What Is This Animal?

I discovered this top skull in my backyard this morning before I began mowing the lawn. It measures about five inches in length, three-and-a-quarter inches wide and about two inches tall. It has four teeth (all for grinding, no cutters) on each side on the top part of the skull that begin about two inches from the tip of the skull. Too large to be a squirrel, or rat, perhaps an armadillo though the photos online don’t quite match up.

Can you help us with this puzzle?

Intel’s Rock Star Campaign

Great new campaign from Intel. The campaign features prominent Intel employees, though in this video it’s not really Ajay Bhatt (co-inventor of the USB), but an actor playing him. Apparently walking into a room was a little more acting thatn this Intel Fellow could muster .

 

Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook

I just came across this post on Inside Facebook on how one can protect their privacy on Facebook. I’ve always been amazed at people that put their birthday on their Facebook page as that is one of the three keys that can be used to steal your identity (the other two being your social security number and mother’s maiden name).

Take a look when you have some time.

Twitter is Down for Maintenance

What will all the social media folks do? Pick up the phone? Send an e-mail? Or worse yet, get up and walk over to see their colleague to talk live? Will they speak in 140-character sentences?

Square Foot Gardening

I was raised gardening. My grandparents came out to our farm just about every day in the summer when I was little to tend to our rather large garden. “There are no weeds in our garden” my grandpa Erick would proudly say (though anyone who looked would notice there were at least a few weeds that would appear here and there). It was a huge garden with rows and rows of beans, tomatoes, asparagus, peppers, peas, strawberries, raspberries, potatoes and, of course, rhubarb. It was both economical and the most local produce you could get.

Anita recently picked up a book called Square Foot Gardening that talks about how just about anyone can put in a garden, even if they don’t have a large area in which to do it. It has taken some time (at least six weeks or so) but we are on our way. While we have a larger yard in our new house than our old, we don’t have enough to have a full-on garden like my grandpa would do. Plus, I’m now reading about the efficiencies of square foot gardening that make sense to me.

Before I get into details on the garden itself (that will come when things calm down at work ), here are some stock photos of what we’re working on. I”ll be away for the day tomorrow and Anita has lined up to great workers to clear the remaining grass. You’ll see photos of our garden soon but here’s generally what it will look like.

No Posts Over Christmas?

I found it incredibly difficult to find time to write anything over the Christmas break. I have a number of post ideas going around in my head, some of which will require some research and deeper thought than my normal family or bbq post.

Lost Teeth, Separated by Four Years

Our daughter was yelling at the top of her lungs, “MAMA……”, followed by a long pause. “MAMA!!!!!…”

She had gone to bed about five minutes earlier and normally she would just get up to come to talk to us. But on this night, she was all about yelling for us. (Notice the sweet picture of her with her brother on her bedside table.)

Anita went in and found her with one of her two loose teeth in her hand. It was almost four years ago to the day that her older brother lost his first tooth. Our son is now ten years old, our daughter six.

Adoption Again?

I first posted this in mid-November when Anita and I first decided we were ready to move ahead on adoption again. After I posted it, Anita said, “Yikes, we haven’t even told our close friends or family yet!” So I pulled it down until today, when we got our letter from our doctor describing my medical situation. That letter, along with some other information is now on it’s way to China to seek pre-approval for us to adopt from China’s Waiting Child program. This would mean the child would be older and would likely have some kind of medical condition.

Here’s the original post:

We are a blessed family.

We have Joshua, a pre-teen who loves life, has a quit wit and is quite handsome. We have Christina, who has a zest for life, a passion and enthusiasm that is contagious. Both are in school and it would be easy for us to slip into the next chapter of our life.

But, I’m not sure that’s God’s call for us.

During my quiet time in the Bible last week, I decided to spend some time meditating on God’s scripture for how He cares for the fatherless. I spent some time in Psalm 68:5-6, where David says God is “a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God is His holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families…”.

God spoke to me through these verses.

As you may know, we’re planning for the arrival of Beth Guckenberger to HCBC to talk on their time in Monterrey living out a Reckless Faith, one where you have no idea how God will provide for your next step. My good friend Scott Taylor, a church-plant resident at HCBC, tells me of his life before moving to Austin. “I was living a faith-free life of ministry,” he said. He was pretty confident that each step he took in ministry he would be pretty successful using his own personal skills. Though those were God-given skills, he says he didn’t feel that he was truly trusting in God for the success of his works. What he’s doing now is way beyond his skills or abilities, he says.

God spoke to me through Scott.

It would be easy for us to be comfortable where we are right now and yet God’s been gnawing at my heart. There potentially is a child, or children, out there who this very evening who will be cold and hungry. He/she/they may have a physical ailment that is untreated. He/she/they don’t know the love of a family. And they likely don’t know the love of a Heavenly Father.

So, as a family we’re taking the first step of a Reckless Faith. We’re not in a financial position where we have any idea where the money would come from. The economy is shaky. The job market is always precarious. We just moved into a new house based on a family of four. We previously had ruled our adoption again due to the fact that I had major surgery and cancer, two no-no’s for China. But, during an adoption panel discussion at Dell that I participated in last week, a representative of a local adoption agency gave me a shred of hope.

God spoke to me through Kerry Campbell.

We don’t know where this will lead. What I do know is that if we don’t take this first step, I will be disobeying God. This is a long-shot, but God loves to beat the human odds. He loves to show His magnificence in spite of those He’s working through. Whichever way this goes, in the end our faith will have grown. I know I live for and serve a perfect, all-powerful God that created the heavens, the earth and me. If this is to happen, right now He sees the child or children that He will bring into our home.

Last night at dinner, we raised the topic with our kids. They first said they didn’t want to share their rooms. They then said they were excited about bunk beds. Christina then said we should adopt two children, the girl we would name Mac and the boy PC. We then had a hearty laugh.

I ask that if you read this and feel so inclined to please join us in praying for where this would all lead.

Our Family Dog

Here she is, our family dog. She laid right in the path between us and the tree, right where the kids needed to walk to hang the Christmas ornaments. But that’s what she wanted, to be where we were.

Our dog is a very social creature. She likes to be talked to. She likes to be touched. She likes to be where ever we are. My mom still calls our dog a he, even though she is a she. She also calls her Ruby, even though her name is Rudy. My mom is not alone as most people look at Rudy and think she’s a he but she’s not – she’s a she. But Ruby? C’mon, look at her, she’s not Ruby, she’s Rudy. We named her before we owned her, while we were living for a short time in Singapore. We longed for Texas BBQ and Rudys was our favorite local spot.

And now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we look ahead to the Christmas season.

Merry Christmas my friends, Merry Christmas.

Our Texas Thanksgiving

While all of my family was gathering at the farm I grew up on, my wife and kids and I got together with her parents at their home near us. It was a beautiful day, in the mid-70s and sunny. We sat out in the driveway while the kids rode their scooters and Joshua marveled us with his Rip-stick skills. 

Anita’s dad has a new Big Chief Smoker in which he smoked the turkey breast we had for our Thanksgiving meal. In this video, he explains how long he smoked it before finishing it off in the oven.

It was a very enjoyable day but ended poorly as we watched the Longhorns beat the Aggies. Christina was thrilled .

Mis-Pronunciations or ‘kid-isms’

While watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this morning, something that has become a bit of a tradition for our family, we got on the topic of words that are mis-pronunciated. Others are words that kids just can’t yet pronounce correctly. Here’s a list of some we came up with for our family, with the person of origin next to it.

• Kermikals – Joshua
• Busgetti – Doug K.
• Parmeeshan – Mama
• Racamoni and cheese – Samuel H.
• Menidade – Christina
• Gralala – Joshua
• Swammich – Samuel H.
• Capitabull – Samuel H.

So, what do you think each of these mean? Do you have any to add to the list? After a week of guesses, I’ll post the list though I’m guessing you’ll get most of these.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

The Beauty in the Bubbles

Monday Night Burgers

It was a little cool tonight in Austin (high 50s, low 60s) and with it being Thanksgiving week, we’re planning on grilling every night this week for dinner. Plus our food co-op is taking the week off so we have to fend for ourselves. Have I told you about our food co-op?

We did some very traditional burgers, baked beans, sweet corn and orange slices – a good way to eek my way into the week.

What about you? Are you saving up all your calories for Thursday or are you ’stretching your stomach’ in anticipation of the turkey, oyster stuffing and wedding potatoes you have planned for later in the week?

Joshua With a Large Nose and Glasses

I was looking through some old photos and came across a couple of Joshua that I thought I would share. While putting him to bed tonight, his face was so full of joy in telling me the story of his monster that he had created tonight at our friend’s house.

I pray that he always has that type of excitement for life and a real joy. Enjoy.

Paper Dolls

I’d like to say this comes to me easily but it doesn’t. See below some pics from playing paper dolls with my daughter recently. You should have seen her face when I said “yes” to her when she asked if I wanted to play paper dolls with her. And despite what the photos show, I actually did play paper dolls with her . That’s something she’ll hopefully remember when I’m long gone and she’s caring for her kids and grandkids. That’s part of the legacy I leave with my daughter – a father that’s not afraid to play dolls.