Bye Bye Beard

So, Vern finally shaved his beard off:

Job Chart

Ocean came up with this job chart for us. So, one day out of every week, we all spend about an hour doing our assigned tasks. And our names get rotated from one section to the next every week.

So far it's working pretty well, but we've only been at it for a couple weeks now.

House + Work = Vernon

Vern asks every day if he should get rid of his beard. I tell him, "Yes." But not because I care if he gets rid of the beard or not... it's because he keeps asking about it. Every. Single. Day.

It's kind of like how I ask him, "So, what should we do about the Housewarming Party?" Every. Single. Day.

We're quite the pair.

Another thing I ask him almost every day is if he loves the house yet. He never really gives me a straight-forward answer, and says that it's "just a house".

But I think it's important to love the house that you live in. Like, a house is more than just a mere possession, you know?

We're going to have a priest come and bless the house soon (we do that with every place we live), and it's not like we'd have the priest come to bless an iPod or something. Houses are special.

I wish he'd say that he loves it.

He is probably still in recovery mode from all the work he had to put into it. He did a lot of work. And I didn't really help with much of it. I never seem to help much of the work that goes into our houses. In the three other homes that we have owned, Vern has single-handedly painted almost every room in each of these houses. That's a total of 30+ rooms that he's painted, plus he painted the outside of one of our homes too. And I never really helped with much of it because I was either "pregnant" or "watching the kids" or "lazy" or whatever have you.

Here is the house that Vern painted the outside. He also installed the fence.

I did end up painting a small portion of this house, and when I got done, my hands were completely (I mean, like, really and completely) covered with white paint. (Don't ask.)

So, anyway, yeah, Vern is probably just taking a moment to breathe and get settled after all his hard work. Maybe he'll start to love it as more than "just a house" someday. I hope.

On Moving and Movies

More on Catching Up...

So, I told you that we moved, right? We "bought a house" (yes, those quotation marks are used correctly. I'll explain more later, if I feel like it, maybe) in Minneapolis.

First a couple of things on moving and then on the house.

On Moving:

It sucks. The actual process of it really, really sucks. Blogger Matt Walsh recently moved during the Christmas season as well, and this is what he had to say about it:

Maybe, if I could find a lesson in all of this, it would be the following: 

If you are thinking about moving, remember to carefully gather together all of the items in your house — and burn them. 

Burn them all. Just throw them into a pile and burn them. 

Travel to your new location with only lint in your pocket and a dream in your heart. 

Burn everything you own and dance around the fire like wild Indians. 

I can’t promise that this will be safe, or sane, but it will certainly be easier, more enjoyable, and possibly more psychologically healthy than packing up all of that junk, hauling it across the country, and clumsily unpacking it, making sure to leave dents and damages on all of your most cherished items. 

I think this country would be a better place if there were less moving trucks, and more crazed, anti-materialism backyard bonfires. 

This is my advice. I did not take it, because I am a hypocrite, and I also have a wife who has long held fast to a strict “don’t set the furniture on fire” policy. But it’s not too late for you. Godspeed.


I couldn't relate more. Go ahead and read his whole post, because it also includes this hilarious part about getting kicked out of a hotel because he was trying to smuggle in his cats.

So, anyway, yeah, that part sucked. We didn't hire movers, so it was just me and Vern and the kids carrying all of our stuff to the U-Haul. And I had to move this very heavy couch and carry it down a bunch of stairs. This couch was so heavy, you guys, so very, very heavy...

When we got to the Minneapolis house, we had to call in reinforcements (Vern's brother), because I physically could not lift another thing. And then I had to go back and deep-clean the St. Paul place for 6 hours and that really, really sucked and made my hands super sore.

But enough about that.

I should also mention that we "bought the house" in November, and Vern spent the majority of December going over there almost every day and fixing stuff up and painting. He worked so hard you guys. So very, very hard. (That's why he grew the beard. Too busy to shave.)

Anyway...

About the New Place

The good news about all this is at the new house is awesome. I really do love it. It's in a great neighborhood. We have fixed it up and it is everything I want it to be. It is winsome and magical and perfect for us. I will post pictures sometime, but I want to have a "housewarming party" (yes, those quotation marks are used correctly. More on that later, if I feel like it, maybe) first.

But, for as much as I love the house, moving somewhere different is still a change and an adjustment. I don't feel completely settled yet.

I think that is why I keep watching 80's movies. There is something about the familiarity of 80's movies that reminds me of home. Watching a movie that I haven't seen in 25 years and still knowing the words, or seeing a familiar outfit that I had long ago forgotten about, or a favorite musical montage... there is comfort in that for me.

So far, Vern and I have watched:

The Outsiders
The Legend of Billie Jean
Top Gun
Midnight Madness
Dirty Dancing
Heavenly Bodies
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
The Money Pit
Strange Brew
Meatballs (although, technically a late-70's movie)
Meatballs II
Zapped

This was Vern's first time watching all of these movies (except for Top Gun and The Outsiders). For some reason, these were some of my favorites as a youth.

Our life is a simple one right now. We hang out with the kids. Vern goes to the office. We make meals and eat. We put the kids to sleep and watch an 80's movie. It's nice.

I guess that's it for today. I'm going to watch Porky's with my husband now.

Armenian Pizza

This was good. There wasn't anything that special or unique about it though, surprisingly, because it kind of seemed like it should be. Vern said it tasted like a chili dog. (Here is where the original recipe came from, although I did alter it a bit.) Also, this was probably my first time having ground lamb, and it didn't taste any different to me than ground beef.

1 pound ground lamb
1/2 red onion, diced
Green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T cumin
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp paprika
1/2 lemon
2 tomatoes, diced
2 T barbecue sauce
1 tsp parsley
Pizza dough
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 lime

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Saute red onion, garlic, and bell pepper for 2 minutes. Stir in the cumin, turmeric, and paprika.
3. Add the ground lamb. Squeeze 1/2 lemon over lamb, and drop the peel into the mixture. Break up the meat and stir until it has browned. Remove lemon peel.
4. Stir in the tomatoes, barbecue sauce, and parsley. Continue to simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes. The mixture should be spreadable but not too wet or the crust will become soggy.
5. Spoon meat mixture onto pizza dough. Sprinkle feta cheese over it.
6. Bake for 15 minutes. Squeeze 1/2 lime lightly over the top.