A Warm Week

We've had a very warm weekend so have been able to get out quite a bit. This last weekend Autumn and I went to a mini-concert of a 14 year old protege named Conrad Tao. He has been playing the piano since 18 mos. He was pretty phenomenal. He played for 1/2 hour then took questions for a half hour. This was a free one hour time given to any kid in the community that wanted to come. Later in the evening he performed for the McCain performance at K-State. We didn't go to that, but did enjoy the mini-concert time.

I'll let our pictures tell the rest of our story from the week...

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

Swirly continues to get her weekly entertainment from the cat next door looking in our windows.

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Taking a swipe at the other cat.

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Some people go to parks on warm days. We go to the cemetery.

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Autumn grabbed the camera and took some pictures of her own here

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From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

"Ad astra per aspera" --"to the stars through difficulties" Or so says our famous Kansas flag. By the way, Kansas just celebrated it's 148th birthday. Autumn says they sang "Home on the Range" {State song}and that's about it for 5th grade. They still do it up big in the lower grades with programs and singing of "She's My Sunflower from the Sunflower State"..etc... But I guess by 5th grade they figure your excitement for the statehood day has waned.

Another pic by Autumn...

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

(our street sign)

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cannon in cemetery

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From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

Swirly enjoys imagining catching a bird. Our cat always looks so wistful.

On Super Bowl Sunday night, JM was in San Diego, Sam was at a friend's house watching the game, so Autumn and I made homemade caramel topping for ice cream. We found a delicious recipe off the internet. I will never eat caramel out of a pre-made bottle again. This stuff was fantastic.
Did you know that brown sugar melts by itself with nothing added to it? You just have to be careful that it doesn't burn.

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

Once it has caramelized, then you add 6 T of butter

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Then Heavy Whipping Cream (I never said it was low on calories)

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Mix until it looks like this...

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

We were so eager to eat it, we forgot to take a picture until half way through our ice cream eating.

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

This caramel reminded me of the caramels that Sandi used to make and wrap in wax paper. SO good!

The only thing that got done remodeling-wise this week is that we had two shelves...

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

and closer

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Put marble on them

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From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

This is left-over marble from our entry way floor upstairs.

In other news..you may remember that last summer I was in charge of raising money in VBS for proclaimers (devices that can be taken anywhere so people can hear the Bible read to them). We raised $1500 for this project during VBS, which is really good for the number of kids we had. Last month we were told that we raised the highest in the state of Kansas (that's bigger than Hutch First or College Church --by Mid-America Naz)! And we were told that we were #19 in money raised for a church in the entire denomination for this particular project! Here is our little certificate...

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

Two more pictures that I think I forgot to post from the last few weeks...
Sam during one of his sick episodes, trying to catch up on homework

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We thought this next picture was funny. Sam LOVES Chipotle burritos, and was so excited about eating one a few weeks ago, that it fell out of his plate and into the dirty dishwasher. It was actually skewered...

From New Album 2/2/09 7:33 PM

That's it for now.