Week 25

June 21: I finally broke out the grill. I need to do that more often. I am enjoying the backyard more.
June 22: The a/c quit for the second time this week. It’s no fun in an 80+ degree house. But luckily it got fixed the next day and so far it’s holding.

June 23: Favorite spot in Sedgwick County Park in summer. I have a set of photos I took of a bridge in Central Park in all four seasons. I believe I will try to do so with this spot.

June 24: Downtown Wichita has some great bronze sculptures scattered throughout. This is just outside the library and next to Century II – where I went for the 2nd summer music show of the season.

June 25: 90 minutes + $28 = all my work clothes for El Salvador which will get donated at the end of the week

June 26: I really like my new sandals. I searched the mall for what I had in mind and found these for $11 at Payless. If you didn't know you get 10% off at Payless with a AAA membership.

June 27: Apparently there’s a big change in acidity at the back corner of the hydrangea flowerbed. This is the only one with blue flowers.

Week 24

June 14: Fresh rhubarb from the farmers' market was turned into a rhubarb grunt (similar to a cobbler). It was good!
June 15: The holly hocks are really starting to bloom.

June 16: I noticed the cool pattern the candle holder makes on the patio furniture during a late "play ball" session with the dog.

June 17: Item #1 off the Wichita Bucket List - free jazz concert at Bradley Fair. It was a fun evening with the girls.

June 18: Celebrating Amanda, Amanda, and Amanda's June birthdays.

June 19: Item #2 on the bucket list - the Underground Salt Museum in Hutchinson. Hillary and I went 650 feet underground to tour the mine. Very interesting.

June 20: The first daisies of the season!

Week 23

June 7: We had a El Salvador mission team meeting. I am in charge of the team building exercises. Tonight I split them into two teams and they had to make chocolate chip cookies without a recipe. It was chaos and a lot of fun. One team's cookies turned out well and the other's not so great but not so bad. Thanks to Christina for letting us make a huge mess of her kitchen.
June 8: I've begun basic obedience training class with Diesel. He's a quick learner but we've still got some work to do.

June 9: My hydrangeas keep blooming & look so great. They are amazing to examine up close with each tiny petal.

June 10: Music Theatre of Wichita 2010 season has started. 5 shows over the summer. I love my season ticket seats - front row center of the balcony. Tonight Gayle went with me to see Gypsy.

June 11: Janel and I went to the new Intrust Bank Arena to see...

Lady Antebellum and...

Tim McGraw in concert. It was a great evening of country music.

June 12: I hit a few garage sales today hoping to find some gently used shoes for El Salvador. I scored - 21 pairs of shoes for $21. We are collecting shoes to donate to one church site in a particularly poor area. Kids cannot go to school if they do not have shoes, so we are helping the church provide shoes for a community outreach.

June 13: We had torrential rains with 40+ mph winds tonight. Diesel is usually scared of thunder and lightning but somehow had energy to burn and wanted to be outside playing in the lake of a backyard. He came in a drenched but happy puppy.

Week 22

May 31: I had a Chick-fil-A peach milkshake before leaving Atlanta. Bits of real peach...divine!
June 1: The hydrangeas are blooming and they are huge! This is about the size of two softballs.

June 2: Ice cream sundaes at biblestudy tonight.

June 3: I won tickets to Mosley Street Melodrama, so Janel & I used them to see...

"High School Melodrama".

June 4: I finally got to eat at Bonefish Grill. A group got together to celebrate Amanda N's birthday. It was a fun evening.

June 5: I finally made it to the farmer's market. I always have to hold myself back from buying too many of the wonderful vegetables.

June 6: I spent some time this weekend working on the yard. I am very pleased with how the plants are growing - which has nothing to do with any talent on my part. Looking at the plants closely, I am amazed at what a wonderful, imaginative Creator we have.

The lavender is starting to bloom.

Some of the hostas are blooming.

The feather grasses are feathering.

Baby black-eyed susans are making an appearance,

Purple bell flowers are ringing,

And my first hollyhock blooms have opened!

After three springs of work, I am excited to see the backyard flowerbeds growing so well & blooming so fervently.

Week 21

I blame the late post on traveling and on my computer being incredibly uncooperative once I got home.
May 24: Family portrait
May 25: We had an awesome double rainbow this morning. I pulled off onto a side street on my way to work to get a picture of it with my phone. It was a beautiful way to start the day.

May 26: I made fajita chicken for dinner. The limes I bought were total duds - a drop of juice per lime. I had to make a return trip to the store to get this lime juice in order to marinate the chicken.

May 27: The Thursday night life group wrapped up a study on "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan tonight. It was a great study & an awesome book. I am still chewing on a lot of what we discussed.

May 28: Atlanta baby! I flew to Atlanta for a reunion with a group of college friends for the weekend. We hadn't all been together in 5 years. We rented this ridiculous fabulous house in Buckhead. It worked out fantasticly. We had 14 adults and 9 kids running around it's 3 stories. We spent a lot of time hanging out and catching up.

It also happened to be Sheri's birthday (my roommate sophomore year). There was copious amounts of fabulous food over the weekend - all planned & orchestrated by Amy.

May 29: The Georgia Aquarium was today's activity.

There was a touching tank with sting rays and baby sharks.

The penguin exhibit had a part you could crawl through and then pop up in the center of the exhibit.

Jelly fish. I love the aquarium setting on my camera.

A lot of the kids in our group were fascinated by the feeding time in the touching pool.

May 30: The World of Coca-Cola was on the dock today. My Grandpa Marshall used to be a Coca-Cola distributor, so I was looking forward to seeing it.

One of the coolest things in the museum for me were Olympic torches. Coke is a big sponsor of the Olympic games.

Some of the many decorated Coke bottles.

We managed to capture a picture of the adults (minus Chrissy & Steve). Couch: Dan & Amy, me, Sheri & Mark, Standing: Jennifer & Robin, Travis, Elizabeth & Steve, Scott & Terisa. It was a fantastic weekend catching up & hanging out. We decided 5 years is too long to wait to do it again. I'd explain how we all met & who was roommates with who when, but it'd leave you confused. It just reminded me that God is faithful and my college experience was exactly what I needed it to be with some great friends.