Body Butter Batch #1

I got some cool body butter in Canada from a fellow hostel guest. It had the recipe on the side, so I've been planning to make more. Naturally, my ingredients haven't all arrived at the same time. I picked up some coconut oil at a local health food store, and my shea butter arrived today. Even though my palm oil and new essential oils haven't arrived, I'm almost out of the stuff I got in Canada. On the theory that anything containing Shea Butter and Coconut Oil is probably going to be pretty OK, I'm going to give a partial recipe a try.

Ingredients
100 g	shea butter (solid @ room temp)
65 g	coconut oil (solid @ room temp)
35 g	almond oil (liquid @ room temp)
2 tbsp	cornstarch
	essential oils

Method

I put a pyrex bowl on the base of my scale and set zero. Then I scooped in 100 grams of shea butter (the metric was more finely graduated). I scooped about 50 grams of coconut oil, then a little more. I was worried that too much almond oil would make it too runny at room temp. Then I added almond oil till the total weight was 200 g (I had to thump the counter to get the scale to register).

I put the 200 g of oils in the microwave and cooked on high at 30 second intervals for about 2 minutes (stirring every 30 secs). The shea butter still had a few little lumps in the bottom, but I left it on the counter about 5 minutes and they were all melted when I came back.

I put the bowl in an ice bath and began mixing with my hand mixer. This is *lots* better than sticking the bowl in the freezer!!! I added the cornstarch while the mix was still pretty liquid. I tried to measure by weight for consistency, but it was too light to register, so 2 tbsp it is!

I added essential oils when the mix began to thicken. I used rosemary, tea tree, eucalyptus, and peppermint. Too much eucalyptus -- i thought one of my bottles of eucalyptus was peppermint, and I couldn't figure out why my mix kept smelling like eucalyptus and not mint!

Kept mixing, now on high speed. I scraped the sides with a spoon several times -- the mix would harden because of the ice water bath. Eventually, it seemed colder than room temp, so I stopped. No point trying to cool it further, since it'll just warm up again. I spooned it into two short cream cheese tubs; they're each about 3/4 full.

Result: Fluffy off-white goop. Kind of a whipped frosting consistency, between cold cream and cool whip. It melts quickly on contact with my hands. I feel the cornstarch as a very very fine grittiness when I'm rubbing it into my skin -- it helps it keep from feeling slimy/oily, but I'm not sure how I like it. Though the mix is very strong smelling in the tub, it's not that strong on my skin.

The Gym

So after significant pestering and begging, The Club has allowed Haley to become a gym member. Every week, Tues - Fri, we get up at 5:15 and stagger over to the gym to work out before school. I generally feel pretty miserable while I'm brushing my teeth at 5:30, but after running for half an hour and showering, I feel great :) Haley jogs on a treadmill while I run on an elliptical runner right beside her. Haley's coach noticed a big difference in how much she was able to run during yesterday's game :) :)

Haley's got soccer practice on Monday and Thursday afternoons, and I've got a standing tennis game on Sunday, so we're doing pretty well on the exercise front right now :)

We ♥ Potpie

Potpie is one of the best foods EVER. It has stew inside, so it's good like stew. But it's stew wrapped in *bread*. Meat, potatoes, and bread, all in one beautiful package. Plus the stew has veggies in it (meat flavored veggies -- the best kind!) so you can almost feel virtuous about eating potpie :)


Mom visited this weekend, so I made this potpie with leftover chicken stew. It was the first chicken stew I'd ever made, so I was excited to show it off. Mom said it was pretty good too :)

Soccer Games

Haley is having a good year in soccer! Her coach is great. Lots of positive reinforcement, as well as corrections. Having listened to some of the other coaches screaming at their teams this year, we're feeling pretty lucky.


Haley's ball skills are getting better and better, and she's learning to steal the ball rather than just let her opponents have the shot. Her team is really starting to pull together on the field, which is neat to watch :)

10,000 Miles

Today my new Prius hit 10,000 miles on the odometer :)

First Day of School

Haley was all ready for school :)



Her new teacher is Ms. Weir, and so far Haley *loves* her. All the other teachers I've talked to have good things to say about her, so it's shaping up to be a great school year :)

Labor Day

I promised Haley that if she got her room clean,we would go to the river. Yay bribery -- she got it clean! We went with some friends. Here are Haley, Sierra, Julie, and Sierra's little sister. The girls spent the day catching crawdads and frogs.







Unfortunately, there were also snakes at the river. Huge vicious snakes! They must have been this big:


Although I promised a river trip, I am anti sun. It was too hot to wear my sweatshirt, so I hid as much of myself as possible under light towels for most of the time :)



Finally we got to -- er -- had to leave for soccer practice. While the girls practiced, Cynthia and I walked a couple of blocks to the pier. It's so beautiful here!


The pier is a great place to walk. On nice days there's usually at least one amateur crab pot dangling off the end of the pier.


The view is great. This part of the sea wall is pretty neat looking :)


Cynthia took my photo for me -- proof I didn't just download these photos from a National Geographic or something :)

My Fantastic Classroom

Haley was a trooper last night -- we were at my classroom till 7:30 last night. But I'm done getting ready for the first day -- we won't have to go back this weekend to finish up! I have all my photocopies done and organized. (We have these crazy packets to hand out -- about 8 pages that parents need to sign and return -- permission slips, picture forms, and more!)

I got a deck of cards and took out one of each rank. I taped one card down on each desk. The other three of that rank went into a deck -- when the kids come in, I'll hand them a warmup quiz and they'll draw a card, and they'll go sit at the table with the matching rank :) It's a good way to randomly divvy them up and seat them three to a table.

Anyhow, my classroom is looking pretty good! I even have, get this, POSTERS on my walls! I know, crazy, huh? I guess it is about on schedule though -- it generally takes me a few years to decorate *grin*

Here's a video I made of my classroom :)

The Mighty Fava Bean

Today began with a 4 hour staff meeting. Blah. Unfortunately, most of what was covered really needed to be discussed, so I can't even complain that much. Then I had a lunch meeting with Cindy M. Then I had a 45 minute AVID meeting, and then a partnership meeting. Yup... A whole day of meetings. But... the meetings were mostly productive. For example, during our lunch meeting Cindy & I went to the library and covered our new class sets of books with snazzy new covers and then hauled them back to our classrooms. Jeff gave me one of his old computers, so now my classroom has a Strawberry iMac as a student computer :) He might even end up giving me another, so then I'd have two student computers :)

Haley and I joined the gym today. We're going to try working out in the morning before school. We'll see how that works out... But Haley really enjoys running, so I thought that the treadmill would be great for her. We have so much miserable weather (for weeks at a time!) that we can't count on outdoor exercise.

On the way home we went grocery shopping, and we bought this funny thing that looked like a giant string bean. It turns out that it's a fava bean. Tonight's dinner was fish sticks, guacamole and chips, and a few raw fava beans each. They taste a lot like giant peas :)

Crazy Busy Day

So today was my first official day back at school. Of course, most of the teachers came back last week to start putting things back together, but now we're getting paid for it! *grin* We had the big welcome back thing in the auditorium, where every teacher in the entire district crams in. It was hot. I admit, I snuck out to drop Haley off at the babysitter's, and then came back and kinda drifted in and out around the back door. I did do the welcome for the new employees, but other than that...

Then there was a big meeting for all the math teachers, on how to use our new textbooks. Unfortunately, it was focused mainly on the technology, directed by a sales lady who wasn't that strong in technology. I had played around with the software some on Friday, so I'd pretty much picked up the stuff she spent 3 hours covering. *sigh* I still think we picked the wrong company, but oh well. Suck it up and move on already, right?

Then I picked up Haley and we changed clothes and played tennis with Cynthia and Julie. A friend of Cynthia's, Teira, joined us with her daughter, Sierra. So we had three girls with tennis rackets. Haley suddenly got a lot more motivated to play (all the sudden it was cool!) She did a pretty good job swiping at the ball :)

Then we went home and showered, and then drove out to Cindy M's house so she and I could work on math teacher stuff. Dang. Let me say that again: DANG. Her house is beautiful. It's about 10 miles inland, on the river. She helped design it, and WOW. We were very impressed. We had dinner and then worked on math stuff. Did you know that pizza hut makes chicken parmesan??? I sure didn't. It was good, too! Garlicy (sorry Mom) but I *like* garlic! Cindy made a salad with lots of avocado, which made a great pairing.

I brought a bottle of wine: 2006 Coppola Rosso. Cindy and I both liked it quite a lot. I'm not good at tasting notes, but I found some online. Winemaker notes: "Rosso 2006 has smooth, rich layers of sweet dark fruits, cloves, a touch of vanilla and mildly toasted oak. Its mild tannins make it incredibly food-friendly, so it's easy to pair with anything from braised short ribs to grilled salmon or a sausage and pepperoni pizza." Yum.

Crash and Burn

Haley went to a slumber party last night. How did I spend my exciting night of freedom? Err, well... I went to work and fiddled around with my classroom till 11. Um, exciting. No hope for me, I'm afraid :)

I french braided Haley's hair before the party. I've only french braided a few times, and Haley's hair is *really* tangly, so this was a 20 minute, sobbing ordeal. But it looked pretty good afterwards. Moreover, when I picked her up today, after lying on it at least part of the night (although apparently not sleeping) and going to the river and swimming, it *still* looks pretty good!!! Yay me, and yay french braids!


Of course, Haley crashed on the way home. She had a headache, she was going to puke, etc. She got home and headed for the bathroom, to hang out by the toilet. No, she didn't puke. She fell asleep on the bathroom floor, and didn't wake up for more than an hour. Finally I went in and told her that she could either get up and have dinner, or she could get up and go to bed.

Too bad; tonight's dinner was potpie :)

Haley's First Game of the 2008 Season

We're really happy with Haley's soccer team this year. Not only is her friend, Julie, on the team, but the coach, John Murphy, is awesome. He's a teacher, so he's got the management/rapport thing down :) The team has 18 kids, so each kid gets to play half a game -- plenty of subs in case of sickness or whatever :) Here are the kids who managed to show up on time for the jamboree (opening ceremony) today:


Haley got to throw the ball in at least 3 times this game -- she's good at throwing it far and to her teammates. Her coach is standing next to her :)


She did a really good job of running hard and staying on the ball :)


Ok, yes, they did win. 3 to 0 :)

Getting Ready for School

So I've already spent a lot of time getting my classroom ready. This year I'm going to have a *lot* of students -- my largest class has 37 students. So I had to completely rearrange my classroom to try to accommodate 37 bodies. I'm a little discouraged about the number of students -- many of them are already struggling with algebra, and cramming that many in a room is not exactly the best way to help them to succeed. Oh well, I'll just do my best. We have a completely new textbook this year, so we'll see. Anyhow, here's a photo of my new classroom layout -- three kids to a table...

Henna with Ann

Today, Ann Redd came over and we got to use up some more henna :) I warned her that my drawing skills were limited to stick figures. I would now like to retract that statement -- as a joke she used stick figures in her designs, and I'm not that good. So I guess next time I'll have to find an even more pathetic description for my lack of skill. Meanwhile, here's Ann's leg


and my shoulder. (This is even better if you know that I fight with a teardrop shield. And, yes, that is my coat of arms :)

Pas d'Armes

Robert & Leia hosted the Allyshian Pas d'Armes this year. It was pretty fun. We got there after dark Friday night, but set up our tent by the light of the full moon (and assorted streetlights:) On Saturday, we armored up and had both rapier and heavy fighters. The heavy tourney was such that the gallery selected a challenger, the challenger issued a challenge to another fighter, and that fighter got to pick the weapons and format (three bouts, 10 thrown blows, etc.) It was fun :) After the fighting, I put my armor away (yay me!!!) and brought out the henna (woohoo!)

Wendy painted my hand


and Paula painted my face :)


BTW, for those who aren't familiar with it, henna is a plant that is ground up and made into a paste which is applied in fine lines. When the paste is removed, the skin beneath has been dyed a reddish brown. The thicker the skin, the darker and longer-lasting the dye. That's why my hand is darker than my face, which will be dye free within a week.

Grandma Ruby visits us!

Grandma Ruby and Mom came up to visit us. We went to dinner at the Chart Room. They have excellent clam chowder and fish, a good view of the sea lions on the dock outside, and a neato shark carving out front.


Then we went to the Simpson Reed Grove, to go on a walk. Grandma, Mom, and Haley posed on a bridge.


Here, Grandma and Haley pose in front of a fallen redwood.


This tree grows all the way across the trail, reaching the ground on both sides.


But now matter how hard she tries, Haley can't *quite* jump high enough.


Haley would like to move into this tree-cave, but only if we get rid of the spiders first.


Haley and Grandma in a hollow tree :)

Wild Game Park

We drove home via Reedsport, even though it's slower, so that we could stop by the Wild Game Park in Bandon, OR. It was a complete surprise for Haley. Since the entrance to the park is the back door of the gift shop, she didn't know what it was until after I'd bought our tickets and we went on through! We had just enough time to see most everything.

Haley got to pet a ferret.


The lion's coughing roar filled the park.


The lioness laid at her ease.


The leopards were beautiful.


There was a white tiger, just like Haley's new stuffed animal.


We got to pet a lioness cub.


Haley got to meet 2 baby goats.


We also got to pet a baby panther,


and a baby lynx!


Then it was time to go, though we did feed the sheep/goats/llamas before we went. All in all the park was a blast! We made it home just before dark and actually unloaded & cleaned out the car before showering and hitting the sack. Tomorrow we'll drive down to Eureka to pick up our cat from Mom's house :)

Coming back home

Our triumphant return to the USA had us driving down to Grandma & Grandpa's house. The original plan was to hang out in Seattle on the way, but that was before the 1 1/2 hours we spent inching along at the US border. Kinda ridiculous when you think about how easy it is for any real bad guys to sneak across. Then we hit rush hour going by Seattle. Argh. It was a SLOW drive. I did have plenty of time to take a photo of the official border marker though!


Once we got to the grandparents' house, we mostly just crashed. The next morning, we had a chance to take a couple of photos. Here's Grandpa in front of his tomato garden.


And here are the four of us in a family photo :)

Vancouver: Day 2 (Our Crazy, Awesome Day!)

Aka "Haley puked on the Seabus"

We set out in high spirits, but on the bus, Haley announced she had a headache. It wasn't quite bad enough to return to the hostel, but she was not a happy camper. Pressing on, we boarded the small passenger ferry (Seabus) to go to north Vancouver. It was a migrane after all, cause we had to beg our fellow passengers for a seasick bag. Luckily a couple of people had empty shopping bags :) Haley napped for a few minutes at the next bus stop, but then felt much better. Kind of an accelerated, mild migrane.

Grouse Mountain was a lot of fun. We took a skycar up the mountain.


We got to see a Birds of Prey show with trained birds flying about in front of the audience. We saw a hawk,


a turkey vulture,


and a bald eagle. He was too young to have a white head, but he really wanted to cruise the neighborhood. He took off during the show, and it took them a while to get him back. He got to spend the rest of the show being held by his jesses.


The lumberjack show was a lot of fun! They had various contests like a sawing race


and a log rolling competition.


But when nobody was looking a drunken tourist stole some equipment and climbed up the pole. "You're crazy!" the announcer screamed at him. "No, I'm Canadian!" he responded. (He turned out to be part of the show)


We got to ride the chair lift down the mountain and back up. The view was great!


Next we went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.


I got Haley to take my photo too!


On the other side of the bridge they had tree platforms connected with smaller suspension bridges, à la Swiss Family Robinson.


Here's a view of the Suspension Bridge from further away... Wait a minute, we have to go back over that?!


We had a nice dinner at the White Spot. It ended up being our only sit-down restaurant meal during our whole trip!


Then we hustled back to the hostel to watch the fireworks from the beach. It was awesome to sit in the sand and watch the fireworks across the bay.


The fireworks show was choreographed to music. Luckily, another group had brought a portable radio, so we could listen in! Here's a movie so you can see and hear it too!