When I went to the dentist in Los Alamos, the dentist was very concerned with my gums, so while in Fort Collins, I managed to schedule some serious periodontal surgery. Dr. Angie Lee (the best in the area I am told) and her staff stayed late after hours on Tuesday evening specifically to take care of me and get it done in the short time I am here! I am very easily anesthitized, and I was glad that was going to happen when I heard her say, "Now remember that I am going to cut and stitch your gums on the upper right quadrant, the upper left quadrant, the lower left quadrant and the lower right quadrant." It was a three hour surgery and I was just fine afterwards. Slight pain and a little swelling, but I felt good enough to go to lunch with my good friends from the Water Lillies on Wednesday!

SOMEbody must have taken some good photos, but I don't know who, and unfortunately, it wasn't me.

However, after that there was a bit of drama with my mouth. On Wednesday night, I didn't sleep much (awake from 1:30 to 5:00 am) and at 5 am I decided to take some melatonin and a pain pill. Then, when I woke up at 8, I was supposed to take 3 steroids ( to help with the swelling) but I was a bit groggy and confused, so instead I accidentally took 3 pain killers. I have never done well with pain killers, they make me hallucinate. So I got very dizzy and had to lie down.

I was entertained a while with a tiny mouse orchestra complete with red uniforms and marching band caps, being conducted by Betty Boop wearing red and white striped leggings under her tiny mini skirt! Also Chris flew around on the ceiling like some kind of demented bat with khaki pants and a plaid shirt. And I'm pretty sure that Bette Midler came to visit.

My nose itched and my shoulders were cold but didn't want to move to cover up or scratch

I threw up every time I ate something - that was probably helpful!. My teeth chattered and at one point my thighs were chattering and I was sweating! I slept off and on until 4 pm, and Chris kept checking on me to make sure I was still breathing. Now I'm writing this, feeling better and eating instant mashed potatoes. We'll see how I do, and I wonder if I'm going to sleep tonight??

Not a good day for working on Jonathan's quilt. I love that boy, and I love making things for him, but I have to admit I have started calling it "that damn quilt". SO much work! But it's going to be spectacular and hopefully we will both be proud of it. He doesn't often read my blog, anyway, so he won't know how much I am working and complaining. And don't you tell him!

Even with a sore mouth, I feel like I have to take advantage of every opportunity to see my kidlets! So when Karla invited her whole family over for hamburgers, I had to manage, even if I couldn't eat. I made a strawberry jello salad, so that there was something soft I could eat, and everyone gathered. It was great to be with everyone, and I took lots of photos! Here is Karla's brother, Patrick, with wife Heather, and kids, Emmet, Kate and Esben.

Then we have Karla's sister, Christina, who just recently moved to Fort Collins from Virginia with her husband, Josh, and son, Orion.

And of course, Karla, Lily, Jude, Aaron, Owen, Ezra and Joel

One thing I thought was funny, as we sat around in a circle in the backyard, was how everyone had on neutral colors.

Patrick, Heather, Andrew and Aaron...

                                                        Debra with her girls, Karla and Christina...and then there's me!

Oh well, what can I say? Color is my thing!

Here is a photo of the whole BUNCH of us! Can you name us all now?

Thanks to all for a lovely evening.

On Sunday, I had made arrangement with Candace Magner (from Los Alamos) to meet up with her in Denver to see the Cirque de Soleil show named "Kooza" because Katy Holtcamp was IN it! I was her sixth grade teacher, and Candace was her first voice teacher, and she has been a goal of hers to be the singer in Cirque for years and years. It just goes to show you that if you work at something long enough, it can be achieved! It was a wonderful show, and my photos do NOT do it justice, so I have borrowed some from Candace and stolen some from the web! This first one is from Candace and the gal in yellow is Katy - our student!

The photo on the left here shows the height of the apparatus from the stage (with Katy behind in the yellow) and the one on the right is from the web - showing the crazy things these aerialists did on the high wire!

This was my favorite act - "The Wheel of Death" - so scary and quite impressive! The other highly dangerous act - the Teeter Board, also made me gasp.

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This shows the height, and then the strength of thisacrobat.

OK - That's about the best I can do.  The formatting is NOT easy.  After the show, we met up with Katy and she gave us a backstage tour!  Fun.  The white board below shows the basic show with any changes or substitutions listed in red, so that everyone knows the correct format.  The flags above the board denote all the countries that are represented in the cast!  Pretty cool.

A few of the Water Lillies were able to meet for donuts on Monday - Here are Christy, Connie, Donna, Jo and me.

The last thing is, just for fun I wanted to show you our downstairs family room with my quilting mess all over!

There is a large screen TV on the right side of that room, so I could vaguely watch stuff while I stitch. The good news is that I THINK I got finished, except for the binding and a weird, wonky edge. I will take it with me to Michigan (leaving tomorrow) because we have our car, so I don't have to pay for the extra weight in a suitcase on a flight. When I figure out what to do with the wonky edge and get the binding on, I will CERTAINLY take a photo of the finished product, so never fear! Write back if you have a chance. I love to hear from you!