Author Archives: Jo Hawke

Kevin and Atticus’ Camping Madlibs

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After dinner at Applebee’s Monday, I grabbed up Atticus’ kids’ meal activity sheet and asked him and Kevin to help me fill in the “madlibs” story.

I asked “adjective?” or “animal?” or “your favorite food?” and they answered “pretty” or “wolf” or “hot dogs.”

The words they filled in are bold.

Oh, and Kevin’s Indian name, Badger, is “Uguna” in Cherokee, and Atticus’ Indian name, Stalking Wolf, is “Waya” (at least the “wolf” part). ๐Ÿ™‚

Here it is:

A Pretty Camping Adventure

One wet day, under the bright blue skies of the Virginia forest, Uguna and Waya decided to go on a hike. They put on their shirt and headed for the mountains. Before long, they saw a big wolf walking towards the picnic area. “Nanu,” said Waya. “He sure looks hungry. I bet he’d love a giant plate of hot dogs.” And with that they laughed and ran to Cherokee. THE END!

Atticus Sings the Gloria #2

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I’ve been sorting through my YouTube videos, getting ready for the school year (which starts Monday…can you believe it??), and saw that I had favorited this video last year.

It’s dated July 2011, so Atticus was 4 1/2. My parents shot the video and it’s posted on my mom’s account.

There’s a video here of Atticus singing this same song a few months earlier.

Danny’s Artwork

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Danny’s Artwork

My Dad, Danny Ricketts, has a new website that you must see!

Danny’s Artwork currently showcases 186 of his pieces — paintings, drawings, collages and sculptures.

He’s been doing art stuff since he was a kid and even won awards for his paintings in high school.

He did some drawing and diagramming through the years, but he didn’t do much painting until the last year or so when he was recovering from surgery. He said he found some old paints from school and wondered if they were dried out. Well, they weren’t, but he quickly got some new acrylics and has been painting prolifically ever since.

My mom said that he was jonesing to paint while they were on their recent trip to Tulsa. Next time, he needs to take the paints. ๐Ÿ™‚

Here are a few random pieces from the site:

Cityscape

Mountain Valley Autumn

San Angelo Texas Bridge

Feeding Frenzy

Wire Bird

Swirling Colors

Primitive Village in Snow

On a design note, it was a lot of fun working with WPtheming’s Portfolio Press, the WordPress theme I used for the site. The learning curve was pretty short and using the portfolio tags really increases the usability of the site, I think.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

Review | Instaframe for Instagram Android App

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Just Like Pic Stitch App?

This app doesn’t work on my phone in the same way the identical Pic Stitch app doesn’t work. It will not let me add pictures at all, though it teases me with a maybe-this-time hope when it sends me to my gallery like all’s well.

Also, adds “Playtime” shortcut to the home page without asking permission. Bad business, IMHO.

Review | Picstitch Android App

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App: Picstitch by Booyah
My rating: 1 Star

Just Like Groundhog Day…

Every time I click the grey box to add a picture, I go to my gallery and select a picture, only to end up back at the collage of grey boxes. It just doesn’t work at all on my Droid X. ๐Ÿ™

LINK | Hard Reset Droid X โ€” Technipages

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Hard Reset Droid X โ€” Technipages.

I was busy uninstalling each of my 100+ apps on my beloved Droid X (that has been aggravating me with freezing and shutting down and such for far too long, hence the need for reset) when Kevin, fresh home from work, said, “I’m sure you can find directions for doing that all once.”

So, yeah, DUH on me again today.

At least the old phone is free of my stuff now. And the new one is almost set up the way I want it.

And, by the way, I found my keys. They were, in fact, not in my car, but in the small zippered compartment of one of our suitcases. Sigh.

A Double Slice of My Day

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Part 1.

I realized just as Attie and I were leaving for the car to pick up Ryan and bring him back here for an afternoon of Star Wars movies and computer games that I didn’t have my car keys in my purse. Uh-oh!

I had a flash of myself as Kevin and I were sitting in the car outside the motel in Cherokee, where we spent last week. We were going to be doing a lot of walking, and I wouldn’t need my keys. Into the glove compartment they went.

I can even sort of recall Kevin questioning whether that was be a good idea. He was right, as usual. Grrr ๐Ÿ˜‰

Since then, I haven’t had to drive at all because Kevin’s been doing all the driving, both on the trip and since we’ve been back. But Kevin’s working his 12-hour shift today…

So what did I do?

Yeah, I turned to good ol’ Mom and Dad. ๐Ÿ˜›

I got in touch with my mom and she talked to my dad. And my dad came through for us, as he always has for all of my life. ๐Ÿ™‚

He drove over and picked up Ryan and brought him to our house.

And all was well. Atticus picked his chin up off the floor and said he was happy now. Yes!

Part 2.

After Ryan got here (and I knew he hadn’t eaten all day), I started to fix some Hamburger Helper (some kind of cheesy hamburger and pasta) and immediately ran into another roadblock. The recipe called for 1-2/3 cup milk, but we were just about out of milk.

We’re running out of quite a few staples, actually, because we were gone for most of last week and haven’t yet replenished the cupboards.

Sweet, sweet Kevin made a grocery list the other day, and I had planned to go to the store this morning. But then I got caught up in trying to set up my new phone like my old one — a long story and a very long process, indeed! — and decided to go in the morning. (Of course, I would have been stuck with no keys anyway…)

So anyway, while the hamburger was defrosting in the microwave (and since I’m not really a cook, just a pretty good directions-follower), I looked online to see if there were something that I could substitute for milk.

Not really. Milk is a pretty good substitute for a lot of other things, but the only thing (other than other kinds of milk) that can sub for it is water, and I was thinking too much water in the mix would probably not work very well.

After the hamburger was cooked and drained, it was time to put that little bit of milk left in the gallon to the test. I was a bit worried (as much as one can be over Hamburger Helper, I guess.) How much would I have to fudge on to make this recipe work?

Well, it turns out…

…not a bit!

Yep, the milk came to right at 1-2/3 cup. Drained.

I couldn’t believe it. It was like the MIRACLE OF THE MILK or something. And then I felt ridiculous for thinking that. And even right now I’m considering deleting this whole post because I’m making something out of nothing. Am I?

And now

The food was good and filling. The movie got half-watched. Both boys are back at the computer playing some kind of pong-like game. And all I’m hearing are giggles.

ESoED Cover: Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’

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I’ve sung Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” (and/or Jimi Hendrix’s cover of it) a whole lot through the years, usually backup, with a lot of different bands and people hanging out with a guitar…around a campfire, in somebody’s basement…

But Kevin’s first time ever playing the song was last month (June 13th, if my TapeMachine app can be trusted). And he definitely brought his own style to it.

It was late, after the kids’ bedtime, and I was putting a new laptop desk together. The thing came in a thousand pieces (hyperbole!), so I was listening to one of my Pandora stations to pass the time.

Kevin started playing along with his acoustic, and after Dylan had finished, Kevin kept playing and told me to sing. I looked up the lyrics (singing along is one thing, but carrying the load is another ๐Ÿ˜‰ and after we played around with it once or twice, I pulled up the TapeMachine on my phone, so we wouldn’t forget the feel of it.

Well, we haven’t changed a thing since then, but here it is:

What do you think?

UPDATE: One of my teacher-friends on Twitter just asked if he could download and add to this. The answer is YES! Here’s the file!