Since posting photos from our trip to Denver at the beginning of January, it seems like the days and weeks have flown past. Over the past couple weeks a few things have happened that are note worthy:

Weekend Visitors
During the first week of January, Bryce and Connor came over for the weekend while Stacy and Chris went with Jodi and Justin to Mexico (yeah, boring I know). Amongst the great times between cousins, some of my favorite included playing Wii with the boys. It’s hard to beat Super Mario Brothers on a gaming system.

Basement Furniture
We recently purchased a coffee table and a couple of end tables for the basement. Slowly, we are finishing off the living space down there. Our next step is a coat of fresh paint all over the basement walls, some lamps and some wall art. In good time, we’ll be done.

New Bed for Kennedi
In addition to new tables in the basement, we also bought Kennedi a full-sized bed. Over the past year she has outgrown her toddler bed. Since her toddler bed/crib converts to a headboard, we decided to get her a real mattress. The first night in her bed was quite a site. Seeing her in her new bed was like seeing a midget in a king-sized bed.

Birthday Party for Mom
Last weekend we celebrated Mom’s 65th birthday with a party at Calvin and Polly’s house. In addition to Mom’s birthday, we also celebrated Calvin’s 79th birthday. We all headed over to Calvin and Polly’s for a nice lunch and a time for catching up. From the sounds of it, we can look forward to future co-birthday parties at the McMillan’s house. Happy Birthday, Mom and Calvin!

Weeks to Come
In the weeks to come, we have plans to visit Monarch, Colorado for some snowboarding as well as a trip to Dallas for Juli’s second half marathon. Both adventures should make for a great time. You can bet that photos will be coming of these two trips shortly after our returns.

About twice a year I become very lazy with our family website while becoming overwhelmed with life’s daily twists and turns. The long stretch between the last post and tonight marks the first for this year.

I was approached by family this week that there has been a lack of attention to our family website in the past month. The only rebutle I have is, “Is anyone out there?”. Does anyone even visit the site anymore? With the lack of participation by recent visitors, the motivation to continue to maintain this site becomes low…real low. There are two things that motivate me to continue to update the site with information and news about the kids, Juli and myself. 1) Crowd participation 2) Outstanding and incredible news about the family.

Now that we’re done with the introductions, on to some news.

Late last month Julian turned 2. We had a big party for him here at our house and all of the family were invited. He had a blast entertaining everyone and playing with his cousins. During the past month Julian has really started to talk more…and clearer. His sentences are still short, but the words are easier to understand. We are still working with him to get sentences out of his mouth, but for now, clear words will do. As of tonight, I can clearly understand him when he says “I love you” at bedtime (this is something he and I have wroked on secretly for the past week or so).

Today Kennedi took a field trip to the zoo with her preschool class. Juli chaperoned the trip and from what Kennedi tells me, they had a blast and saw tigers (LUCKYYY). She continues to be strong willed and determined to be independent (all of which are great attributes for adults, but I’m not sure about 3 year olds). She is stoked that she has one day of school left.

Mikayla has been busy with soccer and softball, which means Juli and I (and the kids) have been busy driving to soccer and softball. This could have a major influence on the lack of commitment on my part to devote some time to our website. She has been to a couple soccer tournaments, games and practices as well as pitching practice, hitting practice, team practice and other misc. Little Flowers events. She is thrilled to be “this close” to the end of school.

Juli is continuing her Yoga classes, striving to attain her instructing certificate so she can teach her own classes. She has helped teach a couple at the Northwest Y over the past two weeks. She is busy at Cessna with contracts and clients. When she’s not working, she’s driving kids around or relaxing in yoga class. Tonight she asked me out on a date. We plan to hit the drive-in (wink, wink) this weekend (alone) for a triple feature showing Star Trek and two other movies that sound interesting (although I’m not sure at this time what they’re called).

I have been busy at work, creating new web designs for multiple clients around town (like Star Lumber (launching soon), Genesis Health Clubs (launching soon), Wichita Technology Corporation and 360ideas (launching tomorrow morning. this is the company I work for). When I’m not at work I spend my time in a car, driving across town to and from work, playing with Andi (see next paragraph) and playing with the kids. I’m looking forward to the drive-in this weekend with Juli. Lately I’ve been thinking about some new tattoos to get but haven’t settled on anything yet (plus the economy isn’t the greatest…so, you know).

Andi, our new dog, is adjusting well to our home. We found her at the Kansas Humane Society three weeks ago and fell in love immediately. She is a whippet/pointer mix. A whippet is a descendant of the grey hound. She is tall and skinny, has short black hair and is very well behaved. She loves squeaky toys to chew on and plays fetch very well (although we’re still working her dropping the ball when she brings it back). At the moment she is quietly laying in her crate (which tells me she feels safe there now) with the crate door open. Kennedi is still freaked out by her at times, but is slowly coming around to loving Andi. Andi is about 12 months old.

Now, after all of that, I would hope at least 70% of you would have something to comment to us about. Share your thoughts. We love hearing from you.

Over the past several weeks I’ve heard several comments from friends, family and co-workers about different options for recycling around town. Some good, some bad. Some costly, some free. As usual, I’ve chimed in to give my two cents about our recycling service, Eagle Recycling, and how it benefits our family. If you’re interested in lowering your monthly trash service bills and obtaining a reliable recycling service, keep reading.

Eagle Recycling is a recycling and trash service based out of Hesston, KS. A couple years ago we came across their name after doing a bit of searching for good local recycling options. Of course we could have just opted to keep our then current trash service and pay an additional $5 per month for limited recycling (by limited I mean, only certain types of recycled materials would be accepted). However we were not interested in paying for limited service for an additional cost.

After speaking with friends and family and searching the internet, our friend Swilly told us about the company they used for their trash and recycling. After listening to the benefits, the conclusion was simple. We could have more, pay less and feel better about recycling a ton of material on a weekly basis. To us, it just made sense.

So how do you go about getting service setup with Eagle Recycling? It’s easy.

1. Call Lyndon at Eagle Recycling, 316-207-1048.
2. Tell him you are a friend of Michael and Juli McClure (who are current customers) and would like to setup recycling/trash service for your household.
3. Call your current trash service and tell them they stink (no pun intended…well, maybe) and that they cost too much.
4. Go to Lowe’s and buy a mid-sized plastic garbage container (preferably one made from recycled materials) and a couple of larger cans for recycling material.
5. Start recycling your heart’s out (according to the materials Eagle Recycling accepts (which ranges from cardboard, paper board, newpaper, cans, aluminum cans, glass, plastic, etc.)).
6. Sit back and start feeling good about saving your planet.

You’ll notice the difference in the first couple of weeks of recycling. We did. On average, we have half a garbage can of trash per week, while we have two full cans of recycling every other week.

Need help? Leave me a message here and I’ll help you out as much as I can.

After almost 5 years of living in our house (coming mid February), we have finally upgraded our living room rug. When we first moved in in 2004 we bought an ultra cheap rug at Home Depot. We liked the stripes at the time and it served its purpose well. However after years of traffic and spills, it was obvious we needed to get a replacement soon.

After a few months of searching locally and online, we finally found what we were looking for at Crate & Barrell’s alternate site, cb2.com. We ordered it about 10 days ago and today it arrived. Juli had the pleasure of man-handling this beast into place…and it looks fantastic. Take a peek at some these photos of our new rug (and also enjoy and updated view of our living room).

I was putting up lights on the house yesterday and found myself wanting to stay up there longer than usual. When it’s roughly 40° outside (and windy) and you’re putting Christmas lights up on the house your instinct is to put them up quickly and get inside. But when it’s 75° and sunny, getting off the roof is not first in your mind.

Another thing that was far from my mind was Christmas. Although it was November 18th, the weather made it feel more like September 18th. So as much work as I was doing to get prepared for Christmas, it was hard to think Santa was coming in about a month.

I also meant to take some photos from on top of the house while I was up there. From on top, we have quite a sweet view of the back of Target, the front of the new Office Depot (off in the distance) and miles and miles of rooftops. If I think of of it before it drops to 40° on Wednesday, I’ll climb back off and snap a few shots to share.

The two rooms in the basement have been sheetrocked and taped and have had their first layer of mud applied and sanded. Stacy and Erin are helping us finish up the rest of the mudding in the basement (to give Juli a well deserved break).

I, on the other hand, am in charge of all sheetrock sanding. Sanding sheetrock is just about as dirty as it sounds. Put on mud, let mud dry, sand smooth. All this “sanding smooth” creates a ton of dust. And let me tell you, inhaling sheetrock dust is very irritating. There’s an unpleasant film that adheres itself up your nose, in your eyes, in your mouth and everywhere else imaginable.

The paint for the rooms has been bought and is waiting eargerly to be rolled onto the walls. Mikayla’s room is a bright turquoise blue and my office is a neutral wheat tone. Now we just need to get ahold of a trim carpenter to finish the rooms off with wood trim and install my desktop and shelves.
All that said, our furniture will arrive on Saturday afternoon. I think we’ll wait to put the tv downstairs until the two rooms are finished and the entire basement can be mopped and cleansed. Stop by if you feel like working.

Coming over to visit any time soon? Don’t be suprised if we answer the door covered head to toe in white dust. We’re starting to finish the two rooms in the basement (after almost three years). Our friend, Tim, came over tonight and hooked us up with a few electrical outlets, switches and a phone line in one of the rooms. This said room will become “My Office” and the other room will be Mikayla’s bedroom.

Both rooms are cleared out, aside from the dust, and we plan on starting to lay some “rock” tomorrow with the help of Stacy and Erin. My hopes are to get at least one room completely rocked. Maybe then on Sunday we can finish the left over room.

We’ll leave the mudding/taping of the rooms for another weekend. After that, it’s smooth sailing with some paint and trim. Before we know it the rooms will be done, our new couch will be here and the family can start enjoying basement-life more.

My buddy Scott found this link the other day. It’s a game that tests your brain power and eye sight. There are two pictures that look similar only there are three subtle differences. Play the game and report your score after your done. Don’t list out the differences and ruin the game for others, but just post how many you found and approximately how long it took. Have fun.

Since finding out we’re on our way to a three-peat in parent hood, we’ve spent a bit of time trying to figure out how we’re going to function in our house. Before we found out about the baby, we had plans to expand our living space and get some furniture for the basement. This news just helped speed up our process.

We have some furniture ordered for the basement that will come in around Thanksgiving, so we have additional furnishings started. And once that gets here, the TV upstair will move down stairs, giving us more space in the living room. But, before all that happens, we need to get some sheetrock delivered to our house so we can finish the two spare bedrooms downstairs (one of which is looking mighty enticing to Mikayla right now with the thought of having to share a bedroom with Kennedi).

In addition to expanding our living space, we’re also looking into expanding our driving space and have started nosing around for a vehicle that accomodates more than four. And no, we aren’t getting a mini van.

Update: See a few photos from the trip.

Who knew that a city kid like me would enjoy getting out and smelling country air. This weekend Juli and I are headed SW of town to camp overnight with some friends. The kids are going to be hangin’ with Nana Jean for the night. I am fully anticipating getting a nice warm fire going so I can cook my veggie-dogs over an open flame. Photos will be posted as soon as I get them processed.