Welcome to Midnight at the Oasis benefiting the Kentucky Children’s Hospital through the Makenna Foundation. Presented by White Greer and Maggard Orthodontics.

Slideshow music generously provided by: West8Five - Visit them here: http://www.myspace.com/west8five

A special thank you goes out to Heather Loehr of Loehr Photography who drove from Indiana and donated her time to photograph the event and to Shelly Dawn who also jumped on board on a moment’s notice and did a great job!

I absolutely love this video. Man if only we had thought outside the box for our wedding dance and done something like this. Speaking of which anyone have some video of Ryan and Danelle’s awesome dancing at their wedding?!?! That stuff really blew me away and now I crank that “Cupid Shuffle”.

I will be posting all of the pics in galleries here and on the Makenna Website but here is a sneak peek of a few of my friends that I just love to torture with my blog postings!

Welcome to Midnight at the Oasis………

Our dearly beloved Dr. Joe Iocono and his (uhhmmmm better half) his lovely wife Susan…. for all obvious reason he is the first on the blog posting! LOL So now the fan club can pipe down now!!!

Mr Hunter Lisle of the Arthur Murray Dance Studio. Ladies and Gents… all of my wedding couples listen up!!! If you guys are getting married anytime in the next millennium… you must go visit Hunter and his crew. I don’t want to see any more lame first dances! You need some serious hotness in your first dance and Hunter is just the one to give it to you.

Miss Kentucky………… is she gorgeous or what ???

and of course “The Puppy”… he was a part of the Live Auction! OMG you could just squeeze him but MAN he was HUGE! He is going to be one BIG DOG!

Nirvana…. My friend Kevin Adams let me in on a little secret. Just create an ‘OMG’ folder he said. What?!?!? So, I went to the C:\ and made C:\OMG. I right clicked, copy shortcut, and pasted it to the desktop. Then, I selected all those old alien attacking icons and dropped them in that shortcut. It was amazing!! I had knocked out all my digital clutter. The best thing is that you can go later and clean up OMG. All those files waiting to be put in their digital filing system, old downloads that you have to double check what they are, all of them in a computer pergatory.

Now I had something. I couldn’t stop there. What about all those application shortcuts on my desktop? Surely I could erradicate them as well. Turns out you can. First I deleted any of the shortcuts I don’t use everyday and can access via the Start menu. Next, I opened my Start Menu and pinned the most used apps to the Start Menu. To get this option simply right click any of those icons on the left of your Start Menu. Pinning them will keep them on the Start Menu even if you clear your list. I also went to the Start Menu properties and customize to shrink the large icons to small ones. This meant more applications in my initial Start Menu.

So, now I was down to the Recycle Bin, OMG shortcut, and a handful of other icons and files I was currently working with. Oh how relieved I was. It looked quite pleasurable. Until I realized how blank a canvas I kept my desktop background. For so many years I had it set to black only to conserve RAM and just never changed. That was until I saw Really Stunning Desktop Wallpapers by Smashing Magazine. I went and found the most organic inspirational one I could find.

Everyone needs a place in everything to throw their backup of clutter waiting to be dealt with. For some the desktop is enough space, for others like me, I need a whole directory to deal with. Maybe that makes me a digital pack rat. The good thing though is I have found a way to deal with the unsightly backlog of digital sorting and make my logging in a much more pleasing visual experience. Perhaps you can do the same.

Schmidt Studio & Gallery proudly invites you to join us at

the Evening of Champions Derby Eve Ball.

This year’s theme is Midnight at the Oasis and will be held on

Friday May 2, 2008 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown Lexington.

F or Ticket Information please visit: http://www.eveningofchampions.org/

I have people all the time who ask, what they can do to help my daughter… THIS … is what you can do to help. You can support the Makenna Foundation and the Kentucky Children’s Hospital and in turn you are helping Kyleigh to receive the care she needs!

I have made it no secret that our daughter has had some pretty in depth medical issues. Kyleigh was born with something called VACTERLS Association. I have always been open about sharing in her progress, ups and downs. Since she was born almost two years ago our life has changed quite a bit. We went from a relatively normal family of 4 to a family of 5 whose lives have been drastically altered to keep up with our daughter’s needs. Surgeries, months in the hospital, test after test, feeding tubes, medications, cathing and many other things have forced us to find ways to work her care into our daily lives. As you can imagine doing this and running a business at the same time is sometimes overwhelming.

In her short two years our daughter has spent nearly 6 months of days in children’s hospitals and has undergone 7 surgeries including open heart and spinal cord procedures. Most recently our search for the best medical care has led us home to the Kentucky Children’s Hospital. Its amazing and indicative of life that we have searched the nation only to find that what she really needed was right here under our noses. I never thought that I would find myself saying this but coming back to Kentucky Children’s Hospital was like going home. Walking those halls there were so many familiar faces.. so many familiar things and sounds and sights. We have our favorite child life girls, nurses, doctors, even our favorite food service guy who asks how our day was at dinner and leaves us breakfast if we are not awake yet in the mornings!! These things, familiar faces, are comforting in ways that the mind cannot explain. Most of all we have an amazing medical team that has worked for seemingly endless amounts of hours to make sure that my princess receives the care she needs. For you to understand how much we appreciate the Kentucky Children’s Hospital you must understand the vast number of people who have had their hand in caring for our child! So… to Dr. Joe Iocono, Dr. Arundathi Reddy, Dr. Carol Cottrill, Dr. Tim Bricker, Dr. Bob Owen, Dr. Thomas Pittman, Dr. Louis Bezold, Dr. Phil Bernard, Dr. Horacio Zaglul, Dr. Harohalli Shashidhar, Dr. Erich Maul, Dr. Deb Flomnehoft, Dr. Eric Renyolds, Dr. Vesna Kriss, to all of our amazing nurses, Lateefah, Rachel, Keri, Michael Ann, Karen, Helen, David, Jessica, Leah, Michelle, Melissa, Victoria, Brian, Emily, Elizabeth, Meghan, Stacie, AND all the girls in the PACU, PICU, NICU, 4 East & 4 West… I wish that I had a huge master list to thank everyone! Here’s to ALL of you … THANK YOU for everything you do!

So here I am. A Kentucky girl who never imagined that her hometown of Lexington and our hospital, Kentucky Children’s Hospital, could ever be good enough for our daughter. We never thought that they would be able to offer her what she needed. We never imagined that it would measure up to a place like Cincinnati or Chicago. We were wrong. I am here to tell you… I have been to two of the top Children’s Hospitals in America and I have come home knowing that our hospital, nurses, and doctors are not “as good” as these other places… They are better, the best even. Today of all days I am so proud to say that my daughter was treated by the amazing medical team at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. They are like family to us and we only hope that we are able to give just a little something back to them!

Recently I made a vow to myself and my daughter that I would find a way to give back to the place that has given us so much. I was sitting in a room on 4 East at KCH in January and when I am there I have time to sit and think. (not much else to do) I realized that I want to help other parents who may be just beginning their journey to find that peace, knowledge, and understanding so that they too can be a friend and support other who can use their love. There can be no better way to live than in pursuit of helping others. I watch the nurses and doctors and even the people who bring the food carts. Many of these people will live their lives never knowing what an impact they have made. Maybe I will spend the rest of my life just trying to find ways to brighten these people’s days. People who have meant so much to us for so long. Maybe that will be my way of changing the world…… who knows.

Today I had the privilege of photographing 98.1 The Bull’s Moo Crew!  They are the morning team, Scott Wilson, Karl Shannon, and DeAnn Stephens.… We had an absolute blast!  This Crew truly knows how to get a party going!  The UK Locker Room will never be the same!!  I don’t know how these three get any work done!  I spent so much time laughing I could barely keep my camera still!!

Just as a sneak peek…. here is DeAnn Stephens in her new digs!

The members of Team Butterfly (staff at Kentucky Children’s Hospital- who as we ALL know are near and dear to our hearts!!) are hosting a fund raising event Thursday April 16th at Comedy off Broadway to raise money for the Great Strides Cystic Fibrosis Walk. Tickets are $12 and all proceeds go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Come out for some great comedy and support a GREAT cause all at the same time!! For more information about the show or to purchase tickets contact Lateefah Barber at 859-333-1475. Thank you in advance to all that plan to attend, your support is greatly appreciated. ~ Lateefah (Captain Team Butterfly - KY Children’s Hospital) To find more information about the CF foundation log on: www.cff.org

” A Champion Fighter doesn’t quit at the end of a round, a champion fighter quits when a cure is found”
-Paige West