Science Fair Projects

Em and Ray entered the science fair with projects about things they liked. Ray's was counting the different colors in fun size m&m bags to see which color came up the most. Any guesses as to which one won? She hypothesized orange would win. Was her hypothesis correct?

Em measured grease in different potato chips. She hypothesized Ruffles had the most grease. She also tested Lay's, Pringles, Corozano's, and Tim's. Was her hypothesis correct? We crushed potato chips on graph paper, then counted the number of squares filled in by grease. A good project if you'd like to be turned off from eating potato chips!

I think they learned a lot and so did I.

Shopping Spree!

I saw a site that had a blurb about getting rewards for searching the internet using their toolbar. I checked it out and thought it might be worth a try. Swagbucks is the site. Heard of it? Usually I google everything, but using the Swagbucks tool bar has turned web searching into a game. Every once in awhile I get a pop up saying I just got a swagbuck and then I can see my total. I just started Saturday night and I'm only up to 7. I'm not going for the big prizes (10.1 megapixel camera worth 4350 'bucks'). I'm just aiming for a $20 Target gift card (220 swagbucks). I figure after doing all the searches I do for school projects, preschool activities and just general stuff, in a few months I can reward myself for all my hard work and go on a small shopping spree. This is the first time I've seen an opportunity for a shopping spree for doing what I normally do, so I'm going to give this a try.
Anyone else tried this?

Things that make me...

Here's just a random list to show how I'm feeling (which is all over the place lately!):

Things that make me laugh: Rachel thought the song "Little Purple Pansies" was really "Little Purple Panties". Now the girls crack up as they sing it for our Family Home Evening opening song. They don't even really know the tune, they just like to sing very loudly "Little purple panties."

Things that make me sad: I'm showing signs of carpal tunnel syndrome (burning and tingling in my hands, weakened grip strength and periodic numbness throughout the day). Random and unwelcome.

Things that make me lonely: Jon traveling.

Things that make me excited: Getting things ready for preschool next year. I dream about activities I am going to do with the kids. Who knew that you could get so excited about letter games?!

Things that make me tired: Lizzie, not sleeping through the night, housework and trying to keep up with, well, everything!

Things that make me happy: Listening to the girls play happily together.

Things that frustrate me: Listening to the girls be unkind to each other. To help with that we dubbed this week 'Nice Week' where we leave kind notes to each other and play games with each other. Their favorite so far is similar to the Baby Shower pin game. I clip clothespins on the girls after school and whenever they hear someone saying something unkind they can take a pin from that person. So far, I'm winning.

Things that make me laugh: The other favorite game we played this week is Sticker Tag. I set the timer for 5 minutes and then with a sheet of stickers we run around trying to tag each other with stickers. Timer goes off and then we count how many stickers we have on us. We played it before bed time and they went to bed really well that night!

Things that make me feel old: Thinking about my list of things to do compared to the girls' list of things to do.

Things that make me feel younger: Jumping on the trampoline with the girls at night. There's something about being out at night--like we've all snuck out of the house--maybe because everyone is inside being quiet and we're outside being pretty loud.

And the winner is...

The anticipation has been high this week awaiting these results. When I started seeing couples I hadn't even heard of (Vicomte de Valmont and Madame de Tourvel) I worried that some of my favorite couples wouldn't make it to the list! And I know you want to check if any of your couples made it too, so, here are the results:


10. Mr. Knightley and Emma Woodhouse from Emma (Emma: Now I need not call you Mr. Knightley. I may call you *my* Mr. Knightley.)

9. Jim and Pam from The Office (Did you see the one where Jim's comments help Pam's dad decide what to do about his marriage? Sigh.)


8. Jack and Lucy from While You Were Sleeping

7. Edward and Elinor from Sense and Sensibility (Edward: My heart is, and always will be, yours.)



6. Westley and Buttercup from Princess Bride (Westley: Hear this now: I will always come for you.
Buttercup: But how can you be sure?
Westley: This is true love - you think this happens every day?)

5. Edward and Bella from Twilight (Edward: I've been waiting a century to marry you, Miss Swan.)

4. Romeo and Juliet (This story teaches us that a lot can happen in 3 days.)

3. Gilbert and Anne from Anne of Green Gables (Ahh, patient Gilbert)


2. Mr. Rochester and Jane from Jane Eyre (It surprised me how many people voted for this one because I find this story too sad.)

1. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth (Yeah!)

Here's my list:

10. Still open

9. Wall-e and Eve

8. Westley and Buttercup

7. Edward and Fanny (Mansfield Park)

6. Jim and Pam

5. Henry and Clare (The Time Traveler's Wife)

4. Anne and Gilbert

3. Knightley and Emma

2. Elinor and Edward

1. Darcy and Elizabeth

And, here are some of my favorite answers mostly because they made me chuckle: (Comments belong to the person who submitted the great answer.)
10. Lois Lane and Superman
9. The Bionic Man and Bionic Woman--now this just makes sense--who else would they go out with?
8. Mr. and Mrs. Incredible
7. Demetri and Anastasia-(Disney version) His hair is great. She is nice and sassy. What more can you ask for?
6. GI Joe and Barbie--Technically not a television, movie or book couple, but you can't tell me they weren't crazy for each other.
5. Troy and Gabriella from High School Musical--I only know about this couple because of my kids, but who can blame them . . . that Troy is a dreamboat. (This answer is even funnier when you know it came from a guy!)
4. Mickey and Minnie Mouse -If she can love him despite those red button pants they are destined to be together forever!
3. Homer and Marge Simpson--the quintessential couple. A perfect combination of idiocy and patience. (Actually, I like this answer because now I have the word 'quintessential' on my blog!)
2. The Professor and Mary Ann from Giligans Island--You cannot deny their chemistry.
1. Han Solo and Princess Leia--Is there even a question of why they are #1 (And yet, they still didn't win, Craig!)

And thanks to Rachel for pulling the winner of the movie The Notebook! Craig's our winner. He needed to win something because none of his couples made it to the top ten list! That happens when you vote for couples like King Kong and Fay Ray. :)

Thanks for playing everyone. That was fun!

True (Fictional) Love

Here's a fun game in post-honor of Valentine's Day: (thanks, Stacey, for the idea!)

Email me a list of your favorite fictional couples (any romantically involved couple from books, TV and/or movies). Your list can include up to ten couples. Rank them as best as you can, and I'll post the results in a couple of days! I'm excited to see who you vote for!

And for everyone who submits a list, I'll put your name in a hat (or whatever container is within my reach) and pull out one name to be the winner of a movie. I'd tell you the name of the movie, but it might change the results of our little game. Let's just say we'll see if the couple in the movie makes it to the list. Have fun and good luck!

Behind the Look

You've seen her pictures, now see the background behind her look! I documented the process Lizzie goes through when I do her hair:

After spraying her hair with water (her favorite part) and putting in magic cream (gel) and telling her how pretty she is, she got down from the stool and did this:

Some people call it a tantrum.

Then saying one of the few words she knows, she screams "OUT!" while pulling out the holders.

There were six and she got two out.

After watching this sad scene, I took out the rest. She feels through her hair searching for any hiding ones.

All gone and all better!

Here's a picture of a 'do that lasted 3 minutes.

Thank goodness she's adorable either way.

January

Thanks to a concerned and loyal friend I'm doing this post to explain my absence from the blogger world. I'm not pregnant, just busy. Here's a summary of January.

Traditionally, January has been my hardest month of the year (who wouldn't have a hard time making it through a January in Chicago???). I have to chalk it up to the amazing weather (sorry Chicago friends!) but this was a great month!

-I started out with a bang and chiseled out the 900 tiles on our backyard patio. Not wanting to pay to dump them (click here to see why) I tried to chisel them out in one piece. Almost 600 were unbroken! I posted them for free on craigslist. Now I'm trying to find someone who can finish my project (cut and take out 1/3 of the cement and either lay tile or do a cement stain.)












-Jon and I have been cleaning out the garage and giving the unwanted stuff away for free on craigslist. We inherited most of this stuff from the previous owners. It's a pain having to deal with all the phone calls and emails and flaky people, but it saved us a lot of money (again click here to see why we care about saving money) by not having to dump it all. (Note to self: When buying the next house demand that the owners take everything in the garage with them.)

-Thanks to my neighbor's lovely chain saw I got to cut down another tree. Two more trees and 10 bushes/hedges to go. Is it scary that I love doing this so much?

E & R are entering the sci fair (with some encouragement from me). Em's measuring the amount of grease from various potato chips and Ray's figuring out the frequency of the different colors of M&Ms from different bags. Best part? We get to eat the results! (Click here to see where I found the ideas.)

-I needed some creative outlets this month and this is the result: Way cute ribbon hair bows, clips and ponytail holders! And of course I had to make a bow holder to show them all off in the girls bathroom. It's fun seeing them look through all the accessory options. I have about 30 more bows to make.


-I'm working on redoing a room that is next to our garage (new windows, sliding door, kid friendly-floor covering and paint). It's going to be my preschool room for the next school year. We have a few friends who will be joining Hannah and I'm looking to add a couple of more.

-New calling at church also got added to the list of what happened this month. I'm Relief Society 1st counselor. (Sorry, Carrie--I should have spelled out Pres. because I meant presidency!)

-And there were some other small happenings this month, like making cute V-day invitations for a V-day party, organizing my sewing area and laundry room, volunteering in the girls' classes and taking down my Christmas tree the last day of January!!! A bit busy, a bit tired and a lot happy!