You Know You're From California If.....

So as not to be outdone by all the redneck, hillbilly, and Texan jokes, you know you're from California if:

1. Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible.

2. You make over $400,000 and still can't afford a house.

3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.

4. Your child's 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Flower.

5. You can't remember . . is pot illegal?

6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.

7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown,and you can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian. (And that's abnormal, because....?)

8. You can't remember . . . is pot illegal?

9. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.

10. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.

11. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney really IS George Clooney.

12. Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment.

13. You can't remember . . is pot illegal?

14. It's barely sprinkling rain and there's a report on every news station:"STORM WATCH."

14b. AND they do a story about (gasp!) someone who forgot their umbrella!!

15. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cells or pagers.

16. It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.

17. HEY!!!! Is pot illegal????

18. Both you AND your dog have therapists.

19. The Terminator is your governor.

20. If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my Mother-in-Law and my Dad! What a coinky-dink, that they have the same birthday!

My Dad turned the big 6-0 this year and Aaron's mom is celebrating big number 33! (We told her she had to be at least one year older than us now.)

Leaking hot air

Wow! I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. The busy days are just flying by, I guess.

Today we had a company come out and do an energy audit of our house. Our house is always too cold and if we turn up the thermostat, then our bill is sky high! They taped off the front door with a plastic sheet with a fan. It sucked air out of the house so we could tell where the leaks are in the house. I could feel the air blowing out of the light switches and along the baseboard. They also took around the infared gun and could tell where the hot and cold spots were. Turns out our house is a leaky disaster. He said the equivalent of all the leaks is like having a 3 foot square window open all the time. Usually they like to see a -1 rating and ours was a -14. Now this would be okay if we lived somewhere like Hawaii, but not here, where we need to heat the house!! Turns out the duct work isn't even screwed together properly so hot air is just blowing into the crawl space. The return register wasn't installed correctly. Lovely. I'm glad to know I'm paying to heat the crawl space. All the little bugs must be toasty warm.

The good side is that they are fixing the leaks and hopefully we will be much warmer this winter.

Pray for some friends...

Just wanted to ask for prayer for our friends Eric and Heidi. Their daughter, Maggie, is having a blood test to determine is she has a chromosomal abnormality which may result in her not speaking. You fellow Biolans may remember Eric.

Please pray for them as they await results. I am sure the weight of this diagnosis is very heavy.

Heidi, our thoughts, prayers and love is with you!!!

My Answer of the Day

You probably have guessed which of my children is more cautious. Like everyone else, my firstborn, Micah, is the cautious one. I wonder why first borns tend to be more cautious. I seen this played out in several families. Some have said that as moms we are more protective with the first, and when the second rolls around we relax. I really don't think I was that protective. If anything I have forced Micah to do certain things; and when he does it he has fun. I don't have to force Joel to do anything, he just plunges right in.

For example: around 8 months, Micah started screaming every time I vacuumed because he was scared to death of it. Joel could care less. At the Blue Angels this year, Micah buried his head and didn't want to watch it because it was too loud. Joel pointed and cooed at the planes. I never had to close doors to rooms I didn't want Micah in because if the lights were off then he would never go in. Joel: yah, right! Anywhere is free game!

Its been harder with Joel at this stage because with Micah we just didn't have to babyproof that much. Joel is just everywhere at once.

I wonder what the 3rd will be like.

My Question of the Day

In following Tweedygirl's lead I have my own question I've been pondering. I want to phrase it in such a way as to not sway you in your answer.

To those of you with two or more kiddos: Which one is your more cautious kid; i.e. which one is more afraid of the dark, afraid of the Halloween decorations, more afraid to try new things, etc. I don't mean to compare them right now, but how they acted at the same stage.

Those with one kiddo; how do you perceive your child?

Most of you can probably guess my answer but I will give my answer after you have a chance to answer.

Baby to Toddler

Wow, now that I've probably lost all my readers due to lack of posts.... here I am!

I didn't go anywhere, its just been the beginning of the fall with Bible Study, MOPS, etc. I went from summer where I had relatively little scheduled to fall with having just about every day scheduled. Throw in a trip to California and a 1 year old birthday party and you have no blogging time.

Speaking of the 1 year old. Somewhere between Sunday and today Joel turned into a toddler. He isn't walking yet, but his personality just has blossommed. We went to story time today at the library. Joel wanted nothing to do with sitting on my lap. With chairs, AC vents and curtains to investigate, who would? He also has this high pitched screech that he does when he wants something. He started this the day he was born and we haven't been able to break him of it yet. All good things for story time at the library. Then today at naptime we heard a thumping noise on the wall coming from his room. Turns out he is reaching up to the picture above the crib and swinging it back and forth against the wall. Loverly. Then when he was in the high chair (we have one that attaches to a normal chair) he was rocking it back and forth on the chair because the strap undereneath was unbuckled. He cried alligator tears when I put a stop to those fun times.

Lately his favorite place to play is on top of the toy box or on top of the Little Tykes picnic bench. He fell off of that one and placed a nice scrape on top of his head.

You've all heard stories from a friend or a friend of a friend about how they found their toddler on top of the fridge? I'm afraid I'm soon to become that friend. I'll be sure to take picts and email it around to everyone. Along with the stern warning that if you don't forward this to 10 of your friends then this will happen to you too. While you're at it you can record your name because a 2nd grader in Poughkeepsie, NY is doing an experiment.

All Done

I get all these ideas for blog posts when I am doing the dishes or folding laundry. When I actually have the time to sit down and write do I remember any of them? Of course not.

I have one cute story. Joel has learned to say "All Done" at the table-- complete with hands waving and sing-song voice, "awwwww don, awwww don". The other morning I heard him wake up around 6:30 and he starting fussing. Pretty soon I heard him saying in his crib, "Awww don, awwwww don." It brought a smile to my morning!

His vocabulary is growing very quickly. I'm trying to teach him baby signs, but I really think he'll just say please before he acquiesces and does the sign. I think he has close to 30 words all ready. He mimics just about everything we ask him to, and he correctly uses the words later. (except for "please" and "more", of course...)