Today we celebrate our 8th year of marriage. It has been that fast. Looking back, there were up and down, and challenges in our marriage. But then there were also lots of joy and laughters, love and intimacy. Most importantly, there was God – the glue, the keeper and sustainer of our love.

We can always pursue our dreams, chase after jobs and careers, entertain self, hang out with friends… but ultimately real life and meaning of life is where family at.

Past 8 years were great, yet I’m looking for even better of many years to come. There are still lots of things to learn, to experience, and I am looking forward to them. I want to be a better man, better husband to my wife, better father to my children. Realizing it’s a lifetime goal, I still still keep working at it no matter how long it takes.

Our family went to Steaksmith to celebrate our anniversary. We haven’t been back to this place for quite a while. Foods were alright but we did have a great family time together. At dinner Thao was explaining our reason to celebrate to Grace: “It was Mommy’s wedding 8 years ago this day.” Grace pondered: “Who did you marry to?” Then it was just dawn on her. Silly Gracie!

While we were waiting for our desert, Grace asked me if I want to play a game to which I said yes. She then gave me options: “Daddy which level do you want to play: easy, medium or hard?” I chose medium. Then she proceeded and said: “Medium? Ok then we can play ‘I Spy’ game because ‘Guess The Thing I Am Thinking’ game is hard. …. LOL. Gotta love her!

We played the “hard’ game, but I gave up on the drive home because we ran out of things to think about in the car.

Happy anniversary honey. I love you!

When I was young, the concept of seeing a dentist is narrowed down to either having the tooth (or teeth) pulled, or making a denture. Actually maybe just the denture work because there were many “home remedy” options for taking the tooth out. It can be done by force with a strong flick of the fingers, or dungeon style using home tools such as the pliers,  or tie the string to the tooth and pull, or tie the string to a doorknob and slam the door, or to the hammer and throw it… As you can see, we could get very creative with this task.  There was no such thing called dental insurance when I grew up, and dental care was down to one option: brush your teeth. If the family could not afford toothpaste, there was always salt. Want strong teeth? Chew the areca nut (like tobacco). It tainted the teeth blackish, but makes them super strong (so you can bite the bullet if you want. Actually, don’t ever try this. I haven’t heard anyone doing that, but you shouldn’t be the first to try!! Again, just don’t!)

OK. That wasn’t truly my understanding of dentistry, but the truth is we don’t have dental care back in the day. Now living in the US, we have this dental benefit and we should take advantage of it more. Sadly, my teeth department has not been paid much attention and being neglected like the old college books in the basement.  I was just going too keep ignoring it, but too many people had noticed my ugly, blacken front tooth. This was from probably 15 years back, when I was pretending to be a  superhero, messing around, cartwheeling, flipping and ended up  landing with my mouth on the cement floor.  So the tooth was dead and stay dead for many years. With my recent visit to the dentist office, they gave me the estimate for crowning the tooth, and it wasn’t seem too bad. It does not cost nearly an arm and a leg,  so I decide it’s time to drop the “dough” (as in dollars) to beautify my smile.

Actually, there’s several steps before calling this tooth a king and put a crown on it. First, I need to bleach my teeth to bring out the whiteness of the attractive smile. Then I am scheduled to sit in the chair and being knocked out for about an hour and half while the dentist does the root canal work. Actually it will be an attempt at the root canal because it has been so long, the tooth might have become fossil already and he might not able to reach deep enough to retract the dead vein. That’s lot of effort to save one tooth, don’t you think? But it’s better this way. Better than wearing a one tooth denture for sure, I think!

Talking about teeth whitening, there are so many choices: over counter/off the shelf products, take-home kit, or done in the dentist office. I got great tips from a friend, and decide to go with the the take-home kit. It’s still expensive but probably worth it, and save time. I got my teeth impression done last week which makes the mold that fit precisely to my teeth. I received the bleach gel kit today and it comes with two sets of 4-gel tube. For some reason, I thought of Botox injection when I first saw the kit even though I have never seen what the Botox kit would look like. Weird thought!  The dentist assistance explained that there might be some chance of  numbness and tingling pain would occur, which kind of scare me for a bit. Who would have guess that there would be some pain involved in bleaching teeth?! Oh well, no pain no gain I guess.  Anyway, I can’t wait to try bleaching tonight. I need to watch it and not to leave them on for too long for  them to become glowing-in-the-dark,  as seen in one of the  TV sitcom Friend’s  episode when Ross bleached his teeth before going on a date. LOL.

Wait until I smile at you next time!

I always imagine how I would look with a shaved head or a military buzz cut.  Do you? Well, stop dreaming now,  because this is how I now look. Ha ha ha … Thao didn’t like the “tough-man” look, though I don’t think it look too bad. Oh well, it will grow again soon enough.  

And, no I’m not enlisted, or newly recruited. I thought the shirt just goes with the new haircut. 

Oh, by the way, thanks Nhan!!! Great job, man! Seriously!

Thuong's new look with buzz cut

Close up

Photo taken with a webcam, so they’re not too sharp. But still, great looking though, ain’t it? Ha ha ha.

UPDATED: Added a poll. Let me know what you think of my new haircut.

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