My Hubby the Photographer

Ethan has started a blog! A photo-blog to be exact. He loves to take pictures and has decided to challenge himself to become a better photographer. Each day he will post pictures that he's taken and explain what led to the photo and the technical jarbin (that I don't understand). Check it out!

Picturing My World

Favorite Things...

The other day I found myself humming the tune of "My Favorite Things" from Sound of Music. I love that movie and that song.

So here are a few of my favorite things...

~ A cup of warm coffee on a cool spring morning with the windows open.

~ The sight of golden wheat flowing in the Kansas wind.

~ School supplies. Pencils, pens, staplers, hole punches, paper clips, and anything that you can think you might never need, but are so glad when you do!

~ Sam's club at noon. Gotta love the taste tests :)

~ Cookie dough ice cream.

~ Tan lines in the summer.

~ Happy Hour at Sonic. What a time to get a great drink at a great price!

~ Holding Ethan's hand. I'm so glad I found someone who likes to do that!

~ A smooth lake in the early morning. So calm, so peaceful.

~ My dogs. Yes, they drive me up the wall, have cost us lots of money, but who can resist those cute faces and happy wagging tails always ready to love us.

~ Blue. Best. Color. Ever.

~ Our Church, St. Mark the Evangelist... the beauty of that church is a constant reminder of how good God is.

~ Diet Pepsi with Chinese food.

~ Ethan's kisses. :)

~ My sister's shoes. I'm jealous of her normal sized feet and how she can always find the cutest shoes in her size.

~ My mother's baked spaghetti. It has been way too long since I've had that.

~ Popcorn from the Stir-Crazy. Kicks the butt of that bagged stuff!

~ The Office. Hilarious!

~ Aladdin, Monster's Inc., Finding Nemo, and I'm sure Rio will be added to that list once I get a chance to see it.

~ The smell of my grandparent's house.

~ Daisies. They really are the friendliest flower.

~ Quiet evenings at home with my Ethan.

Life doesn't get much better than this!

Recycling...Why People Don't Do It

Go Green!

Every one's doing it.

It's the right thing to do.

And it's really not that hard...

Or is it...

One thing that I have learned in my life so far, is that as a majority people are lazy, and will do what comes easiest. Seriously. I've seen people hire someone to pick up dog poo out of their yard, hang up their Christmas lights, and do their grocery shopping. In general, people will do what's easiest.

Which brings me to my point. Recycling. We have all seen the advertisements to "go green" by using "green" products, "green" shopping bags, and "green" energy systems. And while I am impressed by those who do all of those things, the bottom line is that the easiest thing for most average people to do (without buying a whole new set of cleaning products) is recycle.

And yet, people don't even do that.

Why???

Again, because it's not the EASIEST thing to do. Yes, it is the easiest out of the list of "green" options, but when it comes to recycling or just tossing something in a garbage pail, tossing is easier.

For example: True Story.

Ethan and I have been cleaning out our house. I mean deep down clean. We went though the storage room and collected all the empty boxes of things that we have accumulated over the last few years (plus some we joined together when we got married), broke them down, and went to look up where we could take the cardboard to recycle it.

Guess how many recycling places in Wichita take corrugated cardboard?

TWO.

And only one of those had 24 hour bins available. So, we packed up the large pile of cardboard and set out to our destination. 15 minutes later we pull up to an empty looking warehouse at the address listed. After a couple circles of the place, we figured out that it was the correct location. Now, we just had to find the bins...

So we looked...

and looked...

and FINALLY found a place that looked like it was what we were wanting. There was tons of cardboard in it and a sign that told us exactly what was allowed.

But then...

We saw another sign that said "NO DUMPING!" "Violators will be prosecuted!" With a lovely video camera right next to it.

Uh...now what? Can we dump our cardboard there? Is it just talking about not dumping trash? What kind of prosecuted? Is it worth it?

Nope.

We turned around and drove out.


On a whim, I told Ethan that his mom had said one time that she thought that St. Francis (the church she attends) used to recycle cardboard in a bin out back, but she wasn't sure if they still did. We thought we might as well give it a try. Luckily there was a bin for cardboard.

After the events of that evening, I have come to decide that until recycling can be more convenient and easier, we won't see a huge increase in people participating. Why go through all the trouble when it is just easier to toss it out? Unfortunately that is the world we live in.

The Joys of Home Improvement

Ethan and I have been slowly remodeling different areas of our home. It started a few years ago with one of the bathrooms. Our house has two. One bathroom had a tub and no shower, the other had a shower and no tub. So E started in the bathroom with no shower, then moved to the bathroom with no tub. The first bathroom project was done with the idea that we would be in this house as long as possible. We would try to add on a master bedroom/bathroom suite and a two car garage. After getting that idea nixed by a contractor quoting a price WAY above what we wanted to pay, the new plan was to fix up the house in order to sell so we could build.

Throughout the last two years we have moved from project to project, not in any real rush. Now that we have come to the last few finishing touches before our house is put on the market, I thought I would share the "oh-so-wonderful-joys of home improvements" that Ethan and I learned...

~ If you are fixing up an older house that you moved in to you are subject to whatever the previous owner did...and will find yourself saying "what in the world were they thinking?!?!?"

~ Handy Dads who have creative "fix-it-up" ideas are life savers.

~ Hearing the words "Oh S*#t!" come from the other room is never a good sign...

~ Lowe's will be your home away from home, and you will know where everything is located and the fastest way to get there.

~ Beer is necessary to have around.

~ You never think you will get the smell of paint out of your house.

~ You compromise on everything from paint color to the type of brushes you use to paint with.

~ Everyone will have advise to give you on the best way to do something.

~ Sometimes they are right.

~ It is much more fun when you are doing all the changes for yourself. The fun wares off when the changes are just to sell the home.

~ If anything can go wrong it will... paint will spill, screws will be dropped never to be found again, measurements will be a millimeter off causing a multitude of problems, and nail guns will fall off the counter and poke a hole in the brand new vinyl flooring that you just put down (seriously...you can't make that up!)

~ The stain of the trim around the house will be impossible to match. The best bet it to get three different kinds and mix until you are close enough for it to pass.

~ Your dreams at night involve painting.

~ If the next owners of the house ever go to redo the bathrooms, they will find themselves saying "what in the world were they thinking?!?!" many times.