KILGOROUND

W E DON'T K N OW how she'll do when it's time to start teaching algebra, but Roxanne Bushbaum is doing a bang-up job with biology.

ROXANNE is one of those grandparents who is raising her grandson. She also home-schools him. One of those "where do babies come from?" conversations led to frogs, toads, eggs and metamorphosis.

NOW, 8-year-old grandson Austin has become what grandmother calls "an expert on frogs and toads."

HE has one of those South American poison-dart frogs in a terrarium. He has tree frogs. And he has your garden variety toads. They're planning a field trip to Joplin, Missouri to buy an 8x12 terrarium which they'll bring home and will turn into a simulated rain forest.

AND this week he found a five-legged toad.

AUSTIN read somewhere that toads in areas where DEET is used for mosquito control often have one or two legs too many, so he sprayed a toad-raising habitat with DEET-bearing mosquito repellent. (It was an

experiment for his science class.)But that was only three weeks ago and this extra-legged toad that he found is too mature to be part of that crop, so that experiment hasn't panned out, yet.

IN November, Roxanne and Austin are doing a road trip to Belize on a mission trip to deliver medical supplies and children's books - the two of them once lived in Belize for about two years - and while there they will camp in the rain forest and try to study Central American frogs in their natural environment.

ROXANNE'S 11-year-old granddaughter, Mariah Harris - also home-schooled by Roxanne - isn't wild about frogs and toads but she gets excited about mammals. Austin and Mariah are now planning to attend college in Australia together so he can study frogs of the southern hemisphere and Mariah can learn about southern mammals.

THAT compares favorably, doesn't it, to your grandmother teaching you how to shell purple hulls?

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TIME are pretty good in the oil patch. But they're not uniformly good.

HELPING Hands provided food assistance to 216 families — including 398 children — last month. Beyond that, the agency provided vouchers for utilities, gasoline, medicine, transportation or lodging to another two dozen people.

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HAPPY birthday today (Sunday) to Joe W. Roberts, Betty Jo Mobley, John Neugebauer, Willie L. Clark Jr., Bridget Okray, Jimmy Guins, Lyndi Bione, Lisa Hopper Henry, Emerson Jones, Linda Allen, David Welch, Bill Edney, Tara Leroy, Brenda Laurent, Dee Ann Goddy, Dreka Ranson, Steven Knighton, Amy Reese, Patsy Haynes, Jo Lisa Thompson

HAPPY anniversary to Dr. and Mrs. Charles Florio.

BLOWING out birthday candles Monday are

CELEBRATING wedding anniversaries Monday are David Keiser, Nickalus Peters, Mrs. A. E. Douty Jr., Terry Thrower, Eva Harlow, Ginger Becker, Stacy Johnson, Katherine Fortson, Krista Megan Blankeney, Ricky Hudgins, Rev. T.A. "Tony" Clayton, Loren Beebe, Hazel Collins Rucker (90), Chris Jackson, Betty Robertson, Kelly Cook, Doyline Rhodes, Fonnie Ector Jr., Cora Russell, Caitlin Wilcox, Jake Lockman