Roberta and Booger’s Compromise
So Booger decided to completely redo my girls’ soccer page because I used my scrapbooking supplies with lots of flower stickers and stamps, and Booger wanted it to look like a science diagram for his Anatomy of an Academy theme. I looked at it and it really had a lot of information, but I thought it just looked boring. There was no color or personality to it. So I asked Booger if we could use his idea of adding scientific labels to the pages, but maybe add a little bit of pizzazz. Booger said that might be interesting – I think he was starting to realize that his idea was missing something. So we decided that we would use Booger’s layout of the ‘scientific’ labels but we are going to add some neat images, lettering and colors to liven it up. We tried working together on one page and came up with a really neat look that still fit within Booger’s theme. So we’re going to do that will all the pages. And you know what? I actually think that Booger’s idea is pretty neat. It makes the yearbook more interesting.
Roberta and Booger: At Odds
Oh, wow. I think Booger is turning into a control freak! He just came to me and said that I have to redo my yearbook page on the girls’ soccer team. That is so unfair! I did a really cool page! I brought in my own scrapbooking supplies from home and I used lots of ribbons and stickers and cute stamps. You should have seen how awesome it was. Then Booger looks at it and says that it doesn’t fit with his theme, ‘Anatomy of an Academy’. Well, I think that’s a stupid theme anyway so why should I have to do my pages in his silly format? I think flowers and bows are much prettier for the girls’ soccer team, right? I told him that I wasn’t going to do redo it and you know what he said? He said he would just have to do it himself then! I said I wasn’t going to let him touch my page and so I packed it into my binder and took it home. I know he can just print off the pictures again and do it himself anyway, but it was the principle. I worked hard on that page and … Read more
Roberta, the Better Editor?
Okay, to take my mind off of my ultra-strict new teacher I decided I wanted to get involved with one of the extracurricular projects at school this year and I thought that the yearbook committee might be the thing for me. You know how much I love crafting, right? I was hoping that I could get on the art team for the yearbook and help lay it out, and choose pictures and images. The only thing is that Booger is the editor this year and he’s got some pretty weird ideas. The theme that Booger wants to go with is ‘Anatomy of an Academy.’ What??? He says that he wants to do a section on each program in the school, like math, and science and history. He says that we can lay it out like a science lesson and have lots illustrations and pictures for each section, with labels like in a scientific diagram. But who is going to want to read an anatomy of anything? You know it’s just because Booger is into all that science stuff that he thinks that’s a good idea. I really think I could do a better job editing the yearbook than Booger. I … Read more
Postcard from Alex
Dear Sparky Hi! How’s it going at your uncle’s shop? I hope you’re not too busy. Science camp is so much fun, but Booger kind of needs to chill. I mean, camp has all these awesome activities, like swimming and hiking and crafting, but Booger gets frustrated any time we’re not doing science all the time. So whenever we have to leave the lab he gets in a mood and is not really fun to be around. The silly thing is – we are doing science all the time anyway. At swimming, we have to try to figure out the time based on the sun’s position in the sky, and when we go hiking we collect samples to study in the biology lab and figure out the height of trees from their shadows. And often our crafting projects are for use in the lab, like when we built this cool volcano out of papier mache and then we made our own lava in the lab. But whatever. Booger usually chills after a bit and we can still have fun. And it really is a neat camp – I’m so glad he talked me into coming. Say hi to everyone for … Read more
Fun from Science Camp!
Dear Mom, I know that I said I didn’t want to go when you first mentioned it but I am sure glad I did because Booger and I are having a great time at Science Camp! It’s cool having a friend from home to hang out with while I’m here and Booger knows all about science so he helps me out with our experiments. We just finished a project today that was so much fun! We made a volcano! You know when you mix baking soda and vinegar and you get this really wild reaction? Well, the counselors challenged us to come up with the most realistic looking volcano. Both the volcano and the lava were supposed to look real so Booger and I spent hours building our mountain out of paper maché and then we painted. Booger is all about research so he downloaded lots and lots of pictures of real volcanoes and I added the detail to ours really carefully with a tiny paintbrush. Then, the really hard part was coming up with the right mixture for the lava that would look like real lava. Booger had the idea to mix equal parts of white glue and water … Read more
Booger writes home
Dear Sparky, Science Camp is awesome! Well, I know I just got here yesterday, and to be honest we haven’t actually done any real science yet, but I’m still having lots of fun! I’m so glad that Alex came with me because it’s really nice having someone you know to share a bunk with. When we got here we unpacked in our cabin and then they broke us up into groups and took us on a tour of the camp. You should see the labs! They have every piece of scientific equipment you could imagine! There’s also a really nice beach because unfortunately we don’t get to do science ALL the time. They expect us to go outside and swim and hike and stuff too. Alex thinks that is cool, but between you and me I’m not so crazy about wasting all that valuable research time away from the lab! After our tour it was almost time for dinner and so we had a weenie roast around the campfire. As we roasted our weenies one of the counselors explained how the structural composition of the meat changes when it is exposed to fire. … Read more
It’s Camp month!
Hi there! It’s me, Roberta. I am really pumped because my parents signed me up for Craft Camp this summer! It should be a lot of fun. We are starting with pottery this week which will be awesome – I mean, what’s the point of doing crafts if you’re not going to get MESSY, right? It’s going to be great because it’s only a morning camp, which means that I will still have my afternoons free to hang out with my friends and with the new baby when it comes along! When my dad and I were signing up for camp we ran into Molly and Millie. It turns out that Millie will be going to day camp this summer and I could tell by the look on Molly’s face that she was kind of relieved about that. Poor Molly. She keeps telling me that she loves Millie and they do have fun sometimes, but that I should really try to set boundaries when the baby starts to get older because otherwise it’s just going to be getting in my stuff all the time. I will try to remember that! Last summer Booger went … Read more
Booger’s Veggie Experiment
Hey – it’s me, Booger again. Okay, so I know that I tried that broccoli the other day and it wasn’t bad with the cheese sauce on it. But now Goober has been bugging me to try more vegetables and I just know that they’re going to be totally gross. So Goober had the idea that I could approach it like a science experiment. So I’m going to measure my response to various samples in order to prove my hypothesis that all vegetables are disgusting. HYPOTHESIS: Vegetables are gross. Period. (except broccoli with cheese sauce on it) MATERIALS: raw carrot sticks; celery sticks; sliced cucumber; broccoli and cauliflower stalks; sliced red peppers; onion dip. METHODS: 1. Dip each vegetable into onion dip and taste. 2. IF subject survives step one, taste each vegetable WITHOUT onion dip. DATA: Track response to each vegetable on a scale of one to five with one being ‘revolting’ and five being ‘delicious’. Figure 1. WITH DIP Vegetable revolting kinda gross Not bad Pretty good Delicious Carrot X Celery X Cucumber X Broccoli X Cauliflower X … Read more
Goober and Booger’s Heart to Heart
Hey there. It’s Goober, Booger’s big brother. Am I ever feeling like a fool. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own stuff and locked away in my lab for so long I haven’t been paying as much attention to Booger as I should have. When I took him to see Dr. Quack this week it was a real wake up call. I just assumed that Booger had sense enough to make sure he was eating right and getting out and playing with his friends. I guess I didn’t notice that he has become more and more engrossed in his video games and he was letting everything else slide. So I sat down with Booger this morning at the kitchen table and we looked over all the information that Dr. Quack sent home with Booger. When Booger saw how many health issues can arise from not eating properly and not getting enough exercise, I think he started to realize that this was more serious than he thought and that he’d better start to make some changes. So we made a plan to get Booger more active. I put a chart on the fridge where Booger can track how much physical … Read more
A More Balanced Booger
It’s Booger. Today, Goober made me eat all healthy meals. And you know what? It wasn’t so bad. For breakfast, I had whole grain toast with peanut butter. That was pretty tasty. And then he cut up a big bowl of strawberries and mixed it up with some yogurt. It was really good! It almost tasted like ice cream! At lunch time, Goober made me a whole wheat pizza with turkey pepperoni and tomato slices on top. It was delicious! It was just like a real pizza! I guess that’s because it WAS a real pizza. And I know I told Sparky last week that I hated apples, but after lunch Goober gave me some apple slices with peanut butter on them. I’ve discovered today that a lot of things taste good with peanut butter on them! I’ll have to remember that. For dinner we had roast chicken. Normally I would smother it with a load of gravy but Goober said to try it on its own and it was really juicy and tasty. I never really knew what roast chicken tasted like before because I’ve never had it when it wasn’t swimming in a pool of gravy. I … Read more
Booger’s Big Changes
So Goober took me home from Dr. Quack’s and said that we had to start making some changes. Ugh – thanks a lot, Dr. Quack! Goober explained about making sure that I got lots of different types of food with each meal. I’m supposed to make sure and have a lot of fruits and vegetables (this is going to be torture!), a small portion of protein – that’s like meat and eggs and fish (blech!) – and whole grains, which means rice or whole wheat pasta or bread. Whole wheat? Who wants whole wheat? I like white bread – the whiter the better! I’m also supposed to eat dairy stuff like milk and cheese and yogurt. I told Goober that cheese puffs seem like a good balance of dairy and grains to me. Seriously – what’s wrong with that? Goober says I need to make sure that I have a mixture of everything on my plate at mealtime, and that the more colors I see on my plate the better. When I said that if I had jelly beans for dinner I’d get lots of colors … Read more
Dr. Quack’s Post-Appointment Notes
Dr. Quack’s post-appointment notes RE: BOOGER I examined Booger today to see why he is experiencing such a loss of energy. I am disappointed to say that Booger most definitely has NOT been taking care of himself. I was appalled to discover how little exercise he gets and how poor his eating habits are. He barely does any more than walk from the couch to the refrigerator to get himself another root beer while he plays video games!!! Physical activity: I am afraid I was rather stern with Booger when I told him that he needed to get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. To be honest – 60 minutes is preferable but I told Booger that he could work his way up to that. I want him getting outside. I told his big brother Goober that he must not drive Booger to Kinzville Academy every day as he’s been doing. Booger needs to walk in the fresh air. Diet: Booger is not getting nearly enough fruits and vegetables in his diet. In fact, I’m not sure he’s getting any! I told Booger that he … Read more
Dr. Quack’s Notes
RE: BOOGER Hmmm… I notice that Goober has called to set up an appointment tomorrow for his little brother, Booger. Goober states that Booger is feeling tired and lethargic. I wonder what it could be. Note to self: Be sure to ask Booger about his diet - How many fruits and vegetables a day? - How much added sugar? - How much fat? Be sure to ask Booger about his physical activity - How much physical activity a day? - How many days a week does he get intense physical activity? Be sure to ask Booger about his personal habits - How many hours sleep a night? - How much time does he spend outdoors? - When does he brush his teeth? - Does he practice good personal hygiene? - Does he limit his time watching TV and using electronic devices? Well, I’m sure Booger already knows all about the importance of taking care of oneself so I hope it’s nothing serious.
