Things did not go as planned When do they EVER? but it was still awesome. A few minutes before 3 our first guest arrived...one we hadn't been expecting. He and Pat started chatting while I continued bringing stuff downstairs for setting up. I'd just brought everything but the cakes and other things from the fridge down but had not gotten around to sticking pop actually in the cooler full of ice before there was a pounding at the door and lo! 5 folks we were expecting appeared. So we were still talking and getting ready to start some games when I got a call to come to the door and lo! for there were 4 more expected guests. Things then were crazy for awhile as Seattle adjusted to having 12 people in his basement(though he knew all but one of them) and games started up at various places. Unfortunately an impatient 8 yr old wouldn't allow us time to update the ps3 so we could not connect to the internet and do joint games as originally thought at this time. I'd figured things would calm down shortly and we could do it later. Instead 3 more people arrived and we began eating [at the start we had a crockpot filled to the brim with beef stew/soup(it was a little thin), 2 loaves of bread a full and partial bag of tortilla chips, a partial bag of Gardettos, a bag of pretzels, a bag of Chex mix, a bag of trail mix, a bag of the Rye chips, a partial bag of carrots(leftovers from Stew making), a bowl of M&Ms, a 9x13 thing of chocolate and peanut butter chip cookie bars topped by the frosting remains from my attempt at decorating a cat shaped cake, said cat cake, and a cat litter cake.] Then when it would have been a good time the game of BSG started instead and those not playing BSG had no connection to our out of town friends so playing a joint game wasn't appealing even though there was finally time to update the system. The game of BSG lasted until almost midnight our time which was 1am there so we thought calling would be a bad plan. Most people packed up and went home at that point but Frank and Renae stayed a little longer and we played Race for the Galaxy and Gloom. In the end we had one loaf of bread, scrapings from the bottom of the pot of beef stew, the bag of pretzels, the cookie bars, most of a bag of tortilla chips, a little bit of trail mix, a little bit of chex mix, a few of the Garlic Rye chips, one piece of the cat cake and one or 2 servings of the cat litter cake left. Frank took the rest of the cat litter cake. We also went through: 2 pots of coffee, 2 L + 10 cans of Mt Dew, almost a 2 L of Orange pop, 2 cans Cherry Dr Pepper, 3 cans Diet Root Beer, 7 cans Root Beer, 2 quarts of lemonade and 1 L of Blueberry lemonade. Frank and Renae left around 2 or 2:30 am. During the course of the night I know Colossal Arena and Carcasonne were also played in addition to the games previously mentioned. All in all it was a pretty wonderful time. Pat got some gifts even, including an epic ramble card from AMY which ended inevitably with a discussion of Poop:) He was very excited that someone had taken the time to also attempt the epic ramble card which is very difficult to pull off. Well I hear my husband stirring I best finish this and get to other things to do today like a ton of dishes because in other exciting news for us Tomorrow on Pat's actual birthday his Senior year roommate Drew whom we both love dearly will be in town for dinner with us and we don't have any way to make anything right now because all the dishes are dirty from the epic amounts of baking etc the last few days.

It's the 23. I want to have a big shindig for him since he's had very little fun this semester and he'll be done with his papers and stuff and once we move we probably won't have good space for a huge thing anymore so...
Possible Dates are 21 or 28. Since the 28 is right after Thanksgiving I didn't think I'd get many people who'd come so I'm leaning toward the 21 but I have time off before the 28th and could get things ready so if people are willing to come then I'd love it.
I definately want to get in a big game of BSG with the new expansion as it seems awesome for a 5 or more player game and very humans win for fewer. Other than that lots of other random games movies etc etc it'll depend on who shows up and what they want to do. So tell me can any of you make either of these dates?

Since js died I haven't really been blogging so sorry.
In the kitty saga Leela is healthy again and Layla is still having digestive issues. They think she's allergic to the food but they're having a hard time finding one she isn't allergic to.
In other news
Bloomington is now 100% done deal until December.
 While Pat was gone in mid July  I decided to do some rockband songs  to get some cash to buy my chick more clothes. I got a hellish set and still did really well on it. Sure I was only playing guitar on Medium but I'm still very proud of myself.
Don't fear the reaper *****
Green Grass and High Tides *****
Ace of Spades ****(very narrowly missed the 5th star...about 2 more notes would have got it for me)
Alabama Getaway *****
My body is deciding I don't need to be healthy which I am not appreciating.
Pat is very proud of me for getting 90% of Highway Star and not even going red in it. When our crew first started at rockband usually Thar was on drums Pat was on guitar and Julie and I alternated between bass and vocals or if one of the other guys/gals was present they took bass and Julie and I just passed the mic back and forth. It took I think 15 attempts before we actually made it through highway star because of all the "palsy hand" at random increments.
I'm supposed to start doing book fair stuff again but I asked when we might start a month ago now and haven't heard back so I am looking for other options though I really would rather just do book fairs...
Pat is bringing home more boxes. I think our spare room is going to just be cardboard until December...I am thinking about bringing the boxes from the laundry room up so we can really see what we've got.
Our kitty is adorable.
I need to stop falling in love with these anime series that are still running in Japan. It's so hard to find some of the new stuff and waiting is so hard. But 07 Ghost is my new obsession. It's like Trinity Blood crossed with Trigun if that makes any sense. Very pretty as well. Episode 20 just came out recently. I've finally found it. Hopefully I'll be able to continue to find it.
Helped Tsukinowake and skurtchasor with their move to GA which ended up being a little weirder than we all originally thought but I'll let them tell that story if and when they feel like it.
Now I am caring for the lawn and am ready to scream. I swear everything hates me. First we couldn't get in. Then we couldn't unlock the shed. Then the mower clogged up because of damp grass. And then after clearing it out when I went to restart the starter cord snapped. I feel like I'm getting the run around from the folks who said they mow for me this week and am getting no where on getting the mower repaired and of course Pat's been gone since sunday and won't get back until tomorrow. I'm sure most my stress is just because Pat's gone but gah I'm annoyed right now. And also sort of worried that the town's going to cite the yard before I can actually get someone to mow it.
I've almost got all my laundry and dishes caught up finally. At least that's a relief. I did get the checkbook balanced today so that's good. I suppose I should get all the pictures off my cameras from the last month or so and get them out to the correct people.
Pat's first class is tonight starting in a little over an hour. Think I'll call him and say hey and make sure he's on the way.

So some friends of ours were out of town Saturday afternoon until today just a little while ago. Another friend of theirs split taking care of pet duties with me since they have a snake and 2 cats, one of which was sick and needed attention at least 3 times a day.  (She was puking a lot and having diarhea so it was mostly for puke patrol and trying to get her to eat since her nausea made her very unwilling to eat)
I finished Saturday and did the morning and afternoon check yesterday and the morning check today. They had Sunday and Monday.
Saturday we found lots of puke spots and the kitty wouldn't really eat anything but some treats.
Despite being told the sick kitty needed to be fed at least 3 times a day the 2 days they were on they only dropped by the normal 2: dry food in the morning and canned in the afternoon/evening. We were writting notes to keep track of what all happened when. Sunday they cleaned up like 6 spots of puke but on Monday they said the house was clean.
Monday night I got a call from my friend saying that since she's still puking the vet wants to see her again for testing can I take her in on Tuesday. So  I got to take the kitty in to the vet...the vet tsukinowake worked for:) Let's just say Jenny did not put me at ease and I sort of wondered after I left if they ever moved her off the waiting room floor. 
Every day I'm there I check on the snake. I didn't see him yesterday but he likes to hide under the mat so sometimes I don't see him so I wasn't too concerned...not even when I didn't see him today when I changed out his water but apparently he'd gotten loose. They found him and he's fine thankfully. This one I don't think is my bad because other person changed his water on Monday and I hadn't seen him since. Though it'd be better if it was my fault because then he'd have been out just a few hours rather than days..
Apparently now the other kitty is puking all over the place. That may be my fault because I forgot to put a toilet seat down and they have the cleaner stuff in their tank. But I don't remember the toilet lid being down to begin with so maybe I just left it as it was and didn't think about blocking it from kitty.
I feel bad. They came home to a mess and a missing snake. Now I was there from a little after 11 until almost 12:30. The house was clean when I left...I even took out the trash and washed the dishes feeding the kitties had made. My trying to make life easier ended up not mattering. Oh and Layla was still at the vet...they were going to pick her up now ish and then they'll probably have to take Leela in...sigh.


Maybe this will put it into perspective this is what I've seen since they've got back

is not a happy camper! The toilet was left open & Leela's been puking & MY SNAKE IS GONE!!!!!!

Pat is 95% certain we are staying in Bloomington for another semester. HR was supposed to register any complaints by Friday and they haven't so it's looking like we'll be doing a winter move. That part is sad but we will be in a much better financial position by then so I am happier. Though Pat may be ready to kill someone by then:)

We are now 100% sure...HR has approved it and the landlord is ok with it too:)

I missed still alive take one on this journal so here it is from June 1st

Yippee!!! After the last 2 weekends I'm pretty happy about that. It was a ton of fun but also very draining. Flowers ended up looking great for wedding 1. Took a ton of pictures. Still haven't gotten them all uploaded...barely ggot them all sorted...and we're getting reimbursed for the real flowers we bought so YAY! Wedding 2 was more stressful since the plan kept changing and changing and changing...But we survived and got some awesome pictures met some crazy cool people and had a lot of fun. Now I am getting my house back together, finding all the things I am missing and doing the infamous job and apartment hunts. Pat is working on getting a few days off in June for up North recon and again in July for some solidifying plans.
Right now Pat is busy not feeling well because he unknowingly consumed a large quantity of butter which seriously hates him. It's storming out and I need to take out the garbage First I need to clean the cat box though and I am dreading that. I gag on the dust. Well I should go...


Now for take 2
So I had expected June to be a little less hectic but so far it's turned out to be so crazy busy I just want to curl up in a ball and ignore the world for a couple days to get myself back.
So the first week of June I got some job aps out but really wanted to work on my resume some more before spreading it around too much. I also spent a couple days out with tsukinowake and skurtchasor helping with shower install and furniture moving. Oh and I caught up on a bunch of housework and it seemed like other stuff too.
Friday I went to Peoria and met up with Mom for supper for my birthday. She got me socks and rubber spatulas like I'd asked for and also a small photo album, and some candy.
Monday of the second week was my birthday but I spent most the morning working on balancing our check book and seeing to our budget and otherwise working hard. I then gave myself the rest of the day off and spent it with the kitty watching anime. We got some papa murphy's and continued watching anime. I did however still clean the cat box and take out the trash.
Tuesday and Wednesday I spent trying to get caught back up on housework and preparing for our long weekend trip...I'd say vacation but that makes it sound way too laid back.
Thursday the 11th started with dropping my keys off at tsulinowake's work so she'd take care of Seattle while we were gone followed by a FUEL meeting before heading to Wheaton. I had a list of 16 apartments in the area to look at. We called and at least drove by all of them. We started closest to campus and worked our way out. The 2 closest to campus quickly got themselves eliminated. One only had studios which were barely bigger than a dorm room and when you have a kitchen and bath added you need a lot more than a dorm room to live in. The other wanted proof that we were making $40k or proof that we had $40k in the bank before they'd talk to us. 2 we got to look at and one of those we eliminated because it was impossible to get in and out of and the other place we looked at was nicer and cheaper.  I also looked at my notes better and realized 3 places were actually out of our price range. Of the 9 remaining only 1 called us back that day and we set an appointment for the next morning. Then we went to his parents for supper and sleep. They made ham and cheesy potatoes and broccoli as it was my birthday dinner. They had a movie for me and told me 2 books were on the way they just didn't arrive in time. We made a quick walk to Walmart to get a few things and watched some DVD'd TV episodes before bed. We headed out the door around 8am on Friday to get to the apartment we'd scheduled to look at. After that we went to campus and explored a bit. We found the graduate admissions and got a map and directions to several important buildings and then headed out on a self guided tour. The guy did offer to take us but Pat refused. We found our way around campus and talked to Financial aid. Apparently we'd taken out loans for more than actual tuition so they said we'd be getting disbursements and the numbers we were told was enough to cover rent at least so my employment won't have to be quite so good in order for us to survive since rent comprises about half of what we'd be needing to spend each month. Pat also talked with the IT guys and though they technically don't have an opening right now since he's single handedly doing what they have 3 employees doing currently they are very interested. We wandered the area and found a couple more places for rent to add to our list and 2 more of the complexes called us back...oh and we discovered we'd had the wrong number for 2 others 1 was hard to access and we didn't find a right number for anyway so we crossed it off. The other when we got the right number said they didn't take pets so they were off the list.  One of the places we'd found and added said they were only 2 blocks away they'd be right there after waiting 10 minutes we walked down to the building they said they were coming from but no one was there so we just gave up and went to our next 2 meetings. Both apartments were livable but neither were high on our priority list though they are very close to campus. One is just hard to live in since the bathroom is in the kitchen and there aren't good spots for the litter box but it seemed in better repair and more likely to get repair than the one across the street which was much more livable but impossible to move into and the landlord was a flake.
Friday night we ate at Panera and then headed to </b></a>snipafist 's for gaming weekend.
Saturday the plan was to meet folks from UHACC at Fry's around 2 for a couple hours and then rejoin the gaming thing. But the UHACCer's arrived early so we left for Fry's as everyone else went to eat. Finally we left Fry's to eat around 2 and then met up with the UHACCers again briefly to get an external we had data to put on and then returned to gaming.
Sunday after breakfast and some games and movies Pat and I headed out to see more people and then went straight to FUEL. Pat had to drop me off and go to work at IWU for a bit. He arrived around 7:30 or so I think. We finally got home at 10 and what a mountain of laundry to do! All the clothes and blankets needed to be washed before Seattle gets near them.
Monday I was groggy to say the least. We got a phone call from Pat's dad saying that one of the dear fellows who taught us both sound had just lost his wife to the pancreatic cancer we'd only heard about a few days before. Then I couldn't fall asleep. I ended up still being up when the sun started to rise. I got a couple hours of sleep but then Pat left for work and then Mom called. One of my cousins was about to go into surgery for an emergency appendectomy. OK I'm not going back to sleep despite having had 4 hours sleep tops at this point. I know we're going to the funeral and stuff so I start trying to get ready to go but my brain is decidedly not working well. Pat gets home about 10:30(the visitation is 3 hours away and starts at 4 and we still needed to pack and stuff.) and we start getting ready to go. We're sleeping on the floor at his parents because his Dad's brother is staying in the spare room and it's way more trouble than it's worth to clear enough space to use the hideabed. So we need sleeping bags...oh wait if we aren't letting Seattle near them we're certainly not letting the 20 year old much sicker kitty at his parents near them. So we pack up some comforters. We get up there and spend a couple hours chatting with people at the visitation before heading to his parents. His Dad never told his mom we were coming. Oh well. We had supper(The last of the left over ham from Thursday) and then watched Psych for awhile. Eventually the brothers returned from House on the Rock and watched with us. Oh and my books had come at that point so I got the brand new Mrs. Jefferies mystery and the mystery lover's cookbook from one of the series I really like. It should be very good. We slept in a little on Wednesday since the Funeral wasn't until 10. By then the brothers were gone again...this time to starved rock despite the rain and the fact that one of them walks with a cane most the time. After the funeral we talked to several more people and went to the luncheon thing. We went back to his parents and changed before heading out again. We stopped to see some friends' new place and to check on a couple things we'd forgotten to check at one apartment complex before going to Fry's. The external was missing it's power cable. They found it and Pat talked them into putting $10 back on the card for the hassle. Then we headed home and got data transferring to the HD right away since we thought we'd be giving it back that night. We'd arrived around 6 though and there wasn't time for everything to copy. So we went to UHACC with the plan of having them drop by our place to pick it up on the way home. But they ended up not being there. So we have another week:) But it's already done so I'll get it all packed back up and ready. Now it's Thursday again and I'm exhausted and want a nap.
Let's see what else.
Oh my cousin is fine by the way. His appendix perforated though so he's in the hospital longer and on a ton of antibiotics.
Pat may be able to for the first semester stay at IWU while he does grad school. We'll see how that works. We have the paperwork to get his loans deferred while he's in school again. If he could stay at IWU and I'd still have my job we'd be able to knock down a lot of debt since we live well enough on just his pay check and we'd be getting money from the school and we're almost done paying off the car. All the extra money could go to our current student loans...well we'd probably be saving some of it too of course but throwing extra money at his loans while they're in deferment would be great since he has a higher interest rate and most of his loans will continue accruing interest while in deferment.
Seattle has a collar now. Third times a charm. We bought it for him on my birthday and so far so good. I think it's actually going to work. Speaking of Seattle, he's really not pleased with how often we've been gone lately. Especially the last 24 hours he's been very bitey. For some reason he's decided my jaw line is good for nommings and it really hurts. Last night he got me pretty good on the right side though Pat had been annoying him so it wasn't totally unexpected but this morning he was nuzzling me and then suddenly tried to take a chunk out of the left side. As for the cat box issues, it's been fine lately. I think maybe this covered one is a lot better than I thought originally because I haven't had troubles with breathing while cleaning it. But that may just be because he hadn't recently gone before I cleaned it who knows.
FUEL this week is at Miller Park starting with a cook out at 5:30. Should be interesting. We've got someone actually interested in joining our crew and she's actually communicating with us!
We have a new Dragon in our Managerie:) A thank you/birthday/just because gift from our friend Sarah at FUEL. It's awesome!
Mom is planning on coming down this weekend I think. She wanted to do it before VBS and that starts Monday so...
Some time in the relatively near future we should go see my aunt again... But I feel bad cause I still haven't found a fan like she asked for so it seems like I'm just ignoring the request rather than actually not being able to find one. She wants a hand held fan perhaps like the ones Asian ladies hide behind but it needs to be sort of durable. The 3 I had she went through in less than a month so now she's using the paperboard inserts from the mail but she'd like a nice fan. Any ideas where I might be able to find one? Not too expensive.
Seems like I had more to say but now I don't remember and I do need to get on with other things so...

So the first weekend of insanity is about to start. After lunch tomorrow we pack up the flowers and stuff and head out to wedding weekend number one. Currently I have a ton of flowers smelling up my spare room. It's getting a little claustrophobic in there. I have 3 dozen red roses, 4 stems of stargazers(These branch out a LOT and have 3 or 4 big blooms on a stem...well they will when I get them all opened anyway...), 20 stems of Alstromeria that are mostly white with a red center like the stargazers, and 12 stems of pure red Alstromeria. I'm supposed to have a dozen white roses and a dozen calla lilies when I get there. I think I might take some bridal lace with me as well. The flowers take  up 2 big buckets plus I have a tote full of stuff: vases, decorative bowls for tables, corsages and bouts, flower supplies and tools, rehearsal bouquet, ringbearer pillow etcetc. Then there's my camera bag which looks a lot like a small duffle bag oh and our actual gear for 2 days. Nothing like piling the car high for the drive to Iowa. I guess it's a good thing Pat has Monday off to recover especially from all the flowers.

In other news...we have begun slowly the process of determining what is getting left behind when we move. Some things we obviously won't be able to decide on until we find a place but we have gotten a "new" dresser that replaces both our current dressers and barely takes more space than 1 of them. Since the handle on one drawer stripped withing a couple of months and has been a pain to deal with ever since I am not at all sad to be parting with it. Especially since "new" dresser is made of real wood not particle board so it's less likely to die though the joins in the drawers are getting loose with age. I sorted through my clothes and got rid of a bunch of stuff that doesn't fit me. Right now we still have 1 totally empty drawer and some space in the other 3 drawers but we also have a ton of stuff in the laundry so I'm sure the space will fill up. Getting 6-8 of Pat's sweaters in one drawer is so much nicer than barely managing to get 4 if you balanced the thicknesses correctly.

Next weekend will be equally crazy to this one only we get to stay at home. I am making dessert for the rehearsal dinner. Plus we have the favors to do and stuff. Thursday I will be baking and Friday we will fetch the mints and then there will be rehearsal stuff and putting the favors together and possibly some overnight guests. Saturday is the insanity of the wedding itself and possibly more guests. Then Sunday gift opening and stuff.

Oh in other news I got paid so will be depositing a check today. Meant to do it yesterday but forgot.

Our kitty almost scared me to death last night. We got him one of the safety collars that has the elastic break strap so if it gets caught on something it'll break rather than kill him. He keeps trying to chew his way out of it. Usually he can just get his teeth into the tail end which does nothing for him so we stop him from chewing on it but don't really worry. Last night he was making some weird noises though and finally I picked him up to see what was wrong. He'd some how managed to get his teeth into the real collar and not just the tag end. And he'd managed to get his lower canine looped through the elastic break strip in such a way that he could no longer actually close his mouth. I'm thinking the elastic break strip is a little too elastic because it didn't break. I had to take his collar off and pull it off his teeth. I was a little worried he'd hurt himself but he's fine. I put the collar back on a little tighter so he can't do it again. He's probably as uncomfortable as most guys are in a properly situated tie but if I hadn't caught it in just a few minutes he could have seriously hurt himself and he was not capable of eating or drinking like that.

Well I need to actually go get busy making those star gazers bloom and stuff so I'm going now.

Actually this isn't a very mysterious post. Yesterday was Julie's second shower and it was fun...only clse to 500 pictures there...nothing like a beautiful setting to make Ds camera snap pictures wildly:) Also at FUEL we were informed we won't be meeting for 2 weeks so except for wedding related stuff on Fridays and Saturdays we are free o plans for the next couple weeks. So if anyone wants to do anything needs help with anything let me know. My only things I have to do this week are pick up the flowers and get some more cat food. Oh crap I just realized we're going to be gone from Friday until Sunday this weekend so we'd probably better set up someone to come feed and check on the kitty on Saturday so getting that arranged as well.

And I was very productive last week so I am fairly flexible with my schedule this week.
The corsages and bouts are all done for Mary's wedding. They are packed along with the rehearsal bouquet, the vases, all my flower stuff for doing the bouquets etc etc for easy transport. Some time this week I need to call and pay for the real flowers I ordered and next Wednesday I pick them up because some of them will need some prompting to open up for me. That is all I have to do for that wedding though.
The first shower, bachelorette party and favor making went well and are done for Julie's wedding. Now I just have a second shower on Sunday for that. Still have to get the gift together but I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing and it'll be simple.
If we didn't keep adding more junk the house would be semi clean. I've gotten the dishes down to a normal amount which should mean today or tomorrow they will be utterly conquered (TODAY...only 1 small load left!). But our living room is unusable because we've got all kinds of boxes for packing in there with everything else including Pat's bike.
I got my ring inspected and the car's oil got changed as well.
I am sad I didn't get to spend as much time with Anna as I'd hoped. Our insane sleep over of watching girly anime ended up not happening because she felt sick so now I am sad. Not as much fun watching alone.
In other news...
Pat has gotten loans that will pay for the school part. Maybe even a little extra to cover books and stuff but we still don't have employment or housing up there. Now that my schedule has freed up that's my job to find. Speaking of job...I think my one here is over. I haven't gotten a final pay check yet though so I will poke about that(DONE). If I could find something a little more steady here for over the summer it'd be great but who knows. I definitely need to look for something for this fall though along with further apartment searches.
The FUEL lending library appears to be going well. Basically we're trying to keep it all stuff you might find at a Christian bookstore so we're not getting as many donations as we otherwise might but it's growing and people are starting to use it.
We also have picked up a copy of Battlestar Galactica and Dokapon kingdom both of which we find to be marvelous investments.
My plan for the rest of the day:
Put away left overs  DONE
Do the last load of dishes to catch them up DONE
Put in a load of laundry DONE
Balance checkbook DONE
Make book due call for FUEL lending library DONE
Call Aunt Cheryl and plan to take her the CDs Mom sent with me DONE
Do some form of other housework based on my mood from the following list: clean oven, clean bathroom, scrub floors, straighten up the upstairs, or clean up the downstairs bits of several done
Do at least some job and or apartment search stuff
Shopping after Pat gets off work DONE
Possibly getting the shower gift together tomorrow
Probably some more Dokapon kingdom OH YEAH!

So I know some of you at least are wondering where I've dropped off the face of the earth to. So here's what my time has looked like for the last few weeks and my schedule for the next few.

I've been working 1-5 days a week averaging about 8 hrs a week for the last 4 months...and since I didn't work for the entirety of January that's a lot of hours. Tomorrow I'll be at the warehouse reworking a fair. Usually when I'm in the warehouse I'm either unloading a new shipment or reworking a fair or otherwise attempting to organize chaos. The best part is I can blast Project 86 while I work and everyone is cool with that. I work better to loud angry music. Gives me energy for physical labor.

Pat's been working as normal and the 2 of us have been taking turns being sick or at least not feeling good anyway with all the allergens currently about.

For FUEL we started a new lending library on Easter. I think it's going to work but we're kinda low on titles right now. All the books in it are from Pat and I and we only came up with 78 titles. That wasn't a ton of work but it took several hours. Pat is still running the camera all but one week a month. I am still running merch/library all the time since no one seems to want to join our crew after they hear what it entails. We also are running a pneuma group on THursday nights. We had a couple weeks where no one showed but we finally had someone back last week so I think we'll probably have someone for the rest of the time.

Then there is the crazy insanity associated with Pat going to Grad school at Wheaton this fall. I am searching for a job and housing up there as I can but... We have the school paid with all the loans but right now we have no way to live except the $1000 or so in our emergency fund which won't last even a month. But this is where God has directed us so we're going. It'll all work out some how. I am actually glad to have some work hours because all that is paying off our car faster so we won't have car payments to try to pay while he's in grad school too.

Then there are the friends. First we have a Anna who is getting her Masters very very soon. Then she's moving away and we'll quite possibly never see her again so we're cramming as much fun hang out time with her in as we possibly can. Her schedule frees up after Friday so hopefully we'll get a lot of that before she leaves on the 9th.
Then there's Mary our friend in China who is coming home for a stateside wedding. I'm taking care of the flowers for that and it's quite an undertaking. 4 corsages and 12 bouts and the bouquet and 3 alter arrangements. I'm really excited about it. That wedding is May 23. Oh and since they'd have to haul all the junk back to China they're asking no gifts so the flowers are their gift. Then there are Julie and Thar(yes that's a nickname). They're getting married on May 30(gift bought and wrapped). I'm a bridesmaid. Saturday is the shower(gift bought and wrapped) after which 2 of the other bridesmaids and I will be gathering for last minute preparations for the bachelorette party. May 2 is the bachelorette party for which the gift is bought but not yet entirely wrapped. May 9 Julie and I are going to do a massive favor making marathon. I also helped with getting the invitations together and various and sundry other planning things. And of course there was the buying and altering the dress stuff also which took a little time and effort as well since the shop is in Peoria. Don't get me wrong I love doing all of this and I'm more productive when I'm busy...I'm just freakin' busy right now:)

Next week I work 2 days. And some time before the month ends I need to go get my ring inspected I just realized it's due this month.

So in the last month I have attended a recital, spent a day doing a service project, had over night guests 3 times, had people over or went over to someone elses house to play games in the neighborhood of 6 times, worked 77 hours and was part of a surprise birthday party on top of all the wedding and grad school related stuff that's been happening. We managed to finish one series we were in the middle of with someone and catch up to present with 2 other series that are on going with that person. Still have another series or 2 to finish with others.

Pat just called and said he's getting a free lunch today so my plan for the rest of today is as follows: eat, do dishes and more dishes and more dishes, get the table cleared for bachelorette party planning this weekend, put away the laundry when it gets done and start a new load, UHACC, hopefully a brief shopping trip for another necessary flower purchase and preparing for tomorrow. Tomorrow I work and we have our small group. I might in between have time for a few dishes or flowers or something. Friday will be catch up day. And maybe time for some anime or something. Sunday Our small group is part of the set up crew so we get to be out at FUEL at 4 instead of near 6. Monday I will probably concentrate on flowers if I've gotten my dishes caught up. Unless Anna is free and then I'm totally hanging out with her. Tuesday and Wednesday I work. Thursday and Friday...hopefully will be some crazy anime time with Anna. Or I'll work on flowers and getting the house into shape and the job and housing search.

Well that's probably more detail than you ever wanted to know. and I didn't even mention family. Mom is doing ok. Her utility bills have dropped dramatically with the new roof and insulation and furnace. Homeowners insurance is a killer but it's only about what a months utility bills used to be. One of my uncles had a stroke but he's better now. One of Pat's cousins got confirmed. Oh and Mother's Day is May 10th so we've got to figure something out for that. Just normal boring stuff... 

I am still alive.
Second birthday party was also fun.
Mom has a new roof and they insulated the house.
I work tomorrow. Getting picked up at 5:30 and won't get home until late with a close time of 6 and then someone else having to come pick everything up.
In Grad school news...Pat was waitlisted for Harvard so unless he gets a call from them soon saying he's in, we'll just accept that as a no and be heading to Wheaton this fall. On the one hand Wheaton will be easier in so many ways. We can move ourselves without distressing the cat too terribly and we have friends and family nearby. But Wheaton is going to be so much harder for Pat in the not killing his classmates and professors sense. I'm already starting to flip out about money stuff but then I just take a deep breath and do as Pat says and remember Abraham.
I got my bridesmaid dress fitted this week. So many weddings gah! 3 we're seriously involved with and 3 no 5 others...this next 6 months is going to be insane.
New people are coming to our pneuma group so that's cool. We had 5 people last time with one of our regulars missing and since our high attendance up to that point was 4 I was pretty excited. Plus last night Pat talked to someone else who is going to try to come tonight so we might have 7 people tonight. That'd be cool.
Seems like other stuff is happening too but that's the major stuff I think...

Life's been crazy!
I worked every day last week.
Also tried to do the taxes and failed. I ended up with us owing more money than we got as a refund last year...and since last years refund got us the computer we use for our media center and several board games it was quite a chunk of change. We picked up Turbo tax and somehow managed to get what we owe to under $50. Sigh of relief. With the stuff I'm doing now being independent contractor work with no business expenses to off set it I am paying many taxes on that money. And the stuff taken out when I was an employee and by IWU wasn't quite enough to cover.
Also planned a surprise birthday party for 2 friends. Pirates vs ninjas. With lots of help from Julie and Pat and Frank and an additional cake from Laurie we totally rocked them. Thar sort of suspected "something" was up but we totally surprised Amy:) Yeah. So tired. But so much fun...though I ended up getting up at 8am to accomplish all the baking...
And last Monday Mom got a new furnace installed and her sisters came and helped her clean out what used to be my room.
This Monday she and her co-worker stayed the night as they had a class in Decatur on Tuesday.
I was supposed to maybe work in the warehouse a little this week but I've not heard more about that so I guess I'm not.
And we're throwing another birthday party this Saturday. This one is totally not a surprise as my co host is the birthday girl herself. I just know way too many people born in February. Sorry guys 2 parties this month is all I can throw. I'm running out of funds:) But at least some of the decorations can be reused:)
It seems like there was other important stuff to note but I don't remember now.

So the insanity of the last few days!
1. Friday: Took car into shop and got battery replaced for free because it was acting up. Got asked to work in the warehouse on monday. Had fun hanging with Anna and beginning to plan what we're doing for her birthday though we don't know when yet. Also had fun with Frank, Thar and Julie playing Battlestar Galactica. YAY!

2. Saturday: Mom came and we had lots of fun. Ate at Kobe for lunch. Got the printer we've been in process of getting for at least a year and also a small digital camera that now lives in Pat's coat pocket. Very excited about that since it's actually a fairly decent camera and my little point and shoot stopped working entirely the other day. Saw Aunt Cheryl. Got rid of the rest of the strawberries and angelfood cake stuff as Mom's birthday cake:) After Mom went home played an epic game of Mario Party and chased the orange stray cat out of our window well because he was bothering Seattle.

3. Today: Started to get up for church but Pat felt nauseous. I did some online stuff quick then we started making pizzas for lunch. Pat wanted green olives so he ran to grab some and some food for his lunches this week since he won't be coming home to eat with me. He came home and dumped the groceries on me and ran out saying he'd gotten a call that sun was down. I continued making the pizzas and was just pulling them out of the oven when he returned home saying the problem was actually an overheated switch and all was well. For a reason I still don't understand I decided to check the mail since I didn't think I had Saturday. I found a package and several other very exciting things. The package was from a friend that I was helping with wedding planning 3 years ago and then they ended up eloping instead of having a wedding because of military time tables. She sent me back some of the supplies I'd given her and some extra things mostly scrapbooking type stuff. I might suddenly decide to do some scrapbooking now that I have my printer but if anyone wants any of it you are welcome to it. Exciting thing number 1, our car payment statement. I'd thrown an extra chunk of money at it and the new balance was even lower than I'd calculated it being after a couple more months of payments. Very exciting. And then the most exciting news of all...Well let me just show you the intro paragraph and you should get it. "The Biblical and Theological Studies Department of Wheaton College Graduate School has been notified by the Admissions office of your admission to our Historical and Systematic Theology program. The members of our faculty are delighted to welcome you to the Graduate School and to our department." Pat's reaction. Read this and tell me what it says cause I'm a philosophy major and they aren't explicitly stating anything. And then..."We'll have to go back to Circuit City and get a voice recorder because I don't take notes." And then..."So I got into the most expensive school on the list. Yes Wheaton is more expensive than Harvard." Well you get the general idea. And it's nearly 2 and we need to leave in an hour and a half and I have 2 loads of laundry to do and I still haven't eaten and and and...   GAH!

So life has been crazy. What's new with that:)

Let's see I've bought a bridesmaids dress. I now have at least 3 weddings to attend this year; 2 are in May. I am so thankful none are on the same day because choosing in this situation would be extremely hard. Oh I know about at least 5 other weddings but not sure if we're actually invited to most of those because we aren't close but we are close with all three of these that I've been talking about.

Mom's birthday is Thursday. Still not sure when we'll be able to do stuff for her. Got her gift today during my 3 hour shopping spree of driving me crazy during the worst of that Thunderstorm this afternoon. I have everything boked or baged but I need to wrap one box and ribbon everything.

Besides mom's gift, I also got some groceries, more heater filters, and something for Pat for Valentine's. I wanted to get something else but didn't find anything I liked.

Valentine's day. So not prepared. Probably will end up doing some wedding planning with the folks I bought the bridesmaids dress for and then who knows.

Got a call this morning and apparently they need me to work Tuesday through Friday next week. Since I didn't think they were going to need me any more that's pretty cool.

Last weekend of February we're only supposed to be 5 places at once. It's a friend's birthday that will have just finished hell week. I at least have something for her for her birthday. Party for folks in from out of town. Meeting for our leadership stuff at FUEL. Plus it seems like there is more. Anime club probably but that's an easy skip.

The weekend after this one is I think another friends birthday. And yet another friend should be in town I think so maybe we'll be doing something... Plus Chuxor is planning a murder mystery thing at his place sometime in the nearish future.

I'm sure there's more I was planning to write when I started this entry before lunchtime but now it's bedtime ish so I am signing off...

From a Facebook note
Right now(Wednesday night) I'm sitting in the student worker cube attempting not to be bored out of my mind while Pat fights with his worthless back-up system. He discovered today that the tapes he's been backing the systems up to since November were blank despite the software saying the jobs were done successfully.
I haven't blogged anywhere in awhile and I don't have my easy links to my actual journals so I thought I'd just ramble here and possibly copy and paste later.
Let's see the craziness that is my life.
Last night we were out in Danvers for a Babylon 5 marathon. We are nearing the end of Season 3 now. We also fixed our washing machine. It had us really freaked out for awhile but there were just clogs in the drain line in 2 places and once we cleaned those out everything was smooth sailing.
Today I reshoveled and finished some laundry and worked on more job aps. We then had a FUEL Crews gathering for supper and hang out before we came here for Pat to switch the backup tapes that he'd rerun...and then there was a tape jammed in the drive and I'm not sure what all else. We've been here over an hour. Well Pat just gave the I can't do more signal so we're out.

OK it's Thursday now. As a capper for the night fighting with the back up system let me tell you how Pat explained it on the car ride home. "Netvault is the most unreliable piece of software I've ever touched...and I freaking Beta tested Windows Millennium Edition, the OS Microsoft decided was too unstable to live long...Beta tested so back when it was more unstable than the actual release that was too unstable to live." For those of you who have heard all the problems with bad parts he's had with his new blade server...he said he's still had way less problems with it than with the back up software...in just the last year.

Getting away from that I am lonely right now. Seattle is at the vet getting his teeth cleaned and this place is EMPTY without him. And of course he was freaking out the whole way and stuff. And we've never actually had a cat go through this process before so it's a little scary since we had to sign anesthesia consent and stuff. We pick him back up tonight when Pat gets off work. On the plus side I have the car today...on the minus side I have no need of it. At least I hope I don't. I have the car in case we get an emergency call from the vet. Poor kitty. We had to take his food away at 6 last night for the anestesia. He was starving...He even ripped into a bag of pretzels trying to find food. Yes I know we're nuerotic pet parents. We've accepted this.

As for what I should and need to be doing today...We're supposed to have people coming over tonight. I need to do dishes and clean the table off and make treats and...the list keeps going but I don't think I need to. Unfortunately I'm distracted so who knows how well that will go. At least I'll get treats done. People may have to deal with a dirty house. Also I need to continue with job apps and such. Heavy sigh.

For the future crazy stuff. I think we're seeing a friend tomorrow night. I'm going out with a friend or 2 Saturday and possibly a friends birthday party after that. Sunday we've got a crew leaders meeting and FUEL. Next week is our standard UHACC and Pneuma group plus it's Mom's birthday. There is all kinds of other crazy stuff going on as well.

Let's see cool things that have happened recently...Made our first trip to Chinatown. It was kinda cool. Became quite addicted to Dokapon kingdom. Know about at least 6 weddings this year now. Gar I hope we don't go to all of them...I'm pretty sure we won't attend 3 or 4 since we more just know the people rather than actually being friends.

Life is busy but mostly boringly normal I'd say.

End pointless story

So Surprise party for tsukinowake = WIN! Epic points to skurtchasor for managing to get us keys and her out of the house and call with updates several times without her ever knowing anything was being plotted. Also Epic points to tokoz for not trying to kill phoemeister and I when she walked in and found us with no warning:) Basically we'd given up on the idea but late Friday early Saturday skurtchasor managed to pull it all back together so around 7:30 Saturday night tsukinowake came in to a birthday banner, a balloon and lots of Crepe paper. We had the projector and speakers in the basement all set up FINALLY! We had fruit and chips and candy and nuts and mints (no not crack mints I didn't have time to make them and the Christmas ones are long gone) and 2 kinds of cake. I brought the red velvet cupcakes with my vanilla butter cream frosting and tokoz made the butter rum cake Julie had requested. I wrote Julie's Cat Dance Party on the cupcakes and made paw prints on the ones that didn't have letters:) We watched an episode of Kolchak the Night Stalker, 5000 Happy fingers of Dr. Twilliker(or something closely approximate to that) and several episodes of the Tick. Much fun. But in order to find the cat balloon we had to try 4 stores! The only cats they had in most stores were hello kitty though they had several puppies. Really didn't seem fair. But despite problems we were able to pull it all off. Yippee!
Sunday we discovered FUEL will be on location next week. So now all day Sunday is booked and part of Saturday is also booked with setup and organization stuff. We also have a bunch of crew meetings and pnuema group meetings coming up. I think we found out about 5 or 6 meetings on sunday and 2 more have solidified since. BUSY! But we don't do merch when we're on location so we're just the organization crew and yes we'll be doing a LOT of tech for it since the only projectionist that is fully competant now can't be there and the other tech is scared to do it.
Monday I was exhausted. I got some stuff I needed to get done accomplished but not nearly what I should have. I felt like I'd run a marathon I was just wiped out. Today I woke up with one of those headaches that require me to basically keep my eyes closed until the Tylenol kicks in unless I really want to lose my lunch. Some say those are called migraines but what self-respecting migraine actually succumbs to Tylenol? This wasn't as bad as some but I ended up not leaving bed until 3. But when I did I was awake and energetic! What the heck! I've done 2 loads of dishes, baked 4 dozen cookies, make the kitchen habitable again(all the stuff from the party was dumped on the kitchen table had to unbury it before things could be done) and put together the gift for a friend that got back to town Sunday. He's supposed to come over tonight but who knows. Still on the to do list today is putting away a load of laundry and starting another. Maybe more dishes and cleaning and stuff. Depends on how my energy holds and if our company shows and if Pat wants to do something besides watch Dr. Who:)
Oh and fun stuff. One of Pat's good friends from childhood is going to be in the area next week so we're going to get to see him. I haven't gotten to spend much time with him but he's always made me laugh and seems to be a genueinely nice guy. When this guy, Pat and the guy that was his best man get together watch out:) If you're wondering why he wasn't at our wedding that would be because he was in Italy with the military. I am sad but happy several of Pat's friends couldn't make it because I was having a hard time finding enough bridesmaids:) And especially with me making the dresses...hard.
It seems like there's probably other stuff to say but...?

So my main journal at js is dead now. Sadness...someone wrote over every sector of data they had...oops...Pat says someone went nuts with dd...and they did say they were pretty sure it was malicious hacking. Oh well just means I'm down to 2 journals and facebook now.

I haven't written much lately so here goes the epic update of epicness.

First I worked about 80 hours while doing my baking etc etc for Christmas...that was over 3 or 4 weeks but baking up somewhere in the neighbor hood of 20 normal sized boxes, 3 larger boxes and 2 huge boxes plus getting info on what to buy, buying and wrapping stuff for the few people we couldn't just give baked goods to was hard. Also I was fighting off a cold or something so I was not at my best.

The original Christmas plan was that mom would come down here on the 23rd and stay the night. Christmas Eve afternoon she'd head home to the Christmas Eve service that she was running. Christmas morning we'd go to Elgin for the family Christmas and get back late Christmas night or early the day after. Things did not work that way.

The weather reports were looking sketchy so we took the family Christmas gifts up in mid December when we took Anna to the airport. Just in case... We got so behind schedule that day and barely managed to spend time with anyone as we raced around delivering our Chicagoland gifts.

The weather was not fun so Mom didn't come down the day before. Christmas Eve we ended up taking her gifts down in a very short trip. I was sad though because we'd really wanted her to be here for Christmas Eve since we've never gotten to do anything Christmas here before. The roads were definitely not fun in a few spots but in general were pretty good despite all the ice and snow around that time. Then we discovered that Christmas was at the Aunt and Uncle's in Grayslake not in Elgin so change of plans we're going straight there. Don't know why we didn't realize it was in Grayslake this year. There are only two locations that switch back and forth each year. We're in Elgin the years we have Sarah and David. We're in Grayslake the years we have Rachel and Matthew...and we had Rachel and Matthew...but somehow it didn't really dawn on us.  But anyway we drove up on Christmas day and the other Aunt and cousin didn't so Pat didn't get his gift then. He did get a supremely awesome gift from his Mom though...she knitted him a Dr. Who scarf. Once again my Christmas gift from them was a fail...but not because of lack of trying. It was a great gift...a digital photo frame! Unfortunately it only works under windows or Mac OS. Sadness. We were also given the first season of Get smart...a very thoughtful gift...but not really something we wanted or needed. My gift exchange gift was blokus trigon. We're loving it:) From my Mom we got a new cookie sheet, pop, slippers, nuts, candy, blankets, a cookbook, some new silicon spatulas (which we desperately needed) and the mixer from black friday...which died when I used it the first time.

As for Pat's Dr. Who scarf...the day after Christmas we went thrift storing to find more of the costume and the 27th I made him a crazy red plaid vest so now he has a relatively complete Tom Baker Dr. Who costume which he got to wear to a friends Birthday costume party on the 27th. pictures may be posted on facebook soon.

So Pat returned the mixer to Target. We got 2 pyrex dishes with lids and a nunchuck for just a bout $5 more than the return on the mixer. We returned the picture frame and added almost $60 to get a really awesome new stand mixer. Get Smart was returned and with just a few dollars more became Kolchak the night stalker. And we made a haul at game exchange. We picked up the following games: PSX Legend of Dragoon, FF Origins, FF Tactics, Frogger, Pipe dreams 3D, and Jigsaw madness; PS2 FF X, FF X-2, Champions of Norath, Crazy Taxi, Disgaea 2, and Warriors of Might and Magic. We got all this for our Dreamcast and Frogger and Crazy taxi and our 64 plus the few games we had for it and less than $15. In the last year we'd used the 64 twice. Once last Christmas when Pat rebeat the Ocarina of Time and once at my birthday party for the Mario Kart challenge. Since both these games are available on virtual console there really isn't a need for the system. And the Dreamcast was pulled out on those same 2 occasions for Crazy taxi playing during break and for Crazy taxi and frogger playing during my party. Since we found both Frogger and Crazy taxi for the PS there's no longer a need for that system either.   Yeah for space saving. And while the new mixer is big it will allow me to make lots of the crack mints...as soon as I get the right molds.

Let's see what else happened...the new year I guess. That also didn't happen quite the way we'd planned. We were coopted to be in and help setup and tear down a murder mystery dinner party at the parents. We were sure the commitment would take us from about 6-midnight but that then we could run over to a friends party and hangout and play games. However after the mass quantities of chocolate and the smokey candles etc etc Pat was feeling much too crappy to move so we crashed in the parents basement...and forgot to set an alarm or anything so his parents woke us up just before 11. So we headed over to our friends place and got to tell everyone good morning and good bye. Well mostly. We did get to play Miserian War for the first time. It needs some serious rules revisions. Despite planing to leave the house by 2 at the latest to head to our next stop the game didn't end until 3. Then we headed out to spend time with the friend we'd missed on our flying trip in mid-December. Much fun but stayed way too late and then couldn't find the food we wanted on the way and added an extra hour to our drive finding the place and another hour eating there. Our kitty was quite distraught when we finally arrived at midnight.

Let's see what else... I've discovered just about everyone I know that is in a relationship and not already married is now engaged. Wow we're going to be going to a lot of weddings in the next few years.  Also found Adecco to be incompetent again...they were the place that messed up my pay and lost my time cards and stuff while I was working for scholastic. The reprocessed one of my lost expense reports right before Christmas so I got to buy a money order and mail it back to them...grumblings. Still have not heard if they got it back and it better not mess with my taxes.

Thinking tomorrow I may take down the Christmas tree.
Sunday we're running sound for Oasis.
Think that's all for plans right now.
Pat starts back to work Monday.