Nobody asked for it, but here it is.

I've started going to the gym in the morning and I'm pretty
sure this is what I look like every day I show up.

When I had bronchitis/pneumonia for 46 days (but who’s counting?) last fall, there was some kind of muscle related pop on my ribs (the ones that are chronically injured, yes). This resulted in the temporary inability to raise my arm/do many things. It was definitely not as bad as when I tore the muscle in my back when I had bronchitis a couple years ago, but the injury lingered for a long time. A couple weeks ago I stretched my back and for the first time it didn't hurt. I started giggling like a fool. Now when I stretch I find myself bracing for a pain that doesn't come. I'm so happy.

Working on her night naan.

I am obnoxiously proud of the fact that I have never lost a child’s sock. I don’t care if anyone finds this pride annoying. This is a nearly impossible feat and I’ve done it! So far anyway. We had one that was MIA for a few months, but the lost was found and there was much rejoicing. Now the only single socks we have are a result of their mate wearing out and heading for the giant laundry basket in the sky. Now they serve as back up, waiting their turn to serve when the other threads simply cannot hold on any more.

The universe has observed my pride, sniggered at me and retaliated in kind. My goal is to end the year with just 1 mitten. I’m not even going for a pair any more. Just one. And the world isn’t even being kind and taking pairs so I might not notice- oh no. It is taking one at a time so I have like 6 single mittens. Kids about to look reaaaal scrappy. Mitten here, mitten there, mitten everywhere EXCEPT FOR A WHOLE PAIR. 

*Recently 2 lost mittens were actually found and since the weather is getting nicer, we might end the year with a pair for each kid!

Oskar visited our new office where he got to have a picnic with ice cream.

I drive a tiny car now, unless the weather is bad, then I take the Edge. Most days, I drive a Honda Insight. It is lovingly referred to as Tiny White Car and was purchased when I got my job 2 years ago. I had 5 days to find a car and figure out how to pay for it. I went to the dealership to inquire about a Honda Fit and the dude said it had sold that morning, but he had a car that was newer, had less miles on it, got better mileage and was less expensive. Yes, please. (If you need a recommendation on a salesman at Vern Eide Honda let me know- he was great to work with.) Anyway, the car is almost always great. It doesn’t love the snow and it is a hybrid and really efficient so the heater takes a LONG time to warm up. Now that the snow has melted we are doing fine again and last winter the snow wasn’t much of an issue, but this winter every time I backed out of my driveway and put it into drive, I got the little light that pops on with the car and the squiggly car tires saying that the tires aren’t tracking properly on the ground. Okay buddy, I’m aware of nothing more IN THE WORLD right now than the fact that my tires aren’t doing their job. I got it. Thanks. 

We’ve been back to the cities a few times this winter and I gotta say that it feels really good to have so many people tell me they miss me and ask when I’m moving back. Although I must say that Dan and I got a card for Valentine’s day from a congregation member thanking us for being here and saying how much she appreciated us. That felt pretty good too.

New carpet tiles in the new bedroom downstairs. I've never been less sure of any design decision in my life, but at $.75/sf I thought it was worth the risk. I actually think I like it. It suits the space at least. This area did not flood.

On to the flooding. So far, we don’t think that it is as bad as we thought. All our walls are fine. The part that sends me into a flippin’ rage is the floor. I bought the laminate hardwood flooring when I was pregnant with Elena because they were on sale and I was hoping we could do some basement work before she arrived. 27 boxes at I would say about 20 pounds/box. I picked this up by myself because I do what I want. If anyone remembers anything about me being pregnant, it’s that I didn’t have a good time. Hauling these boxes onto the trolley, out to the car and into the car was a challenge. Then Dan helped haul them into the house, where they sat for 3.5 years, waiting to be installed. We had to moved them a couple times in the basement as well to accommodate for various work when we finally started finishing the basement last fall. We installed the flooring about 2 months ago. The video made it look so easy. IT WAS NOT EASY. Videos lie. My knees lost years of their lives and Dan got a blood blister that expanded out from his thumb a half inch. Installing that floor was awful, but we did (most of) it and it was pretty beautiful. The kids loved it. I loved pretending the basement was no longer filled with spiders. A good time was had by all. 

Our beautiful floor that was not meant to be.

Then we noticed there were a couple planks that didn’t lock in properly. No biggie, whatever, we will fix one and forget about the other one that we can’t get at. Then Oskar asked to help clean. YES. I’ve only been waiting my whole life to hear that. He left a wet rag on the seam and it bubbled up a bit. Fine, we’ll have a rug over that anyway. No biggie. Well, then the rains came down and the flood came up. As far as we know, in it’s 63 years of existence, our house has never flooded. And I will be the first to say that we were very, very lucky. Our beautiful floor however? Not so much. The laminate kept the water low and spread out over the entire floor, whereas if the flooring wasn’t down it probably would have just been in the corner. Some of the boards were salvageable, most were not. I took this as a sign that we should choose another path for our flooring. Frustrating, but we’re moving on. I went to go talk to a flooring guy in  town and he was telling me the upgrades in laminate flooring- like the lack of particle board as the base. And I essentially said that’s great, but no thanks. No way am I going through all that again. 

There was even a booga on the laminate flooring boxes! Strawberry blonde baby stacking bricks like a pro.

Elena is obsessed with sharks. I was reading a National Geographic last night and she snuggled her face up next to the shark and then ran out f the room, because she of course needed her shark. She brought it back and her shark met the magazine sharks. She's great. Oskar asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and we were listing a whole bunch of jobs she could have. After going on for a couple minutes, she chimes in and says, "a swimming pool!" There are some times I think she is so smart, this was not necessarily one of those times.

Oskar participated in the science fair a couple weeks ago. His project was called Sea Gleam (picked it himself) and he investigated why the ocean looks glittery. I was very impressed by his experiment ideas and he was so excited to win 3^rd place. Literally jumped and ran to get his ribbon. I"m pretty sure he still thinks he won and since it is't harming anyone, I'm done trying to convince him otherwise.

I apologize that you may not have found this as humorous as other posts, but it is a post nonetheless and maybe will get me back on track to updating more often.