Taking the Scenic Route

You know you are getting older when you need to mail a letter and have no idea what the price is because you lost track somewhere in the mid 90s. I am really hating the trend where they put a letter on the stamp instead of a price because it forces you to Google it to know how much it is so that you know how many of them to put on the letter, since you haven’t bought stamps for the last half dozen or so price changes. (btw, the little rooster ones with the blue background are 1 cents, the G rate dove ones are 3 cents.)

And on a happy note, those “Love” ones in the background (with the angel) will always be on the bottom of the pile, just there to give me a smile when I dive through the pile. Those are the stamps that went on our wedding invitations.

It was a great day for the kids. The afternoon was filled with activities at ROCKO, and both kids were happy and tired when we picked them up. Our time off was spent whittling down the remaining balance on our flex spending account (ends in 2 days) in the Walmart pharmacy area, then going home and making eggs and watching part of a movie. (“Lymelife”…good acting, but not as compelling as the idea of an hour of sleep, so we turned it off and took a nap). We picked up the kids and asked who wanted to play in the snow before the sun went down. We were surprised that Zane wasn’t interested, but Zora was all for it.

Snow, beautiful snow. Zach went out to shovel and Zora wanted to go outside too. She got dressed in time to help him sprinkle ice melt stuff onto the drive. Her choice of snow gear had me giggling too. (It isn’t bitterly cold and she wasn’t out there for long, so I didn’t battle for gloves)

Zach was scheduled for his Unemployment Benefits interview today. When the guy called, after confirming who he was and such, he said that it was just a courtesy call. They had received his documentation, and it was “very sufficient” (which is giggle worthy when you know it was 7 pages, breaking down everything in the separation memo) and the company wasn’t contesting it. We should have the money available to us in the next 5 business days. WHEW!

Zora started back at preschool today. She was VERY excited to get to see her friends again.

The theme/book this week is “Tacky the Penguin“, which is one of Zane’s favorites, so Zora was familiar with it too. It was reported that she was excited to inform the teachers that she knew the book.

Her penguin home

Her penguin craft

I didn’t understand exactly what happened, but some of the preschoolers, including Zora, decided to trade a little stuffed penguin they got for a dollar. She was very excited about her dollar and had definite ideas about how she wanted to spend it.

Zora’s picture story of her Dollar as told by Zach and the camera:

The “Orange Store”

“I do it myself” (self check out aisle)

Her favorite “Circle Candy” (peppermint patties)

Sweet victory

I can’t believe I am even posting a picture today because I look as rotten as I have looked in a long time. I have an excuse though. My mom came up today (thank you mom) so I could have a driver, so that I could Valium. I started my day at 7:30 this morning with scaling and planing 3/4 of my mouth, with Valium on board and many shots (I am really hard to numb and have always had really sensitive teeth).

After that, I took a break to go to the dermatologist. There I found out that my feet thing is mostly likely Schamberg’s disease, which basically just means I have hyperpigmentation on my feet, like my dad and his mom. Lucky me. (it doesn’t hurt or itch, it is just embarrassing) I also found out my mole/brown spots are not cancerous, but I will probably keep getting more as I age (yay me) and had the giant witch’s mole in the middle of my nose taken off, along with a skin tag that grew a skin tag near my eye. Both required MORE shots to do, and I gotta tell you, a few shots in your nose would have been the suckiest thing I have experienced, had it not been for the rest of the day. She took as many skin tags off of my eyelids as I could handle…those are without any anesthesia because it would have cause my eyes to swell shut and bruise horribly. I got the major ones that cause me issues.

Then a few minutes to try and spoon a little soup into my mouth. I only had the lower left corner with any feeling, so it was a messy proposition. Even mom couldn’t keep from giggling when I had to use my fingers to help my lips make a seal around the straw to take some more Valium.

Then back to the dentist for the true marathon. I was in the chair for three hours, getting fillings. I have a serious problem with both scraping sounds and the sound of the drill, which is a big part of why I needed Valium, but I also combatted it by cranking up my Mp3 player loud enough to compete with the drill. (the assistant told me she liked my music afterward. lol)

As I have said before, it is really hard to get me numb enough, and I stopped counting the shots somewhere around 15…there had to be at least 2 dozen by the end of the day, counting everything. I was SO THANKFUL to be taken seriously. I have had dentist not believe that I could feel anything and keep going, which is why I developed such a dental phobia. He was awesome. His staff was awesome. They did such a good job on matching the color that if I didn’t know where every cavity was (due to photoshopping my teeth in pictures that I like, but are ruined by my ugly teeth), I would never be able to see it wasn’t my natural tooth. I literally cried when I saw my teeth in the mirror at the end. (granted, I had to use my fingers to get my lips out of the way. lol).

Then I finished my marathon by having that last quarter of my mouth numbed to do the planing and scaling on them. I used up the last of the Flexible Spending Plan, and maxed out my dental insurance, but I am so thankful that I could get it done and that the office worked with me to get it accomplished in one swoop, and before the end of January when both the insurance and the Flex Spending runs out for us.

I also got some heavy duty pain meds, and they are kicking in now. I still have one numb spot, probably the nerve to my front upper tooth, and now that the shots have mostly worn off, I can tell something got hit in my nose and it hurts and is causing my nose to run almost uncontrollably. It is still worth it though.

So, here is the horrible picture of me, right after I got home and Zora asked what was wrong with my face. I am trying to smile, but I am numb from my lower eyelids to my throat and, in person, look like one of those people who are addicted to plastic surgery with duck lips and too high, too big of cheek implants. I iced my face for a few minutes, then I went to bed and slept for about 5 hours after this photo.

Ten dress sizes. I knew my 22s were loose, but imagine my shock when mom took me to Kohls.

Mario and Luigi

Things to buy in bulk:

For both inside and outside doors. Lifesavers.

No matter how much you think you will need, you will always need more. PECs, schedules, sequencing activities, keeping pens attached to where they are needed, and a million other uses.

If you have a sensory seeking kid who chews on everything, just get these in bulk, because they are like socks…they always seem to get sucked into the vortex, and if you have them stashed everywhere, you are more likely to find one when you need it.

Zora has the “just one more…” thing before going to bed down pat now. (including making sure that Zane has a snack too) We have to remember to tell them to go to bed early enough to accommodate a few “one more…” now days. Tonight it was water and popcorn. Now we haven’t had popcorn in months, so there was a minute of “do we even have popcorn?” thinking outloud, to which she told us that we could “make from popcorn seeds”. lol.