Kansas City

For those who haven't heard yet, Ben and I will be moving to Kansas City on June 17th. We are getting excited and looking forward to making a new life there. I never would have guessed in a million years that I would be moving to Kansas City. Also... for those of you that don't know, there are two halves to Kansas City- the Kansas side, and the Missouri side. We will be staying on the Missouri side until we find a place of our own. We are looking forward to getting our first home there. We're not sure which side we will end up on. When you think of Kansas what do you think of? Well... this is what I've always thought of:



Tumbleweeds
















Tornadoes...purely myth right?

















Auntie Em?















But my friends, this is the reality of life in Kansas City...prepare yourselves.



The Plaza in downtown Kansas City. Beautiful at Christmas all lit up!






















Exciting city market!




















Exciting city of fountains!













Kansas- exciting sunflower state!
















Thankfully there are no meth users, crime, or any sort of problems in this area! We'll keep you posted on our journey.

My Mom's New Resident

My mom and dad live on a farm in Holly Pond, Alabama. They recently discovered that a fox and her four pups are living in a corner of one of their barns. It is a gray fox even though it has a little bit of red on it. This is a picture of the mama fox. We are all amazed that first of all they are there, and second of all, how beautiful they are.

Exotic Fruit

I really love fruit. At my school there are many fruit trees- jackfruit, mango, orange just to name a few. The mango trees are very old and have many mangos on them. This time of year the teachers and students all clamor for them to take home and eat. Basically, it's an all out war of who gets to them first. Yesterday I was standing in the playground and I heard a big thump and I look over and see the most perfect mango sitting there saying, "eat me". So... I took it home and Ben and I ate it. I told Ben that I was bummed because I couldn't find any mangos 'cause other teachers claim them before I get there and blam... there it was delivered to me. Here's a picture of the one yesterday. (I know... taking pictures of fruit is a little scary, but hang in there)











Then, today I was hugely blessed! This was today's bounty.

I had never tasted a mango until I came to Miami. They are like a peach with an added zing. Incredible! Thank you Lord for mangos!







Two weeks ago a man at church gave me some passion fruit. I'd never tasted it in my life. He told me to take them home and dig out all the seeds, crush them up a bit, add some water and sugar, and then drink it. You can eat the seeds and everything. It is tart and like no other fruit I've ever tasted. It was SO GOOD! Apparently, the passion fruit takes its name from the flower symbolic of Christ's Passion. I personally thought it was for another reason. They grow on vines. Thank you Lord for passion fruit!


This week at church another man in our church gave me some lychee fruit. Again, I'd never tasted this fruit until I came to Miami. Usually you can buy it on the side of the road in the summer months, but this past summer I didn't see any for sale. Boy, was I sad. Lychee fruit is delicious. It tastes sort of like turkish delight except juicy. Thank you Lord for lychee fruit!

Life Is Lived All Backwards

This is something that I find interesting.... very thought provoking. See if you agree.

I think that the life cycle is all backwards.
You should die first, get it out of the way,
the live twenty years in an old age home.
You get kicked out when you're too young,
you get a gold watch, you go to work.
You work forty years until you're young
enough to enjoy your retirement.

You go to college...until you're ready for high school.
You go to grade school, you become a little kid, you play,
you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby,
you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating,
and you finish off as a gleam in someone's eye.

Happy Birthday Song

I overheard some girls today singing this in the locker room. What a classic...

"Happy Birthday to me, I'm 103, I still go to pre-school and I miss my mommy, my mommy's at work, she fired a jerk, she hired a monkey to do my homework"

Fire Rainbow

A Fire Rainbow

The rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena.

The picture was captured on the Idaho/Washington border, the event lasted about one hour.

Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20 thousand feet in altitude, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees.

Stunning!

I checked this out and it turns out that it is true!

Golden Brown by the Stranglers

This is one of Ben's favorite songs that he introduced to me tonight. I thought it was a really groovy song that has a neat harpsichord part. Neither of us can figure out what the words mean, but hey... it's probably written by a drugged up crazed lunatic in the 60's. Anyway, it's one of those songs you could just listen to over and over and go into a daze. Hope you like it!

Hillary Humor

I am making no political statements in this blog (besides that I'm not voting for Hillary), I just thought these were so funny.


Tired Hillary













Surprised Hillary

Scarey Hillary

Military Hillary

Approving Hillary

Vader Cheney

Cooking in April

For those of you who like fish, this is a wonderful glaze! I got the recipe from my father-in-law's wife, Ilana. She is a wonderful cook. On the plate is some salmon, and then on the right is some tilapia that I did. I prefer the salmon, Ben prefers the tilapia.


Teriaki Fish Glaze

sesame oil- a little bit
1/4 Cup of teriaki sauce (I used "southern tsunami" brand of teriaki sauce)
2 T brown sugar
2 T sesame seeds
2 T lemon juice (I used lime juice)
rosemary leaves and chives (fresh is better, but I used dried rosemary, and didn't use chives cause I didnt' have any)

Put some tin foil on baking sheet and then put the fish on the tin foil. Put the glaze over fish and then bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

London

After a few more days in Cardiff, we drove to London for our last few days. London reminded me of New York City a bit, but even bigger.

Here we are in Wales before going to London hiking in the Brecon Beacons.







This is fish and chips and mushy peas.








This is how the beach is in Wales. I think it's very beautiful. The tides come in a long way.








On our first night in London we went to Harrod's department store. They had a whole huge room devoted just to hosiery. It was HUGE!











Our second day there we went to the tower of London. Basically, many people were beheaded here. It's kind of spooky.










This is Big Ben and little Ben.

Chatsworth House

On our way back down to Cardiff, we stopped in England to see a stately home. Apparently wealthy people built these back in the day and it has since been inherited by people after that. To keep up with the upkeep and taxes of such large estates most of them are open for the public to see. I cannot even imagine living in one of these houses. The one we went to, Chatsworth house, was built with all of these rooms in hopes that the king would visit. It was customary to have all these rooms as a processional thing to enter a royal person's presence. The king never did visit Chatsworth House.

This is a church we saw on the way. The steeple is all warped... I liked it.








This is Chatsworth House. Can you imagine living there?








The dining room









They had a whole room devoted to sculpture. This sculpture was my favorite. The second picture is of a painted ceiling.








Here we are!

Scotland

On from England we drove up into Scotland. I wasn't sure what to expect really. The only thoughts of Scotland always go back to Braveheart. So... Ben and I joked that if you make a Scot mad that they would just head butt you. The Welsh are known for their hospitality and choral singing, the English for their wonderful manners and high tea, and the Scots? What we found was that the Scottish people are very friendly and appreciate a good joke. They also like to party a bit as well. We stayed in the city of Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-buruh) where we visited the Holyrood Palace, an official residence of the queen in the summer months, and also the
Edinburgh castle. It was an exciting city. Then we took a day trip into the Scottish highlands and to a Loch (lake).


Scottish highlands... the pictures don't even do it justice. It was breathtaking.








Ben and I at Loch Lomond








Both of our moms in front of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh








Beautiful! This was up in the highlands as well up near Ben Nevis (the tallest mountain in the UK)








Ben's mom and her Scottish boyfriend. Actually, it was just some man at the Edinburgh castle taking up tickets. When she asked if she could have a picture he growled, "it'd had better be quick." What a dreamboat ay? We're just thankful he didn't headbutt us.






Edinburgh castle

England

After the wedding the four of us (Ben's mom Pam, my mom Sue, Ben and I) traveled on into England. On the way we stopped at a ruined abbey called Tintern Abbey. Then we traveled on to a town called Keighly (pronounced Keithly) where we stayed with some Barreth family friends. While we were there we visited the city of York, where Ben went to college. I was very impressed with this town. It has so much history (it dates back to the Romans), and it is also very beautiful. We drove through a part of the country called the Dales to get there. It is full of rolling hills and grazing sheep. There are also plenty of stone walls. These are built without any mortar...the stones are just stacked. There is a certain art to this and not many people know how to do it. Some of the stone walls have been up for hundreds of years. I have to say... this area of the country is beautiful and like looking at a postcard. I loved it!

We also went to London at the end of the trip... and although it is technically in England, I will have to devote a whole other section of the story to it later.


Tintern Abbey









The Shambles. This is a street in York that the buildings almost touch. I'm not sure how they've stayed up for hundreds of years.









York Minster... beautiful! We climbed to the top of it.












One of my favorite pictures from our vacation. This is at a church we stopped at in a town called Linton Falls. Notice the stone walls... no mortar.










The Dales... like a postcard!