Christmas Day Part I

This is the teapot that Cathy got at the White Elephant Exchange at the Morh's. Actually, techincally it's Kirk's teapot, as Cathy made him "win" it for her after she was out of turns. She loves it.

Another shot of the teapot. The thing to the left fits in and you can put loose tea leaves in for brewing. We've already tried it with the English Breakfast tea that Dustin sent to Cathy for Christmas- yum!

Vanessa wanted to meet Annie, who actually obliged without being *too* grumpy about it.
Vanessa in her Christmas dress, before we opened the presents.
Our tree, with most the presents under it. We can't put the gifts under it until just before we open it, because of curious animals.

Sarah likes her gift. She carried it around all morning. She really wanted to take it outside so she could bury it, and was kind of cranky that she was not allowed to do it.
Despite the unimpressed face, Vanessa really seemed to like the Phonics bus.
It took *forever* to get out of the package.

Linda and her favorite gift this year- the Elephant lamp.

We're off to the Mohr's for Christmas dinner- more to come later!

Snow!

It's a good thing Linda and Kelly made it in last night. This morning, we woke up to this:

So much for the ice storm

We were promised a very dramatic ice storm yesterday. It was going to be bad- power may be out, trees and power lines down, people stranded due to horrible roads. Kirk and I were all set to stay home from work today. On the radio this morning, schools were cancelled. Universities were cancelled-and it's finals week! Even non-essential personnel on the military base had a delayed start! The roads must be horrible, right?

Then we looked outside and saw...lots of rain. No ice, no downed trees, no reason to stay home from work. They must have cancelled those other things last night, when they were expecting the mini-apocalypse.

While I'm glad that we're not getting it as bad as Oklahoma, I was all set for a day off! Now I'm worried that the freezing rain will come while I'm at work, leaving me stranded and forced to subsist on questionable cafeteria food.

The Cutest Ugly Car In the World

Meet Cathy's 2006 "new" Scion XB, The Breadbox!

In case you were wondering...

I got the job!  I now work at Case New Holland as the
Engineering Coordinator.  I've been there a little
over a week and I think I'll like it much more than my
previous job. 

My job is to process Engineering packages to make sure
that everything has been done that needs to be done. I
make sure that everything on the drawings is also on
the bill of materials so they have everything to build
the equipment.  It is not a difficult job, but it is
very detail oriented and there are billions of small
details to remember.  I think I'm doing well so far.
My trainer says I've already done more on my own in
the week I've been here than the guy who last had my
position did in the month he was here.  There is
PLENTY to do! I don't see how the person who is
training me managed to do this on her own for over a
year without help.

It will be a very busy job, and I will likely have to
do overtime.  I don't mind so much though.  Since it
is hourly, I'll get paid time and a half for any
overtime.  It is contract, so it will not be forever,
but it will give me some time to figure out what I
want to be when I grow up. As a bonus, it is much
closer to home than my last job, pays more, and the
contract is much longer. Once I am trained, they will
allow me to work from home a day or two a week, which
will be awesome as well.

Thanksgiving Dinner Shapshot

Not shown: Strawberry Pie

Wanted: Shiny New Job

For those of you who have not heard, I have quit my temp job. (Sort of. I agreed to work Saturdays for the next 6 or so weeks, but hey, extra money.) I left for many reasons, the biggest being that the amount of money I was earning did not even come close to compensating for the insanity I had to deal with, plus the commute across town.

Luckily, I have another job interview today at a company way closer to home. If this does not work out, then I will go back to subbing. I'll let everyone know how it turns out!

Just in Case You Were Wondering

Kirk did pass his thesis defense! He'll have his Master's in December! It seems like we started grad school just yesterday, and now we're both done.

Sarah's a Bus!

I made Sarah a costume for Halloween! She's taking it better than I thought she would, but I won't say she's happy about it...

Jeremy's Gig

Jeremy's band had their first gig ever last night. Yay! Since Kirk is in Colorado, Cathy went to see him. It was supposed to be a costume party as well. Jeremy went as Matthew Lesko, that "Buy my book and get government money!" informerical guy. I thought that the costume was pretty good. He got the pants and the jacket at Goodwill. The question marks are made of felt and glued on with a hot glue gun.


I wore my Amish outfit. I got it off E-bay a few years ago. Every single Halloween I've worn this, somebody has asked me if it is a costume, or if I was really Amish. Each time I've been asked this, I've been at a bar. I never knew the Amish frequented bars so often! Yesterday took the cake though. Even though it was supposed to be a costume party- nobody but Jeremy and I had on a costume. A woman came up to me to see if I was really Amish or not. When I said it was a costume, she gave me a weird look and asked if I was from America or not- as she could not tell from my accent. Okay. This morning Jeremy told me the same woman came up to him and asked what was up with his clothes. I guess no one else got the "this is a costume party" memo.

Wish Kirk Luck!

Kirk left this morning for Colorado. He'll be defending his Master's thesis in Fort Collins on Tuesday- wish him luck! The title of his thesis is *drumroll*

Differential Sputtering Yields Of Refractory Metals By Ion Bombardment At Normal And Oblique Incidences.

You'll have to ask him what that means. :-)

Creepy

This spider has made his home over our compost heap. The web is really neat, but the spider is kind of...creepy.

We stained the deck!

It was a good day to do it, nice and cool in the morning and not so bad in the afternoon. Jeremy helped us as well, which made it go much faster. We miscalculated how much stain we needed and had to run to Lowe's for another gallon.

Before:

That's Kirk's air compresser in the middle of the deck. He cleaned out the cracks with it.

Kirk says hello!

Side view

After:
It really needed to be stained.

Another After Shot
I can't belive how much better it looks!

Fruit Salad on a Stick

We had a BBQ for Labor Day weekend. One of the most popular dishes we served was this fruit salad on a stick thing I made. I hollowed out a cantaloupe, and put the cantaloupe pieces with some other fruit on those cheap-o wooden skewers, then stuck the skewers into the empty cantaloupe shell. It drew oohhhh and ahhhhs like crazy, and it could not have been easier to make! But if anybody asks, it took hours.

Weekends in Kansas

On Sunday Brad (Jeremy's coworker) took us to his parent's compound to to shoot clay pigeons. Kansas folk are huge fans of their guns, and the guys were universally appalled that we did not

1. Have our own guns

and

2. That Cathy had never shot a gun.

We did bring our own bullets, which Cathy and Jeremy went to buy at Wal-Mart. It was pretty funny! Apparently, there are different types of bullets, and anybody who does not know all the types is either a woman or has The Gay. I get a pass because they did not want me to hurt my pretty little head, but I'm sure they were waiting for Jeremy to head off to the accessories department to buy himself a new pink feathered purse to go with his boa and heels.

Here Kirk and Jeremy are in action:

Kirk with one of the smaller guns. He shot a rifle as well, but the picture did not come out well.

Jeremy and Eddie, shooting Clay Pigeons.

Cathy did shoot both the small gun and the rifle, but there are no pictures of it. Jeremy was holding a loaded gun at the time she shot, and Kirk was in charge of one of the younger children wandering around the compound, so nobody had a free hand to take a picture. Cathy did hit a clay pigeon! Since she was not aiming at anything in particular besides "over the cornfield" she was as surprised as everybody else!

They also had goats. This was a particularly friendly one!

It was fun, but we're glad to cross it off the been there, done that list.

It's finally happened...

Kirk finished his thesis! He does have to add some appendixes, but that is a copy and paste job. The copy will be sent to Dr. Williams this week!

It is HOT!

I don't know about Colorado, but Wichita has been beyond hot the past few days. It reached 105 (with the heat index) on Tuesday and they're expecting it to go that high again today. It makes me glad I work in an overly air conditioned office now!

New Kitchen Color

I found some yellow paint in the basement that the last owner must have left, and thought it would look nice on one wall in the kitchen. I think it does!

Photographic Evidence

Bathroom Remodel

Cathy spent the past month remodeling the bathroom. All it took was some paint, new towel racks, and a lot of time gritting her teeth and scraping off the frog wall paper.

Here's some before shots:

Note the frog themed wall paper. There are even fake frogs glued to the faceplate of the light switch!

You can see the bottom of the cabinet I painted right above the toilet. There is also a wooden toilet seat. And more frogs. They sure loved their frogs.

Here's the after:
Notice how frog free it is! Scraping down that wallpaper took FOREVER. You can also see our new towel rack on the right. We painted the walls a purple color.
Here's our other new towel rack. We also replaced the faceplate of the light switches. We were not able to scrape off the wooden frogs.
We replaced the wooden toilet seat with a white one. You can sort of see our new toilet paper holder here.

This picture had been in our bedroom, but we thought it looked just right in the bathroom.
Here's the sink area. Not much going on here.
A better shot of the paint and picture.
I painted the wooden cabinet they left a pale yellow. The drawers underneath are something I picked up at a thrift store when we lived in Fort Collins. I painted those too, and they're very handy.

Melanie and Ben's Wedding

Finally, the pictures you have all been waiting for!

Here's the empty chapel, shot from the balcony. Very pretty!
Mom, Melanie, Cathy, before the wedding in the bride's room.

Mom and Dad

Susan and Dave
During the wedding, shortly before Cathy's bouquet broke!

The carnage from the broken bouquet.
Cathy and Mike
Melanie and Ben
Cathy, Ali, Melanie, Libby, and Summer, after the wedding.
Ben and his Groomsmen
Melanie and her friend Brandon
Ali, Libby, Summer, and Scott
Melanie and Dad during the Father/Daughter Dance.
First Dance...awwww...

Ben and Melanie dancing again.
Melanie and Ben.
Cathy looking fabulous!
Cathy and Robert
Garter Toss

Melanie and small child.
It was my birthday! And the cake was chocolate!
Kirk stopped taking pictures long enough to have this one taken with Cathy.
Cathy and Linda
More of ME ME MEEEEEEE!
Alice and Cathy
Ali and finance (Melanie- what's his name?)
Arron and Brandon
Melanie, Ben, and the car.