Wet Hands, Wet Week & Dusty Boots

I am working on a new project with my 6th graders.  We have been centered around a theme of advertisement in art this year.  My goal was to get them to understand that art is not just what they do in class with me.  Art has a common thread throughout and can be incorporated into other real life arenas.  So far, so good. 

I am borrowing another art teachers lesson idea and they are to create a giant paper mache candy bar.  The will be creative their own candy bar name and style.  I thought taking some step by step pictures on how to create the base or armature for the giant candy bar may help in the creative stage.   Many kids have a tough time on the building stage.  I have that sculpture mind and I try my best to get them to understand and use their sculptural part of their brain.  You will have to check back to see what the kids come up with for this project.   I am anxious to see the results.

Let me explain this one.  Don't flip your head to the side, this is the ceiling of the roof over our garage.  The bike is hanging upside down on hooks and the garage door is open.  The rain we had last week took yet another toll on our poor rented house's roof.  During the first wave of storms we had the management company send out their "fix-it" guy to mend the leak.  The patch job he did lent itself quickly to another leak with the next batch of storms.  It was falling apart and needed to be opened again to prevent the section from falling on my car.  Rob went up on the roof after the rain ceased and put a coat of tar on the tiles above this hole.  So far the rain hasn't come down hard enough for it to leak and he won't do a proper patch job on the interior until he sees if there's still a leak.  To make a long story short the hole remains open indefinitely.  It makes for a conversation piece.

Here is my sunset picture from the backyard.  It was cloudy most of last week.  Here is evidence of the 5% of cloudy weather days we see here in Arizona.  Crazy winds, pounding rain storms and even tornado watches hit the valley.  My school took on a pond-like status for three days because we just don't see a lot of rain around here and it turns things into a wet circus.  I had Rob's unbrella one day after school and the wind flipped the sucker inside out on  me...I thought that only happened in movies?  The weather has improved around here so far and I don't think we have any storms in our forecast. 

My old ski gear made an apperance over the weekend.  Here are my old ski boots ready for the slopes.  They are severely dusty but in good working condition.  With some adjustments I was back in them like old times.  I am without the long boards because they still prefer the cold weather back in Boston and I had never made the effort to lugged them to Arizona over the last 14 years.  I was just back there in December yet didn't know I would be going skiing sooner rather than later.  I will have to bring them back over the summer time...that should be interesting.  I have a tag on my ski coat that says 2001 Mount Sunapee, Newbury, NH. It's official, I have been off my "ski legs" for 9 years!  WAY TOO LONG! Now that's embrassing.  We are heading off this weekend ☺

We just made Chicken Kiev for dinner tonight.  Instead of butter inside I replaced it with cheddar cheese, green onions and thyme then dipping it in bread crumbs.  Now that was a tasty treat!  I skipped the chilling stage and it was a tad messy but it still turned out appetizing.  The husband (aka. human disposal) had no complaints.  We topped off things with dessert...a warm chocolate chip mint cookie bar with vanilla bean ice cream.♥