Mike and Kathy in Kansas City

I can't believe I have neglected to blog the Rainwater's visit to Kansas City up until this point. We had a great time and they treated us to every single meal out to eat. Yes, you heard right...I didn't cook one time! Terrilbe hostess. They got into town on Friday night and we went out to eat at Nick and Jakes. It was delicious and fun to be out and about.

Saturday morning we got up for a great breakfast at one of our favorite places...The Classic Cup. Then we shopped around the Plaza for a little while before heading to the house to watch a little basketball. As a sidenote, I am all for March madness, but when it messes with my regularly scheduled programming (i.e. The Mentalist), I've got beef with it.

After watching a little basketball we headed to Shawnee Mission Park and hung out together while walking Deuce. Here are some pictures from the park.

After the park, more basketball was in order, followed by a trip to HiHat coffee. It was delicious and the weather was perfect.

For dinner we walked to Pizza 51 West which is right by our house and came home for dessert and....more basketball!!!

The whole weekend was great, especially taking them to church with us. I think taking our families to church is our favorite part about our families coming to town.

This week is going well and David is on Spring Break. He has done our taxes, taken Sooie to the vet, and taken care of all the home stuff! It's so nice. It has rained all week so we're anxious to get back into some good weather and do some outdoor activities.

Handy Husband

Well, my handy husband has struck again...this time out of necessity. I was shocked to discover a puddle of water on my kitchen floor and a massive amount of water in the basement after I ran the dishwasher yesterday. I called David and he came home and proceeded to take out our old dishwasher and find the problem...a busted on hot water line...

We knew we didn't want to buy a new line to fix a dishwasher that we don't particularly like anyway and is older than some of the American Idol contestants this year, so we headed to Lowes. We were under a little bit of a time constraint because of our gospel group coming over, but David got the new one installed right in time!

I LOVE it. What I love even more is my husband who is willing to take on any task and do a good job. I appreciate him so much!

This week has been great and the Rainwaters arrive this afternoon. On Wednesday I was able to discover what Deuce does when they test the tornado sirens...



I'm sure the neighbors love that. :)

Staycation Day 1

Let me start by saying that I DO NOT plan to blog every day of my spring break. However, today was so good that I had to blog it. I slept in, piddled around the house, and was just sitting down to make our grocery list around lunch time when in walks David!! He had ortho assisting this afternoon and nobody had scheduled any patients, so he came on home! We had the entire afternoon together. He even went to the grocery with me. We decided the weather was good enough for some bike riding, so we threw the bikes, the dog, and ourselves in the truck and went to get some air in the tires. The last time we attempted bike riding with Deuce he was petrified of the bikes, but today he was good to go. We went to a trail and took off...he was on his leash the whole time, just like he was supposed to be, as you can clearly see in these pictures. :) ...yeah right.

Hitting the trail...

Posing by a creek...

After the trail we headed to Shawnee Mission Park and walked another trail. And yes, we followed all rules and kept our dog on his leash. Actually that's totally not true, but in our defense he doesn't run away, doesn't run up to strangers, and doesn't attack other dogs. :)

When we got home, David washed the cars and we washed our extremely dirty dog. We topped off the day by grilling some burgers with some homemade sweet potato fries. One of the best days ever! How can any other spring break days top this one? We'll see!

Our tulip tree is in full bloom...

Mom and Dad's Weekend Visit

My wonderful and sweet parents left today after a weekend visit. I was so sad to see them go, but we had a great time. Unfortunately I was feeling a little bit under the weather, so I had to have some down time mixed in with activities. I had a half day on Friday for the end of third quarter, so Mom and Dad came in early and met David and I for lunch at The Mixx. David took the afternoon off (life of an almost done 4th year for ya) and after lunch we headed up to the Legends for some shopping. I found a couple things, and so did Mom. David and Dad didn't leave empty handed either. I cooked Friday night and we just stayed in and hung out.

Saturday morning I was feeling a little puny, so we hung around the house for a while before heading out for lunch at a really great place in Westport called Cupini's...

It was ALMOST warm enough to sit outside, but not quite, so we sat inside.

After a relaxing lunch we decided to go and take a walk in the beautiful weather. We took them, as well as Deuce to one of our favorite "off-leash dogparks," aka a trail that we let Deuceo off leash on. It was so pretty and very relaxing. We took a break down by a creek...

Dad stood guard and helped us back up afterward...

After our walk Mom and Dad and David helped me figure out some great curtains for our bedroom since we got a new duvet for Christmas. The room looks a lot more finished out now and I couldn't have done it without them. For dinner David found a really cool place called Mestizo. It's a restaurant owned by Aaron Sanchez, one of the judges on chopped.

It's kind-of a family style restaurant where you order lots of stuff and pass it around. The food was SO GOOD. It might be cliche to say this, but the flavors were just so bold and unique that we couldn't believe it. It was definitely a fun experience.

We sat on that lighted upstairs part.

Taking our families to church with us is one of my favorite parts about having them coming to visit. Having grown up in a church where we were known BECAUSE of our parents, it's a real reversal to take them around and introduce them to people that we know. They got to talk to lots of people in Sunday School, Pastor Steve and Mary, Mark and Starrla, Wesley and Amy, and many more. The sermon was really good today and Pastor Steve finished up a sermon series out of Titus.

After church Mom and Dad treated us to yet another meal, but this time at one of Dad's favorites, California Pizza Kitchen. Yum! I downloaded instagram and had a little fun with it at lunch.

Having Mom and Dad here was a blast. They're always up for anything, even if that means doing nothing. We came to the startling realization this trip that in reality, their trips to Kansas City to visit us are numbered at this point, so we're going to soak it up while we can. We love y'all.

Today marks the beginning of my spring break staycation. What am I going to do with myself? First, start trying to get myself back in tip top shape, and by that I mean not having a frog voice or a sore throat. Then I plan on taking many walks, reading outside in the coming beautiful weather with my doggy at starbucks, trying to get some sun, taking multiple naps, and basically soaking up every single teeny tiny second of my break. Let the staycation begin!

West Bottoms

I don't feel like I usually blog on Saturday night, but we're enjoying an evening in and have had such a nice day that I decided to go ahead and blog it. To say that my conferences were slim would be an understatement...I only had two! They were on Thursday so I had all day Friday off of work. I spent the morning relaxing and then looked up and realized that it was snowing! It was snowing huge flakes and I loved being snuggled up inside.

I got pretty crafty in my alone time on Friday, which I will write about a little later in this post. Today David and I had a fantastic day. We slept in and then decided to head down to the "West Bottoms" for something called First Fridays. In the West Bottoms on the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday of each month, all of these unbelievably cool antique and specialty shops open their doors and there were TONS of people there. If I had an unlimited amount of money and square footage I would have been in trouble down there. It was really cool and I would recommend it to everyone. Even the old buildings that the shops were in were cool...

Shopping around...

"Character building" posters...

After going in a bunch of the shops David had found us this cool place to eat that was a refurbished gas station. It was called "Genessee Royal Bistro" and was delicious.

After lunch we swung by the house and picked up our doggy for an afternoon at the off-leash dog park. Deuce did really good...better than usual. Not that he is a bad dog at the park, he just loves it so much that he sometimes forgets he has owners. This time he continued to come when we called him and greeted other doggies kindly. :) We stopped by another park that we found that was NOT off-leash on the way home, but not many people were out, so we let Deuce off leash again. It was such a fun afternoon.

This evening we went up to church to support our great friend Matt Schneider as he gave his testimony at the half-time of the Upward games. He did amazing. We were so proud of him and know that anyone who heard his testimony could see how God has worked in his life. Great job Matt!

I mentioned that I got crafty on Friday, and here's what I made!...A new spring door wreath!

I've never done this before on the blog, but I took some pictures of the process, so if you want to make one too, here's how! You'll need:

(1) Foam door wreath (Hobby Lobby)
(2) Hot glue
(3) Fabric of your choice
(4) Flowers to glue on (you could make your own...I opted to buy)
(5) Ribbon
(6) Scrapbook paper

Cut your strips...

Wrap the wreath...

Glue on the flowers where you want...

Attach a handle...

Wrap some extra ribbon...

Cut out and attach letters!

...and then you're done! It's not super fancy or anything "pinterest worthy," but I had a really good time doing it. Seriously, three-day weekends are where it's at. :)