Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Sickly sweet-

Pickles- I don't eat many of them, because of this subject.
Syrup- Poor Charles loves this sweet stuff and I just drizzle it on my wafs.
Mandarin Oranges- I talked about those in my talk at church. I once ate a can furtively in the bathroom. Nuf said.
Raisins- I can only eat those in bran flakes. Otherwise they sicken me. Bliah.

I started working at a place called SMSMasterminds yesterday. It was good. I have to go through "Boot camp". This includes 9 lessons filled with videos about how to sell, be a good merchant, etc. It's interesting and quite monotonous at the same time. Work is such a beautiful thing. It's nice to have a job and to be able to pay the rent.

Charles is a champ. He earned 9 points yesterday. I earned 8. We're earning cookies around our house these days. We figured it was a better way to dispense treats.

We have to get 4 points for a cookie, 6 points for 2 cookies, 8 points to give us a 2 point lead for the next day and earn us 2 cookies. 16 points is the big prize- whatever you want. You have to do productive things to earn points. You can do more time with each, but you only get a point for the first 1/2 hr. It promoted balance.

2 pt- working in our garden/compost stirring
1 pt- 1/2 hr scripture reading
3 pt- 1 hr scripture reading
1 pt- 1/2 hr exercise
3 pt- 1 hr exercise
1 pt- 1/2 hr recreational reading
1 pt- 1/2 hr artistic skill/talent enhancement
1 pt- 1/2 hr language study
2-3 pt- 1/2 hr companion language study (I get 3 pts b/c I hate it more)

You get a free cookie if you make your lunches a week in advance. And that's a wrap. Not a rap.

We are also trying to keep our new rules:
1. Say no to invites to places that cost money
2. Use canned food in planned food (we have lots, but we know fresh is healthier)

3. Plan dinners at FHE for the next week
4. Go through budget and other plans at FHE
5. Avoid processed food- we can process our own business
6. Follow the point system to earn daily treats
7. One great dessert a week- one batch of cookies, pie, cake, etc.
8. Be nice, eat rice- false rule, but we are eating burritos for dinner tonight if the avocados are ready. Woot!

We're hoping these rules will help us maintain a healthy lifestyle and our budget. We got a pay cut moving to SLO and we did just buy a new car- a 2015 Honda Fit. We decided for the cost of a used car with miles on it, we could get a new car, with no miles. Thanks Obama. I never actually thought I'd have a new car, but I do now. Another first.

We're also hoping to plan our lives a little better so we can have less hectic lives once school starts. Good habits and the like. Also, maybe we'll eat some different stuff. We currently eat the same stuff consistently, but if we wrote dinner plans on the calendar, we could diversify our intake.




Monday, August 4, 2014

He's eating my chocolate chip cookie as I type this

We, the Ward people, are once again in semi-distant San Luis Obispo. For our anniversary, I made a door hanging of my and Charles' names. Due to lack of space/wire/willpower, I just did the first parts of our first names. Would you believe it, our names cut and combined are Char-mer? You may now call us the charmers. We know you call us that in secret whispers at family and otherwise gatherings anyway. Also at magic the gathering. 

My finger stitch scar still hurts me sometimes. It's a pang of remembrance which helps me carefully dry our knives with dish clothes. Fortunately, Charles has realized it was an isolated incident, and has stopped taking cans and knives from me immediately. He still has the super glue hidden away though. I will find it.

Our house is pretty unpacked. We only have two more items to hang. One of which is a rather large painting we hope to hang over our bed on hooks that will keep it from crushing us in our sleep. One can dream. Pictured below with a shoe in front for size comparison.

We have a hole in our oven. It doesn't seem safe to me. We moved in our stuff and someone put a box on the back left burner of the stove. That's where the pipe is that goes directly from the oven to the outside air. It looks as though the oven was made like that. I didn't know about that anomaly when I turned on my oven and almost caught the box on the stove on fire. My landlady said all electric ovens are built that way. I say bull. I've never seen an open conduit like that straight from an oven. Ovens are supposed to hold heat in, not leak it from a huge pipe through the stove above.

We found out the cheap place to shop here- food 4 less. Way less. We're glad our new friend Liane told us about it. She lives in our complex and we met her and Miguel at the hot tub. Thank goodness for her. I bought a $12 watermelon at Ralph's the other time I shopped. Besides showing how dumb I am, it also ensured we will never shop there again. I will not tell you what Charles calls that store.

I've applied to a couple jobs per week, but am hoping to get into high gear now we have internet installed for the apt. We didn't have it the first two weeks and that made our phone data use spike, but we didn't have enough data to be incessantly productive as is the usual case with high internet use. Ha. Is joke.

Alright, we went to the San Francisco area last week so Charles could finish his 3 day a week welding class and we could attend the reception of our friends Terry and Jenniffer. We had loads of fun seeing everyone and eating everything in sight. 

After the reception Friday, we went to a park viewing of "Goonies" and then visited a candy store. You may, or may not know, I'm not the sharpest pen in the drawer. Thereby explaining why I ate the eight Bernie Botts jelly belly monsters still wreaking havoc inside me. Or so I have been telling people. 

If you ever get the chance to eat a grass bean, do it. If you get the chance to eat a rotten egg bean, run for your life. After eating the vomit, booger, lawn, centipede, and 2 other disgusting kinds, I assumed the rest would be a piece of cake. The 7th was a doozy and I threw up a little in my mouth. I then swallowed it down with some of my pride, ate the last bean, and chewed quickly so I could get my drink of water. Uh, I am dry heaving just thinking of the experience. 

The funniest part, I forgot to put my name on the wall or pick up my 20% off coupon from the cashier, so all I took from the experience was a newly reminted distaste for jelly beans and two small cups full of pleasant tasting beans, which I sampled and handed over to Charles- who loves munching them, especially during homework. 

Strangely enough I was still feeling gross Saturday morning. Bleh. I was smelling the nasty beans everywhere. I even watched "Inception" with a bucket next to me on the couch. I was poisoned by jelly bellies in my jelly belly, that is very toned and exquisitely chiseled. 


We celebrated our 1 year anniversity with (Charles made) waffles, Chipotle, the beach, and some hot tubbing. After which we waltzed in the pool. We also brought some contraband glass bottles onto the beach, but poured the apple fizzy into our chugged out water bottle so we could enjoy it without fear of beach security repercussions. We are pretty happy. The Charmers: we charm life and live charmed lives. We don't charm snakes, so don't ask to hire us out for that kind of stuff. 

Charles also turned 25! He's a big boy now. Sorry I was sick on your Birthday Charles face. That's 2 out of 2 years I've been sick on his birthday. What a record. We did go out with Don and America to see Guardians of the Galaxy Saturday and enjoyed it immensely. Then we ate some ice cream and America fed Charles. I felt bad that Charles didn't get a cake or anything specially made for him this year, but we ate out a couple times with friends and family that week and we had some wedding cake the day before, so I'm positive he'd already been caked up enough for his special day.

And that's a wrap. Not a rap. Love, Mer

P.S. Happy Birthday to Bonnie, Ivy, Jim, Tina, and Charles. I know, I'm the worst. Emily, good job on another great baby delivery. We're quite pleased with your new acquisition. And her name.