Fuzzy Yellow Sweaters

Growing up, dental hygiene was not a priority in my family. I don't remember being told to brush my teeth, although I'm sure I must have gotten some instruction on the topic. Living in Chicago, there was fluoride in the drinking water and I'm sure that contributed to my parents general lack of dental worry.  Visiting the dentist was a hit or miss proposition with enough hitting to make a nasty impression on me.

When I was 10 I started spending my summers with my grandparents in Wisconsin. My grandmother is the only person that I remember cussing at me to brush my teeth. Fortunately, they had Crest toothpaste (which is my favorite) and I learned that tooth brushing could be a good thing. But then I would go back home and have to use nasty Colgate toothpaste. The brushing of the teeth would then be sporadic at best.

I remember having a conversation with one of my cousins about teeth. I don't remember much about that conversation except that she said that when she didn't brush her teeth for a long time they developed fuzzy yellow sweaters. Then she smiled and, sure enough, her teeth did have fuzzy yellow sweaters. Hahaha! But really, ICK!

When I went away to college peer pressure helped me become a more diligent brusher of teeth. I would say that I probably brushed my teeth about 90% of the time, a vast improvement from living at home. Years went by and then I found myself married. And then I found myself pregnant.

Ah pregnancy! The joy of growing a new life. And the misery of having a parasite sucking the life out of me. Morning sickness was my constant companion for 8 months. (Why is it called morning sickness when it lasts all day?) I could smell everything more acutely and most of the smells were bad. Some things grossed me by their mere presence (namely, hair). And brushing my teeth sent me into paroxysms of retching. Once again I stopped brushing my teeth on a regular basis.

And then the baby came, and with her came sleep-deprivation. And with sleep-deprivation came forgetfulness. I choose to blame the forgetfulness for why it didn't occur to me to resume brushing my teeth until my dear little one got her own teeth.

Well, by now over a year had passed and all my good dental habits were gone. And since I had three more babies, that pattern was followed three more times. Random tooth brushing was to be my lot for the next decade. Sigh.

Recently, while watching some random Super Junior show on YouTube, I heard Leeteuk talk about brushing teeth. He steps out of a mini van somewhere in South Korea and starts talking about the fact that he brought his toothbrush along. You would think he was doing a PSA for dental hygiene: "See! Look! I brought my toothbrush along. (Turns to camera and points at toothbrush.) You should brush your teeth every day! Three minutes each time! Three times a day!"  No wonder he has such beautiful teeth.

Ever since that day I feel compelled to brush my teeth. Every day! Three minutes each time! But only twice a day. No fuzzy yellow sweaters for me!

Where Did December Go?

I seem to have misplaced the month of December. Can someone please help me find it? Hopefully before Christmas? I really can't imagine where I've left it.

It seems like just yesterday I was cleaning up the mess from Thanksgiving. Then I was attempting to pick up  my #2 Daughter from the airport. I was thwarted by pea soup fog that prevented her from getting back from India in a timely fashion. She spent the night "sleeping" in the airport in Chicago. I spent the night tossing and turning, hoping that a 19 year old alone in the airport would be safe. She was. Sigh.

Then there were days of grumping at The Boy about getting his homework turned in. I mean, honestly, how hard can it be to get him to see the light? School is important! Right? Well..... I'm still working on that challenge.

Many days have been spent eating out. This makes me sad. Normally, I love to eat out but Dude-Man and I made a deal that gets me money for a trip to South Korea. The money comes from not eating out. I have saved so little money it is pathetic. And depressing.

Why have I been eating out so much? I blame it on #2 Daughter (who shall hereafter be known as MoLi). When she got back from India she wanted to eat out at all her favorite places, and I caved into her pleadings. I'm a wimp of a mother. And she wants to do stuff every day too. Like shopping. And seeing her friends. And shopping. Aigoo!

I have been trying to keep up with my Korean studies but that is going slowly. There are many distractions. Especially since #1 Daughter is home more because finals are over. Argh! I love my kids, I really do. But they are bossy! (No, they do not get it from me! I am never bossy!) And I am easily persuaded to take them out to eat or do whatever they want to do.

Now I understand that it's the Christmas season. When did that happen? I'm usually nearly done with Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. Well not this year! I typically love to listen to Christmas music and watch Christmas movies. Har! Can you say boring? Then there's the decorating. Turning the house into a cozy haven of Christmas cheer has often been one of my chief delights of the holiday season. Not any more. It all just seems like a bunch of work. Bah Humbug!

We bought a tree. No one cried. The tree got set up in the living room window. Giggles (#3 Daughter) put the lights on the tree. Sort of. It was more like she was lashing the branches together using strings of Christmas lights. I am not exaggerating when I say she used at least 400 lights on the top two feet of the tree! I tried to help but I only seemed to worsen the problem. Later, Dude-Man took care of the lights on the rest of  the tree. I think he used 200 lights on the other 6 feet of the tree. A lighting master piece!

I did not like the tree in the window. It was taking up too much room so I decided that it needed to be moved. The Boy and I moved it to another part of the room. I didn't like it there, so I moved it across the room. It finally has a home! But the poor thing only has 4 ornaments on it. Four. That's it. No one wants to put any on. They seem to be happy that there are lights on it and some red bead garland.

So now it's five days until Christmas. I have 5 pairs of pajama bottoms to make. Wrapping of presents to do. Cooking and cleaning to take care of. Decorating! Peace negotiations to make since all of the kids are off from school. And somewhere amongst all that chaos I need to find the Spirit of Christmas. Heaven help me!

I think I will watch a Super Junior Christmas music video and go to bed. After all, tomorrow is another day.

Perserverance

Long time, no post. I keep trying to post something and then I hate what I write, therefore, no posts. Maybe this time I will actually do it.

During the last week I have actually exercised every single day. This is a real breakthrough for me. I always have great intentions to exercise regularly but then something happens- I sleep in, life gets busy, I hurt myself , I loose my motivation, ad nauseum.

I have been regretting that I have not really followed through any of my goals that I stated in My First Siwon Post (you can see the goals at the very end of that post from September). So I decided to at least work on the exercise goal. I have learned from the last couple of months that having a routine really helps me to get stuff done. The one day I slept-in and exercised in the afternoon I regretted it. Now I get up, make my bed, get dressed, and then exercise. No breakfast. No checking emails. No cleaning. That's it. It is working. I have exercised eight days in a row.

Of course nothing can go off without a hitch. On Saturday I attempted to do the 5k workout on my treadmill. Half a mile into the program, I needed to go to the bathroom. I paused the program to do my business. When I got back to the machine there were less than 30 seconds left before it would reset itself. In my hurry to get started I knocked the emergency shutoff and reset the blasted thing. Since I was feeling kind of lazy, I decided to different program. A program that I had not done for months. Big mistake.

I chose level 4 which has a max speed of 5mph and 3.5 incline. Off I went, feeling rather smug for my great idea. As I walked and jogged I thought, "Man, I'm really getting into shape! Look at me go!" But the jogging quickly turned into running and the running did not end. Sweat was dripping into my eyes. I was gasping for each breath. Then I noticed a pain in my hip.

I have been very over weight for 20+ years. I have given birth to four children. I now have what I call an apron of  flab. It is gross. It is disgusting. I hope that with exercise it will go away, but right now it seems to be threatening to become a permanent fixture of my body. I really, really hate it.

Anyway, as I was running and sweating and gasping I realized that stupid apron of flab was flopping around with great force. Before I knew it, I pulled something in my hip because of that thing. I slowed everything downed and "finished " the program hobbling about like some old crone. Crap!

All day Saturday it hurt to walk. Sunday morning I did some yoga, hoping that all the slow, gentle stretching would help. I felt better, but not much.

This morning I was back to my regular routine until I had to run. As my flab apron started to bounce and my hip started to throb, I felt a wave of desperation hit. Was I going to have to give up exercising so my stupid hip could heal from whatever it was my stupid flab apron had done to it? Then remembered some pictures that Donghae and Leeteuk put on Twitter of their injuries while preparing for the concert season-

Those are Donghae's legs after he strained muscles in his calves during the intense practices For Super Show 3 and SMTown 2010. There was never any question that he would keep on practicing. He is so dedicated to always doing his best in every performance.

I know, it's gross! That's the blister Leeteuk got while preparing for the same concerts as above. I got a blister on my heel this summer. It was actually a blister on a blister. I didn't exercise for a month. Leetuek didn't let that little blister slow him down a bit. He performed in at least three concerts while keeping up  his other responsibilities.

Now I realize these are not really bad injuries. But they are very uncomfortable. Donghae and Leeteuk press on. I go to bed. Well not this time. As my hip erupted into flames of pain I gained strength from their examples. I changed the program, walked at a quick pace, and was able to go for over a mile today. Success!

Watch What You Say

I sometimes have trouble with the English language. My thoughts can come too quickly and end up in a garbled mess like this:

While playing with my new baby at a mountain lake a woman older than me comes up to me and we begin talking.

Lady - How old is your baby?

Me - She's three months old.

Lady - She's cute. How many children do you have?

Me - I have two. Do you have any grandchildren?

Lady - Oh, I have x number of grandchildren and x number of great-grandchildren. (This was 19 years ago and I don't remember the exact numbers)

Me - Wow! You don't look YOUNG enough to have great- grandchildren!

At which point the lady looked at me in amazement and walked away. It took me at least two minutes before I realized that my intended compliment had really been a put down. I have since wondered how young a person should look before they are a great-grandmother.

Here is another gem:

Me - I sat between my mom and another man on the plane.

Really? My mom is a man? This is news to me. (But that would explain some things...)

Another problem with language in general is putting things into proper context. This is a conversation that I was having with my sister-in-law when my son thought he'd help the conversation along:

Me - My mom blah, blah, blah ...

Sister-in-law - How is she doing?

Son - Oh she's alright but she still rubs her bum on everything. (referring to our cat).

Erm...

And if I didn't already have problems with getting my English sentences straight, now I'm adding Korean to the mix. Korean sentence structure is different than English. In Korean a basic sentence goes subject-object-verb (English is subject-verb-object). I can understand that. The trouble comes when trying to say something a little more complicated. Like this - "I gray sweater purple sweater rather than more like." (The exact translation from my most recent lesson.) What the what? Do I like the gray sweater? Maybe it's the purple one? I don't know! And context doesn't help much either. I feel a cramp in my brain coming on as I try to puzzle this out.

I can just imagine a conversation in my future -

Dude-Man - Should I wear this tie with cats or the one with constellations?

Me - You cats tie constellation tie rather than should wear. You look too young, another man rubs her bum on everything.

For Liz

My two oldest daughters are friends with Liz. Liz is awesome because she introduced them to Super Junior which is how I became a Super Junior fanatic. She will always have a special place in my heart because of that.

Liz loves Eunhyuk and I can understand why. He is funny, cute, a great dancer and singer, blah, blah, blah. He is charming beyond belief. Sweet, awesome, you get the picture . Today I found this video clip of him singing "It Has To Be You", live on the radio. It is adorable -



Did you notice how nervous he was in the beginning? And through the song he kept getting embarrassed. I think it's so cute.  Liz, I hope you like it.

Leeteuk, you one silly boy!

The other morning when I looked at twitter I saw this picture of Leeteuk -

There he is being all sexy and manly and using a yellow ducky phone to take this picture. I love it!

And now here is Sungmin showing his pink things and explaining why he has so many pink things -
sgentertainmentcom | October 20, 2008

I think one of the reasons I feel so passionately about the Super Junior boys is because they are not afraid to be who they are. They wear awesome clothes and strange ones. They are all silly and to some degree nerdy. Most of them cry easily and don't seem embarrassed about it.   They are emotional about their fans, their families, and each other. Maybe it is the Korean culture or maybe it is just how they are. I love them for it.

Recently I made some purchases at a craft fair and I decided to let my choices be based on what I really like instead of what I should like. And so I bought these -

In general, all of my earrings are sparkly and usually silver so these colorful earrings are a pretty big step for me. The hair clips are totally impractical for my hair. Just look at them! The 2 small ones are clearly meant for a little girl. But I don't care. I think they are fabulous and I will wear them anyway.

Then I saw these -

The picture doesn't do them justice. These are freaking awesome shoes and are the opposite in every way possible of the type of shoes I typically buy. First there's the color, RED! All of my shoes are either black, brown, or white. Second, They are HIGH heels, not the sensible type at all. Third, they call attention to themselves, which I generally try to avoid at all costs. All in all, they are completely out of my comfort zone and I love them.

When I first showed the shoes to my sister she had a lukewarm reaction to them. My 3 year old nephew thought they were perfect for me and so I bought them on his advice. When Dude-Man saw them he predicted that there would be some kind of accident in my future. And my oldest daughter just shook her head and rolled her eyes at me. Her prediction was that I would never wear them outside the house.

Ha! I wore them to church last Sunday and got complements on them too. I will have to practice walking in them because I'm rather wobbly when I walk. I only lost my balance once at church so I call it a success.

Four months ago I would have looked longingly at these things and pass them by, thinking that they just don't fit my "image". Whatever! Super Junior has opened my eyes to embrace things that just make me happy. I think I'm a more lighthearted person because of that. Thanks guys!

How Can One Pair of Ears Be So Wrong?

Several of the Super Junior boys have their ears pierced and so do I. Normally, I don't much care for guys wearing earrings. But when these guys do it is usually adorable and I would like to be adorable. So I have started buying cute earrings in an effort to up my adorableness factor. Look at how adorable they are -

The first time my ears were pierced I was 3. Since my mom is a nurse, it was decided that it would be a good idea to have a doctor do it at the hospital where she worked. This was fine in theory, but doctors know nothing about piercing ears. I was sent home with thread loops in my ears and told to ease them through my earlobes for x number of days and, voila! I could wear earrings.

Things did not go as planned. The holes almost immediately closed up with that thread just dangling there. "Easing" it through my ears? That's a joke! And my ears got infected. This 3 year old was not a fan of the whole earring idea. Fortunately my mom had the sense to cut that evil thread and yank it out of my ear lobes. Everything healed up very nicely after that.

Then I turned 5. No self-respecting Indian woman has unpierced ears so my mom thought it was time to give it another go. She had learned from the last attempt to put in some earrings in immediately following the piercing.

She settled me snugly on her lap and proceeded to pinch one ear to "deaden the pain" (this does not work). 
Once my ear was sufficiently "numbed" she used a hypodermic needle (one of those long ones) to pierce my ear.It was unpleasant. Then she put in an earring she had gotten in India and I'm telling you those posts are thick! And the backs have to be screwed on. Ouch! And then the whole procedure was followed on the other ear. Happy Birthday!

Fast forward 40 years. Now that I have become a Super Junior fan I'm trying to be more aware of my appearance. I wear makeup more often. I'm working at losing weight. I pay more attention to my clothes. And I'm wearing earrings more often.

 Dude-man gave me a pair of lovely pearl earrings for my birthday and I wear those a lot. Then I noticed the cute earrings the Super Junior boys wear and I thought I would follow their example. I bought some smallish hoop earrings and noticed that they didn't hang the same way in each ear. At first I thought it as because I had purchased cheap earrings. I decided to fix it by bending one of the posts until it hung the same way as the other ear. I had to bend it nearly 45 degrees and almost snapped off the post. Hmmm... Maybe it was my ear and not the earring? This was made clear when my daughter tried on another pair of earrings which looked perfectly fine on her and ridiculous on me. Sigh.

 So I decided to go a different route and try some really cute earrings that are a little bigger than I usually wear. Then I noticed it, no matter how tightly I had those earrings in, one of them always looked as if it was about to fall out. Once again I thought it must be the earrings and not me. Oh, it was me alright. Sigh.

 Here's what I think happened: Back on that fateful fifth birthday my mom messed it up. On my right ear she angled the needle towards my head thereby making any hoop earring lopsided. On my left ear she angled the needle upwards so that the earring looks like it will fall out. And why didn't I notice it for 40 years? Because I didn't ever wear hoop earrings before and because I never paid attention to my ears either. And now that I've noticed it I've decided I can't live this way. It's just too shameful.

I looked myself in the mirror and proclaimed, "I will not let crooked ear piercings keep me from being the cute girl I want to be! NO! I will  rise from this obstacle a better woman, and I shall have my ears pierced again!"


And so I did.

And that's the story of how I FINALLY got my ear professionally pierced. (And they look really cute too!)