Day 98: Totally Epic

Sadly, today was another day where I was out and about while Eric was at work.  I had a crazy fun barrage of experiences though!

Eric and I did some final cleaning and hanging out for a few hours this morning before Kristie, Alison, and Zach arrived.  Eric thoroughly impressed Zach by bringing out his life size light up light saber.  Zach swung it around the living room until we made him put it away.  He followed me into our bedroom as I went to grab my cell phone and asked "What's that?", I responded "uh, protection", which was immediately followed by Alison and Kristie bursting into laughter and gasping for breath.  I had Zach pick up the two foot long baseball bat that we keep by the bed and show it to them, so they wouldn't think I'm a terrible person, haha!  Eric left for work, and the ladies (and Zach) headed into Lawrence for some fun.

As we drove down Mass Street we noticed part of it was blocked off and there were lots of people in lawn chairs facing the street.  We ran into one of my former coworkers, Charlene, and her family and they let us know that there was going to be a parade in an hour - woo!  So the four of us headed to 3 Spoons Frozen Yogurt shop, delicious as usual!  We blew some time before the parade by walking down to The Toy Shop.  When it was almost 1, we started walking back toward the car and found a spot on the street near our street.

The KU Marching Band headed the parade, and they were followed by high schools and junior highs from all over Kansas.  At one point some Girl Scouts threw candy and Zach ended up with a gum WRAPPER!  The look on his face was heartbreaking!  But another kid, a boy scout watching the parade, rushed over to give Zach his piece of candy.

Next we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get some squirt bottles so Alison and Rob can make pancake art too!  This is about the time that Zach found a Sonic airplane in my car and began assaulting all of us with it!  Soon after we got back to Eudora they had to head out, but there wasn't much of a break!

I posted on Facebook that I still had extra tickets to tonight's KU football game and Kris said that he and Andrew wanted to come.  We were short on time so I jumped in the car to go pick them up.  We got Andrew ready in a red outfit with his blue KU bib and were ready for some football!  We picked up Tera, parked and started walking to the stadium.

Just minutes into Andrew's first football game it started misting really horribly and we ended up resolving to leave when we got a touchdown.  The play ended with no touchdown and we decided to wait until the end of the quarter just in case.  With 58 seconds to go, KU scored and we were out of there!  On our way back to the car Andrew was making some cute faces and I wanted Kris to take a picture of us, but OH NO! my camera was not in my purse!  We sent Kris to check in the stands while Tera and I got Andrew to the car.  As I buckled Andrew into his carseat...I found my camera...in my pocket!

By the time we get back to the stadium to pick Kris up, we realize it is no longer misting, find a closer parking space, and went BACK to the game!  We missed 2 touchdowns, but got to see the rest of the game!  Andrew got some good practice of waving the wheat and even got to meet Big and Baby Jay!

We ended our night by getting some hot chocolate and s'mores cappuccino at a gas station and heading home.  Now I've been awake for far too long and must retire.
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Now for Eric's version of the day!

Not much to say about the day – after work I left for Steven and Leslie's house to spend the night. We have played with the PS3 move all night, playing gladiator, boccie ball and archery. Right now we're working through highest level of the gladiator arena. A few minutes ago Steven opened the sliding door in their living room and there was a really loud bang as though something exploded. May have been a firework, but it was a big-un.  Goodnight all!

The Force is definitely with this one!

Zach and the 'protection'!

After taking this picture, Mario fist bumped Zach!

Zach has an artistic eye when it comes to taking pictures!

It's really cool that we're all back together again!

Waiting for candy....

A wrapper?!  What Girl Scout throws candy wrappers!!!!

Kris and Andrew are pumped for their first ever KU Football game!

Oh yea, the mist was bad!  But we kept Andrew dry!

His first time waving the wheat!

My camera was in my pocket!  Not left behind, oops!

Intrigued by Baby Jay.

Waving the wheat AGAIN!  Rock Chalk!

 Also very interested in Big Jay!

Andrew loves his Daddy!

Yay KU Marching Band!

I love the view of our giant screen with Campanile and Frasier Hall in the background.  And the chime when we score is great too!

Woo!  Rock Chalk!

 This is what winners look like!

What a beautiful sight!

Day 97: Some Time Together

As you can all tell from various "today at work", "tonight Eric's worked", "I did ...", "Eric did ..." statements, Eric and I don't get a lot of time together.  We've got opposite work schedules and with the exception of a family emergency or a handful of carefully planned and requested days off, haven't had a day off of work, school, and teaching since our honeymoon.

Today was no exception!  I took today as a personal day to catch up on all of my KU schoolwork that I've fallen really far behind on, and Eric had work at 4:30.  But in the morning I made cinnamon rolls (and burned them) in the halogen oven.  I told Eric they were "sexy cinnamon rolls" because they were topless after I removed the burned parts.  Then he did schoolwork and played in the living room while I laid in bed doing schoolwork.  In the afternoon we walked to the grocery store for bacon bits, sour cream and chips.  I had an amazing baked potato...well, 2 really small baked potatoes, and Eric reheated a burger from last night.

I got to cleaning the house when he left for work and I must say, I'm very impressed with our kitchen!  I also took a pumice stone to the toilet and totally removed all of the hard water marks - go me!

Tonight we made Hamburger Helper with turkey, and I'm really starting to get sick of that meal!  I know Dave Ramsey says "beans and rice, rice and beans, there are a million combinations!"  But our $1.25 meal isn't cutting it anymore!  We also watched TV and, overall, got to spend a lot more time together than usual today!

Addy helping me with my homework... She insists upon laying on me while chewing on my red dog.

Laying on top of the computer is her most preferred location.

 I am proud of our kitchen!  I showed off the cooking area a few days ago - above that is our wine and liquor bottle collection, I cleaned the fridge and rearranged our pictures - wedding stuff on the freezer door, family and friends on the fridge door, and ads on the side.  Then is our bookshelf, which we had to buy because we received so much kitchen stuff for our wedding!  It's got a display of wedding items on top of it, glassware on the top shelf, crock pot/rice cooker/and deep fryer (along with the Skittles vodka) on the next shelf, then is cook books and fresh foods (onion, tomato, avocado), and random whatevers on the bottom two shelves.  How's this for a caption!!!

The other side of the kitchen isn't as impressive on first glance, but I still love it!  Apron hanging on the fire extinguisher, coffee clock and the duck bowl from Grammy, a wine rack on the window ledge, drying rack for our hand washed dishes (because our dishwasher sucks!  It has 2 cans of soup under it because it falls out of the counter otherwise!), a nice knife set, our junk stackers, and step trash can!

Day 96: Success!

Today at school I had some huge successes!  I've got a kiddo with cerebral palsy who relies on a wheelchair for mobility and can use a walker for short distances.  Today a kid dropped some markers on the floor and he volunteered to pick them up, this wasn't surprising because he is so determined.  However, he proceeded to squat and stand three times without holding onto anything while picking them up!!!!!  I just about cried with excitement, as I've never seen him stand without support!

This morning Eric beat Castle Crashers with Steven, and they've only been playing it for about 2 weeks.  He stopped by the gym for 40 minutes before his Business of Gaming class.  It's a great way to earn college credit and stay in shape!

Then I negated his workout by making BBQ grilled burgers in the halogen oven, they were delicious!

Eric caught this great shot of Addy lounging in the cat tree.

Mmm, grilled burgers and fried french fries!  I love that we have the gadgets to cook things now!  

So in love :)  That family frame behind us had a picture of me and Grammy when Eric and I went to Michigan to meet Cash for the first time...

Addy likes to lick plastic bags... and often gets them caught around her neck so they look like a cape.  This time it was over her head, too funny! (Yes, I do let my baby play with plastic bags!)

 Poor Mystic never does anything silly, so we forget to take her picture!  But she is such a great sleeper!

Addy playing with her blue circle toy - it's got a light up ball that goes around and around - she pounces and goes cuckoo for this thing!

Day 95: Breakfast for Dinner

Mmmmmm, breakfast for dinner!  I made bacon in the halogen oven, eggs on the electric skillet, and bacon & eggs pancakes!  I had a lot of batter left over, so I made spirals, stars, and KU pancakes for lunch tomorrow.  Then Eric and I watched "The Beast with a Billion Backs", a Futurama movie.

The parts of our egg pancakes.

Pink and white egg pancakes.

Clockwise from 12 - egg pancakes, bacon pancakes, bacon, and eggs!

Day 94: Our Quarter-Versary Celebration!

After I got off work I drove straight home so we could head out  for our date/classes/date.  First we went to Mass St. and had 3 Spoon's Frozen Yogurt - they have more than a dozen flavors and more than 40 toppings!  Then we went to Overland Park for Eric's classes.  I brought my laptop and worked on my schoolwork in the building while he was in class - I'm so far behind in my two classes and I haven't even started my independent study course!!!

When he was through with classes we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Buffalo Wing Wings, for $.40 wings!  After dinner, we went for a motorcycle from my parents house to WalMart and back.  It was our second ride together and went great!

When we got home we started the first filtering of the Skittles vodka.  We determined that it was probably saturated with sugar, and the residue floating on top was sugar beyond saturation.  we had to rinse out the filter 4-5 times because it was clogged up with Skittles sugar.  But the first filter looks really good!  We'll filter it a second time in a few days.

The glue on my boots melted when they were in the car and the weather was up in the 100's every day.  When we were walking in WalMart, the bottom of my shoe fell right off!  I ended up buying a new pair of boots there.

I took a picture of us riding - I'm the stripey helmet in the back, Eric is the black helmet in front, and you can see his motorcycles handlebars.

Filtering the lime Skittles vodka.

 The gross residue left behind.

Eric volunteers to taste it and i hesitant...

"OHHHH!  Really gross!"

"eeeenngghhh"

"I guess it wasn't so bad..."  This man will eat anything!

Day 93: Our First Quarter-versary!

Today marks three months of marriage for Eric and I!  We got to see each other for about 20 minutes after I got off work and before he had to head to JCCC for class - and utilized this time to start our project of Skittle infused vodka for Alan!  We sorted the Skittles by color and counted out 75 of each color.  That's all we got done before he had to leave for class.  :(

Sadly, Eric doesn't get home until nearly 9:30 on Mondays.  When he got home we worked together to clean the kitchen.  Thanks to the wedding we have a really awesome cooking area with our stove, microwave, electric skillet, toaster, blender, and halogen oven!  We put on some water to boil and started the next step of Skittle's infused vodka - mixing the skittles and vodka!  We were both in a crazy mood and this resulted in a night full of crazy laughter.  We made spaghetti and watched 2 episodes of Lost before heading to bed around midnight.

Tomorrow we celebrate for real and we're going out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings!  I love Quarter-versaries!

Addy wearing her dad's flip flop...

Addy wearing her mom's flip flop!

This is our floor to ceiling debt thermometer.  Each red flag marks a specific debt.  In order they are my credit card [paid off!], Eric's credit card [we're snowballing it now, should be paid off by April], my car [should be paid off by next August], Eric's car [should be paid off by next December], then each of my individual student loans.And if you counted, yes, there are 9 student loans.

We have a lot of debt left to go, I still have to lay on the floor to measure how much we've paid!  Each inch of this wall marks $1000 of debt.

 Eric is squatting to color in this month's car payment.

 That first red flag is how much was owed on my credit card when we started Dave Ramey's program.  Each black line is a monthly payment.  As you can see - that giant gap with no lines is our massive payment that we made in August to finish it off!  Now we've made a few monthly payments on Eric's credit card, which will be the next red flag.

This is our cooking area with our electric skillet, trivets and spoon rest, boiling pasta, toaster, blender, and halogen oven!

 Eric poured out 5 water bottles into our pitcher...

We sorted out all of the colors of the Skittles, and counted out 75 of each.

 Then we put the Skittles into the bottle one-by-one!

 How fun!

 The last time these Skittles will be non-alcoholic!

 Eric measures 12 ounces of vodka into each container.

 And I pour it through the funnel.

The end result...for tonight anyway, neon vodka with white Skittles pellets at the bottom!