Easter

In pictures. Because I've been too lazy to write about it. It was a good weekend, and it's been kind of a long week.

We colored eggs one night... we didn't do very many creative ones because, well, I didn't hardboil that many. I like deviled eggs, but I can't eat that many of them. :)

So pretty

This is my christmas cactus... I thought it was dead, but it's blooming now... at easter...and there's only one blossom. I'm so confused.

Crocus that the rabbits didn't eat.


Jakey came over and they had a game playing party.

And this is an old picture of my flowers from potluck... aren't they so fresh and pretty?

He is Risen indeed!
Blessings.

Happy Good Friday!

I get to work... woot... :)

I get a lot of grief about how gov't employees get tons of time off and never do any work- but I don't get Good Friday off. And I don't get Christmas eve or the week between Christmas and New Years off.

There have been a few fun things going on this week- the wind was right for the annual prairie burn, they tilled up the research plots, the picnic tables are back outside, and the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture stopped by today. So I can now say I was in the same room as a sitting cabinet member. *grin*

I had fun celebrating Bob's birthday yesterday... we went to his parents' for supper and got to meet the new puppy across the road. His name is Fred. For some reason, that just totally cracks me up.

Hallelujah for the Blood!

a tale of two potato dishes

Monday was the first day of passover, so we had lamb just for fun. It has a very different taste. The little lamb chops are super cute though. :) Yes, I'm aware that I'm weird. Apparently Kroger doesn't have a large Jewish clientele because they don't carry matzo bread; we had kosher crackers instead. (I thought they were ok tasting, Bob thought they were gross) I also bought some leeks because I remember the Israelites always complaining about not having melons and leeks and figs and fleshpots and things like they did in Egypt, and Bob's allergic to melon and I have no idea what a fleshpot is. So I found a recipe for potato leek casserole that involved butter and cooking wine and milk and it turned out mostly just strange. It didn't taste bad, it just didn't set up and was really milky and not very casserole like. At least it all smelled really good while it was cooking.... different though it all was.

So then I had to figure out what to do with the rest of the leeks... and I was supposed to take potatoes to rotating potluck... hm.... I found another casserole recipe. It turned out much better, maybe because it had heavy cream and cheddar cheese in it and no wine. :) Potluck was a great time. It's so fun to just sit and listen.

Halfway through I got a bad headache, which I hate. So yeah, the rest of my night was not so much fun... but I feel much better today. Stinking Schlipf genes that are all of the sudden manifesting themselves. This makes two migraines in the last year- eesh. Ok, I know I shouldn't complain, I am very thankful that I don't get them much at all...

Bob's birthday is tomorrow. Woot!

das Wochenende

Have I mentioned that I love weekends?

• Sleeping in is fabulous.
• My house is clean. :)
• We got pictures taken so I can get a new passport... we don't have any trips planned, but just in case the need should arise... haha. Plus it still has my old name on it. And the cost for renewing goes up on the first.
• I changed my headlight all by myself! I got the new bulb, dismantled the "headlight assembly", put the new one in, and reassembled everything with no extra pieces. Yay. I feel so... so... accomplished. :P or something
• We tried a new pizza at Firehouse Pizza. It was good, as always. :)
• We spent Sunday in W-ton. Good times. Matt has a very large new potato gun that we got to try out. We were shooting it over the road into the field and a few people drove past.... dootdado, we're just hanging out in the front yard...
• Shelly and I played Barbies and American Girl dolls with my cousins on Sunday. So funny. We didn't get the car out so Christina decided a stuffed hippo would work just as well. Ken may or may not have said "Barbie, I can't carry any more stuff, let's load up the hippo and go home!"

These, I, Singing in Spring

THESE, I, singing in spring, collect for lovers,

(For who but I should understand lovers, and all their sorrow and joy?

And who but I should be the poet of comrades?)

Collecting, I traverse the garden, the world—but soon I pass the gates,

Now along the pond-side—now wading in a little, fearing not the wet,

Now by the post-and-rail fences, where the old stones thrown there, pick’d from the fields,

have accumulated,

(Wild-flowers and vines and weeds come up through the stones, and partly cover them—

Beyond these I pass,)

Far, far in the forest, before I think where I go,

Solitary, smelling the earthy smell, stopping now and then in the silence,

-Walt Whitman

I love spring. I have a bunch of bulbs peeking up through the dirt... and then the rabbits eat the leaves. Hopefully at least a few of them will bloom!

I love wandering around town (now that it's warmer) and trying to classify all the different houses by architectural style. I'm not very good at it, but it's fun to try.

My Dad dropped off a 3x5 box for me to grow things in. Hooray! I'm quite excited, although I will definitely have to invest in some chicken wire (or a shotgun) to protect my plants from rabbits.

Dang came for supper last night. Otherwise it's been pretty quiet, which I love. Next week is going to be busy again; hooray for holidays.

Blessings.

is it spring yet?

So I spent the rest of last week getting ready for potluck. Hooray for working full time. But, I got everything done and cleaned and ready for people by Friday night. And then it was all done for Saturday. :) It was a good night. I didn't burn the meat. And it was fun to have them at our house, even though it is kind of a tight fit around our table.

Saturday morning I went to 3rd Saturday quilt club and barely made it on time. But I did make it. When that was over I went to Mom and Dad's to pick up some beef. Woot woot. I love having meat in my freezer.

We had communion that night. I did not get the giggles, which is good. Probably because Shelly wasn't there.

I want it to be warm again for good. I'm tired of being cold and I'm tired of long underwear and I'm tired of my winter coat. I want to see green again. And I wish I had some means of permanently disposing of the rabbits in my yard that are nibbling on my crocus. I'll stop complaining now.

Blessings.

Beware the Ides of March

Yeah, so yesterday we had a minor flood in our crawlspace. Some valve was leaking (it must have been for a while because we'd occasionally hear random water running) and it was leaking enough yesterday to drop our water pressure and create a nice waterfall under the house. Thankfully it drains really well; because it never got above 3 or 4 inches. So Kerry and Sam came over after supper and fixed it (the bliss of renting...). Well, Sam and I colored pictures and Kerry crawled around in the mud and worked. I need to get more boy coloring books... Disney Heroes was a little to girly for Sam. :) I'm just glad it was an easy fix and they don't have to tear out any walls or keep the water turned off or something (I was maybe freaking out because we're hosting potluck on Friday!).

Otherwise it's been pretty quiet. Amber and Sarah came over for some quality Emma time.... such fun. We spent Saturday evening with my family and checked out the new paint and watched old slides. I was a little bored this weekend... which I love.... so I tried some new recipes. Bob and I made Dr. Pepper chocolate cake which was super yummy, and I attempted homemade tortillas. I could use more practice on those.

Blessings.

How to...

...get a weeks worth of pork loin, various slices of pie, and a bouquet of fresh flowers:

Be on the committee for adult church potluck!

It was fun. Especially since I really didn't do anything. :) There were four ladies on the committee; two did the meat, one did the paper goods, and I stopped and got flowers for the tables. Which I love. I guess we did help set up and stuff. Still, I think we came out ahead.

I like hiding in the kitchen.

Blessings.

ski bums

So I'm exhausted. We had a very full weekend, fun, but full. :)

Saturday morning Bob and I got up early (for Saturday anyway!) and drove to Chestnut Mountain to go skiing. I was very excited. And a little trepidatious. Bob had never been skiing before, and so I was little afraid that I wouldn't be a good teacher and that he'd end up falling a lot and hating it and never want to go again and it'd be all my fault. But he did awesome! I was quite proud, although it definitely wasn't my teaching abilities. :) He's just naturally good at stuff like that. Handsome too. :)

And this is the only picture of me... I forgot to ask somebody to take one of us on the slopes. O well.

It was such a beautiful day for it too! Almost too warm out, but the sun felt great and the snow was nice and soft and not at all icy. We ran into Justin S. on the slopes; he had a group of IEI students up learning to ski/snowboard. I love riding the ski lifts and watching all the people going down... and wiping out. There were a lot of really good boarders and so many cute little kids with no fear on the really hard slopes.

My phone rang while we were waiting in line for the ski lift....

My aunt Kary's getting married!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited! and we love you much, Suz!

So yeah, I'm not that sore from skiing, which is great! But I do have a lovely sunburn and raccoon eyes from my sunglasses. Bob was using my ski goggles and he doesn't have funny lines... so not fair. :P

Then, Sunday morning we got up early and went to Champaign with Uncle Howard, Aunt Janice, and Carol. It was really great to be in C-U again. We've been too busy to make it there for church in a looong time. :) It was good to see everybody again, and we got to hear Mark and Neal and some other people sing after church. And got to go to church potluck, and see Sprout's apartment. Hopefully, the next time we go Jakey and Amber and Sarah will be there... :P

Good times.

Blessings.

crazy busy weekend

I'm hoping that this week isn't too busy so I can relax a little... :)

Rustin and Sharon and Grace were here for the weekend, so we spent Friday evening with them. I taught them how to play Rook, which was fun.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30 because somebody forgot to turn their alarm off... and apparently he can hit the snooze in a sound sleep because it went off every 10 minutes for an hour. I finally turned it off. He doesn't remember any of it. :P

We went to testimonies that night and then we went back out to Bob's parent's for a while. After we left, we turned behind a truck that was going reeeallly really slow... and then he started drifting into the other lane, and back and forth, and I was freaking out. So we called 911 and while I was talking to the lady he drove into the ditch and came very close to rolling it into a telephone pole; somehow he managed to not crash and drove back up on the road. Rather scary. We turned in opposite directions then, so I don't know what happened or what his deal was.

Denver's wedding was on Sunday, so we went to that. It was so good to see U of I people again! Good times. We drove over with Susan and when we left the reception her car hood was full of snow... it got some weird looks from people that we passed on the road... And then as soon as we got home and ate supper it was time to turn around and go back to church for the Ordination. Which was good, but I was very tired of sitting in church and lines and being dressed up at that point.

Blessings.

spring cleaning

The lab got a big grant to renovate the center wing.... which means that everyone who works there has to move to one of the other wings. So, lots of groups are going to be doubling up on lab space while it's under construction. No one is moving into my lab, but some of our other lab space is going to be shared in a few weeks, and we've been cleaning out like mad this week. Which is good. Scientists are pack rats. I've been dumping old samples by the gallons; some of the stuff has labels with handwriting that no one recognizes because it's so old.

It's a great chance for me to clean... haha.... scientists are also not real concerned with dirt and dust and grime. Or at least the "boys" in our group aren't. Seriously, I've been wiping out drawers and cupboards and cleaning sinks that they would have just been filled up again without a thought. Ick. 409 industrial degreaser has become my best friend...

My siblings came over for some real food last night... I made lasagna. It was yummy. I love Italian. :) And we had Frieda-buns, which are amazing and I need to have her over to teach me how to make them.

I finished my second 'third-saturday' quilt block. Woot. And I've been working on one I started a few years ago... the pattern was/is too hard for me and so it isn't going to turn out that great, but I guess I'd rather have it all put together and not be perfect than have a bunch of cut fabric laying around. :)

Otherwise, nothing new. I'm excited for the weekend! It's going to be a busy one...
Blessings.

flowers and frustrations and fun

These are my valentine roses... they're so very pretty. I love roses. :)


This is my amaryllis bulb that finally decided to bloom... I got it before Christmas. I like it, but it clashes with the A & W sign...

So I talked to 3 banks and my mutual fund company this week... and got very frustrated and confused and close to tears. I now officially hate finance and all things that have to do with money and investing. O wait, this is not a new sentiment. :) At this point I think I'm back to square one. They still haven't even changed my name and address on the account, and Dad and I have been corresponding with them since last September. Sooooo.... I wrote another letter of instruction... woot woot, I'm getting so good at them... and they're getting copies of pretty much all of my identifying documents in the mail. I guess it's good some random person couldn't get in and mess with my account... but then, you never know, it might be easier for somebody to steal the vast amounts I've got invested (HA! Seriously, it's not like I've got a massive account or anything, it shouldn't be this hard to just change my name!) than it is for me to change my personal info.

We had a student researcher day at the lab this week... I'm the "material girl." Yes, the pop culture reference is intended... My coworkers think it's funny; I'm not sure how I feel about that. Definitely a study in contrasts.... :D Basically I just make sure there are enough lab coats, gloves, safety glasses, and put together their lab notebooks. I wish they would have done SR days when I was in High School; they're lots of fun. There were two AC kids this time, which I loved. And one of the researchers that was presenting started telling stories about his grad days, back when you could still dump solvents down sink drains and smoke in the lab, and what happens when you try to put out your cigarette in a sink full of solvent. Hilarious. They were wide eyed.

Blessings.

I'm a slacker

O well.

We had a pretty quiet week last week, it was nice. I was a little bit disappointed that I didn't get a snow day...

Dang came over for supper and there were no leftovers. :D

My amaryllis bulb finally bloomed... I've had it since before Christmas. There's a dozen roses on my kitchen table... I love having a house full of flowers. :)

Friday we got together with our potluck for a V-day party which was lots of fun. I discovered that I don't know any valentine's day trivia.

We're still trying to get my mutual fund in our names. Saturday morning we went to three different banks because they need ANOTHER signature guarantee from us... yeah, none of them do that "anymore". But, in case you need a notary, they have plenty of people who can do that. I was so frustrated, because Dad and I walked into the bank in w-ton and it took all of 5 minutes for the lady to check and stamp our signatures. *sigh* Should have just cashed it out and started fresh.

The rest of the day I delivered dad's annual flower order and helped my mom paint. :)

We really didn't do much Sunday... went to church, R and S's wedding reception... I don't like eating out with the entire world, so I just made chicken parmesan (it's red and therefore valentiney! or something) for supper.

I didn't have to work yesterday because it was President's day. Woot. It was amazing. I went shopping, and then Bob and I met for supper at Red Lobster. Yum. I haven't been there in years. When I was little it seemed so much more upscale, maybe because we usually 'ate out' at fast food places... still, I was a little surprised at all the sweatpants I saw, and the redneck vibe we were getting from the table next to us. :)

Blessings.

various and sundry

This week was experiment with ground beef week.... I attempted meatloaf for the first time in, oh, 2.5 years. The last time I made it was with Shelly while grandma was in the hospital and we wanted comfort food... total flop. And I tried a skillet meat ball recipe, it was good but next time I'm going to just bake the meat balls. I'm not overly fond of ground beef; next week there is none on the menu. :)

Wednesday night some w-ton girls came to visit us. It was great fun, and I hope they can find it in their hearts to forgive me for dragging them up to the front and then having to sit through a member meeting. They came over after church- good times.


I planted four flats of flower seeds yesterday. Our porch is just a little too cold for them right now so they're on the floor in the kitchen. Someday, when we're rich and famous, I'm going to have a green house attached to our palatial mansion.

So this is a great Rudyard Kipling quote from "Just So Stories":

Of course, the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even begin to be tame until he met the Woman, and she told him she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild horse skin, tail down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe you feet, dear, when you come in, and now we'll keep house.'

Blessings.

I voted

Did you?

potluck

I survived. Bob survived me being nervous. And I think people had at least on ok time. :) Thankfully, I didn't burn anything (although my broiler was setting off the smoke detector- but that's to be expected), and everybody else brought wonderful food. We don't really have a lot of room around our table when it has all the leaves in it, but it worked. I used my china... and left the goblets at the back of the closet because I didn't feel like getting them out...

Yay for fresh flowers, spider mums and daisies.


And then on Sunday we went low key and spent some time playing games with Caleb and Bethany and little Alea. We went to Cracker Barrel for supper and did not eat off china. :) It was a good time.

Blessings.

stuff and nonsense

So when people ask how work is going I usually say, "Good, it's fun." And it is... but, yeah, there is sometimes more excitement and danger that I don't randomly share... it's been crazy around here... last week, somebody had an accident with sodium (they're ok) and spent the day in the ER. Yesterday when I got to work and the lab across the hall from mine was all taped off... apparently one of my coworkers accidentally synthesized a very unstable explosive... it was after I left so I missed the bomb squad and the haz-mat team. :) It's all taken care of though, no worries. :)

I've been to sewing club, church, the eye doctor, and a wedding shower this week. It's been busy. Poor Bob had to make supper one night since the eye dr. took so long. I'm ready for the weekend. But still nervous about potluck.

Blessings.

randomness

hm... I haven't blogged in a while... I still don't really have anything to blog about. :)

We have been slightly busy I guess. MLK weekend was great. We finally got the desk that we ordered put together (Merry Christmas to us); after it came with several broken pieces, and after several emails to customer service.

K and K had a singing in their barn, I met some new people.

I called my Grandma to get her taffy recipe... I already had it, but I just love hearing the commentary that goes along with getting any recipe from Grandma or Pearline... I didn't end up making any taffy. hm... maybe if it gets cold again, o wait, it's January.

Dale and Meg had potluck, which was a great time as always.

I miss green growing things... my seed catalogues are getting very dog-eared.

We're hosting rotating potluck this weekend and I'm trying not to be nervous.

Blessings.

Quilts and Cars

It's been kind of a busy week so far, full of things that make me smile. I got to go to quilting Monday night... they're making a quilt for the menno relief sale and this week was quilting week... I was pretty excited, when they say everybody is welcome to help, they really mean everyone. And they said they wouldn't pull my stitches out, even though they aren't as pretty as some of the other ladies'. :)

My car needed some looking at, so instead of going all the way to the dealership in W-ton it went to a guy here in town. It's all better now. I love knowing my mechanic. Although, I prefer that they forget who I am because they haven't seen my car in a such a looong time.... haha. Unlike that summer that the guys at Service Auto knew our entire family by first names... and what car you were talking about when you called them. *sigh*

Last night I got to hang out with K and Ambo and Sarah.... good times. We did not name the last slice of pizza, played some subjective Guess Who ("does your person look like they would enjoy playing the accordion?" is so much more fun than "does your person have blue eyes?"), and got "That thing you do" stuck in my head. So much fun to hang out with them again!

We get Monday off. Woot! Hooray for MLK jr.

Blessings.

one year ago today I found out that one of my friends wanted to marry me....

it's been a good year.

Blessings.

Happy New Year

So we made it through Christmas. It was good, and I was very thankful that everything we had to go to was on different days. Bob didn't have to work the week after Christmas... so not fair. :D Haha... but then I wound up home most of the week with a low fever, so I guess I can't complain.

We didn't do anything for New Years... And barely made it to midnight... *sigh* I'm getting to be so old and tired. :P Or something. I think it was more that I was half sick.

I didn't make any resolutions. Last year I came up with some and then I got engaged, yeah... they didn't happen. The one about using my passport REALLY didn't happen.

Sunday my siblings and Bob and I all piled into Shelly's car and drove to Iowa for our second cousins visitation. It was probably the saddest one I've ever been at... just makes my heart hurt for them. And then we got to drive two hours back home...

Jakey has introduced me to great Russian literature. I finished "Crime and Punishment" by Dosteovsky before Christmas, and he just loaned me "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin. They're different. I think I like it. We'll see if I'm up to reading "War and Peace" which I'm told is "like being bludgeoned repeatedly about the head with awesomeness." *grin*

I'm ready for spring now.
Blessings.

Christmas randoms

In no particular order...

The boys playing Matt's 'The Office' version of Clue.

Abby was tired. :) I should have been sleeping too, since I had a fever the entire day. O well.

Uncle Randy recording hours of gift opening footage.


Our Christmas tree that took up half the living room.

Nativity.

Matt's madrigal.

The flowers Bob got me for my birthday, they were so pretty.

Jakey put soviet propaganda posters on his list...

We also got cool new t-shirts. Mine says I (heart) warders. It's from WOT. Woot.

Jakey was also modeling his sweet new 30 round banana clip...

So I was supposed to work this week, but yeah, I've had a little bit of a fever since Monday night. Too much Christmas I think. :)

Blessings, and Happy New Year!

one of the most amusing moments this christmas...

Yes, that is Grandpa in the middle. *grin* Uncle Roy is on the left, and Johnny S. on the far right. He didn't know the girls... they met them on vacation at Lake Geneva, "they needed a ride." So funny. Austin got the picture from one of Johnny's grandkids (he wouldn't tell who) and had it enlarged.

Merry Christmas

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;"

For hate is strong

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep.

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!

The wrong shall fail,

The right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men!"

God bless us everyone!

I turn my collar to the cold and damp...

ugh. I don't like wet. Although, it is kind of nice to not get shocked every time I take off my lab coat and touch my desk. And my computer. And the door handle.

static is worse than damp.

for it's one, two, oops wrong season

So Saturday Bob and I celebrated my birthday, part II. We were going to go tour the Pettingill-Morron house and then go out to eat. Except we got there and there was a sign that said "please call to schedule a tour." um... nowhere on the historical society website does it say that, it lists Saturday tour times and when they're closed. *sigh* So then we were in Peoria and it was way too early to eat, so we stopped at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory. We passed Lakeview museum and decided to see if they were open... yeah, they close at 4 and we would have not had much time. *sigh* They did have a used book sale going on in the lobby. Which we love. And now we have more books. :)

We also stopped at Barnes and Noble and Best Buy since they are there, and we were there, and it was still early. Good times. We did go for supper eventually, at Seven on Prospect. It was really good and they gave us lots of food. And then we went home and played DK for a while. I'm so bad at it... o well, it's great fun.

Sunday we went to Gridley for Christmas. Jesse got a lego power pack so the boys played with that all evening.

Christina got a tea set, so she served tea and whatever food you wanted. So funny.

Bob loves taking pictures...

Last night I got to hang out with the W-ton girls at Katie's new house. So much fun... we laughed a lot and talked a lot.

And then when I got home and started packing our lunches I discovered that the turkey was slimy... ick... and we haven't eaten at home much so we didn't have any leftovers. *sigh* I'm a failure as a wife. :D O well, I'll just have to go to Jimmy John's for lunch... bummer. haha.

Blessings.

merry birthday to me

So Tuesday night I went down to Champaign just because. I haven't been there in ages! And I don't get to see the C-U girls nearly as much as I would like. And Bob was busy. It was great. I got to meet Natalie's two cute "foster" puppies. They came with Amber, Sarah, Natalie and I to Sonic... I had to order... it was scary. :P They had the rest of the UIYG over to decorate cookies and sing Christmas carols which was great fun. Jakey was busy studying so he didn't come... I stopped by on my way home to bug him. Lots of things are different since I graduated, but one thing never changes- the smell of the Saltshaker. :)

I didn't get home until midnight. Wednesday was a sleepy day. Totally worth it though.

Yesterday was my birthday. I'm officially 25 and old now. *grin* Or something. When I got to work I found approximately 300 paperback books covering my desk, and balloons and streamers. My coworkers borrowed them from the bookshelves in the cafeteria (people bring all kinds of books they don't want any more and leave them for anyone to read)... so then we sorted them all by genre. It was interesting to note what science people read- half were sci-fi/fantasy (lots of TOR novels) and half were harlequin romance and chick lit (aka bodice rippers). Only three westerns, a handful of suspense/thrillers, and few non-fiction books.

When I got home from work, Bob had gotten me flowers and beautifully wrapped presents. He's amazing. :D And I was maybe so excited about getting Donkey Kong and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that I forgot that I had bought cream on my way home and left it in the bag on the floor... and we went to Mom and Dad's for supper. oops. It's ultra pasteurized right??

Mom made steak and mushrooms and cake. It was great. I rescued the rest of my tree ornaments and looked at all their Christmas cards. And then Shelly dressed up like a Russian.

Bob and I both have work Christmas potlucks today, so I spent the rest of the evening making party potatoes and Bob made jello. Woot. And cupcakes because I forgot to take doughnuts to work for my birthday. (I thought that was over after grade school...) I even made buttercream frosting- so yummy.

It's kind of crazy to think how much has changed since last year. I love birthdays for looking back and remembering. Blessings.

Here we come a caroling...

So we were busy again last weekend. Hooray for December! :)

We went to the H.S. Madrigal Dinner last Thursday; Matt was in it. I was quite impressed... the food was good, the music was good, and the company was excellent. :) I always used to go to Morton's to see Katie, and since Tremont is waaay smaller I wasn't sure how it would compare.

I was pretty excited to go caroling on Friday. We were in a pretty small group, we all fit in one big van, but we sounded good. And the people we sang for were very appreciative and teary eyed. :) I always forget to eat something before we leave so I was starving by the time we got back to the fellowship hall. (and they don't serve sloppy joe's! happy day! sorry to all of the very hardworking w-ton food committee, I just don't like them, especially after Christmas caroling.)

Saturday I worked very hard all day to get ready for having Gab and Brian over for supper. Or something. :) I went simple and low stress and made chili. It was good to hang out with them... much interesting hypothetical conversation, nintendo, and scrabble.

My family was in church for the wedding on Sunday, along with half of the w-ton church. It was good to see everybody and eat cake.

Two days until my birthday... woot.

Blessings.

Christmas time is here...

Such a busy, Christmasy weekend!

We got a tree on Saturday. It's pretty, but somehow it looks a lot bigger in our house than it did on the lot. :) Now I just need to get my ornaments from home so it won't look so bare!

I made spritz and we frosted gingerbread and sugar cookies. I think I made way too many of everything, but they're just sooo good. :)

Shelly called me last night and read me "Davey and the First Christmas," which is pretty much the best! I don't have any Christmas books... it's very sad. I'll just have to go hang out at home sometime and read Davey, and the Grinch, and the Night Before Christmas.

Blessings.

sugar and spice

Our house smelled good last night.

I made chicken tikka masala for supper.... garlic, turmeric, cumin, coriander, garam masala.... heavenly.

Then I made springerli.... much sugar and the wonderful aroma of anise...

Blessings.

Thanksgiving

I love long weekends. :) Even when they're busy.

I also love being a government employee and getting off two hours early on Wednesday by executive decree. :)

We spent Thanksgiving with some of my family at the farm... it was a small group, but quite hilarious at times. And Grandma and Pearline did most of the cooking so the food was great, of course. We were there pretty late because I had to wait for Shelly to get home from work so we could sing thanksgiving songs... and Bob and Jakey were playing Age of Empires...

So I slept in Friday. And was kind of a bum. I did get the house cleaned though. We went to the Beutel thanksgiving for supper- more good food and singing. :) And I didn't have to bring any leftover jello home. woot woot.

Sharon, Rustin and Grace were here so we had Christmas with them on Saturday. I liked Grace's toys a lot... :P We had some really good kabobs for supper, and stayed up really late again. I was having a hard time staying awake in church on Sunday.

Tomorrow is December 1st.... which means it's time to start decorating for Christmas. I'm excited. It also means there are only 17 days until my birthday.

Blessings.

Things for which I am thankful:

Bob

family

good friends

weddings at which I get to see good friends (nic and amanda's was great)

apple pie

sunshine

church

cake

down comforters

spices

my job

Jesus

dr. pepper

flowers

Things that make me smile

and rotating potluck. :D

Blessings.

once upon a midnight dreary...

... name that poem...

So I'm ready for some sunshine again! I don't like wet very much. It's a good thing I don't live in Oregon or a rain forest or something. Damp and dreariness does nothing for my mood... it could have had something to do with reading Wuthering Heights also.... but getting Jakey's Christmas present in the mail yesterday didn't even really help. (It's awesome. I'm excited. He's pretty much the funnest person to find gifts for.) Maybe I can convince Bob that I need to go someplace with green growing things.... ha!

Tonight I have to come up with desert for potluck... I haven't decided what I'm going to make yet. I'll probably just make pie because it's easy and I don't think I'm brave enough to take something I've never made before.

It's going to be a busy few days.... but I'm really excited for Nic and Amanda to get married! It makes me smile a lot. :D

Blessings.

happenings

So I'm pretty done with Christmas shopping. Yay! It helps that I had last Wednesday off for veteran's day and spent the whole day shopping... :)

Bob went to Nic's bachelor supper Friday so I invited myself to supper with Mom and Dad. And finally got some papers signed to switch an account to my name.... which we really should have done when I turned 18 or something, because it's twice as complicated since my name changed and I'm adding Bob. Plus, it was necessary to drive my car through a field of cornstalks at least once this year.... I don't think I got any stuck underneath. :)

We went to walmart the other night to fill shoe boxes.... the toy selection stinks. No little dolls, or stuffed animals, or much of anything that would fit. There was plenty of uber violent stuff... It was still fun though and it was hard to fit it all in the boxes, so I'm sure they'll be happy.

Grandma and Grandpa and Pearl and Kary came for supper tonight. I cleaned extra good. And used my china for the first time. And was a little worried that my food would taste bad.... but it was ok.... they did say it was "different" though. Haha. I think they were a little surprised at how different our house looks now, they all came and helped when we were cleaning and painting, and how livable it really is. :P Good times.

I'm not excited to go to work tomorrow.... *sigh* hooray for Mondays...

Blessings.

Indian Summer

I love it. :D

Except those awful lady bug things also love the warm weather. And a random wasp that was flying around our back porch.

There's a lot of pork in our freezer.... it's amazing. :)

I helped out at the Haitian linens open house last Friday and didn't buy any Christmas presents.... buying decorating stuff for other people is hard, so I just don't. I did get some pretty Christmas things for me. :D

We raked leaves again on Saturday- so much easier with dry leaves! And I maybe jumped off the truck into the large community leaf pile. It was awesome.

I don't like the time change. (Although it is waaay easier to get out of bed when the sun is already up.) Last night I was attempting to grill in the dark by lantern light; not very easy, and I burned my knuckle on the lid. My Wyss Farms, Inc. pork chops still ended up tasting pretty good. :)

Blessings.

trick or treat

happy reformation day... a little bit late. :)

I spent the end of last week going to showers... woot... two in a row, Nic, you owe me. :P Or something.

Halloween was fun. We did not dress up; I kind of doubt I could get Bob to anyway. It was the first time I've ever lived in town (and not in a college neighborhood) so it was the first time I've ever had trick or treaters. My favorite costumes were the three little boys dressed up as a hot dog and ketchup and mustard.... and the bee keeper with two bees... and the little girl who told me "I'm a banana!" when I said she had a cool costume.

We were going to have people for supper that night, but they were unexpectedly and unavoidably detained... mur... so sad. So they didn't end up coming. I have a lot of leftover pumpkin bars, which is bad, because now I will eat them. :)

Blessings

Autumn

It's been busy again...

Last weekend was full. Sprout had some champaign girls over and I got to hang out with them on Friday. Fun times chilling and playing games.

It was also Kendra's baptism... most of my cousins were here. We stayed up late with them Saturday night. Much telling of Jakey's "email story" and funny conversations. We were talking about how 'homemade' apple pie isn't Pillsbury pie crust and apple pie filling- "what does that say about your home life?," "Yeah, do you live in Walmart?" *grin*

Tuesday we went to Grandpa and Grandma Beutel's for supper. It was fun and we got to look at old pictures, which I love.

We have a lot of leaves in our yard that we need to rake sometime. My flowers are dying...I like spring a lot better than fall. But- I bought a bunch of bulbs the other day, so hopefully I'll have flowers sooner next spring!

Blessings.

excitement

So far this week the most exciting thing that's happened is that there's half a pig at the locker with my name on it. Yes, I realize how pathetic that is. :) I'm just excited to see familiar looking packages in my freezer.... I don't know what to do with all these newfangled store bought cuts of meat. (ok, not really. but I am excited for real, thick bacon!) :)

Hopefully I can spend less time in front of the meat case trying to decide what to get...

I miss Lindy's. But I don't really miss being a cashier- the other day I stopped at the grocery store for two things and went to the 15 items or less express lane. I was behind an older lady and a very patient guy. It would have been faster to get in the line behind the very full cart. Seriously, the lady in front of me spent close to 10 min trying to convince the cashier that her coupon for ice cream would work on any frozen item and that the cocoa she had was the brand that was on sale.... which she didn't want if it wasn't. She saved a total of 78 cents. Frugality and thrift are great; but, I hope we are never so poor that I'm worried about 78 cents.

Blessings.

on being a wimp

So last Friday night we'd been planning on going camping with Dale and Meg and some of Bob's second cousins.... but then it was cold and rainy all last week, and the forecast for Friday night and Saturday was the same. So we decided not to go. Instead, we took all of our camping food to Dale and Meg's and had supper there and played games inside where it was warm. And enjoyed intelligent conversation on a variety of topics, which I love. And then I don't think it rained much Friday night and it was beautiful Saturday... *sigh* o well. Maybe next year. :)

Rhonda got married on Sunday. It was good to see her and her veil with little hearts all over it. So very Rhonda. And we got to see a few other fun people.... hooray for weddings.

Blessings.

long weekend

Hooray for celebrating long dead explorers who didn't really discover anything! Kind of like Nobel peace prizes....

I'm not complaining about having a day off though- it was great!

We went to sing at Timber Ridge Friday night, it was interesting as always!

Saturday afternoon I went home for a few hours... it was necessary to see the new shed on Matt's farm layout and shoot Jakey's new gun that he bought quick before our revered president changes gun control laws. It's an AR-15. In mossy oak. We were carrying it out of the house just as the appliance repairman showed up. um... no worries, you'll be perfectly safe working here, we just have a semi-automatic weapon.... haha. Then Fred and boys drove up- their eyes were as big as saucers- so funny.

I went to my first and the "coldest ever" pork chop fry. woot woot. It was fun, although I think they're breaking truth in advertising laws since the pork chops are grilled, not fried. There's a big difference. :)

Sunday we went to Derek and Leanne's for supper and we got to play Lincoln logs with Wesley and Lexi. Good times.

Poor Bob had to get up and go to work on Monday... and I went shopping. I met mom in Peoria and we went to Olive garden for lunch. I mostly got wedding and shower gifts, which are not my favorite things to shop for. I can never find the exact thing they registered for, or they don't have it in stock so I spend forever looking for something that isn't there. *sigh* O well.

and for randomness- I love our down comforter. It's great. Pretty sure that who ever invented the feather bed/ feather comforter should have gotten a medal. There was some snickering when we got it at our church shower.... about how we 'won't need that! nudge nudge smirk'.... to which I rolled my eyes. You try living with old drafty windows and radiator heat and just a bedspread. It's cold. That and the ridiculous, 'you'll really only need a twin bed' comment... seriously, so not true. anyway. That's my list of dumb things you can say to newlyweds...... *grin*

Blessings.

random acts of poetry...

Autumn Fires
Robert Louis Stevenson

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

garage sale madness

so we had a super busy week last week- something every night, and a busy weekend. I can only take so much social... I'm being very anti-social this week. :D It was a good week though, we went to potluck, rotating potluck (so fun!), a wiener roast, and out to eat with Bob's family.

Saturday was town wide garage sale day. I went to a few in the morning, but I don't really need anything so all I found was a milk glass vase. At about 11 I remembered that we were going to put our extra lawnmower (that needs fixing) on the curb with a free sign.... so I did that and then went to a few more garage sales. It was gone 45 minutes later. :D I had some stuff on the garage sale at Meg's so I spent the afternoon there watching the parade... haha. Between the interesting people and the neighbors cat, it was quite entertaining. The best part was that I only had to bring 3 things back home. woot woot.

Have I mentioned that I really like where we live?? We're about a block from the elevator and they have the grain dryers on. I love that sound...it makes me happy. :) I'm not a huge fan of fall... but I like harvest. *sigh* I'm so not looking forward to the cold!

Blessings.

my precious

Last Monday I said goodbye to my trumpet... it had been sitting in my closet since high school. It was a Bach Stradivarious, a professional model silver trumpet. So pretty. So fun to play. Such a waste since I rarely got it out to play it.

So I sold it to a guy from Springfield. He plays in their municipal band and he is a U of I grad; so I'm sure he'll give it a good home and take good care of my precious....

It was still kind of a sad moment. Yes, I know I'm pathetic! :P

anyway. Blessings.

wilderness adventure

So we spent the weekend outside... it was great. I haven't been camping in ages, and I was a little bit excited to go. "Giddy," according to Bob. Probably the most excited I've been about something since our wedding...

We left after work Friday (and after Mike left), stopped to borrow some stuff from Mom and Dad, and so it was kind of dark when we got there. Really dark. So there are no pictures of us setting up our tent in the dark, just of my full car. We didn't eat supper until almost 10.



This is our tent in the daylight. It was free, which we love. It has all sorts of nifty features- like a nice zippered 'electrical port' for all of your extension cord needs, interior pockets, door mat, state of the art ventilation system (um... it's a tent?), and a random half circle window near the floor that we couldn't decide if it was for ventilation or for pets. And it's really big.



This is me frying eggs for breakfast. I look like I didn't get a good nights sleep... maybe it was the hard ground... or maybe because I forgot to pack pillows. Um... oops.... :) I also forgot mayonnaise. And tinfoil. And hot dog sticks. Pretty much I'm a failure of a camper. :P



Hooray for coolers full of ice.... very full of ice... probably more ice than necessary, but I bought a big bag and I didn't want to waste it. :)



Moraine view isn't a big park, they only had a few trails, but it was fun to explore. It was beautiful out- perfect for hiking.



Somewhere between trails Jakey called to tell us he started repenting. It was a good weekend.



Then we found the park boundary. Note the hayfield and the windmills. We were afraid that if we went much further we would get lost in the wilderness, so we turned around and went back.



Lots of mushrooms growing in the woods.


Fairy dance floor....



This is the view from our campsite, we had a spot right by the lake.



Relaxing after a long hard day of hiking. *grin* And making sure the fire didn't go out.



The lake was pretty.



I look like I need a shower... o wait, I did....



And then we had to come home. We were packed up before the rain, thankfully.

My car still smells like woodsmoke and camping. I love it.

Blessings.

guests

so I haven't been a very on the ball blogger lately...

Rustin and Sharon and Grace were here last weekend so we got to spend some time with them. Abby was in town for the wedding last Sunday so she spent the night with us. She gets the dubious honor of being our first overnight guest. And the first person to sleep on our couch bed... haha... she said it wasn't too bad. :P

I spent the week getting ready to go camping.

Friday Mike and co. stopped at our house to 'freshen up' on their way from Kansas to a wedding. It was good to see him again... especially since he told us he would come visit this summer and he never did... *cough* loser *cough*.

And then we went camping. I have pictures... I'll get to it eventually. :)

Tonight I'm going to hang out with Amy and try and sell my trumpet. woot.
Blessings.

lost and found

I was looking for my pink highlighter last night. I didn't find it.

I did, however, find the two veils and head covering that have been missing since the wedding.

They were in the pocket of my bible cover....

there was great rejoicing.


and now I have enough veils for 2 months of Sundays. woot.

happenings of late

Three day weekends are great… and so sad when they are past… :)

My phone rang 13 times on Friday. Some guy was looking for “Adam” all day. I’ve never heard of Adam. The first two times I answered it and told him it was the wrong number. But he kept calling… and I ignored it. I kept expecting somebody to call and say they were Adam (to ask if anyone had called for him), or for somebody I knew to fess up that it was them. He called at least once an hour and I was getting so annoyed. You’d think he would figure it out after I talked to him twice, or after he listened to my voicemail message. He was still calling after work… one time I answered and asked who was calling and said again that I’d never heard of Adam. Then I answered, “Hello, Pizza Hut.” He still asked if Adam was there. The next time I answered, “Hello, State Police.” Yeah… he still wanted to know where Adam was. I was going to make Bob talk to him, but he finally stopped calling.

Caleb and Bethany came over for supper on Saturday. I didn’t burn anything, thankfully. Good times playing strategy games… o wait, I’m terrible at strategy. *grin*

We spent most of Sunday in Washington… and playing with all the new toys they have at home now that I’m gone. :P They just got a four-wheeler “for the farm” and we had to try it out. And Jake and Bob played Age of Empires until the wee hours of the morning… ok, maybe not quite, but it was late. :)

I went shopping on Monday while Bob and some guys played a new board game he just got… it looks super complicated, hopefully it will be easier to learn now that they’ve played it once. We went to a cookout with the Beutels for supper. Katy and I went wading in the creek with Max and Bryce; I got all wet which was great. The little boys were a little more hesitant, and Max was really nervous after he tripped and almost went under… so funny to watch.

Otherwise… nothing much going on.
Blessings.

tomatoes

It's been pretty quiet here.... which I love.

I made 12 pints of tomato sauce over the weekend. Yay. My freezer is getting more full... we'll see if there's a correlation in the money we spend on groceries.

What we really need though is some fresh bacon. And pork chops. And ham. *cough* dad. *cough*

I'm actually going to work for five whole days this week- yikes. It's been awhile since that's happened, thanks to mono and vacation and jury duty. Woot. And next Monday is labor day... hooray for short weeks! I'm kind of a fan of days off. :P

Blessings.