2014 Year in Review

Happy New Year to everyone! 2014 was a pretty fantastic year. Kelly and I made a lot of progress on our now six year journey of being debt free. After we pay our December Snowball we are on track to finish paying his school loan in January. We are so close to the end of baby step two it is crazy! Being super thrifty has paid off (literally), we are well ahead of the planned pay off date of April 2015.

As I look back at other highlights of our family's year the top for me was probably our vacation to Utah this year. We had no idea how the boys would handle a 16 hour road trip but they did fantastic. After a busy summer Bear Lake and our friends the Johnsons were just what we needed to recharge!

A personal accomplishment for me was running a sub 2 hour half marathon. I set a goal and I stuck to my training and eating plan. I put in the work and got the result I was after. It was the first time I teared up crossing a race finish line. I hope to recreate all that in 2015 as I have signed up for THREE half marathons. It will be a challenge, but I like challenges!

Daryl had a big milestone in 2014, he started Kindergarten. It was a day I never want to forget. I watched him enter a new school with kids he had never met with no fear. I was biting my lip to hold back the tears as he walked in. I later broke down in the car and at work. I have no idea how my baby boy is now in school.

Alex continues to grow and learn and it is fun to watch his personality come out. He is ornery! Don't let his laugh and grin fool you, he will cause trouble if you let him. His new game is running away from us when we are ready to leave the house, Claudia's or church. He crawls under tables or behind furniture and just laughs and laughs. Still not the best sleeper he makes up for that because he has started singing. To quote Daryl, "He sounds like a Minon when he sings." I still need to catch it on video. It's adorable!

Kelly continues to be the rock of our family. When I get crazy ideas or am really tired he is always there for me and the boys. There was a quote from the TV show Taxi I heard last week that reminded me of him. "Happiness is hard to come by in this life and you've given me more than my share." Thank you for a great year Kelly, I think 2015 will be even better!

The Christmas Card Picture

I realized that I was very early sending out our family Christmas Card picture this year. Alas, I never shared it on the blog. So here is your post Christmas seasons greetings from The Manor!

The text below our picture read, "Merry Christmas from The Meerpohls! PS-If you don't wear your hand knit sweater you don't get to be in the Christmas card picture!"
I thought it was pretty clever! ;-)
I had two favorite reactions to our card.
First, from my friend Brooke who when she got the card did not see Kelly at all! She wondered what was going on that we would take a family picture without him. It was like a where's Waldo card for her, she did finally spot him. :-)
Second, when my oldest nephew was in Topeka I asked him if he got their card. He said in a very cool middle school fashion, "Ya."
Me-"Did you think it was funny?"
Canyon-"Ya, I got the joke, if you don't wear your ugly sweater you don't get to be in the picture."
Me-"No, You do not get it! If you don't wear your HAND KNIT sweater you don't get to be in the picture."
Canyon-"Oh."

For everyone that said "Poor Kelly", he liked the idea. He is a good sport and liked the fact that we could laugh about his dislike for hand knit sweater instead of being mad about it. Who can stay mad at Kelly? :-)
Thank you to Jaime who took the picture for us! It was perfect timing as just days later she had her baby. I love it when things just work out!

Merry Christmas from The Manor!

I hope everyone had a happy and successful Christmas! We sure did! Asa and his family and Mom came in Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day we spent time with the Meerpohls.

Daryl was really into Christmas and Santa this year. A couple of nights before the big day he was very upset because he had a bad dream that he got coal from Santa. So the first thing he said when he woke up Kelly and I was that he didn't get coal!
This was the first year that we put out cookies and milk and we also set out a cookie sheet of flour. That way we could catch Santa and if he came down the chimney he would leave footprints. Glad to report that we caught him!











I think Alex's favorite toy was his box of Duplos and Daryl loved his Easy Bake oven. We have already had cookies and whoopie pies from his oven. He also loved his WWE pjs from The Browns. He put them on right away and wore them all day!

















When I last wrote I was doing pretty good on the knitting front. I just had to make up Carter's vest and Christmas was done. Then I saw a pattern for a stuffed monster that was just too cute not to make. So on Saturday I started another Christmas present. I finished that one at 10 pm on  Christmas Eve, so still better than normal! I will take it!

Visitors!

Last weekend we had a surprise visit from the Browns! The boys were as excited as I was. We haven't seen them since the summer so I had a wonderful time catching up with them. It sounds like they are all doing good in their new school and Canyon is really enjoying basketball. He even made a three pointer in his last game. He was the one rushed to the hospital a few months back and was very sick. I couldn't be more proud of him getting along so well!
This morning I blocked the front and back of the last knit Christmas present. I have five days left to sew it together and knit the arm holes and neck. I need to stay super focused! Not stressed right now as all the other presents have been purchased and Kelly has been wrapping them! Yay!
This week Daryl had his Christmas party at school. He is officially on Christmas break. His last day of school he took a present for his teacher and the three ladies that run the after school program. When I asked him how the gifts were received he said, "I told them not to open them they are for Christmas, but they opened them anyway, no one listens to a little kid."
Life is hard when you are six!
Now for the official count down to Christmas!!

Happy Blogiversary!!

This is the 6th anniversary of Meerpohl Manor! Who knew I would actually keep this up for six years! I'm just the queen of over-sharing! 

 Over Thanksgiving break I finished my Christmas gifts for the office. I used the yarn that I had leftover from other projects and made winter headbands! I love how they turned out and they were well received. This Christmas might be one for the books. I am almost done with everything but the wrapping and the baking. That is made easier by the facts I don't bake and I'll make Kelly wrap the presents. So I'm pretty much done!!

Lastly, tonight while brushing his teeth Daryl lost his other front tooth. We need to get him gigs singing "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." 

I'm just glad it finally fell out because since he lost the other one while we were playing WWE he had been asking me to just knock the second one out like I did the first one. I wasn't on board with that plan!

PS-Happy Birthday Kelly, you make 38 look good!

PPS-Shout out to Dusty who commented on my first post. I hope you thought this one was funny and that you are feeling better!! 

New Hard Ware and Soft Wear

Our first week of December was filled with dental work and knitting work. I was away for work for a couple of days and while I was gone Daryl got a silver cap on one of his teeth. He doesn't like getting cavities filled at all but he thinks having this silver tooth makes him a pirate. So he is good with it.
He told Kelly when they were leaving the dentist that he thought he could stretch his cheek to the sun! He was still pretty numb at that point.

While I was away from home I took the opportunity to knit some finger less mitts. I spun the yarn, it is Hello Yarn fiber in the Heirloom Tomatoes colorway. I wasn't sure who I was making them for but I think I'm going to keep them. I made the second one a little smaller so it wouldn't be right to give away two mitts that don't match, right?

Lastly, this week we made our November debt snowball payment. After spending our snowball on baseball in October we got back on track in November. Our payment ended up being $200 more than we budgeted. We could seriously have Kelly's loan paid off with our January snowball. I'm starting to get really excited and am questioning every purchase! I forgot my pillow on my work trip and some ladies were heading to Wal-Mart. I asked them if they could pick me up a pillow and then before they left I changed my mind. I slept horrible with a towel for a pillow for two nights but I wasn't going to do it when we still have one last loan to pay! Beware, the gazelle intensity is starting to rear its ugly head. LOL

Getting up in the morning is hard!

Four Day Weekend!

This has been a great
Thanksgiving holiday. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner so we have stayed near home the last three days. This has made it easy to clean, put away summer clothes, run and knit!
Really what more could one want from a Holiday break?

Here are the boys with their Lancaster cousins. Cousin pictures are hard at this age.

I told Kelly all I wanted for my birthday was for him to put up the Christmas lights. So if I don't get anything tomorrow I can't really be all that sad about it! He did hang the lights and we put up all the Christmas decorations inside.

Yesterday, I also mailed out our Christmas card! I can't wait for everyone to get it! With the decorations up, the Christmas card out and half of the Christmas presents bought, I think I am ahead of the game this year. Still working on the last knit gift but it's not even December yet!

Last night I saw the Christmas lights and I do believe they leave something to be desired. We used to have an inflatable santa but it got a hole. Then we had stars that twinkled in the picture window, Kelly said they were tacky. So I think we need something for the yard. I will probably have to live with this for this year because Christmas decorations are so cheap after Christmas. But believe me next year our decorations will border on Griswold!!  I will show Kelly tacky!!

My new yarn and a Guest Blogger!

I was pretty much gone all this week. I've had a busy month with work and I couldn't do the job I love without Kelly holding it down at The Manor! Thank you Kelly!

While away I did get a good start on my last knitted Christmas gift. I plan to not be hastily knitting on Christmas Eve this year, so I did my best at knitting all year on gifts. I think it is going to work out.
So far this project is going smoothly but I don't want to jinx myself.

I've finished my n-ply yarn! It is ready for a bath and to be knit into something fabulous! This was a practice spin more than anything else and I do think I'm getting better at this plying technique. I now want to try this technique with my "wickerwork" Hello Yarn fiber.

And another running update. The weather was so mild yesterday I got to run outside with my friend Kjrsten while at Rock Springs 4-H Camp. We were talking while running and I was wearing out, I asked if we had gone three miles. She laughed and said in my dreams! We ran until we hit 2.8 miles and I had had enough. The road was hilly and we were talking but I figured out why I was so tired when she told me our average pace was 8:40 miles. Uh, what? I normally run ten minute miles, so that is why I was tired! I really enjoyed talking on my run so I need to find some Topeka running buddies. I think I will get faster that way!

When I got home today from my 4-H conference Daryl said he wanted to write a blog. I said what do you want to write about? He said pretty yarn like you do mom. So of course I said I would type for him whatever he wanted to blog. Turns out he did not want to talk about yarn at all!

I want to write about one time there was a big man named Agaga. A fire went on and the big man shouted out ya  ya as long as the fire went. Here comes a little man holding cheeseburgers and they said num num that’s good.  Then here came the hair lady and she brushed everyone’s hair. And then they were like “I don’t like my hair it looks like a girl.” And then the best person was in love with each other and then they finally found out that the evil man was Agaga.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

All Things Yarn

I've dug to the bottom of the stash and found some Hello Yarn Wensleydale fiber that I acquired in January of 2013. I have 8 oz and decided to split the colors apart into three different piles and try to get better at my N ply skills. 
N ply is when you use one single and make it a three ply. That way you can preserve the color of a multi color fiber. I wanted to use this particular fiber because it is a very long fiber and so it shouldn't want to break on me as much as a shorter fiber. 
I love the look of an N ply but so far I've not been very good at it. So I will keep practicing! 
Here is what I have so far.
Original braids of Smells of the Sea:

 Here are the three colors I seperated. The blue is already N plied, the yellow is a single and I just started spinning the brown.
















My N ply is still a little un even but I have two more colors to make it better!

One Crazy Week!

Sorry for the lack of posts but lately all I've been doing when I come home is falling into bed! Or laundry, pretty much all of Saturday was laundry.
Last Monday didn't really have anything planned but I did decide to skip my morning run. Good thing I did because my friend Jaime called at 6am and needed me to pick up her son. She was having her baby! So I hung out with Neil all day and he also got to spend the night.
Tuesday morning I took him home so he could meet his new baby sister! It was a great way to start the week. :-)
Thursday, I was honored at the Topeka 20 under 40 banquet. It was a very cool experience. I am so humbled that people selected me to be a part of this group. Here is a link to the video they showed that night. Kayla one of my 4-H'ers did a great job. I didn't know she did this for me and she didn't tell me either. Little stinker!
http://vimeo.com/channels/20under40/111444818

Then Saturday was the big event. Shawnee County 4-H Achievement Night. I might grumble just a bit when our office works on this event for well over a month. All the work proves to be totally worth it when we have a crowd of 4-H'ers and volunteers having such a good time. I even got my annual whip cream facial! LOL

I will leave you with a little WWE video. Next post will be about my new spin I'm working on. I think it is going to be some epic yarn. Only one run update, it's cold, that is all.

I never thought this day would come!

Last night....right before dinner.....Daryl finally said it! He said, "Mom will you help me knit something?"
My jaw dropped, I just looked at him for a minute to see if he was joking with me. Then I asked him, "What do you want to knit?"
Daryl-"Something for my wrestlers, like a mask or something."
Me-"What about a cape?"
Daryl-"That would work! Christian doesn't wear a shirt so he might get cold without one."

So we found some needles and yarn and I sat down with him not sure what to expect. He took the needles and actually held them correctly ,(I guess he has been watching me for the past six years). I put my hands on top of his and he knit a whole six rows that way! He got tired and we only had a couple more rows to go so he asked if I would finish it.

We then put it around Christian's neck and Daryl was very proud of himself. I am so happy he wanted to do this. I hope he decides he wants to make something else, although I'm not sure how we would knit masks that small. hmmmmmm

This morning after Daryl was brushing his teeth he looked at the box holding his front tooth that fell out on Saturday.
Daryl-"Mom can you please remember to call the tooth fairy today, PLEASE!"
Me-"Ok bud, I promise I will call her after lunch and try to get you on her schedule tonight."
Daryl-"Ok mom, Thanks!"

Grrrrr, that means I need to go to the bank and get some cash. The tooth fairy is the only time it stinks we never have cash around. Kelly and I both get paid by direct deposit and use our debit cards for everything. Too bad the Tooth Fairy can't pay with a PayPal account! LOL

Happy Halloween!

Daryl had his first Halloween school party today. I brought Rice Krispie Frankensteins for his class. Thanks Pintrest! They started with a Halloween parade led by the High School drumline. That was really cool! Then they came back to their class and decorated cupcakes, played games and made a Halloween craft.
It was a lot of fun and all done by lunch! Later in the afternoon I took Daryl the Scream ghost and Alex the puppy to the Extension office to trick or treat. They loved it! They came home and trick or treated on our street. They hit about six houses and then Daryl said he was too cold. So they came home. Now we are just waiting on kids to come to our door.
I didn't get the house decorated this year but I still think we had a successful Halloween. I hope everyone else had a fun one too!

October Baseball Instead of Snowball

Shhhhh don't tell Dave Ramsey, but we spent our debt snowball on baseball this month! Kelly is a die hard Royals fan so when the World Series came back to Kansas City for a game six we said "What the Heck, let's go!"

We didn't get all crazy, we drove to the stadium in search of cheap tickets and had a budget we had to stick to. Turns out about ten minutes before the game, ticket prices dropped like a rock on Stub Hub. We snatched up two, got them printed and rushed in to catch the bottom of the first! (This is not true for all games, we watched and that didn't happen for game seven last night.)
It was a great game and a great experience! I have now been to a World Series game, so that is pretty cool. Kelly was like a kid in a candy store! The game didn't get over till 10:30 and I didn't knit or anything! In my defense baseball is much better in person than on TV. 

So you know how we have all been getting oodles of political ads bashing other politicians? If you are fed up about it maybe this will make you feel better. In the Meerpohl Manor neck of the woods we get two or three postcards a day bashing the Democrat candidates.

The Republicans always put the President's picture on these cards some place just to stir the ire of the conservatives. We give all this mail to Daryl because he likes mail and I already know who I'm voting for.

Me-"Daryl you got some more mail."
D-"Look mom PRESIDENT OBAMA! Mom, the President sent me a letter! You need to vote for this guy because he is friends with THE PRESIDENT! Who is this guy?"
Me-"That is Greg Orman"
D-"Yes mom, we are voting for Greg Orman, he knows President Obama!"

Hmmmm, bet that wasn't the way Republicans thought that would go! LOL!

Tonight I have to make Halloween snacks for Daryl's Halloween party at school tomorrow. I'm making Frankenstein rice krispie treats. Wish me luck!

A retraction might be in order...

On Saturday I got in some trouble. Here is the conversation that happened when the whole family was in the car.
Kelly-"We should go eat some Chinese."
Me-"Alex and I did that last Sunday on our date."
Daryl-"Ewww mom! You can't date your two year old son!"
Kelly-"Daryl, According to your mom we went on a date to the WWE match."
Daryl-"MOM YOU DID NOT WRITE THAT ON FACEBOOK DID YOU?!!"
Trying not to laugh
Me-"No I didn't Daryl, don't worry about it."

I am in a lot of trouble when Daryl learns how to read! Until then, what he can't read won't hurt him!

Yesterday, Kelly took the boys to the Church's Trunk or Treat. I was running with my relay team, Stampede Society. We did the Bison 50 mile Relay as a team of 5. Last year, we did it as a team of nine and it has ten legs. So we each had to run two. I ran my legs back to back, I wasn't prepared. I ended up doing 10 and 1/2 minute miles for my 9.5 miles. I will take it because there was a point I was sure the buzzards were going to get me! I love these relay races because the people I run with are a lot of fun! Next year if we only have five runners I want the same two legs. I will OWN them next year! (and I'll know where to turn in Perry and save myself a minute or two!)

Now for the ONE trunk or treat picture I got. I guess I shouldn't complain at least there is a picture. I just wish Alex's eyes would have been open. :-) Daryl is a skeleton and Alex is a puppy. This was Daryl's back up costume as we hadn't gotten his ghost/scream guy costume washed since his 4-H meeting.

Daryl and Dad Date

We had a very busy and fun weekend. Alex and I went to a 4-H rabbit show on Saturday then we had cousin Dominic's birthday party. On Sunday we had Ms. Addison's birthday party and then Kelly and Daryl went to Daryl's first WWE live match!

I thought it would be too much for him and Kelly thought he would be fine. We were both right. At first when the music got relly loud and the wrestlers came out with smoke machines he got scared and started to cry a little. Then once he got used to it HE LOVED IT! I would be more supportive if I followed WWE at all. I will play along as long as he doesn't hit his brother with a folding chair!

Last week we had Daryl's parent teacher conference. He is right where he needs to be on writing letters and  counting. He needs to work a bit on what sounds letters make but his teacher is not worried. She said Daryl is a hard worker and does exactly what she asks. That made me very proud of him! I want him to be a hard worker at everything he does!

At his afterschool program he made a sucker out of life savers. He was so excited about it! I had to share a picture.

Life Lessons for Days

Last Thursday Kelly and I had to enlist the help of Grandpa and Grandma Meerpohl. We both had night meetings that were not suitable for the boys.
I was in a rush when I handed off Daryl and Alex so I didn't get to talk much to Grandpa and Grandma. Daryl took advantage of that and decided to tell a lie.
He told Grandpa that Mom didn't have time to tell you I need a Halloween costume tomorrow. She wanted you to take me to the store to get one.
Being the great Grandpa he is he took Daryl out and bought him a costume. Kelly got home first so he was pretty sure I wouldn't have said that but  couldn't ask me right then.
When I got home I confirmed that our sweet little angel had told a big fat lie. When Daryl woke up the next day we talked about lying and I really didn't think it was getting through to him. So we told Daryl he had to pay Grandpa the money back that he spent out of his allowance. That caused tears, but he did it. Daryl may be a little too smart for his own good. Now to channel that power for good!

Here are some pictures from the Ramirez family reunion that I never got a chance to post. Like always it was a lot of fun!

Hello October!

I have been so sad that the weather had been perfect for running but my injured toe was still keeping me sidelined. But last week it was feeling better so I went for two runs this weekend. There is still a little twinge but not really any pain. I think that means I am good to go! My mileage is really low but I'll get that back up as long as it doesn't get any colder than 56 degrees! LOL
I've been avoiding my 4-H green knitted top. It is going to take a long time with such tiny yarn! So instead of working on that I knit Alex a tiny hat. A tiny hat that matched my hat! We are cute!

Last week Kelly and I got to eat lunch with Daryl at school. It was fun. And lunches sure have changed since I went to school. My son ate his apple first, then his broccoli, then his carrots and finally his goldfish. If I hadn't been there I don't know if he would have eaten the hamburger at all! It was fun to spend time with Daryl and all his classmates.

We may be to blame



 We are trying something new in the boys' room to try and induce some better sleep for Alex. Kelly unbunked the beds and they are now side by side. When we did that Kelly and I both agreed to be more consistent with Al's bedtime routine. We had a rock solid routine with Daryl and he is a sleeper. We got lazy with routines with kid #2. We are to blame for our own sleepless nights.

So last Tuesday we started bath, book then bed with both boys. We start at eight o'clock sharp. Alex still cries for a little bit but he is getting better and better. Every morning I make a big deal about him sleeping in his own bed and I tell him he is a big boy! He always responds with a "No."
He can be a big boy in his own bed but he doesn't have to be happy about it!

On Saturday around 7pm we put the boys in their pjs and loaded them and some blankets in the car. If I still lived in Hanston that would mean we were going to the drive-in. In Topeka it means we are going to watch a movie at the Capital. We saw, "Honey I Shrunk The Kids." Alex stayed up for the whole movie and Daryl fell asleep at 8:30 his normal bedtime. That kid is like clockwork with bedtime!






Sunday was wash day and I spent an hour washing newly spun yarn. I ended up with 1180 yards of worsted three ply yarn from 1lb of fiber. Color is Bristling by Hello Yarn. It is a classic! Can't wait to start a cardigan with it. I do need to get some projects off of the needles first. I should be able to skein it up with my new ball winder I want for my birthday. HINT HINT :-)

You know you are on a budget when...

Living on a budget usually means delaying pleasure. This is something that Kelly and I can make the decision to do as adults. However, the boys get that decision made for them! So the end of any month can be a bit ho hum, (dull) if we have already spent the eating out money and are almost done with the gas money!

Fortunately, living in the city we have many low cost (free) options at our disposal. We are also grateful for our Zoo family pass that the boys received for their birthday!

So here is our Sunday at the zoo!

Daryl loves this tunnel near the bears.

We were waiting and waiting for Alex to come out and turns out he just hung out where he went in the whole time!

Don't believe Daryl's face. He LOVES the zoo!

Saturday we made a road trip to Rossville to play at their awesome park! Our family is a connoisseur of public parks and while Gage ranks at the top of our list we like to shake it up every now and again. Rossville park is worth the drive!  (I have pictures but I can't get them off my phone. Trust me its cool.)


You know you are on a budget when you take your car to the dealership for a recall and the service guy can't get out of it. You forgot to tell him the door handle on the inside of the car is broke and you have to roll the window down to open the drivers side door!
Service guy says, "I can fix that for $130 plus tax."
You say, "For that much I will just roll down the window!"

You know you are on a budget when you ask your husband how much the groceries were and he says $46 and you get really excited. Then you get mad when you realize he didn't get two things on the list. So the groceries were not $46 they were $51. He had you thinking you could get a week's worth of groceries for under $50 and it just wasn't true!

You know you are on a budget when you can have a family fun weekend for free and love every minute of it!
(I almost hate to type this next part because I don't want to jinx us.) If we keep up our tight budget we should be debt free (except our mortgage) in February! This is ahead of our April 2015 goal! shhhhh let's not talk about it and that won't jinx it. If you must just give a ;-) in the comments here or on Facebook.
;-)