Happy Me

I've created a Venn Diagram to describe my ideal happiness situation. I need God, Sleep, and Exercise in order to be happy. If I'm missing any of those I'm not happy but those seem to be the things I'm always willing to give up when I'm busy! Go figure!

Last weekend we took our camper out for the first time. It was so wonderful!! I've included a picture. Jenna had a wonderful time and actually played with Nicholas - yea! Sarah did well too. It rained on Saturday so we ended up eating at a Chinese buffet - not that I'm complaining.

Today is Sarah's 4 month birthday. She is over the hill. Here is a picture of her with the lamb. She is fully belly laughing now. It is so cute - I always want to hug and squeeze her. What a cutie!!

In other news:

1. I got only 34 points on Quiddler today even though the best score was 104. But, I got to make the word "azure"!
2. I'm currently reading the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The main character is so different than other main characters in fantasy novels as you're only sort of going through the story through him. He's not really excited about anything happening in the book. It's different and I like it.
3. I also finally started reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.
4. School starts next week! I am excited to get back to teaching but it will be hard to leave the girls at night.
   
   
   

A Very Powerful Post

Check out this link. http://www.conversiondiary.com/2008/01/how-i-became-pro-life.html
Read the whole thing even though it is long. It is one of the most powerful pro-life arguments I have read.

About those brownies...

Here are the brownies I referred to in my previous post. They are the best brownies recipe from allrecipes.com topped with marshmallows and chocolate frosting - yum! Then I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies (the winning recipe) since obviously I haven't had enough sweets lately.

In the comments many people rejoiced that they didn't have kids. I remember the days of working in industry when I'd go to work. Sit at my computer and read the news and my email. Do some work. If I wanted to talk to people I could, if I didn't I could veg out. There is no vegging out with a three year old. When I've been tired and my eyelids drooped, she has literally pulled open my eyelids so I could see her. Um....yeah.

Even so, they make me laugh every day. Sarah with her constant smiling and rolling over. I tried to get a video of her rolling over but she is too speedy!
I made another video (in all my copious spare time). Check it out and make sure you have sound on! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OV5FW1-Tso

I got 79 points in Quiddler today and got to make the word loathe!

My Day

AAAH how I love my children (note the dresses were made by Grandma Cooper - thank you!!). This is my morning.
2:23am "Mommy, Change my diaper. MOMMY....". While Jenna is great at going #1 in the potty, #2 has not been so successful

5:35am Screaming. Sarah has gotten out of her swaddle. I go in quietly swaddle her and put her back to bed.

7:00am. Erik's alarm goes off. He jumps in the shower. I roll over.

7:30am. Jenna comes in our room. She's awake so obviously we must be as well. I try to get her dressed. J: "I want to wear my nightgown". Me: "How about the Strawberry shortcake shirt and the blue pants and pony underwear." J: "No I want a different underwear." Me: "okay - stay still so I can help you get dressed". After much squirming Jenna is dressed.

7:45am. Breakfast. Strawberry chex cereal, water, orange juice and two vitamins. "I want two more vitamins, I want a different juice, I want ice in my water, I want a different napkin - this one is old, mommy make your spoon talk, why do you have raisins in your cereal, why do you have a white vitamin and a yellow vitamin, where's daddy, etc, etc, etc".

8:12am. I remember that I have two children and should probably get the other one. I walk into Sarah's room and the world smiles, birds sing, and I dance in a field of roses. She smiles at me so beautifully as if I'm the greatest thing in the world. I squeeze her and kiss her and squeeze her some more. Change her diaper, sing to her. Then take her downstairs to eat. Sarah cranes her neck while eating to watch Jenna running around the house carrying a blanket.

8:45am. Sarah in the bouncer. I pump. "mommy can you make sleeping beauty talk while you're pumping"

9:20am. Done pumping. Sarah screaming. Jenna screaming at Sarah to stop screaming. I move Sarah to a new location and she's happy. Jenna needs to go potty. "No I don't have to go potty. I don't want to go potty" . Me: "Go potty now and then you can have a sticker and then we can play with puzzles". Not working. Finally Jenna goes potty

9:50am. Jenna still on the potty reading books. I swaddle Sarah and put her down for a nap.

10:00am - 10:02am I sit at the computer for a "break" and look at my email

10:02am Jenna is done on the potty. Now we can play puzzles "mommy where does this piece go? mommy, where does this piece go? Scruff get off of the puzzle!!! mommy, where does this piece go?"

10:27am Sarah screaming. I go up, burp her, feed her a little bit and put her back down

10:33am Jenna and I play tunnel with the blanket. Everytime I try and get up to do something productive, there is fussing and screaming "no, keep playing, keep your eyes open mommy, Please be my friend mommy (how can I say no?!?)"

11:05am I pack up my frozen pumped breast milk to send to Africa in a cooler. Call Fedex and schedule a pickup

11:10am Erik comes home from his meeting early. Hooray! Daddy is here and he is exciting!! Yea!!! Mommy can sit down at the computer and check her online class for 5 minutes

11:35am I start making grilled cheese sandwiches and put plates with grapes on the table for lunch.

11:57am We start eating lunch

11:58am Sarah wakes up and starts screaming

12:01pm Gina finishes grilled cheese sandwich (not really cheese, it's soy cheese because I'm off dairy for Sarah), grapes, and three absolutely sinful brownies in record time

12:02pm Change Sarah and bring her down. Feed Sarah.

12:15pm Daddy and Jenna finish lunch.

12:15 - 11pm Gina wishes she could eat the rest of the pan of brownies, not gain any weight from it, sit in a hot tub, get a foot massage, and not make any dolls or eating utensils talk. Yea right.

You will note that I still have not showered, or even changed out of my PJs by 12:15 and I had to leave for work at 3:15pm. Nor did I get anything productive done this morning.

I had to post a picture of dinner though. This is raspberry chicken with sauteed peppers. I pan fried the chicken (first sprinkled some salt, pepper, and some herbs - like thyme) then took it out of the pan and set it on a plate. In the same pan I put two spoonfuls of seedless raspberry jam, and poured some balsamic vinegar in the pan and a dash of salt. I kept stirring until it was all melted (a few minutes). Then I poured this over the chicken. I've made this dish a few times and it is easy and low fat. Even though it looks funny - it is really good. You could use different flavors of jam too. Unfortunately I didn't make enough peppers and was forced to eat another 3 brownies!!!

April Fool's

Today is April Fools Day - but Jenna seems too young for me to play a joke on her. She would probably be confused. However I put the blue screen of death as a background on Erik's new laptop and hid his taskbar so it looked like his computer blue screened (is that a verb?). He showed it to me and said "oh no - look at this". I can't keep a straight face :).
Sarah has been smiling like crazy!! See this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiy-qdaesgY
I made it on Windows Movie Maker. I'd like to see Mac's move making capabilities. They are supposed to be great and that commercial with the manila envelope is cool (at least the music is addicting).