September

It's been an exciting month or so here in Utah. It seems, just as one part of our new life fits into place, two more things pop up that need to be taken care of. Most of these things aren't bad or stressful, just parts of life that need to be figured out. In fact, a lot of them have been exciting...like getting a washer and dryer! Layne and Kris were so wonderful to pass their former set onto us after they moved into their new house. We are extremely grateful for their generosity.

Once we had the machines, we needed to hook them up. This proved a little trickier than expected. The wall vent for the dryer in our condo is on the right side of the dryer. This wouldn't normally be a problem, except the laundry closet isn't that big, so there wasn't much room to spare behind the dryer for the vent tubing. The regular tubing was too wide to fit. So we had to make a trip to Lowe's (in our car, not on a subway!) to find a periscope vent attachment that was thin enough to fit behind the machine. We found what we needed, and with some finagling, got it attached to the dryer. We ended up having to use a length of regular vent tubing to connect the periscope vent to the wall vent. Whew! It took some time, but eventually we figured it out.

Once the dryer was in place, we hooked up all of the washer's hoses. They went on without any problems, and we moved the washer back into place next to the dryer. I excitedly started our first load of laundry. At first, we couldn't get the washer to run any cycles with warm or hot water. We tried everything to fix it over the next few days--testing the water flow in the hoses, making sure the connections weren't clogged, etc. It was so frustrating! We were worried that in the moving process the washer's hot water sensor may have been damaged and it's replacement wouldn't be cheap. A couple days later, I walked over to the washer and just sat there leaning on it thinking about the problem...waiting for the washer to speak to me. Haha!  I had the thought to try running a load on hot one more time. I put in the clothes, added the soap, adjusted the settings, and started the cycle. No water flow again. Randomly, I reached up and tried turning the hot water faucet off and on again. When the faucet lever was halfway between the on and off point, the water started to run in the washer. The faucet's lever was just misaligned and we didn't catch it before. I'm so glad it was such a simple fix, and that I figured it out. 

After all of that, we finally had a working washer and dryer...and they've been great. It's so nice to not have to load our laundry up and take it somewhere else to wash. And I love having the option to do a quick load in the evening if I need to. It's been so wonderful!

I'm still happily enjoying cooking in my kitchen. The cupboard space is triple what I had in NYC, not to mention all the dishes and utensils I have to work with. I made salmon for the first time ever a couple weeks ago for Brian. I don't like fish, not even salmon. I was kind of flying blind on the cooking, but it ended up turning out great. I just added some butter, fresh lemon juice, and a bit of parsley and popped it in the oven. Brian was there to tell me when it was done...again, not very experienced with fish. After about 15 mins, it came out perfectly flakey.

I served it with some yummy oven roasted asparagus, and wild rice. Brian said that the salmon was perfectly cooked, and tasted amazing. He said it was better than salmon he's had in some restaurants. I tried a bite, but didn't care for it. The asparagus and rice was really good though. Haha! I was quite proud of myself for how successful it turned out for my first try with fish, even though it wasn't that hard.

Brian was quite happy with the whole event. It's the first time I've made any sort of fish for him (other than sushi) in the nine years we've been married! Poor guy.

One day a couple weeks ago, I noticed that one of my teeth was hurting. The next day it didn't hurt at all and I forgot about it and didn't call a dentist like I'd planned. The day after that I woke up with it hurting pretty bad, so I went into the dentist that day. (Thanks everyone who gave us recommendations!) The tooth that was hurting was one that I'd had a root canal on when I was 14. It had acted up again when I was 21 or so, and they did a second root canal on it then. It hadn't bothered me since, until now. So you can imagine my frustration when I went in and it was the same tooth that was infected a third time. The dentist prescribed me some antibiotics and referred me to an endodontist. I couldn't get an appointment with him until the following Monday, five days away. I went home and stilled myself for a few days of pain. The morning after I went to the dentist, I woke up and the whole left side of my face was swollen. This was just getting better and better.

Excuse the awful picture, but when your face feels like there's a golf ball in your cheek, you don't really feel like getting all gussied up. My cheek was aching pretty bad and was swollen up to just below my eye socket. I called the dentist, and he told me just to double up on the antibiotics and if the infection reached my eye to go to the E.R. Not the most comforting thing to hear, or the most helpful. We might switch dentists. Anyway, after talking with him, I called the endodontist's office to see if they could get me in that day. When they heard that my face was so swollen, they found some time to fit me in.

After a couple ex-rays, they discovered the source of the infection. My infamous tooth was infected again, and the doctor said there was a fourth root that the other dentists had missed on each of my previous root canals. Good grief! Apparently the bacteria had been in there for quite a while (maybe even years) because it had made a pretty good hole between the root and the surrounding bone. Brian and I get regular cleanings and checkups, but our previous dentist just assumed the dark spot on the x-ray was scar tissue from my previous root canals because I never had any pain, swelling, or other symptoms. Crazy! The doctor numbed me and then cut a slit in my gums above the tooth's roots to drain out the infection. It was pretty intense. He put in a drain, and sent me home with a prescription for another antibiotic to take along with the first. I had to pull the drain out myself a couple of days later. It wasn't too bad, but did sting a little while afterwards. 

After a week of taking the two antibiotics my tooth felt a whole lot better and the swelling was gone. A couple weeks later, which was yesterday, I went back in to the endodontist to have the third, and hopefully last, root canal done on this tooth. He was able to find the fourth canal and clean it all out. Apparently he does at least one of these re-treatments a day because dentists have missed a canal. It hurt quite a bit after the numbness wore off yesterday, but is only a bit sore today. I go back in, in three weeks to have the procedure finalized. 

So, you can say we haven't had a dull moment since we moved in August. I think we're both ready to get back into a routine, but so far it's been one thing after another. One of these days life will settle down. I hope! Even with all the excitement, good and bad, we are so happy with our new life.