty diaper
2. the clean diaper that I meant to put on her that was also pooed on
3. the second clean diaper that caught still more poo and
4. the clean diaper I finally got on her.

By the time she was done it took a total of four diapers! I didn't even keep count of how many baby wipes we went through.