The Best, Worst Day Ever



The chaos of our schedule of late has caused great tension in my household. Family obligations, meetings and sporting events have left little time for recreation. We awoke early Sunday morning to escape the piles of laundry and head to Family day at a nearby camp. A day of outdoor recreation seemed to be what my family needed and we were excited for the mini-break.

Picnic packed, we hit the road. Only a half an hour behind schedule for the one hour drive… Not bad considering we had to dig the summer clothes out of storage.  

Being first-timers to Family Day we were not sure exactly what to expect. Dennis and I kept an open mind, we were just happy to share in the girls’ excitement for the activities. As we pulled in the girls discovered a climbing wall and scaling the climbing wall became top on their list. We had a quick discussion of available activities and made a list of priorities.

After a quick attempt at the climbing wall, it was our turn for the trail ride. That is when the real adventure began…

Mary In Blue - Watercolor



Most Pure Heart of Mary - Watercolor 6/12/2016

The honor of creating an image to commemorate the70^th anniversary of the Most Pure Heart of Mary Parish was mine in 2016. My instructions were to create an image that embodies the spirit of the church itself. After deep contemplation, I decided to paint the statue of our patroness Mary, which stands like a sentinel above the north doors of the church. This exterior stone statue stands a story tall, facing a busy Topeka street. In contrast to the bustling world around her, Mary’s face is soft and inviting, her arms outstretched, welcoming visitors with a pure heart.

Along with celebrating the 70^th anniversary of the parish, Most Pure Heart also celebrated the 55^th anniversary of the Church building (Spring 2016). I felt no better way to celebrate fifty-five years of history than to convey the warm inviting nature of the statue by painting it’s likeness in soft water colors using only blue, in tribute to Mary.

Crucifixion - Painting My Faith

Carrie Jo Gros "It Is Finished" Oil on Canvas 2017 

Having been Catholic for only a little over ten years, being vocal about and expressing my faith is not something that comes natural to me. Having grown up protestant, my first introduction to Catholicism was at the University of Kansas during my BFA studies. You see, one cannot study art history without an immersion in the rich artistic history of the Catholic Church. Awareness of this exposure is not obvious, but it is there. (I myself did not become aware of my appreciation until years later when I stepped into a Catholic church and was greeted by a replica of Michelangelo’s Pietà.) As my faith has grown, so has my desire to explore and express it in my art. This desire comes with a great amount of fear. Not only fear of creating a work that is misunderstood, but also fears of it simply falling short or not being good enough. Questions such as, “What if I get the references wrong?” or “If this painting is no good, am I insulting Mary?” taunt and paralyze me.

Increasing Volunteer Engagement

I’ve been racking my brain lately about the Pareto principle and how to engage the 80%. While I have come up with no concrete solutions… I did realize that I speak about the 80/20 principle as fact. (Which may be in economics (A topic I am completely unqualified to discuss.)) However, in terms of volunteerism and participation, the 80/20 rule is more perception than reality.

Oops Paint - Leftovers of the Painting World

Do leftovers exists in the paint world? Oh, yes they do! I’ve painted nearly my entire house with them! Leftovers are the paint that was mixed and rejected at the paint store, (more commonly referred to as “oops paint”) or the remnants of your own past projects. My personal collection started with 11 gallons of paint that we acquired when we first moved into our house. It is as though someone was planning to paint every surface, got started … and gave up. Boy am I glad they did! It would’ve been a huge waste of time to paint the interior of a house white before someone as exuberant as me moved in. I would go crazy in an all white house! I need color! Big color! The more saturated the better…eggplant accent walls, anise entry way, blood-red half-bath, navy blue living room, and my favorite: a peacock-inspired master bedroom. (That’s right: purple, teal and green – delish!)

Mom Friends

Here we are, another Mother’s day ... what a year it’s been. Having only been a mom for 7 years, I’m still getting a handle on this whole Mother’s day thing. It’s different as an honoree, but I am really enjoying my role as mom. But I couldn't do it without a huge support system. My hat goes off to all my mom friends (you know who you are.) You are my band of sisters. So this weekend, as we prepare to accept our handmade gifts and construction paper cards ... I reflect on what it means to be more than a mom but to be a “mom friend.”

Monday Sucks!

Mondays are the worst. It has nothing to do with the start of another work week, or the blinking light on the phone from calls that have come in over the weekend ... Mondays suck because I MISS MY KIDS!

Homeward Bound

Sometimes I surprise myself. My first job out of college was in advertising. I loved it. But after a few years I decided to go work a desk job at a state agency. The hours would be better for a mother with a young baby. My husband also worked there so we could tackle the demands of working parents together.

The work was intriguing, but I longed to return to my former life in the world of advertising. After our second child was two, I moved back to the land of marketing at the coolest agency in Topeka. It's great, intriguing work. Full of cool benefits, creative people and exciting events. I loved the energy being  around these fantastic people who were so knowledgeable about so many things. I was so excited, but here is where the surprise comes in. As much as it is what I thought I wanted, my heart wasn't in it. I missed my job at the state.

An Adventure in Landscaping

Knollwood, the neighborhood where we live, is one of the hilliest neighborhoods in Topeka. Stacked stone retaining walls line three sides of our property. The wall on the southern side of the yard  is less than two feet. With the Neighbors wooden fence set in a couple of feet, it serves a dual purpose as a decorative planting bed. When we took ownership of our home six years ago, the back yard was completely overgrown. This wall was barely visible due to being completely covered with English ivy. Clearing off the Ivy, we discovered roots from the surrounding trees and bushes had completely destroyed the wall.

Starting at the Westernmost end of the wall, we worked together intending to simply "clean it up" a bit. Dennis worked ahead of me, removing the ivy and volunteer trees so I could re-stack the stones that had fallen. We quickly realized that a rebuild was in order. So I began pulling the rocks down and digging out the dirt behind them. Working a few feet at a time, I piled the limestone rocks on top of the bed and project went pretty quickly.

Reflections on the Annunciation

Not being a cradle catholic this concept of putting it in Gods's hands is a hard one for me. But God is full of surprises, he's given us this amazing gift of free will and sent angels to protect and guide us along our journeys. So why am I supposed to put it in God's hands if I have free will to do as I please? His angels are protecting us from messing up right?

Being Me

I've spent a good many years trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. It was not until recently that I found an answer to this ponderance. It's not "what" but "who". There are many things that I am unsure of in life but of this one thing I am 100% positive. I want to be Carrie Jo when I grow up.

Now this may seem like a silly thing to say, but how many times in your life have you been encouraged to do something because others thought it would be good for you? Or you make a decision because you think that you should be something more than you are? It's a simple situation,"The grass is always greener on the other side." Right?

Building Our Community

Growing up I rode my bike everywhere.  The two rules were, "don’t go into anyone’s house" and "be back before dark". I had multiple friends, a school playground, and a park within a mile of my house. If I did anything wrong, my father knew about it before I got home. There were kids everywhere, we would run from yard to yard, jumping over hedges and playing in each other’s yards.

But something happened. Cable, Atari, Nintendo, one by one the kids started disappearing and the grass grew back on the paths between houses. Is it that parents live in fear of giving their children independence to run from house to house due to predators? Or perhaps children are busy, constantly being shuttled from one activity to the next. I look around and see backyards hidden with privacy fences, preventing us from communicating with each other. Neighborhoods built without parks and houses built without porches.

The Water Feature

What a challenge this project was. Not only did we have no idea how to take care of the deep concrete hole outside our front door, but nobody we consulted seemed to know what to do with it either. Dennis and I spent many hours researching garden shows, specialty pond stores, and swimming pool companies. While a great number of visitors were sure we should just fill it in, we were determined to find a plan to make it amazing.


After three years of caring for the concrete hole, I finally decided on an idea I was excited about. It including a paint a mural, which made the project more like two, but I was hopeful it would only take a couple weeks.

The House, A Love Story

While house hunting, my husband and I had a lot of things we agreed on but esthetic was not one of them. I preferred an older home, two-stories, with history and charm. My dream was to live in an established neighborhood, centralized in the city. Dennis preferred nothing over fifty years old, attached garage and a poured concrete basement. (No stacked stone!) Thank goodness for the ease of browsing via the internet. Otherwise, we would have taken months to find a house. We had looked at too many houses and I was discouraged. We almost settled on a house neither of us was completely in love with. Then I was reminded of a neighborhood we'd walk while we were dating. The houses were unique and grand. I didn’t think we would ever afford anything in that area.  But it never hurts to look! After more searching, I was able to a couple of options and things began to look up!

Online, the house was described as “Classic Knollwood” which meant nothing to us. We were not familiar enough with the area to know that is what the subdivision was called.

The Beginning

Life_and other projects

I used to write; I loved to write… not necessarily for anyone to read but mostly for myself. When I was younger writing helped me make sense of the things I was thinking, feeling and doing. Now as a 35-year old mother of two, I don’t get to do much of anything that does not include a child on my lap. Not complaining, I love my girls, but if I were to try and keep a journal now, I fear it would end up turning into a sketchpad for them and a to-do list for me.

So here I am, my first blog. Sticking my thoughts and feelings on-THE-line as it may. Processing the things that occur in the many projects of my life. Learning from my thoughts and sharing with the vastness of my curiosity from on the other side of the screen. I write as I think. Here is not the place for grammatical correctness, judgment or opinion. This is merely the verbal sketchpad of this great project I call my life. Enjoy.