oh, hi. it's me

This is what I looked like when I got home from a trip to Walmart yesterday.

 Which shoes do you think I ought to have worn?  Sadly, that wasn't even why I ended up with mismatched shoes.  I just didn't look at my feet!  Jared had this comforting thought for me--You're going to end up on that Crazy Walmart People website!

On a happier note, look at my to-do list!

And now the real reason I am posting to my blog instead of making dinner:
 
A couple months ago, I had two of my ten amalgam fillings replaced.  I have been wanting to do this for ages, so that I am no longer exposed to mercury on a continual basis.  Not having been a flosser for the greater part of my childhood, I ended up with a mouthful of it.  I had happily signed up to take out one quadrant's worth of mercury in October.

I got the rest out earlier this week.  Let me emphasize that that is EIGHT fillings in a two-hour span.  (Too late, I realized that I had to finish replacing my fillings before the year was up in order to avoid repaying my deductible.)  I took one of the two appointments my dentist had left, thanking my lucky stars that he had an opening, and thinking, "big deal" to myself when I made it.

But then the day came.  I hadn't slept well--bad dreams.  As I drew my morning bath, I was kind of in basket-case mode.  I spent time right then and there praying for comfort, if there was any comfort to be had, and felt measurably better.  The rest of my day was punctuated with prayers for comfort, help, and angels--all that He could spare!

For any who don't know, I have compromised jaw joints, so the pressure put on them at a regular dentist appointment is not fun.  Add to the my imagination of all the things that could possibly be going wrong while the nerves of my teeth are exposed AND the problem of trying to get my tricky bite back in it's minuscule groove, and you will have an idea of why I was a mess.

I was about 2/3 through the ordeal, when I uttered yet another silent prayer, asking for angels.  I was feeling worried, tired, haggard, and worn.  How I wished I were done!  I was just then wondering whether or not Heavenly Father had sent the angels I'd been requesting over and over.  At that moment, I was given knowledge which I can't accurately describe.  I knew that Heavenly Father had heard my prayer, that He cared that I was distressed, and that He was there for me.  In the grand scheme of life, with so much going on, Heavenly Father had not forgotten little miss Katie, lying with worry in a dentist chair.  Perhaps the smallness of my crisis was the biggest evidence of all that my Heavenly Father loves me.  I held back the tears, so that the dentist wouldn't think I was in distress.  And when it was all over, everything had turned out okay.  

In the Book of Mormon the next morning, I read Alma 56:46  With the army of Helaman, I can say, "Behold my God is with me, and He will not suffer that I should fall; then let me go forth!"