Fashion Show

Jenna had her last day of preschool yesterday. This brings me to reminisce about the last day of school for me when I was in elementary school. The summer held so much promise - there was so much to look forward to. For Jenna, she's just going with the flow. Okay, no school. That's fine. What are we going to do today? She has been doing well riding the bike and I've included a picture - go Jenna! Ride .5 mph and wear that helmet!


Not to get too Stephen Covey on you, but I think I've been more of a manager of my children and life rather than a leader. My view is discipline, rules, efficiency in the moment, etc rather than focusing on fostering long term relationships with the girls in a loving environment. In my life too I'm just moving one day at a time without looking at the big picture. Erik and I have been praying lately about our finances. We are taking actions that are counter cultural. Right now, we've cut out our 401Ks and all our savings and are dumping our money to pay off our house in 3 years. Erik just took the Crown Financial Bible study course and decided that he wanted us to be out of debt. So we are moving our lives in this direction. We'll be living miserly for the next few years but it will pay off. This will also give us the ability to put Jenna in Christian school if we feel she needs more individual attention.

On an absolutely different note, I've included Trillian's new fashions (my Everquest character). The white armor I have is my tier 1 armor and looks totally awesome (since she is a paladin). David created some dresses for Jenna's character "Siddra" (she is a fairy) and Trillian is modeling one of those dresses. Also, another guild member Michele, created this rather skin-baring dress for Trillian. I just thought I'd share all of these as her new fashions.

71 points today in Quiddler!

Check ? Light

Look at this drawing I've uploaded. This is the symbol that was lit up on my dashboard today. Huh? Now I understand that some people can't read and thus using pictures can help the illiterate folk among us. However, when the picture is so obscure that you have no clue what this warning light could possibly be telling you, doesn't it defeat the purpose? What is this? What does my faithful readership think? When this lit up on my dashboard I assumed that the lego section of my car was not working. Now if my car was actually built out of legos then we'd have a problem. As it is, I had no idea what this symbol meant until I looked it up. Driving home from Dayton, I wasn't sure if it was something that required immediate attention or just some thing small. I'll let you ponder it.


For our Bible studies this week, I was feeling particularly challenged. I made a chocolate brandy cake for the Monday Bible study and a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for the Tuesday Bible study. The chocolate brandy cake had 1 cup of brandy in the cake and 1/3 cup of brandy in the frosting. Usually I like to lick the bowl when I bake but I couldn't do it for this batter. It reeked of alcohol. The cake and frosting were overpowering. I just could not eat this cake! The first time this has ever happened I think :). The cheesecake was a different story. Yum.

Jenna also decided to play restaurant too. We created a menu that Daddy was able to order from and Jenna made a mint cake for dessert. I measured out the ingredients and she poured them in the bowl and mixed it together with help from Mommy. It turned out great.

71 points today on Quiddler and I made the word "gaming"!

My Talkative Girl

Sarah has really started talking and signing quite a bit. I love being able to communicate with this little one - who really has so much spunk!

Here are some words Sarah can say:

• dada
• mama
• bird (baba)
• sheep (baa)
• cow (moo) I know it's a stretch but she does say it!
• Hi
• Hand
• Jenna (hi-ya)
• cat
• kitty cat
• doggie (dobaa)
• clock
• that
• ball
• high 5

Signs that Sarah does:

• more
• please
• water
• sit down
• gorilla - her favorite animal!
• bird
• eye
• ear
• mouth
• nose
• arms
• legs
• milk
• thank you
• fish
• baby
• ball
• Jesus
• banana
• flower
• rain
• hat

It's amazing that we can communicate so well with her at such a young age. Although sometimes the communication is one sided since she just laughs at us when we tell her "no" or "come here" or "don't touch".

Books I'm reading now:

1. Black Unicorn by Terry Brooks. I just finished Magic Kingdom for Sale by Terry Brooks and was very happy with the book. While I loved the Sword of Shannara series, much of it seemed to rip of Lord of the Rings - even the plot twists. Whereas in Magic Kingdom for Sale, it was fresh and interesting.
2. Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb. Robin Hobb is a fantasy writer whose work I have never read. She was listed among Brandon Sanderson's favorites and was the only one I hadn't read so I wanted to read her books. It is an excellent story about class war - something I'll expand upon in a little bit.
3. Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux. This is a fun romance book that my Mom recommended. I like the story and it is unfolding like something I'll really enjoy.
4. The Shack. This is a book about the Trinity and apparently will make me never want to go camping again - at least this is what my friend who loaned it to me said.

While I was pondering the books I'm currently reading, I was thinking about fantasy and realized much of fantasy can be grouped into the following 4 categories:

1. Class/Race war. Shaman's Crossing and Mistborn are examples of these kinds of books. The lower/oppressed race often rises up and overthrows the one in power.
2. Journey/Quest. Lord of the Rings and Sword of Shannara are examples of these kinds of books. A long journey is taken for some reason or quest and may span several books.
3. New world colonization. Red Mars and Pern are examples of these kinds of books. Some of these books may fit more in Sci-Fi but these books often have fantasy elements in them as well.
4. Hero/Heroine. Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth are examples of these kinds of books. Often a hero is foretold and the series is about the hero and his/her exploits (more often him than her... I'm still waiting for the awesome heroine story!).

While these may be broad generalizations, I feel that much of the fantasy I read falls into these categories. Books that are outside of these categories such as Song of Ice and Fire tend to be interesting and different. Thomas Covenant is an anti-hero which I also find interesting - even if the book just trudges along.

80 points today on Quiddler!

Do kids make you less busy?

As I was sitting outside in the sandbox the other day, I thought about what my life would be like without my two kids. Certainly on that beautiful sunny day I would not be outside playing in the sandbox. I would be inside working looking outside and thinking it was beautiful. I probably wouldn't have quit my engineering job to teach nights and would be at a computer all day. How my life is different now as I wplay with sand and run around the backyard playing tag and looking for ants. Sarah is always trying to pick up ants!

Since having kids
I laugh
I play
I wonder
I love
I kiss
I hug
I smile
I fix
I splash
I jump
I swing
I run
I hide
I seek
I lead
I follow
I sing
I show
I listen
I stop
I dance
I twirl
I climb
I cry
I worry
I savor
I squeeze

How my life is different yet so blessed for having these beautiful girls!

Cheesecake Factory Here I come!!

The day has finally come. The earth has stood still. Various parts of the underworld have frozen over. All because I BEAT ERIK AT RAILROAD TYCOON. Yes! Yes! While it seems impossible and the odds were stacked against me, I beat Erik 73 to 65. Even though we are still at Buckeye Lake camping, I had to pull out the laptop and the free wi-fi (since no camping trip is complete without wi-fi) to inform the world (or at least the few people who read my blog) that I actually won!

While I'm at the computer though, I might as well post some pictures of our trip so far. We've had a wonderful time and it only rained for about half an hour tonight (Friday night). We arrived on Thursday and when putting the girls to bed, we decided to put them in the same bed (bottom bunk) of our camper. This did not work so well as the girls could see out the window and were looking at us sitting by the fire. So (you will notice the picture above) we had to devise a way to cover the window. This is engineering at its finest. We took a trash bag and some string and tied it to the ends of the camper. No we did not have duct tape. It worked though. The girls couldn't see us and did end up sleeping in the same bed.

Friday (today) we had a jam packed day of fun! Erik took Jenna on a pedal powered go-cart all around the campground. He actually got a pretty good workout from it. Then the girls (and Erik) jumped on the jumping pillow. Here's a video of Jenna jumping. They also had old-time playground equipment that I love! Erik was surprised that I actually liked the equipment in this video as he says it makes him sick.

Well back to stuffing my face with smores. We may be the only campers who eat smores with pricey Sharffenberger dark chocolate but yum yum!

73 pts on quiddler today!

Systems of Equations

As I was preparing one of my lectures on systems of linear equations in 2 variables for my math class, I was saddened to realize that we do not cover matrices. Oh the humanity! Matrices are my favorite way to solve systems of linear equations. Then I was thinking....how would I rate the different methods of solving systems of linear equations.
Example:
3x-2y=-4
5x+y=15

1. Matrices. Matrices can solve linear equations with many variables and they are so awesome cool. Eigenvalues and determinants - yea! Give me some dark chocolate and some matrices and I'm in heaven!
2. Elimination. I just love eliminating variables by multiplying through the equation by a factor or what's even better, when you notice a variable can be eliminated without multiplying through. You'd see something like this:
x+y=8
x-y=2
3. Graphing. Who doesn't love graphing? The point at which the lines intersect is the solution to the system of linear equations. You get to play with your graphing calculator (or do it by hand if you are a rebel) to find the answer. Sometimes it's hard to find the exact point especially if it is something like (42/13, 11/26) so you might have to use your spidey sense. The way the graphing calculator spins those lines kind of reminds me of spiderman. With great power comes great responsibility!
4. Substitution. Sometimes this method works really well such as:
2x+7=-12
x=3-2y
but most of the time you have to solve for one of the variables. Not that it is that difficult, but I don't want to spend time doing that - I just want to dive into solving the system.


10 points to anyone who solves all of the above equations. Although I don't know what you would do with 10 points :). I'm not taking anyone to the Cheesecake factory that's for sure.

68 points on quiddler today

Kids Aplenty, Kids Galore

This weekend Jenna and Sarah had their first slumber party with Nicholas and Emmerich. Nicholas and Emmerich stayed the night and we had a great time planting the garden, digging in dirt, eating enormous amounts of pancakes and playing in the sandbox. Jenna and Nicholas played the entire time together and amazed me with the imaginative play they made up. They didn't even want to watch TV - they were having so much fun together. Sarah and Emmerich on the other hand didn't pay too much attention to each other. While we were playing outside, Emmerich sneaked back in the house and tracked mud all over the place. Later tonight Sarah learned that trick from Emmerich. Erik turned his back and Sarah had opened the screen door and was outside playing even though we were all inside. After I changed her into her nightgown for bed, I caught her trying to escape again!

Having 4 kids in the house was fun and filled with energy. Erik may have a different view though :).

Math went well for me on Wednesday. Since I hadn't taught math in 5 years I was a little nervous, however the class went well and I enjoyed it! The only issue I had was explaining to a student how to factor. I look at 3x^4 - 9x^2 and know how to factor it to 3x^2(x^2-3) but had difficulty explaining how to do it. For some things it's hard to have a good way to explain the material especially when the math is somewhat like art.

76 points on Quiddler today and I made the word "loser".