Life is very busy right now...

Wow, sorry haven't blogged in a while so I kept this blog in my drafts and just continued from where I left off...

I had something unexpected happen...The whole time I was home and not working because of what happened to my tooth, I got paid from my job. I looked at my paycheck and couldn't believe it. Haha!! not telling how much lol. So I talked with my boss and she said she did that so I wouldn't get long term disability. I was happy. We were really worried that we would get so behind with $$.

I don't feel any pain with my tooth, so that is great. I feel so much better. I still am being so careful to not chew on the left side. I am eating more meats and solid type foods now. In the beginning I was a little to worried. I just have to go back and get my crown and then the tooth will be finished.

Tommy has been good. He has been busy working alot as well as me. He has been sponsoring new people on base who will be working with him. This means, he meets them either at the airport and brings them on base or if they have their own transportation, they come on base and Tommy meets them there. Tommy gives them a tour of base and helps them out if they need anything and I when I say anything I mean that. These people are lost, they have no clue where anything is and where to go for work. ( I remember when we came here, Tommy was already here but I was like where is this, where is that??) Tommy has picked up people from the airport, showed them around town and base, and they took Tommy out for breakfast to thank him for all he had done to help them out. We kept their milk in our fridge until they got to their destinated place on base. Things like that we have done. Also, one of our friend's just recently left to go overseas for a year and his wife's lawn needs mowing so Tommy and another friend goes over and mows it. It is a very nice of them to do that. They may not be paid for it but it is Tommy's and other peoples responsibility to help out troops that work with them. It is expected of them to do that type of stuff for the ones that need help.

So online Tommy and I filled out a survey about customer service for ordering something and there was a chance for us to win $25.00 or more so why not, we did it hoping we would win something. We could use extra $$. We did the survey and won $25.00 subscriptions for magazines for a year so basically won $100.00 worth of magazines. Wow, that is crazy. 4 magazines so two for each of us. So that was cool. We will be getting magazines in the mail. Now if that were to be a check than that would be awesome. We are still happy to get free magazines.

Awhile back, we went to the State fair. We went at night, so all there was to see were the concession stands and hear part of the concert and eat food. We saw livestock and everything else was shut down so we didn't see much. It was $1.00 per person the first day and free parking so we did it to save $$. Why not, right?

Awhile back, we went to a car show in town. It wasn't very big but it gave Tommy and his friend a reason to drool on the cars hahah!! They really liked it. We showed up while they were packing everything up but at least they saw the cars.

So Tommy and I were out the door and we saw in our yard a free Kansas City Star newspaper. We were actually going to go buy one to read. Tommy likes the comics and I like to clip coupons so we can save even more $$. If I had known in the past how much we could have saved from using coupons on actual things we use, we would be doing better and less in debt, hahah!! Everyone asks me so where do I get my coupons from and how much do I usually save everytime I shop. Well when I go grocery shopping, I have a pile of coupons that are mainly manufactuer ones. I clip them out of the newspaper, use coupons from my job, and also go to http://www.coupons.com/ and http://www.smartsource.com/ It is so worth the time you put into doing this. I make time in my work schedule and time spent with Tommy and friends. I have heard of printing coupons from your computer and I have been doing that for a long while now. I love it. It all adds up and it makes me feel better that we save on so much. I have to be careful though, just because there is a coupon doesn't mean we will buy the product, we only use coupons on products that we know we will use. We sometimes do long term savings and buy some bulk but it really depends if we can do that or not at the time. Also, we have a system at my job where if a customer buys a certain product within its right size, name, etc, they are elligible to receive $$ back after purchasing it as it comes in a form of a coupon called a register reward. We use those as well when we can and do buy one get one free deals alot. I usually save around $25, $35 or more every couple weeks when I do the grocery shopping and buy other things. It is so awesome. I totally recommend coupon shoppers. Working in retail, it can be frustrating with some customers who are bent out of shape because we denied their .50 or $1.00 coupon and no I am not that bad when it comes to that. Haha!

Tommy's ear has been acting up again lately. So it is still the same that it was before he started taking that one medication for the pressure building up. His neck and arm is hurting also. He thinks it is because of his carpel tunnel syndrome. He switched his pillow, hoping that would help and he said it has but not all the way. He says laying down and taking a shower helps also. Please hope that all this clears and he gets to feeling better again.

Tommy started his outprocessing for discharging from the service. He started the paper/computer work. He no longer works on five programs at his job. He was told to just work on one and yay for him. He is much happier with that. It is pointless for them to keep him working the five programs when in a few months he is getting out of the service and they agreed they gave Tommy way too much work to begin with so now he doesn't feel that much overwhelmed. He actually builds the bombs now, which he was suppose to do from the beginning anyway.

We bought this no scratch spray for the furniture. It seems to be working a little bit keeping the cats from scratching things. We are sick of the cats scratching at our furniture and poking holes.

I dyed my hair a light brown color. It came out a lighter brown than I thought but it still looks nice. You can kind of see it in the picture.

Had to reformat my computer because of a stupid hallmark program I installed. It totally wrecked my computer. Couldn't even get to the desktop. So Tommy and I were upset. Thought I would lose all my pics and stuff but luckily only lost programs. Just have to reinstall those and I had all my pics on our camera. Thank goodness for that.

For Labor Day weekend, Tommy and I are both off Sunday and Monday. We had teriyaki chicken from the crock pot along with rice, corn, and yams with brown sugar in them. Yummy yummy. The crock pot meal sounded so good so we wanted to try it. Other than that, been cleaning the house, going through everything, getting rid of stuff, getting ready for a moving sale (we have already two tupperwares full of stuff to sell and still have so much more to go through in the house), crafting, searching online for Christmas ideas (one website I like to visit is called http://www.personalcreations.com/, and preparing for McKenzie's baby shower/family birthday party. We so want to relax one of these days and not think about work or anything. Just chill at home and do hobbies. There is always something that comes up so we can't all the time haha!!

We bought a gate for the kitchen where Duke can be in there and not be able to jump over it or knock it down and bother the cats and Haley. He is still very hyper and pees when he gets too excited and just altogether a pain in the you know what. He gets on our nerves all the time so we are working on keeping him more calm and listening. The gate seems to be working. Tommy had to do some extra stuff to keep the gate in place since it didn't fit properly but it works.

One of these days I want to decorate the house with fall/halloween stuff. I always love decorating. Thanksgiving decorations will be the last to decorate until we get settled in Florida after our move. It is so cool to think that we have two and half months left in this state.

Well I will blog more another time...hope everyone is well.

Ensure and Boost...not my favoriite right now but it works, going back to work

so ever since I got my root canal started and have a temporary filling on my tooth, I been so worried that the temporary filling is going to come off. I look and feel it to make sure but all is good with it. Tommy says I am paranoid. I've been drinking Ensure and Boost drinks with my food to make sure I am getting my nutrients as I am not eating alot of hard foods and meats. I have vanilla, strawberries and cream, and chocolate flavors. They aren't terrible, it is just that I wouldn't want to live on those things. They get kind of boring and bland tasting especially drinking them just about everyday. They are also kind of expensive but we have coupons that help reduce the price, which is good. Thank you all who care so much and been keeping in touch with me to see how I was doing.

Tomorrow, I go back to work after being off for two and half weeks for vacation and when I got sick. Wish me good luck that all goes well. I am sure it will but you never know haha!! Tommy will be working long day shifts for a week or so, which he is not looking forward to poor guy.

OK now that I have a chance, I will post all that has happened

Well Tommy and I were on vacation for a week while Stephanie and Jack visited. We went to a waterpark up in the city, Tommy grilled, I cooked, we played the Wii that we recently got. The first time we got the Wii, it worked but one of the wires wasn't working, so we ended up exchanging it for another one. We all had fun playing that. We relaxed and took them to see different things. Gave them a tour of base.

While the kids were here and toward the end of our vacation a day before my birthday, my left side of my mouth started to hurt. One back tooth and gum near my wisdom tooth was in pain. I didn't know why. So then my cheek was a little in pain. I took Motrin and a benadryl and relaxed. The pain was still there the next day and then it was my birthday. On my birthday, my left side of my face and cheek was swollen. My mouth was still in pain. So I showed Tommy and he said I needed to go into the doctors asap. Well Tommy and I went up to the city for my birthday. It was very nice. Did a little shopping, used my gift cards that I got for my birthday and ate at Red Lobster and used that gift card I got. It was good. I had a hard time chewing on that side of my mouth and because I was in so much pain it was hard for me to enjoy eating there but overall I had a good day. Then later in the day, I took more Motrin. It really didn't do anything for the pain and swelling. I got nice gifts for my birthday. Yummy chocolates, wonderful Burts Bees foot lotion, and a Wii game all from my wonderful husband. I also got a nice picture frame and drink mix from my parents and a nice necklace my mother-in-law made me. So the next day I was do back to work and Tommy extended his time off to be with the kids while I was at work but I didn't make it into work. For some reason, this just happened to happen right when I was due back to work. My boss wasn't too happy that I called out but what was I suppose to do. I couldn't sleep the night before. I woke up every hour in pain and had to roll over on my other side so my face wasn't touched in the night. My whole left side of my face was swollen and in pain and I didn't know why. I explained it all to my boss and she finally said that was fine. Tommy ended up taking me into the doctors that day to get it looked at. At first my doctor couldn't figure out what was wrong and then finally came out and said it could be an absess tooth and that is what is making my mouth swell up like that. So she put me on vicadin, antibiotics, ibuprofen, and a special mouthwash. I had to take the medication every four to six hours and because of the vicadin, I was pretty much exhausted all the time and ended up sleeping about 20 to 21 hours a day. I ended up not getting paid for the time I wasn't at work but when it comes to your health, that is more important. It just means we need to stick to a budget but what else is new haha!! I didn't come down stairs for anything unless I absoultely had to. I had the pets in the room with me and Tommy was off work for a while to take care of me since I was all drugged up and crazy haha. I couldn't drive, couldn't work, couldn't do just about anything. I almost fell over just going to the bathroom and that wasn't very far from our room. Tommy had to go back to work here and there as long as I didn't have any appts. So I was off work for a total of nine days and I know it got my boss upset but what was I suppose to do. You can't drive or work on those medications. Then I saw my dentist and he took an xray. Yup sure enough it was an absess tooth. By the time I was in to that appt, some of the swelling went down but it was still quite swollen. Unfortunately the dentist couldn't do the root canal. I had to go to an endodontist specialist up in the city for it. Tommy made an appt for me and we went. Because of my mouth being a little swollen, the root canal couldn't be done. Also, they used a big xray piece of instrument that couldn't even really fit in my mouth so we couldn't do it that day. We made another appt to get it done and hopefully the swelling would go down by then. Finally we go all the way back up the next morning to the endontist and he did the procedure. We were so tired from being up so early and the nights before I didn't sleep well. I was very nervous about the whole thing and so I think that is why. I had nitrus gas and was so worried about the needle but the endodontist and dental assistant were so gentle and nice that I relaxed some and felt better. I didn't even feel the whole six shots he gave me. He numbed me so good, that the anesteica didn't wear off until half the day. I have antibiotic medicine in the bottom of the tooth and it is filled with the temporary filling. I have to wait until the end of the month to get the permanent filling done. I am on more antibitoics and motrin. After that appt then I go back to my dentist and get the crown on my tooth. It gets so frustrating when dentists don't do all the procedures. You have to go to a different specialist to get certain things done. We had trouble with our dental insurance. Since the Air Force dental isn't the greatest, all this is very expensive to begin with but apparently not all of it is covered under our dental plan. So we ended up going with a different plan but turns out it isn't covered under that one. So we were all sorts of back and forth between the two plans trying to get something worked out. Finally we got something worked out and it is more $$ afterall but totally worth it. Things that unexpectedly arrise, we have to do what we have to do. The nitrus gas isn't included so we had to pay that out of pocket. Talk about a very stressful week. I am so ready to be completely better and in no pain. I am not in any pain now but I am always checking on my temporary filling to make sure it is still there. I have to be careful not to chew on that side. The only place I was at was the dentist and endodondist, other than that I've been living in bed. Not fun, but with how tired the medication made me, I was always sleeping. Tommy said I was a bit crazy on those meds and said and did some wacky things but I don't remember all that went on. Just that I was always tired and needed to sleep. I've been eating apple sauce, ensure, pudding, spaghettios, soft foods to be more careful. Tommy has been so great at taking care of me. I don't know what I would do without him. I promised him I would make this key lime pie yogurt dessert and a beefy tortilla cheese salsa skillet meal since he likes it so much and he has been there for me for everything.

Stephanie and Jack are back home, and now that I am feeling so much better. I've been up and about moving around again, doing my normal things, things are getting back to normal here. Laundry, crafts, cleaning, etc. It was hard for Tommy to do it all because he was also working. I want to start cooking and baking again soon too. Tommy and I have been playing the Wii so that is fun. Got a lot of fun games to play.

Tommy went in to get his ear checked. He has been having this popping noise in his left ear randomly throughout the day. When he lays down to go to sleep at night, he has a series of pops in is ear. It doesn't hurt him, it is just annoying. So the doctor told him he has what is called a Eustachion Disfunction. His doctor said his inside of the ear looks fine. It is when the tube is closed up and there is no fluid to drain and so it causes popping noises. The pressure builds. Reasons people can have this are if they have a cold, have allergies, ear infection. Tommy has allergies. So now he is on Allegra D to see if it could help with keeping his tube open and let the fluid drain. It is suppose to help keep the popping noises from coming back. He has been taking it for a few days and it seems to be helping but the popping noise isn't compeletely gone. If this doesn't work, the doctor will give him a steroid and if that doesn't work, he may need a tube put in his ear. We hope he doesn't need that and hope the pills help with all of this.


Here are pics from when Stephanie and Jack visited.

Jack liked playing with our cats

All of us at Oceans of Fun the waterpark















Tommy grilling burgers. They were so good. He loves to grill.

I was making spinach cheese manicotti. They are so good too. You can't really see, but the necklace I am wearing, is the nice necklace my mother-in-law made me for my birthday.