Below you will see the flyer for our upcoming fundraiser! We are accepting donations big and small for our Adoption Benefit Sale...if you are local please stop by and say hello (and maybe even find a treasure or two)! If your not local you can still help out by praying for our benefit sale to go smoothly and that we would be blessed by great weather and lots of shoppers! Thank you so much!

Locust Day 2010

This past weekend Traci and I headed East to celebrate Locust day with our friends Steve and Tracy. What? You say you have never heard of Locust day? Well, not many people have... Our friend Tracy made it up when she was 10 years old. She felt bad that there were no holidays in the middle of August and decided to celebrate the fact that these noisy creatures were out and about during this time of the year. She started a yearly tradition of celebrating the return of the locust every Aug 17th.

This year's celebration was held at their new residence in Rocheport, MO and included several friends, family and neighbors. Traci and I were the only ones who made the trek from Kansas City and we enjoyed lots of good food and great conversation.

The celebration kept going until about 2 in the morning and ended with a tour of their 150 year old house. Traci and I were fortunate enough to get a room less than 200ft from their house at The Dorm Room. These are rooms specifically designed for bikers who are passing through on the Katy Trail. It consists of a bunk bed, full bath, TV, small refrigerator and queen size futon.

Stairwell in Traci and Steve's house

The Dorm Room

The next morning we enjoyed a light breakfast and walked around the town, river walk and part of the Katy trial. If you have never been to Rocheport, I recommend you make the trip and enjoy everything the town has to offer: Several bed and breakfasts, wineries, the Missouri River, Katy trail and the friendly people of the town.

Tunnel on Katy trail

Other side

Trail up to look out point

Look out point - view of Missouri River

River Walk - Traci way off in the distance

Bench overlooking the Missouri River

Missouri River

On our way home, we stopped by the Ethnic Festival in Swope park and enjoyed several hours of ethnic dancing, music and fantastic food from around the world. The day was topped off by a group of Ethiopian dancers.

Ethnic food and goods

Domo Arigato

By the time we arrived home, I was ready for a nap!

Hope your weekend was as eventful as ours.

Bill

My man cave rocks!!

For the past month or so Traci has been threatening to turn the garage into a man cave for me. I think the plan was put into motion about a year ago, when we purchased a refrigerator for $20 and she has slowly been working on the transformation. Phase two was to have the cable guy run a drop to the T.V. that miraculously showed up on top of the refrigerator. :-)

About two weeks ago, she asked what I thought about putting a Royals' and Chiefs' logo on the wall of the garage. I am sure I just mumbled something like "yeah, sounds great...blah blah blah". Last week, as I was pulling into the garage I noticed an overhead projector and the outline of the logo's. To add to the magic of my new man cave, I purchased an old school Royals garbage can at an estate sale for $1.50. The last surprise came when I was driving home Thursday or Friday night. I learned that she found an electronic dart board for $20 on Craig's list. Apparently someone was selling it for $50 about a month ago and Traci emailed them and offered $20. She never heard from them and thought the deal was off; however, received an email indicating that if she wanted it, she could have it for $20. Only Traci could pick up a brand new $190+ dart board for $20...

I spent yesterday putting up the board while she painted the logos. She then spent a good portion of today painting and touching up. Everything is now done with the exception of the white parts of the logos. We ended the night by throwing a few games of darts and enjoying her artwork.

May your man cave be as kick butt as mine!!

Bill and Traci

Corporate fun

This past month, the company I worked for held two significant events.

One of them was our 24th annual health conference. This event was expected to bring over 6,000 health care professionals to the K.C. area over a 4 day period and provide them the opportunity to discuss current health care topics, listen to keynote speakers, and explore some of Cerner's new solutions(Software) in the solution gallery. I manned a booth for the department I work for (AMS - Application Management Services)and was able to share what we do and why with several people. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius packed the seats and had people standing on the back of the room for her keynote speech. The conference came to a conclusion with a bash at the Power and Light district where a variety of free food was served and Three Dog Night played for every one's entertainment. I left early and did not have the honor of hearing "Joy to the world".

The other event was our annual town hall meeting. In addition to the company town hall meeting, I was also scheduled to attend the consulting town hall which meant that I got to spend an entire day sitting in Kemper Arena. The consulting town hall was scheduled to start at 8:30am and the company at 1:30. A handful of us thought it would be a good idea to get together about 7am for an "bag omelet" and coffee tailgate. We set up a tent, got some water boiling and prayed the rain would hold off until we made it into the building.

Getting a boost with caffeine- Scott and Sam

Ron, Michael and Sal

The bags were too thin and melted. Good thing Omelets float

AMS associates in front of Kemper Arena

Let the celebration begin - Confetti

Cerner's mascot - PING

Both of the town halls were very motivating and a reminder as to why I work for the company I do. We ended the day by celebrating our 30th year as a company and giving a standing ovation to our three founders.

May your job bring you as much happiness as mine does.

Bill

Cerner Impact day

The company I work for is a big advocate of giving back to the community and twice a year they hold an event called "Cerner Impact Day". This is a day where all associates are encouraged to volunteer for one of the many events that have been coordinated in the Kansas City area.

Traci and I have participated in this event for past year and a half and were a part of the Cerner Impact Day this past weekend.

We volunteered to assist an organization named KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) in Kansas City Missouri. Our task was to stencil and paint the KIPP logo and motivational quotes and organize a storage closet.

Traci and I along with 14 other volunteers met in one of the classrooms for a quick overview of what KIPP was. Traci and I volunteered to help organize the closet and 2 others joined us. I figured how hard could it be to put a few things in boxes, straighten out a few shelves and sweep a dusty floor. As the doors to the storage closet opened, I knew we had our work cut out for us. :-)

Before picture

Traci, Lisa and Joann cleaning up

We spent the next 2 1/2 hours moving everything around until it looked just right.

... and the after

The other volunteers were putting the finishing touches on their artwork as we linked back up with them. The staff from KIPP were very appreciative of our work and a few of us celebrated by heading the to the art festival in Westport.

Michael cracking the whip

A motivational quote
A quote by Robert Frost

We hope your weekend was as rewarding as our was!!



Bill and Traci