Things I learned while at Mom and Dads

Food Storage Shopping Center
Mom and dad have the perfect food storage system. They just have a couple rows of shelves in the basement and food lined up like in a grocery store. Like they have 5 jars of pickles, one lined up behind the other. Same goes for everything. Ketchup, Dressings, Crackers, Corn, Canned Stuff, etc. Then when they notice they are getting low, they go buy a few of the item and just line them up again. It is sooooo nice. Its like going to a mini grocery store. Very nice way to have food storage. Instead of people who put stuff in boxes then stack the boxes on top of each other then forget whats in the boxes anyway. What kind of system is that? I plan on doing food storage the same way mom and dad do.

Mom is the only one who understands her kids
I dont know how to explain this, but mom is the only one who truly knows how to handle all us boys. Which one of us wouldnt do anything for mom? Which one of us would ever outright disobey mom? How many of us have our Eagle? How many gone on a mission? How did mom ever do Sacrement Meeting while dad was bishop? I can barely handle my 3 kids! And plus you should see her handle Joe. Poor Joe, being the youngest gets picked on so much, and sometimes too much, and at those times, none of our "now hes mad, lets really make him mad" seems to help, only mom can calm the storm.

Opinions arent neccesarily meant to be shared
This I picked up mostly from Dad. When you spend enough time with Dad, you begin to realize how utterly stupid and opinionated most of the world is. Some of the things they say in Gospel Doctrine classes just makes you cringe. And whats funny, is you will think "well I have the perfect thing to say that will shut them all up" and then you will say it, and people will carry on as though you didnt even talk. How frustrating is that? PLUS, Dad likes the enigma he creates about himself because he doesn't express alot of opinions. No one ever knows what my Dad is thinking and most consider him some great wise man, and this all due to his silence.

I grew up, got married, had kids, and didnt change at all
I discovered that Im still the lazy kid my parents had to deal with growing up. When we first moved in I was like "OK, Im gonna do the dishes for mom every night, and keep her house clean, and help outside, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah". And I did - for about 2 weeks or so. Somewhere around month 4 I realized how messy I would leave the kitchen at night and mom would come home and clean. I realized how I would watch TV instead of help Joe mow the lawn. Or sometimes I would leave clothes on moms upstairs floor and she would set them in our basket on the stairs so I would remember to take them down. How pathetic am I? I get free rent, free food, free babysitter, and this is how I repay her? Yeah, Ill probably feel bad about that the rest of eternity.

Leftovers
One thing we have had a problem with our entire marraige is leftovers. We NEVER ate leftovers. We even got to the point where we would just throw them away soon as dinner was over cause it didnt make sense to store something you would throw away later anyway. But Mom and Dad are the masters of leftovers. Mom knows how to save them, and Dad is really good at eating them. This, thankfully, was something we actually picked up. We eat leftovers all the time now, and our shopping trips have been cut down exceedingly, to the point that it is noticeable.

Mom and Dad and technology
Its funny, but although us kids are the Computer Nerds of the Universe, mom and dad arent that far behind. Dad is editing and burning movies like a madman. Mom is now proficient in both mac and windows and even has DSL and wireless flooding her house. Plus they have a nice PBX phone system that pages and intercoms. Put all that together and they have more technology than we do. And you should see moms washer and dryer! You need training just to learn which buttons to push!

5 minutes early is 5 minutes late
If there is one thing Dad likes, its punctuality, and its 10 minutes early punctuality. You should be 10 mins early to everything. 5 minutes early is 5 minutes late.

Watching the TV muted
Dad is soooo funny. He watches ESPN muted. He watches most everything muted. But its funny how much chaos the TV adds to anything. Chaos level with kids is like 6 out of 10. With the TV on? Its 11 out of 10. To those not watching the show, its just excess noise that they have to deal with. When dad watches it muted, the level of chaos is very low and very nice for those not interested in whats on. Amy and I put our TV up in the loft. And it is soooooo nice. The living room is always calm and quiet no matter what. Even when kids are playing in the room. Just the fact that the TV isnt in the middle of it all removes alot of the craziness.