Friday, January 01, 2010

Where do they come up with these things?

Henry always gets "Cars" stickers from speech therapy. I find them everywhere: on his carseat, on the cupboards, on the walls, on his clothes.

This one was a first:



We can't wait until this little guy finally decides to start talking to us. I'm dying to know what's going on inside his head.

I love this thought:
Blinkie

They definitely grow up too fast!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!!!


Boo! From our family to yours!

Hope your day is spooky and super fun!!!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Family Pictures










Ken's cousin Jeni agreed to take us over to Twin Falls for a family photo shoot. She has such amazing talent, and worked well with our family and taking the pictures that we wanted.

To see more photos, go to
http://paperpiecing.typepad.com/paperpassion/2009/10/twin-falls-idaho-family-photographer.html

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Swine Flu

As it turns out, we have had the swine flu for the last week. Zachary came home sick on Thursday, Justyn got sick on Saturday, Kathryn got sick on Sunday, Henry on Monday, Shaelynne on Tuesday and Alexys on Wednesday. Zach went back to school on Monday. Justyn went back to school the following Monday, Kathryn went back on Tuesday, and Shaelynne on Thursday. Henry is doing well today and I'm guessing that Alexys will be home one more day and then back to school on Thursday. So, each of the kids, except Zach, were sick about 7 days total. High fevers and very sore throats with a very rough cough. The funny thing is that the vaccinations that the schools are supposed to get are scheduled to come in next week. One less shot my kids have to get. :)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

SIck Day

We have a house full of sick kids. Darn!

I really wanted a week off of therapy and the other run-around nonsense that seems to fill my day. BUT, this wasn't quite the vacation I had hoped for.

So we are all home sleeping and listening to Primary songs and getting the yucky taste of medicine out of our mouths by eating sugar cookies. :)


Wanna know what I did this weekend?

My Biology 100 class is online. This means that I do not have a lab each week. Instead, we are assigned to find our own lab. The requirements are: we have to contact a local Biologist and make arrangements to spend 15 hours in volunteer work collecting data alongside the biologist. Then we write a 10 page paper about the research we collected. Ken suggested I contact the local Fish and Game Department.

Sure, why not?

They were very kind and willing to help me out in my research. My choices were: working a big game check station that weekend, pulling fish nets in Oakley reservoir the end of October, or hiking about 20 miles in the mountains around Thanksgiving to help pull test tubes. So, should I choose cold, colder, or coldest? And notice they are all so....fish and game-ish.

So I chose....



Saturday was opening day of deer hunting season and so we set up a check station where all the hunters, successful or unsuccessful, had to stop and let us gather information from them. Since I have NEVER hunted before in my life and know NOTHING about big game, this was a real educational experience.



They checked their teeth to determine their age. Most were yearlings.



Then they removed the lymph nodes from their necks in order to send off to be tested for Chronic Wasting Disease, an illness not currently found in Idaho but a fun excuse to slice all their necks open and dig around.



Then they measured their zyphoid fat by slicing into their breast area. This tells how fat and happy they were before death. Because of the wet spring, the deer this year were VERY fat. Average is about 18 mm. This particular deer measured 31 mm.



If they were yearlings, they hung them up and weighed them. They looked pretty roughed up at this point due to all the cutting that had just happened to them.



This is Regan, the official Biologist in charge, matching the tag with the license. I'm doing what I did best the entire weekend....FREEZE! and watch! I did very little actual touching of the dead animals.

Other data they also collected included measuring the antlers and taking a tooth sample if the animal was older than 2 years old.



This is what I did most of the time.... I asked hunters to fill out a survey! Easy and CLEAN!
(Though when Ken picked me up Saturday night he said, "Wow, you Stink!")


This is me and the biologist I worked with all weekend. She was great! Do you like my official Fish and Game uniform? (Honestly, the worst part of the whole experience was having to wear the button-front uniformed shirt...blech, ucky!)

Now, I just have to write the paper!

I wonder if a campus class with a lab would have been as much fun.... ;)

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Biology Lesson

Organisms tolerate widely varying external conditions by maintaining stable conditions internally. This is a condition known as homeostasis.

?
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home eostasis
?
?

I had no idea I'd sit down tonight to study Biology and find myself being spiritually taught(though how do you honestly study any science and not find yourself in awe of God's Majesty and power?). All life is governed by the same laws. Humans are not the exceptions. For years we have been counseled to put our homes in order, to make them stable, safe places where our children can reside, to make our homes "heaven on earth." It's not simply a good "church suggestion", it's a law that governs all living organisms.

If we want our children, our spouses, ourselves to be able to withstand the powerful varying external conditions (all of Satan's fiery darts) we must provide stable, safe, spiritual internal environments (home!)

See, I am learning important things as school! :)