davejenbarnes » daily life

getting old enough to help

Jennifer — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:50:28 +0000

I usually show up with the boys about 30 minutes until the end of the concert. My three wiggle worms can’t sit still for much longer than that. But showing up at the end means they get to help. And helping means they get — 1. to stay up late, past their bedtime, on a weeknight and 2. a reward for working (usually a late night ice cream cone at McDonald’s).

I think it’s nearly time to get them “STAGE CREW” t-shirts…

5D :: 28mm

Mid-month iPhone dump

Jennifer — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:35:56 +0000

These diptychs are always fun to make. We’ve had a great month so far!

Two iPhone 4Ses :: Instagram :: Diptych :: PicFX

This. Kid.

Jennifer — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:48:00 +0000

I honestly don’t get how anyone can look at the world around us and not know that there is a Creator. Or look at their children and see God’s love reflected in their eyes. This one, especially, gets me every time he looks at me. I mean, really looks at me. I just love this kid. He amazes me at every turn.

5D Mark III :: 70-200 f/2.8 L :: © Jerry Knight

Kerbey Lane Cafe

Jennifer — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:29:46 +0000

I always think of a bowling alley when Kerbey Lane comes up in conversation. I don’t know why… other than the lane part, and I think Kerbey would be a good name for one. My brother is in town for his annual Easter weekend visit so we loaded up the van and headed out to eat Friday night after he arrived. I threw the new lens on the old camera for the evening and here are a few of the snapshots.

You can never go wrong with Kerbey Lane. Mmm-mmm, good.

30D :: 28mm :: VSCO film

April, already.

Jennifer — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:33:26 +0000

Another thing that’s happened in the past couple of weeks that’s prevented the motivation for blogging is this — my camera batteries all (yes, all four of them) stopped charging. I could not get them to hold a charge long enough to take the camera anywhere. It finally dawned on me to clean the contacts with my superdidooper 99.9% Ultra Pure Technical Grade Isopropyl Alcohol (available at your local Fry’s electronic store) and Ta-Da! They charge again. Well, two of them do. Which is a relief because soo many cameras use those same batteries. I guess that’d also be a benefit of replacing the batteries, too, that so many cameras use those same batteries. Unfortunately, they’re not AA’s and unfortunately, they’re nearly $50/each to replace.

And the big-mama film body was in the shop for most of the month. Not that it helped — the sucker still backfocuses. Grumble, grumble. Too bad the four other film bodies I have aren’t as fun to use as the big-mama. The holga comes close, but seeing as how I’ve still got 5 rolls of 120 to send to a lab… well, you get the point.

Needless to say, I’m back. Hopefully this will be a healthy month for us.

It’s 2:30 AM, so I’m going to bed now, but I just wanted to post that picture of the ONLY bluebonnet that survived in our front bed. *sigh* ‘Nite…

30D :: 28mm :: 1/640th :: f/2.0 :: ISO 640

what can I say?

Jennifer — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:03:48 +0000

I guess it’s kinda obvious that I don’t get much done when I’m sick. And I’m still not over the flu I had two weeks ago.

I … cannot … stop … coughing!

I’ll be back soon with some posts, I promise. We’re still here and still doing good (*cough*)

Whoops

Jennifer — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:24:53 +0000

Missed some blogging lately. The boys have been sick for the past week and then it was my turn. I’ve had a fever off and on for four days now, and I’ve been left with some major coughing fits and my nose is killing me from all the blowing. It is Spring Break though, so hopefully I will get a blog post in sometime before the end of the week.

Since no post is complete without a picture, here is one of Lowell not feeling so well. :(

Five on Friday

Jennifer — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:33:50 +0000

3.2.12

There is so much goodness in these five little pictures that my heart is about to burst.

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyhow; new sidewalk chalk is always welcome here, especially when it helps fill up the chalk bucket. :) Thank you Grandma and Grandpa B!

Last October/November I spread about 3 packages of 5 year old bluebonnet seeds in our front flowerbed, just to see what would happen. The packages had expired. About ten of them sprouted then proceeded to die, but three of the plants are thriving. We’ll have a few flowers soon. Thankfully, my James loves to draw flowers for me. He also draws rockets and video games, but I’ll take every blossom he thinks up.

When we first moved in, the front flowerbed was pitiful. Deplorable. Embarassing. I planted three rosemary bushes (well, actually four, but the HEB plant was a different strain from the ones at Lowe’s and it died right off the bat) and they have absolutely EXPLODED. In the warm weather, we are trimming them nearly every other week to keep them from taking over the house. It’s time for a trim again, and that means lots of rosemary rolls and a fragrant house! We’ll never buy rosemary (from the spices aisle) again!

And this last one… I stumbled upon it as I put down the garage door. home sweet home. My heart is full to overflowing reading that my 6 year old was thoughtful enough to label his home sweet home. I love that boy. And, yes, despite the IRS claiming we were fraudulent in our 2008 taxes with the first time home buyers credit, we finally (EIGHT months later) got everything straightened out and we were, in fact, right about this being our first home. Whew. Because you know, nothing is scarier than a mess with the IRS, especially when they start mailing you Intent to Seize Property letters via certified mail and you know that you are in the right. David and I are celebrating the resolution with a trip downtown tonight by ourselves. I’ll toast to that!

Happy Friday everybody!

30D :: 10-22mm :: 50/1.4 :: VSCO film

sailor’s delight

Jennifer — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:10:55 +0000

1/500th :: f/4 :: ISO 1250 :: 10mm :: 30D

Birthday!

Jennifer — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:01:53 +0000

I had to jump in a picture with the boys, even though I was in front of a trash can (yuck) and none of them would actually look at David… I’m not in enough pictures of them and I want them to look back and see their mommy while she’s still young and silly. I know 34 isn’t exactly a spring chicken, but someday 34 will be “when I was young.”

The boys love Chuck-E-Cheese and Wednesday night for L’s birthday was no exception. The place was cleaner than we’d ever seen it (it was absolutely crawling with managers) and they’d added more seating and new games. I thought they kept the shoot-em-up games out of the place but there was one… and of course it was the one that all my boys were most enthralled with. I’m not sure I like that.

It’s hard to believe we’ve finally passed the mark between having a 3, 4, and 6 year old and now have a 3, 5, and 6 year old. Throughout the course of a year, their birthdays are 5 months apart, each in the middle-ish of the month. I guess there was no rhyme or reason in the timing of their arrivals… Five more months and we’ll have a 3, 5, and 7 year old. James is already counting down.

Thank you A TON Grandma, for dinner and all the gifts and new clothes!
30D :: 10-22mm

Clinician and more

Jennifer — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:54:10 +0000

We got in late last night from a weekend trip up to the DFW area. It used to take us 4 hours max. to drive there. Now that Korben is potty trained, it’s closer to a 5 hour drive. Dude won’t tell us (and I’m constantly asking, btw) when he needs to go until it’s too late and we totally didn’t think to put him in a diaper. OY… David could tell you all about the adventures and thrown away underwear and accidents. I stayed in the van with the big two. We try to take the boys into the boys restroom when at all possible, which means David gets potty duty when he’s able. Not fun.

Saturday, we (David and I) borrowed David’s dad’s car and started the drive to Justin’s school where David would be the clinician for the full-band rehearsals. We didn’t make it there without event, though. David hit something that looked a lot like a piece of some other car’s bumper. I don’t know why he didn’t swerve, but he didn’t and a few seconds later, we smelled gasoline. Upon pulling over, the gas was pouring out from under the car. I thought for sure it was going to explode. Dave’s dad headed down and got things rolling again with calls to all the appropriate people and the fire department headed out and poured their special mix of kitty-litter-looking stuff on the spilt gas.

Eventually, we made it to the clinic and David did a fantastic job with the bands. It was a full day of rehearsing and I expected to be bored, so I had book 6 with me as well as knitting and if that weren’t enough, I had the crochet blanket I’m making out in the car. I hardly read a page; David was very good. He relates to the middle schoolers like no one I’ve ever seen before. Improvements were made and a lot of what he was telling the kids to do, they were able to do. I think he should clinic more; he’s fantastic!

After the clinic, we were able to spend a lovely evening with Justin and his wife. They are such good friends of ours. We credit Justin with putting us together and while we know it might have eventually happened without his coaxing, I’ll never forget the first week of college and Justin telling me I liked David (when I hardly knew who David was – let alone this crazy tall blonde dude telling me who I liked) then in January begging him (Justin) to talk to him (David) for me. Justin and David are frat brothers. That alone means they are close… the stories they could tell… And Justin’s wife, Ashley, became a good friend of mine when we both lived in Kokernaut at Baylor. (Kokernaut was the oldest dorm on the Baylor campus where the top floor was for upperclassmen who got the 2 person rooms all to themselves and Ashley and I were both on that floor.) Justin and Ashley are the funniest and kindest and two of the smartest people you could ever be blessed to know. They fixed a wonderful impromptu steak dinner and we all caught up since it had been years since seeing each other last. We met their daughter for the first time (She’s two and a half already!) and are so blessed by knowing them. Sometimes I wish we lived closer so we were able to visit more often.

There are not very many close K-Psi brothers of David’s that live close to us. We should probably spend more time with the ones we know (hi, Rudy!) but after David’s best friend, Mark, moved to Seattle, family life just took over. We do certainly miss getting together with those friends… they are probably the best friends we’ll ever have.

Sunday was a good day. The boys played some soccer after church/lunch and we all took naps. It was a very good day, indeed.

The ride home was long and the Korbenator doesn’t travel well yet … I can’t wait until he can actually *warn* us that he has to go instead of waiting until it’s too late and us having to pull over in the dark on the shoulder of I-35 so he can finish peeing in a bottle and then changing his pants/underwear out for dry clean ones. Maybe someday we will laugh at the memory of it, maybe.

Five on Friday

Jennifer — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:58:22 +0000

2.17.12

Not really a series this week, this Five on Friday is simply a collection of life around here.

I have been growing a batch of dough all week, and finally baked my first two small loaves of Pain au levain l’ancienne from my fledgling two-week-old starter. They look and smell like french bread, but when you break into it, it’s most definitely sourdough. The taste reminds me of english muffins and that bread you can get at La Madeleine with their little samples of jam and jellies. It’s not fluffy and light, nor is it sour, but it’s delicious nevertheless.

In addition to baking, I have been taking time from my chores (like all the boys’ laundry) to notice the details of life — the view from the front door and the way the glass triplicates everything… Mario, missing his hands which are probably resting in the belly of the vacuum — and I have been reading. I am aaaaaaaaalmost done with this book, which I started mid-December. It is book five of a most excellent series. The first four I could scarcely put down; this one has been the opposite. Yet, I have book six waiting on the night stand with its promise of new adventures, so I am anxious to be done with this one and move on. The story is finally gaining momentum again and I’m curious to see what happens next.

Someday the bread will be eaten, the laundry done, the view out the front door different, the boys grown and their toys gone, and the books read. This is where we are now, though, and it’s worth remembering.

Happy Friday, y’all.

30D :: 22mm :: VSCO film