Small Group BBQ

A couple weeks ago we hosted our church small group for a Summer social to stay connected and enjoy the nice weather before the heat set in. I also took the opportunity to play with the camera and its many useful settings.

A storm was was slowly developing over SE Wichita which provided an opportunity for some cool pictures.

Before everyone left I convinced Luke and Travis to help me experiment with slow shutter speeds. Luke stood still while Travis pretended to punch him in the face, turned out alright for my first attempt.

We are headed to Tablerock lake next week for the 4th of July with Tessa's family, my nieces always present opportunities to take pictures so I should have a few to upload. Have a safe 4th of July.

Brandon Joins the Party

I've been inspired by my cousin's wife, Heather, to take my picture taking to another level. I feel weird posting pictures on facebook for everyone to see, so i've decided to take interest in The Brungardt Beat. Periodically I will chime in with some pictures from our lives taken with my new camera, Nikon D60. The first set of pictures is from my weekend at "The K" shortly after getting some expert advice from Heather. Enjoy!!!

My summer baseball coach Todd Tichenor was called up this year to ump several major league games, it was pretty cool to see him live in action. Todd made national news earlier this summer for getting a little trigger happy.

Lauren's uncle B sure did come through in the clutch. I've never gotten a baseball at a game, but after she asked for one I didn't have a choice other than to guarantee the impossible, Babe Ruth's called shot if you will. Headed into the top of the ninth I took Lauren up to the dugout calling out to the players to give my niece a baseball, Ramon Hernandez made a hero out of me that day. After I got the ball everyone around us started clapping and giving me a high five, but all the excitement embarrassed Lauren and she refused to touch the baseball. I was told she didn't touch the ball until the next day after I'd left, she called to say thanks.

Having a Bad Day?

Watch this, your day will somehow seem better!

Peace.

This weekend, I had the rare opportunity to spend most of the weekend by myself while Brandon went to KC for a couple of Royals games. Now, about a year ago, I wouldn't have considered this an "opportunity" as I HATED to stay home alone, but over the past year, I've come to realize that sometimes I just need some "me" time.

I spent the morning hanging out with Heather, Brandon's cousin and Ashley, Brandon's sister. We walked around the Old Town Farm and Art Market, browsed through the Old Town Square shops and even ventured over to College Hill. It was a fun day of girl talk, shopping and just enjoying the beautiful weather. Afterwards, we met the guys for a quick bbq lunch and then we were off on our seperate ways.

I spent the rest of the afternoon just relaxing and hanging out with Koby. I made a quick trip to my aunt's house to return a few things I had borrowed and then headed to church to work check-in. The rest of the evening was spent lounging on the couch, watching whatever I wanted on TV and playing on the computer (Brandon and I have an agreement that whoever is not on the computer gets to choose what is on TV, but this weekend, I got to do both!).

Typically, I don't sleep well when Brandon is gone, but this weekend, I slept like a rock. As I got up Sunday morning, I realized that I was truly at peace. I wasn't worrying about every sound and keeping myself awake planning my escape should the house alarm go off. God really has a way of answering prayer, even if it isn't right away (I used to pray all of the time that I would feel safe when Brandon was travelin so much).

I went to church and then ran some errands and came home just as a rain shower was clearing. As I sat outside, throwing the ball for Koby, I couldn't help but think of how blessed I am. Lately, I've been hearing of so many sad situations - loss of loved ones, marriages ending, people suffering from bad decisions, loss of jobs and so much more - and I couldn't help but be thankful for God's provision over our lives. I know sometimes it is easy for us to get caught up in the everyday, mundane things and complain about this and that and we completely miss the blessings that surround us.

By the end of the weekend, I was definitely ready to have Brandon home, but I was also very grateful for the "me" time, if anything, it reminded me that I need to pause more often.

Slacking...

...but I will have a new post today! We had a busy, but great weekend, so I'm a little behind.

Weekend Update

Its 7:30 on Sunday evening and its really the first time I've sat down all weekend!

We had our garage sale on Saturday morning, so we spent Friday evening setting up tables, pricing the last minute sale additions, making signs and posting them on the street corners and getting the cash box organized. Then, we woke up bright and early on Saturday; I went to fetch breakfast (a chocolate donut for Brandon and a Panera bagel for me) while Brandon set the patio set out in the front yard and drug all of the tables onto the driveway.

Once I got back, we hung out on the driveway and waited for our customers.

We had a steady stream of cusomters most of the day. There were a couple of times when we had a crowd, but for the most part, it was pretty calm.

Koby hung out with us all day. We kept ourselves entertained by throwing a plastic bottle in the air and watching him try to catch it with his paws (again, the photos are posted in reverse order - grr!).

All in all, we did pretty good with the garage sale, but we still had a truckload of stuff to take to Goodwill!

Saturday evening, we headed to Newton to have dinner with Brandon's sister, her husband and his parents. It was fun to see their house all finished and to see her in-laws again. We also got a sneak peek of her new classroom and the dogs had fun playing! Brandon's parents arrived later in the evening, just in time for dessert and then we all headed back to Wichita.

Then, this morning, Brandon's parents and us got up for church, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to the golf course for a couple of hours.

The boys played nine holes and Pam and I cheered them on. The weather was a little more berable today, so we enjoyed being outside and just relaxing. The guys played pretty well, so I think the day was a success!

And, we've spent the rest of the day sorting and doing laundry, picking and laying out slate for our next house project and making dinner. Now, it is about time for me to head to bed since I have to be up and at the golf course by 6:30 am tomorrow for the Annual Chamber Golf Open. Yawn....It's going to be an early, early morning!

Long Time, No Blog

**Edit - for some reason, Blogger keeps posting my pictures backwards - does anyone know how to fix that??**

I noticed that the last time I blogged was May 11th - Yikes! I can't even believe it is almost June; where has May gone?? Despite my lack of blogging, life has certainly been busy! Here is a brief re-cap:

On May 9th, Brandon ran the Riverfest River Run 10k! He was one of thousands who ran and he beat his goal by 8 minutes! Next year, he would like to shave off a couple more minutes.

Also on May 9th, I helped my uncle scheme to throw a surprise birthday party for my anunt Sharon. Most of you know Sharon and know how much she and her family have done for Brandon and I since we've lived here (and even before), so it was only fitting that we did it up right! My mom and I got her out of the house and treated her to a new haircut, lunch and a new outfit. She didn't really want to put on the new outfit, but my "persuasive" mom talked her into it. After we went shopping, we headed back to her house for the party. I think she was surprised!

The following weekend, we spent the day in Manhattan. We took my Grandpa Bohn to lunch and spent a couple of hours with him, then we went to Brandon's cousin's college graduation party. It was fun to see family we hadn't seen in a while and we always enjoy a trip to the Little Apple! Unfortunately, we have no pictures from the weekend :( Brandon also helped his dad lay tile at his sister's new house in Newton. Brandon really enjoys putting his new talent to use, so he was happy to help out, I think.

And finally, this past weekend, we spent a good portion of the weekend doing house work (read about it here). We decided since we had some time, we would go ahead and paint the living room/kitchen/dining room. We also cleaned out the garage and planted flowers. However, amidst all the work, we had a little fun, too.

Brandon's parents finished their work in Newton a day or so early, so they came to town to spend some time with us. We took them to Imbiss Grille, a German restaurant in Old Town. Brandon wasn't so sure he was going to like it, but I think everyone was very pleased! After dinner, we walked around Old Town a little bit, got some gelato and headed to the Keeper of the Plains on the river.

We also had Ashley, Brandon's sister, over for a Memorial Day lunch. We grilled hamburgers and had all the fixings - we actually had food for probably eight people and there were only three of us eating (her husband was working). We all did a little shopping afterwards and everyone ended up with a little something :) I got new placemats. After Ashley left, we finished our yard work and then my parents stopped by on their way home from the lake, so we had dinner with them too (leftovers!). We were sad to miss out on a friend's bbq, but by the time my parents left it was close to 8:00 and we hadn't showered. I don't think our friends would have appreciated us gracing them with our presence!

This weekend, we're planning to have our postponed garage sale. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate, as I've had the sale items stashed in the basement since the first weekend in May. I'm pretty much ready to get rid of the piles.

So, there you have it! The month of May in a nutshell. I have a feeling this is just the beginning of a very busy summer!

Hmmm

Okay, well, I haven't been so committed to capturing my five graces everyday. So, instead of beating myself up over it, I've just decided that I'm going to write them as they come to me and not worry about doing it every day. I think the purpose of this little (failed) exercise was to be mindful of the good things in your life and not to dwell on the bad things. So, that is what I'm going to do - hopefully you won't miss them too much...

However, today, we experienced a HUGE grace! We are so thankful that Brandon and I are both employed in this crazy world we live in today. As we keep hearing of new lay-offs and seeing those layoffs affect people we are close to, we are so thankful that the Lord has continued to provide for us. Our hearts go out to all the people who have not been so fortunate.

I will have a weekend wrap up, with pictures, sometime soon. It was a busy one - Riverfest Parade, Riverfest 10k (Brandon is the man!), a mini makeover, a surprise birthday party, a trip to Newton and a trip to Pratt! Whew!

Grace Day 9

I still don't have the picture I need for Monday's post, but I will post it, I promise. In the mean time, yesterday was a great day!

Grace Day 9
1. Productivity at work - I got a lot done and done well!
2. We're trying to cut back on our spending in a few areas and one of those areas is eating out. So, I've been bringing my lunch to work everyday lately and yesterday, as I sat in the break room with the rest of the "lunch ladies" I realized that I've gotten to know these women more than I would have otherwise. But, I still don't like to eat leftovers everyday ;)
3. An honest conversation to express concern - its nice to be able to just talk things out sometimes
4. A good small group discussion
5. Our friend's baby boy who was so fun to play with last night

Grace Days 7 and 8

I need some serious discipline! I'm behind again, but it is okay with me - it gives me time to really think about what stood out in my days.

Grace Day 7 (Sunday)
1. Strawberry smoothie before church
2. Listening to some of my favorite praise songs being led by Phil Stacey - we were working in the elementary department at church, so we could only hear the praise music
3. This salad - another food item, but it was amazing!
4. Brandon's excitement for the Royals
5. Taking a bath and crawling into clean sheets

I can't write about yesterday because there is a photo that I HAVE to share, just so you can see why it made it on the list. So, I will post that tonight :)

Grace Day 6

Today was a good day!

Grace Day 6
1. A slow morning to do nothing
2. Some shopping and lunch with a friend
3. A steal of a deal during said shopping trip
4. The rain that didn't come (even though I cancelled our garage sale) 5. Visiting and laughing with friends who we haven't seen in a while

Grace Day 5

I'm on top of this today!! Today was a great day, so I have had lots of positive things happen today :)

Grace Day 5
1. Staying dry during the torrential down-pour today.
2. Getting through our presentation this morning!
3. A brief moment of sunshine this evening.
4. Painting my toe nails.
5. My mandarin cranberry Yankee candle - it smells sooo good!

I"ve been slacking in my "normal" posts lately, but it is mostly because I haven't been doing anything post-worthy. Life has been pretty boring these days, but work should be settling down and we have a lot planned in the next couple of months, so I will have lots to talk about!

In the mean time, I have been updating over at domestichaven.blogspot.com. There's new recipes and projects that we've been working on.

Grace Days 3 and 4

Okay, I slacked. I was thinking about these, but I had to prepare for a presentation this morning and it consumed me the past few days. So, here I am today, on Day 5 writing my five items for Days 3 and 4.

Grace Day 3
1. Fruit smoothie for breakfast - yum yum!
2. A productive day
3. Crate and Barrel catalog in the mailbox
4. A break in the rain
5. My soft pillow to lay my aching head on

Grace Day 4
1. The adoption of an adorable Boston Terrier who might have been killed otherwise (Long story - we didn't adopt but I assisted in finding someone who could!)
2. A tasty orange - you should really buy some right now!
3. An answer to prayer
4. Spontaneous staff pizza party
5. The thought "Tomorrow is Friday!" (this was yesterday, by the way)

Grace Day 2

Yesterday wasn't such a great day, but I did find a few positive moments :)

1. A bag of chocolate appearing in my candy dish at work
2. My frozen Healthy Choice lunch was surprisingly tasty
3. The drive to and from work with Brandon
4. Having a few minutes of "me" time to unwind before dinner
5. Koby and his funny little antics

Grace Day

I noticed this another blog and thought it was a great idea, so I'm going to copy and do it too. The challenge is to write 5 things that have graced your life that day and to continue doing so for 365 days. Most likely, I will write my five at the end of the day, but today, I will post mine from yesterday!

Grace Day 1:
1. Uninterrupted time to work on our website
2. Leaving work an hour early
3. Brandon washing up a few dishes that were in the sink without being asked
4. Skipping PiYo and cooking dinner at home, and enjoying it
5. Going to bed knowing I could sleep in an extra hour (due to the work time I've been putting in at home

Now, I challenge all of you to follow me and remind yourself of at least five postive things throughout your day!

Self-Portraits

Tonight was the Chamber's annual Honors Night, so Brandon and I got spiffied up for the occasion.

There is really no explanation for this one, other than we were taking a self-portrait and what is a self-portrait without silly faces??

Tonight was obviously a work event for me, so I was busy taking photos and then I realized that Brandon had disappeared. Once I found him, he informed me he was ditching me for better seats at the table with some of his coworkers, but I obliged - I'm sure he had more fun with them anyway.

Second Chances

Everybody needs second chances, right? Well, I'm here to tell you about the second chance that I have given a well-known retail store.

Some of you may or may not know about my strong dislike of Walmart. It really began when I was in college at OBU. You see, that Walmart was disgusting and small and I got easily annoyed with the people inside of the store. Then, my luck followed me to K-State and it was the same story, just a different town. Thankfully, Manhattan had a Target and I didn't have to frequent the ol' Walmart too often. Once I moved to Wichita, I pretty much avoided Walmart for the same reasons - cramped, crazy people, etc. The only reasons I ever went to the store were for paint or an occasional visit to the lawn and garden department, which has an entirely seperate entrance.

However, over the past few months or weeks, I've been trying to give Walmart another chance. The store near my house did some renovations and opened it up a little bit and they've started carrying a few more housewares products that I like. We also purchased a television for our kitchen online and were pleasantly surprised with the ease of ordering and the prompt delivery. But, my real turn around occurred within the past week.

I was browsing around a couple of blogs and came across a blog of a girl (a girl I don't know) who I thought dressed pretty cute. She always had fun dresses or tops in her pictures, and one day she was discussing bargain shopping. As I got to the bottom of the blog, my mouth dropped - she shops at Walmart!!! So, being a curious person, I headed over to walmart.com and found a few dresses that I just had to have and to make it even better, they were like $11! So, last week, I made my way to the Site to Store section of our local Walmart to pick up my purchases and I am here to tell you, I'm a new fan! Behold, my newest Walmart purchases:

The weather hasn't been nice enough for me to wear either of these items yet, but I'm ready!

I've also purchased a couple of cute cardigans in recent days, that are affordable and cute. Unfortunately, they are sold out so I don't have a picture. But, here are a couple of things I've been eyeing and just might have to snag while they are on sale!

Seriously, none of these things are more than $10 online!

So, my lesson for today - give second chances! You may be pleasantly surprised!

Oh yeah, Megan - this post is dedicated to you :)

Sunny Weather!

The temperature today is supposed to reach somewhere around 70 degrees! Yippee!! I've been waiting to break out my Spring and Summer attire and the weather today is sure teasing me. I'm pretty sure it is supposed to be rainy again by the end of the week, though - boo! So, in an effort to savor the sunshine today, I wore my red shoes and cropped pants to work :)

You will have to excuse my untanned legs, another sign of no sunshine these days.

Easter

Today, we woke up early to attend our church's early Easter service. I remember growing up, we would wake up even earlier to attend a sunrise Easter service. I always loved those because everything was so quiet and peaceful and it was really a time to reflect on the miracle of Christ's resurrection. And, I think today's early service had a similar feeling.

It was a small (or smaller than usual) congregation this morning, so the service felt more intimate. As we walked in the door, the ushers handed each of us a stone. So, we took our stones and made our way to our seats. The service started with the choir and then we all sang a few songs. One of the songs especially moved me today. Here are the lyrics:

Everyone needs compassion, Love that's never failing; Let mercy fall on me.

Everyone needs forgiveness, The kindness of a Saviour; The Hope of nations.

Saviour, He can move the mountains, My God is Mighty to save, He is Mighty to save.

Forever, Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave.

So take me as You find me, All my fears and failures, Fill my life again.

I give my life to follow Everything I believe in, Now I surrender.

My Saviour, He can move the mountains, My God is Mighty to save, He is Mighty to save. Forever, Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave.

Shine your light and let the whole world see, We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus

My Saviour, He can move the mountains, My God is Mighty to save, He is Mighty to save. Forever, Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave.

My Saviour, you can move the mountains, You are mighty to save, You are mighty to save. Forever, Author of Salvation, You rose and conquered the grave, Yes you conquered the grave

I just love the lyrics and today, we were truly celebrating that Jesus conquered the grave! We also sang an old hymn that reminded me of my grandma. Maybe she was on my mind since my mom and I put flowers on their grave on Friday or maybe it was because we used to spend every Easter with them, but for some reason, I was brought to tears as we sang the words to "Crown Him with Many Crowns".

Then, we got to the sermon. Our preacher is a great preacher and as usual, his sermon rocked, literally ;) As I mentioned, we were handed stones when we walked in the doors and to the disbelief of some, we did not use the stones to flog the pastor - ha ha! He made that joke, so I don't feel bad using it. The sermon actually focused on the stone and the how it was rolled away for Jesus after he rose from the dead. While He could have come out of the grave on his own, the stone was removed for us so that we would believe He was truly alive. Our pastor then related that stone to stones in our own lives. He said people often wonder if God can still move the stones out of our lives today - stones such as fear, unforgiveness, guilt, addictions, work, etc. He asked us to write something on our stone that we need God to work on or roll out of our lives. Then, as we went forward to take communion, we were to wash our stones in the water and take the stones home as a reminder that God can move in our lives and He can roll away those things that keep us from living freely in Him. It was a great visual and an overall great message for today. I hope that we all have enough faith to let God work.

After church, we came home and got to work on an Easter lunch. We had my parents and Brandon's sister and her husband at our house. You can check out our Easter menu on my new blog. We had a great time relaxing and visiting. We even got in a few rounds of Rummikub. I've decided we need to purchase that game because I STINK and need some practice!

And now, we're relaxing and trying to wrap our brains around the fact that we have to go to work tomorrow. I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend and I hope you take the time to celebrate new life!

Unproductive

It is 2:41 pm on a Thursday prior to a three-day weekend and I am so unmotivated. My boss and I even took a long lunch and it still seems like 5:00 will never arrive. I suppose I could be inputting website content, but by the time I get started it will just be time to go, so really it's not worth the trouble.

Instead, I'm going to think about and search for ideas for our living room. Tomorrow, my mom and I are going shopping for a living room chair or more specifically, fabric for a living room chair, and accessories. Yay!

I'm also thinking about the grocery store run I have to make in order to buy all of the ingredients for our Easter Dinner. And, a local chocolate store has the most adorable chocolate bunnies that I think I just may have to buy for our Easter guests!

Alright, my boss just told me we have to do some work...

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

As many of you know, Brandon is a HUGE baseball fan and today marked the beginning of the MLB season. So, to celebrate, I planned a themed day for him (or as themed as it could be with me being sick).

First, I had these cookies sent to him at work. I think they were a big hit! Excuse the poor quality, Brandon took these with his phone.

Then, when he got home from work, I had a ball park spread waiting, complete with Cracker Jacks, peanuts and hot dogs!

It was fun to plan this and surprise him and I think he was truly surprised! Happy Opening Day!