I confess, when I watch televised sporting events with Erik, I'm usually watching the fringe action. In football, when a player runs out of bounds into the sidelines, I am looking at the gaggle of people on the sidelines to see if I recognize a familiar face. Hey, that's where the photographers are! :)
SO, for those of you who are interested, the Diocese of Salina is having a new bishop installed and ordained tomorrow (YAY!!!!). The good Lord willing, I'll be photographing it (ya know, as long as this baby doesn't initiate labor between now and 2 p.m. tomorrow).
The event is a by invitation only one, but if you're interested in checking it out, there are several ways to take advantage of technology to do so (if you've never seen a bishop being ordained, I suggest you watch; it's pretty neat).
Option 1: EWTN Audio feed (click HERE) - 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Option 2: Watch LIVE on the Diocese of Sailna's Website (click HERE ... I believe the red link on the right column is the correct one; you may also try THIS link, but it appears to be 'broken' for this exact moment; I suspect it will be live tomorrow) - 2 p.m Tuesday
Option 3: LIVE at 2 p.m. on EWTN cable channel; Replay of the ordination at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
You may also check out the special section on our Bishop-Elect at the Online Catholic Register HERE.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Peek A Boo!
So, yes, Erik and I are 'with' child, or as I say the child is 'with' us. :) We've been extremely hush-hush with this whole thing.
BEING pregnant hasn't been particularly difficult; I'm thankful and know we have been blessed with a fairly symptom-free pregnancy. Yet there have been other factors that have made it difficult (hence, why we have a LOT of sonogram photos to look at/share). If you see me in person, I'll be happy to share ... yet I'm still trying to puzzle over how much I feel comfortable sharing in the cyber world.
Baby is due in May. When? Well, that's anybody's guess based on several other extra factors (see above paragraph).
My prayer for right now is this: I am scheduled to photograph our new bishop being ordained and installed on Tuesday. I'd LOVE to get through that, edit my photos and get them sent off before baby comes. We've had several chat w/ baby about this, and are hoping baby agrees to keep a cookin' until at least Weds., May 2. Baby'd still be a bit early then, but my selfish side would really like to shoot this assignment before Baby arrives.
Of course, we'll be excited/happy, regardless of when Baby decides to arrive. :)
Oh, and the orange room (HERE), the middle bedroom (HERE) ... Baby's room. We've had a crib since late October, yet it's taken us awhile to get it put together. It's mostly done now, I just need to sift through and move some stuff around ... THEN I'll be ready/willing/able to share photos. :)
Friday, April 27, 2012
#105 — Kitchen/Dining: Before/After (and some during!)
Where to even begin with this project? Let's see .... let's start with the general before/after of our dining room. It looks the most different.
First, this is an item I can check off of my bucket list (#105)! We didn't have the floors redone as we initially intended, but the cold, ugly tile is gone. Mission ACCOMPLISHED! :)
But before I begin - anyone else HATE THE NEW GOOGLE BLOGGER??? This new dashboard/compose/etc is a HUGE inconvenience. Seriosuly. I want the old one back. This new version is awful. It's taken me 15x as long to make this post as it 'normally' would. :( :( :( Makes me want to go check out Wordpress.
You'll notice the carpet has been removed from the dining room and now the flooring is the same from the kitchen into the dining room.
It took me a long time to do ANYTHING with the hole in the wall because I didn't want to sand it down after we mudded it. See how much of a mess it made?
We next attacked the carpet. We knew there were hardwood floors under it. Our buddy, Mike, came with this magic tool for pulling up carpet tack strips, which made the job SO much easier! Getting all of the flooring up and the baseboards up, too, took about an hour (which shocked us; we thought it'd take longer)
Once again, I HATE THE NEW GOOGLE BLOGGER ... it's so annoying an inconvenient to use!!! I've been working on this post for 45+ minutes now. Seriously - NOT photo friendly. :(
We knew there were nice hardwood floors underneath, and when the carpet came up, they weren't in terrible shape. It's just that we wanted the floors to be the same, and the tile in the kitchen would not have come up easily ... so we had to cover them up!
Erik knows how to work the vacuum. :)
The progress of our dining room floor.
The fellas with the skills that made it happen. Yes, everyone says 'you can do it yourself' but I know better. Our marriage could probably survive many home projects, but I'm not sure that it could survive installing laminate floors when neither of us knew what we were doing.
For example, the pros knew how to wiggle the laminate under the door frames ... something I'd have been clueless about.
Bailey had to go stay at the kennel while the project was going on; she couldn't have handled the excitement and would have been UNDER FOOT. But she likes the before/after. :)
LOVING it!
The trim looks snazzy! Another example of something I don't have the skills to do!
We had to move the dog's food/water b/c she makes a bit of a splashy mess when she drinks. It was starting to warp the boards a bit. But it's near a wall and not *too* noticeable ... besides, now there is some 'damage' to the floor so if/when something happens to it, no need to freak out; it's already been hurt a little bit.
*sigh* this post has taken me SO MUCH longer than usual to write b/c of Google's new format on the back end. It's awful and unless I fan find a way to go back, I'll have to switch to another blog provider. I don't have this kind of time to dedicate to each and every post. What a PITA. Seriously!
If you missed it, there is a bit of a progression for this project.
Post 1: Karen goes insane and tears down a portion of the kitchen wall
Post 2: Uh-oh. What have I done?
Post 3: Finally, some forward progress
Post 4: Vents have been moved!!!
Post 5: Painting complete! :)
Post 5: Carpet is gone
First, this is an item I can check off of my bucket list (#105)! We didn't have the floors redone as we initially intended, but the cold, ugly tile is gone. Mission ACCOMPLISHED! :)
But before I begin - anyone else HATE THE NEW GOOGLE BLOGGER??? This new dashboard/compose/etc is a HUGE inconvenience. Seriosuly. I want the old one back. This new version is awful. It's taken me 15x as long to make this post as it 'normally' would. :( :( :( Makes me want to go check out Wordpress.
You'll notice the carpet has been removed from the dining room and now the flooring is the same from the kitchen into the dining room.
It took me a long time to do ANYTHING with the hole in the wall because I didn't want to sand it down after we mudded it. See how much of a mess it made?
Of course, the mess was awful, but we kept saying to ourselves "it's going to look amazing when it's finished" ... and we think it does.
In addition to making a giant mess of the floor (and every other surface in the area), we took the baseboards off. Those guys were old and we figured if we were getting new floors, might as well put new baseboards in, too.
We next attacked the carpet. We knew there were hardwood floors under it. Our buddy, Mike, came with this magic tool for pulling up carpet tack strips, which made the job SO much easier! Getting all of the flooring up and the baseboards up, too, took about an hour (which shocked us; we thought it'd take longer)
Once again, I HATE THE NEW GOOGLE BLOGGER ... it's so annoying an inconvenient to use!!! I've been working on this post for 45+ minutes now. Seriously - NOT photo friendly. :(
We knew there were nice hardwood floors underneath, and when the carpet came up, they weren't in terrible shape. It's just that we wanted the floors to be the same, and the tile in the kitchen would not have come up easily ... so we had to cover them up!
Erik knows how to work the vacuum. :)
The progress of our dining room floor.
The fellas with the skills that made it happen. Yes, everyone says 'you can do it yourself' but I know better. Our marriage could probably survive many home projects, but I'm not sure that it could survive installing laminate floors when neither of us knew what we were doing.
For example, the pros knew how to wiggle the laminate under the door frames ... something I'd have been clueless about.
Bailey had to go stay at the kennel while the project was going on; she couldn't have handled the excitement and would have been UNDER FOOT. But she likes the before/after. :)
LOVING it!
The trim looks snazzy! Another example of something I don't have the skills to do!
We had to move the dog's food/water b/c she makes a bit of a splashy mess when she drinks. It was starting to warp the boards a bit. But it's near a wall and not *too* noticeable ... besides, now there is some 'damage' to the floor so if/when something happens to it, no need to freak out; it's already been hurt a little bit.
*sigh* this post has taken me SO MUCH longer than usual to write b/c of Google's new format on the back end. It's awful and unless I fan find a way to go back, I'll have to switch to another blog provider. I don't have this kind of time to dedicate to each and every post. What a PITA. Seriously!
If you missed it, there is a bit of a progression for this project.
Post 1: Karen goes insane and tears down a portion of the kitchen wall
Post 2: Uh-oh. What have I done?
Post 3: Finally, some forward progress
Post 4: Vents have been moved!!!
Post 5: Painting complete! :)
Post 5: Carpet is gone
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Kitchen nest
Remember the hole in our kitchen floor?
We put a rug over it to keep stuff from falling down there, and our kitty has decided it's a prime little nesting spot to take a nap. She never liked it before the vent was removed, so we were a bit puzzled.
Of course, it's gone now. Our floors are 100% complete, and I just need to get myself organized enough (and the counters presentable enough for photos!) to take some photos and share them! :)
We put a rug over it to keep stuff from falling down there, and our kitty has decided it's a prime little nesting spot to take a nap. She never liked it before the vent was removed, so we were a bit puzzled.
Of course, it's gone now. Our floors are 100% complete, and I just need to get myself organized enough (and the counters presentable enough for photos!) to take some photos and share them! :)
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Homemade Pizza
A month or so ago, I was watching one of the cooking channels at the gym. I saw a recipe for a crust that wasn't originally intended for pizza, but figured I'd try to make it work. The key is a lack of yeast and sugar. A tall order, right?
I have used the crust from THIS RECIPE twice. It cooks OK, but doesn't really crisp up. The first time, I baked it at 350 or so. The next time, 425-450. Still not really CRISP .... any tips/tricks, guys?
SO, to make my pizza, I used my Red Sauce — Recipe HERE. Then used the toppings of my choice.
Before:
After:
The crust wasn't really crisp/crispy and it needed to be eaten w/ a fork ... how can I improve this?
I have used the crust from THIS RECIPE twice. It cooks OK, but doesn't really crisp up. The first time, I baked it at 350 or so. The next time, 425-450. Still not really CRISP .... any tips/tricks, guys?
SO, to make my pizza, I used my Red Sauce — Recipe HERE. Then used the toppings of my choice.
Before:
After:
The crust wasn't really crisp/crispy and it needed to be eaten w/ a fork ... how can I improve this?
Monday, April 16, 2012
Painting secret
Erik and I have unanimously decided that painting trim is the worst.thing.ever. EVER.
I did, however, learn a little tip/trick last summer while being an adult volunteer for Prayer & Action.
Yes, that's a plastic tupperware-like container. And yes, that's a Ziploc bag.
Pour your paint in the container with a lid. Paint from there. If you're doing 2 coats or just don't want to do it all at once, then you can put the lid on and walk away from the project.
But what about the brush? Enter, Ziploc bag.
Put your wet (yes, brush w/ paint on it) into the bag. Squeeze the air out. Seal. You can come back hours or even DAYS later and the brush should be moist and you should be able to continue to paint (this means you don't have to wash it out after every single use if you're doing lots of window frames over several days!).
Best.Thing.Ever.
I did, however, learn a little tip/trick last summer while being an adult volunteer for Prayer & Action.
Yes, that's a plastic tupperware-like container. And yes, that's a Ziploc bag.
Pour your paint in the container with a lid. Paint from there. If you're doing 2 coats or just don't want to do it all at once, then you can put the lid on and walk away from the project.
But what about the brush? Enter, Ziploc bag.
Put your wet (yes, brush w/ paint on it) into the bag. Squeeze the air out. Seal. You can come back hours or even DAYS later and the brush should be moist and you should be able to continue to paint (this means you don't have to wash it out after every single use if you're doing lots of window frames over several days!).
Best.Thing.Ever.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Rain Barres, 2012 :)
:) Our rain barrels are set up! :)
Seriously, after laboring for a few years over the best way to do these, they're really easy to assemble, now that I've worked out all of the kinks.
In fact, for anyone interested in making your own, go HERE for probably the best instructions I've seen.
The *ONE* thing the link doesn't address is linking multiple barrels. That was the biggest struggle I had.
My conclusion about overflows is pretty simple. You gotta have the primary barrel higher than any of the others, as you can see in the above photo. Your barrels that will store are lowest. The end barrel has to be a little lower than the primary barrel. The idea is that the excess water will flow down from the main one and deposit in the middle and flow through to the last one. I do not have an 'overflow' on the main barrel or second one. I have that on the last one only (it's more easily seen in the top photo here, though).
A few more tricks:
I didn't want my barrels on the side of the house where the downspout was, but around the corner. So I used the flexible downspouts. If it gets really windy, they won't stay, so I use bungee cord to secure them in place. This is really a key element for me.
This is my overflow barrel. The second in line. I used 1.5 inch PVC to go from the primary barrel to the final one. Those are connected through the side. Any barrels in between are not. They simply have the spigot in the bottom and mesh on top. The joint is moveable and when the barrel is full, I can move the entire elbow mechanism into the UP position so water flows to the last barrel, but not into the ones in the middle. Does that make sense?
Friday, April 6, 2012
Divine Mercy Novena! :)
Welcome to Good Friday!
Today starts one of my favorite devotions - The Divine Mercy Novena (Info HERE. It consists of prayers said for 9 days and concludes on Divine Mercy Sunday, one of my favorite Holy Days of the year.
This is from St. Faustina's Diary - which is an insanely LONG book, but really amazing if you can take the time to read it (I honestly think it took me 9 months - it's LONG!).
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Middle Bedroom project!
Erik's putting together this super shelving unit for the middle bedroom! The photo shows a pretty accurate color of what it is. :)
The arrival of this shelf was a big deal. I ordered it from IKEA. Well, I didn't really order it b/c their shipping rates are staggering. But my brother picked it up for me in Chicago and carted it back here. Thanks to Paul! :)
There will certainly be more on this later!
Currently, there is construction material in this room from our flooring install ... which is SO CLOSE to being complete! :) Once we get all of the floor stuff finished and the middle room free of it, I'll be able to finish up things in there - and I can hardly wait!
Monday, April 2, 2012
Recipe: Bacon-and-Egg Muffins
Ooooh, goodness.
I'm going on year 3 of my 'no sugar' existence. I'll confess: The last year I've been more lax. I may or may not eat some breakfast cereal containing sugar (note: the only one I've found sans sugar = shredded wheat, which gets OLD. Fast.).
Overall, though, I don't consume nearly the quantity that the 'average' American does. I do try to keep my consumption down. I just feel SO much better.
Awhile ago, a friend was asking if it's rough to find recipes/things to eat. Honestly, no. I'm not sure if the recipes were always this way, but it seems since I've been looking, in my home decor/cooking magazines, there have been a LOT of recipes I can eat. Or ones with 1-2 Tbsp of sugar, which I don't mind or just eliminate.
Just yesterday, I found another recipe I cannot wait to try! Bacon-and-Egg Muffins! It's essentially a corn muffin w/ eggs in it and topped with a piece of bacon. Sounds great! And I've found a bacon that is not cured in sugar, so this recipe will work perfectly. :)
I can think of SO many ways/reasons this would be a great breakfast: quickly getting kids out the door to school, leaving early and grabbing something on the go, a good before-skiing breakfast. Seriously - I think I'm going to love this one!
(I would have made this yesterday morning, except we were out of milk!)
I'm going on year 3 of my 'no sugar' existence. I'll confess: The last year I've been more lax. I may or may not eat some breakfast cereal containing sugar (note: the only one I've found sans sugar = shredded wheat, which gets OLD. Fast.).
Overall, though, I don't consume nearly the quantity that the 'average' American does. I do try to keep my consumption down. I just feel SO much better.
Awhile ago, a friend was asking if it's rough to find recipes/things to eat. Honestly, no. I'm not sure if the recipes were always this way, but it seems since I've been looking, in my home decor/cooking magazines, there have been a LOT of recipes I can eat. Or ones with 1-2 Tbsp of sugar, which I don't mind or just eliminate.
Just yesterday, I found another recipe I cannot wait to try! Bacon-and-Egg Muffins! It's essentially a corn muffin w/ eggs in it and topped with a piece of bacon. Sounds great! And I've found a bacon that is not cured in sugar, so this recipe will work perfectly. :)
I can think of SO many ways/reasons this would be a great breakfast: quickly getting kids out the door to school, leaving early and grabbing something on the go, a good before-skiing breakfast. Seriously - I think I'm going to love this one!
(I would have made this yesterday morning, except we were out of milk!)
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Easter Eats - Ham-Asparagus Strata
Last year, we hosted Easter. It was chaos. Mostly b/c I had to lead song at Mass at the same time I needed to be cooking. I left a list of notes for our moms and let them go to it. They did a smash-bang job.
This year, we're not hosting. In fact, we'll probably go to Mass, come home, put our PJs back on, and take a nap. :)
If I were hosting, however, let me tell you about what I'd serve. I'd serve Ham-Asparagus Strata - Recipe HERE. Yum, yum, YUMMIE!!!!!
Let me tell you what I love about it: It's really easy to make.
The one potential down side is that you have to refrigerate it for a minimum of 2 hours, but you can assemble it the night before, stick it in the fridge, then put it in the oven when you're ready. So on that side, it's a plus.
I've made it with asparagus and with broccoli. Erik says he prefers it w/ broccoli. I think it's great either way!
I made a few substitutions.
• Instead of sour cream, I used Greek Yogurt.
• On the cheese, I generally use whatever I have around. Often it's colby-jack.
• In place of the English muffins, I used my homemade Irish Soda Bread. TIP: I've taken to making 2-3 batches of bread at a time (yielding 4-6 loaves). Some with raisins, some plain. Then I cut it and put it in big bags in the freezer. When a recipe calls for bread/bread crumbs, I'll pull out what I need and let it warm on the counter prior to cooking/baking. It's worked extremely well for me!
This year, we're not hosting. In fact, we'll probably go to Mass, come home, put our PJs back on, and take a nap. :)
If I were hosting, however, let me tell you about what I'd serve. I'd serve Ham-Asparagus Strata - Recipe HERE. Yum, yum, YUMMIE!!!!!
Let me tell you what I love about it: It's really easy to make.
The one potential down side is that you have to refrigerate it for a minimum of 2 hours, but you can assemble it the night before, stick it in the fridge, then put it in the oven when you're ready. So on that side, it's a plus.
I've made it with asparagus and with broccoli. Erik says he prefers it w/ broccoli. I think it's great either way!
I made a few substitutions.
• Instead of sour cream, I used Greek Yogurt.
• On the cheese, I generally use whatever I have around. Often it's colby-jack.
• In place of the English muffins, I used my homemade Irish Soda Bread. TIP: I've taken to making 2-3 batches of bread at a time (yielding 4-6 loaves). Some with raisins, some plain. Then I cut it and put it in big bags in the freezer. When a recipe calls for bread/bread crumbs, I'll pull out what I need and let it warm on the counter prior to cooking/baking. It's worked extremely well for me!
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