Pre-Baby Photo & Story Dump!

Mardi Gras

We went to a masquerade party with our Lawrence friends...

They weren't entirely impressed with our interpretation of "wear a mask"!

Michigan! 

Declan got to enjoy Cash's blue bath goo - Cash was too scared to get in.  It took us hours to drain the tub because the dissolving powder didn't really work.

Cash is getting so big!  He's super excited to meet his new cousin in August!

Molly and I right before we left Michigan :)

St. Patrick's Day 

Jen's first Irish Carbomb

Chug! Chug! Chug!

I took way too many pictures from the parade, it was pretty cool (but VERY long)

Har har har!

There goes Captain Morgan in his firetruck

My favorite float...

Rock Chalk!

I had my KU Pillow Pet in my folding chair, along with my phone and Three Spoons - parade essentials!

A trip to the zoo with all of my nephews and niece! 

Everyone checking out the polar bear

Hanging out with the giant polar bear

Ooooo, sea lions!

Enjoying the carousel

Andrew didn't actually want to ride on an animal, so we just got dizzy sitting on the bench.  

This snake could have eaten Andrew as a snack!

 Lazy monkeys!

Andrew was SO excited to hang out in the mud houses

On the sky ride he kept pointing and saying "Look, a bird!" "Look, a tree!" "Look, water!"

Andrew has ghost hands on the train!

March Madness 

Hanging out at Brian and Jen's house for the Final Four game - along with her sister and mom

This is how I roll at halftime!

We've been behind since the beginning of the game and now we're starting to get close, can we do it?

Yes we can!

On our way to Mass Street to celebrate KU making it to the championship game!

Mass. Street is flooded with fans!

I'm a bit of a local celebrity with my basketball belly - lots of people asked to take pictures

I started the trend of parking in the bank drive through - we were only 3 blocks from Mass. and the police were too busy to ticket for minor parking violations!

That's how March Madness rolls for this pregnant lady!

Booo, Kentucky beat us in the NCAA Championship game.  A bunch of drunk frat guys tried (and failed) to tear down the street sign at 14th and Kentucky.

Addy and Eric were pooped after the game!

 Gratuitous Cat Photo! 

Addy is soooo sleepy from watching me clean the house all day!

Baby will be here soon! 

Me showing off how nice it is to have a belly to hold my dinner!

Our bedroom is ready for baby - Boppy on the bedside table, changing pad/cloth diapers/wipes on my dresser and baby's bassinet are all set up in our room!

The pack 'n play and changing table are ready in the living room (with the swing folded up behind it), and the caterpillar toy is in the changing table to scare Addy from jumping into it!

Day 281: A Sad Day for KU

Booooooo, we're out of the March Madness tournament :(  KU played VCU - we were ranked #1 and they were ranked #11...and they beat us by 10 points...  Definitely not a good game.

The day was highlighted by spending the afternoon with Andrew and Mom.  Andrew napped with us while we watched the game, and then we went out shopping and to lunch.  Overall, a successfully fun Sunday!

Chaos really likes the carseat.

Awe, Andrew napping with his Auntie Jess!

Win or lose, we'll still ... take a picture and go shopping?

Andrew REALLY liked these pomagranite and acai seeds covered in dark chocolate.  Really, really.

What a happy boy!  How did I miss getting a picture of Mom?  Oops, sorry!!!

Day 254: Mental Health Day

Today was pretty crazy for everyone - Eric had work in the morning (which never happens) and I called in sick so I could take care of some other business.

First off - I had to finish an assignment for my KU independent study class.  In an independent study class, you receive a guide for the readings you're supposed to do and the assignments you need to complete - then you do the work at your own pace.  KU gives you 6 months to complete the class, and the last day for my behavior management class is Tuesday.  Every time I tried to start working on this class, something more important came up.  Fortunately, when you have finished 50% of the work for the class you can file for a 3 month extension...and this class only has 4 assignments!  I finished the first assignment on Friday, and the second one this morning.  Extension granted, AND I got A's on those first two assignments!

Next up - I got caught up on a lot of cleaning today.  All of the laundry is done, the bathroom is clean, and all of the dirty dishes are IN the kitchen!  I feel like I can breathe easier when I am home and I don't see chores that need to be done every place I look!

Followed by - Alison spent the morning and afternoon with me for some girl time because she wanted to get her mind off of her and Rob breaking up.  Ali has gone through so much - but she keeps getting stronger and focuses on what is best for her and Zach.  I taught her to knit - and our next lesson will be teaching us both how to purl.  Then maybe in the future we can learn to knit patterns (Ha!  We'll see about that).  We also made chocolate chip cookies from scratch.  They weren't as good as last time, but they were still delicious!  Eric came home from work and spent some time with us as well, lightening the conversation by interjecting puns all over the place.

Then - I had a meeting that I still needed to attend at school (why can't subs go to meetings for you?), so Ali headed back to Olathe to pick Zach up from school.  One block away from my school, I stopped to see three cars parked in the road and 6-8 people standing around watching a dog hop around the road yelping.  Before I knew it I was parked and to the dog with my jacket off.  I used the jacket to cover his head while I got the collar off of him - the tags showed us that his name was Smokey, and the owners name and address.  Because we were so close to the school and their day had just ended, there were 5-6 kids huddled around Smokey.  I had to keep reminding them not to pet near his head so he wouldn't bite them because he was scared and hurt.  We couldn't get the owner on the phone, so I skipped my meeting and took him to the Lawrence Humane Society.  Smokey's owner got my voicemail and met me there, so here's hoping that he recovers.  There were no outward injuries - but there was a lot of visibly bruising on the tummy side of his pelvis.

Finally, when I returned home from the humane society (along with missing my meeting), Eric and I headed out to Olathe for an evening with Mom, Alison, Zach, and Kristie.  We played Squeeballs on the Wii - which is a bunch of REALLY strange mini games, and Kinect Adventures on the XBOX - where we did some running and jumping games.  We shared wine, snacks, and stories - a nice end to a VERY long day.

Mystic on the pillow, Addy at the foot of the bed.  This is their contribution to cleaning the house.

Eric said we're a few decades too young for knitting.

This is a picture of Smokey wearing a hat of his 12 year old owner.

The XBOX Kinect takes random pictures while you're playing the games - Eric was playing a game where you have to jump...and he hit his head on the ceiling beam!  And the Kinect got a picture of it!!!

Day 233: KU Flash Mob

Tonight KU played MU at Allen Fieldhouse and we won 103-86.  We've only lost one game this season, and it was following the tragedy of Thomas Robinson's mother passing away only 2 days before.  Unfortunately that broke the  home court winning streak, but KU had their hearts in another place.  I was listening to this game on the radio at home and Eric listened on the radio at work - we both heard the announcers talking about a flash mob.  We didn't know what they were talking about until later tonight when this video started making the rounds on Facebook.

Oh-wa oh!

Day 229: Back to School!

School technically started 2 weeks ago - but 2 weeks ago on Thursday was a snow day, and one week ago on Thursday we were in Mexico!  So now we're back into it...booooo.  My class is at JRP in Lawrence and Eric's is at JCCC in Overland Park - so we're worlds apart until late in the evening.  I'm learning about teaching to students with severe and multiple disabilities, while Eric learns how to do our taxes!  

I'm going to make this post short, we've got to hit the books!

(To the tune of the Money song) "Study, study, studyyyyyyyy, STUDY!"

Day 199: Can You Hear Me Now?

Huzzah!  We finally got a surround sound system for our 46" LCD TV!  It seems like we have been extremely money conscious this past year - but we have been able to pay off debt and get some cool things for ourselves.  I wouldn't say that we are going at this quite as hard as Dave Ramsey might recommend if we keep getting new "toys", but we have a good defense!  We didn't feel right spending wedding and Christmas gift money all on debt.  That isn't to say that we didn't finish paying off my credit card with wedding money and that we didn't make a bonus payment toward my car with Christmas money, but we have allowed for ourselves to actually get some gifts!

We spent a week or so researching various speaker systems and decided on a Sony 5.1 Surround Sound System without a DVD or Blu Ray Player.  We didn't want to spend extra money on the DVD player because we've already got the PS3.  It took us about an hour to set it up last night, because I had to run wires around the room for the two rear speakers.  In the end, we knew that we were short and HDMI cable (which we ordered online for $6) and could only listen to the radio or PS 3 through the front two speakers.  But it was really nice to hear how much better these are than the TV speakers, and to hear the subwoofer boom!

A nice picture of how I had to route the wiring, and of our KU layout.

Day 166: Happy Birthday to Me?

Today I got an email from Old Chicago saying I've got a free birthday pizza on my World Beer Tour card, hooray!  I sent messages to Eric, Kristie, and Alison and we made it a date!  Everyone met up at the Olathe OC just in time for the KU Basketball game.  

Dinner was delicious and the conversation was good!  We were mostly entertained by Zach aspiring to be a photographer like Rob...though he needs to work on his composure...

Oh yea, the KU game was close...far too close...we almost went into OT and it was madness!

Despite the thumb in the way and neither of us being ready, he was pretty good at self portraits!

He's getting so big, what a goof ball!

I was instructing Zach to point the camera "over there!"

Boys...Eric and Ryan are turds!

Zach took this one of Kristie and Ali, I like how it looks like Kristie's head is on the straw.

Here's a good self portrait!

Awarded "Creepiest Picture of the Night"...this is Zach's eyeball.