Reading Books and Feeling Large

post by Kim
Nice title, huh? Well, it combines the topics of the day. I'm in a bullet point kind of mood, so here we go:
-First, I shall digress into the truly unimportant. The last picture that Kyle posted has got to be the most unflattering picture of me in years, possibly since seventh grade. I am stuffed into a ladder and leaning forward to avoid Carter's knees in my back. My baby weight is all pooched out. I'm not even attempting to suck it in because of the awkward angle. I begged Kyle to not put it up and he told me to get over it because I was being vain (so gentle, my man). Could he be right? Most probably.
- My friend Laura tagged me to post about a book I'm reading. I'm never reading just one, so I thought I'd put a couple. Here's what you do: turn to page 125 of your book and type the 5th sentence. Tell what the book is. You can either post it on your blog or leave it on my comments. I'm tagging Sarah, Amy, Lori, Wes, and Jarrod.
-"I couldn't wait to hear Denver's take on the retreat- the horrors of hanging withwhite ladies and all that." This book is about an unlikely friendship between a black man who wasn't told slavery was over till he was an adult and a white bread yuppie. Pretty interesting. True story.

-"Hooker limped to the SUV and gingerly eased himself onto the passenger seat." I Love Janet Evanovich. She is pure mindless entertainment. Wish she cussed less, but fortunately, I'm the master of filtering it out when I read. My book characters say a lot of "Holy Pajamas" and "Oh, man." Hey, whatever works.



- Lastly, I took the boys to Sea World for the first time. Seth loved it. We met Sarah, Jarrod, and Logan there so Friggs could not have been happier. It was a pretty easy day for me because I had to sit there holding Scooter, therefore Jarrod had to sit with the boys on every single dippy ride. Sarah and I are very thankful for his infinite patience and good humor with the boys. I still laughed at him trying to squeeze himself onto the tiny rides, though. (Note to Mom: see how I can be thankful and still be mocking? They coexist!)

-All the guys on the ride. Note how poor Jarrod takes up 3/4 the space.

-Logan and Seth hugging a tree. Seth had allergies and one eye is kinda swollen. He didn't seem to care.

- This is what Scooter thought about Sea World. This may not look it, but this is a monumental moment. First time to ever fall asleep in the stroller!

Camping and Addictions

We went camping this last weekend with my Mom's side of the family. We all met near Tyler and stayed the whole weekend. We had a great time and got to catch up with relatives we rarely see, especially now that we live in San Antonio and they all still live back up in Northeast Texas. We didn't take near enough pictures, so there isn't much evidence of the trip. Seth had a blast with his cousins- he got to jump on a huge bounce-house thing and play putt-putt and ride bikes and he even caught a fish all by himself!


A good portion of our weekend was spent playing Settlers of Catan. We have become somewhat addicted to it since Andy & Katie and Josh & Sheridan introduced us to it a couple of weekends ago. After playing it with them, Kimberly and I bought it so that we could play it with my family. And play we did. The whole weekend. If you've played the game, you know what I mean, and if you haven't, you should go out and buy it right now. We were trading sheep and ore for wheat and bricks all weekend long. In fact, when we were packing up to go, my brother-in-the-law, Justin, tried to convince me to let them keep our game. I said no, of course, he can order his own online. I can't say that Kimberly and I could go a day without it. After the boys were in bed tonight, we played two games in a row. Make fun all you want, I have no shame, anyway.




The Stringer Mob. Honestly, have you ever seen cooler cats? I didn't think so. Especially not in hats.





Blake enjoyed his first taste of beef while camping in Tyler. He literally nursed the juices out of a piece of fajita meat for half an hour. He also gnawed on it some, practicing using his new teeth, or "teefs" as we like to call them. He has one on top and one on bottom now. Maybe soon, he'll have as many teeth as Seth, who told me last month that he had "a thousand teeth."

Scootin' in the yard

Scoot recently ventured beyond the safe haven of his carpeted realm into the wide open spaces of our backyard. He enjoyed himself thoroughly and even posed for a few pictures. Friggs was all too thrilled to have Blake out there in his domain. You see, Friggs has many great adventures within the confines of our little yard. On the very same playscape, you might encounter Superman, a shark eating a fish, dinosaurs playing hide-and-seek, a death-defying rescue of Baby Jaguar, or some combination of the above. Our backyard is a happening place. And Friggs can't wait for Blake to join him. So he was understandably excited when Kimberly took Blake out there to crawl around for a while. He actually took these pictures.

Word Weirdness

"Last night I snitched some cookie dough." Did that sentence sound odd to you? Well, it did to Kyle. I had been telling Kyle how Seth loved helping me make cookies, but he snitched too much. Kyle said something like, "Your family is so weird, ya'll are the only people I know who use 'snitch' that way." I maintained that, while my family is most certainly weird, he is once again being Captain Oblivious to have never heard other people use "snitch" that way. So, I'm calling him on it. We are opening up the polls, folks. Remember, it's not just your right to vote, it's your duty. And please, be honest. Note: I am not contesting that "snitch" also means "to tattle" - just that my definition is also normal. Once again, we thank you for your willingness to judge petty matters in our lives.

published by Kim

Sad Dad

Kimberly took a couple of pictures of the boys in the bluebonnets near Papa C and Grammy's house. She went up to visit last week and left me here all alone, by myself. But don't be sad for me, I just worked all day and then came home to an empty house where I scrounged for some leftovers to eat. I came up with some green beans and a couple of questionable deviled eggs. And just to rub it in my face, Kimberly comes home with vivid tales of kite-flying and lazing about in the sun-drenched bluebonnet fields of Brenham. (I think it's the actual field where they film those saccharine Blue-Bell commercials with the picturesque families.) Oh, well, you probably aren't reading this anyway. You just skipped right down to the pictures. No matter, I've got some worms to go eat, anyway.

Kimberly kisses tiny giraffe

How's that for a headline? Just when you thought we had run out of weird things to do, we take a picture at the zoo so that it looks like Kimberly is kissing a tiny giraffe. Man, are we cool. Just as a side note, while this picture was being taken, I came to realize just how commonplace our dorkiness has become in our household. Friggs was anxious to move on from the giraffes and see the rhinos, but Kimberly said, "Hold on, Friggs, Dad is going to take a picture of me kissing that giraffe. Then we'll go and see the rhinos." Any other kid would certainly have been puzzled at this, but our kid just said, "Okay," and leaned up against the wall to wait. That made me laugh as much as this ridiculous picture. Look closely, and remember, this is a real giraffe that has been "miniaturized down".

I will become fluent.

In an attempt to solidify my resolve, I am posting my new goal for all the world to see. I am using the Rosetta Stone software through our local library to learn Spanish. It will be useful in my job, and plus, I want to be able to watch half of the tv stations that we get in San Antonio. As devout eschewers of cable, we have a ridiculously outdated "rabbit ears" antenna on our television, and therefore only get the local channels. Sometimes they show really cool movies in Spanish, and I sit there watching and trying to recall my high school Spanish. So, if you know Spanish, next time you see me, maybe we can converse. Just keep it simple and speak in a slow, deliberate, and exaggerated manner.

In other news, Friggs put on quite a show at the Riverwalk this past Saturday. We took the boys downtown to see the Deep Sea Adventure at IMAX. Which, by the way, Friggs loved. He's very much into whales and sharks. Kimberly and I were cracking up because it was a 3D video and Friggs was sitting there in his little yellow 3D glasses, oohing and ahhing at everything. If he reached out and grabbed at the screen once, I bet he did it a thousand times. It truly is a realistic experience; he kept reaching out and saying, "Look, those jellyfish are coming at us!" But, back to the show Friggs himself put on. After the movie, we went for a stroll along the Riverwalk. At the end by the mall, there's a kind of rotunda-thing where the river makes a circle. It's a large gathering area with lots of places to sit, there's a food court there and they have a live band playing. The band was some kind of new-age pan flute/indian group. There was a large area in front of the band with tables for people to sit and enjoy the show. Friggs was literally moved by the tribal rhythms and broke into dancing. He went back and forth, right in front of all these people, who were laughing and clapping and pointing. It was hilarious, mostly because of the spontaneity of it, but also because everyone got such a kick out of it. (He was the only one dancing, mind you.) Kim scrambled to get the camera and it only got a few seconds before the memory was full. But I still think it's worth posting. So, here it is: a tribute to the wonderful lack of inhibition that comes with being three years old.