Shocking Puffins!

I found a recipe online for Pancake Muffins (aka puffins). Each one is dipped in pancake syrup before eating. They were so delicious! The girls devoured them quickly. Speaking of quickly - I've been making fruit leather lately and the girls eat it so quickly I can't even snap a picture. I'm not kidding!
I make fruit leather using this recipe:

2 lbs strawberries
2 pears
splash of lemon juice
a little water
Cook until soft. Puree in food processor. Pour into two cookie sheets. Bake in 170 oven for 6-8 hours. It's really good, healthy, and soooooo yummy.

Pancake muffins = puffins!

Every Tuesday I make dinner for my small group. The past few dinners have been less exciting. I made chili wagon wheel casserole which had basically no taste, and tortellini carbonara which was good but not great.  However the coq au vin I made was fabulous! The picture doesn't look great but it was really good. It had bacon, chicken, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, pearl onions, spices, etc, and 2 cups of red wine. I served it with rice a roni and everyone loved it!

coq au vin. lots of yumminess

Daddy and Matthew working at the computer

Yesterday I went to HerWorld for high school junior and senior girls. We built a motion detector using snap circuits and I got to talk a little about electricity. The girls loved it! However I was the one who was shocked. The girls filled out forms listing their information and the senior sitting next to me was born June 1994.
I graduated high school in 1993. Hmmm.... it seems like just yesterday. Where did the time go?

Snap circuit motion detector

I've registered for another triathlon. This one will be at Alum Creek so I'll be swimming with the fishies! It 1/4 mile swimming, 10 miles biking, and 3.1 miles running. I do need a new bike though. I don't want to be laughed at by the other triathletes because of my free non-speed bike with the babyseat on the back.

79 points on Quiddler today

Summer bike riding

Jenna on the trail bike

This weather is FANTASTIC! Yesterday was the first day of spring but it felt like summer! We love long family bike rides however Jenna is too big to fit in the bike trailer, so we had to find a way to bring all the kids with us. We probably can't leave some of them at home.

The trail bike is our answer! Jenna pedals along behind Erik and absolutely loves it! I pull Sarah and Matthew in a trailer behind me. So we've been able to bike to Handels and Jenis ice cream in the past week (I'm sure we will go other places besides ice cream shops, but really? why bother??) When we rode to Jenis the other day I got a black and tan sundae. Yum-O! Salty caramel ice cream with hot fudge & caramel topped with roasted almonds, whip cream, and chocolate stout bundt cake. Yea!

On the top of the mountain!

The other day we had a tornado warning. We all went to the basement to huddle against the elements. Rather than huddling, the girls found some old boxes to play with. All three of them had a great time jumping and playing in the big boxes. Yes Matthew is in there too.

I think Matthew is in there somewhere....

Sarah and Daddy love grapefruit



In other news:

1. Our book club is reading The Windup Girl by Paolo B. It is interesting that you can extrapolate the current state of our society to the one in which this book takes place. This author is one of those authors who immerses you into the world and characters with little backstory. I really like that. It's fun to deduce the world on your own rather than having the author spell it all out for you.
2. I'm almost finished with Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman. Great, great book! Instead of reading the second book right away, I'm going to read Rhett Butler's People. This is the story of Gone with the Wind from Rhett Butler's point of view. I'm excited about this book since I really love Gone with the Wind!
3. To thank Erik for working so hard to pay off the house, I am going to surprise him by signing him up for a Bacon of the month club. I think he will really like this since he seems to have some sort of obsession with bacon.
4. 70 points on Quiddler today

Gender neutral cats

A few months ago Joel and Megan visited us and Megan was wearing the cutest shoes. I loved them but couldn't find any shoes like them. She said they were Clarks and were very comfortable. Apparently Clarks stopped making the shoes she had but I found some other Clarks I really liked.

Yes I just wrote a paragraph about shoes. If you know me, you know I have just a few pairs of shoes I wear because I'm an engineer and not a real woman.

However sometimes I see shoes and like them. Like the following - super cute shoes!

My super cute new shoes

 I've heard a lot lately about making mashed cauliflower rather than mashed potatoes. I thought it would be fun to try and make both for dinner and have a taste test! Erik, Sarah, and Matthew did not touch the cauliflower. Only Jenna and I ate it. Bummer - I thought it was fantastic!

Mashed potatoes and mashed cauliflower

 To get ready for spring planting, we will be starting several seeds indoors. We usually buy these little cups from Lowes to put our seeds in. This year Erik found a good idea on Pinterest a very manly website to create little cups to hold seeds out of newspaper. Sarah was very "helpful" filling the cups with dirt.

Sarah and Daddy making starter dirt cups for plants.

 Wednesday was a momentous occation in our household. It was Pi day 3/14! I made a double chocolate silk pie which was really incredible. This picture isn't great because the whip cream is overpowering it, but the pie was fantastic! We always have to celebrate Pi day!

Double chocolate silk pie for Pi day!

 I'm not sure if you can read the following picture. It says "I know dont like Matthew". This was written by Sarah. She is pretty good at writing for 4 and it's interesting she chose to write this particular sentence too. She gave this paper to Scruffles since she thinks Scruff does not like Matthew.

Tell us how you really feel Sarah...

Scruffles with his/her blue collar

Scruffles had a little growth on his side. We were a little worried about it so we took him to the vet. Rather than just watching it, they removed it and stitched him up. They also gave him a collar he was supposed to wear for 10 days. He wiggled out if it in 2 hours.

On the report listing Scruffles procedure it listed: female spayed. Huh?

David said he paid for Scruffles to get neutered many years ago. One of these doctors is wrong.

Poor Scruffles - no one actually knows his/her gender.

78 points on Quiddler today

My number: 36



Kate, Me, and Tricia post-triathlon

Yesterday I competed in my first triathlon and had a blast! My friends Kate and Tricia joined me and all three of us loved it.

However I need to add something to the list of "stupid things Gina says" (this is a REALLY long list). When I went up to the registration desk to sign in yesterday morning, the person working there wrote a number 36 on my arm. I asked him "are you writing everyone's age on their arm?" He looked at me like I was an idiot. No - that was my participant number. It also happens to be my age - oops.

Now Tricia wants to run a 10k. So we'll have to look around for a 10k - I'm sure there are several races but I haven't paid much attention.

Jenna and Sarah have recently been doing adventurous things! Jenna went to the police station with her Daisy Scout troop. She was fingerprinted and got to sit in a police car - she loved it!

Jenna getting fingerprinted when her Daisy Scout trip visited the Police Station

Sarah had a Daddy Night at her preschool where she made him a nice paper tie he could wear (it was snazzy!). She also saw and touched several animals. Erik said many of the other kids were scared to go touch an alligator but Sarah jumped right up and held it.

Sarah holding a baby alligator at preschool



I'm excited for Pi day coming up!  We will be having chocolate pie - yum!

51 points on Quiddler today

No debt, no extra r's

I've really enjoyed making bread from my new bread cookbook The Bread Bible, however when I ask the girls what bread they want me to make it is always vanilla bread.

I like variety.

Apparently they don't.

The vanilla challah bread I make is delicious. The recipe calls for a vanilla egg wash on top which gives it a nice golden vanilla flavored crust. So yummy! We also make vanilla butter to put on the bread (butter, powdered sugar, vanilla). Erik even made vanilla almond butter to spread on the bread. Yum! Still - I'd like to make something else! I made beer cheese bread the other day but they didn't want it. This is becoming an obsession!

Vanilla challah with vanilla butter

In other news:

1. We paid off our house. Oh yea!!!  I'm so excited that we have no debt. How awesome is that :). This really gives us freedom to buy a castle like Erik wants or travel the world like I want or rather to save more for our kids' college education.  To celebrate we are planning on going out to eat somewhere - possibly a Japanese steakhouse. I've only been to one once and thought it was really fun!
2. I went running and swimming tonight. Because I've been training for this triathlon I've started to fall in love with running again. When I go to the faculty symposium for a week in April I'll be bringing my running shoes since the hotel has a fitness center.
3. At spinning class last week the teacher played this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyx6JDQCslE&ob=av3e I seriously almost laughed out loud. This is too funny.
4. Integer only has one r. After teaching this basic programming class for the past two semesters this has become a little pet peeve of mine. One r, just one.
5. 83 points on quiddler today. I got to make the word "math" and the word "quiz"

news flash!

My sister Missy got engaged last night at the highly romantic Bob Evans!  I'm so excited for her. The girls were so excited they jumped up and down - especially when I told them they could be flower girls.

We really like Dave - he is a Christian who likes to play nerdy games. Really - what's not to love!?!

Congratulations Missy!

There goes the lights again.

Finals week has come and gone and I have survived it (barely...). I have no new classes this session which is a break from last session with 4 new classes! I do have 4 classes - 2 online, 2 onsite but they are all classes I have taught before so it shouldn't be too busy for me.

Next session in May and June I will be teaching C# and VBscript. I'm excited to teach those classes however the classes are Friday nights and Saturday mornings. This is during prime camping season - bummer!

Erik's birthday was Monday however he was so sick with a stomach virus that we didn't really celebrate. Later in the week when he was feeling better I made him a raspberry key lime pie (which he absolutely LOVED), beer cheese bread, and cheesy quesadillas for his birthday.

Lately it has been nice outside so we haven't had the fire going but I wanted to post this picture of Scruffles by the fire. He is normally camped out by the fire all the time. Scruffles loves the fire!

Scruffles' usual spot by the fire

Our small group served dinner at Ronald McDonald house and had a great time. There were so many families we served that we almost ran out of food. It is such a great ministry! I missed it because I was teaching but it's great that our small group can serve this way.

Our small group serving dinner to the families at Ronald McDonald House



Matthew's favorite activity is turning on and off the lights around our house. Sometimes we will go around the house and every light is on. He drags around his stool to each of the light switches so he can reach them. He is so adorable. I was in the shower yesterday and the lights kept turning on and off. Sometimes I just want the lights to stay on.

Matthew's favorite activity. Turning on and off the lights!



In other news:

1. Our Coo* book club picked a new book to read. The Windup Girl by Paolo B. It sounds interesting and there are big elephants in it so you can't go wrong there.
2. I'm also reading Feast of Souls by C.S. Friedman. This is a really good book - love her writing.
3. On the Kindle Fire (yes I'm cool like that) I'm reading Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. This book has been on my list for quite a while and I like that I can take it anywhere. I go so many places ya know.
4.  I'm also reading Queen of Men by a super-awesome author who has been gifted with an exceedingly large cranium.
5. I was reading my friend's blog and realized she is reading books that help her become a better mother, parent and Christian. So I think I am going to look for a book like that. I wonder if GRRM writes a book like that....
6. 67 points on Quiddler today