Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Starring - Daddy's Hat!
I'm so excited that Christmas is coming. Next week will be devoted to Christmas cookies and candy. This year Jenna will be able to help but Erik still won't be able to get out of decorating Christmas cookies! No matter how hard he tries - he will be forced.
We watched the Da Vinci Code last night. It was actually good and followed the book remarkably well. It is a good fiction story :).
Lately Jenna has had 10-15 minute meltdowns in which she is completely inconsolable. These will be set off by something completely ordinary. For example, she spilled her bowl of corn flakes (dry - no milk) and started screaming. Dada and I tried to hold her and comfort her but to no avail. She was so upset about this. She wasn't mad at us or throwing a tantrum, she just had a meltdown. The meltdowns I prefer are the triple chocolate kind from Applebees (that was Missy's joke - I thought it was hilarious!).
Today in Quiddler I was left with J, B, D, Y, C. What words can I make with that?? I made by and lost the rest. I couldn't think of any others. So it was a pitiful Quiddler day!
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Happy Giving!

This Thanksgiving holiday was absolutely wonderful - maybe the best ever! Why...because Erik and I appreciated our time together and treated it like gold or chocolate (whichever is more valuable to you - I'm with the chocolate). We left Jenna with my parents from Thursday through Sunday. We did miss her and on Sunday I couldn't wait to see her, but those few days to ourselves were precious! We went to J.Alexanders and ate a fancy dinner, went to see Casino Royale (great movie!), spent 2 hours in half price books, went out for coffee at Cup O Joe, played EverQuest, and just sat around and relaxed. It was wonderful!!!
Of course, my family showered Jenna with attention and gifts. Some of the gifts she received were a Jenna-size table and chairs, a big toy car she can ride in, a sit and spin, lots of clothes and crayons, a vacuum cleaner, and even a gift card from Max and Ermas! She loves all her new toys and gifts. Here is a picture of her sitting on one of her chairs. She kept moving from chair to chair. She loves them!
Erik and I received great gifts too. My mom got me a bird feeder and Erik hung it up outside our deck. It should drive Scruffles crazy!!
I used all my letters today in Quiddler and got a score of 71 AND got to make the word "laugh". Such a happy day to end a happy weekend!!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Friends?

Still friends despite the Ohio State - Michigan rivalry. Can you believe it? Nicole and I even went to Kroger together (decked out in our sweatshirts) and no one looked at us funny. Now we just have to get Mclaine (her new baby girl) to wear a Buckeye cheerleader outfit like Jenna... *smile*
Yesterday I went to an OSU basketball game with my Dad. We had a good time and the Buckeyes won 82-60. So it was a good Buckeye weekend overall! Then Mom and Dad and Jenna and I went to Scramblers today for breakfast. I ate so much that I only ate a banana for lunch. Jenna however still ate lunch. How can she fit so much food into that little body?
We put up the tree today and Jenna and Scruffles were very "hepful". She loved the beads we string on the tree as well as the snowflake ornaments. We'll see how long the tree lasts. It has survived Scruffles before but not a toddler. She can do some damage!
(warning - I am going to rant) I received an email from a student today with the following contents:
MS COOPER, CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME! I can not get to my worksheets. I need help. I have to catch up. I can not fail this class. I so loss. I can not get to my email or anything.
It was from an email address something like "chichi9787@yahoo.com". Now first of all: who are you? what specific problems do you have? and what course are you taking? I receive 2-3 emails like this every semester. Do people have any knowledge of business communications?? I prefer a subject such as: Hello Ms. Cooper or Hello Gina even Hello goddess divine
then tell me what your specific problem is and especially your name for goodness sakes! What is the world coming to :).
Today in Quiddler I got -28 points since I lost half my cards. There just weren't enough vowels!!
Sunday, November 19, 2006
We won!

We won the Michigan game and what a game that was! It was exciting from start to finish. We all went to Nicole's house to watch the game. They are big Michigan fans and were wearing blue and yellow. Of course we were all sporting our scarlet and gray. Nicole and I took a picture together of us - I'll post it later :). For now, on to more important things - our kitchen! I've uploaded a picture of our newly painted, stenciled kitchen complete with our new linoleum. In case you can't see (and actually do care) the design is a series of squares within squares with red, gold and green colors. We are going with a harvest fall type color scheme so this floor fits nicely. Erik painted the stencils on the walls - it looks so nice!!
Today I tried to get a video of Jenna telling us that she prays to God and Jesus and that Jesus is in her heart. However in the video the cat made a noise which distracted her. Distractions are terrible things with toddlers. Her attention span is surprisingly short. Check it out here.
Tomorrow night I'm going to a basketball game with my dad. It should be a fun father-daughter outing. We are going to see OSU play the San Francisco Dons. I hope we win :). Then it will be Thanksgiving! Yum!! Lots of food and fun and family! We are exchanging gifts at Thanksgiving with my side of the family. We have a secret santa gift exchange but since we're all so nosy it's not very secret. This Thanksgiving will be especially fun since we will be leaving Jenna with my parents and we will have the weekend to ourselves!!! I have so many plans of fun activities to do but Erik wants to paint Jenna's room and workout. AAAH! This is supposed to be a vacation - can someone please explain to him about fun??
Today I got 83 points on Quiddler and had to use QAT - what a great word!
Friday, November 17, 2006
Go Bucks - Beat Michigan
I tried to take a few videos of Jenna today but as soon as I get the camera out she wouldn't perform. Before we eat we tell her that we are going to pray. She says "pray God Jezzy". Then we say "where is Jesus?" and she says "book, heart". She knows Jesus is in the book (her Bible) and her heart - how cute!!
Today we were reading a book and I asked her to turn the pages. She waited and said "pease". She was waiting for me to say please!!! I usually want her to say please so she was mimicing me. I guess I need to have manners too.
I saw The Prestige Tuesday night and highly recommend it. The acting was excellent and the storyline was great. There was also a twist at the end (several actually) that I didn't pick up on. I'm glad I went to see that movie - it was fun.
71 on Quiddler today: feu is a word?? wonder what it means...
Sunday, November 12, 2006
My little chef


Yesterday Jenna and I headed up to Cleveland to see Missy for her birthday. Of course today, Jenna has been saying "Happy Missy" all day - how cute. Amanda and my mom were also there and we went to Famous Dave's to eat. The five of us ordered the All American Sampler which feeds 4-5 (actually about 7!!). There were ribs, an entire chicken, pulled pork, corn on the cob, corn bread, baked beans, cole slaw and french fries. We took home two boxes of left overs. Jenna even loved the pulled pork. After lunch, we headed to Toys R Us where my mom and sisters spent tons of money on Jenna! My mom bought her this apron and chef's hat. She loves to cook with mama and always says she is being "hepful" (hepful to Jenna = not helpful to Mama but very cute). She helped me bake pumpkin bread today and wore her new apron. She loved it!!
In very exciting news for me - my paper was accepted to the CISSE 2006 conference in Vermont. Yea!! I do not have to attend but will present my paper via a webex. I'm so excited that it was accepted. The final manuscript is due the 24th so I had better get on the ball.
Today I made cheese and corn souffle for dinner. It only has 217 calories and is low fat as well. I thought it would be a great light dinner for Sunday night. Well Erik told me I should never make it again and couldn't even eat the amount I scooped on his plate. This was probably the worst cooking failure since potato pancakes several years ago. I didn't think it was THAT bad but then again - I like broccoli :).
Today I got 93 on Quiddler but it wouldn't let me play the word ORZO. Orzo is a word! It is a pasta that looks like rice. I make it all the time!!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Haircut
We gave Jenna her first haircut! Here is a picture of her with her bangs shorter. She didn't complain while we were cutting her hair. It is crazy curly!! At least now it won't be in her eyes and she'll be able to see.My new semester is going well, and I've learned a good deal about VB.NET from my online class. I'm really enjoying this course. The courses I'm teaching are also going well and I've been researching podcasting them. I was hoping to start this semester but it looks like it will have to be later.
Today we took Jenna to vote. She didn't actually vote but had fun at the polls. I've had the election results up and refreshing on my computer. We'll see how things turn out.
Scruff had his teeth cleaned on Monday. He was pretty dazed when we picked him up and they even had to extract one of his teeth. I guess he needs to do a better job of brushing *smile*.
In a much smaller election we will be voting on trustees for our Homeowners Association on Thursday. I am not running. In fact, I quit my two year term 1 year early. I'm so glad too - there are too many angry neighbors (generally about stupid things like fences). I'm hoping there are some normal people in my neighborhood but I'm not sure. If we ever move it will be out in the country without a homeowners association!
I got 72 today in Quiddler and they wouldn't let me use "mux". That is a word!!!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Michigan awaits...

Jenna and Lidoli (Nicholas) love to read. I've uploaded a picture of me reading a story to Jenna, Nicholas and Scruff. They all seem very interested in it :). Jenna has been less interested in reading lately and more interested in playing and pushing things around the house (the push toy, her shopping cart, mommy and cat). See the video here.
The Buckeyes are on their way to becoming National Champions again! Yea! Go Bucks!! Jenna gets in the spirit too. Every Saturday she wears her Buckeye cheerleader outfit and so does Rachel. Jenna and Rachel are in the same class at church. I took a picture of the two last year in their cheerleader outfits as well. I can't wait for the Michigan game. It should be exciting and somewhat scary. I plan on making
buckeyes and I don't think we'll go to church that Saturday night. Church may in fact, be cancelled *smile*.My sister's birthday is the 11th and we plan on going to visit her and have lunch. We will wine and dine her. Well maybe not wine, and I guess not dine either as dining implies some sort of fancy restaurant. She isn't 30 yet....
In other news:
- Tonight is Trick or Treat!!! I'll be sure to upload pictures of Jenna with her bucket of goodies. It's raining :(. But nothing is going to stop us!!
- We are so excited since we sold our other house! Yea!! It had been rented the past 4 years and it is nice to have it sold now. Now we only have 1 mortgage :).
- I am a glutton for punishment and am taking VB.NET through Keller. Yes - I know I haven't finished my PhD yet....
- Guys gaming night is Friday. Erik is going to have his friends over to shoot each other in a virtual environment. I'll be teaching or they would get shot by me!
- Today I got 83 points on Quiddler. There were about 30 N's though. NU apparently counts as a word :).
Friday, October 27, 2006
select * from class where mood = fun

My students - I love them! In BIS240 this session, one group decided to make t-shirts with SQL sayings on them.
Here is a picture of me (and my SQL shirt) with them. Don't we look great in our geeky shirts? We had a fun class!!
This is finals week for me and I'm swamped with work. Not only grading finals from this week (and projects and assignments) but getting ready for next semester which starts on Monday! And my online course!
Halloween is Tuesday and we are looking forward to taking bug trick or treating. We took her to Boo at the Zoo last Friday and had a good time. We went with the Jen and Jeff Wahl who have a daughter close to bug's age named Rachel. Rachel is dressed as a duck and Jenna is dressed as snow white. Here are some pictures:
Boo at the Zoo was fun even though the candy was lame (tootsie rolls, gum, etc). Hopefully she'll get better candy on Tuesday when we take her out trick or treating. It should be a fun time :).
Today was a profitable quiddler day. 62 points and I got to make the word "sty". Who doesn't like the word sty?
Monday, October 16, 2006
Pizzie


Yesterday for dinner we ate pizza from Donatos. Erik surprised me by bringing home the new Donatos Ciabatta pizza. It was good. The funnier thing was Jenna's response. She loves pizzie. Watch the video here. Pizzie was num num.
Erik bought another computer. This brings the number of computers in our house up to 8. Seems like a reasonable number of computers! Now Jenna can watch slideshow pictures of herself on any computer.
On Saturday the three of us went to Kael's birthday party. He turned three and although the birthday party was during the OSU game, Erik tagged along. The party was at a jungle gym so the kids were running all around and bouncing on trampolines. I have uploaded some pictures of Jenna enjoying the trampoline and some of the other jungle gym toys.
Saturday morning Erik went to Chainsaws and Chili at the church. He did manly things like chop down trees while eating chili. Sounds scary to me. He was chopping down trees for a retreat center they plan on using in the future on currently undeveloped land. Jenna and I stayed home and baked bread. Much less scary. We have been passing around Amish bread at work and it is delicious when you put tons of chocolate chips in :).
The buckeyes are doing well this year. We are excited that they might win the National Championship. I'll have to get more pictures of Jenna in her OSU gear. She knows the word "buckeyes"! A true Ohioan :).
Today I got a pitiful score on Quiddler: 49 but who knew that feu was a word??
Friday, October 06, 2006
Gotcha and Tuck

Jenna has created games that she plays with both Erik and me. With Erik she plays "tuck". It's a game she made up where she leans over the couch, he tucks her head under then she somersaults off of the couch. With me, she has a game she coined "gotcha". She stands on a chair or the couch and jumps into my arms. The first time she did this I said "I gotcha!". So now, she says "gotcha" when she wants to play that game. And she'll play both for a LONG time!
Today Jenna finally let me put pigtails in her hair. She took them out after about half an hour but I quickly took a picture just to prove that she did let me put pigtails in her hair. This is a good shot of those dimples too!
I finally finished Wizard and Glass - the 4th book in SK's Dark Tower Series. I can't wait to read the next one. Now I know why he is such a popular author! What great character development and imagery - he is a master storyteller!
At Devry some of the faculty and staff have been passing around Amish bread starters. I made my first batch of Amish friendship bread and put chocolate chips in it. Yum!! However since it is cinnamon sugar chocolate chip, I dont' think it counts as bread. It probably counts more as dessert. So next time I will add raisins. That is somewhat healthy.
My friend Joy asked if I had compiled a list of favorite cheeses. I realized I had not. So here is my preliminary list of favorite cheeses:
- Baby swiss
- Parmesan and romano
- Stilton with candied lemon peel
- Smoked gouda
- Guyere (I like the name too!)
This is a very preliminary list. Joy has prompted me to try different cheeses and rate them. Maybe after I do this, I can come up with a more complete list.
I also only got 70 points on Quiddler and made me realize I don't like C's. Not many words use them!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Bye Bye Mama
Every day I wake up to read a new vocabulary word in my inbox. Today's word was theriac. The definition of this word was treacle. This does not help me. I must be vocabularily challenged because I have no idea what either word means.
My friend Nicole had her baby last night at 10:41pm. Her name is Mclaine Noel and she is beautiful. Jenna and I went to visit her today. Mclaine has brown hair which is very strange considering Nicole and Gregg have blonde hair and Kael (their 3 year old son) has red hair. So their family has a mixture of hair color.
Today the Quiddler score to beat was 95 but I got 81. Maybe I need to go through it again and get a better score :).
Monday, September 25, 2006
Renfest

On Saturday we went as a family to the Renaissance Festival all decked out in our medieval attire. Even Jenna was dressed up! We bought her a chain mail bracelet that she dropped (bye-bye) and lost forever.She did like her wand and tiara. Everyone around us also commented on her cuteness as you can see from the picture. You can't see in the picture but Erik is wearing chain mail beneath his blue coat.
Jenna had a good time riding on a wooden merry go round. In the picture she doesn't look happy but that's because I wouldn't let her walk around and made her sit on my lap. She loved the Neigh Neighs (horses) though.
Jenna had an incredible time at Nanas and Papas while Mama and Dada were in Niagara Falls. She had her nails painted by Aunt Missy and now whenever she looks at her nails she says "Mizzie" and "pink". So cute!!
My mom took my favorite picture of her. She is smelling a rose and it is beautiful!
In other news:
- I am reading Stephen King's Dark Tower Series and am in the middle of Wizard and Glass. This is such a good series and I can't stop reading it!! I just read my favorite line of any book ever (maybe I shouldn't say that just yet). Susan and Roland are in love and she says to him "If you love me then love me". To which he responds "Aye lady I will". Wow - I told Erik he has to say that to me but I'm not sure he'll comply.
- I made baked alaska for the first time. It is cake, ice cream and meringe topping. You bake it for a few minutes at 425 which doesn't actually melt the ice cream. It was yummy.
- Jenna has been obsessed with washing. She spent about an hour today washing her hands. I hope she doesn't have some form of OCD.
- It's sunny and 70 outside - perfect weather!
- I got 52 on Quiddler because I lost the CL but I made the words trashy and drool :)
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Kumbaya

Last weekend we went camping with the Masts. It was Jenna's first time camping and sleeping in a tent. We all had a great time! It was hot during the day but cooled off significantly at night and was perfect camping weather. We made a fire, ate smores, played games by a lantern and had an excellent time! Until 3:30am when Jenna started screaming at the top of her lungs. We put her in the sleeping bag with us but didn't get her calmed down until 5am. She did end up going to sleep though and the rest of the night was uneventful.
She loved saying "tent" and "camp". We bought a three room tent with the side rooms big
enough to hold a pack and play. So Jenna slept in one room with the pack and play and we slept in the other section. You could zip up the room also so she couldn't see us.I've uploaded some pictures of our trip. It was great fun! This upcoming weekend Erik and I will celebrate our 9 year anniversary by going to Niagara Falls sans Jenna! She will be staying with my parents for the weekend while we sleep...I mean spend a fun fill weekend in Niagara Falls. I'm so excited for this trip and have been for a long time. It will be our first trip without Jenna and her first overnight trip away from us. I've been telling her all week that this is going to happen. Hopefully she'll remember.

These next few weeks will be very busy for me as I'm auditing two courses at Wright State. I'm taking Algorithms for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Computation. Auditing means that I will not receive credit but I still attend class and do the work (if I so choose). That coupled with the three courses I am teaching and my research is making me busy. However I still have plenty of time to go camping and to Niagara Falls :).
Today I got 64 on Quiddler since I lost the D and R. Not a good showing today as the min score was 82.
Go Bucks!!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Go Bucks

On Saturday the OSU buckeyes started out the season winning their first game against Northern Illinois. Erik and my dad went to the game together while Jenna, Mom and I stayed home. Mom made pork and saurkraut, pig in the blanket, and masked potatos. I wish I could waft the smell of that cooking through the computer. I LOVE IT! Every time my mom makes it, Erik complains about the smell and tells me that some towns have outlawed cooking cabbage. To which my response is "so what - Powell hasn't outlawed it!" I also made buckeyes and we had our own little buckeye. Here are two pictures of Jenna wearing her OSU cheerleader outfit. The outfit is pink (clashes with OSU scarlet???) but still cute. When we say "OSU Go Bucks" to Jenna, she will raise her hands to indicate a touchdown. This is incredibly cute and I have included a picture.

Erik flew to Boston yesterday for work. He flew a little early so he could go to a Red Sox game. However he ended up being not so early as he had difficulty navigating through Boston. Erik has a great sense of direction. He managed to find his hotel and Fenway Park. If it were me I'd still be driving around those crazy streets. It was good he went to the game since the Red Sox won in the 10th inning! It was a good game. However Erik didn't call until 11:15pm. I was just about to call the hotel since I hadn't heard from him all day. I need to calm my anxious heart!!
Jenna and I went to Canton to see my parents yesterday. She was a total ham. She knows when she's cute and she flaunts it. What a stinker!!
This weekend we will take her camping for the first time. Just one night - Saturday - Sunday. We'll put her in the pack and play in a tent. Hopefully she'll sleep okay even though there will be outside noise. This will certainly be a test!!
53 was my score today. The best people got 103. They beat me by 50 pts!!
Monday, August 28, 2006
Erik doesn't look too happy that I've snapped a picture of him and Jenna eating potato chips. In New York we had a picnic and the only thing Jenna ate was potato chips. She loves them! She even likes salt and vinegar potato chips. Yuck!Besides knowing and saying many words, Jenna also says animal sounds. She says bock bock for Chicken, baa baa for Sheep, NeeNee for horse, and woof woof for Dog. So very cute.
My mom is here now watching Jenna since I will be gone Tuesday and Wednesday and Erik is going to Indianapolis on Wed. She said we could go on a date tonight. I'm trying to decide whether to go to a movie or to go out for coffee. If we go to a movie then we'd get to see a movie :). However that would be several hours and it is finals week for me so I"m busy. We will see what we decide.
My mom also brought the scrapbook she is working on for Jenna. It is incredible. I'm so glad she is making this beautiful scrapbook - I would never be able to do something so nice.
On Friday Erik's paternal grandmother died. She lived in Maine and had lived there her whole life in a small town with railroad tracks running through her property (explains why Erik's dad loves trains!). Erik didn't go to the funeral as it was Saturday and was difficult to get a flight on such short notice.
Well I must be off as I need to put Jenna down for her nap. I got 78 today on Quiddler - no bonuses!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Jenna....not a jock
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 :(
Monday, August 21, 2006
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!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Eragon
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!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
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 :)


