November [thus far]

 This is a brief synopsis of the month of November...so far. We had company the second week of November: Grandma Suzy and Grandpa Bob and Jess and Kevin came up, and at the end of the week, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Valerie, and our cousins Nolan and Justin came up.

While Jess was here, we girls hearkened back to the ole days when the 4 of us tromped over hill and dale and tree trying to get lost and so forth in our woods. We walked and talked about boys and stuff and took pictures. 

Grandpa Bob took the grandkids out to lunch at Bob Evans:

Friday night, when Uncle Wayne et al came in, we had a big family dinner. Then we sat on the steps and took a picture.

The next day, everyone came to our house for our Thanksgiving Dinner. It was delicious :)

 The sport of the day was arm wrestling...

We also ate pie. (Hi, Justin!)

They matched. Without even planning on it.

Certain of the cousins played a prank on Kevin that involved tinted chapstick, known for all intents and purposes as lipstick...

A couple days ago, Annetta and I went to Lake Erie with Rachel. It was, ahem, rather chilly...

And for any of you who might not have heard (actually...I don't even have any blog stalkers, I don't think...so you all know. but whatever.), Jess and Kevin are somehow engaged or something, so there are pictures. Here's the link to my album (HERE), and below are a few of my faves. 

Okay, the end. I must needs proceed with this 8 page paper :P

Texas Trip

Howdy! So, you know, I had big plans to do an epic post, with tons of pictures and tons of words and stuff. But then I started editing pictures, and I ended up with 98 ones that I liked.And suddenly I didn't want to upload them all to blogger and write about them. So here's what I'm doing. I'm putting the link to my fb album RIGHT HERE and then I will write a big long post that tells the story. So you get the pictures and you get the words, just not in the same spot.

We left last Wednesday, at about 6 am. We had packed up, made lists, made food, and basically gotten details ironed out before we left, so we loaded ourselves up, set Garmin westward, and headed off. Josh and Katrina were really excited about seeing "the mountains of the west" but of course they were a long way off. We were headed out to MO to pick up Rachel, and as we had made our travel plans, we assumed we would need to stop a night between here and there. But, we forgot one detail: central time. We had thought about it in connection to other things, just not with travel time. So, we made it all the way out there by Wednesday night, spent the night, and the packed and left by 8 am the next morning. Then we drove all the way to Big Sandy, Texas.

It was about an 8 hour drive, so with stops, it was maybe 5 when we got there. We drove through OK (sadly did not see any tumbleweeds), and then finally into Texas. We passed a lot of cattle ranches, slept on and off, and played some games. But finally! we arrived. And in typical Erika fashion, I got bit by an ant minutes after arriving at the conference. The first thing we did was find our primitive campsite. Now, a little background story first:I really, really wanted to see a cactus in Texas. Like, I really, really wanted to. So it was so cool when we finally selected our campsite, pulled up, hopped out, and practically stepped on a cactus. It was just sitting there, waiting for me to come and adopt it. And it was the only cactus I saw the whole time. I planted it in a pot and I'm hoping it adapts well :)

We finished registering at the convention center, and set up our campsite. My mom, Josh, and Katrina slept in a tent, and Annetta, Rachel, and I folded down the back bench seat in our van and slept in the back hatch/trunk. Yes, we fit. But barely :P

That evening, they had an opening session which we attended. Then we trekked back to our campsite, slew some of the monster spiders in the bathroom, realized it was futile, switched shower stalls to a less populated one, and then went to bed. (Yeah...Texas has daddy long leg spiders almost as big as my hand. They are creepy and awful and they like the bathroom and I hate every single one of them). In the fb album, you will note some interesting pictures that we took before falling asleep.

The next morning, we awoke and heard the melodic sound of wind whipping around and the air was freezing and the sky was gray. Clearly, our first thought was, "what in the world will we wear?? what did we bring that is warm??" That was a common theme. I ended up wearing two pairs of jeans, socks and shoes, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, a short sleeve shirt, and a hoodie on Saturday...that's how cold it was. But it was adventurous and we survived.

Friday morning we attended the conference sessions. I think they were basically all group sessions. They had some special music groups and then speaking. After that, it was lunch time! So all we had to do was stroll down to the dining hall, get food, eat it, and then stroll back up to our next session. However, we did not know where the dining hall was. And it started raining lightly as we walked. We finally found it, went through the line, and sat down and ate. It was really good, too. Then we hiked back to the next session. My mom took the kids to a Bible story hour, while Rachel, Annetta, and I listened to Shalom Brand (one of the Pearls daughters) speak on Preparing to be His Helpmeet, which is one of the books No Greater Joy has written and sells. It was interesting, and while I am not wholeheartedly endorsing it, I really liked it. After that, my mom and the kids joined us for another session led by Mrs. Pearl and Shalom on homeschooling and stuff.

Once that let out, we had about an hour to spare before supper, so we headed to the area where the dining hall, gym, and rock wall climbing are. We hung out there, then had supper, and then there were a few more sessions.

Now, during one of the afternoon sessions, Mrs. Pearl informed the audience that this was a Shindig the likes of which was trying to get singles to meet each other and then, like, get married. But we singles needed a helpful boost in the meeting each other arena, so she had an idea that she was going to share later that evening. So after the last evening session, she told us all that the next day, she was organizing basically a speed dating event, where the guys and girls lined up facing each other and had one minute to talk. Then the guys would move down one, talk, move down another, and so on until they had met every girl. And that was happening the next day. But that evening, Shoshanna announced that she was organizing some games for the singles ages 15 and up. Ever played Musical Chairs with seriously 100 to 150 teenagers? It's a blast. So is Duck Duck Goose, played with perhaps 50 teenagers. One holds one's breath (figuratively speaking) and prays that one does not get run over. Rachel, Annetta, and I partook in these activities til about 10:30, at which point we walked back to the campsite. Then we froze through another night.

Saturday morning dawned with BLUE SKY! It was windy and chilly, but there was SUNSHINE. Again, we had breakfast at our site, had some main sessions, then had lunch. After lunch, Annetta, Josh, and I went rock wall climbing (pics of that in the album too). Then, my mom took Josh and Katrina and the Garmin to Longview to pick up Stephen from his college (LeTourneau University) to bring him back for the rest of the day. Rachel, Annetta, and I went to another session in the interim.

When they got back, we went canoeing on the lake (pics from that in album), and then had supper. After supper, we went back to a conference session, listened to Josh and Kelsie Steele tell their love story, walked around, talked, ate cheese and clementines and candy, sat down a bit, and then it was time to take Stephen back to campus. Annetta, Rachel, and I drove him back, and because it was open dorm time, we were allowed to (gasp) go into the boys' dorm and (GASP) into his room! We had to wait before going in because someone in his room needed to put a shirt on (don't you love colleges like that?), but we got to go in and meet Stephen's roommate and a couple other guys. Then we drove back to the conference.

The next morning, we packed up in the frigid coldness, ate breakfast in the frigid coldness, had the adventure of moving our borrowed picnic table back to its original space, hopped into our church clothes (when I packed that skirt and shirt, I was not thinking that it would be so cold down there...), and drove to the church where Stephen attends when he's at college. It was a nice service. The pastor talked about circumstances and used Paul's life as an illustration. After that, we had lunch at Sonic, because I've been wanting a strawberry shake ever since I had one 2 and a half years ago when Jess and I went to TN to campaign for our friends! So I got a strawberry shake and it was delicious.

We got to tour LeTourneau after lunch, and then we we left! We made it almost through Arkansas before we had to stop for the night...then we drove all day Monday, and had to stop again...and then we finally got home Tuesday around noon!

It was such a fun trip. I know that we'll remember it forever :)

random lil post

I wanted to make sure I shared the link to my photo album from Lucas and Katie's wedding in case some of you were interested in seeing them, so it's here: Lucas and Katie


Second...a little life update! This Wednesday, my mom, Anetta, Josh, Katrina, and I are going to Texas! No Greater Joy ministries is hosting a conference in Big Sandy Texas (a couple hours east of Dallas), and we're attending that. We'll pick up the Thimble on our way down from her brother's house where she is currently, which we're very much so looking forward to! And we'll be coming back the following Tuesday. So, prayers would be appreciated for traveling safety and for the 3 kids, my dad, and Grandpa who will be staying here.

4 days after we get back from TX, we'll have a little over a week with visiting relatives. We're actually having Thanksgiving early--second weekend in November-- because it's not often that we see my mom's brother and his family. My grandparents from FL will also be coming up.

Ok, that's all for now!

Random Funniness

I'm procrastinating on my homework...that is if you can procrastinate on something you haven't started yet.

So...we're over a quarter of the way through the fall semester. I have hopes of doing a "Day in the Life of a Commuting College Student Named Erika," but until that happens, here's a post I've wanted to do for a while. Picture this: you're sitting in class, and it's boring. You're studiously taking notes like the perfect little angelic student you are as your prof drones on an on. Suddenly! he says something funny! Your senses are jarred-- there is Personality and Humor here within the safe confines of your classroom! Before you know it, you're snickering, and then you quickly jot down the quip he just said before you continue taking notes. And today, I am sharing these quotes with you...one prof at a time. And then I have a special link for you.

From World History 2, I bring you Prof Beardsley!
-random student in class, talking to Prof Beardsley about Jordan :"What did he just say? He says a lot of stuff that I don't understand and you agree with!"
-Prof Beardsley: "Mmm, yeah, polygamy...that's problematic!"
-Prof Beardsley on arranged marriages: "One of your classmates comes in with his parents and throws some chickens and cows at your parents and the next thing you know, you're engaged to be married! ...That is awkward!"

Epic and Romance:
-"You may think college life is quite epic - but do you have to kill monsters?"
-"You swallow a pregnant woman [and] you have a problem!"
-"He's naked - he's like a pickle, basically."

Western Civilization, Dr. Arnold:
"...and while [Alexander the Great] was there, he was conveniently named a god by an oracle..."
"I don't know why I like to say Alcibiades - I just do."
"Become a geek - you'll love it!"

And Mr. Skinner from Introductory Sociology:
"When I was a little boy-- this would be sometime between the discovery of radiation and dirt--..."
"This is a really bad [photograph], because security guards were chasing me all over and I was furtively taking pictures."

Funny quote from Jordan: "I have glue remover, but it doesn't work on cement!"

The only class not represented here is Political Science. It is the most boring and confusing class in the entire history of my education. I sit and try to paste an expression onto my face whenever he glances my direction. The subliminal message I try to send with these facial expressions is along the lines of "I'm actually alive" "Oh wow! That was so interesting!" or "Fascinating. I wonder why it did that." What I am actually thinking, underneath said facial expressions is "I wonder how asleep I can be before I'll actually fall asleep" "I have no idea what he just said" to "he just asked if anyone has questions...would he be offended if I asked him to repeat the entire lecture? The entire semester of lectures thus far?" So with that in mind, I think you'll understand why I have no humorous ditties. In Fenton 168, humorous ditties flee, crying, when Prof Jankowski walks in the room.

And for the funny link. Backstory: those of you at the game night on Friday might remember me saying that I'd put up a link in lieu of explaining the story to you there, as it might sound a tad sketchy. This a guy's guide to wearing shorts. Lydia, Hosanna, and I were sitting together when I found this, and we about died laughing at the last one "Not even shorts?" So the joke on Friday was that I saw a student wearing bright green fluffy boot/shoe things, and I looked at them and thought to myself, "Not even shoes?" Here's the link: http://www.primermagazine.com/2011/spend/primers-complete-visual-guide-to-mens-shorts

Visit to Maryland

Once upon a time, it was almost Labor Day weekend. And I suddenly had an epiphany which involved me realizing that Labor Day weekends involve an extended weekend for college students, i.e. Jessica and me. So I promptly decided that a visit to Maryland should be in order. Details were worked out, and Friday afternoon saw me zipping home from college, loading up the car, and leaving with my mom, Annetta, and Lydia. We had a fairly uneventful trip down...it's like 6 or 7 hours away, so it's not too bad.

 Anyhow, I took a bunch of pictures, so here they are.

First, a picture of their house.

And this is me, sacked out on my air mattress. The girls were so sweet and let us use their room while they stayed at their grandma's home (which is basically in their back yard).


 We went on a walk and got some cool pics...

 ...all the girls






Kevin gave us a 4-wheeler ride, which was fun and I didn't even fall off, which was good.


















 This butterfly was being photogenic.

And of course I snapped some pics of Jess and Kevin...

 And yes, for the astute among you, the above and below picture is the same one...I edited it two ways and couldn't decide which I liked better.

The next 4 pictures are a series of attempts to make grass mustaches. Apparently harder than it looks ;)

 And then Monday afternoon we loaded ourselves back up and headed home!

And a summer went by...

Well technically, there's still summer left. It's not over. Definitely not. But still, a lot of it has gone by, as evidenced by the people who are flocking to college, the cooling weather, the pretty leaves beginning to appear on deciduous trees, and in fact, the calendar. I hope you guys had a great summer. Mine, as you've seen rather sporadically, was also great. Busy, but great.

My last week of camp went well. I was particularly excited because Sunday evening before the family campers arrived, I was informed that some friends of ours would be camping that week (for those of you in the homeschool circle, this would be Cheyenne Ada's family, minus [sadly] Cheyenne Ada herself, but including her eldest sister + husband). It was the first week that I had actually previously known campers, so I was excited to have some familiar faces to talk to!

During this last camp week, I actually wrote down like a page in the back of my devos book, with the intent of using said scribbles as material for a blog post. Here they are, with my after-the-fact explanations in brackets:

-Monday night, serenading Strawberry Hill with Moose on the Loose [a camp song. It's about a moose. He drinks juice.]
-Considering after said serenading that it probably would be considered a distraction. [Distractions here being the ultimate offense. Not penultimate, but ultimate. For real.] Oh well. One cannot live one's life under the shadow of "what if Joel had been there?!"
-Chris, Hannah, and I did two wagon rides [i.e. led the silly songs during the 20 minute wagon ride]. Lots of fun. Nathanael [tractor driver] even joined in, singing and doing the motions (while driving)-- including putting his hands up on the roller coaster [a small hill. It's BC's version of a roller coaster.]. We all screamed at him. I later saw a couple people who said they'd been on my wagon, and they indicated that it had been fun.
-Capture the Flag: scrapes and bruises. Stupid road. And we didn't even get first place.  [Internally wincing here. Ouch.]
-Plumbing leak: still under investigation. Getting very close to solving.
-that awkward moment when you get an encouragement note and you can't decipher the handwriting...
-Sunday night craziness: "Doin' him well...delish!" Next morning: "Last night's conversation is starting to set in..." I'm here for you, friend...
-Jo [roommate] talking in her sleep, sitting up in her sleep: "Okay, I'm done talking in my scary voice now!"
-changing messy diapers-- Carson :( [Thankfully he was wearing a one-piece outfit the day his diaper got so full it fell off, otherwise it would have been worse than it was. And that was pretty bad.]

That last item leads nicely into my next topic: nursery. Vanessa, Emily, and I were the chosen ones. Chosen nursery ones, that is. See, when we have family camps, we offer a nursery for the smallest munchkins so that their parents can enjoy chapel, the other adults can enjoy chapel, and the speaker can enjoy chapel. The first week, we just like had one child, and he was cute and angelic and good. And I even got moved out of nursery into the 2-5 year old chapel because at Bethany Camp, we don't need 3 staffers to one child. The second week we had 3 kiddos, I think. We had a little girl who sat on my lap for most of it, but she was good and didn't cry. And we had two boys, one who was very big and liked to throw things, but they were good and played well together. And the last week (week 4) we had like 3 kids who seemed to take turns coming, and they were good and only cried some of the times. Buuut, the third week. Oh, the third week. My goodness...week three.

So, like, Monday night, week 3, we set up the nursery for the first chapel. And I use "we" in the sense of "the maintenance boys." It was their job to set it up for us twice a day. So they set it up, and we were like all excited to meet the new children, cause we'd seen some of them move in and they looked small and cute and bursting with infant goodness. Enter child 1. And child 2. And a screaming child 3. And suddenly child 1 and 2 are screaming also, and as children 4, 5, and 6 are handed in, they likewise join the cacophony. Except the littlest one was only 7 months old, so he didn't really cry, but he did need to be held, or watched if he was sitting up, because he had this nasty habit of face planting at the most unexpected times. And then he cried.

 I don't think they stopped crying at all that evening. We sorta had a constant roar for the hour and 10 minutes of chapel. And the kitchen staff and maintenance staff and media staff were moved with compassion and pity and came and offered words of encouragement to us as we soothed unsoothable babies, and then they were moved with a sense of becoming deaf and moved away. In fact, on Tuesday, after the morning chapel, the maintenance team gave the nursery workers a gift. Really, I think it was the best gift I have ever received. Here, let me show you a picture.



 Now, if you're anything like me, you're staring at this small yellow packet and wondering what in the world it is. But if you turn it over and read the directions on the back...


...it all makes sense.

I am happy to say that by the end of the week, we had minimal crying. They would cry a bit when they were dropped off (possibly for old time's sake), and then would get distracted by toys, windows, flies, or other objects such that they could play until they got picked up. It was a challenge, but please understand I'm not complaining. I hope you see the humor in it (as I'm starting to)! It was one way we could serve the families throughout the week, and even though it had its moments, we were glad to do it.

To give you a slightly better idea of what a family camp week day looks like, I took a picture of Thursday's schedule.

As you can see, we have various activities in the morning that we sign up for at our 8 am counselors meeting. Babysitting is a big part of family camps, and the afternoon activities are listed too. Thursday evenings are a little different than normal, because the adults have a special dinner while the kids have a picnic (and teens eat in the bistro). Then they have an auction, where they sell items that families donate, and the proceeds go directly to a specific camp fund. 

To close, here is the link to my Summer 2012 facebook photo album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.512283412118855.133151.100000116021992&type=3&l=c12c80a973

Have a great week, everyone!