It's hard to believe but it's true. September is over in a little over two hours. This year, in retrospect, is flying by. Joy and I were just talking the other day about how, when we were kids, Christmas just couldn't come soon enough. Nowadays, it comes entirely too fast. Wow. Only 86 days until the big day. Not nearly enough time to do all of the Christmas shopping we need to do.
Moving on from Christmas as a topic, yet again. Tonight I helped Molly start her own blog here on blogger. It's a private blog so only Joy, mom, Michelle, and me will be able to view it. She was asking me to sign her up after I sent her the invitation to read this blog. She'll probably have a little fun with it but, it's probably more of a novelty to her.
Anyway, gotta stop writing here and read our devotions for the night.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Black and White
This is a photograph I took a few weeks ago that I would really love to have enlarged to 18X30 or something similar. The only thing I worry about is quality and the price. It can be pricey, in my opinion, and I have no idea what the quality will be. Oh well. There's a first time for everything.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Another Post
Yes, another post. I just put Sophie in her crib for the night. She is already asleep; no crying. Right before that, I was helping Caleb make up the earliest draft of his Christmas wishlist. Actually, he wrote it down himself last night. Tonight, he asked me to type it up for him. As of right now, it consists solely of Mega Bloks Halo Wars building sets.
Is it too early to make a Christmas list? Not if you're a kid. I don't remember how the narrator said it in "A Christmas Story" but, he summed it up perfectly for me. For me, Christmas is still the pinnacle of the whole year. Sure, there's summer and birthdays and stuff like that but, come on. Christmas is the day. I think it's awesome that Molly and Caleb love Christmas as much as Joy and I do. I know that right now, their love of the holiday is mostly driven by "stuff" as it used to be for me. Now, I just enjoy watching their eyes light up when Christmas is just around the corner.
Soon, we'll be putting up our advent construction paper rings that we enjoyed cutting down last year. In honor of that, I went over to the Wolfram|Alpha website and plugged in December 25th, 2009. According to that site, there are 88 days until Christmas. Seems like a lot, but it's really not. Here's a link to the Wolfram|Alpha site that has the info.
Merry Christmas (too) early!
Is it too early to make a Christmas list? Not if you're a kid. I don't remember how the narrator said it in "A Christmas Story" but, he summed it up perfectly for me. For me, Christmas is still the pinnacle of the whole year. Sure, there's summer and birthdays and stuff like that but, come on. Christmas is the day. I think it's awesome that Molly and Caleb love Christmas as much as Joy and I do. I know that right now, their love of the holiday is mostly driven by "stuff" as it used to be for me. Now, I just enjoy watching their eyes light up when Christmas is just around the corner.
Soon, we'll be putting up our advent construction paper rings that we enjoyed cutting down last year. In honor of that, I went over to the Wolfram|Alpha website and plugged in December 25th, 2009. According to that site, there are 88 days until Christmas. Seems like a lot, but it's really not. Here's a link to the Wolfram|Alpha site that has the info.
Merry Christmas (too) early!
It's starting to feel more and more like fall. Maybe not so much today since it got close to 84 or something like that but, this morning I actually used the heater. According to the weather channel site, it was 59 degrees at 5:15am. Tomorrow the low is supposed to be 54. Why am I wasting so much time with this?
Anyway, I just dropped Molly off for her ballet class. Right when I pulled into the parking lot here at home, I realized that she left her water in my car. Oh well. At least it's not really hot today.
Today when Caleb got home from school, I read a book about salmon with him. He is such an excellent reader. Joy and I are very proud of him. And Molly, of course. Oh, and Sophie, of course.
Well, I really hope I can keep this up. I think my posts may be more boring than they used to be (in my opinion) but they may be more frequent. I want to communicate that sense of day to day life that we all tend to forget about as time goes by. We start to forget the little things unless they are associated with bigger, more memorable events.
At any rate, I'm going to at least try.
Anyway, I just dropped Molly off for her ballet class. Right when I pulled into the parking lot here at home, I realized that she left her water in my car. Oh well. At least it's not really hot today.
Today when Caleb got home from school, I read a book about salmon with him. He is such an excellent reader. Joy and I are very proud of him. And Molly, of course. Oh, and Sophie, of course.
Well, I really hope I can keep this up. I think my posts may be more boring than they used to be (in my opinion) but they may be more frequent. I want to communicate that sense of day to day life that we all tend to forget about as time goes by. We start to forget the little things unless they are associated with bigger, more memorable events.
At any rate, I'm going to at least try.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Tonight
Sophie's asleep now. She's getting much better at lying down and going to sleep in her crib. Tonight, she didn't even cry at all. Such a good baby. I guess I should mention that she is now really getting her top two teeth in. Oh, and she is pulling herself up to a standing position. And, when she doesn't realize it, she will stand without holding onto or leaning on anything.
I've decided to note this because I went through some of my older entries and read some stuff that the kids have said or done that, if I had not written here, I would never have remembered it. In particular, today I was reading a post from about four years ago where Molly was playing and chanting "906 O.K.I.R". I just barely remember that.
Anyway, I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going to "privatize" this blog. I know I've toyed with the idea before but I'm pretty sure this time. I really want to be able to use this as a regular journal.
Well, I have to go now. Gotta help Molly study for her "5's" multiplication test. Zero through twelve is what it covers, I believe.
Bye!
Thanks for the memories... I think.
I've decided to note this because I went through some of my older entries and read some stuff that the kids have said or done that, if I had not written here, I would never have remembered it. In particular, today I was reading a post from about four years ago where Molly was playing and chanting "906 O.K.I.R". I just barely remember that.
Anyway, I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going to "privatize" this blog. I know I've toyed with the idea before but I'm pretty sure this time. I really want to be able to use this as a regular journal.
Well, I have to go now. Gotta help Molly study for her "5's" multiplication test. Zero through twelve is what it covers, I believe.
Bye!
Thanks for the memories... I think.
What to Say
As always, I've wondered: what is the real purpose of this blog? If it's a journal, then it's obviously not a very private one based on what I've written here. If it's a place for me to link to other sites/stories then, I obviously am not doing that. Maybe I haven't closed it for old times' sake. Maybe I just want to see how long Google will keep Blogger around.
Maybe I just felt like posting something today with no real reason.
Maybe I just felt like posting something today with no real reason.
Monday, August 10, 2009
For Real?
Yesterday, we went to Best Buy during the "Tax-Free" weekend. In my opinion, the tax-free draw is just a bunch of hype. Why don't we have an "Income Tax Free" paycheck? I think that would go a lot further for everybody. But, I digress.
As we were wandering around Best Buy, we stopped by the Rock Band 2 setup for the Xbox 360. Molly and Caleb were playing through "Livin' On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi when we noticed that the game was on sale for $99. Personally, I've had a lot of fun playing Rock Band but I never felt like it had reached a good price point for me. Well, that changed this weekend.
So, while Caleb was sitting on the stool in front of the drum pads, I pulled the box off of the shelf behind him and announced to him and Molly that I was going to buy it. "For real?" he asked excitedly. "Yes," I replied. Then, he cocked his head to one side and gave me his best "I don't believe you" look and said, matter of factly, "For real." Again, I told him we were buying it. Even after the Rock Band 2 box was in the back of the van and we were pulling out of the parking space, Caleb asked again, "Are we really getting it?" It was hilarious. I guess he was half expecting me to say "Just kidding!" and walk back into the store and get my money back.
Anyway, Joy and I thought it was particularly funny that he just couldn't believe we were getting something like that.
Well, I have to go and keep an eye on Sophie.
Goodnight!
As we were wandering around Best Buy, we stopped by the Rock Band 2 setup for the Xbox 360. Molly and Caleb were playing through "Livin' On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi when we noticed that the game was on sale for $99. Personally, I've had a lot of fun playing Rock Band but I never felt like it had reached a good price point for me. Well, that changed this weekend.
So, while Caleb was sitting on the stool in front of the drum pads, I pulled the box off of the shelf behind him and announced to him and Molly that I was going to buy it. "For real?" he asked excitedly. "Yes," I replied. Then, he cocked his head to one side and gave me his best "I don't believe you" look and said, matter of factly, "For real." Again, I told him we were buying it. Even after the Rock Band 2 box was in the back of the van and we were pulling out of the parking space, Caleb asked again, "Are we really getting it?" It was hilarious. I guess he was half expecting me to say "Just kidding!" and walk back into the store and get my money back.
Anyway, Joy and I thought it was particularly funny that he just couldn't believe we were getting something like that.
Well, I have to go and keep an eye on Sophie.
Goodnight!
Monday, July 20, 2009
James River at Dusk
Took this picture at sunset on the James River. I used Lightroom to process this one (as I did for all of the ones that I shot that same night). Lightroom is surprisingly fast even for my three year old Dell Laptop.
Garbage
Why do people litter? More specifically, why do people litter in what could best be described as their front yard? I guess living in an apartment has its disadvantages: some of the children have no respect for personal property. Or where the nearest giant dumpster happens to be.
Growing up, I was always taught NOT to be a litterbug. So it's no small wonder that if I decide to eat food from Wendy's at 1am in my car at my apartment, I'll most likely throw the trash in an appropriate container. Not so for many of our neighbors. Perhaps there simply aren't that many people here that have any aspirations to ever own anything other than their car. So, maybe they have no concept of what it's like to go out into their own front yard and pick up the trash that some hobo-esque moron tossed out.
Well, that's all. Got to go to the library for no associated reason.
Growing up, I was always taught NOT to be a litterbug. So it's no small wonder that if I decide to eat food from Wendy's at 1am in my car at my apartment, I'll most likely throw the trash in an appropriate container. Not so for many of our neighbors. Perhaps there simply aren't that many people here that have any aspirations to ever own anything other than their car. So, maybe they have no concept of what it's like to go out into their own front yard and pick up the trash that some hobo-esque moron tossed out.
Well, that's all. Got to go to the library for no associated reason.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
SPCA = Sick Pets you Can Adopt
Yes, I know that acronym was a stretch. But seriously, why was my wife able to adopt a cat that supposedly only had "kennel cough" when, three days later the vet was prescribing an antibiotic? The cat is super nice and loves being around people. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure she's miserable. Her nose is very runny and both of her eyes are all clogged up. Hopefully she'll get better.
Hang in there, Zoey.
Hang in there, Zoey.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Lion At Dusk
Another shot I took last night at Lions Bridge. I used to Lightroom to decrease the sharpness and also messed with the lighting and shadows.
DSC_0121
We went over to the Lions Bridge last night so I could have some more practice with my D60. I got a little experience with Lightroom when I went to process.
Anyway, this is Sophie giving us a big cheesy grin.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Donations, Anyone?
What are the legal implications of getting donations on a website? If I set up a website call, simply, donatetomyvacation.com and I make it clear that the donations will not be going to any charity, what happens? Is it illegal to ask for donations if it's just for personal use? Is it taxable?
I've always wondered about these things...
I've always wondered about these things...
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Been a While
I guess I really haven't posted anything in quite a while. It's not as if I have anything particularly important or monumental to say right now (or ever) but every once in a while, I get the urge to post something on my all-but-forgotten blog.
Like I've stated before, this blog is more of a journal of sorts. I don't treat this as the only journal of events that I ever keep since I have no idea if someday Google will simply pull the plug on Blogger. Who knows?
I guess the same goes for Flickr. I really do use Flickr as my photo archive. I mean I keep a local copy and a local back up copy of my pictures but I don't take time to sort them. The only sorting they get at home is by the upload date. On Flickr, I take the time to tag them, put them in sets and collections, etc. But what would I do if Yahoo suddenly pulled the plug on Flickr? I guess I'd just be perturbed. Well, I'll enjoy it and use it while I can I suppose.
Anyway, today is Father's Day. I have had the honor of being raised by two awesome parents. I have never had to wonder whether or not my parents loved me and had my best interest in mind. I have always felt that my Dad and my Mom are proud of me. God has really given me an excellent example of what it means to lovingly raise a child.
The reason I made my Father's Day statements about both my Mom and my Dad is because I don't think I ever posted anything about Mother's Day on my blog. It was mainly due to laziness. It's not as if I was posting everyday in May except Mother's day. Still, I would have felt a little dirty leaving my Mom out in the cold. Happy Belated Mother's Day, Mom! Happy Father's Day, Dad!
On a more journal-esque note, Sophie's first tooth (or teeth, it's hard to tell right now) is coming in. Recently, she has been a little fussy for no apparent reason. Yesterday I did the routine "check the bottom gums for teeth" inspection and, much to my surprise, I could feel a little tooth coming in. It's possible I'm feeling two teeth but I can't be certain. Joy and I have tried to simply look by opening Sophie's mouth but she always moves her tongue to just the right spot so that we cannot see her bottom gum (is it 'gum' or 'gums' when I'm only referring to the bottom row?). Anyway, it's a neat little milestone for any baby.
A funny side note: as I type this, I am really starting to believe that the running spell checker in blogger is actually intended for British English, not American English. Whenever I've spelled words like neighbor, color, etc., I would always get the little read dotted line underneath the words indicating that they are spelled incorrectly. However, when I change their spelling to the British English (neighbour, colour) the little red line goes away.
This morning however as I was writing my little paragraph on my parents, I noticed the little red dotted line under the word Mom. I thought, "That's odd. I'm pretty sure that's how 'mom' is spelled." So I decided to change it to "mum". Doing so eliminated the red line. Strange isn't it? (Spoken with a fake British accent.)
Well, I've got to get the kids up for church. Joy will probably be staying home with Sophie since Sophie's been running a low fever.
Happy Father's Day 2009!
Like I've stated before, this blog is more of a journal of sorts. I don't treat this as the only journal of events that I ever keep since I have no idea if someday Google will simply pull the plug on Blogger. Who knows?
I guess the same goes for Flickr. I really do use Flickr as my photo archive. I mean I keep a local copy and a local back up copy of my pictures but I don't take time to sort them. The only sorting they get at home is by the upload date. On Flickr, I take the time to tag them, put them in sets and collections, etc. But what would I do if Yahoo suddenly pulled the plug on Flickr? I guess I'd just be perturbed. Well, I'll enjoy it and use it while I can I suppose.
Anyway, today is Father's Day. I have had the honor of being raised by two awesome parents. I have never had to wonder whether or not my parents loved me and had my best interest in mind. I have always felt that my Dad and my Mom are proud of me. God has really given me an excellent example of what it means to lovingly raise a child.
The reason I made my Father's Day statements about both my Mom and my Dad is because I don't think I ever posted anything about Mother's Day on my blog. It was mainly due to laziness. It's not as if I was posting everyday in May except Mother's day. Still, I would have felt a little dirty leaving my Mom out in the cold. Happy Belated Mother's Day, Mom! Happy Father's Day, Dad!
On a more journal-esque note, Sophie's first tooth (or teeth, it's hard to tell right now) is coming in. Recently, she has been a little fussy for no apparent reason. Yesterday I did the routine "check the bottom gums for teeth" inspection and, much to my surprise, I could feel a little tooth coming in. It's possible I'm feeling two teeth but I can't be certain. Joy and I have tried to simply look by opening Sophie's mouth but she always moves her tongue to just the right spot so that we cannot see her bottom gum (is it 'gum' or 'gums' when I'm only referring to the bottom row?). Anyway, it's a neat little milestone for any baby.
A funny side note: as I type this, I am really starting to believe that the running spell checker in blogger is actually intended for British English, not American English. Whenever I've spelled words like neighbor, color, etc., I would always get the little read dotted line underneath the words indicating that they are spelled incorrectly. However, when I change their spelling to the British English (neighbour, colour) the little red line goes away.
This morning however as I was writing my little paragraph on my parents, I noticed the little red dotted line under the word Mom. I thought, "That's odd. I'm pretty sure that's how 'mom' is spelled." So I decided to change it to "mum". Doing so eliminated the red line. Strange isn't it? (Spoken with a fake British accent.)
Well, I've got to get the kids up for church. Joy will probably be staying home with Sophie since Sophie's been running a low fever.
Happy Father's Day 2009!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Reminiscing
I was thinking today that it's been about a year ago today that our house was about to sell. I don't recall the exact date that someone put a contract on it but I do know that we closed on June 13th. We must be pretty close to the year anniversary by now.
I'm just amazed at how fast time goes by. I'm also amazed by how awesome God is. He worked out something that I was really afraid would not work out. By now I should know to trust him and not worry.
The main reason I was writing today was because I was going through some pictures on my flickr site that didn't have tags and I ran across some that I took of our yard sale last year. I remember it being really hot last year when we moved. Miserably hot.
It's kind of bittersweet looking at those pictures of our house. On the one hand, I'm super happy that we were able to sell our house and move when we really needed to. On the other hand, I really miss our house. These apartments are great but I really do miss our house.
Who knows what the future holds? So many things in my life I've wished could've worked out differently only to see later that if I had gotten my way, things would probably have been a disaster. Again, I'm glad God's in control, not me.
Well, today is Mother's Day. I hope all you mothers out there have an awesome day. We got to spend a lot of time with Mom and Dad yesterday which was great. They are truly fun people to be around.
I'll post more later. Right now, Sophie is in my lap and it is very difficult to type.
Later!
I'm just amazed at how fast time goes by. I'm also amazed by how awesome God is. He worked out something that I was really afraid would not work out. By now I should know to trust him and not worry.
The main reason I was writing today was because I was going through some pictures on my flickr site that didn't have tags and I ran across some that I took of our yard sale last year. I remember it being really hot last year when we moved. Miserably hot.
It's kind of bittersweet looking at those pictures of our house. On the one hand, I'm super happy that we were able to sell our house and move when we really needed to. On the other hand, I really miss our house. These apartments are great but I really do miss our house.
Who knows what the future holds? So many things in my life I've wished could've worked out differently only to see later that if I had gotten my way, things would probably have been a disaster. Again, I'm glad God's in control, not me.
Well, today is Mother's Day. I hope all you mothers out there have an awesome day. We got to spend a lot of time with Mom and Dad yesterday which was great. They are truly fun people to be around.
I'll post more later. Right now, Sophie is in my lap and it is very difficult to type.
Later!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Just a Test
I'm just testing how photobucket might work out for me. I'll only be using it for ebay stuff so I'm just trying to find out how it's going to work. I could use flickr for that but I'm really not supposed to. They could technically delete my account if I got caught using flickr for selling stuff.
Anyway, here's the test.
I guess I'll work on how to get a slightly smaller image size.
Oh well!
Anyway, here's the test.
I guess I'll work on how to get a slightly smaller image size.
Oh well!
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Just a Picture From Disney World
Just thought I should post a picture of us from our trip to Disney World. We had this picture taken by one of the Disney "cast members" as we were making our way deeper into the belly of the Magic Kingdom. I kind of wish the sky wasn't so washed out in this picture but, overall, I'm happy with it.
The Disney Journal That Never Was
While we were staying at Disney, I decided to write down what we did for a couple of days. I almost made an effort to post this while on vacation but, I just was unwilling this time to pay for the internet connection at the hotel.
Anyway, here's what I typed up while sitting in our All Star Movies Hotel room.
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009, Disney World Day Four
We spent our day yesterday at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park and had a great day. About half way through the day, we decided to come back to the hotel room so the kids could play in the pool and we could get some laundry done.
Anyway, at the park we rode the Tower of Terror, Star Tours, and the Great Movie Ride. We were able to get Caleb to ride the Tower of Terror and he liked it. He even rode it again with Joy when she was doing the “ride swap” with me. Later, he told me that he took the Tower of Terror off of his “favorites list”. I didn't even know he had a list going!
In the evening we rode Star Tours and, once again, Caleb started to get upset and say that didn't want to ride it just before we were actually boarding the ride. I felt like a mean dad making my son ride and strap in while he was fighting back tears.
Riding the Great Movie Ride was an experience. One that we may not have to repeat again. There was nothing really bad about the ride, it's just that it's kind of... boring. I mean the environments that you ride through look very nice but I'm afraid some of the older movies are beginning to go over the heads of some of the younger visitors to Disney World. I'm not saying they need to update the ride but maybe a little “enhancement” wouldn't hurt. They've obviously already “enhanced” the movie that you watch while waiting in line. It now includes scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Our plan for today was to go back to Hollywood Studios but since there is a greater chance for rain later this week, we have decided to go to the Magic Kingdom today. The Saturday visit to the Magic Kingdom was just a quick visit. This time I think we'll try to hang out a little more.
I'm personally looking forward to tomorrow when we go to the Animal Kingdom which is my favorite park.
Well, it's about 10:00am and we are getting ready to head downstairs to have a little breakfast. Can't wait to blow some more cash on eating. Ha ha.
More updates later.
Yesterday, we spent the day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. We really enjoyed ourselves. Although, I really forgot just how big the park is. In other words, there is whole lot of walking involved.
Our first ride of the day was Kilamanjaro Safaris which is basically a cool zoo tour with a little bit of a story about poachers involved. Excellent ride. Two years ago when we came, we loved it and it is still a very cool experience to ride in an open air vehicle right beside animals like giraffes and other African animals.
After the safari ride, we made our way over to the Bug's Life 4-D show, “It's Tough to be a Bug”. It was pretty fun but I got a little ripped off. I mean the only “4-D” experience about it was when I was sprayed with water and some short air blasts. There's a scene where a stinkbug comes out and sprays the audience but I didn't see what the big deal was; I didn't even smell anything. Does that say something about me? I don't think so. I just think the seat I had was a little messed up. At the end of the show, your seat is supposed to buzz or vibrate so as to simulate lots of bugs crawling under you but, I didn't feel anything. I mean, I heard lots of other people laughing and screaming but I felt nothing. Joy said she felt it, too. Oh well.
After the Bug's Life thing, we headed over to the Asia area of the park to ride Expedition Everest. We did the “rider swap” deal so Joy could ride after I rode with the kids. I have to mention that waiting in line for Everest and the safari ride was pretty cool. They have so much presumably authentic stuff to look at while you're waiting that the wait goes by really fast. It's almost like visiting a mini exhibit.
Anyway, while we were waiting an announcement came over that the ride might close if the thunderstorm that was looming in the distance hit us. Fortunately for us, they didn't close the ride before we got on. Unfortunately for us, it started to rain as we rode. It didn't just feel like rain though. I'm not sure how fast the roller coaster goes but I do know that it felt like little pebbles shooting me in the face. It stung. After we rode, they closed the ride. After about an hour or so, Joy was able to ride.
After all this, we went to the Dinorama area and rode a triceratops ride. The Dinorama area is like a carnival area with all the typical games and short rides. After that little ride, we ended up going on the Pangani Forest walk and then Camp Minnie Mickey.
The forest walk was very cool. There was a little viewing area connected to the pool where the hippos are. We came in at just the right time to see a hippo swim right by the window. Twice. I was able to get two pictures of its rear end. Oh well.
No, we didn't do too much at the Animal Kingdom. But it was still very cool. In my opinion, the Animal Kingdom is more of an atmospheric experience. So, with that said, I guess it is an actual “theme” park.
Today, Thursday, April 2nd, is our last full day. Right now, I have some clothes in the laundry room. After we eat breakfast and get our clothes, we're probably going to go to Downtown Disney and possibly the Magic Kingdom.
Hopefully, I'll update later. Probably after we return home.
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