I love my GPS!

Ryan and I have wanted to get a GPS for quite a while now. We held off while he was in grad school for a couple of reasons: 1. we were living on a student budget and 2. no one on such a budget can justify buying one to get around Utah Valley. However, now that we're no longer in either of those places, we decided that a GPS would be a great tool to have as we adjust to our new area. Today, I had a chance to put it to the test.

This morning, when we dropped Ryan off at the MS shuttle, it started snowing. I was a little concerned, as I had a Dr's appointment this morning, and most Seattle-ites have NO idea how to drive in the snow. My plan to leave early was only encouraged when Ryan called me from the shuttle and said I might want to cancel my appointment because traffic was so horrible. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to get in for another few weeks, I decided to go ahead and trudge off to my appointment anyway.

I hopped in the car, entered the address on the GPS, and pulled out. I knew full-well that the fastest route is usually on the main highway, but with all the traffic, I decided to take some other smaller highways instead. Against the GPS's advice, I turned right instead of left and once the route was recalculated, it was perfect. It even took me a new way that was MUCH faster thn staying on the highway. When I arrived at my destination 35 minutes later, (enduring about 5-10 minutes of traffic slow-down), I called Ryan to let him know it had been smooth sailing all the day. He hadn't even made it to work by that point! Granted, he had to go about 20 minutes further than I did--but I was thrilled that I had made it on-time, in the middle of a Seattle snow storm. Way to go, GPS!

I knew it!

The other day, Ryan and I were driving south to see a car we might be interested in buying. We were running a little late, so we called the guy to let him know. There's a secondary-offense law in WA that prohibits people from talking on cell phones while driving. (I love this law!) So, in order to contact the guy AND keep the law, we turned on the speakerphone and I held it near Ryan so he could converse with the seller. When the guy answered, we could both tell he had some sort of accent and definitely wasn't a native English speaker. The conversation didn't last long and we weren't even sure communication had been made. After we hung up, Ryan commented that the guy sounded Asian, but I was adamant. I said, "Man, that guy sure sounded like a drunk Russian! Hopefully he doesn't drive the car to our meeting place in that condition." Sure enough, when we arrived, the guy was Ukrainian, although he didn't smell or sound drunk in person. Maybe cell phone issues caused the drunken garbled words? My Russian certainly came in handy, as there were some things the man didn't know how to explain in English. Although, I didn't have much use or opportunity to learn car maintenance words when I learned Russian--so that was a challenge. On the way home, I had to laugh with Ryan. I've certainly had a lot of experience conversing with drunk Russian men--and I guess I'm still pretty good at recognizing 'em by sound alone!

The Great Nail Polish Caper

Last week, my sister, Mirinda, moved in with us. We had the room, she wanted an adventure. (At least she thought she did...) And, the girls love their Auntie MooMoo. Kallie has been in absolute heaven since MooMoo moved in, too. She now has a distraction when she wants to do something other than mom and dad have requested. Along with the fun, however, has come a new set of rules, such as, you must ALWAYS knock and wait for a response before entering, you must stay out of MooMoo's room, and you must ask for permission before using MooMoo's things. I must say, the learning curve has been quick, but there have been a few bumps along the way.

For example, last week, when MooMoo came home from the store after the girls were in bed, she left her purse downstairs. I saw the purse and thought I should put it somewhere less accessible to the girls, but didn't worry too much because of the new rules. The next morning, MooMoo was sleeping and I was upstairs working on a blog. When I went downstairs a few minutes later, I literally caught Kallie red-handed breaking one of the rules. She had painted her fingernails and toenails a lovely shade of pinkish-red, which she had discovered in Auntie MooMoo's purse. Had this been the extent of it, Kallie would have earned a time-out, but not much else. Unfortunately, there were also splatters and drops of the lovely bright polish on our light-colored carpet and a large, glossy puddle in MooMoo's purse.

I immediately put Kallie in time-out while deciding what else to do with her. Whitney followed the example of Big Sis, and had also dabbled in the polish. She joined Kallie in the time-out area for a few minutes. After consulting my husband about Kallie and the internet about the polish, Kallie was sent to her room while I scrubbed the carpet. I was amazed to discover that window cleaner gets even bright pinkish-red polish out of light colored carpet. It took me a full hour to clean the carpet--the entirety of which Kallie spent in her bedroom. MooMoo's purse was a complete loss, however, and she had to buy a new, extremely cute, red purse to replace the old black and used-to-be-white zebra-themed bag. The end result of which did not disappoint her.

The next morning, Whitney was carrying around her beloved "Brianna Dolly". She took off Brianna's shoes, only to see that the plastic toes were sporting a bright red pedicure. As soon as Whitney saw the toes, she said, "Oh no! Brianna got into MooMoo's things!" and then she put Brianna on the time-out chair for a few minutes. I couldn't stop laughing about it! At least something was learned from the stresses of the day before!