Day 294: Garage Sale, Motorcycles, & Pens

We wrapped up the garage sale today - It was crazy terrible waking up 5:40, but the sale was busy all day long. Mom and Alan, and Ashley each made over $100 today, Eric and I made over $40, then Alison and Paul & Deb each made some good money.  All in all, a pretty successful sale.

Eric ran some errands on his motorcycle, and then rode the bike to work in Lawrence.  He said it was a really windy ride, but that he's really loving riding.  Kristie joined us in the afternoon and it was Mom and Alan, Paul and Deb, Ashley, Alison, Kristie, Eric, and me hanging out all day.

Alan did a pen making demonstration for Kristie and me, and we took a trip to his hobby shop to pick out some new pen blanks.  I even got to carve half of a new pencil for me, woo!  Then Kristie and I went to dinner at Outback with Mom, Alan, Paul, and Deb.  Eric made it back to Olathe after work and we got to hang out for a bit before going to bed, ready to wake up early again tomorrow.

 Look at how shiny his bike is!  Eric off to run errands and to go to work on his bike.

Alan working on carving Deb's pen.

Before and after shots of the pen Alan made for Deb.

Mom and Chaos napping.

 Sadie chilling out with Alan.

Juneau is not amused that we gave her bowling balls to play with!

 Kobi is a sad pup, she would much rather be inside eating french fries.

Paul and Alan trying to make a Mexican Batman toy fly!

Day 293: Selling & Shredding

The garage sale started today and went well for the most part - Eric and I sold a few little things, both sets of our dishes, and my trombone.  Mom, Alan, and Ashley fared a lot better - Mom and Alan sold some exercise equipment, and Ashley sold a little bit of everything!  Eric worked the sale in the morning and then went to work, I went to work and then headed to Olathe in the evening.

They had already put away the garage sale for the day, but I had a good time playing with Andrew and Jacob, who were both visiting for the evening.  Later on Alison came over and we did Jillian's shredding video together. It kicked our tails, but we survived!  Last, but not least, I finally got my Otterbox case for my phone!  It's finally protected from all of the torture I put my electronics through - my tough camera and super protective phone case are quite important to their survival.

No phoning it in!  We shredded like crazy people!

Day 292: Staging the Garage Sale

Last year we had a garage sale around this time to get rid of some extra junk. Jess and I did pretty well. This year we're doing it again, and we don't have as much, but whatever we don't sell this time we're leaving behind or donating to Goodwill. So today after class I went to Jess' parents' house to start helping move stuff out to the garage and prepare for the first sale day tomorrow. We moved and cleaned up a piano, some exercise equipment, and various other items. In return for this first night of work I got some chinese food! :D Now it's off to bed to get a little sleep before we start setting up at 5:30 tomorrow morning.

I didn't get any pictures of us setting up, so here's a picture of Addy "relaxing" with her face on our games chest.

Day 291: G5 Economics

Eric here, pretending to be the nerd for a moment. This month our budget will be a little off-kilter. We've been making large payments to various debts every month, including a large sum to finish off my credit card last month. But now with April coming up, and our budget being prepared, we're having to make some small adjustments. We threw a little more at my car than we actually should have spared at the time. It won't cause any problems, we'll just have to modify our starting amounts and certain payments.

So here it is, the vehicle that has served me so well over the past two years. No decisions have been made, but we may just have to part ways so Jess and I can reach our goals a little bit faster.

All for the "Pursuit" of happiness (It's a G5 Pursuit)

Day 290: Getting Active

Thank goodness for spring!  Eric and I are done lounging around on the couch all night.  Now we've been going for longer walks around the neighborhood, I've been using a cardio app that tracks how many miles we walk, and tonight I finally started Jillian's 30 Day Shed again.  Eric made Spanish rice tonight while I shredded, and it actually went really well!  I think it also has to do with us finally getting a new scale - ours broke a few months ago, so we haven't been keeping track.  Luckily we made it through the winter without acquiring too much excess blubber :)

On another spring walk - we've taken more walks in the past month than we did all winter long!

Day 289: Morning Shifts

Things are starting to look up at Eric's job.  He's still looking for another job that will pay more or have more consistent hours.  But for now, he's starting to get lots of morning hours and averaging 36 hours per week.  It's really helping out the budget to be getting more hours, yea!  Once he graduates in the spring it should be easier to land a full time job, because he won't have any restriction on hours.

P.S. Eric ran out of gas on the way home from work today and I had to rescue him!  Poor baby!

Day 288: Awesome Sunday!

I've got to start this off by saying that we had to skip church this morning so we could extend our time with Steven and Leslie, but I fully think it was worth our while today!  We slept until 10, or so, and then woke up at our leisure and had some cereal.  The best decision came when someone suggested we go for a walk.  We took a frisbee down to a clearing and realized that it was far too windy for that to be successful.  Then we headed down the trail and found ourselves at a storm drain, which was at the end of a creek that was about 15 feet wide. 

We decided to explore down the creek a little bit - and each "little bit further" led us on an advendure that lasted over an hour.  There were places in the creek where it wasn't easy to hop over rocks and we either had to climb up to the bank and walk around, or carry stones the size of shoe boxes to make a rock bridge.  It was great exercise and excellent fun!  I was the most adventerous with bridge building and ended up with completely soaked socks and shoes, oops!

By the time we made it back to their apartment, I had decided that ice cream was in order.  We all decided to go to Sheridans and grab some frozen custard.  We had perfect timing and were their second customers of the day.  Within 5 minutes, the line was at least 15 people deep!  All four of us enjoyed a mini sundae with various combinations of toppings.  Leslie was craving hot dogs, so we went to HyVee to buy some SmartDogs, buns, ketchup, and chips.  Paired with Steven's mad grilling skills, we had a delicious lunch!

Next I dropped Eric off at the JCCC gym and went to Mom and Alan's house to unload our garage sale stuff.  While I was there, Alan showed me his pen making shop, and made me a wooden mechanical pencil for my Dave Ramsey envelope system wallet!  Then I picked Eric back up from the gym and we returned to Mom and Alan's house to pick up Eric's (Alan's) motorcycle.

It was Eric's first ride of the season, and after he rode up and down the street once, he picked me up and we rode to Paul and Debs house for dinner!  The ride went great and Shannon was really excited for Eric to give her a ride around the neighborhood.  We made pita pizzas and watched some Scrubs on Netflix before heading home and enjoying the remaining time of our eventful Sunday! 

 The boys skipping rocks.

 Leslie and I on a sunny (humid!) day.

 Eric and I crossed the creek on this fallen tree, while Steven and Leslie found a safer route.

 Mom and Alan escorted Eric and me to Paul and Deb's house, just to make sure we made it safely.

Eric and me, ready to roll out!

 Eric taking Shannon for her first ever motorcycle ride, and Eric's only passenger other me.

The night ended with two major waves of hail.  It only reached quarter size in Eudora, but Olathe was hit with massive amounts of golf-ball sized hail.