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 213: Goodbye Birds!

Eric here. Ah, that's the last of them. All of the holiday bonus pets are back to their rightful owners, and the apartment is quiet once again. Except when Addy antagonizes Mystic. Today before work I dropped off the birds. They were by far the easiest residents we had over the season, requiring very little maintenance. They even managed to be entertaining at times, despite the couple of mornings they weren't shy about waking up before we did. Addy certainly thought they were anyway. She would sit by their cage and watch them whenever she could.

Goodbye Blue & Green!

Day 198: Back to School

Our new night stands sort of helped me wake up for work on time!  I went to bed before midnight with my phone alarm and alarm clock set.  I let it snooze for 5-10 minutes and was up and running, including bringing my lunch to school!  I fell back into the routine of things quickly, but I can't say that I wouldn't mind being a stay at home wife and getting to sleep, play, clean, cook, etc. on my own schedule!

Today was also a breakthrough with Moonshine!  We are both able to pet her now and she'll come out from under the bed when we call her!  Even better, Papa has returned from Michigan and Frisco goes home tomorrow!

Moony has taken to cuddling with me while we play video games. 

Mystic is enjoying the boxes we've yet to clear out of the living room 

Addy keeps a close eye, from above, on Moonshine when she wanders around the house. 

I can pick up Moonshine!

Day 196: Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Eric had work first thing this morning, so I spent the day catching up on cleaning in the house and the blog.  You can't tell if you read the blog all at once, but if you follow it day-by-day then you know that I tend to wait about a week before posting anything and then upload multiple days of back-dated blogs.  I don't really feel bad about it, and I don't see it as cheating because I am recounting the events and taking pictures for each individual day.  I just don't have time to sit down and write about it every single day!

I can't wait for our first year to be over so I can go down to actually posting only once a week, or so.  After the year of blogging is up, I'm sure I'll be a lot less structured with it!  That is until we have kids...and then I'll probably commit to a weekly blog...if you're lucky!

Today I successfully pet Moonshine for a full minute!  My nickname for her is now "Mad Eye Moony"

Day 191: Are All The Animals Getting Along?

Nothing terribly special happened with Eric and I today, so I thought I would update on our animal situation.  Well, they're all still alive!  I wouldn't stretch the truth by any imagination and say they're all getting along, but it doesn't seem like anyone is unhappy!

Mystic doesn't care about any of the animals.  She usually sleeps on top of the guest bed or on the back of the couch.  Addy spends most of her time cuddled inside of the cat tree - hiding from the other animals, but happy to be asleep.  The birds have only caught glimpses of the other animals while our bedroom door is open.  They're actually pretty quiet and don't require much upkeep.  Frisco is either a terror running and jumping through the house, or sleeping so quietly that you can't find him.  Finally, Moonshine spends more time sprawled out on the carpet than hiding under the bed.  She will rub against our feet and meow at us, but growls and hisses if we try to pet her.  We figure that we'll stop pressing it, as she likes to play with the string and lazer pointer with us, so we don't want to keep trying to pet her and get her upset or scared again.

I put this on her - but she really likes playing with the strings!

She was chasing the lazer pointer.

Day 183: Our Menagarie

We have been serious about earning some extra money this holiday season.  I've been working on getting some more of our storage items up for sale on Craigslist, and I've really been utilizing Craigslist to promote ads for babysitting and pet sitting over the holiday break.  I have picked up 3 babysitting jobs and pet sitting for a guy's 2 parakeets, a woman's cat, and my grandpa's dog, Frisco.  All of these add up to nearly $500 of extra money to throw at our debt snowball!

Also, my mom and I went to Shannon's Premier Jewelery party, along with Deb, Grandma Karen, Mary, and one of Shannon's friends.  Andrew tagged along and got to take a nap among Shannon's stuffed animal collection.

This is "Blue" and "Green"

Moonshine likes to stay under the bed.

Frisco got caught on the couch!  He loves his stuffed bear.

Addy keeping an eye on things from above.

Mystic checking out Moonshine's water.

Can you find the baby?

He loved the snowglobe, the music, and the train going around the base of it!

Day 163: Race for Time

Today was all about the race for time.  Eric had to make sure he made it to Olathe to go to they gym, his Eastern Religion class, and then over to Papa's house to work some things out.  We're looking forward to seeing how Mystic and Addy will deal with having Papa's dog, Frisco, in the house while he is Michigan over Christmas break.  Mystic will probably just sleep out of reach and ignore him, she grew up with two active dogs around her!  Addy, on the other hand, is probably going to do a lot of hissing and attacking... she doesn't tolerate change well.

After I got out of class, I had to rush over to the courthouse to pay for my car registration.  I think it's funny that at 3:10 on the second to last day of the month, people are surprised by and complain about the line!  A man, probably in his 60's, said that he would probably die before making it to the front of the line.  There were probably a dozen people in front of me, and I made it through in about 45 minutes.  When I left at 3:50, there were nearly two dozen people in line, yikes!

Another year of not waiting in line!

Day 111: Wenberg Wine Party

Once in a blue moon, Eric and I actually get to spend some time together!  He worked during the day and got out early to go to the wine and tequila party at my parents house.  

The final result of our Skittles Vodka project!  1) Sort a bag of Skittles out by color, 2) Pour a 1.75 L bottle of vodka into 5 empty water bottles, 3) Put equal numbers of Skittles into each bottle, 4) Shake the bottles a few times per day until the Skittles are totally dissolved, 5) Use a funnel and coffee filter or paper towel to filter each flavor into a new water bottle, 6) After another day or two, filter the vodka into separate 12oz bottles.  

I recommend enjoying Skittles Vodka with Sprite - it is still vodka, you know!

Still enjoying our marriage!

Eric really enjoyed visiting with Kobi and Sadie.  Juneau was there too, but she didn't make it into the picture.

What's better than 5 ladies enjoying a reclining, vibrating, sleep number bed?!

That would be the one man observing the event!