Boiling Hot Science

     This month we have feverishly been working on the science fair.  When it was time to sign up, I asked the girls if they wanted to do it.  They said they did, then when it was time to do the work, Andi had second thoughts.   She did not want to do it.  So I said, "fine, just tell your teacher that you won't be doing it."  She didn't like that answer, so she decided a project would be a good idea.       Christyne thought of the question we worked on, "if you put different things in water does it take longer to boil?"  Of course we changed it a little to sound more scientific.  We basically tested the time it takes to come to a boil for different solutions and plain tap water.  It was a lot of fun, and it was a lot of work.  The girls worked hard, and did a great job.  These projects are hard for 2nd and 3rd graders.  They don't read very well, and they don't write very well, but they love the hands on stuff.  They also don't quite get the concept of some scientific principles.  The main reason why I wanted them to do this was because I wanted them to learn some things about science, and know how to do a project.  

     One thing that is very hard is to know where the line is between mom just helping and mom doing too much of it.  There is a lot they just can't do, so I have to do some of it.  But I also try to make them do a whole lot, and sit with me and discuss the things I have to do.  I also made them write the whole journal by hand, and pick out the way to decorate it.  As well as do all the mixing, and timing, and measuring, writing the data of the experiment, etc.  I keep hoping I didn't do too much.    

     Anyway, the kids won a first place ribbon.  Of course many people won first place.  Andi was so proud.  She has been struggling in school.  She had a IQ test that says she is very smart, but she has some learning problems.  It gets her discouraged.  She is so smart, yet reading is hard. Reading is needed for everything, so she has a hard time in school.  I hope that things like science fair will build up her confidence and desire to keep working hard in school.  I was glad they won, but we weren't doing it for the ribbon.   I am glad that they saw their hard work paid off.  I am really proud of my hardworking, smart, good girls!

Relatives From Across the Pond

     Late Sunday night, Ossil got a call that one of his second cousins was in town for just a few days.  They are from the Philippines, but they are citizens of the United Kingdom - Simon, Michelle, and their son Shawn who is four.  They are here for two weeks, but only in the desert for two days.  So we last minute cleaned up the house, bought a bunch of pizzas, and some salads and lemon aid and had them over.  (This was Monday night.)  Shirley (Ossil's Dad's second wife) and her kids, as well as Robert and Girlie (Ossil's cousin), and two of their sons who are seniors in high school, and Ryan (Ossil's nephew), came over as well.  The kids watched Underdog and then played in Aydens room, and the adults and teenagers talked.  Then the teenagers headed over to the computers and watched Youtube.  It was a lot of fun.  I wasn't expecting it, but everyone brought a lot of food with them.  Shirley brought filipino shrimp and rice.  Girlie brought lumpia.  It was so good.  Simon and Michelle are hoping to come to America some day.  I think that they are nurses.  They will be at the next family reunion in 2010.  Shawn was such a cutie.  He was shy at first, but 5 minutes later, he was playing with Ayden.  

      Simon and Michelle are in their 30's but they look so much younger.  They look like early 20's.  Such a cute family.  Ossil had such a great time talking about family and relatives etc.  We exchanged emails so we can exchange information about family and genealogy.  It was such a great night.  

  

Our Bishop

     Late Friday night, our bishop's son died of pneumonia, he was in his 20's, and it was no surprise.  He was born with really bad health problems (I don't know the exact name of it), and was always in a wheel chair and always in a lot of pain.  He was always fighting some health problem or another, and always had a nurse with him where ever he went.  It was a miracle he lived as long as he did.  Life was really hard for him, so I am sure he is happy now.  He was a wonderful person who touched so many lives.

     Our Bishop has been through a lot.  about 3 or 4 months ago, his wife died of leukemia.  She was such an amazing woman.  She was friendly, loved life and living, and made life so fun.  She was such a great woman.  She was also a wonderful grandma, and she loved the children of our ward.  At one time, she was the primary music leader, and she made the children just love music, and the gospel.

      I feel so bad for our bishop and the rest of his family (he has 4 or 5 grown children with children of their own).    It seems like lately he is like Job of the Old Testament, or like the pioneers on the plains who lost several loved ones while crossing.  He also didn't come to church today because he has the flu.  Wow, if the death of your wife an son are not enough.  He has a close relationship with the Saviour, and I am sure that is helping him.  

      He is such a great bishop.  He truly loves and cares about our ward.  He is in tune with the Holy Ghost.  He is well to do, yet very humble and wise.  I feel so blessed to have him as our bishop.  We pray for him daily.

DVD's

Last night after work, Ossil mentioned that he wanted to make a DVD to show his class today after the final to keep them busy.  He had a bunch of pictures and a few short videos.  We were excited to try out iMovie and iDVD that came with my computer.  

After he gave me a DVDRom with his stuff on it, we got some music and put together an iMovie and then put in on the iDVD program, and then we just dragged the pictures over to the program as well.  Then we just burned it.  It took a total of 3 hours.  That includes picking over the pictures, deciding the music.  The movie took about 20 minutes to be converted to a form compatible for iDVD.  The most amazing part is that the burning of the DVD took about 20 minutes.  That is incredibly fast.  The neat thing about his DVD, is that the menu has music and animation (pages of a Napoleon Dynamite style notebook being turned with pictures you put in taped on to the notebook).  It is so cool.  My old computer took hours and hours (for the first DVD, the second and third of the exact same DVD would take much less).  So we would get it all ready to burn, and then right before bed, start the burning, and it would work through the night.  Of course, if you had any problems that came up, you would be in bed so you could not do anything and it would take another whole day to burn the DVD.  

Of course Ossil's video was fast and we didn't do any editing or special effects etc.  That takes time.  Not because of technology, but because of personal preferences and style etc.  The programs I used that came with my computer are not even the newest ones.  I am ordering the newest iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, Garage Band, iWeb, that all come with iLife.  Apple announced the new iLife January 6th, the day I bought my computer, and because of that, I am getting the program for 10 dollars, instead of 70 dollars.  I am excited to see what it can do.  Apparently it will be a lot better.  There will be music lessons included with Garage Band, as well as lots of DVD menu backgrounds, etc.  I still have to learn how to use all these programs, but they are rather intuitive, and fun to learn.  The one I really don't understand is Garage Band, but it has so much potential.  It is a program where you write your own music.  It has different sounds from different instruments, and you can put them together to make music.  This is really good if you want to put non-copyrighted music on a blog, a dvd, a movie, etc.  I still have to learn how to use it, but it seems really neat.  

So, if I am not too busy, and you have a CD or DVD with files of pictures or videos on it and you want a simple DVD (with out too much editing of the movie), I would love to make a DVD for you (for free).  It will be good practice for me.  I will probably keep a copy of it for myself so that I can have a record of my past work, in case I someday decide to charge for it.  

Mom asked me to make a slideshow for the Stake Relief Society.  That is something I am really looking forward to.  I am going to spend a lot of time editing how the pictures go together, and maybe the pictures themselves (lighting, cropping, signs, divisions etc).  But I think that actually putting it together and burning it will not take long.  I have 6 weeks, but I think it will take 6 hours.  

I also just bought a new DVD burner with a hard drive for our new DVD player.  My old DVD player broke, and I found this one for less than $250.  The only place they sell it is Walmart.com.  It is so neat.  It is like Tivo.  It records to a hard drive, but there is no subscription fee, you just program it, or simply push record, and it can record up to 30 hours of high quality video.  You can then take that and record it to a DVD.  Or you can just plug something into the DVD burner and record it on there.  I needed this because I have a whole bunch of family videos on VHS, and I want them to be DVD.  Computers don't have a way to connect a VHS player and make DVD's.  I hope that I can take those DVD's since they are not copy protected and down load them into my computer and then make fancy DVD's with menu's, etc.  Even if I can't, at least I could have all our family videos on DVD.  The one I really want to edit is the one we had playing at our wedding reception.  It was your typical slide show, but when we had it made, there was only 3 choices for the style of music, and the music they put on there was horrible.  So we just played it with the volume off.  I want to change the music on there, and make it a DVD, kind of like Rick and Elizabeths.  

Anyway, I am serious about the offer.  Also, if you have a Mac, I can help you figure out how to do it yourself.  

vccccccccccccccciooooooooouj  (This is the cat walking right if front of me and on the keyboard while I am working on this blog) Ammon our cat gets attention by standing in front of the computer or sitting on the keyboard.  I think he is trying to tell me something.