Coulda done without that...

It has been a week since my visit to the dentist, so I went back in to have him see how everything was going....and also to try to do something about the numbness I still have in my lip and chin.
I figured...How bad could it be? I have already been to the threshold of hell and back. I know there are lots of things that are much worse than this, but I'm having a hard time thinking of any of them right now.
Well he took some more x-rays and poked around in there asking me if I could feel this or feel that while he tapped on different places in my mouth. I couldn't feel much of anything so he said he was going to loosen the screw thing a little bit to see if that would let the pressure off the nerve that was making me numb.
So he gets out his screw driver and tries to loosen the screw. Well it had started bonding with my bone, so it wasn't that easy to do. But when he finally turned it, I about went through the roof. It was like that nerve was screaming at me..".I am still here and I am ready to do my job of showing you all the pain you have been missing this past week!" I think Dr. L. got the message when I gasped and my eyes about popped out of my head.
He said, "You know, I think I had better just take this implant out and let this heal up for a while, then we will try it again. So he took it all the way out. I just can't explain what that felt like except possibly getting a tooth pulled without any anesthesia. By now the tears were running into my ears. He said "I'm going to have to put a few stitches in this. I knew I could not handle that and tried to protest with all the tubes and suction things in my mouth. He said "Ill numb this up a little bit, I don't want to hurt you!" Ha! That was super thoughtful of him! So he deadened my mouth and sewed the hole shut that he had taken the screw out of.
I was still pretty concerned because my lip and part of my chin were still numb. So I asked him when the feeling would come back. He said he thought that with the pressure relieved, it should start feeling better. I said " You think so?" And he said "Well, I have never had this happen before, but I remember talking about it in dentistry school and that is what usually happens.
It seemed so funny to me that I should have this one more stupid thing happen to me where he had never had it happen to anyone else, I just started laughing. He looked at me like I was crazy and said "do you feel ok?" Then I burst into tears and wailed " I feel like crying!"
Just the thought of never regaining the feeling in my face again pushed me over the edge. He exchanged worried looks with his assistant and they asked me if I needed to sit down for a minute. Super Embarrassing! I sat there and bawled for a minute while he kept handing me Kleenex and tried to reassure me that everything was going to be ok and that he was sure sorry if he had hurt me. I finally pulled myself together and tried to make my way out of his office as inconspicuously as possible ( didn't want to scare the youngsters in the waiting room). I'm pretty sure that everyone in the office had heard me and were watching me with a look of "good luck with that, psycho lady" on their faces.
I came home and took the last 4 ibuprofen in the bottle. Just realized that Kelley and I have gone through a whole bottle in one week. He has been having a lot of pain in his elbow since he cut firewood last Saturday. It's all swollen and squishy but he won't go to the doctor. dang that man...he's so much like my dad!
My mouth is a little bit less numb, but not much. Dr. L. called a while ago to see how I was feeling. ("Are you ok???) He said they had all been concerned about me after I left and that he was asking his assistant what she thought had upset me. She said "well duh....you hurt her!' He apologized and said he had to take out the screw while I could still feel it so I could tell him when I started getting feeling back. I guess that made sense. I told him, it wasn't really the pain, but just the fact that I had to start all over again with the implant process and go without any tooth there for a long time and mostly that I was still numb! He said he was sorry I had to go through this, but reassured me that it would all work out and I would be happy with it in the end. Right now it's hard to picture what that will be like, feels like there is no end in sight.
My family is funny! When I told them what had happened, they were all about suing his butt! Kelley wanted to punch him in the face first, (I pity the fool that hurts his wife) then sue him. I don't think that will be necessary, but thanks for taking care of me!

Sweet Email

I mean that in several different ways. First of all how awesome is it to be able to communicate with my son EVERY WEEK! It makes me feel like he is not out of my reach, although he is on the other side of the world.
When we were on our trip, we were able to receive his email and to send him an email from the ship. This was his last few days in the MTC, and I knew he was feeling nervous , but also really excited about getting out into the mission field. His email was kind of frustrating because he had typed a good letter, telling us about everything he had been going through, but then when he tried to attach some pictures to it, he lost all the typing. So he just wrote a few lines, then his time was up on the computer.
So then when we were in France, we were hoping to be able to hear from him because that was the day he was going to fly to Moscow. We had figured the time he would be going to the airport( about 8:00 am) and knew if he was going to call, it would be around 4:00 in the afternoon for us there.( It still makes my brain hurt when I try to comprehend the time difference thing). We had been walking around this most beautiful port in Nice with lots of boats and cute little shops and fancy pastries but my mind was not really there. I had been hoping that he would be able to get through to Kelley's phone because he had changed to an international calling plan just for this purpose, but I wasn't counting on it...just seemed kind of impossible to me that he could call from the phone booth in the airport and get through to us soooooo far away... I mean how many quarters do you put in to call to France?
We were walking around looking at these amazing fishing boats...(Kelley was in heaven,) and his phone rang. Kelley said hello and I could see his face light up. He talked to him for just a minute then handed the phone to me. I think he could see I was feeling pretty anxious to talk to him (understatement of the year) It was so good to hear his voice! He sounded excited, but pretty nervous about what he was about to do. (Just the flight there would freak me out...15 hours! I was at my wits end at 11 hours to Rome) He was pretty emotional too. I was trying to not let him know I was bawling and tried to be encouraging and positive, but I think he knows me too well. In the end, he ended up reassuring ME that he was going to be fine and everything was great! Then Kelley talked to him again for a few minutes (pretty tough for him too) and we both told him goodbye. I can see the wisdom in not going to the airport to see them off. It was hard enough to say goodbye again over the phone.

This was where we were when K.C. called.
Anyway, we got an email from him the next day saying that he had gotten there, Russia was awesome and he was still alive. Super! . He had had more trouble with the computer and had lost his email he had written. So we held onto those few words. We got a real nice email from His mission president and his wife. They said K.C. was doing well and they were there to help out if we had any questions or worries.
We have gotten an email every Wednesday since then. (they usually come about 3:00 in the morning...don't even ask how I know)
It is so great to be able to tell him on Tuesday what has been going on here, what we are thinking and feeling right then, and to know that he can read that and reply to us what is going on with him,, what he is thinking and feeling right then, all within a 12 hour period...not weeks later like the regular mail system. Just kind of makes that great expanse between us seem a little bit smaller.
Then there's his email... SWEET!
Re: great week!‏
From:
Kelley Jensen (kcjensen@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Wed 10/28/09 6:35 AM
To:
pjdaisy50@hotmail.comHey guys,
Sorry about last week, I realized that I havent really communicated home very well and that you guys have no idea what I do all day so I am going to tell you.
Of course I wake up at 6:30 and then I usually sit on my bed( the couch) and pretend to be awake for a few minutes until my companion is done in the bathroom and then i do some pushups and then we eat usualy some sort of grain for breakfast like gits or oatmeal or some Russian grain that i cant explain. then we study and then go out and talk to people on the street on our way to meetings or what ever. we ride the train a lot because our area is big so I spend a lot of time on the train. and thats about it. we meet with members a lot. and the feed us lots of cakes and cookies and tea and stuff like that. ITs not bad at all. We had a really awesom meeting On thursday, we met this guy contacting and he said he had a picture of Chirst, some how, it was interesting but i didnt think much of it. But he called last week while we emailed and wanted to meet with us and get a Book of Mormon. So we met the next day. When we went in his wife was there too and they were so welcoming, usually people are nice but I felt unusally welcome. We got talking and they were so ready to recieve the gospel. The spirit was so strong, we talked about prophets and helped answer a few questions and then we talktestified about the Book of Mormon and told them to pray to recieve an answer and he said he already knew it was true. The spirit was incredible. Man! I cant even explain it, but it gives me strength to talk to people because you never know who is searching for answers. pray for them please their names are Boris and Galina. I bought some warm stuff and some day I will send some pictures home, sorry about that. The weather here is pretty crappy, rains everyday. But it hasnt snowed yet, its just wet all the time out side. but ITs not so bad, I love Russia. ITs just a litte different. Things are great with my companion, I think I sent the wrong message about him, we get along fine. I cant believe ive already been here for a month! I have seriously learned so much, Its hard to explain how ive changed, but youll see in a couple years. We had a Haloweeen party today, it was as fun, we just talked and ate. mom sory about your teeth, hope they feel better soon. im going to send this so it gets to you for sure. love you
Sorry about the 2 emails, im kinda paranoid. something came up in russian and I didnt know what it said so i thought i should just send it just in case. I am happy here, This transfer has gone by so fast only 2 more weeks, I hope I have learned everything I need to from Elder Nikolaichev, ive learned a lot. Glad to hear that Blair's farewell went well, tell him good luck for me if you see him again. Mom I think you should try borsh again, Ive had it a couple times hear and it was way good. any way love you guys.
ELder jensen

Konnichi wa

Yesterday we went to K.C.s good friend Naoya (Blair) mission farewell. We left during our Sunday school time and met Candice at the Granite Ward church house. (Very cool old church) There was a basket with translator ear phones there by the doors to the chapel. We got to see a some of K.C.'s friends that we hadn't seen since K.C's farewell. Also Jeff's parents were there and in talking to his mom I found out that Jeff had flown to Manila...right into a typhoon. They have had some pretty bad storms there lately. She said the mission president emailed the next day saying everyone was safe. He will be doing a service mission for a while now till they get all the flooding mess cleaned up. She said the typhoon season goes into November though so he will have a challenging start to his mission. Jeffs's mom said she was so worried about him, but then the thought came to her that Jeff is in God's hands now and no amount of her worry would help him, but God will help him...is there anyone who would take better care of him than our Heavenly Father? Her faith strengthened mine.

The old mission president of the Tokyo MTC spoke first. He said somethings that baffled me. He said that 4 sister missionaries had come in to see him. They were having a real hard time and he found out after talking to them that they believed all of the teachings of our church but did not have a testimony of Joseph Smith being a true prophet. I thought..."why would anyone serve a mission for our church if they did not believe in Joseph Smith and the first vision?"

He told them to fast and pray and read the pearl of great price about the first vision. They did this and all of them received a confirmation that it was true. After that they were able to have much success on their missions. He left a great message that was the missionaries have to teach with the spirit or they will get nowhere. I love how they just say everything plain and straight forward.

Hatsumi talked next...( I don't know how they worked that out) She spoke in Japanese though so I was glad we had the translator things. I think we missed about half of what she said though because she was saying lots of words but the translator guy had these real long pauses between what he would say. Anyway, what we heard was really good. She is a special person with a huge heart. She has taken this group of kids and been like a second mother and friend to all of them. At first I thought it was kind of weird that K.C. wanted to be over there all the time...even when Blair wasn't there. But when I got to know her, I could see why they love her. She is very humble and sweet and funny when she talks. . She would always tell K.C. to "have a fun! " She was someone they could all talk to too, and would give them good council and be a good example for them. Her testimony was so sweet and simple..."I have eye's to see...ears to hear, and a heart to love...I have everything...I am so blessed!"

Naoya gave a good talk too. He didn't have much time so he just shared a bunch of thoughts he liked. His sense of humor and some of his mannerisms reminded me of K.C. and hugging his tall skinny frame sure made me miss those hugs from my boy!

Candice came over after and we spent a lovely afternoon visiting and baking. Kelley dug these amazing new potatoes up (some sort of mutant gigantic red potato's...what kind of fertilizer did you use on those?) and we tried out the new pressure cooker with them. I was pretty nervous about using the pressure cooker. I have watched mom do it all my life, but always kept my distance for fear of it blowing up. That hissing sound just makes me nervous. So I read the instruction book, front to back and decided to go for it. ( with some back-up encouragement from Candice and Kelley)

Well Kelley got the potato's all ready and we loaded it up and put in the proper amount of water and put it on the stove. Before long it was whistling and rocking back and forth just like it said it would in the instructions! I turned down the heat and let it cook for the instructed amount of time. Then when the timer went off, I took it off the stove and put it under running water ( as instructed). But when I put it in the sink, I bumped it a little bit and the regulator tipped on it's side and it started screaming and blowing off steam! So then I started screaming and so did Candice. I knew it! I should not have been using a pressure cooker! Kelley comes up from downstairs shaking his head and says to tip the regulator back on straight. So I did and it stopped screaming and so did we. Ok. first try with the pressure cooker was a little bit rocky, but I have a feeling I will grow to love and appreciate this thing. Mashed potato's done in 15 minutes? Awesome!

Last night Kelley and I went to the Young Women in Excellence for our ward. It was such a cute program. Each of the girls talked about something they kept in their purse that related to one of the values and told about an experience she had had that went along with using this value. There are only about five girls in the ward but they are pretty amazing girls. When I think of what some of them have been through with family situations and other problems, I sure do admire them. I can see them each trying to find their own way to fit in and and get through these difficult teenage years and trying to make the best of the situations they are in.

After they all talked, they had all the girls and leaders come up to sing "Walk Tall, You're a Daughter" . Emily asked me if I would come sing with them cause they needed more leaders for their part. I'm afraid I wasn't any help at all. I can never sing that song without bawling. I don't know why...it guess the words just touch too close to home.

They had asked Kelley to give the closing remarks and he did a good job. He was actually pretty emotional too, talking about our experiences at girls camp. He sure is a sweetheart. Sometimes when I watch him when he is doing stuff like that or when he is outside visiting with the neighbors, or sending wake up calls to his girls in the middle of the night, or going to visit someone who is sick or needs a blessing, or comes home from work dead tired, but still acts interested in my day and makes me feel like a queen, or laughing that laugh he has with Chris, or making me frames or what ever I ask him for, or putting his arms around the kids and telling them he loves them, that's when I am filled to overflowing with gratitude and love for this man.

Do you love Church Volleyball? I do. It was my turn to help out with the Young Women sports today and my job was to keep score.Mary D. has been the sports director this year and has really turned the sport around. From what I observed, each girl there was having at least a little bit of fun.

She had changed up the rules a little bit to where they were not calling every little mistake that was made, plus they gave the girls 2 chances to get their serve over the net.

The first and second place teams that will be going to region are good enough to adjust to the stricter rules when they get there.

I loved how the girls were all so encouraging and kind to each other. There is one ward that has a few handicapped girls in it. They are really active though and come to everything. That is really an amazing story in itself. They are being raised by their grandmother who has had more trials in her life than one person should have to bear. She has done an incredible job with them and made sure they are always involved in what ever is going on...even if it means she has to do it right along side of them.

Anyway, this was a picture of one of those girls serving. They let her go up to about two feet behind the net. All the other girls were cheering for her and encouraging her on. "YOU can do it!" They gave her about five try's and she finally got it over the net! She was just beaming as the ball hit the floor on the other side of the net! You should have seen the other girls...they were so excited for her...it didn't really matter what happened after that (although the other team did not return the ball) there was just a great feeling there as we watched her countenance change from timid and apprehensive to pure joy.

I had to wipe away the tears so I could see to score them one more point. In my book it was worth about 100 points to witness the love those girls feel for each other.

This was the day I had been dreading. Last time my bridge came loose, Dr. Lucero said, I'm afraid this just isn't going to hold up any longer. You need to get the implants done. So we started with step 1.
It was pretty horrible...I have to say, and I have never been so grateful for the nitrous oxide. They had to pull out the tooth that had broken which was a treat, then drilled what looks like two big screws into the place, so that they could someday (4-6 months) put a tooth on top of that.
I'm pretty sure that Dr. Lucero wants to go hide in his back room when he sees me coming. It is never just a quick trip to the dentist...fix it up, and you're on your way. It seems like something always complicates things (ok, I have bad teeth, but seriously, the things I have been through would make a masachist cry!) If I would have known I was going to have to do this, I wouldn't have gone through all the pain and expense of having the endodondist try to fix this tooth first!
Anyway, I think he had geared himself up for my visit because he was all positive and "this is going to go just great!" and "I'm not worried about it at all" but as he was trying to pry that tooth out, and I could see the beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He took about 10 xrays of the spot ( I'm sure to get a tumor or something from all the xrays I've had) and tried to explain to me what was going on. It was seriously like in the movies when someone is all drugged up and the person talking to them sounds like they are in slow motion in this really deep voice. The nitrous oxide had sent me to a state of euphoric tingliness...maybe a little too much. He was telling me that it looked like the screw thing was pretty close to a nerve, so we were going to have to watch and see if stays numb. Then he said something to the nurse and they both laughed this scary nightmare low voice laugh.. HA HA HA. OK, time to turn off the gas.
He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and also some Loritab's. I stopped into walmart on the way home to get them filled and by the time I got home, it was hurting pretty bad. I didn't want to take the Loritab because I remember them making me sick before, but it was really hurting, so I ate, then took one pill.
I was trying to get our last batch of green salsa done, standing there chopping peppers and tomatillos, when suddenly I felt like I was going to throw up. I broke out in this sweat and had to go sit with my head between my legs to keep from passing out. Just then there was a knock at the door. It was Merrilee. She had asked me earlier if I would help her make a little blanket for this little cradle she was going to give to Hannah for her birthday. As soon as she saw me, she knew I was sick. She was a sweetheart and came in and got me some crackers and helped me lie down. I just laid there all afternoon...couldn't sleep cause it still hurt so bad, couldn't get up for fear of puking. Stupid Loritabs. Merrilee came back over a while later and brought me some nice warm chicken noodle soup. She is a good friend!
Dr. Lucero called later to see how I was doing...NOT SO GOOD! He said he would call in something to help with the nausea and to keep taking the pain pills, but I won't take another Loritab! (note to self...never take Loritab) I tried Ibuprofin and that took the edge off the pain, so I will stick with that. Kelley came home and tried to do anything he could do to make me feel better. His big hugs and sense of humor always make me feel better!
I had told Andrea that I would play the piano for the opening and closing songs for this big Stake meeting at 7:00. ( I didn't think this was going to be so bad...should have known better) I was racking my brains to think of anyone who would be there that could play the piano, but came up blank. So I pulled myself together and went to it. I probably would have done better to stay home though because my head seemed to still be quite detached from my body (how many ibuprofin can you take at one time?) and couldn't play worth a hoot.
I woke up this morning drooling with a numb lip and chin. Great! So he must have hit that nerve he was talking about. Like I said. It can't just be easy and all work out. ( I usually try to be optomistic, but have given up on that as far as the dental work goes long ago) I called Dr, Lucero and he said I will have have to come back in so he can take out that one screw that was hitting the nerve and wait a few weeks for it to heal, then put it back in. Sounds fun!

We were supposed to have the boat out of the slip there at Strawberry by the 20th so we tried to get in one last day of fishing.
It has been pretty decent weather (50's - 60's) so we were hoping for a good day. We met Dan at what felt like the middle of the night, ("why do you want to go so early????" "that's when the fish are biting" "hummmmmmmmm, OK, if you say so. Haven't really seen any proof of that yet!") and rode up with him. It was pretty cool to watch the sun come up over the lake.

It was pretty cold till the sun came up though. I brought a coat but it wasn't very warm so Kelley insisted I wear his coat. He really is my chivalrous knight in shining armour! He is forever concerned of my well-being and happiness. Anyway, he put on K.C.'s hat to try to keep warm. How cute is he?

Kelley and Dan had had a real good day fishing last Saturday using minnows and garlic cheese, so we tried that again and started catching right away. It sure is fun when you're catching fish!

The fish were big cheese stealers though so pretty soon we were down to the bottom of the smelly bottle. That's when the cheese hoarding started. Not only did Dan have three poles in the water, he also was hiding balls of garlic cheese! Cheater pants! HA!

This picture doesn't really show it, but this was at the end of the day and we were pulling out all the stops. We had about ten poles in the water at once, and the lines were getting all tangeled up, we were stealing each other's cheese, and doing the "Kelley! Kelley! you've got a fish" fake out, but having such a good time, nobody wanted to quit.

What a fun day!

That's exactly how I feel about you going home too.

Flowers to welcome me home from my sweetie

I spent the past few days at moms.

We had a good visit. Mom seemed really good. We talked about everything and ate spaghetti squash and enjoyed the beautiful day.

I cleaned her basement! That felt good!

These are some pictures of the past few days. Kind of random and mixed up , but you get the idea...savoring the joy of every minute left with Camille and Olivia before they leave for home.

Getting some serious flapping in...even Olivia is getting pretty good at it!



We went to the park on Thursday. It was a nice warm day and the swinging was good.

There weren't any other kids there to play with so Grandma gets to play!

Then a couple of kids came with their mom. Olivia was really excited for "friends" to play with. The little girl was probaby a couple of years older than her and seemed annoyed that Liv wanted to play with her. She said she couldn't play anymore because she was going to see her psychiatirst. what? seriously.

Her little brother was a little friendlier, but they had a parting of ways when both of them wanted the blue swing. Take turns? I don't think so. He went crying to him mom that Olivia was being mean to him. She is quite brutal.

When he went over to tell his mom, Olivia ran after him saying "don't leave friend!"

I had my first feelings of wanting to take Olivia away to some remote uninhabited area where there are no other children that can hurt her or make her feel sad.

We went to Cafe Rio for lunch before Camille left on friday. We ran into Candice's boss and co-workers there. La Bertha is real. Just how I pictured her.

Good bye hugs

One last dance in Cafe Rio

Hurry back!

Monday was Columbus day so we decided to all get together to celebrate Brenda's birthday. She invited us to her new house in Mantua. It is kind of between Mantua and Wellsville, right up in the mountains. You can just see the top of her house from the road so I was excited to see the whole thing! It was really nice. The view she has our her window is like looking at a picture out of country magazine. Their farm is all to the south of them and you can just see Mantua lake peeking through the mountains beyond that. They have built a sun room where you can go and see all around their place. She said there are always deer and other wild life wandering around their house.

We had a lovely luncheon there and opened presents and had birthday cake and ice cream! We tried to do some planning for mother's upcoming 90th birthday in December. Just finding a day will be the hardest thing. We want to have as many of the family be there as possible!

It's hard to believe that she is almost 90! She is really holding up pretty well for her age. I never thought she would live so long because she had so many health problems when she was about my age. Her own mother died of a stroke when she was 60 years old.

She used to get terrible headaches from her high blood pressure and have to go lay down in her bedroom with the drapes closed. Daddy used to rub her head to try to help her feel better. She would have really bad fluctuation of her heart beat...either it would be racing or going so slow, she wouldn't have the energy to get out of bed. I remember daddy taking her to the hospital many times in the middle of the night when she would think she was having a heart attack or being afraid her heart was beating so slow, she would just die.
After many years of trying to regulate her heart medication, they finally found the right drug that has really worked for her. She takes a mountain of pills everyday, ( with much coaxing) but it keeps her going and feeling pretty good. When we go in to see Dr. Stones with mom, he always asks us about her quality of life. I hope that by being able to stay in her own home, with her familiar surroundings, she is happy and content. She always seems to be when we are there. I'm sure grateful for her many years of love and service and Christ-like example. I hope I can be more like her when I grow up...wait, I guess I'm already grown up. Well, I can keep trying anyway.

We ran out of time at Olivias's birthday party to paint little pumpkins, so we did them later that day. Very fun!

Little heavy on the pink...but perfect for Olivia. She likes everything pink, princess and sparkly!

Of course, Chewey made hers into a cat!

Taylor had invited us to come to his setting apart Tuesday night. He is going to the Philippines. It was a pretty special meeting. President Child talked a lot about faith and read from Moroni about the people having to have faith and be tested before Jesus appeared to them. (Faith preceeds the miracle!) I guess Mark is having a pretty hard time with Taylor leaving, so President Child said that scripture was for him. It really was a great reminder for everyone in the room though, you could see that everyone was touched by his message. I know I was. Then Taylor bore his testimony which was also pretty amazing. After he was set apart, Taylor thanked me for raising K.C. to be a good example and a good friend to him. I am so grateful that K.C. has had good friends in his life. I have seen how it can make all the difference in someone's life.

I know God is mindful of each one of us and knows what we need to get through this life, so he places people in our lives at certain times to help us or for us to help them. Isn't that great how that works out?

Anyway, he is a great guy and will be an amazing missionary. Glad to call him my friend too!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

On Olivias birthday we went out to Gardner Village to see the witches. I haven't been there for a few years and they have really made it a big deal! Olivia loved the pony ride. Her pony's name was squeeky. Perfect! He was the cutest, tiniest one!


These witches were really cute. Olivia loved looking for them, but then didn't want to get too close.

Went to McDonalds to top off the day! Wish we could do stuff like this everyday! I sure do love having them here.