# 66 — Be a counselor for diabetes summer camp

.... CHECK!!!!!!

Once again, I did this eons ago, but have not officially checked it off my 101 in 1001 list until now.

HERE is the original blog post about it.

#86 — Get the new Heartland site up and RUNNING

....CHECK!!!!!!




We actually had things running about the first of June, but have yet to make a big to do about it on the Heartland Blog. How time flies!

Because I'm vain, I will NOT share the old sites (or photos of them) because I like what we have MUCH better now! There are some things we'd like to change, but can't because of our template, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I can go change stuff on the site at my own whim. We'll be trying to change the splash page sporadically so there is fresh content ...

I think now I actually almost have a dozen items checked off of my 101 in 1001 list.

#38 — Take a walk on the beach

.... CHECK!!!!!



Wow, I am going through my list today and I certainly have quite a few of these accomplished!

Admittedly, when i put "38. Take a walk on the beach (of a warm, tropical-like place, not an inland lake!)" on my list, I was thinking of our honeymoon in Jamacia, but our trip down Manhattan Beach DOES fit the bill!.

Even if we DID walk along, looking like the world's biggest geeks in our tennis shoes!

But it's exciting to cross yet another item off of the 101 in 1001 list.

#85 — Get a stinkin' blog counter figured out on this blog

.... CHECK!

I actually figured out the blog counter awhile ago, but didn't realize it was on my 101 in 1001 list

The original post is HERE

It's SO COOL because I can see who is visiting, when, from where, how many times and even what time of day!

Santa Monica Pier

Ok, so admittedly we took more interesting photos after Jessica & Chris' wedding, we had to go scout out the joint before.

Erik, of course, tagged along.

English Pub

After meeting up with Mike, we went to The Bulldog Bar



Check out how awesome this bulldog, Montgomery, was!



I had some yummie bangers & mash... not sure what E ordered.

Dodger days!!!!

To reward Erik for being SO AWESOME, we went to a Dodgers game.



Besides, when I was in softball, I was on the Dodgers team!!!!!

Oh, and no trip to Dodger Stadium would be complete without a Dodger Dog!

OH.MY.GOSH

It's official. I need to get a life.

This morning, as I was doing my usual blog-stalking, I saw some hot shoes on Jessica Claire's site. Despite the fact that I already HAVE wedding shoes, I can't resist looking some more (for those of you who know me and know how much I loath shoe shopping, I'm sure you're highly amused).

So, in searching Manolo Blahnik's shoe collection, I found THIS:



Oh la la!!!!!!!!!!! I am in love with Manolo's shoe titled something blue.

Fortunately for me, a few things prevent this from even being an option.

a) the shoe has a 4 1/2 inch heel. My current heel is high enough .... there's no way I could master something higer.
b) the shoes are sized in European sizes, and I have no idea what an 11 narrow translates into ... which is good. ;-)~
c) i seriously doubt any store in the state of Kansas carries these shoes, so I consider myself safe from even trying them on to tempt myself.
d) since I'm not a shoe horse, almost 4-figures is a bit more than I think I should invest (yes, these shoes would be an investment) in wedding shoes.

BUT .... fear not! The wedding (in about a month!!!!!!!) will have splashes of blue ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!!!! blue flowers, blue rosary in the my flowers, blue shoes, (hopefully) grandma's blue ring, blue hair jewelry .... and the list goes on and on! :-)

EDIT: This is the shoe from this summer's Sex and the City Movie ... and I remember admiring it on the big screen ... while I'm not going to be wearing it, when I was trying my dress on at the store, a lady DID comment "oh, blue shoes like in Sex and the City."

The blog has eyes ...

... and I LOVE it!

After MONTHS of tinkering around (ok, so I tinkered once or twice, then gave up for months before figuring it out), I added blog counters to our blog and to the Heartland blog. For those of you bloggers out there, they're powered by Sitemeter. Mike kept telling me how much he'd prefer that to the one he has because you can see who is looking at your site when. Ok, yeah ...

BUT IT IS SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are some regulars of our blog who I want to give a shout to: Hi Terry & Carol, Robin & Chris, Joe & Erin, someone in Manhattan (Nicole?), and Bobby Ann!!!!!!!!!

There appear to be some regular Heartland readers, too! Since we returned from our trip to LA for Jessica & Chris' wedding, we've been getting a lot of California hits. :-)

SO, why the heck am I rambling on about this?

Today, the Heartland blog had a visitor from Kuwait! I could barely believe my eyes when I saw it! How awesome is that?!?!?!??!? (yes I'm a total dork for being excited about this).



I was able to click through and see where this visitor came from .... and it appears to be a friend of a friend from our LA wedding. Rockin!

Speaking of ... anyone know where Rock, Kansas is? I've totally never heard of it in my life!

Ok, after consulting Google Maps, it appears to be just west of Atlanta, Kansas. Make sense? ;-)~ OR just southeast of Wichita.

ps-And DOUGGIE....are you spending vacation time reading our blog? ;-)~ Ok, I won't call you "douggie" anymore. Promise.

Hollywood!

On our way to the Dodgers game, we had some serious time to kill, so we took a brief stroll around Hollywood.






Erik wanted some Beatles love:



Don't ask.

In & Out

We HAD to go to In-n-Out Burger.



Erik is the culinary critic, so we'll just see if he comments.

Manhattan Beach

We headed to the beach, which wasn't far from the hotel.

Not exactly sure why there was construction equipment on the beach ... but I suppose it had to do with smoothing out the sand?



Surf board parking:



Of course, the self portrait:



Oh, I also grabbed this on the way back from the beach .... I love the color! But can you imagine living in such a small space?

Maxin' & relaxin'

Erik tagged along with me as I traveled to LA last week to photograph Jessica and Chris' wedding.





We bummed around for a day or two before I had to buckle down to work. I'll share some photos over the next few days.

Notice anything new???

There's something new around here.

There's also the same something new on the Heartland Blog!

Killer ....

Here's our designated cricket killer:





Esse LOVES chasing crickets around the basement ... she spends many evenings pouncing on them. And yes, she leaves the dead ones lying around the basement floor. Evidently once the cricket is dead/not moving any longer, she loses interest.

Humph.

So....I'm also tweaking with how to affix photos ... so I'll be playing more ... and also adding photos of Esse for those who have requested more photos of our cat child. :-)

Invites are OUT!!!!!!!

It's interesting how as the wedding planning goes, how there are portions of Erik and portions of Karen.





The invites alone are a nice combo of the both of us, but when you receive yours in the mail .... let's just say you'll know Erik was a part of it! :-)

Today .....

I feel like this.




(photo by Mike from Mary & Ty's wedding ... I was being the light testing subject)

Post on the cricket killer later!

THE ENEMY!!!!!!!!!

Meet our unwelcome houseguest:


UGH! I'm staring at one now as I type.

Erik says there is about a month span where they take over his basement. ACK!

Yeah, there are all sorts of old wives tales on how to get rid of them, like this:


Erik says these coucorachas held a siesta on the hedgeballs. No dice.

Until now.

Stay tuned to find out how we cut our cricket population in HALF! :-)

Gimme a paper bag!

UUUUUUUUUGH!

No envelopes to mail invitations in. AAAAAAAAAAACK!

So, it'd been about 2 weeks since I placed my envelope order ... and they said it'd take about that long, especially since we're having E's address printed on them (to save time). Yeah, it's NOT turned out to be a timesaver at all.

The artwork I sent is nowhere to be seen .... and the general rep on the phone was only defensive, NOT helpful. Thank God for excellent managers! This lady was rockin' and we will hopefully have them in before we have to leave town.

Is it too early in the day for a drink? ;-)

Crossover — Senior Portrait season!

Cruise on over to the Heartland blog to check out !Drew's Sizzlin' Senior Portraits

I had a blast and hope to do more in the upcoming months!

Invites are IN!!!!!!!

I picked up the wedding invitations at the post office this morning ... and they are STUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!! My friend (and killer designer), Heather, did a kickin' job on them! In all of her free time when she's not doing photography, she runs Posh Spot Designs.

I'm so jazzed to send them out in the next week and a half. But because I am mean, I am not going to show them to you here, dear blog readers. Yup, I'm a meanie. I want them to be an awesome surprise when they come in the mail!

YOWSAS!!!!

My high school friend, Joyce, is getting married 2 weeks before Erik and I are ... and I'm SO EXCITED to go to her wedding and "just be a guest"!!!!!!!

Friday, she forwarded her engagement photos along, and as I prowled through Nicole and Brandon Parigo's blog, checking out photos of Joyce and Billy, I kept saying "oh, that's TOTALLY them!"


It's such a treat to see images that capture the essence of people near and dear to my heart .... and I only hope the work Mike and I do does the same for the friends and family of our amazing clients!


I don't know many KC photogs, but I certainly am looking forward to saying 'hi' at Joyce and Billy's wedding! Just more people to swap ideas and "geek out" with! :-)

Working hard!

Photos to edit EVERYWHERE! But I am NOT complaining about this! While was doing some pregnancy portraits for Miss Amanda over the weekend, I snagged a few of Oliver, her awesome 16-month-old.

Lemme get this out in the open. I LOVE Oliver. It's more than a super-crush! He's so sweet tempered! I wanted to take him home with me, but didn't think mom or dad would like that...


Oh, he just became a BIG BROTHER! I'm excited to photograph little Elizabeth Joan .... perhaps next week if I'm lucky!