Freddy’s, Girl’s Trips, and Comments Worth Remembering.
Sometimes the best thing to do after a church service is to meet a friend at “the corner”, zoom to Freddy’s, where you will inevitably meet another youth group, sit in a booth with large baskets of fries and concretes of course, and discuss life and laugh so hard that the other youth group stares at you a little oddly. It is refreshing. Trust me, I’ve done it. :))
Does anyone else like to “parking lot rot”? This term was recently introduced to me and I have never more fully agreed. Get yourself some food or a drink and sit in a parking lot to read, scroll, or journal and have a little “parking lot rot”!
With a suddenness, a beautiful warm front encompassed this area. The sun shone in all its glory, basking the land with its 65 degree rays. The teachers sat in the sunlight in their short sleeves and watched the children happily playing tag. One pleasant Sunday afternoon, my cos and I got ourselves some Subway for lunch and had a picnic at Coronado Heights, which is a stone castle set high on a “Kansas mountain.” It was the most beautiful day and we left our sweaters and shoes behind in favor of bare feet and short sleeves. We watched bikers and people hiking. We played our recent favorite game. If you are near a place where cars frequently drive by, you say the name of a person you all know and the next vehicle that drives by is their vehicle. Safe to say we stayed very entertained. Ice cream in the Swede town of Lindsborg was a must. It seems that this lovely weather is just the thing some people needed. Sunshine and warm weather really can change one’s mood. People say it won’t last for long, but we are enjoying it while we can!
There is a tradition here in United Center that is a most fun one indeed. Every year in the “boring months” of January or February, the youth girls take a trip to the one and only Kansas City. Bright and early one Saturday morning, we loaded up in our favorite Q7 and headed the three hours to that city. It was just the most ideal day with the girls. There were hours spent in antique stores, city markets, coffee shops, huge shopping malls, and our favorite plaza. And it isn’t a Kansas City girl’s trip without a stop at the lovely Cheesecake Factory for a slice of that overpriced cheesecake that is worth all the overpriceyness! How I love the friends that I’ve made in this place that I live! Everyone enjoyed themselves I do believe and the laughs we had were worth their weight in gold.
Comments Worth Remembering:
- “Wearing black was the wrong decision!” A second grader about her friend’s decision to wear a black dress to a truck show where it was hot.
- “We have to run around the house two times to dry our sunscreen before we get in the pool and then I’m all tired out.” A second grader during a science class about the weather.
- “Sometimes, I’m confusing.” A third grader when she was struggling to write answers in science class.
-“Are we speaking in tongues?” “My processor is translating!” A conversation with the co-teachers after school.
-“I wonder where you’re going to get married?” asked a second grader. Miss Miller said she would get married in Kidron where she is from or that is where her wedding would be. “I bet we will drive out there.” The second grader said with confidence! I think it is rather funny because this is the second time that he has brought up my getting married. I’m not sure that I thought about my teacher getting married in second grade!
-“Miss Miller, can we play outside when we get our work done?” I pause for only a second before the second grader who asked the question pipes up, “Is that a bridge that we will cross when we get to it?” They have caught on to my saying “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” very very quickly!
-“Mozart is a good last name! I wouldn’t mind that.” A second grader during reading class about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
-“It is much easier to get into a hot car than a cold one!” My sunshine-loving co-teacher.
Found in my notes app from Thursday, February 12, 2026.
A walk down the beloved 21st.
The golden sunlight bathes the flat fields.
Tiny animals rustle in the dry grasses.
The rhythmic sound of the oil wells drifts across the quiet plains.
The wind has settled and the stillness feels peaceful.
The empty limbs of trees reach out across the light blue sky.
The yellow dotted line of the road is a ribbon that stretches on for miles.
Eighteen wheelers whoosh by, hauling hay bales and grain carts.
The delicious smell of diesel wafts behind them.
Gopher holes pockmark the ditches.
Dust billows behind a truck on a dirt road and the musical sound of a train whistle breaks the quietness.
It is beautiful, this soft spring Kansas.
The golden sunlight bathes the flat fields.
Tiny animals rustle in the dry grasses.
The rhythmic sound of the oil wells drifts across the quiet plains.
The wind has settled and the stillness feels peaceful.
The empty limbs of trees reach out across the light blue sky.
The yellow dotted line of the road is a ribbon that stretches on for miles.
Eighteen wheelers whoosh by, hauling hay bales and grain carts.
The delicious smell of diesel wafts behind them.
Gopher holes pockmark the ditches.
Dust billows behind a truck on a dirt road and the musical sound of a train whistle breaks the quietness.
It is beautiful, this soft spring Kansas.