Catching Up

It's hard to believe I haven't posted in so long.

The good news is it's not because life is too boring to post about; rather, it's the opposite. Our days and nights are full of activity.

Since our last episode, I haven't taken many pictures, however. Well not for me, anyway.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, the message at church was especially thought-provoking. It made me especially thankful for our pastor and his vision. He talked about having the bishop from Kenya staying in his home for the week and how they learned from each other. "Do all of these houses have water?", the bishop's wife asked as they drove through a neighborhood. And later, "You don't have a housekeeper?"

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I finished the first trimester at school and said goodbye to most of my 100 kids. (I have only a handful of them for the second half of the course, as I'm now teaching half sophomores and half seniors.) I didn't cry or anything, but I do miss most of them already.

We celebrated Mom's birthday, Thanksgiving with David's family,

and Allison's birthday three days in a row, skipped a day, then celebrated Thanksgiving again and Brian's birthday with my side of the family on Sunday. So we only took off the Saturday from celebrating.

I awoke that day thinking we'd decorate the Christmas tree. (Carmen had a one-track mind about this and would not relent until we did so. It was perfect weather for staying in, anyway! The coldest spell we've had this year.)

However, Paloma had other plans. She took the cascarones I'd bought at La Mariposa for next Easter (when shopping for Carmen's fiesta) and used all twelve of them to awaken Gabriel. She cracked one after another and we didn't find out about it until after breakfast.

David called from upstairs, "Honey, I think you'll want to bring the camera."

Her consequence was to be present for the cleanup, and this was appropriate because she hates the vaccuum cleaner.


I actually got up at 6 o'clock in the morning (earlier than most workdays) to go shopping on Black Friday. I was bleary-eyed, but still not early enough to beat the crazy people that had started at Kohl's at 4 AM. I don't usually even shop on that day, but there were a few deals I wanted to take advantage of. We're among the shoppers who plan to spend LESS this holiday season. It's easy to lose control of spending this time of year, but we've been doing pretty well chipping away at our debt the past year and I don't want to undo the good we've done. We did not go on vacation this year, but I really want to be able to do so next year. (This is another thing Carmen asks about frequently. "Let's plan our next vacation! I want to go see the Redwoods!")

We've also been faced with several home repairs recently which makes sense since our house is just turning 20. David does not fancy himself a handyman, but he was able to fix our kitchen light (which we went without for 3 days over the week of Thanksgiving--even making the dressing in light from the den) and repair three of our burners on the range. With Dad's help he also fixed our refrigerator--the icemaker dispenser in the door had quit flapping shut and was causing all sorts of problems as it leaked, made all of the ice stick together, and made the door stick.

However, our kitchen faucet drives us crazy, we still need to have our windows repaired from the April 13 storm, our grill is just barely able to do its job, our garage door opener works intermittently, and our lawnmower threatens to give out on us soon. Our videocamera started smelling like it was burning when we were shooting our friend's wedding on Labor Day weekend. But we haven't given up on it yet.

This weekend we got up and got to work. We discussed going to the Christmas parade, but decided to take advantage of the weather and try to do something fun later instead. We usually have to rake leaves 3 times each fall/winter, because different trees let their leaves go at different times. By last week, only our crepe myrtles had lost their leaves, but our neighbors' gigantic oak tree had lost all of its leaves and they were all over our yard. So, instead of the parade this year, we were thinking we might take the kids to our town's tree-lighting with lots of kids' activities that afternoon.



David got on the roof and started stringing the Christmas lights, trimming branches away from the house, and cleaning out the gutters while I trimmed hedges until our Hedgehog vibrated itself into pieces (literally! Another appliance that needs replacing!). By the time Carmen and I raked all of the leaves in the yard, it was time for lunch. (And Carmen was extremely helpful and enthusiasic this year--how awesome!)

So we went to Rosa's. Which was lovely, a normal weekend lunch for us. Until toward the end of the meal, when I took a bite and realized that something was very, very wrong.

One of my teeth, a back molar, had broken. And a sharp pointy part of the tooth was left, jabbing my tongue. We went to the car and David Googled "emergency" and "dentist" for our area on his Blackberry. He called a few dentists and of course got their recordings. One who answered the phone recommended that I go to a Care Now type of place so I could get some pain killers to hold me until Monday. I didn't bother explaining to her that I'm 5 and a half months pregnant so that would not be an option.

So we called an old friend of mine who had a nearby office, got his emergency number and gave him a call (though I hadn't talked to him in probably ten years). He didn't miss a beat, telling David that I was not allowed to talk for the rest of the weekend. That did make both of us laugh. Then he told me to get some orthodontic wax and come see him Monday morning at 7 AM when he could file the tooth down for me. While he was on the phone, something that felt like a rock appeared on my tongue: the old filling from that molar fell out of my mouth.

Maybe now is the time I should write about how much I loved candy, and therefore Halloween, as a child. How I still remember fondly getting what must have been a pillowcase full of candy, and how this memory reminds me how it was my favorite holiday back then. But now, because of the pain, I think I'll skip the descriptions of caramels and other cravable confections that led me here.

So David went into the nearby but unbelievably crowded Walmart to get me some wax while we waited in the car. That did ease the pain somewhat, but it was hard to keep the wax in place and I quickly realized that the more I talked, the more it hurt. So we went home and finished working in the yard and on the Christmas lights. Soon it was time to get the kids cleaned up for Las Posadas, a yearly event at a church that we used to attend (where they also go to fine arts camp in the summer).

Because of my mouth, however, I didn't feel like doing much on our date night. We went to Pappadeaux because of all the soups I could think of, that sounded the best. Then we came home and watched a movie on DVD until it was time to pick up the kids.

Chrys, I've been thinking of you, how you managed when your jaw was wired shut. I can't imagine how you survived so long on Malt-o-Meal, no matter how many flavors you added to it. I'm only on day 3 of trying to stick to a liquid diet, and I'm going crazy already.

I did see Dr. Mike, my old friend, at 7-something this morning. What a relief to not have to constantly position the wax. But being without it, even for a few minutes to brush my teeth last night, was excruciating. So far, all of the pain has been in my tongue except for one moment when the missing filling area did hurt when touched by a dental instrument.

But after a day of teaching, even though I talked less than usual, I was in a lot of pain this afternoon. We were supposed to go see The Nativity Story as a family (a church function) tonight, but I didn't want to go anywhere where I'd have to talk.