mmm....Spring

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

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

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

So tired....

Two chapters to go. ick.

How to scare Gab 101

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

Too funny.

O Meatwagon....take me to Mexico

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

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

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

Spring Break

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

Tammy's Here!

*grin*

We had to clean really fast this afternoon.

And we cooked food out of a box.

So much for being AC girls....

O well. Good times.

All's well that ends well!

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

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

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

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

Is it bad to take your hostess snipe hunting??

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sleep

It sounds sooo good right now. :)

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

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

Now I'm going to bed.

Happy Birthday...

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

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

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

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

Stuff

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

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

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

Well anyway, I have nothing else to say.