A Root Canal.....Seriously???

 I have been dreading an upcoming root canal.  Two weeks ago, after taking two rounds of antibiotics for an gum abscess that led to the need for a root canal, I was ready for my scheduled dental appointment.  I don't know if I was really ready, but I had certainly prayed about the procedure enough that I felt better about it and was ready to get it over with.  You see, when I go in for dental work, I have a few obstacles that can interfere with it being routine.  I am allergic to LATEX, I have a condition called malignant hypothermia, which means I am allergic to anesthesia and, I have a heart murmur, which means I premedicate with a heavy dose of antibiotic an hour before the procedure to protect my heart from bacteria, that gets into the bloodstream. 

A week prior to my appointment, the secretary called to say that the endodontist could no longer get the medication I had used in the past to numb me up.  When I ask why, she said they no longer make it so we would need to try another medication.  Well, I wasn't really thrilled about trying out something they had never used on me, so I called my regular dentist to see if, by chance, he might have any.  BINGO!  See how the power of prayer works!  He said he not only had it but he was still able to get it.  This was wonderful news and I didn't mind the fact it was an hour away, I said I will be right over to get it.  I had overcome my first obstacle.

After that, I headed to the pharmacy to pick up my pre-med to be taken the morning of the root canal.  Now, I just had to remember to take it!  Obstacle two complete!  Well, almost!

I was a little stressed over the third obstacle, the latex issue.  It was clearly marked on my chart "NO LATEX"  however, being in the restaurant business for many years, I know how cross contamination works.  It was not only the latex gloves I was worried about, the "rubber dam" that endodontist use are also made of latex.  I was willing to do the procedure without the rubber dam but I was concerned that the dentist might not be.  I certainly didn't want to wind up in the ER like I had a couple of times before.

 When I arrived at the office, I had my OWN (more about that later) Ipod, I had taken my meds, brought my own anesthesia and I reminded the secretary to remind the dental assistant and dentist about the latex allergy.  When she returned to the lobby area, she informed me that the dentist had purchased a rubber dam that was "latex free" and of course, had both vinyl and latex gloves!  I was so excited but don't know why I was surprised as I had prayed for a perfect procedure.  God is so good. 

The dentist informed me before we started that he would be doing the entire procedure since we have all the "difficulties" to deal with.  Most times, root canals are done in two appointments.  That was just fine with me!  I told him to give me a punch if he needed to ask me anything, I  put my earplugs in, cranked up the volume on my Ipod (to full throttle) and I was "in the zone".  After about seventy minutes, he tapped my shoulder and said "all done"!!  Whew, I had survived another root canal. 

A funny story about my first root canal, 5 years prior to this one.  I realized my IPod battery was dead just before the procedure so I quickly borrowed one from a trusted friend.  He ran through the basic steps in using it and I was out the door.  Knowing he liked country music, I figured I was safe with his choice of music.  When I say I crank up the volume, I actually mean max the volume.  I don't want to hear any of the noises that go on during a root canal.  After a couple of great country songs, there was a series of bootie shaking, hip grinding, rap songs with lyrics that had words that honestly I didn't know could be sold or downloaded.  Talk about embarrassed, that is an understatement!  Remember, the volume was as loud as it gets, the base was pounding in my head and probably vibrating the dental chair.  I could see the dentist and his assistant shaking with laughter and I was positive it had nothing to do with my root canal. If you have ever sat close to anyone with music pounding in their ear, you know that those sitting close by can enjoy the music too.   I had no clue how to turn the volume down or advance the songs without looking at the IPod.  With my mouth propped wide open, a water squirter and sucker upper hanging in my mouth and fingers and elbows all over my face, I decided its best to just go with it. 

After checking out at the desk, I could hear laughter coming from the back room.  I couldn't get out of that office fast enough, nor could I wait to call my friend.  In his defense, he said he had downloaded a series of "free" songs off the internet and had no idea those were on there.  Thanks, but I will be sure if I go back to that office, I will have my own Ipod with a fully charged battery!  Oh, and some good clean music!  Praise God for all of his many blessings :)

Terreckly,
Kathy

Fun Traditions make great memories

If you think back to happy and fun times, it probably involves some family memory or tradition you have shared.  I recall a couple traditions from my childhood that bring a smile to my face each time I am reminded of them.  Each New Year's Eve, my sister, cousin and I would spend the night with our grandparents.  We would arrive in time to grocery shop with Nana so we could each pick out our own selection of "junk food".  She would help us make dip for our chips, cookies and anything else we wanted to "whip up".  Nana would sit up with us while we brought in the New Year but Gramps never could make it past 8:00.  She never complained about the mess we made in the kitchen or the numerous blankets and pillows we used to make tents in front of the TV.  The fun memories of those New Years Eves will be with me forever.  Another favorite tradition of my childhood is shooting off fireworks with our neighborhood families each holiday. 

Making memories with children cultivates happiness.  Shared memories can foster a loving, healthy environment for the entire family unit.  Each year for the past five years my family has spent a week together at Hilton Head, S.C.  There are currently nine of us and next year, with our new addition, we are planning on ten.  Once our children graduated from college and began to set up their own households, we decided we needed to begin a tradition that would bring us all together.  We needed a place that was far enough away from home and work that those "workaholics" in the family would not be tempted to check in but close enough that we didn't waste a lot of time traveling.  The first year there, we fell in love with the bike trails, golf courses, ocean, shopping, horse stables, restaurants and many other things about that beautiful island.  Our days are fun filled and our evenings are spent grilling out, playing board games, cards and putting together jigsaw puzzles.  A lot of good conversation at the dining room table!  This year we burned the midnight oil and managed to put together 5 puzzles.  Fun Times!!  

Sharing a moment with hubby on a cold winter day!

The little guys had a blast on the beach with Mommy

What a way to bring in the New Year!!

Our little sand angel!

Hours and hours of bike riding

On my bike and ready to cruise

Lots of exercise helps with early bedtimes for the little guys

Me and my beautiful Mother

A rare moment!

Having a ball in the sand

 

Puzzles

Puzzles

and more puzzles!!

Making traditional memories and building bonds with my children, their spouses and my grandchildren are extremely important to me.  When we get together, we share stories and memories of our times there and I am sure we will be telling those tales for years to come.  It warms my heart to know that my grandsons are growing up with such treasured memories. Terreckly, Kathy

Challenger Disaster...25 years later

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Challenger Disaster that happened 73 seconds after liftoff and just over an hour from my home.  On a clear cool Florida morning at the Kennedy Space Center off the Cape Canaveral coast, history was about to be made.  It is estimated that over half of America's students were tuned in as the first school teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was being sent into space with 6 seasoned astronauts.  She was a social studies teacher from Concord, N.H. with a husband and children.  She had beat out over 11,000 other adventurous teachers for the opportunity to soar into space for a once in a lifetime experience.  With her husband and children and millions of Americans watching, the unexpected happened.  Just after takeoff, the Challenger blew up in the sky sending metal and bodies into the Atlantic ocean several miles off shore.  

My memories are still very clear of that January morning.  I was working in a dental office and  had headed outside with a couple of coworkers to search the eastern sky where I had watched so many space shuttles blast off.  There is a thrill in seeing the long white line of smoke that trails that shiny silver dot in the sky and then watching for the booster to drop from the sky.  Space shuttle flights had become fairly routine but on that morning, our eyes were opened to the dangers of space travel that nobody likes to talk about and the fragility of life.  5...4...3...2...1...blastoff...The white line began to form in the sky and almost immediately, it was like a fireworks display that had gone bad.  We stood in amazement starring at the sky hoping somehow what unfolded before our eyes was actually not really happening.  Unfortunately, America lost seven lives that day and impacted millions more.  This was not supposed to happen.  This shuttle was different as it was carrying a young hometown Mother and school teacher who's mantra in her classroom might as well  had been "reach for the stars".  It left our country in a state of shock and disbelief that a space shuttle carrying seven vibrant Americans could actually explode in front of millions of people.   The disaster was contributed to design flaws in the O rings on the rocket.

The image of that disaster will forever be in my mind.  I pray this morning for the families of the victims that have had to somehow move on without their loved ones. 

The Challenger explosion

The crew

Dreams For My Grandsons.....

What better time then the beginning of a new year to reevaluate your goals and dreams.   My goals remain "my goals" until they are achieved but my dreams are ever changing, depending on what stage of my life I am in.   Sometimes I dream about things that will probably never happen, like winning the lottery or being a size 6,  but mostly, my dreams are things I hope with all my heart will actually happen.   Life has a way of accelerating as we get older.  Days get shorter, and promises we have made to ourselves gets longer.   Recently, I compiled a list of "hopes and dreams" for my precious little grandsons.  One of the great things about blogging is that I not only have these things in my head, I put them in writing so my loved ones can hopefully, one day read them.  I am sure in the years to come, I can add a few more things to my list, but for now....

Dreams For My Grandsons

That they pray often and depend on God for daily guidance, comfort and strength.
That they know how deeply they are loved by their family
That they love themselves
That they show compassion and kindness to others
That they have respect for themselves and others
That they accept responsibility for their actions
That they have the ability to forgive
That nice really does matter
That they appreciate nature as God's gift to the universe
That they contribute to their church, community and society in a meaningful way
That they work hard but know how to play hard
That they develop a sense of humor and can laugh at themselves
That family, friends and traditions are always worth the effort
That they are honest and always keep their word
That they understand the value of patience
That they never stop listening and learning
That they exercise their body and mind often
That it is okay to cry
That they allow fear and adversity to make them stronger
That they learn from their mistakes
That they set goals and achieve them
That they create a strong bond of love for each other that connects them for a lifetime
That they are blessed with the happiness that a wife and children can bring
That they know, their spirit, their soul is the most enduring part of their being.

A very special Christmas Elf.....

I'm baaaack! It has been a couple of months since I posted but I have been very busy with family matters. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball that is totally unexpected. Lets just say, my little guys need lots of KK's love and attention right now and that is exactly what they have been getting. I have been wanting to get them a Christmas Elf, so today while I had gone to pick up the 5 year old from school, the elf appeared. After we had been home for about an hour, the big guy looked up at the Christmas tree and said, "KK, look at that elf at the top of the Christmas tree. He's not an ornament cause he's not hanging from a branch, he's just sitting there." I said, Wow, look at that. We looked around and found a book by the tree about a little elf that Santa would send to your home to watch for good or "bad" behavior. The children are supposed to name the elf and are encouraged to talk with it and share what they would like from Santa. The boys named him Zeus and have told it several things they would like for Christmas. Each night, he magically appears at the North Pole to inform Santa of what he has observed while in your home and then returns, but always in a different location. (I am a little concerned about what Santa might learn from the elf tonight) Let me put it this way, it was too cold to play outside today and these guys need lots and lots of outdoor time. Anyway, tomorrow is another day. Right? When you awake each morning, you look to see where he might be hiding. The big guy, our more "spirited one" (he has more energy than the energizer bunny), wants so badly to just touch the elf. The way it goes, if you touch the elf, he will lose his magic and can no longer communicate with Santa. The little guy is terrified that his brother is going to accidentally touch him and cause him to miss out on presents too. It is hard to find spots that are out of reach of those little climbing monkeys. We are on day three now and the boys are so excited when they wake up to see who can find him first. It has been a great gift and I purchased it at the local Hallmark store. I am attaching a couple of pictures of Zeus hiding out.

Terreckly,
Kathy

Good Old Days...

I think you already know I grew up in the country. I have absolutely wonderful memories of my childhood. As far back as I can remember and until the day I married and moved away, we lived by the most amazing family. I have one sister that is three years older than me and the neighbor family have three girls and two boys around our same ages. We spent countless hours together and what one didn't think of, the other did. I have so many great memories but a few really stand out in my mind. We lived pretty far out of town but there was a highway in front of our homes. Each Fourth of July and New Year's Eve, our Dads would purchase fireworks and divide between all the kids. Each child would get a small paper bag of fireworks and a lit cigar to light their fire crackers with. (guess they thought that was safer for us than a lighter or matches) We thought we were "oh so cool". Our Dads would use sling shots and shoot cherry bombs over the occasional car that would pass by on the highway.

Saturday nights were a blast in my neighborhood! We were very fortunate to have parents that were so family oriented. When you live in the country you learn to be creative with your entertainment.   You might say we were a  little bit mischievous but it was always good clean fun.   Our Dads would take an old worn out purse that belonged to one of our moms and tie a very long string to it and put it in the middle of the road that was in front of our house. There were pine trees between our home and the highway so we would all squat down behind the pine trees and wait for a taker. It was an old country highway so a car may pass by every 10 or 15 minutes. When someone would pass by the purse, they would hit the brakes and back up. Just as they opened the car door and reached down to pick it up, our Dad's would start reeling it in. Some of the nicer people would just take off but others would yell out words that we weren't used to hearing. Our Dads were always coming up with fun things for us to do.

With our neighbors, we roasted oysters on the grill, churned ice cream, and sometimes (without the parents knowledge)  had BB gun fights. (I accidentally shot one of the neighbor boys in the mouth and the BB wedged in a cavity he had in his tooth.) We ran in the house and got tweezers but we never could get it out so we had to tell his mom. She took him to the dentist and we got a good talking to. We rode go karts, horses and bikes for hours on end. We would pick peas and cut corn in our Dad's garden, then sit around in lawn chairs shelling  and shucking  so our moms could put it up in the freezer. We had sleep overs and would sometimes put tents in the yard and sleep outside.  We had talent shows and invited the few neighbors that lived close by.

Times have certainly changed and even though our kids and grand kids have many more opportunities then we did, I think they miss out on so much.  The good ole days when it was safe to let your kids roam the neighborhoods are long gone.  Life has gotten complicated and everyone is busy and stressed with jammed packed schedules.  I am very fortunate to have grown up in that small country town with such a loving and happy family. We really did grow up like the Cleavers and I loved every minute of it!!

Terreckly,
Kathy

It's Time For Planting!

This week, the little guy got a lesson in planting a garden.  We spent a couple of days getting everything together before we started.  It has been several years since I had a garden so we decided to start out small and see how it goes.  I wanted to plant a couple clay pots of flowers to add to my flower bed and some paper whites to have on my table for the Christmas holidays as well as a few vegetables.  I ask the little guy to pick out three vegetables that he would like to grow and that is what we got.  He selected three of his favorites, cucumbers, okra and lettuce and I picked videlia onions.  The lettuce he picked out is actually Swiss Chard because he said the picture on the package of seeds with the red stems was beautiful.  We decided since we were using seeds for his three choices we would plant them in the little starter cups until they became plants and then we could replant them in the ground (cups and all).  We started out by visiting Maggie's Herb Farm outside of St. Augustine and selected six herbs.  Parsley, oregano, dill, rosemary, cilantro, and thyme.  He had a wonderful time talking to Maggie's parrot and didn't want to leave.  I finally talked him into leaving there and visiting a couple of nurseries, a feed store and a hardware store.  I must say, those are now his "favorite" stores because they all had a "store dog" and a "store cat" that he fell in love with.  I literally had to drag him out of the feed store because he didn't want to leave the big old lab.  He said Cocoa (the lab) looked so sad when he told him we were leaving and he was afraid he wouldn't have another little boy to play with him.   I had to promise him we would come back to see Cocoa soon to get him out of the store.

Well, we have our garden started and in the next few weeks we hope to see some little plants pop up.  (That is, if we don't over take care of them!)  It is hard for a three year old to understand exactly what takes soooo long for them to grow but he had a great time and a wonderful lesson in planting.  Now hopefully we can watch them grow and actually eat something from our little garden.

Terreckly,
Kathy