Random Chatter

Here's a little of what's going on in my world right now...

~ Our house was officially put on the market last week. We've shown the house 5 times and it just hasn't been the "right fit" for someone. Seems that if the husband likes it, the wife doesn't, or there's not enough room to put a big shed next to it. Little things like that. Hopefully that "perfect fit" will come along soon.

~ Summer is here and was long awaited. Come August I'll be ready to go again!

~ A friend of mine shot a hole in one while golfing today. I'm happy for her and jealous of her at the same time!

~ I bought fresh fruit at the store the other day. Tastes soooo good!

~ My sister graduated from college. And enrolled again...

~ The house is clean ALL.THE.TIME. and I LOVE it!

~ My parents celebrated their 31st anniversary yesterday...what a great set of role models I have!

~ My dad turns 53 today. He doesn't seem 53.

~ In the last year Ethan and I have been given two Scentsy pots with some great smells. I am loving it! My favorite right now is called "snow." Definitely not season appropriate, but smells clean.

~ Ethan's sister, Beth, is coming with her kids to visit from New Jersey at the end of the month. I can't wait for them to get here. I have all kinds of things I can't wait to do with them.

~ Ethan and I got to go look at a house that has the same basic floor plan as we picked out for our new house. This one was a week away from the owners moving in. I was sooo excited after seeing it!

~ I love our dogs!

~ Those silly dogs give me a headache!

~ I got my toes done with one of my friends (who also happens to teach at the same building as I do...go figure). Mine are sparkly blue.

~ I'm into anything sparkly at the moment. Shirts, nail polish, head bands, flip flops, anything...

~ I watched the finale of all my TV shows... The Office, was OK...not my favorite episode. How I met Your Mother, was what I predicted. The Big Bang Theory was funny as usual. Bones, was great! I love that show :)

~ I don't often miss not having cable, but I miss not having the Food Network. It's great background noise.

~ The wheat is turning nice and golden yellow. I love how it sways in the wind.

~ I'm really REALLY tired of the windy days!

~ I'm far to white at this point in the year. I am in need of some major pool time! Hello Summer!!!

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.

My Journey to Heaven

"Where are you on your road to Heaven?"

A question asked to me when I was a Freshman on my first day of CYO. CYO stands for Catholic Youth Organization, and it was how most high schoolers were involved with their Catholic Church.

After thinking for a while, I answered in my head "probably about half way."

You see, at that age, I had never really been tested in life. I was incredibly blessed to have a wonderful family, warm home, good food, success in school and sports, and many other reasons to be at peace with my life and my faith. I talked to God everyday and was incredibly proud to be Catholic.

I still believe to this day, that at that time in my life I was "half way." But being only half-way, I couldn't see the rivers to cross, mountains to climb, and valleys to try and avoid. That second half of the "road to heaven" is tough.

Somewhere along the way I took a wrong turn. I don't believe that I fell completely off the path, but I definitely took the longer route. I was very good at rationalizing and make excuses why I didn't make it to church every Sundays, why it was ok to do and say things I never did before, and why I no longer prayed at night.

It wasn't working for me. I was not happy.

Then, late one night, I returned a phone call from my brother that I had missed while coaching a basketball game. Little did I know that not only was that phone call going to change his life, but mine as well.

My brother was a Sophomore at Pratt Community College and was in the middle of a very exciting recruiting experience to see what school out of state would pay him to come play baseball, but all of that changed when he found out that he was soon to be a father. Unexpected, unplanned, and upsetting. We both cried that night. He was scared, sad, and disappointed. I was very sad for him and angry.

I was not angry at Joe. His life was going to change dramatically and suddenly. I was angry with God. All I had ever wanted was to be married and have a family, and I was doing things "right." Or what I considered more right than my brother was. He was getting what I wanted (not exactly, but at that time, it's what I thought of).

I prayed that night. For the first time in a long time. I talked to God and asked Him why things weren't turning out the way I knew they were supposed to. And then it dawned on me. Almost instantly...

If everything that is good happens through God, He can't be put on the "back burner" of life. He has to be upfront where your attention is focused. Once I came to that realization, my life started to change. I tried to make my way back to that path toward Heaven.

I started out by going back to church, every Sunday (I don't think I've missed more than two Sundays since that phone call from Joe). I started praying again...when I don't accidentally fall asleep before I finish. And you know what I found?

Life was better.

Not immediately, but slowly through the months, I was happier.

It was after that pivotal moment in my life. After that phone call, after returning to my path that I met Ethan.

Now I try to think often of where I am "on journey to Heaven." Now the challenge has become not only how do I get to heaven, but how do I help my life partner to get there as well. How do we work together to have a family and begin the path for each one of our children. I know there are many more hills, mountains, curves, and valleys along my path, but I truly believe staying strong in my faith and walking with my Husband, we will eventually make it all the way to the top. All the way to paradise.

Easter Fun!

They say you never stop learning, and after this weekend home with my family, I'd say that is true.

The things I've learned over Easter Weekend:

10. Sneezing with a mouth full of cottage cheese will propel it far enough to touch 8 people sitting at a table.

9. Ducks can be spanked.

8. It is possible to get 10 people, 4 dogs, 2 ducks, and one Easter Bunny in one house for a weekend.

7. We are loud.

6. The Easter Bunny is like Santa Clause, he sees you when you sleep and makes sure you are good before bringing you candy.

5. Baby ducks don't bite, but they do poop...a lot.

4. There are more slug bugs in Wichita than in Burlington. It's easy to get out of practice.

3. Belonging to a wine club is definitely the way to go. If you can't afford to join a wine club, make sure your brother does so he can bring home the wine.

2. In order to hold a fish, insert thumb into mouth, squeeze the rest of the fingers around it and hold up.

1. There's nothing like a weekend at home with the entire family...we are fun people. (I've known that one!)