Festivus!

Festivus was amazing, as usual. We missed the rest of the Kutzner family, but it was so nice to see the Myers side. Zion and Abi were joined at the hip as usual, and Whitey was such a good little mommy to Zen. All of the kids are growing up so quickly!
Maize had a fresh batch of beautiful puppies--very hard not to take one home, especially since she had some chocolates this time around.

Farewell to Lincolnwood School

Flowers in the school yard; A beloved teacher.

Zion, 5th Grade Graduation party

Here is Zion on his last day of 5th grade, crazy hair and all.

Zion, 5th

Finally some new pictures (not rocks or gross heads)

Rocks

We seem to have misplaced our camera temporarily, so I am out of cute pictures of the kids for now. Here is a picture of Zion's latest science project. He got a rock tumbler for Christmas 2 years ago, but it is a messy process and we couldn't do it when we lived in the high rise. Now that we have a great front porch, we were have a place to store rocks that we had collected on the beach and begin the 4 week process. Here's a picture of the results--very cool. Some of the rocks came with the kit (the fancy ones), the others came from Lake Michigan. Zion has already begun to make jewelry for family and friends. If you're reading this, maybe you'll get a package! :-)

Sheep's Head

So it's no secret that I have a higher tolerance than most for the gruesome...at least when it comes to dead things, handling poop, large insects, reptiles, etc. I have been shopping at a local "international market" lately in order to cut down on food costs. It's a decent little grocery store, good produce, and some very strange things for sale. Every time I'm in the meat section, I have to stand and stare in horrified fascination at the array of animal parts that they sell for human consumption--chicken feet, ox tails, pig snouts, etc. But this specimen is by far the most outrageous that I've come across. Why, might you ask, did I come home from the grocery store with a whole head of a sheep on a meat tray? I don't even know. Zion was at camp, so I thought I would welcome him home with a practical joke. I said that we were welcoming him home with his favorite meal--that he was going to be so excited! When I brought this thing out, the joke backfired, as he began retching and gagging, eyes watering, begging me to take it away. The head now lives in our freezer, waiting for another unsuspecting victim. Why? Why? I don't know. Probably for the same reason I stop and pick up interesting road kill. I just want to take it back to my lair and study it. People eat some really crazy shit. Can anyone tell me which culture has sheep's head on its menu????