Love handles!

Since canceling our Lifetime memberships I have not picked up any other exercising and have thus put on some weight. I need to exercise to keep my weight down as I love sweets so I knew this would happen. Instead of giving up sweets, dieting, or finding a new exercise system, I've decided to use this product called the "Love Handler".

Erik bought me two bottles of "Fabulous Foaming Face Wash" from Bliss as a gift a few months back. With those two bottles came a free bottle of the Love Handler. So I decided to measure my waist and use the love handler every day for 6 weeks (recommended usage) to see if it takes off any inches. I'll keep you updated as to the progress - yes it is in a spreadsheet! I had thought about taking a picture of my belly to see any visual difference from the cream and then realized I almost posted a picture of my belly on the blog.

On a much cuter note. The girls love to talk on the phone or pretend they are talking on the phone. Sarah holds the phone up to her ear and babbles. Jenna pretends she is actually talking too. Erik snapped a picture of the three of us chatting.

66 points today on Quiddler - a rather dismal score!

Cooper's Rock and Science Fiction

Last weekend we went to visit Erik's parents in West Virginia. Erik's grandmother was visiting and I always enjoy talking with her. She is so lively and fun - it's hard to believe she is a Great Grandmother. We went to Cooper's Rock and had a picnic in the woods. The Rock was actually many rocks that overlooked a huge valley covered in beautiful trees with a river flowing at the bottom. Overall we had a fabulous time!

On Sunday morning while brushing Jenna's hair I noticed a tick. This was very odd since Sarah had a tick on July 19. I'm not sure why our kids have both had ticks recently - and not from camping. Those ticks are so nasty. Although Jenna seemed more worried that I was worried than about the tick.


I picked up a new book at the library called The Coming by Joseph Haldeman. I read Forever War and Forever Peace by Joseph Haldeman a few years ago and liked them quite a bit. In fact, a few years ago I decided to read all of the books that had jointly won both the Hugo and Nebula novel awards (awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy writing).

Here is the list of joint winners. The ones that I have read are highlighted. I do plan on reading them all someday but actually the library doesn't have all of them. So I'll have to find some other way to get these books. Probably robbery. That's what I'll have to resort to.

1. Dune by Frank Herbert
2. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
3. Ringworld by Larry Niven
4. The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
5. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
6. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
7. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
8. Gateway by Frederick Pohl
9. Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre
10. The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
11. Startide Rising by David Brin
12. Neuromancer by William Gibson
13. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
14. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
15. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
16. Forever Peace by Joseph Haldeman
17. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
18. Paladin of Souls by Louis McMaster Bujold
19. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon

Many of these books (Dune and Ender's Game) are among my top 10 favorite books ever. While Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead are in the list, Xenophobia is not and I also really liked that book. I have not read American Gods by Neil Gaiman but did read Stardust and liked it quite a bit. So I think pretty soon I'll pick up on this list again and work my way through it.

81 on quiddler today. Quiddler would not let me use the words: hiney, zine, or hoth. This is a travesty!

Fasting

After reading the Lord' prayer on Sunday I skimmed through the section on fasting. I looked up "fasting" in the Bible and saw 24 references to fasting. So what is fasting? Fasting is abstaining from something (often it is food) for a period of time. Moses fasted 40 days, Jesus fasted 40 days. Numerous others throughout history have fasted at certain times. People from Old Testament times and New Testament times fasted. One verse that is worthy of note is "They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking." Jesus answered, "Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast." ~Luke 5:33-34.


This sounds like we should be fasting often since Jesus was taken from us. But how many Christians fast? I know a handful of Christians who fast. Why don't we fast in 21st century America?

Is fasting as important as reading the Bible and prayer? If so, why aren't more people fasting regularly? Catholics are one of the few Christian denominations that encourage fasting during lent. What about the rest of the evangelical denominations? Too many people have called me a closet Catholic that I've given myself the label of Evangelical Catholic :). So why don't more Christians fast?

People don't want to deny themselves anything. If we look at our culture of overindulgence, we notice the desire to fulfill every need and want immediately. Jesus says "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." ~Mattnew 16:24.

Christians are only required to believe for salvation. Jesus says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." ~John 3:16. If we are only required to believe, then why fast? Why deny ourselves something we enjoy?

People don't want to appear prideful in their relationship with God. Jesus says "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." ~Matthew 6:16-18. Some may misconstrue this verse to mean that fasting is prideful, but it is the heart God is looking at.

In my experience, I have found fasting to be a delight. I fast when I'm struggling with a specific sin, have a difficult decision to make and am seeking God's guidance, to humble myself before the Lord, or for a cause. I undertook two three day fasts last year and fasted once a week during the 40 days of prayer for the end of abortion. Since becoming a Christian, I have viewed fasting as a vital part of my walk with God. Fasting for me is a joyful experience as it reminds me that Jesus is the bread of life and all the food I need!

47 points on quiddler today. Too many u's!!

Our Cincinnati Adventure!

After my awesome dissertation defense, we went to Cincinnati for a wonderful camping trip. We visited Julie and Randy who we haven't seen in 3 years! In planning the trip, we came up with a huge list of things we could do in Cincinnati: zoo, aquarium, red's game, children's museum, etc, etc.... But we decided to go to a grocery store. It's not just any grocery store. We went to Jungle Jim's. This is a fabulous grocery store!

Jungle Jim's has cheese from all over the world. We sampled and bought lots of cheese. They have hard to find items and candy bars from England we haven't seen for 5 years. We did miss my favorite candy bar: starbar. It was in England and so wonderful but Jungle Jim's didn't have it. We got a dragon fruit (pictured). It's a cross between a kiwi and a pear - pretty yummy.

Besides grocery shopping, Julie and Randy made a great meal for us: steak, corn on the cob, coleslaw, homemade mac and cheese, pineapple gooey cake, chocolate trifle, cantalope, veggies and dip - yummy!

Jenna and Nicholas had a great time jumping in their bouncy house and riding on their riding gator. Nicholas was adept at driving, but Jenna needs some driver's ed. Here's a video of them jumping in the jumpy house. Randy tried to force me in the jumpy house but I got in after which I was pelted with lots of soccer balls.

Jenna kept reminding me that she knows another Nicholas. Yes - Jenna it is possible for two people to have the same name!

Nicholas and Nathaniel also had the coolest toys. How can I get my girls to play with dinosaurs???

79 on quiddler today

Let me be the first to say Congratulations Dr. Cooper

My defense could not possibly have gone any better. The whole family drove to Dayton and I set up the conference room with goodies. Usually the defendee brings in snacks and drinks for the committee and audience. I brought chocolate covered chocolate chip cookie dough balls, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, caramel bars, a cheeseball and crackers, and a veggie tray. My advisor thought I spent just as much time baking as preparing for my defense :).

Erik and the girls waited outside while I presented for an hour. I had pretty much memorized my defense so it went pretty well. I did have to look at my notes a few times. Then I had questions. None of which were really hard. By the way, my results were significant as I had a p value of .0143 if anyone actually knows what that means. After the questions, which were not that hard, the committee asked everyone to leave including me. I stood outside with the girls and the rest of the people.

Dr. Raymer called me in and he said, "let me be the first to say congratulations Dr. Cooper". I almost cried. Wow. 8 years and I've finally made it.
Of course I do have a couple of weeks left of editing and more research to do but not as much as I thought.

Then we went out to Red Robin with a few guys from the lab and the girls made a tremendous mess. It's all good.

What a wonderful day!

4 more days!

My defense is in 4 days!!! Right after the defense we are going camping so I don't know if I'll blog about how I did or not (I'm sure you're sitting at the edge of your chair in anticipation). However I'll probably tweet it. You can follow me @gina_m_cooper
My advisor wanted me to do a t-test of my results to determine their significance and I was telling someone in church today that my results were not significant! Then some person standing near us said "at what p-value"? You gotta love a place where random passers by ask about statistical tests.

I also have to post a link to this video of Sarah. She calls flowers "haachis". I'm not sure how she got "haachi" out of flower but that's what she says.

Today on Quiddler I got 66 points and made the word equine. Which I thought was totally awesome but apparently not good enough as the high score was 91.

Our Las Vegas Trip

Las Vegas was so much fun- better than I expected! We arrived on Tuesday night and spent the evening eating $20 ice cream!! from Serendipity while watching the fountains at the Bellagio.

On Wednesday, Erik spent the whole day in the room while I attended the conference. I learned quite a bit at the conference and my mind is full of new ideas! This conference was excellent! On Wednesday night we went to the Tournament of Kings at Excalibur. We ate dinner with our hands (no silverware) and saw an excellent show. We did notice that the knights were wearing chainmail made of cloth. Hmmm....not quite so authentic. Then we got Haagen Daas ice cream.

On Thursday I did my presentation. It went really well. I was one of maybe 3? women at the entire conference. Really...where are all the women geeks??? I know there's more of you out there. I was actually surprised at how well the presentation actually went. After the presentation Erik and I went to see Cirque Du Soleil Ka at the MGM Grand. This was incredible. The acrobatics were amazing and I loved watching them. It took a lot of balance to do what these athletes did.

The best part about Las Vegas was the food though. Wow! We went to the Monte Carlo buffet and the MGM Grand buffet. These weren't normal buffets. In fact, I think I gained 20 pounds just from the three days I was in Las Vegas. I've never eaten so well. While they were expensive, MGM Grand offers an all day buffet for $30 per person. So you eat all day for that price - not too bad actually.

To work off some of our new weight, Erik and I went to play squash today at lifetime. Our membership ends July 31 so we wanted to squeeze one more squash game in. When I'm feeling down because I'm losing or playing poorly, sometimes I'll sing this song in my head. I sang that song in my head prior to tests in college too (don't ask). It seemed to bolster my confidence. Which I needed in college (not in high school - that was easy).

I've included a picture of the Luxor hotel from the bottom (you can see the Transformers logo on it). I didn't like the logo on the hotel - it detracted from the sleek glass beauty. I also included a picture of the front of our hotel - the Monte Carlo. It was beautiful.

In another exciting note - Erik is reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson! He wanted to bring a book and I suggested this one. So while he read Mistborn, I held Thomas Covenant in my hand but read over his shoulder (because I like Mistborn more). Finally I gave up and just read his book over his shoulder :). Now we are reading it together at night - yea!!!

Sarah likes to tell me when things are hot (stove, pans, car seat, etc) by saying "hot" and blowing on them. It really is very cute so while making french toast, I had Erik take a video of her telling me that the French toast was hot and blowing on it. Check it out. That French toast was awesome by the way. I made maple bread in the bread maker and then made french toast out of it - absolute yum!!

78 points on Quiddler - really clug should be a word!

I have a date!

Not that kind of date....I will be defending my dissertation on July 30 at 2pm. If you happen to think of me at that time, please say a prayer for me. My final rough draft :) of the dissertation is 203 pages. My advisor wanted me to keep it below 200 but I couldn't think of anything to take out.

We leave on Tuesday for Las Vegas too! I can't wait! I'll be presenting my paper on Thursday but we'll have some time before that to walk around and see the sights. I can't believe it's almost here.

I'll keep you posted. We just got a netbook for me to have when traveling!

Iron Chef Phyllo Dough

Erik totally surprised me with Iron Chef Phyllo dough! I didn't see that one coming. However, it was tied with apples for the best iron chef ever!! Of course - this was also an ode to Erik's favorite foods :). If I would have added bacon and beer it would have beat everything else! I made:

• Caramel fondue with phyllo dough dippers - I made a homemade caramel sauce with brown sugar, heavy cream, corn syrup, butter and vanilla. Then made cinnamon sugar phyllo dough to dip in. Erik thought the phyllo dough as a vehicle for the caramel dip was great!
• Pizza roll ups - I put pepperoni and mozarella cheese with pizza sauce in phyllo dough and rolled it up with fresh basil on top. It was delicious and the lightness of the phyllo dough made the flavor of the pizza shine.
• Phyllo dough encrusted salmon with honey pecan sauce - This was amazing! I knew you could cook salmon in phyllo dough but didn't realize how moist and delicious it would be. Unfortunately I didn't know how long to cook it so I just kept cooking it :). It didn't burn though. I cooked it at 375 for about half an hour and was cooked perfectly. Maybe the phyllo dough seals in the moisture so it doesn't dry out or burn? Whatever - it was awesome!
• Phyllo and berry cream parfaits - I layered raspberries and blueberries with phyllo dough and a cream cheese/whip cream mixture. This was delicious but Erik mentioned that the phyllo dough was a little lost in all the cream and berries. I had to agree.
• Raspberry tart - I made a raspberry tart by arranging raspberries in a little pan with phyllo dough as the crust. Then I melted some sugar and strawberry jam together and poured it on top. Wow. Yum.

This iron chef earned me 16.4 from Erik and 15.4 from me with no dish earning less than an 8/10. I've never scored that high on taste for any of the iron chef competitions!

I had this fabulous idea (in my mind) to reach women at the abortion clinic. I bought 10 $5 Starbucks gift cards to give to the women going in the clinic for just coming to talk to us. I really want to reach these women - it's so hard watching them go in. Anyway, Friday was exciting in that one guy drove up to us. His girlfriend was not there to get an abortion, rather she was getting a DnC after a miscarriage. I gave him a card and some information from the Pregnancy Decision Health Center. Even so - someone came and talked to us which was exciting.

One thing in my life that has built my strong pro-life stance is something my Mother did long ago. My mother refused a DnC after a miscarriage prior to my youngest sister being born. That has had a lasting impact on me that she took such a strong stance on this. I hope to show my girls by my words and actions that unborn babies are important and loved as well.

I did terrible on quiddler with a dismal score of 57 losing the t, r, and l. But I made the word pliers which is slightly higher than insignificant in its importance :).

Red, white and blue cake!

I'm writing again as Erik is at the store buying ingredients for Iron Chef. What will he buy? It is my birthday iron chef so the idea of chocolate as the secret ingredient is one I'm toying with. Another idea is red, white and blue. He could buy strawberries, blueberries, and something white? so that every dish I made had to have all three ingredients in it. I'll keep you updated.

Erik and Jenna made me a red, white and blue birthday cake. The cake was cherry/strawberry and he put blue and white icing between the layers and then covered the whole cake in cherry frosting. It was fabulous! We had dinner with Tim and Jen and then played our new games! The games were great and Tim beat Erik at railroad tycoon!

Our friends Brian and Maureen stopped by and we went to the zoo and Culvers for dinner. We actually let our girls eat ice cream at Culvers and Jenna had a cone. I think the mess traumatized them!

I've also included a picture of my garden. It is HUGE! There are also little tomatoes growing. The whole garden is massive and overflowing its tiny space. You will also note that I took the picture before I mowed the lawn. Since I am now mowing the lawn instead of Erik, I have found great enjoyment in trying to perfectly gauge my row size such that the last strip of grass to mow is the exact width of the mower. It is a difficult feat - one I can only attain through great practice.

I finally got a video of Sarah doing the "gorilla sign". She's such a doll - when she's not writing on our walls, standing on the kitchen table, climbing out of her crib....

This other picture is taken from the inside of our camper. The girls loved the bunk beds and now that Jenna is on top, we might shopping for actual bunk beds and put them in the same room. How exciting!

44 on Quiddler today. That was terrible but I lost the V. It wouldn't let me use the word Venn. Hello? Venn diagrams??

Games!

Today Sarah and I went to the Origins Game Convention at the Convention Center downtown. It was unbelievably cool. Of course I wore my awesome math t-shirt (pictured, although that's not me wearing it). This gaming convention was filled with everything from D&D to cthulhu to rpgs to magic to zomies to swords to board games and more!

There were tables with board games set out for people to play. I wished I had more time - I would have joined them :). There were hundreds of board games there that all looked so interesting. There was even a celebrity there - the creator of the Star Wars game that Joel plays!

It was an interesting time at which I looked odd as a mother pushing a stroller. Some of the people there didn't know what to think of me (I could tell) until I started talking their vocabulary *smile*.

Even though there was a plethora of games there - I chose to buy an expansion for Railroad tycoon called Rails of England. I also bought Roll Through the Ages a strategy game and Last Word a family word game. Games were 25% off so I probably should have bought more. I certainly found neat games - ones I had never seen before and some that were $70!

In other news, Sarah has officially climbed out of her crib. She turned 18 months two days ago. Erik thinks her DNA somehow was spliced with monkey DNA, or that we got the wrong child. Why do we have an extroverted, athletic child who loves dogs??? This confuses me. We removed the side from her crib so she can get out whenever she wants. Wonderful.

Tomorrow we leave for camping - yea!

69 points on Quiddler today. I would have had 93 if it let me use the word "tivo". That is a word!!

Bugs, Monkeys, and God's provision

I'm absolutely in love with this bug pancake pan from Nordicware. Can you imagine making cute little lady bug pancakes? How cool is that? Too bad it is $35! It's putting me in the mood to make pancakes. I'm pretty much always in the mood to make pancakes though.

We walked to Handels ice cream from our house on Saturday which was a 4 mile round trip walk. We pulled the girls in the wagon and they actually enjoyed it. Of course we had to bring wipes because Sarah spilled ice cream all over everything, and we made the mistake of getting Jenna an ice cream cone (messy!!).

On Friday night we put the girls to bed at Tim and Jen's house so we could game. Sarah crawled out of the pack and play 3 times. This morning, I found her straddling the top of the crib trying to climb out to the changing table. Sarah = Monkey. Incidentally, monkeys and gorillas are her favorite animal. We have given her the nickname bumblebee but maybe she needs a different one...

On a more serious note, I must share a prayer experience that I had with Jenna's preschool teacher. As a little background, Miss Jessica had been trying to get pregnant for 2 years. She has gone through clomid, invitro fertilization, and multiple other procedures that she told me about that I don't remember. It has been a difficult two years and she had become depressed. She knew I was praying for her. At one point, she told me it's all she can do to get through the day. Poor Miss Jessica. About a month ago, I went to Jenna's spring teacher conference. After the conference, I got in my car and put the key in the ignition to go home. However, God said I needed to go pray for her. So I left the car and went back in and asked Miss Jessica if I could pray for her. I prayed for her and she said she felt something. I found that interesting but went home and didn't think much about it. A week later when I dropped off Jenna at preschool she said she needed to talk to me privately. She said, "I took a pregnancy test and it was positive!". We both started crying! Praise God for this miracle! I was the first person she told besides her husband. She said "thank you for being obedient and coming back to pray for me." Wow. Sometimes God amazes me with his wonderful provision.

On a much less serious note - I got 58 on Quiddler today and made the word lathe! cool word :)

Swimming!

Jenna and Sarah had their first swimming lessons on Monday. Jenna is in Guppy 1 and Sarah is taking Tiny Tots at the Worthington Rec Center. Both loved their lessons even though Sarah was shivering at the end of the lesson. She really doesn't have enough fat!

This is finals week for me so once I turn in my grades, I'll have two weeks off! I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Here are my thoughts:

1. Read
2. Level my EQ2 characters
3. Read
4. Iron chef
5. Read
6. Sleep
7. Read
8. Camp
9. Read

I'm just finalizing my list of course....

Erik and I discussed canceling our Lifetime membership to help us pay off the house quickly. Unfortunately, this will hinder my opportunity to become super buff. I guess eating chocolate every day also hinders my opportunity to become super buff.

56 points in Quiddler today because I lost the Q, but I made the word Skited!

Kissing Goats and Joel's feet

Everytime Joel leaves we are saddened and reminded about how far apart we live. Joel arrived Wednesday night and just left a few hours ago. We had a fabulous time with him and Mom and Dad Cooper visiting. We played several games (yes, Erik won Railroad Tycoon - but I won Stafarers of Catan - no cheesecake factory for me though!) including Seinfeld Scene-It which was a thorough butt-kicking by Joel. I think he's memorized every Seinfeld episode.

On Friday we all went to the zoo. It was a perfect day and we really had the opportunity to see a lot of animals. I've been taking the girls to the zoo once a week lately as it's a fun trip and they love it. This time, with Uncle Joel, Gramma and Grampa, and Daddy it was much more fun! Gramma even caught a picture of Sarah kissing a goat. Obviously she has baaaaaaaaad taste (haha!).

At the zoo, we rode the train and Sarah did her gorilla impersonation. Sometime I'll have to get a video - it is TOO funny.

Joel and I also had great fun writing limericks to each other. Mine reflected on Joel's smelly feet and he wrote about my height (not sure why as I am NOT SHORT).

We also got a picture of Sarah sitting on Joel's legs. You will notice the size of Joel's feet as compared to Sarah. I think Joel's feet are 0.95 Sarah's and sometimes emanate the same odors.

The girls loved having the visitors here and we got Graeters ice cream twice!

My reading progress:

1. Lords of Sargoff - While Joel was visiting, I read his book for the second time and enjoyed it! I'm impressed that he created a world and characters for this fantasy novel. I edited it somewhat with minor changes. Hopefully he will get it published soon.
2. Black Unicorn - this is getting good! I'm starting to like Terry Brooks very much and if I ever recreated my top favorite authors he would move up considerably. This series is better than Sword of Shannara.
3. Shaman's Crossing. Wow - Robin Hobb! Why have I never read her work before? The story is good but the writing is fantastic! She is a good writer and I'm enjoying this series.
4. The Shack - haven't really gotten into this one. I'll read it more later I'm sure :).
5. Not for Sale - This is a nonfiction book about human trafficking. It is a difficult book to read but I'm almost finished with it.
6. Illearth War - Yes... I picked up the Thomas Covenant series again. I must be really bored.

98 points on Quiddler and I learned that "quire" is a word!

Iron Chef Nectarines

Nectarines - sweet, succulent, slightly tart, and in season! What a great choice for a secret ingredient.
I made:

1. Grilled nectarines. This was a twist on grilled peaches. However I did not add enough sweetness to the grilled nectarines as they are more tart than peaches. The dish needed a little more sweetness.
2. Fruit salsa with cinnamon crisps. This salsa was yummy and was filled with nectarines, strawberries, mangoes, pears, coconut, and chopped pecans. I drizzled fresh lime juice and honey on this fruit salsa. It had a good balance of sweet and tart.
3. Cheddar cheese and nectarine stuffed chicken. I wanted to pair nectarines with sharp cheddar cheese and see how the combination would work (I thought it would work well). It was incredible. I stuffed a chicken breast with a combination of cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and chopped nectarines. Then I breaded it with bread crumbs mixed with apple pie spice for a sweet breading (not sweetbreads like they always use on real iron chef). This was my favorite dish.
4. Vanilla bean and nectarine pastry with vanilla bean pudding. Erik's mom brought back vanilla bean paste from New Zealand. This stuff is AMAZING! So I definitely wanted to pair nectarines with vanilla bean. I made a vanilla bean cream cheese, pecan, and nectarine mixture that I put in the middle of some phyllo dough. Then I rolled up the phyllo dough to make a pastry and baked it with cinnamon and nuts on top. Finally I made some vanilla pudding with the vanilla bean paste. This dessert was superb and was Erik's favorite.

Our ratings were: 15.75 from Erik and 15.125 from me (20 points would be a perfect score).

In other news - my friend Jon just finished his 75 mile trek on the Appalachian Trail. I followed his tweets and was happy to hear it went well. I'll be looking forward to hear how the week went!

57 points today on Quiddler - that was dismal!

Lazy River, lazy weekend

We returned an hour ago from a fabulous camping trip! Thursday - Sunday we went to the Lazy River Campground in Granville. Behind us was a creek filled with minnows and crawdads that created a boundary to a beautiful hill of trees. Our view was magnificient! Kids were wading through the creek and catching fish in little cups. And if you look close you will see a thin line across the trees that was a zip line. People were swinging across the zip line for hours.

We played in the pool on Friday and Saturday and had a wonderful time. This campground also had a splash pad with fountains and waterfalls. I thought Sarah wanted to go in it so I took her there but she started shaking and crying so we left immediately :).

This was also carnival weekend at the campground filled with crafts and games and a magic man. The girls made clowns, played games, and won prizes. Jenna even participated in a golf game from which I realized she has no golfing talent. We took long naps and spent a good amount of time relaxing.

The only downsides to this campground were that there was no soap in the bathrooms and the showers were pretty cold. Maybe next time I'll just stink and not shower :). Other than that we had a great time!

In even more surprising news, Erik read a book while we were there. He hadn't read a fiction book in awhile and said he liked it. So he asked me for a recommendation on another book he could read. Yea!!! My husband has rediscovered the joy of reading :).

84 points in Quiddler!

Stay tuned.... Erik is at the grocery store as I'm writing this buying me a secret ingredient. We are doing iron chef tonight!!!

Fashion Show

Jenna had her last day of preschool yesterday. This brings me to reminisce about the last day of school for me when I was in elementary school. The summer held so much promise - there was so much to look forward to. For Jenna, she's just going with the flow. Okay, no school. That's fine. What are we going to do today? She has been doing well riding the bike and I've included a picture - go Jenna! Ride .5 mph and wear that helmet!


Not to get too Stephen Covey on you, but I think I've been more of a manager of my children and life rather than a leader. My view is discipline, rules, efficiency in the moment, etc rather than focusing on fostering long term relationships with the girls in a loving environment. In my life too I'm just moving one day at a time without looking at the big picture. Erik and I have been praying lately about our finances. We are taking actions that are counter cultural. Right now, we've cut out our 401Ks and all our savings and are dumping our money to pay off our house in 3 years. Erik just took the Crown Financial Bible study course and decided that he wanted us to be out of debt. So we are moving our lives in this direction. We'll be living miserly for the next few years but it will pay off. This will also give us the ability to put Jenna in Christian school if we feel she needs more individual attention.

On an absolutely different note, I've included Trillian's new fashions (my Everquest character). The white armor I have is my tier 1 armor and looks totally awesome (since she is a paladin). David created some dresses for Jenna's character "Siddra" (she is a fairy) and Trillian is modeling one of those dresses. Also, another guild member Michele, created this rather skin-baring dress for Trillian. I just thought I'd share all of these as her new fashions.

71 points today in Quiddler!

Check ? Light

Look at this drawing I've uploaded. This is the symbol that was lit up on my dashboard today. Huh? Now I understand that some people can't read and thus using pictures can help the illiterate folk among us. However, when the picture is so obscure that you have no clue what this warning light could possibly be telling you, doesn't it defeat the purpose? What is this? What does my faithful readership think? When this lit up on my dashboard I assumed that the lego section of my car was not working. Now if my car was actually built out of legos then we'd have a problem. As it is, I had no idea what this symbol meant until I looked it up. Driving home from Dayton, I wasn't sure if it was something that required immediate attention or just some thing small. I'll let you ponder it.


For our Bible studies this week, I was feeling particularly challenged. I made a chocolate brandy cake for the Monday Bible study and a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for the Tuesday Bible study. The chocolate brandy cake had 1 cup of brandy in the cake and 1/3 cup of brandy in the frosting. Usually I like to lick the bowl when I bake but I couldn't do it for this batter. It reeked of alcohol. The cake and frosting were overpowering. I just could not eat this cake! The first time this has ever happened I think :). The cheesecake was a different story. Yum.

Jenna also decided to play restaurant too. We created a menu that Daddy was able to order from and Jenna made a mint cake for dessert. I measured out the ingredients and she poured them in the bowl and mixed it together with help from Mommy. It turned out great.

71 points today on Quiddler and I made the word "gaming"!

My Talkative Girl

Sarah has really started talking and signing quite a bit. I love being able to communicate with this little one - who really has so much spunk!

Here are some words Sarah can say:

• dada
• mama
• bird (baba)
• sheep (baa)
• cow (moo) I know it's a stretch but she does say it!
• Hi
• Hand
• Jenna (hi-ya)
• cat
• kitty cat
• doggie (dobaa)
• clock
• that
• ball
• high 5

Signs that Sarah does:

• more
• please
• water
• sit down
• gorilla - her favorite animal!
• bird
• eye
• ear
• mouth
• nose
• arms
• legs
• milk
• thank you
• fish
• baby
• ball
• Jesus
• banana
• flower
• rain
• hat

It's amazing that we can communicate so well with her at such a young age. Although sometimes the communication is one sided since she just laughs at us when we tell her "no" or "come here" or "don't touch".

Books I'm reading now:

1. Black Unicorn by Terry Brooks. I just finished Magic Kingdom for Sale by Terry Brooks and was very happy with the book. While I loved the Sword of Shannara series, much of it seemed to rip of Lord of the Rings - even the plot twists. Whereas in Magic Kingdom for Sale, it was fresh and interesting.
2. Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb. Robin Hobb is a fantasy writer whose work I have never read. She was listed among Brandon Sanderson's favorites and was the only one I hadn't read so I wanted to read her books. It is an excellent story about class war - something I'll expand upon in a little bit.
3. Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux. This is a fun romance book that my Mom recommended. I like the story and it is unfolding like something I'll really enjoy.
4. The Shack. This is a book about the Trinity and apparently will make me never want to go camping again - at least this is what my friend who loaned it to me said.

While I was pondering the books I'm currently reading, I was thinking about fantasy and realized much of fantasy can be grouped into the following 4 categories:

1. Class/Race war. Shaman's Crossing and Mistborn are examples of these kinds of books. The lower/oppressed race often rises up and overthrows the one in power.
2. Journey/Quest. Lord of the Rings and Sword of Shannara are examples of these kinds of books. A long journey is taken for some reason or quest and may span several books.
3. New world colonization. Red Mars and Pern are examples of these kinds of books. Some of these books may fit more in Sci-Fi but these books often have fantasy elements in them as well.
4. Hero/Heroine. Wheel of Time and Sword of Truth are examples of these kinds of books. Often a hero is foretold and the series is about the hero and his/her exploits (more often him than her... I'm still waiting for the awesome heroine story!).

While these may be broad generalizations, I feel that much of the fantasy I read falls into these categories. Books that are outside of these categories such as Song of Ice and Fire tend to be interesting and different. Thomas Covenant is an anti-hero which I also find interesting - even if the book just trudges along.

80 points today on Quiddler!

Do kids make you less busy?

As I was sitting outside in the sandbox the other day, I thought about what my life would be like without my two kids. Certainly on that beautiful sunny day I would not be outside playing in the sandbox. I would be inside working looking outside and thinking it was beautiful. I probably wouldn't have quit my engineering job to teach nights and would be at a computer all day. How my life is different now as I wplay with sand and run around the backyard playing tag and looking for ants. Sarah is always trying to pick up ants!

Since having kids
I laugh
I play
I wonder
I love
I kiss
I hug
I smile
I fix
I splash
I jump
I swing
I run
I hide
I seek
I lead
I follow
I sing
I show
I listen
I stop
I dance
I twirl
I climb
I cry
I worry
I savor
I squeeze

How my life is different yet so blessed for having these beautiful girls!