Divine chocolate cake

Matthew turned 8 months Feb. 20.  While I did get a picture of him with the horse, he was sick that day so he looks a little grumpy.  He was a good sport though.

We also celebrated Erik's birthday as well.  I made him chicken enchiladas using a recipe but added 1 tblsp of lime juice and 1 cup (yes 1 cup) of fresh cilantro.  With those two additions (plus the recipe was pretty yummy) the dish turned out great. Erik said it was the best Mexican dish I'd ever made - and we make a lot of Mexican food since it is Erik's favorite.

But that was not the show stopper.  Erik said he wanted a super dark yet moist chocolate cake. So I researched some recipes online and found That Chocolate Cake which is a recipe that won the Scharffen Berger chocolate recipe contest....ummm....yea - I'll take that.  It was divine.  I mean divine.  Oh. My. Divine!

I probably gained about 20 lbs just by being around it but it was so yummy. 

The girls also made a menu for Daddy's birthday (you can see their menus in the picture).  The only things on the menu were chicken enchiladas and chocolate cake but they had menus so that's the most important thing!

In other news:

• We have purchased a third seat for the Explorer.  Erik is going to install it himself (because he is AWESOME!). He bought the seat from Little Passenger Seats and we are excited to have a 3rd seat in our Explorer now (squishing all 3 kids in the back of the car works, but we can't ever take anyone else with us).
• We are planning on having Jenna baptized.  The baptism may be sometime in March but we are unsure of the exact date yet.  Jenna is such a prayer warrior and I do believe she is a follower of Christ. Since I think she believes, and she has been asking to be baptized for a year, I don't see a reason to deny her because of her age.  We are very excited about this and I warned Jenna that I would most likely (will!) cry.
• I'm teaching 5 classes this semester. I'm not sure why I've decided to undertake 5 classes again.  It was crazy last time I did it and I'm sure it will be crazy again.
• I usually go to hip hop on Monday mornings.  Unfortunately I will be teaching during that time and can not go to hip hop for 8 weeks.  This is very sad.  I love my hip hop class more than other exercise I've done.  It looks like I won't be able to shake it for 8 weeks. I hope I can still shake it when I go back.
• Recently two people told me my skin looked good.  I don't think much about my skin (it's skin??) but then two people said something so I thought back.  Erik got me this "Youth as We Know It" moisture cream (don't look at the price!).  Maybe it worked?
• So Matthew is too cute.  He is always shaking his head "no" but I can't seem to get a good video of him.  I did get a video of him looking pretty happy though.
• I also posted a picture of him stretching around to look at me when he was in his jumperoo.  He loves it but loves to watch us so much more!
• 99 points on Quiddler today. Who knew "raxing" was a word?

Photography

I usually get pictures done at Target for the kids however the copyright always bothers us.  We pay them to take pictures of us but yet we don't get to keep the pictures.  So we went to DaleLynn Photography to get pictures taken of the kids.  Here are some of the pics that she took - it was an awesome experience.  And we got the copyright so we can make as many prints as we want - yipee!

Right now I'm on a little hiatus since it is finals week and I've been spending all my free time grading and working on next session.  I'll have a Friday night class next session - bummer.  I'll also be teaching 5 classes (2 online) which is quite a lot for me.  Hopefully I'll survive. The good thing is that this is my last session before my break.

Yea....that's right....

8 weeks off!! No work!

Books I'm reading:

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.  This book is for our Coo* book club and I love it.  The writing is good and I'm drawn in by the story.
• The Born Queen by Greg Keyes. This is the last book in a 4 book series.  I have about 75 pages to go and the main character was just killed.  I'm not sure if this is a red wedding kind of thing like Martin or if she is not really dead.  Either way - this book is great and I can't wait to finish it.
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark.  This book combines two things I love: magic and Jane Austen's England. The tone of the writing and much about the writing is exactly like Pride and Prejudice (I daresay!).  I love it!  Plus it has magic.  Lots of neat magic.  There is also something in the undertone of Jane Austen and Susanna Clark's writing that is whimsical I daresay.  There are many places I laugh although in our day it wouldn't seem like a joke!
• Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst (I think).  This book started out great but I'm not enjoying it so much. The book is about replacing a food addiction with an addiction to God.  However the author doesn't eat sugar, bread, pasta, etc.  To me that sounds like she still has a food addiction.  Unless you are turly free to eat whatever you want and worship God - then you are still a food addict (imo).
• I'm probably reading 10 other books but can't remember them now. Isn't that sad :)

78 points on Quiddler today!

You love me

Happy Valentines Day!
For Valentines Day I wrote a poem to my love, my God.  I am not a poet and writer like my brother-in-law and friend so don't be too critical of me.

You Love Me

You created me, fashioning me in your image

You spoke to me, filling my heart with your beauty

You corrected me, guiding me when I failed you

You answered me, teaching me your ways are not mine

You rescued me, pulling me up from the sea of my depression

You caught me, dragging me down from my lofty pride

You died for me, cleansing me from sin's stain

You saved me, returning from the grave with new life

You changed me, purifying me with your fire

You love me, pursuing me with your unceasing love

void bringer()

I was inspired from reading Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings to write a little C++ program. If you have a C++ compiler handy (doesn't everyone??) feel free to run the code. No it is not spectacular but I wanted to do something fun! By the way - my code does have spoilers!

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

void bringer(void);

void main (void ){

//The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - loved it!
//Reading about the void bringers I just had to create a function void bringer().

cout << "What are the void bringers? "<<endl;
bringer();
cout << "\n\nThank you for playing!"<<endl;

}

void bringer(){
char option = 'x'; //x is my default
//keep looping until the user chooses a valid option
do {
cout<< "\n(K)aladin"
<< "\n(S)hallan"
<< "\n(D)alinar"
<< "\n(P)arshendi\n"
<< "Choose one:";
cin >> option;

switch (option) {
case 'K': case 'k':
cout<< "\nI will protect those who cannot protect themselves. Not a voidbringer. Try again";
//I loved this part in the book. Chapter 67. Oh my. It might be my
//favorite chapter in any book.
break;

case 'S': case 's':
cout<<"\nI'm a murderer. I killed my father. Not a voidbringer. Try again";
//We thought she might have killed him and took his shardblade
break;

case 'D': case 'd':
cout<< "\nWhat is a man's life worth? Not a voidbringer. Try again";
//Wow this chapter made me love Dalinar!
break;

case 'P': case 'p':
cout<< "\nRight on!";
//I didn't see this one coming
break;

default: cout << "\nPlease try again :)\n";

}
} while ((option != 'p')&&(option !='P'));

}

Bathtime for my Ducklings

I have stopped chewing ice. I knew it had to come to this. I got my crown on Tuesday the result of endless ice chewing and now I am giving up ice entirely.

Yes.

I am just drinking mildly cold water sans ice to prevent another broken tooth incident. We'll see how long I last.

Matthew is now taking baths in the big bathtub. Sometimes his sisters want to join him. He loves them. Just loves them! He is happy as long as he can watch whatever they are doing. He also loves bathtime.

Valentines day is Monday and my exciting idea for Valentines was not met with excitement by my husband. I wanted to do two iron chefs. He would go get a secret ingredient for me and I would get one for him. I thought it would be fun. Of course I'm teaching Monday night so it would have to be a different day. He didn't sound really excited about it though.

Erik gets me roses every Valentines Day. In fact, he has gotten me roses every Valentines day since 1994. So I'm looking forward to roses and chocolate (can't forget the chocolate).

I also posted a picture of the four batches of peanut butter cup cookies I made. These are a chocolate peanut butter lovers dream. I made them for our ladies spa night at church and for the guys board gaming night Erik is having. And I ate so much dough that I only ate cottage cheese for dinner because I wasn't hungry. Not good.

84 points on Quiddler today.

Matthew's friends

Matthew has friends, lots of friends. Here is a picture of Matthew and Tyson. Tyson is 2 1/2 months younger and someday they will be friends (as long as Matthew doesn't squish him!).

Matthew also has a lot of lady friends. Here he is in a playpen with three little girls. You can see what he's thinking....

On a different topic - I have been learning so much since reading What the Bible is All About by Henrietta Mears. I know I've talked about this before, but I'm really enjoying this. While I've read through the Bible a few times, I have not connected the Bible as one big story before. Mears describes the central theme of the Bible as redemption.

She also ties in all the books together to illustrate Jesus our Savior throughout the entire Bible.
Just a few examples: Exodus shows Jesus as the Passover Lamb, Judges shows Jesus as our deliverer judge, Ruth shows Jesus as our kinsman redeemer, Esther shows Jesus as our advocate, 1&2Kings show Jesus as our king...

The list goes on.

While all of this may be obvious to everyone else but me - I like it spelled out (I might be slow). I'm enjoying seeing Jesus in the entire Bible. Now I need to translate that and share Jesus with everyone else.

On another absolutely different topic. Really this is absolutely different.

I confessed to Erik a hobby that I would love to take up. He thinks I'm crazy. Yes crazy! I would love to be a bird watcher. I even picked up a book at the library about it. There are so many beautiful birds in our backyard and I'd love to learn their songs. I'd also like to catalog some of the different birds I see when we go camping. Someday we will go camping all around the US but we have small children so that isn't happening now. Then my glorious dreams of seeing birds can come true.

By the way- if you were wondering how my body wrap went, it was not a success. One of the women lost 3" in her waist and another lost 6". Sometimes it happens that after a body wrap you will gain inches. Yes - that was me. I gained an inch. Erik didn't understand why I paid them $20 to make me fatter. Such is life...

60 points on Quiddler today.

Kids!

It seems like birthdays have been going on for 2 months. Jenna had her birthday party with friends at Chuck E Cheese. The kids had a great time, but....

Kids....


Kids....


Kids!!!


Chuck E Cheese was wall-to-wall kids. There were 6 birthday parties going on at the same time Jenna's was. It was mass chaos, confusion, clutter, and craziness. Sarah wants her party at Chuck E Cheese next but I don't know. That was a lot of kids!






In other news:

1. We have been home bound for 3 days. The huge ice storm that hit (while I was driving home from work at 11pm) lasted for several days. Jenna's school was called off as well as my evening class. So we stayed home. I made homemade pad thai (something I've been wanting to try), chocolate mousse, challah bread, pork chops in a vidalia onion wine sauce, and pork roast. Yes - over 3 days. If the weather does not get better soon I will gain weight.
2. Speaking of gaining weight, my neighbor is hosting a body wrap party. I am getting my body wrapped on Saturday which is supposed to help me lose inches from my waist. Sounds like a scam temporary fix to me but I will support my neighbor. Can't take off years of chocolate with some saran wrap honey!
3. We are on chapter 67 in the Way of Kings. I can not wait. I CAN NOT wait to finish this book. This is pure torture waiting. I will survive though.
4. I just started reading Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst. It is a book about replacing food in our lives with God. Then I won't need to wrap myself in saran wrap.
5. I'm reading lots of other books now too. I can't seem to read just one book at a time.
6. I asked Erik to make me a chocolate lava cake and he did - what an awesome husband!
7. 73 points on Quiddler today