Did you know you can catch cooties on the end of a pencil?.....or in your own pocket? How about the hood of your favorite hoody? My kids caught them from school...from a TEACHER, no less!!
Yep, it's true. Cooties have invaded the Miller house. Ok, let me explain before you all ban your kids from any contact with us. While checking out some boards about what to expect at a letterboxing meet which we attended October 28th in Corvallis, I ran across a whole thread of entries about cooties. Naturally, I read them all and was hooked.
Cooties, it turns out, are miniature letterboxes that are passed from one LBer to another by stealthily placing the package into the unsuspecting person's purse, pocket, hood, open backpack....etc. Some cooties are glued to a clip and simply clipped on somewhere not likely to be noticed right away. They come in all shapes and mostly mini sizes in a variety of clever containers. Some of the most ingenious ones I read about were hidden in a container shaped like a soda can and put in a cooler with other sodas, some were carved into the eraser of a pencil, some are disguised in film containers, and some were simply tossed into the back seat through an open car door while the cars owner was changing their shoes only to be found when the car returned home and was unloaded from the meet.
Well, armed with my new knowledge of this sneaky little assault I grabbed my partner in cootie-crime, Emily, and we immediately went to work. In no time at all Emily had carved an ant about 1/4 inch by 1/8 inch and we made a tiny little logbook (some cooties have logbooks and some don't) and we put the whole thing into an old bead container about 1 inch square that I had among my craft things. We called it "Ants in Your Pants" and plotted who we were going to give it to the next day at the meet.
We successfully handed off our own cootie and in the course of the day had collected, logged into and redispursed a few more. While at the meet, we ran into one of Eli's teachers, Ms. Yunkin, from Guy Lee whom we had NO idea was a letterboxer. We were delighted to find out that she knew of another teacher, Mrs. Aldridge, who was also an LBer!! Cool.
The kids went to school on Monday and found out that someone had cootied Mrs. Aldridge! When Mrs. Aldridge wondered aloud to Ms. Yunkin how she was going to get rid of the cootie, Ms. Yunkin gave us up as LBers and Emily was consequently cootied! Wow. Then, as if she hadn't caused any trouble at all herself, Ms. Yunkin cootied Brielle!!
So, there you have it people. If you are a letterboxer and we find you out you may just find a little prize waiting for you somewhere. If you aren't a letterboxer, what are you waiting for? Get in on this fun stuff, man. You are missing out! Call me. I will hook you up.
Mel
*who is determined to convert the entire world to letterboxing and who will worry about creating the resultant 12 step program later*
::spic, spark, singe...::
too...many...ideas.......brain....hurts.............
Monday, October 30, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Letterboxing
I wonder how many of you are aware of a hobby known as letterboxing. I was oblivious to it's existence until July when Family Fun magazine ran a small blurb about it. It involved choosing a signature stamp (something to represent you as an individual or a family), printing off clues to a box in your area and strapping on your walking shoes. Intrigued, I checked out the website at www.letterboxing.org (imagine that- an entire site dedicated to this topic floating around cyberspace and I never knew anything about it!) and learned everything I ever needed to about the origin of this hobby, the rules of play, how to carve my own stamps and on and on.....
Well, the more I read, the more I wanted to try this thing out. I carved our first signature stamp, "family time", as this was to be our new family hobby. I printed out clues to several boxes in the Eugene/Springfield area (because I love options and it turns out there are s e v e r a l) and off we went armed with water bottles, hiking sticks and ink. We searched over and over for our first box and found no sign of it. (Were we doing this right? Did we just miss it? Let's go back to the beginning and try again...) Though we didn't find a letterbox, we did discover a great place to skip rocks across the river. We spent about an hour teaching the kids the right grip, which rocks are better for skipping, the rock-skipping stance.....and most importantly, how to be flexible when things don't work out the way we expect them to. That was a great day and after rock skipping we tried another clue and actually found our first letterbox.......AND our first Hitchhiker stamp (a fantastic bonus)!! Awesome. God provided the opportunity for us to show our kids what can happen if you persevere.
So, it's been almost 4 months since our first LB (letterbox) adventure. Since then we have introduced this hobby/sport to some of our good friends (now known as Joy4Life on the letterboxing trail), a best friend (Candy) and a neighbor (horse girl). Given time, I hope to get everyone addicted to this wonderful treasure hunting adventure even if I have to carve all the stamps myself! We are steadily filling up our logbook with creative stamps and filling our hearts with memories with each other.......like the time we marathon-letterboxed with Joy4Life hiking all over this huge park. (The kids weren't very interested in boxing for a week or so afterward!) ...or like last Saturday when we found a tiny little green frog about 1/2 inch long while hunting a box in Armitage Park. After everyone marvelled at how small it was, we put it back where we found it and Emily was so concerned that we had accidently hurt it somehow that she stayed with it until it finally hopped away....... We are completely addicted to letterboxing and love to spend time doing it together. I hope this will be a tool to keep us bonding even through the upcoming teenage years when it often becomes the norm for siblings to avoid each other like the plague.
As a whole, letterboxers seem to be almost a secret society. I've never overheard anyone talking about it in the grocery store or doctor's office. You would never know it, but they are probably all around you. Planting boxes, writing clues, carving stamp after stamp.....if you are interested and want to join this elusive group, just check out the sites I listed at the end of this blog. Joining is absolutely free and you will find many seasoned veteran letterboxers who are willing to help out a "newbie". Heck, I'll help ya out too!!
You know it's a good thing when your 3yr old wakes up and wants to know "Are we going letterboxing now?" !
For more info. on this hobby see:
www.letterboxing.org
www.atlasquest.com
or come visit us and we will happily drag you all over creation and back hunting clues!
Happy Hunting,
AMEEBZ (that's our trail name)
Well, the more I read, the more I wanted to try this thing out. I carved our first signature stamp, "family time", as this was to be our new family hobby. I printed out clues to several boxes in the Eugene/Springfield area (because I love options and it turns out there are s e v e r a l) and off we went armed with water bottles, hiking sticks and ink. We searched over and over for our first box and found no sign of it. (Were we doing this right? Did we just miss it? Let's go back to the beginning and try again...) Though we didn't find a letterbox, we did discover a great place to skip rocks across the river. We spent about an hour teaching the kids the right grip, which rocks are better for skipping, the rock-skipping stance.....and most importantly, how to be flexible when things don't work out the way we expect them to. That was a great day and after rock skipping we tried another clue and actually found our first letterbox.......AND our first Hitchhiker stamp (a fantastic bonus)!! Awesome. God provided the opportunity for us to show our kids what can happen if you persevere.
So, it's been almost 4 months since our first LB (letterbox) adventure. Since then we have introduced this hobby/sport to some of our good friends (now known as Joy4Life on the letterboxing trail), a best friend (Candy) and a neighbor (horse girl). Given time, I hope to get everyone addicted to this wonderful treasure hunting adventure even if I have to carve all the stamps myself! We are steadily filling up our logbook with creative stamps and filling our hearts with memories with each other.......like the time we marathon-letterboxed with Joy4Life hiking all over this huge park. (The kids weren't very interested in boxing for a week or so afterward!) ...or like last Saturday when we found a tiny little green frog about 1/2 inch long while hunting a box in Armitage Park. After everyone marvelled at how small it was, we put it back where we found it and Emily was so concerned that we had accidently hurt it somehow that she stayed with it until it finally hopped away....... We are completely addicted to letterboxing and love to spend time doing it together. I hope this will be a tool to keep us bonding even through the upcoming teenage years when it often becomes the norm for siblings to avoid each other like the plague.
As a whole, letterboxers seem to be almost a secret society. I've never overheard anyone talking about it in the grocery store or doctor's office. You would never know it, but they are probably all around you. Planting boxes, writing clues, carving stamp after stamp.....if you are interested and want to join this elusive group, just check out the sites I listed at the end of this blog. Joining is absolutely free and you will find many seasoned veteran letterboxers who are willing to help out a "newbie". Heck, I'll help ya out too!!
You know it's a good thing when your 3yr old wakes up and wants to know "Are we going letterboxing now?" !
For more info. on this hobby see:
www.letterboxing.org
www.atlasquest.com
or come visit us and we will happily drag you all over creation and back hunting clues!
Happy Hunting,
AMEEBZ (that's our trail name)
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Fall
Ahh, the crisp fall air...the sweet smell of apple cider...freshly sharpened pencils and new notebooks........I think these could be some of my favorite things.
I love summer and every last ounce of sunshine I can squeeze out of it, but then comes the slow settling of all things wild. The moment when you first notice the gentle nip in the evening air which makes you think of your favorite sweater, thoughts of warm hot chocolate and curling up with a good book. I so appreciate this calming season. God must have known I needed it placed just before the sometimes harrying holidays. A softening of the rough and rugged summer air. A reflective time to sit and revisit great memories we made that year. It seems the world expels a collective sigh before resigning to winter and its all too often chaotic holiday season.
Pardon me as I take another deep breath of that particular sleepiness the trees seem bound to...as I watch the sway of another crimson leaf as it floats effortlessly to the earth.....as I brew a pot of Earl Grey tea and gather my favorite sweater about me again...............and beseech autumn to linger a bit longer.
I love summer and every last ounce of sunshine I can squeeze out of it, but then comes the slow settling of all things wild. The moment when you first notice the gentle nip in the evening air which makes you think of your favorite sweater, thoughts of warm hot chocolate and curling up with a good book. I so appreciate this calming season. God must have known I needed it placed just before the sometimes harrying holidays. A softening of the rough and rugged summer air. A reflective time to sit and revisit great memories we made that year. It seems the world expels a collective sigh before resigning to winter and its all too often chaotic holiday season.
Pardon me as I take another deep breath of that particular sleepiness the trees seem bound to...as I watch the sway of another crimson leaf as it floats effortlessly to the earth.....as I brew a pot of Earl Grey tea and gather my favorite sweater about me again...............and beseech autumn to linger a bit longer.
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