Can't get away

We got this in the mail earlier this week:

A junk mail letter from Allstate. Look familiar? We got a similar letter here.

Not the same...but unfortunately from the same company. The same junk mail letter I mailed every day for two years. The same junk mail letter I proofed every day for two years. The junk mail letter I thought I'd never have to see again.

Oh, TU Daily, I have not missed you at all.

Men v. Women: Coupon Clipping

One disadvantage of moving to Champaign is not being able to get the Chicago Tribune home delivery. The first few weeks we lived here I was a little "lost," as far as not knowing where to shop, where to get good deals and how to get coupons.

Basically, I probably spent more money on groceries in the last three months than I had in the previous six before that. Simply due to lack of planning and it didn't even feel like we had more food!

Well, the Coordinated Science Laboratory on U of I's campus came to the rescue and addressed my coupon problem. Each week, the facilities manager receives the Sunday Tribune, goes through the coupons for he and his wife and then brings them up to me! So thankful for him and coupon sharing. :-)

Over the last few weeks I've received a pile of coupons that look like this:

I thought it's an interesting comparison to see how men sort, clip and organize coupons: see above.

And how women "typically" sort, clip and organize coupons:

Living room updates

I think we can officially say we're done attempting to put together our living room! Hallelujah! At least we can call one room finished. Just don't ask us to show you our study or guest room :)

The room started out looking like this when we moved in:

We moved in, painted the walls a gray/blue color, refinished the floors and painted all the trim white - including the doors that lead to the living room.

And then after too many days of using an air mattress for a couch, we received this big guy:

At some point during this process, Kody refinished our entertainment center and removed the glass door:

Then with all the major pieces in place, we began adding pillows and decorations...switched the bookcase...painted our own wall art (yes, Kody painted that himself and did an amazing job if I say so myself)...agonized over a rug color...and found the perfect black ottoman!

The final touch was getting two side tables to finally have somewhere to put a drink and figuring out what would look good between the bookcase and couch on the left side.

And finally D-O-N-E:

Our first harvest!

Our garden is producing!

Maybe I should clarify...our garden is producing...lots and lots of weeds. Yay!

Unfortunately, not much of the green in that picture is actually anything I purposefully planted. But I'm too scared to pull any of those weeds, just in case it might really be a plant and I just can't tell! Our garden has looked about this productive since we planted it. I thought this was possibly normal until we visited our friends Austin and Amber and realized they actually have green, real, vegetable plants that grow up to your knees! They also had things like tomatoes and peppers hanging off of them. Ours aren't quite there yet :)

However, it hasn't been a total failure!

Meet Green Onion #1:

 And Green Onion #2:

Aren't they beauties?

I'm not sure if they were ready to be picked or not, but I gave it a shot anyway. While we did plant green onions, I'm not exactly sure if I planted these or if they're just leftover from the older garden. They were definitely not growing in the "green onion" row.

We also have a struggling, little, itty, bitty lettuce plant that, depending on the day, looks like it's about to die. I thought it was a goner a few weeks ago, but then it perked up again!

You think that's enough lettuce for a salad yet?

Veterinary Badge of Honor

About two weeks ago, Kody got inducted as a "veternarian-in-training," by donning a blue lab coat and participating in a graduation-like ceremony.

Kody's parents came down for the weekend and it was fun to have them here and learn a little more about Kody's next four years of insanity.

The first year students were given their coats by a few faculty members and student representatives. They'll wear them during all their rotations over the next 6 weeks and during the upcoming years.

One of the first people Kody met while getting his rabies shots before school started was the couple below - Nicole and Andrew. They're from Virginia and Nicole loves Young House Love. So basically it was friends at first blog post...or something like that.

Illinois has a unique vet program in that students do 8 weeks of rotations in the veterinary teaching hospital on campus during the first three years of school. Kody will do rotations until October and then begin typical classes. These last few weeks though, he's been loving learning to draw blood from a dog's jugular vein, tackling cattle and learning to tie knots to restrain sheep, goats, pigs, horses and cows. His first week was small animal internal medicine, last week was farm animal husbandry and this week he'll learn about diagnostics.

So far, he's really enjoying it and has already made some great friends. We spent yesterday sweating in the heat at the first Illini home football game with two other couples and then enjoying a BBQ inside at our house. While it was fun...nothing can compare to a Husker football game. The stadium wasn't even full! Even with the lack of quality college football, it was a fun day and the Illini did win!

I have to brag on my hubby for a bit though. He's pretty much dominating this vet school thing so far. Over these first 8 weeks, the students are required to complete about 40 online quizzes, along with weekly assignments related to their rotations. He's almost done with the quizzes and was even jokingly offered a summer job wrangling mean bulls that need tying up, due to his incredible knot tying ability. And if you know anything about Kody, you'll be super impressed that he joined three clubs (Surgery Club, Animal Hospital Assocation of American and the Christian Veterinary Club) and wants to get a University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine license plate holder! Completely different man from undergrad :) Love him!