Rock Chalk Jayhawk

This is the bell tower, the Campanile at the top of the hill. Every 15 minutes the bells ring. I can remember when I was sitting in the football stands and my brother and the rest of graduates walked from there onto the football field for graduation. It was quite a site to behold.


This is one of many Jayhawk Statues on Campus. This brass Jayhawk is at Strong Hall.

Allen Fieldhouse in July. This place is really hopping between October and March! In front is the Booth Family Center. There is a museum of KU sports. We are most impressed with the basketball area. There is also a gift shop and if you can find your way you can look at the basketball court during the summer. It is much more fun when you are at a game. What an atmosphere!!

Our KU Vacation

We took a whirlwind trip to the Lawrence/Topeka area this past weekend.

We are all "in love with Lawrence." We have been to the KU campus many times throughout the years. By the time S goes to college in 4 years she will be able to know where every building is on campus.

We were hoping to run into a basketball player or a coach out there. We did not. Coach Bill was out of town recruiting. Maybe the players were over at their dorms or gone back to their hometowns. Nonetheless, we still had a great time just looking around on campus.

We saw where Julian Wright used to bowl on campus. We looked at textbooks soon to be used by students; took pictures of the campus and basically looked like sightseers on campus and in Lawrence. But it was fun! It was our vacation. Of course we ate at our favorite restaurant, Longhorn Steakhouse and we saw the crowds on Massachusetts street. On that street it reminded me of a beach town in Oregon where EVERYONE was.

Lawrence, is like no other town in Kansas. On "Mass" the main drag of Lawrence, there are unique shops, outdoor restaurants (where patrons can eat on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant), and popular clothing stores. No other city in Kansas has that going for themselves. It is much like a large city back east or back west that you would see these types of crowds. It reminds me of a town that just held a parade and their are crowds in the streets. But on this particular day and most days there that is how Lawrence is. Popular and very cosmopolitan for a Midwest town.

Each place we looked at shirts and I wanted to get "KU Alumni" and my kids were embarrassed that I wanted to do that. "You didn't go here. " So, I can claim that I did. (Sorry Sterling).

Oh well in 4 more years I may be able to get a t-shirt that says, "KU Mom."

Pics tomorrow....

Are you Smarter than a 5th grader?

I had watched this show before and each time I am screaming at the television. I can't believe some of the contestants! Some are smart and others, maybe they are nervous or something but a lot of the answers I know.

I just want to go through the television screen and say....duh!!

For example, I'm always telling people I am not that great in math. I quizzed out of college math and my highest level in math is Algebra 1.

I must be pretty good at math considering the person who was on tonight. It was a 5th grade math question. (Before that I was screaming pick History!) So the question was: 3x =12 and y= 3x. What is y? The contestant up there saying, "Oh this seems like a foreign language to me." By this time I am saying, "The answer is right there!" X equals 4 and they are asking for y. It was obvious (to me) the answer was 12. So the contestant is guessing 4 and Foxworthy said she could drop out now. So she did. I couldn't believe it. I was yelling, "TELL HER THE ANSWER, IT'S 12!!" There it was at the bottom of the screen. Then L says, "Okay, okay, she can't hear you."

So I change the channel because if I continued to watch this show I'd be screaming even more for the next wrong answer the contestant would say. It just makes me nuts!!

Happy 4th of July!

We finally bought some fireworks today. There was 4 firework stands in our small town to choose from and 2 going south to A town. So we decided to go to WF on the edge of town. Low and behold, we knew the owner of this firework stand...it was our mail lady. So we were happy that we chose her stand. She is such a nice person whereas some of that ones we have been to the people were pretty grumpy.

So we didn't buy as many as some years. Maybe because of the weather or the kids just really wasn't into as much. We bought parachutes, killer bees, desert storm at night, two 100 barage, and sparklers.

We shot the parachutes before it got dark, that's a tradition in our family to get those. It's a silly tradition, but oh well.

We waited until 9 pm...just in time for the rain to pour down! So we went inside for a while. Then the rain dwindled down to sprinkles and we made L go out there and light the stuff. For the first time J stayed outside (near the garage) and watched the fireworks. Usually he's inside the house because he doesn't like the sound of them. But the fireworks we got this year weren't quite as noisy as previous years. They were pretty....our favorite is "Desert Storm at Night." Every year we go through our inventory and think, "Now which ones should we buy?" Lucky, that S remembered the right ones.

Looking out of my window as I write I can/could see the pretty lights of the fireworks in the sky. No doubt, since it rained tonight, we will probably see some tomorrow as well. :)

Ants!

While I was cleaning at my church today I was dumping my pastor's trash. Then all of a sudden I saw what seemed like a million ants all over his desk! Here I am the custodian and I was going crazy seeing them on the desk! "Oooh, Yuk!"

B (the secretary) and I were looking for a food source and she found this basket full of candy on his desk. She picked all of it up and it was covered with ants. "OOOH, Yuk!" I exclaimed. She throws it ALL in the trash. So I'm running out of the office quickly tying up the bag and tossing it in the trash outdoors. Meanwhile B had gotten a kleenex squishing the little buggers dead. I looked under his phone and there were a trail there and under the paper tray they were there too. It was a mess!!

So I drove quickly to our local hardware/slow with the electrical and plumbing work store and got some spray and some cute little ant traps. I think we've got it covered until the Pastor comes back from conference in the big C state.

I asked him if he needed his trash dumped and he said no. But the next time I won't take no for an answer. I'll remind him about his little visitors.

Summer Reading

A few years ago when we were on vacation in Texas, I was determined to find a good author to read. I am a choosy type a reader (Just like I am as a picky eater). The plot has got to really grab me.

So I thought I should read a Nicholas Sparks novel. I've read many. My favorite one that he has written is, "The Rescue." I've read all but one and I have that one but for some reason I just can't get into that last one. I guess I haven't applied myself.

Then the next summer I read most of John Grisham's novels. Those were pretty intriguing. A lot of law books and twists and turns. One of my favorite of his is, "A Painted House." I am not quite done reading all of his novels. So maybe I should check into his stuff again.

My two favorite authors are Carol Duerksen and Maynard Knepp (a wife and husband team out of Hillsboro, KS). They have written a series of books based on the Amish way of life. I got hooked on those at my church's library. The first novel is "Runaway Buggy," from the Jonas series. Duerksen and Knepp have co-authored other novels such as "Hitched," "Preacher," and "Becca." Then there is the Skye series. I also have read their two latest novels "Nobody's Kate," and "Who's Kate?" I know when they have new books published I am sure to find a good read.

Confessions of a Picky Eater Part 2

Previously I had stated that I was a picky eater...or probably still am.

I can remember when I stayed at home we didn't have as many fast-food restaurants as we do now. Sure we had McDonald's and I ate many a meal there as well as Sandy's (another hamburger place), Red Rooster (our version of KFC before there was KFC in H town), the Hub (a cafeteria in downtown H), Tastee-Freeze, Fairmonts, and a new place called Pizza Hut. Well, it was new to me because my parents didn't eat pizza much back then.

When I went to college the food was much worse. We had mystery meat days at college and most of the students went to the local pizza place in S town and up 8 miles in L town for Pizza Hut. I had a good friend who showed me what kinds of food I was missing. At one time I wouldn't eat french fries. I described how they tasted, "Cold and nasty." She looked at me and said, "You haven't had Burger King Fries." So we went there and she salted a few and they were hot and tasty. Not bad. Another time I wouldn't eat any fast food soft tacos. Same friend said I could order it the way I liked with meat and cheese only. So now I added another new food. And at one time I only liked plain hamburgers. A guy, whom I was dating, asked me if I liked cheese. I said, "Sure." So he said that cheeseburgers tasted better than hamburgers. He was right. I haven't had a plain hamburger since.

When I got out on my own I was determined to try Apple Pie. I liked apples so surely apple pie would be good. Again, I went to Burger King and sampled the Apple pie. It is very good especially when it is hot.

So this is why I tell everyone, "Oh I'm not picky like I used to be." And it's true, if you knew what I didn't eat before!