Happy 14th Anniversary Melanie and Nathan Maxwell!

[mango_fandango]

1 hour ago, blessalessi said:

He did it "under dad's guidance".

Because a grown-assed 40-odd year old is still under his dad's umbrella of protection when it comes to tree-felling, don't you know. 

I was thinking that *possibly* Nathan hadn't felled a tree before, but still, it's a bit ridiculous. 

@FloraKitty35 it was mundane. I too give them credit for that stuff- they aren't stupid. (Well, not practically, in that sense, anyway).

[Justme]

Nathan recently procured a chainsaw....What the heck does that mean??? He shoplifted it??? He purchased it???? It was a gift????

He is ssoooo lucky his Daddy was there to "coach" him.... <sarcasm>

How about writing: Nath recently purchased a chainsaw. He and Dad worked together to take down a neighbors tree.

Didn't Kansas recently get a lot of snow? There is no snow on the ground. humm.....

 

[PennySycamore]

5 hours ago, blessalessi said:

He did it "under dad's guidance".

Because a grown-assed 40-odd year old is still under his dad's umbrella of protection when it comes to tree-felling, don't you know. 

I'm not going to snark on Nathan having Stevehovah helping out with the tree felling.  Steve could have been giving some hints from a slightly better vantage point about which way the tree was leaning.  Once my forestry-major cousin was cutting a tree near my parent's house and cut tree crashed into my parent's roof.  I can still remember the cat, asleep on top of the sideboard, hitting the ceiling after hearing the boom.

[blessalessi]

The snark is because Sarah always divides her family members into leaders and helpers.  And just by coincidence they always fall into order with Steve as ultimate leader, then Teri, then the manly boys, then the "girls". 

[johnhugh]

Quote

Sheila says:

February 4, 2016 at 10:34 am

Well done to all the crew!! My husband is a tree surgeon here in Australia and I love devoting a morning wood chopping with him.
The puppy looks so adorable.

Best Wishes to you all.

Sheila

[usmcmom]

Totally unimportant tidbit:  I think that tree looks like it's been damaged by ice.  I wonder when the last ice storm hit Kansas. Probably a couple years ago?  It seems odd that natives of Kansas would not recognize ice damage; but surely Steve would have made sure Sarah imparted that knowledge upon us in her writing. 

[Eternalbluepearl]

This is off topic but I didn't know that titus 2 offered this type of download: How To Name Your Baby

 

Also, I want to read "Keeping our children's hearts" but I can't find it for the kindle? Hmm.

[nastyhobbitses]

22 minutes ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

This is off topic but I didn't know that titus 2 offered this type of download: How To Name Your Baby

 

Also, I want to read "Keeping our children's hearts" but I can't find it for the kindle? Hmm.

Someone left that off of Ben's summer reading list.

[blessalessi]

1 hour ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

This is off topic but I didn't know that titus 2 offered this type of download: How To Name Your Baby

 

Also, I want to read "Keeping our children's hearts" but I can't find it for the kindle? Hmm.

So Steve named his kids after family members he later as good as disowned.  Hmmm....

Hearts is dirt cheap in hard copy.

[clese]

If I was Sarah. I would write the post thus:

so Nathan got to use a chainsaw to chop down our tree.  My big brother pulled up his big boy panties and to the roaring sounds of heavy metal began to cut. Dad came along to show him how. Nanthan knew how but dad is a control freak. 

[kpmom]

5 hours ago, blessalessi said:

The snark is because Sarah always divides her family members into leaders and helpers.  And just by coincidence they always fall into order with Steve as ultimate leader, then Teri, then the manly boys, then the "girls". 

They've said they like to give examples of the family working together as a team (with you-know-who as the team leader).

How would the rest of us ever know how to do this without the Maxwell's godly example?

[Handmaiden of Dog]

New Post updating Ellie.  I knew the blog was going to feature Ellie a lot because cuteness delivers readers-- the ABC girls used to be the stars but I will be willing to bet that Ellie gives them a run for the money.

Typical Sarah, she is teasing her readers with a mystery, stay tuned. Oh I can hardly wait.

Quote

My puppy is growing by leaps and bounds. Ellie’s extremely lovable and even at her young age, recognizes family and gets very excited to see them. Her puppy energy has kept me on my toes, and I have really enjoyed her. Ellie’s remarkably smart and catches onto training very quickly. I’ll share our secret tool we use in another post. If you need motivation for your dog, this will be it!

A secret tool guys!  Could it be treats?  Praise? Clicker training?  Oh gosh I'm sure it is something completely new and exciting that nobody has ever heard of before.  And remarkably smart?  Gosh how many pups has Sarah trained?  How many puppies has she been around during training classes?  I'm guessing the number is less than 3 so she is hardly the best judge.  Sorry to be so sarcastic about such an adorable little bit of fluff but really Sarah tries my patience with her belief about her family's superiority in all things.  Now apparently she has a Super Dog.

[sparkles]

I was nosing around some old Maxwell threads (2011) and clicked on a link to one of their older businesses. So many of them sort of disappeared into the cornfield but it seems like they've been updating some of the websites lately. The original link was for we-communicate.com, now it redirects to Communications Concepts where they specialize in Internet security. Basically, a whole lot of nothing to see though, but with links back to Swift Otter. They're really all over the place--jack of all trades, master of nine. 

And of course, while everyone else is in jeans, Christopher is still wearing his damned khakis. 

http://cciteam.com

[mango_fandango]

1 hour ago, sparkles said:

I was nosing around some old Maxwell threads (2011) and clicked on a link to one of their older businesses. So many of them sort of disappeared into the cornfield but it seems like they've been updating some of the websites lately. The original link was for we-communicate.com, now it redirects to Communications Concepts where they specialize in Internet security. Basically, a whole lot of nothing to see though, but with links back to Swift Otter. They're really all over the place--jack of all trades, master of nine. 

And of course, while everyone else is in jeans, Christopher is still wearing his damned khakis. 

http://cciteam.com

"We'd love to hear from you... but only if you know where you'll go when you die."

[Arete]

I'm not going to snark on Sarah's mention of Nathan doing it under Stehovah's guidance.  We have a lot of trees in this area and get whacked by significant storms.  I can think of at least 3 different instances of people who never brought a tree down before getting hurt or causing property damage because they didn't know what they were doing but decided to take a damaged tree down themselves anyway.  Jobs like that require more than big boy panties, they require experience.

[mango_fandango]

In that post on Ellie, Tina's grin made her really look like Abby. Abby smiles like that a lot. I never noticed the resemblance before. 

[CyborgKin]

The secret tool is 

Spoiler

a schedule!!eleventy!

 

[anjulibai]

This is like the third or fourth post in the last month that they have told readers to stay tuned for another post. Mary's post about Operation Christmas Child? Hasn't happened? The tip about the pizza cutter? Not yet? Now, wait for our post about our super secret, extra special dog training trick? When's that happening?

Also, keep watch for a new book about Keeping Our Puppies' Hearts. 

[nausicaa]

You guys...Christina no longer wrinkles her nose when she smiles. 

The day has come.

[Letgo]

Ok, after the tree went down, Anna and Mary "did an incredible job" picking up the debris. What about Sarah? I've noticed that Anna and Mary seem to step up and help with yard work and home projects, but not Sarah. They also cook, bake, and sew. And I'm sure that everyone helps dust those ceiling fans, but other than that important job, just what does Sarah do all day? I know she writes the blog and her books, but is she involved in day to day tasks? Mostly, I see Sarah "grabbing" pictures. She never takes a photo, she grabs one. Can grabbing photographs and writing (as Sarah does, I'm not talking about a real author) take up so much time that she can't help with household chores?

[sparkles]

1 hour ago, nausicaa said:

You guys...Christina no longer wrinkles her nose when she smiles. 

The day has come.

Damn it. I knew it was inevitable but still… 

[ladyamylynn]

New blog formula: All photos of John and the puppy. Something to think about, Sarah.

[Crocoduck]

15 hours ago, AreteJo said:

I'm not going to snark on Sarah's mention of Nathan doing it under Stehovah's guidance. 

Ah, a Maxwellian wedding night...

[albanuadh_1]

3 hours ago, Letgo said:

Ok, after the tree went down, Anna and Mary "did an incredible job" picking up the debris. What about Sarah?

I've wondered about this. Perhaps all she does do is 'write' and take photos or maybe she is just too darn modest to let people know how hard she works...

[sparkles]

Just now, albanuadh_1 said:

I've wondered about this. Perhaps all she does do is 'write' and take photos or maybe she is just too darn modest to let people know how hard she works...

I think Sarah's given herself a great way out of a lot of stuff by being the family documentarian. 

"Sarah! Can you help us do an incredible job picking up this debris?" "I'd love to but I'm taking pictures for the blog!"

"Sarah! Could you give me a hand polishing these cabinets?" "I'd love to but I'm taking pictures for the blog!"

"Sarah! Can you spare a sec to help set-up the book tables for the conference?" "I'd love to but I'm taking pictures for the blog!"