Sunday, March 1, 2009

Hosting Dino Decendents in Our Home

WM, Church, Bday Party (and a run by Krispy Kreme...), and Girl Scouts have filled our day! It has been a great day (besides being awakened to three kids in my room at 5:50 this am!)

Our latest project is Triops. I'm sure you've never heard of them, and will live if you never know what they are. We found them in the checkout line at Hobby Lobby (didn't your mother ever teach you not to buy stuff at the checkout? It's more expensive and usually junk!). Come to find out, they are related to dinosaurs (isn't everything?) and horseshoe crabs (like we saw in Houston-Clay even got to keep one of their discarded shells!). They hatch out of tiny, pinhead-size eggs, grow up to 2 inches, live only about 30 days, and may (may?) eat each other (hence the short life cycle?).

Well, Clay didn't have the 3.99 to buy them, so I asked him what he could do to earn the money to pay for them. He said he'd vacuum out my van (so worth $4!), so I said I'd keep the triops till he worked it off. After we got home, Ches took Sissy to church (in my van), and after we got the vacuum all ready, we opened the door to find the van gone! He just cried. : ( Finally, he got it cleaned out, and then we opened the little seed-packet-looking thing. You have to use spring water or distilled water, or they won't hatch. He desperately wanted me to go to WM last night to get the special water, but it was so cold, and had snowed so much. I'm sure it was fine, but Ches said it was getting slick after church. So, we went this am before Clay and I went to church. So, now it has to be set out in a shallow glass container, and warmed to 75-82 degrees fahrenheit. It's very specific. We also have to give them 12-16 hours of natural light, plus a lamp over them 24 hours a day for light and warmth. You can't put in the eggs till the water is warm enough, then they should hatch in 18-30 hours. What an experiment! I'll post pix if they should come out.

I started working on my chair cushion covers last night. I'm almost done. I got one made (my prototype) and all the ties for the other 5. Now, to finish sewing them all. They are cute! Brown zebra on top, and lime green on bottom. I had leftover fabric from a couple other projects, so it worked out perfectly. Just a little work. I'll take pix if the kids don't slather them with dinner!

Clay's making dinner tonight. He is working on earning the wolf badge, so we are trying to fill in all the things he's missed by joining boy scouts late. He has to plan, prepare, and clean up after dinner. Woohoo! : ) He's chosen to make pizza (frozen), black beans, cantaloupe, and cucumber, and he shopped with me for the ingredients this morning. He's already peeled/cut the cucumber, cut the cantaloupe, the beans are heating, and the oven just said it's preheated for the pizza. He's making progress! I like boy scouts!

4 comments:

The Ware's said...

Hi Holly! Boy did I get behind.. the rest of this past week has been a blur... are you going to storytime tomorrow? Do you just want to meet there? I need a good chat - Emily issues!! Ahhh... well, love your updates... and your wreath turned out lovely! We were out in the snow yesterday for our booth sale.. went pretty good but still have a little bit of cookies left.. but getting there! Well, talk to you later!
Sandra :o)

Anonymous said...

Great for you and Clay! Can't wait to see the new chair cushions. Lime is your color for sure.

xo

Holly said...

Sandra,
I'm planning to meet you there at 9:45! We are excited! I told Ethan when he got up, and now he won't leave my side. ahhhh! : ) I did love it too though, so I understand.

Holly said...

Mom,
I have finished one cushion, need to sew four closed, and one is yet to be sewn. I'll be done by this afternoon? I'll get a pix soon!