Neat Freak

I don't know which side of the family she got this from, but my darling Anna has become a neat freak. "Uh oh" is her word to say "there is something dirty there and I won't do anything you ask until it is removed or cleaned". This happens especially when we are eating. Just today at lunch, she noticed the lentil soup on her bib, said "uh oh" and then refused to wear it because it was dirty. In addition to this, she is always wanting a napkin to clean her hands, tray, and cup during dinner. In fact, she would spend all of dinner time cleaning up rather than eating, if she had a choice!

I have a video of her that I can't post because it is too long, but it shows her in the bathtub wiping things down. I really don't know where she learned this. I do try to keep our living space clean, but I'm not that much of a neat freak. Perhaps it is just a phase that she will grow out of...

Count your blessings...

Hubby and I manage an apartment complex as a way to live comfortably in an expensive city while on a student budget. We feel that we were very lucky with the place that we found and have been working here for almost two years.

Yesterday, I was talking to our property manager about some rent increases, and she made the comment that perhaps we need to increase them even more because we have absolutely no trouble filling vacant apartments. Well, that got me to thinking, as it has many times recently, and I really don't think it has anything to do with what we charge for rent, the state of the building, or even our skill as managers. But how do you explain that you think that building stays full because God is blessing you?

I really do feel blessed because of how things are going here in our building. Our pay is determined by how many people pay on time, and over the year and a half that we have been on that payment plan, we have fewer and fewer people paying late. Also, we get a bonus if we are able to rent apartments within a week of vacancy. We have only missed 3 or 4 in the whole time that we have been renting apartments, and we've had quite a few vacancies. In fact, we had three people give notice this month and already they are rented. Honestly, how could God not be blessing us? We certainly aren't the best managers ever. We make our mistakes. But we still have a full building and our property manager wonders how we are able to do it.

All of this makes me want to continue to pay tithing forever and to accept all church responsibilities that come my way. Now, I've never really had a problem with those things, but seeing how much we are blessed right now just confirms to me that those things, among others, really do make a difference in our lives.

Here he is!

This morning was the big appointment, the moment of truth, when we would be able to see our little baby and potentially find out the gender. And while our little guy didn't cooperate all that well, he did allow us to find out his gender. And since I am almost 21 weeks along, there is no mistake. Besides, it is really hard to confuse a boy with a girl, though mistakes have been made in the other direction.

That said, our little boy should be making his grand appearance in October!

Amaryllis

We've had two amaryllis bulbs for a couple years now and I had the hardest time getting them to bloom. First, we checked the internet and the USDA website (or something affiliated with them) had instructions on how to care for your bulbs. One of the instructions was to stop watering for a couple months so that the bulb will go dormant and eventually put out a flower stalk. So, we stopped watering in October and by January I had given up all hope of seeing them bloom, again.

Then I attended a book group for church and the woman hosting had the most beautiful amaryllis plants and all of them were flowering! Of course, I asked her how she got them to bloom and her answer was "I put them outside in the summer and bring them into the house when it gets cold". But did she water her plants? Of course, when she remembered to. That did it. If someone could manage to get 8-10 flower stalks out of her amayrillis plants with a laissez-faire attitude, then I was going to stop trying so hard!

That night, I moved the plants back to the window sill and gave them a good watering. Within a week, bulb #1 started pushing out leaves and a flower stalk. A week after that, bulb #2 did the same, but at a much slower rate. Bulb #1 shot up with a 2.5' flower stalk and leaves from several places. In a few weeks, we had two beautiful flowers from that plant. Bulb #2 took about a month and a half longer to push the stalk up and flower and is just now getting a leaf. However, bulb #2 had three flowers, as you can see in the first picture.

In any case, I am so excited that my beautiful amaryllis bulbs finally flowered!

Bulb #2 before third flower bloomed.

All three flowers. The two in the back are starting to fade, but I got this picture before they really drooped.

This is my beautiful baby enjoying our first amaryllis that bloomed.

Ha ha!

This post needs a bit of explanation. And it can be summed up in two statements:

1. I have never successfully pulled off an April Fool's joke.
2. Hubby takes long, long showers (especially when he is tired).

Here is the story. This morning after Hubby had gotten up and started his shower, I was lying in bed wishing that I wasn't so tired. Then inspiration struck, hard. It dawned on me that it was April Fool's Day and that if I changed all the clocks in our apartment (or at least the ones Hubby would look at) to be about 45 minutes ahead, I could tell Hubby that he had been in the shower for an hour.

After I had changed the clocks, I peeked my head in the bathroom and told Hubby that he couldn't stay in the shower forever. I then went and got Anna out of bed and then went into the bathroom to brush our teeth. That's when I let the bomb drop and told him that he had been in the shower for an hour, that it was 8:30 and he had better hurry. I of course started to smile at this point, but that was easily covered up by turning to get my toothpaste and shoving my toothbrush into my mouth. I also told Hubby that I had fallen back to sleep and that Anna had slept in (which she did, but only until 7:45). All through breakfast I ribbed him, telling him that he must have been tired and asking whether or not there would be enough hot water for me to shower with. Everything went perfectly until he took his cell phone out of his pocket to make sure that he wouldn't miss the 9:16 bus. I started to giggle and said "April Fool's!" Fortunately, he wasn't too annoyed. We both laughed and I've gotten a kick out of telling people how I got Hubby. Some other time I'll have to post about the Valentine's day lasagna.

Nuance of Language

I've been wanting to post something about this ever since Hubby and I had a slight disagreement about a month ago. Our disagreement was based on Hubby's use of a word that I felt did not fully communicate what he was trying to say, or that it was misleading in some way. Unfortunately, I have this issue quite regularly because I don't feel that Hubby has a complete grasp of the nuance of language. (This could come from living in Germany for much of his young life.)

In any case, this "disagreement" really highlighted the fact that I love the meaning of words and that I'm a little, ummm, exuberant when it comes to using words correctly. (I'll do the same thing with grammer as well.) Why am I this way? I don't know. I've always loved reading and English, though I prefer editing to writing (I almost made Hubby cry when I edited his Letter of Intent for grad school, but that's another story.) My mother also loved writing and reading, though she studied Microbiology in college. And my sister (older and perhaps a little bossy) is an English teacher, which can explain quite a bit. But what it all boils down to is a love for words and using words correctly.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that my vocabulary is not very extensive, as I may have led you to believe. Along with an obsessive insistance on the correct use of words is a fear of using words incorrectly. So I tend to use the generic, everyday type of words in my speech with a few "superfluouses" and "acquiescents" scattered here and there, properly used, of course. Every time I use a word that has just the right nuance, I get this warm feeling inside that just makes me want to use more "big" words, but, of course, only if I use them correctly.

Normal? Maybe?

Maybe having a pity party worked....

So, yesterday after breakfast I was playing with Anna and suddenly I felt like cleaning my leather couch and chair. Wow, that was strange. I haven't felt like cleaning in, umm, a couple months? After the couch was done, I dusted one of my plants. And then I felt like doing laundry, particularly my woolens that are so hard to clean (I cheated. I'll give instructions at the end.) I can't tell you how suprised I was. After a couple months of wanting to do nothing but read and lay on the couch, it was a welcome relief. I even was able to decide on something for dinner(with my sister's help), make it, and have it ready when Hubby walked through the door!

With all of the cleaning urges happening, I can't help but wonder if the end of morning/evening/all day sickness is in sight. I'll be at twelve weeks this Friday, so maybe things are starting to calm down a bit. Expecting it to go away almost immediately is unwise, but maybe I really am starting to feel better.

Instructions on cleaning woolens:
My in-laws are obsessed with all things wool (my sister-in-law married into a sheep herding family and my mother-in-law cleans, cards, spins, dyes, and knits her own yarn). This would explain the wonderful wool blanket (Pendelton, because that is the only place to get good wool blankets) we received from them for our wedding. And the last time we were visiting Grandma and Opa, my mother-in-law showed me how to clean our blanket without having to take it to the dry cleaners. It is actually very simple.

Here are a few rules to remember when washing wool:
Never, NEVER agitate (unless you intend to felt your woolen)
Always use the same temperature of water for every stage of cleaning (hot or cold, it doesn't matter, just don't switch from hot to cold or vis versa in the middle of cleaning)
Never run water directly onto your woolen

Here is what I did with our sweaters:
First I added Woolite to the washer and filled it up with water.
Then I added the sweaters and gently pushed them under the water until all the air was gone.
Then I let it sit for about 30 minutes to an hour.
Then I moved the dial ahead to the spin cycle, let the water spin out and then refill, stopping it as soon as it started to agitate. (my washer fills from the bottom up, no water shooting into the bowl. If you have one that shoots water, you will want to move your woolens out of the way, or remove them from the washer until the water stops shooting.)
I repeated this process again just to make sure all the soap was out, then I moved the dial to the final spin cycle and let it finish.

Now, if you have one of those fancy front-loading washers that I covet, just use your handwash setting and forget about these complicated instructions.