Entry 546: Title Boxing

For quite some time, we have been trying to find a place that we both enjoy working out at.  We finally found the place and it is Title Boxing.  That's right, we have joined a boxing club.  They have something that is called Power Hour and it is basically an hour of continuous cardio.  You do a 15 minute warm-up with the trainer and then 35 minutes of hitting the bags with different punches that the trainer yells out.  After the exhausting 50 minutes, you have a 10 minute cool down.  It is a great work out and we both really enjoy it.  Julie had a free week there and when it ran out we both decided that we wanted to join because it was something we could see ourselves doing.  Upon joining this Saturday, we could both either get the gloves or we could get a free starter kit.  Julie's brother-in-law, Phillip, used to be a member of Title Boxing so Lance got his gloves which meant that we got the free starter kit for Julie.  Julie went the girly route and got the pink bag, pink boxing gloves, and bright green wraps.  We'll keep everyone updated on our progress.

Entry 545: Saturday With Nancy

We have not had a lot of chances lately to spend time with Julie's mom, Nancy, so we decided to spend the day with her Saturday.  We were both interested in seeing the movie Captain Phillips and we were lucky because Nancy wanted to see it also.  We all thought it was a fantastic movie and really tense throughout.  When the movie was over we decided to grab a bite to eat at B.D.'s Mongolian Barbecue.  If you have never been there before it is really good.  You actually get to pick what you want to eat and put it in a bowl.  The cooks then stir fry everything you have in your bowl and you eat it up.  The meal, like the movie, was delicious.  All in all it was a really nice day.

Entry 544: Harvest Celebration

Last weekend Powell Gardens (one of our favorite places) held their annual Harvest Celebration and Antique Tractor Celebration.  We had never been to this before, but have always been curious to see what it was about.  We made sure to get there a little early, so we could eat in one of our favorite places, Cafe Thyme, and as always we were not disappointed with the food.  The Harvest Celebration was really fun and it reminded us both of a county fair.  They had homemade ice cream, tractor pull races, pumpkin gourd competition, and tractors as far as the eye could see.  We really enjoyed it and will definitely go back next year.

  

Entry 543: Bobby

The prize for most photogenic dog goes to Bobby (and yes we took this in the morning before we made the beds).

Entry 542: Beach Days

After visiting Lance's grandma, we traveled to Tampa so that we could see a Rays game and visit some beaches.  It was interesting driving to Tampa because we were driving through tropical storm Andrea and it was amazing.  Parts of the time it would be clear and then all of a sudden it would change a huge downpour would occur.  We did finally make it and the next day we hit the beach.

In 2010 we were in a town near Tampa called Indians Rock Beach for Carol and Mike's wedding.  While there we found a beach that we loved and while driving to our hotel we noticed that the same beach was only 20 minutes from the hotel.  We had fond memories of that beach and decided to go back.  We didn't regret it and spent the whole day there searching for shells and just laying back enjoying the view.  Carol even recommended Crabby Bills for an early dinner and we absolutely loved it.  It was one of the best restaurants Lance has ever eaten at and Julie discovered that she loved clam strips.

Entry 541: Days 6 and 7

After spending a few days with Pam and Dennis, we ventured out to spend a few days with Lance's grandma.  The nice part is that they were only about an hour and fifteen minutes away from each other.  It was a nice visit and we were able to have our own little apartment in the apartment complex.  While we were there we had some nice meals, visited Fisherman's Village, saw some of Lance's grandma's favorite places, and played Rummikub every night.  It was a very nice visit and we were sad to leave.

Entry 540: Five Blissful Years

Friday we celebrated our five year anniversary, and anyone that knows us won't be surprised to read that we  celebrated by going to a Royals game.  Some really good friends of ours invited us to go with them and we always have a good time with them, so we decided to go.  We sat back and thought about everything that had changed for us in the past five years and it was amazing when we thought of all the life changing moments we have had.  We both have lost a parent (Lance's mom and Julie's dad), we both have changed jobs, we have become an aunt and uncle four different times, we have seen two of our sisters get married (Lance's sister Jacque and Julie's sister Mary), and we have had family members move closer to us.  All in all it has been a great five years and we can't wait to see what the next 50 have in store for us.  Here are some of the videos we watched to remind us about that day.





 

Entry 539: Hectic

As most of you know from a previous post, Julie's mom has bought a house in the Kansas City area. She has been having some work done to it; such as taking out all of the wallpaper, painting the entire house, and having hardwoods installed throughout the house. The good news is that the house will be all done this weekend, the bad news is that now we need to make sure that everything is ready for her to move in. Now that we are back from vacation, we have been spending a lot of time over there helping make sure the house is ready. Thursday was an especially hectic day and let me give you a small breakdown of the day:

• Nancy has been paying a really high price for her cell phone, so we decided to go to ATT and see if we could decrease her plan or even if her contract was up.  Upon getting to ATT they told Nancy that they could not help her and that this was the cheapest plan that she could be on.  It is scary that they are charging her this much and she does not even have a data plan.
• In the morning Lance took measurements of all of windows, so that they could go and look at blinds for the house.  We checked prices at Lowe's, Home Depot, and Sutherlands and found some blinds that Nancy liked.  The only problem is that the windows in the living room have a length of 88 inches, and that is not a standard length.  Now Nancy is going to have to decided if the wants to have them custom ordered or split the window in half leaving the very top portion unshaded to let more sunlight in the room.
• Our next stop was the cable company to schedule an appointment to have cable boxes installed in the house and have wireless internet installed.  Believe it or not that was a painless process, but it was a good thing Lance was there to answer the cable guys questions because Nancy would have been paying over $200 a month if he wasn't there to answer the questions.
• Nancy hired a handyman to do some final work around the house (hang up lighting fixtures and install the trim up above her cabinets).  Lance stayed around to make sure that everything went well with that  meeting and it was a good thing that he did as you will see below.
• When Lance got to Nancy's house in the morning, Nancy took him to the basement and showed him a  where some water was leaking from a pipe.  Lance is by no means a plumber (Julie can attest to that from the busted pipe), so he said to wait until the handyman showed up and let him look at it.  Lance didn't think that it was a big deal, but when the handyman looked at the pipe he noticed that for some reason the pipe was pretty much butted right against the ceiling.  This was a no-no, but made even worse when it was discovered that when they were stapling the padding down for the hardwood floor that two of the staples punctured the pipe which was causing the drip.  This was bad, so Lance called Julie and she gave him the name of a plumber who could come out that day and fix the problem.  An hour fifteen minutes later, the plumber fixed the problem and it ended up being 4 staples puncturing the pipe.  It was a good thing it was caught because if that pipe burst from the puncture, that would not have been good.

All in all it was quite a long day and it will only get longer until Nancy is fully moved in.

Entry 538: Days Four and Five

We decided to combine both days four and five because we spent those days with Julie's Aunt Pam and Uncle Dennis. Those two are such gracious hosts that we really enjoyed spending time with them. They also had a big secret that they asked us to keep and in future blog posts we will reveal that secret. We spent our days swimming in the pool, sitting looking into the canal, playing cards, and just catching up.

Entry 537: Nature Connects

Today we decided to go to Powell Gardens and see the new exhibit, Nature Connects. Nature Connects is an exhibit that has Lego creations all over the garden. At first Lance thought it would be boring, but we were both amazed and how neat the sculptures were.

Entry 536: Day Three

Today we did a lot of traveling and sight seeing. Even though the hotel was not the greatest, the bed was fantastic which caused us to sleep a little later causing us to get a late start. We drove back to Cape Coral and while going through alligator alley we stopped a few times and looked at the gators in the swamp. Lance always enjoys alligators for some reason, so he enjoyed this and Julie stayed in the car. When we got to Naples we decided to grab a bite to eat and do some shopping at the mall. We got back in time to have dinner with Julie's aunt and uncle and relax for the evening.

Entry 535: The Hotel From Hell

We are members of Choice Hotels and whenever we stay at one we get points. We decided to cash in our points to get a free stay at a hotel in Miami. We chose this hotel specifically because it said that it was only 4 miles from the stadium and boy did we ever make a mistake choosing this hotel. There were many reasons why this was a big mistake and here are a few of them: - yes the ballpark was only three miles from the hotel, until they built the new ballpark downtown. Lance figured this out once he checked in and punched the address into the GPS. The GPS told us that the hotel was 15 miles from the ballpark and that completely changed our plans because we were going to take a cab to the game. That would have been a huge and costly mistake. Instead we drove to the game and even though it scared Julie, Lance loved driving there. - when Julie walked in she said that she smelled mildew in the room. It did have a faint odor of mildew, but once we shut the bathroom door the smell became much better. - the floors were gritty and we both had to wear shoes whenever we walked on it because it just felt disgusting. - whenever you flushed the toilet the pipes made a loud, gurgling noise that went on for about 10 minutes. Trust us when we say that it was really annoying. - we got back from the game around 11 in the evening and just as we were settling down to sleep, the alarm in the room next to ours started going off. It was really loud and Lance had to eventually go and tell the front desk (actually you had to knock on the bullet proof glass to get them to talk to you)that it was going off and to have them stop it. The lady was nice and turned it off immediately. Your probably asking why we didn't change rooms, well the answer is simple. We spent approximately 20 minutes in the room before leaving for the game and didn't notice any of it until we got back at 11 in the evening. By then we were so exhausted that we really didn't care. We did both agree though that the bed was exceptionally comfy.

Entry 534: Day Two

Today was the day that we went to Miami to see the Miami Marlins play the New York Mets. This stadium was one that Lance was excited to see because it was just over a year old and he was curious to see how they built this differently than the other domed stadiums he had been to. We left Cape Coral early in the morning and made the 2 1/2 hour trip to Miami and got to drive through the Florida famous alligator alley. The call this alligator alley because it is about a 70 mile stretch of road where there are no gas stations or exits and on either side of the road you can see alligators just sunning themselves. We got into Miami about three hours before the game and grabbed a quick bite before heading to the stadium. Here are Lance's thoughts about the stadium:

- he loved the fact that as soon as they got to the stadium entrance they had an entrance for ADA only which really made Julie's entrance easier.

- the stadium was so nice that it didn't even feel like you were in a dome. The temperature and sightings were just amazing and Lance was comfortable the entire time.

- the stadium store actually had some great deals. Lance was able to get a real nice Marlins hat for only $10.

- the part that Lance enjoyed most is that as you walked in they were playing salsa music and they had live bands playing which really got you in the mood for a ball game.

- the colors in the stadium were so bright and lively that Lance just loved it.

- the stadium was also so easy to get in and out of.

All in all this has been Lance's favorite stadium.

Entry 533: Day One

This morning was a little hectic to say the least. We had packed the day before, but Lance still had to take Bella to our great friends house to use as their "practice puppy" for the next 11 days. Did I mention that they are great friends!!! Julie has been worried about the severe weather we had been having lately and didn't want to risk the car getting hail damage, so we were able to get another great friend to drive us to the airport. We got to the airport and as we were waiting the counter called our name and we were worried than that they were going to bump us from the flight. Instead we were pleasantly surprised when they said that they were trying to make more room for people in coach, so would we mind be bumped up to business class. Lance, of course, made sure that it wouldn't cost any extra money and then obviously we agreed. Two great flights and when we landed in Ft. Myers we got our rental car and were on our way. Tonight we stayed at Julie's Aunt Pam and Uncle Dennis's house in Cape Coral. It was great catching up with them, but it was off to bed early for us because we were heading to Miami tomorrow to catch a Marlins game.

Entry 532: A Weeklong Vacation

Julie didn't want us to post anything until after the trip, but surprise we took an 11 day trip to Florida. Remember those free plane tickets that we received when we gave up our seats on the Pittsburgh trip last year, well we traded them in for some tickets to Florida. It took a lot of planning to get ready for this trip, but we found some great people to watch the dogs and even got a ride to and from the airport. Now you are going to see a day by day synopsis of our trip. Enjoy.

Entry 531: A New Start

Julie's mom, Nancy, moved to Kansas City a few months ago and has been living with Julie's sister, Mary, and her family. She had been house hunting for awhile and put in a few bids on houses that weren't accepted. She finally found a house she loved and they accepted her offer. We are all thrilled to death for her and now the fun part of making the house hers begins. Right now she is in the process of taking down all of the wallpaper (and there was a lot of it)and repainting everything. She also had to buy her first ever mower and it is a nice one (can you say self propelled with an electric start). Congratulations Nancy.

Entry 530: Mothers Day

A few Sunday's ago we decided to treat Julie's mom, Nancy, to a day at Powell Gardens which we all love. We started the day off by having the Mothers Day brunch at Powell and at first I thought it was a little pricey ($25 a person), but after eating it I have to say it was well worth the money and by far one of the best meals I have ever had. Afterwards we decided to walk around the garden and listen to the band playing. All in all it was a great day.

Entry 529: DJ Lance

Every year there is a special services dance and this year they asked Lance to deejay it. Lance, of course, was up for this task and began putting together his dance set. Lance put together all of the classics for the dance: the Chicken Dance, Gagnam Style, YMCA, Call Me Maybe, and the ever popular Who Let The Dogs Out. The dance got off to a rousing start and here are a few of the stranger requests that Lance got: a song that a boy could do the robot to, a Smashing Pumpkins song, and my personal favorite was any song by Megadeath. All in all it was a fun time.

Entry 528: Royals blog

Have you been checking out our Royals blog. if not click here to see what it has been like and saying it has been fun would be an understatement.

Entry 527: 42

Yesterday we went and saw the movie 42. We both have been wanting to see the movie for quite some time, but we have been extremely busy. The weather was rainy yesterday, so we got up early and decided to see the matinee performance of it. We had high expectations going in and we were not disappointed in the least. What an amazing movie that we will definitely go and see again and not because we are both baseball fans. You earn a whole new respect for Jackie Robinson after watching this movie. The only thing Julie wished they would have done is shown what happened to him after his playing career had ended. All in all it was a movie we would recommend to everyone.

Entry 526: What The...

That's right, it is May 2nd and not only is it snowing but it is sticking.

Entry 525: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Every Royals game they play a game called Caption This on the scoreboard. They show a picture and you have to text a caption for the photo to possibly win. Lance always plays this, but has never won until last night. Lance texted in his caption like he always does, but 10 minutes later he got a phone call telling him he won and where to claim his prize. Lance ended up winning a $50 gift card and having his name announced. Below you can see the winning caption on the scoreboard and Lance's gift.

Entry 524: Flowers Are Now Planted

In Julie's unending quest to make sure Lance is never bored on the weekends, she decided that we would plant flowers on Saturday. It didn't matter that it had been raining all day on Friday and that the temperature was a balmy 51 with no sun because she was determined to get it done. As you can see below the mission was accomplished, but wouldn't you know it, the next day was sunny and 75.

Entry 523: Houston Trip

Last weekend we traveled to Houston, Texas to continue our mission of seeing every MLB ballpark by visiting Minute Maid Park. We left on Friday and came back on Sunday. We stayed at the Inn At The Ballpark which was awesome because it was literally right across the street from the stadium. We both loved this hotel, but for completely different reasons. Lance loved it because the whole hotel had a ballpark theme. It had baseball statues all over the hotel, baseball pictures in the room, and their restaurant had pretty much all baseball food. Julie liked the hotel because it had really nice soaps and shampoos in the bathroom and the room had leather couches with a great view of downtown from our window. Lance was excited to see Minute Maid Park because of the train and the hill in center field. Let's just say that he was not disappointed. The stadium was beautiful and we had really great seats (8 rows behind home plate). We both ranked this as our second favorite stadium behind PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Enjoy the pictures. Houston Pictures.

Entry 522: Bon Jovi

Lance is a huge fan of Bon Jovi and was thrilled to see that they were coming to Kansas City. Last night was the concert and we went along with Lance's dad, Paul, who likes going to concerts also. When we got to our seats we noticed that they were a little steep as you can see from the picture. The seast really weren't accessible for Julie, so Lance and Paul decided to see if there might be something better. Lance talked to an usher who was in a section with handicap accessible seast and he told us to come over because he was pretty sure that it wouldn't be a sell out. We went back and got Julie and settled in for a great night. Little did we know though that the concert actually was sold out and about 10 minutes before the show was to start, we were told that we were going to have to move. Lance decided he would see what customer service could do, not expecting them to be any help at all and for Julie to be sitting in seats that she couldn't get too. We were blown away by what they did though; they found accessible seats for all 3 of us and they were actually much much closer and they didn't charge us any more money for the upgrade. The best part is that we got there before they even started. Here are the pictures that show the difference in the seats. The concert was fantastic and they played all of their hits for 2 1/2 hours and we sang along for every minute. Here are some of the small videos that Lance got.

Entry 521: A New Beginning

Last summer's drought really took a toll on our bushes and 3 of them ended up looking like they might be dead. This spring confirmed that they were dead, so Lance was given the fun task of removing the dead bushes. He ended up removing all three of them and as you can see Julie has a blank slate to work with this summer.

Entry 520: Baseball Season

We are really excited right now because baseball season has finally started again. Once again we have season tickets to the Kansas City Royals, but this year we decided to do something a little different. The Royals have a deal where in certain sections if you buy 2 seats, you get the 2 seats next to it for free. So basically you are getting 4 seats for the price of 2. The only stipulation though is that you have to buy them for a full season, and we had no desire to go to a full seasons worth of games. We came up with a solution though and found some friends who went in with us and we split the tickets up like they were half game season tickets. Basically what this means is that they get 4 tickets for half of the games and we get 4 tickets for the other half of the games. It is a pretty good deal in the end and we are thrilled that we can do other things now instead of feeling like we have to go to every game. Lance did start blogging about the games again and you can check them out by clicking here.

Entry 519: Celebrity Apprentice Fantasy

Lance absolutely loves watching the Celebrity Apprentice and a few years ago he started a Celebrity Apprentice game. Before the first episode you pick what place you think each contestant will get and when they are voted out you will subtract your pick from when they were voted out. The winner is the person who gets the lowest point total. If you want to play click the link below and fill it out. Fantasy Celebrity Apprentice Link

Entry 518: Losing My Mind

Julie's mom, Nancy, decided to go to her sister's house in Breckinridge, Colorado for a few days to get away. Lance told her that when she was ready to come back, all she had to do was to call Lance and he would make her plane reservations back. Nancy called Lance and said she would like to come back on Wednesday, February 20th and Lance got right on it and found a great price on a flight back. Everything looked great, until Nancy went to the airport and tried to get her ticket. Lance unfortunately didn't check the ticket real well and made the reservation for March 20th and not February 20th. Luckily the ticket counter was very understanding and got Nancy on a flight that day. Before you think it; Lance did not do this on purpose.

Entry 517: Late Valentine's Day Celebration

Unfortunately Lance had parent-teacher conferences on Valentine's Day and didn't get home until 8:00 in the evening. Fortunately we both had the next day off, so we decided to celebrate than. Julie is a big fan of Blue Koi (an awesome restaurant that is downtown), so we decided to go there and grab some lunch. Lance had never eaten there before, but a friend of his told him to try the Thai Pot Roast over noodles. It was by far one of the best meals Lance had ever had. If you have never been there, we would both highly recommend it. After the meal, Julie really wanted to see the new Nicholas Spark's movie, Safe Haven. Lance really enjoyed the movie because it had some action in it, but Julie didn't like it as much because it had some scarier parts in it. Not to ruin it for anyone, but someone dies in the movie (that is a big joke for us because someone always dies in a Nicholas Sparks movie). All in all it was a great Valentine's Day.

Entry 516: Tough Times

We have been keeping it quiet for some time, but back in October Julie's dad, Kent, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was a very tough time for the family, but with the help of hospice his remaining time was relatively pain free. He passed away last Monday the 4th and he will always be missed. Click on the link below and you can see a video that we made to highlight Kent's life. Kent Video

Entry 515: Here We Go Again

Lance says this every year and every year he makes it about halfway and stops. This year though he is determined to go a whole year on his 365 Days With Lance blog. This blog is just where Lance takes a picture every day and posts it. Now will there be a picture everyday, probably not because eventually there will be a day where Lance forgets. Right now it is up to date and you can check it out by clicking on the 365 blog link on the right hand side.

Entry 514: SMAC

Ever since Lance switched buildings, he has always wanted to start a community service club. This year Lance finally found someone that shared that same desire and together they started a club called SMAC (Students Making A Change). The group meets every Tuesday after school and they range between 35-40 members. Tomorrow they start their first community service project which is to try to raise 1000 stocking caps, hats, and socks for the homeless population around the area. Yes it is a pretty lofty goal, but the kids really wanted to set it that high and think they can do it. Starting tomorrow and all next week the group will be selling hot chocolate in the morning to help raise funds for the cause or to give to people that donate a stocking cap, socks, or gloves. We will make sure to keep you updated on the progress and wish us luck.

Entry 513: Good News, Bad News

Let me take you back for a second to our summer trip to Pittsburgh. We were flying home and had a layover in Atlanta. The Atlanta flight home was overbooked, so they were asking for people willing to give up their seats for two round trip tickets anywhere that AirTran flew. Julie decided to take them up on it and we received vouchers for our round trip tickets.

Now lets move forward to this weekend. We called too exchange our vouchers for tickets and we got some bad news/good news. We wanted to use our vouchers to fly to Phoenix, Arizona so that we could see the Royals spring training. Unfortunately we were told that since Southwest bought out AirTran they no longer had a hub in Phoenix and that the farthest west they flew was Houston. Now this was the bad news, but it was immediately followed up with good news. The lady on the phone told us that we had four roundtrip tickets to go anywhere else, and we stopped her for a second and asked her again how many tickets we had. She again said four, but Lance the honest person he is said he thought we only had two. The lady checked again and assured us it was four round trip tickets.

We hung up the phone and after looking at our schedules determined where we wanted to go on our trips (the trick is that they had to be taken by June 13). We booked our tickets and get ready for some updates in the very near future after our visits to Texas and Florida.

Entry 512: Dream Come True

Most people that know Lance knows that he is a dork. One of Lance's dorkiest goals is that he has always wanted to be the webmaster of a schools website. This just means that he maintains it and adds information as needed. This year the webmaster resigned their position and Lance took over as webmaster. Check out the website at www.liberty.k12.mo.us/lms

Entry 511: Dinner Time

Whenever we sit down and eat, Bobby likes to get up in the chairs and watch us. We found him sitting at the table ready to eat and apparently drink the other night (Lance actually got out the Mikes Hard Lemonade and set it there for the picture).

Entry 510: Kitchen Cabinets

Julie has been bugging Lance for quite some time about doing something with the kitchen cabinets. Since all of the rooms of the house have been repainted, Julie knew exactly what color she wanted the painted. Julie left for the weekend to visit her parents and Lance figured this was the perfect time to get the cabinets repainted. It was a long, arduous process with everything having to be sanded and painted twice. It took Lance about 26 hours to finish everything, but the end result is very nice. Here are some pictures of the work in progress, but to see the end result check out the 365 blog tomorrow to see.

Entry 509: Early Christmas Gift

We both decided that we really enjoyed going to the Royals games this past season, but we weren't sure what we were going to do next season because the full season tickets were just too much for us. A couple that we shared seats with this year came up with an interesting proposition, we would keep the same seats but split the games. So basically we have 4 seats for half of the Royals games this year. These are the games we have seats for this year:

* April: Twins, Blue Jays, Indians, Rays.
* May: Rays, White Sox, Yankees, Angels, and Cardinals.
* June: Twins, Astros, Tigers, White Sox, Braves.
* July: Indians, Athletics, Tigers, Orioles.
* August: Twins, Red Sox, Marlins, White Sox, Nationals.
* September: Mariners, Tigers, Indians, Rangers.

The nice part is that we have 4 seats for each of those games and we will be able to take people if they want to go. It costs us a little bit, but we both enjoy going to the games.