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Hey there! How we doin' today? Mikie is watching Toy Story and Mol is staring at the inside of her eyelids :) Jack will be getting off the bus soon and Bean is naked. Yep, naked :) She got the ol' shave-a-roni today and looks nude. Ahh, that much less dog hair laying around and tucking itself into balls of fur under the end tables!

Today went a little crazier than planned, but ya never know how things will go, do ya? I've been having some pain in my throat/jaw/gumline/ear only on the right side for 3 days now. I thought it was a bad sore throat at first, but then the pain in my ear was really bugging me too. What the beak? Monday night when I went to get the kids from Granny and Grampa's, I found I had a hard time talking. When I got home, I tried to eat a banana and couldn't even open my mouth that far. I heated up the heating pad thingy we put in the microwave and took some Motrin. I was able to fall asleep relatively pain free. The next day (yesterday) went pretty well until later in the afternoon, I had pain again. Last night? Going to bed, the whole side of my face was killin' me! I couldn't sleep - had to get up and get the heating pad - Motrin - and still lay there in pain. Erk got home late last night from Arizona (a quick trip there for work) and he could tell I was in pain too. So today I made the call. Well, I had to start with my OBGYN's office :) HA! My OB is still my "primary doctor" so I had to call to see what they thought I should do. Do I call the dentist? Do I call my ENT? They recommended my ENT, start there. So I did. They actually got me in today at 11:15a, which is unheard of.

Of course 11:15a came and went and it was more like 12:15p before I saw the doc - but still. Nice guy (not my normal ENT) and after looking in my ears and nostrils and throat, he scratched his head a tad. Fortunately, not redness or swelling, both of my ears are perfectly normal (Praise the Lord!) and then he grabbed the sides of my jaw and had me bite down. My jaw clicked. He had me do it again. Jaw clicked again. And again. I have TMJ! So after a $45 copay and getting some literature on the matter, I went to head for home. Only the trip home wasn't as quick as I would have liked. I left the truck headlights on and my battery was dead AGAIN! So here came Erk to my rescue, jumped the truck and on the road I was. I stopped at a place I haven't pulled thru since Jack was in my belly - and ate what I did back in the day. Vegetable beef soup, grilled cheese and a small Coke :) I sat there and read my new "book" on TMJ and learned a thing or two. Apparently I need to lessen my stress (riiiiiiiiiiiiiight) and try to get more rest (that'd be nice) and stop biting on hard things like ice (shoot, I love ice!) and perhaps quit biting my fingernails (ARGH, now you're pushing it).

We'll get there. I'm just so thankful it wasn't something wrong in my ear or like a tumor or something. You know how the human mind works, we get thinking all worse case scenarios!

Ohh, Toy Story is done. Gotta run. BYE!