3 Kinds of Pennies

Hi, All:

Over the last few weeks, I have to try to stay one step ahead of the kids I teach about science twice a week. It's not always easy, and requires a lot of preparation well-ahead of class time. As a result, I find myself performing curious preparations with time to think and reflect as I perfect the slime recipe, adjust the pH of red cabbage juice, or deduce exactly how much dry ice is required to burst a particular type of balloon. Amber's life is nothing, if not exciting.

Anyway, I found myself with time to think as I was putting pennies into a propane flame in order to melt the metal.

I had taken ordinary pennies, and put them in a bowl of taco sauce, and stirred for about a minute before removing them. Almost all of the pennies were "cleaned" by the salt and vinegar, and were much brighter than they had been in years.

Next, I took these cleaned pennies and put them in beaker with zinc metal, zinc chloride powder, and a bit of sodium hydroxide ("lye", for you older folks). In no time at all, the container was filled with thousands of tiny bubbles as the zinc metal was transfered onto the copper pennies (elctro-plating for you younger folks). The container got quite hot in this reaction, and nearly boiled the water (I said Amber's life was exciting.). After about 20 minutes of this treatment, the copper of the pennies had a shinny coat of silver-colored metal (the zinc).

Finally, I took the "silvered" pennies and put them into a hot flame in order to melt the veneer of zinc into the copper and thus form brass. The melting point of zinc is much lower than the melting point of copper, so as the zinc liquifies, it is "drawn" into the copper and the two metals become one at the molecular level, giving the "gold" appearance you see in the picture.

Sorry for so much background, but a series of thoughts occurred to me as I repeated this process for over 100 such pennies.

First, I thought about how modern (post-1982) pennies are actually about 95% zinc, and a thin layer of copper over the outside. Like us, there is much more to us than what can be easily known. Like us, the pennies show years of wear differently, just like us. Some pennies were only a few years old, and yet were seriously stained. Some pennies, from my childhood years, were remarkably well-preserved.

I also thought that like the taco sauce scouring our surface; we can repent of our "stains" and be made shiney and "new" again. Only with this preparation can the other stages be successful. But the process doesn't stop there. Heavenly Father didn't send His Son to die for us to save us as we were. He has better plans for us than that.

The zinc electroplating is a lot like our immersion in the Restored Gospel. It is not always a gentle process and may not always look appealing, but the result is that more of what's inside ourselves, is given on our outsides, until we look different.

Finally, tremendous heat is applied, and what must seem like a torturously long time to the pennies must pass. Then and only then, when the outside submits to the heat, and combines with all other metals that are separately present, does something truly wonderous occur. There is no more "inside" and "outside", all the metals blend together to give a completely new metal. In this case, a fine, shiney, golden brass with it's own unique qualities.

So it is with the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. But the good news is that anyone can be redeemed and made into a completely new creature, as the Apostle Paul spoke of. We can endure the salty acid of recognizing and forsaking our sin-stained past, no matter how care-worn it may be. We can immerse ourselves in the Restored Gospel by attending our meetings and learn to take a piece from each meeting and make it part of our new lives. Finally, when He decides we are ready; we can endure the refining heat applied by Skilled Hands, and internalize our good works not so we can earn a reward, but because we have aligned our will with His will, and the two become one in purpose. Like the brass penny that started as a tattered, barely seen coin of little account; we become something of lasting beauty that reflects light and is seen as a thing of beauty and art.

Like many of the children I have given such a penny to, we may look back at our own lives one day, and ask our Father: "How did you do that?".

I wonder how much grumbling we would each make about having to endure our own beaker of acid and salt, if we kept the result first in our minds? To become a new creature, without spots or blemishes, destined to shine brightly throughout all eternity with our families.

Next time a clerk hands you a few pennies as change; think of the "change" that is possible in your own life...in the right environment, and the right attitude. The possibilities are truly endless.

Will

Getting ready for our new addition!

We are getting ready to add another family member to our household. This time our new addition will also be registered as a service animal as well. There are some reasons that we have the medical prescription for a service animal, but it will benefit our entire family. We are going to be welcoming our new addition on July 2nd. The kids are all so very excited, as well as Will is excited too. I know he is almost 40 years old, but you could swear that he is the same age as all the kids, and probably more excited than all of them combined.


Here is our new addition. He is about 9 weeks old here, and we will post another pic as soon as we get him home. Which at that point he will be 12 weeks old. Will decided to name him Rommel. A pure German name for a purebred German Shepherd. Apparently he is named after a very smart and sneaky and persistent German General. All the traits that a German Shepherd possesses. We found a wonderful family in Iowa who breeds their family Shepherd once in a while for fun. They are very careful and breed their AKC registered Shepherd to another AKC Shepherd down the street, so we feel really good about getting a top quality dog. The family has children around our kids age, and so it will be used to small children already. We have been told that he is very loving and gentle with the kids. This family has been great in answering all our questions, and working with us on payments for Rommel. He is about 1/3 the price that we would have had to pay for a purebred, and so we count our blessings that we were able to find what we needed at a price that was what we could afford.


We will continue to keep posting photos of Rommel here, since German Shepherds never look the same from month to month for their first year of life. They are one of I think two breeds Will says that do not look a thing like they are adult wise as when they were a puppy. Most dogs look like mini adults of themselves, but not the German Shepherds.


The kids have helped me make homemade doggie treats for him, and we have been talking about our camping trips with him, and so on. The kids keep asking how many sleeps there are till they get Rommel, so we are counting down for them. According to all the kids there are 5 more sleeps till we get Rommel.

Mt Weight Loss Pictures

I am sure a lot of you have already seen these, but this is posted for the benefit of My Family in California. I hope your having fun Mom!!

Here I am at about 397lbs.

Here I am at about 185lbs.

Here I am in my wedding dress before and after. Total Loss= about 200lbs.

I am now about two and a half years out from surgery, and staying steady at the 185-190lbs. I feel great, and with all my setbacks, problems, and foods I still can't eat, I'd still do it ALL OVER AGAIN!!!

Will & Amber visit the Winter Quarters Temple

As many of you know, it's hard to find the time to visit the temple regularly. We have the same challenges as most of you reading this post. But this past week, a miracle occurred...Will & Amber went to visit the temple, together! Will wanted to break-in his new recommend that he just got signed at the Stake Center on Tuesday night.

Amber was up all night feeling sick, and Will kept waking-up for no discernable reason, also. It was a struggle to go to the very last minute, but it happened.

While this particular temple is smaller than many others, it is still the House of the Lord, and is furnished accordingly.

Because we had left the kids in the care of a neighbor that morning, we only had time for a quick picture on our way out after the Endowment Session. Still, it felt like a real achievement to get us both there together, like it's meant to be.

Will and Science

Here is a picture of Will enjoying a visit to MLK Elementary to do what he does best...Create chaos with science. Here is a shot of him rigging a "Mentos Geyser", with the help of an asistant. Those kids sure know when it's "science day" each week.

A visit to the Fontenelle Forest

On Wednesday, Will suddenly found his afternoon "free", instead of being in the lab all day. It was so nice out that we decided to use the family pass that we won at the winner's circle raffle about 9 months ago. It would expire in september anyway, so we decided to use a rare, dry, day to see what was there. Sabrina had been there twice before, and Vanessa once. The school makes good use of the amenities that Omaha has to offer. Here are some pictures of the kids in the museum. As a family we went around the "boardwalk" trails and let the kids explore the various exhibits along the way. The forest was so thick that we had no need for sunscreen despite the beautiful, clear, day that it was. Enjoy the pictures!

Making my Walls Fun!!

OK, so I'm tired of yelling at the kids when I find that one of them has used my clean walls for a drawing board. So I decided to make it a fun and OK thing to color on my walls. I decided to make an art center in my kitchen for the kids to use. We don't drink, and we don't have bar stools, so the overhang in our kitchen wasn't being used for anything. So I decided to be creative. I went to Ace Hardware and bought a can of chalkboard paint, and four bulldog clips. I then went to Hobby Lobby and bought a roll of butcher paper and VOILA!! My kids are able to color on the walls and not get yelled at!! They each end up spending about 2 hours or more a day coloring, painting, or chalk boarding here. Its been wonderful!!

Happy Fathers Day!!

Happy Fathers Day to all my special fathers. I Have three fathers in my life that I wish to thank. First and foremost my husband Will. He is the worlds best father to my kids. All of the children absolutely adore him. Despite his flaws (which all of us have) he is the worlds best. He does so much with the kids. He plays ball in the house with them, helps them when they are scared, and then also teaches them science. He does so many science tricks with the kids. I think most of the experiments are for his entertainment (he is just a grown up kid), but includes the kids all the time. I always have the kids asking me when daddy is going to get home so that they can do science experiments. They all love mixing things and watching things disappear, or blow up. The dry ice experiments are their favorites. Oh yah and the fire experiments. Anyway, Will also is a great example of the priesthood in our family, and I'm so thankful for that. Not to go into too many details here, but as most all of you know my past, I can't believe I was almost willing to let my entire life go by without the wonderful blessings of having a priesthood holder in my life. Isaac has such a great example in his life. And as all of you know we will be changing our last name back to Will's birth name. It will soon be Weigt pronounces like Knight but with a V. I am so glad we have decided to do this. It is such a great gift to be able to give to his family. The gift of forgiveness, and love. Thanks Will for being such a great father to our three small children. Thanks for being such a great example for them to follow and hopefully choose a spouse similar to you for their eternal mate.

My next Father in my life is my own father. I love my dad. He is the greatest. Most of you know he is very quiet, but that silence always spoke so much more than words ever could or did. He always watched everything, took all the details some may have missed, and then made his decisions. I love him. My dad is such a great example of unconditional love. He loved me through all my tough and heartbreaking years. He is a rock in our family. My dad stood by and kept all our family together when I tried hard to hurt it. I learned from my dad how important it was to have a spouse treat you with respect and love you. My dad always showed respect to my mom, and always showed affection to my mom. There was never a mothers day or birthday that my dad missed for my mother that she didn't get some sort of flower bouquet or jewelry or something thoughtful. My dad is so awesome. He worked hard to provide us with a great childhood, and we never went without anything. Dad always took us on great family vacations. We went camping all the time, hiking, boating, you name it we did it, and I love all the memories I have of my dad. He was also a great priesthood leader in our family. WE would have family home evenings, home teachers, and we would have fathers interviews. I always felt like I was loved by my dad. My dad loves the kids so much. He lets them ride in his big truck in the front seat, and lets them talk him into anything. My dad bends over backwards for my kids. My dad also helps out our little family all the time whether it is financially or with great car advise or anything else. My dad is always there for me and my family no matter what and I love him for it. Thanks Dad for such a great example and for all your love.

My next father I adore is my father in law Bill. He is so great. I like to call him the gentle giant. This man is super tall. I look up to him, the kids look up to him, and even Will looks up to him. However this man is so gentle and loving to my children and to myself. He taught my husband how to be a hard worker and how to not give up. He did this by his example. My father in law never gives up. He has worked hard all his life no matter how much he may not have wanted to, or how much his body ached he still worked hard to provide a good family life for my husband. All of those examples taught my husband how to be a great father. My father in law loves and adores my children even though he may not say it. He always holds still to let my girls paint his toenails or his nails. He lets my kids run around his home, and he also lets my kids play with his trains. My father in law loves trains, and so he shares his hobby and passion with my children by setting up their own special train they could play with and make move on the tracks. He always lets the kids see and touch his piggy's as well. He collects pigs, and so the kids always tell me that we need to get a pig for grandpa wherever we go. Thanks dad for being so great!

And finally the Father I appreciate the most is my Father in Heaven. I am so grateful for his sacrifices that he made so that I could come down here to earth. I am grateful for the atonement so that I could be forgiven and be able to have the opportunity to marry my eternal companion in the temple. I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for providing me with such a loving family. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have my children and raise them. I'm grateful for my Father in Heaven and his love for me and his willingness to never give up on me even though I had given up on him quite a few times in my past. Thank you Father in Heaven for all my blessings of such wonderful fathers and examples in my life.

Here's to another wonderful year with AWESOME FATHERS!!

Tired of Tornado Season!!

I'm so tired of tornado season, and we have just begun. This year is a lot worse than last year. We have spent the last few nights for about two hours at a time hidden in our basement. I'm sure you have all read or seen on TV about the scouts that were caught and killed in the tornado last night. Well, we were camping only 5 miles away from them (luckily last weekend!) But this tornado stuff is awful this year. Here are two snapshots of our back yard just as the tornado sirens started going off last night. Notice the sky is a weird red, and then on the other side it is black and then clear. Very weird, and also notice the funnel in the picture. We were in the basement with all the sirens going off from about 7pm to about 10:30 pm. It was a long time. Thank goodness for long life batteries in my laptop that allowed the kids to watch a movie.

This is looking to the north of us. See the funnel forming on the right side of the picture above the town homes.

And this is looking to the south of us. Notice the clear spot, but the clouds were all black, I mean Ive never seen them this dark before. It was very scary and ominous.

Our FIRST Camping Trip!

We were determined to go camping on Thursday to Friday, since the kids were so excited, and we didn't want to disappoint them. We originally were going to go to a campground that was only about 30 miles away from us, but the lake flooded the tent campsites and closed it. So at the last min we had to choose another campsite. We decided to go to "Lewis and Clark State Park" in Iowa. It was only 1 hour drive away and was absolutely wonderful. Yes the river was flooded, but we were able to get a great campsite, and it had all the modern facilities.

Well, here we are on our very first camping trip. Will and I weren't sure how the kids would react to camping, but after it was all said and done, and we were back home showered and clean, the kids were very concerned and asked Will where the tent was at. He looked at the kids puzzled and said "Well, we threw it away at the campground cause you kids didn't like camping."
You would have thought we just killed their best friend or told them they would never eat again in their little lives. They all just about dies because they were so mad at us for throwing away the tent. Will assured them after MUCH calming down that we didn't really throw away the tent, and that we would be going again really soon. All the tears and upset feelings were gone within seconds of that announcement.


Here is our cute little campsite. Actually it was HUGE!!

This is a picture from our tent looking across the street. The kids were in heaven with this great playground that they could run back and forth from. Will and I loved it, since we could see them at all times, and not have to yell at them "We can't see you!"Here is our Huge tent set up. It took us a while to set it up, since the winds were about 45-50 mph the entire night. It was raining and super windy all night, but none of us cared. The tent it survived, and so did we. When we were setting it up, we had to do it essentially twice, since it went blowing away half set up like a kite due to the winds.
Because of the high winds, our fire had lots of problems getting started. We finally found something to act as a wind break, and Will was such a sport to hold this lid the entire time the kids roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. What a man!!The kids loved roasting the dogs and mellows, but hated the wind with the smoke in their eyes. We took our kids friend Mailei with us. She had a blast with the kids as well. I think all together the kids ate 14 hotdogs between them, and I think 90% of the dogs were still cold in the middle. They couldn't quite understand that even if its hot outside to the touch the inside is still "frozen". (I had frozen them before going.) But in the end they didn't care. It was a novelty roasting and eating their own hotdogs.
Sabrina was proud of her concoction. She made a "Cheeto Dog". This is so cute of her.

Here was what we found the next morning due to the high winds and rains overnight. This was the site across from us. They had tornado warnings all night. But we have found that living here in Omaha that if you wait to do anything till there are no tornado warnings, you will be at home all night long every night for basically all of June and all of July. So we just are careful.Here was breakfast in the morning. We had a great time. We had scrambled eggs, pancakes and sausage. It was so much fun, and I loved every min of it. It reminded me of my camping trips when I was little. I now know both ends of the camping experience. Once as a little kid, and now as an adult. I love it!! And finally here was the car ride home. They all looked like this after the first ten min in the car ride home. They had all run around all day and night, and had a fun filled two days. It was a great time and all the kids are looking forward to doing it again really soon.