Home again, home again

Boy, am I glad to be home! We had a very fun weekend in Columbus and Cedarville but I'm happy to be back to our old routine today. It's weird - I've been looking forward to our mini-getaway for so long, that it kind of let me down. Chloe's not at a very adaptable age right now so sleeping in the hotel room was rather trying. It was still fun to be away together as a family and to see some new sights. And we're bursting with pride at how well Matt did at the conferences! Now he just has one more big paper for the semester, oodles of reading, and teaching his four freshman classes (last on his priority list).

Highlights of the trip:

• exploring downtown Columbus' North Market
• walking through the Franklin Park Conservatory and cheering for the stragglers in a cross-country race through the park
• swimming in the hotel pool - Chloe giggled with glee as soon as we put her in her intertube
• seeing part of an old favorite movie on cable tv (Overboard)
• playing scrabble with Matt
• dinner in the president's dining room of Cedarville University's campus - great little college
• a fancy schmancy hotel for only $50 a night
  
• an extremely helpful and friendly desk clerk who arranged a free shuttle to take us to a local mall
• Chloe's blossoming "hi" and "bye-bye" which she tried on most strangers
  

Lowlights of the trip:

• experiencing a mild case of food poisoning complete with diarrhea and vomitting
  
• no free breakfast at our chic hotel
  
• interrupted sleep by our confused-by-the-new-surroundings and overly-curious Chloe
• crabby, sleepy Chloe who refused to be pacified several times during our mall excursion (now I totally empathize with parents who buy their kids treats to keep them quiet!)

As Chloe is a squirming fast-moving toddler, I didn't have time to take many photos. Enjoy the few posted below. Ah, it's good to be home!

















Let's see . . . I'll take this toy, and that piano, the rocking horse, and the cooking set. Wrap it all up please and charge it to my mommy. (It was not fun leaving this store).























C'mon guys, hurry up and get ready for swimming! Guess I'll brush my teeth while I'm waiting. Do you think socks and bathing suits will be a new trend?






















Jumping on the bed

Scheduled Blogging Outage

We are leaving on a mini-vacation today for Columbus and Cedarville, Ohio. Matt is presenting papers at two English conferences at Ohio State and Cedarville University (respectively). We're so proud of his scholarship and accomplishment! These conferences will also brighten up his resume. AND we get to go with him!!!! We're staying at a hotel in Columbus and we're looking forward to the hotel perks (swimming pool, free breakfast, cable tv).

We'll be gone today through Sunday so needless-to-say (but I'll say it anyways) Chloe Chronicles won't be posting new material until Monday. Have a great weekend!

October Recipe Call

The recipe swappers blog theme for October is Fall Cooking with Apples. Send in your tried-and-true apple recipes to me at aliciahorn@hotmail.com. Be sure to check out last month's recipes for Simple Suppers, listed below.

French Bread Pizza
Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Pork Chops
Spicy Tomato Soup
Cheese Ravioli with Veggies
Asian Beef and Noodles
Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Aunt Carol's Spinach and Fish Bake
Man Pleasin' Jumbalaya

Back to normal

Today it's just Chloe and me again - unfortunately life is back to normal for us. It was so wonderful to have my mom here this past weekend. Much thanks to Christopher Columbus so she could have a long weekend to visit us!

Yesterday we took Chloe to the Cleveland Zoo for her first ever zoo experience. She didn't get into it as much as I hoped. Guess she's still too little to appreciate all the animals. By far, her favorite was the polar bear. He was actually doing something - not napping as many of the others were. Chloe smiled, pointed, and roared at him!

Below are some random pictures from our weekend together.

A petting barn

Sadly, my mommy has to go home tomorrow. Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! She's been having a ball with Chloe and Chloe is beginning to return grandma's affection. Today Chloe skipped church with grandma and they spent some quality bonding time at the park. Chloe's also been hugging grandma and letting herself be held and read to (my mom does some very involved farm animal noises in Barnyard Dance).

The title of this post refers to a petting barn. We went to great lengths to find a petting zoo/farmer's market Saturday morning (way to go stupid mapquest) and it turned out to be more of a barn than an actual zoo. Regardless, Chloe thrived on the live moving animals making foreign noises (after she got over her initial fear of the hungry friendly pigs). Below are some photos of our animal adventure.

Have you been to a petting zoo/farm/barn? If so, what animal did your kids like the best? Chloe was digging the free range chickens. Guess she wants to be like Rocky Balboa . . .

First video attempt

Here's my first attempt at posting a video clip. Much thanks to Suzanne Dobbertin for the inspiration!

Sorry it's sideways and without music accompaniment . . . I'll improve my technique with time.




>

MY MOM IS COMING TONIGHT!!!

I hope the title in all-caps and the multiple exclamation marks convey my excitement at my mom's visit tonight!!! My mom flies in for a quick weekend visit tonight and we're all looking forward to her company. Now that Chloe is trying to repeat more words and blossoming into her personality, it's going to be sheer joy sharing her with my mom.

I also wanted to share with you some photos of Chloe's newest hair-do. What do you think?

Call to Prayer

Please pray for the families of the girls lost in the recent Pennsylvania school shooting. What a world we live in! That 5 innocent little girls would be shot by a man just because he sought revenge over a grudge he'd held for 20 years.

My first thought is, what kind of twisted person holds a grudge against little girls and then takes it out on them 20 years later?!? Then I realize that without God's forgiveness, grace and mercy, we could all be this man.

Reflect with me on Romans 12 and join me in prayer with these hurting families and communities.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ^"VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord. "BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD."

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

A full weekend

This weekend Matt conquered a big, huge, 37 page paper for his independent study class on Quakers. Way to go, Mateo! He emailed his paper Saturday before dinner and we celebrated with a game night. We played Scrabble and Jeopardy until midnight. Aren't we party animals?

Friday night Matt and I ordered pizza, a very rare event if you know my healthy hubby, and watched an old Horatio Hornblower episode (I'm addicted to Horatio!). On Saturday, to give Matt some quiet time, Chloe and I ventured to our city's annual Octoberfest downtown. It was a small affair but fun to expose Chloe to some different musical groups. She was in awe of the steel drum band and got to push a tuba's valve buttons. She also got her face painted for the first time! Today was a full day at church and alas, Chloe didn't last long in the nursery. Tonight we're pumped about watching the Bears vs. the Seahawks game with some ice cream.

How was your weekend?

September Recipes

The September theme for our recipe swappers blog was Simple Suppers. Thanks to those of you who contributed! It's not too late to send in your recipes for simple suppers using 5-8 ingredients; email your simple supper recipes to me at aliciahorn@hotmail.com.

Check out this month's supper recipes below:
French Bread Pizza
Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Pork Chops
Spicy Tomato Soup
Cheese Ravioli with Veggies
Asian Beef and Noodles
Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Aunt Carol's Spinach and Fish Bake
Man Pleasin' Jumbalaya

October's theme for recipe swapping will be Fall Cooking with Apples. Bring on the apple recipes!

Pink Converse Hightops

I snatched up these pink converse hightops for $3 at a yard sale a few months ago never dreaming Chloe's feet would be big enough for them this fall! Her feet are growing at an exponential rate; it's ridiculous!

Anyways, it was fun for me to watch Chloe clomping around in her converse today. This jumper outfit was not her first of the day. Let's just say the first outfit met with a drastic lipstick-y end. But that's another story . . .

What shoes do you love on your kiddos?

Monster Walk

Today, Chloe and I took advantage of the sunshine and did a MONSTER walk. How monster? It took us 45 minutes each way to reach our destination. We journeyed to our favorite grocery store, Krieger's. After huffing and puffing my way back home, I mapquested the journey and discovered we had walked a total of 3 miles!!!! Not including stops (namely the park and a nearby gas station for a potty break)!

My feet are aching already and my thighs are sore. It's tough work to maneuver a 27.5 pound girl + stroller and then drive over the bumps of our city's horrid sidewalks. Overall though I'm feeling great that I got so much exercise and that Chloe got out and about for some different settings.

Another cool part of our walking adventure was that we found some terrific perennial deals at the garden center next to Krieger's. Since the season is practically kaput, we got a whole mess of perennials for only $12. I'm eager to plant them and see them pop up next spring-summer. I bought some peach astilbe, blue columbine, a dwarf aster mix, and some white scotch blue bells. Here are some photos of what these perennials should look like come spring. Do you plant perennials? If so, what kind?

Leaf it to Chloe

Forgive the recent lack of Chloe photos. I think the snap-a-photo-everyday phase is finally wearing off of this first time mommy. :)

Great-grandma painted this adorable fall t-shirt for Chloe. Thanks, g-squared!














Mom, stop with the flashes, will ya?!?

A Thankful Weekend

After reading Heather's recent post and watching a despairing movie this weekend (Syriana) Matt and I found ourselves praising God for the family we have. We are so thankful that we have a healthy family with healthy God-strengthening relationships. We praise Him for a loving extended family, too! We are blessed and fortunate people.

We quietly celebrated Matt's 32nd birthday Saturday. He requested jambalaya for his birthday dinner and I also made some yummy homemade french bread and french crumb apple pie. He also enjoyed cinnamon rolls, a new packer t-shirt, a donald duck comic book, and then we watched a movie together (Syriana as referenced above. Extremely interesting story but very sad).

Yesterday was church day and Chloe only made it 10 minutes in the nursery. :( Unfortunately, this week's workers weren't as patient as last week's. This time Matt got her out and they had a ball walking around the church and getting coffee for me (our church has an awesome coffee shop in the building). To try to prevent her crying-for-mommy-attitude Matt's been taking her and dropping her off in the nursery room. That strategy didn't seem to do much good this week though! Any other ideas mommies?

A sluggish day

Well, today was the antisythesis of yesterday. I was in bed early last night but ended up staying up until midnight reading a book! Though it was late it was incredibly delicious to just read an engaging book (Madman by Terry Groot).

So, Chloe and I slept until 8 this morning and that set the tone for our sluggish day. We moved slowly, missed Chloe's reading time at the library, and were both generally crabby. Chloe must be struggling with something because she hardly ate anything today and was super whiney this afternoon. And she even threw her first real fit! That's not a first I'm proud of . . . she was tugging at my legs as I tried to clean up the kitchen and I gave her a stern "No". She collapsed on the floor, curled up on her side and screamed! I told her no again, and then just let her have her scream.

Boy, was it frustrating to endure her crying! What tricks of the trade do you moms suggest for handling such things?

Thankfully, Chloe finally collapsed for a nap about 3:45 and I happily joined her for some zzzzzs. Matt whisked us away to Subway for dinner and a very comprehensive Wal-Mart excursion.

And now, all is quiet. Ahhhhhh. Thank goodness God's mercies are new every morning.

Ah, the joys of waking up early

Last night I finally made myself go to bed before 10 in order to aid my early-morning waking. It is such a lovely feeling to be up, showered and sipping my cup o' joe (a yummy cup of some peanut butter chocolate harry and david coffee - thanks mom!) before the household wakes. Unfortunately, I didn't get up as early as I liked and alas I don't have enough time to exercise before Chloe rises. But I still feel great for not being such a lazy sluggard!

Today Chloe and I are off to our first Moms' Club of Cuyahoga Falls meeting. Our local MOPS group disbanded so we'll see what the Moms' Club is all about. Sounds to be more involved than MOPS was with montly Moms night outs, daytime activities, a book club and community service projects.

What's on your agenda for today?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

Avast, me hearties! Here be the day long awaited . . . tis September 19th - the official Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Here are some basics in pirate lingo:
Ahoy! - "Hello!"
Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"

Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."
Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."
Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!


To find out how pirate-y ye be, here be the pirate test. Ahoy, mates!

A loss and a victory

The Packers let us down again this week with another loss, leaving them with an 0-2 record for the season start. Sigh. We have been blindly optimistic about our favorite team but it looks like it will be a dull, depressing season for the Pack. What team are you rooting for this season?

We also experienced a small victory in our battle with Chloe and our church's nursery. Chloe's been expelled from nursery for 3 weeks running, and yesterday she made it through an entire service! She'd always done fairly well in the nursery but for some reason moving into the 11-18 month room was difficult. Thank God for a patient worker yesterday! He stuck by Chloe and didn't let her cries bother him. He played by her side and though she wasn't the happiest camper, he was determined to help her make it through.

How do your kiddos handle the nursery? What ages/phases did they go through in their bouts of separation anxiety?

Opinions

I realized today that Chloe's hair is long and thick enough to be put into a ponytail atop her head! Yay! I have always liked the pebbles and bam-bam baby look.

This morning when I tried this new look on Chloe, Matt laughed and thought I was joking. He said she looked like a smurf.

I tried repeatedly to get a good shot of her ponytailed-head this morning and this was the best one. What's your opinion on my little smurfette's new hairdo?

Anyone need formula?

Now that Chloe is a cow's-milk girl, we have no need for the 6 cans of formula sitting in our pantry. We receive WIC assistance from the state of Ohio so the formula cost us nada. I would love to send these to someone out there in need of formula! I know how crazy expensive these cans are and I would hate for them to go to waste.

Vaccine blues

Yesterday Chloe received her 12-15 mos. shots at our local health department. She's usually a tough cookie and yesterday was no exception. Of course we both cried (as usual) when the needles pierced her chubby thighs (can you believe how deep they stick them?!?). But by the time we were leaving the clinic, she was only wimpering. An hour later she was her old self again, babbling and exploring.

Wellllll, today was a different day altogether! Both Matt and I were feeling sick, nauseous, and sleepy. Chloe was a crab this afternoon and evening so we busted out the children's tylenol and put her to bed early. I'm guessing what happened was that the small doses of viruses contained in the vaccines spread to all of us. Has this happened to anyone else?

One of my favorite words

. . . is the word FREE. I'm always on the hunt for good bargains at second-hand stores and yard sales but Sunday we hit the jackpot. We were on our way to church and noticed that a neighbor was holding a yard sale. As we were running a bit late, we didn't stop but decided to stop on the way home from church. By the time we got to the sale, the sale was over and the folks told us to take whatever we wanted for FREE! There were tons of little girl clothes which were mostly too big for Chloe but I took them anyway. The price was right and I can always put them away until they fit . . . with the way Chloe grows, that might be sooner than I think. I also got a mega-blocks set and truck for Chloe as well as the book "What to Expect during the Toddler Years".

What a blessing that yard sale was! I felt like a vulture gobbling up some tasty morsels as I stuffed clothes into bags to take home. God is so good to provide for our needs in creative and surprising ways like this!

My pretty, pretty princess

Thanks to our recent visit with Grandma Horn, Chloe has added 4 beautiful new dresses to her wardrobe. I'm proud to say that the one she wore to church today (and pictured here) was partly my handiwork! Matt's mom is a sewing wiz and doesn't even use patterns. Can you imagine not using a pattern?!? I sure can't.

Anywho, I had cut out the pieces for this dress but never gotten around to sewing it together. So, my mother-in-law gave me a hands-on lesson in sewing a dress. She'd show and I'd sew. She even created the little sleeves! She simply said, "This dress would be nice with some little sleeves, you don't think so?" and then away she went at cutting them out. I wish I would have been taking notes because I KNOW I won't remember her tips for bias and hem sewing.

So, here are a few photos of my pretty, pretty princess. Dresses like these are hard to come by these days; you should have heard all the compliments Chloe received this morning.





















Mom, that red light warns me that some bright flashes are coming my way. Don't blame me for a funny face!



















I couldn't help but coordinate with my cutie-pie. It must be sub-conscious because Matt wore a red plaid shirt to church this morning too! Does this happen to anyone else?






















Here's Chloe's blue fairy princess dress. It reaches almost to the floor and is made of some lovely blue sheer material. I was thinking of using this as a princess Halloween costume for Chloe. I'd make a hat and maybe try to find some princessy-gloves. What do you think?






















This is the best photo I have of another of Chloe's new dresses. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and had to be taken up for immediate nappage. I'll work on getting a better photo to show off this lovely dress.

A change of recipe plans

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm having a vvvvvvvvvvvvvvery (to quote Dr. Jacquot) difficult time finding recipes for this month's theme on the recipe blog (see post below). I don't have any recipes that only take 5 ingredients!?! How about I change the requirements to 5-8 recipes? Sound good?

Now, let's get some good recipes for this month's theme - SIMPLE SUPPERS. Email your simple supper recipes of 5-8 ingredients to me at aliciahorn@hotmail.com.

I know I dropped the ball this summer with the recipe blog but I'd like to start up again with renewed fervor. Is anyone out there still interested in our recipe swapping blog?

September call for recipes

Calling all cooks! This month's recipe blog theme is (drumroll please) SIMPLE SUPPERS. Email your simple supper recipes which use 5 ingredients or less to aliciahorn@hotmail.com. If you have any ideas for future themes, let me know!

A wonderful visit

Matt's folks have been visiting us for the past few weeks and flew out yesterday. We had a fantastic time enjoying their company and watching Chloe interact with them. I've posted the pictures of our visit below in a slideshow. I'm blessed to have such great in-laws!


<

And in this corner . . .

. . . weighing in at 27 1/2 pounds, 32 inches tall is the one, the only, Chloe-meister! Do you think I should enlist her in professional baby sumo wrestling? Doesn't this photo just scream "couch potato in training"? Or maybe "baby beer belly"? (root beer that is).

Don't get me wrong, I love my little Chloe girl. But this photo cracks me up and I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy! And suck in that gut!

A Rare Family Photo

Ok, so it's not the best family photo ever but I'm grateful for it. Do you know how hard it is for us to get all three of us in a picture together? We still don't know too many people here in Ohio so it seems our only family pictures are taken when we have visiting company. Matt's folks have been here visiting us for the past two weeks (which explains my lack of blogging) and this photo was clicked during a trip to a nearby nature park.

You can see how incredibly tall Chloe is in this photo. Weighing in at 27.5 pounds, she's almost too much of an armful for me!

What's your secret for snapping family pictures? Do you use a self-timer?

Blogging How-To Question

Does anyone out there know how to post a movie clip to your blog? I've been trying to upload a brief movie clip as an image but that doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestions?