hola, isabel

I took the last two weeks off from work.  The King took it off too.

(He’s unemployed, so it wasn’t that hard for him to get the time off!)

(He hates my humor.)

We also kept Babboo home from school.

The thing is, we sort of forgot to actual make any plans for what we’d be doing for those TWO WEEK OFF.

By about day three The King was ready for me to go back to work.  By about day two, I was ready.

He started walking around the house mumbling different locations that we could drive to.

“We could drive to Reno.”

“We could drive down the coast to California.”

“We could drive to Eastern Oregon.”

I hate car rides with a hate that chills me to my bones.  (Something about feeling stuck in a car with nothing to do or eat or see.)  I tried to pretend I didn’t hear the mumbling of far off places.  Eventually there was no pretending.

I had to come up with a plan.  A plan that didn’t include fifteen hour car rides.  I had to come up with this plan soon.

And then the phone rang.

It was our friends from church.  Come to find out the husbands parents, who live in Vancouver, Canada, are out of town.  And hey, did we want to go with them and stay in the empty house?!

It must be noted that Vancouver is a short three hours away.

Heck yes, I wanted to go.  And here are the reasons why:

• Vancouver is much closer then Reno.

• No hotel costs.

• We could see Vancouver with a local.

• WE MUST GET OUT OF THE HOUSE.

And so we packed our bags full of our new Christmas items (New coat and camera for me. Pirates and Legos for Babboo) and headed out of the country.  Since The King was hell-bent on a “ride”, we took the scenic route, via Chuckanut Drive.  It was very scenic and lovely and I’m glad we took the detour.  We made it to the border in record time and according to the sighs the border wait time wasn’t *that bad*.

And then…..

I totally remembered that in all the packing madness our passports HAD BEEN LEFT BEHIND!!

While they’ll let you into Canada without a passport, it’s a little harder to get back into the States.  Especially this close to an actual terrorist attack, and the Olympics.

We turned right around and drove back to Seattle to pick up our passports.  We were at our house long enough to pee and get the passports.

In the end The King got the car ride he wanted.  I got out of the house like I wanted.  And my Sweet Babboo got to chose from 218 gelato flavors.

The The King has some extra time these days. He also has some pieces of canvas that were just screaming to be used. So he stretched some of the canvas on a few different HUGE frames and then starting working on an awesome new painting for our bedroom.

He started by taking his favorite picture of my Sweet Babboo:

Then he broke the picture up on tphotoshop into small squares and assigned each square a shade of black from 0%-100%. Next he took the canvas and divided it into 1″ squares with a pencil and then I helped him write the black percentage inside each square.

(That process took a bit of time. I kept asking, “dude, when does the actual PAINTING begin?!”)

Next The King started painting each square individually, depending on what percentage of black they were. He held a mixing tray and brush and just figured it out as he went. He taped a smaller version next to what he was painting to help guide him.

Over the next few weeks The King would spend an hour or so a day filling in squares. Last Sunday night he figured it was just about done.

Of course it is better appreciated from afar, since it’s so freaking huge.

The King hung it up in our bedroom last week.* That way the people out on the street will look up into our house and see this huge painting of our awesome kids face.

We’ve got a few more canvases, that are even bigger. The King has yet to decide what the new painting swill be of. I’m thinking one of each of us.

*The King and I have both admitted to waking up in the middle of the night and being completely 100% freaked out by the ultra large Babboo looming over our bed.

Last week I heard that the average person spends 51 days picking out clothes to wear over their entire lifetime.

51 days!

While that may seem like a lot of wasted time to you, to me it seems like time well spent.  And to be honest, I’m pretty sure that by the time my life is over I’ll have spent well over 51 days picking out my outfits.

It all started back in middle school when I had to get myself up and dressed for school in the morning.  I would stand in front of my closet and just stare at my clothes.  It’s not like I had so many adorable Esprit and Guess clothes to choose from.  In fact it was the exact opposite.  My clothing options were very limited, thus taking me more time to decide what to wear.

My mom quickly got fed up with the amount of time I wasted in the mornings choosing my outfit for the day.  She suggested I figure it out the night before.  What a great idea.  Man, my mom is a genius.  From that day on I would chose my outfit before I went to bed each night.

Ta-Da.

It was fabulous to not have to stress about clothing options in the morning.  My mind was much clearer the night before.  It took me half as long to decide tomorrow’s outfit if picked out the night before.

Plus at night I would have time to iron anything that needed ironing instead of doing it at 6 am.  Or, let’s be honest, just not ironing it at all.

It’s been over 20 years and I’m still choosing my outfits the night before.

Each evening, before The King and I put Babboo to bed, I go into my closet and do my “routine”.  First I choose a pair of trousers to wear.  I can pretty much wear anything to my office, but I choose to look “nice” (which is totally subjective).  I have a few slacks and fancy jeans to choose from.  Once I know what bottoms I’ll be rocking, I figure out what top to wear.  This takes a little bit longer then figuring out what pants I’m wearing.  Mostly because a top can include more then one item: shirt, jacket, or cardigan.

I then iron anything that needs ironing.  (It must be noted that at this point The King will gather any shirts that he has that might also need some ironing.)

I grab my selected outfit, along with the needed under clothing, and take them into the bathroom and put them on the shelf of my vanity.  In the winter I like to hang them on my towel warmer.  Nothing like putting warm clothes on after a shower.

I leave my shoe and accessory decisions for the morning. For some unknown reason that task isn’t as daunting as clothing seems to be.

I’ve never timed my routine but I’m positive it would equal to more then 51 days in my entire lifetime.  And while I’ve been thinking about this the last week, I can’t seem to decide if more then 51 days is too long or not.

So tell me, what’s your system for choosing your daily attire?

I’ve had throat issues for almost a month now.  I haven’t been feeling sick.  I just sound like a man when I talk.  A few nights ago I‘d finally had enough of it and I downed some NyQuil.  (Oh how I love thee.)

Today my throat is killing me.  And I still sound like a man.

I’m also wearing long johns under my work clothes.

Thankfully I smell good today.  I’m using the new lotions I won from Lorelee and they are yummy, yummy, yummy.

Last Friday, at work, I had a coworker confide in me that he’s pretty sure his girlfriend of three weeks was The One.  Naturally he’s all puppies and unicorns.

Love is in the air.

Then at Friday nights company party another coworker confided in me that she’s pretty sure her new boyfriend is The One.  She’s been texting with him all day and meeting for late lunches.  She walks around the office with a grin on her face and a spring in her step.

Love is in the air.

Today I got an e-mail from a good friend IRL.  She’s been dating a new guy and things are going well.  Very well.  So well, in fact, that her e-mail was filled with all of his awesome traits.  While she didn’t come right out and say “he’s The One”, she alluded to him being The One.

Love is in the air.

A Chipotle opened in downtown Seattle last Friday.  I’ve oft heard of The Internets love of their veggie burrito.  I have yet to eat at a Chipotle.  Everyday, since Friday, I’ve walked over to get some lunch.  Everyday there has been a huge line.  Everyday I’ve lacked the patience to wait in the line.  Today, I’m waiting.  I have got to try this fabulous burrito and their guacamole.  I’ve decided that today is the day that I wait in line.  I’m giddy with anticipation of lunch time.

Love is in the air.

In case you hadn’t noticed, this pretty site has been down all week.  Apparently some mean-bot keeps attacking my site and causing all sorts of problems to the company that is in charge of all my technical stuff.

Or something like that.

Anyway, it’s fixed now.

(Thanks to all the awesome readers who sent me worried e-mails.  Have no fear, holaisabel.com is still here.  And it will be for at least another year, since I just prepaid for a year of service!)

The King has yet to find a job.  He continues to scan the internet for jobs and he’s submitting his resume like crazy.  He’s also still interviewing (and wearing his suit, yummy)!  During this time sans full time job he was able to finish up a lot of the little things at our house.  He totally cleaned out our office and got it all set up.

This was our office in the middle of the project (yes, it was even worse then this):

This is our office now:

He installed a coat rack (above the radiator, so our coats are always warm).

Once he got done with all the projects around our house he started helping some of our friends finish their house so they can put it on the market.  Our friends were nice enough to offer to pay The King, and he gladly accepted it since he has not other income right now!

Three weeks ago another friend of ours asked The King if he could help him install some new windows at his house.  Since he doesn’t have too much to do during the day he agreed to help the guy out, for trade.  (The guy is going to help The King with a bigger project at our house.)  While installing the windows it came out that these friends wanted to totally remodel their kitchen and bathroom.  They started to ask The King his opinion and blah, blah, blah they decided to hire him to do all the work.

This time for payment.

The King then met the neighbor.  Apparently he has a house that he’s remodeling.  But he doesn’t have the time.  And so he hired The King to remodel his bathroom.

Again, for payment.

We realized last weekend that The King now has a full time job.  It just isn’t the job that he ever expected to have.  He’s totally gone from being White Collar to being Blue Collar.  He’s never worked a day in construction, but he’s designed and built us two houses.  So he knows what he’s doing and he already owns all the tools.

This is the perfect time of year for us to be having The King bring in some money.  He’s actually making more money doing this remodel work then he did at his real live work-in-an-office job.  Interesting.

Of course The King is still interviewing and putting out his resume.  Now he’s just doing it in between demolishing bathrooms and making trips to the Home Depot.

Who knows, maybe this will turn into a career. We aren’t against the idea.

So tell me, anyone need some remodel work done?  I can totally refer a super dreamy guy to do the work.

The King is the hardest working person I’ve ever met.

The King is brave.

The King is devoted.

The King is a wonderful father.

The King loves the Lord.

The King loves Babboo.

The King loves me.

The King will clean a toilet.

The King looks out for our family.

The King is smart.

The King makes sure all of our bills are paid on time.

The King shaves his head for me.

The King will get on the floor and play pirates with Babboo.

The King has perfect teeth.

The King looks amazing in a suit.

The King can build his own kitchen cabinets.

The King looks amazing naked.

The King is artistic.

The King lets me have the bigger of the two showers in our bathroom.

The King isn’t afraid to cook.

The King can be a good snuggler.

The King has a broad range of talents.

The King serves others.

The King is a good swimmer.

The King is a very good son.

The King is a good Sunday school teacher.

The King is always on time.

The King puts gas in the car so I don’t have to worry about it.

The King is funny.

The King listens to me complain about work.

The King likes a lot of the same shows I like.

The King can read a person perfectly.

The King is a good writer.

The King can design a house.

The King serves others.

The King does the laundry.

The King picks up my books from the library.

The King is a good driver and always drives, even though he hates it.

The King has the best stories ever.

The King can build furniture.

The King is smart about money.

The King isn’t stingy.

The King is a good friend to others.

The King can build a house.

The King is a good brother.

The King has an amazing sense of style.

The King is a very good gift-giver.

The King mows the yard.

The King takes the garbage to the street on Garbage Day.

The King has self control.

The King is a good example to others.

This year, especially, I’m thankful for him and all of his wonderful traits.