the past week or so

So many random things have been happening lately.

A few weekends ago the yg girls hosted a brother's appreciation dinner. We 12 racks of ribs and had a campfire. I think it went pretty well, everyone seemed to have a good time.

Campfire

Last Saturday was a big day. Katie W. was back from Oakville for the weekend so, we went out for coffee.

My high-school friends :)

sadly, Katy K. couldn't make it 

Saturday afternoon into the evening was College Weekend in Bloomington. The theme this year was The Gospel. They did a really good job and I had a wonderful time. Once again there were so many people I knew I could barely talk to them all. 
Next semester U of I is hosting so, we are already having planning meetings. 

I heard back this week that I didn't get the internship. Its kind of a downer because that means I have to be patient. It's kind of hard to be patient. :)

For my pre-internship I'm doing a semester long group project at CYFS. It's a local foster care agency. We've been recruiting people to foster. This week we helped with their Halloween party. It was a lot of fun, all of those kids are so cute! 

Wednesday night Laura's mom took us out to supper. We went to Silverlight Creek in Urbana. It was amazing. And, I learned that I like brussel sprouts. Who knew? :)

I am absolutely loving fall down in Urbana. The trees have been gorgeous. 

Orangey-red leaves are by far my favorite. 

:) Urbana

Oh, and I have discovered a love for candles. :)

Today, I went to Chicago shopping with a bunch of girls. Ellie met us at the outlets and spent most of the day with us. It was so much fun to look through racks of baby clothes with her. :) And, I finally got time to have some good chats with her. The rest of us went to another mall in the afternoon and did a bit more shopping. I had such an amazing day. I love those girls. 

Ellie, Haley, Kendra, Kristin, me

Holding up our letters :)... In anthropology. drool.

Whew. I think that is all. 

In Christ,

~Michelle

relief

After I get through stressful situations I get extremely giddy.
Today was one of those days. I feel sorry for my roommates :)

I had an oral exam in Russian today. I didn't really study very much but, I thought I knew it pretty well.
And, I did until I switched to Spanish halfway through the conversation.
Sigh. Things went downhill from there. My teacher had a good laugh though.

The reason I was so nervous was because I had an interview for my internship this afternoon.

me in my snazzy new interview suit.

I think it went fairly well. I didn't say anything really stupid.  So, we shall see...

Thanks for your prayers.

Yup, so now I'm in a state of relaxation and its wonderful. :) I'm slightly procrastinating on my homework though. 

In Christ

~Michelle

biting off more than I could chew

So, over the past year or so, the wall paper in the bathroom has been detaching itself from the wall. It's been bugging me and, after pulling down wallpaper at Matt and Lena's I thought, how hard could it be? It was practically pulling itself off the wall so, it wouldn't be hard at all to pull it down and then repaint. Right?

Wrong. 

Sigh. When will I ever learn? (never. I love fixing things up too much :)  )

Well,  after getting the approval of my roommates I could restrain myself no longer. At 6:00pm last Thursday  I started to pull it down. 

The first layer came off easy...

I forgot to take a before pic. But, this is what the wallpaper looked like.

...Until, I tried to straddle the tub. I kind of used the soap dish as a foothold. And in one crash, I fell and the soap dish was no longer in the wall.

duct tape, always a great quick fix. :)

When it came out of the wall, a lot of water did too. Our downstairs neighbors had been complaining that water was dripping from the ceiling when we showered. I think I found the source. 

I knew there was some mold under the wallpaper but, I had no idea how much. When I began taking down the second layer this is what I discovered:

all those black dots -

very fuzzy black mold showing through the paper.

So, at about this point, when there is wall paper shreads all over the floor, wallpaper in many different stages of removal still on the wall, mold like crazy, and a broken soap dish, Laura and I decided this would NOT be the time for Ron (our landlord) to stop by. 

I'm not even exaggerating, two minutes later the doorbell rang. It was Ron. And he wanted to talk to us about our bathroom. um. heart attack. 
Thankfully, he didn't come up. He was just asking us about our neighbor's dripping problem. We didn't tell him then that we knew what was happening. :)

So, by then it was time to leave for a yg thing. 
On the way back we bought bleach. 
I stayed up late scrubbing down the walls and pulling off the rest of the wallpaper.

Friday morning, after a couple of frantic calls home, mom and Lena came over to help me get the bathroom back together (and go shopping for an interview suit!). 
We cleaned up the walls, spackled all of the holes in the wall, and finished one coat of mold killing paint. 

After shopping I got back and started painting again... and realized I didn't have any paint rollers. So, I took a trip to Lowe's.
I got back just in time to leave for Manger's wiener roast. The painting was going to have to wait until after the weekend.

Monday, I finally finish painting the bathroom. And I called Ron and told him about the soap dish. 
He came over today to look at it. I don't think he even noticed the paint. But, he was impressed by our ingenuity with the soap dish.

duct tape and saran wrap.

And here it is, the finished bathroom!

It looks so good! :)

Except, since our bathroom fan doesn't work and the paint isn't exactly meant for bathrooms it has streaks in it from all the steam. :( sigh....

Oh, well. It still looks way better than it did before. And, I'm slightly exhausted.

In Christ
~Michelle

Apple

caramel apple, apple cider, apple-cider doughnuts...Apple River

This past weekend was the yg's annual trip to Apple River. It was a great weekend as usual filled with good food, warm drinks and plenty of cold air. 
The leaves were gorgeous! :)

I tried very hard to restrain myself from quoting ...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

Saturday consisted of the traditional stop at Tanners apple orchard to buy doughnuts and then we took the hike to the rock. 

The guy's climbed the rock. tsk. 

They took full advantage of not being told not to this year.

Most of the group :)

After hiking, we sang at a nursing home. The residents were so thankful, it was a blessing to be there. Saturday evening we ate amazing food at a local restaurant and then went back to the hotel for a singing and games. We played many hilarious rounds of "Adverbs" complete with the adults acting for the finale. 

this isn't my plate I had already started eating... 

Kristin and I posing in an ally. :)

 Sunday, is my favorite day of the trip. There is nothing like walking to church on a gravel road while the church bell is ringing or singing old hymns while sitting in old wooden benches...

walking to church

ahhh :) takes you back.

 

Places like this make me try to be artsy ...

:) I kinda like how this turned out.

ringing the church bell :)

The whole group 

 After church the guys goofed off while we went and changed on the bus.

this is pretty fun

Thank goodness there aren't any pictures of me trying to do this. :)

old fashioned merry-go-round

waiting to go

Back at the park where we...

explored under bridges...

and forded streams.

Kristin and Rebecca following

it's just so beautiful!

even the road looks cool.

 We headed back in decent time. I had to get back to reality. sigh. 
It was a wonderful time. I was able to get away from the busyness back here and at least try not to think about school stuff. 

There is no better place to get away to than God's creation. :)

In Christ
~Michelle

Baby stuff

I went home again for yet another full weekend. 

Saturday morning was Ellie's baby shower. She is having a boy but isn't telling the name. I have named him Clyde for now. :)

It's so weird. Ellie's having a baby, Wendi is married, Kendra has been working for a year, and me...well I'm still in college. :)  I have fun though. I gave little Clyde an Illini snow cap. You have to start them young.

After the baby shower we all went over to Daniel and Wendi's with Kristin and Larissa. Their apartment is really cute. We sat around and looked at wedding pictures. 
Wendi and Daniel had to leave so, the rest of us went out to lunch. 
Our topics of conversation may have changed slightly but, we are the same old group. :) I love those girls. 

Saturday evening was testimonies in Washington. It was a blessing to be there and hear how God worked in their lives.

Sunday was Cecily's first Birthday Party! :)

her first John Deere tractor- thanks to Uncle Matt

light up Pooh! :)

she's getting so big

she just loves pooh

cake.

getting messy

Chilling with uncle Jake

And, in other news...

I bought plane tickets to Haiti on Friday.  I'm so excited. After I start working, I probably won't be able to travel much so, I need to get it all in now. :) 

In Christ

~Michelle