Walka Talkie Walkie (Ezra's 2nd Song)

Walka talkie walkie
Oh walkie talkie
walkie talkie
walka talkie walkie
Oh walkie talkie
"B" bow
talk on the walka talkie.

Ezra sings (Luke sings backup)
as Luke strums the guitar. @ points, Ezra is literally screaming the words of this new song. Look for this song on his next album with the hit single "Mankie & Taggy," an ode to Ezra's famous dirty brown (originally blue and white) blanket.

Trains and Winter Rains

We spent an afternoon @ the convention center full of model trains. Who knew there are train clubs/collectors and they share their collections? The boys were crazy! Ezra was so excited to play with such a huge track in an open space, I couldn't get him away to go to the bathroom. Mady and Niki thought it was pretty cool too. Mady was impressed by the tiny collections and all the work that it must have taken to put all the exhibits together. She also loved the fact that many of the collections included more than just trains. Several exhibits had entire towns created around them with tiny animals. Niki played trains with Ezra while Luke walked the hall with Jules in an attempt to locate the perfect train to take home. We left with several new additions to our collection, including the roundhouse (train house it has been dubbed) for the trains to sleep in. We were going to ride the train after we had finished @ the convention center but the kids were done for the day.


We parked a good distance from the convention center. On our walk, Niki spied some fun plants, which we decided must be some relation to cabbage. She asked me to take some pictures for her. The convention center had an interesting feature. Throughout some of the long corridors encompassing the building, there are mirrored ceilings. We had fun playing in them. I think the kids were really on a mission to get to the exhibit bc no one was interested in slowing down to make faces in the mirrors with me. Ezra was not ready to leave when the rest of us were. It must have taken us 30 minutes to get out of the exhibit hall and a couple more trains from Aunt Jessie and Julie! When we were on the road, it was decided we would head to Nenaw's house to spend the night. We didn't arrive home until late yesterday. I stayed up late to clean the house since Daddy is hunting out @ the cabin with Bill and Papaw. The kids stayed up and played with their new trains. Niki really enjoys playing with her brothers and they enjoy playing with her just as much. It was weekend full of memories for me.

Black Fly

I had never heard the song Black Fly by ZZ Top until I looked it up on LimeWire. What have we been doing you ask? Cleaning house and taking photos with a cheap little macro attachment I found on Amazon. The attachment will only work on still life shots bc it is basically a magnifying glass that can be attached to a camera. Pix look cool though. The Fly shots are cool. Click on them to get the full effect. The photo of the Christmas Carol program with the last letters of the word Christmas cut off, is the one taken with the macro lens. It is a truer image. My camera would not take the photo that closely without the flash, which washed out the true colors on the program.

Last night we went to see a production of "A Christmas Carol" put on by the folks @ a local church to help raise money for 4 local charities. It was an awesome production. The actors/actresses were amazing and had to have put a great deal of time into the production. The set was equally well done. Unfortunately, the boys did not do as well @ this play as they did @ last weeks "Rudolph." We still have the seasons "Nutcracker" to attend next weekend, only the girls to that one, I know better!

Today we are off to visit some friends. We will share the camera, make some cookies, and talk about gnomes. Yes, gnomes. I like gnomes (and fairies) and so does Logan. I found a 12", inexpensive, wooden gnome while I was Christmas shopping, so I bought it. I am bringing it to him today.

Ok, this was just a lame post so I could post these pix. Should have just posted them without the commentary. Rambling now...not sure why I am even awake at this hour of the AM.

Uuuu?

We watched A Charlie Brown Christmas tonight while we applied the finishing touches to our tree. Mady has 2 workbooks, which she worked on while we were decorating too. 1 is 5th grade and 1 6th grade, each for language arts, they just arrived (to appease her dear, biological, Dad, remember?) We were comparing the 2 workbooks. THEY WERE THE SAME! OMG! THEY ARE THE SAME!

They both began with nouns, then, plural nouns, pronouns, possessive nouns, singular possessive nouns...the exact same order! Why can't other people see PS is pretty weird? If you teach people something one time, and people get it, why do we continue to teach it to them year after year, after year? WAKE UP!

Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

This year rather than purchase a Christmas tree from a lot, we decided to visit a farm Haynie's Farm in Burleson since it is right down the road from my sister.


The farm is located at the end of a winding country road only minutes from town. As we approached a gas drilling site, I saw some fir trees in the distance. My immediate thought was, "please don't let this be it." Of course that was the place. We pulled in the gate and drove uphill to a large open pasture area where my sister and I, and the kids, parked. We walked across the gravel drive to the red barn where some of the pre cut trees are located. The house, far away in the corner, appears aged and one can see that the land had been used for some group of animals at one time. This place still has farm qualities from not so long ago, but is now updated to deal with today's modern annoyances which most of our culture calls progress.

We hopped on a trailer loaded with hay, pulled by an older model tractor, to check out the tree field. As we bounced along on our dusty ride on the once tree filled path, I began to notice things that saddened me so much I forgot to shoot photos of the tree field. Power lines cut a harsh geometrical pattern right through the center of the property. The huge century old trees that sacrificed their lives so we humans can live a more comfortable life with the help of nuclear power, lay dead and gray along our path. The photos I did snap are covered in dust as proof of the state of this land. There are no tree roots to keep the land from eroding so, grain by grain, it is blowing away every second of everyday.

Further down our powdered path, I got an up-close and personal view of the drilling equipment. It was massive. What was worse than the massive equipment? The land they cleared for the equipment. What was worse than the greediness of the gas drilling company taking more land than necessary? The fact that when this family purchased this land, it was full of beautiful trees and pastures. Now, only a few years later, companies have destroyed this family's land because they can. Eminent domain. There seems to be nothing we can do to stop it.
Sacrifice the few for the many.
It's called progress.
We have to have these power lines and these drills.

I don't believe any of those statements. I don't think we should sacrifice anyone. I don't believe what we are doing to our earth and the humans that inhabit it is progressive, AT ALL!
What about solar power? Does anyone ever wonder why our government promotes nuclear power while Europe provides subsidies for solar power?

I was deeply saddened, overwhelmed with grief, overcome by tears, and extremely frustrated and aggravated by what I witnessed on the tree farm Friday. If the only difference I make is to teach my children to value our world and all that is natural in it, @ least that is something.

I will support this tree farm until it no longer produces trees even though we just planted some fir trees on our east Texas property. I believe I was so emotional about this farm bc, that could just as easily have been my family. I hope I am never witness to the raping of our family property. I am debating writing to the Fort Worth Star Telegram since that is where I found this tree farm. I cannot believe I have never read about this farm before.

I hope I can make some difference.

Sweetie Pie

Sweetie
Originally uploaded by melissa_wrght

Testing, testing...

Sunrise, Sunset

New telescopic camera lens! Something to keep in mind as these photos are being viewed, I am certain the middle of the lake, where all the birds seemed to be landing, was @ least 500 yards from where we were sitting atop a craggy cliff. The photo with the fishing poles was twice as far. I had to try the new lens out and share it with our friends. There was no better place for test photos yesterday than this. I don't know who took what photos. I don't think I took many @ all actually. So most of this artwork belongs to C. Thanks C. for taking such great pix! I am glad you had so much fun with the camera! I will be sad when it is too cold for us Texans to head outdoors, but for now we are still enjoying awesome weather in the mid 60's with plenty of sunshine and soft cool breezes.