Bubble Tea

I got out of lab early tonight. Hooray! As much as I enjoyed playing with liquid nitrogen and low energy x-ray diffraction, I still was excited because some Gridley people came down for the evening.

We went out for bubble tea. I was not feeling adventurous and got strawberry. I wonder how many people actually order green bean slush in a given week.

If anyone was wondering I think like a serial killer. (According to BJ)

Having a girlfriend is equivalent to buying 3 beers a day.

It's really really really cold out there. Pretty sure my down comforter is one of the best purchases I have ever made.

Meet me in St. Louis

So I had a great time in St. Louis this weekend. Meg and I, BAM, Nic, Josh, and EZ all went out together. The road trip was pretty uneventful and we made it in time for Matthew's testimony so it was all good.

Meg and I stayed with the Rinkenbergers and Kent and Jan H. were there too. It was a fun night. Meg got beat at Foosball. :) We tried hard to feel sorry for the guys... they stayed with Nathan and got to sleep on couches and the floor. We each got our own very comfortable double bed.

I'm not feeling very motivated to do anything at all right now.
Blessings.

A good day

Yesterday was fantabulous. I woke up on time and didn't hit the snooze. (amazingly enough) My first class of the day was floral design and I made two corsages that don't look too bad! :D Then I went and signed up to take piano for two credits... it should be fun, but I'm really really bad so I do feel sorry for whoever has to teach me.

We did our first experiment in Inorganic lab. I don't have to wear goggles and I get my very own hood! The experiment actually worked and the mixture turned all sorts of pretty colors: blue and purple and finally red. The only bad part was that my TA, who reminds me very much of BDY, dropped my sample in the rotovap. He saved most of it so it's all good. :) I was so excited to be in a real lab again I didn't even mind... I think it was the fastest four hours ever.

After supper I went to a singing at Saltshaker. It was Rogan's birthday so Meg baked him a cake and I donated one of my corsages to the cause (Since I have no reason to wear them and they will probably just get moldy in the refrigerator). Blake whipped up some really good taffy and we pulled it. Mike and I had a lot of trouble figuring it out so Gab had to rescue us. :) It turned out pretty good considering. Us girls reclaimed three of our pans that they were hoarding. I finally figured out the chemistry problem they had on their white board this morning... it was really bugging me. :)

My Friday lab doesn't start until next week so I got to sleep in this morning. When I finally woke up Gab made me come to the gym with her. I was not very awake and I didn't notice that I grabbed the 20lbs ball for our ab workout.... yeah.... I'm going to hurt a lot tomorrow. And I just finished cleaning so that's a workout in and of itself.

I'm going to St. Louis tomorrow for Matthew Schrenk's testimony and baptism.
Blessings.

Sledding

I have p-chem lab from 6-10 on Tuesday nights. Which isn't that bad, but... I don't like night classes and I have to miss singing at the home. It's required and it's pretty easy and my schedule was hard enough to figure out this year so I just decided to deal with it. However, I refuse to be excited about it.

So I was kind of bummed about not going to the home last night until I got home from lab and Amber and Sarah asked if I wanted to go sledding. YAY! I love sledding. We don't have a lot of snow right now, maybe an inch or two, but it was perfect sledding weather. None of us girls had sleds, but Amber and Sarah came up with some rubbermaids. 711 brought their awesome couch-on-skis-sled. There were a few real sleds but the couch was by far the best. :)

I thought C-U was pretty flat and boring, but there is a really good hill, marriage hill, out by orchard downs. We had a lot of fun and I got very wet and cold. So of course we had hot chocolate when we got back.



The couch sled arrives... it was hard to push it up the hill, but such a great trip down!

BAM, Me, Amber, and Fred ready to go. Blake Z., Blake K., and Jer gave us a nice running start. Matt totally panzed and didn't show.

Action shot of some of the guys heading down the hill.

The rubbermaids were kind of disappointing. Sarah and I tried really hard but only got about halfway down the hill. O well. It was a nice thought. :)

Ice Skating

Sometimes when it rains and fills up the drainage ditches and then freezes we get a great ice skating rink at our house. If you don't think about what exactly was being drained, or the lovely view from behind the hog houses. :) Saturday it was frozen, so Shelly and I went skating. Unfortunately, Matt drove the honey wagon right over the best part of the ice so it was an obstacle course trying to dodge the harrow, the woodpile, the holes from the wagon and the clumps of grass sticking through. Good times.

School

So I was in KS last weekend for Ned's baptism. It was kind of crazy, we drove out in a snowstorm, but overall it was very good. I don't know what it is about our family- for some reason we always seem to have a lot of people in not very big places. There were 20 some extra people at aunt Karen's for the weekend; every bed and most of the floor space was taken.

We came home Monday morning and then Matt and I left for school. Woot. Not sure if I'm happy or sad that this is my last semester. My last first day of school went ok. I don't really have a lot of classes this semester which is going to be very very nice.

It was good to be back in Champaign church again tonight. And good to be with my roomies again.

Screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail

Or fall. Much.

I went skiing today with Heidi and Katelyn at Chestnut in Galena. We made it without getting lost! Even with our random route through Iowa. (Hooray for mapquest) It was lots of fun but I'm going to be soooo sore tomorrow. :) They were making snow all day today and the wind was blowing up from the river so it felt like icy needles on my face. I broke down and bought some ski goggles. I'm sure I looked hilarious but Kate and Heidi were nice enough not to mention it.

So skiing kind of terrifies me when I am at the top of the hill. And anything steeper than "green" slopes is petrifying. Hence my title and your Shakespeare for the day. :) Yes, that phrase actually went through my head, and yes, I know I'm weird.

We sang three part harmony on the ski lift. And in the car. I hurt already.

There's a lot of dust under my bed

Happy New Year! Um...yeah... my life is pretty boring....I don't really do anything.

I survived the Wyss Christmas- the screeching violins, the missed notes on the piano, the presents, the FOOD, the Rook games... I got a large periodic table to hang on my wall and a CRC. :D Very exciting.

I went to Gab's on New Years Eve. It was a good time. I did not get enough sleep.

I finished the last RJ in the house so I'm going to have to go to the library.

I've been sewing a lot randomly. Matt and Kacie both think my skirt looks "old ladyish." *sigh*

I think I'm going to Springfield tomorrow.
Blessings.

Guess who has her very own cordless drill set!!

*grin*

And it came with a mini hammer, a crescent wrench, a stud finder, a pliers, a tape measure, and drill bits. What more could a girl need!?

I got some other cool stuff too. Like a U of I lab coat. :)

Merry Christmas...God Bless us every one!

Shopping

So my sister woke me up at 11 this morning to go shopping. I'm not sure how I managed to sleep that long because I went to bed before midnight! O well. Anyway, so I took her and my cousins Kendra and Clayton to Peoria. Kendra and Shelly went and shopped by themselves so I got to help Clayton find presents for his family. :) It was kind of fun. Although I prefer shopping by myself, and for myself. It's just a lot faster. Clayton did treat me to Dairy Queen. (Awww)

After supper I had to go to Carli's and my birthday party at G and G's. woot. We had some pretty cool sparkler candle things on the cake. They never serve caffinated pop which is a crime in my opinion.

Well anyway, I should go to bed now and try not to sleep all day tomorrow. :)
Blessings.

I fell down the stairs

It still really hurts. *sigh*

So in the past few days I've been caroling for a bunch of nuns, went to the YG Christmas party, baked some cookies, turned 22 (so old!), slept a lot, read some RJ, met my cousin's fiance (they're from California), and been lazy a lot.

Tonight I went to a Christmas party with the girls I hung out with "back in the day," ie, bible class. :) It was lots of fun- we had a gift card exchange, ate some good food, played what if, and even busted out some MASH for old times sake. Good times!

Heidi even brought me some birthday cupcakes.... and food coloring to decorate them! *grin*

It's bedtime. Blessings.

Home

Finals are over! Woot! They weren't too horrible I guess, but I'm glad to be done and off of my chocolate and Dr. Pepper finals week diet. :) Hopefully I passed.

Last night those of us who were still around went out to eat and played games at shaker, kind of an unofficial goodbye party for Bob. Sarah and I totally destroyed everybody in trivial pursuit and then we played loaded questions for a while. It was really fun. I love U of I people they're the best.

I left for home afterwards and got there kinda late. Eh, o well. :) I need to unpack today...

Christmas Card

Left to right: Ashley M., Jenny M., Meg D., Alyssa L., Gab R., Amber M., Amanda B., Me, Sarah D.

We got some funny looks when we walked back to our house completely soaked. We left wet footprints all the way across Lincoln. :)

Many thanks to Chris our official photographer.

Waiting....

For Matt to come back from Congerville with my car so that we can take Christmas pictures and I can go back to school and study like crazy for my final tomorrow at 8.

I wish he'd get here already!

Last day of classes! Woot!

I'm kind of excited. :) This semester was really long, but flew by so fast. Crazy. I feel like I learned a lot, but my grades don't really reflect it.... mur. O well. So here are some things about my classes....

Biochem- biological processes are amazingly complex and so much is because of Chemistry! It would have been a much better class with better professors. I slept a lot. (In lecture, only sometimes in my bed).

Astronomy- "The big bang created flowers." Haha. The God that made the stars is amazing, and it's hard for me to comprehend how astronomers don't see His touch on the cosmos. O, and Bob was in it with me, so that was fun.

Organic Chemistry- I like orgo. My professor for this class was the best I've had at U of I, mostly because he really cared and really wanted us to learn it well. "Resonance is the answer to everything in life." - Professor Peter Beak.

Organic Lab- 100 kids, 2 TA's, not enough equipment, and a lab that was covered in construction dust constantly. Not my favorite, and I usually love orgo lab- so frustrating!

Instrumentation of Chemical Systems analysis- The guest lecturers were good. They didn't put me to sleep like the professor did. I don't like instrumentation theory because a lot of it is over my head and doesn't make sense until you actually use it. We learned about NMR- it was invented in Noyes Lab. :)

Instrumentation of Chemical Systems analysis lab- So much fun! We had really nice research grade equipment and everything worked like it was supposed to. A lot of stuff clicked for me finally so that was good. I did have to write lab reports every week and I'm glad that's over.

Senior thesis project- translated some computational lab instructions for one program to WebMo. Kind of fun. The professor I work under is a really cool guy who demonstrates Rutherford's gold foil experiment with a paintball gun in the classroom. *grin*

I wrote 17 lab reports this semester for a total of 136 pages, not including prelabs. Kind of a lot. Hooray for being done!

Now I just have to pass my finals....

Blessings.

Christmas Caroling

I think I missed it at home. :( But last night instead of singing at the nursing home we went and Christmas caroled at Schnucks. It was pretty cold out and their weren't a lot of people shopping on a Tuesday night. O well, I liked it. Hopefully shivering helped burn off some of the calories from the wonderful supper Saltshaker made us. :)

Afterwards we had hot chocolate at 711, and watched the fire burn...
Lys put whipped cream and candy canes in the cocoa- so good!

I need to finish my ultimate lab report (not to be confused with my penultimate or antepenultimate lab reports- they're already done).

Oh! I got a new t-shirt. It's black and says chemistry on the front (the I is a big block I, of course). And the back says "The name is Bond, Ionic Bond. Taken, not shared." I laughed out loud when I saw it. *grin*


Blessings.

Memories are made of this...

So it's been a really great weekend. Friday evening and early morning was spent at "The Castle" (the name I suggested, right Mike!) playing games, singing, and just plain having a lot of fun. The KS girls showed up pretty late so I barely saw them even though they stayed at my house. :) I made good use of Amber and Sarah's futon- it was kind of weird sleeping in my old room again. I forgot how loud the door is when you're half awake. And how light it gets in the morning.

We had babysitting day at the Church on Saturday. It was lots of fun. There weren't a million kids there like we always have in Washington, so it wasn't mass chaos kids everywhere jenny can't take much more at all! We made gingerbread houses and played lots of sardines. :) And us "adults" (so weird!) did the "Hi, my name is Joe, and I work in a button factory...." routine for the kids. They thought it was hilarious. Addie and Kedron must think I'm really old. I was keeping an eye on them in the kitchen, and Addie said something about how, "you're a mom." I said "uh...not quite," and she replied, "but your hair's in a bun!" I was trying to keep from laughing and racking my brain how to explain this to a 3 yr old... I just told her I was a grownup and that's why. So funny!

Saturday night Amber, Sarah, Bob, Matt and I went to Dos Reales for supper before the Other Guys. Matt practically killed us several times while driving my car. My friend Holly (from high school) met us at Follinger and turns out that she is in a class with Amber! So random! It was good to see her again. :)

Church today was good. I didn't do much this afternoon, bummed around. I did get some homework done. I went out for supper again with Amber, Sarah, Bob, and Matt. Troy and Josh joined us from CV. We went to Village Inn Pizza, which has a game room a few steps down from the main dining room. Level with the back of the booth we were sitting at is a railing affair with posts that were fairly narrowly spaced. Sarah started talking about how it would be a great place to film a martial arts video and Bob said he was pretty sure he could jump through those posts. The guys weren't so sure it could be done and Troy even busted out with "teach the young men to be sober" and Matt "when I became a man, I put away childish things." He had to wait a while for the employees to all be out of sight and move a table...but...to make a long story short Bob ended up jumping through the posts- it was beautiful! So smooth, with a perfectly timed twist! And the only other people who saw were the kids playing darts who wanted a repeat. Wow. Made my week. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time!

So I should really start studying for finals. Or send out christmas cards. Or something productive.
Blessings.

two weeks

The semester is almost over! I'm excited for Christmas but not at all for finals.

It's sleeting....mur...so no ISU bible study tonight. I really wanted to go since next week will be out of the question.

On Wednesday nights at Champaign Church they have student announcements after the service. Here are a few of my favorites from the semester.

"If you could all come out to the world relief room Mark has something in the closet to show us."

"Paper copies of the calendar are out on the... credenza...yeah."

"Tuesday night we are going Christmas caroling.... at Schnuck's.... we'll have a salvation army bucket thingy."

So instead of studying.... Elf awaits! :)

For Gab

ahem. this blog is for gab. i love her a lot. she is great. she is my faithful blog reader and bugs me when i should be writing my lab reports. this picture is us in mexico with our drills.
the end.

*GRIN*

Manhappening Part 2

Scott made an excellent supper of hamburgers Monday night, we played some games and then they had prayer meeting at their apartment. Afterwards I got to experience a KState stairwell singing. :) It sounded pretty cool. I hung out with Scott and his roommates until pretty late and we made pizza rolls and chocolate chip cookies. I don't think they have swept their kitchen floor all semester...

Tuesday I slept in- thanks Tifani for the bed! A bunch of us went out for breakfast...well, it was breakfast for us lazy visitors anyway. :) Scott and Matt and I went back to KC in the afternoon and played Rook with Ned until Karen and Randy got home. Then we went to Jackstack. It was wonderful. :)

We left for home this morning and I ended up driving all the way back. Traffic was really bad...I forgot how many people would be traveling this weekend. But gas was still only $1.98 in Missouri. :) I'm tired.

We're going to Gridley tomorrow. Woot.