more favorite pics

I didn't downsize most of these pictures . . . partly because I forgot, but mostly because I didn't think about it.* They're pictures from the past (is that what time-lapse photography means?)

*I'm posting this late at night, so that made sense to me. It was supposed to say "mostly because I'm lazy."

Family pic of us at the zoo. It helps to bring a 5th person to photograph the rest of you!

These are other pictures from Joy's of dad's that I liked. Grandma Dut told me today that Evan has started really crawling.

I stayed with Ella in her double bed. Much to my surprise, I got one Croc mailed to me last week . I guess they didn't look very far under the bed for #2!

Here's a lovely shot of me & my parents at IHOP. I'm pretty sure we reached the point when the camera should have beeped a warning or something.

At Grandma Dut's apartment, Ella had fun throwing the suction cup ball and watching it stick. She tried to pull it off of my dad's glasses, but when she pulled the glasses started coming off. She jerked her hand off like she had touched a stove.

We had a discussion at home about what a group of cats is called. I told Grant that we have finally achieved "herd" status, but it's not the right word. Anyone know the collective term? Does pride apply to pansy house cats?

The cats in this pic are (heads L to R): Mia, Solomon, Weezer, Lily, Myrrh, and Sheba. (Or we could go by their aliases Solomon=Solomander, Solomonster; Weezer=Weeza; Lily=Lilliput, Willy; Myrrh=Murgatroid, Myrtle; Sheba=Shebaby)

In case you were wondering, it is possible to wear a cat and a hood on your head at the same time. Weezer did pretty good in there for a while, but not long enough to balance by himself long enough to get out the camera. He didn't even smile :(

109-40-109

The title of this post is the directions to my house from my parents, or vice versa. Now you know.

Ryan and I left my parents' this morning a little before 9:00a EDT and got back to Highland around 5:15p EDT, so we made pretty good time. We stopped at the last rest area in NC going west on I-40 and had fun taking weird pictures. People kept looking at us like we were strange. Oh well.

I finished painting this bird puzzle last night, and after looking at it this morning, dad thought it needed some more sanding. He sanded the tree, leaves, and background, so I have to repaint them, but they're not nearly as hard as the birds. The oriole and hummingbird ended up being my favorite of the birds. It was hard cutting them out and retaining the right shape for each of them.

Well, time to start unpacking. Too bad I have to go back to my job tomorrow :(

do they go to the zoo? . . . supposibly

The NC Zoo is in Asheboro - pretty close to my parents' house. On Sabbath, we packed in my car with a picnic supper and went to visit some animals (as if there weren't enough at home).


grant's zebra


grant rolling dung with the local beetles


gazing at the grazers


fennec - notice the ears look a lot like Weezer's


funhouse mirrors?


Lowland gorilla


arctic fox - if you've seen Planet Earth, you saw one of these stealing goose eggs and goslings


the laziest polar bear ever


puma, catamount, mountain lion, cougar, panther, painter, mountain screamer . . . you pick

bad boyz

this is weezer (sir cap'n jack weezer*)
*i was not home and played no part in coming up with his name

he doesn't get out much. he's not supposed to, but on a leash for the purpose of taking pictures, it's ok.

weezer doesn't slow down much, so it's hard to take pictures of him, especially in low light. he's a blue point so is a lot lighter than our other meezers. he scares me by flying up the stairs and jumping on my book while i'm reading in bed.

he aspires to be a jungle cat.

solomon is teaching him.

solomon makes a good babysitter.

he plays close attention to weezer's leash and doesn't let him get very far.

take me out to the . . . rain delay?

Only the amazing reputation (not!) of the Burlington Royals could pull the Fords and Iversons (+ a Heilman) together for an evening of family fun. Actually, when Jaclyn and I hatched the idea of meeting up for a baseball game, we chose the Royals purely based on the fact that it's approximately an hour from both of our parents' houses.

The Johnson City Cardinals (being a city we lived very close to, felt like the real home team) were in town for the match-up. After two innings, the score was 7-0 in favor of the Royals - helped by a grand slam.







It's probably good that we didn't look into the teams very much before driving to the game. The league is called "Rookie" and is one step below "A" league in the minors. I don't think the Royals' shortstop actually caught a grounder that came to him.

After the second inning the players came in, the tarp came out (after several readjustments), and the rain settled in. Since the whole purpose of even going to the game was to have time to just hang out, we didn't mind too much. It was fun watching the Cardinals compete in trying to lob a baseball into a plastic cup. I was proud of myself for taking a picture of one of the MANY lightning strikes around the stadium. After they (I'm not really sure who) decided the rain had sufficiently stopped, the tarp was rolled up and the teams proceeded to go through their entire warmups again.

To pass the time, Grant suggested starting a massage line. Notice he's not having to do any massaging. Actually, he gave my mom such a rough massage, her shoulders are bruised today.







We also engaged in Indian wrestling, thumb wrestling, mercy, and playing that game where you try to slap the other person's hands. Dad documented our boredom.






Two and a half hours after the game started, we had begun the 3rd inning. In hopes of catching a foul ball, we watched from the grass beside the empty set of bleachers. Ryan ran outside of a big fence and got one ball and Grant actually caught one on the fly. I hoped to get one, but didn't.

The JC Cardinals made a pretty good comeback. They ended up having 8 runs, but the Royals got 12. Somehow, they only recorded a total of 5 errors for the game, but there seemed to be almost one per play.




Grant, Jaclyn, me, Ryan, Stephanie, and Ken watching from beside first base. There were a couple of throws that could have hit us if the first baseman hadn't jumped.

Even though we didn't leave until after 11:30p, it was still a fun way to spend a weeknight. We had a good idea Jaclyn!

Sabbath afternoon activities that rock!

I'm home again. Back at the ranch with all 8 cats and 2 dogs. Ryan and I drove over from Collegedale on Friday after he went to a couple of interviews. We stopped and saw the Cooks (and their new Altima) on the way home for some spaghetti.

My mom took off this whole week while we're here, so we're just planning on one big party.

We drove up to Stone Mountain State Park for some afternoon refreshing mountain activities. Sliding down the rocks there was always my favorite thing about the park.

Maggie and Oreo came with us, so I dragged Maggie down the "slide" with me. Oreo doesn't like water as much, but she went down a couple of times . . . not willingly. One time, Maggie swam with me over to the little hole to the left of the waterfall in the first picture.

Grant gave Ryan lessons in how not to run into rocks. I don't know if it worked though. I went down with Oreo one time and almost knocked a little kid down. Oreo and I got split up and we went around him on either side. Disaster averted.

The dogs got pretty tired out from running all over. We found out that Oreo is part mountain goat. At one point, she ran across the rocks in the upper falls without slipping! I thought for sure I was going to have to catch her on the way down. She also dove off the angled rock on the side after realizing she was falling with nowhere to go. It was pretty funny watching her.

I was the only one who would slide down the upper falls. I used to be really scared to climb out to them, but it seemed easier this time. The part Oreo ran across was just above where I'm sitting in the picture. When we used to come to Stone Mountain, the water was over my head, but rocks and sand have filled in the pool. It's still fun though.






Deer were abundant in the park. We were greeted by a few with "Will work for food" signs on the road. Maggie took a while to even notice them, but you can see in this picture that she saw this one. I have a picture of a speckled fawn, but it didn't get copied over to the computer, so it's not here. Sorry.

The dawgs - tied up and hungry while they watched us eat our picnic supper.

the big "3"

Olivia turned 3 yesterday. Her party looked like a staff meeting. Don & JP, Tyler, Renee, Nikie & Chadd, Janelle, Robin & Bethany, Michael's parents (O's grandparents), and I were the guests. Bethany was the only other kid there besides Gabby.

As you've seen before, Olivia gives good reactions when the camera is out. She got two of these Barbies, but I don't think she cared. I got her the Barbie dog & doghouse because it's a golden retriever.



Their new puppy Moose was glad for the party because wrapping paper and boxes taste great! He likes to sleep on the air conditioning vents, just like Maggie did. They said if you can't find Moose, he's usually in one of the girls' rooms asleep on the vent.

We had cake and ice cream before Olivia had me open/assemble all of her new presents. She even put on the new clothes her grandparents bought her. You'll see that she has different ones on in the pics below.

We spent the rest of the time just talking and playing in the living room while rain poured down outside. It's the first lasting rain we've had in a LONG time.

The fun thing about big presents is big boxes. This is the box to her Dora the Explorer castle. I acted like I was going to carry her outside with the rest of the trash. Everyone yelled "Bye Olivia!" She didn't like that.





Gabby saved Olivia from getting tickled by laying on top of her.