Marci Ehrhart Concert

I have had the pleasure of helping our friend Marci with a concert that she is putting together on Friday November 12th!

It's going to be a wonderful night, Marci is so talented and has a wonderful voice, and the rest of the band are awesome too - it'll knock your socks off!

Click below to check out the blog site for the concert and make sure to mark your calendar :)

http://concertforamber.blogspot.com/

I Dragged The Gut

As an immigrant to the USA I am constantly finding things here in my new home that are new to me or are just different...

Dragging the Gut is one of those things that is unique to the USA and here in McMinnville it was outlawed in the mid-late 80's.

It was such a wonderful evening, we had a great time dragging the gut with our 1972 Suburban and our Victory... I can't wait for next year! :)

October Already

I can hardly believe it's October already - it's scary how quickly this year has flown past.

Yesterday it had been a year since I was granted my Green Card, hard to believe it had been a year already, but in some ways it was also hard to believe it had ONLY been a year... a lot has happened in the past year.

To celebrate we made a 'full English breakfast' meal for dinner, and I made a Red Velvet Cake for desert - since it's our green card birthday, we had to have cake... right?

Oh my word, that cake was so good... now I'm not saying that to blow my own trumpet, especially since I got the recipe from a blog I read all the time, but I'm saying it because it was... the ganache topping was so chocolaty and so rich that it was perfect... I hate to imagine the amount of calories in the tiny sliver of cake I ate.

Since it was so rich and there was so much of it we figured there was no way we'd get it finished while it was still in it's prime, so we cut two large chunks and brought them to our neighbours.

Hello again...

Well, it seems that the past week and a bit have been pretty uneventful, and thus I haven't really had anything to blog about.

I guess I still don't really have anything to blog about, but after so many days thought I'd at least pop in and say a little hello.

I seem to have gotten used to the braces so far, and my lips have built up scar tissue to deal with the metal constantly rubbing on them. Sometimes my lip or tongue still catches on a sharp pokey bit and it hurts, but for the most part it's ok. The pressure on my teeth took longer to get used to, and it still aches at times, especially after (and during) eating. The front teeth are the only ones that still actually hurt, and I'm a little concerned about that since it's the site of the most recent bone graft. I can already tell that my teeth are starting to move, the gaps between the teeth (very noticeable at the front) are getting bigger as they all gently move into the space where the incisor was removed.

Cleaning my teeth has become quite the ordeal, I never realised it would be such a chore, but I'm hoping that I just get used to it and it becomes no big deal. It takes 15 minutes morning and night to clean my teeth, and then after every meal (or snack) I also have to give them a quick clean with the little 'christmas tree' type attachment that I carry in my purse and have several of. I hate the feeling of having food stuck in my teeth, it just grosses me out.

I've gotten used to talking with the braces there, and I guess I seem to lisp less... but I still don't like the way they look, even with my mouth closed I feel like they make me look weird, as you can see the way they make your lips stick up weird.

Anyway... Enough about the train tracks, I know I'm boring you already!

Other than that, life has been pretty quiet for us. We managed to switch our schedule for Christmas and changed our flights so we can spend more time in the UK with the family over the holidays. I am so looking forward to this and am excited to see everyone... it's been too long since I spent a Christmas with them!

I also saw my dr who said my T3 was a little high on the last blood test, so I dropped my cytomel down to half a pill in the morning instead of a full to see how it does... well, silly me I some how managed to cut them into quarters instead of halves, and take them for almost a week before realising.... no wonder I was exhausted all the time!

I guess that's it from me for now, will catch ya later :)

Metal Mouth Mary

It looks as though I have survived my first few days with 'train tracks'... it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

(terrible photo by the way, but I guess most of the photos pf the next 2.5 - 3 years are going to be pretty crappy)

Yep, after all I've been through with dental and surgeries this past 18 months you'd think this would have been a walk in the park, well, I tell you now it wasn't.

My appointment was booked for a max of 90 minutes. That's longer than they usually allow for putting on the braces, so they figured it would be plenty of time... turns out they didn't factor in the 'MARY CARD'... my appointment ended up being a little shy of 3 hours 15 minutes. It was also pretty uncomfortable, since I have just recently had the bone graft in two places on my lower jaw. Having my right wisdom teeth (top & bottom) was also kind of a nuisance, since they had a hard time getting brackets all the way back there.

Anyway, I survived. I walked out of there with metal brackets on my bottom teeth, and clear ones on the front ones of my top. I also didn't quite get rid of my flipper... it kind of just got changed, and it's now a bridge.... Don't ask, it works (kind of).

The first day I couldn't eat a thing, my back teeth had so much pressure on them it hurt too bad. The next couple days I resorted to softer foods, soups etc... boring, but manageable.

This weekend I finally ventured to rice and that was better. It had substance and was edible, but it got really badly stuck in the brackets and was a pain to clean... at least it kept the hunger at bay tho! ;)

The easiest thing by far was baked potatoes.... thankfully, they're also one of my fav foods to eat! I also had a can of Heinz Baked Beans stashed so I poured those over the buttered potato and topped it with grated cheese.... Mmmmm, I was instantly back in London for the 20 mins it took me to eat my dinner!

Another step in the right direction...

So, today is my last day with this delightful (can you hear the sarcasm) flipper??? Tomorrow I am due to get my braces on and I'm quite excited about it.

I'm excited that I won't have to wear this partial denture anymore, but mostly excited that I'll be getting on my way to being done with this whole ordeal. I know braces aren't going to be any fun at all, and I know it's a LOOOOONG time before I'll be getting them removed and my implants in, but I'm excited because I'm working my way towards that finished goal.

So, I guess this time tomorrow I'll be numbing up the insides of my cheeks and trying my hardest to eat dinner without complaining! hahaha




Lets just hope that there aren't any horrible surprises like there were last time round...

Catch up after a long week!

It's been a long week since I last posted on here. I can't believe it has only been a week...

So, all the things I had intended and planned to since I last posted on here haven't quite happened, as I said, it's been a long (and very strange) week.

On Wednesday last week I had grand plans, I started strong and got going with things I needed to do... Then I got a phone call from my dear hubbie, saying that his Mom had taken a fall and was hurt and was heading to the hospital. So, I put everything on hold, threw together a pot of spaghetti, put the rest of what would be dinner in the truck and headed out there.

It turns out that she was going out the sliding doors and her flip-flop caught on the rug and she took a dive. She whacked her face on the cement and landed on her wrist, it was smashed up. Broken in at least 4 places and in a right mess.

I got the house cleaned up and dinner finished before she came home, and boy am I glad I did. She came home with her arm in a splint and a partial cast, and she was hurting pretty bad. There was no way she would have been able to do those things, and I knew she'd be worrying about it getting done.

It was a pretty late night, I guess we got home around 9pm, which doesn't sound too bad, except that poor hubbie had been gone at work all day and hadn't even got his shower til we got in the door.... we crawled to bed for some much needed sleep.

The next day I headed to the farm with Cory to look after his Mom, she had grand plans of going out shopping and running errands with me, but I knew there was no way she'd feel like it... and when we got to the house she said she realised it too. So, I just stayed with her that day and did some things round there, helped her manage her pain and did some grocery shopping... There was no way I'd be getting the things at home done, so I just put them out of my mind.

The weekend crept up on us and I was glad it was here. On Saturday morning Cory's Dad called to ask if I wanted to go and do some target practice... I really needed to before deer season started, so we headed out there and shot targets for an hour. It was actually really hard work, the guns I was shooting were so heavy and the stock was really long, so it made it hard for me to get a comfortable position. My aim was good though, and my Father in law said I would be good enough to go hunting. I definitely want to do some more practice sessions before the 1st Oct, but my confidence was a little better.

That afternoon I headed to a friends baby shower. She was actually a friend of Cory's growing up, but we've hung out a few times and she's a really awesome and fun girl. It was also my first ever baby shower... so that's something else to check off the list... I didn't know what to expect, but it was a fun afternoon!

That evening we headed out with some other friends downtown, our friend Nat was having a birthday and they'd gotten a babysitter so were trying to make the most of it. It was a nice evening, but another late night... I'm not used to all these packed days and late nights!

We crawled into bed a little after midnight to catch some much needed Zzzzzzz's!

Sunday after church and lunch we headed to Amity Vineyards with John & Janet. The vineyards here in Oregon are amazing, and there are always so many of them! If you're a wine buff then you should definitely get out here and take a tour, you'd be amazed.

After that we were shot, we needed to kick back & relax, so we ordered a pizza and chilled out for the evening... The weekend was gone...