The invite

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

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

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

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

Another reason the 711 boys are the best

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

Today

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

Am I a Soldier of the Cross

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

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

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

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

Blessings.

Cooking

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

What do you call a piano down a mineshaft?

A flat minor!

I love that joke.

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

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

Blessings.

He is Risen Indeed!

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

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

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

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

Sunny Days

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

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

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

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

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

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

I want a mandolin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's been a week

A long week. But a good one.

Some stress and more late nights.

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

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

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

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

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

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

mmm....Spring

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

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

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

So tired....

Two chapters to go. ick.

How to scare Gab 101

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

Too funny.

O Meatwagon....take me to Mexico

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

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

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

Spring Break

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

Tammy's Here!

*grin*

We had to clean really fast this afternoon.

And we cooked food out of a box.

So much for being AC girls....

O well. Good times.

All's well that ends well!

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

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

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

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

Is it bad to take your hostess snipe hunting??

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sleep

It sounds sooo good right now. :)

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

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

Now I'm going to bed.

Happy Birthday...

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

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

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

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