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I know, I know, it’s been forever. For the memory archive, so much has happened: My uncle Norman died; Deborah’s dad, also; there was a big accident at the center but God was merciful and good; I’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis and osteopenia (I have an appointment on Thursday to come up with a plan); but the big problem right now…?

There’s a preschooler who sits at my lunch table and nearly every day he says, “I’m going to be a teacher when I grow up.” I always tell him that he’ll make a very fine teacher. Today, I found out his reason. It’s not because I’m such a glowing example of the educational world….. it’s because I get more lunch than he does.

Dang.

I don’t often put gas in my truck (since I only drive it 1 1/2 miles a day), but when I get to put gas in the Prius on the weekend, it’s exciting – because it means a trip to Costco! The Lincoln store always has gas that is cheap (around $2.50-$2.70 is a good price), but the Omaha location is CHEAP. I often text Lloyd about my conquest.

Lloyd likes cheap gas, too. He has the app Gas Buddy that tells you what the gas prices are around you, and he also has a Phillips 66 app that gives him 15 – 25 cents off per gallon.

Well on our way out to Colorado, we stopped in Denver for the night. (This time we stayed at a swanky hotel that had a barn door to the bathroom…. with a window, riddle me that.)

Anyway, the next morning we stopped at the Phillips 66 in Idaho Springs, just a couple of miles west of Denver. The regular price was something like $3.45 a gallon. Lloyd did the app thing….. and it was $2.12. I want to make sure you read that right: TWO DOLLARS AND TWELVE CENTS. I would have been more excited but I was already pretty heavily medicated due to the prospect of hitting icy roads in the mountains.

On the way back to Nebraska, Lloyd was calculating how much gas he needed to put in at the start of the trip so we’d have an empty tank in Idaho Springs. Same situation, and I felt like a criminal as we left the station. So cheap!!

I told my friend about it, and she also has the app and thinks it was a Thanksgiving promotion. Well, if it took $1.30 off each gallon – totally worth it.

Thanksgiving went well. Lloyd and I drove out to Colorado to spend time with my Dad. Keren, Kurt and Jacob also made the trek out, and it was so good to see them! The food was great, the people were delightful, and most importantly: the weather was good for travel. (There have been quite a few anxiety-inducing things going on in my life, so it was so nice to have dry roads.)

I didn’t take a lot of photos, which is a shame. In fact, the only real photos I took were of the neighbor cat who came over all the time. His name is Roland, and we all loved him. He is a rare black tabby, and was a true nut.

The other fun thing was Jacob’s brainchild. His actual job is building race cars – for REAL – and Dad always refers to his Subaru as his ‘race car’. Jacob had some stickers made up and we spent an evening doctoring the car.

(I was just a helper. Jacob was the expert.)

Dad thought it was funny enough. ‘36’ is the year he was born. I told him he’ll never wonder which car is his ever again.

Last week we had the weirdest ‘away’ weekend. Lloyd has/had been sick since the Sunday before, but on Thursday he said, “I need to go look at some stuff at an auction in Iowa. Do you want to go? Do you want to see if your sister can meet us?” I looked at his coughing, sniffing face and said, “What?”

It was a comedy of errors. I couldn’t contact Keren until later, and it was all up in the air. They bought a camper a while ago and we’d often said we should meet up for camping, but this was all last-minute and arranging for a campground where Lloyd and I could be in a cabin was too difficult and weird, so at 8:00 Friday night, Lloyd and I booked a house in Cedar Falls. (I never got the name right. I thought we were going to Clear Lake. Every town in Iowa has two names. Bear Lake. Clear Falls. Clear Bear…..)

Saturday morning, I drove His Grossness five hours east. We got to the house where he pretty much just stayed in bed in the basement. It was awesome seeing Keren and Kurt, and on Sunday, Lloyd was well ‘enough’ to do his auction things. Here’s a brief tour of the house, minus the basement. (Click HERE for more photos.)

It was the town high school’s building. They were landlocked, so they built a new school near the edge of of town and sold this one to a small Christian school. They purchased all new stuff for their new building, so this was all up for sale. Lincoln Lutheran was interested in some of it, so Lloyd was the scout. He traveled the place quickly with his Clipboard of Interesting Things, and I followed the 6,948 step behind him. (Not a lie.) Keren and Kurt looked around for a little while, then went back home. Here’s an automated video of the place, and Lloyd in his natural habitat. Sorry for the camera swinging around all over. (Also, the last photo is of my coat-carrying skills. The weather was cold and rainy, but it was hot inside the school, so we took off our coats. I dug through all the cabinets looking for a string bag to carry them, but no dice. I wound up with Lloyd’s coat tied around my waist and my own coat stuffed into the back of my sweatshirt. I am truly just a pack mule on these adventures.)

Afterward, I drove His Grossness home until it got dark, then he took over. All in all, a very pleasant weekend, in spite of the hilarious mishaps.

Not human, thankfully.

I’ve used the Litter Genie system for the litter box for years, and I’m a total fan. We scoop about every other day, and the bags hold over a week’s worth of yuck, then it gets tied up and goes outside. The cartridges are a little pricey, but the convenience is worth it.

At the store one day, I was in the baby section to get some wipes for school, and lo & behold: the Diaper Genie cartridges, that used to be round, are now square, just like the Litter Genie cartridges. The same length is half the price, so I bought one of each – for science!

I think we can tell by the pictures that the Diaper Genie bags are made of a thinner plastic, so it would be wise on my part to not load them to capacity – or else that is going to be a terrible, terrible mess on the way outside. Note to Future Lauren: Take the whole thing outside and tie up the bag there.

One other nice thing? Finding the end of the Little Genie bag is a gamble every time. The plastic is all crammed in there and you have to pull out several inches of plastic, hoping to find the end.

They were kinder to the parents of babies, most likely replacing their cartridge in the sleep-deprived middle of the night. They put a red tab on the edge.

So, hopefully I won’t update you with a sad story later of cleaning up an enormous mess from the basement. Remember, Future Lauren. Remember.

Way back when we moved into the ‘new’ CDC, I had dreams of how to label the rooms. I wanted some wrought-iron sign brackets that stuck out from the wall so we could hang the classroom name, teacher name and information, etc. Something like these, but much cooler. It’s never going to happen, because I am running out of energy and caring.

However.

We were going to host a science night, and the teachers in charge wanted to put up signs to show what the theme for each classroom would be. I said if they’d print the signs, I’d take care of it.

I had an idea. This cream cheese box has a magnet inside. Did you know that the corner where two pieces of drywall meet has a metal strip inside?

Here’s the other side:

Well, I could use magnets at school for my idea, but I felt comfortable putting a nail in the wall for each. After all, I am the one who knows how to repair a nail hole.

I used ‘coat boxes’ from the wrapping paper section at Wal*Mart and glued on the printed signs. They worked a treat, and all the staff said, “We should have signs like this to label the rooms.”

I know! (Please ignore the little thins that bother me about these, like how they aren’t flush and you can tell from the edge that it’s just a box. They’re prototypes, after all!)

If you want to see a glimpse into Science Night, click HERE.