My schmoopy

What is his name? Boo
How long have you been married? So long he's not sure if its ten or less.
How long did you date? Technically... 3 months, but he tracked me for longer than that.
How old is he? Almost 32
Who eats more? Ooooo...tough to say, but guessing by size, he does.
Who kissed who first? Boo kissed me, but I was sick and then he got sick.
Who said "I Love You" first? I probably did. He was probably still dumping all his other girl friends.
Who is smarter? Boo's a know-it-all lawyer and I'm a know-it-all wife.
Who is taller? Boo, but don't be fooled, the inseam of his pants is the same as mine. He'll tell you that its different for men than women, but inches are inches dude.
Who sings better? This question makes me laugh a little.
Whose temper is worse? Mine. Boo says that I go a little "I-Rach" sometimes when I'm crazy. Makes my brothers laugh.
Who is more sensitive? Boo's feelings are pretty sensitive, but I'm more emotional.
Who does the laundry? I do about 80%, but if he needs underwear and I don't then he can do a load, we both equally hate to fold laundry
Who does the dishes? Me, 70% and Boo 30%
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you're laying on the bed it's me and since we got a new bigger bed I don't even know that there is a left side to the bed.
Who pays the bills? Me, but really they all are automatic for the most part.
Who cooks dinner? If we want to eat before 7pm I do. But sometimes I run out of ideas and so I leave those days up to him.
Who drives when you are together? Boo
Who is more stubborn? If you've read any of my sibilings blogs you'd already have the answer to that. Duh, me.
Who's parents do you see the most? His came to Boston more, but its pretty even.
Who proposed? He did, however I did ask him on a date first.
Who has more friends? We're both fairly social people so its a tie.
Who wears the pants in the family? We each take a leg and try to walk together.

Sugar and Spice - Naughty and Nice

Here are some pictures of Noelle being a ragamuffin and climbing on the table playing with the citrus fruits that the new landlady brought us. Notice the windup. Noelle and Treyden poked holes in said fruit, but I'm sure its still good.

And for the sugary part, Noelle tromping around the house in her princess shoes with her new purse that she loves.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

We have been learning all about cars and trains at our house. Our little friend Treyden has been giving us a lesson and all sorts of vehicles. He knows which are which and can even imitate some of them. He was especially fond of his trains that he brought to our house. He imagined that almost every thing was a tunnel and even pointed out that my arched doorways are shaped like a tunnel. Boxes and picture frames make good tunnels too. We introduced him to some train songs from Kindermusik and he's so darn smart that he knew them all after just a few days.

All aboard?! Yes we were. We visited the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale. I have to say that for parents with train enthusiasts this is the place to be. Free admission to go and hang out and climb on trains and play in the park, and only a couple bucks to take a ride on their train -kids under 3 FREE! That's actually the best because I only had to pay for myself. We also got to ride the Merry-go-Round that is sponsored by the Scottsdale Charros - you know, the Mexican cowboys.

It was fun to have the Stringham's here for a visit. It was a nice contrast between having a little girl vs. a little boy even if he did try on some princess shoes and play with the beads. Noelle had to learn to share, although we haven't exactly mastered that skill it was good practice to have a friend here to learn with, and he was really patient with her. (they both had their vices)

Most of all it was fun to watch Noelle follow him around and have a friend to be mischievous with. Some of the things they found fun were the toilets, sitting on the table and stabbing the fruit with pencils, rocks, rocks and more rocks, buckets and bubbles. As a side note, our entire backyard is rocks and I had muffin tins with rocks in them, purses with rocks, buckets with rocks, rocks in shoes and I'm sure I'll find more. Its pretty funny.

We hope the Stringham's will be lured to the sunny south and become a permanent fixture down here. As for now we hope they have fun building a snowman at their house. Thanks for a fun week.

Why do I always have to be so smart?

So I think I've done a pretty good job of fixing things around here. You'd think a brand new house wouldn't need much fixin' but gee whiz.
It all started with the dryer. How in the world was I going to make my three pronged plug fit in the mis-shapen four pronged plug and how many times would I try before realizing it really wasn't even the same shape? So Boo took the cord off the dryer, drew up a diagram of the outlet and told me to take it to HomeDepot and ask them to come up with a solution for me. So me being the smart shopper that I am with unattached dryer cord in hand asked the greeter where I would find such tools. He directed me to a general electrical section where I once again tried to match my plug with a new outlet switch because clearly someone had installed the wrong thing. I noticed that the HD was selling new cords. Well clearly I wasn't the only person with this problem because why would they mass produce something like this and sell it here. But it was different enough that I didn't feel confident in mine or Boo's skills to reattach this new thing to our dryer. I asked a couple more people who made it quite clear as to why the other guy was demoted to greeter and one of my fellow smarties explained in detail what I should do. Leaving the HD quite confident, I called two electrical experts that I know and asked them and got the same answers. When I got home I had to use some of my expert drill skills to get a bolt off the dryer, attach the new cord and then call expert #1 as I pushed the button to see if it worked just in case I got shocked and he would have to be the one to notify the authorities that I had indeed failed at the task. Luckily I was victorious.

Getting Unpacked and the Hired Help

Packing stinks, but unpacking stinks more. We have almost everything put in its place, with the exception of my clothes which are still in boxes. Yes its true, I'm living like a hobo out of my suitcase still. So is Noelle because I haven't unpacked her clothes yet either. I'm kind of a one room at a time person. Today however is the day to get Noelle's room in fully working condition. All of her furniture is in and the stuff to be stored is all nicely put in the closet but the "important" things like clothes, are still in the boxes. But not for long.

Auntie holding her sign in front of our house

"Will work for airline ticket, God bless"

Auntie came and helped us get almost everything unpacked and organized. Most of all we got all of the pictures on the walls. My new best friend is the 3M picture hanging Velcro strips. If you haven't tried them, I would highly recommend this alternative to putting holes in your walls, especially if you're temporary like we are. We also got a couch and a bed frame from the co-worker neighbor who is already moving, which looks good in our house. (some of you are thinking, but what about the couches you scored the good deal on? I'll get to that in a later blog.) So now we have a place to sit and sleep. So come on over.

Living room/ great room - two views with our kitchen table in the background

Guest bedroom and second bathroom

Besides unpacking, this weekend we also attended our new ward. We thought we were going to get lucky and have a later meeting time, since we had 8:30am in Belmont until we moved, but no we still have that same great time here at our new ward. Also, I don't think I've been in such a large ward, ever. So many families that it was the welcoming wagon that greeted us, it was more like, "Oh a new family, great now they're really going to split the ward, again." Probably not really what they were thinking but it wasn't the same. In relief society they had me stand and introduce myself and as I was standing there the RS president asked for my phone number, ok now I'm not all the private of a person if I have blog, but I hesitated. Then as I'm blurting out my number the next thing I say is "Call me" - read like you're reading your year book from high school.

Its Official

Well its official. We live in the southwestern version of the sticks. What is the sticks you ask? Well when you're living in New England that is the place where people live when you can't find their house or they just live really far away from almost everything. This is sort of the case however there are no sticks to be found only cacti and sagebrush. So would this be referred to as the dirts or the sticks as in "That cactus has hurty sticks on it." I still can't be sure. I haven't reconciled the fact that I really live here. We'll be getting our furniture on Monday and maybe by then it will feel more like home. For now I will call it my vacation home because my heart is still in New England and it keeps me from being overly sad.

So on the brighter side, the things I really like about my community are the citrus trees loaded with oranges and lemons. It looks as though our new landlord plans to put a lemon and grapefruit tree in the backyard as he finishes the landscaping. Also, our new house is pretty nice. Bigger than anything we've experienced this far and it has its own attached garage. So what this means is that you should all come and see the trees and my house. I'll post some pictures soon.