I went to Lawrence for Thanksgiving. Hannah & Jonathan and the boys came home for 2 days. Sharon & David & JT were over for awhile each day as well. So it was lots of family time. Got to play with the boys for while. JT & Marshall play well together. They both like Grandpa’s train though it’s hard for two to play with that at once.
Marshall is a chatterbox. He’s always popping out with some piece of 3 yr old wisdom to make us laugh. He did not want to go leave Grandma & Grandpa’s house. “I’m not going home. I stay here. I go home next time.” "CHEESE!"
And baby Jack is a sweet chunk-a-monk. He’s 5 months old. He’s a happy baby who squeals and smiles. He looks so much like my dad. He seemed to like Aunt Jen. There’s nothing like holding a sleeping baby.

. It’s sad to realize that JT is not a toddler any more. He’s almost 5 and growing up way too fast. We wrestled a bit. His laugh still gets me.

You would guess that Jack & JT were brothers, not Jack & Marshall.

The grandparents.

The boys had been upset that Grandpa didn't have a birthday party a few weeks ago. Marshall had insisted on a green cake with blue icing and red candles. And JT couldn't believe that Grandpa wasn't having anyone come over for a party. So we had a little family party and the boys helped Grandpa blow out the candles.

And that was the family Thanksgiving. Also got to catch up with Shannon & her daughter Noel. Shannon walked me through the White Show at Signs of Life Gallery. Shannon & her husband Darin put together this show of all white pieces. And then we walked around downtown Lawrence. It was great to catch up with her and be reminded of what an awesome downtown my hometown has. I was happy to find Taylors of Harrogate’s Spiced Christmas Tea at Brits. And Saturday afternoon, Mom, Dad & I took a spin around the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.

Farewell

Grandpa Rafe passed away on Friday, November 6. He is very much missed by the family.

The finished product

I thought I'd brag about my flowerbeds and how they matured this season. Not that I did anything special. We had hot days in June when it was not looking good and then the rest of the summer was unusually cool & rainy. I am excited to think that next spring it won't take quite so much work since I'll have some established vegetation. But before I get ahead of myself, here are pictures of how my garden grew.
The back bed is full of hostas, coleus, impatiens, grasses and 2 potted ferns.
The side bed is where I have a little sun for flowers. The daises and black-eyed susans did pretty well. As did the dahlias.

More impatiens grace the patio.

The begonias out front finally started getting big in August.

My front door flowerbed - dwarf lamb's ear, dusty miller, begonias, and dwarf golden barberry shurbs.

Looks like we'll get our first frost this week so all the pretty will start dying away. But I have been happy at the progress made this growing season.

Eat your heart out, Martha Stewart!

So I might have mentioned to a few, or 15, of you that I had some foundation work done this spring. It was not the fun way I had anticipated spending that money, but keeping the house from falling apart ended up trumping any other plans. The southeast corner was where they had to do the majority of the work. It left some lovely cracks in the bedroom at that corner of the house. These are the 2 biggest cracks. And yes, that one ran up into the ceiling.

My house has the lovely popcorn & glitter ceiling that I hate. Since the crack was into the ceiling, I decided to finally tackle removing the popcorn. Afterall it's only a 10x10-ish sq foot room. It's not hard, it's just labor-intensive and MESSY!! That was not a fun day. (BTW, if you ever decide to take down a popcorn ceiling, always have it tested for asbestos first. Though I highly recommend hiring the job out if you are considering removing your popcorn ceilings. It's not fun.) I removed it and did the oh-so-fun cleanup then waited about a month to have any motivation to be in the room again. After sanding down the ceiling and creating another giant mess to clean up, I started in on the patching work. Due to the size of the cracks, I used mesh tape to first cover them.
Then I glopped on, I mean, expertly applied drywall compound.

Then came sanding, another big cleanup, priming, and painting. I primed & painted the ceiling too. I was pretty happy I had just enough primer & white paint in the paint can stash in the basement to finish the job without buying any more. I also had left over paint for the wall color from when I painted the room about a year & a half ago. And here is the finished product. The patch jobs may not be the most professional, but it's done. I was quite proud of my home-owner skills. I may have watched too much HGTV in my time, but it's come in handy.

Voila!

Labor Day in Colorado

I was invited to join friends for a few days on their vacation in Colorado. It took me about 2 minutes to decide I could figure out a way to make it work. So I joined Christy & Michael for Labor Day weekend in Avon, CO. My flight arrived several hours before theirs on Saturday, so I got my rental car and headed out to Dillon for some shopping. Then I went to Vail. Gourmet on Gore was in full swing - a food & wine festival, so I walked around and had some fun people watching. We got settled into the condo in Avon that evening.

Sunday was a scenic drive on Highway 24 to Colorado Springs with many stops for picture taking. Some of the aspen trees were just beginning to turn their brillian yellow color. We started a hike at The Crags, but it began to thunder & rain so we had to turn back.

Monday we took a local's recommendation for a hike. We drove into Glenwood Canyon. That is an amazing spot if you ever have the opportunity to experience it. We hiked up Hanging Lake Trail. It was steep & rocky with a beautiful mountain stream flowing beside the trail most of the way up. There were gorgeous moss-covered waterfalls near the top of the trail. Hanging Lake is a jewel of a spot - a crystal clear mountain lake near the top of the canyon. It was an awesome hike!

El Salvador

Where to even begin...

On July 25, a team of 15 flew from Wichita to San Salvador, El Salvador. Our mission was to assist Iglesia Biblica de Elohim in Santa Ana in any way we could for the week. That afternoon, after settling into our hotel, we were taken to the church to meet the congregation and have dinner. Papusas are a salvadorian nation food. It is a thick flour tortilla around refried beans and cheese that is grilled on a flat top. I had heard many stories of papusas from the team that came 3 years ago, so I was interested to try them. They were tasty. We had lots of beams, rice, chicken, plantains, and tortillas during the week. There were several church ladies who worked hard to make our lunches and dinners every day. They even taught us how to make tortillas.

Sunday we toured Tamazul, a Mayan ruin. That evening we went to the church service at Elohim. The congregation was so welcoming and loving to every one of us. Monday we started our work days. We painted some intricate ironwork and started digging a retaining wall. The retaining wall was hard work since it was being dug by hand with shovels and pick axes. It took us 3 days but we got that wall dug and moved tons of dirt by wheelbarrow. We worked alongside Salvadorians who volunteered at the church. And there was always a number of children running around and angling for our attention. We played volleyball and soccer with them as well as just hanging out while attempting to communicate in broken Spanish. We had one team member who was fluent in Spanish and others who got along in it decently.

Tuesday was Kids' Day. We had a morning and afternoon session. We organized into 4 teams by age group and then rotated through 4 activity stations (singing, tug-o-war & shark, face painting, and salvation bead bracelets). It's organized chaos. It was lots of fun. Sara & I were team leaders with the 3-5 year olds during both sessions. At the end we handed out candy & stickers to each child. About 200 kids were involved during the day.

Wednesday morning they took us on a hike to the top of Montana Esperanza (Hope Mountain) which is behind the church property. One of our team members has prosthetic legs. They weren't going to leave Dave behind, so they rigged up a chair in order to carry him up the mountain. When the path was too steep or narrow, Walter (aka Superman) carried Dave on his shoulders. It was an amazing act of love that touched us all. During the climb, we were treated to amazing views. Witnessed how they farm corn and beans on the side of the mountain as well. Thursday during the day we were taken in small groups to visit some of the homes in the area surrounding the church. It is a very poor area. The shacks are made of brick, wood, tin, and whatever else they can find to make a shelter out of . They do ahve electricity but no running water. The home I visited was one room with 2 double beds and not much else in which a family of 5 lived. It was typical of the area.

We attended church services Wednesday night. And they ahd a goodbye feista for us on Thursday. I have never been hugged that much in such a short time span. Friday we headed to a resort on the beach for our R&R time. It was beautiful. We were across the street from the Pacific Ocean. Overall it was a great time there. Saturday afternoon five of us were playing in the waves and got sucked out by a heavy undertow. Three of them were able to make it back on their own, but myself and another girl had to be rescued by a lifeguard. It was a very scary situation but God certainly had His hand on us.

And there you have a brie f accounting of the trip. So many stories of a wonderful week and a great team who decided to take a week's vacation to serve the Lord in El Salvador.

Philippians 1:6 - He who began a good work in you will be faithful to see it to completion.

Coming Attractions

I returned Sunday night from 9 days in El Salvador on a missions trip. I am still catching up from being gone and processing all that happened on the trip. I promise a new blog post soon with pictures of the amazing adventure.