MASdesigns

Christmas newsletter picture out-takes

While we were at a Christmas Tree show this past weekend I handed my camera to my father-in-law and asked him to shoot some pictures of our family. We needed a photo for our Christmas newsletter and I thought the trees would make a great backdrop. When we were done Brad just started to crack up. I didn't know what was so funny until I looked at the photos. The funniest thing is that my father-in-law never noticed what Brad was up to. Thanks Brad!

    

Thanksgiving

To celebrate Thanksgiving I'm sharing the November page from my 09 calendar. The small type at the bottom reads "Photo taken November 2007 in Muskegon, MI of some Bittersweet that grows along the fence in my parents backyard. My brother Dan pointed out that this verse was perfect for this photo since to give thanks for everything is sometimes very hard and bitter-sweet. What a great observation...wish I had thought of that!"  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Mighty Hunters Travelogue Day 6

I'm happy to report that the Mighty Hunters have returned from their trip. They pulled into the driveway at 2:00 a.m. on Thursday morning after being on the road for two full days. It was quite the adventure and they have lots of stories to tell. I'll be posting a slide show of the pictures in the next week or so. Until then, here is a photo of Brian with his conquest. I apologize if this is offensive to any of the animal lovers, animal rights activists, vegetarians, vegans, or those squeamish about blood and killing out there. 

 

Mighty Hunters Travelogue Update

It's day 5 of the Caribou trip and I'm happy to report (I think I'm happy) that Brian is bringing home two caribou....or is it caribous? They should be on their way home now. I say should because none of the guys have been in contact with their wives for the past 4 days, ever since they moved out of cell phone range. Since no one has talked to the group we don't know where they are exactly. Brian did use the lodges satalite internet to send out one group e-mail on Saturday describing their conquests. That's why I know he shot two "bou" as they are called. I'm not liking this out of contact stuff and I'm getting a little anxious to hear from him. Congrats Brian! Guess we'll have to find out some good "bou" recipes.

Cold Rainy Saturday Activities

While other 9 year olds are making Christmas lists, Brad is making tiny comics about Santa getting shot down by missiles. Here is his latest creation. Click on the image to see it larger.

In case you can't figure out what is going on, here is a frame by frame summary. 1- A missile hits Santa's sleigh. 2- He falls to the ground and his sleigh chops in half while his reindeer run away. 3- Santa finds an abandoned car. 4- He hot wires the car. 5- He gets into a crash. 6- After that he goes on a bridge and the GPS said to turn left. 7- He does and crashes into the railing and falls into the water. Maybe I should find this disturbing but I don't, I think it's funny. 

Miranda is holed up in room reading the third book in the Twilight series. The fourth one is waiting on her desk. Guess we won't be seeing much of her this weekend. She is a little obsessed with these books, and as far as I can tell, so is the rest of the female pre-teen population. She is counting the days until the movie comes out on November 21. Guess what she will be doing next Friday?? 

And me? What exciting thing am I doing today? Laundry, of course!

The Mighty Hunters Travelogue-Day 1

18-1/2 hours on the road.....2 flat tires.....steady cold rain the whole way. So wishing I could have gone too.......NOT!

Harvest Moon

Last night on the way to swim practice we saw the harvest moon. As we drove up to a stop sign it was peaking between houses-huge and sitting low in the sky. I gasped and said "Kids-look at the moon" as I threw the car in reverse so we could get a better look. We just sat there looking at the moon for a few moments. The kids were quiet, looking in awe while I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me. We were running late otherwise I would have turned around and grabbed it. The whole way to practice I was mentally beating myself up for not taking my camera everywhere. Then it hit me-you can't capture everything. Some things just have to be experienced. So I told myself to just quiet down, be still and just enjoy the moment. That helped a little. But I still wanted my camera. I did snap a picture with my iPhone, like that was going to do it any justice. So here is my crappy iPhone picture of a truly beautiful moon. 

The mighty hunters

Brian and his friends Ralph and Dave left at 4:00 a.m. this morning for a week long Caribou hunt in Canada. They are meeting up with 6 other nutjobs guys this morning to caravan up to Quebec together. Call me crazy but the thought of driving 27 hours so you can sit in the cold Canadian tundra waiting to shoot Caribou is not my idea of fun. The Lodge they are staying at even refer to themselves as "The end of the world". Have a great trip guys!

Snow

This morning we woke up to this.

Guess it's time to put away the summer clothes and start playing music like this:

Download 101_god_rest_ye_merry_gentleman.m4p

Go-Kart Party

Brad's 9th birthday party was Saturday afternoon. Ten 8 and 9 year old boys running wild at an in-door go-kart/laser tag place. Boys that age make crazy drivers! We discovered which boys to be very afraid of when they turn 16 and get behind the wheel of real cars. The kids had a blast and Brad said as we left "This was my best party ever!"