Well, isn't that how You eat a Cheeseburger?!

This is how Joe (of course) eats a cheeseburger:

(He actually does.  He did it right in front of me the other day.
He is now banned from going to McDonalds.)

Take one double cheeseburger.
Take one chicken sandwich.
Pry open the double cheeseburger so there is one patty on each side.
Stuff the chicken sandwich (the WHOLE chicken sandwich--bun and all) into the cheeseburger.
Close it back up and stuff it in your face!
Yeah, really!
Look, I have pictures!

Bubble Puppies

With the warm weather out comes the bubbles.  The dogs' favorite time of year!

Pretty Flowers

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; 

and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; 

how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Ah the Traffic out here!

Coming home the other day, driving down "my" street, we saw this in front of us.
There's something about slowing down.
Giving a moment to look around and take in the beauty that we go flying by, hardly noticing, every day.
It's those little things that bring such peace.
How lucky I am that this is "my" street.

Seminary. Cemetery. What's the Difference?!

What a year!
And to cap it off I have these two boy seniors in my class...
Enough said.

So, my kind, sweet, nice supervisor asked me to send her pictures of my graduating seniors as she was putting together a slideshow for the graduation ceremony.
Three senior girls?
No problem!

Aren't they cute?!!!

Two senior boys?

EVERY problem  in.  the.  WORLD!!!!!!!!!!

So this is what I get....

I don't think that's quite what my kind, sweet, nice supervisor was hoping for.

Hmmmmmm.....

Gotta work with them on their level....

Gotta use that natural goodness that they do have buried waaaaaay down deep inside them....

Gotta put things in such a way that maybe they learn something from it....

Ask questions!

You can guide kids to learn by asking them questions!

Ok.....  "Hey, guys, what do YOU think we should do for your pictures for the slide show being put together by my kind, sweet, nice supervisor to be shown in the reverent, wonderful, spiritual Seminary graduation ceremony?"

Did I say we should ask teenage boys questions?!

Apparently my brain died and fell out some time back.  

WHO in their right mind would ask teenage boys questions in hopes of getting a decent answer?!!!!

So, their idea on how to fulfill this assignment?  

Mug shots!

Yeah.

Mug shots.

What great fun!!!!!  

Every teenage boy needs a mug shot in his life--especially seminary student teenage boys!

So my dear boys take paper and quickly make themselves a little sign with their "Prisoner" ID number on it and happily hop up to pose for pictures.  For once they were agreeable to looking at the camera so I couldn't let the opportunity pass!  We took pictures!!!!!

Fortunately (well, unfortunately for them), their seminary teacher has mad photoshopping skills so I "fixed" their little signs for them.

And that, my dear ladies and gentlemen, is Seminary!

Bowling for History

Joe was a participant in the History Bowl this year.  While teams from our school have taken second and third place in the competition in years past, one of the teams this year finally made it to first place and got to bring the trophy home for our school's trophy case!  Joe was on the winning team!

At Least I Have Each Other

Every year the kids in our schools here prepare and submit work for the Language Arts Department Fair.
 Last year David took close to a dozen first place prizes for various formats of writing--poetry formats, short stories, etc.

This year Joe won the prestigious Writer's Hall of Fame award.  

From all the schools competing in the Language Art Fair, a handful of students are selected for this award to recognize the top writers from our area.  

Joe's award was for a short poem called a tanka.  The title of his poem was "At Least I Have Each Other".
Joe had another entry that actually won another Writer's Hall of Fame award but was disqualified on the grounds of plagiarism due to his forgetting to cite for a line of lyric he used from a published song.  

The thing Joe most enjoyed about this experience was watching several of his classmates work and sweat and agonize over their work--writing and rewriting, begging help from the teachers--over the course of many weeks, trying to achieve perfection.  Joe remembered the assignment at the last minute and threw it together the night before it was due to be turned in.  That's my Joe!

The students who won this award were honored at an awards banquet held in Springfield.  Each student was called to the front of the room, given their award, and a cast of actors read the work of the student.
Our school had more students represented in the awards ceremony than any other school there!

Here Come the Orioles!

So last summer I got this great idea that I wanted to attract orioles to our deck.  

People have talked about having these birds around this area and a couple of years ago we did have a beautiful bright orange bird play in our oak tree one afternoon so I figured there could be some close enough to entice to hang around the house.  

I put an oriole feeder out but it was late in the season and it seemed I had missed the birds.

This year I was ready for it and had my feeders out really early.  

A couple of weeks passed and there were no birds.  

It was still early.  Perhaps they just hadn't made it here yet.  

Then, a couple of weeks ago--the day the big storms were due to come through--our backyard lit up with orange like you would not believe.  

There were orioles everywhere!  

Not only did they like their syrup feeder and their jelly feeder, they began eating all the wasps we were having trouble with around the back yard.  

One of the birds even seems to favor the hummingbird feeder.  

I guess he likes red popcicles rather than the orange. 

I know a few people like that.