Touch a Pink Truck

On Friday, the girls and I went to Touch-a-Truck at Adventure Park. I thought we would waltz right in and see a few trucks then be out for lunch. Wow. This place was packed! There were lines for the trucks and we had to park far away just to get there.

Even so, the girls had a wonderful time! I posted a picture of their favorite "truck". It is a pink limosine whose workers gave the girls star stamps on their faces. They loved this! They also got to see a bookmobile, school bus, ambulance, ER response truck, Nationwide RV, and police cars. It was a really great experience.

For Mothers Day, I decided to take both girls out to breakfast. We went to Scramblers and got a big breakfast that all three of us split. Then we went to the zoo so the girls could get their faces painted. However the face painting was not open so we just headed home. It was a nice Mothers day present.

Tomorrow (Mothers day for real) Erik will be doing Iron chef so you can anxiously await his creations!

92 on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "math"!

Eating dinner with the giraffes.

So obviously the first picture I should post after my 3 day faculty symposium in Chicago is one of the food :). I flew out to Chicago April 22 and got back on Sat. April 24. I went with 5 other faculty and had a wonderful time! On Friday night we had dinner at the Chicago zoo. I've included a picture of me and John, one of the math faculty who went to the symposium too and a great friend of mine (people who read Tolkien, Jordan, Eddings, etc = cool).
At the zoo we had a great dinner (shown) with bananas foster for dessert. The chef actually lit it on fire - that was pretty awesome!

I came home to see my family and Erik had prepared an awesome dinner of homemade tortellini with pesto, tomatoes and scallops. Yum!

On Wednesday, my friend Nicole dropped off a huge bag of play dresses. This has been loved! Very much so! The girls love putting the dresses on and dancing around. Although I'm a little concerned about this love of fashion (I am not a fashionista!). I hope I can be a good Mom - certainly not a fashion role model!

Before Nicholas came over the other day, Jenna held up two play dresses and asked which one she should wear. Is this supposed to happen this early?

My diabetes has been under control all week. I have not had a reading above 116 all week long. I think that I've been a lot less stressed lately - and I've been eating a lot of ice cream and yummies like that. I took another 4 mile bike ride too. I'm feeling great now!

72 points on Quiddler today.

Please help us pick a name!

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Roughing it in the Woods

Last weekend I went on a "camping" trip with a few of my Mommy friends. I put camping in quotes since we had a cabin in the woods with a hot tub in the back (roughing it!).

Last Thursday, the day before the camping trip, Erik got a bike trailer to pull the girls behind him when we go biking. So we got on our bikes and took a 5 mile bike trip (2 1/2 miles to Graeters and 2 1/2 miles back). Yes - I survived the 5 mile bike trip 7 months pregnant. We actually had an awesome time and the girls loved it! Who doesn't love a stop at Graeters anyway?

On Friday I left for the girls "camping" trip. My friends Jen, Nicole, Heather and Amanda also went on the trip and we had an awesome time. They sat in the hot tub a lot while I dipped my feet in. We played Transamerica, Scattergories, and Truth or Dare. We really ended up laughing a lot!

Amanda and Heather both have blogs that I've been reading and they inspired me to redesign mine. I used cutestblogontheblock.com for the background. I think it looks awesome. Then I photoshopped the header using the background colors. I was inspired by their blogs!

It was a fun and relaxing weekend with lots of good food, friends and laughter. I'm excited to go again next year and even more excited that I can go in the hot tub!

I also had to post some pictures of the girls outside. They are so cute and always want to wear summer dresses. Someday I'll wear summer dresses too. I love our phlox too! It's beautiful and the best part is that it's easy!

60 points on Quiddler today!

MN+WV+OH Coopers = Awesome!

Last weekend Gramma, Grampa, Joel, and Megan came to visit for a few days. We had a great time and packed in as much Graeters and games as we could. Graeters + Games = Awesome.

Over the 4 days they were here, we went to Graeters twice, the zoo, and Damons as well as played Scattergories, Balderdash, Rails of England, Stone Age, the Bean Game, and Carcassone. Erik and Joel played a lot of Rings too. So we had a great time. Megan had not yet met Sarah so that was also exciting. The girls really loved having everyone here.

We are still making dinner for our Tuesday night Bible study. Our new study started Tuesday the 6th and we had quiche (I made tomato basil, meat lovers, and crab quiches). The meat lovers quiche had a pound of bacon and a pound of sausage. Yum. The week after I made shrimp tortellini carbonara (also had bacon). So now it has been our goal to have bacon on every Tuesday night Bible study. This upcoming Tuesday we are going to have breakfast with pancakes, sausage, and yes - bacon!

This Tuesday will be my last Bible study as I'll be teaching on Tuesday nights next semester. Erik and I call this upcoming semester the "countdown" since it is the last semester I'm teaching before this baby comes. Hang in there until June 20th baby! I'll be leading the Bible study about prayer. Looking through the Bible, made me realize I need to narrow down my focus. It's hard to find verses NOT about prayer!

58 points on Quiddler today!

Is that contestant on American Idol a Christian? Scorecard

The “Is that contestant on American Idol a Christian? Scorecard”

77. They give a few “prayer grunts of affirmation” when the judges are giving them feedback = + 1 point

To add up your score with over a 130 other ideas on this scorecard, visit stuffchristianslike.net

I'm linking to this site because I love reading stuffchristianslike.net
If you haven't been there - check it out!

Happy Easter

This comic is SO funny. My research was based on genetic algorithms which are optimization algorithms (not going to get in the gritty details). Anyway - I was rolling after reading this comic that no one else probably gets ;). It is from xkcd.com - a hilarious math comic website.

Today is Easter! We had a fabulous Easter. My mom and dad took the girls on Wednesday and we went home to pick them up today. I had an all day meeting at work on Thursday which was fun. Since we were sans kids, we went hiking at Highbanks twice, went out to dinner at Carrabas, went to Stations of the Cross at the Catholic Church, saw Clash of the Titans, got to play games with Tim and Jen, and slept in. It was a little vacation.

On Sunday we went to Amanda's church. It is Mercy Vineyard in Canton and it is a great church! Then we had Easter dinner where relatives said things to me like "are you sure you're not 9 months pregnant?" and "there's a woman at church who is due around the same time as you and she's not nearly as big as you." Umm....thanks? I bit my tongue before I said "thanks - I think you look fat too." Apparently it's funny to tell a pregnant woman she is huge.

Joel, Megan, and Grandma and Grandpa will be coming to visit on Wednesday. We are so excited! I made a hoho cake although it has too much sugar for me to eat.

85 points on Quiddler!

Beach sand carpet

Beach sand. That's what our new carpet feels and looks like (except without the sandyness of sand). It's so soft. The girls love running on it - I snapped a picture before Erik moved all the furniture back. I feel like we have a new house now!

On Thursday Jenna had a sleepover. Her friend Paige came to spend the night. The girls were up until 10pm talking! The next morning we colored eggs and had an Easter egg hunt around the house. Jenna had a blast! And took a 2 hour nap - she was so exhausted.

Today we went to an Easter Egg hunt at New Hope church where Jenna goes to preschool. It was great fun. There were activities as well as the Easter Egg hunt. The girls decorated foam eggs with a magnet on the back so we have those on our refrigerator. There was also a big trough of dirt and the kids got a cupful of it and then planted flower seeds in it. I guess I'm supposed to remember to water them. Then they decorated Easter egg cookies. Each of the kids could find 13 Easter eggs and both girls found so many more so we had to put some back. Sarah was really not a fan of that.

This upcoming week is very exciting. Holy week is a great time to reflect on God's love for us. Jenna is working on the following memory verse this week: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." ~John 14:6. She's doing a great job memorizing it! I'm excited for Good Friday to go to Stations of the Cross and Easter Sunday.

The following week will be exciting too! Joel and Megan and Grandma and Grandpa will be visiting. We haven't seen Joel and Megan in a long time and are very excited. The girls are really excited to see them. They know Uncle Joel likes ice cream and Aunt Megan likes tacos :)

In other news:

1. I'm currently reading two books: The Legacy of Heorot by Niven, Pournelle, and Barnes. I've really liked everything these authors have written and this is no exception. Fossil Hunter by John Olson. This is a book given to me by someone at church and is really good. It is about evolution - a topic I like to read about.
2. I decided that I could do Pilates. So I went to a pilates class at Lifetime. This video (sorry about the ad first) shows one of the exercises we were supposed to do. Yea. Right. I'm 7 months pregnant - I do not bend.
3. 73 points on Quiddler today!

Where is Thumbkin?

We should be getting new carpet early next week. So Erik is in home improvement mode and is painting all the trim in the house (while I sit on the couch and eat kettle corn). He ripped the carpet out of our closet to paint the trim and in doing so had to move all the shoes.

Jenna was wearing Daddy's shoes all over the house. I just had to snap a picture.

Since today is Sunday and not technically part of Lent, we decided to have a sweet treat and go out for ice cream. So I went out for ice cream. I got a cookie dough concrete mixer (similar to a blizzard from Dairy Queen but WAY better) from Culvers with extra peanut butter and marshmallow cream and chocolate instead of vanilla ice cream. Let me tell you it was fabulous! My sugar was 165 (highest it's been this entire pregnancy but who's counting). Tomorrow is another day - no ice cream for me. But oh yea baby. I'm getting that again!

I was innocently singing "where is thumbkin" with Sarah the other day when I realized her rendition of "where is thumbkin" doesn't quite sound PG. Listen to this video and let me know what you think.

Today was the most awesome day in Quiddler ever! I got the high score 103. I had to take a screen shot - yipee!!

Spring First

Today was the first day of Spring (or Spring first as Jenna says). So we woke up to birds chirping, fresh air and a beautiful sunny sky. What an awesome day!

We took the girls to Glacier Ridge Park in Plain City. While we prefer the atmosphere of Highbanks, Glacier Ridge had nice paved trails for walking. Jenna walked a considerable amount of the trip too. You can see Sarah falling asleep in the wagon in this picture.

After our walk in the woods, we went to Yutzy's Farm Market. It's a fun, family place where you can buy bulk foods, cheese, meat, etc. The best thing we bought was Kettle Corn. This Kettle corn was SO good. I didn't know popcorn could taste like this. Maybe I have had previously low standards for popcorn.

In exciting news, Jenna has mentioned several times that she wants to be baptized. Erik and I wanted to gauge if she really understood that she was committing to follow Christ. Jenna said "I've made Jesus the Lord of my life a million times." So I guess that means something! The thought of being dunked underwater really scares her though so we may wait.

The other picture I posted was Jenna and Sarah's shoe store. They walked throughout our entire house and found all the shoes and put them on the floor. Then they wanted us to come out and try on shoes. So I bought a few pairs (of my own shoes) and had fun but I just had to get a picture. I really think I had turned my back for 15 minutes when they did this to the house.

90 points on quiddler today.

Pi!

This past weekend was filled with excitement! We had our friends over to play D&D and I caught an action shot of them. We had so much fun and did very well against the Drow. Sarah is also in the picture eating sausage (Sarah = carnivore! sausage, meatballs, ham.... as long as it's meat she loves it). Jenna was paying attention to the game and asking questions. She wants to roll the dice next time we play!

I've included a picture of our miniatures. Mine is named Christabel and is a cleric and Erik is Caed and is a rogue. In EQ2 we have characters named Caedwynn and Caedmon so Erik stuck with a similar name.

We were very excited to find out one of our fellow guild and D&D players is expecting a baby in October. Now we won't be the only ones with screaming kids :).

In even more exciting news, Sunday was pi day! 3/14. So we celebrated by making a double chocolate silk pie. This pie required 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream and 5 egg yolks. It was very custardy, smooth, and amazingly delicious. The girls also made pies for Daddy (although Sarah's pie never made it to Daddy - she ate it first).

Baby is moving like crazy! I can see my belly jumping too. This baby is an acrobat - almost as much as Sarah (don't tell Erik).

95 on Quiddler today!

My two little chefs

This new semester has been a handful for me. I'm teaching two onsite classes and two online classes. The online classes are taking quite a bit of my time as I have to be in them constantly. However,

it has led to some exciting developments I'll share in a bit.
I thought that giving up sweets would result in me craving sweets less....umm no. Maybe by the time Lent is over I won't even want Reeses eggs (not likely).

So I've been baking breads and muffins lately instead of cookies. Jenna and Sarah have been using their great cooking skills as well. Jenna and Sarah each made a muffin for Daddy. (They pretty much always make things for Daddy - what about Mommy??). Sarah's muffin had strawberry quick, chocolate chips, sprinkles, and who knows what else in it. Jenna stuck with basic cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Daddy loved both.

I've also been making my own pasta and tortillas lately. They have much less carbs than store-bought versions. Every time I make tortillas the girls make a pie for Daddy out of the extra tortilla dough. Erik always eats the pies no matter what they put in them!

Jenna has decided that her new careers of choice are: meterologist, geologist, chef, and artist. We'll see what she actually decides to do. I don't even know why she picked some of them.

I walked out of the kitchen to see Sarah standing on the trash can. All of the trash was strewn about the living room and she was telling me how tall she is. It was one of those moments where you want to laugh and tell her not to do it and also go run and get the camera.

In the picture of Sarah on the trash can you will note the horrid state of our carpet. It is really bad. I know it is not in our budget to get new carpet until we pay off the house. But Erik said to me the 5 words that every woman wants to hear, "we can get new carpet." Yipee! Due to the fact that I am getting paid extra for these two online classes, we are going to get new carpet in the living room. We bought cheap carpet since we figured it would be trashed in the next few years by the kids. However we plan on carpeting the whole house in 5-10 years. The carpet should be in next week!

Terrible on quiddler today - 58 points. I thought extoon was a word. You know, if you used to be a cartoon but you fell out of fashion?

Iron Chef: Baby?

I have the most fun, creative husband in the world. We did Iron Chef yesterday and the secret ingredient was baby. No - not real baby, baby lettuce, baby swiss cheese, baby corn, baby ruth, baby pickles - things like that. Last Iron Chef was Prego and this one was the result of Prego. He's such a kidder!




For Iron Chef I made 4 dishes:

1. Baby corn salad over green chile corn bread. Erik said this dish was good and original - yea! I made a corn salad with corn, tomatoes, chiles and lime juice. Then I baked some corn bread and topped the warm corn bread with the fresh salad. Yum!
2. Beautiful baby salad. This salad was a traditional salad (so I got dinged on originality points) but it was laid out very pretty in neat rows. I used baby lettuce and baby swiss cheese along with yellow and orange peppers, tomatoes, and pepperoni.
3. Baby swiss pork chops. I baked some pork chops with melted swiss on it. Then I made a swiss cheese sauce with green onions and shallots. Yum! I poured the sauce over the pork chops. Erik didn't like the appearance (he doesn't like goopy food like I do). But we both agreed it tasted fabulous.
4. Caramel and baby ruth crepes. I told Erik that I didn't care what the secret ingredient was, I was making a caramel sauce. I made a simple caramel sauce with heavy cream (so low fat!). I also made crepes and put chocolate cream, crushed baby ruth candy bars and crushed toffee cookies (from the freezer!) in the crepes. Then I folded them and covered them with the homemade caramel sauce. Yum! Erik loved these and so did I!

We also celebrated Erik's 35th birthday on Saturday - he is SO old! It was a great birthday weekend for him. We played games with Tim and Jen, we went spinning, we went out to eat to Asian Star Buffet, I made him a triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, we went to church, and we did Iron chef! It was a fun filled weekend! The cake I made was the moistest cake I've ever made! I used a recipe from allrecipes chocolate lovers favorite cake. I've never had such a moist cake - it was more like brownies than cake! Of course I only ate some on Sunday since I gave up sweets for Lent!

Jenna talks a lot about Honey Pie pony. Pretty much constantly (although that's my life these days with these two girls). I just realized that I think Honey Pie is her imaginary friend. She lives in Pony world and does all sorts of pony things. It's actually pretty interesting to hear the things Honey Pie does.

In one week we get to go to the Ohio Right to Life Banquet and see Sarah Palin speak. I'm so excited! God has given me such a heart for the unborn. Although I can't see why anyone wouldn't have a heart for these innocent babies being tortured and killed: http://ow.ly/1cIdV . It is too terrible for words.

On a positive note, I went to graduation yesterday and saw one of my students I hadn't seen in over a year. When she was my student she had lost her house. She was homeless with 2 kids but kept on working for her degree. Me and another student took her out in the hall and prayed with her for God to work in her life for good. She was so down. Well yesterday she accomplished her three goals - she got a job, she has a house, and she finished her degree. Not only that - she was the student speaker. When she told her story, I was bawling. God blessed me through her. Wow - God answers prayers!

87 points on Quiddler today!

Emmerich pushed me down the steps

Jenna lost her second tooth today. She didn't swallow this one so we have a souvenir to put under her pillow. She is very proud of the tooth she lost.

I babysat Nicholas and Emmerich the other day. Nicholas and Jenna play so well together and were taking pictures of each other with Jenna's camera. Sarah (or Sayah as she calls herself) on the other hand has some vendetta against Emmerich.

Several months ago I babysat Emmerich and I think baby Maddie (not exactly sure which permutation of the three kids I babysat but I know Emmerich was there). During this time, Emmerich pushed Sarah down the stairs. Sarah has not forgotten this and chooses to remind me often. She even carries around the Christmas card with Emmerich on it and says he pushed her down the stairs. I finally got a video. It cracks me up.

I've been doing better with gestational diabetes since giving up sweets for lent (shocking, that is). We've been more creative with meals and snacks. I had to get a picture of this dinner Erik made for me. Sometimes I think he missed his calling as a chef. He made little potato sausage sandwiches with a corn and fresh tomato salad. He made the girls' sandwiches in a shape of a smiley face.

Saturday is Erik's 35th birthday (Erik = old) and I think we might do iron chef. I know you'll be eagerly sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for pics from our latest iron chef :).

73 points on Quiddler today. Apparently "nym" is not a word. It really sounds like a word to me!

Sarah-isms

I've decided to list some of the funny things Sarah has been saying lately. She is always making me laugh:

1. Get my fring out my fring cheese. Translation: Please help me pull a string from my string cheese.
2. One time a bad person hurt Princess Giselle. Translation: In the movie Enchanted, an evil queen gave a poisoned apple to Princess Giselle causing her to fall into a deep slumber.
3. One time a bad person take my crown. Translation: Sarah lost her crown.
4. You a ghost. Translation: Sarah has an odd obsession with ghosts. She thinks everyone is a ghost, ghosts are taking things from her, and she constantly wants Mommy to put blankets on her head and act like a ghost.
5. I Snow White. Translation: I have a Snow White dress I wear CONSTANTLY and thus think I am Snow White.
6. I don't have eyebrows. Translation: ?
7. I don't like ______ (fill in the blank - peppers, vanilla, etc). Translation: Sarah likes to tell us what she doesn't like. And often.
8. I'm stuck on the roof. Translation: Sarah has climbed on something and can't get down (it is not necessarily a roof)
9. My froat hurts. Translation: I want a Halls Fruit Breezer so I'm going to tell you that my throat hurts even if it doesn't.
10. Mommy, I want you too. Translation: Mommy, I want you to hold me. She used to say "Mommy I want you." To which I would reply "I want you too". Now she says "Mommy I want you too."

While Jenna used to want to pray for Max and Erma's at night, Sarah's likes to pray for God, Nana and Papa at night. Very cute.

Even so, Sarah's language is amazing. She still has trouble with a few words (flower = "haachi" and orange = "eno"). But other than that she talks all the time....they both talk all the time....THEY BOTH TALK ALL THE TIME.

I'm hoping this is just a phase.

More snow, are you kidding me?

We have had to cancel our small group two weeks in a row due to snow. When I look outside all I see is snow. We are going to have a serious case of cabin fever come spring. Next week we are serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald house for our small group and I really hope we don't have to cancel!

Today is Fat Tuesday and tomorrow starts Lent. Trying to explain Lent to a 5 and 2 year old can be pretty tricky. It can also be tricky to a 34 year old.

This year God has hit me over the head. Last week God opened my eyes to a sin in my life that I have pretty much ignored.

Gluttony. "Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat,
for drunkards and gluttons become poor,and drowsiness clothes them in rags." ~Prov 23:20-21. Gluttony is listed together with alcoholism.

I ask myself - do I actually eat respectful portions of healthy food with a thankful heart towards God?

Ummm... no. I overeat - especially sweets. And now I've been hit with gestational diabetes...again. Instead of thinking, "this will give me an opportunity to focus on healthy foods for me and my growing baby." I grumble and complain. IT'S JUST SWEETS!

So for Lent this year I'm planning on giving up non-drink sweets. So I can drink mocha and hot chocolate but no sweet foods (except for Sundays which are not actually part of Lent ).

This will actually be more difficult than giving up chocolate since when I did give up chocolate I would still eat strawberry ice cream :).

I finally finished This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman. LOVED IT! I highly recommend this book to any sci-fi fans :).

87 points on Quiddler today. And "cloze" is a word. Who knew?

An Exciting Week for Us!

This week was filled with exciting happenings in the Cooper household. I know you are on the edge of your seat and can't wait to hear about it!
On Monday we had an ultrasound and were able to see the baby. The whole family was there and the girls loved seeing the baby. The baby was moving like crazy! Unfortunately I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes again so I need to test my sugar and watch what I'm eating. Really...I always watch what I'm eating (who eats with their eyes closed??), but now I have to actually pay attention and count carbs.

On Wednesday, Jenna lost her first tooth. The tooth fairy visited her at night which was a special treat. We decided on 50cents a tooth. Both of us received a quarter but with inflation :) we decided Jenna could get a little more.

My mom came on Thursday and Erik and I went on a date to Baja Sol. It is a Mexican restaurant with a salsa bar. Yum! Since our previous favorite Mexican restaurant closed we needed to find a new one.

On Friday morning Erik and I went to a spinning class and I actually survived.

Friday afternoon Erik got Lasik!! I had tried to prepare him by telling him about the procedure and the burning afterwards. I had burning in my eyes for a few hours and then I felt great. I just listened to my mp3 player. I remember on the way home from the surgery just wanting to get home as quickly as possible so I could rest. Well after Erik's surgery I tried to get us out of there as fast as possible. Erik had a big smile on his face and said he felt great. Then he said he wanted to stop at McDonalds for a double cheeseburger - WHAT?!?! So we did. He had burning for maybe an hour but his recovery was very quick. Not that I'm jealous....

We even played a game he was feeling so good. I did make him listen to "Magic Kingdom for Sale" by Terry Brooks to rest his eyes. He liked the book quite a bit. Erik doesn't even have red zombie eyes like I did. Which is fortunate since he wanted to eat my brains.

Now Erik can see. It's such a miracle!

33 on quiddler. I lost a "j" and a "v" but got to make the word "pattie". I didn't realize it counted as a word :).

Snow Day!

This weekend we had a huge snowstorm. Erik had to shovel twice but the worst part was that we had to cancel our D&D gaming time. I was so excited to see friends we hadn't seen (except online) in a long time but alas, the weather did not cooperate.

Instead we had a great time playing in the snow until Sarah got cold. After coming inside she promptly dumped her hot cocoa on the carpet. Nice.

Both girls obviously like to dress up. In fact, Bible study time is a good time for Jenna, Kate, and Paige to play dress up and have a good time. For some reason though, Sarah likes to dress down. She likes to wear play skirts with or without a diaper and boots. This does not bode well for her future.

In other news:

1. I have not felt the baby move in awhile and have become a worry wart. My ultrasound is tomorrow - hoping the baby is okay.
2. Erik is getting Lasik on Feb. 12. I got Lasik last year Feb. 13 - so almost a year apart! He is so excited to see. I forget sometimes that he can't see even though for most of my life I couldn't either!
3. Our Tuesday night Bible study is doing really well. We are studying Andy Stanley's "Taking Care of Business" dealing with being Christians in the workplace. It's a great study! Last week we had breakfast for dinner and this was the most well received dinner we've made so far (even better than tacos or homemade mac and cheese). Oh well - back to garlic chicken pasta this Tuesday.
4. I'm reading This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman and it is one of the best sci-fi books I have read in a long time. It is so complex I can't begin to explain it to Erik so he likes it too. I think I just might have to read everything she writes!
5. This was a wretched quiddler day. There was a Q,Z, and QU all of which were difficult to use. 60 points out of 107 - not good!
   
   

Smells Good!

We went to West Virginia this weekend to see Erik's parents. Erik helped them install a hood over the oven. He is SO handy - I really don't know what we would do if he wasn't. We came back home sans girls and went on a date! Erik wanted to go to this restaurant called the Pub at Polaris. It had lots of specialty beers YUM! . Erik got a fancy beer and a bacon cheeseburger with onions cooked in guiness. Luckily I found something on the menu not cooked in beer. Then we played squash and I played much better than I have been. Since I've been feeling better - my squash game has improved!

Erik and I just read Glenn Beck's book Common Sense. This was a very good book and a little scary. I hadn't really thought about how much in debt we are but the book laid out the numbers so we could see how far the U.S. is spiraling into debt. Proverbs 22:7 says "the borrower is servant to the lender". Our country is a slave to its lenders (China!).

The book also made a case against the two party system citing references to how both parties are corrupt. It made me look in more detail at third parties. Erik has always been a closet libertarian but I haven't. Erik and I have discussed this before, but Beck made the case that your vote is not "thrown away" on a third party candidate - vote for who you think is best, who has integrity. I like it!

Thinking about my prego salmon has reminded me that some things smell good when they cook (that dish really didn't smell that great)

Here is a list of my top favorite food smells:

1. Baking bread
2. Brewing coffee
3. Baking cinnamon rolls
4. Fresh tomatoes in summer
5. Fresh strawberries in summer
6. Baking cookies
7. Tomato sauce (especially my mom's)
8. Bacon frying
9. Sauteeing garlic
10. Fresh basil

Erik did not agree with my assessment as I had tomato items on the list twice and bacon wasn't as close to the top as it should be (in his opinion).

I did terrible on quiddler today - only earning 61 points and losing two n's and an r!

Disobedience

Disobedience. We do it. Our kids do it. It's hard when you recognize you have disobeyed.

Today I was sitting in my car sans children with an hour to kill before I picked up Jenna from preschool. I had planned to go to Trader Joe's to buy coveted dark chocolate with almonds and real maple syrup. Sarah was at home napping. I saw a woman walking on the road and she walked right by my car.

I felt God tell me to talk to her, maybe pick her up and take her where she needed to go.

But I sat there and watched her walk by as I listened to my Christian music on the radio.

Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"

I turned the car around and looked for her but she was gone. We need to listen to God and do what he says right away. I want to be that kind of person, Jesus is that kind of person. Obedient even to death on a cross.

Iron Chef: Prego Spaghetti Sauce

Erik went to the store to get a secret ingredient today. I anticipated making several dishes but didn't make any of the ones I thought. The secret ingredient was Prego spaghetti sauce to celebrate my "preggo" state. Funny.

Anyway, Prego is actually a difficult secret ingredient since it's not that versatile. I didn't want to have 4 pasta dishes so I had to think outside the box. I had a somewhat tough time with this but pulled out 5 dishes, two of which were stellar!

1. Prego bruschetta - Normally bruschetta uses an olive paste over toasted bread topped with a fresh tomato mixture. I put prego sauce over toasted bread, with fresh tomates, green onions, fresh basil, and some grated romano cheese. This earned me a 10 on taste as it was "so nummy" as Sarah says.
2. Potatoes galette with Prego - I don't normally make potato dishes for iron chef since they take so long to cook. This one I had in the oven for 45 minutes and yet the potatoes were still too hard! It was sliced potatoes and onions in a prego sauce covered with mozarella and Italian spices. The flavors worked well but the under-doneness of the potatoes earned me a low score.
3. Homemade ravioli - Yum! Yum! Yum! I made two sheets of pasta dough then filled them with three cheeses, prego sauce, and pepperoni. I cooked the ravioli and topped it with a Prego sauce that had extra garlic and prosciutto in it. This was a fabulous dish!
4. Prego stuffed pepper meatballs - I made meatballs with prego sauce and cooked them in a red pepper so the flavor of the pepper would enhance the meatball. This was very good too.
5. Parmesan crusted salmon with Prego and garlic butter - here is where it all fell apart. Now I know why spaghetti sauce is not paired with salmon often. The flavors were competing and they didn't go well together. Well...now we know.

Erik rated me a 14.2 and I rated myself a 14.6. He gave me lots of originality points but a 4/10 on taste for the salmon. Erik really didn't like it :(.

Erik finished painting and assembling the bunk beds. He is so handy! We put the girls in the bunk beds last night but Sarah kept coming out so she had to go back to her own room. Today they both played up in the top bunk. Sarah is adept at climbing up and down (no -we don't even have a ladder, they use the slats on the side of the bed!).

78 points on quiddler today. "woot" is not a word according to Quiddler online. Who are these people anyway? They don't know jokey or woot? Come on!

Cookie party!

Jenna's 5th birthday party was a success! I made cut out cookies of everyone's name and they all decorated their cookies.

Some kids had long names and likewise got more cookies ;). However some kids ate all their cookies without even decorating them. So they ate cookies, cake, and ice cream - only a little sugar.

Sarah kept saying "where my pesents?" Poor Sarah.

In other news:

1. I just received the best news ever from my dean. I was previously scheduled to teach 4 nights next semester and 2 online classes. That would be a lot and I'd be really busy and tired. She just emailed me and took away two nights so now I'll be teaching two onsite and two online. Yea!!
2. I'm about halfway through In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman. It is an excellent book and her writing is so rich.
3. Erik got his new computer for his birthday (it's a very early birthday present). So he has been playing a lot of games and constantly showing me the graphics. Look at this honey, oh... look at this.... you can see the grass move when I walk!
4. We've been playing squash a lot but I think we are going to try spinning as well. That will be comical to see.
5. 72 points on quiddler today. No cool words to speak of.

Iron Chef Erik: Pineapple

On Saturday Erik undertook the task of creating 4 dishes with an exciting secret ingredient. When I went to the store to get a secret ingredient for him, I saw a whole pineapple and thought, this will be fun and I'd like to eat a meal of pineapple. However after I bought a bunch of pineapple I realized that I had never seen Erik cook with pineapple. Oh well - he did great!

Erik made 4 dishes:

1. Pineapple smoothie - This smoothie had blueberries, pineapple, strawberries, yogurt, sugar and cream cheese. It was delicious, light and not too sweet.
2. Fruit salad - This fruit salad was in a pineapple bowl. It was a mixture of pineapple, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries. Very light and refreshing.
3. Spicy pineapple manicotti - this is why I love my husband. He has never made manicotti or cooked with pineapple, but he made pineapple manicotti. Go figure! He made a ricotta/cream cheese mixture and stuffed spicy peppers along with the pineapple and cheese mixture inside the manicotti. He baked it and topped it with more of the cream mixture. It was delicious and the spicy peppers contrasted well with the sweet pineapple.
4. Pineapple blueberry stack - This was a sweet cream cheese and ricotta mixture with blueberries and pineapples. He layered tortillas with the cream cheese mixture and put grilled pineapple in between each of these layers. The whole stack was topped with whip cream too. It was so yummy!

The final score was 15.25 (Erik's rating) to 15 (my rating). A very successful iron chef that wasn't too heavy or filling.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King day and Jenna and I have no school. We are going to spend the day at Erik's lasik appointment. He is going for the consultation to see if he is a candidate. Then he's going to take us to Golden Corral for dinner! So tomorrow should be a fun day. We had planned on putting Sarah in underwear all day tomorrow (just like today) but there were too many accidents and I don't feel like doing that much laundry!

Even though I've written a lot about food, I've been wanting to fast. My sister has had incredible success with fasting and I'm so happy for her. However with the pregnancy and then with breastfeeding afterwards, I don't feel comfortable fasting for the next year or so (although I would not hesitate if God called me to do it!). So since I can't fast, and am not praying at the abortion clinic anymore, I've felt kind of lost. I asked God what to do - what do I do in this season of my life? God told me to write a list of names, I have over a hundred names on it. Every day I will devote to prayer for that person. It has been a great experience so far to think of this person and pray for him/her during the day.

Wednesday is Jenna's birthday and on Thursday we are going to have a fun cookie decorating birthday party for her. We are so excited to have this party and I'll be sure to post pictures :).

87 points on Quiddler today - however, Quiddler would not give me the word "gamers". Hello? Erik is a gamer, I am a gamer. Since there are two of us we are gamers. I really don't see a problem with this word.

Christmas pics

Now that we are halfway through January, I thought I'd post some pictures from Christmas. I have the obligatory picture of the pediatrician (David) holding my two daughters in crazy ways. The picture of the girls with their new nightgowns sewn by Grandma Cooper, Jenna with her new fairytale ponies (a highly sought after gift), Jenna with the Tigger that Grandma also sewed (although Sarah plays with it all the time), and my I Love Spreadsheets shirt. This shirt is completely awesome. My husband is even more awesome for getting it for me!


We loved having family over and forced David and Becca to play games with us all the time. Sarah loves the name "Becca" and even when I show her pictures of Uncle David she calls him "Becca".

In other news:

1. Erik and I will be going to the Ohio Right to Life banquet March 5. The speaker is Sarah Palin! That should be exciting. To get ready for the banquet I'm reading her new book Going Rogue.
2. We bought unfinished bunk beds for the girls. Erik is in the middle of painting them now and in a week or two we should have them in Jenna's room. We will be moving Sarah into Jenna's room to consolidate the children. They may fight over who gets the top bunk!
3. I'm taking a photoshop class this semester to improve my photoshop skills. Why you ask? I already have mad skills! Well I still need to improve....a lot.
4. During my two week break I sat on the couch basically the entire time. I watched all 6 Star Wars movies and read the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. That trilogy was well written and exciting with lots of plot twists. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more of Friedman's books.
5. Erik and I have been playing squash a lot lately since I'm feeling better. My dexterity was not what it once was. My armor class really stinks now (D&D reference).
6. This semester I'm only teaching two nights a week. It is so awesome! Of course next semester I'm teaching 4 nights a week and am not looking forward to it (Erik reminds me the Bible says "do everything without grumbling or complaining" - grumble, grumble, grumble).
7. 73 points on quiddler today - I made the word "linking" a 10 letter word!
   
   
   
   
   

My 15 Favorite Things of 2009

I've compiled a list of my favorite things of 2009. It was a great year and I'd like to commemorate it with this awesome list.

1. Favorite Book of 2009: The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. This was one of those books that you cheer out loud when reading (yes - I do that).
2. Favorite Meal of 2009: buffet at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. Buffets are awesome to me since I love variety. This buffet was high quality, and delicious, and I stuffed myself silly. Next time I go to Vegas I'd like to try more buffets!
3. Favorite Blood type of 2009: A+. Who wouldn't want A+ as their blood type? It is an awesome blood type and definitely the best one of 2009.
4. Favorite goal met of 2009: finishing my PhD. I worked on my PhD since 2001 and to finally finish was so amazing. I had many people say to me they didn't think I would (including my husband and advisor) since I had two kids but I proved them wrong!
5. Favorite new technology I started using in 2009: Twitter. I like to tweet and read others tweets. Mostly I read what other people say and it is inspiring and fun. Erik made me include this really long title since he said Twitter was not introduced in 2009.
6. Favorite song of 2009: Mighty to Save by Michael W. Smith. I sing this song all the time. It's so catchy!
7. Favorite binary digit of 2009: 1. While 0 comes in as a close second, 1 is considered on (generally) and I'd rather be on than off.
8. Favorite movie of 2009: Avatar. I saw three movies in the theater in 2009 and of those Avatar was definitely the best. I'm hoping to take Jenna to her first movie this weekend for her birthday: The Princess and the Frog. I don't think it will be better than Avatar.
9. Favorite gift of 2009: Baby 3! This baby is a gift from God and I'm so happy to have 3 kids. When I told one of my friends I was pregnant, her first response was "you won!". I love it :).
10. Favorite TV show of 2009: The Next Iron Chef. This show featured excellent chefs who created new exciting meals every week for judges to test. Then a chef was eliminated every week until someone became the Next Iron Chef. Now he'll be competing this Sunday - I can't wait!
11. Favorite answered prayer of 2009: Jenna's preschool teacher became pregnant after 2 years of infertility treatments. I prayed with her at Jenna's school. It was an exciting, tearful time to hear that she was pregnant. Her baby girl is due any day now!
12. Favorite milk of 2009: 2% milk. We moved from whole milk to 2% even though Sarah is still in the 3rd percentile for weight (her 2 yr appt was the 5th - she's such a peanut). I was happy with the change. I felt drinking whole milk was like sludge.
13. Favorite camping trip of 2009: Cross Creek Camping trip June 26 - June 28. This camp ground is close, the pool is huge and wonderful, and there are a lot of activities. Whenever we start camping again, we are going to go back here. It might replace Buckeye Lake as our favorite (especially since it is cheaper!).
14. Favorite vacation of 2009: Our family trip to Florida in August. We stayed at a little paradise in Florida with a hot tub and heated pool. It was an amazing time and we can't wait to go back, although we will have to wait as we probably shouldn't go next year close to my due date.
15. Favorite Bible verse of 2009: Psalm 19:14 "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." This verse has become a daily prayer for me. Note: this is not my favorite Bible verse.

54 points on Quiddler today - terrible showing.

The House

I was going to post a nice message about Christmas with cute pictures of the girls and talk about how wonderful a time we had and the great relaxing break we had but no. No, I thought I'd disclose something a lot more personal.

For quite some time I've had dreams about a particular house. It is always the same house even though I may dream about different rooms or the driveway or different parts of the house. I had one such dream the other night.

I was in the kitchen and with me was an older man in a wheelchair. I talked to him as though we were familiar but not in a respectful familiar way, rather in a familiar contemptful way. I looked over in the corner and saw a large spider in its web with a huge worm/snake still wiggling and moving that would soon be a meal for the spider. Close by was another spider as well. Ugh! I thought. I'll have to get Erik to call terminix to get all these bugs out of here.

I turned to the man in the wheelchair and said (rather disdainfully) "why do you stay here with all these bugs?" He just turned away from me and didn't answer.

When I woke up I had the usual thought that someday we would own this house. Why else would I keep dreaming about it? Then it hit me.

It's my heart.

Why is my heart filled with bugs? Is the man in the wheelchair God? Why was I so disdainful to him and limiting him by putting him in a wheelchair? What a yucky heart I have!

I didn't understand this. I thought I was doing well. I wasn't struggling with some sin like sometimes in my life, I was journaling every day and while I had stopped fasting and praying at the abortion clinic, I actually felt that God released me from that for this season in my life. Why would my heart be so yucky?

Ohhh. Pride.

Pride is a sin that you don't think about. It is the sin that says you don't need God - you're doing fine on your own. It's the sin that creeps up on you.

Ben Franklin wrote "There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."

So wise and so true.

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" ~Gal 6:14