My child has no fear.

Sarah is now in swimming lessons at the Worthington Rec Center. She loves it but Mommy is a little stressed out.


Let's just say Sarah had to be rescued from the deep end by a life guard. The girl has NO FEAR!

She loves it though and that's the most important thing.

In other news:

1. I got my new Droid. It's so wonderful. I've had it for a week and I can't go back. A data plan is just too awesome. I can search the internet from anywhere. Because it is too much work to walk to my computer sometimes.
2. I just finished the Thorn by Beverly Lewis and am reading the Charnel Prince by Greg Keyes and Gardens of the Moon (still...this book does not move fast) by Stephen Erikson and the third book of the Conquerors trilogy by Timothy Zahn. I stopped reading Searoad by Ursula K. Leguin. It was good but I needed to take it back to the library.
3. Our Bible study started up again on Tuesday nights. We are doing the Go Fish study by Andy Stanley and the first week talked about the verse where Jesus says he will make us "fishers of men". Thinking about it now, I wonder why they just dropped everything to follow him. It's pretty cool - I wish I did that.
4. I went to the Pregnancy Decision Health Center fundraiser on Thursday night. Carol Everett spoke and she was incredible. She was a former abortionist who God called out of the industry. She also had an abortion several years ago and talked about the effects it had on her whole family. Everyone missed that child. It's very hard to hear stories like that. I'm still not sure why our country allows the torture and murder of unborn children.
5. I was left with i,z,j,c,u,i,u in Quiddler. Now how am I supposed to make any words out of that? I made the word "cuz" and that was it. I only got 61 points today.
   

Rainbow Cake!

Matthew is 3 months old! These three months were a blur for all of us except Matthew. He is huge; at 3 months he is in size 3 diapers, the same diapers Sarah can wear at 2 1/2 years old. He is smiling now and there's nothing better than his toothless smiles.

On Tuesday our small group started up again. To celebrate the new Bible study year I made a rainbow cake (pictured). I used two white cake mixes and added some food coloring for the rainbow colors. Then I frosted it with cream cheese frosting. Yum. It was cute and fun. I've also included a picture of Sarah "helping" by making a huge mess with the cake.

Since we are still playing Agricola every night, we've decided to purchase our own copy so we don't bend up Tim and Jen's cards and all that. It's something we look forward to like fall or Christmas or pumpkin muffins from Starbucks.

56 points on Quiddler today - terrible!

Carrots and Renovation

I have not posted in a few weeks. One may assume it is because I have started teaching online again, or because I am busy with three kids, or because I am diligently cleaning my house, or that I am looking for additions to my rock collection.

None of these assumptions are correct.

Every night, sometimes twice a night, Erik and I are playing Agricola. We are addicted to this game. We try new strategies every time we play and haven't gotten bored with it yet. Tonight I beat Erik 52-48 (although the one pictured was a different game that I won). I highly recommend this for any gamers!


Last weekend Erik took the girls to the renaissance festival. For some reason, Jon has a carrot in his nose. Fortunately the girls are not following the nose - carrot tradition. They had a great time riding ponies, riding rides, and general renaissance merriment.

I took a video of Matthew squealing and it is posted here. He has an interesting cry. It sounds more like a squeak or squeal. What do you think?

97 points on Quiddler today!

Shake your money maker!

My sisters are dancing queens. Missy and Amanda both do country line dancing. Missy even writes her own dances and Amanda has done belly dancing!

Considering I come from a family of movers and shakers, what kind of dancing should I aspire to? Obviously hip hop!

I went to a hip hop class on Tuesday and LOVED it!
This is how I imagine myself dancing hip hop:


This is how I actually hip hop:

I'm not really shaking my pompom just yet.

In more important news. I beat Erik at Agricola tonight. Agricola is a strategy game we both like quite a bit but do not own. Erik wins a high percentage of the time at this game, just like Railroad Tycoon. We have played it every night since we borrowed it and I finally won. That doesn't mean we'll stop playing, It just means we are going to the Cheesecake Factory the next time we have a chance to go on a date! Yipee!

81 points on Quiddler today!

Football Season Begins!

Erik has been talking constantly about the beginning of football season. It is his favorite time of year. Fall brings cooler weather, beautiful colors, and football. Obviously we had to get a picture of the kids in their scarlet and gray.

Yes - the big chunk in the middle is Matthew. Yes he is only 2 1/2 months old. No I'm not feeding him fried chicken and potatoes.

The other day Sarah said "I am ugly." I said "no Sarah you are beautiful. Why do you think you are ugly?" She said "because I'm sinny" (translation: skinny). I'm not sure where she got this idea. Yes she is a little skinny (in the 5th percentile for weight) but we have always told her she is beautiful. Hopefully she believes it!

Tomorrow is our 13 year anniversary. Yea Us! Since it is actually more work to pack up all the kids, diaper bags, bibs, milk, etc and go out to eat than it is to just make some pb&j sandwiches we won't be going out to dinner. Hiring a babysitter around dinner time is scary too. Dinner time is fussy time for Matthew and usually someone has an opinion about what we are eating and wants toast instead. (sometimes I just want toast).

I just finished The Briar King by Greg Keyes and can't wait to get the next book in the series from the library. I also reserved the next Beverly Lewis book called The Thorn. I'm 36 on the list for that book. Since I'm not allowed to read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson until we finish Gardens of the Moon, I had to find some other books to occupy my time (I only read Gardens of the Moon with Erik).

53 points on Quiddler today. Couldn't find a word to make with C,O,A,I. Bummer!

New Beginnings

Last Wednesday Jenna and Sarah started their ballet classes and on Thursday Jenna started kindergarten.
It was a week of new beginnings! Jenna was anxious to start school, mostly she was nervous to eat lunch there. However she loved it and even bought milk for lunch!

Jenna has started writing more and wrote her first sentence on Friday "I do love God". What an awesome first sentence!! She has also started reading more. Check out this video of Jenna reading to Matthew. He is smiling and almost laughing - he loves it!

Jenna and Sarah love their ballet classes however I couldn't get Sarah to stay still long enough to get a picture. All week long Sarah talked about her ballet class. I have two little ballerinas at home.

School is all day for Jenna and we are walkers. It is .8 of a mile to school so I'm walking approximately 3 miles a day taking her to and from school. It's a nice walk! Even at 92 deg when I'm sweating like a pig. I'm sure it counts as exercise.

For an after school treat I made smores granola bars. They are an oat granola bar on the bottom covered in chocolate chips and marshmallows. I told Erik they have no sugar in them and he laughed. I forgot that marshmallows are puffed sugar. Doh! So I guess they're not as healthy as I originally intended.

68 points on Quiddler - a terrible showing.