My Bench.....

So, the week of Collecting is upon us! Wait.....you don't know what Collecting is, do you? Okay, quick recap:

Collecting is an annual event on the Collegiate schedule. It usually held on a Saturday night and a silent auction is held to raise money for the school. Anything from jewelry, trips and artwork (created by all the classes) is auctioned off. There is a nice dinner, alcohol and all this, for only $150 a ticket. (It's a very formal event)

Now before I go too far, I love Collecting. I think it's a good idea, the silent auction is a nice touch and you get the opportunity to bid for some amazing artwork by the kids. This story isn't so much about Collecting, but more so a story about our piece of artwork for Collecting: The Bench.

The Fourth Grade decided that each class would decorate a bench for Collecting this year, with each bench having a different ecosystem as its theme (in celebration of our Zoo Week, which is the last week in February). The other two classes took the Grasslands of Africa and the rainforests of South America and you know me: I like to be different and difficult. So I decided that my class would decorate our bench with the animals of the Arctic and Antarctica.

I know what you're thinking: 16 animals, no problem! However, I had to distribute the animals, and then have the kids paint their animal on the bench and have it be as close to realistic as possible. Again, silly, right? Sounds easy, right?

Wrong.

This bench was the bane of my classroom last week. We are finishing up six-paragraph essays on our animals and drawing/painting our creatures on the bench, which took a lot more time than it really should have. Luckily, through a ton of help from Chelle (my co-worker and an amazing artist in her own right), we managed to finish the bench on Friday....a mere 10 minutes before our Valentine's Day party (which was another headache by itself!).

I will try to get a picture of the bench on here for you to see, but know this. We've tried to put these animals on a small, two person bench: caribou, wolverine, polar bear, lemming, arctic fox, albatross, weddell seal, leopard seal, southern elephant seal, walrus, harp seal, narwhal, orca, blue whale, emperor penguin and adelie penguin, all on a tiny bench. (although, we did have a ton of fun with Elf jokes featuring the narwhal, "Hello Buddy!....Hi Mr. Narwhal!")

I'm just hoping our bench is respectable on Saturday (although I'll have to hear about it, because I'm probably not attending....unless someone buys me a ticket! : )

Dios te bendiga!

My Dad's Big Find

Those of you that have had the pleasure to meet and know my father, know that Larry loves to hike. Those of you that have known me for a while, will remember me telling you about all the fun-filled times my father and I had as he dragged me throughout the wonderful state of New Mexico for the two years that we lived there.

Now, hiking with Pops is an adventure more than anything else. Dad has this tendency to meander about the trail, veering off to check out even the slightest oddity on the trail. Other that killing rattlesnakes (that are always a threat, even though they're 25 feet off the trail!), this is one of the things that he loves and one of the things that I love about him. He loves to explore.

Well, all of Pops hikes and detours finally payed off. A few weeks ago Pops was leading a hike somewhere near Socorro, NM. As he was wondering around the desert, he happened to see a cave just a touch off the trail, so in true Pops fashion, he and the others ventured off the trail to see what they could find. And this is what they saw:

The basket

Now obviously this basket didn't look like this when they saw it, but they found this 1,500 year old basket in the cave! How awesome is that??? They took some pics, left it and then after showing it to his archaeologist in Albuquerque, Pops took them down there the next day. They dug it up and took it back to the big city to check it out. Rumors are that it is almost museum quality and one of the few baskets of its kind found in the area.

Dad and the basket after they found it.

Congrats Pops! I hope that basket makes it into a museum because I would love to wonder through it one day and see your name on the card beside it!

Dios te bendiga

My glorious Saturday

Good news!!

After working out last Saturday with my buddy Richard....I returned to my house and....

MY POWER WAS BACK!!!

Glorious day! I was so excited. No longer was I Dupree!