Frustrated

So for those that don't know, I have some jaw problems that I've been dealing with for the last year or so. Not a huge deal, but a huge annoyance. And a painful one at that. After wearing a splint 24 hours a day for a few months, my orthodontist told me the only way to fix my jaw would be surgery. (mind you, in the beginning of all of this he told me that was the worst case scenario and that he didn't foresee that happening..HA). So he set me up with an oral surgeon that he works closely with and I went to see him two weeks ago. They finally called me back to let me know if my insurance will cover this surgery. Well what do ya know, THEY WON'T. She took me completely by surprise. This is what oral surgeons do, how is it possible that insurance doesn't cover it? Of course, I've been in worse pain the last couple of days for some reason so just when I decided to go through with it, I get that news. The doctor told me before even looking at my chart that he knew I was going to need surgery just from my jaw structure. He said the decision should be a no brainer for me. If I don't have it done, my joints will continue to wear away and I have 80% greater chance of early tooth loss, worsened pain, and possible joint replacement in the future. Sweet right? You would think a surgery as extensive as breaking both my upper and lower jaw for non-cosmetic purposes would be covered no question. Not so much. Not sure what I'm going to do now, I wasn't thinking this was going to happen so I wasn't prepared to deal with it. I don't have many other feasible options, and it's not a cheap surgery. So in summary, I now have to start putting money away to fix my face when I should be putting it away to prepare for kids or to buy a house. Just another speed bump on the road of life I guess. It is what it is. Thanks for letting me vent!

Not much to report...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while (I'm sure the three of you that read this are soo bummed). Not much to report. We did get our Christmas tree last weekend. I always look forward to it but then after 20 minutes of searching for the "perfect tree" it gets old! Not to mention it was FREEZING out. It was fun though. We brought Champ, and Amanda came too. Our tree is actually not half bad. Much better than last year's disaster. After putting the tree up, I made a pot of chilli and we had some friends over to watch football. It was our first time seeing Meg since she told us she was pregnant...it's really exciting when a friend you've known forever goes through something that amazing. It's fun to get all the details other people don't tell you. It was also our first time hanging out with our friends Lisa and Kyle since their wedding on Oct 6th so it was great to see the newlyweds! We're gearing up for Christmas...I'm almost done with my shopping and even started baking some cookies =) We're trying to figure out our schedule for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, it's going to be hectic but we're lucky to have so much family around! I'm excited for Christmas break...one more week of work then two weeks of vacation. Hopefully we'll be able to get to see some friends and family we haven't seen in a while. Until nex time...

What a week!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We had quite a busy week, but it was great. Four bday parties, Thanksgiving, and our anniversary in just 6 days. We were able to hang out with some friends and a few of my cousins on the "biggest party night of the year" otherwise known as the only night Brian and I really go out to bars. I was fighting off a cold so it put a slight damper on things but we kept on going. For Thanksgiving we went to Brian's parents house. We were able to see a lot of people we don't see on a normal basis so that was good. It was a little weird to not see my fam at all that day but that's how marriage works I guess! Champ was able to play all day with his half sister and his cousins...he was EXHAUSTED when we brought him home on saturday. Friday Brian and I headed up to the Berkshires to celebrate our one year anniversary. We did some outlet shopping and bought a lot of Christmas gifts. Then we went out to a really nice restaurant...we stayed in Great Barrington, cute town. Our hotel was really nice (comfort inn and suites in case anyone would like to go sometime...we highly recommend it!) after dinner we drank some champagne and watched Christmas Vacation! The next day we were in no rush to do anything..it was so great to not be on a schedule, go at our own pace. We walked and shopped in Great Barrington, then headed to Stockbridge, another quaint New England town. Wasn't all that much to do there though. We ate lunch at a place that was highly recommended to us. We were psyched when we got right in but then we waited an hour and a half for two bowls of soup and two burgers. We didn't care all that much though b/c we weren't on a schedule. After that we picked up Champ, then went home to decorate the aparment! So fun! We also had some more champagne and watched our wedding video. The next day our families came over for pizza, more champagne, and again...the wedding video. It really was a great anniversary weekend!!

Things to be thankful for...

So I put together a schedule for people to bring meals to our friends who just had their baby, tonight was our night to feed them. Instead of dropping the food off at their doorstep we had them over to our apartment. Having friends or family over for dinner is always fun for us, we love putting our wedding gifts to good use! B/c we eat in the dining hall most nights, we hardly ever take our our serving bowls and wine glasses...but tonight we did just that. we had 4 guests total (which is pretty much the limit we can fit in our tiny dining room, not mention we don't have enough chairs for more than that!) I made turkey meatloaf (which could have turned out much better in my opinion), green beans with EVOO (any rachel ray fans out there??), red wine vinegar (I guess that would be RWV?), garlic salt and pepper; and rice pilaf. We also tried for the first time, whole wheat dinner rolls, the pillsbury ones. It wasn't all that bad. But the dessert was the best part...individual chocolate lava cakes, soooo good; and wicked easy! The little peanut just sat in her baby bjorn the whole time, squeaking a little bit every now and then, but she was so good! We're super lucky and really thankful for having made such great friends here at Choate. Too bad the night had to come to a screaching hault when it hit 730 and I had to leave to go to dorm duty :( Shouldn't complain though, as of 1130 tonight, I'm on Thanksgiving break, and I sure am thankful for that!!!

Winter Season

Well the fall is over, such a bummer. And now we're into the winter season at work which means HOCKEY and late night hockey practices. I get so bitter when this time of the year rolls around b/c I'm the one that gets stuck staying late all the time. And I also have dorm duty. So I pretty much never see Brian, he gets home around 4, I go in at 4. I get home around 10, he's usually in bed. So that works out great :( Bottom line, and something I complain about every year, this wasn't in the job description that was given to me when I accepted the job. Anyway, it may get changed next year if not this year. Or else to be honest...I'm outta here! I'm not going to work until 10 every night during the winter season when I have kids. I think thats a fair thing to say. Anyway, just venting. yay hockey

Our Weekend

Not that anyone even reads this blog but, I'm at work and bored so I thought I'd write about our weekend. After a cold, rainy, day outside at work, we headed down to the casinos for our friend Craig's birthday. We've never eaten at Michael Jordan's, it was really good. Sunday was a busy day! We went down to the rink to watch some of our friends kids play hockey in the morning, went up on the trails for a big walk with Champ, watched a little bit of the Choate football game then went to New Britain for dinner and the pats game with my family. It was a great fall day!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween! Some friends came over, we ate pizza, handed out candy, and watched Saw 2. (last year we watched Saw 1, so it's becoming a tradition). It was fun watching all of the little kids in their cute outfits! Champ didn't really like his Spiderman costume but he lasted longer than we thought. He loved hanging out on the porch with us, although he did scare a couple of monsters. (he didn't like the masks so much). We live in such a great community for this type of stuff!

YAY!

Just found out friends of ours on campus just had a baby girl!! I'm so excited for them, I had to write b/c I'm at work and have no one to talk to about it! The guys in my office aren't exactly willing to sit here and chat about birth and babies with me =) I have to be honest, having watched them go through this pregnancy and how excited they've been about the whole experience does give me baby fever, more so then when others have had kids for some reason. More interested in the whole process at this point in my life I suppose!!

More Halloween....

This is the extent of the exciting events in our life..yikes. It was fun though! Mine is on the left and Brians is on the right

Halloween Fun

So I took memere (my grandmother) shopping for a halloween costume yesterday. So funny! I'll attempt to post some pics of our day. She decided to be a whoopie cushion, which as many of you know, is right up her alley. Since she's been fooling us all for years by slipping one onto our chairs while we weren't looking...or at least, she didn't think we were looking. We often had to pretend to be surprised!

Let's see...

Well, I think I've figured this out for the most part. Can't really do pictures just yet but then again, we don't really have anything to take pictures of! I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of these blog entries while sitting on dorm duty...which is really the reason I created this whole thing...pure boredom. Went back to work today after having the last two days off, and before we know it Thanksgiving break will be here, then two weeks after that, we'll have 15 days off for Christmas, don't be jealous! We're coming up on our one year anniversary, we've been trying to think of something to do to celebrate but b/c of the busy weekend (we really weren't thinking ahead on that one) we don't have much time to really go anywhere...any suggestions??

Test Drive

Just taking this blog for a test drive, haven't quite perfected the whole thing just yet. Not to mention there's nothing really exciting going on in our lives to talk about...