Green

Lately, I have started making some of mine own household cleaner. Now I don't really buy into the whole hippie mentality of not wearing a bra, refusing to shave, or burning incense. I also don't think we should refuse to use gas or live in trees or anything. But I will tell you there are some "liberal" ideas I can get behind -- many of these involve $AVING green in addition to being green.

The idea of making my own cleaner first came to mind when I was watching HGTV and they were mentioning some easy tips to help clean your house, with things you have around the house (e.g. clean your stainless steal appliances with olive oil, unclog your drain with baking soda and vinegar, etc.). I thought these tricks were nifty and used a few of them myself and shared them with some friends. But, these aren't things you do everyday (at least I don't) so no real changes were made to my cleaning routine.

Then one day my mother in law (who I frequently tease about being a hippie), talked to us about the wisdom in exposing our family to fewer chemicals. At the time, I wasn't TOO concerned about it, as we don't have kids yet. But once we got Kairi, and I needed to clean the house, I started to notice just how strong the chemicals are and I started worrying about her inhaling them. (I'm sure this is just a foreshadowing of what I will be like as a mother.) However, this still wasn't enough for me to really do much about it, except worry and try to clean when she wasn't in the room.

Finally, I was watching something on TV (probably on HGTV or TLC) and they mentioned how much you can save by making your own. Now I may not be a hippie, but I am definitely cheap. I am ALL about the saving of the money. So I decided to google this topic and see what I could see.

Although I haven't tried most of what I found (there are TONS of options) I have implemented one, and not even strictly intentionally. A couple of weeks ago, Kairi threw up some hairball-ish stuff on the carpeting. Ugh and ick. Despite her best efforts of attempting to bury it, I knew that wouldn't cut it and more strenuous steps would have to be taken. We don't own any carpet cleaner, and as I said, I'm cheap. Then I remembered something; the lady I babysat for last year (who was very environmentally conscious) cleaned stains out of her carpeting with baking soda and vinegar.

So, I pulled out our baking soda, sprinkled it on the carpeting, mixed what we had left of white vinegar with some warm water, put it in a spray bottle, and spritzed the spots. Oohh bubbly chemical reactions! Best of all, it worked!

Well there weren't that many stains, so I had a lot of the vinegar mixture left. Then something popped into my mind. I recalled the internet saying that water and vinegar can be used as a cleaner. So now I use my vinegar/water mixture to clean off my counter tops in my kitchen and bathroom, as well as the mirrors and surfaces of the toilets. Now, if you have some serious stains or soap scum or something, you will need something stronger; but for basic wiping down, it's great! And cheap. Huzzah!

You may be wondering, will I switch to entirely homemade cleaner? Truthfully, I don't know. I'll have to try some more out and see how well they work. And there is also the laziness factor, which can at times be stronger than the cheapness factor. But, I am willing to try! We'll let you know how it goes!

Housing Frustrations Part 2

PLEASE SEE PREVIOUS POST FOR CLARIFICATION, ELABORATION, AND REFERENCE

Now Devin and I have never been entirely sure of our land ladies plans. She has moved to another state, but still owns her property here. But when we moved in, she talked about making upgrades (like granite for the kitchen counter tops, a slab of which was here when we moved in) and eventually selling this place. She also left lots of things here (as mentioned in the last post) and has seemed hesitant to make improvements when we've mentioned them (e.g. asking if we can wait a year for the a/c to be fixed even though only half the windows in the house even open). She also tried to sell many of her possessions before we moved in last year. So who knows?

So a few weeks ago I decide to contact our land lady with the most recent problem -- one of the tubs and one of the sinks are draining slowly, even after using a few different kinds of drain cleaner. I email our land lady and explain our situation and ask if it's alright to call the plumber and get it taken care of. In this same email, I mention that I had seen a good deal on getting your home carpeted (the Empire pay for 2 rooms get the rest of the house free) and ask if she would like us to get an estimate. That's all.

Soon, our land lady responds to my email and says to go ahead and call the plumber and feel free to get an estimate for her, but have them call her. Well I have the carpet guy come and give me a quote for a few different qualities and types of carpet that are part of their special. I tried to call our land lady but she didn't answer so I just got written quotes to email her.

That same day, I email her the quotes. She emails me back the same day and says that if we are going to stay another year, than she would be willing to do the most expensive option and quotes us a new price for rent. I say that's great and mention that if we stay, we would like to talk to her to find out her plans (someday moving back here, shipping her stuff to where she lives now in another state, getting rid of her things, etc.).

The next day, I get a phone call saying that she is not going to renew our lease. What? I couldn't exactly understand her reasoning but she did mention us not being happy here and wanting a nicer place and her not being able to stay where she is now longer. She also said that she would move back here for a year and then sell the place. Okay. Later that day I get an email from her apologizing if we were disappointed, but that the taxes here are expensive and she wants to come back. Well Devin and I email her saying that we were disappointed, just a little confused by the turn around and also apologize if she felt pressured to make improvements, mention that we would love to stay if possible, but that we understand if she just wants to come back. We also said that we would be willing to move out before August when she will move back and our lease ends (this may seem generous on our part but there are actually better deals on housing for us now when it's not the peak renting season). All we get back -- her return move date range.

Oh well.

So now I want to figure out where in the world we will be living, but nothing that will be available then, is open now. I am a planner and this is killing me. Plus, I just want to get out of here.  Needless to say, I am tempted to break our lease and move out now.

Other housing dilemmas, how much to pay in rent, how far to live from the school, should we move further south (the 3rd and 4th years in Podiatry school spend a good amt of time in downtown Chicago), should we move somewhere for a year and then move further south, should we try and stay in our ward (our church congregations are determined by geography), what amenities do we need, when can we move with Devin's school schedule, etc.

Can you see why I am frustrated?

Housing Frustrations Part 1

WARNING: POST CONTAINS RANTING AND COMPLAINING AND MAY BE LONG IN LENGTH AND DRAWN OUT IN NATURE

So, some of you may have been privy to the craziness with our housing when we first moved here. We were lucky enough to find and sign a place MONTHS before we would typically be able to. We were able to see pictures of the actual place and talk to the owner and the current tenant. We agreed on rent and on what items of the owners would be left in the home for our use and signed a lease. Done. Lease was mailed and deposit was sent. We were good to go. One less thing to worry about with graduation and moving and such.

Months later, we drove across the country and pulled up to our new place. Now maybe I was just spoiled since they had painted and carpeted and put down new linoleum in our place in Provo; because I expected that's more or less how it would be when we got here. Plus, my parents were assistant managers of an apartment complex for about 6 years and new carpeting and painting were typical. It wasn't quality carpeting or anything, but it was done. Along with a good cleaning, aka in BYU terms as a cleaning check. And we had seen pictures of this place and everything looked good. So you can imagine my surprise and dismay when we unfolded out of our car after 4 days on the road, knocked on the door, and everything was not fine.

First thing I noticed -- this place REALLY needs a paint job. Having been built in 1992, it's almost 20 years old and it has never been painted. Never. So not only does it have flat, basic builder paint that just needs sprucing up, but there are also settling cracks and nail pops everywhere. Plus, there is smoke/soot outlining all of the beams in the living room and dirt/dust/whatever outlining where all of the pictures/artwork have been. And the touch ups that were made, were made with the paint used on the base boards, which is not the same shade or texture as the walls. Next thing I noticed -- this place could also use new carpeting. Same never been replaced scenario, plus you can feel nails popping through where the carpeting connects to hard surface flooring (i.e. hardwood, tile, linoleum).

Okay, so putting these things aside as maybe me being spoiled, I had 2 more immediate issues. Issue number 1, how much of her stuff was still here. We had agreed on specific items that either we wanted or that were going to be too much of a hassle for her to move, and we agreed to a $10/month rent reduction so she could leave a few things stored in the garage. Well LOTS more than what we agreed upon was here. All of her knick knacks, decorations, artwork, side tables, storage bins, kitchen things, rugs, towels, bedding, board games, lamps, trash cans, desk, filing cabinets, curtains (not as big of a deal), and other smallish furniture were left. And the few things that were supposed to be left in the garage, ended up being  basically everything else from the house but the couches. So basically we had to take down and gather all of her stuff. First putting it in the second bedroom, we eventually moved it to the garage and I had to organize it so we could fit our small car in. We were finding her stuff for DAYS in random places. This was hampering my ability to make it feel like MY home and MY space and to be creative. Plus, I hated having to move someone else's things so that I could move in my own, especially since it was unexpected.

Issue number 2 (would have been part of the last paragraph but I don't want you to go blind reading this), it wasn't clean. Now it wasn't disgusting like with mold or rot or filth or anything; but it never would have passed a cleaning check. EVERYTHING was dusty and cobwebs were everywhere. I had to clean dirty toilets that Devin and I had never personally used (this in my opinion is not okay, unless you're being paid for it or you volunteered). There was, and kinda still is, a fine layer of greasy film on everything in kitchen from the table to the walls to the cabinets. The insides of the cabinets and drawers had to be cleaned out and I lined them. I vacuumed floors and scrubbed tubs. I dusted and tried to remove soot from the walls and fireplace. I was also not pleased to have to be doing this in addition to the superfluous moving and the regular unpacking and organizing.

On a side note, when we got the air ducts cleaned, we found out that they had probably never been done and there was mold, bacteria, tons of dust, and bugs in there. Shudder. And when we got the chimney cleaned, we found out it was probably leaking carbon monoxide back into the house, the set up was unsafe (too many fake logs and the fake ash stuff was too close to the front), and someone had used this gas fireplace as a wood burning fireplace. Luckily, our landlady was kind and paid for both of these issues.

Now all of this is just back story for the current frustration which I will tell you about next.

So out of shape

There comes a point, I think, where you just get sick of doing nothing. Yesterday, Devin and I both decided we were sick of being fat, and actually exercised. Now, neither of us are unhealthy in any way; but we both want to be healthier.

I want to be healthy to feel better, have less back pain (I have weak lower back muscles), and prepare my body for whenever we have children. I have heard from many sources that you will gain less weight, lose it more quickly, and have a better pregnancy and delivery if you are a healthy weight and are in good shape before hand. All of these things are definitely appealing to me. I also want to fit better into my clothing and feel more attractive. You know things have got to change when you've reached a weight you swore you would never be unless you were pregnant and when your fat pants are feeling tight.

Devin would like to feel healthier and be more active. He is naturally athletically inclined and would like to do more of that again.

Thus far, Devin is planning on Wii Fitting for at least a half an hour a day. He likes to do the 30 min free run. I have started doing the Bridal Body Burn on our cable on demand. Although it seems funny to be doing this since I'm not a bride (well I'll always be Devin's bride, but that's not the point) and it talks about fitting in your dress and your honeymoon bikini, I did this before I got married and like the results. Yesterday while I was doing it, I felt like I was going to die. At one point I was saying, "Who's out of shape? I'm out of shape." It can only go up from here! We are also planning on reducing portion sizes and increasing vegetable intake. So we shall see!

On the one hand, I am skeptical we won't just go back to doing nothing (it's much easier to do nothing). On the other hand, I am hopeful we will stay committed. Right now our goal is to look good for the Alaskan cruise Keeley is taking us on in May! We'll keep you posted!

Random Facts (about us that is)

The other day, I was thinking about how there are random things about people that you would never know unless you were a family member or roommate or something. And so, here are some of those things about us:

Devin loves juice. The only 2 things he loves more are me and pizza. Seriously

I HATE it when people snort their snot. This is probably my biggest pet peeve ever. Related to this, is when people claim they have to do it. I have never had to. Ever.

Devin and I call each other Jib and various other variations of this. Not sure exactly how this got started, but it's stuck.

We are food snobs, but especially pizza snobs.

I once gave up peanut butter for 6 years to cut back on my fat intake, my Oregon friends can attest to this.

Devin has a hard time getting rid of socks and shoes unless they have completely fallen apart. We're talking giants holes or in shreds or something.

I like to eat cherry pie filling by itself. I also like to eat Parmesan cheese by itself or with deli dill pickles.

We both hate things that are fads, but for different reasons. Devin hates them because he doesn't like to be like everyone else and I don't like them because they're impractical and short lived.

Devin hates jeans. He wears cargo pants and when he was younger he wore sweat pants. No jeans.

I play with ears. My ears, Devin's ears, Kairi's ears, my family's ears, etc. And I have for pretty much as long as I can remember (except when I lived in Oregon, oddly enough). Ears are also one of the first things I notice about people, and if someone has weird ears I will keep looking at them.

Devin hardly ever burps. I think I had heard him burp once before we were married. I, on the other hand, burp all the time.

I cannot cross my eyes. If I try, only one of them crosses.

Devin had never used liquid toilet cleaner until we got married.

I hate wearing shoes and would prefer to be barefoot. But if I have to wear shoes, I am very picky about them and I love cute shoes.

Devin wears his shoes in the house, I do not.

My left thumb and right big toe are double jointed.

Devin has a water bottle by his side of the bed. Every night he fills it up and only drinks some of it. The next night, he empties it and refills it again.

Given the choice, I think the both of us would wear our pjs all the time

Well those are some random things about us. Feel free to share random things about yourself and your family!

A Very Special Opportunity

Hello all! Sorry it's been awhile since our last post. I just don't feel like there has been a whole lot going on in our lives worth reporting! Kairi is still adorable and crazy and Devin is still busy and partially stressed with school (thought his week off was great). I'm still babysitting and teaching Primary at church. However, last Saturday something new and wonderful did happen!

I am now an Ordinance Worker at the Chicago LDS Temple. Basically what this means, for those who don't know, is that I am a volunteer and help the people attending the Temple in various ways. We do different things from laundry and helping out in emergency situations (e.g. someone gets sick) to participating in the Ordinances performed there and helping the Patrons have a peaceful, wonderful experience. I just started yesterday and I will be working every 2nd and 4th Tuesday mornings and every 2nd and 4th Saturday evenings. I am very excited and grateful for the opportunity to serve and to help others, as well as bring an extra blessing into our lives and home. So, for any of you in the Chicago area, I would love to see you there and I would encourage anyone who can to become an ordinance worker.