Slug Bug, New Math, Learning to Win and Lose

Solomon and Seth, November 30 2008

Solomon has invented new math called Foodegebra. Pronounce it however you see fit. It goes like this, he explains, "1 cup kidney beans plus 1 cup garbanzo beans plus 1 cup green beans with a little ranch, equals 3 Bean Salad." I haven't told him it's already been invented and it's called a Recipe.

Seth has been playing Uno with anyone he can get. He loves to play, except when he loses. He tried to get Solomon to play with him yesterday. Seth had the hands all set out. When Seth went to the bathroom, Solomon peeked at the cards and saw that Seth had stacked his hand with Draw Fours, Skips, and Wilds! When Seth lays down a card that makes you draw, he yells: "Pay Back!" He's trying not to be a sore loser (his siblings aren't wanting to play with him when he hits them for winning). This morning when he lost all he did was scowl. I said, "Good job being calm when someone else wins." He said, "Did you see my face?"

Slug Bug Our family hasn't played the Slug Bug game for 2 years. I banned it because it got out of hand. The children were hitting shoulders for Slug-Bugs, smashing fists on hands for Cruisers, and having all other sorts of motions involved in sighting Police Cars, Toyotas, School Buses, and many others that I have since forgotten (it reached very complicated, slightly violent, heights). Seth was too young to play then, and so we'd forgotten about the Slug-Bug game until last week when someone outside the family bonked Seth on the shoulder saying Slug Bug.

He's been into the game ever since. At least in theory. He's having a hard time recognizing a Volkswagen Beetle. There aren't very many around any more (have you noticed?) and so I try to drive while scanning the passing parking lots for Beetles so I can show him what they look like. He gets tired of waiting, and tired of being told that the passing car isn't a Slug Bug. So he's taken to calling every passing car a Slug. "Slug, Slug, Slug," he calls out, "But not a Slug Bug, because it's just a Slug." Friday we saw four yellow Slug Bugs! He was excited and my shoulder got a little sore.

Christmas Tree Decorating

We decorated our Christmas tree right when we got home from the U-Cut Tree Farm. Normally it takes us a couple days to recover from the cutting of the tree, before we can do the decorating. But Kaylisha was with us. And the children were so anxious to do it that they brought out all the Christmas boxes themselves.

Seth was excited to put the star on the tree. Mandy is showing off an ornament as an earring. Too bad we didn't get a photo of Theron wearing two silver ball ornaments in his ears. Hilarious!

Cutting our own Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving we went out and cut our Christmas tree. For years we've been driving to the mountains, but last year, pregnant and sick with Matthew, I discovered a U-Cut place that's even better. There's no snow, but it's only ½ hr away, on a little hill with 10 acres of trees to choose from. We choose and cut the tree (our tradition is a Douglas Fir), and they hauled it on their four-wheeler to our van and helped us tie it on. Then they give us free hot chocolate or cider! For $25.00! It took 2 hours, instead of all day, and we got home with enough energy to decorate it (well, since Kaylisha was with us we had enough energy to decorate).

Thanksgiving Feasting and Re-Enacting the First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great! We ate at my Mom and Dad's house. My twin, Jen's family and Theron's parents and two siblings came too. Preparing for the feast is so much easier when we make food assignments, I didn't feel stressed at all. The food was incredibly delicious and my Mom had prepared the tables really nicely. After we ate, Jen took family photos of us and senior pictures of Jordan. The lighting was perfect and Jen's artistic eye showed through. Mandy re-wrote a Thanksgiving play and it was great to see all the Pilgrims and Indians trying to act out what Mandy and Kaylisha narrated. One of the highlights was when all the "Indians" pretended to pick corn from a very tall silk house plant like monkeys picking and eating lice.

Harvest Fair balloons, swords and Good Deed...

October 19, 2008

We went to Mandy’s school Harvest Fair. Our favorite booth was the balloon shaper. He took skinny balloons and made a huge spider for Seth, a scorpion for Adam, an alligator for Solomon and a princess for Ellie. The princess was in a bikini top! How did he do that from a balloon (and why)?? As he handed it to 3 year old Ellie, he remarked to me, “Can’t do it topless, this is an elementary school.” Hmm. I guess I felt grateful for his limits, but I wonder where he’s accustomed to shaping balloons. His booth was the best though. I’ve never seen a balloon shaper make such cool shapes. He braided three skinny balloons into a dna shape with three bouncy balls running around inside. Wow.

At the Harvest Fair Solomon was given enough tickets so he could turn them into a noisy plastic sword. A boy noticed him eyeing the sword and coming up short when he counted his tickets and so he asked Sol if he needed more. I suspect the tickets may have been contraband, but it was a nice gesture. Sol was so excited. He fought imaginary bad guys for a bit, admiring the cool sound effects. He went to another booth, set down his sword so he could throw bean bags as part of the booth, and when he went to pick up his stuff, the sword was gone. Upset, he (and his brothers) looked all over the school and found another boy with a sword. Solomon asked him if he had found it at the bean bag booth. The boy said agressively, Yes, but finder’s keepers, losers weepers. Then he ran off. Sol was stunned and so sad (it was time for us to leave, so we were hearing the whole story as we walked to the van). Mandy and her friend Erica Adams noticed how Sol felt. They combined tickets, worked the easy booths to get a few more, and they surprised him with a new sword just as we were loading up. Watching Sol go from upset to joyful was beautiful, as was watching Mandy and her friend glow from their unselfish deed.

We’re going bananas here. Two friends have given us a total of 3 ½ cases of bananas! A friend of a friend had a produce truck that held bananas ripening too fast to sell. We gave one case away, but dried and froze the other two and a half. I had thoughts of making banana bread, but it was so much easier to peel and freeze or dry, that I didn’t bake too. I had thought that I was going to have to slice the bananas into circles in order to dry them—which is a lot of work, in my opinion. One friend gave me a great tip—make banana sticks instead of banana circles. You just break the peeled banana in half, and then slide your finger up the middle. Like magic, the banana breaks into three sections. Couldn’t be easier and we got 1 ½ #10 cans full of banana sticks. The kids don’t like them. But Theron and I do, and so I think that’s perfect.

Adam came running into my room excitedly—“Sol and I figured out how many zeros a googolplex has,” he said. He said, “A googol has 100 zeros, and a googolplex has 100x100 zeros and I didn’t know how many that was and Sol said, That’s easy, 100x100 is 10,000, so a googolplex has 10,000 zeros.” I taught Sol the multiplication shortcut with zeros last week and I can’t tell you how excited I am that it stuck. It’s one of the nice things about teaching them myself—seeing things come out that I helped them learn in the first place (although seeing negative things copied from me is one of the tough things of being a parent, but I digress). For those of you curious, like me, if they were correct, I’ll save you a Google by telling you that a googolplex is actually 10googol and a googol is (10100 ) so their googolplex answer was incorrect, but 100x100 is 10,000.

As I write this, Ellie is on my lap. The Microsoft paper clip animation is in the upper corner, I’m using Microsoft Word, and she said, “I don’t like that guy looking at me.”

The kids have played a game they made up called “Hit the Deck” for a couple years. It started out on the trampoline at Grandma Richardson’s house. They’d jump until they saw a car drive by. Then they’d say, “Hit the Deck” and everyone would fall flat on the trampoline. The game has now morphed to “Hit the Duck” and it can be played in a car. A person repeats “Duck, Duck, Duck” until our car passes another car (or vice versa) and then someone yells “Goose” and they duck their heads down. If we didn’t have tinted windows, I might be worried about the effect their game would have on other drivers. Instead, my only concern is how annoying it is to hear the words Duck Duck Duck repeated incessantly. I suggested they morph the game to raising their hands high in the air and bringing them down when we pass a car, all done very silently—but with great drama! My version didn’t stick.

The next door neighbor to Jen (my twin) had a unique birthday party. Their daughter, just a bit younger than Mandy, invited Mandy to celebrate her birthday. All the girls at the party practiced a play, made a background, and finished costumes for two hours, and then all the families came to watch them perform and eat dinner. They acted out Demeter and Persephone (try pronouncing it!) and it was such a great birthday party. The vegetarian lasagna and the green salad (with feta and green apples) was the BEST too. MMM. Such a creative birthday party.

Matthew can kind-of sit up. He can sit up until he gets excited, and then he topples right over. But he’d much rather be looking around sitting up than laying on his back or tummy. He likes being in the middle of things.

We found Theron’s cell phone. It has been missing for months. But it’s now turned up again. It was in one of Theron’s winter jacket pockets! A testament to procrastination. Ha.

I just read an interesting book called, Out of Islam. It’s an amazing peek into the real life difficulties of a Muslim becoming Christian. I am so accustomed to the freedom of religion in the United States (such as it is) that it is alien to me to read about the death knell that sounds for a converted Muslim.

The main character, Christopher Alam, grew up in a well-known Muslim family in Pakistan, his father was a general in the Pakistani Army. His step-mother was abusive and his father was distant and never pleased with anything Alam did, but when Alam chose Christ, his father eventually ordered his son’s murder. Alam managed to escape, through many miracles, and is now living in the USA preaching of his conversion with a family of his own.

Alam tried to explain how hugely it hurts the reputation of a whole family to have a converted child, and how in his culture family reputation is paramount. Still, I can’t fathom how a son can become worthy of murder. How a father can bring himself to order it and be willing to do it himself? To break the natural bond between father and son twists the very foundation of what it means to be human.

The man who baptized Alam was murdered for baptizing a Muslim. Murdered. And his murderers unprosecuted. Unfathomable.

Part of what made this book interesting to me is that I know of a man (a friend of my sister's) in Egypt who converted in his homeland, an African country, and had to flee the country before being murdered by his own family too. In this man's case, he was put in prison in Egypt for 14 years on a technicality (lots of Muslims don't like converted Christians) and had to find friends willing to put together $14,000.00 in order to be released even after 14 years of jail time.

The Muslim-Christian tension is a very real problem for many people. A problem that I don't ever consider--I am so out of that world. Thankfully, I am not part of that world. The freedom of religion I enjoy is a blessing that I don't appreciate enough.

This book was a good reminder for me.

I just read an interesting book called, Out of Islam. It’s an amazing peek into the real life difficulties of a Muslim becoming Christian. I am so accustomed to the freedom of religion in the United States (such as it is) that it is alien to me to read about the death knell that sounds for a converted Muslim.

The main character, Christopher Alam, grew up in a well-known Muslim family in Pakistan, his father was a general in the Pakistani Army. His step-mother was abusive and his father was distant and never pleased with anything Alam did, but when Alam chose Christ, his father eventually ordered his son’s murder. Alam managed to escape, through many miracles, and is now living in the USA preaching of his conversion with a family of his own.

Alam tried to explain how hugely it hurts the reputation of a whole family to have a converted child, and how in his culture family reputation is paramount. Still, I can’t fathom how a son can become worthy of murder. How a father can bring himself to order it and be willing to do it himself? To break the natural bond between father and son twists the very foundation of what it means to be human.

The man who baptized Alam was murdered for baptizing a Muslim. Murdered. And his murderers unprosecuted. Unfathomable.

Part of what made this book interesting to me is that I know of a man (a friend of my sister's) in Egypt who converted in his homeland, an African country, and had to flee the country before being murdered by his own family too. In this man's case, he was put in prison in Egypt for 14 years on a technicality (lots of Muslims don't like converted Christians) and had to find friends willing to put together $14,000.00 in order to be released even after 14 years of jail time.

The Muslim-Christian tension is a very real problem for many people. A problem that I don't ever consider--I am so out of that world. Thankfully, I am not part of that world. The freedom of religion I enjoy is a blessing that I don't appreciate enough.

This book was a good reminder for me.

The American Plague--Book Review

I am in my early 30’s and I hadn’t heard about the Influenza Plague of 1918 until I read a Quilter’s Legacy, by Jennifer Chiaverini. I know, an epidemic that killed so many people world-wide, and I know more about Madonna or Marilyn Monroe than I do about an earth-wide tragedy that tore so many families apart. But I know something about it now, and so it was very interesting to discover yet another plague that I had no idea existed: the yellow jack fever plague of the 1878, it’s huge re-appearance in 1898 during the Spanish-American War in Cuba and the saga of tragedy that followed the various scientists who gave their lives to discover the carrier--mosquitoes.

Reading about the history of yellow fever may sound absolutely boring, but I was riveted almost the whole time to the story in The American Plague, by Molly Caldwell Crosby. Her writing and the personal stories she told brought the history alive. What also made it fascinating, is the historical effect the disease had on governments, sewage systems and the Panama Canal. This was one disease that changed history.

I warn you, stop here if you're not interested in reading excerpts of the book. I went overboard as I kept finding the paragraphs that struck me. As it was, I had to stop part way through the book, it was getting so long. But I want to post this for myself, so I can remember the parts I enjoyed.

I liked reading Crosby’s description of the virus—“A virus is one of the smallest beings in evolution’s survival of the fittest, mutating and coalescing in order to thrive, its ultimate goal being epidemic” (8). It’s marvelous writing—and I was a Humanities not pre-Medical student. “As a virus, yellow fever is not one of the stronger ones. It cannot live outside of the body for more than a few hours. It does not spread through the air or by touch. It does not mutate as easily as some viruses…what makes yellow fever unique is its choice of vector. What the virus lacks in evolutionary prowess, the mosquito makes up for” (9).

“In the blood, yellow fever looks something like a fuzzy snowflake, but it is actually round with twenty smooth sides that protect the virus’s single strand of RNA at the center. The coating of the virus is made up of proteins, and human cells are attracted to those proteins—the virus doesn’t need to look for the healthy cells; they look for it…The healthy cell eventually enfolds the virus, taking it in and closing the door behind it…That is why a virus cannot be treated by antibiotics; human cells give it refuge, and anything that could destroy the virus might also destroy the cell” (10). I never understood viruses as well as I do now with her description.

“Yellow fever, more than any other disease, would seem conjured by God and divinely directed. When the slave trade first began, every European country that profited from the purchase and sale of Africans would soon see a yellow fever epidemic: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal. Though Asia had the ideal climate and the right mosquito, it has never had an epidemic of yellow fever. It also never participated in the African slave trade” (11). It’s connections like these that make the history come alive for me. “During its tenure in this country [United States], yellow fever would inflict 500,000 casualties and 100,000 deaths…The U.S. capital would move from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. after a devastating yellow fever epidemic in 1793. Alexander Hamilton suffered the fever, while George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson fled the city; the united States government was paralyzed…Napoleon would abandon his conquests in North American after losing 23,000 of his troops to yellow fever in the colony of Haiti. He made a hasty and fearful retreat from this pestilent hemisphere, selling his large Louisiana holdings for cheap to Thomas Jefferson” (12). Fascinating! The history made by a swath of suffering from a fever---our U.S. capital changing location, Napoleon selling the Louisiana Purchase to Thomas Jefferson—I actually can’t believe I never heard of it for over 3 decades of life. This fever shaped history.

Crosby goes on to explain that the mosquitoes from Africa, carrying the fever, would come on the slave ships, and the Emily B. Souder slave ship brought the fever to Memphis at the 1978 Mardi Gras, when 40,000 people revelers congregated, were bit by mosquitoes, and carried them to their homes all over. And until quarantine was declared in August, many ships floated the Mississippi carrying the mosquitoes and yellow jack.

In mid-August, an epidemic was finally acknowledged by the Memphis Board of Health. In five days 25,000 people fled Memphis. By the next month, 19,000 people remained and 17,000 were suffering yellow fever (47). Over 5,000 died (77).

The next year, with the weather looking like the previous year (they knew warm weather had something to do with the plague, but they didn’t realize that their sitting water + warm weather = lots of mosquito eggs hatching) Memphis decided to get a sewer system. Now this gets interesting—this sewer system was the first to use separate pipes for sewage and fresh water. Incredible that this is the first use. The engineer and inventor was named George Waring and “his idea was relatively simple, involving earthenware pipes sixteen inches beneath the ground, which would carry foul sewage only and exclude all rainwater. The straightforward plan to use separate pipes for sewage and fresh water would become known as the “Waring System”…The system proved so successful that cities all over the country soon adopted the design…The sewer system was created to clean up the foul, disease-ridden city, but it had another benefit that would not be appreciated for years to come. In eliminating cisterns and providing an efficient means for drainage, Memphis destroyed a large number of breeding places for the striped house mosquito” (88-89). Again, history is made as a consequence of this disease—a two pipe sewage system. Not glamorous, but I’m thankful for that development.

Yellow fever influenced history in the building of the Panama Canal. This path started in 1901, the mosquito having been (finally) established as the carrier of yellow fever, Major and Doctor William C. Gorgas fought to destroy all mosquito breeding grounds in Havana (flower vase, puddle of water, cisterns or barrels used for water storage). Gorgas had to send his men into every home in Havana for inspection and he made mosquito control a personal responsibility, sending out inspectors and fining citizens when mosquito larvae were found on their property and that practice is still used in Havana (204). Jim Writer wrote, “Yellow fever had been constantly present in Havana for 150 years and was nearly wiped out in less than 150 days” (204). It seems so invasive, to have my vases and puddles checked by an inspector, but I wouldn’t be able to argue with Gorgas’s results. And yellow jack fever is a horrible way to die. His results in Havana got him assigned as the medical officer to American’s Panama Canal project.

In 1881 the attempt to build the Panama canal had been disastrous—as many as 1/3 the men were lost to yellow fever and malaria (the project had been headed up by the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps who had built the Suez Canal). So in 1904 Gorgas was assigned to the project. He used his aggressive techniques to destroy the mosquito and its breeding grounds (amid lots of criticism) and the cases of yellow fever and malaria dropped off the charts and he was the officer on duty when the first ships sailed through the Panama Canal in 1914 (205). I vaguely remember from my History lessons that the Panama Canal had lots of obstacles to surmount, including sickness, but I would have thought it malaria alone. Now I know better and am amazed at the history made by yellow fever.

I hope you enjoyed the summary of the book. If you found this at all interesting, know that the book is packed with much more.

I love history, when it’s interesting. How about you?

The American Plague--Book Review

I am in my early 30’s and I hadn’t heard about the Influenza Plague of 1918 until I read a Quilter’s Legacy, by Jennifer Chiaverini. I know, an epidemic that killed so many people world-wide, and I know more about Madonna or Marilyn Monroe than I do about an earth-wide tragedy that tore so many families apart. But I know something about it now, and so it was very interesting to discover yet another plague that I had no idea existed: the yellow jack fever plague of the 1878, it’s huge re-appearance in 1898 during the Spanish-American War in Cuba and the saga of tragedy that followed the various scientists who gave their lives to discover the carrier--mosquitoes.

Reading about the history of yellow fever may sound absolutely boring, but I was riveted almost the whole time to the story in The American Plague, by Molly Caldwell Crosby. Her writing and the personal stories she told brought the history alive. What also made it fascinating, is the historical effect the disease had on governments, sewage systems and the Panama Canal. This was one disease that changed history.

I warn you, stop here if you're not interested in reading excerpts of the book. I went overboard as I kept finding the paragraphs that struck me. As it was, I had to stop part way through the book, it was getting so long. But I want to post this for myself, so I can remember the parts I enjoyed.

I liked reading Crosby’s description of the virus—“A virus is one of the smallest beings in evolution’s survival of the fittest, mutating and coalescing in order to thrive, its ultimate goal being epidemic” (8). It’s marvelous writing—and I was a Humanities not pre-Medical student. “As a virus, yellow fever is not one of the stronger ones. It cannot live outside of the body for more than a few hours. It does not spread through the air or by touch. It does not mutate as easily as some viruses…what makes yellow fever unique is its choice of vector. What the virus lacks in evolutionary prowess, the mosquito makes up for” (9).

“In the blood, yellow fever looks something like a fuzzy snowflake, but it is actually round with twenty smooth sides that protect the virus’s single strand of RNA at the center. The coating of the virus is made up of proteins, and human cells are attracted to those proteins—the virus doesn’t need to look for the healthy cells; they look for it…The healthy cell eventually enfolds the virus, taking it in and closing the door behind it…That is why a virus cannot be treated by antibiotics; human cells give it refuge, and anything that could destroy the virus might also destroy the cell” (10). I never understood viruses as well as I do now with her description.

“Yellow fever, more than any other disease, would seem conjured by God and divinely directed. When the slave trade first began, every European country that profited from the purchase and sale of Africans would soon see a yellow fever epidemic: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal. Though Asia had the ideal climate and the right mosquito, it has never had an epidemic of yellow fever. It also never participated in the African slave trade” (11). It’s connections like these that make the history come alive for me. “During its tenure in this country [United States], yellow fever would inflict 500,000 casualties and 100,000 deaths…The U.S. capital would move from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. after a devastating yellow fever epidemic in 1793. Alexander Hamilton suffered the fever, while George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson fled the city; the united States government was paralyzed…Napoleon would abandon his conquests in North American after losing 23,000 of his troops to yellow fever in the colony of Haiti. He made a hasty and fearful retreat from this pestilent hemisphere, selling his large Louisiana holdings for cheap to Thomas Jefferson” (12). Fascinating! The history made by a swath of suffering from a fever---our U.S. capital changing location, Napoleon selling the Louisiana Purchase to Thomas Jefferson—I actually can’t believe I never heard of it for over 3 decades of life. This fever shaped history.

Crosby goes on to explain that the mosquitoes from Africa, carrying the fever, would come on the slave ships, and the Emily B. Souder slave ship brought the fever to Memphis at the 1978 Mardi Gras, when 40,000 people revelers congregated, were bit by mosquitoes, and carried them to their homes all over. And until quarantine was declared in August, many ships floated the Mississippi carrying the mosquitoes and yellow jack.

In mid-August, an epidemic was finally acknowledged by the Memphis Board of Health. In five days 25,000 people fled Memphis. By the next month, 19,000 people remained and 17,000 were suffering yellow fever (47). Over 5,000 died (77).

The next year, with the weather looking like the previous year (they knew warm weather had something to do with the plague, but they didn’t realize that their sitting water + warm weather = lots of mosquito eggs hatching) Memphis decided to get a sewer system. Now this gets interesting—this sewer system was the first to use separate pipes for sewage and fresh water. Incredible that this is the first use. The engineer and inventor was named George Waring and “his idea was relatively simple, involving earthenware pipes sixteen inches beneath the ground, which would carry foul sewage only and exclude all rainwater. The straightforward plan to use separate pipes for sewage and fresh water would become known as the “Waring System”…The system proved so successful that cities all over the country soon adopted the design…The sewer system was created to clean up the foul, disease-ridden city, but it had another benefit that would not be appreciated for years to come. In eliminating cisterns and providing an efficient means for drainage, Memphis destroyed a large number of breeding places for the striped house mosquito” (88-89). Again, history is made as a consequence of this disease—a two pipe sewage system. Not glamorous, but I’m thankful for that development.

Yellow fever influenced history in the building of the Panama Canal. This path started in 1901, the mosquito having been (finally) established as the carrier of yellow fever, Major and Doctor William C. Gorgas fought to destroy all mosquito breeding grounds in Havana (flower vase, puddle of water, cisterns or barrels used for water storage). Gorgas had to send his men into every home in Havana for inspection and he made mosquito control a personal responsibility, sending out inspectors and fining citizens when mosquito larvae were found on their property and that practice is still used in Havana (204). Jim Writer wrote, “Yellow fever had been constantly present in Havana for 150 years and was nearly wiped out in less than 150 days” (204). It seems so invasive, to have my vases and puddles checked by an inspector, but I wouldn’t be able to argue with Gorgas’s results. And yellow jack fever is a horrible way to die. His results in Havana got him assigned as the medical officer to American’s Panama Canal project.

In 1881 the attempt to build the Panama canal had been disastrous—as many as 1/3 the men were lost to yellow fever and malaria (the project had been headed up by the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps who had built the Suez Canal). So in 1904 Gorgas was assigned to the project. He used his aggressive techniques to destroy the mosquito and its breeding grounds (amid lots of criticism) and the cases of yellow fever and malaria dropped off the charts and he was the officer on duty when the first ships sailed through the Panama Canal in 1914 (205). I vaguely remember from my History lessons that the Panama Canal had lots of obstacles to surmount, including sickness, but I would have thought it malaria alone. Now I know better and am amazed at the history made by yellow fever.

I hope you enjoyed the summary of the book. If you found this at all interesting, know that the book is packed with much more.

I love history, when it’s interesting. How about you?

Great Christmas Gift idea-Musing

This is a photo of my five children. I had this great idea for Christmas presents to the Grandparents on both sides that needed a photo. I took ten and this was the best one. And yet two are sticking out their tongues!

The great gift idea is a picture frame ornament.

In previous years we would gift our Grandparents (my children's great-grandparents) with a family photo. But the truth is, they have loads of grandchildren--they can't hang pictures of all of them. Or if they did, it would take a whole wall. And perhaps they don't want a whole wall of those photos.

So I thought instead of sending them a photo that perhaps they don't know what to do with--what if we started a tradition of sending them a picture frame ornament with the year engraved on the bottom. They'd see us growing up over the years, they'd take it out every year and hang us on their tree, and we wouldn't be assuming that a family picture of us fits their decor.

I still think it is a great idea, but since our family photos we had taken professionally are horribly late (they will be worth it, once we get them!) I realized I'd have to take the photos myself.

With all the preparations of eight siblings and their families coming into town, this photo session just didn't happen until the last minute. And you see the results. None of the photos are perfect!

The down side of a picture frame ornament is that the photograph space is small. That means the children's heads must be close together. I tried to have them lay on the floor like spokes of a wheel, and this is the best shot from that. Alas, I am very much an amateur picture taker. And my new computer with all the latest software that could help it out is at the computer hospital. So, this is as good as it gets.

But family is very forgiving and they'll love it anyway. And they'll only see it once a year. So it is still a great idea, I just need to get the hang of shooting it right. Any advice?

Great Christmas Gift idea-Musing

This is a photo of my five children. I had this great idea for Christmas presents to the Grandparents on both sides that needed a photo. I took ten and this was the best one. And yet two are sticking out their tongues!

The great gift idea is a picture frame ornament.

In previous years we would gift our Grandparents (my children's great-grandparents) with a family photo. But the truth is, they have loads of grandchildren--they can't hang pictures of all of them. Or if they did, it would take a whole wall. And perhaps they don't want a whole wall of those photos.

So I thought instead of sending them a photo that perhaps they don't know what to do with--what if we started a tradition of sending them a picture frame ornament with the year engraved on the bottom. They'd see us growing up over the years, they'd take it out every year and hang us on their tree, and we wouldn't be assuming that a family picture of us fits their decor.

I still think it is a great idea, but since our family photos we had taken professionally are horribly late (they will be worth it, once we get them!) I realized I'd have to take the photos myself.

With all the preparations of eight siblings and their families coming into town, this photo session just didn't happen until the last minute. And you see the results. None of the photos are perfect!

The down side of a picture frame ornament is that the photograph space is small. That means the children's heads must be close together. I tried to have them lay on the floor like spokes of a wheel, and this is the best shot from that. Alas, I am very much an amateur picture taker. And my new computer with all the latest software that could help it out is at the computer hospital. So, this is as good as it gets.

But family is very forgiving and they'll love it anyway. And they'll only see it once a year. So it is still a great idea, I just need to get the hang of shooting it right. Any advice?

Bridal Bouquets--musing

I just came home from a wedding reception. The second in a week. It must be after Christmas, but before school starts again, because college students are getting married in between semesters. I did it that way myself.

As I watched the bride throw her bouquet to a small crowd of girls that included my eleven year old daughter, I remembered how excited and hopeful I felt to catch the bouquet when I was a pre-teen. I would fight just a bit for it. Like at a pinata. I could tell the pre-teen girls there felt the same way.

Things changed as I got older. I still wanted to catch the bouquet, but I didn't want to appear too aggressive for it. Like I wanted to reach out and casually grab it, but not jump or push for it because that would show I wanted it too much. So the pre-teen girls would snag it first. Because they didn't care how they looked, they just wanted to win.

As an older teen I remember feeling a bit of consternation towards the pre-teens, and I think it is common to the age. The females who are of marriageable age (or close to it) feel like they deserve to catch the bouquet because they're closest to using the "luck" that comes from catching it. The pre-teen females treat it like a competition, like its the tip off of a basketball game. It's probably a common statistic now--the younger the female who waits to catch, the more likely she is to catch a bouquet, because she'll push for it.

But I think brides have noticed the trend--have you seen them try and fix it? I've seen brides try to rig the throw so they can get the bouquet to their eligible friends. The older females stand in the rear of the group (and then they don't appear too eager either) and the bride hucks the bouquet as hard as she can over her shoulder so that it reaches her friends in the back. I've even seen brides pretend to throw it the first time, look over her shoulder so she can see where her friends are, and then throw it.

I don't know what older females do with the bouquet after they get their photo with the bride. I never caught it as an eligible maiden. I know what pre-teens do though. They're so excited to win the toss, and get a picture with the bride (who's always a princess to a romantic pre-teen) that they hang the flowers up in their room. Even after they are long dead and dusty. I know, because that's what I did when I was a pre-teen who caught the bouquet.

My daughter missed today's bouquet toss. She was up at the front with all her friends, and the bouquet went to the bride's new sister-in-law in the back. An eligible maiden. And she didn't even have to jump to catch it.

It was rigged.

Bridal Bouquets--musing

I just came home from a wedding reception. The second in a week. It must be after Christmas, but before school starts again, because college students are getting married in between semesters. I did it that way myself.

As I watched the bride throw her bouquet to a small crowd of girls that included my eleven year old daughter, I remembered how excited and hopeful I felt to catch the bouquet when I was a pre-teen. I would fight just a bit for it. Like at a pinata. I could tell the pre-teen girls there felt the same way.

Things changed as I got older. I still wanted to catch the bouquet, but I didn't want to appear too aggressive for it. Like I wanted to reach out and casually grab it, but not jump or push for it because that would show I wanted it too much. So the pre-teen girls would snag it first. Because they didn't care how they looked, they just wanted to win.

As an older teen I remember feeling a bit of consternation towards the pre-teens, and I think it is common to the age. The females who are of marriageable age (or close to it) feel like they deserve to catch the bouquet because they're closest to using the "luck" that comes from catching it. The pre-teen females treat it like a competition, like its the tip off of a basketball game. It's probably a common statistic now--the younger the female who waits to catch, the more likely she is to catch a bouquet, because she'll push for it.

But I think brides have noticed the trend--have you seen them try and fix it? I've seen brides try to rig the throw so they can get the bouquet to their eligible friends. The older females stand in the rear of the group (and then they don't appear too eager either) and the bride hucks the bouquet as hard as she can over her shoulder so that it reaches her friends in the back. I've even seen brides pretend to throw it the first time, look over her shoulder so she can see where her friends are, and then throw it.

I don't know what older females do with the bouquet after they get their photo with the bride. I never caught it as an eligible maiden. I know what pre-teens do though. They're so excited to win the toss, and get a picture with the bride (who's always a princess to a romantic pre-teen) that they hang the flowers up in their room. Even after they are long dead and dusty. I know, because that's what I did when I was a pre-teen who caught the bouquet.

My daughter missed today's bouquet toss. She was up at the front with all her friends, and the bouquet went to the bride's new sister-in-law in the back. An eligible maiden. And she didn't even have to jump to catch it.

It was rigged.

Dinosaur Birthday cake-how to

One of my sons had his fifth birthday party. All he wanted was to eat a dinosaur cake and open presents. He didn't even care about inviting any friends over, until he heard they bring more presents. Ha.

This picture to the left is of a dinosaur birthday party in 2006 for a son turning six. My husband did the cake and I thought it turned out well. I would've made it a flat cake in dino shape. But he created a cake sculpture and my son was thrilled.

So, fast forward almost two years later and another son wants a dinosaur cake. My husband couldn't come home from work early enough to do the design. But I'd seen it done. I felt confident I could repeat the work of art.

I forgot, for a moment, that my creatively lies elsewhere. That when it comes to creating with my hands, I am all thumbs. That I can see a picture in my head, but when I try to create it, it has never worked out unless it was a kit and I just put together the pieces. My twin sister is amazingly creative with her hands (see http://www.jenvranes.com/) and a beautiful artist. I should have called her in to help! The photo at the left is what I was able to put together.

The irony is, until I put the nerd "dragon scales" on, I thought it was going to turn out. I kept having kids walk by (I had some nieces and nephews visiting early for the party) and saying, "That doesn't look like a dinosaur." "It will," I reassured them. Hmmm, it does, if you have a great imagination. I laugh every time I look at the photo. I think it looks hilarious.

My birthday boy loved the cake (see photo left). What a reaction. I will make him a funny looking cake anyday!

I did learn something while making this cake. A tip that I want to pass on to those of you who make creative cakes (I wish you success!).

When I covered the cookie sheet with wax paper, I laid one sheet of foil on top of it, down the middle, on which I built the cake "sculpture."

When I frosted the cake and added the candies, it make quite a mess. But I was able to tear the foil around the cake (see photo below left) and it cleaned up really quick. The cake was ready to display in seconds.

Enjoy your cake making and remember, it's all about how the child feels about the cake, not the cake artist. At least that is now my philosphy.

Dinosaur Birthday cake-how to

One of my sons had his fifth birthday party. All he wanted was to eat a dinosaur cake and open presents. He didn't even care about inviting any friends over, until he heard they bring more presents. Ha.

This picture to the left is of a dinosaur birthday party in 2006 for a son turning six. My husband did the cake and I thought it turned out well. I would've made it a flat cake in dino shape. But he created a cake sculpture and my son was thrilled.

So, fast forward almost two years later and another son wants a dinosaur cake. My husband couldn't come home from work early enough to do the design. But I'd seen it done. I felt confident I could repeat the work of art.

I forgot, for a moment, that my creatively lies elsewhere. That when it comes to creating with my hands, I am all thumbs. That I can see a picture in my head, but when I try to create it, it has never worked out unless it was a kit and I just put together the pieces. My twin sister is amazingly creative with her hands (see http://www.jenvranes.com/) and a beautiful artist. I should have called her in to help! The photo at the left is what I was able to put together.

The irony is, until I put the nerd "dragon scales" on, I thought it was going to turn out. I kept having kids walk by (I had some nieces and nephews visiting early for the party) and saying, "That doesn't look like a dinosaur." "It will," I reassured them. Hmmm, it does, if you have a great imagination. I laugh every time I look at the photo. I think it looks hilarious.

My birthday boy loved the cake (see photo left). What a reaction. I will make him a funny looking cake anyday!

I did learn something while making this cake. A tip that I want to pass on to those of you who make creative cakes (I wish you success!).

When I covered the cookie sheet with wax paper, I laid one sheet of foil on top of it, down the middle, on which I built the cake "sculpture."

When I frosted the cake and added the candies, it make quite a mess. But I was able to tear the foil around the cake (see photo below left) and it cleaned up really quick. The cake was ready to display in seconds.

Enjoy your cake making and remember, it's all about how the child feels about the cake, not the cake artist. At least that is now my philosphy.