Secret Mission Accomplished!

Kinley is taking a step up to a new job. She's going to be a Big Sister.

She's smiling about it now. We'll see if she's still smiling on or about September 3 when the new baby arrives.

I say she has no idea how it's going to change her world. Being a Big Sister is sometimes a slippery slope.

But, as the oldest sister myself, I can give plenty of advice. (Let's not ask my two younger sisters and my little brother about my worthiness to give pointers, OK?)

Randy and I found out a few weeks ago when we met Jill, Eric and Kinley in Wichita. At the restaurant, Jill casually took off Kinley's coat and revealed her new T-shirt. But the shirt went back in the drawer, and we were told to keep quiet about the news.

Keeping secrets is hard. When one of my friends revealed that the due date for her son and his wife was September 3, I could hardly wait to tell her.

Secret mission accomplished (though the temptations have been many)!

And it's not the only big news in our family. Brent is moving back to Manhattan. Since he graduated from K-State in December 2010, he's lived in South Carolina to get his master's degree at the University of South Carolina. Then, he took a job with Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky.

It's given us plenty of travel destinations. But we are so excited to have him move back "home" to Manhattan. Beginning March 17, he will be the Communications Coordinator for the College of Business Administration at Kansas State University.

Last weekend, Randy and I got to tag along as Brent did his own version of the HGTV show, House Hunters. It was deja vu sitting in Bramlage Coliseum with Brent and cheering on the 'Cats.

He's still looking for a house, but it's pretty exciting for Randy and me that he'll be only 3 hours away and not 15. And he'll only be 45 minutes away from Jill's family. Maybe they'll have another babysitter to add to the list. Well, we'll see about that.

I'm just glad to share my secrets, especially both of these!

Hill Traffic Does Not Stop

Anyone who knows me knows I find beauty all around me in Kansas. God's creative handprint is on the sunrises, the sunsets, the ditches lined with sunflowers, the windmills, in the pastures dotted with wildflowers and in the wide open spaces. I love wheat from the time it pokes the first blades of green through the brown soil, when it's encased in winter white, and when the waves of gold dance in the Kansas wind.

It was a different kind of beauty in Morehead, Ky. My favorite spot was Eagle Lake, a picture postcard pretty place on the campus at Morehead State University, where Brent began his new job on Monday. That lake has got to be one great fringe benefit of being a student or being on staff there.

I would love to see it in the fall as the leaves begin turning and cast brilliant autumn colors on the smooth water's surface. I probably won't get to see it this fall, but maybe another year.

Morehead and Morehead State University are nestled in the foothills of the Daniel Boone National Forest. Yes, Kansas has its regions with peaks and valleys. It just doesn't happen to be where we live. Morehead was much greener than the drought-stricken Kansas we left behind.

Hills are part of the backdrop for the Morehead campus. I took this shot back toward campus, turning 180 degrees around from the lake.

In just a few weeks, the fall colors of the trees on the hills surrounding the football stadium will rival the action on the field, I suspect.

It was even pretty on a rainy, foggy morning.

Same goes for the baseball stadium and pretty much anywhere else on campus.

The hills also provided some signs we aren't used to in Stafford, America: "Hill Traffic Does Not Stop"was a sign near Brent's new home.

It wasn't exactly Lombard Street in San Francisco. But the street began in downtown Morehead and crested at the top of a hill, where there was a parking lot at one juncture and two stop signs flanking it.

Brent's backyard is mostly tree-covered hill, though there's enough room for a barbecue grill, which we put to use before the K-State vs. Miami game on Saturday. 

Brent was our chef, a nice change of pace

We were surprised by how narrow some of the streets were, especially in Brent's neighborhood. I was glad Randy was driving the Budget truck and not me. Meeting traffic was an adventure of narrow streets and hidden driveways. 

On Brent's street - The sign warns of a driveway that seems to go straight up a hill.

Next time we visit, we won't be hefting boxes and hanging picture frames, so we hope to explore more of the area. Maybe then we'll see more horse farms. It wasn't until we got to Lexington to fly back to Wichita that we saw horses grazing on the stereotypical bluegrass of Kentucky.

But there's no place like home either. Beauty: It's all around us - whether on the Kansas plains or the Kentucky hills.

Fly Like An Eagle

Practically from the time they arrive, our children begin the march toward independence. From the day they begin crawling away to explore a world outside Mommy's arms or they take their first tentative, shaky steps, they begin that pulling away process.

The first-day-of-school bus photo evolves until they are driving their own vehicle to school. All too soon, you are the one waving goodbye from the driveway as they head back to college or head back home after an all-too-short weekend.

This past week, it was a Budget Rent-A-Truck instead of a school bus. Brent no longer packs a K-State backpack, but instead a leather briefcase with space for a laptop.

He will add another school to his allegiance. Yesterday, he began his job as the Media and Marketing Coordinator for the Morehead (Ky.) State University Eagles. It's his first job after earning his master's degree in Sport and Entertainment Management from the University of South Carolina in May.

Brent's office will be in this building. Maybe we'll get to see it next time!

As Randy drove the Budget truck and I helped navigate from Columbia through the hills of Tennessee and Kentucky, the Steve Miller Band song, "Fly Like An Eagle" kept drifting through my head.


Brent is going to be an Eagle now, but it was this part that had me thinking:

"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future."

Indeed it does.

As I walked the Morehead State University campus on Saturday, I captured a mental picture of where my "baby" will be spending his time. I took a similar walk around the South Carolina campus when we moved him there in January 2011 after his graduation from K-State in December 2010.

The campus - and for that matter, the town - is nestled in the foothills of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Rowan County, Kentucky. The 2012 edition of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News and World Report named MSU one of the top 25 public universities in the South. Randy and I have already added some blue and gold to our wardrobes.

The bell tower on campus is inscribed with the words Love, Service, Wisdom and Justice on each of its four sides.

Those are all virtues with which we'd like to send our children into the world to make their own way. It's an exciting time as a parent to watch your child fly like an Eagle - a Morehead State Eagle, in this case.

Tomorrow: More from our trip.