This and That

Mikey busted his face up the other night. Here are a couple of pictures of the damage.

The first picture was taken about half and hour after it happened. The real noticeable thing is the cut on his right eyebrow. Notice the shirt he's wearing...I didn't do it.... yeah, right, kid. I thought that was the only injury. But as time went on he started to swell and bruise to the right of his nose and under his right eye.



I just took this picture a little while ago. It will probably look a little worse before it gets better. So in the next few days it will begin to turn nice shades of brown and yellow. Sweet.


Here's one of Jack



We went and saw Wall-E a little while ago. We all really liked it.

We are keeping the dog, just in case you're wondering. Some people have asked me about that. I guess I kind of eluded to that when I said we were going to call him Scott. He smells like Fritos.

Don't use my flash batteries anymore for video games. You know who you are.

On a Scared of God Kick

Let me begin this post by saying that I've never been much for Bible reading. I just don't want this to come across like "in my many years of pouring over the Bible....yadda, yadda, yadda" Not so. Not that I'm embarrassed to be reading the Bible either. It just seems like kind of a "super spiritual" thing to do and I'm pretty much quasi spiritual on a good day. Whatever that means.

So anyway, I've been doing a lot of Bible reading in the last six months or so. Mostly Old Testament stuff, some New Testament but not as much. I've haven't really been reading all the books in order so I'm getting myself all confused about timeline stuff. I finally got through with Leviticus a week or so ago and have moved on to Numbers. And let me just say that is some weird business. And this is not a post meant to make fun of the Bible or God. As the post title says, I'm too scared of God to do that. But this stuff is just so "out there" I just have to write about some of it. And most of it doesn't make sense to me at all. Also, I have no seminary training and I almost failed my Old Testament class at HBU. Well, I guess I did fail if a "D" is failing. It was the teacher's fault, not mine. So just keep that in mind, that's all. And I'm not referencing every verse because I just don't feel like it.

So anyway, on to Leviticus. The extremely specific details given regarding sacrifices is unreal. Like how in the world were they supposed to remember all this stuff? It kind of reminds me of this game that Phillip and I got stuck playing one time with some (then) friends of ours. It was called Point of Order. There were all these crazy rules that were just kind of made up arbitrarily as we went along. I don't know if I've seen Phillip that ready to throw something before or since. I'm talking he was MAD. Anyway, here's just an example of what I'm talking about. This is not for the faint of heart.

From the fellowship offering he is to bring a sacrifice made to the Lord by fire: it's fat, the entire fat tail cut off close to the backbone, all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys." Lev. 3:9-10

Like it talks about specific kinds of sacrifices for specific sins.

- If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible. Lev 5:1

- Touching human uncleanliness (Gross!!) Lev. 5:3

- Sinning unintentionally Lev. 4:27

I mean these are just a few. There are too many to name them all. And if you sin unintentionally, how are you supposed to know you need to sacrifice something for it? As I was reading this stuff I was totally overwhelmed with the level of detail. I was thinking that all these people must have been able to do all day long is sacrifice animals. If I had to burn something for every sin I commit in a 24 hour period of time, I would be locked up for being a pyromaniac. It's like their very purpose for existing on this planet was to do what God wanted of them and make atonement for the wrongs they've committed. That's it. That was their life.

They wandered around in the desert having to eat pieces of strange bread stuff and quail because all of their livestock was for sacrificing. I guess. I mean at some point they start complaining because they have no meat to eat so God sends quail. And then almost kills them because they were whining but then kind of has a change of heart (Numbers 11:31-34). But they have all these animals they're offering as sacrifices all day but I guess they couldn't eat the ones that weren't sacrificed? So man, how terrible would that be? To have all this perfectly good meat but not being able to eat any of it? I don't know. I'm confused about that. I know the priests could eat some of it under certain circumstances.

And that's another thing. The priests. The didn't ask to be priests. They were appointed (forced, strongly encouraged, called) to be priests. And why was Aaron still allowed to be a priest even though he kind of headed up that whole golden calf campaign (Ex.32) during Moses' first trip up there to get the tablets? I don't get that at all. He should have been out of the running after that. And they had a crazy amount of rules they had to follow or "they would die." Man, it's like they didn't even ask to be given that responsibility. Here's an example about that.

Make linen undergarments as a covering for the body, reaching from the waist to the thigh. Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die. Lev. 28:42

And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it. Lev.20:26

So in order for the priest to be able to walk up those steps we're talking about they had to have their boy parts covered up. The steps and God would have to witness all their business. I just thought that was pretty interesting. It's like when you see a guy in a Speedo, your like, "Oh, gross, I don't want to see that!" I guess it's like that.

Later after the priests are ordained, two of Aaron's sons were destroyed by God because they were lighting some incense wrong. You can read about that stuff in Lev.10. And Aaron wasn't allowed to mourn for them. At least not publicly anyway. And that is just harsh.

There's lots of stuff about what to do with questionable skin conditions in chapters 13 and 14 if you're interested in that. You know you are.

And some nameless dude was stoned later in Numbers for working on the Sabbath. God told them to kill him. He was stoned to death because he was gathering wood on the Sabbath. Numbers 15:32-26

And all of this stuff is really hard for me to take in. And there have been many times in my life where I have questioned God's intentions. But when you read some of this stuff, God is not just confusing. He is absolutely terrifying. This God, this same God who demanded they kill a man for gathering wood is the same God that I have gotten furious at for not giving me what I want. This God who demanded near perfection from the Israelites tolerates my foolishness day after day after day. This is not some "daddy God" we're dealing with. We aren't comfortable with "this God." We don't really want to believe that He exists. Or we want to think that He has changed since then. Like the God of the Old Testament is not the same God we deal with today.

Not the same God who deals with us.

But this part of God is not all there is.

Enter Jesus

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matt.11:29-30

The first part of Matthew, chapter 12 is about working on the Sabbath.

It almost seems like Jesus came to undo some of what God established. It's almost like Jesus is saying, "Naw, it's cool. He didn't mean it like that." But he didn't come here to undermine God's authority. He came to free humankind from all that stuff that we had to do just to exist with God. He came so that those hundreds of animals didn't have to be slaughtered all the time so God could look at us without wanting to destroy us.

And I never really got the whole animal sacrifice thing before. It really seemed kind of wasteful and arbitrary. And gross. But when you're out in the desert and all you have to eat is some weirdo bread type stuff and water, it's a big deal to burn up your animals. It's a big deal to know that if I look lustfully at so-in-so that's one less goat to my name. And it was still a big deal even when they got out of the desert because that lust-atoning goat was going to be dinner. But not anymore.

So Jesus not only came so we could someday go to Heaven. He came so that we could live a life that involved other things besides constantly making amends for our wrongs. He came as the priest that Aaron and his sons could never be. He came so that we could replace all that animal sacrifice business with friendship and laughter and joy.

But what have we replaced it with really? Worry, envy, greed, contempt. The list goes on and on. He came so we could use this brief life for good.

And not to end this on a negative note, but that same God who burned up those two boys for the whole incense thing, that's the same God who reigns now. And He is a God of love and mercy and compassion. I don't want to suggest that He's not. But He is also a serious, terrifying God.

And reading this stuff just makes me kind of scared of Him, that's all.

Blog neglect

I've been neglecting this blog lately. I've been goofing off on facebook and editing lots of pictures. I've got some pretty cute baby photos on my photoblog in case you're interested. I'm working on a post about some crazy stuff from the books of Leviticus and Numbers. So I know you'll want to stay tuned for that. Wooohooo! Eventually I'll sit down and finish it up. But not tonight.

Me on Facebook

I have become a facebook member. And I even have a few friends. Now I'm not quite sure what I'll do with it, but I'm a member. Go me!

Advertising

I need some low-cost advertising for my photography business. Any ideas? I'm planning on going around to some local business and dropping off business cards. I have redone my business cards by the way and they look much better now. Here's a picture.



I keep wanting to get a big rear sticker for the back of my truck but other things keep coming up that are more pressing. If any of my regular readers would like some cards to hand out to coworkers or family or whoever, let me know and I'll get you some cards. I'm facing the prospect of having to get a second job or "real job." I would really rather not have to do that. I've got enough to do already. Any help with drumming up business would be greatly appreciated. It's really hard to get a new business off the ground. I think I probably learned that in some entrepreneurial class I took in college. Anyway, I'm certainly not above asking for help so if you can put in a good word for me, I'd really appreciate it.

I think I might like The Beatles

I kind of inherited Phillip's computer and his itunes collection when he got his laptop in December.  I've been listening to some Beatles stuff for the last couple of hours.  I don't know that I've ever really listened to The Beatles before.  I mean, of course I've heard this and that over the years.  I usually like to listen to something while I'm editing pictures and usually I go through several different artists in Phillip's collection before I find something I can tolerate.  And this stuff hasn't annoyed me at all so that's a pretty good sign that I could actually actively like it if I listened to it enough.  I don't think Phillip is a huge Beatles fan. Here is an awesome video of a little guy singing Hey Jude. I'm not positive of the story behind this little kid but I think he's Korean and doesn't really speak English. But he can sing Hey Jude. I think he's probably a bigger fan than I am at this point.



And here's some more video of this little guy in case you want to see some more. I'm like laughing so hard I'm crying watching these videos.

We are complete again.

Jackson is home. Finally. They got in at 1:41 according to their GPS. We were all pretty glad to see Jack. Mikey looked really tickled to see him again. It was really sweet. Jack likes the dog but he keeps calling him all kinds of different random names. And that's fine. Who cares? Since Jack has been home he has called him Princeton, Scott, Zack, Mace Windu, and Book. Book is a pretty cool name for anybody I think. He's probably called him other things, but that's all that is coming to me at the moment. He wants to name him Zack because it rhymes with Jack. He also told us today that we should have named Mikey a name that started with "J" so he and Jack could both have "J" names. He said we should have named him Jikey. I'm sure that would have gone over real well on adoption day. Speaking of adoption, we finally got Mikey's official Hintze birth certificate today. I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get that thing. Now they'll finally change his name at the Pediatrician's office. Stinkin' legalistic Nazis. Anyway, our family is back together again. Oh yeah, we were glad to see Donald and Debbie too. Forgot about them. They didn't want to trade kids though, dang it.

My Jackson is coming home

Jackson will be back in good ol' Lake Jackson, TX very soon. I can't wait to see him.

I talked to Jackson a day or two ago and they were in Lubbock. I said something to him about him being back in Texas. And he said, "Yeah, but we're not back to the same Texas you're in." So cute.

Donald and Debbie probably really miss Mikey. They are used to seeing the kids a couple of times a week. So Phillip and I are thinking we just need to make a little trade off. We'll take Jack home and they can keep Mikey.

Really, we've had a lot of fun with Mikey the last couple of weeks. It's been cool to have time just with him. We've spent lots of time just sitting on the floor hanging out with him. I probably post a little too often about how "difficult" Mikey can be. And believe me, he can be. But we are enjoying baby/toddlerhood this time around probably more than we did the first time. He is such a handful and so much fun.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about Jackson, not Mikey. I'm ready to get him home!

Phillip's Les Paul

Here's a picture of Phillip playing his guitar. I posted it on my other blog but I thought I would post it here too. I just really like it.

A Car Show of sorts

I kind of went to a car show on Sunday. Really, I just went to church and happened upon a car show. We had our 2nd annual Father's Day car show. I brought the camera along and took a few to pass on to the church folks to do with what they will. I know absolutely nothing about any of these cars. I'm sure they're probably cool or whatever. I was told that the first car (the red one) was particularly cool so I took more pictures of it. I think it's rare or something. And I really didn't spend much time editing the photos either. Lazy, lazy, lazy. If you're wondering about the junky looking VW trophy looking thing, that was the prize for the junkiest vehicle. The winner really isn't all that junky but the other junky contenders wouldn't start so they couldn't "compete." Anyway, here are a few from the show.

Celebrating 8 Years with a County Song

Phillip and I have been married eight years today. Eight years. Man, that's hard to believe. A lot has happened in eight years. Lots of good, lots of not so good, but we're still here. I don't think we have any anniversary plans for today. Usually Tuesday evenings are date nights but with the folks out of town, we're without a Mikey sitter. But tomorrow morning my mom is going to get him for a while so we'll go eat lunch or something. We'll probably go eat and then go look at magazines at Hastings for our anniversary. Maybe I'll flip through a crazy tattoo magazine. I do that sometimes.

Anyway, because Phillip is such a fan of country music (and Alan Jackson) here are some lyrics to a song that sums it up. I've included the chords so he can play and sing it for me later. Ha! That's so funny. The chords look all screwy once it's published. Don't know why or how to fix it.


A A7 D B
Has it been ten (eight) years since we said I do
D E D A
I've always heard marriage made one seem like two
A7 D B
But you're lookin' better than you did back then
D E E7
You still make this old heart give in

A A7 D B
Cho... And if I had it to do all over
D E A D
I'd do it all over again
A A/F# D B
If tomorrow I found one more chance to begin
D E A E
I'd love you all over again
A A/F# D B
If tomorrow I found one more chance to begin
D E B D A D A
I'd love you all over again

I miss my Jackson

It's been over a week now since Jack went with Donald and Debbie to Colorado.  And we've got almost a week left without him. It's starting to get weird.  Mikey keeps us pretty busy but it's so much quieter here without Jackson.  I'm not sad really, I just feel kind of lost. Like I don't really know what to do. I'm ready to get my hands on that little creep and I'm not going to be quick to let him go. He might be sleeping with us for a night or two after he gets home. But he's really difficult to sleep with. He slept with us before he left and he woke me up several times kicking me in my rib cage. I ended up finishing my night on the couch. Anyway, I miss him. I miss his sweaty little doggy smell and I miss holding his bony long-legged body in my lap. I'll be glad when he's home. And knowing me, after he's been home about 2 hours and I've thoroughly suffocated him with hugs I'll be rolling my eyes and getting irritated at him for all the weird things he does.

I go by my middle name.

I think it's kind of weird when people go by their middle name.  And I know that applies to some of you so I mean no offense here.  It's not really your fault anyway; it's your parents.  They were the ones who couldn't make a decision, not you.  I once knew a guy whose given name was James Jeffrey (Last Name) but he went by Jeff.  He had never ever gone by James his entire life.  His parents chose to name him James Jeffrey rather than Jeffrey James because it sounded too much like the outlaw Jesse James.  It seems like that would make for a confusing and frustrating time in school but maybe it's not so bad.  

So I say all of that to let you know that we've decided to call Princeton (the dog) by his middle name, which is Scott.  So we're not really changing his name.  We're just making his life much more complicated, that's all.  

Mikey pictures

Phillip took these first two pictures. I tricked them out a little in Photoshop. I love them. Mikey rarely ever smiles at me when I have the camera in my hand. But he will for Phillip so go figure. Maybe Phillip needs to handle the Mikey picture taking from now on.




These next two are representative of the typical Mikey shots I catch. Blank stares and walking away. Still cute, but not quite as frameable. The next picture is funny to me because he was just walking through our next door neighbor's driveway and through their yard. I was pretty far away from him and Phillilp was too. He didn't care if we were with him or not. He was on a mission to bust in some windows.

More about the dog.... incase you care

Things are still going pretty good with this little dog. We haven't decided what we're going to call him. We might just let him keep his goofy name since he's AKC registered and all that stuff. We've thought about renaming him Winston instead of Princeton because it's a bit more distinguished and less teh ghey. Or we could tell people his name is Princeton, but we call him Winston. Kind of like his name is Micah, but we call him Mikey. Or we thought about Qunicy except spelled Quintze (like Hintze) but we would be stealing that from Phillip's brother, Josh. And we don't want to steal the name of his potential first born. Phillip said we could use Mikey's given middle name, Wayne. We can tell Mikey that we really didn't like the name Wayne but we didn't want to totally waste it so we used it for the dog. Or we can always go with naming him after Maury since he likes dogs so much. So many options.

I don't think the dog's tongue fits in its face. It pretty much always hang out a little or a lot. Oh well, he was free. When we take him out to walk him, he takes a leak on everything. He keeps lifting his leg and trying to squeeze some out long after he's got nothing left. He probably lifts his leg and tries 20 times or more in one walking. Maybe he has a bladder infection.

Meet Princeton AKA whatever we change his name to if we keep him

Here's the little dog I posted about in my previous post. So far he's doing great. He's a registered yorkie with papers and stuff. He's pretty big for a yorkie which is probably good because Mikey can be kind of a bully. So far Mikey has been really good with him. He doesn't seem to bark much at all. He's been whining a little but nothing too annoying. He keeps trying to chill out on the back of the couch and I don't really like that. He's like the same color as the couch so it's like camouflage. Anyway, I guess we'll see how it goes. I'm not sure what Phillip thinks about the whole thing. He just doesn't say much and kind of grimaces so I think I'll take that as a positive. Any name suggestions? Mikey has been calling him Bob all day because that's pretty much his only word. He really likes Veggie Tales. He's just been chasing the dog around and laughing and yelling, "BobBobBob!!"

Some pictures from Colorado and we might be getting a dog

Here are a few pictures Debbie sent from Colorado.  I know the rocket ship pictures are a little hard to make out but Jack's sitting by himself in the middle of the first picture and by himself in the back of the other one.  I think the altitude (and wussiness) were getting to Donald and Debbie and they couldn't really handle the rides very well.  So Jack went on a bunch of them by himself.  This is the child who won't even go by himself to get donut holes at church.  But he'll go on a roller coaster by himself.  You can kind of tell in the jet picture that he's wearing his "Indiana Jones hat."  He's a big Indiana Jones fan right now.  Too bad most of the movies are rated PG13 and he can't watch them.  

It feels weird in this house without him. Just not quite loud or hectic enough. I talked to Jackson a few minutes ago. He watched some square dancing tonight. He thought that was pretty cool. He thinks Phillip and I should lean how to square dance. That would be so gross and funny. I've bugged Phillip before about taking dancing lessons but not square dancing lessons.









We're going to be doing a little trial run with a yorkie tomorrow. The owner is my sister-in-law's sister and she doesn't think she can keep him anymore. She's going to be recovering from some medical stuff so we're going to take him off her hands for a few days and see how it works out. He's six years old and probably very cute because pretty much all yorkies are. I think it would be a pretty good little dog for us if Mikey doesn't crush his skull. His name is Princeton, which is pretty fruity. So I think if we keep him we're going to have to change his name. I guess if we can change our own kid's given name, we can change a dog's given name. Maybe I'll put up a naming poll on my blog if it comes to that. But probably until we make up our minds about him we'll just call him "dog." We call our kids "boy" half the time so the dog shouldn't really deserve any better treatment. I'll probably post some pictures of him tomorrow.

Cool view through a dirty window

When I posted those pictures of Mikey in his carseat, Andrea asked me if I took those while I was driving. I was not driving when I took those. But I was driving when I took this. I was coming home from Freeport yesterday evening when I saw the sun coming through the clouds. I watched it for a little while debating on whether or not to get out the camera. So I ended up doing a little knee driving while I got the camera out and stuck my 50 mm on it. I knew the car windows were really dirty and it probably wouldn't turn out at all but I thought I would give it a try anyway. I think it's kind of cool. There's obvious grime on the window that I can't really get rid of but otherwise, I like it. There's some photoshop work going on here to make it more contrasty but that's pretty much what it looked like. I don't really recommend driving and taking pictures and I certainly don't make a habit of it.

A kind of weird dream I had

I dream a lot when I sleep. I guess most people probably do, but I remember mine quite often. Usually they make no sense whatsoever. Or I remember just enough bits and pieces to be concerned that I might be nuts. The other night I had a dream that was very vivid and actually had some semblance of a story line. And since we have watched Veggie Tales Little Joe several times in the last few days, I'm going to propose that my dream may have some deeper meaning. So here goes. Here's my dream, at least what I remember of it.

I was at some kind of Asian convent kind of place. (Probably because we had eaten at a not very good Chinese buffet the night before.) Anyway, I had finished eating by myself and I decided I needed to go take a shower. So I went into this bathroom sort of place to take a shower. After I was already in there I realized that the shower was already running and the room was getting all steamy. I noticed there was a really fluffy towel folded neatly beside the tub. And there were nice bottles of shampoo and soaps and all that kind of stuff. So it occurred to me that I had come in and sort of "stolen" somebody else's shower. Like maybe they had gotten everything ready but then had to leave and would be right back or something. (You know how dreams don't always make perfect sense.) But I was already in there so I just quickly rinsed off but didn't use any of the soap or anything because it didn't belong to me. And I didn't use the nice folded towel because it was for somebody else. And I guess my clothes disappeared or something because it didn't occur to me to put those back on. So I wrapped myself in a discarded towel that was dirty so I wouldn't be indecent as I left the bathroom. I did all of this as quickly as I could so I would be out of the way before the person who the shower was intended for came back. In the dream I was super nervous like I was going to get in trouble or something. Weird.

Anyway, as I was leaving the bathroom in my stinky towel, a little Asian man came up to me and looked very confused and concerned. He asked why I was using a dirty towel. I told him that I didn't want to take the nice towel because it belonged to someone else. And he said, "That towel was for you. All of that was for you. I got your shower going and I put out the soaps so you could relax and have a nice shower." He seemed disappointed and hurt that I didn't use any of it. And I told him that I didn't know it was for me. And he said something like, "Who else would it have been for if not for you?" And I felt so sad that I had hurt his feelings. And I felt sad that I had missed something nice.

And that's pretty much all I remember of the dream.

So, here goes with the obvious deeper meaning.

What am I missing that God has laid out for me? What am I leaving untouched or undone because it's not for me. It's for somebody else. Whose toes am I trying to avoid stepping on? What good gifts am I not accepting from God? Am I hurting his feelings? Is God a little Asian man? All of these questions have been on my mind since this dream.

*Edit to original post* How many times can I use the word "nice" in one post? I guess I need to work on growing my vocabulary. Just so you don't have to point it out and make fun of me. I noticed it myself and I'm making fun of myself so you don't have to.

Mikey's pretty face

Coffee Art

I ripped this picture and other stuff off from this guy on Flickr.



I thought it was cool and thought you might too. Here's a link to the coffee place who does this stuff. And here's a video. I like coffee but this looks like a lot more cream than coffee. And it's kind of too pretty to drink but I would probably manage. Just thought it was interesting.

A Worthy Cause

I check the mail everyday expecting to find an anonymous note with a handsome amount of cash to help me in my new business venture. And everyday I am sadly disappointed. So I thought I would just take a few minutes to publicly announce my willingness to take your donations. Just use your imagination for a minute and imagine me sitting on a dirty street corner displaying my pictures with my camera case open in front of me for you to toss change (or bills) into. Have you ever looked at one of my pictures and thought, "that's cool" or "how cute"? Well, that's gotta be worth something. A friend of mine told me that some of my pictures of kids bring tears to her eyes. That's great. I appreciate that. But what's it worth to you? Who cares if it's just pictures of random people that you don't know. That's hardly the point. We pay for experiences in this life. So just take a minute and think about how my photography has impacted your life and donate accordingly. Maybe you would like to donate in loving memory of your grandmother who just loved pictures. That's fine. I'll take that too. In this world of questionable causes I just want to give you a solid cause you can feel good about donating to. That's all. This is for you. Giving makes your heart full.

And if this post is making you uncomfortable, you're taking it a little too seriously.

Check out Phillip's blog

Phillip posted something kind of funny about Jackson on his blog. His blog is mostly guitar stuff that is so far over my head it's not even funny. But occasionally he throws something in that's worth my time.

Here's the link to Phillip's post.

And if you don't get it, it's cool. Just move on and don't hurt yourself trying to figure it out.

Jackson goes to Colorado

Tomorrow afternoon Jackson will be leaving with Phillip's parents for two weeks. They will be going to New Mexico and Colorado and I guess some other stops along the way. This will be the longest we've been away from him. They've taken him camping for 4 or 5 days or so but never two weeks. Phillip told Jackson he was going to be gone for 14 days! But Jackson quickly corrected him and said that it would be 15. I'm sure I'll miss him but it will probably take me a few days. Is that mean? They'll be going to Fun Valley in Colorado. Here's a picture.



I think Fun Valley is a pretty lame name. Like even if it's fun, which I'm sure it is, that's still not terribly creative. I think using "fun" in the name is a little suspicious, personally. My first inclination is to think, "yeah right, if you have to use fun in the title, it's probably not." If I saw a business for a mechanic and it was called something like Honest Joe's Car Shop I would certainly not go there. Anyway, aside from the uninteresting name, Jack will probably enjoy it. I think I might refer to it as Nun Valley from now on just to him just to make him mad. He really hates it when you do stuff like that. Now if it was called Nun Valley, that could be fun. Or really boring. I'm not sure which. I bet Nuns can get pretty crazy when you get a few drinks in them.

I'm sure I'll be posting again at some point about how I miss my sweet baby. About how I go and sit in his room and cry. But I'm not there yet. I will miss him. But mostly I just hope he has a blast. He should certainly make the folks annual summer camping trip more entertaining. And loud.

I forgot this picture

I meant to post this one too and I forgot.

Summertime boys

Things my children will do this summer:

Guitar Lessons with Daddy

Mikey is doing really well.  His form is amazing as you can tell from the picture. I found Jack a cheap guitar chord poster for his room. He's really proud of it.  He likes F9, I think. 

Art Projects

Jackson owns about 6 or so plastic light sabers.  I'm probably underestimating the actual number of light sabers.  Some make noise and actually light up.  Some change color.  But he wants to make his own light sabers out of "beatin' sticks."  They're painting sticks from Lowes but we use them to spank him when we feel the need (or when we're bored.)
Come on, that was just a joke.  Good grief.  He got most of them from Phillip's parents but he stole a couple from me. The bottom picture shows his beatin' stick light saber collection.  I think he's used up all my beatin' sticks so next time I get to spank him, I get to use a light saber.  How cool is that?  Maybe it will make the experience more fun for both of us.

Play outside in the sprinkler
I'm on a little black&white kick with these next few pictures. Mostly because I forgot to use my WhiBal card and I don't feel like spending lots of time color correcting. Sorry, Maury. So basically I'm being lazy. But I like black&whites anyway so it's all good. Most of these are pretty self explanatory. But I wanted to point out a few things. In the first picture Mikey did not poop in his drawers. Phillip just thought it would be fun to fill up his pants with water and watch him walk around like that. And Phillip was right. It was funny. If you've got kids, especially boys, you've probably done it too. Third picture: notice Jackson squatting over the sprinkler in the background. Why do all little kids do this? Weird. And he likes putting the sprinkler down the front of his pants.  Probably another boy thing.  I have to point out Mikey's crazy little body in these pictures. He's got more muscles than I do, which really doesn't say much. But still. The dude is crazy ripped. And even though the last picture is kind of blurry, I think it's funny enough to post anyway. It looks like he's about to hulk out.

Debbie took a video of the boys playing on the slip and slide at their house. It's really funny and I want to post it on here. But Mikey's naked so I'm not sure if I should. I don't think naked baby diddle is offensive. I think I'll think about it a little longer and then post it, how's that? Fair warning.