Welcome to JoshandAllie.com

Wii Play

Josh: *playing Wii play which we bought because wal-mart was out of extra controllers, and one came in the box* I'm not sure this is really worth ten dollars actually.
Allie: It might be useful if I have to babysit very young children.
Josh: *riding a cow made of yarn* Actually THIS ONE is pretty cool!
Allie: *sigh*

Theological insights

Today I looked down in church.

My schedule of worship read:

[print] "God moves in a mysterious way..."
[scribble] "...like a ninja"

Thank you Josh for pioneering the Jesus Ninja theology.

Also in news of the quotable, and this is strictly for those who know Dr. Wilis and his wife... this happened in today's class.

John Willis: [about to make an analogy] Now, suppose I say to Evelyn, and none of you all are listening to this...
Evelyn Willis: I'm not even listening to this.

And the whole class cracked up and Craig declared class finished for the day.

Yay for laughter in church....laughter in church is one of the best things God ever invented.

Unmistakable signs you play too much WoW

Josh: Do you want that movie now?
Allie: Yes please.
Josh: Incoming.
Allie: And how about we don't refer to queuing up my movie as the same as pulling bosses in warcraft.

No, no, thank YOU, Rochester College

Allie: The cat was up again, at 3:30, and 4:30, and 5:00...
Josh: Really? I don't remember any of that.
Allie: I know. I hate that. You just put your sheet over your head, roll over and fall right back asleep...and I lay awake for an hour before I can sleep.
Josh: *triumphantly* That's because YOU didn't live in Barbier! Who says I didn't learn anything at Rochester College?!

Man-advice

I just shouldn't have asked.

Allie: So, I'm trying to figure out what to wear to this wedding.
Josh: I'd go for clothes. *pause* And...underwear too. Don't forget that.
Allie: Thanks Josh

I am not alone.

I have this horrible habit of putting things in random places and then forgetting about them and then not being able to find them when I need to find them. This happened so often that my husband finally put a hook right by our door which is specifically for my keys. I'm supposed to put my keys there when I enter the house, and take them when I leave the house... I have suggested hooks for other things, like my sunglasses, my purse, my other purse, my wallet, my cell phone, perhaps a series of hooks for my shoes... but if we had hooks for everything I misplace on a daily basis our apartment entryway would be NOTHING but hooks with all my crap on them.

However, I'd like to say that I'm not the only person who does this, as evidenced by the following conversation I just had with my boss who is a pretty on the ball guy with well over average intelligence.

Allie: Rog, did you go to the post office?
Roger: Yes. Did I not give you the mail?
Allie: Nope. Is it still in the truck?
Roger: Um... oh. It was in with the milk - look in the fridge.

In the fridge I found two bills and a sales tax return form.

I am not alone.

Business Expense eh?

When I was growing up (can you believe I just STARTED an entry that way?!?) staples, paper, toner, printer ink....these were all considered business expenses.

My husband just called to inform me he bought a Wii.

He needs it for the Business Expo.

Mmhmmmmm....and this is my skeptical (but still nerdily pleased) face.

Here for your amusement...

At around 12:20 I heard a veritable peal of laughter from my boss' office as he finished listening to his voicemail. This was good because today hasn't exactly been the laughing sort of day.

And without being right there, I knew that's what had happened because I also knew what the voicemail said.

This...was what he'd just heard:

"Hey Roger, it's Allie. I locked myself out of the office...so when you get off the phone, can you come open the door and let me in? I'll be sitting in the hallway."

Dangit. Just one of those days I guess.

Love
Allie

Snippets of conversation

Over the course of the evening...

Woman logic

Allie: I bought Tahiti soap so... you might have to go buy man soap some time.
Josh: Yeah, I guess so.
Allie: It's just I've been daydreaming about going to Tahiti for two days now and then I saw Tahiti soap...
Josh: Do you even know where Tahiti is?
Allie: Nope. But I want to go there. I have their soap.

Stealin' the manlinesses

Allie: Hey! We went to the hardware store and I found what we went there for!
Josh: Yes. And now you can shut up about it.
(see footnote 1)

Unintentionally wrong

Allie:If I didn't love him so much I'd wring his scrawny little black neck.
Josh:Um...
Allie: *louder, misunderstanding* I said, if I didn't love him so much I'd wring his scrawny little black neck.
Josh: Okay, and maybe NOT so loud next time.
Allie: Oh. Oh dear. Yeah. *looks around alarmed*
(see footnote two)

Footnote one:
Tonight has been amazingly productive. Josh fixed his shower which has been busted for "a while" (his words)...which means we no longer have to share bathrooms in the morning, which, I suspect is going to contribute GREATLY to the peace and harmony of this Belisle household between the hours of 6:45 and 8:00. (Later on weekends) Yay for dad for getting Josh tools and yay for Josh for knowing how to use em.

Footnote two:
FYI. I was referring to the cat, who has taken to expressing his displeasure with us by relieving himself on whatever pile of fabric he can find. This is frustrating. It's not the litter box because that's clean... *headdesk* Workin' on that.

As a quick braggy postscript: Josh got a haircut and new glasses today. Also, he looks really really smart.

And that's pretty much all thats going on in our lives.

Waiting on the laundry to finish,
Allie

Wallet angels and smiley icecream: Or why flight 420 rocked my socks.

Getting home in the winter, flying home, has never been much of an adventure for me. In all my years in the states, the planes left more or less on time and despite numerous bad incidents in customs, I had never suffered a flight delay or missed a flight. All of this came to a screeching halt February 1st, 2008.

I should have really known it was going to be “a day like that” when we went out to the truck that morning to discover that the tire was completely flat. Despite this, there was a lot of grace in the inbetweens…and therefore it is a day well worth writing about.

The flight to Dallas was uneventful and when I arrived in Dallas I settled in for a four hour layover. That process involved riding the tram around all four of the terminals and then walking right down to the end of terminal D – just to get some exercise. Then I went to the bookstore, the only one I could find that didn’t JUST have bestsellers and got myself a book.

Next on the list of things to do was get myself a sub sandwich and settle in for a good hour or two of reading. I walked around the corner to the sandwich place, reached into my bag and grabbed my wallet. Or more specifically grabbed for my wallet. Which wasn’t there.

Now you have to understand that I’m known for like three things; making up memories, getting lost while going in a straight line and losing my wallet. It happens with a sort of astounding regularity that is completely mathematically improbable.

So I dump out my whole bag, can’t find the dumb thing, tell myself “okay, now is not a good time to panic” and think “back to the bookstore.” This follows the “whiddysill?” principle. Everyone’s mommy instills this principle in them from kindergarten: wdysil? Or for those of you who can’t deciper acronyms I just made up: “where did you see it last?”

So I go busting it back to the bookstore, a look of panic all over my face. Because not only does this wallet have my visa, my bank cards from two countries and my mementos of BC – it also has my green card. Without that, I cannot leave the states…because I’d have a difficult to impossible time getting back in. The it-took-two-years-to-get greencard. That one.

Apparently I must have looked panicked enough because the three ladies in the bookstore saw me coming and pointed. It’s disconserting to be pointed at simultaneously by three ladies but in this case it was hopeful pointing. At this point (or these points, more accurately) I blurt out, half way across the store “is my wallet…?” I didn’t finish the sentence because I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer. One of the ladies asks “What’s your name?” Once they had my name, they handed over the little black wallet which I clutched to my heart as I laid my head down on their counter and explained the whole green card thing. Then I put it deep into my coat pocket and swore never EVER ever to leave my wallet anywhere again.

Then I went and got a sandwich, put the wallet back deep into the pocket, settled down with the book and the food and satisfied the third crisis repsonse. You’ve heard of fight or flight? I submit to you option three: feed. So I eat my lunch/dinner/post-panic food, read the first four chapters of my book and watch some pretty awesome kids pick food off the floor and eat it, while their parents tried to make them not do that. Then I got up, with intentions to wander.

Half way down the hallway, I stop and reach into my pockets. No wallet. I crouched down right in front of the technology display and go through my ENTIRE bag again, thinking maybe I put it in there after the sandwich…but no, my first impulse was right… I had put my wallet, et al, in my pocket…and now it was definitely NOT in my pocket. I really honestly would have lost it at this point, if that second of dread realization had lasted any longer than it did. Luckily for me I turned around, for the SECOND time in 30 minutes, wide eyed in panic yet again… to find a portly dark haired but balding gentleman standing right there. I have no idea what his eyes looked like, but his voice was heavenly.

“Excuse me miss… I think you dropped this.”

In his hands…yeah… my wallet. No idea where it fell out. No idea where he came from. I always joke about people who have driving angels…but after this trip I am pretty darn convinced that I have wallet angels. Angels sent specifically to make sure I keep my wallet. It might be my immigration angels’ second assignment. I thanked him profusely..and he turned and disappeared off into the crowd.

Then I sat on the ground, put my wallet into the very back pouch of my bag and zippered it in…and then started laughing hysterically. Because at that point, I was completely out of other options for things to do. Then I called Josh, who also laughed…and my family, who ALSO laughed… and then I said a prayer. You can’t tell me that grace in the inbetweens was a rare thing in DFW Friday afternoon.

At this point I had discovered that my flight, supposed to be leaving at 7:15, arriving TO at 11:10 was delayed until 9:35. So I finished my book. (If anyone cares “Mirror Mirror” by Greg Macguire is okay.) At 9:45 they started loading the plane. As I stepped onto the plane I gave the flight attendant the BIGGEST grin I could muster. Not only were we actually leaving Dallas on the first (this has been a point of debate among my fellow travellers and I for about an hour) but I was also IN POSSESSION of my wallet. The flight attendant, a really great girl with some awesome Nanny Fran hair (and from new york) said “That’s the BEST smile I have seen all day.” I said thanks.

I have to say, for leaving two-plus hours late flight 420 was darn determined to have itself a wonderful time. Half of the people on the plane were headed back to Canada from a conference in San Antonio. These were the people who started a hockey pool-esque thing to bet on what time the plane would land. With 150 bucks up for grabs it was a point of interest for most everyone on the plane. Our head flight attendant was also hilarious, reminding us to put our coats under our seats and keep overhead bins for big luggage – “Don’t make me come back there, you don’t want that because I’m. Cranky. Too.” She wasn’t…but it was pretty funny. The girl sitting next to me was remarkably easy to make laugh and I love people like that. Everyone was polite, jovial and just happy to be on the plane.

Then three things happened which didn’t much restore my faith in airlines. 1) they had to take baggage off so that we “have a light enough load that we can stop on an icy runway if we need to” (thanks Mr. Pilotman for that reassuring thought!) 2) we had no air in the plane because “this planes auxillary power unit is broken” and they had to get out the equivalent of airline jumper cables and jumpstart our plane. And then 3) we sat on the end of the runway for 30 minutes because after all that mess with trying to get the weight right, someone had overfilled the fuel tanks…and we wouldn’t take off with that much gas-weight in our plane. Still… everyone was happy.

We finally hit the sky at 11:00 p.m. CST (or midnight if you live up here in the Toronto area) which was, of course, only 50 minutes after we should have landed. Everyone got their complimentary cokes/waters/juice and settled in for a snooze.

And then the happiest thing that happened all day happened. (Or one of the happiest things.) I looked up and our flight attendant was standing by our row. I thought she was collecting empty cups so I handed her mine. She handed me back a raspberry vanilla chocolate truffle icecream in a glass bowl with a spoon. I, understandably, was confused by the sudden appearance of icecream, but like any Knutson, this is a punch I know how to roll with. She smiled really big at me… and said “that’s for the smile.” And walked away.

I offered to share with giggly girl next to me but she didn’t want any…so instead I just stared out the window and smiled at the stars and said “I…just got smiley icecream.” And then I ate the whole darn thing. And it was DE-LICIOUS.

And the moral of that story is always smile because you never know when you’ll get free icecream. This has just become a major pillar of my life philosophy.

Anyways flight 420 landed at 2:19 – and someone gleefully claimed 150 bucks while the rest of us applauded him as if he had just single-handedly won the Stanley Cup. After that, we were through customs by 2:45 and out of baggage by 3:20… (baggage transport being delayed by snow as well) and with the family by 3:30 who were, all four of them, groggily waiting past the gate, as if they had really wanted to stay up until such an ungodly hour.

And that’s the story of my trip. A brilliant, if somewhat poorly told, tale of wallet angels and smiley icecreams.

Grace in the inbetweens. I love it.