I didn't have to do it today!

Today I had planned on taking Kobe into school and then stopping at the end of his hallway and just letting him go down by himself.  Well, that didn't happen.  We were running almost late so I felt the need to rush him down the hall, hurry and help him get ready and then run out.  I. Need. To. Let. Go.  In retrospect I think I did all of that just so I wouldn't have to let him go this morning.  Last night he said he wanted me to go with him BUT I am not sure if he was doing that for me or him.  

He is so funny towards me and my feelings about things.  

We have been each others primary person for almost 6 years now.  We see each other more that anyone else sees us and we just work well together.  

When I am in one room and Kobe is in another if he coughs I always yell out "You ok?"  Now he does it too!  If I cough, he checks on me. He is very attentive to me and wants to buy me stuff when we go out (it reminds me SO much of Ben) and he doesn't want me to ever be sad.  He's my buddy, I don't know what I would do without him.

So, I think on Monday we will both be ready for the big "cutting of the cord" if you want to call it that :)

-all week this week he has been fine with me leaving though which has been great!

So, I thought I would post some old favorite pics of Kobe I came across yesterday:

This is Kobe, with a handful of snow.  What you can't see in this picture was that he had brought in about 10 of these handfuls of snow and had gotten it all over the living room while I wasn't looking.  Sometimes he is quiet like a ninja~! 

This is a Ben favorite:
And then I came across this.  How did I go so wrong with this beautiful little dog :(

Oh well, i am sure he has a great home now, I just wonder if they got him potty trained or if they are the type that let their dog pee all over.   Lucky Them.

Click Here

I've been Cooking.

This January & February I haven't been as busy with work as July-December.  I have done the same amount of business, it just hasn't taken me as much time.  It used to take me 4 hours to do one 50 picture funeral video and now it taken me about 2 1/2 hours and we have only shot 1 wedding so far this year.

As weird as it is to not always be running around like a chicken with my head cut off it has been so nice!  And Ben has definitely been reaping some of the benefits, especially when it comes to dinner  :)

One of my favorite blogs ever is "Pioneer Woman".  She posts every day and she is witty and sarcastic  ;)  She posts about her everyday life, kids-husband-family-new puppy, and she also is in the middle of writing all about how her and her husband ended up together.  But one of the BEST things about her blog is she cooks, and takes pictures of it all AND trust me, these pictures make you want to cook -if you like to cook at all-if you don't like to cook at all they probably would make you want to eat.  :)

All the pictures I have posted are her pictures from her recipe site.  I didn't realize how many I have tried!  I pulled pictures of all of the ones I have  tried.

Like these.  These little cinnamon & sugar french puffs were the first thing I ever tried of hers.  I tried them because I already had all the ingredients and I was bored.

This I tried about 2 weeks ago.  Ben came in the house and the first thing he said was "Wow, it smells good in here"  Then he tried it.  It was so good he asked me to marry him all over again.  Thank you Pioneer Woman.
I also have discover that sauteing onion-for everything- makes everything take good and smell yummy.  And I don't really like onion.
Pioneer Woman also inspired me to try to make quesadillas.  I didn't make them like hers, but I made them like Ben orders them and they were good.  Like restaurant good. 
Then I discovered this combo.  At first the Lemon Pepper scared me.  I have yet to taste the Lemon part of it yet.
It turns this...
...into this, and it is good!
I recently mentioned my fascination with making really good mashed potatoes.  That was from her too.
I don't do roasts.  I have been married 6 years and I had never made one.  I tried out this one and discovered 1. roasts take a long time to cook & 2.  They actually can book yummy!  Ben thought it was really good too and he doesn't really like roasts either.
I also tried this out.  I didn't do it right though  :)
Last night for dinner I made meat loaf, I make it about once a year.  I used to make it more often because when Kobe was 2-3 three he would eat it all the time.  Now, he has decided he isn't that into it.  So, I made corn on the cob (because Kobe will eat that) and this bread.  I know, it is a weird combo but it hit the spot.
But now I think it is all going to be over.  Why?  Because of this.  Apple Dumplings.  They just look WAY too good. I don't make dessert very often but this just looks TOO good.  I am going to have to quit checking her blog if she keeps this up!

Weird Wednesday

No, I didn't have a really weird morning or anything, I just have come across a couple weird things that I felt all of the rest of you needed to be weirded out by as well.   Lucky you.

I have bought a few really weird things before, but this takes the cake on weirdness.  Last week at Kroger I was looking for ice cream (which I don't but that often, as you will be able to tell) and I came across these weird little things.  They were on sale (I assume that should have told me something) but I thought I would get them for Kobe because he had been into ice cream for a day or two. 

When we got home, after I put the groceries away, I opened up the weird little things and saw that they were packaged like this.  IT LOOKED LIKE A PAD.  An ice cream pad.  And I am supposed to hand these out to kids to eat?!?  Don't you think someone would have looked at this and thought the same thing I did?

Ice Cream:
Pad:
I don't know what the deal is with that.  They taste freezer burnt anyway.

Now, onto my next weird find.  

I have a few blogs I check out on a semi-daily basis that are written by people I don't know, they are just interesting people and their writing caught my attention.  Well, if I happen to leaven them a comment I usually click on other people's names that have left comments as well to she what their blog is about.  And I happened to come across this:

Candied Orange Peels

These are cooked Orange Peels that this lady is dipping in chocolate and I am assuming eating them.  Weird.  Very Weird.

On a non weird note, Kobe has been doing great these past two days of school.  I have tried to stop doing things for him when I drop him off and I left him do it all himself. (take his snow boots off and put his school shoes on, put his folder where it goes and order lunch if he is doing that that day, and putting his reading books where they go).  I think it is giving him something to do that take his mind off being upset that I am leaving him there.

He also has been working with Ben on his reading and is doing a great job.  If he gets frustrated Ben lets him take a break and come back to it and he usually does great after that.

It has been cool to see Ben be so patient with him and he has really help Kobe understand more of his reading homework.

Finally new pictures :)

Sometimes I hate trying to come up with titles for these posts.  Especially when they are about everyday life.  I took new pictures of Kobe, playing with what else, his bionicals.  But, when it came to picking a "title" I didn't know what to put.  I already made mention of his obsession with bionicals in a previous post so I decided not to use that...

...then I thought about using a title about how well kobe plays by himself, being an only child- (by the way, Kobe has decided he LOVES being an only child-when Ben and I ask him about having a brother or a sister, he is NOT interested.  He is in a very big, "I like my family the way it is" stage.)-but that type of title didn't make much sense to me.
...then I thought about using a typical "I think Kobe is so amazing" title - and just for the record he is amazing, but I think you have heard enough about that.

Then I thought about using a title...
...that had to do with...

...Kobe accidentally throwing this toy at me and the camera while he was trying to get me to take pictures of his toys in mid-air, but I decided not to use that as well.
So, what you got was a truthful title:  Finally new pictures :)

Plain.  Simple.  To the point.

So I stuck with it.

Here is a picture of what I was watching while I was doing my Kobe/bionical photo shoot.

"Jon & Kate plus 8"-I love this show

And, to wrap this post up, here is Kobe posing like his bionical.
The End.

Before there was "Blog"

Before there was "Blog" believe it or not there were still videos and pictures of our children being taken. There was far less sharing of them but they still existed.

Like, for example, here is some video of Brook right after she was born. I don't know if it is the day she was born or the next day.
I picked this video because someone is going to be 4 years old soon!

How exciting :)

Sorry i haven't been taking pictures lately!

This week I will try to take some good pics!

Our wedding last night went great.  The couple was adorable!

Kobe stayed at Grandma & Grandpa Wentzel's all day Saturday and spent the night.  He didn't want to leave!  He had so much fun, thank you both so much.  I don't know what we would do without you!

Today we ran around like chicken's with our heads cut off because I had some video work to finish up before Monday morning.  Thank you Ben for all your help.

I don't know what I would do if I didn't have such an amazing husband, in-laws, family!

~Be praying for Cindy's cousin.  Her husband unexpectedly died this weekend.

Work/Business/Life

Today Ben and I are shooting our first wedding of 2008.  My goal was to have all my 2007 weddings edited by the time this wedding rolled around and I did it!  I hate having pending projects.  I actually had 12 hours where I didn't have any real projects sitting around waiting on me, that felt good.  

So, today we are off to Addison Oaks, the place where we shot our first wedding of last year.  It should be a good shoot today, we didn't have any weddings in January so that was a nice break!!!

I am still trying to hold strong to only booking one wedding a month.  I don't want to be completely overwhelmed.

I am so excited to spend all day with Ben and Kobe is so excited to go be with Cindy and Mark today and that makes me happy.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

What a day yesterday!!!

Kobe and I got into the car at 1:13 pm and literally did not get out until 5:10 pm!

Why you ask?  Because when things get busy they are B-U-S-Y and when they are slow they are SSSSLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW....

Part One:

Yesterday my sister needed to take David to the doctor.  He has been sick, nothing big, but she wanted to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or anything.  She needed a ride because Dave had been working on one of their cars and it wasn't finished yet.  Kobe and I left our house at 12:11 to get to Bobbie's house at 1 pm.  We got there around 12:45.  When we got there David was just waking up from his nap and Bobbie was running around getting stuff ready to go.  I got David up and held him and Kobe walked around Bobbie's house looking for stuff to touch that had not been "contaminated" by the sick baby.  Yes, Kobe is turning into a germ-a-phoebe.  I don't know where he got that from because trust me, Ben and I aren't like that.  

We got packed up and drove to Rochester (about a 30 minute drive) and I decided to keep Kobe out of the doctor's office full of sick kids.  We sat in the car and did his reading homework and he played with my GPS.  

Part Two:

While I was in the car with Kobe my Funeral Home in Royal Oak called and said that they had a video for me to pick up.  Bobbie got out of her appt (Baby is fine, just has a virus or something, no ear infection and was negative on a strep test) and we all packed up and made our way to the Funeral Home (20 minutes from the doc office).  My GPS only had to re-route me once, i think.  :)  We stopped and got the pictures and stuff and then we headed back to Bobbie's house.

On the way home Kobe decided he was hungry and that he needed to take his Aunt Bobbie out for a date on his Mommy's debit card.  

The conversation when something like this:

Kobe:  "I'm hungry, are you hungry Bobbie?"

Bobbie:  "Yeah, but I don't have any money on me"

Kobe: "My Mom has money, she will buy you food"

            "Do you want a salad?  Do you want salad dressing?"

Bobbie and I are cracking up at this point.

So, on our way home (after being re-routed 2 more times by my GPS -if you were wondering I am using the word re-routed as code for "totally missed my turn") we picked up food and then Kobe and I dropped Bobbie and David off.  I offered to take David home and raise him as my own but Bobbie said her name was on David's birth certificate and that she should probably keep him.  I said OK.

Part Three:

I forgot to mention before I went to get Bobbie my Flint Funeral Home called and said they had 2 videos for my to pick up today as well.  So, I left Bobbie's (in Oxford) and made my way up to Flint (a 50 minute drive).  Got to the Funeral Home 10 minutes before they closed and picked up the pictures.

-have I mentioned yet that I have done like a total of 4 funeral video all month so all the sudden having 3 calls in one days was a little...overwhelming.

Part Four:

After ALL this we were finally on our way home!  I made it most of the way home and then remembered that I need to go to Sam's Club to pick up DVDs (because I had zero DVDs and they seem to be pretty important in my line of work)   So, I turn the car around and head to Sam's Club.  After I picked up everything I needed we finally made it home!~!!   

Part Five:

Now I get to sit here all night and MAKE videos!

WHoo Hoo!!!

(I am glad to be busy though, Praise God for that!)

What a long day!

9 degrees with a high of 23 degrees

I love sounding like a weather person  :)

Last night there was some type of eclipse going on so Ben and Kobe bundled up and went outside to checK it out.  Ben took his camera out with him and snapped some shots of the moon.  I thought they turned out pretty good, as you can see from above.

One of the few good things about freezing cold nights is that they are very clear sky nights.

Kobe was outside for about 5 minutes and then came stomping in saying it was WAY too cold out!

Back to school...

I snapped a couple shots of Kobe before we left for school today.


*Thank you to everyone that encouraged me yesterday!!!!

The Wentzel Boys

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The Wentzel boys haven't had a chance to get together lately so I thought I would take care of that for them. It is so good to see Matt is feeling good enough to bust a few moves with Ben and Chris.

I think you guys will also see where Brook & Kobe get their moves...

I.Made.Gravy. - The REAL way!

I have never liked mashed potatoes.  I still don't like mashed potatoes.  But over the past 6 months for some reason I feel the need to make them and make them GOOD.

So, when dealing with mashed potatoes of course the concept of Gravy is going to come up.  Up until last night I had not figured gravy out.  If I wanted gravy I would either buy a jar of it (yuck) or buy a packet that you add water to to make gravy (double yuck).

So, I guess I have been silently observing people making gravy for the past few years, especially my mom and dad.  They are mash potatoes &   gravy people.

From what I gathered, you cooked some meat then added some stuff to it.  What stuff to add, I didn't know.  I had seen my dad pour milk in there, I assumed you needed something to thicken it up, it felt like this big mystery.

So, last night I was trying a new rub on some steaks and had fried them up in a pan.  I looked at the pan and there was the "stuff" that looked like what people used to make gravy.  So, I thought I would give it a whirl.  I threw some flour into the bottom of the pan and cooked if for a second in the "stuff" - then I added milk and to my shock it turned into gravy,  Who knew.

Ben said it tasted good, I don't eat that stuff so I don't know.  It looked and smelled good though.

Family Man

You have to be a really good, patient Daddy to spend so much time doing what your kids want to do.

You have to be more concerned about spending time with them than whatever you would rather be doing.

You have to be a very thoughtful Man to tell your wife you love her about 15-20 different times on any given Sunday.

Thank you for loving us so much Ben! I had such a great day with you yesterday. We love you so much!

Many days life is not what you thought it would be.

Things happen, circumstances change, and life kicks your butt once in a while.

But then you look around and see this.

Amazing people that make life worth living.
People who make all the "stuff" go away.
I am so glad I have them.

I love when Ben stays home on Saturdays!

*This picture was taken in September of '06

Ben stayed home today because he has been coming down with a cold and needed some rest!

So, I guess I just have a couple shout outs for today.

1.  Matt, we hope you get back to 100% very soon~!

I am glad you all are back home and able to sleep in your own beds, hopefully you will just get better and better and not have to go back!

2.  Cindy-have fun down there!  Soak up the weather and have lots of fun with Elle!

3.  I don't know if Grandma Neighbors will be hopping on a computer while she is traveling, but if so I hope you are having a fun trip Grandma!

My dirtiest of "Dirty Little Secrets"

Ben is probably going to think I am a NUTJOB for posting this, but oh well.

Ben, Kobe and I moved into this house in May of 2007.  So, we have been living here for about 11 months.  When we moved in the 1st thing we did was set up out desk and computer so when I had videos to do I would be ready.  It worked out perfectly.  As for everything else in the room, I just kept it in boxes.  To make matters worse.  Ben has all his clothes in the office closet and gets ready in here every morning so he doesn't wake me up.  We leave the ironing board set up in here because he irons everything (I wonder where he got that from Cindy  ;) ).

So, over the course of 11 months I have basically used the office as our junk mail room, Kobe has used it as his play area leaving toys where ever they land, and poor Ben was stuck wading through my mess every morning so he could get ready for work.

It has turned into "that room" that I always start to clean and then run out of time.  So, for Valentine's Day, I decided to give Ben a clean, organized, fully moved in place to get ready for work.

This is what I had to work with.  It had gotten bad.  VERY BAD!

So, after a hour or two it started looking like this.  That was after I shredded about 150 pieces of junk mail.

And then once I stared to put things in containers it started to look like this.
When I started to put things away it looked like this.
And in the end it ended up looking like THIS!
See, I EVEN cleaned and organized my desk.  Never a small feat!

So, it went from this...
...to this.  And I no longer have my dirtiest of dirty little secrets to hide from the world.
And...

Happy Valentine's Day Ben!  I love you!

Matt & Linds we are still prayin' for you guys.

Update if you haven't heard:

Yes, Matt is still in the hospital.  Cindy arrived safely in SC yesterday evening.  The doctors were thinking that Matt had colitis and he had to have a colonoscopy yesterday.  They found nothing wrong and said they are back to square one now.