Eve (back) in Ohio: February 2009

I finally saw Dave Chappelle today. At the gas station. I thought everyone would want to know. :)
PS- I was at the gas station buying a soda on the way to see Slumdog Millionaire. It was excellent. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it!

PPS- We go to take a behind-the-scenes look at a Dayton area museum/discovery center. Good times. Here are some pictures of us exploring and monkeying around (per usual).

Look mom! I'm a turtle. And there's a Ric on my back.

Amanda pointing to a fossilized walrus baculum.

Amanda and Allie love fossils sooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Judging... Always judging...

Sorry Megan... Guess you should've recycled.

Lynn showing us their biology collections area. Lots of dead animals coated in arsenic. Yum.

This is their ginormous Burmese Python. As you can see from the picture, he is ginormous. He can eat up to 16 large rats at one time, and is about 16 feet long!

Play time!!! Two thumbs up from Aly!

Why is this giant stuffed head just sitting on the floor? Don't ask me. I think it's headed to a Boy Scout camp... It's missing an ear... Hmmmmm...

Playing in the tide pool! More and more thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!

So I know it's been awhile since I posted something on here. My apologies. Things are always quite busy here, and there's not a lot of time for anything other than work and sleep. Don't worry- I've gotten in a few showers. :)

I guess the last time I wrote was right before our first group of kids got here. That seems like forever ago. The first week was good, but overwhelming. Theeeeeeeeen I had kitchen duty the second week. Boy was that a treat. And by treat I mean hell on earth. Cooking and especially cleaning for 100+ people is not my idea of a good time. I will spare the gory details, but I'm sure you can imagine how grumpy I was after working from 6:30am to 10pm with about two 15-minute breaks in there somewhere. Grumpfest 2009. Be glad you didn't buy tickets.

But then I was rewarded the next week when I was back on the trail with the most delighful group of 4th graders. We were warned that it was going to be a tough group because they were inner city kids, but I found the situation to be quite to the contrary. I had a blast with these kids, and it was just what I needed after my week in the kitchen to remind me why I love teaching environmental ed so much. These kids hadn't been around a lot of natural settings before so they were amazed and excited by just about everything we did and saw. It is times like these when I feel like I'm actually making a difference in kid's lives. I also lucked out with a great group of kids last week. If only I could tell myself their good behavior and interest were due to my superb teaching skills. Haha. But I think I am mostly getting lucky. We'll see what next week will bring. I'm excited because they will be 2nd graders- so cute!

Quote of the week (last week) that made my week: "Miss Eve is so nice and such a great naturalist. I want to grow up to be just like her." -6th grade boy, melting my heart :)
Ah yes kids, inflate my ego. Wonderful.

Other than that, things are good here, but always kind of strange. It is like living in a surreal world, always with the same 11 other people and really no one else. We live in our own little Glen Helen world... It's fun though. Besides the fact that pretty much everyone but me has spotted Dave Chappelle in town. Boooooo.

Well, sorry to cut this so short. Hope all is well with everyone! xoxo

Ric and Aly after a food coloring/shaving cream fight in the craft hut... Ric had a green face for about 3 days.