Day 308: Egg Dying Party!

Wow!  I did a lot of cleaning today!  We both woke up at ten and Eric left for his 10:30-7  shift soon after.  I systematically got the entire house to a state of perfection.  There was much scrubbing, dancing, dusting, dancing, picking up, dancing, and... well, dancing.  I seriously cleaned for six straight hours, and the radio helped me survive it.  Before people showed up, I drove in to Lawrence to pick up the Wheat State Pizza.

Then people started arriving!  Mom, Papa, Ashley, Kris and Andrew, followed by Molly, Nate, Cash, and Declan.  Then Matt, Trisha, Connor, Chase and Cade showed up, with Sean, Deb, Emma, and Zayne right behind them.  Our apartment quickly became a zoo of people coming in and out, and we had to lock Mystic in the bathroom because she kept sneaking outside.

The kids really liked playing out in the field across the street, and accidentally threw a ball into the locked pool area.  Luckily, Kris was happy to hop the fence to rescue it.  The kids staggered the various activities - egg dying and cookie decorating.  I think Cash enjoyed both of those more than any other kid.  He really liked dropping the eggs into the dye (from about 6 inches above the cup) and did an excellent job using the right frosting stick (there was a different one to spread the frosting in each color) and putting jelly beans on his cookies.

The adults sat or stood around and had a good time catching up.  Kitty Fapp showed up for awhile to bring me some books, and everyone had a chance to talk with her.  Also - the Wheat State Pizza was not very good.  One of the large pizzas wasn't cut and all of them had greasy, squishy, crusts.  The family was kind enough not to complain, but I wasn't thrilled with it.

After everyone left, Eric and were able to restore the house to it's state of perfection within 15 minutes.  Family party = success!

The office is clean!!!!  With the exception of Grammy's scrap booking stuff that I haven't cleaned out yet.   

And a clean bathroom!  (Though I forgot to finish photographing the house for evidence that it was clean) 

 Making sugar cookies from scratch!  So much butter!!!

Everyone standing around and talking. 

 Playing in the field outside our apartment.

Proof that Papa was here!

Ashley torturing Andrew...and enjoying it! 

 Emma playing with Andrew.

Kris rescuing the lost ball!

Instead of using the broom to get the ball off of the pool cover, he jumped into the (empty) pool and used his hands to roll it off of the cover.

Most of the kids enjoyed egg dying! 

 Me, Andrew, Declan, and Ashley!

Sean took Mystic for a walk, how nice!  He thought it was sad that she had to be tied up with a leash because otherwise she would run outside.

Yum!  Grass!

 Matt enjoying the Jello oranges!

Molly & Cash eating Jello oranges.

Cash did an excellent job decorating cookies and following directions! 

Cash's cookies turned out really good! 

 I know this is out of focus, but it really shows how intently he was devouring orange Jello slices!

Declan was also a beast at destroying the orange Jello slices!

Another flattering shot of the family!

Mystic visiting with Nana and Andrew,

Kris being a positive role model for the kids!

Day 307: Buffalo Wild Wings Date Night

We had some extra money left at the end of our food budget for April, so we decided to go out for dinner.  We were set on going somewhere on Mass St, and wanted to go to Jefferson's because we hadn't eaten there before.  However, Jefferson's is closed for remodeling or something right now!  Lame!  So then we went to Bob's BBQ, which was just about to close for the night!  Finally we ended up walking from the north end of Mass to the south end and finally settled into our Mass St. favorite, Buffalo Wild Wings!

Though, it wasn't a Tuesday or Thursday wing night, so we had to branch out and order off the rest of the menu!  We had a great server - the cooks forgot the sides on our wraps, so we ended up getting an extra (FREE) side of potato wedges, our favorite!  Wahoo!

Then we went home and I got started on my Easter preparations... Orange Jello Wedges!  I found them online a few weeks ago and thought it would be really cool to do.  It ended up taking a lot more work to scoop the oranges out of their peels, but worth it in the end!

Yea!  Buffalo Wild Wings date night!

Delicious teriyaki wraps, fries, potato wedges, chips and crazy hot salsa!

Scooping out orange peels!

 We ended up with a ton of orange pulp and two tall glasses of orange juice...and a slice of orange for my Blue Moon!

Jello oranges!

Day 306: What a Mess!

While I was at work this morning, Eric did his usual job hunting, picking up the house, and playing some games.  I had a professional development meeting where we talked about how to provide meaningful (and an appropriate amount of) homework for kids.  Then in the evening he had work, and I started to tackle the scrapbooking mess.

This was my groups visual map of good homework practices, I drew all of the pictures!

This is the beginning of sorting all of Grammy's scrapbooking stuff.  I probably threw away about 1/3 of the stuff because it was damaged or not usable.

I happened to find this gem in one of the drawers!

Day 305: An Evening In Town!

Today we did the last shopping for Easter weekend - books for book bags, stuff for food, and final stuff for the egg decorating party at our house.  Our best find at Half Price Books was this gem...

In "Me Talk Pretty One Day"  we found a post it note that said "Boss, this is pee your pants funny!"  We didn't end up buying it, but I'll probably check it out from the library.

Day 304: Catching Up

Eric and I both had some school work to take care of today.  I have been putting off my independent studies midterm for months, and he's just a little behind on his classwork.  When I got out of school this afternoon I went over to take a two hour test - 50 multiple choice and 4 essay questions.  Eric had a bit of boring text book reading and some online assignments.  Oh, the never ending life of college.  Now enjoy some pictures of the cats!  It seems that we may not take interesting photos of ourselves every day, but we are always taking pictures of the cats!

Her eyes match the pillow case!

Mystic likes to sleep in the dark on the kitchen chairs, zzzzzzz...

Day 303: I Have a Job!

Of course I currently have a job, but we had no idea what our hand looked like for next year.  Public schools have until the middle of May to decide how many teachers they will need next year, and to pink-slip any excess teachers who do not have tenure.  Kansas teachers have to work in a district for three years before being offered tenure, and I'm only on year two.  So the stakes were high in hoping I would have a job next fall.

Today my principal called me into his office to talk, and explained that our enrollment numbers wouldn't allow for there to be four SPED teachers in our building next year.  There is another school in Lawrence, Kennedy Elementary, that has a need for a really strong teacher, and I was requested to fill the position.  I'm terribly sad to be leaving the team and kids that I have worked with this year, I truly feel like we have made some wonderful connections.  However, I am so very excited to be joining the team at Kennedy.  I will be teaching K-2nd grade SPED - so I will be moving closer to my ideal job (Early Childhood SPED, ages 3-5), and Kennedy houses our districts Early Childhood Program.

Bittersweet news, but Eric and I are so excited to know that we've got this stability for another year! 

No pictures of my new school yet - but here is Eric & Addy playing video games!

Aren't they cute?

Day 302: Errands for Mom

This Sunday was a little different than usual.  Eric stayed at Mom & Alan's house while Ashley and I went to the Palm Sunday service at St. Thomas.  He was planning on riding the motorcycle, but he didn't want to move cars and things around in the garage, so it didn't end up happening. 

Then Mom wanted to take us out to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes because Alan and Ashley aren't terribly fond of it anymore.  But on our way, Mom was hit with a major migrane and we had to turn back.  Mom had a lot of things she wanted accomplished today, so she enlisted our help on her to-do list.  I detailed her car in and out while Eric went to the gym, then we went to Sweet Tomatoes for our lunch and to pick up some food to-go for Mom, and last we picked up a new case for her iPad on our way home.

Before we brought everything back to their house, we stopped at Papa's to clear out all of Grammy's scrapbooking stuff.  All of the shelves, drawers, and boxes filled Eric's trunk and backseat to the limit.  Yikes!  Now I have all of that to go through - and decide what to keep, give away, sell, and trash.

Mom's medicine hadn't taken the edge off of her migrane by the time we got home, so she took a stronger medicine.  We had plans to play a game with Paul & Deb and had them come over to Mom & Alan's house so we would keep an eye on Mom until Ashley got home.  We played Quirkle, which is a game where you collect points by lining up colors/shapes in a certain arrangement.  It took us a few plays to get the hang of it, but it was a pretty fun game.

After Ashley got home from work, Paul & Deb took us out to dinner at Applebees - two free meals in one day... success!  Finally, we headed back to Eudora to enjoy the remaining hours of the weekend in peace.  Goodnight!

Delicious Sweet Tomatoes lunch!

Our yummy Sweet Tomatoes dessert

All of the scrapbooking stuff we took out of Papa's house - yikes!