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. :)