Theology with a three year old.

I took Micah with me to Half Price books. She was excited to go look for books. In the car we were talking about books. She said she needed new books. I asked if we could keep the new books at my house, since she has lots at her house, and I don't have very many. She said no. Then she offered to maybe bring some of hers to my house. What a darling. I asked her what kind of books she had. Very thoughtfully she replied, "princess ones, pink ones and the Bible." Oh, great! I asked what the Bible is about. "It's about Jesus. He died on the cross." I of course, was excited by this answer (today is Sunday, so I am sure this was recently talked about in Sunday School.) I asked Micah if knew why Jesus died on the cross. Her reply "It was a pink cross." To that I say, "Oh, but do you know WHY?" "No, why did Jesus die on the cross?" Ok, I can answer that..."He died on the cross to forgive our sins because he loves us very much." I am very proud of my answer. "My wants a pink cross." was Micah's response. Then she started talking crosses for Mommy and Daddy and other family members. To that, of course I say "Jesus died on the cross so we don't have to." "My think it was pink."

Birthday Girl

Micah turns three on Monday. We celebrated her birthday on Wed. In this picture she is showing us how old she will be. Three fingers, but she tells us four.


She got to blow out the three candles on her princess cake. She wanted Sleeping Beauty, so Grandpa delivered a Sleeping Beauty cake.


"Membory" is one of the gifts Uncle Nicholas and Aunt Alesha got for her.


Grandma and Grandpa got her several things including a box of princess stuff and a princess "sweeping bad"


Micah got to cut her own cake. She did a pretty good job considering it was with a butter knife.



Princess Micah shows off her moves.

It's been a week

and what a week it's been.

This week was especially busy with Nick's parents in town. Sunday they came to our church with us. We were excited as this was their first time at The Alley. I believe the did like it. The comment I was told was that it didn't feel like a pep rally. It was worshipful even though it isn't a traditional service. That meant a lot to me coming from a retired Pastor. We had lunch with the whole family which was so fun. Micah and Taryn enjoyed the time as well. Taryn tried lemons and oranges.

Monday Night I had new faculty orientation. It was a lot of information thrown at us. I have a meeting with the Vet Tech coordinator on Monday to get a little more specific info.

Tuesday I had a bit of time to myself to prepare for my finals. I also did a little busy work around the house and got some Relay fundraising stuff out. I took my composition final and turned in my final draft of my research/argument paper. The feedback I got from my rough draft was that the paper was strong and well written (to the point she recommended getting it published???) but needed some cleaning up. So I did that. I took the final and got 79/80 points. After looking at my grades so far, I need to get 60 out of 105 points on my paper to maintain my A in the class. Basically as long as she can grade my paper (it meets the minimum requirements) I will get an A. Yay me!

Wed was a stressful day for me. It started very well, but I had my Patient Care final at 6. I had attempted to test out of the blood pressure part last week, but did not succeed, so I was very worried about it. Before that though, we celebrated a certain birthday girl's birthday. Micah turns three on Monday. We all gathered about 2pm to celebrate. We had presents and "princess cake." Grandpa made a beautiful sleeping beauty on on the cake. It was "so petty." I never did get my jumping cake though. Micah got great presents and had so much fun. I also had a good time taking blood pressures to practice my technique. (Thank you to all my guinea pigs over the last 12 weeks) I then headed to school to meet with some of the vet tech instructors from the Woodbury campus. They were allowing me to borrow material and share lesson plans. I got a lot of information and some great tips on teaching and not letting students get to me. By the time I finished getting pointers and material, I had just enough time to run to the bathroom before class started.

Then class started. I was so nervous. My instructor tortured us by making us participate in a discussion about bmi and how to calculate it and why....Then finally it was time. I went first (of 4 people) and had a class mate as my patient. "Nothing fancy, just get your values." So I took pulse and respirations. She questioned my resps, but then did them again, and I was right. Phew! Then I took her blood pressure. My instructor took her bp and I was exactly right! PHEW!!! I passed. I passed on the first try. This of course means I maintain my A in that class in addition to passing.

Yup, that's me, Mrs 4.0

Thursday was a day to chill, kind of. I took time for me, to just sit and watch judge shows and not think about class, or school, or work, or cleaning, or other people. I did do a little bit more Relay stuff and then headed over to my in-laws to hang out. And that is what we did. We had BBQ pork sandwiches for supper and they were so good! We had banana split cake for dessert. I had never had it before, but I knew my husband loved it. He had it for his birthday cake quite often growing up. It was very tasty. I will likely make it. Maybe add some chocolate though...

Today I jumped out of bed realizing I should have been up 30 minutes ago for a meeting with someone from the Lions Club and Relay people. So I got to caribou a little late. The meeting went really well. The Lions have already voted to be involved. We have formed what I think will be a mutually beneficial relationship. The president had all kinds of contacts (personal and professional) that she was willing to share with us and some great ideas of places to ask for involvement. I left there very excited!

I did a few things around the house and then Nick and I went to pick up Rollie and Sue and we all headed out to my parents house for supper. We did a tour of Waconia while it was still light and then had a wonderful meal with my parents. It was a great night and we were glad to have some one on one time.

Tomorrow we are planning to finish assembling and installing my new computer (we meaning Nick) while I find things I want to do.

I really wanted Thai food.

After spending the day enjoying the weather, we had a wonderful supper. We watched the girls for a little while this afternoon. We took advantage of 60 degree weather and went to the playground near Micah's house. Taryn enjoyed the view from the front seat of the stroller while Micah walked and sang at the top of her lungs about loving the playground. While there Micah did make friends and play with a few of the other kids. Back at the house we finished watching the DVR-ed Food Network episodes on Pad Thai. Michael knows about my goal of finding an awesome Pad Thai recipe, so he DVR-ed a Good Eats and a Bobby Flay throwdown episode about it. After watching it and being a bit hungry, we decided to try a new place I happened to pull a coupon for. Supatra's Thai Cuisine is in St Paul on West 7th just off Randolph. It was easy to get to...already a good thing.

The place is small, with only 13-15 tables, depending on arrangement. When we arrived we were seated immediately and brought water promptly. The menu had a lot of options. Most of the items had good descriptions which is great when one isn't familiar with Hor Moke or even Crying Tiger. The very polite and attentive Thai waitress suggested Mieng Kum for an appetizer. We figured, what the heck, we can get cream cheese puffs anyplace. It is a variety of flavors and textures that you spoon off the plate into lettuce leaves and then top with their sauce. Yum! The flavors were distinct, but blended well. It was tasty.

For our meals Nick had the Pad Thai with shrimp, I mean, we watched over and hour of pad thai on TV. I had the Coconut noodles. They were both wonderful dishes. The Pad Thai was very good. My noodles were very messy as the coconut sauce was abundant, but tasty. As Nick pointed out, sometimes coconut sauce goes on the "subtle" side for coconut, this one did not. It was very good. Portions were great for the price. (~$12 per entree)

We decided on dessert, which isn't something we often do, but bananas with coconut ice cream sounded way too good to pass up. It did not disappoint. Nick decided we should get deep-fryer so "we" can make them at home. Very tasty!

Overall, the service was very good, the food was great and brought out quickly. The prices for the portions were quite reasonable. We will go back. Supatra's Thai in St Paul, check it out and let me know what you think.

Spring Fever

On Monday we babysat the girls. I say "we" because Uncle Nick had spring break this week, so he enjoyed the company of the girls as well. I am amazed every time I see them at the growth both of them have experienced in as little as a week, or even a few days in some cases. On Monday Micah was very excited telling me about her upcoming birthday. "Dama" and "Dampa" are going to be here and "Dampa" is going to make a princess cake. It will be pink with frosting and princesses. He is also going to make a "jumping" cake. She explained that that cake would be for me, but also has frosting.

Taryn slept for a bit, and then was very entertained by toys. She did let Uncle Nick hold her while I finished supper. She tried to take his plate off the table with moderate success until it taken away from her. She is so very strong and I expect that crawling will happen soon. She likes to laugh and is starting to enjoy the sound of her own voice.

After we ate supper we took the girls for a walk and then stopped at the playground. We have the hand-me-down single stroller from when Micah was the only baby. Micah was ok with letting Taryn ride while she walked with us. When she walked with me, she held my hand and jumped over each puddle, line in the sidewalk and sometimes just for fun. Soon she was jumping rather than walking. When Nick and I traded off, Micah wanted to "skate" down the street. Like in Wizard of Oz..."OH, you want to skip!" so they did. It was very cute to watch. Uncle Nick did more skipping while Micah ran and hopped now and again. Taryn happily rode in the stroller giggling and laughing to herself. We stopped at the playground and played for about half an hour. Micah has no fear! She runs and attempts and plays on all the stuff. She climbs and slides and runs all by herself and only requests that you watch. There was a little boy that joined us. He is just a tad younger than Micah but not nearly as brave. She pushed him into doing some things by being the "winner" going down slides and climbing back up to do it again. She was proud of being the winner.

After a while Taryn was getting sick of not doing much, so we headed out. We loaded up and headed back to Micah and Taryn's house. We had two tired little girls on our hands, but it sure was fun!

St Paul Grill

Nick and I celebrated my getting a job by going to eat at the St Paul Grill. We had a gift card which meant this particular trip wouldn't cost us anything. That's celebrating! The restaurant is much easier to get to and get back from than many places, especially since I know St Paul so much better than Mpls. We also went on Sunday night, so we were able to park for free on the street. (yay) When we arrived, we were both a little disappointed with the ambiance. I think we were expecting more like Capitol Grill and this did not live up to that. It was nice, but not what we were expecting. There were a few tables that had dirty dishes sitting on them still. Maybe when you aren't busy the turn over process goes slower, but still....

We were not at all impressed with the service/server. After we sat for about ten minutes this younger gal stops at our table and asks what we would like to drink. She didn't greet us, tell us her name or give us any indication she was more than a drink girl. She did keep coming back asking us what we were going to order and such. I guess she did turn out to be our waitress.

We did enjoy our food. It was very good. We had calamari for an appetizer. It was pretty good. I have had better, but this wasn't fishy or too chewy. I had the roasted chicken. It too was quite tasty. Nick had the walleye. his comment: "that's not fish, that's a pancake." It had a maple/brown sugar type sauce. It really did taste pancake-y but it was good. Nick also had baked mac-n-cheese. It was also tasty. My au gratin potatoes were good, but not great. I brought quite a bit home with me. We did have dessert which was also tasty.

So overall, food was good, service was not. It may be someplace we return to, but given a celebration again in the future, we will likely pick someplace else.

Movie Review

Nick and I had a Friday night that we didn't have anything happening. I made manicotti and garlic toast and we watched Prince Caspian. I bought this movie about a month ago at Circuit City when they first reduced stuff for their going out of business sale. Tonight was the night to watch it finally.

I was excited to watch it, though admittedly I don't remember Prince Caspian, or any of the books very well, except the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. We have the series, I will have to re-read them again.

Overall, I did enjoy this movie. Nick was able to point out a few places that just weren't in the book, and how two minutes into the movie we were 10 chapters in. I did get a little distracted by the similarities to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (in movies anyway). There were a lot of scenes in this movie that I thought "hmmm, I think that looks just like a scene from LOTR. The trees...very similar, the army marching to battle, yup...the music in the "death scene" was very similar. Even the "river scene" was quite reminiscent of LOTR. Now, don't get me wrong, I did like this movie. Like I said, I was a tad distracted. I will admit I was a little more anxious during PC, not knowing exactly what is supposed to happen and when.

Not having an official rating system, I will give it a "glad we added it to the collection" and enjoyed watching it.

A prayer of thanksgiving!

I interviewed for a teaching position yesterday. As some of my very loyal readers may know, since November I have been fruitlessly trying to find a job. I have applied for most anything and everything I am qualified or more than qualified to do. Then I started school in January at the Woodbury campus of Globe to be a Medical Assistant. I have continued to apply and look for work. I found a posting for the Shakopee campus (Globe/MSB) looking for a Vet Tech instructor. Well, I can do that! I completed the online application on Thursday around 9am. By 11am I had a call from the Dean of Faculty wanting to set up an interview! YAY!! So I called back when I got home from volunteering at Regions. I left a message. A short time later the Associate Dean of Faculty called and we scheduled the interview for Monday at 5pm. Oh, and "prepare a teaching demo for us. It can be on anything you would like." I was pretty freaked out all weekend about this teaching demo. What are they looking for? Will I do ok? What if my power point isn't good enough. Will there be 1 or 8 of them? I really didn't know what to expect.

Well, I went into the interview with my teaching demo about Roundworms all ready to go. The Dean was a very nice lady. I felt very at ease with her. I didn't feel like she was judging me or critiquing my every move. After about 20 minutes she gathered a VT instructor the Associate Dean and the three of them listened to my presentation. I got about half way through with the two had to leave. The VT instructor was very impressed and told me as much. She also said she looked forward to seeing me again soon. (That's a good thing right?) The Dean told me flat out she was impressed with my teaching demo. After a few more questions she told me they would be making a decision by Thursday and let me know.

Well, apparently I was really good, because they called today and offered me the position for two open classes they have. Starting in early April I will be teaching the Exotic and Lab animals class and the basic hematology class. Tuesdays will be a longer day 8am-11 and then 1-5, and Thursdays just 8-11. I am excited to be working again, and I am excited to get to teach the up and coming to be "super techs!"

I am excited to be joining the ranks of the employed again, at least for a few more years.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, support, love and well wishes. Please do continue to pray as we enter this new journey of my being employed...a teacher and a student.

YAY

A lesson in gender roles

On Monday I spent several hours with my favorite nieces. Micah has a hard time accepting that not all "babies" are girls. I can totally see where she might get the idea, but she doesn't believe us that Simba, Bambi, Thumper, and Flower are all boys. The only baby she admits is a boy is Baby Jesus (and I think that took some work.) So in the car Micah was telling me she is a princess. Then she told me that girls are Princesses. I asked what boys are and she first tried to say Princes, but I think it sounded to much like princess to her, so she said, they are a prince. So we had to go through the whole list of family and friends that she knows and she told me if they were a prince or a princess. I was excited to know that I am indeed a princess. :)