4th of July

The 4 cousins ( L to R):

Tytus, Noah, Katy, and VJ.

July 3rd we went to our friends' house in Gurley, AL, for the evening. After it was dark, the dads shot off fireworks.

4th of July night, we went over to T-Bone and Stephanie's place to have dinner and watch the fireworks. They live less than a mile from Dublin Park, and we were able to sit in their backyard and watch the fireworks that exploded above the park. The pictures above are of several of the fireworks. A friend of ours gave me a tip on shooting fast pictures: focus the camera, then when the image you want ( in this case, the firework you want) pops up, push the button all the way down. The reason it takes so long for the camera the shoot, is because it has to focus.

.." Stand beside her, and guide her..."

Here is a small peek of our Fourth of July, yesterday. I will put more photos later.

.." stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with the light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam. God bless America...my home sweet home!" - God Bless America

.." let music swell the breeze, and ring from all the trees, sweet freedom's song..." - My Country Tis' of Thee.

Sad Fact of Life

The sad fact of life is death of animals( people too, but this post is about a bird). Noah found out the hard way...finding a extremely hurt little bird, fixing a home for it, and then having to dispose of the dead little thing two days later. This little bird was hurt badly, although the picture doesn't show it. We think both its wings were broken, and one of its feet had a claw missing. Mom called Animal Services, but found it would cost something to have it put to sleep. We ended up not needing that, for it died a couple of days later. When Noah came to me the day before the poor thing went away, he asked for a picture of it. I thought he was going to cry...literally sob over it. I don't blame him..for he was attached to it.

This is a picture of the littel bird in the nest Noah

made for it.

Rangers' Apprentice

The books that I described as " GREAT" in the last post, are in a series called " The Rangers Apprentice". My friend Joelle recommended it to me, and although I was hesitant to read it at first,..it has turned out to be a fascinating series, so far. I've finished book 6, already, and hope to read the whole entire series( 10 books total, I think). The author, John Flanagan, mixes everything that is needed in a book ( romance, fighting, reasoning, adventure, mystery and time setting), in a great way. It's set during the Middle Ages, and even though the first couple of books have what mom said was the " Grim Reaper" on them, the book is actually good.





I'd recommend it, for probably about 9-10yrs and up. It's got fighting and some bloody stuff ( no pictures), and some touching parts,...and I know some people are emotional to that kind to stuff ( I can be with movies..which is why I don't really like the theater). Mom bought the first book at Sam's, and is going to read it to Noah, and I think he will really like it. It's got a boar fight, a Kalkara fight ( the Kalkara are mean creatures that fight for someone else..who I forgot. I don't remember much about them). He will really enjoy the fighting parts...and Mom will delight in the romance. ;)

Catapult Camp

my poster

Last week I had Catapult camp, which was pretty cool. Honestly, I didn't want to go, as I had a couple of GREAT books to read. ( I'll post on those later). It turned out to be really fun and the teacher, a graduate of this past year, was really good. There was math involved...such as the mechanical advantage, but Bethany explained it great. Her Mom, Dad, and sister were a great help too. Mrs. Johnson helped with the posters and such; Mr. Johnson designed and built the catapult; and Bethany's sister helped with the speech and launching one of the catapults.
There were two catapults, but I used the smaller one, since all the kids couldn't use just the big one. I'm sorry we don't have a picture. We kids each shot it 25 times, to get our data, then with the help of technology, we graphed it...on paper and on Microsoft Excel.

If you can't read the title ( which is supposed to draw attention), it reads: Heads of enemies. Dead animals. Burning Straw. Underneath, is the whole introduction, question, hypothesis, method, discussion, and conclusion. A lot of work...if you ask me.

Dinosaur Exhbit

I'm off schedule on posting, so first...sorry for that. About a week or so ago, the whole family went to the Dinosaur Exhibit at the US Space and Rocket Center. Pretty cool place. After that we went into the Davidson Center, to see that huge rocket ( it DOES have a name, but I don't remember it) that is spilt apart into sections and hanging from the ceiling. They had a graduation from Space Camp going on, so we heard a lot, thanks to speaker all over the Center.

Noah with a skull

Junior Paleontologists...a sandbox with

shells and "dinosaur teeth".

Sue, the T-Rex. This is a cast of her real bones.

We actually don't know if it is a boy or girl, but the "she" part comes from the person who

found her.

Happy Father's Day

The three dads in our family:

Papa: dad to Mom and T-Bone. ( T-Bone is below w/ VJ)

T-Bone: dad to Tytus.

Dad: dad to me, Noah and VJ.

Fun with cousin Tytus

We watched Tytus for a little bit yesterday, and we all had fun with him. He is a cutie, and no one can resist cooing over him. He had grown up so fast!

Sugar~ the dog we are babysitting.

Sugar sleeping in our computer room. I had been watching my math lesson, and she

came in to keep me company...and fell asleep.

Noah and VJ love her! ( as do all of us)

I was so happy to get this picture of her smiling.

Sugar is a great dog. Golden retrievers are so cute, but she is an attention/love-magnet..nobody can resist giving her loves.

Birthday cake/cupcake pictures

These cupcakes Mom brought to VJ's preschool for his b'day.

The thing on top is a monster truck.

A better picture of his birthday cake.

VJ's birthday

A fork-lift birthday.

VJ's actual birthday party..with a cake.

T-Bone ( uncle), Stephanie ( aunt) and cousin Tytus,

Mimi and Papa ( grandparents), and mom, dad, bro and sis attended.

This " party" was when Nana came up from Birmingham.

She would have come up the week after ( the top-most pic), but

I had my dance recital. So she came up for my recital, and we had ice cream

sandwiches after the recital. It was Mom's idea to stick a candle in the ice cream sandwich.

As said above, Nana came up for my recital, a visit, and ice cream sandwiches. After we got home, we had the desert. That worked for me...I didn't want to puke on stage ( and I didn't. ;) )

ASAP, I will get Sugar's adorable photo up. I got her " smiling". I still have to load it up on the computer, and then it'll get on the blog.

Pictures from past few weeks.

Sorry for not posting. A friend of ours who reads the blog reminded me to post more after we saw him at Dad's work today ( it was " Take Your Children to Work" day)..so I will try to do better.

Before school took their summer break, Noah had a report due about Russell Cave. Below aways, you can see the pictures that I posted from when we visited the cave. Here are some pictures of his diorama and poster board. I might explain a little below each:

He made a cave out of a box and Play Mobile figures, and then a poster board to go behind it.

the inside of the "cave". There is a better picture later.



This part was like the outside of the cave,

and the stream ran into the cave. This was "attached" to

the "cave". There are several animals

that the Indians hunted.

The set-up with the poster board behind it.

His poster board.

This is the inside from above.

In the last picture, you might have noticed that the mother is grinding corn, with a baby on her back. The little girl is on the brown "bear skin" with her doll. The blue on the left is part of the stream that into the cave. In the "south-east" part, the little brown thing with blue in it, is a basket with blueberries. On the "north-west" part, there is a snake. In the middle of the "north" part is three little clay pots of corn. In the "north-east" corner, there is another little clay pot of corn.

Noah worked hard on the research, and Mom offered help and suggestions. It turned out great. I'm not sure what kind of Indians there were, but they hunted and fished. They relyed on plants a lot.

Family News:

1~We are babysitting an elderly Golden Retriever named Sugar for a friend. The mom is a friend of Mom, and Noah goes to school with one of the boys. She is really good...she sleeps a lot, and doesn't like the sit outside while we eat dinner ( I don't blame her...it gets hot around these parts). Noah wants a German Shepherd in a couple of years, and he's getting a bit of training. I think babysitting an elderly Golden Retriever is a bit different than having a puppy German Shepherd and training it, but Noah will do fine, considering that he's read up on it, he has parents that had two Chocolate Labs ( when they were married...Mom had a dog when she was growing up, but Dad didn't), and he has two siblings. VJ likes the dog, and so do I. Sugar's really sweet, and likes attention..just like kids ( I admit it..I do too.). Funny thing is, she sleeps everywhere,...in our computer room, in the threshold between our living room and kitchen, in the kitchen, under our dining room table, in Mom and Dad's room ( for a little while), in Noah's room, and in the hallway between the boys' rooms. ( I have our spare room, across the house, near the kitchen, and right beside the laundry room. My bathroom shares a wall with the garage). When I say Sugar is "elderly", I mean she's not young. I believe she is about 8-9 years old in dog years ( about 48-52 human years). Sugar likes to be with people..so when I'm watching a math lesson and Mom is outside playing or watering the garden with VJ, she will come in and sleep on the floor.

I can't get a picture of Sugar up at the moment, but ASAP I will.

2~ We are watching " Liberty's Kids". It's a show that came our in 2002-2003, but we are watching it on Netflix..on Roku. It's a great show about the Revolutionary War..where these 3 kids ( Sarah, James, and Henri) note, question, disagree, discuss and help out during the War. I really like it. It starts with the Boston Tea Party, and goes through Bunker Hill and the Declaration of Independence..and a little further. We're watching the series.

I hope this satisfies you for the next couple of days. ;)

Happy Birthday, Vj

This is after the fact, but VJ is now 5 years old. It's amazing how much he has grown!

Recent family news:

Dad, Noah and a friend went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 this afternoon. Mom, VJ, and I stayed home...the older two happy that 2/3rds of the boys could FINALLY see the movie that Noah has been talking about for ages.

11 more days...

..until VJ turns 5!

Here are some baby pictures of him...the first is from 2006, the 2nd and 3rd are from when we took him home, and the last two are when we are home and holding and feeding him:

The only times Noah and I could feed
VJ a bottle was on Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day.

On his actual birthday, in about 11 days, I will post his "growing -up" pictures, from the top of this post's picture, to his birthday picture now...

Russell Cave picture

The left part is the part we COULDN'T go into

the right part, the one with the bridge, is the part we COULD

and that is where are those pictures on the last post

were from.

I can't remember where my notebook is, and I really don't want to do a fact post right now, since we may not have another OK-day for a while, or for tomorrow. Plus, my 20 minute computer time is almost done, and I want to get outside!

I may be able to do it during the week, or I'll do it next weekend.

Russell Cave

Noah and the sign to Russell Cave.

These are FAKE snakes.




Do you notice at all that I wasn't tall enough

to take a good picture, and held the camera above my head?

The same for this one, although it didn't

turn out as good as the other one.

We could only go in the non-watery part of the cave

and these clay people met us.

Noah liked this one.

L to R:

Mom, Monica,Frider, and Dad.

This is the part of the cave we couldn't go into.

I will post another picture of the one we could go into

later.

Nana's sister and brother-in-law came from Germany two weeks after the tornadoes came through AL. Nana brought them up to us from Birmingham, and we went to Russell Cave. Noah got Russell Cave to do his project on in school, and we went there for more info, to see the cave, and get more info. If he will let me, I'll take some pictures of the project when it is finished, and post them.

Here are some facts ( from Google, since I don't have my notebook right now):

It is the 3rd largest mapped cave in Alabama. It is ranked 90th on the U.S's longest cave list, and is currently 314 on the World's Long Cave list. Has a mapped length of 7.2 miles. A natural spring flows into the cave and travels 1.5 miles underground, before joining Widow's Creek and the TN river.

I might be able to put some more tomorrow.

On- the -way-to -Athens storm pictures

I'm quite suprised that this

picture turned out well, since

I had to zoom in too much.

That poor family...:(

Nashville during AL power outage

Nashville Zoo sign.

About to get out and walk around the zoo!

Birds..I forgot what kind.



Meerkat.

On the Historical Farm part of the zoo,

there was a plantation. The plantation house,

and cooking house, and herb garden and farm

animals were there. Above is the slave quarters.

You could look in the windows, but when I got

up there, this man told me there was a snake...

a copperhead snake...right above me. Believe me,

I got off there as quick as I could, told Mom and

Noah and Stephanie and VJ, and we got away.

Donkey, in the petting area.

This isn't a very good picture, but see the cross on

the back? We think that Jesus may have ridden

on one like this on His way into Jerusalem.

Rinoceros Iguana.

Bactrian Camel

did you know that they made the sound

for Chewbacca for the Star Wars movies?

and that they store fat in those humps,

which can be converted to water and enegry

when food isn't avaible?

I'll post storm damage pictures that we got on our way to Athens, on our way to TN, next.