A Lesson...

What happens when you own a phone for 20 months and use that phone daily? Well, you take photos, you receive e-mails, you text, you make calls...... and... well.... ummmm... apparently you think the memory of said phone is limitless. So you never delete a single solitary thing. 20 months of call logs, text messages, and emails....You never transfer any of the photos or contacts information to the PC. You just wait. And wait. And wait. Until the phone is so full that it locks up. So full that it doesn't even have enough memory space to TURN ON. But no worries. Your wife will happily run all over town seeking repairs. Buying memory cards. Reading FAQ forums and user manuals. And she will save all of the photos. And she will save all of your contacts. And she will get the phone to work again.... as long as you have your can of WD-40 and a spare headset adaptor available so the audio works. No problem...... I don't even know when half these photos were taken. I've never seen them before. But I did save them. I am a hero.

Young Love?

One of These Things

Sing along with me....

One of these things is not like the other.
One of these things just doesn't belong.
Can you guess which thing is not like the other?
Before I finish my song.....

And for the Winners? They shall feast on Cake!

So, when Alek's Cub Scout Pack announced it's annual cake decorating contest and silent auction, my initial reaction was...... well, silence. Then we read over the categories, and along with the subjective ones like "most creative" and "most original," were some cut and dry objective ones like "longest," and.... "tallest." So we discussed how many layers exactly we needed. I said six. Alek said ten. We compromised at eight. Eight layers. And then, rereading the categories and seeing "most patriotic," we got inspired. We'd go for two trophies with one cake. We were brilliant. Eight layers of white cake. A ridiculous amount of homemade buttercream icing, some fondant, and a lot of candy later, we had our cake. Alek had made most of the layers, had helped make the icing, had assembled with me, iced with me, and decorated almost solo. We used a couple of dowel rods for structural support. Yeah.... well.... That icing is heavy. It started to buckle. Lean. We were desperate. Alek and I devised the very elegant structural support you see here. We stabilized it. We entered the cake in the contest. We were informed by David that maybe going for two prizes wasn't in the spirit of the cub scout creed. Hmph.

Well, we won tallest at least!!!! And Alek was PROUD!

The Biker

I love this little clip. It's short and sweet. Walt is on the brink of boyhood. He's saying amazing things and beginning to play with his brother and sister rather than just watch or follow along. And while his forte is still the bigwheel, he's starting to ride this bike more and more. It was Alek's, of course. Here we were at the park one afternoon. He didn't ride much, but he pushed it around quite a bit.

More Firsts

In this first year of preschool for the last little monkey, I'm really enjoying watching all his firsts. Valentine's Day has afforded him two firsts. He had his first homework assignment and took it VERY seriously.

He also got to make and distribute his first Valentine's Day Cards. BIG TIME, PEOPLE!!!!

Random Pics Pulled from the PalmPre

I took 483 photos off my PalmPre last week. Here are a few.....

In Smokey Mountain National Park

Kindergarten Christmas Party
This must be a Wednesday because Nora is in her gymnastics outfit.

Alek on skis coming in from the last run of the day

Before school (I think)

Heading down the mountain at OberGatlinburg.

Some random night

I steal lids every time I go to the movies and use these... ummmm... DAILY. I'm that much of a dork. But... as I understand it.... come on, Jeremy.... fess up. You're using them, too. (Katie.... what are the odds that Jeremy will ever check my blog?)

In the car on the way back from Tennessee.

At the Honda Dealership in... ummm... I forgot, Tennessee. We spent almost four hours there the morning we headed home. Yay! They were determined, but unsuccessful.

Some silly afternoon when he wouldn't stay still.

On Alek's Birthday I took him a california roll, a spider roll, and Kieran joined us.

Dino Home

This was November 19, 2009. Can't imagine why I can remember the date.

Yeah... ummmm... also November 19th. Susan was at the dentist, but Katie and I were VERY giddy.... embarrassingly so.

Costume day at the preschool.

Nora on Hat DayJust before seeing Mary Poppins...

with Anna and Katie!

If you let yourself go with it, his shirt creates a disturbing illusion.

Tennessee High Culture

So one thing you may not know about Gatlinburg, Tennessee is the phenomenal amount of high culture attractions present in the quaint little non-neon night light-resplendent town. Really. From "As Seen on TV" stores to "The Black Bear Revue" (advertised by photos of bears on stools and women in can-can dresses) to an upside down building to 57 miniature golf establishments to the plethora of Ripley's attractions, the place is magnificent. My children's horizons have so been broadened. One afternoon we took in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum and the Ripley's Wax Museum. I think it was honestly the highlight for Nora. She was CLUELESS as to who all these people were. She didn't care. She didn't even ask. But people.... this sampling represents only about a THIRD of the photos she demanded I take. Alek and Walt posed largely, I think, because her enthusiasm was so pronounced. Alek, at least, knew who some of the characters were. Forrest Gump is actually one of his favorite movies. And look at them all. The last is my favorite. But I wish I'd had some ears to put on him.

Awesome.

Camera Hijacking

So, a few weeks ago these photos (along with about a dozen nearly identical ones) mysteriously appeared on my camera. Maybe he wasn't caught red-handed, but I still think the culprit is rather obvious.