The trip to Elko itself?  Very nice.  We had a good time with Kile’s family.  Sunday was a big highlight for me, as the day was practically CROWDED with good times.  I love days that are crowded with good times.

But, and of course there is a but because that is exactly the sort of luck I have, it wasn’t perfect.  By a long shot.  Because I neglect my health.  In this particular case?  My dental health.  I’ve mentioned before that I need some work done on some teeth.  And that I’ve been clenching my jaw at night causing already unhappy teeth to be even unhappier.  But it was never a major problem and as such, was easy to ignore.

Hoo boy.  Folks?  Don’t ignore pain when it involves your teeth.  I know, I know.  Smarter, prettier and awesomer people than I have said this.  At the time that I read that post, I had pain.  But it wasn’t OMGKILLMENOW pain.  And while I knew that I was glimpsing down the road at my future, I still ignored my own pain.  Because, hello? DENTIST.  Nuh-uh.  I can be an immature brat when I wanna be and when it comes to the dentist, I am an immature brat of monstrous proportions.

So when I tell you that Sunday afternoon I said, “FINE, take me to a dentist and have them KILL IT,” that should tell you how bad it was.

Of course, in full accordance with Murphy’s Law, this pain didn’t really set in until we left town on Saturday.  As we drove towards Elko, the pain in my jaw persisted.  This was aggravating because I had taken four (count em’: FOUR) ibuprofen before leaving home for this very reason.  And to have those FOUR ibuprofen not do diddly?   GAHHHH!

We arrived in Elko in good time, but not in good spirits.  Besides my pain, the kids had been horrid.  Mostly: Liam had been horrid.  Letting him out to run and play at McDonald’s in Winnemucca had helped substantially.  But the fact remains that when Liam is bored, he is ornery.  And he was very bored. (Note to self: next car MUST have a dvd player.)  So to say we were frazzled is probably a big understatement.  And my jaw… oh my jaw.  OH MY JAW.  I took more ibuprofen.  I applied a heated gel pack.  Rinse and repeat for the next several days.

Have you ever tried to knit and hold a hot pad on your face at the same time?  Probably not.  Because it can’t be done.  So I did get SOME knitting done.  But not anywhere near what I wanted to get done.  But it is what it is.  And I could live with it if it meant no more stabbing pain in my jaw.  Yep, we’d progressed from ache to OMGKILLMENOW.  The combination of the ibuprofen and heat helped considerably, but nothing abated the pain entirely.

Of course, by the time I finally willing to give in on the whole dentist thing, the dentist was closed (this was a 7day place that was also open on Sundays).  So we resolved to call in the morning.  In the meantime, I wanted to enjoy the rest of my Valentine’s Day.  Kile took me out to a very nice dinner at the Nevada Dinner House, which we later learned had gotten a “bad rep” in town for the new management’s shake-up of the menu and prices and such. But we loved it.  In fact, we may like it even better now.  No, check that, we DO like it even better now.  I had a chicken parmigiana that puts all other chicken parmigiana’s to shame. TO SHAME.  It was so good.  And yeah, a little pricey.  But you get soup and bread and salad and Basque-style beans and french fries with your meal.  And all of it is DELICIOUS.  We even got some wine with our meal and we loved THAT so much that we bought a bottle to take home and enjoy on our anniversary this summer.   I’m so glad we picked there to eat.  Best meal I’ve had in a long time!

The next morning, Kile called the 7 day dentist place and they were booked.  They promised to call if there was a cancellation but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.  So he found another dentist who could fit us in at 4:30pm.  I wasn’t terribly encouraged since that was hours and hours and hours of pain pain pain away and being that was the end of the work day… what could they really do for me in a half hour?  Kile and I both predicted pain killers and antibiotics.

Which… is what happened.  BUT… I think that would have happened at 9:30am too.  Because my tooth is alllll messed up.  (For the record, its the back tooth on the lower left side of my jaw.)  The size and placement of the cavity meant that a root canal just wasn’t going to work.  There would be no where to put a crown that would be secure enough.  The dentist recommended extraction.  And I was all for it because OMGTHEPAIN.  But first we have to get rid of the infection down at the root of the tooth.  I won’t go into all the reasons why but suffice it to say, that it’s hard to kill pain on a tooth that’s infected.  And I’m all about killing the pain.  So antibiotics it is!

I knew better than to even TRY to Vicodin I was prescribed until bedtime.  This isn’t my first rodeo and be it Percoset or Vicodin, I have no business taking either of those when I expect to be upright and/or coherent.  I woke up in the middle of the night… or actually it was 4:30am but that’s just as well as the middle of the night to a non-morning person such as myself.  So I took another.  And I believe that was my fatal flaw.  Because when I woke up about 8am, I was still firmly in the grips of the Vicodin.  And I was still in the grips an hour and a half later when we hit the road and I discovered that I could not knit in the car while on Vicodin.  Possibly, I cannot knit NOT in the car while on Vicodin.  But in the car is a DEFINITE no no.  A few hot flashes later, Kile got me a sprite and I proceeded to slouch forward with my head in my hands until we got to Winnemucca.  This was around 11am at this point, for those of you who are keeping track.  Kile took the kids in to play, eat and run off steam and I stayed in the car.  To sleep.  And I did.  (Anyone who knows me is probably picking their jaw up off the floor because I do not sleep in cars.) (Ever.)  I woke up feeling a bit better and definitely determined to not let this get the better of me.  Kile grabbed me a plain McChicken sandwich and between that and my Sprite, I was able to get some food on my belly in hopes of getting my strength back.  But first, apparently, I needed to nap some more.  So I did.

I woke up some where between Lovelock and Fernley.  And felt much better.  So I was actually able to try to knit.  By the time we had passed Fernley, I felt almost my old self again.  You know, at nearly 2pm in the afternoon.  TWO O’CLOCK.  Over 9 hours after taking the last pill.  Are you KIDDING me?  A half hour or more after that, I started to feel pain in my jaw again.  That was some EVIL Vicodin.

So we’re home now.  And I’ve taken some ibuprofen like a a smart person would.  Kile, meanwhile, is having a procedure done on his varicose vein in his leg tomorrow and picked up a prescription for that this afternoon.  Included?  Vicodin.  I told him to RUN AWAY.  It’s up to him if he actually listens to me or not.  Let my experience be a lesson!  STAY AWAY FROM THE VICODIN!!

How on EARTH do people ever get addicted to this stuff?  I never want to take another one again as long as I LIVE.  One less thing to worry about, I guess.

Aaaaand…. Liam is being a jerk which must mean he’s bored.  So I better go attend to that.  Or wring his neck.  You know, one or the other.   I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day and that no one else is anticipating getting of their teeth yanked in the weeks ahead.  Cuz I’m pretty darn sure that’s not going to be any fun.

We’re back from our last-minute trip to San Jose.  It was actually a rather pleasant trip, despite our reason for going being such a downer.  It was nice to see my BFF and her daughter (who I had not met yet, if you can believe it).   It was a nice visit with my parents, even though the chaos that the kids (and by kids, I mean LIAM) created.  And the kids did have a great time there.  Harry was constantly out back, either swimming in the non-heated pool (brr!) or riding his scooter around and around and around.  Liam slept in a big boy bed, just as he had on our Disney trip and did just fine (though having a hard time being put down at night, but that was mostly because of being in a strange place and wanting to stay up and par-tay).  Evie had a great time cruising around, trying to get in kitchen cabinets and banging her head on various unforgiving surfaces (she has the bruise on her forehead to prove it).

It was nice to come back home too, though.  It usually is, though our fondness was strictly limited to it being our home and our things and our routines and had NOTHING to do with being happy to see Reno.  Which we weren’t.  Our state of disgruntlement is growing.  I can only hope this means our time here is short.   I mean, Reno doesn’t even have an IKEA and that is just not right on so many levels.

But at least we have an In n’ Out.  So it’s not like we’re totally living in the dark ages or anything.

In other news…

Over the weekend I noticed my stomach would start to hurt every time I ate something.  I have no idea why this is, but I’m not happy about it either way.  Lets hope this is something that a) resolves itself quickly and b) doesn’t get worse.  Amen and thank you.

Noggin changed their name to Nick Jr. today and officially freaked me way out.  They can’t just make a change like that!  I need to be consulted!  My mind was officially blown when TWO WHOLE HOURS LATER I finally noticed.   Cough.

My fifteen year high school reunion was on Saturday.  I didn’t go because of a confluence of issues, not at all limited to the fact that I didn’t remember until the last minute and had no information on where it actually was being held and all that.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t look at myself in the mirror in utter disbelief that it has been fifteen whole years.  Where have I been?

Also: Evie is cute.  I just thought I should put that out there.

Okay, Monday is coming to a close so I should probably go ahead and post this before it becomes TUESDAY and my own blog post outdates itself.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need a beer.

We’re in the process of packing up the van so we can head back home (well, if I want to be totally honest, Kile is packing the van while I nurse Evie so she’ll sleep on the road).

It’s a bit later start than we’d usually like, but sometimes these things can’t be helped.

We had a great time this weekend. I got a LOT of knitting done, Harry worked on a lot of Cub Scout stuff with his uncle and cousins, Evie had an utterly fabulous birthday party and Liam threatened to send each and every one of us to the funny farm. All in all, I’d say it was a sucess.

Now we have a good five hour road trip ahead of us (lots more knitting!) before we’re back home. I’m always anxious to move forward; once the decision is made to go, I don’t like to dawdle.

At any rate, it’s about time to go. You all be good while I’m traveling, you hear?

Okay, so I have been a really, really, REALLY bad blogger.  Apparently once you miss one day of posting, it becomes insanely easy to miss MANY days of posting.  Of course, I did have the sorta excuse of being out of town all weekend. But… Still.  I should be better.

The good thing about being lazy blogger for a few days is that I have some stuff to talk about. So let’s see… where to start…

That there yarn I dyed looks almost professional.  Go me! I plan to do some more. This was achieved via Kool Aid, and no, it doesn’t make it sticky.  I’m going to try some Wilton’s food dye next, as I’ve heard that can come out pretty neat too.

The Britax has landed!  It arrived just in time, on Thursday night, for our trip to San Jose on Friday.  The last I mentioned the Great Car Seat Decision of 2009, there was some expressions of incredulity at the price of a Britax carseat.  I know they’re expensive.  But I also know that expense is very much worth it to us.  With Harry, we had to save money and get a more inexpensive carseat.  I’ve had both kinds, and believe me, the Britax is WORTH IT.  Part of it is because it is soooooo much easier to install these properly and therefore more safely.  And the kids are a lot more comfortable in them.  And this particular seat we got will allow us to leave Liam harnessed until he’s 80lbs and used as a booster until 100lbs.  After all the videos I’ve seen on YouTube about toddlers in accidents where they aren’t harnessed?  YEAH.  No-brainer.  And?  We know they’ll last until we don’t need carseats anymore, which counts for a lot, because they’re quality made. Don’t knock them till you try them!  (Which isn’t to say that some less expensive seats aren’t safe, but you can never convince me that they’re as easy or as comfortable.  Trust me.  I’ve tried them ALL.)

A diaper that, can you believe it, I don’t want.  I ended up selling this.  Ah well.  It paved the way for a diaper that I wanted more so in the end, it was all for the best.

Look at all that yarn!  It was sent to me so I could knit some lovely things for some lovely people.  So sadly, it’s not MY yarn, but I do get to play with it.  I think I want to marry it.  LOL.  And even MORE came yesterday.  I’m a busy, busy girl!

Yeah, there was snow on the summit when we drove over the mountain.  It was pretty!  And thankfully, not on the road!  It’s snowing here on and off today but nothing much is sticking.  C’est la vie.  So much for winter, eh?

Liam and Evie had a good time at my parents’ house.  Evie enjoyed having another set of people to fawn over and her and to flirt with.  And Liam enjoyed the attention and the new surroundings to explore.  This was a rare moment where they both stopped their adventuring to watch a cartoon together.  It lasted approximately .15 seconds.

This was also taken at my parents’ house.  It’s not that the brotherly love exhibited in this photo is that rare, but the PEACE is.  Notice: Harry is not climbing over the back of the couch and bellowing like a hellfiend and Liam is not screaming and running out of the frame.  I’ll take it.

This is being knit from some of that yarn in the picture before.  I did most of this in the car to and from San Jose.  I tell you what, knitting is the PERFECT car activity because it makes the time just FLY by.  Anyhow, these are being knit for a wonderful gal who contacted me on Etsy.  And the yarn was doing a thing called “pooling” up near the top but I tried what I could to minimize it’s effects.  I hope to have these done in another day or so.

Harry with two of his favorite things.  Pup and Rock Band.  And, oh yeah, he’s going to need braces.  GREAT.

Liam got this hard hat with a construction truck set my parents got him as a gift.  He comes over to me about 10 times a day to ask me to put it on his head.

I love when he does this.  He always carries that nasty dolphin around by the tail and when he’s feeling tender or mellow, he’ll rub the dolphin’s tale against his cheek.  It makes my heart swell when I see him do it and for a small moment in time, I can forget that the rest of the time he’s a tornado on legs.

And I’m finisheing with ME!  I’ve taken in the last day or so to putting my hair in pigtails.  It’s not quite long enough yet on the sides for a ponytail and the pig tails are both adorable (if I do say so myself) and keep my hair out of my face.  Bonus!  And no, I don’t have any idea why I have a pair of toddler socks in my front pocket.  I didn’t notice that until I was developing the picture in Lightroom.  D’oh!

It just figures that the FIRST time we try to leave town and go anywhere, it snows. And rains. We’ve had nothing but mild, temperate weather for WEEKS now. I’ve wanted snow fir AGES. And now we’ve got some. You know, when we want to drive over Donner Summit.

That sounds about right.

So we’re gonna be down in The Ho for a few days. I’ll try to post but I may be too busy. Plus, I have a LOT of knitting to do. Did you know that’s an excellent car trip activity?