I wanted to share a few pictures I took the other day.  These were shot with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.  I was pretty impressed by the quality of the shots. My subject was a baby Praying Mantis.  We have tons of these things all around the house.  For whatever reason,  the rose bush,  behind my house is a hot spot for Praying Mantis.  There are egg sacs all over.  These little guys are finding their way into our house. That where I first met this guy. He's so tiny,  I had to be really careful not to squish him when I moved him outside. It's supposed to be good luck to have these around. While there jury's still out on that one,  I did enjoy seeing a baby Praying Mantis, …

Alright,  so tomorrow is the last day of school.  This time,  I'm like 99.9% sure.  :-) Elliott had a rough start to the year but hit his stride just a few weeks into the school year.  He has done absolutely amazing this year and I'm sooooo proud of him. He's looking forward to returning next year and that is really good news. I'm really grateful for all that Summit Academy has provided him this year. They made the transition easier for Elliott and I look forward to returning next year.  :-)

Alright. The site is most restored. There is some memory issues that are causing the site to shut down. We were trying various things to identify the problem and can't seem to find what's going on. For now, I'm back up and running. I've scaled things back a little bit in hopes of helping things out. My good friend Stuart Duncan is been working very hard to fix this problem and for that I'm extremely grateful. He working with the awesome team at EZP.net to get this fixed. As is the tradition with the Lost and Tired family, this issue is bizarre and doesn't make any sense. I really want to express my appreciation to Stuart and the support staff at EZP for helping to get me back up and running. I'm really sorry this…

Gavin had the worst meltdown I have ever seem this morning. I don't know what is happening to him but he is escalating out of control.  This morning he completely flipped out over Lego's. He has been hoarding all the Lego's again. He makes these amazing creations, which is awesome. However, the problem is that he keeps these things long term. Basically, there's no Lego's left for the other boys. This leads to problems. This morning I told him that he needs to put the Lego's back into the pot. I explained to him that his big Lego car needs to be pulled apart and the Lego's returned to the bin. He began doing so, until I left, that is. As soon as I left, he hid his car and…

I'm experiencing tech issues at the moment. The site will be usable but may see some widgets or pages disappear temporarily.   Thank you for your patience

As any of my long time readers will remember,  I suffered a major back injury in 2001. I have been in constant pain for most of the last decade. Nothing would relieve the pain,  not even pain killers. I need to have surgery but never had it. I felt there was to much risk involved and I had to many responsibilities. Anyway,  about 2 years ago,  I started walking. Short distances at first but eventually making it to about 25-30 miles a week. Before I realized it,  my back pain was gone and mean completely gone. I still had the physical injury,  but the symptoms had finally subsided. Recently,  the pain has returned because I haven't been able to get away and walk.  I was walking at home until our…

Today was major victory for my little Elliott Richard.  However,  before I get into that,  I need to share how Daddy screwed up. I mentioned before about summer vacation starting.  Well,  it is starting,  just not yet. For whatever reason,  I thought today was Elliott's last day of school.  However,  as it turns out,  the last day is Thursday. Today was the field trip to the recreation center. There was to be swimming,  games and lots of other types of fun. The school wanted to reward the kids for having such an awesome school year. You may recall however,  that Elliott didn't want to go because he hates the water. I had told him that he can choose to go or stay home and start his vacation early. However,  when…

Gavin is already struggling today.  He's not been listening and has already had a meltdown this morning. However,  Lizze put her foot down and called him out.  She said she was tired of the drama and that he had three seconds to stop before he had oatmeal until Thursday morning.  He kept freaking out and so she counted.  Wouldn't you know it,  he stopped before she reached 3. Tell me that's not control. Honestly,  it's upsets me even more that he can stop this whenever he wants. It means that he's doing this on purpose. Regardless of the impact on his family,  he chooses to do this,  not only to himself but us as well. That bothers me. I realize that he's likely more prone to meltdowns but still this…