The Orchid and Family

For Adam's Birthday present I bought an orchid. Adam loves orchids and I have learned that I do too. Garmin is about 6 minutes away from my house so if I am not working a 12 hour shift then Adam will meet me at my house for dinner. For that reason the orchid continues to live on my dinning room table which I am quite happy for. It has been blooming for almost a month now and we are enjoying the colors!
I had the privileged of taking Ruthie (there are not many of us Ruthies in this generation) to get here nose pierced. She is under 18 so her mom came with us to sign all of the papers. They were very professional and almost intense about checking that she really had her mom and it was not just a pretend mom by photocopying the licenses and having them sign a bunch of papers but the end result was a nose piercing and I thought it looked so cute.
On the lines of cute my niece Brenley just turned 5 and we were able to watch her cheer one Friday night. I was glad that the allowed the girls to wear coats as it was cold out! The next afternoon we saw these clouds in Overland Park. We wondered what made them look like waves but it reminded me of the ocean so I loved it!
Adam played the other night at a benefit for Angel tree. There are a few guys that have formed a band of sorts and Adam has played with them several times in coffee shops and such. It was another chilly night to be playing outside but was really an enjoyable show!Adam's brother Rob came in town and this is the only picture I have but it sure was good piazza. Rob is a chef and Adam is slightly obsessed with hot dogs so they made hot dogs and Italian sausage from scratch. Adam's apartment stills smells a little like meat;-)
Below you can see the shoe throwing-away documented. Adam had worn holes in the bottom of his shoes and his Mom was able to convince him that it was time for them to go!
Adam's parents were in town last weekend and I may be able to post more pictures but here is the one that I have from Adam's Symphony concert. We heard the KC symphony play on Friday and then the next night Adam played with the civic orchestra he is a part of. It was a weekend of music! School continues to plug right along. This is the busiest semester by far! We are traveling up on Pennsylvania to see Adam's family for Thanksgiving and then to Bangladesh for Christmas to see mine. I can't wait.....More about that trip later!

Adam turns 24!

The night before Adam's Birthday weekend we went to a small restaurant in KC called Lills which was inside of an old house. The food was wonderful as was the service. We would definitely recommend it! Before taking a surprise trip we met Jon and Katy at 39th St Dinner for some pancakes and a ridiculously huge piece of cake.We then traveled to St Louis. On Saturday night we went to a Jazz concert by Sonny Rollins. He is around 80 years old and his body seemed permanently bent from decades of hunching over his saxophone. He was precious and played beautiful music. We stayed with John and Annie Patton who I had know from High School. It was a good chance to catch up and meet their new baby girl Olivia. On Sunday night we went to the Cub vs Cardinals games and 11 innings later the Cubs had come out with the win! We were cheering for the Cubs. It was as close as we could get to a Cardinal's vs White Sox game this season. Adam's team is the White Sox!


On Monday night we ventured home to celebrate with friends at one of Adam's favorite Mexican restaurants, Chapala.

It was a good time and complete with the waiter screaming some sort of Birthday song and Adam having a giant sombrero stuffed on his head!I had a test the next day so I wasn't able to make dessert (we had Hyvee icecream cake at the restaurant) so I made an apple pie on Tuesday and Molly and Adam came over to celebrate with us one more time. Mom, you would have been proud of the crust!

Labor Day Weekend

For the beginning of the semester Adam decided to make dinner for me once a week. His first and most labor intesive was Quinoa and Salmon. Delicious! For Labor Day weekend we went to the fair in Independence. It was a very strange experience with a very strange crowd but we did get some yummy funnel cake. From there we went to the Lake with the Millers for the last time of the season.

Adam is getting quite comfortable in the water and quite good on the waterskis!

Lucy and Jack Dunning were along for the ride to help hold the orange flag and play in the lake;-)


Our last outdoor project involved tree climbing and lots of scrapes but a day later we had pruned the front trees and you can now actually see the front of my house!

Head for the Cure 2009

This time I think it was really at the end of August we ran in the annual Head for the Cure race to raise money for brain cancer research. I had been sick and then passed it onto Adam so he did not run in this race but was there to support. We made t-shirts and ran as a team. It was a beautiful morning with a great turnout!
This was our group representing in red! I think there were just under 20 of us!

Susie and a friend from work above and Andrea a friend from church below! They did great and it is always good to have people you know to run with.
I forgot to take my sweat pants off before running so I was quite warm by the end. I guess you don't ever stop being a little competitive though because I did not want to stop and take them off:-)


And the finish line which everyone loves!!!

The End of Summer

Before the semester started Adam and I took a trip to Pomme de Terre with some friends from church. Jack and Norma have been friends of mine for a while and invited Adam and I down to their daughter's lake house the weekend. We had a wonderful time chatting in the car on the way to the lake and back and then just playing in the water once we got there.
Jack went Kayaking for the first time and we spent most of the day on the jet ski.
We did get a good day of rain and it was fun to sit on the dock and listen to the rain on the tin roof!
Norma took a turn on the jet ski!
On the way home we stopped at Oceola cheese and got some yummy, yummy cheese. I of course could not resist the pictures in from of the GIANT mouse:-)

It was good! Just thought I would slip in a picture here of the flowers my parents had sent from Bangladesh. It is amazing that they could sent my flowers from across the world!
Adam and I also spent sometime before the semester started doing more odd jobs around the house. We bought mulch and it is suppose to keep its color for a year so we will see how that goes!
Adam decided to try his hand at cement work and did an excellent job filling in the holes. I am still trying to sell the house so I may need to get the sinking cement mudjacked at some point but it looks great for now!


At the end of August Adam played at the wedding of some of our friends, Jacob and Leah. He played beautifully and we had a fun time dancing and celebrating with everyone from church!

Sandy and Woody above. Sigi, Ted and Noah below. Ted and Adam have become good friends. They work together at Garmin and Ted has become a source of encouragement and mentoring in Adam's life as Adam and I have been pursuing a relationship together.


The crew!

And we of course got to sit with Molly and Adam Dixon. We didn't know at the time but there we acctually 2 more. Adam and Molly are pregnant with twins!