Fun in the snow

Poor Erik got his wisdom teeth taken out on Friday at 1pm. He was in a lot of pain and sat by the fire all evening. He was able to drink a milkshake around 7pm when I got home from taking the kids to an indoor swingset place (to get them out of his way).  He can't eat nuts or pretzels for 2 weeks. 

One good thing about Friday was that it snowed. That might not sound particularly exciting but when you are a kid (or a big kid), snow is fun to play in. On Saturday we went sledding (while poor Erik wallowed at home in pain) and had a blast. Unfortunately Matthew wiped out so we had to leave earlier than the girls wanted to, but they still had a lot of fun. 

Sarah sledding

Long distance shot of Jenna sledding

 On Saturday evening I took the girls to Addie Price's 4th birthday party at the Chiller North. The girls had not been ice skating before but they really loved it. Jenna sped away from Sarah and I and lapped us a few times. Sarah was a little more timid but she didn't want to hold onto the wall or my hand. They both had great balance - maybe from ballet.

Ice skating at Chiller North

We are excited to go ice skating again. Maybe we will even take Matthew?

108 points on Quiddler today. I got an extra 20 points for "sheering"!

Tar Valon

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have 13 eight year old girls at your house for a birthday party? Yesterday Jenna had her 8th birthday party. Our house was filled with lots of talking, screaming, jumping, giggling girls. They had a blast! Sarah and Matthew had a good time too. Matthew has discovered that he likes to make messes and get into things. Yipee! Now we just have to channel that destruction into something good.

All 3 kids painting

Jenna's birthday party

 The girls drew a picture of Jenna and she chose a winner. The winner received a stuffed puppy. There were some great drawings.

Drawings of Jenna

Having fun decorating cupcakes

 We also met my parents at Der Dutchmann to celebrate Jenna's birthday. Jenna requested a coconut cake so I made my first coconut cake. It came out pretty good and not overly sweet.

Coconut cake

In other news:

• I finished Memory of Light by Brandon Sanderson/Robert Jordan. This is the last book (14) in the Wheel of Time Series. The book was one long battle that at times became tedious while the main battle between the dark one and Rand could have had more detail. I also would have liked more point of view from other characters that I loved but in a series this complex and long, you can't spend a lot of time on every character. This is probably what's going to happen with a Song of Ice and Fire by Martin. Oh well. I still loved the book! Now what do I have to look forward to?
• Both girls have quit gymnastics and are back in ballet at Columbus Dance Arts. Jenna is in Advanced ballet/tap and will be a marshmallow in the spring recital. Sarah is in 4/5 year old ballet/tap and will also be a marshmallow in the spring recital. Both girls have frilly white costumes. They will be adorable!
• We have decided to move our small group from every Tuesday evening to the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays. Hopefully this schedule will work out although it looks like next semester I'll be teaching on Tuesday evening. 
• Matthew really gets into everything. He now takes our register vents out and hides things in the vents (toys, trains, cars, cups, etc!). Yikes.
• I registered for an indoor Triathlon on March 3. I don't know if I'll train much before then since we canceled our Lifetime gym membership. However I'll probably have to give up on swimming anyway. There was really no hope for me. I'm just not good at it.
• 98 points on quiddler today

Iron Chef: Dual Competition

I beg Erik all the time to do iron chef. This week we did iron chef not once, but twice! Yipee!

I surprised Erik with green peppers as the secret ingredient and he surprised me with onions. I'm so glad Erik humors me with this.

Iron Chef Erik

 Erik made:

• Green pepper and blackberry smoothie. I can't believe Erik did this! He used the green pepper juice rather than actual green peppers so that the smoothie would be smooth. This was actually really yummy!
• Green pepper and onion salad. This was a delicious blend of green pepper, carmelized onions, and bacon. I loved it but thought it would be better as a topping for a dish rather than stand alone. 
• Beef and green pepper burritos with cheesy green pepper fingers. This burrito was good but the real treat on this dish was the cheesy green pepper fingers. He fried strips of green pepper then rolled them in parmesan cheese. This was tasty.
• Green and red pepper cookies. Again. I can't believe Erik made sugar cookies with shredded green and red pepper in them. They were yummy- yes you could taste the green pepper and the cookie dough was fantastic too. He got lots of originality points.

Erik's overall score was 15.375 by himself and 15 by me. I rated him low on plating as he did not do much for the appearance of his dishes. However he received high marks for originality.

Iron Chef Gina

I made:

• Red onion salsa and chips. This was a fresh salsa with chili powder for some kick. It was delicious but not terribly original. We all loved it though - even the kids.
• Green onion bacon corn cakes. These cakes were awesome. I cooked some bacon, then made these cakes (with corn, bacon, and green onions) and fried them in the leftover bacon grease. Why not? They had a bacon/onion flavor that worked well together.
• Brown butter chicken with carmelized onions. My idea for this was great however the execution was not so great. I ended up overcooking the chicken. Not surprising since I had a lot of "helpers" while cooking. Even so, the carmelized onion with the brown butter chicken was a fabulous combination.  I know since I made it the next day so I could do it right :).
• Honey, orange, and carmelized onion couscous. I mixed fresh oranges, carmelized onions, and craisins in couscous then drizzled honey over the top. I think it needed a little stronger flavor so grating some fresh orange peel on it would have made the dish stand out.

My overall score was 15.175 by Erik and 15 by me. Erik rated me higher on taste and less on originality. 

Only 41 points on quiddler today

Jenna's blog

Jenna has started a blog :). Please help her name her new unicorn and vote here: Jenna's blog

My friend Lynn

I posted before about my friend with breast cancer. Now she has brain and spinal cord cancer and has lost sight in her right eye. The doctor said it is 50/50.
I'm so scared for her! Please be praying for Lynn. It doesn't look good. Lauren is Jenna's best friend and she is having a difficult time with this. God can heal her!

A command center

Over Christmas break we did some organizing. One thing I really wanted was a "command center". I've heard this term on organizing blogs as a place for the family to keep important items they can drop off as soon as they come through the door. We found this coat rack with 4 bins (no Erik doesn't get a command area - he was voted off) and below it we put a shoe rack. We put it in the play room which is on the right as soon as you come in the door. Now when we have visitors (because who doesn't want to come to our house to see the new coat rack!) they can hang up their coats!

Awesome organization!

 Since it is the new year, that means new years resolutions. Instead of joining a gym, we canceled our lifetime membership and transformed a storage room in the basement into a workout center. Erik mounted a TV and put puzzle mats on the floor for us to do workout videos. It is so awesome! We have been doing Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30. I really love this workout series since each workout is only 24 minutes long but is a great workout. Erik went from a 44" waist to a 39" waist weighing 208lbs and I'm down to 118lbs.

Our workout room - who needs a gym?

 The girls are still upset over losing Scruffles. At church today (in kidMax), each person could share what they wanted to pray for. Sarah's prayer request was for Scruffles to be raised from the dead. Jenna just drew these pictures too (below). The one on the left is God talking to Scruffles saying "What do you want?". Then Scruffles says "Where is my family?". This left me in tears.

Jenna misses Scruff still

 On a happier note, last night we were playing pinochle with the Masts. Jen and I were partners and we both had Aces around. This means each of us had one of every type of ace (meaning Erik and Tim had NO aces). Then we played our hands and shot them down. They didn't even take a trick. I had to put a picture here so we could remember it forever.

Aces around x2

My new semester has started and I'm teaching advanced C++ both online and onsite. I'm enjoying the class but felt my online students needed extra help. So I did an extra online live lecture through Adobe iConnect (kind of like webex). They really appreciated it.

And in the most important news, I got "A Memory of Light" by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson in the mail. This is the last book in the Wheel of Time series. Yipee!!

84 points on Quiddler today!

High Quality Stereo Equipment

In the past I have been a really bad wife and bought Erik buckets instead of exciting gifts. Well not this year! I am going to surprise Erik with a new receiver. I bought him a Denon AVR-1913 Receiver for his birthday. Hopefully this will undo any of my previous poor gift choices.  Anyone who has had Thanksgiving dinner with Erik knows that he likes high quality stereo equipment.

My cousin from Alabama stopped by with her 3 kids. It was fun to see them! We tried to get all the kids to pose for a picture but that's close to impossible.  Veronica, Harrison, and Violet are their 3 kids. Harrison is a month older than Jenna and Violet is 7 months older than Sarah.

Violet, Matthew, Jenna, Sarah, Harrison, Veronica

 My mom sent me a picture of me doing a backbend when I was little. People tell me that Jenna looks like me but from this picture - there is a huge resemblance. See if you can tell which picture is me and which is Jenna. Maybe Sarah would give it away :).

A backbend

Another backbend 

 We have had more snow this year so far than all last year. And it has been so much fun to play in! Of course Erik and I always have snowball fights. For some reason it is always Erik and the girls against me. At some point I want to get Matthew on my side. We also went sledding at the hill near our house. That was a blast!

Playing in the snow

School will start on Monday and it will be back to the routine. But for now - we will enjoy every last bit of our break!

92 points on Quiddler today and I made the word "flour". Baking ingredients are always exciting in Quiddler.