O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

no phone, no pool, no pets

So yesterday we didn't have water and our phone is dead. Nothing like being in the dark ages.

They just got the pump fixed, and the telephone company drove in two minutes ago. :)

It's been a busy week! My birthday was good. I went caroling for the ministers that night. Tuesday Mom, Donna, and I went to the W-ton Christmas house walk. It was pretty cool and I got to go in one of the houses that I drool over every time I drive past. It's over 100 years old and decorated very Victorian. I liked it a lot.

Katie had "the girls that used to hang out together in bible class" plus Heather B. over for pizza and good times on Wednesday. They're so fun- I wish I could see them all more often. Thursday Carli and I had our birthday party at Grandma's.

Last night was Vicki's caroling- my favorite caroling ever! We sing for one of her former patients and at the Motherhouse. The Nun's are always so cute. I was standing by Layne and we found it pretty humorous to be singing songs by Martin Luther to catholic nuns...

Scott and Ned showed up late last night after I was asleep. :)
We're going to Gridley today.

Blessings.

sunday school and a lone aztec

Heidi conned me into helping her teach Sunday school this morning. *grin* But it was actually kind of fun. We had no idea what we were doing. Thankfully, it was third grade and we only had 4 kids and they were all well behaved little angels. It only took about 10 minutes to read the story and do the workbook page.... so we played bible trivia for 40 minutes. I discovered that I don't have a very good idea of what third graders know. Eh, O well. :)

My fam went to Sol Azteca in W-ton for supper. It's kind of like Dos, but not as brightly colored and they don't play mariachi music... which is sad. Still, they have really good Mexican food. I'm craving salsa and eggs and tortillas now though.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I have to work. And then my sister has a chorus concert. And I'm going carolling with the YG. Hooray for birthdays close to Christmas. I'm sooo old. I think I should start lying about my age. Hehe.

9 days til Christmas and 15 days til I'm off court supervision!!

o holy night

We had a pretty small crowd at nursing home singing tonight. There were 14ish of us. But, as someone said, we had "enough mediocre singers to not sound bad." It's a good thing old people are hard of hearing. :)

It was actually really enjoyable- I would much rather sing with a smaller group that cares than with 50 or so that are more interested in talking to their neighbor than singing to the residents.

We sang O Holy Night as the last song... I think they just like to hear me screeching in my vain attempts at that high A...

So earlier my sister and her crazy friends were filming this scene for their class project... a WWII wife gets the news that her husband is dead... it was really touching until the part where the "Officer" *cough* Joy H. *cough* said, "the armed forces is sorry for your loss- have a nice day! O wait! That's not right!" Mom and I lost it... as did the other girls... we were all cracking up laughing.

Blessings

2 days til my birthday, 10 days til Christmas, and 16 days til I'm off court supervision!

Springerle

Tonight I made Springerle. They smell soooo good... it's too bad that they end up as "flavored styrofoam" (according to my brothers). O well, I like them. :D And they are fun to make! I have some pretty sweet molds- one from my Grandma, and a bunch were Christmas/birthday gifts. My favorite is my limited edition Lord of the Rings mold. It has two little hobbits gazing into Mordor at the Eye and Mt. Doom. Jakey made it for me a few years ago... I'm still waiting for more molds in the series...

Shelly is doing a movie about WWII for school, so we turned the basement into a circa 1940's kitchen. Last weekend it was an army hospital. It looks cool- we have my grandma's old stove (c. 1950), a whole set of enamel cookware in red and a set in black, a cute floral print apron, and some really fun cherry red no-sew curtains. :D

I really want to go see the nutcracker... but it's too late for this year... and so I think I'm going shopping with Clayton instead. woot.

Its starting to feel like Christmas

It's been a full weekend... and very fun!

We hosted the yg Christmas party at our house on Friday, and then the yg babysat on Saturday night. The Christmas party was great fun even though our house was sooo full and hot. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The "Littlest Elf" was hilarious.... I didn't get any pictures though. And the gift exchange was pretty good... doing a white elephant exchange removes all of the awkward "O, this is really cute (with a very fake smile)." We have some very creative people and they brought some crazy stuff. Some of it stayed at our house...

Babysitting wasn't bad. I was in charge of the kitchen so I didn't have to deal with keeping 30 out-of-control kidlets occupied. They didn't even make too much of a mess at supper.


Dad in his tux and Shelly
Somehow we fed 40 people in our living room and dining room
Somebody brought some old seed corn caps

Ty got a tiara
Tony got a quacking duck
Kate models a Pioneer hat
We finally got a tree since the party's over and we have room. Woot!

8 days til my birthday, 16 days til christmas, and 22 days til I'm off court supervision!

I'm busy

getting ready for the yg christmas party friday and yg babysitting on saturday. woot!


I love the mail. (Post Offices too!) You'll never guess what I got the other day....hehe.


12 days til my birthday, 20 days til christmas, and 26 days til I'm off court supervision!!

the best laid plans...

So this weekend I was planning on going up to Elgin for Natalie's baptism. But then that crazy storm came through. Our road was like glass... and it was worse up north, so I decided not to go on Saturday night. Probably a good thing, but really disappointing. So instead, I sewed a skirt that Matt thinks is ugly.

It warmed up over night and everything melted- which is crazy, I thought it got colder at night. Matt and I and Kevin K. decided to go this morning. We left really really early; ok, maybe it was only 7am, but still! The roads were all clear and dry and except for some overturned vehicles and downed power lines and branches you wouldn't know there had been an ice storm. We passed a bunch of utility trucks heading north-somebody didn't have power.

It was good to be there. It's been a while and its always a fun place. Nat was pretty disappointed that people couldn't make it because of the weather... so I'm really glad we went.

Both my passengers were out for most of the way home... I think it must be me. Am I really that boring? O well. I got to listen to my choice of music. :)

15 more days til my birthday, 23 days til Christmas, and 29 days til I'm off court supervision!!! Woot.

Shopping

Abby and I went to the mall tonight. And ate supper at Panera. It was sooo good. I bought some stuff... they might be presents... but they might end up being for me, we'll see. :D

My parents had commandeered my laptop when I got home. *sigh* What is this world coming to?

Next to the collection of flowery and fruity shampoo and conditioner in the shower is a bottle of "Scent Killer Shampoo". The contrast makes me laugh.

blessings.

random

I don't have anything to blog about. Enjoy some random pictures . :)

i remember

november 13, 1987

the flashing lights of the police cars and fire trucks.

the uncomfortableness of the backboard and neck brace.

riding in the ambulance with dad and matt.

the bright lights of the carport shining in my eyes when they carried me into the hospital.

aunt pearline holding my hand when they pulled medical tape (it hurt) off of my uninjured forehead.

both of dad's hands in casts.

mom's bloody face from the shattered windshield.

Choir Sing

On Saturday I went to the choir sing in Roanoke...it was a lot of fun. I like to sing with other people who like to sing. And Ben L. was directing... good stuff. We sang this really cool song from Appalachia; it definitely reminded me of Copland's Appalachian spring. And we got to sing 'In Christ Alone.' I'm excited to get the CD.

I couldn't decide where to go to church on Sunday... mom and dad went to Princeville, and I haven't been there in a long time... but it was also Marsha's wedding in Eureka... and the rest of the choir sing in Roanoke. I ended up going to Washington in the morning and then I went to the wedding at noon. Fun times. It's been a few years since I've been to Eureka for church so I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in ages. I think that was wedding #9 for this year...I've kind of lost count. :)

After church I was lazy, but then I had to cook supper for my brothers and I and Greg who was at our house because Matt was giving him a ride back to Champaign. And the dishwasher leaked all over the kitchen floor. And dripped into the basement. It was quite a night.

Blessings.

Shall we gather....

At the river, where bright angel feet have trod?

That song is what they sing at every funeral at every western I've ever read or watched and we have a running joke in our family that we'll sing it at Dad's funeral someday. So when somebody gave it off (at the singing at the handicapped home) last night Shelly started laughing. I could see her across the room so then I started laughing. Dad and Mom were sitting next to me and then they started laughing. It was pretty funny and we got a lot of weird looks and people kept asking what was going on. Good times.

I haven't been to sing at Timber Ridge in a looong time, probably since middle school, so it was interesting to be there again. It was a lot more chaotic than I remember.

cold

so I remember talking with one of my roomies about how we were excited that when we graduated we would be able to afford heat.... dad still hasn't let us turn it on yet. :)

Champaign Invite

Was such a good time! We packaged food for Salt & Light, played 'four on a pew,' ate food (of course), sang, and got to see lots of cool people. Shelly and I stayed with Neal and Kim at their new house so we missed some good bonding time at Hessel. O well. It was really fun to hang out with N and K again, even though the boys were already in bed when we got there. :) We heard them the next morning running over our heads... they're sooo cute.

Church was good... I know I say it a lot but I miss Champaign and U of I people. Afterwards everybody went to sing at nursing homes. I'm kind of stuffed up right now, and singing isn't much fun, so I volunteered to help with the snack at church. Good times! Pretty much I got to hang out with Amber and Sarah and Callie for an hour. The guys had requested that they pull a Ben M. and make invisible Kool-Aid and red water. *grin* It was great fun to see people come through the line and taste their drink. It really messes with your mind- you expect the red drink to taste red, and it doesn't and its weird.

We didn't stay too long after. All three of my passengers (the only people from Washington-mucho frustration) had things they needed to do. :)

Anyway. Another good weekend. Work tomorrow. woot.

i love weekends

last friday Ron talked to the washington girls.... it was good stuff. I'm excited for part II.

Saturday morning Matt, Ash, and I left for KC at 6 in the morning. They both immediately fell asleep and stayed asleep (and snored) for 2 hours. Eeesh. It's no fun driving early in the morning with boring passengers. But they woke up and we had iTunes and an iPod for the rest of the morning. :) We got to Kellenberger's just in time to go to Jackstack for lunch. I like that place a lot- no other bbq place even comes close to comparing.

They had Jackstack brisket at the pre-proving supper at church that night- twice in one day! So good! After testimonies there was a singing at Holly's house... I think I've been there for more yg events than some washington peoples houses. :) It was good to catch up with a lot of Kansas people. And meet some new people.

It was good to see my cousins and their adorable little girls in church. We left right after church on Sunday, so we didn't get back too late. Matt and Ash stayed up late playing Rook so I ended up driving the whole way home... I didn't mean too, but I wasn't tired and we only stopped once and we just didn't switch drivers. O well. I like to drive. : )

This weekend I'm planning on going to Champaign. Woot! And staying with Neal and Kim! I'm excited.

Happy Mole Day!

I'm sure you've been celebrating all day like I have. :)

Jakey is doing a project for his chem teacher at ICC where he has to take labs written for old equipment and rewrite them for the cool new stuff they have. Anyway, tonight we loaded the software on my lappy and were playing around with it a little bit. He brought home a bunch of fun equipment for titrations: an electric drop counter, a pH probe, and a buret. Soooo in honor of mole day (ok, maybe just because I'm a chem nerd) we set up a titration to figure out the molarity of household ammonia. Using vinegar. Because he didn't bring any chemicals home with him.

I could go through all of the calculations... but I won't. We did get a really great titration curve! If you're curious, based on using vinegar that is 5% acidity, the molarity of household ammonia (the lemon kind) is 3.54 M.

Well, I need to get some sleep tonight. If I can. Titrations are just so much fun.
Blessings.

There are a bunch of coyotes howling outside....

Toothpaste conversations with Jake

Are funny.

It's been a quiet week. And a busy weekend. Which I love. :)

I got to see Gab for a change at church on Wednesday night. Otherwise the only exciting thing that's happened is that I finished two books! woot!

Friday Scott and Ned and Karen and Randy and Rita and Abby were at G and G's so I got to hang out with them and lose badly at Rook after bible study. I always get set when we play five man. *sigh* maybe someday my Rook skills will improve. Scott and Ned stayed with us.... and Meg came! That was exciting! She got to my house pretty late and we didn't have a whole lot of time to do much, but it was still good to see her again.

I didn't really want to do anything on Saturday, but Scott and Abby said I had to go to college weekend so I did. I'm really glad I went. It was a good day... it helped that my expectations were low....hehe... but I was afraid it would be awkward and it wasn't! I did get talked into singing with the small but mighty U of I group. Which I love. Who else plays hangman instead of practicing and the entire group can fit on one bench? :D It's too bad no one called for an encore because we were ready to sing the Morrow Plots song. And I got to see a few Kansas people. Mike ran off early and I barely got to say hi. I haven't been out there in ages. Anybody want to go next weekend??

So anyway. Church invite a guest was also this weekend and mom signed me up to work at the supper. woot. I think I would rather be a bum tonight.

Field Lunch

today it was tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I don't think I'd ever made grilled cheese before, I'm not a big fan and I usually only make what I like. :) But it just goes so well with tomato soup... It was kind of a challenge taking soup to the field. It finally ended up in a thermos because Shelly remembered that kids did that at school. Then we didn't know what to do with the leftovers and they're in a water pitcher. Hopefully no one tries to drink it.

Shelly and I cleaned and moved random furniture this afternoon before mom got home... then she decided to move a bookcase we got from Grandma upstairs. Amy had a cookout that Shelly and I went to, and while we were gone Jakey rearranged Shelly's room. It was quite amusing.

Amy invited Roanoke YG too so it was a really fun time. And it was a really nice night! No stars though... On the way home we stopped at IGA because we were completely out of pop. We bought eight 12 packs... funny stuff.

We Fall Down...

So this past weekend we hosted an invite in Washington. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, so I hope everybody else did too. I went to Midwest food bank for the first time ever... that was fun. It reminds me a lot of the big food bank in Kansas City, only smaller and decorated better.

I didn't have to spend the whole day in the kitchen which was great! I missed the supper and singing and Don's talk, which was sad... but I had a good reason! One of Matt's fellow shaker brethren was baptised this weekend, so I drove an hour to Fairbury for his testimony and then drove an hour back to pick up the girls Shelly and I kept overnight. :)

We kept four girls, and Emily K. has been staying with us since Wednesday (it's kind of quiet now that she went home) so they all got good beds and I got Matt's bunk. I was afraid I was going to roll off or that it would collapse or something. But I survived...

I don't get Columbus day off.... O well.
Blessings.

for my faithful readers

Yeah, so sleep is usually more important than blogging. Sorry, but it's true.

This past weekend was the annual Apple River weekend for the W-ton YG. The weather was nicer this year, not cold enough to kill all the bugs, but much better than shivering. I was the oldest girl there which is really weird. But a lot of the guys are older so I didn't feel ancient. Plus, I got to be in charge of my hotel room, which I love. Luke and Heidi came- fun times!

Last night I went down to Champaign randomly. I ate at Dos Reales for supper with Matt and the rest of the Shaker brethren (their numbers are much reduced). So good. Then I got to go to nursing home singing... I miss that. Matt had guys bible study after that (for some reason he didn't invite me) so I went to buffalo wild wings with some people (including *cough* BDY and J-nell). Kaleigh and Callie and Nic were in C-U too, and the girls are crazy night owls and weren't planning on leaving until the wee hours... so Nic came back with me a little bit earlier. It was still a late night

And then I got up and went to work today and it had rained while we were driving all the way from Champaign to Bloomington so we got Rain event samples and it was crazy. *side note* Don't touch the river ever... but especially not after it rains. anyway. I went to Morton with Gab tonight because I haven't seen her in ages. I haven't been to Morton in a long time either.

So.... if you could do anything crazy and unconventional and no one would think anything of it, who wouldn't paint themselves blue?

Squash Pie

This afternoon Shelly decided that she wanted to carve a pumpkin, which made me hungry for pumpkin pie. So I pulled out The Farm Journal Complete Pie Cookbook to see if I could figure out how to make a real pumpkin pie without that canned stuff since we have real pumpkins. As I was perusing recipes, one for squash pie caught my eye. Since a) I've never had squash pie, b) it sounded interesting, and c) the pumpkins were in the garden and the squash were on the porch and I was too lazy to go all the way out there... I decided to try squash. It was fun! I had to roast it first and then puree it and then add a bunch of good stuff. It tasted a lot like pumpkin. Mom said that Grandma used to make squash pie and called it "poor man's pumpkin." I'm not sure how Dad feels about it... we didn't tell him what it was and he doesn't like squash. :)

Vectors and Trig functions

Tonight I turned tutor and went over to my cousins' to help Kendra with her physics. She's learning all about vectors and vector components and adding and subtracting them and it was really fun for me. I don't know if it was for her so much, I'm not a very good at explaining things. Especially math, if I can see an example I get it... but to explain it to somebody else so they understand... yeah, I'm glad I'm a chemist.

Then the little girls brought out their knitting projects for me to fix. They're so funny. Somehow Carli's is twice as long as it's supposed to be. The entire time they were fixing they managed to tell me all about their knitting class and their friends' projects at least twice.

My car makes an awful squealing noise when I turn it on. And I'm losing coolant fast! I topped it off on Saturday and it's already below the cold fill line... eeeesh.

Shopping

One of the perks of being home is living with Jakey again.

We went to the mall tonight. He doesn't like girl stores.... and he told me that "chivalry is dead" and wouldn't carry any shopping bags even though it was mostly his stuff. :)

Zippers

Are the bane of my existence.

First I broke a needle.

Then I broke my zipper foot.

Then I broke mom's zipper foot.

Then it didn't look right so I took the zipper back out.

Eeesh.



I went to Ohio, it was good. Went to Champaign to stay with the girls, it was fun. Listened to some cool music in Tremont and sang in a bin, different and enjoyable. Worked late tonight and got caught up. Happy Gab?

1000 degrees

I went to Champaign on Wednesday night for church and for a birthday party. Such a good time. Even though I can't read, and met Kaleigh in the completely wrong parking lot. *sigh* I think I get blonder every day. It was really good to be back for Wednesday night... I miss that place a lot. After church we hung out at the girls' really cute super nice house. It was hard not to be jealous. :) I know I say it a lot- but it was soo good to see people again. Like Dona! I haven't see her in ages! Since Kaleigh is more of a night owl than I am, I ended up coming back with Caleb and Bob- we discovered that Bob's gas gauge must have negative dots and that gas stations aren't always open 24 hours. I did miss out on going to see Matt's farm layout... o well.... next time.

Today at work I was prepping some new crucibles I just got. I wrote on them with ink that can withstand a lot of heat, and then they went into the 1000 degree muffle furnace. They glowed orange when they came out and the black writing was white hot. Super cool. In case you were wondering, I did name one Gab. :D

Tomorrow a handful of people are going out to Ohio for an invite... Washington people don't travel, it's kind of annoying/frustrating. Should be an interesting trip. I can't decide if I'm excited or not.

Blessings.

How do you feel about pickles?

So I'm getting to know the guys up at Service Auto really well. My car broke again on the way home from ISU bible study. This time it was the water pump... thankfully I was only about 1.5 miles from my house when it started smoking and making an awful noise. *sigh* We're thinking about adding Brent and Bill to our Christmas card list since we've seen them so much in the last few weeks.

Saturday we decided to clean the attic. Dad backed the grain truck up to the house and we got rid of a lot of stuff- old mattresses, and old hospital bed, old magazines, more drapery rods than we have windows... it's much less full now. My great grandparent's built our house and they left stuff when Grandma and Grandpa moved in, and who also left stuff when they moved to town (including a lovely gold key to hang on the wall- supposedly all the rage back in the day). So we have four generations of furniture, keepsakes, memorabilia and junk up there. Shelly and I decided that Matt and Jake are worse hoarders than we are. There are more boxes full of empty tractor and Lego boxes ("they might be worth something someday!") than anything.

My old roomie Sarah was baptised this weekend so I spent Saturday evening at testimonies and then I stayed with Katrina overnight. It was such a good time. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep though, so I'm not really looking forward to getting up in the morning.
Blessings.

tap dancing and trombones

So it's been awhile... Lots of stuff going on.

My family was in Missouri all last week on the anual Wyss vacation. I had to work so I didn't go until friday... kind of depressing. But I did get to listen to Nickel Creek on the riverfront with some really fun people. And I had the house to myself.

My car broke last monday. A tie rod broke and my front wheels were pointing towards each other... completely undrivable. So I got to ride in a tow truck. It would happen when all the family is gone- I felt bad about having to bother other people for a ride home. It's fixed now. And my lappy is fixed. *sigh* Such a week for repairs.

Tuesday I got to see Amber and Sarah and Kaleigh. Woot! Good stuff- especially the tap dancing trombonist. :D

I drove to missouri friday after work and it was thunderstorming when I got there. Grandpa had rented a bunch of cabins so I was wandering around in the rain looking for the cabin with food. I was sooo wet when I finally found it. They made me sit on a towel but I was so completely soaked that I left a puddle and a trail to the door. :) I spent most of saturday by the pool.

I thought about going to champaign today for the picnic but I'm tired of driving. So I'm just being lazy.

Blessings.

O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?

Minnesota and things

I like Minnesota a lot. And the Twin Cities are cool. Mostly because they are home to my super cool former roomies, Meg and Amanda. It's a long drive though... Matt and I had fun though.

Last Thursday my Grandma Schlipf had a bad stroke. They don't think she will be with us much longer.

So Mom hasn't been home much in the last few days. Shelly and I have been cooking a lot. Tonight, after a few minor catastrophes we had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn on the cob. I'm still not sure how gravy can "jump" off the stove and get everywhere. *sigh* She's not very domestic.

Then we scrubbed down the kitchen. And the bathrooms. It smells really clean. :D
Should be some crazy rollercoaster days coming up... prayers would be much appreciated.

California Dreamin

It was a good trip. It's good to be back though... I missed having my bed to myself.

Some observations:

• there's no one at Peoria Airport at 4 am
• take off is fine. landing hurts my ears
• San Francisco's 45 degree streets are kind of cool
• California architecture is refreshing
• Frisco is Foggy and cold
• Chopsticks aren't that bad
  
• Red wood trees are much bigger in real life
  
• There are a lot of cows in California
• never buy a Town and Country mini-van with stow-and-go seats... they are super uncomfortable and really hard to get in and out of
• Yosemite is really cool
• 15 minute weddings are great
• it really hurts when you drop a can of furniture polish on your foot

Ok, so the last one wasn't in California, it was tonight. And it kills! I'm gonna have a lovely bump and a bruise to match...

Anyway, we saw a lot of stuff. Went a lot of places. I think I liked Muir Woods and Yosemite the best. Or the amazing lobster bisque at Scoma's.

One highlight was touring China town with Matthew Schrenk and Dan Luthi. And of course Amy and Alan's wedding and reception was fun. (I didn't catch the bouquet, I made sure to be in the very back) And now I can add running through O'Hare to catch a connecting flight to my list of accomplishments. We made it. Our luggage didn't.

So we were there and back again...
Blessings.

ice cream and old friends

Tuesday night Dorothy and I went to the ice cream place in Eureka that changes owners and names every year. I don't know what it's called this year. I had a chocolate tornado (previously known as a barn buster, snowstorm, and blizzard) with Reese's peanut butter cups. It was amazing. It was good to see her again and catch up... we talked for a long time after they closed.

Last night Nic invited some people to his house to play mini-golf and volleyball. Gab was too busy redoing her bathroom to come with me. (*tsk* such an excuse) It was a fun time even though the girl-guy ratio was a little bit small. The weather was beautiful for being outside playing games. And for taking Bob's sweet new ride around the section. :)

I almost gave Heidi a heart attack- and it totally wasn't on purpose!

Wedding #7 is tomorrow. Then I'm leaving for California with my family. We're going to San Francisco for a few days and some other places; then next weekend we're going to my cousin's wedding (#8). Woot.

Blessings.

Nothing much

So my life is pretty boring. I go to work every day. I don't really have anything to blog about...

I went to wedding #6 last friday. I knew Jordan from High School and I went to homecoming and Prom with him and Rachel. Rach and I also used to hang out a lot at ICC. So it was really weird to be at their wedding. They were very cute and I got to see a lot of people from high school. :) I skipped the reception... I'm tired of them.

OOOOOOO I did hear some wonderful exciting news at church on thursday night- my co-trumpet section leader, a.k.a. 'the trumpet god', started repenting last week. I was a little bit wound up. Still am. Woot!
Blessings.

Jobs and Tickets

So. It's been a busy week I guess. I started working Monday. I don't like getting up early. But I enjoy the lab. So far there has been a fire and a flood (neither of which were my fault). I test water. Waste water, drinking water, ground water- I didn't know there were that many kinds.

The Tuesday before Heidi's wedding I was coming home from world relief sewing at church. I had stopped at the library (somebody had checked out the RJ I wanted, mur) and accidentally passed a stopped school bus on my way out of town. Yes, I knew it was illegal, but I didn't see the lights, and it was too late when I saw the sign... so I just hoped that no one got my plates. No such luck. I got a phone call and a ticket from the w-ton police later that night. It was kind of a rough week.

When you pass a school bus in IL it's a $150 fine and 3 month license suspension along with a court appearance. Soooo.... since I need to get to work somehow, and my insurance would have gone up exponentially... dad talked to a lawyer. This past Monday was my court date. Nothing like the first day at a new job and going to court all in the same day... it was kind of nerve wracking. But... I kept my chin up. :)

When we got to Pekin, I wasn't on the docket for the day. There were some tense moments until my lawyer got there and figured out that they had changed the day and not told either of us. So he fixed that and then sat down with the prosecutor and got it worked out that I pay a bigger fine, but the ticket got reduced to improper lane usage. And if I don't get a ticket in 6 months it doesn't go on my record at all. I still had to stand in front of the judge which is really kind of scary. I was so glad that I didn't have to say much... my lawyer did all of the talking and it's over and I'm not in jail. (I wasn't really worried about that... but you never know!)

So thankful for my advocate on judgment day. -1 John 2:1-
Aleluya A Neustro Dios!

Curtains, another wedding, and a present

I've been meaning to make curtains to match my blue wall for a few weeks now... and never got around to it. But then I was in Walmart and saw some fabric that would make the perfect curtains for the landing and I was inspired. So Friday I made curtains for three windows. It was fun. They are very cute, at least, I like them.

Today I met Sarah in Gridley and we went to CP for Chris and Ashley's wedding. Number 4 of 9. (I'm skipping number 5, it's tomorrow). Sarah and I went for a nice rainy drive in the country, I think we took a route to Cissna that's never been tried before... but we made it. We almost couldn't find the church but then Sarah and her amazing church finding skills got us there as I was on the phone with Jer for directions. I was excited to see Karen at the wedding...good stuff. And hearing "Chris" and "woo" in the same sentence was huh-larious. I'll miss them both... it's kind of hard to believe that I lived with Ash for two whole years, and that Chris was my quasi-roommate-next-door-neighbor for that long also.

When I got back my graduation present was waiting for me. I am now the proud owner of a beautiful Singer Sewing machine!!!! It has 10 stitch options, a serger attachment, and automatic button holes. It's sooo cool. Too bad I already made my curtains. :) I spent most of the evening trying it out. And I learned how to smock with it. I like to look at it, it's sooo pretty!

Anyway. Church in the morning.
Blessings.

"You know what I think when I hear W.M.?"

"Waste Management!" hehe.

Leo was really relaxing. Lyssa had Dippin Dots at her graduation party and they had tons left over so I got to eat a lot of those. I spent a lot of time reading by the pool and hanging out with Abby. And rode the go-kart and played Wii and shuffle board and volleyball. I went shopping with three of my aunts one afternoon and we spent at least an hour in Christopher and Banks. I don't even like that store. I guess it's good for me... or something. Abs and I went jet skiing one evening on the mighty st. Jo river. It's not the cleanest river... I think I would be afraid to actually swim in it.

Joanna and Will's wedding was this weekend. Matt and I went on Saturday night for the singing. I stayed with Gab and Meg at Wayne and Gloria's. I haven't seen Meg in ages so it was good to catch up with her and Gab. And talk to other U of I people that I haven't seen since May. Sunday was good...lots of Mexico trip people there... they said yes. The reception line was waay too long, but I was with cool people so I really shouldn't complain. :) I guess a little wait to see real people is better than a drive through with a plastic figurine. Gab rode back with Matt and I... fun times. We stopped for "the Great Guzzler" which of course meant a bathroom stop... It's good for Matt right?

I have one more week of freedom.
Blessings.

200

This is my 200th post. Wow. I feel accomplished or something. Too bad I don't have anything profound to say. :)

I got a job. Woot. At PDC Laboratories in Peoria. I'm excited most of the time, but there's still a part of me that wants to be lazy a little bit longer.

Today is Katie's wedding. She asked four of us girls who aren't on vacation to sing, so I'm a little nervous about that but it should be ok. We practiced yesterday at Heidi's and we don't sound too horrible. I attempted to help Heidi a little bit after practicing but I didn't get a whole lot done. O well. It was good to see her again and hang out.

After the reception Mom and Dad and I are going to Leo for Alyssa's graduation. I think I'm staying until Thursdayish. It should be a good time!

In which I venture into large crowds

So Gridley this weekend was really good. The weather was beautiful, and everything else was really enjoyable. I was really excited to see my roomies again, and the other U of I people that came. I did branch out a little bit and met a few new people. :)

I never get headaches ever... and I did Saturday night. It hurt. I almost threw up. So weird... but I was feeling a lot better at Amber's. It was sooo fun to stay with Kris and Sarah and Amber and Kaleigh. I miss those girls. So what do you call a lady with one leg? Eileen! Where does she work? IHOP!! Wow. Gotta love laffy taffy jokes and Sarah jokes.

Sunday Matt and I visited Grandma after church and then he left me in Gridley. (On purpose, I wanted to stay after the festivities were over, and Nic kindly volunteered Bob and himself as a ride home.) A group of us went to Kaleigh's and threw things at each other, played games, and spent a lot of quality time outside in the sun. Good times. The guys had me home before midnight... I guess that's late when you have to work in the morning. :D

Blessings.

p.s. Mike, you still owe me a pie... cause I'm pretty sure you didn't bring me one this weekend. :)

Blue

So I decided to paint my bedroom this week. It's been the same since I got rid of the peach/pink Precious Moments border in 8th grade... so I figured it was time. It also needed a complete scrubbing. (I won't tell you how long its been for that *grin*) I painted one wall stargaze blue. *sigh* I love it. The other walls are white because I didn't want to live in a cave.
I'm also excited that my bedding matches my walls for the first time in pretty much ever!

I did have to miss out on a C-U trip because of painting and the mess it created in the rest of the house. That was disappointing.

But I did get to see a bunch of super awesome girls at Joanna's personal shower Thursday night. Which made up for it. And I got to ride with Amber and Melissa and Kristen, good times.

Ooooo.... and I'm really excited because Mom brought me home a zone 5 hardy crepe myrtle bush!!! Woot. They have them all over down south- they're covered with flowers and they're gorgeous. I wanted to bring one home with me when I was in Florida but I thought that having to bring it inside for the winter was too much work. But now they have hardy varieties! So I planted it today.

Mass chaos in Gridley tomorrow.... I'm mostly going to see U of I people. (I know that's a bad reason but I don't really care.)

Blessings.

One down....

Eight to go. *grin*

Heidi and Luke's wedding was... yeah... I don't know. Really, really, surreal. But good.

Saturday was long and busy, Wendi woke me up at 8:30 when she called to tell me that pictures were not outside since it was thunderstorming. So we took a few at the fellowship hall and by afternoon it was cleared up enough that we went to the river front to take some more.
The rehearsal was fun. I didn't know that they had the whole walking in thing down to such a science. So if you ever sit in the 8th bench on the center aisle in W-ton... you're the spacing for the bridesmaids.

They had the dinner at the Tea Room in Mackinaw Saturday night. It's good food, but it's definitely "chick food." Some of the younger people at my table weren't especially fond of the menu choices *cough* Wendi. We had to go around and share a memory... so fun to listen to but not so much fun to do. :)

Church was full but not overly crowded. I like to watch all the people as they come in, it's always interesting to see who's there.

We had some amusing moments getting ready and waiting for the wedding to start. Like getting locked out of church. Trying to hide kleenex in our Bibles. And rescuing a crying baby. But, otherwise it went really smoothly. I didn't trip. I didn't go too fast. I didn't cry. They said yes. It was a good wedding.

Katelyn and I found the leftover Pepsi from lunch on Saturday at the reception. When you're wearing a purple dress, I mean, lavender, you can pretty much go anywhere and you don't get scolded for being in the way.

I found out that my ice cream punch pouring skills are sadly lacking. Either that or the ladle was poorly designed. :)

So. I'm exhausted and will probably sleep through any Memorial day festivities tomorrow morning. Blessings.

Sewing

I went to world relief sewing today for the first time since I used to skip physics at ICC to go. It was fun, I knotted a comforter for a while. Then we ate pizza and Dairy Queen ice cream. Grandma taught me how to quilt- it's pretty easy but painful! I can't seem to figure out the thimble so my fingers are a little bit sore.



4 more days until I never see Heidi and Luke again.... mur.

Randomness

I was in Hannibal all by myself Tuesday night. It was fun times.

It was weird to be in Washington on Wednesday... but Gab showed up so that made it not so weird.

Last night at bible study Tammy told me she was going to Champaign to surprise Brian and asked if I wanted to come. She gave me two minutes to think about it and then we left to pick up Gab. I think he was a little surprised when his door flew open at 11 pm. :D So we went to Perkin's and then to Merry Anne's because Tammy had never been either place. Then we came home. Hooray for random road trips and awkward conversation!

Tonight I'm going to my cousin's musical. Tomorrow is Jakey's graduation.

Blessings.

(for you TSau and GKR- JLPL *grin*)

Hail to the Orange, hail to the Blue

Hail Alma Matter...

Well. It's over. I had one last week of good times with U of I people and then a crazy weekend of singing and personal showers for Heidi. The personal shower was fun. She owns a lot of rubber duckies. And a lovely pair of lacy pink shorts from... well, lets just say some previous shenanigans. :)

Sunday my family and I went to Champaign for church (it was graduation day). I didn't walk, but we went for Bubble Tea and wandered around campus for a while. Jakey and Shelly had never experienced bubbles before and I don't think that they were very impressed. Of course, they are a lot better the second time you have them. We went to Famous Dave's (because it's in the round barn and Dad wanted to go there) for supper.

I spent Sunday night at 709 with Amanda. It's so empty and lonely. It's crazy how fast two years went. And how much stuff accumulated. :) This morning I met with a potential subleaser from K-State. I was trying to explain to Amanda how she heard about the house... gotta love the random AC connections.

My room is a mess. Better than it was... But still a mess. And there are spiders.... I was screaming about one and trying to kill it and had just smooshed it when Jakey sauntered in. I told him that I had it all under control, and then he said, "two seconds ago the whole world was at sixes and sevens and the house was falling down around our ears!" Gotta love a little Skin of Our Teeth now and again. I laughed.

So a lot of fun and interesting things have happened that I was going to blog about... but I just didn't have time. Like how Abby's car randomly broke down in Champaign on her way to Leo and got to spend the afternoon with me. And how we scrubbed down the kitchen and living room. And the crazy phone call I got on the way home from C-U... o wait... no, wasn't going to blog about that, something about protecting the innocent. ;)

I love summer. Blessings.

Hi Shelly

*grin*

All good things

Must come to an end.

My college career is almost over. It's very hard to believe.

I have an easy finals week so I haven't been stressed at all. It's pretty great. So here are some random pictures from the past week for your enjoyment:

At the young group picnic on Tuesday
Getting ready to leave for the amazing dinner Shaker made for us- formal attire was required. We had to make them modest of course... and fun. *grin*


Yes, that is my little brother serving salad in a bow tie on good china. Yes, I know it's hard to believe...

I've played a lot of sand volley ball the last few days, and almost died at steak and shake, and saw three guys on bikes wearing only their whitey-tighties at 2 am, and tried on a purple bridesmaid dress, and survived my first piano recital, and managed some late night shenanigans, and used a squirt gun on drunk people on Green Street.

*sigh* I'm gonna miss it.

Happiness is...

Making an egg casserole with your roommates at 2 am without a recipe.

Girls and Guys

It was a good weekend, busy but very fun. :)

Friday when I got home from school I headed over to Peoria to check us W-ton girls into the hotel we spent the night at. (I was the only one over 21- the hotel was being a little ridiculous- two of the girls are getting married in a month but they can't get into a hotel room that they payed for) We had a blast! We ate out, went shopping, went to a play, snuck into the pool, sang for the front desk guy and security guard, and stayed up really really late. We did have to institute a ban on communication with the male species... but it was all good. :)

After I got home I mowed for 3.5 hours... I'm a little bit burnt. I took a spin in the canoe on the "lake" with Shelly and Tate. In my swimsuit and mud boots. Mom laughed really hard. No cameras were allowed. :) Matt and I went to testimonies in Eureka Saturday night, I haven't been there in ages. Jakey went to prom- with a girl. He looked sooo handsome in his tux- the picture doesn't do him justice. :)


Sunday afternoon Matt's roommates (and their parents) came for supper. He also got a bunch of clay pigeons and 200 rounds of ammo. So they played with guns for a while. He let me get in on the fun and I actually hit two- a little surprising since I've never shot at clays and it's been years since I've even touched a shotgun. We had a full house for supper and interesting conversation. :) They played some games after supper, lost Gherkins, went on a tour, and generally felt like little kids at potluck. Good times.


This morning I had an interview in Peoria, and then had to come back to Champaign for class in the afternoon. Two more weeks. Yikes.

Pokey Stix

Are pretty much amazing. :)

I was hungry after church and some of my roomies needed study breaks so we ordered some. In four years of college this was the first time I had ever ordered pizza- how sad is that!

I'm not quite ready to give up these random fun nights. *sigh* The real world is scary.





Poor Timmi is out in the rain. I hope he doesn't wake up. Hehehehehehe.

Streamers

Gab and Amanda just destroyed a class project video tape and spread the tape all over the house....

It's quite lovely. :)

Back again

It's been such a long time since I've been in Kansas City. Ok, it was January, but it hardly counts because it was Ned's baptism and it was a crazy weekend. :)

Matt and I met Luke and Heidi in Springfield and had a fairly uneventful ride out. The two lovebirds weren't too nauseating (*grin*) and we listened to a pretty eclectic mix of music. We went to Alan's for a while when we got to KC. So good to see Kansas people.

I stayed at Aunt Karen's... good times. Saturday I was on the painting crew. We helped a couple paint their living room and kitchen and hallway some very interesting colors. The living room was an orangish/ peach and the kitchen was lime green. Not what I would pick but it turned out looking kind of cool.

After we got done working, Scott and I went to Robeks. It was sooo good. We need one of them in Champaign. I wasn't very hungry for supper at the park. :) All of the rest of my cousins were there in the evening with their children. They're all getting so big! It's crazy.

We stayed up pretty late talking and making Ned play his violin for us. He's so good at it, it was beautiful. Ned was in the bathroom with me when I was taking my hair out.... his eyes got really big when he saw how many pins I used. It was really funny.


I was a little tired for church in the morning, but then I sat by Cailer in the afternoon and he kept me awake. :) The ride home was really quiet. I drove for about three hours and half of my passengers were sound asleep. Good times. So now I only have two more weeks left of school. Yikes. I'm not really excited about that.

Tractor Tractor

Its been a busy week so far but I don't really remember why....

Jakey was at the Union for WYSE yesterday. I almost baked cookies but I figured he'd rather see me than eat cookies... :) Mr. Bill was there as well so it was good to talk to him. And hang out with Jake's friends.

Last night a group of us went to Tremont to visit Mary and Greg. I got to drive so that was fun... although figuring out how to get to Mary's was a challenge. I just have problems visualizing "go out of the parking lot and turn left at the stop sign." :)

Hanging out at Mary's was a good time. Saw people I haven't seen in a long time, met some new people. On the way home with Gab, Matt, and Nic we listened to "Slugs & Bugs & Lullabies" which is not exactly good music to drive to at midnightish. So then we listened to a random CD Gab made for me. Funny stuff.

Today is Matt's 21st birthday. I visited his room. He wasn't there. He now has 21 random things to find. (Plus balloons, streamers, etc.) *grin*

768 miles

This weekend started a little early, I went home Thursday night and then went to Iowa City for an interview on Friday. (It was good... I guess... I wasn't nervous, a big plus) I went back to Champaign that night and went over to the Shaker with some of my roommates. Amber and I ended up hanging out with some of the Shaker brethren and some tremont guys at Merry Ann's until pretty late.

So after 4 hours of sleep I got up and left for college weekend. It was pretty funny... we were all standing in our driveway staring at the cars... so we numbered off. I was with Jeremy, Nic, BAM, and Kellen and we played 20 questions Kellen for most of the way. It ended up being a fairly enjoyable ride (I wasn't bored to tears).

College weekend was good. Lots of people there that I haven't seen in a while, great speakers, good food, a banana in Gab's coat pocket (she deserved it). :) The ride home was good too.... although I was pretty tired and fell asleep.

It was relatively warm when we got back so a group of us went to play sand volleyball. It looked warmer than it really was but it was still good times. I like volleyball a lot even though I'm not good at it at all.... and I'm short. And I don't have any "ups". My toes were really numb from the cold sand. It felt good to be outside.

So now I'm being a bum. But I got lots done this weekend in the car on the way to Iowa so its ok. Or something.

Blessings.

You know how

Some people have clothespins on their mailboxes for outgoing mail?

We definitely have a bobby pin.

It cracks me up.

Happy Easter!

He is Risen Indeed!

Aleluya a nuestro Dios!

This weekend I was privileged to sing hymns in Spanish that were recorded for the church in Mexico. It was lots of fun, even though I've never taken any Spanish and everybody else there was extremely talented musically... eh, oh well. :)

Definitely a good time hanging out with Meg's family, and Mary, and Lys, and Nic and Markus. And I met new people which is good.

I've had Spanish in my head ever since. I think I was annoying my family.

So Aleluya a nuestro Dios is my new favorite hymn, but its not in any of our books. I finally found it in English, Hallelujah for the Blood, in a really old book called "The Glorious Gospel Hymns" that my mom randomly has.

It's a perfect Easter song.

Aleluya! aleluya! Alabanzas cantad, Aleluya! Exaltad, el Cordero de Dios!

Note to self:

Next year don't sit next to Shelly at communion.

We got the giggles twice. It was bad.

It was raining and windy outside and she asked me, "is that rain?" To which I replied, "no it's a bunch of little men in hobnailed boots running across the roof." It makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Then as we were singing the last song I cracked a high note pretty bad and we started laughing again. *sigh* So much for communion being a solemn, thought provoking event.

What a day!

Today was a crazy day in lab.... we were working with sodium hydride which is highly flammable. Some of it ended up in the solid waste can in the hood with all of the solvent and chemical waste containers. It caught on fire and blew the top off of the can. Thankfully the TA's put it out before the other solvent waste containers went up in flames.

So then I was paranoid and practically wiped down my entire hood with Isopropal alcohol just in case. :) My reaction went well, it turned lots of pretty colors! It started out green and then turned dark purple and then lavender (I thought of Heidi). After I added sodium hydride it turned orange and then it finally went back to a lovely blue-green color. The one color I didn't want to see today was light blue in my solvent trap.

We keep air out of the reaction by performing it under vacuum, which pulls the solvent off of the sample. It's hard on the vacuum pumps to have solvent running through them, so we collect it by freezing it with liquid nitrogen in a trap. Liquid nitrogen is capable of condensing oxygen (light blue) if you let air get into you vacuum lines. Well, the vacuum seal on my trap must not have been working right because when I went to clean up I saw light blue in my trap.

O man, so scary. They had to go get a blast shield. Ahhh. Our poor TA's. So then when I got home I kept hearing sirens; every time I thought that they must be headed to Noyes. One of my TA's is in one of my other classes... tomorrow... eeeshh. That'll be fun.

We had CW singing practice/ singing at our house tonight. It was fun. At one point some of us went over to 711 and duct taped Blake to his chair because he didn't come over. They were waiting with buckets of water when we came back, but I escaped the wetness. :)

Last night Washington people came to visit and go to church at the Union. It was a great time! So good to have visitors- and I was amazed at the W-ton turnout. Most of them don't branch out much, and by much I mean ever. We went to the Shaker afterwards for singing and snack and random fun after our guests left. :)

I'm going home tomorrow to get measured and to sing and for communion. It's going to be a crazy weekend. But I'm excited.

Mexico

Some highlights:

• seeing Brent and Janelle and Carissa
• singing in church in Spanish
• 'sneaking' into Mexico
• seeing the kids again
• spending quality time with U of I people
• having my brother along
• the warm weather
• driving from Tucson to Albuquerque; it was cloudy and not windy- I love the open road!
• the quote book
• teasing Joanna
• being sick
• the beautiful stars

Some not so highlights:

• feeling old ;)
• seeing my chicken salad sandwich twice
• the spiders
• not getting to go to town
• feeling like we were missing a few people... such is life
• getting an entire backhoe loader bucket full of water dumped on me *grin* o wait, that was fun? too bad it wasn't even sunny out!
• all my smelly wet laundry

For the record, my dad always told us not to stand under raised loader buckets or grain trucks when their lifts were all the way up- it's dangerous and they could fall. So I was disobedient and I guess it's my own fault. :) When I heard the bucket start to move I thought the whole thing was coming down so I ran and tripped and the rest is history I guess. It was a beautiful prank, props to the rock crew for that!

I'm back

It was a good trip. Too short though of course. So now I'm back to the real world.

I have a lot of dirty smelly things in my room. I did my nastiest laundry at the Shaker with Matt last night after I got back, but my shoes are still wet and muddy. How they got wet and muddy is a story and a half. :) I'll post video of that eventually. So I finally got my cordless drill and stud finder back (since it wasn't working out so well at the Shaker *grin*)... and the next RJ... and made matt's bed and folded his laundry and watched a movie because their dryer takes forever. O well. Good bonding time or something like that.

After church Meg and Jer and I went to singing at the nursing home. For supper the handful of people who were in town had a very random picnic of fried chicken, leftover church lunch sandwiches, quesadillas, deviled eggs, grapes, leftover Mexico snacks... it was good times. Then we went to Custard cup.

I should be studying for my vocab test tomorrow... but I don't want to.

My Roomies

Are pretty much amazing. :) Some of the coolest girls you will ever meet. There are ten of us, we have two *small* bathrooms, and we still get along!


Meg is our resident chef and dietitian. She keeps herself very busy- most of the time when I see her she's off to work/class/study/random food club. :) The coolest thing about Meg is the way she lets her light shine-you can see Christ in her smile.












Ashley and Jenny are sisters, probably why they look alike. :) I don't see Jenny much at all, which is too bad. Ash is engaged to Chris, who lives next door and is our eleventh room mate. They're lots of fun to be around, especially when they're cooking dinner together at our house. (It's huh-larious)













Kristen just moved in with us in January. When our tenth roommate fell through at the beginning of the school year we didn't know why.... now we do! I love listening to her wonderful piano playing abilities and singing along to the Phantom of the Opera with her. I love it that she's always ready for crazy fun stuff like building snow sisters in the yard at midnight. Or just hanging out into the wee hours of the night. :)












Then there's Amber. Amber is one of those indispensable farm girl types. She can do just about anything, even though she is an AC girl and we all know that they can't throw a ball. ;) She has lots of plants and flowers in our house which is so great. Amber's always up for doing something fun, which sadly enough doesn't usually involve organic chem or falling through the floor with the shower.












Alyssa's engaged.... Ryan's getting an amazing girl! My favorite quote from Lys is, "You like lemon!? Ryan, that is so great! I LOVE lemon!" *Grin* She works so hard and does such a good job as yg secretary... and always with such a sweet smile. I love it how her face lights up when she talks about Jesus.... and Ryan. :)













When I'm in the mood for crazy random fun I go to Sarah. She's great at movie sound effects and talking about everything from current events to how hilarious it would be if the leaky shower suddenly plunged through the basement floor with somebody in it. :D I love it that she likes the names of my classes, ie solid state structural analysis. We almost had a class together but then of course she changed her schedule. :)













Amanda is lots of fun. She always has interesting stories from working at a nursing home... (they quite often end with me saying, "reason number 629 why I am not going to be a nurse."). I love it how she always tells it like it is and doesn't mince any words. I'm so glad I got the chance to live with her this year, it just wouldn't have been quite so much fun.













Gabrielle.... I used to be so innocent. *Grin* Actually, I think that I have surprised her more in the last two years than she has me. Gab is great. She's always up for hashing things out and going for walks at CIRCE and talking on IM from across the hall. And making me open my iTunes so she can listen to Johnny Cash. Gab keeps me accountable... I'm so blessed to have had her as a roomie.












So there you have it... I really can't do justice to these girls- they're the BEST!
Proverbs 27:17

I'm leaving for Mexico in a few hours... I'm a little excited!!!

3.14159

Yesterday was pi day. At our house we celebrated by baking a bunch of pie and having the yg over after church. I love pie. It was really good. And, we have lots of leftovers which makes me very happy.

Spring break starts tomorrow! I'm excited.