Thanksgiving 2013

It's always nice to go to Mike's brother's house for Thanksgiving.  They have a large home in the country, with plenty of room for anyone who comes - and it's usually a diverse group.  Andrew's absence was keenly felt, but it was a good day.

Here is yours truly with my niece's eighteen-month-old, very sweet, very photogenic little girl.  She commanded attention all afternoon, and she loved every minute of it.  It was difficult not to pay attention to her because she was just so stinkin' cute.  The lady behind me is my sister-in-law's mother, a very gracious lady.

 ML with little Bailey--

We always shoot skeet if the weather is OK.  This is where we really missed Andrew because he always loves the skeet shooting.  ML got two out of four--not bad!!

And of course, Mike, the man with a gun--got two out of four his first go-around, then six out of six his second.  He is quite the shooter.  And his brother, behind him, is a good shooter also--as well as the provider of the skeet and ammo.  Thank you, Steve--

 And one last picture of the day's main attraction--

It was a good day.  Lots of good food.  Family from both sides, friends, and a spirit of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Eve

It's 8:30 on the night before Thanksgiving.  ML will be in later from a friend's movie-watching party.  And Andrew is on the other side of the world.

It's hard having him so far away at Thanksgiving.  I keep reminding myself that he is just on the other side of the world.  But I miss him.

One of my eighth grade students brought a hand-knitted hat to me on Monday.  "It's for your son in China," she said.  "My mom made it for him because it is so cold there."  I was deeply touched.  I meant to take a picture of it--but remembered after it was already packed.

He is not real warm. He stays bundled up, but the temperature is hovering around 0 degrees.  He has heat in his apartment, but it's on the first floor--and heat rises.

Today I packed a small box with that hat, the scarf I knitted earlier that was to go in the box we couldn't mail (found out too late that you can't mail used clothing into China), a "gator" which Mike says keeps your neck warm, and a Carolina knitted hat just to make him smile.  I also included gluten-free snacks--not because he is on a gluten-free diet but because he said that that if you state that on the customs form, it helps get things past the censors without their looking into packages.  (Apparently none of them are gluten-free.)  And he said there is someone there who will be glad for them.

I walked into the post office with the package at 4:37.  And discovered that the post office closes at 4:30.  Se la vie, or however you spell it.  Guess I'll send it on its way on Friday instead.  And hope and pray that the censors really are gluten-free.

An Education on Root Cracks

I've learned a lot about teeth this week.

On Thursday I had a second molar root removed due to what originally presented as a periodontal pocket that was prone to getting food stuck in it.  I thought it was going to be a quick, one-time trip to the dentist with the problem quickly solved.  First mistake.  My dentist said that there was severe decay, that had developed quite quickly over the past year underneath the crown, and he had to remove the crown.  He didn't think he could save the tooth; his reason was because the decay took too much of the tooth for a crown to attach.  Since the tooth was root-canaled, I could get the root taken out whenever I wanted to in the next couple of months.

However, over the few days after the crown was removed, the tooth got considerably more painful, the dentist called in an antibiotic, and I moved the appointment for the root removal up with the oral surgeon to ASAP.  Which was Thursday morning.

Curiously, the oral surgeon who removed the tooth said there was no active infection.  There were some signs of chronic infection, but not anything currently going on.  He did say, however, that the tooth had a cracked root, and cracked roots cannot be saved.  The pain was from the tangled nerve complex in the gums and bone adjacent to the root canaled tooth and cracked root.  He told me all this on the phone yesterday when I was under the influence of Lortab, and that was all I comprehended.

I got on the internet today and googled "cracked root."  Everything was spot-on.  No pain actually inside a tooth that has a root canal, but pain and periodontal pockets can develop around it, and swollen, painful bumps can also form above and around the tooth.  My symptoms exactly.

Now I need to make sure I know how to keep from cracking any more tooth roots.

And I am very thankful for modern dentistry.  And Lortab.

Ups and Downs

I haven't done an ups and downs post in a long, long time.

UP: Both daughter and husband got deer yesterday morning.  Both are happy.

UP: Andrew's colleagues and friends worked together to give him a good birthday.  I was very glad about that.

UP: I made a buffalo chicken pasta recipe last week, with a half a cup of hot sauce!  (Also a half a cup of blue cheese dressing, chicken, and bowtie pasta.  And for the first time Mike was happy (in terms of heat) with something I've cooked.  If he had his way everything we had would be be full of hot peppers.  The hotter the better.

DOWN: Dental issues are no fun.  Believe me.  I had to have a crown removed from a root-canaled tooth on Wednesday; it can't be repaired.  Dentist said - Get the rest removed any time in the next couple of months at an oral surgeon, so I made an appointment for about a month from now.  Well, the pain level and swelling have increased, and I can't eat anything but soft things, as well as have a low grade continuous fever, so that appointment will be moved up to this week --as soon as the oral surgeon can work me in.

Friday's Fave Five, 11/1/13

Link to Friday's Fave Five

1. My brother and his daughter came to see our folks on Sunday afternoon.  We hadn't been with them for awhile, so it was nice to eat Mom's roast beef and sit around the table and talk.

2. Last week we had a morning of team-building exercises.  I'm not crazy about that kind of thing; however, the kids really enjoyed it and it served its purpose.  At least all I had to do was be a cheerleader, and not get down on the ground and act crazy myself.

3. Mike got my car detailed Wednesday.  It looks better than it has since we bought it.  And my dad was willing to take me to work and pick me up since the car was in the shop.  I'm thankful to both of them!

4. I have been grading papers non-stop this week.  Three sets of book reports, three sets of tests, a set of Scarlet Letter themes, three sets of vocabulary exercises, and five sets of vocabulary quizzes.  Plus I've been teaching biology for my dear friend who's been out with gallbladder surgery, and making up a quiz and a test for that.  But as of this morning, most of it is pretty well done. . .

5. AND, yesterday Mike completed his second week of his new job.  No nights, no weekends!

Two sports bonuses:  The Red Sox won the World Series, and it's been fun to watch David Ortiz do so much good hitting.  We watched him hit a home run in person three years ago on the way to Maine, when we stopped in Boston to watch the Red Sox play.

AND, the Gamecocks pulled out a 27-24 win over Missouri, in double overtime, after being down 17-0 at the end of the third quarter!  Improbable but not impossible. . .and they did it!