Food

For being such a tiny little thing, Macy sure does like to eat. She doesn't eat much at a sitting (but as much or more than Stella, who has a nonexistent appetite) but she likes to eat all the time, especially when someone else is eating. And if they have pizza, they can't cut up pieces and put on her plate - oh no, she must take bites off either Paige's or Kincade's. So whenever Paige fixes herself a salad, she had better plan on a little Macy sitting on her lap and eating bites after Paige has a bite.

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New York City

Jason flew to PA and we went to NYC. This is from our hotel room in Jersey City, on the Jersey side of the Hudson. The skyline is NYC - looks so pretty at night. We went to see Wicked. I really enjoyed it, but didn't think I would, since it is a musical and I'm not too fond of musicals. My jaw was bothering me but I tried not to complain about it. Rick and Jason might disagree. It was a fun trip, we did lots of walking. When we were riding the subway, I kept a close eye out for pushers - it seems I read all too often that some crazy person pushed someone else into the path of a train.

Family Pics

We have been having family pics taken once a year for the last 12 years or so. I wasn't very good about them before that. This pic is the latest one taken at Christmas; Mary Dobson (altho that isn't her last name now) took this year's. I really liked how they turned out, but then she does do this professionally. Luckily for us, she didn't charge us her full price.

Jaw

My jaw is NOT healed, I just had 2 bad days with it. Not sure what to do, or where to go next to find someone who has a plan I can be sure will heal it.

Crown update

My jaw does feel better, the teeth are aligned. I almost don't want to post this, don't want to jinx it. Time will tell. Now, I'm going to go and think positive thoughts....

Two new Blue Men...or Girls, that is

Saga of the crowned tooth 2.1

It has been a week and 2 days since I went to the dentist and he set up a plan for healing my jaw. I had been feeling 85-90% normal, and went back to the dentist yesterday just for a checkup. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I got home, my jaw felt all funny, misaligned, I felt dizzy, and I knew that it had gone back bad again. I slept horribly last night, jaw and teeth felt odd, jaw and teeth were spasming slightly , so I called up the dentist this morning and asked for another week of the muscle relaxant. I don't know if that was what was helping or not. I then called up Rick's chiropractor (after speaking with a dental hygienist friend and she gave me a bunch of ideas for things that could be going wrong, and also suggested a visit to a chiro as one option), got an appoint and went in. He said the jaw was misaligned, did a slight manipulation, and at first it felt really good. Now, 2 hours later, I'm not so sure. I just want it to be healed and feel normal again!!! I go back to the chiro on Mon and see if he can help some more, and finally get it to permanent. The chiro did say that my jaw was swollen and it is tighter on the inside on the left (crown side) than on the right (noncrown side). He also said because it was swollen to use ice. I knew it swollen!!! I kept telling everyone, and everyone said, Ummm, it looks the same. I have a feeling that this just might take some time, 2-3 months, as the dentist said.

Motivational sayings

I have motivational sayings all over my house. These are supposed to remind me to act and BE a celestial person. I wish I could say that they really helped me to do this - I'm sorry to say that I don't even come close. It is so hard to change negative traits, requires so much attention and work all the time. I'm going to post another motivational quote, this one from Elder Neal A Maxwell, including a quote he used of Pres Brigham Young. This one I could do with reading every day, several times. "Like it or not,...reality requires that we acknowedge our responsibility for our desires.... Righteous desires need to be relentless, therefore, because, said Pres Brigham Young, 'the men and women, who desire to obtain seats in the Celestial Kingdom, will find that they must battle every day,' therefore, true Christian soldiers are more than weekend warriors." This actually gives me some hope, to know that I must battle my negative traits everyday, that it's not easy, and that I will come short, but must immediately begin that very day, that very second, to reaffirm my desires to BE celestial and continue the battle.

I can't believe he ate the whole thing...or at least will try

Kincade loves rice crispie treats, so of course Santa sent the biggest one possible.

Book worm crib

Some competition for the greatest guitarist of all time

And the winner is: Macy!!

Saga of the crown tooth

Today is 3 weeks and a day since I had the crown put on. And finally, I'm starting to feel human again. I had to come home early from Austin because my jaw was hurting so much. I went to the dentist yesterday, he said he knew what was wrong, told me what to do, and I started doing it. I'm not sure if it was because he was so confident, so a placebo effect happened, but my jaw did start to feel better immediately. So, continue taking Aleve (which is ibuprofen, as it happens, and I had been taking a generic ibuprofen but it didn't help the pain any so I had switched to Aleve and thought I would get in trouble for the change), but now make it 3x a day, take a muscle relaxant 3x a day, do jaw exercises 4x, and put on a hot, moist washcloth for an hour, taking it off and on every 10 min, 2x a day. In Austin, I quit using my jaw, thinking it would be best to let it rest and heal. And that was the wrong thing to do. I should have continued using it. What happened was this (according to my dentist): Because the knuckleheaded dentist in the office that put on the crown (not my dentist, he wasn't in that day, which is a whole 'nother story), couldn't hit the spot to numb my mouth, he had to shot me 3x with the needle. That caused the muscle to tear down, which resulted in my mouth and jaw going all cockeyed. I should have continued using the jaw to build the muscle back up. But I didn't know that, because all the 4x I called their office, no one told me that. The receptionist even told me to use a cold pack, and the dentist said no, use hot, moist heat. But, all's well that ends well (I think!$#%^)and I can tell that I'm on the way to healing. This will remind me to be waaaaay more sympathetic to people that are in pain, or hurting in some way. When people say, when you have your health, you have everything, it is the absolute truth. It is so miserable and consuming when you are sick, and so freeing to feel healthy.

House hunting

I had gone out house hunting on Wed, and knocked out some, and had some for Jason and Rick to look at on Sat. We picked up Jason, ate a quick lunch at Rudy's (a yummy Texas BBQ place), and met the realtor. Long story short, we made an offer on a house, they accepted, so we are all set. We asked for the closing to be around Feb 7, our closing in Pa is Feb 22, so that gives us time to get movers in and get to Austin. It is all working (knock on wood) out ok. Jason could tell he was getting sick when he got here, and he indeed did get sick. We went to the CVS Minute Clinic this morning, and he got some meds. With my jaw (complications of a stupid, stupid crown I had put on a tooth) and his cold/flu, we are a matched set. I did get us on the same flight to Houston tomorrow, then he takes one to Indy and I take another to Philly. Houston seems to be the hub that all traffic coming into or out of Austin uses.

Snow Bunnies

I think it snowed most mornings that we were in Utah. It really snowed and blowed and stormed Christmas Eve. And looked so pretty - just something about a white Christmas.

This was New Year's Eve day. Macy was bundled so much she could hardly walk, but Stella scampered all around.

Paige and Stella had a great time, sledding down the hill. Macy rode down once, crying all the way. Paige said a few weeks ago she took them sledding, and the downhill went fine, everyone enjoyed it. But then, when Macy was being pulled back up the hill, the sled tipped over and she face planted into the snow. She must have been having a flashback and wanted nothing more to do with that nonsense. Rick went down a few times, but we hadn't brought snow stuff and he was soon cold, and I was,too, standing there with the iPad filming it all. Too much to pack, as were going on to Austin.

Christmas

Too much going on, and I haven't been good about blogging; that makes me sad.
We are here in Ausin, I'm supposed to be looking for houses, and Rick has begun his new job. Unfortunately, my new crown (on tooth) is causing me lots of problems, so I will be returning to Pa. I guess Rick will take over the house hunting. Unless Jason, Rick, and I can get it done this weekend.

Anyway, here are our Christmas pics.

Scott the Red-nosed Reindeer

Jason, but no Chris. I wondered why I didn't have any pics of Chris, then I realized he worked Christmas morning.

Scott and Jessica

Macy loves Rapunzel, and Stella loves Belle.