Seriously! How do I come across this stuff?

Every once in a while while surfing the net, I stumble across something that totally cracks me up. This is one of those times. Please click on THIS and find out. It will bring out your inner 14 year old. Seriously. I was laughing tears.

And then, when you're done crying from that one, please click on THIS. This is how I stumbled across the first one. Do it! Just for fun!

Blow Your Top

The kids have a book called Giant Book of Cool Stuff. It is jam packed with magic tricks, freaky facts, science experiments, cool inventions, practical jokes, and cool jokes. We have performed one of the science experiments. Don and the kids made it while I was at work one day, so I didn't get any pictures of it being made. But here is the final product. They have created a volcano. The science project was to create a chemical reaction where one substance is chemically changed to another.

If you would like to recreate this yourself, you will need the following:

6 cups flour

2 cups salt

4 Tbsp cooking oil

2 cups water

A clean plastic soda bottle

Baking pan

Food coloring

Liquid detergent

Baking soda

Vinegar

Water

They put a lot of work into this volcano. They even completed the scene by coloring the surrounding area and putting grass and sticks around the bottom of the volcano. They also painted it to make it look more realistic.

What to do in this chemistry experiment:

1. Mix the flour, salt, cooking oil and the 2 cups of water in a bowl. Mix until smooth and firm. Add more water if needed.

2. Stand the soda bottle in the baking pan and mold the salt dough around the bottle. Make sure you don't cover up the bottle mouth or drop any dough in the bottle.

3. Fill the bottle almost to the top with warm water. Add drops of food coloring until you get the color you want.

4. Squeeze 6 drops of the liquid detergent into the bottle. Add 2 Tbsp. of baking soda.

5. Slowly pour vinegar into the bottle and jump back quickly.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN?

Mixing the baking soda and vinegar makes a chemical reaction.

All chemical reactions are about the making or destroying of bonds between atoms in which carbon dioxide gas is made - the same gas that bubbles in a real volcano.

The gas bubbles build up in the bottle. They force the liquid 'lava' mixture up and over the mouth of your volcano.

This was a fun project for them to do. But I think they were a bit disappointed in the end result. It didn't 'erupt' very much. It just sort of oozed out as you can see by the pictures. But it was still time well spent.

Scaredy Cat

On Sarabeth's birthday, Don decided that she needed to have a little driving lesson. We were able to get our license at 14, so he figured she should have a chance to at least try it out. She wanted nothing to do with it. Seriously. Can you see the fear in her eyes?

Don put her in the drivers seat and gave her some instructions. Thankfully, we have an automatic, so it was a bit easier for her first lesson.

Here, she's telling me that she doesn't want to do it. But Don insisted so I closed the door and off they went.

Here she goes.

She wasn't too happy turning her first corner. They went around the block and when they returned, I asked her if she had fun. "NO", she said. But later that day, when Don took her and her friend to play laser tag for their birthdays (her best friends b-day is the day after hers), guess what she did. Her friend lives up the street from us. After her very UNenjoyable experience with driving, she had the nerve to ask if she could drive to her friends. LOL!

Sugar Boogers School Project

For school, Jessica was assigned to complete an Idaho Historical Monuments Project. She was to build a model of one of the monuments connected to the history of Idaho. It had to include 10 details and they had to be labeled. Each student was assigned a monument to work on. Can you guess what Jessica was assigned?

We gave her a few hints and ideas on how she could make it, but overall, she created it all by herself. She used salt dough, pipe cleaners, paint, paper, and toothpicks. Here is a bald eagle.

This is her Indian Village

This is a bear

This is a trout in the river.

This is an Appaloosa horse.

This is a snake.

Here is an overhead view of the completed project. You can see the mountains (capped with snow), the river and streams, the forest, and the Indian village. Do you see the brown pipe cleaner that comes out of the mountain and follows the river? That is the actual monument that she was assigned. All of the other elements are the details that she had to include. Any guesses on what it is?

Didn't she do a fabulous job?

A Gift For Me

BETCHA DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS.

HOW BOUT NOW? (sorry bout the hair and the focus problem)

ANY GUESSES YET?

DOES THIS HELP ANY?

CAN YOU SEE THE PIECE OF PINK GLAZE? DOES THAT HELP ANY?

MY DARLING SARABETH MADE ME A MUG IN ART CLASS AT SCHOOL. IT IS SOMETHING THAT I LOVE AND SHE MADE IT SPECIAL FOR ME.

THIS IS A SPECIAL "HELLO KITTY" MUG. THE PINK SPOT WAS THE ORIGINAL GLAZE COLOR SHE CHOSE, BUT IT DIDN'T ADHERE TO THE CLAY. SO SHE REPAINTED IT BABY BLUE CUZ THAT'S MY FAVORITE COLOR. ISN'T IT ADORABLE? I LOVE IT!!

Happy Birthday SB Louie

Today is my oldest daughters 14th birthday. 14 years ago, after a complicated pregnancy, I gave birth (by c-section) to Sarabeth Louise. After administering approximately 10 minutes of CPR on her, the neonatal nurses pronounced her dead. The delivery nurse who was in charge of me, walked over to her and intubated (stuck an air tube down her throat) her and saved her life.

Then, while in recovery, I listened to the neonatal doctor tell me that my baby was severely deformed and retarded and that she wouldn't live through the day. They performed every chromosome test on her they could to determine what exactly was wrong with her. But every test came back negative. There was nothing wrong with her. Except that her lungs were underdeveloped, which kept her in NICU for 31 days.

Then when we brought her home, she stayed on oxygen for another 5 months until her saturation levels stayed at a normal level. During that time, I had a home nurse come to my house 2-3 times a week to check on her. Also, she was developmentally delayed and we had to take her to the Elks for rehabilitation classes so they could work on her motor skills. This is normal for premature babies. But that only lasted for about a year before she caught up to the norm.

She was also born with a club foot. I believe this is due to my not having any amniotic fluid for the last 4 months of my pregnancy, which didn't allow her to properly move around in utero. The doctor referred to her as being "vaccum packed". And boy was she. She came out black and blue from head to toe. She looked smunched. This is why the doctor thought she was severly deformed. But she proved that doctor wrong and every day he would comment on what a miracle she was.

I wish that doctor could see her now. My little miracle girl. I love you Sarabeth!

Happy Birthday

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABY (got you on my mind)

Today is my 16th wedding anniversary with Flyboy. Has it really been that long? I was 17 when I met him. I actually already knew who he was because we went to the same school and his sister is my age. He graduated in 1987. I graduated in 1989. The night of 1988's graduation, I borrowed my Aunt Mary's convertible and went cruising downtown with my friends. Flyboy and some of his friends, were standing on one of the street corners hooting and hollering at everyone driving by. Us, included. I knew who they were so I wasn't going to stop and talk to them. They had bad reputations. At least, that was my impression of them. After several times around, Flyboy and his group decided to run to the other side of the cruise strip and catch us on the other side. As soon as we came close, Flyboy jumped in the back seat of the car. Remember, I was driving a convertible. I stopped and we both acknowledged that we recognized each other. I told him I knew his sister and he told me that he didn't claim her as his sister (that's another story). Now, I didn't like his sister, so when he said that, I decided that he was cute enough to give a chance. We left the cruise strip and went to breakfast with our friends in tow. He and one of his friends were both interested in me so when we got to the diner, they headed for a corner booth, sat on opposite sides and said (unbeknownst to me) that whomever I sat by, would be the one. I was on the pay phone with my aunt at the time letting her know we were o.k. (no cell phones then) and when I walked to the booth to sit down, I never even glanced at the other guy. I headed straight for Flyboy. And we've been together ever since. It will be 21 years this summer. I guess it was meant to be.

20 Random Things About Me

I was tagged on Facebook to do a list of 25 random things about me. I decided to do a blog post about it. But I could only think of 20. And it took me a week. That is what an exciting life I lead. So, if you read this, consider yourself tagged.

20 THINGS ABOUT ME

1. I L. O. V. E. Helly Kitty. Nuff said.

2. I met my husband downtown cruising. I knew who he was because we went to school together. He was 2 years ahead of me. But I didn't want anything to do with him. He chased me down and jumped in my car (I was driving my Autie M's convertable). We have been together almost 21 years and our 16th wedding anniversary is tomorrow. I guess I changed my mind about him. :)

3. I have lost very good friends for unknown reasons. It really bothers me, but life goes on!

4. I have been best friends with Nona since the 5th grade. That's 28 years!

5. My 1st baby was born 4 weeks early, spent 31 days in NICU and spent 5 more months on oxygen. She was pronounced dead in the delivery room until they intubated (breathing tubes) her. They told me she was severely deformed and retarded. She will turn 14 in 2 weeks and you would never know that she was diagnosed that way.

6. I have naturally curly hair. I have women ask me where I got it permed because they love it. They are always jealous when I tell them it's natural. I HATE IT!

7. People always tell me what a good mom I am. Secretly, I wish I were better at it. I think my kids do too.

8. All 3 of my girls were delivered via C-Section, due to my pregnancy and delivery complications with #5 above.

9. I have probably watched The Notebook, Briget Jones Diary, Never Been Kissed and While You Were Sleeping close to 100 times. EACH.

10. I have a huge fear of heights. Not in a plane, helicoptor or fair rides. But I CANNOT walk up to the edge of a cliff. I get weak knee'd and dizzy and have to get down on the ground when my husband and kids do it. My husband goes to great lengths trying to scare me with this one. He isn't afraid of anything and will purposely dangle over the edge of something to scare me. They all think I'm weird and make fun of me for it. It seriously makes me sick.

11. I have grown to hate my job in the last month or so. But I am thankful to have it.

12. My dad died 11 years ago (this March) and I still cry about it sometimes. It breaks my heart that my kids never knew him.

13. I was shy in school and wish that I could go back and change some things.

14. I still have my homecoming dress, my prom dress and all of my corsages from my highschool dances. I keep them in my cedar "hope" chest (that my dad gave me) with my wedding dress and graduation cap and gown. After all, I did attend these events with my Flyboy. Plus a few other prized possessions from my life.

15. I need to spend more time with my friends. I think about it all the time, but can't seem to find time for it. I need to make the time. It's all about effort.

16. I love to catch up on my favorite blogs. I have my own blog, but I can't seem to find the time to keep up on it. I have a lot of ideas, but sitting down and creating them is another story.

17. I am a junkfood junkie. I have lost a lot of weight, but I can't seem to give up on junkfood so I still have some left to lose. I know that I have this problem, yet I do nothing about it.

18. I would LOVE to go on vacation with my best friend, Nona. We have talked about this several times, but can never seem to coordinate schedules.

19. We did, however, get to go to Hawaii together once. We were dental assistants at the same office and our entire office went to Maui. Totally paid for! Yeah, baby!

20. I recently received a discressionary bonus at work. Management is given money each quarter to give bonuses to whomever they choose. And they chose me this time. WOW!

ELIZARDBUTT

Meet Olivier. I call him Elizardbutt. Cause that's how I am.

Isn't he pretty?

He is Emily's baby.

Meet Mouse. He was caught by Olivia (aka Elizardbutt) in Emily's bedroom last summer.

Isn't he cute?

The filthy little rodent!