This is what is finished for Ammon and Melinda.  The silver jar lid turned out black.  So did the part that was supposed to be silver on the bottom of the ruffled desert dishes.  The application on what did turn out silver (clock edge, little creamer, the bottom of the jar) was exactly the same as the part that turned out black. The only difference is they were fired in a different kiln load.  The silver in a very full load and the black in a mostly empty load.  The black may have had a more oxygen rich firing.  I'll ask Zech to comment.  He may have some insight.

Ninja Dad is cleaning the carpets today.  They look amazing.  (So does he.  ;)   )

Kathy Judy made some amazing paper flowers for Pat Decker's birthday celebration. Whatcha think?

 The first picture is of my lunch at my desk. Roasted red pepper humas and celery.  The next is my new glasses.  And I'm not telling Janell what is in the box.

I was in my car in the parking lot and looked up at the second story and this is what I saw.  Ok it is in the heath care education building.

After this first week it looks like it's going to be a fun semester.  I teach 5 classes at my full time job at EITC and  two extra class for ISU.  Tonight will be the last first class.  My statistics class is 3 hours on Thursday night.  Those poor people!

I got one of my pet peeve emails today.  Just an FYI to students: Never ask your instructor if they are going to miss anything important that night.  This implies that we are just filling up the time and that what we do in class has marginal bearing on the topic.

Love you Janell

Gotta a Love a Sweet Munsoon!!! ; D

This is just one of my Favorite things: The rare, yet EPIC & Awestriking FLOODING of The UNDERPASS!!! I've experienced this seasonal phenomena but twice in my 20+ years as a Poky-ite!!! I do consider it a great Rite-of-Passage (you honestly haven't experienced Pocatello until you've experienced the chaos and spectacle that is the time honored fording of of the "river" Center!!! That's right, as promised a couple crazed Yahoos (no disrespect to the fine search engine) always attempt to be that ONE Last Car/Truck to make it; and inevitably 1 or 2 cars/ trucks are harmed in the making of this experience. Thankfully, however, the general populace is rarely harmed.

I think it one of the pivotal Life Lessons: Life's greatest joys and challenges are born from chaos and from seeking the innate human desire to thrive, experience and compete! BUT the bigger lesson remains: when Life brings great storms and thunderous clouds you can duck inside and shiver under the covers; or, you can throw open the shutters (possibly proclaim that you speak to God and she communes with you ;) and Venture to find the rare, the Fun and the radiance that will carry you through all Storms!

I am only sorry that AJ & I moved before AJ had the opportunity to become a fully initiated Pocatellian... (sigh)...

The upside is my family managed to capture and send photos that I am happily able to share with My Family too. Hope all is well, here, there, and in Unterland!!!

Love & Misses,
Mel xoxoxo

Jon.

Jon purposefully making the picture blurry.

These are a much deeper color than they appear here. Darker brick red.

 We ate a pumpkin from my garden for dinner tonight.

David and Amanda waiting for dinner.

Jon and Liz went on a hike to lower and upper Palisads.  But it was the same day as the worst rain storm in a long time.  Homer is miserable.  Jon was able to get a fire going even in the rain.

These are some test plates for Ammon and Melinda.  Even the bottom left has some black, just a very tiny around around the edge. My favorite is the upper right. The color isn't quite what it looks like in person.  This looks to orange.

I spent last evening folding paper flowers.  Two more nights and I should have enough for all the tables at Mom's birthday party.  I'll post a pic for you when I have them all done.

Well Janell, this blog will get very boring from here 'till the holidays.  It will be mostly just work.  I did finish the invites for my mom's party.  I also started my Christmas shopping.  I ran into a friend  at a craft store and she pointed out an excellent deal that was to good to pass up.

No pictures today. :(

I spent the day in meetings at work all the while worrying about all the real work I needed to do.  I think I could get more out of in-service if it was at the end of the prep week instead of the beginning.

Tonight  I sat in front of Netflix and got my Idaho State University classes ready.  I arranged the schedule and organized the online content.

I'm a bit excited to try my new project assignment rubric.  Each student has to learn the material early and gets individual points for that before the group meets to prepare the presentation.

It's a bit lonely with only me and dad.  I don't think "peaceful" is the word.  It's not really boring either as I am never bored.  It is definitely different.

We celebrated dad's birthday today by going to Wolverine (Jon, David, Amanda, me and dad)  Then we went to the Evergreen.I liked the movie, but mostly because it stared Huge Jackman.

Paper flowers for grandma Decker's birthday.  Three each for the table center pieces.

David worked on the craft room computer for hours.  It is still sick.  free music sites give viruses.

Dear Janell,

These two items are no longer in the fridge.  Don't worry.  You can get more when you get back, maybe not quite such a large jar of peppers?

picked up pottery

Melinda made the purple dish on the bottom right.  The glaze is called smokey Merlot.  The actual color is close, but a bit darker.
The red one above is David's.  It's actually not the color shown on the screen at all.  It is a brick red.
The crazy color bowl has a cut on the side I didn't see before I fired it the first time so I used it to see what some new glazes look like on this clay.   The yellow stripe looks just like that, but the title of the glaze is lime green.  I'll have to try the green on a white clay to see what happens.  The green radiating stripes are supposed to be forest green.  I think I just need thicker coats.  The blue is tidal pool, and the blue green is jade.  The stripe that looks black is a metallic silvery color.  The jade and the metallic can't go on the inside of dishes.

I'm trying to make clock.  so far it looks nice, but I'm not going to assume anything until it is glazed and out of the kiln.

I spent the afternoon at my office with a new math instructor.  He has taught math before but not the different kinds of math that show up in math 123.  His degree is in Chemistry.  We had a good chat.  He has noticed how unprepared students are to take his chemistry class.  He sees the same things I do.  Students can't work basic arithmetic like fractions, percentages, or proportions.  I wish grades 1 -12, even after they are in algebra and allowed a calculator had to do an arithmetic quiz by hand once a week to keep skills they knew at one time fresh.

Ammon Leaves

Ammon and Milinda leave today for Ammon's law school  Yesterday we went to lunch.  Ammon used his truck to bring large Styrofoam sheets to the house from home Depot.  Dad is going to use them in photography somehow.  Then dad showed Ammon how to pack the bearings in the wheels of the trailer Ammon bought to haul stuff to Moscow.

Milinda bought two little bear key chains like the one you bought in the airport to test your debit card.  She gave one to me so we can all three match.

The last picture is new fabric I got to make Zech's expected son a blankie.   I bought 45 inches of each and sewed them together.  I'm in the middle of using a tiny hole punch to make holes, then I'll crochet around it.

Ammon asked for rhubarb pie and my mom let me pick apples from her tree so two pies for dinner.  Milinda made ableskievers (sp) filled with blueberries or sausage or chocolate, dad fried potatoes and we had omelettes for dinner.

 Jon got a new phone, a sansung galaxy s4.  David and Amanda also got the same kind.  They have been taunting us with how much better there phone is than ours.

 Ammon and Milinda are leaving for Moscow ID on Tuesday.  They are renting a condo they hope to buy after Milinda has a job for a month to qualify for the loan.

David is trying to fix the computer in the craft room. Tt is loaded with viruses and malware from free music download sites.  This is Amanda with short hair!  It's cute but a big change.

The last two days

I picked lunch for dad and me from the garden today.  (and weeded for an hour.  I know you miss that.  :)  )

We have green beans (not the white ones from the other day - green)  this is cool since I didn't plant green beans this year I just didn't  pull the ones that volunteered.

got crock-neck squash and beets.  I had one delicious carrot, but it was small.

I finished another doily.  Not sure what crochet project to start next.

I started to make 4 mugs for Ammon.  The first one failed and ended up being a desert dish.  The second worked.  The third worked but then I squashed it taking it off the wheel.  The forth ended up another desert dish.  The cool thing is the two desert dishes match very well.

Ammon and Milinda came over Thursday night for a fun game called "Worst Case Scenario"    It had multiple choice questions like "What do you do if you know your train is going to crash?'  Some seemed good, but some seemed not to have the real right answer or the answer they picked we all disagreed with.  We did just go with what the game said was the right answer which whammied Ammon the most often.

Weekend trip before Janell left for Austria

Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park:  Swimming and Scuba made for a fun outing.  

We stopped in West Yellowstone for Ice Cream then to Buffalo campground in Island Park for the night.

The next day Jon, Ammon, and Janell dove for crawdads in the Ririe Reservoir.  Jon did the seasoning and we all cut vegetables to add to the broth.  It was delicious.  (Janell didn't like the crawdads.)   

I'm not sure why there where so many pictures of a mango on my camera.  Any ideas Janell?

The picture of dad and Homer (dog) are in Jackson Hole, WY as is the picture of mom in front of the antlers.  This is after the river trip where we flipped the boat.  After being on so many safe, fun trips it was a shock to have this one be scary.  Just reminds us to respect the river.

The last picture is of the Tetons on our way home.