Beautiful Birds!

Since we have put a birdfeeder in our backyard a plethora of birds have come for snacks. I've also discovered some beautiful birds in my backyard that I didn't even know existed. In this picture of our birdfeeder, a bluebird is waiting on the deck patiently as a northern flicker is eating.  The northern flicker is SO beautiful.  I have made a bird collage (because really, what else do I have to do) to show you some of these birds.  The mallard duck does not come to our bird feeder but is at the pond close to our house so I think that counts.

My pictures don't do them justice. The birds are striking in their beauty.  Okay....enough about the birds already. 

Jenna will be baptized on Sunday and Matthew will be dedicated. I don't know what Sarah will get?
It should be a wonderful Sunday!  We believe Jenna is ready and we are excited for her to take this step.  Our pastor met with her today and asked her what sin she has committed (to see if she understood the concept of sin). She said "not being nice to her sister".  Then he asked her questions of repentence which she understood.  I'm amazed at what she understands at 6!

I ordered a cake with a picture of all the kids on it.  Erik is not excited to eat a cake with the kids on it.  He would rather I made a yummy chocolate cake but such is life.

Tonight for dinner I made pancakes and put vanilla pudding mix in the batter.  Those pancakes were awesome!  Jenna and I both ate 4 pancakes!!  That is a record!

61 points on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "blimey".

My lazy week

The girls went to my parents house for a few days.  They had a fabulous time seeing movies, going to a museum, and going out to eat.

I, of course, thought this would be a great time to get caught up on cleaning, laundry, and go to the gym for exercise. 

Nope.

I sat on the couch and read with a cup of hot chocolate.

And it was glorious!

Some books I have read/am reading:

1. The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers. This was a fantastic book and a quick read.  The main character was raped and the book followed her struggle on whether or not to have the baby.  She ends up having the baby and I cried!  I loved it!
2. Sea of Monsters and The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan.  Yes, I admit it. I love young adult fiction! These books are 2 and 3 of the Percy Jackson series.  I'm on book 4 and loving it!
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. This is a fabulous book we are reading with our CO* book club. We are about halfway through and I really like his writing.  The story is interesting and I'm excited to see what happens - he is a good storyteller!
4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark.  This book is very English and I love English things!  I like having insight into the way English think about things.  I'm not sure if this is still true but in the book I get the feeling they hate the French and view Wales as we view West Virginia (eg. backwards).
5. What the Bible is all About by Henrietta Mears.  I'm still in this book and enjoying it very much.  I'm reading about proverbs now.  I recommend this book highly!

In other news, Matthew said Mama. The more exciting thing is that I got it on video. It is at the very end while he is rolling around. I really think he said Mama (maybe I want it to be true!).

I am also contemplating doing Bible Study Fellowship next year.  Each year there is a different study (for a total of 8 years). They are very in-depth and I've heard it is life changing.  I want a life-changing Bible study.  Sign me up!   They also have Bible study for kids so Sarah and Matthew would be learning the same books of the Bible the adults would study just at their level. I think it sounds wonderful.

67 points on Quiddler today and no bonuses!

Woo is Cute

My little man is 9 months old!  He is sitting up really well and crawling backwards.  He has also acquired the nickname of "woo".  I'm not sure how or why but he really is a "woo".  I need to brainstorm better nicknames or my limericks about him will have the word "poo" in them and that's just no good.

Matthew also loves Scruffles. I mean LOVES Scruffles. He laughs whenever he sees Scruff and squeals in delight when Scruff looks at him.  Matthew will be an animal lover just like the girls. Jenna's new profession of choice is zookeeper.

Last night Erik and I went on a date to Cantina Laredo.  It was expensive yummy Mexican food.  They made guacamole right at our table - which was delicious and very cool.  We gave Matthew some and he tolerated it.  We also got dessert.  It was a 6 layer chocolate cake.  It was so incredibly delicious that I felt like I was floating as I was eating it (yea...it was that good). 

Erik and I have gotten the chocolate cake from Max and Ermas.  It is a 8 layer chocolate cake but the cake from Cantina Laredo was better.  They both are decadent.

This has brought me to a very important decision:

I have decided to make it my mission to try layered chocolate cake at restaurants. 

I owe it to everyone. 

I will make this sacrifice.

I will determine the best layered chocolate cake in Columbus and of course, make a top ten list!

I have also included a picture of my 3 kids.  Seriously. Can anyone have kids this cute? I think not.

74 points on Quiddler today!

Sarah and Star Wars

Sarah has been obsessed with Star Wars since we went to a Star Wars party at the library.  We watched Star Wars tonight and Sarah ran away several times when Darth Vader showed up on the screen.  But at other times she was glued to the TV loving the movie! Yes... a 3 year old watched Star Wars :).  It was fun.  And scary.

Jenna asked too many questions and talked constantly. At one point in the movie she said she didn't really know what was going on. To which I replied "if you would pay attention instead of talking you might know!".

Anyway - this is a video of Sarah discussing how she would beat Darth Vader (because she is so menacing...).

Unfortunately Erik was gone playing racquetball during the movie so I had three kids on me wanting to cuddle.  I love cuddling but there is only so much room in my lap. 

Erik has been playing racquetball every week with Nick.  I've been amazed at how muscular his legs have gotten.  Tonight he burned 950 calories playing racquetball.  Wow!  I could eat 10 cheesecakes if I burned that many calories (maybe not).

I just got Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan from the library.  Yea!! The second Percy Jackson book.  I can't wait to read it.

I made the word "toker" on Quiddler today.  One of my favorite songs is The Joker by Steve Miller band so I was SO happy Toker was an actual word :). 86 points!

Iron Chef Battle: Nacho Cheese!

Erik and I tried something new with iron chef.  We did a dual iron chef with the same secret ingredient. We discussed the secret ingredient together and then bought it and had an hour to make our dishes.  Our secret ingredient was:

Nacho Cheese

Erik's favorite type of food is Mexican so this secret ingredient made him very happy.  I like cheese too so we're all good.  We approached this secret ingredient in two totally opposite ways.  He used a lot of fresh vegetables, cilantro, tomatillos, etc whereas I made more comfort foods (that actually featured the nacho cheese better but we won't get into that). 

He made:

1. Mexican pancakes.  Ummmm.... yes he did.  He put taco seasoning in pancake mix and made taco pancakes. Then put nacho cheese,  fresh salsa, and whipped cream on top of that with freshly grated lime zest.  Mexican pancakes.  Weird.  That's Erik.  I love him!
2. Cilantro lime nacho cheese dip.  This dip had cream cheese, nacho cheese, cilantro, tomatoes, and lime juice.   Erik loved this dip the best - it was creamy and flavorful.
3. Shrimp tacos.  Erik mixed shrimp and some fresh veggies and put them on corn tortillas.  Then topped it with nacho cheese.  The shrimp and fresh veggie combination was fabulous (it was my favorite!).  However the nacho cheese actually hurt the dish. So I think this one would have been better with a different secret ingredient.

I made:

1. Mexican lettuce wraps.  I love lettuce wraps - yum!  We had them when I went to P.F.Changs with my friends Leslie, Kimberly, and Erica.  So I wanted a twist on traditional lettuce wraps.  I made chicken with taco seasoning then put that along with some fresh veggies and nacho cheese in a lettuce leaf.  This was so yummy.  Erik loved it too!
2. Mexican lasagna.  Lasagna and peanut butter are my favorite foods. Before you get scared that I put peanut butter in lasagna, that was just fyi.  Anyway, I made a Mexican lasagna by layering corn tortillas, refried beans, nacho cheese, and fire roasted tomatoes.  This was yummy but Erik said it was a little too one-dimensional.  I'm not sure what else I should have added though.
3. Chipotle mac-n-cheese. Oh my!  This was HOT HOT HOT!  I made mac-n-cheese with nacho cheese and velveeta cheese. Then added chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Wow was this hot.  It was very good but a little too hot.  The girls wouldn't even eat it.
4. Nacho cheesecake.  Yes - I did it.  I also love cheesecake (along with lasagna and pb). I crushed tortillas and added butter and used that as the crust.  Then mixed nacho cheese, cream cheese, sour cream and egg for the cheesecake. It was actually good.  Really :).

This was a success!  The girls also made dishes as well. I gave them pie crusts, strawberries and bananas.  They made their own dishes and had fun with that.  Matthew napped.

We are going to do dual iron chefs again.  It was fun to see how we both interpreted the same secret ingredient.

Also, I made a brownie chocolate pie. Tomorrow is pi day 3/14 and I had to make a pie. Obviously!  Erik and I already dug in :).  You'd think after all that nacho cheese we couldn't eat anymore but we managed. Since I haven't exercised in 3 weeks my pants are tight.  I'll be able to exercise again next semester. This semester with 5 classes is too much (obviously exercise was the first thing to go!).

Recipe for brownie chocolate pie:

pie crust

5 squares unsweetened chocolate

1 1/2 sticks butter

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup heavy cream

I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave. Then added the rest of the ingredients. Pour in the pie crust.  Cooked it for 30 minutes at 350°F.  Yum-O!

In more serious news - the tsunami in Japan looks devastating.  I saw this video and thought it was very scary

66 points on Quiddler today.

There are teeth, really!

I have tried unsuccessfully to get a picture of Matthew's two teeth.  He really does not like it when we try and get a picture (obviously).  He does have two teeth though. I promise. However I don't see much more solid food than baby food in his future. He really doesn't like anything with texture - not even yogurt.  At some point I hope he eats - I can't have three kids who don't eat.  I love to eat - what's the deal?

He is rocking back and forth like he's going to crawl any day. He can actually crawl backwards just not forwards.  Here is a video of him rocking back and forth a little bit. I'm just loving this stage.  I love 8 months - they are too cute.  Of course 6 and 3 yrs are also cute. Check out my super cute girls at ballet. 

I'm very excited for their ballet recital. This will be the last year they will be in the same recital.  After this year, Jenna will be in the main show (since she will be in first grade).  Sarah will be in the mini-show if she still wants to do ballet next year.  They do have all boys tap classes so if Matthew wants to tap he can!  You get a discount for the more kids you have enrolled - not a bad idea.

On a different topic, I'm very excited that a paper I have written was accepted through the first round of peer reviews for a conference I want to attend in October.  I will find out in May if my paper is accepted for publication which will be very exciting!  The conference should be good too.  I'm also thinking of working on some research and writing a paper for the Las Vegas conference I attended in 2009.  I learned so much and had such a good time!  Hubby came too for that conference and worked in the hotel room while I conferenced (if that is a verb).

Today is the first day of Lent.  I wish the Pentacostal church would get on the ball and observe Lent as well. It's such a great time of Spiritual spring cleaning. I love Lent!  Today I went to the Ash Wednesday service at St. Joan of Arc near my house. I love the Ash Wednesday service and St. Joan of Arc is such a wonderful church.  I think Jenna is old enough to go to Stations of the Cross this year.  I'm excited to take her. 

This year I am giving up coffee for Lent.  I tried to think of something that Matthew really didn't need (as I am still pumping) and he really doesn't need the caffeine in coffee (I guess I don't need it either).  I love hot tea though so I'll be drinking lots of tea!

82 on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "plaid".  "Plaid" is just such a cool word. I like it as much as I don't like "yolk". Really, who likes the word "yolk"?

Divine chocolate cake

Matthew turned 8 months Feb. 20.  While I did get a picture of him with the horse, he was sick that day so he looks a little grumpy.  He was a good sport though.

We also celebrated Erik's birthday as well.  I made him chicken enchiladas using a recipe but added 1 tblsp of lime juice and 1 cup (yes 1 cup) of fresh cilantro.  With those two additions (plus the recipe was pretty yummy) the dish turned out great. Erik said it was the best Mexican dish I'd ever made - and we make a lot of Mexican food since it is Erik's favorite.

But that was not the show stopper.  Erik said he wanted a super dark yet moist chocolate cake. So I researched some recipes online and found That Chocolate Cake which is a recipe that won the Scharffen Berger chocolate recipe contest....ummm....yea - I'll take that.  It was divine.  I mean divine.  Oh. My. Divine!

I probably gained about 20 lbs just by being around it but it was so yummy. 

The girls also made a menu for Daddy's birthday (you can see their menus in the picture).  The only things on the menu were chicken enchiladas and chocolate cake but they had menus so that's the most important thing!

In other news:

• We have purchased a third seat for the Explorer.  Erik is going to install it himself (because he is AWESOME!). He bought the seat from Little Passenger Seats and we are excited to have a 3rd seat in our Explorer now (squishing all 3 kids in the back of the car works, but we can't ever take anyone else with us).
• We are planning on having Jenna baptized.  The baptism may be sometime in March but we are unsure of the exact date yet.  Jenna is such a prayer warrior and I do believe she is a follower of Christ. Since I think she believes, and she has been asking to be baptized for a year, I don't see a reason to deny her because of her age.  We are very excited about this and I warned Jenna that I would most likely (will!) cry.
• I'm teaching 5 classes this semester. I'm not sure why I've decided to undertake 5 classes again.  It was crazy last time I did it and I'm sure it will be crazy again.
• I usually go to hip hop on Monday mornings.  Unfortunately I will be teaching during that time and can not go to hip hop for 8 weeks.  This is very sad.  I love my hip hop class more than other exercise I've done.  It looks like I won't be able to shake it for 8 weeks. I hope I can still shake it when I go back.
• Recently two people told me my skin looked good.  I don't think much about my skin (it's skin??) but then two people said something so I thought back.  Erik got me this "Youth as We Know It" moisture cream (don't look at the price!).  Maybe it worked?
• So Matthew is too cute.  He is always shaking his head "no" but I can't seem to get a good video of him.  I did get a video of him looking pretty happy though.
• I also posted a picture of him stretching around to look at me when he was in his jumperoo.  He loves it but loves to watch us so much more!
• 99 points on Quiddler today. Who knew "raxing" was a word?

Photography

I usually get pictures done at Target for the kids however the copyright always bothers us.  We pay them to take pictures of us but yet we don't get to keep the pictures.  So we went to DaleLynn Photography to get pictures taken of the kids.  Here are some of the pics that she took - it was an awesome experience.  And we got the copyright so we can make as many prints as we want - yipee!

Right now I'm on a little hiatus since it is finals week and I've been spending all my free time grading and working on next session.  I'll have a Friday night class next session - bummer.  I'll also be teaching 5 classes (2 online) which is quite a lot for me.  Hopefully I'll survive. The good thing is that this is my last session before my break.

Yea....that's right....

8 weeks off!! No work!

Books I'm reading:

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.  This book is for our Coo* book club and I love it.  The writing is good and I'm drawn in by the story.
• The Born Queen by Greg Keyes. This is the last book in a 4 book series.  I have about 75 pages to go and the main character was just killed.  I'm not sure if this is a red wedding kind of thing like Martin or if she is not really dead.  Either way - this book is great and I can't wait to finish it.
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark.  This book combines two things I love: magic and Jane Austen's England. The tone of the writing and much about the writing is exactly like Pride and Prejudice (I daresay!).  I love it!  Plus it has magic.  Lots of neat magic.  There is also something in the undertone of Jane Austen and Susanna Clark's writing that is whimsical I daresay.  There are many places I laugh although in our day it wouldn't seem like a joke!
• Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst (I think).  This book started out great but I'm not enjoying it so much. The book is about replacing a food addiction with an addiction to God.  However the author doesn't eat sugar, bread, pasta, etc.  To me that sounds like she still has a food addiction.  Unless you are turly free to eat whatever you want and worship God - then you are still a food addict (imo).
• I'm probably reading 10 other books but can't remember them now. Isn't that sad :)

78 points on Quiddler today!

You love me

Happy Valentines Day!
For Valentines Day I wrote a poem to my love, my God.  I am not a poet and writer like my brother-in-law and friend so don't be too critical of me.

You Love Me

You created me, fashioning me in your image

You spoke to me, filling my heart with your beauty

You corrected me, guiding me when I failed you

You answered me, teaching me your ways are not mine

You rescued me, pulling me up from the sea of my depression

You caught me, dragging me down from my lofty pride

You died for me, cleansing me from sin's stain

You saved me, returning from the grave with new life

You changed me, purifying me with your fire

You love me, pursuing me with your unceasing love

void bringer()

I was inspired from reading Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings to write a little C++ program. If you have a C++ compiler handy (doesn't everyone??) feel free to run the code. No it is not spectacular but I wanted to do something fun! By the way - my code does have spoilers!

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

void bringer(void);

void main (void ){

//The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson - loved it!
//Reading about the void bringers I just had to create a function void bringer().

cout << "What are the void bringers? "<<endl;
bringer();
cout << "\n\nThank you for playing!"<<endl;

}

void bringer(){
char option = 'x'; //x is my default
//keep looping until the user chooses a valid option
do {
cout<< "\n(K)aladin"
<< "\n(S)hallan"
<< "\n(D)alinar"
<< "\n(P)arshendi\n"
<< "Choose one:";
cin >> option;

switch (option) {
case 'K': case 'k':
cout<< "\nI will protect those who cannot protect themselves. Not a voidbringer. Try again";
//I loved this part in the book. Chapter 67. Oh my. It might be my
//favorite chapter in any book.
break;

case 'S': case 's':
cout<<"\nI'm a murderer. I killed my father. Not a voidbringer. Try again";
//We thought she might have killed him and took his shardblade
break;

case 'D': case 'd':
cout<< "\nWhat is a man's life worth? Not a voidbringer. Try again";
//Wow this chapter made me love Dalinar!
break;

case 'P': case 'p':
cout<< "\nRight on!";
//I didn't see this one coming
break;

default: cout << "\nPlease try again :)\n";

}
} while ((option != 'p')&&(option !='P'));

}

Bathtime for my Ducklings

I have stopped chewing ice. I knew it had to come to this. I got my crown on Tuesday the result of endless ice chewing and now I am giving up ice entirely.

Yes.

I am just drinking mildly cold water sans ice to prevent another broken tooth incident. We'll see how long I last.

Matthew is now taking baths in the big bathtub. Sometimes his sisters want to join him. He loves them. Just loves them! He is happy as long as he can watch whatever they are doing. He also loves bathtime.

Valentines day is Monday and my exciting idea for Valentines was not met with excitement by my husband. I wanted to do two iron chefs. He would go get a secret ingredient for me and I would get one for him. I thought it would be fun. Of course I'm teaching Monday night so it would have to be a different day. He didn't sound really excited about it though.

Erik gets me roses every Valentines Day. In fact, he has gotten me roses every Valentines day since 1994. So I'm looking forward to roses and chocolate (can't forget the chocolate).

I also posted a picture of the four batches of peanut butter cup cookies I made. These are a chocolate peanut butter lovers dream. I made them for our ladies spa night at church and for the guys board gaming night Erik is having. And I ate so much dough that I only ate cottage cheese for dinner because I wasn't hungry. Not good.

84 points on Quiddler today.

Matthew's friends

Matthew has friends, lots of friends. Here is a picture of Matthew and Tyson. Tyson is 2 1/2 months younger and someday they will be friends (as long as Matthew doesn't squish him!).

Matthew also has a lot of lady friends. Here he is in a playpen with three little girls. You can see what he's thinking....

On a different topic - I have been learning so much since reading What the Bible is All About by Henrietta Mears. I know I've talked about this before, but I'm really enjoying this. While I've read through the Bible a few times, I have not connected the Bible as one big story before. Mears describes the central theme of the Bible as redemption.

She also ties in all the books together to illustrate Jesus our Savior throughout the entire Bible.
Just a few examples: Exodus shows Jesus as the Passover Lamb, Judges shows Jesus as our deliverer judge, Ruth shows Jesus as our kinsman redeemer, Esther shows Jesus as our advocate, 1&2Kings show Jesus as our king...

The list goes on.

While all of this may be obvious to everyone else but me - I like it spelled out (I might be slow). I'm enjoying seeing Jesus in the entire Bible. Now I need to translate that and share Jesus with everyone else.

On another absolutely different topic. Really this is absolutely different.

I confessed to Erik a hobby that I would love to take up. He thinks I'm crazy. Yes crazy! I would love to be a bird watcher. I even picked up a book at the library about it. There are so many beautiful birds in our backyard and I'd love to learn their songs. I'd also like to catalog some of the different birds I see when we go camping. Someday we will go camping all around the US but we have small children so that isn't happening now. Then my glorious dreams of seeing birds can come true.

By the way- if you were wondering how my body wrap went, it was not a success. One of the women lost 3" in her waist and another lost 6". Sometimes it happens that after a body wrap you will gain inches. Yes - that was me. I gained an inch. Erik didn't understand why I paid them $20 to make me fatter. Such is life...

60 points on Quiddler today.

Kids!

It seems like birthdays have been going on for 2 months. Jenna had her birthday party with friends at Chuck E Cheese. The kids had a great time, but....

Kids....


Kids....


Kids!!!


Chuck E Cheese was wall-to-wall kids. There were 6 birthday parties going on at the same time Jenna's was. It was mass chaos, confusion, clutter, and craziness. Sarah wants her party at Chuck E Cheese next but I don't know. That was a lot of kids!






In other news:

1. We have been home bound for 3 days. The huge ice storm that hit (while I was driving home from work at 11pm) lasted for several days. Jenna's school was called off as well as my evening class. So we stayed home. I made homemade pad thai (something I've been wanting to try), chocolate mousse, challah bread, pork chops in a vidalia onion wine sauce, and pork roast. Yes - over 3 days. If the weather does not get better soon I will gain weight.
2. Speaking of gaining weight, my neighbor is hosting a body wrap party. I am getting my body wrapped on Saturday which is supposed to help me lose inches from my waist. Sounds like a scam temporary fix to me but I will support my neighbor. Can't take off years of chocolate with some saran wrap honey!
3. We are on chapter 67 in the Way of Kings. I can not wait. I CAN NOT wait to finish this book. This is pure torture waiting. I will survive though.
4. I just started reading Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst. It is a book about replacing food in our lives with God. Then I won't need to wrap myself in saran wrap.
5. I'm reading lots of other books now too. I can't seem to read just one book at a time.
6. I asked Erik to make me a chocolate lava cake and he did - what an awesome husband!
7. 73 points on Quiddler today

Princess on Ice

The girls had a fabulous time at Disney Princess on Ice! The tickets were expensive ($30 apiece!) and I wasn't expecting a great show but I was surprised. The show was really good and almost 2 hours! My camera didn't do it justice but you can somewhat see the stage with the huge castle and Cinderella and her prince ice skating. The show was great! The girls dressed up too. In the picture is Sarah, Jenna, Kate, and Paige. They had a wonderful time!


We will certainly want to go next year.

Maybe Matthew will come too. He is getting so big! At his last appointment he weighed in at 21lbs 6oz. Sarah weighs 28 lbs. She's 3. He is 7 months old and a porker! Here is a video of him enjoying the jumperoo (listen closely you can hear it groan under his massive girth).



My attempt to potty train Sarah by just putting her in underwear and "seeing what happened" failed miserably. For a few days I tried this. I think we are back to square one. Potty training is pretty terrible. Jenna maintains that Sarah isn't ready and I should stop forcing her to potty train. Why does my 6 year old have more wisdom than I do?

72 points on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "raiding".

Birthdays!

On Thursday Jenna celebrated her 6 year birthday while Matthew celebrated his 7 month birthday. It was a big day at our house!

Jenna requested a purple cake with purple frosting (shown in picture) and we celebrated with blueberry pancakes.

I took the obligatory picture of Matthew with his stuffed animal to show his growth (there is much growth!). He is soooo big and sooo happy. He is my joy.

The girls absolutely love him. Although he is not getting in their toys yet. Matthew loves to eat (shouldn't it be obvious?) and I snapped some videos of the girls helping to feed him. Here is Jenna and here is Sarah feeding Maffawu.

We met my parents, sisters, and Erik's parents at Ruby Tuesdays in Cambridge to celebrate Jenna's birthday and Dad Cooper's birthday. It was a great time and the kids did really well. Plus Ruby Tuesdays is yummy. That crab cake I had there was amazing! Crab cakes = yum!

39 points on Quiddler today!

My Ways, His Ways

I will post soon about Jenna's birthday and Matthew's 7 month birthday on Thursday. However I wanted to write about how God spoke to me. I'm reading this book called What the Bible is About in tandem while I read the Bible. It is an excellent summary and helping me understand several parts of the Bible I was cloudy on before. In fact, I've fallen in love with Samuel! What an amazing prayer warrior.

Something that has always tripped me up are verses like this " ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” ~1Samuel 15:2-3.

Why?

Why put to death infants?

I know God cares about babies, especially very early in pregnancy. So why order the death of these babies. It has always been a sticky point with me and caused me problems.

While I was praying about this issue last night, the verse "my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts" (paraphrased Isaiah 55:8) came to my mind. I believe God answered my prayer and spoke those words to me. I am not going to know the "why" in this life but God has his ways. They are far above my ways. Praise God for speaking to me about this!

Iron Chef: Sugar!

Sugar and spice and everything nice! That's what this Iron Chef was.


It's been a long time but we finally did Iron Chef again. I was so happy and Erik was so happy that I finally stopped bugging him to do it. I just love iron chef!


Anyway - SUGAR! Wow - can it get ANY better??? That was my secret ingredient. YUM!


I made 5 dishes

1. Sweet Sushi - ever since we made sushi over New Years when everyone was here, I've been a little obsessed with sushi. In fact, Erik made taco sushi the other day (no joke). Anyway, I made sweet sushi with extra sugar, cream cheese, and chocolate ships all wrapped in seaweed. It actually worked.


2. Cinnamon baked alaska - I made a sugar cookie base and topped it with cinnamon meringue. Yum! This dish was good but it needed some caramel or something else. I've also been obsessed with baked alaska. I made it for Tim and Jen a few months ago with a brownie base, but it was not successful since the brownies were way too hard. Maybe a sugar cookie base would be better.


3. Sweet pasta salad - this was Erik's favorite dish. I made pasta with a browned butter sauce then mixed in berries and citrus (including grapefruit which I do not like, but I added it to balance the overwhelming sweetness). This dish worked very well.


4. French silk creme brulee - I've made creme brulee many times. I'm not sure why I decided that in a rushed hour I was going to make creme brulee. I know you have to let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 8 hrs to set up. We do not have a blast chiller (I should put it on my wish list!) so unfortunately my creme brulee did not set up. However the flavor in this was excellent! It was better than my recipe for chocolate creme brulee however since I heavily modified the recipe for this iron chef I'll probably never be able to duplicate it!
5. Blackberry lime tart - ooooh yea! This was great! I made a sugar cookie base topped with a lime flavored cream cheese layer with freshly grated lime peel and topped that with fresh blackberries. The blackberry lime combination was so good! I'll have to remember it. I gave this dish a 9 for taste!

Overall this was a really fun iron chef even though I did have trouble with a main dish (yes I did make pasta). Erik and I rated the dishes the same at 15.2. This is a pretty average rating (apples were the highest rated iron chef and prego sauce the lowest basically due to the prego salmon - yuck!).

81 points on Quiddler today!

On My Honor!

Jenna is now a Daisy Scout. She had her Daisy scout investiture ceremony last Monday. Unfortunately I was teaching and unable to be there. However it went well and Jenna even remembered the girl scout promise and the make new friends song.

In addition, Jenna has lost her two front teeth. She is so adorable! It hasn't caused her problems when speaking. However the morning after she lost her other front tooth, the tooth fairy forgot to put money under her pillow. Luckily a potential disaster was diverted when the tooth fairy ran downstairs and pulled some candy out of the candy box as Jenna was eating breakfast. The tooth fairy was running a little late that day.

Right now I'm teaching C++ and loving it! I haven't taught programming in over a year. (I didn't teach for 3 months after having Matthew so I might be a little rusty). Normally I teach database programming or ASP.NET or VB.NET. C++ is very different yet so much fun to teach.

In other news, today as we were going to make pasta for lunch Erik noticed lots of white things in the pasta. OMG! Bugs!

I am not eating buggy pasta! We discovered 10 boxes of pasta (yes we have a lot of food stores) with little bugs in them. Apparently they are wheat weevils. That was nasty. Then the girls wouldn't even eat the non-buggy pasta. Maybe we should stick to pb&j.

I've already broken most of my New Years Resolutions and it isn't even February. I may have gone to bed only three or four times prior to 12:34am and we're already 15 days into January. I haven't been doing my Bible reading plan. I also have not exercised 3 times a week. This will greatly hinder my ultimate goal of losing my baby weight and getting back down to <=123 pounds. I'm just weird about numbers.

Anyway, maybe I should make New New years resolutions!

43 on Quiddler today!

The New Year!

Christmas and New Years was spectacular! We had 8 adults and 3 children crammed in our house for 4 days and loved it. We did a whole lot of gaming (awesome), went shopping, went to Caribou coffee, got to see Jon and Michelle (also awesome), made sushi, and had a merry time together.




Te celebrate our love for Harry Potter, I got invisibility cloaks for the brothers and their wives(I've stopped thinking of them as Erik's brothers)

and have included a *video* of the cloaks working. You will be amazed! You will also notice that I've even left the cat and various papers, etc in place just to show the authenticity (and I didn't feel like photoshopping them out).

So I'm not done with lists. (oh no... not again!)Here are my New Years Resolutions:

1. Send birthday cards to my family on time. I'm really bad about this. Really bad.
2. Finish my 100 day Bible reading plan. It is not the whole Bible but it is a good plan (it skips a lot of the begets).
3. Go to bed <= 12:34am.
4. Exercise 3 times a week.

I couldn't do more resolutions since I would break them immediately. These are my goals for the whole year. Hopefully I will stick with them.

Books I've recently read/am reading:

1. Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson. Wow! I love Mat in this book and so many good things happen. This book focuses more on the good characters rather than the forsaken (and I care more about the good characters). David had mentioned that he thought Mat had gotten stale - I agree about this, but Mat was hilarious in this book!
2. The Revival of Song by Jon C. Cook. This is an awesome book by my awesome friend. I can't give too much away but this will be a great series. I'm looking forward to the next book.
3. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. This book is the third in the Inheritance series. While I like this book, there are several parts that he could have left out that did not affect the plot(to make the story shorter). He writes like Robert Jordan in that he puts a lot of detail into everything. I don't mind that much though - just takes longer to read.
4. What the Bible is all About by Henrietta Mears. This book takes each section of the Bible and gives a summary. It also summarizes parts of the Bible in short little easily memorizable sections. For example, she says the Bible is about: Generation (creation of the world), Degeneration (sin enters the world), Regeneration (Jesus comes to restore God's kingdom). There are a lot of cute little things like that in the book.
5. The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. This book is getting very good and I'm so glad to be reading this with our Cooper Book club!

58 points today - atrocious!

The Prodigal Son- Win!

Christmas is magical for my girls. I love the anticipation, the excitement, and the joy they display when seeing the gifts Christmas morning. Of course opening gifts is also fun. They tend to love the cheap dollar store gifts as much as the expensive gifts. Matthew is just content looking at his hands.

I've included a picture of Erik's dad's train setup. It is multilevel and very cool. The girls get so excited they jump up and down when he runs the train. Sarah continually asks to see it, and Jenna likes to climb underneath the tables. Again, Matthew is more interested in eating his hands.

Because I love lists and this is the time we remember the birth of our Savior. I have composed a list of my top 10 favorite parables of Jesus.

1. The Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11-32. This is an amazing story. It really shows God's forgiveness. The song "When God Ran" by Benny Hester makes me cry every time I hear it.
2. The Persistent Widow. Luke 18:1-8. It tells me "keep praying." There are many things I've been praying for that I'm not sure will ever happen (ie, the end of abortion). But God says be persistent. So I will. Note: Erik empathizes with the judge in this one due to having a 3 and 6 year old (yes...you can have another snack just leave me alone).
3. The Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Luke 18:9-14. Pride can happen to anyone but a humble heart is what God desires. It is so easy to become prideful - we must constantly guard ourselves against it. (For those who read the Way of Kings - we need some humblespren).
4. The Good Samaritan. Luke 10:29-37. Not only is this a good story to show who is your neighbor, but it is a story telling us we should help those in need. Whether their car is broken on the side of the road or they are stranded somewhere. We can offer help.
5. The Lost Sheep. Matthew 18:10-14. This story is similar to the Prodigal Son in that it shows how much God cares for each of us. He is willing to go and find the lost sheep. He is the great shepherd.
6. The Sower. Matthew 13:1-23. Your heart must be open to hearing the Word when it is presented to you so that it can take root and flourish in your heart. Sometimes I think I need miracle grow.
7. Laborers in the Vineyard. Matthew 20:1-16. The laborers all receive the same salary even though some worked longer than others. This is good news for all of us - we are still valued by God even though we are not salting it up like Billy Graham.
8. Pearl of Great Price. Matthew 13:45-46. This parable is about the kingdom of Heaven. The pearl is worth far more than everything you own. Maybe you also need a bucket to carry the pearl. Hey I have one!
9. The Invited Guests. Luke 14:7-24. In this parable, Jesus tells his disciples to sit at a less honored spot when attending a dinner rather than taking the best place for themselves. Another parable about humility.
10. The Speck and the Log. Luke 6:37-42. This parable blasts all the hypocrites for their hypocrisy. I know I would be in that category too.

That's my list. Erik was dismayed to find that the parable of the Ten Talents was not on the list but I've never liked that one as much as other parables.

In a few days the brothers and their wives and Erik's parents will be here. I can't wait! Gaming and family and food! Mostly gaming!

45 points on Quiddler. I got stuck with the V and D!