Day 245: Cats & Chinese Food

Eric got some really good honey teriyaki marinade a few weeks ago, so tonight I stir fried the chicken, onions, red bell pepper, and broccoli, and served with our jasmine rice.  Yum, yum, yum!  We watched some TV and had a nice relaxing evening!  Netflix has gotten to the point that it's as good as TV - we've got 3rd Rock From The Sun, Scrubs, That 70's Show, Parks and Rec, Family Guy, Futurama, and more!

Mom...this drawer is too small!

Awesome sweet chicken teriyaki!

Addy: -sigh- "I love Saturday Night Live Trivia soooo much" 
Mystic: "If you love it so much, then why don't you marry it!"
Eric & Jessica: "Oh SNAP!"

Day 244: Wenberg Wine Party!

Oh boy, this wine party was a much more interesting adventure than usual!  Quite a few people had more drinks than usual and...I'll let the photos do the talking!

Alan did most of his schmoozing from the ball, and didn't fall off either!

(DJ turn me up, ladies dis yo jam) I'ma sip moscatto...

Ashley and Cera!

Alan's impressive collection!

Shannon made friends with Juneau

Ashley and Shannon burning away the calories!

Alan drew on Shannon's face with a blue highlighter!

Ashley was playing with Kobi on the floor

Hi Mom! 

Ashley and I were both tired

 So I decided to carry her to her room...

I only made it up one and a half sets of steps...

 Then Kris and Eric carried her the rest of the way!

There were other people at the party too!  Jodi, Rachel, and Mitch here - but also Paul and Deb and others too 

Eric said "Cool, 26.5!" and I responded something to the effect of "really, you can read it down to the .5?"  We had a good laugh because I thought he was reading the RPM's - which appear to be right at 26.5...

Day 243: Must be Thursday

T'was a typical Thursday, not much going down; just Addy chasing the laser pointer 'round. Ok so I can barely rhyme and it's the wrong time of year. The point is that Thursdays in the Green family are all about the same for this semester. Jess works, I go to class and the gym then come home and we make dinner and watch something for a bit. Ah, but not today. Today before class I happened to check my school email and discover I'd been dropped from my gym class. I had a warning from my instructor saying to attend by the 11th or I'd be dropped. Well that's no problem, I went on the 10th. But what's this? Another email saying I've been dropped anyway... So I went out to JCCC early to sort it out and eventually ended up with some paperwork I have to get signed by a couple higher-ups and return within a week. -Sigh- I guess I'll get to 20 visits this semester somehow. Oh, and I got a new school ID made for free since it was my first one this year (actually since I started at JCCC), and I managed to lose my old one for the umpteenth time.

This picture is better than my last ID and way better than my driver's license

Day 242: Putting the Desk Together

When we moved into our apartment a year and a half ago, Eric and I inherited Mom and Alan's old desks - which are actually still pretty new and very well made.  Over the last year we realized that we don't use our desktop computers anymore, so we took one of the desks apart to save space in our spare bedroom.  We tried to sell the desk as our August garage sale with no luck, and it has been taking up a huge amount of space in our storage unit ever since.  Luckily, the Cordray/Travelbee family needed a desk, so I drew up directions of how to put it together, and left it with them.

I quickly received an email asking for help, because it is really quite complicated to put together.  So tonight, Eric and I headed over to their new apartment to put it together for them.  We've put the desks together and taken them apart a few times now, so I expected it to go quickly.  It took us nearly an hour to put it together, and we ended up being 4 wooden dowels short - but it looked perfect!  The family couldn't stop thanking us, but we were really happy to put it together for them - because what good is a gift if you can't use it?

Again, please consider dropping off or mailing a donation to the "Cordray/Travelbee Benefit Fund" at Douglas County Bank, 300 W. Ninth St., Lawrence, KS 66044.

2/3 of the Cordray/Travelbee Family - Good luck, guys!

Day 241: Helping the Cordray and Travelbee Family

Last week Lawrence had a family lose everything but their lives and a handful of belongings in a fire.  The Lawrence School District posted a list of items the family needed this afternoon, and as I scanned the list I realized that Eric and I have a lot that we could spare to help them on their road to recovery.  I loaded up my car with as much as I could fit - a desk, lamp, blankets, towels, games, books, etc.  The family was so bright and inspiring, focusing more on where they're going than the tragedy that transformed their lives.

Here is the Lawrence Journal World story and video - http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/feb/12/fire-destroys-belongings-not-spirit-family-thanks-/  I know we don't have a lot of followers, but please consider dropping off or mailing a donation to the "Cordray/Travelbee Benefit Fund" at the Douglas County Bank, 300 W. Ninth St., Lawrence, KS 66044.

This isn't quite all of what I brought to them, but I was glad to be able to help the family while also clearing out a large amount of our storage space!

Day 240: Valentine's Day #3

It's hard to believe that this is only our third Valentine's Day together!  We're just 2 weeks away from our fourth dating anniversary.  On our first VDay we went to a hotel with a hot tub and pool, so we could go swimming, and ordered in Paisanos while watching movies.  Last VDay we had just started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, so we just did a date night at home.

This year he had work, so we had a limited time frame.  When he got off work we cooked dinner together and watched a movie - then we made Oreo truffles!  It was a fantastic night!

I hand carved this KU stamp last night so I could make these Valentine's for my students.

Pasta, green beans, and rolls!   

Sitting down to have dinner together! 

Oops!  The frosting bag exploded! 

Eric demonstrating his decorating skills...though I had to finish because he didn't get it, haha! 

Oreo truffles!

Day 239: Quadruple Date

This morning Ashley found a set of tracks to Grammy's tree that helped keep her feet dry when she visited it before church.  Then Eric and I walked through the tracks after church.  Ashley thought the tracks were from Helen, who was snowed in Kansas City last week and brought a new ribbon for her tree.  But I had to make fresh tracks last Sunday, after Helen had visited.

It made me feel better that people are visiting her.  I got pretty mad this week when Eric and I were talking about babies in the future, and I got really mad that she won't get to meet our kids.  I settled for saying we would have to bring our future children to her and tie and blue or pink ribbon on to let her know what we have.

After church, we headed out to Kansas City with Paul and Deb to meet Steven, Leslie, Phillip, and Edie for brunch at the Beer Kitchen.  It was pretty expensive, but also a really nice atmosphere and the food was great.  We had parmesan truffle fries with smoked bacon and roasted garlic aioli sauces as an appetizer, then a turkey turkey sandwich - turkey with turkey bacon, lettuce, tomato, and avocado.  Yum!

Quite a few people have trekked out to Grammy's tree in the past two weeks. 

Andrew playing with my Powerpuff Girls Silly Bandz.

Everyone at the Beer Kitchen.  You can see beer bottles hanging from the ceiling in the background!

Steven enjoying his "Razzle Dazzle" with saison, raspberry vodka, and blackberry puree...very manly!