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.

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. :)

Fr. Jeremy groups :)

The old gang after Fr. Jeremy's First Mass :)


Me + Padre.

Crossover — Fr. Jeremy's Ordination + 1st Mass

I started posting about a month ago ... with this:


Let me continue a bit more!








How I've been hearing about 'I need to find a chalice' for the last year. :)


HERE is the ordination post on the Heartland Blog. The First Mass post will be up on Monday.

In the meantime, you can CLICK HERE to see my slideshow from the day ... I have to confess, I cried when I saw it in its totality .... so you've been warned.

Almost famous

We had a little gathering last night at my 'rents in Wichita to celebrate my belated birthday. It was a great time. I held 3 babies and was totally slimed by 1 of them. No tattling on the guilty party, though. ;)

My biz partner, Mike, keeps a blog of his kids' first year. It's a BIG undertaking, and he strolled into the party, baby on one shoulder, camera on the other. I snagged the camera immediately.


Of course, parents of young children have so much in common, so my sis, Robin, was chatting Mike up. They're also sort-of neighbors.

You can SEE THE POST HERE on Tommy's blog.

Mike's kids' blogs have quite a following, so I'm waiting for Theodore to be discovered by a talent agency, because he's so cute and all (his daycare peeps call him "Theodorable" — pretty cute!)).

More to come from the fun + frivolity. Also to come: my taking Theodore to the BIG pool for the first time. It involved at least 4 trips down the water slide. AND no screaming! :)

Oh, and for anyone out there wondering if I'll be doing something similar to a photo a day blog when kids become a part of our life ... the answer is a big fat NO. With kiddos, they'll get their own special tag here on our blog and I think a weekly photo to track growth the first year is probably in order for me, but I'm not sure I could handle the time/commitment to a photo a day for the first year.

Crossover — Fr. Jeremy's Ordination

Ok, so I haven't actually posted anything from this on the Heartland Blog yet, but the time will be coming!

This is from right before Fr. Jeremy was ordained a Priest.

Honestly, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to caption/refer to these photos, because in this photo, he's Deacon Jeremy, not Fr. Jeremy. But NOW he is Fr. Jeremy.

I just love these quiet little moments ... that's what life is made of. And while we often see our priests doing public things: Mass, hosting events, etc., there is SO much more that I'm sure goes on behind the scenes. Prayer being one of the main/major aspects of a priest's life we don't see. Which is why I love that I captured this image so much.

Things are SLAMMIN' around here. So if the blog gets a little neglected, please understand.

Crossover — Baby Henry!

Shout out to my girl, Erin, and her sweet baby boy. You can see the post HERE on the Heartland Blog.

Blog friends/cake in a cup

Some people get freaked out by "online friends."

I get it. Really. I do.

But I reserve that for certain situations.

There are several "friends" I've made/met through other friends' blogs. And it doesn't freak me out.

Monica found me through our mutual friend, Erin's blog. I'm guessing the same goes for her sister, Michelle? I sort of know them in the abstract, but we have never met.

It's sort of funny b/c I've watched their kids grow up and feel like a member of the extended family (even though we've never met). I can hardly wait to see what G will say. (Really, I need a life).

I've even had friends of mine connect w/ these awesome ladies and expand the friend network/web. It's pretty cool. I might not be explaining well. Oh well.

Anyhow, the purpose of today's post is to direct you to this totally yummie chocolate cake recipe that you can make in a cup in the microwave that Michelle blogged about. I honestly think it's a little genius and am thinking about giving it a shot. Soon.

EDIT: I could only hold off for 40 minutes after posting this before giving it a try. Um, yes. Life-altering. The thing I like is that it makes a nice portion. Not too much (w/ only 2 of us in the house, I hesitate to make big desserts b/c I don't want it sitting around all week). SUPER TASTY! Thank you Michelle for posting this. I made 1 alteration. I had broken Andes mint pieces and used that in place of chocolate chips. Still tasty!

Crossover — Serena + Luke

Goodness ... I've spoiled you with posts the last week or so. Here's another from today:


Serena and Luke's Engagement teaser.

I was shooting so quickly that once I was back here editing, I thought ... crike, I should have had him kneel and kiss her hand. How nice would that have been? Sheesh. One of these days I'll think of EVERYTHING while I'm shooting. Until then ....

(I included the above comment for my friends out there who think "Karen is perfect and can do no wrong." ... I'm always trying to come up with something new or think of how I could have made something awesome even better. Guess I will remember next time, eh?).

Things are a bit chaotic around here. I had 2 friends pass away in a 7 day span (both in their 30s .... young, young, young). One funeral down, one to go. Also in a wedding very soon .... so I might or might not have any sort of update over the next week.

A very important date! :)

Let's just say it was an insane first month of the year. Lots of showers. Wedding showers, baby showers ... you name it! Good times! :)


Set up the table. The greenery seemed a little bit mad ... and because it was a "Mad Hatter's" themed party, it seemed appropriate.


Since this was a tea party, a Mad Hatter's Tea Party, at that, I went with a sewing theme. Thread, buttons, thimbles. All that sort of stuff.

For the decor, I just raided the basement. Grandma's sewing stuff fit the bill!


This is one of mom's tea pots. More for decor than anything else. Added some ribbon for a little excitement.


More details.


All sorts of buttons. :)


Thread. Cute.


Mom made cucumber sandwiches. They were small + cute.


I took over the kitchen for baking. I had 2 assistants. We made Cream Puffs, Cherry Bombs (above), and another little pastry.


Susie + Jackie were my baking assistants. :) This was during the gift-giving portion. With this group there are bound to be big, fat laughs.


Some lace gloves on the guest of honor.


Our group; :)


Little Theodore even made a guest appearance. With a Davy Crockett-like hat.

Losing my touch? / PHOTO TIP

Hi blog world! I'M ALIVE!!! I promise!

Big baby shower this weekend. Lots of catching up to do here.

I squeezed in a visit to my biz-partenr-in-crime. This is how it went:


Usually Erik has this effect on children, not me. I hope I'm not losing my touch! You can see my appearance on Mike's photo a day project of Nate HERE.

And for those of you who think I might undertake such a project when we have kids, THINK AGAIN!!!! I'm learning from Mike's zeal that it's a lot to bite off and chew.

PHOTO TIP for you mommies out there: notice how Mike took this photo. He's at eye level with his kiddo. With kids, they're lots shorter than we are. Often times in order to get the best photo of them, you gotta get down to their eye level.

College buddies :)

(me, Jeanel, Nicole)

My friend and college roommate, Jeanel, lives in Uganda, but returns to the U.S. about once a year. She works for Mango Tree, a NGO in Uganda. I miss her like crazy, so when she's in the area, I make time to catch up. We met up at Nicole's place for a fun afternoon.

The stork visited our house! ;)

A few weeks ago, my friend Mary came to visit and attend a Theology of the Body conference with me.

I heard a knock at the front door, and went upstairs to find this on our front porch: A baby! AHA! The stork came, I thought. This whole having a baby thing is pretty easy. ;)

Turns out Mary was at the side door seeing if it was unlocked.

In 1 week, we had 2 babies stay with us. Good times! :)

Maryland 2010 — pt. 4

It just occurred to me I've showed you some photos from my trip to visit Deacon Jeremy at the Sem, but I haven't really shown any photos OF the sem.

Isn't this place stunning!?!!??

And the chairs in front are a super place for a power nap. ;)


Isaac showing me one of the outdoor Altars.


This statue of Our Lady is really beautiful. Deacon Jeremy was telling me because the Sem is fairly close to Camp David that the government actually pays to keep it lit, so they can find it more easily at night. Crazy, eh?

Maryland 2010 — pt. 1

When I was up in DC, I took a few days to go up and see my buddy, Jeremy, at his seminary. It's close to the shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Crossover — Ashley + Tyson's wedding

If you asked me to recall a time before I knew Courtney and her family, I'd have to wrinkle my nose and think hard. I mean, I guess I met her in second grade or something ... but kindergarden is all a blur for me. As is much of first grade.

And with no kids on my block that were really my age, the fact that Courtney lived 2 blocks away was just fantastic!

We've grown, parted, reunited, been in the same social circles, been in other circles. But just always sort of been. If not in the same circle, at least in the peripheral.

Part of the peripheral was Ashley, Courtney's little sister. It just seems like she was always there. At swim team. In journalism. Just always there.

So when I received an e-mail in December from Ashley ... little Ashley who would goof off during swim team practice, telling me she was getting married and wanted us to shoot her wedding photos .... well, I felt honored. And old. ;)


Couldn't have asked for a more stunning bride, though. It would be a physical impossibility.

Here's a fun tidbit: after meeting with Ashley, Tyson and Ashley's mom to talk about wedding photos, the girls invited me along to do some wedding dress shopping. I was way tickled to go!


Full preview is on the Heartland Blog.

Deacon Jeremy's Slideshow

Ok, so my buddy Jeremy was ordained eons ago, and I'm just getting around to putting together his slideshow. Slacker, I know.

I have an ordination and First Mass show to put up on the Heartland side, but since I don't have a ton of "religious" music, the songs duplicate. And I don't want to show a bunch of shows with duplicate music, however appropriate to the event it is.


SO, I'm going to share his here. CLICK HERE and enjoy. :)

Chicago 2010 — pt. 5

We also made it to a Cubs game!

With a 2-ish hour rain delay, it was a late start.

Erik thinks I have a little rain cloud that has been following me to MLB games this season. And he has a valid point. It rained in KC, and in Washington and in Chicago. Sheesh!


Matt, our awesome host.


Erik with Mr. Woo-Woo.


Us with him ... see me "woo-woo-ing"? (I didn't ask questions about that sequenced glove).


Aaaand, finally us. Me looking like a drowned rat b/c I had an engagement session. In the rain. In Chicago. It was a great session, but let's just say I looked like I'd been hit by a bus when it was all over.

Wedding guest :)

About a month ago, I was able to attend a wedding ... AS A GUEST!!! :)

It was outdoors in Lawrence on a HOT day ... so having lemonade to greet us as a guest was refreshing.


There were decorative bells on the chairs.


And some pink action.


Lori was one happy mother of the groom. :)


Gracie's dress was sort of vintage. Utterly fantastic. She said she purchased it off of ebay.


Seriously. Love. The detail.


And the reception was pretty great, too! But the band .... let's just say the bride gave the crowd a "cut" action during one of the first dances .... she wasn't too fond of them, I guess. And we didn't stay long enough to see if they got any better.


Nice decor. I dug it.


Mom and Lori. Lori is my brother's godmother. And mom was pretty weepy. Sheesh. It was not easy to get a photo of mom not being all weepy. This is the best of them.