piano

I started taking piano lessons again yesterday. It was fun/ awkward... it's so nerve wracking to play in front of somebody who is really good at it. But she's really nice, so hopefully the nerves will pass and I will be more comfortable.

My car has a U of I sticker in the window. Hopefully Bradley students won't take offense... haha.

Blessings.

plants and pie and pork

So Friday I was talking to a coworker about how he's in an orchid society... and he mentioned that ICC Landscape and Garden day was on Saturday.... so I went. It was cool! When I went to ICC I didn't even know they had a selection garden and an arboretum; I didn't really ever explore much outside the main building. :) I bought myself a Christmas cactus. We'll see if I can keep it alive. One of my other plants died suddenly this week- it dropped all of it's leaves and shriveled up. And I know I remembered to water it. *sigh*

My poor dad has problems with customer service... maybe he needs to learn to bat his eyelashes... haha... not really, but I think wood front kitchens (they did our cabinets a long time ago) is pretty great. A couple of weeks ago someone might have accidentally pulled one of the drawers in the kitchen out too far and it might have fallen and the porcelain drawer pull broke. And I looked at a couple of hardware stores to find one that matched... no luck. So I stopped after the plant sale and they gave me four replacements for free!

We have apples so I made apple pie. It's really good.

Matt and I and Amy (I dragged her along) went to the TYG hog roast Saturday evening. I'm glad I went there instead of Lau's wedding reception... it was probably more gooder. It was a beautiful night to be outside, and see Nic and Bob and Mary and baby Max. :) And I rarely get to do anything with Amy anymore. So yeah. Good times.

Blessings.

Labor day weekend

So it was another busy weekend...

Friday night we had a singing shower for three of the four w-ton weddings. It went pretty well. We had plenty of food and Marcia and Michelle were in the kitchen with Jody and I so that all worked out great. I wanted to sing Pull for the Shore, I knew that Matt would glare at me, so I didn't call it.

Matt and Shelly and I left Saturday morning for Latty/Junction... typical invite. It was enjoyable though. I might have gotten a text in the 'greeting line' and tried to reply during the prayer, but they have terrible cell reception out there so it was all in vain. Amusing though.

The sista stroll down the road after supper was funny.... I felt sorry for the people trying to drive on it.

We sang Pull for the Shore- I was excited. Shelly wanted me to wink at Nic during the singing but some girls hair was in the way. Probably a good thing. :)

After church on Sunday we headed to Leo to my aunt and uncle's house and got there just in time to head out on the river in their new boat. We got to ski... I got up every time... I was pretty excited. We went out again after supper, but it got dark really fast. Monday morning Abby and Shelly and I got up early and went out. It was a little bit chilly! I tried wake boarding just to say I did and I got up for about two seconds and then I face planted and swallowed half the lake and decided that it was Shelly's turn to try. (Abby said it was longer than two seconds... I dunno though, it was pretty short)

We chilled by the pool for a while before we left. We stopped at the store because Matt had never been there. And then we came home. And I'm very sore today. And slightly sunburnt. woot. :)

I should know by now

not to read Agatha Christie murder mysteries right before I go to bed.



but they're just so hard to put down.

my orchid is blooming!

It's so pretty....

weeds

Dad made us walk beans last night after supper. I haven't done that in ages. (I didn't really miss it either...) But it was a nice night, and the beans were dry, and there weren't any aphids so it wasn't too bad.

I got a blister, and then the rough handle of my hoe ripped it open. ow. It's a little tender today. I still hate horse weeds and butter prints. (giant ragweed and velvetleaf for the horticulturally inclined)

So today at work they had a seminar and I got to listen to a lady talk about how she worked in Antarctica for six summers. It sounded amazing. But it made me really cold... I think I'll eat lunch outside today...

champaign

Last night I went on a random trip to Champaign with Gab and Bob. It's been a while since I've been there... and a while since I've seen Champaign people... ok, so it's been like a week and a half but it feels like a lot longer.

We stopped at the Shaker and chilled with Mike and Mark for a while... ate out at Dos Reales (so good)... played some volleyball... discovered that I will never make it to the Olympics (sad news!)... and pretty much had a good time.

O and Karen was there and I haven't seen her in ages! So that was super cool. I had to work in the morning... so my chauffeurs were kind enough to leave at the early hour of 11:30ish. But I managed to get a little sleep in the car so I really wasn't too dead tired this morning.

I have nothing planned this weekend and I'm so excited.
Blessings.

nothing much

So last week was really uneventful. My boss was gone so I had a pretty slow week at work.

My grandma's 80th birthday is this week, and the entire family was in town for the weekend. There are 50 of us now... kind of a lot of people. We had a big party Saturday night. And cousins overnight. We attempted to sing the Hallelujah Chorus... and And the Glory. Shelly and Abby and I spent some time educating Ned about hair and makeup and other girl stuff. We played some rook... good times.

Otherwise... nothing exciting going on. Blessings.

Up North

So... such a good weekend. It felt like I was gone a week... but it was only three days.
Amber and Sarah and I met in El Paso at 5 am Friday morning and headed north. We stopped in Rockford to pick up Natalie and then we didn't stop till we hit Minnesota. Ok, not really. We might have stopped at IHOP and got to listen to some crazy girl talk about picking up strange guys in Florida. I guess nobody ever taught her how to use her 'inside voice.' Haha. We hit Duluth around twoish and took the scenic route along lake Superior. So beautiful.

We stopped at Gooseberry Falls State park to hike around and wade in the river. It was such a nice day out.



Our hotel was farther north, in Silver Bay. I had printed out a bunch of maps for the trip and we were looking at the wrong one so we got to see a little bit more of the town than was expected. :D Driving past the cute statue of Rocky Taconite was worth it though. And hearing Sarah use Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconios-is in every day conversation was pretty great too. When we did finally find our hotel, our room wasn't cleaned yet. So we got free pizza! And bread sticks and cinnamon sticks and Pepsi. It was pretty much amazing.

After supper we went down to the lake shore and climbed around on the rocks. The lake was so calm- I've never seen Superior without waves. It was gorgeous but cold! I stuck my feet in and they went numb... it was great.

By the shores of Gitchee Gumee...

There was a hot tub at the hotel... and a frog water slide (the tongue was the slide) in the kitty pool... Amber and I might have checked it out when the pool was empty. *grin* Hooray for hot tubs and heart-to-hearts...
Saturday morning we headed to Split Rock Lighthouse and spent some time exploring. We walked down a bunch of stairs to the lake... I got my feet wet again... the water was still icy cold...which I love. We stopped in Two Harbors for lunch (at pizza hut- yay for pizza two days in a row!) and then headed south to Minneapolis.


We got to our hotel at the same time as Nic, B.J., and Mogus... and barely in enough time to change for the rehearsal dinner. I caught a ride with B.J.- good times. I met him in the lobby for our 'hot date' just as the entire Zehr/Waibel/Schambach clan arrived. And Nic was there smirking. I thought it was funny.

I got to sit by him and Blake which was good because otherwise it would have been slightly uncomfortable. But they kept me laughing so it was all good and better than I was expecting. I dislike those things excessively, but I ended up being really glad I got to be there.

After the singing at church, a bunch of people came to our hotel to play games and chill. I was in and out... went for a walk with Sprout and Kris... and then went on a pop run... and then took Gab back to Dill's (and got extremely lost! not cool! I have no idea how we found it finally)... and by the time I got back it was 1am so I went to bed.


Sunday was really great. The wedding was good. They all looked cute and Dale and Meg were so happy and all that good stuff. :D There was all kinds of fun food at the reception... and a cheese table... definitely Meg food. Bovee was there!! I haven't seen her since February, and she brought her guy along. The Ideal Man reappeared in the getaway car- so great!

709 Girls

We left for home as soon as Gab was done working. It was a pretty uneventful trip. Well, other than when we were sitting at a subway listening to the music they were playing and Sarah mentioned that it made her want to bust a move. So Amber told her to "drop the sandwich." And she did. And did the sprinkler. It was awesome.

Seriously such good times. I love those girls a lot. And I like Lake Superior a lot.
Blessings.

acetone and spider plants

Remember how I accidentally used acetone on my safety glasses...

Last week when I got back from Michigan just about everything on and around my desk had a little sticky note on it. The purple ones said "no acetone here" and the yellow ones said "acetone ok." Yeah.... it was pretty funny. And apparently my coworkers were so proud of themselves they showed anybody who happened to be walking down the hall.

funny stuff.

and I got a spider plant at work. yay!

there is gold in the eye of the morning...

That's the first line of a really really really stupid song about Michigan we sang in high school chorus. and Matt definitely made me listen to it on the way to Michigan last weekend.

The Wyss vacation is this week. Matt and I went up Friday, and then I stayed until late Tuesday night. When we got there, there wasn't a bed for me and I got a lecture about my car and I was seriously ready to turn around and drive home... but then Abby and I took over a bed in the 'boys' cabin' which worked out really well so it was all good. Abby and Matt came home Sunday night so I had a whole room to myself which was amazing. And the weather was great and I got slightly sunburned and I got to eat junk food pretty much constantly, and hang out with my cousins and Neal and Kim and their boys. woot!

So since everybody was gone Matt and I had people over for church and um... lunch call (did I really just call it that? yikes!) last night. I had fun. It was good to see them all, and good to have people my age at church. (seriously, when I was in Sunday school the number of people born '83-'86 was approximately 16.... only about 5 still go to Washington semi-regularly.)

I didn't get enough sleep all weekend.... and I'm still tired.
Blessings.

A girl's best friend

not a dog.

definitely not a diamond.

Sevin. It's amazing.

my coworkers laughed a lot when they saw what I did to my safety glasses... note to self, don't try and wash plastic with acetone ever again.

monday

So I finally feel halfway normal again... I'm not coughing much and I'm breathing without the help of Tylenol Sinus (seriously that stuff is amazing!). I hate summer colds. But... since I managed to not get whatever went around this winter I won't complain...much :)

The wedding/ reception was good. There were tons of U of I people in Tremont- which is ironic because lil sow is known for not showing at events... haha. And Neal and Kim were there. We left right after the ceremony to go to Cody's reception. I'm still not sure if it was worth it to drive all the way to Fairbury for a piece of cake... o well. I am really excited for Cody, it was good to see him and spend some time with Gab and Kristi. :)

When I got home from Fairbury I could have gone late to the Sunday School picnic or hang out with U of I people at Koch's... so I went back to Tremont. It was fun. We played volleyball. Or I should say they played volleyball. I was pretty drugged up so the amount of effort that I put forth was probably less than normal (so not much). But definitely good times.

Blessings.

new wheels

So I got a new(er) car! Yay! It's a 2002 Grand Prix. It's dark blue. It's so pretty....haha. I like it a lot. So much nicer than the tauri. :D And I don't have to keep my license plate with my siblings initials on it! woot!

I don't have any good pictures.

I am glad to be done car shopping... not my favorite thing... and I'm glad that Dad came with me... I still don't understand why I can't tell the salesman it's cute... or why they can't just put price on it and not do all the back and forth making offers stuff...

Yeah, so I'll probably get all sentimental about my old car- we've been together since high school. Ha! Or not. My cousin might get it so it won't be too far away if I get too lonesome. :)

I'm sick. And I have to go to two weddings/receptions this weekend.
Blessings.

Stars and Stripes

hooray for holidays! and for working for the government and getting them off. :)

Thursday I got to see some old roomies at Meg's personal shower. Good times. That wedding is coming up fast! I am pretty excited.

Matt and I went to Champaign on the 4th to hang out with U of I people. We played in the park and Amber grilled burgers and we went to Darrin and Sue's and watched fireworks at Parkland and got home really late. So fun... I got a lot of bug bites... but seeing the girls made it worth it. (The guys too.... I guess) :D

Saturday I finished priming the old chicken house... finally...it's a slow process.... I wish I would have taken before pictures. O well. Dad and I went to look at a car since I was too afraid to go by myself. (I haven't got the foggiest when it comes to cars) It was hot and the salesman talked a lot about stuff I could care less about but is apparently important. I am tired of looking at cars and thinking about cars. It makes my head spin.

So while Dad and I were in Peoria we saw posters up for the free Peoria Municipal Band concerts that they have on Sunday evenings in Glen Oak Park. Shelly and Jakey thought it sounded boring. *cough* uncultured unpolished people... but I digress. Anyway, so Mom and Dad and I had a picnic in the park and watched the wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds. And then we listened to the band. I found the demographic switch to be pretty amusing. I was one of very few people under 60. But it was good. It was a perfect night to be outside, and they played patriotic music and it was just really fun. I liked it a lot.

and since I've been told all I blog about is dead rodents.... might as well keep up the trend... there were some dead squirrels and a rabbit on our front steps all dressed up in doll clothes late one night... eeesh osh.

What not to do before a 6.5 hour car trip

1. Don't drink one last glass of root beer.
2. Don't drink water.
3. Don't drink two glasses of water.
4. Don't expect me to stop before we've been driving two hours.
5. Don't expect me to feel even slightly sympathetic.
6. Don't expect me to care about how mean you think I am...
Note to self: never travel with my younger cousins again.

so I tried to blog about Kansas earlier this week and my dumb computer erased it.

It was a good time... Scott got a keg of root beer for his 21st birthday. It was really really really good. So I got to drink a lot of root beer. We ate at Jackstack (amazing as usual), and went swimming and played sand volleyball. Brent's and Galen's girls are soooo cute. :)

Matt and I were 'discussing' which of our friends drove Grand Am's and which drove Grand Prix's... slight disagreement... and then I mentioned that he couldn't even call (insert name of mutual friend here) and ask him because he wouldn't know. And then we both started laughing and our passengers were mad because we wouldn't explain. Tell her she's wrong. panz.

We did finally make it home after being stuck in a car with texting teenagers for waay to long. And I haven't really done much all week. Except go to work. And slowly priming the chicken house.

Matt found a bunch of baby moles yesterday. They were so cute! And sooo soft. And their funny noses and feet. Unfortunately they were 'taken care of'... it would have been fun to raise one as a pet or something.

Blessings.

Sunbeams, Rainbows and Kittens

so I'm not going to write about anything in the title... except maybe kittens. We have three cute kittens. Actually, this post is all about blood and death and varmints. So if you are squeamish... maybe you better check this cool site out. http://wordle.net/

I think the opossum count is seven now. And still no skunk. Seven cute little opossi with huge scary looking teeth and nasty rat tails. ick. So I'm getting pretty good at prodding opossums out of the trap ('I'm the best there's ever been'). I'm pretty proud of my skills. Although I am not at all partial to what happens after they are prodded out of the trap. That is Matt and Jakey's job. They have a lot more power in their swing than I do. And they are much more accurate with shovels and axes and pitchforks.

Last week a cat got into the chickens and killed 16 of them. Kind of an awful sight... carcasses every where and the surviving hens all huddled in the corner. The cat might not have lived very long after that.

After supper I was painting in the old chicken house and Matt just had to come show me what they are baiting the trap with tonight- a pigeon whose untimely demise was quite recent. It had also been decapitated. I'm not sure why, maybe skunks like their squab prepared like that?

On a happier note, my flowers are growing! And my rose bush has roses. And I'm going to Kansas this weekend. Woot! And while mom and Dad were gone shelly and I called our plumber friend and he came and fixed the sink that has been leaking for two years and totally surprised M and D. It was amazing.

Summertime

and the livin' is easy...

or something. Mom and Dad are in SC at the moment so guess who gets to make sure that everyone gets fed and the house stays in one piece... woot.

Shelly and I trimmed the bushes on Monday. I'm not sure when that became my job, but it is fun to use the hedge trimmer and if I'm trimming I don't have to pick up as much of the trimmings. :)

I used two things of liquid nails in the chicken house.... and I'm still not done. O, and I got carded for buying the stuff at walmart- so funny! Since I obviously look like I'm under 17 and am going to go right home and sniff it.

Matt and Jake spent Tuesday on the levee in Taylor. Which was good because I didn't have to cook and Shelly and I ate Jimmy John's, which I love.

The "Taste of NCAUR" is tomorrow so I have to make some kind of ethnic dish tonight... I don't know what to make... hm...

Anyway.
Blessings.

Random Things

I don't really have anything to blog about... which is sad.

I stopped at Sheridan Road Nursery on my way home from work.... um... not a good idea... I brought home a bush and a rose. :D Which I love.

Here are some pictures of Kendra's musical dress.


The front before I hemmed it... and the back. Check out that amazing invisible zipper!! And the cummerbund that I spent at least 2 hours working on that they wore for ONLY one scene. It was a crazy lot of fabric for a costume. O well. It was fun to make, and I learned how to cut down a pattern... and do fittings.... so it's all good.

Matt and I got three wedding invitations this week. Two were addressed to "Miss Jenny W. and Matt" the other one was addressed properly, "Jenny W., Matt W." It's also amusing to compare wording.

I sprayed down the milk house/ chicken house/ future potting and/or garden shed and got incredible dirty. And it probably still smells like chickens. There is still much to do.

Blessings.

Meet Me In St. Louis

So about 15ish of us W-ton yg people spent Saturday and Sunday in St. Louis. I had a pretty good time... I was feeling like I was babysitting towards the end but... overall a great trip. :)

We met up with Matthew S. and Natedog, it was good to see them again. Our first stop was at the Third Degree Glass Factory- we got to see a demonstration of glass blowing... it was super cool um, hot. :) They had some nifty stuff for sale- and the bathroom sinks/ faucets were amazing! All made out of colorful blown glass.

We had a picnic at Forrest Park for lunch. It was rather warm at that point. And I had it on good authority, *cough* Matt, that guys could a whole gondola. So I brought 12. We only ate 6. O well, we didn't run out. After lunch we went to the Zoo. Which I love. My favorites are the giraffes. I like to watch the hippos too, but giraffes are just cool.

So since we were quite warm (it was 90ish and muggy) we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Science Center. Which I also loved. :D And it was air conditioned. I would have spent more time there but everyone else was ready to go for supper. We ate at Fitz's and drank some amazing root beer.

For evening festivities we all headed to Nathan's house for singing and ping pong. I am bad at ping pong, but it's still fun to play. Us girls spent the night at a hotel... so since I was the only one over 21 (eeesh) I got to chauffeur them in the 15 passenger van we rented... and I was the only one old enough to check in. So I'm signing stuff for the rooms and they have a line for the make and model of the vehicle we're driving.. um.. um... so I put down Ford (I'm not that dumb) but I had no idea what model I was driving so I just wrote "van". Haha.. I bet they laughed about that at the desk after I left. I was just glad they didn't ask for the license plate, I would have had to have somebody go out and check. :D

We managed to all get ready for church on time and made it back to Nathan's before the guys were ready. Yay for us. St. Louis church was full- lots of Champaign people there randomly! It was good to see them. After church we changed at Nathan's and left for home. We had to make a bathroom stop in Delavan and tried to take a shortcut home through T-town... bad idea, the turkey fest was in full swing. whoops. so much for saving time. I'm pretty worn out now...

Blessings.

i lied

I went shopping in Bloomington last night... and then Gab made me feel guilty about never hanging out with her, so I went to Gridley to hang out after their Bible School. It was good to see Katrina and the other Gridley girls again.

It was starting to storm when I was leaving... Gab came with Nic and Bob so she rode with me as far as my house. Which was good because we drove through some torrential rains and bright lightning and I don't like driving in storms. Although I did have a um...lovely, cushy new steering wheel cover to hold on to for dear life.

social butterfly

So Thursday I played volleyball, Friday was Bible Study at Amber's, Saturday was the CIS, and Sunday was church...

I'm not sure what got into me.

I read a book on Monday. And I'll probably be anti-social tonight too.

bug bites and lightning bug jewelry

I'm afraid I'm going to have a lot of the former..... Matt and I went to Bob and Susan's and played volleyball tonight. Good times.

Sprout and I caught a lightning bug and removed its light... I gave her a ring... and then she rejected me and smeared it on my hand.

On the way home Matt decided to be adventurous and take a poorly maintained gravel road... *sigh* and I just got my suspension fixed...

Such a pretty night.

Rockville

Happy Decoration Day! I spent most of it in airports and on planes. But... I did finish three books. :) And my ears didn't pop, which was amazing.

It was a really good weekend, I really kind of enjoyed it. I was having second thoughts about going Friday afternoon... Matt and I flew out by ourselves because we didn't get tickets until I knew that I didn't have to work- and then I switched jobs so it didn't matter anyway. I set off the metal detectors and got the full pat down again. Seriously, every single time I fly! And they opened our bags and searched them in Peoria. They must be really bored.

We spent a lot of time outside, which was really nice. Took a walk to a reservoir... one of the girls I stayed with drove a carload up a dirt path to the top of Soapstone 'mountain' to see the view... sang a lot and ate a lot. Met a lot of new fun people. Tried to blend... good times.

The midwest definitely feels very different than New England. I felt like I should be reading Thoreau or Emerson or something. They don't have any straight roads. I was really turned around all weekend. O well. :)

So our flight options were pretty limited and we left pretty early this morning... ugh. This time I took all of my pins out after we got dropped off and I didn't set off the detector and I didn't get poked and prodded and it was great. Matt of course got subjected to a random shoe check. I think they were bored too, it was pretty quiet at the airport this morning.

I'm really tired now and I'm not too excited to get up and go to work tomorrow. But I might get to play with making glue sticks. woot.
Blessings.

Did you hear

about the two antennas that got married?? The wedding wasn't much, but the reception was great! *grin*

Last Saturday night the w-ton yg had a grandparents supper. Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Pearline (my third grandma) were all busy.... so Shelly and I invited our great uncle Bill and his wife Lucille. They're pretty great. And I like his jokes a lot. We had a blast. This is a really funny picture- Lu is the only one who looks halfway normal. She's pretty up on technology... this was taken with her digital camera and she emailed it to me this afternoon.


So why did the parrot wear a raincoat? He wanted to be poly-unsaturated!!! Good stuff.

ducks

So I really like my new job. And the people that I work with. They have a large supply of rubber duckies from that Oriental Trading catalog.... including scientist ducks. They sometimes get hid in people's offices when they're gone, or for birthdays, or promotions. Which I love. :D

i love the smell of doughnuts in the morning

so today the yg served lunch at church... and it was a huge wedding... and it was mother's day. lunch went remarkably well. people have a lot more patience with inexperience and mass chaos on days like today i think. but we had plenty of help in the kitchen all day, didn't run out of food, and hopefully we didn't leave it in too much of a shambles.

there were so many people there... they set up 250 chairs and there were still people standing in the back. eeesh. and next Sunday is another wedding.

this afternoon i was curled up reading a book and jakey casually mentioned that i had gotten a text message but i shouldn't worry because, "i took care of it." um.... so i ran and got my phone.... he definitely replied "chuck norris" to amber's text. i laughed a lot.

rita and karen are in town. which means lots of family dinners at which there is too much food and four or five unrelated conversations all going on at once.

blessings.

random poetry night

so it's been awhile... tonight we read Robert Burns.

good stuff.

the lilacs are blooming. :D

... pretty sunday

I've had a quiet weekend, which is nice once in a while. :)

The sunburn I got two weeks ago decided to start peeling.

It was so nice out today I just had to lay out on the porch with a book. (I have got to get rid of these crazy NC tan lines...)

Gab invited me to morton's hymn sing. Then we went to Dairy Queen. Good times.

Steak and Potatoes

So I invited myself to the Shaker for supper last night. (hey, my days as a Shaker sister are fast slipping away and all the rights and privileges thereof.... not that there are any, but still) Mark cooked some great sirloins, I definitely picked the right night to come.

After supper was singing at the nursing home. There were only ten of us but the residents were very appreciative and we actually sounded pretty good. I liked it a lot. Matt and I went to custard cup afterward even though it was a little too cold for ice cream. I got a chocolate snowstorm with peanut butter.... yum... that stuff is amazing. We hung out at the shake for a while afterwards... good times. Crazy that he's almost done.

I stopped at Hessel house on my way back home. I was good to see those girls too. It's been almost a week and a half since I've seen them...too long. :)

Work is going pretty well. The first week is always kinda slow... but yeah... I like it. Tomorrow I get to play with the GC all day.

Blessings.

ivy covered walls

It's been a pretty busy weekend. Friday was my last day at PDC. It wasn't too sad. I didn't have anything to do really, so didn't go back after lunch. Some of the people I worked with took me out to Old Chicago for pizza. Which I love. Friday night we had the yg at our house.

Someday when I'm rich and famous and have a house, remind me not to plant ivy. We had some by the front steps and it was really overgrown. We would find it growing inside the house- in the basement lights, and in the stove vent. It was also getting up under the siding... so Shelly and I tore it out on Saturday. It didn't really want to come so that was fun. There are also a lot of scary bugs down by the foundation.

I made Jakey show me how to drive the loader tractor so we could haul the ivy away. There were a few scary moments... he didn't tell me that I wasn't supposed to use the brakes. And he was barely hanging on the fender at the time. um... yeah. But I figured it out finally, and managed to back it into the shed without destroying anything.

Dad and I moved my two ash trees from one side of the garden to the other. I hope they make it, they were free and it will be pretty sad if they die.

It was invite a guest weekend so that's what I did most of today. I start at the Ag Lab tomorrow. woot.

La Manana Gloriosa

that spanish cd that I helped sing on came in the mail today. it's pretty cool. I may have listened to it a few times already.

Kendra B. and I met with some older single sisters tonight to talk about yg stuff... good times... they're a lot of fun, and they have all kinds of good ideas. I lack energy though...

Blessings.

Cary, NC

So the north Carolina trip was wonderful. :) It was really good to get away for a few days with some quality people.
We left Thursday from champaign... around 4:30ish I think. The trip out went pretty fast, I drove some. West Virginia is a creepy state at night... it reminded me of this horror movie that I watched in high school about cannibalistic hillbillies in the WV woods. And we stopped at this out of the way gas station that was kind of scary looking.... it was fun to joke about all weekend.

It was 6am NC time when we got to our very nice hotel (hooray for the Cat discount!)... Bob came and got the guys and us girls crashed for a few hours. Then we all went to Cat and were properly welcomed and got name tags and hats... Bob had some Cat equipment set up and we got to play with them for a few hours... seriously, so much fun.


We spent the rest of the afternoon/ evening at Bob's apartment- went to the grocery store and got frozen pizzas for supper and stuff for lunch and supper on Saturday. There's a lake by the apartment complex so we went for a walk and played on the playground. Most of us went to the airport to pick up Nic and then we just sat around and threw things for a while.
I shared a hotel room with Sarah and Susan- such a good time. :) Saturday morning we met up with the guys and drove to the beach. The weather was amazing- and there weren't very many people out. Played football for a while (I ran back and forth...just not my thing), made sandwiches for lunch, went for a walk in the surf, played volleyball without a net... and got sunburnt even though I used sunscreen. O well. Amber had to get wet of course, but I'm not sure why I had to. I was minding my own business retrieving the volleyball and I was forcibly dragged into the Atlantic against my will. Ok, so I'll admit to not putting up a fight because the water was amazing and I kind of wanted to go in anyway. Plus, Amber and Bob both got wet again so that made it worth it. :)


On the way back to Cary us soggy people rode in the back seat of Bob's car while Nic and Rogan drove. (Rogan was shifting and Sass was working the clutch for a while...) Good times and good conversation. After we all cleaned up Matt and Nic grilled burgers for supper... went down by the lake and chilled...talked about starting a church in Cary... us girls were sitting on a bench and some teenage kids wandered over. They were carrying around a 24 pack and had definitely been drinking, and they wanted to introduce themselves. It was pretty funny really... Amber asked them straight out how old they were... and one of the kids tried to light a cigarette in his shirt which led to my favorite Sarah quote ever- "Stop, drop, and roll." I don't think I have ever been hit on by 17ish yearolds before. And the guys didn't even come to our rescue... eeesh. At least we had Kaleigh to protect us. :)

Matt's birthday was Saturday, he got a large box full of peeps and a tractor. There was ice cream thanks to Sarah and Susan and we spent the rest of the evening in random conversation and comfortable silence and passing the aloe around.


Sunday morning we left from the hotel (after waiting for the guys and watching the Pope in NY) and had an uneventful trip home. I drove about half way through some very beautiful country, WV isn't nearly as scary in the daylight. I was sad when we got back... it really was a great weekend.

I have more pictures on facebook.

So what did you do this weekend?

.... the fellowship truly was sweet....

Just Can't Wait

to get on the road again!

I'm leaving for Cary, NC tomorrow(today i guess) after work with some super fun chicas and some guys. Woohoo! I'm excited.

Fairbury was great fun... I donated 10 inches of hair to locks of love.... And I spent the evening in Champaign with a few washington yg people. It was great... I love shaker singings. and U of I people.

It's past my bedtime. Goodnight.

and Rain

This week was the start of the crazy busy spring season at work. Everything is mostly unfrozen now, so we're getting all kinds of samples because all of our clients have to test for EPA compliance. And for some reason they all have to do it right now. Eeesh. I had to stop for Dr. Pepper pretty much every day after work.

Last weekend was really great. Congerville was such a fun time. I forget how many people I know over there, and it was really good to catch up. It was soo nice out so after church Audrey and I went on a long walk through the woods and managed to get slightly muddy.

um... not much else is new....life's pretty boring.... I'm almost done with Kendra's musical costume. I quit my job and I'm starting at the Ag Lab in a few weeks. I think I might go to Fairbury for testimonies/baptisms this weekend.

Blessings.

Sunshine

I like spring a lot. I planted some lily of the valley today. And hauled a lot of wheel barrow loads of winter debris from the yard.

A band of marauding Indians attacked me and set my wheel barrow on fire, but they ran off and left me my scalp so... I let them do it a few more times. :)

Clayton and I went shopping tonight. He doused himself with cologne at Hollister and now my car smells like SoCal.

I invited myself to Congerville tomorrow since I haven't been there in years. Should be good.

Blessings.

uiyg

so college weekend and nerd night (which i missed) reminded me of this list that some of the U of I girls came up with last year. good memories. :D

Top 10 things to Love about the U of I YG:

10. Your throwing arm improves
9.5 You learn how to duck
9. Jeremy’s announcements
8.5 Bubble Tea
8. We aren’t good at small talk, but we just don’t care
7.5 Studying together is a young group activity
7. Water fights in the house
6.626 x 10-34 We analyze quantum physics after singings
6.5 Polar Pop parties
6.022 Mole Day!
6. Four part harmony: 1 soprano, 1 alto, and a whole lot of Bass
5.5 Trivial Pursuit
5. Rubber band wars
4.75 Blake’s taffy
4.5 It’s wise to own a squirt gun
4. Twenty Questions
3.5 Sand Volleyball
3.14 Pi(e) Day!
3. There are many situations where a mask is appropriate
2.5 Four words: Big Quad, Little Chalk
2.25 Snowball fights in the house
2. Champaign Sunday school kids
1.5 We’re on a first name basis with the late-night Perkins’ staff
1. The coolest brethren and sisteren ever!

CW

I had an excellent weekend in Champaign. I think it's more fun to be an alumna at these things. I'm told it was the 40th anniversary of CW... started by U of I...which is cool. Anyway, I love it how much U of I pride always comes out when we host stuff. Blue and orange napkins, decorations, programs, pens, blue shirts and orange ties, the "greetings my name is:" name tags. It makes me smile a lot.

All the current U of I girls had to lead discussions groups so I got to hang out with Kaleigh, and Callie, and Kim, and Nic in the kitchen and help get food ready for supper. When I say 'help' I mean make lemonade and fill water glasses and get in the way. And I didn't have to be very social...

We sang in the architecture building afterwards- that was pretty cool. And got to see more of Ern than I wanted to. :) O well. I did get to talk to Dona and some other cool girls that I never ever see anymore.

I stayed at Hessel house, always a pleasure! I miss those girls mucho. But I might see them tomorrow. and go to NC with them- yay!

observing both sides of a prank war is good stuff.

blessings.

10

emails in my inbox. the high this week was 40. it was a long week.

i baked pies yesterday and they were really good.

kendra's dress is close to being done. it needs a final fitting and hemming and all that good stuff. then i just need to make a cummerbund and it'll be ready for the stage. :)

life is crazy. God is good. I'm tired.

blessings.

um...yeah...

I think the warm weather has scrambled our brains. :D

if you were at my house today you might have overheard some interesting conversations- for the record, none of these came from me.

unnamed to protect the innocent #1: "do you think I could get a tan from the toaster?"
unnamed to protect the innocent #2: "no, I don't think the toaster gives off UV rays."
(I was cracking up from the other room)

walking out of good friday services: "you know, if it wasn't cloudy, the stars would be really pretty tonight."

talking about the "April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring? (pilgrims, duh) and it was mentioned that the original ending to the rhyme is "happy hours." Which makes it sound much more Irish. we laughed a lot.

Happy Good Friday- Hallelujah for the Blood!!

green things

my plants are growing!
I'm pretty excited to try out my new cold frame. :D


I might be a little bit ready for spring...
Blessings.

pi day

• my plants are growing! hopefully they won't die between now and when I put them outside in my new cold frame that my super cool dad made for me. :)
• my car is in the shop again... this time it's the alternator. woot. anybody have a car they want to sell? it has to be blue, and 4-door, and automatic (I can't drive stick), not foreign, be pretty sporty and have a fairly accessible engine. but I'm not picky.
• i went to the menno relief sale tonight to work and they didn't need me. so I walked around... and said hi to all my old menno friends. and decided that it might be the second biggest AC crowd outside of the leo sale.
  
• somehow I agreed to make my cousin's costume for her musical. the smallest available pattern is a size six... she's a size zero. um... um.... I don't know how to do that! thank goodness for mom. it's a medieval dress, so i have 8 yards of lavender satin to play with- woot!
  
• in case you forgot, today is pi day. I didn't have time to make any pie.... so sad.
  

Blessings.

blue was just a kansas summer sky

Or March sky.
Somehow I made it all day on 4.5 hours of sleep...

Kansas was really fun. I kind of procrastinated on finding a ride until Friday afternoon. But it was all good, because I ended up going with BDY, J-nell, and Natedog. It was an uneventful drive out, and we made it in time for the supper and singing. It was really good to see Kansas people and U of I people, although I barely got to talk to any of them for very long.

I got to spend the night with Marie, Kristi, and Brit at Stefani's house- good times. Kristi set her cell phone alarm for 7 on Sunday morning and I set mine for 8 and they both went off at the same time; we were kind of confused as to which was correct. But... we figured it out and we weren't late for church. :)

The wedding was beautiful, Caleb and Bethany are both so cute. And they managed to have the shortest wait in a reception line ever! Props to them for that.

We took the scenic route back to the interstate... our fearless driver and navigator were busy reminiscing so we got to experience some real Kansas roads. :) The ride home was slightly disappointing (side note- I'm using hyperbole here)- we didn't stop for Jackstack and Bandanna's was "shut" so I have yet to experience that place; but there was lots of good music and conversation. I didn't get home until 1 (St. Louis is definitely not on the way to Bern) so I've been pretty much in a fog all day. O well, I'll survive and it was worth it to be there. At least I wasn't crazy like some people who drove out in the middle of the night. :)

Blessings.

Bookends

Sometimes I go for weeks with 'nothing' to do and then I get crazy busy all of the sudden.

Tuesday evening Elise had "the girls who were in bible class together + Heather" (we need a name or something) over for supper and games. It was good to be with them again. I don't know what my problem was though, I was soooo tired and I ended up going home really early because I could barely keep my eyes open enough to play moods.

Last night Gab and I went to Champaign to hang out with Karen K. It was a great time. I had to drop some stuff off at the Shaker for Matt so we said hi to all the Shakerites and Ern. Some things never change- the smell of the Shake and the smell of Ern. We stopped at Walmart for old times sake. I didn't wear my whale p.j.'s because Gab didn't wear hers... We ate supper at Za's on Green street- so good. We've been talking about going to a ballet or something similar for a while... so we checked out a "studio dance" at Krannert. It was... um.. interesting. I liked parts of it. Parts of it were just plain weird. But, my horizons were definitely broadened, so it was not a bad experience. Plus I can say that I've watched five people push a grand piano around a stage for no particular reason and then 'dance' around it. yeah. interesting really isn't a very good way to describe it. Then we ate Coldstone and came home.

I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night... and I had to sit through five hours of safety training today. So boring.

I'm going to KS tomorrow!
Blessings.

...Old friends, Old friends Sat on their park bench Like bookends...

Snow and Mud

This has been an excellent week. I went skiing and mudding and my old roomie Meg announced her engagement to Dale!!!! Two total allstars! I'm super excited for them!

Kaleigh and Kendra B and I got up really, really early yesterday and drove to Chestnut Mt. to go skiing. I had such a good time with those girls. They're lots and lots of fun! It was Kendra's first time skiing, always kind of nerve wracking because I would have felt awful if she didn't have a good day. But she did really great! The weather was pretty much perfect and they got snow the day before... so I got to ski on the most powder/real snow that I've ever been on. I was really glad for Curves... because I felt halfway in shape/in control of my skis... which I love. And I even went down a few more slopes than normal. I'm not usually very adventurous. It was really great. We had good times in the car, we never did see a post office, although they made me take a picture next to a deserted "Tradin Post." Haha. Kendra and I were a little bit late to testimonies... but you'll have that. I'm not even very sore today! Pretty much an amazing day.


There were four baptisms today, so church was very full. Abby came over after and we went for a pretty long walk. It was so nice outside! We were going to go look at my plants in the shed and the barnyard is a soupy mess since everything melted. So... we decided to drive my car rather than get all muddy. Um... my car is heavier than it looks because we definitely got stuck in front of the shed. And dug some really deep ruts trying to get it out. Ab and I had to give up and get Dad and Shelly to get it out. The one good thing was that I ended up in my bare feet stomping through mud puddles and almost falling face first in the mud. :D The ground is a lot colder than the air.... but once your feet go numb the gravel doesn't hurt as much. It was quite the experience...

Blessings.

i'm afraid of the phone

I've had the same cell phone for 4 years now... total number of calls: 1371, total minutes used: 35:01:04.

*grin*

....

um... I guess I just don't have anything to say!

i can't wait for spring

I had a pretty quiet weekend. Skiing didn't work out so I had all Saturday to do all kinds of fun things. Like sit around. And finish "Knife of Dreams" finally.... that whole series took me almost two years! Craziness.

I started some flowers in my mini greenhouse in the shed loft. I'm pretty excited.
Sometimes when my dad goes to the store he brings me home super cool surprises- like the clamp light in the picture. (The fluorescent fixture is "borrowed" from the house)

The one downside... I have to haul water up these stairs.....so hopefully something grows.

Blessings.

Die Gruppe

thanks to Dalestyle for the picture...




on another note,
Happy Singles Awareness day! Shelly and I were singing that to the tune of happy birthday tonight... with great emphasis on the "many more" part. :D

the frozen north

So I had an excellent weekend. Two of my old roomies live in the twin cities, so a bunch of people with 709/champaign connections road tripped up to visit them. There were 17 of us plus a fly-in... it was a great group. I kind of miss people already. I'm pretty pathetic, I know.

We went snow tubing, and played games, and saw Amanda's apartment, and visited a conservatory and zoo, and went ice skating, and had a wonderfully random supper, and pretty much had a blast. I like Minnesota. I like how they don't hide in their houses when it's cold.

Some of my highlights:

• driving and discussing "A grief observed"
  
• Gab's iPod
• the flowers at the conservatory
• ice skating and playing tag under the stars even though it was 20 below zero.
• piling 14 people into a 7 passenger van on the way to church
• playing who, what, WHEN, where, why
• Seeing Bovee
  
• supper- I shared a picnic basket with Marcos... others weren't so lucky and ate from baby plates, flowerpots, camping cook kits, sand pails, and with marshmallow toasters... funny stuff.
  
• Boo-boo Blakey's car... which I may or may not have had anything to do with.
• Chilling with some super cool girls
• talking WOT with Sprout
• Listening to some random music lecture d.j. nicalicious found in the van
• having Natalie ride shotgun and Sarah explaining things
• the "Send Help" sign
  

Lowlights (few and far between):

• almost hitting Steffen's van
  
• my van not starting before church
  
• my van still not starting after church
• a completely frozen van
  

Although, even though thawing out the van was a hassle and annoying I think some of the guys were enjoying being mechanics for an hour. :) Props to boo-boo for taking one for the team and losing some hearing finally getting it started with ether.

My alarm went off way too early this morning. And it was a very busy day.
Blessings.

Cousins

Scott and Ned were in Champaign this weekend to visit Neal and Kim so Saturday morning Jake and I drove down to see them. Matt decided that they needed to experience Merry Ann's so we met them there for breakfast. That place is so greasy. Ned had The Stack and afterwards said he felt like he had eaten a brick. :)

We went to the Shaker after breakfast because the boys wanted to let their food settle or something... then we headed out to marriage hill at Orchard Downs to go sledding. It was really great- the temperature was perfect, the snow was packed, and it wasn't super crowded. We did have to avoid hitting a lot of little foreign children... but they were cute so it was all good. Scott and I could not keep the tobogon straight. Every time we tried it we would go sideways and then somehow end up in the snow. Most of our spills were pretty major; Ned rolled over me at least once, and I ended up under the sled another time.

So then we cleaned up and cooled down at the Shaker and headed to Neal and Kim's for the rest of the day. We played Rook and Wii and ate food and played with Cailer and Brock. Jon W. was there so there were enough people for two Rook games...Kim and I got trounced by Ned and Jake. It was bad. Kim and I had fun at subway trying to order 7 subs... they were a little flustered.

I didn't get enough sleep, as usual. The guys all stayed with Matt so I got my own bedroom and bathroom at Neal's. It was nice. Church in Champaign was good. The Hessel girls had ISU guests, so I got to see some girls that I don't normally see, and Dona. :) Jake and I left right after church for home, which was good because it started thundering/lightning/raining/snowing not long after we got back. I was having enough issues with his psuedo 4 wheel drive blazer on snow this weekend, I really didn't need to drive in any more of it.

Blessings.

If at first you don't succeed

try, try again!

So my second attempt at taffy was a success. Woot! I made it exactly the same, so who knows what happened the first time. Maybe it worked because I wasn't making it for other people... or because I was reading WOT while stirring... or because the atmospheric pressure is lower...

I had to call Grandma in florida to tell her. :D It's 80 degrees there and it's going to snow a lot tonight here. eeessh. I'm trying very hard not to be jealous.

Shelly and I pulled the taffy, the rest of the fam just wanted to eat it, and in my very humble opinion it turned out really good. Much better than at oak run. Of course shelly knows what she's doing... unlike some people... *cough* So anyway...

It's going to snow!
Blessings.

top three

Louis L'Amour books:

1. The Lonesome Gods
2. Sitka
3. The Haunted Mesa

and then of course all the Kilkenny stories.

I went to Oak Run on Friday. It was fun. Even though my taffy was a complete bust. (I talked to two other families that tried making it that same night and theirs failed too... so maybe it was the weather) I was told that I should stick to making pie. We played a lot of "I have never" and I have a bruise on my ankle now.

Otherwise, it's been a lazy weekend. :)

I found out

That I'm not very good at ping pong. O well. I still like to play it. I can't throw darts either. :D

Sydney's baptism was this weekend in Champaign so I went down on Saturday afternoon and chilled with the Hessel house girls and Kaleigh. We played ping pong....with eye protection just in case a light bulb got broken. :)


For supper we went to Cheddar's with some other yg people. The first thing our waitress said to us was, "are you Apostolic?" and then proceeded to praise the Lord (she was Pentecostal) every time she checked on our table. It was pretty funny, because that's the second time in a week that somebody asked if I was Pentecostal... the first time was a creepy guy at a Bloomington gas station...

It was good to be in Champaign again... Sydney's testimony was good... singing afterwards was great.... Kristen and I lost badly at ping pong to the Koch's. When everybody left Sprout and I sang through the Phantom of the Opera- great fun.

I didn't get MLK Jr. day off. *sigh*

Blessings.

graffiti

There's a super cool website called Wonderful Graffiti where you can get words and quotes to put on the wall. I just got some today. I like it a lot. This is a picture of my wall. *grin*

I've been listening to The Hobbit on CD while working on Gab's birthday present. (It's today- Happy Birthday Gab!)

road trip

It's been a good weekend. I spent most of it with people who have Chicago accents.

Sydney, Jody A., Markus, Nic, and I carpooled up to Belvidere Saturday. I was told that we were picking up a 15 year old (no license obviously) so rather than squeezing into a car or Jody's SUV we took our minivan. Which shakes. It's perfectly safe though... We were practically there before we discovered that we didn't have to pick anybody up.... *sigh* O well. At least we weren't squished. And we got to listen to my random music collection.

There was the usual supper and singing at Josh's house and then sitting around and talking. Natalie was there... and Bob... and elgin girls. Jody and Sydney and I stayed at the same place overnight. That was fun. :) After church we sang for some older ladies and then ate, of course.

It was kind of a quiet ride home. Nic was grading papers and he let me do a stack.... I learned about the parts of the eye. Kind of cool. High school kids write funny things when they don't know the answer. Then we talked about our favorite mammals and running away from moose and random stuff like that. :)

work tomorrow. mur.

Blessings.

plumb tuckered out

It was a long week.

I have to be at work at 6:30 now.... half hour drive.... waaay too early for me.

Learned a new test for biochemical oxygen demand and it's demanding.

Helped sew 50 pairs of pajamas for Magdalena. Which I love.

I'm going to Belvidere for the rest of the weekend with some people. I've never been there so it should be a good time.

Blessings.

blazes (or the lack thereof)

Why do weeks seem so much longer when there are holidays in the middle of them?

Last night I went to Jeremy and Brett's good-bye party at Heidi's because they're going to different places in Africa for a few months. It was good to see them again. And all of the other friends that we have in common. Old roomies, old neighbors, Chris and Ashley, interesting conversation (kitty vs. airplane scrubs, lighting trees on fire, the price of hogs)... it was a good time.

Mom took the Christmas tree down today and Jakey and I tried to burn it. It was a little too windy and damp outside because we couldn't get any of it to stay lit. Lighter fluid didn't help; it burned away and the tree never caught. O well, at least we know that it wasn't a big fire risk.

Blessings.

What a year

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Snow Fall!

Christmas was good, I didn't ask for anything exciting so I didn't get anything exciting. :) I did get a lot of books, which I love. I got to see my cousins. And didn't have to work. And got paid for it! Woot.

Amber, Sarah, and Kaleigh came over the other night. We ate out and played Settlers of Catan. It was really good to see them.

Alyssa got married Sunday, the last wedding for 2007. It was very nice, the bridesmaids were beautiful, the bride was gorgeous, they said yes... And there were U of I people there. A bunch of us went to Nic's to hang out after the reception. We played some games, stared at each other, and got a cow eyeball dissection demonstration. Gotta love being friends with a biology teacher. :)

New Years Eve I decided to brave the blizzard and go to Gridley. So I got to see Amber and Kaleigh again, not to mention a lot of other fun Gridley type people. It was a really fun evening and I'm really glad I went.

Today I was lazy. And panzed on going sledding. But it was 12 degrees out! And waay too windy. I went for a walk and came in practically frozen. It was a good excuse to drink cocoa. :)

Blessings in the New Year.