I lied at church

I lied at church tonight. Several times in the same conversation. I was walking along, cruising towards the door to leave after a long day of 50th Anniversary Church Activities. I was feeling pretty good, I had been extremely social and not lied a single time about anything- this did not occur to me until later as i rarely lie, but in retrospect I feel i could have at that moment felt proud because I had not been lying. I am cruising along, and all of a sudden an arm shoots out and grabs me, "Are you the youngest Horst girl?" a familiar looking old woman asks me, clinging to my arm. "Yes...I am, ummm Shelly. It's so good to see you!" (at this point i am saying this to anyone who recognizes me, as I remember no one). The woman-Vi I find out later, grabs at my left hand and holds it up examining it with a look of pity and disappointment, I realize she is looking for a ring. "Oh, don't worry, I have a boyfriend, we've been together 5 years, we live together in Seattle." Silence. SHIT SHIT SHIT. That is a cardinal sin! I quickly backtrack when I observed the look of absolute Horror on her face,"I MEAN, we both LIVE in Seattle- ha ha ha- we don't live TOGETHER! HA HA HA!" She almost passed out on the floor she was so relieved. "I thought you meant you lived TOGETHER the way you said it, but you're a smart girl, you know better than that. Honey, just WAIT until you get married!" "Oh ABSOLUTELY, I will wait, yes I am smarter than that, I'm sure we'll get married soon, don't worry!" I COULD NOT STOP LYING. "Well I have to go! It was great to see you! Bye!" Then RUNNING out of the church, almost collapsing on the grass..."Mom I lied at church." I found out today that the woman I lied to is not only a church elder, but also the LONGEST member of the church, a founding member at that. Geez.

By the way, the photo above was taken in the ladies bathroom of my parents church. The border says "A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Just something to ponder in the ladies room.

Sky Blue Sky

My camera decided it no longer wanted to shoot in Newton. After the last shot in this post was taken, my lens stopped working. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was at least 95 degrees outside and oppressively humid, but I like to think it was telling me something. Whether it meant to or not, it made me pull back from the analysis of my childhood. I will probably never be able to pull far enough away to really see where I came from.  These shots were taken at Athletic Park, at the Newton "Blue Sky" monument. It was built for some anniversery of the Newton Rotary Club. It is pretty amazing in person. My nephew was playing a baseball game nearby, I didn't get any shots of the game because my lens broke. And unfortunately that also means no shots of the Mennonite church reunion... 

Lupe's is officially one of the best taco stands in the entire world. I feel incredibly sorry for anyone who has not experienced it. It was literally erected directly on top of the parking lot that already existed there before it, and that is the floor in the seating area. My friend Kylie is convinced that their secret is that they use government issue cheese. And although I'm not sure exactly what that is, or specifically what she means by that, I am positive she knows something I don't.

Wind Energy

I spent today walking around Newton in the blazing heat with my nephew, Jerod. He is 11 years old and absolutely wise beyond his years. Within a 5 minute conversation he not only told me he agrees that George Bush is a bad president, but also that he heard that gas prices could reach $7 a gallon if the cost of a barrel of oil reaches $(insert correct number here). Wow, so we went on to talk about different energy ideas and what we will have to do to make things better (I kept it basic since he is obviously a very good listener and any made up statistics and ideas from me would inevitably reach his parents ears quickly- he is obviously much smarter than I am so I have to be careful). I took a few photos of our walk. Side note: we were walking to game stop to buy his brother a wii game for his birthday, in order to get there we had to go through walmart's parking lot. This lovely child told me hates walmart just like I do, although he's not sure why. 

side note: his little brother Kenton told me he wants Obama to be president, but he's pretty sure George W. was a really really good president. and if he could be president he would invent "free day" in which all things everywhere would be free. oh, yeah, he would also like to make smoking illegal (Newton just passed a smoking ban- even the kids are up on local politics here!)

Truck Stop Love

Currently in my hometown of Newton, KS and man am I excited. I think I am going to get some really great material and photos here! I have only been in town a few hours and I have already been to my favorite spot: Newell's Truck Stop. This is the 24 hour diner where we used to go in high school after parties. After hours high school style, wasted 16 year olds smoking cigs and eating cheesy hash browns. I don't care what anyone says about growing up in a small town, I learned some life skills! I only got a couple of shots tonight, but I will make it a point to go back and really try to capture the spirit while I am here. I was so happy to see a photo of what the rooms in the hotel upstairs look like, the rumors about that hotel ran rampant! Even though it was recently remodeled, it is still very much what I imagined! Maybe a few less stains... I added some KS wares that are for sale in the gift shop. I swear there is more to Kansas than the Wizard of Oz...Did anyone see In Cold Blood? Wait a minute,,,

Dirty Laundry

Since the sun took a hiatus on memorial day, we took the opportunity to get a handle on the organization (read: messiness) of the bedroom. I have really never taken the time to put the house together in a way that makes me happy or represents me at all. Mainly it's been trying to keep a handle on the number of musical instruments allowed to be laying around (impossible) or just trying to keep up with sweeping to keep bruce from creating little fur clones in every corner. The first images are "before" shots. Since most of the people that know this little blog exists know that i have always had a "cleanliness" opportunity, especially when it comes to clothing (oh the irony) it shouldn't shock you too much. So in order to keep myself interested in this "cleaning" project, I had to turn it into something else. Because in the last few weeks I have looked at upwards of 20 design blogs, this project quickly became a bedroom "makeover". Don't think that as soon as the sun peeked out form the clouds that I didn't immediately begin suggesting things like, let's go on a walk! or let's go on a bike ride! Rob didn't fall for it. He was laughing at me marching around the house picking up this plant or that ceramic bowl with a concentrated look on my face trying to "merchandise" the bedroom. Is this what you do at work? Well, kind of. 









Before I get to the "after" photos I want to share some of the things I discovered along the way. First of all I have 2 different prints that I seem to prefer in a vintage dress. Examples: 





and

Also while killing some time going to the Q to buy hangers (which I didn't need) I came home to find the most beautiful lucky penny ever waiting on the step for me. Check it out. Someone has put a patina on it! 

I just realized how much I love that color! It is the same color as our vintage luggage!



At one point in the day I randomly asked Rob how many dresses he thinks I own. I had just counted so I wanted to see how miserably he would fail at his guess. His answer: 47. The CORRECT answer: 47. I told him he was freaking me out and to not talk to me the rest of the day.



Now with all 47 dresses hung in their proper order, here are the bedroom makeover after shots.

Pushing Daisies

I've been thinking a lot about the term "counter intuitive" and what exactly it means when:

a. People say it, and 

b. They know what they are talking about. 

So many times people just throw around these terms to sound like they now what is going on, and half the time if you really listen they make exactly zero sense and are really saying nothing. I do like the idea of the world creating scenarios that what we think is true, or would assume is true is the exact opposite of reality. Keeps us on our toes. But I do hate hearing that term. It's like when people used to constantly say "At the end of the day, what really matters is..." that was much worse. 

Today my back was feeling 100% and we went on a really long bike ride. Instead of sun worship, which I found made the sun go into hiding for a week in embarrassment, I focused in on some form of daisy weed. I have found absolutely nothing "counter intuitive" about my day so far. Except possibly others on the trail might have found my bike riding attire choice purposefully "counter intuitive"... a dress and cut off jeans with red Dolce Vita flats (in honor of the fact that I met the founder of Dolce Vita last night!!!). Everyone else on the trail was wearing serious bike riding GEAR. One guy that passed me was in some sort of spandex suit that was emblazoned with the starbucks label all over it, with a closer look I realized his bike was starbucks branded as well! I assume he is some sort of professional that is sponsored by starbucks, but it was intense. I felt like I was racing in the tour de france!!! I'm sure my dirt bike raised more eyebrows than his starbucks bike though...