Hump Day Nuggets: a little bit of this, a little bit of that

hump day nuggets: bits of the season in photos and words*

*The hump day nuggets series is the brainchild of Nici Holt Cline who blogs over at dig this chick.  You should check out her blog or her etsy shop, to see the full extent of her talent and creativity.  Thanks Nici!

Let's get the least pleasant out of the way first.  

::Gum graft surgery.  

Apparently even though I am a (fairly) young lady, I have receding gums.  Yes I brush and yes I floss. I even got rid of my fancy, super-awesome-electronic-made-my mouth-feel-so-clean toothbrush considering brushing "too hard" could have been contributing to this receding.  To no avail, I needed gum graft surgery.  Once your gum tissue is gone, it's gone, there is no way to re-generate it.    

So I had this wonderful procedure done yesterday.  They say that some people opt for local anesthetic only (you know just a little numbing medicine injected directly into your hard palate)....no thank you.  I wanted to remember nothing, so I went for the big guns...conscious sedation.  

Of course my nursey-nurse self, went to the consultation with a laundry list of questions including "what medicine do you use for conscious sedation?" and  "do you have a crash cart here/where is it?"  Man, nurses really do make the worst patients.  

If you don't want to read about a medical procedure (you must be chicken, it's not that bad) skip this next paragraph. 

So the way they do the procedure is that they take a graft from the roof of your mouth and use it to cover the area where the recession is happening.  For me, the recession was on two lower front teeth.  They stitch the graft into place and let the tissue heal and grow into the existing tissue.  For my graft site, they make a flap, take tissue from under the flap and then re attach the flap...so stitches there too.  

Hard to really take a photo of this but here you can see the stitches where the graft is in place: 

See those little black stitches? also: ignore the pig-nose-angle of the camera.

After being driven home after the surgery, I slept most of the day and evening.  I slept all last night and most of this morning too!  I am definitely sore, but the recovery is not as bad as I was expecting; at least so far.  I think I can attribute that to the percocet and great nursing care I am receiving form my wife.  

And who can complain when your diet is mainly these foods.  Especially after my typical Paleo diet lately.

Very non-paleo

:: Mother's Day

I hope all of my friend and family who are mom's had a great day on Sunday!  I got to celebrate on Saturday with my aunt Mary who was in CA for business and was able to spend a night in San Diego with us. 

Aunt Mary and me

I received some flowers from my wife animals as well.  Well technically the card stated that the flowers were from the dogs.  The flowers were Stargazer Lilies, which smell amazing but are poisonous to cats.  According to my wife the dogs did that on purpose.  Either way, they are pretty and smell great! 

:: The cutest little cactus.

I went to an small local art fair at a nursery near my house a few weeks ago.  It is the same art fair I have previously participated in by selling my handmade cards.  I went for birthday gifts for friends and family members who have birthdays coming up soon, and succeeded in finding some gifts. BUT! I had to have this tiny crocheted cactus for myself.  I have no idea why, but I fell in love with this little guy.  I brought him home and now he lives on my bathroom shelf where i can stare at him each and every day.   Check him out: 

:: Saving the best for last....I am no longer taking Diflucan! 

 After 4+ years of taking a crazy high dose every day to combat that pesky fungus, my blood work is showing no cryptococcus in my system!  yay!  It is really strange to not have meds to take everyday; I would always take me meds with dinner and it still feels like I am forgetting something around dinnertime each day.  I will be having lab work done on a few weeks to re-check and make sure I continue to be clear of fungus, but for now, I am celebrating.  



What's going on with you?  

Easter at the Beach

Well, it has been quite a while.....I have lots of blog post ideas but no time to write them!  I have been busy finishing up my master's program at school and I am almost finished with my clinical hours.  Soon I will be taking a couple big tests and looking for a job as an NP!  The end is in sight!

I took the day off on Easter and the wife and I decided to take the doggles to the beach.  It was a beautiful and clear day.  Elka is now 10 months old and she is so smart and sweet.  At one point she got distracted and lost where we were standing (we were watching her and saw she lost us) and we waited to see what she would do.  This little smarty pants went over to where we had set our bag and sat her butt down to keep looking!  So smart!  She kept looking around from that spot and we called her name and she came right over.

Here are the goods:

Nala left: Elka right

Kain front: Elka back

Bear and her frisbee

Close up of the Bean

Kain getting in the water!

Nala swimming, Elka running

Two Germans

Nala Bear

Happy Easter!

Dog Vocabulary

Our dogs know a few words, but I doubt they know 165 words as claimed by this article, even considering that German Shepards are on the top 5 smartest list.  But they do seem to differentiate between places we go regularly.  Now, Elka is still young and she really doesn't seem to understand where we are going until we arrive; but Kain and Nala, they know what's what.

Of course they know all the regular words that most dogs know; sit, stay, come, hungry, treat, walk etc. But they have definitely picked up some additional vocabulary.  If I say the word "beach", "mountain", or "island" they get really excited.  Even without a word though, Kain and Nala get excited as we get close to the places in the car.  How do they do that?  Is it the landscape, the familiar turns?  Who knows?

Now 'beach' is pretty self-explanatory, but 'mountain' and 'island' could use some elaboration.  There is a mountain about 10-15 minutes from our house that we like to hike located within Mission Trails Park. it's called Cowles Mountain.  We usually hike up the back side on the fire road to avoid any congestion of people, but the whole thing is dog-friendly and our kids love it.

Now, onto the island.  In Mission Bay, there is a little island called Fiesta Island.  It is about 4.5 miles around, there are beaches and places to have bonfires, but the best part is....wait for it....a leash free dog park! With access to the bay!

Not only do the dogs love it but it is great for Noell and I too because one person can take all 3 dogs, and you don't have to hold 3 leashes.  The dog park is on one end of Fiesta Island and is surrounded on 3 sides by water and one side is fenced. It is little over 1.5 miles around and it makes it perfect to do a quick 3-4.5 mile run.  Over the many, many times we have been there, our dogs have (mostly) learned to stay out of the water unless we give them permission.  But every once in a while, just when I get into a good running groove, I look over and there is one of my dogs heading for the water....That makes for some entertaining yelling on my part.  

So last week I ended up with an unexpected day off and headed to the island, with 3 dogs in tow.  I brought my camera along for the ride and here is what our trip was like.

Elka is excited, even though she has no idea where we are going!

Checking things out when we first arrive.

Practicing a few 'call backs' at the beginning to make sure the doggles have on their listening hats.

Up on the rim, over that edge is a hill that leads to the beach/water.

Looks like the Germans are interested in the water.  Sorry girls, not today.

Beautiful day.

Kain runs ahead, Nala stays close to me, and Elka Bean can never decide what to do, so she alternates running with Kain and hanging back with Nala. 

FINALLY! A decent picture with all three butts.

Follow the leader.

Kain in front, Elka sprinting to catch up, and Nala hanging with me. 

Nala Bear, 8 years

Elka June, 7.5 months

 

My sweet bo-beet, 9 years

Christmas 2012

Today will be few words and many pictures.

I was lucky enough to marry into a family that has an amazing talent for cooking, baking and everything to do with food.  My mother-in-law, Carol, makes amazing hand-dipped Christmas candy and she had taught me how to do it!   But! This year for Christmas she was in town and we were able to make the candies together.  It's always more fun with a buddy.

First you make the centers....

Coconut centers

Caramel centers

Marshmallow centers

Step 1 of butter-cream centers

Step 2 of butter-cream centers

Step 3 of butter-cream centers

Final step of butter-cream centers

Peanut-butter centers and butter-cream centers

 And then there is chocolate....It starts like this, the biggest candy bar you have ever seen!

Hello, welcome to the kitchen

Melting

Tempering (bringing the chocolate down to the right temp for dipping and ending up with a shiny pretty finish)

Sea salt caramels

Mallows

Peanut butter

Peanuts in milk

Butter -creams all ready to go!

We didn't get any pictures of us dipping due to the fact that we were both covered in chocolate and unable to handle the camera.

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Christmas Eve is Carol's birthday so we celebrate it as a birthday party instead of Christmas.  Jennifer and Kip made a wonderful dinner and we had food, drinks, family, and friends.

Appetizers

Chris and Otis

From left: John, Otis, Carol and me

Molly and Chris

Happy Birthday Cheesecake

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Christmas day we celebrated at our house with gifts, and brunch.  Later we went my my aunt and uncles home for dinner (and to Skype-open presents with my parents!) but I forgot my camera for that. Bummer.

Someone is excited to open presents! (Check out Elka taking a sneak peek!)

Nana, Papa, and John

Deedle deet

Kain

Nala Bear

Elka Bean

Deet likes the hut

I got kind of involved in Christmas and stopped taking pictures once the open of gifts started.  I just wanted to enjoy the time and not worry about getting good shots of everyone.  Hope you all had a magical Christmas and are off to a great start this new year!