I'm so grateful to have been able to get my first vaccine shot today. It was very well organized and the process from parking back to my car took about 30 minutes - and that's only because you have to sit for 15 minutes after getting the shot to make sure you don't have an allergic reaction.
For the fourth time in our marriage, we had a bat in our house (three different houses).
Nathan was out tonight and I was spending some time sewing. I was ironing when I felt something near my hair but didn't see anything. I continued to sew for an hour but had a feeling something was in the room.
When Nathan arrived home I insisted her check the room and when he opened the door, a bat was flying around the room. One broken broomstick later and the bat was dead.
Did you know it's "illegal" to kill bats between April and October? Thankfully we made it just under the wire.
Allison didn't have school today so a group of second grade moms brought their kis to the Emerald City Gym in Overland Park to run off some energy. Allison really wanted to practice on the climbing all but got very nervous about half way up.
Luckily there was tons to play with - slides, a foam pit, bars, beams, and trampolines.
Each time Allison brings home art, I take a picture of it, then throw it away. The first year I got so bogged down in the hundreds of papers that come home so now I take pictures and then it's easy to put them into the yearly book I make for her.
Me: So why were you crying in the picture?
Allison: I told Mr. Appling that you had kicked me so hard that it made me cry. But he said I wasn't allowed to write that, so instead I wrote that my cat died, even though I don't even have a cat.
On our way home from Arkansas, we stopped in Camdenton, Missouri at the Haha Tonka State Park.
I'd heard of these "castle ruins" before and wanted to see for myself. Here is a blurb from the official website:
Wealthy Kansas City businessman Robert Snyder had a dream to construct a European-styled castle right in his beloved Missouri. To this end Snyder purchased 5,000 acres of land, including his very own lake, and began work on the evocative mansion in 1905. The businessman even imported stone masons from Europe to achieve the correct style, but unfortunately Snyder would not live to see his dream house to completion. Construction on the house had begun in earnest, but in 1906, Snyder was killed in one of Missouri’s first car accidents. However Snyder’s dream castle would not die with him.
After his death, Snyder’s sons continued work on the building and were able to complete the castle by 1920. After completing construction, one of Snyder’s sons took up residence in the huge castle until the family’s money ran out due to land rights lawsuits surrounding the castle’s property. After Snyder the younger’s depression and poverty drove him from the house the building was opened as a hotel and lodge until 1942 when the entire building was utterly destroyed by a fire.
The state purchased the property in the 1970’s and has worked to
preserve the crumbled walls of Snyder’s dream home as a feature in their
state park. Visitors can now explore the bones of the “castle” that
brought down the Snyder kingdom.
Allison loves to sit in the balcony at church. It's often unoccupied (except for the sound team) and she loves being up high and watching her friends below. On the weeks that Nathan works, I let Allison chose where we sit.
Allison had a rough sleep last night so she was really tired. The heat from the window behind us along with the hum of the sound equipment soon had her curling into me and eventually fast asleep.
Nathan had to take a work call so he dropped Allison and I off at a trailhead and he left to find cellphone reception. When he came back, we walked the river and then enjoyed a very chilly dip into the water.
Whenever we do a road trip, I like to look up off the beaten path stops. There's many websites for "odd America" or "see to believe" things and before we left, I found a site for Quigley's Castle. It boasts on being the most "unique residence in America."
The house and land surrounding it reminded me a lot of the Glore Psychiatric Museum art room. The first owner of the home obviously had a lot of mental health issues and she seemed to harness her illness by creating art. Elise Quigley was married and one day her husband came home and saw that she had moved their belongings into the chicken cook and had begun tearing up the floor boards so that she could "bring the outside in". Apparently her husband, as told by the museum curator and grand-daughter of Elise, was enraged as there were live wires hanging throughout the house.
Elise enjoyed using cement and river rock to decorate everything from her walls to the mailbox. Plants in the home are planted in the dirt foundation of the house and when they grew too tall for the first floor, parts of the second floor were removed.
