What I love...

1. This smile. I just can't get enough of it. Fortunately, now that she has mastered all the skills needed, the smiles are available in abundance for an occasion such as: mom laughing, dad singing, feeding time, me walking by, life itself. Yeah, her smile is freely given. She never runs out of them. And I love her for that. (And worry not Grandmas, she is not walking yet. She just loves standing on her toes).


2. Cooking. One of my daily pleasures is creating tasty treats in the kitchen. I have made a few foods lately that are worth noting. First of all, this soup recipe is fantastic. It is a rustic, Tuscan bean soup that has a delicious smoky flavor because of the bacon used at the beginning. I found this recipe incredible, but I knew it was a keeper when Matt (a vocal antagonist of soups) made many comments about its deliciousity and even ate it for leftovers! My, oh, my! What a feat.

A second recipe I have stumbled upon is a little less fancy and not quite my style but oh so fun to make. It is called breath mint pie. I needed a dish to make for youth group girls coming over. It is basically an ice cream cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream (I used Breyers), Oreo cookies, and Junior Mints. It was a snap to make, and it delivered major flavor rewards! I was thinking this would actually be a great model for making other fun desserts. Basically you layer some crushed cookie on the bottom of a pan (I omitted the butter included in the recipe), follow up with ice cream, repeat those two layers, finish with some crushed cookies on top for decoration and finish with a coordinating candy. I can imagine ginger snap cookies with pumpkin or butter pecan ice cream and candy of choice, oreo cookies with coffee ice cream and candy, etc. Could be fun to experiment with.

3. Photography: My job as a school counselor is fulfilling for me. It also brings with it an enormous amount of grief and responsibility. Sometimes I wonder how I can keep doing it, and yet I know God has given me this responsibility, as long as I am able (i.e. time and mothering constraints). I have found photography is a really good balance to counseling. When I am behind a camera lens, I feel freedom and not responsibility. So this much I know is true: I must make time to be creative and indulge in photography. I also must continue my work as a counselor. Interestingly enough they need each other. The responsibility and freedom go hand-in-hand, and when I neglect either one I feel it.

I love the combination of food and photography. I follow this website where Jen photographs her breakfasts every morning and shares it with the web. I and thousands of others are hooked! Such a fun and simple concept.

Here are a few results of my recent moments of freedom. These first two are from some senior pictures I took of a friend.

Here are some of my favorite shots taken over that last 2 years here on the West Coast. I love the silhouettes and bright colors, bold contrasts. Enjoy all, and have a great week!

Learning to Praise

Life has been pretty busy, filled with lots of activity and decisions, and the processing of those decisions. I will write more about those decisions and their transitions soon. I have found myself both exhausted and excited all at the same time. As life brings transitions and changes I usually revert to my cowardly stance of despair and depression. Recently I have been been challenged by the Holy Spirit to cling more dearly to His side as I take this wild ride of life. No matter my circumstances in life I must praise the Lord. Reading through the bible I am amazed at how much we are told to praise God. Praise should always be on my lips regardless of my life circumstances. Sometimes I think about the old hymn that reads "Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise..." 1,000 tongues just to sing praises to God?! I seriously struggle to make this one ragged, sinful, and hateful tongue praise God. I am embarrassed to admit it but sometimes I wonder, "Why so much praising?" My prayer this week has been that God would enable me to praise Him...to really understand the enormity of God's glory, leaving me astounded with nothing else to do but say, "I praise you!"

On to the updates....we had our dear friends from New Orleans visit. What a reunion! So much fun as we gave them the Central Coast tour. The kids have grown so much since we last saw them but they are still as precious as we remember them. They were a big help to me during their stay here, keeping Karis company and loving on her as I got ready for church. I guess it is true what parents of multiple children say...when you have more than one child it is easier because the kids will entertain each other. Here are some of the shots of our time with them. (Check out the our friend's daughter's face in the second shot! She totally knows how to flirt with the camera!)


We didn't want our visit with our friends to end so we did what anybody in our position would do... followed them back to their hotel where they were staying in Palm Springs. Perhaps a little stalkerish, but they were ok with it (at least they said they were!) It gave us a chance to check out some different parts of California we haven't seen including the Joshua Tree National Forest. For all of you U2 fans you will remember their Joshua Tree album. A Joshua tree is this cool looking tree (picture to the right) which lives in the desert of California. We traveled through the forest (for you East coasters read desert instead of forest) which is a protected state park. We saw some incredible sites. Here are just some of the cool views we saw from our car as we drove through. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

New Wardrobe

I first embarked on this blogging endeavor two years ago, and since that time Blogger has come along way in the features they provide and the usability of its blogging features. So today I took the plunge and upgraded to the new and improved format. This opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for me regarding blog style changes, or as I like to call it "a new wardrobe" for my blog. This is what I came up with in just a few minutes between Karis' cries and demands. Any ideas, comments, suggestions? In theory I like having the choice to change colors but when it comes to actually picking it all out it can become overwhelming. I am sure I will change my mind many times over as my preferences for colors often change with the wind. I am open to any and all comments.

I have also been meaning to send out a big congratulations to my beautiful sister Jenny on her recent engagement to Brent. I love you, Jenny, and I am so excited for you! Brent...what can I say? How about we meet?! Seriously, Brent you are getting a great girl, and we are excited for you guys to start your life together!