Alaska Vacation

Back from Alaska! What a beautiful place. We started out in Seattle which there are several things I want to go back to see there.

Also, what is Seattle without Starbucks?

The cruise was pretty smooth - only one evening of rough water. This was in Skagway. Also visited a beautiful garden there. All the plants were really big. Can you find Kyle in the flowers?

Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay.

In retrospect, I wish I had taken more pictures, but in the past I have had a problem with taking a million of what we call "dolphin" pictures. Anyway, the pictures hardly do it justice. It was cool and rainy, but the locals say that is normal summer weather. The cruise ship had lots of things to do all the time. We had fun getting to know the KFRM group.

Weekend Fun

We had a great time at Council Grove at M & J's home. Very relaxing and good weather for sunning.
BUT
I had the most terrible headache I have ever had. Since we are leaving on Friday for Alaska, I decided to see the doctor today. With what Kyle considers to be my hocus-pocus way of getting in to see the doctor when he can't, I called Sylvia (the nurse and the key to the whole procedure) and she got me in at 10:30. Found out the reason for the headache was a sinus infection. The antibiotic was $80 so I am thinking is should really work fast! I also got a patch for motion sickness just in case that is a problem on the ship.
AND
I got my work for both classes done until we get back. It is hard for me to be productive when I am sick because I am the worst sick person in the whole world. I always look like I have one foot in the grave. I am so brave! And I am a poet and didn't know it.

Beets and a Funeral Dinner

I had not planted beets in my garden for a number of years. No real reason because Kyle and I both like them and they are pretty easy to deal with, just didn't do it. This year I put my extra beets up as pickled beets - 10 half pints worth. I didn't really can them, just have them in my basement refrigerator but I think they will be OK for quite a while. Aren't they a pretty color? Abby came home and said that it smelled worse than skunk in the kitchen when I was boiling them to slip the skins. Now I don't really think that is true, but at least she won't be trying to eat them all up.

I helped serve a funeral dinner today for an elderly man and his wife who died in a car accident earlier this week. There were about 100 people there, and they didn't get back from both burials until 1:15 (second marriage for both so they weren't buried in the same cemetary). The crew who usually works the dinners seemed to think we needed to use the real glasses. But of course, I was the one running the dishwasher. There were some really good looking salads there, but no leftovers. Just glad there was enough for them.

This weekend we will be at the lake home of some friends. It will be fun and happy!
Tootles, LB

Happiness

So someone who read my blog, let's call her Paige, said that my other entries were downers. So this one is all about happy:)

I am happy

1. my paper came before 5pm today. It's a record!
2. the two foot yellow squash from the garden was edible. Now we can eat all week.

3. Katie on Next Food Network Star was the one to go.

4. for great fireworks last night in Clay Center.

5. to know that Abs watched "10 Things I Hate About You" in school last year because it was an analogy of "The Taming of the Shrew". Hmmmmm . . . .

6. the watermelon I got at Ray's was so tasty.

7. I got done reading the book The Blue Nowhere for class.

8. for air conditioning.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th! As I was walking at 9am, there were plenty of people out already shooting off fireworks. Really, the holiday hasn't changed much since I was a kid. We usually cooked out and shot fireworks with my grandparents often coming over to watch. I don't remember too many times that harvest wasn't over. For teachers, the holiday marks the halfway point of summer, so that is a little sad. We are going to a friend's house for an afternoon of swimming, barbeque, and visiting. When we first started going there seventeen years ago, our kids were 10, 8, and 2. Now it is other people's kids who get out of the pool all shriveled up after hours of swimming.
We got 1 1/2 inches of rain last night - yeah! But it rained out the festivities for Clay Center.

Ode to John

Today would have been my father-in-law's 86th birthday. His dad was a German immigrant, and his mom was just one generation removed. Little did Kyle and I know that five years after graduating from KSU, getting married, and the birth of two children that his dad would succumb to cancer. In the scope of everything, I didn't know him very long. But he was a great father-in-law and thoroughly enjoyed the kids. We weren't always done with wheat harvest for his birthday, so sometimes celebrated later, usually with an outdoor barbeque. Happy birthday, John.

The Birth of a Blog

Wow! This does feel a little like giving birth. First, I had to come up with a name and that was about as hard as naming my children. Then the nervous anticipation of what it would look like in the final product urged me to complete the task. Hopefully it will be done today.