One man's trash...

I hate my kitchen floor. I'm not sure that hate even fully expresses my feeling towards my kitchen floor. When we moved here almost 6 years ago, I said "I want a new kitchen floor." However, with tyranny of the urgent and all that, I still have the same kitchen floor that I had when we moved in. It is orange. I've had several people correct me and say that it is actually "tera cota" (Did I even spell that right?) I think that is just a way of saying that you like the color orange without actually having to admit to it. Honestly, how many people, when you ask them, will say "My all time favorite color is orange." I personally know of one person and I'm actually proud of her for her boldness. Those people who say they like tera cota are people who really like the color orange and are just afraid to say so. In any case, it is orange and I have never met a floor that is harder to clean than this one. It is supposedly "natural" linoleum. It looks like it is from the 1950s, but it isn't. Maybe it would have been easier to clean if it had been from the 1950s. I know those women wouldn't have had hours to spend cleaning floors. For a long time I had tried many different mops and solutions and couldn't figure out why nothing worked. Then, one day, as I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor I figured it out--the floor is pourus. I cleaned a portion of it and then pressed my hand on it--dirt literally rose to the surface. Ahhhh, gross!!!!! I have four kids--I don't need the floor to produce dirt on its own. The kids do a pretty good job with that. So when we looked at houses, one of the first things I checked out was the kitchen floor. The one we bought has tile--Yeah!! Although, I met the buyer of our house yesterday, and she was going on and on (without know that my new house has tile) about how horrible tile is to keep clean. You know what else she was going on and on and on about---how much she LOVED the kitchen floor in this house. I guess one man's trash truly is another man's treasure. I also think she is a closet orange lover.

My native Iowans

My kids are native Iowans. Well, Sara is technically a native Texan, but she was only 8 months when we moved so we think that Iowa would probably adopt her. We had a generous couple at church get all of us Iowa sweatshirts so that the kids could remember their heritage. As a disclaimer to all you Iowa State grads & fans--Joe and I are still neutral. I will again state--these were gift sweatshirts. Three of the four amigos decided to wear them proudly for my picture. The fourth amigo wasn't too proud. Actually I think she just needed a snack and, to be honest, I don't really like to get my picture taken when I'm hungry either.

Nathan's new trick

Nathan just realized his fingers would fit in his ears. It took Mommy about 5 minutes to realize that I had to talk louder to him when he had his fingers in his ears.

The promised pics of the 22 month old

The little helper.

Question of the day

We've been painting trim and any other exterior paint that we have outside. Our buyer is using an FHA loan and so we are trying to get ahead of the game and get all our peeling paint to look non-peeling. And so, I pose to you, my question of the day..... If there is an unsupervised open can of paint sitting in the middle of the yard, how long does it take a 22 month old to discover it? (I wish I had a picture for you, but, alas, I was caught up in the moment and he immediately got sprayed off. I do have a picture which I may share later in which he looks like he has a black eye because he smeared dirt all over his face. This was combined with some of the paint so he definitely looked great. Honestly I'm not sure a picture could do it justice. Yes, it was an interesting morning.)

Shouldn't our weight advantage help us out more??

I just dressed a 21 month old who didn't want dressed. I think it was more the fact that he didn't want to go to bed and he expressed his frustration by refusing to have his PJs put on. Normally I can handle my kids even if they don't want to be dressed. However, this time I found it necessary to call in back-up. So here we are two grown adults both individually weighing significantly more than the 21 month old--and our combined weight really weighing more than the 21 month old--and yet we are still unable to get the kid's pants on him. Seriously, we tried around five times before I completely burst out in laughter. I kept thinking that our weight advantage should be helping us out more. You have to admire the kid's strength and stamina. Fortunately, we persevered and he was finally wearing pants. As Joe picked him up and began carrying him to his crib I said "Oh wait, shouldn't we change his shirt too?" You should have seen the look I got back...

Entering the modern age

Today we officially entered the technology age. Well, actually Joe entered the technology age. I am just along for the ride and get to use it occassionally if he is a nice guy. As a departing gift from FBC, they gave him an IPOD. Ooops, I think I just spelled it wrong. It doesn't look right. I think it is actually iPod. The fact that I messed it up should give you a little insight to my technology savvyness. I actually don't do too bad considering I've been out of the workforce for 6 1/2 years. I can do everything I need to do on my computer. However, any of these new gadgets many times baffle me. Joe is running an errand and the kids are watching a video, so I decided that I would check out the new iPod. I had glanced at it earlier, but hadn't even really taken the time to look at the inscription (which includes my name, BTW). As I was admiring its beauty, I accidentally turned it on. Then in the process of trying to turn it off I set the language to something other than english. Not exactly sure what the language was---possibly Norwegian/Swedish?? (Do they have a Norwegian/Swedish language on an iPod?) In any case, it was definitely a language I didn't understand which certainly didn't help me figure out how to turn it off. I also turned the machine over and over again to find a switch. Of course there was no on/off switch. They don't believe in them in the modern age. I finally just decided to put it back in the package and 'fess up to Joe when he got home. As I was putting it back in the plastic wrap I noticed some writing on the plastic. It informed me how to reset it. Yeah! So I got it reset and then I moved on to turning it off. I tried to follow the instructions, but much to my dismay it remained stubbornly on. I suppose that is good to know when I actually know how it works. So I did put it back in the package and just hoped that it had some sort of automatic feature that would turn it off. By the time Joe returned home it had turned off. Yeah!! However, he read my post which was part way done in its draft form and found out my error in touching it. So it was decided that we would read the instructions together. I'm sure many 20 year olds out there would completely laugh at us. What has happened since we entered our 30s???

Our doxology

Praise God , from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!

We sold our house today. Only the faithful God we serve would make our house sell on our last day at Faith Bible Church. It is just one more step in his clear direction for us. Please praise the Lord with us.