Pot, Kettle...Kettle, Pot

This is so contradictory I have a hard time not laughing at something so serious:

Anti-war protest at GOP Convention Turns Violent

One more update

I do have one more update. My dad was recently diagnosed with ALS. Obviously not something anyone wants to hear about themselves or a family member. Apparently, you never know how much time you have or exactly how it will progress. Also, there's a drug that was recently approved by the FDA that slows its progress in many cases.

God is still good, yet we appreciate your prayers - particularly for my mom & dad.

Update on Us

Greetings all - our apologies for being so silent. For the handful (or less) that still actually check this blog, here's a Nickles Family update.

1. The Holden Beach & Helen, GA trips were good - and seemingly too long ago. The kids had a great time
2. Lydia said "ma-ma" about a week and a half ago. "Da-da" soon followed (after some intense coaching). She scoots but doesn't crawl yet. She knows how to work her daddy. When I get home she starts flailing her arms and making noise - how can I help picking her up? There's a few more weeks until our friends can keep her while Kristy goes to work, so Lydia is going to work with her in the sling - and doing very well.
   
3. Stephen started pre-school again. We didn't get in back at Cullowhee Kids where he was last year (limited space), but a local private school (Heritage Christian Academy) started a PreK class this fall and we got in there three days a week. He loves it and the teacher is the lady that kept him some days last year.
4. My job goes well. The university's priorities are changing and I never seem to have time to get to everything, but we always need tech support. I still enjoy it, and definitely can't complain.
5. We got DSL not long ago and are seriously enjoying this. Hopefully we'll get over the novelty of watching House episodes whenever we want sometime soon. Stephen has discovered Scooby Doo. We also recently got the "Old School" Sesame Street DVD's from Netflix. Stephen kind of liked Sesame Street the few times he's seen it, but he watched two episodes of the old early 70's shows and talks about letters and numbers all the time now. Go figure. Maybe they're not so bad for "today's kids" after all.
6. My roommates (apartment-mates?) from my senior year at Clemson all got together recently. We had a blast (or at least I did) and I'm sorry we haven't done this more often. It's been a while since I've had that kind of geeky fellowship.

We'll try to get better at updates...

Local Trips

Our family took two short but fun trips this weekend. On Saturday we went to Ghost Town in the Sky in Maggie Valley. Growing up in Kingsport, I remember seeing TV ads for it, but we never went. It's basically a small western themed amusement park. "Small" anyway compared to Six Flags and such. Even though it's a busy season for the park, the crowds were barely crowds. About half the time we didn't have to wait to get on a ride, and the other half we waited at most for two cycles of the ride to get on - MAYBE 10 minutes. On the kids' rides, Stephen could just stay on and ride again if the line was small enough (which it usually was). And, every hour on the hour is a gunfight in the "town" (a.k.a., concessions & gift stores area). They really got their money's worth out of us from the concessions ($2.29 for one order of fries!). But we all had a great time. The ski lift ride up was very pleasant. I haven't ridden on a "Scrambler" in a long time, and remember now why it is one of my favorite carnival rides. Also, the park is up on top of a mountain and the view is really incredible. The only real souvenir we brought back was a sunburn (Kristy and me anyway - Stephen and Lydia were thoroughly doused in sunscreen).

This afternoon we went for a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I love the views, both the myriad of living things you can see up close from the road (some rhododendron were blooming) and the amazing views of the mountains. We went toward Asheville from the Balsam exit (mile 444, I think) and stopped to "hike" part of the Richard Balsam Trail (mile 430 or so?). We discovered that Stephen absolutely loves to hike. He had a great time and would have gone much faster if us old parents would have let him. I have no idea where all that energy comes from, but I wish I did! I carried Lydia in the Snuggli and she wiggled and squealed many times on the way, tried to grab every branch in reach, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself. There were some posts along the trail and I called the first one a "marker." Stephen then called all the ones after that "crayons." The mind of a 3 year old is a mysterious but amusing thing. So, our kids enjoyed the hike and I hope we make time to do more.

One last thought: we were out there on the trail starting around 4:30 and the temperature according to our van's display was 64 degrees F. In the middle of July. I love living in the mountains.

LEGO Memories

For all those who ever played with LEGO, take a look at these:

The Secret Lego vault with every set ever made
I'll admit that I teared up a bit when I saw the original "Galaxy Explorer" box, remembering all the fun times with that one. Space sets were the best.

The best Lego sets in history
Whether these are the best or not is debatable, but they're fun for the memories.

Stephen still reminds me that once he turns 4 years old, I'll let him play with all my old ones. I can't wait to see what he makes out of them.

Two more pictures

Ok, two more pictures for this evening and then I'm done.

One of my super cute daughter making a cute face for the camera. I love the bow, and so did everyone else.


I went up to Stephen's room one morning to wake him up and found him like this. No covers (typical) and completely perpendicular to his bed (not typical, but not unheard of). He's hilarious. I hope we cure him of this before he gets married.