Metal mouth

I thought I was done with the braces and retainer stage of my life. Apparently not. For those of you who haven't known me all my life my journey into the world of braces, head gear, retainers, etc. started at age seven. I had a underbite, I guess. All I remember is the fact that if you wear a chin cup long enough in the summertime your chin sweats and it starts to stink. Yes, fond memories. :-) Anyway, I wore my retainers faithfully until I got married. At first I didn't wear them because, well, it's not exactly a romantic thing to get in bed with your new husband and, when he starts to kiss you say, "Um... could you hold that thought for a moment while I take this plastic and metal out of my mouth? Thanks sweetie." And then, for the first four months of being pregnant anything in my mouth besides food makes me gag. So... no retainers for a while longer. And then I just forgot. Unfortunately, five years later, I can tell that my bite is starting to move, and it hurts. That is what really is making me take action, I hate pain. So, last night I put the retainers back in. It felt so weird. I even had crazy dreams that I had this swollen tongue that was stuck out of my mouth and I kept trying to push it back it. Very frustrating, and when I looked in the mirror, yes, I remember looking in the mirror in my dream, how vain is that? But, anyway, I looked like a zombie with their oversized tongue falling out. Also in my dream I owned a store and my appearance was scaring customers away. I was quite distraught about this. :-) Anyway, I managed to wake myself up from this unfortunate dream to find that my top retainer was sticking out of my mouth like my tongue had in my dream. I know, not what you really wanted to hear this fine sunday morning, but as it is the new addition in my life you got to read about it. :-) Here's to hoping our kids don't need braces or retainers.

On a more spiritual note, it has made me realize that no matter how hard we have worked at our relationship with Christ in the past we can't just set it aside for indefinite periods of time and forget about Him. If we do, the relationship, like my teeth, will start to slip. In the long run it is so much easier to stay faithful in the little things. A lot less pain involved. :-)