November Photo Dump!

Squish has been making it incredibly difficult for me to sleep lately.  I started looking on Craigslist for a "Snoogle" pillow, which retails for about $60 - yikes!  I found one for $40, and offered the person $20 for it.  I was pretty surprised when the reply email came from someone I worked with last year, who had a baby over the summer!  Now Addy and I get sleep all wrapped up with pillow! 

Eric took me car shopping a few weekends ago, and I was pretty amused by this mirror. 

On Veteran's Day, Old Chicago gave everyone $5 of Foamer bucks on our World Beer Tour cards, so we asked Paul and Deb to come to dinner with us.  Along with that, they had a cardboard standup that you scan with your phone and it gives you a chance to win free food or drink.  Deb, Eric, and I all won something - I got cheesy garlic breadsticks, Deb got a big cookie, and Eric won a large pizza!  We could only use one, so we treated everyone to a Thai Pie pizza.  Nine beers, a pizza, and a fries basket ended up only costing us $14 - and (quite possibly for the first time ever) they let us pay for dinner! 

Brian and Jen hosted a Crock Pot Pot Luck party last weekend.  There were many interesting conversations, lots of great music, occasional dancing, and drunk people everywhere!  These parties are a lot more fun when I'm sober watching everyone else get silly! 

While we were at Mom and Alan's house last weekend, Chaos decided that the snickerdoodle cookies belong to him! 

Addy has been an extra large bum lately, cue "awwwwww" sound bit. 

I just about died laughing in the grocery store when I picked out the avocado for this weeks "Baby Green" picture, and then put it in the baby seat of the cart.  Seriously, I was beside myself. 

This is the countdown that I keep posted at work!  I accidentally mixed up weeks 16 and 17 (avocado and onion), but seeing as the foods relate to the length of baby, I think it makes sense that an avocado would come after the onion instead of before.  Oh well, I'm probably the only one who noticed my error :) 

 Last night, I decided that I wanted to have cinnamon rolls for dinner.  As the oven heats up, Eric decides he is craving pizza...so we made both!  This is what dinner looks like in the Green household!

Finally, a funny school story!  A few weeks ago, one of our paras was working in a third grade classroom.  The kids were told to cut out pictures of facial expressions and then to write about it in their journal.  The para noticed a kid cutting frantically, stuffing something in his desk, and then looking around the room suspiciously.  She asked him to give it to her and he tried to play dumb and give her the scissors, as she gave him "the look" he pulled the picture out of his desk and handed this gem to her.  Hilarious!

Steak Night!

The baby has been extremely temperamental about the foods I can eat, look at, think about, etc. for the past few weeks.  I'm finally starting to settle down, and had a massive craving for steak.  So we were patient for a few days and then tonight Eric and I had a date night at Texas Roadhouse.  Yum....

Look!  I can eat salad and bread!

Mmmm, steak and beer!

Steak!

Busy and Relaxing Weekend!

A picture post because I'm too lazy to write it all up!  9-23 Broken door handle, planning at home, Cute addy, heartbeat
9-24 Laundry, dinner, TV
9-25 early church, fun with Steven, FPU

My door handle snapped off in my hand!  What?!

Addy is our "big baby", and she reminds us of it all the time!  She is so darn cute.

The new baby is letting us hear their heartbeat every night before I go to bed.  It's our favorite part of the day!

Eric planned a "Go-Jo's" style night.  We made teriyaki noodles with baby red potatoes, chicken, onions, and carrots.  Delicious!

I love our family!  

We went looking at strollers today (with no luck) and I found this onesie.  I thought Alan might appreciate it :)

5th Annual Ren Fest!

Off the main topic, but important to the start of our day!  At church, Gar let a parishioner, who worked in a building 1000 feet away from the World Trade Center ten year ago, deliver the sermon.  He gave a detailed account of his experience, and how it has impacted his faith.  I brought tissues in because I figured the sermon would relate to the anniversary, and I would cry.  I thought I was going to make it, until he listed off the names of the 4 people that he knew personally who died in that attack.  It was very touching to hear.

After church, I made us pick up some to-go food from IHOP because I was feeling miserable.  The blueberry waffle really helped, the plain hashbrowns did not!  Then we were on our way to meet Steven in Bonner Springs!!!
  
For the past 5 years, Eric and I have gone to the KC Ren Fest every year.  The first time - we got matching puzzle rings, the third time - he proposed with a beautiful puzzle ring that he had custom made, and our fifth time - we bought a teeny tiny puzzle ring for our baby!

I was also (insert slew of emotions here) to find out that the ring I wanted from Grammys jewelry box was from the Ren Fest.  She must have bought it when she was there with us and Papa last year.  Happy, sad, surprised, excited - it just makes the ring a lot more special to me.  And now Ive got 3 generations of puzzle rings on my hands!  Grammys, mine, and babys.

Steven came with us and it was an awesome day.  This was the first time that Eric and I came prepared with money to actually do whatever we wanted!  First stop was to buy the puzzle ring, then we went looking for a Hypnotist show - Steven and I went on stage, but the guy only made us feel sleepy.  I had a root beer float for breakfast.  Steven and I bought $1 pickles, and Eric got a bag of peanuts that lasted all day.  We watched multiple shows that had fire jugglers, and went hunting for the hard to find faeries.  We went to the honey store and Steven bought a brick of honeycomb.  For lunch I had a hot dog, Eric had a steak sandwich, and Steven had a veggie burger and Dr. Pepper.  Steven brought us to the Gnarlies shop to hear about their stories.  I tried to talk Steven into getting a $50 shoulder puppet.  Steven bought the tiniest hat ever - well, not ever.  But people commented on it all day (Did your head grow or your hat shrink?).

Eric and I at the proposal spot.

Steven feeding medieval Steven Colbert a pickle.

Me with two pickles!

Steven with a tiny hat! 

 Itty bitty puzzle ring for baby.

The ring from Grammy’s jewelry box came from the Ren Fest last year!

Steven is a happy kitty :)

Eric put all of his peanut shells on Steven.

  

Fire play!

He was throwing the sticks around, but this shot was really funny.

This lady curls and dyes her dogs hair for the fest.  Poor pup.

Etc. Stuff

This is mostly a picture:story post - surprisingly enough, the cat focused part of the post lacks pictures!  

In the beginning of July, I had our carpets professionally cleaned because Mystic has a bad habit of not making it to the litter box.  I must not have thought this all the way through, because she was back at peeing on the carpet a few days later.  She is sneaky about it though, and never does it when we're around.  So our new routine is to keep her locked in the bathroom (with food, water, and a separate litter box) when we're not home or asleep.  I'm thrilled to report that we haven't had a carpet accident since!  Hooray for having a house that doesn't smell like cat pee!

Last week we came home and Eric noticed Addy was limping.  I felt so relieved that we have a section of our savings account earmarked for pet expenses.  So the worry of the cost of taking her to the vet didn't overshadow our worry of what was wrong.  We spent the evening trying to make her sit still, and I held an ice pack on her for ten minutes.  Luckily, the following morning the limp was gone.  Who knows what happened, but we're glad she's feeling better!

My summer has been full of working with my nanny kiddo - and he's been working on bowling this summer.  His form has something to be desired, but he's bowling in the 50's or above!

I've also been working on programming his AAC app on his iPod - he doesn't speak well, and he's picked up really quickly how to use it to say his words!

 My nanny kiddo also has this awesome body sock.  It is a nylon bag that provides sensory stimulation, and I caught this really cool picture of him!

Eric's summer has been spent wondering whether or not to buy some new games.  Addy broke him down, and now the are playing Age of Empires I, II, and III, Bioshock 1 and 2, and Unreal Tournament 3.

Eric and I housesat for Papa while he was in Michigan visiting Molly & family.  I used this as an opportunity to further unpack and organize his house.  This is his dining room, starting to look like a dining room!

This is his office, now empty of boxes and fully set up!  There is even a pillow for Frisco to sleep on while Papa works.

The guest room is also empty of extra boxes!  It has a bed, bedside table, lamp, and rug.  Perfect for someone to roll in for a night or weekend to visit.

I've also upgraded my clothesline!  The old one was nylon and flaking off strands on our clothes.  This is pvc, and affixed with L brackets - I used the two screws to secure the brackets to the porch, and then the pvc wire goes through the other two screw holes.  Now I just need to do some laundry!

This massive heat wave (temps over 100 for the past two weeks) has killed off most of the leaves on Grammy's tree :(

Some of the branches appear to be dying...

However there are still some that are holding on for some hope.  We got some rain today and have more in store for the next week.  Hopefully the leaves pop back up...we'll see.

We really let our budget get away from us this summer.  So we're attempting to go all of August without eating out.  Fast food was definitely a weakness for us over the past two months.  This is our last hoorah before that kicks in (this was on July 30th!).

This is Ashley's new room in her apartment.  She has officially moved out to Hays, KS for her first semester of state college, woo!

Kris's Birthday

We hadn't seen Kris since Easter, but tonight he brought Sarah (not Andrew's mom, a new girlfriend who he also dated when he lived with us in Lawrence) out to Olathe for a birthday dinner!

Molly had posted a deal on my Facebook wall - a local bakery selling cupcakes for $.25 each!  So I was planning on getting Kris a dozen cupcakes for him and his roommates.  However, I read their hours wrong, and got to the shop shortly before they closed...booooo!  They were running late, so we decided to meet them at Jose Peppers, instead of at home.  As luck would have it, there was a cupcake bakery right next door.  So we got him 2 cupcakes for the same price, haha, sorry!

Dinner was excellent, and everyone got along grandly!  

Happy 23rd lil bro! 

Schitterbahn & Moving Steven

Jack, Eric, Steven, and I went to Schlitterbahn today!  It was only about 85 degrees when we got there, but by 3pm it was up to 105, yikes!  We spent most of our day in the tidal wave river, which was pretty great!  We also did the teal and black waterslides, the water coaster, the true lazy river, and the connection between the lazy river and the tidal wave river.  The signs said that there were supposed to be 6 new rides in 2011, but as we near the end of July, none of them are near completion - lame!  It sucks that the ticket prices are the same for 1/2 the park as what they will be when the rest of it opens, but we still had a great time.

Steven decided not to reapply sunscreen with the rest of us, and paid dearly for his error!  When we finished at the park, we grabbed lunch at Cheeseburgers in Paradise.  I left the boys so I could take Jack home and greet Papa on his return from Michigan!  Eric and Steven went and played some games with Grant - then I joined them at his apartment later in the evening.  We managed to finish moving him out of his apartment, except for some small things, in only two trips!  Then we were able to hang around for a bit, and I snuck a mega snap under one of the kitchen chairs...it took 30 minutes for anyone to sit in that chair, but Steven just about peed his pants when he was the unlucky winner!

Yay!  Jack and I are ready to go swimming!

Jack was super tired and upset that we were leaving, this isn't a smile, but a grimace as he was crying.  :( 

This speaks for itself! 

Jack fell asleep as soon as he hit the seat, and then woke up easily to devour his chicken strips and fries. 

Dark, but Steven outside of his empty apartment!

Wenberg Family Reunion

After we got off work last night, Eric and I went to Mom and Alan's house for a nap before leaving for Illinois around midnight. 

First funny story of the night...Eric and I slept in Ashley's room because the dogs were being too loud downstairs.  Around 10:30 I wake up to Shannon and Taylor coming in, because they are housesitting M&A's dogs while we are at the reunion.  I go to open Ashley's door and hear Taylor say "Where's the magic gonna happen?" and Shannon says "Probably downstairs where the drinks are".  I jump into bed with Eric and freak out "Ahhh, we have to let them know we're here and FAST!"  I set my phone alarm off right by the door and then we stomp down the stairs like elephants to announce ourselves.  I feign surprise at seeing Taylor, and Shannon jumps out of her skin when she sees us.  We hang around and pack up our stuff so we can stop by Papa's house on our way out of town, and as we are leaving, they start talking about setting up Magic...as in THE CARD GAME!  Haha!

So then we take care of Frisco at Papa's house, and leave for Illinois.  The drive is uneventful - the GPS showed us arriving much sooner than we anticipated, so I stopped at a rest stop and we napped for an hour and a half.  We arrived at the hotel to meet Mom, Alan, Grandma, Grandpa, Greg, and Ally right on time - and had a really awesome breakfast at the diner attached to the hotel.  I ate ALL of my 2 pancakes, hash browns, and egg over hard - and Eric helped me with about half of my ham slice.  Usually I order a breakfast that has some of everything, and then get about 2/3 of the way through it before giving up.

Once we made it to Jean & Roger's property, I'll let the photos do the talking.  With one exception - late in the afternoon I check my phone and see I missed a call from the principal I worked with last year.  He left me a message saying that a woman from a gas station in Illinois had called him saying someone turned in my wallet, which had been dropped in the parking lot.  His business card was the only phone number in my wallet, so they called him!  I freaked out because we had been to a number of gas stations through the night, but it turns out that this was the gas station less than 20 minutes from the property we were staying at!  Hooray!  The man that turned it in was totally honest too, I had over $100 cash, 2 debit cards, and 2 drivers licenses - everything was still there!

The drive home wasn't nearly as fun.  It poured, thundered, and lightninged throughout the night, Ashley ended up sleeping in the car and being mega grumpy in the morning, and Eric and I were both hungover.  We stopped for McDonald's hashbrowns and Sprite - which are usually good hangover foods.  Not this time, ew!  Later in the day we had Jimmy John's, which perked us both up and helped us finish the day strong!

Shots of the property...

Shots of the property...

Shots of the property...

 Shots of the property...

 Shots of the property...

 Shots of the property...

Everyone hanging out by the pool

 Using my waterproof camera!

Haha!  I can see you!

And there's Eric!

Hi Ashley! 

There's Me and Ashley! 

A delicious lunch, and I somehow managed to get a picture without a fly in it...there were dozens hanging around the pool.

Crue was one of the little kids, and he loved being thrown into the pool. 

This is where Eric spent most of his day, and got an awful sunburn. 

Alan throws Eric into pool, Eric tries to retaliate, Alan wins, Eric gets scratched up from landing in the dirt.  Owwww 

My sunburn before it evened out, there were strange white streaks toward the bottom.  P.S. This picture makes me look like I have a giant back and NO BUTT or hips!  What the hell?

The start of Eric's sunburn+his well established farmers tan. 

Eric and I in "The Hacienda" 

Ashley, Eric, and I are pooped! 

Drinking at the bar in the Hacienda 

 Kasy taught us to play bar dice.

Ashley went to bed, and then joined us to look annoyed while reading.... :p

I was having Mike's Harder Lemonade! 

Aren't we cute?   

This is where we found Kasy passed out after he eloped from the bar. 

Adult swim!  I had all the noodles to make sure I stayed afloat...as I was a little beyond tipsy. 

Yay underwater pics! 

Finally, the best mileage we hit while on the trip.