Improv at the Library

Did I mention we love our library? Our son just completed a 4 week Drama class focusing on Improv. Today we parents got a mini show of what they learned. The instructor said the class was the most "enthusiastic " class she has had! And assured us several times that that is a good thing!

In this first photo they were doing an improv family portrait.

They lined up and were to quickly improv and freeze the family the instructor called out.

Meet the Zombie Family.

In this 2nd photo there were actually 8 actors, but I have cropped out the faces to protect the inocent!

This was another portrait. They build the picture one actor at a time.

The instructor called each actor to the "stage".

As she called each one up they said what they were,

then froze in a position depicting what they were.

It started with a dog. Then a dog house was added. Next was the dirt. Then our son.

He was a chicken, can you see the resemblance?

After the chicken was the chicken killer (AKA the butcher)

I guess our son was going to be the dog food!

I have forgotten what 2 of the actors claimed to be. Then was the bus driver.

We titled the portrait

"The Wacky Mobile"

Our son had a great time learning about improv durring this 4 week program!
I use Picnik free online photo editing to crop, water mark, and resize before posting to my blog. Today when I went to the site they have changed things and I have free access to more freatures. I like the chicken! (Both of them!)

Mystery Photo!

What do you think? Leave your guesses in the comments. The correct answer is Icicle Shadows.
My husband sees a lake in the early morning with the mist rising off it. I would love to have THAT view out my bedroom window!

It's Mine I Tell Ya, It's Mine!

Koda loves to play ball, but he HATES to give it up!

Afternoon Activities at the Children's Library

Our town has a great Children's Library with many free educational programs! We spend a lot of time there. They have a Passports Program where each month a different country is highlighted. They have covered Costa Rica, Italy, Germany,China, and Turkey. Sadly I completely forgot the Turkey program this week. There are about 8 per year. They also have Time Travelers Program. Our son has participated in WWII and The Black Death, with Pirates coming in March. He has also praticipated in a couple of science programs. This week the Aquarium brought some Jelly Fish and did a program on Jellies! Tomorrow there is a puppet show we are attending. I don't think he has ever been to a puppet show before. I really love our Children's Library and thier staff and I try to let them know often how much we love and appreciate their programs for kids!
This is the weather vane at the top of the steeple of the local library in the late afternoon sun. You can see it at night here.

Total Lunar Eclipse 2008

Praise God, we had CLEAR skies for tonights eclipse!

Last night the forcast was for clouds and snow.

It's 20* outside, but so crisp and clear!

Thank you Lord for your creativity!

Lunar Eclipse 2005

Partial Lunar Eclipse Seoul, South Korea October 17, 2005

You did not miss the total lunar eclipse, it is Wednesday, Feburary 20-21 evening. But I almost missed this partial one. I was walking home from a friends and noticed the moon was eclipsing! When I arived home I set up my camera and tripod and spent almost 2 hours taking pictures of the eclipse. Wednesdays total eclipse will be worth letting the kids stay up to see if you have clear skies! We are forcast for partly cloudy with snow fluries ending my midnight. I hope to get to see it! For US viewing times and path click here.

::SNORT::Men & Women Are Different!

Yes, I belong to the "Snorters Anomonous" club! Tonight while we were doing our family devotions my son was lying with his head in my lap. I was noticing the hair at the crown of his head was sticking straight out. And I made the mistake of starting to mess with his hair. He stopped talking mid sentence and lost all track of what he was saying. His dad noticed and said, "Yeah, when mom starts messing with my hair I jump immediately into the 'oooohhhh' (said with a blissfully relaxed expression) box too!" Well I lost it, completely! I wasn't laughing, I was snorting...a lot...for a long time! :) We have read the book "Men are Like Waffles Women are Like Spaghetti" by Bill and Pam Farrel. This is the synopsis from their website.


"In this refreshing, humorous look at relationships, Bill & Pam Farrel explain why a man is like a waffle (each element of his life is in a separate box), why a woman is like a plate of spaghetti (everything in her life touches everything else), and how the differences can work for you."



Pam spoke at our PWOC women's confrence at Youngsan Army Garrison in 2005. She is an awesome speaker. That is where I first got and red the above book. I shared it with my husband and we are always refering to the waffle/spaghetti analogy when we come across a "difference" in men and women. It is very fun, and tonight I obviously thought it was hillarious! You probably had to be there. But their books are great. I have read several.

Wet Weather

This is what we woke to this morning and it was somewhat pretty.

Then it started to rain.

And it warmed up.

Rain, snow and 50+ degrees do not mix well.

We just reciently purchased a Wet/Dry Vac for the water that was seeping into the basement in small amounts the other day. Today there was 8-10 inches of water standing next to the house, and beginning to more than seep into the basement. So we went and rented a submersable pump as the rain and snow was forming two "rivers" directly down the hill to the foundation of the house and under the deck. It is reletively standing water free now. Hopefully it won't rain much more tonight. We are supposed to only get into the low-mid 30's the rest of the week, so it should all refreeze at night. I think we are safe for a little while.

Washingtom Monument

Well, I'm still looking for the picture of Namdaemun Gate, but I saw this photo and thought I would share it. We visited DC a few years ago. When I saw this picture I found it interesting how when you look at the monument itself you can not see a color difference in the marble, but it is very noticeable when you look in the reflecting pool. The construction of the monument was halted due to lack of funding during the Civil War. When construction was resumed the remaining marble was obtained from a different quarry, thus the different color.

Dinner Table

This is one of the tables for the First Annual Celebration of Love dinner we cordinated for couples at our church last Thursday. As the name suggests we hope to make it an annual event. It seemed to be a great success. It was a lot of work planning and we learned a lot durring the process. Hopefully it will be easier next year. The most important thing I think we learned it to begin EARILY in the planning. I'm thinking May or June for next years event. We had a wonderful catered meal, plenty of fellowship time, a special song preformance by a very tallented member of our church, and guest speakers with messages to encourage "oneness" in marriages.
Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Namdaemun Gate

I received an email from a friend still in Korea this week informing me of a very sad event that took place on Monday. Namdaemun Gate in Seoul, South Korea was burned down. I just spent over an hour searching my photos from when I was there and I can not find a photo of the gate from while I was there. I can almost remember actually taking the picture, but I can not find it anywhere on my computer. We would go to Namdaemun Market ocasionally and the bus stop was half a block away from Namdaemun Gate. It was very regal. What a shame for the history to be taken away like that. When I find the photo I took I will post it here. Here is another photo I found of the gate in the early stages of the fire. In it you can see some of he beauty that was destroyed.

Memories

Our curch marriage ministry is hosting "The First Annual Celebration of Love." It is a dinner for couples and being heald on Feburary 14th. We are a part of the marriage ministry and are helping with the planning. We are having a photo slide presentaion of each of the couples from when they were dating, and when they married.

I thought I would share ours as I had to get them in digital format.

This was our first trip together. We went to his dad's in Oregon for Thanksgiving. Being from the mid west I naturally wanted to go to the beach. This is us after walking along the shore.
This one was taken right after the ceremony was finished. I think we were both releaved it was over!

Ice Skating Fun!

Our Son LOVES ice skating! He was so excited we went on Tuesday for home school PE!

He had a blast!

This is looking through the plexiglass from the bleachers. I skated too, but those skates are not very coushey, so I skate then sit, then skate then sit, and repeat! It was a great work out for me!
Of course it wouldn't be real ice skating if you didn't fall at least once! OH wait! he LIKES to fall and does it intentionally many times!

Refiner and Purifier of Silver

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver."

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy - when I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.
[ Author unknown ]

Look what a difference 2 hours can make!

Most of my family and friends know I don't like to be cold. I love the first snowfall of the year, then I'm good...come on SPRING...wait, make that SUMMER! But, I do love the way tonights snowfall looks. It is just beautiful! These are a couple shots of my makeshift bird feeders on my deck. I took the first photo about 2 hours before the second photo.

It piles on the branches so fluffly and light.
At night is the only time you can really see my bird feeder "poles" because there are trees in the background about 30 -40 feet away. I love watching the birds, but there was no place to hang my feeders nearby and still be able to see them out my windows as this is a split level and the deck is on the upper floor.

So I took the post I had and "bungie straped" it to the deck. Then I added the arm from a wall mount hanger to a missing hook holder. It seemed to work alrignt, but the birds didn't really feel safe. So they would dart, grab a seed, and zoom off.

A couple of days latter we had some wind and a branch blew off one of the trees and landed in our yard. I saw it laying there and thought it might work to add to the feeder station to give the birds a place to perch. But it was so much work getting all that stuff strapped to the deck and hung up that I didn't want to take it all down to add the branch in. I knew my husband could probably just slide it into the bungie, but I thought he would laugh at me if I asked him to try to do it.

The next day my husband was looking out the window and saw the branch lying on the ground and said, "I bet that branch would go in with the feeders and give the birds a place to land." And he went outside and did just that. He is so great!

The birds flock to our feeders. One day I counted 9 different types of birds at the feeder at the same time. We all enjoy standing at the glass door watching the birds!

Airplane on a Stick

This old fighter body is displayed at the busiest intersection on Hanscom AFB for all to see!
There are 50 United States flags surrounding it.
Directions are given to newcommers by the "Airplane on a Stick!"
Last spring for a few days each flag pole flew a different state flag.
I thought I had plenty of time to get a picture of the state flags posted.
I was wrong. Maybe they will fly the state flags this spring.
If they do I will be sure to take the picture right away!

Snow and Ice

This morning we woke up to gently falling snow. It was on top of freezing rain, so it is a heavy snow. I took this picture of the pine needles this morning. It doesn't show up as well as I would like. The snow looked delicate on the fans of needles. It was very pretty.


We went to the library this afternoon for a program. When we got home it was pretty dark. As I was turning to head into the house I noticed the footpath light under the mirror was really bright. There was ice over the light and an icicle hanging from the mirror. I wonder if this is where the idea for fiber optics came from?

World Wide Bowling Program

Wednesday our son participated in the Air Force World Wide Bowling Program. He really enjoys bowling and we were involved in league bowling for many years. Our son bowled on Pee Wee and youth leagues for 4 years and my husband and I were coaches in his league. The last few years it has just been to busy to do weekly league bowling, but we still enjoy getting out to the lanes when we can. THis event was sponsored by youth services and the first 20-25 to sign up bowled free! So our son was able to enjoy 3 free games of bowling. As an added bonus our lanes were just refurbished with new lanes, apporaches and back drops. They are very bright and patroitic! It reopened about 3 weeks ago. They are offering free bowling on Fridays, so we are going to try to take advantage of that before it goes away.

Korean First Birthday Party

In Korea, the One Month Birthday, and the One Year Birthday are big celebrations. While we were there we were invited to our friends daughter's One Year Birthday. It was an extravagant event. The first photo is what I ate, sushie and all. It was fresh and not bad actually. The second photo was a sampling of all the fare available. It was quite the spread in buffet style.

Our friends daughter chose the Pencil from the Birthday Table Ceremony. Follow the link to find out more!

(P.S. I didn't take any pictures today, which is highly unusual for me. I had even planned the shot I wanted to post, but the shot didn't take place. Maybe next month. So todays pictures are ones I took in Febuary 2004.)

Owl Pellet Disection

My son and I went to a birds of prey/owl pellet disection field trip last spring. Today we (well mostly I, but he did do some of the tedious work) finished dissecting the pellet. We just never remembered to get around to it. It was really cool. We were led to beleive we probably wouldn't have a full skelleton, though we did get far enough last spring to know there was a skull of some type in there. Well, we found two almost complete skelletons in this pellet. The one we disected today was just a little larger than the one shown in the photo below. I am amazed at the amount of stuff that came out of and how tightly packed the pellet was. We think they are both voles. Tomorrow we are going to inspect it under the stereoscope.

I have needed to do some more hands on type of learning (as opposed to always book work) so today I decided we would start on this project. He was very excited to see me get it out. I really must do more activity based learning with him. Tomorrow I may add some close up photos to this post.

Patroits Sunday?

This morning as we were pulling out of our drive way heading to church, we saw someone drive past in a Patriots Jersey. My son said, "Of course, it's Patriots Sunday!" "Patriots Sunday," I asked? My husband says, "It might as well be!" We are living in New England, but not from New England, but my son likes rooting for the winning team. He has determined that the Pat's are the winning team. It may have something to do with the fact that we are surrounded by Pat's fans. So, we are watching the Superbowl! I really do not know where our son got his love of sports, my husband and I are minimal fans, but son will watch any sport on TV. He loves it!

Edited to say, "WOW what an intense game! Great Giants defense!" I am wondering how sedate it is going to be in Patriots territory tomorrow!

Dinner for 2

My husband was given a gift card for Outback Steakhouse a couple of weeks ago. Saturday evening our son was invited to a birthday party for one of his friends from church. So we dropped him off and went off for a nice diner for 2. It was a nice date with my husband. He even called ahead so we had only a 20 minute wait instead of a 50 minute wait. I had ribs, it is one of the few places I almost always get the same thing. I almost got he Rack of Lamb, but I chickened out. My husband got an Espresso Blackened Ribeye. They were both very good! We enjoyed some unintrupted conversation. And it only cost us $1.57 +tip!

A Good Buy

Today I went to BJ's Wholesale Club. I purchased this bunch of bannanas with the hopes that they will ripen at the right speed for us to eat them all. My husband likes them a little green (not this green) and I like them nicely yellow. The bunch was $1.14. We'll see how it goes.

I have been wanting ot try out using the black background for some pictures. I had a piece of black poaster board left over from another project. It sure makes for a striking green.