Day 70: Baby Weekend!

Last night we brought Andrew home for a weekend with his Auntie Jess and Uncle Eric.  He had a very rough time getting to sleep - which Ashley clued me in could be because Kris had him sleep all day "so he'll stay up for Jess."  Gee, thanks Kris!

Thanks to him staying up so darn late, he slept in!  By the time we got up - we had a quick breakfast and got ready to go meet my friend Katie at the mall.  Katie is about 3 months pregnant and I thought it would be fun to have an afternoon to catch up and for her to play with a baby.  Andrew did a great job playing in the play place - exploring, dealing with a bully, and meeting up with a near twin who wanted to play with him.

Later in the evening we went shopping and Andrew had a great time looking at all the sights in the grocery store.  At 8 months old, he's doing pretty good at sitting in the cart!  When Eric got off of work, we took him swimming at our pool.  It was pretty cold and he was not a happy camper, so we went home for a bath.

I was in the bath [in my swimsuit], Eric was right outside the bath, and Andrew was crawling on the bathroom floor while the water ran in the bath.  I was talking to him and he went to stand up on the side of the bathtub to look at me.  When he pushed to stand, the bath rug slid out from under him and he banged his head on the outside of the bathtub - ouch!  Luckily our bathtub is plastic and now ceramic, so it wasn't too bad.  He cried until I picked him up and put him in the bath, then he was distracted by the bubbles and all sadness was gone.  There was a bit of a red mark though, so I held an ice pack on his face as he ate his dinner bottle.  Mean mean auntie Jess!

Poor baby, so tired AND an owie!

Day 69: Friends of Friends

Tonight Eric and I met a big crowd of people out at Jack Stack Barbecue.  The idea of "Friends of Friends" has really been successful.  My parents started up a Facebook group in order for people to expand their crowd by bringing their other friends to events.  Instead of sticking to the same friends every single time, everyone has expanded and met some new people.

It's nice to be accepted into the crowd of our parents and most people being old enough to be our parents - I won't name names though!  Eric and I shared a babyback ribs dinner for two - and it ended up being enough to feed us for two nights!  Delicious though!

Yum!

Most of the crowd at Jack Stack, enjoying dessert and drinks!

This is our classic pose!

Day 68: School and Homework

Uh oh, you guys are gonna get used to this. Eric reporting again. Today was pretty close to Tuesday for me. In gaming class we went through a chapter and made up our own trivial pursuit questions. I accidentally left my book in my car down in the parking garage, but luckily we had a synopsis of the chapter available on the online class website. At the end of class we played a couple rounds of team deathmatch in which I topped my team. After class I went to Jess' parents house for another ride, and once again went solo. This time I left from the house and rode from Blackbob to 119th to Mur-Len to 151st. I stopped by my parent's house again, and then went back to the house. The last half of my ride was during sunset into night for the first time. This one was pure enjoyment for me. I didn't have to think about shifting or signaling or lane change or anything. It all just flowed. I think at this rate I'll be ready for Bikers for Babies or Cassody or whatever event we can make this fall.

Jess here, tonight I spent ALL NIGHT working on homework.  I learned that I need to start my online class a little sooner so I've got time to finish it all.  But I'm really excited about my classes this semester.  My online class is about teaching math, science, and social studies to children with significant disabilities.  My Monday night class is about evaluating students who use alternate forms of communication.  I'm taking a third class as an independent study, it is about behavior support and classroom management.  Oy, time for bed!

Day 67: Staff Mixer

Jess again... Today was the USD 497 Staff Mixer, which means free food and drinks, and prize giveaways!  I actually got a little bit tipsy because I had just come from giving a little bit of blood for tests at a doctors appointment.  I also won a box full of school supplies!  Yay!

Free Stuff!

Day 66: Riding Solo!

Woo! S-O-L-O.. I dunno the song, but anyway. Today I went to my Business of Gaming class. We talked about some stuff and again we finished about 15 minutes early. Of course we use the extra time for productivity and such. The class all joined a LAN game of Unreal Tournament. Then the real fun started. When I left class I called Becky to see if she wanted to take me for a ride. Unfortunately she was feeling under the weather and Alan was at work, but she told me I could take the bike out for a bit on my own! I didn't go too far out on my first time alone. I rode from their house to my parents (a couple miles away) and visited with my dad and Shannon for a couple minutes. Then I rode back to their house. I made both trips without incident. Looks like that bell Jess got me is doing the job just fine. :)

This is the education we're paying for!

Day 65: School and School

Greetings creepy stalkers! Haha just kidding. Eric here, finally. This was going to be a shared project, but Jessica loves doing this sort of thing and I can tolerate it. Well, down to business. Not much to say until mid-day, when I left for Olathe to go for a ride and then to class. Riding is going well. I'm much more comfortable than when I started a short time ago. Most of the experience is almost natural to me now. It's definitely my favorite new addiction. After the ride I went for the first time to my Eastern Religions class, essentially a 3 hour lecture that actually managed to hold my attention most of the time. We're starting off with the Vedic religion and observing the transformation into the primary Indian and Chinese/Japanese religions. After class, we watched some Netflix, and then after Jess' bedtime I stayed up watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and posting to one of my online classes, Criminology.

Jessica again - today and school I sustained my first injury of the year!  One my kids sharpens the 1st and 2nd grade pencils as part of his morning routine, and 1-2 times each day he attempts to sharpen the eraser end on purpose.  As I went to grab it away from his as he tried to stick the eraser in our electric pencil sharpened, I ended up stabbing myself pretty badly with the already sharpened end of the pencil.  Luckily there was not a piece of lead in my hand, but it definitely left a nice big gray mark [which is still there a week later when I'm actually writing this blog!  Oops!

Lead in my hand, ouch!

Day 64: Saturday Continued!

We're totally copping out on this post, oh well!

We were up until way past 4am last night, so this post is a continuance!

Everyone had a great time playing and chatting - we made 4 cardboard pizzas and had a well-after-midnight snack.  Eric and I are happy to be able to accommodate a crowd and had Steven and Leslie on the guest bed, Ross on the big couch and Shannon on the small couch.  We were even able to improvise a contacts holder for Ross out of shot glasses.

Ed Debevic's World's Smallest Sundae shot glasses did the job for Ross.