Greenville Trip Pictures

Here's some pictures from our trip to Greenville last weekend.

Three generations, two birthday "boys," and one candle blower (he's the one in the middle).


We had plenty of fun in my parent's pool. Here's Stephen playing with my sister (a.k.a. "Aunt Fun").


The boys went to the model train show in Greenville that Saturday. We all had a good time. This is a line inspection car owned by one of the guys there. He bought it and restored it. (I can think of less expensive hobbies - but this one is pretty cool.) Stephen got to ring the bell.


Stephen had a great time looking at the huge model train layout. They had buttons set up so you push a small button and some model on the layout animates or makes noise. And yes, we had to push all 4,506 of them.


This is from the massive Nickles Family Gathering™. Stephen eats at the end of the table with Victoria, his second cousin. He actually ate something besides potato chips before declaring "all done" to go play.

Family Pictures

Some recent family pictures from various things.

Kristy caught this one of me and Lydia napping. I'm not sure if I rocked her to sleep or if she rocked me to sleep.


Here's Lydia in one of her very cute outfits.



There's a state park with a lake and some trails about 30 minutes from our house, so we went one Sunday afternoon.



I have too many funny captions for this one in my head to pick one. I have no idea what Stephen was really thinking.



A fun one of Stephen



I got this one of Lydia soon before she woke up one morning. I see the resemblance to Stephen more at this age.

Birthday/Father's Day Weekend

It's been a fun birthday/father's day weekend here in the Nickles household. We went to Greenville to see my side of the family. We swam in the pool and Lydia took to the water very quickly - much faster than Stephen. She's been in a patting/slapping various surfaces and objects kind of mode lately, so that was just right for some small splashing in the water. My dad, Stephen, and I went Saturday morning to see a model train show. A good time was had by all there.

Saturday afternoon Kristy and I went to see Prince Caspian. I HIGHLY recommend it. Although I tend toward being a "purist" when converting books to movies (I'm still miffed about Faramir' character & the Galadrim showing up at Helm's Deep) the changes were good. Fleshing out Peter's character & growth made for a more interesting thread to the story. The four Pevensie children were much more skilled actors than last time (and I thought they were good then). Anyway, do go see it, but expect a movie "based on" the book (not an exact interpretation, but not just "inspired by" either).

Then the usual Nickles Family Gathering for summer birthdays. It was fun and we all stuffed ourselves.

Today was good too. Kristy made breakfast (my usual job so that was a nice break). We had good fellowship at church and then had lunch on the porch. This afternoon we realized how tired we all were after the weekend, and three of us had naps. Stephen did not and indeed we had some meltdowns. He finally went to bed (amongst many tears) but hope a long sleep tonight will help him feel better tomorrow.

While I was writing the above, we heard a loud thump from upstairs. Stephen apparently fell out of bed WHILE ASLEEP. He stayed asleep while I put him back in bed. Poor kid!

Pictures will follow soon.

Ratatouille

Ever since Stephen saw the movie Ratatouille several weeks ago, he occasionally asked me to make the dish ratatouille.
I found a recipe in a general cookbook and adapted it so that it would look like the movie version - except I kept the tomatoes called for in my recipe and left out the yellow squash. Stephen did help a little, and we even got to work on patterns as we layered the veggies in the baking dish.
My version is not nearly as pretty as the one in the film of course - especially since I only had fairly large eggplants from which to choose.



Lee and I enjoyed it, but Stephen tried a few bites and didn't like it. Oh well.

In looking for pretty pictures of Ratatouille for contrast, I found that better cooks than I have also been inspired to make their visions of the film's version of ratatouille. This recipe does look much better than mine.

Mystery Man in Green Eggs and Ham

Ok, so maybe I've read Green Eggs and Ham a few times too many lately. But, have you ever noticed the "mystery man?" He shows up in the coach car of the train - the first time you see the train. You then don't see him for most of the rest of the book - you only see the woman and child in the train (or in the water, etc.). But, you see little glimpses of someone else that hasn't been previously introduced. A hand here, a hat there (mostly while they're in the water). I'm going on the assumption that the man in the train is indeed still along for the ride throughout the book, he's just ignored. It's as if he's having a cameo appearance and is then treated like an extra.

It's a bit odd to have read a book so often that I can almost read it from memory; leaving my mind free to wander and think about such things. Perhaps we need to go to the library more often.

Family Update

Greetings all! We apologize for the long length between blog posts. Here’s the quick update:

1. Kristy and Lee had a nasty diarrhea bug. We started within hours of each other a few Saturdays ago. The kids didn’t get it, but we couldn’t keep up with both of them. So, my parents took Stephen for most of the week (thankfully). I recovered slower than Kristy (I missed church and 4 days of work), but we’re both much better. Apparently it’s been going around.
2. The semester is over at WCU, so Lee gets to work on longer-term goals. For the nerds out there, I’m learning ASP.NET (in VB) and how to interface with a database through that.
3. WCU hires a carnival near the end of the semester and we took the family to that. Stephen (and the rest of us) had a good time. I rode the Ferris wheel with him and though I was afraid I would have to put the “daddy death grip” on him, he was very good. The funnel cake was pretty good too.
4. We took Stephen and Lydia to their first baseball game. Clemson came to play WCU, so we wore our orange. It was a good game and Clemson won. We also met some Clemson folks, including a fraternity brother of mine (he was after my time).
5. Kristy’s boss has asked us to consider having her come in three mornings a week instead of the current two. We’re trying to figure out the childcare for that to see if we can make it happen.
6. The search for a dean for our college failed – the provost didn’t pick any of the candidates invited for final interviews. So, I don’t know who I’m going to report to as of July 1. We don’t even have an interim dean picked. AND our associate dean is stepping down. Whatever happens, there will be a significant change in leadership.
7. For our Texas friends – in spite of the gas prices, we’re still trying to figure out a trip out there to visit. We’ll be in touch.