Crossover — Andrea + Larry

Ooooooooooh my goodness, I think my head is going to explode! I'm busy people, so I apologize for a lack of updates.

I was in Manhattan over the weekend for an engagement session. Andrea and I have become fast friends (we met when she helped coordinate a wedding in April) and she e-mailed me the day after Larry proposed .... and told me he used an Upwords game to pop the question. I immediately knew I wanted to use it ... and sort of envisioned this photo in my head.


Now, just because I come up with an idea I like doesn't always mean I execute it to make the photo I have in my head .... but I'd say I came pretty darn close on this one!!!!

More photos on the Heartland Blog.

Updates might be thin for awhile, folks. Friend's wedding in town this weekend, and houseguests like mad. OH, and tomorrow I'm making ham and bean soup. I can barely contain my excitement!!!!!! :) Oh, I read a nifty new trick for freezing soup in Better Homes and Gardens .... I'll test it out and report back. :)

My favorite things ...

Oh goodness ... I picked up a few bags of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate just to check them out.

Ummmmmmmm .... yummmmmmmmie :)

The raspberry ones are UH-MAAAAZING!


I also got chocolate ones. They weren't as fantastic as the raspberry ones, but still awfully good.

Anniversary!

What?!?!!?!??? We've been married a year? How does that happen!???!?!???

House Blessing

Fr. Nick blessed our house several weeks ago ..... and we had plenty of family and friends in town for the festivities. :)


The dudes doing the grill thing.



And of course, after a good meal, this is what the men in my family do ...

Crossover — Mark's Sr. Portraits

It's been busy in the Heartland world. Check out Mark. Gotta love some graphic light and an athlete to place in it!

Full post on the Heartland blog HERE.

FOR SALE: HP 940C printer

I have a new printer .... and that means I have really no use of my faithful old printer, my HP 940C.


I've had it and loved on it for almost 10 years and it runs beautifully! But, we're going our separate ways. And I'm trying to find it a loving home.

Included for $125 is:
HP 940C printer
power cord
color & black ink cartridge already in the printer
extra black ink cartridge
original box
original paperwork/instruction manual

I think I have the instillation CD somewhere, but I'm going to have to dig it up ....

The connection cord to the computer is staying with me, since it works w/ my new printer.

Meatless Recipes

I know it's months away from Lent, but sometimes it can be difficult to come up with recipes that aren't the "same old same old." You girls know what I'm talking about!

We actually try to eat meatless one day a week, so I have the luxury of looking for good meatless dishes year-round. :)

Anyhow, I came across this recipe in Real Simple Magazine a few weeks ago and tried it out immediately. It's a potato-leek-feta tart. YUUUUUUUMMMMMIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!



I've never cooked with leeks before, but it wasn't all that difficult. :)

If you're interested, you can CLICK HERE for the recipe. The ingredients sound like they don't really go together, but it's actually very tasty! :)

# 92 — Keep the dining room table clutter free (i.e. no Karen piles) for one month

.... CHEEEEEEEEECK another one off the 101 in 1001 list!

There were a few times I didn't think I'd make it, but overall, the dining room clutter has been reduced drastically! :)

I'm relieved I can go back to being a slob and piling mail on the dining room table. ;)

One more from Vancouver

One of the bridges we traveled on a few weeks ago. :)

Killer kitty?

Two things today.

1) My youngest brother, Paul, started a blog. YESSSSSS!!!!!! Another convert! ;) He's living in Taiwan and i suggested a blog would be a great way to keep us updated without having to e-mail everyone the same thing. Ya know? Oh, for those of you who are interested, HERE is the link. I'll also add it on the right side of our blog here ... under "family blogs."

2) Our cat. I think now that it's getting colder, she needs to be more warm at night. So she hunkers down on the far edge of the bed, thus pushing me into the middle. Which unfortunately results in Erik getting pushed OUT of the bed. :( Poor Erik.

More on the kitty:


I went out to the car one evening to see this. There's the cat in the chair ... and do you see the rabbit in the upper right corner of the photo?


This glance was about all Esse gave to the rabbit.

A rabbit seems to like hanging out on our new porch .... *sigh* .... Erik might be right .... our cat has lost her killer instincts. I think Erik feeds her too much. Maybe if he stopped feeding her, she'd annihilate the rabbit population in our yard.

I-I-IKEA!!!!!

While in Vancouver, we drove by IKEA and I squealed. :)


We actually WENT IN .... and the best part was I didn't spend a dime. :)

Mmmmmmm..... wine!

On my way back from Vancouver, I had about 4 hours to kill in the Seattle airport. Helllllllloooo Vino Volo. The food was .... so-so ..... but having a trio of wines to sample while I read a book .... bene!


I opted to sample the ones local to Washington State, but can't seem to find the whites I sampled there. Ugh. I LOVED the middle one .... but I don't know which wine it was!

Traveling

A few weeks ago, I went to Canada to shoot a wedding with my friend, Jamie. It involved 3 planes in 1 day. Bleh.


But I have to say I felt a little like I was in an earlier decade, flying in a plane with winged propellers (my sister and her hubby can laugh and correct me here).


Not sure what this all means, but it certainly *sounds* "green."


I'm always amused what I see people traveling with. This was sticking out of the bag of a grown man.


I have to admit I'm slightly amused by this photo. But I also acknowledge it's practical when in so many public places.


Lastly, I was amused by watching these guys in silhouette. I wish there were better plane fins in the photo ... but a girl can't have it all.

Slice of life

So those of you who know me know I'm a word nerd. Some words just SOUND nice.


Mojito is one such word. It just SOUNDS nice an friendly. AND like a drink I'd enjoy drinking. I've ordered it twice, but haven't LOVED it, which disappoints me.


Sproles is another word that's fun to say. Especially since when I was photographing at K-State, he was there. I always loved it when he walked by me on the sidelines because I am taller than he is (even in cleats and with a helmet).

Ok, so Erik has heard this monologue MANY, MANY, MANY times. Yesterday, we were walking and somehow I slipped into the monologue. AND without missing a beat, Erik (in a SERIOUS, not mocking voice), said "Gastric bypass ... that's a nice-sounding word." .... I about wet my pants. I was laughing SO hard. Seriously. I had to stop and laugh for a good 2 minutes before i could regain enough composure to even WALK. Sheesh!

A little slice of OUR life! :)

Sidewalk Supervisor

Oh Esse .... for whatever reason when I was baking zucchini bread last week.

For WHATEVER reason, she felt the need to sit on the patio rail and watch through the screen door.


I asked her if she'd like to come in, but no. She wanted to watch through the window.

For those of you interested, HERE is the recipe. I had some VERY ripe frozen bananas that I added to the batter. YUMMIE!!!!! :)

Bye bye bachelor ways ....

Ever since I met Erik, this has been living in Erik's pantry (ok, so now it's OUR pantry).


Over the weekend, I glanced at the box top for education label (more specifically the expiration date).


Ummmmmmm.....2005. Great.

Erik has an insanely old bottle of mayo in the fridge. I am actually afraid to look at the expiration date on it, but let's just say I'm sure it's been expired for at least 5 years.


This is when it's "best used by" .... yeah.

Groooooooan. It went into the circular file.

Party Crashing ...

Over Labor Day weekend, I was lonely and pathetic, and knew my sister and her husband were camping nearby at Kanopolis Lake. They were also with her in-laws. I felt a little bad about inviting myself, but they were good sports about it.


I helped by toasting the marshmellows on a retractable rod.


Honestly, I can't remember ever actually eating S'Mores before, but they were yuuuuummie. :)

Hangin' out in the backyard.....

Remember this unique idea for gardening?


Well, I finally got it going in OUR backyard.

BEFORE:


AFTER:




I've got some lettuce growing in the top.


And some flowers in the bottom. I think next year that I'll put in pansies so we have a completely edible hanging garden. :)


I drilled some holes in the bottom for draining, and Erik is the designated watering boy. :)

I want to put this in our lattice portion of our patio, too. I have shorter ones for pretty flowers (or pansies, because I can put those in a salad!). So stay tuned to see the rest of this idea come to fruition!

Also, I think this qualifies as a "green" project. How? The gutters are from my buddy, Coop. He had them and was going to scrap them, so I rescued them from his house and repurposed them for our backyard! :)

R3 — Milk

It's probably the longest I've ever stood and stared intently at the dairy case. I stood, eyeing the glass bottles through the doors. To buy or not to buy locally produced milk? That was the question ... I just couldn't decide. For 1/2 a gallon, it's about $1 more, but .... I believe in supporting the local economy (Junction City, but close enough). Oh, what to do?

Seriously, I stood there for more than a full minute debating the issue.


In the end, I decided to just go for it. Honestly, I don't think I've ever had milk from a glass bottle before. There is a grippy part that serves as a handle, which is fantastically easy to use! One of the big bonuses for the glass bottles is the milk is supposed to taste better. I guess I'm not a milk snob, because neither Erik nor I can tell the difference. So does it justify forking over more moo-lah for the milk?


For the time being, with just the two of us consuming barely a half a gallon of milk per week, I suppose the $1 isn't going to break the bank. We'll have to see.

Any thoughts on getting local milk from our blog readers? Is it worth it? Not?

For anyone curious, here's a few articles I found about the dairy: HERE and HERE.

One item mentioned in one of the articles, the bottles are completely reused ... which is nice. We recycle our plastic bottles, but how much of that is truly reused? Who knows?!!?!? I guess it doesn't have to travel so far and takes less gas .... which is positive, right?

Crossover — Ian's Sr. Portraits

Ok, so I haven't yet posted this on the the Heartland Blog, but I'm crazy about this top photo!


A little more traditional, but with my buttery 1.4 lens, it just makes it pop. :)

I'll get my slideshow rockin' out on this and posted on the bizzzzness blog (hopefully by tomorrow).

Patio Process X

The fallout of the project ....

My fingers ended up with GOBS of blisters. ;(


AND YES, ROBIN......I DID WEAR GLOVES!!!!!!!! ;)


My favorite pair of jeans, however, didn't fare so well. :(




Anyone know how to get creosote out of jeans? I ended up with it after moving railroad ties to line the garden ... and have used the heck out of oxi clean, but to no avail!


I luckily had knee pads for my knees ... but Erik didn't ...


Ugh. But his jeans are better and mine are not. :(

Patio Process IX

The first bit.

It was not exactly easy to put the stones in. I wanted it to be sort of random looking. I didn't want them to be orderly looking. Ya know?


And they're all in!