document life now

more random photos from the weekend

We spent quite a bit of time wandering the campus of Kansas State University. Mykiah kind of liked the campus. She's my big city girl. She liked the feel of a college town. So we checked it out.

This is Anderson Hall, where the administration offices are. I tried not to go in there often. It's a gorgeous building, though. Many of the buildings on campus are very old, and made from limestone. As buildings go, they're gorgeous.

These were taken outside the art museum on campus. It's pretty new (looked like they were still working on it). I loved the arch where we took these photos.

These photos were taken outside the library. When I went to school there, the library was old, and crammed full, and more than a little bit scary if you had to go out into the stacks to find some scholarly journal or something. I used to make Dan go with me and scour the stacks. I remembered that they were expanding the library when I was graduating, so I wanted to check it out. It's a beautiful building. I'd be happy to study there now. 

Then we walked over to the WW2 Memorial. In keeping with the theme, it's a great piece of art. Modeled to replicate dog tags from WW2, the metal has a high shine on it. Allowing us to do this portrait:

I wouldn't be sad if any of my children ended up at Kansas State. In fact, it made me a little sad that I ever left...

it might have been Brady's birthday as well

We picked Brady up Saturday. Sunday he turned 17. 

Except we couldn't wait to give him his gifts. We hadn't seen him for a whole week (almost). Absence definitely made the heart grow fonder.

Water fight at the Notch pool in T-2 weeks.

Kindle? For me?!?

He loves it.

He likes these, too.

Our first thought? Brady's going to love these.

Our second? Zach is going to be so jealous.

I wish I could say Brady had a thrilling birthday party, but the truth is... we were all tired. Brady had stayed up until almost midnight every night of his week away, getting up for the day about 6 am. I had not slept the best because Brady wouldn't text me until almost midnight each night, so I'd wake up in the middle of the night just to read his messages.

So I did a lot of this:

And we were all pretty much in bed before 9. I don't know. Maybe the girls were up later. I know I wasn't.

My boy had a good birthday. Seventeen isn't to be taken lightly. 

Seriously, what in the world am I going to do next year? 18? Really?

a trip to Manhattan

Friday, Dan, the girls and I spent the day enjoying Manhattan, KS. Dan and I both graduated from Kansas State University, but we hadn't really been back to visit for oh... 18 years or so. 

It's changed a bit.

For the good. Lots of old nasty houses have been torn down and replace with new, clean apartments. Many new retail and restaurant options. The campus has been improved. 

However, the basic layout of the town was still the same. Dan and I spent our first few years of married life across the street from campus and a few blocks from Aggieville, the hip little entertainment district near campus. 

Of course, we had to take our girls there.

Varneys is where you bought your books. And backpacks. I distinctly remember buying my "college" backpack there. Now it has books, and lots of K-State clothing. Dan's Father's Day gift came from Varney's -- a new K-State tee and shorts. Awesomeness.

I must say, I approve of the changes. The Hardees is now a Chipotle. Burger King still stands (and Dan cleaned that broiler many a time during college). Aggieville now is a haven for the sub eater. Jimmy John's, Planet Sub, Mr Goodcents, Subway. Whatever you'd like within a few blocks. And ice cream... we stopped to get some after closing ceremonies.

my boy is home!

Saturday was the final day of Boys State. We actually went up to closing ceremonies on Friday night. Mostly we all had Friday off and wanted to get out of town, but the closing ceremonies gave us a glimpse of what Brady had been doing all week.

The ceremonies started out with a lot of awards. Awards for counselors who were moving up to advisers the next year. An award for the most inspiring counselor (who happened to be one of Brady's counselors). A news reel. A video look back at the boys' week.

Awards for individual counties for achievement, and government, and athletics.

Then came the ending. First, the singing of the National Anthem. Then a monologue about the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Following that, the playing of "Proud to Be an American" by Lee Greenwood. During this time, the members of the American Legion who were honored guests would come forward to be honored.

And during this time, the 450 or so delegates, all males entering their senior year of high school, stood to pay tribute. And then I looked down and saw the boys doing this:

Yeah, I just let the tears fall at that point. All those boys, who had just spent a week learning about leadership and government and how to live together in this world... they put their arms around each other and sang. That's Brady's county down there leading it. Brady's second from the right in the front row. 

We spent the night in a hotel, then picked Brady up mid-morning on Saturday. As we picked him up the boys were in their usual formation:

All rights reserved by ksbstate

It was a little bit boot camp. A little bit living computer simulation of a government. A little bit learning independence. What an amazing experience for all those boys.

I'm sure glad to have mine home, though.

randomness

A few random photos still sitting in my "to be blogged" folder.

Mykiah in my hometown:

Chesney at the lake:

The hitching post in Arthur, IL:

My aunt's beautiful flowers:

A layout of my son:

Have a great weekend!

Boys State

A few months ago, Brady got a piece of mail telling him he'd been nominated for Boys' State.

At this point, I probably wasn't the best mother. I overlooked my son's concerns and desires and pressured him into going.

I went to Girls State (24 years ago!) and although it sounds corny, it really was a week that changed my life. I learned about leadership, and achieving dreams, and I learned about more mundane things like living in dorms and eating in cafeterias. All important things to be learning when you're going to college in a year.

So I ignored Brady's feelings and told him he was going. It was easy not to think about it... until last week. We had to think about it. Pack. Prepare him for a week on his own.

If you know my boy, you know he's unique. Social settings are a challenge for him. He doesn't like anything new or unknown. He's quirky, and oh so funny. I love him to death. And by Sunday at lunch, we were both half sick thinking about the week ahead.

We ate our lunch (actually Brady didn't... he was too stressed) and then checked Brady in for the week. Dan and the girls got his luggage and we rode up to the 5th floor in a large dorm at Kansas State University. And then we left him there.

I couldn't sleep Sunday night worrying about my boy. I'd left him alone in the big city, with no one he knew. What was I thinking? 

I texted him but went to sleep without a response. What if he'd lost his cell phone? What if they took it away from him?

And then I got a response. The jist of it was that Sunday had been the worst day of his life. Ever.

Took everything I had to keep from driving up to get him and bring him home. Well, everything I had plus the fact that I had to teach summer school and Monday was our first day. 

I went to work and then came home and frantically checked social media. Thank heavens, Boys State of Kansas is on Twitter. I had tweets sent to my phone. Whenever they'd post a picture, I scour it for some glimpse of my boy.

And then two things happened Monday. First, this picture...

It was captioned "playing Ultimate Frisbee." My boy does like the Frisbee. And look... there he is, alive, well and in the middle of a group. An organized group! 

Next he texted me during his dinner. Told me he'd been elected a county commissioner. That's a good thing. He has a job, he'd been elected to it (rather than assigned it) and he'll be kept busy. So, glutton for punishment that I am, I asked if he was having fun yet.

No.

I told him to please try.

And he said, "I don't have fun. I'm relaxed." 

That's about as much of a ringing endorsement you can get from my boy. He does have a different idea of fun than your normal teenager. I love him for it. 

And I'll try to quit stalking him on Twitter and the Boys State website. 

What in the world am I going to do when my boy goes to college? 

More on this story next week...

Wrapping it up

We spent the rest of Saturday catching up with people. I got to meet an internet friend I've known for close to 10 years.

And we spent the rest of the evening at my cousin's house with my aunts, my cousin and her sister (who coincidentally is also my cousin). We reminisced for a bit about our childhoods. About our girl band and our names within said girl band and our restaurant, the Red Pussycat. We were naive. But we rocked.

As I have probably mentioned, I last saw these cousins ten years ago, and yet we fit right back together. At that last time we were together, Chesney was 18 months old. My cousin has a daughter a few months older than Ches. Back when they were toddlers, they were best buddies. Played until they dropped. Of course, the question of the decade was whether they'd still be buddies.

They were. In fact, it was Chesney's best day ever. You know, until we go to Branson and she plays with Autumn. I love that it is so effortless for Chesney to make friends. She is never lonely for long.

So here's my cousins, myself and all our girls:

My sister and one of my cousins is missing. I threated to photoshop their faces over Chesney and Emma, but that's far beyond my skills. So just imagine Karen and Kathy there. 

On Sunday morning, the girls and I woke up to begin the 11 hour drive home. First, I stopped to take this one last photo of Amish life...

Destination: Rockome Gardens

Saturday morning we woke up and met 4 of my mom's siblings for breakfast at a little diner. If you're ever in Chesterville, IL, eat breakfast at the Kountry Kafe. No lie. That's how it's spelled. And if you're in Chesterville, it's the only thing to do. Best breakfast ever. Real fried potatoes. Thick bacon. Amazing. I can still taste it.

Anyway, we ate breakfast and then my mom offered to take us to Rockome Gardens. Once upon a time, Rockome was a little touristy place where people could go look at flowers, look in shops and learn a little about the Amish. It's still those things, but on a much smaller scale. Apparently there was an owner who let the place get a bit run down. It has new owners and they're really trying, but it's not quite where it was. 

Still a great place to take some pictures.

That rocking chair has been there as long as I can remember. I have pictures of me, my sister and our 3 cousins sitting in it. It wouldn't hold us now.

Here my girls are about to enter the Haunted Cavern. It used to be a Haunted Barn, but it was rebuilt. I don't remember the Cavern being at all scary. Well, as least since I was 4 years old. It scared us to death. We shrieked our way through it. It made me laugh a lot.

And then we started our tour of the gardens...

Before we left, Chesney wanted to spend some of her souvenir money. The Gardens has a little Raggedy Ann store at the front because the creator of Raggedy was born in the area. She finally chose a sweet little Raggedy Ann which was signed by the granddaughter of the creator.

Totally sweet, isn't it?

more from Illinois...

So Friday we drove from St Louis to Illinois. We ate a yummy lunch, drove around the countryside, toured an Amish home, did some mega shopping at an outlet mall, and arrived back at our motel in time to dump our stuff before dinner. 

Doesn't Mykiah just "feel" like me in this one?

Dinner that night was not even in question. In my hazy memory of my summer vacations of my youth, Monicals Pizza had come to mean everything that was good about summer. We'd arrive in IL after a very long drive, then hop in cars to head to Monicals. Seriously, why are there no Monicals in Kansas?

The thin pizza is amazing. Mykiah had a vegetarian, the rest of us split a Purple Rider and a beef/green pepper. Just typing this, I'm contemplating how to get that pizza here. Now.

After dinner, we went out to my Aunt's farm to let the young ones run around (that would be Chesney and my cousin's little boy) and sit and talk. I, of course, brought my camera and discovered many cool places for taking photos.

Ended the night with my aunt's homemade cinnamon rolls... amazing. Off to bed in our fun little motel...

portraits of my girls

On this trip, I had a habit of being in the vehicle, driving past something and saying, "Stop. Hand me my camera."

Sometimes I'd add, "Jump out of the car girls."

Then I'd shoot.

One time I did this was at a Hippie Memorial. Wasn't aware we needed to memorialize the hippies, but it made for some fun pictures...

And maybe once we were on a dirt road and I told my mom to turn around, and then told the girls to get out, and then told them to worry about the standing water, but to jump through it just so I could get these pictures...

I think the photos were worth it.

Then again, I'm not the one with wet shoes...