Through my lens

First Impressions

Wow what can I say? Taking a break on my third morning waking up in Grand Paris! It was raining this morning so our plans were changed a touch..at least I'm sitting inside listening to it rain in Paris:)

It really is amazing how much you can fit into 3 days in Paris.

Yesterday I remarked to our driver that it would take 10 years to see all of this city and he replied..,"No it takes a lifetime, maybe longer"

Oh what true words! I think the one of the things that resonates with me the most is the age of this city..this country. America is just a babe. Did you know that the building of Notre Dame started in 1160!! Yesterday I went to the remains of a Roman coliseum. I mean this is a place where gladiators actually fought..where Christians were martyred..such history. It's amazing to me that I can say I've walked on streets where Marie Antoinette walked, Nazi's marched and US armies liberated..it seems like too much to take in.

More to come:)

The List..scary style

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. Winston Churchill


Ooh I soo love this boy:)

So here are my top ten FEARS of traveling to Paris..the question is..can you handle it???

10. Ok I kinda lied..#10 is really something I'm NOT scared of and I feel like I need to get it off of my chest.. I'm NOT afraid to fly, I'm not afraid of crashing either (does it sound like I'm trying to convince myself??)..I figure if it's my time to go then it's my time to go..I'm not wasting any precious time worrying about it..

9. Eating offal, which is..
"1: the waste or by-product of a process: as a: trimmings of a hide b: the by-products of milling used especially for stock feeds c: the viscera and trimmings of a butchered animal removed in dressing"...yuck.

8. Getting my stuff stolen..more importantly my camera.

7. Looking too American, I have been practicing my European look..this is how it goes..I come out in a new outfit and say, "sooo how European does this look?" Zach barely looks up from the movie/computer/guitar and says.."well you look more European than you did 10 minutes ago." Thanks Hon.

6. I'm bringing my laptop, but I'm super nervous that for some reason it wont work..or something..that would mean I would be without a computer for 10 whole days!! OMWORD!!

5. Something happening to my kiddos while I'm gone:(

4. My stupid dog being too much of a burden for the person who ends up watching her.

3. I'm leaving my Grandma's wedding band that I wear as my wedding band at home..that is just how scared I am of loosing it..and don't worry I will be wear some sort of a wedding band while I'm in Paris..or at least thats what I'm telling Zach:)

2. Umm the only word I know in french right now is croissant..nice.

1. And mostly I'm scared I will not EVER want to come home!!!

Ok peeps..this is my last post from America!! Please stay tuned for some AWESOME Paris posts..you can also ask to be my friend on Facebook (search for Amber Sallee Strehle) if you want to see all my pics or search for Tres Birds on Flickr..I'm hoping to be able to update often!
Woohoo..here I go!!!

On to summer!

Bear with this post.. I mean a Mom has to brag every once in a while right??

Last Monday the 3 Strehle boys all received a Hawk award.. Only Silas would let me get a pic and you can't even see his certificate..hey I could be making this whole thing up:)

Yesterday was Shad and Dylans 2 HOUR LONG 6th grade graduation..

Oh what men they are turning out to be!! This picture is CRAZY!!As you can see Zach is SUPER happy that graduation lasted 2 hours and we keep taking fifty million pictures..so awesome.

Then to top it off Shad received a President's Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement.. Wow..it even has Mr. O's signature on it..big doings.

Here he is receiving his award and saying something witty and everyone is laughing.. he gets that from me.. the witty part.. not the academic achievement part:)

Yay for the Strehle kiddo's!! Now on to summer..

no more papers, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks

The List

10. I have the best blog readers in the whole wide world.

9. Sun!! Here in western WA..oh I feel like I'm going to jinx it by blogging about it!! It's just so unseasonably sunny..yipee! Actually I think that western Washington has the Strehle's to thank..i'm pretty sure it was us who brought it from Arizona:)

8. I'm a little sad that Mommy Monday ended..sniff sniff. I was not expecting these posts to impact me so deeply, but they have. I have loved getting to know some of you better and I love that my readers get to see what awesome women I know!!

7. On Memorial day I did my shopping for Paris..oh I had fun!! AND even though I set off with the totally intention of paying full price for everything..most of my purchases were on sale!! I'm going to be one stylish girl in grand Paris..and all at 40% off!!

6. Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali...pinch me!! OMGOSH what a GREAT night!!! It was like the perfect foodie evening..started with a wonderful light dinner, the show and returning to the same restaurant (after it was closed) having strong espresso and almond cake with just a handful of us in the dinning area (mostly staff), I felt like the luckiest girl alive. Anthony and Mario were great..so entertaining, who knew you could sit and listen to these two men talk for 2 hours about food and enjoy it!! On a sad note..I was totally prepared to go out for drinks with Anthony Bourdain after the show..but there were like about 5 THOUSAND women who had the same idea as me..well I guess there is always next time:)

5. This is the craziest story EVER..hmm we WON the championship game for our league in softball.. yup this is the team that Isabelle plays on and I coach..yes we took the whole stinking thing, by only one run. Umm.. I'm still really perplexed as to how we pulled it off but we did. Does it make me feel a little bit better about the season.. nope not one bit.

4. Got the hair cut on Monday.. FINALLY!! Do you know that I'm about 60 percent gray now??

3. No word on the house (this means you can quit asking)

2. Am I freaking out about #3?? Yes..but there is always...

1. Paris in 7 days.

Just Pic's

I promise I will post a list very soon..but for now, here are a few pics from a shoot I did last week..oh how I just love babies:)

And the winner is...

Stephanie Reed!!!

Her inspiration is..

-once-in-a-lifetime shots
-wildlife
-funny coincidences
-anything in my flower garden
-clouds and weather

You lucky lady!! Silas so graciously chose your name from the Tupperware bowl:)

Thanks for all your inspiration ladies (oh and Jeff)..really it was a rather selfish give-away..for you see one of my inspirations is to see what OTHERS are inspired by..I guess it was a win-win for us all!

Inspiration and a cup of joe..

As an photog wanna-be I'm constantly looking for inspiration. Just tonight when I was sitting down to a dinner of angel hair pasta with a lovely red sauce and fresh picked (i just reached down and plucked it out of the pot) basil, I found inspiration. I had this urge to run and get the camera, it was so pretty sitting on my plate in the sun..
but I was hungry and the pasta tasted so good..so..I kept eating.
BUT..my question today dear reader is what is YOUR inspiration?? What is your "pasta in the sun" moment?? Here are a few more of mine.

-Food
-My kiddos
-Washington landscape
-Junking, thrifting and crafting
-Water
-Flowers
-Coffee
-GF's
-Human emotion..raw
-Architecture
-The Anthropologie catalog (gets me every time)
-And soon to be added..Paris

These are some of the things that make me want to snap, snap, snap away:)

**EDIT** I'm not just talking about inspiration for taking photos..I'm talking about ALL sorts of inspiration**

Now.. here is what you need to do, share with us at least one (or as many as you would like) items of inspiration and you will be entered in a sweet give-away. If I draw your name on Friday (AFTERNOON) you will win a....


Thats right fine blog reader..a 5 DOLLAR STARBUCKS GIFT CARD!! Can you believe my generosity??? Seriously I'm so frickin awesome:) (yes this give-away will be delievered in a timely manner, no more large postage items for moi!)
Oh and if you want to enter another fricken awesome (really its much better than mine) give-away head on over to my new bloggy gf's blog, and let her know Tres Birds sent ya:)

Now comment away!!

Mommy Monday

Wendy Benjamin is wife to Brad and mother of Kiasa 16 and Colby 10. She resides on 5 very wooded acres in Gold Bar Washington. I’ve known Wendy for most of my life, but only recently (last 4-5 years) got to really know her and truthfully I don’t think I have ever known a person more changed.. for the good. Her Motherhood journey started at the young age of 16, today she has a 16 year old and a few lessons learned…

Hey girl, how are you? Are you sure you’re up to this?? LOL!
Too funny, you know I don’t have any problems talking. You just have to edit it so I don’t offend your readers.

I distinctly remember your baby shower..it must have been my junior year. I think we all went after softball practice. Looking back it seems weird. How did you feel about being 16 and pregnant?? It was strange; People who were my friends all of a sudden couldn’t or wouldn’t be friends with me anymore. Parents wouldn’t let them talk or hang out with me, like I was going to get them pregnant. That was really hard. I did however still play sports, right up till I was showing good. Then they made me quit. I guess it was a bad for the other teams to look at...

I soo can't imagine how you must have felt..The weirdest part was, I knew those people were out having sex and partying a hundred times more than me. They just never got caught. They would call me a whore, slut. I wasn’t out with a bunch of guys, just one. And it got me into trouble….

I’m going to come right out and ask a super hard question.. why did you decide to keep the baby and not get an abortion? Abortion was never a question…Deep down inside I knew it wasn’t right. I can’t say that morally it wasn’t right (I don’t think I had any (morals) at that time). I can’t explain the feeling, I knew that I just couldn’t do it, something told me NO….
Adoption although, was an issue. I almost gave her up to a really nice couple, then changed my mind. Then her Aunt on her dad’s side offered to take her. The 16 year old girl attitude kicked in and I said NO…He can’t have the baby if I can’t have it, so I will keep her. Real mature….

I know that your parents were (and still are) very involved with raising Kiasa, was her Dad ever around? Her Dad…Wow..What a long road that has been. Well for starters he was 10 years older than me. He left when I was 4 months along. (Apparently my dad and a gun had something to do with that) . He was from NY, went home and stayed there, Never to talk to us again. That is until my second child Colby was born. Kiasa (6yrs old) asked if, “Brad is Colbys Dad, and I can remember before Brad, then who is my Dad?”
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
So I called and left a message with his mother (whom I was very mean to @ 16yrs old). He called me back that night, we talked for hours. Kiasa and I got on a plane to NY 6 weeks later. She met her family, who didn’t know she even existed until about a month before we got there. He has since come out here twice, and Kiasa goes to NY every summer. We are very good friends now, and I love him dearly.

Tell me about after Kiasa was born..did you just suddenly wake up and say, “That’s it! I’m done with the parties, sex, drugs and rock-n-roll!”? Maybe for a week or two….No really it was about 2 months. It was New Years (she was born in Oct). She was a year old before I had another boyfriend, he was 8 years older than me. No one under 21 would even talk to me because I had a kid. That was hard. I did keep partying, just not as much.
Lets just say my parents watched her, A LOT. But, I also worked hard. I had to finish high school with kid in tow. Work a job, and be a kid. I left Sultan High and went to an alternative school because the principle at Sultan said I should give up, that I would never make it.
I graduated 6 months early, and then went to college for 2 yrs.

Let’s fast forward a few years.. to the day you walked into church. Really I thought I just might faint, you were not exactly the first person I thought I would see there. Describe what was going in your life at that time and why you decided to try church…
Wow. This will have to be the censored version…
I was a mess. My marriage was a mess, I smoked pot every day, drank hard at the bar 3-4 nights a week all while my husband sat at home with the kids. Church was a last ditch effort to save EVERYTHING. I thought I could turn it on and off. It didn’t work, I used it as a crutch and it broke. I fell down in a bad rut, left my husband, got a boyfriend, more alcohol.. you know all kinds of good stuff.

Now tell me about your last 2 years in comparison.
Me and my most AMAZING, most KIND, most FORGIVING husband worked things out. (With some really good counseling advice from a great friend.)
Then--God caught me like a fish. With a big hook and wouldn’t let go.
We started going to a great church. I’ve fully given my life over to Jesus, and he graciously fixed me (as much as possible for now) I even got the tattoo to prove it (LOL).

Besides the obvious answer of God.. What else can you attribute to the desire of becoming the person you are today?

An amazingly patient and kind man. He showed me true love.

Ok here is a predictable question… what advice would you pass on to a young single mother?
Don’t give up EVER…Get help.
Find another Mom who was in your shoes. This is a fundamental to making it.
Don’t get married just because you got pregnant. That isn’t always the answer. Sometimes, we make mistakes and we shouldn’t expound on them.

Fun question…

If you could buy any house in any area of the United States where would it be and why??
Next to your parents In E. Washington would be best. I love that area, mountains, seasons, skiing and less people. I hate having neighbors. I want 40 acres, and a couple of cows and chickens. I am sick of go go lifestyle. I think I was born about 50 years too late.
I want to stay at home and take care of kids and animals. I think about the T.V. show Lassie... that’s the life I would like.
Minus Timmy falling down the well, of course.

Wendy gets her country girl blog on..go check her out here. (ok now it works)