I love Sarahs!

This picture of bread is called Mexican bread. It is a standard egg yeast bread but with the addition of orange jucie, coffee, chocolate and cinnamon. I thought with too many flavors it would be overwhelming. The interesting thing about this bread was that they blended together so that you couldn't really pick them all out. I'm going to tweak it and see what I come up with.

Sarah is the smiliest baby I've ever seen. Here she is on her swing (the one in the pink). I've also included a picture of Jenna on the same swing 3 years ago (actually Jenna was 2months older in the shot). They both love swinging! And Sarah loves Scruff. Check out this youtube video.

I try to stay away from politics on this blog, but I'm very excited about Sarah Palin. Erik and I had been discussing possible choices and she is a brilliant choice (not one we were guessing)! A cool link.

Jenna is enjoying school but wishes there were more girls (only one other girl in class). I hope she likes it more.

In a cooking disaster, I made meringue cookies with espresso in them. They were totally flat and did not puff like normal meringue cookies do. I'll have to investigate and see why they did this. My normal experience with meringues is that they are easy and yummy.

No quiddler score today - apparently the site isn't working!!

School

I love school. Who doesn't? I've chosen a career in academia because I love school (and learning!) so much. Even so, I often dream back to the days as a glass design engineer and wish I could go back. But I digress... Jenna started preschool today. I hope she loves learning as much as I do. I've included a picture of her with her backpack on her first day at Newstart Early Learning Center Preschool. Such a big girl! This morning we all prayed about her first day at school and prayed she would make friends. Well, after school she told us that she only wanted Sarah as a friend and no other friends. Apparently she didn't want to make friends with the kids at school. I'm hoping she breaks out of her shell. She is shy and I have NO idea where that came from :) :).

Sarah turned 8 months on Saturday - the day of Susan's wedding. Here is a family picture at the wedding. We all had an excellent time, especially Jenna who discovered Shirley Temples (a drink made with sprite and grenadine topped with a maraschino cherry). Here's a picture of Sarah with the lamb. She was STANDING UP on Sunday. This girl is everywhere :).

In other news:

1. It is finals week for me and I have a stack of grading as thick as this new book Erik is reading.
2. I've finished the Traveler by John Twelve Hawks and loved it. It is a trilogy so I want to read the next part. Very good and thought provoking!
3. I used to think Mayonnaise was better than Miracle Whip but a friend said he liked Miracle Whip better. So I tried it again and was surprised at how awesome Miracle Whip is.
4. I got 73 points today on Quiddler with a max of 71 so only one 5 letter word - a very poor showing.
   
   

Sarah 2012

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rxfyuw5OUY

Dual cuties, Dual core

I got my new computer! Yea! It is awesome :). Of course, when I went to move my old hard drive to the new computer I realized I hadn't installed a SATA drive yet. I didn't realize how behind the times I have been - so used to fat IDE cables!

We went camping to Buckeye Lake KOA last weekend and had a wonderful time! It was a chocolate themed weekend and we had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and dipped fruit and pound cake into a big chocolate fountain. There was also a chocolate slip and slide (with apparently gallons of chocolate pudding) but we skipped that part. The girls had a fabulous time as well! I did leave the campsite to go to Susan's bachelorette party at Buca De Beppo. That was a great time (see pic). We all had pink shirts saying "friend of the bride" and Susan had a white shirt saying "bride". The night was made more interesting by a special dish from Buca that none of us were expecting (picture NOT included).

Jenna starts preschool on Monday. I can't believe it! She is such a big girl. Even so, she has difficulty saying some things such as lasagna. It comes out as "masagna". In addition, she won't let me "eat Sarah" - Sarah is not food of course! Although sometimes you just want to eat her up. She's so darn cute!

I did horribly at Quiddler today. I got to make the word "valor" but I assumed I'd be able to make a word from "b" "l" and "u" however it wouldn't let me. It seems to me that blu is definitely a word!

My Meme

Check out my Meme. I got this idea from a friend. I want to see yours! Here is what you do:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Pick the first image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions and my answers:
1. What is your first name? Gina
2. What is your favorite food? chocolate
3. What high school did you go to? Perry High School
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Michael Phelps
6. Favorite drink? Raspberry Mocha
7. Dream vacation? St. Johns
8. Favorite dessert? Cheesecake
9. What you wanted to be when you grow up? Teacher
10. What do you love most in life? Jesus
11. One Word to describe you? Attentive
12. Your flickr name? gina cooper

Farmer in the Dell

The farmer in my dell stopped working yesterday. For the past few weeks I've been getting an error when I booted my dell that my second hard drive wasn't working. But I was fine with that since I don't need to back anything up to it anymore (now that I have the NAS). But last night it wouldn't boot or enter setup. We found a jumper on the motherboard labeled CLR CMOS and that sounded promising. So we reset the jumper and rebooted the machine. We got some pretty messages but nothing beyond that. Bummer.





Erik wanted to buy a new motherboard, but with my powers of persuasion, I convinced him that I needed a new computer. Unfortunately for Erik, my dell was better than his computer and my new one will be better than his too. His parent's computer is better than his computer too. I think he's feeling some computer envy :). Anyway, I am getting a Dell Inspiron Athlon dual core 2.10GHz machine with 2GB RAM (but I've got 2 extra DIMMs that should be compatible to up it to 4GB). I'll need more RAM since I'll have Vista.



We have been watching the Olympics every night and staying up late too. I love the women's gymnastics and was sad we didn't take the gold last night. The gymnasts just amaze me!

I'm currently reading the Traveler by John Twelve Hawks. It's an excellent book whose main story about travelers is just his way of conveying his opinion about RFID, video suveillance, monitoring, databases, and lack of freedom caused by (in his words) "the vast machine". Certainly much to think about.

Got 83 points on quiddler today. Apparently PHT is a word.

Mighty to Save

I listen to two stations on the radio most of the time - the River (contemporary Christian) and talk radio. A new song on the River is "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong. Recently I realized it is from a passage in the Bible: "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing". Zephaniah 3:17.
What a wonderful verse! Our family has been memorizing verses and I think I'll add this one.

Today I picked up a steno pad from Devry. I did not realize they had steno pads in the supply closet.
I love steno pads. They are small, easy to flip through, and excellent for jotting down notes. I love them almost as much as I love mechanical pencils.

Erik bought a propane kitchen torch. I'm excited to make creme brulee with it. I made creme brulee on Tuesday but used the broiler in my oven to carmelize the sugar on top. So much cooler with a torch.

Some videos of Sarah. In her jumperoo, crawling, and talking.
I love youtube!

84 on Quiddler today - and I made the word Gox!

Women

I am somewhat of a feminist. This term has become miscontrued, its meaning is this "the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men". Women should not be allowed to teach or lead or (as some maintain) be in any leadership role over men in the Christian church. Bullhickey.

God created men and women together as equals (Genesis 1:27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
and
1 Cor 11:11-12: In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.)

He has gifted both men and women with gifts of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:17 In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.) Who are we to restrict the Holy Spirit?

In the kingdom of God which we pray "your kingdom come" in the Lord's prayer, men and women are equal (Gal 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.) When Jesus returns, there will be no difference - male or female.

For the best position paper I've read on this topic, please read Rich Nathan's essay on women in ministry.

So why the discrepancy? Many verses such as 1 Tim 2:11 -15 cause the discrepancy. These verses basically say women should be quiet and submissive to not disrespect their husbands and hinder the spread of the gospel. From Paul's life and teaching, the spread of the gospel was paramount to him. It is paramount to us. So do not hinder the spread of the gospel, even if you must be quiet. In 21st century America, telling women that they can not be leaders or teachers due to their gender may hinder the spread of the gospel. I know I struggled with this for many years. Rich Nathan discusses the context of these verses in length in his essay (it's a great read!).

While praying about this several years ago, God spoke this seemingly unrelated verse to me: Romans 14:20 "Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food." To me, it meant a lot. This issue should not hinder my walk with God or the good work he has begun in us.

Thoughts?

My nap was shiny

The mind of a three year old! Sometimes Jenna says things that really don't make sense. How can a nap be shiny? Sometimes she asks good questions (to which I can give her an honest, sensible answer) and other times she asks random questions. For example, today she asked why her middle finger was taller than her thumb. My reply was that "God made your fingers that way". What would I do if I was an athiest? How do they answer questions from three year olds? "billions of years of evolution involving mutations in genetic code and natural selection resulted in the design of your hand". No - that wouldn't fly.

I'm a big fan of lifehack and found this list of 10 skills you need to succeed at almost anything to be a good post. Public speaking is the top of the list. While I'm a teacher, I know I'm terrible at public speaking. I get flustered so easily, even when talking with a few people. This is something I need to overcome. I'm a teacher for goodness sake!

I got the second Mistborn book from the library because I couldn't wait until I saw Jon again to borrow it :). Thinking through this book I realized why I like it so much. I enjoy stories in which the protagonist is a female. This is often lacking in fantasy literature. The Deed of Paksennarion is one of my favorite fantasy novels with a heroine. Also, there is a forbidden love romance (she is poor and he is rich). This is a relationship I like to read in novels or see in movies (like Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, and Underworld - a movie I watch often and is very different from Pride and Prejudice!)

56 on Quiddler today!

Grandada

Erik's Grandfather passed away on Sunday. He lived in Colorado Springs and was something of a renaissance man. He was the pastor of a small church for many years, a beekeeper, and he climbed mountains (well into his 70s!). Since he lived far away he had never met the girls and I had only met him a handful of times. Even so, Erik was close to him and will fly out tomorrow to go to the funeral. We will miss him!

Switching gears, I made this blueberry crisp and took a picture of it. Yum. Blueberries are in season and so delicious! We warmed it up with a big of ice cream - fantastic!

I stayed up until 4:30 am on Friday night and 3:30am again last night reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. He will be completing the last book of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and I'm very excited. This book was fun and enjoyable and (obviously) I could not put it down. I highly recommend Mistborn - it's magic system is unique and while not as complex with as many plot turns as a Martin book, it was well written.

Down to my prepregnancy weight! Yea!! Erik has a goal to lose 32 pounds now too. We've all got the fever!

I got 65 on Quiddler today and did not even make any extra point words - bummer :(.

Bountiful Harvest

Check out this massive harvest I got from my garden! Two cherry tomatos and a pepper. We could just skip going to the grocery store now and live off the land - I'm a gardener!!!

Sarah is 7 months old today - she's over the hill. I (of course) got a picture of her with the lamb and one of her outside on her swing. She loves her swing. She's really this happy all the time. I'm so blessed!

We went camping last weekend at Alum Creek State park and had an awesome time! There were nature programs for kids and I learned that a daddy long legs is actually not a spider. Could have fooled me! During camping I worked through several chapters of my Battlefield of the Mind study. It has encouraged me to abide in the Word. And God impressed on my heart to encourage our whole family in this. So I am going to try and have weekly memory verses for our family. Since Jenna has shown her memory ability with the Lord's prayer - I think she can memorize Bible verses too!

Books:
Well I'm about finished with the first Thomas Covenant book but I don't think I'll read the next two in the series. It's like reading a book narrated by Marvin.
Erik bought me New Spring which is the prequel to Wheel of Time. I'm excited to read this one! And I've also started on Mistborn, a book written by Brandon Sanderson - the author who will finish the last Wheel of Time book.
I read part of Michael Pollen's book "In Defense of Food" but couldn't finish it before the time expired - I had downloaded it as an audio book for my mp3 player.

Speaking of my mp3 player. I decided to go running last night. When I was in my 20s I weighed less than 110 lbs and used to run all the time. I was in decent shape (not great). Well Jon has inspired me to try and get back in shape. I ran last night and managed 1 1/2 miles even though I haven't run in years!! I'm also having fun tracking my eating habits on the daily plate. Here's my profile.

Hello Sunbeam

I had to capture this picture of Sarah reaching for the sunbeam. This just embodies all that is good and cute in the world. She is always trying to reach and grab for things and how sweet that she is trying to grab the sunbeam. She is definitely more of a mover and a shaker than Jenna.

Jon and Michelle got us two Ravenwood Castle cookbooks - yum! So I had to try this lemon rosemary cake from one of the recipes. It had 4 lemons zested and juiced as well as so much rosemary that my plant looks pitiful now. The flavors melded together nicely. In between layers of cake was a lemon curd that was tart indeed!

So I have a number of videos to share:

Jenna and Mommy saying the Lord's prayer. She knows it entirely but needs some encouragement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgjSzbYa9zc

Jon flipping an egg - this is completely awesome!! He does it with such expertise! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_D7TKyFdw

Two videos of the girls laughing. Jenna was trying to make Sarah laugh and I just had to capture the cuteness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29NRFSSa2A8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb__kJh5ofg I love how Sarah looks at Jenna like she's crazy :)

Got 58 points on quiddler today but made the word "raisin" pretty cool!

Email? Where did it go?

My birthday was Saturday and it was a great day. Erik and Jenna baked me a cake. First they went to the store and Jenna picked out the cake for Mommy and they both baked it. When they came back Jenna said "we also went to buy a present for Mommy". I said "really?? Where did you go?" She didn't know. Finally I stumbled upon Circuit City and asked her if I would be getting an MP3 player. Yes - that was it! And I can download books on tape from the library - score!! By the way, the cake was very good!

In other news:

1. I am way old and way out of touch. This semester I'm teaching during the day. Day students are significantly different from night students. For one thing, they are all fresh out of high school. As an assignment, I have them email me a file telling me about themselves. Several of them did not have email accounts/addresses. WHAT??? They were even mentioning that email is outdated and nobody uses it anymore. While I am intrigued by text messaging, twitter, and the like, I did not realize that this generation was so "textually active" as to abandon email. Maybe I'm out of the loop. Apparently I'm old. Too bad - the business world still uses it.
2. Sarah puts her hands over her ears whenever she eats. It is so cute I had to post it.
3. Jenna's ballet is beyond cute. You must watch videos here and here.
4. I'm now reading Michael Pollen's book "In Defense of Food" as well as 10 other ones. Hopefully I'll finish them all before the library summer reading program finishes.
5. I got 71 on quiddler today and made the word Daring. I love the ING combination!

Cut, Cut, Cut

Last Saturday I took a knife essentials class at Sur La Table and had a wonderful time! The class went over basic cuts and we practiced with a variety of knives. I was able to try several knives and even tried a $400 ceramic knife. It was so light but cut through everything! While I already have an excellent chef's knife, I purchased another knife. I got the Wusthof Grand Prix 2 Santuko knife. It's sharp (ha!ha!) and I'm finding excuses to cut things with it. While I already had proper technique with knives, I need to practice more to achieve more uniform cuts quickly. While the class was really expensive, I loved it! Erik would love it too - we both like sharp things!

In other news:

1. Giving up Butterscotch has been harder than I thought it would be. He has been locked away and has had a terrible life for the past 3 years, yet I have to fight the urge to call and get him back. He would just go back to living in our bathroom again, so I know he must be happier. I just need to trust God to take care of him.


2. I love lists of books to read. Here is a book list I recently found that labels books by shelf. The top shelf books are speculative fiction that everyone should read (according to the site). I've read 14 out of 35 and many of these are on my list to read.


3. My girls are so cute. That's about all I need to say.


4. My birthday is on Saturday and Erik and Jenna are going to make me a cake. Yea!
5. I got 69 on Quiddler today and made the word "gox". I didn't realize Dr. Seuss words count in Quiddler!! I've just expanded my vocabulary 10 fold!!
   

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!