Pretty magical creatures

It's been awhile since I posted a top ten list and I know you have been secretly wishing I would post one. Well guess what!?! Today I've compiled a list of my top 10 favorite animals and my 15 favorite mythical creatures (don't want to leave them out)

Favorite Animals

tree frog

1. Stingray - (not the car) they are beautiful and powerful and look like they are dancing in the water
2. Butterfly - So colorful. Beauty through adversity.
3. Eagle - Majestic and powerful. 
4. Seashells (scallops, conchs, whelks, sand dollars, etc) - Such amazing variety. I have a seashell collection and have had it since I was little
5. Panther - sleek and fast and black. Like a ninja! Big cats are pretty cool animals. They are strong yet playful
6. Bluejay - I love their striking blue color
7. Elephant - Elephants are just fun. And they love peanuts like me.  I think I could be friends with an elephant.
8. Coral - Corals are so beautiful with their wide variety of shapes and colors. The zoo has an aquarium with coral that I love to watch. I wish I could have my own aquarium with coral at home.
9. Treefrog- I've never seen one (I've never seen a panther either), but I love their beady red eyes and green skin.
10. Turtle - Turtles have existed from about the time of the dinosaurs. They even have their own shields!

Favorite mythical creatures

Nightmare

1. Unicorn - Who doesn't want unicorn powers? Unicorns are always good creatures who can heal people with magic
2. Phoenix - Rising from death to be even stronger than before, the Phoenix was a symbol in early Christianity
3. Elves - (not Santa elves) These are long lived, graceful and beautiful creatures. They love nature and are pretty good with archery like me.
4. Dragon - This would be Erik's number 1. Dragons embody all that is fantastic, majestic, and powerful in mythical creatures
5. Nightmare - The nightmare is the opposite of the unicorn, although it is not necessarily an evil creature. Its hooves and mane are on fire so you need to be careful when you ride it or you'll get saddle burn. 
6. Beholder - These were my favorite creatures in Everquest 2. They are giant eyes. You can't be in their blindspots.
7. Fairies - Fairies can be mischievous, yet helpful, tiny and airborne.  What's not to like?
8. Mermaids - Since watching Splash as a little girl, I've always thought it would be fun to be a mermaid. Think of how much faster I could be swimming in the triathlon if my legs could turn into a fish tail!
9. Centaur - this is not Mr. Tumns, he is a satyr. A centaur is half man/ half horse. Like a mermaid, if I was a centaur I could run really fast and beat everyone.
10. Gelatinous cube - When I first flipped through the D&D manual I found this creature. I find it amusing and disturbing at the same time. So of course it made my list.
11. Elementals - These are creatures made entirely of their element. I think air elementals are the coolest
12. Pegasus - A flying horse? Could anything be better? Yes. Me riding the flying horse!
13. Basilisk - This lizard has many interesting magical properties. Just don't touch it!
14. Golem - not gollum. These creatures are made of inanimate objects like stone, clay, brass, moss, beer cans, or the one ring and somehow they are alive.



Beholder

15. Griffin - This is a combination of a lion and an eagle. The king of beasts and the king of birds.

You will notice the lack of undead creatures on my mythical creature list. I don't understand the current popularity of zombies, vampires, skeletons, and other undead creatures. I just don't get it.

Also missing are goblins, orcs, and minotaurs. They are ugly. You may notice that many of my favorite creatures and animals are pretty (or at least not ugly).

95 points on Quiddler today

Marshmallow world

With the end of the school year comes ballet recitals. Both Jenna and Sarah are Marshmallow characters in their ballet recitals. Jenna is in the "big show" downtown at the Capital theater (3 hours long!!). Both girls are dancing to the same song "It's a marshmallow world in the winter." 

Jenna is doing ballet and Sarah is doing tap dance.  They are doing a great job in dance and they are adorable! Matthew also loves "baayet" and always wants to dance with his sisters.

Sarah had her last day of preschool on Wednesday. She had a graduation ceremony complete with diploma. Now she is officially a kindergartener. The mom next to me was in tears. Her youngest of 4 was going to kindergarten. Maybe I will be in tears when Matthew goes to Kindergarten. Probably not.

Sarah Graduating from Preschool

My little marshmallows

Sarah at Dress Rehearsal

Jenna all ready for her performance

Jenna is on the far right in the back

In other news:

1. I have been hired as a subcontractor for a networking/barcoding company. They need some programming and SQL solutions and I'm so excited to do some work in industry. It will be only a few hours a week and is perfect for me!
2. Our coo* book club is now reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. We've read the first 4 chapters and all I can say is "weird but interesting". I'm already into the book so we'll see what happens.
3. I'm also reading the Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin. This book is fantastic! The best sci-fi book I've read in awhile.
4. The third book I"m reading is Niven and Pournelle's The Gripping Hand. This is the sequel to the Mote in God's Eye. I really enjoyed that book and the sequel is good too.

Walking and Donuts

Every year for Mothers day I spend time with each of the kids individually. Just as with last year, Jenna chose to go on a walk with me and Sarah chose to go to Tim Hortons and eat donuts. Matthew and I just played outside.

It's nice since they know they have my undivided attention and we can spend some quality time together. When I took Sarah to Tim Hortons I was expecting she might eat half of a donut. Wrong. Little Sarah ate an entire cream filled donut then promptly looked at me and said "Mommy I'm hungry." She has a special stomach for sweets. She wanted another donut! Um...no.  I have no idea where she got this crazy love of sweets. Must be a recessive gene.

Then I took Jenna to the Olentangy trail where we had a nice walk and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. And worked off the donut calories

Sarah and me at her Mother's day tea

Matthew has improving with his vocabulary so much he hardly seems like the same kid. He has a sense of humor and has realized he loves the word "no". All we hear is "no, no, no..." especially when driving home. He never wants to stop driving and he has great spatial memory. If we take a new way home, he remembers it and wants to go that way again. I told Erik he could be a taxi driver but Erik said we should have higher aspirations than that for him.

In other news:

1. I just finished "Let Them Eat Cake" by Sandra Byrd. This was a fun little book about a woman who works in a French bakery. I gave it to Jenna to read next.
2. Our coo* book club has finished Joel's book. This book was well-written and fun to read together. Next we read American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's been on my list for a long time so I'm excited to read it.  
3. Erik has cut his calories really low so he can be awesome and fit for the triathlon and future tough mudders.
4. My goal is to do the monkey bars in the tough mudder - this shouldn't be a problem since I have huge guns. 
5. This weekend we are doing the Race for the Cure for my friend Lynn. Here is our page if you want to donate or walk with us. We are doing the 1 mile family walk and Amanda is joining us!
6. 99 points in Quiddler today

Little gems

When I asked Sarah what she's most excited about this summer her response was "camping." When I asked Jenna the same thing she said "being a 3rd grader and camping". Matthew, who has become a chatty cathy lately would probably say "lights." The kids love camping! This weekend we went to the Shelby/Mansfield KOA. The place was fantastic, the weather did not cooperate though. 

Last year this same weekend we contemplated swimming. This year we were wearing sweaters and coats. And our carbon monoxide detector broke in the camper so we couldn't use our propane heater (really carbon monoxide doesn't seem like a bad way to go). Erik went to walmart and bought boards and electric heaters. Matthew again escaped from the camper crib and was up until 11:30pm on Friday night!  So Erik fashioned a stockade to keep him in the crib. 

Matthew in the tunnel at the campground

Mothers day card crafts

 The most exciting part about the campground is their gem mine. We bought two bags of dirt, one that may contain emeralds and rubies and another that may contain other gemstones. The kids sifted through the dirt to discover treasures. Both girls have rock collections (I confess I have a rock collection too) and they had a great time searching for treasures. They found several really nice gems also. Matthew just dumped the leftover rocks.

Gem mining

We had a fabulous time at the campground and to top it off we got ice cream. You can see the kids (one scoop!) bowls of ice cream below. This is on the order of Nelsons in Minnesota.  I shared mine with Matthew but Jenna ate her whole bowl of ice cream! We had to throw away half of Sarah's - she just couldn't finish it :).

Just a little ice cream

A beautiful butterfly in our backyard! 

 Our first camping trip of the season was a blast. A chilly blast, but still a blast. I'm looking forward to camping this summer too.

48 points on quiddler today

Geeking out

I spent this week at the Faculty Symposium in Atlanta and had a wonderful time. It's great to meet faculty from all over the country to share ideas and network. There is a push for all faculty to have PhD's so I was able to tell everyone about my program and experiences. Lots of people wanted to talk to me about it so I felt popular. Considering I was the girl in school with the glasses and braces reading sci-fi books, being popular is a little foreign to me.  I feel ya Amy Farrah Fowler!

Columbus faculty at the Symposium

Pam and Me - she is from Fremont, California and my good friend!

I got home Saturday morning at 1am and that evening Jenna had a girl scout sleepover at the zoo. She toured the zoo until 11pm at night and rose early to do another round of hiking at the zoo at 7am. She is exhausted now and had so much fun. I'm sure she will crash soon.

Jenna's brownie troop at the zoo

On Saturday I took the kids for some family fun. We went to the pink moon cupcake bakery and the park. I love the pink moon cupcakes. I am unable to duplicate their yumminess. Their cupcakes are so rich and delicious - I love the buckeye flavor (chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting)

Sarah at Pink Moon

Back in college Erik and I would buy a couple packs of magic cards, make decks and play with whatever we got. Last night we did just that! We bought some magic cards and although we haven't kept up with the new rules or expansions, we had a blast. He played a green and white deck and I played a red and black deck. My favorite color is blue since I really like the merfolk and tim cards but the new expansion didn't have much merfolk in it. And we watched a Chronicles of Riddick marathon. Basically we geeked out.

66 points on Quiddler today