Tieing up some loose ends

Ok I admit it...it has been a week or so since I've written. The snow and a head cold coupled with sales conference have sucked up the oxygen in my life lately. So today I thought I would give you an update on some past posts and tie up some loose ends.
The science fair project came to an end with my son Peyton and I creatively decorating the big tri-fold poster board thingy that everyone has to use. My son had taken pictures of the different houses sitting in my tub getting wet and we taped them to the board and added a border. Done. Complete. Finished. Not so fast...he got an A and is now on his way to the city-wide competition?!? I'll keep you posted.
Regarding the lay-z-boy...for those of you following me on facebook, you know that we spent an entire weekend searching for the replacement. We went to four furniture stores and sat in every recliner they had available. But the recliners had to meet very stringent requirements. The foot rest had to come up part way and stop so that my husband can sit with knees slightly bent to support a popcorn bowl for movie night. The back had to lay all the way down for Sunday afternoon naps. the arm rests had to be at the right height for elbows supporting a newspaper and the seat needed to be wide enough to comfortably fit a wider girth.
Add to that the "lap board" he built with cup holder and mouse so that he can sit in his chair and play Farmville on his laptop.
We found the perfect chair and it was the lay-z-boy store...hidden in a far corner with a dim bulb overhead (think the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree) was the chair. And lo and behold it was the same chair...but worse fabric. My opportunity to finally be rid of the brown corduroy chair has just gone south. The opportunity to instill some sense of grace and style into or living room...gone forever.
It arrives in less than 2 weeks.

Science Fair Nightmare Part Deux

So we have our houses built...now to test the effects of water on them. In my tub? Sticks, rocks and dirt? UGH. So we place a big rubbermaid tub in the bathtub. and put the houses down in there...one at a time and turn the shower on.

The sticks lasted the required 10 minutes. The cob houses fell apart right away. So with the reins firmly planted in my son's hands, I go downstairs to start dinner. 30 minutes later, I call everyone down. My son, who got caught up reading, had the shower raining on the rock houses this entire time.

I can't wait to see my water bill. I actually dreamed of confronting the science teacher with a plumbing bill for unclogging my drain and awoke mad.

I made my sone pinky swear that I will have "editorial" input for next year's fair topic.

I'll post photos of this mess later.

The Science Fair Nightmare

True story. We have two snow days then a weekend. Monday on my way home from work my son calls me and tells me to pick up straw, rocks, glue, sticks, dirt, clay and sand. All of this is needed for his science fair project that is due Friday...yes 4 days from now. The project is to determine the effect of water on stick, rock and cob houses. Cob houses (just so you know) are the dirt and straw houses you see in Africa.

So I head to Michaels and fill the cart. We decide to build the popsicle stick houses first because that is the easiest. WRONG. I built 4 sides but how to connect them and then there is the issue of a roof. So we put those aside and work on the rock houses. I found river rocks you use in landscaping or in flower vases and started gluing them together with some sort of epoxy the woman at Michaels said would work. WRONG. The rocks kept sliding and I started using the popsicle sticks to try to straighten them. My son exclaims...mom you can't mix the sticks with the rocks. The cat, who wants to see what all the hullabaloo is about jumps on the table, I go to shoo him away and accidentially touch him with my gluey, stick and rock hands. You think that was a mess!

Wednesday night we made the cob slabs for our cob houses. Believe it or not there were recipes on the internet on how to make cob. My son and I took dirt, water, handmade silt (ashes from the fireplace and water-YUCK) and started mixing in a large tub. We added clay, sand and sprinkled in straw. We patted this mess into squares and laid them on a board on my dining room to dry. If I don't get a mother of the year award for this, then I don't know what to do!

Next post...the water test on these little houses...in my bathtub!