For the most exciting news: My brother Ryan and his wife Lydia are moving to Wichita in a few weeks, and I am going to be an aunt!!!!! I’ll get to meet my niece or nephew in January. Already have a blanket done. And I am saving up vacation time, too.
For other news, I’ll start with cooking. I really haven’ t done as much as I thought I would since Alex has been gone, but I did have a mishap with making her favorite granola recipe. I let it cool & harden too much on the pan, and my attempt to remove it resulted in about ¼ of it flying all over the kitchen and the counter. I’m still coming across some of it. I also decided to try to eat out once a week, and I have had some excellent Chinese and Vietnamese food and eaten at Jacks Stacks twice.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most this summer is the beautiful flowers that cover our balcony. Here is a picture of them: Miss Patty Petunia, Betty Begonia, Elephant Ear Earl, and the others I was too Impatient to name. Unfortunately, the indoor plants, especially Nort, need some more TLC.
For other news, I’ll start with cooking. I really haven’ t done as much as I thought I would since Alex has been gone, but I did have a mishap with making her favorite granola recipe. I let it cool & harden too much on the pan, and my attempt to remove it resulted in about ¼ of it flying all over the kitchen and the counter. I’m still coming across some of it. I also decided to try to eat out once a week, and I have had some excellent Chinese and Vietnamese food and eaten at Jacks Stacks twice.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most this summer is the beautiful flowers that cover our balcony. Here is a picture of them: Miss Patty Petunia, Betty Begonia, Elephant Ear Earl, and the others I was too Impatient to name. Unfortunately, the indoor plants, especially Nort, need some more TLC.
I also met some people at a musical at Midamerica Nazarene called “the Pastor.” It was about the man & his wife who started Voice of the Martyrs after being imprisoned in Romania when the Soviets invaded. It was very touching, and I am going to get a dvd copy of the performance, too.
I also saw Les Miserables with some folks at the Theatre in the Park (something they have at Shawnee Mission Park every summer). That was fun, and we did some frisbee throwing before the show began. The performance itself was so so. They left out some of the story and spent too much time on certain nonessentials.
There are a few things that I have enjoyed doing that Alex would be glad to avoid (besides the Chinese and Vietnamese food, of course). I watched a couple good foreign films. One of them, The Classic, will be on my list of favorite foreign films. It’s about a girl who falls in love, and while reading her mom’s letters the film flashes back to her mom’s story of when she fell in love. Other favorites: Life is Beautiful, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and Vivah.
My mom and I went to go see the Princess Diana exhibit at Union Station. Something else Alex would rather skip. We purchased the tickets to it but had to wait 3 hours to get in, so we wandered around a bit before deciding to go see the World War I Memorial. Unfortunately, the memorial closes pretty early & all we had a chance to do was go up in the observation tower. And since I had to climb up a rather confined, winding stairway, the claustrophobia started to kick in. And I don’t really like heights unless I am safely behind glass.
I did go back this weekend, and it was interesting to go through the museum and see the timeline (by month) of the war’s events. My dad and I were surprised that one of our favorite authors, J.R.R. Tolkien, fought in the Battle of the Somme. Other interesting facts/thoughts: almost half of the people who died from the U.S. died from the Spanish Flu, and 20-40 million people died from that epidemic in 1918-19. Did you know that Japan entered World War I against Germany?
I also enjoyed refreshing my memory on historical events, especially since I am reading the latest bestelling biography on Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was executed after opposing the Nazis. Bonhoeffer lived in Berlin during World War I, and it is interesting to read how it affected his family and Germany and precipitated WWII.
As for other events in the Midwest, I was just watching the news the other night, and they were discussing flooding in Missouri and Kansas and Nebraska. With all the melting snow in ND, there have been quite a few levee breaches and towns evacuated along the Missouri River. I-29 has been closed north of Rock Port, MO. Not sure how far north it’s closed.
Anyway, they showed a local news clip saying that all the flooding may increase the chances of encountering a bear while camping. It just struck me as ironic as I’m sitting in Johnson County. And I don’t think I have ever heard of bear encounters anywhere between here and Omaha.
Other atypical events for Johnson County: We were under a boil water advisory for the past two days after a water main break. They determined the cause to be a racoon who chewed through electical wires at the water treatment plant, causing a loss in pressure.
Yes, things here don't quite compare to Alex's adventures in AK, but I kept reminding her before she left that the heat and humidity when she gets back will just be another adventure for her.
Crazy Quotes:
Since Alex has been gone, this section is quite short; however, I do have one from a while ago when I was riding with Alex to the store. I was obviously pretty tired.
Jules rambling about nothing: “This shopping center has the Green Apple (frozen yogurt place) and Applebees. Now all they need is Ray’s Apple Market.”
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