Pics of the Pumpkin Patch

Over the weekend, we traveled to Grand Prairie to celebrate a double header: Papa's birthday and Uncle JJ's fiance's birthday. While there, we also did a little harvest celebrating as well. Avoiding the obvious questions about "harvest celebrating" for folks who get there "produce" from an "aisle" where it "rains" out of little nozzles every 15 minutes or so, lets move on to the pics. That is, after all, why you are here.
But first, I should tell you what you are about to see. There were pumpkins (large ones, small ones, orange ones, green bumpy ones, on the ground, in buckets, in troughs etc.), tractors, a hay maze (which made for a confusing day for that man whose last name was, apparently, Mays: anyone at the patch: "Hay maze!" Mr. Mays: "Hey what?!"), a corn maze, (which made for a confusing day for the Native Americans present, for whom "corn maize" is redundant), a playground, and lots of people. It was a beautiful day, so there are many pics. Here ya go:

Did I wake up in 1938?

This report was waiting for me this morning when I sat down at the computer to catch up on some obscure theological debate.

"Villagers in Peru are struck by a mysterious illness after a meteorite crashes nearby..."

"Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor..."

"Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned..."

No kidding! Doesn't anyone remember what happened after the last meteorite? Well, the top unscrewed and these egg-shaped craft came walking out and zapped all the onlookers with spraying sparks, for starters. Then they started collecting people and draining the life out of them for use in some kind of extra-terrestrial garden project...whatever it was, it was not good for the people involved.

Peruvian Villagers: after your headaches wear off, but before the egg-craft come out, I want you to run up and sneeze or cough toward the meteor. The creatures inside have not be vaccinated, so if you can get them sick with the cold or flu, they'll die. I'm serious; this is what happened last time.

A number of things to know...

Here they are, not in any kind of order, except right to left and top to bottom:

1. d. reeves design house is trotting along. On the back of our products, we mention something about how d. reeves design house is also our house: our dining room is our production facility. "Now this is cute and all, but surely that's all it is; we know you have some kind of rented space in a warehouse or something." Nope, and below is a pic to prove it. That's us, in our dining room. What you can't see is the dining table for all the 4"x6.5" albums stacked on top of it.


2. We recently joined our local YMCA. I am reminded of a quip one of my professors at OSU loved to rehearse: "Why do we call it the 'Y'? You don't have to be young, and it isn't just for males, and membership is not restricted to Christians...we should call it the 'A'. Anyway, the girls positively love swimming at the Y; take a look:


3. Stella had not been gaining weight the way all the inanimate, laminated charts expected her to. So Diane started a rigorous 3000 calorie/day diet. By the by, I have also been on a 3000 calorie/day diet, but it is more accidental than prescribed, and seems to be producing something that looks like a pregnant belly...no pictures to prove this, but who would look?
In any event, Diane's increased diet is working and Stella is gaining weight now like a champ, and a heavy weight one at that. Here she is standing:


Also, since mommy needs to eat more, Stella decided she (Stella) would help out with the cooking. In lieu of chef's hat, she donned a pair of bloomers. We think its pretty convincing:


4. Emma is doing well as well. Much of her day is given to telling stories about all the interesting things she and her baby do. Ironically, those things are nearly identical to the things that Mommy does with her. She is also exploring all the things her body can do. Lately, she will stand atop her potty (lid closed), crouch down, then spring into the air while making a complex swishing sound (with her mouth). Think of one of the action/martial arts sequences in The Matrix; though she's not seen it, she's pretending it.
Here's a picture of Emma's most recent exploration. I think she thought she was caving.


5. Podcasting is free, and apparently they'll let just anybody do it. Just kidding; here is a link to the sermon podcasts of a good friend of mine who is the pastor of a church in Greenville, Texas. And since I have pictures for all the rest, here's one of Greg. No, he has never been arrested, and he is not as dorky as he looks.

Best of Waco, Back in Action

That's right, our having a second child and starting a scrapbooking business have encroached on our enjoying-Waco time, but you will forgive us for this, of course. In any event, we're back in it: our friends in the BOW club, the Barnards, brought over some malts from Health Camp (don't let the name fool you; I believe I gained a pound per spoonful).

What's most important here is probably the flavor of the malts, but that is an inadequate way to approach the subject. It is in inadequate in that it misleads the reader to think that the best way to describe what we enjoyed was a malt with some added flavors, those being peanut butter and hot fudge. This would be a serious error in description. No, what we enjoyed would be better described as a 16 oz. Styrofoam cup of intensely sweet peanut butter with a hint of some melty ice cream and some hot fudge smeared on the inner wall of the cup. Not a malt with some flavors; a FLAVOR in the shape of a malt. But "intensely sweet" is not the best way to describe the peanut buttery-ness; think Reese's Peanut Butter Cup peanut butter, volume turned up to 10. The peanut butter was equal parts sugar and peanut: sug-nut butter (pronounced shug-nut), pea-nugar butter, peanut sug-butt (that doesn't seem right, but its close).

We all agreed that adding hot fudge to a sug-nut butter malt is good in theory, but smearing it on the inside of the cup in small quantity seemed not to produce the same results had it actually been mixed in.

We recommend these malts, but you should hawk-watch the kid mixing the mix: when he says he's finished, ask him to return to the mixer for another spin, and add some more fudge, buddy.

Here's some pics (look closely at my right side...that love-handle? All the malt's fault):

From Waco to Musashino-Shi

I have to say I am very proud of Diane. d. reeves design house is going very well; Diane's gifts and creativity are really shining, and are being confirmed by others in the scrapbook industry (there's an industry? yep, a whole industry). Consider this one expression of my rising up and calling her blessed...
An editor of a Japanese scrapbook magazine (the industry is global? yep, global) ordered a sample of d. reeves products for a mini-album story she is doing for the mag. We just tracked the shipment: it has left Waco, spent a few minutes in Memphis, and promptly flew to Narita-Shi, Tokyo, Japan. Final destination: Musashino-Shi, Tokyo, Japan. I know! All the way to Musashino-Shi! We did a quick Google search for Narita-Shi to see where it sits in relation to Musashino-Shi...we didn't find much, which, incidentally, adds to the exotic mystery.

If you have extra time, Google the Shi's of Musashino or Narita and send us a map. Make sure its got those neat red lines like in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".

Emma's Gallery

For her birthday, Emma received a nice easel. This seems to have set her right-brain to turning; these three pictures she called "Circles". Click the pics to see them larger.





After her "shape study", Emma drew this, which she called (no joke) "Rain on a Window":

"Birthday, the 3rd: a photo narrative, part the third"

"Birthday, the 3rd: a photo narrative, part two"

"Birthday, the 3rd: a photo narrative"