Day 322: Moving Papa

Papa bought a house last month, and we're finally getting around to getting him moved in.  Today, with help from Paul, Deb, Mom, Alan, and Alison, we packed and moved most of his stuff.  There wasn't much packed, so we balanced our time between loading the truck and packing more boxes.  We started at 8:30, and left his house around 5.  In that 8 hours, we cleared out (almost) his whole living room, and got the big furniture from his bedroom.  Over the next week we plan on helping him finish the office, bedroom, kitchen, and cleaning up the place.  Here are some pictures from the day!

 Awe, Ashley stayed over last night.  Isn't she adorable?

Ahhhh, and you're on a grammar criticizing blog! 

 There, that's better!  I fixed it with a Sharpie!

Dusty proof that Alison was working hard!

A collection of flowers from across the years.

 Eric and I carrying the very last two boxes (for today)!

Papa, proud new homeowner in his dining room!

 A beautiful living room, with a nice low window for Frisco.

The guest room - set up for Papa until his bed gets over to the house.

The office...

And Papa's bedroom!  

Here's the kitchen.

And after a very long day of moving, Eric and I rode the motorcycle home to Eudora.

Day 321: O'Reilly & Line Drying!

Oh, Friday!  You are so good to us!  I'll let the pictures do the talking today!

Eric's first day at O'Reilly went well.  He's a little overwhelmed at how much there is to remember, but confident that he'll catch on quickly.

I got to go see little miss Charlotte and Katie on Mass Street for some 3 Spoons Frozen Yogurt.  The guy working misunderstood my punch card and accidentally gave us both yogurts for free instead of "buy one, get the last one free".  Yea!

I spent $1 on nylon clothesline, and $1.50 on clothes pins.  Now I can save electricity and money by line drying our clothes!

My first time line drying!  Lesson learned?  Wear sandals, socks are a bitch and take too many clothes pins! 

We went on another walk/roller blade ride tonight.  Eric decided to take on this "sweet jump" behind the grocery store. 

I had to make him do it three times to come this close to an action shot, haha! 

We watched the movie "Into The Wild" tonight, which was a really good movie about a guy who gives up on our material life and goes to live wherever he pleases, ultimately ending up in Alaska.  We paused the movie halfway through to go on a walk, and landed on this hilarious still frame!

Day 320: Teacher Appreciation Week!

It's pretty sweet being in a profession that has it's own week to tell you how great you are!  On Monday, the PTA brought us breakfast.  On Tuesday, they supplied us with desserts.  On Wednesday, we got Jimmy Johns and pizza for lunch.  Today, we got bouquets of flowers.  Then tomorrow we get 15 minute chair massages!  And, there was a nice spread of mini candy bars out every day in the staff lounge.

Mmm, parents treat teachers so well! 

Beautiful flowers brightening up our dining room.t

Day 319: Living A Better Life

The first thing I'll say here is - Eric and I aren't perfect and we're not trying to be.  Also, we're not looking to make anyone else change but ourselves.

With my recent kick of nonfiction books, I've read A Year Without "Made in China" by Sarah Bongiorni, 365 Ways to Save Gas by Ronald M. Weiers, PhD, Do One Green Thing by Mindy Pennybacker, and No Impact Man by Colin Beavan.  Eric and I have already made a lot of "green" changes in our lives - using fewer lights, washing laundry with cold water, no heat/air unless REALLY needed, etc.  Recently we've been making a few more changes.

Unfortunately, walking/biking to work isn't an option for us because it's more than ten miles of highway to get to work.  But I am looking at finding someone to carpool with next fall, and Eric and I will be carpooling for the summer while we both work in Olathe.  We buy a lot of our food in bulk to save us money, and to save the waste in packaging materials.  We are planning on (at least part/most of the time) cloth diapering our future kids to save on plastic being thrown into the landfill.  We drink purified tap water instead of bottled water.  And I'm working on bringing home more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Basically, we're working toward making better choices one step at a time.  We're no environmentalists, and we still do a lot of things that are bad for our world.  But we're doing a better job at being conscious about our decisions and the impacts they have.  Later this week I'm planning on setting up a clothesline on our porch and giving our dryer a break for the summer.  Wish us luck!

I couldn't come up with anything better, so here's our purified water pitcher!  Ooooo, ahhhhh....

Day 318: Here's Your Cup...

Eric had a busy day today!  He woke up with me and went in to Checkers to talk with his manager about his new job.  He didn't bother checking if she was working today (she wasn't), so it was a wasted trip.  But he'll talk with her tomorrow, no biggie.  Then he had to drive all the way out to College and Nall in Overland Park for the UA for his new job.  He's really excited for O'Reilly to get the results, because his pee has nothing to hide, haha!  Then he had to rush back home to Eudora to change into his work clothes and go back to Checkers for work.

I'll only have to wear this a few more times!

Day 317: Loving Springtime!

Today started with a MAJOR case of the Monday's.  Things just didn't go well for Eric or me.  Luckily, the evening was so much better!  Eric heard back from the boss at O'Reilly - the background check looked good, and now they needed a urine test, to make sure he's not a druggie, before giving him keys to a company truck. It sounds like he's got the job as soon as all the procedural dust settles!

We both got off work about the same time and pulled into our parking lot one after the other.  It was a really nice day, and Eric suggested going for a bike ride.  After working on our bikes for 20-30 minutes, I gave up on mine and decided to roller blade instead.  I might actually take up roller blading this summer, I'm not too bad at it and it's a great workout!

Naturally I started off the day by filling my keyboard with orange juice...  So I had to pry off all of the keys and clean the whole thing out.

Luckily, I'm an excellent keyboard cleaner - ta da!  Brand new!

We had Mexican Chicken Casserole with RICE tonight, it was better than usual.  Yum!

Eric and his two wheeled toys!

Don'tfalldon'tfalldon'tfall...

Eric was amused that I cocooned myself up while watching some "That 70's Show".

Day 316: May Day

On this beautiful May Day, we had been planning to take a motorcycle ride to Cassoday.  However, it was only about 45 degrees, so that was a big fat no go.  Instead we did some errands with Mom and Alan - shopping at the mall, getting my rings cleaned at Shane Co, and Alan taught Eric how to make pens.  We gave Deb most of  Grammy's scrapbooking stuff, and took home some toys and clothes for when Andrew visits us this summer.  Another busy, busy day - good times with family!

And so it grows.

Often, I don't know who the ribbons are from, 

But it's such a great thing to see all wrapped around Grammy's tree, 

filled with love. 

From people whose lives she touched,

We miss you - your family keeps growing up and we wish you could see it.