Ouch!!

Forgive me if this post doesn't make sense, I'm under the influence of some pretty cool stuff called Vicodin!

Today was my scheduled appointment to have my wisdom teeth removed. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about having this done. But it actually went pretty well.

It had been exactly a year since I originally went in to my consultation appointment with Dr. Hogan from Southwest Oral and Facial Surgery. I was referred by my dentist, Dr. Craig Mayor, who I've been going to since 1989. I went into Dr. Hogan's Lehigh location because it was closer to my parents house (they were watching the boys). It is located in this really old building on the corner of Coolege and Lee Blvd across from the telephone company (all my Lehigh peeps know exactly what I'm talking about). I was not impressed to say the least. I really liked Dr. Hogan, I was just totally turned off by the building. It was so dark and gloomy and felt more like a dungeon than a oral surgery office. After talking with the Dr. I paid for my appointment and they told me that the procedure would cost a little over $1800 with local anesthesia. My medical insurance doesn't cover dental so we were unable to afford the procedure at the time. After a few months my bottom wisdom teeth started to show through my gums. I noticed that my teeth were starting to push together so I decided that I had put it off long enough and scheduled a day to have them removed. I decided that I would have the procedure done in the Ft. Myers office. Surely it had to be nicer than the Lehigh location. I asked if they offered some kind of payment plan with which they said that they do not, but they accept CareCredit. I applied online and got accepted immediately for $1500. Sweet! Better yet, I don't have any interest for 12 months. Gotta love deals like that!

This morning my appointment was at 10:00. They told me to arrive at 9:45. I parked the car at exactly 9:30 after driving up and down Summerlin trying to find their office. Anyone who knew me before kids knows that arriving about 10-15 minutes early is pretty typical for me. Those who know me post kids know that now my arrival time is 10-15 minutes LATE. I walked in and printed my name on the sign in sheet. I was thrilled to see that their Ft. Myers office was beautiful. Complete with dark wood plantation shutters, leaning ladder book shelves, faux painting and just a really great feel about it. It might seem stupid to be so concerned about the visual appearance of a surgery office, but it just made me feel more comfortable. Especially when it's the place that I'm going to, to have my teeth ripped out of my face! About 5 minutes passed and they called me back into a little room. I watched a short video on after care and Dr. Hogan showed up a few minutes later to put some Novocaine on. I elected not to be put to sleep. For one it would have been too expensive, and two I felt like it wouldn't be that big of a deal to have to be put to sleep. I've only been under once when I had knee surgery and I hated the feeling. Even with 2 C-sections I was awake, I couldn't feel anything but I still knew what was going on. About 10 minutes later he arrived again and inserted needles into my gums to get them nice and numb. It wasn't too painful, but it did burn a little when he was injecting them. A few more minutes passed and he came back in to start the surgery. He pulled and prodded and used a dental dremel and before I knew it, he had removed all 4 teeth by 10:30! As I was paying at the receptionist center, the really sweet woman behind the counter asked if I had felt anything. I said no, and she seemed really shocked and surprised. She glanced at my folder and said, "it was even bony, and you didn't feel anything?" Nope, nothing but pressure (imagine this conversation with my mouth packed with gauze). She said I'm one of the few. Thank you God for letting me be one of the few! I drove myself home being sure to drop off my prescription on the way. The lady asked me my birthday and I managed to mumble it out with my big fat swollen face.
When I got home my dad showed up shortly after. He hung out for a little while and played with the boys while I rested. Glenn had left a little after my dad arrived because he had to move furniture into his new office. After my dad had to go, I was left with the boys. I managed to get them into bed for their naps and then sat around watching TV while I floated around in la-la land from the vicodin. So my surgery went really well today and I'm actually in little pain with the help of my pain killers. Thank you Dr. Hogan for doing an awesome job!

Oh, on a really positive note, this whole surgery has jump-started my weight loss. I've only been able to eat applesauce, jello, yogurt, pudding (fat free at that) and soup. So far I'm already down 2 lbs from today. Yippee for wisdom teeth extractions!!

I Love You MomMom - Rest In Peace

Is it really that day? Did it come already? We all knew that it would be here, but I guess I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. I'm not quite sure what to write and I haven't really sorted it all out in my head, but when I can come up with the right words I'll be sure to express them here.

I can't believe you're gone...

Pee in your pants funny movie MNI

My moms group, Mamapalooza, had a MNI (Moms Night In) event tonight. Jill my neighbor offered to carpool and drive, so I of course agreed and was ready with my 12pack-yes, Glenn brought me home a 12 pack instead of a 6 pack of Coronas! Responsibly, I only had 5, LOL! Amanda was the lovely host. Everyone had a great time. We decided to watch "What Happens In Vegas". I had already watched this movie so I actually wanted to chat with some of the moms, but kept getting "shhh'd". Unfortunately, the other moms didn't enjoy the movie so much and thought it was dumb. It was still a great night with great friends and awesome homemade caramel popcorn (thanks Amanda)! Can't wait for the next get-together.

Kickball Round 2

Season 2 of kickball started Thursday night and is underway! So far, our team looks pretty promising. We have many returning players and our new players seem really athletic! I'm pumped about this season and can't wait to start kickin' some butt on the kickball field. Unfortunately, some of my friends did not register for another season with us. Leah and Scott have lots of things going on, Shannon injured her shoulder, and I'm not quite sure why Aimee didn't sign up again. But Terra and I are still here representin'. One of my friends Janet, told her husband about it so he decided to sign up. He's not on our team but we faced off with his team on thursday.

This season our team color is navy blue, which in my opinion is much more flattering than that icky burnt orange. Our team name is still the same, but maybe we can vote on a much cooler name (fingers crossed).

For our first game we played team Balls In Your Face. We won with a score of 6:2. I have to say though, that the "coach" of our team really seemed to have a bad attitude that night. I sure hope this is not how he's going to be all season. Maybe we should remind everyone that although we are a bit competitive and love to win, it really is still a game and everyone is there to have fun! All and all we are looking forward to a great season of Kickball. Stay tuned for more updates as the season continues! Oh, and we are in 3rd place right now after week one...but who's keeping score?

Me and Terra sporting our new colors

Maddie and Rylan

Aidan and his girlfriend Jen

Group huddle

Happy Birthday Forrest!

Monday night a group of girls from the gym got together to celebrate our special friend Forrest's birthday. We all met up at Stonewood where Forrest's sister, Pam, was waiting. When Forrest arrived she was very surprised and happy that we were all there to celebrate it with her! It was a great night of fun for everyone. After dinner and cake, it was pouring outside. So Leah and I decided to head to Mona Lisa's, a little itty bitty bar next to Stonewood. We always have a great time when we're out drinking!! Actually, we always have a great time when we're out without the kids, it's nice to have a break sometimes!

The whole gang celebrating at Stonewood

Leah, Pam and Forrest
Holly, Jenn, Karan and Brigete
Yummy Yummy Bithday Cake
Forrest blowing out her candles and become one year YOUNGER!

Leah and I at Mona Lisa's

Those stupid games at the bar are SO lame

Best Friends...Time for us to go home!

Fisherprice House Party

Yesterday the boys and I went to my friend Terra's house for her Fisherprice Playdate. She was selected to host a fisherprice party where guests could try out new toys and even win some to take home. It was a lot of fun, and all the kids really enjoyed playing with the new toys. The kids got to try out the new Smart Bounce and Spin Pony, Fun with Friends Musical Table, Crawl and Cruise Musical Gym, and the Spinnin Around Musical Zoo. The boys even won the raffle and we took home the Spinnin Around Musical Zoo, along with a great party favor toy. In October I will be going to another house party for Canon at my friend Jenny's house. I'm so excited, anything having to do with photography, or pictures or anything similar is all for me!

Party Favors

Kate getting her grub on

The boys really loved this toy

Maddie's in heaven on the pony...although she would prefer it be a real horse!

Rylee really loved this toy too, and lucky little girl won it in the raffle!

Taking a little break to recharge for some more fun

Aidan playing with the toy we won

Sassy Classy Carly is such a Diva in her princess shoes!

What A Week!

This past week has been so draining! I spent most of the week going to appointments with my new car. Glenn's car is leased (as all of our cars are) and goes back at the end of the month. So we decided to have him drive the Expedition because of the high gas prices and because he really doesn't drive a lot, so for a vehicle that gets 11 miles per gallon, it makes sense to have it driven less. We spent numerous hours at just about every car dealership in town and ended up getting a Subaru Tribeca for me to drive. I absolutely LOVE it.

I posted a message on the Mamapalooza message board asking other moms what their favorite midsize SUV is and what they liked/disliked about it. It only seemed right to ask other moms their opinions about what car to get. There were many moms who commented about the Tribeca. They said that lots of people who drive Subarus tend to stick with them, kind of like Volvo drivers. So when we went and looked at them we really liked it. It has a third row which I definitely wanted. It wasn't a huge car like the expedition but had enough room inside for us, it had a five star safety rating, and drove just like my X3 did-just a little bigger. The only thing it didn't come with was navigation and DVD player. From past experiences with our other cars we've found that we never use the navigation, but the DVD player comes in really handy with the kids. So we opted to get the model without the player and have it installed later.

Glenn researched players and we ended up getting an Alpine one that goes in the center of the roof. I demanded that I be able to listen to the radio while the boys watch their movies. I can't stand driving listening to movies the entire time. So we got the boys wireless headphones so they can listen to their movies while I jam out to my favorite tunes. They look so cute with those huge headphones on. We had it installed at Best Buy and purchased the service plan. Good Thing, because 3 days later, it wasn't working. The guys said that the wiring was done correctly, but something was wrong with the player. We've also learned that any kind of electronics need an extended warranty too. We've had way too many gadgets just stop working after the one year warranty that we couldn't afford to be foolish with this pricey piece of equipment! So that was 2 days worth of time that my car spent having work done to it. Then one day was spent at Beverly Hills Tenting. We had limo tent put on both the Expedition and the Tribeca. I asked them to put a shade lighter on the rear window so I wasn't completely blinded at night. I had this done with the X3 also and it really worked out great for me at night time when it's so dark.

Then another day was spent driving all over town to try and get my license plate figured out. I was planning on just transferring my plate from the BMW to my new car, but the dealership called me a couple days later saying that my plate was invalid. What! How could that be? I've had it since I've been driving and it was just on another car! Apparently, after 5 years you are automatically issued another plate for free. I was completely unaware of this policy. When I renewed my tags online it didn't say anything about a new plate, so I just thought I was all good. Well my new renewal sticker had a different tag number on it then the actual tag. They told me it had been like that for about a year and a half! I was driving around with an invalid tag for quite some time. So after I drove all the way to Lehigh and waited for my turn in line, they said that they couldn't issue me a replacement because it would be issued to the BMW, not my new car. I had to drive back to Ft. Myers to the Subaru dealership to have them issue me a temp. tag and then mail me my new plate. Thank Goodness that mess is fixed!

My poor kids spent most of the week in the car driving around from one place to the other, and I didn't go to the gym at all the whole week.


The rest of the day that wasn't spent at some appointment was spent staging my house. We have officially put it on the MLS as a short sale. So I've had to clean every room and move all the kid stuff from one room to another in order to take pictures of the house. I still have a few more rooms left, hopefully it will be done this weekend.

We've decided to move into Glenn's Dad's investment house up the street and eventually buy it in a year. It's still in Botanica Lakes, just about a block up the street. The renters that were there just moved out, so we've been over there painting, cleaning, taking down hurricane shutters and ripping out the flooring on the bottom floor. We have the hard wood floors arriving either Monday or Tuesday and they should be installed in the next few days along with the Travertine. We've kept most of the same colors as the house we live in now so that wasn't as difficult as the first round of color picking. But some of our furniture doesn't fit, or we don't need it so now I'm having to post some stuff on Craig's List. Moving really stinks, but I guess it's better that it's up the street and not across town. I don't really have to "pack" anything, but shove it in the car and drive it to the other house. I can't wait to have this mess done and over with so I can start getting settled into our new house.

We just met a few neighbors by our new house and I'm already loving it. We're on a Cul-de-sac now and it seems like every house on the street has small children. Yay, fun neighbors! The renters that were there said that it's the "drama" street, but everyone so far has been really friendly. I'll be the judge of such a "drama" street myself. We are, however, very sad to be moving away from our favorite neighbors Ron and Donna, the cool New Yorkers across the street. I told them they're just gonna have to take longer walks with their dog Brandy so they can come see us up the street. I'm so excited to watch the boys run rampid down our street playing with other kids, especially because there won't be so much traffic!

I've also been inspired by my best friend Amber, to start a Botanica Lakes Parents Club. Our clubhouse sometimes has things for kids to do, but no one ever shows up to them. So I decided to take the lead and start a club up so families can meet other families in the neighborhood. Wish me luck that it's a success, I'd be disappointed if no one responded and I lived in a beautiful neighborhood with a bunch of "no names".

Stay tuned for pictures of the new house and how it's coming along!

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!

This past week both my parents celebrated their 49th birthday. My dad's birthday is September 9th and my mom's birthday is September 12th. They are exactly 3 days apart. I decided to head over to their house Friday afternoon so that the boys could spend some time with them on their special day. On the way over we stopped at Publix to pick up a little cake and had them write "Happy Birthday Mom & Dad" on it. A little bit after me and the boys got there, Glenn showed up too. My parents were thrilled to be able to spend their birthday with their favorite little grandboys (and Glenn and I too). We sang happy birthday and of course they let Aidan and Rylan blow out the candles. I cooked some pork chops and spent some time on the computer playing my new favorite game "Jewel Quest 2", it's the most addicting game ever. Good thing I don't have it on my computer or NOTHING would get done around here.
We ended up staying the night over there because it got so late. We've decided that next year we have to do something really exciting for my parents' big 50th birthday. We're debating possibly going on a cruise, although I'm a little apprehensive about bringing the boys on a cruise at such a young age. I'm anticipating next year being a big year for fun parties. Glenn also has a big birthday coming up. He'll be 30 in April!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM & DAD!!!