Disobedience

Disobedience. We do it. Our kids do it. It's hard when you recognize you have disobeyed.

Today I was sitting in my car sans children with an hour to kill before I picked up Jenna from preschool. I had planned to go to Trader Joe's to buy coveted dark chocolate with almonds and real maple syrup. Sarah was at home napping. I saw a woman walking on the road and she walked right by my car.

I felt God tell me to talk to her, maybe pick her up and take her where she needed to go.

But I sat there and watched her walk by as I listened to my Christian music on the radio.

Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"

I turned the car around and looked for her but she was gone. We need to listen to God and do what he says right away. I want to be that kind of person, Jesus is that kind of person. Obedient even to death on a cross.

Iron Chef: Prego Spaghetti Sauce

Erik went to the store to get a secret ingredient today. I anticipated making several dishes but didn't make any of the ones I thought. The secret ingredient was Prego spaghetti sauce to celebrate my "preggo" state. Funny.

Anyway, Prego is actually a difficult secret ingredient since it's not that versatile. I didn't want to have 4 pasta dishes so I had to think outside the box. I had a somewhat tough time with this but pulled out 5 dishes, two of which were stellar!

1. Prego bruschetta - Normally bruschetta uses an olive paste over toasted bread topped with a fresh tomato mixture. I put prego sauce over toasted bread, with fresh tomates, green onions, fresh basil, and some grated romano cheese. This earned me a 10 on taste as it was "so nummy" as Sarah says.
2. Potatoes galette with Prego - I don't normally make potato dishes for iron chef since they take so long to cook. This one I had in the oven for 45 minutes and yet the potatoes were still too hard! It was sliced potatoes and onions in a prego sauce covered with mozarella and Italian spices. The flavors worked well but the under-doneness of the potatoes earned me a low score.
3. Homemade ravioli - Yum! Yum! Yum! I made two sheets of pasta dough then filled them with three cheeses, prego sauce, and pepperoni. I cooked the ravioli and topped it with a Prego sauce that had extra garlic and prosciutto in it. This was a fabulous dish!
4. Prego stuffed pepper meatballs - I made meatballs with prego sauce and cooked them in a red pepper so the flavor of the pepper would enhance the meatball. This was very good too.
5. Parmesan crusted salmon with Prego and garlic butter - here is where it all fell apart. Now I know why spaghetti sauce is not paired with salmon often. The flavors were competing and they didn't go well together. Well...now we know.

Erik rated me a 14.2 and I rated myself a 14.6. He gave me lots of originality points but a 4/10 on taste for the salmon. Erik really didn't like it :(.

Erik finished painting and assembling the bunk beds. He is so handy! We put the girls in the bunk beds last night but Sarah kept coming out so she had to go back to her own room. Today they both played up in the top bunk. Sarah is adept at climbing up and down (no -we don't even have a ladder, they use the slats on the side of the bed!).

78 points on quiddler today. "woot" is not a word according to Quiddler online. Who are these people anyway? They don't know jokey or woot? Come on!

Cookie party!

Jenna's 5th birthday party was a success! I made cut out cookies of everyone's name and they all decorated their cookies.

Some kids had long names and likewise got more cookies ;). However some kids ate all their cookies without even decorating them. So they ate cookies, cake, and ice cream - only a little sugar.

Sarah kept saying "where my pesents?" Poor Sarah.

In other news:

1. I just received the best news ever from my dean. I was previously scheduled to teach 4 nights next semester and 2 online classes. That would be a lot and I'd be really busy and tired. She just emailed me and took away two nights so now I'll be teaching two onsite and two online. Yea!!
2. I'm about halfway through In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman. It is an excellent book and her writing is so rich.
3. Erik got his new computer for his birthday (it's a very early birthday present). So he has been playing a lot of games and constantly showing me the graphics. Look at this honey, oh... look at this.... you can see the grass move when I walk!
4. We've been playing squash a lot but I think we are going to try spinning as well. That will be comical to see.
5. 72 points on quiddler today. No cool words to speak of.

Iron Chef Erik: Pineapple

On Saturday Erik undertook the task of creating 4 dishes with an exciting secret ingredient. When I went to the store to get a secret ingredient for him, I saw a whole pineapple and thought, this will be fun and I'd like to eat a meal of pineapple. However after I bought a bunch of pineapple I realized that I had never seen Erik cook with pineapple. Oh well - he did great!

Erik made 4 dishes:

1. Pineapple smoothie - This smoothie had blueberries, pineapple, strawberries, yogurt, sugar and cream cheese. It was delicious, light and not too sweet.
2. Fruit salad - This fruit salad was in a pineapple bowl. It was a mixture of pineapple, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries. Very light and refreshing.
3. Spicy pineapple manicotti - this is why I love my husband. He has never made manicotti or cooked with pineapple, but he made pineapple manicotti. Go figure! He made a ricotta/cream cheese mixture and stuffed spicy peppers along with the pineapple and cheese mixture inside the manicotti. He baked it and topped it with more of the cream mixture. It was delicious and the spicy peppers contrasted well with the sweet pineapple.
4. Pineapple blueberry stack - This was a sweet cream cheese and ricotta mixture with blueberries and pineapples. He layered tortillas with the cream cheese mixture and put grilled pineapple in between each of these layers. The whole stack was topped with whip cream too. It was so yummy!

The final score was 15.25 (Erik's rating) to 15 (my rating). A very successful iron chef that wasn't too heavy or filling.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King day and Jenna and I have no school. We are going to spend the day at Erik's lasik appointment. He is going for the consultation to see if he is a candidate. Then he's going to take us to Golden Corral for dinner! So tomorrow should be a fun day. We had planned on putting Sarah in underwear all day tomorrow (just like today) but there were too many accidents and I don't feel like doing that much laundry!

Even though I've written a lot about food, I've been wanting to fast. My sister has had incredible success with fasting and I'm so happy for her. However with the pregnancy and then with breastfeeding afterwards, I don't feel comfortable fasting for the next year or so (although I would not hesitate if God called me to do it!). So since I can't fast, and am not praying at the abortion clinic anymore, I've felt kind of lost. I asked God what to do - what do I do in this season of my life? God told me to write a list of names, I have over a hundred names on it. Every day I will devote to prayer for that person. It has been a great experience so far to think of this person and pray for him/her during the day.

Wednesday is Jenna's birthday and on Thursday we are going to have a fun cookie decorating birthday party for her. We are so excited to have this party and I'll be sure to post pictures :).

87 points on Quiddler today - however, Quiddler would not give me the word "gamers". Hello? Erik is a gamer, I am a gamer. Since there are two of us we are gamers. I really don't see a problem with this word.

Christmas pics

Now that we are halfway through January, I thought I'd post some pictures from Christmas. I have the obligatory picture of the pediatrician (David) holding my two daughters in crazy ways. The picture of the girls with their new nightgowns sewn by Grandma Cooper, Jenna with her new fairytale ponies (a highly sought after gift), Jenna with the Tigger that Grandma also sewed (although Sarah plays with it all the time), and my I Love Spreadsheets shirt. This shirt is completely awesome. My husband is even more awesome for getting it for me!


We loved having family over and forced David and Becca to play games with us all the time. Sarah loves the name "Becca" and even when I show her pictures of Uncle David she calls him "Becca".

In other news:

1. Erik and I will be going to the Ohio Right to Life banquet March 5. The speaker is Sarah Palin! That should be exciting. To get ready for the banquet I'm reading her new book Going Rogue.
2. We bought unfinished bunk beds for the girls. Erik is in the middle of painting them now and in a week or two we should have them in Jenna's room. We will be moving Sarah into Jenna's room to consolidate the children. They may fight over who gets the top bunk!
3. I'm taking a photoshop class this semester to improve my photoshop skills. Why you ask? I already have mad skills! Well I still need to improve....a lot.
4. During my two week break I sat on the couch basically the entire time. I watched all 6 Star Wars movies and read the Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. That trilogy was well written and exciting with lots of plot twists. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more of Friedman's books.
5. Erik and I have been playing squash a lot lately since I'm feeling better. My dexterity was not what it once was. My armor class really stinks now (D&D reference).
6. This semester I'm only teaching two nights a week. It is so awesome! Of course next semester I'm teaching 4 nights a week and am not looking forward to it (Erik reminds me the Bible says "do everything without grumbling or complaining" - grumble, grumble, grumble).
7. 73 points on quiddler today - I made the word "linking" a 10 letter word!
   
   
   
   
   

My 15 Favorite Things of 2009

I've compiled a list of my favorite things of 2009. It was a great year and I'd like to commemorate it with this awesome list.

1. Favorite Book of 2009: The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. This was one of those books that you cheer out loud when reading (yes - I do that).
2. Favorite Meal of 2009: buffet at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. Buffets are awesome to me since I love variety. This buffet was high quality, and delicious, and I stuffed myself silly. Next time I go to Vegas I'd like to try more buffets!
3. Favorite Blood type of 2009: A+. Who wouldn't want A+ as their blood type? It is an awesome blood type and definitely the best one of 2009.
4. Favorite goal met of 2009: finishing my PhD. I worked on my PhD since 2001 and to finally finish was so amazing. I had many people say to me they didn't think I would (including my husband and advisor) since I had two kids but I proved them wrong!
5. Favorite new technology I started using in 2009: Twitter. I like to tweet and read others tweets. Mostly I read what other people say and it is inspiring and fun. Erik made me include this really long title since he said Twitter was not introduced in 2009.
6. Favorite song of 2009: Mighty to Save by Michael W. Smith. I sing this song all the time. It's so catchy!
7. Favorite binary digit of 2009: 1. While 0 comes in as a close second, 1 is considered on (generally) and I'd rather be on than off.
8. Favorite movie of 2009: Avatar. I saw three movies in the theater in 2009 and of those Avatar was definitely the best. I'm hoping to take Jenna to her first movie this weekend for her birthday: The Princess and the Frog. I don't think it will be better than Avatar.
9. Favorite gift of 2009: Baby 3! This baby is a gift from God and I'm so happy to have 3 kids. When I told one of my friends I was pregnant, her first response was "you won!". I love it :).
10. Favorite TV show of 2009: The Next Iron Chef. This show featured excellent chefs who created new exciting meals every week for judges to test. Then a chef was eliminated every week until someone became the Next Iron Chef. Now he'll be competing this Sunday - I can't wait!
11. Favorite answered prayer of 2009: Jenna's preschool teacher became pregnant after 2 years of infertility treatments. I prayed with her at Jenna's school. It was an exciting, tearful time to hear that she was pregnant. Her baby girl is due any day now!
12. Favorite milk of 2009: 2% milk. We moved from whole milk to 2% even though Sarah is still in the 3rd percentile for weight (her 2 yr appt was the 5th - she's such a peanut). I was happy with the change. I felt drinking whole milk was like sludge.
13. Favorite camping trip of 2009: Cross Creek Camping trip June 26 - June 28. This camp ground is close, the pool is huge and wonderful, and there are a lot of activities. Whenever we start camping again, we are going to go back here. It might replace Buckeye Lake as our favorite (especially since it is cheaper!).
14. Favorite vacation of 2009: Our family trip to Florida in August. We stayed at a little paradise in Florida with a hot tub and heated pool. It was an amazing time and we can't wait to go back, although we will have to wait as we probably shouldn't go next year close to my due date.
15. Favorite Bible verse of 2009: Psalm 19:14 "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." This verse has become a daily prayer for me. Note: this is not my favorite Bible verse.

54 points on Quiddler today - terrible showing.

The House

I was going to post a nice message about Christmas with cute pictures of the girls and talk about how wonderful a time we had and the great relaxing break we had but no. No, I thought I'd disclose something a lot more personal.

For quite some time I've had dreams about a particular house. It is always the same house even though I may dream about different rooms or the driveway or different parts of the house. I had one such dream the other night.

I was in the kitchen and with me was an older man in a wheelchair. I talked to him as though we were familiar but not in a respectful familiar way, rather in a familiar contemptful way. I looked over in the corner and saw a large spider in its web with a huge worm/snake still wiggling and moving that would soon be a meal for the spider. Close by was another spider as well. Ugh! I thought. I'll have to get Erik to call terminix to get all these bugs out of here.

I turned to the man in the wheelchair and said (rather disdainfully) "why do you stay here with all these bugs?" He just turned away from me and didn't answer.

When I woke up I had the usual thought that someday we would own this house. Why else would I keep dreaming about it? Then it hit me.

It's my heart.

Why is my heart filled with bugs? Is the man in the wheelchair God? Why was I so disdainful to him and limiting him by putting him in a wheelchair? What a yucky heart I have!

I didn't understand this. I thought I was doing well. I wasn't struggling with some sin like sometimes in my life, I was journaling every day and while I had stopped fasting and praying at the abortion clinic, I actually felt that God released me from that for this season in my life. Why would my heart be so yucky?

Ohhh. Pride.

Pride is a sin that you don't think about. It is the sin that says you don't need God - you're doing fine on your own. It's the sin that creeps up on you.

Ben Franklin wrote "There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."

So wise and so true.

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" ~Gal 6:14

N names

Today was our second day sans children and it was a very relaxing day. We spent $700 to fix the Explorer but that was the only place we went today. We cleaned the house (super exciting!) and I sat on the couch and watched movies and finished up changes to my courses for next semester.

One useful thing Erik and I did was think of names for our baby. Our two girls have middle names that begin with N. Here is a list of names Erik thinks we should use as a middle name:

• Nektulos (the name of a forest in EQ2)
• Nektropos (castle in EQ2)
• Null ()
• Nobody (Erik thinks it would be awesome to introduce yourself as nobody)
• Necronomicon (book in stupid "Army of Darkness" movie)

Since none of these names sound normal, Erik thinks "normal" should be the middle name of our baby.

I'll keep you posted on our name possibilities.

Today I took a Pilates class at Lifetime fitness. It was exciting that I actually exercised and that I'm feeling better from this morning sickness. Saturday Erik and I even played squash - I only scored 4 points so obviously I'm a little rusty.

I also picked up the book "If God is Good" by Randy Alcorn. It is awesome with many stories that make me cry. He writes in the book that the reason most athiests do not choose to follow God is not because of science but rather because of pain and suffering. Many of them ask the question - "how can a good God allow evil and suffering in the world?" He brings up many good points explaining that an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God could have reasons to allow suffering. Kind of like working out makes us stronger (well that was one example - he had a lot better ones).

66 points on Quiddler!

Sarah is so jokey

Sarah is over the hill. On Sunday we had a whirlwind day in Canton. We went to Amanda's graduation - congratulations Amanda! She graduated with a degree in Business from Walsh University. It was such a cute University - too bad it doesn't have a math and computer science degree program.

Then we celebrated Christmas with my family. The girls got several presents which they loved opening including mermaid barbies, clothes, a singing skirt, and guitars among other things. Sarah also received birthday gifts since we celebrated her 2nd birthday!

She's such a spitfire at 2, I can't imagine what she'll be like when she is older. Sarah wanted a pink cake and Erik decided that Jesus wanted a chocolate cake, so we'll be making a chocolate birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve.

On Saturday we had a few inches of snow, so we all went outside and built this beautiful snowman. After building the snowman, I was pelted with a snowball.

Then it was on.

Erik and I threw snowballs at each other, hid around playground equipment, and used children as shields (well I guess we didn't do that last part). It was so much fun when we got inside Jenna drew a picture of us playing outside with Mommy and Daddy holding snowballs. Too bad I couldn't call up my best friend Craig to help me throw some snowballs at Erik.

In other news:

1. I finished Black Sun Rising by C.S.Friedman. Wow was it good! It was so good I immediately started on the second book in the trilogy much to Erik's dismay. This is not one of those books I read leisurely, this is a series I can't put down.
2. I also finished Bad Moon Rising by Sherrilyn Kenyon and I don't think I'll be reading any more of her work right now. It's too much for me and the writing is not as rich as authors like Friedman.


3. The girls are staying with my parents for a few days (translate = sleeping in) so Erik and I went out to dinner to J.Alexanders (YUM!) and went to see Avatar in 3D. It was AWESOME! The story, special effects, and character development were excellent in Avatar. It was good even though you were rooting against the humans.


4. I have to post this absolutely adorable video of Erik dancing with the girls. Apparently he does this a lot when I'm gone at night teaching. He puts some music on and they all dance. The girls love it!
5. I got 80 points in Quiddler but was dismayed to find that Quiddler online does not accept the word "jokey". This word is a scrabble word I played years ago that Erik, Tim and Jen did not believe was a word. However, I found it in the dictionary and learned that it is a valid word. I'm sad to learn that Quiddler online does not recognize the validity of "jokey".
   
   
   

Football players and Smorgasbords

It's been an interesting week at the Cooper household.

On Saturday, Jenna, Sarah and I went to a birthday party for Jesus at New Hope Church (Jenna's preschool). It was a huge event and we were put in a room with 3 year olds. Sarah was one of the youngest kids there. The room leader, Beth also had a daughter who was 21 months and a son who is 4 so we talked about our kids. She said her husband would be coming shortly with their daughter.

Jenna and Sarah and I were sitting in the sanctuary when her husband came in and sat down next to me. He was very tall and friendly. I talked to him quite a bit. We chatted, I sniffed Sarah's bottom, we joked about terrible twos, we ate pizza together, we did crafts at the same table, Sarah fell on him.....then I looked at his daughter's name tag. I knew that Craig Krenzel went to that church but didn't think I would be so blind as to be sitting next to him all day and not know it was him (especially since I was sniffing Sarah's diaper). I went home and searched online.

Yup. It was him.

I loved his wife! I talked to her quite a bit and she seemed like someone who could be my friend, except that she's Craig Krenzel's wife so I don't know why she'd be my friend.

Anyway, that was an interesting day. Craig Krenzel = important football player.

On Sunday our church had the Christmas smorgasbord and children's program. Jenna sang in the program and was very excited to participate. Sarah kept trying to go up there too but kids had to be at least 4. Since the smorgasbord was a buffet I planned on making a Christmas tree cake. I baked a cake in a 9x13 pan and planned to cut it out in the pretty shape of a tree. That was the plan at least. I tried flipping the cake over and then it fell apart in a million pieces. So I ate 999,999 of those pieces.

Then I got sick.

So I made chocolate peanut butter bars - a super easy recipe that I can make quickly and can lick the bowl without feeling bad since there are no raw eggs. Not that I needed to lick the bowl since I ate so much cake earlier.

Jenna woke up with a pink eye and discharge from her eye along with a runny nose (no fever). We called the doctor and now we have drops to put in her eye. I don't like when anyone puts drops in my eyes and she is just like me. She fights me when I try and put the drops in her eye. Too bad she had to miss the Christmas party at school this week.

Today Sarah decided she wanted to use the potty (this is Sarah's personality by the way). So I couldn't keep a diaper on her. She kept taking it off and would walk around with her little naked butt all over the house. She did pee on the potty today which was a very exciting step. We will see if this lasts or is just a whim.

I snapped a picture of monkey Sarah on top of the play car. Jenna asked how Sarah got up there. It's her monkey genes :).

73 points on quiddler today.

Gingerbread Nummie

It's been a long time since I've updated my blog. This is partially due to the fact that I've laid on the couch every day with morning sickness and partially due to the fact that due to my lack of enthusiasm for moving, not much is going on.

Today the girls and I decorated our annual gingerbread house. The girls both ate more of the candies than they actually decorated with but I think everyone had a good time. Sarah liked the tiny gumballs and kept saying "balls nummie" translation "these gumballs are so yummy!"

Sarah's language has exploded. She has been saying full sentences for awhile and knows 9 colors and has started to count. She talks all the time...ALL THE TIME. Jenna talks all the time...ALL THE TIME. Mommy is exhausted by all the talking. The other day, I set a timer for 5 minutes. No one was allowed to talk for that 5 minutes. It didn't last.

Peace and quiet...where art thou?

Not in a home with 2 and 4 1/2 year old girls.

In other news:

1. Our small group made dinner for the Ronald McDonald House. I've posted a picture of me and my friend Jen making quesadillas. We served the families that stay at the house and really enjoyed this service opportunity. We do like to serve at Faith Mission too but this was different since it was families rather than just men.
2. I am reading two books with virtually the same names. Bad Moon Rising by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman. Both are fantasy yet very different stories. However the names are close so that is exciting to me.
3. Our church is starting a Dave Ramsey course for 13 weeks called Financial Peace University. Erik is thinking of going. I'm thinking of not going. I don't think much about finances - that's Erik's job. He doesn't think about showering and laundry - apparently that's my job.
4. I refuse to wear maternity clothes in the first trimester even though I'm ballooning up with this pregnancy. All my clothes are tight and I look like I'm about 20 weeks pregnant. I'm not sure how I'll survive through this pregnancy.
5. 86 points on Quiddler!

Iron Chef Battle: Missy vs. Amanda

On Saturday we had another Iron Chef battle in kitchen stadium (our house). Erik and I chose the secret ingredient: cheddar cheese. Missy and Amanda were the iron chefs and I was paired with Missy as her sous chef and Erik was Amanda's sous chef. We had 1 hour to create 3 dishes apiece featuring the secret ingredient.


Iron Chef Amanda created:

1. Japanese shrimp dip. This dish had several components to it. The shrimp was breaded in panko breading and fried. A spicy and complex cheddar cheese dip was created to dip the shrimp in. The dip was really delicious. She also had sushi for us to dip in the cheese - yum!
2. Not your original mac and cheese. Her second dish was a mac and cheese dish with chunks of chicken and green onions. It had 4 different kinds of cheese in it and melted in your mouth!
3. Apples and cheese play tic tac toe. Apples and cheddar cheese were cut in neat squares and little sandwiches were created out of them. They were sitting in a honey lemon sauce too. A very cute presentation.

Iron Chef Missy created:

1. Deconstructed quesadilla. This dish required you to create your own quesadilla. She made a cheddar cheese sauce and had a bowl of green onions next to a bowl of fresh tomatoes. You could create your own quesadillas on tortilla chips. The sauce was excellent!
2. Proshrimp white cheddar lasagna. Missy made a white cheddar cheese sauce with onions, garlic, prosciutto, and shrimp. She also cooked lasagna noodles and layered them with the cheese sauce and baked it for half an hour. This was superb and definitely creative.
3. Cheddar apple tarts. These tarts consisted of a pie crust with cheddar cheese and sauteed apples as the filling. Whip cream and caramel sauce on top made them much better.

This was a wonderful iron chef competition and we all had a lot of fun. It was Missy and Amanda's first time as iron chefs. and they performed spectacularly.

The score was very close. Amanda earned 49.67 points and Missy earned 49 points. So Amanda won by 0.67 points! A very close iron chef - congratulations Amanda! Missy has already challenged her to a rematch.

58 points on quiddler today.

Gina's Guide to Getting Pregnant

Gina's Guide to Getting Pregnant

1. Rejoin the health club you quit earlier this year.
2. Start running 2 miles three times a week to get back in shape
3. Buy a really expensive polar heart rate monitor to help you get back in shape
4. Renew your KOA camping membership since you'll be doing a lot of camping next year.
5. Give away most of your baby clothes and baby items since you won't be needing them.
6. Decide to stick with the number of kids you currently have.
7. Start writing a paper for a conference next year.
8. Plan to go on vacation with my family next year
9. Decide that I want a third child before I turn 35 (got pregnant and my due date is - of course! my 35th birthday)
10. Listen and accept Erik's mantra "happy wife, happy life".

Erik read the list and said "those aren't the things that got you pregnant."

My princesses

I can't believe it is finally here. Saturday I graduate from Wright State. I tried on my cap and gown (all $780 worth of it!) to see how it looked. What do you think? Sharp huh! I think my masters cap and gown was like $60. Really, why the big price difference here?

So our dishwasher broke today. Right before everyone is coming over for my graduation and a week and a half before Thanksgiving. Bummer. And that dishwasher was only 5 years old. I said to Erik, we just bought it - it certainly must still be under warranty. That's when we realized that "just bought it" means 5 years ago. Where does time go?

A few shameless plugs of my adorable girls. The girls were baking cookies with me on Monday and I snapped a picture of them. They are two adorable sous chefs!

I also snapped this video of the girls yelling "surprise" as they jump out from behind the couch. Sarah's surprise sounds more like "pie". For awhile I thought she was saying pie. Really Sarah, how hungry can you be?

They also want to dance with Daddy at every opportunity. He is always the king and they are the princesses. Of course the queen just sits on the couch so the queen can become a fat bottomed girl. Check out that pun. Booyah!

On that note, I only got 34 points on Quiddler today because ith is not a word. I did that before too. It sounds so much like a word to me!

The Gathering Storm

While the title "The Gathering Storm" could most certainly refer to Sarah, I'm actually referring to the new Robert Jordan/ Brandon Sanderson book in the Wheel of Time series. I recently finished this book and loved it! Brandon was true to the characters and the story moved along nicely. There were two awesome endings that I actually cheered about. I won't give any spoilers away, but I loved the book. I'd put it as one of the top in the entire series. Now that I'm finished with the book, I can pay attention to my family again.

We have been giving Jenna an allowance for the last several weeks and she has finally earned enough to buy this stuffed unicorn she wanted. So we took a picture of her with her new unicorn named "Pinky". Of course now that she bought the thing she wanted, she doesn't want to do her chores. She knew she was trying to earn the unicorn and now that she has the unicorn who needs an allowance?

Erik was gone all last week in Boston at his new job. He loves his new job especially since he got a phone with internet on it *jealous*. He also got a nice new laptop and can work from home. It's really an awesome job. Upon his arrival home I made him a key lime pie as that is what he asked for. I also made yellow cupcakes with cookie dough in the middle topped with a chocolate buttercream frosting I made. Delicious! That coupled with all the candy I've eaten lately has made me want to go back to the love handler!

Today I made the words "voting" and "quietly" on quiddler. Immediately I was kicked out because there were no more letters that could be made into a word. Bummer. So I only got 65 today.

Trick or Treat!

I'm a little worried. Sarah has discovered that she is cute and can use her cuteness to her advantage. Can someone who is 22 months old be manipulative? I would think not but evidence supports the opposite conclusion. Tonight was Beggar's Night (trick-or-treat). Jenna was dressed as Sleeping Beauty and Sarah was Little Red Riding Hood. They were both adorable. Even so, Jenna did not use her cuteness to obtain extra candy at neighbor's houses like Sarah did. This is a little disturbing. Sarah came home with more than Jenna and mostly M&Ms which she calls "nummy".

On Wednesday I went to the doctor because I had been sick for the past couple of days. It was getting so bad that for three days I just laid on the couch and let the girls watch TV (Jenna thought it was great). The doctor listened to my symptoms and said she thought I had H1N1. Bummer. I told my deans that I probably wouldn't be able to go to work that night and they said they didn't want me to go in Thursday either. That was kind of a bummer since I don't like to miss class. It was good though because I really couldn't do anything but lay on the couch anyway.

In other news:

1. One of the fantasy blogs I read has talked quite a bit about Sherrilyn Kenyon. So I picked up Acheron at the library. This book is so interesting. It is fantasy set in 9548 B.C. and is about Atlantian gods. Most fantasy is set in a medieval setting, this is more interesting for the setting and the writing is compelling. I'll definitely read more of her work.
2. The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson arrived at my door today. So I'll be occupied for the next few days ;).
3. Erik starts his new job on Monday - Yea! I'm so excited for him and he is just as excited.
4. 74 points in Quiddler today and ith was not a word. "ith" is definitely a word! When you are referring to a series and talking about the ith item in the series you would use that word. I need to take this up with Quiddler.
   
   

Favorite Programming Language

Per Joel's request - I have created my list of favorite programming languages! I only included programming languages that I have programmed in - not languages like Ruby on Rails even though that would so be on my list if I included everything.

1. Perl. Oh perl how I love thee... let me $count the ways. Perl is loosely typed. Named after Matthew 13:45-46 (so it's God's language). It is a perfect language for all things bioinformatics. I can do so many things so quickly in perl. It's flexible and quick. Here's a line of code from the final exam I gave in my BMI courses to extract data from a microarray file: ($line=~ m/(\w+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)/). Now that's good stuff.
2. SQL. Whether you are purist and pronounce it "essquel" or someone who goes with the flow and pronounces it "sequel", SQL is a great language for manipulating databases. I've grown to love this language as I teach it all the time. It's easy to use and just makes sense.
3. VBA. Visual Basic for Applications is a programming language you can use to write macros in Excel. This is one of my favorite things ever! Every semester students bring spreadsheets they need help with and I write macros for them to make life easier. Such a fun language.
4. HTML. This is such an easy versatile language, what's not to like? In about half an hour I can teach anyone how to program in HTML. It's easy and fun.
5. ASP. NET. I love to create websites with database backends. This you can do easily with ASP.NET. I've created several for work and hope to do one soon for PDHC.
6. Matlab. I've always loved Matlab. I wish I could work with it more. How else can you do linear algebra so fast! Matlab has a bioinformatics toolbox that we used in the BMI courses and I miss it.
7. VB.NET. The .NET platform is leaps and bounds better than VB6. Unfortunately I was too lazy to convert many of my programs to VB.NET so I still have some in VB6. Even so, I love VB.NET
8. Java. I wrote my entire genetic algorithm for my research in Java so it should definitely be on the list. While I wrote a lot of classes and all that, I prefer the lazy programming of perl.
9. C++. Before Java I used a lot of C++ in my programming courses. It was actually difficult to move from C++ to Java for my research because I was so used to C++. However I've come to like Java more. Still C++ holds a special place in my heart.
10. Basic. When I was 10 years old I wrote my first program in Basic and never looked back. It showed me a world of working with computers that I knew I would always enjoy.

What are your favorite programming languages?

Falling leaves

Fall is upon us and with fall comes leaves. Lots and lots of leaves. The girls love to play in the leaves in our backyard so I rake them up only to have them jumped in and scattered all over the backyard.


Fabulous and fun!

I wanted to get a picture of the burning bush by our driveway. It is such a beautiful red but this picture does not capture it. I love to look at it - a burst of color.

Last Thursday we went to a pumpkin patch with a corn maze, real hayride (yes I had hay in my hair!) and animals for the kids to pet. After the hayride we had apple cider and popcorn. I gave the girls the popcorn in the car because we had to leave early since I had to give a final that night. When we got home, I was not prepared for the mess. Apparently it's a bad idea to give little girls popcorn to spread all over the car.


I've been looking forward to the end of this semester. With two new classes I was really stretched but they went really well. Now this semester I'm teaching math and basic computer applications. Much easier!


In other news:

1. We are all SICK! I think I might have the flu. My whole body hurts and my head feels woozy (if that's a word). However we know God is protecting us. Sarah woke up saying "Jesus". Erik asked her questions about Jesus. She said "yes" that Jesus was in her room last night helping her feel better. So cute! Of course when we tried to get a video she didn't cooperate that much. Check it out here.
2. We have had fabulous attendance at our Bible study since I've been making dinner. In fact, one week we ran out of food! This week I'm making 3 meatloafs, mashed potatoes, homemade dinner rolls, and sesame green beans. I hope I have enough.
3. Erik starts his new job Nov. 2. We are both so excited! He is going there (Boston) for a week to train for his new job.
4. The same day he starts his new job, I get to sub a Photoshop class! I'm going to use some of my examples (especially my Fremen eyes picture) to show them the awesome things you can do with Photoshop.
5. Speaking of Fremen, I just started reading Children of Dune by Frank Herbert. I read Dune and Dune Messiah many years ago but hadn't continued the series. I don't know why I didn't continue the series. I love the world of Dune.
6. I also just finished A Merry Heart by Wanda Brunstetter. This book was okay. It was a book about an Amish woman who was jilted in love. It's hard to go from Children of Dune to A Merry Heart. I don't know why I mix genres so much.
7. 46 on Quiddler today. I really have to remember not to use all my U's when a Q might show up.

Fall Festival

On Saturday we went to the Fall Festival and chili cook off at church. There was a "turtle lady" there who had turtles and snakes for kids to pet and watch walk around the church. Sarah tried to climb in the cage with the turtles.

I tried 8 different chilis which was wonderful! I love chili but do not make it often since Erik is not such a fan. I was stuffed! There was a bouncy house and hay ride at the fall festival too. Jenna has also made some good friends. You can see her here with Paige (left) and Kate (right). These girls also come to our Tuesday home group and Jenna really likes them. Jenna spent the entire night holding hands with Paige. I'm so glad she has found some good friends! Towards the end of the evening, our whole family was roasting marshmallows outside by the bonfire, but Jenna and I decided to come in. After about half an hour Erik and Sarah came in and Sarah had a marshmallow in her mouth just as you can see in the picture. I thought it was the same marshmallow (yucky). However, Erik said she ate tons of marshmallows while she was out there. Great. I've won mother of the year this time! Sugar overload.

Joel has requested me to write a list of my favorite programming languages. I'm working on such a list right now. So you can sit on the edge of your seat waiting for my awesome list (yes awesome it will be!)

We are planning on going to the Fabulous Food Show in Cleveland the weekend of Nov. 13-15. I'm so excited about this! Celebrity chefs will be there along with food tasting and cooking demonstrations. This should be completely awesome.

Now you might wonder why I have flexed my photoshop skills again with my picture. My highlights had grown out to the point that half my hair was brown and half was orange, so I decided to color it with Revlon's natural dark brown/black. Well it is mostly black. I am not a big fan of my hair as it is black as night (which apparently helps me fit the role of snow white according to Jenna). However, I noticed that Megan Fox has dark hair/ almost black. So I wanted to see if I looked much like Megan Fox now. My brown eyes may have gotten in the way so I colored them blue. Then my nose was much bigger than hers so I shrunk it a little. What do you think? Am I a spitting image of the Transformers star?

82 points on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "raver". Tonight I also beat Erik at squash - yipee!

Port: A physical interface between a computer and a peripheral device

As I was sitting by the fire on our camping trip, rather than reflecting on the beautiful night or reclining in a prayerful repose, I came up with a new top ten list! Yipee! Just what you wanted to hear!
This top ten list will be sure to interest anyone who has the bad luck to stumble upon it.
I've made a list of my top ten favorite computer ports.

1. Ultra Wide SCSI - yes! Who wouldn't pick this one as number one! At my old job I had an external hard drive that connected with a 1 nanometer cable (not really that short it just seemed like it) to an ultra wide scsi port on my SGI. Awesome stuff.
2. USB - I know this would be most people's favorite port (those people who are actually cool enough to create a list of their favorite ports!). This port is so versatile - I think I might even use it to do my laundry. It can do almost anything! Throw out your floppies and zip drives - USB drives are way better!
3. Firewire - I'm just picking this one because of the name. I've never used firewire, but if I was a port I'd want to be called firewire. Sometimes it's all in the name. For example, I was talking to Erik about Megan Fox. I said that I think everyone thinks she is so pretty because her last name is Fox. Ummm.... yea. I think those are Erik's exact words but his facial expressions told me that sometimes it is not just the name.
4. Ethernet port - This port deserves high recognition. It connects computers together so they can pass data and information (school teacher definition mode). In my computer communications course in grad school we never called it an ethernet cable or a cat-5 cable, always twisted pair wire. I guess I also call adhesive bandages, band-aids. I'm a little crazy like that.
5. DVI - This port just looks cool with its neat set of pins. When we got our first monitor with DVI I thought there was something wrong with it, like some of the pins got eaten. Half eaten ports are always tops in my book.
6. PS/2 - When hooking up my computer in college, I loved the color coded PS/2 ports for my mouse and keyboard. They are also somewhat round and round ports have really gotten the shaft! lately.
7. Video port - Since I connect my laptop to an LCD projector for my lectures, I just have to love the video port. It's nice to be able to project my screen so everyone in the class can see, even when I forget to turn off my outlook updates. Fabulous!
8. Parallel port - I liked being able to attach my printer to my parallel port. Again it has a lot of pins which makes it more attractive than the serial port. And serial ports always make me think of lucky charms.
9. Midi port - This is a musical port that allows computers, synthesizers, and keyboards to communicate. How cool that the computer likes music too! Maybe I can get it hooked on my contemporary Christian station.
10. Serial port - I mentioned earlier that I like parallel ports better than serial ports but it doesn't mean I don't like serial ports! My mouse used to connect with a serial port before the much more awesome PS/2 port.

Well that's my list. I didn't think through all of the possiblities of ports and Erik wouldn't let me put coaxial cable on there (even though that is a totally rockin' port) because he said it didn't count as a computer port. I wonder if there are others that might blur the lines...

75 points on quiddler today and herm is a word!