Growing Roses (I hope)...

Last Friday, Sunshine and I took a trip to The Antique Rose Emporium. I must say this is one of my favorite places to go! It is beautiful and inspiring. We attended a class on rooting roses. Sunshine was quite through the most of the seminar- except for when she saw the puppy that someone had brought in and then she started barking :)! I guess barking is better than other sounds a young child could make. So back to the class, we all got to bring home three cuttings to try to root. The fun thing is, they didn't tell us what three roses were in our bag. I am hoping for at least one of them to work. Here is my little bag in my window sill. The picture is bad, but you get the idea.

After about 28 days, I should have rooted roses or dead stems. The hard part is being patient. I really want to open the bag and pull one of the cuttings up a little bit to see if any roots are forming. But, they warned us NOT to do this. So I'll just have to wait 3 more weeks.

The weather was great, so we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the gardens! Sunshine is a vetern rose shopper. The rose emporium was her very first day trip (3 weeks old) and we have been back several times!

You never know what you might find...

Yesterday was cleaning and laundry day at our house. I decided to give Sunshine a little more freedom while I cleaned. So instead of putting her in her crib with toys, I let her play in the living room. I even closed the bathroom door while I was scrubbing the floor so that she wouldn't come in and get her socks wet. There is nothing dangerous for her to get into, but I still wondered what I might find when I came out of the bathroom. Thankfully, she was just playing with her toys. She loves to help with laundry. She makes her own little piles while we are folding it...it's so cute! Last night I was finishing up the last load and I realized she was not in the room any more and it was REALLY quite. Oh boy, what could she be doing?!? Well when I found her she was trying on daddy's jeans. Here are a few pictures.

I know a spot that I love full well....

For those not familiar with Kansas State, the title to this post is the opening line of our Alma Mater song. I really enjoyed my trip to Kansas last week. One of our stops was Manhattan (of course!). It's always interesting to go back. I lived there 10 years. Six of those years I was a student and the other 4 I was part of the working world. I spent the first 7 years single and the last 3 married. I think I lived 9 different places if I remember right, 10 if you count moving within the dorms. I loved Manhattan and sometimes talk about how fun it would be to move back. However, my husband gently reminds me that it wouldn't be the same. And of course visiting always reminds me of that as well. I realize life has moved on in the last 3 years, and we wouldn't be returning to exactly what we had left.


I always feel very nostalgic when I visit. It's so fun to visit friends and to drive around and remember all the times we enjoyed there. I'm sure our kids will get tired of hearing the same stories every time we go, because I am sure we will tell them the same things over and over:). One of my favorite spots on campus is the KSU Gardens. When we lived in Jardine, T and I would go several times a week. I can remember taking a lot of pictures. I would take a picture of a flower I liked and then take a picture of the identification tag/sign. I still have them all! I also met my sisters there for lunch several times when I worked at the Vet School and they were in school. We would sit under the honeysuckle and enjoy conversation and our sack lunch.

Practicing her flower ID skills

I think she would have climbed in if I would have let her!

The best part about our trip was spending time with my family. My mom is so sweet and always makes some of my favorite foods when I am there. This time it was pumpkin pie and chili...yum! She also made an awesome apple pie for my Dad's birthday celebration. It was good to be with him on his actual birthday. I was able to spend quality time with each of my sisters and meet my newest niece. Sadly, I realize the only adult I took a picture of was my Grandma. I only took pictures of the kids- isn't that how it is!

Grandma with 3 of her great-grandchildren. She spoiled us with a great lunch and lots of snacks!

Sunshine and her cousin. They played so well together.

Sunday Afternoon

Today after church we had lunch at Freebirds and then came home for family naptime. It was wonderful! After we all woke up, we enjoyed some time outside. Sunshine really wanted to walk today, so I followed behind with the sag wagon (stoller). I think we wore her out- she was ready to eat when we got back to the house and went to bed early.

Walking with Daddy and Sadie.

She picked up a lot of rocks along the way. She kept handing them to us like they were little gifts. She is just so much fun right now! I think our life would be so boring without her :).

Growing Up!

I feel like in the last week Sunshine has done a lot of "growing up". It seems like she is changing right before my eyes. Her vocabulary has exploded recently. She is using and remembering new words daily...it's so amazing how much their little brains soak up! Today I dropped her off at the nursery at church while I went to Mom to Mom. After I handed her over the door and they set her down, she took a few steps and then turned around a waved "bye-bye" to me. Although it was very sweet, I have to admit it made me a little sad. There was not even a twinge of hesitation on her part, she was ready to go play (which I should be so thankful for). Another "growing up"moment occured 2 days ago. I put her down for her morning nap and after about 45 minutes of her chatting away in her crib I decided to take a peek and see if she was even looking sleepy. Much to my surprise, I found her reading to her Pooh bear. She looked at me as if to say "Why are you interrupting us?". So I closed the door and let her read to Pooh until she fell asleep. What a joy and blessing it is to watch her grow and develop...we are loving every moment of it!!

Easy and Delicious!

Please excuse my lack of posting lately. We are still here! We've been enjoying some cooler weather lately (low 90's instead of upper 90's). T started classes last week and we went to the home-opening football game this weekend. We are now in our "fall routine".

Last week I made the recipe below and we all loved it, so I thought I would pass it along. Beef is the meat of choice around our house, but I do make a few chicken dishes each month to add some variety. I've been buying a whole chicken, cooking it, and then shredding and freezing it. Since we do not eat a lot of chicken, this usually lasts us about a month.

I like this dish because it's FAST! My love is baking; cooking seems a little less fun to me. I could bake all day if I didn't have to do dishes :)! I can remember when we had snow days, my sister's and I would bake ( my poor mom!). We made bread, pies, cookies, and all other kinds of good stuff. One year around Christmas I did get to bake all day and my sweet husband stood at the sink all day and washed dishes. So anyways, I am always looking for a quick main dish so that I have time to make the best part of a meal - dessert!

Chicken & Broccoli Pasta

4 oz spaghetti, uncooked
1/4 cup Italian Dressing
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb chicken, cut into strips
2 cups broccoli florets
1/2 cup tomato chunks
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, divided (I didn't have mozzarella on hand, so I just used cheddar)
4 tsp. grated Parmesan cheese (left this out)

Cook pasta as directed on package.

Meanwhile, heat dressing and garlic in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and broccoli. Cook and stir 5 to 7 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Add tomatoes and half of the cheese to skillet; stir to mix lightly. Cook until heated through. Spoon over pasta; toss. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan cheese.

Makes 2 servings, 2 1/2 cups each. ***You could easily double this recipe. I did not double it and the 3 of us ate it for dinner one evening and there was enough left for T to take in his lunch the next day.

Summer Reading

Sunshine has been keeping up on her summer reading. This book has been great for identifying animals and learning the sounds that they make. T and I have been enjoying some reading this summer as well. After the transition to digital broadcasting, we find ourselves having a lot more free time. Not that we were huge TV watchers, but we must have spent some time watching it. Anyways, T has made it through several books while I have finished only finished one, The Count of Monte Cristo. It was a great read, even after 1400 pages I didn't want it to end. Now I am trying to catch up on all the magazines that I put to the side while I was reading my book. I think my next book will be Les Miserables.