I recently had an absolutely ridiculous situation with a dental office. I needed a cleaning and a check-up and I ran across an ad for a Dr. Shad Morris here in Cedar City. I hadn’t gotten established with a good dentist here yet, so I decided to check him out. Everyone in his office seemed really nice, although I thought it was a little strange to get so many compliments. After doing the exam Dr. Morris informed me that I needed 10 crowns and two root canals. What!? It had only been about 8 months since my last exam and there is no way that I would need that much work done unless my last dentist was a complete idiot and missed things. I’m so gullible that I believed them thinking that maybe I had gotten poor dental care in the past. I scheduled an appointment and went in and had one root canal and another tooth prepped for a crown. I have never had so much pain after dental work in my life. My jaw was actually dislocated for 2 weeks afterwards. Dr. Morris’s office claimed that all the pain I had was because the temporaries were too high, but even after filing them down they still hurt. When I got my crowns put on the dental assistant looked at my gums around one of my temporaries and started apologizing. She said that she messed up the temporary and now my gums were badly damaged and they would take months to heal. Really?! Come on! To make a long story slightly shorter, It’s been 5 weeks now and I still can’t eat anything on that side of my mouth, because it hurts so badly.

In the meantime, my mom and brother moved here to Cedar City and right before they moved they both started having tooth pain. I recommended Dr. Morris, before I realized he was an idiot and they made appointments. My brother had a similar experience with them dislocating his jaw and now being unable to eat on that side of his mouth because of the pain. They also gave him all kinds of bizarre compliments too.

My mom’s experience unfortunately was so much worse. She needed a 4-tooth bridge replaced and they wouldn’t do any work until she paid 50% up front. She paid them and they put temporaries on. When she went back in for the bridge, they had her in the dental chair, threw the temporaries away and were just about to numb her up to put the bridge on when the receptionist came in. She informed my mom that there was something very wrong with the bridge and the teeth looked funny. She said it would have to be remade and besides, they couldn’t put it on until she paid the other 50%. She had already worked out monthly payments, but they suddenly wanted all the money up front. She asked to speak with Dr. Morris, but the receptionist said that he didn’t deal with the financial side of things. After a whole mess, my mom eventually just left the dental office with two exposed teeth, because they refused to put the bridge on.

Dr. Morris’s office called over and over throughout the day demanding the money for the bridge my mom never even received. Then, the next day they called again claiming that Dr. Morris looked at the bridge today and it looked fine, so my mom should come in and get it put on. How could it look funny one day and miraculously look fine the next? When my mom refused, because they had been so rude and changed their story, they got nasty. They have called probably close to ten times a day since and I have even had to talk to them telling them to back off. They actually owe my mom money, because they never put her bridge on and she paid for half of it. The stupidest part about it is that instead of having either the accountant or Dr. Morris call, they have had everyone else in the office call. The receptionists, the dental assistant, pretty much everyone but the janitor. How ridiculous is that!?

Whew. I just had to vent, because the whole situation has been such a nightmare. I actually left out half of the horrible things that have happened with them. They are the most insincere, dishonest, horrible medical office I’ve ever had to deal with. I can’t believe there are actually people out there who behave like that. Even though the situation was horrible, at least I found out that I can’t trust him before I got into all 10 crowns. I think I’m going to go get a second opinion.

Speaking of Mireya, it was the first time that Jaime, Aunt Nola, Uncle Bill, Trent, Mathew, and Ryan had seen her. On Saturday, after we got the truck unloaded, she got passed around. She loved it and so did everyone else! What a great baby. She was thrilled to meet everyone and she smiled and talked to each and every person. I was so surprised that she didn’t get overwhelmed. Most babies who are only 10 weeks old still get overstimulated rather easily. She is obviously going to be a very social person!

Everyone was amazed at how strong she is. She loves to stand and it was fun to watch the surprise and shock on people’s faces as they watched her stand on my lap with very little assistance. They kept asking me how old she was and saying that they had never heard of a baby this age who could do that. What can I say? She’s a superstar!

Great Uncle Bill and Mireya

Great Aunt Nola and Mireya

Trent and Mireya

Uncle Ryan and Mireya

Jaime, Nana, and Mireya

Nana and Mireya

I also researched “Ralph Lauren.” You can narrow down the list of websites it brings up by: product reviews, buying guides, discussion forums, and product details. How convenient! This website, www.become.com, is just like pricegrabber.com and cnet.com combined. Now you don’t have to go to multiple websites to get the information you need and want. You can research and buy whatever you’re looking for using one website. It’s perfect for those of us with busing schedules who are looking to simply as many things in life as possible. Check it out: www.become.com.

If you have to have work done on your car at a repair shop, but you don’t know anything about the repair or you would simply like to know more, you can check out Repairpal’s encyclopedia section. You look up whatever you’re interested in and it will tell you all about the repair, give you recommendations, and explain why that problem happens. After you read about it, you can even see what the repair will cost and find a repair shop in your area.

There are so many great features to www.repairpal.com, so next time you need car advice, check it out.
Here are some examples of pages on their website:
Houston Auto Repair, Acura TL, Oil Change, Brake Job

I’m sure that part of it is to see how many people actually purchase their formula and I do think it’s dirty to pose as a research institute instead of just being honest and saying that they are a division of Abbott Laboratories. However, I found that a lot of the moms out there who are angry are angry for the wrong reasons. Here are some of the comments I found: “I at least let them know that there was a happily breastfed baby in this house who didn’t want any “baby junk food” (as my DD calls it).”  “I think I filled out one of these with accurate responses a few months ago. This time, though, I just tore it in half, wrote them a little note about the inferiority of formula, and sent it all back in their postage-paid envelope. I worry that by providing accurate answers, I’ll be helping them figure out how to market formula better.”  “As a breast-feeding mother and advocate, I do not want to help the formula industry in any way.”  “It’s practically child abuse not to breastfeed.”

Now I took a breastfeeding class prior to giving birth and I know all about the benefits. That’s precisely why I tried as hard as I possibly could to breastfeed. I had a lactation consultant come out to my house at least three times and I went into the hospital and saw lactation consultants and nurses there several times. I was in an incredible amount of pain and I sobbed through every feeding. I also had to deal with Mireya biting me and I had multiple infections I was fighting at the time. I was told from the lactation consultants that I was doing everything right, but that Mireya just wasn’t getting the hang of it. I had to make the decision to not breastfeed for my own physical and mental health. Besides, Mireya cried through every feeding too, because she couldn’t figure out how to latch on. I even pumped for an additional 6 1/2 weeks, so that she would get at least some breastmilk, but I had to quit doing that as well.

Apparently many of the exclusively breastfeeding moms out there think that formula companies shouldn’t exist and that those of us who don’t breastfeed are doing something horrible to our babies. Excuse me!? If there wasn’t formula out there, what would I feed my baby? I want them to improve it, so that my child gets the best nutrition possible.

I felt guilty over not being able to breastfeed for weeks. I still feel bad sometimes and the moms out there with this god complex don’t help. Just because you are breastfeeding, that doesn’t make you any better than me or the thousands of other moms who don’t. Breastfeeding is the best option, but it’s not the only one and thank goodness!

I decided to check out this website: http://www.repairpal.com. I went through the “Get an Estimate” process. You input your car make, model, year, what you need serviced, and your zip code. The page it comes up with has a picture of your car, the estimated price range to repair the problem, which includes both dealer and independent shop estimates, and information about the repair.

I not only learned what a catalytic converter is, but also that I need to figure out why it failed, because it’s almost certainly due to another problem. Here I was thinking I would just replace the converter and everything would be fine. Repair Pal may have just saved me money in the future. Repair Pal also helped me to find repair shops in our area.

Repair Pal doesn’t just do estimates. They also help you find an auto repair shop or mechanic, have a Car Info page with Q&A, common problems, reviews and recalls, and an auto repair encyclopedia. You can even save your car information for future use. Here are some examples of pages on their website:

Dallas auto repair, Chevrolet Silverado, brake job

They are so thorough and I will definitely use this website again!

I was able to go out walking for several nights last week and I lost 3 lbs! Yeah! I want to lose the 43 lbs I gained during my pregnancy with exercise and a healthy diet. I hate all the yo-yo diet fads that people get on. They never work, because you simply gain the weight back as soon as you go off them. They are also just plain unhealthy. Why do people get roped into things like that? I mean, I want to lose weight so I feel better and look great, but come on.

Sorry for the ranting and raving. I really just wanted to say how much I’m hating the ongoing cold weather. Look at these photos and the video Jason took, unbelievable.