The invite

Was good. Although, now I am extremely tired. :) Friday after work, Kat, Gab, Nic and I headed to Sams to get stuff for the weekend. I was entirely unimpressed with Sam's apple selection. And we couldn't find any lard or pie tins. So....Kat and Gab started setting up at church while Nic and I went to Walmart. I seriously got at least 10 phone calls from church adding to the already long list of things we needed. Pretty sure I barely caught a two liter of Pepsi that was thrown in my direction. Walmart didn't have lard, enough pie tins, or blue and orange napkins. So we went to Target. And Michaels (they carry boas and hats and lots of diy wedding stuff). No luck there....so we ended up at The Party Store. They had napkins, don't carry masks, and have lots of pie tins. :) Jerry's IGA (definitely the best grocery store in the C-U area) had lard. So we finally got back to church at 9ish, and had 12 pies baked by midnight. Josh made French Silk, and Kat and Liz and I worked on the Apple and peach. I thought they turned out well. :) And I got to wear an awesome retro apron. Baking pie makes me happy.

It was rainy on Saturday, so the work projects got rearranged, but it went smoothly. I ended up at Empty Tomb sorting clothes. We had a good group, and we got a lot of stuff done for them. I am, however, tired of folding sheets. The group that made supper did an awesome job! They pretty much started with nothing at 2 and had a full meal ready at 6:30. I was impressed. So during the singing I was out in the kitchen cutting bars and making inappropriate comments... *grin*, good times. We ended up not having a lot of girls stay Saturday night, so we only had 5 guests, including my lil sis, and everybody got a bed! It was kinda nice.

Katrina's mom made breakfast for 40, so we invited all of the boys that stayed in Urbana for Sunday breakfast, the girls in Urbana already had breakfast lined up. :) It was kind of scary....lots of boys I didn't know in our living room. So I did dishes. Church was good. We sang at the Nursing home and left May baskets for the residents. Wayne and Char hosted supper at their house...a good thing, because we ended up having approximately 80 people. We had one pie left over. Our fridge is full of fruit and breakfast. And rhubarb cause my mom sent me some. :) And we have lilacs all over.

And now I am very tired. 3 more days of class. Blessings.

Another reason the 711 boys are the best

They let us borrow their washing machine when ours is broken.
And it doesn't take quarters. *grin*

Today

I woke up in a bad mood...I don't know if I was dreaming, or if it was just because it was wet and nasty out. I dislike walking to school in the rain. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel so damp in class.
But then I got to spend an hour in the chem library doing nothing but read my Bible. And organic was interesting cause I love benzene chemistry.
I don't really have any homework this week, so I got to spend a fairly relaxing afternoon coloring pictures for Gab. (all I gotta say is that Nursing school would be a breeze). :)
Then I went to the Hartley Idea Garden to do my horticulture homework- it was soooo cold, but kinda fun. I can't wait to go back when it has more plants and things. In Hort class today we talked about flower gardening. It was great. I can't wait to go home and plant things. :)
It's Tuesday so we sang at the home and it was wonderful! Compared to last week... It was just really great, its so much different from singing at the Washington and Eureka homes. They seem to appreciate it so much.
Sarah, Kat and I had Bible study at Courier cafe.
I had several extremely random and fun MSN conversations. So I ended up being in a great mood....and it turned out to be such a great day!
And our room looks like a tornado went through.... :)
Blessings.

Am I a Soldier of the Cross

I had such a great weekend! Friday night the U of I young group went to Mike and Joanna's house and hung out at their pond. We played some volleyball, and shot Mike's ancient shotgun. I don't like shotguns, they hurt. Gab and I got a ride in M and J's cousin's very nice truck. And he got totally grilled....poor guy. :) Joanna had lots of good food, and some awesome deserts for us before we went back to Champaign.

We got home kinda late, and we had to get up super early to leave for college weekend. I haven't been up at 6 for a loooong time. :) We didn't have a very big group, and Gab and I were the only girls on the way there. It was a fun carload though, Nic, Mike, Matt, Gab and I. College weekend was great, and I can finally say I've been to Bluffton and survived. We only had 13 people to sing, but I guess it sounded ok. Matt didn't tell me it was horrible, and he would have. ;) And yes, I pretty much have to drive to Indiana to see my brother because I'm never home anymore. Saturday night I stayed at some people's house that I don't know their names and they weren't home. It was nice though because I got to go to bed at a decent hour and didn't have to wake up early Sunday morning. Gab and I and Matt and Brian left right after church- Gab slept the whole way home. :)

Sunday evening I went for a long walk with Gab, and we got lost. :) Then we went and played volleyball for a long time and just about every house/apartment was represented. It was a blast! Although I think we all spent more time laughing and falling down in the sand than we did playing. My team lost a lot. I think it had something to do with the fact that I was on the team....but O well. :) It was still fun. It got really cold after the sun set. So then I had to go home and do homework....ick. I was very sleepy today in class; thank goodness school is almost out for the summer.

The U of I invite is this weekend. It's going to be a crazy Thursday and Friday getting ready. :) But I'm excited.

Blessings.

Cooking

So I was cooking supper tonight, well ok, making noodles and chicken, and I went to measure 2 cups of water. Gab looked at me funny and said, "You actually measure the water? I just put some in the pan." To which I replied, "It's not like I check the meniscus!" Gab and Ash both thought it was hilarious for some reason...

What do you call a piano down a mineshaft?

A flat minor!

I love that joke.

Anyways, we went flat A LOT tonight at the nursing home. *sigh*
O well. Good times. :) I like singing at the home...tonight was just not our night.

One of the old ladies told Bob that I don't move much when I sing. I'm not sure what that means.

Blessings.

He is Risen Indeed!

Easter was great. The whole weekend was good. :) The Chinese people that come to our house for bible study were in Washington for Good Friday services. One of them invited me to visit them all in China. Chris even gave me some church candy- too bad it was melted. We had birthday parties for some of my little cousins at Grandma's after church.

Saturday morning was the annual Easter Egg Hunt at our house. Always a good time. Lots of little cousins and dogs. At one point there were 4 canines in our yard, I'm still not sure why everyone thought they had to bring theirs. And Uncle Fred found a snake. I wanted him to kill it, instead they let it go out by the garden....which I am not going to go near anymore this year. Everybody got to argue about our wallpaper choices for the kitchen. I dug around in my rose bushes for a while after everyone left. Two of them are green already! Since I absolutely refused to go to a restaurant for Easter dinner I spent saturday night baking pie (we have fresh rhubarb!!!) and boiling eggs.

Sunday we went to Gridley for supper (which was so much better than some nasty crowded buffet someplace).
Dad: I heard so and so fell and broke.....something.
Mom: A dish?
Me: *laughing hysterically*
Grandma: Did I say something weird?
*Grin* Good times.
And then I got to drive back to Champaign in the wet. Ick. We have violets in our yard. And tulips. :)

We had a four hour meeting about the Champaign invite....and laughed at Gab's nursing home inspection story. Ask her about it- it's hilarious. My mouth is blue. :)
Blessings.

Sunny Days

It has been so nice out! I love spring. I can't wait to go home and see my roses this weekend. Last time I was home 3 of them were greening up already. :)

We cleaned out the fridge for the first time in, oh, ever. Yeah.....it was kind of nasty. We pitched a trashbag full of moldy things that no one would claim. ick.

Amy and Heidi came down to visit last night- I was excited! We took a long walk all around campus. It's so pretty at night, and it was clear and cool. The stars were gorgeous. Then when we got home I somehow ended up with bright red lip prints on my cheek and aromatherapy lotion up my nose. *sigh*

I tried to sit outside and do homework today, but it was too distracting....plus we were getting weird looks because we were in the front yard. O well. :)

So I'm excited to go home for Easter. And I don't have any homework over the weekend for the first time in a while!

And it's starting to thunder. :S I don't like storms.
Blessings.

I want a mandolin

I went to the Nickel Creek concert last night with a bunch of the shaker boys, the newest shaker wife :), Mike, Blake and Sarah. It was incredible! The band that opened was so-so, I was glad when they stopped playing. Nickel Creek played for at least 2 hrs, and then Chris Thile played some more out by their bus for us "groupies." I went home around 12:30 and skipped out on Merry Ann's or wherever the rest of the group ended up going. Crazy kids. :)

This is the wallpaper my mom wants to put in the bathroom.

Some random excerpts from emails I received in the last few weeks:

"Now then. You can make a wonderful peach pie with canned peaches -
just drain them and they taste like fresh. Don't be such a snob! :)"

"That was probably my first run-in with a Double
CheeseBurger with Fries and a Testimony Value meal, but it
was worth much more than the 5 bucks I paid."

"it might be hard to after the reward was used to seduce me
to sing in front of a crowd and possibly make a fool
of myself..... esp. share w/ the seducer"

I'll leave the originators and context of these fine quotes
to your imagination....
Blessings.

It's been a week

A long week. But a good one.

Some stress and more late nights.

Thursday I baked pies. I love pie. Specially apple. They weren't the best pies I've ever made, but under the circumstances they weren't so bad. We don't seem to keep a rolling pin in the house so I had to use a nalgene bottle. :) And I miss my apron.

And then I looked at Mexico pictures with Karen and Gab and Chris, and we stayed up waay too late talking. So I had to get up early to finish my homework and actually drank coffee (ick!) so I didn't sleep in class.

I think I'm getting tan from working in the greenhouse. I love it.

Reasons why I like living next to the 711 boys...

• Steven has power tools (and lets me borrow them)
  
• They open tight jars and bottles
  
• They have airbake cookie sheets
• Chris fixes computers
• Aupps and Scott switched our fridge door
• Michael makes awesome deserts
• They are impressed when you don't scream at the dead squirrel they threw in your room.
  
• They take our garbage to the curb when we forget (pretty much every week)
  
• Brett walks me to class when his bike is broken
• Steven says hi on the quad
• Chris knows everything......

So anyway, I had a wonderful but short weekend in Kansas City. And I was so excited when I got on the bus and saw that Meg and Luke and my brothers came since I was expecting to be the only person between 15 and 35. I got to see a lot of Biloxi pictures, and subjected my family to 2,000+ mexico pictures. :) Good times. I crocheted a lot. And they weren't headcoverings. :) I got to see some of my favorite Kansas people. I missed out on a Rook game. But yeah, it was a great trip and I wasn't very excited for school this morning. :)