I’ve decided that I need to get on the ball and get our pictures to Grandpa for the calendar.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
More Lia videos
Curse you shiny glare! A decent part of the days leading up to the wedding were spent looking for a good, fair-sized monitor for showcasing our daughter and son-in-law in slides. We ended up using our old television (I think Urg carved it out of granite right after he finished his prototype for the wheel; feels like it, anyway). After we got it set up it was clear that it wasn’t clear; everything was obscured by the reflection of the beautiful flowers in the garden. It’s hard to curse the flowers so I’ll curse the light. Anyway, I’ve included the slideshows below for your entertainment.
Kyle and Lia from birth to ‘tween years
Kyle and Lia from their ‘tween years to couple-hood.
And a bonus clip just for fun.
Kyle and Lia from birth to ‘tween years
Kyle and Lia from their ‘tween years to couple-hood.
And a bonus clip just for fun.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Engagement photos
As you can guess, things have been a bit crazy around here lately. Right now, my eyes are spinning counter-clockwise while Judy’s are spinning clockwise, which means that we can still look deeply into each other’s correspondingly spinny eyes and say: “Why did we have kids?”
But as I was looking back through our family pictures to harvest photos for Lia’s slideshow, I remembered. And for those of you who can’t be there, or who want a sneak peak, here is one that I put together from the engagement photos that Rob took (isn’t he great?).
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The secret life of rocks
Last summer we finally made some changes at our house. As you probably have observed (as I’m sure our neighbors have), I don’t really enjoy yard work. It’s not that I don’t like being outside or that I don’t particularly like physical labor (okay, maybe that has something to do with it), it has more to do with inertia and the fear of getting into a project and ending up over my head. I’ve found that if I start thinking my way through the steps that it doesn’t seem so bad and I might, but by then I’ve thought myself into a nap (and that feels so much nicer and I don’t need a shower afterward).
Anyway, Judy started insisting that we make some changes with the landscape in front of our house. We thought it over, made some drawings, and looked at options. We decided on enhancing the current grass motif with a rock garden/desert motif. Just as I was settling down into going-over-the-steps mode, Judy said, “Well, let’s go.” She obviously didn’t understand that I was still processing the steps; she was ready to get the rocks and I hadn’t even closed my eyes yet. Forty-five minutes later we were wallowing down I-15 in Dad’s truck (he likes cool cars, but I don’t think he ever envisioned his truck as a low-rider, and fortunately he wasn’t around to witness it). By the end of the day, we had a layer of rocks snaking up the side of our front stairs, taking care of that patch in the front yard that would always brown in the summer.
So, here you see our rocks; stream bed leading from the down spout; drought-tolerant, native plants; and rustic, period lamp post. Now Judy’s only concern was that the neighborhood kids would walk off with all of our pretty rocks. Yeah, right. As if.
Well, our rocks haven’t exactly walked off, but it does appear that they have walked. Now, I’ve studied biology and seriously don’t remember rocks being classified with a genus and family. Hindus, I’m pretty sure, don’t lay awake at night worrying about returning as a chunk of granite in some ornamental garden. But these rocks move! I’m constantly returning rocks of all sizes from their excursions into the gutter or onto the lawn, although that doesn’t surprise me too much. But I took literally minutes positioning larger rocks carefully selected random spots, only to have them change places with other rocks.
One day, I caught them in the act. The beauty of our front window is not that we have an unfettered and superior view of our neighbor’s front window, it’s that we can view nature as it happens naturally around us without having to go outside. I was thus observing one morning (probably just starting through the steps of the next big project I needed to avoid) when two neighbor girls, around 3 or 4 years old, wandered into our yard and right up ONTO our newly planted rocks! They proceeded to consider my streambed and random accent stones. They would pick one up, examine it from all angles, and then carefully place it down somewhere else, as though tucking it into its rightful bed. They then started rearranging my streambed, as though they knew better what a randomly placed, naturally occurring streambed should look like.
I know the proper technique for discouraging cats and dogs from decoration my lawn (and through years of experience have learned to do it without breaking windows), but I don’t think that it’s the same technique to use on little girls. “Scat!” doesn’t seem appropriate, somehow. So I let them continue with their rearrangement, knowing that I could remedy their amateur arrangements later when they weren’t looking. Judy is a bit wiser, however, and fell upon the perfect plan: she committed the girls to police the rock garden and prevent other girls from messing with it.
Still, my rocks wander daily. I wonder if they dream.
Anyway, Judy started insisting that we make some changes with the landscape in front of our house. We thought it over, made some drawings, and looked at options. We decided on enhancing the current grass motif with a rock garden/desert motif. Just as I was settling down into going-over-the-steps mode, Judy said, “Well, let’s go.” She obviously didn’t understand that I was still processing the steps; she was ready to get the rocks and I hadn’t even closed my eyes yet. Forty-five minutes later we were wallowing down I-15 in Dad’s truck (he likes cool cars, but I don’t think he ever envisioned his truck as a low-rider, and fortunately he wasn’t around to witness it). By the end of the day, we had a layer of rocks snaking up the side of our front stairs, taking care of that patch in the front yard that would always brown in the summer.
So, here you see our rocks; stream bed leading from the down spout; drought-tolerant, native plants; and rustic, period lamp post. Now Judy’s only concern was that the neighborhood kids would walk off with all of our pretty rocks. Yeah, right. As if.
Well, our rocks haven’t exactly walked off, but it does appear that they have walked. Now, I’ve studied biology and seriously don’t remember rocks being classified with a genus and family. Hindus, I’m pretty sure, don’t lay awake at night worrying about returning as a chunk of granite in some ornamental garden. But these rocks move! I’m constantly returning rocks of all sizes from their excursions into the gutter or onto the lawn, although that doesn’t surprise me too much. But I took literally minutes positioning larger rocks carefully selected random spots, only to have them change places with other rocks.
One day, I caught them in the act. The beauty of our front window is not that we have an unfettered and superior view of our neighbor’s front window, it’s that we can view nature as it happens naturally around us without having to go outside. I was thus observing one morning (probably just starting through the steps of the next big project I needed to avoid) when two neighbor girls, around 3 or 4 years old, wandered into our yard and right up ONTO our newly planted rocks! They proceeded to consider my streambed and random accent stones. They would pick one up, examine it from all angles, and then carefully place it down somewhere else, as though tucking it into its rightful bed. They then started rearranging my streambed, as though they knew better what a randomly placed, naturally occurring streambed should look like.
I know the proper technique for discouraging cats and dogs from decoration my lawn (and through years of experience have learned to do it without breaking windows), but I don’t think that it’s the same technique to use on little girls. “Scat!” doesn’t seem appropriate, somehow. So I let them continue with their rearrangement, knowing that I could remedy their amateur arrangements later when they weren’t looking. Judy is a bit wiser, however, and fell upon the perfect plan: she committed the girls to police the rock garden and prevent other girls from messing with it.
Still, my rocks wander daily. I wonder if they dream.
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