Tag Archives: Youth

5 Things: Raw Milk, Ten, Yard Work, Youth, Puerto Rican Food

By Chris | Published May 3, 2012

1. Raw Milk- I spent all of last Thursday on Gramen Farm in Tomball, Texas, starting the work on a brand new project. A cow licked my arm. Their tongues are HUGE. I learned tons and tons about raw milk and farming. I met some really amazing folks who I think will become fast friends. Best of all I came home with a trunk full of delicious raw milk, kefir grains, soap nuts, local honey, and farm made soap. It was a good day.

Raw Milk Keifr Grains

Making kefir with raw milk and kefir grains.

2. Ten- Ten is the number of photo sessions I did in April. (Also, how the heck is it already May? When did that happen?) For a lot of studios 10 is a measly number, it may be the number of sessions they do in a day. But considering I’m a 1.45984 man operation boutique photography studio (Bill helps out when he can, which is reason for the decimal) and I spend at least 2 hours prepping for a shoot, 2+ hours on the shoot, 4+ hours editing, 2+ hours putting together custom artwork, not to mention client meetings, answering e-mail, and actually placing orders to our vendors as well as all the other stuff that goes with running a business, it’s been a crazy busy month. The thing is I LOVE IT.

My workspace

Part of my workspace, it's definitely not always this clean.

3. Yard Work- When I was not working I’ve been outside. We’ve spent a lot of time working on the yard. At dinner Bill and I planned out our dream back yard, I even sketched it out. Our vegetable garden is flourishing and we had an influx of plants after the Plant Swap on Saturday. Bill makes fun of me because I just go out there and stare at it. But it’s relaxing and it makes me smile.

Our Raised beds

Our current project, making a path around our raised beds.

4. Youth Group- Our youth group is growing. Oh yeah, Bill and I lead a small in home youth group (it’s hosted by another family). It was an opportunity based out of a desire of a few kids that sort of just fell into our laps. We’ve been doing it for almost a year and last night we had 23 students. In a living room. Twenty-three. What? Yes. 23. It’s blowing my mind that A. that many kids want to listen and have discussions with us. and B. See reason A. I’m amazed.

Youth Group

5. Puerto Rican Food- My best friend is Puerto Rican and we have some very good friends here in Houston who are also Puerto Rican. And they have been teaching me how to make Puerto Rican food, which is delicious and makes me happy in a way I can’t describe. So a few weeks ago I took on the task of feeding 12 people with what I’d learned from my friends. The verdict was I succeeded. Rice, beans, flat steak and Tostones (twice fried plantains). My next task, Mofongo!

Yummy Puerto Rican Food

Yummy Puerto Rican Food

Making Tostones

Making tostones, Bill did the smashing.

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My Husband will be a Texan Yet

By Chris | Published August 2, 2010

Bill at Buccee’s (a Texas Tradition), it was his first time. If I haven’t mentioned before my husband is from Philadelphia so all this Texas stuff is really foreign and kinds scary to him. I think he’s adapting well. I think he could have stayed all day at the Alamo.

I haven’t ridden roller coasters since high school, and its still my favorite. However there is this other issue…I hate lines. They don’t so much make me angry, its just hot and the lines are long and you’re just waiting. So I let everyone know my plan.

1. Ride as many roller coasters as I could before my patience for lines ran out (I figured this would happen at about lunch time).

2. Eat Lunch

3. Enter the water park, find a tube, and float around the Lazy River until it was time to leave.

Three very awesome students joined me on my adventure. And I think we had by far the best adventure of anyone there.

I was also chased by a bee, which involved me spinning in circles for a while and then running like a crazy person. Yes, there is video footage of this, and yes a lovely student of ours put it on YouTube, and no I’m not telling you where it is. You’ll just have to find it yourself. So ha.

I rode this, very awesome.

I did not ride this.

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Forbidden Photography Adventure: Remember the Alamo

By Chris | Published July 31, 2010

This passed weekend we took about 20 or so 13-18 year olds on an overnight trip to San Antonio, Texas and Six Flags. So fun. It amazed me how many of these students had never been to the Alamo, so we gave em a little ed-ju-cay-shon on their Texas heritage.

Meet The Alamo. Its kind of striking how small it is. You turn the corner and then, there it is.

After entering this Alamo (the actual building, not the garden area around it) like any self respecting photographer I had my camera out, holding it close to my heart. This old man in a red sport coat, I assume he was a guard said, “NO PICTURES!” I said, “You mean no pictures with a flash, right?” He said, “NO PICTURES!” So I left.

Now, let me tell you, never tell a photographer that they can’t take pictures. Its like challenging them. We turn into one of those crazy bulls with their male bull parts all in a bind and you telling us we can’t take photos is like walking around with that big flashy red cape, taunting us. That man in his red blazer, yeah, he was that person.

Out side I thought hard about what the light readings might be in there. It was kinda dark and I needed the shutter to be fast enough to be able to sneak shots while holding the camera at my hip and while moving. I didn’t white balance, which looking back I should have at least tried. But I think I hit it right on, or at least pretty close. (Above photo of my feet is in the Alamo.)

So ha man in the red coat. I got to capture part of my states history from my perspective.

And this made me chuckle.

Meet Sarah, meet Sarah’s fanny pack. Yeah she’s awesome. (Also awesome that she was my partner in Forbidden Photography Adventure: Remember The Alamo.)

More from Six Flags to come.

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It’s been weeks, I’m so sorry

By Chris | Published June 24, 2010

Welcome summer. Welcome. This is the first summer I’ve craved summer break. I mean crave. Like a PMSing 16 year old craves chocolate. This could be for one of two reasons, or both. A. I hang out with a lot of high school and junior high students, all of whom are on summer break. Yes I am jealous. B. Last week, I went to summer camp. Not just any summer camp, but the same summer camp I attended when I was 13.

It was like flash back mania, monster trucks and all. Well, not really. There was even another counselor there who was like, you look so familiar. Turns out we went to that camp together. I was friends with her brother. Small world.

I should post more, but I’m going to pass out soon. Late night movie. See Toy Story 3, in 3D, it’ll blow your mind. =)

Meet the blob, yeah I did that.

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Bits O’ Weekend ~ Five

By Chris | Published June 14, 2010

I haven’t done one of these in a while, and these were not actually from last weekend (im lame I know) but it was a sweet weekend so i thought I’d share. =)

I made home made meat balls. SO FREAKIN’ GOOD.

And Eggplant Lasagna. Its something I sort of made up. I took my Lasagna recipe and subbed the noodles for very thin slices of eggplant breaded like traditional eggplant parm. Its pretty good.

I L-O-V-E trying new things, especially food. Chris…meet Dim Sum. I did like it. AWESOME.

This is my lovely friend Ann who married one of my childhood friends. I’m really glad she did because she’s so great. She introduced me to Dim Sum. I am in like with Dim Sum. (I took pictures of her family here.)

These are some sort of soft bun roll things. The texture reminded me of the dumplings in my mom’s beef stew. I guess cause they are steamed. They have some sort of semi-sweet meat in them. Very good.

These are lotus leaf wrapped rice/meat/deliciousness pouches.

And my little brother turned 21.

The card I bought him had a kitten on it and said, “For A Special Girl Like You”. HA

He’s a chef and I love talking food with him. The discussion of the evening was if you could would you try human meat. Think about it.

Later this happened. Meet Josh. He usually isn’t this scary.

The end. =)

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46 Families, 2 Hours

By Chris | Published May 21, 2010

Can I shoot 46 families, or rather 46 combinations of about 40 families in the course of 2 hours? Why yes I can. Its kinda crazy, and it takes a lot of excellent planning and extra help, but it can happen. The down side is I don’t get to spend that much time with each family, which means they don’t get the wide range of “oh my gosh thats totally her” type photos. I also don’t get to know them as well as I’d like. But I still get some good shots, and its a lot of fun, and very high pace which I love.

The set: one ikea couch with black cover, one white back drop (which could have been a few feet wider and would have saved some time on the post production side, noted), one soft box, one giant window of natural light, and one fantastic assistant named Annie (any other name would not do). We kept it simple because we had to shoot SO quickly. It made like way easy.

The set up: The two lovely ladies in the chairs checked people in and gave them forms to fill out, forms were then handed to the assistants by the two lovely ladies who are standing, the assistants wrote down the shot number that started that particular family’s shoot. Genius. All thought up by that guy standing there. The ladder, we’re not sure why it was there.

I still had time to have a little fun.

And my lovely assistant Annie had time to take a picture with her dad.

And the kiddos still cracked me up.

There are no words. (Two of the coolest people ever).

But there was love.

The whole shoot was done for Northwood Church’s mother’s day service as a free thanks to moms for being moms. It was also the first in their series of “I Want A New Marriage”. Very excellent indeed.

I should also mention that I had a super husband that day. We rented a soft box light and when I went to turn it on it didn’t. So we checked it out and the casing that holds the bulb basically fell out. My husband went to Home Depot, got some stuff, and fixed it, right there, on the spot. I was amazed.

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Burger King has Changed

By Chris | Published May 19, 2010

To be completely honest and horribly truthful I really enjoy fast food, but I am a fast food snob. I really only enjoy Jack in the Box, Chick-Fil-A, and Taco Cabana. I also am a fan of Taco Bell, less snobby, more thrifty, still you can’t beat their cheesy bean and rice burritos. Your typical fast food, Mc Donalds, Burger King, etc. I’m not so much a fan. If I’ve eaten there it was because it was not up to me.

The last time I remember entering a Burger King I think I was probably ten years old, everything was sticky and had a slight layer of grease. I remember the bathrooms being wet all over, for no real reason and there was never any toilet paper or soap. The play areas always smelled like diapers. Burger King was a scary place. But I do remember as a child, I enjoyed their chicken sandwiches that were long, on a sesame seed roll and served with nothing but lettuce and mayo. My husband swore that Burger King no longer carried them and so, I had no reason to go into one until last weekend.

After youth Bill, and several of the youth leaders and students decided Burger King was the place to go for a late night dinner. I did not object because usually I’m pretty easy going and even if I don’t particularly care for a place I’ll still go the company is way more important of a factor to me. To my surprise, wonder, and amazement this Burger King looked like no other I had ever seen. The youth students were a little confused as to why I was taking pictures, I just said that I had to blog about it.

The counter was my first wow moment. Ok so first of all, sweet flooring, can I please use this in my house? The menus were TV screens that showed moving pictures of the burgers all juicy and steamy. I loved the 3D piece of Iron Man breaking through a ceiling tile. Not an inch of feel of weird greasy covering. Insert major awe.

To the right of the counter is this very cool mural, “my BK spring cypress”. Man they’ve got themselves some fantastic designers. This is Emma, the awesome model in the shot.


The wall says “Forged in the whopper flame” is there anything more epic?

The seating is also mega fantastic. I could stay in that place for hours. AND they have wifi?

Coolest chairs ever. Period. I want them in my house. Adam is pretty fierce here.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear? ORIGINAL CHICKEN SANDWICH! My husband was wrong! Double you, are, oh, en, gee! Wrong.

And I’m pretty sure it was better than I remember it being.

So high five to Burger King they not only have stepped up their ads, funniest things ever, but their restaurants look awesome too. Thanks, and I’ll be back.

NOTE: If you are reading this post on facebook, you may not be seeing all of the images. Please visit the blog at diliberto.wordpress.com. Thanks, you’re awesome!

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Bits O’ Weekend ~ three

By Chris | Published April 19, 2010

I’m seriously behind on blogging, most of these photos are from two weekends ago. I’ll have this weekend up asap! Still other than our first anniversary this weekend, last weekend was MUCH more eventful.

So we bought a house. It was the largest purchase of our lives and probably one of the smartest. Everyone is clamoring for photos of the place, I know. They’re coming soon.

A BUNCH of people from church helped us move ALL of our stuff in the day we closed on the house. Thank you to Will, Bill (not my bill), Bradley, Brian, Mom, Mike, and my awesome husband Bill.

Bill and my childhood friend Jeff putting my Grandmother’s Mezuzah on our door frame and reading a blessing over our house. Bill read in english, Jeff read in Hebrew (more on this later).

My dad pulled some awesome strings and got us 10th row seats behind the Astros dugout for the Astros v Phillies game. It was a surprise for Bill, this is his face when we told him that these were our seats. (more from this later as well)

I am a DIE HARD Astros fan, Bill is a die hard Phillies fan. It is the only area where our house is divided.

We took our ONE youth students to Chuck-E-Cheese for our monthly One Out. This is Sarah and Kristen (youth leaders) riding the monster truck. =awesome!

Another youth leader, Bradley (a seven food ninja) rides a ride.

Typical, I find my husband playing a Star Wars game.

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Bits O’ Weekend ~ two

By Chris | Published April 5, 2010

This was a BUSY weekend for sure. But we had a really good time. Started off with hanging out with my family going to get ice cream at Cold Stone.

Christine is my dad’s girlfriend, she’s here with her daughter Brittany who was in town for easter break (she goes to college!). Bill was almost euphoric about his ice cream flavor, strawberry ice cream with chocolate chips.

I am my father’s daughter, chocolate ice cream with raspberries, usually my absolute favorite, but I ordered before him and forgot about the availablity of raspberries and ended up getting the complete opposite of my husband: dark chocolate ice cream with strawberries. Equally delicious, clearly.

I also picked up a copy of The Houston Press, which I love almost as much as I loved Urban Tulsa when I lived there. I read an article about the plans for the astrodome, pretty sure the whole thing was an april fools joke. Well done though Houston Press, kudos.

Went to Harry Sheppard’s 82nd Birthday Party, thats him in the back ground playing the vibes, which is essentially an electric xylophone. He’s practically amazing, kind of like a grandpa to me. He looks not a day over 65. He’s played with all the greats in jazz.

Welcome to The Hunt, my church Northwood in Spring, Tx put on this giant easter egg hunt/festival/thing. So far the count is 3,500 attendees. The whole thing was put together by church staff and volunteers as appreciation of the community. That day I just looked around in awe and wonder at the mass of people and the quality of human beings that made up the staff of this event. Above is Josh, who was the easter bunny, here he is minus the bunny body.

That would be yours truly, don’t be jealous.

That’s my husband spreading the easter eggs, all 50,000 of them. I got this odd sensation where I wanted to just jump in the piles and roll around. Maybe it was due to those ball play lands, some deep childhood connection? I refrained.

They were very pretty. People went back and spread them out with giant plastic rakes. It was fun to watch. After this I spent the next two hours painting children’s faces. I have no idea what else went on, except for what people have told me, I didn’t look up from children’s faces and the paint the whole time. Crazy, but hecka awesome.

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All Nighters

By Chris | Published March 15, 2010

Pulled my first all nighter in years on friday night with our awesome students at ONE_youth. It was crazy awesome, took some sweet action pics of the kids doing some craziness, including pushing a car, which by far was the best part. Well it tied with ultimate twister and the photo scavenger hunt.

I was mega impressed with Bill’s (my husband’s) photos. He used my DSLR, which he used on full auto, but I was so impressed by the way he took the photos, framing, perspective, etc. I talked to him about it later and he said he learned it all from watching me. Which gave me little girly butterflies, and made me smile from ear to ear. But in all seriousness I think he may have some talent. Add a little technical training in there and I may very well have a second shooter on my hands. =)

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