The Missing Teeth

Maggie is one of the sweetest residents we have. As I mentioned earlier, you will almost always find her sitting on the couch in front of the office, on the left cushion. This couch is right at the bottom of the stairs, so often, as Kierston and I are get to the bottom of the stairs and go past the couch, she pulls her legs in closer to the couch so we don't step on them. She has an adorable southern drawl as well that brings me back to my summers spent in Georgia.

One night while I was down in the office getting the keys, she came to the window and said "Excuse me, what the hell is going on here? Where are my teeth?!" As she said this she pulled back her lips with her fingers and sure enough, nothing but gums. I am pretty sure I laughed out loud.
"They are up in your room," I replied. "They were taken out for the night."
"Oh. Well, where's my room?"
I laughed again and took her by the hand and started up the stairs.
"So my teeth are in my room? Are they safe?"
"You bet. We lock them up every night so the tooth trolls don't get them. They are secure for the night. No worries." (I have to have a little fun with it...)
"Oh okay. That's good," came her reply with a sigh of relief.


Just last night, Kierston was walking through the halls and ran into Maggie wandering around. She got to experience a similar scenario.
"Where are my teeth? They've gone missing," Maggie asked once again as she pulled back her lips to reveal only gums.
"They were taken out for the night and put in a cleaning solution," my wife cheerfully responded.
"Oh shit! Why didn't anyone tell me they took 'em?"
I didn't know it was possible to pick pocket teeth (or in this case would it be considered "pick mouth")... Those trolls are really getting good at what they do. I'd be more sure about safeguarding my teeth if I were you or you might end up like Maggie with a mouthful of nothing.

My amazing wife lovingly reassured her that they would be there in the morning and that someone would be there to help her put them back in. Kierston really is great with the residents and they all just adore her. They are constantly telling her how pretty she is. She treats them all like they are her own grandparents. She will make a great mom someday (no she is not pregnant).

Last night was kind of a rough night. The last two nights Fannie has buzzed early in the morning so that we would move her up in the bed so she could see the TV better. The pager is supposed to be used for emergencies only, so I am trying to teach her that paging us for that is not okay.

Also, Ella, buzzed a couple of times because her feet hurt. She can only sort of hear out of her left ear and not at all out of her right, so you have to yell right into her left ear, and only sometimes does that work. We have resorted to using rudimentary hand gestures... We gave her some Tylenol the first time she buzzed last night, but when she buzzed again an hour later, there wasn't anything we could do. She has been guilty of just wanting attention in the past, so we are trying to decide if she is lonely, or really in pain. Hopefully it is the latter and they can get her stronger medication so she can make it through the night.

We really do enjoy living here. The hardest part is only getting three nights a month off. We love to go out and be spontaneous and go camping, but this is really putting a damper on all that. We already have every night off planned for the next two months, and that is cutting the family reunion in July short. We don't have kids, but this is probably worse because not only do we get woke up in the middle of the night, but we are tied to this place like an eagle on a string. If we weren't saving so much each month, I would reconsider. However, add in the great interactions with the residents, and that makes the tethering a little less painful.