Flower shower video!!!

From my sister's blog! Thanks to her hubby, Chris, for filming this!



She also has another post about the wedding HERE.

R3 — recycle your SUIT!

I can't claim I came up with this blog post on my own (I saw it on Anne Ruthmann's Blog) ... but it's too good to not share! And since E and I were just married and the fellas were decked out in their suits, this is a great time to share this!

Through October, Men's Warehouse is doing a National Suit Drive.

So, if the drycleaner has "shrunk" your suit, or you have a new suit and your old one isn't getting as many miles as it used to, consider this!

In addition to being a form of recycling, you'll be helping to get these suits to those who need them. "During the National Suit Drive, every one of our over 550 stores will be collecting gently used professional attire to benefit at-risk men and youth transitioning into the workforce. All clothing we receive will be distributed throughout the community by local nonprofit organizations." Isn't that awesome????

Items accepted are: suits, sport coats, slacks, ties, and belts.

In addition to helping someone else out, plus you'll get 10% off your next Men's Warehouse purchase.

#1 — Marry the man of my dreams

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Yup. Erik and I are hitched!!!!!!

Yesterday was AMAZING and we were blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who lifted us up with love.

Thank you to EVERYONE who came to celebrate with us, and also thanks to those who joined us in thought and prayer.

Please cruise over to the Heartland Photography blog by CLICKING HERE to check out the photo preview and writeup by Mike. I'll post here when more photos are up, as well as the kickin' slideshow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And DO leave comments on the Heartland blog. We call them "blog love" and Mike and Heather deserve a TON for all of the hard work they did yesterday!

Oh, and I love, love, love the photo at the top of this post!!!!!!!! Seriously. It is my favorite. Mike pulled a few faves to show at the reception, which is always a delight.

When planning the wedding, I knew I wanted something visual for our exit from the church. I'd seen this before with multi-colored petals ... and we opted for red. I don't know about you, but I think it looks FABULOUS! The best part about doing this is as the couple, you can walk through and ENJOY it as opposed to run like hell to avoid bird seed or wheat or whatever people throw at you. Believe me, as the photographer, we end up with it on and in us as well .... it ain't pleasant. This was WAY cooler and MUCH more visual!


And I grabbed this image from Mike's blog. I don't have a direct link to the post, but to visit Mike's blog, CLICK HERE.

Mike IS correct ... I didn't pick up a camera all day. It was tough, but they did a killer job. What he DOESN'T know is I snapped a few images when I dropped my dress off at Erik's hotel room Friday afternoon. After seeing Heather work, however, I might have to consider switching careers and joining the circus ... because I think her images will put any I took to shame. ;-)

Phew ... I'm really chiseling away at this 101 in 1001 list!

Wedding day!!!!!

HI!!!!!!!!!!

Since we put our blog site on the back of our wedding program, I anticipate a few more visitors. Welcome!

We're kickin' back for a few days, have one more family event Sunday before we head back to Salina (we'lll honeymoon this winter, once work calms down for BOTH of us!).

We will ABSOLUTELY be posting wedding photos here, but in the meantime, please CLICK HERE to visit the Heartland Photography blog. Mike and Heather rocked our wedding day photos!!!!!!!

(for those of you wondering about a post right now, don't. Blogger has an excellent feature that allows you to write a post and schedule it for a later date. Right now it's Friday morning and I'm waiting for all the fun to begin. It won't post until after the wedding, though)

ps-we love, love, love to have blog comments, so DO leave comments! :-)

Providential psalm

"Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing."
~Psalm 126:5


At Mass this morning, Psalm 126 was the alternate for today. While it wasn't used, I love, love, love this psalm. For some reason, when I first heard it about 9 years ago, it resonated with me.

This week, I can't help but think of all we have to rejoice about! Seriously! We are SO BLESSED!

Family is flying in from around the country, friends are joining us the same way ... tomorrow looks like it will be magnificent. Seriously. We are blessed.

What's your favorite psalm? How are YOU blessed? DO comment and let us know!

All's well!

The engagement album is in and beautiful!

Now that it's in, things have really been down hill. Just chillin' with my girls ... massage, nails, ice cream, movie night and wine talk. The day could not have been better!

We're looking forward to chillin' with our family and friends over the next two days!

Wedding week stress

Somehow, I thought being an industry professional would give me immunity from the chaos that often precedes a wedding. Boy was I wrong! (Although I prefer to call it being optimistic). :-) (see that look on Steve Martin's face ... it's the same overwhelmed look that's on MY face right now!)

This summer has yielded brides who have this glazed over, deer in the headlights look. And I've been taking notes. What have they left to the last second? What are they hurrying around doing the DAY OF THEIR WEDDING that could/should have been done before?

I have been receiving a TON of e-mails, calls and messages about what people can do to help. Y'all are SO SWEET and Erik and I are SO grateful for this outpouring of love and support! Keep being awesome (and AVOID saying things like "oh, chill out or we'll start calling you Grandma Alice").

For those of you who will be here, I'm happy to have hands available on Saturday. We're pretty good leading up to then. :-)


Let's start with the positives. Here's what I think we've done smartly:
+ Picked an awesome spouse-to-be! :-) Erik and I have spent a LOT of time focusing on the days, weeks, months and years to follow the wedding. So, yes, we're excited for the wedding, but more excited about the new beginning the wedding marks (if that makes sense).

+ Have awesome families who love us and are *excited* about the big day!

+ Made our dress/tux selections WAY ahead of time, so we're not worrying about "will they come in on time?"

+ Have all of our fun little details (kickin' socks, shoes, hair accessories) all purchased and in their box, ready to go!

+ Made all of our reading selections for the wedding in December, so we don't have to make many decisions about the ceremony ... they're already made!

+ Picked out our first dance song MONTHS ago ... and the DJ has our selection so we don't have to rush to give him a CD of our song on Saturday (yes, I've seen brides do this as they pull into the reception).

+ Gone with a reception site that does ALL of the decorating for us! While I love, love, love my sister, she and her friends spent several hours the day before decorating the church hall. I seriously have NO mental energy for that this week and am SO glad I don't have decorations and centerpieces flowing out from my bedroom! I seriously *heart* Kathy at the Petroleum Club for doing not only the decorations, but handling all of the correspondence with the cake people and DJ.

+ Take off the week before to be around Wichita and handle details. Some of our brides work up until the Thursday before ... and I TOTALLY tip my hat to them! I'm not sure I could do that!

+ Enlisted the help of awesome, awesome friends! I am SO THANKFUL my childhood friend Courtney will be my bridal attendant/wedding coordinator on Saturday! I used to think the job of "bride's personal attendant" was just some lame title you gave someone who wasn't a bridesmaid, but you wanted to do something. Um...WRONG! Courtney is doing everything from picking up our flowers to taking stuff from the church to the reception to checking into the B&B for us! Basically, I'm telling everyone to go through Courtney on Saturday if they need something/have a question. It's super-awesome because Courtney knows a lot of my family, totally wants to help and since she's doing this, it takes these items off my plate, as well as my mom's so we can really enjoy the day!

Areas where we should have been more on the ball:
- Ceremony music selection! Since E and I don't live in Wichita, it was sort of hard to coordinate schedules with the organist. All is well, we have an uber talented organist and vocalist ... but I didn't want "a bunch of music everyone else uses in weddings." SO that meant a rarely song used for the presentation of flowers to Mary. No biggie, except it had to be ordered from Austria. Again, no biggie, except I ordered it and it was shipped 3+ weeks ago and it is STILL not in my hands. :-( Thankfully my organist rocks, so we can really wait until last minute to decide on what we'll use.

- I, Karen, totally dropped the ball when it came to engagement pics! Due to my schedule, we had to push them back into July, which was far from ideal. This pushed our engagement guest album WAY back ... and when it had to be re-done ... FROM ITALY ... siiiiiiiiiigh. I totally dropped the ball on this one, but I learned a BIG lesson about how much time it takes one of these to be produced. Anyhow, it's *supposed* to arrive today, and thankfully I only have lunch with a girlfriend, so I'll be here most of the day to sit and stare at the front door. (EDIT: It was *supposed to be delivered to Wichita, but it looks like it's going to Salina. Now I'm going to have stomach acid all day being worried about if Erik is awake to sign for the package, or if he'll already be at work when it's delivered!) On the up side of things, I now have an awesome am on a first name basis with my rep (as in I don't even have to say my last name and she knows who it is .... not sure if that's a good thing or not!) ;-) BUT thankfully Erik has awesome neighbors ... and one of them has signed for the package before. So I'm hoping and praying if Erik isn't home, that they are home to sign for it!!!!

- Ceremony programs. This one is really a wash. It could go easily on the plus or minus list. I've been working on our program for about a month now, getting names and all information inputted. I was trying to wait on the Flowers to Mary music, before we printed it, but just gave up. I am having it printed and you will notice no music is listed for that part of the Mass. That's because we'll be deciding on Friday! Anyhow, it is a plus because it's out of my hands and at Kinkos now. And I absolutely REFUSE to do the folding and stapling. Yeah, I'm paying them a little extra to do it, but it is saving me time! I've seen brides doing this the night of, so I'm glad this isn't the case, but it would have been more ideal to get this done earlier.

- Sleep. UUUUUGH! I am SO trying to sleep this week ... but it's difficult to fall asleep and I'm waking up early. I have brides who haven't slept much the week of the wedding and I think being fully rested is VITAL. I'm TRYING to sleep! I really am! I think I'm going to have to make friends with Tylenol PM tonight .... because I have GOT to get some restful sleep!

- RSVPs. We set our date weeks ago, but we are STILL getting calls! OMG people! We're a few days out ... and now like 10-15 extra people want to come. I hope we don't run out of food/cake!


My married friends have been sharing LOTS of advice! Thanks, guys! Yes, I'm having a relaxing girls day on Thursday! Mom, Robin and I are having massages, then nails done. I'm SO looking forward to it all!

Also, we're having ice cream night Thursday at the Cold Stone Creamery on N. Rock Road. They're giving away free ice cream to benefit some non-profit organization. We'll be there about 5 p.m. ... so come between 5 and 6 and you'll probably catch us. Seriously, come one, come all!


After that, we're having a girls movie night to go see Mama Mia! So if you're a girl and wanna come with us, hollar at me!

And what the heck do wedding movie posters have to do with this post? Not too much, but I don't like long, long posts w/o pictures ... and I'm NOT sharing photos of me right now. ;-) So these will have to do!

A little help?

Ok friends, I need some assistance with an item on my 101 in 1001 list.

91. Blog stalk a blog COMPLETELY unrelated to photography for ONE MONTH.

The trouble is MOST of the blogs I stalk are photo-related. I'm looking for something that is in no way, shape or form related to the photo world.

Here's more or less what I'm looking for:
• A blog that has regular posts (about 3-5/week).
• It'd probably be good if it were not politically focused either, because I don't need to increase my blood pressure! ;-)
• If I had an interest in the content, it would be a bonus (cooking, home remodeling .... reading ... anything like that).

But seriously .... hit me with your suggestions! Leave comments and help me choose a blog to stalk! (wait, does that sound psychotic???? IT'S NOT ... IT'S COMPLETELY INNOCENT! I SWEAR!!!!)

:-)

Memorable (wedding) moments? Share YOURS!

I was talking with my friend and our uber talented graphic designer, Amy, last week. Since Erik and I's wedding is coming up, we of course had to talk about weddings!

Amy was relating "the" moment for her" ... and I'd never really though about it before.

She said her big "ooooh" moment was as she was starting to walk down the aisle, when everyone stood up and turned to look at her. "It was just awesome to think all these people were here to celebrate with us," she told me. She also said it was a *little* intimidating to have all those people staring at you. "If it weren't for Matt at the other end of the aisle, I'm not sure I would have made it down," she finished.

Hmmmmmmm.

I photograph this moment TONS of times. I am generally sprawled on the floor behind the bride and her father to get a nice low angle of her dress, the church, etc. I never really thought of it from the bride's perspective.

SO ..... I want to hear in the comments from you married folks out there ... what was your "ooooh" moment? Even if you eloped, I know there had to be some moment when you realized the monumentalness of getting married. DO share!

Oh, and if you want to start a side discussion/betting pot on when in the day I'll start crying, do so! (I've cried at EVERY SINGLE wedding we've photographed this summer ... I'm turning into quite a sap!) Another side pot option is if my dad will make it down the aisle dry-eyed. I just finished toning Robin and Chirs' album photos, and dad *barely* held it in for her wedding. Will he be able to do a repeat performance? ;-)

I'm *dying* to post this ....

but am not supposed to post anything from the Hindu/Christian wedding I helped shoot a few weeks ago until Jessica from D.C., the main photographer does. I'll let ya know when official posts are up, because I KNOW there are some readers out there who want to know!

Practicing

Be prepared for the cutest photograph EVER!

This is Gianna and Max.



They will be in our wedding a week from TODAY, and they've been practicing up!

Their parents have done an awesome, awesome, awesome job of prepping these kids! I think they should give lessons ... because Mike and I have sure seen some doozies of flower girls and ring bearers! ;-)

Erik and I are getting *excited* for the wedding! We're excited to see everyone and celebrate with our closest friends and family, but more than that, we're excited to begin our married life!

Having Max and G be a part of it ... along with their Auntie Sarah ... it's so special. My siblings and I practically grew up with Sarah. We spend holidays together and they have become our extended family!

Talk like a Pirate, mate-y!

AHOY!!!!!!!!!!!

Ye bilge rats toot ye hornpipes ern abandon ye land lubber ways. SMARTY!!!!!!!!



Ok, so "What the heck has gotten into Karen" you are wondering. Probably four or five years ago, I heard an interview on NPR about the International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrrrrr.......

It gained widespread popularity after Dave Barry's Column on the phenomenon.

Anyhow, HERE's the homepage and HERE's the direct link to all talk like a piratedom.

So, go ahead and scare you friends, co-workers and loved ones with a little "Arrrrrr" today! :-)

Random rambling/ranting

Packing tape. A girl needs it every once in awhile, right? Right.

But since I infrequently mail packages, I don't need one of these monsters lying around the house:

(This thing is GARGANTUAN!!!!)

SO, there is a nice little solution:

These little guys are small, compact and not scary looking. I LOVE them!

But I also loathe them. Why? Well, I cannot seem to find a refill for this size of packing tape. Odd, huh? They make them, but to re-fill it, I need to buy an entire other dispenser. Strange. I was in an office supply store, scouring the shelves, looking for refills. The clerk told me they weren't made. DARN. I was in the post office, buying yet another dispenser (between Erik and I there are at least 4 in his house). I mentioned to the guy behind the counter how I would love to find just refill tape. He said "I would too, but they don't make it." DOUBLE DARN!

It just seems so strange to me they can make the tape in a smaller size to fill the little plastic dispensers, but they can't sell the tape individually. Odd. I don't NEED any more of these little plastic dispensers! We could save petroleum to make the plastic and I would feel like I'm doing my *little* part to save the planet. But no ... not possible. :-(

So ATTENTION SCOTCH PEOPLE!!!!!!! I want small packing tape refills!!!! (the stuff that's about 3-4 inches in diameter, not the monster 6+ inches).

Facebook's new look...

Love it or hate it???

Vote here!



(I'm curious! And I'm not telling my opinion on the blog in an effort to be unbiased here. Go to my Facebook profile to see what I REALLY think!) ;-)

#55 — Write/mail Jeanel a letter once/month for 6 months

... DONE!!!!!!!!!!

I wrote my friend, Jeanel, once a month for 6 months.

To some, that might seem like a silly item to have on my list, but I don't think so. Jeanel and I roomed together in college. After college, she joined the Peace Corps and headed to Niger (pronounced knee-jer), the poorest country in the world (it's in west Africa).

Anyhow, I had the honor of an invite to spend a few weeks with Jeanel, so I jumped on it ... you can check out my chronicles of Africa by CLICKING HERE.

After Niger, Jeanel kicked in the US for awhile, but her heart was in Africa (and I can't blame her!). She soon landed a job with Mango Tree and back to Africa she went. I'm just so proud of Jeanel for following her heart (but I miss her like CRAZY!!!!!!!!).

I'm a firm believer in the belief that everyone likes to receive hand-written letters. When she was in Niger, I fairly regularly sent mail, but once she returned, I've been a slacker ... so undertaking letter-writing for 6 months was a big accomplishment for me!

Thus, crossing off yet another item from my 101 in 1001 list.

I know I shouldn't ...

but I can't resist!

Ok, all of you brides out there ... FESS UP! I KNOW you've done this ... right????

What the heck am I talking about? Registry peeking. Yeah, yeah, we have registries and we add items. What's this peeking business? Well, the online registry is SO COOL because it keeps guests up to date on what still needs to be purchased.

On the inverse, it also tells me what people have bought for our gifts!!! It's not *exactly* like peeking under the paper to see what a gift is before it's unwrapped, but sorta like it .... ;-)

Anyhow, I'm JAZZED to have a blender and George Foreman grill coming! Seriously! We have basil plants that have grown like gangbusters (even after I moved/re-planted them!). I have made pesto a few times this summer, but have yet to be able to find my food processor attachments ... so I've been cutting the basil leaves up by hand. UGH! My fingers end up black and green after the event, and I am not able to make that much pesto by myself. SO I'm elated to see a blender will enter our lives in two weeks ... because it will mean my pesto cutting days are over! And once my super secret pesto recipe is made, I can grill chicken on the Foreman and we can have chicken pesto pasta!!!!!!

#95 — Do a blog post exclusively about Esse ... show photos from my kitty's youngest days.

.... CHECK!!!!!!

Since this spring, I've been meaning to do a post about my big squeeze ... Esse my cat. Well, she's technically "our" cat now ;-)~

Anyhow, here are some photos of Esperanza del Gato (Esse, aka Booger or "the Boog.")

Here's one from when she was a LITTLE KITTY. She was just learning about being an outdoor cat. She jumped up on the screen door (probably looking to get inside), but I wasn't there. And the screen didn't quite hold up, so she fell through .... and this was what I found when I got home.



Here's another from my Holga ... taken of Esse Boo when she was in Independence. Isn't she small and sweet????



And yet another



Esse doesn't play nicely with other cats ... except for Gus, the homeless neighbor cat in Indy. Gus taught her the ropes of being an outdoor cat. She loved to romp around with Gus, but she utterly SHUNS any other cat or dog. I felt badly leaving Gus in Indy (I called him Gus because he reminded me of Gus from Diseny's Cinderella because he was shy and skittish), but he was a wild cat ... and I wasn't sure he'd travel well (or at all).

This is after we moved to Hays. She was cuddly on the bench ... and awfully full of yawns!



Here are a few photos of the Boog obsessing about fish:
Her first play with fish ... in the big tank.



Just taking a little drink of water ... but she has a better chance at poor flit:



Trying to play with flit the fish:



Let's talk about Esse's bed habits. In Erik's words "she takes her half out of the center of the bed." Oh wait, maybe that's me during nap time. ;-)~ Anyhow, in Hays, if I didn't get into bed first, she'd curl up in the middle, making it impossible for me to get in bed without moving her.





She also has a thing for fabric/materials. She likes soft, soft, soft blankets. She also likes to lie on clean black pants. Booger.

BUT this was the best! One day, I came back and found her UNDER the pile of my laundry (which was piled on the bed). WHERE does she come from?!?!!?!?



And Esse is definitely into cat naps:









Let's talk about outside. Booger LOVES going outside. The photo below was from when it was SNOWY in Hays. There were several inches of snow on the ground, and I wouldn't let her out. To say she was pouty was an UNDERSTATEMENT:



And now, here she is .... outside on the back fence ... checking out the neighbor's birdhouse. Maybe that's where she caught the bird a few months ago...



I'm thankful to have yet another 101 in 1001 done.

I have another photo of her I'm trying to dig up from the first day I brought her home, but no success yet. I'll let you know!

Week 1: Fantasy Success!

For those of you waiting with baited breath, you'll be happy to know Bone Collector scraped by with a 12-point win over the always feared Bluntmaster Generals (don't ask about the names. Some of these dudes ... lets just say you don't really want to know where they've been.)

My new man-crush Donovan McNabb was outstanding, throwing for 361 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-3 rout of the Rams.


Next Sunday, I've got a difficult matchup with the perennial tough Daniel Larusso All-Stars. Wish me luck!!!!!!

Lists, lists and laundry lists...

It took me until college to realize I'm a list person. I love them. Writing down everything that needs to be done can be daunting, but crossing things off the list -- oh sweet reward!

Last night, I sat down and compiled today's "to do" list. It was 17 items long. ACK! Slowly this morning, I've chipped away at 8 of them, feeling quite productive before noon.

But here's the best part: I came to Erik's this morning, and figured I better finish the laundry. I don't mind doing laundry, but when the two of us don't do it for 2-ish weeks, it piles up and the net result is 7 loads. UGH. I started a few loads last night, and figured I'd finish it up this morning .... and lo and behold, I go into the laundry room and 2 loads have magically been done! I LOVE ERIK!!!!!!!! With 16 other items demanding my attention today, that's 2 less loads of laundry to do!

Leave a comment telling the sweet (but seemingly mundane) items your spouse/significant other does that just brightens your day!

Baptismal day

Random fact: both Erik and Karen were baptized on Sept. 6. The years were far, far apart, but we were both baptized today.

Happy baptism to us!

(we found out this random fact when we had to gather our baptismal certificates for marriage preparation).

Are you ready for some football?

Back to the Erik part of our program ... Yay!

For the for the fourth straight year, I'm competing in a fantasy football league with some other gridiron geeks like myself.


Last year, I had my best season yet thanks to my man, Peyton Manning. Sadly, our league dropped its keeper format this season and Peyton has left me for another.


Undeterred, I found a new fella ... Donovan McNabb. If DM can stay healthy (fingers crossed) I'll feel good about my chances this year. If not, it's back to the baseman for the Bone Collector (Karen prefers Bone Crusher ... She's so violent ;-)

Here are some other members of my squad.


Although, I detest T.O. as a person, he scores lots of touchdowns, and that makes Bone Collector quite happy.


I'm also hoping for a productive season from Marvin Harrison. He was hurt most of last year, but a comeback isn't out of the question.


Larry Fitzgerald got a fat contract in the offseason. I hope that doesn't slow down his production.

Stay tuned.

Of course, I'm not the kind of owner to sit on his arse while his team struggles. I'll make changes if necessary.

#82 — Finish filling out this darn list

.....CHECK!!!!!!!!!

Phew! Who would have ever thought it would take me from January until now to finish filling out my 101 in 1001 list. But it's done! And I get to check off another item from it!

Gustav

Ok, time to talk about spot news.

Yesterday afternoon as I was driving around Wichita, running errands like a maniac, I heard a piece on NPR about Hurricane Gustav and its effects on a small town in Lousiana called Houma. "So what?" you might ask. So, one of my college colleagues, Matt Stamey, lives down there and works as a photographer for the Houma Courier.



(photo by Matt Stamey)

Matt is chronicling the events via the Stormtracker Photo Blog, but he also has some brief updates on his personal blog as well.

An excerpt from Day 1 of the Stormtracker Photo Blog:

"Wow, that was intense.
Being from Kansas, I had never seen anything like I saw today as Gustav made its way through Terrebonne Parish.
As the wind and rain increased, I wanted to see first hand what a Hurricane felt like. It didn't take long to realize that standing in the middle of town during a hurricane wasn't for me. "

And this is an excerpt from day 2:

"I felt whole again, I was finally out shooting. For a while, I forgot that a hurricane had just passed. We were talking with a couple of guys on their street and it felt like any other day. We were out there getting photos and stories of the people who live in our community.
If it's a story of a kid at a science fair, or story about a man and his batman collection or a story about someone who just lost their home, the concept of gathering the images and story remains the same."

What I just love, love, love about Matt is how genuine he is. He moved down to Houma a few years ago and just dove into the community. He truly became a part of the community, and whenever he talks about it, it is SO evident. I wish I could have become part of the community at my first newspaper .... and truly called it home. Stamey has done that, and I have to tip my hat to him for that.

Let's rewind a bit to 2005 and Hurricane Katrina. Matt was beginning to call Houma home, and was also in the biggest national news event of the year.

Having the heart of gold that he does, Matt wanted to help. And thus "Faces of Katrina" was born.

He explained to the K-State photographers: "my main goal with this project is to get families back together. It kills me when a little boy comes to me and asks if I've seen his dad. Any little bit I can do to help, I will."

So he went to a few shelters and photographed the refugees, posted it on the Courier's Web site, and hoped families would be able to find their loved ones.



(photos by Matt Stamey)

You can view the project HERE and HERE.

Matt is so awesome that he put together a year-anniversary project, too. You can check it out HERE.

I also think he put together a DVD about the project ... where he spoke about the project, his thought behind it and the results of it. He presented it to us at our annual K-State photo gathering .... and I just wept when I saw it. It was so truly beautiful, and you could tell it was so heartfelt (I'm all tearing up as I'm typing this now!). I'm not sure where you can get it, but if I find out, I'll add it to this post.

So ... be sure to go leave some encouragement for those in Houma at the Stormtracker Photo Blog!

Ice, ice baby....

Ok, all old school music aside, I want to be a little serious today. This post is about ICE — In Case of Emergency.

Dad and I were talking last week and I said something about ICE and how I had a few ICE numbers programed into my cell phone. HUUUUUH????? was his response. Nice. But mom had no clue what I was talking about either. SO it occurred to me others might not be aware of this as well.

REWIND: While working as a reporter in Hays a few years ago, I covered cops, and in the course of it, someone mentioned ICE. I didn't know what it was, so they explained it to me. The basic idea is many people carry a cell phone with them at all times. If (God forbid) something were to happen and I was to be unconscious or unable to communicate with emergency workers, they would grab my phone and go through my address book and find ICE. I would have an emergency contact or two or more dialed in.

Since I rarely carry a purse or wallet on me, but generally have my phone on me, this seemed to make good sense. SO.... I have ICE in my phone.

But do you? ;-)

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2006 that 1,600,000 emergency room patients could not provide contact information because they were incapacitated." — from the ICE sticker Web site.

And of course, everything you wanted to know about ICE on Wikipediasite.

LONG Labor Day weekend!

This weekend, I scooted out to California to assist the lovely and talented Jessica Del Vecchio document Bhavna and Corey's 3-day Hindu/Christian wedding.

I have had ZERO extra energy to look through any photos (and as a professional courtesy, Jessica will first post a slideshow/her photos before I share any of mine).

Anyhow, I'm UBER thankful to Jessica for asking me to assist her this weekend. It was an invaluable experience.




Also up on the Heartland blog is the slideshow from Jessica and Chris' wedding in Los Angeles! (Doesn't Jessica look TOTALLY hot here????????)