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We had a small family gathering at our house to celebrate the wonderful day. Theresa had the idea to plant a one year old tree in the backyard to signify the occasion. great idea. i planted it in the morning of his party and later we did a ceremonial "dirt on the tree" activity. oh my god, i just said that like a teacher.



and we had everyone get behind the tree for a photo.

i gave akello his first haircut on his birthday, i had been dying to trim it up. he looks terribly cute.

before



and after



i did it with scissors. a snip here and there, and at the end of the day i had finished.



today was the first day of school for me as a teacher. When peopls ask me ,"when does school start?" i now know why teachers say, "august 27th is the first day for the kids." its because, school really started two or three weeks ago. and its another tool for us teachers to let everyone know that its not all bbq's and ballgames all summer like so many people think. this is nothing new to me. both parents are teachers. my wifes a teacher.

this definitly helped with my first day, having so many teachers in my family. i found that i had taken a lot in over the years, especially the last 4 with my wife bringing it home every day. it was a tiring day, but ill go back tommorrow.



tonight i am all about getting some relaxation. its been non stop for me for the past month. I remember when my mom would take a picture of my sister and I on our first day of school every year. i think im going to do the same for myself. theresa greeted me outside the house when i drove up. nothing is better than pulling up in your driveway to your wife and son playing in the front. AKELLO waved Hi at me today. that was a first. he usually waves and says bye-bye but never a wave for Hi.



well, thats all for now. talk soon

thats all folks

Well here we are. the eve of our last day in dallas. it has been a great time but we are ready to go home. this last week has had us cramming it in. seeing things we wanted to see, seeing people that we wanted to see and theresa cramming for her tests and staying up late working on projects. We are going to be quite busy as soon as we get back with my impending school year starting in two weeks as well as theresa's school gettin going. probably wont be blogging for a while.

i give you the week in pictures.


Kellos last day at little gym.


akellos first blue tooth.
akello loves this thing and is always trying to put it on his ear. in dallas, everyone has one of these things, not so in austin. we are too cool. i hate them, but use one in the car. the car only! and if i do happen to have it with me when i stop at the gas station, i clip it to my shirt when not in use. tODAY there was an incident at swim class.

this lady was talking on the phone in the waiting area of the swim building where all the parents watch their kids thru the glass. she was on one of those bluetooth things. she was being all loud while everyone else was just staring at her. i couldnt help it and as soon as she quit her yappin, I (in a loud voice) said, "did you hear that akello? sally isnt going to be able to lunch on wednesday! well boohoo!" i got a lot of grins from the other parents but the lady just kept on and pretended like nothing happened. I do not let people invade my aural space. if your going to make me part of the conversation than im going to be an active participant. im kinda known for this among my freinds. same thing goes for retail sales clerks. i was at target just the other day and the checkout lady is talking to THE MANAGER about how her kid acted up in school and blah blah blah. neve said hi to me or nothing. i cants stand that level of rudeness. after we checked out i told her, "all behavior is learned". "good look with your kid." and i walked away. the lady was stunned that i would say such a thing, and the manager couldnt stop laughing!!!.

another time i told some lady in the checkout line who was yapping away "maybe jacob really doesnt want to date her and hes just using her to get to crystal, thats why they are always doing the group thing" talk about someone being stunned. she actually got off the phone. i could go on. I ALMOST bought these awesome cards at the nasher gift shop. there were thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifese business cards that said, in a nice and pretty font, "STOP TALKING" hilarious! how many times could i have used this in movie theaters?
i found them online here for 8 dollars

I know a certain person who is going to buy these as soon as he clicks on the link (jerry franks)

i am going to make my own.

another thing i noticed about dallas. peoples fences are tall. i would say 8ft at least, usually 10. and another thing, people will have a garage sale on any day of the week, and there are always people shopping at them.


we couldnt miss this show at the kimball. the mirror and the mask. this was the only US date on the exhibition tour. it was great lots of great stuff that i had never seen before.


a break in the garden



http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
and since the modern WAS right across the street and it was FREE WEDNESDAY and they were having a Ron Mueck exhibition, and akello was still enjoying himself, we went there too!

Mueck's work is amazingly real. and yet so surreal. this piece was my favorite. you think the guy is going to get up and start attacking everybody at any given moment.





my favorite Motherwell painting and to have it right here in ft. worth.




this warhol work was new. love it.

Next was the Nasher Sculpture Garden in dallas. This is my favorite piece there. Barofskys "walking to the sky" (this is the same guy that does the hammering man





i love this thing. i found out that it was a typewriter eraser. it is so detailed. Clas Oldenburg is kinda known for this. i think thats how you spell his name.

lunch with longtime friend Evan Bruno.


he tried to give akello a lime, and of course akello grabbed it out of his hand likity split and tasted it before i could stop him. evans single.

last week

This is the last week! we go home on saturday and are excited to get back home.
After i recovered from pink eye we went to celebrate Uncle Larry's coming home from being in Turkey for the past year. His Friends Dale and Sue threw a BBQ is his honor at their house. it was a fun time while it lasted. we had to go home early because theresa had a ton of work to do. you should see the amount of work. i will post pictures soon.


uncle paul and akello share a giggle as one of the stolen street banners from turkey sails in the background


Joe explains the difference between prime and sub-prime mortgages to Theresa as akello tunes him out.


heres me with akello and his Krusty the clown hair-do


anita is quite happy that her husband larry is home, and orchestrated a tequila taste test. Larry quickly followed with a turkish vs. American cigarrette test.

last week i had to go back to austin to attend some teacher training days. i was there for wed, thur, and friday. theresas mom, Pearl, came up to take over for those days. Peal and akello had a great time together. she got to take him to little gym and swim!



I am knee deep in getting ready for the school year as well as helping theresa to finish all her assignments so there wont be much blogging if any as you can probably tell by now

talk eventually!