Games!

Today Sarah and I went to the Origins Game Convention at the Convention Center downtown. It was unbelievably cool. Of course I wore my awesome math t-shirt (pictured, although that's not me wearing it). This gaming convention was filled with everything from D&D to cthulhu to rpgs to magic to zomies to swords to board games and more!

There were tables with board games set out for people to play. I wished I had more time - I would have joined them :). There were hundreds of board games there that all looked so interesting. There was even a celebrity there - the creator of the Star Wars game that Joel plays!

It was an interesting time at which I looked odd as a mother pushing a stroller. Some of the people there didn't know what to think of me (I could tell) until I started talking their vocabulary *smile*.

Even though there was a plethora of games there - I chose to buy an expansion for Railroad tycoon called Rails of England. I also bought Roll Through the Ages a strategy game and Last Word a family word game. Games were 25% off so I probably should have bought more. I certainly found neat games - ones I had never seen before and some that were $70!

In other news, Sarah has officially climbed out of her crib. She turned 18 months two days ago. Erik thinks her DNA somehow was spliced with monkey DNA, or that we got the wrong child. Why do we have an extroverted, athletic child who loves dogs??? This confuses me. We removed the side from her crib so she can get out whenever she wants. Wonderful.

Tomorrow we leave for camping - yea!

69 points on Quiddler today. I would have had 93 if it let me use the word "tivo". That is a word!!

Bugs, Monkeys, and God's provision

I'm absolutely in love with this bug pancake pan from Nordicware. Can you imagine making cute little lady bug pancakes? How cool is that? Too bad it is $35! It's putting me in the mood to make pancakes. I'm pretty much always in the mood to make pancakes though.

We walked to Handels ice cream from our house on Saturday which was a 4 mile round trip walk. We pulled the girls in the wagon and they actually enjoyed it. Of course we had to bring wipes because Sarah spilled ice cream all over everything, and we made the mistake of getting Jenna an ice cream cone (messy!!).

On Friday night we put the girls to bed at Tim and Jen's house so we could game. Sarah crawled out of the pack and play 3 times. This morning, I found her straddling the top of the crib trying to climb out to the changing table. Sarah = Monkey. Incidentally, monkeys and gorillas are her favorite animal. We have given her the nickname bumblebee but maybe she needs a different one...

On a more serious note, I must share a prayer experience that I had with Jenna's preschool teacher. As a little background, Miss Jessica had been trying to get pregnant for 2 years. She has gone through clomid, invitro fertilization, and multiple other procedures that she told me about that I don't remember. It has been a difficult two years and she had become depressed. She knew I was praying for her. At one point, she told me it's all she can do to get through the day. Poor Miss Jessica. About a month ago, I went to Jenna's spring teacher conference. After the conference, I got in my car and put the key in the ignition to go home. However, God said I needed to go pray for her. So I left the car and went back in and asked Miss Jessica if I could pray for her. I prayed for her and she said she felt something. I found that interesting but went home and didn't think much about it. A week later when I dropped off Jenna at preschool she said she needed to talk to me privately. She said, "I took a pregnancy test and it was positive!". We both started crying! Praise God for this miracle! I was the first person she told besides her husband. She said "thank you for being obedient and coming back to pray for me." Wow. Sometimes God amazes me with his wonderful provision.

On a much less serious note - I got 58 on Quiddler today and made the word lathe! cool word :)

Swimming!

Jenna and Sarah had their first swimming lessons on Monday. Jenna is in Guppy 1 and Sarah is taking Tiny Tots at the Worthington Rec Center. Both loved their lessons even though Sarah was shivering at the end of the lesson. She really doesn't have enough fat!

This is finals week for me so once I turn in my grades, I'll have two weeks off! I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Here are my thoughts:

1. Read
2. Level my EQ2 characters
3. Read
4. Iron chef
5. Read
6. Sleep
7. Read
8. Camp
9. Read

I'm just finalizing my list of course....

Erik and I discussed canceling our Lifetime membership to help us pay off the house quickly. Unfortunately, this will hinder my opportunity to become super buff. I guess eating chocolate every day also hinders my opportunity to become super buff.

56 points in Quiddler today because I lost the Q, but I made the word Skited!

Kissing Goats and Joel's feet

Everytime Joel leaves we are saddened and reminded about how far apart we live. Joel arrived Wednesday night and just left a few hours ago. We had a fabulous time with him and Mom and Dad Cooper visiting. We played several games (yes, Erik won Railroad Tycoon - but I won Stafarers of Catan - no cheesecake factory for me though!) including Seinfeld Scene-It which was a thorough butt-kicking by Joel. I think he's memorized every Seinfeld episode.

On Friday we all went to the zoo. It was a perfect day and we really had the opportunity to see a lot of animals. I've been taking the girls to the zoo once a week lately as it's a fun trip and they love it. This time, with Uncle Joel, Gramma and Grampa, and Daddy it was much more fun! Gramma even caught a picture of Sarah kissing a goat. Obviously she has baaaaaaaaad taste (haha!).

At the zoo, we rode the train and Sarah did her gorilla impersonation. Sometime I'll have to get a video - it is TOO funny.

Joel and I also had great fun writing limericks to each other. Mine reflected on Joel's smelly feet and he wrote about my height (not sure why as I am NOT SHORT).

We also got a picture of Sarah sitting on Joel's legs. You will notice the size of Joel's feet as compared to Sarah. I think Joel's feet are 0.95 Sarah's and sometimes emanate the same odors.

The girls loved having the visitors here and we got Graeters ice cream twice!

My reading progress:

1. Lords of Sargoff - While Joel was visiting, I read his book for the second time and enjoyed it! I'm impressed that he created a world and characters for this fantasy novel. I edited it somewhat with minor changes. Hopefully he will get it published soon.
2. Black Unicorn - this is getting good! I'm starting to like Terry Brooks very much and if I ever recreated my top favorite authors he would move up considerably. This series is better than Sword of Shannara.
3. Shaman's Crossing. Wow - Robin Hobb! Why have I never read her work before? The story is good but the writing is fantastic! She is a good writer and I'm enjoying this series.
4. The Shack - haven't really gotten into this one. I'll read it more later I'm sure :).
5. Not for Sale - This is a nonfiction book about human trafficking. It is a difficult book to read but I'm almost finished with it.
6. Illearth War - Yes... I picked up the Thomas Covenant series again. I must be really bored.

98 points on Quiddler and I learned that "quire" is a word!

Iron Chef Nectarines

Nectarines - sweet, succulent, slightly tart, and in season! What a great choice for a secret ingredient.
I made:

1. Grilled nectarines. This was a twist on grilled peaches. However I did not add enough sweetness to the grilled nectarines as they are more tart than peaches. The dish needed a little more sweetness.
2. Fruit salsa with cinnamon crisps. This salsa was yummy and was filled with nectarines, strawberries, mangoes, pears, coconut, and chopped pecans. I drizzled fresh lime juice and honey on this fruit salsa. It had a good balance of sweet and tart.
3. Cheddar cheese and nectarine stuffed chicken. I wanted to pair nectarines with sharp cheddar cheese and see how the combination would work (I thought it would work well). It was incredible. I stuffed a chicken breast with a combination of cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and chopped nectarines. Then I breaded it with bread crumbs mixed with apple pie spice for a sweet breading (not sweetbreads like they always use on real iron chef). This was my favorite dish.
4. Vanilla bean and nectarine pastry with vanilla bean pudding. Erik's mom brought back vanilla bean paste from New Zealand. This stuff is AMAZING! So I definitely wanted to pair nectarines with vanilla bean. I made a vanilla bean cream cheese, pecan, and nectarine mixture that I put in the middle of some phyllo dough. Then I rolled up the phyllo dough to make a pastry and baked it with cinnamon and nuts on top. Finally I made some vanilla pudding with the vanilla bean paste. This dessert was superb and was Erik's favorite.

Our ratings were: 15.75 from Erik and 15.125 from me (20 points would be a perfect score).

In other news - my friend Jon just finished his 75 mile trek on the Appalachian Trail. I followed his tweets and was happy to hear it went well. I'll be looking forward to hear how the week went!

57 points today on Quiddler - that was dismal!

Lazy River, lazy weekend

We returned an hour ago from a fabulous camping trip! Thursday - Sunday we went to the Lazy River Campground in Granville. Behind us was a creek filled with minnows and crawdads that created a boundary to a beautiful hill of trees. Our view was magnificient! Kids were wading through the creek and catching fish in little cups. And if you look close you will see a thin line across the trees that was a zip line. People were swinging across the zip line for hours.

We played in the pool on Friday and Saturday and had a wonderful time. This campground also had a splash pad with fountains and waterfalls. I thought Sarah wanted to go in it so I took her there but she started shaking and crying so we left immediately :).

This was also carnival weekend at the campground filled with crafts and games and a magic man. The girls made clowns, played games, and won prizes. Jenna even participated in a golf game from which I realized she has no golfing talent. We took long naps and spent a good amount of time relaxing.

The only downsides to this campground were that there was no soap in the bathrooms and the showers were pretty cold. Maybe next time I'll just stink and not shower :). Other than that we had a great time!

In even more surprising news, Erik read a book while we were there. He hadn't read a fiction book in awhile and said he liked it. So he asked me for a recommendation on another book he could read. Yea!!! My husband has rediscovered the joy of reading :).

84 points in Quiddler!

Stay tuned.... Erik is at the grocery store as I'm writing this buying me a secret ingredient. We are doing iron chef tonight!!!