Day 315: Just Rice

We bought a giant bag of rice to save money and encourage more home cooking a few months ago.  Mostly we forget that we have it, but lately we've been incorporating it more often.  Tonight we didn't have anything planned for dinner and figured we would scrounge.  I got a little more creative than usual and invented "Baked Potato Rice".  I topped my rice with butter, cheese, and bacon bits, and then ate it all with chop sticks.  Delicious!  Eric chose to top his rice with steak marinade.

We keep our stash of rice in a cleaned out cat litter box, yummy!

Day 314: Grilling Out, Picnic In

Today I went with my second graders on a field trip to Science City - everyone had a blast!  Before I went home, I did some shopping for dinner.  I got us some steak and corn on the cob to grill.  I got the corn cooking, and waited until Eric let me know he was on his way home to throw on the steaks.  I used a new garlic and cracked black pepper marinade, and they turned out perfect!

The Playstation Network has been down for a few days because it was hacked - the biggest hack in recorded history, actually.  So this means that we can no longer watch movies and TV shows on the Playstation in the living room.  So tonight we threw down a sheet in the office and watched a movie on the Wii.  Our picnic dinner was accompanied by "The Other Guys", a pretty ridiculous movie about Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrel as crappy cops.  There were definitely some good laughs though!

Kids getting hypnotized!

My kids exploring the wonderous world of electricity.

I also bought some baby proofing stuff for when Andrew visits us this summer - it works.

Mmmm, grilled corn is awesome!

Addy stole the straw right out of my drink so she could play with it!

Day 313: More Job News (and Mystic)

First thing this morning, Eric got a call from O'Reilly Auto Parts in Olathe.  The manager wanted to interview him for a "Delivery Specialist" position!  Eric is really excited because this job combines everything he wants right now - daytime hours, most weekends off, a raise, full time hours, and driving around town all day long!  The interview went great and the manager said he would be able to offer him the job as soon as the background check came back!  Goooooodbye Checkers!

He also got his new motorcycle helmet that he ordered online.  It was supposed to be a ZAMP brand flat black helmet, but they were out of stock and sent him a HJC flat black helmet worth $50 more!  Woo!

Also, Mystic is nearing 18 years old, and she has a hard time making the jump up to our bed.  It usually takes her 2-3 tries of falling before she can make the jump.  So now we've taught her how to use this stool to jump up!  You can teach an old cat new tricks!  She caught on really fast.

Oooooooo Ahhhhhhhhh - Eric kept his promise to Alan that he would have his own helmet by the end of the month!  He has been borrowing one of Alan's spares since last summer.

Day 312: New Job & Movies

Today, I got to meet more of the teachers I will be working with next year, including the intermediate grades special education teacher.  We discussed room arrangements and case loads, and we all seemed to work together really comfortably.  I will be working with Kindergarteners, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade, and Kelly will have 1 Kindergartener who she is familiar with, and the 4th and 5th graders.  I really can't wait to start doing more work with my new school!  Though I am sad to be leaving my kids and coworkers again (I transferred schools at the end of last school year too).

During the day, Eric and Nathan went to a driving range in Lenexa.  Nate introduced Eric to golf last fall, and now we've acquired a set of Paul's golf clubs for Eric to use.  They had a good time, and now Eric is very motivated to try out the range just a mile or two down the road from us.

After I got out of work and meetings, we met Molly, Nate, Mom, and Alan at the AMC 30 for a night at the Cinema Suites.  Cinema Suites is a theatre for adults 21 years or older, where they serve full meals and have a full bar.  They also have leather recliners with a swivel tray for each person.  The recliners are operated with buttons instead of a lever, and make this awful NNNYYYYYYEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH noise when they go up or down.  We saw Hanna, a movie about a little girl raised as an assassin.  It had a lot of holes in the plot, but I thought it was really good.  The food was great too, but the parmesan fries were sub-par.
We had a great week with lots of chances to hang out with Molly, Nate, and the kids!  Have a safe drive back to Michigan!

This is an excellent little finger puppet roll that one of Molly's friends made for Cash, I love it!

All of the finger puppets went to bed!

This is how rich people watch movies!

 Thanks for coming to Kansas, Molly & Nate!

Thanks for suggesting Cinema Suites, Mom & Alan!

A proper date!  

Day 311: Salty Iguana and Euchre

Today was a long day at work, followed by a fun evening with the Murray's!  I went to see Molly, Nate, Cash, Declan, and Molly's friend, Mel, after I got off work.  We hung around the house long enough for me to knock Declan off of the stairs with a giant exercise ball.  Then my ball privelidges were revoked and we headed out to get some dinner.

We went to the Salty Iguana for some Mexican food.  Our server seemed to refill our chips every time we looked at them, so we were pretty full by the time the food arrived.  Cash was quite fond of the salsa, and took to eating it with a fork even after his meal arrived.  Declan mostly mashing chips with his hands and giggling at his craftiness!

Eric got off work and arrived shortly after we got home.  We had a little bit of time to play with the boys (and to try not to burst out laughing as Molly scolded Cash for singing "poopy on Decky's head!  Poopy on Decky's head!") before they went to bed.  Then the grown ups got to have some drinks and play a round of Euchre!  I was so excited to see that Mel's parents had Caffiene Free Dr. Pepper (NOT diet!).  They told us that they bought it in the Ozarks, and that they'd never seen it anywhere else, bummer!  I ended up too exhausted to remember who won the game, but it was a good time!

Mmmmm, finger lickin' good!

Day 310: Eric & The Cats

Another boring evening in the Green house!  I happened to be wielding the camera while Eric was bothering the cats.  The result?  A few cute pictures :) enjoy!

Mystic seemed to enjoy the exercise ball! 

Addy's fountain of tail!

Day 309: Happy Easter!

Everyone knows that the cats are like children to us, so it wouldn't be fair to ignore them on Easter, right?!  Before we left for family festivities, I spread all of their balls and toys throughout the living room for a "kitty egg hunt", along with a nice spread of catnip.

We drove to the Easter service at St. Thomas and met Ashley and Andrew there.  He was especially happy to see Eric, and to play in the nursery.  The service was beautiful, as always, and then we headed back to my parent's house.  Once everyone was ready, we met at Sean and Deb's for Nicholson book bags, lunch, and the egg hunt!

All of that went really well, and Sean ended up showing the house across the street to us.  It has been on the market for almost three years, and the price keeps sinking lower.  Eric and I are really hoping that we can buy it next summer!

Next we picked up the motorcycle from Mom and Alan's house, and rode out the The Vanbooven's house for Easter dinner.  I made some very purple Easter fruit salad, and everyone else's dishes looked perfect - luckily, it all tasted good!

Happy Easter!

The cat's Easter hunt. 

My failed attempt at a timer photo of Eric, Andrew, Ashley, and me at Grammy's tree. 

Book bags... 

More book bags...

Lots of book bags... 

Yay, books! 

Papa reading the pop button book to Andrew and Declan, too cute! 

How many eggs do you see in the garden? 

Kris's contribution to hiding eggs... 

How many eggs do you see in this picture?  Unfortunately, this shot misses out on the egg in the trailer hitch on the Navigator.

Matt hoarding all of the cotton candy! 

All of the kids (minus Jess, Kris, and Ashley!) on the porch! 

 Andrew finding his first Easter egg!  Hooray!

Daddy helping Andrew find eggs in the Mustang.

Uncle Eric helping Andrew find the former hiding spot of some eggs.

A busy busy yard!

 Cash was proud of his stash!

Aren't these boys cool?

 Papa & The Murrays

Alan's contribution to Andrew's Easter, nice one!

Yikes!  My purple fruit salad!  It has granny smith apples, oranges, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, and plain yogurt.  Delicious!