stuff

So my life is pretty boring right now. I have been sitting around a lot. :)
Wednesday night Gab and Matt and I went to Tremont to surprise Nic for his birthday. That was pretty fun...specially since I haven't seen Gab in waaay too long. Ok, so it's maybe been only 2 weeks, but still! And there were lots of U of I/ Mexico people there and it was wonderful to see them all again.
I was actually home on a Friday night to go to a Washington YG thing! It was good, but there are a lot of new people so it felt different. A good different, but different none the less.
I might head to the library today...have to check out this Wheel of Time series I keep hearing about. ;) Hm...maybe not today they might be closed. Anyway.
Blessings.

there and back again

So I went to Kansas this past weekend with Matt and Shelly for Scott's graduation. We managed to not get lost or fall asleep. And we made it in about 6.5 hours both ways. Even though on the way home we sat in traffic for a half hour.

We "helped" Aunt Karen get ready for Scott's graduation party. Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Pearline went early Friday morning and pretty much had everything under control. Or at least not quite as chaotic as normal. Grandma took care of the cleaning and food and Grandpa checked everyone's oil and fixed faucets and things. Scott and Matt and I went to Robeks and saw Nate and got smoothies. Good times. We got to go to a Kansas City YG thing and looked at old Christmas cards and played some Rook until late on Saturday night. We left church early to get to the graduation in time- a good thing because Uncle Randy wasn't sure where the arena was so we ended up driving around downtown Kansas City for a while. :) I like KC. People have roses blooming already! I'm so jealous. Blue Valley HS is a lot bigger than Eureka! So graduation took that much longer. But I got to sit by Kim and Brock. And they had Jackstack for supper.

Today I slept in pretty late...whoops. I spent most of the afternoon cleaning the garage so I wasn't totally lazy. It was nasty. And I killed so many spiders and stink bugs. *shudder* It was horrible. And found 3 dead mice in various states of decomposition. Ick. At least it's clean now. And it's summer.

My two ash trees survived the drought last summer! They have leaves!! I'm so excited.

the rest of wednesday

Was actually pretty eventful. The water was off and on all day, hopefully it's on now for good.

I decided to get some exercise after lunch and ride my bike over to Aunt Lori's, see the baby, and give the little girls some of the stuff that I had just cleaned out of my drawers. So since my bike has a perpetual flat tire I took Mom's. I put a little air in the tires because it hasn't been ridden all winter and grabbed a backpack full of 'treasures' for the girls and left. Their house is about 3 miles from ours and I had ridden about two when I heard a bang. It took me a second to realize where it came from and why my front tire was suddenly hissing at me. Thankfully, it happened right in front of Brookside Landscaping, where my lil brother is working this summer. Sooo I just walked it down the hill and left it in the bed of his truck and kept walking to Lori's. I'm sure I looked hilarious with my backpack and rolled up jeans. I looked at the baby and then my uncle gave me a ride home.

When I got home I found out that Mom had invited some of Dad's old buddy's to church and then to our house to surprise him on his birthday. We had to clean quick, but not make it look like the house was clean, and then Jake was supposed to make it look nice while we were at church. And our kitchen is written all over. Anyway, he was surprised and we had lots of cake and as everyone was milling around getting ready to leave, I went to put away the extra silverware. And there was a mouse in the drawer. And I screamed. It was kind of funny...but now we have a mouse in our kitchen- the only one I've ever seen that wasn't carried in by my uncle. Mom's a little nervous about opening the drawers and Dad just dug out a bunch of traps. Good times.

Trogdor is on the wall.

The demon cow and some of his vast arsenal.

Yeah....

None of us are that tall...so we'll never no what we're missing.

The plaster is um, cracking, and its 1941.

The Hobbit, Moby Dick, and the Declaration.

*grin*

Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink

Happy 50th birthday dad!

The water pump is broken. So...no water. Good times. Thank goodness for good neighbors with hot showers. :)

We still don't have wallpaper in the kitchen. And those blank walls are just sooo tempting. So last night Jake (he started it) and I were drawing pictures and writing quotes all over the walls. It's pretty funny stuff. My favorite is below the light switch- "Beauty is just a light switch away." We also have the first line of the Hobbit running across the soffit. I think we should just leave it, call it "Early American Unfinished," and be done. Although the cow-demon and the 'we don't call 911' sign might raise some eyebrows. *grin*

Blessings.

Home

Finals are over! Yay! Now I'm just waiting on grades...ick.

I got a job working for a professor- I'll be in his research group next year and this summer I'll just be doing random things. The best part is that I can do it all from home! So I can work and lay out at the same time....probably not, but technically I could.

Mom and Dad came to Champaign yesterday to help me move back. We tried to look around in the new alumni center. It was very crowded. Then they took me out for lunch and Mom and I went to the mall for a while. We were almost ready to leave for home, but mom wanted to get some stuff for Grandma at Bath and Body works and I was hungry. So she left me and I got in line at Auntie Anne's behind three African American women. I'm standing there, minding my own business when another black lady walked by and yelled several obscenities at the three women standing in front of me. Which they returned....so they are standing about 25 ft apart dropping the B-word and "my sista whipped y'alls butt two months ago" and something about a baby-daddy. (This is the point at which I started slowly backing up out of line...inching closer to the people sitting in the cafe tables in front of Auntie Anne's) They were being very loud and obnoxious and this white guy (40's or 50's) sitting at one of the tables looks right at me and says "make them shut up!" I was slightly shocked since a) I'm a little white chick b) there's no way I'm getting in the middle of that. So then the security guards come, at which point the white guy, with the danger of him getting beat gone, decides to yell at the top of his lungs "Shut the f- up!" Dropped the f-bomb. In the middle of the mall. In front of me. I was too shocked to say anything then but later I wanted to go chew him out, first for not being man enough to do anything without the security guards there and secondly for saying the f-word pretty much in my ear. What kind of a guy does that with ladies present. And little kids all around. Anyway. I got back in line and got my jalepeno pretzel and that was my exciting story for the day.

How to survive finals week

1. Numerous trips to the B.P. for Polar Pops- 32 oz of Dr. Pepper for 59 cents- pure heaven.
2. Dove Milk Chocolate.
3. Random MSN conversations.
4. Dr. Pepper.
5. iTunes.

*sigh* 3 down, 2 to go.

I missed the ACS project, but I hear that my lil brother's video created quite a stir. :)

The calm before the storm

I have four finals this week and they are all going to be pretty hard. Not fun.

I got to go to singing at the home in Washington for the first time in a long time. I was excited to see my kindergarten teacher there...but it was sad when I talked to her, she is pretty much gone and she is so young. And Easter, an older lady that used to come in to Lindy's, is there now because she broke something. She was singing along with every song. And afterwards random Kansas people started showing up including Ned at 5am. :)

I was going to study on Saturday but I ended up cleaning out and putting away and digging in my rose bed. Saturday night was jazz night at the high school. Good times...I miss jazz band. And I got to see a bunch of my little trumpets. They're all grown up now. It's been a long time since I was the trumpet goddess.

And instead of studying Gab and I have been talking to Karen for a loong time. :)
Blessings.

Pie and things

It's been a good last week of class. Now I just have a week of finals to look forward too. Ick.

Monday night our house was invited to Saltshaker for supper. They made lasagna, and it was actually really good! Not that I had any doubts....

Tuesday I forgot about a test and then I made pie and then I felt better. We had a bunch of leftover pie crust from the invite, and mom sent me some rhubarb so I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie. And I had an extra can of peaches and still more crust so I made a peach pie too. Including the pie left over from the invite, we had three pies in the house. I don't like our oven. The dials don't have numbers on them, so we have to guess how hot it is. So I put the pie in for 45 minutes. When I came back to check on them both the living room and the kitchen were pretty much full of smoke. One of them cooked over in the oven and they were both getting a little crispy. *sigh* I never have these problems at home.

Gab wanted to have the guys involved in forgetting the pie in the oven at Wayne and Char's over to eat the extra peach, and then we felt bad just inviting certain people and we had 3 pies so we invited 301, Shaker, 711 and Scott. So at 10pm we had a bunch of guys descend on our house for pie and ice cream. It was amusing- there were a lot of people in our house and the girl to guy ratio was extremely small. I'm so glad it worked out though, definitely a good time and our porch light got changed. :)

So today was the last day of classes. Hooray!! And my last day of work. Not so exciting, I'm going to miss the greenhouse. If I'm not too busy next year I might go back. It was also the last Wednesday night in Champaign for a while. I'm going to miss the church here over the summer. Laura and Heather came to visit Gab, and we went to custard cup after church and then went to hang out with Carissa at the Shaker. And then we came home kind of early, and I'm told we missed a water fight (O darn....haha). But I said I would make an egg casserole for the senior breakfast tomorrow, so I had to go home and do that. :) We didn't have all the ingredients for any one recipe soooo I kinda made up mine own- hope it tastes ok. And Karen and Kat and Gab were definitely dancing to Usher in the kitchen while I made it. Funny stuff!

One more week. Blessings.

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.