Switchin' things up a bit.

Hopefully this plan of action will work how I'm thinking it will. The thought is to replace my facebook addiction with some blog action. And since I found this app that allows me to blog right from my phone...I'm hoping I can be successful in my desires to un-fb myself a little. So how bout a Ben video to get us started.... Gotta figure this part out!

Mwahahahaha

Bet yall thought I no longer existed...Well I do. Just posting a little something for fun. I don't even think anyone will notice since well, It's been 2 years...Oops. How time flies when you're having fun!

YUM!!

I was greeted

by this CHEEEEEEEESY lips today and I got to kiss them.

It was the best part of my entire day.

Holy Crap

I am taking nap time tomorrow to blog. Pictures, videos and all. I better get to uploading those pictures now so I can be prepared. In the meantime I'll give the written update now.

Well I'll just start from the beginning...

My chronic key problem.
Last Tuesday March 11th I was going to meet my friend Allison for margarita night at La Hacienda, but I had to get diapers first. When leaving Meijer I realized my keys were nowhere to be found. Go figure. So I called Alli and let her know my delayed status and she agreed to meet me at Meijer to help theive some wire hangers and break into my vehicle. She must be involved in some activities I am unaware of. The pottery class she claims to attend one night a week must be a criminal activity meeting because she was way too good at the theiving and breaking in. This is not the first time I've had a key issue that involved Allison, or margaritas, or a superstore for that matter. Quite a few months prior to this Meijer adventure Allison and I went to Wal-Mart after our margarita date and I lost my car keys...they vanished into thin air. I got out of the car and never saw them again. Heidi, my former roomie had to come get me, take me home to get my spare, and return me to Wal-Mart and Allison and my car. Apparently no one else has seen my keys since they are still missing. So that was Tuesday and the rest of the week wasn't anything to write about until we get to Friday...

My home sweet home is falling apart and owned by a college idiot...I mean student!
Friday night, March 14th, Matt and I are catching up on our very important DVR shows when like clockwork the bass kicks on on the other side of the wall. Did I mention that the owner/landlord/college idiot is my duplex mate? He was taking his 4th shower of the day which is part of his routine that Matt and I are well aware of. We can hear his water running and every thud of his music for every shower of the day. (my baby is sleeping restlessly. I wonder if he is experiencing acid reflux since he ate almost half the brand new container of grape tomatoes we bought today) And through all that ruckus Matt notices that our heat wasn't kicking on. So we call the landlord and he says he'll get someone out to look at it first thing in the morning. 11a.m. Saturday no word on anything. I had to call the landlord's mother, who was out of town at the time, to finally get something accomplished. It didn't matter though because it was not as simple as a pilot light...no, we need a special part, of course, and we can't get it until Monday, of course. So we get out the electric heaters...one in our room, one in Ben's room and the large stand up electric oil one (i think it's oil) in the living room...and start blowing fuses left and right. We manage to make it to Monday when acquired my first tardy to work (I woke up at 7:50 a.m. and am supposed to be at work at 8. That wasn't happening.) and I knew it was going to be one of those weeks!

Tuesday was good. We had heat and electricity without any problems and I got to work with my favorite doctor all day. Wednesday is when some men came hiking up our side yard to look at the remains of a dead tree completely surprising Matt to the point he thought they were robbers and was ready to strike. No one had informed us of these visitors and that seemed to be the theme of the week as far as home goes.

Thursday brings us back to my chronic key issues. I went out to start my car to get it warm and defrosted. I was just going to sit in it while it defrosted but realized that I had Ben's carseat (the one that goes in Matt's car) in my car and needed to bring it in. So I go to the passenger side where the carseat was and brought it in. When I returned to my running vehicle, heat on full blast inside, the damn thing was locked. Go effin figure. I told Matt what I'd done and proceeded to try and break in myself, but apparently I suck at it unless I've had margaritas and Allison is around. So I called my wonderful, reliable Heidi who is a proud AAA Gold member and has plenty of experience utilizing her membership. It is about 7:45 a.m. and she gladly phoned AAA while on her way to my house in her cute blue jammies to help rescue me once again. My car was free of frost and the leather was nice and toasty when I got it. I finally made it to work around 9:00...my second day this week being late.
Later that day the uninformed visitors theme continued when the doorbell rang. Matt was changing Ben's diaper and couldn't get to the door in time. When he opened it the only evidence of a person was a wet footprint on our front porch...no cars, no people, just one footprint. So he checked the back to see if perhaps the mystery guest parked back there. Nope, nada. So he resumes his activities when there is a knock at the back door. He answers it and there is a redneck looking man there who begins his conversation with "Your bathtubs leaking and I'm here to fix it." We've heard nothing about our tub leaking or experienced any leakage ourselves and heard nothing of who we now know is Billy the plumber coming by. Matt explained to him that he wasn't so sure he was comfortable with his story being that our landlord had given us no mention of this problem. Again, Matt was in attack mode, thinking "Who is this guy? Did he wonder off of New Circle (which runs right behind our house) or something? " Billy the plumber revealed that he had been informed of the leak after the heater man noticed it while fixing the heat. I'm glad we're so in the loop! So Matt allowed him to do his thing...which was not the right thing to do. At first Billy the plumber explained that we had "a hole 'bout like 'at" jestering to the tip of his pinky finger. He explained further that he was going to fix this hole with appoxy of some sort and it would take 4-5 hours before we could use our tub. It came time for Ben's bath and we did our usual night-time routine and went to bed thinking surely the water would drain overnight even though it was going very slowly. We were wrong. The water hadn't moved an inch by morning and it was a shower day for me. I leaned over the tub and used our detachable shower nozzle to wash my hair and cleaned my face with my olay wipes and that was as good as it was gonna get. In short, I don't remember how we went about getting a hold of our landlord and his mother and Billy the plumber but we did and friday he replaced all the pipes. Our tub works better than it has the entire time we've lived here and I've never felt so glad that it was Friday in my life. And Friday evening was good. Matt and I treated ourselves to Lobster Fest at Red Lobster as our belated Valentine's Day celebration. I am a major procrastinator...if you couldn't tell. So, now I have to get to uploading all my goodies for my blog time tomorrow. Good night all.

Leiah J. Hensley, EDDA!!!!!!!!

As of today I am proud to say that I have successfully passed dental assisting school with flying colors! This is a post I wish I could do later because of lack of resources (being at work and all). I'll include the pics and whatever later, but I really just want to take this time to brag on me. I HAVE CREDENTIALS FOR CRYIN' OUT AS LOUD AS I POSSIBLY CAN!!!!

My adventure began on August 8, 2007 when I walked into the Academy of Dental Assisting for orientation to my clinical assisting class. I anxiously snagged a seat in the front (one out of three were occupied while the second and third rows were completely filled!) and awaited the beginning of my new career training. The following 8 weeks I mastered the tooth numbers and surfaces, tofflemire and matrix band combination complete with rubber dam, X-ray safety and technique, dental instruments names and passing them, impressions (taking, pouring, and trimming), proper safety guidelines for myself, patients and the dental office according to OSHA...and maybe a few more little things. October 10, 2007 I was diligently tested in these areas and was almost certified to work as a chairside dental assistant (A 40 hour internship was the last requirement I had to meet before actually receiving certification). I am not positive of my exact grade but I believe it was in the 90th percentile.

October 10th was also the day I began my business dental assisting class. That one was not as exciting as clinical but still very informative and my teacher was really great. We learned all about how to answer the phone, insurance claims and codes, collecting money, scheduling and dental computer software....a bunch of stuff that I don't want to do for a living, but am glad to have a better understanding of. It will also be very beneficial to an office that I am cross-trained.

Last but certainly not least, Expanded Duties! This class was extremely fun. There were only four students (two of which were in clinical class with me) and our teacher was HAlarious. Here we learned about the handpieces, otherwise known as drills, and all the different burs that go with the handpieces, but my favorite part of all was when we learned how to place fillings! Amalgam (silver) and composite (tooth colored), and how to polish them up so they look nice and pretty. We also learned how to make temporary crowns and bridges. This class was so fun because we actually got to use the instruments and handpieces to create dental masterpieces. So today was the day that I took my final for this class and I am incredibly proud to say that my overall grade is...you'd better sit down...95%!!!! What exactly does that mean for me? I am an expanded duties dental assistant and, well, my official title from now until forever is LEIAH J. HENSLEY, E.D.D.A.

I'm proud and my accomplishments were showered upon me when I arrived home from Louisville where I spent 3 days this week completing my internship hours. Matt informed me that he had a surprise for me before I came home. I thought it was flowers and I was right, but, little did I know that when I walked through my back door I would be greeted by all of my certificates, framed and on display on the kitchen table accompanied by the flowers, a box of chocolate covered cherries, and a card from Matt telling me how proud he is of me for working so hard and doing so well. Man, it feels good! Now I have to find a job...

Here it goes...

I don't have much time since I had to clean and shower while Ben is napping so I have to figure out how to post these videos and get it done before my baby wakes up rearin' to go....

Ben giving a speech on swinging.

I didn't get done earlier because Ben woke up in the middle of the first video processing. I am at work now and luckily have the videos on my email so I can post them!! HOORAY I'm up to speed with the technology. Sorry if the quality isn't great...the videos are from my cell.

He looks like a little jailbird in that last one...but he is soooo cute. We try to have as much fun as possible. It is so fun to watch Ben get excited when he figures out we are at one of our common play places. When the weather permits (which is not often now that we're almost into December) we go to the park and when it is crappy out we go to the mall. They have a little play area and there is usually a good amount of kids there. Ben likes to play with the kiddos. I wish I could have...OH WAIT...I did get video of him there. It definately doesn't do the playtime justice. Ben was walking all over that play area growling and smiling at everyone he crossed paths with. I will try really hard to get video of his growls and his meows. I think my son was a tiger cub in a past life! Anyway, at the beginning of this video it looks like he clumsily falls over the obstacle however I assure you he planned that. His game at the time I started videoing was to climb back and forth over that thing. Then he decides to lay down. It's just how he plays!

Hope you enjoyed and I will make great efforts to continue my new found technical knowledge. Love to all our lovies.

I need to be studying....

But I had to check in on the blogs and they inspired me. There is so much going on I don't know where to start. Let's see, Ben turned one...

And we had a UK Football birthday party...complete with two cakes and about 20 lovies from near and far...some were even there via webcam. And the CATS beat the cards!!!

Ben got a ton of toys and we had a great first birthday for him. He is walking like a pro now and is very adventurous. My next post will have a good suprise if I can figure it out. Video of Ben romping at the park. He goes through the tubes and goes up and down the stairs. He is not too afraid of being up high and he really likes going on the slide and swinging now. But he doesn't stick to the playground equipment...oh, no. Ben likes to go on the hill and try to run down it to explore the rest of the grasslands at Kirklevington Park. He now knows when we are at the park. When we pulled up on Monday afternoon he got so excited and started bouncing around in his carseat! I really do have to study so I am going to blog again soon and continue my update. Hopefully I'll have some more pictures of Halloween soon and can get those posted. Stay tuned and wish me well on my final tomorrow night.