Don't want to be a slacker

I haven't blogged for awhile but really our life has slowed down since graduation. And I am very thankful it has. We are all good and are looking forward to a short week next week. I don't think we are going to ElDorado but who knows. I think we will just hang here in L-town.

My parents storm

A few blogs back I wrote about a storm that hit my parents place. I now have some pictures to share with you. They are very thankful that there wasn't more damage as Kansas has been hit pretty hard with storms this season leaving towns almost destroyed.

This is the corn cob that was stuck in their siding. They thought they were getting pounded with hail.


Same cob just showing where in on the house it stuck.

These tree's were planted 25 years ago when they moved out to the country. They were about 30 feet high. 3 of these trees uprooted. These 4 here are cut off about half way.


The tree at the corner here is cut off about 1/4 down. And of course all of these are in the front of the house.

Men and their toys

My dad got this big mower with lots of power. Bob was having way too much fun mowing my parents place. He was having so much fun dad thought he was going to mow the brome. :-) He thinks he needs one now. My parents have acres to mow and, well we don't. He would get dizzy from turning all the time.

Johnson Picnic

This Past weekend we traveled to ElDorado to the yearly Johnson picnic at my brother Ron's house. There were about 40 people there and lots of food. We have been doing this for several years now and it is always nice to see our cousins that we don't get to see very often.

Darlene my dad's couson and George's mom

Aunt Jan and Mom Rachel and Aunt AnnDad, Lindsay, Bob, Becca(George's daughter), George(my 2nd cousin) and Vickie his wife
Cousins Cindy and Carmen Their husbands Ken and Rick

Little guy Trevor, cousin Darren's son Steven with ball, Lois(niece),Ron(brother), Daniel(nephew), Phil, cousin Darla, Trevor and Austin. Phil, Steven and Austin are Darla's kids

Elizabeth and Rachel. Rachel looks very guilty as she was just about to give her bunny ears

Dad and his siblings. Norma, Richard and Ann

Special Olympics

This past weekend Rachel and I spent in Wichita at the state swimming and track meet. Rachel rode the chartered bus and I rode in a 12 passenger van that was very quite! Friday Rachel swam her 2 events and took the bronze medal in both of them. That evening was opening ceremonies and they had the parade of athletes. Rachel was picked to help hold our banner as the team was announced. They had a live band from Houston that played about five or six songs and then they had a huge fireworks display. This display was absolutely wonderful. Best fireworks show I have seen. It was a late night and we had an early morning and everyone was tired. Saturday started off very stormy with lots of rain and some pretty good sized hail. The track meet was delayed about 2 hours and they cancelled all the field events but the tennis ball throw. Rachel got a silver medal in this event. Now the track part we only got ribbons as running is not our favorite or strongest events. They have what they call Olympic Village and it is filled with games of all sorts. Each athlete is given a card that is punched at each game. Depending how you do on the game as to how many punches you get. No matter what you at least get 1 punch. Then you turn these cards in for prizes. Well they had this big slide that Rachel just loved and she went on it over and over and over. She didn't care that she only got 1 punch and it was taking forever to fill her card of 50 punches. I finally convinced her to do something else so she could at least fill her card up. The day was almost over and I knew that when it was time to pick a prize she would want a big one not a small one. She ended up with another recorder and a princess wand. I told her she could not play it on the bus as it would be taken away from her. The evening ended with a banquet and a dance. On Sunday there are only relays and some long walking events, but just like Saturday the storms came again delaying things for about an hour. So they only ran the relays. Rachel's team was in 2nd place when the batton was handed to the anchor boy. He was passed by everyone but one team so her team took 6th place. I was so proud of Rachel as she ran her little heart out. All in all it was a pretty good weekend and Rachel had lots of fun.