Diana, Nick, Sam and Izzy

Chocolates for Valentine's Day

2012-01-28T14:07:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Sam and I did a little chocolate candy experimenting, which gave me wonderful ideas for an activity today. Every year, after big holidays I love to shop all the clearance items for baking goods, specifically sprinkles and sometimes cupcake liners. Over the past few years I have amassed a nice sized collection. I remember seeing a video on youtube of a woman who loves to make cupcakes and has wardrobe (the old fashion kind) full of sprinkles. Her comment was that some women collect shoes, she collects sprinkles. I think that is what got me going. I thought that massive wardrobe full of sprinkles was marvelous. At this point I only have a small box full, but it's enough to have fun. Thankfully Sam loves sprinkles as much as I do.

This morning we had the time to do a Saturday activity so we made chocolate Valentine's Day candies using tiny cupcake liners and sprinkles! I layered milk chocolate with rice cereal (for an extra crunch) and white chocolate. And yes, I bought the chocolate on clearance after Christmas. :) Sam and I had a blast! Later we'll package them to give to his teachers.

I know you're supposed to melt chocolate in a double boiler but I just cheat and use the microwave, carefully that is!
I really hate cleaning those reusable decorating bags so for this project I just used a ziplock bag for my piping bag. This is a much easier way to fill them. The first time I tried I used a spatula and was scraping the chocolate into the bag...bad idea=big mess.

You'd be surprised at how nicely the paper peels away from the chocolate!

A Taste of the Past Year Jan-March

2012-01-21T19:57:00.000-08:00

I didn't really take as many photos last year as the years past. I am happy for the few I DID take.

My aunt had paid for a reservation at a bed and breakfast near us before she passed. After much thought we decided that she would have wanted us to go. So my mom stayed home with Sam. Unknown to us I was already pregnant with Izzy. It was good to get away, but was a bitter sweet weekend getaway.
!The monster snowfall we got last year! It was insane...and even more than that it was a ton of fun

Me and the Monkey suited up to play outside!

Weathering the Storm

2012-01-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends, Family and Followers,

It's been almost exactly a year since my last post. I thought I'd posted up till March last year but then I remembered that in early February I got influenza, I think that's what it was, and was laid up in bed for over three weeks. That was the start of some pretty challenging chain of events for our family. The main reason it's taken me this long to get back to my blog is the passing of my dear Aunt Jeri who I was terribly close to. In March last year I came home from meeting with my Bible study ladies, was skyping with my mom in Africa when she got the call that her sister, my aunt, had died. Over the course of the following hours it became apparent that this well loved, single, giving, talented early childhood teacher had overdosed on anti anxiety medication. At first I was waiting to write till I felt ready to talk about her and her amazing achievements. But as time goes on I'm realizing that I may never feel "ready". Suicide is by far the hardest way to loose a loved one. The year before Jeri had asked if I'd be willing to be the executor of her will. I had no idea it would be so soon. In my mind I pictured my children grown and Jeri enjoying THEIR children. It's been a difficult journey, but in His wisdom God has surrounded us with Jeri's friends, who were also family to her and to us, and they have been a great source of help and comfort.

About the time Jeri passed Nick realized he was studying the wrong thing in school and withdrew. Two months later I found out I was pregnant with our second child and suddenly the morning sickness took over and left me pretty much useless. The following months it seemed that both Nick and I were in a funk. Sam was amazing and made it through pretty much unscathed. We pretty much took two months off from life. Can a person really do that? Well as much as we could we did. That time together was really good for us. We bonded as a family and were able to move past the obstacles before us. My mother had come back from Africa and stayed three months helping out, if it hadn't been for her hard work and organizing of the estate issues I don't think anything would have gotten done. Her visit also gave Sam an opportunity to get to know his Grandmother better. It is hard to say that in reality there were small blessings that came about after Jeri's death and as a result...for it seems like a poor trade for her life.

We are moving forward, and since then our family has grown. Dec. 9th we welcomed our second child into the world, a daughter! Isabelle is her name and at just six weeks old she's already brought joy and healing to our family. We gave her my aunt's name as her middle name so she'll always have a connection to her Great Aunt who died too young. It's funny how God works things out. For over a year Nick and I were trying to have another child. It was stressful and didn't do good things for our relationship. It put too much stress on us as a couple. Once we let go and put matters into God's hands we felt peace...and then suddenly with the tragedy in our lives God gives us a gift. Sometimes it seems He brings one life into the world to help fill the gap left by a loved ones' passing.

So hopefully now that I have written this post I can get back into blogging. I've missed it and so many changes have happened for us!

Thank you for hanging in there. :)
diana

"Marshmellmoe Castle"

2011-01-25T14:31:00.000-08:00

I got the idea from a blog called "The Artful Parent" and have been waiting for an opportunity to make it work. My aunt Jeri, who is a very talented and creative early childhood teacher, sent me a link to The Artful Parent, where I saw this post about making sculptures out of marshmallows and toothpicks. It's such a simple idea, and inexpensive too! I wasn't sure Sam would be able to do it, but he completely surprised me. When Sam came into the kitchen and saw everything set up and ready to go he took one look at the tooth picks and said, "Those are sharp mama!" They were just sharp enough to pierce marshmallows, but not too sharp that they would pierce little fingers. Jean said she did the activity with dry, hard marshmallows, so I decided to use soft ones. They worked out just fine and were more fun to eat! Sam and I both built our own "castle" and then joined them together at the end to make one big one! As the marshmallows dried, our structure became more ridged.

The Library + Art Project

2011-01-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been going to other blogs for activity ideas to do with Sam. Sometimes he'll sit on my lap and we'll look at the blogs together. Sam likes to talk about the pictures and the kids. Today I did a little blog hopping and found this post on a classroom activity. It gave me the idea to root through the books we picked up this week at the library. Sam and I decided that's we'd sit down to read "The Mixed Up Chameleon" by Eric Carle and then make our own mixed up Chameleon. I have a soft spot for chameleons for as a child my brothers and I would occasionally find them in our garden, often in our citrus trees. I've always been fascinated by them.

Sam's mixed up chameleon.

My mixed up chameleon. I decided to make him not so mixed up, and hanging out in my garden. I think it's fun doing the activity with Sam. :) That being said I think I need to go out and pick up more water colour paper!

Rediscovering the Library

2011-01-23T18:24:00.000-08:00

Last winter our local library changed it's hours. I was pretty bummed about it. Not only were their hours shortened but they also didn't work into our schedule. This winter, while driving around, running errands I discovered another library in a nearby part of town that accepts our city library cards. Their hours are so much more family friendly! What a joy it's been making weekly trips to the library again! I realized this week, after discovering a couple of great children's books, that I really need to start writing down which ones we love.

Last week Sam's favorite book was "There's a Nightmare in My Closet" by Mercer Mayer. Apparently many other children are fond of it as well. The copy we got was pretty worn. I put it on my Amazon.com wish list so I don't forget how much he loved it. Sam's been a little consumed with the idea of being scared at night. I'm not sure of what, and I don't know if it's an excuse to climb into bed with us (which I don't really allow)but this book deals with the concept of monsters with a great sense of humor.

My favorite book from this week, Sam liked it too, was "Wow! City!" by Robert Neubecker. It's a charming book about (I think the author himself) a man and his daughter who live in the mountains and take a plane to visit the city. The pictures are full of rich images and bright colours. I had fun trying to model language with Sam as we explored the images ourselves. I actually got stomach flu on Thursday and spent a lot of time in bed over the weekend. I was happy to have a few books to read to Sam as I recovered. "Wow! City!" is a great snuggle read!

Can't wait to see what we discover this week!

diana

At Least One Post in January!

2011-01-22T13:39:00.000-08:00

Woh! Where did the past almost two months go? I have no idea.

We had a pretty awesome, but busy Christmas. It included lots of awesome church/music/Jesus Birthday activities, and gatherings with friends. I can't believe it's the new year already! Here are some pictures to recap some of our activities in the past couple months.

First up is our visit to my dear friend Rachel's for the weekend. Rachel moved closer to us about two years ago (an hour and a half away instead of 3 hours) and every since we've been talking about Sam and me coming up for a weekend. Nick and I sat down with our calendar at the beginning of the fall and picked out a weekend that would work for him. So in early November Sam and I left Nick all by himself with no car for the weekend and drove up north to Wautoma. Rachel's daughter, Lucy, is just a few months younger than Sam. We were all looking forward to spending time together. Rachel has been one of my very best friend since high school. Spending time with her comes naturally. It was nice to have no agenda for the weekend except to hang out. The kids had a great time, and Rachel and I bonded over board games and a little work out time. We have so much in common with our take on being stay at home moms that it's always refreshing to hang out with Rachel. She clued me in to a very handy housework check list that I've been using every week since my visit. I've also been working out on a regular basis, thanks to Rachel's encouragement.

I love this one of Sam and Lucy! The kids were getting a little stir crazy so we all got our coats on and ran out to the mailbox.

Late November brought Thanks Giving. Ever since my in-laws (Nick's Step mom and Dad) moved up to Door County, I've been trying to come up with any excuse I can to get up there. They are about three hours away. It makes for a great budget friendly vacation that has the added bonus of including family. While up there Nick and Sam had the chance to try out Herbie's four wheeler. We also went to the smallest, cutest Thanks Giving Parade I've ever seen. Nick's grandma Millie and Aunt Barb cooked up the BEST Thanks Giving meal I've every eaten. I am convinced that what made it so special is the fact that Mil and Barbed were able to use many of the vegetables they'd taken from there garden this past fall. Included were home grown potatoes (mashed), home grown sweet corn, home grown green beans, home made stuffing and the list goes on.

We ended our Thanks Giving evening with a few friendly games of Polish Poker. Now usually I don't gamble, but with this game requiring only three quarters to play I really don't mind. That and I usually win the pot at least once!

Late this past November my dear cousin Tammy got married. It was a much anticipated wedding, as all weddings in our family are. I was sad to note that we're getting short on cousins to marry off and will soon have to come up with other venues in which to get the family together. As always we had a great time!

Wow, Sam's quiet time somehow turned into nap time. That almost never happens. Since I have a little more time on my hands than anticipated I'm going to wrap this post up so I can get more stuff done!

I hope and pray that you all had a blessed Christmas and fun New Year!

diana

Sam and Ruthie Paint

2010-12-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Everyone,
It seems that I have had better years for blogging. When I look to see how many blogs I post a month I think the average is one a week. This makes me very sad. I started my blog as another way to give updates to my parents. Hopefully in the coming year I'll be able post more often. Now that Nick isn't working third anymore my evenings aren't as open as they used to. Not that I don't mind. I'd take having my hubby around at normal hours any time!
Tonight I have a little extra time, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post a video I took with the birthday present my little brother gave me (a flip video!) This past fall I had the pleasure of watching Sam's buddy, Ruthie, for an afternoon. We had a great time and I'm glad I captured a little piece of our afternoon!

Andy and Katie Get Married!

2010-11-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago our dear friend Andy married the love of his life, a sweet energetic woman by the name of Katie! I had the pleasure of getting to know Katie better this year and couldn't imagine anyone better suited for Andy's fun personality. Once again I got to shoot with the lovely Emily Ebeling. Emily had an especially big job that day as not only was her husband standing up in the wedding but her son was ring bearer! In her usual fashion, Em rocked it out. It was extra special fun shooting a wedding of a good friend with my best friend. Here are some of my favorite shots!

The Fall Light

2010-11-21T20:57:00.000-08:00

I was going through my massive collection of photos and came across a few favorites from a day this past fall when the light coming into our place was just lovely. I've been taking fewer photos lately than I did in the past since Sam and I are usually having too much fun to be bothered with a camera. But on this particular day I couldn't resist...and I'm glad I didn't.

It was easier to take pictures of my little guy when he was between 2 and 3 years old. He was much less aware of the camera. I was able to capture some very natural moments quite easily back then. Now I have to work harder to sneak in those shots.

One of Sam's favorite activities is to draw. We save all our scraps of scratch paper (or "special paper") for him. Sam can easily be content for up to an hour (CRAZY right?) with a few sheets of paper and a pen. (Pens are his favorite to draw with.) One day at Goodwill I found rolls of receipt paper (for cash registers) and bought a roll to draw on with Sam. We'll tare off a long piece and "draw stories". I am so thankful to have such a creative son!

-diana

Sam and "Uncle Mamum"

2010-11-09T20:49:00.000-08:00

I took this shot the night before Adam left for TBS (The Basic School, for the Marines). We had Adam and Heidi up for a Root Beer Float send off. I think this image sums up Adam and Sam's relationship beautifully! I accidentally ran across it tonight and just had to share!

Jessica and Tony Get Married

2010-11-09T20:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend I totally pushed myself and am so happy too! I've had little interest in my camera lately and decided it was time to make a little extra effort. My dear friend, Emily (www.ebelingartstudio.com) hired me to shoot a wedding with her on Sat. The day started out briskly cold, but bright and slowly warmed up as the sun rose. We had a little mix up with the time that resulted in baby sitter complications but thankfully everything worked out in the end. The couple (who I had not met before) were a cute pair. Both Tony and Jessica have a great energy and are pretty animated people. I got the impression that Jessica loves to laugh and Tony affords her many an opportunity to use that big smile of hers.

After the ceremony we headed to my part of town for photos on top of a hill near our community garden. There is a stunning view of the city from that hill and the couple loved the idea of using this location. The time of day was perfect for our photos as the sun was starting to go down and the light was so warm and inviting. I turned my flash off, tucked it into my shoot sac and proceeded to challenge myself to use the natural light to my advantage as I worked around Emily's poses trying to capture extra details. Here are some of my shots!

Happy Halloween (My Very Own Little Dragon)

2010-10-31T19:45:00.000-07:00

No one warned me of how exhausting it is to take a three year old trick or treating. Boy am I BEAT! But I promised myself I'd post photos right away for my parents. The last time they were home, here in the States, my mom brought back for me a dragon costume that she had made when I was...6? 7? I think it may have even been for a dance recital..I'm not sure I'll have to get the details from my mom. (My mother corrected me this afternoon, the costume was actually my little brother's, I must have been around when she was making it, hence the confusion...but she did make me a costume for a dance recital..I think it was some kind of bird...) Anyway the costume actually fit Sam! I was amazed. It was really special when he said he'd love to be a dragon...but he wanted wing, which we actually did make.

Because I don't know many of our neighbors yet I decided to go trick or treating my with cousin Moe and her three boys (and baby daughter). They all dressed up as Star Wars characters. It was a ton of fun! Sam really got the hang of it at the end there. He was skipping to each house saying, "It's still trick or treat time!" I thoroughly enjoyed helping my little dragon up the stairs to each home and reminding him to say thank you, even if we did loose his wings within the first five min.!

Joel, Jocee and Austin

2010-10-24T21:46:00.001-07:00

Hello all! Today I had the great pleasure of photographing my cousin Joel and his beautiful little family. Joel and Jocee's adorable Austin is only two months old and I must say a little camera shy. Sam and I spent an hour or so this afternoon hanging out with Joel, Jocee, Austin, my cousin David (Uncle) and my Aunt Kathy (Grandma). Unfortunately Austin didn't feel much like cooperating but it was no problem for me. With working around so many weddings I've learned to adapt and regroup when something doesn't go as one is expecting. Joel and Jocee did a great job of remaining calm and helping Austin settle down.

It did take me a good ten/fifteen minutes to warm up and get into the grove, but once I did I was really happy with how the images were turning out. Here's a small taste of our afternoon.

Photo Firday

2010-10-01T21:02:00.001-07:00

This time last year I was still taking pictures for the photo challenge entries. But instead this summer I've been neglecting my camera and in some cases even avoiding it. I'm not sure why, but I know it's been affecting my performance with the camera in general. So this week I thought I'd cook up a few photos for your viewing pleasure. I set out this week to take at least one photo a day. In most cases I took far more than that, and was even inspired to haul out some extra equipment to experiment with lighting. I did, however, forget to take a picture on Wednesday. I think perhaps for next week I'll try and take one picture a day featuring a colour in the rainbow...if I'm up to it.... :)

Anyway, without further ramblings, here's my week, starting with last Friday.

Friday (Sept. 24)
Prepping tomatoes for home made roasted tomato soup.
(it was delish!)

Saturday
My favorite coffee mug (thrift store purchase)

Sunday
Glitter glue is the BEST!

Monday
Discovering nature with Sam

Tuesday
Portrait of my husband at Pizza Shuttle
(There were the COOLEST reflections on the inside windows)

Thursday
I cleaned out my purse (enough said.)

Adam and Heidi's Wedding Cont.

2010-09-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

This post is mainly for my mother. She knew that I'd taken a bunch of pics of our missionary family and asked if I could post them. At the time I felt like I was taking so many pictures, but now I wish I'd taken more.

Brandon and Katie Welcome Their Second!

2010-09-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago our dear friends, B and Katie, welcomed their second child into the world. I was on call to watch their little two year old if Katie went into labor during the day, but never got the call till after the baby was born. Katie was so organized. She had sent a contact list and her plans for who would do what if someone wasn't available. As it turned out, Katie's contractions came early so she called her mom to come and spend the day with them. Katie's intuition was correct, so her mother was on hand when Katie had to go to the hospital to give birth.
On the second hospital day, after the baby is born, all our friends show up to visit. The special part is that we all pitch in and order Chinese for all. The tradition started almost by accident. When I was in the hospital with Sam, the second day, Nick and I decided to order Chinese since I needed a change of food. Well there's a Chinese place a block away from the hospital and it must have a buffet. Our food came in about four minutes. That was too much for Nick, he was shocked and a little grossed out since it was obvious our food wasn't cooked fresh. So when all our friends showed up to visit there were boxes of untouched Chinese food laying around, which soon got fully consumed (but not by us!)
So here are a few shots of the happy family! Unfortunately I didn't get one of little Ruthie (the proud big sister) since she was still with Grandma.

Enjoy!

Congrats Katie and B!

diana

Summer of Picking!

2010-08-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

It all started with STRAWBERRIES! I think if I lived in a different time I'd have been a hunter/gatherer. The idea of picking my own food and doing great things with it has always appealed to me. Every year Nick and I talk about finding local farms that let you pick your own berries in the spring, but it just hasn't happened. My dear old Dad was the one who got us to pick strawberries while we were up at the family cottage with my parents, and it pretty much all started there.

The funny thing about this day was that we were all so hyped to pick berries that none of us really realized how fast it would go with six people picking (well maybe five, Sam did his share but most of it was field canning in the end.) The berry boxes filled up entirely too soon so, we just kept picking. Nick stopped after a certain point. He thought it was crazy that we were still going.

That was our first day up at Laurentia, and wouldn't you know it, by the end of the week we had actually eaten all 1o pounds of strawberries!

Stay tuned for more berry picking stories.

Diana

Slacking on the blogging lately

2010-08-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I've totally been slacking on blogging. That makes me sad because I'm always afraid that I'll loose all my readers, who are also good friends. So I hope I haven't lost that many of you yet! This summer has been busy busy, fun, and great. My parents were in town for almost three months and I kept my schedule flexible so I could see them as much as possible. I didn't realize how much I miss them till the last day I saw them.

I've also been doing a ton of gardening (in our back yard! YAY!) and get this; canning and drying. When I lived with my grandmother there were so many things about her that I connected to. She'd tell me stories about the garden she and Grandpa kept and all the food they'd grow in the summer so their family could eat garden goodies all winter. This summer I've only scratched the surface of what I can do in my own kitchen garden and I'm already planning my garden for next year!

Anyway I wrote this post because I felt funny about jumping back into the saddle with back posts. So I guess I'm warning you that I'm going to attempt to catch up a little from this summer. It was too fun not to share!

Diana

Adam and Heidi Get Married!

2010-08-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

Wow I can't believe it was almost a week ago already! I posted these photos on FB but totally forgot to get them up on my blog! My mom sent a gentle reminder. Thanks mom!

Where do I start? It was a pretty amazing and full weekend. Since Adam and Heidi's wedding was late morning on Sat. we drove up a little early on Friday afternoon to spend the night and do a few extra things that still needed to get done. The wedding was to be held in a small town up north. Heidi's grandparents owned a beautiful farm, now belonging to her parents, on which she wanted to hold the reception. Only problem is it rained and rained and rained pretty much three days straight. In our own dear city it rained so hard that a sink hole suddenly opened up in the middle of a much used intersection on the east side.

In preparation for the wedding Heidi, Adam and some of the wedding party spent much of Friday morning laying hay under the tent and around the tables that were to be used for the reception. Everyone was sweaty, tired, and full of hay when we arrived in the afternoon. My parents had already arrived on the farm and had been working away. We too were put right to work upon arrival. Our first job was to cut and arrange flowers for 20 plus vases that were to grace the tables at the reception. This job was just up my alley! I learned a simple and elegant form of arranging flowers from my grandmother. In about an hour we had about 28 beautiful vases ready to go!

Later that night, before the rehearsal dinner, we headed back to our air conditioned hotel room (upon the encouragement of my husband) for the the farm house was very humid and warm. There we finished up the wedding favors. It took forever!

Anyway on to the wedding day. It rained the entire night before, but let up right after dawn. When we got to the church slightly before 11am Adam and Heidi were absent. Having decided to do the reception at the church instead of the farm they and the wedding photographers went early that morning to take photos at the farm. It was quite funny actually. Adam and Heidi arrived just in time to get married. I popped into the hall they were in and couldn't help but laugh at the sight before me. The photographers were doing their best to remove all evidence of the muddy ground from the bottom of Heidi's dress! Bless Heidi, she wasn't even fazed. I had just enough time to give both Adam and Heidi a quick hug before the ceremony.

With all the weddings I have photographed I had yet to experience the fainting of anyone up at the alter. I never thought I'd witness it first at my own brother's wedding! One of the bride's maids had worked so hard the day before, laying down hay and doing other random things, that she was just worn out. Add to that no breakfast, a warm church and locked knees. Heidi's dad spotted it first and went up to help her..but dead weight is no easy thing to support. My dad and I had the same thought, CHAIR! When my hubby agreed I grabbed a chair and crossed right behind the couple with a chair and back again to get the girl some water. The pastor didn't miss a beat. Although later Adam said that Pastor Kroll kept glancing over in the girl's direction to make sure she was okay. Poor girl, no one cared much except that she didn't bust her head open. Despite all the hulabaloo Adam and Heidi were married with one other tiny hitch...it was so warm Adam's ring wouldn't go on. Somehow they worked it out, I'll have to ask them how!

Directly after the wedding the couple hid away in order to speed up picture taking. It was then that I heard from my father that our dear Uncle Duane, who had been battling cancer for the past 6 months or so, was called away to heaven not one hour before the wedding. As soon as my father shared the sad but wonderful ( Duane is in heaven, no longer suffering!) news with me I went to share it with my brothers. Poor Heidi got a pretty fast initiation into our family. I'll never forget the moment I told Scott and Adam. They knew right away that what I had to say wasn't good. As we bowed our heads in sadness Heidi came up from behind and put her arms around all three of us. Clasping each of my brother's hands, the four of us stood in a circle and prayed for my uncle's family. What power there is in prayer!

The meal was held right there at the church! The only request Adam had as far as wedding details went was that he wanted a pig roast. And what a roast it was! After all the food had been eaten and toasts had been made, the couple announced that they left both the wedding cake and beer truck back at the farm and everyone was free to follow them there. I stayed behind with my parents for a bit then we headed out to the farm. What a wonderful day it turned out to be! The sun was out and it wasn't as hot as the day before. Heidi's dad moved the tractors out of their barn and set up tables and chairs in there. He even had to help pull a few people out of the soft ground!

I had a great time walking around and visiting with people I hadn't seen since my own wedding!

Anyway this is getting terribly long and if I don't end it soon the pictures will never get up. So here's to the happy couple!

Diana

Childhood Buddy

2010-07-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot about this set of images that I took right before we left the old apartment. As many of you know Bear Bear is Sam's best bud. We no longer take him everywhere, but Sam still includes Bear Bear in most of his daily activities.

Here's bedtime snack time with Bear Bear and Sam.

Diana

Candy Land!

2010-07-19T21:05:00.000-07:00

Found these today while trying to clean up my photo library...there are too many photos in there!

Thought I'd share! Sam LOVES Candy Land! What are your memories connected with the game?

Adam's Commissioning

2010-06-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

As of yesterday it's official; My brother is now a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Marines. Yesterday morning a small group of us gathered at the War Memorial downtown to witness the intimate ceremony. Adam and one other young man were commissioned together. Honestly the whole thing still seems so surreal to me. I think mostly because I look at my three year old son and see so much of his Uncle in him, even at this young age. I was eight when Adam was three so there's a lot I remember about my baby brother being a baby. And there he was yesterday, standing so proud and tall giving his oath and accepting the responsibilities of being a Marine. I still tear up thinking about it. I'm so very proud of him, but am still having trouble picturing my little brother touting a gun, yelling at recruits, crawling through the mud.....

When Adam came back from Officer Candidate School the first time he really did act and look like a Marine...I think time in civilian life softened him a little. :) In October Adam goes off to TBS (The Basic School...gotta love the acronyms!) In all honesty Adam has the right woman by his side for the job and he's surrounded by, not only his family who loves him, but by a group of close friends who are not only Marines but also know the love of Christ. I am confident knowing that whatever Adam does in life God will bless him.

Adam's best buddy, Paul (who we affectionately refer to as "Wolfy") was there in his dress uniform to give Adam his first salute. It's traditional for the commissioned officer to give a silver dollar to their first salute. The saying is that (I hope I get this right) you buy your first salute but have to earn all the rest. What I've always loved about the Marines is the sense of respect they have for each other, and I got to see that first hand yesterday.

Luckily I had enough family at the event to watch Sam so I could take a bunch of pictures. The lighting kept changing! But despite all that I'm really happy with the photographs I got and can't stop looking at them! I thought I'd share some.

Adam I'm so very proud of you!

diana

Adam's first salute.

Adam's best buddy, Paul.

What a blessing that my parents are home this summer!

My Mom and Adam

My Aunt Jeri and Adam

I love this picture of Adam and his fiance, Heidi!

The only person missing in this shot was Nick :( who had to work the night before.

Adam and all his buddies who came out to support him!

After the commissioning we went over to my grandmother's. My aunt and uncle are here for the summer from Hong Kong, we thought we'd take the chance to get a shot of all of us! (yup, I totally took this one too! Grandma's TV is the perfect height!)

On Vacation Part 2

2010-06-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing our vacation, which happened a week or so ago, is going to have to come in small installments. Recently I've had trouble keeping up with blog posts and this summer I am determined to keep everyone in the loop. :)

While up at the cottage with my family we grilled out EVERY night! It was just awesome. Nick, of course, was our grill master. The first night it was nice enough for us to eat on the picnic table outside. Our cottage is built right on top of a hill with the hill dipping down to the lake's edge. From our picnic table at the top of our small hill we can eat dinner and have a great view of the lake and sun as it sets.

Adam had a lot of fun teaching Sam how to blow on top of a bottle to make it, "sing". These pictures were taken the first day of our vacation. It was a perfect start! Next time my parents are in town I think we're going to try and take two weeks instead of one (Nick will be in Grad School so life will be much crazier, but we'll see.)

diana

On Vacation We.....

2010-06-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

WENT STRAWBERRY PICKING!

Oh and what fun it was too! I have always wanted to do that as a family outing. When we got up to the cottage Sunday afternoon my Dad had already done the research and found a farm that had just started picking their strawberries. The farm was owned and run by a sweet Mennonite family. They had a TON of children and all of them were so well behaved and clean! I've never seen such clean children! But then again it was early in the morning when we arrived to pick. I refrained from taking any pictures of the children since I'm not sure how the Mennonites feel about such things and I didn't want to be rude. They really were lovely children!

What none of us thought of as we started was how fast the strawberries would add up with six of us picking (Sam wasn't really picking, he was, as my grandmother puts it, "field canning".) We probably picked double the amount of berries that we needed all because it was too much fun. I'm not sure but I think we headed home with about 10-13lbs of strawberries! Needless to say it wasn't hard to find ways to use them all up. Most of the strawberries got sliced up and eaten with ice cream! YUM! Strawberry picking was the perfect start to a great vacation.

Ben and Erica!

2010-06-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's almost midnight, but I promised myself I'd get some photos up from Ben and Erica's wedding before the end of the day. I'm so far behind on my blog posts! I still need to post about our vacation.

After getting back Friday from our trip up north I had to quickly do a little shopping, laundry and packing to get ready for a weekend getaway with my good friend Emily. Sat. we drove 4hours north to shoot a college buddy's wedding. Erica has been a friend of mine since my sophomore year in college...that's nine years now. She's been through a lot of life changing things in those nine years, but with her sense of humor and faith Erica has always come out on top. A year or so ago, maybe more? Erica and Ben started dating and I could see a distinct change in Erica. She'd always dated the strangest guys who didn't seem to give Erica that glow we all hope to have when we're in love. Well the first time Erica talked to me about Ben I couldn't help but feel excited. I knew there was something distinctly different in this relationship.

Ben really does bring the best out of my dear dear friend and it was such a pleasure to witness their beautiful day! There were a lot of pictures I liked but I didn't want to bombard you all with a million images so I picked out only my favorites. Our last photo op with the couple was of them doing a Bible study together, a shot they requested. How cool is that?!?
Congrats Ben and Erica (they are pretty much the goofiest couple I know, and I love it!)

Diana

VACATION!

2010-06-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's pretty late, and I'm too pooped from having my parents over for dinner to do a full post so I thought I would leave a little teaser photo from our vacation last week. It's been a crazy couple of days. Right after we got back on Friday I rushed to get some house work done before having to leave early Sat. morning to drive four hours with my dear friend Em to shoot a wedding. I'm only just now starting to recover. So in the next couple days I hope to post more about our vacation and about Ben and Erica's wedding! (But maybe not tomorrow....tomorrow is going to have to be dedicated to doing laundry...)

Off to bed!

Diana

VACATION!

2010-06-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

After being gone, in Malawi, for two years my parents are back for the summer!!! We leave early next week to go up north to our cottage for the rest of the week. And guess what? The whole family will be there! Well all of us except for Adam's finance, Heidi, who is in Switzerland or Prague or something.

I'm glad that Sam hasn't had a hard time getting to know them at all. It took about ten minutes for him to warm up to my parents again. That's not bad at all!

Usually while up at the cottage I do a lot of reading, but that will be challenging with a three year old around. Thankfully this year Sam is a lot more interested in the world around him we should have a great time!

Have a great weekend and week everyone!

diana

Baby Brother Grows Up

2010-05-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well...I was SUPPOSED to be on my way to Adam's school to check out his final project but Sam passed out on the couch a little over an hour ago. Since we had to be up by 4:30am to get Nick from work (long story) the kid was just worn out. Instead of congratulating my brother and patting him on the back, since Sam STILL isn't awake, I thought I'd write a little bit about him.

Me and my two wonderful brothers!

I think part of the reason I love being a mom so much is because I adored Adam so much when he was first born..and of course as he grew up. You see, when Adam was born, I was already five years old. I can remember my mother being pregnant and the anticipation of meeting the newest member of the family. I was also excited about no longer being the youngest. All the stages that Sam is going through now are the same stages I watched my little brother go through as he grew up. Actually sometimes I mix up Adam and Sam's names because Sam reminds me so much of Adam when he was a toddler. The both have the same cheerful disposition and heart warming smile.

This summer Adam is about to hit a bunch of life mile stones that will pretty much rocket him into the realm of being grown up. Don't get me wrong, Adam is already an amazingly caring and responsible young man...but..well...you'll see what I mean.

Adam and Heidi looking into the future.

Tomorrow, after four intense and hard years, Adam will graduate from engineering school. In a couple week's he'll be commissioning into the Marines as an officer and in July Adam and his beautiful fiancee, Heidi, are to be married. Adam will be off, probably by the winter, to complete his training and Heidi will remain in Milwaukee to complete her engineering degree before launching her service time in the Navy. Yes, everyone thinks they are completely nuts, but we also know how much they love and respect each other and how putting God in the center of your relationship can make the seemingly impossible actually work out.

Adam and Scott

We have had an absolute blast having Adam live so close to us these past four years. Hopefully he and Heidi will be moving into the unit below us, so we won't have to go into withdrawl too soon! I'm so very proud of my little brother and thankful that God blessed me with such a rich and now even growing family! I've had so much fun with Adam over the years and can't wait to see what the future brings!

Not to Garden

2010-05-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

It's raining....again. Don't get me wrong, I love spring, I love that WI is waking up, but these dreary wet, cold days are starting to get to me. Well maybe it's just today. My dear, wonderful husband planned his morning and enlisted my brother's help to dig up the sod in our back yard. My hope was to get the compost and sand mixed in before tomorrow so I could seed some peas, spinach, lettuce and broccoli. Last night Nick took a peek at the Doppler weather map and saw this HUGE rain cloud coming in from the west. We called Adam to cancel, knowing that it would be cold and wet in the morning. I'm trying not to let it get to me, but I was REALLY excited about working together out in the yard.

Last night Nick's mom came into town to attend Nick's honors convocation with us. Since Nicky still has two more years of graduate school to go we decided that instead of doing the whole graduation thing we'd go to the honors convocation instead. It really was a wonderful ceremony. I have to say that I was surprised at how many people were graduating with honors. I took a few classes at Nick's university back in the day and was horrified at how many students just didn't care about their homework, attendance or grades. Last night it was inspiring to see how many students took their education seriously. There were also a few older adults , mostly woman, there to get their little gold cord.

I'm glad we decided to go. I think it was good for my husband to receive some recognition for all the hard work he's put into school these past SIX! years. Against my better judgment I ran out right before the ceremony to pick up some flowers for Nick. In the past he's complained whenever I've tried to give him flowers. Apparently men aren't supposed to receive flowers? Well I made the right call. It's sometimes easy to forget that a small gesture of love or appreciation can go a long way.

Well it's still drizzling, but the good news is that the strawberry plants Sam and I put in on Sunday are finally perking up. My hope is to have at least a few strawberries to enjoy this spring. Nick's grandma, Millie, is moving and gave us some of her strawberry plants. I had planned to dig up a special place in the back for a strawberry patch but just ran out of time. So for now the plants are nice and cozy in my somewhat barren flower bed. I have some hand me down perennials in, but my little seedlings are going to take a month or two to get to any sort of good size before I can transplant them and fill in the barren spots. Not to forget the fact that I'm still doing battle with this nasty invasive weed...the same weed I've been fighting for about a month and a half now.

I'll try to remember to take some pictures of the progress of our garden/yard...as soon as the rain clears up and the sun comes out....

Till then I'm just going to have to dream of sunshine and shovels.

-diana

Wow...

2010-05-07T18:31:00.000-07:00

It's been exactly a month since my last posting....how sad is that? I'm so far behind on blogging that it's almost not worth trying to catch up. Ever since the move we've been trying to adjust to our new place and routines. I now have a back yard to mold and nurture, and Sam (who turned 3 on Sunday!) has a water/sand table back there to play while I play.

Nick is almost done with his undergraduate studies. Just one last week of finals and he'll be spending the summer with his family, instead of in school...for once.

So what has happened in the mean time? Well there was Easter...a family get together with Nick's side...Sam's birthday...Scott's birthday...am I missing anything? I should look at my photos to see what's been going on. Oh, Nick had spring break a month or so ago. We all went to the local museum and Sam discovered that he was/is terrified of butterflies (they have a really cool butterfly room at our museum). But since then we've had the opportunity to discover all kinds of outside creatures that make butterflies seem not so scary. Sam has become quite fond of worms...but I have to remind them that they can't stay out of the ground for too long. Unfortunately I think the birds get to our wormy friends after we leave the garden. Poor little guys. Actually just yesterday we spotted a robin gobbling up a really HUGE worm....

Now that we live only a few blocks away from one of our favorite coffee spots, we've had no trouble finding reasons to walk by and pop in for an "Alterra treat" (as Sam likes to call them). There are a lot of nice things about this neighborhood. Living by a great local coffee house is only one of them. We also have a quaint little park only a few blocks away as well. Nick discovered just a few weeks ago that there is a beautiful trail through the woods down by the river. He goes running down there quite often.

Well I've just about run out of time, so I'll have to blab on some more in my next post.

Thank you all for being so patient!

diana

Sam's Spills

2010-04-07T19:02:00.001-07:00

*Sigh* What a long day it's been for us. It started out normal enough, but that lasted till about noon thirty this afternoon. As many of you already know, Sam took a tumble down the stairs about four weeks ago, right after we'd moved in. The black bruises under his eyes have finally disappeared, they only sign of his mishap being a faint pink line on the bridge of Sam's nose. It's taken a couple weeks for Sam to get over overreacting every time he falls. Since his tumble he's been sensitive to stumbles and bumps.

We went to take Nick to school around 10:30 this morning and then Sam and I dashed over to the grocery store. We got everything done just in time to rush back to UWM to pick up Nick. On our way back into the apt. from the car, Nick grabbed the mail as I helped Sam up the stairs. We had received a very big intriguing envelope. And it is because of this envelope that neither Nick nor I took notice of Sam struggling to take off his jacket, while sitting on a kitchen chair...till it was too late. All at once Sam flopped right off the chair and landed on his face. Right away I went down to his level and was relieved to see that his face was just fine. As I was hugging Sam and reassuring him Nick suddenly gasped, "Honey there's BLOOD!" Sure enough, I looked down and it was all over my shirt. On closer inspection it was all over Sam's too. I tilted up his chin to discover that the impact I thought was so evil I hadn't even seen! He must have whacked his little chin on the table as he went down, I only saw his face hitting the floor. Nick and I scrambled to grab a dish towel and after a few min. of putting pressure on the wound it stopped bleeding enough for us to get a good look at it. I had a feeling with all that blood that a trip to Urgent Care would be necessary, which it was.

Thankfully Nick had the rest of the afternoon off so as I hastily threw our groceries in the fridge and grabbed some snacks for us, Nick put his coat back on and got Sam ready to go. Urgent Care was busy this afternoon! After about two hours in the waiting room (where Sam proceeded to make friends with everyone) we were shown to the back. The Dr. was a sweet middle aged woman who didn't seemed shocked at all to see a little boy with such a wound. As it turns out I guess they see these kinds of things all the time. What I didn't know is that they have a gel of sorts that numbs the skin on contact! Boy was I relieved! We put the gel on Sam and went back to the waiting room to watch cartoons so the numbing could take affect. Nick had left earlier to get us some food and was returning just as we were sitting down to wait.

I tried my best to explain to Sam how the Dr. was going to sew him up. Sam has watched me stitch up his buddy bear bear many a time so I tried to relate it to that. I'm glad Nick was there, I don't think Sam nor I would have been so calm otherwise. I knew there was no way Sam would lay down on the table by himself, so I lay down first with Sam on my chest. Boy is that kid getting big! When I saw how agitated Sam was, I asked if he'd like to pray first, so we did. It was a touching site and I do think it helped a little.

It took a few min of the Dr. trying to stitch Sam and relax him before I realized maybe there was something more I could do. I have no idea how the thought popped into my head but suddenly I thought, "Hmm...maybe I could sing his favorite song!" It didn't take long before a much more relaxed Sam was making requests of me, "Peanut song Mama". Once all was said and done, Sam ended up with a neat little row of four stitches right under his chin. He didn't scream, whine or flinch at all, not even once! What a brave little boy we have!

We are so very thankful that a.) we have access to such great care and b.) it wasn't any worse that it was!

With that being said, Sam is in bed quietly sleeping and I'm about to hit the sack myself. It's been a long day! Praise God for good Dr.s! Oh and for helping us keep our heads through it all!

Thank you everyone for your concern!

-diana

Good Friday

2010-04-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

I had a neighbor once who mockingly wished me a "Happy Death of Your Savior Day" on Good Friday some years ago. To his surprise I offered a simple and grateful "Thank you", thankful for the reminder, however misplace, of our dear Savior's sacrifice that first Good Friday.

It is with a heavy heart today that I remember the awful price Jesus had to pay for our inability to walk through this life following God's decrees. Knowing that it was I who nailed our sweet Lord to the cross.

May this Easter weekend be a blessing to all of you as we remember our Savior and his PERFECT LOVE come Sunday as the Church around the world celebrates His resurrection!

Diana

Amanda and Steve

2010-03-29T11:23:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday I shot my second wedding of the season with the lovely Jessica Kaminski (www.spirit17.com) who is graciously letting me post some of the photos I took, here on my blog. I've been working with Jessica for almost 8 years now. I can't believe it! Well Sat. was our first wedding of the season together. I was amazed at how young the couple and wedding party seemed. Jessica and I came to the conclusion that we're now getting to the age where most of the couples are going to be younger than us.

Steve and Amanda were a somewhat quiet reserved couple, but I got the sense that given the right circumstances they can be a bit adventurous. Amanda was extremely organized with this wedding. There wasn't a detail she hadn't thought of. Their wedding party was comprised of their closest friends, and it showed. Everyone seemed to get along beautifully.

The wedding its self was in a very old beautiful church built somewhere around the time of the civil war. I couldn't resist climbing the narrow stairs to the balcony to try and get a nice wide shot of the church. I wasn't disappointed...but really my picture doesn't do this amazing church justice!

I had worked out some things with my camera before departing on our day and experimented with some ideas that have been knocking around in my head for a while. I think some of my pictures from Sat. are a little different than what is typical for me. I'm looking forward to doing more weddings and having the opportunity to try out even more new things!

Here's the sample of our day,

Enjoy!

diana

Sam Finally Has His Own Bedroom!

2010-03-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

After almost three years of living in a charming yet tiny one bedroom apartment, Sam finally has his own room! (Which means we finally have our own room too!) I've been trying to do things to make his room special, since he's used to being around us so much. We moved the fish tank in there and every morning Sam and I feed the fish. I've been scouring our local thrift shops for picture frames and have been framing some of his paintings. He's so thrilled when we hang them on the wall. Little by little it seems to be working out just fine. Sam is starting to adjust to having his own space, but most of the time he'd still rather be near either me or Nick.

The first week we were here I captured the following photograph. Sam has a very active and bright imagination which will pop up at any unexpected moment. While we were potty training I tried to use one of his stuffed animals as a model. Sam called that little bunny with the diaper, Baby and the name has stuck. Even though Sam pretty much caught onto potty training on his own Baby has become another member of our family, along with the much loved Bear Bear. Sam was playing quietly with Baby one afternoon when I peeked into his room to see him go through HIS bedtime routines with Baby. First there were the Bible stories and then after tucking Baby in Sam paused to say a bedtime prayer. It was such a precious moment, I'm thankful that I can share it with all of you!

(Please don't be alarmed by the bruise under his eye, he had fallen down the stairs a few days before this picture was taken and woke up the next morning with two shiners. The bruises are almost all gone.)

diana

Challenge #50

2010-03-26T20:40:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to practice shooting with a shallow depth of field using pin point focus accuracy. Here's the challenge and here's what I came up with:

The Challenge:

THRIFT

The Rules:

1.) Use your unique insight and experiences to interpret the word "Thrift" in three or less photographs.

2.) B/W, Colour, Tweaking, all allowed!

Upcoming weekend

2010-03-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

I'm shooting my second wedding of the year already this weekend and have pictures to get off my camera. But it'll have to wait till tonight. Nick is sleeping and Sam is dancing around the room to "Cinderella Music". We're planning on heading out the my Grandma's this morning to spend the morning with her. It's been about two weeks since our last visit and I don't like waiting so long before visiting. She tends to miss us a lot. I'm glad my Grandmother's spirit is so young. Having Sam around doesn't wear her out at all but rather energizes her. What a gift it is for her to know my dear child. I never would have imagined such a blessing in my life! I will leave you with a typical scene from one of our visits. Notice the cookies? :)

Coffee Shop Time!

2010-03-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but be excited when I learned this place was just five blocks from one of my favorite coffee shops. So far Nick,Sam and I have gone there for lunch every Tuesday since we moved in. The best part is that one the way home we can stop at the park to play a little before nap time! Not today though, we had a busy morning as a family, but got to spend it together!

I loved the light coming into the shop when we had lunch. Enjoy! (You can see traces of the shiner Sam got from falling down the stairs a little over a week ago, thankfully it's healing nicely!)

diana

Simple Scones-Your Way!

2010-03-15T07:21:00.001-07:00

I've had some requests for this recipe so I thought I'd post. Can't quite remember where it came from...maybe allrecipes.com...but it's a favorite in our house. And the best part is you can change up the recipe depending on what you have on hand. Take note that the below recipe is only the base I'll have ingredient suggestions listed below the recipe.

2 C. all purpose flour
1/3C. (plus 1TBS) sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 TBS (one stick) cold butter
1/2 C. sour cream
1 large egg

-preheat oven to 400
-mix dry ingredients and cut butter into mix until mixture looks coarse.
-in another bowl mix wet stuff well add to dry mixture (add your special ingredients here)
-stir until ball forms (if it seems dry, don't worry it'll form a ball.)
-on floured surface press dough into either a circle (3/4 inch high) and cut into wedges (like a pizza) (I actually don't like how big the scones turn out this way so I make a long rectangle, cut it into squares and cut each square into triangles.)
-sprinkle tops with sugar and move scones to pan.
-bake for 15-17 min or till edges are golden brown.

Orange, Almond, Pecan version

Variations:

For Cherry Almond scones add:
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 c. dried diced cherries

For Orange Pecan scones add: (I love adding dried cranberries to this one too instead of pecans)
1/2tsp almond extract
zest of one orange (the bigger the better)
1/4C. chopped pecans

For raspberry scones add:
1/2 tsp either almond or vanilla extract (I prefer almond)
1/2 C. frozen rasberries crushed a little in your hand. Be sure to work fast after adding them. It's hard to work the dough after they start thawing.

For savory scones:
Subtract half the sugar
add 1/4 c.grated cheddar cheese (or more if desired)
and a few TBS chopped chives

Enjoy! And if you discover a version of your own, please do share! These are GREAT with tea.

-diana

MOVED! (Over a week ago already?!?!?)

2010-03-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

Well I guess now that we have internet, and now that we're pretty much moved into our new place, it's about time I let everyone know we are still alive. At the moment I have a little boy in the middle of his afternoon nap and a stock pot on the stove happily simmering away. For some reason in the evenings I have been just too tired to stay up and catch up on all the things not housework related that I didn't do during the day. Maybe it has to do with the fact that for some reason both Sam and I have been getting up around 5:30am almost EVERY morning. I wouldn't mind 6:30am one bit, but 5:30 wake up calls make for a very long day. So here I am writing away while there are still a few boxes to unpack, but I figure a person just has to give themselves a break every now and then (that and my mom hinted to me today, via yahoo messenger, that she'd love for me to post something on the blog.:) This one's for you mom!

Our official move day was last Sat. I must say that I really really love the internet and social networking sites like Facebook. Facebook made it so easy for me to track down and communicate with all those people who had offered to help us move back when we were still looking for a house. My mother in law, Sherry came down for the entire week (bless her!) to help us out. I've been learning over the past month that really when it comes down to it, a lot more things need to be cleaned regularly than what I was doing. Sherry, with no complaint, proceeded to start scrubbing away the last four years of grime out of our kitchen practically the moment she stepped through the door. If it hadn't been for Sherry's help I'm not sure we could have done this move on time. Yeah, my kitchen will NEVER be that gross again!

We were all apprehensive about Saturday, but really shouldn't have been. Our friends all showed up in full force and equally cheerful moods to help load up the U-haul and get everything up the crazy staircase at our new home/apt/upper unit of a duplex. Somewhere along the road of life I learned the important lesson of how much easier a big job can go when food is somehow involved, so Sat. I made sure we had plenty of bagels and coffee on hand to help energize all our great helpers. Boy did I underestimate of fast and how fun a move could be when so many friends are involved. Usually I have at least one horrible emotional break down before a move. Not this time around. It was so wonderful having all our friends around us. I felt sheltered from all my anxieties as they helped, joked around and laughed.

We got just about everything moved by noon, so I swung by our favorite pizza place and picked up a couple of HUGE pizzas to feed our hungry crowd. I love Pizza Shuttle! They always have great deals and their pizza is AWESOME! Where else in the city can you get a 2 topping extra large pizza for $9.99? All eleven of us crammed into our already crammed kitchen to gather around the pizza. It was the most delightful lunch I've had the pleasure of enjoying in a long time.

I didn't take too many pictures that day, as we were busy moving. When I got back from picking up the pizzas my almost Marine brother and his buff Marine friend (Paul) were standing our bedroom discussing the option of hoisting our bedspring up the balcony. They are both engineer guys so I figured if anyone could pull it off, they could. So that's when I pulled out my camera. They never would have gotten that box spring up the stairs, but with the help of four others (6 total) the box spring made it safely up the balcony and into our bedroom! (Later we had trouble tracking down the pieces to put our bed back together, but at least we got that box spring into the place!)

What an exhausting day it was! In the evening Nick and Sherry went out to find some food while I stayed behind to clean the place up a little bit. They came back in good spirits...but as it would happen, in need of a few things that were still packed. Every time Nick asked us where something was Sherry and I had to go in search of the box it was in. After about the third time this happened Nick exclaimed in an exasperated voice, "Life really sucks right now!" Sherry and I just lost it and after that we couldn't stop laughing the rest of the evening. It was so ridiculous trying to function in an only half functional apartment. So instead we dug out the one lonely beer that made it from the old place (that was for Nick) and Sherry after spotting my full wine rack in the kitchen handed it to me and said, "I will PAY you to open this." We ended the evening in the living room laughing and relaxing. The perfect end to a crazy and fun day.

So there you have it!

We are all safely moved thanks to our wonderful friends and family!

Off to skim the scum off my simmering stock!

diana

One Week and Counting

2010-02-20T06:47:00.001-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it! We move in exactly one week! Our new landlord gave us the month free to move and I've been doing my best to get stuff over there these past two weeks. I'm amazed at how many of our friends and family have been super awesomely helpful! Erica is coming over this afternoon to give me a hand. I could get more done, but when it's just me and Sam it's impossible. My hope is to get boxes over the the apartment today and maybe unpack them tomorrow. No matter how much stuff I put in boxes I feel like we've barely made a dent. I have resolved myself to just throw out all the stupid random stuff that's left laying around next Sat. after we get the furniture out. That random stuff stresses me out the most. It's usually just junk...pens, random socks, a note book, photographs...that sort of stuff.

Nick has next week off (ALL OF IT!) so it seems like we'll probably get the most stuff done then. Oh and my mother in law is going to spend the week with us. She is amazing at cleaning and organizing! When I say amazing, I mean AMAZING! I'm really looking forward to having her around. Knowing she'll be here has kept me from having a melt down.

This morning our manager is going to be showing our apartment AGAIN. I think that has been stressing me out the most. Every week they have been having at least 6 people walk through on any given day at any given time. It's like we don't even live here. At least this week there were fewer walk throughs. It's getting very very old...especially since Nick sleeps during the day. Hopefully it'll be rented out soon so we can live in peace...and if not, no matter we leave in a week!

On thing I am going to miss about this place is how nice the wood floors are. There are wood floors in our new apt. but they are not as nearly as nice as these. I've really enjoyed having wood floors...and now won't live anywhere without them!

With that I'm going to leave you with a photo of Sam from a year ago, but really the photo features the floors I'm going to miss so much. They made potty training and early attempts at eating grown up food so much easier!

diana

Jami and Dave Get Married!

2010-02-09T20:33:00.000-08:00

Wow! I can't believe it's that time again! It is quite unusual for me to be shooting a wedding this early in the year. I'm not used to pulling out all my equipment and shining it up before the first flowers are poking out of the ground. But what a treat it was to shoot Dave and Jami's wedding with my dear friend Emily. As always she is gracious enough to allow me to post my sampling of the day here on my blog.

Jami and I have known each other in passing for years. She grew up, the daughter of a missionary, in Hong Kong. Much like my own experience, Jami's adjustment to American culture was tough. Jami has always had a heart for helping kids who end up going through the same change she had to make. Which is how Jami ended up in Germany teaching at a school and later meeting her husband Dave, who had also been a transplant from the US.

What a fun day Emily and I had with those two! They had friends from all over the world come to support them. The reception was full of fun wedding traditions from Germany. I've never seen a couple laugh as much as Jami and Dave did.

We had a fun time capturing their day!

House and Other "Stuff"

2010-02-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

I haven't been doing too well keeping everyone updated on our life changes... it seems like so much happened at the same time that I'm still trying to recover from it all. As many of you already know, over Nick's Christmas break we were doing our best to try and buy a home. A friend of mine from college was our relator and did a WONDERFUL job (if anyone lives in the area and are looking for someone they can trust, let me know!) We found a great little home north of where we live now and put in an offer. At the time we thought everything was in order financially but found out just in time that the grant money we thought was coming wasn't and that our financial aid was all mixed up at school. On top of that we were horrified to find out after the home inspection that there were some things seriously wrong with the house that we didn't have money to fix. Since the sellers had already stated that they were selling the home "as is" Nick and I decided that this was an impossible move for us right now.

Upon telling many of my friends and family they have expressed concern that our hearts may be broken over having to give up this "dream". In all honesty both Nick and I are completely fine with how things went down. We had a great team of people helping us out, and we constantly prayed that God would let us know if this was not the right move for us. God gave us some pretty obvious signs in the end. And we are at peace with how things are. On top of all that we found a great little 2 bedroom place near here that will fit us quite snugly. We'll be downsizing in living space a little, but it's about time we get Sam out of our bedroom. The duplex has a great fenced in back yard and our new land lord seems to be excited with the fact that I want to put in a garden. He's already given me the OK to do whatever I'd like back there. So all in all things have worked out rather well.

We haven't moved yet and are planning to either the 26th or 27th of this month. I hate moving, but once we're moved I'm hoping our life will settle down a little. These past two months have been NUTS!

Thank you all for your support and prayers!

diana

On Buying a Home

2010-01-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

Leaving in a few minutes to pick Nick up from school. We're TRYING to buy our first home...had the inspection today. Nick was in class and couldn't attend. I've been making a mental list of the good news and bad news I have to share. It seems there is more bad news than good. And I think I'm pretty close to my first freak out. What an emotional journey this is!

Well...maybe after a good night's sleep I'll be able to see more clearly!

diana

Shadow Play

2010-01-09T18:40:00.000-08:00

I found this shot while going through my photo archives. This picture was taken last summer, while Nick, Sam and I were vacationing at my favorite little spot on this continent, our family cottage. I could almost smell the summer breeze when I saw this shot...

Adam and Heidi Are Getting Married!

2010-01-08T17:11:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year I gave my newly engaged brother and his fiance an engagement session. They were real troopers today. I figured that with the newly fallen snow it would be nice to get some pictures in before the snow got gross. We planned everything sort of last minute which meant that I didn't have time to find a baby sitter. Adam and Heidi didn't mind at all. I wasn't sure were exactly we'd take the photos and how exactly we'd keep Sam from running into the street, but the snow actually made everything easier. Sam was pretty interested in playing in the high snow piles(which, believe it or not, kept him out of the street) and I had no trouble finding some pretty places to shoot.

We did have a little problem when I decided to set up a shot on some steps. For some reason Sam got it into his head that he wanted to be included, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't keep the monkey out of the shot...so we just went with it.

It was fun being able to make a small contribution to Adam and Heidi's future. All of us who know and love both Heidi and Adam are excited for the amazing journey and blessings that God has in store for them.

Challenge #46

2010-01-05T09:17:00.000-08:00

The light was nice and soft this morning and I had my camera out anyway.

This week's challenge:

a Self-portrait featuring a physical attribute that you find endearing or beautiful about yourself- something that you feel makes you uniquely "you".
Submit one photo.
This photo can be color or black and white.
Go ahead and "tweak" it if you feel like it!

The majority of my relatives come from a German background, so I consider it quite miraculous to have somehow escaped inheriting "the nose".

To see the rest of this week's entries click here!

Photo Challenge #45 Christmas Photo Journal #5

2010-01-04T21:09:00.000-08:00

This one is over a week in coming. I have had little time to sit down and work on my photos. Right now Nick and I are in the process of looking at homes. We hope to purchase by April. But we'll see how it all goes. Anyway it's a quiet night at home so I thought I'd get these up.

Every year my dad's side of the family gets together at Christmas time. It's amazing to look back over the years to see how much our family has grown! Most of the cousins are married and a few even have children. I've always loved my family. My mom's is really tiny so dad's four siblings and all their children seemed like a crowd whenever we got together. This year we were at my dear Grandmother's house. Near the end of the evening we all played a sort of Christmas gift bingo. Every year we try and do some sort of gift exchange there is always a favorite gift. I wish I would have gotten a shot of this year's coveted gift...it was in a very Christmasy looking bag that said, "Ho ho ho!" on it. Of course cousin Mike ended up winning the very popular ho ho ho gift and ended up getting the worst present of them all, a really cheap plastic bowl shrinked wrapped and labeled, "rain deer food". The rain deer food were these very unappetizing chunks of cookie. Sam and I won the most fun gift. It was a little electronic puppy that yapped out, "Jingle Bells" (Sam's favorite song.) He's been trying to learn the song ever since.

Anyway here are my shots!

My Prince Charming!

2009-12-30T19:49:00.000-08:00

Photo Challenge #45 Christmas Photo Journal #4

2009-12-26T22:01:00.000-08:00

My Sis in Law, Carri, found glow sticks at the Dollar store for just a dollar a tube! So after buying one tube for Sam and rediscovering just how fun they are, I decided to go back and get one tube each for my brothers, Nick, Sam and myself. Carri also came up with the brilliant idea to put them in the tub with her children. So tonight Sam and I had a little fun cracking glow sticks and putting them in the tub. It's way cooler if there are bubbles too!

Now I had to do some pretty funky stuff to get these to turn out. I really didn't want to use a flash as I knew that a flash would destroy the coolness of the colours, so I bumped my ISO all the way to 1600, took my f stop to f/1.8 and put my shutter speed way way way down. I knew the photos would turn out grainy and blurred but really I was hoping to use that to my advantage.

Two photos really jumped out at me, so here they are!

p.s. It really was a pretty cool bath time treat!

To see the rest of this week's entries click HERE!

Photo Challenge #45 Christmas Photo Journal #3

2009-12-26T21:43:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS EVE!

In my family we always went to church on Christmas Eve and came home to unwrap presents and eat our favorite snacks. This year Nick had to work so Sam, my little brother Adam and I went over to Scott's (my big brother's) place for Christmas Eve. The Koine service at St. Marcus was astoundingly beautiful and moving. A true reminder of what Christmas is all about, the celebration of Christ coming to this earth to offer us life and hope!

It's always hard for me to take pictures at family gatherings because I just want to sit back and enjoy being around my family. I took a few photos, but nothing terribly special...just enough to hold onto those memories.

The tree was a little special this year as Scott went out of his way to pick one up at Goodwill (and then had to figure out how to get the thing to stand up after realizing it was missing pieces). Since none of us really have a lot of ornaments we actually made a whole bunch. It was a ton of fun! The following pictures are of Christmas Eve and then a few from Christmas morning. My brothers were more excited about Sam's blocks than I think Sam was. When we were kids my dad would play a game with us where he'd build a tower with our blocks and then we'd all take turns taking out blocks until the tower came down. We all still believe, to this day, that my dad's game came way before the totally inferior version most people know as "Jenga". It was this tower game that my brother's attempted to play. We weren't too successful, but it didn't matter. Fun was had by all!

Christmas Day

To see the rest of the entries click HERE!

Photo Challenge #45 Christmas Photo Journal #2

2009-12-26T21:30:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for over a week now! My mother in law, Sherry, visited us for a few days recently (she is, by the way, the cleanest houseguest!) and we put together these little bags of holiday treats. There is no way I could have ever done it by myself...with Sam around and with all the steps involved I would have ended up giving up half way through. It really was a team effort!

Sam calls these, "Gama Sherry Pretzel Cookies"

To see the rest of the entries click here!

Christmas Photo Journal #1 COOKIES!

2009-12-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

For the next two weeks over at the Weekly Photography Challenge blog instead of a weekly challenge we will have two weeks of the Christmas Photo Journal Challenge! Here is my first installment!

Challenge #44

2009-12-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

Shoes!

Last week's challenge was to photograph shoes, taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary. Well I already thought my boots were pretty extraordinary (my dream winter boots really) so I thought I'd show them off to the world. I'm happy with how the photos turned out. At first I had hoped to get them out in the snow for a little photo shoot but the weather just didn't work out. So once again I resorted to using the beautiful soft light that comes through our apartment windows. I tried to really control the focus as I worked with my "subject". My goal was to describe some small part of the boots that makes them charming to me.

I keep pasting and unpasting the first image...just not sure which one to post as my entry this week. So I guess I'll leave them both up. Let me know what you think!

Click here to see the rest of the entries!

Ug, That was my week. How was yours?

2009-12-11T19:43:00.000-08:00

We all got some sort of stomach flu this week. I'll spare you all the terrible details...except that our little boy has a thing for words and decided that the word, "puke" is now on his list of favorite funny words...right there up there with, "bummer" and "peeps".

Needless to say, I have yet to get around to doing the photo challenge this week. I have these really sweet boots I bought this year (that should last me at least the next 10 winters) and was hoping to show case them with that blizzard we were supposed to get. Yeah the lake effect pretty much killed any chance of that happening. To tell you the truth I wasn't really all that bummed about not getting 12+ inches of snow. But I did want to have a least a little for my photos. It's been too cold for outside shots too. I think my camera would totally freeze up and refuse to work if I even tried to haul it outside. We've had a couple days here that have been well bellow freezing and pretty close to zero.

Anyway that's all I came to say! I'll leave you with a winter shot from last year.

Photo Challenge #43 Toys

2009-12-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

This week's Photo Challenge was to tell a story that involved "toys" or at least the concept of toys. Since tweaking was allowed for this challenge I thought I'd do something a little different.

Last month I decided to put together a kind of digital scrap book for Sam. When I was going through my photos I noticed that last year I had taken far more pictures of Sam. So for this challenge, as a way to get me to take more pictures of my delightful son, I photographed Sam as he tried to put together one of his puzzles. I myself am not that fond of puzzles, too many pieces that can get lost. But I understand and know their value as far as hand eye coordination goes. So this week we busted out the puzzles and I was amazed at how fast Sam picked up not only on the concept but on how to make the pieces fit in their appointed slot.

With my scrap book project I've been learning so much about Photoshop Elements and thought it would be fun to do something very simple with the images. I'm happy with how the set turned out!

To see the rest of this week's entries click here.

Date Night at AJ Bombers

2009-11-28T18:35:00.001-08:00

My dear dear big brother offered to take Sam for the evening so Nick and I could go out on a date. It's been a pretty long time since we've really had the chance to get away for any length of time to do something together. There was no way I was going to cook so we decided to go out to our new favorite burger joint, AJ Bombers. They opened not too long ago, it took only one bite of their Bomber Burger for Nick and I to fall in love (with the burger place that is, we were already in love with each other.) I don' t know who came up with the idea, but they have this deep fried, cheese stuffed portabello mushroom you can either eat on it's own as a burger, or put it on top of your burger for an earth shattering mouth full of yummy. The other naughty thing they sell there are their very delicious, very artery clogging cheese bullets. The menu quite modestly describes them as, "fried WI cheddar and muenster served with spicy ranch."

Every time we visit AJ Bombers Nick insists on getting an order of the cheese bullets along with our normal order of burgers. I always save the little bowl of the left over spicy ranch sauce to dip my burger in. Well tonight was no different than any other night except that when I went to chomp down on my second helping of cheese bullet and spicy yummy sauce I thought to myself, "I wonder how this would taste on top of a burger?" And in a matter of seconds my brain went into fast forward and before I could stop myself I turned to Nick and said, "You know I wonder if they could make a burger using the cheese bullets instead of sliced cheese, serve it with the sauce and call it "The Bullet Burger"?"

I couldn't get the idea out of my brain so before we paid our bill I went over to Mike (who I think is the manager? but in any case he seems in charge and we see him there a lot, nice guy) and shared with him my light bulb moment. I figured someone had thought of it already and was totally shocked when Mike's eyes widened and he said something to me that took a min to sink in. "I'm going to go make one right now!"

Luckly I'd brought my camera with me (although I did have to go out to the car to get it.) So ladies and gentlemen, I give to you the AJ Bombers Bullet Burger! And yes it is as delicious as it looks! Who knows if they'll actually put it on the menu, but I think I'm going to order one the next time I'm there.

Sam's Christmas Present

2009-11-27T21:24:00.001-08:00

Last year for Christmas I put together a little photobook for Sam on Snapfish since Sam just loves photographs. I thought it would be a nice way to keep his family close. Snapfish has simple layouts that you can use for your pictures, which made the process very easy and pretty fast. Sam loves his little photo book so much that the thing is looking pretty ragged. This year I thought I'd get something a little more sturdy for the guy and since Snapfish has 50% off of all their photo books I got it into my head tonight that I'd put together Sam's book. Well...this time, since I currently own PhotoShop Elements, I thought I'd design my own pages. I've been at it for two hours now and only have five of the twenty. My hands are freezing and my bad wrist is bothering me. I'm hoping that I can actually get this book done for Sam.... perhaps I took on too much. But really it's been fun. Here's a sample of what I have so far!

Photo Challenge #42

2009-11-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Black Friday and I don't feel much like going out and braving the crowds, so I think Sam and I are going to spend a quiet morning inside. It gives me a chance to catch up on some stuff that needs to get done around here.

For this week's photo challenge we were to submit three creative photos of the sky. Earlier in the week a had a little unexpected time to myself in the evening so I decided to go out and do some night shots of the city. It was a cold overcast night were the sky was just sort of blah. But I thought since I went though all the trouble to take the shots I'd submit the set anyway. Actually I kind of like them. It was nice to run off with my camera and not worry about hauling Sam around. I never would have taken these shots if the little guy had been with me. I have decided that no matter what I'm going to take every opportunity I can to complete the photo challenges every week. This winter is probably going to be as blah as the first picture bellow and I want to make sure I don't get caught up in that. :)

If you want to see the other entries for this week's challenge, click here.

Last Night, Having Coffee on My Own

2009-11-24T20:22:00.000-08:00

Photo Challenge #41

2009-11-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

This week's challenge is of a technical nature, the study of composition... a photographer's friend, the "rule of thirds".

The challenge was to take the same photo and crop it three different ways to create three different compositions. For an example click here.

This week I decided to do two different submissions. The first image of each set is how I originally framed my photograph. I thought it would be fun to compare the cropping of a person vs. a still life.

Enjoy!

To see the rest of the entries click here!

Pears

2009-11-19T21:01:00.001-08:00

The UPS guy rang our door bell yesterday. We weren't expecting a package.

He brought up with him was a box of pears, it was for us.

The only person who I can think of who would send us a box of pears is

my mother. :)

Thanks Mom!

Challenge #40

2009-11-14T16:03:00.001-08:00

Wow! 40 Challenges already! Well today Sam and I took a little field trip and on our way home I stopped at a cemetery we'd passed on our way to visit my aunt Jeri. It was a teeny tiny cemetery on a small hill. I was actually surprised at how recent most of the stones were. The grass was neatly cut, and there were corn fields on just ab

out every side. It was a peaceful shoot and I was happy to find some older stones at the other end. They were so worn I didn't find any dates on them. The lighting was really challenging, but I had intended on messing around in Photoshop anyway so the darkness actually worked out really well. This was my first time trying anything like this and I was happy with the outcome.

The Challenge:

Old Fashioned

Click here to see the rest of the entries!

nd a Bonus second image. :) I was having too much fun.

2

2009-11-12T22:11:00.000-08:00

That's how many days it took for me to decide that Sam just may not be ready. I put away the Buzz Lightyear underpants and will try again in a few months.

My Entire Day So Far

2009-11-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

Photo Challenge #39

2009-11-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

This week, I took the opportunity to lug my camera with me to my Dr.'s appointment. There's a very cool, very old looking, mural painted along the wall of a playground near the hospital. I love the textures on the wall so that's why I have submitted two sets of photos for this challenge.

The Challenge:

Shooting Blind

The subject matter is completely up to you, but you are only allowed 10 shots. For 5 of those shots you can look through your view finder. For the other 5, resist the urge and shoot them without the use of your viewfinder or screen. Sometimes when a photographer is working a unique location it can be hard to get the shot you want because you're eyeball can't go where the camera can. This is an exercise to help you learn how the camera can be an extension of your eyes.

Here are my submissions! For the first and third images I looked through my view finder, for the second and forth, I did not.

To check out the weekly photo challenge blog click here!

Sam on the Phone

2009-11-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

I actually filmed this footage about five or six months ago and never got around to editing it into a video. Talking on the phone was actually the first pretending Sam ever did. Now he's making soup in the bathtub, piling scarves and calling them cake, giving me fruit snacks out of thin air and dancing around pretending that he's Prince Charming while I prance around like Cinderella.

Sam and I were killing a little time tonight watching some iMovie clips and I thought I'd put this together, finally. Sam's language is developing more and more every day, and his cute babble is quickly disappearing. I'm glad that I actually have some on file...I'm missing his cute made up words already.

One Year Ago

2009-11-04T17:19:00.000-08:00

I took these pictures exactly one year ago. It's funny that Sam discovered a rubber band that day, he just recently rediscovered rubber bands. He'll dance around the room singing to himself as he twists and untwists the band from around his fingers. I love Sam's singing and little games that he makes for himself!

Photo Challenge Catch Up Challenge #34

2009-11-03T13:51:00.000-08:00

Another Catch Up entry!

Challenge #34

Broke Down

Submit 3 photos of the same subject from different angles or different distances.

Take these as B&W images.

Rekindling a Love Affair

2009-10-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

It's almost 7am, Sam's still sleeping and I can't believe how dark it still is outside. I miss the sun coming up at 5:30am, it's going to be a long winter. We've all spent just about the last five days sick with some sort of sinus thing. I still feel horrible but couldn't sleep and since my little guy isn't up I thought I'd finally sit down and write the blog entry that I've been meaning to get to since last week. We'll see how far I get before the Monkey gets up.

I bought my very first camera, a Canon Rebel 2000, back in 2001. It was a simple light weight thing that came with one lens. My cousin's friend, who worked at a camera shop, helped me purchase it right before I left the States to visit my parents in Zambia, Africa. I was just wrapping up my first year in college and had spent the pre

vious two semesters discovering that there was an artist buried deep inside the person I had always been, but was

struggling to discover. At that time I didn't realize that there was such a huge wide world to the possibilities of things I could get into. My sole goal was to take photos of things in Africa, so that later on I'd have access to original images for drawing, painting and so on. My parents were most support

ive and paid for the processing of all 35 rolls of film that I shot that summer, all colour. After trashing about four rolls I hit my stride when I decided to just let go and shoot what I was interested in rather than what I thought I could use later in a painting. It wasn't until my return to school that I came to the realization that it wasn't nature my camera loved, it was people. 30 some rolls of people.

Shortly into the first semester of my sophomore year, I asked a fellow art student to show me the dark room and teach me how to process my own film and print. That started my love affair with photography. I was just getting my feet wet when an art Prof. I was just getting to know offered me the job of being in charge of the darkroo

m and tutoring students. I didn't think I knew enough to take the job, but since it was a campus job it made sense to at least try. For the following semesters I took every opportunity to try new things. My boss and mentor was ready and willing to purchase supplies so I could learn. In some cases I even got to teach classes when it came to stuff I knew more about. My senior thesis exhibit was comprised completely of black and white hand printed images I had taken in Zambia the summer before.

After graduation I felt a little lost and wasn't sure what I was going to do with my life. At my grandmother's request I moved in with her and decided that for the time being my next step was to save up money to fly back to Zambia for a summer. It took me nearly a year, but I finally had enough money to make the trip. During that time I kept my job at the college and worked other odd jobs. So in the summer of 2005 I flew to Zambia with 30 some fresh rolls of black and white film, that I insisted on being hand checked at every airport, and the hopes of photographing another show.

Upon my return to the States I met my soon to be husband and frantically went to work on my negatives. I was only able to process th

e negatives and print a few images before wedding plans had to be made. The next summer Nick and I were married, and 9 1/2 months later Sam was born. Photography and anything other creative force in my life came to a screeching halt pretty much the day I said, "I do". All my creative energy got poured into being a wife and a mother. It hasn't been till just recently that I've been feeling that dormant part of me coming back to life. Nick has been so very supportive, even going so far as to agree to spend a pretty big chunk of change on a digital camera. Little by little I'm crawling back to the creative artistic Diana I discovered in college...This is where we come to what I discovered last week!

My dear Prof. friend, who still teaches photography at my alma mater, is taking a sabbatical this semester. I was hesitant to try and use the darkroom only because he always had a couple photography cl

asses a semester and I knew there was no way I'd be able to anticipate having the darkroom to myself. This fall I decided to jump at the window of opportunity provided by my dear Prof. and have gone into the dark room a couple times. At first I was unsure as to what I should work on. Should I bust out my manual ca

meras? Should I go back to my old negatives? I decided to go back to my last set of Africa negatives, the ones from 2005. It's been an interesting journey really. I didn't expect that by printing these pictures I'd be visiting my past, as well as discovering the new Mommy/Wife/Artist Diana, who was not the person who originally took those photos.

There were a couple images I was able to print up before having Sam and getting married. I made the mistake last week of trying to reprint those pictures. I wasn't able to do it. It was kind of like I was trying fit my feet into shoes I wore in 8th grade. I look at those negatives and can see how far I've come as a photographer since they were taken. And it completely shocks me! This whole time I felt that art had been put on hold in my life...but somehow, unknowingly, I've snuck it in, and I've been able to grow! So I decided rather to try and print pictures that didn't catch my eye the first time around. Printing photos is only half the process...actually it used to be my favorite part...but now that I'm back in the dark room it's gotten me thinking about buying some film for my manual cameras. I'm not quite there yet...but...well...we'll just see....

Challenge #36

2009-10-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

This week we're playing catch up over at the Weekly Photography Challenge Blog. I had the photos taken for #36 but never got them up. So here's my first submission this week. I hope to catch up on a few more challenges!

The Challenge:

Submit and photograph or series of photographs representing/interpreting your favorite poem, line from a book, Bible passage or perhaps even something you've written.

The Rules:

1.) 1-5 photographs B/W or colour

2.) Tweaking is allowed

3.) Submit by this weekend if you can.

4.) Make sure you post the inspiration behind your photos as well as it's source.

Walking Song

Ivor Gurney

The miles go sliding by

Under my steady feet,

That mark a leisurely

And still unbroken beat,

Through coppices that hear

Awhile, then lie as still

As though no traveller

Ever had climbed their hill.

My comrades are the small

Or dumb or singing birds,

Squirrels, field-things all

And placid drowsing herds.

Companions that I must

Greet for a while, then leave

Scattering the forward dust

From dawn to late of eve.

Diana Update

2009-10-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

I just wanted to let you know that I received a phone call from my Dr. yesterday. Good News! The lump was NOT cancer!

Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words! Nick and I are quite relieved and thankful!

diana

Photo Challenge #37

2009-10-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

Looks like I may be the only poster for the challenge this week! I cheated a little...I have only one photo to submit. I loved the warmth of the image, Vs the coolness of the subject.

This week's Challenge:

Hot vs. Cold

The rules:

1.) Submit two photos exploring this idea.
2.) B/W or Colour is fine.
3.) Tweaking is allowed if you find you have the time.

Recovery

2009-10-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

For the past few days I have been taking it a little easy recovering from my surgery. And what a fun recovery it's been too! My mother-in-law, Sherry, came down to spend a few days with us. On top her visiting, my brothers came over too. We had a lot of fun! Sherry bought Sam a pumpkin, which we painted last night. Scott came over and danced with us in our very small living room, Adam and Heidi showed up to play a little Yatzee and Sam had fun in the tub pretending to shave just like dada.

Surgery

2009-10-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Right now I'm sitting in my hospital room waiting for my surgeon to complete her emergency surgery this morning. A few months ago my Dr. and I decided to get some testing done on a lump I found when nursing Sam. Since I have a history of breast cancer in the family we decided to be careful and do a little investigating. After the normal sort of tests we decided that a surgical biopsy would be the best option. So today the lovely Dr. Mala is going to remove the 5cm lump from me and send it off to the labs to get tested.

I was supposed to go under the knife at 9 but since the Dr. had an emergency she had to take care of I get to lounge around in my very own hospital gown for a few more hours. I'm glad Nick brought his computer. I didn't even think to bring a book or the cribbage board! I guess I was too focused on getting everything else together.

Today Sam is spending the day with my sister-in-law, Carri, and her family. We took him over there last night and had no trouble putting the little guy to bed. I was amazed. Sam gets along with his cousins very well. Everyone has been so supportive and wonderful in the weeks that have lead up to today.

This morning I popped onto the computer to update FB and saw that my parents were on line. They had been tryin to reach us by phone, but we lost our cell phone this week. Instead we logged on to Yahoo Messenger and my Dad said a prayer with us. I love my parents! (Mom, Dad, I love you!)

Well I guess that's all for now.

More to come!

diana

Sad Day

2009-10-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend, while shooting a wedding with the lovely Emily, I busted my favorite lens. Of all the lenses to break I suppose this one was the best option, as it was the least expensive. I'm in deep mourning...and am not sure I'll complete the challenge for this week. I need to go on B and H and order a new 50mm. :(

Luckily Erica was there as a guest and had just received her 5omm in the mail. I borrowed her brand new little lens for an hour or so... Thank you for rescuing me Erica!

diana

Photo Challenge #35

2009-10-02T19:54:00.001-07:00

Yay! I'm back for another photo challenge. I had to take a couple weeks off since things have been a little crazy around here. So today I turned 28 and for my birthday I headed over to my alma mater and spent the morning in the darkroom. It's been 3 years since I stepped into a darkroom and recently something in me has been pulling me toward getting back into that aspect of photography. I've really missed it. So this week's photo was taken in the darkroom!

The challenge was to photograph our subject through something. If you click on the image you should see a much bigger version. I thought I'd do this to share some of the fun details!

Anna and Quinn

2009-09-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I shot the second of the three weddings I have this month. We had to drive over 2 hours, the wedding was on the south side of Chicago and took place at an old mansion turned into park. The day was so beautiful! Jessica and I left early so we could stop for lunch. We ended up an entire hour early and had fun exploring the park a little, looking for all the perfect spots for shots.

Anna and Quinn chose a beautiful organic farm for their reception. It was the perfect day and the perfect setting. In my five years doing this I don't think I've seen a more beautiful reception. I had a lot of fun capturing all the little details that made the day special!

Carri and John Eric Renew Their Vows

2009-09-21T16:37:00.001-07:00

About two weeks ago we were invited over to my sister-in-law, Carri's house for a little celebration. Carri and her husband, John Eric, have been married ten years. They felt it in their hearts that they wanted to renew their vows in front of their family. My mother -in-law, Cindy, asked if I'd bring my camera along with me. It was a beautifully sunny day, cool but not too cool for being outside. Carri is amazing with plants and has a beautiful back yard. The pastor from their church came over to do the ceremony. Afterwards we celebrated with cake and then later pizza.

You can't got to Carri's and not expect there to be fun and games after dinner. We busted out a deck of cards, laid our quarters on the table and played two rounds of polish poker, a staple with that family. The first time I played the game with them I won, but not this night, I lost both rounds. Carri won the first round and I can't remember who won the second. Usually I don't play gambling games, but since you need only three quarters to play it's not a strain on the pocket book. There was a little dispute at first as to the rules, but once we nailed that down, we all enjoyed ourselves. We stayed pretty late. Sam was having a lot of fun with his cousins, and we don't get to see everyone that often so we didn't mind.

Here are some of the photos!

Photo Challenge #32

2009-09-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

This past week's challenge was created in honor of labor day. The theme was "Work" and we were to submit one image.

Since this week my goal is to potty train Sam I figured this image would be appropriate!

Labor Day

2009-09-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

Last week for labor day Sam, my brother Adam, and I headed out to Watertown to visit our Aunt Jeri. My Aunt bought a very beautiful condo last year and had a little landscaping done on the outside. While there, we helped Jeri water all her plants. Watering is a favorite activity of Sam's, as you can see in the picture he enjoyed himself. While Jeri enjoys plants very much, she doesn't have a lot of time to tend to her outside plants, so I took some time to prune them a little.

After a picnic lunch, and giving the plants a drink, we head out to our favorite little ice cream parlor in Watertown. All four of my high school years, as well as Adam's, were spent in Watertown. I have many a fond memory of walking to Mullen's for either a Sunday or fried cheese curds. Unfortunately our brother, Scott, missed the trip to Mullen's and arrived in Watertown after we'd devoured our treats. (Adam got a three scoop banana split, I had a extra thick vanilla malt and Sam had some watermelon sherbet.)

I'm glad all we had the time to visit Jeri. A couple times this summer Jeri was able to come down to visit us, it was nice to return the favor. Enjoy the pictures Mom!

~diana

Photo Challenge #31

2009-09-03T21:19:00.000-07:00

This week I worked really hard to try and get my photos done for the weekly photo challenge. I hauled my camera with me for a couple days, but really struggled with coming up with a series that worked together. I do like the images I came up with, but am not sure they all work together too well. It's been a long time since I've stepped outside of our apartment to shoot in public. It's almost like I forgot how and that's all I used to do!

Lately I've been pretty dissatisfied with shooting digital. Something in me just wants to go back to the things that first made me fall in love with photography. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I think these photos are a bit of a reflection of my feelings on the matter. Those of you who know me and my work really really well will probably pick up on the shift. :) Anyway I have something in the works, but I'm not saying much about it right now because I don't want to be too disappointed if it falls through.

This week's challenge:

A Brand New Day

Use these words as inspiration for a series of photos (3-5 pictures)
The sky/sun should not be the main focus of your photos
B/w or color
Editing is not allowed; however, you may crop your pictures as you see fit.

Sam's Faces

2009-09-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

It's been some time since I posted some pics of Sam. This morning we both got up pretty early (6:30am to be exact), so we took a little walk around 7:30am. We first went to the bakery down the street then stopped off at our local coffee shop for coffee for mama and a muffin for Sam. I shot the first two pictures there and the third at my grandmother's later in the day. I really love Sam's facial expressions.

4am

2009-08-29T02:10:00.001-07:00

I have been laying in bed for the past 45 min and just can't fall back asleep. That's what I get for going to bed early for once. Nick had to leave for work around 10:15pm and I was in bed way before that. It was an exhausting day for me and Sam yesterday.

Just in case you're wondering, I thought I'd post a random picture of some llamas since this post really is only about keeping my mind off of all the stuff I don't need to think about at 4am. I really haven't been taking that many pictures outside of wedding photos lately. The weddings really burn me out creatively...and usually when I think of taking my camera with me on walks I decide to spend my attention on my son instead. This week I'm kicking myself though. I had a chance to get the photo challenge done early. Monday I was up at a good time and got out of the apt. by 8:30am when the light was just beautiful. Too many opportunities passing me by...

Later this morning, hopefully after I sleep just a bit more, Sam and I are heading out to the other side of town to have breakfast with an old mentor and friend of mine. He's taking some time off from teaching this semester to work on his own art this year. It's been a long time in coming for Jim. I'm excited about spending the morning with him. It's been some time since we've been able to hang out. I was going to make some muffins last night to take with me but was too tired... I suppose I could make some now, but there's still hope for a little more time in bed for me.

In other news Sam is about to explode with language. Yesterday I helped my Mother-in-Law move up to Fond du Lac. It was an entire day event. Sam slept the whole way up there but was awake the drive home, talk talk talking the whole way. Since we were to be driving past Lomira I thought I'd make a little stop to revisit the past. My grandparents lived in Lomira for a very long time. When my grandfather passed away in 1986 my aunt and uncle moved in with my grandma, then later after they bought a house and moved out, my brother lived with her for 5 or 6 years. In 2004 my grandmother moved out of her beautiful yellow house to come to Milwaukee. I had just graduated from college that year and was lacking a little direction. Grandma suggested that we become roomies and after a little thought I agreed that it was a good idea.

Lomira holds some beautiful memories for me. It's a small town with a population of 2,500. Sam and I stopped for lunch and then headed to a small park that I used to play in when I was a little girl. Poor Sam had been in the car too long and it was good for him to be outside a little bit. After the park we headed to the old church graveyard where many of the relatives on my father's side are buried. There is something nice about having a place to go to remember loved ones who have passed. While I was showing Sam the tomb stones a thought hit me. I was just lamenting the fact that there is no longer anyone I know in Lomira anymore, when a thought struck me. Right behind the cemetery is the parsonage where my grandmother's old pastor and wife live. I took a chance and rang their door bell. Both the pastor and his wife were home, which was a nice surprise. Sam and I had a lovely time visiting before having to head home. I love that there are still people in this world who don't mind it when visitors drop in.

It was an exhausting but nice day.

Well...it's almost 5am so I think I'm going to wrap this one up.

diana

Too Many Pictures!

2009-08-25T15:09:00.001-07:00

Wow have I had a hard time finding a free moment to post anything. Last weekend, and the weekend before I shot some weddings.

Here's a sampling... I hope to be posting more!

Photo Challenge #28

2009-08-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

This week's photo challenge was to represent BIG and small in a photo.

I shot a wedding with Jessica this afternoon and found this scene at the hotel where the reception was. See if you can figure out how it relates to the challenge!

Catching Up

2009-08-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Yikes! It's been a while since my last post. This week I decided not to do the photo challenge. So instead I thought I'd post some pictures from the wedding I did a week ago with Jessica. We really lucked out with lighting. Usually with weddings you can't really control when you take pictures, but last week we just happened to be taking all the posed shot as the sun was going down. The light was absolutely beautiful! Most of the time I get home exhausted from trying to work around terrible lighting situations. It was such a pleasure to not have to worry about it. Unfortunately for the ceremony the bride and groom were back lit. Since we were near a lake it was pretty windy too. I think I did a pretty good job getting photos of the ceremony but it was pretty difficult.

This is how windy it was!

The wedding party was a lot of fun. They really got into posing for the pictures!

The bride's father surprised everyone by ordering up some fireworks. It was my first time shooting fireworks...wow what a challenge!

Cousins

2009-08-01T22:48:00.000-07:00

Sam and his cousin Riley enjoying some bomb pops!

Challenge #26

2009-07-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's the end of the week already!

This week's challenge is brought to you by the colour BLUE.

Rules:

1.) Go out into your community/city/town/street and search for things that are blue.

2.) Submit three photos (Colour of course) by Sat. Aug 1st.

3.) Tweaking is allowed.

4.) Try to create a set of photos as apposed to just three random pictures. Think about how they all work together to create either an idea or a feeling.

5.) HAVE FUN!

We had the pleasure of taking Sam to his first baseball game this week. I took a few pictures there and thought I would submit those as well as a second set of my sister in law's garage sale this week.

Brewer's Vs. Washington

Garage Sale Fun!

And As a Bonus:

Photo Challenge #25

2009-07-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

Hey kids, it's that time again! Photo Challenge time!

This week's challenge:

To do a setup to specifically "sell a product"- this can be anything, really, for example : hat, shoes, cat food, soap- anything. The challenge is to do this with a friend, relative, or pet as your model.
Submit 3 photos- and let us know which is your favorite.
These may be b/w, color, or anything in between.
Editing is allowed.

I bumped into this guy, James the Saxophone player, today on my way home from our photo challenge lunch. He was easy to talk to and very willing to be my model. I think the middle one is my favorite but I'm not sure.

I figured that these would work to sell the city of Milwaukee!

If you'd like to see the rest of the entries click here!