Highly recommended...

This is where I spent my day yesterday. It was advertised as the 1st annual one and I am so hoping that there will be a 2nd annual one. I went and saw four presentations - but there were so many that I wanted to - it was almost impossible to decide what I wanted to see. There were dozens of booths with information and more books, authors doing readings and book signings, good food (though I didn't get any Frost - their line was forever long!!!), kids activities (I saw the Berenstein Bears walking around and a giant chessboard to play on). Overall, it was amazing. I am pretty disappointed that I couldn't go again today since it was Sunday and church, etc.

The presentations I went to were first, "50 Writing Tools" by Roy P. Clark. He is a writer and professor in Florida. He was a highly motivational and funny speaker as well. If you don't feel like going and writing for a week after listening to him, nothing will make you want to! Then on to a presentation on Young Adult fiction by a man named Neal Shusterman. He's written 38 YA books and read to us from a few. I'm going to have to go and check him out at the library. I think my kids (and myself) would enjoy him a lot! The worst one I saw was 3 mystery authors doing a panel discussion. I am a huge mystery fan and it stands to reason that I should visit a mystery discussion, but I didn't enjoy it mostly because of one of the authors who was kind of crass. That and the cat/writer lady in the audience who kept asking (lame) questions. The last presentation I went to was on writing a cookbook. I didn't get to stay for the whole thing because I had to get home and on to the next activity, but she had a lot of good info and makes me think that maybe someday I'll get around to putting together all my desert cooking info. You guys would all buy a copy right???

If I was a more patient person...

And had more Photoshop skills I would have taken this picture and put both Rik and Caitlin's photos in it to show what went on yesterday at ballet. They had a Daddy/Daughter class so the girls could get more experience having partners that can lift them, etc. So, Rik was a good sport and went. Sadly, I had to go to another event and could not take pictures of this (OK, so it wasn't really sad, the other event was worthwhile, but I still regret not being able to take pictures!!). Caitlin had a wonderful time. She can't stop talking about it. I think Rik even had a decent time. I know there are many who would pay good money to see this sort of picture, but I think it's going to be one for the imagination. There is a rumor though that there may be another class sometime in the future. I don't care what is going on that day, I'll have to show up!

I'm not really that nice of a person...

Yesterday Rik took a friend of his fishing and they were gone when the kids and I got home. I had to pick up Caitlin late at school, so Philip and I ran to Sunflower Market while we were waiting. He talked me into buying some yogurt covered pretzels. Actually, cherry flavored yogurt covered pretzels. By the time we got home, lunch had been a very long time ago and we were all sharing these lovely, yummy pretzels. I really recommend them. :) Philip, being a nice kid, when we got down to probably 5 pretzels left in the container said, "We should save the rest for Dad when he gets home." His selfish, piggy mother said, "Dad's not home. If he wanted some he would be home!" and promptly filled her mouth with the said pretzels.

Thinking about this incident today, I'm thinking I was not the best example to my kids. Not something I want them mentioning in their Sunday School classes. But, since somehow things like this always come out, I thought I should just fess up here for the world to know. So, should I just chalk it up to a low blood sugar induced state? Or am I really as unkind and unfeeling as I sounded????

This was in the newspaper today...

Well, sort of - I can't find it in any actual *print* edition - and - our lovely newspaper charges you for looking at anything online that is over a week old and in it's "archives" - so - I just copied what was on their website for your viewing pleasure!


Published: 03.05.2009
Science fair projects

Name: Savannah Sams
School and grade: Butterfield Elementary School sixth-grader
Project: Savannah, 11, is a junior drag racer and wanted to know how tire pressure affected her speed out on the track.
"Me and my dad wanted to do something together like this," she said. "It's really beneficial because what I know about tire pressure will get me down the racetrack faster."
Conclusion: She tested her tire pressure at five, six and seven pounds and determined that six pounds of air pressure produced a quicker time.
Final thoughts: "I thought the seven pounds would go faster," she said. "I thought they would have more traction to make you go faster."
Name: Jonathan Parras.
School and grade: Butterfield sixth-grader
Project: Jonathan, 11, used an old pair of tennis shoes to try to build a pair of hover shoes that would work using magnets and a battery.
Conclusion: He learned that sometimes you have to fail before you get something right.
"I found out that the hover shoes did not work," he said.
Final thoughts: "I learned that it would be hard to make hover shoes, but it's still fun to make them."
Name: Diego Abeytia
School and grade: Homer Davis Elementary School fourth-grader
Project: Diego, 9, wanted to convince his parents to allow him to play more video games by attempting to prove that people who play video games before a math test will get higher scores than if they didn't play video games.
Conclusion: He had six subjects play Guitar Hero on Wii for 20 minutes before taking a division and multiplication test with 100 questions on it.
Participants had three minutes to complete the test.
"All of them got higher scores on the test after they played video games," Diego said.
Final thoughts: Diego knew he did better on tests if he had played video games sometime before taking the test, but his parents still aren't buying his project's conclusion and won't let him play all he wants and when he wants.
"I can play video games, but I can only play them one hour a day," he said.
Name: Philip Brenton
School and grade: Homer Davis sixth-grader
Project: Philip, 11, built three camp-style stoves using recycled materials to find out if they were as efficient as those you can buy at the store.
"My family are big outdoors people. We like hiking, backpacking and climbing and so my dad helped me come up with the idea," he said.
Conclusion: As he'd hypothesized, the store-bought stoves boiled two cups of water faster than his homemade stoves, which he made out of cans.
Final thoughts: Philip said he learned his homemade stoves actually might be bad for the environment because they burned more fuel.
Name: Ethan Burch
School and grade: Homer Davis fifth-grader
Project: Ethan, 10, used a group of eight kids and 10 adults to try to prove children can hear sound frequencies an adult can't hear.
Ethan received help from his family to hook up an MP3 players to speakers so he could play 12 different sound pitches for his participants to hear, or not hear.
Conclusion: Ethan concluded that kids can hear higher-pitched sounds than adults.
"I found out that younger adults are closer to kids' hearing range and their hearing is less damaged than older adults'," he said.
Final thoughts: "I learned that kids can use sound frequencies as ringtones so teachers can't hear them, but if the teachers are younger adults they can possibly hear and you can get in trouble," he said.

Did this really happen a month ago?

I thought I was quicker than that! Philip got to participate in an all day regional orchestra. They spent all day rehearsing at a local high school - had pizza and other junk food for lunch - and then gave the parents a great concert that afternoon/evening. It's amazing how they all sound when they are with other kids that are working just as hard as they are. Philip seemed to like the conductor and wished he could have had a sectional with her. She seemed pretty motivated and the kids - esp since most of them have only been playing for 1.5 yrs - sounded really awesome!

Something new...

I've been trail running with Rik the past few weeks. He even got me a special pair of trail shoes (sometime talk to him how much he loves his trail runners! :p)! There are some new trails a bit west of us and it makes me really humble to not be able to do this well. I've managed to fall down and scrape up my hands and knees pretty well (stupid rocks) and let my legs scream until I can't feel them anymore. I apologize every few minutes to Rik for slowing him down - because I am slow and I know that he is LOTS faster out here. I did get smart the past couple of times and wore padded bicycling gloves to protect my poor hands - but of course, the rocks haven't been in the way those times either. Maybe someday I'll make it up that huge hill without feeling like I need to walk, or that I really can breathe, or that I'm not going to be sick at any moment. It sounds weird, but I look forward to going, have the "why am I doing this" thoughts through the middle (mostly going uphill), and am grateful that I went when I am done. And maybe I won't almost step on any rattlesnakes again either - this happened last week and boy, those snakes sound A LOT louder in real life than in some movie! (Yes, while this desert rat had seen snakes out in the desert, but they had never rattled at her before.)