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Coffee thoughts:

I really love having a Keurig.  It makes a great cup of coffee (to me, I know coffee is relative to everyone).  I like trying different flavours, although my inner cheapo has limited this process some what, I still like a deal and try to get my k-cups around $0.40/cup.  Robert's favorite is Hazelnut, my fav's are Chocolate Glazed Donut, Vanilla cookie or (something by Folgers?), and Hazelnut.  I think we both prefer a "light roast".  I also have tried the Snapple Peach Iced Tea - you brew it over a glass filled with ice.  It is great, and I bet I will drink that more as the weather warms up.  We did get some hot chocolate for the kids which was a big hit as well.  I like a splash of half and half in my cup.  I still budget my $0.74 for Casey's coffee with the workout girls twice a week, because my mental health is worth that!

VIESHEA thoughts:

Most of you in central Iowa heard about the poor decisions some kids made this past Tuesday night, warranting the cancellation of the rest of the celebration.  I get it, I think I would have had to make the same decision if I was in administration.  It's pretty crappy for all the Alumni and families that truly enjoy a wonderful Saturday filled with family and learning activities.  Especially a blow this year since the weather was going to be gorgeous.  Emily was super sad, explaining to her about the cancellation because of the actions of a few was not fun.  She is mostly sad not to get together with our good friends this weekend.  On the flip side, rare sudden open weekend, with nice weather to boot!


Garden thoughts:

Backyard still has many leaves floating around.  Time to get serious and bag them up.  Time to hire a dude to till my little garden (I should really write down his #, I have to track him down each year).  I can't wait until the flowers start coming in, I have heard the third year after splitting and transplanting things really start happening.  I really want to start investing in a cutting garden this year.  I transplanted a hydrangea from Gpa Kibbe's house in CR along with several bunches of daffodils.  I might go back for another hydrangea.  I wasn't sure if the variety Rebecca had was meant for full sun or shade, so I put it in between.  I have also added some gladiolas and dahlias that I picked up at Aldi's, so who knows if those will take?  We got a starter of a butterfly bush at the Ames Eco fair a couple weeks ago, but it is tiny.  I can't imagine it being a bush for years!  My goal besides a few veggies in the garden, is to get a couple bouquets and attract more butterflies.  Next is how to address the super shady, no grass area between our trees and the fence line. - Any suggestions? 
Also, our lawn is mostly green, but the spots I worked so hard on growing new grass last year are still pretty bare and brown, guess I need to start over?
The veggie garden will have the usual things we like to eat.  Greg and Chelsey's garden will take care of the rest.  I'll need to go down and help some this summer, but they were super good about sharing last year.  Dallas really wants to grow melon's and I told him we don't exactly have the best space for it, but I might let him try anyway.

School thoughts:

Emily has 28 math lessons left.  We are both getting a little antsy.  We haven't had more than a couple of breaks since Christmas, and most were just a day long, so we are ready for Summer.  Classical Conversations meets for the last time on Monday.  It will be nice to have a break from that until Fall.  I have been teaching a CC class since Jan, my 1 month sub gig expanded to 12 weeks.  Dance ends this weekend for Noelle, but softball season starts up.  Dallas will have preschool on Tuesday and then have a break for Easter.

Robert thoughts:

Robert has been busting his butt lately.  He is helping clean out the house in CR and helping get Dallas settled here.  Working a couple 3-4 jobs.  I think he still enjoys the self employment life more than he would working for someone else, but he sure walks around with a certain level of stress.  On Wednesday he walked out on a 160 year old church buildings roof (read peaks!) to evaluate the job, then he went to the Ames Seed Cap luncheon listened to the Governor talk, and then he spent the evening fixing TMCP website feed to iTunes.  Do you know that people get paid to hack others websites (to break them) so they go down in google rank and other websites go up in rank!  Seems unethical...