Christmas 2011

Similar to Thanksgiving, scheduling for Christmas worked out wonderfully this year!  Eric worked until 3pm on Christmas Eve, then we went to the pageant and service at St. Thomas, and spent the evening with Eric's mom's family.  Today we started out with the Green immediate family in the morning, my immediate family in the afternoon and evening, and wrapped up with Eric's dad's extended family tonight.

The pageant at church was really cute, the kids who did solos have great voices.  Then at the VanBooven Christmas, we presented Paul with his present from everyone - a 40" Emerson LCD TV.  Eric got a KU hat from his grandparents, some new shirts (including a KU plaid shirt!) from the White's, and a Mr. Beer refill kit from the Wells'; I got some craft scissors and a photo album from his grandparents, a laptop desk from the White's, and a Vera Bradley purse from the Wells'.  Jen's kids had a blast playing games and messing with their new toys, and everyone enjoyed the snacks and time together.

This morning I started off by opening my birthday present at Paul and Debs - a Jayhawk pillow pet and a great stamp set that I'll use for Squish's birth announcements!  Then Deb made her french toast for breakfast and opened our stockings while we ate.  Deb is excited that Shannon is finally 21 because now she can add mini bottles of alcohol, hilarious! I got tickets to the New Theatre Restaurant from Eric, a new bath pillow from Shannon, and a wall mounted photo frame jewelry box from Paul and Deb; Eric got motorcycle gloves from Shannon, wireless TV headphones from me, a Mr. Beer kit from Paul & Deb, and some money to buy bottles for his beer - Paul and Deb also got us a crate to keep in my trunk to carry everything in and our own copy of Quirkle!!

When we got back to Mom and Alan's house, we started right in on gifts because Kris and Ashley were antsy from waiting for our arrival!  We were really excited to give Ashley a corkboard and pins (the same thing we got for Shannon), Kris an Achmed (Jeff Dunham) Snuggie, Alan a flying Duck Hunt game, and Mom her microwave slippers.  Then I got Logos the board game, Eric got Truth Be Told (a game similar in concept to Balderdash, but answering questions about other players), Squish got a perfect high chair and we each got a Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch!  Luckily the Nook's took awhile to charge, or we never would have moved on to stockings and lunch! Then our family actually spent time together playing our new games and watching Cowboys vs. Aliens, whoa!

Finally, we drove out to the Green's Christmas gathering to visit with even more family!  We arrived after a lot of people had left, but we still got to hang out with Paul, Deb, Shannon, Phil, Edie, Grant, Steven, Pete, and probably some other people too.

My favorite gift this year is actually looking pregnant! 

 The pageant at St. Thomas was really adorable!

Rebecca and Caleb

Shannon, Paul, Stephanie, Grandpa and Grandma VB 

 Scott, Eric, Deb, and Diann

Super hero men!

The gifts that we brought to each of our families! 

 Our Christmas card this year

My birthday presents!

Eric's new headphones!

Halloween 2011 - Part 2

We wrapped up Saturday by hanging out at home for most of the night.  Steven and Grant went to see Thrice at the Granada, and we watched Netflix!  Yay for getting old and boring!  After they were finished at the show, Eric brought them home along with a friend of Stevens, and then we all headed back out to walk around Mass Street to ogle the costumes.  

Sunday, once we had eaten some breakfast, Eric told everyone to get ready for some golf!  We spent the afternoon at the driving range near Eudora, and then said our goodbyes so Eric and I could head to Overland Park for our Dave Ramsey class.  

It's lucky Steven has a key to our apartment!  Yesterday, he found a present for his dad - but Eric and I were already on our way to Overland Park when he realized that he had left it in our house.

Look at those golfing boys!

Steven with his trick ball. 

And I golfed too!

Day 340: The End of the 2010-2011 School Year (and Tornadoes!)

It's finally over, I spent my second year teaching in a new school, and now I'm off to another school next year. That means packing up all of my stuff and hauling it over.  I could have the district move it, but I'd rather they don't mess with my stuff.

After I was finished with my work day, Eric and I did a little shopping.  I read on Facebook that Georgeanna Layton is collecting donations for the relief effort in Joplin, and Eric heard on the radio that donations to the Red Cross are more helpful because they can get items at a lower price, or it can go toward things like the cost of shelter.  So we decided to support from both angles - mostly because I really felt a need to give things and I didn't think money alone would feel like I had helped enough.

 As I was bringing carts out to my car, I felt a little like Harry Potter pushing his train cart.

It was a bittersweet moment turning in my keys at Prairie Park.  I'm so sad to be finished there, but it is all in the name of moving forward.

The last two things removed from my office - our wedding "Save the Date" picture that I keep on my monitor, and a fortune that says "The coming month shall bring you much happiness".



Our $20 bought a case of Ramen, cookies, cups, salt, trash bags, soup, veggies, beans, toilet paper, mac and cheese, bananas, and gum.  I know that $2 could have been better spent - but with everything the people in Joplin are living through right now, I thought cookies and gum were trivial niceties that could be appreciated.



This whole tub is full of fleece blankets that Grammy had boxed up - and we also added an old TV/radio that will only be useful as a radio, a box of corn flakes, and a box of grits.  It's really not a lot, but I'm glad we are able to help in some form. 



And as a surprising dose of karma - as I was sorting through the fleece blankets, I found our family stockings!  They have been missing for 2 years, and it turns out that Grammy had them boxed up in storage!

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 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!

Day 219: Mexico, Day Three

We weren't the first ones up tonight, but we slept really well.  Breakfast was good and then we met up in the First Club for mimosas.  Then everyone except Krista and Randy puled into a van and headed out to Puerto Vallarta for shopping and lunch.  All the way there we played slug bug between me, Ally, Eric, and Alan.  At one point Ally saw 3 in a parking lot and rapid-fire hit Eric and me saying "slugbugwhite!slugbuggreen!slugbugpurple!"  When we got out of the van we started walking down the edge of the beach and saw some really great sand sculptures and then saw the Mexican pole dancers, where they swing upside down off of a pole that is probably more than 40 feet tall.

We spent some time looking in the flea markets, but didn't buy anything yet.  Then our group split up and we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp with Grandma and Grandpa, Greg, Kelli, & Ally.  Paul, Deb, Mom, and Alan went to Burger Paradise.  Everyone ordered a soda, except Eric who got a margarita.  The margarita game with the entire staff singing "Shake it, Shake it!  Get down, get down!  Back up, back up!  Around, around!  Shake it!!!"  I think Eric blushed...  Then when they brought the check, Grandpa said "This is in pesos, right?!" because the total was $1326.

After lunch we met up at Mom & Alan's favorite jewelry store in Mexico.  I skipped over the gold, diamonds, and gemstones and went to the tables of stainless steel.  I found a really awesome chain link rink for $6 that became my "it's okay if it falls off in the jungle or ocean" Mexican wedding ring, because we left our wedding rings at home in the safe.  Grandma, Grandpa, Greg, Kelli, and Ally headed home after this - Ally with her new Mexican wedding ring, with a "real" diamond, wink-wink.

Our first stop back on the street was an artist creating the spray paint art pieces for $15!!!  Eric and I showed him the three designs that we already have (the eye in the pyramid, a scene of Atlantis, and a beach scene), and asked for something different incorporating red, blue, and black.  He made us a fantastic scene that doesn't look like any of the others on display.  Then Paul and Deb had him make a waterfall scene just for them, and we bought a premade all seeing eye for Brian & Jen.

As we walked on, Deb and I found ourselves ready to haggle and purchase some things for ourselves.  She got a blue purse that started at 300 pesos and I got 4 headbands that started at 40 pesos each.  We ended up paying a total of 250 pesos - woo!  Then I got a 200 peso bottle of vanilla down to 170, but we found the same bottle around the corner for only 100 pesos - blast!  Eric had his share of haggling and got a 40 peso cigar for 20, but then found better quality ones for the same price a while later.

I missed out on a lot of pictures from this excursion because I'm not used to having to charge my camera every day and it was dead most of today.  Mom got some good pictures of the swinging bridge, which I took full advantage of rocking it back and forth.

Our favorite stop was a tequila shop where the guy gave us shot after shot of straight and flavored tequilas.  We ended up getting a bottle of tamarin flavored for me and a bottle of blackberry flavored for me, $28 dollars each.  We paid and as we were leaving, the guy selling to us asked us if we had ever had Corona straight from the barrel.  We said no and he gave us three bottles for free!  We hit another tequila shop on the way out of town where they had a buy-one-get-one-free deal on flavored tequilas for $28 dollars each - blast us finding a better deal around every corner!  So Deb bought 2 bottles and we got a bottle of Vanilla tequila, after splitting the difference and a tip this one was only $19 dollars.  Eric asked the guy at the second tequila place if he sold zip lining tours, because it seems like all shop owners are also tour guides, and this guy offered it to us for $40 dollars each!

We were waiting around for a van cab to pull up and I actually hailed one off the street!  Then he got pulled over and ticketed one block later... He is a white cab and is only allowed to pick people up in the state of Nayarit.  We were in the state of Jalisco, where only yellow cabs are allowed to pick people up.  But he was still allowed to take us home, so it was all good.

After we got back, we found out that the guy who sold us the ATV tours was a sham, and that Krista and Greg had to take 5 security guards with them to get our $200 dollars back from him.  Luckily, the money was returned and there were no problems.  Then we changed and headed to the ocean with Mom, Alan, and Ally. We jumped in the huge waves, I found a sand dollar, and we took some fun pictures with my waterproof camera.

We showered and headed to dinner, which was immediately followed by Toy Story in Spanish.  Kelli and I grabbed out laptops and played on Facebook while watching.  Then Eric and I joined Krista and Randy on the beach where the boys smoked their Mexican cigars.  When they finished, we met up with Paul, Deb, Mom, and Alan in the lobby bar and talked for a good long while.  Mom and Alan headed to bed and the rest of our crowd went down to watch the show - dancing and tequila shot yelling contests.  Eventually, it was just Eric and I talking with Krista for an hour before the disco started.  That was really cool, because Krista and I have been cousins for 11 years, and have never gotten to know each other.  We spent about a half hour at the disco before calling it a night and heading to bed at about 11:30.

Mimosas in the First Club to start the day! 

Crazy sand sculptures! 

Mexican pole dancers! 

Eric's Bubba Gump Margarita 

Making a wish in the wishing well 

He's painting that for us! 

Kelli and I on our laptops while watching Toy Story in Spanish 

Randy and Eric enjoying cigars 

Everyone in the lobby bar 

End of night Pina Coladas!