Chocolate weekend!

Tricia sent me a picture after the triathlon last Sunday. Since she and Erik finished before me, they were waiting for me to cross the finish line to take a picture. Since the triathlon, Erik and Tricia have been trash talking each other. He really wants to beat her next year. If my friend Lynn joins us next year we will have to up our trash talking - I don't know if we could beat her though.

Tricia, Erik, and me after the triathlon (literally I had just crossed the finish line and got my bottle of water!)

 Last weekend we went camping at Buckeye Lake for chocolate weekend. The Knupps and the Prices also joined us and stayed in cabins. Last year Jenna was hesitant to go in the chocolate slip and slide. She had no such qualms this year and got drenched in chocolate pudding. Erik's new theory is that he will lose 20 lbs and that will help him beat Tricia in the triathlon next year. So even though it was chocolate weekend he didn't eat any chocolate! I, however ate lots of chocolate!  I doubt I'll beat Tricia. Plus she brought a dozen cupcakes from this fancy downtown bakery. Of course I'm going to eat some!

Addie and Sarah in the camp chair

Jenna covered in chocolate pudding

The chocolate slip-n-slide

 Last week the kids had VBX at church. It is Vacation Bible Extreme. It was extreme! I was the leader for the 4-5 year olds. Sarah was in my group and she is on the end holding a huge boa constrictor. She had no fear!  The kids really loved the activities and the River radio station came and handed out goodie bags to the kids.

The yellow boa

77 points on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "pewter". Some days I feel like I need to burn pewter just to keep going (Mistborn reference - yipee!)

Giant Eagle Triathlon

Did we reach our goals in the Giant Eagle Triathlon?  Yes!!
At 3:15am we woke up to start our day. Since the triathlon is point to point, we had to leave our car downtown, and a bus shuttled us to the lake. The swimming part was at Alum Creek lake, then we rode our bikes to downtown Columbus, and ended with a 5K around downtown. It was awesome.

Swim 1/2 mile: Swimming was much better in this race. I swam the whole way! However I am definitely a slow swimmer since I swam 1/2 mile in 22 minutes and Erik walked/backfloated the whole way and swam in 24 minutes. Tricia smoked us with a time of 19 minutes on the swim.


Bike 19.2 miles. The Bike course was so much fun! Police officers were there to direct traffic so we were able to just ride. I didn't fall (and didn't wear my fancy clip-in shoes) and felt confident. I rode in 1 hours 13 minutes for an average speed of about 15.8mph. Pretty exciting for someone who started riding a road bike June 15! Although Erik smoked me with a time of 1 hour 3 minutes on the bike (and he just started riding too!). Tricia did the bike course in 1 hour 4 minutes. They were flying!

Bike course

Run 5k. The run was beautiful through downtown. I was suprised that there were actually beautiful paths in downtown Columbus by the water. My run time was 31:46. Say what? I've never done a 5K in less than 32 minutes and especially not after biking and swimming. I think I must have been excited to do this and just moved my feet. Erik said he was just walking on the course when Tricia caught up with him and made him run. He put in a time of 33:24 on the run - his fastest run time ever. Tricia ran in 32:05. If Tricia would have just let Erik walk then I might have beaten him. But no.... she had to get him to run.

The overall time for this triathlon was:
Tricia at 1:57:25
Erik at 2:03:23
Gina at 2:09:50

Erik beat me which was his goal. My goal was to finish in less than 2:15 and I did. This triathlon was great and I didn't freak out during the swim portion so it was a success. 

Erik loved doing the triathlon too and is already planning for next year. I'll have to work on beating him and Tricia next year.

Interview with the Girls

I read on Pinterest that you should interview your children every once in awhile to generate discussion. So I did. Following are my interview questions to Jenna and Sarah and their responses (I could ask Matthew but that would not be very productive). Although he has added a new word to his massive vocabulary. Now he can say: uh oh, hee haw, on, and eoweow for cat. WOW!

1. What is your biggest dream?
Jenna: To go back in time and see what it was like to live as Rose (Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter from Little House on the Prarie).
Sarah: To have a pet unicorn

2. What is your best memory this school year?
Jenna: On the first day of art class we all had to draw a picture. The teacher said she really liked my picture.
Sarah: Making a picture with splatter paint. Then everyone's picture is the best!  (Sarah actually said this)

3. What are you most proud of yourself for?
Jenna: Reading
Sarah: Writing

4. What 3 words best describe you?
Jenna: Jenna, brown, ilovesarah (she requested this be one word)
Sarah: Sarah, red, ilovejenna

5. If you could keep one thing what would it be?
Jenna: Daddy, Mommy, Sarah, Matthew, Scruffles, Butterscotch
Sarah: Daddy, Mommy, Jenna, Scruffles, Butterscotch, Panda (notice the missing person)

The girls really liked the interview so I'm going to have to come up with some more questions for them.

Our garden is doing really well and I've had to come up with several zucchini recipes. We have been eating a lot of zucchini cakes lately too. They are yummy :). As we were looking at our pumpkin plant, we noticed a good sized "pumpkin" growing. Ummm... I think this might be a watermelon plant, or this pumpkin has some issues. So maybe we will pick this "pumpkin" and make pumpkin pie!  It may or may not be red with black seeds!

Our "pumpkin"

Sarah jumping off the fourth step

Our triathlon is coming soon and I'm excited! I hope all my injuries will completely heal before then. Erik asked me what my goal was for this triathlon and I said finishing in less than 2 hours and 15 minutes. Since the bike course on this race is 7 miles longer than the last one I think this is a good goal. I asked Erik what his goal was and he said to beat me. Okay.....BRING IT ON!

74 points on Quiddler today

Chopped Basket #2

Erik brought me another chopped basket that he *thought* would be easy for me. However I don't think it was as successful as my first chopped basket. My chopped basket contained:

• Pork chops
• Bagels
• Tortilla chips
• Limes

My Chopped Creation

 This sounds like I could make something Mexican. I went a little different route. I made a pulled pork sandwich with an avocodo lime Jack Daniels sauce (hey - you've got to cook for the judges, ya know!). On the side I made corn cake with crushed tortillas. The sandwich turned out really good even though the Jack was a little strong for me. Erik loved it. The corn cake was too dry. The inclusion of crushed tortillas just made the whole dish dry. The kids loved it though. This was a fun basket - not my best, but still fun!

I signed up the girls for summer camps through the Metroparks this year. Sarah went to Peek-a-boo and Nature too for ages 3-5 and Jenna went to Workin for a Living for Grades 1-3. The camps were fantastic. Jenna got to go fishing and even caught a fish! Every day they did fun activities outside to learn about nature and wear them out. Jenna went to her camp with Nicholas so she had a friend with her.

Nicholas and Jenna at camp. Jenna was very happy!

My biking woes:
I've had some ups and downs with my new road bike. Actually quite a few downs. On Monday I rode to church because I had a meeting and fell down. This is easy to do with clip in shoes if you don't unclip in time. I scraped up my knee (which was bleeding pretty badly), hurt my shoulder and hip (yes, complain complain - I'm getting older okay!).

Since my knee and shoulder were tender, I didn't swim at all and didn't go running until Friday (yesterday). This is a problem since my triathlon is coming up and I need to train. I pretty much lost a week of training.

Today I rode 30 miles ....and fell 3 times. I really had a lot of trouble unclipping in time and with my balance. My other knee was skinned so badly blood was running down my leg. Both knees are skinned now! Walking is painful and my shoulder is out of commission. Yes - I'm a loser! After falling the third time, I told Erik I was done with the shoes. I know he is disappointed in me since he really wanted me to wear the shoes but I am typing this with three ice packs on me now. Yep, done with the shoes.

Unfortunately I'm going to lose another week of training. I can't run or swim in this condition. I hope I can make it through the triathlon!

96 points on quiddler today

Road bikes and bright shirts

I mentioned in a previous post that Erik and I both bought road bikes. Yes - we broke down and bought them. Although it was rather easy to convince Erik since he loves biking.  Convincing him to buy two $600 road bikes has been easier than convincing him to buy a $19 salad spinner (because he obviously doesn't want it!) but hey - that's how it goes.

I still want a salad spinner.

We went to Performance Bike and bought their entry level road bikes: Scattante bikes, and we also bought clip in shoes. We've been really happy with the bikes and I'm not quite so embarrassed by my bike anymore (my hybrid bike is still awesome by the way and we use it for family bike rides). 

The clip in shoes give you greater efficiency and power since you can both push down and pull up on the pedal when biking. I've used them a few times and have fallen down (couldn't get my foot out in time) but I do like the extra power on hills especially.

Erik and I biked 16 miles on the Olentangy trail on Thursday at 12 mph. This was so much fun. The scenery was excellent and I loved the ride. Both of us had these fashionable (put your sunglasses on NOW or you might burn your eyes on Erik's shirt) shirts for our ride. The Olentangy trail is like Grand Central Station but we were able to ride just fine and didn't run into anyone (always a plus!).

Erik all decked out!

Erik has not done much swimming laps and he wasn't sure about the swimming part of our triathlon. So he tested his speed today. It took him 35 seconds to swim one length of the pool and 33 seconds to walk. It looks like he will be walking in the water for the triathlon rather than swimming. I have been diligently reading websites and watching youtube videos to improve my technique. Hopefully I can swim rather than walk in the water!

74 points on quiddler today.

I'm not giving up on that salad spinner either.

Surprise tomatillos!

Erik hates running.

Erik hates swimming.

Naturally, he would register to do the next triathlon with me.

I'm not sure what he's thinking (or what I'm thinking for doing another triathlon) but he is training to do this with me. I'm excited that we can do this together!

I've posted a picture of David, Becca, and new baby Charlotte!







David, Charlotte, and Becca

 So many birthdays in June and July! Dave, Becca, and Charlotte all have birthdays in July. Me and Missy's fiance Dave have birthdays in July. My Dd and Matthew have birthdays in June. My family met to celebrate together and my Mom got this cake with batman in a batcave. We had great fun sending batman flying out of the batcave.

Our combined birthday cake

 Our garden looks spectacular! Erik had to fashion a few cages to keep the animals out of our lettuce but other than that our plants are doing really well. Unfortunately all our tomatoes are still green so we are waiting. (Impatiently I might add as I love fresh tomatoes.) The pumpkins, zucchini, and cucumbers are growing everywhere though. We've had a lot of zucchini and I made zucchini cakes (because there's only so much zucchini bread you can make). These were like crab cakes but with zucchini instead. Everyone loved them (except Matthew but he doesn't count since all he eats is mac and cheese and cashews).

Our garden amidst dead grass (oh I guess we were supposed to water the grass too)

See the picture below - our pepper plants are growing really well. However I peeked closer and noticed that they are not pepper plants (apparently my note-taking skills on the garden were lacking). These are tomatillo plants. There are a lot of tomatillos so we will be able to make green salsa and whatever else you do with tomatillos :).

tomatillo plants

 The girls have pretty much played with the legos nonstop. Here is Jenna with her lego house and lego yard. They are having a blast with the legos and I'm so glad. We are raising budding engineers!

Jenna and her lego creations

I just finished reading Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig. I loved the ending of this book better than Scarlett. It was great to see life from Rhett Butler's point of view.

I've picked up Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist. This series has been on my list for awhile but never got around to it. It's kind of a vanilla fantasy story but I like vanilla fantasy stories so it's a fun read.

I also got Wings of Wrath by C.S. Friedman in from the library so I'll start on that soon. It is the next book in the Magister trilogy. Of course I'm not sure when I'll get this reading done since I'm back to work again. Work gets in the way of all my reading!

66 points on Quiddler today!

The Little Blue Explorer that Could

Our V6 Explorer survived the 28 hour round trip pulling our camper to and from Minnesota. We were actually a little surprised at how well the Explorer did on some of the hills especially near the Mississsippi River. Erik drove 24 hours and I drove 4 hours. Seems about right.

Day 1: Got up at 5am and drove to Wisconsin camping at the Madison KOA. This was about 9-10 hours of driving and the kids did great in the car. Jenna read, Sarah played on the Kindle, and Matthew pointed at things out the window. We stopped at a rest area to eat along the way and had dinner once we got there. Then we went to Culvers for Ice cream. Yum Culvers! They are everywhere in WI!

Swinging in Wisconsin

Day 2: We arrived in Minnesota! We camped at St. Paul East RV Park and loved it.  Our spot was shady and secluded. We went swimming every day and had ice cream every day. Obviously that worked out well. Joel, Megan, and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us at the campsite Sunday where we ate hot dogs and corn on the cob and played the bean game. They surprised me with a birthday cake!

Hanging out at the campsite in 100 degree weather

Joel's upside down smile (I guess it could be a frown)

Day 3: After a sleepless night since Matthew could climb out of the crib, Erik found Home Depot and fashioned a little extra height on the crib. He had to buy a drill, wood, screws, etc. But this solution worked fabulously and Matthew couldn't climb out. Next we met everyone at the Mall of America. We went to Legoland and bought girl themed Legos. Sarah went crazy since she loves legos and is currently (as I type this) playing with the girl legos. Jenna is currently reading Charlotte's Web in honor of her new cousin! The mall has an underwater sea exhibit with jellyfish and other sea creatures. We toured this exhibit which was a lot of fun. Then we all went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe!

Matthew in the camper crib

Day 4: We felt great Tuesday morning so both Erik and I got up and went running. We didn't know where we were going :) but just took off in a neighborhood around the campground. I ran 3.7 miles and Erik ran 3 miles. I couldn't believe he ran 3 miles. He hates running! I also couldn't believe he ran about as far as me since I've been running my whole life and he's been running 2 weeks! Then we went to Tom and Katie's house for a cookout. Tom and Katie have 2 girls: Kira and Julia. We also got to see our Thursday night teamspeak buddy Dan and his wife Regina and their son Isaac. It was so much fun! Excluding the short jokes from Erik, Joel AND Dan!

They had a slip and slide which the kids enjoyed and Tom even went down the slip and slide fully clothed. Good times.  After the cookout I took the kids home and Erik stayed to play games. Joel's friends Tim, Tom, Troy, and Dan all played games until 4am. Erik had SO much fun.  I might have to fly him up there sometime just to play games with them. That's how much fun he had.

Thursday night teamspeak buddies! Erik, Me, Joel, and Dan

Kira, Julia, Sarah and Tom. All went in the slip and slide



Katie - our host for the cookout

Megan and some chips :)

Day 5: Independence Day! I took the kids and met the parents, Joel, Megan, and Erik at IHOP on July 4th and ate lots of carby pancakey goodness. Then we went back to the campground in the sweltering 100 degree heat so Matthew could take a nap. After the nap we went to the Legendary Nelson's Ice Cream. The servings there were

Huge

Let me make this clear. They were

HUGE

I took a picture of a child size cone just so you could understand. Did you see it? They give you a lot of ice cream. However this was not good since it was so hot. The ice cream melted immediately and just made a sticky yucky mess.


The Legendary Nelson's ice cream. You can see the cone in the picture

After eating ice cream we went to the goodwill store and Gander Mountain. We just needed to go somewhere with air conditioning. Then we ate pizza pies and smores cooked on the fire (yes we still made a fire even though it was so hot).

While we were eating we had news that Charlotte was born! She is a firecracker baby :). David emailed us that she weighed 7 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches long. Unfortunately Becca was in labor all day and the baby was caught on her tailbone. So ultimately Becca had to have a c-section. The baby and Becca are doing well now. Yipee! This was exciting news.

After the good news, we went to see fireworks. Matthew had never stayed up so late but he did fine and the girls had an incredible time.

Day 5&6: We left Minnesota with a teary good bye. We split up the 14 hour drive over 2 days and stayed at the LaSalle-Peru KOA in Illinois. The drive home went smoothly and we ate at Culvers for lunch one day (on my birthday!).

This was our first long road trip with the camper and it was fantastic! We grossly underestimated the mileage we would get pulling the camper. We only got about 10 miles per gallon and ended up spending almost $500 on gas. Yikes! However this was a really fun trip and I'm so glad we were able to go.

I did it in less than 2 hours!

At 5am this morning Tricia knocked on my door to pick me up for our sprint triathlon. This was our first triathlon and while it didn't start until 7am we wanted to get there plenty early. I'm glad we did since I was a little jittery with excitement.

You can see a little in the background of her picture the bike racks. We hung our bikes on these racks based on our age category. I was in the 35-39 category and Tricia was in the 30-34 category. Then we went to swim!

Me and Tricia before our triathlon

 Swim half a mile: The swimming part of the triathlon was in two waves. The 34 and under age group and the 35 + age group. Tricia was swimming with all the spring chickens and I was with all the old people. Fine with me!  When the race started for me I panicked. There were so many people in the water kicking around (I was kicked in the head and the side and I kicked other people) that I seriously freaked out. So I started to float on my back which I did for awhile. That wasn't so bad then and I could catch my breath. I was much slower but I finished the swimming part. I realized I didn't practice swimming in the open lake like this except one time. I could swim half a mile in the nice pool with pretty lane markers and clear water but the murky lake water is a little different.

We did it!

Bike 12.4 miles: After swimming I toweled off and put my shoes and helmet on and was off on my bike. I was one of the last ones out of the water due to my freaking out swimming stage so I was behind. I was riding faster than I'd ever ridden because of my new bike :). Last Friday we bought new road bikes. So I did have a road bike and could go much faster. However I had only gone on one long ride with it. I couldn't figure out how to get my water bottle out (so I was thirsty) and I was having trouble changing gears. I did okay in the biking but many of the Olympic triathletes passed me (they started swimming in a wave after me!).  We biked around the lake which was nice and scenic.

Run 5K: After biking I drank a lot of water. Then went straight to running. This was the event I had practiced the most and was most comfortable with. I run a 10 minute mile - pretty slow but I am consistent and was able to pass people and make up some time here. The running was beautiful. We ran on a bridge over the lake. I loved the scenic views and even saw some boats on the lake.

I ran to the finish line where Tricia's husband was taking pictures! Then crossed the finish line in 1 hour 47 minutes. I was so excited to finish in less than 2 hours.  I figured it would take 1/2 hour for swimming (I took longer I'm sure) about an hour for biking and 1/2 hour for running. The top people in our age group were doing the race in one hour 20 minutes.

We finished quick enough I could take a shower and go to church! Yipee!

My "little" boy is 2

My "little" baby is 2! I say "little" with reservations since Matthew is in the 90th percentile for height. I took him to the pediatrician today for his 2 year checkup and the Doctor said he will most likely be 6'1" or 6'2". He gets it from me.

Is this the face of a happy 2 year old?

 Matthew got a lot of fun gifts for his birthday. He likes this track rug that he can race cars on. Although Sarah might like it more :).

Matthew and Sarah playing with the car-track rug

One cupcake for the birthday boy

 My friends Jen, Andria, and Tricia came over for a playdate and the older kids had a water balloon fight. They loved it although I'm still finding bits of water balloon in my yard.  While the kids had a water balloon fight my friends and I ate Indian food. Andria had never tried it so I bought Chicken Tikka Masala, Saag Paneer, and Dal Makhini from Amul India. Andria loved it!

Water balloon fight!

Matthew's top ten. I always list my top ten favorite things (who doesn't love lists?) and thought I would list Matthew's top ten favorite things:

1. Popsicles. Just the mere mention of the word popsicle throws Matthew in some super excited state. He LOVES popsicles.
2. Outside. Matthew often brings his shoes to me or bangs on the door to go outside. He never wants to come indoors. Ever.
3. Swinging. This goes along with number 2. When we are outside, he loves to swing. When we go to parks he loves the swing there too. He will walk up to it and bang on it until Mommy pushes him in the swing.
4. Mommy. I love this :). Mommy is number 1 to Matthew. If Daddy leaves...meh. But if Mommy leaves the world is ending. Daddy can't even hug Mommy. He gets jealous.
5. Lights. All of the lights and ceiling fans are pretty much constantly on at our house. He loves to turn them on and off. If we turn the light off and he wants it on, he gets mad at us and flips the switch.
6. Opening and closing cabinets and doors. Matthew is constantly opening and closing doors and cabinets. We went to this fun music class and he spent the entire time opening and closing the cabinets.
7. Jumping. Most kids cry or play or somehow let you know they are done with their nap in a nice, sweet way. Matthew jumps. He is always jumping. It's nice that he doesn't scream after naps - just jumps.
8. Running. Why did I ever wish for him to walk? Now he runs and runs and runs specifically away from Mommy. I don't understand why since I'm number 4 on the list.
9. Milk. It does a Matthew good. He loves to drink milk to help him relax and settle down. He loves his cup of milk!
10. Music. At church Matthew loves the worship. He will dance to the music and tries to go up on stage. He loves our little keyboard and the xylophone at church. I hope he plays the saxophone like Mommy some day!

78 points on Quiddler today. I got to make the word jeez!

Roasting marshmallows and the dollar store

Last weekend we embarked on our first camping trip of the summer. We went to Cross Creek Camping Resort and had a great spot! This place doesn't have many pull-through spots but we got one - yipee! We roasted marshmallows, went swimming, played on the playground, and relaxed. This is exactly what I love about camping. It really does force me to stop working and relax and I needed that. I spend way too much time working on my classes and this weekend was perfect!

Roasting marshmallows

The girls are not supposed to sit in this luggage rack, so where else would Sarah be?

I caught you Sarah!

We have always put our pack and play on the couch in our camper and put the kids in there (Sarah when she was a baby and now Matthew). However Matthew is big and he jumps a lot. I really didn't want him in the pack and play on the couch since I thought there was a good chance he would knock it over. We bought a travel pack and play for him (shown). It is narrow so it fits perfectly in the spot for our table. At 1am he climbed out of it and was standing by our bed. He was up until 6am crying/fussing/not sleeping in his pack and play so we took it back to Babies R Us. We still need to find a better solution.

Matthew in the pack and play. Please stay in there. Please...

After our camping trip, I took the kids to my parents' house for a few days for another little vacation. My mom took the girls to the dollar store and gave them $5 to spend on whatever they wanted. This was apparently exciting because they LOVED it!

We also went to the McKinely museum and walked up 100 steps. Even Matthew walked up all 100 steps.

The next night when I read them a story before bed I read them a book about money. It explained about pennies, nickels, quarters, dollars, interest, banking, etc. I thought the book was really good for kids to understand money. At the end of the story you earn a million dollars (not for real obviously). After reading the book I asked Jenna what she would do with a million dollars. She said she would give it to the poor. How awesome is that? Sarah said she would go to the dollar store and buy a million things.  I laughed so hard at that :).

Jenna also impressed everyone with her algebra skills. I gave her the problem x+1 = 5 and asked her to solve it. She said 4 oh yea!  She can also do this with fractions!



86 points on Quiddler today!

My first Cupcake Wars

I've mentioned in a previous post that we watch cupcake wars every Sunday night together. I was really excited to try my own cupcake wars. Erik went to the store and bought 5 secret ingredients I had to use in two cupcake recipes. He bought:

1. Raspberries
2. Peanut butter
3. Pretzel M&Ms (aka, bite sized balls of heaven)
4. Sliced almonds
5. Caramel topping

 

My secret ingredients

 I made two types of cupcakes. A dark chocolate pretzel cupcake with peanut butter and caramel buttercream and a raspberry almond cupcake with berry cream cheese frosting. Erik thought the peanut butter was too strong in the peanut butter buttercream. (he doesn't understand peanut butter aficionados like me, Joel, and Dan. AMIRIGHT?). The berry cupcakes were very tasty however the frosting was too sweet. I should have cut it with some lemon juice but I only had so much time.

Cupcake wars!

Overall the cupcake wars was a success although I don't know if I would call it a war. We got to eat cupcakes so it was a success to me. I look horrible in the picture - I ran 3 miles that day. Don't look at me - just look at the cupcakes and my cute Sarah.

What is this blue thing? It has been plaguing me for weeks?

The school year is wrapping up. Sarah will be entering pre-kindergarten next year although we are discussing possibly petitioning to have her start kindergarten next year. We are still debating on what to do. Based on what her preschool teachers said she is two years ahead. I don't want her to be bored.

Jenna has read all the Little House books several times. I'm running out of books for her to read. The other books at this level seem too "scary" for her. I don't want her to be bored reading the same books over and over again (I think this is the fourth time I'm reading Mistborn so maybe it's not such a bad thing).

71 points on Quiddler today

Jenna's ballet recital was this past Sunday. She was a snowgirl in the Columbus Dance Arts three fairies and a tale recital. The recital was 3 1/2 hours long but it was a good show. Jenna did a great job dancing too!  It was fun watching the older girls dance - they are really good and maybe Jenna will be dancing like that someday.

Jenna: my little snowgirl

Jenna right before the performance!

 Sarah wanted to bake some bread (obviously - what else would a 4 year old want to do?). And she wanted to make berry bread. So I helped her make berry bread and she wrote out all the ingredients on a piece of paper to write out her "repice". The bread turned out pretty good too!  Sarah had her preschool graduation so now she is officially in pre-kindergarten. She has started reading a few words which is pretty exciting.

Sarah baked berry bread - yum!

 Last year I posted this picture of the three kids swinging on our swingset. Now look at them - in one year they've gotten so much bigger. Jenna can push herself on the swing and Sarah is actually sitting on it correctly. Good times.

Swinging in the backyard

Our Coo* book club is now reading Mistborn. Just about everyone in the book club has already read the book but we're reading it again anyway because we like it. I'm looking forward to this summer. We should have a blast!

86 points on Quiddler today!

I don't even know who my husband is anymore...

That's right. Who are you Erik?

My formerly vegetable-adverse husband wanted to plant spinach in one whole garden out of our 8 gardens.  I talked him out of it so I could plant zucchini instead. He is zucchini-adverse but has found a love of spinach. Erik = popeye!

Our 8 gardens

 This year we also planted strawberries on the side of our house. It sounds like strawberries take a few years to grow so in 3 years we will have a good crop. The waiting is the hardest part.

Strawberries on the side of the house

 Summer is almost here which means lots of swimming! All three kids have swimming lessons every week and it is going well except for Matthew. He is not a fan. These are his first swimming lessons so it is to be expected, but Jenna and Sarah are doing well.

Matthew going up the slide at swimming lessons

 In other news:

1. I finished an Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. As I was reading this book I was struck by how many different genres he managed to put in one book. It has fantasy, western and steampunk elements to it. Yet it works. This reminds me of Iron chef when they mix banana, lobster, and goat cheese together and the judges say "I didn't know how it would go together but it works." Hmmmm... banana, lobster, and goat cheese. Maybe that will be my next iron chef dish!
2. Every Sunday evening the girls stay up and watch Cupcake Wars with me. They really love this show (obviously I do too). I have been begging Erik to get me some secret ingredients to make cupcakes out of. Stay tuned!
3. The cherry berry chiller at McDonalds is AMAZING. Just sayin.
4. Yesterday I swam (for the first time since March!) and timed myself at 42 seconds a lap.  The internet said it should take me 15 seconds. I will probably be dead last at the triathlon :(.  Searching online for "swimming faster" really didn't give me any ideas.
5. I love my new schedule at work but am really feeling like working in industry. Maybe when the kids get in school. Erik said I should just give it up - we will see what happens.  Who knows?
6. 73 points on Quiddler today.

Brownies and Lasagna

Sarah's Mothers day song

Last week Sarah's preschool had a Mother's Day program. The kids each filled out a questionnaire about their mother. Some of the answers were hilarious. Sarah said I was 76 years old (I think I look pretty good for 76) and my favorite food was mashed cauliflower (I've only made this once - yes I liked it but wouldn't call it my favorite food). Then they all sang a song about their moms. It was so sweet!

Jenna's Bridge to Brownies ceremony

Jenna went through the bridge ceremony from Daisys to Brownies. So if we keep her in girl scouts next year she will be a brownie. To celebrate I made her a pan of brownies which we devoured quickly.

Tuesday night our small group served dinner at Faith Mission - a homeless shelter in Columbus. We brought 8 pans of lasagna and 3 large pans of spaghetti and meatballs.

And we ran out.

This shelter is for only men and we were surprised at how many men were there and how much food they ate :). We also brought salad, cookies, pop, and rolls. It was a successful trip but I felt bad for the two people who didn't get any lasagna.

70 points on quiddler today

My first chopped basket!

While I have done several Iron Chef competitions (is it a competition if I'm not competing?) I have never done a Chopped basket. Erik surprised me with the following ingredients:

1. Corn bitz cereal (generic corn chex)
2. Dried beef
3. Black beans
4. Cherry craisins
5. Pizza crust

My Chopped Basket Ingredients

At first I thought there was no way these ingredients could go together to make a coherent dish. I tried the dried beef with the craisins and black beans and the combination was terrible. I didn't know how this would turn out.

I made pasta dough and then cut out little raviolis. I filled the raviolis with the dried beef, black beans, and added a little pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese. Then I crushed the chex cereal and cut the pizza up into little bite size portions. I rolled the pizza bites in the crushed chex and baked them to make croutons. Next I made a sauce out of sherry wine, heavy cream, butter, and the cherries. I poured this sauce on top.

My chopped creation

This dish may sound terrible but it wasn't. In fact, it was pretty amazing. Erik couldn't believe it! He said he never would have thought these ingredients would work so well together. I was so excited! Actually what really made it was the sauce on top. The sauce was fantastic and Erik wants me to make it again.

So this was a really successful chopped basket!
In other news:

1. I went to the IEEE spring banquet and saw my friend Jack and his wife Angie. He got his PhD which was very exciting. I'm hoping to be more involved with IEEE this year.
2. Since Matthew is developmentally delayed, he qualifies to attend this Family Music time class for free. The music is really catchy and we listen to the CD in the car. The girls love it. I have no idea if Matthew cares or not. He just walks around during the class and doesn't pay attention.
3. All three kids are taking swimming lessons now. Jenna and Sarah LOVE swimming lessons but Matthew squirms the whole time and doesn't seem to like it. I think he doesn't like listening to the teacher - he wants to do his own thing.
4. 82 points on quiddler today

Matthew knows his nose

While it may seem trivial to know where your nose is, for Matthew it is a big accomplishment. I've been working with him for quite awhile to learn his body parts but he has never shown that he actually knows where anything is except his head and belly. Yesterday he knew where his nose was! Yippee!

Tim and Jen gave us their train table (maybe I should say their kids gave us the train table - I'm not sure how much Tim and Jen played with it).  We love the train table and have been playing on it a lot. Sarah especially loves the train table. She also has been crazy about legos and fiercely guards her legos from Matthew. I see some potential conflict between Sarah and Matthew.

Matthew and his new train table

 I have written Limericks about Jenna and Sarah. So I thought I'd try my hand at writing one for Matthew.

A Limerick I wrote about Matthew:
There once was a busy little boy
Whose running feet are his favorite toy
He points and he smiles
And runs for miles
And his giggles are his family's joy


Originally the last line was "And his dimples are his family's joy". But Erik told me that he doesn't care at all about dimples and they brought him no joy.  I changed the poem to say "giggles". 

Matthew and Daddy

Our band

In other news:

1. Our coo* book club has started An Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. I had trouble stopping at the 4th chapter. The 4th chapter!! You know if you're hooked by the 4th chapter it has to be good.
2. I'm reading Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig. It's a great book about Rhett Butler and his family. I'm really enjoying it.
3. I've also picked up Wings of Wrath by C.S. Friedman. Her writing is fantastic.
4. My semester started with 2 online classes and 2 onsite classes. It has been great! I love the classes I'm teaching and the material is exactly what I want to teach. This semester is so wonderful. While I thought I wouldn't like Friday nights and Saturday morning - it's actually really nice. All week long I am with my family and we don't do much on Saturday mornings anyway. Bummer we can't go camping this semester though.  We might try to go during the week.
5. One of my students emailed me and asked me to pray for her friend. She said she heard I was a prayer warrior. Wow! That is so amazing - that's what I want to be known as.
6. Erik and I have been playing some old school Starcraft lately. We are both rusty but it is fun.
7. I got -56 points on Quiddler today because there were no vowels. Seriously? No vowels!!

My cool/loser bike

After my fun trip to Chicago, the weather here has been so nice we've gone bike riding every day! Check out my fancy new bike. I bought this bike at Performance Bike for $300. I was so excited about my new bike - especially since I *thought* I spent a lot on it and it was a good bike.

Me riding my new bike

Then I went to a triathlon training camp for newbies. Everyone but me and one other woman had really expensive road bikes. They also had clip on shoes to clip their shoes to the pedals. These people were serious. I looked at my bike and felt like a loser.  Even so - I'm not going to drop a thousand dollars on a road bike now. 

How I felt about my bike

Static hair at the playground

For our anniversary we are planning on going to the Hocking Hills zip line. I also found a 38 mile bike path we might ride too. It will be scenic and a lot of fun. I'm excited for our anniversary trip.

In other news:

1. Our book club finished the Windup Girl. The book was innovative and well-written. However just like the Dispossessed (also innovative and well-written) I didn't love it.
2. The book club is now starting The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. Yep. I read 4 chapters and I'm hooked. Love him.
3. I'm working my way through the Bible on a 365 day plan. I've done really well and managed to catch up on days I've missed. It has been a fun and good experience!
4. Now that I'm teaching only Fridays and Saturdays I have my whole week to spend with the family. I eat dinner with them every night and I'm loving it!
5. 76 points on quiddler today