Won't do it!

I know there are all sorts of fancy programs out there to follow the 3,068 blogs I regularly stalk. But I won't use them.

Why?

Because I LOVE that I can go and look at the stats for my own blogs .... I can see where people are looking at them ... when .... and all that jazz.

If people use a reader and never physically visit the blog, I have no idea how many people are reading it. Having this info does a few things. 1) keep me motivated to blog. 2) lets me know when people are reading. 3) lets me know when/where they click off to look at other things.

Random, but it's Thursday. :)

Wedding book ....

My friend, Anne, put together this awesome project .... photographing Vegas wedding chapels on Valentine's Day.

CLICK HERE to read her awesome blog post about it. :)

Lately ...

I've been running around, insanely busy. But that's a blessing. :) I have to keep telling myself that.

Cruise on over to the Heartland blog to check out some super-fun family sessions from Oklahoma this weekend.

And .... today, Miss Sarah and I played dress up. :)


I'm having MAJOR space issues on my computer, so I can't give it a proper edit right now ... but there will be more to come. :)

Beer shower

This post is also a LONG time overdue. In fact, it happened on my birthday last year whilst photographing Shauna + James' wedding.

Well, there was a keg stand during the wedding. Believe it or not, until that point, I'd NEVER seen a keg stand. Yes, I DID go to college, but I'd never seen one. Maybe I missed something in college?

As a matter of fact, I'd seen plenty of beer bong photos, but again, no keg stand photos. SO, I'm sidetracked. At the wedding, there was a keg stand. So Mike takes the first shift at the bottom, taking photos of the person doing the kegging. For the second person, who was the bride's brother, I hopped at the chance to be at the foot of the keg.


Well .... there was a pause.


Then this face ...


Then an even BETTER face ...


And OUT IT CAME.


All over my brand spankin' new 5D camera + me. :(


Mike, of course, kept taking pictures. :)






And everyone was 100% all good in the end. :) He was absolutely apologetic about it, but truthfully, it really cracked me UP.


Strange how my ShootSac seems to be a magnet for beer. Later in the summer, I was shooting a wedding w/ my friend Jeff in Lawrence and the SUV limo .... let's just say the wedding party's beer was not secured and it went flying all over the interior, including my camera bag.

I better wash that thing out before our weddings in a few weeks. ;)

Allison's Baby Shower :)

A few months ago, I trekked out to Hays for Allison's baby shower. Allison and I were co-teachers for CCD class for 3 years, and I was so excited. :)

Jackie threw a book-themed shower, which was appropriate because Allison is a book worm. Isn't the invite cute?

We all were to bring our favorite book/etc. to the party. Allison LOVED checking them all out.


Of course, I had to get books from the best author on the planet, Bill Peet. :)

Also, since she's such a fan of scrapbooking, the party was about making a fun baby scrapbook for Allison.


Check out some of the pages:


Allison the pro checking out our work:


I think she approves:


Of course, it wouldn't be a baby shower without cupcakes!!!


This post is SO LONG overdue ... the shower was .... I can't even remember when it was, but their little guy is almost ... is he really about 4 months old? Woah, I'm a bad llama.

I saw Allison a few weeks before she popped ... and I have to say she was the most ADORABLE pregnant lady I've EVER seen. Allison, you just GLOWED! I can't wait to meet the little fella. :)

Around the house ....

I cannot get ENOUGH of the fresh fruit in the grocery store!!!!! I threw this together a few weeks ago when we had some friends over for dinner. In truth, the fruit was put on a plate intended for deviled eggs ... but it looked nice this way, too. :)

Also, the best deal this week ... 99 cent managers special strawberries at the grocery store! AND to top it off, I had a 39 cents off coupon (WHICH was doubled b/c it was under 50 cents). Man oh man. Strawberries have never tasted so good. Especially for 21 cents:)

I picked up 3 cartons of strawberries ... and the lady at the checkout commented on it ... I told her one of my new favorite things to do with them is to cut them up and freeze them, then use them to make a strawberry daquiri. Yummie!

Erik also tried his hand at taking photos of Esse ...


... but she wasn't interested in sitting still for him.

Erik still grabbed a self portrait with The Boog.


And I wrangled her for one, too. :)


AND last but not least is Esse hanging out with Baby Mac. When Mac and his 'rents came over, she was sleeping in the closet. After dinner, however, Erik pulled her down to say hello.

Erik held onto her pretty tightly as Mac said hi the first time. But he felt her fur once or twice and was done with that. He'd crawl up and want to be RIGHT NEXT to her, but that was it. She surprisingly was OK with that. GOOD KITTY. :)

Then she just wanted to keep an eye on the newcomer .... and he lost most interest in the kitty:

Rockin' it out!

Check out how our rocking chair came!

Project manager Esse the cat. :)


In progress ...


DONE!!!!!


My parents' friends, Kathy and George, gave us this item off of our wedding registry! :) Now I'm more anxious than EVER to get the back patio area done, so I can rock and read with a little more privacy.

Reese's Peanut Butter Pancakes :)

Sunday after Mass, we caught Fr. Nick and asked if he wanted to come over for brunch. Originally, I intended to use the waffle maker b/c we've never used it. BUT I know how much Fr. Nick adores pancakes, so I broke out our awesome griddle and made Erik's favorite Peanut Butter Pancakes.


Since my family can't leave well enough alone, I had some mini chocolate chips I thought I'd throw on top, to make 'em look cute.

Standing in the kitchen doorway, Fr. Nick quickly piped up, "Peanut butter pancakes with chocolate? It's like a Reeses pancake."

And he was right! :)


Afterwards, he hung out and we played a MEAN game of Uno. Erik LOVES to play Uno ... and we have great house rules: such as if I play a draw 2 to Erik and he has a draw 2, it is draw 4 to Fr. Nick. Only it bites me in the backside when Fr. Nick has a draw 2 and it's draw 6 to me. It gets REALLY wicked when it's a wild draw 4 on top of a wild draw 4. At one time I had to draw 12 cards.

But, we don't have the "draw till you can play" rule I grew up with, which makes it a *little* easier.

# 77 — Donate my portrait photography services to 2 auctions/year

CHECK!

Did one earlier to raise money for my friend's wife, and did another for the Catholic Schools here in Salina. :)

As a donor, they invited me to see the big event the night before. I was IMPRESSED with their decorating. Seriously!


One of the volunteers was telling me they had less items to auction this year than in years past, but I told her I'd been to charity auctions around the state, and by and large, they had the MOST items at this one. I've seen some big auctions before, but this was a MONSTER project!

Almost 1/3 of the way through this 101 in 1001 project.

ps-WHY DID IT SNOW LAST NIGHT????? It's April for goodness sake!!!!!

Wife beater

Check out my leg .... or the back of my left leg, more specifically.

Erik? A wife beater?

APRIL FOOLS!

Ok, just foolin' about being beat. :) Not fooling about that ugly bruise. :( (Erik thinks it looks like doppler the radar of a storm).

How did I get it? Well, sit down because you wont' believe this. Or those of you who know me well might actually believe it.

Last week, I wanted to get the sun tea jar off the very top of the cabinets. It was pushed back into the corner, so I couldn't get it by just reaching. No problem, I've climbed on the counter 100 times, so this should be cake. Right? Um, not so much. :(

The counter was a little slick, and so I slipped off, scraping the entire back of my thigh on the way down. :(

I have to say I'm really self-conscious about it. I wore long pants to the Y the one time I went last week. Monday, I worked up the courage to wear shorts ... but just don't want people to think my hubby beats me. One of my college roomies had a similar situation. She fell into a table in the middle of the night, landing a black eye. She said she got a LOT of looks. The heck of it is she's all buff and muscly, so it's silly to think her hubby could actually injure her in that way.

But, this isn't the first time I've received a bruise and had people think ill of my domestic partner. A few months ago, whilst removing tree branches (that's a post for another day!), I got a big, bad bruise on my right bicep. AND almost 2 years ago while cleaning out the trunk of my car, a BIG gust of wind came along and smashed the lid on the middle of my back. :( There was a really ugly bruise then, too. Today's lesson: Karen bruises easily ...

Oh well .... the bruise is slowly going away .... and I learned my lesson. I now get a chair or stool when I need something off the top of the cabinets.