Iron Chef Battle: Erik vs. Gina

Battle: Erik vs. Gina with sous chefs Missy and Amanda!

This Iron Chef battle was intense considering I have never battled Erik before. It was nonstop action! Missy and Amanda chose the secret ingredient: Cashews! Yum! What a delicious secret ingredient. Who doesn't love cashews? Missy was Erik's sous chef and Amanda was my sous chef. It was so wonderful to have a sous chef to bounce ideas off of and force to chop nuts for you :). In the grueling hour, we made the following dishes.

Erik:

• Cheesey cashew chicken with cashew olives. This dish was an appetizer course. The chicken was breaded in a cashew mixture and fried. The olives were very interesting. Erik made a sweet cashew spread that he put inside the green olives. That was a creative idea.
• Cashew tacos. This was by far the most creative use of the secret ingredient. Erik mixed cashews, refried beans, and taco seasoning to create a protein filling for tacos. Then Erik and Missy created a little taco bar to make your own tacos. The cashew refried bean mixture was actually good.
• Caramel cashew tart. This was a layered phyllo dough pastry with cashews in between each layer drizzled with caramel and baked. As a finish he put ice cream and whip cream on top. While this was good, it was a little burnt.

Gina:

• Cashew fruit salad with honey lemon dressing. This was a light refreshing salad with a sweet dressing. This salad had pineapple, mandarin oranges, strawberries, blueberries, coconut, and cashews of course.
• Trio of nut scallop pasta. This dish had crushed cashews, almonds, and pecans in a light butter sauce. I also added tomatoes and basil for color however they ended up taking the spotlight where the trio of nuts should have shined. This dish was yummy, however I could have made it better without the tomato and basil.
• Cashew Caramel Creme parfaits. When Erik tasted this dish he gave me a look. The look said "you're going to win". This dish was so awesome. I mixed cream cheese, butter, cinnamon and powdered sugar and layered it with cashews, caramel, and crushed snickerdoodles. It was absolutely heavenly.
• Cashew buckeyes. For this dish I combined peanut butter, cashews, butter and powdered sugar (the usual buckeye ingredients) and dipped it in semi-sweet chocolate. Then I sprinkled some cashews on top. Amanda made little graham cracker cashew smores to balance out the plate. This was heavenly to me but after 7 heavy cashew dishes, this one was almost too much.

The score was very close. Out of a total of 40 points (since both Amanda and Missy were scoring us) I earned 32.25and Erik earned 31. I couldn't believe I was victorious! Erik was a tough competitor. This was so much fun and even Missy and Amanda enjoyed themselves.

While Missy and Amanda were here, Missy tapped with Jenna and Sarah (see picture). Missy takes tap dancing so they were able to all tap together. It was so cute.
In other exciting news, we bought a new 7' long dining room table and now we actually have a dining room instead of two playrooms. This table is so massive it takes up the whole dining room. It should be great when we have family over and for our Tuesday night Bible studies. Tomorrow I'm making sun dried tomato chicken pasta. Yum!

Today I did terrible at Quiddler 68 points and lost the z and j. Who likes those letters anyway?

Iron Chef: Pecorino Romano

You would think I would do really well with the secret ingredient of pecorino romano. It is a delicious, salty, rich cheese. But I think I dropped the ball on this one. I was overly ambitious - trying to make a pavlova but it ended up not working.

For iron chef pecorino romano, I made:

• Greek style couscous with a twist. Couscous + 20 month old daughter = disaster. Sarah got into the couscous and it was everywhere. EVERYWHERE. However the dish I made had pecorino romano cheese, tomatoes, and green olives. Which is a twist on the greek olives and feta cheese. At least that was what it was meant to be ;).


• Three cheese pizza. So this was fabulous! I shredded pecorino romano, fresh mozarella, and fresh provolone cheese on top of fresh basil, diced tomatoes, pepperoni and spices. YUM!


• Pecorino romano stuffed chicken. I put chicken in breading and then stuffed it with the cheese. I thought this would be amazing and it was good but not amazing.


• Roasted pear pavlova. So this was a flop. I made a cheese filling and roasted the pears. Then I made a meringue base for the pavlova. The ingredients separately were good but together they really didn't mesh all that well.

Erik and I both rated my iron chef as 14.25 a rather low rating considering the awesomeness of the secret ingredient.

In much more exciting news, Erik got a new job. He won't start the new job for a few weeks but he got a nice raise and will be working from home all the time. Boo-yah! This will result in much less laundry for me to do and I'll be able to see Erik more (which is actually better than doing less laundry). Since I also got a promotion and a fancy raise (I'm a senior professor now!) Erik thinks we will be able to pay the house off much faster. Even though I'd rather keep the same rate and give and spend more!

I just finished reading the Black Unicorn by Terry Brooks and it was fantastic. I'm really liking this series.

Our Bible study season has started again with the church. We will be discussing Twisting the Truth by Andy Stanley. It is a video series. This year for Bible study I've also decided to make dinner every week. I actually really enjoy it and it alleviates the stress of trying to feed families and get to our house in time. So I'm setting up a menu. This is something I enjoy.

68 on Quiddler today and I got to make the word bidden.

"Playing" Bible study

Today I babysat Nicholas for a few hours while Jenny took her other two kids to the Doctor's office. I was playing with Sarah and Jenna and Nicholas were playing Bible study. Ummm.... how many 4 and 5 year olds play Bible study :). It was so awesome to hear them playing Bible study and talking about all the things God made. Jenna and Nicholas were the leaders and me and Sarah were learning about God. It was a very educational study.





Since I got the Starbucks cards to hand out at the clinic I was sure I'd have tons of women coming to me and lots of "saves". No. Every week I come home sad that no women turn around or want to save their baby. It is disheartening but I will keep pressing on. There must be some reason God has me here.

In other news:

1. At night before bed, Erik and I started reading The Reason for God by Tim Keller. It is more of an "intellectual" book (I like putting random words in "quotes") as the author makes logical claims against some of the big skeptical issues with God (eg. what about other religions, why is there pain and suffering, etc). It's a great read!
2. I've also started reading Startide Rising by David Brin. So I can finish my list of combined Hugo and Nebula award winners. It's pretty interesting but when I have a choice, I go back to the Black Unicorn by Terry Brooks. That's a more interesting book and I'm almost finished with it.
3. I've also started reading the Host by Stephenie Meyer the author of the Twilight Series. I've heard mixed reviews on this book but I hope it will be good.
4. Erik and I are planning on doing Iron chef and playing racquetball this weekend - I have the best husband in the world!
5. 83 points on quiddler today and got to make the word "goat". Not really sure if that's news.

Iron Chef Erik: Lemons

On Monday Erik was the Iron Chef with lemons as the secret ingredient. Erik wowed me with his ideas as they were completely different than what I would have done with lemons. Erik made:

• Sweet lemon scallops. Erik cooked the scallops in olive oil and lemon juice and served them in lemon rinds with a sauce made of lemon juice and sugar. I love scallops so this was a big hit for me.


• Fruit salad with lemon. Yum!! Lemon is a fruit but is much more tart than traditional summer fruits. However Erik had the right balance of tartness and sweetness in the fruit salad. He also served the fruit salad in a scooped out watermelon.


• Lemon and sweet pepper sushi. Sushi? Erik? Huh? Yes, Erik bought sushi wrappers when he went to the store which made me curious. He even used jasmine rice that was flavored with lemon and a little sugar. Then put cut lemon rinds with peppers in the middle. Erik had never made sushi before, and this sushi was wonderful. Creative, fun, and delicious!


• Raspberry lemon tart. This tart consisted of phyllo dough baked and layered with lemons, mandarin oranges, and rapsberry jam. Yum! We couldn't get enough of it.
  

Erik rated himself a 16.125 and I rated him a 15.25. Overall it was a fabulous iron chef competition!

I was looking at the family picture we took in Florida and thought something was missing. Yes - a third baby. No I'm not pregnant, but I wanted to see what our family would be like with a third baby. I think our family looks awesome! What? Me? Photoshop? You can't tell can you?

Now that we are members of lifetime again, I met with a personal trainer who calculated my body fat percentage. It was approximately 90%. So she wanted to put me in this class for $500 that meets three times a week at 6am so I can get fit. No thank you. I'll stick with the 90% body fat.

In even more exciting news, my EQ2 character has dueled Erik's several times and he has never beat me! It's like the opposite of when we play squash :). I never thought my paladin would do so well against his awesome wizard.

76 points on quiddler today. yor is not a word. who knew?

09-09-09

Today is 09-09-09 and I feel to the nines today. Today was Jenna's first day of her pre-ballet/tap class. She has never done tap dancing before so I wasn't sure if she'd like it. She loved tap dancing! The shoes make noise - what's not to love? It was also her first day of preschool. Today we moved Jenna to a pre-k class. This class meets 4 times a week M-R in the afternoons. Apparently the class has more academic rigor (as much as preschool can have).

On Saturday, the girls and I drove up to Canton for Amanda's surprise graduation party. She got her Bachelor's degree from Walsh University - Yea! I snapped a picture as she walked in - she was SO surprised! The party was awesome too with chicken parmesan and lasagna - yum. Megan made a delicious cake and we got to see the Canton Vineyard up close.

On Monday a salesman came to our door to sell us Clean and Simple cleaner. Now this salesman was a high pressure salesman and I have trouble saying no to people even when they are very pushy. Not sure what my problem is. Anyway he tried to sell me this product for $224. Umm...no. The product did seem to clean everything well. Finally I gave in and bought one gallon for $75 (the guy would NOT leave!). After he left I told Erik that apparently this stuff is supposed to save us money, at which point Erik told me we usually buy a gallon of 409 at Sams for $10. So I decided to test Clean and Simple on my horrible carpet. As you can see, it did clean the carpet - but $75 worth?? I'm not so sure.

Right now, I'm coordinating the seating for the Pregnancy Decision Health Center banquet in October. It's been quite a task as they are expecting around 800 people. Alan Keyes is the keynote speaker so it should be an interesting event. What I've noticed as I've been registering people for the event is that of all the cities around Columbus, Powell is the most represented (not even counting me since I have to teach that night!). I find this very interesting and happy that my city is pro-life :).

Today I thought I was doing well on Quiddler until I got to this combination of letters (that apparently can make a word): C, R, B, CL, S, X, R, T

What can you make with that?

Shapes!

As Jenna and I were talking about shapes, I realized I hadn't made a list of my favorite shapes. What a huge error on my part! I left you hanging as to if I like a parallelogram or isoceles triangle more! Well the wait is up - here is my list of top 10 favorite shapes.

1. Right triangle. This made the top of my list because of the Pythagorean theorem. a^2+b^2=c^2. That's good stuff. Even better is when you have nice round numbers like 3, 4, and 5 as the lengths of the sides.
2. Circle. The circle is such a perfect shape and provides lots of jokes such as pi r square, no pi are round.
3. Figure 8 (infinity symbol). This has sentimental value to me. At the beginning of our relationship when Erik and I would drive somewhere separately, we would always sign the infinity symbol in the rearview mirror. The infinity symbol to us meant everlasting love.
4. Annulus. This is a circle within a circle and is thus a donut shape. The area for this is equal to pi*(R^2-r^2). I just like donuts.
5. Square. I always felt in life that "it's hip to be square". And have always loved the Heuy Lewis Song - it's pretty much the story of my life.
6. Isosceles trapezoid. This shape has two equal length sides and has a nice line of symmetry down the middle. Also, who doesn't like the name trapezoid.
7. Octagon. A stop sign is in the shape of an octagon so this is a shape we see all the time. It's bright and red and in your face.
8. Ellipse. This is a circle that has been stepped on. Another name for an ellipse is an oval and I think it is a perfectly good name for an ellipse. When Jenna identified an ellipse as an oval in preschool, her teacher marked her wrong (ellipse = oval in the mind of a 4 year old).
9. Isosceles triangle. This triangle has two equal sides. While not nearly as cool as the right triangle, it has a line of symmetry like the isosceles trapezoid, so it's pretty cool in my book.
10. Triquetra. What is this shape you might wonder? The triquetra is a shape that can be best described as a glorified triangle. Check out the link. It was used as an early Christian symbol to represent the Trinity. It is also used in Celtic art quite a bit. I think it is pretty.

Well here is my list of favorite shapes. You can now rest easy that you know this.

In other news:

• I have started a new semester in which I'll be teaching Mon, Thurs, Fri. Who wants to take classes on a Friday night?
• In an attempt to be completely confusing, we've decided to join Lifetime again. I really miss playing squash with Erik. So what if it's a hundred dollars a month (ouch!)
• I'm reading a new book by David Baldacci called The Winner. My Mom reads his novels and I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
• We are planning an Iron Chef competition soon so you can be on the edge of your seat waiting for it.
• Got 77 on Quiddler today. Not a very good score. I really think "denny" is a word.

A Tropical Oasis!

A tropical oasis is the best way to describe the house we stayed at last week in Orlando, Florida. It is a house provided by Missy's company: Hyland Software as a perk to the managers. What an awesome perk!! The house had 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, a Wii, pool table, air hockey, and an outdoor paradise! The pool was connected to a hot tub and the whole thing was enclosed in a screen to keep the massive Florida bugs out. My Mom and Dad, Missy, Me, Erik and the girls all went on this trip.

Erik and I relived our childhoods in the pool with our numerous challenges. We were shocked that the rest of the family did not want to participate! Here is a list of our challenges in the pool:

1. Waterfall challenge - this challenge involved swimming behind the waterfall in the deep end (6') without touching the wall or waterfall. It was actually quite difficult. Erik achieved 96-4 (96 successful attempts and 4 touches) and I went 97-3 so I was the victor.
2. Breath holding challenge - in this challenge, we had to see how many times we could swim the width of the pool before taking a breath. Erik went 6 laps and I only managed 5. So he was the victor.
3. Ball catching challenge - now it is getting exciting! This challenge involves jumping off of the wall and catching a beach ball mid jump and surfacing still holding the ball. This challenge we tied with 10 attempts apiece. We were just too good at that one :).
   
   So we had a blast in the pool. Besides the goofy challenges we went to Sea World ($75 per person! Yikes!) and downtown Disney. At downtown Disney we spent just as much money as Sea World on toys. Even so, Jenna absolutely loves her My Little Pony Build-a-Pony. Here we could stuff as much My Little Pony paraphenalia (crap) as we could into a little box for $18. It was a great deal and I've had more fun playing with it than Jenna has :).

57 on Quiddler today. Apparently myd is not a word??

The PBA Tour!

Jenna started her career as a professional bowler yesterday. Nicholas had his 5th birthday party at a bowling alley and Jenna and Sarah were burning up the lanes (if that's a good thing)! Check out this video of Jenna (PBA here she comes) and Sarah (sort of). As you can see it takes about 20 minutes for the ball to inch its way across the lane. They had a blast and in a few years I hope we can go bowling more often.

It brings back memories of bowling with my Dad who has a bowling average above 200 (his AVERAGE is above 200). He is an awesome bowler - my high game is 216 so obviously I didn't inherit his bowling genes. He will have to teach the girls how to bowl properly.

I snapped a picture of Sarah with the cupcake from the party too. Red frosting...yum.

On a different topic, at times I have students who ruffle my feathers a little. In my math class I have a certain student who is constantly telling me I'm wrong. For example, he was working on a solution to a quadratic equation and insisted that there was no solution. Over and over he insisted. So I came over to see what he was working on (he yells across the room when I'm helping other students). The problem was this = 30r^2-25r-5. I glanced at his equation and saw that there are solutions (-1/6 and 1). Don't even need the quadratic formula for that one. Anyway, he proceeded to tell me that I was completely wrong and this equation was unsolvable. Huh?

Next he told me that he knew a lot about computers - that he could show me so many tricks that would help me out. Okay....I have a PhD in computer science and engineering but am not arrogant enough to assume that others (especially teachers!) would have less computer knowledge than me. And the more you learn the less you realize you actually know. So he had a great "trick" for me. He said that when you switch between applications you could also use "alt-tab". WOW! Now that's a super neat trick that I've been using for the past maybe....20 years?

Of course when I realized that I started programming when I was 10 meaning that I've been working on computers for 24 years I felt old.

Summer is slipping by. That doesn't mean that we don't get the sprinkler out just about every day so Jenna can run through it. She loves it! Well off to rub the Love Handler on my belly!

56 points on Quiddler today because I couldn't make anything with the Q. At least I got clotty which was an awesome word!

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 :)