Dear Father

Stop sending me pictures of your feet lounging on a chair, especially when said chair is planted in front of the Caribbean ocean. Dad is on vacation in Jamaica this week and I could not be more jealous. That's one thing that super sucks about living smack in the middle of the country...no easy access to an ocean. When I was a little girl, we went on vacation every single year to Myrtle Beach, SC. My mama adored the beach and raised her girls to feel the same way. All it takes is one whiff of that pungent saltyness in the air and it's like I can feel the stress of the real world melt away. Add the sound of the ocean waves crashing into the sand, the warm grittiness of sand between my toes, and crazy wind blown hair and there's really no where else I'd rather be. Let's just say, when I get to heaven, I hope my room in God's house comes with an ocean view.



See? Just evil. I better be getting a shell necklace or something for putting up with this brand of torture, pops. Just sayin'...

Group summer season is here!

Love June...it means a new season of growth groups! This will be my first time leading a study group, and so far so good. We are studying a book called Intimate Issues and we had a great time telling stories on Tuesday about how we met our husbands. The time flew by! My group has 7 ladies besides myself and I am really looking forward to getting to know them all better. Sex is one of those topics that some of us clam up about because we're not "supposed" to talk about it. I love that ECC takes a stance that sex is healthy and enjoyable, and that we can have an open, safe environment to talk about it without losing our sense of humor. I am assigning them homework each week and I really can't wait to hear how their relationships with their husbands change over the next 8 weeks.

Let's see, what else is new this week... My good buddy Sue picked me up on my lunch break for a quick trek to DeSoto so we could check out Steve's Meat Market, a local butcher shop. I am amazed that a quality shop like this is only 20 min away! We split their June grilling special, and our freezer is absolutely STUFFED with some delicious looking meats! Michael and I figured out that the amount of food should last us until mid-late July if we are cooking 4 nights/week, AND that includes leftovers. Suh-weet. This will definitely be a money saving venture, and to get better quality with local meat, for less $$...can't ask for anything better! We received boneless chicken breasts, tbone steaks, ground chuck, pork chops, italian sausage, brats, chicken leg quarters, and a 5 lb pork roast to make pulled pork. Maybe we'll have to have a grilling party. :)




Michael is out at his second group. He is leading not one, but two groups this time. They are both Dungeons & Dragons groups. How cool is that, D&D church groups? I love it. He is having a ball and meeting lots of awesome new people, can't beat that.

Oh! We did get a new rug today. I'll let Penny show you how much she enjoys it. I don't know what I was thinking, getting a brown rug a couple of years ago when we have white animals, but I hit my limit a few weeks ago with the vacuuming every single day, and I kid you not, less than an hour later it would look like I hadn't. I'll still vacuum regularly, don't get me wrong, but I hope this new rug helps with my ocd-ness when it comes to animal hair in the house. I really try hard for my friends with allergies and for my friends who don't particularly like animals to keep the floors and furniture clean, but it's an hourly chore sometimes. Just know that there's nothing that can save you if you let Penny lay on your lap while wearing black. :-)

May has come and gone, and I have not blogged about it. Sorry (dad-who left me a hilarious voice mail a la Lumberg from Office Space. Yeah, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and blog. That would be greeeeeat. Thanks!) about that! Sometimes it's tough to sit down and make the effort, but I promise to try harder. Here's a wrap up of May:

-My sister and brother in law came to visit over Mother's Day weekend. We went shopping on the plaza, had a wonderful steak dinner, they experienced their first EastLake worship night, lots of laughter, wandering around on Mass St, saw Water for Elephants, hung out at the house and visited. It was a really good trip and I hope their take away was that Kansas does not suck and would be a cool place to live. ;)

-Saw Bridesmaids with a fun group of women. Could have done without a couple of scenes but overall I really enjoyed it. Haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a while. Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, I bow down to them both.

-Went to my first women leader's meeting at EastLake. Got to meet the famous Heather, an original member who picked up her life in Seattle and moved to Kansas to start EastLake. Hard to imagine me doing something like that, but so incredibly grateful that she and the other original members did. Life would be drastically different if ECC were not in Lawrence! The meeting was great, gave me a push to set a boundary that had been nagging me for a while. Big take away is that it is okay to say no to good things so that I can say yes to great things, and not to stretch myself so thin that I can't give quality time to the people I want to.

-My dad came to visit over Memorial Day weekend. So great to have him here. We had a backyard bbq, complete with s'mores, took him to a super tasty sushi restaurant, went to see Thor, lots of talking and hanging out. 'twas good. :)

So those are the big things. June looks to be a busy one as well. Tomorrow Michael has his oral qualifying exam, which is the next step on the road to getting his PhD. Good vibes/prayers/karma are all appreciated! He is more than prepared, and I am positive he will do great. :)

Furniture Rearrangement

My turn to post! This morning I spent some time rearranging the furniture in the masterbed and the mancave!

So I've recently sold my gaming PC and my big glass and metal desk. Left a lot of room. So I moved a couple small bookshelves and the coffee table into the room and got this:

We also rearranged the master bed, with these results: