Ken Miller and our evening out

I got an email 2 days ago as a "last reminder" from my college alumni assocation. The email stated that Dr. Ken Miller would be in town doing a presentation of Evolation and faith on 4/27. This "last reminder" was the 1st time I'd heard the news and I scrambled to ask Wink if he wanted to go. He didn't get back to me during the day to tell me that YES he'd love to go. Then he forgot to call around for a babysitter the next day. So Thursday night he made 4 or 5 calls begging for a last minute babysitter. Luckily, he found one (at 10pm).

The introducer calculated that each class in college cost about $400 per lecture. Therefore, this evening's talk was a $400 class for free! For the most part, I'd say we were ripped off in college since most of my classes were not worth even a small fraction of that amount. Tonight's presentation, however, was one of the most well-prepared and explained that I have EVER seen or heard. Dr. Miller was witty, engaging, brilliant, and extremely well prepared with visuals, movie clips, etc. I was not lucky enough to take any classes with him at college--in fact he was on sabatical my freshman year--but he is one of the university's most popular professors. I now know why! When working at the university, Wink was able to get me an autographed Biology High School text book from Dr. Miller. This was applicable at the time, since I was a HS Biology teacher. High School teaching only lasted one long, painful year.

Wink says that Dr. Miller is one of his heroes because of his stand that evoluation and Christianity are NOT mutually exclusive. They are not in conflict. His presentation brilliantly illustrated his points. Dr. Miller was so articulate and knowledgable on every question and research that he was literally making quotes both from papers written 2 weeks ago and from research from 30 years ago.

Dr. Miller played a clip from his guest appearance on the Colbert Report. This 6 minute segment doesn't due justice to his brilliance, but does give a small taste of his arguments: Colbert Report with Dr. Miller

For more information: Dr. Miller's evolution page

We're starting the scholarly pursuits early...

You are never too young to be a great theologian or church historian :)

Hanging out with the Globetrotters

A few Harlem Globetrotters visited my school and gave a presentation to the students. Here is a picture of me with Meadowlark Lemon (on my left) and Hollywood!

Immediately after the presentation (focusing on "determination" and "perserverence"), I grabbed my next 3 students and rushed to get a picture of them with a Globetrotter. I made this effort because one of my students was very upset that he missed part of the show (which was because he was acting up and not being a good audience member so he was "invited" into the hall). In spite of my efforts, my downcast student did not perk up and so I have a picture of 2 smiling students, one smiling basketball player, and one grumpy boy.*

I spent a few minutes trying to teach these young students the name of the Globetrotters. I did this by helping them learn what a globe was. Then I taught them the word "trot" by trotting around the room. I combined the word for them and held a large globe while trotting around the room. Luckily none of my colleagues saw me in action!


*It might be of interest to note that sometime after he got home, this student swallowed a quarter and a nickel. He could not return to school until these had passed through his system. The coins, however, did not pass naturally through him so he had to be hospitalized to have them removed. Why-oh-why did this elementary school-aged child swallow 30 cents?????

Never wake a sleeping baby

Regardless of where or when she is sleeping....


Here Lissi is sleeping in an interesting position while in childcare at the gym. The gym manager thought it was so funny that she took a picture. What was Wink doing while Lissi slept? He could have been working out. But he might just as likely have been reading or sleeping in the tanning room. :) Wink has discoved that the gym is a great place to get a little break from the kids, regardless of whether or not he is in the mood to exercise.

Only secure men wear pink

The kids had taken long naps on Wednesday and so they were up when a friend dropped off some hand-me-down clothes for Lissi. Cal wanted to go through the bag immedietly. He said he understoood that the clothes were for Lissi and not for him... but he wasn't acting that way. He tried on almost everything. He "settled" on a pink long sleeve dress with the heart on the chest. He begged to wear it to bed over his pajamas. I wouldn't let him but told him he could wear it the next day. After the kids were in bed I put away all the clothes except for the pink dress and the clown outfit. The next morning they both dressed in these clothes. Cal knew he couldn't wear the dress outside of the house, so he took it off to go to the gym and then tried to put it back on before preschool. Wink wouldn't let him, so instead he (don't pee your pants here) took it for Show and Tell at preschool!!! The teacher said he went on and on about this new dress! Wink said he barely even opened the door upon returning from preschool and Cal was wearing the dress again, along with some black tights. He wore these for the rest of the day. The somewhat scary thing is that the boy looks GREAT in the dress! Way better than I would have looked when I was that age....


Guess what clothes he put on again first thing this morning?! ;)

Neither rain, nor hail, nor freezing temps

Can keep us from our annual Free Cone at Ben and Jerry's!!!




Lissi even experienced her first ice-cream-headache!

Earth Day(s)

We celebrated Earth Day at my school on Saturday. I helped out at the "mural" station, where the kids were painting an awesome picture to be displayed in the cafeteria. Wink and the kids got to hang out with me as well as paint a ladybug rock, make a worm bin (for composting), and plant some lettuce seeds.

We had some sunny weather and so we took full advantage of it this weekend by completing our new gardening bed! Wink made a frame and I filled it with dirt/compost/peat moss. Cal helped me cut down bamboo and make frames for my "square foot" gardening attempt. So far we've planted peas, lettuce, and broccoli.

Ladybug rock and worm bin









New garden!






My Free Spirited children...

Animal in the study

Lissi was spinning on the study chair when she started yelling "Animal! Animal!" (actually pronounced more like "ah-mal"). Wink spent a few minutes trying to figure out what she wanted. Where was the animal? Finally he figured it out... she wanted the computer mouse!!! Ha ha! At least we know she is starting to understand categories--mice are animals you know ;)

Heat again!

Our thermostat/furnace has been broken for a few weeks. We've been able to "jump start" some heat in the morning until recently. Last night Wink bought a new thermostat and was able to get the heat working again! What we feared would cost hundreds of dollars (we really didn't know if the problem was with the furnace) cost $30. Woo hoo!

Easter

Easter fun this year included my own home-made Resurrection Eggs (done for the 12 days before easter), Resurrection cookies (a bust since Cal still doesn't like to eat them and Lissi can't eat them because of the nuts), an egg hunt at a local church, and a small egg hunt at home.






The sun was out in the morning so we got to do some weed pulling after church. Cal has a big plastic dump truck that he drives around the yard and helps collect the weeds.

We had a yummy Easter dinner with cousins. :)

Happy Easter! He has risen!

Ring around the Rosie

A little underwear fun...

82 words

I started a new list of all of Lissi's words. I added up 82 words and then had to stop since she seems to learn 2+ words every day! We just can't keep up with her now. I also counted 17 ASL signs.

Fun with Arden

Wink's cousin, her husband, and her daughter Arden visited from NJ. Here are a few pictures from hang out time with them. All the cousins had a lot of fun together and even got to revisit the tulip garden!


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