Day 362: Clean Carpets!

We haven't had people over to our house in ages, mostly because our apartment smells terrible!  With Bubsy and Mystic both having advanced kidney disease, Bubsy had, and Mystic has a problem making it to the litter box.  The Stanley Steemer guys said the stains aren't coming out, but that the smell should be under control now!

Eric and I moved the furniture BACK into place, and had a fully tech night - blogging, internet shopping, and Netflix!

Empty dining room.

Full kitchen.

Empty living room.

Full office.

Mystic, Addy, and I chilled on the porch while the Stanley Steemer people worked.

Mystic cuddled with me, and Addy got scared and had to watch the men work through the window.

Shots, shots, shots!  Tequila helps us work!

The living room put back together, view 1.

The living room put back together, view 2.

When I posted yesterdays post on Facebook, the captcha said "THE geakee"!  I thought it was fitting!

Day 334: More Field Trips, Grilling, and Laundry!

I got to go on a field trip to the capital with my 4th grade class today. It was a lot more interesting than last years 4th grade field trip, because we went to a museum for a scavenger hunt after the tour of the capitol building. I was exhausted so I went to sleep as soon as I got home, well...after I out out another load of laundry on our line.

Eric got trained on the out of town route at work today. He'll be delivering parts to Gardner and Paola one or two weekends each month. Then he had his last class at JCCC before graduation!

After he got home from class, I got up and we grilled some burgers and watched Scrubs for the rest of the night. Goooooooodnight!

Line drying is still going well for us! 

A student found this in a science book and reported it to me as "immapropriate". 

Governor Brownback's office with our fourth graders.

We relit the grill's fire with lighter fluid, hoping for a "flame broiled" flavor...we ended up with a lighter fluid taste.

Day 324: Bottled Water

Tonight Eric and I wanted to watch a movie that neither of us were terribly interested in as background noise to our homework and regular playing on the computer.  We have a ton of documentaries lined up on Netflix, and decided to watch "Tapped" - a documentary about the bottled water industry.  I've got far too much to say about the movie, so instead of typing it all out, I'll post a review and hope you will all watch the movie as soon as you get a chance!

The rest of the night we took care of business at home - laundry and graduation announcements.

"Tapped, a new documentary about the bottled water industry from director Stephanie Soechtig and the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car?, is a pretty damning look at how consumers have been tricked into spending too much money on water packaged in plastic and quite often not as clean as what's available from the faucet.

I knew bottled water sucks, but I didn't know it sucks this much. Not only is it a clear waste of resources (only 20 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States are recycled, and far too many of the rest probably end up in the Pacific Garbage Patch), it's an incredible waste of money for consumers, who pay more than the price of gasoline for water that's marketed as "pure," but in reality is largely unregulated, full of harmful toxins like BPA, and far less safe for drinking than free tap water. (In fact, 40 percent of the time, bottled water is nothing but municipal tap water, freed from the government oversight that keeps it safe.)

Tapped, which began a one-week run at the IFC Center in New York on Friday, traces the evolution of bottled water from its hoity-toity Perrier days to its present ubiquity, and succeeds at making the industry reps look like total jerks. A few too many mid-interview cutaways to Soechtig looking concerned came off as a little journalistically self-important, but Tapped does a solid job of covering every aspect of this damaging industry and inspiring more outrage than despair. It features interviews with the likes of Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), not to mention some footage of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) tearing into an FDA rep at a government hearing.

I will never look at bottled water with anything less than loathing from now on.

Watch the trailer:" ~ Claire Thompson, grist.org

Our collection of reuseable bottles and travel cups - we are definitely through with supporting the bottled water industry.

My second round of line dried clothes!

 Eric finishing up his graduation announcements.

It was a really hot day and we don't have our air conditioner turned on yet, so I cooled Mystic down with an ice pack.

As soon as Eric stepped on the chair to adjust the fan settings, Mystic was immediately laying on his feet.

Ta-Da!

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 296: Naps

Phew, I came straight home from work today for a nap.  Then when I woke up at 7:30pm, I found that Eric had done the same and I didn't even wake up when he got home.  It was a little scary when I first woke up because I felt well rested and the light was dim outside - so I didn't know whether it was night or morning!  My allergies have been crazy bad over the past few days, and a nap helped me ignore the itchy ears, nose, and throat for a few hours.  Eric was just exhausted from waking up early for a morning shift.

After we woke up, we went on a walk to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner and then came home and watched "Hot Tub Time Machine" on Netflix.  It was a pretty good movie, we both enjoyed it. 

It's nice living in a town where we can walk to get everything we want!

Day 288: Awesome Sunday!

I've got to start this off by saying that we had to skip church this morning so we could extend our time with Steven and Leslie, but I fully think it was worth our while today!  We slept until 10, or so, and then woke up at our leisure and had some cereal.  The best decision came when someone suggested we go for a walk.  We took a frisbee down to a clearing and realized that it was far too windy for that to be successful.  Then we headed down the trail and found ourselves at a storm drain, which was at the end of a creek that was about 15 feet wide. 

We decided to explore down the creek a little bit - and each "little bit further" led us on an advendure that lasted over an hour.  There were places in the creek where it wasn't easy to hop over rocks and we either had to climb up to the bank and walk around, or carry stones the size of shoe boxes to make a rock bridge.  It was great exercise and excellent fun!  I was the most adventerous with bridge building and ended up with completely soaked socks and shoes, oops!

By the time we made it back to their apartment, I had decided that ice cream was in order.  We all decided to go to Sheridans and grab some frozen custard.  We had perfect timing and were their second customers of the day.  Within 5 minutes, the line was at least 15 people deep!  All four of us enjoyed a mini sundae with various combinations of toppings.  Leslie was craving hot dogs, so we went to HyVee to buy some SmartDogs, buns, ketchup, and chips.  Paired with Steven's mad grilling skills, we had a delicious lunch!

Next I dropped Eric off at the JCCC gym and went to Mom and Alan's house to unload our garage sale stuff.  While I was there, Alan showed me his pen making shop, and made me a wooden mechanical pencil for my Dave Ramsey envelope system wallet!  Then I picked Eric back up from the gym and we returned to Mom and Alan's house to pick up Eric's (Alan's) motorcycle.

It was Eric's first ride of the season, and after he rode up and down the street once, he picked me up and we rode to Paul and Debs house for dinner!  The ride went great and Shannon was really excited for Eric to give her a ride around the neighborhood.  We made pita pizzas and watched some Scrubs on Netflix before heading home and enjoying the remaining time of our eventful Sunday! 

 The boys skipping rocks.

 Leslie and I on a sunny (humid!) day.

 Eric and I crossed the creek on this fallen tree, while Steven and Leslie found a safer route.

 Mom and Alan escorted Eric and me to Paul and Deb's house, just to make sure we made it safely.

Eric and me, ready to roll out!

 Eric taking Shannon for her first ever motorcycle ride, and Eric's only passenger other me.

The night ended with two major waves of hail.  It only reached quarter size in Eudora, but Olathe was hit with massive amounts of golf-ball sized hail.

Day 261: A Night Off

Eric and I had plans to go look at an apartment in Lenexa tonight - but the complex didn't have the 1 bedroom ready for viewing yet.  So instead, we got to stay home and spend a whole afternoon and evening together!  We took Addy on a walk and watched Grown Ups, which we would give 2.5/5 stars.  The movie seemed mostly like they just filmed a bunch of comedians hanging out, rather than a really cohesive script.  Then I took a nice long nap on the couch while Eric played Operation Flashpoint with Steven and Grant.  After I woke up, Eric made us a delicious dinner of chicken alfredo with cavatappi pasta and we watched a few hours of Scrubs.  Ahhhh, relaxation!

Mooooom!  Please don't drop me!

She thought my shoulders would be safer.

Please let me inside...

Day 245: Cats & Chinese Food

Eric got some really good honey teriyaki marinade a few weeks ago, so tonight I stir fried the chicken, onions, red bell pepper, and broccoli, and served with our jasmine rice.  Yum, yum, yum!  We watched some TV and had a nice relaxing evening!  Netflix has gotten to the point that it's as good as TV - we've got 3rd Rock From The Sun, Scrubs, That 70's Show, Parks and Rec, Family Guy, Futurama, and more!

Mom...this drawer is too small!

Awesome sweet chicken teriyaki!

Addy: -sigh- "I love Saturday Night Live Trivia soooo much" 
Mystic: "If you love it so much, then why don't you marry it!"
Eric & Jessica: "Oh SNAP!"

Day 170: Do We Look Lost?

[cough-cough] The second-to-last disc of the last season of Lost has been sitting on our TV cabinet since October 13th... We just couldn't bring ourselves to end it/we just weren't in the mood for a serious weird drama.  Tonight we finally started the journey to the end! 

I can't believe that the "S" in Lost was messed up through all of the seasons!  How can they have not fixed something like that?!

Day 137: No More Office!

Tonight, Eric and I watched the last episode of The Office until the current season comes out on Netflix, sad day!  Then we watched some episodes of 30 Rock, and enjoyed being around the house.  Mystic was her usually cuddly self on the couches with us, but Addy pouted on the dresser all night long! But her pouting was awfully cute!

 Isn't she the cutest sad cat ever?

Day 128: Case of the Mondays

Booo, Eric and I both had our late classes tonight.  I was at mine until around 8:30 and Eric didn't get home until after 9.  We were both exhausted and just hung out to watch some episodes of 30 Rock and The Office.  We are mere episodes away from finishing the most current seasons of each of those - oh no!


Eric is still on track to graduate in the spring - he'll need one or two more classes.  I, however, won't be graduating in the spring - double boo!  I had an advising meeting after my class tonight and learned getting a masters degree isn't the same as getting a bachelors.  With the bachelors, you can take one or two classes in the summer and still "graduate" in the spring".  With my masters, I have to actually finish my project before I can graduate.  So I'll be getting my masters degree next year because I'm starting my project over the summer.

In other news - please keep voting for my video for Dave Ramsey's Great Giving Challenge!

http://www.daveramsey.com/specials/great-giving-challenge-entry/entryId/6/

Day 112: A Long Day

We woke up pretty late today, but had time to make pancakes before Eric left for work.  Today we used peanut butter and Grammy's blackberry jelly to color/flavor our pancakes.  While Eric was at work, I finally tackled our stack of un-sorted/shredded/trashed paperwork.  I got through about a quarter of it, but it's a start!  I also went in to school for about an hour to work on a communication device for one of my students.  Eric brought me dinner because I had a killer migraine, but it wasn't so bad after resting for an hour or so. We spent the rest of the night watching 30 Rock and The Office - we're halfway through the most recent season of both of those... what will we do when they're through?!

PLEASE ignore my bed head!  I'm making PB&J pancakes!

 Two slices of bread, peanut butter and jelly, which naturally goes with milk!

Yum!

Day 105: KC Ren Fest 2.0

Steven and Leslie invited us out to the KC Ren Fest today and we had an awesome time!  It was pretty darn cold, so I ended up putting a pair of Eric's pants on underneath my dress.  We did some walking, shopping, garlic eating, sheep and llama petting, and more!  

Also, after Eric got home from work tonight we decided that we were finally ready for the last EVER episode of LOST, which has been sitting on our TV stand for a week now.  But alas, the preview was confusing because I bumped up the season on Netflix in the wrong order, and we still have another disc to watch!  Yay!

My rockin' jeans and floral style.

A retake of our fountain picture from last year.

 I fed a chicken!

A baby and mama llama!

Serious llama.

 Jess and mama llama, Steven and Leslie.

Steven and Leslie!

Eric and me!

I forgot my flats socks and got bad blisters, so I made toilet paper socks for my toes!

Aren't we in love?!

Steven the three armed alcoholic lover!

Eric and me on the love pig!

Steven the archer!

 Leslie the archer!

I love spending time with my husband!

All of us at the KC Ren Fest!

 I couldn't walk a step further because of my blisters, so Eric carried me to the car.

Piggy back ride!