It really feels like summer now. It has been hot for the last few days. The Grinde family knows that full well because our air conditioner is not functioning. It broke sometime early this morning, so our home is hot and humid. No one can fix it til at least Tuesday, because tomorrow is Memorial day. Uff da.

Last week was leadership staff training at Riverside. I got to cook lots of food. It was awesome. We tried a new recipe called Strawberry Upside Down Cake. You put sliced strawberries on the bottom of a cake pan, sprinkle jello powder on top, add marshmallows, then pour cake batter on top. When the cake is baked you flip it over. It was supposed to be beautiful but it looked like cake with burned strawberry jam on top. So once the cake was cool I make strawberry whipped cream and frosted the cake with it. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, but I do not think I will make it again. This week Riverside's senior counselors and some of the leaders will be at Okoboji for more training, so they won't need me to feed them. Then there's one more week of training Riverside staff and then camp will start for real.

I am so thankful for my time at home this summer. I am really enjoying time to relax and recover from college. I know that eventually I won't really want to come back to my parent's home, but right now it is good to be in Story City surrounded by my immediate family and church family. They support and love me so much it is hard to stay away.

Another one bites the dust

Yuri is dead with no hopes of a resurrection. A few months ago my dad had the oil changed in my car. In the next couple of days the oil light came on. We just assumed that everything was fine, my car was just getting old (16 years) so I kept driving it. Well it turns out that the oil light came on because part of the engine wasn't getting oil. I drove it no problem for almost 4 months before it just couldn't take it anymore and broke down last week in Dike. It would be super expensive to fix, so we are not going to try.

Serendipitously my parents just bought a new, well used but new to us, Toyota Highlander, so we have an extra vehicle. They were going to sell our mini van, but because I do not have a car they are going to let me drive it. My parents are so generous, I am blessed by them everyday.

Best laid plans...

Yesterday a gal from one of my college Bible studies got married. Her wedding was in Cedar Rapids. The other girls in my study decided to caravan to the wedding. We made it to Dike before disaster struck. My beautiful, wonderful, and awesome 1994 Camry wagon, Yuri, broke down. We were getting on an exit ramp when all the lights on my car's dashboard lit up and I could barely pull off to the side of the road. I called my dad and he figured it out from there. It's sitting at a repair shop in Dike, tomorrow we'll find out what went wrong. I got in my Bible study leader's car and we kept going. We even made it to the wedding on time. My car breaking down was not cool, but I realize that it could have been a ton worse. Everything's going to be okay.

The wedding was really amazing. The decorations were perfect and it was wonderful to see the bride and groom basking in happiness. I just don't like how much waiting there is at weddings. We had to wait to be seated at the church, wait to send bridal party off, wait for the couple to appear at the reception, wait to eat, wait for the cake, wait, wait, wait. I have relatively no patience, as you might be able to tell.

At the end of the day it was all worth it. The cheesy potatoes were really good.

the adventure's just begun

I have one year of college under my belt. I managed to pass all my classes, make lots of friends, have tons of fun, and even bake pie for the people in my dorm once a week. I'm really glad I chose ISU. The campus is beautiful and I've been blessed with lots of opportunities to do awesome things.

Going to college was quite the transition for me. It was initially difficult to go from my parent's quiet and relatively spacious home in Story City to a tiny dorm room shared with a girl I didn't really know. After the first few weeks I adjusted. My roommate and all the other people on my floor were awesome, and with a couple personal touches my room didn't seem quite so small. Eventually figured out how to navigate campus without a map and could almost always catch the right Cyride bus.

It turns out that college classes are not quite the same as high school ones. I had quite the shock when I realized that I was not going to get an A on every test. College is difficult. My biology final from last semester was over 37 chapters from the textbook. In Chem 177 my professor went over everything I learned in 1 year of high school chemistry in 4 lectures. My GPA is nowhere near as pretty as it was in high school but I've learned a incredible amount.

Now that summer is here I'm working at Riverside again. This will be my 5th year in the kitchen. I love it SO much. I'll be working the supper shift. I would rather work in the mornings and have my afternoons and evenings free, but this way I get to sleep in. I'll also be filling in at the pharmacy whenever they need an extra pair of hands.