HALFWAY THERE

My teeth are straightening and my bite is changing.  I'm about halfway through my Invisalign process.

These simple, clear teeth guards are amazing!  The dentist (and the manufacturer and the inventors) suggest keeping them on for 22 hours out of each day.  Well ... this is impossible for me!  You can only drink water while they are in and I have an old lady schedule.

I sip coffee for almost two hours in the morning while I read the online newspaper, email, favorite blogs and Facebook.  In the evening, I have my red wine slowly over another two hours.  The dentist said I "can" drink coffee and red wine with them in my mouth but boy do they get discolored and I am too embarrassed to wear them in front of people.  I tried it with just one set.

So instead of getting new sets to use every two weeks, I wear mine for three weeks.  So the end game is a little further down the road than originally planned.  So far, I think they are really worth it for me!  I'm just in awe of this technology and how well it is working for me.  Sure, there's a bit of time and care involved.  I invested in a special cleaner to scrub mine with just to get that dog-attracting odor off after having spent the night in my mouth.  (Toothpaste just wasn't doing it!)  I brush my teeth more frequently and I decided to have my teeth professionally cleaned every three months rather than every six.

Those Stanford college students perfected an awesome idea!

HURRY UP! And wait ....

A friend of mine here at the condos recently retired (Oct).  Now she is doing small consulting jobs and had to buy her first computer.  Thankfully, she got an Apple so I can help her if she needs it.

Unfortunately, hers is using the most up-to-date operating system as well as the latest software.  When I would look at her screen everything was just a bit different than mine.  So I finally bit the bullet and updated mine.  I skipped the last three operating system because it's irritating to have to learn new things just to do something you already knew how to do.

First of all ... it took almost an HOUR to load and install High Sierra.  I did got a lot of Christmas wrapping done.  Then I had to delete my Pages and Numbers software and install the newest versions (no charge any more for updates!)

For the past two afternoons we have met in our little library where she had great practical questions ... and I figured out HOW to do the things she wanted.  Then we work on the 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle that actually has 5 million pieces, each the size of a dime, and half of the perimeter pieces are missing.  Well ... that's OUR story.  We really have two 1,000 piece puzzles going.  It's great to chat and puzzle and put the mind in park for a while.

I went to my photo library to do Wordless Wednesday ... but IT has to update as well!  So far, nothing has changed in Blogger!

WHAT DID YOU SAY?

I'm glad you have orange hair now, Gramma.  Grey hair makes you look so old.

I don't like the Elves ... they are tattletails.

These little meatballs look like poops.

I want one waffle and one pancake.

If you don't give me candy I won't be your friend.

Is it Christmas today?

When I toot, you supposed to make the car go faster.

Can I have six cookies?  

My booty just wants to dance!

Brubba looked at me.

Is today Christmas?

Can I have an iPhone for Christmas?

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

YOU BURNED POPPA?

Out of the mouths of children.

Almost every day one of these two little guys utters something that I promise I will never forget.  (I really do need to write these things down).

We've started decorating for Christmas (well, mostly Dadda Jesse is decorating for Christmas!  Outdoors looks very festive).  And inside is filling up quickly.  He, of course, had to take down a few things to make room and one of those things is a tiny urn of Poppa's ashes.  Braeden was quick to tell me that the 4 inch tall metal container was indeed Poppa's ashes.  He's been hearing that for four years.  Even Deacon knows.

(Kate and I each have the smallest urn pictured)

But what they didn't know was that these were actual ashes.  As my luck would have it, the parents were not handy when this topic came up.  Braeden asked if he could look inside, so we did.  Then he asked what were the ashes from and why did we be reminded of Poppa.  Uh oh.  I had to explain cremation.  

YOU BURNED POPPA?!!!!

Both boys had horrific looks of dismay.  Their little minds thinking I tied him at the stake and set him aflame!  I told them after Poppa died and I gave him his last kiss, the funeral company has a special place where dead people are cremated until all that is left is a little bit of ashes.  Poppa wanted this to happen so we could take some of his ashes and sprinkle them so he would always be part of that place.

Fortunately, by then Dadda returned inside and we continued the talk.  We want to be cremated also.  Cemeteries take up a lot of space and that land could be better used for building apartments for homeless people or people who don't have quite enough money.  Or make a cool playground.

Then there were questions about did cremation hurt Poppa?  Did I get the right ashes?  Where have I sprinkled him?  Could they help sprinkle him.  And so on.

I will never, ever forget the horrified look on their faces as Braeden yelled "You BURNED Poppa?"

HELPING or ENABLING

A young friend of mine has had such a hard life.  He's just 24.

His mother is a drug addict who moved back home to live with her parents and brought 4 year old Jeremy with her.  After about a year (never finding a job, tired of parents nagging her to get a job) she let them know she was leaving the next day.  And not taking her son with her "until I get settled".  

Some years on his birthday she sends him a card saying she's got herself together and is going to bring him home soon.  Every time he would get his little hopes up.  Then he would hear nothing for a year or two.  

The grandparents are Bible thumpers who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.  They are estranged from all three of their kids which gives you some background about them and child rearing.

Jeremy was in 8th grade when we first moved in here.  For some reason, Mr. Ralph took a shining to him.  He talked to him like an adult, praised him when he earned it and gave him a loving lecture when he deserved it.  He would come screaming over when he got a good report card.  We'd have to ask when he didn't volunteer his grades.  He dropped out of high school ... but just for a couple of weeks.

We also had a friendship with the grandparents so boy did we get both sides of every story.  Mistakes on both sides for sure but honestly, we were usually on Jeremy's side.

He pulled himself around the last year or two of high school, joined the Marines, got a horrible ankle break playing LaCross, and the Marines gave him a year to recuperate.  He got a job, bought an old car and healed up nicely (a couple of surgeries in there).  He did make it into the Marines and graduated from boot camp.

Recently I heard a rumor that he was back in Oregon and the grandparents are not letting him move back in.  I reached out to him via Facebook messenger and gave him my phone number.  Today we have been texting back and forth.  We can't offer him a place to stay and he says he found a job already and has a place to live although it is not ideal.

Mainly I wanted him to know that we care about him.  He can tell me his story when he is up to it.  He was angry about grandparents not "being there for him" but I reminded him that they are doing what they think is best for him.  The past is the past and it is now up to him to make the future.  

What a life for a young man.