Hey Beauties!

Hello friends! I am SO glad March is over! Lent and Holy Week were much harder for me this year...not sure why, I think it was more personal than the actual tasks being any harder or time consuming. I'm still working on the middle school musical in EGF, but that's over in 2 weeks...yahoo! Otherwise-I'm daily challenged by my very argumentative 2-year-old-it took 5 tries to get her to bed tonight! And everything I say, for example "It's time to eat dinner!" is answered by "No, it is NOT time to eat dinner" and that is her response for everything I say! My mantra is "Its just a phase, its just a phase..." :)

So-at work I use this online meeting planner a lot-I have musicians fill it in so I know who is available from week-to-week. I thought it might help us land on a good weekend for the Festival, I agree that if it needs to be moved for the optimum amount of women to be there we should do that. I set up the Doodle to include all weekends in June and July (the dates listed are only Saturday-I figured you will all assume that the weekend could include Friday and Sunday too)...so fill in your info and we'll see what we get! :) http://www.doodle.ch/gw2p992aw8q6ihun

Hope we hear some more updates soon! Blog traffic has been light ladies!

Love to you all,

Elizabeth

A Wonderful Visit!!

Hi everyone!! How are all of you doing? Amanda, I have been thinking of you and how things are going being a working mom. How is your job? Are you enjoying your time away from mommy-land?
Speaking of mommy-land, Julia and I had the greatest visit up to Lake Park to meet Addyson Olivia Laux this week. An added bonus was getting to see Elizabeth and Micaela, too!! How exciting. Addyson is just the cutest little button, and of course, Lindsey is going a great job being a mommy. It was so fun to hold a little baby again!! :) Our visit was short and sweet, and now we're back in Wisconsin where the reality of going back to school tomorrow is not really very exciting at the moment. :)
Mr. Louie Lauer joined us for Easter last weekend!! It was soooo fun. He was on his way home from Gettysburg, PA, where his brother is currently living, so he made a pit-stop here on Friday night and we got to see him until Sunday afternoon!! It was so much fun. Louie is the same old Louie you will all be glad to hear. :)
So, the F-ing festival date that we have set is really the only one that will work for me, but that doesn't mean that you can't change it! As much as I'd love to see all of you, we should pick a weekend when MOST of us can come. Elizabeth had the idea to set up some sort of doodle or something on here so we could all give input... we'll have to see what that is when she gets to it, but it sounded helpful. :)
Well, not much else is new here...no news on the baby front here, which is sort of starting to bother me, but I am trying to be patient. I'm sure God knows what he's doing. :)
Anyway, I wish you all a great week!! Hopefully we'll be refreshed by the signs and smells of spring!!

Love you all,
Mandola

p.s. How strange/weird/freaky :) is it that like EVERYONE we know that is a Hoyum 7 mom has had girls? FUN, but a little weird, don't you think? :)

Not a good student.

I said Scanders taught me to add pictures, I never said I learned anything.

Set in Stone?

Is the weekend of June 14th for the F'ing Festival set in stone, or could that be changed to accomodate Miss Boerboom? What about the 7th? And, Scanders gave me a lesson in adding pictures to the blog - so here is my newest angel! (six months old already!!!) I'll add more next time I unload my camera!

P.S.

ONE MORE THING!

Mandola! The song "Falling Slowly" is one of my new FAVES!! I didn't realize that it had won Best Original Song at the Academy Awards!!! It is so amazingly beautiful and I could just sit and listen to it over and over again (ok, so sometimes I do because it is very comforting! :)). I have not yet seen the movie, but am looking forward to the next time we actually go to the video store so that we can rent it!

Thanks for the song, dear!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!

Love,
SarahB

News from the southwestern corner of the state!

Hey all...

I haven't had anything too exciting to write as of late and therefore have just enjoyed reading more than writing in the blog...I do, however, have some news (both good and bad) to share with you.

The good news first: Seth got a new job! A GREAT job! He is now a Regional Sales Representative for USBank in Marshall and will be covering the Great Plains region, meaning we'll get to travel to exciting places like Iowa (ok, maybe not so exciting!) all the way down to Texas (SLIGHTLY more exciting!). There's more to the story surrounding how he came upon this position (he was approached by someone who currently works in that particular dept. who strongly suggested he apply b/c he would be a great fit!), but it gets to be very long and probably boring, so I'll just leave it at that. One of the reasons that this is very exciting is because it gives us a little bit more room to work with financially in the event that I would like to find a new job (SOON WOULD BE WONDERFUL!) and also in the case that we purchase a home..something we've been looking more seriously into recently.

The bad news next: I must admit that I've been procrastinating on telling you all this because it is indeed very sad. Seth and I will be in Estes Park, Colorado the weekend of June 13-15 for his best friend Jason's wedding. Jason and Lisa are some of our dearest friends (Jason was a groomsman in our wedding and he and Seth have been best buds since junior high) and Seth will be a groomsman in the wedding, while I will be singing for it. We are both SO excited about heading down there to be there for J and Lis, but I am SO INCREDIBLY SAD that I will not be able to be at this year's Fing Festival. :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:( I am not really even sure what else to add to this..I am just so sad and disappointed and I'm not sure that there's even a way to convey this over the blog. Just know that my heart hurts knowing I will not get to see all of you....:(:(:(

Other than those things..I LOVE keeping up on everyone's news with the blog..it's so great to read about the things going on in all of your lives! (I know I say that all the time, but I MEAN IT!) I think of each and every one of you often..I love you all so much.

SarahB

Chicken BBQ

Hello Amanda and all the ladies,

Here is the BBQ Chicken recipe from the F'n festival 2007! I'm almost certain I found it online and probably used a converter to get the recipe for a large group, because these are huge amounts! So, use your judgment if you're not serving this for many, many people. :)

6 chicken breasts
4 1/2 c. ketchup
9 TBL brown sugar
3 TBL Worcestershire sauce
3 TBL soy sauce
3 TBL cider vinegar
3 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder

mix all ingredients in crock pot, add chicken last. cook on high 3-4 hours, then shred/cut chicken (I remember mandy and I thinking shredding the chicken would have been easier doing before it got all messy in the sauce, or you could just serve whole breasts)

And in response to Amanda's email-I think the camping sounds lovely! I did a camping trip with some friends over Labor Day and with some online sign-ups it was easy and no one had to bring a lot of stuff/food. I don't think location will be a problem for us either.

I brought Micaela into Urgent Care (after a VERY long day at church) because she has pink eye and a nasty viral cough and runny nose...gross! So, we're having a slow morning so I can decide about taking her to day care or not. Mandy-I told Micaela that Julia is using the potty and somehow she thinks I said we are going to Julia's house...we've had a few temper tantrums about that! :) I told her we'll see Julia when Lindsey's baby comes...hurry up baby laux! Scanders-my emotions are frustrated...Lent cannot be over soon enough for me, just a lot of miscommunication and mistakes (mostly, mine)! I actually really like Holy Week and then I feel like I can finally breathe come Easter. 2 more weeks....

Leap Day

Preface: It's after midnight and I've just had a fair amount of beer, so if I seem less coherent than normal, you will know why.

This week has been filled with lots of different emotions. School is fine, but I'm struggling with being excited with being purely academic. I continually look for more ways to have balance in my life (b/n school and the 'real world').

This week a friend from Kenya brother died. She's here and he's there, I can't imagine what it would be like to be so far away. They've uncovered that he was chemically poisoned...how awful!

One of my housemate's dad went into the hospital on Tuesday, and it looks like he's not going to get better. Their diagnoses are inconclusive at this point, and she is feeling unsure if she should travel home or not. Like me, her parents went through a divorce at a young age and she (like me) still struggles with some of the issues around that and the relationship with her dad.

On the flip side, I had the best time in a long time from 7-10 tonight. Because it's Leap Day (who really notices the extra day?), Student Services planned a campus wide Game Night. Staff, students, and faculty convened in the library to play a variety of games from Cranium to Catch Phrase to Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Pictionary, Taboo, cards, Bingo, Scattergories, and more. It was such a fun time! I think I will try to intiate this event more than once every four years.

Where have your emotions been? Do tell! Take care my wonderful friends!