May Restaurant Pick

With Dad having a stroke this past month, we didn't know if we would get in our "Restaurants We Have Never Been To" for the month of May.  But one evening we had to run to Wichita for a quick run after some things so we were able to do it! 

It is not like the Noodles they have in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where our son and his family live.  We LOVE that place, but that one is more an Applebees style, whereas the one in Wichita is more fast foodish.

The menu was a little confusing to me, but Al figured it out for us.

The restaurant chain began in Boulder, CO.

Lotsa pasta!

The food was quite delicious though.

We ordered one serving of potstickers (gyoza-a dish I grew up with in Japan) to share.  We had never seen such flat gyoza ever, but they were ok. 

This next month, June, will be busy with not only Dad, but our 5th grandbaby's arrival and celebrating birthdays for my mother and me!  All the family will come home so we will go out with them on another adventure to a restaurant never visited before!

Storms

This week, Al put up my new rain chain.  I didn't think it would rain already.  I was hoping not just yet because the farmers have just started wheat harvest.  But last night the storms rolled through most of Kansas.  Some people had baseball size hail! 

Our back deck affords us a great view of storms.

 Here is a video I took of the clouds moving. 

 Here are a couple photos from a few weeks ago.

 And how about the young couple from Harper who got this wedding photo shoot with a tornado in the background!  Gotta love Kansas!

"He makes the clouds His chariot

and rides on the wings of the wind."

Psalm 104:3

Stepping down

We started attending Grace about 20 years ago.  That first year, we mostly got fed and nourished by the Word.  But then we began to get involved.  For me it was teaching 3-year-olds.  I can still remember teaching the older Lakey kids!  What fun they were!!!  True story - I once asked the children what was grey and had a bushy tail.  They all chimed in, "Jesus!"  I've heard that as a joke, but it really did happen in my class!

After several years, the Sunday School Superintendant decided she needed to retire.  Both she and Steve wanted me to do it.  I didn't want to.  I was a teacher.  That was my passion. 

But after much prayer (and dragging my feet) I knew that God wanted to stretch me and I said "yes".  The first year, I can still remember our teacher appreciation dinner.  10 teachers - and we gave each of them a gift card to Faith & Life.  Now, there is no way we could budget that.  There are 60 workers in the nursery alone! 

We built a new building in '05.  We didn't have enough classroom space in the original building!  I was privileged to be on the building committee.  How excited we were to move into the new facility!!  After we moved in, I continued the job but it got so big I told them it was time to hire a Children's Director.  So Kris  came on board (and later, Becca).  And I became the Nursery Director.  We got pagers, clip on name tags and security tags; we had lanyards for the teachers and began background checks.

That was 7 years ago.  In the nursery, we started out with using 3 rooms (with a 4th added shortly after).  Now we use 6 nursery rooms and have had to push the 3-year-olds into another hall. 

I have LOVED this job!!  Oh, there were parts that were terribly stressful and I won't miss those.  But overall, it has been just the place for me!!  But due to health issues and taking care of family needs I knew it was time to pass this job on to someone else.
 

As I packed up my files, I just cried.  I knew it was time, but I I would often find myself questioning "Why am I quitting?!"  I am so happy to have Lori taking over my position!!  I will stay on as an assistant to help her, but she will help the nursery go to higher level.  These young people have such good ideas and are so computer savey!

Thank you, Grace, and in particular Steve and Aunt Leonore (she was a former missionary to Japan and we call all the missionaries "aunt" and "uncle") for trusting in me to do this job!  God has given me the strength and ability.  Without Him, I could not have done it!  He went before me all these years, guiding me and providing each week!  And what a wonderful team of volunteers I have had to work with each week!!!  I can't begin to name them all.  But truly, SOOO great!!  And of course, best of all - showing the love of Christ to each of the little children in our care and teaching them about Him.  Praying for them, that they would grow up to follow Him with all their hearts!!

"We will tell the next generation

  the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

His power,

and the wonders He has done."

Psalm 78:4

Improvements

We went to the hospital again, as we do daily.  I am so glad our local hospital has a rehab unit!  I would not want to be driving into Wichita every day.  And this way, Mom can drive herself too whenever she wants.

Dad was improved today.  Heart beating well.  During therapy, he was walking with the walker without aid.  Yesterday he could not as his knees were hurting so badly after the walking he had done the day before.  He is able to move his arm more today too.

We have enjoyed visiting with other families during the meal times and hearing their stories about why they are in rehab.  Some who were there before Dad have already gone home.  And new ones have come in since Dad came.  This is hard, but God supplies what we need.  Endurance, patience, joy, strength.

Here is a picture of my parents in their early years in Japan.