The Room Where It Happens

If you know Jonathan, you know he is a funny kid with a great sense of humor. Last Thursday, we were all still digesting life without Kasey and feeling pretty down. Jonathan served us up some great comic relief during that time. There are two things you need to know: 1. We are semi-potty training Jonathan, meaning I have him use the bathroom at random times during the day but we are not in full on "no diaper" mode. 2. There is a great song in Hamilton that Aaron Burr sings called "The Room Where It Happens." It is a song about the dinner where the decision was made to move the U.S. capitol to its present location. If you are curious how the song goes, here is a link. It is helpful to know the chorus (if you don't already know it) in order to fully appreciate the rest of the story...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWdBOsk8D7A

Well, Thursday morning, we were getting ready to go run an errand and I said, "Jonathan I need you to use the potty before we leave," to which J replied (singing) "I wanna pee in the room where it happens, the room where it happens, the room where it happens!" Oh and also laughing himself silly. So now the bathroom is known as the room where it happens!

Canteloupe!

Our cantaloupe was picked today! It probably could have gone another few days to ripen even more, but we wanted to be able to enjoy it before we head back east. It was so exciting to grow something like this! Here's what it looked like when we opened it up...

I also used those tomatoes and some fresh basil to make a salad that will go with our dinner tonight.

Yoga on the Patio

Jonathan joined me on the patio for a morning yoga session!

Woglom Goings On

This week, Christopher had Raider Robotics Camp at Pembroke. He learned how to code and program a robot that he built to do different things. They had an open house yesterday and he showed us how everything works. Jonathan was fascinated too!

We are blessed with so many wonderful and kind friends. The Kearns family brought over a toy for Holly thinking she was probably missing Kasey a lot. It was so sweet of them! Holly was very happy...

Things have been booming an blooming in the garden! The sunflowers are opening up...

And I have more zucchinis than I know what to do with! We may be bringing some out to Shelter Island you guys! Or we'll be supplying our neighbors with zucchinis and cucumbers...

I wish I could transmit the smell of these tomatoes across the internet. They smell amazing! Grandpa Clyde would be proud!

Paint Party

Yesterday, we joined our friends down the street (and many other friends) for a summer paint party! It was a nice distraction for us to hang out with friends and do some fun and creative activities. Tiffany was responsible for planning the party and the kids got to paint, make candy necklaces, play and there was even a water balloon fight!

Jonathan wasn't quite sure what to do with his water balloon but he sure did like the one he had! He held on to it for quite awhile before simply throwing it on the ground and watching it break...

Sweet Kasey Moe

We had to say goodbye to our sweet Kasey Moe tonight. Long story short, she was suffering too much after her surgery and because of some issue with her liver that was making her more and more sick. It is never easy to lose a beloved pet and we are all very sad. But she was a blessing to our lives. She had been around essentially since the beginning of our marriage, through both children, all the places we've lived in KC and much more. She was a steady presence and a comfort for us whenever we needed her. Sometimes, if we were standing around having a conversation, she would stand with us and look as if she knew exactly what we were talking about. Even in her older years, Kasey was so playful. She had this look she'd get on her face when it was about to be "Crazy Kasey Time!" Then she would start digging in the dirt and she'd take off running, daring anyone to catch her. The girl had some moves, especially when she was young. There may have been faster dogs, but no one had moves like Kasey. At the dog park she would steal buckets and water bottles. She'd accompany me on long runs and rollerblading expeditions, even a 15-mile hike with my friend Jaime! A vet once remarked about Kasey's six pack, she was in such great shape. Her name could be inserted into any song and it fit perfectly... I could say a million things about her but I'll wish her well on her soul's next adventure. I'm sure her doggie heaven is full of peanut butter, cheese, raw bones, and baby pools to take a dip in. She is forever immortalized in her entries on this blog, especially after Christopher was born. We love you, Kasey Moe, forever!

Veggies and Our Patient

This morning we had a tomato!! This is very exciting because they've been sitting out there, all green and on the vine but the hot weather this week has helped things move right along. Also the eggplants and zucchinis are getting bigger with the hot weather. We are going to have to start giving them away! Also, our caterpillars are unfortunately all gone. They ate all the parsley and I'm hoping they moved on by themselves and didn't get eaten up.

Our sweet Kasey was not feeling well for the last week and a half. Long story short, she had surgery to remove her gallbladder and spleen and did well in the surgery. She is still recovering in the doggie hospital today and we will visit her this evening. We miss our Snuggles tremendously!

Run

Now that swimming is over, it is time for track season to start. Also it's not a thousand degrees outside today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlxojCrsyoM

Woodside Waves Awards Banquet

This evening was the 2017 Woodside Waves Swim Team awards banquet. When I say banquet, I mean Mexican buffet by the pool. Everyone was jumping in tonight, as it was 102 degrees out! Chris earned the high point award for 8 and under boys. Each time a kid places 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in a meet, they get a certain number of points. Chris finished the season with 98 points...

He also earned the "Goldfish" award for his age group. This was given to swimmers who worked really hard this season, listened to everything the coaches said and implemented it in their swimming. I guess the best way to describe it is an award for hard work and coachability...

He also received his plaque for his races in Novice and Level II/A Champs...

Party Time!

Chris had his birthday party today at Main Event. It was a blast! They kids bowled, played laser tag, did the gravity ropes course and played video games. Chris had a great time with his friends!

He got the VIP laser gun because he was the birthday boy...

Yummy cookie cake!

Chris got to catch up with his old friend Finley...

He was a very happy birthday boy!

Johnson County Museum

Now that swimming is over, our mornings are a little more freed up. This morning, we joined our friends at the Johnson County Museum and Kidscape! We used to take Chris to the museum's old location in Shawnee, but now they have a great new location closer to our house. They have a whole area where the kids can pretend and the upstairs is a fantastic museum of the history of Johnson County. All the adults say we need to go back without the kids so we can actually read and learn something! 

Elevator picture of about half of us...

And Grammy, we got a membership to the museum so any time you want to join us, let me know!

Caterpillar Update

Well, there goes the parsley. These guys are very hungry caterpillars!

And this guy (we'll call him Frank) is making a break for it! Not sure what his plan is but we'll keep an eye out to see if he survives the night...

Level 2 Champs

Today was the Mokan Level II/A Championships at Mission Pool. It was a hot seven and a half hours but totally fun to watch. There were swimmers from all five teams in the league. There are a lot of really good swimmers at this meet because many of them are high school and club swimmers so there were some fast times today. They were also very inspiring for Chris. He was amazed at how fast some of the 17 year-old swimmers were! Chris swam in two relays and his teams won second place in both (medley relay, where Chris swam backstroke, and 100 free). He also swam backstroke (4th place overall), breaststroke (disqualified, we think because he might not have touched with two hands on the finish), and butterfly (5th place overall). We are very proud of Chris! He swam against some really strong swimmers and did great! It is wonderful to watch his enthusiasm for swimming and his love of being a part of this team. Here is a video of his backstroke from today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSUooKrE0p4

It was a great season for the Waves and we look forward to more swimming in the future!

Close ups

Here are some more close up pictures of our caterpillars. There are actually 8 of them!

More Birthday Pictures

Grammy spent the afternoon with us yesterday and above, she is showing Chris the "crazy putty" she got him for his birthday. And then apparently, she was in Holly's chair so Holly squeezed up there with her...

Chris got a laser tag game from us for his birthday so the boys were trying it out, much to Grammy's dismay...

With my nine year-old...

Visitors!

I went to water the parsley this morning and we found 7 caterpillars hanging out on the plant! First we thought they might be monarch caterpillars because they do resemble them but after looking up some more information, we found out that monarchs will not survive if they eat parsley. We actually have 7 black swallowtail caterpillars! Instant science experiment in our backyard! If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see them more closely.

Got Green Juice?

Happy 9th Birthday Chris!

Happy 9th birthday to Christopher!! We spent the morning of his birthday at Novice Champs where Chris was swimming breaststroke. It was his only event so between the hours of 6:30AM and 12 (when he did his race) Chris had a lot of hanging out time. He did great though and qualified for Level II in breaststroke...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zwDTMl3Vgk

And then... Alexander Hamilton, his name is Alexander Hamilton. And there's a million things he hasn't done, just you wait, just you wait...

It's What's for Dinner

One of my favorite things about the garden is being able to go out, pick some vegetables and have them in our dinner about an hour later. Here are a couple recent dishes where at least 50% of the meal came from the garden. The first is a chickpea pasta with cashew cheese (also with basil from the herb pots outside) and kale (from the garden) and cherry tomatoes (unfortunately not from the garden this year). On the side is roasted eggplant, zucchini and green peppers, all from the garden...

The second dish is a kale pesto that also has oregano and basil from the garden that is going to go on a sourdough, tofu, zucchini sandwich for dinner tonight...

Finally, with our endless supply of cucumbers, I made a cucumber, pineapple salad with lime juice and cilantro (recipe courtesy of my friend Leatha)...

Touring Lenexa

We decided to head over to our old stomping grounds this morning for a tour of our old hood and a nice (hot) hike on our old trail. Our old street basically looks the same except the trees have gotten bigger. Chris said he remembered our old house a little bit. Jonathan was completely confused as to why we were on this random street! Here are the boys on the lookout for any scary creatures on the trail...

We saw several trains while we were there and it is amazing how different the boys are when it comes to trains. Chris was slightly obsessed and Jonathan gets excited for a few minutes and then could really care less... While we were over in that direction, we stopped at Shawnee Mission Park and had snacks by the lake. It was beautiful and we got to see the paddle boarders and dogs swimming on the dog beach. We also stopped by the radio controlled landing strip where a couple guys were flying their remote control planes. Once again Christopher said he wanted a remote control airplane, as he has said for the past four years. One of these days buddy!

Later at home, Kasey was sunning herself and waiting for that baby bunny to come back to the step...