Random August Days

A sweet little wren was singing on my back deck.

She has made a nest in my planter by my front door so we have not been using that door to go in and out so as to not bother her.  Hoping the neighborhood kitties stay away!

The corn field by our house was harvested.

Our care group girls (minus 3 who couldn't come) celebrated Tarenda's birthday.

Every August, once the babies have fledged, we say good-bye to our purple martins.  

It is always tricky to find out where they are all roosting in Wichita.  They change where their meeting place is every year! They fly from all over the area to gather together before migrating to Brazil.  We heard someone say that they were at the Waterfront so we went there.

Nope, not there.  We did find some by Kellogg and Greenwich.

Others saw some over by a hotel by the airport.

Our oldest daughter and husband have launched their daughter out of the "nest".  Wishing our first granddaughter best of wishes at her college in Chicago!  The same college her parents went to.

"I AM with you" is our LORD's promise.

I surely do enjoy watching the birds.

But not these.

I have changed the path I walk on because of the Mississippi Kites.  They had been dive-bombing.  I think it might be safe now since the "babies" are out of the nest, but I take my hat along just in case!!

A squirrel picture for my granddaughter, Claire.  She loves them.

Al suggested we go to the lake to watch the sunset.  We took the country roads out to the lake.

We made popcorn to enjoy the "show".

Look at all the Great Egrets!

More flew in as the night came on.

We decided to trim our birch tree.  It has really grown big in 17 years!

Our daughter-in-law has had challenges due to some sort of virus? (not sure) to her brain.  She had an appointment with a neurologist in KC this week.  No quick answers.  She is ever so slowly recovering.

They are adding a playground to the north addition.

Tenley and Kaia will love it!

Our daughter's family went to a resort in the mountains of Colorado to celebrate their anniversary and Mindy's birthday.  Tenley was loving it!!

I've enjoyed my flowers.  They will fry this next week as we'll have temperatures around 108.

Tarenda has painting nights at her home.  It really is fun.  'Well, it can be sometimes disappointing for me when a picture doesn't turn out the way I want.  These girls do a great job!

Jill's flowers

I would love to be good enough to do this painting of this wren!

My favorite bird.

A story from Papua, a restful day and going home.

Sunday morning we went to our daughter's church.  Dropped Claire off at her class.

Adam and Hannah were on the worship team.

There was a guest speaker this day.  Nate Gordon who is with JAARS, who had served in Papua.  He told us about living in Papua; he is quite the storyteller!  I love hearing how God works in people's lives!!

You can watch the video here.  If you want to hear an amazing story of a woman from Papua, start at about 43 minutes.

He has written a book that I have ordered and am excited to read!

We went out to eat with him and found out that he grew up in the Philippines and had attended Faith Academy in highschool.  I knew about Faith Academy because they played in the Far Eastern Tournament as did the school I attended, Christian Academy in Japan.  CAJ won that tournament the years I attended.  We connected as MKs; there is just a bond there.  

We had a quiet Sunday afternoon.  We napped.  Claire also had down time after her last performance of "Newsies".

Adam and Jill worked on their scheduling for the week.

Papa told some tales - he enjoys telling stories!

Even Kobi listened.

We decided to make S'mores.

(I have a few international friends who read this, so need to explain what a S'more is.  I didn't know until I came to the States.  A S'more is a roasted marshmallow that you put in between 2 graham crackers along with some chocolate.  The chocolate melts.  Oh soooo good!)  I guess they are called S'mores because you want "some more" - one is not enough!

Look at those marshmallows!  I did not know that they make some in a flatter shape so it works better for S'mores.

The next morning, we left for home.  But first, we stopped at the coffee shop Hannah works at and got us some caffeine for the trip!

Good-bye to Wisconsin!

There are some apartments or condos facing this view.  Hmm.  We may need to consider this??

We'll be back again soon!

 P.S.  We took our normal fast route home, but found a different route around Kansas City.  It was rush hour when we would be going through.  Blech!!  We do not care to hit the big city .  So because traffic would be horribly crazy, we turned west on 36 at Cameron and continued until Highway 75 and went south to Topeka.  It skirts Topeka on the north and we took Highway 70 to 77.  We actually liked this route!  May do it again!