A feel good moment...

The movie "Baby Boom" starring Diane Keaton is one of those movies that when I get the urge to watch it I can't stop thinking about it until I do.

Diane Keaton plays a working woman in the 80s who doesn't have time to get married to her long time live in partner let alone consider a family when at a moment's notice she discovers the death of an extended relative leaves her the legal guardian of Elizabeth, a 1 year old without a family of her own. The movie transforms Diane Keaton's character as a career-oriented woman to a single Mom, living in a beautiful home in the country making her own applesauce. That in turn spins her into the owner of her very own company "Country Baby" the demand growing so quickly she can hardly keep up with it. I love the movie... if you're looking to see a clip check it out below:

Baby Boom, starring Diane Keaton (1987)

All told, in the Fall when I decide to make homemade applesauce, or any baby food for that matter at this time of year, I sense this growing urge to sit down and watch one of my all time favorite "chick flicks", Baby Boom (1987).

If any of you out there are sensing the urge to enjoy a good... down country... seasonal... romantic/comedy than let me know and we can make an evening of it.

I can't stop...

My camera's with me wherever I go these days... as I've chosen to take on the exciting challenge of photographing children and families on a professional level I realize my desire to shoot and become more familiar with the art is increasing exponentially! I love that I love it.

This morning as I walked through the bright yellow leaves in my driveway I realized that although I was initially mildly annoyed by the eyesore (aka an untidy driveway) I couldn't wait to get the camera out and capture "Fall" and all of its color! Jesseca and Regan came over early this morning to sip coffee and play dress up... hopefully its obvious as to who was doing what. The moment Regan came downstairs dressed in Katie's brilliantly pink fairy dress I rushed the kids outside to "play in the leaves" and we had a quick 10-minute photo shoot. It was after the umpteenth shot that I realized, I can't stop... I am in love with this art...

Just this past Saturday I awoke to the cool, crisp air of Fall coupled with the beautiful sunshine... the desire to get outside and take pictures before the sun shines only at the mercy of the clouds of Fall and Winter overwhelmed me. I called my dear friend, Rachel, and asked if she, Jeremy and the girls would accompany us on a trip to Stocker Farm's Corn Maze just down in the Snohomish Valley... she said 'yes' and politely asked me to refrain from using her as a 'subject'... uh... ok... but really?! How can I not photograph a classy pregnant lady... on a beautiful sunny Fall day... in the middle of a corn maze... with the fantastic hair and sexy jeans?! I took advantage of her presence and enjoyed it immensely.

We followed Kyle as he navigated the soon-to-be hungry for lunch and tired for nap crowd o' children through the corn maze. We threwthe kids in the air and some didn't even seemed to notice that they were, for an instant, suspended 12 ft. off the ground with only the hope of being caught...

Oooh... it was a fantastic time together... and you better believe I'll be back down there opening day of the pumpkin patch.

I think the hubby might have some photography skills of his own... nice shot, love.

Emma Nicole Berges

Introducing the one... the only... Emma Nicole Berges. Born in Yakima, WA on September 17th, 2008. Weighing in at a whoppin' 9lbs. 7oz. and measuring just short of a python at 22 inches. Well done Lesley and David... I'm so honored to be an Aunt to this beautiful (and dark!) little girl.

I arrived at David and Lesley's home on Sunday, September 21st to meet Emma for the first time. Katie and William were anxious to gaze upon this baby Emma that would forever be their cousin to visit and play with. William was gentle and Katie was obsessive in a sweet, clastorphobic sort of way.
Lesley looked wonderful and able to function with relative awareness... David looked like he had just won the Lottery. It was as though there was nothing that could be handed to him that could bring greater joy and he was filled with peace.

Lesley's parents, Dave and Lori Wright, were there. Dave Sr. (labeling makes it easier to distinguish between he and my brother, David, during conversation) had started the grill and was preparing to BBQ some burgers... Lori was preparing the condiments and I was busy corraling my three children in the midst of Jersey (the beautiful border collie/great dane mix that resides) and newborn Emma. Soon my parents and sister, Hannah, arrived from the Tri-Cities and we all enjoyed an afternoon of family and grandkids. The Grandmas sat in the corner discussing the issues at hand like Emma's coloring and the like... Hannah sat on the couch following a Saturday of eleven volleyball games ready to dissolve into a puddle of jell-o at any moment... Dave Sr. sat fixated to the golf tournament on TV... Grandpa Berges (my Dad, Gerry) sat back - also watching the golf tournament - with Emma curled up and sleeping on his chest. David and Lesley just breathed. For a couple that has just endured a week of labor and birth... family and friends... sleepless nights and nursing schedules... they were extremely conversational and thoughtful. They honored the importance of family by hosting all of us and by sharing their daughter so joyfully.

Thank you to the both of you and thank you to the Lord for the birth and health of Emma Nicole. Uncle Geoff and Auntie (pronounced "au" as in ox) Jennifer Berges (of Cleveland, Ohio) we missed you and cannot wait for you to meet this little wonder. She is beautiful and wonderfully laid back... she's the perfect mix of David and Les. She is definitely NOT blonde and brings some much awaited "berges dark" to the grandchild pool.

We love you, Emma. Welcome home.

Memory Verse of the Week II

Memory Verse of the Week

...saying "bon appetite" and wearing feather boas.

So the expectation was "fancy"... didn't need to be princess... didn't need to make sense... just get out whatever sparkles and glam you can find and put it on...

And be at Katie's house by 1pm.

Katie will be 4 years old this coming Friday, the 19th. With wonderful ignorance she simply asked for a "Fancy Nancy" party and we made it happen -- no big event. No parents. Just 6 girls in all their glam going through outfits like water for two and half hours.

We decorated our own Fancy place mats whilst sipping pink lemonade in wine glasses, eating orange cherry chip muffins, and grazing the small array of fruit chunks threaded onto fancy toothpicks...

Katie blew out the candles atop her miniature white with pink polka-dots cupcakes and then went to unwrapping the magnificently small pile o' gifts.

It was a wonderful day with wonderful friends... William had a play date with Dylan and Benjamin couldn't have been happier... take a look...

If you say "Happy Birthday" to Katie, be warned. She will explain to you that today was the "celebration of her birthday" but she's not really four until Friday.

Thank you everyone that came... we had a wonderful day and Katie felt so cherished --

Ava - the craft o' miscellaneous couldn't have been more perfect for the Craft Queen herself...

Kylee - the ladybug home will be so much fun to take part in... even William can't wait to get his hands on it!

Ella - Katie loves to paint!! Craft anything and everything when it comes to her PLUS jewelry?! Thank you...

Bella - thank you from Katie AND HER MOM. She will love doodling and coloring in the car with her new Barbie coloring roll.

Tia - the plate, the jewelry and the wonderful plaque are so personal and mean a lot. Thank you for the thoughtfulness you put into those things! Katie loves that she recognizes her name on things now... that meant a lot to her to be able to read the plaque!

Blessings to you, Fancy friends.

"The Chef" arrived this evening...

... and turned this.













...into this.




It was wonderful! Thank you wonderful Leonardsons for a fantastic evening. We are honored to call you all friends - and yes, for more than just the food.

The adults sat around the table savoring our meal of grilled salmon, mango salsa of sorts, steamed carrots, grilled radicchio and leafy greens with heirloom tomatos marinated in balsamic vinaigrette and discussed sin and our fallen human selves in light of what God offers... we talked about the heroic feats of husbands in the face of danger... or desire. Kyle and I topped off the evening with our own boxed brownies and store-bought ice cream served alongside some Kirkland coffee -- freshly brewed, of course!

The kids watched Mary Poppins and jumped on the couch... wrestled and argued as though they were brothers and sisters... and began to deteriorate at the hour of 9:30pm. When the parents (all 4 of us) decided the fight of keeping the kids entertained and well-behaved was harder than bringing the evening to a close we called it quits. The Leonardson family of 5 scurried out the door and the Scheis turned out the lights and huddled down to blog and watch TV. A perfect evening.





We appreciate each of you and can't wait to do this again.

God bless you. Sleep tight.

Entitlement.

I'm sure the history buffs out there reading this will roll their eyes and begin reciting all the reasons as to why the boundaries are the way they are... but honestly, have you ever thought to yourself (quite likely while trying to transpose the outline of a country for your 7th grade research paper), "who came up with these jagged little boundaries and aren't there better things they could do with their time?! (...quite likely while cursing your history teacher for assigning this particular country that you've never even heard of.)

Today during my BSF class here in the Seattle area, our Teaching Leader put up a map of Egypt and its neighboring lands prior to the creation of Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia... as we know them today and then overlaid the current countries. Sitting in the front row (suck up)... looking up at the overhead... I once again had the fleeting thought as to who does the work and why is there such detail put into the boundaries?

To me, it comes down to efficiency.

INEFFICIENT








EFFICIENT













I've got better things to do with my time and I'm simply trying to keep the kids from dropping their drawers in public! Nothing earth shattering...

But guaranteed, more important than who gets the 10 square miles of land unaccounted for... you take 5, I take 5. Fair enough.

And draw a straight line for goodness' sake.

The not-so-American way around here.

Just this morning my husband mentioned our shortness on expendable cash... I tried to respond in an even tone so as not to give away the fact that my feelings were hurt and always are a little hurt when he utters the "short on expendable cash" phrase.

The reason for my hurt feelings? Well, I like to consider myself a considerably low spender as of the past few years since having kids. We don't rent movies, we check them out from the library. We rarely buy food while out and about, we pack lunches. My husband, if he doesn't pack a lunch to work, snacks on his stash of almonds and protein bars purchased at Costco months before. I rarely purchase brand new clothes, I shop consignment - the only time clothes are purchased new is if that sale is better than the consignment store could offer me. I'm a Craigslist addict... I've realized McDonalds nickels and dimes Moms to death... the Grocery Game is the only way to shop and I get really disappointed if the sales receipt calculates less than 50% savings - and that's not a stretch. I drive an '01 minivan and I don't insist on having anything newer. Note I said both '01 and minivan... no SUV. No overwhelmingly high gas pump receipts and no "hot Mom with kids" feeling while driving. We ask for gift certificates for birthdays and holidays which has afforded our family a Woodland Park Zoo Membership and Kyle and I wonderful romantic dinners out. I've never thrown a big birthday party for any of my kids since Katie was born in '04 and William was born in '06 - we bake a cake, if that, and give a gift or two - they've never doubted the specialness of the day as they've always woken to hideously AWESOME white-trash streamers and non-helium balloons spewed across the kitchen! I've been cheap - expensive only where it counts.

As I sat across his office desk from him this morning as he offered me unsolicited information on our cash situation I began to cry. He looked from his computer screen to my face in astonishment. Truly. He was astonished! I explained to him through a low but wavy voice that I try so hard to spend as little as possible! Not because we need to but because there's so much more joy in creating a lifestyle that isn't growing in expense with every penny more that he makes! I do better now than I did when he was a full time pastor and making next to nothing! All this rolled off my tongue as he sat back in disbelief that I had very little clue as to how proud he has always been of my efforts.

My wonderful husband started into a pep talk that spoke from my mothering our kids to saving our family money and keeping the budget low. It meant the world to me and it was a wonderful moment to hear from the one man that I care the most to impress and amaze.

So, in a continuous effort to amaze him, I will throw the cheapest and most fun "Fancy Nancy" Party for my 4 year old this coming week. As I said before, she has never had a "birthday party" with friends and this will be the first. Lord knows I didn't buy any "Fancy Nancy" paraphernalia but we will have everything that Fancy Nancy would love... decorations and sparkles; cupcakes and glitter; crafts and fancy clothes. 6-8 4 year old girls dancing and twirling after decorating refrigerator boxes (aka cardboard houses) and/or puffy painting white t-shirts.

It should be a lot of fun. And it should be a lot of cheap.

First Carousel Ride

Afternoon Coffee

Its been a long time since I've felt the overwhelming sadness of emptiness... but I felt it the other day when Jenny drove out of the driveway. I smiled as best I could as the kids and I offered her our renown "Schei goodbye" from the front porch.

As I write this I'm looking at her picture and wishing that she would just walk in the room. Damn you Jenny, I'm choked up again...

Her son, Leo, is beautiful. I held him and wished that I was his blood relative simply for the connection that cannot be lost with blood relatives. He feels that close to my heart and I feel like I've awaited his arrival for so long. But he doesn't need another family member as he's got so many who will love and adore him... JoJo, Judy, Dick and Joe... all wonderful people that I too have grown to love and appreciate. I'm lucky to be amongst the intimate circle of friends that consider themselves family... have you ever, for a moment, stepped out of your shoes and thought to yourself what it must be like to have another family as your family? Not because of a discontentedness with the one you have but because of the adoration you have of another? I have... and I've found myself caring for and appreciating the Johnson/Haferbecker "clan" as I would my own family.

Anywho, on with the "Jenny" thing. So, here she is. And as Dusty knows best, she's beautiful... witty... smart... and incredibly wise in the way she lives her life. She cares about the global perspective of things and if I know Jenny, Leo will have a handle on how the world operates before he becomes sucked into the temptations of most children today in the U.S.. He will be setting up war with his G.I. Joe in hopes of ridding the world of AIDS and Child Prostitution. He will be found, at the age of 6, creating a country out of Legos with a female president. (Not to mention the embarrassment I felt when Jenny asked my daughter if she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up and Katie said, "No! I can't be a doctor!" with a laugh. And Jenny asked, "Why?!" Katie's response was, "Because I'm a girl!")

Jenny, I cried like a baby when you left. Katie consoled me! She asked if I missed my friend and I got to discuss with her what it feels like to have such wonderful companionship in life. We talked for awhile and she came to believe in the wonders of life-long friendships...

Thank you, friend. I love you and because you are who you are... I will tell you that I have to go because my son just woke up from his nap.

Coffee this afternoon?! See you then...

Sucka

Just recently my interest in photography has hit a crossroads. I have the choice to begin understanding the fundamentals of what makes a good photographer a good photographer through research and couple it with lots of practice or I can simply plateau here and enjoy the art of photography at its most elementary level.

The satisfaction I get out of a really great picture is overwhelming. I see people out at the zoo... on their own... taking close up shots of butterflies and elephants, flowers, crowds of children, corn dogs and giraffe tongues and I want to run up and ask them if I can walk around with them. I want to know what they're thinking to see if they are as obsessed with a great shot as I am!


I think its become quite evident that I want to begin the research and venture out on developing my skills as a photographer... wish me luck!

In the midst of this realization my husband and I spoke. He gave me advice that will forever make me smile... "Krista, start at the Apple store. What a Mac can do to assist a photographer in his or her art is absolutely amazing." ...and he continued to sell me on this vision. I've come to understand this is not out of his own selfish desires to own a Mac but instead out of the deep belief in his heart that Macs rule the earth.

My love, I will make my appointment at the Apple store.