poll question

Scheduling a home teaching visit via text messaging. Efficient method that's easy for all? Or impersonal and lame?

scummy soap

You know that gunk that collects on the tops of dish soap and dishwasher detergent when you dribble a little bit and don't clean it off? And you know how if you let it go long enough it grows and hardens until you can only get one drop at a time? Heaven knows I'm not patient enough to fill up the dishwasher soap cup one drop at a time and my sweet husband did ask last time we opened a new bottle of dish soap if I would clean off the top every time I used it. Well, people, I have the solution:

Take a cup of hot water and soak the lids!

I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out and I can't believe how much happier it makes me every time I do the dishes to have clean lids without the extra 1 second cleaning off the lid after every use. If this is old news, why didn't anyone tell me?!

generics vs. name brand

There are some generics that I buy because I can't taste the difference (or not enough to be worth the cost difference) like FMV crackers ($ .88) vs. Premium ($2.00) and some name brands I stick to because while the generic might be tasty, it isn't good enough. It has to be an OREO or I'd just assume have some other cookie. Then there are brands that I stick to because of what's in them: Daisy sour cream, for example (try comparing the ingredients with the store brand next time you're there...you'll never buy the cheap one again!).

Still, every so often a generic comes my way that I will buy forever. I ate more than my share of Stephanie's Oreos and Frosted Mini Wheats, but the first bowl of cereal just tasted off. It wasn't until I had a bowl of Frosted Mini Spooners this morning that I realized why. Mmmm. It's good to be back. ...After I went to the store to buy some Oreos for myself, that is.

Are there any others I should know about?

news and the best picture ever

Jonah walked tonight. Maybe Erik and Taylor inspired him? Maybe he was so excited to be home? Whatever it was, there was no halting step like happens in the movies. He just walked. A few times he would go too fast and fall over, but rather than fall and cry (isn't there some metaphor in letting your kids fall down while they learn to walk? what does this mean about my future parenting skills if I don't get it?) he'd fall onto his knees and crawl. Strange child. It wasn't two or three steps either, though that's what I was hoping he'd do for Josh. He just up and walked over to Josh.

I didn't take many good pictures in Washington since they are mostly blurry or the backs of people's heads. Still, how about a little devious child?

t.p.

The Fly Lady says "nothing says 'I love you' like a fresh roll of toilet paper." Why? Because it says, "honey, I noticed we were running low and didn't want you to run out".

hope givers

I found this website on a friend's friend's blog (not the farthest jump I've made, believe me):

http://www.givesmehope.com/

and I read about this one on Pioneer Woman:

http://www.fatcyclist.com/

which reminded me of this one:

http://www.cyclequest.blogspot.com/

which reminded me of a time after Jonah was born that I seemed to find really sad but uplifting blogs early in the morning, like this one:

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

And while I've been having a fabulous day already, the "wild" (growing on it's own, but from seeds dropped by the not-so-wild one I planted last fall) orange snapdragon in my garden GMH (see the first link if that didn't make sense).

it's in

Put Josh in your prayers, thoughts, well wishes, etc. He just submitted an application with AZ Game & Fish. Sure, there are other opportunities in his field and AZGFD will hire again, but this is the one he really wants at the perfect timing. We won't know for sure until December if he got it, but we'll have the chance of knowing a few times before then if he's been cut from the selection process. So here's to no news is good news?

let's talk about names

Rosalyn and I had an interesting exchange via email this morning about naming twins (sparked by, of course, the lovely ladies we can't wait to arrive and the dream I had that she named them Rune and Solar). Of the sets of twins I know personally (7), three have rhyming names. My initial reaction is "gross, don't do it!" (and I think Ros agrees with me there), but on the other hand, what do you do? Here are the problems as I see them:

-You can't give one twin a name with incredible meaning (say, named after grandmother) and name the other "Jane". But how do you ensure there are relatively equal levels of meaning unless they are both your grandmother's names?
-The names are going to be said, together, approximately seven million times in the first 10 years of life. I guess there is some truth to wanting them to sound nice.
-All the same rules about naming apply, times two. It won't do to name one daughter Misty and another Corey. While a gender-ambiguous name can cause little or lots of stress in any child's life, with twins it's worse. No one wants to be the boy twin!

So now to you twins out there (uh...Katie and Erin) or anyone who knows twins or has opinions about anything, what do you think? I guess I can see why so many parents opt for the cutesy options or rhymes (no, I'm still not advocating it) but what do you do if both grandmas are named Delilah or you already used her name for daughter #1?

cars.gov

Any guesses on what kind of MPG the Taurus gets? We weren't seriously considering trading it in, but we were taking bets on whether on not it qualifies for the Cash for Clunkers program. I was guessing we get around 20 mpg (the program requires 18 or less combined EPA estimated at the time it was new). So can we trade it in on a new Escalade today?

Nope. It's off by one MPG. Ha!

Still, I guess that means our driving habits (or the unusually good condition of the 11 year-old car?) lends us just a little better than average gas mileage. Yippee!