Fireflies!

I love fireflies! It's one of those things that I don't usually think about. But this week, anytime I go outside during twilight, there are tons! They are beautiful, romantic creatures!

The other thing I realized this week - I have another memory from when I was really young. There is a mimosa behind my neighbor's house. As I was getting out of my car this week, I realized that I remembered the smell of the mimosa blooms. And I realized that the house we lived at when I was from 3 to 5 years old had a mimosa in the front lawn. It's always so unusual to find new memories from that house since I can only think of 3 or 4 memories from that time. It's a weird feeling.

So, I don't generally think Ben and I lead very funny lives, but the funniest thing happened to Ben Saturday night. This woman came up to Ben asking him to discipline a guy for watching her while she was trying to urinate in an alley near the mission. He looked at her like she had grown a second head and said, "What?!". He asked her why she hadn't used the mission's bathrooms since they were open at the time and she said that sometimes you have to wait in a long line for them. And she actually said she was trying to "be a lady" by going in the alley. He couldn't believe it. This is just an amazingly humorous example of how homeless people's thought processes are sometimes actually different than other people's. Sad, really....

On a fun note, Dana, my friend from college is in town, so we're going to Powell Gardens tomorrow. I've never been just to visit the gardens (I went to Ballet in the Park there one year, but you don't get to look around). I'm really looking forward to it! Lilies are in bloom! Expect pictures soon!

It's been forever!

I know, I'm really a horrible blogger! I knew I'd been procrastinating about blogging, but I was shocked when I got on and realized that it's been a month! Yikes!

My life is still pretty basic: church, crocheting, and teaching. Church is great. Yesterday we had a sending service for Greg, our associate pastor that moved today. It was 2 hours, which is pretty incredibly long for our church! But it was a great service. And we announced that the board nominated a couple to be our new pastors. It has started some great discussion. I've very excited about the possibilities. Six months without a permanent, full-time pastor is long enough.

Crocheting: I've been making small stuff for my sister in between the very large afghan that I'm making for Ben and me. But I found this ticker tape yarn at Michael's for next to nothing a month ago, and I'm just dying to make a market bag with it. It's such bright colors! And I love my Saturday morning City Market runs (really, it's one of the best things about KC in the summer), and a bright colored stretchy bag will make me even happier to go. (Ben won't be able to stand it! He doesn't understand how I can be so happy and energetic in the mornings!)

Teaching is still great. It's definitely my niche. But today my student came early! And Mondays my time is pretty tight. The mornings I don't do anything (Sunday afternoon to Monday morning is my Sabbath day off), then in the afternoons I straighten up, do dishes, then go to work at the church from 3 to 5. Then between 5 and 5:30 I put away dishes and make sure everything is in its place. Take my music off the piano, etc. But she came at 5! Yikes! Oh well. It could have been worse.....

Well, in the month that I haven't written, not a lot has happened. The one really cool thing we did was to take my parents to "Celebration at the Station" for Memorial Day. KC has such amazing free stuff! The KC Symphony plays patriotic music in front of Union Station and then there is a fireworks show. Here's a picture of us. We were early to get a good seat, so this is before the rest of the 35,000 people showed up.

I could say I'll try to write more often, but.....