Elfed...

I saw this on the Vansell's blog first....then I had to try it out. So I put our faces in ("our" meaning me and Paul), and then put some friends from Indiana (who went to Big Bend with us in October). It was pretty fun. Enjoy!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1266185055

(I took the liberty of elfing Heather and Evan without their consent, but I hope they don't mind).

Tag...I'm "It"

Well, I've been tagged by my good friend at Adventures in Raising a Boy. I've always loved reading other people's blogs when they get tagged because they usually write such interesting facts about themselves. But now that it's my turn to put a list together, I'm not quite sure where to start. I guess the rules would be a good place:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Since middle school, most if not all of my joints "pop" or "crack" (especially my ankles/knees). When I walk up the stairs, it sounds like I have bubble wrap under my shoes and as I step, a bubble pops. It doesn't hurt (sometimes it actually feels better) - I just can't sneak up on anyone very well.

2. I don't like ham or onions (I'm actually pretty picky about a lot of food, but ham and onions are biggies). But I don't mind pork...maybe it's the salt that I don't like about most ham, I don't know. Whatever it is, I'll do anything to avoid ham.

3. I really enjoy "old-time" country music and bluegrass...maybe it's the acoustic instruments and the harmony in the vocals...maybe it's the beat...but the "twang" that most people complain about, I kinda like. And though this sounds contradictory to what I just stated, I love deep voices in male singers (Don Williams, Randy Travis, etc), and I usually prefer altos in female singers (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Anne Murray).

4. I LOVE dark chocolate - the darker the better. All that 60% cacao stuff that Hershey's has come out with recently (and asks a pretty penny for) is my biggest downfall in the candy aisle.

5. One of my favorite stores to "window shop" in (not purchase because it's usually too expensive) is Office Depot or Office Max. All of those new pencils, pens, hole punch reinforcers, erasers that really work (not smear), and binders get me pretty excited. I don't know if it dates back to the first day of school when we got all of our new school supplies, but even now I really like to go in there and dream. Guess that's pretty weird, but I'm okay with it.

6. I think I'm one of the worst judges in whether a new movie in the theaters is going to be good or not. The ones that look good in the previews to me usually are terrible...and the ones that I pass over usually are much better. Paul has helped me learn how to judge a little better, but it's been a long journey.

7. I sometimes memorize random car license plates and make up stories in my head about why I'll need to remember it in the future. (I have an uncanny ability to remember number/letter combos, but the fact that I put it to use for this reason is kinda silly). Like this afternoon, I saw a white car driving super slow past the camp about 3 times, so on the 3rd pass I memorized the license number. I'm not sure if it's paranoia or the secret dream I always had of becoming Nancy Drew in real life. But I can't help myself.

So there you go...my weird/random facts about myself. Now to tag some other blog friends.

Jason Edgerton
Alexis Grace (okay, her mom can fill it in for her, but I'd like to see what her mom decides to write - it's always so interesting and fun)
For the Display of His Splendor
Tri for Him

I think everyone else in my small blog world has already been tagged in the past (at least I think I remember reading facts about them...maybe I just know weird facts about them though). :) Julie, Jennie - If you want to post a new set of 7 facts, feel free - it's fun to read your lists!

A New Thanksgiving Tradition...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing day with all of the food and traditions that you needed to make it feel like Thanksgiving to you.


Paul and I actually did something a little different than in years past, and we think we might make it a Biles Family tradition in the future.

We started by waking up at 5:45am and getting ready for a 5 mile race in Austin. We drove to Austin and joined eight to ten thousand other people that were also crazy enough to go running that morning. The weather dropped about 35 degrees on Wed, so Thursday morning it felt like 37 degrees with the windchill...which was quite a difference from the 80 degree weather we had been training in.

The Turkey Trot (put on by Thunder Cloud Subs in Austin) was a super fun 5 mile race that went up and down many hills, but because there were so many people running on the streets, the hills weren't that bad - at least we were all suffering together, right?

Apparently there were 3 water stops along the way, but I only saw the 2nd one because of the number of people around me - I was so focused on not running into someone in front of me that I hardly had time to look to the sides (where the water was).

Here's our stats according to Paul's Garmin (his GPS stopwatch): We finished in 44:06 minutes. Our first mile was at a 9:29 pace, then we got faster from there - 2nd was 8:48, 3rd was 8:59, 4th was 8:34, and the 5th mile was 8:16.

Here are our official race results sorted by age and gender. (Once you get to the page, press Ctrl + F, and then type in Biles - it's the easiest way to find our results). You can also go here to find the other categories. If you went to A&M or UT, you could get a race number with the colors of the Aggies or the Longhorns...you can view those results from that page to see which school did the best if you care...but since I'm not a Texan and didn't go to either of those schools, I really don't care. :)

Here's another picture of the turkey at the beginning of this post. Yep - it's a haybale, with spraypainted tin roofing sections as the tails. They get pretty creative out here in the country. :)

Girl Time!!

Okay, I got our camera back from Paul's office, so now I have access to the pics from my weekend in Chapel Hill. Enjoy!


On Friday, before Suz got to join us, we saw all the exhibits in the hallways surrounding the planetarium at UNC, but there weren't any showtimes during the weekend.

Later that night we started a friendly game of monopoly. At first, Julie was killing me and Jennie, so then Jennie and I joined forces to bring Julie down.

So then I started doing better except that I ended up going to jail a million times...okay maybe every third turn, but I went there A LOT!!

But in the end, my hotels had everyone else mortgaged to the hilt and I won. Which is a first for me - I never win monopoly, and usually won't even play it (especially with Paul since he always WINS)!

Anyway...we then played more games that Julie definitely won by a landslide (mainly because she knows lots of obscure Scottish words and can remember them under pressure and late at night).

On Saturday, Suzanne kicked the flu-bug out of her system (teachers should get some kind of presidential merit badge/award for working with snot-nosed kids during flu season) and we all got to hang out and tour UNC and eat and shop and goof off...and of course watch movies and play more games.

Below is one of the Arboretum pathways at UNC...very fun.

We went to a second-hand shop and Julie found fun fabric that is currently a strangely shaped apron that she will take apart and re-use......and Jennie found a Halloween costume...I don't actually know how she ended up using it - we had talked about her being the big bad wolf dressed up in Grandma's nightgown (from Little Red Riding Hood). But I think she would have bought it anyway just because it's red. :)

Suzanne and I didn't end up buying anything there, but we sure had fun trying things on!

Plants & Animals...but more Plants than Animals Part 1

Well, I took a blog break and didn't finish posting all the promised pictures from Big Bend. Once I got back to the "real world", work and schedules seemed to overtake me. It wasn't all work and no play though - I did get to go to Charlotte, NC to hang out with "my girls" from high school - Jennie, Julie, Suzanne - I wish we could have extended the weekend - I definitely had fun catching up on some much-needed girl time! (Oops, I meant to say Chapel Hill, NC - thanks for helping me with the geography Jennie!)

Back to the Big Bend pictures. Can you tell that I loved the time that we spent there? If anyone wants to go back with me, just let me know. I'd love to go explore in spring when all the flowers are out!

(This isn't really a plant or animal, but it was a fun picture)

This is a close-up of the lechuguilla plant's fruit after it finished blooming and the fruit has dried out.

Anyone know what kind of snake this is? I haven't a clue, but it was cool to see it slither around the rock. We have video of it that you can watch if you're interested. But first I need to find a faster internet connection so I can upload it - maybe I'll get the videos posted next time.

Yep, it's a tarantula. Apparently it was tarantula mating season. I was glad we didn't see one until the last day though. We also have a video of this. Once I get it posted (next time hopefully), I would recommend watching it so you can see it touch Paul's shoe - it will give you perspective of how big it was!

(Another angle of the same tarantula)

Cactus!! We mostly saw some variety of prickly pear cactus (not shown below). So this was a little different, although when it comes to cactus, all I know is that it's pokey and hurts if you get too close! (I readily admit I have no idea what variety of cactus this is).

But look what we found inside the above pictured cactus. We think it's some part of a tarantula - maybe the mandible??
Another variety of cactus that I can't identify. :)
Nope, the yellow part isn't a flower - we think it's new growth (in our humble opinion).


Here's a closeup of the plant above...Name? you want a name...you wouldn't remember if I told you...and I don't know what it's called anyway...but the flower is pretty!

We were hoping to find some kind of bird in the nest built in the cactus, but we weren't that lucky.

Talk about feeling small!!!

This tree had weirdly shaped berries - they weren't round - they were almost like those pictures of sickle cells that you see in biology pictures.

And the fuzzy outside appears to pop open and a smoother fruit is produced. One day I'll figure out what it's called...just not today.
Okay, I might have a name for this one - it's a yucca plant, but I can't get much more specific than that.
Here's the balancing rock that is at the end of a trail designated as Grapevine Hills on the Big Bend maps.
The funny thing is that the surrounding landscape was probably more interesting than this phenomenon. I mean, we definitely wondered how the rock ended up like this. But there were several smaller (but still BIG) rocks all over this area that looked like they could fall at any moment, even though they have probably been in the same position for decades.

This is another picture of a lechuguilla plant that had just finished blooming.

Can you believe it - I actually saw examples of all of the plants described on this sign (I didn't get a picture of the hechia (2nd plant from left), but I have non-blooming pics of all the rest! Which means I have names for them!
This is a candelilla bush. Apparently it can be boiled and high qualit wax extracted from it...which they can do in Mexico where they can harvest the bush (in the park, that's a BIG no-no!)
To me, the candelilla looks a little like asparagus. What do you think?


The plant below that looks all spindly to the right of the land formation (in the foreground) is the ocotillo plant. Ranger Yost said that because the area had received rain recently, this plant had green leaves. We saw other ocotillo plants around the park that didn't have green leaves anymore - because it hadn't received rain. So it's a pretty smart plant - and not a cactus even though it has huge thorns! The first picture is one that Heather took - mine wasn't as nice. Thanks for sharing Heather!

This is a close-up picture I took of the ocotillo showing its leaves. See what I mean when I say huge thorns?

Well, for now I'm going to leave it at this. I have more plant/animal pictures I want to post (we have a few of a Mexican blue jay!). But I'm out of time for now. So check back in later!

Big Bend Part 2: Geology

Don't let the title scare you away...I don't know much about the subject, so I won't go on forever about it! :) Again, I have a disclaimer.

1) I do not claim to have any recollection of any geology studies I may or may not have suffered through in school or at home (my dad was a geology major in his college days). So if I make a complete fool of myself by trying to recap what I did or didn't learn during this trip regarding geology, feel free to comment...or you can let me live in ignorant bliss.

Monday morning we got up at 6:30am in the DARK and cooked pancakes and eggs by headlamp. It was quite interesting, especially since the stove’s lowest setting was too hot for the pancakes to cook right. So Heather and I took turns holding the pan 2 inches above the burner instead of letting it rest on the burner.

This is what we were seeing (or not seeing).
Here we are with the flash so you can see us. :)

This is the MORNING sky - the sun is coming up!

We had planned to go to a “Geology for Dummies” tour led by Ranger Angelina Yost which started at 8:30am. By the skin of our teeth we arrived on time and started to be edjumacated about the geology of Big Bend National Park. And here is where my disclaimer will play a major role in my story.

Ranger Yost started out at the Panther Junction visitor’s center with comparing the timeline of the earth’s evolution to a 12 month calendar year.

I think the gist of the outline was that there was a Precambrian Era that would have taken up from January 1 through Christmas. Then there was a Paleozoic era that started at Christmas, followed by a Mesozoic era (I don’t recall when that started), and then the Cenozoic era which may have started on Dec 31st (which includes the Quaternary period that we’re in now). Heather may recall more details better than I do – Ranger Yost was good, but I think I must have been one of her “dumber” dummies because I still didn’t quite catch all of the terms that she was throwing out there.

Ranger Yost then told us what was happening geologically during these eras and started breaking down the eras into periods. There were deep seas in the Paleozoic era, then sedimentation occurred to create shallow seas and beaches started forming as land masses started moving, creating the Appalachian mountains. Dinosaurs were thrown in there somewhere (Mesozoic era??), and then they died and the Rocky Mountains were formed. Somewhere in there she mentioned a chocolate covered caramel bar which got my attention (surprise, surprise). It was to illustrate land pulling apart and stretching, which causes the middle part to sink in elevation while the ends stay tall. (I'll throw some pictures in here so you don't get bored, but I don't have explanations because I don't remember what she said about the geologists' theories for these formations).

Obviously I didn’t catch all of the details she was sharing, and I’ll admit that I wasn’t really paying attention that closely because I don’t agree with the “a billion years ago the earth was formed” timeline. I did find it interesting that the Appalachian mountains reach as far south/west as Texas, so Texas has mountains that are members of both the Appalachian mountain range and the Rockies Mountain range. I think most people think of the Appalachian Trail which stretches from Georgia to Maine, and figure that the mountain range starts/stops in those states, too. But according to the all-knowing geologists, “The Ouachita mountain belt extended from the Southern Appalachian region across the Mississippi Valley region, all the way across Texas into the Big Bend Region, and southward into Mexico.” Well I’ll be!

Once we got on the road, we were shown mountains that were formed by the erosion around intrusions (magma, or underground lava, that pushed through older rock but didn’t come out on the earth’s surface); and extrusions (volcanoes that blew up spewing lava). Laccoliths were pointed out, as well as dikes and volcanic domes (don’t ask me the definitions though).

The next part that got my attention was when Ranger Yost started explaining that over the past 10 years, geologists have changed their mind about how some of the mountains formed, and how old they really are. Apparently after Mt. St. Helens erupted, a lava dome started forming faster than geologists thought it could/should form. And a guy in Japan recorded a mountain “growing” in the 1940s, also proving that mountains can form a lot faster than geologists guessed. So now they think some mountains in Big Bend are actually volcanic dome, rather than intrusions that required millions of years of erosion to expose.

This map was made in the 60's by a geologist riding on a horse. So Ranger Yost said that part of it (encompasing the harder to reach mountains I believe) is wrong. Yet it's still the only map that the Park has. She mentioned that there is a project being proposed to create a new map using modern technology (GPS, satellite, etc). But for now, they have to use this old map. Incredible!
I had to bite my tongue (hard) to keep from asking about how geologists thought a world-wide flood that would create a water covered world for a little less than a year, which would recede in a matter of 2-3 months would affect their geologic timeline theories (see Genesis ch 7 and 8). Because what I took away from Ranger Yost’s talk was that the geologists really have no idea how anything formed, their theories change every decade, and that nature really does reflect God’s glory and prove He exists (see Psalm 19).

Okay, no more soap box from Kelli…Here are some pictures!!

This picture and the one right after it are pictures of dikes. Basically, I think it's the thin protrusions that were formed when magma seeped up through a crack, and then when everything else eroded around it, the formations were left standing.

After our tour, we drove around to different overlooks and vistas and had fun taking pictures. (Erin Valerius, this was for you - we tried to make an "EV" with our shadows in your honor.)

(The lengths we'll go to to get a great picture!)
Then we drove down to the Santa Elena Canyon and hiked along the Rio Grande. It was magnificent! I was blown away by how big the canyon walls were. I didn’t get to go to the bottom of the Grand Canyon when I visited as a kid, but I bet it is a lot like Santa Elena Canyon. UNLIKE the Grand Canyon, we didn’t have to deal with a thousand people all clamoring to see the same vista. During the Ranger talk that we attended on Tuesday night, Ranger Mary Kay even mentioned that Big Bend National Park is one of the least visited National Parks (one of Texas’ best kept secrets in my opinion).

That's Paul down there next to the river.


This is looking back at the mountains from the Rio Grande at Santa Elena Canyon.

After spending about 2 hours hiking around Santa Elena Canyon, we drove some more to different sites. But we hadn't packed a lunch, and by 4pm, some of us were starting to show the effects of low blood sugar. So we went back to camp for some supper!!

Here's the "creative" picture at Mule Ears that I mentioned in my previous post. Paul's such a funny guy, isn't he?

The Window from the NE again, but with the sun higher in the sky so you can see the details better.