Lots of New and Exciting Stuff

This is a catch-up (catsup?) post. There are a lot of new and exciting developments happening in our little home these days.

My New Profession
So about 10 years ago I started a course on Piano Tuning. I finished the first seven of ten lessons reasonably promptly, but for some reason (which I do not recall) I didn’t finish the last three. Well, a couple of months ago Jeff’s grandparents bought a used piano that had not been tuned in some time, and Grandma asked me about getting it tuned. I told her that I could do it myself for really cheap (namely free). That spurred me on to finishing the course. Since it had been so long I called the school and they told me that for $20 I could reinstate my course and finish the last three lessons, which I did. I received in the mail last Thursday my diploma. So now I am a Piano Tuner.

The Fourth of July
(disclaimer: If you do not want to read a poop story, please do not read this next section. You have been warned!)
Rachel’s first 4th of July celebration was pretty exciting. She started the day by pulling another poopie prank. This time Daddy was the intended victim. I personally think that this proves that she likes me best, because the prank she pulled on Jeff was worse than the infamous poopie sock incident that I was stuck with. I was downtown cleaning an office when I got a phone call.

Jeff: Guess what Rachel did.
Noelle: What?
Jeff: I was at my computer, and Rachel was playing on the floor. I looked over and saw that she had halfway taken off her diaper. I thought, that’s not right, so I went over to her and saw that she had pooped all over the floor. And she was playing in it. She had poop all over the carpet, and squished in her hands.
Noelle: Eeww! (aside: sorry about your luck! glad I’m not there!)

So Jeff put her in the bath and cleaned up the mess as best he could. Holly, I think we need to borrow your carpet cleaner!

Don’t worry, no pictures.

More (festive) Fourth of July
We went over to Holly’s house for a big 4th of July party. When I got there (early) Holly was cleaning up her own mess. Jericho had spilled laundry detergent on the carpet. It seems like soap should be a good thing to spill on the carpet. Doesn’t that make things cleaner? There was a great turnout at the party. We ate Mexican Food, and when it got dark we lit (legal) fireworks.

Holly had warned me that there would be no hamburgers and hotdogs at this party. (She knew from a previous encounter how I like those traditional foods for summer parties – ie Derby Party.) So for lunch Jeff, Rachel and I had Sloppy Joes. (Sloppy Joes are just a variation of a hamburger.) We didn’t have any hamburger buns (or so I thought), so I served them in hotdog buns. Turns out they taste the same that way. As it happened, we did have hamburger buns, but they were still frozen. So the big question, which is more patriotic, hamburgers, hotdogs, sloppy joes, potato chips or cheetos?

Exciting Developmental Milestones for Rachel
Rachel is growing up too fast! She has pretty much mastered climbing downstairs. The only thing left to perfect on the stairs is her approach to the descent. She comes in head first, and I still have to turn her around. Once she is feet first, she is pretty secure coming down.

Today we were having yogurt (actually just she was having yogurt), and she ate with a spoon (almost completely) by herself. I put the yogurt on the spoon and handed it to her, then she put it in her mouth. Sometimes she even got the yogurt off, but sometimes I had to help her with that.