New Job

In order to meet the quota of non-Ellis/Puryear/Voth posts, I figured I'd write a few sentences about my new job.

1) I have my own office with a door and everything. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a window. My firm moved to a new office space a year and a half ago, and brand new associates lost their window offices in the move. I'll have to wait 2 years before I "move up."  It's good a reminder that I'm not a big deal. 

2) I have my own secretary - Barbara Bridger.  She's probably 60 years old, and I share her with 2 other attorneys.  So far, I've wooed her with bags of Hershey's assorted minis and took her to lunch downtown at Roaring Fork.  She loves action movies and went skydiving last year.  I'm hoping that I never lose the desire that I have right now to make Barb feel valued.

3) Today, we turned two "motions" that I wrote into the federal court in Austin. I'm surprised they gave me so much responsibility so soon.  There have been many days these first few weeks I have thought, "I have no idea what I'm doing." I'm sure there will be many more.  But today was a fun day, seeing real work that I did actually get filed.  Of course, there was a lot of editing by other people, but that's only because "I have no idea what I'm doing!"

4) I have two pictures in my office. One is the picture my family gave me (and Cory designed) with all of the jobs I've had and schools I've attended so far in my life.  It's a good reminder that Jesus has so masterfully guided me, even when I felt I was lost.  It's also a great conversation piece.  Most of the people that come into my office comment on it.  The conversation usually ends with them saying, "Your family must really love you." I'm pretty lucky.

The other picture is a painting of the Bible verse that I want to be the theme of my career: Matthew 20:25-28.  It says, "But Jesus called them to Himself and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.'"  I love that last part - Jesus didn't come to be served but to serve and to give His life for others.  Hopefully my new career can ultimately be committed to that purpose.

5) Tomorrow I get my first paycheck.  It's the first income I've had since getting some student loan money back in the spring, and it is desperately needed.  It will also be for 3 weeks instead of two, so...jackpot!

I love you guys.

Joel

Elsy's Birthday!

From Julie:

Whew! Another birthday party over and done with. I thought this year, I was scaling Elsy's party down from the one I did last year. I think I did a bit, but boy am I tired!

I had been planning the party for a couple weeks. The theme - Sesame Street! I made some characters out of tissue paper. 

Abby came over last night and helped mix the frosting as I frosted the cake. What a big help that was! She even made a solo trip to Wal-Mart to get some black frosting. Here's how the cake turned out. 

This morning, our day started out with breakfast out. Elsy got a free HUGE chocolate chip pancake. 

And then some present opening. What a funny age for presents. She just wanted to play with everything she opened and not open the next present. She was the same way at her party this afternoon. The "favorite" present was a candy bracelet. What was I thinking, allowing her to eat it while she opened the other presents?! What a sticky mess!

We had Elsy's party at a nearby park. I originally thought this was a good plan but I had to think a lot more about what all I needed to bring. You couldn't just run to your kitchen to get another spoon! It was a perfect day for it though. The party wasn't too big. Just a small amount of family and three families with kids around Elsy's age. 

Other than the flies, the food turned out pretty good!

Elsy knew exactly what to do with the candles. She blew them out like a pro and then told everyone she was two when someone asked her!

The presents were a little overwhelming but she had a lot of "helpers" to help her open them!

The party is over! Time to go home. 

Unexpected Harvest

From Dana:

 

I planted some tomato and pepper plants late this year.  Like super late.  Like June, late (when I normally would've planted them in April or the beginning of May).

 

Honestly, I pretty much wrote them off.  I didn't water them (thankfully the sprinkler system did some and so did the rain we had this summer) or weed them or fertilize them or coddle them in any way.  I just let them be and figured they probably wouldn't produce much.

 

When I mow, I go past them and would see that there was some fruit on them but it all seemed pretty small and not worth the time to go pick it and then figure out what to do with it when I brought it inside.

 

For some reason, yesterday, I remembered that I had three, not two (like I had been noticing), pepper plants and I went looking for the extra one.  It was hidden under one of the out-of-control tomato plants.  I was so surprised to find it brimming with luscious, big, beautiful fruit!

 

Check out this unexpected harvest!

 

Guess what we'll be having for supper this week!  Green Chile Burgers!  One of our favorites!

As a sidenote:  Do you know how easy it is to roast these anaheim peppers?  Super easy.  You raise your oven rack to the top, put them on a pan under the broiler, and wait for the skin to turn black/blister, flip them over and do the same thing with the other sides, stick them in a tupperware with a lid to steam and cool off, then peel off the skin, cut up the slimy roasted pepper deliciousness, and voila!  So good!

 

Cole joined me in our harvest.  He collected the tomatoes.  Here's what he did when I said, "Smile!"

 

 

And where do you put your tomatoes when you bring them inside?  Into your secret hiding place, that's where.

That boy!

The vine-ripened red tomato was one of the best I've ever had.  It was warm yet from the garden and so flavorful - perfect on top of my leftover chicken enchiladas.  I love being pleasantly surprised!

Monarchs

From Dana:

 

Sublette has been FLOODED with monarch butterflies this week as they make their trek south!  FLOODED!

 

Does this happen in Kansas City?  I have a vague memory of my 8th grade science teacher having a monarch butterfly garden at our school and tagging them somehow or something, but I never remember seeing them come through.  Though, I DO spend a whole lot more time outside these days than I ever did when I lived in Olathe, I think, so it makes sense I'd notice them here.

 

Yesterday Cole and I took the trash out to the dumpster and the monarchs were swarming all over.  It was a beautiful sight.

 

I know you can't tell in the this picture, but our locust tree was chalked full of butterflies.  I got the impression they were holding on for dear life in our Southwest Kansas wind!

 

Visit to KC

From Dana:

We had a WONDERFUL, albeit quick, visit to Kansas City this past weekend. 

A highlight: We got to go to the Royals game with some of our good friends from K-state Navs! Marc had a vision way back in the spring to get Royals tickets. He believed in them enough to think we would still see a good game at the end of the season. And we did! Even though they lost, they were in it the whole time and there was a real energy in the stadium. 

Here are the girls:

Here's the whole crew:

Derek and katie metcalf, James and emily beecher, Chris and rachel Pfeffer, and chad Pirotte & carrie Kafka (newly engaged couple!)

We girls shifted seats all throughout the game, so I got some good catch up time.  The boys were a little more "all business" as they high fived each other off and on during the game and actually watched intently. 

Julie and Brad rode to the game with us and sat somewhere else in the stadium but got to come down near the end of the game. 

If you haven't watched a game with Brad, you haven't gotten the full, anxiety-riddled, nervous energy experience. He's a Royals lover! (And his wife is right there with him, it seems!)

Our seats were great! Good idea. Marc!

After the game we came home to the family birthday party for Mom and Elsy. I felt so loved that everyone would be willing to change the time for us, since the time of the Royals game got changed. So loved. So accommodating. It was lots of fun to see everyone!

Cole was fighting sickness all weekend. Why does that always seem to happen when it's time for us to leave town? 

We got some good time with the Puryears and young Ellises. 

Grandma gave us ice cream comes which put a smile on all our faces. 

To top it all off, Cole slept so well. I feel like that is my gauge, oftentimes, of how a day goes or in this case a weekend. He loves grandma and grandpa's house! And we do too!

A New Park

From Dana:

Lately our park visits have been squelched because they have closed the rec park to plant new grass. We have gone to the grade school playground after our morning jogs with Micah and her girls some. 

Today we tried another park in town. It's older - the paint is peeling, the wood seems splintery, and everything just seems more rickety, but Cole still had fun!

He climbed to the top of this slide and went down with no fear. (Don't worry. His mom was right behind him.)

He got to swing on a real swing on his own for the first time. 

He liked playing on this the most but it made me super nervous - splinters, missing boards, lots of places to fall off. 

And then he found the mud around the merry go round to play in before we left...

We stripped down and went straight home to the bath!

Books

From Dana:

Today was library day for Cole and me. I returned my book, The Glass Castle, which I actually almost got finished with during the two week duration of checkout (not that it matters a whole lot - Sublette doesn't have late fees!). It's my second in a row that I've done that with. I don't think I've EVER done that. I always have to renew. 

The Glass Castle was a really good book, a recommendation from Norma. It was a memoir. It was really well written and easy to read, but I think the fact that it was true really put it over the top. I couldn't believe it! I think I'd recommend it too. 

The family was poor in the book and I find myself thinking about that a lot as I go throughout my day - seeing things I could live without or just being grateful for what I have. 

This is the book I picked up today - on Kathryn's recommendation. 

It looks like it's going to follow four people who meet on New Year's Eve at the top of a building famous for suicides. I can tell already that I like the writing style. 

I LOVE reading books recommended by people I know!

Rental Update

From Dana:

We had a carport installed at the rental house this week to replace the one Dad helped tear down. The crew came and went in just two hours. Fast!

Here is the back/north side of it. It sits past the driveway into the backyard and is enclosed on three sides. 

We are all pleased with how it turned out. 

In other rental news - we had our first SOS call from the renter a few weeks ago. He called at 9:00 at night to report that his air conditioner (the brand new unit we installed just months ago) wasn't working and his house was smoldering. To top it off, he couldn't get the windows opened. 

Marc went over there right away to check things out. (Bet you wish he was your landlord!) 

Turns out, the drainage hose for the condensation from the AC had gotten coiled up and the water wasn't able to drain. The system has a safety mechanism that keeps the unit from running when this happens instead of causing flooding, thankfully. We were glad it was such an easy fix! Crisis averted!

The Wheat Update

From Dana:

On our way home from Kansas City we stopped at the farm to see how the wheat was coming along. In just under a week, it had started to come up!

By this time in our trip, Cole was more than ready to get out of his seat and have a look (and so was General).

Marc was happy with how it was coming up except for in the tractor tracks. "It needs a rain," Marc reported. 

Look what happened today!

This was Sublette - almost one inch! We haven't gotten the report from montezuma yet, but hopefully they got the same thing!

We have 40 more acres of continuous crop (land that has not sat fallow) we need to still plant. We were just waiting for a rain, and now we got it!

Cole's visit

From Georgann:

Cole, and his parents, where in Olathe over the weekend.

On Saturday Dave and I got to watch him while his parents went to the Kansas City Royals game. We went to the park and to McDonald's for lunch.

Cole played with Uncle Brad's toy fire engine. Pushing the buttons to turn on the siren and lights always made him smile. He was such a good little guy. So much fun to watch and follow around. 

Trying to get a picture of Cole and Elsy together was challenging. This was taken after lunch on Sunday - all dressed up in the church clothes. 

Aunt Julie enjoyed reading to Cole. 

We always want one.more.day but cherish the te we have.