And I saw a bag of potting soil

The weather has been SO nice here this week! It's a little warm for spring, but warm and calm is better than the miserable windy days we've been having the last couple of weeks. The only thing that would make it better is a little rain, but since beggers can't be choosy, I'll take the sun. As I work a desk job...well most days it's a desk job, some days I get to run around town and talk to businesses or meet with people and fun stuff like that. And I haven't been able to do that for the past 3.5 months because of the weather, so I've been trying anything I can to get outside this week for work. This afternoon I made arrangements to have the internet at our business and education center looked at by our internet guy because it was acting up, and I realized it was the perfect excuse to walk in glorious sun! As I was walking down the street, I was approaching our hardware store and started thinking about their Facebook post about all the new spring items like bulbs and flower seeds, pots, planters, wind chimes, and potting soil and I got really excited to pick stuff out and get started planting my garden! Like so excited as I went past their new addition and I saw a bag of potting soil, and the pavers for gardens, I thought man I need to buy some of that! Spring fever bit me square on the cheeks and I headed for the door. As I got ready to step up and enter the hardware store, I awoke from my garden and spring induced trance and realized what I was doing. It was not the time to shop for gardening supplies at the hardware store, it was time to be working and meeting the internet guy at the business and education center! I awkwardly returned to my original route and away from the hardware store door. Five steps later and I was laughing at myself. I'm sure the people in my town think I'm strange because I walk a lot, I dress up a lot, I trip a lot and I laugh to myself a lot!! And then I do crazy things like get so entranced by shopping locally and daydreaming I almost walk into stores at the wrong times or tell the store owners how excited I am about their products. I guess that makes me good at my job, but boy do I have some odd ball moments.


Anyway...I hope you can imagine this spring fever trance and laugh a little!

Happy Valentine's Day 2012!

With all the gushing I do around here about my wonderful boyfriend and how in love I am with him, you're probably thinking I love Valentine's Day. Truth is I think you should show and tell people how much you love them every single day. Valentine's Day is just so commercialized that I find it slightly irritating. I didn't buy a big gift or a card for Levi for Valentine's Day. I made him some coupons for foot massages, boys' nights in or out, house cleaning and a date night! I also did a couple of cheesy things like buy his favorite gum (Winterfresh) and mints (Ice Breakers Frost) and attach notes that said "I chews you to be mine forever and always." and "We are mint to be." Ridiculously cheesy but he loved it. I also asked him to be my valentine this morning and he said yes! :) Yes I did something to celebrate but these are things I do weekly or monthly anyway because I'm that weirdly gushy and loving person. I don't even know if he'll be getting me a present, and if he doesn't it might be kind of disappointing, but in the end I really don't care. I know that he loves me every single day and we don't need to do anything special today. Flowers die, chocolate makes you fat. A handwritten note would be nice but I know that that's not his thing. So if you're single and hate this day, don't feel bad. I felt the same way last year and that I just hated this day because I was alone. But in reality I don't care for it because I truly believe that if Valentine's Day is the only day people in a relationship do something special, you have a problem.

So share the love with your neighbors, your friends and your family instead. Don't worry about the significant other or lack there of on this silly holiday. Love should be given 365 days a year, so love on!

Why Not Us? Why Not Now?

Our high school boys' basketball team recently got new t-shirts that read: Why Not Us? Why Not Now? Today after having lunch with the high schoolers that are part of my board and some high schoolers that just wanted free pizza - I made them answer questions first - I thought the same thing: why not us? Why does everyone in this community have the mind set that, our two neighboring communities, both 25ish miles away, have movie theaters so we don't need one.

Let's Talk About Sports

I've only been out of high school for 4.5 years but I don't ever remember my days or our entire community being controlled by high school athletics. Never do I schedule any meeting without consulting the school calendar first. I do believe that it is important, especially in a rural community for the community to stand behind and support our youth, but the fact that the only obvious way the community supports our youth is through sports is disappointing.

Happy Birthday Babe!

Happy birthday to the most amazing man I've ever known! Today is Levi's 26th birthday...yeah he's old balls, but I'll keep him. I'm so so thankful he is in my life and part of this world. He gives me strength and we're a perfect team. I'm excited to celebrate many more birthdays with him. Our plans for today are to watch his niece play basketball and then go eat at Charlie's, the local Mexican restaurant! The real celebration with cake and all will be this weekend when his sister comes to town! It will be the first time in quite a few years that she's been able to help him celebrate!

So here's to Levi, the love of my life...happy birthday babe! I love you forever and always!

Finally Friday

My ever so handsome boyfriend has been out of town since Monday for work and I have missed him dearly. Props to long distance folk because this is hard and it was just for a week. Luckily I have had a super busy week at work and with meetings for the ninety million other organizations I'm involved in so keep my mind off of missing him. Okay, ninety million is a far stretch but for such a small town, I think I'm involved with four clubs plus I sing at church plus everyone invites me to their meetings to see if I will write grants for them. I'm such a softie so I of course want to help but then realize where the heck will I find the time and energy to do all this. Sometimes I realize there is a fine line between my job and my fun/social life. For instance, one the of the clubs I absolutely wanted to be a part of was the Arts Alliance. I love art of all sorts and knew that they did a community play, which I REALLY wanted to be part of. Notice I say wanted, because now that they are doing the play (fun) the weekend of a regional tourism event that I'm our local coordinator for (work). So I treated the last Arts Alliance meeting as working late because I had to get them to get specific plans for the event. Which worked against me and now I don't get to act.

Anyway, I'm so excited for this day to be over because Levi will be back home! We're going to be going out of town Saturday night for his work branch's holiday party! Sunday is also our 6 month anniversary and I'm really excited for the little gift I've been working on. And then I have a three day weekend yay (though once again I'll be teetering on the fine line between work and social organization with a meeting and also writing newspaper articles for three different projects)!  But I can do that in my pajamas if I so choose.

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? Anything you've been impatiently waiting for today to get here for?

Rural Life: Power-ups...Rural By Choice

Returning to a rural community doesn't mean you can't "hack it" in the real world...it means you desire the values we consider important in rural America. Yes, everyone knows your name and what you're up to at almost every moment, but if you're in a bind and need a helping hand, you don't have to look very far. Your children can safely wander the streets and you know that just a phone call can get them running home. Your child can make the basketball team without a try-out, just a bit more hardwork and they'll be starting varsity no doubt. Entitlement has not yet seeped into every pore of our way of life and hardwork is held in high regard. Yes, the real estate here may be tight and not easy to access but you have the chance to build your dreams from scratch. You can live a life you'll love. You can start a business and be successful because we know there are many unfilled niches in rural communities. It may not be the easiest lifestyle but I believe it's worth it. It's worth it to know you can make more of an impact on an entire community and its citizens in 6 months than you could on your cubicle mate in 6 months.


I'm rural by choice because I have a dream to raise a family where the land is theirs to touch, to cultivate. The streets are safe to play in and generally everyone is friendly and understanding. I'm rural by choice because I've seen the world and would much rather be coming home to rural America than coming home to the hustle and bustle of a city. Yes, I miss sushi and Starbucks and movie theaters but I have the chance to start my fish farm and my coffee shop and create movies on the side of city hall and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

I'm part of an organization...a grassroots, very new organization known as Power-ups! This group is made of young people between the ages of 21-39 that are rural by choice. If you're rural by choice, go check out their website and sign up... http://www.ruralbychoice.com/! We're also on Facebook! It's a great way to connect and learn how other Power-ups are dealing with issues and successes in their rural part of the world. It's not expected for successful young professionals to returning to rural America and that's what makes this movement so great! We are rare and strong and passionate about where we live! And if I hadn't been passionate about being a citizen of rural Kansas, I never would've met the love of my life...so one more good thing to add to the awesome things about being rural by choice!