Chez Justin is in the House!

Jeff and I are starting to worry. In perhaps only 8 short months our firstborn will be unleashed and he will be out there on his own. Is he ready? Have we taught him enough?

So, we have instituted a crash course in life skills. You know, everything-we-should-have-been-teaching-you-over-the-last-18-years-but-didn't-seem-to-get-around-to-cuz-you-were-always-playing-football skills:

1. Cooking--more than Easy Mac
2. Grocery shopping--when finances dictate you must choose, please please choose the apple over the Pop Tarts!
3. Laundry/Ironing --the laundry washing is pretty good, the laundry folding and ironing is weak
4. Cleaning--yes, even though you're using soap every day, and even sometimes twice a day, you still do need to clean the shower, etc.
5. Finances--how to use the ATM to deposit checks and get cash (maybe we shoulda saved that for the end:), paying bills, reconciling checkbooks
6. Basic Car Care--yes, the "Check Engine" light is important!
7. Job Hunting--more on that later!
8. Public Transportation and/or Following Driving Directions

So if you'd like to come to dinner on a Monday night, our door is open. Justin will be cooking! This week he learned how to make spaghetti (with ground beef and sauce in a jar) and a caesar salad. He learned what the numbers on ground beef mean and that you must always brown the beef first before adding the sauce. He also figured out on his own that browned ground beef looks suspiciously like taco meat...."Hey! I bet you can use it for that too!" (I've told you he's bright, right?)

Jeff taught him his patented swirl move on putting the pasta into the boiling water. Originally, garlic bread was planned, but that was too overwhelming so it was just bread without garlic.

Next week I suspect we're having tacos!