Nerxitement!

Nerxitement.  I've coined the word. That's how I feel right now. 

I've just been assigned a new course starting next semester (ummm.... Tuesday) and it is a high level Java class.  I'm SOOOO excited and nervous.  That's nerxitement.  Not only is it Java but I'll be teaching the engineering students. I've always wanted to teach higher level courses to the engineering students.  Now - I get to.  Now I am excited and nervous. Nervous enough to eat almost a whole bag of peanut M&Ms.  Yikes! 

Jenna was also nervous since today was her first day of First Grade.  

Jenna's first day at school with her teacher Mrs. Rucker.

It was not a good morning.  While pushing the double stroller to school (we are walkers), it collapsed. With Matthew and Sarah in it.  And I fell on top of it. SCARY!  I was so worried about them but they were okay. Sarah's hand was caught but other than that they seemed okay.  Praise God. 

Then halfway through the walk to school Jenna's feet hurt.  So I had to go back and get her tennis shoes. 

When we finally got home, Matthew got into the Jello in our pantry and spread it all over the kitchen floor and crawled on the carpet with red cherry sticky jello. 

I shampooed the carpet but you can still see little red spots. It was a rough day.  Jenna had a good time at school though.  Another Praise God!

I hope the rest of the school year goes better.



Jenna and Sarah after playing Pretty, Pretty Princess. Yes..this is a game.

Matthew playing Pretty, Pretty Princess too.  We might need some trucks.

Matthew eating Jello.  Erik said it wasn't a good idea.

Matthew sleeps with his rear end in the air.  I caught a picture of him hugging his teddy bear too.

65 points on Quiddler today.

ABBA and Books

Matthew loves dancing to music. Especially to ABBA but don't tell Erik. We often turn on Dancing Queen and bust a move (I wonder if that sentence has ever been written before...). He would be happy with music and blueberries. He's a pretty happy guy.

I like music and reading. On to some books I've recently finished:

We finished our COO* book club book Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. This book was good but not as good as the Name of the Wind, and certainly not as good as the Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Thus I was surprised to see NPR's rating of the top Sci-Fi & Fantasy books and the Kingkiller Chronicles was number 8: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books above many of my favorites. The writing is superb in Rothfuss's books, bordering on poetry rather than prose.

Here is a little excerpt from The Name of the Wind "

On the edge of the water were a pair of waystones, their surfaces silver against the black of the sky, the black of the water. One stood upright, a finger pointing to the sky. The other lay flat, extending into the water like a short stone pier.

No breath of wind disturbed the surface of the water. So as we climbed out onto the fallen stone the stars reflected themselves in double fashion; as above, so below. It was as if we were sitting amid a sea of stars.

We spoke for hours, late into the night. Neither of us mentioned our pasts. I sensed that there were things she would rather not talk about, and by the way she avoided questioning me, I think she guessed the same. We spoke of ourselves instead, of fond imaginings and impossible things. I pointed to the skies and told her the names of stars and constellations. She told me stories about them I had never heard before.

My eyes were always returning to Denna. She sat beside me, arms hugging her knees. Her skin was more luminous than the moon, her eyes wider than the sky, deeper than the water, darker than the night."

Isn't that beautiful? The writing is witty, descriptive but not overly so, and engaging. Even so, the story is not one that I just can't put down like the Way of Kings.

I also finished A Dance With Dragons by GRRM. He did not fail to deliver! This book was excellent and stretched wide geographically. We had several POV chapters from Jon, Dany, Bran, Arya, and Tyrion which were excellent. And of course, there were cliffhangers and plot twists. I'm anxious for the next book! And who are Jon Snow's parents??? Lots of theories about his lineage that is sounding very interesting....

74 points on Quiddler today

R&R

Last weekend Erik took the kids to his parents house and left me all alone.

all alone.

On Saturday, I woke up at 9am, taught my class (the reason I had to stay here), went to Starbucks and read my book and drank a mocha, went to Lifetime and swam a mile then sat in the hot tub, ate lobster bisque from costco for dinner, ate an enormous amount of chocolate for dessert, watched Big Bang Theory reruns, read my book, and had a glorious day. 

A glorious, relaxing day!

I love my kids so much.  But this day was fabulous.  I woke up whenever I wanted, ate whatever I wanted, and did whatever I wanted.

Back to reality!

79 points on Quiddler today

Chocolate weekend!

Chocolate + camping = awesomeness!

Last weekend was chocolate weekend at Buckeye Lake KOA and we took the family and some friends camping there.  It was an awesome time!  Really awesome!  We ate smores, chocolate at the chocolate fountain, and chocolate chip pancakes.  Then they had a chocolate slip and slide too - but I did not take part in that :).

This is all of us!  The Stoutenburgs: Lynn, Joe, Lauren (6), and Jacob (3 1/2), the Prices: Tricia, Nick, Addie (2 1/2) and Tyson (11 months), and Us!

The kids on the seesaws.  They actually had fun!

Lynn and Jacob on the jumping pillow.

The girls playing in the sand.

Sarah riding the bike.  I can see her on a Harley someday, can't you?  Hopefully she will weigh more than 28lbs.

Lauren in the chocolate slip and slide!  My girls did not want to do it :)

And this mess....After we got home, I was sick on the couch for two days.  I don't know how I got it but somehow I got the flu.  I left the kids alone to make all the mess they want and when I looked- the playroom looked like this.... like this!!  Now I'm feeling better - time to start cleaning! 

75 points on Quiddler today.