First Snowfall this Fall

Aint she Pretty?

On Wednesday we had our first huge snow storm. The only problem with this snow storm was that there were still lots of leaves on the trees so a lot of trees broke which, in turn, broke power lines and therefore caused a lot of homes to not have power during these past few and very cold days. Thank heavens we were not one of these homes!

As far as my tooth/bone infection business goes, I am now down to 3 Antibiotics and taking painkillers only once every other day. Yay for progress. It's still hard to eat but at least I can eat.

It's a Pill Party in my Purse

 

No, seriously, it is. I have never seen so many orange prescription bottles in my life! Lets hope I never have see this many again.

I had surgery done Tuesday morning. Apparently my root canal was leaky and therefore infected the bone underneath it so they had to clean the bone as well as redo the root canal again.

*Are you ready for some gory details??*

The doc said when they got to the bone the pus was like a volcano when they opened it up and it took about 1 and a half hours to clean it out and seal it up again (I'm sorry if the word "puss" grosses you out). Post treatment they gave me 5 new prescriptions (3 being antibiotics, 1 narcotic and 1 pain killer) and informed me that I'd probably be in pain for the next 2 weeks!

Well I bought the antibiotics but decided that I was tired of narcotics and pain killers. Standard Ibuprofen is good enough for me, besides I think a little pain is a good lesson for me to not treat dental emergencies so lightly, and if ever the pain isn't enough of a lesson, looking at the super massive black hole in my bank account to pay for the procedure is enough punishment for a decade.

Thank you to my family and friends who have been keeping me in their prayers! They are much appreciated. It has been a scary few weeks but we are hopeful that the worst part is over.

Its a Freakin' Pain in My...

...TOOTH! (You thought I was going to say something else, didn't you?)
HOLY COW!  If I never saw another antibiotic pill or bottle of Vicodin, it would be too soon!  To say I hate all things pertaining to teeth and dentistry would be putting it lightly. Why, do you ask? Here's why. Are you ready for a tedious story? 

I promise I'll reward you with cute pictures and videos of This guy at the end of this post to make it worth while

5 years ago marked the beginning of the end for a particular molar in my mouth. I had a root canal performed on it 5 years ago. One year ago I had tooth ache in my tooth that had said root canal (which is funny because a root canal is suppose to get rid of the ROOT OF THE TOOTH and therefore rid of all pain. Ironic!). Turns out the moron who did my root canal botched it so I was advised to take antibiotics for the root infection and go to a specialist who fixes messed root canals.

Specialists=special surgeries=lots of money=SCARY=not so enthused Juanique.

You can see why I didn't rush to go see a specialist...

Now back to present day/year:

One month ago my root canal tooth started to hurt again. I went to my friends husband (who's a dentist and probably the only person I'd ever trust to work on me because I hate all things pertaining to dentists) who said the same thing to me, "Take antibiotics for the tooth infection and go see a Specialist. Also, here's some vicodin for the pain". 

Pain?? Tooth pain couldn't be THAT  bad, right? What on earth would I need vicodin for?

Round 2 of Antibiotics....done. 

Tooth pain? Gone. 

Juanique=Happy!!! Bye bye specialist. No pain means no problem in my world, right??

WRONG!!!!!

2 weeks later-Tooth pain! At this point I'm swearing like a South African Sailor and completely ticked that I have to undergo ROUND 3 of Antibiotics for this freaking tooth! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? How could one stupid tooth that was suppose to be fixed 5 years ago, cause me so many issues?

So I finally swallow my pride, suppress my fears (I HATE DENTISTS!!) and email the endodontist/specialist who also happens to be my Bishop. He emails back and says "Get an appointment to see me ASAP!!". Unfortunately I was scheduled to work in Utah when he said I needed to get in so I scheduled with him a week out. How much bad could come from one weeks wait? After all, I HAD been dealing with this tooth problem for about a year  and have come out unscathed. What's the worst that could happen? 

Present week:

Utah trip was a success. I was busy busy busy. Took my antibiotics like a good girl BUT for some reason my tooth pain slowly got worse....and worse....and worse. In my mind I'm thinking, "Well this hasn't ever happened before? I'm sure it'll go away like the other times so I'm OK".

It did not go away like the other times....in fact, it did the opposite.

In my desperation I took out my orange bottle of vicodin and stared at it for the longest time. "Do I give in or do I sleep this pain off?" By nature, I'm not a huge fan of pain killers to begin with so to give in would mean to go against all my moral codes I've instilled in my brain. Sadly, pain overruled my code-of-ethics and I gave into vicodin

Vicodin-1   Juaniques code of ethics-0

THEN last night happened. Oh heaven I wish I could forget it!!

1:30am- I wake up and my whole mouth is throbbing from pain! Of course I panic. I've never experienced this in my entire life. Worse case scenarios are running through my mind like:

"My whole head is infected"

"my brain might have an infection from this!"

"OH NO, will I need to go to the emergency room?"

"This isn't going to kill me is it? OH HELL it is!!!"

"My vicodin isn't strong enough, WHAT DO I DO?!"

"They're probably going to have to take out several teeth and part of my bone now!"

Yeah, sleepless Juanique=Ludicrous Juanique. What does Juanique, who is intoxicated with fear, go and do? She calls her friend and her friends husband (who's the dentist) at 1:30am to find out if she's going to live or die!

Long story short, turns out I'm going to live and I just need to wait for the Vicodin to kick in. I'm not going to get a brain infection or loose multiple teeth. Be grateful that you aren't my friend who has a dentist for a husband although my friend, Rebecca, whom I called, was very sweet and loving and supportive over the phone with me at 1:30am. She's an angel! I don't know what I would have done without her and her husbands kindness. I probably would have walked over to the Boulder Hospital and checked myself in. She told me to ask Tristin for a priesthood blessing and then try and get some sleep. It was the right advise at the right time. Both worked miracles for me

After hanging up with her I realized just how crazy I had been to actually call someone at 1;30 in the morning about a stupid tooth pain!

Vicodin-2   Juanique's code of ethics (and sanity)-0

So there's my mark of shame for the year of 2011. It's my equivalent to drunk dialing someone. Thank heaven it was Rebecca because I don't know if anyone else would forgive me for something like that! 

I love you, Rebecca! Thank you for all the favors you do for me! You are a true friend and Sista from another Mista!

Now as promised, here are the cute videos and pictures of Evan that I took during this trip to Utah. Aint he a Cutie-pa-Tutie?

Nanan Just LOVES Mr Evan!

Umm....Yeah, That's What I Thought

Tristin works for with the Marketing and Communications Department at Naropa University (He's officially a contractor now with his partner under the name Hat Tip Industries, Ltd. --T). Last weekend the Art Therapy Department held a 48 hour paint-a-thon where teams of students would take shift painting for 48 hours straight to raise funds for art therapy in South America. Tristin was in charge of getting some video footage for this event. I just tagged along for the heck of it.

I love Boulder but MAN OH MAN it is a strange place!!

World, meet the festive Art Therapy Students of Naropa University:

Haha. Priceless!

I had to be discreet about taking this picture. I didn't want to seem obvious at all. I got into my "super sleuth" mode and took pics with my camera phone hiding behind my book as I was pretending to read in the corner.

NEVER a dull moment! Never...

Look What I Found!

WOW~ this brings back some memories for us. I remember spending hours designing this in Photoshop with Tristin. That was 5 YEARS AGO!! Where does the time go? We'll be married for 5 years come December. Craziness!
I just had to post this for memories sake. Also, If I ever DO lose the CD with this on, at least it'll forever remain on our blog.

Now all I need to find is the video of Tristin's proposal and I'll be even more happy. Can you believe I cant find that anywhere? Yeah, I wanna kick me too!

Thank you World Wide Web for storing all my memorabilia!

It Took 9 Years and 3 Days

In the past 9 years and 3 days I have:

-Lived in 2 different countries
-Lived in 4 different States in the USA
-Went to 4 different high school in the period of one year
-Had my first Thanksgiving meal
-Experience my first proper winter (with snow and everything)
-Hated my first winter
-Lost an accent and replaced it with an new one
-Moved 11 times and lived in 11 different homes
-Graduated from high school
-Went to University
-Got my first car
-Crashed my first car
-Won the Greencard Lottery (technically, my dad won it which automatically got my mom and myself a greencard too)
-Spent $28,000 in lawyers fees and applications papers to not get kicked out of this country
-Became an illegal immigrant for the period of 1 week (I had to wait for my Greencard papers to get processed, in the mean time my visa had expired)
-Found and married my best friend and soul mate
-Started my own business at the age of 20 (the first time in Utah, the second in Colorado)
-Survived our apartment flooding
-Became an American Citizen

Durban Airport, South Africa. September 22nd, 2002

That is the only picture I have of the day I left South Africa. Now just over 9 years later I find myself inside the office building of the U.S Department of Homeland Security Pledging an Oath of Allegiance to the United States, being told I'm now lawfully an American Citizen and watching a Video of Barrack Obama congratulating me on my new Citizenship.

Who knew that today in Colorado, 50 people from 30 different countries swore an Oath to become American citizens? Cheers were cried, a few tears shed and lots of hugs broke out as we were all dismissed and congratulated with a piece of paper proving our new nationality.

To my left sat a man from Nigeria and to my right sat a man from Albania, both dressed in fine suits and shoes. For a second I thought I had missed the newsletter telling me about the dress code. All I wore was my make up from the day before, slightly combed bed hair and a sweater with tights. Frankly, I was uber-ticked that I had to wake up at 6:50am for this ceremony and spent the hour and a half's drive to Homeland Security griping about it. I was humbled when I walked into the office and saw families and friends of families excited for this eventful day. Only then did I realize that today WAS a really big day for all of us. We had all struggled for several year to get the honor of saying our oath and being called American Citizens.

Grumpy, sleep-deprived Juanique was now humbled and slightly excited Juanique. I even wished I had taken time to put some make-up on. I guess the struggle to get to this point wasn't really fought for by me but by my parents. So I have them to thank for this day. I didn't really understand why they were so excited for this day to come. I didn't even tell them I was doing it until I had an hours worth of Stop-Start traffic to endure prior to my ceremony. When my parents got sworn in 2 months ago they threw a big party with all their South African friends and celebrated becoming Americans. They are the ones who struggled with the lawyers and IRS and the people who submitted our paperwork. They are the ones who left their jobs and all they had owned, earned and worked for to come to the States, where as I was just a lucky recipient of their sacrifices.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

So maybe if I was there with them getting sworn in I would have cried in gratitude for all their hard work and sacrifice in getting their children to the USA. If Tristin was there I may have smiled a little more about it and shared with him my hopes and hesitations of this day. However, what I could do was celebrate this life altering day with 50 different strangers from 30 different countries. For just an hour of our lives we were all comrades in that room that had shared similar struggles is different countries and were now at the same pinnacle in our lives.

This morning I woke up a South African, and now this afternoon I blog as a New American Citizen. Maybe on the 4th of July I'll actually get in the American spirit and start wearing Red, White and Blue.

Maybe.......

Skyping Adventures

Look who decided (Ok, he was forced) to showcase themselves on Skype today!




I just LOVE modern technology...it can be so useless sometimes but terribly entertaining!





Love that little man!






Dad obviously had to have a piece of the fun as well



And against her will, my mom got in on the fun and will probably die of embarrassment when she sees this....

Isn't Skyping SO much fun??

Glad you're back from Europe safe and sound, mom!