Spring, Do Your Thing!

Ok, it's mostly here. Today is a beautiful day, yesterday was a beautiful day..... and Friday it's going to snow. But I know it's here because the light outside is different, and I've gotten my yearly sinus infection, which I only get when Spring arrives. So yeay!! It's official. No planting outside for quite a while, but the dirt for our mondo planter box arrives today, so I will have something to do, and my daughter, son, and I did plant seeds last week and look!!

Spring is bustin' out all over!!!

Have a great day today, everyone!

Spring Has Sprung

ahem...

Spring has sprung

The grass is riz

I wonder where the flowers is?

But they'll get here, sooner or later

'Cause the sun's direct rays just crossed the equator

So here I stand,

My banner held high,

'Cause Spring has sprung

And so have I!!

This somewhat grammatically incorrect poem brought to you by my third grade teacher, Mr. Mammina. I have no idea if he wrote it or someone else did, but I do remember that we little third graders walked up and down the halls of our school chanting it on the first day of Spring. I believe we also had banners. I love this little poem, which still sticks in my head, um, 20 odd years later.

So what have you been up to since the seasons changed?? I've been outside!!! Woo hoo!!! Yesterday and Friday my husband and I built a MASSIVE planter box on one border of our yard. It's a 40x4 foot gigantor, 1 foot high on one section, 18" high on another. I would show you a picture, but it's nothing to look at right now, just an open box with nothing in it. I have to order dirt for it (7 yards--oh fun) and then plant it with Butterfly Bushes and Forsythia, and put up a post for a birdhouse. Doesn't that sound nice? I think it'll be lovely. Then I'm going to plant in front of it and to the side of it with a few more bushes and some roses and perennials. Yeay!

I love Spring.

We cleaned up the other gardens yesterday, cutting away the dead grasses (I have a number of Maiden Grasses-I leave them for the structure during the winter, plus birds sit in them) and pulling away any old leaves that had collected in the beds. Prompting all our neighbors to shortly do the same, I'm sure. Today one of our next door neighbors is out raking, and I know the others will soon follow. We are clean-up trendsetters!!

Well, that's about it for me. I hope you all have nice weather and are enjoying it. If you celebrate Easter, have a great holiday!

Metalmouth.

Braceface.

Tinsel Teeth.

I dunno, I'm sure I missed a few. Anyone think of any others?

Well, if you do, feel free to lob 'em at me, cause I took the plunge and did it.

I got braces.

No, not Invisaligns. Those are crazy expensive and my teeth were way too out of wack for them to work. Regular metal braces for me. The type many of us agonized over in Jr. High.

When we couldn't chew gum.

Or eat taffy.

And were told not to kiss anyone else with braces or we would -gasp- lock together.

That kind.

I'm also getting a retainer in a month.

The kind you were hollered at not to flip in and out of your mouth by your parents and teachers, because they said it would break (they do break, by the way--I broke mine that way, so it's true).

The kind that made you talk funny for a while.

The kind that is icky and you have to take out to eat cause otherwise -shudder- let's not even go there.

Luckily NOT the type that requires that weird thing around your head with the wires coming out of your mouth that is the butt of the 80's movies' jokes. They don't seem to do that anymore. But, a retainer with wires and whatnot just the same.

Yes, I am over 30.

And you know how it makes me feel?


Like an adult.


Crazy as it seems.

This is a thing I've wanted to take care of for nearly 10 years. I did have braces as a kid. Afterwards, my teeth were pretty straight. But I did break my retainer and it did not get replaced, so that did not help, and unfortunately, I had wisdom teeth that wanted to come in in my 20's, but there was no room. I didn't get them taken care of when I should have, so they pushed EVERYTHING on my bottom jaw out of whack. Pretty badly. Most people (I'm told) never noticed.

But I did.

And I went through months at a time when I didn't care at all. My crooked teeth were just a part of who I was, like my grey hair (which I love). But then there were months at a time when it bothered me-really bothered me. And I always thought everyone noticed, whether they did or didn't. And I just hated myself.

So I finally have had enough.

I figured it's time I act like an adult, stop running away from this thing that makes me so unhappy, and face what needs to be done to fix it, so it won't bother me anymore. So I got braces.

And they are not pretty. And worse yet, I will have to have a tooth pulled (in front) because my mouth is just too small. So I'll have a hole there for a little while. Am I excited about that? No. I do realize that it's not particularly attractive, and yes, I'm sure I will be very conscious of it. But the thing about this, and the whole reason it feels so damn good, is that I am finally investing in myself. This is not something I do. Ask me to do something for my kids --no problem. Ask me to do something for my husband --no problem. Ask me to do something for the house --no problem. Ask me to do something for me --well, how much will it cost? It's too expensive. I don't really need it. I can put it off.

I always put me in the back seat. But I didn't want to do that again. So, braces it is.

Coincidentally, today was my appointment to get them and there was an article in the paper about adults and braces. I thought that was pretty funny. Oh, and then I also found this accidentally this morning:

It's not wrong!!

So I'll deal with the lovely metalworks I've got going in my mouth, and when the tooth is extracted, I'll deal with the hole.

Because in the end, my crooked teeth will never bother me again.

And that makes it all worth it.

I Wanna Go Outside!!!

And smell the Lilacs....

And walk in the yard....

And plant some roses....

And build this arbor....

(won't that surprise my husband?)

But it's too cold....And it's going to rain for two days...
And it's not the time to plant up here.

Sigh...

I guess I'll just plant some seeds today....

And plan for things to come.

Did everyone have a nice St. Patrick's Day? I have to say, it's one of my favorite holidays, though none of us are the least bit Irish. I loved me some corned beef, that's for sure. Ate way too much. Enjoyed every minute of it. Hope you all had a great one too!