Chivalry Is Not Dead

Weird day. I couldn't sleep past 5:40 so I got up and made monkey bread for breakfast, hung some more laundry to dry in the kitchen and checked for when the polls open. The monkey bread was good but not done in the middle (I couldn't find my Bundt pan), the supervisor of election's website did not have a time up for when the polls opened. I left the house at 7:30 to go vote while Del stayed with the kids. No food, no coffee. I didn't think I'd actually be gone that long.

When I got to the polling place the line was about 1/2 a mile long. There was no way I was going to stand in that line with no breakfast...so I went back home. Del left for work and stopped by the polling place on his way and then when he was getting near the front he called and told me to come by. He stood in line for nearly one hour and then gave his place in line for me so I wouldn't have to stand in the line as a big, chubby, tired, cranky pregnant lady. Isn't he fabulous? So I voted, and then he had to stand in line again while I took the kids home. Fortunately this time he only had to stand in line about half an hour.

Am I ever glad this election cycle is over. I'm sick of politics. The funniest thing I heard today was from Ann Coulter, of all people. I think she's a bit odd and sometimes off her rocker, but she said something along the lines of, "Well, at least if Obama get in we can start saying "I told you so right away." It doesn't sound so funny now, but it did at the time. I just keep praying that God will have mercy on our country, despite our headlong plunge into hedonism en masse.

Other than that I've killed two wasp nests, sprayed our hibiscus for aphids and researched how to prune hibiscus and stop Mexican Petunias from taking over your yard. I think I'm going to have to cut them all down, pull the roots on much of the plant and divest the garden of the grassy weeds and then see what grows up in the Spring. There's not much else to do in the winter. Most people's Mexican Petunias are 2-3 feet tall. Ours are taller than me. Here's Ella in front of them to show how tall they are.

Here's a picture of Ella in the palms we have that I think are totally fantastic and of the chaos I must tame in the front yard before we start getting notices from the HOA.Oh and this ugly mystery plant that I plan to pull up and destroy unless someone tells me that it does something spectacular. I like the red and yellow and green one with big leaves but the other one is really ugly.

The best thing is that yesterday I figured out how to clean the tile. I hate tile and if we ever get the chance we're going to rid ourselves of all the tile downstairs and put in something more forgiving to the girls' faces. But anyway, they waxed this tile for some really dumb reason. You're not supposed to wax ceramic tile, so I've read. Anyway, there are tiny bits of wax everywhere; you can feel it when you walk and see it. Oh it's so gross. It's all black and gross. I was about to just go out and hire someone to clean the tile (since The Maids don't really clean, they just maintain but we won't get into that frustrating story) when I read that Simple Green works as a good wax stripper and tile cleaner.

Being an Army family, we like Simple Green. If the Army uses it, it must be good. And on top of that, it doesn't have anything really deadly in it like, say...oh...hydrochloric acid. I mean really! Is that necessary? Anyway, Ella and I set to the tile yesterday with some hot water, Simple Green and scrub brushes and look at the difference.

Isn't it amazing. Now I just have to scrub about 1500 more square feet of this tile, on my hands and knees. Doesn't it sound fun? Don't you want to come over and help me?