Cut, Cut, Cut

Last Saturday I took a knife essentials class at Sur La Table and had a wonderful time! The class went over basic cuts and we practiced with a variety of knives. I was able to try several knives and even tried a $400 ceramic knife. It was so light but cut through everything! While I already have an excellent chef's knife, I purchased another knife. I got the Wusthof Grand Prix 2 Santuko knife. It's sharp (ha!ha!) and I'm finding excuses to cut things with it. While I already had proper technique with knives, I need to practice more to achieve more uniform cuts quickly. While the class was really expensive, I loved it! Erik would love it too - we both like sharp things!

In other news:

1. Giving up Butterscotch has been harder than I thought it would be. He has been locked away and has had a terrible life for the past 3 years, yet I have to fight the urge to call and get him back. He would just go back to living in our bathroom again, so I know he must be happier. I just need to trust God to take care of him.


2. I love lists of books to read. Here is a book list I recently found that labels books by shelf. The top shelf books are speculative fiction that everyone should read (according to the site). I've read 14 out of 35 and many of these are on my list to read.


3. My girls are so cute. That's about all I need to say.


4. My birthday is on Saturday and Erik and Jenna are going to make me a cake. Yea!
5. I got 69 on Quiddler today and made the word "gox". I didn't realize Dr. Seuss words count in Quiddler!! I've just expanded my vocabulary 10 fold!!
   

Bye Butterscotch!

We said Goodbye today to Butterscotch. He has been with us for 9 years and it was very hard to give him away. We put an ad in the dispatch a few weeks ago and a woman from a cat rescue place called us. She met us tonight and took Butterscotch. We will miss him but he will be much happier no longer living in our bathroom. Butter had been locked up since Nov. 2005. Prior to that he had been peeing in several places all over our house. Erik had to put pergo floors in to cover up the cat pee. We left him locked up for several years but knew that we didn't want him to spend the rest of his life locked up in our bathroom. Now he will have a much better life and can play with other cats. We will miss you Butterscotch!!

My doctor visit on Tuesday reminded me of the difference in size between Jenna and Sarah. I created a collage of the two of them. Jenna at 4 months and 14lbs 5 oz; Sarah at 6 months and 14lbs 2 oz. Sarah is so much smaller than Jenna even though she started out about 2lbs heavier! Yes - that is the same dress.

My Battlefield

Reading Battlefield of the Mind has made me realize that my thoughts are often negative "why does this always happen to me?", "it figures, this would happen today", etc. So I decided that I was going to be positive regardless of the circumstances. So let's look at my day and how I so beautifully handled being positive:

Circumstance My Positive Thoughts
Jenna woke up an hour early I can get started early with my day!

Jenna pees on the floor She hasn't had an accident in a month so that isn't too bad

I drive past my exit on 270 It's okay to be late to ballet, I may miss an accident or something

Jenna throws a fit when I tell her to say thank you AAAH! I mean...she is only 3, she will learn manners

Jenna kicks me when she's getting in the car Stop being a brat!! I mean...she is tired, naptime is soon

Jenna pees on the floor a second time today Stupid positive thinking!!!!

Well... maybe I need to work on this more.

Bye Rocky!

My parents had to put Rocky to sleep. He was a beautiful maine coon cat and was as goofy as Scruffles. Unfortunately he had a tumor and was not able to eat. I've known Rocky since high school so obviously he was old for a cat. I'll miss Rocky - Jenna will too.

My illustrious garden has been eaten by an animal. As you can see from the picture, there are little holes in my garden. While at first glance it may seem an animal has taken up residence in my garden, on closer inspection these are actually deer tracks. So my garden is being eaten by bambi. At least someone is getting something out of it.

Sarah is really trying to crawl. Yesterday marked her 6 month birthday and she is performing some yoga moves. I believe this one is downward dog :). She might be my athlete as Jenna might be the academic of the family. Or it might be too early to tell :). She gets so excited as can be seen here. Of course Jenna is way too cute in this video of her at ballet.

In other news:

1. I finished Angels and Demons. It got better - not great.
2. I got 83 on Quiddler today and got to make leery and early. Lots of vowels today.
3. My last batch of milk was sent to Africa (see box with cooler). Apparently, a shipment of 10,000 ounces of breast milk was sent to Africa. I'm so glad I got to be a part of that! Now I can barely make enough for Sarah.
4. Now I'm on my 2 week break from Devry. While all I want to do is read, I have to prep 2 new courses and finish revisions on my dissertation. How will I ever accomplish the 10 books I need to for the library reading program!?!
5. Erik is in Chicago now giving a training class. He left very early Monday morning after we were out until 2am at a Tom Petty Concert. In the 5th row back!! We could see him smiling at us!
6. My girlfriends and I are starting a new Bible study on Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. I'm so excited about it. I'd like for my thoughts to be godly, but I need a lot of work! Hopefully after this Bible study I'll be Practicing the Presence of God like Brother Lawrence!
   
   
   

Survey Says!

I got this survey from my friend's blog and thought it would be fun

What were you doing 5 years ago?
1. Taking lots of classes at Wright State University
2. Moving into my new house (which is the house I'm living in now)
3. Not sleeping
4. Reading too many books when I should have been studying
5. Teaching at Devry

What are 5 things on your to-do list today (not in any particular order)?
1. Take Erik out to a surprise restaurant (Hyde Park - OOH! now he'll know!)
2. Clean the living room
3. Make blueberry pancakes for lunch
4. Finish grading my Tuesday night course's final exams
5. Read to Jenna and Sarah

What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
1. Dark Chocolate
2. Good quality cheese
3. Mixed nuts
4. Dates
5. Bananas

What 5 things would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Give some to church
2. Buy several acres of land and build my dream house with a huge garden
3. Travel
4. Give some to family
5. Send the kids to private school

What are 5 of your bad habits?
1. Worrying about things I can't control
2. Spending too much time on the internet
3. Complaining
4. Storing/buying/wasting too much
5. Not cleaning on a regular schedule

What are 5 jobs you have had?
1. Professor
2. Glass Design Engineer
3. Co-op at LTV steel
4. Produce clerk at Grocery store
5. Ice cream scooper at Whipple Dari

Name 5 places you have lived
1. Canton, OH
2. Taylor Tower
3. Apartment on campus
4. Groveport, OH
5. Powell, OH

RFID

Erik and I have had a few discussions on the topic of RFID and I'd like to share our discussions here. We both agree that RFID technology is cool. It's cool stuff - to learn about it, watch this youtube video. It has great implications for inventory tracking, JIT manufacturing, and data mining of products...OF PRODUCTS! Thousands of people have had RFID chips embedded in their arms, even one of my students is tagged. During a discussion with my students, most of them said they would definitely get one embedded.

Okay, I know there have been doomsayers for years predicting the mark of the beast and the end of the world, and I'm not saying this will happen even in our lifetime, but the natural progression of RFID tags would lead to what is described in Revelation 13:16-17 "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name." How easy it would be to just turn off the chip if you did something displeasing to the government!

Here is where Erik and I disagree. He says that if he just took the strip out of his credit card and put it in his arm it would still be the strip from his credit card. I agree. And we both understand that RFID tags were not created for a bad purpose (that we know of) but rather as an excellent tool for tracking products. My thought is that independent of the technology, God has warned us that the mark of the beast has these characteristics (from Revelations) and whether or not the technology is benign (or we think is benign), we have been warned. Erik thinks it will be obvious we would be choosing the mark of the beast, I do not think so. I think we have been warned and regardless of the technology, should not receive a chip implanted in our arms or forehead.

So my vast readership, will you weigh in on our discussion please? I would love to hear more opinions. Will it be obvious that we are choosing the mark of the beast, or could it be a benign technology like RFID slipped under our noses (or under our arms for that matter)?

Decluttering

Just looking around my house (and at my life) I've noticed there is a lot of clutter. Here are the areas I'd like to declutter in my life:

1. Closet - do I really need the jeans I wore before I had Jenna that I haven't worn in 4 years? What about those awesome business suits from college. Not to mention the t-shirts from High School!



2. Basement - I have lots of old magazines here, toys, miscellaneous junk that I don't need down there



3. Computer Hard Drives - I have three computers (yes, three!). My dell, HP, and my work laptop. While all three are backed up, files are scattered among the three with no version control and organization. I need to clean my hard drives up! Putting all images on our NAS (love it!!) has helped but I still have way too much scattered everywhere.



4. Pantry - Why do I have 3 cans of black beans and hamburger helper from 2001??



5. Body - When I told Erik I wanted to declutter my body, he asked if that involved decapitation. NO! It means excess body weight :). Silly hubby.

Now I must decide if there are other areas of clutter I need to work on. I'm sure there are. One step at a time...

In an attempt to eat healthier, we (Erik) have been trying new vegetables. We tried baked asparagus topped with shaved parmesan cheese. I loved it! Erik, not so much. Then we tried leeks. YUM! I baked leeks and made leek soup packed with yummy veggies. While Erik liked the taste of leeks, he said they were too stringy. I'm looking for more ideas. I stumbled across this Vegetable cookbook (see pic) and thought it sounded yummy. Now to get Erik to eat Veggies...

Besides eating veggies, I've also decided to try and like wine. I've never liked any alcohol (no moral objection - it's just yucky). However from reading about food and watching the food network so much (I'm addicted!) I know that wine can pair with foods well. It does!! I couldn't believe it! The past couple of nights, Erik and I have had wine, cheese, and dark chocolate with dinner. I'm in heaven! They do pair so nicely - it's hard to describe. Erik loves it because he just loves all alcohol! Here is our dinner: wheat rolls (homemade -very yummy), salad, burger, cheese, wine, and homemade pudding (cooling in the fridge). It was great!

When we were in Ironton, Erik, Jon, and David (not in the pic) played a rock band game on the PS3. They were having a great time - Erik singing, Jon playing guitar, and David on the drums. Sarah is also looking on. Maybe as a groupie??

Currently Jenna is in Florida. It has been hard having her gone but she is having a fantastic time. I can't wait to post pictures when I have them. She just went to Disneyworld today and got to meet Cinderella. She was in heaven. I'm sad I missed her face light up when seeing Cinderella, and I know she's having a great time!

I tried to play quiddler today but the starting letters were: S, T, S, R, H, F, V, L

How can I make a word out of that??