It's been pretty slow around here for me lately. After all my fun with the dentist, we decided I might as well have my wisdom teeth out before I left the country - one less thing to cause trouble while abroad - but the recovery is really boring. I lucked out on no pain and not even a little swelling (so no fun chipmunk-cheek pictures), and eating is going pretty well, but strenuous activity beyond walking makes my sutures bleed a bit so there is no work on the house or much exercising. And while I'm not in pain, I just don't feel all that good. I had a root canal on a tooth when I was 17 that apparently failed, so they took that tooth out for me, too, while they were in there, and did some bone grafting to prep for an implant when I get back from Ireland. Guess all the meds they give you and the bodily stress have to take a toll somewhere. So it's a slow few days.

And of course, I asked them if I could see my teeth once they took them out. That's what everyone does under the influence of anesthesia, right? Those suckers are big:

It must officially be summer, because someone decided to crank up the heat and humidity in Pittsburgh. And with the heat up, the luck in my family seems to be down, down, down. My mother got married on Saturday (I'll post pictures of the dresses I made for me and my sister soon Ronda!), and the same sister, on her way into town, got a flat tire. But it gets better: the spare went flat, it was late at night so no mechanics were open, and she and her boyfriend had the privilege of spending the night in the car in the Walmart parking lot since there were no hotel vacancies......with their 2 enormous dogs. Walmart did get them roadworthy again first thing in the morning, and they were on time for the festivities, but not quite how you hope things will go. Post-wedding, while I was destressing at my aunt's pool, one of my fillings came out while eating pizza of all things....and it happened to be the filling for the tooth that was drilled for a root canal, so the root was exposed. OUCH. I tried ibuprofen, and some more ibuprofen. I tried clove oil. I tried oxycodone, which apparently doesn't work for me. The night ended in a trip to MedExpress with a shot of toradol in the behind and some temporary filling. That worked. Tuesday I had the root canal done. Then one of my other sisters, Jolie, had her birthday on Monday. And her very first birthday present was her car not starting. So my dad and I drove down to jump her car and follow her back. But when we hit the highway, her car decided not to go over 40 miles an hour. And then going uphill it decided on about 10....9.....8.....you get the idea. So AAA came and towed her to the mechanic.....who told her it was her alternator, her transmission, and her car's computer that were all pretty much shot. Happy birthday, Jolie! She is currently in the market for a new or used car, if anyone knows of a good deal around the Pittsburgh area. Then today my brother, Jace, has a poison ivyish rash.....all over his left hind cheek. I'm waiting to hear which sibling is next....

We are almost done with the area by the front door, and there are some updated pictures below. We also built a new staircase this week.....the old one had some rot issues from a problem with salt, rust, and screws. I must admit that my father did the lion's share of the work on that project:  I helped with the bottom half, then went to the pool to destress. There was also the wedding in there, and the trip to the dentist sparked all my last-minute visits to ALL my doctors before I leave the country for a year - I kid you not, I have at least 20 appointments when it's all said and done, with follow-ups and whatnot. For those of you in Ohio, I am tentatively planning to come visit the weekend of the 13th-14th, so try not to plan your vacation for then! I'm really looking forward to seeing you all.

Aside from spending time with Jenna and Zeya and Kyan, the last few weeks have mostly been landscaping and yard work....a LOT of work. There has been the usual endless weeding, we ordered 10 yards of mulch, and we built a rock wall. You can check out some of the before and after photos below. And as everyone learns at some point or another, there is always at least one project that you start which turns into a much larger project: between our font door and the pool is a small area with a birch tree growing through - it can be stunning to look at, but while putting up new siding we discovered most of the old siding down under the river rock was rotting. So I spent countless hours removing the river rock and sifting it out through leaves and dirt....there was enough to fill 5 stinking garbage cans. Then we needed to dig a trench down about 18 inches through clay and other various rock and roots. While I may be employable as a medieval moat digger, I am unspeakably glad to have other marketable skills. The idea was to attach a wolmanized board at the bottom of the new siding, build another rock wall 3 feet out from the side of the pool building separating the dirt and river rock, which if we dug down deep enough would now sit and inch or two below the wolmanized board. This way we still get drainage, but not rot. You may be able to see pictures of this completed in a few days. But it doesn't end there. When we went to attach the board below the siding, we discovered that not only was the siding rotted, so was everything behind it. And by everything, I'm including the supports that hold the front wall of the pool building up. Not good. But good to find out before it falls over. Guess we have another project for the list. I must admit, I did take a few days off in there to go to my cousin Ava's birthday party (she just turned 4!), lounge in my aunt and uncles' pool and enjoy their fine cooking, meet up with the Houseknechts (the family I used to live with) at Cabelas while they passsed through on their way to the beach, and work on some dresses. Now I am going to go get some sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow....