Day 79

I just want to say for the record that when we have kids, and they grow up and have their own lives and families, we will never make them feel guilty about not visiting us or missing family events.  We will just be grateful when they do come visit and enjoy whatever time we get with them.  Shouldn't we just be happy that other people like our kids enough to want to spend the holidays with them?  That's a pretty big compliment I think.

This year we are flip-flopping our holiday schedule and spending Thanksgiving with Rick's family in St. Louis and Christmas with my family in El Dorado.  At first I think Pat was a little upset that we wouldn't be there for Christmas, but then she told us this story about when she and big Rick were first married.  Apparently they were planning to spend Christmas with Pat's family and when they told big Rick's mom this she told them something to the affect of "they better come to Christmas at her house or they could just never come to anything again."  So, needless to say they went, but Pat promised herself that when she had kids she would never do anything like that to them.  And I am very grateful for that.

It's really hard having to choose between two families and I always feel guilty about not being at one place or the other.  I can't wait for the time when we have kids and we can just force everyone to come to us. haha
But, until then, it's just not physically possible for us to be both places in that limited amount of time, so we'll keep trying to split ourselves as equally as possible.

Day 78

Here's Rick's dad and Chris getting down on the dance floor.  Rick's dad is an avid dancer :)

Here's Rick's cousins Tim and Katie who caught the garter and bouquet.  There was  quite the brawl for the bouquet and I think Carly ended up with some petals.  Tim was not too happy about his sister being the bouquet catcher.

Last night was Matt and Jessie's wedding and we partied it up with all of Rick's family. When we woke up at the hotel, this morning, Rick was on a mission to pack up and hit the road ASAP. There was no convincing him that we should sleep in longer. It wasn't until we were waiting at the elevator that he decided to call his parents and sister to see if they wanted to meet up for breakfast. Shockingly, they were all still in bed with no plans to get up any time soon. Smart people. I haven't been feeling 100% and this morning I had almost completely lost my voice and felt like death. So, I was not too happy about our rushed departure.

Anyway, we made it home to Lawrence, about 3 and after some chicken fingers spent a relaxing night on the couch. I feel like we haven't been home for a laid-back weekend forever, so it was really nice to get that.

day 77

We gave rusty a ride today. He was not a happy camper. He's not accustomed to the small quarters of my back seat.

Now were on our way to the reception of this wedding. There was such a big gap between the wedding and reception that everyone is now hammered. Lol gotta love the rileys

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day 76

Today I got asked out by one of my clients.

This particular client doesn't speak English very well and definitely doesn't understand the united state's government at all. It was really awkward.

We had just finished our meeting with the city prosecutor and I was telling him for the umpteenth time that he needed to do diversion and explaining how to fill out the application. When I finished, he said "i show my appreciation treat you to lunch" eh? When I finally decipher what he'd said I explained that I'd already eaten lunch and had to get back to work. I was trying to let him down easy while subtly flashing my wedding ring. This did not deter him. He immediately asked if I was available for dinner. I told him he really didn't have to do that and I was going out of town tonight. At this point I was totally creeped out and trying to get the heck out of there, so I asked if he had any other questions about diversion and stood up to leave. He asked me the same 3 questions I'd just covered about his court date, fines and his visa and as I was about to leave he said "why you not accept my appreciation?" Seriously dude? So I explained that we weren't allowed to fraternize with clients or see them at all outside of court or the office and I couldn't go to lunch or dinner or any other meal with him. That seemed to finally get through to him and he apologized for not knowing the rules. Freaking awkward.

I practically ran out of the place to avoid any more invitations. When I told Rick this story he basically said don't flatter yourself it's a cultural thing and not accepting their "appreciation" is insulting to people of his culture. Awesome.

In other news we are on our way back to st. Louis for Rick's cousin, Matt's, wedding. The construction cone man from last week was knocked/blown over which was really disappointing bc I had my camera all ready for a picture.

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day 75

Wednesday 'ings'
(totally stole this from someone else's blog)

Tonight I am:
- laughing hysterically at The Middle and Modern Family
- blowing away in the stupid wind
- hating all the Missouri campaign commercials
-packing for our trip to St. Louis
- coughing bc of this stupid cold I gave caught
- dreading reading for class tomorrow

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day 74

Tour Tuesday

Up this week: the kitchen
It's pretty self-explanatory, so I'll keep it short. This kitchen has amazing storage. I love having a pantry and more than enough room for all of our wedding gifts. I also love that there is room for both of us to be in here cooking at the same time. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that we only really use the table for breakfast. We eat dinner on the coffee table most nights, which I know is terrible, but I swear when we have kids we will have sit-down, family dinner.

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day 73

Rick finally let me buy Halloween candy!!!!!!!!!!!

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Day 72

Yesterday was rough. We're on our way home now, but neither of us are excited for this drive.

We started out yesterday with lunch/breakfast at Sonic. It definitely hit the spot, even though Rick didn't get his wacky pack. That was followed by the Illini smashing Indiana in the homecoming football game. After the game we went up on the sun deck and watched all the fans walk by. I noticed two trends: pants as tights (not ok) and jumpsuits. I saw Illinois and Indiana fans in full jumpsuits in their team's colors (odd). I always like to check out what the college girls are wearing so I can keep up with the trends, sometimes I drive through campus between class back home, so I can check out all the trends haha

Anyway, the rest of Saturday was pretty rough. I really could not bring myself to drink beer again, for most of the day. Eventually we got the party started with some beer pong, foosball and dancing. At 3:30am it was definitely time to go home, even though Rick swore it was only 8:30pm.

Day 71

Well, last night was fun. We spent most of the night at Psi U, but did manage to hit up the Double I and Bonnie Jean's. Here are some of the highlights:

- Rick 'successfully' brought back rad
- I got 3 pledges to let me sign their paddle
- Rick found his long lost Busch Light sign, and gifted it to a pledge, because I won't let him take it home
- I burned the roof of my mouth so bad on pizza, I think there might be a blister
- Our friend Plencner got pizza smashed on him by a drunk girl, who's boyfriend then picked it up off the ground and ate it... eww

I'm sure there were other things, but that's all I can think of right now because I'm in desperate need of water, advil and greasy food.

Day 70

Today we finished the rest of our trek to Champaign. But, before we left Edwardsville we went to see Rick's dad's newest project, a house that is all 'green' (as in earth-friendly, not in color). It was pretty cool to see. They tore down an old farm house where the home-owners used to live and re-built an all new, super efficient house in the same spot in only 4 months. The house has all the state of the art features. It has this cool little gadget that tracks how much energy you're using in the house at any time and can predict your gas/electric bill.

When we finally got to Champaign, our first stop was Za's, the best restaurant ever. It was just as delicious as I remember. Rick stopped by Frasca and said hello to all his old co-workers and then we went down to Kam's... the grossest bar ever. I swear all the college kids in there looked 12, I felt old.

DAY 69

Tonight Rick and I are headed to st. Louis to spend the night his parents before heading to champaign tomorrow. As we were driving through kc there was a ton of construction, but then we saw the most hilarious thing ever. On the side of the road someone had built aman/monster out of orange construction barrels and cones. It was probably 7 or 8 feet tall with a head and arms! So funny. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture bc we passed it so fast. Maybe on the way home.

Now we just have to drive across the ENTIRE state of Missouri yay!

day 68

Today I present a little segment I like to call Places My Husband Falls Asleep. This will most likely be a recurring segment as I fully intend to gather more of these hilarious pictures.

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day 67

Tour Tuesday is back!
This week, Rick's room.

Yes, Rick has his own room, a man cave if you will. This is where we keep all of Rick's collections. Guitars under the bed, beer posters (and clock) on the wall, skates in the closet, bills and 'important thing' in the file bins, etc. Etc. The man has a lot of collections. Don't even get me started on the pint glasses.

This is also our guest room. The bed in there used to be mine and it is rock hard. Sorry to anyone who comes and stays with us.

And finally, it is our shared study room, when one of us really needs to get some work done. It's like the 'room of necessity' on Harry Potter, but not quite as magical.

Ps. Rick made me breakfast in bed today! He is the best husband ever!

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Day 66

Unfortunately I don't have much to tell from today.  It was a pretty average day.  Rick and I did run almost 2.5 miles before dinner tonight! Yay us!
That is all.

Day 65

Tonight Tristan came over to hang out with us and he seems to be doing so well.  Being 6 years apart we haven't always had the closest of relationships, but I worry about him a lot and a few months ago I was crying because he wouldn't talk to any of us and I didn't know if he was ok.  We've come a long way, since then.  He's definitely happier and more talkative than I've seen him in a long time, and I just hope that he has really made some good changes in his life.
He was so funny talking with us tonight, I could tell he had things he wanted to tell us and he would just segue into them out of nowhere, like he couldn't wait to get them out.  I'm so happy that he's actually interested in hanging out with me (and Rick) on a regular basis. 
He doesn't read this blog, but I thought it was worth mentioning, and I hope someday I can look back at this and remember how far we've all come since this summer. So, here's to you Tristan :)

day 64

Thursday and Friday of this week were supposed to be our fall break at school and there were no classes. However, Rick and I both ended up working all day Thursday and most of Friday. Lame.

We did manage to squeeze our favorite fall activity into the end of our Friday afternoon... We visited the pumpkin patch, which has become a yearly tradition for us. The pickings were a little slim this year and we were the only people there which we thought was odd. But, we managed to each find a pumpkin, and we got a baby pumpkin to make up for the fact that we have no children or dogs. We're going to wait a week to carve them, so they don't get mushy and look like old people without their dentures in by Halloween. Anyway, as we were driving home we passed another huge, pumpkin patch with cars parked all up and down the road and hundreds of people. We then realized that was the place we'd been trying to go for two years and until now we had never realized we were at the wrong place. Oops.

This year we are finally living some where that we might get some trick or treaters and I am pumped about that! I tried to buy some candy the other day at the grocery store, but Rick said I had to wait until closer so we don't eat it all. Maybe I can sneak some in the cart tomorrow.

The rest of our weekend was pretty low key because we are trying to rest up for next weekend when we head back to Champaign for homecoming! Is it sad that I am most excited about eating at all of my favorite restaurants again?

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Day 63

Two funny stories about Rick:






Story #1
Last night we went to the KU Kstate football game (in which the Wildcats obliterated the Jayhawks).  As we were walking into the game, a ton of people were tailgating.  This older guy walking right in front of us, chugged the last of his beer and then just threw his cup on the ground, aiming for the sewer, but missing.  Rick, suddenly, picks up the cup and chases this guy down through the crowd.  When he catches up with him, he taps his shoulder and hands the cup back to him saying, "I think you dropped this, and I'm sure there's a trash can right next to the gate."  The man just stared at him in stunned, silence.  It was hilarious.

Story #2
Rick has been known to say crazy things in his sleep.  Last night I woke up to him saying, "A gaggle of geese hehehe, it's a gaggle of geese!' and giggling the whole time. Also, hilarious.

day 62

GO STATE!

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day 61

last night I finished the book I've been reading, but I forgot I needed something new to read until tonight.

Rick kindly volunteered to find a book for me out of his collection. After rejecting several sci-fi novels I found a book called "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman". Sounds funny, right? wrong (mostly). The book is about a physicist, science guy and the whole first chapter is about the gadgets he constructed and invented as s child. Booooring. Not to mention, the guy totally writes in a stream of consciousness way, jumping from topic to topic with zero transitions.

So Rick tells me to skip ahead to the next chapter. I do, and this chapter starts out a little more promising. It is about the pranks he pulled on his fraternity brothers in college. There's one joke where he takes a door off the study room, and doesn't tell any one where it is for days, until he gives a long monologue at dinner about how clever and genius the person who took it must be, and then after everyone agrees with him he admits it was he, oh clever one, who took the door. Hmm... Well that joke started out funny but you took it just a little too far, buddy.

Next he tells the story of a busy diner where often eats and how he wants the waitresses to slow down, and smell the proverbial roses. So one night he leaves his tip inside two completely full water glasses turned upside down on the table top. His theory is that with the first glass the waitress will spill the water, but with the second she will figure out his magical physics trick, and know she should slide the glass off the table into a soup dish, and not spill the water. Needless to say, the waitress does not figure out the trick on glass one or two. And somehow amidst her busy job and the now giant puddle of water she misses the lesson about slowing down and enjoying life. Um, nice work jackass your magic physics trick is annoying and messy.

And that was the last chapter I will be reading of that book. So, thanks for trying rick, but tomorrow I will definitely be hitting up the library.

For the record Rick has impeccable taste in most things in life and this book was just a small misstep. :)

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day 60

Today I spent my entire day in court. It was truly a day of learning.

Before 10am I learned that doing defense work for a Las Vegas event planner will get you VIP tickets to Kim Kardashian's birthday party.
I also learned that there is a genetic condition that makes hands always cold. I later learned of another condition that prohibits one from taking deep breaths, but that was later in the day.

Around noon I found out that my husband can catch 5 grapes in his mouth in a row. That's the record for now.

Between the hours of 1pm and 3:30pm I learned that some people really are remorseful for their crimes. That others need smoke breaks every 10 minutes. Literally. And that a crazy man can pace around the lobby of a crowded municipal court screaming random things and absolutely no one will react. No one.

By the time 4 rolled around I learned that grown men, who are experienced lawyers, can still throw tantrums like 5 year olds. And when they do, they will be yelled at by judges in a manner similar to the way their mother would yell at them.
All in all a successful and highly entertaining day.

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Day 59

There was no way this blog was going to make it 2 months without a Rick written biking post and since this weekend was Octoginta, the unofficial end of the season, prepare yourself.

I started riding seriously last year, very seriously when I moved to Lawrence and joined the Lawrence Bike Club.  In the past two years I've ridden over 4,500 miles in four states, met a ton of great people and lost 50ish pounds.  Hooray biking.  Last year at this time I rode my first ever century, 100 miles in one ride, with a group of friends of whom only one had completed this milestone before.  It was rough but an absolute blast.  When I finished and arrived at my apartment, Jessie had made me a sign that as hanging on the door congratulating me on the ride and she served me a second dinner of cheese tortellini which was AMAZING (and that wasn't just the hungry post ride stomach talking).  It was one of my highlights of the year.

This year I didn't ride, instead I helped a friend and drove my truck to support the ride with water, supplies and as a mobile SAG.  I had to take two riders in because of various ailments and dropped off 100 gallons of water (of which not enough was drank, sad day).  It was a fun day and I got a free t-shirt out of the deal.  Hooray free stuff!

I'm also excited because on Wednesday I'll receive my copy of "The Cyclists Training Bible" by Joe Freil, a book recommended by tons of people to maximize your training program.  I'm planning to start racing next year and the want to adhere to a strict training regiment this winter to start the season out with a bang.  It going to consist of lots of miles on the trainer/rollers this winter but hopefully it'll show when spring rolls around.

That's it, no more biking for a while, I promise.

Jessie is now finishing up the Brothers and Sisters episode she forgot to watch yesterday and I just got home from the store where I picked up fruit, juice and some awesome Gouda cheese to go with the apples I got.  I love Fall, the best season ever.

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Day 58

Well Rick is correct, I forgot to blog yesterday.  I have failed our marriage blog... whoops.

In my defense, up until the street bash and the orange man last night, the most exciting part of my day was when I discovered that oven cleaner works miracles on bath tubs.  This is how lame I am...  I looked up ways to clean bath tubs online, discovered oven cleaner as a suggestion, tried it, and when it made our tub shine I wanted to call everyone I know and tell them about it.  I refrained.

So, you can thank Rick for keeping the spark in our blog alive. And for being the only weirdo who wakes up at 6am on a Sunday.

Day 57

Surprise blog!

Last night we went out downtown with Karen and Luke to check out the Nash Bash, a street fest that had a beer tent, always a good time.  There was lots of prime people watching including the dancing people in front of a horrible band and a woman who's shirt said "I'm too SEXY for my" however, it was not made clear what exactly she was too sexy for and we were unable to be certain.  The star of the show however, was the orange man. 

A few weeks ago Jessie and I were out to dinner at the Casbah and a man walked in wearing what looked to be and orange friars costume.  We were very far away and couldn't hear the conversation but I believe the orange man asked the bartender if he had anything orange for sale, the bartender looked confused, produced an orange and the orange man bought it and went on his way.  After seeing this man last night, we explained this odd story to our friends to which Karen replied "Who are you talking about?"  Because clearly, it wasn't the large man in the all orange strange costume. 

My new goal is to get a picture of this man and when I do I will append this blog with it or write a whole new one about his adventures.  I believe he is going to become my new downtown obsession edging out maraca girl by a hair.

This is a surprise blog because it appears Jessie didn't write one yesterday and it's 6:48 am so this basically counts as yesterday.

Keeping the streak alive!

day 56

tonight Rick and I are grilling 'happy chicken' as Rick has dubbed it. It's actually just grilled chicken with a Chile citrus rub, but Rick really massaged that rub in so the chicken is now happy, and relaxed.

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Day 55

This is what the toilet looks like at the law office where I work...
(I'm guessing it's ok to post this because this is the same bathroom clients use, so it's not a secret or anything.  Hopefully they don't fire me)


That's right, the toilet says 'No Diving'.  Now you're probably thinking haha that's funny who would dive into a toilet?  But you have to remember, I work at a law office, and lawyers like to cover all their bases.  The real reason that sign is there is so that we don't get sued on the off chance that some drunk frat boy stumbles into our bathroom and does a jackknife into our toilet.  Broke your neck?  We are absolved of liability.

Who says lawyers can't poke fun at themselves :)

Day 54

Drinkin' Wednesdays!!!

My friend Karen has instituted 'Drinkin' Wednesday' amongst our group of law school friends.  Now that we are 3L's and life is a little less stressful, and a lot of us have jobs, we get together almost every Wednesday for a happy hour somewhere in Lawrence.  Since, we are all working and most of us are taking less class, we don't see each other as often, so it's a good excuse for us to get together.  It's a great mid-week break from work/school/clinic and it's fun to get together with everyone and talk about what's going on in our lives.  We're still on the hunt for the best happy hour specials in town on Wednesday, but we've found some pretty good ones so far.  $5 Jumbo Margaritas? Sold!

I met my dad for coffee at the Burge Union yesterday and there were so many 1L's over there studying.  They all just look so miserable and stressed out.  Then this morning I was walking behind some 1L's on the way into school and I overheard them talking about their memo and how worried they were about it.

I am SO glad to be past that point in my life and almost done with law school.  First year of law school was definitely the worst year of my life.  School was so hard, I had so much work and no idea what I was doing.  All of that stress was compounded by the fact that Rick was living 7 hours away in Champaign, IL.  So every week I would desperately try to get ahead so I could spend time with him on the weekend, and every other weekend that involved 14 hours of driving.  Looking back, I have no idea how we did that.  It was really hard, and definitely a low point in our relationship. 

But, we survived and now I can think back on that year when ever I'm feeling blue and remember that no matter how bad I think things are now, they're a million times better than they were that year.

Here are some driving pics, for your enjoyment.  That looks like flat view out the window, definitely looks like Illinois.

Day 53

Today Jessie said something funny, we were at the store and she said "we live a very well rounded life." This was right after we went for a run and went to the store to buy lettuce, tp, deoderant, razors, shaving cream, face cream, and pumpkin beer and before we went home to make coal miners spaghetti. I love random trips to the store, buying the oddest combination of stuff. I've always wondered what the checkout person thinks of what we're buying.

My other favorite trip to the store was for a swimsuit, sun screen, and boones farm. That day I wondered if the checkout lady was jealous of my soon to be awesome day.

Happy Tuesday? Jessie will be back next week with another installment of "tour Tuesdays." I was going to do a tour of either jessies ear or her nose but she wanted nothing to do with that. Shocking.

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day 52

Rick and I are pretty avid recyclers. We recycle everything from glass to tin cans to cardboard. We have a pretty good system worked out, and now that we have a garage it's even better bc we have a place to keep the recycling (which can be kind of smelly) outside the house.
Our system involves a large plastic bin with separate trash bags inside for the various types of recyclables and one large trash can for all the glass. Glass is definitely what we have the most of... And I hate to admit that it is mostly beer bottles...oops. All the cardboard gets stashed between the glass trash can and the wall, and as you can see from this picture, sometimes it gets a little out of control. I think this was right after the wedding so we had a lot of packaging out there. There are also A Lot of beer bottles in this photo. It appears we managed to fill the large glass can, remove the bag, and completely fill it again. Yikes! I blame wedding stress and being too busy to deal with the recycling.
When all of our bins are overflowing, we take all the recycling to the only place in town that recycles glass, Wal-Mart. You'd think in a college town there would be more places to recycle glass, but no.
And that is the story of our contribution to saving the planet. A whole post on recycling I am officially lame.

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Day 51

Yesterday, Rick's parents and sister came to town to ride in the Tour de BBQ with us. It was 35 miles around Kansas city with stops for bbq at some of the most popular bbq joints in kc. We got up super early, 5am, and headed down to Power and Light to start the ride.
The weather was perfect, sunny and cool. We got to the first bbq stop and there was a huge line. I figured there wasn't much of a chance of the food running out bc we were at the actual restaurant and they could just go inside and make more. WRONG. We didn't get any bbq until the third stop and we were pretty excited to have some by then. I think Rick's dad had 4 or 5 sandwiches at that one stop!
We finally made it through the ride with sore butts and really tired legs. At the end of the ride there was more bbq and boulevard beer...it tasted delicious.
This is the second 30 mile ride I've done with no training or preparation. The first was the Tour de Donuts in Staunton, IL a two years ago. I'm not sure how many more I'll be able to do like that bc I am SO sore today. But I made it through this one and I'm pretty freaking proud of myself. Rick was so nice and rode slow with all of us. He's pretty much the only reason I made it up a few of those big hills, thanks to his 'pushing'. He would just ride next to me and put his hand on my back and it really makes such a difference, I could book it up the hills like that.

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Day 50

Being a psychology and family studies major in undergrad, I'm always interested in current trends in marriage and relationships, gender, etc.  I found some interesting studies the other day and thought I'd share.

     - Almost half (49%) of all men in the state of New York are single.  56% of the men in Kansas are married, which is the 3rd highest percentage of married men in a state

     - Arkansas has the highest percentage of men who have been married more than 3 times (10%).

     - 45% of women say they manage the household finances, while only 37% of men say they manage the finances

     - 48% of Americans have no preference as to whether their lawyer is male or female.  Of that 48%, men are less likely to have a preference (51% said doesn't matter) than women (46% said doesn't matter)

     - Married women, on average, make $25,000 more than unmarried women

     - The highest percentage of mothers are married women between the ages of 25 and 34.  The second highest percentage is unmarried women under the age of 25.


Well that's enough nerdiness for one day I suppose. 

Here are all my sources, so I don't get sued.
http://pewsocialtrends.org/assets/flash/marriage/
http://pewsocialtrends.org/couplesquiz/results.php
http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/750/new-economics-of-marriage-

Day 49

Friday Favorites!

Today I will tell you all about our favorite things to do:

- cook dinner together: and sometimes baking, but I mostly do the baking

- play games: we play all sorts of games: SkipBo, Gin, Golf (the card game), Settlers of Catan (nerdiest game  ever, don't ask), Catch Phrase, and on and on

- Trying out beer and wine: Making our own 6 packs, going to wineries and breweries to taste new things

- Bike riding: ok this one is mostly Rick's but I will join in on the rides that feed you along the way like Tour de Donut and the upcoming Tour de BBQ

- Trying new restaurants: and old favorites, pretty much anything that involves eating is a favorite past time

- Reading: I like to read before bed every night, Rick likes to read too, but lately, his bedtime routine involves playing on his phone more than reading

- Travel: I love to travel, but unfortunately we don't get to do as much as I'd like, but I'm sure when we're both gainfully employed next year, we will increase our travels

- Crafting: I love designing and making things, and really enjoyed making pretty much everything for our wedding.  This is not one of Rick's favorites, although, we did discover that he is much better at gluing things on straight than me.

- Watching Football: Definitely high on Rick's favorite list, not so high on mine.  I only like college football and within college football I only really like to watch KState, KU and the Illini because I feel like I have a connection to those teams.  Rick could watch any game, any time, pro or college.  I usually try to humor him.