Water & Soda

I am a water snob. Can't help it, I'm from the Rocky Mountain Northwest and the water there is supreme. Moving out East one of my main concerns was "how is the water going to be?" It's a big deal, I know me and I knew I would be stubborn enough to filter it or have it sit in the fridge long enough to get the metal taste out of it if I didn't like it.

On our first hotel stay here in Toledo I decided to drink straight from the sink; conclusion, whew! The water in this part of Ohio is good. We later learned that we get our water from the Lake above us. The downside, you can't just turn on the sink and move the faucet to cold and wait for cold water. The longer the water runs the more lukewarm- warm your water will get. I have been so spoiled there are so many random things like that I have learned about living across the country haha.

When I went to Florida 3 years ago I decided that the worse water I have ever had was there. This opinion was only cemented when I returned this summer. When my family all drove out to Ohio last summer we stopped in Illinois. Initially we wanted water, upon tasting the water we quickly changed our minds, it was yucky. My Mom then all to eagerly decided to have a diet coke instead, bad choice the soda tasted like someone had put fish flavoring in it. Conclusion bad water= bad sodas also true in Florida.

Then we have Toledo. I have been to many fast food places since we have moved here, that's part of the being homeless, and have had several opportunities to drink soda. The soda here in Toledo has that awful fish flavor! It makes no sense to me, and I would say I was crazy (haha yea, yea) but David says he can taste it too. Anyone know of why the water would be good but the soda not? My best conclusion is where the soda is coming from. Minus McDonald's though because their coke is totally normal. If I buy a sealed bottle it is just fine, but all the restaurants are hit and miss. This puzzles me more, restaurants are hooked up to syrup for soda and carbonated water, which I figured since they only change the syrup that the water is local. It seems like bottled could be bad if it was bottled somewhere that the water is bad and local soda would be good. I don't know. But I feel like I have been rambling a lot so I will end it like that, the end.

Waiting waiting waiting

Well tomorrow will make 2 weeks of us waiting for our house to close. We have moved from one family to stay with to another in order to keep people from getting tired of us free-loading haha. I'm really hoping our house will close soon now. Our new papers say by the 31st but we then have a 48 hour waiting period before we can have the key, uuuhhg! News is we should still be closing before the 31st so that makes us happy.

The weather was looking up this week and we had been hoping that it would stay that way for a while, nope, the heat is up again and so is the humidity. I know I've heard about it but now I know what people mean when they say it doesn't cool down at night, at all, all night! David and I are staying at Peter and his wife's house on a queen size air mattress (it's an upgrade from thy double bed right! Ha). The bed tends to lean towards David because he weighs more the first night we slept really close because I would just slowly roll over to him while sleeping and the other night It was so hot we were trying our darndest not to touch! So hot, I'm learning all about this this thing called the "heat index." For all of my Idaho ladies this means it could be 82 degrees outside but with humidity it makes the temperature 102. I think my least favorite part is feeling like I'm sweating when I know I'm not. Enough complaining though because we definitely like it here it's just going to take some getting used to. David and I are also looking forward to making a trip south to see my grandma Pink, Grandpa Stroup and my Great-grandma Coates for Labor day.

M&M's

David and I have been having an ongoing debate about M&M’s and whether or not each color tastes different. David insists the brown M&M’s are yucky and that the yellow ones are his favorite. He has been saying that he can tell the difference between the dyes on them. So yesterday we decided to put him to the test. We did this very scientific like. I opened a bag arranged the M&M’s in random order and fed them to David with his eyes closed and my hand covering the M&M to keep him from knowing the color. He then guessed each M&M as I fed them to him. We used two fun size bags (left over from our candy jars at the reception) to test his skill. Here are the results.

Test #1

Actual Color- Guessed Color
Red- Brown
Green- Yellow
Blue- Brown
Brown- Orange
Yellow- Green
Red- Red
Brown- Brown

2/7

Test #2

Actual Color- Guessed Color

Green- Blue
Green- Yellow

Brown- Yellow

Blue- Brown

Red- Orange

Orange- Green

Yellow- Red

Green- Green

Brown- Orange

Green- Blue

1/10

During this test procedure I couldnd't help but laugh on several different occasions it was just so funny to watch David try to decide the colors and in my head I kept thinking "Are we really doing this? Testing whether or not each color tastes different? They are all the same!" It was still pretty fun and humerous And it was David's idea. I think the one reply that cemented my theory was Test #2 M&M #3 the M&M was Brown and David answered Yellow, that right there to me says they all taste the same. However afterwards David told me that he thinks the Brown ones taste more like regular non-peanut M&M's and I will have to agree that I can ALMOST barely taste a slight hint of what he is sayin but not every Brown M&M has that regular M&M flavor so it still differs. David still doesn't like the Brown ones and Yellow ones are still his favorite so I don't think we really solved much haha but it was fun. What do you think??

Ohio- update

David had his first real day of medical school today! A 6 hour long lecture on the constituents of the cell, plasma membranes and proteins/ amino acids. I guess the plus side was that it was all review and he got out of class about 20 minutes early. Today we got up really early and went to the YMCA to work out. What a great facility to have and my membership is only $30 a semester (David is free!). Then we made up the crudest budget I have ever seen hah, we approximated our mortgage, utilities, internet, cell phones, gas/car expenses and anything else you can think of. We rounded up on everything too just to be safe the out come was great though we had $1,800 left over in loan money that we most likely won't be using. The program here at UT is really flexible as long as we give the extra back before the semester ends we don't have to pay interest or anything! Not only that but if we ever need more all you have to do is request it, thank goodness.

Look! A tiny cart, haha I don't know why but I thought this was so cool (and I still do). David said I could have it if I could find a "Homeless Barbie" doll to push it.

 David and I still haven't managed to close on our house yet, the bank underwriters are really taking their time (however they do that). It's also really slowing down our ability to get registered as Ohio residents we have had to be all kinds of creative to find loopholes that can help us. We have been blessed enough to stay with a empty nest couple who have a cute and tidy house and we are VERY thankful for them. Right now David and I are sharing a double bed! Hah it was really tough the first night both of us were pretty sore/ stiff the next day but a bed is a bed even if it's small. We keep thinking about how great the first night in our KING bed will be after sleeping so squished up! We've also made some new friends and they are great even if they are from Utah ;) David and I went to our new ward on Sunday haha honestly I kind of felt like "wow other Mormons! In the same room as me!" it was great!

when David and I ran some errands the other day I saw these on the side walk! So cute!!

 I'm still waiting on my license to transfer from Idaho so I can take a written test. Idaho sent my info on the 3rd of August and Ohio said I needed to give them 20 days from then..... so today I called.... nothing I couldn't get a hold of anyone, ugh what a joke. Oh well I have basically nothing to do all day I don't even have boxes to unpack a house to organize or a job to find, so I have plenty of time to call the Ohio state board until they answer me :) Other than wishing we were no longer homeless vagabonds, things have been great and we love Ohio it is so pretty our only complaint is the humidity but that varies day to day too.

Cool things at the social security building

White Coat Ceremony

Before he had to go back with his class

David and His new friend Peter one of the only other "mormons" in his class. He and his wife have two of the cutest little girls! They are going to be fun to get to know. Thank goodness for the church we already have friends!

Auditorium

David's chair

That's his name!!!

His 1st white coat !

And hospital badge!!!

He's in the program!

waiting to get his coat

putting it on

David and his class saying the Medical Student pledge of ethics

There he is in his new coat! Ah I was so proud of him!!

Neither of us had had lunch and I didn't eat breakfast. The ceremony started at 1pm and went to 3pm! they handed out scholarships to all the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students as well as the incoming class. It took FOREVER!! And I was starving the whole time. They should seperate the incoming scholarships from the 2nd-4th years. We barely know anyone in his own class yet not to mention we literally knew NO one in the other classes.

Us eating LOTS of cake because we are really hungry. I literally had 4 pieces of cake

funny face!

Ahhh kissy face

Peter's gift to us, Thank you Peter

Peter and his little girlys, SO CUTE!

Peter- Dave eat your piece of cake in one bite

David- ok

Me- wait if you are going to do this at least let me get a good picture

What? Do I have something in my teeth?

Me and my hubby in his brand new medical student coat! I am so proud of what David has accomplished on his own and I am so excited for him to start school, he really loves school. I am also excited to be able to support him this time as he tries to do well in school it will be good for us and bring us closer together. Even if we are going to be really poor at least I know we will be poor together!