Happy New Year

So... Obviously I'm no longer an active blogger, but since I completely failed to get a Christmas/New Year's letter of any sort into the mail, I thought this would be a great place to post one so I could share it with family and friends via email. When I took at peek at my blog I realized I hadn't even updated it last Christmas, so I set out to find the letter I sent (after Christmas 2015) and upload it here. That's when I discovered it had been saved as a draft in blogger, but never uploaded. Good grief. My brain is mush--completely unfocused and constantly thinking of other things!

For what it's worth, here's the synopsis of 2015. Hopefully in the next couple of days I can get one written for 2016 too!
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Happy New Year, dear friends and family! While my plan to do Christmas cards was obviously not successful this year, I did want to compose a quick letter to let everyone know that we haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. Our Christmas letter wasn’t my only holiday fail this season--there were two boxes of decorations that never even made it out of the storage room!

This year has certainly been a challenging one, but we survived and are hopefully better people for it! Chad is starting his 13th year with Westar Energy, and although his job keeps him busy, he usually enjoys the challenges--except when they involve being the on call person during an ice storm. Over the Thanksgiving break he answered/made over 200 power outage phone calls (at all hours of the day and night) in a 48 hour period! He travels all over the eastern half of Kansas on a regular basis and took a couple of longer trips to Phoenix and Houston this year as well. In non-business related travel, he went on his annual golf trip to Florida last month with Dante and some other friends, where they played eleven rounds of golf in five days. I guess it’s obvious that he still loves golf. :)

Thankfully, we had a few opportunities to travel together this year as well. For our 21st anniversary in June, we went to Omaha for a couple of days to see an Old 97’s show and hang out with Chad’s brother Matt and his wife Julie and their family. For my birthday in August, Chad surprised me by flying my brother in to hang with my mom so that we could take a quick weekend trip to beautiful (albeit very hot) San Antonio. We saw another 97’s show while there, visited the Alamo and spent lots of time on the gorgeous river walk! Although Chad wasn’t able to join us, Mom and I also made a trip to Houston to visit her sister Merry Jo and my many cousins in the area.

Speaking of my brother and my mom, the most exciting trip of the year actually happened in September when Chad and Mom and I flew to California for my brother Eric’s wedding! We spent a fantastic five days in a cute rental house, did some sightseeing, and enjoyed the beautiful wedding celebration with Eric and our new sister-in-law, Jiffy. We are so thrilled to officially have her as part of our family!

While this letter sort of makes it sound like we had nonstop fun in 2015, in reality our lives completely revolved around my mom (who is in the latter stages of dementia) and her care. I spend around 60 hours a week with her, as she can no longer be left alone unsupervised for more than a couple of hours at a time. I try hard to fill her days with joy, so this year we spent lots of time going to art galleries, shopping, swimming, doing puzzles and art projects, taking day trips to nearby towns, going to plays and concerts, taking walks, and attending other local events. We even did a little horseback riding! Although she still has days in which she can enjoy life and certain activities, her memory for anyone besides her immediate family is virtually gone. I laugh/cringe when people ask me (usually in front of Mom) if I work, since even though I’m not technically employed, this is by far the most emotionally and physically demanding job I’ve ever had! With that said, I’m so thankful I am able to do it and I’m so thankful that my Mom is still with us. It probably goes without saying, but I most definitely would not have survived the year if it weren’t for the amazing support (emotionally and financially) of my incredible husband!

With Mom keeping me busy, our furry children haven’t received the amount of attention they were once accustomed to, but they have adapted pretty well. At age 9, Fresco is pretty laid back and can deal with just about anything (except a person walking by in front of our house). Flower, however, continues to be a challenge! She needs multi-mile walks daily and still has lots of energy to burn. Although we’ve had her for almost 2 years, she still acts like she’s six months old most of the time. She still has major issues with strange people and other dogs, and unfortunately my lack of schedule flexibility has made it nearly impossible to get the training help we need to correct her behavior. Even though she’s pretty high maintenance when she’s outside our home, she’s a pretty good girl when it’s just Chad, Mom and me! We love her and she definitely adds lots of laughs and excitement to our lives.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas season full of peace, love, joy and all the things that make you happy! We pray that 2016 is full of blessings and happiness for each and every one of you.

Much love,

Kim (and Chad)

2014 Christmas Greetings

Hello Dear Friends and Family!

I'm guessing that most of you won't receive our season's greetings until late in the week, so I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas filled with lots of quality time with loved ones! As I started our Christmas shopping just last week while lamenting the fact that the Christmas decorations weren't completely in place, it became very clear to me that I would be writing a “Happy New Year” letter this year instead of a “Merry Christmas” one! As you might have guessed from my tardiness, life has been a little crazy for us the last few months!

The most recent change to our lifestyle and our schedule was a result of my mom's move to Lawrence in the middle of September. As most of you know, my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's four years ago, and since that time I've been handling her financial and medical affairs. Since her move, I've also become her primary caregiver, which means I'm lucky enough to spend 6-8 hours with her almost every day! Despite her disease, my mom is still an amazingly lovely person, and I am so blessed to be able to spend this time with her. I'm also incredibly thankful that Chad's support allows me the freedom to do so!

Spending my time with Mom would have been a much easier transition if it weren't for the second biggest change for us this year: our most recent canine addition named Flower! We started fostering this abused pit bull mix in January of 2014, and let's just say we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into! Flower came to us through a rescue called Game Dog Guardian, which pulled her from someone's basement in Kansas City where she'd been tied up by her face for the first year of her life. Her scars are significant—both physically and emotionally—and she is definitely a work in progress. She is incredibly time consuming and needs tons of exercise and training, and spending enough time with both her and Mom has been a bit of a challenge! Needless to say though, we adore this snuggly little head-case, as evidenced by the fact that we officially adopted her in April. She' s our third “failed foster” in a row! Ack!

Fresco handled the transition back to sharing our affections with a sister pretty well, especially considering this one is often antagonizing him in an attempt to start a wrestling match. He is so patient and tolerant, and despite his advancing age (he turned 8 this year) he can still keep up with his two-year-old sister's energy level pretty well!

Chad and I did get the chance to enjoy some traveling this year despite the chaos, first with a quick trip to Colorado in March, where we went skiing after a hiatus of about 8 years. On the way there, we were able to meet Chad's half-brother Matt (who grew up in Iowa) for the first time. It has been so great to get to know Matt and his wife Julie and their four kids and so cool to see how much Matt and Chad have in common!

Near the end of May, we celebrated our 20th anniversary a couple of weeks early with our first trip to Hawaii. We spent a week on the island of Oahu, where we snorkeled, hiked, body-surfed, biked and toured Pearl Harbor. It was amazing! We also each took a trip sans the other—Chad to Florida for golfing earlier this month with his golfing buddies and me to Pelican Lake in Minnesota with a bunch of girlfriends in August!

Chad's love for golf obviously hasn't changed, and his day job hasn't changed either. He celebrated 11 years with Westar this year and continues to enjoy all things energy related. He took on additional volunteer responsibilities at church this fall and now pulls the equipment trailer almost every Sunday morning in addition to being in charge of set-up and tear-down. This means he works 6 days a week and also provides back-up support for my mom's needs as well! He is pretty darn amazing and I'm so darn lucky to have him!

I also absorbed some additional volunteer duties at church this fall and now spend about 8 hours a week doing data entry, handling prayer requests and leading my volunteer teams. Prior to my mom's move I was still able to provide photography services for friends and volunteer at the food pantry monthly, and although those things have fallen by the wayside, I'm still able to occasionally volunteer with the homeless ministry Family Promise and still sit on a couple of boards for non-profits around town. We try to balance our volunteer gigs with other fun stuff too—like attending concerts and KU football games and watching KU basketball! We are super blessed to have so many hobbies we enjoy and activities to keep us busy!

We hope you all have a very happy holiday season and a blessed and beautiful 2015! We hope to see more of you all in the upcoming year!

Much love to all,

Kim (and Chad)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

So obviously I'm a week late on the Christmas wishes, but today I finally got our Christmas letter and card converted into a digital format! This version might not be as personal as the one via US mail, but it's clearly superior because of the additional pictures and links. :) Enjoy!

December 18, 2013 

Merry Christmas, dear family and friends! 

We hope everyone is having a joyous holiday season that is full of merriment and void of stress. It's been a very blessed and often busy year at the Luce household, and it's so hard to believe that 2013 is already over. As you may have guessed from the pictures, we had a significant loss in our family this year as our dear dog Hope passed away. After a cancer diagnosis in June and many subsequent trips to K-State for chemotherapy, we let our sweet girl go on August 10. She was a fighter until the very end and never ceased to amaze us. We miss her loveable weirdness so much, but we know it was the right time—just before her 13th (or 14th or 15th) birthday. 

Fresco seemed sad at first but has adjusted very well to being an incredibly spoiled only dog.

We might start fostering again in the near future, but right now he has play dates and outings all over the city! In fact, today he's having a great time playing with our friends' dog Willy as I provide fill-in childcare for their toddler! 

This is one of the huge blessings of not having a regular job—getting to help out friends and family members in need whenever possible. I still volunteer once a month at the food pantry, but I stepped down from coordinating back in April to devote more time to my family and to the volunteer team I lead at church. I still spend 1-2 days in Topeka with my mom, continue to do portrait sessions for friends and had a wonderful trip to California wine country in April with a bunch of ladies I adore. Mom and I visited Eric and his girlfriend Jiffy in Los Angeles in July, and I walked the 60 mile 3-Day for the Cure for the 7th time in October—this time in Tampa. A few weeks later Chad and I went on vacation with my mom to New York City, where we saw a Broadway play and took in lots of the sites. We even met up with Eric and Jiffy there for a couple of days!

Chad also got to go on his annual pilgrimage to Florida this month to play golf with his friend Dante and a couple of other friends. He continues to golf every chance he gets—when he's not working or volunteering at church or watching sports or doing yard work! He just finished his 10th year at Westar and finished his term on the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce board. He's taking a few days off over the holidays and might even get to play a round of golf if the weather stays like it is today! The other thing on his “honey-do” list is to plan our next vacation—a big trip for our 20th anniversary in June! 

We are so incredibly blessed to have each other, such terrific families and so many dear friends—not a day goes by that we don't thank God for all He has given us. We were reminded what a gift each moment is in October when our friend Tiffany was killed in a car accident, just 18 months after she and our dear friend Mike were married. Life is so precious, and we pray that you and your loved ones treat each day as the wonderful blessing that it is. May you all find joy in the precious gift of Christmas as well. Much love, Kim (and Chad)  

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. --Isaiah 7:14

The Year in Pictures 2012

So clearly my plan to start blogging semi-regularly again didn't really pan out. Oops. The intentions were there--I promise! In fact, I actually started working on our fourth annual year in pictures slide show immediately after writing my last post--I just kind of forgot about finishing it! It finally hit me a couple of weeks ago that I'd never gotten it posted, and then it took me at least another week to figure out how to embed it into my post--both Blogger and YouTube have changed so much in the year I haven't been using them! So anyway, this post is sort of untimely now, but I'm going to share regardless.

Just like the last few years, my rule was that any time I picked up either my point and shoot or DSLR camera, I had to choose ONE picture from that set to include in the slideshow. This means that you'll see random pictures here and there that are completely uninteresting and make no sense, so I tried to briefly explain in captions. I didn't include a pic from each day I took one with my phone, which would have made this slideshow about 20 minutes long. There were a couple of events for which I chose a picture from my phone instead of a picture from my camera, just because I thought it was a better representation of the moment, but I only allowed myself to "cheat" with the phone if my camera was also present. :) So there's my explanation, and here's my video! Enjoy!!

Christmas 2012

Greetings, people of the Interwebs! It's been so long since I've blogged I'm actually having to relearn how to use Blogger--it's changed so much in the past year. Hopefully I can figure this thing out enough to create my sixth blog post of the last 365 days!

Although I obviously completely failed to chronicle the adventures our life in 2012, I did want to share our annual Christmas letter, which will at least give everyone a tiny snapshot of what has filled up our year. I've missed keeping a blog--not so much the writing itself, but having a journal of our life to look back on. I'd really love to restart the habit in 2013, but I'm not going to set any lofty goals. These days my brain is so scattered from wearing so many different hats--I can't focus from one minute to the next. Sitting down to put ideas on digital paper seems overwhelming to the point of impossible. But who knows what the year will bring? Maybe I'll be able to simplify a bit and focus enough to write from time to time. Either way, please enjoy our Christmas letter from 2012! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

December 16, 2012

Dearest family and friends,                                                                             

I hope this letter finds you all healthy, happy and more prepared for the holiday than I am! As usual, I'm starting our Christmas letter weeks after receiving our first holiday greeting in the mail. I can only hope that this is at least reaching you by the 24^th! 
 

We've had a good 2012 and managed to survive both of our 40^th birthdays, which turned out to be lots of fun and relatively painless. We took a lovely vacation to Florida to celebrate our friends Mike and Tiffany's wedding in April, went to Tulsa in June for another wedding reception, and made a very quick trip to Nashville in early November to see a special Old 97's show. We enjoyed visits from my brother, my dad and his wife, and other out of town guests. We loved seeing our Jayhawk basketball team make it to the national title game and spent Saturdays this fall cheering on a losing KU football team that was on the cusp of decency. 
 

Our pups are both doing well—we celebrated Hope's 12^th b-day in August, even though we've come to realize she's probably closer to 13 or 14. Since a Coonhound's life expectancy is only 12-13 years, we are super thankful that she's still with us. She's a little arthritic and has a bum shoulder that she limps on occasionally, but most of the time she is FULL of goofiness and jumps around with far more exuberance than her little brother. Fresco turned 6 in September and is still the most loving and cuddly boy you'll ever meet! 
 

Chad's year has been relatively devoid of major change—he continues to enjoy his job at Westar and continues to play lots of golf! He just returned from his annual golf trip to Florida with his friend Dante, where he played 36-46 holes of golf every day. A minor knee surgery this summer didn't even slow down his obsession! He also continues to serve on the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce board, and just last week he finished up his term on the Lawrence Sustainability Advisory Board. While he's thankful to be done with that commitment, he's exchanging that “extra-curricular” leadership role with a much bigger one at church starting in January. He'll be leading our set-up and tear-down teams at EastLake—handling all the scheduling and being at church from 6:30 until almost 1 each Sunday. Although I know he'll want me to take this part out of the letter, I'm super proud of him and amazed by his willingness to work 6 days a week!
 

Things at our church are obviously good, and we're very thankful to be part of a church where growth and life change continue to happen. Although I've stepped down from volunteering on our kids team regularly, I took over leading our prayer team in March and have been so blessed to serve our church family in this way. My other volunteer passion, the food pantry at Heartland Community Health Center, also expanded significantly in January of this year when I became the volunteer coordinator there. I now spend 15-20 hours a week shopping, stocking, sorting, scheduling and serving the people who come in for assistance. I also try to be in Topeka one day a week to hang out with my mom (she moved back there this summer), and I continue to do lots of portrait sessions for friends just as a hobby. I would love to someday start a photography business, but that will have to happen later since right now I just don't have the time! 
 

We hope that your 2012 has been filled with an abundance of blessings and happiness. May you enjoy peace, joy, the company of loved ones and lots of relaxation this holiday season!

With love,

Kim (and Chad)

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. --Isaiah 9:6

Graphic Geekiness

Today was a day of deChristmasification (or whatever) at the Luce household, because I finally got the tree and other holiday decorations taken down and put away. Now before you start judging me, let me just say that a) the tradition in my family was to leave the tree up past the New Year because it was so festive and pretty, b) with a live tree it's much easier to wait until the tree totally dries out before taking it down, c) I'm not the only person who takes their tree down this late because the city is still picking trees up tomorrow, and d) I like how our house looks all decorated for Christmas. So there--I like keeping my tree up longer than most people!

Anyway, while I was dedecorating the house I thought it made sense to change the blog up as well so that it was no longer sporting a Christmas theme. I spent a few minutes making a new wintery banner since it's finally feeling like winter here--we actually have a tiny dusting of snow on the ground. I changed up all the colors and the fonts as well, because Blogger now has a billion fonts to choose from, which I love. I could sit there and look through fonts forever. I love fonts!

While I've gotten fairly quick at creating new headers for my blog (partially because I know I can just change them whenever I want to, so I don't fret over the details), my graphic design skills haven't evolved so far that I'm this successful with my other design endeavors. Yesterday I spent the entire morning trying to create a logo for my friends at Crossroads Dog Rescue, since they're having a contest for a new logo on Facebook and have asked for submissions from their supporters. Starting next week they will have their Facebook friends vote for a favorite, so I wanted to submit an entry just for fun! Although my end results are never very professional, I have fun playing around with making graphics and it's definitely good Photoshop practice. Here's what I came up with for them!













Truthfully, I kind of hope mine doesn't get chosen--only because I want them to have tons more logos from way more professional people than me to choose from!

The Year in Pictures 2011

After a bit of a production delay, I'm excited to finally present the third annual Year in Pictures slideshow! I intended to share this on January 1 as I've done in the past, but a desire to spend time with my hubby on his days off (and my deranged attempt at perfection) kept the project going for a couple of extra days. Last night I was up entirely too late trying to finish it, primarily because I kept going back and tweaking and changing the tiniest little things. I'm a complete nut job sometimes.

There are definitely pictures included that will seem a little random, but let me just tell you my rule for choosing them. Every day that I picked up either my DSLR or my point-and-shoot, I had to include one picture from that day. It might have been from an event I was asked to photograph, a portrait session or a vacation. It might have been something I intended to blog about or a moment I just wanted to preserve. While we all know my standards for "picture worthy" aren't exactly high, at the time that I grabbed my camera, I truly thought there was something that needed capturing! Hopefully most of the time you'll agree, but please be advised that this is 7.5 minutes of your life that you will never get back.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, there were a couple of times this year that a) I didn't take pictures because someone else already was, or b) someone else had their camera more handy, or c) I actually forgot my camera (which I know is hard to believe). In those few cases, I used a picture taken by someone else from that particular day. I think there are three pictures included that didn't come from one of my cameras, so thanks to Beth, Mel and Sarah for sharing their shots!


Please note that I spent several hours picking and adjusting the music for this video, so if there is no sound by the time you get to it, please leave me a comment and let me know. YouTube is in the habit of disabling the audio of any copyrighted material, no matter how insignificant the use!

Merry Christmas!

I'm sure by now there is virtually no one left who is still reading my blog, considering I've done such a terrible job updating it as of late. I had a burst of inspiration and created a new header a couple of weeks ago, but that was as far as I went--I never actually got around to writing anything. My 2012 resolution should definitely be to improve my blogging.

Since I failed to chronicle so much of our year here on the Chatter, I thought I would at least post our Christmas letter--it summarizes the events of 2011 rather nicely. Many of you have probably already received and read this, so please disregard if you're already on the Luce Family mailing list. For the rest of you, please accept our heartfelt wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

(click the above image to enlarge)

December 17, 2011

Dearest Friends and Family,

Once again I have completely procrastinated writing our annual Christmas greetings, so I hope this letter is actually reaching you all before the holiday! Hopefully all of your presents are wrapped and cookies are baked and everyone is now just enjoying wonderful food, time with family, a few days vacation, and the joy of the Christmas miracle

To avoid the normal monotony of our usual December letter, I thought this year I'd instead summarize the events of 2011 with month-by-month highlights. Here's what we were up to in the last 365 days!

January—We enjoyed tons of snow plus a wonderful visit from my brother. My favorite band (Old 97's) came to town and we saw a great show at the Bottleneck. I traveled to Topeka 2-3 days a week to spend time with my mom.

February—Although the outcome wasn't to our liking, we watched our Steelers play in the Super Bowl with a gathering of friends in our basement. For Valentine's Day, Chad took me to yet another 97's show on a fun weekend trip to St. Louis. We had tons more snow, which resulted in a fantastic day of sledding with our nephews Miles and Quinn. We made our first visit to EastLake Community Church, which would later become our new church home.

March—With the help of my brother, we threw a big 65^th birthday party for my mom with about 40 guests. Our Jayhawks made it to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament before losing to VCU.

April—Our sweet girl Hope had a benign tumor removed from her chest and another benign growth removed from her mouth. My dad and his wife Mim visited us from Ohio. I started volunteering in the kid's wing at our church.

May—Our little man Celtic was diagnosed with the same aggressive cancer that took his brother, and he passed away about 3½ weeks later at the end of the month. Although we were heartbroken, his passing was made so much easier by our preparedness. I stayed busy with photography, shooting portrait sessions, special events and adoptable dogs from a small local rescue. Chad started volunteering on the setup team at church, and we officially became members.

June—I spent several days hanging out with my college friend Kati when she visited Lawrence for her son's basketball camp. Chad and I celebrated our 17^th wedding anniversary. I did lots of walking with my friend Faith and organized a walking group at church.

July—We visited our friends Jake and Amber in Kearney, Nebraska for the 4^th of July. We helped my mom move from Topeka to Lawrence, and I was thrilled to be able to spend more time with her. My brother visited, as did my friend Emily and her sister. I shot another friend's family portraits and we saw another 97's show at Crossroads in Kansas City.

August—I walked in my sixth 60 mile 3-Day for the Cure, this time in Chicago with my friend Amber. We celebrated Hope's 11^th birthday, and continued to be amazed that her deafness hasn't slowed her down. I started volunteering with my mom on Mondays at the food pantry where I volunteer some Saturdays.

September—Fresco turned five, and about that time we had a visit from my friend Michele, who currently lives in Africa. Chad and I went back to Chicago for a small vacation because I loved the city so much the previous month. I did a couple more volunteer photography gigs.

October—I shot three more portrait sessions and another special event—I think it's about time for me to start charging money! Dad and Mim visited again, and Chad and I started hosting a weekly church study group.

November—I co-hosted my third baby shower of the year, and I shot another family photo session. Chad celebrated 8 years at Westar Energy, and we celebrated with our friend Ted for his 40^th birthday. I took a Western Caribbean cruise with 7 girlfriends to celebrate my friend Leigh Ann's 30^th birthday, while Chad took a golf trip to Florida with his friend Dante and got his first eagle!

December—Chad finished his second year on the Lawrence Sustainability Advisory Board and also completed the first year of his term on the Chamber of Commerce Board. He played what seemed like his 40th round of golf for the year today—December 17!

We hope that your 2011 was full of joy and full of blessings as well. May your holiday season be filled with reminders of the true meaning of Christmas!

Much love to all,

Kim (and Chad)

Our Church

Clearly I've been an absentee blogger again, probably much to the dismay of my dad but not many other people. I will admit life has been a little overwhelming for me lately, and when I have free time I often just get lost in another world by reading. Now that I'm all caught up on the silly but fun Janet Evanovich series, I guess it's time to get caught up on my blog.

There's been so much going on in our lives I don't really know where I would even begin if I was actually going to try and get caught up. One of the things that's been keeping me pretty busy is our church. I mentioned back in April that we'd started going to Eastlake Community Church, and soon after that we got really involved really quickly! We became members in May, just after I joined the kids team, where I teach in the K-2 classroom. Chad joined the set-up team, which means that he arrives at the school that is currently our church house at 6:30 several Sundays a month. I also recently joined the prayer team, so I have the privilege of praying for the needs of our attenders throughout the week. I lead an activity growth group over the summer, and we're currently recruiting people to join another growth group we're leading as a couple starting in just a couple of weeks.

It probably goes without saying after I just described all of our involvement, but I absolutely love our new church. The music is just fantastic every week, the pastor is super funny and engaging, the message is life-applicable and full of scripture, the people are loving and unpretentious, the church body is incredibly diverse, and the environment is casual and relaxing. Not that I was ever opposed to "normal" church, but I've come to really love a place that is very "unchurchy." I love that anyone off the street who has never stepped foot into a church in their life could come in and feel comfortable and loved. Everything about our church is designed to make newcomers feel welcome, regardless of where they are in their spiritual journey.

You can watch all sorts of videos from and about Eastlake on their Vimeo page, but there was one video that I just really thought explained the who/what/why/when of Eastlake really well.



I could probably go on and on, but let me just say that it's really nice to be excited about going to church each week. As one Eastlaker recently said, it's a church you're excited to go to and disappointed to miss!

Month Gone By

I knew it had been a long time since I'd blogged, but I didn't realize how long it had actually been until last week when I was setting up my mom's Internet access and wireless network. I used her shortcut to my blog as a test to see if the connection was working, and I about fell out of my chair when I saw the date of my last post was exactly a month before!

There's so much been going on this summer--especially in the last 2 months--that has been keeping me busy. So many of these things I intended to blog about and still might dedicate entire posts to, but for now, here are the things that have been keeping me away from the computer!

1. The 3-Day--As most of my friends know, last weekend I walked 60 miles in the 3-Day in Chicago. The last several months have been filled with lots of soliciting money, writing thank yous, and walking--lots and lots of walking! Pictures from the event can be found here!

2. Moving--We obviously didn't move, but in the middle of July we helped my mom move to Lawrence! We are so thankful to have her here, but I've been very busy helping her get settled. There's always just so much to buy and to do when you move--for example, getting her Internet connection hooked up!

3. Houseguests--This summer we've had lots of people visit, which has been wonderful. My friend Kati and her son were here for several days in June, my brother was here for several days around my mom's move, my friend Emily and her sister stayed a couple of nights in July, our friend Jason stayed a couple of nights with us a few weeks ago, and our nephews stayed with us this weekend. I'm so thankful for our guest room and thankful that we've put it to use!

4. Traveling--We haven't done much traveling this summer, but we did spend a terrific 4th of July weekend in the very nice town of Kearney, Nebraska, visiting our friends Jake and Amber. Even if I don't blog about it, I hope to at least share the pictures at some point!

5. Car Shopping--During the month of June we spent many evenings scouring the Internet researching and shopping for cars. We ended up getting a new Hyundai Elantra at the beginning of July and we've already put over 3,000 miles on it!

6. Growth Groups/Journey Group--Our regular "Journey" Group that started at our old church many years ago continued to meet and study all summer, and then Chad and I also attended an 8 week Growth Group study through our new church. I also led an activity growth group of walking women on Saturday mornings, and it took quite a bit of time to plan out the routes each week!

7. Reading--I reread the first book in the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series while I was in Chicago, which I'd started years and years ago and only got about 4 books into. I recently finished collecting the whole series from Half Price Books, and now that they're all in my possession I can't put them down. My OCD really shows when I start reading, because I lose all self-control and become completely unproductive. It's why I don't read more often!

So there are all of the excuses for my absence that I can think of. Hopefully in the near future I'll get back into the habit of blogging regularly--I've missed this creative outlet!

A Dog's Life

Last Wednesday I spent much of the day in Topeka completing the arrangements for our boys' final resting place. I say boys' and not boy's because Steeler's remains were actually involved as well as Celtic's. When Steeler died so suddenly five years ago, we had no idea where to have him cremated, so we took him to the Lawrence Humane Society where I volunteered. They were kind enough to do the cremation free of charge, but since their equipment wasn't exactly state of the art, let's just say the remains weren't processed very well. We didn't worry too much about it though, since it was always our intention to lay Steeler to rest with his brother when this time came.

So anyway, I took the little can containing Steeler's remains over to Topeka to the wonderful folks at Heavenly Pet Memorials. I'd discovered them on the Internet a week or so before Celtic passed, and I just can't say enough about how great they were. They were kind enough to take care of Celtic's body on a holiday weekend and also to process Steeler's remains with Celtic's for no extra charge. Now we have their finely processed ashes all put together in a beautiful and safely sealed velvet bag. Heavenly Pet Memorials had a big selection of urns and boxes, and they helped me pick out a beautiful box in which we'll eventually put their remains. Not only that, but they practically counseled me as well. Jody was the consultant there last Wednesday, and she sat there patiently as I talked about our dogs, cried a little, and even showed her pictures. I was there probably a good half hour, and she couldn't have been more caring and consoling.

When I got home from that trip to Topeka, I immediately started the search for the perfect picture to have engraved/etched onto the box. In my mind, I knew the one I wanted to use and remembered the frame it used to be in, but I couldn't for the life of me find the frame or the original in our old boxes of prints. I probably searched through pictures for at least 8 hours total before I finally found the negative on a roll that had no other pictures of the dogs at all. In the process of searching though, I found so many other pictures of the boys that I really loved, so now I'm not even sure if the sought after picture is even the one I want to use! Here are the ones that I'm most strongly considering--I would love your input in the comments!


From their puppyhood


At age 1


At about 3 years old


At about age 5


At age 9, just before Steeler died

For me, searching through all of those pictures was very therapeutic. As I looked back on the very full and active life that Celtic had, it was more difficult to be sad about his passing. As I was reminded of how close he and his brother were, it made me that much happier to think of them reunited in heaven.

During the great picture search I was also inspired to scan and then edit all of my favorite pictures--since I was a pretty horrible photographer in those pre-digital days! Someday I'll hopefully have time to put it to music in a better format, but for now, I hope you enjoy the slideshow of their lives!

Seventeen

Yesterday my wonderful husband and I celebrated our anniversary, and although I don't normally like to toot my own horn, I have to say I'm kind of proud of us. Although 16 years didn't seem like that big of a deal last year, 17 seems pretty impressive. Maybe it's because 17 seems like it's on the upside of 20 instead of the downside of 15? Maybe it's because people often gasped when I told them what anniversary we were celebrating? I'm not sure exactly why, but when I say we've been married 17 years that sounds like a really long time. Not in a bad way at all--just in the sense that not many of our peers have been married more than ten.

Really though, I shouldn't be prideful about our lengthy marriage at all, because it's really not through our own merit and hard work that we've made it through 17 years. Honestly, being married to Chad couldn't possibly be considered work. God has just blessed me with a loving, affectionate, caring, helpful, loyal and incredibly supportive husband, and He's blessed us with a fairly low-maintenance relationship. We still have so much fun together and share so many interests; we just don't have to try very hard to get along. We love spending time together more than most couples we know--maybe because we are still such good friends.

I often hear people say that marriage is hard work, but by the grace of God, ours hasn't been. Although life in general is often messy and challenging, marriage for us has been relatively easy. We could not be more thankful for the incredible gift of a happy marriage that we've been given.

Uneventful Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! Chad and I had a nice day together, although we didn't really do anything special or out of the ordinary for the holiday. Church was great, but since we're regular churchgoers it wasn't necessarily that special, except for the fact that our new church broke their old attendance record by 159 people. Our lunch together at Ingredient was marginal, which was a bummer since I usually LOVE their food--it's one of my favorite places in town! After that we tried to spend a little time outside to enjoy the sunshine that we hadn't seen in so long, but within just an hour or so the clouds came out and it was too gloomy and chilly to stay out on the deck. We spent the rest of the afternoon laying in bed with our laptops, planning out our upcoming vacation to Texas. Not very exciting stuff for such an important holiday!

Although Chad and I obviously have no special traditions for Easter, I have fond memories of the holiday from my childhood. I don't remember doing a big Easter dinner like other families do--I think maybe because all of our extended family members were connected to their own churches so no one was willing to travel. I do remember decorating and dying Easter eggs though, and then having Mom hide them all over the house (or outside if it was nice) for Eric and I to find Easter morning. We each got a small basket with some Easter candy, but I don't think we got presents like kids get these days. As Eric and I were discussing recently, somehow our society has turned Easter into mini-Christmas. I'm all for a few fun traditions, but it kind of makes me sad that most kids probably think that Easter is only about presents with some eggs and chocolate thrown in.

Having no traditions now that we're adults can certainly be a blessing since it gives us lots of freedom and flexibility. It also makes me a little bit sad, since lots of our friends were going to be with their families over the holiday. I guess since we're always interested in going to our own church for the resurrection celebration, we've never wanted to go out of town for Easter weekend. While my mom has sometimes come to Lawrence to join us at our service, now that she's connected to her home church in Topeka, we no longer invite her to come with us! We invited several other people to join us on Sunday morning, but it seems that everyone except for us was with family members!

Even though I didn't get to see any of my family on the holiday, I did get to see my dad and his wife Mim a few times in the weeks leading up to it. Although I obviously failed to blog about it in a timely manner, they were driving through the area in early April and stayed with us one night on their way to work at my dad's childhood home near Salina. A few days later we got to hang out a little more with them and Dad's sibling's at my aunt and uncle's in KC, which was great since I hadn't seen two of my aunts/uncles for several years! After staying with us that night, they went on to Texas for a week and then came back through and stayed one more night at our house before leaving for Ohio early the next morning. That night Dad and I spent an hour or so together at my favorite new yogurt place, Orange Leaf, but I realized as they were leaving in the morning that I hadn't taken a single picture while they were here. This was the one shot I got from their visit! I guess seeing family for a brief and early Easter is better than not seeing them at all! :)

Eastlake

I mentioned briefly last month that we were going to a new church, which might have been a surprise to some of our friends who didn't know we had actually left our old one. We had been at our previous church for 7 years or so, and although we made it through several pastoral changes during that time, we started feeling uncomfortable there during last fall's mid-term election. When the pastor started using political jargon that sounded like it had been pulled directly from Fox News, I guess you could say that was our cue to exit. We just don't believe that Jesus would support any particular political party!

Anyway, that was what led us to start looking for a different church, and after visiting about four different churches in town over a period of several months, we came to one that we both really enjoyed--Eastlake Community Church. It's a very young church that just started meeting in late 2009, and initially we weren't moved to go for a visit because we thought the regular fliers they send out seemed a little too hip and cool for us. Then one day while I was volunteering at the food pantry, a new couple came in and wrote down on their information form that Eastlake was their home church. When I started asking them about it, they were just so excited they couldn't stop talking about the church and the pastor. They said that Eastlake made them excited to get up for church every Sunday, which definitely intrigued me and made me want to try it out. Chad and I visited the next day, really enjoyed the music and the message, and we've been there ever since. The more I learn about the church from my "growth group" leader, the more I like their philosophy of having a service specifically for people who might not enjoy or feel comfortable in a more traditional church.

So our new church is gearing up for Easter in a few weeks, and they're inviting the whole Lawrence community for the holiday and the series of messages that follows by putting together a bunch of videos and a special website. Check out the first promo below--and let us know if you want to join us for Easter Sunday!

Love Episode 1 from EastLake Community Church on Vimeo.

Decompression

This evening Chad and I are just laying here lounging with our laptops, and I'm definitely enjoying the time to decompress a little. This might have been evident by my lack of blogging, but the last week was a busy one, and I'm definitely relieved that it's behind me. Since my last post just over a week ago, my schedule has included lots of activities that aren't part of my normal routine as chief homemaker. We've taken our nephews sledding and hosted them for a sleepover, I've started a new small group at a new church, we've taken all the dogs to the vet, I've been to my nephew's basketball game in Kansas City, and I've helped to plan and host a baby shower for my friend Leigh Ann, for which I made almost all the food. I think this was all complicated by the fact that I still did my volunteer shift at the food pantry, still made my regular weekly trip to Topeka, spent my regular afternoon with my baby friend Eli, had a medicated dog who needed to go out every couple of hours, a crazy dog who needed to be re-crate trained (more on that later) and a sick husband whose congested snoring didn't allow for much sleep on my part. Whew. Now that I write it all down, I understand why I'm a little pooped!

This week I'm hoping to get caught up on my sleep and my blogging! More posts coming soon!

Planning for a Parent Party

Clearly I've done a really crappy job keeping up with my blog lately, and I know that confuses a lot of my friends who are picturing me as retired these days. I'm sure it sounds strange, but the last few weeks have just been so busy I've had very little free time. I spend a couple of afternoons a week in Topeka with my mom and another afternoon during the week with my little friend Eli, and the other two days of the week are filled up with errands and housework. It's crazy how I can fill my days up so easily without ever turning on the TV!

One of the things that's been keeping me busy lately is party planning, as I've been working on preparations for a big upcoming event--my mom's 65th birthday party! My brother and I decided that for Mom's big birthday we wanted to have a gathering of all her close friends and family members, since we've never done anything like that for her before. Sixty-five seemed like the perfect age for a big party, so I put together invitations, gathered emails and mailing addresses, and have since been taking lots of RSVPs. We already have 25 confirmed guests and another 10 or so that are probable. It should be so much fun! Here's the invitation I sent out via email that I designed myself, which I thought turned out okay. I did another version without Mom's picture that went out through the mail.


It will be so wonderful to see so many of Mom's dearest friends--many of whom we haven't seen in years! I'm so looking forward to the big event, and also looking forward to planning the food, entertainment and decorations. It won't be anything too terribly elaborate, but it still should be fun!

White Elephant 2010

One of our friends from our small group reminded me last week that I hadn't shared any pics from our annual white elephant gift exchange this year. Our group's Christmas party is such a wonderful tradition that I love going to and I love blogging about, which is obvious since I've blogged about it for the last 4 years in a row. Although I'm obviously a little late this year, I didn't want to break my white elephant blogging streak!

Our friends Pat and Kristin hosted the party this year, and as usual, we had a ridiculous amount of yummy food. After we all stuffed ourselves while socializing (or maybe I'm the only one who stuffed myself) we got to the main event of the evening, which was of course the gift exchange. Brian and LaRisa were attending their very first small group Christmas this year, so we had explained to them earlier in the week that they were to give some item from their house that they wanted to get rid of. We strongly encourage the gifting of crap at this particular party.

Although Charlie and Danny were attending their second Christmas party this year, we should have reminded them of our gift exchange rules as well, since for the second year in a row, Danny has given the most ridiculously awesome item that everyone starts stealing immediately. Last year it was the paintball gun; this year he gave an electronic drum set (which I totally wanted) with a pair of nunchucks with a pair of tickets to a KU basketball game! Apparently they had received the tickets as a gift but couldn't go, so they just stuck them with this already awesome gift that was supposed to suck!

Brian opened the super gift first, and you can see how excited he was--and that's before he knew the box contained basketball tickets as well! The very next person stole it from him, and then lucky for him, his wife LaRisa stole it for the final allowed steal! I haven't asked if they've actually used the drums, but I know they were thrilled to go to the KU game!



Probably the next coolest gift was this really nice serving set with a pitcher and four glasses. Clearly I was surprised to get something so nice in this gift exchange, and obviously LaRisa and Cara think it's pretty neat too! Unfortunately Kristin stole the set immediately, but I'm guessing she'll let me borrow it sometime if I need to.



There were some other pretty awesome gifts, but in a while elephant awesome sort of way and not in an awesome awesome sort of way. For example, we had this lovely pink rose pillow that Cara so craftily made from an old prom dress. Of course it was perfect for Chad, since everyone knows if there are five words that fit my husband, they are lovely, pink, rose, prom and dress. Ha--that's just a little joke. :)






We also had this incredibly hideous Tiffany & Co. lamp. Um, yeah. That's a light up mermaid. Pretty awesome. Beth and James actually received that as a serious gift at some point!


There were obviously tons of other great gifts too, but they weren't all instant classics like these! As always, we had lots of laughs and tons of fun with these wonderful friends at Christmas.

Putting Away A Plethora

My big project of the day was taking down and putting away all the Christmas decorations. I know it's January 4th and I realize I'm probably the last person in the city who hasn't done this already, but when I was a kid our tradition was to always leave the tree and decorations up until after the New Year, so I'm kind of in that habit. Quite honestly, even if it hadn't been a childhood tradition, I would probably still leave them up this long. I just think the lights and the tree are so pretty. I'd probably leave them up a few weeks longer if next Monday wasn't the last day that the city will pick up trees for recycling.

This is going to sound really dorky, but I think part of why I like leaving the decorations out so long is that they're kind of like old friends that bring back lots of memories. Since you only get to see them once a year, you want to spend as much time with them as you can before they have to leave again. Cheesy, I know.

Today while I was getting ready to put things away, I first gathered the items from every room in the house and put them all onto the dining room table. I was thinking that having everything in one place would help me stay more organized as I put stuff back in their boxes, and I think the plan worked somewhat, but it also looked quite disastrous for a while first. I thought since I didn't take any pictures of the decorations while they were up this year, maybe I would bust out the camera and take a few pictures while they were coming down. This was the table loaded with all the decor, minus a few Christmas linens that were in the wash.


I like how Hope is standing there in a position that makes it look like she's wearing a Christmas bandana. Notice that the tree was still decorated at this point--the table didn't include any ornaments.

I realized at this point that 90% of the decorations around our house are not items that we actually purchased ourselves--they're almost all gifts. I think that's why they bring back so many memories and emotions, all relating to who gave them to us. Even if they're things we wouldn't have purchased for ourselves, they make us think of the family members or friends or former students (from my preschool teaching days) who gave them to us.

These two angels (you can barely see the back one) were presents from our friend Ted's parents the first two Christmases we were married.

I think those tall angels were gifts from one of my parents. The angel candle holders were from my dad. The brown angels behind the tall ones were from Chad's mom Joan. I think the stuffed Santa (whose beard you can see at the bottom) was from Chad's parents early in our marriage. His beard needs to be sewn back on because Hope chewed it off several years ago.

This nativity set is brand new. My dad just sent it to me for Christmas this year.

I'm thinking this nativity set came from my mom, and I think the Santa stacking dolls on the right were from her as well. Oh, and the plate with the snowmen was from her too--that was a present she got me one year after I'd admired it in the Hallmark store while we were out Christmas shopping together.

I think this is one of the few things on the table I actually purchased. I love these adorable little snowmen!!

These three little carolers made from clay were hand sculpted and painted by my brother's old girlfriend Cynthia. The little box of potpourri on the left was from one of my little preschoolers named Connor.

This cute little KU Christmas tree was either from my mom or Chad's parents--I can't remember.

The medium Santa behind that candle was a gift from one of my preschool students--a little girl named Maggie. The tall Santa is brand new too--I "won" that in the white elephant gift exchange at our small group Christmas party this year and I really like it!

I think maybe I bought the striped candles myself at some point, but the plates and bowls were a Christmas present from my dear husband, who surprised me with them one year when I was admiring them in Target. I love that print and wish I would have gone back and bought more!

This is definitely my most nostalgic of decorations. My mom made this when I was just a toddler, and it was displayed every Christmas in our house when I was a kid. I loved getting this rather hideous Santa out of the box every year and placing all of the little hand-wrapped packages around him and in his little burlap sack. I still do. I think I might need to replace that snow one of these days though!

There are so many others that have stories of their own, but I'll spare you any more pictures since this post is entirely too long already. Farewell to my little Christmas friends--see you all again in about 11 months!

2010 In Pictures

Over the weekend I spent several hours going through all the photo folders on two different computers trying to organize all my pictures from 2010. It was a little daunting only because we got a new computer half way through the year, but everything has now been transferred, consolidated and labeled, so I was able to put together a year end slideshow like I did for 2009. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve and has a more wonderful 2011!!

A Griswold Christmas

The other night while we were out running the last of our holiday errands I asked Chad to drive us to view some crazy Christmas lights I'd seen on Youtube the day before. There were actually two different displays I wanted to go see and the first one was right near where we were, so my husband reluctantly agreed to make the detour. I loved the tradition of driving around to view Christmas lights as a child, so I was slightly more excited about the viewing than Chad was.

While I fully expected the display to be slightly cheesy and over-the-top based on what I saw on Youtube, I did not expect to actually enjoy it as much as I did! The music (on its own frequency of the radio) was pretty fun and the way it was programmed to the lights was pretty amazing. We stayed for about three different songs (much to Chad's chagrin) and I got a little video of one of them.


After leaving that house (which, by the way, has its own website called Light Up Lawrence), I kind of wanted to go to the other house just to see if it was any better. I'd only seen a tiny bit of this video of the display, and it looked like it had potential to be entertaining as well. We drove to the next neighborhood and the traffic was absolutely insane, with a line of about 5 cars waiting to get in front of the house for viewing. We waited for just a couple of minutes to see if the line was moving, but even from down the street we could see enough to know it wasn't worth waiting. While you could tell the programming was done in the same way and at least one of the songs was even the same, the lights were just so tacky. There was a huge light tree and just so much crap going every which way--it wasn't neat and orderly like the other house had been. It was just kind of a debacle, in my opinion!

Speaking of Christmas cheesiness, today I was singing the Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts song again, and I realized I should have looked for it on Youtube the other day so my post quoting the lyrics would have make more sense. So without further adieu and because I know you all were wondering, here's the aforementioned song, complete with the cover of the album (not the muppets, by the way) that I think we still possess somewhere in our basement!