Random Tid Bits

1. On the last week of classes, I felt so bad for Mica. He had his Science Fair presentations. He had to give 3. The last presenter put his form in another student's spot. They are listed by number, and I guess the last digit was covered up. He had to present his project to yet another person. Thankfully this kid just rolls with the flow.
   
   The year earlier he was told to leave his stuff in his class, or wherever - do not bring it to his Science Fair Presentations. He left his stack of books, and stuff in the cafeteria, for that last presentation he shouldn't of had to do. Then he went back up to get his stuff, only to find it was all gone! He went to the lost and found, asked the cafeteria person if they knew who took it, and asked the office. It wasn't in any of those places. I told him, they may have turned his books into the school library. Nope! Thankfully he found his stuff the next day. A staff member turned it into the office. Talk about a heart stopper! If that would have happened to Isaak, he would have lost it.
   
   Then Mica checked his grades. He has B's in 2 or 3 classes, when he should based on his assignments have A's. His homeroom teacher thinks it's a computer glitch. She emailed his teachers. Mica's like, "Well B's are good." BUT he earned A's! We still don't know if this was fixed. 


2. We've been rewatching Orphan Black. We all love the show. I never realized it's rated M, and the first time we watched it Isaak was probably 8 or 9. Now he's 11. Dang Tatiana Maslany is a great actress! Underrated, for sure. I think we counted, and she plays around 12 or 13 different roles: Beth (cop), Sarah (punk), Katja (French Girl), Alison (Soccer Mom), Cosima (Science Geek), Helena (Ukrainian Messed Up One), Rachel (Stuck Up), Krystal (Prissy), M.K. (Introvert Artist), Tony (Trans), and others on videos like (Jennifer and Camilla) they don't always name. You can tell when one is trying to be the other. How does she do that?











3. Every year, for the past few years I have the boys write for this:
   
   
   
   
   
   They've never won, but it's still good to make them write. Isaak seems more about it than Mica. Mica's more the reader. Isaak's choosing to write about the Soccer Mom Alison from Orphan Black. It was from a book. Who knows if it's ok - being an M rated show. 


4. The boys were a bit ticked off at me, for not having a Dance Party for New Years Eve. They apparently like that. I just wanted a chill holiday. PLUS Nebraska is rated the highest for Influenza A. Not that I think we should build a bubble, for our family, but I don't really want sickness drug in. Isaak's "friends" wanted to know if he was having a party. He told them, "No". Then they proceeded to say they'd hang out together, but never invited him. What did the want? Our food? Thank Gawd he has other friends at school! One is our carpool, and takes Isaak to school a lot!
   
   What did you do, for New Years Eve?


5. At this point I'm tired of food, and we had a Pot Luck, for work on Thursday.

Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase Now Available on Digital, Blu-ray | DVD #giveaway

**“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.”**

Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase is heading home on Digital March 26, 2019 and on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack & DVD on April 2, 2019. Pick up your copy today!

Based on the Bestselling Book!

The iconic mystery solving teenager from the classic Nancy Drew books is back with an all-new feature length film that will keep you guessing until the very end! Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will release Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase on Digital starting March 26, 2019 and Blu-ray™ Combo Pack & DVD on April 2, 2019. Executive Produced by Ellen DeGeneres, the film stars Sophia Lillis (IT and “Sharp Objects”), Sam Trammell (“True Blood” and “This is Us”), and Linda Lavin (“The Good Wife” and“Alice”) and follows Nancy Drew in her new town, making new friends and on a mission to solve the case! The film carries a suggested retail price of $19.99 for the Digital, $19.98 for the DVD and $28.98 for the Blu-ray Combo Pack.

After the death of his wife, Carson Drew decides to leave Chicago behind and make a fresh start with his daughter in River Heights. But for 16-year-old Nancy Drew, life in a small town is mighty dull. She longs for excitement, adventure, and the chance to make a difference. Nancy gets that opportunity when she is asked to help solve the ghostly activity at the Twin Elms mansion. Can she help explain the creaking footsteps, exploding lightbulbs and the ominous creature? Is it the handiwork of high-school bully Derek Barnes? Or is it possible that the ghost of original owner Malcolm Colfax is back for revenge? Recruiting her best friends George and Bess, along with local “mean girl” Helen, Nancy Drew is on the case!

Check Out the Movie Trailer: 

Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase Escape Room & Mystery Match Blog App: 

• Welcome to the Interactive Nancy Drew Escape Room - to escape, you must solve riddles and find items to uncover the three numbers needed to open to door. Good Luck!

• In the Mystery Match Video Puzzle, use your mouse to click + drag puzzle pieces to unlock clips from the film.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner:

There will be one winner from An Apel a Day to win Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase on Blu-ray. The giveaway is open to residents of the US, age 18 and up, no P.O. Boxes please, will run through 4/12/19. Winner will have 24 hours to respond to winning email before a new winner is selected. Please enter on the giveaway widget below. *Please note that there is one win across all blog giveaways per person. If you win this Blu-ray from another blog, you will be ineligible to win again here.

Entry-Form

A Story He Wrote

Awhile ago Mica wanted to enter a Lego Competition. I don't mind if he enters those things. Heck I enter a lot of contests. Dad told him he had to enter a local contest before entering the Lego one. Fair enough. Dad also explained how he needs to learn to write. He reads and watches movies all the time, but doesn't write. It takes writing to make all those books and movies. He gets that now.

There was a writing contest. It had to include a talking animal. Mica wrote a rough draft on his own. Then we talked about ways it could end, since there wasn't much of an ending. He went off, and wrote a more exciting ending on his own. He writes like he talks. He doesn't separate his paragraphs, but I separated them, so it's easier to read.

Jungle Rescue!

By Mica Apel

One fine day when beams of light filtered through the canopy, two baby gorillas were born and their names were Tommy and Carmen.

Carmen can see what is wrong in the world. Tommy had a happy life playing with Carmen, but began to see fewer trees. 

Then there was a day when Tommy and Carmen were ten, they were playing with a moss covered ball. Suddenly they were startled by the noise of chainsaws that changed their minds about being outdoors. 

The next day Carmen stayed home but Tommy wandered a little more than usual and encountered a logging crew. With curiosity Tommy peered into a tent surprised to see a boy sleeping. Suddenly the boy woke up and looked at Tommy. Then Tommy tried to destroy the conflict on gorilla: "Ok I'll see what I can do". said the boy with concern. "Look, I just want to see the boss around here". said Tommy as they were inside Johnny Yank's office. "Dad can you stop the company"? said the boy. "My goodness what for"? said Johnny. Then Johnny looked at the gorilla. "Just yesterday we had to move out of our shelter because of less berries and more chainsaw noises, we are too frightened the noises were unbearable.

"I'll think while I go for a walk", said Johnny During his walk, Johnny found some seeds. As Johnny walked back he dropped the seeds in a puddle. The next day the seeds were sprouted into small trees. 

Johnny was so inspired by the new growth that he grew many more trees instead of removing them. This is how the jungle was rescued.

The End of the Story

We got a letter that Mica won 1st place with our college here - UNO's Strauss Performing Arts Center. Here an author speaks, and they award the winners of the writing contest. Mica's manuscript gets published in a book.

At first we didn't know if he'd be disqualified because a teacher was supposed to submit the manuscript. Dad talked to the Contest Chair. She said he is a first place winner. 

Mica's teacher is so excited for him. She's going to the award ceremony to. 

Fellow students were asking for his autograph. That's pretty silly. 

Isaak has been jealous. We told him that he just needs to keep working on reading to be a good writer.

Oreo Challenge

A Nut in a Nutshell had an Oreo Challenge going on.

Five people were selected at random to participate. I was one of the five. Then we submitted photos to hopefully win $100. I didn't win, but I'm still proud of my outcome. Congrats to the winner out there! Visit here to see the other entries. I guess the winners were picked randomly by numbers.

First here is my inspiration:

King Author Flour has the best recipes for desserts. Aren't these cute?

I know the Oreo package included a lot of images of cake balls. I love cake balls. I've made them. I kind of feel a little like they are done so much now. I guess one could say that of cookies and cake to.

Here's an Oreo Cake I created:

The heart welcome mat is an Oreo. I just carved out the heart and scraped away the frosting. The Gingerbread Man and the Snowman were the patterns on the Oreos. I tried cutting and sanding the characters out, but the cookie kept breaking. In the end I just pumped frosting in them. I thought about making a cake ball snowman and other characters instead of using the Oreo characters. Then I felt like I wasn't using enough visible Oreos.

The cake is filled with Oreos to. I didn't exactly say it was healthy.

Here's the recipe:

You can make it in a 9x12 pan, but I made mine in 1/2 a Wilton ball pan and 2 small bread loaf pans. I didn't use both of the loaves, I have an extra just in case the cutting got messed up. The blocks were done individually. Then I crushed up Oreos and mixed up chocolate frosting to pump in the lines. The Oreo clogged up my frosting tip, so I went with just chocolate frosting.

The inside of the cake is pinkish from the cherry chip cake mix I used.  You can taste the Oreos. 

Will I do this type of challenge again? It was fun. I did get stuff sent to me to help with it. It's better than art contests I've entered where you slave away, pay to enter and get no supplies to help you with it. I would opt for it to not be between Christmas and New Years though. With sickness and a lot of plans it just got kind of hectic. I knew it was going to be during this time. I just didn't know people in my house would get sick and we would have a lot of snow to take care of on top of it.

How about you, have you ever participated in any contest?

Help Del Monte Fresh Produce Name Their Monkey For A Chance to Win A Year Supply of Bananas

Del Monte Fresh Produce is introducing a new adorable monkey, which you will see on the Del Monte Fresh Produce website, Facebook page, and in banana packaging. He will give banana lovers tasty banana recipes, tips for staying healthy, and much more. He's cute, furry, fun and a tad mischievous. His favorite food is bananas. He's constantly jumping, swinging and running around to stay in tip top shape.

There's just one problem – this monkey needs a name. 

Help Del Monte Fresh Produce name him for a chance to win an entire year supply of Del Monte Fresh Produce bananas (the Grand Prize*) or one of 100 stuffed monkeys that will be given away randomly to Del Monte Fresh Produce Facebook fans.

To enter, go to https://www.facebook.com/DelMonteFreshProduce and click on the "Name Me. Win Me" box. This will redirect you to a page to enter your name and email in order to vote on one of five possible names. If you are already a fan of Del Monte Fresh Produce on Facebook, you must still enter to vote. If you are not currently a fan, you must "Like" Del Monte Fresh Produce to enter.

Now quit monkeying around and go to https://www.facebook.com/DelMonteFreshProduce to enter today!

•The grand Prize of a year supply of bananas will consist of 52 coupons for $2.00 each (equivalent to one bunch of bananas). That's one bunch of bananas per week for an entire year. Coupons cannot be redeemed for cash.

Disclaimer: I will receive coupons for 2 free bunches of bananas for posting this. Thank you Del Monte.