General Problem with Cleanliness

Josh and I have a general problem with cleanliness. We have clothes all over the floor of our bedroom. We often have dishes stacked in the sink waiting to be washed. We hardly ever do laundry since it's such a pain to get our clothes together, find the quarters, and rustle up the motivation and energy to spend some time in the laundromat. The last time we did laundry was over the Christmas holiday at Josh's parents' house. This is embarassing, but true. We also have a problem with general clutter, like mail, magazines, random papers we don't know what to do with, etc.

Now I want to say that our problem isn't of the severity that it's depressing to walk into our house. You know how sometimes people's houses are so gross and cluttered that you just want to get out? Neither one of us can stand THAT much disorder, but we have a decent tolerance for things being out of place.

It was funny to see how Josh used to rationalize our messiness. I maintained almost from the beginning that it was just due to the fact that neither one of us is a neat freak, and in fact, we're quite OK with some stuff laying around. Right after we moved, Josh said our apartment was messy because we just moved in. At that point, that was very plausible. Then after we had been there a couple of weeks and it was still pretty messy, Josh said it was because we didn't have our furniture yet. Again, a good reason. Then our furniture came, and things didn't shape up all the way. Josh said it was because we were still adjusting to being married. That reason was a little sketchier to me- what does that have to do with being clean?- but whatever. After several weeks with our furniture and no lasting improvement, Josh said our problem was that our apartment was too small for all the stuff we have. Possibly a valid point, but we occasionally went on cleaning crazes which proved that everything did indeed have a place. After several months of living in our apartment, we have both admitted to ourselves that we have a general problem with cleanliness.

You might not ever notice this if you come as a guest to our apartment because we go on feverish cleaning binges before anyone comes over, but trust me, when it's just the two of us, it sometimes gets a little out of control. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Josh say he's out of socks in the last couple of weeks. We might actually do some laundry this weekend, but I imagine we'll find something more interesting and more entertaining to do with our time.

Enjoy your weekend!

Wow

Is there another person this good looking on the earth? I think not. Sometimes I still can't believe I get to be married to someone like Josh- with such an amazing sense of humor, a selfless heart, and beautiful, beautiful curls. Enough said.

I just wanted to remind our readers who haven't seen Josh for a while of what a good looking man he is.

Lamaze for Beginners

Well, last night Josh and I made our way to University Hospital in downtown Augusta for our first of 6 Childbirth Education classes. Josh assumed his role as my labor "coach," a title he readily seized. There were about 9 or 10 other couples in the class, which turned out to be a lot of fun. We learned about the stages of labor, how the baby is delivered, and some easy relaxation techniques. My favorite part of the class was when we got to do some mock contractions. Lamaze is founded on the belief that good pain management can be attained through relaxation, so we learned about taking cleansing breaths before and after a contraction, and taking slow, steady breaths during the middle of the contraction. So, we practiced. Josh was responsible for marking off every 10 seconds of a 1 minute contraction. I took my cleansing breath, breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth slowly as he counted, focused on my focal object (which was a green chair across the room), and took a closing cleansing breath when Josh said we had reached 1 minute. I could do this mock labor stuff forever.

So if you're wondering what we're doing for the next 5 Tuesday nights between 7:00 and 9:30, wonder no more. We're at birth practice.

Thinking About Tea

Ya'll, I've (Betsy) always wanted to be a tea drinker. I think there's really something to having a cup of tea. It feels sophisticated, healthy, and adult-ish. But every time I do it, I think it tastes horrible. Take today for example. I was really dragging at work after lunch, so I decided to brew a cup of green tea with gingseng that we had at home. I got the water good and hot, dropped the bag in, gave it plenty of time to brew, and took a sip, full of anticipation. It was pretty bad. Tasted somewhere inbetween the smell of freshly cut grass and spearmint. Not good. So as much as I wish I liked tea, both for its image and its health benefits, I've resigned myself to the fact that I don't, and any cup I drink is going to be somewhat of a disappointment. Any tea drinkers out there, and I know you're there (Angela), let me know what your secret is so I can get on my way to having a better relationship with tea.

Reflections on Super Monday

Well, Josh and I were very happy to see Peyton Manning and the Colts win last night. Although I felt in part that I was betraying my homeland, it is undeniable that Peyton Manning is a better quarterback than Rex Grossman, has played in the league longer, does funny commercials- seems like an all-around good guy and an amazing football player. Josh and I both were a little disappointed with the game. The weather made for some bad playing conditions, which was unfortunate. I think the game would have been more interesting and maybe more competitive had it been clear and dry on the field. But it was still good. We're both mourning the end of the season.

In other news, I came into work today and found out that I won a Valentines dinner for Josh and me at a fancy restaurant! How fun is that? A lady from a glass company that solicits our referrals at State Farm brought by a jar of M & Ms a few weeks ago and said that the person who guessed the closest to the number of M & Ms in the jar would win a dinner for two. My boss Don went to work counting the number of M & Ms in the bottom of the jar and then counted the number of rows in it, and came up with his guess of 645, which he shared with me. The jar wasn't very big, but I always seem to guess too low on that kind of thing, so I thought I'd guess 575, a good compromise between Don's number (which was probably just about right) and my own natural tendencies. Well, lo and behold we found out today that the right number was 602! So I won!! WOOHOO!! Since Valentines Day falls on a Wednesday and we have youth group, we're going to go on the 15th. Can't wait! Isn't that great news for a Monday?

Introducing Baby Desch

Here is our sweet little baby's feet! We had a million pictures taken today at our baby's 20 week ultrasound, and I think this was my favorite. Look at that little foot! I am so grateful for the Lord's provision for and watch over our baby. It was amazing to see how the baby moved so accomodatingly when prodded by the lady doing the ultrasound. He/she is already such a good sport! The doctor told us that our baby is very photogenic.

Have a great weekend!

It's Crunch Time

We're getting to the point in the day that calls for a good amount of creativity, otherwise known as DINNER. As much as Josh and I love cooking, sometimes we stand in the kitchen together and scratch our heads. It seems like we've done this a lot in the last few days- our refrigerator has been a little empty. So you open the refrigerator, see milk, bread, peanut butter, some combination of fruits and vegetables, chicken broth, eggs, maybe some cheese, rice, and assorted things like ketchup, syrup, salsa, baking soda, and parmesan cheese. And you say "Hmm? What can I make out of these things?" Lucky for us, our pantry has always been good to respectible, and has bailed us out on many an occasion. When you add pasta, canned tomatoes, tuna, beans, and spices to the mix, some possibilities begin to surface.

I am anticipating that tonight will be one of those head scratching nights. Josh usually throws out some interesting sounding combinations (bless his heart) like french fries and asparagus, or rice and potatoes, which would be filling but somewhat unappetizing if you're me. Sometimes we do go that route. We've been known to put dinner on the table consisting of green beans, pineapple, and popcorn. But we usually stand there and scratch our heads a little bit longer, and voila! Someone has a genius idea, combining the best of our refrigerator contents with the best of our pantry. For example, last Monday night just when we were about to surrender to asparagus and french fries, or something like it, we realized that we had all of the ingredients for tuna noodle casserole, which was amazing. I've got to tell you, dishes taste all the better when you know what you almost ate for dinner and how much ingenuity it took for you to figure out that you could make the dish of choice. Another example is last Saturday. Out of what seemed like a very, very bare refrigerator came vegetarian jambalaya. Yum! These moments of realized genius reinforce our belief that good food can be created even out of the apparent bleakest of supplies.

So here's to a good dinner! Let's hope that tonight does not disappoint.