Ikea

Phew! I'm tired. We just got back from 4.5 exhausting hours at Ikea. That place is like a time warp. We wanted to get some ideas for the new pad so we thought we would just jet up and take a look around and see if there was anything that would work. Turns out, we wandered the place for hours and walked out $300 in the hole. I swear, now I know what it must have been like to be a Israelite following Moses through the desert. I think I circled the same place like 12 times. Actually, a more proper description of it would be like a casino. No clocks, no clear path out, and next thing you know you wallet just got lighter by a few Ben Franklin's. Oi Veh.

The best part was on the last 10 minutes of the drive home all I heard was "WAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" at about 88 decibels. Oh well, the boys lived and we got some much needed junk for the house.

On a separate note, I don't think I ever want to move from this place. It's not that I am so in love with it or anything, I'm just petrified to think about moving all of the stuff that we will accumulate while we're here. Our move from our old apartment to here was so stinking easy because we had hardly any junk. This place feels almost empty but we're filling it up fast AND we now have a garage to put a bunch of stuff in. Heather is already talking about getting a huge sectional couch and a couple chairs and a bigger table and all I can think about is how much I don't want to move all that out of here if and when we move again. At least it's still a minimum of 11 months off.

sweet meat

On Sunday I got my very own BBQ. Now, this may not seem like such a big deal to some of you but you have to understand a few things to know why it's a big deal to me. I LOVE BBQ. For the past 3 years, I've been trapped in a small apartment with no space to BBQ. In order to alleviate my cravings for scorched meat, I would go to Jeffy's or to my other friends house where I would mooch from them. Then about six months ago, Jeffy moved onto the church campus and my other friend, Eric, moved to a new place about 25min away. I was reduced to regular servings of boiled corn on the cobb and broiled steaks. My BBQ life was devastated.....until now.

I have to admit that I did something fairly dumb in my eagerness to secure my new BBQ. I couldn't find anyone with a truck so I thought to myself "I can just buy it unassembled and put it together at home." The guy at Home Depot said that it would only take about 45 min and I thought "Great! I'll have it up and running in time for dinner." Yeah, BAD idea. Those who know me know that I have zero assembly skills....i usually have Jeffy do it for me. I got the thing home and it took me 45 min just to put the stupid base together and the swear words were about to start flowing. Thankfully, Jeffy showed up after a little while and I didn't have to cuss. Unfortunately, by the time we got it put together enough to actually use our wives were starving and didn't want to put up with an experimental, "I think this might work" BBQ experience. So we got pizza instead. Bummer.

Last night, I came home from work and finished it off and threw a beautiful, Black Angus tri-tip on the grill and it was b-e-a-utiful. Amazingly enough, I cooked it to perfection along with some grill roasted corn on the cobb. I guess I've learned a thing or two along the way of all my BBQ mooching from my friends. Then tonight I fired that baby up again for some chicken and more corn on the cobb....its soooooooo awsome.

Now that I think about it, I should name my new BBQ because we will be spending a lot of time together in next next few years. Anyone got any good name ideas? I'll take submissions in the comments.

Why I hate Apple HIll

I was at my parents house a few weekends ago and we were sifting through old picutres and I found this one. Opie, do you remember this at all? I think the only enduring memory of Apple Hill that I have is that on that day everyone got carmel apples but I didn't because my mom wouldnt let me take out my retainer.....i was pretty bitter about it. So bitter, in fact, that anytime someone mentions going there and how much fun it is I just can't see it. The place only holds sadness and pain for me. I would wager that this picture was taken at the start of the day and not after the carmel apple debacle. On a side note, Opie looks like he's posing for the Mervyn's sunday add for boys clothes.

I also guess I should read my own blog

I just re-read a post that I put up about our housing search and I realized I should probably update that. We FINALLY found a new place to live after over a year of looking. God is so good and He really does take good care of us. We're in a great new place in a quiet neighborhood and we have not one, but two yards for the boys to play in. In the line of hearing where God is directing me or speaking "yes" or "no" I think what I learned is when it's what God has, you just know....if that makes any sense. The place we ended up getting really fell into our lap. Like God was keeping it aside just for us. We had applied for a different house with no yard and the owner was going to try to sell it in a year and we would have to move in right away (which means we pay double rent) and we thought we had it nailed. Turns out another family got picked and we were crushed. I was ready to give up and just decide that God really doesn't listen or care what we need for our housing....the search had gotten that frustrating. But God always knows whats best in spite of my dumb questioning and doubt. The property management company that we had applied through really like us (it's great to have really cute little kids, by the by) and they said that they wanted us to look at another house. So we said fine, we'll give it another shot. Not only did we love the new place more than the other one, but we wouldn't have to pay double rent, it had 2 yards, and it hadn't even been listed anywhere yet. We basically walked in and said "we'll take it" and it was ours. Even better, the owner of the original house we had applied for decided at the last minute that he wanted to sell now and so no one got to move it. So God is so good that He gives us a perfect place right when we need it AND if we had got that other place and then been told we couldn't move, we would have been absolutly crushed and I think I might have lost it all together. So, in the end, God knows what He's doing just like always....I just have to remember that He'll give me the hook up in the end.

I scream

I have just got to say....I love Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I know that I'm going to have a heart attack at 50 because of it, but I really don't care. Actually, I like all ice cream. I think in this respect, I am my father's son. I remember growing up and my dad would eat a bowl of mint chip ice cream.....and when I say bowl, I really mean like 8 scoops. I could eat this junk every night for the rest of my life. More specifically, I am in a current state of infatuation with S'mores. I really don't like chocolate usually, but I could eat the entire thing in one shot. I will also settle for Oatmeal Cookie Chunk (which I'm eating as I type...but only because Heather ate all my S'mores) as well as Creme Brule. I think I even passed the gene to Josh because before anything else, he learned to recognize the Baskin Robins shop that is right next to our grocery store. Thats just fine with me though, it just means ice cream won't be leaving my life anytime soon....and praise Jesus for that!

Finally?

So Matty was over this weekend and every 10 minutes he was after me about not blogging enough....so this is just for him. I told him that I didnt really have anything to write about and he told me that was a bunch of crap.

About the only thing that I can think of at this point is how awsome it is to have a two year old boy. Oh, the things that little Joshy discovers on a daily basis. A few months ago, he was sitting on the toilet trying to get a potty cookie ( in order to sucker him into dropping the duke into the toilet instead of into his diaper.....which as an aside it is waaaaaaaaaaaay worse to wipe a butt after dookie in the toilet to me than it ever was to do it after a diaper and i'm not sure why.) and he lifts up his weiner and pokes his balls and says "whats this daddy?". I told him that those were his balls and he responds "can i touch them?" I almost fell down laughing.....i let him know that he could touch them whenever he wanted cause they're his and he got a big kick out of it all.

Anyways, I will try to make more concerted effort to post something a coupla times a week....if only so Matty will be able to alleviate his guilt for not visiting but once a year by helping him to know whats going on around the Young house.