#Goldenrod

Do you know your state's flower? 

Nebraska's is the oh so beautiful Goldenrod. 

Source

I learned about the Goldenrod being Nebraska's state flower when I was Isaak's age - almost 11.

Fast Forward to Now:

We were sitting around the table talking about Isaak's Science Fair Project on Optical Illusions.

Mica started talking about what he wanted to do for his Science Fair Project next year. The last two years he's gotten A's on his projects. Go Mica! Isaak's actually been looking at Mica's board to put together his.

Mica has a history of being oh so smart at school. When he comes home he's...well how do I put this kindly?...kind of ditsy and quite a bit lazy when it comes to tasks around the house. We joke about how he left some of his brain power back at school. Not to be mean. He can turn on the brainy Mica, and at times that brainy Mica is turned off. I've seen my smart boy. Again I'm not making fun of him in a mean way. He does WAY better in school than I did!

Mica's ideas for his next projects: Something on the Blackhole. Travis looked at him and said, "Son what experiment are you going to do in regards to the Blackhole? No one can even get close to it, so we don't know enough about it." I said, "Well at least we have a picture of it now." Mica's sat there, and thought some more.

Mica, "I know exactly what I'm going to do!"....Wait for it... "I'm going to explain scientifically why there aren't any Goldenrods in Omaha, when it's our state flower." Travis piped up at the same time as me, "It's because we live in the city."

I lost it. I have this inability to not stop laughing when I find something very funny. In my mind I pictured Mica looking up to the sky and saying, "Where are all the Goldenrods?" I was laughing so hard I was crying. Travis started laughing as hard as I was. We kept interrupting our laughter by saying, "Where did all the Goldenrods go?" Then we'd laugh some more. Poor Mica got up, shook his head, and left the table. Isaak just kept shaking his head and Mica and the gigglers.

I pictured that scene in the movie Pleasentville where the Dad (William H. Macy the one that could have been in trouble with that college scandal) was rattled because he couldn't find his wife or DINNER. That would be Mica. Only rattled because he couldn't find the Goldenrods.

When I texted my Mom about this story she replied with, "Tell Mica Grandpa has Goldenrod flowers in our backyard. He can show him." I told Mica and the poor kid was like, "I don't want to hear about it Mom."

Then I texted Mica, "Instead of doing a science fair project on Where are all the Goldenrods, you should do it on this...Where are all the Aliens."

The boys are used to my antics by now. We tease each other all the time. Even Travis has learned to loosen up a bit. He married me, and had very little sense of humor that he'd show.

Do you ever laugh so hard that you cry? 

WW: Picassoesque {Linky}

Isaak's and I have been working on his Science Fair project. He's doing it on Optical Illusions. He's testing to see if all people see things the same, or different. We've put out polls, and made bar graphs.

This is a fun one we added:

What do you gravitate to first, Forward Facing or a Profile View?

I found that some people find the image disturbing, while others find it interesting. Which category do you fall in?

Post ANY post you want comment love on! It doesn't have to be wordless or wordful. I like rules sometimes, but they are meant to be broken. Link up a post! 

Random Tid Bits

1. I reviewed a game. It took up 3 times to play before we got it. In the process Mica and Isaak argued a lot. Certainly not as smooth of a review as I was hoping for. 


2. Isaak had Doctor Seuss things he was supposed to do all week. Has he done any of them? Nope. I think he's ready for Spring Break already. 


3. I'm heading out to Mica's school to honor him for getting first place in the Science Fair. He should be honoring us for helping him. Ha! I skipped the event last year because of class. This year I was determined to go. I found someone to cover for me. Then it snowed. The event date changed to a different day I have a different class. The same person is covering for me. When they schedule things during the day it's a mess.
   
   
   
   
   
4. We still don't know where Isaak's going to middle school at. We filled out the paperwork, but haven't heard back.


5. The streets are FINALLY getting cleared of snow. It was a mess this last snow!

WW: Mica's Awards

I've been having a hard time getting back into blogging after Christmas. I have so many pictures, and things I could be sharing. I got sick for a few weeks, and just was slow with everything.

Travis, my husband has had quite a few studio visits, which is great, but his studio is the basement of our home. Lots of cleaning up.

Isaak's needed help with school work. More so than other years. He's just never connected with his teacher at all. He's also in a lot of basketball, so we run here and there for him.

I have a different teaching schedule this semester. It's doable. Just hard to get used to.

Now that I've given you the rundown, let's get started...

Mica's quite the character. He gets for the most part A's in school, he wins a lot of things, but if you ask him to do a task a home it's so very frustrating. Isaak, which is 2 years younger than Mica can move circles with chores around Mica. Mica's a great kid, just kind of lazy at home. We joke about how he uses most of his brain power at school.

Recently Mica was picked by his teachers to leave school to merge up with other middle schoolers, for a fun challenging day. They participated in something called Think Tank. I'm not sure what it all involves. I do know they put kids in random groups. They are not placed with kids from their school. They get a problem of sorts, and have to think how to solve it. Mica's group got 2nd place! He came home with a trophy and dog tags.

He also found out that he won 1st place for his Science Fair Project! That's a pretty big deal considering the school he goes to is a Science Magnet School. We thought his board would go on to the next level up, but I guess they went by ribbons. He gets a special ceremony at school. His project was on how long it takes to bleach different colors of hair. True fact: It took longer to bleach the red head's hair than it did the brown head's hair.

Funny tid bit: The girl Mica likes doesn't like him at all. Her parents walked over, Mica shook their hands, started explaining his board. Her Dad said to his daughter, "See this boy has his stuff together!" Ha! We all had a laugh about that at home.

Other things I don't have photos of: 

Mica was picked to participate in the Geography Bee at school, for the second year in a row. He didn't win. It's still a big deal he was picked at all to participate. 

He's really into an extra thing called Quiz Bowl. It's kind of like Jepardy, only there's no answering with a question. There are meets every other week. Mica's school group got 2nd place last Saturday! The school gets that trophy. There's tons of smarty pants kids that participate in Quiz Bowl, so it's pretty cool his school got that far! 

He was selected to take his ACT's, and does that this upcoming Saturday. We signed him up for the science selection. It will be interesting to see how he does.

WW: Metro Science and Engineering Fair {Linky}

Mica's Science Fair Project: Stacking Vegetarian Against Fast Food Diet was 1 of 20 that won at his middle school. His middle school is a science magnet school, and has 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders, so this was a pretty big deal. He had a high fat and carb diet for 2 weeks, and a vegetarian diet for 2 weeks. He kept a food journal, weighed himself every day, we took his blood pressure every day, and paid attention to his stool. Let's just say that he was a grump, and super gassy on the unhealthy diet. He was much more tolerable on the healthy diet.

His project went on to compete against all the other best science fair project in Omaha at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium this Saturday.

We checked him in at 7:30.

Then Travis, Isaak and I had the world's best zoo to ourselves for the most part. The zoo didn't open until 10. We didn't waist any time. We started off in the Aquarium. It was too cold to hang around outside. 

We stayed awhile watching the penguins.

There were a lot of orange things in one aquarium.

Ok so one yellow-green living thing.

The Jelly Fish are so cool to me. They are like watching a lava lamp.

 I've painted a few octopuses or octopi in my life. Did you know that the plural of octopus can be octopuses or octopi? 

We don't get a lot of time alone with one child, so we took the opportunity to shoot photos with just Isaak in the Rain Forest.

Isaak took a photo of us too.

This peacock walked right on past us outside.

My favorite moment was hard to shoot. A gorilla feeding her baby.

The baby had some playtime after eating. I think he or she just discovered their feet.

Mica didn't place in this Science Fair. He was really bummed. I felt bad for him. One of the judges gave him their business card. He thought for sure he won something. I said that he should just be happy he got that far. Life is difficult at times.

WW: Science Fair {Linky}

Mica worked really hard on his Science Fair Project: Stacking Vegetarianism Against Fast Food. 

He kept a food journal for 4 weeks. 

2 weeks he had doughnuts for breakfast, a sugary smoothie, and a Whopper meal from Burger King for dinner. We couldn't control lunch as much. He gained 10 pounds, felt awful, was moody, was gassy, and sluggish. He even had to apologize to a girl in his math class because he kept tooting her way. This is unlike Mica. 

2 weeks following he ate a vegetarian diet, with low carbs. Lots of salads with homemade dressing. He lost 12 pounds, felt "on top of the world" his words - not mine, was not moody, and more alert. We really couldn't believe the difference just 2 weeks made!

It's been awhile, and the school finally announced the winners! This is with all 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Mica won! It's a pretty big honor considering that it's a Science Magnet school. 

He got a special breakfast that Travis (Dad) attended. I wish I could have gone, but I taught that day.

WW: Science Fair {Linky}

The boy's school has a Science Fair every year. Only 4th grade and up have to participate, but they strongly encourage the other grades to join in. Our boys has done it every year.

This year Isaak did his on earth worms and Mica did his on the sugar inside different sodas.

We got books at the library for Isaak on Earthworms. He picked out the most important facts about them, and did drawings of them from his books. He also had a mini compost bin that had big earthworms, compost, and dirt in it.

With Mica we helped him boil different sodas down to see how much sugary crap is in them. Then we weighed the amount of cane sugar that was listed on each can. He tested 4 different kinds. Mountain Dew and Root Beer won for the most sugar. They all had a lot more than we thought in the. It's good we're not regular soda drinkers.

We went to the library, so Mica could type away what he wanted to type up, while we looked for worm books with Isaak.

Mica found out that he won 3rd place a few days before school was out. He was kind of sad about this because in the past he's won 1st place. I told him that his project was good. Other kids do a good job as well.

I was bummed because he didn't get a certificate at all. In with his report card we found out that Isaak won 1st place! I think it's based on grade level, so he didn't beat out his brother. He was so excited he was jumping up and down.

 

Random Tid Bits

1. Since I wrote that post about the 6th grader that likes Mica he's told me that she keeps asking him for help in regards to the Science Fair project, and Talent Show try outs. He declined.
   
   He said, "Mom I just don't think this girl can take hints. She comes to talk to me, and I disappear. I didn't tell him that some girls chase after guys that are hard to get. 


2. Yesterday I made a spontaneous decision to get Mica a new bedding set. He loves Yellow Submarine by The Beatles, and it was all on sale. It will be for his birthday in August, or next Christmas. I always buy things way in advance. Do you buy things in advanced?





Souce

3. Isaak got a horrible cold on Wednesday. Wednesday morning he said his throat hurt. I didn't know if it was allergies or sickness at that time. I generally send the kids to school if they just have a common cold. At the end of the day Isaak looked horrible. Isaak said, "Mom my art teacher asked me why I was in school." I said, "This morning you didn't seem too bad." He said, "I went through a box of tissues today."
   
   I kept him home on Thursday. He was actually well enough to go to school. I didn't know that at 7:30 AM.
   
   Today I sent him to school with an added box to tissues; to make up for the whole box he used on Wednesday.


4. Isaak was in a sneaky mood yesterday. He didn't like his lunch, so he threw it in the trash. I've heard of kids doing this, but never experienced my kids doing it. I sent him to lay down in his room.


5. Isaak's personality is sweet and spicy. Last night he transformed into a sweet boy. He put flowers in a vase for me, wrote me a letter to slip under the bathroom door, while I was showering, and wrote a letter to Travis. What's something that has been done to you that's sweet lately?