I decided to write a very practical blog today.  Have you ever wished you could turn back the time?  Most of us would say no, but in the area of finances, we sure wish we could.  I’m writing this blog for all of you young couples out there in internet land.  Do yourself a favor.  Take out the maximum amount of money you can for your retirement years!  Yeah, I know it is hard to do.  Because we have been there.  And we allowed the necessities of life to get in the way of taking out the maximum for retirement.  But let’s be honest, we find a way to make it work, don’t we?  When we make wise decisions with our money, and do the “hard” things like save more, we seem to make ends meet in one way or another.

Even though we have not fully retired, we do realize at our ages that we are needing more money than we ever imagined.  Not because we live at the beach, that is free.  🙂 However, every time we have to go to a doctor or dentist we spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars. And we are in pretty good health!  I can’t imagine how couples get by if they have serious health issues.  Oh how I wish we had the days back when we benefited from Tim’s awesome work insurance.

Things you may not think about or plan for: Knees that may need help, MRI’s, Hips needing replacement (not us yet), Hearing aids that will eventually be a must, eye care and glasses, your feet hurting and needing attention, expensive shoes, falls that cause issues, root canals and expensive issues with your teeth.  Do I sound like I’m whining? 🙁

I fell several weeks ago and knocked out half of my front truth.  I knew both front teeth were hurting but was hopeful.  We are so very thankful for a friend who had a brother who is a well known dentist not too far from us.  He took us right in as a favor, and has done extensive work on myself and Tim since we arrived.  He did a wonderful job rebuilding my tooth that was damaged in the fall.  However, in recent days my two front teeth started getting sensitive.  So today, I went to see this wonderful dentist and he had to do something called the “ice test.”  He warned me I would not like it.  If you touch a piece of ice to each tooth, you will soon know when it reaches  a level of pain.  But as soon as he removes the ice the pain will go away.  UNLESS you have a problem.  He discovered my front tooth (that was not damaged in the fall, I thought) took the brunt of the fall.  The root was damaged and the nerve in the tooth died.  (Do any of you remember my blogs about my terror of dentist?  However, I have come a long way.).   As I feared, I now need a root canal in that tooth.  This will be my first root canal.

My dentist was so careful and sweet breaking the news to me.  He explained exactly how a tooth looks on the inside and what happens when there is trauma.  Did you know the health of your teeth can affect LOTS of things in your body?  He carefully explained what all is involved in a root canal.  And then he reminded me that he has done root canals on gorillas and lions and was sure he could handle me.  LOL. (It’s true!  He does work on animals too.)

So save your money friends.  You will be our age before you know it.  We are thankful for our Heavenly Father who takes good care of us, and always meets our needs in creative and surprising ways.  It’s quite adventurous sometimes.  We are blessed even during the hard days!