Katie's Birthday Lunchbox Gift to Me

Katie calls this "Shea's team:" comprising of myself, Katie, Natalie, Sigmund Freud, Dr. Phil, and Bruce Lee.

Em and Friend

Emily and her friend, Clayre, from church meeting up to play. Guess which one's the nerd.

James Wesley Shaha Sr. and Elizabeth J. Shaha (Strickland)

Check it out! These are the gravestones of some of the first Shahas! Awesome! James Wesley Shaha Sr. is Grandpa's great Grandpa. He was born in Jackson County Ohio to John and Hannah (Rickabaugh) Shaha (Saha). He was married to Elizabeth in 1856 in Jackson County as well. Awesome stuff. They're buried in the Shaha cemetery in southwest Iowa. We'll all have to visit there next time we're at Mom and Dad's.

Intense nutrition!

Hey guys. If you're interested in intense nutrition, check this link out.
http://terrywahls.com/index.php?page_id=281
This lady reversed her MS through some crazy nutrition. I thought Mom would appreciate it since she's always reminding us to eat blueberries to stave off whats-his-name's disease.

Snoverkill and Snowmageddon 2.0

These pictures were taken Sunday, the day after the first big storm. The sun was shining so we tried to make the most of it. This is right outside our front door.

From the look on Em's face, you can tell she was really enjoying it.
Hopefully this pic gives you an idea of the snow depth... this is the street right outside our housing complex.
We didn't have a sled (not for a lack of trying... they were all sold out days in advance along with the snow shovels) so we improvised with this rubbermaid bin. It didn't work too well... Em kept tipping over in it. She wasn't too happy about that, but ain't she cute?

And then a blizzard hit again on Wednesday. I took this picture from our front window. It's the back part of a bench at the bus stop across the street.

Em loves to read, and this is her new fetish... opening up the doors to the entertainment center and sitting on the shelf with her books to her side.

Pictures of Poland

You wont miss this if you go to Warsaw. The communist Palace of Arts and Culture was built as a gift from the Soviet Union and was a much hated building during the years of communism by the Poles. I believe it's the tallest building in Poland but I could be wrong.

This was taken in Krakow. The building in the center is St. Mary's Basilica which is well known in Poland for it's bugle that is played every hour. The sound is always abruptly ended which commemorates a bugler who got a shot in the throat while warning of a Mongol invasion.

Pictures of Poland

This is typically what you'll see. Shops on the bottom, homes on top. There's a lot of people in Poland and you have to find a way to fit everyone.
The small white building is (or at least was) the church in Poznan. You can't really tell in the picture but everyone just parks on the sidewalks.
This is Warsaw (a sliver of it at least). Do you know where you'll be in Poland?
I thought I would throw this one in too. It did get colder than this but with the weather you're having now you'll probably think Poland is warm.

You'll see beautiful Cathedrals in Poland. Mary is also a very important person to many of the Poles.

Joke Show 09

I found the web site where the archives for A Prarie Home Companion are. I thought all of you would enjoy this one, it's the Joke Show from last year. Just click on the link and then look to the right and you will see the audio section where you can listen. Enjoy.

http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2009/03/14/

Snowed in...AGAIN!

You've probably all heard about the massive storm that hit the DC area... it's one for the record books. It dropped 24 inches in about 24 hours. About 200,000 people were without electricity today... luckily that wasn't us! Church is cancelled tomorrow for the second week in a row and the third time this winter!! This pic is taken from our window.

This is a busy intersection right outside our complex. The tractor and snowplow were working hard there for most of the day. Usually a busy intersection, there were only a few vehicles that crossed through it today, their tires spinning... (We entertained ourselves a lot of the day by just watching the happenings outside our front window)
Our parking lot. Our two vehicles are the ones on the bottom right
Our bedroom windows. Our bedroom is upstairs and the roof is right outside our windows. You can see the drifts right up against the glass...

Our 4-Runner

Our garbage cans and grill
And the results... 24 inches!
Finally it stopped about 4 pm today. Ben was a trooper shoveling the sidewalks.

Beware of tanning!

So, I feel behooved to post this information taken directly from one of my class lecture notes.

Acutally, I probably shouldn't quote directly from the lecture notes... I don't think the lawyer in the family would approve! The long and short of it is that UV light causes cancer and there is no such thing as a safe tan since tanning is the body's response to skin damage. Basically when the skin is damaged by UV light the body responds by recruiting more melanocytes to make the skin darker. Any sunburn on your skin increases your chance of developing skin cancer. The UV light basically destroys your DNA and if you get exposed to enough of it your body can't keep up with the repairs. The longer you are exposed the greater your chances of developing skin cancer. Tanning beds are worse than normal sunlight because they use a wider spectrum of UV light than we are normally exposed to. This can lead to faster development of cancer and other harmful conditions. Long term exposure to the sun causes wrinkles and the aged appearance of several movie stars.

So you should try to avoid over-exposure to the sun and wear sunscreen when you are going to be out and about. And tanning booths are known as "cancer-coffins" among the dermatologists.

Anywho, I wanted to pass the word. Love you guys.

Dave