A science project is real blood, sweat and tears

Last year Sidney's science project got selected to go to the science fair. She was satisfied with a "Good" ribbon. It was her first project and one that she could learn from.

This year, she wanted to put more effort into it. She decided to incorporate the garden since it was at her disposal. She chose to test fertilizers on tomato plants over the course of 4 weeks. She took all the measurements herself. She kept track of how often they were fertilized. She did the research on fertilizers and tomato plants. She wrote out her own results, procedure, materials, etc, all that stuff. She documented the growth with pictures. And she put her project together.

When she came home from school and told us she had been selected from her class to go to the science fair, we were all stoked. Her teacher had lots of compliments for how much devotion she had put into her project. Then a whole week passed with building anticipation. She woke up in the morning with some nausea and upset stomach, but after speaking with her teacher we sent her to school because her project would not be considered if she couldn't give her oral report to the judges. She felt fine, and was able to answer all the questions the judges had to ask. She was very excited that she could do really well.

We picked her up early from practice to go to the science fair. We arrived and went straight to her display. She received another "Good" ribbon.



We start to wander and look at other displays and see that some of the other "Good" ribbon receivers didn't look as good as Sidney's (yes, I know that my perception was biased). After a short while, she got extremely upset, hysterical even. She just had her heart broken.

Let me give you just a little background on Sidney. She loves science. She loves reading and history. She was so excited the day she found out she could get a PhD without being a doctor. She takes her homework and learning very seriously. She corrects our grammar at home all the time. She is extremely smart.

So, back to the science fair. She didn't expect to get a "Superior" ribbon and get a trophy, but she felt like she had been lumped together with others who hadn't put as much time and effort into their project as she did. John had to take her aside and try to console her because she was just so upset.

It just hurt my heart to see her so sad. At the same time I do want my kids to feel some sort of disappointment at some point so they can learn from it and be motivated by it, but it still hurts to see them go through that pain. I know how hard she worked and the satisfaction she had when she realized she got chosen to go to the science fair. We were just sad to see her disappointed with the "Good" ribbon as opposed to the "Excellent" or "Superior".

It's a hard knock life.

Can you swim in the rain?

This last weekend was a big day for the synchronized swimming teams, the Cactus Classic Meet was held at a local Jr High aquatic complex. While this is a long 2 day event, it is a chance to compete with other local teams as well as some teams from other states.

The forecast was a 30% chance of rain in the beginning. The actual weather was windy, cold and rainy...all day! Many of the parents and even some of the athletes asked when it began to rain really hard, "Are they going to cancel the meet?" Well, the answer was no, only unless there was lightning, and there was no lightning. The athletes were obviously already wet, so there was no reason to stop.

The sun would pop out intermittently, but then it would rain again, seemingly harder than it had the time before. Sidney and I were there from 6:45 am to 6:30 pm on Saturday, which made for a long day. Sidney swam early and then not until the evening, but she has to stay for the whole day. Since Sunday was optional, she opted out of that.



I think it's great when the girls get to get pumped up for their routine. They have to "knox" their hair, so it's all uniform and out of their faces. Then they put on these handcrafted suits that are meant just for that routine, with headpieces to match.



I should have tried to get a group shot of her trio and then her team, but it was pouring down rain when her team was getting ready to swim, it stopped a little during her routine though.

Check out this video of Sidney's team routine. Don't mind the cheering you hear in the background, we're just showing our support.

A cure for hiccups

As a youngster I was frequently plagued by the hiccups. During the day, while eating, even while sleeping. And I didn't just get little hiccups, they were the kind that shakes your whole body and makes you hurt kind of hiccups. I would often cry after a while. I detest hiccups still to this day.

Now, since I had the hiccups so often, I was given plenty of opportunities to test solutions. And I've tried several. Here's a few, hold your breath; hyperventilate yourself; drink through a straw; swallow a whole spoonful of peanut butter; swallow water with your head upside down; have someone scare you; and the very unpleasurable, drink a concoction of vinegar, mustard and sprite while holding your nose (I don't recommend this to anyone,......EVER!)

I continued to get the hiccups into adulthood and got a pretty good handle on it. I usually tried this breathing thing and most of the time it worked unless I was going on a date and then of course, it didn't. Even after I got married, John can even attest to me crying one night because I was so tired and hiccups were keeping me awake.

Well, pregnancy not only transfers some of your DNA to your offspring, but apparently for me, I passed on my hiccups to my children in the womb. I rarely get hiccups anymore, and my kids had them all the time in my tummy.

We have a new solution, though. The first time I tried this, I was amazed how quickly it worked. So, I am not guaranteeing that it will work for you or your kids, but it's worth a try.

Take a paper towel, preferably a thick one. Fold it until it just fits over the edges of a plastic cup. Fill the cup with cold water, put the paper towel over the top and try to suck the water through the paper towel. Keep doing this until the water is all gone or you have to take a breath.



Good luck!

Two teeth in one week

My son comes running in from school to show me how his tooth is loose. I start cracking up. His tooth is hanging out of his mouth, but it's still hanging on, and it doesn't let go until almost a week later.


We came home from church and Hayden asks his dad if he would do the "door trick" to get his tooth out. John complies and it takes all of about 20 seconds. He tied floss to the door and then to the tooth and then counts "One, Two, ...Three." Only John didn't wait until "Three" to slam the door, he shut it on "One" and a little. The tooth kinda went flying. Hayden was very excited.

Not as excited as the next day when he came running in from school again to show me another loose tooth. I asked him if he was going to wait another week to see if it came out. He said, probably.


Two days later when he bit down on something he flinched because he had knocked the loose tooth a little more loose. He was really uncomfortable at dinner trying to chew with this tooth getting in the way. So dad said he would do the door trick again since it worked so well the first time. John tied the floss around the tooth and realized that when he tightened it, it had just about come free then. He tugged on the floss real good and the tooth was out.

Hayden has already discovered the "Tooth Fairy" secret so he asked fairly quickly, so how much do I get?

I already forgot the lyrics!

On Saturday evening a momentous event occurred. A party. Only adults. Fantastic Italian food. Great conversation and friends. Such fun.

Then to top it all off, we all gathered around to play "Don't Forget the Lyrics!" Six brave Contestants were chosen from each team. Then the real "belly laughing" fun started to happen. Each contestant came up to chose a category and from there they were told which song and artist they would be singing. The words were projected onto a screen for everyone to read and sing along and then somewhere after the first or second chorus there were blanks to be filled in with lyrics by the contestant.

My husband was lucky enough to catch a shot or two of almost all the contestants. (Please keep in mind that the pictures are not the best quality, the lighting was not optimal, and it's hard to take a picture when you're laughing.)
Also, please note that the contestants appearance has been altered to protect their identity.

Unfortunately our first contestant was not captured on film, but "Willy" will still be part of our party memories doing his best rendition of Queen performing "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"

Our second contestant, let's call him "Frank", is singing "That's Amore" by Dean Martin. "That's Amore" was the theme for the party, so of course it had to be a song choice! Also, note that our game host, "Cathi", is helping the contestants get into character by participating alongside them.


Next up, "Katie" got dolled up to sing "Dancing Queen" by ABBA.


Then came time for "Brian" to strut his stuff with his version of "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith. Way to jam on the guitar!


Our next contestant "President Lars", chose to reach out for one of the life lines and had his good buddy "Bishop Brian" join him for a duet to sing "Already Gone" by Kelly Clarkson. We're still surprised that they didn't know the lyrics right off the bat.


Next came "Becky" singing what else, but "The Music of the Night" by Andrew Lloyd Weber from Phantom of the Opera. We hope she takes our suggestion to become a professional, truly amazing!


Getting into the country groove, was "Sara" singing "One More Day" by Diamond Rio.


Don't be distracted by the shiny, glorious blond locks, "Sara" is having a blast singing "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. (I know you seriously thought for a moment that Taylor Swift had joined our little party in person, but no, it was "Sara" incognito.)


We got Cathi doing some serious drumming to accompany "Judy" in her best tenor voice doing "Cold as Ice" by Foreigner. She rocked that song!


Though the disguise may seem redundant, "Mark" was happy to share his version of Shania Twain's "Forever and For Always".


The true Rock Star of the night turned out to be "Rod." We had no idea he was pulling out all the moves for "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson. He danced, he sang, and he took home the win for his team. Well deserved.


Cathi truly outdid herself putting this game together. She really left her heart out there when she led us all in singing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" by Elton John. We can't thank you enough for helping us let down our hair and loosen up a bit and just have some good fun!



Here is some video during "Michelle's" rendition of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles.



And just a taste of "Rod" doing his best Michael Jackson impression.

Good Times

Not my green thumb.

So our family(John and the kids)are back into the throws of "garden Saturday." Every Saturday there is something to do in the garden. We have a container garden because the soil in Arizona is very difficult, and that's being nice. John has plants to plant, watering, fertilizing, trimming, thinning and basic ooohhhing and aaahhhing over the great new blossoms and developing buds of yummy goodness.





I enjoy it because I do virtually nothing but enjoy the labors and get to eat what is produced. I like watching the plants grow and I find the plants quite beautiful actually. Pictured above are broccoli, romaine lettuce, butter crunch lettuce and glimpses of onion stalks. I have one word...YUM!