Raising a Boy

"My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, 'You're tearing up the grass.' 'We're not raising grass,' Dad would reply. 'We're raising boys.'" ~Harmon Killebrew

"What a dreadful thing it must be to have a dull father. "
-- Mary Mapes Dodge

Here at Beardsleys in Action...

...we keep our pets on a tight leash!

For now....my favorite

Hey Sarah, Remember Me???

For Nana!

Great Memories!!

Going through my files and pictures, I found some great shots from our honeymoon!! We went to St. Lucia.

While they are each taking half a century to load ;-) , I'm so glad to share them!!
We climbed this!! Petit Piton. It was phenomenal...the climb, and the view!

More cool stuff later I hope...

It's My Blog......

...And I'll Gripe if I Want To!

After some encouragement from a friend of mine, I've decided it's time for a bit more healthy complaining! :-) (Shoot me a little "amen" or something if this hits home with you!!)


How many of you have been driving along perfectly contented in your travel only to see a police officer in a speed trap and suddenly had your heart start racing and your legs feel like jello. How many of you have then hit the brakes out of instinct only to look and see that you weren't even speeding? In fact...how often does seeing a police officer out on the road cause you to do a mental run-down of your driving (am I speeding? did I come to a complete stop back there? was that light a little too yellow?????) Have you ever almost hit someone else after they slammed on the brakes because they noticed a speed trap?

Don't get me wrong...we have great police. We are lucky enough to live in a country that is not (compared to many others) filled with corrupt law enforcement. We have great officers who protect and defend the lives of many, every day!! But every day there are also officers out there doing things that are dangerous to others. 2 Weeks ago in California, a police officer (formerly charged with drunk driving) was speeding down a local road. He swerved and hit 3 bikers. 2 of the bikers died - a young man and woman. I read an article today about police in Maryland, refusing to pay for speeding tickets that they have received.

When Matt and I lived in Chile the police on patrol were like a breath of fresh air. They drove along looking from crime. They weren't looking for people going 5 miles over the speed limit to scare. You could pass a police officer without fear of....anything! Police officers weren't dangerous or reckless in their driving and they didn't cause accidents.

I am not writing this because either of us were cited....or pulled over for anything. I decided to write about this because while we were driving home last week a California Highway Patrol Officer flew by us. He did not have his siren on. He had another officer in the car with him and they were talking and laughing (we later ended up at a light behind them). After flying around us, the officer almost caused an accident by some serious speeding and lane changing (without signaling) around cars ahead of us. It was scary and I believe it is getting out of hand. I would completely trust our police for anything, but I'm sorry to say that as far as many of them are concerned, I don't trust their judgment on the road.

There is alot of speeding where we live now and please understand, I am not a defender of reckless driving. But I'd like to suggest that maybe a situation where drivers are paranoid about passing officers waiting in "speed traps" is not the best way. And I'd like to see officers driving fast with their lights on, headed toward a call, not driving without lights or siren in my rearview and then swerving around me! With a new little person in my car I worry about alot of things, but I don't want to worry about the people out there who are supposed to be protecting others. They should not be above the law!

Happy 1/2 Birthday Josiah!

I write as our little 1/2 birthday boy is taking a nap (read: babbling in his crib) so the length will depend on how long he naps (babbles without screaming;-) ...

In the past month Joey has learned to sit up much more steadily and he is starting to lift his arms up when he wants to be picked up. He is now moving around in his crib....I'll go to get him after a nap only to find him completely upside down, feet under the mobile and all. He has many smiles, his first tooth (almost all the way up!), and babbles much more than he used to (he is still a man of few words). He squeals in delight and laughs spontaneously at his toys, parents and very random things sometimes. He finds great joy in grabbing any toys, Mocha (if he can) and instantly putting whatever it is, in his mouth. Sometimes I want to get a stopwatch and see how long he takes to get something into his hand and then in his mouth.

A Few Facts for the Fam(s): Joey eats oatmeal with bananas for breakfast, cereal with pears or apples (or a veggie) for lunch and cereal with peas, sweet potatoes or carrots for dinner. He nurses before or after all these meals and never seems full! He sleeps from about 6 or 6:30 at night until between 7:30 - 8:30 in the morning, usually waking up for one diaper change and a pacifier run. He is working on cutting out a nap so he naps either twice or 3 times in the day for a total of about 3 hours.


He loves to drink his bathwater (we try not to do that when he pees in it, which of course, is hard to explain to him), look at the computer when Daddy is working, and sit in his highchair (that means food is coming!) Today to celebrate Joey's 6 month milestone we let him watch his first Saturday morning cartoon.... a Veggie Tales, and taste some of our yogurt (the best part of his little day).

He continues to be our greatest joy. What a wonderful blessing we have in this little boy.

...and it's back to sleep for our little angel. Time to go free up more room on the computer...

A Standstill

While I wish there was a more exciting reason for the lack of blogging lately, I have unfortunately come to a bit of an impass. My computer is using all but about .4 GB of it's 18.5 GB of memory.

How did that happen, you might ask?

I don't know. I really don't. As I noticed it moving slower I got rid of every, EVERY program that I don't use either every day or every week. I cut back on pictures and deleted about 1/2 of my itunes. Sadly I have very cute pictures and videos on my camera that I cannot download because there is no room for them.

Today is Joey's 1/2 birthday!! 6 Months!! And I am dying to put up a post with a current picture or two but I have to go spend some time deleting my old memories :-( or the rest of my posts will have to have pictures from 2003.

(That's not alot right?? 18.5 GB.... for digital pictures from the last 5 years and itunes that doesn't even fill up 1/5th of my 30 gig ipod?? Maybe I just have too much junk. I have no idea!)

Ahh Technology

Psalm 16

Don't worry! You haven't stumbled onto a stranger's website. Our blog is doing some shifting this week.

A Little History: When I (Laurie) first set up the blog I meant for it to be for both of us and I meant to change some things immediately. "Beardsleys in Action" for example was for lack of any name ideas! We were sitting in our office in Chile and finally I said "what should I call it", Matt suggested Beardsleys in Action and we both agreed that when we thought of something better we'd change it.

.....well it's been a year. I guess to change the actual www address I'd have to start a new blog, and as that is not happening (it was hard enough for us to change the template without losing all the links!) we will remain www.beardsleysinaction.blogspot.com. But since I do most of the posting (and Matt has his own blog) I changed the template to something more "me".

So that brings us to the title. When I first met Matt he was leading the youth group at his church in Asheville, N.C., Arden Presbyterian. He did a series (while I visited) on Psalm 16. About a month after we started dating he made me 2 pictures, one of which had a photo from Honduras (where we met) that I had taken and the words from Psalm 16 superimposed. (I'll try to see if I can post the picture) Later, after we were married it was again the theme for the youth group in Chile. I really like the verse, and it's what we both want to do...enjoy the presence of God, and be at His right hand. There are many things I can talk about excitedly on this blog (Lost, my great husband, my sweet baby boy) but what I want to do more than anything is encourage any reader to remember that our God... can make known to you the path of life, in His presence there is fullness of joy, and at His right hand, are pleasures forevermore.

" Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.'
As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16

So I hope you all enjoy the new look. While sometimes I may just be complaining about life in California ;-), sometimes I hope to be sharing the fullness of the joy that we "Beardsleys in Action" (*wince*) are experiencing.

The Photographer's Rebuttal

Matt here. per request, I thought I'd send along the image referred to in Laurie's last post.  I've really been studying up on my portrait technique the last few weeks.  The picture of Laurie came out of a lighting experiment.

I'm a lucky photographer to have such a cute and willing model right at home.... two of them, really.  Laurie patiently stood there getting radiated with 2,400 watts per second.  The neighbors probably thought we were experiencing a one-house lightning storm.  The resulting proof print, which is now propped in the living room behind Tortilla, our goldfish, was the picture that inspired Laurie to feel old and for a professor in San Francisco to say, "you made her look like Hitler."  The professor took a .005 second glance at a cute picture of Joey and determined that I was trying to give him a strange little siamese twin.  Perhaps, I have more work to do in understanding the intricacies of studio lighting and the magic of Photoshop.  None-the-less, I am enjoying the constructive criticism and blazing onward with flashes popping (one of which gave me a nasty blister on my tongue.)  I'm happy to report that I had a few successful outings in a not-so-makeshift studio this past week and am quickly learning the dark art of photographic post-production.

In the meantime, I am blessed to have my two cuties, Hitler, and half a siamese twin baby.  Thanks everyone for reading!