Re-Nash 2008!!

I purchased a plane ticket for next Friday to Nashville, TN! This is something I was afraid would never come through and I am so happy it is! My beloved housemates from last year and I were all going to reunite there for an extended weekend. We have been planning this since this summer and I had originally cancelled my ticket because of the surgery. I had been told I wouldn't be able to fly but because of my good report Dr. Ray thinks it will be fine. Once he figured out that I was determined to go even if I was going to drive there he said he would rather I fly and have an easier trip so I happily purchased a ticket and cannot wait to be reunited with the coolest/artsyiest/funnest/most interesting ladies around in Tennessee!

Check Up

I went to my first check up yesterday and it went really well. My doctor was very excited with how well everything went, so excited he clapped and jumped a little--more on him later. The only downside is that I don't get my stitches out for another week so I have to put up with the uncomfortable stuff in my mouth for that much longer. Oh and I still can't chew but in happier news I am now allowed to return to spicier and acidic food I wasn't allowed to eat the first week so I am currently enjoying a nice bowl of tomato soup.

Back to Dr. Ray. My surgeon is a very eccentric and interesting man, he really reminds me of the guy that plays the main character in the Italian movie Life is Beautiful. He is probably the best doctor I've ever had when it comes to patient relationships and also the most interesting. He is from Trinidad and has an incredibly beautiful soft accent. He is very attentive and comforting which was nice during my intense surgery. When I went in for my check up my dad and I walked in and I signed in at the counter where Dr. Ray happened to be walking by, he saw us and quickly hid behine the pillar. At first I thought he was trying to be funny and then I realized that he was wearing a costume and he didn't want me to see it yet. He waved and darted behind the next pillar quickly and got out of there. I then realized all of the nurses were wearing fuzzy halos and wings over their scrubs. So they are angels--what is he? Well it turns out he was Charlie. I came in a sat in the examination chair and Dr. Ray come excitedly in and yes, poses, wearing a suit with an unbuttoned flipped up collar, suspenders, a fedora with tiger stripes on it, and a massive cigar that says Big Daddy on it. Hilarious. Not your average specialized surgeon. He did the examination fairly quickly and was very excited about my progress. He then said "ok, now I must go show your dad my costume!" and darted away. My nurse said she liked my boots and walked me out.
Good day at the doctors office.

Help please!!

I am so hungry!! I cannot eat anything that is chewable so basically I am on liquids. I have been eating a lot of soup and pudding that I do enjoy. But I am so sick of all of it too. My nice mother has made me homemade applesauce and cream of wheat every morning which is nice, but it is getting old fast. I just ate refried beans out of a can, and enjoyed it, that's how desperate I am! I do not know how much longer this is going to go on but it stinks!

(keep in mind I am lactose intolerant, so milkshakes and ice cream are out--no fun for me)

The Results...

Well, the surgery is over, well actually it was over on Friday afternoon, I am just now up to writing about it a little. I am still lying in my pajamas on my couch 3 days later with liquids, drugs, and stitches, but the worst is over and I am relieved.

I appreciate everyone that prayed for me and has written me because I know it helped. The surgery itself was very long, 3 hours, and more intensive than originally planned (kind of the theme of this whole saga). The abscess was more spread out than they could see on x-rays and actually went all the way to the tip of my chin and spread out width length under other teeth that they were also unaware of. But they believe they removed it all and I feel like my surgeons did such a good job and I really appreciated their attentiveness, kindness, and humor throughout the ordeal.

I still am pretty shocked that they don't put people completely under for this sort of thing. I've had a lot of dental work done so I'm not a wimp but it was a pretty horrific experience to be awake for. Lots of blood, lots of cutting, and lots of just awfulness in general. And it is quite the strange experience to have your mouth stitched through the front (under the teeth) all the way through the back and out again--while you're awake!

Anyways, enough of that. I wanted to post a picture of all of my stitches but I realized it was just plain disgusting and nobody needed to see that. But I do have a swollen jaw and I talk funny around these stitches. Also, I'm so hungry! Liquids are fine but they are getting old fast, luckily I like soup and soup likes me. I am very thankful for good friends who have brought me flowers, gifts, cards, frozen hot chocolates, and lots of hugs. I'm also very thankful for my parents who have taken very diligent care of me fixing all of my liquids and keeping me straight on the ridiculous amount of bone vitamins, steroids, antibiotics, and painkillers I am on. I feel like our kitchen table is now a pharmacy, but I'm thankful for those painkillers let me tell you!

I will continue to update as time goes on. Hopefully I will get my stitches out on Thursday and a good report from my first checkup. Thanks again for everyone that prayed for me or contacted me in some way. It has meant a lot.

Surgery Day--Friday

Tomorrow at 1pm I am having my surgery. I am very happy to be getting this over with but I am also fairly nervous. Hopefully it won't take more than an hour and I will be left with stitches and new jaw material. The other concern I have is that I have to be awake for the procedure, I would rather be under, but it will probably be better this way.

Pray that I will be calm and tough. That everything will go smoothly and that I willl recover quickly!

Cousins galore!--last Florida installment

Probably the biggest draw to Florida and the best part of our trip was visiting my extended family there. My dad's youngest brother and his wife live in Brookesville, FL out in the country in the most beautiful part of FL in my opinion. I have 5 boy cousins there consisting of a youth pastor married with 2 children trying to head to the mission field in China, a state trooper--married, a college wrestler, and 2 high school footbal, wrestling, track studs. They have also been favorite playmates of my brothers and I growing up and I always took care of the younger boys--yes I changed Zack's (the youngest) diapers and it horrifies him to this day! Robbie (the oldest) has 2 little ones named Kenny (2 years) and Lydia Ann (almost 1). They are super special to us and we enjoyed them thoroughly. It's always a good time when Pritzs get together.

Ybor City--Cuban Paradise

Tampa is a surprising boiling pot of cultures and I very much enjoyed getting to experience a few of them. My parents lived in Germany for a number of years after they got married in the late 70s and my dad lived there as a child as well so I've grown up with a lot of German influence, particularly the food. We love German food and often have some type of sausage, bread, red cabbage, and sauerkraut for dinner. We ate a meal at Mr. Dunderbakt's--a great pub/restaurant near my Grandma's house and we definitely indulged ourselves and felt it in our stuffed tummies for the rest of the day.

Another super cool part of downtown Tampa is Ybor City. This is a Hispanic conglomerate. It is where lots and lots of cigar factories were once booming and now it's more of culture and food paradise as well as partyville at night. We enjoyed Cuban sandwiches and yellow rice at Hugo's and then walked around enjoying watching an old man hand roll cigars and seeing all of the beautiful architecture surrounded by palm trees. It is definitely a colorful part of town and I am sure if we would have stuck around til the sun went down we would have seen an even more colorful crowd--but I don't think my 86 year old grandma was up for that!

Tampa Bay, Yay!

My parents and I just returned from a fun vacation/visiting family in Tampa, FL. I wanted to post while I was there but my grandmother's computer was just a little too archaic for my taste and I had opted out of messing with my trying to bring my laptop along. So that is why I have been gone for the last week and am just getting around to posting several posts all at once.

The first full day in Tampa we headed across the bay in St. Pete to the beach at Fort DeSoto where we have always gone growing up and with all of my boy cousins. It was a gorgeous day, just enough clouds to keep my skin from frying and warm enough that the water felt delicious!

Autumn. Otono. Automne.

Top 10 things that I am happy about/looking forward to/thankful for (in no particular order):

1. It is finally starting to be fall in Oklahoma! My favorite season. Today was downright blustery and chilly. I wore a cardigan...it was heavenly.

2. Friday is my 24th birthday, sounds so bizarre to say that number, wow.

3. This weekend is JBU Homecoming and I am looking forward to many fun friends and sweet reunions!

4. My surgery is less than a month away.

5. I am going to Florida for a week in 5 days!

6. My cold is so much better and may be gone in a few days...God bless Theraflu!

7. I got to talk to my good friend Pepe on Saturday all the way from Guatemala (who ran a marathon the next day, no big deal.)

8. I am receiving so much love and fun from caretaking the Freeman kids this week--they are a true joy in my life.

9. I thank God that my friend Micah's life was spared in a very serious motorcycle accident last week and that his injuries are so minor in comparison to what could have been.

10. I get to see two of my dear housemates this weekend at Homecoming and I am more excited about that than I can put into words. I love and miss 340!

To close I will include a picture of me and the 340 housies last fall in our Halloween costumes. We love playing dress up and apparently never grew out of our American Girl Doll obsession...

tissues, lots of them.

I have a full-blown cold right now. It is not fun and I am house-sitting/babysitting the Freeman kids for the week. I am enjoying that immensely but I need to feel good and energized to stay on top of taking care of a 11, 15, and 17 year old!

Pray that this cold will be short-lived and not an encouraging infection for the already present infection of absess in my system!

I heart CO

I came across this photo my friend Diana took and it made me miss Lake City. It made me miss the Mocha Moose, the best little mountain coffee joint ever. It made me miss Diana because of the goofy man in the middle of the picture that got his butt in the center of our photo and how I remember laughing about that with her. It really made me miss the cute blond, Silas, and all of the other little Hartman grandchildren as well as the Hartmans in general!

Not so fun Fridays....

So this morning was a lot more like a Mondayish morning than a Friday.

My pain medication makes me exhausted during waking hours and restless during the night. So frustrating! So I am up and down all night last night knowing that I am subbing for 7th grade in the morning and need to be pumped and rested.

I wake up at 7 and feel pretty sick, I think I am getting a cold, which is not good because the doctors have told me to stay ultra healthy in order to beat the infection and get the surgery underway...so there's that. So my throat is sore and my eyes are sore and I am contemplating calling in and seeing if they can get another sub. I decide since it is just a half day that it is worth toughing out and getting some pay out of it.

I jump in the shower and the next thing I know our door bell is clicking (it has always been broken, never rings, it clicks!). So I think surely my dad is home and will handle whatever this is, nope. Then I think well mom doesn't leave until 8 so she'll get it, nope she's already gone too. So I run to the door from the shower hair dripping, robe soaking wet, ego bruised because I slipped on the second flight of stairs trying to get down to the front door. I am met by, and I'm not kidding, like 6 men in their late 20s, early 30s who are here to re-roof our house. Awesome, they told us they would come on Saturday, but whatever they are gonna fix our hail-damaged roof. So I am out on the front lawn with them showing them where different things are and moving our cars one by one onto the grass.

Then I call my father--the superintendent where I sub--to tell him I'll be late because his roof is being surprised re-roofed that day. So I'm driving with one hand holding a coffee mug, the other holding my cell phone, then trying to put lipgloss on, and pin my hair back, and mess with the radio station all at once. I also realized that my mug of choice for the week--I tend to go through mug obsessed stages where I am really into one coffee mug that week and will wash it out and use it over and over that week and then get sick of it by Monday and start fresh--is blatantly a Christmas mug with trees and stars and Santa on it. I seriously had not noticed this up until Friday morning, I thought it just had painted things on it, so I guess I am just psychologically excited about the holidays.

I get to school and get signed in and head down the hall where I am hugged several times and greeted with "Mrs. Pritz!" "are you my sub?" "are you Mr. Pritz's daughter?" "are you Mr. Pritz's wife?". So my first hour has eighteen 7th grade boys half of them wearing football jerseys because it's game day. They were interesting, but fun, I had to work hard to keep them reigned in and focused especially since my sore throat is making my voice go fast.

I went home after lunch and couldn't stand the hammering, pounding, nailing, and ripping, and decided to head to Sapulpa's awesome coffee hangout Java Dave's. I am sitting here quietly drinking my soy latte and writing this therapeutic post. I think I might have to take a nap on this overstuffed couch.....

Ireland Revisited

The fall of my Junior year at JBU, which was the semester following my first trip to Northern Ireland, I talked to the students of the Chrisitian school held at my church about my experiences. I also shared with them my experiences ministering in the public schools there. To cap it all of we had Irish tea, scones, and other treats I made from my little Irish cookbook.


Well, they asked if I would come again and show the small group of students my pictures and talk some about the culture and traditions. I also decided to make Irish tea again and Pavlova. Pavlova is the yummy dessert that almost all of my host families made and something we particularly ate the first time I went when we were located in Belfast. I brought the recipe back with me and have made it several times for different occasions here at home. It is very fun to make and such a strange but delicious dessert! The kids really liked it and I enjoyed seeing my pictures again, watching our team DVD from Carryduff, and reminiscing about such an awesome experience I have been blessed to have!

Demo

Well I have decided to use some of my time at home now to redo my bathroom. When we first moved to our house when I was 9 the pastel shades and the heart and dove wallpaper was no big deal, but for the last 7 years or so I have wanted to rip it all apart. Sunday my mom and I along with Laurie and Jessie Freeman did just that. We really got a lot done in a short period, it was awesome, and I'm super excited to get it completely done.

My plan is to paint the walls purple, repaint all the cabinets white, do some funky stenciling or painting in the cut-outs in the cabinets, and get all new vintage looking or silver faucets and fixtures. Stay tuned for more bathroom develpments!