Fractional Exponents!

I subbed for Wes yesterday. They were learning about fractional exponents. Words like these are terrifying to me, not to mention that there were square roots involved. The first class was way smart and I just put up the notes and they did the assignment, but by the end of the day, I had to figure out how to do the entire thing and be helpful. I would say, "When Mr. Hall comes back tomorrow, he will give you a mathematical version of this lesson."
Now let's think about it. How many times in a week do you deal with fractional exponents? How many times in a week do you deal with exponents? I just don't like them and I have a huge prejudice against anything with the radical sign. I would rather deal with an untamed lion than one of those. So when the kids ask, When are we going to use this in life? it is difficult to come up with an answer.

Machine lesson

Last week I had a lesson on machine quilting. This is what I did and I was glad to finish this quilt. I think I may go back and do a bigger one next time.

The Golden Spike

I promise that this is the last part of the trip. I have always wanted to stop at the Golden Spike. I have seen the sign for it since I was a kid, (you know, almost when it happened) but have never made the effort to go off the beaten path. So we stopped. The kids said it was in the middle of no where. Maybe, maybe not.

Wes and three other gentlemen asked 100 questions about the engines in the engine house. Callie couldn't understand it, but I told her that men love trains. As near as I can figure, they have big engines and they really like that. The engines come out on May 10 and are on the tracks until September, so I guess we will have to stop one more time.

Interestingly enough, just a few miles away, is ATK. They have a small display outside. For the most part the outsides look the same, so I took a few pictures of the ends of them. Luckily for Callie, there was no one there to answer questions, because we definitely would have been there longer. If men love trains, just think how they must feel about rockets.

Picnic

Here is Wes, Ty, Jake and George enjoying some hot dogs.









Courtney and Callie having some dinner.


Keith cooking his dinner.











Not sure why Wes is making this face, but I have seen it before.

Now here is a fire. We had some trouble getting things started, but it all worked out. Ty likes to go up Hobble Creek canyon and have dinner. It was fun.

Day 2

Here is Callie having a great time.

Okay, do you drink the water from the sprinklers?

The falls were very unimpressive still.

We kept walking and found some snow on the trail.

And here are Callie and Rich.

On day 2 of 0ur little trip we did some shopping while Keith and Richard watched a really bad basketball game. Then we went for a hike in Provo Canyon. We were on our way to Bridalveil Falls.

Spring Break

We have had some very fun spring break trips. Because Wes is a teacher, he is off for spring break, but because Wes is a teacher, we will probably never take the family to Hawaii for spring break. But we busy ourselves with little trips and have a good time.

When you live in Idaho, the closest place to go and have a big time is Utah. So we packed up and went to Utah for the 4th year in a row. Last year we did southern Utah and had a great time. This year, we just had a couple of days so we decided we needed to visit Keith and Courtney.

We start all of our spring breaks with a visit to Uncle Charlie. He looked pretty good, and was able to talk to us for a half hour or so. He is very sweet in his new condition and Frankie (who is a saint) takes very good care of him.

Next we were off to see Keith and Courtney. Those two are fun and funny and we are so happy to have Courtney taking care of Keith. Keith was on his way to class. I have more, just give me some time.

A Sub day

The other day I went to sub and found that the class was going to the Discovery Center of Idaho for the day. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very much like the Exploratorium in San Fransisco. Of course you don't get to see the bay. The kids had a great time. It is in Boise near the zoo, only cost $4 for kids and $6 for adults : a great bargain.


I do not recommend that you do this as a substitute teacher however. There is nothing like walking into a classroom and finding out you will be on a bus all day, in charge of children that you do not know. I told them all that their name for the day would be 'what's your name'. As it turned out, the kids were great. Our class was split up on two buses and I hoped all the way home we hadn't left one in Boise.

Prayer

The opening prayer this morning was given by the High Councilman. In it he said, "Bless those who are leaders in the country, no matter what their political affiliation."
I heard, "Lord help us! There is a Democrat running the nation."
Of course I laughed and would like to encourage all people, regardless of their religious affiliation to pray for the President.

Shopping

Callie is going to go to the prom in a month. I am excited for her, but I do not feel any obligation to go shopping for a dress that cost a couple of hundred dollars. Not to mention that her two trips to the emergency room in the last year are putting a major strain on my budget. So, I said we could go look at fabric.

Almost immediately we were choosing between a very bright pink, and a yellow (school bus yellow) with a white sheer with daisies to go over it. Fortunately, there was plenty of room to lay everything out and really get a good look. Now, Callie isn't the fastest decision maker, and all I can do is think about what would be easier for me to make.

I said, "We should have brought Marsha." (who lives across the street) And Callie says, "We should have borough Liz." (who lives in California) We ended up calling her, and of course she didn't answer her cell and I knew she was at the quilt show in Manteca where I wanted to be. So I did a WWLD, you know, what would Liz do, and we picked the pink with silver sparkly belt.

Total cost, $46, although we still need a zipper. Now that is my kind of dress.

Magic Valley Symphony

Wes and I finally made it to the Magic Valley Symphony. I was pleasantly surprised by how incredible they sounded. They had a guest conductor, Jose Luis Egiluz, from Spain. All the music they did was also from Spain. They had a local acoustic guitarist, who did an excellent job with his solos. Missing from the performance was Music Director, Conductor, Ted Hadley. He had to go the High School district championship basketball game with the Pep Band. That would be his day job, not to mention the job that has a paycheck attached to it.



Going to the symphony is like being at the circus for me. I just can't decide what to watch. This was a group of about 70 musicians. Some as old as my mother, while others were as young as my daughter. The concert was followed by a reception with punch and brownies. All of this for $8. All in all, a very pleasant evening.



We started going to the Symphony in Stockton. Beginning band has killing our sense of what music was, so, I decided we deserved to hear music. We loved the Stockton Symphony with Peter Jaffe, who is show unto himself. When we heard the first notes, they flow through the audience and come down like fairy dust on our battered souls.



And so it was in Twin Falls. We have already decided that we will have to go back. Of course we will have a middle school concert to attend before the next symphony, which may help our music appreication.