My Day

AAAH how I love my children (note the dresses were made by Grandma Cooper - thank you!!). This is my morning.
2:23am "Mommy, Change my diaper. MOMMY....". While Jenna is great at going #1 in the potty, #2 has not been so successful

5:35am Screaming. Sarah has gotten out of her swaddle. I go in quietly swaddle her and put her back to bed.

7:00am. Erik's alarm goes off. He jumps in the shower. I roll over.

7:30am. Jenna comes in our room. She's awake so obviously we must be as well. I try to get her dressed. J: "I want to wear my nightgown". Me: "How about the Strawberry shortcake shirt and the blue pants and pony underwear." J: "No I want a different underwear." Me: "okay - stay still so I can help you get dressed". After much squirming Jenna is dressed.

7:45am. Breakfast. Strawberry chex cereal, water, orange juice and two vitamins. "I want two more vitamins, I want a different juice, I want ice in my water, I want a different napkin - this one is old, mommy make your spoon talk, why do you have raisins in your cereal, why do you have a white vitamin and a yellow vitamin, where's daddy, etc, etc, etc".

8:12am. I remember that I have two children and should probably get the other one. I walk into Sarah's room and the world smiles, birds sing, and I dance in a field of roses. She smiles at me so beautifully as if I'm the greatest thing in the world. I squeeze her and kiss her and squeeze her some more. Change her diaper, sing to her. Then take her downstairs to eat. Sarah cranes her neck while eating to watch Jenna running around the house carrying a blanket.

8:45am. Sarah in the bouncer. I pump. "mommy can you make sleeping beauty talk while you're pumping"

9:20am. Done pumping. Sarah screaming. Jenna screaming at Sarah to stop screaming. I move Sarah to a new location and she's happy. Jenna needs to go potty. "No I don't have to go potty. I don't want to go potty" . Me: "Go potty now and then you can have a sticker and then we can play with puzzles". Not working. Finally Jenna goes potty

9:50am. Jenna still on the potty reading books. I swaddle Sarah and put her down for a nap.

10:00am - 10:02am I sit at the computer for a "break" and look at my email

10:02am Jenna is done on the potty. Now we can play puzzles "mommy where does this piece go? mommy, where does this piece go? Scruff get off of the puzzle!!! mommy, where does this piece go?"

10:27am Sarah screaming. I go up, burp her, feed her a little bit and put her back down

10:33am Jenna and I play tunnel with the blanket. Everytime I try and get up to do something productive, there is fussing and screaming "no, keep playing, keep your eyes open mommy, Please be my friend mommy (how can I say no?!?)"

11:05am I pack up my frozen pumped breast milk to send to Africa in a cooler. Call Fedex and schedule a pickup

11:10am Erik comes home from his meeting early. Hooray! Daddy is here and he is exciting!! Yea!!! Mommy can sit down at the computer and check her online class for 5 minutes

11:35am I start making grilled cheese sandwiches and put plates with grapes on the table for lunch.

11:57am We start eating lunch

11:58am Sarah wakes up and starts screaming

12:01pm Gina finishes grilled cheese sandwich (not really cheese, it's soy cheese because I'm off dairy for Sarah), grapes, and three absolutely sinful brownies in record time

12:02pm Change Sarah and bring her down. Feed Sarah.

12:15pm Daddy and Jenna finish lunch.

12:15 - 11pm Gina wishes she could eat the rest of the pan of brownies, not gain any weight from it, sit in a hot tub, get a foot massage, and not make any dolls or eating utensils talk. Yea right.

You will note that I still have not showered, or even changed out of my PJs by 12:15 and I had to leave for work at 3:15pm. Nor did I get anything productive done this morning.

I had to post a picture of dinner though. This is raspberry chicken with sauteed peppers. I pan fried the chicken (first sprinkled some salt, pepper, and some herbs - like thyme) then took it out of the pan and set it on a plate. In the same pan I put two spoonfuls of seedless raspberry jam, and poured some balsamic vinegar in the pan and a dash of salt. I kept stirring until it was all melted (a few minutes). Then I poured this over the chicken. I've made this dish a few times and it is easy and low fat. Even though it looks funny - it is really good. You could use different flavors of jam too. Unfortunately I didn't make enough peppers and was forced to eat another 3 brownies!!!

April Fool's

Today is April Fools Day - but Jenna seems too young for me to play a joke on her. She would probably be confused. However I put the blue screen of death as a background on Erik's new laptop and hid his taskbar so it looked like his computer blue screened (is that a verb?). He showed it to me and said "oh no - look at this". I can't keep a straight face :).
Sarah has been smiling like crazy!! See this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiy-qdaesgY
I made it on Windows Movie Maker. I'd like to see Mac's move making capabilities. They are supposed to be great and that commercial with the manila envelope is cool (at least the music is addicting).

Congrats David and Becca!

My brother-in-law David got engaged on Saturday to Becca. How exciting! I realized I didn't have any pictures of Becca so I included a picture of David with Jenna :). Anyway, David completely ignored all of my suggestions for proposals and asked her to marry him the old fashioned way! As long as she says yes - that's the most important thing! I still think he should have put the ring in an Easter Egg or a burrito!

We had a great Easter and the girls saw both sets of Grandparents as well as Aunt Missy and Aunt Amanda. Easter was also Sarah's 3 month birthday and here's a picture of her with the lamb. She's actually smiling in that picture if you can't tell. Once the girls get older I will get a set of Resurrection Eggs. They are supposed to share the story of Jesus's death and Resurrection in a way kids will understand.

In other news:

1. We picked up our camper on Friday. It is so awesome!! However, it took Erik (not me - we would still be there if I was doing it) 45 minutes to back it into the miniscule parking spot we were given at the storage facility. We are looking for a new storage facility.
2. I decided I wanted to make up my own recipe for Cranberry vanilla bread so I threw a bunch of ingredients together and baked two loaves (I want to submit the best to a quick bread contest). Unfortunately, after I took them out of the oven I left them on the stove top. Erik decided to make pasta and turned on the burner with the bread on it (even though there was a pot on a different burner). This loaf pan was one of those flexible loaf pans and apparently they do not like to be on burners. It caught fire and the whole house was filled with smoke. Oops!
3. I can't get the song "Sarah Smile" by Hall and Oats out of my head. It's almost as bad as "If you like pina coladas...." That song I can NEVER get out of my head!
4. I got a terrible score on Quiddler today. How can you make a good word with these letters: A, G, G, B, U, C, X, Q??? That is awful. So I only got 29 points :(.
   
   
   

Certified American Cookie Board Statistician

Today we had friends over to play Dungeons and Dragons. It was a blast! We even watched a movie called "The Gamers" about people who play D&D - and that was hilarious too.

While everyone was here, we had a chocolate chip cookie tasting event. Jon created a Standard Cookie rating sheet that rated cookies based on visual impact, texture, flavor, and after impression. Ratings varied from 1 to 10 with 10 representing the most desirable in a given criteria. Interestingly enough, the cookies I generally make won!! I made 10 different cookie recipes (see picture) and everyone rated them.
Below are the results.

Cookie Analysis 3/15/08
Cookie Number	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Cookie Recipe	Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies	Chocolate Chip Cookies Lite	Best Chocolate Chip Cookies	Absolutely the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies	Jen Wahl's cookie recipe	Urban Legend Chocolate Chip Cookies	Nestle toll house cookies modified	Best big, fat, chewy chocolate chip cookie	Alton Brown's The Chewy	60% Ghiradelli Cocoa Back of Bag
Aaron	35	10	34	23	27	23	32	23	33	28
Matt	28	14	21.5	29	26	15	26	17	25	17.5
Erik	31	8	30	19	22	26	32	14	30	29
Michelle H	32	11	27	25	28	17	34	24	32	18
Michelle C	26	17	35	28	31	28	35	30	33	27
John	30	19	25	26	23	29	29	26	28	26
Gina	32	13	28	24	32	27	33	29	29	27
Mike	33	6	21	22	30	15	29	12	24	9
Jen	22	7	26	19	22	12	36	12	27	5
Total	29.889	11.667	27.500	23.889	26.778	21.333	31.778	20.778	29.000	20.722

The changes I've made to Nestle toll house cookies are to only use real butter, add 1/4 cup flour extra, and cook them for 7 minutes and 20 seconds.
As you can see from this scientific study, Nestle toll house cookies are the best!! How awesome :). Of course, these are the cookies I always make so it made me happy to have confirmation that they are the best.

Sarah has started to smile and make cute noises! Here is a video of her smiling. What a doll baby!!

I got 62 on Quiddler today. I was doing so well until I lost the v :(. 11 points!!!

A Snow Big Sister??

Every family has a big sister according to Jenna. If there is a family of bears, spoons (don't ask), playdoh, books, etc (and a family is just composed of a few of these things) always one of them is a big sister. Jenna knows her place in our family. Today we got about a foot and a half of snow. Even church is cancelled tomorrow because of the snow. Anyway, we went out to play in the snow and we made a snow family. Of course, one of the snow family members was a big sister :).

In other news:

1. Sarah is smiling :). I've included a picture - she is adorable
2. We got Easter pictures taken on Thursday of the two girls together. They were adorable. After the pictures (taken by Squire Photography), Jenna got to pick some prizes from a big treasure chest. One of the treasure chests had butterfly wings. Jenna loved them!!
3. I'm in book 4 of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. How can something be a trilogy if it has 4 books?
4. I just finished "Just Walk Across the Room" by Bill Hybels. Excellent book about evangelism through friendship.
5. We finally saw Ratatouille. Awesome movie!!! I highly recommend it. I especially loved it since it was about food - who doesn't love food? Once we get back into a routine, I'll start my iron chefs again!
6. I got 12 today on Quiddler. Lost the y, v, h, q, and n. It was a tough quiddler with few vowels.
7. I'm making about 10 different chocolate chip cookie recipes and we are going to have a cookie tasting to see which one is the best. I have 2 more recipes I want to make. After that - we'll see which recipe reigns supreme!! I'll include the results on my blog when we finish the contest :).

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Erik's birthday was on the 27th and Jenna and I made a chocolate cake for him. It was Sandy's Chocolate Cake from allrecipes.com and was yum-o (to use a Rachel Rayism). Here is a picture. Jenna helped decorate it and when Erik blew the candles out, he also blew off half the decorations, which greatly upset Jenna.

I also included a picture of Sarah with the white lamb. She is now 2 months old and weights 10lbs 15oz. Huge!! She is so much bigger than Jenna was at two months. She's even started smiling. I just love this little girl!! See the pic of her in the bouncer - she actually plays!

In other news:

1. I got 63 on Quiddler today. I didn't realize jennets was a word. What kind of word is this?
2. Sarah had blood in her diaper so I'm off dairy again until April 25. I've discovered that chocolate soy milk is not bad. So now I put it on my cereal. Chocolate soy milk and grape nuts - yum (I guess).
3. I'm in the third book (of four) in the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams. Not sure what to read next. I did look at the wikipedia site and the list of high fantasy novels on there. I thought about trying to read all those books - since I love high fantasy!
4. School starts on Sunday. I hope I survive :)

From potties to stardust...

I had to post another picture of our DnD group especially since Jenna stole my chair. She really wanted to participate this time! We had a great time as usual. Erik is even multitasking (feeding Sarah while playing!)

Potty training is harder than I thought it would be. I use the potty - it doesn't seem that hard. Apparently it is.

Jenna is so happy to be a big sister. She loves to brush Sarah's hair after her bath. The look on Sarah's face should show you her opinion of Jenna brushing her hair.

For some reason, Sarah likes to sleep with her hands in the air. I love this picture of her after an outing with her hands in the air. She is also wearing the hat and sweater that Grandma knitted for her (knitted? crocheted? this is how much I know about sewing!).

Here is a picture of Jenna and Sarah together. Aren't my girls adorable!!

In other news:

1. I just watched Stardust and would put it very high on my list (if I ever redo my favorite movie list). It was even better than the book - which is rare!
2. I'm reading Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams - it's a great story!
3. Erik's birthday is next Wednesday. He's going to Kansas City for work though. We'll still celebrate though! On Monday we're having filet mignon and dark chocolate cake - yum
4. I got 72 on quiddler today and got to make the word loved. Appropriate since last week was Valentine's Day.

Hot or Not: skunk edition

I decided that I like highlights in my hair, however I do not want to spend $100 every time to get them done at Charles Penzone. So Erik bought an $8 box of Revlon highlights. He put the highlights in for me (thanks honey!) and he loves them. I'm still not sure. Please take my poll and let me know what you think:

Please take my poll after viewing my picture Does my hair look good? Yes No You look like a skunk view results

For lent I gave up reading blogs. I realized that I can spend 3 hours just reading blogs. This is a major time waster. Since giving up blogs I've been so much more productive!! I've also created a responsiblity chart for myself. These charts are awesome and I certainly want to buy one for Jenna.

Of course I need to post some pictures of my bumblebee (Sarah). I put a lot more pictures up when I had Jenna, but having 2 seems to be much more than twice the work. I hope it's not exponential and three would be 9 times the work.
Sarah loves this play yard. She will stare at the bumblebee hanging from it for a long time (well 10 minutes without fussing is a long time for her). Sarah isn't doing too much right now but I did get a video of her looking at me making a funny face. Here it is!

I am excited about all the extra milk I am producing. There is an organization that will take extra breast milk and ship it to Africa for orphaned babies. Many babies are orphaned due to HIV in Africa and breast milk is in high demand. I took a blood test and DNA test and now I'm all set to donate my breast milk to those in need. What an awesome organization that will do this! I'm also giving some to a friend who adopted a boy born at 27 weeks. Since he was adopted she can not feed him, but I have a lot of milk in reserve.
I got 64 points on quiddler and got to make the word "outing" which was 5 points bonus since it had 6 letters!

Happy Birthday Jenna and Snort!

Jenna turned 3 on Sunday and Sarah turned 1 month today :). Yes - Sarah's nickname has become snort. She snorts constantly (a fact we definitely want to share with potential suitors when she is older). Instead of the white bear, we are taking pictures of Sarah with a white lamb. Here is her one month lamb picture. We will come up with a better nickname for her later, but for now, she is snort. Jenna had the nickname "defiler" given by Daddy, and I've given Sarah the nickname of snort. Jenna's current nickname is "bug" so I'm sure we'll come up with a better one for Sarah. Although I can't imagine her doing anything but snorting. She even snorts in her sleep!

I also included a picture of Jenna decked out in princess attire complete with purse and sunglasses thanks to Aunt Missy. Jenna had an awesome birthday party at Recreations Outlet here in Powell. It is a huge indoor swingset place. We all had a good time (21 kids came!).

Check out these cool cupcakes. I wish I was that talented!
Quiddler score = 69. Who knew beclothe was a word?

Our New Family

We are now getting settled in as a family. Here is a picture of our new family and one of Jenna and Sarah together. Now we have his and hers kids. I usually take care of Sarah and Erik watches Jenna, although he tries to get Jenna to watch Sarah too.

Sarah was on the bili blanket for an entire week. The day after we took off the blanket, we gave her a bath and a few days later her cord fell off. She's becoming such a big girl! (well if 7 lbs is big!)

We've been so blessed by our friends. People have been bringing us dinner and it has been wonderful. And dessert - and now that I can eat sweets again, I've been pigging out! It is kind of the opposite of a New Years Resolution to eat better. Mine is to eat worse *smile*.

We recently bought a camper. It is a Cherokee Grey Wolf 26BH and looks awesome! Here is a link: http://www.forestriverinc.com/nd/default22.asp?page=cher&nav=rec&choice=brochure for the main site. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of the one we bought, but it looks awesome! We don't get it until March but I'm so excited to go camping!

Currently I am reading 6 books:

1. Guilt Free Motherhood by Julia Slattery
2. Biology through the Eyes of Faith by Richard Wright
3. The Wishsong of Shannara by Terry Brooks
4. The Seeress of Kell by David Eddings
5. Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind
6. Streams of Silver by R.A.Salvatore

I realized this is a lot to read at one time but I don't mix up the stories. Next, I plan on starting the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams. Obviously I like fantasy novels!

Today I got 89 on Quiddler. Not a great showing, and jave is not a word. It sounds like a word to me!

Early Christmas Present

Sarah Noelle Cooper was born on Dec. 23 at 8:19pm in what was probably one of the best delivery experiences ever!!
I went into the hospital at 3pm on the 23rd because I thought my water had broken. It turns out my water hadn't broken but I was 4cm dilated and having contractions. So the doctor decided to keep me there and break my water for me.

I had driven to the hospital (St. Ann's) by myself since I thought they would probably just send me home. Instead, I called Erik and said "we're having the baby today! Yipee!!".

Erik packed up Jenna and took her to Erica Daily's house. Erica watched Jenna the rest of the day and the next morning while we were at the hospital. Jenna had a good time there :). Then my sister Amanda took over.
Thanks Erica and Amanda!!!

After dropping her off, Erik got to the hospital around 5pm. At 5:30pm the doctor broke my water with a knitting needle (well...that's what it looked like). At around 6:30 I got an epidural and contractions were pretty intense.

The doctor arrived at 8:10pm after two contractions of pushing and 9 minutes, Sarah was born!! She cried immediately and had a very purple face. It turns out that if labor is that fast and you push that hard, the babies get pretty bruised. Oops.

Compared to my last delivery, this was wonderful. I'd have babies all the time if the delivery could be like this (maybe I should consult Erik first....). Praise God!! I feel like all my prayers were answered with little Sarah. She is such a joy and has a full head of dark brown hair. Sarah was able to be with us the entire time (unlike the last time when they whisked Jenna off to the NICU and I didn't see her for a few hours).

I've already eaten the following forbidden foods:

1. donuts from Tim Hortons
2. donut holes
3. Reeces cups
4. Kit kats
5. Fast break bar
6. M&Ms
7. Apple, orange, and cranberry juice
8. potatos
9. bread
10. pudding

All things I couldn't eat before!!

We were able to leave the hospital today (Christmas) and we even opened our stocking gifts. It has been a wonderful experience. One thing we do need to check tomorrow is her bilirubin levels in case she has jaundice. Babies who are that bruised often have jaundice. We will be praying she does not have it. Our wonderful pediatrician Dr. Franks, prayed for her today in the hospital too. How awesome!!

Psalm 127: 3 says "Behold, children are a gift of the LORD,The fruit of the womb is a reward." I have been so richly blessed with my 2 beautiful girls!!

Still Cooking....

Since Jenna was born on my Father-in-law's birthday, I thought it would be cool if this baby was born on my Mother-in-law's birthday (the 17th). Well that came and went and no baby. So I thought it would be cool if the baby was born on my parent's anniversary (the 18th). No baby. Then I went to the doctor and he thinks the baby won't come early. NO!!! I'm so huge!! I'm ready to pop.

Today we went to Tuttle Mall to ride the Santa train. Jenna loved it! It was a cute little three car train and she wanted to ride in the caboose. So much fun.

After dinner we made a gingerbread house. It actually turned out pretty good (we didn't eat it, just constructed it). You can see from the box what it is supposed to look like. Jenna and I had a great time decorating it.


Jenna might have had more fun eating the icing but that's life :).

In other news:

1. Erik has been obsessed with Airborne. It is fancy vitamins (very $$$) that are supposed to boost your immune system. I think he takes a tablet of this stuff a couple of times a day. We might have to take out a second mortgage to pay for his Airborne addiction.
2. I'm reading the Mallorean now. It is the sequel to the Belgariad and I like it a lot. It is a similar tale, but I like the characters and it is a fun read.
3. Tomorrow is the last day of the semester at Devry. If I make it through tomorrow and turn in my grades then I'm set to have this little one!!
4. BNT moves a LOT and has a lot of hiccups. I can't wait to meet this little one.
5. I got 83 on Quiddler today with 2 5 letter words. I was allowed the word "wizen" which I wasn't allowed on Scrabulous (facebook).
6. My friend Jen Wahl had her baby Allison Ruth on Monday. How exciting!! She was due Christmas Eve but scheduled a C-section a week early. Allison Ruth is a pretty name.
7. If we have the baby sometime in the next few days we'll go with Sarah Noelle. It is so close to Christmas and that is a pretty fitting name. No boys names are very Christmasy (not going with Rudolph!!).

That's all for now. Hopefully next time I update we will have had this baby!

I thought I'd post some comparison pictures of me pregnant with Jenna and pregnant with BNT. The first picture (with the black pants) was taken when I was 33 1/2 weeks and the second picture was taken when I was 28 weeks pregnant with Jenna. I look a whole lot bigger this time :). Same shirt though!
Jen mast hosted a sprinkle for me Nov. 18 and here is a picture. It was at her new house which is absolutely beautiful! Joy, Erica, Me, Nicole, Christine, Jen, and Heather are pictured. Jill had to leave early so she wasn't in the picture. It was a great time and she even made a diabetic menu for me!

I also had to include a picture of Thanksgiving. We hosted it at our house with my family and Erik's family here. It was an excellent time! We had great food and I ate enough to send my sugar through the roof *smile*. Jenna had a wonderful time too. I had to include a picture of her dressed up as a princess. She is so cute.

In other news:

1. I got 66 on Quiddler today. Quiddler lets me play a lot more 2 letter words than Scrabulous online
2. I started having contractions Monday night (Dec. 4). I spent 2 hours at the doctor's office and was hooked up to a machine. He put me on medication to stop the labor. Keeping my fingers crossed!
3. OSU is playing LSU in the National Championship. Go Bucks!!!
4. Today it snowed about 4 inches. While it took Erik over an hour to get to work (should take 20min) Jenna and I had fun playing in the snow.

Ye Olde Renaissance Faire

We headed to the Renaissance Fair last month and had a wonderful time. This fair is about an hour southwest of Columbus and is an entire little village. There are shows, jousting, and yummy medieval food. I got soup in a bread bowl - yum!
Here are some pics of those that went with us. I didn't dress up this year as my dress wouldn't fit. But Erik and Jenna dressed up (notice the cute hat on her head!). Aaron and Michell also dressed up. It was celtic weekend and Aaron and Michelle made their own costumes. Jon, Michelle, Jen, and Mike also came dressed in their medieval attire, and Missy and Dan came along as well (not dressed up though).


In other news:

1. Tim and Jen moved into their new house in Plain City. It is sad they are farther away from us but I'm happy for them to have a new house.
2. Erik and I have finally decided on new plates for our kitchen. Our current plates (pfaltzgraff amalfi classic) got completely scratched from our silverware. When we called them to complain, they said some silverware was too hard. So we got these plates from amazon (hopefully our silverware won't scratch them).
3. I was told today I need to find a new OB. My doctor is on a leave of absence and not delivering babies for awhile (she is going through a divorce). I wish this would have been communicated to me prior to 32 weeks!!!
4. My little sister turned 30. Wow.
5. Now that I can't have too many sweets, I've fallen in love with dark chocolate.
6. Jen is hosting a sprinkle for me on Sunday. I can't wait!!! She's even making low carb food!
7. Thanksgiving is next week. I love the holidays! Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time. I should make a list of my favorite holidays. Thanksgiving would be high on the list. National fast food day (that is today) would not be.
8. Tomorrow Ohio State plays Michigan. Go Bucks!! I hope we win. Jenna will be cheering!
9. I got 69 on Quiddler today. I was able to make the word cinder but they wouldn't let me make the word jon. Isn't that a slang term for potty?

I'm back - fat and sassy!

This picture is why I love fall and why I love our backyard. How gorgeous! I love to look out on this every day. Unfortunately it doesn't last long. Jenna loves it too and we often will walk around and pick leaves (especially the pretty ones).

Well I'm back after a month long leave of blogging. I've turned in my dissertation so now I have some free time. Hopefully it will be acceptable to my advisor and I can graduate soon. It has been a long 6 years.

Since I have a month to catch up on, I'll be posting pictures often. At the beginning of October we went to my friend's parent's farm. We got to see pigs, donkeys, a combine, and got to experience farm life. Here is a picture of a baby pig with Jenna and Rachel looking on. The kids also posed for a picture in front of the pigs. They are: Rachel, Jenna, Aiden, and Grace. We had a great time at farm day!



In other news:

1. I found out a few weeks ago that I have gestational diabetes. Now I have to prick my finger 4 times a day and take my blood sugar. I also have to limit sweets. Since I have a MAJOR sweet tooth this has been hard.
2. Our new semester started and I'm only teaching Tuesday and Thursday nights. yea!! This is a great schedule. I'm also teaching courses I love so I'm happy with this semester :).
3. The Buckeyes have had an incredible year. We need to teach Jenna "OH" "IO" to be a proper cheerleader.
   
4. The Red Sox won the World Series. Yea! My husband might turn me into a Red Sox fan. The last time they won we were pregnant with Jenna. I guess they only win when we are going to have a baby. More babies for us!!!
5. 54 points on Quiddler today. Not bad considering I lost the Q at the end.

Take my poll please!

Our Baby! If our baby is a girl, what should her name be? Sarah May Sarah Noelle view results

Question Everything

Jenna asks approximately 33,882 questions in one day. This is an example of a typical conversation (J = Jenna, M = Mommy):
J: Mommy what do you have on your foot?
M: I have a booboo.
J: Why?
M: I dropped an ironing board on my toe
J: Why?
M: I have butterfingers
J: Why?
M: My fingers are slippery
J: Why?
M: My hands were wet
J: Why?
M: I was in a hurry and didn't dry them enough
J: Why?
etc etc etc

When will it ever end!
At least I got to make the word saloon on Quiddler - 61 points!

Problem Solving

Last week we had another fun Dungeons and Dragons gaming time. I really enjoy playing my cleric. She is definitely a happy character. I never realized how much D&D is like problem solving. You get into a room and then have to determine the best way across it or to another room depending on the obstacles. Well, I must not be very good at problem solving because much of the time, I just thought - I don't know, run away? But Erik is a halfling rogue who had good ideas about lowering himself in a room with a rope, etc. Once I get more experience I should be able to problem solve better. It's fun to think about though. You can see Jon as the DM sitting at the front of the table guiding us all!

We are all going to the Renaissance Festival October 6. I won't be dressing up because I currently look like a balloon. But Erik and Jenna will be dressing up. The Renaissance Festival is so fun - hopefully it will be a nice day and no rain!

Jenna is doing so well at swimming lessons. Here is a picture of her with her class swimming across the pool as an alligator. They are supposed to swim across the pool as an alligator and each time increase the difficulty. For example, one time they are supposed to blow bubbles, and the next time they are supposed to put their heads under water. Jenna just swims across as an alligator each time.

Today I got 74 points with a maximum score of 67. I was excited because I got to make the word talent. It made me feel talented!

Caramel Cupcakes Crash

In all my culinary skill, I was unable to create a delicious caramel cupcake. I made a regular cake mix (yellow cake) and thought it would be a great idea to put a caramel in the middle. So I peeled the caramel and put it in the middle of the batter. I assumed that baking the cupcake for 15-18 minutes would be enough to melt the caramel so it would no longer be hard to chew. I assumed wrong. My cupcakes were not good. ERIK WOULD NOT EVEN EAT THEM! He said they were the wrong consistency. You have soft cake then a really hard caramel piece in the middle. I tried to take a picture so you could view my cooking failure, but I think I've even failed at the picture.

So I took a picture of my cute daughter as well. Look at those dimples!

In other news:

1. Potty training has been unsuccessful. Even the pull of Strawberry Shortcake underwear is lost on her.
2. I finished "The King in the Window" and absolutely loved the book! I recommend it to anyone who is a kid at heart
3. I am now reading "God is Closer than you Think" by John Ortberg and love it!! God has been speaking to me so much through it lately. And he's been bringing that story of Mary and Martha to me. Yes -I'm Martha!!! Worried and distracted by many things.
4. Today is National Punctuation Day. This is actually a day that should be recognized. In the world of IM, punctuation is lost - poor commas :(. Don't get me started on grammar though - its, it's, your, you're, lose, and loose, to, two, too... AAAAH! My students think butchering the English language is a grand idea.
5. I've been going to cycling class lately at the gym and am really enjoying it. Especially since I bought a fancy gel pad. Now my bottom can handle the rigor of cycling :).
6. I got 55 points on Quiddler today because apparently nyl is not a word. I know nil is a word, it's just a spelling variation right?
   
   

My Weekend

Wow. I'm home all alone. I dropped Jenna off at Erik's work at 4:30 and then left for home. When I got home I wasn't sure what to do. I'm rarely ALL alone and for an entire weekend....what do I do?? Yes - I should be working and doing research nonstop. But I wasn't sure where to start. Ahhh... that's it. Starbucks. I quickly drove to Starbucks and got a decaf raspberry mocha and a pumpkin cream cheese muffin. Now I can work on my research. Or at least think about it.

Jenna has started swimming lessons again. These swimming lessons are for bigger kids and the parents aren't supposed to be in the water. We'll see how she does with them.

I'm also working out more. I"m not sure why I've decided to start working out at 5 months pregnant but for some reason I have. I may even work out tomorrow on my free weekend. I can't believe I have all this time to myself. And that I miss Erik and Jenna so much *sniff*.

Today I got 79 on Quiddler. Who knew cookings was a word?

10 years of bliss!

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary yesterday! It's hard to believe that 10 years ago we exchanged vows and started our life together. Marriage has just gotten better over time. Erik and I are closer and better friends than ever and I thank God for the wonderful gift he has given me of a husband like Erik. For our anniversary, I got him a sword (see previous post) and he got me a 5 star chef's knife. So we exchanged weapons for our anniversary. The knife is so awesome. It cuts everything (and I mean everything!) like butter. Anyone can look like a fancy iron chef using this knife.

I've also included a picture of Jenna and her friend Kate in the wagon together. We took a walk and got a picture of the two girls because they both had their hands in their mouths. It was rather funny. This was at 8:30, past both of their bedtimes.

Today I got 90 points on quiddler. And Quiddler wouldn't let me make the word prion. That stinks as prion is a word!! Biologists would be mad to know that quiddler doesn't allow the word prion!