first day of Sr. Year

My first day of class, and I did not die. In fact, I even had a little fun. This year may prove to be exciting and fun, but it will also be a mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual battle this I know for sure. Yet, I also know this for sure…God is good all of the time. Nothing happens without His knowing. He is in control. He is full of Grace. He understands my weaknesses and in them in made perfect. Praise Him!

Back at School

Well, here I am back at Tabor. It has taken me a while to post. Mostly because it took me a while to figure out that one of the internet cables was faulty, but now I am up and running.
So here is an update….I am a second semester senior this year majoring in music education. The most logical thing for me to do after college would be to teach music, but I don’t know if I am supposed to. I am still waiting on God to let me know. So for now if you ask what I am doing next year the answer will be, “probably something good.”
I moved into school early to work on freshmen orientation. It was so much fun. I love my group of freshmen a lot. They make me laugh and they assure me that Tabor will be in good hands when I graduate. (p.s. graduation is a frightening word)
I am beginning to get used to living in a house, but I still don’t know how it will really go until classes start. It will be difficult to get things done this year, simply because I have awesome friends who I want to hang out with ALL OF THE TIME!!!
Last night we went to Movie on the Lawn and watched National Treasury. It was a good movie, a little far fetched as Mike commented, but still entertaining. (It was a little too predictable and cheesy for me, but it was alright.) After movie on the lawn we went to the Prieb house to pray. It was good to come together to bless the year.
Thank you God for your mercies, your grace, and your everlasting love, that provide us with the ability to love each other.

Let the good times roll

Although I don’t have much to say, I’ve decided to post for nobody’s sake.
So this weekend I went to the lake with my friends from church. One of the guys in my small group has a thing with closeness; it is the opposite of what Mike W. thing with closeness is. Oh yes James likes closeness, squishing, and smashing his friends with the hopes that it will encourage group bonding. (I am sure the bonding is what causes Terry to play rock paper scissors with anyone to get out of riding three in the front seat of “the cruiser”) anyway….
After getting to the lake in one peace we played around for a while, went out on the boat. got thrown off a tube, threw a football around (I can throw but I can’t catch worth a darn), watched people roll down a hill in an inner-tube, and finally did what our group does best…ate. It was a great time. Afterward, we went to Danielle’s house to play ping-pong, foose ball, and basketball.
It is hard to come to the realization that this is the second to last day of summer. I love the months so much I would have them all year. Although I head back to school on Thursday, Let the good times with the small group keep on rolling!

Ode to a Frontloading Whirlpool Duet System

There is a new wonder in my house today
It came to live, and it came to stay.
It came to serve my mother deer,
And serve her well through many a year.
This grand pair stands like a sentry below,
Next door to the room where my dad keeps the hoe.
It shines neeth the glow of one bare light,
Promising to make clothing clean and bright.
With suds and water it washes my things.
The clothes come so clean it makes my mom sing.
But don’t watch to closely it spins quite a tizzy,
If you don’t heed my warning you’ll wind up quite dizzy.
So thanks to the Whirlpool from whence you came
Yes Whirlpool your brand sure lives up to its name.

Lucy, I'm Home!

I just got back from my family trip to Indiana, minus my sister. We made the trip there in good time, only 12.5 hours. Compairing to our normal 14 hr this drive went quite fast. We decided to take my sister’s dog Kyonna along. She proved a good car dog and made many friends at the rest areas.
I got to see a lot of relatives that I haven’t seen in many years. It was fun to get to know them better. The funniest thing that happened was at the Anniversary party (my G-parents 50th) one of my great aunts thought that I was my mom and that my mom was me. She kept telling people that I was married to my dad and that my mom was the Grand daughter of Morris and Joan. It took her a while to figure it out. She even told my mom that she had grown, (which is not true of my mom, and it is not true of me because I haven’t grown in about seven years myself. Why is it that when you are tall everyone must say, “My you’ve grown” even if they just saw you last year and you aren’t an inch taller than you were before? Seriously what’s the deal with phrases like… “My you’ve grown,” “My you’re tall,” “Such a pretty tall Girl.” “Why aren’t you Dating?” “When are we going to get to go to your wedding?”) Wow, that went on for a while. Perhaps I should make it its own paragraph, nah, I kind of like the disorganized madness.
Anyway the other fun thing that happened to me…drum roll please………..I got to drive a new Corvet. It was beautiful, so smooth and sleek, ahhhhhh the memories. I can’t wait to get the pictures.
Well, those are the interesting things that happened to me in Indiana.
Live Long and Prosper

Summer Highlights

Well, I don’t have much summer left. Sabrah comes home today for 3 days then I leave for Indiana on Friday and get back Wednesday. After that it is just a hop skip and jump till I get to move back in to school. I am kind of in a reflective mood at this point so I have decided to jot down my favorite parts of the summer, if only for my own enjoyment…so here they are in no particular order:

Going Roller Skating with the PV kids
Going to the lake with my small group
My birthday and hanging out with my family
Watching Charley and the Chocolate factory with mom and friends (and laughing really hard with my mom)
Learning to communicate with my deaf PV kid
Music Theater of W. (getting dressed up and getting to see such talented people, and getting to hang out there with Chris)
Going to W. with Emily and having Chris cook us dinner then seeing Princess and the Pea in formal dress
Doing a High Ropes Course at work training
Going to CCC softball games
Hanging out after the game and playing a variety of random games like Ha Ha, Hoowa, Spoons, and the Human knot, and afterward talking with a friend till 4am.
Shopping with my sister.
Playing my first “Feminine Fatal” roll in The Sound of Music
Going to Landon’s house and seeing all of my school friends while a tornado swept 21st
Organizing the storage room at PV (disgusting but fun laughing with friends)
Playing with my sister’s Puppy
The day that my small group had a fish fry, then swam, then had a Barbeque

Hopefully the list will go on after my time with Sabrah and my Indiana trip. I will add those later. I am sure there are others that I am forgetting, but that was a highlight reel, if you will, of my summer activities.

PV parent's night

I never knew how it felt to be on this side of a parent’s night. Last Thursday PV had the parents night program. All of the kids got up to sing the first song, which was Sunshine on my Shoulders by John Denver. The kids didn’t like the song very much because it was slow. They are more into the fast ones. Then the preschoolers got up and sang You Are My Sunshine with pop bottle shakers. My favorite part of the preschool production was when a little guy jumped up behind the pulpit, grabbed the microphone, and yelled Yo Yo Yo What’s Up. Everyone melted into hysterical laughter. It was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen.
I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yesterday. It was great. Johnny Dep was the perfect combination of funny and creepy at the same time. The kids who acted were great to. The Oompa Loompas were priceless.

My dog gets high

I know, I have no way to scientific way to prove that my dog gets high, but there are mushrooms growing naturally in our back yard on a tree stump. This is the first summer that they have appeared. Dad gets rid of them every time he mows, but my dog is constantly going out and eating them before he can get to them. Not only is she snacking on them, but she is obsessed with eating them whenever she is in the back yard. I am convinced that she is under the influence of some sort of mushroom substance. I wonder if the police can do drug tests on dogs…

My roommate is rubbing off on me!!!

So here is the story of how I learned to procrastinate. This summer I am taking some classes on line and I have one day to finish my biology class. Sadly enough I have an enormous test that I haven’t studied for, and for some reason I feel no remorse. Thanks Amy. No seriously thank you for showing me this free feeling that I have in my soul! I love procrastination. See the thing is…I would have to seriously bomb this test like a zero in order to flunk this class. If I do alright, I will pass. And the beauty of transferring in this class is the GPA doesn’t count. So it won’t hurt me one bit! I love loopholes.
Other than that not much is going on. Oh yah, there is a kid that I pick up in the mornings. He is cute, but has some serious anger problems. Anyway he likes to call people block head, stupid head, cow head, bus head, pretty much anything he can get ahold of and then tack head onto the end and it becomes an insult. So today I was riding in the car and for some reason I said whoopsi-daisies (thanks Goertzen). I was promptly called a Whoopsi-daisy face head. If some body ever asks me what one of those looks like I guess I can just tell them, well you are looking at the first genuine Whoopsi-daisy face head.
I am not being sarcastic when I say I truly love my job!

Good times with my cell group

This summer I have had the awesome opportunity to get involved in my church’s college and career singles group. Last Sunday I spent all day with them. We began the day with a fish fry with fish caught by Darren and James. The fish was wonderfully cooked by Todd and Eric, and the lazy company in the living room was great too. Let me tell you, I ate lunch with 6 men and myself. It was a bit intimidating, but I rose to the challenge and had a good time. Another interesting fact about the meal…I didn’t cook anything, I didn’t set the table, and I didn’t do any dishes. The Men took care of all of it. It was an awesome thing, not just because they were all so cute fussing in the kitchen, but because it takes real men to do all that and that was awesome.
So after the fish fry we all went over to a friend’s house to swim, and I was joined by another girl in the group. (Thank God, I was ready for a testosterone break by then.) The guys had a football tipping competition. They all lined up on the diving board. Jacie threw them the football and they jumped off ant tipped the ball backwards to the next in line all in one swift movement. It took them probably 50 attempts, and after they made it through with all seven of them they swiftly changed activities.
At our Bible study we had more wonderful food, then studied then James found some little girls shorts and decided to sport them over his clothes for the rest of the evening. They were hot let me tell you. (in a disgusting sort of way)
Our group has been studying Song of Solomon. It has been enlightening studying that particular book of the Bible among mixed gender company when most to all of us are single as the day is long. The night that we talked about chapter 4 was particularly uncomfortable, but not so much that I was embarrassed.
All in all it was a wonderful day. Someday I will have to enlighten all of you of the many sub personalities that we have in our group. Perhaps after Jim Bo has had a second visit.

Oh the things you can think

Last night I had the awesome opportunity to go to Seussical the Dr Seuss musical (I don’t know if I am spelling this right, but oh well) it was amazing. I had not been that entertained in a long time. The voices were great and the ideas that the writers had were wonderful. There was an entire scene in black lights except one spotlight that was on the little boy in the show. There were people all dressed in black with white shoes and white gloves that tap danced and held up neon question marks and exclamation marks at different times so they looked like they were floating. It was awesome. If anyone ever gets the chance to see it, Do it!

Summer colds stink

So far my summer has gone off without a hitch, Until yesterday. I woke up with a tickle in my throat that turned into a sore throat, which was augmented by a headache, which was multiplied by a neck ache, which was supplemented by constant fuzziness and ringing in my ears. All of this would not have been so bad if my job was in a quiet office building licking stamps for some uppity up financial genius. Yet, alas instead I work with 10, 8-10 year old boys who have all been diagnosed seriously mentally and emotionally disturbed. I made it through the day without too many hitches and decided to CRASH when I got home.
Friday morning, I had off and planed to sleep as long as I could. 7am is not considered sleeping in in my book, but it is what my body had in mind. For some reason the not being able to breath through my nose hindered my sleeping process. Well since I was up, I decided to check out a garage sale with my dad, (ok here is the punch line for all of you homestar runner fans) It was more of a garbage (say it with a French accent) sale than a garage sale. I took home a glass cup for free, and that’s all. When we pulled into the driveway I commented that mom had left for work early because the van wasn’t in the driveway. I then realized that we, dad and I, were in the van that was pulling into the driveway. And then went back to bed. So…4 hr later I woke up and decided to post on my blog. That is the end of this story. From my fuzzy head to yours, and thank God for spell check,
Jen

An untitled response to life

I feel as if I am completely unfaithful to my sight, which I am. I even have these guilty feelings when I see the u r l on the scroll bar to the Internet. It begs for my attention, but I selfishly withhold all love. UNTILL NOW!
Wow. This has been such a good summer! It has had its ups and downs. One down is the 2 more weeks of General Biology that I need to finish through Hutch. It is easy but it is all so pointless….and boring…and annoying…and…science.
On to more fun things, today I cleaned out a bunch of 12 passenger vans at work. It was a joy getting down and dirty in those vans (that didn’t sound so good, but I am leaving it anyway) At least they might stay clean for a week or so. You never know what is going to happen on a trip that lasts longer than 5 min.
Last Sunday a missionary couple came to my church. They talked to me about going and teaching in Hungary, Romania, or Moldova after I graduate. It is intimidating, but I am actually thinking about it. I am ready for a change, and I am not sure what it is. Do you ever get that kind of restlessness feeling? Then again it could be senioritis setting in early.
In closing I am happy to say that I am enjoying my summer, but I am also getting antsy to get back to school. Yah, I am surprised to say so myself. I never want to do the work once I am there; I guess it is the people that I miss.
Well, as all great things come to an end… “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” And “Frankly my deer, I don’t give a ahem.”

Hey Hey Bo Bo!

What can I say? I am tired. Last night I went to Western Kansas for a wedding. It was beautiful. The drive up was great. 4 hr drive home that began at about 10:30 was not. All that I can say is if I ever forget the name of that one Continent that Sidney is the capital of I will forever renounce my claim on being a smart person.
It was a fun weekend full of weddings and friends. I learned that I miss my friends from school a lot over the summer. Being with them is like a different level of being at home. Interjection: (My mom just walked through the room with the laundry basket and a dog on top of the dirty clothes. To cute)
I am only kind of excited for next week’s training for PV. We have to do a high ropes course training, and I haven’t done that before. It will be an experience.
I also get to start blocking and scene running for The Sound of Music. That should be good. I am trying to learn lines, and make guesses at what the director is going to ask me to do. I can venture to say that I am going to miss the direction of Judy, but she would tell me to just wait and see what this Mark guy is like. Hopefully he is not expecting memorization right away.
Well, I am going to take a long winter’s nap.
Just remember that Yogi Bear’s side kick’s name is Boo Boo, not Bo Bo.
Have a Hey Hey Bo Bo day!

picking up speed

The summer is definitely picking up speed. I started training for work last Wednesday. The mornings are early and training is ok, sometimes really fun and other times really boring. Last night I went to a friends wedding it was at the Botanical Gardens in W. Driving there was absolutely insane. Most of the streets in W that I went down were covered in water. (and I am talking about 10 inches or more in places.) My little car was faithful and Amy and I got there and back safely.
Today I am leaving for another friends wedding. It will be a long drive through barren wasteland. It is a good thing that I will be traveling with some truly fun people. In fact, I had better get ready to go.
I hope you are all well. God bless.

Honey, I’m Home!

Here I am in Mac town living large, or at least living by myself. My parents are out of town so I have the house to myself. They just left yesterday, but it feels longer than that. Tonight my sister is coming over to watch movies. This means that I will get to spend at least 45min to an hour in Dillons trying to pick out movies that both of us like. We no doubt will provide plenty of entertainment to the people who are also shopping for films. Once a long time ago we went into the store to pick out a movie and spent 1 hour and didn’t walk out with anything. Bad things.
Good things. I got to see friends who I haven’t seen since Thanksgiving and Christmas last weekend. We went out for a lovely neighbor’s breakfast and then I jetted off to graduation at Tabor. After graduation I left for KC with my friend Jill. We spend a relaxing weekend in KC. I played dance dance revolution for the first time. It was great. I was terrible. After KC I came home and unpacked, while distracting myself with mucho amounts of stuffage.
Exciting news, next year I get to live in a house with wood floors. I am Sooooo excited. I decided to commemorate the experience with my first home made rug of which the dimensions are currently 1.5’ x 4’ it will be bigger. In fact, I don’t think I am going to stop till I reach my goal. (I don’t know what that is, but when I get there I will know.)
That’s about all for now.
Take care all.

Torrential rain spreads wide in Kansas

Thursday night, May 12, three college students were spotted in strange activity on the campus grounds. There were reports of loud screaming/yelling that disturbed the residence nearby. Some of these neighbors came by to stare at the students in their quote, “foolish” display of frivolity. One stunned passerby stated, “I didn’t understand what all of the ruckus was about. They were spinning, running, whooping, and hollering right there in the pouring rain. Then, all of the sudden, they started dumping each other in the mud, and even dumping themselves in the mud. It was just sad I tell you. They were plain lucky they didn’t get hit by the lightning.”
The incident began when the female member of the party dropped by to say sorry that she had missed the others in their visit, and then the rain came…
Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. The girl maintained some minor shoulder stiffness, and one man suffered serious grass stains. The girl is expected to have swift recovery, but sadly all of the clothes involved in the situation are in questionable condition.

Just call me "Da Kid"

Last night I got to go to Drubers with some friends. Some friends turned into TC students taking over the large room at Drubers. There were 40 students there. It was a lot of fun. The people at my table each made a unique creation out of Styrofoam cups and milk cartons. There were masks, a hat, a tank, and some ever creative confetti. (The act of ripping apart paper products was considered creative creating.) I got to drive Amy’s car which is an old classic boat. Driving it and looking down the semi winged hood of the car made me feel like I was in the Mafia. (Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? Hey yous guys! I am gonna put ya in cement shoes if ya don’t watch your back)
This is my last legitimate day of class this semester with only finals to go! My Monday and Tuesday are going to kill me, so if you think of it pray for me like a wild banshee.
Love ya all (note: not pronounced yawl, but ya all)

Mmmm Pop Tarts

I am getting excited because one of McPherson’s finest holidays is coming right around the bend. Yep, it is All Schools Day / May Day! The day of the year when every school in the good old city of McPherson lets out of school so that everyone can gather on Main Street and watch all the little kindergarteners wave at their parents. It is great! My first memory of May Day was riding the Kansans for Life float with my neighbor. I remember it so well because my dad was on crutches and when the jets flew over he dropped his crutches to cover my ears (because I didn’t like the loudness of the jets) May Day is a time of fun, friends, freaky clowns, and funnel cake. (Mmmm) Where else in Kansas do you get to hear the same song on the bag pipes 10 times in one day. (It is great, really it is.)

no song, but I am eating pop tarts

Ode to friends

Don’t you know those people, the people who meet you when you are young and don’t have a clue and befriend you? Or perhaps you caused them through strange quark of nature to befriend you. These are the people who you don’t forget. They may not remember all of the interactions, but you do and each is special, sometimes a bit overboard, but all unique and fun. And after the drift happens, (you know, the drift that happens when people have a schedule change, get married, graduate, or move away.) it is the most fun just to make contact again. It is kind of like a mini home coming, only better because these are the people who you want to see at homecoming but the crowds of people make it impossible to converse. You ask the “Correct” questions and make the “correct” interaction, but in the end you always seem to jump in right back where you left off. And that is the good part about these kinds of friends. Welcome home friends.