Just for Laughs

Here's some old photos for all of you...just for laughs. Plus these are more interesting than what I did this afternoon which was clean the couch and recliner.

This is our church youth group, circa 1990. Yes, that's Dusty and I on the left. Yes, we've known each other for a long time. No, I have no idea what is up with the hair on the person to the right!

High school graduation - May 1993. Love the 90's hair!

Dusty, probably around 10. We have all kinds of photos of him holding animals by the tail. (Dead and alive ones!) I'm sure that this is one of the dead ones.

When will this end?

Rachel has been a thumb-sucker since she was a baby. She took a pacifier for a little while, but then latched on to her thumb and never looked back. At the time I thought I had it easy. It was much better than a pacifer - we always had it with us and it never fell on the ground.

She sucks her thumb when she's tired, upset, and sometimes when she's just bored and not paying attention. But there's one catch - she has to be holding onto a piece of cloth as well. If you know Rachel then you know all about her "raggie". Fortunatly she just doesn't have one raggie almost any bit of fabric will do.

Now when I catch her sucking her thumb during the day, I'll tell her to take it out of her mouth. She smiles and then puts raggie up to her mouth. Then she'll insist that she's sleepy, because she knows I don't say anything about her sucking her thumb at bedtime. She's 2 1/2 now...we are done with diapers, but this thumb thing has no signs of going away soon. Oh well, I'll be taking up a collection for her orthodontics.

Not going anywhere fast

So whatever Dusty had this past weekend, I was the recipient of this week. A nasty round of head congestion, fits of coughing, some fever, body aches...all kinds of fun. Fortunatly Aaron never got sick. Rachel has had a little cough, but nothing serious. After staying in for 3 solid days, I may be headed back to normal. (Whatever normal is) I have to get it pulled together before this conference that I'm speaking at next weekend. I still need to get my notes together for it as well. I haven't been able to sleep very well, so I've went over the topic multiple times in my head while laying in bed, but now I need to get it down on paper and get the PowerPoint together for the presentation.

I also changed the blog background. Currently it is 20 degrees and snowing in central Indiana, and I'm ready for Spring. I couldn't quite bring myself to change it to Easter eggs yet, so this is what it landed on.

P.S. - When you feel like dirt, the whining of a 2-year old feels something like a jackhammer on your forehead!

We're Back

We're back from our 3-day stint in Illinois. We drove to Dusty's mom and dad's on Friday evening and stayed with them until Sunday afternoon. Then we drove up to Decatur to visit with Dusty's brother and family. Our neice, Makenna, is getting so big. She's such a sweetie. Just look at those eyes. :)

Dusty started getting congested on the trip over. By Saturday fever had set in. He spent Sunday and today dragging around. He's staying home from work tomorrow. The stress of studying for this certification, working overtime, and lack of sleep finally caught up with him. Hopefully he can rework his schedule and avoid some of this in the future.

But we had a fun trip. We got to visit with Grandpa Lusk and we also got our fix of Dimaggio's pizza. And to top it off I am the American Idol champ. (At least while playing PlayStation in Joel's basement)

We're expanding....to Tanzania

Our family grew a little last night! For several years Dusty and I had talked about sponsoring a child. We both agreed that it was a good idea, but had never done anything about it. For the last several days I had been reading blog entries from a group of people who were touring Uganda through Compassion. Compassion has an excellent track record with how they use their funds and what they accomplish. I was drawn into the experiences that these people were having and the pictures that were posted on their sites. When a commercial comes on about needy children, it's very easy to turn to another channel or ignore it, but the 1st hand accounts of these people in Uganda were very compelling. I think what was most compelling was the accounts of the differences between the children who were part of the program with Compassion and those who were not. These children were able to go to school, had clothing, access to health care, etc.

Later in the evening I mentioned it to Dusty and he said that we should definately sign up. After church, I had Aaron sit down with me at the computer and showed him some of the pictures from Uganda and explained what it was to sponsor a child. He couldn't believe that some people had to live like that. Another photo that grabbed his attention was the one of a family's house. It consisted of a 6x6 room crammed with 2 beds and clothing for the 6 people that lived there. I explained that their entire house was 1/4 the size of his bedroom.

We choose a girl that had the same birthday as Aaron. I felt led to choose a child from Africa who was living in an area affected by HIV/AIDS. So as of today our family also includes 9-year old Mwajuma from Tanzania. We pray that God will use our small offering to change her life.

Crazy Dog Update

Put the dog in the crate; didn't hear her all night long. Went to let her out this morning and she was all nice and cozy. Maybe I've found the solution!

What a Crew!

We had Mom's group today at the church and since the pre-school kids were out today, the joint was jumping. I took the photo equipment to take one-year old photos of one of my friend's little girl. Then Lisa decided we needed a photo of all the players! So here is the result when you have

• 3 - Five-year olds


• 4 - Four-year olds


• 1 - Three-year old


• 5 - Two-year olds


• 3 - One-year olds


• 4 - Under the age of one

I realize the photographic portrait quality of this photo is lacking. At this point it was all about survival!! (Notice one of the 2-year olds trying to escape from the right!)