Chinese curses.

Well, I had an interesting weekend. Interesting as used in the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times."

I woke up Saturday morning to discover that my jaw was locked shot. Completely. Couldn't open it at all for about 20 minutes then got it to open a bit after putting hot compresses on it and taking some Advil. It didn't hurt as long as I wasn't trying to open it, so I tried to convince myself that it was just that I slept wrong or something and that it'd go away soon. Yeah, right.

However, there was a bead show that day and never let it be said that I let ANYTHING stand between me and getting new beads LOL! So, I went to the show and stocked up on some "needed" items (Bali silver and vermeil spacers and sterling silver headpins...all of which I seem to go through at an incredible rate) and then wandered around looking for anything new and interesting to jump out at me. I found a great deal on some coin pearls so I should have some fun earrings w/ those and maybe a necklace coming soon. Also found a great deal on some big tumbled nuggets of really gorgeous labradorite with lots of blue flash to them! I have no idea what I'm going to do with these yet, but they were so gorgeous and the price was so perfect, I had to get them ;-) I found some cute Japanese lampwork beads, too. I'd been kinda turning my nose up at this stuff for a while, but they are really getting good with their beads and the price is definitely nice so I bought a few strands...some Easter bunnies and a couple different styles of cats (already used some to make a pair of earrings for my sister-in-law whose name is...Cat. Perfect, eh?) Lastly I went by the Via Murano booth and drooled all over their gorgeous glass. I love that stuff but usually don't have the money to afford much of it. I bought a few pieces of cane glass from them - really beautiful David Christensen beads! Can't wait to get those made up into earrings.

So the whole time I'm walking the show I'm trying more and more to work my jaw farther open and it's not cooperating so when I finally got home, I decided to call my doctor who sent me straight to the ER :-( I spent 3 hours Saturday night sitting alone in the ER and getting my jaw X-rayed. Just how I dreamed of spending my Saturday night...NOT! Anyway, turns out I have TMJ syndrome (X-rays showed inflammation in the jaw joint on the left side) and there's not much to be done about it other than taking ibuprofen to keep the inflammation down and trying to de-stress my life. Yeahhhhhh...right..that's gonna happen. If I'm still having problems in another week or two, I'm supposed to go see an ENT. Whoopeee! More fun with doctors (as if I haven't had enough of that in the last few months) Ugh.

Sunday we took Ryan to a b-day party for one of his daycare buddies. He did pretty well although there were a few disagreements over toys and Ryan REALLY wanted to help the b-day girl unwrap her presents LOL! Then Sunday night we had a b-day dinner for Dean which mostly went okay except there was a fountain outside of the restaurant and Ryan kept wanting to go out to see it and at one point he fell partially in it and got his jacket all wet. I ended up leaving the party early to take him home and get him changed and put to bed. I didn't mind that part so much as it was kind of a bummer not to get to talk to anyone...oh and I missed out on dessert :-( I've decided we've got to start looking into babysitters for some of these family events. Ryan is very well behaved for a 2 year old, but still, he only has a limited attention span and we can't expect him to be good all the way through a 3 hour dinner and it really makes it impossible for whoever is watching him to enjoy their meal or partake in the conversation.

Finally, the show is growing ever closer and I'm starting to feel like I'm in pretty good shape as far as inventory and displays are concerned. The tent arrived and DH practiced putting it up over the weekend. It seems like it'll do the job and since it cost less than $50, I'm pretty happy. If this show goes well and I decide to do more of them, I'll invest in a better quality tent. I've just got to take care of a table and signage and I've got to sit down and put price tags on everything. That'll probably take a while. Then I just have to hope people will show up and spend $ LOL! That's really my only nightmare is that I do all this and then don't make a single sale out of it, but I'm trying to think positively!

Oh, and if you haven't gone to play the contest, be sure to go to:

Silver Parrot Designs

Free earrings, people!

Take care all!

KJ