Day 106

Carmen loved to watch the pizzas being made at Costco. She knew they didn't offer anchovies, though, so this time she'd brought her own.

Day 105

"No, dear, I'm sorry. I won't make it home for dinner. This last hole is going to take me a while."

Day 104

It wasn't at all unusual for Martin to spend his whole night web chatting.

Day 103

Courtney and Erica had heard that the park was a great place to meet a fun guy, but

they hadn't found one yet.

Day 102

Brooke didn't know what tests the doctor had in mind, but that light was awfully bright, and those instruments sure didn't look like instruments of fun.

Day 101

Drake had finally managed to trap the giant lizard, but after falling into the trap himself, he knew that only one of them would leave alive...







We find geckos like this in the house on a semi-regular basis. This little guy fell into a can that we had stored up on a shelf & couldn't get out, and just about gave me a heart attack when I got the can down. After I took the photo, Drew took the can to the front yard and set it down on its side. It's true that only one of them was alive and able to escape, and it wasn't Drake! I can honestly say that no gecko was injured in the making of this picture.

Nope, not dead...

I've received several emails asking about the blog, and my lack of posts this past week. Rather than answer each one of them individually (which I would love to be able to do, really!) I'll try to explain here.

The car crash I was involved in was over a month ago. Since then, thanks to three-times-weekly doctor appointments & adjustments, my neck, lower back, and ankle are well on the way to recovery, and feeling pretty good--right on schedule. I'm really pleased with how well it's going in that department.

My wrists, unfortunately, are a different story. I sprained both of them badly, but had hoped that it would be a 2- to 4-week recovery. In two days it will be five weeks, and instead of getting better, if anything they are worse. The swelling is gone and I have more mobility, but both are still pretty painful. I'm still wearing splints on both arms, and am not supposed to type, drive, or really do much of anything else with them. Jeff is doing a TON of work being both dad and mom, and the older kids have really pitched in, but there isn't really any day where I can just give them a rest; even if I magically didn't have to do anything for anyone else, I still have to brush my teeth, take a shower, wash my hair, eat, etc. (Well, I guess I don't HAVE to shower or wash my hair, but the alternative isn't pretty!)

I used to take anywhere from 25-200 pictures every day. Now, it's hard to hold the camera, and using the buttons & controls is difficult, so I've pretty much stopped. I have to balance how much I want the shot with how long it's going to hurt if I use the camera, and my kids and my LEGOs are the only subjects that are really worth the effort. Since I can't type, I have to use Dragon and Windows Speech Recognition to do everything on the computer, and while I am very grateful to have those options to give my hands a rest, it's much more time-consuming than typing 60-70wpm. (And I did actually time myself at that a while back. Makes me want to go visit my high school typing teacher! I was doing awesome if I hit 25 or 30 back then.) A simple email to one of my professors to ask about a grade takes about fifteen minutes.

And there is the other problem: my school. I have four classes, three of which are online. The quizzes, labs, and papers that normally take me 2-4 hours now take 10 to 12, if I don't have any big assignments. Between that and my family, most nights I fall asleep on the couch with my computer in my lap and a textbook next to me. It's kind of funny to wake up, look at the quiz or Word document on the screen, and have absolutely no memory of answering those last four or five questions!

I'm still taking my pictures. Right now, at this very moment, are six brand-new LEGO shots just waiting to get off my camera and onto my computer. I'm going to start working on them tonight, right after I submit a paper for my phys ed course that's due at 11:55pm tonight (so, in 35 minutes. But I'm almost done with it.). My hope is to get all of them up tonight and be back on schedule, but I don't know if I'll be able to before I crash. (Note to self: must find a better word than 'crash,' since that's what started this whole problem in the first place.) In any case, I'm still here, and I feel terrible that I've not been able to keep up with getting pictures posted. Yes, I'm taking them every day, but it's not quite the same if they stay on the camera.

My doctor is sending me in for an MRI and further tests to see if we can figure out why my wrists aren't recovering. With any luck, we can pinpoint a cause and thus begin to work on the solution. My immense thanks go out to all of you for sticking around.

Day 100

WOO HOO! The century mark! I've still got 265 to go, and wow that sounds like a lot all of a sudden, but hey, I'm excited anyway!

Try as she might, Veronica's "Flight of the Bumblebee" always sounded more like "Crawl of the Sleepy Caterpillar."

Day 99

***WARNING: This post contains nudity and may offend sensitive eyes! Might not be safe for children.***

Last Tuesday, our family went to the State Fair of Texas. On Saturday Oct. 9, we visited again, and this fountain on the grounds of the fair is the scene of Saturday's LEGO photo:

(Here's where you might want to send the kids out of the room.)

Aaron wasn't exactly thrilled about using the public showers, but after a long day at the fair, a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.

Day 98

To say that Winston's mother was overprotective might be a bit of an understatement.

Day 97

Jimmy had never liked his wife's hats, and he and Jack were quite pleased with themselves for finding an alternate use for the darn things.

Day 96

Unlike his buddy Joel, Paul couldn't have been happier with the state of the roads near his house.

Day 95

Big Tex, meet Little Tex.

Day 94

They'd found the perfect wrought-iron framework for a doorway. Now to break ground for construction of the rest of the building...

Day 93

Like all responsible dog owners, Molly carried a plastic bag every time she took Scruffy for a walk. It did make things difficult on windy days, though.

Day 92

It wasn't hard to see that Smitty was suffering from a severe case of torch envy.

Day 91

Like every native Texan boy, Tyler dreamed of playing under the Friday night lights.

Day 90

As Joel sat and waited for the tow truck, he vowed to bring attention to the city's pothole problem.

Day 89

Getting home after a long day, when everything had gone wrong, George was always glad to climb up to his favorite spot in the tree in his yard. There, at least, all was right was the world and he could relax without worrying about his troubles sneaking up on him.

Day 88

Kendra, Aspen, and Lily had all thoroughly enjoyed the evening social. Hors d'oeuvres, tea, and two hours spent discussing fall fashion--what's not to like?

Day 87

Officer Bill's accuracy ratings had gone way up since the introduction of the new shooting range.

Day 86

Mary Lou had never seen such carnage in her life. She tried to scream, but no sound came out.

Day 85

Bobby was starting to think that maybe he should reschedule his first solo dive.

Day 84

It was late at night, and Indy just about given up, when he stumbled into a clearing--and there it was: the Fiery Fountain of Youth.

Day 83

Joe had been so sure that if he were a cool biker dude, he could get chicks. He had the jacket, he had the helmet, he had the glasses, and now he even had the bike; somehow, he still wasn't getting the results he'd expected.

Day 82

So far, Biff was unimpressed with the surfing conditions in North Texas.

Day 81

They were celebrating 10 happy years together, proving that it was indeed possible for two people from warring factions to live in peace and hominy.

(And yes, it's a corny joke. :p)

Day 80

They don't call it a "tall" for nothing.

Day 79

Clone Troopers don't mess around when it comes to pumpkin-carving.

Day 78

...and he was known from that night forward as Sir Jonathan, Slayer of Dragons.







I am always telling my kids that if you have to explain a joke, it isn't very funny. Breaking my own cardinal rule, here's the explanation for today's photo:

I went to the Plano Balloon Fest on Saturday night to see the Balloon Glow with two of my girls. When all the balloons had their burners on, there was plenty of light for pictures, and my plan was to stick a little man in fthe foreground of the balloons, unfocused, and I'd figure out a caption on my way home later. I held him in front of the lens with one hand and just started shooting. This was the original photo that I thought I'd use:

The balloons looked nice, but I didn't have a clue at the time what I'd caption it with. I figured that was the best shot I'd get, though. Not long after that, this balloon finally lit up:

The balloon glow lasted for another 25 mintues or so. Towards the end, the dragon balloon was the first one deflated by its crew. By the time it started to fall, we'd walked around to the other side, and we watched it slowly sink to the ground. As it went down, one arm fell over its chest, like a dramatic cry of "Help! I've been shot!" It cracked me up and reminded me that I had a new LEGO crossbow, so I tried to get a couple of pictures, but it was too dark to see. At the very last minute, just before the dragon was completely flat, the all-white balloon next to it lit up its burner, and I got my shot. :) It's full of noise, and I probably could have blurred it or smoothed it, but I like it better this way.

Day 77

Little JJ couldn't believe it--this had to be the best birthday cake EVER. He was a little disappointed that his dad wouldn't let him use the sword to cut it, though.







If you'll refer back to my first blog post and my "Not a professional here!", the background on this one could still use some work, but it would probably take me another hour or two (that I already don't have ;] ). I used scrapbooking paper for the background and used PSE to paint a grass texture and try to bring back the shadows. Not perfect at all, but not bad for somebody who's not supposed to be using their hands. :)

Day 76

At that moment, Indy realized that a tuna sandwich for lunch had been possibly not the best idea...

Day 75

Alan was disappointed to find out that on the outside, Cowboys stadium was much smaller than he'd originally thought. He figured it would have been at least a few inches taller than he was.

Day 74

Mary had always wanted to sleep on a bed of rose petals, and she'd finally found her chance.

Day 73

The girls had been intimidated at first, but as it turns out, all Carnie really wanted was a recommendation for a good place to get a mani-pedi.

Day 72

Everyone knew what was coming when Captain Bart was in a foul mood: they'd have to scrub the poop deck for hours.

Day 71

Eve had arrived at the Target KOA with plenty of daylight left, so she put up her tent and set off to explore the wilderness.

Day 70

Barry spent a lot of time at the library, where he was known for being a history buff.

Day 69

Everyone knew that the Millers' hot tub was the happenin' place to be.

Day 68

Some days, there's nothing you can do but drown your sorrows in ice cream.

Another delay; my sincere apologies.

I wasn't going to mention this on my blog, but I realized that if a football game is reason enough to post, then this should certainly qualify.

I did take a picture yesterday, and I will figure out a way to take one today as well, but it may be a couple of days before I have time to sit down and get them off the camera for editing and posting. Three of the kids and I were involved in a car crash yesterday, and while none of us have any serious injuries, there is enough, well, just STUFF to deal with that I am rattled and still not altogether connected with my brain.

My van may be totaled; we don't know yet for sure. Like I said, the four of us are mostly OK and I don't think we'll have any long-term physical damage. If you're of the religious or spiritual persuasion, though, the only thing I might ask is that if you remember or would be inclined, say a prayer for the other driver. She was injured and taken to the hospital; I don't know yet if I'll be able to find out anything more, since I don't know her name.

We're OK, really. I'll be taking the pictures on the right days, I'm just not with it enough to post them yet. Hard to have a sense of humor and think of funny things and make people smile, but I'm working on it.

Day 67

Tyffany-Amber Jo's greatest ambition in life was to appear on the "People of Wal-Mart" front page.

Day 66

Tony wasn't entirely sure that a Squirrel Mafia existed, but by golly, if it did, this was by far the best way to infiltrate it. He was always up for an adventure, so why not?

Day 65

Aaron knew he really hadn't grown a bit since his last checkup, but he fervently hoped the doctor wouldn't notice that he was standing on his toes.

Day 64

Troy didn't understand what kind of battle was going on between the little blue people and the little red people, but he was very quickly learning their language.

A posting delay...for a good reason (I hope!)

I am headed to the new Cowboys Stadium for a football game!

I originally had pretty mixed feelings about this; as much as I am a football fan, I also loathe Jerry Jones with the fire of a thousand suns and despise the fact that he was able to convince local government and taxpayers to finance a great and spacious building that only adds to his immense fortune. That man has hubris like few others.

On the other hand, BYU is playing here tonight, and THAT is a team I would go watch almost anywhere. So my loyalty to the Cougars outweighs my despisination (yes, that is a word, I made it up myself) of the egotistical Jerry Jones.

Why am I posting this here?

Because there will be opportunities galore for a LEGO pic, and because it also means that I will almost certainly not get to post my photo tonight. If we are at the game and stuck in parking-lot traffic long enough, like maybe til midnight, I might even get to take two before I get home! Either way, it might be as late as Sunday afternoon before I can get online again. (For those of you who aren't aware, our church is from 11 to 2pm, and Jeff is gone every Sun. morning for meetings. That means I'm scrambling to get all six kids, plus me, ready to leave the house by 10:15--and that means very little time to get on the computer!)

In any case, have a great Labor Day weekend if you're in the US! (And a great regular weekend, if you're not. :p)

Day 63

Christy's firm stance that there was no Higher Power was about to be unequivocally shaken.

Day 62

Herc had finally found what he determined to be the ultimate hiding place for Hide and Seek.

Day 61

His spidey-senses tingling, Peter was halfway up the building before he remembered that he wasn't wearing his costume.

Day 60

Stephani had heard that if she held her hands against the glass long enough, her hair would rise and stand on end. So far, she was unimpressed with the results.




A plasma ball will not make your hair stand on end, as you will know if you've ever touched one. Unfortunately, I don't have a Van de Graaff generator laying around the house, so a plasma ball will have to do!