Dan and Dorisa Destroy an Ecosystem

Oskar says hello and apologizes for consuming all of his parents' free time and preventing the updating of the blog.

It all started when we moved in and learned about garbage. Technically the garbage can we had was too big so we went and bought a smaller one. We have a pleasant small garbage company that backs up your driveway where a guy gets off the truck and puts the garbage bags (limit 3) into the truck. It is completely unfathomable that garbage is done this way and after 4 months I still get nervous every time they back up the driveway thinking, "Really? Is this okay? I don't think this is right." I actually watched them do 3 more houses one day just to be sure I wan't missing something. Anyways. When we moved in there was extra garbage made and there was garbage left here (in the too big bin) by the previous inhabitant. Over the first couple months of the summer we made sure that we got rid of the garbage bit by bit... or did we?

Around the beginning of August I was working in the garage just being absolutely annihilated by mosquitoes. If you know me at all you know that mosquitoes are the worst and cause me to get giant welts. Frustrated, I chose to work inside that day instead. We noticed at other times that fruit flies were bad, but they were bad inside the house too, so whatever. Then the real flies were bad, but garbage cans have flies and it didn't seem ridiculous, so we didn't give it much heed.

Enter team radon. We had a radon mitigation system put in a couple weeks back and they happened to open the garbage can that we don't use anymore and thought was empty. I feel bad for them. At first I was angry because we don't use that garbage and everything needs to be in a bag- we can't have random bits of trash in there and because of this I new we would have to dig it out and deal with it. Then I was glad because they brought a truly terrible situation to our attention. There have been few smells I have experienced in my life that are that awful. We turned what was a mosquito free day into an June evening in the Boundary Waters in about 3 minutes. It was terrible. Doing all this with a toddler running around made it extra fun. But hey, what would life be without a bug infested summer boiled liquid garbage challenge? The answer is awesome. It would be awesome without this challenge.

It's funny how much they can say to each other without really talking.

Dan turned 30 on September 27th and my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews came to visit. We had a great time playing and eating and walking. As with all weekend visits with crazies who have jobs that require them to work on Sundays, it was too short, but at least this one time we weren't the ones driving!

Oskar and his long shaggy hair. Also he is about 3 seconds from sleep in this picture.

I cut Oskar's hair last Sunday. We both had colds so I put on Nightmare Before Christmas and noticed that he was sitting extremely still while I was playing with his hair. Then there was about 20 minutes of internal dialogue. "Can I do this? Probably. Should I do this? I don't know. It's only $14 at the salon. Yea, but he cries, and I dread having to deal with that. I dread even scheduling the appointment because it means that soon I will have to deal with him in the salon, that's why he looks like a girl. You could just bring him something to watch at the salon. That and a sucker might do it. I don't want to do that though. And then you are covered in hair, and sucker stick, which attracts more hair and you are thinking about adding a screen? No. Can I really do this? You've watched his hair get cut many times, you know what to do. Plus you've cut some of your friends' hair before and that went fine. Yea, but I've cut my bangs too short before and that is not good. He's a little boy. make small cuts it'll be fine. Can I do it? Do it. Put him in his chair, make him a sandwich and get started. Go. NOW!" That's just a sample.

Short hair- somewhat disheveled. Yes that is a potty. No it has not been used. No it will not be located in the living room. He did have a successful number two while sitting on it in his clothes and diaper. I take this as a good sign.

Lunch time during this process was a mistake. But he wasn't that hungry anyway. I started cutting my baby's hair about halfway though Nightmare Before Christmas and Voila! After that movie, 2 episodes of Super Why! and vacuuming both the floor and my child multiple times I found a little boy! Note: getting vacuumed with the bristle attachment probably is not the nicest thing you can do to your half naked toddler, but it works, and their memory is still pretty bad.

I found one bookshelf I liked after looking through many furniture stores. It was five hundred dollars. Then I went to JoAnn Etc. (Impossible to find in Sioux Falls by the way. I had two different addresses/locations given to me by the internet and they were both very wrong) I bought some crates (half price) and used leftover paint and stain to build my boy a book shelf type thing.

This was 20 minutes after I set it up. $30 for the win.

We had our first home ownership casualty last week. Believe it or not, our avocado green dryer stopped working. It had been in the throws of death since we moved in though. It squeaked with every rotation of the drum. And not just a little squeak. A resonating squeak that could be heard in every corner of the house. No lie. So, we say "goodbye avocado" and "hello cheapest dryer we could find." The dream of course is to have a beautiful matching set, but that doesn't make sense with our budget and a location in an unfinished room in the basement. We have had our new dryer for a couple days now and it works incredibly well. We are happy and our ears are happy.

Oskar is my little home improvement friend. He takes his little paint brushes and brushes the walls, tries to get color samples to stick on the walls and has been helping sand his head board. What wasn't great was when he started sanding an already painted wall, but it was fine. What I love is that everything he knows is simply in little blips of observation. He isn't really around while I'm painting or sanding, he just sees a little bit now and then but picks it up so quickly. All of a sudden a few days ago he started counting to 10 too. It's fun to watch him learn. And more rewarding than when he accidentally (or so we tell ourselves) headbutts you in the nose.

Stay tuned to see what happens when Dan and Dorisa try to turn a pumpkin into pie, and other pumpkins into beloved movie characters! Coming soon!