long weekend

So have I ever mentioned that I love being a federal employee?? I had president's day off, it was great.

Valentine's day was busy... sprout and I went to get her measured for her dress and I picked up invitation books... I had no idea there were so many styles. They even have Cinderella invites that come with pumpkin coach envelope seals. So yeah, that's what I decided on.... ok, maybe not. I'm not a fan of crowded restaurants, so I cooked supper for my fam and Bob. (cheaper, and I get to make all of my favorite weird recipes. Definitely win-win.) He brought me roses... he's pretty amazing...

His family served lunch Sunday so we spent the day in Tremont. Getting up early is good for me, right? :) Good chance to get to know a new church kitchen... haha... in w-ton Drew always used to tell us that we weren't full members until we knew where everything was in the kitchen (and owned a roaster, but yeah, don't need one of those quite yet). We also learned that "Dinosaurs are very slow creatures..." so funny. :)

Yesterday I made a lot of decisions. Go me. It was maybe a little painful. Amber and I met for lunch, which was good, and then talked about flowers, which is fun. I also picked out and wrote invites, picked out veils, and made lists of people. eesh. O well, it has to get done sometime, right?

I did not want to get up this morning...
Blessings.

spring fever

I'm hoping that's all I've got... yesterday I dropped my cereal bowl on the table and it spilled all over the newspaper, floor, and me. And I can't keep my days straight for the life of me. *sigh* O well. :)

So we're mostly registered. yay. Not my favorite thing, but at least it's done. So we're sitting there talking to the BB&B 'bridal consultant' while she was waiting for something to load... she asked Bob, "so how did you propose?" Awkward pause... um.... haha. So we told her we weren't dating, we were just good friends when he asked, and I'm not sure if she totally got it. She kept asking if I was surprised... um... yeah... It was really funny.

I'm excited for the three day weekend! Although I don't think I'll have a whole lot of time to do nothing... o well. :)

so warm

I'm ready for spring. It's been so nice out- I really want to plant flowers or something. I have a whole package of seeds that I ordered sitting on my dresser just waiting... actually, I should start them in my potting shed later this month if I have time.

It was a really good weekend, busy but not stressful. Friday Bob and I met BDY and J-nell at Tobin's for supper. We stopped on the way and picked out a cake... yeah... um... I really, really, really don't understand people that actually care about all this stuff. Cake is cake and it tastes amazing no matter how it's decorated. :D anyway. It was good to spend time with B and J, catch up, get some good advice... good times.

Saturday I learned how to drive stick shift.... yeah, I know, how does a farm girl not already know that, but I never learned. I only killed it a few times. (Once in front of Dan L. Ha!) :) um... and I need a lot more practice before it would be safe for me to drive in town.

We were in Tremont on Sunday and spent some time visiting his grandparents Sunday afternoon... played dodge ball with his little cousins... *grin* I have terrible aim. And I throw like a girl. O well.

So I guess we have to register this week... woot. :P That'll be interesting.
Blessings.

skiing and soreness

So it was a pretty busy weekend... Friday night the yg sorted clothes which is always an experience. People donate some crazy things and you never know what you'll see. Like matt s. in a very large leopard print robe/dress/thing. *grin*

Amy, Elise, Shelly and I left right after that for Madison... well... we were going to leave right after, but of course we left a half hour later than planned. O well, I got to spend more time with Bob. And we still made it to the hotel by 12:30. (we might have gotten a little lost at that point)

Skiing was great! The weather was perfect- low 30's, sunny, not windy, and the snow was good too. It was a really good day... Shelly and I stuck to the easy hills. Ames and Elise tried some harder ones, and Elise came home with a cut from colliding with a snowboarder. We stopped at Culver's on the way home- so good.

I wasn't very sore Sunday until after walking around Jodi's reception for an hour and a half refilling water. And then we stood in line for another hour at Ted's visitation. I was pretty tired, it was a really long day...

Blessings.

life is crazy

For mom! *grin* So far she's done all of the hard work... and made lots of phone calls... and sent lots of emails. Anyway, Bob and I are getting married on April 26. Mom and Shelly and I went over to El Paso last night and got dresses figured out, which is good, and mom has tons of other stuff lined up already. Yeah, she's pretty much amazing.

I'm leaving tonight to go skiing up in Wisconsin with some girls... I haven't packed yet. Nor do I know how to get to our hotel. O well. :)

And I forgot that I should probably provide some kind of a snack tonight at the yg thing. Oops. Guess I'll be stopping at the grocery store on the way home.

One thing I did remember to do- my taxes are done!!! yay!!! I hate doing taxes and they used to reduce me to tears, but since I've discovered TurboTax they only make me slightly annoyed. And it takes half as much time. Which I love.

Blessings.

stuff

• we don't have a date yet, wait for it....
• I don't want to plan a wedding.
• I like being engaged.
• This morning the lady in the next lane was swerving all over traffic... yikes... it wasn't even icy.
• We went and sang for Ted last night, it was... sobering.
• We're going to T-town tonight...
• I'm going skiing Friday night/ Saturday with some girls and I'm excited!

Blessings.

Looking back at the road so far

The journey's left its share of scars

Mostly from leaving the narrow and straight

Looking back it is clear to me

That a man is more than the sum of his deeds

And how You've made good of this mess I've made

Is a profound mystery

Looking back You know You had to bring me through

All that I was so afraid of

Though I questioned the sky, now I see why

Had to walk the rocks to see the mountain view

Looking back I see the lead of love

Looking back I can finally see

How failures bring humility

Brings me to my knees

Helps me see my need for Thee

Looking back You know You had to bring me through
All that I was so afraid of
Though I questioned the sky, now I see why
Had to walk the rocks to see the mountain view
Looking back I see the lead of love

So this is Bob... he's pretty cool... we're both pretty excited.... hopefully eventually there'll be some pictures when we're not both super tired...

It's so cold in Minnesota...

Actually it was warmer than here at home. Such a good weekend. Matt and I met up with Sarah, Kristin, Hannah, Leah, Sydney, Aaron, and Loren after work friday and headed up to Minneapolis. We stopped to pick up Natalie too... haven't seen her in ages, it was great! I caught up on sleep on the way up, but contrary to popular opinion I didn't sleep the whole way up. (I just wasn't taking part in the hospital talk up front) haha. A bunch of Purdue people came too, and it was good to get to know them.

Saturday morning we got to go snow tubing- so much fun. Very fun to watch other people do crazy stunts on their tubes. And dislocate their shoulders.... actually that looked pretty painful, but it was kind of his own fault, as was the cut and bleeding head one of the other guys got jumping in Dill's basement. Which led to Sarah's and my favorite quote of the weekend, "did you see his sweet gash? guess how we got it stopped- we had to tie his hair together!"

During the afternoon I skipped going to the Mall of America and went ice skating instead, which I love. Dewayne and LaRae went to a ton of work on supper- it was a mystery dinner- which was really cool. Then we sang and played games and then I was tired and went to bed. :)

We left Sunday after nursing home singing and driving around lost looking for some shoes... The roads were ok, but they were covered in salt slush. I was driving Hannah's van and it ran out of washer fluid.... and the salt was building up on the windshield so bad we couldn't see out. There were a few terrifying moments until we found a gas station and bought more washer fluid. I let Matt drive after that. We made it home around midnight.

I didn't have to work yesterday so I slept in and then spent the afternoon being amused by my grandparents hanging a curtain rod, and then I met amber for supper. It was a good day.
Blessings.

Snow Days

Today is the second day in a row that I've made it in to work only to find out that they closed the building and I didn't have to be there. Which is great! But kind of annoying that I could have slept in...

O well. Since I was in town already I spent some of my Christmas gift cards. :)

Yesterday Tate and I played king of the snow pile and king of the pile that I hope was just cornstalks. haha... you really never know on the farm. And we had a snowball fight, but wet skin in that cold wind was a little much... so we quit that and went 'exploring.' Fun times. And then I decided I was too cold and went inside. I didn't even try to go out today.

I'm meeting Liz for supper tonight before she leaves to go back to the Philippines. I'm excited!

Blessings.

case of the mondays

I had a pretty good weekend. Spent Saturday evening in princeville and it was really enjoyable. Our house was hot and I couldn't sleep Saturday night- so frustrating, and it wasn't even because of caffeine! I wanted to stop for Dr. Pepper on the way back from p-ville and my passengers wouldn't let me. So I was only half awake all day Sunday. :)

I don't really have anything to blog about...

My boss told me I had to make some New Year's Resolutions, here's what I came up with:
1. Exercise at least 3 times a week.
2. Eat better. (I know, I know, the first two are on everyone's lists)
3. Drink less pop.
4. Use my passport somewhere other than Mexico or Canada.
5. Be more spontaneous.

Blessings.

knots

Last night was night two of comforter making up at church... I skipped the first night to go out to eat with people, so I didn't really have a choice about going the second night. :) It was fun, although I get really tired of tying knots. (the literal one's not the figurative ones) So I ended up quilting with Grandma for a while. I'm not very good, but it's better than mindlessly tying knots for hours. I think they got 25 or so comforters done for Magdalena and Zambia, which is cool.

I'm busy tonight and tomorrow night and I just really want to sit at home and be lazy. *sigh* O well, it's good for me right?

"It is a truth universally acknowledged,

that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." ~Pride and Prejudice

Happy New Year...

I still haven't quite recovered from the old one yet. Ok, not really. I still haven't recovered from last weekend...so tired. I spent Friday evening in Gridley at K's new house with some cool people. Got in some human bowling (my friends are crazy-which I love), played flux, and argued into the wee hours. Argue is actually a pretty fun game. Although, having to argue in favor of mail order brides was, um, interesting. *grin*

Amber and I were going to go to champaign that night... but... since it was 3am-ish we decided to just stay at K's. We still didn't get to sleep until 4:30. Kind of late. O well, totally worth it.

So Saturday morning/ early afternoon Amber, Sarah, Kaleigh and I ended up at hessel house... we played some fun games like scrabble and Kosherland. And started a Jane Austen marathon. Sense and Sensibility, ate supper at Noodles, Pride and Prejudice with a skillet cookie break... so good. And by then it was 2am... I'm getting too old for this. *sigh*

Church was good, BDY and J-nell served lunch. I did not get there early enough to help. I helped with dishes though... We rounded out the weekend with Emma after church. *grin*

Good times. So now it's back to work. And no holidays until MLK Jr. day. *sigh*
Blessings.

Farm girls in the city

My Christmas present to Shelly was a ticket to see the Joffrey Ballet perform the Nutcracker up in Chicago; because she'd never been to a ballet... and because I wanted to go. :D

It was kind of rainy, and I was glad I didn't have to drive up in ice and snow. But then someone left the umbrella in the car... so we were kind of damp all day... since we were walking... in the rain...

We ate lunch at Italian village, which was excellent as always.


This is Shelly making a face because I was taking her picture... and because she was wet because she forgot her umbrella. Check out the skyscrapers and the El in the background. :)


We had some time before the Ballet started so we wandered around Millennium park. In the rain. There were lots of sightseers taking shelter under that bean thing...


Here's Shelly in her second row seat at the ballet. (I'm pretty much the greatest sister...) Second row, right side of the stage. It was fabulous. We could see and hear everything.


Here are two bedraggled farm girls on the way back to the car after the ballet. I was glad it wasn't cold.

Wet streets...

So I wouldn't want to live in the city. It's fun to visit though!

Blessings.

Christmas time is here

We got a garden catalog in the mail yesterday... can it be spring now please? :)

It was a pretty busy weekend. Abby came on wednesday... and the K-berger boys showed up late friday night... and then Austin and Clayton stayed with us on Saturday night... good times.

Vicki's caroling was great. Cold, but lots of fun. And there were lots of cookies. Wendi came which was good because there weren't many yg girls there. I was in a really weird mood by the end of the night so I should not be held responsible for anything I might have said. *grin*

The Wyss Christmas was on Saturday. Everybody was there, so that was cool. It's such a long day though, and I was sooo tired. And I was not in the mood to listen to all the children perform. I did get to escape part of it and went to Lindy's to buy some Dr. Pepper for the masses. (it was necessary) Our power was out that night when we got home... we were all sitting in the living room listening to Ned play amazing piano music in the dark while Dad and the boys were hooking up the generator. He's working on "Un Suspiro" by Franz Liszt, which I love...

Sunday after church we played Clue and I lost badly. I should stick to playing Guess Who? with Cailer. And then of course we all had to get together and eat again. :)

It's snowing again- it looks so pretty in the cemetery across the road with the icy trees and the big snowflakes. One more day and then Christmas! Yay!

Blessings.

blessed

So I've gotten to spend time with good friends twice this week, which I love. :)

Monday evening the girls-I-hung-out-with-in bible-class-plus-heather got together. Erin made some really good lasagna and showed us the cool old house where she lives. It's a lot like 709, only in much better shape. :) We went caroling for some of her neighbors... it was freezing and only one family let us in... haha. Good times, good cookies, and so good to see those girls again!

Wednesday was my birthday... woot woot. It was a fun day. My coworkers decorated my desk with streamers and plastic spiders (apparently that is the only thing I have expressed a strong opinion about. hmm... maybe I should have waxed eloquent about chocolate or something). They aren't scary spiders though, they're multicolored and squishy. :) We all went to Avanti's for lunch then we had cake and ice cream for desert. I might not have gotten much work done...


Wednesday night I invited people to washington and then to our house for cake and ice cream. Kind of a random group, but all really cool people. :) I am blessed with good friends. Abby came and ended up spending the night, which was great. Although I really didn't get to see much of her since I had to get up and go to work this morning.


So Matt said it is lame to throw yourself a birthday party but I don't really care. He wasn't going to do it for me.

So this is the gift I got from "Bro. Damon." I was maybe a little bit embarrassed... (But I must confess I think it's super cool)

And these are some of the people who came... good times.

Vicki's caroling is tomorrow!! yay! and then our Christmas stuff starts on Saturday! Woot.
Blessings.

pictures from babysitting night

Sorry they are all blurry and grainy like every other picture ever taken in a gym...

Watching the skits... the quietest they were all night.

Queen Esther

Basketball

Matt and Troy "supervising"

Limbo!

Mass Chaos

Ellie and Isaac

Baby Sitting Night

Is over for another year. It went really, really well. This year we rented a gym instead of having it at church... and you never know how it will work until it's done... I might have been a little bit stressed about it all. :)

My favorite part of the night was picking up the pizza. Layne came with me, which was fun. The Little Caesar's Pizza is in the Kmart in W-ton, and when we got there they already had our 25 pizzas on a cart/dolly thing ready to go to the car. It made a lot of people's night watching us push all that pizza back through Kmart and out to my car. Pretty much filled the backseat and Layne's lap and now my car smells like peperoni.

We only had 3 left over.

But yeah, the kids had fun and they got to be a lot more crazy in the gym. The gym has a stocked equipment closet that we could use which was awesome. We did bag skits and sang some songs and let them be as wild as they wanted to be as long as they stayed in the gym. I sat out in the hallway a lot guarding the cookies and directing people to the water fountain and bathroom.

Blessings.

assembly line

Last night I lined up four bowls, four recipes, and 5 pounds of butter. Then I went down the line with cookie ingredients.... and made a huge mess.

I didn't realize that we were out of molasses until I was ready to add it to the gingerbread. Dad said, "How can you have mo'lasses if you ain't got no'lasses..." I rolled my eyes and called Mom to bring some home to avert the crisis.

Soo... hopefully everything that needed to go in each batch went in and nothing extra got put in by mistake. We'll find out when we bake them!

I didn't really use all 5 pounds of butter. I made flour footprints all over the kitchen floor. The Schwann's man got to see my 'mother gledhill' apron. *grin*

Babysitting night is in two days and I'm already worried we'll run out of food...

Christmas light twister

Another busy and Christmasy weekend. Friday night the yg sang Christmas carols at WCV. It was interesting because we didn't bring carol books and the HOZ's didn't get brought either. O well, it still sounded pretty good and the old people don't care if you mess up a little bit. :)

Mom and I took a rather roundabout way through Morton to get our Christmas tree on Saturday. It's sooo pretty. When we got it home it seemed to have shrunk a little bit so we set it on some boxes. (for the sake of those with delicate sensibilities we won't mention what those boxes originally contained...) And then we played Christmas light twister trying to get three strands of lights untangled.

Saturday night was the YG Christmas party... they made us mix it up a little bit at supper so conversation was a little stilted, but good. Haha... so what kind of chocolate do you prefer? We were supposed to bring a grab gift labeled with a bible verse that reflected the contents of the package; lots of "ye are the light of the world," flashlights and candles... the best was a verse in Job about smelling bad and the gift was deodorant and mints. I finally played settlers with Wendi-with-an-i afterwards. I lost.

Church caroling was after church on Sunday. The group I was in went to some places in Peoria. One of the little old ladies we visited totally reminded me of Gab in 70 years... *grin* Supper was barbeque sandwiches. Which I hate.... and it's not good after-Christmas-caroling food. I think we should have soup. And hot ham and cheese sandwiches. At least they make real hot chocolate for the occasion! (and no, I do not want to be put on the kitchen committee!)

Blessings.

9 days til my birthday, 17 days til christmas!

musing

At the end of "The Count of Monte Cristo," one of my favorite books of all time, Edmund Dantes says, "...until the day God deigns to reveal the future to man, the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope."



curious what my faithful blog readers think... do you agree with Dumas?



Blessings.