girls night #86

i've finally realized where that 5 pounds has come from over the last 2 months...
this makes like the bazillionth dinner get-together of the season!
i don't know why, but i seem to be attending a lot of dinners and eating a lot of food at them. this may sound like a no-brainer, but sometimes it just takes a while for the lightbulb to go on.

regardless of the extra poundage, i'm enjoying the added social times lately. it's good to have old friends and keep in touch with them, even though our lives rarely come together anymore.

the three girls to my left were in my life group for 3 years in college.
now rachel has a 3-month old (eli), steph is an old married woman & megan is a newly married woman.

the two girls on the right, casey & jana, are in my small group right now.
as you scroll through the multiple takes, it's fun to watch just one girl's face through them all and see how it changes. casey's is especially entertaining.

hurray!!!

my brother zac & his wife alyssa had their baby this morning!!
trinity sky weighs 7 lbs 2 oz.

i'm an aunt again. for the tenth time :-)

highlight of the weekend: the green lamp.

i have this horrible habit of getting distracted by some small something that i can't help but photograph.
the other day it happened to be this lamp... it just held me captive for a few minutes.

nick got a little antsy, since we were supposed to be walking out the door and i was taking repeated pictures of a lamp. he snatched the camera from me and started taking his own versions of lamp pictures, most of which included himself making very ugly faces.

like they say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

this one makes me think of eager little puppy dogs.

happy 'heroes' day!

after nine months of dating, nick gave me flowers!!

it was a marvelously momentous occasion.
he doesn't like to be predictable by going for the normal days such as birthdays or valentine's days...
we were going to watch our favorite show together on monday night and he showed up with a beautiful boquet, to commemorate 'heroes'.
very fitting, if i do say so myself.

i sure do love that guy.

small group unite!

to find out why so many classic country music band photo shoot pictures, go to our small group blog for the whole story!

here's this year's school picture (pre-haircut... sigh). i look pretty fake-smiley, but what's to be expected when following the photographer's directions... 'okay, now tilt your head up and to the back, now a little to the right...' it's only natural that the smile realness will fade a bit.
and lest you be confused that this is done in sepia -- i was wearing brown, the background was brown. combined with brown skin & hair, what have we got?! sepia.

mental note: next year, wear fuschia.

here's your chance to impact the world you live in!
or at least the blogs you read...
vote on the poll yonder on the right!
every vote counts!
why am i using so many exclamation points?!
i don't know!
have a great tuesday!

on my way out the door last night to join some girlfriends for dinner & our favorite shows, i got distracted by the perfect end-of-the-day sunlight and my elusive kittens looking especially cute. it was more than i could resist -- pictures had to be taken.

this is milo, lounging around. for you to fully grasp the rarity that is captured with these pictures, imagine with me, won't you. outdoor kitties, following their mama (fantasia of the hooded street-cat eyes), scavenging around the neighborhood, most likely finding other families to feed them from time to time, thus explaining the 2-3 day absences that happen at least once a week, not too cuddly, mostly running away if you approach them...
i've been doing my best to people-train them, but they're doing their best to wild-cat train me by refusing to give in to my advances.
they were so cute yesterday though, calmly exploring in a fake sort of mature way. they're about 4 months old and rambunctious enough, but here they were sedately yet curiously nosing their way around the place.

here's malcolm, intently tracking a bumblebee...

the twins together...

asia has the prettiest coloring, but she's also the shyest. won't stand for much petting. i persevere though. their brother ransom lives with nick. he looks nothing like them. bushy black & white fur, about twice as big, i don't know where he came from. some recessive gene somewhere. nick loves him.

i finally quit my slightly nauseatingly obsessive cat photographing and made it to dinner...

cathy (back top) made chinese and it was sooooo good.

here's the girls...
last season we would get together on monday nights to watch 'age of love' (i'm sorry to say it's true). now that it's over, we decided to make it a 'heroes' & 'the office' get together.

good times ahead, folks.

erica and i haven't had good ole fashioned quality time in a long while. so, last night we went for a little walk down to the secret dock and got all caught up.
it was a good time.
we both were reminded of how fun it is to talk to someone that you have a lot of practice talking to... i'm learning that communicating seems to get easier with time and work. a no-brainer, i know, but sometimes the most simple concepts are a long time coming...

the highlight of her life these days is the decision to go back to china next year! i'm gradually getting more and more excited for her as time goes by. it's a struggle to be thrilled about a direction god's taking someone when that direction is away. far far away.

this morning, nick & i started our new resolution to get up early and go jogging. surprisingly, i actually enjoyed myself! i don't know how long that will last, but for now, it was just good to have an extra little interaction in my day with him. it also got me in gear a lot quicker and out the door to school faster. i even saw a sunrise for the first time in a long time!
that might have to do with the days shortening though. or a combination of the two.
whatever the reason, it was pretty.

springfield art walk

this last friday was springfield's famous artwalk that i've been wanting to go to forever! finally, it happened.
last week was nick's birthday, so we made it a priority to go in celebration of his 27 many years of life.
we kicked off the night by having dinner at valentine's, a restaurant we were randomly passing by, much to our delight. it was a really groovy place! i love spontaneous things that turn out well.

dark but cool.

then we joined up with erica & casey for a little walking, a little arting, and of course, some fire tricks!

behold, the wings of fire!! aka, flaming whips. who ever thought, 'hey! if i set this whip on fire and snap it around, people will love it, man!'

probably the same person who thought, 'hey! if i put some balls on the ends of some rope...'
it made a purty picture though.


the pyro people were also into djembes, and had a wide selection of them sitting around with which people could find their inner rhythm. nick was in his element entirely with this particular attraction. especially when the hippy dude with dreads joined in. i may look like i'm going to town, but i was just doing same beat over and over. i called it the bass line and pretended it was very important to the fancy things they had going on.

this picture was snapped about 2 seconds after we hear a booming voice shout out, 'no photography in my shop!!'
this is a prized possession. i feel wildly illegal even displaying here, but also a little triumphant at having something to show for our rebellion.
we didn't see the sign until later, of course.

we finally got down to the business of walking, and even found ourselves some art! there was one gallery with really amazing paintings that i would've taken pictures of, but was still feeling the jolt of being shouted at boomingly.

erica dared to take this picture, so i borrowed it from her. this gallery had political-type prints...

and a ping-pong table... (yes!!)

and a couch...
allow me to narrate the conversation that went in between the next two pictures:

scene: three friends sit down on comfy couch in the last gallery after a tiring artwalk draws to a close...
gallery owner: we're closing up, folks! thanks for stopping by.
kate: wait guys, one quick picture! very cool couch... must photograph...

kate: oh shoot, the flash went off, wait, one more!
erica: they need to close up!
kate: it'll take 20 seconds!
casey: we don't want to be rude.
nick: (uncertain glances at erica and casey who are bolting off the couch) uh.. (bolts off couch behind them)
kate: (takes picture, sans flash, capturing ethereal street light shadows over retro couch. sighs. trudges out after friends, smiling at gallery owner, imagining what kind of magic might have happened if friends had only waited 20 more seconds...)

we forgot our relational conflicts by going to the springfield brewing company to get sloshed.
just kidding, i didn't get sloshed. some people might have, but not i.

(notice those with beers...)


(notice my extremely sloshed expression, despite my lack of beer.)

beer, by the way, tastes nasty.

forgotten moments of news

i tend to forget the fun little details that happen until i download off my camera and think, 'oh yeah!'...
so here you are.
excitingly for nick, we found him a car!! it's a very sweet deal.

it's a 2000 toyota highlander with about 120k miles on it. not so swanky that he feels pretentious, but swanky enough to be cool. he bartered with them a bit and ended up settling on an even $10,000, which is below the kelly blue book value, and just about exactly within the budget he'd decided on!
perfect.
his first choices were either a tacoma or a 4-runner, but i think god knew what he needed. it's a v4 engine, which is better gas mileage, it still has plenty of space in the back for hauling stuff around, and it's so much more spacious than a 4-runner! it's like the perfect combination of the 2 cars, plus added bonus space!
hopefully his bank loan can go through today and he can go pick it up. the past two weeks, he's been driving me to school in the mornings then using my car to get to work, then coming back to pick me up in the afternoons. not the most efficient use of gas, but it's been so fun to have an extra hour of quality time! we've decided that car time is really our favorite way to hang out.

and speaking of nick, yesterday was his birthday, along with small group night. come to find out, 2 other people's birthdays were this week as well, so we had a big ole combined party! i spliced together each person's favorite things and came up with 'the reading pirates of hazzard party'. it was a whole lot of fun.

nate loves dukes of hazzard, nick is a pirate at heart, and liz is the book queen of the world. i made them each banners, of course. what's a birthday without a banner?
then we all dressed up in piratey garb and growled at each other a lot.

i've decided i really enjoy hostessing parties. it's just fun.

here's my favorite present to nick :-) his face isn't really saying he hearts me all that much. that's why he needs the hat, to proclaim the truth regardless of what his face might be saying at the moment. i think he was going for the mysterious gq look.

yesterday was also art club day. i think the group this year is really going to be committed and gung-ho. i'm looking forward to seeing what the year brings about.

of course, art club and small group both have their own blogs (why not?!) so if you want to know more about our antics, check those out!

haircut woes (again)

why is it so easy to be emotionally affected by something as dead as hair?!
i ask you.

my hair has once again gone under the knife (aka texturizer scissors...). this time it's come out looking much more satisfactory than last, but the fact still remains that there is substantially less than there was before the cut.

it looks exactly the same. i'm not even going to post a picture because you'll wrinkle your brow and say, 'is she a crazy person?' and i'll feel just like that crazy person for even elaborating.
even so, when i wash my hair my hand falls off the end abruptly, like the feeling of an unexpected step when you think you're at the bottom of the staircase...

it's really not worth bemoaning.
nevertheless, i do indeed bemoan. i feel like i've lost a good friend. truth be told, if you were to have gathered up the cut hair and covered a small stuffed animal with it, there would probably have been enough to make a nice little fur coat for the feller. it could reasonably have been called a friend. a small furry friend who is now dead.

i'm going to choose to look forward and anticipate the day when my hair will be long and flowing, as it once was...

you know, that day right before having to get it cut again.