Children International

I received a mailing from Children International in the mail today. I was a sponsor a year ago but when my child graduated from the system, I didn’t pick up a new one. Just didn’t get around to going through the website to pick another child.

Last week I ran across my link to the website and spent about two hours picking out another child to sponsor. I should get his information in the mail soon. They say boys get sponsored less then girls so I went for another boy. I’d like to sponsor a girl as well but don’t know if I will right away.

While sponsorship has increased from $18 to $22, I still think it is worth it. I pay more then that going to a movie. Sponsorship means you get pictures and letters from your sponsored child – which gives you an opportunity to learn about their country and them ours. It also provides the child, as well as their community, medical checkups, school items, sanitary systems and housing. Where else could so little do so much?

I wouldn’t normally promote something like this on my blog. I figure most places advertise enough for the rest of us. With more and more children in dire straits, here and abroad, giving a little bit each month really seems like such an easy thing to do. I love children and have always had a soft spot in my heart for them.

If anyone is interested in learning how to sponsor a child – the website is www.children.org.

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. –Albert Schweitzer

Return from Dentist

Courageous risks are life giving, they help you grow, make you brave and better than you think you are.
–Joan L. Curcio

So I’m back from the dentist. This is how my day has been going. I always pay cash for my counseling sessions so I stopped at the atm on my way there. I was in a rush not to mention roasting hot because my car lacks air conditioning and it was in the 90’s.

I get done at the counselor’s office and go to Taco Bell for lunch which I bring home so I can write on my blog. So far not very exciting right? I take a short nap and then go to the dentist.

I get in the chair and they take a close up look at my teeth with me being able to see on a TV monitor in the corner. They then take a picture of the back of my tooth that is chipped. Of course, they find that I not only have plaque built-up but that my gum is infected from bacteria. I knew all that already so no big surprise.

The dentist comes in then and I swear to god he looked like he might have been 20 tops. There were pictures of him in the lobby getting various dental awards but he didn’t look as young in them as he did in person. I was a little nervous…how could he really be if he just got out of dental school?

He had a very gentle and nice demeanor about him – showing me the areas of my teeth that need work. We discussed my getting in to get my teeth cleaned and I asked him about ways to straighten my front teeth. Unfortunately, I will have to have my wisdom teeth pulled before they can do anything with the front teeth – for that I have to go to a specialist.

He had nice hands and managed around my mouth just fine – my last dentist had huge fingers and I felt like he was going to rip my jaw off. The dental assistant knew exactly what he needed – they barely spoke the entire procedure. I had to have the tooth grinded down (Yikes! That drill sound still gets to me!) and then a filling put in. He was very conscientious about making sure the new work felt write when I bit down so that was also nice. I would highly recommend him to others and am glad my coworker recommended him to me.

He also endeared himself to me by saying that, even though I have neglected my teeth, he finds very little wrong with them and saw no cavaties when he x-rayed them. Can’t beat that. Course, he has to do a more indepth check of them at my next visit because this one was for getting the tooth fixed only.

So I get out to the desk – make an apt in two weeks to have my teeth cleaned – and get the bill which was $170 of which I had to pay $80. No, they don’t have a payment plan – you are expected to pay when services are rendered. So I think ‘$80 isn’t so bad” and dig in my wallet for my debit card.

I stood there taking my entire purse apart. No debit card. It seems when I got money out of the atm earlier I had left the card behind. I don’t remember leaving the card behind but it was missing and that was the only place I had used it. I’m looking wildly through my purse knowing that my credit card doesn’t have $80 available on it. The lady very nicely said, “We take checks” and I was so embarrassed. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

Writing checks has become something I do only when making out bills at home. I never write a check for anything else and couldn’t believe I hadn’t even thought of that. So I wrote a check hoping I had money in my account because I haven’t really paid attention to it lately. Ugh.

So I call the bank when I got home and they said the card was shredded and I’d have to go get a new one. So off to the bank I went. I waited for awhile before getting in – all the time sweating my head off because it was so damn hot – but I finally got a temporary card. Seems the real card will take two weeks to get. This temporary card is just for the atm machines so I can’t use it like a debit. Very damn annoying. So I will have to figure out how much money I have left in this account and transfer it to my new account with the Credit Union.

That was one of the things that made me so angry – in just over a week, I won’t be using this bank anymore so I’ll get a new card but will be closing the account. From the bank I went to the store where I only had enough cash for soda and toilet paper.

Home again I am looking around and am very sad. I thought the whole time I was staring up at the ceiling while the dentist worked in my mouth, about the earlier post I wrote. How am I going to get back to that person? That person didn’t let her dental work get behind. She didn’t let herself get fat. She would have bought a new car long before now. She didn’t let the heat get to her. She didn’t wear “grub” clothes all the time – she actually had a style.

I know, it gets a little freaky talking about myself in the third person. I have to dig down deep and find myself again. {sigh}

Dental Panic Attack!

Off to the dentist. I really dread going though I’ve paid dental insurance for years. Why do they have to be so expensive?? I have never understood that. So they fill a filling…it takes them a couple of minutes and I’m the one who has to put up with the drilling & poking/prodding. I hate it. The dentist is more expensive then my doctor.

I think they are so expensive because no one has brought that profession to the forefront yet. Medical costs, prescriptions costs, and eye wear costs – yes but dental, no. Why aren’t there people out there taking up the battle cry for dental work? I keep hearing about the health insurance crisis in America but not once have I heard dental included in that and it should be.

I don’t want to go. It is plain and simple. But I really have no choice unless I pull the tooth and have a gapping hole in my smile – which, of course, is unthinkable. I don’t know but I gotta say, if it were a side or back tooth, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’d pull it and not think twice.

Ok – I’m leaving. Have to be there at 1:45pm so need to go. Hope everyone out there reading this is hearing that squeal the drill makes and it gives them the heebie jeebies.

Stop the Presses!

So I finished my life story yesterday. It is not short – about 60 handwritten pages long. It took me nine of the twelve hours I worked yesterday to complete it – with many interruptions of course.

I’ve concluded it with overall observations that, while I won’t share the rest of the story, I will share these:

I miss my active live. For several decades of my life I was always out doing something – even if it was just taking long drives to enjoy the scenery. Usually it was hiking in one of the many parks around my hometown or boating at the lake. When did I stop being active?? I know the answer – when I had the car accident – but why didn’t I rebound from that once I was physically able?

I miss being attractive. I was never beautiful. My sister Marge had these long legs and big bust that men just swooned over – I never had men swooning but I did have my share of them looking twice or whistling as I went by. I miss being noticed.

I miss my Mom.

My younger sister has the life I wanted back in my early teens. It actually makes me shake my head with wonder in that I wanted to marry a farmer and have five kids and that is exactly how it turned out for her. How did she get my “ideal” life? Did I miss the turnoff somewhere?? Of course, I have moved on to other ideas of what I want from life but did find this revelation funny….not funny “ha ha” but funny strange.

I miss knowing precisely where I’m going and why. Where did that organized, well-researched, and determined young woman go?? All my life I was my son’s mom first and then a career woman second. When my son grew up, I never found something to help fill the void he left. He is, of course, still number one but he doesn’t need me like he use to. It is called “empty nest syndrome” but I would have thought somewhere in the past six years I would have found a way to deal with it. It kind of saddened me to realize I was still floundering in that area.

I miss traveling around on week long vacations. I went to Arizona three times and loved it – once by myself – once with my sister Cyndi and my son – and once with my younger sister. I went to Tennessee twice – once with my sister Marge and once as a family thing. I’ve been to North Dakota with Wayne when he was little and my dad was alive. I’ve been to Florida lots of times as well. I enjoyed going on these trips with family members and my son. I keep telling my sister Marge that we need to go to Tennessee again, just the two of us but who knows if we will ever get it worked out?

And while there is more things I miss – I think the question becomes, how do I get to that confident, happy person again? My counselor says one step at a time which sounds so logical and just as impossible. If I take one step at a time – it will take me years. Can’t my fairy godmother just wave her magic wand???

I have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. –Henry David Thoreau

Moving Too Fast.

This day is slipping by faster then I care to let it. Have to leave to go to the dentist in 1 hr. I’d complain about it but just raked my tongue over my jagged tooth and it brought tears to my eyes.

Our manicured lawn needs mowed. It makes me wonder what the landscape guys did on Thursday when they were here for hours – obviously not mowed. How can you tend to a lawn but not mow it?? Guess that goes up there with how can we keep treating for bugs monthly yet still have fire ants?

Clouds off to the south of us make me wish for rain but it won’t. I should be doing something outside but I’m just too damn hot to even consider it which makes little sense for someone who loves the heat and likes sweating. Go figure.

I wish I could grab this day though and slow it down some.