My new dental device...

So, my dentist, being the cutting-edge of dentistry guy that he is, talked me into a different device for my TMJ. I have had a nightguard for a few years that he made for me. I wore it for about a week and noticed my TMJ was worse, so I stopped wearing it. I chastised him for making me spend $300 on it because it did nothing to help me. He's apologized up and down... saying "When we know better, we do better." Okay, Dr. Phil.

Anyway, for the last year or so, he's been showing me all his new equipment and information about preventing teeth grinding and clenching (I do the latter) and finally I gave in and let him make a new device for me. The issue with my nightguard was that it is a little chewy, and it actually promotes clenching. It does prevent wear from grinding, but it makes clenching woes worse.

My new device only fits on my front few teeth, and when my teeth come together, my bottom teeth hit hard plastic. I immediately move my teeth away (awake and asleep) and sleep with my jaw open a tad. What's amazing is that I can already feel the difference. It's been only a week and my jaw hasn't been sore upon waking up once.

So yes, that is my uber-interesting blog for today. I know you're better for having read it.

Going to bed now. With my fancy new flat-planed splint. Who-hoo.

Judge me -- go ahead.

I cleaned my car out today... the seat behind the front passenger's seat has become a dumping ground in the last week and a half for all things Avery. I seem to always be in a hurry and grabbing things at the last minute. So my new trick is to grab a sippy cup and a bottle of water for our outings. Avery's new habit is to drop her sippy cup so that it falls into the pile of crap (stuffed animals, package of wipes, blanket, etc) that has been collecting behind her car seat (she's still rear-facing).

Anyway, today I cleaned out the car and was a little embarrassed at how many bottles of water and sippy cups I'd let collect in that part of the car. The floor space was literally piled a foot and a half high with Avery junk. These included.

So go ahead, judge me. I'm not such a great car-cleaner-outter.

I've lost my touch.

For Christmas, my brother got me a $100 gift card to Nordstrom. I thought, surely I'll have no problem spending that in a heartbeat. So yesterday, we packed up the car and headed over to the nearest Nordstrom for a little shopping. My husband had no problem spending a few hundred dollars of OUR money on himself. I guess it was allowed, since he did buy work clothes, and he did need them pretty badly.

But what do you know, I couldn't find a damn thing I wanted to buy. I fought the urge to just give up and buy Avery some new Robeez, only to find that there was nothing I wanted. I was a little baffled. The gift card was burning a hole in my pocket and I just couldn't bring myself to buy anything.

Anyway, all this to say, I'm going to the other Nordstrom today because I just want to buy something. If it ends up being new Robeez for Avery, so be it.

Sigh. I used to be such the irresponsible shopper -- buying things I couldn't afford and never feeling guilty for it. Where did the REAL me go?

There's nothing like hand-me-downs...

Especially when they're in the form of a swingset! Woot woot!



My friend Tim, who owns a rental house nearby, offered this swingset to us that his renters left behind when they recently moved out. It's in pristine condition -- except for some dust that's collected, it looks brand-new. Avery will be so excited when it gets delivered later this week. Yay for free stuff!

Avery and the super HUGE pink ball

Well, this was $2.50 well spent. Avery entertained herself for an hour yesterday carrying this thing around, running into walls and furniture, falling down, getting back up, doing it over and over again. She was so proud of herself that she could pick up something so big!



This is one of the funnier pictures I took...



This was taken right before she ran into the kitchen cupboards and fell onto her butt. Good times, people.

Fun with Daddy's hat

For the last few days Avery has been having fun putting on her Daddy's hat and marching around with it. Tonight I actually had the camera on hand so I shot a few pics. She also toted around the vacuum attachment that I left out yesterday for a while. I can't help but think what a little tomboy she looks like in these pictures.



Toward the end of our photo shoot, Jed came walking down the hall and Avery chased him down for a hug :)

Vacuum Fun

My little geek girl...

Another hairdon't to add to the collection. I bribed her with cookies to achieve this look. It didn't last long. We won't be going in public looking like this. She just doesn't have enough hair to pull off much more than a tiny barrette.

The Dog Days of Winter

... if you can call 75 degrees, sunny, and clear "winter," that is.

Here's my Murphy puppy. He's still such a puppy in so many ways, but he's a big old 4 years old now. I got him at six weeks old. I am his mama too :)

Wacky Fortune Cookie Generator

Your Fortune Is

He who fishes in another man's well often catches crab.

When good blogs go bad...

There's a blog that I read from time to time. It's like a train wreck. I don't want to visit it, but every now and then I'm just bored enough to see what's new. Usually, what's new is so completely unentertaining and poorly written, that I scratch my head and try to come up with a reason why I've visited at all. Most people put thought into what they write about. They spell things correctly and formulate paragraphs to help the reader follow what's being said. Most people. This person doesn't do any of that... the filter that most of us have? The one that helps us decide what is appropriate to share with the rest of the internet world? Yeah, this person doesn't have one of those either.

Like I said, a train wreck. I hate lookey-loos, yet here I am, reading it and wondering WHY.

By the way, if you're linked here and I read/comment on your blog from time to time, I promise I'm not talking about you. Most of you wouldn't want this person's blog link on your Blogroll. Trust me.

Five weird things about me...

I was tagged by Leslie and didn't realize it until now!

So, five weird things about me:

1. I almost always brush my teeth in the shower in the morning. At night I can't because I also have to floss, and flossing in the shower wastes a hell of a lot of water. Trust me, I've considered it before.

2. Every night when I lay down for bed, I MUST crack my back. This is virtually impossible when you're pregnant, by the way. After Avery was born, the two things I looked forward to most were that I got to drink beer again and that I could finally crack my damn back!

3. I am addicted to a site call Popcap.com -- my favorite game is Atomica because I can start a game and leave it just sitting there and come back to it later. There is no time. I am also addicted to Soduko, but I refuse to buy a little hand-held game like my mom has, and I don't have the patience to sit and do it on the computer.

4. The only CD I have listened to intently in months is the soundtrack to Garden State. I am obsessed with it.

5. I watch the same movies over and over again. Currently I'm halfway paying attention to "Love Actually." This must be the tenth time I've seen it.

Stupid Human Tricks, Part II

Stupid Human Trick Part I was probably mostly accidental. Her hand fit into her mouth so she put it there. She never repeated it again, though she did seem to quite enjoy herself while it was taking place.



So now we have the second instillment of Stupid Human Tricks. This makes Part II. This was most certainly done on purpose. She spent a good 10 minutes putting the golf ball in my mouth, laughing as I popped it out, retrieving it, whining with impatience as I wiped off the dog hair, and pushing it back into my mouth. Apparently she thought her mouth was big enough to do the same, and whaddyaknow, it was. Crazy child.

Reminiscing back to January 2005...

I came across this picture. Is it almost impossible to believe that my precious little baby was once this fat. So, now I have to question... were these two separated at birth?

Zzyzx Road

For anyone who's never traveled from Southern California to Las Vegas, you might never have known about this strange little road in the middle of nowhere. The name is strange in and of itself, but to couple its name with its location makes it even stranger to me.



There is literally NOTHING there, as evidenced by the picture above. There is no compelling reason to exit the freeway at that point in the journey. Unless you've got a flat tire, or someone in the car needs to pee into a bush, you might never have the occasion to get off at Zzyxz Road.

Last night, for some reason I dreamt about Zzyxz Road. There was no real reason for me to blog about it, except to share how completely odd it all is. Anyone else seen it and wondered what the hell the story behind it was?

"West Wing"

After watching tonight's espisode, I can't help but wonder how the writers are going to deal with John Spencer's death now that his role has become pretty pivotal to recent story lines. John Spencer played Leo McGarry on the show, acting as Vice President to Martin Sheen's character President Jed Bartlet. I love this show to bits, and was pretty sad to hear about John Spencer's death. I don't know if the show was set to continue on next season or not -- I know that its following has dwindled a little in recent seasons -- but I certainly hope the writers are able to overcome this hurdle and make the storylines work. I'll be pretty sad to see the show go if this is its last season.

Avery's Hairdo (more like a Hairdon't)

Her Hari Krishna lock keeps getting longer. Yesterday I decided to bribe her with a little Baby Van Gogh DVD to see if she'd let me braid it. She did! And while it looked cute to me, no one panic, we never left the house with it looking that way.

My own blog just called me a name!

I went to comment to my own post (but really to comment on other people's comments) and after logging in with my username/password combination, the word verification word that I had to type in was "azzwipe." Seriously!

So, what are the similarities?

Because Avery turned out to be a girl, naturally I desperately want her to look like me. Everyone says she looks just like her father, however. Flushed cheeks, sleepy eyes, long beautiful eyelashes. They even share an obsession for television and laying on the couch.



So, those of you with a more objective eye, what similarities between Avery and I do you see? These are our 12-month pictures. And yes, Anna, I already know we both have two eyes, one nose, etc.