Our Persisting Memories

No, our house hasn't been taken over by a Silent Hill like dark dimension, Sophia just likes to walk around with things over her eyes. It just so happens that a swim diaper is both hilarious and creepy. 40278|640

Phoebe cut tooth number 2! Her other bottom tooth. She looks so cute with them too. She is starting to look more and more like a toddler and not a baby......which makes me sad. 39975|640 Phoebe had her 12 month well check. She only weighed 17.11 pounds!!! I at least thought she would be 20 pounds. I know my sister, Jennifer, is reading this right now thinking "My baby weighed that at 3 months!" Cousin Casper will have his 12 month well check in a couple weeks and I just know he is going to weigh as much as Sophia does, which is about 26 pounds. Am I right, or am I right Jenn?! When trying to praise the girls for something good I will typically clap my hands and say "Good job." Mostly when we are playing, otherwise it is simply "good job." Phoebe has caught on and whenever I say "good job" she will clap her hands. Even if she is holding something else like her cup or a toy she has to stop everything to clap. What a silly sweetheart. I...

29% of people approve of President Bush. 14% approve of congress. 6% view the economy positively, yet more than 80% say they are satisfied with their circumstances and even more are happy with their jobs. While most Americans hate congress, they are overwhelmingly happy with their own congressman. Only 18% of Americans think they are worse off than their parents at a comparative stage in their parents' lives. There is a mortgage crisis. That huge crash you hear is only the market correcting itself. In this case it was allowed to grow far too large, and the subsequent economic downturn and market correction are going to come at a huge cost. Even so, buoyed by the weak dollar and increased exports the US has yet to have a single quarter of reduced output. A house is not an investment, yet there's an entire generation of people who thought it was. The "recession" is a combination of increasing gas and food prices and decreased asset value due to the housing corre...

Have you ever googled your name? Thankfully, almost the entire first page of googling BJ Atchley actually refers to me. Dig a little deeper and I find BJ Atchley of Connecticut who plays the Alto Saxophone . Too bad I haven't picked mine up in 5 years or so. So my apologies go out to BJ Atchley of CT from whom I will likely steal the first page of google for some time to come.

One thing I failed to mention in last weeks post was that when we left town we accidentally left our older cat, Dawn, locked in the office. We had left all other doors open in case they had been in those areas, but we never thought about the office since she rarely ever goes in there. She was in there from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday night. We are so lucky we didn't come home to a dead cat. She could barely meow and felt so light. She ate and drank right away and promptly barfed it all back up in our closet. After a couple more days she was back to herself and was putting her weight back on. We felt so terrible and vow to double check the house before we leave. Continuing to work on the potty training this week with no luck. Not once has she gone while sitting on the potty. I feel as if she is teasing us now about it. One night she says, very sincerely "Sophia poopoo potty." My reply, "Sophia are you REALLY going to go on the potty?" "No, don...

Just FYI. Heather is pretty busy and has a lot to write for the weekly family update. She's pretty enough that I'll forgive her. 39651|640

It's been a while since I've been in a position to post anything of note. I spent most of last week at a work conference. The fun part is that it was held at the Ft Worth stockyards, so I got some fun pictures. Some of the following pictures are HDR pics, but I've tried to be a little more subtle about them than others you might find on the web. 39133|640 39103|640 39013|640 39031|640 38977|640 Also, the hotel was supposed to be haunted, so I took some long exposures to see if I could catch anything. You'll have to look close and probably turn up your brightness a bit, but I think I see something by the window... 38929|640

Granny and Grandad are painting their house and therefore cleaning out the house. They found boxes of some of my old toys they kept: Barbies and their furniture, She-Ra and her battle cat, etc. Sophia was so intrigued and impressed with the dolls and played with them for the rest of the day. I boxed them up again that night after she went to bed because I need to clean them and all the clothes. She didn't even seem to remember them the next day but I know she will be delighted all over again when I get them out. I just know we will have lots of fun dressing them up and making houses. 38135|640 Phoebe is fighting back and holding her own against Sophia. He big sister has a habit of smacking her on the head when she is doing something she doesn't like. She is getting better about not doing it but Phoebe is retaliating and one day I caught them both smacking at each other at the same time with both their hands. It was the typical sissy, girl "cat" fight. I coul...

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Sure, Phoebe's birthday is coming up and Sophia's birthday just passed, but my birthday will be here soon as well. If I were a child and I still sully expected to get things for my birthday I would ask for: Nikon sb-600 flash Impact Light Stand Light Bracket Optical White Umbrella Radio flash trigger Gaffers Tape Clamp That's pretty much a single light support system for an off camera lighting setup. I'll eventually want 4 total of all of the above, except I'll only need receivers for each additional light. Also after I have at least one flash like the sb-600 that works in ttl mode on my camera I can get the cheaper vivitar 285hv . The vivitars would eventually get replaced by other nikon flashes like the sb-600 or sb-800 though. Oh and I suppose I'll need a backdrop so I can do some portraiture on the go. Also you have to throw in a color gel swatchbook with every order. But you also need enough of the basics for color correction as seen he...

Yeah, yeah, I know my weekly family update is late. I am currently sick and very busy. We were also out of town visiting Jenn and the family in Bryan near College Station from July 2-6 and then I proceeded to do 7 loads of laundry on Monday. So, I am just going to wait for this week to be over and make it a 2 week family update. Sorry for the delay!

This is just a preview. There are plenty more fireworks shots in the gallery. I'm also really getting the hang of light room. 38749|640 38653|640

37371 The big announcement for the week is that Phoebe is walking! BJ and I worked with her a little bit with her walking in between us to gain confidence and she is doing wonderfully. By the end of the week she was standing up on her own, no furniture or anything for support and then will take a few steps. She has taken to wanting to climb too. She gets up and down from the girls' little wooden rocking chair and attempts to climb from the bath. Phoebe has learned to give and take things from someone's hand. She is so funny when we are doing it with a toy because she is so forceful and quick when she puts it in your hand. I think she thinks it is more a game than me simply handing her something. The girls and I spent another afternoon in the pool. I was pregnant last summer and only swam once (hmmm, maybe twice) so I think I am making up for it this summer with swimming every week. Sophia sure doesn't mind. As BJ already put in a previous post---Sophia got locked in...