I'm Baaaaack!!!!

Confession: I haven't logged on to Blogger for a good four weeks!  What a shame!  I've been loyally following other blogs (well....when time allows) via Bloglovin, but between teaching a new class and having two little ones at home, my "me" time is pretty limited.  There are never enough hours in the day as is, and when I do have an hour with "nothing" to do, the last thing I want to do is stare at a computer screen...let alone attempt to put sentences and/or pictures together!  But that doesn't mean I haven't been composing posts in my head.  So, don't you worry--there are a few coming your way soon(ish): Holden's 5-month update (what?!?!?!), our mini vacay to Austin (which seems like FOREVER ago), a bit about my school year (and new class) thus far, a tour of my classroom (maybe...if I can force myself to take pictures)...and more!

For now, I'll leave you with a very random list of a few things that life has revolved around for the last four weeks!

{ONE}

Another trip to Urgent Care and another round of stitches for Brantley.

{TWO}

Craig's birthday.  Yesterday.  His 36th!!  He's old, right?!  We celebrated with dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  Random weeknights out to eat are the best!

{THREE}

Which leads me to my next point.  I gifted him, get this, a voucher for a Kansas City segway tour!  (I'm going with, of course!)  It's totally his thing, random facts and history about this great city in which we live.  He's excited!  I'm excited!  Stay tuned...I'm sure it'll make for a great future blog post!  (And there's a Living Social deal right now--two for the price of one--in case you're interested, KC peeps!)

{FOUR} 

Kinnick's birthday.  He turned six a month ago yesterday.

{FIVE}

I hosted a Dr. Seuss themed baby shower.  Oh my goodness, possibly the cutest and most fun themed baby shower I've hosted to date!

{SIX}

The hubs painted our master bath vanity white.  Bye bye ugly 90s orange!  Next up, our kitchen cabinets!!!!!!  Hopefully. *fingers crossed*

{SEVEN}

Summer seems to be a distant memory.  And the weather is totally encouraging that.  We've already reached an overnight low of 40 degrees!  Brrr!!!  

{EIGHT}

My grandpa was rushed to Mercy Hospital in Iowa City (via helicopter) over the weekend after passing out.  Turns out, his heart had dropped to a dangerously low rate.  He had surgery yesterday to install a pacemaker.  Hoping that he's a new man now!  Some pretty scary moments though, that's for sure, and thanking God for the positive outcome!

{NINE}

I started attending a Tuesday night MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) group.  It's a Christian-based group for moms of children ages newborn through school-aged.  The focus is on being a better mom, but mostly it's just an opportunity to meet with other moms in my same position.  I'm really looking forward to it...I mean, crafts and/or snacks every other Tuesday?  That's totally up my alley!

{TEN}

The Hawkeyes are sucking.  And so are the Jayhawks.  And the Chiefs.  But, the Royals?  Still going strong(ish) and hoping to make the playoffs!  Let's go Royals *clap clap clap-clap-clap*

{ELEVEN}

We were nominated for the Ice Bucket Challenge.  And accepted.  And donated.

{TWELVE}

And in case you were wondering, my kids are still adorable.  Cuter and more fun than ever!

 

Wow Chiefs

We had tickets for the Chiefs game yesterday.  I'm not gonna lie...I wasn't that excited because I figured it'd be freezing!  Little did I know, December 18 would be a balmy near-50 degrees!  It was still windy and a little chilly for this cold-blooded girl, but could have been so much worse!  Craig's parents were in town celebrating Christmas, so we didn't go real early to tailgate.  And I was too lazy to dig out my camera from my purse, so here are some I stole from Facebook.  Thanks Rachel!

My red was underneath my coat

Our Packers friends

Cheifs fans, Robbie and Tara

The Chiefs played the undefeated Packers....and beat them, despite only scoring one touchdown the entire game!  We had pretty good seats in the lower bowl, but again, I was too lazy to take any photos.  I was hoping to catch Ricki Stanzi, as there was a chance he'd play, but no such luck.  I guess I'll take a Chiefs win over seeing the former Hawkeye.  No more football games for us until next fall!

Chiefs vs. Vikings

Now for this weekend!  We headed to Arrowhead for a perfect day of tailgating, friends, food, and football!  I say a perfect day, but in all honesty, it was a little warm for October.  When we bought the tickets in early summer, I was just hoping it'd be warm enough to enjoy the day....little did I know I'd come home sweaty and sunburnt!  I guess a little color is nice again...

What started as a mini tailgate with just a few of us turned into a pretty big deal!  I think we had about 15 tailgaters, plus some of the randoms in the parking space next to us who joined in on all the fun.  Three of Craig's friends even came from Wichita.  We cooked up some omelets, bacon, and sausage and had plenty of other tailgate snacks!  Everyone was quite impressed with the bag omelets!  Yum yum.

I was excited for the Vikings.  Not because I'm a fan of the team, but because one of my favorite Hawkeye players of all time plays for them - Chad Greenway!  (See pics below)  Yay for the former hawkeyes!  

My cookies - footballs, jerseys, and Christmas trees Arrowheads

Early morning - Brian needed a nap.  Complete with the grill cover blanket.

Maddox's first Chiefs game

He's too cute not to take photos of!

Craig and Jay

Me and the hubs

The boys

There he is - #52.

My camera has some pretty great zoom!

Another Great Weekend

I haven't blogged much lately because there's been so much going on, but don't think I haven't been composing posts in my head!  I'll start with a post about our weekend.  It was definitely another fun-filled one!

Friday: I took a personal day because this was the weekend of our neighborhood garage sale.  This is the 3rd year in a row we've organized/priced our junk and participated.  It payed off because we made over $300!  I question how we've accumulated so much garage-sale worthy material, but I guess moving in together two years ago and upgrading many household items last summer after getting married, definitely helps contribute.

The garage sale was actually enjoyable, too, as it was a summer-like 80 degrees and sunny.  Not only did I make some money, but also got a nice little tan burn, as well!

Who needs an UGLY bathroom sink??  Apparently someone, as they were both purchased!

If you look closely, you can see our ghetto clothes rack!

My "register"

Kinnick enjoying the sun

We had free tickets to the Royals game on Friday night.  No one was able to go with, so we ended up selling four of the six free tickets for $5 each!  Score!!  Erica won tickets to the same game, so we met up with her group that consisted of Brandi, Travis, and Alissa.  It was the perfect night for a game--good weather, Buck Night ($1 hotdogs?  Yes, please!), and Fireworks Friday (I love fireworks-they scream summer to me)!  AND the Royals broke their 6-game losing streak and beat the Twins after taking the lead in a very exciting 8th inning!

The gropu

The casual shot Craig so wanted to take

Girl pic

We were pretty high up, but like I said, we made $20 so it didn't matter!  (And we moved down later in the game anyway.)

Beautiful fountains at the K

I got some pretty stunning shots of the fireworks!

Look at those colors! 

Saturday: We continued our garage sale and got rid of a few more things.  The rest was delivered to Goodwill!

We also had our friends' daughter's 1st birthday party.  The best part?  Chillin' in their driveway in the again near-80 weather!  It was gorgeous!!

Me, Lauren, and Katie in our Target dresses!

Lauren and the birthday girl, Anna

The hubs and I

The rest of our day consisted of running errands, including me getting a new phone!  Finally!!!  I  had a 2 1/2 year old iPhone 3G that ran as slow as molasses!  Apple screwed me over last summer when I downloaded a new operating system that wasn't compatible with my particular model; unfortunately, there was no un-doing this.  Craig said I shouldn't reward Apple by purchasing a new iPhone (and I understand his point), but I loved it that much.  Anyway, on Saturday, I upgraded to a 4G...the new (as of last week) white one!  I had planned on waiting until summer to get the iPhone 5 until I heard the release date had been delayed until this fall.  I could not put up with the slowness and crappiness for that much longer, so I gave in.  After debating whether or not to switch to Verizon, we decided to stick with AT&T.  Basically, because they gave us a better deal.  Here's what my phone looks like!  It's so fast compared to my old one!  And has so many better features!  So far, I love it!

On Saturday evening, we headed to the new Buffalo Wild Wings near our house.  It was an early night, as we were both exhausted, but we got to enjoy some wings and mojitos!

Yummy wings!

Today was cold and crappy.  We hung out on the couch for most of the day.  Even so, it was a fantastic weekend!

Oh, and how 'bout them Royals!  The swept the Twins this weekend with scores Friday 4-3, Saturday 11-2, and today 10-3!  First home sweep of the Twins since something like 1996!  And speaking of sports, the Chiefs drafted Stanzi the Manzi this weekend!  For those of you that {sadly} aren't Iowa football fans, he was Iowa's quarterback for the previous three seasons.  He joins former Hawkeye and teammate Tony Moeaki.  Welcome to KC, Ricky!