breadbasket

Here in Kansas, the wheat is ripe and ready for the picking, as we would say it in apple country where I am from. The local farmers are excited about the early spring, making for an early harvest and the potential for double-planting the fields this year.

The big machines are out working on the harvest - combines? threshers? (I really need to learn more about this process.) When out driving around, the big dust storm ahead indicates the harvest is in process. Many big trucks are on the road hauling grain to the silos/grain elevators.

The business news is full of wheat futures, well it looks like the future of the wheat around here is to be in the breadbasket - no wonder they call Kansas the breadbasket of America!

so many flags

Resthaven Cemetery, Wichita, Kansas, 11 a.m. Monday. Memorial Day events begin with a flyover of the Oklahoma Air National Guard F-16’s Jayhawk Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. A service will follow with speakers U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran and Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer.

A morning walk through the local cemetery - preparations are underway for a Memorial Day program. The employees are out straightening flags and picking up stray flowers.

Soldiers arrive in big green trucks and jeeps.

Families place flowers.

A peaceful place.

So many flags.

playing in the mud

Last weekend a lot of different things were going on in our family. While most of us were watching graduation, Carrie and Daniel were out playing in the mud, again!

Their second annual Warrior Dash, where grown people pay big bucks to crawl in the mud and climb over obstacles and jump over fire all for a free beer!

A great time was had by all, apparently!

Never grow up, kids!

saying goodbye

cousins Sarah and Jesse

multi-family kinfolk party!
congrats to grads and going away party for Jesse

Tracy and Jenny are proud parents of a new Marine! He leaves for basic training to Parris Island, SC on June 4th

LOTS of food and fun thanks to the four moms.

It was good to see everyone again, a great party. I was jokingly calling it an 'empty nest celebration' but had to stop when greeted with shocked looks and teary eyes.

If the kids thought their life passed before their eyes at graduation, well it really did on the day after - thanks to aunt/granma Sue who put together a slide show of images from babies to high school, we all got to watch them grow up before our eyes.

The perfect ending to a long weekend of deadlines and stress and celebrations!

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graduation day 2012

Sarah Scott - 2012 graduate!



Camera and tissues in hand, the familiar music of Pomp and Circumstance starts and we scan the faces as the graduates file in. Earlier I had asked Sarah which row she would be sitting in and she proudly told me the first row! I am #17 in my class! And the honor grads sit on the first row!

So she was easy to spot, actually sitting next to her longtime friend Sarah Z from across the street.



Graduation ceremonies evoke emotions in everyone who attend. The graduates may think this is just another day until they are all gathered in that ceremony and hear the traditional music and then it hits them that this is it, the end of school life as they have known it. They have mixed feelings, both sad and excited, about leaving their friends and possibly family and heading out on their own.



The thoughts and emotions of the day were captured in the featured song, I'm Not Gonna Cry by Corey Smith, sung by graduate Rebecca Hood:

Sunday Shoes, Cap and Gown
The whole town gathered around
Waited 18 years now it's all comin down to this.
I scanned the crowd and it fills my soul
My best friends all here in rows
No turning back, Now its time to walk that line
This tassel is gonna turn
But when the moment passes by
We'll just walk away
Then slowly grow apart

But I'm not gonna cry, no
Not one sad or happy tear
I've waited my whole life
Now I'm gonna fly right outta here


Anyone who has ever graduated hears the graduation march and remembers that time in their life. Underclassmen watch and anticipate their own upcoming ceremony - how the seniors sing the Alma mater (I don't even know the words said Racheal) and do the traditional foot stomping and yelling at the appropriate times. Grandmothers with cameras (and we were well represented!) document the event through blurry eyes.



Class of 2012 - go out and conquer the world!

And remember YOLO!

(class motto You Only Live Once)

Photos