OK I never thought I'd be saying this, but I'm actually starting to like putting the dishes in the dishwasher. It's like a little puzzle just waiting to be solved...

if you spend five minutes rearranging the dishwasher to squeeze one more in...you need me to smack you.  :)  in love, of course.  charles, being a man, has what they call lateral thinking.  he can pre-arrange a full dishwasher in his head before the first dish goes in.  suffice it to say, he does the loading.  he says it pains him to see me do it because i do it wrong.  there are SOOOOOOO many benefits in having a husband who has a teensy bit of OCD.  coincidentally enough, i seem to have lost the ability to fold laundry as well.  so, he's taken over that chore too. 

we budget to buy the paper plates at costco.  between the amount of pans i use to cook a meal, there's no room in the dishwasher for plates anyway. 

What I despise even more is when I shove the last dirty item into the already overfilled dishwasher.....and they don't come clean!  ;0)  I don't mind washing certain things by hand....but, I still can't figure out why it is that I am the only one who can load and unload the dishwasher in our home?  It even has a neat little light that says "clean" and it will beep to let you know when the dishwasher is done...yet, dirty dishes seem to only end up in the sink or on the counter....until mom cleans them up.  Paper plates are nice for large get togethers....but, I feel so wasteful if I use them more than every once in a while!  Papertowels are my "splurge" in an effort to keep everything clean and sanitary.  Just another day in paradise...enjoy!