A Good Read for the Holidays

If you are looking for a great book to read this holiday season, please pick up The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. This is a secular book written by an agnostic who wanted to see what would happen if he tried to follow all of the rules of the Bible for an entire year. Although this is not a Christian book and was not written in a way meant to sway anothers belief system in any direction, it was also written with plenty of respect for those who do believe. I honestly think that anyone, from any background, could get a lot out of this book. It's incredibly funny and A.J. Jacobs is so accessible you feel like you are going through the journey with him. It's also very educational because he touches on

various Jewish and Christian denominations/belief systems - many that I didn't know existed. If you read it (or have read it), please let me know what you think.

IT'S SANTA TIME!

This year I think Madi really gets the whole Santa thing. Not that she didn't before, but this year she stood in line, had her hot chocolate and climbed up on Santa's lap all by herself.

Hannah Makes Regional Time

I didn't get a picture but wanted to share that Hannah made a regional time (also called an "A" time) in swimming tonight. She swam a 500 yard Freestyle - that's 20 laps front crawl - in 7 minutes and 38 seconds. The regional cut off is 8:30 so she beat it by almost a minute. She is 9 and swimming 10 & under events, so this is really good. She is excited and ready to hit the pool for day 2 of the holiday invitational tomorrow.

Something You Don't See Every Day

So, this is a picture of the brain I dissected on Wednesday in my last Anatomy and Physiology lab. In case you are wondering, it's from a sheep. It's oddly shapped because they come in a big vacuum seal bag of 50 and I guess that's a lot of Cerebral crowding. I know because I had to reach my hand into said bag to retrieve my pick of speciman. I decided to take a picture because it occured to me that this might be the last time I get the chance to dissect a brain. I mean how often does it come up - really? This might be the most edgy thing I do this year.
This is the eyeball I dissected next. Also from a sheep but from a different bag so I can't claim it was the same sheep. Not too bad after the first squirt.






The lab was interesting but I do have to say that the timing could have been better. I was on a clear liquid diet that day. All I could eat was jello. So, I cut open the eye to examine the retina and the vitreous humor came out in a big glob. Looks just like - you guessed it - Jello.

Got an "A" for the lab but I'm not sure I will ever eat Jello again.

Treading Water

If you are reading this blog and wondering why I haven't returned your call or email, please forgive me. This is a busy time of year.

Thursday was the Fall book fair at the girl's elementary school. This is my second year chairing this event. To put this in perspective, we sold approximately $5,500 in Scholastic merchandise in a 12 hour period. The event is terrific for fundraising and for providing the school with much needed books. But, organizing an event of this size with volunteers of varying abilities is always a challenge. The planning takes about six weeks, the event is one and a half days of intense work and then there's the financials and delivery follow up for orders. Anyway, the event went well but was all consuming for a few days.

But, I was already feeling tired. Tired because last week I had two major tests and a paper due. Have another one Monday. My last day of school will be December 10th, so we are down to the wire and my profs are squeezing what they can into the last class sessions. But atleast I got a break this weekend right?

Wrong. Hannah had a swim meet this weekend. Saturday and Sunday 6:30 a.m. -1p.m was spent hunched on bleachers, trying to get some reading in. Then, had to do some Thanksgiving shopping, I have 20 people coming for Thanksgiving Thursday. Oh, and my father-in-law arrives tommorow - while I'm at school taking my Chemistry exam. Lucky he's an easy house guest.

Hannah's throat started hurting today. No fever. I told her to give it 24 hours and if it still hurt I'd take her to the doctor on Tuesday - after our dentist appt- and during the time I usually do bible study but won't this week because we have a guest- and am cleaning house for Thursday.

In February, I'll be bored and look back on this week with fond memories of being so productive.

Atleast, that's what I tell myself.

Holiday Confusion

The window decor is Thanksgiving, the tune is Oh Christmas Tree, the words are "On Mothers Day". I guess at 5 it all blends together! :)

More Halloween Pics

Madi and her girlfriends trick or treating.
"Enchanted Tree" pumpkin.
"Cat Face" pumpkin
"Black Cat" pumpkin

"Classic" pumpkin. Hey, I had other things to do that night!

Happy Halloween!

Here's a halloween tale for you straight from Hole's Anatomy and Physiology! I love this one because occasionally there will be something on the counter in our house that none of us knows where to put away. We shift it from counter to counter until it finds an unofficial home somewhere- and there it will be a year later. I can't help but think this story happened in much the same way.

John Dalton, a famous English Chemist, knew he saw things differently than most people. In a 1794 lecture, he described that sealing wax that appeared red to other people looked green to him. Pink wildflowers looked blue. Dalton knew he was colorblind but he didn't know why-at the time no one did.

He was so curious about the state of his vision that he made arrangements for his personal physician, Joseph Ransome, to dissect his eyes after he died. Ransome snipped open the eye and, looking through his freinds eyeball, deduced that the problem was not with the filter. Then Ransome stored the eyes in"dry air" - i.e left them out someplace- where they were relatively undamaged.

In 1994, London's institute of Opthalmology DNA tested Dalton's eyes and determined that the retina lacked one of three pigments. So, after 200 years of John Dalton's eyes being "stored" here or there - he finally has his answer about why he was color blind.

Here's looking at you!

Ropp Dairy Farm

Many of you may not know that Bloomington-Normal is home to a dairy farm that makes fine and organic cheeses. The kids were off of school today, so we decided to take a tour and try some samples. you can learn more about the farm itself at http://www.roppcheese.com/.

This little girl is a baby Jersey cow. According to the Ropps, Jersey cows are the best for cheese because their milk has a higher protien and calcium content.

Here's Madi feeding the calf which was part of the tour. They get really excited when they see the bottle coming. The ropps give away the boy babies and save the girls for milk.

It took the longest time to get Hannah to try to milk this cow. She thought it was gross. Madi tried it three times. It's not as easy as it looks.

Madi actually got some milk to come out on the third try.

This is the Ropps pet turkey- seriously. It's head is white-ish blue when it's relaxed but when it sees people coming it turns red. They say it's because he's happy. Well he definately liked to be handled and was very freindly. They head felt like warm chicken skin.

Best Fall Chili Recipe

This is a tried and true chili recipe that even the kids love. It is a mutation of several chili recipes I've tried over the years. Serve over rice or with some warm bread!

Gen's Pumpkin Chili

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound ground turkey
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (8 oz) can Hunt's Tomato Sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) Bush's chili beans (we use mild)
1 (14.5) can pumpkin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 salt to taste

DIRECTIONS
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and saute the onion, and garlic until tender. Stir in the turkey, and cook until evenly brown. Drain, and mix in tomatoes, tomato sauce and pumpkin. Season with chili powder, pepper, and salt. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. Serve topped with Cheddar cheese and sour cream if desired. Enjoy!

Fall Festival

This weekend was Fall Festival in Bloomington. Free face painting, balloon sculptures, hayrack rides, and the climbing wall etc. My pumpkins are ripe and the halloween decorations are out. Must be getting close to Haunting season. The obligatory cauldron of candy is already tempting me from our countertop.

I love the fall. The weather this year has been perfect. It was 75 today!

The rest of this month we will be getting costumes together, candy, making orange and black frosted sugar cookie cut outs, candy, carving pumpkins, candy, and lighting up the firepit for roasted hot dogs and s'mores-oh, and eating candy. I'm pretty sure I've already gained 5 pounds just thinking about it!

First Soccer Game

Here are some pics of Madi's first soccer game. She did great -not that I would know if she didn't. I know next to nothing about soccer. But, she kicked the ball in the correct direction, didn't cry when she tripped over the ball, and tried to work with her team mates which I think is good at this age.

Their team name is "Happy Feet". Aaron, who is the assistant coach, said he was just glad it wasn't "the Princesses". I guess that was on the table for awhile. Poor Aaron, even the head coach is a girl :) I think this will be a terrific daddy daughter bonding experience!

Hannah Soars

The picture above Hannah's head reads "Who says it can't be done"

Here are some pictures I've been wanting to post but just found the time. Early August Hannah and I saw an advertisement in the paper by the local Aviation club. They were offering airplane rides for kids 8-14 at our local airport-for FREE! So Hannah and I got there about 15 minutes early because we knew there might be a line. In fact, Dad and Madi stayed home because they didn't want to wait in the crowd.

Well, we put our name in 15 minutes prior to the publicized time. By 5 minutes after, they made an announcement that all flights were full for the day and sent everyone else home. We hung out for a little over an hour and Hannah got to take a flight with a local female pilot. She loved the ride but it was also a good lesson in being early and being persistant to get what you really want.

Hannah told me it was worth the wait. Future pilot?

hmmm. Maybe she should drive a car first.





Hannah getting into the plane.













Hannah's in the back seat.

Puka Face

So, you think you have it hard eating corn on the cob? Try it with no front teef.

First Day of School

The girls are very cute.
Such a big girl. She gets to ride the bus with her sister.
20 at one bus stop. That's about half the bus. I feel sorry for the homeowner that has the yard they'll be trashing this year.

Birthday @ 70

Looks like he'll be gumming the cake!

Cat and Mouse game

Our neighbors watched our Gerbil while we were on vacation in March. She just sent me these pictures.


Thank goodness that screen is strong:)

Sophie (the cat) looks innocent enough doesn't she?

A Day with the Mindoros

We happened upon the Children's Discovery Museum during a Japanese exhibit. It was fun for the girls and adults to play dress up and dance the traditional dances.