Home!

It is a bit weird to say that we went home for ten days, because we now own a house in Iowa, but we did go "home" to Spokane and it was a really nice break from the everyday trials of Iowa... and when I say trials, I mean trial... and when I say trial, I mean humidity...oh how that word bugs me! So Natalie flew to Washington, because her schedule is less open than mine and I drove... because at one point when I made the decision to drive, it made economical sense... however, I didn't take into account how boring it is to drive alone in a car for 12 hours... four times!!! Anyway, I noticed that everytime I stopped for a bathroom break along the way, the weather slowly improved as follows: Iowa=hurry up and pee and get back into the car as fast as possible. Nebraska=its still a bit muggy, but its better than more driving through the exciting fields of Nebraska. Colorado=hey... this feels pretty good... and then idaho, montana, and washington were all pretty awesome.

After studying other's blogs, I've come to the realization that a lot of people buy cameras, and take 10 pictures of their kids... every 3 minutes or so... and blog... all of those pictures. Well, in our 10 days of vacation... we took a total of 10 pictures... including the times we took two pictures of the same thing to make sure we got a good one. So... here come the highlights, according to our camera:

For a birthday party, my family rented this whole building called "Jump and Bounce" and the funnest part was this obstacle course. My brothers talked me into racing them, and as you can barely tell, I'm the one already inside... and then thats me popping out first on the right... such a proud moment, which I shall never forget, because its one of our 15 pictures we've taken on our camera this year, lol.



This is Natalie and I duking it out in the ring. About two minutes later, we were too tired and sat on a bench with the rest of the adults... getting old stinks.




One of the days, all the boys in my family went golfing, but there are no pictures so that's not important obviously... The girls on the other hand got to go enjoy what Natalie's family has named, an Estrogen adventure... meaning they all got pedicures. It may be hard to tell, but there are three brown feet, and three white feet in the circle(my mom, Natalie, and our sister in law julie) so if you want to know which is Natalie's, use that knowledge to make your guess.

Other than that, there are three pictures of me trying to do a backflip, a couple more boxing pictures, and that's all she wrote. Apparently we need to learn how to take more pictures of what is going on. We did other things too in our 10 days away from the land of humidity and mosquitos, but I'll let Natalie blog about that later... bye bye now.

Power out + dark grocery store + pharmacy = Me working in the dark!

Last night we had yet another sweet Iowa storm. Apparently there were sustained 70 mph winds, the sky was green, lotsa thunder and lightning... all of this is second hand though... I was stuck in my windowless pharmacy just listening to it. Then, the power went out... for 6 hours. I was only there for about 4 hours of darkness. And you would think dark + pharmacy = get to go home, but no such luck. Darn backup batteries! I had 1 functioning computer, my register worked... what more do you need... oh yeah light to read and count by. flashlight! Solved. So i worked in the dark for 4 hours, with creepy people staring me down (everyone is creepy in the dark by the way), and 30 minutes into it a kitchen employee comes running up and asks

Them: "Are you a nurse?"
Me: "hmmm... no but what do you need?"
Them: "someone's choking in the kitchen. No I didn't call 911, they didn't want me to"
Me: once again... hmmm... as I run across the store.

Don't worry she was fine and I didn't have to brush up my rusty first aid skills. She was apparently breathing the whole time, just had something stuck in her throat and someone did the heimlich on her anyway and she had a piece of food lodged in her esophagus that she just had to "spew up". I then sat with her for 5 or so minutes while she "spewed" in a bucket... lovely!

Ahh... Friday nights at HyVee!

Winter Quarters

Last weekend Paul and I, well mostly I and Paul obliged, decided to take a 4&1/2 hour trip across the glorious state of Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska. What's there you say? Winter Quarters! The trip out started out a little scary, lets just say when it rains here, it pours! Enough rain that I got to wondering: what exactly does one do if a tornado occurs while you're in the car? Thanks to the wonders of technology and the iPhone, I was able to learn that you NEVER try to outdrive a tornado... the moral of the story is, get out of the car and get into a sturdy building or to low ground and cover your head with your arms. Just FYI, in case you ever find yourself driving in rainy, thundery weather on the great plains of Iowa.

Winter Quarters was nice, I think I was expecting more from Church history sites considering that the only other one I'd been to was NAuvoo. We went through the visitor's center, walked through the Pioneer Cemetary and the went to the temple.

Shiny new toys

So we decided it was time to move up in the world and buy a new grill so that I (Paul) could be more of a man and learn to cook outdoors. So after weeks of searching, I finally picked out the perfect one.




So we started simple with some burgers and sausages... even tried steaks one night. Then last night natalie threw together some beautiful kabob type things with chicken, peppers, and pineapple.





Well in the middle of it, this part of the midwest got put on tornado watch and there was tons of wind, lightning, and of course... loads of rain... which ironically, is something we really like about living here. So, wanting to protect the shiny new grill and the delicious food, I did the logical thing and moved it closer to the house where it was protected by the little bit of roof that hangs over. Well, you know how you never want to break or damage your shiny new toys? Well, the grill is fine, but I melted a good chunk of the vinyl siding on our shiny new house.




I then proceded to stare in disbelief and shout one of my favorite words... "CRAP!!!" Yup, I'm pretty much an idiot. Natalie thinks we should just tell people that lightning struck our house. I suppose that would sure make me come out looking a lot less like a fool.

Luckily, the previous owners of the house left us a box of new siding that was the same color and everything. The other day I fixed some leaky valves on our washing machine faucets and I've been feeling like a handy man, so without having a clue what I was doing, I threw on my chemistry goggles, busted out my new saw, ripped the siding off and made it look all pretty again. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, "YESSSSS!!!!!!"




I don't think Natalie would have been very happy if there was a permanent melted blob on the backside of our house, so I'm glad everything worked out in the end. So learn from my stupidity... don't cook with the grill too close to the house! Even if its raining.

Update

I'm sitting here alone at work for the next 3 hours and realizing that we haven't blogged in a L O N G T I M E!!! We've been busy, what can I say. So here's a quick update on what we've been doing since Paul turned brown...

We are now proud first time home owners!!! We moved out of our lovely rental and are now enjoying the bliss that is homeownership... realizing that we never thought about having to buy a hose or toilet seats or dealing with wood curtain rods that were NOT designed to hold up my wardrobe. I'm lovin' my purple countertops, actually we try to scratch them so we have NO excuses to hold onto them for any longer than necessary. I'm having fun picking paint colors, kitchen cupboard and drawer hardware, buying my first real couch (our last set was a dumpster find...shhh don't tell the many people who have sat on them for the past 7 years... he he!)

The day of the main move I got sick, really really ucky sick. My muscles ached, couldn't talk, couldn't sleep cuz I was coughing so much.... therefore I was a BIG help in the moving process. And it meanth that our house was in DISARAY... I didn't know where anything was, nothing got unpacked, total chaos which I HATE! Then I got Paul sick, he wasn't quite as bad, but he tends to get a lingering cough which has been bugging him for a while now. It was convenient that we were coughing on the plane trip we took... people don't seem to sit by coughers, can you say swine flu paranoia? We got a whole row to ourselves the way back... LOVED IT!

We travelled 18 hours total to go see my WHOLE family in Idaho Falls. 3 hours to Chicago, 3 hour flight Chicago to Salt Lake, 3 hours Salt Lake to Idaho Falls... then repeat in reverse. My little brother went through the temple for the first time and we all got to be there and see him for the last time (for some of us) before he goes on his mission to Wisconsin. It was awesome to see everyone and see how much the kids have grown, I miss my family tons out here in Iowa!!! And paul and i got to dink around temple square for a while while we waited for our plane to leave. It was sooo pretty with everything in bloom, they had a beautiful bed of tulips and poppies that I LOVED!! 2 of my favorite flowers!

Now we're back to normal life. Working, trying to unpack and make my house a home, trying to get back into the workout routine which was ruined by moving/being sick. Turns out it really stinks to run outside in hot/humid weather... mental note to self. Paul's undertaking the task of finishing our basement family room. He's a bit intimidated by it, having never done it before but he's finding lots of people with knowledge and skills to share, so it should be fine(?) keep the finger crossed for smooth sailing. I'm planning out my painting projects and wanting to plant a garden... I may have to kick out our bunny friends that like to hang out in our backyard and are SO cute.

That's us in a nutshell. I'll try to come back and edit with some pictures later.

The Joys of Brown Skin.............

Hi everyone, its me Paul. So I got a phone call the other night from a friend who was watching American Idol. He said that during one of the songs while this guy named Anoop (seen in the picture above) was singing, my friend's 3 and a half year old daughter was dancing to the music when she suddenly stopped and looked at her Dad with a confused face, and asked, "is that Paul...?" Aren't kids awesome? I suppose, that this Anoop character doesn't only have similar skin and hair color to mine, but also some pretty awesome eyebrows too huh?

It reminded me of a time on my mission when we were eating with a family and one of their little girls looked up at her Mom and curiously stated, "Mom, that missionary has darker skin than that missionary." It was pretty awesome. Having brown skin has definitely provided some funny experiences in my life that make being a little different, worth it. The girl's Mom looked embarrassed but quickly answered her daughter with... "Isn't it beautiful!!!"

One more funny story... Another time on my mission we went to a house for dinner and as we walked up to the table I saw everything all set up for us to throw together our own taco salads. As I sat down, the Mother that prepared the meal looked at me and then gasped as she said something along the lines of, "Oh no! I should have made something else; this probably won't compare to the mexican food your Mom makes back home." This of course was hilarious, seeing as how my Mom is as white as can be, and my Dad is Hawaiian/Filipino, which of course makes me... 100 percent Mexican right? lol, good times.

Funny Thing Is...

... turns out the most annoying part about losing my purse is the fact that my purst is now FOUND. Turns out it was never lost to begin with! It was at the customer service desk of my work the WHOLE TIME!!!! Not that I didn't check there 4 TIMES AND have my tech check AND have the store director check. Apparently it was put in with all the employee purses, not where LOST purses should go... like in the vault. Whatever. I happy to have it back but totally annoyed that customer service is incompetent!!!! Now all my cards are cancelled, bank accounts changed and have to change all my direct deposits/debits. Pain in the NECK! UGH.. but hooray for having it back! Thanks for all your sympathy. People don't suck as much as I thought. Yeah!

Good Things About Getting Your Purse Stolen

1. You get to get a new picture on your driver license to replace the previous nasty one that made you look 10 pounds heavier... oh wait I WAS 10 pounds heavier. (almost)

2. Get to bust out (and of course eventually BUY) different purses. I WAS kind of stagnating (is that a word) with my sweet purse from California. But I happen to have seen it in our amazing mall here. That's it in the bag... sniff sniff.

3. You get to empty your wallet of all those useless cards... I really can't even think of all the cards I had in there... memberships, blood type, Buckle rewards... tons of them. Wallet now purged! check!

4. Get to buy a new camera! I've been toying with wanting a new cool one like my sisters (which include my awesome sisters-in-law) have. But I have this odd picture taking phobia... don't know where it came from, but I tend to feel like a total dork whipping out my camera randomly. Odd because I don't think anything of it when other people do... in fact I envy them because they're documenting their life better than me. Tangent sorry!

5. Get to get sweet new checks... I ordered WSU checks... I'm super excited!!!

6. I got to learn how to replace doorknobs... they got my keys + license = they know where I live and have my keys... ugh. New locks hahah!!! P.S. I'm faster at putting them in than Paul... shhhhh don't tell him. And he'll say that he had a harder door to work on... whatever!

So all in all... yes my purse WAS stolen. I was DUMB and left in under the table in my work (grocery store) public eating area/cafeteria and went back to work for 4 hours. Unfortunately there are crappy people that AREN'T NICE or HONEST or people their mommy's should be PROUD of. ;) So we changed the locks, cancelled the cards, closed accounts... all while we're in the middle of trying to buy a house... goodie! No worries, they didn't get ANY cash, didn't use my cards. Good times!

Lots of Strumming... not so much writing though...

Hey everyone, its me, Paul. Just in case you can't figure out what the picture means, its supposed to represent writers block. I bet you didn't know I was writing a book did you? That's because I'm not writing a book, ha ha, but I do write songs on my guitar from time to time, during those times, when I have free time... which is pretty often now adays. So I've put some effort into getting my fingers back in shape and I've come up with some sweet tunes as far as the guitar goes, but I have no clue what to write down on my notepad. I did actually start writing one song about Iowa, and how its so cold, and how there are a thousand dead lady bugs in our basement. However, I never finished it, and now its not so cold anymore... so that song may have to wait until next year.

SO.... I am here to ask anyone who reads this blog to leave a comment and tell me what you think I should write a song about... keep in mind I'm not a very mushy person, so love songs may not work out so well. Also, I want you to know, that there are no stupid ideas... I've written some hilarious songs about very random things... like one song about a good friend of ours who has a very distinct and loud laugh, and it turned out awesome of course! So, if you have an idea, let me know, and I will consider it.

I blame my lack of creativity on the state of my life right now: I'm waiting until July to start a full load at school, and so when natalie goes to work, I'm kind of like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, when he starts to lose his mind and talk to a volleyball... good times Wilson! So, help me out!!! That's all... peace out!

Happy Birthday Jesse Merrill!!

And yet another, and the last, Kissell birthday of the week. It's my baby brother's birthday. Happy Burfday Jesse! He's turning 19!!!! I guess he's not really my baby brother anymore... I'm OLD!

I'm so happy that he came along as our family's caboose. I love his compassion, how hard he works, and how much he loves our Mom! He's done an awesome job taking helping her out these past few years. We're all greatful he's been around to keep her company and help her out.

Super proud of you Jesse! You're gonna rock the mission in Wisconsin!