My lips went numb!

All my life I have gotten cold sores. They are miserable things, and you are lucky if you have never gotten one. They are genetically passed on; my dad was susceptible and the lucky ones in my family are my two sisters and me (not sure about the brothers, maybe). The lucky ones in my own family are Paige, Chris, and Scott, yay.

If you have the genetic material, then what brings on a cold sore seems to be the 4 esses: stress, sunburn, sleep, and sick. I had not gotten one for several years, and then with all the stress with my jaw and tinnitus, I was getting one every month. That had eased off and it had been several months (6 or more) since the last one. The cedar fever is getting me, which is stressing my body, and guess what? On Mon I felt 2 (two TWO) forming on the same place on my lower lip that they always do. More yay.

I remember many years ago asking a doc if there was meds for them and he said no (but that was the bad pediatrician in Plainfield, so I shouldn't have trusted his answer) and I always had the kids and me use over-the-counter salves and such. Paige asked her doc 7-10 years ago and he said, there is a pill to take called Valtrex or Acyclovir or another brand. And they work! You must start the medication as soon as you feel one forming; they'll still form, but much smaller and not last as long. Yay and Yay!

The nerve endings hurt like the dickens, so I started using Orajel, which is a numbing agent. This morning Rick and I were going out to the Farmer's Market to get some Kombucha and Rick had a drink. I had just put some Orajel on and then took a sip of his soda. He didn't drink it again until we got back in the truck, and by the time we got home he said, my lip has gone numb, I'm not kidding my lip has gone numb for some reason. I told him it was probably because I took a drink with the Orajel just put on my lip and then he drank and got it on his lip.

And for you people who have never gotten a cold sore, I don't think you can get one from kissing or touching a glass or something. I think you have to be genetically predisposed to it. I just looked this up on the internet and it said you can spread them by touching something a person had touched who has one, but I don't believe it. Rick and Jason have never gotten a cold sore (also known as fever blisters).

Anyways, I thought it was funny when Rick said My lip is going numb, I don't know why.
Actually, this will prove or disprove my theory: If he gets a cold sore or not.I also use this for mosquito bites: it numbs the area so the itching goes away and when you don't scratch the bite, it heals faster and hurts less.

Circus clown or nerd microbiologist or old man styling or...

You decide. Which fits best how he looks?

These loverly little pants were given by the doc office for his hip examination. They did an x-ray right then before the doc ever came into the examining room, and the x-ray showed us his hip in all its glory.

The ball of the hip socket that bothers him is being worn down, has lost a lot of cartilage, called osteoarthritis. Also, and this might be the genetics that cause the Owens' to have bad hips, one hip is lower than the other. It's so plain to see on the x-ray. Plus most every chiropractor he has used has commented on the lower hip and tried to fix it. Actually, what they comment on is that one leg is longer than the other, but this is caused by one hip being lower.

I think he looks cute.

We've got the very best in charge

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Wait! What? FCC ponders plan to route U.S. 911 calls through Russian satellites.

Are we here yet, or are we beyond this point?

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of
its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under
robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber
baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be
satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us
without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
―
C.S. Lewis

Glen Henry Jensen 1945-1949 Military Tour

He spent most of his time in Hawaii, as a radioman. They were directed to shoot down anything that didn't respond correctly, even if they knew the plane was American. Drafted after Pearl Harbor, the day that went down "in infamy." I guess Hawaii wasn't a bad place to spend WWII. But, as is usual with most men, he didn't talk about it much.

Glen and Gladys Martin Jensen Family 1972

Mine are the best and the cutest and the mostest

Last night I was out visiting teaching and Paige called. I silenced it and sent her a text asking if it was an emergency. She said no, I will call later. When I got home Rick had me listen to the answering machine message she left about Macy.

It seems Paige was using Siri to send a text message, and at the end it said, "Done." Macy didn't approve of Siri's "bad" language thinking it had said dumb. So she said, "Uhhh, stop it, microphone!"

This morning Paige FaceTimed me to show me Hattie. Paige was getting her some cereal and told Hattie to come and get in her chair (with the booster seat that has a tray, next step after the highchair). Hattie just folded her arms and walked away. They did this a couple of times and Paige figured out that Hattie wanted to sit at the island bar, where she sees her sisters sit and eat. So Paige put her up at the bar with a bowl of cereal, put milk in it (she usually just gets a bowl of dry cereal with a sippy cup of milk) and Hattie happily dug in with her spoon (well part spoon and part fingers).

Hattie is also starting to talk: she says hi hi, da da, out, and nods her head for yes.

Definitely my ggrrls are the cutest and mostest.

Cedar Fever

"Cedar fever is caused by the pollen from the commonly known mountain
cedar tree, although this tree is actually juniper (juniperus ashei). This
disease is a seasonal disease. This means that many individuals get this
disease on only certain seasons of the year.

The usual season for cedar fever would be December to January, when the cyclic
pollination of trees occur. The pollens are released by the trees and scattered
by the winds. Once the pollen from the tree is inhaled, it may cause an
undesirable effect on cedar allergic persons."

I went outside just now for 30 min and was clipping and pruning. My eyes started getting even more itchy and I was sneezing my head off, my throat feels a little itchy also. Lots and lots of cedars in the Hill Country of Texas.

 Lots and lots and lots and lots of cedars

Fred heart valve

Rick and I left on Sun and returned yesterday from Indiana (we had to get up at 3:30 am to catch our flight!). Fred needed a new valve for his heart. It is absolutely incredible how advanced medicine is. His heart valve was not opening and closing properly and needed to be replaced. This is usually done with open heart surgery, but Fred was part of the clinical trial for a new way to replace this valve. Docs go in thro both veins down by the groin, then connect back up by the stomach (or wherever they connect), pushing thro a new valve, somehow drop it into place, and voila! a new valve without open heart surgery, the risk and recovery.

All seemed to be going well, then late last night they discovered his kidney's had shut down completely. That was always a concern because his kidney's were only functioning at 40% or something low like that. His spirits are still good, but he might have to start on dialysis. He was hoping to be dismissed today, but that will not be happening. Rick will probably fly back out there.

We also saw Ginger and family while there; she is not doing well. So sad with the 3 young girls. She is such a positive, upbeat person. She has accepted that this might be close to the end for her, but worries so much about Mallory 12, Kaitland 7, and Kristen 5 (ages for 2014).

I forgot to post these pics from our trip in Oct with Chris and Alyona. I have always loved the location of Fred's house, with all the woods.

To Indiana

Last fall Fred went in to have surgery on his hip. During the preworkup physical the doc discovered that his heart needed fixing (an aortic valve, as it turns out). The surgery was cancelled because the doc said Fred would not even survive the surgery, without fixing his heart first. They did something to his heart to stabilize him (I guess) and then scheduled the heart surgery for Jan 6. Then, over Christmas, he got a bad viral infection, so they rescheduled his heart surgery for Jan 13.

Meanwhile, Rick had gotten an appointment with the doc who was going to do his hip surgery. But because we had to change our plans for flying to Indiana to be with Fred for the surgery, Rick had to reschedule his hip appointment.

The long and short of it is: tomorrow we fly to Indiana.

It's cold here, but it's colder in Indiana.

More thanks to Alyona for pics

Jason and Chris fixing the filet mignon, King Crab legs, prosciutto wrapped asparagus,  and pumpkin pie, for Christmas Eve dinner, delish.

Chris and our first gchild of theirs, Zoya. Zoya was the sheep in the Nativity play. So cute, she looks like both of them.

 

Jason wearing Macy's Christmas earrings. Quite stylish, matches the outfit, but looked better on Macy. Jessica is in the background.

Thanks, Alyona, for the pics

Chris and Alyona on ski trip

Chris as a ski bunny

Jason, probably ordering his $30 fries

Jason to the rescue

Rick and I took a drive out on RM 2222 (Ranch to Market, only in Texas with the odd highway designations; actually I do need to add a penumbra, North Carolina named her roads oddly also, maybe it's the south!) early today to look at all the cedars that are decorated with Christmas garland and ornaments. Lots of trees were decorated and looked quite festive; we hadn't yet driven along there for this holiday season to see them.

It reminded us both that on Jan 1 (or something like that, I can't remember exact date) of 2013 we went to Austin to house hunt. Jason made arrangements to meet us here a few days later and help, me mostly, house hunt, and it was sometime during that week we all first saw the trees decorated and really liked it, but thought the city would consider it littering. No, they consider it Keeping Austin Weird. Back to Jason rescuing us, it was a lifesaver to have him come because that is when I had had the cap put on my tooth and my jaws were going crazy and I was in a lot of pain. My ears hadn't started ringing yet.

Anyways, he came and helped and says without him we would be living in a trailer house in the bad section of Austin. I don't know about that but he did help a lot in choosing/deleting neighborhoods and we are extremely happy with the house he chose.

He also did the same in PA, but this time it was to help me decorate the house/get rid of ugly curtains, etc. Once again, extremely helpful, saved Rick a lot of headache trying to help me look for it all, then make a decision, and then buy it all, and saved me a lot of headache trying to look for it all, then make a decision, and then buy it all.

Only on one decision did I disagree. Every room in the house had a different color/type of electrical cover, making it look like a clown house, or as Winston Churchill would say, it had no theme. So we decided on a theme (brass, since that seemed already to be a theme), counted them all and the type of socket and went to Lowe's to buy them. We gathered them all up, I figured up how much it would cost to change all the electrical covers, over $100, and said to Jason, I don't want to spend that much money, they are fine. Jason said no, Dad said to spend the money needed, don't let mom cheap out, so we are buying them. I said no, I don't want to. He insisted. I was getting a little hot because he wasn't listening to what I said and bought them anyway. I soon cooled down, and as they were all put on and they looked nice and the townhouse began to no longer look like an old person/clown house, I said, well I'm glad we did it.

So, thank you Jason, for rescuing us twice (since you claim the credit anyway).

RM 2222, the main highway that is decorated, altho people decorate random trees all over

Actually looks much prettier than pics show

Bag full of Hattie

Kincade put Hattie in this bag and was gently swinging her. He stopped and tried to get her out, nothing doing, she complained and shook her head no. Rick took over the swinging, when he got tired and stopped she still wouldn't get out, it was just too much fun. She has gotten quite vocal about her desires, plus pushing away hands when she doesn't want something/shaking her head no. She is still a sweet, compliant, and cheerful baby, and is always putting up her arms for you to pick her up. She is a snuggly, cuddly little thing.

I love to see when the personality begins to develop and a baby turns into a person with her own agenda and likes/dislikes.

Gingerbread Houses

Macy and Stella

Every year after Christmas Paige and I try to buy the gingerbread house kits when they go on sale for $2 or so, down from $10. We have a bunch of kits and every year we want everyone to make one, but hardly anyone does. This year Stella and Macy happily created. (It also seems like ever year I burn out Paige's hand mixer making the Royal Icing; also happily, this year I used her Kitchen Aide mixer with the great result of not destroying her hand mixer.)

 

As good as anything Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed and built 

 

 

Cedar Park lights

These lights were from before Christmas. There are 3 streets/cul-de-sacs that go all out with lights and outside decos. One cul-de-sac has the complete poem of T'was the Night Before Christmas, each house having a different part of the poem on their yard.

Christmas Eve chow

I kept getting tagged from people who said they liked a photo on Facebook, so I looked to see what it was. Alyona put this on her page. It was Christmas Eve and Jason and Chris (chronic over doers) bought fillet mignon and King Crab legs for our party. Cost them over $250, or some crazy amount. Paige and I had already bought a bunch of hors d'oeuvres (we didn't feel like cooking, just heating); she and I decided for the next feast festival, those 2 are in charge. I suppose the bill will still come to Rick.

Oddities of the English language