Sprinkle

I was blessed this past weekend by my friends throwing a "sprinkle" for me. Not quite a shower (since this is baby 3) but an opportunity to get together and receive diapers and wipes. That's really what we need anyway. My friend Christine made a cute diaper cake (pictured). Erik was horrified and said that diapers and cake are two things that should definitely not go together. I think he missed the spirit of the diaper cake.

I snapped a picture of my friends at the Sprinkle (minus me and Joy). It was a fun time.

In other news:

1. 
   The OB thinks this baby is coming sooner rather than later. On Monday (June 7) she said I have about 7-10 days since I'm 3-4cm dilated. NO! I need until June 20 - that's when grades are due.
2. Jenna had a sleepover at Nicholas's house last night. She had a wonderful time and was actually really upset when she came back home today. Apparently Nicholas's house is a lot more fun than ours.
3. Jenna is done with preschool for the year and they had a pool party in one of her classmate's backyards. It was an amazing pool (I snapped a picture) and next to it was a koi pond. Gorgeous house! Not in our price range though :).
4. Our watermelon and cucumbers are already starting to come up in our garden. I'm hoping to remember to water them after baby comes!
5. I just finished The Madness Season by C.S.Friedman. I just love her books. They are so complex that sometimes I have to reread sections to really figure out what is going on. I always look forward to reading her books.
6. I'm going to start on some Timothy Zahn books next. Apparently, according to Tim, his books are like bubble gum. This might be good after C.S.Friedman which is more like well done steak.
7. 71 points on quiddler today!
   
   

Quiet times with ice cream

Quiet. Our house is too quiet. My girls have been in Florida with my parents and sisters for the past week and our house just seems so empty. While Erik has been sleeping in until 10am every day, I've been missing them terribly. Usually when they spend time with Grandparents it is because I have meetings or one of us is traveling - not because we are just at home while they are having fun. It's been hard!

Even so, we've managed to get a lot of things together before the baby comes. Erik stained the deck, I've done some cleaning and organizing, and we got some things fixed (like our Taurus which was a $1113 bill!!!). Unfortunately, our air conditioner broke but Erik fixed it himself by putting a new circuit breaker in. And our external hard drive we use to back up our data overheated but Erik was able to pull the data off of it. I love having a mechanically handy husband as well as a computer genius husband! He truly is a renaissance man!

In addition to getting things ready for baby, we have eaten ice cream every day. In fact, we have made a mind-blowing discovery of tremendous proportions. I found a new favorite ice cream place! Jenis ice cream in Dublin. They have flavors like rhubarb rose, lemon blueberry, salty caramel, etc. The dark chocolate ice cream paired with the salty caramel ice cream is one of the greatest treasures on earth. At least it is to my pregnant craving body :).

Speaking of pregnant body. I have taken pictures of me wearing the same shirt at different points in my pregnancy all three times. I'm considerably bigger this time but at least I can fit in the same shirt!

It looks like we've decided on a girls name for this baby:

Rachel Marie

However we have not decided on the boys middle name. We like both:

Matthew Joseph

and

Matthew Nathan

I like Joseph because it is a family name on my side. However our girls have middle names that start with N and have 6 letters. So Nathan would add some continuity. So I need to decide on family name or weird pattern (I'm a little crazy about patterns). Actually our girls names both have 5 letters in them and if I could convince Erik then I would pick a boys name with 5 letters too. I actually suggested Mateo to Erik because it is a form of Matthew but then I had to pick him up off of the floor because he was laughing so much. Also our girls both have an "a" sound at the end of their name (like the name Laura) but Erik likes Rachel better. I'm just a little weird about continuity.

56 points today on Quiddler!

Princess Giselle

May is coming to a close and with it, the excitement of summer. This spring has been so beautiful and filled with fun activities.

Jenna finished preschool last Thursday, and next year starts kindergarten. Real school - I can't believe it! On Sunday she had her ballet recital. Each class was a different princess. Jenna's class (4/5 year old ballet) was princess Giselle from Enchanted. The song they danced to was Happy Working Song from the movie. Jenna did so well and we ordered the DVD of the show so we can watch it over and over again. Jenna is excited to do ballet next year and I'm contemplating putting Sarah in the 2/3 year old class.

I've also included a picture of Jenna and Nicholas doing magic tricks. When Nicholas came over for a sleepover, he showed Jenna how to do "magic tricks". These basically involved putting a card behind your back and then taking it out again. It was still cute. This picture is when they put on a magic show for me and Sarah.

In other news:

1. We planted our garden on Saturday. Hopefully we will remember to water it after the baby comes!
2. We planted a blueberry bush I bought at Sams. I'm hoping we will actually get some blueberries!
3. I finished reading Beowulf's children and loved it! Now I'm reading The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman. Here is a picture of the cover of the book. Yesterday I went to the beauty salon to get my haircut and eyebrows waxed (necessity before the baby comes). Anyway, the beautician looked at the book with an odd expression and said "oh." No - I'm really not weird, it's a good book I promise, I just like sci-fi!
4. We signed up Jenna for Safety Town the last week of June. It will teach her to be safe in a variety of circumstances. She will learn about crossing the street, what to do if she gets lost, etc. It should be a fun week!
5. 79 on quiddler today and goul is not a word. I must need the "h". Really - if a letter is silent, why do you really need it anyway?
   
   
   

Scruffles

Would anyone be interested in a wonderful, fluffy, lovable, orange cat? He has been in our family for 13 1/2 years and we do not want to part with him but it looks like we will have to.

Since we have gotten our new carpet, Scruffles has pooped on it just about every day.

We have tried locking him up at night, changing the litter box frequently, putting all sorts of stuff on the carpet to get him to stop, and buying this expensive $60 pheremone stuff to get him to stop. He thinks this carpet is a giant litter box. Most likely because it is so soft.

We love Scruff. This is so hard - now Erik wishes we hadn't gotten the new carpet; he was fine before that.

So we lock him in the basement forever or try to find someone who would be willing to take him and give us visitation rights. He is a part of our family. However we will have a new baby in a month and we do not want poop on the carpet. That is not going to work.

Now you might ask yourself, why would I want a cat who poops on the carpet? Great question. I believe it is our new carpet that is causing this behavior, not that he has forgotten how to go in the litter box. So if anyone in the world reading this blog would like Scruffles and he poops on your carpet, we will take him back.

Just throwing this out there - who wouldn't want a lovable, fluffy, orange cat?

Buckeye Lake

Last weekend we went camping at Buckeye Lake with the Masts. The weather was perfect and we had a fabulous time. Since we won't be doing much camping this summer (due to new baby), we rented a cabin instead of getting our camper out of storage.

On Saturday we went to Buckeye Lake and walked around the lake. We saw baby geese and lots of litter. To Jenna and Nicholas, the litter was the most exciting part of the trip. Buckeye Lake KOA has a jumping pillow and the kids had a great time jumping on it. Unfortunately I was unable to jump since pregnant women can not go on the jumping pillow - bummer.

We also celebrated Maddie's first birthday and Emmerich's 3rd birthday. Jen made a poke cake with red and blue jello. The girls loved it. Both nights they were up very late but they had so much fun, it was worth it!

On Sunday Jenna had her rehearsal for her ballet recital this Sunday. I can't wait (I might be more excited than she is). We are ordering the DVD so we can watch her recital over and over again! Sarah keeps talking about doing "bayyet" so we will most likely put her in ballet next year too.

In other news:

1. I've started reading Act of War by Dale Brown. This is an author recommended by Tim, and I'm enjoying the book. Although I wonder if he gets mixed up with Dan Brown.
2. I'm reading Beowulf's Children by Niven, Pournelle, and Barnes. It is the sequel to Legacy of Heorot and is also a great book. I've liked everything I've read by Niven and Pournelle.
3. I'm already packed for the hospital. I'm so excited to meet this little one!
4. Erik's picture is in the Catholic Times newspaper. While I was in Chicago for work, Erik went to the PDHC volunteer banquet for me and he happened to be featured in the newspaper. I thought that was pretty cool!
5. 73 on Quiddler today - not that great.
6. I made baked beans from scratch for our Bible study and they were the most flavorless baked beans ever. I reheated them with an entire bottle of barbecue sauce and it made them much better!
   
   
   

Iron Chef Erik: Key Limes

My idea of a perfect Mothers day is Iron Chef (obviously!). Jenna picked out the secret ingredient for Erik (he was iron chef). It was key limes! This was by far, Erik's best iron chef performance.

He made:

• Lime pepper chicken with fresh citrus salad. This appetizer had a lemon, lime, and orange salad served with chicken strips coated in fresh lime peel and fresh ground pepper. The chicken was actually really good but the salad was too sour for my taste.
• Lime linguine with citrus alfredo. This was amazing! Erik made fresh pasta and instead of using water, he used freshly squeezed lime juice. The pasta had a really good lime flavor - better than other flavored pastas. But that's not the beauty of this dish. Erik made an alfredo sauce with heavy cream, lime juice, and sugar. The combination sounds weird but WOW! This was so good we ate it the next day (I made him make it again). The citrus alfredo sauce was so unique and delicious he got an excellent score.
• Raspberry lime milkshake with lime whipped cream and salted lime chocolate. So one would think he couldn't top that last dish. Au contraire. The salted lime chocolate was incredible. I love salty chocolate and this was amazing! It was Erik's idea but I actually made it as his sous chef. I melted chocolate chips and put in quite a bit of grated lime peel. Then I smoothed it out on a pan and put sea salt on it. Then stuck it in the freezer to cool. WOW! This was SO good. He could market it - I know salt and lime go together in some alcoholic drink (margarita maybe?) so it could be a big seller. The milkshake was delicious too with a nice raspberry lime flavor. He also made whipped cream and put lime juice in the whipped cream. This was an amazing dish!

Erik rated himself as a 16.33 and I rated him as a 17.33. This is the highest rating we've ever had in iron chef (even better than apples which was my previous best).

So it was a pretty exciting day at our house.

65 points on quiddler today. Not a good showing

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!

Please help us pick a baby boy name.
	Matthew Joseph
	Matthew Nathan
pollcode.com free polls

and

Please help us pick a baby girl name
	Rachel
	Laura
pollcode.com free polls

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!