Been gone too long...

Good times at Palate to Pallet in 2012

Such a heavy backpack at Mast General Store in Knoxville 2012

Too many hormones in the chicken. Summer 2013

Grammy Noah spends the night. Summer 2013

Sean and Jack headed to Washington D.C. with Leslie snapping the pic. Fall 2012.

Warrior Dash!

Michael Laymon and I completed the Warrior Dash today in Manchester, Tennessee. It was fun and muddy and hard. Leslie was our faithful wingman today, taking pictures and guarding our gear and id's. Jack was also present, ready to have fun at every opportunity, and he is an excellent cheerleader. Click the picture below to see the pics. Thank God we all made it there and back safe.

Warrior Dash Sept 2011

Sissy Gets Her Stitches Out

Leslie's youngest sister, Ashley, whom I refer to as "Sissy" came over Monday night for a little medical assistance. She needed to have some sutures removed from a couple of places on her back, and here are the photos of the action, including Mr. Inquisitive watching and showing his concern. He urged Leslie to be careful and said "don't hurt her Momma" several times...

Jack watching the action.

Leslie hard at work with steady hands.

Ashely is seen here focusing her chi, and using the Force to remain calm.



Breathe, just breathe.




A close-up of the operation.

Everything is looking good. Jack is making his assessment of a job well done by his Mommy and his brave Auntie.

Jack is 4 years old. Wow.

We had a million people join us to celebrate Jack's birthday party, and it was a great time. There are several pictures here, but as always, Aunt Emmy will give us the best ones a little bit later. What a great day!

Train Ride

We took a nice train ride in June on the Tennessee Valley Rail Road here in Chattanooga.

June Train Ride

Learn from my mistakes people...

So, here is a list of things that I forgot to bring on vacation that would have enhanced our trip...and an explanation regarding each item:

• A rubber mallet: Have you ever tried to put up a tent and drive the stakes in with your hand or your flip-flop? Not good.


• Camping chairs: Going to Wal-Mart to buy beach chairs at $10 each, when we already have 6 camping chairs at home? Ouch.


• T-shirts to wear to the beach: I packed lightly, knowing that we had a washer/dryer in our rental house and we could do laundry whenever. However, my good intentions led to underpacking for this particular activity. So, I ended up wearing a white undershirt to the beach. Dork.


• Tennis rackets/gear and a basketball. Guess what is across the street from our rental house? That's right, a community park with really sweet tennis courts and a 4-goal hardtop for bball. Dude. A real missed opportunity. A little research with our mutual friend Google could've been beneficial in this situation.


• Food: I have been saving a big bucket of trailmix for this trip, and where is it? Still on the shelf in our pantry...all alone. And it could have been in my belly. Just like the sixpack of Woodchuck that's sitting in the pantry floor. Also, we have several muffin/ brownie mixes that could have been put to good use, and would not have taken up much packing space.


• The newspaper. Jeez, I am going nuts with no TimesFreePress to read. I've got to look into having it sent to wherever I'm staying instead of putting it on hold or having a pile at home when I get back. I know I can read it online, but it's just not the same.


• Bike Lock: How many bicycle cable-locks do I have at home? Two? Three? How many do I have here? None. I do not trust my fellow man long enough for me to go into a store for 10 minutes and do a little shopping. There are several shopping areas within a short bike ride of our rental and I can ride my bicycle by and window-shop only. Dude.


• A tandem bike for Jack would've been nice. He's three years old, and can ride his bike, but man...it takes a lot of coaxing and cajoling to get him to go any faster than a leisurely three year old's pace. Which is slow. Very slow.


• A real shovel. Plastic shovels at the beach are really only novelties. They are not very good for digging or castle building and they break if you use them more than twice.

That's not to say that the vacation was a bust or not fun or any of that negative stuff; on the contrary, I think our family has had a very relaxing, very fun time. We have been to the beach every day, and had opportunities to go running and biking. We have also played some awesomely fun games on the Wii such as Karoke, Just Dance 2, and American Idol. And I am telling you people, if you want to laugh, play some of these dancing games with your family and/or friends. If you haven't yet, you are really missing out.

Gone fishing

On Saturday evening, Leslie and I loaded the wagon with my tackle box, a couple of fishing poles, and Jack. We meandered down the street to the neighborhood pond, and hoped for at least a few bites from some brim to pass the time. Four bass later, it had turned out to be a fun evening. Thanks to Leslie for taking some timely action photos.

Does anyone else do this?

My wife has many superpowers...among them is the following:
Whether she has been sleeping for one hour or 10, she wakes up disoriented. Sometimes she even sits up and looks around bewildered, then she looks at me and inevitably says, "What day is it?"

Also, she has the power to have a hightened body temperature. However, under pressure from a party that shall remain nameless...I have edited this part. Just suffice it to say: It's crazy. Meanwhile, I'm laying beside her shivering and just trying to make sure some part of my body is touching her so I can stave off frost bite. I call her "Wall-heater Girl." That's her super-power name. More to come on her other super-powers some other time. These are some of her funnier super powers, endearing one and all, making her whole package "all that and then some."

Jack speaks...

1. While at church last weekend, Leslie, Jack and I were headed upstairs to the second floor, but instead of steering towards the stairs, Jack tried to pull us toward the elevator and he said, "Let's take the illustrator!"

2. Leslie was singing the B.I.B.L.E. song to Jack the other day
"It's the b-i-b-l-e, yes that's the book for me"
to which Jack complained: "I don't want to sing the bee-hive, bee-hive E!" Pretty funny stuff.

Fast-Track Posts

Okay people...Life is too busy these days, and I find myself unable to make time for blogging. So I am going to adjust by going to a mostly text-style update for the time being.

The first text update is about Jack, of course...