**** Warning - Disclaimer ****

To all those dentist, oral surgeons, periodontists, etc. I must first apologize for my rant and rave. Turn away now if you are easily offended or take things personally.

I HATE GOING TO THE DENTIST.

I can't say I hate all dentist, because the guy I am going to now is obviously a very kind man....albeit, a nice man who likes to inflict human torture.

I just got finished with my fifth (count 'em...five) root canal. What the heck is that about? And although I am thrilled to say I no longer winch in shear pain when drinking anything but room temperature water, I'm still not at the point yet that I would say "it was worth it."

To top it all off, before I can have the crown put on the dang tooth, I get to see a periodontal surgeon who is going to strap me in for some further torturous activities.

I get to have "crown lengthening surgery" which quite frankly is nothing like the name suggests. They raise my gum line by cutting away excess, then open up the gums and shave back part of the bone. They then proceed to stitch me back together. I get the joy of having a large piece of plastic shoved over the entire area for the next 2-3 weeks so that it can heal enough to go back and finish the crowning process.

Is it a wonder I hate them so?

ME

Ok, this was one of the most fun projects ever...but also one of the strangest ones I've ever done. Love the way it turned out, but gotta say...while I was doing it, I had no clue whether I was going to end up throwing it in the trash.

You start with a photo of yourself, divide it into 4 quadrants and photo copy each quadrant. Then you take the color copy and start applying cheap acrylic paints over it. Mind you, I never claimed to be much of a painter, but this was fun fun fun. You just add paint color where ever you want. The color copy kind of bleeds through. After that, you take it and attach it to a canvas, putting the puzzle back together...blending the pieces where needed.

Then the fun starts...you can add just about anything you want at that point. And although I did this project a while back, every time I look at it I think I should add more stuff. It just seems to be calling out for more bling. What do you think?

When you least expect it.

Tonight Haley and I got into a camera war.

It started innocently enough - trying to take a photo of Haley playing with Milo...but before you knew it, we were chasing each other around the house with camera's in both hands, blinding the other every chance we got with flashes of light. Some of the photos were hilarious - most not even worth keeping.

But every once in awhile you end up with one that may not look like much, but as you study it...it becomes almost art.




I loved this one I got of Haley trying to avoid my flash by using her hair as camouflage. A few minutes playing with it in Photoshop and voila, artsy-fartsy photo collage. I know, I know....I amuse myself sometimes.

Ornament Exchange

What was I thinking? I really don't know....

This is my latest endeavor. I put together a handmade ornament exchange at work. We had 13 women decide to participate. Each one of us makes 13 ornaments, then we have a party to exchange. You give one of yours to each person in the exchange, and in turn, they give you one of theirs. You end up with 13 different handmade ornaments.

Here's a sample of the ones I've been making. I'm not sure this was the best time to try to teach myself soldering...but by the 13th one, I had gotten much better at it.


I created a double-sided Christmas collage, sandwiched between two pieces of glass, then soldered them together with jumprings on the ends to attach the wire work and crystals.

Although the soldering is far from being done well, I'm very happy with the way they turned out.

Since I finished the collaged ones in plenty of time, I decided to make another one for each person. Each woman will also get a beaded letter ornament.



This is what the final projects will look like when I give them out this Friday night. I'm excited to see what kind of ornaments come my way.




Next year, someone slap me if I do this again!
Just kidding.

Catching Up

I think I need to change my expectations. No more will I expect I can keep up with this blog, no more will I fret over it, and no more will I start my message with "gee I haven't kept up" (well, after this time.)

From now on, I will write when able, motivated and have something to say. (My guess is I will probably do it a lot more often now).

So, Friday night in the Amidei house. Tom is off working at the bowling alley. Haley is fast asleep after reading in the Twilight series for hours tonight. I've been playing with the new marquees and scrolling photos on my blog. (Fun stuff by the way). I've cooked and cleaned up already. I've visited with a new and dear friend (thanks again Nicki), and now it's "my" time.

What do I do? Go sit at the computer where I spend most of my day because of work...only now it's by choice. I get to look at family and friends blogs, I get to watch tv shows I didn't have time to watch earlier this week, I get to stay up all night playing silly computer games, and I get to not worry about how late I stay up because I don't have to get up early tomorrow morning and go to work.

Ah....life is good when you're an adult!

There's never enough time

It's never more apparent than on a Sunday night...that's when I realize more than any other night...there's never enough time. I never seem to accomplish all I want, or feel as rested and ready to face Monday morning as I want. Weekends just go so fast when you are working full time. There's never enough time to cram all you want to do into just two short days off.

This weekend was crazy, hectic and wonderful...but I'm headed back to work feeling as if there are a hundred things I should have done, but didn't. And I know without a doubt that when I come home from work tomorrow night I will get but only a few minors ones done. So, it all gets up on hold until that next anticipated weekend and day off finally arrives.

So...here's to Monday ----- pfth!

Sleep hasn't come yet...

For someone who had plans to keep up with this blogging thing, I haven't done a very good job yet, have I?

Well, tonight sleep is alluding me. So, here I sit...at 12:35 in the morning, knowing I have to get up in less than 5 hours to face yet another day at work. Oh well, there's plenty of time for sleep when you're dead, right?

Here's the newest addition to our crazy household...this is Milo. He's a terror and joy both at the same time.