His and Her: Q & A (Part 2)

If you missed part 1 you can find it here.

If you had $1,000,000 and you HAD to spend it, what would you do with it?S: Buy a bigger house. Take a great vacation.
L: Same as Steve but I would also set aside some money to hire someone to cook for us...even if it only lasted a month it would be worth it. :)

What does your dream vacation look like?
S: A cruise with Lael and a balcony cabin
L: a long cruise on a BIG ship with Steve and Jacob and a hired babysitter to take care of Jacob sometimes so Steve and I could actually have a break.

Who is your celebrity role model and why?
S: Edward Norton...not cause of who he is but because of how good of an actor he is
L: Meryl Streep. I guess she isn't a role model but I just think she is crazy talented and I love evey movie I have ever seen her in.

If you had 24 hours left to live, what would you do and why?
S: Spend time with my family. Quality time with Jacob and you (Lael). Oh and I would order pizza.
L: I would HOPE that I would be spontaneous for once in my life but realistically I would chill at home with Steve and Jacob.

What is your most embarrassing moment?
S: Our wedding
L: you can read about it here

What is your favorite television show?
S: The Walking Dead
L: Parenthood

What is your guilty pleasure?
S: second hand smoke....i love the smell of it
L: Any Real Housewives tv show

When did you first know you were going to marry your spouse?
S: Before we even started dating
L: Wow....that's presumptuous of you Steve...
    After we made it through our first "big" fight on the drive home from visitin my grandma in Seattle. (We had been dating for 6 months by that point)

What is your fondest memory as a child?
S: lighting off firecrackers and fireworks in the old war field by our house (i grew up in Germany...hence the war field)
L: Family Christmases in Oregon. It felt so great to be with our big/extended family.

 

Your house is on fire. What five items do you grab before you leave?

S: Phone. Wallet. Cards from Lael. that's about it (he answered AFTER me...stole my card idea)

L: ...other than people right...?? I would grab our external hard drive with all of our pictures. Jacob's teddies because they are his security. My file of all of the cards Steve has ever written to me. My purse because it's just a pain to get all of those cards canceled and reordered and because my car keys are in it and we could then save our car. My iPhone.

    

If you could be/had to be the main character of any movie, who would you be?
S: A hero in an action movie. It's too broad....It's like picking paint colours

L: Probably a Disney movie because then I would be an animated character. PLUS I love Disney and love singing. :) I guess I would be Belle. (this is such a stupid answer....i can't come up with anything good)

What physical feature do you love most about yourself?
S: My dimples. Does that sound like an answer a guy would give? (clearly said with a sarcastic tone)

L: The colour of my eyes...? it seems weird just to answer this question

Tell us why your name is your name.
S: No idea.

L: My dad wanted a different name, a name my mom was not fond of (a name I am not fond of either) so my mom vetoed it and named me Lael (the name of one of her cousins) and my middle name is the name my dad wanted.

What is the greatest place you've ever traveled to?
S: Overall I would have to say Maui but the Caribbean was really nice though.

L: THIS IS SO HARD!!! I have been to many amazing places. Can I choose my top 3? Cause I am gonna. Maui was my favourite trip ever because it was so relaxing and we stayed in such an amazing resort (thanks to my aunt and uncle!). London was super fun, so much to do and so much history. The Cinque Terre in Italy is probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. I hope I visit all of these places again.

Are you a morning person or a night person?
S: Night....considering it takes me 3 hours and 2 cups of coffee to wake up in the morning

L: NIGHT!

Who is someone you wish you were closer to?
S: Lael

L: (And now I look like an idiot for saying the following) This is just weird because what if they read this? That's just plain awkward. SKIP

What quality do you have that you hope your kids inherit?
S:patience

L: another question that feels awkward to answer....right?.....organization maybe

What's your favorite memory with your childhood best friend?
S: In germany we took the train to school. We would push each other out of the train just as the doors were about to close to see if the other could make it into another door.

L: Playing store in Melissa's basement.

If you had to move out of the country where would you move to?

S: i dunno...hawaii, the caribbean or the bahamas or something

L: This is tough because I hate change so I kind of want to say Kirkland, Washington because I know the area the best and have family there. BUT if fear wasn't involved I would say London.

What is something weird your spouse does while asleep?

S: She is awake most of the night.

L: Poor Steve is going to be embarrassed about this. He does anything from yell and scream, to death grip my legs or arms or brings Jacob into our room in the middle of the night because he thinks it's morning (....i think I just figured out why Jacob has sleeping issues....jk Steve)

His and Her: Q & A

I found this blog entry via Pinterest and thought it would be fun to go through the 100 questions with Steve sometime. Tonight I decided to start by asking him the first 20 questions but he got so into it that he asked me to keep going and going and going until we finished all 100. haha. I have decided to post our answers to the 10 questions over the next while starting tonight with questions 1-20.

What would you be happy doing for hours on end?

 S: Drinking beer, eating food and playing pool.

L: Shopping for furniture and home decor

What is one thing you always disagree on as a couple?

S: Dishes

L: Yup, the dishes.

What is one thing you always agree on?

S: Deciding to eat out

L: We need more sleep

What is your favorite olympic event?

S: This is going to sounds super lame but Gymnastics

L: Summer: Gymnastics, Winter: Hockey

If you had the money to buy your significant other any one thing right now what would you buy them?

S: A cruise (L: YES PLEASE!)

L: A car so he could drive to work without getting wet and cold on the scooter

Would you rather be blind or deaf?

S: Deaf

L: Deaf

What is one thing you admire about your mother (or mother figure)?

S: She is always welcoming

L: Her knowledge of the Bible and how fast she reads!

What food do you HATE?

S: Peas!

L: Almost everything but seriously hate pickles and mustard

Who is your favorite superhero?

S: Spiderman (L: very convienient since you look so much like Tobey Maguire)

L: ....superman?

What value or principle, if any, are you a true advocate for?.

S: Integrity

L: Honesty

What will your firstborn daughters name be? (or what would your next daughter's name be?)

S: Avery

L: Stella (in reality it won't be either of these names since we clearly don't agree)

What is your biggest shopping pet peeve?

S: trying on clothes

L: finding parking when it's raining

 
If you could have any single superpower what would it be and why?
S: Flying cause flying is awesome. everyone's dream is to fly

L: ....not mine. I would want to be invisible so I can spy on Jacob when he is in the nursery at church without him seeing me. PLUS i just like being a fly on the wall....

If you got a life supply subscription to any magazine, what magazine would you choose?
S: Some electronic magazine

L: People or Martha Stewart Living

What was your favorite subject in elementary school? (lunch and recess don't count)

S: Pause. (L: What does that mean in English?) Recess. (L: ) Fine. Then I choose Music

L: PE

You just scored $5. What do you spend it on?

S: Breakfast sandwich at Starbucks

L: Cream soad slurpee and a Wonderbar

What were your thoughts when you first met your other half?

S: I don't remember but if I had to say 2 words I would say nice and outgoing

L: I don't remember if his name is Stephan or Steven. (a friend of mine told me that there was a new guy in choir and i saw him in our first choir practice that school year)

If you could punch a company/business in the face, who would you want to punch?
S: I would punch and high five Bose because of they are masterminds at brainwashing customers into thinking that their products are any good.

L: Cell phone companies....i have been with many and they all mess up my bills

Favorite classic Disney princess?

S: Aladdin (L: He is not a princess) Isn't there a princess in Aladdin (L: Yes, Jasmine) Yeah, her.
L: Belle. She saw the good in the Beast and made the best of her situation (plus the songs in that movie are so catchy).

If you could reincarnate into any animal after you die, what animal would you want to be?
S: Easy! Lion!
L: Probably a dolphin because then I could explore the ocean OR a hummingbird so i could fly

My cleaning routine

I was chatting with a few friends the other day about keeping up with cleaning when you have a baby or young kids at home. Before having Jacob it was simple for me to set aside 4 hours once a week to clean the whole house and a few hours another day for laundry. Now that we have Jacob that isn't realistic for me.

I feel like my house is at an ok level of cleanliness most of the time. I am not good at major cleaning projects like blinds, washing walls, scrubbing kitchen cabinets etc but I think my house looks relatively clean to anyone who doesn't live here.

Steve and I both like to live in an organized home and feel overwhelmed when our house gets to the point where cleaning feels daunting. I am thankful to be married to a man who not only appreciates a clean house but contributes to it!

Here are some of the ways we keep up with our house:
I do laundry about every 2 days. I don't wait until one of us is out of underwear or socks I do my best to always be one step ahead with the laundry. Since I am home a lot it's easy to throw in a load or 2 every 2 days and get it all put away that same day. If I don't have time to fold the laundry when the dryer is done I always put it on my bed so that I am forced to do it before i go to sleep.

Dishes- we run our dishwasher at night most of the time. Even if it isn't totally full we usually run it. I hate having dishes piled in my sink and often I won't have time to do the dishes during the day and will only get to it once J is in bed. If I think I will have a full days worth of dishes in my sink because my dishwasher is full (or almost full) and needs to be run before I can unload my sink dishes into the washer I will not be happy. If I run it at night I can unload it first thing in the morning before getting caught up in the daily routine.

Floors- I have a little hand held vacuum that is hung in our kitchen on the wall (it's between our buffet and a corner so that it's not seen). I use it DAILY. No joke. We don't have carpet on our main floor (just 2 small area rugs) and I feel like I am always seeing hair, crumbs and dust bunnies in corners and under my kitchen cabinets. I grab that little vacuum, whip around the main floor with it and it's done. It probably takes me less than 5 mins. We mop our floors usually every second Sunday. If Jacob makes a mess on the floor we wipe it up with water and I spot clean often but a major mop doesn't happen more than every other week. We vacuum our upstairs (which is carpeted) each Sunday as well.

Dusting- I dust probably every second day. We keep a micro fiber dust cloth in a drawer of our tv stand for dusting. It's easy to grab it and wipe down any dusty surfaces on our main floor regularly. We have a lot of dark wood furniture and it shows dust like crazy! Not to mention that the heat from our tv and other electronics seem to attract dust and our tv stand always looks dusty...it drives me crazy! I dust our upstairs once a week.

Kitchen- I am always cleaning the kitchen. Every day while Jacob is in his highchair I wipe down the counters and the stove and scrub the sink. We tend to pile random junk on the end of one counter so I declutter that on the weekend....or at least I try to. Hehe

Bathrooms- we have a toilet brush in all 3 bathrooms. I scrub the toilet with the toilet brush every 2-3 days (mainly because they will get pink coloured lines or rings if I don't keep up with it). Once a week I clean the counters, toilet seats, sinks, mirrors and floors.

Kid mess- toys...toys everywhere. I hate when Jacob ends up with all of his toys out. We recently bought a storage unit for J's toys from ikea. It is 2 cubes high by 4 cubes wide. 6 of the cubes have bins in them full of toys and the other 2 we use for book shelves. When J wants toys he gets 1 or 2 bins and that's it! Once he is done with those toys they get cleaned up before he gets new stuff out. Steve or I clean up his toys and books once Jacob is asleep too. By the time we sit down to relax the house is in good order and we aren't waking up the next day to a disaster. Any toys or books Jacob plays with in his room are tidied before he goes to bed so that we aren't tripping over them in the middle of the night.

Sunday- ...I kind of hate our cleaning time on Sunday each week but I also know it's necessary for my sanity so I suck it up. Steve's days off are Sunday and Monday. Since church fills a few hours on Sunday morning we use the rest of that day for cleaning and chores so that on Monday we can just have a family day. The routine is that I vacuum upstairs and clean the bathrooms and Steve mops our main floor (every other week). Once I am done vacuuming he hauls the vacuum down the stairs and does our area rugs and stairs (if needed). We also do our decluttering on Sunday and that usually means some filing...I hate it so Steve does it. :) Steve also cleans our shower once a week while he showers. I also dust our upstairs every Sunday. If it isn't a mopping week then Steve will often take Jacob to the grocery store with him and pick up whatever we need and then I can clean without having to deal with Mr. Jacob. We don't really use any chemicals for cleaning. We use Norwex cloths for almost everything! Works great and there is little hassle.

"There's a place for everything and everything has its place." This is true in our home. We know where everything goes. When we buy new stuff we talk about where we will keep/store it. I don't like clutter in our home so I do my best to avoid a lot of it.

I think that's it...it seems like a lot when I read it over but honestly it doesn't feel like I am cleaning all the time but it DOES feel like I have a handle on it.