New Cat and New Car

I'm only a month behind on my blog. That's not too bad. I have more time now than when the kids were little but I'm more lazy now. My neighbor came over with her 2 year old for me to babysit. Wow. I forgot. You have to watch them all the time and pay attention to them. On Matthew's off kindergarten days I sit in the computer room the entire time on conference calls and let him just play by himself. I love the ages of my kids!! They are so easy.

Happy Birthday

Jenna had her 12th birthday on January 20th. We celebrated by making a dinner of her choice. Lemon shrimp pasta, salmon (for Grandpa), homemade bread, mashed potatoes, and lemon raspberry cake. The day after her birthday she had a cupcake wars party. We invited a few of her friends and they made cupcakes. Three out of four groups made chocolate. The cupcakes turned out really good. I gave out boxes filled with the cupcakes to each girl. We had a LOT of leftover cupcakes! It was fun and I think everyone had a great time.

Jenna cooking

Mixing the cupcakes

Decorating cupcakes

Tasting cupcakes

All the girls with their cupcake creations

Sarah was the taste tester

 The party was a hit. Jenna had a great time. The flavors were: chocolate peanut butter (won for best taste), chocolate mint with edible chocolate rocks (won for flavor combination), blackberry lemon cupcakes (this was Jenna's group, won for uniqueness), chocolate pokemon cupcakes (won for best decoration).

I had to snap a picture of Sarah in her fighting gear. This gear is expensive and soon we will all be getting some as we will be taking the test for blue belt in a few weeks. I can't wait to beat up Erik! Today in tae kwon do one of the other little boys asked Sarah to be his girlfriend. He is a 1st grader. Apparently he likes older women. Sarah said OK. However Sarah has another little boy who gave her a special valentine who I know has a crush on her. Yikes!! I'm scared for when she becomes a teenager.,...

Sarah doing tae kwon do

 The week before Christmas Matt and Sunshine asked us to watch their cat Theo. They were trying to find a new home for him because the dog was biting him. We said sure we will watch him but we couldn't take a new pet. Yeah right. The kids FELL IN LOVE with Theo! We really love Theo but Twinkles does not. She runs away from him and spends all her time on top of the refrigerator. I'm hoping she will start to like him. I'm a little worried he is terrorizing her.

Theo

My favorite zumba teacher is moving to California. I don't think anyone realizes how awful this is for me. My zumba class is kind of like a family.  I look forward to it every week and really love the teacher Lindsay. Finding a good zumba teacher is really hard. I'm going to a class called Heart of Soul on Tuesdays at the Y. It is a workout/Bible study. I look forward to that class too but zumba with Lindsay is the highlight of my week. I plan activities around it.

Last Friday I did a strip club outreach with my church. Me and a team of 4 other women went to 9 strip clubs and delivered gifts to the strippers there. They really loved the gifts and were so thankful. We wanted to show them they are loved by God too. I even got to pray with a stripper! It was so exciting!


Today we bought a "new" car. It is a 2008 Ford Explorer. We have a 2002 and a 2005 cars so this one is new for us! The car is great and rides really smoothly. We love it! Now we will have to say goodbye to the taurus!  No tears here.....

Our new car!

I've made so much jam lately testing new flavors. My jam business is actually doing really well. I have had several people contact me through facebook to buy jam. My new flavors are blackberry merlot, strawberry balsalmic black pepper, and strawberry chardonnay. I'm also thinking of trying a pear cinnamon. I thought of adding fresh ginger to the pear cinnamon but I'm not sure as that is a really strong flavor. I think I'll do one with ginger and one without.

Next session I have to teach onsite. Bummer. I have to shower and go into the office and dress up. Yuck. Hopefully I won't have to teach onsite in summer.