end-of-summer summary

The children are back in school and I love having a routine again although I miss the slow mornings. It seems like no matter how hard I try, I can’t manage to have everybody’s stuff sorted the night before so that the morning can run smoothly(okay so maybe I could try a little harder. I can’t help it that I LOVE to relax with Rob at night and I am not really a morning bird if you know what I mean.) It is always something.   Maddalena can’t find her shoes ( and if you saw my shoe bin, you’d know why) or Augustine  is missing a  folder. One day last week, Basil came home from school with a scowl because his sister was in such a rush to make the bus that she packed him a bread sandwich, as in only two slices of bread with nothing in between. My great intention of making sack lunches has already waned and we have only been at this two weeks so far! All I hear about is how wonderful the school lunches are and I have to admit PB and J with carrot sticks and pretzels doesn’t hold a candle to barbeque ribs and chocolate mousse. 

Check out the cool pictures of my dashing lumberjack  husband cutting down some trees with our awesome neighbors, The Passmores, who, by the way, have the world’s coolest hydraulic equipment! 

There is also a picture of Basil’s sixth birthday (notice the recycled #2 candle  from Frankie’s birthday..see, I am green. If you look close you can see the four single candles, that when added to two makes six!) . We  also really enjoyed sitting around this huge bonfire with our friends, the Spindens. We have told the little Spindens to start collecting more sticks so we can do it again soon…this time without the fireworks display.

Today we spent the day with our friends, the Jones’ on their farm. They use old fashioned farming technique of drying the corn by building “shocks” (teepee- like structures made of stalks of corn). The kids and I helped pick up the leftover corn that fell on the ground. They use the corn to feed the chickens and pigs the rest of the year, while the stalks go to the cattle. Anselm’s gives the corn the two thumbs up for both presentation and accessibility!

Great articles on Rob’s race

Here are some links to some great news articles on Rob’s race. Clay Center Dispatch had a great article by Ned Valentine.

 Also this one appeared on the front page of the Hays Daily Sunday Paper last week, written by Ryan Christner.

Here is the text-

Wasinger: Big job projects are key
By RYAN CHRISTNER
rchristner@dailynews.net
Rob Wasinger thinks it’s time Kansas starts running with the big dogs in order to secure a more financially solid future.
Wasinger, one of six Republicans vying for the First Congressional District seat in Congress soon to be vacated by a departing Jerry Moran, made a stopover in his hometown of Hays last week and preached the importance of attracting more opportunities to the state to increase economic development.
“The key to growth in Kansas is to secure more big projects,” he said, using as examples the 300,000-square-food Siemens Wind Power production facility to be built in Hutchinson and Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s plans for an 895-megawatt power plant in Holcomb.
“It’s things like that that we need to be continually pursuing and developing and building,” he said, “and that’s what leads to long-term economic growth.
“There’s no reason why we can’t be competitive (with larger areas).”
The Harvard University graduate began his political career under Gov. Bill Graves before going to work for Moran and later Sen. Sam Brownback, later becoming Brownback’s chief of staff.
He said increasing job opportunities and making the state’s financial climate attractive will help reverse the trend of out-migration that has driven away 60,000 Kansans – and with them about $2.3 billion in wealth.
That movement, he said, has not necessarily been to other parts of the country, but to other Midwestern states like Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri.
“In other words, it’s people that want the values and the lifestyle in the Midwest, but they’re finding something’s difficult about their circumstances here that is making them go somewhere else to make them find a job,” he said.
Wasinger also discussed the importance of government getting involved with local projects, like the Wilson Lake reallocation project, the construction of a reverse osmosis plant in Hutchinson, developments and improvements to the Salina airport and acquisition of federal land for increased runway space at the airport in Elkhart.
Those types of projects, he said, make up his vision for improving the state’s economy.
But that’s not the only important issue facing Kansans.
During his tour of all 69 Big First counties, Wasinger said he has encountered a lot of concern over the Obama administration’s policies on oil and gas, and healthcare.
“We have to protect our oil and gas,” he said. “(Oil producers) need to be allowed to drill and do what’s best. We need to make sure that they have all the tools necessary, and we need to not take things off the table.”
Locally, people he has spoken to have indicated less concern for socialized medicine and more about critical access hospitals, access to prescription drugs, rural telemedicine and access to doctors.
“Those are the issues people confront on a daily basis,” he said.
Wasinger boiled it all down to an unrest over what people see as a growing divide between the government and their own backyard.
“We all pay our bills on time … and they see Washington just bailing out one company after another, while at the same time thinking of imposing taxes on our electricity or taking away the ability of our oil and gas producers to be competitive or trying to cram down socialized medicine on the American people,” he said. “So, I think people sense a real disconnect between what they see in Washington and what they live in their daily lives, and we’re outraged.”so check out our new and improved website www.robwasinger.com.