1000 Smiles, huh?

Well, it's been a while since I blogged. I decided this morning that now is as good a time as ever. And, as I thought about why I wanted to start blogging again - I remembered the name I picked out for my blog... Journey of 1000 Smiles. You see, the reason I decided to pick up my blog again today was this.

I have Bell's Palsy.

Here's a link to the 'official' definition at Wikipedia. Thankfully, Bell's Palsy is a temporary condition in most cases. They're not sure what causes it exactly - but I'll get into that a little more a bit later.

In layman's terms - it's the temporary paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face. Mine happens to be on the left side, and I'm extra grateful that it seems to be a relatively mild case. I was diagnosed with this on Saturday, January 1st, 2011... what a way to ring in the new year, right?!

So, now I'll rewind a little an let you know what lead up to this point.

It's the week following Thanksgiving. I'm winding down from having everyone at our home for the big meal, and gearing up for the Christmas holiday season (my favorite!) And I start to get a sore throat and cough - I start taking Zicam hoping to nip it in the bud before it knocks me out. I end up loosing my voice for a few days, and have a bit of a lingering cough - but nothing 'out of the ordinary' in terms of a cold goes. I never had a fever, or even a stuffy nose really. This was a little unusual for me, as I usually get head colds/sinus infections. But it went away, and I felt better for about a week. Then we were nearing Munchkin's birthday and Christmas. I was busy shopping, decorating, planning, etc. I felt another cold coming on - this time the usual, stuffy head, cough, just feeling down right crappy!

Well, this lasted for a few days and didn't seem to be letting up, and my usual arsenal of decongestants weren't doing anything either! So, I decided to go to the Walgreen's clinic - as I haven't been to my primary care dr. in probably 5 years, I figured it would just be faster to head there. I probably had a sinus infection & maybe ear infection, they'd give me antibiotics and I'd be on my way... and feeling better soon! Well, I was wrong! The "clinical nurse practitioner", which I think is the correct title, examined me and listened to my complaints. She said I had a slight upper-respiratory infection and congestion that were most likely caused by a virus. I should be feeling better in a few days, and if not, come back. So, a week went by... I felt better for a couple days, then the evening of Christmas Day my left ear plugged up, then two days later, my right. So, I called my doctor's office on Monday after Christmas. They were closed for the holiday... ugh! So, back to the clinic I go. It's the same 'nurse' there, and she examines me again. 6 days later and I have a "raging" ear-infection in my left ear, one in my right, and a sinus infection... oh, and on top of that, she's concerned that my blood pressure is high. So, she prescribes a z-pack antibiotic and sends me on my way.

So, my ears start to 'drain' and I feel a little better for a day or so, then the congestion starts to come back. Thursday, the night before our big New Year's Eve party I notice my upper lip twitching. Now, I'm familiar with the occasional facial twitch, usually my eye. But this was downright annoying! Then overnight, it went away. But, Friday morning... and throughout the day, my left eye was twitching, and more than just normal. Every time I blinked it would twitch. Then as the night wore one I noticed that the twitching went away, but it didn't feel like I could blink all the way, and I noticed that I only had half of a smile.

Needless to say, I was a little scared. But it was late, and I was tired. I had no other symptoms (balance was OK, speaking & comprehension were fine, no problems with my limbs). So we went to bed - I was hoping it'd be better in the morning. Well, at least it wasn't much worse! But it was still enough to make me head to the ER. I knew my doctors office wasn't going to be open on New Year's Day, and I was NOT going back to the clinic!

Luckily, when you present with facial paralysis they get you in pretty quick! The nurse felt pretty positive right away that she knew what it was and told me. Then I remembered my English teacher, sophomore year of high school, she had it. I don't remember how long it lasted for her - but I remember her having to wear an eye-patch to school for a couple weeks.

So, the doctor talks to me and examines me. Yep - Bell's Palsy. There's not much that can be done for it - but they do prescribe a steroid (to help any inflammation of the nerve) and an anti-viral (there's some thought that it could be caused by a strain of the herpes virus... a derivative of chicken pox.) There's also no way to know how long it will last. As I mentioned earlier - I have a pretty 'mild' case. I can blink my eye most of the way... enough to avoid wearing a patch all day long! And a small amount of movement of my mouth.

That was my New Year's Day! And, now I'm 5 days in to 2011, and really getting tired of this - which is why I decided to start blogging about it, and to help me stay sane :) I'm trying really hard not to let it get to me. But when you tell your body to do something, and it just doesn't (and makes you feel like you look crazy when you try) it gets really frustrating!

Here's some pictures of me right now and over the last few days.

January 1st - You'll notice my left eye (on the right side of the picture) doesn't close all the way.

January 3rd - that's a smile with my eyes closed.

January 5th - that's a smile... honest, it is! :)

I feel like the issue is mostly between my eyeball and my upper lip. But, today it feels like I can get a little more of a smile out of the left side of my mouth, and when I was in the shower I thought I felt my eyelids touch after they were closed for a little bit... but that might have just been the water ;)

I do have to wear a patch over my eye at night to make sure it doesn't dry out (or get scratched by the sheets). Which of course makes for many a pirate joke from the husband.

I think that's my other biggest annoyance now is really the husband. He's constantly making jokes about how I look when I smile. And, I know that it's mostly his way of dealing with a hard situation by making light of it - but it does make one self-conscious! Although, he did say something very sweet last night:

"In all seriousness, I've taken your 'pretty-ness' for granted. I hope this doesn't last too long, so that I can have my beautiful wife back again. I love you!"

So, as I'm nearing the end of my prescribed steroid and anti-viral medicines, I'm also looking into alternatives, specifically acupuncture. I'll keep you posted via this blog, and hopefully I'll be back to my full smiling self soon!

8 years ago...

(I realize that I never finished updating my vacation pictures here... I'll get back to them eventually :)

Anyway - today is my 8 year wedding anniversary, and I just wanted to take the time to reflect back on that beautiful day 8 years ago.

• It's was an absolutely gorgeous day - sunny and 70 degrees. I couldn't have asked for better wedding weather!

• We were married exactly 11 days after 9/11. And when it first happened, I thought about postponing the wedding, but then thought it would be better to just go on with it - while it was an emotional time, we weren't personally affected by a loss in either family. There were a few people who didn't make it because they weren't willing to fly at that time (luckily air traffic was flowing again by then, but just barely!)

• My gift to my bridesmaids was to pay for their hair and makeup to be done along with mine at a salon. This then lead to a near disastrous situation, which my maid of honor (who is still one of my best friends) will never let herself forget. As she was helping me put on my dress, part of the skirt toppled back and into her face (which was freshly made-up) and left a couple 'kisses'. We were already running a few minutes late, and were trying to think of what to do to get the lipstick off the dress - but didn't want to try some of the crazy ideas that came from the salon (spraying it with hairspray)... and voila, my other bridesmaid pulled a Shout Wipe out of her purse... and it worked! I had a hard time finding where the kisses were!! But, what's a wedding without some drama, right!?

• What did Dave do during the hours in the morning before the wedding? Cut the grass at our house (which I hadn't moved into yet), hang the new kitchen cabinets, put up some moulding - and then went to Blimpie's for a sub with his groomsmen before heading over to the reception hall.

• The ceremony was in the reception hall - and went much faster than I thought it would. Then we were off to take pictures. While I was happy with the photography work that we had seen - it all went down hill as the day went on with our photographer. We went to Morton Arboretum for pictures... and he proceeded to get us lost trying to find the spot he wanted to go - and taking us into an area that was mosquito central. So, we had to pay to get most of the photos retouched to remove all the big red welts that were on everyone's arms! (All photos in this blog post are courtesy of Val, my Maid of Honor - none of these shots were from our 'actual' photographer.)

• Then dinner... the whole reason that we chose the reception hall in the first place... the BEST wedding dinner ever, in my opinion! Followed by an amazing cake!!

• Then there was the party! We had to do the Father of the Bride/Mother of the Groom dance twice because the photographer's camera didn't work the first time around (what?!?). We got Ed to dance, and Melissa danced with my Grampa (who was 91 at the time).

It was an amazing day - now I just might pull out my album and look through the pictures again!!

Wall Drug - Day two - July 12th (Part 1)

Day 2 was Sunday. Luckily most 'tourist' spots and National Monuments realize that people travel and see things on Sundays. So, we didn't miss anything due to the fact that it was Sunday!

So, we got up and left the crappiest motel ever into the crappiest vacation weather ever. Rain and gray skies. Blech! Luckily - we were already on the back-side of the big blob on my trusty (when there's a good cell signal) radar thanks to weather.com on my phone. And, as we were traveling west, we would be moving away from the rain. By the time we reached Wall, SD the sun was starting to peek through.And, the first intersection off the highway that required attention certainly let you know it!

I wish I would have gotten the kids out to show the scale of this sign because it's hard to tell from the picture - but apparently they don't want people to miss this stop!

So, we found parking on Main Street - which was already crowded, at 9am on a Sunday. And talk about parking! If you're headed north on Main St. there's parking on both sides of you, turn and head south, and you can park along the right side. And, most of this parking was already full when we arrived.
So, we got out and decided to head in - not knowing what to expect, and hoping to find breakfast. (Since we had passed on the 4 english muffins that were who knows how old at the motel.)And, across the street... there's this... now - maybe it's because I've grown up in a more suburban environment that has the occasional Adult Store and billboards for gentlemens clubs, and I know that A LOT of bikers stop here in the summer on the way to Sturgis - but is this really an appropriate location? Then we get a little closer, and see the details on the awning - South Dakota's Finest Gold... it's a jewelry store! Seriously?!?

And, in case you were wondering the exact, specific location of Wall Drug - here you go:
And, Sofia... the one who won't sit next to Ronald McDonald on a bench was really excited about the creepy cowboy statue just inside Entrance 3 - the door we chose.

Then there was the saddle over the barrel - I was happy to get a couple good pictures of them being slightly normal (it was still relatively early in the morning... and I had told them they could have pancakes for breakfast.)
Thankfully, Sofia didn't notice these decorations that adorned the upper walls of Wall Drug.
And, right as Alan was asking to go potty, we came across this sign in the "Backyard". I can't say that they were any fancier than any of the other restrooms we'd come across as of yet (besides creepy motel bathroom).
Then, Alan asked the question of the day... "These are the faces in the mountain?" (Which is what we had been calling Mt Rushmore in order for them to somewhat understand what we were going to see.) Considering there was an in ground 'dancing fountain' (which would have been more fun if it wasn't 65 degrees and still drizzling) - I could see where the confusion came in.

So, they pretended to be pioneers...

And again, did amazingly well - I didn't think Sofia would get nearly this close to the stuffed buffalo.
And then there's the Jack-a-lope. I have no other words for that one.
And, the well that started all of this. Apparently a family, The Hustead's were on their way out west and discovered this Ice Water well. So, they decided to open a drug store, centered on this well - and offering Free Ice Water to travelers passing through.
I'm surprised that the water is still free -but it was far from ice cold... but maybe it's because it wasn't blazing hot outside. It tasted pretty much like the well water that comes out of the tap at my mom's house in Warrenville.
After this mildly refreshing drink - we headed back inside to eat breakfast. They had a very strange setup. You could get the buffet breakfast (which had about 6 different things to pick from) or your could order meals from a menu. We chose the menu route because the kids wanted pancakes, and those weren't available in the buffet. The food was only OK - and the 5 cent coffee was surprisingly good... considering we'd seen billboards advertising it starting in Minnesota... seriously... Minnesota!!After breakfast, we walked a little down Main Street and up the other side. Between Wall Drug itself, and the stores along the street. Imagine all of the Wisconsin Dells souviner and t-shirt shops, various art stores, and cram them all into one block. Oh, and replace all but one of the fudge shops with jewelry stores selling South Dakota genuine gold. There was one candy/fudge shop inside Wall Drug. The kids each got a souviner from here, thanks to grandpa. Sofia picked a stuffed white buffalo and Alan picked a stuffed black bear with a Wall Drug t-shirt on it. I also grabbed a rememberance... a baseball cap & t-shirt combo.Then as we were heading back to the car to get on the road again Dave spotted this. The coolest road-trip vehicle ever! I could totally imagine being retired and taking trips in this!

So, we were on the road again... next stop - Mt. Rushmore!

The Trip Begins - Day One, July 11th, 2009

My original plan was to leave the house at 6am. But I knew that wouldn't happen, with getting two pre-schoolers up and out of bed 2 hours earlier than usual. Dave's dad arrived at our house at 6, and we piled everything into the car (all neat an organized... I should have taken pictures of the car when we left vs. when we arrived!) Anyway, we actually got on the road shortly after 7am. Not too bad. The kids were excited (Sofia got her very own Leapster 2, and they both got a few new games), we had more than enough snacks to make it through the day, and off we went!

And they each had a new 'car pillow' - which I bought to help them keep from having the sleeping kid bobbing head issue. Alan never slept in the car the entire drive and Sofia decided that it was best used to hide her eyes during parts of movies that she thought were too scary. She did fall asleep in the car on nearly every long stretch of driving, and I would try to put the pillow under her chin to keep her head up, and usually she just ended up nuzzling into it instead.
I'm not going to pretend I know how long we were driving in each section of this trip... I was pretty engrossed in my book (finishing up New Moon at the time). But before long we entered Wisconsin!

And before I knew it we hit the Mississippi River. I was all excited to tell the kids about the 'big bridge' over the Mississippi (like on I-80 into Iowa) - but turns out I-90 crosses the river in a strange place where it's not one 'big' river, but looks more like 4 small rivers. So it wasn't nearly exciting as I had lead them to believe.

And then we were in Minnesota!
And, got to see something that I wish we would have seen A LOT more of on the way.... a wind farm!
And, the thing that Dave thought would make the 'coolest' scrap book page...
OK - are we going the wrong way, or did that truck just come on the exit ramp?
Uh, Dave... really... might want to move out of the way!
Seriously!
Whew! Dodged it!

OK - it was just a semi being towed. But I'm proud of my back seat/zoom photo skills for these. (And that the camera didn't focus on the bug splats instead of the truck!)

And, Minnesota also brought the first chorus of "Cows, cows, cows! Mommy, I see cows!" by Sofia!
And, again before I knew it... South Dakota!
Our goal was to make it to Rapid City on the first day (14 hours from home) - but we didn't quite make it that far. So we stopped for dinner at a Culver's. And saw some crazy art in a field...
And we crossed the Missouri River... which was almost more impressive than the Mississippi!
Some scenic rolling hills...And, sunset... before we checked into the worst motel ever!
We stopped in Kadoka, SD at the Dakota Motel. Certainly the nastiest motel I've ever experienced. I wished I would have packed my own sheets, and wouldn't put my toothbrush on the counter. Although I wish I would have taken a picture of the (I'm assuming) owner. He reminded me a lot of my Grampa that I remember from when I was little. So, we vowed that we would only stay in National Chain motels for the rest of the trip... Motel 6 became our friend!
This was actually in the morning, the beds were made when we arrived. Note the fly swatter on the mini-fridge. Yay, a mini-fridge... but it wasn't plugged in, and when opened had a horrible smell, and was all blackened in the back. I didn't dare open up the microwave. Oh, and the smoke detector was present in the room, not on the wall, but sitting on the shelf next to the TV... with no battery. And there was the largest daddy long legs spider behind the curtain we'd ever seen. Who knows how long it'd been since someone had even stepped foot into that room.

But there was a heated pool... that over looked I-90!
So, if you're ever driving through South Dakota, and need a place to stop for the night, skip the Dakota Motel in Kadoka and drive a little longer!

But, we got sleep and headed off to Rapid City/Keystone and Mount Rushmore in the morning!

Road Trip

So, we decided to take a road trip. We kind of threw it together at the last minute because Dave was going to be off work for 2 weeks. And, those two weeks snuck up on us! Luckily, we were planning on staying with family, and heading along an interstate highway (as opposed to back roads).

We left Saturday morning the 11th, and returned home Monday night the 20th. With a full 4 1/2 days in Montana visiting Dave's Aunt and Grandma - which was a pleasure for sure!

They live in Stevensville, Montana - which, for those of you unfamiliar with Montana (as I was), is about an hour south of Missoula, which is on the western edge of the state.

You can see a mountain peak from their back porch that's in Idaho (I have pictures). They live in the Bitterroot Valley, so named because of the Bitterroot River.

We spent 2 and 1/2 days driving in each direction (because we weren't sure how or if the kids would sleep in the car), and we didn't want to have to drive at night really. I say we but really it turned out to be Dave. Of the 3900 miles we drove in 10 days, he did about 3600 of them! I was perfectly willing to drive, but honestly quite enjoyed the chance to ride and be the movie switcher/snack and drink getter/game, toy, and book changer/and book reader (as I'm making my way through the Twilight series). [Thankfully, my history of not being able to read in the car without getting a headache or car sick was a phase that I apparently grew out of!]

We took I-90 all the way there, and I have 1250 pictures to prove it! (Don't worry I won't post them all!)

So, as much as I'm sure that someone out there might find this interesting - it's as much for my own recolection (and scrapbooking later) that I write about these 10 days! Here goes...