Amazing

I must share this story of our evening and how we wound up hanging around the park this Memorial evening for 2 1/2 hours with an amazing group of people. So after I got off work, Jered and I drove over to Sar Ko Par Park b/c there was a rumor that there might be a climbing wall inside the coffee shop inside the church adjacent to the park. I wanted to run, so we drove straight from Target to the park where I changed and Jered just planned on journaling and poetry writing since it was so crazy nice outside.

So I'm on my fourth or fifth lap around the lake when I see Jered standing and talking to two people. This is not uncommon. Jered knows just about everybody in this city and wherever we go, he falls into conversation with some old friend of his. Jered motions me to stop and pull out my earbuds so he can say something. He then tells me that these people are grilling and want to feed us. I say what I usually do in such circumstances, "Sure, Dear." Then away I went.

Okay. Turns out Jered does not know these people. They simply asked him if they could use the picnic table he was sitting at because it was next to a grill and they were having a group of friends join them for dinner and they had jokingly invited us along. He'd ultimately said he'd just move to the next picnic table and he hoped they had a good dinner. I joined him there after my run and as I sat recuperating  (it was dang hot outside!), one of the gals that Jered had been talking to walked over to us and thanked him for moving. Then she said that No, Really, We were very much invited over for dinner if we wanted. It was just a group of young couples and they had plenty of food.

 Jered and I looked at each other and she shrugged and walked away and for a moment, neither of us spoke. Being randomly invited to things by complete strangers is not something unknown to us and we've been known to accept many a such invitation. Truth was, we'd had no plans this evening but to chill and relax after a long weekened and gather our strength for the chaos that was this coming week. But Free Food?? And grilled food no less. With some friendly people (friends!!!!) who happened to be our age. We would've been completely senseless not to agree (although perhaps a little awkwardly).

They were a group of young adults and they were just hanging out. The only "Group of Young Adults" who bring their picnic blankets and kids to a park are undoubtedly Christian so I asked what church they go to and they do in fact go to some church in the area (who's name I can't recall currently). We told them that we attended church as well and low and behold, we weren't strangers anymore. We were a gathering of Believers on this Monday evening breaking bread together. It was beautiful. They were all couples and every single last blessed couple (save one) was either pregnant or had a baby (read: less than a year old. . .no kidding). There were probably about six couples plus us and they were all every single last one of them our age (read: between 24-33).

It was a fabulous time and the Father provided food and fellowship and we soaked it up like the dried out flowering desert plants we are. In the midst of these hard decisions we face and the drying financial land before us, the Lord is good and He provides what we need. Even if we need to take those first awkward steps and say, "sure. We'd love to eat with you."

And all night, as more couples came, they looked at us and shook our hands and laughed with us then asked, "so are you friends with Ross & Helen?" Then the story got told of how Jered got kicked off his picnic table and the evening ended with the exchanging of numbers and emails and invites to future events. And coincidently, Jered did wind up knowing one of the guys who was there with his wife & daughter. They hadn't seen each other in twelve years and they'd played basketball together & had attended VOX. I chatted with his wife and we exchanged numbers and I told her just say, "Hello. This is Kaitlyn from The Park."

It's just Amazing. Simply amazing.

It's been a week

We've been listening to lots of great music this past week. I drove home the other day in the evening and it was raining and I was listening to a Lorena McKennit cd that I haven't heard in maybe five years. I used to listen to it all the time back in the day. It's good late-spring/early-summer music. There's something refreshing and cleansing. Today Jered and I drove out to a photo/video engagement shoot at Kauffman Gardens and we were listening to the Vicki Christina Barcelona soundtrack. Lots of Spanish guitar. Good driving down Broadway on a fabulous Sunday evening kind of music.

We didn't take any photographs this week although we did bring the camera to church this morning. Jered played part of the Sunday worship. He's such a talented guitar player. I helped with the sound check. I'm quite talented at that. "Turn up your microphone, Honey!" That's me.

I've ran my personal best on Thursday which is 3 miles. Did it in 32 minutes. Not going to be setting any records with that, but considering one month ago I could barely run 5 minutes straight, I'm not complaining. I registered for the Hospital Hill Run today. Paid my $35 so there's no going back.

Had lunch with Aimee on Wednesday at some Indian place. They had chai and rice and curry. That's all a girl can ask for when it comes to lunch. That was the day of the tornadoes and everybody freaking me out by telling me how many touched down in the KC area while I was blithely on the computer editing James & Rosemary's wedding. See, I kinda got behind and had two whole weddings to finish by yesterday. That didn't quite happen, but I did finish the final one day. Better late than never.

Been reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. She is so lyrical in her writing. Her books make me want to write and write well. I had finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by her just a week or so ago and now I want to make my own cheese & bread. I did get jam and soap from the farmer's market yesterday. I figured if I'm not going to make it myself I might as well get it from some person who did. Jered and I had a fantabulous dinner last night that involved pasta and chicken and broccoli and a salad. The only things that did not come organic or from the OP Farmer's Market was the pasta and sauce, I'm proud to say. Oh, and the hot dog bun I made into garlic toast. Should've taken a picture.

That's all for now!

Mowing, etc

Just some before & after photos from Jered's lawn business. This was from a mulching job I helped him with. Anybody need lawn mowing, mulching, trimming or general lawn work in the Overland Park, Shawnee, Misison area, let us know!!

Riverview Park, pancakes and MORE!

First thing's first. We had a pancake lunch fundraiser at church last Sunday. The youth made pancakes and we raised money for camp. Good times. Even the boys cooked. We were impressed.

On another note, we've been spending time with our friends Aimee & Robyn. Robyn's leaving at the end of the summer to go student teach in a small Kansas town whose name I can't currently recall. It's outside Odessa, KS if I'm not mistaken. I've posted a fairly old picture to represent Aimee (sorry Aimee) and the other photograph was taken last Friday when they were over for stir-fry & Trivial Pursuit.

Over Easter weekend, we took a day trip to Wichita to film/photograph Matt & Erin's wedding. It was a veritable OE class '01 reunion so of course, we took a photograph of all of us & our spouses (and children if applicable). There are a handfull of the old group missing so I suppose it will be neccessary to attend our actual reunion this coming fall. Till then, this photo will do:

 And one of us OE alumni:

So I decided to throw in a couple photos that were taken while testing out Jered's new "professional" camera. Nice picture quality if I do say so myself.

Jade looks less than pleased in this photo:

We also took a couple day trip to Hannibal this past week where we worked on the house, went to Riverview Park & El Vaquero, Java Jive & The Eagle's Nest. Boy, I love Hannibal in the summertime. I wish we could keep our house there as just some sort of getaway summer house. But that's a bit expensive. We had lunch with Taylor & Elvin while we were there, so I'm sure we'll always have friends and places to stay when we visit. We're planning on going in October for Folk Life, of course. Jered still wants to put his Riverview Park video in the festival and I think that's a grand idea. He spent so much time filming that project, it's the least he can do to put it together and showcase it. Here's some photos I took that summer 2008 while Jered filmed "Woodz". Oh Riverview Park, we miss you!

Sunday nite: Reason to Hope

 It is 7:22 on a Sunday night and I'm at home instead of at church. I know, I know. Okay, so we're traveling to Hannibal this week to hopefully put our house on the market (again) so I'm home for the evening editing photos & blogging (for work) and blogging (not so much for work). Oh, and I'm drinking apple cinnamon tea & quasi watching The Two Towers. Jered's leading our youth and afterwards, practicing with a youth's dad since they're leading the Sunday worship in a couple weeks. I have such a cool husband. I mean, seriously, he's pretty awesome. If you would've asked me four years ago that we would own our own  blossoming wedding business and that he'd be a youth pastor for a quickly growing youth group, I would've told you: I'd like to see that! Well, God is good and He is showing me that in His time, all things come. Just yesterday I was stressing over the grotesque amount of money that we owe The Knot for our monthly advertising and I was stressing over whether it was a good idea to have signed on for such a HUGE faith leap such as this. . . see, we kinda sorta owe several hundred dollars in about four days that we don't exactly have. . . but then as we were driving to the farmer's market, I was praying a bit to myself and God just spoke and said, Barb, do you have enough for today? And I said, well, yeah, for today, but what about four days from now. . . and God said, Barb, do you have enough for *today*? Well, of course I did, I was just about to spend my last $6 cash on some vegetables in OP so I said. Yes, God. I do have enough for today. Jered and I are blessed and happy and we have really, more than enough for today and tomorrow.

And then after Jered and I each returned from our respective weddings, we found that we'd gotten not one, not two, not even three, my friends, but FOUR payments. Yesterday. And of course, they totaled enough to cover not only what was due in four days but the also MUCH larger sum due in two weeks. How silly of me to fret, right? So now here I am editing photos & sipping tea after munching my fresh farm salad earlier. . . did I mention we've attempted to finally become the dreaded "localvore"? That's for another day.

Anyway, here's some photos since people like photos and honestly, I do to.

The Robleado, Hurley, Feldman family on Easter:

 Barb at the Oak Grove KOA (our anniversary get-away)

So I was actually really bummed that it was pouring rain all the day that we were supposed to go camping. My inventive and creative husband reminded me that KOAs have Kamping Kabins. The purist in me balked initially at the idea (camping without a tent!!) but we Kamped and it was good.

Mother's Day with Mom at her church. We got her the Nikon Sb-600 in her hand and she was very pleased :)

Our youth group on Easter Sunday. What a great bunch!

And a grainy, random picture of us. I think this was New Years Eve.

Onward

Okay. So I stopped buying Healthy Choice  meals at work and blogging about them. Why? Because to be honest, almost all of them were disgusting. I would rather eat cardboard. Well, maybe not cardboard. But you get the idea. So instead I just bring my meals to work. [Here I could proceed to ramble about all sorts of things but will refrain myself]. So. Instead I am inspired to use this blog as a general blog since I'm all sorts of terrible at facebook and have a tendancy to post things that get me into trouble (long, emotionally scarring story, don't ask). Hence: Blogger. I have this here blog that I am not utilizing and so now I shall. First post. Let's see. Let's do pictures. People like pictures.

Jered took this one, I'm sure. Look at the way his arm's extended. This was taken at Aimee & Robin's place. This is just before we invited ourselves over to grill on their balcony.

This next one is a photo of Leilani and Nate. Who are those two strange people in the background?

Oh well.

So as a side note, Jered is now trained to shoot weddings. We've been advertising on Craigslist and tonight was his very first photography wedding solo (I had another wedding this evening). Here are some images of us at Volker Waterfall while Jered's practicing his camera techniques:

So I think that's all for now. I'll post some pics of our camping get-away extravaganza next time!

peace out