I'm Home!

Wow does it feel good to be home!! The house is decked out for Christmas and its wonderful. Yesterday Mom and I made 7 different kinds of Christmas cookies, we baked from 10:00 am to about 5:00 or so.

Here's the list for 2004:
Sugar cookies
Spritz
Peanut butter blossoms
Chocolate snowflakes
Pizelles
Russian Tea cakes
Ginger bread cookies

Oh, and we also made homemade chex mix, and today my mom baked 4 kinds of 'christmas loaves' so the oven has been getting a workout! I'm looking forward to our Skiing vacation - and am so super excited that Kayla is now able to come with us!! Those darn finals schedules were messing everything up :)
Some other things that have happened while I've been gone: the family got a Mac computer. Its very different from the PCs and I'm having a hard time adjusting, but it works nice and looks pretty sweet.

Today was a great Woodland Hills Church day - everything was great. Walking in the choir was singing a traditional beginning to a Christmas song, and I thought "oh we're going traditional today." Oh no, they soon broke out into the funked out version that I love. Greg's beginning a series on the Kingdom and today we started with how God has perichoresis, latin for 'mutal indwelling' meaning he has a perfect relationship in himself as the Triune God: Father Son and Holy Spirit. And we are called to a relationship with him. In this way, as well as many others, he created us in his image. We also are intended for relationships. It gets hard when you feel alone because no one 'gets you.' They don't understand what you have gone though. When you meet someone who can say 'i know exactly what you mean,' in our wiring, we feel not so alone in the world with our problems. God knows all our problems, even though God incarnate on Earth did not sin, he experienced all our sins on the cross. He was made sin who knew no sin. He has experienced all the guilt, jealousy, all the sins of the world. And yet, he still calls to us, loves us, wants to be with us. Amazing. Oh, and I peeked in at the youth center, it looks so nice! They did a fabulous job with it all. There is a large room with a stage, balcony, it reminds me of the way Club 3 Degrees is set up. And there is an XBOX station: 4 stations, like the things at Target and places. And there are computer labs for homework help, and rec rooms with pool and everything. I would go to church to play!

Well I have to get going here, a big day of packing tomorrow and then Tuesday we're leaving for Lutsen!!

Christmas Stories

I can't wait to tell all my relatives that I took a counting class at college! They'll be so proud! Okay - sorry, but Laura and I thought it to be hilarious. Humor me.

Dirty Herriott

"...they have their Southern Belles, their Midwestern farmer's daughters, and I have dirty harriet" - Miss Congeniality

So, an added perk to living in Herriott is that the bathrooms flood from time to time. This is the second time this semester that all the bathrooms in the hall are unusable. My roommate warned me this morning that it looked like the puddle in the bathroom was growing. So I quickly took my shower before it got too bad. I returned from Laura's dorm to see the sign on the door saying that all showers are down. And our sinks are also flooding up so its no use trying to go to the bathroom. So, we'll all have to take sponge baths out of the sinks in Olmsted. JK, I hope to just use Laura's shower (if she'll let me: please!) if they're not working by tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just stick it out for the next two days w/o a shower - haha, sorry Josh and Laura, we might have to drive with the windows down. dress warm.

Its comical that during "INTENSIVE QUIET HOURS" it sounds like their building a house next door. At least I don't have finals tomorrow and I don't think my roommate ever has finals, so no complaints here.

BYE from Herriott "the lesser dorm" Hall

Accident Free: 0 days

Today ends our run of days without something weird or creepy happening to Room 320. Danita and set out for our IS final only to discover that our keys don't fully go into the lock and won't lock the door. So we inform our RA who says we'll just have to call maintenance. Danita and I speed off to our final leaving the room open to all of the criminals on the floor (by the way, if you're reading this and you're thinking: oh, I wish I could steal something of Megan's, sorry, the window of opportunity has closed). The maintenance guy came and gave us a new lock. Oh, and the substance used to clog the lock was very clever - toothpaste. "Do I detect a hint of minty freshness?" (- Donkey). Gah, people in Herriott are weird. Although it would have been cool to have to build a ladder and climb into the room though the window, I'm glad its fixed: yea for the Drake maintenance crew! Oh and that was funny in itself: The guy knocks on the door we open it and he doesn't say anything, he just gets to work. We're like: okay. He had the air of "Here I've come to save the day!" I'm definitely looking forward to getting out of here for a whole month!

IV Christmas Party 2004

Wow - now that I've added a bunch of pictures - I'll let you know what was happening.
Let's begin: It's the night of the Intervarsity Progressive Christmas Party
House one~Amy's place: we had appetizers and played the game where you have some famous person (in this case we used christmas characters) on a post-it note stuck to your back and by asking yes or no questions to other people, guess who 'you' are.
House two~Betsy's place: we had dinner, a yummy chicken dish (w/some sort of mushroom onion sauce), carrots, rolls, and drinks. It was like a party in your mouth - complete with balloons.
Driving to the next place, we went though the neighborhood full of Christmas lights - so pretty! I think all but one house was completely decked out.
House three~Christian's place: dessert time! There was cheesecake, puppy chow, cookies, popcorn, s'mores, egg nog, apple cider, and hot cocoa. We also held our white elephant gift exchange - it was wild. Some of the most coveted presents were the princess piggy bank, the VOTE hat, the snowman pillow, and the fairy costume. It was a very fun time, I took lots of pictures, as you can see. We also sat around in a circle and sang Christmas carols. We have some talented people in the group so it was very fun to listen to them harmonize.
So, in conclusion, I thought the party was very fun - even more fun than the new life parties, I know hard to imagine :) Well it was a great time - I'm so happy God put these IV folks in my life!!

P.S. 5 more days until Christmas Break!!!!

Christmas Party: The group 

Christmas Party: Shekinah, Amy, and I enjoy cheesecake and puppy chow :) yum

Christmas Party: Christian makes a great fairy princess - complete with his Princess piggy bank. 

Christmas Party: Amy is a bit upset after her beloved VOTE hat was stolen and she ended up with Merle Hagard Greatest Hits volume 3. 

Christmas Party: Jaws (the never-ending present) is trying to make his move on Laura. 

SNOWFLAKES! I live down south now and we seem to have encountered a monsoon season, so I wish it was snowing. 

Isn't this cool? I made it with window/mirror markers - that I am actually wrapping up and giving as the White Elephant gift at the christmas party tonight, but just had to try them out! 

Pink Hot Chocolate! What will Disney come up with next!? Thanks Peter! 

Josh Groban

Josh Groban should really release a Christmas Album. So, Josh Groban, if you are reading this: go record a Christmas CD. :) Thanks.

Merry Christmas! 

Trip to Walgreens: Me 

Trip to Walgreens: Laura 

Trip to Walgreens: One of Many

Hi all! Laura and I decided that it was time to share with you about our trips, no, I'll call them expeditions, to Walgreens. We frequent that wonderful store on the corner of campus about every week or so, and every week, there is something new. Take for example this expedition we went on today: We safely crossed the street and into the store. We wandered up and down the aisles, usually with no purpose, but today we needed to find White Elephant gifts for the Christmas Party on Friday. After a good bit of wandering and making decisions, we found our gifts. Then Laura decided she needed a gift for Whitney, and that now she needed wrapping paper as well, oh but that wouldn't do, so she bought ribbon as well. To end our time in Walgreens, we walked down the food aisle (even though we never buy anything) and, as customary, had to stop at the cheap DVD rack just in case they had any good movies in stock. They didn't. So we left. Now for anyone out there who didn't think that was exciting, you can just guess how exciting the rest of the days are. Well, there you have it. Laura and my habit of going to Walgreens.

Happy 19th Birthday!

Yesterday was my 19th Birthday!! I had a wonderful day and I want to say thankyou to everyone who called or IMed me - I swear I've never gotten that many phone calls in one day while i've been gone :) Betsy took me out for breakfast and then I lazed around until lunch time. I was just going to grab some Spikes and eat it in my room when I noticed I had a package - it was flowers from mom and dad! Then there was a heated session of the Indian National Congress during FYS and another exciting trip to walgreens w/laura. Oh - I did find mini battery powered christmas lights for my tree! Then we had smoothies to waste some Flex Points, and made snowflakes (yes we are very creative). Dinner and then I had to get to work on my papers for Accounting (I know, imagine that, papers in accounting class). Thanks for making my day great everyone! Love you all!

ha ha, I wonder if people even read this thing! Hmm probably not - maybe laura does though, thanks to computer class :)