Are you looking at Jodi's flowers?

Jodi's lilies are looking so good that they would feel at home in Katie and Holger's yard.

Tim

What I am listening to this week...

Maia Hirasawa:

Japanese father, Swedish mother and a whole lot of talent.

I love her voice. I am tickled by her odd pronunciations and occasional wrong tenses. Her over the top voice is really upbeat.

For our foreign cousins... do you ever go to Sweden? If so take a picture of Gothenburg for us.

Tim

Mama don't take my 12 megapixel away...

Kodak has announced that they will no longer make Kodachrome film. If Paul Simon were dead, he would roll over in his grave. And if you are too young for the Paul Simon reference:

Tim

Kick it out!

For last night's Heart concert, we had lawn seats. The pavilion is very small, so the view is good no matter where you sit. To prove that we had a great view, Jodi took this picture so that you could experience the sights with us. If you ever want to feel like a giggling 14 year old again, just have some poor girl sit in front of you with her whale tail fully exposed.

Tim

Trace and Kristina treated Jodi and I to a Heart Concert last night at the LC in Columbus. I have to tell you that it was one of the better concerts that I have seen in the last few years. Even though the songs were more than 20 and 30 years old, they sounded fresh. Ann Wilson still belts out the songs with incredible power and the band really rocked.

Oh, and Sushi at the Blue Ginger to start the evening off! That is how to spend a Saturday night! Consider yourself schooled.

They opened with Barracuda - Enjoy...

Tim

I'd rather dance with you

If you don't absolutely love this video, I feel really sorry for you...

I really love the Kings of Convenience & just rediscovered this video.

Tim

Lance Boyle Update

Lance Andrew Boyle has been at it again... that guy sure writes a lot. One for Jodi and the other inspired by Yazmeen our little bride to be. You can see all of Lance's titles here.

Hello again!

Hello my dears! :O)
I was so embarrassed when I noticed that there were so many new posts and comments in the blog... until that, I thought I'd get an email as soon as something happens here. So please forgive me that I was absent for so long.

Tim, I love your new blog with all your books! I'm gonne think of one myself. And yes, our arrangements for the wedding are all working out well and I'm really really looking forward to August... I can't even tell you. If you like to, you can have a look at our homepage at a new, there are pictures now and a video (you don't have to understand German): www.hochzeit-des-jahrhunderts.de . Also, I was at the barber and this is how my hair is going to look like (you have to look at the bottom cause I don't manage to go on writing under the pictures):
We hope to be proud lessees (right word?) of the apartment of our dreams in two weeks.
There are so many news and stories and plans to tell, we are all very busy, but I don't want to do it here... lack of privacy. But how are you doing?
@ Judee: we got Tom's and your letter, thank you very much (especially from my parents)! And you don't have to be embarrassed because of your try at German (I don't always know what I'm telling either... often I know a word but I don't know what it relly means to native speakers, you understand what I want to say?)but nevertheless it was really funny reading your post! I corrected the text into real German, and then I used the tool to translate this text back into English, here it is, maybe now you get the feeling:
"Jasmin, I wanted you in the blog on German welcome. I can only with the translation tools make the tim blog has put in place. I count the days until your wedding and it does not last much longer. I rise again soon." ;) but thank you a lot for welcoming me so friendly! I'm gonna write you an email soon and respond to all the things you told me.
And could somebody explain these dancing-pictures to me?
So see you soon, I'm going to sleep now,
Jasmin :O)
ps: Tim, I found a title: Superbride me- the truth about getting married
and pps: the invitations are coming soon (translation included)

You asked for them....

Jodi really does belly dance! And you were beginning to think that I was making the entire story up.

Tim

One picture says a thousand words!

Jonathan took this picture of Papa the other day sitting in front of his PC. He never even knew his picture was being taken.

My first try at German

Jasmin, wollte ich begrüße Sie auf das Blog auf Deutsch. Die einzige Art und Weise kann ich dies mit dem Übersetzungs-Tool, dass Tim in den Blog.

Ich habe den Countdown der Tage, bis Ihre Hochzeit. Es wird nicht lange. Ich spreche zu Ihnen in Verbindung setzen.

Judee

PS, I hope this works or I'll really be embarrassed if I'm saying something terrible!

Dress Rehearsal

Jodi's belly dance troupe will be opening for a dance recital. One of Jodi's troupe members is the dance instructor and she invited them to show off. The best part is that we got to attend the dress rehearsal. I think that might be more fun than the actual recital. I love to watch little kids trying to take a step towards being grown ups.

Tim

if i could write...

I really enjoyed creating the book covers, so I decided to launch a public blog and post more. I created an alter ego named Lance Andrew Boyle as the creator of the blog and author of the books. Take a peak.

 if i could write.

If you have ideas for books that you could write, leave them in the comments and I'll create a cover for you.

Tim

The sound of Swiss cows

Ever wonder what cows sound like in Switzerland? Wonder no longer!

Dad took this video behind the Royal St. George Hotel in Interlaken. 

Tim

A day in the life of Abbey Road

Check out this video of a complete day of people crossing the street on abbey road (think Beatles cover). The song is nice and the video is pretty cute. I would definitely be one of those that pose.

Books that I Could Write

A Change for the Spring

Welcome back to our blog. I thought that you might like a fresh look for the spring. New design, new image and a couple new functions.

Followers are the People that follow our site. If you want to be a follower of our site, just click on the button. Want to learn more? Click here.

How do I say this? With our international following, I thought it would be nice to have an easy to use translator at hand, for when you are looking for that one word that you can't remember.

Would you like the blog to notify you via e-mail when somebody makes a new post or comment on our blog? If so, I can add your email address to the list of people notified.

If there are any other changes that you would like me to make, or if you don't like these changes... just post a comment to this thread.

Tim

What I did on my Spring Vacation

If you would like to see a slide show with highlights from our recent trip to Switzerland and Germany..... look here!

One Stone

I'm sure that many posts and pictures will come out of the trip that Dad and I made to Europe. However, there is one memory that keeps popping into my mind. Some how, Einstein's name came up and Uncle Jo made the comment... "I see that you have heard of One Stone." One Stone is the literal translation of Einstine's name.

My mind being what it is, I keep wondering if Einstein only had a single testicle and if he was born that way. Is this the reason that he was such a genious? What if he were named Dreistein and had three testicles.? Would he have been an idiot? How about Ohnestein....with no testicles, would we all have personal jet packs and vacation homes on the moon by now?

Do you think that Uncle Scott might have five or six testicles? How does he walk around with all of those things? Can the number our testicles change as we grow older? I seem to be a bit smarter now than when I was younger. On the other hand, Uncle Scott doesn't seem to have changed at all. Nobody could every accuse Uncle Scott of not having any balls. 

It's a confusing subject to be sure. Grandma has lots of balls, but she is smart as a whip and has no testicles at all. Wait.... Grandma is smart and has no testicles... there is a connection there someplace, I just can't seem to put my finger on it....

Think I'll go scratch myself and think about this a little bit longer.

Tim (Grosststeine)

Did you know that Jasmin has a book?

If you have not noticed yet, we have a new member to our little family blog. Jasmin Hillen is the daughter of my freinds Jo and Jeanette Hillen. I first met Jasmine a while back when I was visiting Katie and Holger.

Jasmine has the distinction of being the only person that I know, who has illustrated a childrens book. The book was written by Gabriel Sturm and is called Justus is Traurig ( Justus is Sad) and was written to help young kids deal with death.

Check out Justus is Traurig online to see Jasmin's work. If you are really lucky, I will show you my copy (With a nice note from Jasmin of course!).

As a side note, Jasmin will be married to Gabriele's son in August. Her new name will be Jasmin Sturm (Jasmin Storm).... I could get used to a name like that.

Tim

Confessions of a Lurker...

I look forward to getting up early on Sunday mornings because I can't wait to see the new postings on PostSecret.

I am geeky enough that I read XKCD every week so that I can catch up on the antics of the stick people.

I read A Cup of Jo regularly... because... really, how could you not think Jo's site is the cutest ever?

ExplodingDog...where else will somebody take a sentence that you submit and turn it into a cartoon?

I read them, but I never post a comment on them...does that make me a bad person?

Tim


** Your assigment for this week is to show us your favorite web site.

The “Mcmurdo twins”

Hello all,

a little late but better than even not here some pictures of the two Americans. One thing I can say is that we so far had a wonderful time. You know that I like Big Tim but I like Tom as well – he really is a nice guy and we had lots of fun. Sunday was a nearly perfect day although I thought it would be not, when I went out to buy our breakfast and saw fog only. An hour later the sun came out and was shining all day long. We made a trip to Rhine river and showed Tom the “Loreley” and Jo as our scout again took us to places I’d never been before. I think the McMurdo twins will tell you all about when they're back. Tomorrow we will go to a castle and will have a Pizza in the evening as a good finnish of the entire trip. I’m the only one who still is awake and I feel it’s time to follow the others in my bed.
Cheers Holger

WINTER SAYS, "EVERY GOOD ACT DESERVES AN ENCORE!"

Wonder if they are contemplating flying further south?

Lauren :)

Like Father Like Daughter

Daddy - Daughter Love

(missing Lea and Jonathan)

While Grandma, Katie, Kelly and Bill are enjoying a prelude of Summer in the Bahamas, we wondered whether or not to believe the reports about our local weather. It must have changed 10 times between noon yesterday and noon today. The much anticipated snow finally arrive in Douglasville around 11:00 AM. I know those of you that live and/or grew up in it can't imagine the words "much anticipated" and "snow" in the same sentence. Here in the south, it's a nice break for everyone to make a run on the grocery store for bread, milk and comfort food. Everything actually stops for just a minute. Then the next day it's gone and we all go back to business as usual. In this hustle and bustle, a snow day is exactly what the Douglasville McMurdos needed. (Well, would it be too much to wish for it to carry over one more day? - Skipping a Monday would also be on my wish list.)

Unfortunately, Lea is at college in Carrollton and Jonathan is in Cartersville with his Mom, but both of them enjoyed the same benefits of our version of a blizzard; food, movies, friends, playing and a lot of lounging.

It's nice to see the brown and muddy landscape covered by a fluffy blanket of white. I know; I know. Once it melts, there will be even more brown and mud to take it's place, but don't rain on my parade. I'll deal with that reality tomorrow when the sun comes out.

We've enjoyed watching Winter's encore. Now I think we're ready for sweet, sweet summertime to take the stage.

Hope all is well with all of you.

Love to all!

Steph

Tim’s Baptism, February 8th

Hello all,

just a short update of little Tim. He has got his baptism on sunday, two weeks ago. It was a very nice celebration. We went to church a 10:00am and after that to lunch in a nice cellar near Neunkirchen. Lunch took us nearly 3 hours and after that we went home to our house. Family and friends (in total 19) stayed til eveing and it was really a wonderful day. Tim has got a new ride from Jo an Jeanette. Jeanette, Marion and Silke are Tim’s godmothers. My brother Bernd is his godfather. Sorry that I’m short on time but I think I’ll get a cold and don’t feel well since today morning. So I will write mor when I’m okay again.
Holger

This is my picture for that family photo thing we are doing.










Anyways it has been too long my McMurdo friends. We need to catch up(meet in person)!!!
School is going good, getting a little busy as it is test time(ugggg I hate tests)!
I see Lea almost everywhere on campus since she is now living here. We are always running into each other at the Z(the worst food ever).
Life is good as always and well I must say I can't complain.

That is about all for me, How about yall, how are yall doin?
What are yall doin?

Anyways back to studying(facebook) haha.

Josh

Truth in Advertising

I am in Cincinnati all week for a seminar. Everytime we go out, we pass a beggar on the corner, with his sign. It has allways read..."Help a homeless veteran".

Last night when the cab approached, he had the same sign. When he decided we were not going to give him anything, he flipped the sign over and it read....."What I really want is beer"

I almost gave him some money, just for his honesty and sense of humor.

Tim

Life is Rough

Jackie says he leads a pretty tough life.... Poor cat, I almost feel sorry for him.

The End is in Sight

Here in ohio, we have had below freezing temperatures for over two weeks & it has gotten very old. On most days I see single digit numbers on the car's thermometer when I start it in the morning. Not this morning. When I started the car, the thermometer read 22 degrees... practically a heat wave. the high today is expected to be 37 degress.

Where are my sandals?

Tim

Ice Boobies

As you are all aware, my brother Scott gave away a set of molds to make a boobie ice sculpture during our Christmas gift exchange. Being the men that we are, we needed to see a boobie ice sculpture. I thought you all might want to see the results.

Tim

p.s. One boobie ice sculpture mold, for sale cheap. Only been used once. For inquiries, contact Judee.

2008 Picture Book Contest

Introducing the first ever Annual Family Photo Contest!

Everybody in the family, including our German cousins are invited to send in 10 photos. We will pick the best of them and use them to create a 2008 photo book. Anybody that sends in 10 pictures will recieve a copy of the book.

The only rule? They must be your favorite photo's taken by you or somebody else in your family. Also...you must have a high resolution copy of the picture so that it will print well. If you don't know what that is...just ask.

How you submit your pictures? Easy, just post them here in our family blog. I'll post mine this week so that everybody can see how it's done.

Any questions? No? Good...let's see those pictures!

Tim

Happy New Year

Hello all,

happy new year to all of you. We’ve returned from our 1 week trip to North Germany yesterday afternoon and had a wonderful time there. Little Tim was unbelievable. He didn’t make any trouble during this long ride so we’ve traveled more relaxed than I ever expected. We prepared his food in the car so he was satiesfied. You must know that the most important thing for him currently is to get a regular meal! :-)

Wether was great – no rain during the whole week. It was cold but the air was fresh and I think it was doing good for all of us including this little guy, although he slept most of the time when we went for a walk. I think you can see it at the picture with his red cheeks.

I’ll have another day off tomorrow and have to be back in the office on Thuesday. So I’ll try to relax the rest of my vacation because the next 4 months will be very exhausting.

Attached please find some impressions of our trip and of course some of the most fotographed baby in the whole world (I really believe).