Last sunrise of 2011

I love my house - we built it in 2000 after living in a very small house for 26 years. One of the things I love about the house is when I sit in the front room in the morning I can look out the picture window at the cars going by to the west of us on the turnpike but I can see the reflection of the sunrise from the windows behind me. This morning the reflection was so bright it made me get up and go look out. The sunrise was just spectacular. I have a new camera so hopefully in a few days if there is a sunrise like this I will know better how to set the camera to take a better picture but was still happy with the one I got.

Happy New Year to all - we are spending it at home this year with the triplets. Their folks haven't gone out on New Years Eve since they were born. They brought the girls over this afternoon, we had supper and now they are in bed. I plan to knit and go to bed after the ball falls in New York.

Earthquake!!

Last night was one of those nights that someday I will think "when did that happen?" so I am putting it on my blog so I can look it up if I wish. Last night about 11 pm there was a 5.6 earthquake in Oklahoma that was felt in Wichita! It was really quite exciting - I have never been in an earthquake. I lived in California for a year back in 68-69 and there was an earthquake when I was there but I was asleep and missed it. But last night I watched K-state lose a fabulous game against #3 Oklahoma State. I have never been prouder of a losing effort - they really played their hearts out. It ended about 10:45 so I went upstairs and started turning the clocks back for daylight savings time. Worked out just perfect - I was in the bedroom turning the clock back to 10:00 and the news was just coming on because it had been delayed because of the game. The house felt funny and it sounded as if someone was stomping in the bathroom and then there was a very strange buzzing noise. I thought "what in the world" and then it was all over and I was so annoyed because I figured I would never know what caused those events. Then the news came back from a commercial and Larry Hatteburg said "folks - we just had an earthquake here in Wichita" I was so excited! I grabbed my phone and went on Twitter to announce I had just experienced my first earthquake. Of course everyone in Wichita that is on Twitter was doing the same thing. It was such fun to read all the tweets - at first it was just "earthquake" or something similar then people started getting creative and the results were so funny. One tweeted to text a number to donate to the Wichita Earthquake relief fund. That is the thing I love about Twitter - it brings everyone together when something happens. I was up for another hour reading tweets until I finally got to sleep. Dennis was (of course) gone deer hunting. We joke that he is always gone hunting when things happen. He was gone hunting with the tornado hit our old house. Jimmy really felt it at his house but it is older and I am sure the foundation isn't as good as ours. Glad it wasn't serious - I guess there was some damage in Oklahoma.

So I can mark off "feel an earthquake" off my bucket list now. :)

Straight No Chaser

A couple of years ago we stumbled on the group Straight No Chaser on KPTS and loved them. When we found out they were going to be in Salina last October we got tickets and went. It was one of the best concerts we had seen so when we found out they were coming to Wichita we got tickets again. This time we contributed to KPTS so we could meet them before the performance. Their concert again was just fabulous. At the meet and greet they said there were only eight there because one of them "had to make a quick trip to the hospital and another went with him". During the concert there were nine performing and I found it odd they never mentioned the missing singer or explained why there were nine instead of ten. Of course in Wichita no one makes a "quick" trip to a hospital so he might have still be in the waiting room when the performance started.

Aunt Ruth

My Aunt Ruth celebrated her 90th birthday on July 18th and the weekend before her children (Nancy from Arizona and Betty from Wichita) and their children had an open house at her church in Chanute. It was so wonderful to have the family together for a happy occasion. Aunt Ruth is my mother's sister and one of three remaining children in the family. Her sister Shirley came from the Kansas City area and her brother Larry came from Georgia. My brother came from Washington State, and my daughters came from Texas and Oklahoma so there were a lot of memories shared and the camera were used constantly. Groups were formed for photos and you felt like you were a celebrity as there were at least six to eight cameras going off at once. :) Some cousins ended up introducing each other during the photos as the age difference was quite large in some groups.
Thank you Nancy and Betty for a wonderful day! And I hope we are back together for her 100th birthday!

This is my Aunt Shirley, Uncle Larry and the birthday girl - Aunt Ruth

These are all first cousins - age range is mid 30's to upper 60's. :)

Uncle Larry and my brother Gary were thick as thieves while growing up - more like brothers than uncle and nephew.

And of course our family - except for son-in-law James. He had just started a new job and wasn't able to come.

I won!

Unless you have tried to do it - you have no idea how hard it is to get the triplets to all three look at a camera and have a good expression on their faces at the same time. One is always interested in something else or has their eyes closed. Today we went to Exploration Place and the girls were by the rocking horses so I tried getting a picture. Of course they were way too busy to let me get a good picture until I said "do I have a rose on my nose?" (read a lot of Dr. Suess this last three weeks) They all three stopped and looked at me very intently trying to see the rose on my nose and I finally got a great picture.

Prodigal Brother comes home

My two weeks, give or take, of spring cleaning were for two reasons - the place really needed it and my brother and his wife came for a visit. They were here for my aunt's 90th birthday celebration (which will be another entry)
We had a good time - watched the triplets take swimming, babysat them one night, watched their t-ball game, went to the trailer in Oklahoma and went to Botanica the day Susan Peters of KAKE tv and a sponsor gave the new children's garden a check to buy books. If you watch KAKE, they have commercials showing that day and you can see all of us in the crowd. All of us = Stacy and her kids, Laura, Gary and Becky, Jimmy and his family and Dennis and me.

This is the glider that my folks had for as long as I can remember.

Sea World

We took a trip in June to Sea World with Jimmy's family and had a great time. It was pretty warm and the last day there Lily started coming down with the cold that Izzy and Audrey had before we left so that was a damper. The motel we stayed in was one of the nicest ones we ever stayed in - big, roomy and the free breakfast was the best!

We took a walk along the beautiful River Walk in San Antonio and rode the boat around the river.

Jimmy and Izzy are in the last car. Audrey and Lily were riding another ride - Lily wasn't tall enough to ride this one and Audrey chose to ride the one with Lily

Retirement

My last day I did very little work - mostly had a good time. My department had a nice lunch for me and a lot of people dropped by to say goodbye. The triplets and Maranda came up to see everyone and my kids sent a beautiful flower arrangement - the only time I cried was when I saw it. It was amazing.

WOW! Where did this summer go?

I retired June 9 thinking I would have plenty of time to update this blog every week. Right. That didn't work out quite the way I thought. This has been the busiest summer I can remember and most of it has been a lot of fun. My reasons for not updating:
1. Trip to Sea World in San Antonio
2. Cleaning house from top to bottom for company coming
3. Company came! Stayed a week or a few days - it was a revolving door here
4. Trip to Chanute for a wonderful 90th birthday celebration for my Aunt Ruth
5. Trip to Texas to spend a week with Laura, Stacy and Jessica doing lots of fun things
6. Babysitting the girls while the folks went out of town
7. A week of intense cross stitching that produced a finished project for the fair (been on the stand two years)
8. And Grandma day care has been busy since August 1st and will continue a few more days.

So - going to post some pictures of the summer and hope that catches me up.

Tee Ball or is it T-Ball?

The triplets signed up for T-ball with the YMCA this summer. I had never been to a t-ball game, been to a lot of soccer games but not this. It is very funny to watch them play the first game - they hit the ball off a stand and then run and try to grab the ball because, by golly it must be their ball! Then the coach grabs them, and heads them towards first base and they "run", or walk or wander towards the base with the encouragement of all their loyal fans if we aren't laughing too hard to talk. As the games progress I can see a great improvement and sometimes they even stop playing in the dirt long enough to grab the ball when they are in the outfield.

The Y had a photo contest on Facebook for the cutest picture of a child in a sport and Lily won by a landslide. The helmets are all too big on her so she is hitting the ball with the helmet over her eyes and it is very funny. Thank you to all our friends for voting for her!

I admire the coaches - they really work hard to teach the kids the skills they need and I am extremely glad there are no scores kept. :)

World of Outlaws 2011

World of Outlaws 2011, a set on Flickr.

At the beginning of June we went to Belleville Kansas where the World of Outlaws raced for the first time in 20 years. The next day we drove from Belleville through Marysville and stopped to go to a car show on the main street. Then we headed on to Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City Ks where the WoO raced again. Since there was a NASCAR race in Kansas City that weekend we hoped to see some NASCAR drivers there. We were not disappointed. Kasey Kahne and Tony Stewart both own WoO cars and came to the track. Tony raced too but didn't do too well. We had a great weekend. I am not sure how this is going to work, posting a set of pictures from Flickr, hopefully you can click on a link and look at the set and if you aren't interested in cars, you can just skip it.