Days of Lilies

Probably not many of you know this, but the daylily is my favorite flower. I love the big, showy blossoms and all of the long, skinny leaves that fan out around them. I love that they come in tons of different sizes and colors which bloom for various weeks throughout the summer. I love that they're perennial, since perennials are the only thing that I plant in my garden! Most of all, I love that they're so hardy that they'll continue to bloom even when I fail to water them, which I usually do. The only thing I don't like about daylilies is that each blossom only stays open for one day!

So a few weeks ago I noticed that a few of my favorite daylilies were getting down to their last blossoms of the year, so I pulled out the camera to capture their last fleeting moments of beauty. Actually, I also needed to record the layout of the garden in full bloom in preparation for a major garden overhaul project next spring. Chad is clamoring to get the flowers moved away from the new(er) siding so that bugs aren't as likely to be burrowing into our home (when we took off the old siding a couple of years ago it was completely infested with carpenter ants, so I guess he's not just being paranoid). Thanks to my pictures, I'll know exactly where too look for each flower next spring even if it has yet to pop through the ground. Although my garden certainly leaves much to be desired, I still wanted to share my flower pictures with everyone! Happy daylily days! :)

James & Beth Goodbye, Numero Dos

Last night we attended the final send off for our friends James and Beth before they move away from Lawrence tomorrow. Guatemala City, here they come! It was a great going away fiesta complete with lots of food, friends and piñata bashing! It was such a big deal, our friends Matt and Erika came all the way from Hong Kong to attend (okay, maybe they moved from Hong Kong back to the states last weekend and were already traveling through the area visiting friends and family, but it was still cool having them there).


As you probably guessed, there are about 40 more pictures where these came from! Piñatas make for exciting photography, so enjoy!

We'll miss Beth and James so much, but we're hopeful that after a couple of years in Central America they will come back and settle down in Lawrence again. Until then, thank goodness for easy communication through the Internets! :)

Walking and Talking

I promise I won't bore you with the details of every training walk in preparation for my 3-Day adventure this fall (for that kind of detail you'll have to check out my 3-Day Journal), but I have to at least share the joy of my first "long" weekend walk this morning. My dear friends Amber, Beth and Kristin got up before the crack of dawn today to meet me at 6 a.m. for a 5 mile walk! It was so wonderful to have company, and I appreciate them so much! Thanks friends!!


The other good news is that while my tailbone is still sore from the injection on Thursday, my back pain was fairly minimal during our trek. I felt good enough to walk the dogs when I got home, so that's a good sign! Hopefully there's more pain relief in my future! :)

Ouch!

Yesterday I had my second injection of steroids (insert "juicing" joke here, as my husband always does) for my ongoing back problems. The first injection two weeks ago went very smoothly, and although it was uncomfortable, it wasn't ridiculously painful. Yesterday, however, was a slightly different story. This time the doctor decided--based on the fact that my stabbing pain while standing/walking had gotten so much better but my rear/leg pain while sitting really hadn't--to do a caudal steroid injection instead of an epidural steroid injection. It's much like the injection into the epidural space but instead goes into an opening right near the tailbone called the sacral hiatus. This type of injection is supposed to be better for radiculopathy (nerve pain that that radiates down the rear into the legs), which is often referred to as sciatica. It darn well better work, because it did NOT feel good at all!! Nurse Courtney (who, ironically enough, is married to a guy I went to high school with, whose sister was in my class--what a small world it is) told me there would be a lot more "pressure" with this injection, which I guess is code for it's going to hurt like crap!

If you're interested, I found kind of a cool website that shows you step by step how an epidural or a caudal steroid injection is done, along with a bunch of other spinal procedures. The description of how it's done is slightly different than how my doctor does them, because Dr. N. doesn't use the fluoroscope or contrast solution, but you get the general idea.

Because of the injection site pain (which went away in 2-3 days last time), today was pretty miserable since I had to sit all day long. My tailbone hurts!!! Right now I'm resting comfortably in bed on a heating pad, so I'm a much happier camper than I was earlier while at work. Like the last injection, I'll have to wait a couple of days before the steroid starts doing its job, which isn't a big deal since I won't have to be sitting much during the weekend. Hooray for weekends! Hopefully by Monday the steroid will start taking effect and I'll start sitting more comfortably. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

James & Beth Goodbye, Numero Uno

Last night we attended the last official meeting of our Journey Group (what our church calls our small groups) before the departure of our dear friends James and Beth. We are so very sad they are leaving us!!! Beth has taken a job at a school in Guatemala City so that they can fulfill their dream of living in a foreign country while they're still young and unencumbered by mortgages and/or children. We're bummed because our Journey Group won't ever be quite the same without them, but we're incredibly thankful that they were able to be a part of it for the last couple of years!

We can't really overstate how much fun and laughter these friends have brought to our group and to our lives. There aren't many couples we know who are collectively more hilarious! James is a very witty and slightly goofy character who is always entertaining with his off-the-wall antics. He's a talented artist who will be doing some freelance graphic design work while they're in Central America, and he also happens to be a big fan of felines and The Simpsons (random bits of knowledge, I know). The most amazing thing about Beth is that she has had more interesting hobbies and jobs in her teenage years and young adult life than most people have had in an entire lifetime! She's been a champion high school debater, an oldies radio station disc jockey (who went by the name of Bobbi Socks, no less), a marathon runner, a stand-up comic, an aspiring motivational speaker, and most recently, an elementary school psychologist. Beth keeps us entertained with great stories (often about her childhood) and much like myself, she certainly has the gift of gab! Her stories and off the cuff comments have brought us to tears on multiple occasions, last night being no exception (although for the life of me I can't remember now what she said to make Chad was laugh so hard he was crying)!

So last night our group got together to enjoy the company of our complete clan one last time before a much bigger James and Beth "Farewell Fiesta" on Saturday evening. We enjoyed loads of food and a variety of drinks at Jake and Amber's always welcoming residence, with a few games of Bocce Ball and some old yearbooks for some stellar entertainment (Jake and Amber just had their 10th HS reunion last weekend, which is what prompted us to break out the yearbooks, in case you were wondering). We had so much fun just hanging out and reminiscing about how each couple was recruited to become part of this particular Journey Group at some point in the last 2-3 years. We are all so thankful to have found each other. Never has any bible study/fellowship group had so much fun!

Since last night was a very special occasion, I of course brought my camera along to capture some going away pictures. Unfortunately, my camera has been freaking out as of late and not consistently letting me take pictures with a flash (as evidenced by the not-so-good cat pictures from the other day). Last night the flash was completely dysfunctional and I got nothing but a bunch of blurry pictures of our friends. :( Thankfully, Beth is also a woman after my own heart when it comes to picture taking, so she definitely picked up the slack and took some great pictures of the evening! Hooray Beth!

Thanks for being so much fun, our wonderful southbound friends! We'll miss you!