Do you hear wedding bells?

Mrs. Gross, a 5th grade teacher and Mr. Keyser, a 6th grade teacher, became husband and wife on December 20, 2008 late in the afternoon. They got married at the Church of Christ in Tecumseh. The wedding was a full mass and the couple decided on having family and friends at the wedding. Mr. Keyser's daughters were the bride's maids and one of his friends was the best man. Mrs. Gross's sister was the maid of honor and her sons were grooms men. Mrs. Gross wore a beautiful ivory dress, with lots of beading and a lace train.

The reception was at the Pines Banquet Hall in Tecumseh. The newly weds didn't do what most couples do at receptions. They didn't shove cake in each other's faces, but Mrs. Keyser did put a little dab of frosting on Mr. Keyser's head.

HAVE A GREAT LIFE TOGETHER MR. AND MRS. KEYSER!!

Reporter: Kelsey B.

Editor: Renee A. , Jessica C.

Cupid's Comin' to Town

The Builders' Club will soon be holding a Valentines dance! There will be lots of decorations and anyone, 6-8th grade, can get in for a fee. You can buy refreshments like Valentine inspired treats, boxes of candy, and mints. The dance will be held on Friday, February 13th from 7-9:30 PM. The will be Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band, basketball, pictures, a ticket raffle, and of course, dancing!

The Builders' Club will also be holding Crush sales. You can buy Valentine heart suckers for 50 cents, Airheads for 25 cents, and Pixi Stix for 25 cents. You can buy things for yourself, your friends, or your crush! This can be anonymous if you'd like. Sales start January 28th and end February 6th. You can buy them during lunch.

Reporter: Carley L.
Photographer: Carley L.
Editors: Renee A. Jessica C.

One fancy ride for The Wheelmen!

The Wheelmen is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to keeping alive the heritage of American cycling, promoting the restoration and riding of early cycles (1918 or earlier), and encouraging cycling as part of modern living.

Some of the names of the common antique bikes are a Boneshaker, a Three-wheeled Tricycle, a Highwheel, Hard-tire safety, and a Nomadic safe-tire.

The Boneshaker is one of the first bikes that ever set foot on the streets. This bike is really hard to ride because there is no chain on the bike and usually the pedals are on the front wheel. This bike usually had no rubber for the tires so the wooden rims were in place of that. Currently we have two or three in the club, one which would be my grandfather's if he would have been alive.

A Three-wheeled Tricycle looks just like a nowadays kids tricycle but is much larger than that. These bikes would have hard tires, solid tires made out of rubber, and were normally ridden by a lady.

A Highwheel is pretty much explained by the name. A Highwheel has hardtires, a big front wheel, and a tiny back wheel. You get on this bike by a tiny step on the back of the bike. A highwheel can also be called a Penne Farthing. The height of your highwheel is determined by your inseam, or the height from about your waist to the ground.

Next are the Hard-tire safety and the Nomadic safety. These are very similar and the only differences are the hard tire has hard tires and the safety has regular rubber tires you can buy at the bike shop and how you get on.

Because we go to parades we have to dress a special way. The traditional outfit for a lady is a white blouse, bloomers or a skirt, and fancy tites or socks. The traditional outfit for a gentleman is a white shirt, a blue hat, red or blue suspenders, blue or black knee-high pants, ans blue knee-high socks.

I love the Wheelmen because it gives me a chance to learn about the history of America and it gives me a chance to do something out of the ordinary, ride a highwheel.

If you would like more information you can talk to me or Mrs. Metzler or you can just go to http://www.thewheelmen.org/ to find out some history or just look at pictures of my family and me!

Reporter: Jessica C.

Pictures: Jessica's family and http://www.thewheelmen.org/
Editor:

Adorable, Hard Work, but Worth It

It's not everyday that someone surprises our librarian with information about which she knew nothing. One day, however, Emily and Miranda announced that their hedgies were four weeks old. What are hedgies? Why do you have them? Question upon questions arose.

It turns out that Emily and Miranda raise hedgehogs for fun and profit. If your only experience with hedgehogs is Sonic Drive-In or Sonic the Hedgehog Video Game, you don't know how cute hedgies are! Our first view of the "herd" was on the business web site managed by Lara, Emily's and Miranda's older sister. There are pictures, care information, and purchase information that will open your eyes to a new type of family companion. The most common hedgehogs raised as pets are African Pygmy Hedgehogs, which are small insectivores.

The first thing you should know is that raising hedgehogs is not easy. To have strong healthy animals, you need to have a temperature controlled environment, clean cages for them to inhabit individually, a sensible breeding plan, and proper food. At the twins' house, their mother sews a little sleeping bag of fleece (that's so sweet!) for each little hedgie born to the herd.

The business was started by Lara. She became fascinated by hedgehogs because of the Sonic drive-in and, after a couple of years of research, she decided to raise one of her own. She found one named Bitsy in Ohio and brought it home. It was love at first sight. She decided to raise them and her family joined in to help.

Her Dad created a room in the basement. They purchased cages. They purchased a second hedgehog and started breeding them. Miranda took one from the first litter named Mongo and started raising them, too. Emily got a female named Lilly from Indiana and soon they were breeding and selling hedgehogs as a business. Lara is in charge and the business is primarily hers, but they all have their little part.

As a business, it is not very profitable. In addition to food, cages, and other supplies, the veterinary expenses are huge. Hedgehogs are fragile creatures and often require special care. Emily and Miranda say the only reason to get involved with the business is that you love hedgies because you will not make much money. The worst part is major cleaning they do twice year.

If you are interested in hedgies as a pet, you could purchase one from the family but you must first be prepared to meet their special needs. One look at their sweet little faces may cause you to fall in love. A new litter will be born in March.

If you want to find out more information about raising hedgehogs, wikipedia.org has a very interesting article. There are also several books available through inter-library loan or at Amazon.com.


Reporter: Mrs. M.
Editor: Renee A.
Photographer: Mrs. M.
Hedgehog photographs: http://www.freewebs.com/laraslittlehedgehogs/

TSO Concert

On Tuesday, December 9, 2008 there will be an Orchestra Concert at THS and it starts at 7:00 p.m. On Tuesday, the day of the concert, the kids will have a double encore. During double encore the fifth grade TSO members and the seventh grade TSO members will be practicing for the concert and playing Cannon. At the end of the day the people who will be attending will have to get ready and be there at 6:00 for rehearsal before the concert starts. At 7:00, the concert will begin and everybody will be wearing their TSO shirts, black pants, and solid black dress shoes. At this concert they will be playing Christmas songs. See you there!! Remember to bring your instruments to the concert on time and get your intruments tuned ASAP!

Reporter: Taylor M.

Photograph: Internet- www.dsokid.com/art/instruments/photo1200viola.jpg

Editor: Renee A. Laura A. Carley L.