Yoga, braces and other things around here

Guess what? 

My braces came off yesterday. For some reason I had thought that I still had a few more months to go and while my orthodontist hinted that they may come off on my next visit, I thought maybe she was just trying to keep my spirits up. 

But no, they came right off yesterday. The whole process was scary and slightly painful and my teeth felt incredibly slimy afterwards but I am so very happy that I can now eat whatever I like and not worry about spitting in people's faces while talking (you totally can't control that... and it's really embarassing). 

And I can wear lipstick again! And floss like a normal person and it won't take me 30 minutes to do it. 

The most dramatic change happened on my bottom teeth. They were incredibly crooked and so it's a little weird seeing them so straight. But they are super tender. My two bottom front teeth have been sensitive for the past several years but now that they are also tender, I worry a little wondering if this is all permanent. 

The only thing I have now left to do is picking up my retainer on Friday. Actually Yangkyu will go pick it up since I have guest dogs and I just have to make my way to the orthodontist office on Monday (thank goodness for that day off) just so they can see that my retainers fit properly.

Yippie!

Yoga.

I have been doing the 30 days of Yoga on Yoga with Adriene's Youtube channel and it's been fantastic.

I first tried yoga in 2006 (ages ago) and it was so hard to stick with it then. I think I did it for about 2 months before calling it quits. I have always enjoyed exercise that really gets the heart pumping and I love to sweat a ton. One of the hardest things about yoga back then was having patience and concentrating. 

But revisiting yoga now has been an incredible experience. I have since gotten stronger arms, legs and core and so the moves are not hard and even if I can't do them, it's not frustrating. I know I'll get there. I am more patient now and my concentration level has improved dramatically. I am completely blown away that I was able to stick to doing yoga (today is my 28th straight day) and I will continue to keep it in my life.

Our vegetable garden is coming along well but we have decided to no longer do it next year. Our lawn has taken a big hit with crabgrass and now grass burn from dog urine (I have never dealt with this before!) and so we're going to come up with a layout for our backyard that accommodates our dogs and also keeps our lawn healthy and green.  I am thinking something along the lines of a long stretch of gated area where dogs can pee and the rest of the area for them to play. Hence us parting with our vegetable garden bed since we need more grass area. Perhaps we'll continue to do some gardening containers... we'll see.

We're also playing with the idea of slowly renovating our home. For a long time we only thought of this home as a stepping stone to a bigger house and so we only updated big ticket items or ones we thought would most appeal to homebuyers. And I was always in a hurry to move. But my thought on that has shifted a little and while this home is still a stepping stone, we are no longer in rush to move. And so with the time that we have here, we decided to make it more ours. So that kitchen and bathrooms will all get updated to the way we like it. It's a big and long process as we plan on doing most of the work, but I am looking forward to the experience. 

First thing is first. We went and bought a new washer and dryer. It comes this weekend and I can't wait to start using it. Although the dryer probably won't get a lot of play time as I have been obsessed with air drying everything outside. I love when our towels get crisp and smell like the sun.

I hope all has been well with you.