Blankets Beware!

Last night around 12:30 mass confusion struck in the form of a fire alarm. I did not understand what was going on at first all I knew is that there was an extrememly loud noise that I HAD to get away from. It had woken me out of a very deep sleep rendering me very confused. I knew I had to get out of the building but couldn't find my shoes and the usually quick and easy option of grabbing a warm blanket failed me. It would not come off the bed! Somewhere in this desparate scramble I looked for Tanya. No lump in the bed and she wasn't coming when I called. I grabbed what looked like my keys and charged out the door holding my ears. They mean business when they are trying to wake you up around here cause they put a very loud alarm in every room.

Thinking about it now I took the longest way possible out of the dorm. When I finally reached some sort of awakeness I became aware of what was going on and I started to look for Tanya. Suddenly there she was with "way to look out for your roommate there and just leave her in the room!" I don't understand how there can be such a delayed reaction in waking up! and I don't know what I was doing. I was so amazingly confused.

The girls had no idea what was going on and where to go so like the smart college student they are they all huddled up right next to the building. Well then you kinda had to cause that's where the RA's were to check you in! The fire trucks came and found nothing. I found that I was cold and missing my blanket. Shoes would have been wonderful. But instead I was holding a pair of sunglasses. Guess just in case the blaze got a little too bright. Atleast I did SOMETHING rigth and brought my keys. Who knows what was wrong but this is what I found.

I don' t know what my blanket has against me but it obviously wasn't coming along. I too now hold a grudge.

Somebody Threw Off My Ritual!

It has occured to me many times that school is nothing more then a ritual. The first few days of the year are always hard because last years ritual is broken and you take on a new one. This year was no different.

Yes some things are still the same. Back rooming with Tanya, life always has some extra pizzaz. Our room looks very much the same. We even have our story started on the mirror. When I was ready for bed last night, I turned off the main light and she journaled, just like we always did last year. Then at 6:45 am the alarm went off. When I was finally awake enough to get up, I stumbled towards the light, and that's when the ritual came crashing to a halt.

Somebody switched the light switches in THIS room so that when I went to turn on the switch by the sink, (just like I always do so as to not give Tanya such a rude awakening) I switched on the main light. Tanya described it this way... "I think you just burned holes in my eyes!" Sorry Tanya but somebody threw of my ritual.

Tanya has given a new edict stating that all meals shall now be eaten in the cafe. You must understand that it has always been that meals were eaten from a take-out somewhere between the cafe and the dorm room. So it was written, so it was done. But no. Today pasta day was competely confusing because I had to figure out how to make the whole sauce on the side thing work without the take-out nicely sectioned. Plates! Who eats on plates? It didn't work, and I had to take some of Tanya's. Oh well. She threw off my ritual.

My schedule is absolutely horrendous this year. Run here, run there. Work for an hour, class for two. Work for two, class for an hour. Not to mention the old smack in the face, "you aren't in 100 level social work classes anymore sophomore!" I'm completely discombobulated which I'm sure my bosses and teachers don't find amusing but, hey! Don't they realize that to get the best me they possible can, they should plan their schedules around me? They threw off my ritual!

Perhaps if I were princely I would go around having my men throw these perpetrators out of windows just like they do in the pictures. Only two problems, I'd rather be princessly and turning into a llama just isn't appealing. So ritual cast off, I plunge into the unknown. New ritual here I come. And maybe, if I'm lucky, it'll turn into a full blown groove.

Happy Days

My last weekend of freedom... Carrie came down since her parents are bringing Grant over. We even had a surprise. Jaclyn opened the door to Amy. Both she and Jeremy decided to come down for a surprise visit. All that was missing was Ryan...Heilman that is.

Jaclyn and Carrie just don't know how to sleep in, so they decided to take pictures of me while I enjoyed my Sabbath morning. Doesn't get much better then that my friends! Even have Waddlesworth.









Now awake after an amazing meal of spaghetti. My experiment of fruit pizza for dessert even worked amazingly enough.







Carrie takes on Jaclyn... Unfortunately she doesn't realize that Dad has taught Jaclyn well and she has no chance.







No Jaclyn... that isn't part of the game!





Jeremy and Amy coach me as I cautiously get into the cold mountain water. It's a good thing too because poor Jaclyn slipped and fell within the first five minutes and was out the rest of the time. She can hardly move this morning. I'm sure she's thanking somebody for making pain killers.







The rocks are quite slippery and I wasn't liking the look of the slimey "slide" so I just decided to hang on.









Carrie trys to get me to go down the rock covered in slime. She even held my hand! :) This is called fun.












And it was fun! Despite the slime the 5 foot slide provided a tad bit of excitement. Maybe it was the cold plunge at the end.














Finding a small waterfall...It gives quite a nice massage actually.
















We made it back home and tried out some "Thump Thump" or "Seven Up" or... I don't remember the other names but also multitasked and watched a little "Gone in 60 Seconds." We laughed probably 80% of the time which was torture for Jaclyn and her bruised ribs. Sorry Jaclyn... but you know it was funny.

Haystacks and The Amazon Trail

After quite a few phone calls and... well I'm not sure if I would classify it as a lot of planning or hardly any... I ended up having over Caleb, Bobby, and Rachel for lunch on Sabbath. The haystacks were quite good despite the frozen slimey lettuce. Afterward as you can see we sat around for awhile and amused ourselves with comparing cell phones etc. We couldn't force ourselves to get up and go out in the heat. When Ryan showed up after his RA thingy he and Jaclyn tried a few gymspastics.

Finally around 5:00 we decided to head out to Soddy Daisy. We'd heard something about water and swimming so it couldn't be that bad right? I'm sorry I don't have any pictures but due to the rain it wouldn't have been a good thing to bring electronics.

It was quite fun really. True to tradition I fell and now have a goose egg on my knee that's rather bothersome, but once we finally got there it was great. There's 15-25 foot jumps and a few rope swings. We even got to swim in an all out down poor. On the way back the path was flooded by probably a good 4 or 5 inches which made the adventure all the more like tramping through the Amazon. That goodness we didn't add the snakes. That would have been too real.

A Changing Office

Wednesday was my first day back at work... Didn't really get much done cause we were all catching up on our summers. I also still haven't gotten the chance to meet my new boss. But I did get to spend some quality time with the copy machines. Let's just say I didn't miss those a bit. They hate me I swear. I guess the feeling is mutual. Within minutes I'm always digging up to my elbox for jammed paper. I'm sure I have scars on my arms for the numerous cuts and abraisions.

But after that Joylynn invited Sarah and I over to her house for supper. It was Sarah's last day of work since she's going to be leaving us for Africa probably some time this week. She's going to be greatly missed I might add.

We had a really great time at supper. The conversation never dwendled and for girls you can't quite beat the cooking in the kitchen fun. Katie (Joylynn's dog) is absolutely adorable and quite well trained I might add. Poor Joylynn is in the process of moving. I don't envy her at all. I've gone through that way too many times.

Now Sarah has gone and I am the only student worker for now. More work for me! And yeah, I'm thinkin that's a good thing.

Happy Birthday to Jaclyn

This year we decided to be extra unsneaky and throw Jaclyn a birthday party over at Kari's. True to tradition we had the normal ice cream pies. Nick and I covered one with 23 candles. Yep she's getting old enough that you are losing the pie in all the fire. Atleast the pie remained the only thing "on fire."

I got to meet another member of the family this time around. I'd always heard of "Dave" seen a few pictures.... but this time I met him face to face. I must say he totally cracks me up. Apparently he's wracked up a great number of "bows," that he must perform before a Canadian flag... or so says Ted Prouty. Dave spent sometime on the phone with Ted trying to get out of them. Finally Kari played mediator and we got somewhere.

Holly bought Jaclyn Uno Attack (or whatever it's called) game. I've gotta say it spices up the old game quite nicely. Jaclyn and I took turns getting Ryan back for Sorry last weekend. I think we both enjoyed it quite a bit. Only problem was Ryan was still on the war path himself. Oh well. For those of you that don't know instead of the usual drawing you have to hit the button on this machine and it may shoot out 10 if it so chooses. David was particularly afraid of it.

We topped the night off with making the guys watch Pride and Prejudice. (another one of Jaclyn's presents.) They didn't mind too much. Should I be worried? :) It's really quite cool to see places on a movie that you've been to. Some parts of that movie I know exactly where they are standing in the house. But anyway, maybe that's just cool to me.

What do I call this?

Well I'm back at Southern. In some ways it's very depressing, in others... Well it will be lots of fun to live with my sister and just hang out at southern without school for awhile. I go back to work on Wednesday. Terribly unexciting. I admit I could never be a secretary for the rest of my life.

But anyway. The family is down here too so we've been doing a little visiting. Back at the Heilmans for spaghetti and a good time. Makes me feel like I'm back home again. Then Saturday night the France family took over the Collegedale church and had a small social. Poor Ryan had to meet the family but he did a great job.... I'm feeling very uneloquent (if that's a word) this morning, so I'm just gonna shut up and post some pictures. :)

There they are! Robin and I both agree this is a little bit weird. Definately a good thing, just unexpected. It's good to see Jaclyn so happy. Ryan passed my preliminary testing so I suppose the prospects are looking good for him. He just has a few more hoops to go through such as, the 10 page survey complete with an essay on why I should let him date my sister. Then there's the lie detector test and a full background check. Ryan also suggested a urine test. Now he's thinkin! Other then that he's good to go.

What would we do without cousins that annoy us? Don't worry I won this one...I think. See Jaclyn eyeing him with a knife? JUST KIDDING!

Feeding our faces...

Jaclyn and I try to explain dutch blitz... He didn't get it. Oh well, guess that makes up for beating us at Sorry and Sorry partners. It was the attack of the killer guys. I blame it all on the cards and the inability to fight back. Don't worry, next time the "unbeatable" team of Dad and Ryan WILL be creamed, to put it lightly.

Breakin it down with a little Heart and Soul.