Life with Gling

1. Today was our Grand Opening service at the Vandalia site for church.  It’s really exciting…because this means we’ll start meeting every week now.  It was another great Sunday…and there were…from what I’ve been told…like 180 people there today.  It’s been amazing to see the size grow each week…and we’ve only had 3 services so far!  Well anyway…Jared and I were both up for praise band/vocal team this week…which went really well too.  However…I was completely surprised by my parents….who made the trip down to see our first grand opening service.  It was great!  I didn’t have a clue about them coming down…and was great to look out into the congregation and see them sitting there.  We ate lunch and came back to the house to hang out for a bit.  Dad and Jared watched football….while mom and I went to look at antiques.  I got a few old broaches and a few vintage aprons.   I’m catching up on some cleaning around the house now…and trying to relax before tonight’s run. 

It was a great weekend.

Jared and I had a great Friday night!  After work we zipped over to Alton to spend a fun and/or exciting night with Steve and Nicole.  We started things off with a yummy supper at Fast Eddies.  It’s this super cool old-school roadhouse on the river.  All the food is cheap…$1 brats, burgers, baskets of fries…etc.  We both filled ourselves silly….and spent less than $8 doing so…and it was tasty too!  Definitely a fun experience that shall have to be repeated.  After that we headed over for some custard at a local custard stand.  I got a pumpkin and caramel concrete…which was wonderful.  I love pumpkin…especially when custard is involved.  It made me want to go crazy and start baking all things pumpkin.  We’ll see how that plays out.  Anyway…after that…Nicole and I went off to see Guys and Dolls at the Alton Little Theatre….and Jared and Steve headed back to the house to play x-box.  Good times all around!  Nicole and I got back around11:00…in time to make the decision to watch the season premier of The Office from the night before.  Gotta admit…we love that show!  So by the time the show ended….I was pretty darn tired.  In fact….I think Nicole and I were both dozing off a bit during the last parts of our conversation.  Finally…around 1:00 a.m., we took off and headed back to Greenville.  We got home a little before 2:00…and I pretty much just ran to our bed….jumped in…and slept until noon today.  And boy did it feel good!  So now I’m enjoying being lazy for a bit before I head back upstairs to clean around the house. 

So I just got back from a week on the road.  From Greenville…to St. Louis…to Kansas City…to Greenville…to Iowa….it’s been a long week.  I don’t mind the time in the car though…it’s quite relaxing most days.  The 2nd part of my trip…to Iowa…my mom got to come along with me….which was great!  We don’t get a lot of time to just hang out anymore…so I’m always excited when it happens.  We spent yesterday at Bishop Hill…in northwestern Illinois.  It’s this really amazing Swedish Community.  We’ve visited several times over my life-span…and I’ve always enjoyed it.  We spent the day looking through museums and craft shops….and had an amazing lunch at a local restaurant.  We both had Swedish Meatballs and pie for dessert.  It was beyond yummy!  I stopped by the local bakery to bring home some goodies for Jared as well.  I stopped back through Emden on the way home…and was fortunate enough to snag some home cooked food from Grandma…which is always welcome in my tummy!  I even got to see my niece…whom I haven’t seen in what can only be described as “way too long.”  All in all…it was a great 2 days.  I made it back with enough time to hang out with Jared a bit before I fell asleep.  Today I’ve been catching up at work…and eagerly anticipating a night out with Nicole.  We’re going to see “Guys and Dolls” and the guys are going to play video games and hang out.  Either way…should be great!  More updates to come!

So as I was sitting at work today…I thought to myself “self…you should check youtube to see silly videos you might find”.  So I did just that…and found a pluthera of Letter People videos!  You know…the little letter creatures that we learned about back in kindergarten…that had silly songs and names.  It was a fantastic trip down memory lane…with some super awesome 70’s music to boot.

 Yay.

Travel starts today…another year…another batch of students.  It’s always sad to move on at first…right after you’ve gotten to know another great class of transfers…but it has to be done.  I’m off for a few nights this week, helping to train our newest counselors on the ways of the infamous college fair.  Should be fun. 

I got home from work early last night…because I’d nearly fallen asleep on my desk several times throughout the day.  Allergies…maybe…not enough sleep over the weekend…perhaps.  Either way…I slept a lot last night…and it was good.  In the midst of my many naps last night…I caught a few good shows on HGTV…which I always love.  Simply put…I love decorating.  I’m always thinking about a new color to paint a room in the house…or another way to make my front porch more festive. 

Either way…back to work I must go…and get some things done before I have to leave for the start of college fair season.  Adios!

The weekend WAY too fast…but it was amazing…so that’s ok.  Let’s start with Friday…

-Finished Cleaning the house before the family got here…and it felt so good to get our basement cleaned up and to get the yard back into shape!

-Vegged out for the rest of the night…watching useless tv and munching on Subways subs and cookies…yummmm.

-Got to bed early in my freshly made bed.

Saturday…

-Lots of yummy food and grilled goodness.

-Lots of family…which we always love to see!

-AMAZING weather.

-Badminton world series championship (between our nephews Doug and Zach)…I’m still not quite sure who won.

-2 kitty cats that didn’t try escape at all…seriusly, this is an amazing thing when you’ve got kids running around the house.

-Ding Dong Cake (or Ho Ho Cake…I’m not sure the exact name…either way…it’s still making me drool just thinking about it.)

-A fun family excursion to Value City…and finding a great new pair of black heels.

-Seeing our families together…which is always nice.

-Two very eager nephews raking our pine needles.

-Danielle’s adorable pigtails.

-Sidewalk art courtesy of Danielle and Chloe…and some helpful adults.  (Gotta love sidewalk chalk.)

-Bonfire!

-A house full of people and a enough beds to go around!

Sunday:

-A great service at church.

-Yummy leftovers for everyone.

-Pampered Chef party

-A clean house even after a weekend of people being in it.

-2 very snuggly cats.

-A game of badminton with my hubby.

-Even more yummy leftovers.

-Silly family channel movie…about a high school boy that lied about a bunch of stuff…and then they all came true…then he had to fix everything…silly…but fun.

-Kim winning Design Star on HGTV.

-Lacy getting kicked out of the house on Rock of Love…finally!

And now I’m back at work.  Preparing for travel season..which officially starts this week.  I’m super tired from the weekend…and lack of sleep…but walking to work listening to Johnny Cash on my ipod helped to wake me up!  Yay for nice walks to work…they’re quickly becoming one of my favorite parts of the day. 

 Adios!

The weather is amazing…all of my students calls are completed…and I’m ready for the weekend!  We have a few things to clean up tonight…and then we’ll be ready for our family visit tomorrow.  I’m so excited to see everyone!  I absolutely love life in Greenville…but I sure do miss seeing our family all of the time.  It’s really tough only seeing them once in awhile…but we’ve learned a lot about life since we’ve been away from the “homeland”.  I’m finally to the point that when I think about home…I don’t think about my room in mom and dad’s attic….I think about my cozy little house on Chicago street.  In fact…as I was ironing some clothes last night in our living room…I took a look around my house and I couldn’t help but to smile…realizing how happy I was that this is our home.  We’ve been so blessed with our jobs, our church, and all of the friends we have down here.  I used to think of it as our home away from home…but it really is our home now.  Life is good…and even better now that it’s the weekend…and Fall’s on the way!

I’m hoping I don’t jinx it…but this weather has been amazing!  Not much beats sleeping with the windows open…and curling up in my big, fluffy down comforter!  However…it makes it really had to want to get out of bed in the morning.  Especially when you have a snuggly kitty cat that refuses to stop snuggling up next to you.  (It’s almost as if she’s trying to get us fired from our jobs or something!)  The week’s been good so far.  My house is now officially decorated for fall…which I absolutely love.  I even got a chance to buy a few mums and some mini-pumpkins for the front porch.  Heck…I’d cover my entire lawn in mums during the fall if I could!  I just love fall colors…all the oranges and yellows and reds…my favorite!  The house is pretty much cleaned up and ready to go for our family cook-out this weekend.  We just need to mow and trim today…and mop the basement.  I love a clean house…so having a total clean-up makes me feel good. 

 Travel season has started for work.  So I’ve been making my rounds to the local community colleges again.  Yesterday I was at Lewis and Clark Community College…which happens to be next to Alton, Il…which happens to be where my good friend Nicole lives.  So we met up for a yummy lunch at a local tea room that was oh-so-cute!  I had a yummy salad and sandwhich…as well as a delicious slice of peaches and cream pie.  It was nice to have yummy pie…but even better to catch up with a good friend.

 With that said…I better wrap this up.  Lots to do at the office today!  Adios!

So it was a weekend full of cleaning…cleaning…and more cleaning.  We’re having family over next weekend…so we wanted to get things in order around the house.  Not that the house was messy…but it needed a good, total cleaning.  I totally cleaned out our bedroom closets…and measured for new closet organizers.  I’m super excited to work on them…but the old configuration will work for now.  I did lots of laundry and ironing…and the cats tried to help as well.  We painted a few things that needed touched up…put up a new light fixture…and organized the linen closet.  We finished it all up today with a total overhall on the garage.  It seemed so huge when we parked the car in there tonight.  On the agenda for this week…more mulch for the landscaping…mowing…cleaning the gutters…and trimming the hedges and rose bush.  I also put up some of my fall decorations this weekend too.  I made myself  wait until September started…I just love decorating too much!  I need to get some mums for the front porch…so hopefully I’ll get a chance to get those this week.  Anywho…I’m watching a crazy episode of Rock of Love on VH1….and I’m about to find out who gets voted off this week…thank goodness for Tivo!

So life has been busy lately…but here’s a quick list to help recap…

-Yummy cookout and fun times with good friends and their family.

-Exciting shopping spree with Jen…with some amazing finds…including the most perfect dress ever.

-Fitting into a size “0″….don’t know how that happened!

-Dry Cleaning!

-Painting trim work around the house…and getting ready for a family visit in a few weeks.

-Rediculous amounts of Malcolm in the Middle

-Exciting times with my student workers.

-A new ladder…and hopes of soon to be clean gutters!

-Glimpses of fall…and fun fall decorations that I get to put up this weekend!

-Crazy cats that love to snuggle.

-Feeling good about running….and attempting to get buff again…or at least slightly buff.