toast time

matt and i had a great idea last night. watch movies in our room and eat dinner at the same time! so. we lugged the tv in, set that up and went to check the kitchen for our dinner options. we had gone to sam's earlier in the day (for the pool party - it's amazing how much these kids love dr. pepper) and picked up 2 giant loaves of french bread. it is amazing - if you have a sam's membership, don't walk...run to sam's today and pick up some! and if you don't have a membership, get one! the bread is WORTH IT! haha. anyway, our favorite thing is to toast this bread and butter the toast right after. words cannot describe how good this is. so what did we do? brought the toaster into our room and plugged it in next to the bed! matt would keep the pieces coming - we set up plates, softened butter, napkins, the whole works! we toasted our way through 6 rounds of toast. sometimes it got a little hard to hear the movie over the sounds of matt jerking the tab up trying to get the toast to pop out, but it was worth it! the only gross thing (besides making toast next to your bed!) was sleeping on a few crumbs last night...oh, and the worst part! i woke up this morning to find one of our four pillows laying in the butter! we will never have 'toast time' again.

yesterday, we had a youth pool party and then played sand volleyball when i had been squirted with a water gun in the face 78 times. we had a blast with the kids. today we went to the beach after church and bobbed around in the waves for awhile - the water felt really good! not resembling a lukewarm bath like our pool...

packing up for flagler tomorrow, then we'll stay tuesday night in ocala, so i can pick up elisha bright and early wednesday morning for our trip to wilmington! can't wait!

now, to turn in my final paper for school - replacing our 'regent to do' list is a list of 14 fun things to do over the break...i'll let you know as we check them off.

oh. so far:
swim/surf at the beach. check.
go to barnes and noble to read magazines. check.
make toast from bed. (not on the list, but...check.)

today's the last day!

we've been working our tails off lately trying to finish this semester early, and i think it's finally going to happen! i have that 'finals week' feel- still in my pajamas at 3.45 in the afternoon because i've been sitting at this computer working on a paper since this morning. got an early start this morning when elisha called me from a doorframe in her house during an earthquake! a strange, but fun early-morning wakeup. we've also eaten almost a whole box of dunkin' donuts, washed down with their coffee. don't ask me why, but when everything else is in chaos, it always seems so satisfying to ruin my health! haha.

for those of you i haven't told yet, last night tony and rachel announced to the youth that matt and i would be the new youth leaders. we've prayed about this for a long time, and know that this is what we're supposed to be doing now. it's a little scary, of course, but we're really excited about this! more later.

ok. one last mini-paper, then we're d.o.n.e.

being curious...

has it's consequenses! we were sitting on the couch this morning doing some work when i decided to check our bank balance. i noticed a deduction for the white orchid inn and spa in flagler beach, fl. my first thought was that it had finally happened. the girdens had become identity theft victims. of course, i instantly flipped out and screamed 'WHATT!!!!!???'. well, it seems that i had accidentally stumbled on our 'surprise' anniversary trip that matt had been planning. he had made the reservations the day before hoping that i wouldn't notice the deduction...i just hate ruining surprises. but i guess if you're as curious as i am, it's hard to keep things from me!

back into the swing of things now - had a great time at peter's wedding. it was beautiful to be on the mountain so much. got my first taste of white water rafting...i wedged my foot in the boat so hard i have bruises on my shins now! good times with friends from wheaton. now, the countdown begins to the next wedding...emily and sumanth's!

from the upstairs room

it's a little funny to be in my ocala house by myself, wandering the rooms and thinking 'really,what did i do all those years i lived here?' i rolled in around 8 after dropping matt off at the airport. i leave at 7 am for a long drive to chatanooga, tn for peter and elizabeth's wedding. i do love driving in the mountains, but oh, the thought of south georgia is making me tired already! it's been a long time since i've driven even more than an hour. matt always drives on our trips, it's one of the things i love about him...of course i do my part - find snacks, cds to play, tell jokes...

finally caught up on sleep after the lock in. we had blast- all the girls brought clothes to exchange, but before that, we had everyone pick out an outfit then walk the 'catwalk' with the music blaring and the lights dimmed. the 'catwalk' was really from the back of the church to the stage. my outfit was a skirt about 7 inches long, and an equally small top. i realized i'm not a teenager years ago, but wow. this really reminded me! i got an idea of just how short my skirt was when one of the girls asked if 'the shorts under the skirt were attached'. there were no 'shorts' under the skirt!

after the catwalk, we did battle of the airbands - my band lost, but i wasn't surprised. there's only so much you can do to queen's bohemian rhaspody (sp?). i ran out of moves in the first minute. at this point it was after midnight, so we started doing girl stuff - painting nails, makeup, coloring hair. after the hair color disaster's i've had this month, i stayed far away even from the fumes!

well, to answer the question, i DID sleep. from 4-5.45 which was wonderful but hardly enough. so after 2 more naps that day i was good to go. i'll need that kind of endurance for the drive tomorrow!

done!

'regent weekend' is over. after 13 hours on friday, 12 hours saturday, and 4 hours today, we stopped doing schoolwork. this semester has been our favorite, but the hardest, i think. we're now a little ahead, so we can go to peter's wedding and not have to be holed up in the hotel doing work.

i'm exhausted, but feel relieved. we went to the twistee-cone tonight for ice cream (i'm obsessed with their zebra cones), and played with jack and pal in the back yard. oh yeah, we watched the last game of the world cup - i was glad italy won after zidane's head-butt to that poor man's chest.

i'm trying not to get too relaxed as tomorrow night is the all-girls lock in at the church. we're dying hair, doing makeup, having knitting lessons, playing games, watching movies, making cookies, the list goes on. i just hope the list will go on to say that i get to sleep for a few hours! i'll keep you posted.

oh! good news! the rash has cleared!

reminder of the weekend

the fourth of july weekend was a blast. we rolled in thursday night to have dinner at grandpa's. on friday, we watched world cup soccer in the basement workout room. now that there's a tv in there, it's hard to find any motivation to work out! we spent a lot of time on the lake, skiing and swimming, playing with hunter in the water. it was so good to be back.

todd came in on saturday, and scott and holly arrived on sunday morning. mark, matt, todd, and i got to set up the island in the middle of the lake with candles, flowers and a picnic...that same night scott took holly to the island and proposed! she's an awesome girl, and i'm so excited to have an older sister! they'll be married before the end of the year.

on the fourth of july, we went to cedar point for the day. as you know, i'm not the hugest fan of roller coasters, but this day, i thought it was time to get over my fear and ride a few of the big ones. after the magnum xl, and the top thrill dragster (shoots you at 120 mph 420 feet into the air and back down!) i was feeling a little queasy, and remembered why i didn't like roller coasters in the first place. things hit rock bottom when i was throwing up in the bushes in the afternoon, and little families dressed in red, white and blue were walking by with the kid's screaming 'EEEWWW! DON'T look over there, that lady's throwing up.' maybe one day i'll get over this motion sickness, but 2006 is not the year!

my other reminder of the weekend is a strange rash that developed after swimming in the lake. it covers my entire body with what looks like measles (you can only get them once, right?!), and hasn't gone away in 3 days. i'm giving it until saturday to clear up...

tomorrow we'll be petsitting for tony and rachel, and getting caught up on a lot of school work. we're in week 9 out of 13, so the end is in sight!

elisha, matt, and i with a sea turtle