Teaching My Husband to Iron

I have been in the military for almost 12 years and I used to iron my uniforms every other day because I was a poor Airman who couldn't afford sending them to the dry cleaners. As I put on more stripes I marinated in the luxury of the dry cleaners, I drop them off, pick them up 2 days later and have amazingly starched and ironed uniforms that crinkle when I put them on. Even when I was in Kuwait I would send them out to be heavily starched and they were fantastic. Now that I only put on my uniform 24 days out of the year I once again iron them - even though our new uniforms are "wrinkle free" I still enjoy a crisp crease in my stripes. Let me say that I HATE IRONING. I HATE IT. I spent enough years doing it almost daily and it became the most dreaded chore ever.

Now that I am a stay at home mom and wife I do housework every day. I like it because I like things to be clean, organized and in it's place. Of course there are some things I don't like doing, such as emptying the dishwasher, folding fitted sheets, scraping off baked on foods, but I do them because I like them done a certain way. But I do not care to iron. Joel has to wear nice shirts to work every single day and every few weeks he asks me to iron...then he asks a couple days after that...and a couple more days after that. When I finally get around to it, I'll do maybe 3 or 4 shirts and then I need a break...for another few weeks. I know he gets frustrated because really I do know HOW to iron, so there is no reason I shouldn't.

Just this last time, I told Joel that he needs to learn to iron because I can't do it anymore. I will fold underwear, hang up pants, wipe up hair shavings from the sink, but I don't want to iron. So I am going to teach him how to iron...maybe tonight since he has about 10 shirts that need to be done. Who can really tell how this will go? I am not sure it will even work, but I am going to be optimistic going into it. Really I am. True, he as never ironed and true, he only just figured out how to make tacos, and true, he still asks me how long to warm something up in the microwave - but let's still give this a try. We may be down 10 shirts or a marriage by tomorrow morning - but honestly - if it gets me out of ironing ever again, I will take that chance. 

My Goodness It's Been A Long Time

I am blogging again and I am going to try and do this once a week (again) but I'm so terrible at committments that it's kind of silly to make pie crust promises to myself. Things are getting out of control in the Stammen house. Baby #3 will be here in the next 4 weeks(ish) and we couldn't  be more excited! Mya is really looking forward to this baby and is hoping it will be much less annoying than Nora (her words). Nora loves babies, we just hope she loves this baby. Anyone who knows me understands that I organize the crap out of everything I do. Nothing is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3, there is 1a, 1b, and so on. So preparing for this baby I have made 10 frozen meals, stocked up on every single item that is non-perishable, packed the baby bag already, perged all unnecessary items from virtually every single room in the house, and have placed myself and the family on a strict cleaning and project schedule. It's exhausting, but as I keep telling Joel...you will thank me later when you don't have to cook meals or go to the grocery store and get a full cart of food. He makes fun of my -problem- but I know he secretly appreciates it....

This will be the second child I will have with the same doctor. Mya was born in South Carolina. I actually switched doctors during my preganancy with Nora because I had to go in for something and couldn't see my usual doctor. Typically I waited at least 45 minutes after my scheduled appointment to see her, but with this other guy I saw him at my scheduled time and was in and out of the office in 30 minutes total. So I immediately started scheduling with him. He is a very interesting person to me. Joel and I call him Drupey because he sounds like the Dog from the Hanna Barbara cartoons. A very slow drawl even though he is from Wisconsin. He never seems to be trying to be funny, but he cracks me up every time I talk to him.

Last appointment I watched 3 sisters filling out a new OB patient form, well the oldest sister was filling it out for her younger sister, who I think was in high school. It was humorous to me because none of them knew how to spell pre-natal vitamins and the girl had no idea how many days she went between periods (luckily she did know they were every month). I had an unltrasound and then when I came back out to the waiting room to wait for my appointment with my doctor I had my coat off. All 3 of them got big eyed as they watched my 40lb. belly walk in front of them. I actually laughed out loud at the reaction. They then started saying things like "that's so big" "whoa" and my favorite "you won't be that big"....then they commented on every other mother that walked in. Oh, she'll get hers...she will.