Spring

It's that Time Of Year where people are prone to turn to one another and exclaim in voices of happy surprise and amazement, "Spring has sprung!! " And my thoughts can be summed up as: "Well, it's not like it does this every year, is it...?" But maybe that's just me.

At any rate, the way you can tell that spring sprunged is by these simple steps:
1) Open your door and step outside.
2) Exhale.
3) See if your breath condenses into a cloud of ice that will then fall down on your toes and shatter.
4) HAHA! Of course it did!! It's May. It will continue to be cold until mid-June.

No, the real way to tell if it is spring is:
1) Google "what is the first day of spring?"
2) Check your calendar to find out if you are past that date.
Simple.

But as to how you can tell if spring has sprung, is in the process of sprunging or has already sprunged...I don't know. It may have something to do with returning birds, flowers appearing, rain instead of snow, etc.

But enough of that. The point is, the snow is gone (even though it snowed a tiny bit yesterday), and we are doing summer-type activities, by which I mean, not wearing coats (in the house, that is). We have been doing schoolwork or college, and I've been working at a local fruit farm, trimming raspberries, blackberries, and black raspberries.

AWANA is done for the year. We had our awards night and wrapped it up.

In other news, Jessica and I are planning a trip to Australia this Friday.

Well, not really. We're actually going to Tennessee to campaign for some friends of ours who are running for political offices out there. Then we'll be going to Indiana for a friend's graduation party before flying home on the 24th. Annetta may update this blog from home while I'm away.

I will close this post with some pictures I took a few days ago.

The Bivouac!

Okay folks...grab a cup of hot cocoa or something and get comfy. This is going to be massive. Quick Note: I'm referring to all cadets by their first names, simply to keep last names of my blog.

Let's start out by defining some terms.
Bivouac: Pronounced "biv-wack" or, "camping," this is where you go out in the woods and live in tent (pronounced "mud puddle") for a couple days.
MRE: This stands for Meal Ready to Eat. You'll find it in the military surplus store with the rest of the cat food.
24-Hour Pack: This holds all the stuff you would need if you were on a ground team mission for 24 hours, and I use "you" in the sense of "Daniel Boone."
Hike: This is what we call it when we go into the woods and walk, either on the trail, off the trail, in the mud, or...in the mud. Pretty much.
CQ: Charge of Quarters. They walk around and keep everyone awake at night, so that we will be alert if any intruders should intrude.

It began Friday afternoon, when 8 cadets and two senior members met up at our squadron's headquarters to ride up to the bivouac. We loaded the van (10 people plus all their stuff...) and headed out.

Once we got there, Sarah and I set up the tent we were sharing. Then we sloshed back through the mud, grabbed our gear, put it in our tent, and found whatever staff members we needed to talk to. I found Joanna (actually, she found me), who was the other public affairs staff member. We found schedules, and I started taking pictures. The cadets continued arriving and setting up. Friday evening pretty much consisted of in-processing, setting up, getting the cadets into flights, and The Building of The Fire. Well, the excitement consisted moreso of The Positioning Of The Grate Legs So The Grate Will Fit On Top, but whatever.

Around 2200, we headed out on a night hike. As our group walked through the woods, we observed several items, such as a vest, that we picked up as we walked on our way to the flashing SOS beacon that we saw. Unfortunately, we weren't supposed to a) pick up the items or b) find the beacon, so when we were informed of this by the second group, we melted into the woods in embarrassment at our prowess, skill, and observational abilities. Melting into the woods (and I use the term "melting" very loosely) meant that we had to rely on our cat-like vision to navigate around puddles, trees, logs, mud, other people, etc. Judging by the sound effects, most of the hikers did not have cat-like vision.

After a midnight staff meeting, we headed to bed (and I am also using the term "bed" loosely). A train roared by every so often, it was freezing cold, and the ground was bumpy. I was on the verge of sleep when my tent buddy said, "Would it be a bad time to say that I have to go to the bathroom?" We escaped CQ and went off (at least the girls were allowed to use the bathroom in the house...finding that out was a story all to itself, involving awkwardness and near-hysterical giggling after the incident occurred). Then, after we had gotten back to our tent...the cadet in the tent a couple inches away from ours started snoring. I'm glad to know that at least one person slept fairly well, I'm sure.

Finally, in the morning, around 0630 or so, Sarah and I rousted ourselves out of our tent. We bemoaned our one hour of sleep as we stalked to the bathroom to prepare for what we knew would be a long day. We both had a hatred for the birds, who chirped loudly, cheerfully, and incessantly. They had gotten a full night of sleep, so why couldn't they just shut up and let us be tired and grumpy, we reasoned. After breakfast and getting wood for the fire, Bravo Flight went on a hike to identify safety hazard. My camera and I attached ourselves to Bravo. After the hike, one of the cadet officers, Matthew, taught us a class on shelter building. After going over some basics, he had each pair of cadets build a shelter. Then, he walked around and identified what he liked, or what he saw that could be problems, with each shelter.

Next, Alpha and Bravo flights had a class on fire building. Then they set fire to the cadet commander's tent. NO! Then they split up into four groups and built fires. Then they tried to light them. Some had better success than others, by which I mean, they all got them lit -- it's just that some went out after about ten seconds. Then we had lunch.

After lunch, the cadets were taken out to the woods where there was a very large log laying on the ground. Each flight was given a cross-cut saw and instructions, and the competition was on! The flights were motivated, and they were really close. It took close to an hour to saw through, and at the end they used a log as a lever to break the bark on the underside of the log. After that, we moved the log to camp, put it next to the fire, and used it to sit on. Of course.

Okay...have you ever wondered how you transport people from a plane crash out in the woods to an ambulance on the road? It's called a litter, and the next thing we learned how to do was using one. Basically, you put the victim (but never call them that -- you make up a name for them and call them by that name if necessary) in the litter, strap them in, and off you go. Random Bit of Trivia: You can tip the person upside down and they won't fall out of the litter. So our motto is: We may drop you, but you won't fall out! Comforting words to calm the quaking soul... I personally was carried in the litter for about half of a half of a journey -- it was interesting, and by that, I mean the treetops were pretty, but it was a little scary listening to the commentary, which centered on warnings of obstacles and near-drops.

The rest of Saturday was a few more classes, supper, closing formation, and a night hike with the litter (and its occupants). Saturday night, even though the same cadet snored again, I slept much better. Maybe exhaustion level is related to the ability to fall asleep.

Sunday morning was it...the exercise. Somewhere out there was a (simulated) plane crash, and its pilot. We had to find him and get him out. My camera and I headed out with Alpha Flight, and we marched around in brush for quite some time, and then struck out through some wood. It was raining slightly, fairly chilly, and muddy. We came across an open area -- I couldn't quite call it a field, but it was fairly open. Bravo Flight had arrived before we had and was already scouring the area. We found pieces from the airplane, and when I arrived, the medics were already tending to the victim, named Dan. His legs were duct taped together, and he was loaded into the litter and we headed out. We all met up at camp and had closing formation. Okay, here's the funny part: During closing formation, the sky turned from completely gray to completely blue. Go figure.

We packed up...and...left. Pretty much. It was sad. And I have mentioned pictures...they are all on facebook. If you don't know how to see them, contact me and I'll send you the link. I frankly was too lazy to upload a hundred here when they're just a couple clicks away :)

Thanks for reading!

A Blog Post

I'm starting to get a compulsive-blogging feeling, brought on mainly by the fact that I haven't blogged in 16 days. So here is an update, with promises to blog again. Next week. With pictures. Yep :)

I ought to put something, like a paragraph, in here about Easter, mostly because it happened and this blog documents happenings for those of you who are fortunate unfortunate enough not to be here with us. We had some of my mom's relatives over, and had a nice time visiting with them. We also did some church things, namely, a church breakfast, and a cantata by the choir (said cantata involved several of us who sang in the choir, did sign language along with one of the songs for a special effect, and ran the sound system and videotaping).

Last weekend, our friend Kim had a birthday party :) About 8 girls went over to her house for a sleepover. We had a fun time playing some games and talking. The next day, our Awana club had its 2nd annual in-house olympics. We've been practicing the games for it for several weeks, and all the clubbers did well. I was the line leader for the Green Team. We came in fourth place, but we still had fun. The Blue Team came in first, and that was the team with Hosanna and Josh, with Jessica as a leader.

A few evenings ago, Jessica and I headed to town. She had a political meeting, and then she was going to the college library to do some research and read a book that she has to read for college. I went along because I wanted a change of pace. We parked at the White Inn, which is where the political meeting was, and then walked down to the ATM machine that was at the drive-through bank. Jessica hopped from sidewalk crack to sidewalk crack. I considered walking the opposite direction. After the bank, she headed back to the White Inn, and I strolled down to the park and sat on a bench and did my math. After I started getting goosebumps (why did I not bring a jacket? I asked myself), I headed into the library. Then I did several more lessons of math.

(Okay, okay, okay...the last sentence is a total lie. I didn't even open my math book. I have a book at the library that I read every time I go there -- it's taken me several months and I'm not even halfway -- so I read that instead. Sigh. Doing several lessons of math sounds a lot better, though...)

The library closes at 8:00. Jessica was supposed to drive down and get me before then, but I could tell the librarians were ready to close, so I put my book back, grabbed my math, and walked back to the White Inn (which was an adventure all to itself...however, since I don't feel like posting *that* on my blog for the world to see, if you're interested, just contact me somehow). I got to the van before Jessica did. So of course there was only one thing to do: hide in the back and say "Hello, ma'am," in a low voice, to scare her. I need to work on my guy-voice...

Next stop....the college library. I figure that I'm the only person ever to do Algebra 1 there. It was interesting to see the college kids. Jessica made the observation that college students are not nearly as mature as she thought they would be (I guess she would know). That explains why she was hopping on sidewalk cracks again. But I still had to act like a mature highschooler. :P

And then, McDonalds. We were hungry, and Starbucks was too expensive. So we got some food and located a table and sat there and did our respective school work. I felt much better about doing my Algebra 1 there, as opposed to a college. Colleges seem to have a pervading atmosphere of intellectual things, like trigonometry. In McDonald's, however, the pervading atmosphere is one such that Algebra 1 ranks quite near the top -- possibly above the top-- of intellectual-ness. It made me feel better about myself, is what I think I'm trying to say.

Several tables away from us (and on the other side of a wall) was a table at which Bill, Jane, Doris, and Mark were sitting. I am pretty sure that is what their names were. They had several very interesting (and somewhat loud) conversations, on politics, space, health, and so on. Finally, toward the end, we hard on of them say, "How do we get out?" We could only assume that these four people (and they were all the "senior citizen" age) had been sitting in McDonald's for quite some time; days, even; potentially weeks, unable to locate the exit. At that point, it had gotten fairly late, so we went home.

So that about brings us up to speed. Add in school work and the sundry activities that we're involved in, and you've pretty much got it. And I think that wraps up the post for today, folks!

Ethan and Ashley's Wedding, and Signature Sound

Last Saturday our family attended the wedding and reception for Ethan and Ashely, a sweet couple that we've known for many years. The wedding was really nice, and...blue! Yes, the favorite color for both of them is blue, and there were blue lights and decorations.

There was low lighting, which presented some problems for taking pictures! This is the bridal party.

And again...it's a clearer picture.

The bridesmaids were so pretty! Rachel, Jordan, and Shiloh made their dresses.
After the ceremony, everyone filed outside. (Below are Reuben, Elizabeth, and their dad.)

We all waited outside for the couple so we could throw birdseed at them.

You can really see the birdseed against Mr. Crook's suit.
Then we waited at the reception hall. These next three pics are the reception hall.


We had these cool, blue, glow-in-the-dark bracelets so we wouldn't get lost :)
As we waited, we decided to go outside and take pictures of us girls.


This is the cake.

But that wasn't the end of the day! We left the reception at shortly before 6:00 because Ernie Haase and Signature Sound was coming to town!

The pics are a little blurry too...but I think you can get the basic idea. I am hoping to regain my hearing by fall, however.






There were a lot of people.And then!! We got a picture of our family with Ernie Haase himself :)
Okay, this is too funny not to put in. After we put this picture on facebook, our friend James wrote out what he thought we were each thinking. So without his permission (please?), I shall put it here for everyone to enjoy and go into hysterics over :)

"Dad: "Hahaha! And here I thought Ernie Haase worked for Haagan-Daas! What a crack-up!"

Mom: "I have SO much stuff to do when I get home. Enough already."

Jessica: "This is so great! This is SO GREAT!!!! THIS IS LIKE GREAT! LIKE GREEEEEEEAAAAAAAATTTTT! Can I touch him? It's really him? ITS REALLY ERNIE HAASE!!!!!!"

Erika: "Let me model appropriately..."

Annetta: "Oh, such good times with dad! Oh, and Ernie Haase made it....that's nice."

Lydia: "My knees are locked...I'm gonna....topple over......but wait--don't forget to smile!"

Hosanna: "This is pretty cool. Ernie almost looks as good as me."

Joanna: "Oh, there's a camera--here, I'll smile."

Katrina: "Zzzzzzzz"

Josh: "I wonder if anyone notices it's past my bedtime?"

And of course, Jessica had one more thought....

"I can't wait to post this on FB! I CANT WAIT!!!!!!!!!! I am going to be SO COOL!!!! I'm not even going to use Ernie's last name...we'll be on a first name basis, like Bart and Ernie in Sesame Street!""

The End :)

Life

So, here I am again, staring at blogger's "Create a Post" page, dripping peanut butter on my keyboard... *pause while I lick it up* *okay, all better* I have titled this post a very generic, blah "Life." Life, in and of itself, is not blah, but it just seems that "life" is a boring handle to attach to something that is so...un-boring. Maybe it's good that it sounds boring -- sort of like reverse-psychology, so we don't get over-excited like we might if "life" were actually "Mad Adventure That You Will Die From" when it really feels like that :) (Before you click the x, let me assure you that that is as philosophical as I wax. We will now delve into some much more interesting topics, such as Joanna's birthday party.)

I have my "Pictures" folder open, and going in chronological order, the earliest blogable occurrence was Joanna's birthday party. Grandpa, our friend Elizabeth, and her mom came up too. Joanna turned 9 the end of February, and we had...

and
Yum.

This picture does not do it justice. It is the barn roof that we shoveled. Annetta, Lydia, Hosanna, Katie, Reuben, Elizabeth, Aaron, and I went back two days later to finish shoveling. We still didn't get *all* of it before they had to do chores and we had to go to Awana, but it's melted now anyhow. That big drift of snow that reaches up to the barn eaves is what we shoveled off.

For the past couple days, it has been amazingly spring-ish. Yesterday and today were decidedly more chilly, but we had some awesome days. This meant that we could go out on the porch roof and do schoolwork!


And that brings us all up to date! Schoolwork, Awana, schoolwork, CAP, schoolwork, oh, and don't forget about the laundry!

And my African Violet plant. He bids you farewell.

The Story of Hotdogs.

The story of how we got the hot dog is a fascinating one. In 1378, in a town called Schellenberg, a baker named Olaf was baking corndogs. Only, he ran out of cornbread batter when the pan was half full. Olaf was sort of a strange guy: he had a superstition about putting a half-empty pan of corndogs in the hearth oven, so he grabbed some bread dough and filled the pan with that. Then he popped the pan in the hearth.

When the corndogs and rolls were done, Olaf pulled them out of the oven, but he didn't know what do to with the rolls, which were now shaped like corndogs. Right then, Sven the postmaster (yes, they had a mail system then!) stopped by to get some corndogs for his lunch. He saw the corndog-shaped rolls sitting there and remembered that he and his wife Matilda had some leftover frankfurters in the icehole (remember...this was a long time ago -- they didn't have electricity or refrigerators, so they kept a chunk of ice in a hole in their backyard). He bought the two rolls, in addition to his corndogs for lunch.

That evening, he split open the rolls and put a frankfurter in the roll. It was delicious. And when he put some of the Kavelar Brothers' Ketchup on it (this was before Thomas Heinz, of course), it was even better. "Dear," he said to Matilda, "I think we have discovered the next commercial food." (Unfortunately, this was lost on Matilda, because she didn't know what the word 'commercial' meant.)

Sven told Olaf about his discovery, and the two of them decided to form a business. It was called Olaf and Sven's Commercial Food Outlet. (Since bread and this new discovery were the only two commercial foods, it wasn't as swanky a place as the name implies.)

The term "hot dog" came much later. In fact, it was in 1834. Prince Harvey of Austria visited Schellenberg and had to try one of its famous culinary creations. "Hot dog!' he exclaimed, after the first bite, "these are excellent!" (Where the term "hot dog" originated from we don't know. Nor do we know where Prince Harvey was exposed to such a slangy expression -- he was the sheltered type.) The expression stuck, and Sven and Olaf's creation has been a hot dog ever since.

*****************
That was assigned. By my English. By way of explanation, I just read/was forced to read Charles Lamb's Dissertation on Roast Pig, so that's where they were coming from in assigning such a, uh, assignment. And no, my mother hasn't seen it yet. I need to hit "Publish Post" before I lose my nerve (or regain my sense of propriety) and delete this. *hits "Publish Post" and goes to bed*

Shoveling Roofs

Weather.com, for what it's worth, is not worth a great deal, in my personal opinion. It told us that the snow storm that blew in on Thursday would be over Saturday afternoon. It is snowing harder than ever right now. Massive amounts of snow mean that, basically, there's a lot of snow up there, and it all comes down here. And it lands on things like trees, cows, haybales, the ground, roads, roofs, etc. The fact that snow lands on roofs is the topic of today's post.

Our neighbors have a barn. The barn has a roof, like most barns do. And the roof had snow on it -- in the sense of, 4 feet deep of snow on it. Now, if you were a barn roof with tons of snow on you, what would you do? For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, quoth Newton, many years ago. (Newton never shoveled a barn roof. Wussy.) All that to say that he barn roof started to bend slightly; also, some part of the barn structure became dis-attached. What does this mean? A barn-roof shoveling party, of course!! We had already been planning a Game Night for tonight, so the guys and their dads (and us and the neighbors whose barn it was, and who are part of our game night group) came on up and shoveled.

And shoveled. (And got tired.)

And shoveled. (And got more tired.)

For three hours. (And got exhausted.)

Around quarter to seven, it was determined that enough of the roof had been rescued so that we could now safely go eat pizza at Rachel's house, which is where the Game Night was held! We devoured aforementioned nutritious food, and played some group games.

Methinks I'll be sore tomorrow...

Random Photo Shoot...

...just totally random, for fun. For Christmas, Jessica got me a ring that matches hers. So today, I was taking a walk outside with my camera. And I decided to have a photo shoot with my ring :)

I married an icicle, to be exact.



And a shadow.

Then I decided to live dangerously and perch it way up on top of a really tall tree stump.




Barbed wire. Of course! Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

You know, the snow made it really cold so my finger almost got frostbite after I put it back on...
Thanks for reading till the end! I hope to post something considerably more substantial next time. (Translation: I wanted to put up these way cool pics, but understand that in order to keep my remaining blog readership, I must promise to, actually, like, post. Something like that.)

Being Sick in Our Family

Hopefully you'll never be with our family when we're sick. I wish I never had to be with my family when they're sick either. But sometimes it happens, and when it does, there is only one thing to be done. And that one thing is to blog. So here goeth.

It starts when one of the little kids -- say Joanna -- starts blowing her nose and lying around more than usual. These are indications that a Sickness is coming. As more children fall ill, the chances of the older kids (namely, Jessica and yours truly) getting sick is greater. Finally, if it's a really bad sickness, we all get it.

There are pros and cons of getting a mass sickness or your own solitary one. If you are sick with 5 or 8 other people in your family, you will get no sympathy. Fevers of 98.7 will be scorned. Fevers of 100 are likewise denigrated. The only way to get pity is to LIMP. (I haven't gotten that desperate yet.)

Getting sick all by your lonesome means that you have more of a chance to get pitied, if you play it right. BUT, compassion in this instance takes longer to receive. See, when you stagger downstairs and announce weakly to the family (who is happily munching their Cinnamon Squares at the breakfast table) that you are sick and don't expect to live past 3 PM, their reaction is indicative of the loving, caring nature of their generous souls. "GET AWAY FROM ME!!" they shout, leaping up, and rushing past you far, far away. They hold their breaths, lest a lethal germ should enter their breathing system and thereby endanger them. Then, for the rest of the day, they sidle warily past you, turning blue from a germophobic asphyxiation as they hasten to do any urgent business they might have. Then they hurry away, leaving a safe radius of, say, four miles, between themselves and the hacking, coughing you.

And then, horror of horrors, if another sibling should come down with the same illness, that member is shunned like a Hindu priest does a beggar. Discussions are held amongst the well ones as they try to recall how exactly the new sick member got sick. Then they avoid anything that person had previously done. Consultations and updates are held with frequency as the kids who are not sick try desperately to remain so. Then, as another child gets sick, the process repeats itself. Or, no one else gets sick and life goes on.

Either way, life eventually returns back to normal, and siblings stop monitoring each other for unusual things which could point to a succumbing to sickness. Then someone gets sick again, and the whole process repeats.

As you might have guessed, our family is going through a mass cold. It's an annoying, lingering one, and its existence is the reason that I am home blogging instead of at Cadet Leadership School like I have anticipated for the last year. Have you ever heard the term "her fever broke," and wondered how a fever breaks? I have, and I found out a couple nights ago. It just stops. I was in bed, awake, feeling shivery like you do when you have a fever, and it suddenly went away. And I went back to sleep. But last night, I had a fever, and it went away somewhat gradually, so I guess I'm not sure. I thought it was cool though.

That was an update on my life. What about yours?