The Happening: Part Two

So, after saying I would write about the Happening, I never did!

It was a really great experience, and I'm glad I went. Jeremy and Luke are both glad they went, too.
The weekend was pretty much full of surprises. The staff is mostly made up of youth, and there were various positions. Each staff member was also given a topic and a guideline for talking about that topic, all from a Christian viewpoint, of course. So there was some serious stuff, but then there were some really fun surprises to balance it out.
On Saturday, at both breakfast and lunch we had place mats. They were hand drawn, and some had a picture, some gave you an activity to do, etc., You had to stand up and say what your place mat said or do what it told you to do. Jeremy had one that said "Tell the rector and observing a rector a knock-knock joke". Luke had a mad lib he had to fill in. I had to mime being stuck in a box and get the person next to me to let me out. Someone had to get up and do a dance. They were fun!
There was three buildings to this church: The old church, the new church, and the hall (where we spent most of our time). But we were in the new church for something Saturday night, and then they made all of us close our eyes, hold hands, and they started leading us somewhere. They led us around for ages! It was getting ridiculous. And finally, they said to open our eyes, and we were in the hall (so you know, 15 feet from the new church building we had been in), which was decorated with tons of streamers and balloons, and there was music, and punch and candy, and glowsticks and all sorts of little party toys. It was a surprise party! So, that was pretty fun.
Oh, and there's "candidates" which are the people who have never been to the Happening before. The candidates were split into three "families" and each family had a "gofer" (because they go for this and go for that...). My family consisted of: Mary, Owen, Levi, and Dee Dee (who is a really sweet girl who moved from Thailand last year). I wasn't so sure about my family at first, but they ended up being pretty cool.
My least favorite part of the weekend was bedtime: The room the girls were staying in was full of bugs, and we were sleeping on the floor (I have no idea why I didn't think to bring my camping cot). I woke up with a bug on my face! Gross!
Sunday the weather was really nice, so we spent a good portion of time outside. Which reminds me of Luke's incident...
They had yogurt and donuts for breakfast. The yogurt was specifically Gogurt, so it was in the plastic tube. I could not get mine open. I tried and I tried and I tried, but it would not open! Luke told me to squeeze it, but I thought that was a bad idea. He insisted though, so I passed it off to him. He folded it in half so he could squeeze it harder, and he was aiming it at the ground, but when it finally broke, it shot yogurt a good 20-30 feet, right onto one of the adult leader's cars. Oops. I was laughing really hart at Luke, but I was slightly concerned about what Jen- the car owner - would think. She was amused, thankfully!
Now, on both Saturday and Sunday (or was it Friday and Sunday?) we got "Caritas" bags. I believe that's Greek for love. The bags were filled with little gifts and notes from the staff members at the Happening, or from people from our churches. They were really nice!
Oh, and Sunday, they had a closing ceremony. Each family was asked to come up and talk about their poster (each family was required to design one based on something they had in common), and have someone from the family talk about their experience. After that, each candidate was given a cross necklace and a Bible. Oh, and earlier that day we had been give a Bible devotion book. I believe it's called the One Minute Bible, and it was one 1 minute devotion for each day of the year.

So, that's barely touching on everything. There's so many other things to talk about, but I don't want to right a ridiculously long post, so for now I'm going to leave it at that.

The Happening

Since moving to Janesville we've started attending Trinity Episcopal Church. We're really enjoying this church, and we're much happier with it than with any other church we've attended.
The youth group leader, Ed Schultz (Edward Shultz III, to be precise) was telling us about an event called "The Happening." Two other kids from the youth group are going: Ed's daughter, Maddie, and Levi Zuehlke. Ed convinced my brothers and I to go, and it starts this afternoon and goes until Sunday afternoon. This is what the website says about The Happening:

"HAPPENING is a weekend retreat run by high school students within the Diocese of Milwaukee with adult support. It is designed BY YOUTH, FOR YOUTH! It challenges youth to find their own spiritual realities based on the love of Jesus Christ. HAPPENING’s purpose is not only to have a fantastic weekend, but to build a foundation for a lifelong commitment to Christian living – a life based upon Christian values, beliefs and actions. HAPPENING is a weekend full of fun and fellowship, but it is also a weekend full of learning, sharing, growing, loving and experiencing the gifts of God."
(More information here)

I don't really know much about The Happening, and nobody will really say; apparently it's a secret until you actually go, but I got an inbox message from The Happening event page on Facebook, and it mentions some of the staff positions: There's Head Elf, Elves, Head Gnome, Gnomes, and more. I'm curious to see what that means...

A Play Date

So, I have a play date with a four year old.
I went to the park yesterday (it's just across the street and behind some houses from here).
I was by myself and I didn't want to do much, so I was sitting under a tree. A grandmother and her grandson came to the park. I could hear the little boy asking his grandma who I was, and she said she didn't know. So he walked over to me, and said, "who are you?"
I answered, "my name's Emily, what's yours?" I couldn't quite make out what he said, I did understand "Nicholas", but not the rest. His grandma served as translator though, and told me his name is Torson Nicholas Janson. He started to tell me something else. I think it was something about flipping his alphabet (I don't know what he meant), and that he was only four years old. Whatever it was, it must have been important because he put his hand under my chin to make sure I was looking up at him!
Torson went back to playing, and I sat under the tree for a bit, and then I decided I was going to go find Jeremy, so I stood up and started to leave. Torson said "Where are you going?" and I told him I was going to go find my brother. He asked me a few more questions, and then said "Well, come back tomorrow and play!" and I told him that I will if I can, so he said "bye, Emily!"
And that's how I got a play date with four year old Torson Nicholas Janson. If it's not raining or snowing later I'll go over and see if he's there.

Come on, spring!

I'm getting really, really impatient for spring! I'm very ready for it to warm up! Right now it's in the 30s, and I see a potential high of 60* this week! Unfortunately, it's supposed to be raining that day too...
Yesterday made it up to about 42, which was really nice. Jeremy, Lizzy and I went for a long walk, and we walked to Frosty Freeze for some ice cream. On the way there it was really sunny and not at all windy, so we actually were too warm in our coats! Unfortunately, after the ice cream the wind picked up, so the walk home was pretty chilly. But still, it was pleasant!
I love warm weather!

My 40s Dress!

I keep forgetting to post a picture of my finished dress!
I forgot to take one specifically for this purpose, but I have this one which shows the whole dress.
I'm standing with Travis, who is a fellow Duckling at Bristol.
Eventually I will get my dressmaker's dummy out of storage and take some more detailed pictures.

Sewing

I'm so close to finished with my dress. I haven't started the coat or the hat yet, but hopefully I'll get to that today. Now, I just need to put the second sleeve on the dress, finish the side opening (it will be hooks and eyes and snaps-no zipper), and hem it. It should be doable today. I thought I'd have it done several days ago, but there was more hand-sewing than I'd anticipated.
I'll be sure to post pictures later!

The Snow Shoveling Adventure

So yesterday we received an unexpected 6" of snow. Luke's been doing really good with his snow shoveling business, so he decided to take me with him so I could make some money too.
Unfortunately, Luke was running way behind, and we didn't leave until after noon: Meaning most people had already shoveled.
We managed to find one very small job: They guy just needed his steps and sidewalk done, but it looked like someone had already done the sidewalk and it just had a light dusting of snow, so Luke charged the man $5. The man was pretty funny: he told Luke that with wages like that he (the man, not Luke) was out of food money for the month, and he was stuck with wormy oatmeal and green wieners.
So, that was the only job we found. Then Luke decided what should go to Matt's Dog House for lunch. He ordered some chicken strips and french fries for us to split. It cost exactly $5. He turned to me and said "You couldn't have done anything with $2.50 anyway."
So, we made nothing! Luke said "At least we had a fancy lunch!"
Yes, so fancy. It was served in cardboard containers, we used napkins for plates, and didn't even have anything to drink!
But it was fun. And I had been wanting to take a walk, so I did get that accomplished! And it was quite the walk! We had to have walked well over a mile, and through hip deep snow a couple of times! And then we went up an incredibly steep hill to go to one of Luke's regular customer's, but she wasn't home.

February

Here it is February 1st. The year is already 1/12 finished.

It makes being impatient about anything seem rather silly, because time seems to pass very quickly!

February looks like a rather full month, fuller than January, so I'm sure it will pass even quicker. Although that'd be true no matter what since February just has less days than January (even if it was a leap year).

I'm really looking forward to spring. I'm tired of winter. The snow saddens me. Sure, it's pretty, but it really makes me miss doing things outside! I really want to go for a long walk or go to the park or something, but no. The snow won't allow me to.

Although I might help Luke with his snow shoveling business tomorrow. He was a bit under the weather, and though he's feeling better our mom would prefer he not spend too much time outside just yet. He still has a bit of a cough.

He has made enough for his Xbox 360, which he purchased Sunday. Now he wants to save up for more games.

What's in Your Oven?

I heard the oven beep tonight, and I assumed my dad was making pizza rolls. My mom didn't know what he was making, so she opened the oven door. You'll never guess what was inside.
His watch!
Wait-what? Watches don't go in the oven...
He came walking into the room just then, and I said "Daddy, is that your watch in the oven?!"
His reply? "Yes."

Huh?

I asked him why his watch was in the oven.
He said "Well, it's having some moisture problems. I'm hoping I can solve it without cooking the watch." (I didn't point out that he would be baking the watch)

A New Sewing Project!

I have a new sewing project (assuming I can figure out how to use the sewing machine the Schmitts gave me)!
There's an event in February-Military History Fest, previously known as Reenactor Fest, and we're planning on attending. They have a ball in the evening, and you can dress from any time period you want. I'll be doing my usual 16th century garb, but if I decide to go to the ball I really, really wanted to the 1940s. All my patterns for 40s clothes happen to be in a faraway storage unit in Illinois, but Rebecca Schmitt offered to loan me some patterns.
I'll be making this dress and coat, and the hat.
The dress pattern is from 1939, so obviously it would have been used in the 40s too, so it works perfectly for what I wanted. My color scheme is going to be rather patriotic, which works too!
I chose a red fabric with small white dots (I've always liked the fabric but never had anything to do with it) for the dress, and I'll be using a dark blue linen for the coat and the hat. So, hopefully I can get it all done in time!