fun with flowers

i know i know... it's been awhile. while sorting thru some older photos on the computer, i found some more from San Clemente i thought i'd share.

See the pretty flowers?

See Savannah stop to smell the pretty pretty flowers.
See the pollen the pretty flowers left on her nose.
See the flowers go on a walk with Savannah and her ridiculously amazing hair (wish mine would grow like that...)
See them carefully cross the railroad tracks.
Look at Savannah and the flowers climb on rocks. Climb flowers climb!
They stop to rest. Adventures can wear little girls & flowers out.
Next they have fun throwing sand into the ocean together.
Oh no! What happened to the pretty flowers? They got ditched for sandcrabs.
Look! Now she is off and running with seaweed.
"Mom, I want to walk in your footprints."
Oh look! It's Uncle Ron. He's looking at us through the rock he found.
The End.

Graphic Details From the Dentist Chair

Be Warned!!! You might not want to read this entry... especially if you get faint hearing about dental proceedures

Ok so I know I've been neglecting the blog a bit, but I've been out there enjoying SUMMER! I will post some of the sessions I've been shooting soon, but I thought today I'd start by sharing my "fun times" in the dentist chair yesterday.

I woke up Sunday night/Monday morning around 3am (after going to bed at 12:30am) with a headache/neckache/shoulder pain and a little pain in my mouth. Not fun. But I've gotten knots in my shoulder blade before and just thought it was that. Couldnt go back to sleep. Got up on Monday and spent the day with my sister & nephew in Temecula checking out some vineyards & other fun wedding locations. Now the headache was still there and though I kept taking motrin, it was NOT HELPING. Plus my tooth pain started to intensify- yipee. I got home that evening and was miserable. I took some tylenol with codeine and prayed that I would get some relief & sleep. Neither happened. Now I have a pretty high level of pain tolerance, but as the sun came up I began pacing, counting down until the dentist office opened. 8am on the dot I was calling. Of course they didnt turn off their answering service and start picking up until 8:07 Oh the inhumanity! Didn't they know how desperate I was?

Thankfully they agreed to squeeze me in right away. They took an x-ray and sat me down in a chair to await the results. I'm thinking that they're gonna come back and tell me that there was nothing wrong with my tooth, that it was somehow connected to the pain in my shoulder/neck/head. No such luck. I was told there was an abcess under the tooth and that it had to be taken care of immediately by a specialist.

I got directions to the place and off we went. I was getting more and more nervous by the moment. It surely didnt help when we pulled up to the building and saw Lupita's Quality Dental sign on the door. No offense to Lupita, but if you have to put the word quality in your business name... Boy was I relieved when I realized we were at the wrong place!

Fast forward to the right office & me seated in the chair. The specialist comes in looking at the x-ray and tells me that he will be cutting through my gum, drilling through my jawbone to get to the abcess where he would be scraping that out and cutting out the bottom of my root. I responded to the news by rolling back my eyes and dropping my head back (mock fainting). He did not find me humorous and replied that if I preferred he would just extract the tooth and be done with me. I apologized and braced myself...

I hate shots and WOW everytime I thought we were done, there was a few more. I am pretty sure I gave a whole new meaning to the term white knuckling it as he got started. No movie playing or music to try and distract me. Just got to close my eyes tight and grip the ever loving daylights out of their "armrests" (no arm resting going on here) I tried to pray and could only get out the one word prayer "JESUS!!!!!"

Even though I was numb, I could still feel as he sliced through my gum and pulled it back. Then he started drilling... my mind was screaming "THAT'S MY BONE YOURE DRILLING THROUGH!!!!!" and the smell....ooooh the smell. Then comes the scraping.... *shudder* He said that he's now reached the abcess which I think was supposed to make me feel better? More scraping, drilling, cutting... and I feel like I'm going insane sitting there taking it. Finally he says that he's done. I open my eyes thinking that I've somehow lived through the experience only to see him threading a fish hook and bringing it towards my mouth. So he was not quite done after all...

At last all the tools are put down. He says the assisant will schedule me for the root canal and he was out the door. She asks me how I'm doing, if I'm in pain to which I nodded yes. I'm in more pain than when I came in, although it's now a different pain. She tells me that she will get him to come back in and give me another shot to help me until I get my pain pills. Again, I hate shots, but after what I just went through and the building pain, I figure I can handle one more. The dentist comes back in and after realizing the pain I'm in, says he will give me the shot. I closed my eyes, tightened my grip once more when suddenly I heard him with the drill. My eyes flew open in horror. "What is the drill for?" "I have to drill into your bone for this one" WHAAAAAAAAT? He didnt give me time to say no. So there he was pulling something back and then drilling down into my bone again. I thought the worst was over when the drill was put down. Nope. Something was then hammered down into my jaw and left in there as he turned to pick up the syringe (I'm guessing since my eyes were firmly squeezed shut)

"This is going to hurt a bit" Oh great. Out of everything that's happened today, THIS is the part that's going to hurt??? PANIC!!! By now my hands and the armrests have become one. I can't come up with words to describe when the shot was jammed down even further into my bone. My body actually arched up. He kept saying it would stop hurting... but that seemed to take an eternity. The pain finally subsided and he pulled out the syringe. The other thing still had to come out. He yanked on it and I felt it come unlodged. He walked out of the room a second time. It was over. For reals this time. I got out of the chair, amazed that the armrests were still attached and stumbled out the door.

Still shaken by the experience, I paced around the floor when I got home. I had held everything in, but when Mary suggested I let it out, I did. Went in my room and cried- just enough to release the tension, I didnt want any unneccessary swelling.

and because this is a photography blog....

It's so swollen, it's pushing my lips to the side. Nice huh?

Snaggletooth Girl

She has lost another tooth. It is her 5th one, but for me this one is pretty exciting because it is one of her top front teeth. I LOOOOOVE it when little kids are missing their top front teeth. Especially when they take their kindergarten pics. She takes school pics on Sept. 16th I am hoping (fingers crossed) that she will lose the other front tooth before then and also that they dont start to come back in before she take school pics! I SOOOOOOO want that to be in her yearbook!

Oh wait! ( light going on realization moment) I put together their entire yearbook (with Kellie) so if the timing is off I could still make that happen.... hmmm

oops! sorry. got distracted by that. back to the story from tonight. Savannah has been a lil snaggletoothed for about a week or so. that tooth just kept hanging in there, but dangling pretty far past her others. Tonight we were having some dinner & dancing. (code for we were listening to music & dancing around while making dinner in the kitchen) Well she got really crazy with her moves and got herself in the mouth with her hand. it started bleeding and i knew it was finally gonna come out. "mom, get the salt water for rinsing while i pull it out!" i love my big girl!

it was so cute. she wanted to take alot of pictures of her front tooth being gone. of course i was more than happy to amuse her. ;-D silly faces and all.

Still my Snaggletooth Girl in this one

and it's GONE!!! See the hole where it was?
LOL! Savannah I can't see your teeth with your mouth closed.
"I think this shows it off good!"
such a happy, smiley girl =D
showing that her tooth is bagged labeled & ready for the tooth fairy. "Mom, I hope the tooth fairy brings me $5 again." me -"i think the tooth fairy might need to be more careful with her money these days like the rest of us..."
so cute i just want to go in and squeeze her again right now.

scratch that. she's sleeping and it was a loooong day.

new plan- give her lots of hugs in the morning.
can i put my finger in the hole where my tooth used to be?
I'm ready to go to sleep so the tooth fairy can come ;-)
wait. one last crazy face.

annnnd cue the fake snoring.

Just me.... and my shadow

Ok so i know i've been posting alot of personal stuff in the crooked blog lately. My way to remedy that- a personal blog. full of all kinds of val fun!

sooo since this a fresh out of the dryer blog start up, here's some random (ehh maybe not so random) facts about me.

i take pictures.

wow look at me flow.

i love disco music (music in general) & my polyester thrift store clothes.

i used to sleep in teepee's and go by the name of Friendly Fox. (forest home!)

i have loved kids & working/playing with kids since i was one myself.

i've been a Disneyland passholder since my junior year of high school (Thanks Mike!)

i say my hair is like steel wool. i can braid it and bend it into pretty much anything and it will stay. for example- lighting bolts, braid curls, and of course the pippi longstocking (no wires needed)!

i like parking on my lawn annnnd seeing just how many of our friends cars we can park up on there at once. so far the record is 10.

we have a giving tree in front of our house. put anything by it and someone WILL take it!!! hasnt failed us yet!

i am a huge fan of comedy movies! prob cause i love laughing!

which is good that my friends are some of the most hilarious people! and i love them!

i don't eat meat. i dont think it's wrong. just never sat right with me & didnt like it. i do love to fish. though i will pass my catch off to whoever will enjoy it.

the first car i had to drive was the pimpmobile. rustang. think i spent more time broken down & calling AAA than i did actually driving.

i am married (will be 9 years this december) with the best lil girl who i cant believe is going to start kindergarten in just a few short weeks!

I love Jesus. am thankful for His grace & forgiveness. I live my life for Him.

That's enough to get you started...