Packing and Goodbyes

Sunday night my parents came down to Oakville, then Monday morning we packed the van full....seriously...I have no idea how I managed to attract so much stuff!!! Here is the van...

 

Before they left, we went out to eat with Chuck & Lois.  I spent the rest of the day relaxing and reorganizing what was left of my apartment.:)  Tuesday I headed over to Goodfield to visit Lena.  We had a good old fashion play date.:) Then just relaxed the rest of the day.  Tate Wyss came over and spent a good part of the day, and kept me very entertained! That I headed over to Princeville to spend the evening/night with the Steffen's and Amber.:) I had a great time, but was really sad to say goodbye.:( Wednesday I spent the day in Peoria shopping with my grandma and Lena. So even though I haven't worked at all this week...I have been staying busy!! 

 

 

This past weekend I was in Winthrop for an invite. I stayed with Em...of course:)  Keep in mind that a few of these pictures were taken late in the night.........

 

Love my friends:) And I am really going to miss spending time with all of you!!!!:(

 

I was just looking through pictures....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Lasts

Well folks, my days have been and are being filled with lasts.  It is sad, but at the same time really exciting because they are also being filled with a few firsts....and lots more of those to come.:)  The past several weeks have been CRAZY!! Matt & Lena were married the second weekend in September.  It was a really nice weekend and I am super happy for them!!:) Then the next weekend was Layne & Heather's wedding(in Burlington).  Burlington was literally bursting at the seams!! I have never seen so many people smashed into Burlington!!:) The next weekend, on Saturday, was Matt & Lena's reception in Washington.  After the reception I drove(without a GPS:)) to Olivia Steffen's place and spent the evening, and all of Sunday with her family, Amber, and Emmy Grant!! I had an amazing time! This this past weekend I went to Cissna Park for a young group invite.  It was small...which fits me perfectly...and a really great weekend!!....Which included a motor from the 19...something or other... and an awesome ride on a city bus that drove on gravel, grass, and field.:) We decided that it was probably the bus' first time for that!

Anyway, that catches me up to the present. Now for the most exciting news!! (quite a few of you probably all ready know this though...) I am finishing up my job for Jerry tomorrow.  After which I will spend the next week packing up my life in Oakville, saying goodbyes, and running around(very similar to a chicken with it's head cut off).  I am moving back up to Morris on October 15th. :) I know a few of you might be super excited for that...but don't get your hopes set too high....because I will only be there for a few weeks until I head of to.... I can't remember.  JK:) I am going to be moving to Haiti!!!! And I will be living there for 6-7 months! I am planning on working up at the Hospital Lumiere.  I will be spending half the day working with the missionary families down there and half the day in the accounting department at the hospital.  As of right now, I don't know the exact date/time of my departure from the states, but we are looking at November 2nd...or so.:)  Yes, I am working on learning Haitian Creole and yes, pretty sure I will be completely clueless as to what they are saying for a long time.:) haha.  I am super excited to have this opportunity to serve God in a different country! So thankful for God's direction and patience with me!:) And thankful for all the people who have been working with me through all of this!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Labor Day Weekend

Hi all!! I hope all of you had a great long weekend!! It was super nice to have Monday off!! Friday, I actually took of work at noon and headed up to Winthrop for Lena's personal shower.  The theme was farming, and we had a lot of fun!! I have included some of the pictures....:)

Here are the farmer's wives hard at work...minus Heather.

We were all given "new" names for the evening....they were all old farmer names that started with the same letter as our real name.

After a good country meal..(corn on the cob, pigs in a blanket, cherries, applesauce, & chips), we had a cherry spitting contest.

Here is me in my farmin' gear:) I was actually going to wear overalls and the such, but to my great disappoinment and dismay, I forgot. :( But thanks, Glen for the use of your shirt:)

After the contest we had some great apple crisp with ice cream from Howie.  Then we played a few different games. One of which the bride-to-be had to answer questions about Matt. Whenever she got a question wrong, she had to eat another piece of gum....

After failing the test, we decided that her and Matt need to be having more meaningful conversations...such like what is his favorite animal. :)

Leners and I :)

Em and I

Saturday morning Em, Landon, and I drove and met up with some from Morris and then we all traveled to Congerville for the weekend.  It was a really big weekend, but it was nice. I stayed with Mike & Whitney on Saturday night, then with Jessica Dietrich Sunday night.  At lunch on Sunday, Em & I were sitting at the table eating, and we started talking about Goodfield and how neither of us had ever been there before, but had always wanted to go.  Em said "Lets go this afternoon!" and I was like "are you serious? Lets do it!!" So Emily and I escaped and went to Goodfield for the afternoon service.  It was really nice and we were both glad we went.:)  Monday morning after breakfast, I headed to Morton for a dress fitting, then went to Peoria and did some shopping until Jayne was ready for my second fitting.  Afterwards, I met up with Jaylyn Knobloch and her family and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening with them at another families cabin.  There was probably four other families there, and even though I didn't know basically any of them...I still had a great time!

Well that concludes another adventurous weekend for me.:) I can't believe it is now only 4 days until Lena gets married!!!! Where has the time gone? I am not sure whether I am really ready for this weekend to be here or not, but I know Lena & Matt are...so I suppose...:) 

Finally Pictures!!!!!

Well, here are some of the pictures from my Michigan trip!
This was an accident we saw on our way out. Two trucks were involved. The skeleton of the truck is almost haunting.

 

 

Here is our "cottage" we stayed at....it was more like a very large house!! It was really nice!!

 

The "planners" of the group.:) Figuring out all the food...and then shopping!!:)

 

 

 

The beginning of the week, I decided to get my boater's license...so I took an online course monday evening, finished and took the test online early Tuesday morning, printed of my license, and was driving on the lake before noon! :)

 

Our "Cadillac"!! Pretty sweet!!

 

And then....like everything else....we shut Bessy off and it wouldn't start up again. So......

 

And...just to say we did it.... we swam/tubed in our skirts...needless to say...the skirts came off almost right after the pics were taken:)

 

 

Every meal we did something "odd" or whatever you want to call it. :)

 

 

Random/Questionable......:)

 

Surprise birthday party for Amber & Stephanie(who both turned 18 while on the trip) and Paige.

 

Arm wrestling!!!!

 

The Oesch's dairy. They had two robot milkers!!! Pretty sweet!!!

 

She didn't want to accidently fall off the boat while sleeping and drown......

 

Stephanie's pants were....well....a bit large.

 

 

Well, that is a very, very brief overview of my Michigan trip!!:)

 

In the recent weeks, I traveled to Rittman to visit friends, traveled to Peoria to visit Erin Scheiler, we also went to Washington in the afternoon for Wendi's wedding.  Then just this past weekend I took Friday off and spent a long weekend home(Morris)!!! It was really nice to see everyone!!!  Now onto this weekend....which is Kenton & Alicen's wedding!!

 

And as a sidenote...my last day working for Kent is tomorrow!!! I can't believe it is over already! Kind of sad, because I really enjoyed working there! But I am going to be working for another agent in the same building for another month and a half. And then I will be...................................................

 

Until next time!

Signing off.