It's a winter wonderland...

...in March! We woke up to this surprise this morning. Thank goodness it's almost melted.

No potato peeler...really?

Okay, so my grandma sent me this video about how to peel potatoes without using a potato peeler. If you haven't seen it, watch it now. It's not very long.



So...being novice cooks, Jason and I are usually up for anything. We decided to try this method of peeling potatoes tonight. Did it work, you ask? Well...yes and no. The actual method definitely works, and there's a lot less waste of the actual potato. But...was our time well spent...not really. It takes Jason about 5 minutes to peel potatoes (which he loves to do!) plus about 10-15 to boil, and it probably took us at least 30-35 minutes for this silly process. Not to mention I had to cut the potatoes and then throw them back in the water after we "peeled" them because they weren't cooked all the way through. Needless to say, we probably won't be using this method anymore. I'd also hate to deprive Jason of his one love in the kitchen...peeling potatoes, carrots...you name it, he'll peel it. What a weirdo! :)

MJ's in da house!!

Jason, Matt, and I went to the 4A State Basketball Championship games last night in Peoria, and guess who was there?!? Michael Jordan!! His son Marcus is a senior at Whitney Young in Chicago and they were playing for the title, so MJ had to come out and support his son. Although we didn't get very close, we were still in his presence. :)

Here's a picture of what we saw of him...I circled him in red...

...and here's proof (courtesy of the PJStar) that he really was there...

Marcus's team ended up winning the championship game, and afterward, you should have seen all the media surrounding Michael trying to get his reaction. There were honestly more cameras around Michael than there were around the winning team. However, I will give the media and the Civic Center props for not making a huge deal about MJ being there. He kept a pretty low profile, and I never once saw anyone ask for an autograph...probably because of the six or seven huge security guards surrounding the area at all times...

Busy, busy, busy!

Alright, so it's been an extremely long time since my last post. Jason and I have been immersed in our jobs and our grad classes. We are still thankful that Jason has a job, but we're probably not out of the water yet. CAT is still making indefinite layoffs and moving people around trying to consolidate positions. Right now, he has to take four mandatory unpaid weeks off plus his two weeks of vacation and the week between Christmas and New Years. If you're interested, he's taking off the following weeks during the summer: May 11-15, June 8-12, June 22-26, July 20-24, and Aug 10-14. We welcome visitors! :) We're going to try and plan a couple camping trips during those weeks, but we'll have to wait and see what our summer course load is like first.

On another note, we finally got our new lawnmower! It's definitely been a long time coming. Jason can't wait to get out there and use it, but trust me...the yard doesn't need mowed yet.

Since my parents are coming up next weekend, I started compiling a list of little jobs that Jason and my dad could do together. So far, I've come up with a new ceiling fan in the living room upstairs (which we bought yesterday at Lowes), a new outlet in the upstairs hallway, a repair to an outlet in the downstairs living room, and a new light in the hallway downstairs. Jason can handle the new light in the hallway by himself, so we went to Menard's this afternoon and bought one. Lucky for us, they still have the same ceiling lights like the ones we got last year, so we ended up getting a pack of two for $15. Score! So now I've added another project to the list...another light in the hallway upstairs...if it's not too much trouble. Think you'll get all this stuff done, Dad?? :)

Anyways, here are some pictures of Jason's mini project for today.

He also wanted me to let you guys know that he didn't need the step-ladder to reach the ceiling, so here's one to prove it.