After Pictures

These pictures were all taken with my iPhone.  I tell you because my pride gets in the way sometimes and I feel embarrassed posting blurry pictures. 

How amazing is this house now?  If you read the post below, you read that Megan and Andrew did all of this to their house I helped them find, in just a couple months.  It's even more impressive when you know they are newlyweds.  Are newlyweds supposed to start this nice?

It's hard to tell from my pictures, but if you look close at the bathroom and kitchen pictures in the previous post and the pictures above you can compare and see just how much they did in those rooms.  I love the beadboard they used and I LOVE the turquoise and white cabinets mixed together in the kitchen.  It's genius with the red accents.  All of the wood furniture was bought or found and was in bad shape.  Megan has a real talent for taking old furniture and making it beautiful again.  What do you think?  Should she go into business?  I think so too.

Andrew and Megan, I loved working with you!  Thanks for working with me!

Before Pictures

What do you get when you cross a artistic mind with a decent looking house and loads of hard work?  You get absolute genius!  I can't wait to show you the after pictures of how the house above was transformed. 

I had the opportunity to sell a nice house to my friends, Andrew and Megan Horrocks.  In just a couple months they have transformed that nice house into an incredible house.  It's amazing!!

Let it Snow!

I have been thinking a LOT about the snow lately.  The weather in September is so great I certainly don't want to rush past it.  I love this time of year.  Still, my mind is looking forward to the ski season.  Recently I entered to be a Snowmama at Park City Mountain Resort.  If selected I would become part of their blogging team and would write about skiing and vacationing in Park City with kids.  Since I enjoy blogging and taking pictures, I would like doing that.  I'd love being part of the community too and meeting other moms with kids who ski. 

The biggest perk is that you get season ski passes for your family and a trip to PC for the week.  This would be a dream come true because I would finally be able to get Keith skiing.  He doesn't have any interest in skiing because of the cost.  I wish so bad he would go with me and the kids.  I love skiing so much, and it would be so exciting to have my entire family with me on the mountain.

For my application, I answered a couple questions, turned in this video, as well as the pictures above, and a list of blog titles I have in mind for their blog.  I hope somehow I can stand out.  I'm sure there are a lot of talented people out there who would also enjoy this opportunity. 

Summer Pics

As I was looking through my iPhone pictures I realized there are a lot of stories I haven't recorded from this summer.  Can you find these pictures?

*Megan by the river (right before she dipped her toes in... so much fun!!)
*Meg and Luke with Grandpa by our backyard fire pit.
*4 motorcycles we bought this past month.
*Grandpa Oaks playing with the kids (he is amazing)
*The view from my Las Vegas hotel room.  It was such a beautiful room and such a nice temperature I absolutely LOVED sitting on the balcony when it got dark.
*Megan and my cousin's daughter Hailey in their twin outfits.
*Luke with his newly delivered (still in the box) solar panel.  He was so happy that day!
*Megan and her cute friend at Sand Hollow Lake.  We had a blast swimming!
*Luke and his cousin Kaden.
*Camping kids.
*Summer ski lift.
*Cute little cousin Kate and her pink hat.
*Megan with her French beret and pink Paris shirt my mom brought her back from vacation.
*Megan and her cousins singing at her baptism.
*A cup full of bugs!  Luke put them all in there on purpose.  Ugh.

Oaks Cousins

What an awesome group of cousins!!  This picture is from our trip to Payson Canyon for HAM radio field day.  Lonnie and Linda go every year, and the rest of us try to go too, although Keith and I seem to have something stopping us far too often.  I got my HAM radio licence but it's really not too interesting to me.  However, this year I did really good in the contest they were having, and the competitor in me is excited to try the contest again next year! 

Oh how I wish we could go camping more often!  I love it!

Kurt, Stacy and their family moved to Colorado yesterday.  We are going to miss them so much.  It's really hard to see them go.  This picture was taken the end of June (I believe).  Minutes after this picture, Kurt left to go to Colorado to start his new job.  Their family has been apart until now.  I'm so glad they are together again and hope we get to visit often.

I found this picture on Pinterest.  So funny.  Our school starts on Monday.

Easter Egg/Capture the Flag

I made up a game that has a twist on the traditional Easter Egg hunt.  I thought it was pretty fun.  We played in a baseball field which has no good hiding spots.  I think it would be best in an area with lots of trees and other hiding spots.  If you play, tell me how it goes. 

Easter Egg Capture the Flag

There are four teams.  Pink, Yellow, Green and Orange.  You could play with only two teams as well.

Each team takes one quarter of the field.

Your goal is to find and protect your eggs and find and capture as many eggs from other teams as you can. 

In your quarter of the field are hidden eggs that are your teams color as well as a few golden eggs.   There are no "flags" to capture in this game... just eggs.

 RULES
1)  You have to keep the eggs you find in ONE PLACE on the GROUND somewhere on your quarter of the field that is approximately 12 feet away from the outside corner.  You can’t protect your eggs by holding them.  The found eggs have to stockpiled ON THE GROUND in ONE PLACE.

2)  If someone is in your quarter of the field and is holding one of your teams colored eggs, you can tag them and make them give you back the eggs that are your team color.  Gold eggs are safe from this rule.  Once you are tagged you have to go back to your section of the field.  If you are tagged on the border you are safe. 

3)  The team at the end of the time limit with the most points wins.

 POINTS
The team with the most eggs of their own color gets a bonus of 15 points.
The team with the 2^nd most eggs of their own color gets a bonus of 10 points.
The team with the 3^rd most eggs of their own color gets a bonus of 5 points.

Each egg you have in your stash of any color is worth 1 point.
Gold eggs are worth 3 points each.

30 Days of Science - Day 26

This was fun!  It was very interesting to learn how they determine your blood type.  You can buy kits to test your own blood.  Very educational. 

Crazy

Spirit week is so much fun!  Luke has crazy hair too, but crazy to Luke is just a bit messy... haha!

80's Day

It was 80's day at school.  I think we did pretty good getting her dressed with what we had at home.  Notice her socks!  It was really fun getting her dressed.  Keith and I also had fun showing the kids 80's pictures on the internet and playing a bunch of 80's songs.  Megan was really impressed we knew so many of the words to the songs.  We are just cool I guess.

Tomorrow is crazy hair day.  Can't wait!

30 Days of Science - Day 25

I'm still here!  I just got sick and behind and lost motivation to blog for a little while.  It's all good :)

Thanks to Keith I found out that today is Pi Day!  3.14... get it? 
It's also Albert Einstein's Birthday. 

Luke's teacher is Mrs. Pye so I wanted to do something fun for her.

I made some signs that said, Happy Pye Day, Pi=3.14, as well as signs that thanked her for being such a good teacher.

I wrote up the note below (click to make it bigger) and gave it to each kid so they could understand what Pi is and why we were celebrating.  Each kid got a big Pi sticker to put on their shirt and later today they'll get Oatmeal Cream Pies. 

I killed one tree and printed the first one MILLION digits of Pi for Mrs. Pye to show the kids. It's pretty interesting to see what a million numbers look like. The numbers printed at a font size of 8pt still took 124 pages to print!!

If you are asking what Pi has to do with science, read this quote from the Big Book of Sarcastic Science and think the opposite way :)

Pi deals with circles and the science world doesn't have circles, only squares and rectangles (just look at the Periodic table)! So, Pi isn't used in the Science world, because you don't need math to do science.

30 Days of Science - Day 24

The next time you see a newspaper bag, save it.  Use the bag to try this experiment.   A newspaper bag won't be that exciting, but it's a cheap way to try it and test Bernoulli's Principle.  Diaper Genie bags or these bags will be extra fun like what you saw in the video. 

I asked Luke if he understood Bernoulli's Principle and how this windbag experiment worked.  When he said yes, I asked him to explain it better to me.  I thought he would give me the simple answer about air pressure, but instead he got into detail and started explaining how airplanes lift off the ground!  I didn't even know the two were related!  Albert Einstein once said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough".  I think of that every time Luke explains things to me because he can explain things so easily. 

Oh and one more thing... did you know firefighters use this principle for getting smoke out of a house?  You can read more about that as well as more on the windbag experiment here.

30 Days of Science - Day 23

Yesterday I checked the kids out of school for a dentist appointment.  They were so excited to be called on the intercom and get out of school.  They both had huge smiles.  Luke was especially excited because he loves going to the dentist.  He loves it because he wants to be a dentist one day.  Every time we go we remind everyone that he wants to be a dentist and that he would like to learn anything he can while he is there.  We ask that everyone teach him what they are doing so Luke can learn.  Luke learns all sorts of things about the tools and procedures.  When the dentist (Dr. Troy Hardy) came out to look at the kids teeth, he spent a lot of time talking to Luke and answering Luke's questions.  They brainstormed about some science experiment ideas and he explained that most teeth experiments have to be done with teeth that are immediately saved in a special solution that keeps that keeps them from drying out when they are out of the mouth.  That was good to know.  He also spent time showing Luke the x-rays and explaining what was happening in his mouth as well as Megan's.  I couldn't help but take pictures with my iPhone when he let Luke stand next to him while he worked on Megan's mouth and he explained what he was doing.  Luke was in heaven!  He left with a giant smile on his face. 

After the dentist we went to get lunch.  I had been debating on taking the kids to a district science fair for the Salt Lake School District.  I knew we wouldn't have time after school because of how much homework Luke had so I decided to have the kids eat their lunch on the way to the science fair.  I didn't tell them where we were going.  I told Megan it was more of a surprise for Luke but she would like it too.  I gave them a clue that we were going to a school.  Luke's energy level went up about 50 times when we pulled up to a school called the Salt Lake Center for Science Education.  Luke said he would wake up a half hour early every day if he could go to that school. 

We looked around the school a tiny bit as we walked to the gym where they were holding the science fair.  Unfortunately the projects weren't all set up, but we were able to see plenty in the short amount of time we had.  Luke amazes me because he understood all of the concepts and corrected me on a couple things I said.  A man came over and gave Luke a mug with Einstein on it creating another huge smile on Luke's face.  The man happened to be one of the founders of the school.  We talked to him and and the director of the school.  The school is for 6th grade and up, but he said next year, when Luke is in 5th grade, Luke could come and shadow a nice student and go to all of his classes with him for the day.  The school sounds amazing but it would be a 20-30 minute drive each way.

It was a great little break from regular school.  Obviously educational too.  Everything we do, every where we go can be educational.  It's fun to use the world as your classroom. 

30 Days of Science - Day 22

What is this, you ask?

It's three glow sticks that Megan is swirling around.  I set the aperature on my camera low and turned off the flash to get the picture to work.  We had a lot of fun with the glowsticks the other night when the LeBaron cousins came over. 

If you read the link for Plasma TVs on day 19, you would understand better how glow sticks work.  On that link there was a picture that shows how atoms emit light.  Light sticks work from a chemical reaction. The light from that chemical reaction is called chemiluminescence.  When the chemicals are mixed, the atoms are excited, causing electrons to rise to a higher energy level and then return to their normal levels. When the electrons return to their normal levels, they release energy as light.  If you want to read more you can read under the header, How Does it Work on Steve Spangler's site. 

When Luke chooses books from the library, he gets books I'm sure most people only read if they have to.  This last week Luke chose a book called, How Atoms Work.  This type of information used to be so boring to me.  It still isn't my favorite but I have loved understanding more fully how things work.  I'm absoulutely fascinated with scientists and how they ever came up with theories on these basic principles in the first place.  It's amazing.

I thought it would be fun to make our own glow liquid.  I started googling it and have decided it's probably a bit too dangerous for little kids.  So for now, this YouTube video will have to do. 

30 Days of Science - Day 21

Lady Liberty may not appreciate the angle of this photo.

Keith and I went to NYC in September for our anniversary.  It was a great 3 day trip.  The first day it rained so hard it was incredible.  We were soaked!  We might as well of jumped in a pool.  It was also very foggy so we couldn't even see the Statue of Liberty until we got close to it and when we were on Liberty Island we couldn't see the city.  Just minutes before I took this picture, the rain finally started to let up for a while.  Despite the rain, we still had a good time.  We went to the 911 memorial (it was the first month it was open), we also went to Cirque du Soleil at Radio City Hall, the Blue Man Group, Little Italy for some amazing desserts and a street fair, and some fun toy stores including the American Girl Place.  It was a great trip.  At the 911 memorial we got our picture by the Survivor Tree because I think it will be really interesting to compare photos 50 years from now.

Did you know that according to Einsteins theory of relativity a clock at the top of the Statue of Liberty would run slower than one sitting on the ground?  It has to do with the fact that the earth is rotating, and the higher you are, the faster you are rotating around the sun.  The faster you travel, the slower time moves.  It's a complicated topic, but very interesting.  Read this simple explanation of the theory of relativity on WikiAnswers.  It's something interesting to think about the next time you are in a big city. 

30 Days of Science - Day 20

Luke and Megan are getting good at skiing.  Luke especially is getting really confident and doing really well.  I keep telling him I want him to fall more often because that shows he is pushing his abilities and he will get better.  A couple weeks ago when we went skiing we decided to take a picture of him after he fell for a blog post about gravity.  I'm glad he can have a good attitude when he falls.

My 10 year old Luke has a science journal he writes in just for fun.  His first entry is about gravity.  He wrote this while we were in church.  We have three hours of church so I let him do what he wants for most of the first hour.  Here is what he wrote, in his own words:

Luke's Theory of Gravity
I predict that all energy attracts other energy.  Something with more potential energy must be larger.  Larger objects have more gravity, so the energy must be attracting other energy.  Heat energy tends to go upward unlike my theory, but it vibrates therefore making the gas less dense, so more dense gasses can push their way through and creating pressure where there is no more room to go down, so it applies pressure on the less dense gas causing it to overcome gravity.

Want a fun anti-gravity experiment?
Watch, then try this.  It's one of our favorites.

30 Days of Science - Day 19

The kids and I went up to Park City a couple months ago, early in the morning to be on the news.  My kids are the ones in the picture with newscaster, Casey Scotts hands on each of their shoulders.  We were happy to go even though we had to get up around 5:00 a.m. because we got to go sledding at Gargoza Park.  Unfortunately, it was so super cold (negative 6 degrees) that even with all of the layers of clothes I put on my kids, they were just too cold to have too much fun sledding.  They only went down the hill twice and rode the mini snowmobiles for a couple minutes before they had enough.    They did have fun being on the news though.  I also think they enjoyed going to school to tell everyone all they had done before most of them had even woke up.  My kids aren't very assertive so they stood in the back of the crowd during the filming.  You could barely see them on camera, but they were really happy just being on TV.

TVs are interesting.   The old TVs were much bigger than the newer TVs they have because they have big cathrode-ray tubes in them.  When a video signal comes into the TV, the cathrode-ray tube shoots beams of energy (electrons) at the back of our TV screens.  These beams are so precise that they can hit just one tiny red, green, or blue point on the screen and that color shines.  The cathrode-ray tube hits thousands of these lights at a time and that creates the TV picture. 

Newer Plasma TVs are much smaller because they use tiny compartments filled with gas (plasma).  Plasma is an important element in florescent light. Electricity charges the gas, which creates energy that lights up the colors on the screen.

Ok, so here are the parts I don't understand yet.  It absolutely baffles my mind how the video signal is sent in the first place.  I'm also baffled by how telephones and radios work too.  I understand the concepts of radio waves, but it still seems impossible to me.  I told this to Luke once and he did a great job explaining it to me.  Haha.  He is so smart!  I was so impressed with his knowledge but it still didn't help.  I think the hardest thing for me is actually believing that these signals can be sent so efficiently.  It's amazing to me!  Perhaps I'll be interested in understanding more later, but for now I'm happy to simply pretend it's magic :)

30 Days of Science - Day 18

This picture is from last year. Until today, we have sure been low on snow, haven't we?  Because it's been so warm a lot of the snow we have had has been pretty wet. Usually Utah really does have the greatest snow on earth. It's light and powdery because of our dry climate.

We also (usually) get a lot of snow because because of the geography of our area. The storms we get here in Utah are formed out over the Pacific Ocean. Remember day 15 where we talked about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation? These storms travel across the continent, not bumping into any significant barriers until they reach the Wasatch mountain range which has peaks up to about 12,000 feet.

When these storm clouds get to the Salt Lake area they get even heavier because of the Great Salt Lake. Because the Great Salt Lake is relatively shallow (about 33 feet deep) and has a large surface area, it heats up faster than other deeper lakes. Remember Day 17?  When the cold winds blow over the warmer water, the clouds passing overhead suck up the water vapors and produce even more precipitation. That precipitation falls as snow. Beautiful snow!

30 Days of Science - Day 17

A few months ago Luke came up with an experiment he wanted to do.  He created a chart, wrote up what he was going to do, and kept track of his findings.  Below I've typed up what he wrote since it's hard to read in this picture. 

Question:  Does water evaporate faster when the waters skin is greater?
Hypothesis:  Water evaporates faster when the waters skin is greater.
Experiment:  Take a cup and a bowl and put the same amount of water in each container.  Whatever evaporates more in 6 days would have evaporated faster. 
     Cup:  1 1/2 inches around at waters surface  (he used a measuring tape around the perimeter)
     Bowl:  14 inches at waters surface
Analysis:  The cup had 3/4 cups of water left and the bowl had 1/2 cup of water left.
Conclusion:  Water with more surface area evaporates faster than with less.

Can you see his drawings at the bottom?  He drew H2O molecules and wrote, enlarged to show detail. 
I love it!

30 Days of Science - Day 16

While listening to an AMAZING recording called "The Essence of Success" by Earl Nightingale, I heard something I really loved about Albert Einstein.  I can't find a clip of the recording online so I'll type it out here.  I've listened to it a dozen times, so it will be nice to have it be something I can read.

You know it's been said that if the universe is is an accident, we are accidents.  But if there is meaning in the universe, then there is meaning in us also.  And since it is believed that Dr. Einstein understood more about the laws governing the universe than any person who ever lived up until his time, lets go to him for some answers.  He believed there was some sort of meaning in the way things are.  He was sure of it.  He said the more I study physics, the more I am drawn toward metaphysics. The word metaphysics simply means beyond physics.  The study of what is beyond measure the invisible forces at work. ...Albert Einstein was so remarkable of a man, that it was as if he had arrived on this planet through some mistake in celestial navigation.  And as a result, devoted his life to solving the problems of time and space, so that the mistake would not be repeated (he chuckles).  Dr. Einstein belonged to no formal religion or sect, yet he was a deeply religious man in the cosmic sense.  He believed that such magnificence of colossal order the great phychlatron(?) of the universe, as Ronald Clark puts it, could not have been an accident. And he addressed himself to the purpose of life.  He answered the question, "why am i here" as well as it has been answered, I believe, when he said, man is here for the sake of other man only.  Now he used the word man in it's classical sense, the idiomatic man, meaning human beings of both sexes, of course.  So he said that we are here for the sake of others only.  Is that the way you would have answered it?  Do you believe you are here solely to serve others, being served and enjoying life as a result.  We are here for the sake of serving others only, and to the extent that we serve others, will we know the joy of living.  To many that will sound silly and square but that's what it comes down to nonetheless and sometimes it takes a long time to learn the truth of it.  Millions never learn it and grow old and cry out in discontent wondering what is wrong with their lives. Our rewards in life will always be in direct proportion to our contribution this is the law that stands as the supporting structure of all economics and of our own personal well being. 

I highly recommend you listen to anything of Earl Nightingale.  He has so many incredible words of wisdom.  You can find a lot of his recordings on YouTube.