WANTED: Ryan the Photographer!

Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve updated this blog that I don’t even know where to start.  Let’s see – last update was December 16th, so seems logical to maybe start with Christmas. 
I got a new camera for Christmas – a really neat little one that I can carry in my purse and have with me all the time.  I was excited about this because my “big” camera has been broken for well over a year and I’ve really missed having a decent camera. 
So I got a new camera, but didn’t use it to take a single picture of Christmas!  How could that happen, you say?  Well, with the exception of a little “after-Christmas” lunch we had at my sister’s, every Christmas gathering we had was at our house.  We started on Friday night the 23^rd with a house full of high schoolers.  Then we had our immediate family for breakfast and gift opening on Saturday morning, the 24^th.  After church in the evening of the 24^th, we had our immediate family plus Jaclyn’s parents for dinner.  And on Sunday the 25^th, we went to church then came home and hosted the Krause Family Christmas Dinner (well, 25 of them that is).  So needless to say, I was busy. 
On top of that, Andrew & Jaclyn had a friend staying with them during the month of December – Ryan.  Ryan is a photographer and he and his camera attended all of our family gatherings, too.  So I let Ryan do all the picture taking and just thoroughly enjoyed my company.  Now here’s the catch:  Ryan left – with his camera and my Christmas pictures.   I haven’t lost hope that I’ll get them someday – but it’s probable that I may be blogging about Christmas in July.  In the meantime, if you happen to see Ryan, tell him that Mama Krause is still waitin’ for the pictures!

Okay, now I must also mention what Ryan DID do for me before he left.  Ryan fixed my "big" camera!  Somehow the flip-up flash on my Canon EOS Rebel malfunctioned and got messed up.  Anyway, my camera absolutely would not work.  So I took it into the camera shop and they quickly informed me that it would cost  me $300 to have the camera sent to Canada for evaluation.  Then I would hear back from them as to whether they could fix it or not.  I walked out of the shop, telling them I would have to think about that.  I've been thinking about it for a very long time - like close to two years.  Well, I mentioned to Ryan that I had this camera and that it was broken and he said, "Let me have a look at it."  That boy had a look at it all right -- and knew exactly what to do.  Within 15 minutes he had it working just like new!!