Christmas!

I love it. :)

Christmas day was quiet. We didn't have any plans, so we sat at home and enjoyed laying around.

Today was our first exciting Christmas. Bob and Jenny came over after church. Bob and Jake introduced me to Age of Empires. Jake and I were on lappys and Bob was on our computer. I didn't lose the game for them. yay. Matt has labeled me an official gamer. ha. We won the game just in time to have our traditional "foul" dinner. :)

I was excited for presents. I didn't have a list this year so I had no idea what I would get. I don't know what my favorite present was. Either the really cute Anthropologie apron, the punjamies (pajamas made by women saved from brothels in India) or my very own umbrella sword. :). yay. It really is a sword inside of an umbrella! Jake got it for me. hehe...I was really kinda excited.

We all got dangerous presents this year. Matt got a really sharp fillet knife, Jake got a KA-BAR, Bob got a nice looking knife, I got an umbrella:), and my dad got a holster for his 6-shooter. Ah! It was wonderful.

Yay. :)...
And tomorrow is the big Wyss Christmas!!!

Again I have no idea what I'm getting. Nothing could be better than an umbrella sword.

fun times :)

In Christ
~Michelle

Waiting for...

Christmas!!!

Well, actually right now I'm waiting for the bathroom. yes, the bathroom. We are down to one and we have been for the past week. We're remodeling the main-floor bathroom so I get to share with Matt, Jake, and my parents. woohoo. Besides the fact that men don't know how to keep a bathroom clean :)... they also hog it. I can't wait until I get my bathroom back. Anyway... :)

We had our first Christmas this year on Tuesday. The Schlipfs came over and we had potato soup and chili. I love soup. It was good to see them. Kristina always cracks me up. I will never forget the time we played Barbie's together and she shouted "I need a man!" oh....I laughed very hard.

Tonight we had Grandpa, Grandma, and Pearl over for supper. Always a good laugh. You cannot go wrong when you have more than one Metzger girl in the same room. Tonight the topic was pants. The conversation went like so:

"Now, Lyd, at least I tell my daughter what I want for Christmas"
"I told her I wanted cotton pants."
"How's she supposed to know what kind...the stores are full of pants."
"Well, Pearl...I told her cotton pants...she must've forgot because I told her."
(now grandpa jumps in) "maybe she thought you were talking about jeans."
"NO, Carl, When a women says pants, she means pants."

And so on. :)
My poor aunt is going to buy grandma some pants and grandma wanted underwear. :)....
:) ha. I'm going to laugh so hard.

It snowed a lot tonight. It was beautiful. So, at about 11 mom and I decided to go on a walk. It was so still and peaceful. I love snow at night. I wanted to sing the Messiah at the top of my lungs...but I didn't. :)


"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Merry Christmas

In Christ
~Michelle

loving it

So far this break has been amazing.
Breana came from California for the weekend and me and Kendra took her to Hannah's
personal shower. Hannah didn't know she was coming and screamed when we walked through the door.The surprise was a success.:)
We stayed up way too late Friday night catching up on all the happenings since our August trip to San Diego.

Saturday was my rest day :). It was wonderful.

Sunday was the Christmas program. It's always so cute watching the little kids recite and sing. They make me laugh. And of course I also have to chuckle at the surly Bible-class guys who are trying not to look like they're having too much fun.

After church the yg went caroling at WCV for a while. Me, Matt, and Jake all rushed home and successfully took our Christmas card picture before we met up with the Wagenbachs and a few others to go ice skating at the Wiegand's. I love ice hockey, though I am completely pitiful and spend most of my time going in circles. :)
We cleaned up and went over to Kendra's for supper and games. I learned I am horrible at ping-pong and it is very hard to play dutch blitz while holding a conversation. I think I lost every game. We also played a few rounds of four-on-the-couch, signs, and animal noises.

Once again we had another very late night. Some of us girls spent the night but Joy decided to leave early. It was about 1:30am and all of us were in our pj's about to fall asleep when Joy came back in asking for a shovel. She was very stuck in the snow. Well, a few minutes later Kendra, Breana, Brittney, me and Joy were all attempting to move her car, still in our pajamas. I sat in the car while the other girls shouted orders to me on which direction to turn the wheel and when to slam on the gas. It actually didn't take too long before Joy was on her way home. :)

I took Brittney and Breana back to their grandparent's in the morning and got stuck in a driveway while turning around. With Brittney pushing in her Sunday shoes, I managed to get out. We really gave the California girls a taste of the mid-west winter.
After dropping them off, I stayed in Peoria and finished my Christmas shopping. I'm all done. All of my packages are under the tree. Yay!

Tonight is my first Christmas this year.
Christmas is in 4 days! :)...
Florida is only 12 days away!!

I love Christmas break.

In Christ
~Michelle

Scary...

...my future is now in someone else's hands.
They better like me.

Come on U of I, you'll love me!

I finished all the applications for colleges I ever want to do in my life. Now I wait. :P why can't they tell me now?

I have to wait until April according to the Internet. :(

Oh, well.

Wish me luck, pray for me, etc.

In Christ
~Michelle

PS my mom is amazing :)

Last Day

Yesterday was my last day at Neighborhood House.

I gave them all their own book. They either got the Poky Little Puppy, The Saggy Baggy Elephant, Doctor Dan, The Sailor Dog, or The Jolly Barn Yard. :) They love books. I hope they love books in ten years and I don't want to see their names under the court notes.They are so cute! I'm going to miss those little buggers. :)...

I only have one more final on Thursday...and then a wonderful four whole weeks off!!

Time can't go fast enough. :)

I finally sent off my application to U of I's BSW department! I hope they like me. Now just one more 300 word application paper about myself and I will be done with applying. And then the wait begins.

In Christ

~Michelle

One week down

Wow. Last week flew by.

There wasn't much excitement, which was good.

Last weekend when It snowed I took a bunch of pictures. They turned out really good...surprisingly. I am no photographer.

Our barn :)

The house with all the lights on

Yup, we have a cool light post :)

Friday was the yg Christmas party. It was a ton of fun with skits, good food, and a white-elephant gift exchange.

Kendra, me and Wendi at the Christmas party

Saturday was my big day. I woke up somewhat early and went over to Ellie's new house. Kendra came with me, and we helped Ellie unpack into her new room. Their house is really cool, and it is in Morton, which is a ton closer! Yay. no more half hour drives just to hang out :).

We left Ellie at noon and went out to eat at Panera and then spent the afternoon shopping in the rain. We ran from store to store with umbrellas but It didn't really help the fact that I forgot to wear waterproof boots. Anyway...after shopping I ran to church for yg babysitting. It was a small turnout due to the weather, but there was no lack of excitement. Kids have way more energy than I do.

Today, church was canceled so we listened to Francesville and Tremont over the internet.
Tomorrow is my last day at NH. :(... I will miss those kids.

And then three finals and......welcome Christmas Break!!!

In Christ

~Michelle

weekend

This weekend was amazing!

After class on Friday I baked a pie and relaxed. That evening the yg canceled singing at wcv because of the roads, so I stayed home and mixed up a batch of "point-outs".


I had my old school buddies over after work on Saturday. We haven't seen each other for ever. Really its been almost a year since we've all been together!

This is the crew. We took this picture senior year (2 years ago!)

They stayed late. We had a lot to catch up on. So I didn't get a whole lot of sleep.

After church today Ellie came over and we snowboarded behind the four wheeler. We spent over an hour going all over our field. I fell down a lot. I will be sore tomorrow.

It was so much fun!

We did have a near emergency. I drove over our waterway and then suddenly realized there was water (aka hog lot runoff). I slammed on the brakes and yelled at Ellie, who face-planted into the snow. We were inches from Ellie being covered in manure. :) She wasn't too happy with me.

Then, tonight was Washington's annual Christmas caroling. It's always a lot of fun and of course there is no A.C. function without good food. (Of course Jenny is odd and can't stand BBQ, so I guess it's debatable whether it's good or not).

Anyway...It was a great weekend with no* homework.

*except for the plethora of finals and College applications that are still lurking in the future

In Christ

~Michelle

"Har"

At the N.H. a few weeks ago, a little girl grabbed my hair and pretty much destroyed it. So I took out the gazillion bobby-pins with the intent of redoing it.

Marley was in awe. I knew what would make her day so...I asked her if she would, please, fix my hair.

I gave her the hair tie and bobby-pins.


It was sooo cute. She would carefully pull all of my hair together and slowly put a bobby pin in. Of course it was backwards and she couldn't figure out how to get the hair tie around my hair, but she worked at it for about 30 minutes.

Marley and her audience

concentration is the key :)

Just look how happy she is :)

There are no words...

So yesterday I was sitting around with the kids and Marley comes up to me:

"Can ah fex yer har?" awwwww......

I said no...my hair looked nice enough.

That made my day, to know she remembered that!
Aw, I love those kids. I should snatch all 15 of them...hehe.

I only get to go two more times. :(


In Christ
~Michelle

Excited

Two
more
weeks

and then.....(drum roll please)....

CHRISTMAS BREAK!

I'm sooo excited! Its pathetic, I'm like a little kid. :)
But I've got a lot to look forward to:
The big Wyss Christmas, New Years, skiing, hanging with my friends, Hannah's wedding, a week long trip to Florida!!!, good food, sleeping in, cousins, and sooo much more!

At least I have a reason to be so excited.
Here we go....:)

In Christ
~Michelle

Never a dull moment

well...Thanksgiving break is over...

I worked Thanksgiving morning but made it to Fred and Di's in time for turkey. It was a good time hanging out with the family. As always there were many humorous stories told...there is never a dull moment with Grandma, Pearl, and a few Kellenberger cousins.

I took Friday as my real break and did pretty much nothing all day long. It was wonderful.

Saturday was the Big Wyss Christmas (as opposed to the big Wyss Christmas). Some of the Klops came out for the event. Because our shower is gross, the girls stayed at Kendra's. I joined them after work. Hilarious conversation:
Lori (while doing Kacie's hair): Kacie, you had better hope there isn't a fire tonight
Kacie: beauty is vain
Lori: then why am I doing your hair?
Kacie:....
Kendra: Beauty is vain, but only at night...in the morning beauty is essential

Bahahaha....I know you had to be there, but it was funny!

Sunday went, as Sundays normally do.

And now I begin the last two weeks of school -the time when teachers think three tests in two weeks is acceptable to the multitudes of rapidly demotivating students surviving on caffeine.
Thats slightly exagerated...but still!

In Christ
~Michelle

Full of Thanks

This year especially has shown me how much I truly have.
I have been exposed to so many who have nothing...nothing that will last.

I have salvation through Jesus Christ, amazing parents, a loving family, supportive and encouraging friends, a wonderful church, a warm house, a free country, and the list could keep going. And even in the hard times, I know God is there.

I have come to realize very few people are this blessed.

I am thankful that God is allowing me to be part of his light in this dark world.

"...that all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen." ~ 1 Peter 4:11

"To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever." ~ Psalm 30:12

Give Thanks
In Christ
~ Michelle

Count down

13 hours to go.
2 more tests to study for
3 more tests to take
1 more 8am morning
and then....

Praise the Lord! Its Thanksgiving Break.

(breath in)
It can be done.
(breath out)

back to colonization of Africa :P

In Christ
~ Michelle

What I should be doing

I should be doing homework...but I'm not

I should be studying...but I'm not
I should be cleaning my room...I'm not

Instead I'm listening to a new CD ellie gave me. Its putting me to sleep :)....

I should be typing a paper...

I should be doing college applications...

I should be saving the world :).....

but I'm not

Instead I'm looking through random old pictures

This is Where I will live someday...I wish

Anyway... I really ought to get going on my list. Maybe I'll even save the world.

In Christ ~Michelle

Big Weekend

Well, this weekend was not relaxing. It was however a really blessed, awesome, enjoyable, amazing, crazy etc. weekend.

Friday me, ellie and kendra went shopping for food and filled 2 carts at Sam's. Then I went home cleaned my room and ran to timber ridge handicap home for a singing, and unloaded all the food for saturday into the fellowship hall. At 9 I made it to Mika's to have coffee with my school friends :). It was wonderful, we never get together any more, its sad. I had to be hard on myself and I got home by 10:30. Less than 12hrs later I was at the FH making lasagna for 200. A bunch of hyper girls in a kitchen is bad news...I successfully got cottage cheese all over ellie's face :). We made a huge mess and had to fire up the amazing dishwasher before noon. After figuring out the table decor and setting our mothers to work we had about 10 minutes to relax before guests arrived.
I was in charge of filling health kits for Haiti, which with a few set backs, went really well. We finished over 800 bags!

Supper went smoothly and so did clean up. We had a singing and a speaker...and then of course more food:) When we finally left, I had been in the kitchen for over 12 hours...

I kept ten girls overnight at my grandma and grandpa's. We laid out air mattresses on the floor and I slept on a couch. It worked really well. All of us girls got dressed and ready in plenty of time for church.

After church we sang (again :)... ) at nursing homes, and came back to church for another snack. Then we sent them all home. sigh.... so much stress and build-up for a whirlwind weekend...I went home and crashed.

:) It was an amazing blessing to host so many people.
(now back to the real world of studying and school)

In Christ
~Michelle

Don't cry over spilled milk...

Yup...it was one of those days.

This morning I gave a presentation...it flopped.
oh well...

This afternoon a migraine hit me right before I left for work. I went anyway even though I couldn't think straight...and then I had to play "brain games." I was so out of it I couldn't explain the difference between an animal and a mammal to the residents.

I eventually got rid of my headache. Just in time for someone to dump a whole glass of milk on me. uh...yah. I laughed, there was nothing else to do as I stood there in the middle of the dining room dripping.

The rest of work was fun. I got to talk with an old war vet about WWII. He and two of his brothers were drafted and he was shipped overseas to England. I could listen to WWII stories all day :).

I also played cards with Boots, and after he lost I had to assure him we weren't playing for money.

I like to whistle. There is an old man who, every time, will tell me: "Ein Madchen, das pfeift und ein Henne die Kraht..." translated into English: "whistling girls and crowing hens... always come to some bad ends" :) yes, and a literal translation of the German is: they ought to have their heads knocked off.
So I whistle...count to ten...he grins, clears his throat, says it in German, then in English and then chuckles to himself. I pretend to be embarrassed and he laughs til his face turns red.
All in a good night's work.

In Christ
~Michelle

Three Deep Breaths

yep. life is crazy right now.
Tests, papers, projects, quizzes...blahblalalala (not listening)...volunteering, work...and preparing for this weekend.

This weekend the yg is having an invite. It's going to be huge. I'm helping Ellie with the food and leading a group packaging health kits. It's going to be an amazing weekend but right now I'm trying hard not to get stressed.

Other than that I'm having the time of my life :). Friday night after a yg thing I hung out with my friends and stayed up too late :). I went to an amazingly beautiful wedding on Sunday and I got to hang out with Jenny and Bob after church. Today I went to N.H. again and got to play with the kids...I want to take them home with me. And right now it's a beautiful night out and not much going on the rest of the evening...

minus the stress, this really is the life

In Christ
~Michelle

Boots

Disclaimer: this post has nothing to do with footwear.

Boots is an old man where I work. He makes my day. :) He's got a beer belly, and a pair of large glasses that slide down his big nose. He talks. A lot. He talks all the way through games, movies, supper, and while he's drifting in and out of sleep he gives a running commentary on how sleepy he is, and what he is dreaming about. When he's asleep his mouth shuts but he still tries to talk...
When he wakes up he'll squint his eyes and pretends he's still asleep and then, suddenly, he'll pop one eye open. He'll look at me and say: "I must still be dreaming, or I wouldn't be by a nice girl like you." Bahaha! If that isn't the cutest pick-up line I've ever heard I don't know what is :).

One time I asked him if he'd like to go in and listen to some music. His reply: "Only if you'll dance with me." I'm fairly certain I squealed.

Tonight though he was extraordinarily hilarious. A bear had bitten him, I had better stay away. He'd like to marry a girl like me, if I wasn't so young. He fell into the outhouse while tipping it, and mommy wouldn't let him come in because he smelled so bad. He was feeling "about two and a hill." He'd had too much whiskey or he needed a glass of beer. The teacher had hit him over the head for playing on the swings with me when we were supposed to be in class. And so on, each story led to another. Anytime I accused him of telling tall tales, he'd protest that he didn't, in fact, have a tail.

Without Boots work would be...well, work. :)

In Christ
~Michelle

Neighborhood House

I've been volunteering at the N.H. in Peoria every Monday and Wednesday for a few months now. It has a daycare, soup kitchen, and after school programs. I've been working with the two-year-old's in daycare and have definitely had my eyes opened. The other day I took baby pigs in to show the kids. I walked in the room with a big box and made all the little kids sit in a circle around it. When I opened the lid one of the little girls screamed "puppies!" um...yikes.( What kind of parent doesn't teach their child to distinguish between puppies and pigs.) :)
Anyway, for the next two hours the kids wouldn't leave the piglets alone. They'd stare into the box screaming... and rupture my ear drums. I work with a girl who grew up in S. side Peoria, she looked at me as if I was a hero when I informed her that yes, believe it or not, I live on a pig farm. One grandma came in to pick a little girl up and informed me that she had never seen a real live pig in her life! So, I think its about time some one starts a Farm Animals 101 class, featuring real live farm animals...


yup, they love me now :)

In Christ
~Michelle

Well, it begins

I am now entering blog-land. This could be interesting.
A few disclaimers to start:
1. I can't spell
2. I can't say I'll post very regularly
3. and I don't know how interesting this will be
:) but read it anyway. I'm sure you'll all have fun mocking my grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

I work at the nursing home and volunteer at Neighborhood House in south-side Peoria so there will definitely be a few stories coming.

Right now life is kind of crazy. We just got new carpet in the basement, so all of the furniture and junk is stuffed elsewhere. We are also in the middle of a months-long redo of our bathroom. I've been scraping plaster off the walls...and having fun with a sharpie. :) It'll all come off eventually, but as of now there is a fish, an elf, and a few poems.

Besides school that's about it...

In Christ
~Michelle