Day 217: Mexico!

Our Kansas City hotel had an awesome breakfast spread this morning.  Fresh juices, delicious oatmeal, fruit pastries and English muffins, fresh fruit, cereal, and tea.  Our hearts all stopped for a few minutes because Grandpa fell on the wet tile and we were worried he hurt himself.  But then he was up and running again.  We had a close call because the hotel shuttled us to the airport on a 7 am trip and a 7:30 trip.  Paul, Deb, Eric and I were scheduled for the second shuttle and Deb thought Krista and Randy were riding with us, so we were getting nervous when they weren't in the lobby at 7:25.  I called Mom and found out they were already at the airport, phew!

At the airport, I was really nervous about going through security.  But it ended up going very smoothly, except for a grouchy scanner lady.  The flight was uneventful - we watched Let's Go To Prison on the plane, and then started to watch some House.  Getting off the plane and going through customs was easy, getting a taxi van was not.  We ended cramming our party of 13 + the driver + all of our luggage and carry on bags into one van.  It was a tight ride.

Then, within 10 minutes of standing in the water... I dropped my camera in ankle deep water.  This is precisely the reason why I bought an Olympus Tough camera - shockproof, waterproof, and freezeproof.  Then we took a walk on the beach with Paul & Deb - Eric found a sand dollar and then we all found tons of them!  I started off the drinking with a Mai Tai and Eric had a Mojito.  We went to the snack bar as soon as they opened and had hot dogs, burgers, fries, and wings.

We're got our tickets and are ready to go!

Mom & Alan at the airport 

Paul & Deb at the airport (I missed pictures of Grandma, Grandpa, Greg, Kelli, Ally, Krista, and Randy - oops!) 

Good riddance KC! 

We stuffed 14 people, 13 suitcases, and multiple carry on bags into one van! 

Helllllo Mexico!  It welcomed us straight away with a Mojito and a Mai Tai 

What can I say?  I bought a Tough camera for a reason - it keeps working after I drop it in the ocean! 

Did you know an elevator ride could be this exciting? 

Finding sand dollars was easy business! 

Our first sunset of the week!

Day 216: Are We There Yet?

Let me say, I've got an amazing husband!  I was freaking out last night because I still had some work to finish my sub plans, and the house wasn't ready for us to leave yet (dishes, laundry, last minute packing).  Eric reassured me that he would finish everything up while I was at school, and he followed through!  He even delivered a pizza and had lunch with me and a student who earned a pizza party (I've got a first grader who hates coming to school - he earned the party by coming to school 10 days in a row!)  Except that Mystic knocked all of the clean silverware back into the sink...so we left that for when we get back.

Right after school, we did a quick inventory of the suitcases to assure ourselves nothing important was missing, loved on the kitties, and left for my parents house.  Paul was already there when we arrived, so we deposited our few staying behind items in the house and left for the airport.  We met Grandma and Grandpa, Greg, Kelly, and Allie at the hotel and then went to dinner at Cracker Barrel.  We had some really good food and lots of interesting conversations - Eric had spicy grilled catfish with mashed potatoes AND fries, and I had a turkey sandwich with fried apples...and two and a half Mr. Pibb's, haha!

Last night I used a birthday iTunes card to buy a few episodes of House for the plane ride to and from Mexico.  This led up to a trip to Walmart for a new pair of headphones and a headphone splitter so we can both watch it on the plane.  We were also lucky enough to witness the ten minute ordeal of a very happy woman and a VERY grouchy cashier scanning the lady's few dozen coupons.  The woman shared that she spends about 2 hours every Sunday couponing from 3 different newspapers and a couponing website...she had a cart FULL of items, and her total went from $141 to $16.97...$16.97!!!!  That's 88% off!

Then Paul, Eric, and I went to the airport to pick up Deb from her flight back from Dallas.  I felt like a kid with my face pressed against the glass while watching the plane pull up.  Krista and Randy were walking in when we returned, and we stayed up talking with the family for awhile before going to bed.  Tomorrow is Mexico!!!!!

Allie's doodle picture

Day 215: Goodbye Hello-Goodbye Titles!

What a beautiful day for a snow day!  Life got ahead of us, and we weren't quite ready for the trip to Mexico.  Cleaning the house and errands all day helped to settle the "we're not ready!" nerves.  We drove into Lawrence for haircuts, returning some things to Kohls and Bed, Bath, & Beyond, returning library books, and getting a new wallet for me.  On our way back to Eudora, we stopped at my elementary school so I could work on my barely started sub plans for next week.

Not ten minutes after arriving, we accidentally locked my keys (and Eric's dinner) in my classroom...  Now, Eric had his car keys and we'd driven his car there, so it wasn't a huge deal.  But we couldn't lock up behind us and would have had to leave my things, his dinner, and my unfinished sub plans if we just left.  So I had to call the principal and our secretaries, and then we waited for an hour and a half for a secretary to rescue us!

Luckily, we have a program on all of the computers called "Cable in the Classroom", which streams live TV from local cable channels.  So I worked on my sub plans on one side of the screen, while we watched reruns of "Friends" on the other half.  We ended up being at the school for nearly three hours, yikes!

Addy begging us not to leave. 

Mystic cuddling with Eric on our last night home!

 Making a big payment toward my car!  Hooray!

We can't wait to pay it off next month!

Day 214: Hello Snowstorm!

Tonight was a great night to stay in!  We got another half foot of snow dumped on us in about 6 hours.  By the time Eric got home from work, the stairs were buried.  I had taken a 2 hour nap when Eric got home, so I was ready to get out in the snow!  He didn't want to join me, so I opted to sweep the stairs.  All of the snow was powder, so the broom wiped it all out in about fifteen minutes.

Then we played Dave Ramsey's board game, Act Your Wage.  It was actually pretty fun - you start out with a given life situation and 3 random debts.  You have to play the game - paying rent/mortgage, food, and utility bills, keep your emergency fund, and save up to pay off the debts.  There are "Give", "Save", "Spend", and "Dave Says" chance cards that can help or hinder your journey.  All in all, it sparked some fun conversations.  Halfway through the game, Addy became interested in our game pieces and pounced...throwing the tokens off of the bed!

Before...

After!

Act Your Wage

Eric won by a landslide!  I was a single mom and kept getting hit with the "spend" cards, and I was laid off 3 times in the game!

Day 213: Goodbye Birds!

Eric here. Ah, that's the last of them. All of the holiday bonus pets are back to their rightful owners, and the apartment is quiet once again. Except when Addy antagonizes Mystic. Today before work I dropped off the birds. They were by far the easiest residents we had over the season, requiring very little maintenance. They even managed to be entertaining at times, despite the couple of mornings they weren't shy about waking up before we did. Addy certainly thought they were anyway. She would sit by their cage and watch them whenever she could.

Goodbye Blue & Green!

Day 212: Hello Triyaki!

Jess and I have been hearing commercials on the radio for a new Triyaki buffet in Lawrence. We've had the original Triyaki drive-thru chinese a few times in the past, and have always been pleased with the results. Today was MLK Jr day, so Jess was off and we took advantage of our time together to run some errands. One of these was trying out the buffet for lunch. It reminded us of one of our former favorite restaurants (now shut down), Jade Mongolian Barbecue. There are cold bars where you build a bowl of assorted ingredients which you take to a window and they make it into a soup for you. Jess wasn't impressed with her chicken broth base, but I rather enjoyed my beef. That is until I squirted wayyy too much red chili sauce into it. Beyond the soup that have a standard assortment of pre-cooked chinese food (General's chicken, lo mein, etc.), and a pretty impressive variety of sushi which Jess bravely dabbled in. After lunch, we moved on to more errands, including buying me an entirely new supply of socks. As you can probably tell, Triyaki was just about the highlight of our day.

Trying new things!  We found some we liked, and some that we weren't as thrilled with.

Day 211: Goodbye Moonshine!

We're sad to see our Moony Moon go - but it was fun while it lasted!  Sara Mae came to pick up Moonshine in the afternoon, and it took us quite awhile to get her in the crate.  Moonshine hid under the bed for the first 40 minutes, until I pushed all of our boxes under the bed and eliminated that hiding spot.  She ran into the living room and I closed the rooms to the office, bedroom, and bathroom.  She ended up hiding under our AMC Theatre chairs and I used the same box routine to get her out from under there.  She ran toward the office and was cornered by Sara Mae.  Mad Eye Moony is going to live with a retired woman and her cat until Sara Mae's boyfriend returns from deployment - so this may, or may not, be the last we hear of her.

 The biggest cat we've ever had in our house!