Rachel Visits

We like to have our grandkids visit us on the weekends and since it’s been a while, we invited Rachel to stay with us this last weekend. We picked her up late Saturday morning and went to one of her favorite places to eat, the Pizza Ranch. It’s just a few blocks from her house. She likes to get the fried chicken and a couple kinds of dessert pizza with lemonade on the side.

When we got to Cedar Rapids we stopped at the Blue Stone rock shop. There are all kinds of great rocks to look at; crystals, minerals, fossils, and rock-based jewelry. They have a section of geodes that have not been broken. You can pick one, take it home, and break it open. It may or may not be good. All of the ones they offered are about the same, that is, somewhere between a golf ball and a tennis ball in size. If they are heavy which means they are fairly solid, they cost $1.00 Lighter ones which means they have a better chance of being what you want are $2.00. We got one of the $2.00 ones.

I asked the saleslady if I could break it open myself and she thought I probably could. She told me how to do it and we came home. I went out to the shop and got my welding hammer which you will see in the pictures. The geode was slightly flattened and I ask which way was the best to try and break it and her answer seemed contraintuative to me but, oh well, she should know.

I started tapping the rock.

After tapping all the way around the rock 4 or 5 times I saw a crack starting to form. Funny thing is though, it split the way I thought it should have in the first place, not the way she said to do it.

Loose Teeth

Rachel is about ready to lose her two top front teeth. When she lost the bottom ones the second teeth came in behind the baby teeth which eventually did fall out. On the top, the roots of the baby teeth have dissolved on the back side but not on the front. The second teeth are coming in and forcing the backs down but the fronts are staying put. Right now the teeth are about 45 degrees off vertical. It’s so darned cute you can hardly stand it. She says, “It’s hard to eat this apple.”

The Yellow Cow

She also told us that the art teacher at her school was showing them some paintings and one of them was The Yellow Cow” by Franz Marc. She said, “My grandma has that painting.” So here is Rachel in a picture with it so she can show her teacher.