Macaroni And Cheese

Macaroni And Cheese is the best food ever!
 Mom taught me how to make it using her special recipe:

1 cup elbow macaroni
1/4 cup diced onion
1 T butter
1T flour
dash of pepper
1 1/4 cups milk
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Cook mac according to package directions. For the cheese sauce, cook butter and onion till onion is tender (but not brown). Stir in the flour and pepper, and add all the milk at once. Cook until thick and bubbly. Then you can add the cheese. Drain the pasta, and mix the cheese with the pasta. YUMMERS! We usually serve these with chocolate chip muffins. The sweetness of the muffins balances the mac'n' cheese so yummily...

Safe Sitter Course!

I took a  Safe Sitter Course, and I learned so much. What is a Safe Sitter Course? Well, Safe Sitter was founded in 1980 by a emergency room doctor. One of the nurses in his emergency room had left her little girl with a sitter and came to work. An hour later, the little girl was in the emergency room. She'd started choking and the sitter didn't know what to do. The doctor decided to found Safe Sitter classes to educate boys and girls 11-13 on how to care for kids, choking rescue,etc. When I got to the school library where I was taking the course, I was given a folder with information on :

• How, why and where injuries happen so you can prevent them from happening in the first place.
• How to decide how serious a problem is if someone isinjured.
• How to get help if you need it.
• How to keep yourself safe when babysitting.
• How a child's age affects how to care for them.
• How to prevent problem behavior.
• How to rescue a choking infant or child.
• How to run your babysitting business

(The items in bold are from ther Safe Sitter site.)

After going over the items in our folder, we learned how to do choking rescue on infants and on older kids. If someone is choking, don't slap them on the back or hold up there hands. That causes the item to go farther down their airway.Instead, preform abdominable thrusts if they are older than 1.

The dummies we did choking rescue on.

Me diapering a 'baby'...

Choking Rescue

More choking rescue...

After all of this, we took a test and preformed choking rescue for our instructor. If I passed, I'll get a card in the mail saying I am a CERTIFIEDd SAFE SITTER!!! I can't wait! Then I can babysit!!

Broiler Chicks (and an emergency bird surgery)

We got broiler chicks for 4-H, but one of our chicks had a problem with it's leg. The other chicks could tell that something was wrong with him and started pecking at him. We pulled him out to see what was wrong and to move him into another pen when we noticed the problem.  My Dad said he would try to help it.  And so, it appears when the chick broke out of it's egg sac, part of the sac wrapped around the leg and as the chick grew, the 'growth' got tighter around his leg, not allowing him to move it properly. We managed to wet that part, loosening it, then cut off the extra sac. The chick was not too happy about this until we were done.  I was assisting with the 'surgery', getting supplies and trying to help hold the chick still. We found he had a growth on his leg, where the 'extra sac' was connected, that was infected. We cleaned and tried to disinfect it.  It appears the surgery was successful so far - our little Chicky made it through the night and will hopefully be OK!  He is not getting around too good yet but now learning how too walk with that bad leg.  He has a long way to go but we hope he makes it.  He appears to be healthy in other ways, grooming himself, eating and drinking good.  I know you aren't supposed to get attached to your chickens, but this little guy is an exception! (Those are his friends in the above photos.)

Bananagrams

Bananagrams is a fun game where each person takes 21 letter tiles from a pile, called the "Bunch". One person says "Split" and you flip your tiles over letter-side-up. Then you spell as many words as you can using the letters you got, Scrabble style. When you finish using your letters, you yell "peel" and each person has to take another letter, including you. If you get a letter you just can't use, you can "dump" it back in the pile, but you have to take 3 more.

an example of my letters

The first person to peel when their are no tiles (or too few for each person to get one) left in the pile yells "Bananas" and they win. I'm not bragging, but, ask my family...I'm the Bananagrams champ! lol.

Sulphur Springs Dairy Museum

First we watched a video about dairy

Then we learned how butter is made

...and took a picture...

...and another!


We went on a tour with TACHE to the Sulphur Springs Dairy Museum and had a great time. First we watched a video on dairy and milk. Then the younger kids got to milk a pretend cow. They also got to make pictures using a stamp shaped like a cow. Next we went through the museum. They have life-size exhibits on making dairy products, collections of old, fancy glass milk bottles, cream separators,etc. Then all the kids sat down and our docent passed around a little container with cream. We shook and shook it.... and after a long time, we had butter!  Our docent demonstrated a butter churn and separator for us , and then the best part- FREE ICE CREAM! I learned three facts:
1. No human hands  have touched your milk until you open it.
2. Holsteins and Jerseys are the main dairy cows
3. It takes forever to make butter! :-)
This is the museum website : http://southwestdairyfarmers.com/kids_korner

Preparing for the 4-H Fashion Show!

I had to send in a picture of me in the dress I'll be modeling for the Fashion Show on Saturday..

..and I thought I'd give you a sneak peek! I am really excited about the fashion show. Like the Food Show(where you answer questions on your dish), I have to answer questions on why my dress is a good buy, why I picked it, etc. I chose an Easter Dress, as you can see!

Food Show Part II

So, we went to District Food Show, and I got second place for my dish,Shrimp Creole,(see above) third place for Ag Id, and fifth place for display. Ag Id is when you take a test on Texas agriculture products(food or materials like mohair or cotton) identify them and where they're grown, or what climate they need, etc. And display is the way your dish is displayed. And, of course, the 4-H Food Show is when 4-Her's from a certain district, which is a bunch  of counties come together. Each person gets 2,5,or 7 minutes with a judge, depending on their age category. They have to answer 12 questions on their dish -how nutritious it is, how they help their community, how many calories are in it, and many others.My brother Christopher got first place in the Food Show AND in Ag ID!! Andrew, my other little brother, can't come to District because he's a Clover Kid, but he did great at County.