Fields of Gold

As promised I am putting up several pictures of the wheat fields behind our house. It's a pretty amazing sight with the sun setting over the fields and the breeze rippling across the top of the wheat. The pictures definitely do not do it justice. And of course the one time I finally take my camera, the sunset isn't that great. But none the less it was breath taking.

Other updates on life: James is up at Broken Arrow Ranch, our conference's summer camp. He gets to work as the camp pastor this week and have a complete blast. Me, on the other hand, I just get to enjoy good old Southeast Kansas by myself once again. Thankfully the weather is good and no tornadoes this time. A few weeks ago when the tornadoes rolled through, James was out of town for work and that was not a fun experience for me and the cats...

Work is keeping me very busy and when I get home I barely have energy to do my evening work out. Depending on how tired and hungry I am, I usually end up working out about 8pm instead of right after I get home. It's been surprisingly cool this May/June. According to the locals it is usually in the 90s by this time of year. Yesterday was the first time it reached up into the 90s. Don't get me wrong, it's been high 70s and 80s all through May and June, but having to be out in the heat and trying to track down people to investigate all day long is exhausting. Doing interviews in a client's home with no air, with sweat dripping down my back...Yea, it's been fun. :) But I can't complain. I would take the heat over the cold any day. The cold will come soon enough!

Enough of my babbling. I need to go to sleep. Enjoy the photos!

Sad Cat Diaries

Ok, so I just had to bring some silliness to my week. It's been an extremely long, exhausting, and sad week at work so far (an it's only Wednesday!!) and when I saw this video pop up on Facebook I just had to share. James and I have watched the short video several times and can't help but laugh and point out which of our cats these scenarios describe. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did :)

 

Summer Date Ideas

So now that summer is in full swing and I haven't posted/linked anything to my "All About Love" tab, I think it's about time I posted something about Love. This is summer #2 where I don't get the joy of having a summer break and living the life of a student (though last summer I was still in grad school I had a job, internship, and school full time, so no break for me!). It's kind of depressing hearing from some of my friends who still get to embrace three months of time off and hear of the fun and "freedom" they have. But, none the less, I still plan to have an absolute blast this summer! So, for you with significant others (and those who have full time jobs and probably do not have a full summer off), here are some fun date ideas you can use, whether that's during a week you have off or on the weekend.

1. Go to the Zoo 

                                

We have a small (and free!) zoo in our town. It's a perfect place to walk around, feed the animals, and relax.

2. Watch the sun set 

Watching a sunset with your significant other can definitely be relaxing and intimate. We have a lake about 2 miles behind our house and James and I often go up there to watch it set over the water. But you don't have to have a lake to enjoy it!

3. Go for an evening stroll together 

This is another thing James and I often enjoy. Our house sits on about 2 acres of land and behind the house is just acres and acres of wheat fields. In the evenings we will go on a walk around our property and along the wheat fields. And of course our three crazy kitties will trail us and follow along like a pack of dogs. They are wackos! They rush through the wheat chasing each other and all you can see is the tops of the wheat moving. I will have to post a picture of the wheat fields sometime. It's beautiful with the sun setting over it. I just always forget to take my camera with me when we are out.

4. Get Froyo

I LOVE frozen yogurt. Such a yummy treat in the summer time. Our town is soon to get a frozen yogurt place called CherryBerry and I am psyched! Frozen yogurt places often offer multiple toppings and flavors to give you a nice variety of options. (If you're not into frozen yogurt, then hit up some ice cream stands)

5. Hit up an Amusement Park

              If you live in driving distance of an amusement park this would be a fun day trip.

6. Go to a fair or festival

This is another activity I just absolutely enjoy. Ever since I was a little kid my family would always go to festivals (Iris Festival, fall festivals, etc.) or go to our County Fair every August.

7. Enjoy a local landmark or museum

Here in southeast Kansas you have so many options and attractions..except...not. LOL! But we do have the Laura Ingall's homestead and famous Wayside post office and school house about 7-8 miles from our house. It's a fun place to visit and feel like a tourist. If you are in to the Laura Ingalls Wilder books/Little House on the Prairie movies/show then I would definitely suggest taking a road trip out to Independence, KS and check it out. But if you're not lucky enough to live in driving distance of the homestead, do some research and find some of your own local landmarks or museums.

8. Pack a Picnic


Whether it is the middle of the day or an evening, pack a quick picnic and enjoy nature. You could even enjoy it in your own back yard!

9. See a concert

Most towns offer concerts in the park during the summer time. This is a good activity to enjoy during a weekend.

10. Go swimming

This could include: a local pool, lake, waterpark, etc. Whatever the location cool off with some water fun!

11. Weekend getaway

Pick a random, fun location and take the weekend to enjoy the adventure!

12. Go to a ball game

There is nothing like routing for your local sports team and enjoying an evening outside. A good excuse to hang with friends too.

A Little Catch up on Life :)

So, I know it's been awhile since I wrote a post but life has been cray-cray! Here is a little snapshot of life with the Reynaerts.

Right around the time I was wanting to post (about 2.6 weeks ago!!) I kinda sliced my finger in two different places and it was a little difficult to type. Long story short, I was making center pieces with the large glass bowls and one shattered (yea, apparently I'm strong enough to break one with three fingers..) and it cut me pretty bad. Bad enough to leave a small chunk of my finger in what was left of the bowl, my finger bleeding for a few hours, me almost passing out (several different times), and for me to still be typing this very post without using my left pointer finger. It's been almost three weeks and I still have battle scars. But hey, I'm getting pretty good with this one hand+one finger typing thing...

Along with that drama I spent a week up in Topeka doing another training for work. It was lonely without James but I compensated by hitting up the local mall. :) Let me just say, it was nice having so much variety in department stores and restaurants. I haven't had options like that in quite awhile. But I guess that's the price you have to pay when living on the prairie...I think James is glad the closest decent mall is an hour or more away. Oh, and Red Robin?! I totally hit that up twice..in three days...than again the next week when I was up there for another training. Yea, a little addicted. But I probably won't be having that for a few months, so whatevs.

Following my week in the big old city of Topeka, one of our close friends Scott Kabel flew in for a few days. Our five church district planned a Sabbath in the park and Scott was the guest speaker for the weekend. We had a beautiful Agape Feast and vespers on Friday night at one of the churches, then Saturday we did church in the park with lunch, a photo scavenger hunt in our zoo, and then Scott did a small concert for everyone. It was a gorgeous day and we had people come from 11 different churches! It was awesome. Here are a few pictures from that weekend.

 

The middle of the following week was our second anniversary. Yep, the big two. I still can't believe we've been married for two years. Time sure does fly, especially when you're having adventures. We kept it pretty simple since it was the middle of the week and we had a lot going on the following weekend. I was in charge of making dinner (Enchiladas!) and James was to make the dessert (a graham cracker, strawberry, whipped cream dessert that was so tasty!). It turned out so good. Then we drove to Elk City Lake which is about 2 miles behind our house to close the evening with a nice sunset. It was pretty perfect. Check out some of the photos.

Like I said before, the following weekend was busy, busy, busy. One of my closest and dearest friends (Miss Abagail!!) got married and I was in the wedding so we flew to Orlando, FL for four days. It was a gorgeous weekend and we had a blast catching up and finishing the wedding details for the big day. I wish I had taken more photos but I was pretty busy and enjoying spending as much time with Abby and the rest of our friends and family as I could get. James's mom, step dad, his brother Robert, and our nephew came up to see us while we were there too! Such a wonderful weekend. Here are some photos from it :)

 My mother-in-law and my 6"4' nephew. He's only 16!

 
 Mama Barb and my little sis from another miss--Bri!
                                                              So glad to see them :)

The Beautiful bride :)

Random shot!

They're married!

Gorgeous table settings

Bird Snatcher

So...I had the best of intentions to write this post about 4 days ago but life happens. Ended up having to travel and work out of a different office for my supervisor Thursday and Friday of last week because they were down an employee and I was sick...thus exhaustion and no motivation to open my computer when I got home. I actually fell asleep on the couch at 7:30pm Thursday night because I was wiped out. Slept for 11.5 hours. Haven't done that since...well, probably a few years..

Anyways, a pretty funny thing happened Wednesday morning while I was getting ready to go to work. When I get up in the morning I usually go to the kitchen door that leads into the garage and let the kitties in. For some reason, that morning no little fuzzy faces were by the door waiting to come in so I jumped into the shower. While getting ready in the bathroom, blow drying my hair, etc. I kept hearing something in the hall leading from the bathroom into the kitchen. I didn't think much of the thumping noise and proceeded to finish getting ready for work. I walked into the kitchen to fix some hot tea and put it in my thermos and opened the door again to see if the kitties were there. Neo and Indy dove immediately in and went into the bathroom. Finally, I walked into the master bedroom to give James a kiss goodbye. As I walking through the bathroom into the hall I heard the noise again. Neo and Indy were sitting in front of the laundry room closet doing their own investigation. I called out to James and said he needed to get out of bed and figure out what was in the closest because I needed to go to work. He must have heard the urgency in my voice cause he jumped right up and may or may not of had the right "essentials" on. I stepped into the kitchen thinking I was at a safe distance as my husband grabbed a broom and slowly opened the door to the closest. As the kitties looked on I stared down at the ground expecting a mouse to run out at any second. But instead...well, the last thing I saw was something flying at my face!!

Yea, it ended up being a cute little birdie. After ducking and having a slight heart attack I opened the back door into the garage so it could fly out. It was perched on the window in the office next to the kitchen. I felt so bad as it kept flying into the window trying relentlessly to escape. But it gets better...

Finally James comes in with the broom to try and push it out of the room. Well the bird had a melt down and kept flying into the window and finally hit the window and dropped to the ground stunned. Leave it to little Indy to try and be the hero. He comes dashing in, snatches the bird up in his mouth and splits from the room.

Now I'm mad. I start chasing him around the house as he gallops through with the bird in his mouth, James following close behind (yea, he still has the broom and is missing some of the "essentials"! LOL). Of course Indy spies the open door into the garage and runs out and goes under my car. James is chasing him now  with the broom. He's trying to knock the cat so he will drop the bird. Indy flies (no pun intended :) out from under the car and tries to dash back into the house. I grab him at the last second and pin him down. Sometime in between dashing from the car and me grabbing him the bird, thankfully, had been able to escape. Needless to say, the bird was safe and flew out of the garage and Indy learned his lesson and hid, scared, under the couch for a few hours.

What can I say, life is exciting, even in the middle of no-where-land Kansas.

A Body's Favorite Beverage

Once you realize that an adult's body is roughly made up of 70% of water and an infant's body is approximately made up of 80% at birth, it's no surprise that a body's favorite beverage is water. I know some people struggle with drinking the suggested amount of AT LEAST eight, 8 oz. cups of water a day, but I bet you feel better when you do. :)

Think about this for a second:

• Muscle consists of 75% water
• Brain consists of 90% water
• Bone consists of 22% water
• Blood consists of 83% water

There is so many good things that result from drinking water:

• You rid your body of waste and toxins
• It helps your body's digestion
• It helps transport nutrients, vitamins, and minerals to multiple body parts
• Helps regulate body temperature
• Helps increase metabolism and can help with weight loss (and builds muscles!!)
• It increases cognitive functioning (makes you smarter and helps with concentration!)
• Helps your joints stay strong and healthy (less pain!)
• It gives you ENERGY
• And the list could go on!!

When you are dehydrated you may experience:

• Tiredness
• Migraines
• Constipation
• Muscle cramps
• Irregular blood pressure
• Kidney problems
• Dry skin

At 20% dehydration, there is a risk of death.

Even when you are taking in a good amount of liquid each day, if it is filled with caffeine, your body is over stimulated and the muscles and heart do not get a break. In the end you may feel drained, wide awake, or have anxiety, lack of concentration and cognitive functioning.

**A healthy person can drink about 3 gallons (or 48 cups) of water per day**

**Hunger: Most people mistake dehydration for hunger**

• Try grabbing a drink of water when your body is giving you signs of hunger
• Drink a cup of water about 30 minutes before you eat to help with digestion

Ok, ok. I know what you're thinking, "what is she doing, writing a research paper?!". But let's get real people! Take a moment to care about your body and at the same time feel good. You only live once. And yes, I know by using that saying, "you only live once", most people would say that they are going to enjoy it by consuming other liquids of their choosing because they want to have as much enjoyment as they can while only living once. Are you really going to let your enjoyment center around a 16 oz cup of a caffeinated beverage? Don't get me wrong, I love a cup of coffee or a soda every once-in-awhile and honestly,I do have those cravings pretty frequently. But I also stop and think for a second about how I am going to feel 8 hours from now. Do I really want to feel sluggish, or not be able to get a good night's sleep? Is it really worth the 30 minutes of enjoyment? I think I would rather skip the drink and go for some water and feel good all day versus enjoying the moment and regretting it later. And honestly, giving my body the water it needs, I may just end up living longer and be able to enjoy more moments. You only live once :)

(If you would like an awesome "recipe" for a lemon/zucchini water detox, visit my "Health and Fitness" tab. Scroll down till you find it)

From a spiritual viewpoint, water is essential for life. From the beginning to the end, the Bible talks about water over 700 times. The second verse of the Bible talks about how God created the water. Before there was anything--sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, humans--there was water. The Bible is full of passages linking God to creating, blessing, sustaining, and saving through water.

Water is a sign of cleansing, not only physically but spiritually. This is illustrated through the Baptism of Jesus and Him calling us to make disciples for Him, baptizing them with water. Speaking about the church, Jesus said, "In order to make her holy by cleansing her [the church] with the washing of water by the word", Ephesians 5:26.

In John 4:14 Jesus says, "But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life". Jesus is the fountain of living water!

The Bible has so much to say about water. Through the reading and research I have done, I've learned a lot and have enjoyed it. If you are wanting some side reading, this is a topic I would recommend.

Revelation 22:17 "And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes to take the water of life as a gift."

Spring is in the Air

Sun. Blossoming flowers. Birds singing. Butterflies. Gorgeous sunsets. Warmth. The list of what I love about spring could go on forever. There are so many wonderful things about the transition from winter to spring. Since starting a new job and being gone for training several days this week, I have really enjoyed relaxing this weekend. And the amazing Easter weekend helped to top what was already perfection. After church yesterday James and I went to our local (and did I mention free?!) zoo to have some fun and enjoy the weather. Lots of people were celebrating Easter with their families at the park and zoo. I snapped some pictures while we were there and then a few more when we got home. 

The kitties are definitely enjoying this weather, having fun chasing butterflies, catching bugs, and hanging out with our ground hog. Yes, ground hog. He is living in the old school house in our backyard. He comes out and chows down on the grass several times a day. The cats are always stalking him or just chilling and watching him. I think they are all becoming fast friends. I tried to snap some decent pictures of the kitties and ground hog but any time I started to get too close that thing would waddle out of sight. Oh well. He's a cute, fat and chubby guy!

Below are some spring pictures I've snapped over the weekend. 

It's definitely not the best picture, but I had to post it. Check out the baby Wallaby in the mamma's pouch!

Hanging out :)

Whatchu looking at?

It's warm and I am happy!

Reminded me of home--had to take a picture :)

Rain's lookout. He loves the roof of the old school house

I see you.

These two playing around

Indy catching himself a bug

Pretty little flowers :)