GEMS Update

Last night was our second GEMS meeting of the season. This year's theme is "Search for Truth" so for the past two weeks we've been having a mock trial about truth. Last week's lesson asked the question, "Is there such a thing as absolute truth?" and last night we discussed, "Does absolute truth matter?" The girls are the jury, and they have a trial folder where they answer questions to come to a verdict. Its pretty fun.

After the trial, I took my 3rd graders to our classroom where we spent some time getting to know one another. I had six girls last night, and it looks like it'll be a good group. There's pretty good dynamics in the group. After chatting for a bit we constructed a "Friendship Tree". I glued a tree made out of construction paper on a piece of bristol board and had each girl trace her hand on a coloured piece of paper, and write her name on it. Then each girl taped her hand onto the tree. The hands are the leaves on our tree, and every week the girls will put a happy face sticker on her hand. So by the end of the year, our tree's leaves will be covered in stickers. We ended our evening with a game of Telephone, which seems to be a universal favorite.

Church Picnic

It's been awhile since I've been to a church picnic. Saturday afternoon/evening we went to the Fellowship Greens for food and fellowship. We arrived a bit early and watched the some of the kids games. The usual, clothing relay, egg relay, water balloon toss, and fishing. I think my favorite one was watching the boys dress up as "fairy princesses" for the clothing relay. They were horrified when they saw the clothes that they had to wear. It was so funny.

After the kids games, and the rest of the people returned from golfing, everyone sat down for dinner. We had BBQ chicken, many, many, many salads and a wide assortment of desserts. There was so much food, but by the end, most of it was gone. The best part was meeting new people and getting a chance to chat and get to know them better. Its hard, and I'm terrible at remembering names, but I'm slowly getting to know some people at church.

Nutmeg

Last night Raisin (the hamster) did not have "wings" (food stuffed in her cheeks), so I put her in the ball to run around. I left the door to her cage open. After awhile, I began to wonder where Nutmeg had gotten to. She'd been terrorizing me the whole evening, but now she was nowhere to be found. Then I noticed a dark shape in Raisin's cage. The dumb cat had climbed in and was sniffing around. I had to go pull out my camera, this one was too good to pass up.



What a silly cat. So we have a hamster that thinks she's a monkey and a cat that thinks she's a hamster.

Worms

What's worse than finding a worm in your apple? Half a worm.

Bleech, I was crunching away at a necterine, when I look down to see a little crawling thing on the pit. Gross! At least he was whole, so I hadn't bitten him yet. *shivers* So gross though. *shudders*

Tools

The other day I wandered about Lowe's in search of a new tool. I brought my little desk home from my parent's place, and plan to sand it down and refinish it. As a kid, I always wanted to do that and now is my chance. I considered doing it by hand, but thought, that will take a very long time. So I went in search of a power sander. I found a nice little palm sander, yellow and black, with a carrying case to boot. Last night I hauled the sander and the desk out to the garage for a test drive. I have to say that using the power sander is pretty sweet. In a matter of minutes, it gives you a decently smooth surface. Not to mention the fact that its a lot of fun. I know where I'll be this weekend :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am now officially 24 years old. I've been around for nearly a quarter of a century. Funny thing is, I still feel 19 or 20. I can totally understand how shocking it must be to turn 30 or 40, but still feel like you're 20.

Even though today is my birthday, this year I've had a birthday week. Kinda cool. On Sunday, my mom made me a cake that we took to my grandparents house to share. Then on Tuesday we had dinner and games at our house. Mmmm...dark chocolate... :) Last night my roomie produced an assortment of rather random packages. Rather interesting gifts for a 24-year-old, but fun nonetheless. Ranging from a fun bread shaped tupperware and a kids book, to a bar shaker.

So now I have two new books to add to my collection:

The Berenstein Bears and the Messy Room, best book ever :) When I was about 8, I borrowed this book from the school library many, many times. I just loved it. I always wanted a bedroom that looked like brother and sister's when they were finished cleaning it up. Since I loved this book so much, my mom finally bought it for me. The sad thing is, I lost my copy of the book. A few months ago I searched my parents bookselves but couldn't find it anywhere...that was a sad day. But now I have my own copy again, and all is well with the world :)

Alton Brown has a great show on the food network, Good Eats. Kinda like Bill Nigh the Science Guy, but with cooking. This'll be a fun book to read, and then add to my collection of cookbooks.