I volunteered at the Kansas City Temple open house yesterday.  I worked in the cultural hall handing out refreshments and making sure the tables/floor was clean.  It was a lot of fun!  I really enjoyed talking to people about their tour.  Everyone I asked was so impressed with the building.  It was also fun to talk with those I knew where were volunteering as well.  One of the best parts was running into these guys:

Elder Childs and Elder Moore ran in (surprise!) and told me not to go anywhere because they were going on the tour.  They met up with me an hour later and we were able to chat for a while.  We were overstaffed so I didn't worry too much about shirking my duties.  They served in our ward last year and became really good friends with our family.  I was sorry the rest weren't there to share the fun!  And guess what?  They are companions again in Derby, Kansas!  They were pretty stoked about that. 

I told them they should kneel down for the picture; I am seriously dwarfed by the two of them.  E. Childs told me they couldn't or else nobody would think it was real.  ha ha ha!  They had no idea our stake was hosting that day.  What a great coincidence!!!  They had so much fun talking to other people they knew as well -- I was really happy for them!  And me!  Yay!!!

A Walk Through Time

A few weeks ago we had a field trip with a man named Steve Poitras.  Steve is a paleontologist and has spent his entire life on digs and studies all over the world.  Where he couldn't get original fossils, he made casts of the originals.  The result is a lifetime of stories, of learning, and TONS of fossils.  I met him at Martha Lafite Thompson Nature Sanctuary a couple of months ago where he had some of his stuff on exhibit.  He is going to to an Earth Week assembly for our school in a couple of weeks and I also asked him if he would help our Webelos scouts with their Scientist Pin.  They had to meet with a scientist, who had to show them what he/she did, etc.

Steve took us out to Watkins Mill Park where he talked about genetics and why things grow the way they do.  For example, locust trees only have thorns up to about 15 feet high and then they are thornless higher up.  This came about because the mastodons that lived in the area could only reach up that high.  The trees developed thorns as a protection against the mastodons.  Cool, huh?  He also explained why certain rocks are located in certain spots and how they were made.  There was one rock that looked far different from any others.  Steve explained that it was a glacial rock, carried down in a glacier originating in Minnesota and ending at the Missouri river.  Geologists and paleontologists have even mapped the rocks from that particular glacier!

After our hike Steve brought out the fossils.  They were so neat!  Here are some pictures.  They were taken from my phone and aren't the best quality but, at least it's better than none at all!!

 Saber Tooth Tiger and Neanderthal Skulls

 

 

 Logan, Campbell Condiff, Jorja, Carson Adams, and Layton Patterson

 Steve, Jason Adams, Jillian, Brad, and Logan

 A reconstructed Saber Tooth Tiger head, based off the skull.

 

Top to bottom: a mastodon tooth, (in the box) various teeth, early human tool (the handle was reconstructed), largest shark tooth on record, fossil of a leaf. 

 My Jorja!

 My Jilly!

 Campbell Condiff

 Layton Patterson

 Our Webelos!  Campbell, Carson, and Layton

 Carson Adams with Steve Poitras

My Logan

This is what I have on my calendar for the next few weeks:

Volunteer at the temple open house
4 choir practices
3 choir performances
2 parties for Jorja
1 field trip to the aquarium with Jorja's class
1 baby shower
1 stake activity for Jillian
2 meetings for the RS dinner
1 RS dinner, of which I will be hosting
1 scheduled subbing day, hopefully I will get more
2 Earth Week lessons to prepare -- adapt them to fit each grade level
Last minute Earth week preparations to be done  -- like catching frogs!
5 days of Earth Week activities
Volunteer at the school's Bulldog Brigade
2 day care music lessons to prepare and then teach
Weekly scout lessons
Stake Conference adult meeting
Stake choir performance at Sunday meeting
Temple dedication
Meeting with the district's school board for our school's Outdoor Classroom Rehabilitation project

Holy cow, I need a nap already.

Jehova or Jafar?

All my kids tried out for the summer play, "Aladdin" on Saturday. Yesterday they got their parts. This was Logan's and Jillian's conversation last night:
Logan: "I really wanted to be Jehovah."
Jillian: (laughing) "What? Jehovah isn't in that play."
Logan: "you know, the bad guy!"
Jillian: "Oh, you mean Jafar!"

He he! Love that boy!