I clicked my heels three times...

And found myself back in Kansas. For a weekend anyway...

Jacob & Mom surprised me with a trip back to Kansas for Arkalalah! My 28th Arkalalah to be exact and yes, that does deserve specific mention.

As I was walking through the Wichita airport I saw this...

...and knew I was back in Kansas. I texted this picture to Jacob that afternoon & he begged me to bring some decent beef back with him. Poor guy still hasn't found any decent meat out here.

Mom was there to pick me up & the first stop on our way to AC was to see Bear at work. The second stop was Planet Sub. I am a girl with her priorities in order! I hadn't had a Tempeh Reuben sandwich in MONTHS & to say I was giddy would be an understatement.

It was a wonderful weekend full of family & friends. That's the great thing about Arkalalah weekend...you can see just about everyone you need to see just by walking up Summit Street on Saturday afternoon. We made it to the pancake feed, parade, arts & crafts fair, night show, & too many food vendors to count.

I meant to take pictures to post for you: the carnival, funnel cakes, family, & friends good enough to be family. But as usual, I forgot.

With one exception. I took plenty of pictures of this little guy!

He is just the most adorable thing I've ever seen! Lindsay & Adam are lucky I didn't run off with him. Jacob was warned that he may get a call saying to go buy a crib because I was coming home with a baby.

Lack of Protein

Jacob was talking to his dad on the phone as we were pulling onto the 405 this evening. Because we ride together we're able to use the carpool lane that allows us to zoom past all the other single drivers who have to wait at the light that restricts the number of cars entering the freeway. We love how we're able to do that!

Now we're no experts, but my guess is that a semi can't just hop into the car pool lane to enter the freeway & cut us off, but that's exactly what happened today. As my tendency to get a little worked up while driving is well known, you won't be surprised to hear that my reaction was immediate, passionate, & consisted of one or two words that I can't say in front of Warren.

Rob then made some comment about the hand gestures that must accompany my vocal outbursts. I explained that while I'm quick to verbally insult the other driver, I'm never quick enough to honk or give the bird.

"Must be the lack of protein...it affects your ability to react."

Rob's always one to find a circumstance to ridicule me for being a tree-hugging vegetarian. :)

Stand up...stand up...

So I don't know about you all...but I am PUMPED for this weekend!

I fly out of LAX tomorrow morning & get into Wichita at 1:35 CST. It's going to be a weekend full of my family, my girls, Warren, Arkalalah (darn medallion was found before I could even read a clue), fried food, & Boulevard beer!

And K-STATE FOOTBALL!! I don't remember the last time I was this excited for a game. What a game it's going to be. We're #8 in the nation...playing #7...at home! Thanks to Facebook I was reminded of this video. Please watch it...because I have...about 1,000 times...this week. Practice your fist pumping & jumping...because I have been. And get ready to cheer on the Wildcats!

Trip to San Diego

Last weekend Jacob & I took a little trip down to San Diego!

We were able to tour a new building the company built...an awesome new building. Now that Jacob is officially in the construction business...& I guess I am, too...I'm trying to see beyond a building's "cover" & appreciate all the work behind the walls. So I have to mention all the great finished concrete walls, the polished concrete floors, the stainless steel staircases, & the office pods on cantilevered concrete decks that stuck out from the side of the building. The thought behind the design of the building was impressive, too. The offices, labs, break rooms, hallways, & staircases were all laid out with the intent of increasing interaction among all of the scientists in the building. Also impressive is that upon completion, the company will be applying for LEED Gold certification for the building. But I also have to mention the VIEW! To the North is the Torrey Pines Golf Course (just let the intro play for a bit) & to the West is the ocean. The building sits on a cliff that adrenaline junkies use as a jumping off point for hang gliding!

While we didn't do any hang gliding (maybe next time), we did hit the open water for a bit of sea kayaking to check out the La Jolla caves. A friend of mine from High School lives in the area & we were excited she could come along! Here are some pictures & videos from the day.

We've been kayaking before, but never on the open water. We were out past the point where the waves break & it was so much fun riding the swells as they came in. One surprised us though & Nikki got a close view of the fish she & Jacob were checking out!

You should all be proud of me for being as far from land as I was. Every once in a while I panicked imagining Jaws jumping up out of the water...but thankfully, we didn't see any great whites. We did see a leopard shark though! It was in really shallow water & looked to be about 5 feet long!! There were also a few seals out that afternoon. Yay!

Another thing to note: Jacob was rather obsessed with the birds that were perched on the cliffs. Apparently they're racists. There were very distinct groups of white & black birds...too bad they haven't yet learned that we're all created equal.

New Wave Quilt for Katie (Kenzie)

I am so happy to finally post pictures of this quilt. I started it over a year ago without any solid idea of who it would be for or why I was making it. But then a friend saw it in progress & told me how much she loved it. Perfect, I thought, someone to give it to! And several months later she told me she was pregnant!! Double perfect, an excuse to give a friend a present!

The quilt made it to its new home a week ago. Apparently Katie (pregnant Katie, not me Katie) had a really rough week at work & her daughter had a bad one as well...which of course made Katie's week even tougher. Then Friday...voila! A present in the mail. I was so glad to be able to put a little happy in her week. But I should have known better than to send her a quilt & only send her daughter a book. About half an hour after getting home, Kenzie had already stolen her mama's quilt.

The other day, I got this email:

After a long COLD day, Sis and I are lounging around. I as

ked her if she needed a blanket and she went right over, picked up MY quilt from you and handed me her bird blanket. She said, "today we trade, Momma!" Oh Stinker!

I'm so glad they love it and I'm so glad we have them as friends.

For those who care, the fabric is Tula Pink Hushabye. I actually got the line in both the pink & blue colorways. The pink became this quilt, & the blue, a quilt for Warren.

The pattern is New Wave from Oh, Fransson!. This quilt was my first experience actually using a pattern & I can't say enough how great this tutorial was. Easy to understand, easy to measure, easy to make, etc. I'm so happy with the outcome.

And this was my inspiration for the quilting.

Cup quilt

I finally brought a few personal things in to work so my space would be a bit more homey. But this is something new!

My cups from lunch were leaving little sweat puddles on my desk & seeing as I always have a ton of paperwork all over...well you already know the point of a coaster!

I used some of the BITTY scraps I had left from making this quilt. After squaring up all the pieces from the quilt I ended up with some one-inch wide strips that I didn't know what to do with. Until I realized that I needed a coaster at work. And what better way to personalize my space than to make one myself!

Funny thing...the cleaning crew put my glass cat paperweight on the coaster after they cleaned one night. Kind of looks like a cat napping on a quilt!

Difference between Kansas & California #241

In Kansas, I kept a blanket in my car because Mom worried that I would get stranded in a snow storm...who am I kidding, we don't have snow storms in Kansas...I should say stranded in an ICE storm.

In California, I keep a blanket in my car so Jacob & I can have impromptu lunch picnics.

This is the beach/picnic blanket I started MONTHS ago & just finished recently. Sadly I didn't have it done in time for Jacob's family's visit or Mom & Bear's visit...& this is the only time it's actually been to the beach. But, lucky for us, another difference between Kansas & California is that now we can go to the beach whenever we want so we have lots of opportunities to take this new quilt with us.