Farewell To A Friend

It was a sad day when we had to say goodbye to the truck (at least for two of us- Jacque has a heart of stone). This good ol' buddy got us everywhere we needed to be since 2003. Sure, it wasn't fancy, there was never any power steering, for a whole year a door chime would randomly start sounding at freeway speeds, and yes I had to scrape the inside and the outside of the windows all winter long... but this truck had character. And it was a part of the family- well almost (selling family members is kind of illegal, so we had to disown it before we could get rid of it).
It will always be remembered- for the good times and the bad. Like when Jacque tried to borrow it when we were dating and she didn't know how to take the parking brake off so she blocked an entire city street (she was sideways across all the lanes) until she figured it out. Or when we would make midnight trips from Provo to San Diego and not be able to see out the windshield because of all the semi-trucks kicking up dirt and we had no windshield wiper fluid (the reservoir has a hole in it). Or the many curbs Jacque took her no power steering frustrations out on. Or sliding through an icy intersection nearly sideways because the light turned red too darn fast ( I hate it when that happens!). Yes, we have many fond memories of the truck... but alas that is all there is now. Memories.

Little Man was disappointed that he was losing his biggest Matchbox toy so we decided to take him somewhere to cheer him up a little bit.

Nothing like some good ol' John Deere tractors to boost his spirits.

Connor got straight to work inspecting even the finest of details. Experiences like this don't happen everyday (unless you live here of course).

By the end Little Man was back to himself once again. Truck.... what truck???

Tornado Time

Did you know that the National Weather Service made a small but significant change to the way they report weather information? In order to achieve greater consistency they have decided to start naming earthquakes and tornados, just like they name hurricanes (you know- Katrina, Andrew, etc...). They feel that this will help them add a more human touch to the ravages of mother nature.

And speaking of Tornados, we were a little concerned before we moved to Iowa because we were told this area is part of "tornado alley". Well, we've been here for 3 years now and we haven't experienced any tornados yet so we thought we we're gonna escape without any funnel clouds of doom. But then yesterday happened...

We usually watch the news to stay up on the weather but somehow this one snuck up on us. And on top of that, it seems that this tornado managed only to damage the inside of one lowly little house. And as luck would have it- that lowly little house was our house. Have a look. And by some miraculous chance, what name do you think the National Weather Service issued this tornado???

Tornado Connor, of course!

Life's A Toy

Boring old miniature ironing board??? I think not!!

Modern Art

People have got it all wrong these days. How the world can recognize junk like this as art is beyond me. Seriously, the world in general has lost its marbles and wouldn't know quality art if it flew down from the sky and hit people in the head. My dog could do better than this (metaphorically speaking because we don't currently have a dog, but if we did I assure you he would do better. And if he didn't, we'd probably get rid of him)
Art should be something realistic, something that has meaning in your everyday life. For example, Jax made a cake for a baby shower last week and it turned out great. Look at the attention to detail, the flowers around the edges, and the blocks offering a visually stunning 3-D display. And on top of that, it tasted good too. Now that, is art! Imagine how much more fun it'd be to visit a museum where you got to eat everything afterwards instead of just staring at boring old pictures! Am I right, or am I right??

Personally, I don't consider myself much of an artist, but that doesn't mean I can't make a contribution to this world and help make it a better place. Therefore, my artistic legacy is a non-traditional piece I like to call the "Man Sandwich". Here it is below, pictured in all it's glory. 3 full pieces of bread donated themselves to this worthy cause, as well as some home-made strawberry jam and creamy peanut butter. The best part of this exhibit is found in the PB&J to bread ratio. A normal PB&J has a measely 2 slices of bread with one part PB and one part making a 1:1 ratio. But this monster has 3 slices of bread and 2.5 parts PB and 2.5 parts jelly creating an astounding 5:3 ratio with an 66% boost in flavor. Now that's taste-tastic!! Top it off with a frosty mug of ice-cold milk and you are having a great day, my friend!

Not to be overdone, Little Man has also interested himself in the arts. He says he's not ready to create just yet (besides in his diapers, but that's a whole different story) so he's happy just appreciating art right now. When we asked him what his favorite art medium was he immediately ran over without hesitation and grabbed his latest and greatest modern art magazine...

He spends hours everyday pouring over the latest and greatest details coming out of art factories all across the world: Italy, Japan, Germany to name a few. No detail escapes his well-trained eye as he satisfies his thirst for beautiful machines.

So what's his first collector's piece going to be??? The beautiful and stylish, yet sophisticated, Ferrari California. It's a wonderful Italian masterpeice that rivals the Sistine Chapel in it's hisorical importance!!

A Kodak Moment

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.... this one might even be worth 2000!!

Labor Day Thoughts

"You know, I've been thinkin' about this whole Labor Day thing recently. The success of today's working world has been attributed to efforts of labor unions' efforts to implement minimum wage standards, paid vacations, and being able to check Facebook and other social networking sites when the boss isn't looking. It's a wonderful David and Goliath success story of a group of like minded people gathering together to fight against those that would keep them down. Recently it has come to my attention that there are still under priviledged and under represented groups in our society. Yeah, that's right... I'm talking about me!! Did you know that less than 1% of children under 3 years old registered to vote in last year's election?? I know, it's shocking, but just look it up on the internet (preferably with Wikipedia) and you'll see that it's true. Just because we're smaller than everyone else doesn't mean we're any less important. So I've decided to organize to get to the word out and let our voices be heard. Our membership is a little small right now, but our numbers have increased dramatically since we've stop holding meetings during naptime.

I still don't understand why people are trying to keep the Little Man down. We are just as talented as the rest of the world... just look at the balance it takes to pull a maneuver as technical as this.

I know what you're thinking, he's way to small to have chopped down an entire tree and start a fire all by himself. Guess what? Believe it buddy!

Heck, I'm even tall enough to see out the window now!

Sure I'm inexperienced in today's global economy. Sure my resume is only one line long. And sure I like to take baths with a rubber ducky. Let's not focus on what I can't do, but on what I CAN do instead. And I CAN fit an entire banana in my mouth...

... Can you do that???

I rest my case."