jumpin' jayhawks

it's been a rock chalk year at our house. not only did we get tickets to the ku homecoming game this fall, i can now say i've experienced the phenomena that is kansas basketball at allen fieldhouse. we got there plenty early so as not to miss any of the excitement and i have to say, even with the students gone for christmas break it was a pretty great atmosphere. the game itself wasn't exactly a nail biter [ku beat howard 89-34] but it was still a good time. kim and i before the game sarah...

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an ozark mountain christmas

my mom and i have been making our annual christmas pilgrimage to branson for fourteen years. you'd think we'd be getting tired of it by now, but somehow, it never gets old. while we like to throw in a healthy mix of shows for variety, there are two mainstays we cannot do without. it just wouldn't be christmas without the haygoods and silver dollar city. here's what we did this year.... 1: we got quackers. my friend jen and her son collin joined us for our first ever ride the ducks...

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thanksvember: week four

i am thankful for... day 22: friends to live life with...when it's good and when it's hard day 23: a night of side splitting laughter with the ladies from nawlins [and a couple of husbands] day 24: a family i enjoy...especially my uncle, who will be thrilled to get a special mention on the blog day 25: always having a place to call home day 26: spending the day with my mom and having one less closet to paint day 27: calvary church...where friends really do become...

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black wednesday

i've never been a black friday shopper. the turnoff for me is that no matter how good the deals may be, you still have to fork over some cold hard cash to get the goods. not so at cvs. they will hand you oodles of treasure for next to nothing. case in point: i went to cvs at midnight and gave them this... and i took home this... plus i came into the store with $7.67 of magical cvs money, and i left with $14.55. it's almost criminal. i did encounter a bit of a line,...

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thanksvember: week three

i am thankful for... day 15: a new sidewalk to walk and bike on...and a lovely afternoon to enjoy it day 16: the privilege of praying for the via's adoption...and sharing their unwavering faith in the midst of seemingly insurmountable circumstances day 17: apple-passion-mango juice and chocolate pudding from a box day 18: sleepovers with sophie day 19: taking a stroll in the park with a friend day 20: a surprise visitor at church this morning day...

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thanksvember: week two

i am thankful for... day 8: my friend dia...and the hilarious memories of our life in a nursing home day 9: having my number called at the chick-fil-a first 100 day 10: sleep...which i forget to appreciate until i have to go without day 11: the freedom and opportunities that come with being an american day 12: friends that let me show up to their house in my pajamas and lay on their couch while they make me dinner day 13: the good word at church this morning day 14: a roommate...

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eat mor chikin'

last night i slept in a parking lot. with 99 other people. i love chick-fil-a. really, who doesn't? they not only make an excellent chicken sandwich, this company does everything well and with integrity. they have stellar customer service and it's always their pleasure to serve. one of the fun things they do for their loyal fans is the first 100 event. i've wanted to be a part of one of these for years but it hasn't ever worked out...until now. here's what went down. i showed...

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thanksvember: week one

i have so many things to be thankful for. really, i feel like i've gotten more than my fair share. most days i remember this, but every now and then i get all self absorbed and forget to be grateful. so every month i write in my 'good things book' and remind myself of all the good things i've been blessed with. in honor of thanksgiving i am declaring this month to be 'thanksvember' and i'm going to pick one thing to be thankful for each day. this might even be a new tradition. so this...

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tara in kc

last weekend, one of my dreams came true...one of my very best friends came to visit. tara and i are like two peas in a pod. we have the same organizational tendencies, we think alike and we just 'get' each other. which is part of the reason i often seek her advice. we met my freshman year of college on a mission trip to croatia. our friendship started with an adventure and we've been having them ever since. i've been able to make quite a few visits to the arden family over...

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bearcats forever

when i was a kid i always thought it made adults sound so old when they would talk about how they couldn't believe how long it had been since they had done/been in/been to ______. i would roll my eyes and think how i would never be like that. but guess what...it's happening. seriously though...ten years? i haven't been an sbu student in ten years. my high school reunion was one thing, but this is another thing entirely. wasn't i just living in the dorm like two semesters ago? a couple...

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bayou bound

it's been six years since hurricane katrina swept through new orleans, but the recovery effort still marches on. in some areas of the city there are no obvious signs of the destruction caused by the storm, but in other spots the scars are still very evident. in the span of a block you will see many well cared for homes with fresh coats of paint, but sprinkled between are abandoned homes with overgrown lawns that have yet to be salvaged from the storm. the large X's that search crews used to...

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college game day

thanks to some family friends of the twogoods, kim and i scored some great tickets to the ku homecoming football game. though i'm not a dedicated, die-hard jayhawk fan like kim, i was pretty excited at the prospect of a real college game...real being a synonym for "not sbu". but i wasn't just looking for a game, i was looking for the entire college football experience. thankfully joy, one of my bible study buddies and lawrence native, invited us to join her for some classic tailgating festivities....

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viva las vegas

kim and i decided there is no better way to say farewell to summer than a quick trip to vegas. the first event of the weekend was lunch with maddie and mal at hash house a go go.  i really wanted to love this place but they were struggling that day...at least we had good company! at night we headed to the jubilee theatre for an old school vegas  showgirl revue with lots of sequins and feathers after a breakfast of dunkin donuts and some quality time...

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a day in the life at project manuelito

there's a certain rhythm of life we encounter in honduras. this being my third visit to the project, i know the pattern of the days. it's an amusing balance of a predictable schedule, coupled with the necessary flexibility needed when encountering the latin american culture. a culture where plans are virtually unnecessary, due to the fact that they often tend to change on a minute by minute basis. but even so, this is a fairly accurate glimpse of a day in the life of the manuelito family... 1:...

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the mouse in the house

i have a fear. a highly irrational fear. what scary monster gets me shakin' in my boots? mice. ick. while this is not necessarily unusual for someone of the female persuasion, i have the gift of taking this fear to new heights. normally, a mouse sighting would constitute squealing and standing on chairs. this seems only natural. but when there's a mouse in my house...it's a whole different story. we recently had the unfortunate experience of just such a thing. it's...

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creeper trail tales

when jenn talton has visitors, she doesn't mess around. she is the hostess with the mostess. there is never a dull moment in the a-jenn-da o' fun...plus the food is amazing. jacob, nickie and i got off to a bit of a rough start, airline wise, but we finally made it to north carolina. the first order of business was some time at the lake house. always a crowd pleaser. we played cards, kayaked in the rain, water skied [i slalomed successfully for the first time!], jumped off a rock...

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it's all about the water, eh

if this most recent mother/daughter road trip had a theme, it would be...water. i know. our destination was niagara falls. just call me captain obvious. but i'm not just referring to the thirty five million gallons of water that flow over the falls every minute of the day. we encountered water at many of our stops...spraying in our faces, falling on our heads, and as part of a delicious treat. stop one: as previously mentioned, our first stop was in louisville to visit pauline....

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my bolivar grandma

i didn't get the pleasure of having grandparents around for a lot of my life. my grandpa harry [who was quite a hoot] was my last living grandparent, and he passed away when i was eight. needless to say, by the time i went to college, i had been in a grandparent drought for quite some time. when i arrived at sbu i heard about an organization with an adopt-a-grandparent program. and since i was in the market for one or two of those, i signed right up. the actual process of pairing up...

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my mexican birthday

our first full day in mexico just happened to fall on what i consider to be a very special day. i woke up to a house full of birthday signs, hung by my very favorite mom. after breakfast we got to work and spent the day on some projects at the wgm guest house in saltillo. my mom and i constructed some window screens, then helped out the painting crew. and that night i was given a super fun birthday cake. the rest of our week was spent at one of my favorite kinds of places...camp. since...

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my favorite week of the year

last week i checked another item off my bucket list when i came out of retirement and reclaimed my original role of counselor at kids camp. i hadn't had a cabin for the past few years and i was ready to get back in the mix. [although i did miss the nightly laughs and conversation at the "pub"] i had a really fun group of fourth grade girls and almost no drama. i'm not sure if i got lucky or if i'm just that good. aside from the girls themselves, my favorite thing this year was the music...hands...

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it all started with a fruit crisp

some people live to eat. i eat to live. i'm not very picky and will tend to eat anything given to me. emphasis on the word given. i was never one to get overly excited about food and certainly never spent time thinking and talking about food that was eaten more than ten minutes earlier. then i had this fruit crisp... it was the calvary classics cruise. the first night in the dining room someone at our table ordered the fruit crisp, and that was it. i never wanted to eat another dessert...

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the salem camp reunion

ahhh camp. there's nothing quite like it. i have been consistently going to camp for the past twenty two years of my life and have no plans to stop anytime soon. for me, salem camp is where it all began. this past weekend we had a reunion to re-create and celebrate the amazingness that was salem's multi-generational family camp. we brought back several old standards: the talent show [via video flashback], morning watch, softball [i may have played the best game of my life], odd ball...

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