A Family Picture

Just another family picture with all 5 of us (the littlest member of the family is slightly hidden).

Enjoy!
Taylor

No more pictures...

Last night I asked Alesha to get a picture of something, but the camera would not turn on...yes the batteries were new. The camera is still under warranty and we have had this problem for some time, but we use the camera often enough that we did not want to send it away. So you may not be seeing any pictures here for awhile until we can get our camera to work again.

-Taylor

Stuffing the Turkey

Early Thanksgiving Day morning, Glory Lynn woke up, wandered upstairs to wake up the cooks (Armando and Granny B) just before 5:30 AM. Initially, Glory was not quite sure what to do with this turkey...

...but after shedding her robe and pulling up her sleeves she was ready to get to work and do whatever was necessary to get the job done.

Enjoy!

Almost In-The-Dry

Here are some more construction photos.
By the way, you will notice that the house is currently sitting in what looks like a big parking lot...no, we are not moving to a Lubbock parking lot! Eventually, the house will be moved to our land outside of Snyder.

On a more interesting note...
When Glory 1st saw the house here, she knew it was our house, but she also informed us (in a very concerned tone) that it was not next to the box-barn and Grandma and Pa Miller's ranch.
It is delightfully amazing of how aware of her surrounding she is!

Frame Work

Here are some pictures of our house in the framing phase.

Pic 1: Glory wonders about this "house" stuff.
Pic 2: Glory finds her room.

Who, me?

In our family, it is well known by all (even little Levi), that little people are not allowed to grab for things on kitchen counter-tops where knives and other potentially dangerous tools might be found. In this case, Levi was not technically reaching for any objects, but his guilty conscience causes him to grab is ear...this is his way of saying, "I didn't do it!"

Just like Mama...Just Like Papa

Glory and Levi sure are growing up fast. It is really fun to watch then act and work like big people. Here Glory is working in the kitchen and helping Mama make Applebutter. Levi on the other hand has always enjoyed driving and any time that he has the chance, he will take it.

Well, I do not really have time to write much...I rarely do, but I thought that you would enjoy the pictures. Be sure to note, that you can click on the picture to see an enlarged version.

Enjoy!
Taylor

Costume Box

Since before we had Glory, Alesha and I have stored a costume box. We brought it with us from Seymour recently, and there it sat. A large black costume box. Several times a day, Glory would ask if we could open it, but sadly I had to pat her on the head and say, "No. Not yet, but we will open it soon. Ok?" Agreeably, she would wander off and find something else to do. Well, the other day we opened it up for the first time since Alesha was a little girl. From a military general to an rich old lady, and from an arctic hunter to a native Indian, we played many different roles. Both Glory and Levi seemed to have a grand time. Towards the end, I think that Levi was ready for us to wear normal clothes and return back to being Mama and Papa.

After these messages...

Wow! It has been quite some time since we have last updated this blog. I will consult the blogmaster about this issue. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment!

-Taylor

Kansas

by Alesha

Well, here we sit, enjoying a quiet evening at home...in Kansas! (O.K., it's not really OUR house; we're just borrowing it for the week.) One of my dear friends from Texas Tech is getting married, Lord willing, this coming Saturday in Oklahoma. (Congratulations, Kristin! :) Since Taylor has friends that he works with in Kansas, we decided to come up to see them before the wedding. Understand, now, that when you do all of your work communication without any actual face to face contact, these were all "friends" that we had never met in person! What we found when we got here was a sweet outpouring of the kind of Christian hospitality and friendship that we have each been called to. We were able to join with the Mennonite community our friends are a part of in celebrating common faith in a common Savior, though dress and doctrine may differ. The hymn sing was AWESOME! The house we are staying in belongs to some coworkers, who are currently serving the Lord in overseas. In their absence, they have set up their home as a resting spot for those who need it. We have really enjoyed it as a gift from God and from them. Thank you!

Levi's first hair cut

- by Alesha

Levi looks a bit different than he did a few weeks ago. First of all, he is sporting a slick new hair cut that looks a lot like his Papa's. (That's the only guy's hairstyle I know how to do besides buzzing it off like "Uncle J's".) Secondly, he is in the process of getting a whole mouthful of teeth! Right now, he has four on top and two on bottom, but he's working on getting two more bottom ones any day now. I'll try to update pictures of him and Glory sometime soon!

The Great Scissor-Tail Caper

by Alesha

Earlier this summer, we were excited to have a pair of Scissor Tails, (Scissor Tailed Flycatchers) make a nest in the tree that our clothesline is hung from! I was glad to see that she had hatched some, though they were too high up in the tree to see how many were in the clutch. I had hoped to watch the activity some, but wasn't expecting the adventure we were in for... One night we had a West Texas style rain storm - the wind blowing the rain almost sideways. The next morning, I saw the Mama Scissortail sitting on the ground under the clothesline. I had never seen her land on the ground like that, so I went over to see what she was up to. To make a short story long, she was fine, but the wind had blown her babies down nest and all. So, there she stood, looking at her babies with a look that could not be interepereted as anything but, "now what?". Of the five chicks scattered about her, three were still living. (Now, I know that you are not supposed to touch wild baby birds so as to not leave your scent on them, but I figured that if I left them on the ground, they would be dog food - as our yard is patrolled by the great and mighty "Pete", our Golden Retriever puppy. ) I picked up the nest and stuck it up in a crotch of the tree about shoulder high to me and tried to make it as secure as I knew how, though it was not nearly as well secured as the birds had done it, and tucked the three living chicks back in. The Mama gladly took them back, though she kept fussing over the dead ones; I felt sorry for her and took them out farther into the pasture so she could spend her energies on her living ones. Over the next week, I had a delightful time watching them until they flew. On a couple of occasions I had to put one back in my not-so-secure nest. By the end, two fledgelings sat on top of their old nest, which had by then folded over like a taco and the little runt chick had been "kicked out" to the next branch over...which wasn't really any worse of a spot than the falling apart nest. The adult birds got pretty used to me. The Mama never quite trusted me, but she seemed to realize I had my own usefulness to her. If her runt baby had gotted kicked down, (which happened at least every other day), she would fly to a nearby tree and watch me as I put him back in, but she never called her "husband" down on me like she did if any other bird dared land in "their" tree. (Besides coming in on occasion to sit with the female in the top of their favorite "sitting tree", the Papa didn't tend babies, but he always stayed close in the area to hunt and at one chirp from the Mama, he would swoop in for battle.) So... this whole letter is to say that I had a very fun week being a part of their family! These pics were taken the last couple of days before they took off. We still see them occasionally - their tails aren't quite full lenght yet, so I can still tell them from the adults. Our God is so wonderful in all that He has created. :)

Pull Ups

Levi is getting stronger. He is beginning to pull-up on all sort of things. His favorite place to play seems to be a little toy table that some friends gave us. Recently, I needed Alesha's help for about an hour. So we set Levi and Glory in the shade on a mat, and they played with that table and one other little toy for an hour! (For those of you who do not know, an hour is a long time to maintain the attention span of a two year old and 9 month old.)

His other place to play is on a large metal wash bin. We pour a little bit of water so that he can splash and bang on the metal bin. He gets really wet, but he does not seem to mind, especially on the hot summer days.

Pascal the Calculating Cat

We have a new cat. His name is Pascal after the famous mathematician. This is due to him being found by a math professor at Texas Tech. Evidently, the kitten a jumped up into the professor's engine compartment of his car and rode home with him. When he got home, there was this nice little kitten. Happily for us, the professor's cat did not like this new kitten, so instead of dropping the kitten back at Texas Tech he felt compelled to find a home for it.
(This is where we come in.)
Taylor heard about this kitten from his math connections, and so we decided to go and get the cat after we caught three mice recently. Glory and Alesha decided that he needed a "math" name. So together we thought about all manner of math names that many people would recognize and be a reasonable for a cat.

You may recall the name Pascal from high school when you learned about Pascal's Triangle (go look it up if you do not know, there is no time to write about it here!). Also, among other things, Blaise Pascal is known for creating one of the earliest calculating machines in 1645 (actually Wikipedia states that he invented the 2nd).

So, Pascal (the cat) is very nice and very timid in the presence of fast movement. We call him the "calculating cat" for two reasons: (1) his name, Pascal lends itself to such; and (2) because even when he is calm, he always seems to be "calculating" his next hiding place and how to get there if there were any swift movements.
Pascal has only hid from us once, but it took us about an hour to find him. Also, when I went to pick him up from my professor's office (which is only a 10'x10' room), my professor and I spent several minutes trying to find him.

(picture coming soon...)

Glory's 2nd Date

Glory has been a wonderful helper over the last few months. So much so that she has filled up her 2nd Sticker Chart for helping. Therefore, she earned another date with Papa! This time we went to Fazoli's, which is a type of fast Italian food place. We like it because of the big red tomato as the logo and the free garlic bread sticks...yummm. During our date, Glory learned how to trap liquid in a straw with her finger, pick up the straw from the drink, and get the liquid to your mouth without spilling (if you do not get it then read this: Straw in Water experiment). It was quite a fun experience. We also ate pizza and pasta noodles.

Thank you Lord for the beautiful servant that we have in Glory Lynn!

In the flowers

Due to all of the rain this year, the pasture has grown some wonderfully beautiful flowers (with some help from Alesha and Glory seeding it last fall). I wanted to get a picture of us with the flowers.

...thanks for the seeds Granny B!

Our Garden

We tried to keep our garden small this year since we have so many other projects going on, but when we learned that Taylor was not going to be gone this summer for schooling, well, then we expanded. And now with God's help from all of the rain, our garden is growing wonderfully! Since our living situation encourages outside projects, and since the garden is one of the first things you see when you pull into our drive, we have tried to be more diligent about weed-pulling, though sometimes we are more successful than others at getting the best of them. Glory helped harvest the onions this week. She really likes the corn plants, and is getting to be quite the gardener. I'm glad that she is learning how fun it is to watch God make things grow! :)

The Barn

by Taylor

Well, its probably not the type of barn you are thinking of, but we call it a barn because we plan to use it for any random livestock that we happen to acquire in the future. Currently, the barn is what we call our home. We have a travel trailer parked under it, and along with the cargo container (otherwise known as "the box"), it is where we live. The size of the barn is 45' by 44' which gives us just under 2000 sq. ft. to work and play in.

On the south side of the barn we have enough space to shelter two vehicles and use the rest for other random storage. On the north side is a porch of sorts; there is a workshop area, summer kitchen, and the travel trailer. This is where we spend most of our time.

I am currently in the process of installing electrical outlets and lighting throughout the barn, but with the summer days lasting so long, we rarely need much extra lighting. So this tends to get pushed down the list and replaced by other things like the garden (partly shown above)...but I will let Alesha tell you about that since she has done most of the work for it.

Gentlemen, start your engines!

by Alesha

Levi is getting so VERY good at scooting that it almost counts as crawling, but he knows the difference and is determined to figure out how to crawl "for real"! This week he has spent a lot of time trying to be up on all fours...He can't go forward, but he can rock back and forward and think really hard about all the fun places he would go if he could just figure out how. My sister Michelle says he looks like he's revving up his engine... (hence the title). It is humbling to think that God is creating a man - and giving us the awesome job of caring for and training him up in His ways. We pray for wisdom and daily enjoy the ride!

Glory and Levi

Just a picture of Glory and Levi enjoying the Spring-like day.

The Barn

by Alesha

The big news of the past few weeks is that we have MOVED...about 100 feet! As our barn roof is finished over the cargo container, we have moved the trailer under the roof, which is very convenient. In addition to being our laundry room, tool shed, and storage, we have set up a "living room" in the inside of the cargo container. My tall husband is delighted to stretch out to his full 6'2"...something he can't do in the trailer. :) We are in the process of setting up a summer kitchen of sorts in the porch area of our barn. The greatest blessing of it will be the extra counter space it will provide. The covered area will be a God-send this summer as it will mean we will have consistent, solid shade. The Lord is good and we are enjoying (ALMOST all of the time) this homesteading adventure!

Adding Comments

by Taylor

Just to note: Below each posting is some additional information about the Blog. It also contains a place for you to add comments. We have chosen to leave this open, so please feel free to add comments if that is easier for you. To add a comment, just click on the "1 Comments" link below this Blog.
We seem to easily be having a new post at least once per week, so check back often!

Glory's First Date

- by Alesha
Glory has been working very hard for the past month, earning stickers on her "helper chart". She helps me stack dishes and sings to Levi while I dash outside for something. One of her favorite ways to earn stickers is by taking my tin cans out to the recycle bin. This is really a wonderful help, since it gets them off my counter when I'm cooking, and saves me a trip to the barn, where we store them.

This past week, Glory filled up the LAST square on her chart and earned a DATE with her Papa!
We hope that eventually, he and Glory will go on their dates just the two of them, but this time Levi and I were invited to come along. After Taylor's class got out in Lubbock, he took us to the ice cream shop and let glory pick from all the choices a big ice cream for us to share. She chose "pink with sprinkles".

Little Man

After a rocky start in life with nose congestion, sickness, and just plain cold weather, Levi is beginning to grow up to be a joyful little man. He is a long way from standing on his own, but he certainly prefers standing up rather than sitting down. He is also making some attempts at being mobile.

My Job: Testing

by Taylor
Several people want to know what it is that I do for my job. So I suppose that this would be an acceptable way to note it for all of you inquiring minds. I actually work for a company called Software Builders, Inc. (SBI), but Investortools is who we work with or work for, and you can find them online at http://www.invtools.com.

My job is in testing software. It is not typically considered a "high-profile" position, but as I recall my work as an Optical Engineer at Lockheed Martin, I was mostly doing testing of optical components. I suppose that someone has to do it, and that someone seems to be me! (There is actually a large and very important company that is dedicated to testing. If you look on the back/bottom of many electronic or mechanical objects you will see a little "UL" sticker. It stands for Underwriters' Laboratories, Inc.; they test all sorts of products so that they are relatively safe for us to use.) Well, let's get back to where I was going:

A lot of software can be tested automatically (via more software). This is great for crunching lots of numbers, but if you really want to get down to the gritty details, then you have to do it manually...that is where I (and others) come in to play. Perhaps it would be easier to give a short overview of my testing day.

I will be given a particular assignment. The developer will note how he changed the code and what he expects the change will do. I initially try to follow his instructions for any basic flaws that may have crept up (this rarely happens though, but it does give me a feel for what the system is doing). After I understand what is going on, I try to think of any "backdoor" methods of getting to the changed code. If I have to enter data, I try to enter bad data or I try excessively large values...basically, I give the system something that it does not expect. It helps to have an idea of what the system is doing and what it is expecting; then I can try to pull it apart. Generally though, our developers are very good at what they do and errors do not come directly from the stated job at hand. Most of the time, I will find errors that do not relate to the job at hand at all, but rather they lead to a new issue that has arisen.

This keeps me busy due to the fact that our product gets a fresh update on a monthly basis. So every month there are about 200+ testing jobs split among 4 testers. Since the test cycle is so short, it can get quite busy testing a complicated system as this. It is certainly not life-threatening (i.e. missile control), but it can be very costly (i.e. financial securities).

Glory's Room

March 20 - by ALH
Glory loves her "cozy" little room - she's never fallen out yet!

Pete

March 20 - by ALH

Our excitement of the past week is named "Pete". Last Saturday, I surprised Taylor with a three month old Golden Retriever puppy. His full registered name is Taylor's Peter The Rock. He's been a lot of fun!