other's Day at the Kinsinger Household--Always a Crazy Occasion

Hey suities! 

First off, know that my compulsive blog checking addiction and love of hearing what you all are up to get me through long, nine hour shifts at work! ( I always have this page minimized on my screen ;]) Second, I LOVED skyping with you all last night; it was wonderful. =D

So my life lately has consisted of:

1. Adam

2. Illini Family Medicine

3. Cough and cold

4. Mothers day! =)

So Adam and I spent a whole evening reading through all of our old, melodramatic junior high and high school poetry-- that was pretty entertaining! It was good just to spend time being a normal couple... we dont get to do that a lot. I dropped him off for a three week spiritual retreat/mission trip/leadership training program with navs this afternoon, and because its a tech-free dealio I wont get to talk with him for three weeks and see him for 8 or so. =/ But this weekend was a blast and we are pretty beast at long distance now thanks to nearly two years of practice. =)

So we went to the zoo for mother's day and I got to spend some time with all of you through the extension of your spirit animals!

Lisa: pensive, inspirational-poster-looking giraffe or jumpy unidentified chimpunky rodent? =)

Amy: So its not quite a domestic cat, but a feline nonetheless--

Sorry Ave--apparently mooses (meese?) are pretty scarce in central Illinois. I did find this attractive-looking cowish guy though! =)

and also Taylor Pride. yupp.

 a real live 'saiboo!!!! =D

So for the rest of mothers' day we made shishkebobs (however that be spelled), Ben played a song he wrote for Mom for mothers day, Weston gave my mom a small "hipster mouse" he made out of a sock based on directions from pintrest, and I took pictures and gave Mom a poem I'd written for her. Just another [strange][extraordinary][abnormal][colorful][artistic][musical][fuzzy][relationship-y] day at the Kinsinger household! =]

Praying for you all; especially Amy and Lisa as you head out on your trips! =D Safe travels!

Ave and Mo urged me to post this pic to the blog!

Someday

Mark my words, ladies.

Someday, I will work for them. MATCHBOOK MAGAZINE.  For real. I have no greater life ambition. Also, look at this gem that I found today.

Things like this make me very excited about graphic design. And Gene Kelly...

Also, watched this film yesterday. Now on my top ten list at least. Seriously. Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn? How could you ever go wrong with that duo in a French setting with cute little songs and fabulous clothes. Let me make this easy for you. YOU COULDN'T. 

Here is a preview of the fabulousness. 

I just really really love her. Hope she is one that I get to have peach tea with in heaven. 

In other news, TWO MORE DAYS. Only two. I'm pretty much all packed, so that is that. Happy to report that Bohnanza is coming with me to camp, ready to dazzle all of my wonderful middle school babes. Isaiah is coming with me too. Hopefully he won't dazzle my middle school babes TOO much. He did tell me that he is going to take me sailing there though. Pretty excited about that prospect. 

I miss you all. I really do. Today I saw Morgan's facebook page and almost cried. That is actually a true story. You can ask my mom. Got to spend the day at Grandma's. Also got to spend some time with Grandpap. Time with him is more precious than ever. 

LOVE YOU ALL!

WOOT WOOT GRAD PARTAY!

My brother is offic a college grad! I am SUPES proud of him--he graduated magna cum laude. Like a boss. We had to stay overnight in one of the women's dorms because my mother didn't schedule reservations soon enough, and let me tell you, we are pampered in our dear fischy-fisch. Communal showers that are like a square foot? No thanks. Slash, let me repeat: communal. Totes not okay. (...Sorry, Mo. You'll understand soon enough.) Anyway, my parents basically didn't sleep because apparently dorms are loud. Somehow I didn't notice...haha. Stew was a total stud at graduation, clearly. Again, supes proud....especially when I finally met his (once again official) girl friend!!! She's cute and sweet, and they seem great together. Actual conversation between Stew and I:
        "She seems really great, Stew. She's cute!"
        * Ridiculous wistful look* "She's adorable."
Awww, shucks. And she told Stew that she likes me, so people points for Sarah! ;) ;) haha I'm glad that the awk first meeting is over and went well.

So I'm rocking this whole baking thing--I had already baked/decorated a cake last weekend for my mum's birthday and baked cookies mid-week, and then as we were driving back (mum and I took a separate car so that we would be able to leave earlier and the guys could move Stew out with more space), I realized that nothing had been planned as a celebration for later...so I casually whipped up a chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache as a grad cake. WHATTTT? I WILL be a baking beast by the time we get back--I am determined! Of course, a rather generous amount of reading just came in for my Victorian Lit class in the fall...so soon I will be buried in books once more! :)

 

GROUP CHATTTT!

Who is free Sunday or Monday night?

Dot Dot Dot, Dash Dash Dash, Dot Dot Dot

Hey Lisa, do you think Amy and Mo would get it if we sent them "I smell bacon" in Morse code? ;) ;) 

Ladies, I've spent WAY too much time trying to research blogging in the past week (it's a way to drown my sorrows of being turned down by the first paper I talked to about an internship, so bear with me). The title is what's keeping me from starting at all--SO MUCH PRESSURE! Here are the current ideas:

Men + Moose + Pine Trees

[wo]man + moose + pine trees

Life is:

Living that Wears

Chemical Madness 

Any suggestions? Strong opinions? Lis thought that the first might be too long, but I'm partial to the first two (I mean, come on, they come from a Thoreau quote AND there are moose included--winning, am I right?)...AH. So, if you have any fancies or factoids that I might use, post 'em! 

 Much love 

Amy Kuhlman - SLS


Honey Rock


8660 Honey Rock Rd.


Three Lakes, WI 54562


WRITE ME LETTERS, LADIES! DO IT! DO IT 


ALOT! OR ELSE I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN ( I 


GUESS AFTER HONEYROCK BECAUSE OF 


RESPONSIBILITIES AND STUFF, BUT IT WILL 


NOT BE PRETTY!!!)


But really, I would LOVE to get letters from you . If you find a stick on the ground, slap in into an envelope and throw a stamp on it. Send it on over. If you write a poem, send it. If you hear a funny joke, send it. If you look pretty, take a picture and send it. If you do something weird, SEND IT. If you write a letter, by all means send it. 


LOTS AND LOTS OF LETTERS!

Hi. 

T-Minus six days until I fly on a plane with Isaiah Bornman BACK to our beloved Wheaton. Then I am staying overnight with Kristine the super hipster (!!!) and then the next morning we are bussing it to H-ROCK! AHHH! I am super excited. On our wilderness trips, my tent is going to look like this

this is NOT going to happen to me or my girls on our wilderness trip. NO!

No. It will all be wonderful. Hopefully. Thank goodness they are training me to do all the stuff I need to be able to do. I don't even know how to build a fire! I will now. Got my chacos today. I feel so legit! They are pretty fabulous. Now I am a real outdoorsman (woman). 

I am actually REALLY SUPER EXCITED. Like the more I think about it, the more excited I get. It is going to be really hard though. I need to be careful to kind of die to myself and let go of my wants and needs. I need to work on having a true heart for service. 

Just bought a new honkin' Bible. An ESV study bible. I love it! 

I've been pretty busy. VERY busy. It is so nice to hear about all of your lives. Me and Lisa are going shopping tomorrow for dorm lovelies. SO EXCITED TO BE REUNITED (a week is TOO LONG!) Ave and Mo - wish you girls were closer so we could all have some fun Pittsburgh moments again. 

I've been trying to kind of unpack.

I've been packing my HUGE orange duffle bag. 

I got my teeth cleaned today. 

I made a beautiful photo book for Ruby for graduation. 

I saw "Legally Blonde" at PMT twice, and also got to hang around backstage with all my old buds. It was like coming home. 

I had a sleepover with Ruby where we watched "Fame" the television show and yelled at the tv.

I spent a day with Missie and baby Molly. We talked ALOT. 

Fun shopping with mama. 

Starbucks with Jilly. 

Toured some HUGE houses in Sewickley with Mama. Got LOTS of ideas. 

Coffee with my Lyric.

Lunch with Grandma, Grandpap and Aunt Marilyn.

Lunch and shopping with Grandpa Cater. 

Watched ALOT of episodes of "Friends". 

Yep. That is pretty much my life. I MISS YOU GUYS! SO MUCH! AHHHHHHHHH!

Bon Voyage!

Ladies, I realized that I have completely forgotten when you all are winging your way far from home this summer...and thus, this post was born. Please comment with when you're leaving! Also, should we attempt a group chat once right before the first of you takes off?

(ALSO: guess who finally got around to potting some serious herbs? THIS GIRL. HERB POTS. AHHHHH! You know how much I love them. And pots are a good thing, since my mom is a little bitter that my chocolate mint plant turned out to be a little bit invasive and is basically taking over the flower garden like a weed...hmm...more mint for me? Anyway, I'm becoming a regular little green thumb up here. Woot woot garden party! <--real thing.)

WOAH!

This is so cool! Thank you for doing this Morgan! Sorry I haven't started using it earlier. It took me a long time to figure out how to post something. I hope this is it....

Anyway.

My last night at Wheaton:

After saying goodbye to so many beautiful people, I was alone in the suite. Some tears were shed. It was a sad moment. I had panera with Claire Smith, which was tons of fun. Then we had the beautiful Festival of Faith concert. It went by super quickly, and it was very moving. It is hard to believe that Doc won't be around next year...

Then we partied! Nothing as eventful as the previous night, but it was fun nonetheless. Isaiah, Jeff, Matt, Isaac, and I did rounds.  Then Isaiah, Jeff, Matt, Isaac, Chris Hills, Claire, David Holmes, Mike Daugherty, Spencer (some footballer on 4E...I make a new friend everyday), and Josh Bell piled into two cars and went to Red Mango for fro yo. Yum Yum. Then all of us (minus Josh and Spencer) chilled in Isaac's basement. It was a coffee drinking hang out party, and it was super fun.  Matt and I found out that "la" means "spicy" in chinese. Now Taylor's and Sue's "la la la" makes more sense. Then we said our goodbyes to Isaac. Sad.

I also found out that Isaiah really loves Beyonce. He thinks her song "Upgrade U" is "hot," and he really enjoyed singing along to her other song "Ego," despite my pleading him not to (totes inappropriate). We did not see the music videos, but we did have a dance party in Claire's car.

I stayed up till 3 packing (but I got some encouraging cheers from Jeff and Matt across the U), then I checked out with Britta and said goodbye to Jeff and Matt in the morning.  Then Isaiah, Joanna, and my mom helped me pack up the car. Then I was off. Sad and so weird.

I stayed the night at my Aunt's house, then my mom and I went to the airport. Our flight was cancelled due to the weather.  We were divided, and I went on an earlier flight.  However, we were all sitting in the small plane for 2.5 hours before take-off due to the weather. My mom had to sit in the airport for 6ish hours, so I am not complaining.

Now I am home! I got to see my brother play in the tennis championships. But mostly I have been reading and napping. I still have to unpack...I should do that asap. sigh.

Sorry this is long! I miss you and love you all!! xoxo

a newer better form!

So because the former template was pretty hard to work with, here's a newer style! Let me know what you think! Its easier to upload pics this way. 

Love you girlies! =)

mo

In the absence of a telephone...

Hey Suities! First, sorry if you have tried to text me and I have not responded; I have been without a phone since Friday due to my overexcitement in jumping into my old beloved creek in my backyard. This has been simultaneously gloriously freeing and deeply dehabilitating; On any other occasion I would be dying, but I have loved being able to spend time running around my yard and playing in my creek and jumping on my trampoline and baking cookies and reading and reading and reading without even leaving the home in which I grew up--eighteen long years before Wheaton!


So what have I been up to in the absence of all external communication?

1. Cleaning my room with all the mustered powers of my OCD. I have pretty much spent the last three days sorting through all my old papers and photos and memorabilia I was always too sentimental to toss away, and reorganizing the entirety of my worldly possessions. There currently rest in our hallway ten stuffed garbage bags awaiting a home in goodwill.

2. Journaling like crazy over the past year, and reflecting on everything I have found while cleaning, like these--my favorites. =)

2. Journaling like crazy over the past year, and reflecting on everything I have found while cleaning, like this old one, my favorite. =)

3. Reading the Hunger Games. Wow.

4. Sleeping.
5. Hanging out with Ben and his GIRLFRIEND! =D [Kristen stayed the night with us last night]

I miss you girls a lot, and as I reflect upon the past year I am so very grateful for your affirming and encouraging influence in my life! I continue to pray for you all--may this season of rest prove an opportunity for you to reflect in thankfulness of God's faithfulness, grow in relationships with your families, and generally recharge! =) Love you all!

Much Love

Hey, lovely ladies!

First of all, many thanks to our darling Mo for getting this up and running!

     For catching up: Amy and Mo, I'll leave you with a teaser of what went down Thursday night. Lis and Sai were out with their choir buds that evening, and my parents rolled in around eight. They were there for about an hour helping me get stuff out to the car, and then went back to their hotel in Naperville. Meaning that none of you met my parents. (Taylor decided that they don't actually exist.) Anyway, Lis and I were hanging out in her side of the suite when she got back; I was eating junk food and she was packing, and we BOTH were watching the guys over in Matt's room. Creepy much? I prefer lovingly observing. (Does that make it sound worse? Eh.) Anyways, Lisa sent a message to D-rek to see if they wanted to do anything on our last united night, and received a resounding YES. (Followed by some shouting from across the U.) We headed out to Fischer lawn with Saiboo's blanket, but it wasn't long before a black cat ran past and Derek dared Jeff to catch it for a dollar. ONE DOLLAR. And he agreed. So Jon and Jeff are running after this cat behind the SRC while Matt, Isaiah, Derek, Lisa and I are still chilling on the blanket. Then Matt gets a call on his mini phone and starts walking over there, so naturally Isaiah joins him. When they start running, Derek, Lisa and I decide that it's time to investigate. Who knows, maybe they actually caught the cat, right? Wrong. We get back in the dimly lit alley behind the SRC, realize that the guys are nowhere to be found, and then look up...to see Po Chip peering down at us from the roof. Yep, they were all on the roof. We then considered joining, but Lisa wasn't wearing proper footwear, I casually recalled a $500 fine for being on the roof, and Derek didn't want his phone to fall out of his pocket and break, so we stayed firmly planted on the ground.
     That was when I heard the car pull up in the parking lot. Public Safety had been mentioned a few times (aka I was lecturing about their imminent appearance) and now a van was parked down the alley. Derek and I casually meandered out of sight...but Lisa was standing right in the headlights, staring at the public safety officer (haha, oh how we love you Lisa--you did the right, non-sketchy thing!), so Derek and I casually walked back into the sight line and we tried to just walk away. But that sort of required walking right past the van, where the officer stood staring at us silently. As we started to pass him making awkward fleeting eye contact, he asked us what we were doing. Derek and I both gave non-committal 'nothing's, but Lisa came to the rescue with, "we were chasing a cat!" Naturally, I was fighting back laughter as he dismissed us. We went back to the blanket and watched as another van of PSOs pulled up and watched the roof. Many tactics for getting in contact with our roof friends were attempted, but in the end we just had a conversation about Morse code  and bacon. Good times...anyway, the guys came down, talked to public safety, and hopefully won't be fined for their shenanigans. (They're a little bitter towards whoever turned them in, though. Snitches get stitches.) Taylor then joined us and we did a late-night Denny's run, where D-rek got a free Grand Slam for his birthday! (Woot Woot Lisa making friends with the wait-staff Party!!) We said sad goodbyes to Taylor and Derek, and then went back for my last night in Suite 211-212 (insert tears, but not really).
      I left Wheaton on Friday, only to get stuck in Naperville at Ikea (pronounce it the Chris Anderson way in your head: ick-ee-ah) for over an hour with my parents. I'm pretty sure that they were debating throwing me and my belongings out of the car so that they could buy new furniture...but they thought better of it, and by four in the morning, I was back in the North Country (aka the US part of Canada). I may or may not have slept past 1 pm Saturday. It may or may not have been bliss. After church this morning (oh, how I miss College Church and even our newly dear Res!) I brunched at my favorite little bistro on the river, Bella's. Now I have the house all to my lonesome while my parents pick up Dad's motorcycle from the garage, so I'm relaxing in my new Wheaton duds with a cat on my lap and some steaming tea beside me. Ah, the relaxing summer life! (Lisa, I'll probably be blowing up balloons tomorrow for my Mom's 50th--she's old--and I'll miss your company!)
     I hope you are having a lovely time at home, girls! I love and miss you all!

Avery

And so it begins... =)

Hey Suities! Welcome to our blog, a place for pictures, funny stories, memories, and general updates throughout the summer.I got home approximately five hours ago, and miss you already! I will write more tomorrow, but I at least wanted to get something started. Let the posting begin. =) Mo