bug bomb

{Sometimes I confuse people. Let me clarify. Christian is my husband. Richard is his brother. On with the blog post...}

So Richard cleaned out his room the other day. One of those deep cleaning days where you rearrange and purge everything. Is he nesting, too?

I opened up the hall closet and noticed a strange-looking old can that had been stuck on one of the shelves. It was obvious this thing was getting up there in years. Upon further inspection, I realized it was a bug bomb. You know, one of those cans you set off and then leave your house for a day and let it kill all the fleas or spiders or whatever pests have taken over your home. One of those cans your dad sets off just before you leave for a family road trip, and you don't mention to him that his James Taylor tape is still inside the house until after it's too late to go back inside. Yeah--one of those bug bombs.

Why would we have an old bug bomb in our apartment?

Ask Richard, of course.

"Hey Richard. Do you know where this came from?"

"Yeah, I had it in my room."

"Do you know what this is?"

"I don't know. Bug spray?"

"It's a bug bomb. It says 'effective over 5,000 cubic feet.' You have to leave your house when you set it off because it's pretty much poison in the air. Why in the world did you have a bug bomb in your room?"

"I don't know. I've had it in my room for like 5 years."

Like 5 years means that a 13-year-old decided his room was a good place to store a bug bomb. Like 5 years means he moved it from his room at his parent's house to our house 2 years ago. Like 5 years means that this old bug bomb could have gone off in his room anytime without him even knowing what it was.

Kind of makes me wonder what else he has in his room...

crafty crafty

Looks like I need to do a little catch-up on my crafts. I haven't done a ton lately (I have lots of projects in my head) but here is what I have done.

My first linoleum block carving. In honor of the annoying mocking bird in Hollister that likes to sing at 3am and wake up my parents (and anyone else staying at their house), I decided to make aprons with a mocking bird print for my sisters' birthdays (Ashley, Amy, and Kitty). I was quite pleased by the result. Carving linoleum is certainly more difficult than carving rubber.







I used some of my carved rubber stamps to make sets of cards for my mom and sister-in-law Ashley for Mother's Day:





I also printed on more onesies. Christian and I are excited to start printing onesies for our own little guy! I'll post those when we make them.

hymns

Today at church we sang "In Our Lovely Deseret," which I think is just a hilarious hymn. You can read the lyrics here. I think our chorister likes it, because today was the second time we've sung it in a couple months (and we've missed quite a few weeks lately). Other than trying not to giggle while singing it, I like to nudge Christian and Richard during the hymn and sing the "and they eat but little meat" part over and over to them. I think it's hilarious. They roll their eyes at me. I think the "eat meat sparingly" concept goes right over their heads.

On a more spiritual note, the hymn we sang before the blessing of the sacrament stood out to me as well. I can't remember which hymn it was, but it talked about how we will be judged on the extent to which we forgive others. This really stood out to me. I try hard to give others the benefit of the doubt. I try to see people's point of view. But I'm not perfect. I still get annoyed. I still get offended. But I try hard to forgive others no matter what. I'm sure I annoy people and offend people, but I know I don't do it on purpose. I would hope people would give me the benefit of the doubt and forgive me, so I try to do the same. The hymn's message was beautiful.

thoughts from my brain

1. What trimester are you in now? Oh, you know, the round one.

2. I made lemon tarts with Ashley, Lenessa, and Dana the other night. Took longer than we expected because of the multiple baking and cooling times required. I think we were all exhausted zombies by the end. But the tarts are yummy. Very TART.


3. Can I complain a little? (Ok, Ashley says I complain a lot. It's true.) My back hurts every day now. Sitting in my work chair seems to do a number on my back. And my pelvic bone hurts, too. Not that you want to hear about my pelvic bone, but seriously--who knew a pelvic bone could hurt? I certainly didn't. People should tell you these things.

4. Have you ever tried riding a road bike with a pregnant belly? The belly really gets in the way--that thing doesn't budge. I had to sit up and ride with no hands. Not exactly hard to do when you're riding your bike in the living room and not actually going anywhere.

5. Christian turned in his graduation application today! That is just so exciting. He's planning to graduate in May of next year. 4 classes this semester, 2 next semester. Then he's all done. Expect a party.

6. Just realized today that Richard has been living with us for 2 years now. How time flies! We're so glad we decided to have Richard and Dianna come live with us. It was good for all of us.

7. Don't ever buy a Volkswagen. They are horrid money-sucking devils. Enough said.

8. Our friendly neighborhood squirrel eats twisted puffy cheetos. Who knew?

remember when i took apart the piano?

When I was about 17, I took apart our family piano. There were some broken keys and I figured it would be an easy fix. Word of advice--don't take apart your piano. It won't go back together. I know from experience...

Fast forward 10 years...

I was going to work out this afternoon, but I ended up playing mechanic instead. Funny how that works out.

Since it's not safe for me to ride my bike on the streets anymore, and since I've been bad at exercising regularly, and since I've gained *ahem* pounds in the last month (all you need to know is that I gained more than twice what I should have...), I finally decided to buy a bike trainer. Not an exercise bike, a bike trainer--you hook it up to your own bike so you can ride inside. You know, for rainy days... or pregnant days.

I found a used trainer on Craigslist and purchased it--always a gamble. Got it home and realized I had no idea what I was doing. Um, isn't this back roller supposed to, um, roll when the bike is on? Because mine wasn't. I swear it rolled when the guy showed it to me at his house.

So I called my local bike pros (Kaylynn and Brook). While talking to Brook I turned the roller with my hand and out popped a piece of broken plastic that had been lodged under the roller. Lovely.

So what did I do? I broke out the screw driver and alan wrenches, of course. Took the entire thing apart (please don't forget how to put it back together...), figured out what was wrong (lots of broken plastic and cracks causing the metal to scrape), figured out how to fix it (secure the remaining plastic directly to the metal instead of to a bolt), broke out the Gorilla Glue (hard core, eh?), and got to work.




"Clamp firmly and allow to dry for 3-4 hours." Who needs a clamp when you have scotch tape and tupperware?


And 12 hours later, I'm happy to report that the trainer went back together much better than the piano. Final result? Smoooooth and silent. Now just cross your fingers it doesn't break again.


{Oh, and there's another belly pic if you're interested. I'm a week behind...)

clutter

You call it nesting. I call it finally having a reason to do the organizing I've been trying to do for years.

My brother has always teased me about my cleaning habits. In order to clean up, I first need to make a mess. I need to spread out. I need to organize. So I pulled out all my crafting supplies from all the corners of our apartment and decided to organize them once and for all. Paints with paints. Stamps with stamps. Ribbons with ribbons. It was coming along quite nicely...until I took a break to go get ice cream with Trinity. Now I don't feel like putting anything back away.



Here's the thing with clutter--it's totally unnecessary (not that you didn't already know that). If something has been in a box for a year, do you really need it? Do you remember what's in the back of the closet? Or have you touched the cables in the "cable drawer" anytime recently? I want so badly to throw things out, but then I say to myself, "But what if you need that in the future?" And it's true--what if you want to make a skirt in the future and you remember that spool of lace that sat in the drawer for two years. Oh, but then you threw it out. And now you have to go buy more lace. So you leave the lace in the drawer just in case.

It's a horrible thing.

I'd say I'm pretty good at getting rid of things I don't need. I'm certainly not a pack rat. But I'd like to be better. I'd like to have one of those houses that has open space--empty space--useable space--uncluttered space.

Instead I have a living room floor covered in crafting supplies and I'm typing on my blog.

My room is not cluttered right now. Maybe I'll just go hang out in there.

stuff 'n stuff

1. Note to self: Do not look at belly during a meeting. It will move like there's an alien inside, and then you will laugh, and then your boss will look at you kind of funny and keep talking, and then you will have to try really hard not to laugh even louder.

2. Our 4th of July weekend in Lake Tahoe was great! Spending time with my family was fun! Swimming in the lake was absolutely lovely! I got to go on a bike ride! And I only took one picture. Family--can you upload your pictures soon so that I can steal them and write a blog post about our weekend?

3. Richard turned 18! Happy Birthday, Richard! I can't believe he's so old. And do you know what he did for his birthday? He jumped out of a plane! Way to go, Richard! You know I would have joined you if I didn't have a little person growing in me!

4. All I want to do is swim. I swam laps last night. I swam in Lake Tahoe all 3 days I was there. There was a commercial on TV last night that showed the ocean. I want to go get in the ocean. Swim, swim, swim, swim. Why, oh, why does my apartment complex not have a pool? Anybody want to swim with me? It doesn't have to be laps--I'm okay with just hanging out in a pool.