Questions ...

(Joel 'camping out' while watching a triathlon.)

"Dad, what makes a yawn?"

"If you pay Anna for babysitting, can you pay me for being the baby?"

"Why did you sign me up for scouts?"

"What makes a burp? ..... Where does the gas come from? ... He won't tell me where the gas comes from."

Duct tape shoes

You get tin foil and you wrap it around your feet. Then you take some duct tape and wrap it around the tin foil so it will stay. Then once you're done with that, take one long piece of duct tape and a little shorter piece and stick them together. Put the rest of the sticky part of the longer piece on the outside of the tin foil shoe below the ankle around the heel. Get another piece of duct tape to stick this to the other side of the shoe. This is how the shoe stays on.

WARNING!

Do NOT just use regular tape. I did that once and my brother Mark took me to the store. After a few minutes he had to carry me the rest of the way.

Recent quotes

While passing out presents for the family to open: "Being an elf is tiring."

After mom has told him more than once to stop doing his heelies in the grocery store. "I want Daddy." Oh, do you really miss him? "Well, I'm getting sick of someone."

King of Electricity

Paper plates. Duct tape. Tin foil. Paper clips. A crown.

"If you have a crown you must be king of something."

"I'm King of Electricity! I control electricity."

Hmmm. Left to his own devices ....

The X-50

A lot of hammering sounded from the garage, but that wasn't entirely unusual. Joel keeps his tool box and wood scraps out there and periodically creates things. One time as he passed through the house I asked him what he was doing.

"I'm building a go-cart." I smiled at the naive dreams of an 8 year old thinking he could build a go-cart. At least it's keeping him busy!

After several days he announced that he needed wheels. I really hadn't paid much attention to the project and decided to investigate. He HAD created a very simple go-cart ... and he DID need wheels! He showed Daddy that night and they planned to get wheels the next day.

"How did he get the bolt through the board for his turning mechanism," Daddy wanted to know.

"Oh, I just used a screw driver and hammered and then wiggled it around and hammered some more." Daddy helped him use a drill for the wheels, which he did admit goes faster. The finished product did not race down the street as fast as he expected, but we were all VERY impressed. (I guess it should make me nervous when he says he's building a hang glider!)

A Poem by Joel

Jesus is There

When the sun goes down and day turns to night

You always get a terrible fright,

But when you know that Jesus is there

You never, ever are scared.

Joel's 'Guys'

(Joel has had his own super heroes for years. I think it started with things he was afraid to do. His imaginary hero, Shark, could do anything. Whatever Joel's oldest brother did, Shark did as a baby. Below are some of his more recent 'guys.' I'm not sure if they are part of Shark's Team, but they are interesting guys!)

Boxer Guy a type of strong monster where he can turn into any strong monster. And he doesn’t want to be their creature form on earth since they’ll freak out people. They have really long teeth like saber tooth teeth. They’re not that big but they’re weird since they can puff up their arms. There’s other strong monsters that can do that.

Nuclear Energy can stretch around, he’s unstoppable, and he can turn invisible. If you punch him it will go right through him. He comes from the planet death. Since one of the superheroes accidently hit it and it touched every single planet, even Krypton and the one Superwoman came from. And the most dangerous one was went through the sun so all the people who came from planet death are indestructible since they survived all the things.

Captain Texan is a guitar player in a band. He has two shields instead of one. He can fly two different ways. If he jumps off a cliff he can spin around and his shields will make him fly. He can jump off a cliff and turn on rocket boots and he’ll fly with his shield’s help. If he’s ever in water he mostly has his two shields on the back and he can press a button where he shields go up so now he can swim.

Tongue Tangler can speak any language and he can sound like anyone. He can also shoot out his tongues. They’re sticky and strong and numb so he can reach things through lava without his tongue being burned. He can also separate his tongues.

Marble, he’s another guitar player. The reason why he is called Marble is because he has 200 and a thousand layers of marbles on him. But he indestructible and he’s super-strong. (Da-da-da-don!) They have two guitar players, Marble and Hornet.

Hornet has four horns, two on the sides, one in the back and one in the front. Hornet’s powers, his horns, can make these lasers. He can use all of them to throw electricity at this giant ball.