Yay for Husbands!

If my husband knew that I'm sitting in the apartment, taking the time to post on my blog he'd probably have a cow (do people still use that expression?). He took Karis to the city an hour away where half of "the crew" moved to for a luncheon get-together. I declined since there is so much to do and I really want to move into the house tonight! But I have to post before I head over to the house (on my new shiny purple bicycle) because there is so much to post about that if I put if off any longer then I'm going to end up having a 10-page post that nobody would take the time to read in it's entirety. I've also noticed that I'm losing much of my readership, probably due to several posts without pictures of the worlds cutest munchkin (which may be the main reason people come to my blog anyway! No prob, Bob, I love for the world to see how unbelievably she gets cuter and cuter as each day goes by. Ha!). Anyway, I am feeling a bit insecure about my readership now that I know I have less than half the people reading my blog as Meg has reading hers. Thanks Meg, for bringing that to my attention:-)

ahuh, anywho, this post is dedicated to my incredibly handy husband who I don't know how I managed to live without for two weeks. Here is just one reason why it's wonderful to have a very capable, detail-oriented man in the house. Hot showers with decent water pressure! Let me explain in PICTURES (I found two batteries that I stole from DH flashlight to give the camera enough juice to take one picture and put it on the computer!)...

This is what most shower-heads look like in this country. They're electric and heat the water up as it runs through the shower-head. They definitely help but usually you don't get much water pressure as they are small units to heat the water up as it's running through. On the days that you do get decent water pressure it is because it is so hot that the water is already 100dg, therefore does not need much to heat it up further. On those days you don't really want hot water and just turn the shower-head off.

This is what our shower-head looks like in our new house (hopefully will be installed today by my handy, detail-oriented husband). No real reason why I included this picture...

And this is what the shower looks like in the apartment where Karis and I have been staying for the past 2 weeks. Look at it closely and then continue reading if you're just dying to know how this works....

So the box that you see to the right of the shower is the contraption that heats the water up. It is hooked up to a gas bottle outside the house. You choose either warm or hot, turn the water on, wait for a clicking sound (the water comes on for a second, then goes off, and then returns) and watch as blue flames ignite in the box. Yes, it's a bit disconcerting to see flames in a box next to you while you're taking a shower. I had never seen one of these before so this was all new to me. If you turned it on hot you got a boiling-hot trickle and if you turned it on warm you get a lukewarm trickle. Hence, for two weeks I've been taking lukewarm, trickle showers. And if you remember how cold it is here then you feel my pain when you try to imagine taking a lukewarm, trickle shower on the cold tile (do you feel sorry for me yet? just wait!). This is where the handy, detail-oriented husband comes into play! As he takes note that I am forcing our 2-year old to take a lukewarm, trickle shower he says "turn the temperature knob on hot, then turn the cold water on too to get some water pressure". What? Cold water? Where? Oh, you mean that second faucet/knob thingy next to the hot-water faucet thingy? That's more water? I noticed it before but it looked like something that would turn the gas on/off...and it appeared a little scary. Ok, let's go for it. Let me tell you that Karis had a very enjoyable shower with water-pressure like she has never known in this country. I then got to experience a glorious shower myself. It was hot and there was great water-pressure. How can I tell you how depressing it is to realize I've been taking luke-warm, trickle showers for two weeks for NOTHING?! And here I thought I was being a good missionary by enduring without asking/commenting to anybody:-) It sure is handy to have a detail-oriented, handy husband around. Too bad we're heading to a shower-headless house today (actually I'm very excited!).


For the sake of trying to boost up my readership, I'm going to include a recent picture of the munchkin...

I thought I had a few years 'til I had to worry about being a worry-free mom as I watch my child climb high trees and come close to falling out, breaking limbs or having serious head injuries. I thought wrong. My days of worrying about being a worry-free mom are over...I hafta learn to be a worry-free mom NOW. This child climbed up this tree like a monkey to where she was a good 12-14 feet off the ground. Hold on, let me take a deep breath as I reflect on that moment watching her. Alright, I'll be ok (knowing we don't have trees in our yard helps).