Mostly caught up

I think I've done a pretty good job of getting the last month or so caught up around here.

True, there are still some photos from Colorado this summer, but we'll get to those eventually!

Is it just me?

Ugh. In a bit of a funk around here this morning. Mom sent me a text that someone who I went to school with for 14 years is in their final days of battling cancer. I'm sad for he and his family; for his new wife; for the whole situation. Sometimes life just doesn't seem fair.

Since we were classmates, I can't help but think back about the others in our class who have passed. It's been 11 years since we all graduated, and 3 deaths come to mind immediately. We're 30-31 years old. Does this even seem correct? Other people out there, how many from your graduating class have passed? I know at some point, things start to come fast and furious, but so early?

This adds to other friends who have passed this year (2 from alcoholism-related complications), not related to my academic life, but still people who I cared about.

Sorry to be Debbie Downer on a Monday morning, all. I'll take my Eeyore attitude + the little black raincloud and retreat offline.

Chocolate

I recently found THIS incredibly tasty recipe for bread pudding w/ dark chocolate and cherries. It's heaven on a plate. And not with too, too, too much sugar.


This is before, but the after is so, so, so good!

Oh, how I'm glad it's cooled down so I can turn my oven on to bake!

"Sniff that tail"

We've always known the dog likes to sniff the cat's tail, but of course the kitty wants no part of that. Well, over the summer Erik learned that if he lets the kitty outside, she is so focused on going out, that the dog could practically lick her and she wouldn't care. Kitty wants out, and nothing else matters. Of course, sometimes he isn't nice and doesn't let her out. Just lets the dog get a good sniff.




Evidence of a tail fetish.


Every once in awhile we'll see them this close. Which is as close as they will ever get in a peaceful manner.

In Atwood

A long-time friend of mine, Fr. Nick, lives far, far away in a hamlet named Atwood. I keep meaning to go visit, but it's a 4-ish hour drive from us, and have never had a good excuse.

When our church youth needed "adult sponsors" for Prayer in Action, I decided "what the heck?" So I went. The week was full of scraping and painting houses. Believe it or not, this is NOT something I have experience doing, so it was a good lesson.


This is the motel in town; it made me giggle. We stayed in the church's school. It was smokin' hot in Aug. :(


Everyone at work.


Many hand make light work.


I was able to pass on some of my power tool knowledge. :)

In a Pickle

Awhile ago, one of Erik's co-workers asked me over to see the pickle-making process. I've never seen caning first-hand, so I figured "why not?"


We started with peeling lots of garlic (oh how I love garlic cloves!).


Mike is a cat-lover, and his 3 felines are not shy about checking out what we're doing. Or just sitting on the cook book. "Helping," of course.


I did lots of cucumber cutting, and shoving them into the jars. It's not as easy as it looks!


Mike had the pot of water outside, but once we put the first tray inside, there wasn't enough water, so he added some more from the garden hose. Then we started to see little things floating around. Did a jar break? We couldn't tell.


Yup. It was verifiable. We had a broken jar. I guess we should have added hot water.


Our take from the day.

He gave us a few jars and they're sitting on the shelf downstairs, aging away.

Robin on the job

When we were in Wichita awhile ago, I twisted my sister's arm to show us around her job. She does cool things like fly small airplanes. :)


She brings sexy to a flight suit. No joke.


Erik and I sardened into a cockpit.

Lindsborg for an afternoon

When my in-laws were here last month, we went to the Salt Mines. We also took a day trip to Lindsborg. They're famous for the Dala horses. They're everywhere in that town.


Even outside of the senior center.


This horse makes me giggle, with its hearing aide + Ben-Gay.

Theodore's 1st Birthday Party

I made a brief post last month when our nephew turned 1. I've now had time to sift through the photos and share. There are LOTS, so get cozy.


Check out the crowd!

After he woke up from his nap, it was time for presents.


Check out that grin!


"Auntie Karen, what the heck are you doing???"


Opening.


As with kids, though, the bag or box the gift comes in is almost always better than the gift itself.




He seemed pretty excited!


Leftie. For sure.



"Quit it already, Auntie Karen."


Next up: Cake!


Sans milk.


Getting strapped in & ready. No clue what's coming. Robin's been strict about no sweets until he was 1. So poor kid didn't know what he had to look forward to. ;)


Closer to showtime, but he's not sure what's going on.


Patiently waiting. If he knew how good his cake was, he wouldn't have been so patient.


(left) after; (right) before. :)


Dad is giving him an assist on the candle, but as you can see, Theodore already has his fingers in the frosting. Smart kid.


"Hmm, not sure what this is but I like it."


A little more ....


Aaaand, out comes the candle.


Chow time.


Leftie. All.The.Way.


Cute baby cupcakes.


Eating Auntie Karen's ice cream. This kid loved it. He's smart like that.


I love Theodore in this series. In the top, he's looking for more cake that was caught in his bib (which had a pouch to catch food), then he's looking up, and finally at me. Silly goose.


After, he was banging on the door b/c daddy was outside cooking dinner.

Crossover — Editorial Shoot Published :)

Soooo, this editorial shoot I did mid-summer was recently published on a wedding inspiration blog.


Gosh, I have lots to catch up on ... I've been doing lots of stuff behind the scenes, pulling album photos, proofing albums to couples, toning albums, ordering them. All vital stuff, but not really stuff I'm blogging about much.

We'll see if I can do some pre-blogging and catch up!

Easy, tasty chicken (ready in 30 min!)

I don't generally watch commercials on TV (THANK YOU, DVR!), but over the holiday, I caught a few. I saw THIS recipe and thought "wow, that looks good!"

On Tuesday night, I gave it a whirl. Sort of. I did some changing and subbing on the recipe, so it's more my own than Hellman's. Yet Erik says I can't claim it's mine. Whatever.


Here's my take on their recipe.

Ingredients:
boneless/skinless chicken
1/3 c. sour cream (or however much looks right)
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
bread crumbs (1 c?) from Irish Soda Bread
dried parsley

Preheat over to 425
Mix sour cream/cheese/garlic salt/parsley.
place chix on cooking sheet (I covered mine w/ parchment paper)
slather mixture on chix (mine was about 1/4 in. thick)
mix dried parsley with bread crumbs
sprinkle liberally on top of chix, making sure it's all covered (there will be none on the bottom, this is OK

Cook @ 425 for 15-20 min. (I used chix tenders, so they were really thin ... might need to cook longer w/ breasts or thicker cuts)

ENJOY.

Closet organizing, followup

Remember THIS post where I talked about hanging all of my clothes hangers backwards to see what I wear and what I don't?


Honestly, I didn't plan for it to be almost 6 months, but it seems about right. Granted, I have yet to go through winter, but this is what I've done: I took all of the hangers still hanging backwards and took them out of my closet.

If I were a really good llama, I would've donated all of those clothes. But as I said, winter has yet to come and go. So I've hung onto them. I moved them into a spare closet that didn't have any clothes hanging. So if I need an item, I can go get it, but if around the first of the year I haven't worn the items, I intend to donate them (well, I have some shirts that might make their way into a t-shirt quilt, but they'll free closet real estate).

Yogurt update

I've had several questions about my yogurt-making, so I updated the original post HERE about it. Shout if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Theodore's 1st trip to the zoo

A week ago, it was free day at the Zoo, so Robin and I decided to take Theodore ....


In the car. NO idea what's coming.


In the stroller. I'm sure he's thinking "what are you two ladies blithering about?"


It was hot and awful, but we made it to see a few exhibits.


I didn't exactly have the right lens on for this photo, but whatever.

It was amusing, because sometimes you could tell he could see the animal, and he'd grab the bars and peer in. But if we took him out of his stroller, he'd look for a minute, then try to climb right back in. (we're guessing he was overwhelmed with the massive volume of people around; the place was, well, a ZOO of visitors). Sometimes we wondered if he really saw the animals ... he seemed pretty distracted by the other visitors.