Update and Contest.

It's been over a week since I have had a blog post. I have wanted to find something really cool to blog about. Mostly, I have been trying to get my feet underneath me as we have started a new semester of teaching. I have been guilty of spending way too much time on The Pioneer Woman's website. Last Sunday afternoon I spent several hours devouring Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. Her writing is so accessible, and her recipes look amazing! I only wish my finicky stomach could handle dairy products:(. This weekend we did re-organize our home office since my hubby will be working from home this year. It has and will continue to be a learning process of how to both work from home (I would love any suggestions). I finally moved most of my art supplies to the new location, a.k.a the laundry room. Hopefully, the new space will inspire me to create more and/or get more laundry done. It seems some of my inspiration lately has come through photography. Here are some of my favorite 'artsy' ones from our time in the north east. Oh, and a little contest for all of you...In one of these pictures there is something unexpected. What photo and what is it? The prize? A framed photo of your choice.

5-ish minute pillow

One thing I didn't know about coastal Maine is that there are quite a few small towns that have factory outlets. I'm sure it is due to the amount of tourism in the summers. I love the idea of outlets but most of the time I find that the prices aren't that much of a steal. I mean you really have to look hard for a deal in my opinion. I did find a few deals at the Crate and Barrel outlet. If we had not have been flying I would have bought a few more items because the deals are actually good. I have been wanting new pillows for our couches for probably about a year but could not find the right pattern or couldn't bring myself to pay $20 for a pillow. Pillows are expensive! I have been trying to think of creative ways to get my desired outcome, cheap. My solution came to me at the C & B outlet-placemats. I found that many placemats are 2 pieces of fabric sewn together, which makes for a really easy pillow solution. Rip a seam, stuff it with poly-fil, sew back together and volia a new pillow. So, I made two of these. LOVE the fabric and I could have done each pillow in about 5 minutes had it not been for a malfuntioning sewing machine, which really made me mad (several times). It took about 20 minutes per pillow in the end and I love the outcome. You may never look at a placemat the same again. Oh and my total cost per pillow? About $5.00.

Along the way...

As we were walking through Boston and driving through Maine I always had my camera with me and was ready to find something inspiring or beautiful to capture. I really love this about new places. I found this image on the street on the freedom trail, change ave. My first thought was, 'that is a road I want to be on'. I have continued to think about this idea of change. I feel like in my spiritual life so much change happened in my college years and a few past. Then over the last few years it has felt like a bit of a plateau. I often think about having one of those 'moments' like I had in those years and wonder what is different now. Is it my desire or is it season of life or some strange combination of the two. All I know right now is that I really want Christ to continue to change me. I'm asking that I will put myself on that road by His grace.

Vacation Part 2

One of the things that B and I did a lot of during our vacation was eat. When you don't have a kitchen, you eat out. We did take breakfast food with us so we could eat in our hotel room for that meal. We had some great food. For the most part we ate at places that we don't have here in town, which is really easy to do. I thought I would post some pictures of some of the food we enjoyed the most. Those of you that are dieting, sorry. I hope you can enjoy this virtual food.

Food court food on our first day. Delicious, fresh, fast, chinese food. yum...


Modern Pastry shop is in Boston's North End. I heard of this place from another blogger, jkirlin. It was a great place to have a bit of sweet after an Italian meal that apparently wasn't picture worthy. This cupcake was the best cupcake I have EVER had. B had a florentine, which he enjoyed.

I learned on this vacation that my hubby really likes pub food. Every time we passed a pub, which was a lot, he wanted to look at the menu and what was on tap. This was an Irish pub and this was B's meal of Irish stew. The bite I had was tasty. Below is a menu from another pub. B loved the emphasis on no bad beer.

This was by far the coolest thing. Wheeler's Vegan ice cream. It is dairy free, and delicious. I ate my ice cream so fast I didn't even get a picture, but I had cookies and cream and latte. I also tried avacado ice cream which was surprisingly good. It felt so nice to walk into a place where I could eat everything. It is a new business, but my guess is that it is going to be a great success.
be good. This joint we went to was in harvard square, one of our favorite places. Burgers, salads, fries (baked or fried, sweet or regular). What a great concept! We enjoyed our meal and were both able to enjoy our own version of burger and fries. I love the variety you can get in a bigger city.

Those were the highlights of Boston. Now on to Maine. Our first stop was this place on the coast. The Clam Hut is an interesting place. It is a order at the window type place. It was a great people watching spot. I had a woman in the line to the bathroom tell me she has a dropped bladder. I let her go ahead of me, and tried not to laugh out loud. People had their dogs with them and I've never seen more fried sea food in my life! B and I had lobster rolls and fries. Delicious!

Just a few more stops..we ate at more pubs, had an amazing breakfast at the B & B we stayed at, and at the Lobsterman's warf in East Boothbay. And one more place for sea food. An iconic spot of Portland lobster comany. We sure had a great time exploring new foods and places. The picture of the lobster is a buzzer that lights up and shakes when your order is ready.

Vacation Part 1

We are back from our wonderful vacation and I have so much I want to blog about. Several times I found myself wishing I had brought my laptop so I could have posted pictures and written each day. So this will be a retrospective of our vacation and I am going to have my hubby post some pictures and favorite parts of vacation on his blog (part of my attempt to get him blogging again). When he posts I'll put a link on my blog.

We started our time flying from KC to Manchester, New Hampshire. We arrived at 2 am because of delays and we stayed in a hotel that night, a priceline win of $50 for a Fairfield inn by Marriott. It was decorated really modern and fun (too tired to take a photo). The next day we drove into Boston using a GPS my parents lent us-which is a subject for an a post of it's own. We parked our car at the hotel and then decided to begin exploring before we could check in. It was then that I began to see how great our hotel was. It was located in Cambridge, just across from the MIT campus. Attached to the hotel was Starbucks and a food court. The "T"(subway stop) was just 200 yards from the back door of the hotel. I just smiled when I relized how awesome these things combined were, and all for a priceline steal of $80 a night. We had some lunch then went to start walking the freedom trail....
I hope that B will write more in detail about some of this. There is a red line that leads people from one location to the next all together it is about 2 1/2 miles, with really interesting stops along the way. It was overcast and rained off and on. That actually ended up to be a great thing because since it is tourist season, usually crowds are crazy, not when we were there. We just had umbrellas from the dollar tree (you can get an umbrella for a dollar!) and enjoyed the cool weather. I was impressed by how much early US history happened right in this area. So many important decisions made, battles fought, people standing for truth is really inspiring. It reminded me that people will fight for what they believe in, that people really want the experience of joining together for the greater good. I'm not all that patriotic, but was captured by many of the stories that occured along this trail. After arriving at Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market (about half way) we were both exhausted and after some delicious gelato, we headed back to the hotel to check in and became even more amazed at the deal we had scored-check it out. To be continued.....

New England here we come!

In about 24 hours B and I will be on our way to New England. The pre-vacation preparations are just about killing me. Finding dog sitters, sending out a newsletter, re-scheduled dentist appointments, laundry, cleaning, packing, etc... I love vacation, I hate getting ready to go on vacation. Once we are on the road to Kansas City tomorrow I will breathe a sigh of relief. We fly into New Hampshire, will spend the night and then drive to Boston the next day. We will have 3 1/2 days in Boston, then we will drive up the coast to Maine and have 3 1/2 days there. We aren't taking our computers, unless you count B's ipod touch. So no photo posts until we return-trying to keep it simple. We are both looking forward to getting away, exploring and resting. I can't wait to have a week with no responsibility:).

Minister's wife?

Today my husband preformed a marriage ceremony for a young couple that we have been doing pre-marital counseling with. He did a great job and it is always fun to hear other people praise him for his kind and wise words. In these situations I find myself so proud to be his wife, but at the same time feel kind of awkward as 'the pastor's wife'. Not knowing much of the wedding party, I did a lot of wandering around, talking to random people, and doing a lot of small talk. I realized that people really don't know what to say. I heard a lot of 'Your husband did an amazing job', ' That was such a special ceremony', 'That was the best wedding I have ever been to'. I don't disagree with any of those things, but it is sort of a dead end conversation. It was actually kind of exhausting. I was appriciated by a few for doing their counseling, which was really nice. I guess I don't feel like I fit the 'pastor's wife' mold (which I am glad about).


I haven't read this book, and probably never will. All I know is I enjoy doing ministry with my husband, love encouraging, and supporting him. Maybe that is what this book says, I don't know. I was amazed this book even existed when I did a google image search. As I think about it, the whole premise of a handbook for ministers' wives sounds uninviting. Anyway, I'm sure I have a lot more thoughts that are unformed at this point. So I will leave it at that.

We spent the rest of the evening with some old friends and new ones and had a great time eating dinner and hanging out, and that was refreshing. Now I am feeling a little tired and even a bit tired of talking. My hubby and I are watching some late night tv to wind down and then will go to bed later than we should, as usual. I am really looking forward to our vacation starting on Tuesday.