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About 1 and 1/2 years ago, I had a really bad experience with a dentist who is no longer with the company.  When the crown first came off, a Jefferson Dental dentist wanted to replace it, but I knew that insurance wouldn't pay for it.  Two other Jefferson Dentists also wanted it replaced, but not sure it was because notes or truly bad.

I was recently accepted at Baylor Dental school as a patient and they also wanted it replaced.  Again, knew insurance wouldn't cover it, so I took a chance and called Monarch Dental.  They made an appointment today to look at it.

And not only did their dentist, Dr. Ward, agreed, but has already taken it off and ordered a new one.

In fact, it is that experience that sent me to Baylor in the first place.  The dentist who put in the crown did not want to mess with pulling a tooth.  I already knew that Baylor Dental School had an extraction clinic, so went there and that's when I found out how to be a patient.

Neat part:  Dr. Ward went to Baylor Dental School.  Another lesson learned, find out where your dentist went to school.

I think I mentioned I tried acupuncture on the cruise and my knee was better.  Frankly just about anything anyone does makes it better — well, except my losing weight 🙁

One of the suggestions the acupuncture doctor had was to do yoga (or Tai Chi) so I looked up a studio that several friends in the dog world have used.  I called and mentioned the dog and they weren't sure.  I finally got someone pretty high up in the company and they explained that they hadn't had one before.

Biggest concern everyone had was the heat, but we do dog agility in Texas in the summer.  I put a cool bowl of water in the cage for her–which we drank before we went in.  She was fine, panting at the end but cooled down immediately when we got down.

And she was her perfect service dog self, not making a peep the entire class.

The class was good and I signed up for membership immediately.  I'm stiff today, but no more than usual.

I've spent too much of the year taking care of others, rather than me.  So I'm going back to the things that I did when I was losing weight and managing my diabetes.  That includes blogging.

I enjoyed the cruise — lost weight.  Unfortunately, while I enjoyed being with my husband, its when I "lost" him that I had the best time.

For our next cruise we are thinking about going on a poker cruise.  I think we would both like that better, as it would be easy to lose him.   Those seem to be mostly on Royal Caribbean, the good news is that the people who were on our cruse, said they liked Royal Caribbean as well as Princess.

The things that worked for me on the cruise ship were the number of steps I took each day, and the fact that I was very careful to follow the lap band rules.

What I loved the best, was having someone else deal with the room and the food.  The food part didn't impress my husband that much, he's happy with buffets, me not so much.

So over the next few weeks I'm focusing on me, dealing with diabetes, and working out. 

Now that I'm truly semi-retired, my next priority after the job is getting my health together.  Especially since my husband is back together — he celebrated his six-month anniversary on going back to work after his head injury.

I've been going to the gym most days — and have mixed feelings about the pool.  It's really hard on my hair.  It was also really cold and didn't feel that well on my joints the last time we had 70 degree weather.   I've learned that being there when there are children there isn't worth it, but hopefully that will change.

I have joined a new service — Livongo and have gotten their starter kit today.  My goal for them is to have someone I'm accountable to on a more frequent basis.  We'll see.  My last attempt at that didn't go well.

Well, it wasn't a virus.  They put her on anti-botics on Sunday, she stopped coughing on Tuesday.  That meant we could actually show on Sunday according to my vet who was at the trial.

And meant that she could go back to work for me on Monday.  I kept her well away from other dogs and stayed away from other dogs myself, just in case.

This is tough.

In my world, I like to go to dog shows, and since I'm physically active there, I need Dulce.  Frankly since my husband has recovered from his head surgery she goes just about everywhere.  Once in a while when I'm only going to the grocery store and I haven't been to the gym in awhile,  she stays home.  She also doesn't

I have one client that I see that I don't take her with me, on the request of the client.  I figure that's a good break for her.  The rest of the time she is with me.

So even if I wasn't competing, I'd be there.  I went specifically to videograph as a fundraiser for the American Beagle Relief fund. 

I hope to have three dogs competing next year.  I have a few people question whether is she is a service dog — she is, she helps me manage my blood sugar levels.  I have people questioning whether I should run her.  Well, we both enjoy it a lot, and dog agility is my incentive to stay physically active.

My doctor is encouraging me to train Macy, the older dog, and the new dog will definitely be trained.  In fact, it will be easier on the dogs if more than one has the load and they can take turns.

So I have a plan.  Dulce and Macy will stay home until one of the two events occur.

• Two weeks after the first cough (which will be the day before the next trial we're entered in)
• Or 4 days after the last cough, whichever is longer.

I'm feeling confident it will be next Saturday as Macy hasn't caught it yet.  That would reset the clock to two weeks after her first cough.  Dulce's coughing is very mild at this point.  A few minutes after waking this morning.

This year started out so bad.

Rich was really worried about his job, as the management had changed. 

I lost a gig that was really fun, but really stressful.

We went through the head injury.

But we are in a really, really good place now.

I just got back from the largest beagle party ever and had a REAL blast.  Unfortunately there were people at the agility trial who just had to spoil it and I let them.  However the conformation people were fabulous.

Yeah, there were mean girls there too.  But I am learning to not let that go on my nerves.  It's a real shame when people can't let you enjoy yourself and enjoy in the fun, but that's okay.

Getting back was even better — husband got a really good performance review. 

So we're looking forward to getting a new family member.  Hopefully she will be a half sister to Macy, hopefully she'll be someone I can show in conformation and finish, and hopefully she'll like agility as much as her sisters.

And if she isn't any one of those, we'll love her anyway.

Thank you, Julie, I wish I had met you in person but you gave me such lovely gifts.

I frequently joke that "My dog is better than CGMS"

Well Dulce has mastered a new behavior which I call, "taking care of mom at the pool"

It took a while for the situation to fit in my head but it really isn't much different than taking care of me in the classroom. Granted the pool is a bit larger but the distractions are generally less.

She started out in her cage, set towards the center of the far lane. I didn't know for sure if it would so was pretty cautious. Taking a lap swim class from a guy who trained with Gary Hall a lot. I figured he at least knew not to freak if I went low.

Now she sits at the end of the lane I am swimming in. She does get easily offended at the pool. She hates getting wet and does nit like other people around her cage. She will refuse to settle and cause me to have to quit swimming but it gets better everyday.

True she can't actually send the data to the cloud but I really don't need that. I just need to be told to stop before I go into a nasty low.

Sent from my Windows Phone

I frequently joke that “My dog is better than CGMS”

Well Dulce has mastered a new behavior which I call, “taking care of mom at the pool”

Sent from my Windows Phone

So after having lost my doctor's authorization for a 90 day script, the last medication arrived on the first day I needed to take them.  Fun part is that they arrived about 20 minutes after the website says they were delivered.  I'm getting tired of that people.

A few hours late, since it's a diuretic but here.  Even better as the original delivery date was on Monday and I hadn't decided if I was going to fill a 30 day or not, or even if they would let me.

I've managed to get everything in 1 and 1/2 small drawers, but partly of the fault with that is that they shipped me two sets of anti-inflammatories instead of one.

I still miss PillPack a lot.  Hopefully I'll be able to use them in January. 

As I told an OptumRX lead, it's really sad that I am looking forward to returning to ExpressScripts.

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