Jamaica — leaving home

I guess the best way to share photos it just to start at the very beginning. So here we go ....


Boog, of course, had to investigate. If she actually LIKED traveling, I'd think she was trying to sneak into the suitcase. But I know better than that.


After all was ready, I snuggled in bed w/ kitty and waited for E to get home from work. We then went to Wichita and caught an early flight the next morning.


This beauty was in the Houston airport when we were flying out Sunday morning.

Siiiiiiigh.


Erik's reaction to the iPod distribution machine was more PG than mine, so that's why it's posted here. ;-)

Chicago — random

These people were just torturing me .... boogers. It was freezing and they were pimping sunny Florida.

Jamaica — another teaser photo

Ok, ok, ok. So I know there are rumblings for more photos from our honeymoon. Sorry it's taken awhile to get to these. Well, I'm note even going to show anymore tonight. Sorry. :-(

But ... we've been BEYOND busy.

My fam came to celebrate Christmas Eve with us.

I've also been spending an INSANE amount of time preparing for the upcoming bridal shows. Heartland will have a booth in 3 shows (YAY!), but there are a TON of little details involved. Gotta get new cards w/ my new last name. Gotta have info sheets to hand out, gotta have more album samples, gotta have photos to hang/display, gotta HAVE a display .... you get the picture. There are a LOT of little things to do with this, so I've been up to my ears.

Oh, and as if I didn't have anything else to do, Erik had the last 3 days off, so we painted the front bedroom (YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!) . We've also primed the closet today. It seems freakin' insane, I know ... but in some small way, I totally needed this. Yes, NEEDED it. A lot of my projects have been things I don't really see visible progress on. So to do something and see it get COMPLETED, it's fantastic. And, yes, there are photos to share. :-)

AND I'll be on the road this week.

Tuesday = Hays for a friend's b-day
Wednesday = Manhattan for a funeral
Thursday-Saturday = Salina to get my act together
Saturday-Monday = Wichita for bridal show/baby portraits

I'll do my BESTEST to have more pix ready to share, but please DO understand I'm almost in over my head right now!

Oh, Erik is busy, too. He's giving his full vocabulary to the Mizzou bowl game tonight.

Chicago — random buildings

These are from my boat tour ... no real idea what buildings they are, but they look artsy-fartsy .... sorta.

Chicago — Navy Pier

Check out the awesome Navy Pier.


The sky was SO CRYSTAL CLEAR and amazing (right before it got freezing cold!)


LOVE this last one!

Chicago — Waterfront

Here's something awesome from the boat tour. :-)


Me + the Sears Tower.

Chicago — Trump Tower

Ok, ok, so it's been awhile since I posted about my trip to Chicago. This is from the boat trip .... and here's Trump Hotel/Tower.



And my favorite photo is last:

Chicago — for Mike II

I saw this on the way to the L from my engagement session.

She's here!

So, the last 24 hours have been BIG!

Yes, my family came into town to join us for dinner + Mass. It was lovely .... but I have to admit all day, I was distracted. Why? Well, my bizzzzzzness partner, Mike, and his wife, Angie, were having a baby! :-)

I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be doing some family pix soon, so I'll share those once I meet this little jewel of a girl ... and check out her name: Madison Noel. Isn't that sweet???!??!!?

Congrats Angie, Mike and baby Maddie!!!

Working on the 101 list

So, today begins my efforts for another item on my 101 in 1001 list.

45. Make one new recipe/week for 3 months

Today, I started with breakfast. We had peanut butter pancakes. YUMMIE!!!!!!!!!

Fairly easy, not a big adjustment from my normal pancake routine ... good times. The only thing is they're DENSE pancakes, so I could only eat 3 VERY SMALL pancakes. Yikes! NOT in character for me.

To check out the recipe, CLICK HERE. Oh, and I omitted the chopped nuts and instead added mini chocolate chips on the top. :-)

I'll try to keep a running tally of new recipes, too.

Dec. 21 — Peanut Butter Pancakes

"The Poisonwood Bible"

Wow.

That's the only word I have for the book I'm currently reading ("The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingslover).

I could not even do justice to explaining the book/plot. But, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.

My friend, Jeanel, gave it to me two years ago during my trip to Africa.


I don't know why it's taken me two years to really delve into it ... but I SO love it! Getting the characters all straight in my head took awhile, but once I got it down, I have had a hard time putting the book down.

Just last night, I was reading ... and here's a quote that just hit me like a ton of bricks.

"The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes." ~ p. 496

So powerful.

So true.

(and for those of you who might be curious, it's not sacrilegious or anything like that .... it's about a Baptist family and Poisonwood is a type of tree ... and that's all I'm going to say ... other than go check that book out from your local library!!!!!)

A few honeymoon pix

I'll start this post with what I believe is hands down, the best photo taken in Jamaica. And guess who took the pic?

ERIK!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was a little sore that he took a better picture than me, but I stroke my ego by telling myself he learned from the best. ;-)

The photos haven't really been edited yet, but I just grabbed a few favorites here.


The view from the stairs ... I like it.


Happy honeymooners. :-)

On a side note, I love, love, love my new "purse camera"!!!!!!!! I achieved this photo by setting it to the sunset setting, then forcing the flash to fire when a photo is taken. Don't have control over the fill flash, but I think it looks pretty good.


This is Erik with four, that's right FOUR, of our new favorite drink: Jamacian Smile.


Thought I'd close with this one ... it's comical. We were right next door to a nekkid resort. I'm sure Erik will have some colorful post later. ;-)

Advent adventure?

So it's the season of Advent yet again. We decorated for Christmas by setting up our nativity sets and Advent wreath.



All was well until Erik and I left on our honeymoon. In all, we were gone about 10 days. Well, when we returned, there was a little shower of wax on the dining room table, around the wreath. Hmm ... in addition to that, there were TEETH MARKS on the top of the candles. UGH! ESSE!!!!!!!!!!!

The heck of it is that I've had plenty of candles around before, but she's never gnawed on it before ... and those other candles even smelled yummie! The Advent wreath candles don't smell yummie, so I'm not sure why she needed to chew on them.

But doesn't she look angelic??????

Don't be deceived.


Our kitty sitter also said when he was washing his hands in the front bathroom, she jumped onto the sink, then CRAWLED up his chest and settled herself around his neck. Think: scarf.

Strange.

I guess she was just really starving for a) human contact and b) body heat/warmth.

She's certainly glad to see us ... especially our bodies so she can curl up on them and warm up. :-)

Crossover — Braggin'

Ok, so cruise on over to the Heartland blog to check out my photos published in Kansas! Magazine.

This is my first magazine publication, and I have to admit it was rather thrilling. Coop was bummed they didn't put my name on there because about half of them are mine, but I know when you deal with people there is information lost, etc ... and you can't control what they'll do/say/publish. So it's just a glorified crap shoot. Both of us know whose photos are whose .... and Jeff is a big enough photographer to give credit where credit is due.

Chicago — Bill Peet

My favorite author EVER is Bill Peet. Seriously. I *heart* Bill Peet.

He's probably one of the first authors I remember, so I was THRILLED to see an exhibit in Chicago when I was there.


Getting to see the sketches and book pages with the editing marks totally ROCKED!


And the exhibit was so informative ... I never knew he was a Disney artist!

Chicago — for Mike

When Mike learned I'd be in Chicago shortly after Obama was elected President (thus making him president-elect), he said "bring me back something Obama!" ... but with limited suitcase space, this picture will have to do, Shep. Sorry. :-(

It was interesting to just prowl the streets of Chicago. I don't know the "mood' of it normally, but I did see a LOT of Obama pins on lapels ... of people old, young, black, white ... it didn't matter. Seems people are proud.


And THIS was truly a treat! I stayed with Erik's buddy (and best man), Matt, who is a producer at one of the TV stations in Chicago. I watched a few shows from the control room (which is a loud, crazy place, even if only 3 people are in there!).

Chicago — the bean

Check this out. Isn't it fun??!??!?!??!?! I've seen it on several photo friends' blogs, and when I knew I had a day to kill in Chicago, the bean was on my LIST! (The day before Lori and Derek's KILLER engagement session!)


And here I am in it! (the blob in the light blue).


And closer yet .... yeah, it was COLD. My nose was bright red and my toosh was icy cold.


I totally dug this image. I wonder how it would look w/ no people ... just buildings. Sort of surreal. The buildings look all funky and out of whack on the left, but ... oh, they're normal on the right. Phew! ;-)


The above photo is probably my favorite, favorite, favorite photo from the bean. It's 100% reflections. Just cool, moody and imaginative.

Cook Top & Floor Cleaning

I *never* thought I'd be one of those girls who would try a variety of cleaning products to find magic ... but I have become that.

My research was done while watching HGTV. Nothing formal, just watching commercials that looked promising.

I started with the Scotch Brite Cook Top Cleaner.


There was LOTS of promise, but for all of the scrubbing, I went through 2-3 scrubbing pads, but the stains held fast. :-(

Yet another commercial made promises, and after a failed Scotch Brite, I was not convinced.

But boy, did Mr. Clean EVER deliver!!!!!!!!!

I inherited Erik's kitchen ... fairly new appliances, but with about 4 years worth of boiled over chili on the cook top .... and now it's (mostly) gone! THANK YOU MR. CLEAN!!!!!!!

AND last week, Erik attacked the dirty grout on the kitchen floor ... and it looks UH-MAAAAZING! No matter how much scrubbing I'd done on the floor before, it just never looked clean. But now .... it's fantastic!

Christmas Cookie Time!

My most favorite part of making Christmas cookies is .... eating the dough the night before. :-)

This ritual was done annually while growing up ... and I'm excited to show Erik the art of sneaking cookie dough in the middle of the night. Robin and Chris will be around to do the baking. And good for them. We'll leave the baking to them and the cookie dough eating to US!

(notice the Christmas tree cookie cutter? Mom always said cookies shaped as Christmas trees taste the best).

A nutty mess.....

On NPR the other evening, I was listening to this story about how squirrels might be in trouble b/c there is a shortage of acorns. It certainly seems silly. Ok, I totally laughed out loud when I heard it. But .... if you need a good laugh, CLICK HERE


Our family has a silly obsession with squirrels, so the photo below absolutely cracked me up.

Crossover — Hindu/Christian Wedding

Ooooooooooook. I've been waiting a LONG time to post this. But I wouldn't dream of doing it w/o the heads up from the primary shooter of the day.

Aren't these eyes hot, hot, hot?!!?!?!???!


In early September, I went back to California to help my buddy, Jessica, shoot a 3-day Hindu/Christian wedding. Wow. It was so incredibly awesome! I LOVE experiencing other cultures and learning about their religious customs/traditions. I seriously EAT IT UP.

Speaking of eating, I couldn't get enough of the freakin' awesome Indian food!


And I'll close with a few dancing images.

Being at an Indian dance was incredible! IT was so cool! EVERYONE danced, no matter how young, old, male or female they were. Even the older guys were out on the floor busting a move! It was freakin' awesome!


My favorite photo of the day:


To view the entire post, please CLICK HERE.