haphazard musings

We are back!

Check out this view.  

It is from more than 12,000 feet above sea level.  

Not the best quality picture, but it is from Ryan's cell phone, so it's not too bad.

The List

Ryan and I do a lot of driving. 

Last year, it seemed like we were on the road for weeks.  

Luckily it gave us lots and lots of time to talk...and time to visit family and friends.

Anyway, during one of those rides, we spent about 4 hours hashing out the list of places that we would like to visit in our lifetime. 

Now Ryan and I both love to travel - me more than him I think.  Either way, we both love exploring new places.  So as you can imagine it's a long list.

The weird part of the list is we ranked the places.  That is why it took 4 hours.  We had to lobby for why the place we said should be ranked higher - yeah, we're lame.

So I thought I would share the final version.  It's kind of exciting to know we have a "plan". 

Do you have any suggestions for more places or what to do in these places or an arguement for why some place should be on the list that isn't? 

We broke the list into two parts - International and US.

So first, here is the US list.

1.  Seattle
2.  Northern California
3.  Boston
4.  New York City
5.  Upstate New York - mountains
6.  Washington DC
7.  Grand Canyon
8.  Yellowstone
9.  Savannah
10. Michigan
11. Las Vegas
12. Mt. Rushmoor

And here, is the International list.

1.  Italy
2.  Scotland
3.  Israel
4.  Greece
5.  Australia/New Zealand
6.  France/Switzerland (combo due to a tie)
7.  Hawaii (obviously a US destination - but the cost of an international one - hence it's location)
8.  Argentina
9.  China
10. Spain
11. Germany/Czech Republic
12. England
13. Alaska (same issue as Hawaii)
14. Fiji/Tahiti
15. Russia
16. Egypt
17. Japan
18. Vancouver/Calgary
19. Dubai
20. Nova Scotia
21. Kenya
22. Morocco
23. Cuba
24. Iceland

Friday jumble...

and no that is not a quiz or a game, although perhaps some day that could be a fun blog game...hmmm...

Anyway, today I have many thoughts and I feel like sharing them out loud (well kinda).

Change - I am craving change...it happens every couple months, that I really begin to feel a tug for something different.

Sometimes it feels like this.

That's me...right there in the middle of those two arrows...feeling hemmed in.

I have lots of explanations for this, but for now I will just say..."change, is kinda like milk, it does a body good."

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My new semester of class started this week.  And as per usual, I think there is going to be one or two individuals that make me crazy.

There is one guy who seems very, shall we say interesting, who just talked incessantly throughout the entire 40 minutes we were there.  Even though there wasn't really an opportunity for class participation, he just made himself...umm...known.  I hate that.

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I also have a feeling I might be the dumb kid once again.  I am taking a Creative Writing Workshop.

Let's just say I have not written a "story" since I was in 3rd grade and we had to write a story and do all the illustrations for it.  

I am sure my mom must have a copy of that creation somewhere...

But then she may not, as I have definitely inherited her stance against clutter and against too much "sentimental stuff" - Thank goodness!  We always ask the question, "Will I ever use this again?" or the question "What is the purpose of saving this?"  It's been a life saver. 

I have, however, had two poems published in my life.  Which should serve me well right, considering I must write at least 3 poems this semester.

But once again the last time I wrote a poem was third grade.  I believe the winning poem (in my age category) was written by yours truly and it was called Halloween.

And if I remember correctly (which would be crazy since that was 20 years ago) it was most about candy and ended like this and I quote...

"tummies too fat."

Perhaps someday I will share that with you.  I know that the printed collection of winners exists in my "toy" closet at mom and dad's.

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Meet my friend Anne...

Thanks to her, I have been super duper motivated with working out since November!  She is my new running buddy.

I am super proud of my latest accomplishment - 4 miles all at once and 13 in one week!

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Not only that, for Christmas Anne gave me a fantastic gift...

Its a milk-frother!  Sounds lame right, but on no my friends, this is fantastic!

Yesterday I made my very own latte!  It cost like 50 cents.  

Here's the recipe.

One k-cup in my Kuerig coffee machine - medium size.

1 half cup skim milk - heated for one minute in the microwave - then frothed with the tool seen above for a few seconds.

1 squirt chocolate syrup - or more if you are feeling cheeky.

Pour frothed milk into coffee stir it all up and there you have a chocolate latte with a little foam!

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And the final thought for the day

source

Scotland...

source

Have you been there?  If you were going there, what would do or see?  Thoughts?  Suggestions?

Since its been

9 days since my last post, I feel kind of out of the loop.

Its almost like I don't know what to say since I haven't posted.  I think that's weird because, you would think I would have a ton of stuff saved up....

so in the last few weeks things have been pretty crazy.  I didn't even realize it until I looked back at the calendar.  Perhaps that can explain my lack of posts or lack of real motivation to do much of anything at all.

This week, I tried to channel my inner David Letterman (wouldn't that be a weird vibe for me to channel - it didn't really work) and presented a Top 10 list in front of 600 people in the high school auditorium.  So I will try again.  It will be a month in review, in the order of which I think of items, not necessarily in the order of greatest importance or fun-ness.

10.  My mac is back!  Good as new - and totally free - thank you apple care.

9.    I lost my point and shoot camera.  Any ideas where it could be?  Pretty sure it has to be at the house, but if it is, I put it in a really good safe place.

8.    I'm over being hot.  Seriously, so ready for fall and the crispness it offers.  These last few days have just been a tease.

7.    I took a road trip to Dallas with my mama.  we left on a friday morning at 8:30 am and were back in Wichita at 9:30 Saturday night.  It was so, so fast and the traffic was terrible both ways, but we had a ton of time to chat and shop.

I love the contradictions in cities.  The classic vs. modern architecture above and then just a ton of textures on a new building.

I think it was a successful trip.  And we did some house hunting.

 

Which do you like better?

6.    We went to IKEA!!!  I bought a rug and a bookcase that we are re-purposing to be a buffet.  I will post pictures soon, I am not in love with the way its decorated yet...but here's mom before her first time.

 

She didn't know what she was getting into.  I told here it was pretty awesome and she should be more excited but she didn't believe me until she saw this.

5.    I did my first "photo shoot".  My friends Andy and Julie, let me take their family pictures.  Well, their growing - literally - family.

One of my favorites...

 

Ryan came along as our chauffeur and carrier of stuff like camera bags and water bottles - it was already hot and muggy at 8:00!

4.    We ate Yoda, stormtroopers and Darth Vader.

 

 

3.      We did some paintball.  I use the term "we" very loosely here. 

 

Yep, that's me with my camera behind the net.  I ain't dumb.

2.    I went to the Women of Faith conference in Omaha with all the women on the "in-law" side of the fam.  We had a great time.  Lots of lessons learned.  Hopefully, I will be inspired to share some of those as I have time to process them.

1.   I was accepted to the English graduate program at Wichita State University.  Yea!  Higher tuition rates!  Get excited.

Happy Thursday folks!  Its almost the weekend!

A trip to Manhattan

Ryan and I took last Wednesday evening and went to Manhattan to watch his littlest sister get her percussion groove on.

Seriously, that girl can really groove.

It was way to dark to get any photos especially since no flashes were allowed. 

But Ryan and I had a great time exploring a little bit.  Its been a while since we had been to Manhattan.  So we visited a few places.

Our first stop was...

 

Its our favorite stop in Manhattan.  So Long Saloon.

Next time you're up there.  Check it out.  Its on the corner of Moro and 12th.

I had this.

 

In case its unclear - its a burger and fries.  The best burger and fries in Manhattan.

The Resist Temptation (burger with a fried egg - seriously, if you haven't tried it you should) and the Summer Brew.  I would highley recommend it.

The other best thing they have.  Raspberry Chipotle Bean Dip.  Yep.  TO DIE FOR.

And it might kill you.  Seriously if you ate it every day. 

But once in three years - I think I am in good shape. :)

Then I just took a few pictures to get used to my camera a little more.

 

Gotta love green copper roofs.  Ryan said they were oxidized, I think.

 

Not in the best focus, but I love the way the clouds and the back light kind of put a halo around the building.

 

Gotta love messages written in chalk.  I kind of miss the days when the most important things I needed to know were communicated in chalk.

 

And, that's where Ryan proposed on a little walk around campus.  Its a funny story, perhaps I will relate it to you sometime.

 

Hale.  One of my favorite places.  Lovely building.

 

I love the angles and lines of Anderson Hall.  It was first built in the 1880's if I remember correctly from my tour guide days.  But it has been added on to and renovated and changed ever since.  All the changes have made for an interesting and unique building. 

A little known secret about the building, you can go through underground tunnels and get to Holtz and Seaton Halls.  Its pretty sweet.

Thanks Em for the invitation and the walk down memory lane.

New photos.

Possibly my favorite fountain picture to date.  I take a lot, but I love the copper color from the change in it.

 

This picture almost looks fake.  But I really did take it.

 

I love shots from the airplane window:

Kids playing in their socks:

This one's for sale:

 

We thought maybe if we got our entire small group (14 people) plus everyone else we know (a lot of people) we could buy it.

 

That's me watching a movie at the beach - Ice Age 3 by the way.

 

No. 74 - Vacations are so

wonderful!  Here are my top ten reasons.

10. 

   

     My companions during my stay at the beach.  Sometimes the water with lime was substituted for a mai tai or a cherry coke, but either way - refreshing. 

9.

    Places you don't have to go.

8.

 

     And yes, that is a pretty carved grape.  That must have taken forever. :)

7.

 

        I love passports and stamps and customs and airports - even just the anticipation of the stamp to come is enough to make me giddy.  And this is No. 74.

6.

 

    Aren't palm trees the coolest thing?  Seriously I love the way the look in pictures.  I also like them in sepia.

5.

    Balconies and pools.

4.

    Good friends who will comply with the wishes of the photographer and wear their life vests.

3.

    Husbands who are good sports when they get pooped on by a seagull.

2.

 

 

    Pretty things to take pictures of.

1.

 

    The time to be silly and relax with my hubby.

 

We are back.

We aren't sure whether we are happy or sad about it, but we have returned none the less. 

And because I don't have time for more yet, here is what I loved most.

 

I love sunsets.  I think I watched 5 while we were there  They were awesome.

Wahoo Wednesday!

In lieu of my absolute inability to maintain the order of something like the Flashback Tuesday or whatever I was calling it - here is Wahoo Wednesday.  Basically no idea what that means, but it is what it is and I am what I am...

So I thought I might continue posting about my trip to Africa, mostly because I think its important for me to remember the details before they get too fuzzy and I start making up memories.  Did you know people do that? 

I do.

Anyway...when I last left my little tale, we were on a trail.  A horse trail, in a van.  Trust me, this is not the best way to travel.  Many heads were bumped and many stomachs tossed in the course of an hour's trip.  I think I even remember our guide saying "welcome to Africa." 

 

This is Lesotho (Le-soo-too).  It is the other country (along with Swaziland) that is inside of South Africa.  This one is very small.  It is 12,000 ish square miles with 1.8ish million people.  (For comparison - Kansas is 82,000 square miles with 2.8 million people.)

According to wikipedia.com, (my favorite source of information complied by people just like me) 40% of the people live below the international poverty line of $1.25 (US) a day.  Wow.  They also suffer from an AIDS rate of around 23 or 24% - one of the highest in the world.  Life expectancy is around 40 years for men and women.  Its just unreal.  It was so hard to visit this place. 

We did have a great time, we took a walking tour and saw some cave paintings (awesome), and then met some of the local people.

    

According to our guide, these cave drawing were like 150 or more years old (the red part - its hard to see).  They are telling the story of the white man's arrival to the area and also telling where to find animals to hunt.  I wish I had written down the details of this story a little more and a little sooner.  It was such a neat thing to see.

In Lesotho, they don't really have cars (hence we drove in on a horse trail) and no running water or electricity.  So they use flag signals to communicate with neighbors.  White means we are celebrating come join us, green means we harvested our crops come trade, and red means we slaughtered a cow come trade.  We saw this

 

at her house.

 

She welcomed us in and we shared in the "drink" (some kind of beer like beverage) and the food.  The food was good.  Beans and corn and some sort of seasonings all mixed in one bowl shared with everyone (including the spoon).  However the drink was nasty.  I wouldn't recommend it, but we said thank you anyway and drank when prompted. :)  Oh, yeah, it was all out of one community cup.

 

We shared with him. :)

We also got to visit (through a translator) with a local "healer" or medicine woman.  It was such an interesting experience.  They believe that you can be healed through intersession with your ancestors.  She speaks with them and they recommend treatment and she prescribes it.  Luckily, these healers have been taught how to diagnose HIV/AIDS and TB.  She doesn't conduct the test, but she does recognize the symptoms and then will send the sick person to the large city (probably by horse or if they are lucky a van) for further testing and treatment.  Healers no longer believe that these to diseases can be treated by them.  This is her.

 

Finally we visited a school.  We met the principal, the students, and one interesting individual that thinks the United States has a cure for AIDS and is keeping it a secret from Africa (this is an in person story so ask if you are curious).

 

These men and women are making crafts to sell to the tourists so that they can provide a new roof for the school.  The woman in the tie-dye is the principal.  They sing and dance to make the day go faster - or probably just for show. :)   The women on their knees in the 2nd photo are demonstrating a really old dance that involves intricate movements of the shoulders in order to attract a man... it was so cool. 

   

I loved the kids here.  They were so sweet and let me tell you - they loved the white ladies. :)   We walked for about a mile with this little one, who was so excited to have a plastic water bottle.  She wouldn't even let me carry it. 

Like I said, a hard place to go, but such wonderful people. 

101 update.

For those of you who might be wondering - I am making progress on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days.

#72 - was previously completed, but I wanted to provide a pictorial update.

 

The beans and the tomatoes have basically run amok. (one of my all time favorite things to say - amok.)

#54 - I really like to fall asleep while watching tv.  I have a hard time just going to sleep, I have to zone out if you will, so this one is hard for me.  Spend six weekends completely without TV.  One down five to go.

#59 - Take more pictures - according to Ryan I have become a picture-taking-aholic.  But I love it.  He told me that this weekend when I was randomly taking pictures in the little town of Alma, KS.  They have a booming business in natural stone.  They are in the flint hills and have the most beautiful stone downtown area and amazing stone walls.  You should check them out some time.

   

This house is possibly my new favorite!  I know that's not the best picture, it was hard to catch because of all the trees - but all part of the draw!  Anyway, its completely made of stone and has a great porch and this awesome barn - did you notice the truck - so cool.  Then right across the street...

 

A beautiful corn field.  This was possibly the most picturesque farm ever.

 

The cutest ever church, in Alma, where our friends Amanda and Alex got married.

   

   

A cute little college all of stone and then the great down town buildings.  I love the details on the doors.

And ... the stone wall - love it.

#83 - Visit our grandparents twice.  We went to Topeka on Saturday and had lunch with my Grandma and Grandpa and then spent several hours visiting and showing pictures.