Budding Scatologist

This afternoon I was changing Dallin's poopy diaper as Erin observed. The poop had been squished into a flat round disc, and when Erin saw it she said, "Oh, that looks like bison poop." I was pretty surprised with her comment because she was only 2 when we visited Yellowstone and saw bison scat.

"How do you know what bison poop looks like?" I asked. "Because it's on the picture!" she exclaimed with an exasperated "duh, Mom" tone.

Sixteen and a half years later, the framed scat bandana we received as a wedding gift has had a positive impact upon our child. (It hangs in our hallway next to the bathroom.) It was a proud parent moment to say the least! Now I've just got to get her out to find some scat in the wild! If it would ever stop snowing, it would be a bit easier...

Anyone interested in ordering their own scat bandana can do so here. However, the bandana has been revised in the past 16 years and no longer features the bison scat prominently in the center. You will have to take your children to Yellowstone to observe some firsthand.

End of March

We attended some classes offered by USU professors for Home School Science Day. Ian participated in Andy Anderson's lab and had the opportunity to dissect a pig kidney and eyeball. It was a very fun experience! Meanwhile Megan toured the geology labs with some other friends, and then we met together for the entertaining physics demonstrations by Professor Coburn.

Ian is expanding his mouse business and trying to sell this multicolored beauty as a Fancy Mouse for a pet. You have to admit that he is pretty cute! Kevin put an ad on ksl.com and is the contact person since people under 18 cannot advertise there.

Our Sunday church meetings were canceled due to a sudden blizzard that dumped a few more inches of snow. Gotta love Spring in Logan!

This gorgeous junco wandered into our sunroom and got trapped.
Kevin rescued it and released it out front.

Honoring the Good Man Patrick

There were no green eggs and ham for breakfast, but how about some green pancakes?

Erin helped Dad make pancakes early this morning. He wasn't paying attention when she
dumped in more than a spoonful of green food coloring. They tasted fine, but Mom just
couldn't bring herself to eat them (as we learned, sight plays a big role in taste!)

Erin is still young enough she enjoys making a shamrock headband as part of our celebration.
Dallin can't really voice his opinion over the matter yet so he got one too.
What do you think of our two cute leprechauns?






Dallin's first lesson in playing Leap Frog

We made our traditional shamrock sugar cookies--all fluff and not one bit healthy,
but mighty tasty! Erin became bored with the shamrock shape and decided to make
some fish to go along with the others. We shared with some of our neighbors
(the shamrocks, not the fish).

And Megan had her final birthday celebration for the year with her Young Women's group.
Judy made a yummy raspberry cream cake and Megan received a new journal.
Thanks!

To bid adieu to this day of green we leave you with this song:

In Pursuit of a Less Hirsute Look

Which face do you like best?

View A
The Distinguished Full-Bearded Real Biologist Look

View B
The Dorky Goatee Look

View C
The Drunken Mustache Look

View D
The Clean-Cut Naked Face Look

April prefers View A. Our new Stake President prefers View D.
We defer to the wishes of the Stake President for the time being.
It was a painful haircut and shave moment in our bathroom this morning.
(April wonders if Ward Primary Presidents are going to be required to shave now too.)

Week-Long Dissertation Boot Camp

Due to budget cuts, USU employees were required to take a Spring Break furlough. We thought this would be a great time for Kevin to focus on his dissertation again, so April and children headed south for the week leaving him alone to write, write, and write some more. Since it was still a bit too cold to embark on a camping trip, we only went as far as Salt Lake Valley. We thank Grandma and Grandpa for putting us up for the week and letting us add excitement to Grandpa's retirement.


Sunday Evening

As mentioned in the birthday post, we partied at the Gold's house. Tanya and Dallin hit it off really well, and she didn't even mind too much when he spit up all over her shoulder. We heard there are bets among certain cousins predicting when Tanya and Rex will add some offspring to their family.




Monday

We spent time with Grandma Tsukamoto (see b-day post again) and then visited our good friends, the Bucherts, for the afternoon and evening. They invited us to stay for dinner and Family Home Evening. Thanks so much for letting us invade. It was one of the highlights of the week for the children.


















Tuesday

We FINALLY made it to the movie Bolt. The children earned this prize last month for decluttering, but it had left Logan theaters by then. Fortunately it was still showing at the dollar theaters in SLC. Ever since seeing it, Erin has added Bolt to her repertoire of animals she pretends to be. She wore a hole in yet another pair of pants while crawling around Grandma's house barking the "super bark."



Tuesday night, Mom, Megan, and Dallin returned to Logan so Megan could attend her very first Young Women's activity. It was orginally going to be a party welcoming Megan into the organization, but then it turned out to be a stake activity. Megan came home wearing make up from a skin care mini class. We chuckled as she refused to allow us to take a photo and immediately went upstairs to wash her face. The only make up we have in the house is for Halloween, and Megan said she doesn't understand why girls would want to paint their faces each day. If any of our readers feel like Megan needs more cosmetic education you will have to intervene now--her mother is no help in this department.


Wednesday

Megan and Mom returned to SLC and relieved Grandpa from entertainment duties. Ian and Erin had run him ragged, and he was ready for a bit of a break. We did enlist his services again later in the afternoon to help with errands. We did some bargain shopping for pants for the boys in the family. In the evening, the children practiced the piano at Grandma T's house and played more games.




Thursday

April, Dallin, and Grandma T went to visit Aunt Betty who is recovering from surgery and a broken hip. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera and don't have pictures of Dallin playing with "cousin" Sofia, who is 2 months older than him.

Following lunch, April took all 4 children to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. You may ask how good can an aquarium in the middle of Utah be? Well...it doesn't hold a candle to the Sydney Aquarium. But it's o.k. for people living in a desert climate--just don't expect anything spectacular. The displays of Utah freshwater critters and those from the Amazon Rain Forest were very well done. The ocean section just wasn't as impressive as in aquariums located by the ocean. Megan and Ian enjoyed petting the stingrays in the touch pool. Erin acted as aquarium guide by the coral reef window and made sure everyone walking by noticed Nemo (the clownfish). She also liked the variety of frogs.




Friday

The children engaged in a final playtime with Grandpa while Mom packed up and loaded the car for the trip back home. We had to get back in time for Megan's friend birthday party. When we called Grandpa later to say we had arrived safely in Logan, he said his house was much too quiet and he already missed us. Maybe we'll have to return more frequently!

Dissertation Status
by Kevin

April asked me to write about what I did all week. Well, the first thing I did was notice how very quiet our house is with no kids here. It didn't take long for me to notice how easy it was to cook and clean for just one person. Spending the week writing was kind of lonely, kind of overwhelming, and occasionally interesting. I did write each day and am grateful for the progress I made. Long stretches were sometimes spent fussing with data or reworking key paragraphs. I felt like I was trying to resurrect the dead--there are a lot of details that I have forgotten about the work we did, but that makes sense when you consider we collected the data between 1996 and 1998!

I spent some time being angry that I did not finish 10 years ago! I realize how close I was, and that the same problems that plagued me before still have to be dealt with now. On the one hand I am more mature (in some ways) and better able to deal with those problems. On the other hand, with more than a decade since my statistics class it is hard to remember how to do the analyses! Also, I was much more familiar with the literature in 1999 than I am now (I have numerous sentences with notes to myself saying I need to find a reference to back up this statement). I'm mad that I let myself be intimidated by my committee members and that I was so crushed by their comments (I don't know if any of them actually intended to put me down or if that is just how I took it).

I have made a lot of mistakes, which greatly prolonged this painful process. I remember when I was looking into graduate school I considered applying to the lab of Eric Pianka (a famous lizard ecologist). But on his website he had an open letter to prospective graduate students where he said, "In terms of making a decent living, you'd be wiser to become a plumber!" His letter also said, "My advice to a young person is not to become a biologist if he or she can possibly help it, but if he or she can't help it, they'll probably make a good one." I didn't care for his advice, but I understand it better now (and find myself telling prospective graduate students some of the same things!).

One mistake I did not make was in my choice of an advisor. Dr. Brodie has been excellent to work with since the day we first met him. He has certainly let me take my own path and make my own mistakes. Some days I think a little more structure may have been nice, but he has been supportive in spite of my shortcomings and has been an excellent example of a first-rate scientist as well as a generous human being. We have had wonderful, memorable experiences over the years that we worked with horned lizards and I hope I can transfer a bit of that excitement into the manuscripts that represent my dissertation. One of my committee members said I was born 100 years too late to do the kind of work we did (a lot of fun natural history), but I think the field of biology is big enough to accommodate my meager contribution. In many ways I would have been better off doing something more in vogue, but the work we did is an honest expression of who I am and what I am interested in.

12 Years Old!

Twelve years ago on 6 March at 1:43 P.M., Megan made a grand entrance into this world and elevated Kevin and April to the status of parents.

Due to a variety of circumstances this year, Megan celebrated her birthday over several days during the past week.

On her actual birthday, she spent the morning participating in the Home School Science Fair. Afterwards our family went out to eat at Sizzler where Kevin discreetly informed the waitress we had a birthday girl and she received a large complimentary root beer float! We returned home for presents and ice cream sandwiches.

Later that night we ate her favorite homemade spinach-bacon quiche for dinner.

Celebrations continued Sunday night with extended family. We were invited to Charlie's and Clytee's for dinner, cake, and games. Due to a miscommunication concerning cake, there were 3 cakes at the party--a green one made by Charlie to go along with the St. Patrick's Day theme, lemon cupcakes made by Grandma Young, and a poppy seed bundt cake made by us.

Monday we celebrated with Grandma Tsukamoto and ate lunch at Panda Express.

On Friday, Megan celebrated with friends Emily and Amelia.

Megan and her friends find great satisfaction in seeing how many layers of paper and tape they can use to wrap gifts. It is almost a contest to see how long it takes the birthday person to open the gifts. The other part of the contest is to see how random the gifts can be--such as the Barney sing-a-long book!

One more party to go at the next Young Women's activity on Tuesday...

Playing Catch-Up Again

Life has been really crazy lately, and many posts have been started only to be left unfinished. We'll try to catch up a bit this morning on more of our family adventures.

Cub Scout Award

Ian earned his Wolf Badge at the end of January. He received the award at the annual Blue and Gold Banquet in February. Ian is now in the Bear Den. April has been in several bear dens, and wishes she had been in one just last weekend, but we've already discussed that. . . so we got a new book for Ian and he is looking forward to working on more scouting projects.

New Keyboard

Years ago when we wanted Megan to start piano lessons, Kevin & April had a discussion. April wanted a real piano, while Kevin wanted a digital keyboard. April wanted sound quality and authenticity, Kevin wanted to save his back by not moving a real piano. We eventually agreed on an 80-lb Yamaha Clavinova, which sounds good, but not AS GOOD as a real piano.

Well, after years of perfect service (and no need to ever get it tuned), one of the B keys started sticking last February (about the same time as our furnace problem occurred). We called the one Clavinova repairman for Northern Utah, described the problem, and he said he'd order a new keyboard and get back with us. Three weeks passed, during which time we had to take the children to the ward building to practice since the stuck key was hindering progress. Then one morning, with no warning, the repairman arrived with a new keyboard, removed the old, installed the new, said it was covered under a "recalled item," and left. He wasn't much into conversation and we probably annoyed him with all our questions. In case anyone wonders what the inside of a Clavinova looks like (not as interesting as a REAL piano), satisfy your curiosity here:

By the way, Megan's and Ian's teacher thinks we should get a real piano since they FEEL different. Kevin agrees--they feel MUCH different any time you try to move one!

More on the Decluttering Front

Did we mention we were going through old files from the file cabinet? Here Ian is holding a portion of the shreddings.

How many of our readers are old enough to remember these? Our college English papers and April's preliminary thesis writings are contained on these disks. Anyone out there who can retrieve them now? If so, you can find them in our trash.

Not pictured:

• 1987 List of endangered species

• April's ACT scores from 1987 and 1988

• April's driver's education pamphlet and worksheets from high school class (why on earth did I save that stuff?)
• $5.00 bill in a birthday card from 2003 (not decluttered)
  

Farewell to our Stake Presidency

Kevin has had the opportunity to serve for 2 years on the High Council under the leadership of President Stevenson and his counselors. They have been amazing men to work with and we sadly bid them farewell. Kevin is still on the High Council with the new stake presidency. Note that Kevin is the only one with a beard--more on that later.

2009 Home School Science Fair

The children worked hard on their projects for this year's science fair. Megan (with encouragement and assistance from Kevin) chose to work with bacteria. She sampled different places in the house (doorknob, computer mouse, dog leash, fridge handle, to name a few) and grew bacteria on agar plates. She learned about Gram staining too. Note to readers: Disinfect your fridge handles! We were surprised by the amount of bacteria that grew from her sample compared to the other places. Or maybe it's just a reflection of April's poor housekeeping skills.

Ian chose to do a taste test experiment using Jello. He made 2 batches of lemon Jello, colored one bright red, and left the other one yellow. He then sampled 10 people with blindfolds and 10 without. Those who could see thought the yellow Jello tasted like lemon or pineapple and the red Jello tasted like flavors associated with red color (cherry, strawberry, raspberry, watermelon, and even cinnamon). Only one person who saw red guessed that it was lemon! The blindfolded people recognized a citrus flavor for either color (they sometimes said "lime" instead of "lemon"). The project really turned out well demonstrating that sight has a strong effect on people's perceived tastes.

Here they are with their completed posters and ribbons. Ian's project earned one of the top 2 scores out of all the participants and he received an additional rocket prize.

Dallin Starts Solids

Now that Dallin is 6 months old (and FINALLY nursing exclusively from Mom--good-bye pump!), Kevin and children were very excited to introduce him to solid foods. He loves the rice cereal but surprisingly isn't as fond of mashed bananas or applesauce...yet.

Where April Would Rather Be This Weekend

The Pine Springs Hilton, Book Cliffs, UT...

Eating Hal's fried onions and potatoes...

Riding ATVs and/or snowmobiles...

Scaling steep slopes...

In search of black bear dens...

Tranquilizing bears...

Taking data...

Snuggling the cubs...

Posing with the yearlings...

And having a really great time with Bear Crew friends.

Overall I consider myself a pretty low-maintenance wife. I don't ask for much, however, the once-a-year highlight for me occurs in early March when the annual bear denning trip comes up. It is about the only time I get entirely to myself, to enjoy an outing with friends in the great outdoors. Last year I felt way too sick to even consider going (thanks to pregnancy hormones), plus it was the weekend of Ian's baptism and that had priority, and I really didn't have regrets. But the time has again arrived, and I am a bit depressed that I am unable to go. Having a 6-month-old (along with 3 other children) doesn't exactly coincide with participating this year.

I hope that my children someday realize the sacrifices I make for them, like missing bear denning trips...sigh...