Poses & Bees

Our Labor Day weekend consisted of the usual outdoor activity as well as some interesting happenings indoors. In leaving Atlanta, I was happy to escape the Yellow Jacket fans who whine incessantly about how their football program isn't as good as Georgia's because of their rigorous academic standards make it difficult to lure the same caliber of athlete to their campus. The only thing more obnoxious than Yellow Jacket fans are actual yellow jackets, which besieged our Labor Day picnic in grand fashion. I know they may seem like odd pictures, but I had to include them to accurately depict the swarm surrounding our food.

Most of my timidity with yellow jackets surrounds the painful memory in my childhood when our beagle stirred up a nest of the critters which descended upon me like the paparazzi on Paris Hilton. Playing with my dog and my dad a block and a half away from our house, my dad chased me home, beating the yellow jackets off of me with his t-shirt as I screamed in agony. That's one day I'm sure the neighbors looked our their window and thought, "At least we're not rednecks like the Chatraws." I'm also sure that it started a rumor mill like the time my mom pulled me out of a baseball game we were winning by 20 runs because my blood-thirsty coach wanted to squash the other team. By Sunday at church, the word on the street was my mom had cussed out the umpire. (I smarted for a week because I never got my post-game soda.) But in the aftermath of our yellow jacket attack, I never heard any rumors of a redneck pastor whipping his son with a t-shirt for two blocks--so I'm guessing the neighbors were all inside watching Jerry Springer that day and couldn't distinguish reality from the TV.




But I digress ... I tried to highlight some of the yellow jackets so the picture doesn't look so weird. Look for the red checks ... I counted 10 and 3. Can you find more? Pretend it's a puzzle in the newspaper and everyone will think you're really smart if you find more. Just be sure to comment with your description of where the extra yellow jackets are.

Now, on to more fun things ... like family portraits. When I was younger, family portraits were on the same level of going to the dentist. Some strange photographer tried to make me laugh by making jokes about my girlfriend, which I didn't have. However, this time I went with a good attitude and had a great experience for Faith's one year pictures and our family portrait. And I was doing pretty good until the photographer forced me into some cheesy poses. When I walked into the studio, I snickered at some of the horribly cheesy photos some dads took with their children, unbeknownst to me that moments later I would assume those same poses. Fortunately, Faith would not comply as she scuttled away looking for something to put into her mouth. (foreshadowing) You might think I was pinching her, but think what you like. I was just happy there were no such cheesy portraits for us to even consider buying.

Later on that day, Janel took some pictures of Faith in her classic pose: putting something in her mouth. We decided to cool off along the banks of the Boise River from the torrid Labor Day heat when I dipped Faith toward the water. Little did we realize she was preparing to battle Goliath by picking up five smooth stones and putting them into her mouth. Many people have commented about the size of Faith's cheeks--now I believe it is quite possible that there still might be a rock or two in there causing the irresistible bulges on both sides of her face. Enjoy!