Making Fall Special

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all well. I have a few updates about my the house at 616 and myself and it's animal occupants.

It's fall which is kind of an odd conundrum for me. I love the season itself and all that goes with it (including my birthday) but I have a lot of bad memories associated with this time of year. I've done some things this year to make it more fun. I have decorated my house a bit and have enjoyed doing that. I hopefully can collect some more decorations each year as I picked up just a few for this year and had a few from my previous homes as well. It's nice to have my own place to decorate. Gus is going to be a pumpkin for Halloween. I will be handing out treats at my friend Adam's house so Cassi if you and the girls have time on Halloween be sure to stop by!

I'm also looking forward to The Givan Family's annual outing to Gadert's farm to pick our pumpkins from the field. Also I'm hoping for several trips to Polk's in my future for Apple Cider Slushes.

Of course in the fall there is the fair and Gus and I had a great time attending with Grandma, Grandpa, Mama, Papa, Charles, Sarah and the girls, Chris and Theresa all at various times over the week and a half. Gus had a great interaction with Oscar the robot who does great service dog education and met Clyde the dalmatian who rides around with the budweiser clydesdales. He was a bit of a rude dog so it's a good thing Gus is so easy going.

I'm also still riding horses out at Reigns of Hope and am loving that. Gus loves it too because he sits with Grandma and everyone pets him since he goes off vest. He just waits for people to come. I think it's the highlight of his week. Poor Grandma though - Gus attracts the people which means she gets to entertain them as well.

BUT the most exciting news at my house is the addition of Brutus the cat. Brutus is a 2 year old marble tabby that I acquired from the shelter. He previously lived in a home with five other cats. He loves attention but is very, very cautious of dogs. This was not helped by Benny who on day three chased Brutus and gave him quite a fright. Brutus currently lives in my backroom and comes out at night to roam. He is free to come out anytime but he's not quite ready after his and Benny's encounter. Eventually it will happen.

I've never had a cat. The family has had cats but I've never had much to do with them and I'm finding Brutus to be very interesting. He's very different from a dog. But he does like me so that's good. My birthday list has cat things on it which I do find a tad alarming. But he's a very nice kitty. He's settled in now (minus not leaving his room) so if you want to come visit him you are welcome!

Here are a few pictures from the fair and quite a few pictures of Brutus:

Meeting Oscar for the second year. Oscar was great with Gus and Gus handled it wonderfully. 

Sparrow (my friend Alicia's SD) and Gus were in the paper with this picture! 

Waiting with Sparrow at the Old Time Picture Booth 

Gus and I are Farmers

Co-Existing with Gus before the Benny incident 

Cats are much harder to take selfies with than dogs

First night home

"I am a tiny human"

Brutus has a hidey hole inside my book turner

He loves to have his belly rubbed. 

The Rivers Ripple

It's blog time again!  Welcome to fall (maybe, as here in Kansas we've still had some rather warm days this week)!

The biggest happening in the Rivers family is this (whom we might know the gender of--just have to catch one of the girls and they will probably tell you):

Dan has been working, working, and playing band gigs a LOT this summer!  He's enjoyed the opportunity to play and we've even gotten to hear him on occasion.

Sarah has been preparing for MOPS which started this past Tuesday.  We have a small group, but it should be a good year as I actually have people to watch the kids this year (this is a critical element for a day group which we struggled with last year).  I've finally got energy back now that I've hit second trimester in my pregnancy and am tackling organizing and soon will tackle some painting projects.  I'm still getting to the Y a couple times a week, although my workout schedule has changed since my very favorite class got cancelled and my work out buddy moved.  So...life is changing!  In most of my other time, I play with girls, keep house, etc, etc.

Olivia is in her second year of preschool.  At first she missed her teacher from last year, but seems to be enjoying her year with new friends.  She goes 3 days a week.  Olivia has been in gymnastics academy at the Y and likes to learn the new skills (she's almost got her partial handstand) and I think she's trying to figure out how she can get to do some of the big girl bar skills.  She also requested swim lessons again this fall so she's been working on her swim strokes this month.  In between school and her activities, she's been enjoying the new neighbors (playmates!), coloring pictures, playing a variety of imaginary things, and just being.

Kinley, now 2.5 years old, is soaking up the MWF's with Sarah while Olivia is at preschool.  We often play Lalaloopsy's.  We are going to Music at the Early Childhood Center on Mondays.  She also loves to color pictures (and her skills are more advanced than Olivia's at 3), play a variety of imaginary things, and spend time playing with Olivia.

Brisco is currently suffering from allergies, but overall has been doing well.

 Highlights from our summer included:  VBS for Olivia,  lots of swimming/water play, a trip to Branson with Dan's parents, and just enjoying the relaxed days.  We are looking forward to many things this fall, but one of the most anticipated is our trip to Walt Disney World in October! 

Chris' Update

My update is a little belated both because I'm still a workaholic and because Theresa and I have been traveling. First up is one major work project, Apollo 13 Redux.

The program was a big success, with coverage in the HutchNews since we had some original Apollo 13 VIPs and it was during our big fundraising event. Grandma and Grandpa kindly hosted me in their basement for a number of days to complete the below "prop." (A 3/4 scale version of the docking probe used to join the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module).

I still have tons of work to do, including the last 5 hours where I've been tinkering with our schools database to get some data we need for a grant. The enjoyable parts should be finishing a Van de Graaff generator to make insane amounts of static electricity and figuring out how we'll make a rainbow in Dr. Goddard's Lab.

Theresa and I just got back from her friend's wedding in Colorado. Soon we'll be moving to a new apartment so that'll keep us busy as well. While in Denver we went to 5 different bookstores, but I only bought 1 book.

Sadly it wasn't this book, but I have talked Theresa into going around with me and taking pictures of elevators and silos—then we're going to replace them with rockets and pictures of people from old magazines. Below is one of our first starting images. 

There's a windmill hidden in that picture. We'll replace it with a rocket soon, but since all art is subjective I'm just calling it crafting.

Greetings family!


What fun to be able to share our happenings with each other on this blog.  I've got a lot to share this time around, so here we go.

First, since last I posted, I have had a number of exciting projects and life events happen. I'll try to list them out and summarize as appropriate.

1. I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change

In the spring, I directed this great little musical to great acclaim and an even greater attendance record.  We sold out nearly the entire run of the production.  Out of the 680 tickets available, we sold 665.  Only the Sunday of the first weekend had any tickets available.

This musical was a lot of fun because I got to work with a number of lovely people, including Amy Bretz (of Bretz and Young Attorneys fame) and Katherine Eberly (formerly Kline - a high school theatre idol of mine). This production is one that will not be easily forgotten.






2. Trip to Seattle to Visit Estelle
Estelle Cowie (formerly Hatcher) is one of my closest friends but certainly lives the farthest away.  Estelle calls Ketchikan, Alaska home where she is a substance abuse counselor.  We try and get together at least once a year in a big meaningful way (in graduate school we hung out nearly every day in some form or another).  This year, we returned to Seattle and had a blast.  There we many highlights but my favorite was going to the San Juan Island chain for Orca Whale Watching.  We caught up with the "J" Pod and saw a number of  Orca whales.  There are amazing pictures and amazing video of the experience (including this lovely video)

3. Hutchinson Municipal Band
Another fun season of playing.  It was a far less stressful year of Municipal Band.  And it was so great to just be playing my french horn.

4. 1022 E. Sherman
Mom and Dad had to vacate their rental property because the tenant had allowed the house to deteriorate to a point of it not passing the new rental requirements of the city of Hutchinson.  I will be leading the repairs and remodeling on the house that is required and then living in the house until I move from Hutchinson.  This property is very near and dear to my heart because of the childhood memories I have from here.  It will be an honor getting it back into a respectable condition.  And pretty awesome to have my own place.

5. Miami to Hutchinson on the Train
We (Grandma Johnston, Mom, Dad and I) took a lovely train trip.  Flew from Wichita to Miami and explored the Everglades before having dinner at a lovely Cuban joint.  After a night in the hotel, we boarded the Silver Meteor to Washington DC.  This is one of the few long distance trains I have not been on.  It was quick overnight to Washington.  We pulled in at 7:30 am, zipped off to Arlington National Cemetery.  Spent some time seeing JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown before zipping back to Union Station to board the Cardinal train to Chicago.  This is called the second most scenic ride on Amtrak and it was a lovely trip.  We arrived in Chicago at around 10:30 am, had lunch at my favorite Chicago pizza place (Giodorno's) and boarded the Southwest Chief to Hutchinson arriving just in time for Fox on the Fairway auditions.

6. Fox on the Fairway
Fox on the Fairway is the next production at the Hutchinson Theatre Guild.  I am directing an amazingly talented group of people.  Auditions were a little bit of a struggle but we've since hit the ground running and things are going very well.  The play performances September 24 to 27 and October 1 to 4.  Hope you'll be able to come see it.

7. The Follies
Finally, I was asked by Mimi Meredith (former HTG Board member and leading Hutchinson social butterfly) to assist with The Follies.  This community-wide event comes back once every decade or so (the last one was in 2000).  In this case, it is a tribute to the Armed Forces being used as a tool to raise money for the Reno County Veterans Memorial.  I'm not quite sure what I have gotten myself into but whatever it is, it's going to be interesting.

That's all that's been going on in my life.  In my spare moments, I am happy to help out with projects around town for the family and am especially grateful to be assisting Grandma and Grandpa with managing the pasture.

Much love to all!