Entry 153: A Merry Christmas

We really had a great time celebrating our first Christmas together. We started the day off opening presents that we gave each other and from Lance's family. Afterwards we went to Mary and Phillip's house to celebrate the big day with family. We really enjoyed the day as you can see from the link to the pictures below.

Entry 152: Christmas Eve

We are both excited to spend our first Christmas together and on Christmas Eve we were lucky enough to spend it with family. We went to a wonderful Christmas Eve church service in the afternoon and then afterwards headed over to Mary and Phillip's house to enjoy a nice dinner. We had ham, turkey, potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, and pie. It was delicious and we are still stuffed. We then played a game of Taboo and even though we lost (there was definitely a lot of cheating going on by the other team)it was a good time had by all.

Entry 151: Julie's Favorite Show

The one show that Julie absolutely loves and cannot miss is The Biggest Loser. She actually becomes so upset sometimes during the show that she will yell at the television. Well tonight is the finale, but Julie is happy because a whole new season starts in two weeks. Julie is so excited that I embedded the trailer for the next season below.

Entry 150: Finally Snow

The weather forecasters have said that this day had been coming for quite some time, but today we finally got it: our first real snowfall. Along with the first real snowfall, also comes Kansas City going into complete freak out mode. Lance got out of school early today at 12:30 and the roads were absolutely horrible. It looked like nothing had been plowed and cars were sliding all over the place. Julie, as always. got the worst end of the deal though. Her bus that is supposed to pick her up at 6:44 didn't arrive until well past 8:30. Then she finally got into work around 9:00. Great way to start your day huh. Below you will see pictures of the first real snow and Lance's handiwork of shoveling the driveway.

Entry 149: Christmas Treats

Today we decided to make some Christmas treats for some of our friends. Julie bakes turtle cookies, macadamia chocolate chip cookies, cranberry orange bread, and made chocolate covered pretzels. Lance's main responsibility was to do the dishes. All in all everything turned out great.

Entry 148: Dialogue In The Dark

Today we were lucky enough to visit an exhibit called Dialogue In The Dark. This exhibit showed you what a day in the life of a blind or visually impaired person was like. When you entered you were given a long white vision cane in which to help you and then they put you in the immersion chamber. The room then became completely dark and you could not see anything. Your guide through the tour was a blind or visually impaired person. The tour guided you through some of the everyday places that we all go: a park, shopping center, grocery store, boat ride, and a restaurant. It really made you use all of your senses and made you appreciate the gift of sight. Lance really struggled through this exhibit and the guide had to frequently come back and find Lance because he couldn't find his way out of the room. It finally got to the point that when we entered another room, the guide would ask, "Is Lance here?". All in all it was a nice exhibit that we both enjoyed. Thanks to Lance's principal for giving us free tickets to this exhibit.

Entry 147: A Possible Conversion???

While we were in Iowa for Thanksgiving, Lance was hoping that Julie would get inspired by all of the people she saw wearing Iowa Hawkeye clothing. Well the plan worked and we bought Julie the Iowa Hawkeye sweatshirt you see above. Julie finally wore it to work on Friday and Lance was just thrilled. The next plan is to get Julie to give up her St. Louis Cardinals allegiance. Keep your fingers crossed on that one.

Entry 146: Big Weekend Plans

This weekend we decided to do some stuff that we would really enjoy. Saturday is our big day when we are going to go and see an exhibit at Union Station called Dialog In The Dark. This exhibit shows you a day in the life of a blind person when they take you into complete darkness and make you do tasks. It is something that Julie and I have wanted to go to for awhile and we are both very excited. Afterwards we are going to go and see the Christmas trees at Crown Center and have a nice lunch at Panera. We plan on finishing off the day going and seeing a movie. We are both getting pretty excited for the weekend.

Entry 145: A Poem

Last week Lance had his students write a poem about their favorite pet current or past. The purpose was for them to use two forms of imagery and their pet as a symbol of something. Lance decided to also do a poem about the dog and here it is:

I have a dog named Maggie
Her stomach is just really saggy
When it sees a squirrel its tail goes waggy
When we go outside it takes us for a draggy
When we get back we are really naggy

The dog likes to dig
And dance a little jig
But even though it is big
And loses enough hair for a wig
It still smells better than a pig.

That's right if you would like Lance to write a poem about you send us $50 and you will get an original.

Entry 144: Anniversary Dinner

We were lucky enough to help Lance's parents celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary while we were in Iowa for Thanksgiving. We went and had a nice dinner and bought them a statue to commemorate the event. Below you will see a picture of them on their wedding day. Sorry for the poor quality if the pictures, but remember they are from 1980.

Entry 143: Thanksgiving

First of all we would both like to wish everyone a happy belated Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving day started very early with the whole family (including the dog) piling into the car at 7:00 in the morning to make the trek to Iowa. By the time we got to Lance's parents house at 11:30, we had to get back into the car to go make another hour and a half car ride to meet up with Lance's brother and sister and their wife and boyfriend. We all had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant (it was something new this year since we usually make dinner at the house)and it was a very nice time and meal with Lance particularly enjoying the turkey.
Afterwards we all split up and we went back to Lance's parents house were we played an exciting game of Mexican Train dominoes. Someone unfortunately forgot to explain the rules to Lance because he thought whoever had the most points won. Julie did much better though and won the game.
All in all it was a great day had by all and it was great to see family.

Entry 142: New Car

Lance is like his dad in the fact that he likes to go to car lots and look around. Julie also has been hinting that she thinks the car is getting up in miles (157000) and would like to think about getting a new one. Well on Friday when Lance picked Julie up from work, we stopped by a car lot on the way home and Lance asked the dealer what he had in small SUV's. The dealer showed us a Pontiac Torrent with only 230 miles on it and they were selling it as a new car and taking a little over $9000 off the original price. We thought this was too good to be true and went home to research the car. It had good ratings and we found out it had never been in an accident. We made the deal on Saturday and are thrilled to death. It has many features that we both like; such as heated leather seats, automatic start, a nice big backseat for the dog, and Julie's favorite controls on the passenger side so she can control the temperature on her side. You can see pictures of it below.

Entry 141: A Night Out With Friends

Last night we were fortunate enough to eat out with our friends the Green's. They were in town for a conference and we met up with them and had a nice dinner at Zio's. Lance had eaten there before and made sure everyone tried his favorite appetizer which was the Italian Nachos. Trust us when we say if you haven't tried these before, they are delicious. After a nice dinner we went over to Target and actually bought some Christmas presents, you can never be too prepared. All in all it was a nice time getting to see our friends again.

Entry 140: Raking Leaves

The weather was so nice last weekend that we decided to tackle the chore of getting the yard cleaned up from the leaves. Lance mowed the yard while Julie tackled the chore of raking up the leaves. In the end the yard looked very nice and we were both happy with the end result.

Entry 139: Election Day

This video is what will happen if Lance doesn't vote. Enjoy.

Video

Entry 138: Halloween Pictures

A few weeks ago, we were going through Target and noticed that they were selling Halloween costumes for dogs. Lance really wanted to get one for Maggie, but after looking at the price we quickly decided against it. Well this afternoon we were walking through Target again and saw that they were 50% off and we couldn't pass it up. Our options were a hot dog, lady bug, bumblebee, skeleton, and a pumpkin. The choice was easy because Julie always calls the dog a pumpkin. The dog actually didn't fight us putting on the costume and in her own strange way seemed to enjoy it.

Entry 137: Payback

Every year Lance's school buys the entire staff a shirt that they can wear on the first day of school, on homecoming day, and also for the staff picture. Julie does not like this shirt and has said on numerous times that she was going to tear up the shirt. Well Lance always thought Julie was joking and last night Lance found out that she wasn't and did something worse than tearing it up. Check the pictures.

Entry 136: The Bet

Twice a year the city has a day where you can put out all of the things that you no longer use or want in your house and they will pick it up. Well as you can imagine Julie has this date circled on the calendar months in advance and last night we put out all of our items. In the pile we had an old lawn mower, two hanging light fixtures, and an old vanity. Lance told Julie that those things still wouldn't be out there by the morning because they would be taken by people. Julie didn't believe him, so we made a $20 bet. Within a half hour the lawn mower was taken, and within 2 hours the vanity was gone. Many people came and looked at the light fixtures throughout the night, but when we went to bed there were no takers. Upon waking up this morning and Lance going out to get the paper, it was noticed that the hanging light fixtures were gone. Julie now owes Lance $20 and he already has big plans for it.

Entry 135: New Place Setting

Since the fall season is here and in full swing, Julie decided that it was time to change the place setting to reflect this change in season. The inspiration for the new place setting was a place mat that Julie received from her mom and dad for her birthday. She used the place mats and then found napkins and napkin rings that matched them and then went and found some new things to put in the centerpiece. All in all it is a very festive new place setting.

Entry 134: The Lion King

Today we went to see the touring production of The Lion King as part of Julie's birthday present. Neither of us was really sure what to expect, but we both thoroughly enjoyed it. The costumes were truly amazing. We also both enjoyed going into The Music Hall because neither of us had before. It was a really neat place to go see. Unfortunately they did not allow flash photography during the show, so what you see here is what you get. It was a great show though and we would highly recommend anyone to go and see it.

Entry 133: Julie The Nun

Julie has a retreat tomorrow for work and they are making it a costume deal to celebrate Halloween. As you can tell from the pictures Julie has decided to go as a nun. Lance just hopes that he is not the habit that Julie tries to kick.

Entry 132: Happy Birthday Julie

Today is Julie's birthday and she has finally hit the big 30. Lance has not forgotten this big day and he bought Julie tickets to see The Lion King, a nice baby blue Columbia jacket, and of course flowers sent to work. Lance has also planned a nice dinner for tonight. Happy birthday to Julie.

Entry 131: New Cabinet Vanity

Sunday we took down the cabinet in the bathroom and noticed a huge hole behind it. We decided that instead of putting a mirror up to hide the hole that we would put a whole new cabinet vanity. Since it is Julie's bathroom she picked out the cabinet. She says that she picked it out because she liked the white color and it looks old fashioned. Julie also liked it because you can open the doors without touching the mirror and leaving fingerprints. Julie was also a big fan of the baskets.

Entry 130: New Living Room Fan

The part of the house that Julie did not like was the ceiling fan that had only 3 blades. One of the blades was knocked off when Lance got mad at an Iowa Hawkeyes football game and threw a cup that bounced and knocked the blade off. This ceiling fan added some much needed light to the living room, but it was by far the toughest part to put up because of how high up it was. Julie says that this is her favorite improvement over the weekend.

Entry 129: New Kitchen Lights

The lighting in the kitchen was always bad and the fixtures were very outdated. According to Julie they probably were in the house from when it was built. Julie picked out some lights that matched some of the hardware in the kitchen part and as you can see they add a lot more light and modern flair to this area. This is the thing that Lance likes the best that was installed this weekend.

Entry 128: New Bedroom Ceiling Fan

Above you can see a picture of the new bedroom ceiling fan that was installed this weekend. It is beautiful and we absolutely love it.

Entry 127: New Lights

In our quest to update the house, we decided to change out the light fixtures in all of the rooms in the house. The one you see in the picture above is the fixture in the hallway, computer room, dude's room, and dude's bathroom. According to Julie these were the easiest to put in, except for the fact that Lance and Kent had to take one back because it was broken and get a replacement.

Entry 126: Big Changes (in the house)

As many of you know Julie's birthday is coming up this Thursday and as an early birthday present Julie's mom and dad came to help with some home improvement things. So on Saturday and today we put in two ceiling fans, changed out 6 light fixtures, and installed a new bathroom cabinet. Along the way Julie also came down with a bad cold, the dog ran wild through the neighborhood twice, and the brake lights in our car were broken. As you can tell it was quite the exciting weekend. We can not express how much we appreciate Nancy and Kent for coming down to help us with this. What great parents. You will see pictures of everything in blog entries and I am sure that Julie will give details on why she choose each item when she gets to feeling better.

Entry 125: Birthday Wishes

Lance's sister, Jacque, has a birthday today. Happy birthday Jacque and forgive me but I believe it is your 26th. We both love you.

Entry 124: New Curtains

As you can see from the picture last Sunday we got new curtains. We decided to do this because with the new living room arrangement the window was now a focal point. We also realize that the shears are a little long, but they will be hemmed up in the next few days. Again just one of many changes that are coming to the house.

Entry 123: A Little Joke From Julie

This is an email that Julie got that is really funny, so enjoy.

20 Ways To Keep A Healthy Level Of Humor

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point
a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want
Fries with that.

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has
Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

6. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write 'For Marijuana'.

7. Finish All Your sentences with 'In Accordance With The Prophecy'.

9. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you
get.

10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious
face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'..

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

14. Put mosquito netting all around your work area and Play tropical
Sounds All Day..

15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their
Party Because You have a headache.

17. When The Money Comes Out of The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'

18. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot,
Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are
Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

Entry 122: Even More Improvements On The Way

The title for this entry sums it all up: their are even more improvements on the way for the house. Julie's birthday is coming up this month and as a birthday gift, Julie's mom and dad have agreed to come and help us do some improvements around the house. Julie has the whole day planned out for them and everything bought for them to hang up. We decided to replace 2 ceiling fans in the house and have some of the light fixtures in the house switched out. You can see all the pictures of the new items below. It will be a long day on the 18th, but we will make sure we get pictures up after everything has been completed.

Entry 121: New Light Switches

Julie has decided that she wants to make some updates to the house. The first thing she wanted to do was change all of the light switches in the house because the other ones were old and looked like they had been put in when the house was originally built. So after school for a week Lance installed all new light switches in the house. So the bedrooms and bathrooms all have new flippy (as Julie calls them) switches and the rest of the house just have the regular old switches.

Entry 120: Who Will You Vote For

One of our friends emailed us an interesting link the other day. This link asks you a few questions about what a candidate said about an issue and asks you to click which one you support the most. At the end it lets you know which candidate you have the most in common with. Lance's was Obama, as if there was any doubt. Take the quiz yourself below.

Presidential Candidate Quiz

Entry 119: Lance's Dream Car

As we were coming back to Kansas City on Interstate 70 near Columbia, Lance spotted his dream car. Julie got the camera out to snap a picture. It was Chrysler's PT Cruiser knockoff that had faux wood paneling all over it. It was awesome.... (according to Lance, Julie disagrees).

Entry 118: Movie Night

Well after we got done eating in Columbia, we finished our trip by getting to the farm to set up the equipment for movie night. We played movies on Lance's projector on the side of the barn and much fun was had by all. The snacks were also really good with hot dogs, nachos, candy, and smores enjoyed by all.