Flat Stanley in AS

Flat Stanley has come to visit from Indiana. He likes it here so much, he's decided to live on our kitchen countertop.  We'll try to get him to a post office soon.  I'm sure he's missed.  

Ella took some pictures of Stanley around our yard.  Here are her comments.

 In American Samoa Flat Stanley saw coconut trees, but he stood under it at the wrong time!

 Fortuntely he's already flat, so he didn't get crushed.   

He learned about taro plants and their humongous leaves.

 He likes our tropical plants.  This one is red ginger.

This one is a red hibiscus.

He got wet swimming and so we hung him up to dry.  It's nice being flat. 

He learned about our aquaponics system and played in the tomato plants.

 He wanted to ride Ephraim's bike.

 And he wanted to drive our car, but he doesn't have a license.

 He played dress up, so he put a hat on but it was too big.

So he tried on a fake mustache, and everybody laughed.

 Then he wanted to play checkers.

And he did a little drawing and coloring.

 He wanted to go to school but it was Sunday.

Stanley had a good time here.  He might talk about it with you when he gets back.

I'm Hot

Like temperature. It's 8 pm and I'm clammy and sweaty. There's no fan on me, and I can't get up to turn one on cause I'm nursing. My baby is sweaty and pi-lau (that's hawaiian pidgin for stinky).

Today I had to teach Science and Social Studies for the 3-8th grades because one of our teachers was absent. She's actually moving, so we need to find a replacement very soon. sigh. The classroom I was in is hot. And I haven't showered yet, so I'm still hot.

Ephraim was nice and took time from his very busy schedule to come teach the kids about our aquaponics system we recently installed. So they learned about how fish waste has ammonia and the bacteria turn it into nitrate which the plants absorb and turn the water clean. The kids paid attention because he was talking about fish poo and worm poo. Perfect topic for 3rd graders.

Ephraim had his annual review for work and all's well, so we're signed up for another year. sigh. That gives you all ONE MORE YEAR to get your tickets for an all expense* paid trip in Samoa. (*except airfare). Time's running out (hopefully). By this time next year we may be in New Jersey or Kentucky or something, so now's your chance.

We're having a Fall Festival fund raiser on the 12th, and my booth is going to be fortune-telling. They have to pay 25 cents to get their fortune read. I was planning on wearing something exotic and having people pick some cards and I'll interpret their meaning. Something like that. Or I could use chinese year animals. Does anyone have any ideas for me? Please please please?

And random photos.

This is a dead whale that washed up on the reef two weeks ago. We were driving to the library when we saw it. It's a baby sperm whale and scientists say it had been dead for a month when it washed up on the reef. I don't know what those people think they're doing. It's not going to budge. They tied it to a tugboat and released it 5 miles off shore. Back to the circle of life.

And this is me delivering pizza to Ella's class who won Spirit week. And I am dressed as Super Nerd. For fun.

That's all for now. Good night. I love you all!