The Ongoing Girl Glam

I feel like I’ve had more hair and make up nights in the last two weeks than I have in the last year and a half. It’s been fun. Crazy. Beautiful. Hilarious. Fun. So this latest adventure of random modeling shots is taken at my friend Mariya’s. We’ve decided that next time we may need a place with a bigger bathroom. What can I say, it had the best light in the house. Here’s more modeling madness for your viewing entertainment.

My before shot:

And that one was so cool that I needed another one:

The after shot (one of many, many, many photos):

Amazing what a bit of hairspray, a little make up, and a lot of editing will do.

Anyways, here’s Mariya and Jodi’s before shots:

And a sneak peek at their after shots:

Here’s a few in between

And now on to many more after shots.

Conversations with Kids

I love kids, they’re adorable. And first graders, they crack me up. I have the most entertaining conversations all day long. Except for when they start to talk about my age. I have no idea why this is such a fascinating subject. “Miss Katie, are you in your 40′s?”  To which, I reply emphatically, “No, and we’ve been over this 15 times.” They also occasionally try to make me feel better by asking how old I am and then replying “oh, my grandpa’s older than you”. It makes my day, I tell ya. I suppose it’s better than when they try to figure out why I don’t have kids yet… “Don’t you want to have kids, Miss Katie?” Uh, yeah, there’s just a few things that need to happen first. “Well, why don’t you just get married then?” If only it were that easy…

So, maybe they don’t always have the most encouraging things to say, but I know they’re probably not trying to send me into black fits of depression, and who can be upset when it’s all said so sweetly. I can only laugh, and secretly cry when I go home. (Kidding). In general though, I’m pretty fascinated. They write songs about mermaids that make me nearly cry for trying not to laugh and tell me stories about siblings that make me nearly choke on my PBJ. They tell me about their dreams and goals and I can’t help sending up a prayer for their parents.

“When I grow up I want to be a fighterfighter.”

“You want to be a fire fighter?”

“Yeah, a fighter fighter, cause I don’t care if I die young, cause I don’t like my life.”

“That’s terrible! You’re 7. Why on earth would you think like that?”

“Well, cause my mom said I’m stuck with my sister for my whole life, and I don’t like my sister.”

Who can argue with such logic?

That’s my life at the moment, and now I’m off to bed and more packing for Brazil tomorrow.

Queen of the Rhubarb

My mom’s rhubarb is monstrous. As in slightly Little Shop of Horrors kind of almost creepy. I think if I wandered into the garden late at night when there’s a full moon it just might try to eat me. However, in the full light of day with the sun showing off and my brothers around to provide useful entertainment, the rhubarb just might be safe enough to be blog worthy.

Look. It’s already trying to eat Dann. 

After the boys finished posing, we found the Queen of the Rhubarb, and lucky for us, she was not in the mood to eat anyone, only to make them her eternal slaves. 

I must admit though, this is my favorite way to obtain my rhubarb fix.

 

Rhubarb Crunch

Surviving Slumber Parties

It’s the end of all summer obligations and the beginning of all things summer. At least, in my world it is. To kick it off with a bang, I had an impossibly ridiculous day at work, an hour at home to de-stress, change, and pack for the end of GirlSpace sleep-over at the church. Good times. They brought Kelsie and I chocolate, to ensure our good moods would last. I brought us both caffeine, to ensure we would last. We started with hair, make up, nails, and all things girly. From there, the night got a bit crazier, starting with Hide and Scare. I wish I had a sound byte for you to hear the endless girly screams the game evoked. After games ended sometime after midnight, it was back to the room for more movies and junk food. At 3:30 a.m. the girls were asking if we could please turn off the movie and let them go to sleep. Of course, Kelsie and I gladly agreed to their request. In the morning we had pancakes and a craft project and barely fit it all in before it was time to leave again. What a way to end. Thanks, girls, for coming and for working so hard all summer. It really was a joy and a pleasure to have you.

Here’s our before and after pictures and then a hodge podge (yes, I said hodge podge) of randomness. 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and shorter still…

I know that the days are getting shorter again, but I can’t stand it that it actually feels like they’re getting shorter, and it seems that either my computer is growing ever slower, or my time is being sucked into some kind of day-eating vacuum. All this to say, here’s a pic from our latest Alaskan Adventure, and I’ll write the whole story as soon as my computer gets out of time out, I figure out how to reverse the time-eating vacuum, and I stop crying over shorter days. And soon after that, the previously mentioned wedding pics. Until then, here’s me, not working.

Photo by Rachel

cupcakes, cakewalks, and car trips

This weekend is not turning out at all like I planned. I don’t think it ever does, but this one is really off from my imaginings. First of all, I went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage for work on Wednesday. It was fun and I enjoyed seeing the animals – more on that later, but my sciatic nerve did not agree with the trip so well. By Thursday night it was ice packs, Ibuprofen, and as much sleep as possible, since that was the only way I could get it to relax. My Friday was spent again with ice packs and Ibuprofen and anything remotely interesting that could distract me from the fact that it felt like some one had stuck a knife in my nerve. I did try to get on the computer and do some work, however, I became extremely distracted by finding all sorts of sweet new blogs to read, most involving cupcakes. By the time the painkillers and ice had kicked in enough to allow for semi-rational thought again, I had found two recipes that in honor of Kelsie’s birthday and the cakewalk in Hope, I just had to try… at 10p.m. of course. So, here’s a few pics from my first attempt at convection baking cupcakes found in a very nice food blog. 

I made Coconut cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting and they were divine. I found the recipe at a food blog that I promptly fell in love with. Gorgeous photos of mouth-watering food and easy to read recipes. Who wouldn’t love that. Simply Recipes. It’s one of my new favorites. You can find the recipe here. 

I also made Chocolate Mint cupcakes from the same blog Simply Recipes. Hers are much prettier, and I think I left mine in the oven a bit too long, (still working out that whole convection thing), but they taste SO good! 

The cat who thinks he’s mine

His name is Roadie. Or Roady. One of the two. I like the first better. Either way, it’s short for Roadkill. (No, I did not name him.) He’s the neighbor’s cat. He has this very odd stereotypical football player personality – not too bright, runs into things and grunts, thinks everyone loves him… But most of all, he thinks he belongs. To everyone. He comes into the house anytime the door is open, eats all the cat food (that belongs to my little furball of a cat), and lounges around as though he plans on staying the week. Eventually someone catches him and throws him outside where he wanders around looking in windows and stalking through the yard. I know we’re not the only family in the neighborhood he comes and claims. He tries to pretend he’s a one family cat, but we know better. That cat gets around.  

 My dad really likes him… perhaps I should have dated a football player….

Awaken

Here’s a shout out to a sweet little coffee shop called Awaken. Not that I drink coffee, but the chai is good.