Trick or Treat!

Jenna's preschool had a Halloween party today and she dressed up as a Tiger. However she would not roar since she was a nice tiger. While she was refusing to roar, another catlike creature (besides Scruffles) was stalking around the house. Check out this picture of Sarah standing in the dishwasher. She is so attracted to the dishwasher. It's like Scruffles and the can opener. As soon as I start unloading it, she rushes in to play with it. It's a dishwasher!!

Later tonight Jenna went out trick or treating and we all gorged ourselves on her candy. I dread the day when she no longer will share her candy with us :).

Tomorrow we are going to the Melting Pot (yum)! Amanda, Missy, and Megan will be down here and we'll be going out for a day of fun (shopping and melting pot!). We'll be going after my class on Saturday morning. I hope students will be excited to go to class Saturday morning :).

Got only 16 points on Quiddler today. Horrible!

Jenna-isms

Why is orange juice orange?


Why do I like cheese?


Why is healthy food healthy?



These are some questions for which I stumble with the answers or my answers are "because God made it that way".


Jenna has also said things like "there are too many boys, how can I choose just one?" after we discussed marriage.



The following is a prayer she and I were saying before bed: Mommy: "Lord please protect our family" Jenna: "from what" Mommy: "from bad things" Jenna: "like what" Mommy: "like sickness and robbers" Jenna: "and ghosts?" Mommy: "yes ghosts too".


My personal favorite is when I was tickling her the other day she said to me "Mommy can you stop being the tickle monster and start being Gina Cooper". As if I had ceased to be myself when tickling her. So cute!

Jenna also has two "chocolate chipper" my little ponies. Because of this we've had several discussions about how to tell them apart. This has led to her asking the question "how can we tell Miss Jessica (her preschool teacher - shown below) from Jessica unicorn (also shown below)." Well I've included both pictures and I'm sure you can't tell the difference. I mean, they're both named Jessica. I'll let you try and figure out who is who.

In other news:

1. I'm reading three new books that have come out: The Hero of Ages (third Mistborn book), Brisingr (third Eragon book), and the Longing (third Beverly Lewis - Courtship of Nellie Mae Fisher book).
2. I've put Thomas Covenant on hold.
3. Sarah is 10 months old (as of the 23rd) and I put her picture up with the white lamb.
4. Grades were due today at 3pm and I finished them at 2:30am last night. That was a rough night!
5. I went to lunch yesterday with two girlfriends, one I haven't seen in years!
6. I got 47 on Quiddler today and made the most awesome word ever: storing and got a 10 point bonus! Unfortunately I was left with a Q and a TH and thus lost lots of points.
7. Sunday I'll start another 3 day fast for the unborn. FOCA is scary!
8. I spent a few hours distributing right to life literature this weekend.
9. Time for bed!
   
   

Hot Cocoa

Mmmmm....hot cocoa. Nothing is better than hot cocoa on a cold day. Gooey marshmellows, yummy warm hot chocolate warming you up all the way to your fingers and toes. Starbucks has come out with new signature hot chocolates. I've tried both Salty Caramel and Hazelnut. Wow! These hot cocoas are the kind you can imagine drinking on a brisk day sitting by a fireplace. They are incredible. Erik and I went on a coffee date (it's not really a date since Jenna and Sarah are there) to Starbucks and got a salty caramel hot chocolate (for us) and a strawberry frappuccino (for Jenna). We also sampled the pumpkin cream cheese muffin - yum!! So I decided to make these muffins. I made pumpkin muffins and put a dollop of cream cheese mixture in each muffin (I didn't really have enough). You can see the muffin from the picture. The cream cheese mixture was 8oz cream cheese, 1/3 cup of powdered sugar and a little bit of vanilla. I didn't want it to be as sweet as cream cheese frosting but I did want to add a little sweetness. The combination was excellent! Then I threw some toasted pumpkin seeds on top. Yum Yum!


We have been on a painting frenzy lately. We've painted our hall bathroom and our spare bedroom. We're moving Jenna out of her room to the spare room since it is much warmer. Next we decided to paint our room a sky blue color. I can't wait! The dangerous issue with painting is tackling a scary project: the den. I've uploaded a picture of the den. It truly is scary. However, if we were to clean it out and paint it - I think it would brighten up the whole house. At least it would brighten up the den and Sarah wouldn't crawl around eating network cables (hopefully).

Of course I've added a picture of the girls wearing their buckeye cheerleader outfits. And I have to add this video of them "playing". Yes - this is actually what Jenna thinks of Sarah. Someday I'm *sure* they'll be friends (fingers crossed).

83 points on Quiddler today. I guess "famer" is not a word. Apparently there is no such verb as "to fame".

Some Great Days

These past two days of prayer and fasting have been so fantastic I just had to write about it. I came home from Devry tonight thinking that I should fast everyday. When I told Erik that he said that I would be dead soon and that he liked me.

While I was going to focus my prayers on our country and the unborn, God has been showing me so much and been surprisingly talkative. God has been doing so much with me.

1. I've been convicted to change, give, and press on.
2. I like to read fantasy. I picked up one of the previous series I had read and stopped (not Thomas Covenant) and was just reading along and half of the book finished. I was convicted to stop reading and take the book back to the library. It is a gruesome story but I've read some pretty bad stuff and it's never affected me before. I had to take it back though because I would be tempted to keep reading it. I did.
3. I've been convicted to give to those in need including people by the side of the road and I did it today (even though I had to turn the car around dangerously!).
4. I was talking with a few of my students tonight and one of the guys mentioned that he wasn't sure if Devry was the right place for him to go to school. He prayed before his first class and asked God to help him feel comfortable here. He said the admission process was smooth and that I was the first teacher he had (I don't remember him!). He said on the first day of class that I mentioned that I go to church and he knew he made the right decision. Wow. I almost cried when he said that.

Thank you God for this blessing!

David got hitched!

Congratulations David and Becca! On Thursday we flew to Vermont for David and Becca's wedding. They got married outside at Mt. Philo State Park in Burlington, VT. Wow! New England is beautiful in fall. I mean BEAUTIFUL! Flying over Burlington we couldn't take our eyes off of the landscape. This was the perfect place and time to get married. Scratch that, it was the second perfect place and time, the first was Canton, OH on Sept. 6, 1997.

I've included some family pictures as well as a picture of the view. We really couldn't capture the beauty of this place. It was a perfect day too.

In other news:

1. Jenna's preschool took a Block O picture with all the kids dressed in their buckeye attire. Jenna is part of the big O.
2. Tomorrow I start my 3 day fast for America and the unborn. We certainly need prayer here.
3. We are watching the season of firefly and love it!If I had a list of TV shows this one would be very high.
4. Apparently Diet Coke kills sperm. I'm really not surprised at this fact.
5. I got 52 on Quiddler today. I was left with CAAH and lost the C. Apparently you can't make a word out of CHAA or even CHA. I really thought CHA was a word!
   
   
   
   

Fall Fest

This was our last camping trip of the season and we went out with a bang! Literally, watch Erik playing with fire and nondairy creamer.

So no banging or burning with serious consequences occurred but we did have a good time. I can see why the fall festival at Alum Creek State Park was booked up so early (several months in advance!). There were lots of fun activities: we decorated pumpkins, went on a wagon ride, played on the swingset, toured the nature center and saw live turtles and stuffed coyotes, and the kids went trick-or-treating. Erik said it was the best trick-or-treating experience he's been on (not sure if that includes his childhood or Jenna's?).

We went with a big group and one friend who is a Michigan fan had his car vandalized by an OSU fan. You can see the damage in this picture as well as the culprit walking away (Duane - our vacation buddy).

All-in-all it was a blast. I've also included a picture of Sarah eating lentil soup. Yum. I love soup but Erik doesn't and now apparently Jenna doesn't since she wouldn't touch the lentil soup. Only Sarah and I ate it - bummer.

Speaking of eating, I ate so much on these past two camping trips that I should probably start working out again :). I guess it will cancel out since I'm starting a thre day fast next Sunday. I stopped pumping last Sunday, Sept. 28 so now I can do this fast that God has been pressing on my mind lately. I'll let you know how it goes!

I got 75 on Quiddler today which was horrible. I made the words "sweat" and "clear" which I thought were pretty awesome but the high score was 115!

Amish Country

We went camping last weekend to Amish country and had an excellent time! I knew the weekend would be good when I walked down the steps to see Sarah playing in the dirt of our plant. Just look at the mischevious grin on her face!

Our drive to Amish Country Campsites was memorable. I've included a picture of some of the hills (really, it just looks like a roller coaster - that's about how steep the hills were). Of course, Erik handled the drive with the camper beautifully!

On Friday we went to Heini's Cheese Chalet and spent $40 on cheese and other yummy treats. Now all the cheese is in the freezer along with everything else we buy (someday we'll eat this stuff, really). After that we went to Rolling Ridge Ranch. This was incredible! We were on a wagon while animals came right up to us and snacked on food we held out to them in flimsy plastic buckets. I say flimsy because these animals were BIG! Watch Erik trying to feed some elk! It's a short video but I promise they were crazy :). I snapped some pictures of the elk, the Masts (no they were not part of the animals we were feeding), and some big horned thing that I can't remember what it is - it's big though.

The rest of the camping trip was lots of fun too! I had my obligatory 2 smores a night and the girls spent one night at my parents house. I felt very rested after this trip. Such a fun time! I'm sad camping season will be coming to and end for us. We are taking the camper back in a week. Bummer!

Sarah is now 9 months old. How time flies! She is also 10% in weight at a whopping 17lbs. She's a tiny thing but that doesn't stop her from getting around. Here is a picture of her with the white lamb. She is getting so big!

Jenna has decided that she likes to perform (who switched this child at birth???). Here is Jenna's rendition of "Strong Tower" by Kutless. This is the actual song. I can't tell the difference can you?
Today was an awesome Quiddler day for me. I got 88 points and made the word "lazing".