June-oh it’s been a while…
...when I make puns using the name of the month. Haha.
Been a while since I caught up on here, so I'm thinking I'm a bit behind in getting some pics up and talking about life and such things.
I just posted a bunch of pictures that were on my Facebook only until now, from a visit to the Koala Park and now I'll catch you up on some things with some snaps of life and things.
I'd just gotten out of hospital for a compressed nerve between my L4 and L5... or something that sounds like that, I have no head for medicinally talk, and because I was so determined to make it out for wife's birthday (for shooting range awesomeness) they made me take a walker frame and a wheelchair.
And by "made me" I mean "I really couldn't move without them." Good times.
Last weekend, I was getting thrown around and stabbed in a roped-off arena in front of the Western Australia Museum for the "Day in Pompeii" exhibit.
Barely 3 months ago, I couldn't walk.
Interesting when you apply some perspective to things.
Wife showing off her photo edity skills. Since I dyed my hair for the World's Greatest Shave I've been enjoying life as a blonde. It's nice, though I did put dog food in the fish tank the other day...
I'm kidding.
So yeah, now we're BOTH blonde and it's pretty wild. Having never coloured my hair before (except for those stints in High School when I had a rattail and a semi-mohawk) I like feeling like the youthful sprite that I am.
Aside from hair-colouring fun, we had a rough go there for a while. Most of 2010 thus far really.
First, my back did me in, then Mother Nature peed on all my stuff.
At the end of April, Damon lost a schoolmate. He was a good kid, I knew him from working in the school canteen (like a concession stand), my niece Imo knew him well from her class, and Dames played footy with him at lunches.
I'll give the short version and say it was a traffic accident, that hit our community, and our family, pretty hard, and we wanted to do something to send him off. I threw it around on Facebook but never really got anything organised other than buying a bunch of balloons and some cards. Wife's idea, and it was a beautiful one, to write little messages to Zak, tie them to a balloon, and let them go.
We went to a park near where he died and where his friends had been congregating after school and had our own little ceremony. Despite the fact that it has the potential to feel voyeuristic or wrong, wife and I both agreed that capturing some of these moments for posterity's sake would mean a lot to our children in the future. Some things should be shared I think.
Below is Damon on top of the playground equipment in the park.
You can see that above Zak's mates, mostly 11 and 12-year old boys, expressed their condolences in the ways that they knew.
We needed that little sendoff. Though it isn't "goodbye", it's "'til we meet again".
Just some random shots from a random day. Sometimes these are the best little snippets into our life. I know I love these kinds of candid pics, and it doesn't hurt at all that wife is a very talented photographer.
My boy returning from school and being the doofycool kid that reminds me of a young me.
Smoove.
Jadeybug having a bounce. The weather's turned a bit and it's cold now until about midday, but when it's sunny and nice she LOVES being out there.
Sometimes herself is so SERIOUS. This kid thinks a lot, about pretty much everything.
I know what you're thinking and you're right, "She's getting so BIG." Crazy. I keep threatening to stop feeding her because of a lack of clothes that fit, but she insists on eating, so there you go.
Wife got a bug up her butt and decided to follow through on the threat she's been making for months, to lop all her hair off.
Well, not all of it, but she knocked quite a bit of it down and then had me finish up the edges in the back. I'm the straightest hairdresser I know. I also dig the fact that the best haircuts she gets are when we do it.
If only it worked that way with the kids...
Anyhoo, isn't she HOT? I like that. That my wife is HOT.
So there you have it.
There's Ups and there's Downs, and when another day draws to a close we find that we're still doin' alright.
Posted by JuddHole
This blog was the one that changed everything in my life, so it stands to reason that it continue to do so. I hope it starts with my underwear.World’s Greatest Shave
If, by some small chance, I haven't already bothered the shit out of you for this cause, then check 'em out.
Posted by JuddHole
This blog was the one that changed everything in my life, so it stands to reason that it continue to do so. I hope it starts with my underwear.World’s Greatest Shave
It's that time of year(s) again, where my niece does something that, quite simply, most wouldn't do.
She's 12 and has lovely, LOVELY long auburn locks, that cascade around her gorgeous brown eyes like she was born to be in front of a camera and leading you to buy something you otherwise wouldn't.
She's already got the boys attention for being smart, good at sport and stunningly attractive. Doc and I have already formulated plans for how we're going to terrorise potential suitors, something that will get more difficult when she goes to High School where I'm not a volunteer and Doc isn't the Doc.
I think perhaps, of all the 3 of Doc's (bro-in-law) kids, she's the one that most looks like my beautiful littlest daughter and maybe that's why I favour her so much.
She's not just top of her grade at school either, oh no, she's the quickest chosen, the gimme, the no-brainer, when it came time to select Peer Mediators (children who are given special responsibility in sorting out disputes during playground recess) and for choosing Prefects (sort of school officers, for you Americafolk that hadn't really heard of that kind of thing other than Harry Potter... like me).
Aside from wrecking the curve in her classroom, she's part of the Gifted and Talented programs and, if they'd let her, would probably volunteer at the soup kitchen on her weekends (does Perth even have a soup kitchen?). She sometimes thinks too much about life and it makes her brow furrow, but usually she's got an extremely toothy grin and a rib-squishing hug for her Uncle Judd (something she's been calling me since the second I stepped off a plane and before her Aunt and I were even betrothed, though it was Unky Zuddzudd then).
To say that I've got a soft spot for this kid is an understatement. I'd be incredibly fond of her even if we weren't related. But we are, so I get to be super duper loud and proud and entice people to give some money, just a bit even, for her cause.
See, several years ago my niece got it into her head that if cancer people didn't have hair then she was okay with not having any either, espcially since so many were so jealous of her curls. She'd made a play for the sponsorship and the principal of her school even challenged her to a dollar amount, saying if she reached it then he'd shave his head too.
Well, she didn't just make it, she crushed it. They made the front page of the local rag and she proved that she really does have a pretty good head on her shoulders, for not many chicks can pull off the bald look that well.
So get on there, get your Credit Card out, and put some coin down. You can be anonymous if you're embarrassed about only being able to spare $5 or you can leave your name on there if you don't care that people see that you plopped down $50 for some kid to shave her head. It's quick, it's easy, and there's not many reasons that you shouldn't do it.
Mad loves to all of you whether you give or not. I hope right now that Life is treating you like you slipped a foil-wrapped chocolate into it's lunchbox this morning.
Posted by JuddHole
This blog was the one that changed everything in my life, so it stands to reason that it continue to do so. I hope it starts with my underwear.Quick One.
Less than the idea that I feel like I'm neglecting people out there in internetland, who are religiously checking my blog every day, I feel like I just need to touch base with this website once in a while so that years from now I can look back at it and see that it wasn't completely forgotten.
Even though, it will look that way, and I know that I still ridiculously feel guilt over my updating, I don't know what to say. Let's just be perfectly honest here folks... I keep writing in here and posting pics for my mom and for Gramma Genie. Everybody else can follow me on Facebook or on my other blog or via emails or just fade out of my life like many have. Forgive me if that sounds callous, I don't mean it to be, just an acceptance of a reality that has forced itself on my life.
So, in the spirit of alleviating my guilt over neglect, I stumbled across these pics this morning and felt inspired.
This was actually quite some time ago, months even, and she's turned into such a big girl that this is a wonderful shot at her inherent personality. She was watching Sesame Street and just happily came over, grabbed the hat off my head, and plunked down happy as Larry.
Probably taken about the same time, October or so before the weather got warm, and she's just trundled out of bed, grabbed a book and plopped down to read. I know that's not quite amazing, but this child amazes me. Those of you that know her know what I mean.
K, that's about all I got. I'd give you updates, but I don't feel like it right now. Things are good, some things aren't as good, I laugh out loud heartily at least once a day, kiss my wife with passion and love at least once a day and hug my kids like I genuinely love who they are at least once a day.
I think I'm doin' alright.
Posted by JuddHole
This blog was the one that changed everything in my life, so it stands to reason that it continue to do so. I hope it starts with my underwear.A night in the life of…
Wife captured these on a whim one standard Exley night. A bath, some pjs and then off to bed.
Enjoy.
My oldest, Damon, 8.
Middle child, Georgia, just turned 7.
Youngest, Jade, 2 1/2.
