Summer Requirements

Summer is in full swing. Jenna told me that every week she wants to go to the pool, the zoo, and take a family bike ride. This week we did all those things! So far so good. 

Things have gotten a little exciting for me also. I found out on Thursday that I'll be teaching a new class - the intro C++ class. I've taught the advanced C++ class several times but never the intro class. Normally I have more time, but I only have a week to develop the labs and lectures. Crossing my fingers I can do it in time. Then today I also found out I have another online class. So my summer just got kicked up a few notches in busyness. Hopefully Jenna will understand if I can't do those 3 things every week.

Yummy corn

At the zoo, Jenna wanted to do the pony ride. Normally I say no because that's the kind of Mom I am (mean) but I was in a money-spending mood (I'm actually normally in this mood) so I said yes. I bought a ticket for all 3 kids. What was I thinking? Putting Matthew by himself on a horhey (his word for horsey) all by himself? Well all 3 kids LOVED the pony ride. Including Matthew. Afterwards he kept saying "Mattmoo horhey". He wanted another ride.

The kids took swimming lessons this week and really enjoyed it. Sarah and Matthew were in the same class and Jenna was in an older kids class. All 3 of them went to the diving board for the last day. Sarah and Matthew were lowered into the water while Jenna was left to jump herself (she turned around and walked back down). Next time Jenna can jump off.

Matthew jumping off the diving board

Sarah jumping off the diving board and Jenna on the other diving board

My parents took the kids Thursday so Erik and I had all Friday to ourselves. We worked all day (I actually finished my grading early!) then went to see Man of Steel. The movie was great and it was nice to be on a date. Then we went to Starbucks and sipped our lattes free of worry and screaming kids. It was bliss.

On Saturday morning we planned a bike ride. After about 2 miles Erik's tire blew and it was as loud as a gunshot. So we walked the bikes back. At least we were only 2 miles away.

Then we went to my parents house for a big birthday party. We celebrated my Dad's, Matthew's, mine, and David's birthdays all at once.

Matthew successfully blew out the candle. He will get his wishes of always driving in the car, riding bikes, playing with playhouses, cars, and trains, and never taking a nap. Ha!

62 points on Quiddler today

Celebrating 3 with 11 kids!

We celebrated Matthew's third birthday by camping at Cross Creek Campground this weekend. We camped with three other families and had an amazing time. There were a total of 11 kids with us and I tried to get some pictures with all of them facing the camera. Good luck to that endeavor. The following were the best I could do. The ages were from 8 to 3 (Matthew was the youngest). 

11 kids: Maddie, Emmerich, Nicholas, Ainsley, Lucas, Jenna, Haven, Sarah, Reagan, Nate, and Matthew

Nice photobomb Duane

 We camped from Thursday - Sunday. One of Jenna's friends from school, Grace camped with us Thursday to Friday afternoon. I had 4 kids on Friday to keep track of since Erik went home to work. It ended up working out really well since Erik was able to do his job in peace and we had fun at the campground.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

We celebrated Matthew's birthday with red, white, and blue cupcakes and cooked brats on the fire. I also ate several smores with reeses cups. These really are a vast improvement over traditional smores.

The girls both loved the gem mine at the campground too. They mined for fossils and gems and found some sharks teeth, petrified wood, and fools gold. We swam in the pool, played with water balloons, and then mother nature thought we needed more water so we were drenched in rain on Saturday night. Even so, it was still a great camping trip and I hope to go on more camping trips with our friends.

In other news:

1. Erik's parents will move here in just one week! It hardly seems real that they will be so close. Yipee!
2. It is finals week for me and tonight (Monday) I gave a final. Partway through the final exam the power went out. Since the final is all computer based this was a bummer (for the students, not for me). 
3. I read the Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn in a few days (since there is a waiting list at the library). This book draws a parallel between ancient Israel and America based on Isaiah 9:10. I thought it was intriguing and it could be a good book club book.
4. Our book club is still reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. We are about halfway through. His writing really is poetic, weird but poetic.
5. I'm also in the middle of both the Unincorporated Man and The Gripping Hand. So my summer reading is all set. I'm pokey but I'll finish them all.
6. Next week I have a one week break from teaching. During the week, I'm hoping to help Erik's parents settle into their house, prep my lectures for a new class I'm teaching, work on the database as part of my new subcontractor job, and beg Erik to make me a decadent cake for my birthday.
7. 85 points in Quiddler today

Opening Lines

I like to judge a book by its cover. I also like for an opening line of a book to grab me and pull me into the book.

So I made a list of my top ten favorite opening lines of a book. While I could have opened every book I read and reflected on its first line, instead I listed the ones I really remembered or liked a lot.


My favorite opening lines going from 10 to 1

10. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
9. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." ~The Hobbit, JRR Tolkein
8. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife" ~Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
7. "The story so far: in the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." ~The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams

6. "Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity." ~Elantris, Brandon Sanderson

5. "In the Beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" ~The Bible, God

4. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." ~A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

3. "The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."~Wheel of Time series, Robert Jordan

2. "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And Brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me." ~Love Story, Erich Segal

1. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” The Gunslinger by Stephen King

I'd love to make a list of my favorite quotations from books but it is impossible to remember all of these. I do really like the Litany Against Fear and sometimes say it in my head when I am afraid (like when I go down to the basement) 

75 points on quiddler today

Father's Day and Interviews

We had planned to ride our bikes to church on Father's Day but it rained. Erik said his favorite family thing to do was to ride bikes. Luckily later in the evening we rode to a park almost 4 miles away. Which means approximately 8 miles round trip (fancy math, that). Jenna rode her bike the entire way - her longest bike ride!

Erik took the kids to Toys-R-Us and Justice to use up some gift cards for Fathers Day. I stayed home and read a book. That was pretty great too. Then I made him a dark chocolate cake filled with toasted pecans and homemade caramel sauce. It was delicious and very rich.

My Mom requested I interview the kids. So here are my interview questions below.

Jenna's interview:
1. What is your favorite food? Pancakes
2. What is your favorite color? Aqua
3. What do you want to be when you grow up? Geologist
4. What is your favorite toy? The stuffed animal Jenna sewed herself
5. What is your favorite restaurant? Olive Garden
6. What is your favorite movie? Charlotte's Web
7. What is your favorite subject? Art

Jenna and her stuffed animal

Sarah's interview:
1. What is your favorite food? Shrimp
2. What is your favorite color? Red
3. What do you want to be when you grow up? Engineer
4. What is your favorite toy? Monster High doll
5. What is your favorite restaurant? Noodles
6. What is your favorite movie? Hydee and the Hitops (free movie with skechers shoes)


Matthew's interview (what Mommy thinks):
1. What is your favorite food? Raspberries
2. What is your favorite color? Yellow or Green
3. What do you want to be when you grow up? Very, very tall
4. What is your favorite toy? The barn with animals (aa-oo-oo is animals). 
5. What is your favorite restaurant? McDonalds
6. What is your favorite movie? 3 year olds do not sit long enough to watch movies

An awesome father!

All 3 kids on the tire swing

59 points today on Quiddler.

Surviving the week

I know that God does not give us more than we can handle. This week...I'm not sure.
All week I am babysitting Lauren and Jacob, my friend Lynn's kids and I know I've reached my limit. 5 kids is a lot. Especially since Matthew requires extra attention.

I took all 5 kids to Walmart because they wanted to buy fabric for costumes they were making. Never again.  Never. Again.  If they are all alive at the end of this week then it will be successful. I know it's Fathers day this weekend but I need a break, or maybe tequila. One of the two.

The kids in their costumes

Jenna's last day of school was June 4th. For her party, we had an ice cream sundae bar. This was a hit among kids and adults! The first week off of school the kids went to VBS in Plain City. They had a great time and have been singing the songs they learned. I've signed them up for 3 VBS's this summer!

Sarah, Lauren, Saatvika, and Jenna

 This weekend I took the kids to West Virginia to celebrate Erik's parents retirement. They had a retirement party after church on Sunday. Aunt Carol (Erik's Dad's sister) was there and it was good to see her. Erik's dad and his sister are in amazing shape for their ages. We went to the playground and Aunt Carol was up climbing on the equipment with Sarah :).

At the party, they church gave them a gift of a Windows 8 touchscreen laptop. Since my own was cracked by Matthew - I told them to keep it away from him. It's exciting they will be retiring and moving here in just a few weeks!

Congratulations Grandma and Grandpa!

 In other news, my friend Jen requested I make a peanut butter cheesecake. I really can't say no to such a request. I made this recipe and put chocolate ganache on top. It was fantastic. I love peanut butter and cheesecake so you just can't go wrong with this combination.

pb cheesecake

Maybe cheesecake goes with tequila? I'll find out after this week is over.

The secret to the best smores

I have discovered the most important camping secret in the world.  Smores with reeses cups. Seriously. Could anything be better?

This weekend we went to Alum Creek state park for a great weekend with the Brubakers. On Friday evening we had chicken kabobs. I put peppers, chicken and pineapple on kabobs and precooked them. We just warmed them by the fire for a quick dinner. Then we made smores with reeses cups. I never thought smores could be improved but I stand corrected.

All of us at Alum Creek Camper Beach

 On Saturday, Alum Creek had several activities and we went to almost all of them. In the morning the kids played at the playground, then we went fishing. Sarah caught 3 fish! All of the fish kept eating Jenna's worms off of her hook but we all still had fun. Lucas and Nate caught fish as well but they were done fishing long before my girls wanted to stop. The kids also went to a leeches and worms activity and a frogs and tadpoles activity. They were so exhausted by the end of the day. More smores for me. That's the kind of Mom I am.

Sitting by the fire acting like puppies

Sarah and her fish (bottom right by her skirt)

The kids fishing

Both nights we had huge thunderstorms but our camper kept us dry. We had a fabulous time and a nice relaxing weekend.

75 on Quiddler today