Salmonella and other musings

Salmonella certainly doesn't count as a musing. Jenna contracted salmonella last week and has been sick until yesterday. She had a fever of 104 and was completely listless. I was worried about her but I knew she would be okay. God has her in his hands. She is such a gift! The most likely cause of the salmonella is mommy. I gave her some raw cookie dough (for the first time!) last Monday. Jenna and I make cookies together all the time (probably once a week) and she loves it. I had not ever given her cookie dough because I was worried about giving her raw eggs. Apparently I wasn't worried in vain.

She had her 18 month birthday on the 20th. Here is a picture of her with her white bear. I thought I'd get an action thought this time since she is moving a lot!

Today Mom, Missy, Panda, Bug and I all went to Molly's tea house. I've included a picture of a table there. Wow I loved it! It was so girly that I told Erik it was the equivalent of drinking Guiness while watching the buckeyes and eating a sub and cheezits. He understood. I think I'm going to bump this place up to #3 in the restaurant list. Current top 5 now is:

1. Cheesecake factory
2. J. Alexanders
3. Miss Mollys Tea house
4. Panera
5. Applebees

I've also bumped Applebees up as well. Sometime I'll update my web page with my new favorites. When I told Erik about my decision to put the movie Pride and Prejudice so high in my movie list, he wasn't sure I was a worthy wife anymore.

I got 95 points today on Quiddler even though it wouldn't let me use uzi. I thought that was a word!!

Contentment

Our Calm My Anxious Heart Bible study has kicked off and wow is it awesome! It truly is a journey to contentment. I think I'm content with my life until I examine my thoughts. I want this or that - I should really listen to Paul and learn the secret of contentment in all circumstances. Jesus Christ!!

Jenna has found contentment playing with bubbles in the sink. This is her new favorite activity introduced by Nana. Today we played in the sink for an hour. I had to pry her pruny hands from the sink to get her to stop playing in the water. Even so, we all had a good time.

I'm working on modifying my list of favorite movies. Certainly the Chronicles of Narnia is going in there as well as Pride and prejudice. I just need to organize my favorites. We watched King Kong last night which was pretty good, but it was 3 hours long. Of course, I'll sit through LOTR for 3 hours at a time.

We got a new projector as our old one had broken. We bought a Panasonic PT-AE900U projector. To test it we watched the balrog scene from the Fellowship of the Ring. When Jenna saw the balrog she started barking. She thought it was a dog!!! That was hilarious. She wasn't even scared of it. Well...maybe we'll go with Star Wars next. What will she think of Darth Vader? A horse? A cow??

I didn't do very well in Quiddler today. Only 65 because there was a Q but I had already used my A. Erik got 84 since he used his Q. Maybe next time I'll beat him!

Ode to Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today was the first day we let Jenna eat chocolate chip cookie dough. We've made cookies many times but I haven't let her eat the dough because of the raw eggs. We think she's probably old enough now. (we hope!).

I've attached a picture of us baking. Jenna helps quite a bit by playing with all the measuring spoons and eating brown sugar. It's quite helpful.

The weather here has been so beautiful. Erik and I have been taking walks around the neighborhood. Jenna loves it too!

Joel has inspired me to compose some prose! He wrote a short story on his blog so I've created a poem. It is called Ode to Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ode to Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Butter and sugar and chocolate so sweet
Flour and eggs, put in the mixer then beat
Keep eating the dough
Until your belly says no
Chocolate chip cookies what a wonderful treat!

Today I got 92 on Quiddler even though the max was 90. The past couple of days Erik and I have been tying on Quiddler. This is going to have to stop so I can win sometime!

31

Now I'm definitely past 30. I'm "in my 30s". The next big age is 40 for me. Wow - that just sounds really old. Of course, I still feel like a kid. This week has been really fun. For my birthday we went to Applebees and Jenna got mac and cheese and broccoli. It was good (better than normal mac and cheese) and she ate almost all of it. Then we went to Graeters. Graeters has wonderful ice cream. Even so, I'd still rate Handels above Graeters. Nevertheless, we went to Graeters for my birthday and I got a buckeye blitz sundae. I'm thinking it might have had a little less than 20000000 calories in it, but only slightly. It was yummy. Then I played Sim City all night. Erik bought me Sim City for my birthday and I'm an addict.
Speaking of addict, I went to the doctor about my constant nose stuffiness. He said I am addicted to zicam. Just because I use it every night and shake when I can't. That doesn't sound like an addict does it???
Jen, Nicole, Heather and I got all our kids together on Thursday for a playdate. Here is a picture of Jenna, Kael, Emma, and Avery in Jen's sandbox. Jenna loved it even though she isn't paying attention to the sand in the picture :). She liked it better when the other kids weren't "sharing" her sand.

In other news:

1. Jenna got a free book from the library by "reading" 6 hours. When she reads another 6 hours she gets an activity set
2. I've read a whole lot more than 6 hours and never got a free book for it
   
3. Or an activity set
4. School starts Wed for me and my online classes start tomorrow
5. I got 92 on Quiddler today - 7 above the max!
6. Jen got me the Quiddler card game for my birthday - Yea!
7. Raspberry mocha frappucino from Starbucks is ambrosia from heaven

Red, White, and BummBumms

BummBumms is Jenna's word for Blueberries. She had watermelon, cantaloupe (not really white but we'll go with it) and blueberries for lunch today. Her red, white and blue!
I LOVE the 4th of July!! The 4th of July is such a great holiday. Independence, freedom, cookouts, fireworks, summer, red, white, blue, and especially my birthday is the 5th!!
Jenna has a really cute outfit with stars and stripes and lately she's been pushing around this roller push toy so it was hard to pry it away from her for the picture. Here are two cute ones!

Today we went to the zoo and had a wonderful time looking at fishies. Since it was cooler and rainy today all the animals were out. We were able to see the new Asia Quest and even heard the lion roar!! I don't want to be near him when he gets mad!

So here is a list of my favorite holidays:

1. 4th of July
2. Christmas
3. Easter
4. Thanksgiving
   
5. Halloween
6. Valentine's Day
   
7. Labor Day
8. Veterans Day
9. Memorial Day
10. Martin Luther King Day

I only got 56 today on Quiddler because there was a Q and no U!!!

Hooray July!!

July is here! My favorite month! Yea!! You can't go wrong with fireworks and my birthday :). Tomorrow we are having a cookout. I love 4th of July cookouts (well this one will be on the 2nd of July). I made a really cool dessert with three layers of jello: red, white and blue. It should taste okay (I'm not much into jello) but it is pretty. Jenna helped me make cupcakes today. "helped". I give her a measuring cup and usually put some sugar or flour or something for her to make a mess with. She seems to love it.

I wanted to upload a picture of our chocolate tasting. It was so fun! Hopefully you can see the detail. It is complete with empty wrappers on the side :). Erik and I really enjoyed tasting the different chocolates.

I'm currently working through the Bible study "Calm My Anxious Heart". I just finished week 7 on life's purpose. What a powerful study!! I'm amazed that sometimes I just move from activity to activity not thinking about who I want to be when I'm 80 and how I can get there. This study helped me write out a purpose for my life. I based my life on a few different verses:
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. ~Micah 6:8

Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. ~1Peter 3:4

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, ~Phil 1:9-10

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. ~1Thess 5:16-18

What a great study! I've learned so much already and we haven't started the study officially!!
In other news, I got 69 on Quiddler with a max score of 62 - yea!