The cutest boys in all the world

Okay, I promised a new post about my nephews. So here it is.

Heather and the boys first got here on Saturday June 21st. The boys were excited to see Bodie of course (and he was so excited he couldn't help but pee all over the floor. Several times.) They were especially interested in his crate. I'm not sure why. But here's one of the first things they did.

Bryce even locked the gate on it. They played in there for a lot longer than I thought could possibly be fun.

I bought the boys some fun outdoor toys to play with while they were here. We spent a lot of time playing with Bodie and running around. The boys think I'm the greatest (okay, Heather, maybe the 3rd greatest) person in the world. So of course they wanted to do everything with me. (If you don't remember, they call me "Ly-Ly" instead of my name.) "I want Ly-Ly to take us to the park." "I want Ly-Ly to give us our bath." "I want Ly-Ly to sit next to me at dinner." This actually didn't change at all the entire time they were here. But I think they're cute, so I obliged.

Heather left on Wednesday morning. So the next day was my first official day of vacation. What's a more fun way to spend the day than going shopping? I took them to Penney's and bought them each 4 outfits. (On super sale of course.) They were so well-behaved, even after I made them try on clothes. We also were shopping for new linens and a comforter set for my new bed. (Oh, did I forget to mention that yesterday. Yes, I splurged and got a new super-comfy pillowtop bed. I love it so much.) We went to several stores to find just the right set. I finally got a comforter set on sale at Burlington.

Friday, after my bed was delivered and I got it all set up, we went to the Ankeny Aquatic Center. My two oh-so-wonderful aunts came as well as my two youngest cousins. We spent hours there - about 3 or 3 1/2. Bryce got a slight sunburn because I had reapplied to Blake (he's much whiter) but not Bryce. I, on the other hand, got super sunburned because I told my aunts "I don't believe in sunscreen. I like being dark." Yeah, I should have used a little. Most of me was okay, but there were certain parts of my shoulders and back that are normally covered by my shirts and they were pretty red. I peeled really bad eventually. I didn't get any pictures of this. It's not usually a good idea to bring cameras into the pool. Unless it's a water camera. Which it wasn't.

Saturday morning the boys woke up and got dressed and opened some of the presents my brother Josh had sent them. He got them a Bare-Naked Ladies kids CD to share and their own baseball glove for the game we would be attending that evening. The boys had never been to a baseball game and they were very excited to go see the Iowa Cubs. A lot of my family went. There were 19 of us there. We actually got to watch a double header and there were fireworks after the game. My mom made everyone a t-shirt. We all had to wear them.

It's hard to see, but she actually put our names on the front of our shirts. So if I didn't know which aunt was which, all I had to do was look at their shirt. : ) I love you mom. You're wonderful. Notice the boys wearing sweatshirts. Who would have known that it would be super cold at the end of June? We went on my brother Josh's birthday, so we had the I-Cubs people put his name on the board and wish him a happy birthday. Even though he couldn't hear it since he's on the other side of the world. But we were wishing him well anyway. We finally got home super late and the boys were worn out.

The next day was Sunday. The boys went to Sunday School. The last time they went, they hadn't really enjoyed the time in the preschool classes. They were really excited this time to go with the older kids and they even let them both go to the first grade classroom. They brought home a box that they called a tackle box with random verses and even random facts about sea animals. I wasn't really sure what they talked about. When I asked them what the lesson was about I got the standard answer: God. And also fish, apparently, but not about Jesus and fish. I'm still confused.

Anyway, afterward, we had a fun stay-at-home day with the boys. They opened their last two presents from Josh. Josh just happened to call when they were opening them, so he got to hear their excited "Wow"s. Bryce got some GI Joe Sigma 6 action figures (they're these ninja guys - he really likes the bad guys) and Blake got a Fisher Price learn-to-play guitar for kids. It's kind of like guitar hero, but for little guys.

Later that night, Blake crashed on the sofa. And so did Bodie.

More to come at a later date, for all of you who aren't completely bored of my day-by-day account of my vacation with boys you either don't know or barely know. : )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A WONDERFUL FRIEND

I just wanted to say a very heartfelt HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful friend Val. Val and I became friends our first semester at college. I think it was actually the first weekend after our first week of classes that we met. I had brought a fellow JBUer downstairs to our dorm basement to teach her how to do laundry as she had never done it herself before. And while we were waiting, we were going to watch t.v. because there was a big one in the basement. Well, there was Val watching one of my favorite shows. SNL (Saturday Night Live for anyone who doesn't know what SNL means. Well, now you do.) And it wasn't just any SNL. It was the Chris Farley special. One of the best ones ever. And we've been friends ever since. That was 7 years, 10 months, and about a gazillion memories ago.
Valerie is simply wonderful, sweet, super-cool, hilarious, and totally fashionable! She is currently serving God overseas in the Philippines, raising two (and soon to be 3) wonderful kids and bringing an immense amount of joy and sunshine to the people around her. (As well as teaching her children how to be wonderful, sweet, super-cool, hilarious, and totally fashionable.) I am so blessed to have her as a friend and so excited to see her very soon since she's on furlough and is now back stateside!
Anyway, Valerie, I hope you're having a wonderful birthday!!! I love you and miss you and am blessed daily by your friendship.

Where to Start?

Since it's been a month and a half since my last post, I don't even know where to begin. Well, let's see, I've been working. I've started school. I'm on a mission to get my teaching certification. Hopefully in about a year and a half, I'll be finished and can move on to bigger and better things.

I survived the floods of 08. That's what they're called around here. Of course, they didn't affect me at all except that they caused my daily commute to feel a little like driving through the lower circle of Hades. But all's well that ends well, I suppose. The flooding wasn't as bad as had been predicted and thanks to lots of new safety guards, they didn't do a whole lot of damage in Des Moines. Some areas got flooded pretty bad, but for the most part, we all survived relatively unscathed. I do have family that lives in and close to Cedar Rapids, but they were all spared from major flood damage. Praise God for that.

I celebrated Bodie's first birthday on June 8th. He was actually sick the day before his birthday, so instead of birthday treats, I took away all of his food. That did the trick, so the day after his birthday, he got all sorts of yumminess. I had bought some gourmet treats at a kiosk at the mall. He had dog bone shaped biscuits covered in icing and sprinkles. He got a treat that looked like a giant lollipop. It was actually a big circle of yogurt type stuff on a rawhide stick. The next day his poop was really really blue. Dark blue. It was pretty funny. And I got him these peanut butter and carab treats that looked just like a reece's peanut butter cup, with an icing paw print on top. He didn't get to eat them all at once. But every day I'd say "Happy Birthday Bodie" and he'd run over to where the treats were and shake his whole body up and down in anticipation. It was cute. I definitely spoil him sometimes.

Bryce and Blake came out to visit from June 21st through July 5th. Heather was here until the first Wednesday and then she drove back home. I took off work from the first Thursday through the next Friday. I went back to work only this past Monday, so I had a total of 11 days without working. We did so much that I actually will have to post that at a different date, so be watching for it. (I promise it won't take me another 1 1/2 months.)

I enjoyed my past week at work. It flew by quickly and today I participated in a mud volleyball tournament. Every year around this time, Ankeny holds a city-wide celebration call Summerfest. Our church started holding a mud volleyball tournament. This year was the 2nd one, but I believe they're going to keep the tradition going. They dug out 4 pits on the land of the future site of our church and filled it with water. There were a lot of people there this year. It's not just church members, either. There are a lot of just young people (and some not-so-young) from the community that take part. It's pretty cool. We got completely trounced. We played 2 games. The second one, this team got in because they thought it was their turn. But one of the games went a little long, so they were behind. They actually played after us. This really sucked, because they definitely looked like we had a pretty good chance to beat them. Instead we got a different team. And we lost. But we had fun anyway. The only things that sucked were 1: the amount of rocks in the pit. I was told to wear old tennis shoes. This didn't work, because they just sunk into the mud and made it hard to move, so I took them off and stepped on jagged rocks the entire time. And 2: it was so flipping cold today. Yesterday was in the 90's. This morning when we started at 11, it was maybe 70. At most. And rainy and slightly windy and it didn't get much better before our second game. And the water was cold. So, of course, I was cold. If I get any pictures of me covered in mud, I'll definitely post them.

Okay, that's it for today. Check back soon for pictures....

Hello Again.

I’m sorry that it’s been so long since I last posted. I’ve been a little busy. To catch you up on everything I’ve been doing:

Well, I recently went back to school to work on getting my teaching license. It should take me about 1 ½ years, depending on how quickly I learn. I’m kind of excited about that. It has made it difficult to do much since it kind of eats up my free time.

Last weekend I went to my friend Abby’s wedding. I plan on posting pictures, but my batteries are dead in my camera, so I will post them at a later date (but soon, Val, I promise!) Her wedding was in Edmund, Oklahoma. That is actually right outside of Oklahoma City. So I drove to Heidi’s apartment in Hutchinson, Kansas on Friday night after work and the plan was to ride in Heidi’s car to Edmund the following day.

The trip down there was a 6 hour drive, but it ended up taking me 7 hours because of stops. I also made a decision to not drive more than 5 miles over the posted speed limit. (This was difficult for me because I routinely like to drive between 80-85 on my trips to Kansas City, even though the speed limit is 70.) It turned out to be a good thing because I passed so many cops I couldn’t keep track. It was nice to not get that queasy feeling in my stomach whenever I saw one. It took the worry out of passing a police car.

I enjoyed a Chipotle burrito on my drive to Hutch. For anyone who has ever eaten a Chipotle burrito, I hope they appreciate the difficulty of eating one in a car. I did get quite a bit of rice on my lap, but other than that, I kept it pretty much together. By the time I got to Heidi’s, I was dead tired, so after a little chit-chat, I went to bed. We didn’t stay up all night like we normally do. When I woke up the next morning, however, I was having quite a bit of difficulty breathing. Heidi has two cats and of course I have an allergy to cats. They are spending the month at her parents’ house, and she washed all of her sheets and cleaned everything really well, but it just wasn’t enough. Anyway, even though she had cleaned her apartment, she hadn’t thought to clean out her car which was covered in cat hair thanks to their trip to her parents’ home 4 hours away. So we decided to take my car to Edmund, a 3 hour drive from Heidi’s.

The wedding was wonderful. Abby looked stunning and it was great to finally meet Arthur and grant our approval. Aden (Abby’s not-quite-5-year-old son) looked so handsome and he was full of charm and all-over cuteness. Just adorable! The wedding was actually kind of short. It started at 2 and Abby and Arthur pulled away at 4:30.

Heidi and I wanted to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. We had planned on driving back to Hutchinson to watch it, but we decided to save money and go to a matinee. But I was way too dressed up, so we thought we’d shop for some cheap clothes. I got a cute outfit at Ross (with super cute Steve Madden flip-flops for only $7!!!) Heidi bought a hat that would have looked great on our cruise and a pair of sunglasses, but wasn’t able to find any clothes she really liked, even though we searched through 3 stores. It turned out to be a very fun day of shopping. And then we had to find a theater, which took probably close to 45 minutes. At that point it was after 7 and the next showing was at 8. We didn’t make the matinee so we didn’t save any money and we actually spent more on clothes than we would have saved anyway (quite a bit more actually). But we enjoyed the movie immensely! We got done after 10 pm and still had to drive 3 hours back to Hutchinson.

The following day, we got up for church and decided to spend some time at Heidi’s pool, which had just opened. So we got on our swimsuits, grabbed our towels and headed for the pool. It turned out that Heidi’s pool was super ghetto. It was freezing cold since it had just opened, so we couldn’t swim. It was almost too cold to put just our feet in. And there were no chairs to lay on. There was one folding chair, but that does no good. The ground was really rough, so we couldn’t lay on our towels, either. So we spent the next few hours looking at stuff online. I left later in the afternoon and drove the 7 hours back to my house, stopping for Chipotle again, of course. I could only eat half, though, and enjoyed the other half on Tuesday night while watching American Idol.
This past week I have been very busy. My mom got a new computer – which is now sitting in my room and I am typing on right now. And she got a new desk. I put everything together all by myself. I’m very proud of myself for getting the desk together since there were no words in the instructions, only diagrams. She only got the tower, keyboard, and mouse because we had an extra monitor. But we couldn’t find the cable to hook it up to the computer. We got that the following day, and I had to hook up the wireless adapter (again, I did that all by myself, too!) but we couldn’t find the CD to install it. My mom called the tech support earlier tonight and my (mom’s) computer is now fully functional. I won’t make any promises, but hopefully having it in my room will make it easier for me to blog more regularly, but I really wouldn’t count on it.Oh, and I also found out earlier this week that one of my best friends, Val, is having a boy. Huzzah Val (and Josh

Too Close to Call?

I was reading this article about Hillary Clinton's chances of receiving the nomination. Readers were asked to write in their own scenarios of ways that Clinton would be the presidential candidate. It's great. Enjoy!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/trailhead/archive/2008/05/08/obama-doomsday-scenario-contest-results.aspx?GT1=38001

Bodie's Last Day as a "Real" Man (dog)

My dog is finally going to be neutered. I waited way too long. Part of the reason for this is that my vet was going to charge me $260+ for the neuter. They have some new fancy laser technology. So I found out that the Spay clinic in Des Moines only charges $55 plus $10 for the collar. So I set up an appointment and let my boss know so that I could get off early. That was supposed to be today. But then Carey's boss let her know a few days ago that he was going to be in town, so I couldn't leave early. So I called around and found a place that will do it for about $90, but they also keep him overnight. So I set up that appointment and canceled the other one. And then yesterday, Carey's boss told her he wasn't coming after all, so I could have taken him in, but the soonest they have an opening is the end of June. Anyway, I have to take him tomorrow morning and I'll pick him up after work on Thursday. I know I shouldn't be, but I am a little worried about him. What if something goes wrong? It's silly. I feel like a mom. He's my baby. But at least he'll (hopefully) stop peeing over everything when we go for walks. It's getting pretty ridiculous.

4 Reason I Like My Job

Sometimes, I get a little frustrated watching children that aren't mine. They don't listen. The babies don't nap like normal babies do. The older kids fight a lot. It can really test my patience (and by test, I mean remove it completely). The twins turned 1 last Wednesday, on April 9th. So I thought I'd post 4 things I love about my job.
And here they are: Jimmy (on left), Olivia, George, and Joey (right). They're playing with part of the present I gave them for their birthday. It was still really early, too, so they weren't dressed yet. And I think it's one of the few pictures of all 4 kids looking at the camera with their hands down (Jimmy likes to reach his hands out) and smiling at the same time.

Yes, I am going to blog about the same thing I've blogged about for the past 5 months

Yes, you guessed it. It snowed again. And I just have to say how much I hate it. I was finally starting to hope that winter was really gone and spring was finally here. I'm just going to be positive and believe that this is the last snowfall of the season.

In other news...I was sleeping in my bed (which is where I normally sleep) but somehow during the night, Bodie had taken over. I didn't know it at the time, but I was sleeping right on the edge of my bed, even though I thought I was in the middle. Anyway, in the middle of the night on Tuesday, I rolled over. Now that Bodie sleeps with me, I always push myself up first, just to make sure I don't accidentally roll over on top of him. I don't think I'd hurt him now, but I got used to doing that since he was so tiny as a puppy. Anyway, I kind of plopped down onto my pillow, but instead of my head hitting my pillow, it hit the shelves on the side of my bed. Face first. My head hurt a lot and I got up to take Bodie outside. And that's when I noticed the blood gushing out of the open wound on my forehead. I was really lucky. If my face had hit further down, the corner that sliced my head could have knocked out my eye. And I'm not exaggerating. I really came down hard on it.

My head was throbbing yesterday. And today it hurt a lot, too. It's also getting infected and has been oozy all day. It's gross, but I think I'm going to survive. I'm not as sure that I'll survive the snow, though.

Cool Windows

This morning, I went out to my car and realized my back window had been left open. It had snowed and iced yesterday and the window had frozen itself in place. I traded cars with my mom so that I wouldn't have to drive to work on the interstate with my window open. Anyway, as I was leaving this afternoon, George and Olivia had to give me one more hug, so they ran outside to my car and I rolled the window down. Olivia stuck her head inside the window and asked "How does that work? How'd you do that?" The thing that amazed her was that my window rolled down manually, not automatically. She was enthralled by it. It was possibly the coolest window she'd ever seen.

Lifehouse Drama

I saw this video tonight and I wanted to share it. It's really powerful. Just watch it through to the end. It's really good.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5

O Glorious Day!

I just wanted to wish everyone a blessed and happy Easter. I love Easter. It's great to be forced to spend time reflecting on the sacrifice Christ made and the hope we have now because of it. Here's one of my new favorite songs. It's called "Glorious Day" It's on the newest Todd Agnew album, but it's actually an old hymn by Rev. John William Chapman. It's beautifully written and expresses perfectly what Christ did for us, much better than I could express it - and with more rhyming.


One day when Heaven was filled with His praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,
Dwelt among men, my Example is He!

Living, He loved me;
dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain,
One day they nailed Him to die on the tree;
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!
One day the grave could conceal Him no longer,
One day the stone rolled away from the door;
Then He arose, over death He had conquered;
Now is ascended, my Lord for evermore!

Living, He loved me;
dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming,
One day the skies with His glories will shine;
Wonderful day, my beloved ones bringing;
Glorious Savior, this Jesus is mine!

Living, He loved me;
dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

Coming Soon: The greatest day of my life

I'm not exactly sure when it will happen, but it will be soon. This spring, I think, although I haven't been able to verify it yet. But I would like to announce that Chipotle is coming to Des Moines! I am so happy I could cry right now. It's so surreal I can hardly believe it. I will post more on this development as I learn when it will open. I will definitely be there on opening day to enjoy the world's best burrito.

Call the Plumber

On Sunday evening, I went to put on my earrings. They're pretty nice silver and gold ones, not easily replaceable. Well, the drain in my bathroom doesn't have a cover. It's just a straight shot down. I've lost contacts before, so I should have learned my lesson. But I didn't. I tried to put the earring in over the sink and it fell down.
The other problem with my sink is that it's been draining very slowly lately. We really needed to use some Drain-O but we just hadn't done it yet. So I was thinking maybe if I attached some tape to a long dowel rod I might be able to get it. But there's standing water at the bottom that never drains. So I thought maybe I could tape some paper towels to the rod, soak up the water, and then try to get my earring.
That, of course, didn't work. The tape actually came undone and the paper towel sank to the bottom. So I needed to remove the drain pipe underneath the sink, which I was told many times was simple. We didn't have any wrenches that were large enough so I borrowed some from my uncle. I managed to get the top part of the drain off, but when I moved on the lower part, the drain, the entire unit, fell out of the wall. It soon became clear that it was never really in there well. It was kind of just sitting there, not really attached.
But at least I had the drain. So we emptied it out. Remember how I said it was slow running. There was a massive amount of hair inside of it. It was one of the most disgusting and smelliest things you could imagine. After we cleaned it all out, we found my earring!!! I soaked it in peroxide to clean it off. But there was no way to reattach the drain. So we had to have the landlord come out the next day. I took the morning off to wait for him, but I ended up getting the entire day off instead. Anyway, it turned out the entire drain was corroded and had to be completely replaced. That was definitely not my fault.
On the plus side, I called my aunt (she only works mornings) and we went out to ice cream, then went to her house to play Wii, and then we went out to dinner (with my uncle, too) to Hickory Park, a super yumm-o restuarant in Ames. It turned out to be a great day.

Treadmill

Tasha bought a treadmill a couple of weeks ago and finally got it put together. She got it at Walmart for really cheap and said it worked pretty good for the price. I decided to buy one. But then I read the reviews on the one Tasha got and there were a lot of bad ones. Most of the bad ones said they got it put together and it didn't work. Or it worked for a week and then stopped. I decided not to get it. So then I looked at K-mart online and they had some on sale. And the reviews were all pretty good so I called up the nearest one and they had it.

So I bought myself a treadmill. They were really nice and brought it out to my car. It didn't fit, so I drove home with my trunk roped together and a treadmill half hanging out. But I made it home. It didn't look all that heavy at the store. But it turns out that the box weighed about 125 pounds. That's a lot of pounds in a very large box that I somehow managed to get into my house and drag to my living room. It was a lot harder than you would think. I am not very handy, so I let my mom know that she was going to put it together and I went out last night to babysit. But unfortunately you can't put the thing together with one person. It requires two. That's the first thing it said in the directions. It should have said you need a professional team of at least 8 to put it together, but they left that part out. So we started around 9:45. The biggest problem we had was that the screws didn't fit into the holes. My mom has an electric drill but my dog ate the cord to the charger several months ago. Amazingly it still had power left. But only for about 3 minutes. That was long enough to realize that even with a power drill, the screws were not going to work. I was smart enough to figure out that we should get smaller screws. I found some that worked and we used those. The next problem was that the part of the treadmill that controls the incline had this round spacer. The hole for the spacer was too high to easily get the bolt in on one side. After tilting and wriggling for over 30 minutes, I finally got the bolt to go through. We finally got it all together and then we realize that they had given us two left handlebars and no right one. This might not seem like such a big deal since they're exactly the same size. However, the holes didn't line up at, so the bolts wouldn't fit through. I took a wire and threaded it through to tie the handlebar in place until we can get it replaced. This seemed like the easiest solution, but since the holes didn't line up and there's about 2 inches of space inside the bar, it took me about 15-20 minutes to get the wire in.

So, it took us from 9:45 until after 2:30 to get it all together. And then we still had to turn it on and make sure it worked (thankfully it did, or I might have started crying or screaming after all that work.) I didn't get to bed until 3 this morning when I usually go to bed around 10:30 or 11 (or earlier sometimes.) The good news is that all the work was more than enough to make up for about 3 workouts on the treadmill, so I don't even have to use it for awhile. Seriously, though, my arms are so sore from everything. And now I have a treadmill that I can use when I watch t.v.

The Next American Idol?

I had a dream the other night that I was a contestant on American Idol. I had made it through to Hollywood, through the auditions and we were on week 3 of the voting. Anyway, for some reason, I could only sing well if I was playing my keyboard at the same time, but for some reason I didn't want to play it. And I had a sore throat, so I was chewing gum to keep my throat wet. But I forgot to take it out when I went to sing. I had written my own song and I was really worried about forgetting the lyrics because I had only just recently finished it. And when I went to sing, I choked on my gum and started coughing really bad. I was going to start over again when the credits started rolling and the show was over. Simon was really mean and wasn't sure if he was going to let me try again the following day. So now I don't know if my dreams of being the next American Idol will ever be fulfilled.

Oh and we got more snow today.

Snow snow and more snow

We had rain here all night and sometime after 6 am (I was up early to take Bodie out and checked the weather) the temp. finally dropped below 33 and the roads got icy. And then it started to snow. It's supposed to snow all day and this afternoon the winds are going to pick up throwing us into a blizzard. Hurray! I watched the news when I woke up, trying to see if my church had canceled but they weren't listed on the closings. So I got ready until my mom said she looked online and saw that they had a short early service and cancelled the late one. And then I just read an e-mail from my small group leader and my small group is cancelled this evening. So now I'm stuck inside with nothing to do and I didn't even sleep in. Bummer. And in case there's any question: I HATE SNOW!

Tagged Some More

I was on the phone with Heidi a few nights ago and we were discussing other interesting, albeit odd, things about ourselves, so I thought I would add some more.


1. My favorite dip for french fries is mayonnaise and ketchup mixed together. I like Miracle Whip on sandwiches, but not for dipping fries. And for chicken nuggets, my favorite dip is ranch and ketchup.

2. At restaurants or convenient stores, when I get a fountain drink, I can't take the top cup or the lid. I have to pick one that's several down in the pile. I don't like the thought of someone touching my cups and lids.

3. Also when using public restrooms, I have to throw away the first few squares of toilet paper. The thought that someone's touched my toilet paper disturbs me.

4. I am a channel surfer. I don't have cable, and when I'm working or babysitting and have a chance to watch t.v. (which is very rare) I just scroll through the guide. But if there's no cable box, I just surf channels for a long time, unless I find something interesting. I'm even worse in the car. If I'm not listening to a CD, I just run through all the stations searching for a good song. If I find one I like (usually I join at the end of the song) I listen until it's over and continue searching. And by searching, I mean continuously changing stations. I can't use the scan button because it's too slow. I have no patience for that.

5. I can't stand the snow that builds up between the tire and the car. It's not the snow that bothers me, just the lumpy chunks of snow and ice sitting there. I always kick mine off, but in parking lots, it takes a lot of willpower for me to not kick off the chunks on other people's cars as well.

6. I hate hot air blowing on my face. I'm a little better now, but I used to sleep in the middle of winter (in Nebraska) with my blankets pulled up to my chin, double layered, with my window cracked. And I'd stick my fan in front of my window and blow freezing cold air onto my face. Now when it's cold outside, after the inside of my car gets a little warm, I switch my heat to my feet so I can save my face the torture.

Amazingly, I have a million other quirks that some people might find odd, annoying, freakish, or a combination of all three. I hope you've enjoyed getting to know me better.

My tag post

My friend Val tagged me, which means that I'm supposed to write 6 things that you may or may not know about me. So here goes:

1. I hate chocolate and mint together. Heidi has this mint-chocolate scented candle and the smell of it makes me nauseous. I love chocolate. I like mint. But I think the most heinous crime you can commit (in chocolate land, anyway) is combining the two. I also hate butter on my popcorn. When I was a kid, my mom used to air pop popcorn and then pour melted butter all over it. It would get all soggy. I would eat it plain, or with just a little salt instead. I mentioned this to the lady who hosts my small group and whenever she pops popcorn, she saves me a bowl of pure, unspoiled, popcorn. It's the best!

2. I am allergic to lima beans. I had some one time and they made me sick, but I wasn't sure at the time if it was just because they tasted so horrible. But after accidentally eating them again, I realized it is an allergy. It's my only (known) food allergy.

3. I can't stand the squeaky sound that's made when you rub a balloon. It's worse than nails on a chalkboard to me. It makes me cringe just thinking about it.

4. I'm really bad at finishing projects. I love starting them. I get maybe halfway done and get bored. (Val, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I started a cross-stitch for you a long, long time ago - before your wedding - and it's still only about a quarter finished. You can totally have it if I ever finish!)

5. I'm kind of a freak about spelling and grammar. Quite a few people know this about me, but they may not know how annoyed I get at spelling mistakes. I understand that sometimes people type really fast and make little mistakes. But there's always spell-check (Heidi).

6. I love to tell stories. I tell them to every kid I ever babysit (at least the ones I put to bed). I have a list of really good ones in my head that I rotate if I babysit frequently. I can also make up stories on the spot. I don't do this as much anymore, though, because if a kid hasn't heard my stories before, I tell them the good ones I know, and if they have, they usually ask for them specifically.

7. I hate snow. I know, I know. Everybody knows I hate snow. But I hadn't posted about how much I hated snow in awhile, so I thought I'd add it on as a side note.

New Hair

I decided that I needed to get a haircut. Instead of opting for a trim and keeping my hair long, I thought that I would help Heidi in her quest to have longer hair than me and get it cut short. And I added layers for the first time in my life. I always get it all cut the same length. Anyway, here is my new hairstyle. It feels so much lighter. The last time I got my hair cut shorter, I hated it for a few days. This time, I liked it right away. So, yeah me!

Tasha the Carrier Monkey

Tasha was telling me the other day that her brother was sick with a stomach virus and she wished that she could be sick, because she never gets sick. I should have known then what trouble she would cause. On Wednesday, Jimmy threw up twice. Yesterday right after I left, George threw up and I guess today, Joey got sick. As did I and Carey. Of course, Tasha hasn't been sick at all. Anyway, starting at 4:30 this morning until about 5 this evening, I wasn't able to keep anything down at all, including small sips of 7-Up. Luckily, the sick time is short, so I now feel totally fine after having slept all morning and a few hours late afternoon. So now I'm wide awake and wanting a cookie my mom brought yesterday. (I won't have one, though. Maybe tomorrow.) Anyway, I'd like to blame this all on Tasha. She cursed everyone around her. And what a waste of a good sick day. I was too sick to do anything but lay in bed. Luckily I have internet on my phone, so I could at least check facebook and e-mail when I was unable to sleep.

Violence in Kenya

Some of you (probably not Heidi) will know that there are currently riots in Kenya because of ethnic tensions between the biggest tribe there, Kikuyu, and some of the smaller tribes (mostly Luo, the second largest tribe in Kenya). Anyway, a brief recap over why the riots are occurring. Many of the Luo and other smaller tribes believe (with very good reason) that their current president was re-elected dishonestly and the opposition leader should be the country's new leader. Anyway, this all happened late December, sparking violence across the country. Today, however, the violence escalated again after a Luo lawmaker was killed.

So most people know that I spent 3 months in Kenya, in a town called Kisumu. I've been reading online and the town is in utter chaos. It's not a very big city, but according to reports, much of it - mostly the slums - has been burned. Most of the children at the children's home where I stayed were Luo. It's not a safe place to be right now and it really worries me. I also read reports that a lot of the violence is involving youth which worries me even more. In addition to the fear of safety, there is also problems getting food and supplies and for a children's home with close to 200 kids the lack of food is a very real threat.

So, bearing this in mind, please pray for Kenya, and more specifically, Covenant Children's Home in Kisumu.

I was going to write about some other stuff, but decided this was more important. I'll have to add my other stuff to another blog.

Wonderful George News

So George is mostly potty-trained except for the pooping part. He just refuses to poop in the toilet. He will wait all day long and the second he puts his diaper on at night, he'll poop in it. Anyway, I decided that he was going to overcome this yesterday. I spent the entire day listening him begging for a diaper. I stayed strong and didn't give in. I worked late last night, too, and finally at 6:40 pm all my hard work and struggling paid off and he pooped in the toilet. I'm so excited.
Yesterday, we were all sitting at the table eating lunch, and Tasha said something silly to Olivia. I don't remember what it was. And Olivia in the most sarcastic voice I've ever heard her use said, "Whatever, freak-o." It was classic.
Also yesterday, I went to Hy-Vee (a grocery store) to get some berries. While I was there, I saw a bunch of scrapbook materials on sale. I stocked up on scrapbook kits, ink pads, stamp sets, a paper cutter, stencils, all sorts of things. Everything was 50 cents. I'm not kidding. I probably got around $70-80 worth of stuff for about 6 bones. I was so excited. They were just phasing them out and practically giving them away. I don't know when I'm going to use it, but it's fun to know that I have it if I ever want it.
I would also like to take this post to a more serious level and mourn the defeat of Roger Federer in the Australian Open. He's unbeatable practically. This is the first time in years that he has lost in a major before reaching the final. And he's only lost the final to Nadal at the French Open two years in a row (but that's only because it's played on clay which he's not as good at.) Anyway, I'm in shock.
Speaking of serious things and shock and mourning. I cannot believe that Heath Ledger died this week. What's more, I cannot believe that Jim and Carey didn't know who he was. And Tasha didn't know until I told her all the movies he was in. I don't know what is more unbelievable, that he died or that there are people who don't know who he was.

When I don't have a camera at the ready...

There have been several times lately where something has happened and I wish I had a camera in my hand, but I don't have time to run and get it before the opportunity has passed. To name a couple...
The twins have been sick for the past week and have been on antibiotics and steroids. If anyone knows anything about babies, they know that medicines make for nasty runny diapers. Well after having changed Jimmy several times on Thursday, I looked over at him and saw something I had never seen before in all of my years around children. Jimmy was (thankfully) wearing a shirt that didn't snap around his bottom and pants that were (thankfully) pushed down a little. Anyway, there's always this space between the diaper and the bottom when a baby sits down. Jimmy's was about an inch and a half and I noticed that it look kind of shaded. On closer inspection, I noticed that he had pooped and instead of being held by his diaper the way it's supposed to be, it had oozed up into that little area and was just pooled there. It was really funny and really gross. I didn't want to take the chance that he'd lay down or roll around before I got to him, but I so wish I had gotten a picture of that.
Another such instance was last night. Bodie had somehow taken a hanger under the bed with him (where he likes to hide treasures, usually my bras, underwear, or shoes). All of the sudden he starts to cry and yelp and I looked at him. He was stuck inside the hanger and couldn't get out. Instead of getting it off right away, I picked him up to go show my mom. Unfortunately the hanger managed to come free before she saw him and I didn't get a picture of that, either. Bodie was really mad at me for laughing at him and not rescuing him like he thought I would and he hid from me and didn't talk to me for a good 3 or 4 minutes. (He forgets things easily. In dog time that's almost a half hour.) Good times.

I've decided to finally give in to the threats and post something new.

Okay, so Josh has been here for the past couple of weeks. It's been fun having him here. We've spent some time with family and we've watched some movies. I had to go back to work on Jan. 2nd, after having a week and a half off. That was tough. The twins are getting so big now, though. They're 9 months. After I've been back, though, they've starting pooping more during the day. One day I changed Jimmy's poopy diaper 7 times, Joey's 6 times, and George had 2 of them as well. This was definitely the worst day of it. But they've been steady at about 9 or 10 diapers for the 2 of them. The other day I actually changed Jimmy's wet diaper and I was so shocked that there was no wiping required.

The babies are getting close to crawling. They're not crawling yet, but they hopefully will be within a couple of weeks. I know that once they start crawling, I'm going to really regret it and wish they were stationary. When I first met the Nahas family, George was only 10 months. It's weird to think the babies are already almost as old as George when I first started. I babysat a few times before I actually started working. But I started full time on January 3rd, 2006. It's been 2 whole years already. It's weird to think about. When I had George as a baby, it was so easy. I feel like I spend the majority of my time feeding and changing diapers now. They're getting really chunky, too. Jimmy hates the baby cereal and cries when you try to feed it to him. So he usually gets 3 jars of baby food. Joey loves the oatmeal and I can feel a bowl up with the stuff and he'll scarf it down along with 2 jars of baby food. I definitely don't envy Carey and her grocery bill.

Anyway, Josh is leaving on Tuesday morning early, so this is the last actual day for me to do anything with him so I need to go make some plans.

On a final note, Michael Scofield is returning tomorrow night. It's Josh's last night here and I'm torn on whether or not I should watch Prison Break or do something with Josh. I just don't know what to do. It's making my head spin.

I'm Sorry I Suck

Okay, I know I've been away for a long time. We've been super busy. Anyway, Josh has been here for the past week and I just haven't found much time to get online. I'd love to stay here and blog all night, but I babysat tonight so Carey and Jim could caucus and didn't get home until after 9. So I'm off to bed.