Earth Day 2010

Today is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.  Many (many) years ago when I was a senior in high school I worked on the school newspaper.  That year one of my news articles was about Earth day.  So to do my part I convinced my Dad to let me plant some trees.  He was happy to oblige me and I was gung-ho to dig the holes myself.  He bought 4 Texas Ash trees.  Now these weren't teeny tiny trees.   These were 4 BIG trees in BIG buckets that needed BIG holes.  This is when I learned a valuable lesson about Texas soil.  After you dig about 12 inches you hit limestone....hard, big, impossible to get around, limestone.  Needless to say I might have dug the first 12 inches of one of the holes for the trees.  My brother took on the task of the other 3 and 3/4 holes.   I think one tree was planted in just rock and never flourished like the others.

I am still very proud of those trees and that story.  See most Dads might have talked me into something smaller and more managable, but not my Dad.  He let me go for it and learn my own lessons and create my own story.

I still drive by my old house from time to time and I still Chris about this story everytime we go by.  The trees have gotten really big and one had to be taken out because they were over growing each other...but here they are, planted Earth Day 1990.



My Earth Day trees are the ones nearest the white trucks.  Looking good for 20 year old trees.

And just to go down memory lane a little more, here are more pictures of the house I spent my youth in.








There is a glimpse of the famous shed that caught on fire when I was in college.

and just for good measure, here is Tallie's old house too.

Happy Birthday and Memory Lane

Today we celebrated Chris/Daddy's birthday. It was nice for him to be off work on his birthday. Archer and I took him out to lunch. The whole family celebrated with cupcakes for dinner. Christian and I sang to him (see video clip) and Archer did what he does best so far, he slept. He is a pro at sleeping and there are no complaints from Mom or Dad on that one.

Tonight we also made a 1st attempt at a family picture. We don't have one picture of all of us so far. Let's just say I will post it just to say we did it, but I hope to get a better one taken soon.

The boys gave Dad a digital frame to take back to work with him for his birthday. I spent a good part of Monday morning filling a 2G memory card with 500 pictures. I can't believe I was able to put that many on there and I skipped A LOT of pictures. It would be interesting to see just how many pictures I have on my computer.

This bring me to memory lane. I came across so many fun pictures from my and Chris' relationship. From the first pictures I remember us taking, to Paris, to New York, to fire truck rides, to teacups, to our wedding, to the birth of Christian and now the birth of Archer. Here are just a few of the pictures I came across.

The time Chris has spent at home this 1st week of Archer's life was priceless to me. We all bonded as a family, shared firsts with our sons and worked as a great parental team. One reading bedtime stories while one comforted a newborn. So today being his birthday is a great time to say how much we love him and appreciate him. We will miss him when he goes back to work and will be super happy to see him when he come home at night.

Memories

I have found myself thinking about when I was a 5 year old. Starting school, cheerleading camp, then cheering with the real cheerleaders as the high school football game and Wonder Woman. All things I enjoyed, and was excited, about when I was a 5 year old in 1977 (I'm trying not to pay too much attention to the fact that it was 3-0! years ago)



Now I get to re-live those memories through Abigail and I am enjoying every minute of it because I know how much fun she is having and how many great memories she is making for herself right now.




This weekend we heard that Abby had gone to a birthday party where all the kids were asked to come dressed as their favorite super hero. Abby picked Wonder Woman. What a great choice!!!!



This is the comic book Wonder woman and then this is me Halloween 1977 as Wonder Woman.

I know my costume is a pale comparison to the official attire, but hey you can only do so much with red felt and white paint. (edit: Mom let me know that that is my Dad's handwriting on my cape)

Then we heard that Abby attended a cheerleading camp this summer and would be performing at a high school football game later this month. Here is me doing just that same thing. Again...circa 1977.






I can't wait to see Abby and hear all about her adventures as Wonder Woman. About her flying around in her invisible jet and using the lasso of truth on George, Reese and Emmy. She has a great imagination so I know she has done much with her Wonder Woman powers and has made the world a much better place.

I also can't wait to see her cheer that she performed at the football game. She is such a wonderful dancer. I am sure she made an incredible cheerleader.