Elser Family Blog

Might want to brows on over to the Garden Blog to see the new entries. Here is a teaser for you. (click for a short movie, less than 1 meg)

K said I missed a bunch of good pics from myrtle beach.. How could I forget R’s first chance to pet a Gator?

And K thought this was a much better picture of H’s curls.. I suppose she is right.

And here is a picture from the hotel.. It was right on the beach.

And K said “your a dork” after viewing this one.. I’ll take it as a show of affection. H said “Hey, thats lavagirl.. she IS from the future!” (Click on the picture for a video. 3.5meg, sorta big this time.)

Here is a picture of the ceiling in the front room right before I put up the drywall. I must say, that drywall machine makes it an easy one man job, even with an 11 foot ceiling (That ladder is 10 feet tall).

H had a Gullah woman come in and teach them how to make sweetgrass baskets. I think H did a great job!

K and the kids went to Myrtle beach this weekend. They went with our friend from Columbia and her two boys Edgar and Sterling. H said the had a lot of fun. One of the places they went they actually were able to pet some alligators.. .

Much time Saturday was spent at the beach. M had some fun in the sand.

And R had fun chasing the birds. (click on picture for QuickTime video)

H had her hair curled for the first time…

And here is someone quite worn out.

The hotel they stayed in had a pool. They spent plenty of time there too.

While they were away, I spent the weekend demolishing 70 years worth of redecorating in our living room.
Ceiling? Removed: drop ceiling, then drywall false ceiling, then rafters that supported them to expose the original 11 foot ceiling.
Walls? Removed: Paneling covered with wallpaper (installed in 1977 if the date on the paneling means anything) then steamed off the original wallpaper (that was also painted) to reveal the original plaster. In next to perfect shape, if you can believe it. The only crack was above the front door. (other than one wall that was demolished to mount the joists to the studs. The other wall just had a header, and when I removed that, the plaster was perfect underneath) You can see a couple pictures in the cell phone window.. K had the camera at the beach, doncha’ know. I have to commend K for taking pictures.. She has the digital camera thing down: Take plenty of pictures, you can cull them later. And mix in some videos..

R just looks like trouble in this picture.

We decided to take a walk in the rain.

On our walk, we decided to pay Arthur a visit. I guess R wanted to go for a ride, and Arthur was more than happy to oblige… (click on the picture for QuickTime video)

K and the kids are going to myrtle beach for the weekend, while I work on the house. I hope to get a LOT done.

Oops. Somehow I loaded a short Video of a square in Vilnius Lithuania.. K’s father took that when he was there in ~2004, I believe?
Anyway, HERE is the video of M and R bounding off the walls and acting silly. (about 2Mb quicktime file)

OK, I just don’t think Kids have the ability, or loose skin, to do a real shakeyface.
But M an R wanted to try anyway.

Here are H and M out swinging on their “new” (scavenged) swing! They love it. H is holding the class mascot “oreo”. Only the student of the week is able to take it home.

Click Here for a movie of R showing off on the new swing set. He really gets that thing moving!
Click Here For a QuickTime movie of M and R bouncing off the walls in the living room. Sorta funny.

Well, you have heard me talk about it long enough. Here is a picture of the garage. I still have to finish the outside of it. What do you think?

And you might have heard that it has an elevator instead of stairs.. Here is a video of the elevator in action. (1.3M QuickTime movie)elevator in action

Here is a picture of H playing with Dads Giraffe. It is a giraffe that I keep in my closet, so naturally they want to take it down and check it out on occasion.

Yay! I finally received my new camera in the mail. Wow.. Its nice. The things I like are: Its fast. You hit the shutter, and it takes the picture, little delay at all. (100ms maybe?) It has great image stabilization while your taking videos. Those are the two standouts. The only negative I have found is that you can hear the zoom motor in the audio when your shooting video.

Anyway, on to the pictures! It is official. R is potty trained. He does not even need help. He goes on his own. woohooo!! He wears pullups to bed, but I think he will be past that pretty soon too. And you know what that means! No more diapers to buy! The diaper stage is all but over in the Elser Household.
Here is R playing in the living room.

Here is M marching with a funny hat. OK, so the pictures are not show winners this post.. I was just looking for an excuse to use the camera!

Thanks to Tammy emailing me some pictures, I have some to post! (I borrowed Luke and Tammy’s camera while I was there, because I had not gotten my new one in the mail yet.)
Here we are At my brothers house. Aww, the loveydovey moms hugging their boys. The only thing missing is Peggy giving Greg a hug!

And here is a good picture of a gaggle of children. Of course Luke an Tammy don’t fit the “child” description anymore… Are we all getting old? What’s with this age thing anyway?

Here is H giving Grandpa some love. I’m proud of H, she showed real interest and compassion. Eve she is getting older I guess!

And here are my sisters teaching H some family history. She laughed at pictures of Daddy as a kid…