Bye Butterscotch!

We said Goodbye today to Butterscotch. He has been with us for 9 years and it was very hard to give him away. We put an ad in the dispatch a few weeks ago and a woman from a cat rescue place called us. She met us tonight and took Butterscotch. We will miss him but he will be much happier no longer living in our bathroom. Butter had been locked up since Nov. 2005. Prior to that he had been peeing in several places all over our house. Erik had to put pergo floors in to cover up the cat pee. We left him locked up for several years but knew that we didn't want him to spend the rest of his life locked up in our bathroom. Now he will have a much better life and can play with other cats. We will miss you Butterscotch!!

My doctor visit on Tuesday reminded me of the difference in size between Jenna and Sarah. I created a collage of the two of them. Jenna at 4 months and 14lbs 5 oz; Sarah at 6 months and 14lbs 2 oz. Sarah is so much smaller than Jenna even though she started out about 2lbs heavier! Yes - that is the same dress.

My Battlefield

Reading Battlefield of the Mind has made me realize that my thoughts are often negative "why does this always happen to me?", "it figures, this would happen today", etc. So I decided that I was going to be positive regardless of the circumstances. So let's look at my day and how I so beautifully handled being positive:

Circumstance My Positive Thoughts
Jenna woke up an hour early I can get started early with my day!

Jenna pees on the floor She hasn't had an accident in a month so that isn't too bad

I drive past my exit on 270 It's okay to be late to ballet, I may miss an accident or something

Jenna throws a fit when I tell her to say thank you AAAH! I mean...she is only 3, she will learn manners

Jenna kicks me when she's getting in the car Stop being a brat!! I mean...she is tired, naptime is soon

Jenna pees on the floor a second time today Stupid positive thinking!!!!

Well... maybe I need to work on this more.

Bye Rocky!

My parents had to put Rocky to sleep. He was a beautiful maine coon cat and was as goofy as Scruffles. Unfortunately he had a tumor and was not able to eat. I've known Rocky since high school so obviously he was old for a cat. I'll miss Rocky - Jenna will too.

My illustrious garden has been eaten by an animal. As you can see from the picture, there are little holes in my garden. While at first glance it may seem an animal has taken up residence in my garden, on closer inspection these are actually deer tracks. So my garden is being eaten by bambi. At least someone is getting something out of it.

Sarah is really trying to crawl. Yesterday marked her 6 month birthday and she is performing some yoga moves. I believe this one is downward dog :). She might be my athlete as Jenna might be the academic of the family. Or it might be too early to tell :). She gets so excited as can be seen here. Of course Jenna is way too cute in this video of her at ballet.

In other news:

1. I finished Angels and Demons. It got better - not great.
2. I got 83 on Quiddler today and got to make leery and early. Lots of vowels today.
3. My last batch of milk was sent to Africa (see box with cooler). Apparently, a shipment of 10,000 ounces of breast milk was sent to Africa. I'm so glad I got to be a part of that! Now I can barely make enough for Sarah.
4. Now I'm on my 2 week break from Devry. While all I want to do is read, I have to prep 2 new courses and finish revisions on my dissertation. How will I ever accomplish the 10 books I need to for the library reading program!?!
5. Erik is in Chicago now giving a training class. He left very early Monday morning after we were out until 2am at a Tom Petty Concert. In the 5th row back!! We could see him smiling at us!
6. My girlfriends and I are starting a new Bible study on Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. I'm so excited about it. I'd like for my thoughts to be godly, but I need a lot of work! Hopefully after this Bible study I'll be Practicing the Presence of God like Brother Lawrence!
   
   
   

Survey Says!

I got this survey from my friend's blog and thought it would be fun

What were you doing 5 years ago?
1. Taking lots of classes at Wright State University
2. Moving into my new house (which is the house I'm living in now)
3. Not sleeping
4. Reading too many books when I should have been studying
5. Teaching at Devry

What are 5 things on your to-do list today (not in any particular order)?
1. Take Erik out to a surprise restaurant (Hyde Park - OOH! now he'll know!)
2. Clean the living room
3. Make blueberry pancakes for lunch
4. Finish grading my Tuesday night course's final exams
5. Read to Jenna and Sarah

What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
1. Dark Chocolate
2. Good quality cheese
3. Mixed nuts
4. Dates
5. Bananas

What 5 things would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Give some to church
2. Buy several acres of land and build my dream house with a huge garden
3. Travel
4. Give some to family
5. Send the kids to private school

What are 5 of your bad habits?
1. Worrying about things I can't control
2. Spending too much time on the internet
3. Complaining
4. Storing/buying/wasting too much
5. Not cleaning on a regular schedule

What are 5 jobs you have had?
1. Professor
2. Glass Design Engineer
3. Co-op at LTV steel
4. Produce clerk at Grocery store
5. Ice cream scooper at Whipple Dari

Name 5 places you have lived
1. Canton, OH
2. Taylor Tower
3. Apartment on campus
4. Groveport, OH
5. Powell, OH

RFID

Erik and I have had a few discussions on the topic of RFID and I'd like to share our discussions here. We both agree that RFID technology is cool. It's cool stuff - to learn about it, watch this youtube video. It has great implications for inventory tracking, JIT manufacturing, and data mining of products...OF PRODUCTS! Thousands of people have had RFID chips embedded in their arms, even one of my students is tagged. During a discussion with my students, most of them said they would definitely get one embedded.

Okay, I know there have been doomsayers for years predicting the mark of the beast and the end of the world, and I'm not saying this will happen even in our lifetime, but the natural progression of RFID tags would lead to what is described in Revelation 13:16-17 "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name." How easy it would be to just turn off the chip if you did something displeasing to the government!

Here is where Erik and I disagree. He says that if he just took the strip out of his credit card and put it in his arm it would still be the strip from his credit card. I agree. And we both understand that RFID tags were not created for a bad purpose (that we know of) but rather as an excellent tool for tracking products. My thought is that independent of the technology, God has warned us that the mark of the beast has these characteristics (from Revelations) and whether or not the technology is benign (or we think is benign), we have been warned. Erik thinks it will be obvious we would be choosing the mark of the beast, I do not think so. I think we have been warned and regardless of the technology, should not receive a chip implanted in our arms or forehead.

So my vast readership, will you weigh in on our discussion please? I would love to hear more opinions. Will it be obvious that we are choosing the mark of the beast, or could it be a benign technology like RFID slipped under our noses (or under our arms for that matter)?

Decluttering

Just looking around my house (and at my life) I've noticed there is a lot of clutter. Here are the areas I'd like to declutter in my life:

1. Closet - do I really need the jeans I wore before I had Jenna that I haven't worn in 4 years? What about those awesome business suits from college. Not to mention the t-shirts from High School!



2. Basement - I have lots of old magazines here, toys, miscellaneous junk that I don't need down there



3. Computer Hard Drives - I have three computers (yes, three!). My dell, HP, and my work laptop. While all three are backed up, files are scattered among the three with no version control and organization. I need to clean my hard drives up! Putting all images on our NAS (love it!!) has helped but I still have way too much scattered everywhere.



4. Pantry - Why do I have 3 cans of black beans and hamburger helper from 2001??



5. Body - When I told Erik I wanted to declutter my body, he asked if that involved decapitation. NO! It means excess body weight :). Silly hubby.

Now I must decide if there are other areas of clutter I need to work on. I'm sure there are. One step at a time...

In an attempt to eat healthier, we (Erik) have been trying new vegetables. We tried baked asparagus topped with shaved parmesan cheese. I loved it! Erik, not so much. Then we tried leeks. YUM! I baked leeks and made leek soup packed with yummy veggies. While Erik liked the taste of leeks, he said they were too stringy. I'm looking for more ideas. I stumbled across this Vegetable cookbook (see pic) and thought it sounded yummy. Now to get Erik to eat Veggies...

Besides eating veggies, I've also decided to try and like wine. I've never liked any alcohol (no moral objection - it's just yucky). However from reading about food and watching the food network so much (I'm addicted!) I know that wine can pair with foods well. It does!! I couldn't believe it! The past couple of nights, Erik and I have had wine, cheese, and dark chocolate with dinner. I'm in heaven! They do pair so nicely - it's hard to describe. Erik loves it because he just loves all alcohol! Here is our dinner: wheat rolls (homemade -very yummy), salad, burger, cheese, wine, and homemade pudding (cooling in the fridge). It was great!

When we were in Ironton, Erik, Jon, and David (not in the pic) played a rock band game on the PS3. They were having a great time - Erik singing, Jon playing guitar, and David on the drums. Sarah is also looking on. Maybe as a groupie??

Currently Jenna is in Florida. It has been hard having her gone but she is having a fantastic time. I can't wait to post pictures when I have them. She just went to Disneyworld today and got to meet Cinderella. She was in heaven. I'm sad I missed her face light up when seeing Cinderella, and I know she's having a great time!

I tried to play quiddler today but the starting letters were: S, T, S, R, H, F, V, L

How can I make a word out of that??

Iron Chef dual competitions!

We had an excellent week with all the family in town. On May 18, Sarah was dedicated at church. The verse that Joel and Amanda chose for Sarah (they are her Godparents) is "Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and my hope is in you all day long." ~Psalm 25:4-5.
I've included a picture of the dedication ceremony which Erik's father participated in. Sarah also turned 5 months this week. Happy 5 month birthday Sarah!

Since Erik's family was up, we had some fun competition. I battled Erik's mom in Iron Chef basil and Erik battled David in Iron Chef Hot Peppers.
I prepared the following dishes:

1. basil, prosciutto, cheese dip and basil, garlic, parmesan dip with crackers
2. basil pesto over pasta
3. lemon basil marinated chicken kabobs

Erik's mom prepared:

1. Orange basil chicken
2. crunchy coleslaw salad
3. Basil green beans

I was victorious in this savory battle.

In Erik and David's battle, Erik prepared the following dishes:

1. Hot pepper sandwiches in a tic tac toe design
2. Pepper prosciutto dippers
3. hot pepper rice in baked potatos

David prepared the following dishes:

1. Hot pepper fondue
2. Pepper pasta

Erik's cuisine reigned supreme in this firey battle.

I've also included a picture of Becca with Jenna and Sarah. It was nice to have her here and get to know her better.

In other news:

1. I planted a garden!! See picture. It is next to the swingset that Erik built. I hope we get some yummy veggies!
2. I got 71 on quiddler today which was a dismal score
3. I submitted my recipe for mounds bread to the Taste of Home quick breads contest.
4. I left Jenna alone on the computer with videos of ballet on youtube and she ended up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lz8au0eMTs
5. Jenna will be leaving us and going to Disneyworld next week!
   
   
   
   
   
   

Please take my poll!

I created a poll to determine who Jenna looked like shortly after she was born. I just had to do the same with Sarah. Please vote in my poll :P
http://www.ginerik.com/sarah/lookslike.html

Cutie pies (including Jon)

We had another fun time playing D&D the last weekend of April. Jon (the DM pictured) was using a laser pointer. Since using a laser pointer is not hands free, he fashioned a headset for his laser pointer. The crown was just for adornment. I had to get a picture :).

I titled this post cutie pies, not so much because Jon is cute with the tiara on his head, but because my girls are so darn cute. Jenna decided she would make a "cake" for Sarah. I'm not sure what that toxic substance is, but I am not eating it and it certainly is not a cake. Sarah is just cute. We put her in the exersaucer for the first time on Monday and she is doing well holding her head up. She loves to look at it too!

In other news:

1. I got 72 on Quiddler today. Drow is not a word. What??? Have they never heard of Drizzt?
2. Angels and Demons is not as good as I thought it would be. Maybe I'm used to fantasy fiction which is more interesting to me (and better written!)
3. I started teaching again. Back to work - I actually missed it!
4. Jenna said she wants 80 sisters. Okay. We had better get on the ball.
5. Sarah's dedication at church will be May 18th.
6. I have been praying for Erik on Mondays and the girls on Tuesdays. Having a schedule has helped me to focus on praying for them.

Happy Me

I've created a Venn Diagram to describe my ideal happiness situation. I need God, Sleep, and Exercise in order to be happy. If I'm missing any of those I'm not happy but those seem to be the things I'm always willing to give up when I'm busy! Go figure!

Last weekend we took our camper out for the first time. It was so wonderful!! I've included a picture. Jenna had a wonderful time and actually played with Nicholas - yea! Sarah did well too. It rained on Saturday so we ended up eating at a Chinese buffet - not that I'm complaining.

Today is Sarah's 4 month birthday. She is over the hill. Here is a picture of her with the lamb. She is fully belly laughing now. It is so cute - I always want to hug and squeeze her. What a cutie!!

In other news:

1. I got only 34 points on Quiddler today even though the best score was 104. But, I got to make the word "azure"!
2. I'm currently reading the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The main character is so different than other main characters in fantasy novels as you're only sort of going through the story through him. He's not really excited about anything happening in the book. It's different and I like it.
3. I also finally started reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.
4. School starts next week! I am excited to get back to teaching but it will be hard to leave the girls at night.
   
   
   

A Very Powerful Post

Check out this link. http://www.conversiondiary.com/2008/01/how-i-became-pro-life.html
Read the whole thing even though it is long. It is one of the most powerful pro-life arguments I have read.

About those brownies...

Here are the brownies I referred to in my previous post. They are the best brownies recipe from allrecipes.com topped with marshmallows and chocolate frosting - yum! Then I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies (the winning recipe) since obviously I haven't had enough sweets lately.

In the comments many people rejoiced that they didn't have kids. I remember the days of working in industry when I'd go to work. Sit at my computer and read the news and my email. Do some work. If I wanted to talk to people I could, if I didn't I could veg out. There is no vegging out with a three year old. When I've been tired and my eyelids drooped, she has literally pulled open my eyelids so I could see her. Um....yeah.

Even so, they make me laugh every day. Sarah with her constant smiling and rolling over. I tried to get a video of her rolling over but she is too speedy!
I made another video (in all my copious spare time). Check it out and make sure you have sound on! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OV5FW1-Tso

I got 79 points in Quiddler today and got to make the word loathe!

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!