Day 209

This is a car Shawn noticed the other day that has a couple of barrels holding up the back end. I'm not sure what type of work they have planned for this car that required it to be held up like this.

Day 208

Today, we went to McAlester so Shawn could have her cousin fix her hair. While we were there, Alyssa got a little trim on her hair as well. This was the first time her hair has been cut.

Day 207

Today, I snapped a picture of Alyssa sitting in her high chair coloring.

Day 206

Today, I snapped a picture of a Great Blue Heron while riding my bike around Crescent park. I had my telephoto lens today, so I got a pretty good picture, despite them being spooked easily.

Day 205

This is a picture of one of the seed pods from one of our blackberry lily plants. You can see the bloom in one of my earlier posts. Now, you can see why it's called a blackberry lily. If you would like some of the seeds, let me know, and I'll arrange to send you some.

Day 204

Today, I snapped a picture of the McBirney Mansion. It's located just a few blocks from downtown Tulsa and overlooks the Arkansas River. Today, it functions as a luxury inn for those who can afford it.

Day 203

The subject of today's picture is a master of disguise. Can you see it? You may have to click on the image to see the full-sized version to see it.

Day 202

Today, I snapped a picture of Alyssa. She has a piece of gum clenched between her teeth to show off herself chewing gum. She loves to chew gum and does a good job keeping it in her mouth.

Day 201

Today, we went to Bartlesville with our FCC (Families with Children from China) group to eat dinner and take the kids to the kiddie park there. This is Alyssa riding the horse and buggy ride with Natalie.

Day 200

This is a chiropractic business here in Broken Arrow. Years ago, this used to be a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, with their distinctive "bucket of chicken" atop of their sign. I can't get over how stupid this looks, everytime I drive past it. They've painted the bucket solid white, where it serves no purpose at all. I'm sure it would have been much cheaper to spend 5 minutes with a cutting torch to remove it, than it did to paint the whole thing white, rendering it useless in the process.

Day 199

Tonight, I snapped a few pictures looking up at the stars using a very slow shutter speed.

Day 198

This was a flower I found growing near the river while I was riding my bike. I'm not sure what it is, but it is interesting.

Day 197

Today, I shot a picture of some feathers, using my macro lens.

Day 196

Today's picture is the Riverwalk Crossing in Jenks, OK. This place has some of the best restaurants around and is located right on the Arkansas River. It attracts several performers to it's outdoor stage.

Day 195

I snapped today's picture while Shawn was using the Wii Fit in the living room. She was playing the ski jumping game in front of the TV. Alyssa has watched her do this enough, that she knows all the moves. Here's a picture of Shawn and Alyssa in front of the TV, where you can see both of them, as well as the ski jumper on the video screen.

Day 194

Today, I snapped a picture of the moon. It was close to a full moon and it was an unusual orange color.

Day 193

Today, Alyssa decided that she wanted the pacifier, even though she has never really shown any desire for it in the past. She was really just trying to be funny.

Day 192

Today, I noticed that all of the oak trees are starting to put on acorns. Here's a picture of some acorns on the oak tree in my front yard.

Day 191

Today's picture is of the Bass Pro Shop, right here in Broken Arrow, OK.

Day 190

Today, the plumber came to fix our leaking bathtub in the master bath on the second floor. They made all the repairs through the ceiling in our living room. This is a picture looking up through the ceiling toward the bottom of the tub.

Day 189

We had some naked ladies planted near the mailbox, that looked like they weren't going to produce flowers this year. They have just now started to emerge from the ground, and we should have about 5 new stalks with flowers, in just a couple of days.

Day 188

Today, I found the boarding pass for Alyssa for our flight from Taipei to Los Angeles. This was the flight that made her a U.S. citizen upon landing in L.A. This was in her Chinese name, since she was travelling on a Chinese passport.

Day 187

Tonight, I snapped a picture of Alyssa playing with a big pink ball at my parent's house.

Day 186

Today I visited the Richardson Asian Art Museum. This is a picture I took of some rose quartz carvings that are on display there.

Day 185

This is one of my 4 sets of state quarters that I'm collecting. Each set is waiting on the Alaska and Hawaii quarters. I'm keeping a set for each of my 2 boys, one for Alyssa, and another for Shawn and I. We plan on taking that set and visiting all 50 states, spending each of them in their own state.

Day 184

Today, I replaced the shower head in the upstairs bathroom and planned to take a picture of it for my photo of the day. The shower head is installed, but I'm not very happy with it. I think it's going back to the store tomorrow, to be exchanged for another one.

Day 183

Today's picture was taken with my macro lens. This is the bullseye of my soft-tip dartboard. Since this is day 183, I'm half way through the year!

Day 182

I spent most of this evening arranging and waiting on the air conditioner repairman to come fix our air conditioning. The temperatures have been over 100 for the last several days and our poor AC unit has been struggling. So, tonight I took a few pictures in the dark with a lighted top.

Day 181

Today we drove to Porter, OK to get some peaches. Porter is known in this area as THE place to get peaches. I picked a half bushel of peaches in about 104° heat. Here is a picture of some of my peaches.

Day 180

Today is our one year anniversary of the day we received our referral for Alyssa. This is a picture of Alyssa holding 2 of the referral pictures that we received one year ago.

Day 179

This is a heron I found in Joe Creek while I was riding my bike. It's really hard to get close enough to these birds to snap a decent picture because they get spooked very easily. I was wishing that I had my telephoto lens with me.