psalm 71

The semester is slowly wrapping itself up, for those of us in college and not vacationing in Maryland (cough, haha :) ). I'm pretty ready to be done; even though it's been a good semester, I'm ready to go home and sleep for approximately 2 weeks. Anyhow, this morning,  while I sat in chapel, I stumbled across Psalm 71, and it was exactly what I needed to read today. I thought I'd go ahead and post it (with a few random pictures, because we can't have a post without pictures!) in case it can encourage anyone else! And I'll strive to post an update sometime later!

 
In You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame. 
 Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
Incline Your ear to me, and save me. 
 Be my strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually...

For You are my hope, O Lord GOD;
You are my trust from my youth.

By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.

 

 But I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
 

 My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits.
 

 I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

 O God, You have taught me from my youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.

 Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is like You?  

 You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
 

 You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.

 Also with the lute I will praise You—
And Your faithfulness, O my God!
To You I will sing with the harp,
O Holy One of Israel.
 

 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,
And my soul, which You have redeemed.

Hello, people

Well, I've managed to top my own expectations! I am actually writing a second post...certain people *coughjessicacough* should take note. And then follow my example. Hint, hint.

Ahem, anyway...

Today I went sky diving, rescued three extinct animal species, and learned another language.

Okay, maybe not quite. To be honest, I'm actually having a rather wonderful vacation/visit, but it hasn't been thrilling blog post material...

Here are a few of the things I've been doing.

1. Sketching (I've actually done more drawing in the last week than I have in probably six months)
2. Reading
3. Cooking/baking
4. Watching cool movies
5. Jogging
6. ...eating? ...sleeping?

Besides the scary dog that started barking at me from behind a somewhat flimsy looking fence while I was out jogging, the most frightening thing that's happened to me was forgetting to bring conditioner. (And believe me, that is frightening.)

My oldest sister is currently working her last full day at a certain grocery store. She's had to work for the last few days, which is why I've basically amused myself. Oh, and I have been a model guest. I've even done dishes. And laundry. (Granted, it was my laundry - but still.) Oh, oh...I also vacuumed. Be proud.

Here's where we interrupt the show to get a quote from Ardee, live and in person. (Yes, that is a real name [and a real person], and no, it's not short for Arthur.)

"...that's not assault and battery; that's a blender."

I'm not sure what the context is here, folks, but these words must be words of wisdom indeed. I believe the lesson we should take from this is never, ever use your blender as a weapon. But if you do, it won't count, because it's just a blender. I think this is for all you moms out there who occasionally wish you could throw kitchen utensils at your husband when he's watching the football game and you're doing dishes. (For the record, I don't endorse throwing kitchen utensils at anyone, even football-watching guys.)

Okay...

So yes. Tonight Jessica tells me I'll be doing fun stuff like helping her make supper, and then tomorrow, we'll be getting ready for the rest of my family to descend. They're eagerly anticipating the warmer (35 degree) weather.

That's all for today!

-Annetta

The Day Annetta Hacked Erika's Blog (Again)

Do you hear that sound?

That sound would be me laughing gleefully. I am laughing gleefully because, right now, I am sitting in a warm living room, and from this living room, I can look out the window. And there is no snow on the ground. Because it is a balmy 33 degrees outside.

Thirty-three degrees is classified as balmy by us Northerners if it's anytime after October 1st.

In case you haven't deduced this yet, I am no longer in my native state. I am much farther south, visiting Jessica and Kevin, and Kevin's family. Oh, and I decided to bring Erika with me as well, but apparently she doesn't feel like blogging at the moment. So you get to put up with me instead.

This is the part I'm bad at. I think I'm supposed to give all of you random, mundane details like "The ride down was fine" and "We are all doing fine" etc., etc. I'm better at making things up (it's much more fun) but for Erika's sake (after all, I am writing this in her name...) I will attempt to be mostly honest (read: boring).

So the car trip was fine - we arrived at about six p.m., after driving for about six hours. And Kevin and Jessica and all the people down here are indeed doing fine.

Phew, we got that part out of the way. Now I can talk about interesting things.

For instance, did you know that you can buy chocolate shaped like cute little penguins? Jessica, Kevin, Erika, and I went shopping this morning and Erika (with her Penguin radar) discovered the chocolate penguins roughly five seconds after entering the store. Who says Christmas shopping can only benefit the people on the receiving end of the gifts?

We also went to the library. I really like libraries. I like to think that I'm not a nerd (or a geek - believe it or not, there is a difference...I just can't thing of what it is) but when I go to a library I start believing that being a nerd might not be so bad after all. When I'm rich and famous, I plan on owning several libraries.

We checked out a huge stack of movies and Erika discovered a book that she hasn't read yet, so it was a good library. While we're on that subject, have you ever noticed that there are no Thanksgiving movies? There are plenty of Christmas movies (For instance, we always watch It's a Wonderful Life and The Grinch that Stole Christmas) but nobody makes movies about Thanksgiving. At least, not that I've noticed. But I digress.

This is the part where I make wild promises to blog everyday until I get home and you laugh at the computer screen in disbelief because you're very smart and you know I won't do that. So instead, I'm just going to say that I will try to post again sometime before too long...that is, as long as I don't get too many comments begging me to leave to blogging to the expert (that would be Erika).

Signing off!

-Annetta

Houghton Happenings: the first half of November

 So it's a relaxed Sunday evening here on the Houghton Campus. I'm relaxing in the campus center, with Sam, Evan,

.................never mind! Life moved forward and this blog post didn't. I videochatted with my family and went to Koinonia (the Sunday evening worship service here on campus), called Annetta, and now I'm in a dorm lounge with a bunch of friends, some of whom are doing homework, and some of whom are watching TV.

 It has snowed out here a couple times. The first time it snowed, we got about 6 inches of the most photogenic fluffy snow you could ask for. Obviously, I went out and took pictures of it. And Tyler and I made a little snowman too.



Today, Evan and I went to the Fillmore Wesleyan church...that's where I've been attending. I think I've mentioned that one of my profs (Laura) is the children's pastor there, and I've enjoyed going and helping. We go for Sunday School, and then I help with the kids during the sermon part of the church service. Today, they did something special for the college students who attend there. Several families hosted a progressive lunch for us; we split into smaller groups, and went to three different homes and ate either an appetizer, a main course, or dessert with them. So we ate from 1 to about 3:30...it was wonderful :)

 Classes are going well. There's beginning to be a glimmer of light and the end of the academic tunnel of doom. We're getting our final projects assigned, and I can finally see the end of the homework assignments...most classes only have like a paper, a group project, and a book left. I'm not entirely sure how I've been doing gradewise, because midterm grades still aren't up (Jordan, I will say this for good ol' SUNY Fred...at least those profs graded and returned stuff within like a couple weeks! I'm going to get papers back that I won't remember writing.) But I'm enjoying my classes, and the professors are wonderful...they pray before class, and oftentime ask for prayer requests before praying.

 So I wrote that yesterday, which was Sunday. Today is Monday. Just as a random glimpse of what my days look like, here's what I did today: I got up at about 7:40, and got over to the dining hall at just after 8. Nathaniel and I do devotions during breakfast, and usually some other friends join us. This morning, Sam and Tyler did devotions with us (Galatians 4...we just read a chapter and talk about it. We started in Colossians, and then went to Galatians). Then I had class from 9 to 10:05, and then class starting at 10:15. Normally, the second class goes til 11:20 or so, but this morning we had an exam. I had actually completely forgotten about it...so there goes my A in that class :P Actually, I'm not sure what my grade is in that class, but if I had an A, I'm about 99% sure that I don't any more. Yeah...one must study for Case exams.

After that exam of horror, I went to chapel with everyone, and then lunch. After lunch, I had about a half hour before my next class, so Nathaniel showed me some games he just got on his phone which evaluate different parts of your brain, like your memory recognition, spatial memory, verbal and math power, and so forth. That was fun.And then I had class (Biblical Interpretation) and then work for two hours. Once I got out of work, I crashed for about a half hour in my room before supper. And now I'm sitting in the library, theoretically studying, but in actuality listening to Josh Groban and blogging.

 Later tonight, I'm planning to go rock climbing with a few other girls. Most of my friends are doing rehearsal for Houghton's Christmas Prism, which if I understand right, is like a musical celebration of Christmas. So they're doing that tonight...and probably every night this week...so I'm going rock climbing with the other non-music people in my friend group :)

These next pictures are from Saturday, which was a lovely and warm day and I was needing an adventure, so I hauled Nathaniel off with me to the ski hill and we wandered around and took pictures of photogenic fungi and admired the scenic-ness and sat on trees that were essentially perpendicular to the ground.

Anyhow, there's a random and probably highly un-cohesive update! I probably won't blog again til after Thanksgiving break, so I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving :) I hope you all know how thankful I am to have you in my life...I've recently been extra aware of just how blessed I am to have so many awesome friends in my life. And if you feel led, I would love to have you leave a comment and tell me what's up in your life :)

Houghton Happenings: October

Howdy, folks! Right now, I'm sitting in a classroom in the Gillette basement, watching Phantom of the Opera and sort of doing homework. And by sort of doing homework, I mean that I finished the stuff that's due tomorrow, and I'm having trouble concentrating on the paper that I need to write, so I decided to blog!

Anyhow, a couple weekends ago was October break. I brought Tyler and Nathaniel home with me. We left Wednesday night and drove home in the rain. Break was good. I made cookies, did homework, played lots of mafia, slept, ate food, had friends over for meals, went to the CAP squadron banquet, went to our pastor appreciation dinner at church, swing danced with friends, tried to learn new swing dance moves, played piano, and watched The Scarlet Pimpernel and Pride and Prejudice. Here are two pictures from break...

This past Saturday was Make a Difference Day. Houghton College teamed up with a couple other colleges, and we sent teams out into the county to help. Some of us went to nature reserve areas to clean, some went to farm areas, some went to hospitals or nursing homes, and many other places. I went with a fairly large group to the hospital in Cuba. We made decorations, place mats, and Halloween masks for the 61 old people who live at the hospital (I guess it's like a combination hospital and nursing home). We were there for several hours before we came back to campus.

On the academic front...because it's the second half of the semester (already!), my half-semester classes are over and have been replaced with new classes. I'm currently taking 4 classes...Foundations of Educational Ministry, Intro to Christianity, Biblical Interpretation, and Christian Formation of Adults. Classes are going well. Homework galore...but I'm happy with the grades that I'm getting, and I'm keeping up.

I realize this is a very short update, but I'm off to go swing dancing!

swing dancing

This is a video of some friends of mine and me demonstrating swing dancing.

Houghton Happenings

Howdy, reader! The past couple of weeks have been pretty interesting. I do have lots of pictures, but I'm not posting them here because I'm lazy like that. I put up an album of pictures from the wedding, and then an album of pictures from a hike my college friends and I went on the other day, so if you haven't seen those yet, take a look. And if you need album links, let me know. 

Reuben and Katrina's wedding is I think the first notable event to talk about. It was quite a bit of fun. After classes on Thursday (the 19th), my mom, Annetta, Lydia, and Kim and Rachel, came out to Houghton to see the campus, meet people, eat food, and take me home. When we got home, there was packing to be done, and dresses to be tried on. We left the next morning for Indiana around 9, I think. I forget what time it was, but we carpooled with some friends of ours, and we just drove out, stopping for lunch somewhere in Ohio. We stayed at a campground, in tents. The first night we were there, it rained...as in, it poured rain. So we ate our supper quickly, and watched a movie in one of the tents. Saturday morning, some of us slept in, some of us got up and wandered around, and some of us worked on homework. But around 10:30 or 11, we all started getting ready for the wedding. I was very glad that there was a nice, functioning bathroom, complete with running water and mirrors, which made the getting ready part much easier than it could have been. The wedding itself was very nice...the decorations were great. The reception went well, and we had a lit of fun square dancing afterwards. Saturday night, we had homeschool friends who had been in the wedding over to our campsite to play frisbee and eat food.

Sunday, we drove home. I got to hang out with Rachel, which was good. Then my mom and Hosanna dropped me off at Houghton.

Some highlights from the past week and a half on campus:
-SWING DANCING! So there's a jazz swing dancing club on campus which meets Tuesday and Thursday nights. It is so much fun. We (and by "we" I mean my friends and I) have only gone a couple of times so far, but we're leaning a lot of fun moves. Nathaniel did swing dancing prior to Houghton, plus he's a music major, so he's able to teach the rest of us in the ways of swing dancing. Tuesday night (as in, a couple days ago), he practiced dipping with me, and I mention merely that so that I can now complain loudly to the internet: MY MUSCLES ARE SORE!! I actually was like almost hopping down Chamberlain's stairs after class this afternoon. I mean, it's a good burn, but wow...dancing really does give you good exercise. Anyhow, we've been practicing swing dancing random evenings, especially so that Hannah can learn how (cause she doesn't come to the club because she commutes). Last night was fun because Evan and Jensyn and Nathaniel and I were all practicing in Jensyn's room (Yes, to all you people who go to/went to a conservative college...open hours generally let the opposite gender into, like, an actual dorm room. Scandal.) and we're getting rather decent at the moves we know.
-This morning, I had a fun adventure of going off campus. Nathaniel had a test at a hospital about 45 minutes away...and so I drove him, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. Fall colors are coming out, and it was nice. I borrowed a car from a friend...which just so happened to be a 2003 Ford Escape. Some of you will get the irony (Hunter, that's you :P) And I made it back in time for my 1 o'clock class.
-Last Saturday, I went to a meeting of the FILA club.  Foam in Liberal Arts. And if you read "foam" as "nerf guns", you are absolutely correct.
-Yesterday I started working...I got a custodial job cleaning staircases in Chamberlain. I have a blister on the side of my thumb from sweeping. Call me Cinderella. Again :P
-Last night, Cede, Jensyn, and I went to a soccer game. Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru3ZlrteQ7Q&feature=youtu.be Yeah, I was there. Stands went wild. It was pretty amazing.
-I think that brings up pretty much so up to date. This weekend is homecoming, and I'm homegoing :) So I'll be going home Saturday morning, and coming back to campus Sunday evening.

Okay...I'm stopping to do homework now! Leave me a comment and tell me how your life is going :)

So Evan wrote this essay... :P

So I'm sitting in the Gilette main lounge, watching Dr. Who with Carina, Kaitlyn, Evan, Nathaniel, and Tyler (Jensyn and Cede are nearby working on something else)...and I'm working on a paper for my Fitness for Life class. Evan hijacked my computer, as he is wont to do, and I thought I'd post the essay he wrote. I wrote the first sentence...the rest is all Evan. :P do enjoy. 

Erika Snell

Mr. Trini Rangel

Fitness For Life

30 Sept 2013

“10 Things You Need to Know About Dieting” Response Paper

            Dieting is a hot topic these days. Hi, I am Erica.  You should give me an A because I am a watermelon!  If you don’t, I will slaughter you and all of your loved ones!!  ;)

            In order to slightly diffuse any retaliation from this revelation, I will probably blame it on Evan when I turn it in, who is a handsome rogue if there ever was one.

            Anyway, dieting.  If you diet enough, you disappear!  It’s called dying and decomposing.  It might take a while, but, in perspective of all of history, it’s only a second!  Or a millisecond!  I dunno.  That requires some suggestion of mathematical skill, which I do not possess.  In fact, when it comes to math, I drool!  Square roots reduce me to gibbering!  It’s a great party trick.

            I was once a piñata.  That was fun!  My head is lopsided, now.  Also, there is no more candy in my stomach!  Sadness :’(.

            By the way, Mr. Professor Man.    Be afraid!  We are not alone.  Not even when you are alone.  You may think you’re just having a drink by yourself, but – ha! – joke’s on you; you haven’t checked the closet.  And even if you did, don’t you think he would be smart enough to scramble up to the ceiling?  Like a cockroach?  And stare down at you?

            Then, of course, the police find your remains spread over the lawn the next morning.  Then you diet extremely quickly!  You don’t even have to starve to death first.

The End

First week of classes

So, the first week of class is over. I think I'll just tell you some stories, instead of being all update-y...

Once upon a time this week, Jessie and I were sitting in Intro to Christianity, and we decided that the freshman fifteen is actually all layers of sweaters that you put on as the year progresses and the weather gets progressively colder and the air conditioning vents keep spewing out cold air.

Once upon a time a couple days ago, I was eating lunch with Jensyn, Nathaniel, Evan, and Tyler, and they were trying to get me to tell them something. So Evan suggested that Jensyn tickle me til I told...and those of you who know my extreme ticklishness probably know where that ended up :P tickle wars galore since then.

Here is a picture of some of the people I hang out with:

Ok, so the girl next to me is Jensyn, and she's an awesome freshman who I'm already planning to bring home with me over break. The bearded guy behind her is Evan, who's a transfer. The girl behind me is Emily, a freshman...the guy next to her is Tyler (the only one without glasses), and the guy next to me is Nathaniel. In our little group, we also have JP (aka John, Paul, John-Paul, or PJ), Karina, Kaitlyn, Hannah, and others as they float in and our of our little bubble. This picture was taken at a soccer game, which HC won...something like 10 to 0.

Last night, I watched The Dark Knight Rises with Jensyn, Karina, Kaitlyn, Tyler, and Evan. It made walking back to my dorm rather traumatizing. It didn't help that Tyler texted me when I was halfway back and said "Look behind you" :P

I think I should put in some stuff about my academics...seems like I've been talking a disproportionate amount about my social life. I'm taking 5 classes this semester, plus chapel 3 times a week and a transfer orientation thingy once a week. They're all good classes...I have some great profs. For those interested, I'll talk about each class...those of you not interested should skip ahead.
-Intro to Christian Ministry: the title is fairly explanatory. The prof is a pastor, and he's super nice. This class is a half-semester class, so it'll be over the end of October...and it will be replaced with the second half of the class (please don't ask why they didn't just combine... :P I have no idea).
-Intro to Christianity: This one will be fairly difficult. There is a lot of homework...readings and questions, plus a couple papers. The good thing is that it is a full semester class, so I have a while to work on the papers. The prof is really nice, but smart. Jordan, he's like Dr Arnold, only a Christian. He went through a time (between his second and third master's degrees...or PhD's or something...where he basically gave up on Christianity. So he's coming from a perspective where he truly understands the struggles and questions that one might have. I like it.
-Biblical Interpretation: well, this one will be interesting. I think it will end up being my least favorite class...but we shall see.
-Christian Formation of Youth: now this is a col class! It's exactly what I like doing. This morning, some fellow classmates and I went to our teacher's church and helped her with the kids program she does Sunday morning. It was a lot of fun...I got to hold a cute, squishy little kid, and draw penguins for a couple squirmy little boys.
-Fitness for Life: this is your basic, core course, health class. The prof is interesting, though...he likes what he does and tries to engage us and keep it interesting.

Here's another story: Once upon a time a couple days ago, Linda (my roommate), Tyler, Evan, Nathaniel, and I went creek walking. We splashed down the creek from my dorm to the guys' dorm, so not too far, but it was fun. We saw lots of fish.

Okay...I need to close this post and go work on one of my many papers :P keep in touch, folks!

Life at Houghton thus far

Well, I would love to do a Day in the Life post later on, once I get on a good schedule, but here's a random little post of what I've been up to so far.

On Friday, my mom, Rachel, and Hosanna brought me out to campus. We moved my stuff in and unpacked, and then ate lunch, walked around the campus, and then went to the new student welcome and dedication service.  They left around 4:30 or 5, and I had supper with my floor. I'm living on the first floor of Lambein, but the way that Lambein is built on the side of a hill, I enter on the 4th floor and take 48 stair steps down to my floor. Also Friday night, my friend Jacob stopped in to hang out...he lives only about a half hour away (as opposed to an hour and a half), so he's conveniently close for hanging out purposes!

Yesterday we had a lot of transfer orientation classes. They had all 50 of us transfer students together for a few morning sessions, then lunch, and then a few more sessions. After that, we were exhausted and basically went and crashed for a while. Last night was their Hough'down thingy...square dancing...I went for like the last half hour and got to dance the Virginia Reel.

This morning, we had chapel and then lunch. I met a guy yesterday and invited him to sit with my roommate and me for chapel, so after chapel, Nathaniel and two of his friends (Matt and Tyler...I think) and I hung out and then had lunch. We're planning on meeting up for chapel and then lunch tomorrow too, which will be good!

Classes start tomorrow. I'm most of the way organized and ready for classes to start. This evening, I'll pack my backpack so that I'm all ready to go. My first class is at 9 am, and I have class, chapel, and lunch until about 3.

So that's a short update...I'm going to go find a comfy place to go read, and I'm sure I'll write more later!

Summing Up of Summer

At least so far...because I'm refusing to let myself think that summer is over. Just because we've dipped into frigid temperatures and the birds are flocking and the trees are starting to get pretty doesn't mean summer's over! Anyway, lots of stuff has been happening around here, so I will now write about random fun stuff. And then I will look through my photos and stick some of them in here.

-When I wrote last, I very briefly mentioned going to MD the middle of May for Jessica's graduation. But graduate she did, and here's a picture to prove it!

-After the wedding, I went to NC for a week, the end of May/beginning of June. My grandparents who live in FL drove up here for the wedding, which means that as they went back home, they were essentially going right by the C family home. Mrs. C is an occupational therapist, and ever since March when she invited me down to job shadow her, I'd been wanting to go. So it all worked out, and I had a great time! I learned a lot job shadowing, both in home visits and clinical setting, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with their family. I learned how to play Risk, and I actually managed to win against Amy, Jonathan, and Stephen, but only cause they were nice ("how many dice do I roll? Where do I put my guys?"). I dragged all the kids on an adventure to Blue Jay Point where we ate a picnic lunch and did some (fairly legal, I'm sure) wading in a pretty lake. I visited a neat OT clinic and saw the airport terminal where Stephen and his older brother went to CAP. I went to Chick Fil A for the first time. I was there for a week, and then I flew home.

-Not long after I got back, we went on an overnight canoeing trip with a bunch of our friends. The weather was really good for canoeing, and my canoe only tipped over once :P the water was fairly frigid.

-At the end of June, our family plus Rachel drove down to MD for Jess and Kevin's second wedding reception. The drive down went fine. Rachel and I made the dangerous mistake of wandering through a Macy's on a lunch break bathroom break. Fortunately we did not have money with us. We went to a playground with all the kids (and my parents as chaperones) that night (was that Friday night? Yes, I think so...we drove down Friday night and came back Monday). Saturday, of course, was the reception. Rachel and I tagged along to the church to help set up in the morning, and then had getting ready to do when we got home. I kinda threw together a slideshow of pictures from the wedding to show at the reception, which kept me busy until right before we left. The reception was fun...we met some new people and talked and mingled and ate food.

Sunday morning was church and Sunday School. We went swimming in their pond after lunch, and when Jess and Kevin got back from work, we went to Sugar Loaf Mountain and hiked around. It was hot and humid, but the view was really nice and we had fun! And driving back Monday was fairly uneventful. 

-Annetta graduated from highschool on August 10th. We had a party :)

-A group of homeschool friends and we have been taking country dance lessons from a friend of ours! it's been so much fun, and we're so looking forward to putting our new skills in to play at Reuben and Katrina's wedding in September!

-I've been getting ready for college. I leave on the 30th, so I'm doing stuff like GET LOTS MORE CLOTHES!! :) hehe I've also been working at Billerio's Fruit Farm, and I've been cleaning for a couple we know.

-I'm sure there are tons of things I'm forgetting, but those are the highlights of my summer thus far! Stay in touch, folks...and I'll especially be looking forward to reading blog updates from you all after I head to college. And I'll attempt to blog from college and show everyone pics of my room, job, classes, the campus, etc.

May

Quite a few things have happened since I posted last. Awana ended for the year. Our family went to MD/VA for Jess's graduation. My car (the ford escape) broke down on the way home. Jessica got married. I went to NC for a week. I came home. Most of us went on an overnight canoeing trip. I've uploaded pictures of all of those things (except the canoe trip) on facebook and google+, so I'm not going to put pics in this post (and if you still need a link to either of those places to see the pics, let me know!).

Today's post is going to be about the wedding. Jessica came back a week and a half before the wedding. I got done with finals the day she got home, so we were able to hop right into serious wedding prep mode. We tied ribbons around bubbles, made tissue paper flowers, and went shopping. On Saturday, Emily flew in, and Grandpa Bob and Grandma Suzy arrived. I have to say that Emily was an amazing help. She was fun to be with, really helpful, and a nice stable influence in the chaos.

Monday night, Rachel came up and Jess, Annetta, Emily, Rachel, and I had a sleepover down at the bachelor pad (aka Grandpa's house) to test out the accommodations. We did practice makeup, ate snacks, painted nails, and watched a movie. Then we slept. And I use the word "slept" in a fairly loose and general sense of the word. Tuesday morning was Decorate the Church Day. We got most of it done. We set up for the reception, decorated the sanctuary, and even managed to hang the paper lanterns from the ceiling. After discovering that both fishing line and floss are very stretchy, we used baling twine and it worked great.

Wednesday evening, we did a little more decorating in the evening. I think that morning was when we went shopping for flowers/cake and chocolate for the chocolate fountains. We got two chocolate fountains from a church friend, but both had issues. So we got another chocolate fountain from a friend of ours, but it had issues at the reception and we ended up having the chocolate in a crock pot. That worked just fine...people skewered their fruit and dunked them in chocolate, or put a scoop of chocolate on their plate. At any rate, the chocolate fountain saga added some intrigue to the wedding story, and in a few months I'll be able to laugh heartily.

Thursday evening, the Derrs came, as well as all but one of the groomsmen. Kevin and Lisa (his sister) surprised us all by coming up early Wednesday night, but everyone else came Thursday evening. We had supper, and then went back down to the church for some last minute decorating. The decorations really did look good. We did the first set of decorating, and Thursday night was when a lady from our church came with her decorating stuff and added the finishing touches. Kevin was abducted by the guys to go watch some movie (something about star trek, I think) at a theater, so we girls finished up and went home and watched a movie. We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding...a movie I've heard about, but hadn't seen. Jess's college friends Courtney and Allison came later that evening...Allison is the one who did the girls hair, and Courtney was all around awesome!

Friday morning, we ate breakfast and hung around talking, and then most of us played a rousing game of Fishbowl. Rachel got dropped off a little before noon so she could come to the rehearsal lunch and then spend the night. Lunch was pizza and salad at the church, and it was really good. The rehearsal went very smoothly, too. We had already basically figured out how we wanted the bridal party to stand, so all we had to do was position everyone and make sure it looked good with the actual people instead of random siblings/friends as fill ins! So we practiced the ceremony part, and the walking into the reception, and went home.

When we got home, we found that the guys vests and pants had arrived. (Jess and Kevin had been planning on picking them up Thursday afternoon, but due to an error on the store's part, the suits had been delivered to the wrong stores, so most of them were in MD. Not good.  The outfits were overnighted to Erie, and then the manager personally delivered them). The drawback to getting the suits delivered was that we had absolutely no wiggle room with the sizes we got. (No pun intended ;P ) Ardee, Andrew, and Josiah's suits looked fine. Tony and Ben's vests were basically billowing out behind them...we tightened them as much as we could, and they were still too big. So, Rachel and I spent about a half hour adjusting, pinning, pinching, and tucking before we determined how to fix it, and then we spent another hour-ish hand sewing two side seams in the back of their vests. Some pricking may or may not have occurred...some may o may not have been intentional...but Ben and Tony did a fine job of letting us sew and seam rip their vests. And frankly, I liked how ours turned out better than the original version.

Friday night, we (we =  most of the bridal party, plus Allison and Courtney, and anyone else who was at our house) watched the movie Hitched. It got done around midnight, and we said our goodnights and headed off to try to sleep before eeeeeek the wedding!

So, Saturday morning arrived! I woke up around 6 am, and Rachel (who slept in my room) and I started chattering. Jess heard us and came in and we talked a little bit. Allison started with my hair around 7:30, and so the morning (well, from 7:30 to about 10 or 11) was filled with breakfast, hair, and makeup. Rachel did most of my makeup...Elizabeth came up and started whipping Lydia, Hosanna, Joanna, and Katrina into shape :) Rachel and I waled across the road to a lilac bush and picked two bouquets for Jess...one for real and one for just in case. I drove down to the church to get ribbon. Mrs Arnold, the photographer, and her assistant arrived and started taking pictures. The guys, meanwhile, ate breakfast, cleaned Kevin's car, got ready, and took pictures.

Around 10:15 or so, Jess and Kevin had their first look and things started happening for real :) the girls dashed upstairs to don our dresses, and then we went outside to have bridal party and immediate family pictures. We got done around noon, so we packed vehicles and ate lunch. Around 1:15 or so, we loaded up and went to the church. The guys lit candles and the ushers got ready to ush, and the bridal party girls retired to the ladies bathroom! We sprayed perfume on, talked, helped Jess get all ready, and then we prayed for her. Then we took a few pictures and it was time to line up on the stairs! We walked out of the bathroom into the fellowship hall, where we watched on the tv monitor what was happening upstairs. We could hear the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack playing the prelude music. Then it stopped and Mrs. Berndt started playing for the seating of the grandparents. We lined up on the stairs, and Mrs. Berndt started playing the song for the lighting of the candles by the mothers. Emily and I unbustled Jess's train. Daddy came from escorting Mama and stood with Jess. Then Mrs. Berndt started playing the bridesmaid song, and Elizabeth (thanks so much, Elizabeth!!) nodded at Jenn to go. And then Rachel. And then Annetta. And then Emily. And then me. The guys were all perched in their places, already. I got up to my piece of tape and had enough time to see about 1/3 of Josh and Katrina's walk down...Katrina did a great job throwing petals and smiling, and Josh did a good job letting her hold his arm. Then Mrs. Berndt started playing the bridal march, the doors opened, everyone stood up, and Daddy and Jess walked down to Kevin.

The rest of the ceremony went fine. Pastor gave his exhortation. Christina did a fabulous job playing her violin. I adjusted Jess's dress every time she moved. Daddy gave an exhortation that made everyone cry. They said their vows. Andrew and I didn't lose the rings. They lit the candle. They kissed. He carried her down the aisle. And then it was time for us to walk out and stand in the receiving line. After the receiving line, Andrew and I got to sign the marriage license/witness signatures/whatever it was we did, and then it was time for us to head into the reception. Jess and Kevin cut the cake, Rachel and Andrew gave toasts, we decorated the getaway car, ate food, and talked to some people. After everyone left, we cleaned up...basically it was our family, the Der family, the bridal party, and a few friends. It was a lot faster coming down than it was going up :) We were home by somewhere around 8, I think. And we ate leftovers and watched a movie and talked and basically crashed.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast with the people who were still here (I guess that would be the Derrs plus Ardee), and then they left to go back home.

And that was the wedding.Tune in next time to hear about other stuff!

In Which There are Pictures of Random Things

In April, Katrina and I decided to make pie. So we made apple pie and it was good!

And here are a few pictures from the homeschool game night we had! It was a lot of fun! And we clearly demonstrate that one can never be to old to play a rousing, intense, and competitive game of musical chairs. 

Changing gears a bit...about a week ago, Rachel came over to help us work on some painting at my Grandpa's house. Because we're planning to house the groomsmen and so forth down there for the wedding, we have a good incentive to get work done down there.

Then we made tissue paper flowers! We've made quite a few over the past couple weeks...I think we're up to about 60 or 70. We'll be using them to decorate for the wedding.

And here, our flower girl poses with the flowers... :)

Another part of our wedding prep is cake practice. Luckily, we have neighbors who have willingly volunteered to help with this, in the form assisting with the eating part. Saturday evening, we found ourselves in dire need of said assistance. So we ate this cake and it was good.

And finally...a couple days ago I bought a vehicle. It's a 2003 Ford Escape. Here, Katrina poses in...the driver's seat. And actually...it'll be a little under 10 years before she can sit there for real. Scary, yes?

Holy cow.

I have to share this screen shot. After roughly 4 hours of working on this online precalc quiz...I got a 100%. You'll understand my great and vast rejoicing when you understand that my current gpa for that class is a C-. It may actually be possible to get a C+ in this class after all... Anyhow, that was rather encouraging to me :)

Catch up time!

March was a busy month! I know we've posted about the trip (to an extent), but I haven't yet posted anything about the church camp retreat, Cadet Leadership School, the bridal shower, the cleaning day, or the actual trip to Florida. But, today is a Day To Get Stuff Done, so here we go.

Chronologically, the first thing that I haven't yet blogged about is the church retreat we went to. I put all my pictures up on google+, and honestly, I think most of the people who would be interested in seeing them have seen them, so I won't put them up again. However, if you are one of the few who want to see them, let me know and I'll email you the link (I think I'd rather do that than put the link out here on my blog. Cause of all the creepy criminals and stuff who stalk me, ya know). Anyhow, our entire family went to Camp LiLoLi with our friends and their church group. Another family we're friends with went as well which was fun. We girls again got to sleep in the loft above the chapel, which means that we definitely did stay up late talking. Just like last year, we had church services, played lots of games, went sledding, helped out in the kitchen, talked, and played even more games.

Cadet Leadership School was the last weekend in February (I think?). I was on public affairs and admin staff, and Hosanna was in Foxtrot flight.

Jessica's bridal shower was the first Saturday in March. Because of her work schedule, she didn't get here til Friday evening and left on Sunday, and since Kevin was working, he wasn't able to come up with her. But his sisters Christina, Lisa, and Catherine came up. We had a birthday party for Joanna and her little friend Megan Friday evening.






Later that evening, the older kids (Jess, Christina, Lisa, Annetta, Lydia, Hosanna, Joanna, Catherine, Logan, Jordan, Duncan, Megan, and I) went down to the church to set up for the bridal shower! As you can see, it was lovely and purple. (photo credits go to Jess)

The bridal shower was the next day, and it  went well! We had perhaps 60 ladies attend to bless Jess with a nice shower. We played some games (MC'd by yours truly), had a short devotional from Mrs. F, and ate some snacks put on by the ladies of our church. Jess got a lot of gifts as well.

That evening, a representative from Mary Kay came to give Jess and 10 of her friends a lip and facial treatment because Jess had won some sort of prize from David's Bridal.

The second weekend of March was the day that we had a cleaning party at my Grandpa's house. We had a huge dumpster...we started with it empty and ended with it stuffed full. We took a trip to the dump, also. Logan did tall person work on the wall over the stairway, and the rest of us found random jobs hauling stuff out to the dumpster, cleaning, and moving and organizing stuff. (Photo credits from the cleaning go to Clayton.)

After we cleaned, we came up to our house for a pizza supper. We made great progress on the house...we're very appreciative of the people who came out and worked! There's still a ways to go, but Annetta and I went down this evening and did some stuff...we have vacuuming and setting up of furniture (hey, if anyone knows of anyone who's getting rid of beds/mattresses, let us know!), but the vast majority of the interior work is done.

Okeydoke...that's all for this post! Thanks for reading!