Our Sub Zero Ice Cream field trip was AWESOME. Honestly, it was up there with my favorites. Playing with liquid nitrogen was exciting and educational...and something I never would have attempted with the kids at home...even if it didn't cost hundreds of dollars.
The manager, Royal, gave each group a small bowl of liquid nitrogen, which was placed inside a bigger stainless steel bowl. Everyone took turns touching it. You have to be quick. If you touch it too long, it will hurt, and then freeze your finger off...literally.
We froze some little candies and marshmallows and then threw them to make them shatter.
This picture was right after Bubs spilled liquid nitrogen on himself. Um, yeah.
Did you know that liquid nitrogen boils below room temperature? It's crazy! While it sat there in the bowls, it slowly rose to a boil...although it was still
Baby Ezekiel Petersen was life-flighted to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City on Monday, January 31, 2011. He has RSV and a serious heart condition which requires surgery as soon as possible. His parents, Royal and Jenn Petersen, need help. The cost of their son’s medical care is astronomical.
Here is Baby Zeke’s story as told by his father, Royal:
“Our youngest child, Ezekiel (or “Zeke”, seven weeks old) got sick recently and began showing symptoms late Sunday night. Sunday afternoon he was fine, smiley and all, but Sunday night he was pretty ill. Monday morning Jenn was worried and decided to take him to the doctor. Zeke’s condition had deteriorated all morning long but became exponentially worse in the doctor’s office. Dr. Johnson advised Jenn to take an Ambulance to Primary Children’s hospital in
SLCabout an hour away. Dr. Johnson then got on the phone and began preparing Primary Children’s to receive Zeke. During this time Zeke’s breathing became very shallow and sporadic. Zeke turned white and his lips purple. This is when Dr. Johnson became panicked, he immediately took Zeke and put him on oxygen. He told Jenn Zeke
wasn’t going to make it to Primary Children’s and that if they took the Ambulance that was just arriving to Utah Valley Hospital instead he would have a chance.(about 5 blocks up the road) They went to Utah Valley. Utah Valley is a good hospital but not equipped (with equipment or staff) to handle heart issues in children especially small infants. By an act of God the doctor/heart specialist at Utah Valley happened to
My sister-in-law, Shannon Lewis, sent me this picture of her sixth-grade class. Guess what they're holding up?
Letters to a soldier in Iraq!
Yup. They're reading
Operation Yes together and taking action. They plan to do more. I love it.
Also, Shannon must have a karmic connection to this book because
1) She's done improv with her students before (Natalie, they're digging the new suggestions from your
wonderful teacher's guide.)
2) She says "I have always done push-ups in my class because we do this activity called roundtable and I am not supposed to talk. For each time I do, push ups." Go, Shannon!
3) She's had a beat-up old couch in her class for FIVE YEARS.
Finally, did you all see
the editorial in USA TODAY from Michelle Obama and Jill Biden? It's called "The Troops Need Us."
As a country, we have come a long way in how we support our veterans and military families. In our travels to base communities from Fort Bragg to Camp Pendleton, we have seen employers creating innovative programs to support military families, classrooms adopting deployed units, faith communities providing prayers and support, and countless other acts of kindness.
Yet there is still more work to be done.
Our military families are strong, resilient and proud to serve their country.
Nonetheless, they don't always feel that the rest of the country is part of the war effort. We've met National Guard families who feel isolated because they are the only members of their communities experiencing the deployment of a loved one. We've heard from military kids who struggle in school while their parents are deployed.
Remarkably, these same families still find time to serve their communities every day. They are troops who come home from a long deployment and coach Little League or mentor a child. They are children who tutor their younger siblings, and spouses who balance their families with jobs, school, community service — or all of the above. They are wounded warriors, survivors and veterans who continue to give so much to our country.
[...] That's why we're challenging every sector of American society to support and engage our military families. You don't have to come from a military family, have a base in your community, or be an expert in military issues to make a difference. Every American can do something.
Clearly, Mrs. Lewis and her sixth-graders are doing something. Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Biden, I wish you'd send them a thumbs-up or something.
Read more of the editorial here.
Pitching in is not hard. A few good friends of mine are abroad teaching and volunteering in foreign countries because they felt they had to “do something”, but you don’t have to go to China or Uzbekistan (bless you, Melanie, Jon, and Bryan) to make a real difference.
VolunteerMatch will help you find local opportunities for you to volunteer by entering your zip code and a keyword like “literacy” or “environment”.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is almost everywhere and all you need to do is hang out and be yourself. PTA, Boy Scouts, the list goes on…
When I can, I volunteer at 826CHI, the Chicago chapter of a national literacy and tutoring organization. It’s almost shameful how rewarded I feel from this supposedly altruistic act. I feel fantastic after just a few hours of 2nd grade spelling. Can watching a couple episodes of “More to Love” make your whole week seem purposeful and joyous? If not, I suggest that those couple hours can be better spent enhancing YOUR life, not to mention your community.
Pitch in! You’ll thank me later.
Recently, MJM Books has become aware of the good work that Maple Star Colorado is doing to “assist young people to achieve social integration and prepare them to live in a democratic society by serving as an alternative to institutional care and providing opportunities to live in family settings.”
In plain English, they place foster kids who may not exactly feel loved, valued, or accepted into families dedicated to helping those children feel exactly that.
That is why we agreed to provide every young foster child with a personalized children’s book that will (1) show them they are special, and (2) give the child and their new caretakers an opportunity to bond and celebrate that specialness during story time.
These families are making up for lost time, and since we firmly believe that strong communities are built upon strong families, we hope to help in our small way.
I don’t want to sound overly patriotic, but I still get all misty when I hear JFK’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” There are many other inspirational quotes regarding pitching in, but two of the best are “Be the change you want to see in the world” and “Just do it.”
…
Pitching in is not hard. A few good friends of mine are abroad teaching and volunteering in foreign countries because they felt they had to “do something”, but you don’t have to go to China or Uzbekistan (bless you, Melanie, Jon, and Bryan) to make a real difference.
VolunteerMatch will help you find local opportunities for you to volunteer by entering your zip code and a keyword like “literacy” or “environment”.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is almost everywhere and all you need to do is hang out and be yourself. PTA, Boy Scouts, the list goes on…
When I can, I volunteer at 826CHI, the Chicago chapter of a national literacy and tutoring organization. It’s almost shameful how rewarded I feel from this supposedly altruistic act. I feel fantastic after just a few hours of 2nd grade spelling. Can watching a couple episodes of “More to Love” make your whole week seem purposeful and joyous? If not, I suggest that those couple hours can be better spent enhancing YOUR life, not to mention your community.
Pitch in! You’ll thank me later.
Recently, MJM Books has become aware of the good work that Maple Star Colorado is doing to “assist young people to achieve social integration and prepare them to live in a democratic society by serving as an alternative to institutional care and providing opportunities to live in family settings.”
In plain English, they place foster kids who may not exactly feel loved, valued, or accepted into families dedicated to helping those children feel exactly that.
That is why we agreed to provide every young foster child with a personalized children’s book that will (1) show them they are special, and (2) give the child and their new caretakers an opportunity to bond and celebrate that specialness during story time.
These families are making up for lost time, and since we firmly believe that strong communities are built upon strong families, we hope to help in our small way.
I don’t want to sound overly patriotic, but I still get all misty when I hear JFK’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” There are many other inspirational quotes regarding pitching in, but two of the best are “Be the change you want to see in the world” and “Just do it.”
…
You go to the hospital, lets say the emergency room they have you laying on a narrow bed, your barely dressed and afraid to move; and people are coming in and out like it is the local supermarket. You have the right for privacy and you should demand it.
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The worst is when they are not too sure why your have hives and a fever, they seem to bring in several medical students and now they are discussing your situation. WHY!
After they leave the curtained area, you ask the person with you, or the nurse why is it necessary that so many people have to come parading around you. If told that this is a teaching hospital, inform them that you don’t recall signing anything that said you could be put on display. You want to be diagnosed, cured and sent home!
How about the pregnant woman, who goes into labor and constantly being checked on, by a different person every hour; or they look in through the little square glass window. Where is your right to privacy? The longer your labor the more faces you will see.
So the next time you find yourself staying in a hospital, let them know how you feel; it is your right to have privacy. It does not matter if you’re in the Emergency Room, Recovery Room, or you have been admitted and people just wonder in and out. If after speaking the staff, ask for a supervisor; and voice how you feel.
Some people are afraid to complain, but you should not; others will wait until they are home to complain, as not to be treated rudely during your stay. If it is your intention to file a complaint after you are discharged, make sure you take down names, along with the date and shift that they worked.
Service is very important, and if your feel that your personal privacy was invaded; you have the right to let the Board of Directors and supervisor know!
Here am I; send me.I think about this statement often...Often enough that I wanted it above my mantel.In Isaiah 6:8, we read, "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."I want to be available when the Lord asks something of me. I want to be a servant He can rely on.Marjorie Hinckley said, "I don't want to drive up to
How can writing be of service?
I'm still working on answers to that question, but I love what Francisco Stork has to say about where we should begin:
Why write if not to give and to give your best? The thing about writing from a spirit of generosity that is not so obvious is that if the spirit of giving is not in your writing, your writing will not be as good as it could be. It will be superficial and you will not give the reader what he or she most desires. And the reader will not give the work his or her full devotion. There is a connection between “why” you write and “how” you write. If giving is the reason why you write you will reach a depth in your writing that will not be reached if you are motivated by anything else other than the desire to give. Writing that is born out of a desire to give is the writing that lasts.
Here is the rest of his gently provocative post,
The Six Perfections of Writing.What do you think? Is writing service? If so, you have to admit that it's not what immediately comes to mind on these sorts of occasions. How can we get better at that?
Note: Francisco Stork is the author of
Marcelo in the Real World (March 09, Arthur A. Levine Books.) I have a proof of the book beside me now that I've just begun to read. I only meant to read one chapter and then go to bed, but somehow, I'm deep into Chapter 5. More about it later, I promise.
Memorial Day is tomorrow, so I thought some history on this most important of days would be appropriate.
Memorial Day - or Decoration Day, as it was known then - was first nationally observed on May 30, 1868. On that day, flowers were placed on Union and Confederate soldiers' graves. Originally, this day honored only those who fought and died in the Civil War, but after World War I, that stipulation was expanded to honor those who died in all American wars.
Waterloo, New York was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, though over two dozen cities and towns claim to be the rightful originators of the day. (This includes Pennsylvania's own little village of Boalsburg.) But however it came to be, what is most important is that we have the day. Memorial Day is about coming together to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the good of our country.
Now, Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday in May. In recent years, the traditional observances of the day - wearing red poppies (an idea first conceived by Ms Moina Michael and later taken up by Madam Guerin of France), observing proper flag etiquette, holding parades, and decorating the graves of the fallen - has gone by the wayside in some places. Memorial Day is seen by many as an extra day off of work, a time for picnics and barbecues and sports events, and a day to honor anyone who has died.
Because of this, and to ensure that the ultimate price paid by fallen American heroes is not forgotten, the President signed into law in 2000 "The National Moment of Remembrance."
So, throughout the weekend, have fun, enjoy your picnics and barbecues and sports events, and relax on your day off.
But don't forget those heroes whose sacrifices made all of our comforts and freedoms possible...
At 3:00 PM your local time, on Memorial Day tomorrow, observe the National Moment of Remembrance. Pause wherever you are for a minute of silence. Remember and honor those who have died in service to our country.
If you have a loved one to honor this day, please leave his or her name in the comments section. Tell us a little about them if you like. I'll list them in a special post tomorrow. Then we can know a little bit more about the people responsible for the freedoms we enjoy today.
There are many things we say and do to make the world fit our shoe.
We form, we twist, we grab and hold, all this done to fit our mold.
No matter what the deal, we do it so the better we feel.
Lighting so many votives though many think them fishy motives.
But I know honest wishes for good are made even when basking in the shade.
Still the good wishes left undone may leave us to spoil in the noon-day sun!
So let the goodwill toward the masses begin by getting off your asses.
Have you heard the one about the famous nun graphic designer? Me either, until I recently stumbled upon this book, entitled “Come Alive!: The Spirited Art of Sister Corita”. I wondered who this “Sister Corita” was. Clever moniker? Kooky pseudonym? Nope: actual nun. Née Frances Elizabeth Kent, Sister Corita:
(…) was the most famous nun of the 1960s and one of the most famous graphic artists in the US, yet she is rarely mentioned in the grand history of graphic design.
Born 1918, in Fort Dodge, Iowa; Frances Kent moved with her family to Vancouver in 1920 and Los Angeles in 1922. She entered the Sisters of Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1936 as Sister Mary Corita, attended Immaculate Heart College, and received her Masters Degree in Art History from the University of Southern California in 1951. From 1946 to 1968, Sister Corita taught art at Immaculate Heart College; often using unconventional methods: looking a work without blinking, staging happenings, etc. As the chair of the Art Department, the known and unknown visited her classes: Buckminster Fuller, Charles and Ray Eames, Ben Shahn, and Daniel and Philip Berrigan. (via Speak Up)
Sister Corita had been “nuts about words and their shape since [she] was very young” and during the mid-1960s her work shifted from silkscreened, liturgical images reminiscent of Ben Shahn to Pop Art appropriations of consumer-product typography and slogans. In her view, Wonder Bread corresponded with the Eucharist, Joy detergent was a sacrament, and SafeWay was a metaphor for the Faith.
She felt there was much to learn from television advertisements. In a 1967 Christian renewal symposium she postulated if the medium is the message; then perhaps if Christ lived today, his sermons would take the form of commercials. All the poetry of a painting is diminished by those who do not see it, so to care about communication is to care about form. (ibid.)
I’m not touching that last paragraph with a ten-foot pole.
There’s more at the following links:
- Corita.org
- Wikipedia entry
- Creative Review (thanks Elaine!)
- Weekend America Public Radio
- Design Observer
By: John,
on 1/24/2008
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Say THAT ten times fast. Rolls right off the tongue. Anyhoo…
You spoiled rich kids who’ve already upgraded to Leopard can give your Mac’s seemingly-useless Color Picker a little extra zazz with Mondrianum, a plugin that pumps Adobe’s Kuler into CP:
Lithoglyph’s Mondrianum is a powerful plug-in that enables Mac applications to leverage the resources of the kuler community. Once installed, Mondrianum acts like a built-in, system-wide color picker, available in any Mac application that supports this feature of Mac OS X. Apple’s own iWork™ and iLife® suites, Google Sketchup™, and renowned applications like Coda, CSSEdit, and many more, all work well with Mondrianum.
And, no, it doesn’t work in 10.4. I tried. Wahh!
Dan Krall (previously) started a wonderful weekly sketch blog about two years ago. Damn, this boy can paint.
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By:
Mark,
on 1/13/2008
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Just as I decided to pack it in for the night and wait on Libsyn support to punch-in on Monday morning, I noticed that the support tech had logged in to the Libsyn live (Meebo) service on their support site. I nabbed the guy as quickly as I could and explained the upload problem I’ve been having. He contacted the server team and they discovered a disk error and fixed it right away.
Because Libsyn service rocks, the Jane Ray interview will be published on schedule.
Thanks, Libsyn!
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This week’s interview is with illustrator/author Jane Ray. Unfortunately, we have been unable to successfully upload the show to our file host provider, Libsyn. A ticket with their support team has been opened and the show will be published as soon as the problem is corrected — likely during business hours on Monday (Jan 21).
We apologize for the delay.
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Wear Palettes is a great new blog collecting colour schemes from The Sartorialist’s street-fashion photos.
By: John,
on 12/10/2007
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Our friends at Bountee have another contest underway to promote their new feature that allows designers to choose a whole range of colors at once for their shirt designs. All you need to be is the illustrator or designer who creates THE shirt that makes the most of the new colour options available to them. Prizes include 5 shirts, $500 in cash, and a boxed copy of LineForm for Mac OS X. Visit Bountee for details.
I first saw Jim Winters’ work about 6 years ago when I was in a shop in San Francisco, and picked up a decal with his rendition of Yvonne Craig as the green-skinned Orion slave-girl from Star Trek. His work is still chock full of colour and intensity. This one above is, clearly, not an Orion slave-girl.
As for that decal, it graced the back cover of a sketchbook of mine that I lost two years ago. Boo.
Posted on 10/16/2007
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So have you used your new German and French words in a sentence yet? If you want to wow your friends even more take the Spanish quiz below. Questions were gleaned from the Oxford Language Dictionaries Online which is freely accessible though the 21st. If you have trouble with the quiz below use OLDO to find the answers! Be sure to check back later for our final quiz which will be in Italian!
Question 1: What’s the difference in Spanish between te quiero and quiero té?
Question 2: In English we have blue jokes; what color are they in Spanish?
Question 3: If Madrid or Barcelona are described as colapsado, what has happened?
Question 4: What do a pensamiento, a nomeolvides, and a margarita have in common?
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IdeaFixa, a virtual e-magazine, has launched its 7th issue devoted to colour. The “book” is filled with vibrant full-page spreads of photos and illustrations all on the subject of colour. Here are a few more spreads to give you an idea of what you can expect to find inside:
By: John,
on 6/25/2007
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Looking for that perfect palette of colours for your next job? You know what they say — good artists borrow, great artists steal. An article titled Colour Inspiration from the Masters of Painting over at COLOURlovers shows how you can uncover some time-tested colour combinations just by taking a look at some of your favourite paintings. Of course, this method isn’t limited to seeking inspiration from a bunch of dead guys — in fact, just browsing the pages of Drawn! reveals some eye-catching colour combos I may have to shamelessly appropriate myself.
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This week, many of our partners and recipient groups are celebrating AmeriCorps Week to recognize the service of the AmeriCorps members working within their organizations to elevate the quality of education for the children they serve. Here at First Book, we’re proud to have some AmeriCorps alums on our staff and as volunteers working to help get more books out to the kids who need them most.
Jonelle McCoy is a current AmeriCorps member serving in youth mentoring program at LCSC, but because of her experience working with students in the community struggling with literacy, she said she “jumped at the chance to volunteer” with First Book-LCSC. Her AmeriCorps service has given her the opportunity to work directly with students in the community struggling with literacy.
First Book was founded twenty years ago on a volunteer model, and our national network of volunteers has grown ever since. Today, there are over 1,000 First Book volunteers in over 160 communities across the country, and we’re adding more all the time. First Book volunteers raise money to provide new books to local schools and programs serving kids from low-income families, and they help First Book’s national offices identify more schools and programs that need our help. 
This fall Clive Cussler, Sandra Brown, Kathy Reichs, Mark Bowden and Andrew Peterson will embark on Operation Thriller, a USO/Armed Forces Entertainment tour.
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Thanks Emily, it was a great turn out. :)
Oh good! I was worried because of the storm. My kids are sick so I didn't make it, but we're going to come down and get some ice cream as soon as everyone is well. We're praying for you!!!
Wish I were in Provo! We'd have loved to have been there! Hugs to Jenn!
The Robisons