Mother's Day

I had a wonderful second Mother's Day. Jenna and I went to Canton to visit my family and spent several days there. Jenna got along well with my parent's two cats. I'm not sure they really got along with her though.
Erik got home yesterday from his business trip to Florida. He was out until 11pm every night socializing and mingling with people. Erik doesn't like people so this was a lot for him to handle.
He is leaving again tomorrow to go white water rafting with the guys. I will miss him so much!! Hopefully he won't fall out of the boat :).
We had our second meeting of the Living Free Bible study. It was wonderful again! All of us connect really well and I'm hoping to continue doing Bible studies with them.
Next week in Dayton we are doing a team building exercise and playing wallyball. This sounds scary to me. I am completely out of shape and embarrassed!! I don't know that I can get back in shape in one week :) :).
In Jenna news :) she can do so many signs!!

1. water
2. baby
3. food
4. bunny
5. elephant
6. more
7. please
8. head
9. hair
10. eye
11. ear
12. foot
13. fish
14. milk
15. cheese
16. bread

She is so amazing! We are working on cookie :)
I only got 52 today on Quiddler - not good!!

Stardust

I went to the IEEE spring banquet today and had the privilege of seeing Tom Burns from the Perkins Observatory. He was an excellent speaker and got me excited about astronomy! I can't wait to take Jenna to the observatory sometime. He told us that stars are formed from other stars so we were probably made from stardust. How cool is that?

In other news:
1. I got gas for $2.75 at Kroger because of my Kroger Plus card (regularly $2.95).
2. I love watermelon - I bought some for Jenna and I almost ate all of it. I haven't eaten it in awhile.
3. Rhubarb pie is not that good. It was the dessert at the banquet. Apple pie is better.
4. A polar bear and grizzly bear mated and their offspring is fertile. Isn't that neat?
5. My pampered chef order came in today - Yea! Now I have lots of fun kitchen gadgets :).
6. I got 98 on Quiddler today and the total was 81. I got words like hurts, cuisine, and quartz - all good words!

Cookie Monster

I put a plate of chocolate chip cookies on our coffee table and walked away to clean up some things around the house. Wouldn't you know it - that little stinker found the cookies and had chocolate all over her face. When I said Jenna! She said MMMM! I wish I had a video camera!!!

She also thinks she is mommy. This is due to the fact that I point to Daddy and say "there's daddy!". Then I point to myself and say "I'm mommy!". Well now when I say, "where's mommy?" she points to herself! She won't be getting a mothers day gift though.

I'm going home to Canton for Mothers day since Erik will be in Florida and I hope to have a good time with my mom. It sounds like my mom has scheduled a pedicure for me and my sisters. Shouldn't it be the other way around?? She's going to watch Jenna.

I got 73 on Quiddler. Not a very good showing considering I got the word lackey which is a 5point bonus!

Living Free Study

Tonight was the first night of our Bible Study Living Free by Beth Moore. I'm hosting and coleading with Jen. We had four people attend which is a good number - we can be close and really dig into the Word. I'm excited about this study also. I did it before, but I always work better with accountability.

Our camping trip over the weekend was wonderful. It was just the girls and no dirty diapers. We ate smores, relaxed, read books, did devotionals and DID NOT CHANGE DIAPERS!! Did I mention that before? :).

It was also a blessing to me that Erik watched Jenna over the weekend. He is such a good husband and smokin hot. Not every woman is blessed with a husband who is smokin hot but I certainly am!

Today I was proud of myself for getting the word equip in Quiddler, however I lost an A and U at the end and therefore only got 63 as my total score. The good news is that yesterday I finished the set game in 36 seconds - a new record of mine!!
Toodles!!

My Best Friend

Is it strange that a 15 month old could be my best friend? I love to be with Jenna and now that she is talking more I love hanging out with her. She is my best friend (well her and Erik!). Speaking of best friends, Jen Mast had her 30th birthday today! We went to the zoo today, all our girlfriends and their kids. Jenna had a great time looking at the sheep and goats and all the dirt they were standing in :).
Jen thinks Bug walks like a drunken sailor. She is walking well, it does kind of look like she's drunk though :).
Tomorrow we leave to go camping this weekend - just the girls! Yea!! I can't wait!! Smores....
I made a chocolate peanut butter cake for Jen and bought her 30 presents. I put a riddle on each present that she'll have to solve before she opens it.
I'm glad I'm past 30 and all that childishness - HA!

Da Vinci

I've just finished reading the Da Vinci Code - what an intriguing book! Even more intriguing is that Rich Nathan, the pastor of our Vineyard church will be doing a sermon series on it. I can't wait to hear his opinion of this widely controversial book. From my research online, Dan Brown claims all his conjectures are true whereas others claim they are false. How can we know the truth? What I did find interesting is that in the portrait of the Last Supper (which I have hanging in our doorway) it does appear that there is a woman next to Jesus. Could that woman be Mary Magdalene? The woman that the Da Vinci Code claims is Jesus's wife? Who knows. Erik and I were discussing this and I don't really see a problem with Jesus being married. Of course Erik really doesn't think it is a problem being a preacher's kid :).

In other news:
1. Erik and I watched the March of the Penguins. What a great film!! Those little guys walk 70 miles to mate and raise their chicks. The male penguins live without any food for 4 months to take care of their babies!! What an amazing story.
2. Erik ripped up the bushes in front of our house and we planted flowers.
3. Jenna ate a lot of dirt this weekend (see #2).
4. Jenna's new favorite word (and food) is dirt.
5. This is finals week for me and I'm up to my ears in grading!!

EQ

Erik and I love to play EverQuest together. We created new characters with the names Foxxmulder and Danasculley and played with them for awhile, but apparently those names are in violation so we had to change them. Our main characters are Kire and Trillian. Here is a screen shot:

I am the shadowknight and he is the lizard mage. I'm not sure why he wanted to be a lizard (iksar). Lizards are slimy and yucky. To each his own I guess.

I'm currently reading the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I really like it (knowing it is fiction but well written) and am excited about the movie. Even more so than the movie, I am excited that our pastor at church will be doing a sermon series on the Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction. I can't wait for that!!

Jenna has started signing please for everything. If she wants us to read a book or give her something to eat or pick her up, etc. EVERYTHING! It is so cute and wonderful that she is communicating with us. Today she signed please to tell me she was hungry. How cool is that?

Today my Quiddler was atrocious as I only got 64 and the max score was 68 without bonuses. Oh well - you can't have everything. I can't be smart and have a polite daughter *smile*.

Good Friday and Apple bars

Today is Good Friday and Easter is only two days away. Easter is a holiday filled with goodies and pastel colors and spring. Who doesn't love Easter? We go to church and celebrate Christ's resurrection then stuff ourselves with chocolate peanut butter eggs (seems to fit right?).

This lenten season has taught me to be more creative with sweets. I have found a recipe for apple bars that have 140 calories and are absolutely delicious: http://cookie.allrecipes.com/az/AppleSquares.asp
Not chocolate but still awesome.

Now that I'm dwelling on chocolate, let me list my top five candy items (not all bars).

1. Reeces peanut butter cups (obviously!)
2. Peanut M&Ms
3. Take 5
4. Nestle toll house cookie bar
5. Kit Kat

Yesterday I fasted and prayed about my class. I decided not to confront them about their rudeness but rather just let it go. So having not eaten anything all day I decided to go to Starbucks and get a coffee before class last night. Well I was bouncing off the walls so even if they were rude to me I didn't notice. Maybe that is the answer to all my problems :).

I got 75 points today in Quiddler with a max of 70. I had the word "fitted" to get me 5 bonus pts!

Easter Egg Hunt

Jenna braved the frigid weather today for her first Easter Egg hunt. Eggs were "hidden" all along the ground for the "under 2 year olds". The 3-5 and 5-8 year olds had eggs that were concealed a ltitle better.

Mom told me that Jenna would be scared of the Easter bunny but the opposite happened. She was so excited when she saw him and kept pointing at him. He gave her a little container of bubbles which is wonderful since blowing bubbles is one of her favorite pastimes.

In other news, I had the worst night of teaching that I've had in 8 years on Thursday night. My students were rude and insulted me the entire night. I went in the bathroom and cried during break. During my tearful interlude, I was reminded of God's peace and started humming praise choruses. This verse fills me now:
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phillipians 4:7. Praise God - the giver of peace!
In the midst of my sorrow, I just wanted to turn to chocolate. This also made me realize that chocolate should not be my source of comfort - rather it should be God. So thank you Lord for giving me peace and making me realize that I should turn to you instead of food. Will that help me get these last 10 pounds off???

Easter Eggs

Today we decorated Easter Eggs! Erik (as usual) offered a million reasons why he should be excused from participating in this yearly family event but he failed to convince me. This year Jenna participated too!!
Here is a picture of her with all of the eggs. Unfortunately when we gave her an egg, she thought it would be fun to bang it on the table. Luckily they were hard boiled. Now I know not to give her raw eggs when I'm cooking.

We had an excellent trip to Cincinnati! Jenna had a wonderful time with Nicholas and we were happy to see Randy and Julie again. We will have to visit them again soon.

The weather is warming up and our tree out front is starting to bud. Spring is such a wonderful time of year. I'm anxious to get out with Jenna and go to parks and revel in the sunlight! Unfortunately Erik found out that he will be working on a customer site 4 days a week until the middle of May. I love that he works from home, and both Jenna and I will miss him terribly during the day. Leaving one's house for work is overrated :).

Surprise!

Erik was fooled!!! I sneaked down to the kitchen and put green food coloring in the milk. Then in the morning I said "I'm going to make pancakes." So I got out the milk and eggs and bisquick. Erik looked at the milk and said, "Doesn't that milk look a little green." I said "maybe". Then he said we should throw it out and he didn't want green milk in his pancakes. To which I replied "April fools!!!". He didn't even know today was April Fools day :).

We are leaving for Cincinnati in half an hour. We haven't seen our college roommates in years and we are finally getting together - I can't wait!!!

April Fools!

Tomorrow is April Fools day! There is always a dilemma about what practical joke I can play on my hubby. Now I have a baby as well - should I play an April Fools joke on her? What could I do? Turn her diaper inside out. I think any joke I played on her would just be a reason to fuss.
Last year I made a spaghetti casserole using a springform pan and covered it with lots of cheese in an attempt to make it appear as a cheesecake. Then I served it to my husband as a cheesecake. Unfortunately he wasn't fooled. I do have an idea about tomorrow.
Here are two options I've thought of:
1. Putting food coloring in the milk to make it a different color
2. Putting a gummy worm in one of Erik's favorite Granny Smith apples
The jury is out on which one I'll do. Hopefully he'll be fooled!!! (I hope you're not reading this honey)

On another note, I'm up to my ears in grading! I gave two tests this week so really, it is my own fault. *smile*.

Hotels and Babies

I have discovered an obscure mathematical formula: hotel + baby = screaming
We took Jenna to Ironton last weekend to visit some friends in our EQ2 guild "Knights of the Riven Moon" and we decided to stay overnight at a hotel. Poor Fairfield Inn.

Erik had enought Marriott rewards that we were able to stay there for free. We probably should have paid them as Jenna screamed her brains out for half an hour at 2am waking up everyone in the entire hotel.

Other than that, our trip was a lot of fun. We had dinner at Applebees which was successful. Jenna ate well and we all had a good time. She even got to try cheesecake.

In other news, I have compiled a list of my favorite yogurts:

1. Blueberry crumble (Yoplait)
2. Cherry (Fruit on the Bottom)
3. Lemon Burst (Yoplait)
4. Mixed fruit (Fruit on the Bottom)
5. Apple cinnamon (Fruit on the Bottom)

I also discovered that even though I like coffee, I do not like coffee yogurt - YUK!

Buy American

I will digress from my usual comments about Jenna's ability to point out objects to a topic which is close to my heart. Buying American! From reading about GMs recent difficulties, it makes me want to buy American even more! I want to keep American workers working for America. Erik and I have always tried to buy American. Looking at labels of items to see the "Made in the USA". We have often spent more money on items just because they were Made in the USA. In fact, we were "Made in the USA" *smile*.

Shameless Jenna announcement: We went to Jen's for a playdate today and bug ate 2 cutout cookies!!! She is SO cute!!

And...Erik set up a computer for me in the kitchen!!!!!!! Yea!!!! I just need to install a wireless card and get a flat panel monitor - yea!!!

Google Desktop

I have downloaded the Google Desktop to my PC. All I can say is WOW - Where have you been all my life?? It is a thing of beauty. I have configured it to show stocks I'm watching, current news, web clips, photos of my cutie pie, the weather, and even monitoring my system. The essential desktop pack has a lot of great features including picasa - I've made cute collages of Jenna using Picasa. I may actually put the Google desktop above RSS feeds as my new favorite thing (thing meaning anything including my husband, chocolate, and Jenna). You can get it from google if you click the "More" link above the search box. From here you can download an essential pack of free google items!

Jenna has now realized that isf she hands a book to either me or Erik we will read it to her. She has been handing us the Bible, her colors book, an alphabet book, and anything she is in the mood for. Sometimes she wants to read books 3-4 times and keeps handing them back to us. Erik has gone so far as to hide books she wants to read often. She is definitely a reader - how cute! She takes after mommy :). Maybe she'll be a writer...watch out J.K. Rowling!!!

Happy Birthday Baby

Today is Jenna's 14 month birthday. I tried to take a picture of her with the white bear but she was too unhappy. I'll put this picture up on my website later. She was really cute with the bow in her hair though :).


We went to Sams today which was an exciting outing! Sams had a delectable array of free samples ranging from mozzarella sticks to beef jerky. Jenna loved trying these new foods.


Body parts Jenna knows:

1. Head
2. Eyes
3. Mouth
4. Belly
5. Feet
6. Hands

Maybe she will be a doctor - she seems very interested in anatomy. Then again, she does enjoy pointing out lights to us. Maybe she'll be an electrical engineer. No...we are still back to biomedical engineer! A perfect career for her!!

The beauty of words

I finished the Sword of Shannara last night - beautifully written book! Words can be so beautiful. Especially when they come from a 13 month old. Jenna is adept at saying the word light. She has added "out" and "outside" to her vocabulary. Maybe someday she will develop some prose titled the "Light of Shannara" (due to her fascination with lights).
We dined at Applebees tonight for dinner. It was the first time the three of us have been out to dinner for months. We had a great time and Jenna pointed out all the lights in the entire restaurant to us. You just don't realize how many lights are really around us.
Jenna did well at church in the nursery. We were able to listen to an entire sermon! Yea!

Cuteness limit

Is there a cuteness limit in the universe? Because if so, I think Jenna has broken it. She is a lot better now and has been on a mental growth spurt lately. She knows her head, mouth, ears, hair, and sometimes her feet. She points to lights and says "light" and she also can say off and on. Amazing!! She also filled out a bracket for the NCAA tournament, translated the Bible into Japanese, and made lobster thermidor for dinner tonight...oh wait, maybe she didn't do ALL those things. She does amaze me though! She hands books to us to read and keeps handing them to us to read over and over again. We've had to hide some books from her.
I think she'll be a reader like me. Speaking of readers, I'm now reading "The Sword of Shannara" by Terry Brooks. Excellent book!! I love it! In fact, I can't put it down and it is consuming my time. It has a lot of similarities to LOTR as well.

Other fantasy series I like:
1. Wheel of Time
2. Song of Ice and Fire
3. Harry Potter
:)
I got 83 on Quiddler and so did Erik - we tied!!

Patience is a virtue

This week has tested my patience. Friday we went to the Pediatrician and found out that she has rotavirus. Poor little girl! Today she was a little better but I couldn't put her down or she would scream uncontrollably. We are praying for her to get better soon!
I'm currently doing this Living Free Bible study by Beth Moore with some women from my mom's group at church. It is so refreshing and has taught me about pride. I especially need God now dealing with a sick little one. This poem is from the study - I think it is so powerful!

My name is Pride. I am a cheater.

I cheat you of your God-given destiny...because you demand your own way.

I cheat you of contentment....because you "deserve better than this."

I cheat you of knowledge....because you already know it all.

I cheat you of healing....because you're too full of me to forgive.

I cheat you of holiness....because you refuse to admit when you're wrong.

I cheat you of vision............because you'd rather look in the mirror than out the window.

I cheat you of genuine friendship....because nobody's going to know the real you.

I cheat you of love.......because real romance demands sacrifice.

I cheat you of greatness in heaven.....because you refuse to wash another's feet on earth.

I cheat you of God's glory....because I convince you to seek your own.

My name is Pride. I am a cheater.

You like me because you think I'm always looking out for you. Untrue.

I'm looking to make a fool of you.

God has so much for you, I admit, but don't worry....If you stick with me

You'll never know.

82 today!

laundry...laundry...laundry...laundry

Jenna has a temp of 100.6 which indicates a fever - my pediatrician brother-in-law informed me! So she has a fever and bad diarrhea. She went through 4 outfits yesterday and 2 today so far. She also hasn't been drinking anything. I don't want her to get dehydrated. So right now I'm freaking out. And my mom is in Florida. Normally I would be on the phone with her constantly discussing Jenna's health.
Besides that, she has been doing very well with walking. She took several steps to Daddy and back to me. She has also been pointing at everything. It is SO cute. She talks to everything as she points to it. She's definitely a talker.
We reserved a hotel room for our mini-vacation to Ironton for the weekend of March 25. It should be fun as long as Jenna is better by then. I keep thinking, she'll be walking by then for sure. Of course she may not be!
So far it has been one week since I gave up chocolate. It has been going better than I thought. I thought I would have horrible cravings and start shaking :) but I haven't. Easter chocolate will be that much more special! Maybe I'll even lose the urge for chocolate - yeah right!
93 on Quiddler today. Erik got 98 and the high was 108. So I'm not that far off!