Even and Odd Street

We are learning about even and odd numbers in 1st and second grade math right now. So, I found this idea on the internet a couple weeks ago, with making an even and odd street. The hosues on the top are all even and the students had to follow directions with how to make it. Then they could make their second house (the odd house) however they wanted to. I let the 4th graders do the project also, since there are only 4 of them. The kids with their "road"

A picture with my 1st, 2nd and 4th graders. We have 13 in that group.

A picture of the "road" that we hung in the hallway. The kids were excited to see what it would actually look like when it was hung up!

One year ago today.....

One year ago today, this ring found its way to my ring finger.....at the farm in Lemmon on a Saturday night, we became engaged and decided to take the next step towards marriage.
After we had announced it to the family in the house, we posed for a couple of pictures! What good memories!

Flip- Flop Strategy

Yesterday and today I was teaching a math concept--know as the commutative property to the older students. We call it the flip-flop property in 1st-2nd grade though. Anyways, it states that when you change the order of numbers that you add or multiply, you get the same answer. For example: 2+3=5 and 3+2=5

1st and 2nd grade did adding and 3th-8th did a multiplication example on their flip=flops.

I explained that when you take your numbers you flip them around and that's how it's called the "flip-flop" property!

The older students (4th-8th grade)

A close up of one pair of flip-flops

My example

The younger group--- 1st and 2nd grade

Another group picture with the younger students

The best way to end a day......

So, last night I felt like I was living in a big city with an all-night floral delivery service...my phone rang at 8:30 pm and it was the florist just around the block. She said I had a delivery waiting for me and that she had to come to town anyways and do things so she'd send her husband over right away with mine... so 2 minutes later, flowers showed up at my door, compliments of ANDREW!~

It's amazing what an email address of the florist and a down payment by your husband before he leaves the country can do ~~smile~~

The parents visit....

Last week, my parents came up for the evening. When they came up, they helped with things around the house---my dad hung some pictures, hung some curtain rods, and fixed a cupboard. My mom helped me get the supper made and washed the dishes. We went and looked at the school where I teach and then came back and worked around the house and ate supper. It was a fun evening having them here.

My dad fixing with the window

My parents

My dad and I

3rd Assistant Engineer Officer - Larson

Onboard the M.V. Virginian there is a lot of maintenance to do and periodic breakdowns that need immediate attention. In this picture I am finishing up with a fuel pump replacement. Parts like these, and exhaust valves, injectors, etc are changed out after a certain amount of hours used. Then we rebuild the parts to have ready for the next change out. For example, the fuel pumps are changed out every 10000 hours or a little over a year of operating time, but with 6 on each engine, that means about one a month.
This is the control room and the name says it all. We have control of everything as well as a monitoring system that shows us pressures, temperatures, speeds, levels, etc. Unfortunately everything doesn't work perfect, so there is a lot that has to be done out in the engine room to keep the ship running.
This here is a spare crank rod, which connects the piston to the crankshaft. As you can see it is taller than me and weighs probably 15 times as much as me. A lot of the parts on the ship are too heavy to lift by hand, so chain falls, come alongs, and cranes are used extensively to move parts around and into place.

Cooking

Last night, I decided to make lasagne for supper. Right now, since Andrew is on the ship, I'm the only one at home, so this will last the whole week. It's nice because this morning, I packed it for lunch. Tonight I can have it for supper and a couple more lunches this week....
Putting the cheese on...I was running short on cheese...now I know why my mom would get frustrated when she'd go for an ingredient in the refrigerator while she was in the middle of a recipe and find that someone had snacked on it... I didn't have a lot of cheese, but I made it work with what I had...
The finished product just before I took it out of the oven....

Missing my Love

Well it has been over a month now, and I am missing my wife more than ever. But I am almost half way around the world so I must resort to email and limited phone stay positive. I am very thankful to be able to video chat now that I am in Kuwait. I feel very bad for putting Rebecca through the pain of being physically apart for so long. The days go by very fast most of the time for me because I stay so busy with work, and the days seem to run together. But unfortunately it isn't like that for Rebecca. We are constantly looking for Gods answer to where our livelihood lays. As in past instances of each of our lives, there have been opportunities that have arose from no where, when all hope seemed to be lost, and so we are again trusting in God to show us a path. Our utmost goal in life now is to have children and raise them in a way that will allow us to teach them Gods word as best we can, without so much negative influence. Well I guess that is all for now, Andrew

What every teacher needs....

In my school of 22 kids, we have a few students that like to help with "teacher" things. Last week was no exception. The older girls asked if they could help me with projects. So, I brought in the things that I was going to cut, paste and cut again to get ready for laminating. They were great help and it saved me a few hours of doing it myself.
It's nice to know that I have students that actually like to help with that kind of stuff. I can print off more things to make games, projects, etc.. now that I know I have help to get it all done! :)

Freezing Corn

Yesterday and today I helped my parents and nephew freeze corn. We had a good sweet corn crop in our yard and this weekend was when it was perfect ripeness.

The morning started off cold, so a jacket was needed when my mom and I started to pick the corn.

And, the grass was wet, so flip-flops were not the right choice for the feet. But we got our pans full and headed over to the fence to start husking it.

My mom and I in the corn crop....

My parents and I husking the corn

My mom with the corn after she got them all washed off....this was just batch number 1 of 3 total batches that we did....over 100 bags total!

Ethan put the corn in the boiling water, my mom cooled them off, then my dad and I cut the corn from the cob, and then my mom put them in the bags...

My dad cutting the corn off the cob

Ethan husking

My nephew Ethan and I---he's soon to be a teenager later on this month!