Jenna....not a jock

I was asked to compile a list of words that Jenna says. I thought about it for half an hour and came up with 50 words! After which she said 2 or 3 that I didn't have in the list. This was a good exercise as when I took her to the doctor for her 18 month checkup yesterday and he asked if she said at least 6 words, I could say 6 *10 words at least (not including signs!!). He said he knew she would be off the charts. Of course when we were talking about her physical development and he asked if she ran, jumped or skipped I said no. So she's smart but not good at sports? That's odd...her parents are nothing like that *smile*.
Some words Jenna says:
dress, poop, blanket, box (bok), ball, black, stroller (lolo), broccoli (bokee), trash (tratsch), cup, bib, bubbles (baba), Jenna, bread, cheese, light, bath, chip, elmo, dark, pink, pig, sweep (speep), pop, this, steps, door (doda), dirt, wheel, sock, mama, dada, nana, up, truck, cook, baby, black, bow, eyebrow (ibow), no, cake, beep, juice, duck, boink, fish, book, booboo, yogurt (ogurt)

Today I got 57 on Quiddler with no bonuses :(

New York and Lobsters

Erik, Jenna and I took a trip to New York to see Erik's parents and grandparents. We had a really good time there and Jenna was able to meet her great grandparents. She is still going through separation anxiety so she never wants to leave mommy and daddy's arms to be held by a grandparent, which is too bad as I'm sure they would have liked to hold her. She did very well on the plane and during the entire trip. She had a great time (as did we all!). Here is a picture of all the guys on the trip including Jenna (not a guy). I"ll post another one later of the ladies and maybe I'll include Erik in that one (not a lady).

In other news, I was reading about interesting animals and came across this picture on the web. It is a blue lobster. How neat is that? I love lobster and I love blue - really you can't go wrong with blue sea creatures right?

Erik said he wanted me to explain my reasoning for my favorite letters. So here goes:
1. G - the first letter of my name!
2. A - my blood type and my favorite grade!
3. C - for Cooper and chocolate and church - love them all!
4. K - the letter that makes my husband unique!
5. M - Monter - my maiden name!
6. J - Everyone who's name begins with a J is someone I like a lot!
7. Y - It's only sometimes a vowel. It's the most misunderstood letter of the alphabet. So I feel kind of sorry for it.

Today my pitiful quiddler score was 6!!! I lost 42 points since I ran out of vowels and lost the last 5 letters - ouch!

Eragon

Tonight the girls and I watched Pride and Prejudice and ate scones, devonshire cream, tea, and popcorn balls. It was so fun! The defonshire cream wasn't sweet and I thought it wouldn't be good, but on the scones it was fabulous! I'm definitely going to make it again. The scones were not sweet either but together everything was delicious!
Christine made popcorn balls and they were yummy as well. I've never made popcorn balls but I should sometime - they are yummy.

A series I'm reading (more for young adult) is coming out as a movie in December. I'm so excited :). The book is titled Eragon and the author is Christopher Paolini (a 16 year old!!). I've included a picture so you can see. It's about a boy who finds a magic egg. The egg turns out to be the last dragon who hatches for him. It's a pretty neat book and there is a second one called Eldest. Fun reading :).

I've also grown to love a new website called Refdesk. Here is the link: http://www.refdesk.com/
I like the content and layout. I've included it as one of my 15 home pages - I love firefox!!
I got a miserable 52 on Quiddler today. Erik beat me by 20 points!

Crayons

When I came home from teaching Wednesday night, I saw this blue crayon on our kitchen wall. Erik said he didn't put it there and I've never seen Scruffles draw with crayons so it must have been bug. I have uploaded this picture as evidence. While looking around, we also saw blue crayon drawn on the refrigerator and pantry doors. Her first art :).

Sunday night I'm having my girlfriends over to drink tea, eat scones with devonshire cream, and watch Pride and Prejudice. It should be a jolly good time! Here is my recipe for devonshire cream:
3 oz cream cheese
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch salt
1 cup heavy cream.
Mix all together until stiff peaks form. This is relatively fattening, however I'm making cooking light's version of scones which is low fat. So it all cancels out :).

I created a myspace page just to be extra cool. It is located at www.myspace.com/trillianstales
(stealing the same name!). I have 4 friends on it - Yea! This means I am cool.

Time for bed! Jenna and I are making chocolate cookies tomorrow!
I got 80 on Quiddler today and Erik got 88 - much better than me - but I still got the 8 letter word last time :)

Rejection :(

I submitted a paper to IEEE Transactions on Education and was rejected. I suppose that is not surprising since getting into a journal of that prestige is so difficult (1 in 1000), but I was hoping nonetheless. I'm hoping it will be a conference worthy publication. We will have to see.

I created a myspace page. It seems fitting that I attempt to become cool with a myspace page. Here is my address: http://www.myspace.com/trillianstales
I used the same name just to be extra cool.

This morning was a whirlwind. The terror plot that was uncovered in Britain was scary. It amazes me that such crazies live to kill innocent people. In fact that is their goal. Why would anyone have such a goal? I would die for my faith but as a suicide bomber? That is crazy.

On a happier note, last week we discussed our life purposes in Bible study. From prayer and contemplation, I came up with 4 adjectives that describe the person I want to become and put them to my name:
Godcentered
Innocent
Nice
Appreciative

I want to be a thankful, godly, pure, blameless, and kind woman so I made this little acrostic to help me remember.

Today I got 97 on Quiddler with a max of 77. I made the word cornered which is a 20 point bonus for 8 letter word. Rock on!!

Home improvement with Daddy

Jenna bakes with mommy and helps daddy with home improvement projects. Erik changed the locks on our front door and Jenna helped. She carried around a screwdriver all day and pointed it everywhere. She had fun helping Daddy put new locks on our front door. Here is a picture of her helping Daddy with the lock.

I also got her a shopping cart from WalMart (sorry mom it was only $9). She LOVES the shopping cart. She tears all through the house with it and pretty much leaves skid marks in her wake.

Yesterday at church we sat in the cry room the entire time. Jenna didn't really want to go to the nursery and kept screaming at the top of her lungs. So we stayed in the cry room together as a family. After church we played games with Tim and Jen. yea! We played a new game called Tigris and Euphrates. It was created by one of our favorite game authors Reiner Knizia. He creates such fun games!
Erik and I are talking about buying some new games. Here is a list that we will buy, however we want to wait until next month since Tim and Jen got 4 new games recently:

1. Princes of Florence
2. Caylus
3. Through the Desert
4. Kill Dr. Lucky

Games are great! Speaking of games. I got 87 on Quiddler and made the word shying. That was a good word!

Daddy's Girl

Jenna is such a daddy's girl. She loves to crawl and jump on daddy. He also does Jenna push ups and it's quite a work out. Jenna went to a public pool for the first time on Thursday. She liked it at first but lost her footing and her face went underwater. After that, mommy had to hold her the whole time. It's been so hot - I was hoping she would like the water.

We also went to Der Dutchman in Plain City on Monday. That was fun! It was a buffet and although there was plenty of food to eat, Jenna had more fun watching the people than eating. We got there just in time to have both the breakfast and lunch buffets :).

On a more somber note, the war in the mideast has been on my mind quite a bit lately. I'm hoping America will strongly support Israel and that we can unite in Judeo-Christian values. An end to terrorism (while unlikely) would usher in a time of peace and that is what I am hoping for. Although I can imagine a superhero type person who would unify the middle east and bring a one world order as someone who might also be a Nicolae Carpathia type!
I'll keep praying for Israel.

In a lighter note, I got 69 on Quiddler today which was pitiful.

Salmonella and other musings

Salmonella certainly doesn't count as a musing. Jenna contracted salmonella last week and has been sick until yesterday. She had a fever of 104 and was completely listless. I was worried about her but I knew she would be okay. God has her in his hands. She is such a gift! The most likely cause of the salmonella is mommy. I gave her some raw cookie dough (for the first time!) last Monday. Jenna and I make cookies together all the time (probably once a week) and she loves it. I had not ever given her cookie dough because I was worried about giving her raw eggs. Apparently I wasn't worried in vain.

She had her 18 month birthday on the 20th. Here is a picture of her with her white bear. I thought I'd get an action thought this time since she is moving a lot!

Today Mom, Missy, Panda, Bug and I all went to Molly's tea house. I've included a picture of a table there. Wow I loved it! It was so girly that I told Erik it was the equivalent of drinking Guiness while watching the buckeyes and eating a sub and cheezits. He understood. I think I'm going to bump this place up to #3 in the restaurant list. Current top 5 now is:

1. Cheesecake factory
2. J. Alexanders
3. Miss Mollys Tea house
4. Panera
5. Applebees

I've also bumped Applebees up as well. Sometime I'll update my web page with my new favorites. When I told Erik about my decision to put the movie Pride and Prejudice so high in my movie list, he wasn't sure I was a worthy wife anymore.

I got 95 points today on Quiddler even though it wouldn't let me use uzi. I thought that was a word!!

Contentment

Our Calm My Anxious Heart Bible study has kicked off and wow is it awesome! It truly is a journey to contentment. I think I'm content with my life until I examine my thoughts. I want this or that - I should really listen to Paul and learn the secret of contentment in all circumstances. Jesus Christ!!

Jenna has found contentment playing with bubbles in the sink. This is her new favorite activity introduced by Nana. Today we played in the sink for an hour. I had to pry her pruny hands from the sink to get her to stop playing in the water. Even so, we all had a good time.

I'm working on modifying my list of favorite movies. Certainly the Chronicles of Narnia is going in there as well as Pride and prejudice. I just need to organize my favorites. We watched King Kong last night which was pretty good, but it was 3 hours long. Of course, I'll sit through LOTR for 3 hours at a time.

We got a new projector as our old one had broken. We bought a Panasonic PT-AE900U projector. To test it we watched the balrog scene from the Fellowship of the Ring. When Jenna saw the balrog she started barking. She thought it was a dog!!! That was hilarious. She wasn't even scared of it. Well...maybe we'll go with Star Wars next. What will she think of Darth Vader? A horse? A cow??

I didn't do very well in Quiddler today. Only 65 because there was a Q but I had already used my A. Erik got 84 since he used his Q. Maybe next time I'll beat him!

Ode to Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today was the first day we let Jenna eat chocolate chip cookie dough. We've made cookies many times but I haven't let her eat the dough because of the raw eggs. We think she's probably old enough now. (we hope!).

I've attached a picture of us baking. Jenna helps quite a bit by playing with all the measuring spoons and eating brown sugar. It's quite helpful.

The weather here has been so beautiful. Erik and I have been taking walks around the neighborhood. Jenna loves it too!

Joel has inspired me to compose some prose! He wrote a short story on his blog so I've created a poem. It is called Ode to Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ode to Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Butter and sugar and chocolate so sweet
Flour and eggs, put in the mixer then beat
Keep eating the dough
Until your belly says no
Chocolate chip cookies what a wonderful treat!

Today I got 92 on Quiddler even though the max was 90. The past couple of days Erik and I have been tying on Quiddler. This is going to have to stop so I can win sometime!

31

Now I'm definitely past 30. I'm "in my 30s". The next big age is 40 for me. Wow - that just sounds really old. Of course, I still feel like a kid. This week has been really fun. For my birthday we went to Applebees and Jenna got mac and cheese and broccoli. It was good (better than normal mac and cheese) and she ate almost all of it. Then we went to Graeters. Graeters has wonderful ice cream. Even so, I'd still rate Handels above Graeters. Nevertheless, we went to Graeters for my birthday and I got a buckeye blitz sundae. I'm thinking it might have had a little less than 20000000 calories in it, but only slightly. It was yummy. Then I played Sim City all night. Erik bought me Sim City for my birthday and I'm an addict.
Speaking of addict, I went to the doctor about my constant nose stuffiness. He said I am addicted to zicam. Just because I use it every night and shake when I can't. That doesn't sound like an addict does it???
Jen, Nicole, Heather and I got all our kids together on Thursday for a playdate. Here is a picture of Jenna, Kael, Emma, and Avery in Jen's sandbox. Jenna loved it even though she isn't paying attention to the sand in the picture :). She liked it better when the other kids weren't "sharing" her sand.

In other news:

1. Jenna got a free book from the library by "reading" 6 hours. When she reads another 6 hours she gets an activity set
2. I've read a whole lot more than 6 hours and never got a free book for it
   
3. Or an activity set
4. School starts Wed for me and my online classes start tomorrow
5. I got 92 on Quiddler today - 7 above the max!
6. Jen got me the Quiddler card game for my birthday - Yea!
7. Raspberry mocha frappucino from Starbucks is ambrosia from heaven

Red, White, and BummBumms

BummBumms is Jenna's word for Blueberries. She had watermelon, cantaloupe (not really white but we'll go with it) and blueberries for lunch today. Her red, white and blue!
I LOVE the 4th of July!! The 4th of July is such a great holiday. Independence, freedom, cookouts, fireworks, summer, red, white, blue, and especially my birthday is the 5th!!
Jenna has a really cute outfit with stars and stripes and lately she's been pushing around this roller push toy so it was hard to pry it away from her for the picture. Here are two cute ones!

Today we went to the zoo and had a wonderful time looking at fishies. Since it was cooler and rainy today all the animals were out. We were able to see the new Asia Quest and even heard the lion roar!! I don't want to be near him when he gets mad!

So here is a list of my favorite holidays:

1. 4th of July
2. Christmas
3. Easter
4. Thanksgiving
   
5. Halloween
6. Valentine's Day
   
7. Labor Day
8. Veterans Day
9. Memorial Day
10. Martin Luther King Day

I only got 56 today on Quiddler because there was a Q and no U!!!

Hooray July!!

July is here! My favorite month! Yea!! You can't go wrong with fireworks and my birthday :). Tomorrow we are having a cookout. I love 4th of July cookouts (well this one will be on the 2nd of July). I made a really cool dessert with three layers of jello: red, white and blue. It should taste okay (I'm not much into jello) but it is pretty. Jenna helped me make cupcakes today. "helped". I give her a measuring cup and usually put some sugar or flour or something for her to make a mess with. She seems to love it.

I wanted to upload a picture of our chocolate tasting. It was so fun! Hopefully you can see the detail. It is complete with empty wrappers on the side :). Erik and I really enjoyed tasting the different chocolates.

I'm currently working through the Bible study "Calm My Anxious Heart". I just finished week 7 on life's purpose. What a powerful study!! I'm amazed that sometimes I just move from activity to activity not thinking about who I want to be when I'm 80 and how I can get there. This study helped me write out a purpose for my life. I based my life on a few different verses:
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. ~Micah 6:8

Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. ~1Peter 3:4

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, ~Phil 1:9-10

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. ~1Thess 5:16-18

What a great study! I've learned so much already and we haven't started the study officially!!
In other news, I got 69 on Quiddler with a max score of 62 - yea!

COSI

Jenna and I went to COSI yesterday. She had such a good time! There is a big room filled with a water table and toys. She loves to play in the water, and she loves fish...come to think of it, maybe she'll grow up to be a marine biologist. Who knows?
COSI also has a Star Wars exhibit. Apparently it has actual movie gear, like the clothes Han Solo wore during the movies. I'm sure it has other cool things as well but we didn't go see it (not this time!). Next time we will go. I'm excited to see it - I love Star Wars!

I bought Erik a chocolate tasting kit from World Wide Chocolate. It is a chocolate tasting kit for two: http://yhst-84404158564241.stores.yahoo.net/gf-500-s1.html
It was so completely awesome!! We ate each chocolate and rated them then had graham crackers in between to cleanse our palates. It was amazing that all these 15 bars of chocolate were so different even though they were chocolate. We rated them on aroma, taste, texture, and aftertaste. The kit was really neat and I recommend it to anyone. YUM!!!

The first time I tried Quiddler today I got 49 points. Erik had to do it three times and finally got 83. It was a tough one today.

Everdork

Erik and I went to see Tom Petty on Wed. night. It was an awesome concert especially when Stevie Nicks came to join him! They sang "Stop Dragging my Heart Around" together. Of course, Mary Jane was still dancing for a lot of the people there :).

I have made a list of my favorite Everquest 2 zones in the spirit of my brother in law :) http://chromidenschronicles.blogspot.com/

1. Qeynos
2. Permafrost
3. Everfrost
4. Antonica
5. Enchanted lands
6. Soluseks Eye
7. Majdul
8. Temple of Cazic Thule
9. Nektulos forest
10. Sinking Sands

73 points on Quiddler today!

Worry Wart

I never think much about worry. Who thinks about worrying?? Until God smacks you in the face with it. I'm starting a new Bible study called "Calm My Anxious Heart." I've just started it today and WOW! It starts off with these verses:

"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." ~Philippians 4:11-13

Being content in all things. That is my goal. No matter the circumstances, I can always be content -what joy that would bring me!

Since I love lists, I have made a list of my favorite letters of the alphabet:
1. G
2. A
3. C
4. K
5. M
6. J
7. Y

I also got 66 on Quiddler today. Terrible - the # of possible points was 68!

Kissing!

Today I went to visit my friend Chistine who just had a baby named Annabelle Grace. She is 2 weeks old today and I brought Jenna to visit her. Jenna loves babies, especially because she can make the baby sign :). I brought sausage and egg casserole and chocolate chip cookie buttons for dinner. I call them chocolate chip cookie buttons because I used the small scoop from Pampered chef to make them and they were so small they looked like buttons. Of course, Jenna loves cookies so they are a perfect size for her.

I have fluid in my ear from my ear infection. It has been there for a few weeks and it feels like I am under water. I'm not sure how to get the water out of my ear. I should just start signing more.

Tonight is the last day of our Living Free study. It will be sad because I've loved this study and the women who have come to it. I hope we can do another study after this one. Tonight we are having chicken kabobs, red potatos, and poke cake. Mmmmm! The chicken kabobs are wonderful. I marinate them for several hours and I have sesame dipping sauce recipe. It is amazing!

Well Jenna is awake from her nap - time to go get her. I got 82 on Quiddler today and made the word: worlds.
Here's a picture of her kissing me!!

Carousel!

Today was Jenna's first time riding on a carousel. We have been to the zoo many times and walked by the carousel, but this was her first time venturing on it. She really liked it!! At first she was scared, but then she started laughing. I've attached a picture. She had a good time on the carousel and of course with the fishies in the aquarium!! Then she took a 3 hour nap - the zoo wore her out today :).

I got 84 on Quiddler today - that was 2 points above the max. Of course, I didn't do as well as Erik did yesterday!!

Fountains

Last Thursday we took Jenna to the fountains at Easton to play in the water. She had such a good time!! She loved the water and even ventured into the middle of the fountains. What a brave little girl! Here is a picture of her enjoying the water :).
Of course I got wet as well. These fountains were wonderful, except for the fact that they are directly across from the Cheesecake factory - my favorite restaurant! I couldn't go there with a wet baby though. That doesn't seem appropriate. So we had a picnic lunch of macaroni and cheese and grapes. All while staring at the cheesecake factory...chocolate peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake...yum!!

Erik is done with his antibiotics and is much better. Jenna and I are still on them and while my ear infection doesn't hurt, I still have fluid in my ear. I feel like I am constantly under water. Maybe I should start using sign language more. At least Jenna would understand when I signed water and cookie :) :).

Today was the first day ever that either Erik or I got the top score on Quiddler. Erik got a 96 by making the word clotty. I only got a 74 but I did make the word quoted. However, I could not beat Erik's huge score.

Tim and Jen got a new game called Railroad Tycoon. It is an awesome game even though I lost miserably. I blame my loss on Erik's ruthlessness but that is a different story. I hope to play it again soon since it is great fun.

Time to go for now!

The Mark of the Beast?

So today was 6/6/06. On the news and everywhere we have been inundated with references to the mark of the beast. People can be so superstitious! Also, why are people focusing on satan?? I never understood that??? Jesus is the one who is much more interesting.
Anyway, Erik's baby brother Joel is now married! I can't believe it! Megan is now Megan Cooper and there is a third Mrs. Cooper in the family. How exciting :). The wedding was very nice including the part that Jenna was pointing to Daddy (a groomsmen) and yelling "Da Da". God Bless Joel and Megan!!

In other news:
1. Jenna, Erik, and I are all on antibiotics. Erik has a bacterial infection and both Jenna and I have ear infections. All thanks to Dad Cooper - Thanks a lot!!
2. I mowed the lawn for the third time a few days ago. Mowing the lawn is not a fun activity
3. Jenna likes fish and makes the fishy sign all the time.
4. Text twist on yahoo is my new favorite game.