Rio

Well the golden, golden retriever passed away. No this wasn't my dog, but Lynn and Jason's dog. They had the dog for about three years. She was a great dog, she was really sweet. Phil and Sam were able to beat her up. Both of my cats are de-clawed, yet either one of them intimidated and beat up Rio. Whenever Rio came over to my house because I dog sat, I would have to pick this 60-70 lb dog up and put it on my bed in my room because she was afraid to come in my room because of my two cats. It was kind of funny. Also, I can just see Rio walking around with some stuffed animal (or not so stuffed because she pulled the stuffing out) around in her mouth. She was a really cute dog. She loved to swim. Lynn and Jason had a pool, and we would throw balls out into the pool and she would cautiously get in and then get the ball. Whenever we were in the water, she would have to be where ever we were. One time she had been in the water too long, and she was getting tired. It was like she swam over to me and expected me hold her so she wouldn't go under.

She was one trial dog though. One time I dog sat for her and had left my journal on the couch. On the fourth day of my dog sitting, she decided that she wanted to eat the purple fuzzy cover off the journal. She left the rest of the journal intact, it was the cover that she went after.

Also, she had had a couple of major surgeries while she was a puppy. She had allergies, she had the Valley Fever (only a slight case), allergies to many different kinds of normal dog food. She was one special dog.

Good Bye Rio, may you find a field of fuzzy covered journals and a mountain of stuffed animals in heaven!!

Dentist

I have to find a new dentist. I have known this for a couple of months, but am not really sure where to look for one. The current dentist I have is a referral. There are two reasons why I am leaving this dentist. First, I want to say that he is a very nice person and has a great bedside manner. His office is clean and efficient and his staff are very friendly and helpful.

With this said, every time I have a cavity filled the dentist has to give me multiple shots of Novocaine in order to complete the filling. It is like he doesn't give enough in the beginning and so when he starts to drill, I feel it. I immediately let him know and he will then give me another shot. I have had to do this a couple of times in the past. In February, I had another cavity and went into to get it filled. He shot me up the first time and we waited about 10 minutes for it to take effect. When he started drilling, I immediately let him know that I was feeling it. So he gave me another set of shots and then started back on the drilling. By now, my eyeball was starting to feel numb, and I could feel my neck starting to go numb, but yet, I still had problems. So he had to give me a third shot. This time I felt him go under the tooth and I jumped. He said something like that was the nerve that hadn't fallen asleep yet. So then he started drilling again. By this time, I figured that as long as I wasn't going to scream or hit him from the pain, I should just grin and bear it. My thinking was I would rather have a few moments of discomfort in the chair rather than have him continue to dig around looking for another nerve to hit with his Novocaine needle.

The other reason why I need to change dentists is that he is no longer in my insurance PDP, and so it won't be fully covered.

I am now having a problem with one of my teeth and need to find another dentist, but am not really sure where to start.

Cake Decorating

So last week I signed up to take a Wilton Cake Decorating class. I figured that it would be best that I start taking classes. This would be the second cake I am making this year that is for an actual event I really don't have anything to do with. The first was a Sweet 16 birthday. Next month I have a wedding cake to do for a friend. She came up to me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would do her a favor. I wasn't really sure where she was going with this, considering she is the choir pianist, and she has asked me to fill in for her a couple of times. I am not really good at the piano playing, so I was hesitant to say yes to her favor. Then she mentioned that she had heard that I do cakes and wondered if I would do her wedding cake. I told her that I am not that good, and I didn't want to ruin her big day by not having a perfect cake. She then told me that this would be her second reception and that she would already have had her perfect cake during the first reception in Phoenix. This reception was for the Bakersfield area, and it would be more for her husbands family. She didn't care if the cake was perfect. So I agreed. Shortly after that, I decided to go check out Michael's to see if they had a class I could take. I felt that since this is the second time this year that it would be good to take a class on cake decorating so I would feel more comfortable when asked to make a cake for friends.

I have taken a class before when I was about 15. I can't remember what it was really about. Also, when I was 12, my Grandma B. decided I would learn how to decorate cakes. She brought me to the lady that decorated cakes in the Albion, IL area. I sat with her one afternoon and learned a few things. She gave me a cake recipe that I tried a couple of times, and wasn't ever successful at making it. Anyway, a box cake is just fine. So after that lesson, we went back to Grandma's house in Chicago and she took me to the Wilton store and purchased some cake decorating supplies for me. Grandma was always trying to get us grand kids to learn new things. She taught me how to crochet, and taught Diana how to cross stitch. Ever since that time, I was in charge of making all the b-day cakes for everyone in the family. At this point, I really am not a cake fan. However, I do like cake batter. Every time I actually made the cakes, I wouldn't eat a piece. It is kind of funny that I would cook it, but couldn't stand eating it. I guess there are worse things than not liking cake. :-)

Sunday School

So I was able to teach the lesson in Sunday School this weekend. Mike had called last Sunday and asked if I would be in town. I never leave....in fact, I really don't go anywhere. That is sad. I think I need to start figuring out some vacations for myself. Anyway, so I was able to teach on Mosiah 18-24. This was about Alma (the elder) and him teaching the Nephites that were in the wilderness with him. He then was able to baptize them. Then it went onto what happened to King Noah and how he was killed according to the prophecy. Then it went onto King Limhi, King Noah's' son, and how he was a just man and that he lived in peace with the Lamanites for two years before they attacked his people. Then it was how King Limhi's people escaped and met up with the people of Zarahemla. Then it went back to Alma and how they had to suffer the consequences of their past sins even though they had repented by then, and had been living righteously.

The lesson went pretty well. I did bring cookies to give out when the lesson seemed to get stuck. In order to have a successful lesson, you need to have plenty of participation. During the last 15 minutes, the attention seems to wane, and you need to have something that brings their attention back. So I had hid my cookies and only brought them out when I wasn't getting the participation I needed. It worked pretty well. However, I think I would rather just stick to teaching in Relief Society. It is a bit less intimidating.

I do think it is funny that people thought I had brought them the store bought Lofthouse sugar cookies. I actually had made them. They just didn't believe me. :-)

Shopping

Well, I really am not a fan of shopping at stores. I rather buy it online and have it delivered instead of facing crowds and pushy sales people. However, a friend asked if I would go to the outlet mall in Tulare with her and her roommate. I decided that I really had nothing better to do and it would be nice to get out of town. I realized that it was a long weekend, and kept thinking the traffic coming back would be horrible. However, since I wouldn't be driving, then it couldn't be so bad. So we got there, and I looked in a few stores. I am getting kind of excited as I lose weight. I am able to fit into sizes that the cute stores have. My regular store, Lane Bryant, is starting to not have clothes small enough to fit me. While that makes me happy, I am a bit sad because I have found plenty of cute things in that store. So the three of us shopped for about four hours. I thought that we were never going to finish. Just about before we were going to leave, we stopped in at the Rocky Mountain Fudge Factory. It smelled so good. However, I looked at the things behind the counter and none of them looked like they would satisfy my chocolate craving. Plus, I have told myself that if I have been good all week, I would be able to give myself a serving of my favorite chocolate candy and not feel guilty for eating it. So far this has worked. I know that I should not be rewarding myself with food, because that will get me back into the bad eating habits that I have, however, I want to be able to eat some sweets and not feel guilty because I am breaking a diet, or that they are high sugar or fat. So I think that is okay that I can eat it once a week, in moderation, and I shouldn't feel guilty for eating a serving. :-)

eBay Strikes Again!!

So I have mentioned a few times that I have an eBay habit. Quite frankly, it can be pretty bad. For some reason I went onto eBay on Friday night to look for something to help me make a wedding cake in a few weeks. I never did find it on eBay, however, I found plenty of other things. Before I realized what had happened, I had bid on enough things that if I had one, it would have been a whole checks' worth of cake things. I can't believe that I had done it. I resolved that if I was outbid on the items that I wouldn't go back and rebid on them. So far, so good. I have lost three of the eight auctions. Still there are five more to go. Even though it would be nice to win the auctions, I do not really need the stuff, nor should I be spending so much money on cake supplies. It isn't like I really do cake decorating for a living. The really funny thing is that when I go online to make small purchases, it can take me a couple of days of doing research on the product as well as making sure that I get the best deal before I would buy it. However, when it comes to eBay, within a couple of hours, I can bid on several hundred dollars worth of things and not do any research on the stuff. There was one stained glass book that I looked at online for about a year before I purchased it. I kept thinking that I wasn't sure if it was worth the $30. When I finally broke down and bought it, I loved it. So why do I have a hard time buying a $30 book, but I can plunk down several hundred dollars on cake pans or other supplies that I may or may not ever use??

Contacts

I have had contacts before, but decided that should get some more. I have been meaning to do this for a while, but just hadn't got around to it. Last Thursday, I went in for an eye appointment and got a trial pair. First, I am happy to say that the prescription didn't change much in the 5 years since my last exam. My eyes had been changing by a 1/2 step every two years, so this made me happy.

The Dr. said that I should look into Lasik. I told him there was a side-effect I wasn't sure that I could handle, and so I haven't done it yet. He understood, but tried again to convince me by saying the lasers have become more advanced, and that with my eyes, I would be a good candidate.

He also mentioned that I have flat eyeballs. What? It's one of those things I didn't know, or hadn't thought of, and can't believe he would tell me that. I guess that it is better than bug eyes.

This reminds me of a dentist I had that commented that I had short teeth. Again, What? They look normal to me.

Crazy doctors and their ideas of normalcy.