Especialista!

   See this pretty face?

See this big smile?  You would never guess she had a sadistic bone in her body, would you?  Ah, but she is an "especialista--endodontista!"  That means she specializes in root canals!  Yes, and when I asked her what made her choose that field, she told me it was delicate, precise work and she could help people not to have pain.  Now, the problem is that I didn't have any pain until she got that needle into her hand and stuck it into my mouth!  Granted, most of the rest of the time I didn't feel much, but that shot was not great, even with the ibuprofen I took ahead of time!  She even teaches other people how to have this fun!  She is expecting a baby, so I hope the idea of helping people will be stronger than the natural tendencies of a dentist.  

Okay, the dentist that brought her to his office and who is my main dentist seems really kind and calm and quiet.  He even told me to "Smile" as he left the room when she was about to go to work.   He makes all the arrangements for this exciting stuff and it all is much less costly than it would be at home in Kansas.  It's just that I really hate shots!

Update:  Just the day after I wrote this post, she had her baby!  It must have been so uncomfortable to be leaning over working on me just three days before that.  I hear she is doing well and so is the baby and I really do appreciate what she and our other dentist have done for me.

Artistic Wall

   Across the street from where we live there is a gray brick wall, but it is certainly not your average gray brick wall.  This wall was creatively decorated with recycled items, presumably by the students that attend the school behind the wall.  Such items are flipflops, pieces of hula hoops, bottle caps, bottoms of two liter bottles and other unusual decor.  So, in case you are needing ideas for decorating, here are a few pictures.

    

There is a quote on the wall in Spanish, of course, but translated it means, "Who said the people cannot return?"  I'm not sure where this quote came from or to what it refers exactly, but in a country that has several revolutions, it could be indicating something about those.

Anyway, here are a few closer shots of individual parts~~~

Then here is part of the quote.  I didn't realize only part of it was there.  Can you figure out what the various components are?  Forgot to mention plastic chairs!  Click to make bigger.

45!

  Who would have thought on that lovely April day 45 years ago at the Salt Lake Temple that we would spend our 45th wedding anniversary in the Dominican Republic, having luscious lasagna with a French twist along with some French pastry at a French bakery in Santo Domingo?  Surely we never would have guessed it!
   We planned to go out for dinner, but the lunch made us decide to wait a day or two.  So we went for our usual Wednesday (35% off produce) grocery day and bought some special treats.  Giant strawberries, olives for Earl, chocolate milk, pineapple, mango, pears and, of course, chocolate kisses.  There is also a box of fresa-chinola juice--also known as strawberry-passion fruit!

Number 16!

     There is a new McIntyre in Jackson Hole, WY and he is pretty cute with blue eyes like his other siblings.  He joined the family on Wednesday and everyone is very happy to have him.  8 lbs, 9 oz of boy will keep Mom even busier.  Fortunately, his other grandma is there to help and rock.  They chose to name him after one of the Teton mountains that means Young Warrior, just in case he needs extra confidence as the youngest of four.  Looks pretty peaceful in this shot with big brother.  We now count 16 grands!

Perspective

    Six weeks ago on a Sunday morning we woke up and discovered we had been robbed while we were sleeping.  It was traumatic and I haven't been doing much blogging since.  Caught on the surveillance camera, the guy entered the sliding glass door we thought was locked.  It is on a balcony overlooking the street.  He took all the electronics he could find (but not my friend's sewing machine--too heavy, I guess, and difficult to carry, and he probably can't sew).  The creepy part was that he was in our bedroom when he picked up my Kindle.  We never heard anything!  It was probably a blessing that we slept through it all.  We now have better protection on our door and window.  The Church security people and the one in charge of housing saw to it that the owner installed automatic "shutters" that roll down to cover the glass.
     As scary and awful as this event was, I have been aware this month of some even greater tragedies.  Even though it isn't fun or convenient, computers can be replaced without toooo much difficulty.  The family of a friend had a house burn completely--one that had been home to a large family and had many memories.  Nobody was hurt, fortunately.  Another friend has a handsome son who was in an accident and is now paralyzed.  He is a young married man and they expect twins shortly.  What a different life they are looking at than they were just a few months ago!  We visited an orphanage where there had been a fire and the kids lost what little they had--again, no loss of life.  We brought some things to them and their smiles were such rewards!  Last week the brakes on our car went out as Earl was out on an errand.  That could really have been terrible, but again we were blessed.  We were able to get rides with friends to places we needed to go and Earl used some skill he had practiced many years ago and drove the car to the area office with the emergency brake.  Even more of an adventure here in Santo Domingo!  The car is being repaired and all is well.  Some dental work I was going to need came sooner than expected when a big filling fell out.  I should never bite into soft cookies!  Fortunately, we had found a great dentist here (when a crown came off of my tooth).  He is bringing "especialistas" into his office to do two root canals and some oral surgery, then he will do crowns.  We have done the first part of that and so far, so good.  It will all cost MUCH less than in Kansas!  So glad we found him!
       I would show the picture of the gross fruit that the robber left on our table, but you don't want to see that.  Just know that we are now fine and life goes right along and we are clicking away on these birth records.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

  Ah, the Luck o' the Irish to ye!  As a fun song from "The Happiest Millionaire" declares, "I'll always be Irish, for that's how I began...."  Three of my ancestral lines go right to Ireland and then we have some English and Scottish, so there is plenty of the Irish, both northern and southern.  Earl thought his McIntyre line was so Scottish, but research has indicated that there was some of that, but plenty of the Irish as well!  So, "May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back,...and may God always hold you in the palm of His hand."
   Either I had not known or I had forgotten that the shamrock, so connected with Irish folklore, was used in the 400s A.D. by St. Patrick to teach, using the three leaves, about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Good object lesson!

Angels

Lately I have noticed an increase in angels--around me, in news, at work.  The above angel is Moroni atop the new Gilbert Arizona temple soon to be dedicated.  One quite like him sits atop our Santo Domingo temple and we can see him through the trees, especially when lit at night.  We don't worship him, but we honor him as the one who brought the gold plates to Joseph Smith that  became the Book of Mormon.  So that is one angel. 

 We have a young missionary serving here whose name is Elder Angel and he speaks both Spanish and English, so he is sometimes like an angel for helping me.

In the last couple of weeks at work I have noticed that witnesses on documents (testigos) have often been named "Angel" and I thought our work was being helped by angels.

The last two weeks we have started working an evening shift at the temple. There have been "angels" there to guide me as I started learning.  I have been nervous, but they have helped.  I have wondered if it has been because we were doing this that in the last two weeks we have also captured the most images in a week--more than 10,000 each week--that we have our whole time here.  Surely didn't think we would ever get that many, but there they were!!  Maybe some other angels were helping us!

One more example--our little grandson doesn't enjoy the nursery at Church.  He cries.  His mom is the Primary President and has to be there and not in the nursery with him.  When his dad has to work at the hospital during that time, she has had to take him with her and have a counselor hold him (often screaming in the hall) while she did her part.  Then one Sunday an angel appeared in the form of a wonderful, gentle, compassionate friend and offered to take him to the nursery and stay with him.  She has always been the one we said woke up in the morning wondering how she could help someone that day.  She appeared with the same offer the next Sunday and as I read about it from our daughter-in-law, tears flowed.  A tender mercy had been granted by our Heavenly Father to help the Primary President fulfill her responsibility and the child to be blessed with love.