more miles than santa's sleigh...

Excuse our blogging absence....we have been covering alot of miles during our Christmas travels and haven't had internet access for a while.

We started our break by barely making our plane to Baltimore on Dec. 17th. . . after stressing away several years of our lives, we made it! The rest of our DC adventure was perfect! We spent some much needed quality time with Justine and toured all over!

one of the only pics we took at the Smithsonian...me with Stephen Colbert...of course!

a lovely pic of us at the top of the Washington Monument.

And a picture inside the White House.

After our return to Kansas on the 21st we spent time with my family, eating our weight in Christmas cookies, playing cards, guestures, etc.

On the 26th we headed up to Minnesota, where the Christmas food binging will undoubtedly continue ...

so please no comments about how we've doubled in size the next time you see us!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas??

Okay, well it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here.  Not only has the temperature dropped to subzero levels, but today I have almost officially completed my first semester as a graduate student.  Grades are not officially posted until Dec. 25...yes, what a nice Christmas present.  "Dear Santa, I would like all A's please."  

We have been busy getting in the spirit via obnoxious holiday caroling (only to ourselves, don't worry) and participating in the ole tradition of baking holiday treats that people will later regret eating come new year's resolution season.  Here are some pictures of Andy dipping our homemade peppermint patties.

***Notice: We are leaving for our trip to Washington, D.C. to see our (ok MY) super best friend Justine, tomorrow (Tuesday) night and returning to computer land probably on Monday....so there will be a several day hiatus in blogging. ***

Andy's Workshop....

Today Andy's workshop created a folding whiteboard for our office.  I know this may seem a little overkill....but we are both really into making lists and writing down things we need to remember..so this is AWESOME!  

A closed view.

An open view...yea it's 8 ft. wide.  Nice job, Andy!

A demonstration of someone's maturity....

Waters 119

Here is our office staff at our Christmas/end of the semester gathering....

David, Dalton, Katie, me, and Rebecca

DONE!!!!

My paper is done! Yay!!!!  Although I would not recommend writing a 10 page graduate paper on Catholic College Student Identity Development in two days...it is done!!!  YAY!!!!

Then we posed for a couple pictures a friend needed of us.....so here we are...you can see our Christmas tree peeking out in the background....and that Andy needs a haircut.

did i mention my paper is done???  we are looking forward to a weekend full of Christmas cooking and maybe a little Christmas shopping!!!

Thanksgiving Eve

An eventful day in NW Kansas....Andy felled some trees.  We laid a target on the ground to see how close he could put the tree....he wasn't too far off.  Later I was put in charge of rolling out and cutting out the sugar cookies...so I took some creative license to expand past the traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas symbols.

The Santa's are creations of Andy and Mark, from the left they are : Jaundice Santa, Angry Santa, K-State Santa, Breast Cancer Awareness Santa, Sunburnt Santa, Multicultural Santa,...hmm can't remember, and Seasick Santa.

I also thought that cowboys and cows should be part of the mix...so we have a herd here with our lonely cowboy.  Mostly red angus and hereford.

And lastly a goose and egg.  

"Bedder" late than never!

So we have been looking for a new bed for a while now....

...by "a while" I mean like a year and a half...why??? well.....double beds are not made for happy marriages...and the double bed we have been sleeping on my parents bought when I was in like 6th grade.

Why has it taken us so long.  Good question..I have no real an

swer.  But we have finally bought one! Yay! We got this new bed today!

And we got to buy new sheets too because we didn't have any queen size sheets!  We are so excited to get a good nights sleep!!!  And to finally be able to use the queen size blanket we got LAST Christmas, when we told everyone we were getting a new bed....I'm fairly sure we do have flannel queen size sheets, that we also got last Christmas, stored in Atwood in some of our boxes.

Hard at work

We regret the delay in blogging that has occurred over the last week or so.  One week ago, Andrew decided to move to Manhattan.  That meant only one thing....

We had to commence a crash 2 week reintegration course for him to complete before he can be awarded his house and mail keys.  He has to complete several tasks and pass three exams with a 90% or higher in order to pass the course.  Failure to complete these tasks will result in remedial training and he must retake and pass the course in order to earn his own set of keys.  Unfortunately I do not trust that you all won't help him, and therefore am reluctant to explain in detail the tasks he must complete and the tests he must pass.  I can tell you many of the tasks are skills based, some relate directly to household skills, and other seek to slowly reintegrate him into the "real world", where life moves at a somewhat faster clip that "hanging out in the woods all day."

Anyhow, that is why we haven't blogged in a while.  More to come soon..

Halloween Tip #4

Clothes can make all the difference:

Justine and I love the 80s/90s!

Trying to fit his whole self in his sweatpants to be sweatpants man!!! mwuaaaaah!!!

Halloween Tip #3

Try impersonating an animal....

A chipmunk!

or maybe...

a wildcat!!

Halloween Tip #2

Don't have an appropriate hat???  Not to worry....consider a prop....here are just a few examples of things you might inspire you:

A Book.....

A musical instrument....

Or even 2 trash cans and er...a croquet mallet??...

Sandy's Halloween Tip #1

Halloween tip #1: Try putting something silly on your head.

Try it! It could be something as simple as a hat and a goofy face:

yea...and remember where these two geniuses work!

Think a regular hat is to "ordinary"? ...there are things you can do to just look ridiculous!

now that's the spirit!

Need a need a Halloween Boo-st?

I have just realized that Halloween is just over a week away and that I have not yet done my part to inspire everyone to get in the 'spirit'!  Everyday until Halloween I will be posting pictures of inspiration to help get you in the halloween mood....some of them will be just silly....

Oh that silly Andrew is wearing my sunglasses!  

But I have to warn you....you may want to screen the pictures before allowing small children to view this blog over the next week....some of the pictures will be scary.....they will shock and disturb you on multiple levels and in ways you cannot prepare for and that will leave you forever changed.......

AHHHHHHHHHH!

"Putting the Mock in Democracy"

I went to "Capitol Steps" tonight at McCain Auditorium with a friend and some people from our office.  Capitol Steps is political satire, and parody.   Their slogan is "Putting the 'mock' in democracy".  They basically make fun of what is going on in politics, etc. all night...most of it is set to music, well known songs they have replaced the words to!  Hilarious!  It was a lot of fun!

whoops!

So Andy sent me a picture text last week of the first snow of the year and I was suppose to blue tooth it to our computer and post it......and yea I just deleted all of my texts on accident.  oh well.  

In summary, it snowed.

The End.

A is for apple.

A is for alligator.

A is for altitude

A is for atlas.

A is for android.

A is for ace....as in I aced my first graduate test and my first graduate paper!  We finally got our tests back from like 3 weeks ago...and I got a 94%....okay, I have to admit I was disappointed, I thought I did a lot better than that...but the class average was an 81% so that made me feel a little better.

On my paper that was just due last Thursday (6-8 pages on a college subculture) I got a 98% which made me super excited...but I am a little bummed, because a 98% means that I probably just messed up on grammar or punctuation or something ridiculous like that! But anyhow, a pretty good day for grades!  I have a mid term this week though....on which the instructor offered the following helpful advice on studying "you should probably just know everything that we have discussed in class or that was in the assigned readings"  Yes, quite helpful.  I'll get right on that........grrrr.

the big 73!

The old stand by when there is nothing else to blog about....

73 DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Oh, I hope Santa is working out..I don't want him to get hurt as he's carrying all my presents!

sigh.

I've been trying to write my first master's paper....

This is how my brain feels.

who wants to be my friend?

I have a new brownie cookbook.  Who want to be my friend!?!?  Yay!  This is the cover of my new brownie cookbook...a birthday present from Shawna and Mark.  Yummm....I haven't tried any yet but hopefully soon!!!

Not in the brownie mood? This if for my dear friend Andi, you're right, it is getting into the pumpkin cookie time of year:

Pumpkin Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t salt

Bake 8-10 minutes 375 F.  They don't really change color that much but do get a little more golden brown.  After they cool you can frost them....I don't really follow a recipe for the frosting.....just milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla....it is more of a glaze.  

Near Death Experience

Kick boxing class = near death

Justine will understand this...  55 minutes of kick boxing class at the rec almost did me in today.  Seriously, I don't know what I was thinking.  First of all, I am not coordinated enough to attempt kick boxing, especially in front of other people, and mirrors.  I tried to blame it on my height...that I am just too tall to look normal when attempting such moves....but I think that probably is just the excuse I am using.  All I can say is, if there was a video of it, Andy would totally gotten above and beyond even with me for the video I posted of him the other day.  Really, it was bad.  Not only was it bad because of my looking ridiculous, but also it was exhausting.  Which yes, I realize is the point...but geees.  Oh and did I mention that there were only like 5 people there...so it wasn't as if I could hide behind someone, or sneak out at the water break.  No....don't worry, I was there looking silly the whole time.  

So in conclusion, I survived near death embarrassment, and death via exercise today! ha! 

Video tribute to Andrew and his work as a wildland firefighter

I have put together what I consider an accurate representation of Andrew's very tough job. :) He may disagree....and might try to lead you to believe that I was "too selective" in the clips I chose to share.

enjoy! :)

Okay, I should say that I may have only selected the FEW clips I could find where they were not really dong anything...I will sometime make a video of all the hard work they actually do. ...but this is still pretty funny....to me anyway. :) I should also point out that not all of the video and pictures are of Andrew. The guy jumping into the tank and posing with the saw is Kyle, I believe. And the sandwich isn't Andrew either...just a sandwhich.

Do you smell smoke?

If you do its probably me!  It is hard to get rid of that smell...and it makes you hungry. :)  We had a great time this weekend at the 5th annual Smokin' on the Beaver BBQ Contest!  My dad won 3rd place for his home brew!  His team name is the "beefy boyz".  He also made some FABULOUS brisket and ribs, and baby-back ribs, and brats.  We spent most of Saturday hanging out at the competition eating, checking out other smokers, eating, listening to the K-State game, eating, playing cards, eating, and eating.  My mom made some great snacks to compliment all that bbq!

 

This is the set up!

This is brisket and ribs!

And the home brew was very popular!

mmmmmm!

smokin'

This weekend you will find us in A-town for the 5th Annual Smokin' on the Beaver BBQ Competition.  My dad is entering home brew, brisket, ribs...and I think that is all.  Plus cooking some just good stuff for us to snack on.  My cousin Andra and her husband Jake, came from the Denver area and Andy is back from Oregon so he will also be partaking.  Perhaps we will get some action shots uploaded tomorrow!

On the road again...

Andy is one the road again!  They left Oregon this afternoon and started heading for Estes Park.  Hopefully they will arrive sometime on Friday then have Sat., Sun., and Mon. off....but we'll see...nothing is ever official until the last minute.  This week has flown by crazy fast....I can't even think of what has happened over the past two days....I've been working alot...8 to 11pm last night and 8 to 4 today...so basically I am averaging more hours than I can get paid for in a week....and cramming my classes into work.  We have a deadline on Monday though and after that it should be much better!

By the way..after reading the below ad for spam, I think Andy and I should start speaking to each other in rhyme.

red letter days for everyone!

Yay! My first test as a graduate is over!  I think I did a good job, I feel like I studied the right amount, and was prepared!  So hopefully it will come back with a "super" sticker on it! :)  

Andrew had a fab day yesterday...not only did he get to be the sawyer, but he also got rid of the "can of spam".  Apparently there is a can of spam being passed around....it can enter your pack if you aren't keeping an eye on it and then you have to get rid of it...aka sneak it into someone else's pack!  And dear Andrew succeeded in ridding himself of the spam after 3 days of carrying the extra 3 oz. around!  Good job Andrew! Maybe he deserves a super sticker.  So that is what firefighters do all day....play hot potato/old maid with a can of spam......I always wondered...these are your federal tax dollars at work!

Bet you can't wait to come over for dinner!

Suprisingly productive!

That is how I would describe this Saturday.  I have been studying or working on school work most of the day! With a super short nap in there (but I was up at 6:30, so that's okay!) and a two hour break to go watch K-State Volleyball beat Colorado in 3!  And I may just top the day out with some root beer!  

Yay for productivity and Go Cats!!!

Hard workin' man?

Uhhhh....not so much! Andy said they laid hose for 45 minutes this morning and the rest of the time they have just been hanging out. All this talk about how he is a firefighter...I swear most days they are just hanging out. :) He said its great weather for doing nothing, it never made it above 59 there today. They are sleeping up where they are working, which is apparently higher up on a mountain so it should be good sleeping weather. He has woken up with a frosty face a couple of times. I think Wednesday will be day 14 on this fire...but not completely sure. I haven't actually talked to him today, but we've been texting....so I think that is all accurate information.

More is less...I hope.

So I have done some rearranging in my classes! I dropped one!  yay!!!  I dropped my grant writing class, partially because I didn't like it, and mostly because it didn't show any promise of being useful, and a little because it was all irrelevant busy work.  So I have replaced those 2 credits, with a "problems course" through ag ed, which is kind of like an independent study...where you and your professor come up with a plan of what you will study and what the guidelines will be, etc.  So I am taking that for 3 credits and working with him and people from my office to write a grant that my office is working on.  So, I'm hoping that even though it is more credits it will be less busy/pointless work, and more meaningful.....and less overall misery.

Of course if I wanted less overall misery I could have just skipped the K-State football game tonight.....

In case you didn't know..

You can comment on my insightful posts about dirty towels, exciting grad classes, what Andrew is up to, etc.  Just click on the comments link at the bottom by the time posted and you can add your thoughts to whatever exciting thing Andy or I wrote about that day!  

Also in case you didn't know...it is officially less than 100 days until Christmas!!!  Yay! Only 99 days left!  Yes, I have already walked through the Christmas aisle at Hobby Lobby, and David, who I work with, also is slight obsessed with Christmas and played us a Christmas tune in the office earlier this week!  I am getting so excited!  We get to have Christmas in Washington D.C., in Kansas, AND in Minnesota! YAY! Enjoy this photo of Andy showing off his Christmas spirit.  (he would hate this by the way....he is very touchy about Halloween and Thanksgiving feeling left out! he he..oh well...what he doesn't know.....)

death by chocolate...

...I should be so lucky! For me its death by 2.5 straight hours of research methods!  Its actually not so bad, I have a good instructor...but 2.5 straight hours in any class is a little much.  

It sounds like Andy was working hard today, putting in some line and did some hiking.  They got to have lunch by a little lake, after which he and another guy jumped in for a short 30 second swim.  Nothing else to report.

Guilty of Neglect

Our poor towels, they are always the last priority when it comes to laundry.  We have so many nice towels, and only me to use them...so they usually have to wait quite a long time before being washed.  They look so sad all...poor things, having to wash all the clothes get washed week after week....and here they lay...neglected.  I even piled them in the middle of the living room today, in hopes that I would get them washed today...but it looks like another week of waiting for them.   

sad really that this is the most exciting thing to write about today....

We should all be so lucky...

So K-State football had the weekend off.  We should all be so lucky....  I was up early (okay, well relatively early) to go into work for a meeting, then have been studying the rest of the day. blah.  That is what I get though for not making time to study during the week.  I talked to Andy a couple of times today...he had a delicious meal of MRE chicken....he sounded slightly less than pleased about it.  He got to swamp yesterday (which means help the guy with the chainsaw, so assist in the felling of trees, and cutting up of other fuels).  He was hoping to get to run the chainsaw today, so we'll see if that happens.  But either way, I think that beats digging line.   And at this point I think any of that beats studying all day...but I may have a different opinion if I actually had to do that all day.  

not so bad after all???

I have recently found myself reading what I previously considered to be...well pointless. (bloggs)  But as it turns out, blogging is an effective way to see what is going on in the lives of those who are in some way relevant to you. who knew?  As much as we believe that people should call, write, and visit to keep up with each other, we are going to try this blogging thing out to see if we can't do a better job of letting everyone know what is going on!  So welcome to our blog!