Braces, the stinks, and Church magazines

I recently had orthodontic braces put on. What a bad idea. Why I was such a dummy and lost my retainer, I don't know. Turns out, they hurt. More on adults than kids. And I want to kill myself evertime I have to floss my teeth. Seriously. How I survived braces the first time without killing myself is I just never flossed. Ha! Ha! And why am I getting braces? Well, since I now look at teeth all day long, I have become obsessed (with my own teeth, not everybody else's. I probably wouldn't notice yours unless you were in my chair. Okay, if they were black I might notice). I have a crossbite that is making a dent in one of my teeth and it is getting bigger. It was driving me crazy. Since I am at the school all the time anyway I figured, why not? When I went for my appointment I remembered why I was getting a discount. The guy doing my braces has no idea what he is doing. He only needs me to graduate and will never do braces again. It only took 3 hours to put on the top braces and then 2 weeks later it only took 2 hours to put on the bottom. But I can't be mad. That is how it always is at a school. They are there to learn. And they have to get everything checked by their instructors, which also takes time. But I'm glad they do because my provider put the braces on the wrong side at first and had to switch them to the other side when his instructor pointed it out (that was the three hour appointment).

I am hoping to only have them on a little while so I don't ruin Jessie's wedding pictures again with braces. So I will do everything my provider tells me to do. Here's hoping he kind of knows what he is doing or that maybe his instructor does!

Good news is that maybe I will lose all the weight I gained while sitting in class for hours at end. Just thinking about brushing and flossing my teeth almost makes me not want to eat. But probably not. I sure love food. And I need to snack to stay awake during class. Bummer.

Another random thought is that Manny has these disgusting crocs with some sort of fuzzy/furry fabic inside. He insists on wearing them all the time. I have to rip them off his feet to go to bed. They are incredibly stinky. His feet smell so bad it almost makes me cry when I remove his shoes. I've tried washing them (the shoes, although I do wash his feet as well), but it only helps for the first hour he wears the shoes. Then they are back to their full stinkiness. Maybe someday I will find a solution. Most likely the solution will be he will grow out of them. Kids grow fast, right?

I am really excited about my Conference issue Ensign because I wasn't able to watch all of it. I know I can watch it online, and I do watch some, but I just love having it written. I love to read. Especially on the bus on the way to school. And with it I believe Manny's first Friend magazine is coming! Yay!

And I am really sorry this blog is so lame-o. Maybe someday when I actually share it with someone I can ask how to add pictures. Maybe that will help. I really would like to have a journal with pictures.

The Jokester

Manny is becoming quite the jokester. He is really good at hiding things and hiding himself. He will hide under a blanket or under a laundry basket and wait patiently until you find him. I only sometimes hear little giggling. And he thinks he is hilarious when he does this.

He also has really caught on to the meaning of "Tada!" When we were at the library the other day he found a book he has been looking for for over a month (we checked it out one time and now he asks for it everytime we go to the library). He would not put it in the bag; he wanted to carry it around himself. We are walking around looking for other books and I turn around and he is not holding his book. "Emanuel, where is your book?" I ask in a panic. I immediately start looking around for it, asking people around us if they have seen this book. Then I hear, "TADA!" He had set it on a shelf and remembered where he had put it. He was so proud of his little joke.

Later that day he had been picking at his nose (he has had a little cold so had tons of crusties on the outside. They seemed to come back as fast as I would clean them. We were at home so I figured I didn't care--I would probably want them off, too). All of a sudden I hear, "TADA!" He has a giant, disgusting booger on his finger and looked so proud of his work, like he had been working at it all day and had finally gotten it off. Gross.

And now his latest trick is that he thinks he is a professional joke teller. It took me a long time to figure out what he was saying, but he says, "Peanut Butter. Jelly. Sandwich" and then laughs hysterically. He will say this over and over and he never gets tired of it. (I believe he told that joke to me constantly for at least 15 minutes the other night.) And he says it like it is a joke. I am really trying to capture it on video. Maybe it will be funnier if you actually hear/see it.

Tada! I have succumbed to the blogging world and now have my own blog. It's a little pathetic, I know, but turns out I am terrible at keeping a journal. And this is way better than posting everything on Facebook. And who knows, maybe I won't share this with anyone. We'll see. (Yeah right, I can't not share pictures of my cute kid. And I'm a bit of a blog junkie. I love to see how everyone is doing. I am pretty bad at keeping in touch so I almost feel like I still know people when I read their blogs. So maybe I can share, too, for those who want to know how I am doing, but don't want to call me on the phone.)