Look at those big hands, Corrina's that is! I love her eye brows. They give me hope that she really will have a tinge of orange in her hair!

Corrina wanted to join in the fun of researching for a paper (which I am currently 1/4 of the way through.. not so good...). She was trying to add pictures to library books, but did not succeed.

The opposite of no sleep

I'm not so good at taking pictures of food, but i wanted to share this delicious breakfast that we cooked up last week. I almost don't want to share the recipe because then I could claim it as my own specialty, but since I found the recipes in other books I can't do that! The food you see is Healthy Pancakes, with Banana sauce (instead of butter and syrup), sprinkled with Hemp seed, which provide protein and healthy fats!


The healthy pancakes recipe is here, on another post I did! The whole wheat flour and wheat germ provide your body with many needed nutrients to charge you up for the day!
Banana Pancake Sauce: Squash up one or two Bananas, add a Tbsp of plain yogurt, some cinnamon, and a tsp or two of Brown sugar; blend and enjoy! You really will enjoy, i think!

I demand that you try these! Family, I will be making these when you are visiting, so you will get a sampling!

This morning Dave got out of bed at about 7:15. I stayed in bed, dreaming that I found amazing hooks and shelfs and other fun house stuff for the new place that we will probably be buying. It was a great dream! I kept waking up though and listening for Dave playing with Corrina. But, I heard nothing. She usually wakes us up at about 7:15, so seeming that it was 8:45 by the time I was done shopping in my head it was different to see her still asleep. Even odder, it is 9:35 and she is still snoozing. Now, just 2 days ago we again saw the doc for meds for yet another ear infection (this kid has a running streak of 1 per month!). After administering her first dose before her nap time she slept from 12:30 to 5pm! What a nap. Poor thing had not been sleeping for naps all week, nor had she been making it through the night with an comfort. I think she is playing catch up. I keep checking, she is still breathing!

We kept our house cool by keeping all blinds down and windows closed throughout the day, so when Corrina goes for a nap or night sleep she has a few blankets that she rolls around on. I always go in to lightly cover her after she is asleep. Just the other night I found this:

I thought maybe it was a fluke that she had wrapped her teddy up in all her blankets, but she did it three more time! I took the teddy and some blankets out eventually because I worry that she will wrap herself up and not know to make noise to call for help. Cutie though!

I have more school work to work on this weekend, so Dave and Corrina will go out this morning. By next thursday night I will be done my 'spring' distance ed course. Unfortunately monday the 30th I start a summer intensive course. This one will be in class, with people, with a rather funny prof, which I look forward to. That week Corrina is be cared for by friends, daycare, and Dave. When she is with Dave she gets to go to Church VBS! Good luck with naps there! Ha!

A house update: We have been praying very diligently that God would help us to know if this is the right house. We have been praying about the problems the house has, and about the neighborhood. We are praying for guidance and vision. Just last night Bre and I were on our way to a Harry Potter book release party but decided to take a detour to the house to see what the street is like on a Friday night at 10pm. We arrived and looked at the front yard again, when the neighbors pulled up and started looking at us suspiciously. We explained that we were thinking about moving in, which they were very excited about. They said they were thinking of going in and calling the cops because odd people were walking around a house! It's nice to know the neighbors would do that!
We asked about the neighborhood and they gave a full report, which was very very positive. Eventually they invited us in to their place because the bugs were getting us. They were a nice family, who had lived there one year and had great reports about the street. They told us that a lot of families lived on this block, that no one caused any trouble, there were never loud parties, and none of the recent crime had taken place there. We were very encouraged by this meeting and thank God so much for the chance to talk and the timing! I feel alot better about the place now!
We observed that indeed the street was very quiet, alot of lights were out, no one was sitting outside partying and making noise. Praise God for the way every seems to be falling into place!

house looking

We are looking for a house and have found a neat place. These are the photos mid-reno's! We are not sure about the foundation as of yet, but are going to have a structural engineer's inspection before we move forward anymore! These pictures are mostly for mom and dad c so they can give us an honest opinion. We very much welcome any other thoughts regarding things to look for (hint hint, dave N). This house is 1400 sq ft, plus basement, built in 1913. It has four bedrooms. It has a great entry way with room for shoes, shelves and hooks (things I love!)

Enjoy!


This, of course, is the front outside of the house (missing a piece of siding which will be put on soon.) This is the little porch, that is glassed in, off the front door. It is quite big with ample room for a chair and table for sitting in the evening! It needs some new blinds/curtains (bamboo would look nice)!
This is the front again, just showing some of the yard. It is small, but at least there is some grass there is some grass to work with. All over the place wild ruhbarb is growing and it seriously needs to be removed from the front!
Here is the far left side of the front, standing under the living room window. This little area might be good for vegtables!
Whole house front view. We do not have access to that top window, the attic, because the stairs have been blocked off. I think it would just be a matter of removing a wall in the back of a closet, but I don't really think we want to get into opening that up because it would suck out heat up to the top. Or, it could make a really neat library, who knows.
This is the back of the house. You can see here that a little extension has been added to the back, which inside, off the kitchen is heated and insulated, which means it would be good for a little breakfast nook/drawing room, or just freezer and bike storage. The window to the very left is the dinning room window. Corrina and I are standing on the porch to the very right! The grassy area is a little bigger than what you see here, extending backwards to the end of the lot. but this whole portion doesn't extend back, just about 5 ft wide of it. The other portion is take up by the double garage (a good thing and a bad thing)
This is the back step, the kitchen window, and the driveway (which needs some serious weed removal as well!) I would grow hollihocks up against the house by the driveway because they don't need dirt to grow. We have some at the apt, I am going to steal the seeds!
This is a funny view from underneath the dinning room window, looking to the back of the lot. it shows the narrow stretch that extends all the way back. We don't like the garage because it cuts off good yard space. But we understand it is very good storage and shelter in winter for cars. Who knows what could be done to improve the space.
Another front shot. The neighbors on either side keep their back yards quite nice. There are kids toys all over the one side, and no kids on the other side apparently. The house to the left is also a North End Housing Project Home (this is the link to the info page if you are interested!)

This, of course, is the kitchen. I don't like the black nobs, but that can be changed (I'm thinking christmas present!) The back splash still needs to be grouted, I don't know if there are very many electrical outlets (we need to look closer next time!), and the fridge and stove are just to the right, but not in this picture. The wall across from the counter without the sink is black and could be used for a cart, or a little table, or a pantry. Who knows! But it it bigger and roomer than the one we use now! There are three doors into the kitchen: one to the dinning room, one to the hallway (you can see a person there!) and one out to the back mud room.
This is a funny view of the upstairs master bedroom. It looks over to a little extension off the room (mud room extension underneath), where there is a little window and a funny long closet. We would use this space for a desk and our wardrobe, maybe.
This is the master bedroom again, looking out the doorway into the landing, where the big tub sits because it was painted. I like the built in shelves!
Duh, washroom, without the sink and tub! I like it this way though, it is very spacious! It is about the same size as the one we currently have.
This is the living room looking into the dinning room. There are wall scone lights in the living room and a ceiling light in the dinning room.
This is another view into the dinning room. the hardwood is fake, but better than other floorings!




This next set of photos is for Chris and Mary, in regards to the foundation and basement. Click on the pictures to see them larger.
It is hard to explain why the colors are all different because some areas are showing the stone foundation, other areas are showing the stuff that was put over, and yet other areas are actualy painted to make it look nicer down there.


Biggest crack (above) where you can see that the stone has spaces between. Someone filled some in with a rubber cocking). We looked outside and some of the ease troughs are not moved far enough away from the house.


I'm not sure what else to say! We think the outside needs a lot of work but has some potential. We want to be able to grow veggies and flowers. This may be the last renovated home available for a while, and the last one with a 10% downpayment grant (that's alot!!). We have some time to think about it though, and won't make any decisions until we have had a proffesional take a look at the basement.

All about Corrina

Corrina is almost 1.5! Wow... she is such a smarty pants, so adorable, a social butterfly, and sweet too!

We had a great trip to the beach with our friends from church last week. This family has two boys who we totally love hanging out with. They are brilliant guys. The awesome part is that they love hanging out with us too, especially Corrina. It's nice that she has 'big brothers' in her life!
Corrina, to my surprise, did not like swimming. I would take her in holding her against my chest and she would cry and squirm. When she saw anyone we were with swimming she would start to freak out, whether we were in the water or not. I think she had some feeling that maybe they weren't safe. She was so upset for about 20 minutes and I eventually just had to get Dave to come out of the water. It was very bizzare. Finally Corrina found her grove on top of Dave's shoulders, with only a bit of her in the water. It felt funny to arrange our whole day around her being happy at the beach, but we just wanted her to enjoy herself.


Today at the grocery store while I was loading our food onto the conveyor belt Corrina, from her seat in the cart, turned around and started handing me everything and anything she could reach (think superstore carts that have that elevated part behind the child spot)! She lifted cans, salad dressings, and a big box of yogurt. What a buff and helpful little girl. I was blown away at her ability to lift and her helpfulness.

Corrina loves to imitate everything we do. When I am in the bathroom she likes to brush her hair when I do mine, wash her face, brush her teeth, and yes, use the powder brush to put her 'makeup' on.

Corrina wanted to help me dust the other day. I guess she thought I wasn't doing a good enough job. She focused in on one area in the house, herself!


We work on certain sounds everyday with Corrina called linge sounds. These sounds let us know that she is hearing speech at every frequency. We play a little game with one of the sounds and her baby. Mommy says "Shhhhh, time to go to sleep" and I put my finger to my mouth to say shhhhh. Today I was just saying it to Corrina from behind around naptime when she turned around to face to face and put her finger to her lip! I thought maybe she's just pointing to her nose so I tried again when she was facing away again. As soon as I made the SHHHHH noise she flung around, smiled, and put her finger to her lip! This means not only is she hearing noises (and quite high frequency ones at that), but she is learning that sounds have meaning and she can associate them with actions! This is a big step.

We are also seeing her turn to her name a little more. We have been focusing on teaching her animals noises because let's face it, mooo, baaaa, wooof, roar, and me-ow make up the majority of beginning sounds. We were playing with a monkey and a cow yesterday, saying eeeeee, and mooooo. After playing for a bit we put them each on opposite sides of her high chair tray and asked her "Where is moooo, moooo?" You bet, she pointed at the cow! We tried again with the monkey sound and she pointed to the monkey. After that she stopped pointing to the rght animal, but we like to think she was just getting bored with us. We are so thrilled to see her learning and caring about sounds. The feeling is incredible.
That's all for today, Corrina has just awoke!

Coffee House

Hey All, DAve here.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that my wife is Awesome. Specifically, we had a C&C Coffee House at the church on Sunday and Janie basically put it together single-handedly. Awesome. She also presented the message, which was challenge and fun, generated a lot of discussion, and even got compliments from 2 seminary grads in attendance! Awesome! AAAANNNDDDD she played guitar, drum, and sang (into a microphone, no less) for the first time in public! And as if that wasn't enough, she did a fantastic job of it too.

Way to go Janers!

If I've neglected to mention other reasons why Janie is awesome, please add them on the comments section. =)

I would be hiding in my case... where I should be, but apparently nobody looks!

First bubble bath.. she really did like it, although this photo paints a different story...
No, corrina never does sit still
Officialy, three generations of the Nose!

Sometimes we clean our teeth...sometimes we just suck all the water off the brush!
We went to the children's museum a few weeks ago. Dave had a great time, so did Corrina!
My mom came out to visit for a few days. We had a wonderful, although short, time together! Corrina was pleased to have another person to dote over her!
Sliding deaf baby!

If you were a camera, where would you be?

So today, when I actually found the interest and momentum to blog, with pretty/cute Corrina photos, I can't find our camera.
Please, stay tuned for an update with pretty, smiley faces!

I think alot of people are on summer vacation now, either from school or work, and to you I ask: WHY are you using your time off reading my blog? Although that is up to you don't be shy of the sunshine (just spf up because who wants to look like a cowboy in ten years.. not me!)