Monthly Archives: March 2008

Mar31

Why April Will Stink

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Why April Will Stink

Just a glimpse into part of the weekend at the Woestman house. Joey was working on a gargantuan paper and I was bored. He was in the study and I was in the living room. Pretty much the entire conversation took place on opposite sides of the house with the two of us hollering back and forth because I had a case of The Boreds so bad that I was incapable of moving from my chair. (And if Gail Showman heard me say that she’d tell me to go sweep the floor, so it’s a good thing she doesn’t read this blog.)

Me: Are you done yet?
Joey: No. I have…8 more points left.
Me: trying to read a book but putting it down How long will 8 points take?
Joey: Probably two hours.
Me: Two hours?! Gosh…that paper is wicked long. I’m bored.

And, once the floor sweeping word (that would be “bored” for those of you who didn’t grow up sweeping Gail’s floor just about every Saturday) was uttered, I knew I had to do something. So I tried to fold the towels. It took about three times longer than normal because I kept getting distracted by things. Then I started another load of laundry and considered folding the sheets I had taken out of the dryer. That was clearly too much effort, so I left them on the floor (I KNOW!!) and went back to my chair to holler back and forth across the house with Joey.

Me: Did you write some more?
Joey: Yes.
Me: Will you be done soon?
Joey: Still about two hours.

Henry came over and tried to get me to play with him. But I was too bored to exert the effort required to throw his chocolate covered strawberry toy across the house, so he finally just lay down at my feet. I decided to order a pizza for dinner because it would require me to go get it. So I did. Henry and I left the house at 6:15 and didn’t return until 7:15 because I got lost on the way to the pizza place and then found it, only to discover that I had ordered from a totally different location altogether. Not to be deterred, I had them make me another pizza and I stayed there to wait for it.

After the pizza was consumed and the kitchen was cleaned up, I went into the office.

Me: So…what about those Half Price Books coupons?
Joey: I’m almost done. Want me to go with? Or maybe you could walk over now and then when you get back I’ll be finished.
Me: Good idea.

So I walked to Half Price books, bought two books which would have each been $13 dollars brand new for a total of $5.50, once the coupons were factored in, and came home.

Joey: I finished my paper!
Me: HOORAY! Now I want you to sit on the couch and read a book for fun for awhile. I will bake you cookies.
Joey: OK!

And so he did, and I did.

I’m going to have to come up with something to do the next couple weekends besides hang out with my superfun husband because I think I’m probably a distracting annoyance. Bring on the first week in May!

Mar30

Earth Hour part 2

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Earth Hour part 2

It’s one of those lovely spring mornings where the ground is wet, the air is tepid and the birds are jawing back and forth like the Jets and the Sharks. I’m sitting outside the Clubhouse freeloading off the Internets so I can run my Googlebox. I wanted to post some pictures of our successful Earth Hour last night! Let me tell you, it’s hard to make lasagne in the dark, especially when using spelt noodles for the first time…those things do not act normally.

Joey whipped out his camera and took several pictures of Cuz trying to read the Bourne Identiy in the dark. Poor Cuz.


Woah, I’m outta battery. Gotta go back home now!

Mar29

Earth Hour!

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Earth Hour!

I checked my email today and had a jolly email from Laura asking me if I’d seen that Google was black today and if Joey and I were participating in Earth Hour. Seeing that Earth Hour is an environment cause, I was immediately on board and clicked my way over to the page to read about it.

People participating in Earth Hour turn the lights off in their homes from 8pm to 9pm in their respective time zones on March 29 to raise awareness about our massive global energy usage.

That is why, after I’m done posting this post, I am going to go home and make lasagne in the dark. I’m serious. I hope it turns out and I don’t burn anything.

Good thing Laura emailed me about it.

Mar28

Whistle While You Work

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Whistle While You Work

OK, so I can’t whistle, it’s true. (Joey has tried to teach me, but to no avail.) But the concept is still there.

I hate to iron. I hate it even worse than vacuuming and, as all my siblings know from growing up, I will do almost anything to avoid vacuuming. Conveniently Brother actually liked to vacuum, but I always made sure to beat everyone else to the chore chart on Saturdays so I could pick dusting and cleaning the bathrooms and not get stuck running the vacuum. But this has nothing to do with ironing.

On Tuesday night I walked into the closet after work and was almost knocked over by the pile of ironing that I had been “saving for a rainy day”. I’d like to think that someday when I don’t have a full time, semi-stressful job I will wear a linen apron and high heels around my house and joyfully iron every shirt as soon as it comes out of the dryer, all while making applesauce and strawberry jam. Unfortunately this is not my reality, though, so I pile the ironing and usually do it once a week. (I think it had been two or three weeks worth, though, because the ironing was starting to weigh down the ironing board.)

“I have to do ironing tonight,” I said glumly to Joey. “I hate ironing. It’s hot and boring.”

“You’ll probably be OK,” he reassured me.

“Can you set up the ironing board for me? If it’s already set up then I’ll feel like a loaf if I sit here and look at it knowing that I still have to do ironing this evening.”

Joey happily agreed to set up the ironing board (probably because 2 of his pairs of khakis are in that ironing pile) and we moved it out into the large empty space in between the living room and Joey’s study. He flopped himself on the futon and started to read this 5 lb. textbook while I filled the water in the iron and made sure it was plugged in.

I could no longer stall. I had to bite the bullet.

“I’m going to put my iPod on while I do this, OK?” I always check first if I wear my iPod in the house.

“Sure,” he said.

“That means that I might sing. Loudly. It will keep me from wanting to poke my eye out.”

“No problem,” he replied.

So I cranked up my iPod and started singing along, rather softly at first. It never takes long, though, before I start to wonder if the neighbors can hear me. But this time I didn’t care because I was ironing. Ew. After awhile, though, the song that Sister and I sang at Christmas came up and I forgot that Joey was studying. I forgot that I was ironing. I was pretending that I was back home in Faith Bible Church singin’ with Sister and Mom on the piano. Because of my little daydream, I had momentarily forgotten that I was doing ironing and I was probably singing so loud that I was blowing off the rafters. (But then I quickly stopped doing that because I was getting homesick and one should try to avoid homesickness while doing ones least favorite chore.)

Joey got up and went over to the iPod bowl (yes, we have a bowl of iPods) and got out his Shuffle.

“What, is it that bad?” I teased him.

“I can’t concentrate,” he replied. I guess I don’t really blame him. I mean, I was harmonizing with Chris Rice and that’s got to sound extremely silly to someone on the other side of the headphones.

And, shortly, after singing my way through the ironing…I was done. Forty minutes after I started. Gosh I hate ironing.

Mar28

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Joey was almost asleep last night when I asked, “If I wanted to walk to Iowa, how long would it take? Gas prices are wicked high.”

He didn’t say anything for awhile, I thought he was asleep. Then, “Three months.”

“Oh, that’s a long time. What if…hypothetically speaking…I wanted to saddle up Henry and ride him to Iowa so I wouldn’t have to walk. How long would that take?”

This was a very hypothetical situation since:
a.) Henry is a dog
b.) He only weighs 14 pounds and that’s a lot, lot less than me
c.) Henry walks really slow

“I think….6 months.”

“Oh,” I said, “So I guess I’ll never do that then.”

“No…” he said, driftily.

A few minutes later I said, “I can’t sleep. I’m not tired at all.”

Joey recommended that I go out in the living room and read a book. (I think maybe he wanted me to leave him alone and not ask him any more hypothetical situation type questions.)

Mar27

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Since posting the previous, Joey found the pictures for me and we discovered that the waterproof case for the camera actually costs more than the camera itself. (I figure we might as well forgo that purchase.)

But here are the pictures. It pretty much looks like a camera.


(That spidery looking thing is called a Gorillapod and you can wind it around tree branches and stuff if you need to take self portraits or group pictures and you’re in the wild with no one nearby to hold the camera.)

Mar27

My New Camera

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My New Camera

I’m in big trouble. Two days ago Joey sent me pictures of my cute new camera so I could post them on my blog, but I lost them somewhere on my computer. I have no idea where they got saved when I pulled them out of Mail Big File. And, thus, I have none to show you.

But I finally got my new little point and shoot. It’s a teensy little Canon PowerShot, 7.1 megapixels and is about the size of a pack of Trident sticks. It takes wicked awesome pictures that are sure to make my Pops jealous (a major selling point when selecting aforementioned camera) and he has instructed me to “bring it on Boundary Waters”.

Joey is now looking into a getting its waterproof case because, knowing us, if we take it up there we’ll manage to drop it in the lake.

Because my camera is so tiny I can carry it with me wherever I go now (it’s here with me as I speak), which makes me a lot cooler than I ever was before because I can now post all sorts of pictures of the trouble we find ourselves in.

And if I hadn’t lost the files I could post some pictures of my camera right now. Joey even had some of it all hooked up on its Gorillapod tripod thingy, but…I can’t.

Mar26

180˚

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180˚

Two nights ago Joey said, “I have this song I want to play for you. It’s by Linkin Park; the Kid sent it to me.”

“Linkin Park?” I asked, surprised. Two years ago he’d have never mentioned such a thing.

“Yeah, we analyzed the music video at work. It’s really well done artistically, plus the song is cool.”

And so Joey cranked up the speakers and “What I’ve Done” pulsed through our apartment.

“Oh, I know this song,” I said a few bars in.

“You do?” Joey asked.

“Yep…I used to love Linkin Park,” I replied.

“I did not know that about you,” he told me. And turned up the music a little bit more and sang along. Only the song was so loud I could barely hear him.

“Do you think Downstairs Neighbor will get upset?” I asked loudly.

But he didn’t hear me. He just kept singing along, so I went to start a load of laundry, smiling at this example of just one major changes our lives have gone through in the last couple years.

Linkin Park cranked to 11? No problem at all. I could really get used to this whole freedom in Christ thing.

Mar25

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While I was at the gym trying to stay balanced on a half-moon shaped ball and trying not to fall off, Joey was at home getting ready to ride his bike in to work. He came back in the bedroom to make the bed after he finished getting ready and found this…

Mar25

The Easter Dress

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The Easter Dress

Every year of my entire life I have gotten an Easter dress. Joey has continued the tradition since we’ve been married and, last week, he said “We need to go shopping for your Easter dress. I have it all picked out, we just need to go buy it.”

“OK…” I said, really quite surprised. I figured that I wouldn’t get an Easter dress this year, what with living in Dallas and all, but obviously I was wrong. “Are you sure?”

“I like buying you dresses,” Joey told me. “Plus I set aside money for it.”

Joey took me to the mall and deposited me in front of a short blue dress with a matching jacket.

“The jacket costs more than the dress by, like $20, so we won’t get that part until it goes on clearance. But I want you to get this dress right here, go try it on.”

I looked at the dress. It was shorter than I normally wore by, like….inches. “It looks short,” I said.

“Not too short,” he told me, and shooed me off to the fitting room.

I came out of the fitting room and Joey said, “I like it. We’re buying it.”

And that was that.