Brace Face

One of my impromptu goals this year is to fix my teeth issues. So last month I had my wisdom teeth removed (I only had 3 - lucky me). That left only the crookedness of my leftover teeth. I've never hard braces, but I've always wanted straight teeth, particularly on the bottom of my mouth. The crowding on my lower teeth feels uncomfortable most of the time.
A few years ago I went to the dentist because I had been grinding my teeth at night. I knew it because when I woke up, my jaw would hurt, and sometimes I would wake myself up with the motion in my mouth. Waking up grinding your teeth is not fun. Teeth grinding is offically known as bruxism. So sometimes I say to myself that I brux my teeth. That is not offical. That is inside my head. I say it like Brucks. He he. Anyway.

The dentist told me that I could be fitted for a mouth guard that I could wear at night. I trusted her, but the price she quoted me was not feasible at the time. I think it was between $500-$600. I was inbetween my undergraduate college and my first Real job, taking a few graduate courses in a small town. I decided to go with her next best choice, a mouth guard from Walmart (joy).

Doctor'S Nightguard Advanced Comfort, 1 Box

I got the one above for about $20. You heat it up in a pot of water on the stove and then squish it into your mouth to form it to the shape of your teeth. Heating up plastic in water = not my favorite thing, but being able to sleep without grinding my teeth was worth it. I slept fine, and eventually I forgot about using the mouth guard and I lost it. I tried to figure out why I might be grinding my teeth anyway (you know, solve the real problem and not the dummy problem). My dentist told me that it could be one of two things, or a combination of the two: stress and the way the top of my jaw sits on my lower jaw. She said that braces (with the use of rubber bands) could reposition my jaw a bit so that I was less likely to grind my teeth based on how my teeth sit in my mouth. Made sense, but if I couldn't afford a professional mouth guard, I sure as heck wasn't going to go for braces. So I worked on stress instead.

I determined that most of my stress was from uncertainty in my life, particularly in regard to my work. I decided that if I could let go of being afraid of failure, I wouldn't be stressed. That really worked well, and now that I have a Real job, it's still working. I go through periods where I am afraid of being fired, really for no good reason. I'm just afraid because I know that even if I work as hard as I possibly can, someone can still fire me. There's just no Job Guarantee. So I decided to be OK with that. Sure, I could be fired tomorrow. (Well, technically I probably couldn't be because I'm on vacation. But they could fire me on Monday!) BUT, it's OK. Because I can't control everything, and being fired would not be the end of the world. Some of the best advice I've ever heard is the idea that everything is what you consider it to be. If you have something ahead of you that seems awful, it's going to be just that. The magical part of this is that just because something SEEMS awful, doesn't mean that is one of its inherent characteristics. You ASSIGNED it that description! So rewrite the adjectives. Suddenly an inconvenience is an ADVENTURE. (I'm pulling this from G.K. Chesterton. He wrote an incredible book that I love called Orthodoxy, and it's great whether or not you're religious, so don't be influenced too much by the name one way or another.)

I wholeheartedly believe that working on problems from a mental standpoint FIRST is going to help you out the most in the long run. After that part is done, you can choose to move on to getting professional help. That's where my new orthodontist comes in! All of this is to say that I have BRACES! And I am very excited.

Braces are definitely going to help me with the pressure in my bottom teeth, because I can't think my way out of that discomfort. Braces really don't hurt all that much, and it's way less painful than having wisdom teeth removed. I'll keep you up to date on how it goes. I'm going to have them for two years! 

Goodbye, Wisdom Teeth

Tomorrow (Friday) I'm having my wisdom teeth pulled out. First of all, ouch, second of all, goodbye crunchy foods. I have stockpiled the following items in my kitchen that meet wisdom tooth extraction dietary requirements (liquid enough such that no chewing is required, no small pieces of food that can be stuck in the tooth holes):

Cinnamon applesauce
Mashed potatoes
Miso soup
Tomato soup
Vegetable broth
Chocolate coconut milk ice cream
Hummus
Guacamole

Essentially what you're trying to avoid is moving blood clots that fill the holes where the wisdom teeth previously sat. So you're to avoid sucking (water bottles, straws) and spitting.

As it turns out, I only have 3 wisdom teeth. So I think that the procedure will probably not hurt as badly as if I had all 4. I hope.

One of my goals for this year (that I've only recently decided on) is to take care of some teeth related issues. My wisdom teeth have caused me discomfort on and off since I was about 21 years old, so it's time for them to come out. Thanks to dental insurance through my work I am finally getting it done.

I will report back tomorrow on how the procedure goes.

April Recap

I feel like I got a lot done this month. I decided to check to see if my feeling was accurate by going through all of April's posts and seeing what exactly I did finish.

(Items without a link are things I actually completed in April but I haven't written about yet.)

• Decided what light fixture I want in the kitchen and bought supplies
• Put up string lights in my bedroom
• Put up curtains & curtain rods in my bedroom
• Hung a dinner bell and teacup hook (for my apron) in the kitchen/dining room
• Had a quote completed for a bathroom renovation (it was crazy expensive)
• Moved the washer and dryer out and then back into the closet
• Moved the newer washer and dryer all the way from my boyfriend's city to my city and then ended up selling it on Craigslist
• "Fixed" the old washer and dryer with a new lid switch assembly
• Purchased my dream medicine cabinet from the Restoration Hardware Outlet
• Finished putting up the kitchen backsplash tile & grouted one half
• Decided on a coffee table (aka cocktail ottoman)
• Caulked around the sink
• Sewed curtains for the dining room with my mom and put them up along with a curtain rod
• Changed out the curtains in the bathroom
• Changed out the shower curtain hooks in the bathroom
• Made a plan for rugs throughout the house & bought textile medium in order to paint them (more on this later!)

Not bad! I think I got more stuff done this month than I've done in the past. Hopefully May will have even more fully completed projects than April. 

Wrapping Up the Semester

Last night I presented my final project for an operations class. Next Monday night I have my final final - in accounting. After that I have exactly two weeks off from school, the first two weeks of May. I am hoping to take at least one trip during that time, but I'll probably only take one day off of work and make it a weekend thing.

This week I continued my gluten free (just for fun, I like a challenge) baking adventures. I tried making oat flour blueberry muffins. They were good, if a bit gummy. the recipe was either from or inspired by the documentary Forks Over Knives. I didn't have any baking soda so that probably contributed to their strange consistency. http://www.snack-girl.com/snack/forks-over-knives-review/

Next I'd like to try these chocolate chip cookies: http://pamelasalzman.com/chocolate-chip-oatmeal-cookies/ They're also made with oat flour. I prefer oat flour to wheat flour (recent social trends aside) because it makes me feel more full earlier on so I end up eating less. Overeating is one of the worst feelings in my opinion.

Given that I'll have some time off from school, I'd like to finish some things around the house. I'm interested in:

- Scrubbing/sealing/caulking the grouted tile backsplash in the kitchen
- Grouting/scrubbing/sealing/caulking the other less finished side in the kitchen
- Hanging the remaining curtain rods in the bedroom and dining room (I bought special plaster screws as opposed to drywall screws for this purpose last weekend)
- Sewing the dining room curtains out of the Ikea bedspread I purchased a few weekends back

This is not a very ambitious list so I hope to finish everything. No excuses!

Here's a picture of the blueberry muffin batter! I've been attracted to recipes that use maple syrup (the real kind) versus refined sugar because the sweetness is more subtle. And supposedly it's better for you.

The Never-Ending List

As recounted in this list, I had a lot of items I wanted to complete back in 2011. Here's a copy of that list with my current thoughts inserted.

Sell the washer/dryer that came with the condo and move in the better one from storage - I'm done with this because the new washer/dryer didn't fit so I'm stuck with the old one. I still have to fix the lid latch, however. 

Finish replacing the three windows that are left - I haven't finished this item due to money constraints.

Insulate the attic - See above.

Kitchen remodel including new sink, countertops, and tile backsplash - This is almost done, sans grout!

Install a garbage disposal (if the condo association allows it) - It's not allowed because the pipes are too old. 

Swap out a few upper kitchen cabinet doors with doors with glass panels - I may or may not do this, to be honest I forgot all about it. 

Paint the kitchen/dining rooms - Done, thank you to my boyfriend!

Bathroom remodel including new faucets, a new toilet, new tiling on the walls and floor, and potentially convert to a standing shower only - I still want to make some changes to the bathroom, but I am going to stick with a tub/shower combo. 

Find someway to seal up the front door better - This still sounds like a good idea. 

Sand and stain the hardwood floors - Sounds like a lot of work!

And here's the list I made without first looking at my old list above:

Bathroom

• Purchase & install new pedestal sink faucet
• Purchase & install new tub/shower faucets
• Purchase & install medicine cabinet
• Purchase fabric & sew new curtain for window
• Purchase & install toilet/move toilet back
• Purchase & install 2-3 towel rods on back of door
• Have bathtub inspected (it was leaking out of the overflow)
• Remove radiator

Kitchen/Dining Room

• Install curtain rod
• Sew curtains from Ikea duvet/pillowcases
• Purchase & install new light fixture over kitchen
• Finish grouting the tile
• Purchase magnetic hooks for oven mitts
• Replace windows

Bedroom

• Install curtain rod
• Purchase rug
• Build something to set mirror on top of
• Organize items under bed
• Finish painting canvas that my boyfriend gave me for my birthday
• Replace old window

Living Room

• Purchase rug
• Purchase ottoman
• Recover or paint shoe tray
• Fix my poor construction of bookshelf
• Fix floor where someone in the past must have set a potted plant

Closet/Laundry Room/Hallway

• Purchase & fix washing machine lid latch
• Purchase & install new light fixture

The bolded items happened to be on the original list as well. Well, I still have a lot to do. 

Major Clutter Issues

Last week in a reading frenzy I devoured Karen Kingston's book, Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui. It was amazing and I couldn't stop reading. (Although to be fair it is not a tremendously long book.) I became interested in the book because I was feeling overwhelmed by the messy state of my condo. It's only 650 square feet after all (in case you forgot...), and that is not a lot of room for my stuff. I actually have a history of being a packrat, and I recover and relapse in phases.

Once I kept a goose egg (a real goose egg) from my grandparent's cabin in a tupperware container in my desk for probably close to a year. That is messed up. I'm not bad like that anymore, but I still have a lot of knickknacks (read: garbage) that I keep around along with receipts and other paper junk. Oh, and I have an obsession with keeping cardboard boxes and large envelopes. But that's only because I shipped ebay items for years and years and every ebayer knows the immense value of the perfectly shaped box to fit that strangely shaped Widgetmadiget.

Since I've read the book I filled my garbage container and my neighbor's as well. Don't worry, I hauled the neighbor's garbage can to the curb. But don't tell. I also have a huge stack of odd shaped boxes. I'm trying to de-clutter in phases, the first being getting everything I need to learn how to let go of in a pile. Specific piles, that is. There was a garbage pile (now living at the dump), a box pile (still sittin'), and a sell on ebay pile. For which I might need that box pile. Ugghh! I am drowning in my own bad habits, haha. As you can tell, it's still a work in progress for me.

I don't believe in magic. (Awww, cue the collective sadness.) But I do believe in coincidences. And Karen teaches you how to map your home into different zones that relate to different parts of your life. My worst (most cluttered) zones were my career and friends/support zones. My friend/support zone was my kitchen. That's where the junk drawer(s...) live. I cleaned them up and a few hours later my friend from school last semester texted me and told me she was going to be in my city and did I want to hang out? Very cool. But just a coincidence, I know! My closet just so happens to house my career zone. I've been working on it slowly. This week, three people on my team were promoted to new jobs. (That is VERY unusual.) I don't know what that means for MY career yet, if anything, but it is strange. Wait, does that mean my coworkers live in my closet?! Now I'm confused. I can't wait to see what happens ... COINCIDENTALLY ... when I finish cleaning my closet.

Anyway, reading the book was a lot of fun and very helpful for me in letting go of my bad clutter habits. It never hurts to be reminded that things aren't who you are. But, Karen also explains that things can represent you to others, so it helps to choose them wisely.

Over the next week I'm going to share a few things I learned from the book along with specific examples (and pictures) from the condo. They'll be under the tag Feng Shui!

2011: The Year of the Unexpected

Running in the Snow...I told you it was the Year of the Unexpected!

Cake from my Boyfriend's Mom & Valentine's Day Party Outfit

Pillows I sewed!

For me, 2010 was full of careful planning. I went overseas (to Scotland) for the first time and I started my first 'career' job. I also bought my Prius after considering it for years, literally.

Trying a Juice Diet

2011 was entirely different. It seemed like everything happened to me and without my consent and it all sort of just happened, kind of on accident.

Exploring the New Condo

I bought my first home, the condo for which this blog is named. I moved from my home that I had lived in for two years without a second of planning or forethought; my boyfriend of three+ years and I now live in different cities. I started out the year looking for a house in an entirely different part of the city, a house for my boyfriend and I to share! So that just goes to show that things do not always go as planned. Last year was full of those types of lessons for me; I had to learn how to be OK with things not going as planned.

Last year I also went to my second semester of graduate school and my first semester of an MBA program. On top of that, I was accepted to an even better school (in a different city!) that I never thought I would be able to attend. (Namely because I had been rejected from a different graduate program at the same school two years before.)

I also visited my dad in Alaska and installed a point of sale system for him. That was something I didn't really plan and definitely could not have predicted. My dad also visited me TWICE, which is really unheard of since he is very busy all of the time. In addition, my grandparents visited my part of the country, as did my aunt and uncle and I even drove up to an extended-family-reunion in Tennessee.

My Suitcase next to my Boyfriend's Mom's (Guess which is mine)

I took trips to Palm Beach, Florida, Miami, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, and Orlando, Florida. Although all year I dreamed of going north (New York City, Portland), I ended up heading decidedly south, time and again. I'm not complaining, no way. This is just my reflection on how strange and unpredictable this year has been.

I visited Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens. That trip alone is one of the strangest I've ever been on. I also designed and had published my boyfriend's thesis - something I never could have guessed would happen!

The year ended with my brother having Christmas with me and my boyfriend's family, which was completely unexpected and last-minute.

What a strange year 2011 was! I hope 2012 is just as exciting.

Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens

Definitely Imperfect

I just finished reading Deborah Needleman's The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How to Decorate and Live Well. I enjoyed the book. It's full of illustrations which I found to be an interesting difference from the other decorating books I own. Some of the illustrations are based off of real, inspiring homes.

A few of her tips ended up on my new year's resolutions list. I found that I most enjoyed these five ideas:

1. Employ a bench at the end of the bed. A bench (or stool, or set of ottomans, etc) will become a place to put on shoes or lay clothes. Perfect.

2. Keep side chairs handy for unexpected guests. These chairs can be any style or color, they simply have to be easy to pick up and move around when necessary. I don't have a lot of extra room in my home, but I would like to have one or two more chairs like this to keep up against the living room wall. 

3. Layer tables. Put shorter tables in front of taller tables to create multiple dimensions. I love this idea for next to an armchair, couch, or even putting a small stool in front of a bedside table to stack books upon.

4. Use your imagination when it comes to a coffee table. A coffee table doesn't have to be one big, rectangular table. Try a large, round upholstered ottoman, or maybe two small tables or ottomans side by side. 

5. Create a drink cart. Mix and match interesting pieces on a cart along with a few alcohol bottles. This helps to create an environment that is comfortable and welcoming.

2011 & Resolutions in Review

Every year I make a huge list of resolutions and goals. (You can see my 2012 list here.) For 2011, I set 22 goals. Here's an overview of what I accomplished, and what I didn't. The struck out items are those that I did not complete.

1. Ski. I didn't even come close to going skiing in 2011. Although I did visit my dad in Alaska in March, and it was snowing.
2. Try a juice diet. I bought a Breville juice fountain in July and I did successfully try out a juice diet. It was interesting, delicious, and partially disgusting.
3. Sew. I managed to sew a lot last year. I sewed a few upholstery related items as well as a ton of pillows.
4. Complete four commercial websites. Ummm, did not happen.
5. Learn another language. I learned my numbers in French, but other than that, FAIL.
6. Send birthday cards. Fail.
7. Get a massage. Fail again.
8. Visit a new place, or see new parts of an old place. This was a pretty open ended goal and I definitely completed it. 
9. Go on a trip with my boyfriend. We went to Universal Studios at the end of the year!
10. Buy a nice bag for work. I was given a nice bag for work. It isn't Yves Saint Laurent, but it got the job done all year. 
11. Continue to run. By the end of 2010 I could run 2.75 miles without stopping. Now I can run 4.1 miles without stopping (that's a mile over a 5k run). 
12. Move. I certainly did move.
13. Get rid of, sell, or give away all of the stuff I don't need in the attic. Failure to the max!
14. Put up mini-wreaths for seasons and holidays. This has become a weird tradition of mine!
15. Build an iPhone app. Fail.
16. Read at least one book per month. I completely owned this goal. I now read almost as much as I did when I was younger.
17. Cook and bake more for others. I did bake and cook a lot this year. Mostly only for myself and my boyfriend though.
18. Find a new TV show. I found soooo many shows I like. Shameless is my favorite from 2011.
19. See a play. I did see a play this year, the Grinchmas at Universal Studios. It was a Christmas play and I saw it after Christmas, so it wasn't that great. But I still completed the goal, right?
20. Be congenial and flexible. I have no idea if I completed this goal. I guess this year I should try to be more self-reflective?
21. Organized all paper ephemera. I sort of did this. But not really.
22. Buy something by Lauren Moffatt. Whoops. I went a little overboard on this one and now I have a dress, two coats (one was a gift), and a skirt. Heh heh.

Overall I completed 16/22 goals (that's 73%). Not bad. 

New Year, (Some) New Goals

(Not all of these are condo-related! But I bolded the ones that are.)

Whenever I write down a list of goals at the beginning of the year, I usually accomplish way more of them than I think I will. It's pretty cool. So I'm doing it again this year, but this time I'm posting them to this blog!

1. Make decisions that support strong relationships. This might mean that I will do something that I do not want to do because that choice will inconvenience me while at the same it will support a relationship that I wish to improve.
2. Play games that I used to play when I was young. Examples include tag and hide & seek and capture the flag.
3. Make good grades in school.
4. Make new friends (this is a recurring goal for me each year). And one that I am extremely bad at.
5. Read lots of books (this is a freebie goal for me).
6. Make at least one big/scary/probably expensive upgrade to the condo. That might be a new toilet or replacing the rest of the windows.
7. Have a conversation in French (this goal scares me because I think it is very difficult).
8. Be more thoughtful and generous.
9. Keep running and become better at running. I can run a 5k fairly easily, and I think that is quite far enough. But I would like to be a faster and stronger runner.
10. Cook recipes out of the Skinny Dips book that my boyfriend bought me for Christmas.
11. Take the time to style my hair.
12. Maintain a natural household. Last year I fully transitioned to natural toothpaste, dish soap, hand soap, candles, deodorant (I make my own), shampoo, and conditioner. I also use a vinegar/borax mix to clean with. This year I could try natural laundry soap and dishwasher soap. I also stopped using manufactured feminine products last year and I use reusable, hand made, organic cotton products. It has saved me money and there are no health risks involved.
13. Do not fall prey to fashion trends. I am shocked that I don't have a pair of Toms shoes. I do however have gladiator sandals, Uggs, Hunter boots (two pairs!), and countless other trendy shoes. Gladiator sandals don't even look right on me! My somewhat frivolous (it's relative of course) shopping behavior has got to stop.
14. Similar to item 13, unsubscribe from all shop/sale emails. I've already begun and will unsubscribe as I receive emails from the companies.

(Little Subsection of) Furniture Goals:
15. Buy a bench or set of ottomans for the end of my bed.
16. Acquire or buy side chairs for the living room.
17. Employ 'table layering' techniques in the bedroom and living room. This is an approach to side tables that allows you to layer tables with varying heights in front of each other. 
18. Do something about the lack of a coffee table.


19. Paint the kitchen.
20. Decorate the floors (rugs) and the walls (art, shelving).
21. Setup a drink cart. I don't drink often, and I actually realized that I could easily and happily never drink alcohol again in my life, but I think having a drink cart is a welcoming and sweetly old-fashioned way to decorate a home.
22. Use my Delta sky miles to take a trip.
23. Encourage others to visit my new home in my city!
24. Start selling unused items on eBay again. I used to do this all of the time.
25. Get rid of or sell the items in the storage unit. I almost didn't write this goal because I dread it SO MUCH!


Usually my list of goals includes tons of items related to traveling, but since I am choosing to spend my money on grad school for the next three+ years, I have left most travel off the list (except of course item 22, which will be an inexpensive trip). To make up for it, I decided to add item 23 at the last minute. I think 2012 should be the year of others visiting me, or so I hope!