MORE BIRTHDAY GIFTS FOR DANIEL

we had to wait till the paycheck dropped, the day after daniels birthday to go buy these items he wanted.
PAINTBALL GEAR.

a HALO hopper (feeds the paintballs electronically into the gun) and an EMPIRE backpack...

DANIEL GETS A HAIRCUT

DANIELS 17TH BIRTHDAY

its getting harder and harder to get the kid something when half of what hed like he always gets before the holiday.

as soon as ones done (christmas OR Birthday) im on the hunt for more items to try to surprise him with for the next vent 6 months down the road,
this year he asked for, and showed us, what items hed want for clothing,

we had decided after much debate and watching the kid, that wed go ahead and get another xbox360.
this one, however would be purchased over time, for one reason, it helps to build a credit score for us, and it wouldnt cost an arm and a leg out of our pocket to do it at one time, and the kid seemed sencier about not abusing the rights he has on the system. so we took a giant leap of faith on him, and got him another new system.
he had no clue.

so, finally the day comes (july 29) for us to celebate his birthday..he was very casual about it, not really talking much, not inquiring about gifts, not asking if we were gonna do anything.
and i told him we were gonna go out to celebrate.

daniel hates the "show" of any pubic event...hates to participate, hates the fact  i take pictures..im not really sure why. (very much my mother, she wanst into all that either)
anyway, we had  decided wed go cheap someplace to do this, we hadnt bee to burger king in forever, and we decided wed got there, piled danile and the gifts (that were all in the back seat with him) in the car, and started on our journey.

when we pulled up in the parking lot of the establishment, daniel had a cow, and walked off, just left! refused to do the opening of gifts, or anything like that in any restaruant.
so, we had to take everything from the place back into the car, drive down the road and go get him, he was walking home!

when we convincd him to get in the car, i asked him what hed want to do, which i had been asking and all i got was it doesnt matter" as a response.
his answer this time was..go home and do this..
to which i told him hed have to clean up the living room because i didnt want to have a messy room in the pictures.
we got home...
he started cleaning..
as he was doing that and we were commiserating our defeat for a well meant  celebration, craigs mother calls...
and well, we sued that to our advantage.

went back in the living room, told him his grandmother had resquested we go out to eat , because she had sent us money to celerate with him on , and wanted us to make sure we took pics so she could see them and hat he got on FaceBook..

so, he had a change of heart, decided to go back to Burger King and do the celebration..

so we pile it all back into the car, wth the kid in the back seat, and...head right back out to the same place...

find a spot (no one was there, and i mean..NO ONE!) and proceeded to have the celebrations..
one by one he opened gifts:

seriously NOT feeling the celebration thing

dinner

see that smirk, its cause daniel was like "im never gonna wear this, why did you get it?" simple answer: its all they had we thought youd like for half off if we got another shirt, thats the half off shirt...appreciate!

my sons growing up, has moved primarily from his favorite band ICP (insane Clown Posse) to DubStep artist: DEADMAU5. and with that adjustment he went from the dark shirts to "anything but balck shirts" and this deadmau% shirt was the 1st of all of the rest of them that wasnt black, he didnt get 1 black shirt, or 1 ICP item this birthday.

3 pairs of shorts

graphic tees (white)

see, no smile yet. lol

fake smile, i asked him to smile for the picture

another graphic tee-this one, blue!

MORE shorts, cant say he doesnt have enough now..LOL

folks, THIS was the genuine smile!
i could have sworn with all the time he and that xbox sat in the back seat together hed have noticed it, but he didnt, i knew he didnt when i handed this over and the look of surprise swept over his face, resuting in THIS smile...
he said he didnt know it was there...ill chose to believe him.

now THATS the look of 1 happy kid.
was it so bad daniel? did it make you feel aweful? no. you got o=something you wanted, had to sacrifice a small part of yourself to make others happy.
thats part of life, welcome to 17! it just gets better from here.

MICHELLE

6 SMALL EARTHQUAKES RECORDED NEAR CHOCKTAW, OKLAHOMA

 the edge of chocktaw is roughly about 10 miles from our home. we often hear of quakes that have happened in Jones, Ok (which is closer) rarelt ever hear of quakes coming out of chocktaw

MICHELLE

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6 Small Earthquakes Recorded Near Choctaw

Largest Was Magnitude 2.7, Recorded Friday Night

July 29, 2011

CHOCTAW, Okla. -- The Oklahoma Geological Survey says six small earthquakes have been recorded near Choctaw in central Oklahoma. No injuries or damage have been reported as a result of the quakes on Friday. The survey says the largest was magnitude 2.7 and was recorded at 10:45 p.m. Friday. The U.S. Geological Survey gave the quake a preliminary magnitude of 2.8. The Oklahoma agency says a 2.4 magnitude quake was recorded at 10:53 p.m. and a 2.6 magnitude quake at 10:56 p.m. The other three quakes ranged from magnitude 1.3 to 2.1. Geologists say earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3 are generally the smallest felt by humans.

CRAIG IS NOW AN ADDITIONAL AUTHOR ON THIS FAMILY BLOG

**this reflects aspects of BLOGGER not OURSTORY.com**

CRAIG IS NOW AN ADDITIONAL AUTHOR ON THIS FAMILY BLOG

we finally figured out how to get craig as an additional author on this family blog.

which i wanted so he can post his one versions of what goes on thru his perceptions.

give you readers a different look on the family as well.

hes currently writting a post as im doing this one.

so, for anyone whos interested in a format that you can share events and have mutiple authors to one blog, or even have numbers of ppl to tell the event too. this is a great way to do it. (still effective in OURSTORY.com, as well)

you could make this the family news center, and everyone from all over (wherever they may be) can post and update and each person on the GROUP (you set up inside google) will have an update of the other, or whomever posts (with permissions) to the blog, or group. (NOTE: in OURSTORY.com, NO group is needed to be able to post with different authors, just a connection to eaachother is all thats needed thru OURSTORY.com)

the best part is the ability to upload pics directly from your hard drive, pick one out and its in the post. no need to have a picture host to have to monkey with the cut and paste of the link, so the image then shows on the post. (in OURSTORY.COM for a basic account you have 3 uploads direct from drive to post, and in PREMIUM membership, its 6 direct uploads from drive to post)

aparently this site does it all, and im EXSTATIC that it does!!! (thats converted to OURSTORY.com)

i have been hunting for the perfect blog host to journal in and wanted the ability to have pics posted directly to the page without having to take the time and root on my drive, upload to a different server, then get the link, post it in the blog and hope that they havnt done maintinence or are still available.

so, i highly recommend this site for anyone interested in blogging.(yes, OURSTORY.com, i recommend THAT as the site too choose!)

the digest formats good too, puts all the daily blogs on one email, but you miss out on any pics that way. the groups available to go read and it allows for viewing the pics from there, but then, theres always the fact that you can create an account and come to the blog and read it from your own. (OURSTROY.com doesnt fo DIGEST format...it sends an email out for every post posted to all who are connected and "watching" the stroy, or you can send the post out to whom you choose each post.)

at any rate, this blogs the BOMB DIGGITY!!!!

now, craigs an aditional author and hell post some events that he feels you all may want to know about in association to himself, or the family as a whole..like myself feel you all may be interested in.

thanks again, for the interest in wanting to participate in our lives like this. it means alot to us all.

MICHELLE

Posted by MICHELLE WILLIAMSON at 12:11 PM

TURTLES PIC

caught the turtles on the sun bathing rock, all nestled together one morning, caught this shot.