My boss and I decided today that people who don't do chemistry for a living might be happy...but it isn't very likely.

*grin*

Guess who just got her FOID card???

*grin*

I miss Champaign more than I thought. It was so good to be there this weekend and hang out with so many good friends. I met Gab and Bob and Nic in Goodfield Saturday evening; it was an enjoyable drive down to Chambana. Although I don't know if the guys appreciated our music selection since half of the songs we played have inside jokes or stories between Gab and I attached to them. O well, they wouldn't pick anything.

We met up with Mike and Joanna and spent an hour or so wandering around downtown Champaign taking in the sights and window 'shopping'. There was a really cool Book shop that I want to go check out sometime... Then we went to Perkins and Naz and EZ and Mogs showed up.

I miss Naz! Even though he knows too much about everything and comes over at random hours, he's fun to have around. :) So I'm glad he'll still be next door next year and I'm sure he'll come over to visit Ash a lot.

Erin and Dusty's wedding was great. It was fun to be in Champaign church again! And Erin's dress and her bridesmaids dresses were so cool! So another successful wedding.

After the reception a bunch of us went to Dos Reales for supper (I like DR, but I think somebody needs a new favorite restaurant-either that or someone else should pick ;) ). Kat, Heidi, Gab, and I got there before the guys did and we sat every other seat...it's kind of sad that we have to make a conscious effort to desegregate. :) O well, it was good times and there was a cool rainbow out the window.

And then we came back home and I was very tired and went to bed.
Blessings.

It's Friday!!

I love Friday!

It was a good week. I spent the night with Heidi and got too little sleep. And we didn't even finish the Notebook. We had fun though.

I made some fluffy white polymer in the lab today!!! I was excited. And sorry, since we're still in the developing stages, it will not be possible to process your orders at this time. Plus I would charge you a mint for it so unless you feel like financing my college education, (all you taxpayers are already paying most of my salary) I would advise you check out one of the fine furniture stores in your area.

I'm camping out tonight in Congerville. And tomorrow evening I'm going to Champaign for Erin's wedding. :) My boss was extremely surprised at the number of weddings that I am invited to.

Blessings.

Weddings and Things

This week has been so good. I really, really, really, like my job. :) All I do is watch reactions cook for six hours, and take viscosity measurements every 2 hours, and read a book in between. The annual lab picnic was on Friday. Free lunch and lots of good food. I made apple pie and my boss's little girl loved it. :)

I went to Morton's bible school with Gab Tuesday and Friday night. Friday I dragged my brother along because Bob and Nic and Tim were going to be there. We went to Taryn's afterwards but we didn't stay very late cause I was pretty tired. I miss Gab. I even miss her laughing at me.... hehe.

Mindy got married today. It was a little weird...but fun. Her dress was gorgeous, the food was good, and they're married so I guess it was a success. Most of my memories of Mindy involve father's day at Uncle Roy's pond with her and sometimes AJ and Caleb. And Christmas at the Christian church going every where we weren't supposed to go. :)

I also heard today that Alan Banwart's dad passed away...if you all could keep him and his family in your prayers I'm sure it would be appreciated.

Abs is here for Katelyn and Jordan's wedding tomorrow. :) I think I will be tired of weddings by the end of the summer.

Oooo...and I finally got my hair trimmed. Woot. It's all about the little things..... :)
Blessings.

Bushes and Kansas and Labs, oh my!

I didn't think I was busy this summer, but I kind of am! Although last week my biggest accomplishment was trimming the bushes....and I bribed my cousins with Bible School money to help me. (I gave them money to give at Bible School....I didn't steal it and then bribe them- just to clarify)

And I went to Bern/Sabetha with the Bible Class, it was a good time! Kansas girls are definitely hostesses with the mostesses. :) And they're pretty cool too! So thanks Lindsay, and Maggie, and Anna it was great! The ride home got a little long with so many high schoolers, but I survived.

Monday morning I started my summer job at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research. Or NCAUR, the USDA Lab, the Ag lab, etc. It has been so much fun so far! I have an office....and a desk...crazyness. It's kind of scary because Dr. Ken keeps giving me jobs and leaving me. And I have to keep a real lab notebook. Yesterday I uninhibited a bottle of Glycidyl Methacrylate.....it says "harmful" right on the bottle. Tomorrow I start running reactions (by myself) trying to turn soybean oil into office chairs. Good stuff. They had a safety fair today and I got a free NCAUR laptop case for playing 'safety poker'. I like my job. :) Still not used to the early mornings though....sigh.

Blessings.

You know you're a chem major...

...when fireflies don't blink, they fluoresce.

Jake's burn story

So...Jake's burn story. He was camping with some of his friends last Saturday night, and they all had to go to ACYF day in Bloomington the next morning. So their host's parents told them they had to be in bed by midnight. I guess they were playing with gas and fire all night, including spearing an empty pop can with a hotdog stick and pouring gas over the campfire to watch the fireball. Very dumb, but they are 17 year old males, and it doesn't surprise me.

Sometime after midnight (willfully disobeying their curfew) they chased a ground hog or something similar into a hole. It had two openings so they decided to smoke it out. Jake, Fred, and Justin were in charge of making the smoke, and Dan was at the other end with a shotgun.

They had some newspaper down in the hole, and they decided that it would light better if it was soaked with gasoline. You would think that anybody with half a brain would not be stupid enough to throw a match down a hole with straight gas at the bottom. Or at least stand a short distance away. But no, all three were right up around the hole and of course it flared up. All three got burnt, one lost all the hair on his arms, but his shaggy hair saved his face. Jake has whisker marks from shutting his eyes.

So then, instead of going into the house and getting medical attention, they decided that they didn't want to get in trouble for being up past midnight and just splashed some lake water on their 2nd degree burns and spent the rest of the night in the woods. They did go up to the shed to get steel brushes to brush the burnt hair out so they didn't have to smell it!?

Jake showed up for ACYF day the next morning and one of the Bible class teachers, who is a Doctor, told him to go back home and keep it cold and moist. He got him some burn cream to put on it too. So he's been sitting around the house watching DVD's on my laptop for a few days. It looks a little bit better now, he still looks like he's wearing war paint. :) Or a butterfly. And he has to wrap his head in bandages before he goes to bed.

Leo

So it was a good weekend. Visiting the Klopfenstein's is always a blast. I went out Friday afternoon and took my sister and Adam and Haley Herman with me, so Shelly and Haley got to talk in the back seat and Adam and I just ignored them. They just put their jet ski's on the river, so I got to ride them and swim...and got a little more tan. Testimonies were great, Abby was pretty funny. :)
Saturday night there were 35 people, all family, who spent the night at Rita's. It was kinda crazy. 10 boys on the floor in the basement, 5 girls in the living room, at least 2 people in every bedroom, 5 people in a camper, and 3 bathrooms. Abby and I were going to sleep on the dock, but we decided that it would be a lot of work to get an air mattress and sleeping bags through the woods. So we slept on the dining room floor. I was glad for my bed last night when we got home.
I set a personal record on the way home, total trip time was 4:40. We beat both Lori and Herb's and Grandpa's carloads home somehow. They both stopped, but Lori's left at least an hour before we did. I also experienced another first- Haley left her book in my car and we saw them on the way home and Matt passed it out the window to them as we drove. And Gab was there! Hehe. I was excited. :)
And Jakey's got second degree burns on his face because he was try to smoke out a rodent with gas and newspaper. *sigh* Males.
Anyway.
Blessings.

water and birthdays and cookies and fire

It's been a fun week. I washed my car and then somehow got involved in a waterfight with my little cousins. It was pretty funny, they haven't quite figured out how to throw water without throwing the entire bucket. I was only wet from the waist down because they can't pour any higher than that. :)
Tuesday night I got to hang out with U of I/Mexico people for J-nelle's birthday party. We went to Feista Ranchero for supper, hung out at the fishbowl, watched Janelle and Amber play bocci ball in the living room and Sarah and I sang random songs. Good times.
Yesterday Heidi and I decided to bake cookies at 9:00 at night. The oven was smoking a little because her mom had spilled butter in the bottom of the oven, but we didn't think anything of it. But when we put the cookies in, it started on fire! There were pretty tall flames leaping out of the oven, and no fire extinguisher, so Heidi put it out with a glass of water. :) We definitely set off the smoke alarm and filled the house with smoke. (Why does this always happen to me?) So we switched to the downstairs oven and made some that weren't charbroiled and took them to Luke's new duplex for a house warming present.
I'm leaving for Abby's baptism in Leo in an hour or so...yay! Aunt Rita's house is going to be full of family! Hopefully their pool isn't freezing. :)
Blessings.

stuff

So my life is pretty boring right now. I have been sitting around a lot. :)
Wednesday night Gab and Matt and I went to Tremont to surprise Nic for his birthday. That was pretty fun...specially since I haven't seen Gab in waaay too long. Ok, so it's maybe been only 2 weeks, but still! And there were lots of U of I/ Mexico people there and it was wonderful to see them all again.
I was actually home on a Friday night to go to a Washington YG thing! It was good, but there are a lot of new people so it felt different. A good different, but different none the less.
I might head to the library today...have to check out this Wheel of Time series I keep hearing about. ;) Hm...maybe not today they might be closed. Anyway.
Blessings.

there and back again

So I went to Kansas this past weekend with Matt and Shelly for Scott's graduation. We managed to not get lost or fall asleep. And we made it in about 6.5 hours both ways. Even though on the way home we sat in traffic for a half hour.

We "helped" Aunt Karen get ready for Scott's graduation party. Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Pearline went early Friday morning and pretty much had everything under control. Or at least not quite as chaotic as normal. Grandma took care of the cleaning and food and Grandpa checked everyone's oil and fixed faucets and things. Scott and Matt and I went to Robeks and saw Nate and got smoothies. Good times. We got to go to a Kansas City YG thing and looked at old Christmas cards and played some Rook until late on Saturday night. We left church early to get to the graduation in time- a good thing because Uncle Randy wasn't sure where the arena was so we ended up driving around downtown Kansas City for a while. :) I like KC. People have roses blooming already! I'm so jealous. Blue Valley HS is a lot bigger than Eureka! So graduation took that much longer. But I got to sit by Kim and Brock. And they had Jackstack for supper.

Today I slept in pretty late...whoops. I spent most of the afternoon cleaning the garage so I wasn't totally lazy. It was nasty. And I killed so many spiders and stink bugs. *shudder* It was horrible. And found 3 dead mice in various states of decomposition. Ick. At least it's clean now. And it's summer.

My two ash trees survived the drought last summer! They have leaves!! I'm so excited.

the rest of wednesday

Was actually pretty eventful. The water was off and on all day, hopefully it's on now for good.

I decided to get some exercise after lunch and ride my bike over to Aunt Lori's, see the baby, and give the little girls some of the stuff that I had just cleaned out of my drawers. So since my bike has a perpetual flat tire I took Mom's. I put a little air in the tires because it hasn't been ridden all winter and grabbed a backpack full of 'treasures' for the girls and left. Their house is about 3 miles from ours and I had ridden about two when I heard a bang. It took me a second to realize where it came from and why my front tire was suddenly hissing at me. Thankfully, it happened right in front of Brookside Landscaping, where my lil brother is working this summer. Sooo I just walked it down the hill and left it in the bed of his truck and kept walking to Lori's. I'm sure I looked hilarious with my backpack and rolled up jeans. I looked at the baby and then my uncle gave me a ride home.

When I got home I found out that Mom had invited some of Dad's old buddy's to church and then to our house to surprise him on his birthday. We had to clean quick, but not make it look like the house was clean, and then Jake was supposed to make it look nice while we were at church. And our kitchen is written all over. Anyway, he was surprised and we had lots of cake and as everyone was milling around getting ready to leave, I went to put away the extra silverware. And there was a mouse in the drawer. And I screamed. It was kind of funny...but now we have a mouse in our kitchen- the only one I've ever seen that wasn't carried in by my uncle. Mom's a little nervous about opening the drawers and Dad just dug out a bunch of traps. Good times.

Trogdor is on the wall.

The demon cow and some of his vast arsenal.

Yeah....

None of us are that tall...so we'll never no what we're missing.

The plaster is um, cracking, and its 1941.

The Hobbit, Moby Dick, and the Declaration.

*grin*

Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink

Happy 50th birthday dad!

The water pump is broken. So...no water. Good times. Thank goodness for good neighbors with hot showers. :)

We still don't have wallpaper in the kitchen. And those blank walls are just sooo tempting. So last night Jake (he started it) and I were drawing pictures and writing quotes all over the walls. It's pretty funny stuff. My favorite is below the light switch- "Beauty is just a light switch away." We also have the first line of the Hobbit running across the soffit. I think we should just leave it, call it "Early American Unfinished," and be done. Although the cow-demon and the 'we don't call 911' sign might raise some eyebrows. *grin*

Blessings.

Home

Finals are over! Yay! Now I'm just waiting on grades...ick.

I got a job working for a professor- I'll be in his research group next year and this summer I'll just be doing random things. The best part is that I can do it all from home! So I can work and lay out at the same time....probably not, but technically I could.

Mom and Dad came to Champaign yesterday to help me move back. We tried to look around in the new alumni center. It was very crowded. Then they took me out for lunch and Mom and I went to the mall for a while. We were almost ready to leave for home, but mom wanted to get some stuff for Grandma at Bath and Body works and I was hungry. So she left me and I got in line at Auntie Anne's behind three African American women. I'm standing there, minding my own business when another black lady walked by and yelled several obscenities at the three women standing in front of me. Which they returned....so they are standing about 25 ft apart dropping the B-word and "my sista whipped y'alls butt two months ago" and something about a baby-daddy. (This is the point at which I started slowly backing up out of line...inching closer to the people sitting in the cafe tables in front of Auntie Anne's) They were being very loud and obnoxious and this white guy (40's or 50's) sitting at one of the tables looks right at me and says "make them shut up!" I was slightly shocked since a) I'm a little white chick b) there's no way I'm getting in the middle of that. So then the security guards come, at which point the white guy, with the danger of him getting beat gone, decides to yell at the top of his lungs "Shut the f- up!" Dropped the f-bomb. In the middle of the mall. In front of me. I was too shocked to say anything then but later I wanted to go chew him out, first for not being man enough to do anything without the security guards there and secondly for saying the f-word pretty much in my ear. What kind of a guy does that with ladies present. And little kids all around. Anyway. I got back in line and got my jalepeno pretzel and that was my exciting story for the day.

How to survive finals week

1. Numerous trips to the B.P. for Polar Pops- 32 oz of Dr. Pepper for 59 cents- pure heaven.
2. Dove Milk Chocolate.
3. Random MSN conversations.
4. Dr. Pepper.
5. iTunes.

*sigh* 3 down, 2 to go.

I missed the ACS project, but I hear that my lil brother's video created quite a stir. :)

The calm before the storm

I have four finals this week and they are all going to be pretty hard. Not fun.

I got to go to singing at the home in Washington for the first time in a long time. I was excited to see my kindergarten teacher there...but it was sad when I talked to her, she is pretty much gone and she is so young. And Easter, an older lady that used to come in to Lindy's, is there now because she broke something. She was singing along with every song. And afterwards random Kansas people started showing up including Ned at 5am. :)

I was going to study on Saturday but I ended up cleaning out and putting away and digging in my rose bed. Saturday night was jazz night at the high school. Good times...I miss jazz band. And I got to see a bunch of my little trumpets. They're all grown up now. It's been a long time since I was the trumpet goddess.

And instead of studying Gab and I have been talking to Karen for a loong time. :)
Blessings.

Pie and things

It's been a good last week of class. Now I just have a week of finals to look forward too. Ick.

Monday night our house was invited to Saltshaker for supper. They made lasagna, and it was actually really good! Not that I had any doubts....

Tuesday I forgot about a test and then I made pie and then I felt better. We had a bunch of leftover pie crust from the invite, and mom sent me some rhubarb so I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie. And I had an extra can of peaches and still more crust so I made a peach pie too. Including the pie left over from the invite, we had three pies in the house. I don't like our oven. The dials don't have numbers on them, so we have to guess how hot it is. So I put the pie in for 45 minutes. When I came back to check on them both the living room and the kitchen were pretty much full of smoke. One of them cooked over in the oven and they were both getting a little crispy. *sigh* I never have these problems at home.

Gab wanted to have the guys involved in forgetting the pie in the oven at Wayne and Char's over to eat the extra peach, and then we felt bad just inviting certain people and we had 3 pies so we invited 301, Shaker, 711 and Scott. So at 10pm we had a bunch of guys descend on our house for pie and ice cream. It was amusing- there were a lot of people in our house and the girl to guy ratio was extremely small. I'm so glad it worked out though, definitely a good time and our porch light got changed. :)

So today was the last day of classes. Hooray!! And my last day of work. Not so exciting, I'm going to miss the greenhouse. If I'm not too busy next year I might go back. It was also the last Wednesday night in Champaign for a while. I'm going to miss the church here over the summer. Laura and Heather came to visit Gab, and we went to custard cup after church and then went to hang out with Carissa at the Shaker. And then we came home kind of early, and I'm told we missed a water fight (O darn....haha). But I said I would make an egg casserole for the senior breakfast tomorrow, so I had to go home and do that. :) We didn't have all the ingredients for any one recipe soooo I kinda made up mine own- hope it tastes ok. And Karen and Kat and Gab were definitely dancing to Usher in the kitchen while I made it. Funny stuff!

One more week. Blessings.

The invite

Was good. Although, now I am extremely tired. :) Friday after work, Kat, Gab, Nic and I headed to Sams to get stuff for the weekend. I was entirely unimpressed with Sam's apple selection. And we couldn't find any lard or pie tins. So....Kat and Gab started setting up at church while Nic and I went to Walmart. I seriously got at least 10 phone calls from church adding to the already long list of things we needed. Pretty sure I barely caught a two liter of Pepsi that was thrown in my direction. Walmart didn't have lard, enough pie tins, or blue and orange napkins. So we went to Target. And Michaels (they carry boas and hats and lots of diy wedding stuff). No luck there....so we ended up at The Party Store. They had napkins, don't carry masks, and have lots of pie tins. :) Jerry's IGA (definitely the best grocery store in the C-U area) had lard. So we finally got back to church at 9ish, and had 12 pies baked by midnight. Josh made French Silk, and Kat and Liz and I worked on the Apple and peach. I thought they turned out well. :) And I got to wear an awesome retro apron. Baking pie makes me happy.

It was rainy on Saturday, so the work projects got rearranged, but it went smoothly. I ended up at Empty Tomb sorting clothes. We had a good group, and we got a lot of stuff done for them. I am, however, tired of folding sheets. The group that made supper did an awesome job! They pretty much started with nothing at 2 and had a full meal ready at 6:30. I was impressed. So during the singing I was out in the kitchen cutting bars and making inappropriate comments... *grin*, good times. We ended up not having a lot of girls stay Saturday night, so we only had 5 guests, including my lil sis, and everybody got a bed! It was kinda nice.

Katrina's mom made breakfast for 40, so we invited all of the boys that stayed in Urbana for Sunday breakfast, the girls in Urbana already had breakfast lined up. :) It was kind of scary....lots of boys I didn't know in our living room. So I did dishes. Church was good. We sang at the Nursing home and left May baskets for the residents. Wayne and Char hosted supper at their house...a good thing, because we ended up having approximately 80 people. We had one pie left over. Our fridge is full of fruit and breakfast. And rhubarb cause my mom sent me some. :) And we have lilacs all over.

And now I am very tired. 3 more days of class. Blessings.

Another reason the 711 boys are the best

They let us borrow their washing machine when ours is broken.
And it doesn't take quarters. *grin*

Today

I woke up in a bad mood...I don't know if I was dreaming, or if it was just because it was wet and nasty out. I dislike walking to school in the rain. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel so damp in class.
But then I got to spend an hour in the chem library doing nothing but read my Bible. And organic was interesting cause I love benzene chemistry.
I don't really have any homework this week, so I got to spend a fairly relaxing afternoon coloring pictures for Gab. (all I gotta say is that Nursing school would be a breeze). :)
Then I went to the Hartley Idea Garden to do my horticulture homework- it was soooo cold, but kinda fun. I can't wait to go back when it has more plants and things. In Hort class today we talked about flower gardening. It was great. I can't wait to go home and plant things. :)
It's Tuesday so we sang at the home and it was wonderful! Compared to last week... It was just really great, its so much different from singing at the Washington and Eureka homes. They seem to appreciate it so much.
Sarah, Kat and I had Bible study at Courier cafe.
I had several extremely random and fun MSN conversations. So I ended up being in a great mood....and it turned out to be such a great day!
And our room looks like a tornado went through.... :)
Blessings.

Am I a Soldier of the Cross

I had such a great weekend! Friday night the U of I young group went to Mike and Joanna's house and hung out at their pond. We played some volleyball, and shot Mike's ancient shotgun. I don't like shotguns, they hurt. Gab and I got a ride in M and J's cousin's very nice truck. And he got totally grilled....poor guy. :) Joanna had lots of good food, and some awesome deserts for us before we went back to Champaign.

We got home kinda late, and we had to get up super early to leave for college weekend. I haven't been up at 6 for a loooong time. :) We didn't have a very big group, and Gab and I were the only girls on the way there. It was a fun carload though, Nic, Mike, Matt, Gab and I. College weekend was great, and I can finally say I've been to Bluffton and survived. We only had 13 people to sing, but I guess it sounded ok. Matt didn't tell me it was horrible, and he would have. ;) And yes, I pretty much have to drive to Indiana to see my brother because I'm never home anymore. Saturday night I stayed at some people's house that I don't know their names and they weren't home. It was nice though because I got to go to bed at a decent hour and didn't have to wake up early Sunday morning. Gab and I and Matt and Brian left right after church- Gab slept the whole way home. :)

Sunday evening I went for a long walk with Gab, and we got lost. :) Then we went and played volleyball for a long time and just about every house/apartment was represented. It was a blast! Although I think we all spent more time laughing and falling down in the sand than we did playing. My team lost a lot. I think it had something to do with the fact that I was on the team....but O well. :) It was still fun. It got really cold after the sun set. So then I had to go home and do homework....ick. I was very sleepy today in class; thank goodness school is almost out for the summer.

The U of I invite is this weekend. It's going to be a crazy Thursday and Friday getting ready. :) But I'm excited.

Blessings.

Cooking

So I was cooking supper tonight, well ok, making noodles and chicken, and I went to measure 2 cups of water. Gab looked at me funny and said, "You actually measure the water? I just put some in the pan." To which I replied, "It's not like I check the meniscus!" Gab and Ash both thought it was hilarious for some reason...

What do you call a piano down a mineshaft?

A flat minor!

I love that joke.

Anyways, we went flat A LOT tonight at the nursing home. *sigh*
O well. Good times. :) I like singing at the home...tonight was just not our night.

One of the old ladies told Bob that I don't move much when I sing. I'm not sure what that means.

Blessings.

He is Risen Indeed!

Easter was great. The whole weekend was good. :) The Chinese people that come to our house for bible study were in Washington for Good Friday services. One of them invited me to visit them all in China. Chris even gave me some church candy- too bad it was melted. We had birthday parties for some of my little cousins at Grandma's after church.

Saturday morning was the annual Easter Egg Hunt at our house. Always a good time. Lots of little cousins and dogs. At one point there were 4 canines in our yard, I'm still not sure why everyone thought they had to bring theirs. And Uncle Fred found a snake. I wanted him to kill it, instead they let it go out by the garden....which I am not going to go near anymore this year. Everybody got to argue about our wallpaper choices for the kitchen. I dug around in my rose bushes for a while after everyone left. Two of them are green already! Since I absolutely refused to go to a restaurant for Easter dinner I spent saturday night baking pie (we have fresh rhubarb!!!) and boiling eggs.

Sunday we went to Gridley for supper (which was so much better than some nasty crowded buffet someplace).
Dad: I heard so and so fell and broke.....something.
Mom: A dish?
Me: *laughing hysterically*
Grandma: Did I say something weird?
*Grin* Good times.
And then I got to drive back to Champaign in the wet. Ick. We have violets in our yard. And tulips. :)

We had a four hour meeting about the Champaign invite....and laughed at Gab's nursing home inspection story. Ask her about it- it's hilarious. My mouth is blue. :)
Blessings.

Sunny Days

It has been so nice out! I love spring. I can't wait to go home and see my roses this weekend. Last time I was home 3 of them were greening up already. :)

We cleaned out the fridge for the first time in, oh, ever. Yeah.....it was kind of nasty. We pitched a trashbag full of moldy things that no one would claim. ick.

Amy and Heidi came down to visit last night- I was excited! We took a long walk all around campus. It's so pretty at night, and it was clear and cool. The stars were gorgeous. Then when we got home I somehow ended up with bright red lip prints on my cheek and aromatherapy lotion up my nose. *sigh*

I tried to sit outside and do homework today, but it was too distracting....plus we were getting weird looks because we were in the front yard. O well. :)

So I'm excited to go home for Easter. And I don't have any homework over the weekend for the first time in a while!

And it's starting to thunder. :S I don't like storms.
Blessings.

I want a mandolin

I went to the Nickel Creek concert last night with a bunch of the shaker boys, the newest shaker wife :), Mike, Blake and Sarah. It was incredible! The band that opened was so-so, I was glad when they stopped playing. Nickel Creek played for at least 2 hrs, and then Chris Thile played some more out by their bus for us "groupies." I went home around 12:30 and skipped out on Merry Ann's or wherever the rest of the group ended up going. Crazy kids. :)

This is the wallpaper my mom wants to put in the bathroom.

Some random excerpts from emails I received in the last few weeks:

"Now then. You can make a wonderful peach pie with canned peaches -
just drain them and they taste like fresh. Don't be such a snob! :)"

"That was probably my first run-in with a Double
CheeseBurger with Fries and a Testimony Value meal, but it
was worth much more than the 5 bucks I paid."

"it might be hard to after the reward was used to seduce me
to sing in front of a crowd and possibly make a fool
of myself..... esp. share w/ the seducer"

I'll leave the originators and context of these fine quotes
to your imagination....
Blessings.

It's been a week

A long week. But a good one.

Some stress and more late nights.

Thursday I baked pies. I love pie. Specially apple. They weren't the best pies I've ever made, but under the circumstances they weren't so bad. We don't seem to keep a rolling pin in the house so I had to use a nalgene bottle. :) And I miss my apron.

And then I looked at Mexico pictures with Karen and Gab and Chris, and we stayed up waay too late talking. So I had to get up early to finish my homework and actually drank coffee (ick!) so I didn't sleep in class.

I think I'm getting tan from working in the greenhouse. I love it.

Reasons why I like living next to the 711 boys...

• Steven has power tools (and lets me borrow them)
  
• They open tight jars and bottles
  
• They have airbake cookie sheets
• Chris fixes computers
• Aupps and Scott switched our fridge door
• Michael makes awesome deserts
• They are impressed when you don't scream at the dead squirrel they threw in your room.
  
• They take our garbage to the curb when we forget (pretty much every week)
  
• Brett walks me to class when his bike is broken
• Steven says hi on the quad
• Chris knows everything......

So anyway, I had a wonderful but short weekend in Kansas City. And I was so excited when I got on the bus and saw that Meg and Luke and my brothers came since I was expecting to be the only person between 15 and 35. I got to see a lot of Biloxi pictures, and subjected my family to 2,000+ mexico pictures. :) Good times. I crocheted a lot. And they weren't headcoverings. :) I got to see some of my favorite Kansas people. I missed out on a Rook game. But yeah, it was a great trip and I wasn't very excited for school this morning. :)

mmm....Spring

It was a beautiful day today...bad news for my concentration levels. :) I sat on the porch for probably an hour and watched people go by. And then after lab I sat outside the union for a while. I love spring. I can't wait to go home and plant things. When I was walking home from class all I could think about was that I wanted to be home walking barefoot behind the tiller in the fresh black dirt. *Sigh* And I miss my roses.

When I got back from class, I was treated to a steak dinner served in the driveway. We ate by the light of candles and the motion sensor light. :) I'm not sure who's idea it was to eat out there, but it was a blast. Good times. Scott and Aupps ate with us, and before they left they switched the fridge door around so it opens the other way. Now when the fridge is open and someone opens the door you aren't trapped in the corner. Yay! I was very impressed. :)

O, and I also decided I want a sycamore tree. In the front yard I think, next to the two new trees Dad.

So tired....

Two chapters to go. ick.

How to scare Gab 101

Sunday night I went to bed relatively early- before Gab got back. When she got home we were talking about the weekend, and the trip and all kinds of stuff. And then I oh so casually said, "so I went out to eat with Ron Messner today..." Long pause for dramatic effect- her face was perfect- total deer in the headlights look. ".....and Pam and Heather, and Beks and Sarah."
She hit me with a pillow. And then she made me solemnly affirm on my bible that I wasn't getting engaged, or planning to get engaged in the near future. And then she hit me again with the pillow.

Too funny.

O Meatwagon....take me to Mexico

Wow. What a wonderful week! I am so glad I went. And I'm not ready for the real world to start tomorrow. :(
A few highlights:

• The girls. Definitely in the minority, but we made up for it.
• The 30 hour drive
  
• Teaching Nic to crochet in the van.
• Hiking up a mountain as it hailed. (what is it about me and storms??)
  
• Getting called Wyss all week, for the first time since High School.
• My hotel roommates, Kristen and Amber.
• Discussing/arguing with Brent about whether it's biblical to carry a loaded concealed weapon.
  
• Hearing people's testimonies.
• Getting seven years bad luck- at least I can share it with Gab since we broke the mirror together.
  
• "Driving" the CAT backhoe with little Gabriel.
• The bamboo grove. Will that grow in Illinois?
• The stars.
• Seeing real, non-tourist Mexico.
• The obstacle course.
• Attempting to teach Manuel to crochet.
• Watching Nic teach Bob to crochet.
• Finally getting a mirror hung. :)
  
• Joanna Kaeb.
• Chris and his certain senorita.
• Seeing Meg.
  
• Bob clogging.
• Hanging with my roomie.
• Being sick for a day.
• So, if Mike and Nic were married to the same person, who will have cuter kids?
• "I used to think, Jenny, she looks all sweet and innocent, but get to know her, man...." Haha. Thanks Brent.
• Seeing Carissa.
• The Carissa Shirts. And the Joe Mamma shirts. And the Keep the Curt Shirt. Good stuff.
• Laughing with Amber at the crazy Mariachi music the cleaning ladies were playing when we were sick.
  
• The Talent show- The Shaker Brethren, the Meatwagon song, the Dragon Kick, wow, U of I has talent. ;)
• Buying 7-up late at night in my whale pajamas for sick people and getting a pile of coins back every time. They just keep multiplying.
  
• The crazy showers. Lots of pressure, no volume.
  
• Getting scolded by a toothless little boy for being in the boy's bathroom. (I was hanging towel hooks.)
• Are brass knuckles better than an unloaded gun?
  
• So does it show lack of faith to bring buckets, sacks, and all manner of meds in the vans?
• Trying to speak German to the kids....wait...
• Learning spanish from Gabriel, car, horse, and moon. Adios Luna.
• The ride home. I seriously think I could travel forever sometimes. Maybe with showers.
  

We were locked out when we got home, so we had to break in. It wasn't very hard which is extremely scary. But I'm not telling how.
You would think that after all that togetherness I would be tired of people, but I ate supper at 711 last night (mostly because I'm out of food) and rehashed the trip with Jer, Chris, and Brett. Everyone else headed home.
Church was good today, there were some Kansas people there.
I went out to eat with Ron and Pam and Heather and Mark. Beks and Sarah too.
So I'm really tired. And I miss my comfy bed.
Blessings.

Spring Break

Starts tomorrow! And there was much rejoicing! (hooray) Anyway. After I take my O-chem test tomorrow morning and try not to fall asleep in my other classes, we are leaving for Mexico! I'm pretty excited.
I think I packed way too many clothes. O well. :) Hopefully it will be sunny there and I won't be pasty white any more.
I really need to hit the books a little harder...blessings.

Tammy's Here!

*grin*

We had to clean really fast this afternoon.

And we cooked food out of a box.

So much for being AC girls....

O well. Good times.

All's well that ends well!

Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of Thy wing.

Wow. I had an amazing weekend! I love going to Kansas. :)
On the way out Heidi and I commandeered the keys so we got to pick the music and we subjected the guys to us singing Phantom of the Opera at the top of our lungs. I'm sure we sounded pretty awful. We passed Kent and Jan Heimer...and I was driving...I wasn't going that fast, but still! It was pretty funny. Heidi and I stayed with Heidi Harter, very confusing for me. They have the same middle names so I gave up trying to differentiate.

We didn't go to the world relief meeting which was kind of disappointing, but we did rake leaves for some older ladies in town. They had another presentation Saturday night so I got to hear something about world relief at least. :) But then we left before the singing...too bad there wasn't a polite way to stay and get a ride to Harter's later. O well.

Is it bad to take your hostess snipe hunting??

We went to Sabetha in the morning and I met Gab's grandma, and then went to Bern at noon. I got to see Neal and Kim and Cailer- he's soo big! Hopefully I will get to spend a little more time with them in a few weeks.

Heidi is spending the week in Bern so Caleb, Cody and I left after church. I didn't get to listen to my Randall Goodgame CD. Mur. We passed Kent and Jan again. :)

We followed a thunderstorm/tornado across most of Missouri and Illinois. At one point I got a phone call from my mom- somehow Heimer's got a hold of her to tell her we were driving into a tornado. We had stopped for the bathroom and food (thank goodness for being hungry!) so they were actually ahead of us again.

Springfield got hit pretty hard and the storm had barely moved out when we got there. All of the power was out at the gas station where I left my car, and it was pretty eerie. It was kind of tense for a while cause Caleb and Cody left, and I tried to get on 72, only to find it blocked by state cops. I found out today that a silo had fallen across the highway and all the lanes were blocked. But I didn't know that so I waited around for a while to see if the weather or whatever would get better- all by myself in the blackout with a quickly dying cellphone. And the State cop was no help at all. Aaahh. Kind of a bad situation. Eventually I just decided to go home and not try to get to Champaign until the next morning. It probably was a good thing I didn't try to find another way back to school, cause right after I started heading North they started issuing tornado warnings for practically every town between Springfield and Champaign. And then my phone died while I was talking to Cody so I would have been phoneless.

On my to do list: get a car charger, look into conceal and carry permits.

So I got home around 11, and scared my family half to death because Dad is gone to Biloxi and my phone died before I could call to say I was coming. Jake said if had more imagination I would have found a ski mask or something. :) So then another line of storms was coming up from Missouri so I didn't sleep very well and kept waking up tense when it was windy. I was going to try to make it back for class, but at 6:30 I was so out of it I decided to skip today and slept for a few more hours.

*Sigh* I hate storms. So I had the last line of 'Jesus Lover of my Soul' in my head all last night. Thanks Cod for checking up on me....I appreciate it.

Anyway...I have to go to school tomorrow...ugh.
Blessings.

Sleep

It sounds sooo good right now. :)

I got to drive the usda's suv down to the south farm and then lock up the place when I left. I love my job! So crazy laid back.

After church Kat and Gab and I invited ourselves over to the shaker for a close game of Cranium. Us girls should have won but we graciously conceded defeat.... Good times.

Now I'm going to bed.

Happy Birthday...

To mom. :) Just think, you're half a century old! Anyway.

I was craving root beer so I went grocery shopping with Gab. I was getting slightly annoyed at the length of the lines and went off on my "at Lindy's we never had lines" tirade. Poor Gab. :) But we didn't! We had to call another checker if we had more than three people in line. We stood there for at least 20 minutes next to a sign about how they care about their customers and how they have the shortest lines, etc. Grr. I miss Lindy's.

Today at work I got to go to the south farms and put seed into packets. It was fun. They gave me a tour of the soybean pathology building- they are growing a couple hundred pounds of soybean sudden death syndrome to inoculate plants and test resistance. Good stuff. :)

I am going to bed early tonight.....I hope. Blessings.

Stuff

Wow, it's Saturday again already. I spent the morning cleaning nasty old office furniture for the new shop. I think we have the cleanest shed in the area right now- too bad it won't last very long. Guys and their tools and sheds and things. The office even has airconditioning! Wimps.

And then I baked an apple pie and a pumpkin pie because I felt like it. And I watched 'Roman Holiday' with the fam. Good times. It's great to have a weekend without homework. :) O wait...I have some but I'm just not going to do it.

One of the grad students I work with gave me two succulents that she grew for a project. I don't know where I am going to put them yet. I hope my roomie doesn't mind too much, since I already have an avocado seed starting on my dresser. :)

Well anyway, I have nothing else to say.

Soybeans and Bubble Tea

Last night a group of us U of I people went out for bubble tea. It was an experience. :) Guys should never be allowed to have straws and small round objects at the same time.

I tied soybeans to stakes today, and shelled and counted soybeans. I love my job.

Student trustee elections are going on- my favorite slogans, in no particular order:

"Pro-Tuesday"
"Pro-Kitten"
"Vote Kantas- He can divide by zero."

Today was also a good quote day in P-chem lecture.

"No numbers were harmed in the creation of this integral."
"This will all become clear after you've taken this course a couple of times."
"The reason it's famous is because people like to use it a lot."

O, and an excerpt from an email from my mother:
"Speaking of Jake, he asked last night "is Jenny coming home NEXT weekend?" and I thought "Aww, how sweet, he misses her." And then he said "because I need her to tie my tie. Matt didn't do it right." :) Isn't it nice to be needed?"

I have so much homework and studying to do, and I'm just not motivated. It's going to be a late night.

I go home on weekends....

But not this weekend. This weekend is parent appreciation weekend. So I am appreciating my parents by not bringing my dirty laundry home and eating all their leftovers. :)

You would think that with such a major event going on all of my roomies would be home. However, out of nine possible bodies who coexist here 5 days a week- I am the only one. Just me. All by myself. In this big empty house. *sigh* Haha. And that's why I never stick around. It's very quiet and I've been getting a lot done, so I guess that's not a bad thing.

Next week is going to be crazy busy.

Awake

I didn't fall asleep in class today!

It's kind of a weird feeling....

Soybeans

I spent the afternoon tying beans to stakes in the warm greenhouse. I think I'm going to like my job! And I already know I don't have to work the 10th so I can go to Bern/Sabetha! (Yes, I know the invite is cancelled...but Heidi and I and some other not quite as exciting people are coming anyway.)

I had another wonderful weekend and now I am sleepy. Friday G&G had the young group for a taffy pull and I had a great heart to heart with Tammy. (Sorry 'bout the coats guys). Saturday I went shopping in the afternoon, and then went to bible study. And it was so clear and cold- the stars were absolutely glorious. Shelly and I went out on our porch roof and stargazed until late. We couldn't find our star chart though...sad news. I reread one of my all time favorite books, The Harvester. Even if my sister thinks it's dumb. It's not! (you just don't know good books shelly- I'm bringing it home again and you have to read it).

I'm so tired. Gab and I stayed up way too late last night talking. :) O well. The whole reason I go to P-chem is to sleep.

Anyways. Time to hit the books.

O yeah, Heids just reminded me- happy President's day!

Woot

As of today, I am the newest employee at the National Soybean Research Center located on the beautiful campus of the University of Illinois. Ok, so maybe campus is kind of grey and dingy right now, but it'll get better. And I am super excited!

They are doing research on soybean diseases or something. It's perfect for me since its chem related and gets my foot in the door for ag research. When I interviewed they asked if I had ever seen an aphid. I just laughed and told them about the time I walked beans in a field that was infested with them and didn't get sprayed- I was covered in nasty reddish brown aphid goo by the time we got done. And they asked if I could drive a tractor. :) Total answer to prayer- Mark 11:24.

Blessings.

You are my sunshine...(bum bum bum)

I miss high school. Ok, not most of the time. But I definitely miss high school on Valentine's day. It was the highlight of my entire year. :)

Only because I got to skip all of my classes, wander around the halls, hang out with cool people, sing crazy fun songs, and watch everyone's eager, expectant eyes when we interrupted a class. Vocal Valentine's were the best!

Chorale always sold songs and flowers, and then spent V-day embarrassing people. If your friends were nice, you got "You are my sunshine." If they were out to make you turn red, we had a list to choose from. :) Baby Face, When I fall in Love, I can't help Falling in Love with you, It's in his kiss (I still hate that song), and one year Matt and I arranged "Let me call you sweetheart."

They've been going through my head all day. *sigh* :)

....wise men say, only fools rush in! but I can't help falling in love with you....

Stressed out

I have three tests this week.

My laptop just died.

I can't wait for Friday. :)

************************

Dad, tomorrow is Valentine's day. I'm not home, Shelly can't drive, and I doubt the boys will be much help: so you're on your own this year. :)

For once I don't have to stand in the card aisle looking at the "For my Wife" cards with all of the men who waited until the last minute and who don't have daughters to run to the store quick and pick up something for mom for valentine's day.

Wonderful Wednesday

We had a dinner party at 709, it was great! And then people came over after church. Good times. But I was too busy cooking/cleaning to get any homework done.

I miss the stars. It's always too cloudy, or too bright in town. Clear winter nights are the best for stargazing. Sunday night the stars were great over 74, but I couldn't really look at them cause I was driving.

Stars

In your multitudes
Scarce to be counted
Filling the darkness
With order and light
You are the sentinels
Silent and sure
Keeping watch in the night
Keeping watch in the night

You know your place in the sky
You hold your course and your aim
And each in your season
Returns and returns
And is always the same
And if you fall as Lucifer fell
You fall in flame!

And so it has been and so it is written
On the doorway to paradise
That those who falter and those who fall
Must pay the price!

Highlights

This past week was fairly uneventful, school and homework and that's about it. And a few other things.

• Sarah and Kat and I discovered a cute coffee shop- and they have Bluegrass jams every Tuesday night! I'm excited.
  
• Wednesday night we had a meeting to discuss the upcoming U of I invite. In case you ever wondered- Nic's eyes get really big when you give an approximate turnout of 250ish. (We were joking- sorta). "It's just like herding cattle!"
• My P-chem lab is on the fourth floor of Noyes and the vending machines are in the basement, descending at a rate of 2 stairs/sec, and ascending at a rate of .5 stairs/sec, how long will it take to go down and back? Given: 2 flights per floor, ~ 15 steps/ flight.
• I went home Friday afternoon and skipped out on singing at the home. But I was busy rendering unto Caesar so I had a good excuse. :) I absolutely hate doing taxes. And it should be so easy for me- all I have to file is the 1040EZ. But it's awful and I am always get so stressed and emotional for no particular reason.
  
• I owe the State of Illinois exactly 1 dollar. Ok, so I rounded a little because I refuse to write a check for $1.48.
  
• I spent the rest of the weekend in Gridley. Twas a wonderful time. I got to spend the night at my Grandma's on Saturday- I haven't done that since I was really little and she still lived on the farm. She is so funny. She turned 90 last November and she's just not sure she likes getting old. Best quote of the weekend- "When you get to be my age, people expect you to be a little queer." Which she isn't. She isn't even slightly eccentric, and she's still sharp as a tack, lives alone, and gets "Smithsonian." (Slightly envious of the Smithsonian) She baked a chocolate cake for me- my absolute favorite with the best frosting ever. I'm not sharing with my roomies.
  
• Jake got a new vehicle. It has remote entry and automatic windows. I am so jealous. My favorite quote from Jake about the olds- "Nothing screams old AC woman like a white Oldsmobile!"
  

Blessings.

My TI-89 (titanium edition)

....has a german setting!

Sweet.

Too bad I don't know what it means.

Life is Good

So I had a wonderful weekend. I got to go home, our singing went well, and we had enough chairs for everybody. Having the older people there was great! Dad asked them to give off their favorite songs and share why they meant something to them. It was really cool to hear, and I think they all had a good time. We even had sandwiches left over so I don't have to buy lunch meat this week. :)

Saturday morning I got up at five (way too early) and left for Chestnut Mountain with Heidi, Kendra, and Shelly. We had so much fun!! I haven't been skiing for at least 2 years so I was afraid I would be really bad but I managed to not die so that was good. We all got to teach kendra how to ski...or something, I think she picked it up pretty fast considering. O, and it drizzled pretty much all day. I didn't really notice because it was warm enough to not be miserable and I didn't feel wet until right before we left. And the fake snow was actually soft, not icy. So it was all good. :)

I got to drive and they were all supposed to keep me awake on the way home. They of course promptly fell asleep, lulled by the rain and the overly warm car (for some reason they didn't agree that I would stay awake better if it was just slightly chilly). But we made it, and in plenty (less than an hour) of time to make it to some very unique testimonies. :)

So now I'm tired and sore, and back in Champaign and I really don't want to work on my homework yet.
Blessings.

I am tired

and sore.

Shakespeare

I have been in a really weird mood this week. I keep laughing at things that my roommates insist aren't funny. (Shows what they know) And I keep having these random flashes of Shakespeare. When I was walking in the wind yesterday it totally reminded me of when Benvolio and Mercutio are teasing Juliet's nurse in Romeo and Juliet. "A sail, a sail..." Which makes sense because my skirt and scarf and hair were blowing everywhere. But "To be or not to be..."? Much as I like Hamlet, I'm not sure how he applies to my life today.

I should be trying to understand my P-chem lab for tomorrow. Something about gas viscosity.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow....(see what I mean? more random Hamlet!) I am skipping out of Horticulture 20 minutes early and going to ISU bible study! Hooray!

So no one else in my house thought this was funny- I laughed out loud.

The things I get myself into

...or should I say, the things Gab gets me into. :)
Last week when Gab and I were randomly at the mall together, Gab got snagged by a local Mary Kay consultant, and she signed us up for make overs. So last night, Gab and Ashley and I went to her house and got beautified. Or they did anyway. I think I ended up looking pretty normal. We took pictures, but you can't see them because I don't have a digital camera.

My newspaper.
I know I only got a 16 week subscription to the Tribune last semester, and I was getting ready to figure out how to make it keep coming once it stopped. But it never stopped! Hooray!! So I can still read the comics with my oatmeal in the mornings.

I'm excited to go home this weekend. We are having a singing at our house Friday, and there are testimonies in Washington Saturday. The singing should be interesting, as I invited most of the older people in church. We don't have many since Washington is a very young church, not many people who go there have grown up there, but it might be kind of tight at our house. Good times.

I love random quotes. "I have the heart of a child. I keep it in a jar on my shelf." ~Bloch

Blessings.

Linear Algebra

So I got my textbook from Half.com for $35.00- and it's the low price edition! Which means it's paperback, it's not in color, and it has a big banner on it that reads:
"This edition is manufactured in India and is authorized for sale only in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Circulation of this edition outside of these territories is UNAUTHORIZED."

What I don't understand is that it is all in English. Wouldn't they rather have a textbook in their own language? And should I be worried about getting arrested with my unauthorized edition??

Hm..just in case, we never had this conversation.

School

This semester doesn't look like it will be as bad as I thought. I will have a lot more homework than I did last semester- not necessarily a bad thing.

Last night was singing at the home. We had a good turnout- of guys anyway. There were only four girls so I think just about every song went way flat. :) Thank goodness we have an audience that can't tell.

So. No homework yet so I have nothing to do. I wish it was warm out. At least it's finally sunny!

Chambana

So I'm back at school...woot. I'm not really looking forward to this semester since it's going to be hard and I'm lazy and anyway. :)

I'm listening to some Mussorgsky I got for Christmas and I'm having really weird flashbacks to marching band.

News flash

Medical personal were called to Wyss Farms Inc. this afternoon after the discovery of an apparent suicide. The chicken house on this quiet farm is usually a sleepy place, full of hens purposefully going about their business.
Today, however, was different. When the youngest Miss Wyss returned from school and went out to do her chicken chores she discovered a grisly scene. "The first thing I saw when I walked in the door was the rooster hanging there, and the hens were all quiet," said Miss Wyss. "He was obviously dead and it was obviously suicide because he left a note." The note she mentioned was found next to the body, it reads as follows:

Suicid note
nobody likes me
michelle hates me
goodby crul world
A. Rooster

Although there were several eyewitnesses, they have refused to speak to the press at this time. All we have heard is "cluck, cluck" from the hens present at the time of the incident.
"I can't say I'm sad that awful rooster is dead," said Miss Wyss, "at least now I won't have to defend myself with a board when I do the chores."

The case is currently under investigation. Fowl play has not been ruled out(pun intended), and investigators have been questioning several suspects, including the head of the farming corporation.

Books and things

I only have a week left of break- that kind of makes me sad. But I just started reading Ivanhoe and it's so good and it makes me happy. :)

My favorite part of break and summer is that I actually have time to read. I still have a few books to get through before I've read all the books that I own. I am a total bibliophile! My book shelves were full years ago, now I have books stacked two deep and laid across the top and some on the floor. O well, my dad is worse.
So far over break I have read:
This Present Darkness
The Girl of the Limberlost
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength
Ivanhoe.

The list of books I haven't started is much longer. And I never did finish Gulliver's Travels. And I still have a gift certificate to B & N. Ah, well. So many books, so little time.

I got to sing at the home with Washington for the first time in ages Friday night! It was great fun. And then my dumb brother knew a "short cut" to Heidi's afterwards and 4 cars followed me as we went in circles. Too funny!

Friday is my last night at Lindy's (for the second time- hopefully they will be nice) and I will be sad again. Unless I work prom it will probably be the last time I get to work there.

Well anyway, I am going to go read Ivanhoe. :)

Happy New Year

I forgot how little I get to use the computer when I'm sharing it with 5 other people. :)

My Christmas was wonderful. All of my cousins were in town except for Brent and Beth. We had Rook shirts made at Brunk's- they look great! We played lots of it while the K-bergers were here. :) My little brother "pimped out" a hotwheels El Camino for me. Orange body and purple racing stripes. Its...um..really cool. Or something. :) I also got two jars of Marion berry jam!! I was so excited since I haven't had any since I was in Oregon.

I spent New Years eve with the Washington Young Group. It was great fun. I'm looking forward to Friday night at the nursing home because I haven't been there since school started.

I worked at Lindy's last week. And this week. And next week. :) I love that place.

Tomorrow we're going to Chicago overnight, and I finally get to go to the Pompeii exhibit. And see the mummies and Sue and all the other cool things at the Field Museum that I haven't seen in ages. :) Should be fun.

I'm not looking forward to going back to school, but I do miss Gab and the rest of my roomies!

Blessings.

Merry Christmas!!

I got my Christmas present from U of I a little bit early... they just posted my grades!

AND I DIDN'T FLUNK!!!

Big sigh of relief from me. :) And my GPA didn't go down as far as I thought it was going to. So anyway. I'm happy.

Merry Christmas to all...and to all a good night....

I love being home

My right rear blinker has been out for about a month. It's fixed now.

I was about 400 miles over due for an oil change. It's changed now.

Hooray for Dad! :)

I scared my sister half to death...

I sat down at the piano tonight cause I wanted to sing Christmas songs- and this really big spider ran across the keyboard.

I screamed.
Really loud.

They heard me in the basement.

It felt pretty good, poor Shelly about had a heart attack. Dad killed it so I can go back in there now . :)

I hate spiders.

Raised on Gospel Sound

I'm home! Hooray! No school for a month, and it feels wonderful. I still don't know for sure how bad my grades are. :)

I turned 21 yesterday and now my little cousins are calling me old. My parents took me and Shelly to the David Davis mansion in Bloomington- my brothers didn't come. For some reason they didn't think touring an old house sounded like fun. It was very cool. I decided that someday when I'm rich and famous I am going to have a house like that. Then we went out to eat at Olive Garden, and all the waiters sang to me. Woot.

I got a great bluegrass CD for my birthday, hence the title. :) My poor family got to listen to it all last night. O well, its good for them or something... a nice cultural experience.

I am going to make springerli sometime this week. :)

So maybe I'm not a mighty warrior...

But I can so wield a banana!



I refuse to drive an El Camino.

What a great day.

My final (my only final) was at 7pm so I slept in this morning. I spent most of the afternoon studying for it. And when I say studying I mean kind of glancing at my notes. It went ok, I guess. I just don't like computer science. I don't understand it either. But that's ok, because at least I have cool mittens.

Nine out of the ten girls I live with were at our Christmas party tonight! We laughed a lot. :) It was kind of weird to see them all in the same room- I honestly don't feel like I have 9 roomies.

Then we joined most of the rest of the young group at Mary Anne's until 12ish. They weren't joking when they said it was greasy food. I think once a semester is plenty for me. :)

Katrina made our Christmas cards they turned out so good! I'm so excited to send them to people.


I was going to get on my soapbox about Church being shortened on Christmas day- but that would probably be a bad idea. Instead I think I will go to bed.
Blessings.

I'm done tomorrow...

I'm so excited. And I'll probably get to work at Lindy's some over break. :)
Tomorrow night I have to take my only final. I really don't think I will study very much because it's computer science, and unless I ace it my grade isn't going anywhere. And I won't ace it because I don't understand it. :) O well. I'm finding it very hard to be motivated.
I have to finish my paper today on east asian women.
Thursday I am going shopping with my best friend from high school... she lives about 3 blocks away from me, and I haven't seen her once this semester. whoops. And then I'm going home!! Hooray!

so... east asian women. Yeah, I have no idea. :)

Let it snow...

Let it snow, let it snow!


We're supposed to get 1-3 inches today. :)


And I don't have to go out in it!! Hooray for being done with labs!



Gab won't let me play my Christmas music.

I'm tired

I guess that's what I get for staying at Perkin's until 3.


8 more days.

Weird...

I'm hungry for bacon.

It's Snowing!!

Our Christmas tree is up, and the world is white.



*grin*

3 weeks

If I can make it to December 5th, it's all down hill from there.





The Other Guys Christmas Concert is Saturday the 3rd at 8pm. Let me know if you're interested.

Rust Removal

The bane of my mother's existence is our shower. I live on a farm, in the house my great-grandparents built long before fiberglass showers were invented. Our water comes from a well- so it is full of all kinds of good minerals and metals and things. You can't beat it for taste, but it leaves brown iron spots on all of our faucets. Our shower, which is in the basement and is pretty much just cinder blocks and left over hog-house wall stuff, has accumulated quite a bit of rust over the years. Mom has tried every rust removing product on the market to no avail. Last week she found something that actually worked. It even elicited a "Whoa, what did you use on this- it actually looks clean," from me when I got home.

Two whole bottles of The Works toilet bowl cleaner. TWO!

At 20% by volume HCl, that works out to about 8.159 Molar concentration.

Um...pretty sure we keep that stuff under a hood at all times, and have to wear gloves and goggles to use it.

Thank goodness it goes right out on a field tile, if it drained through metal pipes they would be gone.

Ok, so maybe I'm over reacting a little, she did dilute it some when she rinsed the shower out. :)

But still! Two bottles of 8 Molar HCl!

Crazy.....







Warren came for lunch. :)
The Kellenbergers are coming tonight!

Break

I think that breaks are my most favorite part of the school year. :) I would love school if every week was like the first two weeks of class, and every year had twice as much break time.

It is so wonderful to be able to be home and stay for a change and not have to go anyplace else. And I got to do stuff with Washington 2 nights in a row!! I miss our young group so much.... U of I is great too, but Washington is the best.

Friday night we all babysat at church- I spent most of my time in the kitchen- I am just not a kid person, and they were super wound up. Saturday night we had a great bible study and listened to some...um...good- ish singing.

Sunday afternoon I went to Marla and Jon's wedding reception, and heard that Julie got announced to some guy from Ohio. :) Crazy girls. Out of the six girls in my high school class who were converted when we graduated, only one is not married or engaged.

Today I went shopping with my mom. It was great! We ate at Famous Dave's for supper which is not even close to being as good as KC bbq, but it's probably the best we've got in Peoria.

We stopped at Gander Mountain.... sorry Gab, I forgot to ask about squirrel guns. Although, I did find out that it would be illegal to have pellet guns within Urbana City Limits. But that doesn't really matter since I don't own a pellet gun. We'll just have to make do with BB guns, and hope nobody sees us. :)

Tomorrow I am going to sleep in. My sister already has her outfit laid out so tomorrow morning I will not wake up to an argument about how she doesn't have the right shoes, or the right kind of socks, or something like that... :)

O, and my grandpa is doing wonderfully better, he came home from the hospital friday and was in church on sunday. :) They don't really know for sure what it was, cause nothing showed up on any of the tests they did.

One day more

Break starts tomorrow at noon!! Hallelujah!

I'm going to relax.

I am going to catch up on my emails. So if you've emailed me recently- I will reply eventually. :)

Just not today. Or tomorrow.

I will not think about P-chem for a whole week.

I haven't heard anything else about my Grandpa....I guess no news is good news.
Gotta love the Wyss's- when it's not important the whole world knows.....when it is important I hear nothing. :) Thanks everybody, for your prayers.

Well Anyway. Back to the P-chem.

Grandpa...

...had a small stroke yesterday afternoon. Last I heard he's still in the hospital.

The Horror

I'm out of Chocolate Teddy Grahams.

I love college

So today Meg, Gab, Kindel and I stood in line for an hour to get a free burrito and drink at Chipotle. :)


It was good.

A Daring Rescue

Once upon a time, far far away at the Frying Pan, Kat-arina had just gotten back from her trip to Mexico. She was busy unpacking, and Jenny was busy brushing her teeth in the bathroom. Suddenly a piercing scream broke the stillness of the night. "Kat-arina, come in here quick," a very rattled Jenny yelled.
Kat-arina came running in, saying, "What's wrong Jenny?"
Their peaceful domain had been infiltrated by pure evil. Pointing at the HUGE, quarter sized spider that was trying to blend into the white shower curtain, Jenny yelled "Kill it!!"
"With what," asked Kat-arina, "I don't want to get guts all over the shower curtain!"
"Well, I'm not touching it," said Jenny. "What are we going to do?? I know, lets go get one of the guys!"
So the brave Kat-arina went to yell out the window towards 711 for help, while Jenny stayed to watch the spider. Fortunately for these two damsels in distress, Super Bubs the Spider Slayer was passing through at that very moment. He quickly assessed the situation and made short work of the evil spider. Kat-arina and Jenny showered him with thanks for his daring rescue as they cleaned spider parts off the shower curtain. As he disappeared into the night, Kat-arina was pretty sure she heard him say, "Wherever I'm needed, I'll be there.......hehe...Crazy girls, afraid of a spider."

Choose Something Like a Star

O Star (the fairest one in sight),

We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud --
It will no do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.

Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says ``I burn.''


But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.


And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise of blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

-- Robert Frost

I had a wonderful weekend. I'm so sad it's over!
Thanks, Meg and Kaitlyn and Jodi for staying with us- it's so fun to have company.
If you could vaporize one member of your immediate family, who would you vaporize? (Don't ask, it's what I get for catching rides with my neighbors.)
I used my last stamp writing letters to my little cousins. Their letters are so cute, makes me wish I had nieces and nephews. Hm... maybe my dumb brother who didn't come this weekend should get on that. :)

I love Fridays

Fridays are wonderful. Classes are usually so much less intense. Every Friday in intro to east Asian cultures we have group presentations, and my group already went. So I get to watch other people be nervous and stress about their powerpoints. :) It's hard to start anything new in P-chem on Fridays, and my quant lab lecture is always about 30 min long. We do have quizzes every Friday for quant, but the average has been about a 2 out of 5, so I don't study for them at all.

I met with my advisor today to talk about next semester. She knew about as much as I did, which really wasn't helpful. We only have about 3 weeks of class left, this semester is going by crazy fast.

I got quite the note from Gab....AKA chris.... :)

I got some tragic news today...poor Laertes has gone to that big ocean in the sky..... ;)

I cleaned...my hands smell like lysol. I don't know if that is good or bad. I like the smell of clean, but I'm not sure if I want all those chemicals on my hands. If I get stuff on me in lab, I have to wash it off quick. Hmm.

Chalise came over and ate supper with Gretch and I. Out of the ten girls in our house, we were the only two home. :) We had curried lentils (leave it to Gretch), fried eggplant, and fried cucumbers. Which I don't know if you can actually do that, but they were good in butter with Parmesan cheese.

I baked cookies with Chris and Brett. Chris has never baked cookies in his life and he was trying to follow my recipe, which looks something like this:
5 cups flour
2 cups b. sugar
2 cups sugar
2 cups oats

4 s. butter
4 eggs
choc. chips

2 tsp soda
2 tsp powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt

It was humorous. And Brett introduced us to the skillet cookie. I think I may have a new favorite desert. :)

Carrissa and Janelle, and Brian and Nic came over to hang out with Meg and I, and then we all went to the Shaker to play trivial pursuit. My team actually won! (Thanks to Brian)

You see a lot of interesting people on Green street at 2 am.

I think I'm going to sleep in tomorrow.

*Sigh*

Two tests today....

m42, the Orion Nebula