Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

I'm beside myself today to come up with a catchy title for this entry. Oh well, it doesn't fit much except to say that time really does fly! Even when the day to day at work seems to trudge along, overall, time has really FLOWN!

This morning, while I was getting ready for work, the thought went through my mind, "Man! I'm going to be 42 this year!!! How'd I get so OLD???" lol

Time FLIES!!!

Anyway, the purpose of this entry isn't to dwell on my age. lol I had a great day yesterday! I even called the dentist in the afternoon to let him know that I was doing so well with my tooth the way it's been. By yesterday morning, the swelling was gone, there was very LITTLE tenderness in my gum and I could even chew on that side of my mouth! (Albeit it gingerly. I'm not crazy. lol) I also didn't need to take any pain meds...not even Advil! I just wanted him to know that I was doing well before he took time off next week and to let him know that I was grateful that he did such a great job! (And, keep him in your prayers. He's been in chemo the last several months. Just call him Dr. G.)

This week has been crazy. Nitro started a new job. He's been working both jobs the last week or so making the transition. Both of them are being very flexible with him so that he could go ahead and start at one place, but finish at the other.

I remember when he started working the first job, he told us that he would be working all day Sat., most of Sun., and probably a couple of other times during the week. It's funny when I look back because I can remember asking him how that was going to work if he wanted to do something with his friends. They all had Sats. and Suns. off where they worked. "Ah, it's no big deal...," was what he said. lol When I asked him about why he was getting a different job, he said it was because he never had the same days off as all of his friends. lol Hmmm....maybe Mom does know a thing or two. I just smiled at him. He "got" it. lol

But, because of this arrangement, I've only seen him a little bit here and there. He told me that he doesn't have to work tonight, but that, as soon as Shelby gets off work, he was going to meet her so they could go to a movie and hang out for the rest of the night. When he said that she gets off work at 3, I asked if he could get together with her later on in the evening. Muftak and I really want to spend some time talking to him about the upcoming plans...both graduation, Marines, and, mostly, wedding.

And that brings me to this, I'm so excited!!! I'm going to be making Nitro's graduation announcements! I found about half of what I needed at Hobby Lobby earlier this week. I found the other half on eBay. lol Go figure. I found everything for a good price and a couple of things were even offering free shipping...so GREAT! I just wish I already had everything so I could really get moving on them tomorrow. Oh well. I've got other things to work on tomorrow anyway. Announcements can wait. :o)

That's about the gist of things for now. My life is so exciting! lol

The Adventures Continue...

This has been one whopper of a week! Last Thursday, one of my teeth started hurting. This is a tooth that has been crowned, but has not had a root canal. When I had the crown done, the dentist told me that the root was healthy, so, as long as I took care of it and we kept an eye on it, he was going to leave the root. Well, in June, I got a gum infection above this tooth and he said that that was probably the beginning of the end.

Thursday, when it started hurting, I had something stuck between it and the molar behind it. I cleaned it out good when I got home and it felt much better on Friday, so I just let it go.

Well, that was probably NOT the thing to do. I woke up at 2 am with an ENORMOUS toothache. So, I dragged myself out of bed and went stumbling through the house looking for something...anything...to subdue the pain. We had some pain meds left from awhile back, so I took a couple of those and managed to get back to sleep.

The pain meds worked most of the day Sat., but didn't work much at all on Sunday. I actually went from taking prescription strength meds to Advil because, quite frankly, the Advil was working better. Go figure. (I think it was because the gum was very swollen and inflamed and that's the sort of thing that Advil is good at taking care of.)

I called the dentist first thing Monday morning from work. (Yes, I went to work...it wasn't bothering me much by then, but was very swollen and tender.) He asked me to come in that afternoon.

And my fears were confirmed.

Yes.

The root was bad.

Sooooooo....I spent the next few minutes in the dentist chair with him drilling through the crown so that he could medicate the roots and pack my tooth. I'm also on antibiotics.

But, I was back in MAJOR pain by that evening and ended up staying home from work on Tues. because my tooth was ACHING badly. But this time, the pain meds were doing what they were supposed to do. By Tues. night, things were feeling better. Yesterday, I was back to taking Advil and, by last night, I took it only as a precaution.

Same way this morning. Just to make sure....

It is feeling pretty great right now! No tenderness hardly at all! The swelling is all gone and I'm feeling pretty good! I'm going to be calling the dentist's office in a bit and letting them know that everything's fine. He's on vacation all next week, so they called me on Tues. and told me that if I would have problems, I really needed to call by today. I'm glad they thought ahead! You just never know...

But, I'm feeling wonderful! After almost a week....yowzer...

Where To Start...?

I have let too much time pass since posting an entry on here that now I can't remember some of things I wanted to blog about! lol Isn't that always the way? I guess I need to start keeping a little notebook with me to scribble down blog ideas.

Last night, I taught Stars Club. We're studying about Africa. The first lessons of each of the missions units are a little boring because it's basically just learning about the countries. Well, combine the fact that it was a relatively boring lesson...and I'm still not totally back in the swing of "real life" since Christmas break...and I was nursing the last nigglings of a headache from Tuesday, I felt a bit overwhelmed.

The girls that I have in my class are all sooooo sweet! And they all try to talk to me all at once. I mean, seriously, I hear my name about a gazillion times every Wed. night! lol

A couple of the girls need rides home after church, so I've made arrangements with them and their parents to give them a ride home when we get done. In the last few weeks a couple of other girls have been added, and since they live in the same neighborhood as one of the other girls, it's no problem.

But, every Wed. night, I take Muftak and Aravis home (with the girls crowded in the back seat), then make my rounds dropping off the girls.

One of the girls is obviously ADHD. I wasn't sure if she had been diagnosed that way or not, but I was pretty sure she was. Last night cemented it though. She made a comment about having to get more medicine today because she took her last pill yesterday morning. Then she said, "My medicine makes me calm down for a WHOLE day." lol

Yep.

She's ADHD.

In class, I get frustrated with her sometimes, but try to just be patient. She can't help it. The first thing I learned was to let her stand during class. She absolutely canNOT sit still. If she stands, she's much less disruptive.

But, when I pulled up at home to drop Muftak off, she said (and she had already been talking 100mph all the way there), "Why do you live next to the water tower?"

And, without missing a beat, Muftak said, "Because we can't live IN the water tower."

The funniest part came next. She looked over at the water tower with big eyes and awe in her voice and said, "Really???"

lol I was cracking up.

As we were pulling away from the curb, she said to me, with awe in her voice, "Have YOU been IN the water tower?"

lol

And just a side note, we don't live right next to the water tower...it's actually about 1/4 mile (I'm guessing because I'm no judge of distance) away in a field across the highway from our neighborhood.

These girls are a crack up!

I Knew I'd Get a Laugh!

After reading Dory's entry from yesterday, I was reminded of one of my own high school memories. And, just thinking about it, cracks me up. Not a loud guffaw kind of "crack me up", but more like a shake my head and chuckle kind of "crack me up".

During my senior year in high school, our class enjoyed the company of an exchange student from Colombia, South America. And when I say, "Enjoyed," I mean it. He was a blast...later...once he got used to all of us. lol

His name was Andrés and he was just a tad bit geeky at first. But then, most exchange students are in a way. They're out of their familiar surroundings and away from what's "normal"...and, especially in Andrés' case, understand very little English.

One of the guys in our class (who I just happened to be very good friends with and had a HUGE crush on) decided to buddy-up to the new exchange student. Devon (name changed) chose 1st period to teach Andrés some of our slang and hand gestures. The only problem (for Andrés) was that Devon made most of it up on the spot. Everyone had a chuckle for a few days when he would use some of the slang that Devon had taught him, thinking he was really cool.

But, one piece of slang that Devon taught him was so unbelievably stupid, moronic, infantile, and ridiculous...that it stuck! By the end of the school year, there were so many variations on this one bit of slang taught out of a desire to make fun of an exchange student, that no one was really sure where it all started.

But I knew...because I was there when it was born!!! lol

Do you want to know what this bit of slang was?

Oh, wow. You are going to think we were so stupid at this school! lol

Well, Devon told Andrés that when someone asks you a question and you don't know the answer or you just want to be sarcastic, you answer, "'Cuz 5." You don't give a real answer, you give the reason as "because" and just pick a number. 5 is the number that stuck for some reason.

Stupid, huh??? lol

But. It. STUCK.

Seriously, by the end of the year, EVERYone was using this. All the variations were just as ridiculous. You would hear these common versions:

Cuz 7.
Cuz 12.
Cuz 4 and cuz 6.
Cuz 7. Minus 3.

And the stupidest one of all:

Cuz 5 and 7 had a baby, 12.

RIDICULOUS!

But sooooo stinkin' funny when I think back to high school. lol

Ok, that information was actually just a lead in to what actually happened later...and the point of my entry today.

Devon and I were in the same English class, Language Arts IV. There were only 8 people in the class. The teacher paired us up...one smart one with one dumb one (at least that's how everyone referred to it). lol It was so the one who understood the concepts (sentence diagramming) could help the one who didn't understand it. I was paired up with Devon.

Anyway, every day, Mrs. V. would assign sentences to be diagrammed. Most of the time, she would assign 8...so that the next day, we would each have one sentence to diagram on the chalkboard.

This one particular day, I had managed to complete 7 of the sentences, but had run out of time to get #8 done.

Well, wouldn't you know it? She asked me to diagram #8. I said I didn't have it done.

When she asked why....

You see it coming, don't you???

I said,

(SERIOUSLY, I DID!)

"'Cuz 5."

Yes.

I actually said, "'Cuz 5,"...to a teacher!!!

Devon fell off his chair, he was laughing so hard.

Everyone else in the class looked at me and, slowly, one by one, everyone started erupting in laughter....except me.

My face was red...and I was trying NOT to laugh...and the reason I wasn't laughing?

Because Mrs. V. was standing at the front of the room with her arms folded, lips pursed, staring at me.

lol

She waited patiently for the next 5 minutes for everyone to calm down.

Then she said, "I can't believe you just said that."

Then I said, "Me either."

Then she sighed, shook her head and re-opened her English book...and told me to come up to the board and diagram sentence #8.

The interesting part is that I always got along fine with Mrs. V., but I think I ruined her image of me from that point on! lol

But it was FUNNY.

I'm Surely Not THIS Old, Am I?

It's been an interesting holiday season in our little Worl-d. hehe (Some of you will get that...others won't, but that's ok. lol)

Nitro is more grown up than I want to admit to myself, I guess.

How do I know this?

He and his girlfriend, Shelby, are officially engaged as of last night.

"What???" you may be asking yourself...? Well, here's the rundown.

Nitro is 18. He still has the last half of his senior year to complete, but, by the time he graduates and completes boot camp, he'll be 19. He's one of the oldest in his class.

Last week, he came into my bedroom while I was on the computer and said he needed to talk to me about something and I quit what I was doing and gave him my attention. That's when he pulled out a ring.

Honestly, I have to say I about fell off my chair!!!

I said, "For Shelby? What is it?" (Like I didn't know! lol I was hoping he would tell me it was a promise ring.) He said it was an engagement ring that he bought her and wanted to give to her, but wanted to let us know what was going on first. (Of course, he did what he always does with important decisions...he ran it by me BEFORE he ran it by his dad. lol)

We talked for awhile about what being engaged means. And I'm sure I told him about 100 times that I thought they were both too young to just jump into something without a lot of consideration and thought and PRAYER.

But he's head over heels and wanted her to know how committed he is to her. He's completely devoted to her.

I have alot of questions and there's still a niggling of doubt in the back of my mind, but I also know Nitro. And I know that when he commits himself to something, it's for the long haul. He also really thinks things through before he acts...at least on the big things.

Anyway, he talked to his dad about it and yesterday morning, talked to Shelby's dad.

We all agreed that he could move forward with this plan, as long as they didn't rush into the "getting married" part.

So, last night, they went out to eat and this is what happened (copied from Shelby's Facebook):

"ok. so we were going out to eat, he got out and opened the car door for me. I was talking a million mile an hour and after i got out and he shut the car door i realized he had a serious look. so i shut up and he said "i dont want to be your boyfriend anymore" I was a lil in shock and didnt know what to say since i thought he was breaking up with me. then he got on one knee and pulled out a ring and said "i want to be so much more!" I cried my eyes out...and said yes of course! haha. it was so very unexpected. and i love that he did it in the "un-normal" way. it was sweet!!!!"

I'm pleased to learn that my son has a romantic streak! lol

So, now I have to adjust to something else...not only Nitro leaving for boot camp, but also that he will be getting married relatively soon.

Aravis is soooo excited about the news! Shelby is her best friend, so now they get to be so much more than friends too. They'll be sisters. :o)

Wow! Wonder what other new things 2009 will bring?????