a preview

This is the scene before the guests sat down at the wedding I shot with Alisa a few weeks ago. It was on the beach and very small, as you can see. I look forward to sharing more of them here. Until then, here is one of my favorites from her bridal portrait session.When I am able to sit down and sift through, I will show you some photos from the actual wedding day with like, the groom and everything. Until then, here’s a detail shot. I just can’t resist capturing the details. It’s my favorite.

what I’ve been doing

These are books on The Man’s bedside table. There is always a stack at least this high. I used to remove them everyday and put them back on the shelf. I stopped doing that last year when I began to appreciate what those books say about him. Notice the two different versions of the Bible. He likes to compare things. And the one third from the bottom? That is no book, my friends. That is the 3rd season of The Office. I say all this because The Man has been on my mind even more than usual, as this week we celebrated his birthday. So I’ve been doing that.
Also, we had around 40 high school students over a few nights ago for a leadership interest meeting. Such a cool bunch, they are.
Today, I’ve been working on this. Next week is the much anticipated consignment that I sell things in every year. I pulled some things out of the garage and this is what I end up with. I can’t wait to see what happens when I actually clean out drawers and closets. We have entirely too much stuff.

Through A Glass, Darkly

We met during the fall semester of 1997. I was a junior in college and she was a freshmen. She is one of those girls who I’ve always liked but haven’t always known well. And then one day a few years ago when I was isolated from the outside world because I was home nursing twins all day or something like that, she told me about her blog. (Here she is last fall in NYC. Her husband took this photo and I kindly stole it from their flickr site.)
I didn’t know much about blogging, so she explained it to me, as she had been blogging since February of 2004. That’s right. 2-0-0-4. I think in blog years that makes her like, 68. So wise in the ways of the blog, that one. I looked her up and discovered another side of Kari that I hadn’t known before.

I was immediately drawn to her vulnerability, insight and dry humor. The parts of her personality I already enjoyed were even more vivid in her writing, like a favorite book marked up with a hi-liter. I love learning things about my friends in real life that may never come up in conversation but are communicated naturally on a blog. Her voice inspired me to find my own, and I am thankful to her for that.

She is a reader of real books. One hundred and fifty-two of them last year alone. She often reviews them on her blog. She hosted a party for the series finale of Gilmore Girls and gave away fantastic prizes, including a Rory and Lorelai CD mix. She loves the farmer’s market and makes pies from scratch. Her husband is a teacher. She does not like dogs or card games. She is a firm supporter of not washing the dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. She has faith in God and believes he is big enough to handle hard questions.

Kari is also a writer. When you are a reader and a writer and you blog consistently over four years, your blog is bound to reveal growth and insight that only reflections over time can bring about. That is one of the many things I love about Through A Glass, Darkly. Each time I read one of her post I do one of three things: laugh, cry or nod my head in agreement. I encourage you to check out my friend in real life.

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