Agricultural Fair!

It is pretty disgusting, the tiny amount of posts lately. I keep resolving to do better, and well, life just keeps getting in the way! Imagine my surprise this morning when I couldn't even FIND my blog! Yikes! New computer, and I can find nothing!!

So. . . over the weekend, the kids had the annual Agricultural Fair. Kind of hilarious really, when you consider where we live, but anyway. Four of them took part this year, and despite being "disqualified" from some categories, since there are not enough students in our "class" I think they did very well.

Rebekah and Hannah explored the world of Hydroponics, and both won first place for it! Johnny learned about earthworms, built an insect and did some seed art--he got 2 firsts and a 4th : ) His question when we got to the fair was so funny "where are my worms?"

Rebekah and Hannah made dish gardens to a fairy theme, and got first places for those, and Emily won first place for a beautiful Native American Sand art project.

There were more, but I can't remember them all. It was quite the project, lugging them all back to the car. Bigger project will be to keep everything looking nice for our schools Fine Arts night, and then keep them nice till mid summer when they do a display at the Library! Not sure the live plants will make it that long. . . . .

how many eggs. . . .

. . . . can 5 kids dye in one afternoon? You'll have to let me know what you think. I know how many these kids dyed, but you will probably not believe me. I should have taken pictures. Slap me with a wet noodle, I didn't. Jesse's hands are still a little blue, Hannah's are pink. I'm hoping that wears off soon.

Somehow March slipped by without many blog entries. We celebrated 2 birthdays in our home, and 2 more with close family, we went whale watching, had a 'master class' with Michele George and played violins in chapel. I think the biggest news goes to my Mom again. Maybe she wants the spotlight? Great news though, no chemo or radiation needed! Isn't God good?! She does have to take some pills, and come back in 6 months. Not too bad, considering the alternatives.

Hopefully I can get my camera to give up the pictures, so I can post them. It was feeling stubborn tonight. Or maybe neglected. Yes, neglected is probably it. Must take more pictures!

Lesson 838

Lesson #838: if you have a toddler, don't leave coupons unattended. 'nuff said.

Health update

Seems enough is going on, that maybe I should give a little health update. Of course 'tis the season for colds/coughs and flu. We have had runny noses, coughs, sore throats and the like, off and on for the last couple months. I guess that is about normal. By the time any one virus gets through everyone, we are starting on the next!

Right now, Hannah, Jesse and I have colds, and Johnny was kind of sniffy this morning. Jesse gets the "prize" at the moment though. He has 2 ear infections, and is on his first prescription antibiotic. A dubious honor to be sure. He has not been impressed with antibiotics so far.

Another for the dubious honor record books is my Mom. She was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and is recovering from surgery now. The surgery was "good news" in that there was no evidence of cancer in the lymph nodes. Cancer is such a scary word, I think we have all been very grateful that we have the Lord to turn to. My Mom is continuing on a little bumpy road back to recovery, and we are all hoping that things will only get better from here.

So there you have it. The update on the not so healthy state of our family, at the moment. Still need to post those last pictures from our trip to Sacramento. . . . .

The new look

I'm on a roll posting so many days in a row!! Taking a break today from the catching up on family trips, to bring you breaking news. Rebekah got her new look today . . . . yes, the braces are on. Well, on the teeth she still has left. She started with just 4 teeth, in the front, and we'll see what more has to be done as the rest of the teeth come in. The bottom braces will be put on in 3-4 months. Kind of nice to do it in stages if you ask me.

You notice there are no pictures. At this point, she didn't want pictures taken. I tried to get a "before" and "after" picture this morning at her appointment, but she was having none of it. She went in a little sad, and anxious, and came out excited and bubbly! She picked hot pink bands for her braces, and is just very excited wtih it all.

She came home with a goodie bag full of oral care supplies: wax in three cute boxes, special floss threaders, a travel toothbrush, toothpaste, a travel mirror and several other odds and ends. She spent a lot of time going through the bag on the way home. She's armed with all the info she needs on new toothbrushing/flossing technique, and I think she's ready to go.

Let's hope the enthusiasm doesn't wear off before the braces come off!

That other trip

In the interest of catching up, here are some pictures from our other trip. We got to go to Sacramento! Since John was a semifinalist for Teacher of the Year at the state level, he was honored in the State capitol and we took the chance to have a quick family weekend away.

There was panning for um, gems, aplenty. . . .


Caverns to explore. . . .

Creatures to meet. . . .

And that was just the first day!! The next day we got to tour the capital building, and John was honored at the banquet.

The steps of the capitol building. . .

And at the banquet. .

Then there was the long drive home. That will have to be saved for next time. Here's a hint of what we got do do though. . . .

What we've been doing. . . .

riding new and interesting animals. . .

being forced to lie on a bed of nails in the name of "education"

climbing the walls. . . . .

making smoke signals. . . .

Okay, so those were all things we did on a field trip back at the end of January. I hadn't gotten around to posting the pictures. It was a fun field trip--especially the bed of nails. It really didn't compare to this field trip though. . . .

We went to the Ducks First Flight Field Trip. The Ducks are Anaheim's ice hockey team, and this was a wild ride. Very hard to describe what it's like to be among 15,000 kids, all screaming at the top of their lungs, in the ice arena! Not being big hockey fans, I didn't really expect much, but by the end of the trip, we were all actually thinking a hockey game might be exciting! Maybe that was part of the point.

We have been on one other recent field trip too, but I'll have to make that a post for another day.