Brownie Troop Update: May

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Brownie Update: End of the Year!

Our Brownie Meetings for the year are winding down to a close with only one more meeting in June coming up. After my continued behavior at the Brownie Meetings, my daughter’s “wild behavior” hasn’t been an issue. Hmmm. I’ve been helping out the current leaders as have some other parents. My daughter and I even got to bring the snacks for the last meeting. She asked for nice yummy, sugar filled, high calorie, frosting covered doughnuts. Oh yum!

On the day of the Brownie Meeting, I stopped by Happy Donuts (located here in Kent, WA) for two dozen donuts. I love to support small, locally owned businesses and this one fits the bill. Plus the doughnuts are really good.

I did think about bringing some carrots, apple slices, and nuts for a healthy snack choice. But then I thought, why bother? The kids aren’t going to pick that over donuts so I axed that idea.

During our current Brownie Meetings, snack time is near the beginning of the meeting. In hindsight, donuts probably aren’t the best snack for 8 year old girls before they sit down to do a sock puppet craft project. They were a little squirreling listen to Leader J talk about the Girl Scout history and the sock puppet project. She does do a good job on crafts. I’m not a craft person (unless it involves power tools) and I don’t sing either (unless it is an Irish drinking song) so it is nice to have a leader that likes that stuff.

Do to my friction with the current leader administration, I chatted with my daughter about joining another troop (one of the girls that left has joined a troop and her Dad told me about it) or starting our own troop. We have enough girls to start one and I have the training. I also signed up a few other parents to be registered in a pre-emptive preparedness move in the event that I did want to start another splinter cell Brownie troop.

Of course, she wants me to start a new troop. So I did the unthinkable and started my own troop! I called up the Girl Scout office, chatted with my friend about it and she had seen it coming. We can start anytime she said. We haven’t told the current troop leaders we are leaving…yet. I want my daughter to go to the End of the Year Meeting and enjoy the pizza and finish up the last of the craft projects.

Then we might even have our own Brownie Troop meeting before school gets out. I wouldn’t mind a field trip or two during the summer if time permits.

Looking forward to more Girl Scout adventures with my daughter’s new Brownie troop!

Catching up at work!

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May is two-thirds done and I am finally getting a bit caught up with all my work. I have put my blog on the backburner. I even had the insane idea of doing a garage sale to get rid of stuff; it didn’t make much sense considering how far behind I feel I am at work. Whether I really am behind as much as I think I am can be debated. Nevertheless, I am catching up.

The hardest part of photography is the backend of the business. The photography (creating the images) is the easy part. The hard part is all the paperwork and processing of the digital images that will drive you nuts. I don’t mind the retouching but some days I wish I could just throw the whole job in a bag and send it to the lab for them to deal with. A magic job sack

I still need to work on my ebook and I have decided to do a major landscaping project this summer because I’m nuts. A few days of sunshine and my creative juices start flowing. I start thinking to myself….I want to remove this retaining wall and put in a stone wall….but how do I make it all flow……yet I want a patio outside my office door…or maybe a deck would be better…

I actually like to do building and yard projects. Now, my wife would question that statement and would refer to the numerous unfinished yard projects I have. She just doesn’t understand I don’t like working in the rain…or the cold…or when it is too hot. That means I have about a two week window sometime in July that might work for me and I’m usually gone at that period on vacation with the family.

Regardless of what actually happens, I can tell you that I’m looking forward to a fun filled summer. Whether it is in the yard or on some tropical island, I’m looking ahead to some fun with the family.

Stupid Like the Rest of America!

~ K ~ 2 Comments

I’m stupid just like the rest of you!

One would assume that since I blog that I am naturally a great and gifted speller. That is far from the truth which also leads into the fact that I’m quite terrible at grammar. I switch from past tense to present tense and really couldn’t tell you which is which. The only reason any of my blogs or writings make sense is due to my love of reading.

I am a good example of learning by example. I like to read and when I do, I actually study how the sentence was structured, how it flows, and why it makes sense. It probably also helps that 80% of the population reads at an 8th grade level so it is quite easy to write at this level. Considering that, I probably don’t write to a higher level because I’m lazy. So in essence, I am lazy and stupid. Man, my college professors at the University of Washington would be so proud of me!

Let’s face it, I’m not very good at writing and I can admit it.

Gyro Cafe Seattle – yum! yum!

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This evening I was treated to my cousin’s husband Simon’s Pre-Grand Opening dinner at his new Gyro Café Seattle located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Located directly across the street from the Group Health Seattle campus, Gyro Café Seattle will be opening next week and will be open from 10 am until 9 am Monday thru Saturday. Since I love Gyros, I can’t wait to make the trip out to dinner with family and enjoy a great meal.

If you have the chance in the next few weeks, I’d highly recommend to checking it out for dinner or lunch (man, I envy those Group Health workers…)

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2010/09/17/former-15th-ave-east-yoga-studio-space-will-soon-by-gyro-cafe
Feel free to browse the Gyro Café Seattle website http://gyrocafeseattle.com/, better yet take the time to visit the restaurant at 109 15th Ave E, Seattle WA.

My first Girl Scout Meeting as the leader…can I survive?

~ K ~ 1 Comment

My first Brownie Meeting went extremely well if I don’t say so myself. I almost cancelled due to the fact my grandma was in the hospital. However, my Grandma Ruth wasn’t one to sit around and whine about things. She would want me to continue on and do the meeting. And that is exactly what I did. Grandma Ruth was a tough old Irish lady and she would tell me not to let the turkeys get me down (or the other whining leaders who want to kill the spirit of Girl Scouting).

Fresh from my recent Outdoor 2 and Outdoor 3 training with the Girl Scouts, I was eager to put my Eagle Scout skills (and Girl Scout Leader skills) to the test with my Brownie Troop. We held our meeting at Lake Wilderness Arboretum and Lake Wilderness Park in Maple Valley, Washington. I enlisted my fellow Cub Scout leader Joel Bottem to assist me with the s’mores project. His son Ryan was a big help also and I greatly appreciate both their help in keeping all the scouts safe and sound.

On top of our regular troop being there, I also invited a Daisy Troop and their leader Laura Meyers from Maple Valley to come and meet us. I was luckily enough to meet Laura at the recent Outdoor 2 & 3 training weekend and was glad to have her help. Upon everyone’s arrival, we toured through the Arboretum and one of the Daisy mothers was very helpful on guiding us through the arboretum. If you get the chance and live in the area, you should take the time and do a little visit to the Lake Wilderness Arboretum.

As usual, the weather was rainy and cold. The Daisy Scouts were well prepared with rain coats and rubber boots. Our Brownie scouts on the opposite spectrum were wearing cotton, thin coats, and were ready to get soaked. So much for being older and more experienced…..

We made “Gauk”, did some science experiments with vinegar and baking soda, ate some smores, and we had some of the “dreaded” balloons. If you don’t know about the balloons incident please refer to my original Girl Scout post. I even gave more balloons out when a little Girl Scout asked me for one (GASP!). Hmmm, no one seemed to mention to me that I was “unfair”. Maybe the good old leader “J” should take a lesson out of Kevin’s playbook on how to be a good, kind, considerate leader.

On a side note, J and her daughter didn’t make it which didn’t surprise me. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to make. Just a little passive-aggressive protest to my optional outdoor meeting I had planned. Oh well. No smores for her!

I still have a few more meetings I’d like to conduct with the Brownie troop. I asked a few more parents to become registered Girl Scout members which means we’ll be able to have two registered Girl Scout Leaders there at each event and be in compliance with the Girl Scout guidelines. I like the fact that I know have more training than the other two leaders. I even got a very cool patch from my training weekend in March that I might sew onto my Boy Scout shirt or perhaps my coat.

OK, I’m not here just for the patches. I also want my daughter to enjoy the outdoors as much as I have over the years. She already enjoys camping, the beach, and swimming. I also want her to become a successful woman and be able to take care of herself and her deadbeat husband!

As always, I welcome your comments and keen insight into my blog postings!

You never know what is going on in someone’s life…

You never know what is going on in someone’s life…

~ K ~ 3 Comments

Sadly, it has been a while since I have been able to pull together a blog posting. I know this disappoints Cyndi (my imaginary stalker) and a few of my loyal relatives (that actually read my blog). It has been a tough past three weeks for me. My grandmother Ruth passed away on April 2 after a fall in which she hit her head and had bleeding on the brain. She was 91 years old and lived a very full life. Yet, I still had a hard time with her death. The last grandparent I had died was my Grandfather Dieter and I believe that was roughly 16-17 years ago.

I haven’t had to deal with a lot of death in my family for the past few years. My wife had her grandmother died a few years ago. However, my Grandma Ruth’s death was particular hard for me due to how much of a wonderful lady she was. She was the matriarch of our family (on my mother’s side) and she helped a lot of her children and grandchildren out over the years.

I enjoyed her company and have good memories of her that I’ll be able to live with for the rest of my life. I felt relived that I was able to say good bye to her before she passed away. I’ll miss her but I’m glad she was around for so long. I was definitely lucky to be the oldest grandchild and have the chance to enjoy my Grandma the longest (over my other cousins).

This isn’t to say that I was jealous of my younger cousins since they had the opportunity to live with her. Granted it wasn’t the best for them to be able to live with her because she was more of a parent than a grandparent. I got a good chuckle out of them talking about her discipline (which I luckily missed!). They were able to spend more time with her than I was since they lived in the same house as she did. When I was younger, I thought how cool it would be to live with your grandparents versus your mean old strict parents. After a few of my cousins’ stories I now know that isn’t true.

In the last years of her life, she had Alzheimer’s and really didn’t remember much of what was happening day to day. She would fake it a lot when she saw you. She always greeted you with a warm welcome and would tell you it had been a long time since she had seen you last (even if you had seen her the day before). She might not remember you at that particular moment but she sure did make you feel important. It was always good to visit her.

I suspect that even if you were the biggest loser in life, Grandma Ruth would still make you feel great. She would pay attention to whatever you told her whether it was about the turkey sandwich you just ate, your kid’s failed math test, or the time you dropped a dozen eggs on her floor when you were ten years old.

I’ll miss her but I’m glad I was able to have a wonderful lady like her in my life.

Kevin’s Outdoor Training Weekend with the Girl Scouts!

~ K ~ 2 Comments

Outdoor 2 Training Weekend March 2011

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Girl Scouts of Western Washington’s weekend training held at camp Robbinswold on Hood Canal. The weather was the typical Washington State weather: rain, cold, and more rain. After slow progress thru the Tacoma’s Friday evening’s traffic (I discovered a lot of really neat garbage along Interstate 5), I arrived at Camp Robbinswold, a beautiful Girl Scout camp located on Hood Canal, north of Hoodsport.

Our Outdoor 2 started Friday night and ran thru Sunday. I must confess that I wasn’t looking forward to spending the last weekend of March outside. It is cold and rainy; not my idea of fun. I’d much rather be inside with the gas fireplace. Nevertheless, I was going to be outside learning about taking Girl Scouts camping.

What can an Eagle Scout like me learn at a Girl Scout training event? To be honest, the Girl Scouts run an awesome training program and I learned a lot! The weekend turned out to be very informative, well run, and fun. The Outdoor 2 class was taught by three experienced Girl Scout leaders: Donna, Debbie, and Ranger. Overall, I had a great time and would highly recommend these three instructors if you are looking for an Outdoor 2 with the Girl Scouts of Western Washington.

Our class was held outside in a picnic shelter. We discussed Leave No Trace, Dutch oven cooking, box oven baking, cleaning, cooking, keeping warm, etc. on a typical rainy western Washington day. My fellow classmates were mostly women (Russ and I being the only men) and their experience ranged from brand new leaders, to experienced leaders, to soon to be retired WSU employees (with no kids but still helping with a troop). A fair amount of us had camping experience and leading youth groups so we were able to contribute to the discussions in a meaningful way.

One thing I like about the Girl Scout program is that they require you to do the training before you take the Girl Scouts out on a camp out. In fact, before you can take a trip that is longer than four hours, you must take Outdoor 1 (on top of the other perquisite training). This Outdoor 2 really was a good example for new leaders and I was happily impressed with it.

The ladies that lead the weekend were very impressive with their years of knowledge and experience. Ranger, Donna, and Debbie were excellent and I would take another class from them. They were easy to approach with questions, listened, offered suggestions, and were truly very good at their instructor duties.

A few people that know me look at me kind of funny when I mention I had to take the Girl Scouts’ training. They usually ask, aren’t you an Eagle Scout, a former Den Leader, and a current Assistant Scoutmaster? Do you really need to take the training? I probably don’t need to take the camping training but as a Girl Scout Leader, I am required to take it. Overall, I have no arguments with taking the training and being trained in the Girl Scout way. All of the Girl Scout training classes have been excellent with great instructors, an information packet that pertains to the class at hand, and all delivered with a great love of Girl Scouting. While I might have a lot of experience and knowledge, I do not know the Girl Scout way and therefore the training is very good.

However, that isn’t to say that what I bring to the table is discounted or not respected. The Girl Scout leaders have been great to learn from and have welcomed my thoughts, insights, and jokes (I’ve kept my sarcastic wit in check much to my wife’s amazement). Hopefully, my jokes were amusing and didn’t put anyone down (besides myself!).

Overall, the weekend was a great one and I really enjoyed myself. I think the Girl Scouts have a great program. If you have a daughter, I would definitely recommend them joining Girl Scouts. Now, please keep in mind that you might end up being a leader; however, with all of the training offered by the Girl Scouts, you will be well equipped for an excited experience in Scouting.

However, if you are a bit nit picky or have a hard time handling more than one child at a time (please read my previous blog posting of how I ended up at the Outdoor Leadership Training (https://khellriegel.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/is-my-child-really-that-bad/), then you probably should let someone who really enjoys kids lead the troop. Or take a step back and re-evaluate your own life….I’m just saying….

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments! Please leave me a comment!

Being a School Photographer

~ K ~ 4 Comments

Is being a photographer really glamorous?

Most people that I talk to think that my profession as a photographer is exciting and glamorous. A common perception of my life is that I live a jet setting lifestyle, uploading my recent images to our cleverly designed website (which happens to get 100,000 hits a month…no problem), I love all photography, and I can make everyone look like a hot model during any time of day, in any situation.

“Oh, you’re a professional photographer…how exciting!”

Well, not really. I enjoy my life as a photographer only because I have focused on the photography I like to do. I estimate that my photography business is 90% school photography and the remaining 10% being weddings (I now do one a year), family portraits, business headshots, and high school graduating senior portraits.

Personally, I enjoy working in the school photography environment because I like kids. Yesterday, I was at one of my preschool accounts and four different mothers came up to me separately and said how much they enjoyed my photography over the years. Two of them had older kids in the local elementary school and they both complained about the poor quality and poor attitude of the school photographer there. It does take a certain type of person to become a school photographer and I’m that person.

Most other photographers (and some of the general public) look down on school photographers because they don’t consider us artists. I beg to differ but they learn that attitude because most of the school photographers are huge, cheap photography chains. The people that work for these huge chains are not photographers; they are merely people trying to find themselves. They are paid poorly and it reflects in the work they produce. The chain photographers usually don’t last too long before they decide to jump ship and do something else. In the meantime, they don’t enjoy the school photography business and thus produce a lousy product and tarnish the school photographer image.

As a self-employed photographer, I am paid much better, produce a high quality portrait product, and actually enjoy my job! I’m part photographer, part clown, part counselor, and all fun! Parents want to have a real, natural smile from their child. I don’t mind being goofy to entice that smile from kids to get that fun portrait. It is part of the job and it makes the job fun.

Sometimes, a parent will let me know they are a photographer, a little scared that I’ll feel threatened. I like to meet other photographers because they often have a little tidbit that might help me in my business. Exchanging ideas is awesome!

Some parents want to get into photography as a business. “How do I become a photographer?” is a question I’m asked a lot. Most don’t want to become a school photographer like me, so I have no problem giving my advice and telling them about my experience. Honestly, the photography business has changed so much in the 18 years I have been involved in it that I am always learning new things!

My dad is also a school photographer (since 1968) http://www.portraitskauai.com/ and http://www.kauaiweddings.com/. He has seen more changes that I have! He still loves photography. People always ask me if he is going to retire. I laugh at that question. He loves school photography too much to quit.

Which made me start to think that perhaps I should share my school photography business knowledge with my own website that talks about it. In the near future, I’ll be developing my new blog and website www.becomeaschoolphotographer.com
If you haven’t had a chance, surf on over to my website at http://www.hellriegelstudio.com
Thanks for reading! As always, I welcome your comments!

Snow Camping

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Happily, I have returned from one night of snow camping this past weekend with the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scout troop left on Friday morning and spent two nights out there. Luckily, I had First Aide and CPR training so I was able to go up for only one night. My son spent two nights in the igloo he and his fellow scouts built.

Snow camping isn’t my favorite type of camping because, frankly, it is cold. It isn’t just a little cold, it is freezing cold and I really don’t like to be cold. Yes, I admit it; I’m a fair weather camper.

Now that my son is in Boy Scouts, I’ll be doing a lot more camping. Considering that we live in the Seattle area, we’ll be doing a lot of camping in the rain. To my benefit, our Boy Scout troop only does one winter camping trip a year. I personally don’t think I’d want to do more than one winter camping trip a year. Like I said earlier, I like to be warm.

When you are winter camping, you are sleeping outside (in a tent) with the temperature at or below freezing or in an igloo (which is at freezing or below because it is an igloo). Mind you, if you are outside in a tent and it is 20 degrees, it’s darn cold. And if you are in an igloo, you are slightly above freezing because of your body heat and it is still darn cold. Since the temperature in the igloo is slightly above freezing, it is never toasty warm and comfortable until you get into your sleeping bag (which you hope is a very good zero degree bag). Why would you want to be comfortable? That is a silly idea. No, you’ll never be in a nice warm cabin, sleeping in a nice warm bed, with lots of nice warm heat. Instead you’ll be outside in freezing weather, bonding with other equally frozen comrades.

Of course, I’m usually warm during a winter excursion because I’ve learned to stay dry. I have lots of layers of dry clothing and I like them to stay dry. When I was a scout, I was wet and cold during snow camping and it wasn’t very fun. Now, whether it is snow, rain, or sunny camping, I always stay dry, warm, and comfortable. I learned the hard way that camping isn’t much fun when you are miserable, wet, and cold.

Now camping in Hawaii is much more fun and enjoyable. I was fortunate to be able to camp in the Puget Sound and to camp on the island of Kauai (Hawaii) during my scouting career. On Kauai, the camping was warm. However, I do remember at one Camporee (an event where all the troops of the island would get together and camp for a weekend) up at Kokee that it pour rain the whole time. When I talk about the rain to people on the mainland, they always comment “But it was warm rain”. Sure, but water is water and you still get wet and miserable. If you don’t properly cover up your gear, it will get wet and you’ll be even more miserable. And if you happen to be my brother (he is an Eagle Scout like me) you might forget to bring your sleeping bag one year. Luckily for him, I had everyone donate their towels to him to use for blankets. Sure, they didn’t cover his whole body, he looked like a bum on the beach, but at least he was warm that weekend.

If you get a chance to visit Kauai, I highly recommend you consider staying at my parents’ guest cottage. Here’s the link: www.makanacrest.com They also offer wedding services on Kauai and that link is: www.kauaiweddings.com

What’s better than cat puke? Spilled Pickle Juice!

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I’m proud to announce that at 10:15 pm, I have finished cleaning out the refrigerator after the “Great Pickle Juice Spill of 2011!” Yes, nothing beats having your son announce that at the bottom of your fridge sits a pool of pickle juice ready to be clean up. Instead of sitting down and enjoying a good book or watching some mindless television (who doesn’t like Jersey Shore??), I spent my evening pulling out the bottom two shelves of the fridge, cleaning them off and then….thinking to myself….

…since I am cleaning the bottom out I should also clean all the other shelves.

Out comes all the milk, cheese, eggs, Uncle Ray’s BBQ sauce, ketchup, mayo, Chinese hot mustard, jelly, beer, spinach, carrots, Jell-O, sour cream, etc. Out come the shelves to be scrubbed off with a beautiful solution of warm bleach water, gently scrubbing off the crumbs, dried out spinach, and other odd spills.

Looking into the empty fridge, one can step back and admire the cleanliness that has claimed its stake in the modern world. Yes, inhale softly the sweet smell of a clean fridge and relax knowing your eggs are once again safe from the foul smell of spilled pickle juice.