I was just going through some pictures on my Blackberry. When I don't have my camera handy, I'll use my phone for quick photos. This particular photo was taken as we were walking back to the car after our city's big annual parade this summer.
We got a huge kick out of it!
OK, it's not really icky. It's interesting. Still, we called it "Icky Bug" as long as it stuck around on our screen. Because of its location, we got a really good look at the top and bottom of the insect. The underside was covered in brown fur! I don't think I've ever seen a bug this size around here. Cool beans!
We learned that it's called a Lined June Beetle, and most are about an inch long. This one was longer than an inch, though! It was at least an inch and a half, maybe even more. The adult feeds on leaves, and the larval stage of this particular insect lasts two to three years.
After 3 days of hanging out on our window screen, Icky Bug moved on.
The 5th grade students at our little elementary school typically create something to leave behind as a legacy before they move up to the middle school. Three years ago, Summer's class made a quilt. Each student personalized a square with a memory of an experience at the school. Jay's class decided on a salmon mosaic for their legacy project. I was delighted to be able to help!
Before:
Students chose one or two friends to work with, and each group chose a "chunk" of a mosaic, which was divided up much like 2 large jigsaw puzzles. They discussed many art concepts and made decisions beforehand in order to give the mosaics a unified, yet individualized appearance.
The students had one day to plan their puzzle piece. They chose colors and decided how they were going to lay the tile pieces. The adults cut pieces for students as needed, which also added to the uniqueness of each puzzle piece.
Planning Day:
Later in the week, students glued down the tiles:
The mom in charge had tons of mosaic experience. She mounted and grouted both mosaics within a couple of weeks, and covered them in brown paper until an official unveiling for the 5th grade students just a few days before the last day of school.
When I went to the school for Lily's Spring Performance, I saw the finished product for the first time.
Here's a close-up of the mosaic on the left. Jay's piece is the bottom right corner, including the long piece of seaweed and the lavender sea urchin.
Well done, 5th graders!
Last week I had the privilege of subbing for 3 days in a wonderful 2nd grade class at our local school. On Friday, we got to release the painted lady butterflies the children raised.
We were SO grateful for a sunny afternoon, because the butterflies really did need to be released before the long weekend. Many of them had already been out of their chrysalises for a full week. In order for them to complete their life cycle, they needed to get out into the real world. Lucky for me, I got to go on a field trip with the same class this week!
November 5th marked the one year anniversary of the fire that destroyed our local middle school. Summer was one of the unfortunate displaced students, but she has since found her niche at a middle school on the other side of town.
On a rainy Friday, students (past, present, and future), parents, teachers, staff, and members of our community gathered at the school for a celebration. Our school is being rebuilt, even better than it was before! Construction workers were also present. They were thanked with a HUGE round of applause, handshakes, and words of encouragement.
Summer will never walk through those doors again as a student, but it looks as though Jay will spend his 7th and 8th grade years there. Hang in there, Wildcats! You'll be back in your school home before you know it!
Congratulations, Allison! Please use the email link to send me your mailing address. Two boxes of Jelly Belly jelly beans will be on their way soon!
**Completely off-topic: Last night we discovered a whole new batch of convict fry in the big aquarium!**
Our neighbor has a giant poplar in his yard. By giant, I mean the base of the trunk is approximately 5 feet in diameter and the tree itself is about 80 feet tall.
Jay and Erich were doing some repairs on our fence (it's now 9 years old), and discovered that the roots of the poplar are causing our new exposed aggregate sidewalk to buckle. Bummer! Erich paid Jay to expose the roots so we can sever them, hopefully preventing any further damage to the sidewalk.
The roots are 18 inches thick in some places! If we sever those huge roots, what's going to anchor the tree on the south side? Not much, we fear.
This tree is gigantic. When it was planted, our entire neighborhood was probably one huge farm. It's too big, it's diseased, it's messy -- it drops branches like crazy in the wind! Don't even get me started on how many leaves it drops in the Fall. AUGH! If it's buckling our sidewalk, what other damage might it be doing underground?
Poplars are also notoriously brittle. What are the chances that part of the tree will break off and hit our house in a windstorm? (If it's windy outside, I RUN to the car. Seriously.) We'll document what we've found with the roots, but now we're left with a decision. Should we talk to the landlord of the rental next door about having it removed? Erich and I have discussed it for a long time. Ten years ago, we had a friend give us a guesstimate on how much it would cost. He said $1500-$2000. *wince* And that was ten years ago!
Yesterday I took Summer and Lily to see a play put on by local kids. They had a 2-week drama camp and performed their play this weekend. Some of Summer's youth group buddies were in the play, and she is VERY interested in going to drama camp with them next Summer! It was a great performance, and it was obvious they worked very hard and had tons of fun.
Summer's friend, Jasmine, was a little old lady in the play. She did great! Thanks for inviting us, Jasmine!
No, Michelle isn't my dentist. She's one of my best buddies, though, and this picture was taken on her 40th birthday! Michelle, I love ya, Man!
I don't like going to the dentist. In fact, I like it SOOOO little that I completely bailed on going for 6 years. (I'm back on track for visits twice a year as of right now, so give me a break.)
Why do I dislike it so much? I'm not sure. I've had horrible experiences with one particular tooth (3 root canals and 2 surgeries), and one dentist who literally yelled at me as I sat in the chair.
Once my sister Mindy became a hygienist, she cleaned my teeth twice a year for free during her lunch hour. She was great! Once she passed away, though, I found it difficult to go to any dentist. For years, I got choked up every time I sat in a dental chair. (Actually, that still happens sometimes.)
OK, fast forward to the present. I have a sore spot on my gums, so I went to my sister's niece, Julie, who followed in Mindy's footsteps and became a hygienist here in town. (Talk about getting choked up... Mindy would be so proud of her!) Julie did such a great job. Maybe making that first phone call was the hardest part of getting back on track.
I digress. Julie took some xrays and instantly discovered the reason for that sore spot -- an ongoing and persistent infection in the tissue and bone surrounding my "nightmare tooth." There hasn't been any pain because the tooth has no nerves. Both Julie and the dentist agreed that it is time to extract the tooth. Unfortunately, because of the 2 previous surgeries to remove (read: scrape out) infected bone, there's not much bone left in the socket. Some of the bone that remains is now infected and needs to be removed. Did you know a specialist can do a bone graft onto your jaw? The specialist will use platelets from my own blood, mixed with bone material (read: cadaver bone), and the bone regenerates in 3 months. VERY cool.
I'll be saying good riddance to "nightmare tooth" in 2 weeks (sooner if there's a cancellation) and getting an implant in a few months. I am anxious for BOTH procedures. Fortunately, my dentist and the specialist are very understanding. It turns out lots of people are fearful of scalpels in their mouths and blood running down their throats. I've never experienced "conscious sedation" before, but I think it's going to be my new best friend. Well, that and my iPod Touch. I hope to be off in my own little world while all this extracting, scraping, and grafting is going on!
Prayers appreciated.
One of the parents at our local elementary school spearheaded a hallway mural project when Summer was in first grade -- 6 years ago. Each student made a fish out of clay, and it was integrated into a mosaic mural going down one side of the hallway. Well, the same parent thought it would be great to continue the project down the other side of the hallway with the current students -- two of them are Jay and Lily!
This is a picture of the section of mural I worked on with some kids. Lily's fish is the brown one on the left with the black fins and yellow eye. Jay's is the "spiky" one directly below it. There's no grout on the mural yet, but it'll happen over the next few days.
Each child got to choose where to put their fish in the hallway. They stuck it to the wall (with the help of an adult volunteer) and chose pretty pieces of tile to add to the overall design. Summer remembers making and glazing a fish, but she never saw it when it was done being fired, nor was she involved in the process of adding her fish to the project as a whole. She doesn't know where her fish is (or what it looks like), but we know she has one there! I think it's cool that all 3 of our kids have a fish on the wall at our local elementary school. I'm glad I took the time to help. It was fun to be part of such a great art project!
