Today I learned that Big Granny passed away. I still can't believe she's gone. I'll always cherish my memories of summer days in Mooreland with her, the best Christmas celebrations ever, and of course her cooking. She had a way with cookies and I swear I could sit on the couch and eat a pound of them like they were nothing. I'll miss her a lot, but I'm eternally thankful that she lived long enough to hold Myra and Noah in her arms and gently rock them to sleep.
I couldn't figure out exactly where these pictures might fit into the entry New Photo Album posted below. As a result...I just made another entry. Enjoy!!
Last Saturday was Davis Family Day! We took a trip to the Japanese Garden at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. Myra has always enjoyed feeding the Imperial Carp (Koi) Puppy Chow. Yes, we take our own fish food and yes, it IS dog food. The fish don't seem to mind. Noah enjoyed it too. He didn't get to feed the fish (the food just ended up in his own mouth) but he liked watching them.
Today was a very nice day to be in Texas. The temperature was perfect, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and there was a gentle breeze blowing all day that kept you from getting too hot. This state has far too few days like that. The summers here are blast-furnace hot, the falls are cloudy and rainy, and winters are short and mild. Every spring, God tries to make up for that with a couple of weeks of GREAT weather. Days like this make me glad that I have to walk outside to get anywhere while I'm at school.
After a few weeks of tinkering, Ricky and I are proud to announce the launch of our very own tech blog, the Jiffy Stop. It's hosted right here at TheSquatch.com and will be easily accessible through the "Features" tab of our navigation menu. If you're a techno-file or a wannabe, you'll probably enjoy a quick visit to the Stop. We've included fun links, useful tools, and funny pics in a very clean, minimalistic design. We aim to be YOUR one-stop shop for techno fun! Visit us at the Jiffy Stop.
Forget puppy love...
Yes, we just took another small step in bringing this family into the 21st century. We have recieved the Gode/Kao Remote (aka Sony RM-AV2100B Universal Remote Commander). It controls everything! I'm actually "pumped" about this one. It was actually MY idea! Anyway, Josh has been programming it and I'm going to be spending the next few days learning how to work this thing. So far, piece of cake (surgar free and low carb, of course). This is going to be great!
We resently started Noah on "solid foods". You know, the kind you have to chew before you swallow. He gets it down but not before making some funny faces we just had to share.
We're having a garage sale with the Gode's this weekend. If you want to buy your very own piece of Squatch-tastic "almost trash", feel free to stop by. I have only been to a few garage sales my whole life and I definitely have never hosted one, so this is going to be a whole new experience for me. I can't believe how much preparation goes into this thing. I hope we make a ton of cash! If we don't, though, at least we cleaned out the garage and our closets, so I guess it's not a total loss.
Noah's behavior lately has been a little unusual. He's always been that little guy that scurries between my legs as I'm walking, follows me around like a puppy, and makes funny noises at odd times. He's kind of like my own little R2-D2. I still can't figure out how to get that secret message out from Princess Leia out of him.
As promised earlier in the week, we've posted the great pictures that were taken during my birthday celebration at the Gode house. Take a peek at 'em here.
A couple of weeks ago I ran down to the local Blockbuster and rented a few movies. I finally found 3 worth renting and then spent my obligatory 10 minutes waiting in line. The total bill was more than 12 bucks. Right then and there, I swore to myself that I would make Blockbuster pay for all these years of crappy service, high-prices, and charging me late fees on movies I returned. How could I do it? ONLINE BABY!
I looked into three different services: Netflix, Blockbuster, and Wal-Mart. I refused Blockbuster immediately because they were the people I was mad at. This left only Wal-Mart and Netflix. I read a few online articles that said Wal-Mart had a smaller library and lower customer satisfaction ratings. The prices were only a little bit cheaper. Netflix had the advantage of a plan that we wanted and a distribution facility in DFW so we'd get our movies fast. We decided to go with NetFlix.
We signed up for the dirt-cheapest plan NetFlix has: 1 movie at a time, no limit for $9.99 a month. This is perfect for us. Since we don't usually start a movie until after the kids are in bed, we almost never watch 2 movies in a row. Add to that the piles of absolute crap coming out of Hollywood right now and there just aren't a whole lot of movies that we need/want to rent. So, we filled out our queue and they shipped us Ocean's 12 on Monday. It arrived Tuesday. ONE DAY LATER! I'm really digging NetFlix, so far. I'll keep you updated on how it turns out.
In an effort to keep up with the Gode Blog, we're posting some more Shoebox pics that I happened across. Of course, we're still about 50 pictures behind their Blast from the Past category, but I think we can live with it.
Chris on the side of a hill in the ritzy Capitol Hill region of Seattle. If you look close, you can see the Space Needle in the background.
Josh on the mud flats of the Puget Sound south of Seattle. Yes, it was VERY cold and windy there that day!
I was born! So, today we're celebrating! We spent some time in downtown Fort Worth on Saturday for the occasion and tonight, Anna and Ricky invited us over for dinner. Ricky grilled some mighty tasty steaks and Anna took care of the fixins. Even though he's a gas man, I have to admit, Ricky's getting pretty good with the fire. We had a great time hanging out (except for when Anna reminded me how close to 30 I am) and watching the kids play.
We ended up taking a walk down to their park and playing in the sand. Myra had to use the bathroom as soon as we got there and Noah decided he'd rather play on the hard cement than the grass, but all in all we had a lot of fun. Noah slid down a real slide for the first time. He didn't quite know what to think of it. When Chris laid him on his back and pushed him over the edge, he tried desparately to roll on his belly and grab on to anything that might save him! After I caught him at the bottom, though, he was ALL SMILES!
I know, Beer Bloggin' isn't allowed on this blog anymore, but this story just fits so well into the category. Monday is my birthday and we wanted to go downtown to celebrate. This weekend just happed to be the same weekend of the Fort Worth Arts Festival. Sundance Square was PACKED. We found parking in a garage not too far away, but Anna and Ricky, who were to meet us there, couldn't seem to find a space.
This boy can fall asleep anywhere! I'm just glad he didn't have a bowl of soup or a pie on his tray.
I wanted to make sure this one is saved in a safe place for her high school prom date.
Why should put your laundry away and not leave it on the sofa for later?
Today I took all three kids to the doctor (Hannah was just along for the ride). It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I had Hannah in Noah's old carseat so that I could snap it into the stroller. I carried Noah while helping Mura steer the stroller. I don't think I could do it everyday, nor would I want to, but not bad!
Who needs to hang around at Carswell for the show when it comes to you? These pics were taken during the Blue Angels show from our very own yard! We didn't have a telephoto or these could have been AMAZING! You could read tail numbers and the noise was tremendous, especially when the foursome would make a low pass. What a day!
The airshow is in town and we had so much fun at last year's, that we just had to go this year. We showed up just as they opened the gates and made the long drive along the runway to the parking area. This year, the Blue Angels were there and they had Fat Albert (a big, pretty transport) parked on the end of the runway for us to gander at. Unfortunately, our camera was still in the back, so we didn't get any pictures of that. When we did get to the show, we were a little disappointed. It didn't seem like there were as many planes on display as last year and because we arrived so early, there weren't a whole lot of aircrews out showing off their toys. One exception was the KC-135 tanker crew who had quite a crowd around their big gas-passer. Noah tried to give them a hand with maintenence.
Not to be outdone, Myra and I inspected their Number 3 engine to make sure that they could make it home again.
Right about this time is when Myra decided that she'd had enough airshow and we didn't stay much longer. That was OK, though, because last year's show was much better. Even so, it was a nice day to spend a beautiful morning.
