Day 63: Fun with Friends

Tonight we went over to Brian and Jen's place to drink, socialize, and relax.  It was a nice night to just sit on the porch and relax!  After awhile, Steven and Leslie arriave and we set up DJ Hero in the living room.  Jen has these awesome surround sound speakers that are incredibly small, like 1-1.5 inches, but they produce some awesome sound. 

Brian wasn't thrilled with the game, similar to how real guitar players don't like Guitar Hero.  After awhile Ross and Shannon arrived and we took the party back to our apartment.  It was the first time we really had people over with the new TV, and even though we don't have any sound system, it was still a blast. 

The drink of the night was Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey - described as having way to much potency for such a delicious taste!

Day 62: Rock Band - Camp

We got [most of] our wedding thank you's mailed out today, woo!  It was kind of a strange 2 month-iversary for us though.  I came home from school and saw Eric for a total of ten minutes before I headed to Olathe and he headed for work.

I went to Olathe to meet Mom, Ashley, Andrew, and my uncle Sean.  We headed out to Elmdale, KS for a Camp Wood 80's reunion.  The beginning of the trip was pretty funny because we left Andrew's diaper bag on the front porch and we had to stop for diapers, formula, and a bottle.  We went ahead and used trash for toys, haha!  Andrew got the joy of playing with a clean diaper, the cardboard drink tray from McDonalds, a plastic name tag, and a paper robot.

After he got off work, Eric joined Steven and Leslie, along with Andrew, Kyle and his girlfriend for a Rock Band Party.  They had plenty to drink and Eric hogged the mini trampoline and microphone.  I received a text the following morning where Eric swore off alcohol "for real this time".

All of the kids at camp wanted to hold and play with Andrew, it was lots of fun!

Eric and Steven being boys!

Day 61: We're Back to School!

Eric and I went back to school today!  Eric started his Business of Gaming class at Johnson County Community College.  I started my class at KU Edwards Campus about instructional methods and addessment of children with severe disabilities.  We're pretty nervous about how busy we'll be for the next 4 months - we're both working full time and he'll be taking 13 hours of college courses and I'm taking 9 hours. 

After we finished our classes, we headed over to the Elephant Bar to meet Paul, Deb, Shannon, and Eric's grandparents - Ken and Karen.  We celebrated Deb and Karen's birthdays and Ken and Karen's anniversary.  It was really nice to spend some time with family and just relax.

Eric's dinner was pretty amusing.  Here we are at an asian grill style restaurant and he gets BBQ chicken and ribs, coleslaw and baked beans, a shrimp kabob, corn on the cob and a slab of watermelon.

Day 60: The HP Mini is HERE!

Yay!  I'm so thrilled to have a laptop that (A) Doesn't burn my legs, (B) Can fit in my purse, (C) Has a battery life of much longer than 5 minutes, (D) Still reads SD cards, (E) Has a silent fan, (F) Everything else great about it!

Eric was a smart man and left it in the box until I got home.  I came home on time for the first time since school started and set up my new computer, yay!  It will take some adjusting getting used to the small screen - I don't like not being able to see as much of the screen at once.  But, I did get a netbook and not a laptop, so it was my choice.  The keyboard size isn't an issue whatsoever, I can type just fine!

The built in webcam has a camera option, but the quality is lousy.  Enjoy!

I love love love it!  So small and so great!

Day 59: Wedding Thank-You's!

So, if you've been reading the blog - you know that we've been kept busy with pet troubles, honeymooning, eviction threats, broken [and new] electronics, the start of school, and more!  We were getting sick of relatives saying "do you have so-and-so's address?  They haven't gotten their 'thank-you' card yet..." and so on, so we have finally taken care of these!  We're mailing them on Friday so they are postmarked on our 2 month-iversary!

If you gave a gift and somehow don't end up with a thank-you, I'm really sorry and we'd be more than happy to send one!  It even comes with a "here's what we've been up to" letter.  We tried really hard to keep track of what we got and from who, but I am certain that we missed a few.  Again, sorry in advance!

We also brushed Addy, because her lazy bum is getting matted hair.  As we comb her, she makes sure to cry as loudly as possible and bite at the comb here and there to show us just how pleased she is with the experience.

Doesn't she look happy?  She's holding onto that ball of shedded hair like it's the last cookie in the box!

Imagine!  That could be YOUR card on top!

Day 58: Getting Work Done

I have been a major workaholic this past week, mostly due to the fact that a day and a half of meeting and only half a day to prepare for students left me reeling with "what the hell am I supposed to do with my students?" syndrome.  I have some extremely high needs kids, and started off the year with absolutely no resources.  I didn't even have a stapler or crayons in my room! 

Luckily I had an awesome teacher friend, Katie, who passed on a carfull of great supplies.  I also had a wealth of knowledge and ideas in this crazy head of mine. 

One of my biggest challenges has been that the school was making a storage room of my classroom - dumping broken tables, extra chairs, and 40lb bags of potting soil in there over the weekend.  I talked with the principal and we set a plan in action - one that wouldn't have fallen into place unless I made it happen myself.  So Eric came up to school after the kids were gone and we started by going to Wal-Mart to get velcro.  You see, velcro is a special education teachers vice.  It is absolutely necessary to make visual schedules that can be rearranged depending on your activities - meaning hundreds of little picture icons, an equal amount of velcro dots, and strips of velcro that make up the physical schedule.  I bought 1000 velcro dots on ebay for $11 [I know!! AMAZING!!!] and 12 feet of velcro at WalMart for $13 [boooooo].  I've already used 9 feet of the strip velcro, augggggggggghhhhhhh!

Anyhow, my oh so loving husband helped me stick velcro dots and then lended me a helping hand [and bicep] in rearranging my classroom and putting up cubicle walls so the storage area was partitioned off and did not pose any danger to my students.

P.S. We discovered dozens of spiders in my classroom.  Gross.

Here is the stock picture of the Velcro I got on eBay for $11, the price for the same batch has since raised to $61, what the hell?!

Day 57: Life's a itch

These darn bug bites are KILLER!  I woke up scratching my feet together like a grasshopper.  I ended up having to take a bath, apply layers of benadryl lotion, and put on three pairs of socks to ease my misery.  Surprisingly, the socks actually helped!  Eric didn't buy into my pitch, but we did both take benadryl pills before bed. 

Knee socks and two pairs of thick slipper socks - I was able to sleep!

A close-up of the misery provoking bites.