Back Yard Bucket List

          This past weekend, Brent and I decided, (well I decided and told him about it), that as fortunate as we have been to travel the world, we have seen a very limited amount of our own country, in fact, of our own great state of New York.  Each of us has had the chance to study abroad while in college.  I studied in France, where I was also able to visit Ireland, Italy, England, and Scotland.  Brent studied in Singapore, where he was also able to visit Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.  Brent also took a trip to Europe when he spent 10 days in Prague watching his sister win a bronze medal in the Womens Lacrosse World Cup.  Both trips proved to be life changing adventures, but this year I've decided to take some less expensive and less time consuming weekends to explore New York and what it has to offer.  Here's my to do list as of this weekend, hopefully I'll add some more as the months progress!
          1. Howe Caverns
          2. Watkins Glenn Waterfalls
          3. Letchworth State Park
          4. Ithaca Gorges
          5. Cooperstown
          6. The Corning Museum of Glass (I've been begging Brent to take me here since we started dating so maybe 2012 will provide me with some luck.)

My very own SPK

          Another weekend spent in Buffalo with Brent, another weekend spent blissfully happy.  After spending four and a half years with him I still found myself entertained and thankful to have him as he repeatedly shot me with a Nerf gun this weekend.  Having gotten one for Christmas, and his room mate having one as well, their new form of entertainment comes in the shape of making me their personal moving target.  After some fake attention seeking frowns on my part, and some sweet apologies for the accuracy on his part, I decided he is just like a sour patch kid, sour then sweet.  I never find myself wanting to be more than two feet away from him and I still wake up every day wondering how I got so lucky.

Time spent reading is never wasted.

           In the past week or so I've had the chance to read two of the books I mentioned in my previous post.  The first book I picked up, to my slight embarrassment, was Kris Jenner...And All Things Kardashian.  For starters, I will say that it was, for the most part, entertaining.  Kris Jenner tells what I think she believes to be a very honest story.  In retrospect, however, her stories of her families experience with affairs, death, and fame seem to be lacking.  The story line of her marriage with Robert Kardashian and their close friendship with O. J. and Nicole Simpson was worth reading.  Having the trial of the decade as only a faint memory from my childhood, it was interesting to hear what happened with a more in depth and detailed story than was portrayed in the news.  Kris remained close with Nicole until her horrific death and that proved to be the most riveting part of her biography.  I'm assuming this story line was there to hook readers before she went on to the Kardashian family portion of the book so people would be inclined to buy the sequel if there is one.
          After her whirlwind affair, divorce, and second marriage to Olympian Bruce Jenner, she became what she calls "momager", the mother and manager of her children.  I'll be honest, every episode I have caught of Keeping up with the Kardashians and the shows spin offs have always succeeded in entertaining me and keeping me interested in the family that's famous for being famous.  However, Kris' story of their journey to stardom fell short for me.  In fact, it really left me with the burning imagine of her essentially "pimping" out her daughters for her meal ticket to fame, as well as the 10%. Criticisms aside, Kris is my least favorite of the family and you would be correct in assuming that if another book comes out of their 15 minutes of fame, I'll be sure to read it. 
        

Give a little, get a lot.

        Two things of note happened today.  First, I sent out the invitations for my best friends Bridal Shower. It's been a bit over a year since their engagement and all of the plans are finally becoming more concrete and fixed rather than ideas floating in the wedding abyss. I feel so blessed to be involved in her wedding, and even more blessed to be one of two Maids of Honor.  It has been hectic, exciting, and fun getting everything together to make her a beautiful shower and we all can't wait for it to arrive!
        On a similar note, that very same bride-to-be sent me a package today from her work!  It included not one, but eight books for me to read.  I had just recently been telling her that I wasn't quite emotionally in the mood to read all the depressing novels I had at my fingertips as of late, and I was in need of something more upbeat.  Voila! Not two days later and I have eight new fun and enjoyable reads to get started on, including two that haven't even been released yet!  Not only did that package put me in a phenomenal mood but it also inspired me to get together a few letters to send to friends as well as make another package to give away -to the salvation army that is!  Clean out your closet, under your bed, and in your basement, I'm sure there's plenty of things you're not using that someone less fortunate would appreciate greatly!

First Family Photo Shoot

I had the opportunity to shoot family portraits for my best friend and her beautiful family on Christmas this year.  It was the first time I shot family portraits and though they didn’t come out just like I wanted, I learned a lot and am excited for the next shoot! Natural light photography is pretty much what I'm limited to at this point, so we'll see where this takes me. Here’s one of my favorites, the rest are on my photography website. Enjoy!

Think like K-Wood

A good friend of mine is always complimenting people. Some people aren't complimenting you because they mean it, but simply to blow smoke up your you-know-what. I know for a fact that my friend truly means all of the compliments she gives out and she brightens everyone's day.  People are always excited to talk to her and she makes everyone feel great about themselves. Even if she thinks she's having an off day, she'll still tell you she thinks you look like Giselle Buchen if she means it.  My advice, instead of silently being jealous of something someone has or the way they look, tell them how great you think they are.  It will feel so much better coming out of your mouth as a compliment rather than an inner I-Hate-You-Cause-I-Love-You moment.  If you do, people may think about you the way I think about her, and I think she's fab.

Why Start a Blog?

I’ve joined the blogosphere, the rumors are true.  Okay, so there aren’t any rumors because I haven’t told anyone about it yet. I attempted to write a blog when I was studying abroad in France, but that only got as far and reading someone else’s and deciding I didn’t have enough time.  Well, two years later I came to the conclusion that because I was no longer in France, a blog would not be interesting anymore.  Then I came to a second conclusion that if the best part of my life was two years behind me then I was going to live a really ungrateful and subdued future.  Fortunately now, I have tons of time to write nonsense on the internet with the assumption that someone may care what I have to say, so here goes!