Frozen Pipes

Yesterday, I woke up early because I needed to go to the bathroom and was extremely thirsty. As I stumbled in to my restroom, eyes half shut, I sat down and started to go (sorry for the image) and reached to fill up a cup of water at the same time, I am a great multi-tasker, what can I say! As I turned on my faucet, no water came out. None, zilch, zero, not a drop!! Since I am mostly still asleep this didn't seem to alarm that much, so I finished doing my business, and crawled back to my bed.
Later, when I woke up for good, I went back to the bathroom to get a drink of water. When I turned it on, again, nothing came out again! I ran downstairs and tried the other bathroom and the kitchen faucet, nothing! I couldn't believe it, somehow our pipes had frozen over, maybe the -20degree weather had something to do with it?!?
After talking to the landlord a couple of times, we finally got a plumber/electirian man over to our house. When he came in he started looking around and went upstairs to check my bathroom faucet. As he started up the stairs, I remembered I had not been able to put any of my laundry away. Of course, the last load I had washed had a lot of my undies in it. So right by the bathroom is my yellow, grey, pink, red, and an assortment of undies sprawled all over the floor, along with some shirts and socks. I was mortified. Luckily, he had to run back to his truck to get a machine, so I ran upstairs, and instead of putting all of the clothes in my room like a smart person, I put my large coat and a sweatshirt over it and ran back downstairs, trying to act like nothing had happened!
Later on, he informed us that he had to leave, but that he would be back because it was going to take some time to get the pipes unfrozen because the floor below us had also frozen. Most likely, it was going to be another three to four hours before we had any water.
Of course, at this time my bodily functions where definitely in need of an outlet. I decided the best option would be for me to walk to my lab final early and just use a restroom in the building. I thought about asking a neighbor, but I didn't want to stink up any one's house, if you know what I mean. After I got all my cold gear on and got out the door, I thought I was going to have stop at a local business to relieve myself. Luckily, I made it to the building on time! Hopefully, we do not have anymore frozen pipes this winter because it will not be good on my body!

New York City

I'm going to New York City!!!! I am so excited! I leave in a week, our flight leaves at 6am. This means that I will have to leave home around 2am to make sure I get to the airport, get through security and be on my way to NYC! This also means, that I will probably not sleep at all next week with all of my excitement (for NYC). I am going as part of a group through K-State, and we will be attending the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show (the IH/M&RS).

For Friday and Saturday night, a girl from my class and me will be staying in the Upper West Side in Hotell 99, and Sunday-Wednesday we will be meeting up with the rest of our group to stay at the Double Tree which is in Times Square, talk about crazy!! I am hoping to be able to see even 3% of NYC in the brief time I am there. Most of the time we will be able to do as we please, but one day we will have to go to the show and another day we will tour a couple different hotels (what, do they think this is my major or something?!? oh wait...) but all of that should be fun too, just not as fun as being in NYC for the first time.

I am truly blessed to have this oppurtunity and ask everyone to pray for my classmates and me to have a safe flight and a safe time there!

Sunshine and Summertime

Today will be my first official day of the last harvest I will work in Ada! I'm really excited for harvest to start, and I know all of the farmers are too. It is always a race to see who can start cutting first, and once one person does, all the farmers get real ancy to see if their wheat is ready so they too can begin to cut.

My job is to stand in the a/c and weigh the wheat trucks and test the grain. It is a pretty easy job since I don't have to sit in the sticky Kansas sun and can read a book when I'm not busy. Although its not all glitz and glamour, (ha! as if anything about harvest is) if I need to use the lady's room, I have to walk across the street and over to the city park while holding a stick to fight off all the mean dogs that come over and bark and chase me. Than when I reach my destination, I have to sit my fanny down on a dirty toilet that is essentially just covering a huge hole in the ground. When I am done, I have to use hand sanitizer to clean my hands, since there is no sink! Plus, I have to think in the timing of my potty breaks because farmers do not like to be kept waiting, so I have to make sure no trucks are coming during my little outing.

Other than that, it is a pretty easy job that I look forward to every year! When I first started working at the elevator, after my sister had left, I was really excited because I figured it would be a great way to meet all the cute farmers' grandsons, but oh no was I wrong! All of the farmers are too old and have let their grandsons take over the combines and tractors, so who do I get to see all day, you guessed it, the old farmers! But they are always entertaining to say the least, and that way it keeps me out of trouble ; )

Also harvests means home for me. It is really nice just to be able to hang out with my family and see them each day, plus I am now only 10 minutes away from Paden instead of an hour and a half, so I can't really complain about that!!

Hopefully this summer will be a good harvest and with God's help, everything will go on without a hitch!

Chicago - Part Duece

On Sunday, the second day we were there, my friend Jene and I decided to walk down to Navy Pier and check it all out. It was the last day of Marine week, so we knew the scenery had to be good (wink wink)!

The first glimpse of it as we were walking.

Tugboats on Lake Michigan.

The famous ferris wheel, it is actually in the place where a man named Ferris built the first wheel : ) No but seriously, true story!

As we walked down the pier, there were several small food shops where you could buy gyros, cotton candy, etc and also places to buy tickets to shows for that evening. Along with the ferris wheel, there was a miniture golf course, a mary-go-round, and other fun things you could do.

The best part though was when I stumbled upon where my two boyfriends live:

That's right, every moment I can, I snuggle up with Ben & Jerry! Chunky Monkey all the way!

As we kept walking I saw this huge yacht, which I thought had to belong to someone extremely rich, I got super excited to see it up close! As we were walking closer to it, I see people on board cleaning it and so on, and than all of a sudden one of them approached us to see if we could buy tickets....yes, it was just some touristy-huge-yacht ment to trick those of us who never see huge yachts into thinking its super fancy, when really you can pay $30 to get a ride at night and maybe even a meal. I was so disappointed, BUT I still took a picture!

After the sweet yacht, we just walked around some more and took pictures of the lake and different sites in Chicago:

One More Sad Song

The other day, I was listening to the radio, and the DJ was interviewing a musician. They were talking about the importance of sad songs, and how they help people get through tough times. No one likes to listen to upbeat songs when their heart is crying out in pain.

On Sunday, one of Dad's best friends, was murdered. He was a great family friend, and my dad and him got really close when they both were single fathers, raising their kids. It was and is really hard to swallow. These things don't happen to people you know, especially not in small town Kansas, where you always feel safe. This is something that happens only in the movies, right?

When I got off of work on Monday I drove to McPherson, to see my dad. I did it more for selfish reasons, wanting to see him for my own good. After I heard what happened, it really put things in perspective to me and how important my family is to me, and I need to see him. I wanted to make sure that he knew I loved him. When I got there, I realized I needed to be there, not for myself, but for him. The man I always looked up to, who was always strong, was visibly shaken. I got out of the car and gave him the biggest hug I could, and we just cried. I held my father, not knowing what to say, just knowing that I was glad I was there, to help him through this time.

I know that if my dad didn't have God in his life, it would be so much harder to go through this moment. All I knew to do was to pray. I prayed for Mark's family, his kids and grand kids, that they would look to God through this, I prayed for my family, to be there as support, but to also make us realize how short life is, and how we tend to take each other for granted, I prayed all day, talking to God about some of the silliest things, just because I need him, needed to talk to him, needed God to hold me.

As I drove to McPherson, I began to realize how right that DJ and that musician were. I could only listen to sad songs, only those songs knew what I felt, how much it hurt. I know that this week, will define tally be a sad song week, but hopefully, next week, we will be able to rejoice in God's love, and slowly start to listen to the happy songs again.

To Mark, you were a great friend and an awesome father, you will be missed!

Chicago - Part 1

I do not have Internet at my house, so I decided I would write on here while I am working (shh, don't tell!)

Last week, I left for Chicago, and even though I threw up on the plane, it was a great trip! Yes that is right, I was that girl. Some of the girls who traveled with me sat a few rows back and figured it must be a small child the flight attendants were fussing with. Oh no, that small child was this 20 year old! We hit some turbulence for what seemed like an eternity, and all of a sudden I got really sweaty and felt my temperature rise. Of course, this all takes place right before we landed so I am stuck in my seat, seat belted in, and can't get up to go to the restroom. It was completely embarrassing and the businessman next to me is trying to be nice and saying things like "oh that's the worst turbulence I've ever felt". I am just going to go with him, only I'll probably expand that and say it was the worst turbulence ever!

After we landed though, I had a drink of water and some gum (thank goodness I had two full packs of sweet mint gum and enough mints to feed Chicago), and I was feeling much better. We got on the EL (stands for elevated train) to head for our hotel. Luckily, while we were waiting for our luggage and discussing how we were probably going to get lost, some very nice people helped point us in the right direction. We lucked out and met some nice people all throughout Chicago to help get us where we needed to go! The hardest part was trying to get all our luggage on the train, get off in the .3 seconds it gives you to exit, and than make our way from the orange train to the red, which ran underground. This meant we had to drag our luggage down several sets of stairs and find our way underground until we found the right platform and make sure we got on the train going north, instead of the one going south. Through it all, we managed to make it and find our way to our hotel.

Majority of our luggage on the el train with us.

When we arrived, we met a very nice bellman who directed us to all there is in Chicago and went out to eat and meet up with the rest of our group. We ate at a bar, Jake's, and just hung out for a while.

My yummy bbq flat bread pizza!

Than the rest of the group decided to go bar hopping, so two other girls and myself (we are all under 21) decided to check out what the Magnificent Mile had to offer us. And offer it did, from Cartier and Tiffany, to Burberry, Gap, Louis Vuitton, and even Niketown. We went into Macy's and got a massage on one of our hands from a girl dressed in 80s gear and than went back to the hotel to warm up. No one seemed to remember that Chicago wasn't in Kansas, and we should expect a few degrees drop in temperature, so no on packed jackets or heavier gear. Oh that's right, I did, but it got thrown up on it from the plane....dang it!

So back at the hotel we decided to hit up the steam room, hot tub, and whirl pool and call it a night. It didn't start out quite like I wanted it too, but I was still excited to just to be there!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

I haven't wrote on here for a while and my boyfriend, Paden, is getting a little upset so here we go:

Tomorrow I'll be flying out to Chicago!! It'll be my first time to visit there and I'm super excited. I'm going with a group I'm in, Hospitality Management Society, and we will be attending the NRA Show (the restaurant not the rifle). It is held every year and there are people from the Food Network, famous chefs, and every food chain/restaurant/brewery or anyone else who has anything to do with restaurants. During the show, we get to go around and sample all the food and see all of the new products that could possibly hit the market in a few years.

This is the Marriott Downtown where we will be staying. It is located on the Magnificent Mile, so hopefully I'll have plenty of time to explore!

Wish me luck!!