Old Business

I've got some pictures from the past couple of weeks that I haven't posted, so I figured that I would put a bunch together and actually post something that isn't about room redecoration or my ankle. We gave Kelson a nice fancy fire fighter outfit for his birthday, which for some reason made him want to wear this old, beat up fire fighter outfit all the time. The new one is bigger and stiffer, so this is probably more comfortable. But the rejection still hurts.

This is just a cute picture.

Milena very carefully looks for bugs in Grandpa's hair.

What a good patient.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather at the end of last week to play on the blacktop at Koleman's school. The kids rode their scooters and played with basketballs. Eli has definitely figured out how to keep his balance.

Excellent form!

Koleman has it figured out, too.

Kelson gets the three wheel version, which is perfect for his speed.

The kids did some painting for their new rooms yesterday. Milena managed to give herself a mustache. Pretty cute.

Room Redecoration, Phase III

This weekend we made some more progress on the kids' rooms. Thanks to some wonderful help by my parents, we were able to spend pretty much all day Saturday wallpapering. Here's Eli's room.

Eli is very proud of his fancy new room. And he better be, because we worked our butts off making it look nice! If we ever talk about wallpapering again, please shoot us.

We also added the border and mural to Koleman's room. He better like animals for a long time!

Here's the mural. Nothing like having some hungry lions watching over you while you're sleeping.

Koleman also found some fancy new sheets (cheetah print) and a throw/pillow combo (white tiger print) while shopping with Mom and Grandma.

Room Redecoration, Phase II

Eli's room needed some new carpet, so we cleared everything out of the room to get ready.

Eli spends some final time with the old carpet.

Wow! New carpet!

Ahhhh... so luxuriant! New carpet is fantastic!

My Lovely Ankle

Since I have had to spend much of my time lately doing nothing but sitting with my foot elevated, I thought I would share with the entire world the beautiful object which my ankle is. On Sunday night I suffered my first ever sprained ankle, which was a very, very happy time for me. I sang sweet songs of praise and adoration to the Basketball Gods for allowing me to experience something which I had only witnessed before.

Anyway, since this very well could be my "watershed injury", I decided to document it. Also, I think this might allow me to trump Scooter, who, as far as I know, only has anecdotal information about his "toe" "injury."

Day One

Here is what my foot looked like most of Monday.

As you can see here, the foot looks relatively normal, but there is slight swelling around the ankle. (And yes, those are some extremely handsome legs)

Day Two

By Tuesday my foot started showing some pretty stylish bruising colors, and the swelling had increased.

As you can see, my left foot was starting to lose some definition. Can't quite make out all those tendons (or whatever biological garbage is in there).

Day Three

Hey, look, the bruising is coming into the inside of my foot now! Cool.

Now that, my friends, is one pretty foot. Michelle said that it looked like a dead fish. As its coloring expanded, she claimed that it was a rainbow trout. There is an ankle bone there, I promise!

Day Four

The bruising has attacked my toes! Aargh! The humanity!

That's a darn pretty foot, don't ya think? The good news is that there is hardly any pain, and I can walk almost normally.

Well, there you have it, photographic evidence that I hurt myself. Hopefully these photos will scare away some people from ever checking this blog again. I'll make sure to post more pictures if my foot sports any fun new colors or shapes. However, I think I'm at a point where things are only going to get better.

Room Redecoration, Phase I

This weekend Michelle and I spent a lot of time working on the kids' rooms. We finished all the painting, and primed walls for wallpaper. This next weekend we should get the wallpaper up. Koleman's room looks the most finished. All it's missing is a border and a big lion wallpaper mural.

His fish said they loved the new colors.

Milena and Kelson's room doesn't look too different. We put a fresh coat of white (OK, "sea salt") paint on the top half, and primed the bottom half for wallpaper.

The blue wall in their room stays, since it goes so darn well with the whole fish/water motif.

Eli's room looks like a mess. He is going to get wallpaper from top to bottom, so his room was just primed.

We took the floorboards off in his room, to make putting up the wallpaper easier, and to try and sand off the remnants of an earlier paint job. He will also be getting new carpet, so his room will look very different shortly.

New Wallpaper! (well, kind of)

The big thing at our house lately is The Great Room Switch. Everybody is now in a different room, and Eli and Koleman each have a room to themselves. We got some wallpaper to redecorate all the rooms. Once Kelson saw the border for his and Milena's room, he wanted it put up RIGHT NOW. He was very upset that we had to wait, so Michelle cut a little bit of the border for each kids room and taped it to their wall. As you can see, Kelson was very excited about his new wall.

I think Eli will be happy when his pretty flower room turns into a red, white and blue room with emergency vehicles.

Koleman, of course, chose animals.

Milena joins Kelson in examining the fishies.

Vikings Season Recap - Gag Real

Week 1

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24, Minnesota Vikings 13

A couple of people asked me for a post compiling all the Vikings pictures of the year. And I do always like to accomodate requests. However, instead of re-posting the original photos, I'm going to post one of the pictures "left on the cutting room floor", as they say in the business. I will also include a link to the original photo, so you can see that too.

Week 2

Cincinnati Bengals 37, Minnesota Vikings 8

Original photo.

Week 3

Minnesota Vikings 33, New Orleans Saints 16

Original photo.

Week 4

Atlanta Falcons 30, Minnesota Vikings 10

Original photo.

Week 6

Chicago Bears 28, Minnesota Vikings 3

Original photo.

Week 7

Minnesota Vikings 23, Green Bay Packers 20

Original photo.

Week 8

Carolina Panthers 38, Minnesota Vikings 13

Original photo.

Week 9

Minnesota Vikings 27, Detroit Lions 14

Original photo.

Week 10

Minnesota Vikings 24, New York Giants 21

Original photo.

Week 11

Minnesota Vikings 20, Green Bay Packers 17

Well, I didn't have an unused photo from this week, so I'll just repost a highlight of that day - Milena getting a train stuck in her hair. Original photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, and photo 4.

Week 12

Minnesota Vikings 24, Cleveland Browns 12

Original photo.

Week 13

Minnesota Vikings 21, Detroit Lions 16

Original photo.

Week 14

Minnesota Vikings 27, St. Louis Rams 13

Original photo.

Week 15

Minnesota Vikings 3, Pittsburgh Steelers 18

Original photo.

Week 16

Minnesota Vikings 23, Baltimore Ravens 30

I also don't have unused photos from this week, so here's a cute picture of Milena. Original photo.

Week 17

Minnesota Vikings 34, Chicago Bears 10

Original photo. Well, that's the season in a nutshell.