Coconut

I thought it would be fun to buy a coconut and let the kids crack it open.  Like they do on Survivor.  Except we have hammers and screwdrivers. 

Would the kids like the coconut water?   Yes or No?  We got one of each . . .

This is Florida

Because people with blogs really want to show you their family vacation photos.

Kennedy Space Center

During our Spring break trip to Florida we made a stop at the Kennedy Space Center.  This was much less expensive than Disney or SeaWorld and NASA was pretty incredible.  

One of the first exhibits we wanted to see was the space shuttle Atlantis.  After watching a movie about the shuttle program the screen lifts up and you are looking straight at the shuttle.  It was impressive to walk around this close to the shuttle.  There was an elevated viewing platform and many stations that explained what you are looking at.  

 After the Atlantis exhibit we took the bus tour around the property that took us near the launch pads and past the vehicle assembly building.  The scale of the building is hard to imagine because it sits alone in an open field.  The bus driver and Wikipedia tell us that this is the largest single story building in the world and one of the largest buildings in the world measured by volume.

Originally built to build the Saturn V rockets it will be used for the new rockets that NASA is developing for deep space travel.

 At one end of the bus tour they let you off in a building where you can learn about the Apollo program.  If you thought the shuttle was impressive (I did) than you will be even more impressed by the scale of the Saturn V rocket on display.  On top of this massive rocket sits the small pyramid shaped Apollo capsule.

When we left for Florida we knew we wanted to find something interesting to do but hadn't decided on exactly what.  Once in Florida Cari suggested this trip and it was a huge success.  You can easily spend a full day at the Kennedy Space Center and the two older kids seemed to really enjoy this stop. 

Eventually we all Post Easter Pics

Easter tradition is to take a family photo.  This year was no different.  You just get to see my family photo a few weeks after everyone on Facebook posted theirs.  This way I stand out from the crowd a bit. 

We also held our annual Easter Egg hunt in the yard.  This year the eggs were hidden a bit harder and one golden egg was placed extra hard. 

Unfortunately, going easy on the kids all these years hasn't taught them anything in their ability to find actual hidden eggs.  After a time they started to give up and we gave Cari and Amanda a chance to find the golden egg.  Guess who got the prized egg. . .

Why is this so Hard?

I have several posts that I would love to sit down and write but sitting down to write is not a priority of the limited time available these past few weeks.  Hopefully soon you will start to see more posts.  Easter egg hunt pictures will be up before Memorial Day, Memorial Day post will take place around July 4. . . you get the idea.

But today I wanted to ask... Why is it so hard to take a nice picture with my family?

Hymn 302

A New Bathroom Experience

I think we are long overdue for a bathroom change up.  It's probably not something that everyone is comfortable talking about but something that effects every single person.

The problem is that as the Earth's population grows and clean water becomes a bigger concern we need to find ways to conserve water.

My proposed solution is a toilet that uses no water.   Think about how many times you flush over a gallon of water into the sewers each day.  Multiply that by all the toilets in your community.  That's a lot of water we can use for other purposes.

This new system that I propose be placed into every home by the end of summer and in restaurants by the end if the year is basically a large version of a kitty litter box.  I have named this innovation the granulal toilet system or the GTS.

I anticipated some push back on this idea at first and that's why I have been testing the system at home for the past two months.  I wanted to work out some of the bugs before going public and I wanted to be able to answer your questions once you install one in your house.

During my testing I realized pretty quickly that a standard cat litter box was not going to work for regular human use so I quickly upgraded to an under bed storage container.  These were shallow enough to be comfortable for use but held enough volume that I didn't have to scoop out the litter after each use.

Clean up is pretty easy thanks to the great clumping power of modern cat litter formulas. Once installation becomes wide spread we will see some great innovation in granual toilet systems.  I predict self cleaning boxes with mechanical scoopers during the first 9 months.  As a bonus, if you have cats you can share a box and have one fewer boxes to scoop out! A win / win no matter how you look at it.

Another benefit is that GTS won't be tied to water supplies and drains.  If you need to move your litter box closer to the TV, do it!  If you want to move it into your room at night, do it!  If you want to set up additional boxes for increased capacity during a party, do it!  That's the beauty of this flexible system.

It is estimated that using GTS in a home will save the average family of four about 880 gallons of water each week!!!!  With all this water no longer needed to be flushed down a toilet we will have more water available for things like watering our lawns and washing our cars during the dry season.  I just don't see how any of us can go wrong by switching over ASAP.

Once we get the population on the system the next project will be tackling the 40 gallons you use for each shower that you take.

Which School is the Best?

We have two elementary schools in our town and they decided to hold a basketball game between the faculty of each school earlier this week.  Tickets to get in were only a dollar and we thought it would be something fun to do.

Apparently EVERYONE else in town thought it would be a fun event and I was surprised to see the high school gym fill up for a basketball game played by teachers.

They held games during "official time outs" and during one break even held a dance competition on the court.

The entire event was a lot of fun and the crowd really got into cheering for their favorite school.  The game was close through the closing 30 seconds and I was glad to see Liberty Elementary come back and take the win with a lot of help from the art teacher!

Math Detective

We had a "Family Math Night" at school last week and the theme was Math Detective.  

Complete with glasses and mustache to make it official:

YouTube of the Week

I listen to a lot of contemporary Christian music and recently Matt Maher has caught my attention.

For me, I think it is a combination of the tone of Matt's voice, the message he sings, and the emotion that he sings with.

16 (and driving)

Happy Birthday!

Mysterious Scratches - SOLVED

How in the world do those small scratches end up on the roof of the car?


Mystery solved:

My Smart TV Made Me Cry

We purchased a new TV recently so that we can join the modern world.  While looking over some of the options available we noticed a large amount of connected or "smart" televisions.  Since we don't have cable and use the internet for content, we decided that a smart TV may be the way to go.  Choosing a smart TV also didn't seem to increase the price more than $50 in many cases so it wasn't too painful of a choice to make.

We got home, pulled the old TV out, put the new TV up, plugged it in, and started setup.

Almost immediately I found that my connected TV wasn't connected.  It said it was attached to our wifi but there was no data coming through.  I changed multiple settings on the router and was able to get it working.  These new settings were not optimal for speed or security, but the TV was working.

The next day we were using a TV in a different room that is connected using Chromecast.  Every thirty seconds the video would stop and buffer.  It was unwatchable without wanting to jump out of a window.  I went back to the router and made some changes to help the speed settings.  That made a difference and we were able to watch without desiring personal injury.

Guess what.  The TV didn't like these changes and no longer would connect.  In addition, the Wii no longer connected either.

I started crying. 

With so many connected devices in our house I decided the best route would be to choose optimal settings to suite the majority of the devices.  These settings would make all devices except the new TV happy with a speedy connection.

After threatening to smash the TV to the floor I decided to make a trip to Walmart and pick up this little device.

This wifi extender costs about $50 and was EASY to setup.  Once connected to my wifi, I used a cord to connect it to the TV.  The TV now thinks it has a direct wire connection to the internet and the extender handles the wifi.  This worked beautifully.

After four days of Google searches, studying, and crying I now know more about wifi, routers, and connected devices than I ever thought I would.

Hiking in the Cold

A Saturday with no activities planned.... what to do?  What to do?  One of the kids suggested going to the park.  GREAT IDEA!  Let's go to the "park".  It was about 40 degrees outside but I wasn't going to let that slow us down.

We loaded up the car and headed for Paris Mountain State PARK.  The kids, realizing this was a hiking trip, lost some excitement, but we were on our way!

We chose to hike the Brissy Ridge Trail loop which would total just over two and a half miles.

It was cold when we started out, but the elevation changes warmed us up and soon some jackets were coming off.

Here are some photos from out trip.

We haven't spent much time at Paris Mountain in the past, so it was nice to visit this beautiful resource that is close to home.  The park features a lot of trails that can be used by mountain bikers (not on Saturday) and as we hiked I thought about if I would be able to handle the trail on a bike.

After finishing our hike everyone was tired.  Apparently the winter has allowed us all to get out of shape.  Maybe we need more trips to the park!