Our first car...gone!

It happened on the dark and dreary evening of the 28th of August. This was not any ordinary evening, it was THE evening...the evening that Phil and I sold our first car. Sad as it was, it was time to retire the license plate number, 335-NDF. Our little car served us well (although it barely ran!). Phil put our car up for sale on Craigslist, and within 15 minutes he got 4 calls...2 hours later the car was sold!

On more than one occasion, our muffler fell off while we were driving, so we had to do something to keep it from dragging the ground! Gotta love bungie cords!

I remember the time that our car always had a small stash of Mountain Dew in the trunk : ) Back then we ate VERY healthy. We ate our "greens" about 3-6 times a day!

And then there was the time that we decorated our car for Katie and Adam's wedding. We filled it with balloons and wrote all over it with shaving cream.

We did a lot of crazy things with that car...

I remember the time when we packed 8 guys in this car! I am also pretty sure that we killed the suspension by doing that...

When we bought it, it had an engine knock and a broken door handle. When we sold it, it was running on 3 of its 4 cylinders, had 2 broken door handles, still had an engine knock, and no front suspension...but it still ran! To top it all off, the guy who bought it got saved!


Parting is such sweet sorrow! I am sure that we will get over it someday...ok, we're over it!

Midwest farmland photography

Here is some more amateur photography for all my fans!

Soybean field

Country road

Corn...

...corn...

...and more corn.

Day trip to Chicago!

Recently our family decided to take a day trip to Chicago. It has been years since our family has been to Chicago (we used to live in one of it's suburbs)! Our dad, native of Chicago, took us for a tour of the "town".

Sears (Willis) Tower

Our first stop in "Chi town" was Navy Pier.

The Crystal Gardens at Navy Pier were really neat...

...especially the fountains.

It kinda reminded me of Florida : )

What would a trip to Navy Pier be without a ride on the famous ferris wheel?

We convinced our parents that a ferris wheel ride would be in everyone's best interest : )

Anna and Rachel preparing to ascend...


The view from the top was awesome!

The John Hancock building overlooking Lake Michigan.

What? Ok, so I like obscure photography...

Dad, Mom, Beth, and Sarah in the other car.

I thought the sun coming through the ferris wheel would make a good picture...others just laughed.

We had fun at Navy Pier, and thankfully nobody went overboard!

Hollandsworth kids

Dad and Mom

Just before we left, Phil and I went for a ride on the chair glide.

As we headed into the city I saw this restaurant called, Yolk. I took a look through the window at the menu, and everything on the menu had to do with eggs! Egg salad, scrambled eggs, deviled eggs, fried eggs....you get the idea.

Off we went down Michigan Avenue, or as some call it...

..."The Magnificent Mile".

I kinda got separated from the family while I was taking pictures. When I stopped to get my bearings, I looked up and saw this...the Mac store! Home, sweet home!

The place was massive! It had this big, glass staircase going up to the second level of the building which housed their conference room and genius bar.

I came out of the Mac store, and right across the street was the Chicago water tower. This is one of the very few buildings that survived the great Chicago fire of 1871.

You find some strange people in Chicago...

...so strange that I thought this guy was a manikin! I almost went over there and poked him, but he turned and looked at me so I decided not to. : P

Don't ask me what this is, I just took a picture of it.

After walking downtown for a while we went shopping in Water Tower Place. It was the first time I have ever been in a vertical mall. The place had about 10 levels with different stores on each level.

Some random building with the sun gleaming on the glass : )

On the walk back to the van we passed a Bentley! Maybe someday...

Just another day on the job...

Just about 3 weeks left until school starts! In the meantime I have been spending my days working for a tree removal company. For my first day on the job, I was greeted by this...a massive pile of logs. It was my job to split and stack this wood. All I could do was groan...

I split wood for 11 hours...

...AND THERE WAS STILL MORE TO BE SPLIT!!!

I still haven't finished all the splitting that I need to do (I guess I will save that for a rainy day)! I split the wood while another guy stacked it. Good thing I wasn't stacking the wood or else I might have been fired!

We split and stacked about 6 face cords of wood (if you don't know what that is, don't worry about it...)

*WARNING* This next section contains graphic images! If you have a weak stomach...SCROLL DOWN! : P

On my third day at work it was time to put away the log splitter and finally go to a job. We loaded up the truck and headed off to take down a tree. I am new to the tree removal business, so I don't know the ropes. Little did I know that I was about to meet a rope that didn't like rookies!

I was stationed at the chipper for this job, so I felt pretty comfortable doing that. The owner and another employee were limbing a tree and then lowering the limbs to the ground with a rope because there were power lines intertwined in the tree. I was called over to lower a branch while the one guy went to start the chipper. There I was holding a rope, with no gloves on when all of a sudden I hear the cracking of a branch! This branch must have been 40 ft. long and weighed over 300 lb. (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration)! I did everything I could to lower the branch to the ground, but it was too heavy for me and the rope got pulled right through my hands...that was by far the most pain I have ever felt in a LONG time!

We did a quick bandage job so I could finish working.

But here is what I found when I took the bandage off...

Burns...

Burns....

And more burns... (nasty, huh?)

There were a total of 19 burns on my two hands, and a burn blister about 1/4 in. high. THAT HURT! Am I just a big baby? Probably...