Dolls, Unicorns, and boxes

Leading up to this Christmas was quite a bit of excitement. Every day Jenna asked how many days until Christmas since she was hoping for an American Girl doll. Christmas is magic to a 7 1/2 and 5 year old (note: Matthew wandered off in the middle of opening presents so he wasn't up for it). Prior to Christmas, Sarah's preschool put on a Christmas play. Sarah had a speaking part as a sheep. She told Joseph and Mary "welcome to my home". We practiced her line quite a bit before the performance and she did great!

Sarah's Christmas program at preschool. She was a sheep

 This year Jenna's school had a "holiday party". Last year they did not have a holiday party but rather had "multicultural day".

Lame

I'm glad they didn't do that again. Instead they had a normal holiday party including a race - boys against girls to see who could put their puzzle together the fastest. It was a nail biter but the girls won!

Jenna's class

Christmas Eve I received a treat. I was supposed to work in the nursery and my friend Tricia filled in for me. So I was able to attend the Christmas Eve service.

On Christmas morning we were treated to a nice warm fire and smiles as the kids opened their gifts. Jenna did receive her American Girl doll and was ecstatic. Since the doll was so expensive it was her only present besides stocking stuffers but she didn't seem to mind. She loves the doll and named her Rose. Sarah got several presents but her favorite appears to be a barbie with a unicorn. Matthew didn't care about any of his presents and spent more time playing with boxes.

Christmas morning!

The beloved American Girl doll

Barbie and unicorn

a box

After Christmas we went to my parents house for a huge Christmas dinner. It was nice to see all my family and celebrate Christmas with them. We left the kids with them for two and a half days and took a mini-vacation ourselves! We saw the Hobbit at the Movie Tavern. I LOVE the Movie Tavern. The food is really good especially the ultimate cookie we got for dessert. It is 3 warm chocolate chip cookies with a toasted marshmallow in the center of each. Yum!

87 points on Quiddler today with a 10 point bonus!

The newest Cooper

Jenna and Sarah finished up their gymnastics classes for the year. They really enjoyed it and I took some pictures at the last class. During one class Matthew pulled the fire alarm and a police officer had to come and talk to us. It was hilarious since he talked to Matthew so seriously "now you know son, you can't pull the fire alarm." Right. It was like deer in the headlights.

Sarah at gymnastics

Jenna at gymnastics

 From Dave and Becca for Christmas I got a salad spinner. Yipee! I'm so excited they knew exactly what I wanted :). Now we can have fresh, yummy salad from our lettuce in the garden!

Salad spinner! 

 Last weekend we went to see Grandma and Grandpa in West Virginia and came back with a new family member! We brought back Panda, their black and white cat to see if he would like it here. The kids are so ecstatic. They missed Scruffles so much and are so happy to have Panda. He is 16 years old and is fine with the kids smothering him.

Panda

The kids in their cute Christmas outfits

77 points on Quiddler today

Sarah's unicorn party

On Saturday Sarah had a unicorn birthday party. They decorated cupcakes, did a craft, colored and played games. The kids had a great time. You can see Sarah and Matthew "cooking" with me before the party. They love getting messy.

Matthew and Sarah cooking

 Sarah's party was a hit and she was excited about her new toys. We played a fishing game where Erik sat under a card table and the kids took a fishing pole and "fished" for prizes. The fishing pole was a stick with a string and clothespin attached. They LOVED this game. Later Jenna gave it away that Daddy was under the table but it was still fun.

Sarah's 5th unicorn birthday party

 After the party we found someone eating all the leftover cupcakes!

After party sweets

 On Sunday our church had the annual Christmas smorgasboard. There were several tables of food and we all ate until we were stuffed. The kids performed a great Christmas program. You can see Jenna in the back but Sarah is hiding behind another little girl. The kids sang "Happy Birthday Jesus" and "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". It was adorable! Here is a video of the kids. You can see Sarah bopping to the music towards the end. The older kids put on two plays. One was a family feud game and the other was the Christmas story. The whole program was really good.

Church Christmas program

In other news:

1. I am taking Krav Maga. This is a type of martial arts at which I am exceedingly bad. I have taken 5 classes so far though so maybe I should not give up so soon.
2. Our coo* book club is reading the final Mistborn novel. I really love this series and am excited we are reading the final book.
3. I finished Silverthorn the 3rd book in the Riftwar Saga and am now on A Darkness at Sethanon. Each book gets better and I am enjoying this one.
4. Jenna is on the third book in the Rose trilogy by Beverly Lewis. She has really enjoyed reading these books even though they are adult level. She amazes me at her reading ability!
5. Erik bought some under armor clothes for his tough mudder run in April (cold!!) and went running today. He really likes the shirt he wore even though it was pricey.
6. My semester is just finishing up this week. I'm loving my database class! Next session I'm teaching advanced C++. I've only taught this class online so I'm excited to teach it onsite.

63 points on quiddler online

Dave and Scruff

In my previous collage I didn't have a picture of David and Scruffles. Since David was his savior I really wanted to include a picture. Here is a picture of David and Scruff from back in college when he just found him. Back then we called him OBOC = orange blob of catness

Dave and Scruff

I'm still having a rough time with this and crying too much. Especially when Jenna wants to pray for God to raise Scruffles from the dead.

Goodbye Scruffles

Last night as we were reading stories to the girls we heard Scruffles meowing loudly. Erik went down to check on him because we thought he was stuck somewhere. He seemed fine. Then about 9pm I noticed he was walking funny like he couldn't use his back leg. Our vet was closed so we found Rascal Animal Hospital, a 24 hour hospital.  They were fantastic and we could tell they really cared about Scruff.

Scruff

Erik stayed there until 1 am while they did tests to see what was wrong. We were hoping it was a stroke since he could recover from that. The other possibility of cancer meant there was less of a chance he would recover. We left him overnight so they could watch him and determine if he was improving.

Early this morning the hospital called and said he was getting worse and that we should come soon or we wouldn't be able to say goodbye. We hurried to the hospital to say goodbye to Scruffles. We almost didn't make it - he lifted his head when he saw us but barely moved at all.

Scruff

Scruffles was approximately 16 years old. David found him at Hocking Hills eating out of a trash can in April 1998. He has been a member of our family since then and we loved him dearly. I've pretty much cried all day. It is hard to lose someone you love so much!

Twenty facts

Since Joel posted 25 facts I thought I would do the same thing as Joel. Because basically, I'm a copy cat.

1. I'm not short. I don't know why everyone thinks so.
2. I do not know how to do makeup or my hair even though I'm well into my 30s.
3. Gangsta music is fun and I really wish I could dance hip hop without looking like Elaine
4. Most of the time I would rather live with a headache than take tylenol. I'm getting better though about taking medicine.
5. If I have a lot of errands and am really busy I will still come back home and make myself a sandwich or take a pb sandwich with me. I tend to forget about fast food.
6. For Christmas my Mom bought me fancy peanut butter. My day isn't complete if I don't eat some peanut butter.
7. I like to sweat every day. Even if I just do a few exercises for 10 minutes.
8. Since 1995 I've kept a prayer journal and have only missed writing in it probably a month's worth over the past 17 years.
9. I'm not a fan of pop or french fries. I think this makes me un-American.
10. My weird social anxiety is raising my hand in class. In my language arts class in high school I kept a log of every time I raised my hand since participation was part of the grade. I wanted to prove that I had participated. 
11. I really hate looking or feeling stupid (see #10).
12. I played saxophone from 5th - 12th grade and think the tenor saxophone has the most beautiful sound of any instrument.
13. I worked at an ice cream shop after high school. Any mistakes in an order we were able to eat. Someone ordered a peanut butter shake and then changed their mind. I still remember my elation at that!
14. Both Erik and I started at OSU as chemical engineering majors. I changed my major to mechanical engineering and am glad I chose this major - it was fun.
15. In the 8th grade I found the science fiction section of the library and never looked back.
16. In high school my friend Susan and I decided to be vegetarians. This lasted 3 years for me. She is still a vegetarian. 
17. I am afraid of basements. 
18. My first concert was Def Leppard.
19. I am a cat person.
20. I'm going to stop at 20 because I really can't think of anything else interesting about me.

Cashews != Cash shoes

Thanksgiving is one of the few non-commercialized holidays. Now Black Friday has moved to Thanksgiving day. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I do know that Black Friday is a scary day and I do everything to avoid going to stores that day. Scary I say.

Anyway, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We had 14 people over for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. I bought a fresh turkey from Yutzys farm market. It was probably healthier than a frozen turkey but I didn't notice much difference in the taste. Although I ate so much that day it really didn't matter.

I posted a picture of our Thanksgiving table. Erik's mom brought a festive tablecloth and I put ice cream cones to look like cornucopias (they just looked like ice cream cones - that is the extent of my creativity).  We also celebrated Christmas with my family so the kids got plenty of toys and socks and toothpaste.

Matthew is not a good eater so sometimes we just give him snacks and hope he get some nutrition. The best line of the weekend was when my Mom discovered Matthew with the open container of cashews and his foot in the container. She said "no feet in the cashews!"  I don't know how often that phrase is uttered.

Our Thanksgiving table

Sarah and her blanket

Jenna and her blanket

 The girls took a sewing class at Joann's to learn sewing by hand. They each made a beautiful blanket. Jenna did all her stitching herself but Sarah needed some help. Even so - they really loved their blankets.

Jenna and Grandpa

We had a great time playing games and spending time with the family. I went out for coffee twice with my mother-in-law and Megan and to Graeters. Basically we just ate a bunch of yummy food and played games. It was awesome!

88 points on Quiddler today.

The blog post you never thought I'd write

I have written several top ten lists. Obviously I really love lists. So I was thinking of a top ten list of advantages to being short. Now this is purely hypothetical since I, of course, am not short.

10. A short person's shoulders and head can double as arm rests for tall people
9. In the event of a zombie apocalypse short people can hide in more places (small cabinets, under the bed, in the dryer, etc)
8. They don't mind the middle seat in a car or an airplane.
7. Their clothes are smaller with less material so they are cheaper and take less time to dry
6. Short people have more leg room and head room in cars
5. They are never in charge of changing light bulbs
4. Short people look younger
3. Police don't have to push their heads down to toss them in the back of a cruiser.
2. Short people are fun sized!
1. People seem to like to make short jokes, ie short people are cool, hip, and funny

Apple Tasting!

The girls excited about apple tasting!

Fall is the season for apples and what better way is there to determine a favorite apple than to have an apple tasting!

Erik bought 8 apples, sliced them, and put them on plates for us to try.  He secretly knew the identity of each  apple and the four of us (minus Matthew - he doesn't care about apples) ranked the apples favorite to least favorite (1 to 8).

Below is the spreadsheet listing our results.

Apple Number	Type	Erik	Gina	Jenna	Sarah
1	Golden Delicious	8	5	5	8
2	Fuji	7	4	1	6
3	Braeburn	1	7	6	2
4	Gala	3	1	3	5
5	Red Delicious	5	2	7	7
6	Granny Smith	4	8	8	1
7	Honey Crisp	2	3	2	3
8	Jonagold	6	6	4	4

I was not surprised that Gala was my favorite. It really is the best apple. You should try it - you'll agree. I'll wait...

Now aren't Gala apples just plain awesome!?!

Sarah surprised me by picking the sourest, tartest apples as her favorites. Everyone had different favorites and different least favorites.

This was so much fun and we ended up making a caramel apple smoothie with the leftover apples.

73 points on Quiddler today!

Miserable Halloween 2012

Jenna has 3 room mothers this year and I'm one of them. My friend Lynn is also a room mother along with another mom from the class. Jenna had her Halloween party at school last week complete with costumes, games, treats, and a craft. I was in charge of the craft so we did an apple lantern. They also played a hot potato game with a ball filled with treats and toys. As you can see, Jenna is wearing her Laura Ingalls Wilder costume. Yipee!

Jenna's class party (Jenna is front and center as Laura Ingalls Wilder)

 Sarah is wearing her unicorn costume for her Halloween party as you can see below. She was absolutely adorable in this costume!  I did not have any jobs for this party which was fine. Being a spectator is also fun!

Sarah's class listening to a story (Sarah is the unicorn)

 I tried to get them all to cooperate for a picture. Didn't happen.

Jenna trying to round up the unicorn and the duck

 So I held Matthew allowing Daddy to take a picture before trick-or-treating. Beggar's night was miserable. It was cold and rainy and absolutely miserable. I passed out candy while Erik took the kids to a few houses (not too many because they were soaked!). Of course, they still went trick-or-treating. Nothing can stop the desire to beg for candy.

Jenna, Sarah, Matthew and me before trick or treating

I had originally planned on putting Matthew in a Thomas the Tank Engine outfit but instead put him in the warm duck costume that both Jenna and Sarah wore. He did NOT like the hood.

In other news:

• I finished the Mark of Athena (3rd book in the Heros of Olympus) and liked it. This one had a literal cliffhanger at the end of the book so I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
• I delivered my first live lecture in one of my online classes. It went really well and I was pleased until I listened to the recording. I said "um" a million times and my voice is so mousy. Do I really sound like that? Uh...

85 points on Quiddler today.

Pet chickens

Matthew loves to jump. He is pretty much always in motion as is any 2 year old. Jumping is his favorite activity though. So we got him a trampoline. The girls love it too but Matthew especially enjoys the trampoline. This is an action shot and one of the few shots in which they are getting along.

A well-loved trampoline

On Fridays, we have been going to the Stratford Ecological center for a nature class. Since Jenna is in school, only Matthew and Sarah have been going to it. They both love it! They feed chickens, plant seeds, pet pigs, goats, and cows, and help with farm chores. The kids love the farm. Jenna and Sarah have informed us they want chickens. Sure! I think the neighbors won't mind if we put a chicken coop in our backyard.

Sarah petting a pig

Matthew with some chicks

Sarah feeding a chicken

Since Jenna has read all of the Little House on the Prairie books multiple times I thought I should find something else for her to read. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are probably too scary. So I decided to give her a Beverly Lewis book. Jenna is now reading The Thorn by Beverly Lewis - I know it is an adult book but Jenna is a voracious reader and I can't keep up with her.  She has not missed a point this entire year of school and has earned E's (E = A) on every assignment. She reminds me of someone....now who is it?....oh yes... me!  I was a super nerd in school just like Jenna. Although I had glasses and braces to round out my look.

Fall semester starts today so my break from teaching has ended. This upcoming semester I have two online classes and one independent study class. The independent study course is one I have never taught before but should be fun. It is an advanced Oracle class with JDBC. I'm excited about teaching this course!  I'll also be doing something different in one of my online courses. I'll be using Adobe Connect (similar to Webex) to give live lectures to my students. I'm excited about doing these lectures for my online course and think it will enhance their learning. Unfortunately I have a mousy voice so I'm not sure how I'll sound over the lecture but hopefully I'll command respect or something like that...

76 points on Quiddler today

How do you measure success?

For the past 5 years we have hosted and lead Bible study at our house and for 3 years we have made dinner for our Bible study. We have had regular attenders and they have been faithful. This year we decided to recruit more people. I sent 50 letters to neighbors, acquaintances, and other members of the church inviting them to our new study on Francis Chan's crazy love. I was excited that we could have some new people and maybe lead new people to Christ. I wanted to do something crazy and make an impact!

It hasn't happened. We didn't get any new people to come. Which makes me wonder - is this what I should be doing? How do you measure success when leading a small group?

I'm pondering this....

In other news:

We carved pumpkins from our garden and the girls had a great time. I also made pumpkin bread using those pumpkins and it turned out fantastic!

Carving pumpkins

 Both girls have decided to quit ballet for the year and do gymnastics instead. Since we don't want to overschedule our kids, we told them they could be in one activity. They both chose gymnastics instead of ballet so we are trying this now. I hope they both like it!

Jenna at gymnastics

Books I'm reading:

1. Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. Our Coo* book club is still on this series. After this book we will pick up the final book in the Mistborn Trilogy. 
2. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan. This is the third book in the Heros of Olympus series. It was released Oct. 1 so it is brand new! And very good!
3. Silverthorn by Raymond Feist. This is book 3 in the Riftwar Saga. Every book gets more exciting. I love this progression. 

78 points on Quiddler today

She can can

I took the canning class one week ago and didn't waste any time buying a canner and trying my hand at canning. As soon as I got home (well I unpacked first), I bought a canner from amazon. This is not a pressure canner, just a boiling water canner but it worked great! The class gave me the confidence to do this on my own. Today I canned: mustard relish, strawberry jam, and dill pickle relish with the leftover cucumbers from our garden!

My new canner

 The mustard relish recipe was the one I made at the canning class during Ohio Outdoor Woman camp. The recipe is:
1 quart chopped jalapeno peppers (plus 1 red pepper for color)
1 quart cider vinegar
1 quart yellow mustard
4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup water
1 tsp salt
The flour, water, and salt should be mixed separately as a thickening agent. The jalapenos should be chopped with seeds removed (I used my food processor to chop them). Put everything in a pot and boil for 5 minutes. Then process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

Mustard relish on the stove - the house smelled heavenly

Washed all the jars and had them sitting in hot water before filling them

 My canner came with a kit that included a funnel. This was very useful for filling the jars. Having hot mustard splash all over you is not great.

Me with my mustard relish!

 I made two batches of homemade soft pretzels to eat with the mustard. Erik absolutely loves the mustard relish. I think I'll be making a lot of pretzels :). Two of my jars did not seal properly. One was a larger pint jar (the rest were half pint jars) and I didn't fill it all the way. Many recipes talk about headspace and apparently that must be important. I'm not sure why the other jar didn't seal.  However all my jam and dill relish jars sealed. This means they are safe to store and don't need refrigeration. I'm so excited about this!

My successful canning experience

My exciting canning weekend came at the expense of our camping trip. We had to cancel our reservations for Halloween weekend at cross creek because Sarah was very sick on Thursday.  I took her to the pediatrician and her fever was 105°F. That is scary high. She was vomiting and listless all day. I was worried for her. Of course today she was jumping around like nothing was wrong. I'm amazed at how fast she bounced back. We missed Halloween weekend but Sarah needed to heal up.  Lately Sarah's favorite food has been biscoff spread. She often wants biscoff sandwiches instead of peanut butter and jelly. To help her feel better, Erik made her a biscoff smoothie. It was actually pretty good.

Erik making a biscoff smoothie

My friend Lynn who has fought breast cancer this year found out the cancer metastasized to her brain. Her surgery was on Thursday and went really well. Apparently she is already home! From brain surgery!! Thursday was a day of prayer at our house. Praying for Lynn and praying for Sarah. I'm so thankful her surgery went well and Sarah is better.

52 points on Quiddler today

I'm an Ohio Outdoors Woman!

You might be an outdoors woman if....you spend the weekend fishing, shooting a bow, shooting a gun, and canning.  Yep. That's me!

This weekend Michelle, Susan, and I went to Becoming an Ohio Outdoors Woman. It was amazing! I can't wait to go again next year. There were 100 women at the retreat weekend to learn outdoors skills like fishing, boating, backpacking, cooking, hunting, etc. We could each choose 4 courses to take over the weekend. Susan, Michelle and I picked different courses except for Archery. Michelle and I both wanted to be Katniss (from the Hunger Games if you didn't know).  All the instructors were experts in their field and were wonderful to work with. Most were men volunteering their time - who definitely have a sense of humor to work with a bunch of women shooting guns for the first time!

Michelle, Me, and Susan

 My first course was 1:30-5pm on Friday and was Fishing for Fun. We learned the proper way to cast a fishing line and two ways to tie knots. I caught 7 fish! I couldn't believe it. They were all bluegill and apparently loved the meal worms I put on the hook. I also learned how to filet a fish. It was easier than I thought and after fileting two crappie fish, I felt confident I could do it on my own. The filets actually looked like the tilapia filets I buy at the grocery store too!  I won a tackle box from the course and got to keep my fishing pole. Now I can fish all the time!

My first fish!

 Saturday morning 8-11:30am, Michelle and I took Introduction to Archery. We used a Mathews Genesis bow (a compound bow). This bow has a 20lb draw weight. To hunt you need a bow with a 40lb draw weight so this bow was only for target practice (darn - those squirrels are always eating our birdseed, I think the bow is the answer!). Archery is something I really enjoyed and could see myself taking up this sport. I was paired with a woman named Margie (we shared a bow) and we hit the target with relatively good accuracy. For my first time I was excited to shoot so well.

Gina or Katniss? I can't tell

 We also had the opportunity to shoot a crossbow. The crossbow had a 125 lb draw weight so the instructor said he would cock it for us. Well we weren't having that! Both Michelle and I tried to cock it ourselves and we did! The crossbow was powerful and accurate. It had a scope that made shooting it with good accuracy easy even for me.

Michelle as an archer

Margie and I with our arrows

 Saturday afternoon 1:30-5pm I went to a canning class. This class had me searching for canners on amazon as soon as I got home. I love cooking and with canning you get to keep the food you cook for a long time. Yipee! This was the only class I took with female instructors. They were fantastic and had been canning for years - even canning venison!

In the class we split up into four groups. One group canned salsa, one did applesauce, one canned freezer jam, and my group made mustard relish. We got one of each canned item to take home. During the class we also got to try different foods the instructor had canned previously.  When I got home, we ate the strawberry jam. Yes, all of it in one sitting.

Canned salsa and mustard relish

 Sunday morning I took a shotgun class. The instructors showed us the proper stance and different kinds of shotguns. I shot both a semiautomatic shotgun and an over under (not sure what the technical term for that type of gun is, that's just what the instructor called it). I only used the semiautomatic a few times. I really liked the over under gun. It had more kickback but seemed easier for me to aim. Although aiming was not something I was very good at. We shot clay pigeons (although they looked like frisbees not pigeons) and I only actually hit 4 (probably 10% accuracy). For my first time shooting that probably wasn't bad.

Me shooting clay pigeons

Putting a bullet in the shotgun

This weekend gave me confidence with some of these outdoor pursuits. I really felt like I could do them after the training I received.  Everyone was so friendly too. I met so many great women and made some friends. Both Friday and Saturday night Susan, Michelle and I played Quiddler so that made me happy obviously!

However, as you can see from the error below, Quiddler online would not let me play the word "texting". Hello Quiddler? Update your dictionary already!

79 points on Quiddler today

Best.Weekend.Ever

For our 15th Anniversary we went to Hocking Hills and stayed at Ravenwood Castle. We actually stayed in the Candlemaker's cottage in their little Medieval village next to the castle. The cottage was cute and quaint and blue (my favorite color!). Even more important we LOVE the new owners. They are gamers! They had tons of board games and we even borrowed a game from them to play. It was a different map of Ticket to Ride and we loved it. They plan to have gaming conventions at Ravenwood in the future. I hope we can go - how awesome would that be???

Sarah's drawing of our family. Daddy, Mommy, Jenna, Sarah, and Sarah's doll. Who is missing?

Ravenwood Castle

The great hall

 On Friday we went hiking at Hocking Hills. Before we had kids, we would always follow the trail from Old Man's cave to Cedar Falls and back. This is 6 miles and so much fun!  There were very few people on the trails and on the way back we only saw two other people. Sometime I'd like to do this route twice but we would have to pack snacks to do a 12 mile route. We get a little peckish when hiking.

 The weather was unbelievable the entire weekend. The trees were changing colors, the sky was a brilliant blue, and the temperature was 70's and sunny. Wonderful!

A view from our hike

Erik hiding behind trees

 On Saturday we rode 36.3 miles on the Hocking Adena bikeway. While I enjoy the Olentangy Trail, this bikeway was much better. Most of the time we didn't see anyone else on the path (the Olentangy Trail is very crowded - you are riding on top of other people). Trees provided a beautiful canopy as we rode and the path was smooth and scenic. It was a fantastic ride! We both got to do things we really love. I love hiking and Erik loves biking. Win-win!

The Hocking Adena bikepath

Besides hiking and biking we also played Agricola twice (we both won) and Ticket To Ride that we borrowed from the Innkeeper at Ravenwood. I didn't realize there were so many maps for Ticket to Ride. He also had Pathfinder there which is an apparently more fun version of D&D. He had so many cool games!

 The food at Ravenwood was excellent too. They served breakfast every day and we also ate dinner there on Saturday night after our ride. I wore my blue dress that used to be tight. Now that I lost 4 lbs from the Advocare 24 day challenge I could fit into it! 4 lbs makes a big difference when you are 5'2" or 5'3" or 5'5" like me.

Me in my dress!

This was a fantastic Anniversary weekend! Thank you to my Mom and Dad for watching the kids so we could get away.

74 points on quiddler today and I got to make the word "amino"