Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas at Home 2006

Wow, it was April 2006 we made the last entry to this blog! No way to 'catch up' 10 months of no posts. Life has certainly moved on for us, but not this blog.

Okay, so Christmas 2006. We purchased (at seriously reduced price) a new artificial Christmas tree. We already have a huge 6 foot tree that completely takes up either the upstairs or downstairs cupola if that is where we place it. Or takes up the whole front of the living room if that is where we place it. It certainly holds all the decades of Christmas ornaments back to when the children were, in fact, children. Now, they are grown with children of their own.

It's kind of sad in a nostalgic kind of way to put up the big tree with all the years of ornaments unless the kids and grandkids are going to come for Christmas visit. For now they are scattered about, and sometimes they can do the travel, sometimes not. I wanted instead a smaller more compact tree that I could tuck in a corner and I'm quite satisfied with the size of this smaller tree.



















Our Christmas gift to ourselves this year. A nice double recliner loveseat. We have for several years now been discussing getting either couch or loveseat that has dual recliners. It was still years in the future for us as a purchase. When we were out and about taking in Christmas bazaars and such like, we came across a garage sale that we almost didn't stop at and found this great dual recliner at a price too good to pass on.

Nope, not telling, but we knew we would not likely come across such an affordable price for this kind of piece of furniture again and it was in such good, cared for shape. We left, both yearning and wishing we hadn't committed to dental work and $$ cost to us. Somehow we managed to talk ourselves into believing we could tighten the budget belt, squeezing hard, eat beans and rice, and doing so could manage to pay the dentist $$ and treat ourselves to this Christmas present. Now, it's February and we are recovering but recliner is paid for and so is the dentist $$.


posted entry by Lietta Ruger

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Toothless Me ..."Are ya ready Roy?" - Gabby Hayes



Yesterday, Lietta and I drove to Deep River Dental in Raymond and Dr. Hamilton pulled all of my top teeth.

I was surprised at how easy and rapidly it went once I was good and numbed up and breathing a little bit of nitrous oxide (laughing gas). I remember some sort of minor interruption while he gave one of my teeth another shot of numb juice, touching my gums with my tongue and saying "4 down and 4 to go," with which he agreed.

Shortly thereafter he was done, the upper plate was put in immediately and I was warned not to take it out, prescribed pain medication and an appointment to come back next day (this morning) where he checked and made minor adjustments in the plate.

Once the numbness went away, I was glad for the pain killer hydrocodon but have only taken 4 doses since the pulling.

Dr. Hamilton is also the local Mormon bishop and I have had some interaction with him previously. He's a good dentist and I've seen him in action at the one church meeting I was invited to attend back in April.

Lietta now cooking soft foods with mashed potatoes and shredded meat (beef, pork and chicken) as the foundation.

Tonight I removed the plate for a salt water rinsing as instructed and looked at my toothless self for the first time. It's not readily obvious although Lietta said she could tell right away. The gums are already covered over without stitches as the plate served that function.

I've been off work yesterday and today and will return to work tomorrow.

Spent lots of time on the computer, online and playing Age of Kings to pass away the time, especially yesterday when the pain was more pronounced. I did sleep good though but have been drowsy all day.

Now 7:45, Lietta working on supper and I'm writing.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

A Gallery of my real oil paintings



click on the photo to view gallery of my oil paintings over the years

Messing around with the computer Paint tool - digital paintings



click on the painting to see more at my Picasa public gallery