Double Date

Tonight was kid date night, but we decided to break form by having...a double date (at least for the first part). We all went to a "bargain matinee" showing of The Croods, which everyone in our family gave a big thumbs up. Afterwards, we split up - Daniel and I enjoyed painting suncatchers, while Annika and Will had a picnic in Annika's room.

We capped the evening off with the traditional egg dyeing extravaganza.

Speaking of Easter Fun, this afternoon was the Children's Easter Party at church. I was "in charge" of the bunny-ears station. We also had a station to dye eggs, one to make a cross craft, and another to do another craft and play a game. The event was capped off by an egg hunt for all of the kids, where Daniel found....an egg from last year.

The kids' Easter baskets are assembled and waiting for tomorrow morning. I can't wait!

Sears Pictures

At long last, we got our family portraits taken at Sears this morning! We ordered a package with came with a CD, which was really nice. Will posted all of the pictures on Facebook earlier today, but here are some of the highlights:

Thought of the Day

Today I read one of my favorite comments on the online New York Times, ever:

"This supreme court decided corporations are people.
I'm hopeful they'll see homosexuals as people too."

Senses Badge

Brownies tonight, and we worked on our Senses Badge. We needed another adult again so Will and Daniel came along. I think that Daniel was the biggest fan. "Well, that was fun! I'm really glad I came. What are we doing next time??"

Touch - wrote names in Braille with glue dots.

Smell - took turns being blindfolded and leading the other around the room with vanilla.

Hearing - played telephone, did a "sound scavenger hunt" outside, and played an animal sounds game.

Sight - played different games with trying to remember objects under a piece if cloth.

Taste - tasted different foods with their eyes closed, including sour (sour patch kids), bitter (dark chocolate), salty (chips), and sweet (cupcake).

Spring Break, per Annika

One of Annika's assignments in school today was to draw a picture and write a story about what she did over spring break. (Annika's picture above is a very detailed diagram of the Oklahoma City Memorial). Below is her description of spring break, which I have edited for spelling but not grammatical errors, because that's how I roll.

"First me and my family went to Oklahoma City. They have skyscrapers, a memorial, and more! At the memorial it is there because of a building that exploded on April 19. 100 adults and 19 kids died. Each person that died had a chair with their name on it, and the smaller ones are kids. The building exploded at 9:02. There is a tree still living that survived the explosion, it is called the survivor tree. Oklahoma City has a science museum, a zoo, and more museums. After we left my mom (Amy) went to New Orleans and we went to see my grandma Nonnie in DeSoto on the way there we went to the Moon Marble Factory. At Nonnie's house we watched TV and my cousin Drew stayed over two days. Then it snowed deeper than here! THE END."

Kansas Billboards

Since I documented some of the Oklahoma billboards that we saw on our trip, it seems only fair to also document what we have seen in Kansas recently.

-Safety is a right, not a privilege! Are you a victim of domestic violence?

-FEAR STINKS! We want to be your lender.

-If you die tonight? Heaven or hell.

-Don't rush your baby's birthday. 39 weeks!

-My sons are 13 and 9. Do I talk to them about alcohol the same way?

What favorite billboards have you seen recently?

Days 3 and 4 in New Orleans

Update from New Orleans - I survived the conference!! Not only survived, but I think that it went really well overall. There were some minor snafus but I don't think anyone other than me or Donna noticed them. We are both so happy that it is over, though! Don't think either of us will be rushing to coordinate another conference anytime soon.

 

After the conference wrapped up last night, I realized that I had been around people and had been "on" for almost the past 48 hours. After a couple of hours of rest I was recovered enough to talk to people again such as, oh, my darling family. :) I had a marvelous evening of just relaxing, including running on the hotel treadmill and reading a fun library book (that I was able to check out for my Kindle!!).

 

Today marks my journey back home. I got to the airport about 5:30 a.m. for my 8:00 a.m. flight, but as you can see below, the line for security for my terminal looks crazy. I am not sure if my plan of waiting it out while playing on the computer with the free WiFi is actually going to pan out, and I might be forced to join the every-growing crazy line myself.

 



 

Update from the Home Front - Will drove back to the Kansas City area yesterday from Manhattan (he had snuck off briefly to madly try to get some work done - a million thanks to Nonnie and Pa for keeping the kids!). Once there, he and the kids ventured to Oak Park Mall. They all enjoyed riding the illustrious Double-Decker Carousel.

 

The reason for the Oak Park Mall trip was that we had a free coupon that was soon expiring at the kids' favorite stuffed animal store: Build-A-Bear-Workshop! Daniel's Rainbow Bear (aka Rainbow Darth Vader) got some new duds. I present to you: Iron Bear!

 

Annika's miniature Wendy (named for my parents' cat) got a new outfit, while Wendy herself is beach ready with a new swimming suit.

After Build-A-Bear, Will and the kids headed over to Grammy and Gramps' house in Olathe. Given that it is late March and almost Easter, it is mind-blowing the amount of crazy winter weather that we are continuing to have. This picture below is of their backyard as it started to snow. From what I have read, northeast Kansas should get around 4-8 inches of snow by today. I am a little worried about how this will affect our travel plans with driving back to Manhattan from KC (and hopefully my flights will be okay). Even though the snow is annoying, though, it sure is beautiful.

Update from the NCAA Tournament - finally, this has been a crazy March Madness. Not happy about K-State's loss at all, but I love underdogs and love it when they knock off the higher-rated seed. I am also a huge Wichita State girl - it is the university of my hometown, and the people there were just so nice to me and the others in my program while I was in high school. So I am just ectastic that WSU has beaten the #1-rated seed, Gonzaga!! Other than K-State, there is no one else I would rather see have an awesome tournanent run. Way to go, Shockers!!!

(P.S. To the New York Times, who described WSU as having an "odd, pencil-shaped mascot"...obviously you are not familiar with the heartland and "wheat shocks." ;) )

Day 2 of New Orleans

Conclusion: I am not a New Orleans girl. ;)

Yesterday was the first day of the conference and it went well! There was a minor panic when 13 people registered on site 5 minutes before lunch and we ran out or chairs at lunch temporarily, but it all ended well. My presentation went well too.

After the whirlwind of conference, we headed out to wander Bourbon Street and find some dinner. One of my best friends Anna came in early yesterday and we are sharing a room - we were in the same PhD cohort and are lifetime foxhole buddies.

New Orleans is much dirtier, louder, baser than is my thing. Here are things that are awkward:
Open containers are required.
Smoking weed in public is encouraged.
Stripping in public is necessary.
Having (almost) sex in public is essential.

I've posted a few pics from last night - on my phone so will fix format later. (note later - fixed!)

Meanwhile, Will got to watch KSU go down in the NCAA tournament live at the Sprint Center. Bummer!

Day 1 in New Orleans



New Orleans!
Home of pirates, drunks, and whores!
New Orleans!
Tacky, overpriced, souvenir stores!
If you want to go to hell, you should make that trip,
To the Sodom and Gomorrah on the Mississipp'!
New Orleans!
Stinking, rotten, vomiting, vile!
New Orleans!
Putrid, brackish, maggoty, foul!
New Orleans!
Crummy, lousy, rancid, and rank!
New Orleans!

 

10 extra-credit points if you can name the origin of that little gem! I am pleased to say that I have safely arrived in New Orleans for my conference. This was quite the feat. Will and the kids drove up to Kansas City to drop me off at the KCI airport (they are planning to spend a few days with Nonnie and Pa in DeSoto). You can see the wonderful second day of spring day below in the image of the Konza Prairie.

 

However....on our trip to KC, it started to snow. And snow. And accumulate ice. None of us were expecting this, and we don't think the road people were, either. We had a very scary moment on 435 when our card slid on a thin layer of black ice, we swerved all of the road and ended up doing a 360 degree spin, and eventually ended up in the ditch in the median.

HOWEVER, all of us were 100% fine (just shaken up) and the van had absolutely no problems. A million gratitudes that Will was driven and not me, and knew how to steer the van to get it under control. And a million other gratitudes that everything was perfectly lined up - there were no cars around us when this happened, we were near a very large grassy median with no guard rails, we didn't slide into oncoming traffic, etc. Thank God that we were all safe and there were amazingly no problems!! Will counted 9 separate wrecks on the drive back, including two cars that had flipped over RIGHT where we had slid off the road.

The rest of my journey was quite uneventful. I made my connection to Charlotte just fine and I really like the Charlotte airport. Not only is it new and modern and spiffy, they have rocking chairs lining the walkway that invite passengers to relax.

The other big excitement in Charlotte was the Davidson vs. Marquette game - people were piled into the hallway trying to catch the action. Alas (or thankfully for my bracket), there was no upset in the end.

I made it to New Orleans just fine! My old advisor and one of my best friends, Donna, waited for me at the airport so that we could ride to the hotel together (we are co-coordinating the conference and will be happy when it is over!). Once I got checked in, I was certain that the hotel had made a mistake. I appear to be staying in a suite.

Complete with a cheese and fruit plate awaiting my arrival. So weird. But delicious.

Donna and I had an absolutely marvelous dinner in the hotel restaurant, where I enjoyed delicacies such as cheesy grits, turnip greens, squash, pecan-encrusted trout, and homemade bread pudding. After dinner we walked around the block - our hotel is RIGHT in the middle of the French Quarter.

This is the view from my hotel window onto the French Quarter below. It doesn't show it, but it is actually VERY LOUD right now - lots of loud, pulsating music, horns blaring, people yelling, girls making out, etc. I am not quite sure how I am going to sleep but maybe it will eventually turn into white noise. :)

The rest of the fam is doing well in DeSoto. Will took the kids by the Moon Marble Factory in Bonner Springs on the way back. The kids' highlight, however, has been telling everyone, "We went flying off the road!!!"