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

Reasons why I go home a lot

1. So my brothers don't starve.
2. So my brothers don't leave the house with buttons missing, and to tie their ties.
3. So that I can work on my multi-tasking skills. ( Keeping the tortellini from boiling over while setting the table, sewing on a button, listening to the radio and talking to my brother because "I need to be there at 6:30 and I want to eat at 6 so you better make something soon and I don't want stew again"...)

I got to work at Lindy's. :)

I watched Phantom of the Opera with Amy.

And I got to go to Audrey's baptism in Congerville.

Pumpkins

The other night 711 hosted pumpkin carving for the kids from Champaign Church. We had 5 0r 6 kids come and plenty of pumpkins, so I actually got to carve one! I haven't carved a pumpkin in years! It was so much fun helping the kids- they were so cute.

I forgot how nasty the inside of a pumpkin feels- all cold and slimy. I wasn't feeling very creative so I carved a "pretty" face in mine, Katrina made the Chief, and Caleb carved M.O.B.* into one that he gave to 709. (This is NOT our house name! And neither is The Frying Pan!** Ok, so we need some help on a good house name.) It was pretty funny to hear Katrina explaining what M.O.B. meant to a bunch of grade school kids.

I got a great picture of the lit pumpkins lined up on the porch steps- unfortunately it is still in my camera. Someday I'll have to switch to digital, but I just like film so much better.

The leaves on campus are beautiful.

Last night when we were singing at the home, I overheard one of the ladies in the alzheimer's wing say, "it's just like shaking hands with Jesus!" as we were talking to them.

I get to work at Lindy's on Saturday! :)

* 1 Corinthians 7:9
** Leviticus 7:9

we turned the heat on

Hallelujah!

weekend

I went home this weekend.
It was fun.
I didn't go to Morton, and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. :)
I baked an apple pie.
I got to watch my little brother run....and tear through the woods at Eureka Lake to catch the beginning, middle, and end of the race.
I studied for P-chem.
It was altogether uneventful and wonderful.

Singing in the Rain...

There are few things so miserable as walking all the way to the engineering campus in the rain...

Until I stopped to think about it and I realized that there is one thing far worse: tent camping in the Boundary Waters in the rain.
So I stopped being miserable and started being thankful. I am thankful for my umbrella. I am thankful for my cozy U of I hoodie. I am thankful for my not-so-warm, but dry house. I am thankful for my down comforter. I am thankful for Cocoa. I am thankful for how quiet the rain makes me feel.

A Boundary Waters sunset:


My brother brought me his pictures from our family vacation when he was here for CW. It was our second time as a family to go canoeing in the BWCA and my third time.
I went with some Eureka girls the summer before my senior year.

The first time I went with my family I was a junior and we went for 6 days. It rained every single day. I was cold and wet and miserable the whole time. And it was still one of the best trips I've ever been on.
This summer we went for 6 days, and it was beautiful for 6 days.
Heading out:

Mom and Dad cooking


Matt and Jake


The john :) And yes, those are wild raspberries.

The canoe Matt and I broke...and bought *

Moonrise

I can't wait to go back!

.....I'm Happy again!


* It was all Matt's fault!! :) He was in back, so therefore responsible.

Apple River Pictures

O come to the church in the wildwood....

















Washington girls.....

1 Old Friend+ 5 Great Speakers+ 30 Girls= An Excellent Weekend

This was the first College weekend I've ever been to. I know its crazy, but I really haven't been around that long, and I skipped out for something when ICC hosted. I don't remember what- I'm sure it was important though. :)
Dorothy was here on Friday! It was wonderful to see her again. We've been friends since we started high school together- forever ago! I felt kind of bad cause she ended up helping us U of I people get ready for college weekend most of the time she was here.
Saturday was a blessing. So much of what was said was what I needed to hear. It was so good to hear Ron again, I haven't been in Washington for such a long time. And Ted Witzig's talk was the part of the women's seminar that I had to miss- I wanted to crawl under the bench a few times during it.
My brother came! It was soo good to see him here in Champaign. I can't wait til next year when he'll be down here all the time. I kind of almost wanted to smack him for being such a doers and waiting so long that we didn't get to be in the Washington YG together. He spent the night at 711, it was such a great feeling to run over there and yell his name (I never go in there without announcing my presence- I'm afraid to) cause I needed something from him. Abby came too, it's so great to have cousins in the young group. To bad Scott and Ned were on vacation. :)
We never got an official count of the number of girls in our house Saturday night. It was some where between 25 and 30, probably closer to 30. It was crazy but good! Everything went so smoothly, thanks to Gab's organizing, and Katrina's blankets and food. Everyone who needed a shower got a hot shower, and we were all on time for church Sunday morning! We even beat some of the guys! Gab and I did end up going to Walmart at 1 am for orange juice and plastic cups (In our pj's again), but that was fun! [sorry Anna, but its 24 hrs and everything else was closed] My Grandmothers will be so proud!
Thanks to all the girls that stayed with us, for giving us the chance to be hospitable! It is such a blessing for us to give, and to let you share in a part of our lives. Sorry the house was cold...it's colder inside than outside again today. :)
Sunday after cleanup I crashed. And today I skipped computer science to sleep. My cold is a little bit better now, and it's a beautiful day!

~Romans 12:13~

Cold

It's freezing at our house.

I caught a cold.

My head feels like it is floating.

You would think that by now I would know not to take meds.

They just make me dizzy.

But it was a great weekend!

I am going to make more cocoa.

Cookies

Since we are having people over to 709 Friday evening, and in honor of college weekend, I decided to bake cookies yesterday. One problem: I left all my recipes at home. So I called home and talked to my sister. Sometimes I wonder if we are really related.

Me: I need my Choc chip cookie recipe
Shelly: Ok
Me: You know where mom keeps all her recipe cards?
Shelly: Where?
Me: By the microwave....right side.
Shelly: O yeah!
Me: It's under cookies
Shelly: I can't find it
Me: It's pink!
Shelly: O that one!
Me: Read it too me
Shelly: Ok, 5 cups flour, etc.... Vanilla wait I can't read the amount it's smudged
Me: Turn it over and see if its on the other side, its on the bottom by the cooking times
Shelly: There's another side?
Me: Um...yeah I just want the ingredient list.
Shelly: Oh, ok do you need the cooking times?
Me: No I don't use them.
Shelly: I think it says two table- I mean teaspoons.
Me: Ok then, bye

I love baking, the smooth feel of the creamed sugar, egg, and butter. The lightness when you first start folding the flour in. Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. I am not used to baking here though! We have a gas oven/stove and the dial is so old you can't read the temperatures. And no timer. Which doesn't really matter that much cause I bake by feel anyway. We also don't have a hand mixer- I even asked at 711 and they don't have one either! There is only one cookie sheet in our house...so I was also using a jelly roll pan and a 9x13 cake pan. They turned out wonderful anyway!

It was probably the first time in my life that I've baked something without my Dad coming in and calling me Susie (As in "Susie Homemaker"). Or reciting his favorite quote, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." I would always just roll my eyes.

The fire alarm went off in Noyes Lab today in the middle of P-Chem. It was great! We got a 20 min break while the fire trucks came, and our Professor bought us Krispy Cremes. (Some club was selling them) I also met two girls in my class, a wonderful thing because I didn't know anybody before!

Dorothy's coming in a few hours!

Stuff

I have had a very unstressfull week, which is wonderful because College weekend is coming up! I'm so excited. It's going to be a great time! Although I'm not sure where we are going to put people- I love wood floors, but I don't particularly want to sleep on one!

The annual U of I band day is also this Saturday, and I think Dorothy might be coming to visit Friday, and then go watch Eureka perform Saturday morning. :) I won't be able to watch the marching Illini though, which is a total bummer.

So, I almost forgot another birthday. Jer turned 21 today! So us 709 girls got him some...... fruit. And some contraband that I don't know about because I'm underage. And his parents were there. It was hilarious. Gab was freaking out about what they would think. Sometimes I wonder why people thought she would be a bad influence on me- I think its the other way round!

This just makes me sick

http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=11157

On a more positive note, I totally recommend reading World Magazine- its always interesting and well grounded. One of their regular columnists, Andree Seu is a personal favorite of mine.

Kansas II

I think I just set a personal record for number of trips to Kansas City in a six month period. This weekend was my third in about 3 months. I'm so glad I went. It was good to see my cousins again, and actually spend time with them for a change. So a few brief highlights cause I'm to lazy to write it all out:

• driving as fast as I have ever in my life to get to Springfield, and pulling into the turn lane right behind Luke and Co.*
• Hearing about all the crazy things guys do while driving their cars way too fast
• Imagining a mile long line of sled dogs (guys are weird- and fidgety when they are confined for too long)
• Live bass in stereo
• Refilling Luke's cup with equal parts Lemonade, Hi-C, Powerade, topped off with an inch of diet coke**
• Having my estimation of Luke go up about 110% for not acknowledging our level of immaturity
  
• Seeing how much Cailer has changed in a month!
• Hanging out with Neal
• Going shopping and out to lunch with Aunt Karen
• Kansas City Church
• Kansas People
• The late night Rook game Scott and I almost won- o wait, it isn't over yet!
• Krispy Cremes, brownies, and soup
• Going to McDonald's twice
  
• Not reading the CD labels
• Spending approximately 13 hrs in the middle of the backseat
• Getting 3 calls to make sure I got to Champaign safely
  

Good times. Thanks guys, for putting up with me!

*Cody, Warren, and Ash
**it was all Cody...ok maybe not :)

Roomies

Some people hang out all the time with their roomies.

Some people study with their roomies.

Some people have heart to heart talks with their roomies.

Gab and I sit on our beds 8 feet from each other and talk on instant messenger.

mp1.m

I finally finished my first ever computer program!

(...also my second to last computer program...)

No more trekking to the DCL twice a day!

No more freezing in the Linux lab!

At least for a few more weeks......

Apple River

Washington Young group has a tradition, started back in the "glory days," of going to Apple River State park every year. My parents have pictures of the trails, tower rock, the river and the little church where we hold services.

It is also tradition to stop at Tanner's on the way there for caramel apples and cider. And of course to check out the petting zoo, and the crazy mirrors, and just act like a little kid again. We drove through some cute little towns with the coolest old houses. There was one I absolutely loved, and if I ever get a chance I'm buying a house just like it.

We had two beautiful days- I was so glad it wasn't cold. The leaves are just starting to turn up north, and it was totally gorgeous.

Jan's mom and some of the ladies from her church made us supper on Saturday night in this cool old Lutheran church. It had an awesome copper ceiling, the singing sounded great!

Sunday we had church in an old white church back in the hills. It was so pretty, the steeple framed by the trees, and the blue sky. It was so peaceful. When we prayed, it was so quiet and still. We read from Psalm 37 in the morning- very encouraging.

Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.

For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

I got back to Champaign Sunday night/ Monday morning- the only drawback to the weekend. :) I'm so glad I have the Washington y.g. I love spending time together with them all. Fellowship is truly a wonderful thing.

If you want to see pictures, Luke has some on his site. I'm not technologically advanced enough for a digital camera yet. :)

Um...Yeah

My roommate is crawling around on the floor looking for nail clippings.

Something about her old apartment.... I didn't ask.

In which I wax longwinded...

I miss Lindy's. I love that place. I miss my bosses, the checkers, the deli boys, the Lindsley's, the guys in the back, seeing Lindy in the morning, the customers, everything.
I love walking in the back door, running into Jim and Bob (the owners), sliding my time card, and just being privy to the total mess and chaos that is the backroom. It always amazes me how awesome the front looks, compared to the back.

I was afraid I would forget how to check since it's been two months since I quit, but I remembered pretty quickly. I still remember most of the numbers for the different kinds of produce. (Ask me! Although it's kind of pathetic how many I know.) My fingers just typed them in automatically. I got to work with some "old people," who were there when I still worked there. I miss Collin's stories, and Laura's books. I miss looking across the store to check the clock in the Deli, and seeing Ryan and Kyle waving like idiots until I waved back.

I miss how customers would tell me anything. Even if I didn't want to know it. :) About their days, their jobs, their dogs, their children, and their grandchildren. The scores of the Illini games. And the score to every Washington High School game.

Saturday, a little old lady came through and bought two frozen pies. The first thing she said to me was, "Hon, if you ever get married you need to buy this brand of pie, because they are soo good your husband will think you are the best cook ever!" It was so cute, and I didn't have the heart to tell her I like my own pie better than frozen pie.

And all the men that came in. Invariably they were pretty clueless, but they were all very nice- a lot less picky than some of the women. :) And they all tried to be so macho and wouldn't let anybody carry their groceries for them. One of the older men would always tell me "maybe next year" when I asked if he would like some help.

I loved all the cute little kids that came in. The little boy on Saturday who bought marshmallows, chocolate and fruit snacks, and was bouncing off the walls and telling everybody about the wiener roast he was having that night. The little girl in red cowboy boots that liked my skirt. The boy that randomly asked me when my birthday was, only to find out ours are about a week apart. Sarah, who is 5 who knows all of the checkers on a first name basis.

Most of all, I loved the chance it gave me to be a witness. Most of the girls and guys I worked with went to church very rarely. They were too busy with High school and having fun to really give anything spiritual a thought. I was different. They asked me questions about a lot of stuff. Although they never did understand why I didn't party on the weekends. :) And if I had a dollar for every customer who asked me "So where do you live?" meaning, where do you go to church, I would be rich.
I love how I really got to know the community. Jerry, the owner of Katy's Cafe came in every night around closing time. Brian Bell barbequed every Saturday, Mrs. Kimpling came in for fruit dip.

Well.

I miss my job. :)

So anyway, this is really long! I also went to the women's seminar in Washington on Saturday, which was a blessing. It was a good weekend, a good start to a crazy week.

One thing I dont' miss is being called "Hon" by everyone over 30. Or at all by anyone. Drives me crazy. :)

Lindy's and Things

Fall is crazy at our house. Between harvest, young group, cross country meets, band competitions, and all the other random stuff we do, it's busy! So this weekend I'm going home, again, to watch my little brother march in the homecoming parade, go to a wiener roast, go to a women’s seminar at church, work at Lindy's, and go to Jake’s and Clayton’s birthday party.

I'm so excited to go back to Lindy's! I miss my job so much sometimes. I always go buy food there when I'm home and see all the fun Lindy's people. So I jumped at the chance to work Homecoming weekend- cause I guess all the girls are going to the dance. :) Although, I'm sure that after an 8 hour shift on Saturday I won't miss it quite so much.

Today is Clayton's 12th birthday. Somehow I have the dubious distinction of being his favorite cousin, so I thought I would try to live up to it and I called him this morning out of the blue. It was fun! He told me all about the party he is having and who was coming- it was so cute.

So that’s what I’m doing this weekend, instead of studying. :)

Why would anyone go anywhere else?

I knew there was a reason I wanted to come to U of I. Check out the Tribune Story about my Physical Chemistry Professor, Todd Martinez.

By the way, P-Chem is my favorite class again. :)

Kansas

Weekends are the best! Friday night my family made apple cider- and its good stuff this year! Not too sweet, not too sour. Abby stayed over night with me and then Saturday we headed to Kansas.
I love going to Kansas City. It's one of my favorite cities, and if I had to live in a city I would live there over any place else. I got back to Champaign really late last night, and I am still pretty wiped out. So here are some of the highlights of the trip:

• Having Abs along
• Dad pointing out all the farms and farmers he knows between Morton and Springfield
• Dad wishing he was combining because it was a waste of a beautiful day
  
• Looking for the McDonalds that used to be in Pittsfield but isn't any more.
  
• Taking 54 because Dad is sure it's faster
• Arriving at Karen's and walking in to a HUGE discussion on whether Scott needed black pants (which would mean going to walmart) or just wearing khakis.
• Hearing that my grandparents stayed up til 3AM talking to Luke, Alan, and Cody :) I wish I could have been there.
• Uncle Randy :)
• Helping Ned decide what to wear
  
• Scott's Proving
• Singing at Wales'
  
• Wishing I could sing bass
• Staying up late with Brent and Beth
• "Watching" Cailer in church
• Jackstack
  
• Discovering that there are only 3 kinds of retail in Missouri- fast food, fireworks, and adult entertainment
• Farming 101
  
• Hearing my parent's testimonies again
• Seeing how pretty Missouri is when the sun is setting
• Watching the lightning in the distance
• Getting back to Champaign after midnight

It was waaay too short of a trip. :)

Rain and Randomness

It's raining today. Pretty hard. I decided long ago that rainy days should just be universal lazy days. Everyone should stay home and curl up with a good book, and a mug of cocoa.

Thankfully I remembered my umbrella this morning. And I'm cold for the first time since May! Wednesday the high was around 93 in Champaign, and today it's 63! It almost feels like Fall! Although I'm not really looking forward to walking to class when it gets colder. :)




The other day, Heidi and Meg were being creative- come visit and you can see their masterpieces on our living room wall! This was Heidi's idea, but she didn't know how to paint it, so I made it on my laptop.

Gab makes me do crazy things. :) We went to walmart in our pajamas (read: blue capris with whales all over them) at 8:00 last night. And then we saw some church people at the gas station. They didn't see us. It was hillarious.

This weekend I am heading to Kansas for my cousin Scott's baptism. Abby is meeting us in Washington and riding out with me! I'm so excited, it's going to be a great weekend!

Thank God I'm a Country Girl...

Pretty sure I watched them spread manure on the quad last weekend.

Pretty sure it smells like a cattle shed.

Pretty sure there are still girls laying out on the grass.

The Weekend

This weekend went so fast. Fast but fun! Friday night I went to my first ever Purdue Singing. By far the best part was getting to hang out with Abby, and getting to tell her about Matt. :) I don't get to see my cousins nearly often enough! Sarah and I got home at 3:45 saturday morning. I was sooo glad I wasn't driving. My mind just shuts down that late at night. I felt bad for Sarah, cause I couldn't even sustain a conversation. I'm surprised I remembered how to get home. :) My Mom and I went shopping in the afternoon, and then went to testimonies in the evening. It's still a new experience for me, and it's nice not to be nervous! Afterwards I was convinced to go hang out at Heather's, even though I should have gone home to bed. It was a good time, worth the loss of sleep, and I'm glad I got to spend time with some of the old ICC crowd. Heather and Jeremy and I headed back to Champaign right after church today, and now I am putting off doing my P-Chem homework. Even though it's my new favorite class. Sometimes I am such a slacker! :)

There's Joy in the Camp!!

Tonight I got the phone call I've been waiting for.

My little brother Matt started repenting tonight!
Hallelujah!! I am sooo excited!

I have been praying for him a lot lately, he's 19, and over the next two weekends his two closest friends will be getting baptised. I was hoping he would start repenting before then because otherwise he would have had a pretty miserable time. :)

God is GOOD!

And I know this is a bad picture, but I dont' have any of him on my laptop.

Me and My Newspaper

If I have discovered one thing about myself since moving to Champaign, it's that I can't live without a newspaper. I made it about 3 days. Its hard to get news and comics online that aren't buried in ads or are subscriber only. So when Gab and I were out buying books on Green Street, I stopped to talk to a Tribune rep and Gab totally talked me into buying a newspaper subscription. Not that I needed any convincing at all.... Plus I got a free U of I hat. And a whole bunch of random Tribune emblazoned stuff. And now I get to go outside in my pajama's every morning to get the newspaper! Which is kind of ackward now that I have neighbors. :) Ah the joys of moving from the country to town. But I really love my morning newspaper, without it I would have no idea what is going on in the world, and I wouldn't know what to do with myself while I ate breakfast.

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heaven's embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats