My Texan Surprise

After making my last post that this was going to be the best birthday ever, I never bothered to update my blog. The week after my birthday I was just too busy, and the week after that I was sick, so I just didn't get around to it.

For my big birthday surprise my parents arranged to have my best friend, Taylor Castle, come up from Texas! It was amazing. We had so much fun. She was able to come for two full weekends of Bristol, and she loved it! I had two sets of garb that fit her, so she was able to dress up!
She loved working there more than she liked being a patron. And she was fantastic at it! She of course joined the Ducks, and she learned quickly! She was great; I'll miss her as a Duck!
We spent the week in Janesville at the Muetz home (we figured it would be more entertaining to be at their house instead of here in Custer Park, the middle of nowhere, and they have more space for guests that we do). I don't think there was any night we went to bed before 1:00 AM! We stayed up late all the time.
Of course Taylor had to be introduced to cheese curds, so Laura Muetz kindly bought some for her to try. Then Mindi decided she needed to be introduced to Culvers and deep fried cheese curds, so she treated Taylor, Jeremy, Lizzy, and me to some. She got every type of sauce (including horseradish, which was nasty) and chocolate custard to dip the cheese curds in. It was great!
On Wednesday a bunch of the Amoeba (Lizzy's group of friends) came over and we had a day of being 7 year olds. We watched old Disney movies all day, and then we went to McDonald's at about 9:00 PM and ordered Happy Meals just for the toys (and we all got the guys' toys which were Superheroes. The girl toys were little pink cats and dogs). It was great!
After walking home (which was a very interesting walk) we were all really warm and decided to get in the pool. We cracked a bunch of glowsticks and tossed them in, which was really cool. Eventually everyone got out and started going to bed, but Taylor, Justin Lukas (who is not a Muetz, but lives at their home much of the time) and I stayed up until almost 3:00 AM. We decorated the living room with the glowsticks, and it looked so neat! Justin broke a glowstick on the rug, but it didn't leave a stain.

After the second weekend of Bristol (which was when Taylor and I had a patron day. So boring!), we stayed at the Dowell's house Sunday night. We all stayed up until past 3:00 AM, and then woke up before 7:00 so that we could be at the Milwaukee airport for Taylor's flight back to Texas. It seemed like she wasn't here for very long, but there's only a couple things we wanted to do that didn't get done. And now that she knows how much she's missing out on (Bristol!) she'll have to come more often!

Chris Muetz agreed to take pictures of Taylor and I together. Conveniently, I had two of the same style dresses in different colors, and the shirts in the above picture match as well. I'd bought one for myself and one for Taylor sometime last year.

Prom

As my previous post stated, we (my Mom, Jeremy and I) went up to Wisconsin over the weekend for Lizzy's prom.
We had a lot of fun! Well, I don't think the entire weekend was fun for Jeremy. It wasn't really fun for him on Friday when Lizzy and I were figuring out what to do with our hair for the next day. He didn't enjoy that. And he was pretty bored the next day when our mom's were doing our hair for real (we had only sort of done it the previous day: Just enough to see that it would work). Oh, and as I was getting ready for the prom I managed to run into a door or wall and bruise my shoulder. Brilliant!
But once we were all dressed up and got to Sammy J's (One of Lizzy's friends from her friend group affectionately known as "The Amoeba") for dinner we were all having fun. We went out in the backyard and Chris Muetz took pictures of everyone, then we headed back in for dinner. The entire party consisted of 9 girls and 4 boys.
After dinner we all headed over to the prom (where we had to take a breathalyzer test. Although the guy said it wasn't really a breathalyzer and told me what it was called, but I have forgotten). We didn't really do much, some of the group danced (well, I think everyone danced at one point. Mindi and Sammy (who is a girl) both danced with me. Mindi likes to spin people, which was fun!), and we made giant human knots which was really fun, although difficult to solve when you're wearing dresses and heels.
Once we got back home from the prom (a little after 11, I believe), we all headed down to the basement. We all talked for a while and then someone turned on the 5th Harry Potter movie. After that some of the group left to go home, but most everyone stayed overnight to have breakfast in the morning.
I think I went to bed at a little after 3. I don't know what time the Amoeba went to bed because they had all gone upstairs.
So, after being up so late no one woke up very early (everyone woke up after 9), but once we did my Mom made biscuits and gravy for everyone.

So, it was a very fun weekend and we were glad we could go!

To Wisconsin (again)!

My Mom, Jeremy and I are just about ready to head up North. We're going to Janesville (it seems like we've been there a LOT lately). Lizzy (my faux-sister) invited Jeremy and I to go to her prom with her, so that's what we're doing. The prom is tomorrow night, but we're heading up today, and we'll come home the day after the prom, so on Sunday.

Update that I'm feeling too uncreative to name.

Our trip to Janesville was very enjoyable. We had bunches of fun and saw some of our favoritest peoples.
I brought my sewing with and got a good amount done. Jeremy's venetians for faire are done, and I'm so close to finishing my one of my dresses. I left in Janesville for now, seeing that I can't sew at home until I get my sewing machine fixed. But we'll be back in Janesville early on next week for Spring break.

Lizzy (my faux-sister) and I decided it would be awesome to make matching dresses. For some reason people always mix us up (we don't look alike at all!), so figured we'd confuse them even more. We had a 40% off coupon for Joanns, so we picked out some bright summery fabric for our dresses. It's a fabric that's smocked at the top, so we call it "Instant dress: just add seam" fabric. We just have to add the seam down the back, attach straps, and possibly hem it. The bottom of the fabric is the selvage, so it wouldn't have to be hemmed, but I probably will anyway.

Lizzy, Jeremy, and I are thinking about going to the theater to see the new Alice in Wonderland next week, but we haven't decided yet.
I'm sure we'll also be filming some Billy Smith videos, and going to the park, and taking walks, and going for ice cream, and just having an all around great time.
I can barely wait! I love Janesville!

But now, back in Illinois (or Crazyville, as I like to call it), I've been working on schoolwork and playing around outside to enjoy the nice weather. I actually hung out laundry today, which was nice. And I was able to wear a dress yesterday and a skirt, short-sleeve shirt, and flip flops today. I love 70 degree weather!

To Wisconsin!

We're (as my Dad, brothers, and me: My Mom is staying home this time) heading up North today: Up to Janesville, probably until Tuesday or Wednesday. It will, of course, be fun. Going to Wisconsin (and especially Janesville) always is.
My Dad is helping the Muetzes with some handy work, I don't know what all he's doing, but I do know he'll be helping trim some trees!
I'm taking some of my sewing with in hopes that I can get some of it done. I have no idea how likely it is that I will, but I'll have it just in case!


Well, I better go pack!

Our Trip to Wisconsin

The trip to Wisconsin was a fun one, as usual (Wisconsin can't be un-fun, it's impossible).
We helped with a book swap and moved a lot of girl scout cookies! Stefanie, our dear friend and hostess, is a girl scout leader and her cookie shipment came in on Saturday, so we helped organize the cookies and break up the orders.

I had my Duck bake on Saturday, we made approximately 152 meat pies. I forgot to take pictures of them, so I'll have to do so next time. I mostly rolled and sliced dough, and then watched and played with the very rambunctious Timothy.
My character's occupation this year is the nurse/nanny to Timothy. My director and his wife are very pleased with this occupation choice as it will help them quite a bit! Especially since they have a new baby. It will not be a difficult job at all, Timothy is my best friend and it will be fun watching him! At the Duck bake he used pillows to build a fort and then tried to find a blanket for the roof, but there was no blankets that were big enough, so I promised to bring some old sheets and blankets to BAPA (Bristol Academy of Performing Arts) and when I have free time I'll help Timothy build one awesome blanket fort!

After the Duck bake I went back to Stefanie's house and looked over some of the books; I found a few that I picked out. In fact, my Mom found a lot too, so we ended up bringing more books home than we meant to! But that's the way it is with books.
After the book swap we were able to visit with friends for a while and had an all around fun evening. Although I seemed to be getting a cold. I was fine when we left home, but once we were at Stefanie's house I got all sniffly. We thought it might be cat allergies, but on Saturday evening I started having a little cough and a scratchy throat. Now that I'm home I still have a cough, but my stuffy, itchy nose and itchy eyes are all better, so it may have been part cat allergies and part cold. I guess we'll find out the next time I'm around a cat!
Anyway, we got home on Sunday, back to boring ol' Custer Park.

We're Going to Wisconsin

My Mom and I will be going up to Wisconsin this weekend. Unfortunately Jeremy and Luke are too sick.
We're going up tonight to stay at our friend's house, and then tomorrow (Saturday) I have a Duck bake*, and our friend will be having a book swap at her house. We're hoping to get rid of more books than we bring home; we have too many books (not that there's such a thing as too many, but we have more books than we have space for)! We still have a lot less than we had moving from Texas to Wisconsin. I think we had over 50 milk crates of books then! That may have included National Geographic magazines, though. But we have a quite a bit less now. We got rid of a lot when we moved from WI to IL. We donated them to our library.

*The term "Duck bake" may seem odd to some of you, so I will explain.
Bristol has several casts and guildes. I'm in the Guilde of St. Lawrence; members of St. Lawrence are called "ducks" or "ducklings" because we work at the Dirty Duck Inn.
St. Lawrence provides reasonably priced food for the cast of Bristol. We serve soup, bread, hard-boiled eggs, pickles, nuts, fruit, muffins, and pies (but not like apple pie, we have meat pies and peanut butter pies and all sorts of other pies, I'll get pictures later). We make the pies before the Bristol season starts. All the ducks get together and make the pies, rehearse, learn Duck dances, discuss characters and upcoming events, etc. And that is what a Duck bake is!