Sully Recycles Blankets

Sully's favorite toy is his "blankee" and this is how he treats it. He "recycles" it...you can see it dispersed throughout our back yard. Once this one is done, he will want another one.

Day At the Aquarium

Each year during our church's annual Missions Conference, the staff takes a day and goes out with the missionaries. This year we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. I hung out with the prettiest staff member.


The Aquarium had more than just fish...there were monkeys, bats, birds, crocodiles, a black panther, snakes, spiders, GIANT millipedes, turtles, a manatee, otters, sting rays...

...and penguins!

Amanda's Story Homework for the Week

My Mom and Dad planned to go to San Antonio. We packed and got on the airplane.

After we got to the hotel, we unpacked and went swimming. Next we went to Seaworld. After we put our stuff in our lockers, we went to a water park. I slid down the water slide into a big pool. While I was there, Daddy bought me a handsome penguin.

The next day we went to a zoo. It was terrific! My favorite animals were the zebras.

The last day of vacation we went to the drive-thru zoo. The funniest thing was the ostrick pecking on Mommy's window and the zebra stealing my food.

The airplane took us home. We picked up our dogs, ate our dinner and went to bed.

Geocaching on Saturday - Find #400!

The Gospel According to Oprah

Caching In

Here is geocaching story from the Decatur Daily...from Decatur, AL where Brooke's parents live. Amanda and I have done some of the caches described in this article while caching with here cousins there.

I Am Sad Tonight

It's not like I'm depressed or anything, but I am sad. Spring Break is over and Amanda has to start back to school tomorrow. I am a family guy. I like doing stuff (racquetball, shooting, geocaching, etc), but all of those things are secondary to my family. We had a great time camping at Cedar Hill State Park on Thursday night and doing family stuff the rest of the weekend (like cooking our left over Smores in front of the fireplace). So tomorrow, it's back to the routine: Amanda to school, Brooke and I to work, home from school, dinner, HOMEWORK, play time, bath time, bed time...same thing next day.

But enough sad. Here are some happy pictures from our camping trip:

Amanda enjoyed playing in "her room" in the camper

You may notice that Sully looks slightly paranoid. He did not know how Mr. Stan felt about doggies on the furniture and asked me to set the record straight that this was a posed picture...Mommy made the dogs hop up for a picture because she was worried we did not have a picture with Sully in it since he was not as adventuresome as Boo.

Grilling chicken for Thursday night dinner. Sully would not have wanted to be by himself, so he was glad to be along for the ride. Boo, on the other hand, showed she LOVED being camping dog.

Hollywood...in a camper

Here's the one geocache we did at the park while camping

Stopping at Sonic for lunch on the way home from camping

Cooking our left-over Smores in front of the fireplace on Friday night

I Had to Laugh

Some may think this is not funny.

Some make think this is "gross".

I thought it was funny enough to laugh out loud.

We were on our way to Cedar Hill State Park to go camping and stopped by QT on the way (of course). We got our Cokes and got into the car. I found some trash on the floor of the car, so I hopped out and went to throw it away. Since there was not a trash can near the car, I had to walk in front of the store and down the sidewalk to the trash can. As I did this, I noticed Brooke and Amanda watching me, so I sucked in my gut just to see what would happen. Holding my breath all the way, I tossed the trash, walked back to the car and got in.

"Wow Babe, you must be losing weight. Your stomach looks smaller," Brooke said to me almost immediately.

I had to laugh.

An A+ Weekend

I had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. On Friday, I took Amanda to school, came home a chilled for a while and then went for a bike ride. Didn't know if I could make it, but I tried a 10 mile ride. Made it. Came home, relaxed, picked Amanda up from school, ran by Quick Trip as a family, grilled steaks for dinner, relaxed more and went to bed.

On Saturday, we went to a park in Mansfield for a family picnic. Amanda and I rode the bike trails (5 miles) then we ate our picnic lunch. After lunch, Brooke and Amanda played on the playground while I biked some more. Came home, took a nap, grilled chicken for dinner, relaxed and went to bed.

Today, we went to church and the second iGrow class and then had lunch with a family from church. We ran by Academy to buy a t-ball wiffle ball set for Amanda and some worms for Grace (the turtle). When we got home, Brooke took a nap, Amanda played in the back yard and I went for another 10 mile bike ride. When I came home, Amanda was playing with the t-ball set. Brooke woke up from her nap, so we all played some wiffle ball in the back yard. Ran by QT again then Brooke went to Life Group. Amanda and I watched Funniest Home Videos then she read while I worked on the computer. At 9pm, Brooke came home, Amanda went to bed and we watched Stranger Than Fiction.

It was an A+ weekend.

Stranger Than Fiction

Hmmm. I'm trying to figure out how to describe this movie. Unique. Unexpected. Bizarre. Very good. All of these describe the movie, yet somehow say nothing about it.

This is all very odd because I am NOT a literature type person. In my required literature classes, I hated having to figure out symbolism, what the author was "trying" to say and all of that stuff. I like to read a book or watch a movie for the entertainment value...period. I don't search for meaning or try to analyze it.

So I'm not analyzing this movie or looking for a "deeper meaning", but it's not the typical kind of movie I would rent. Some friends of our just got it and offered to let us borrow it. I didn't know anything about the movie other than Will Ferrell was in it and I like most of his movies (sans "Talladega Nights").

The first part of the movie had me thinking, "What a hacker" (the word we use at our house for movies that are just a waste of your time watching). But I wanted to keep watching because I didn't "get it"...what was going on. And then I thought I figured out what was happening. After that, I wanted to see what happened next. And after that, I just started getting into it. In the end, I would rate it as a great movie. I'd love to buy it and make friends sit down to watch it with me just to see how they respond.

Not being a movie or literature person, I don't have a vast database of movies to compare it to. But watching this movie, I got the same kind of feeling I did when I watched Truman Show (one of my all-time favorite movies) and The Game. I guess because I am "literature dumb", I do not understand the "deeper meaning" of these movies, but something caught my attention and drew me in. Violent WWII movies cause me to reflect and stand in awe of a generation. Action movies somehow release stress. Kid movies are OK (sans Garfield I & II) and remind me I'm glad I'm a Daddy. I'm still trying to describe how movies like Stranger Than Fiction make me feel...but I like it. Maybe I should have taken more literature classes until I "got it".

I guess most people are going to feel I am "stranger than fiction" after reading this post. I don't know. If you're a movie/literature buff, watch the movie and come talk to me. Maybe you can tell me what it is I am missing but that has somehow managed to draw me in so.

Hangman - Day 8

Amanda was standing in front of the mirror this morning as Brooke was combing her hair for church when she suddenly blurted out, "CAMPING, that's my word. That's what we are doing during Spring Break." She was right, and so she's solved her hangman puzzle.

Hangman - Day 7

If you don't know the story behind this, click here.

The First Geocache Ever Placed

GPS Mapping Tools/Toys

I got a bracket for Christmas that allows me to put my GPS receiver on my bike, so now I track myself everywhere I ride. The GPS tells me where I am (small screen map), how fast I'm going, what direction I am traveling and how far I have traveled. Until today, I have not been able to find anything to convert the file created on my GPS into something I can put on a map and see where I've been. Today I found GPS Visualizer which I used to convert I file which I then uploaded to MTBGuru.com and created this map of my ride.


Since I just happened to have my GPS with me, and since my GPS just happened to have area geocaches loaded onto it, I did check to see if I was near any as I biked yesterday. I found one and then headed out to the one pictured above called Jeepers Creepers. This is a Google Earth screen shot of the pet cemetery I rode through to get to this cache (this area is the little "hook" at the bottom of the Google map drawn above). The white dot in the upper right corner of the screen shows where the geocache is, and the red line (the long, crazy, zig-zag red line) shows where all I went looking for it! The clue for the cache led me to believe it was in the pet cemetery, and there is a fence in the tree line. I did not think I would have to cross the fence to get to the cache, so I didn't spend much time on the other side of the fence. When I did cross the fence, the GPS kept taking me to the middle of a wide open field and I didn't think that was right, either. As you can see, I never found the cache, but I thought this crazy, zig-zag picture of my 20 minute hunt was funny. Now that I've seen the picture, I'll have to try for this one again, but I think I'm gonna post this picture on the cache's web site. I look like some drunk lost in the woods or something!

Another Turtle Update

No, not another turtle...just another update about the turtles. Grace O'Mally made it through the winter. Although she was the last of the three to make an appearance this Spring, she seems to be the first one who has determined hibernation is over with for the winter. She dug out yesterday and spent the night above ground, woke up and had some breakfast this morning. Grumpy and Little George are still under ground.

Does This Look Comfortable to You?

Sully will do anything for attention. He is not trying to crawl onto Brooke's lap, he is just stretched across there trying to get some love! He laid like that for 10 minutes.

Hangman - Day 6

If you don't know the story behind this, click here.

Where Did We Go Wrong?

Amanda said they were playing "gambling". Does this mean we are bad parents?

Open House

Amanda with everybody's favorite PTA treasurer...elected for a second term next year.

Amanda and her teacher, Mrs. Basa.

Hangman - Day 5

If you don't know the story behind this, click here.

History Lesson

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals
2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet,so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That’s how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q’s and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girliemen.

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.

Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn’t fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone
who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today’s lesson in world history: It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it. A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to tick them off.

Hangman - Day 4

If you don't know the story behind this, click here.

I was not home from Life Group when Amanda went to bed, so Brooke did Hangman with Amanda tonight. Brooke promises me she gave Amanda no clues when she guessed the "C" tonight. Amanda said she was trying to guess the first letter...and she did.

For those of you who are playing along with Amanda, she guessed "caching" tonight. While that is a good guess, Brooke reminded her it was something we have not done in a long time.

Hangman - Day 3

If you don't know the story behind this, click here.

Pictures From Saturday - Geocaching & Playgrounds

The first cache we did for the day was called "Body Curls" and was by the body curls workout station on the track at Stovall Park. Amanda thought she should demonstrate.

This was a bridge out in the middle of nowhere. It was actually at a park in Mansfield, but it crossed nothing. I guess they plan to move it over a creek eventually? At least it made for a cute picture.

There is a tiny 35mm film canister in there.

I wouldn't know, but Amanda insisted this was an apple tree. She wanted to stop and pick up a leaf, so we took a picture while we were there.

This won the "cool cache of the day" award. A geocacher named TexasNurse97 hid this one on a tree in the woods. The cache container is taped to the end of the stethoscope.

Another 35mm film canister. Geocachers LOVE evergreen trees...so many good hiding places.

Amanda declared this to be too good a photo op to pass up...so we didn't.

I chose this spot for a picture.

After several hours of geocaching, we played on the playground for 45 minutes, went to Dairy Queen and then headed home.

Does she look like a monkey?

Don't try to tell me and her Momma this ain't the cutest kid in the world!

Hangman - Day 2

If you don't know the story behind this, click here.

Plumb Idiotic

Not four minutes ago it came to me. I need to write a book. And this book needs to have at least two words in the title: IDIOT and PLUMBING. Let's see...Plumbing for Idiots. No, that's probably taken already, and that really does not capture the heart of this book. How about...yes, that would be it:

Plumbing BY Idiots

That will be the title of my new book.

Chapter 1, How to Take A Shower While Standing At Your Sink.

So I just finished watching Flag of our Fathers and was pondering the lives of the men in the movie (WW II movies always make me reflect). While I was somberly pondering, I was brushing my teeth preparing to go to bed. As I was finishing up, I could take it no longer. My bathroom sink has had this drip. I "fixed" it before and it almost stopped dripping, but when the drip came back, it got worse. I've been ignoring it because I know something inside the knob thingy needs to be replaced, but I don't know what.

Chapter 2, Definitions (include diagram with "knob thingy" definition)

I grabbed my screwdriver and pried the cap off of the faucet so I could see the screw thingy (this holds the knob thingy in place). I tightened the screw, and surprisingly I was correct. Tightening this screw did little, if anything, to decrease the drip flow.

Next I unscrewed this screw and saw the part that probably needs to be replaced (reasoning: the more stuff you tear apart, the more parts you will see; the more parts you see, the more likely you have seen the part that needs to be replaced). I got my pliers and undid this big "ring thingy" (this encircles the knob thingy). The drip drew a little faster. Hmm...I wonder what would happen if I twist this gold thingy?

WRONG QUESTION!!!

Water was now shooting up over my head. My left hand quickly moved over the top of the fountain and began directing water off the side of the counter top and onto the floor while my right hand began feeling for the water shutoff under the sink. 50/50 chance of finding the right shut off knob this way.

So much for luck.

Now that the hot water was turned off, it could no longer gush water head high. Of course, the water that was gushing was cold, which would explain why turning off the hot water didn't affect the flow much. Once I found the correct shut off, I was able to get the water turned off most of the way. The flow coming out of the open hole was roughly 7 times greater than the drip I had earlier (Math BY Idiots?), but once I got the gold thingy back in there, put the ring thingy back on and had the whole knob thingy back together I felt confident enough to turn the water back on.

Good news. The drip is not as bad as it was when I started!

It was midnight by the time all of this was finished, but I knew I had better stop and write all this down while it was still fresh in my mind. They say all great how-to authors do this.

I'm already getting ideas for my next book: Automotive Repair BY Idiots. I am an expert there as well.

Hangman - Day 1

Brooke and I were driving by Amanda's school this week and saw a sign for day care at the school during Spring Break. Brooke commented on what a "fun" Spring Break that would be.

"What did you do during Spring Break?"

"Oh, I came to school all week!"

Doesn't sound like much fun, does it? So we decided Amanda needed something fun to remember during Spring Break. Brooke and I have to work most of the week (we both have Friday off and I am taking Thursday off as a vacation day), but we came up with something fun to do one day. Amanda wanted to do something we have not done in a while.

So tonight we started a game. We are playing Hangman. Each night, Amanda gets to guess a letter trying to solve the puzzle. The answer is the special activity we will be doing one day during Spring Break. So I'll post the puzzle each day and you can guess along with Amanda if you want to (except you'll have to use the letters SHE guesses). All the letters of the alphabet are listed above. The ones in RED are the ones she has chosen. You can see where they go in the word or if she gets her hangman drawn. Her letter tonight was "A". Good guess.

So what do you think we're doing? You can post your guesses here, just don't tell Amanda so it won't ruin it for her.

Great Day To Be Outside

George and I go out for lunch every Wednesday. This week we went to The Corner Bakery. George told me he found it while taking is daily walk. I thought the Target shopping center was not a very exciting place to walk, so I took him to River Legacy Park today and we walked there. Great day to be outside.

Houston Highlights

We went to Houston (Sugar Land, actually) last weekend for the Liberty Fellowship SW conference. This is the group I am ordained with, and those of us in this part of the country get together each February to catch up on what is going on in each others' lives and to be challenged, encouraged and equipped by a guest speaker.

This year's conference was good as Bobby Hill was our speaker. It was also nice for our family because we got to take Amanda with us. What was a bummer for our family was Brooke being down in her back and having to miss some of the meetings as well as family day during free time on Friday.

On Friday afternoon Brooke's back was hurting pretty bad, so she had to stay at the hotel in the bed. Amanda and I didn't want to leave Mommy at the hotel by herself, but she needed to rest her back and encouraged us to go ahead and find something fun for Amanda to do...and we did. We went to downtown Houston to visit the Children's Museum. Amanda had a BLAST! Here's just a few pictures of the museum and our trip. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so all I had was my low-resolution, no-flash camera phone to take pictures.

Amanda and I made this arch together. We started building individually on each side, and as we got toward the end, I held the sides while she slipped another piece into the middle. The exhibit was about how gravity affects building structures.

This whole area had a Mexican theme complete with replicas of a home, a cobbler's shop, a grocery store...and this Beetle Van!

This room was the coolest part of the whole museum (from a grown-up's perspective). You stood against a metal wall and a projector shot some kind of light on you. As you moved, your colored shadow appeared on the projection screen in front of you. You moved and it moved...and showed your movements in cascades of color. First there is one of you, then two, then four, eight and more. It reminded me of the introductions to old James Bond movies. Here is Amanda in the room.

Here's me in the light room...taking a picture of course.

Amanda put on a puppet show for me.

That's Amanda milking the cow. The "milk" was actually water, but the milking part seemed fairly authentic. Amanda enjoyed herself.

We passed this statue of Sam Houston in Huntsville on the way home.