{ Odyssey of the Mind State Competition }

The drive to Brentwood was full of beautiful blooms.

We stopped at Pyramid Lake to look around their visitor center and stretch and eat lunch. We learned a lot from the exhibits on water conservation there.

We stayed in Livermore at the Best Western. For the record, they are not exactly kid friendly. We will not stay there again. We were all a little baffled as to why the state competition is in Brentwood. Our region was one of the last to compete, so all the hotels in the city were full. Our hotel was 23 miles from the competition site. It was a quaint little suberb of Oakland. There were tons of windmills. It was funny to see the ultra modern looking windmills with cows and sheep grazing beneath.

Our teams competed but didn't take anything home this time. I would have to say that if I did it again I would decline to go to the State competition. It was a long drive and cost quite a bit to stay for the three days. It was ok, but it was in the middle of nowhere, so you had to drive almost an hour to get to Sacramento or San Francisco. Of course, I was recovering from surgery which made it even worse, but the incentive just isn't there!

We drove to San Francisco before coming home. I realized we should have just went straight home, but oh well, we hated being so close and not going! Here's a windmill in Golden Gate Park

We stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge. My son just really wanted to drive over the bridge, so we did.

Then we drove home. On the way, we stopped at a mission in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty and the kids liked the ruins behind the mission. It was Sunday and all of the local field hands were sitting on the front porch eating lunch and talking. They must stay there all day on Sundays.

We stopped at Andersen's restaurant and I had the pea soup. I can finally say I've had the original pea soup! Probably won't stop there again after this.

{ Weather Show }

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, what a wonderful day! The weather show was a success! It was really cute, and my son's class got to be sunny weather!

{ Chrysalis' }

They did it! They formed their chrysalis' on Tuesday night. Now we wait for painted lady butterflies to emerge!

{ Pain }

Is it bad to take a vicadin when my kidneys are hurting SO bad that I just want to curl up into a ball? They hurt worse than surgery and this is my new norm. I was getting so upset with the kids and then I realized it was the pain, so I took a pill. The nephrologist doesn't want me taking pain meds because of the risk of addiction and liver damage. Like I need more damaged organs! I'm feeling like such a terrible mother right now. I haven't taken a pain pill in over a week, since my surgery. How much is too much, I ask? Who is qualified to say when it's too much, the patient, who might be dependant on meds, or the doctor who can't actually feel her pain?

{ Odyssey of the Mind - My Team }

{ Map Eggs }

I saw this precious egg project last year and decided to make them with my own spin. Here are my map eggs. This kept my daughter and I busy for quite a while this weekend. I think I might have overdone it! But they turned out so cute. I'm very happy with the results!

{ Caterpillar Today ... }

Chrysalis tomorrow? We'll see. All but one of the caterpillars have hung themselves from the top of their jar today and curled their heads around so they look like a bunch of letter j's. I do believe they are finally starting to form their chrysalis'!

{ Lucky Days }

Wow, we were lucky this weekend! We won the games basket at a church raffle and the sewing basket at the school raffle. The kids are beside themselves. We've never had that much luck in one weekend before.

{ The Boredom Chronicles Part II }

or what I wish I could have done this weekend.

My husband continues painting the fence. Fun times.

He then planted the tomato plants, Japenese maple tree, weeded and fortified the beds.

The trees are all in bloom.

Peach blossoms.

{ Weather Experiments }

We are doing weather experiments today. We used I Face the Wind by Vicki Cobb and a rain experiment by Blue Yonder Ranch's Book of Days Spring Book 2. We caught air and felt it's force. We weighed air and found it does have mass, even though it's very small. We made rain in a jar. If there was more wind, the kids might have gone outside to fly kites. We are anticipating my son's weather show this week at school!

{ You are What you Eat Part II }

This is a very interesting look at genetically engineered food and it's effects on farmers and consumers world wide. We have reason to be very concerned. Watch on Hulu for free:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/67878/the-future-of-food

It's an hour and a half long.

Or buy the dvd here http://www.amazon.com/Future-Food-Exequiel-Ezcurra/dp/B000V5IOWK/ref=reg_hu-wl_mrai-recs
on Amazon. There are interesting reviews of this dvd there as well.

{ Happy St. Patty's Day }

The leprechauns worked their magic again in the first grade scattering gold stars all over the desks and the hallway and sending the first graders on a clue hunt. They missed the third grade, whew. The kids gave each other Luckygrams at school. Here's what they look like.


We looked at the water from the pond near our house under the microscope. Here's something we found swimming around in there. It's definitely not a leprechaun. Don't drink the water!

{ Little Birds }

I love spring! The jasmine is starting to bloom and the fragrance is just out of this world. All of the little birds nesting in the tree are very possessive of my fountain. They didn't appreciate me sitting out there waiting to snap these shots. I believe these are Lesser Goldfinches.

{ Homeschooling }

I have been reading a couple of websites this week about homeschooling. I think I really want to do this, mainly so that I can learn, too! For now, I'm happy to leave them in school where they have excellent teachers and lots of time for interacting with other kids. But, I think I will be updating our home library for even more enrichment for the kids. They love to look up the creatures we encounter and learn from exhibits at parks and museums. This is just an extension of that. I found a bunch of books at Amazon.com, so I started a list of Cool Books to add to our Library. I take recommendations for good learning books! Right now, we are raising caterpillars which will soon metamorphose into painted lady butterflies. I want to visit here somday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe1YRC18U7E&feature=player_embedded#

We are also collecting samples and boxes for display on our nature table. I found these unfinished boxes on sale, and bought one for each of us. We painted one black and put fossils collected on our travels on display. When we get a piano, the table we have the keyboard on will make a most outstanding nature table to house our specimens and Rosalie's microscope.

{ The Boredom Chronicles Part 1 - Rod Run }

or what I didn't do this weekend.

My family went to the rod run this weekend. Without me. I am forbidden to do anything until my body heals from surgery 4-6 weeks. They had fun, though! The kids were introduced to Elvis. And they saw lots of Camaros.

Here's our Camaro a year ago. We had it towed to a mechanic who replaced the exhaust pipes. It cost about the same to have the mechanic do it compared to doing it ourselves, so we only really had to pay extra for the tow truck. The car actually runs now, but is still not street legal. We have a ways to go.

Here's what we want the car to look like. Roughly. The original had a vinyl top. We're thinking a black vinyl top. Not sure about the stripes, that might be too much.

The family also went down to the local pond and fished. My son had a bite on his line, but lost it. I'm glad, I'd be afraid to eat whatever came out of that place. Toxic waste, anyone? My daughter collected samples to look at under the microscope. Can't wait to see what's in there!

{ Getting There }

Well, I had my surgery on the 11th and all went well. The worst part is the nausea from anesthesia. And the itching. I hope I don't reject the surgery. That would be terrible! I have been diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, so I will be getting medication for that at my one week check up. It's a mild anticoagulent, which I can't take for one week after surgery. This should reduce some of my pain and discomfort as well.

My friend picked up the kids this morning and took them to Fingerprints museum. They had a blast. And I got some rest while my husband finished the vacuuming and some yardwork. It's going to be extremely difficult for me to not do anything for six entire weeks. I really wanted to get out in the garden today.

I have other friends and parents from my Odyssey team who are bringing dinners and driving the kids to and from school this week and next. They are just so thoughtful!

{ Odyssey of the Mind }

Our teams both got second place! So very proud of these kids!

We took the tram up to the San Jacinto Mountains. The tram goes up 8000 feet in elevation.

It was 25 degrees at the top. We were not prepared with snow gear, so we didn't stay outside for very long.

We spent the afternoon at the Living Desert. Such a beautiful zoo/botanical gardens. The kids really loved the veterinary facility where we watched the veterinarians sew up a dove.