My Tuesday: Kids, Cleaning, Voting & Sonic booms.

Tuesdays have always been busy days for me. For the past two years, mornings are occupied by the Oman kids. Cooking, crafting, running errands, going to parks, etc. Afternoons usually include some office work at the church, coffee and cleaning up around the house. Today was kicked a little into overdrive.

I started my morning with the Omans as usual. I was informed that Claire and Alex needed to clean Claire's room. The sweet, darling girl has SO MANY FLIPPING TOYS. And that in an understatement. But, unlike some nannies who might be overwhelmed by the task of helping a 9 year old and an 11 year old clean a bedroom in 90 degree weather with no AC, I was thrilled!
I LOVE CLEANING.
Can I say that again? I LOVE CLEANING. Organizing, vacuuming, stacking, moving, donating... its wonderful! So in about 4 hours, Claire's room was transformed from a war-zone of dolls, stuffed animals, Polly Pockets, ponies, dress up clothes, arts & crafts, notes and hundreds of books, to a picture perfect, Martha Stewart-y organized girl's room. She was very happy. So was I. I wish my room were messier so I could do it again!

Okay I'm weird. Anyway... there was one minor set-back this morning. The bank. You know, I wish I just kept my money buried in a jar in my yard sometimes [Would-be thieves: I DO NOT do that. Don't even try.] I took a good amount of cash that had been piling up from house-sitting, nanny-ing and such, to deposit. Claire was very impressed by the money, but I assured her I would never see any of again thanks to bills. No big deal.
Anyway, wrote my deposit slip, handed the cash through the drive-thru, and she brought back my receipt. Which read $100 LESS than what I had given her.
Okay so maybe to a millionaire, $100 is not a lot. But I live on a very tight budget here. For real. I politely informed her that that was incorrect, and she didn't believe me!
Yeah I know, CRAZY. Sweet, innocent girl with 3 precious children in the car, and I am going to lie about my deposit. She continued to argue with me and insist that she counted the money right in front of me. Wrong. She didn't. Even the 9 year old in my car knew how much money I handed the teller. So I went inside, she still argued with me, and refused to even consider counting the till. At this point I was near tears. Again, its 90 degrees. I have 3 kids with me. According to this teller I am out $100 dollars, and not going to be paying my phone bill.
Finally, FINALLY I got to talk to the manager. She was very sweet and said as soon as she got a chance she would count the till and call me. She gave me her card, got my number, and promptly called me 40 minutes later to inform me that I was correct and the money was put into my account. Praise the Lord!

Anyway, just this evening, I filled out my ballot. Like any responsible citizen, I read the voters pamphlet. Ah I love my life. I knew ahead of time for the most part who I would be voting for. And once I opened up the pamphlet, my thoughts were confirmed. I'm not all super crazy about not saying who I voted for. I mean, I am a fan of most of them on Facebook. First was Dino Rossi. Easy. I met him. In real life. I have pictures with him, and he's a cool guy. Check.
Then Hans Zeiger. I'm from PUYALLUP. My mom knows his grandpa. Its a given.
Then we got to Richard Sanders. I didn't know any of the people in that particular spot, so I had to read about them in the pamphlet. First thing I read on Mr. Sanders: Eagle Scout. Check.
I voted.

This is turning out to be such a long post. Sorry.

Lastly, President Obama was in Seattle today. That's not the exciting part though. If you are not in Washington/Oregon between Portland and Seattle, I will fill you in on the event.
Two sonic booms. Know what they are? Me either. But they come from jets. F-15 fighter jets to be exact. And they are LOUD. Shake your house, rattle your windows, make you think Mt. Rainier is blowing up loud. [Okay so the last part might just be me. I always think its blowing up. Every knock on my door, every siren. My mom says its because Orting brainwashed me. I just say I'm prepared.] Anyway, you can read the story here, but apparently some float plane on Lake Washington broke into the airspace that was a 'no fly zone' today for the President, and caused the fighter jets to fly almost 800MPH from Portland to Seattle to respond to the disturbance.

All I can say is what a day. What a day.

Things I love about Puyallup #3:

TACOMA BOYS.

What's better than a 24 hour fresh, healthy market? Um, that's right, nothing.

Savanah and I went to Tacoma Boys the other night. As always, I was in the mood for a random mixture of healthy and not healthy. I opted for the healthy blueberries and granola, and the unhealthy strawberry soda.

Usually I am more of a Dr. Pepper/Coke Zero kind of girl, if I am drinking any kind of pop at all. But this particular strawberry soda came in the coolest bottle. I had to go with it.

New house.

And welcome to my new house! Sweet little door in the front door, huh?

I love the old school mailbox. No more ugly metal lock box.

And the kitchen. Don't mind the stuff on the counter, we were JUST moving in.

Again, a table-less kitchen.

Lastly, my lovely, giant window in my room. I love it.

I will definitely post more pictures once we are completely moved in. But this will just have to do for now.

:)

My camera and computer do not get along!

I really wish my camera would connect to my computer, but for some reason I won't.

I have been wishing that wish for at least a week now, and that's precisely why I haven't posted.

I need to figure out what's wrong, and I will. Soon. I promise.

So I got started on my summer list a little early. My plan was to wait at least until May 5th, when Robyn gets home from that terrible, horrible place called Washington State University. Instead, I went ahead and crossed off two whole items!!

The first one was to learn to drive a stick. I learned a long time ago. I was 17 and one of the boys in our youth group had a truck with manual gears. Yeah. I wasn't very good. Then about a year later I drove our youth pastor's jeep around the school parking lot. Again, I am sure I killed it more than 3 times. In a parking lot.

So this past weekend when I was housesitting, the vehicle they left for me, of course, was a stick. I was bummed at first, but decided to embrace the opportunity to cross one thing off my summer list. And.... SUCCESS! I drove all the way from Bradley Lake Park to 176th and Meridian without killing it! And when I was done babysitting, I drove all the way back! I was amazed at myself, and ended up driving the car the rest of the week, up and down South Hill and all around to my various jobs and meetings in town.

The second crossed off item is one I am sure to cross off again and again as the weather gets warmer-- walk around downtown at night.

Pioneer Park is so pretty during the day, and just as lovely at night! Savanah and I sat outside under the stars and caught up on life [since she goes to Western in Bellingham, we only see each other every couple months]. It was so fun and I am looking forward to walking around more often!!

Things I love about Puyallup- Post #2

Cafe Adamo. Its warm, relaxing, friendly, they have free wi-fi, cool chairs... and of course they have amazing coffee. I really like their mugs too. If you haven't been, go check it out.

Things I love about Puyallup- Post #1

One fine Friday night, while Kraig and Annie Oman went to Seattle to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat [which they said was amazing]... I was left in charge of their three beautiful children.

The youngest is Miles. He has a lot of energy. A LOT. And a lot of love. Especially for all things sugary. When handed his first cookie, he promptly took a bite, decorated for literally 2 seconds, and then he stuck his finger in the frosting asking, "Can I eat this?"

Middle child and only girl, Claire, is hilarious. She is super smart and a great cookie decorater. :) She did not, however, enjoy scooping out the insides of the pumpkins. Too gross, she said.

Alex is the oldest. If you didnt already get that. Don't let this picture fool you into thinking he is just calm and a diligent cookie decorater. The next picture in my camera is him holding up the knife with dark gray frosting coating his teeth. :)

The finished product was... DELICIOUS.

Next time I babysit, we'll probably go to Forza and then play with goop at their house. Yeah goop is a long story but its super fun and entertaining. Ages 4-21.... perfect. ;)