Hey everyone! Here's where I'll be posting all about what I'm doing in good ol' England (and other cool places). I'll update as often as I can get to an internet cafe!
Hi! We’re the Wiers (or a couple of them at least), and we’ve created this blog to share some of our daily adventures with family and friends. We met while attending college at Illinois Wesleyan University and got married in 2007. The background of this site is a photo taken on our honeymoon in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, which was quite lovely. Since then, we’ve moved around Illinois (5 times in 4 years) as we’ve taken turns going to school. Jen finished her Masters in counseling at Trinity International University in 2009 and enjoys writing and photography. Ben is finished a Professional Science Masters in agribusiness at the University of Illinois in 2010 and will be starting vet school (a dream come true!) at the University of Minnesota this fall. He has a passion for animals and enjoys doting on our aquatic turtle, Leo, who makes an occasional appearance on our Christmas cards. We are also expecting our first child in September, so 2011 will be a year of big changes for us, and we are thankful for the many ways God has blessed our lives. Thanks for visiting our site! We look forward to sharing our adventures with you! Ben & Jen
Last night was an adventure! I don't have much time to tell the whole thing, but Vicky's baby was born at 2:07 am. Good timing, little one! Right between my birthday party and my flight to London! She must like me. :) I'll update later. Now it's off to visit them, and to catch my flight! I'll miss you all! Cheerio!
Hi! Just surfin around. :) The next time I write I'll finally be in London! It's about time, since I've been planning and waiting for two years practically, but it doesn't feel like tomorrow I'll be in another country. It'll probably hit me when I've landed in London and I am looking for a bathroom but I can only find the loo. Haha.
I've had a good last few days. I visited Tyler and Morgan (kids I used to babysit) and went to one of my favorite restaurants, the Big Bowl, with Steve, Jen, and Keith. Jen slept over, and then I spent yesterday with Steve and the Judson folks, watching Batman and eating Taco Bell and Starbucks. And giving Steve his surprise ticket to London! Alyssa and Russo helped me get him a ticket to visit me for a weekend in November! He definitely didn't expect it, and he's never been out of the country or even flown before, so it's exciting. Plus it'll be really nice to see him and show him around where I've been for two months. Anyway, then today my family went to my 4th cousin Emma's baptism and I got to see everyone, including my grandma from Las Vegas, so that was nice. And now we're going to celebrate my birthday a week early since I'll be in London for the real thing. (And I think Jen and Steve are up to something sneaky... I'll let you know.) So I've been kept busy with all that and running errands and packing and stuff. So tomorrow is sort of coming quickly. I better be off, since I'm the "birthday" girl, but I'll let you know how everything is when I get there!
Signing off,
Jen
P.S. Sorry about all my bad grammar and probably my failure to capitalize or punctuate correctly on this site. I get into Instant Message mode, if you know what I mean. But I can write with proper English, really! (Well, at least until I go learn what "Proper English" really is!)
My mind is void of quotes today. I'll write two next time!
One more week til I leave, and things keep getting crazier while the time gets shorter...
But tomorrow I get to see Jesse, Jack, Kevin, and Sarah! YAAAAAY! I miss my school friends. And Woodfield will be fun as well. I'm also going to see my Judson friends this week! And... I was going to say my high school friends, until I realized there's sort of only one! But quality's more important than quantity, eh? Anyway, best wishes to the folks at NIU and Judson starting school today and tomorrow!
~Jen
"Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." -Unknown
Olukay2K: Jeremiah 29:11
MeleGirl: "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.'"
Olukay2K: yup :-)
MeleGirl: my favorite verse :-)
MeleGirl: or one of them anyway
Olukay2K: just keep your ears peeled for the good news coming, ok?
MeleGirl: you mean His plans for me?
Olukay2K: yup
Thanks, Kayode. I will.
"I am pressed but not crushed; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. I am blessed beyond the curse, for His promise will endure and His joy's gonna be my strength. Though the sorrow may last for the night, His joy comes with the morning! I'm trading my sorrows. I'm trading my shame. I'm laying them down for the joy of the Lord. I'm trading my sickness. I'm trading my pain. I'm laying them down for the joy of the Lord." -'Trading My Sorrows', Delirious; 2 Corinthians 4:8-9
Why must Moonga's always die? :(
MeleGirl: how's moonga? is he still alive?
FooFightr1: umm...hmmm
MeleGirl: uh oh
FooFightr1: ughhhh
MeleGirl: :-(
FooFightr1: no :-MeleGirl: :'(
FooFightr1: i don't want to explain it because it was a stupid situation because basically i couldn't transport him home. sooo moonga had to be no moore. moonga was the best of all the fish. it's too bad really
MeleGirl: you KILLED him?
FooFightr1: :-X
FooFightr1: i got nothing to say to that. it wasn't good.
MeleGirl: Jack, how could you?
MeleGirl: Couldnt you have given him away??
FooFightr1: someone else said the same thing to me
MeleGirl: who? someone with a HEART?
FooFightr1: one of the guys in my suite said "how could you jack?"
FooFightr1: i had to leave, i didn't have time to find someone to bring him home and everyone i asked on the day of leaving said they couldn't. sooo i was in a bad situation, and it ended badly.
MeleGirl: I'm just messing with ya, it's ok.
MeleGirl: But I am going to milk it for the rest of our lives, just so you know.
One day I'm going to have a Moonga and keep him in my own care, and no friend of mine is going to kill him! (Sorry, Jen, I know you didn't mean for Moonga #1 to die.) But one day, there will be "Moonga, the fish who lived"! You'll see... Me and Moonga, we'll show the world!
I just made my first big purchase for my travels- a Eurail pass, for a whopping $374! Ouch. And there's more of that to come... But I am now the proud owner of a ticket to France, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy! How cool is that? Hopefully I can find cheap flights from London to Spain and Italy to London! We'll deal with that later. So, now I get to wait expectantly for my Eurail pass to come in the mail, complete with an official Rick Steves map of Europe and some other stuff. Leslie, Ryan, and Sam have become obsessed with Rick Steves since they got all their stuff from his website. Them and my mom. And my grandma has a habit of calling Steve Rick now, because she thinks of Rick Steves. Ha! Poor Steve. Well, that's all for now. Better go rest up for a not so fun day tomorrow. (But it's alright, God always takes care of me!)
Cheerio!
~Jen
"You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." Psalm 32:7
Just wanted to say good luck to Sarah (a.k.a. pledgemom) who starts law school today! She is going to do amazingly! I'm so proud!
A belated happy birthday to Melissa and an early happy 2nd birthday to Bradley!
For that matter, happy early ACTUAL birth day to Savanna, who better come soon so I can meet her before London!
I officially leave two weeks from today! How crazy is that? I'm probably not going to Cedar Campus anymore, which would have been great, but at least now I'm not getting back the day before I leave, and I have more time to get everything done. I don't even know what get everything done includes. Let's see... get my absentee ballot, visit my grandparents, finish cleaning/laundry/packing, convince myself to leave a lot of what I packed at home, see Melissa, Jen and everyone else, finalize my travel plans with the other Jen and buy our train passes and/or airline tickets, deposit $, pay bills, cancel my cell phone, celebrate my birthday with my family, hopefully go to my (4th?) cousin Emma's baptism, hopefully visit Vicky and Savanna if she's born in the next 2 weeks, maybe help Steve move into his dorm, get my pictures developed (the Cubs game/forest preserve ones), maybe meet up with some school friends at Woodfield, finalize some things for the IV leadership team, buy film, give blood for the last time (since they won't let me anymore after living in England for 3 months), go to a bridal shower, oh my goodness, I have a lot to do!!! Maybe it's good that I'm not going after all! Well, I better go get something done!
~Jen
P.S. Feel free to give this web address to anyone you think would want to see it, because I didn't e-mail it to everyone. Thanks! And feel free to leave comments or send me an email letting me know what you're up to!
"On one such occasion, the Shepherd said to Much-Afraid, 'When you continue your journey there may be much mist and cloud. Perhaps it may even seem as though everything you have seen here of the High Places was just a dream, or the work of your own imagination. But you have seen reality, and the mist which seems to swallow it up is the illusion. Believe steadfastly in what you have seen. Even if the way up to the High Places appears to be obscured and you are led to doubt whether you are following the right path, remember the promise, 'Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it.''" - Hannah Hurnard, Hinds' Feet on High Places
Hi there!
Went to the Cubs game today with my dad, Steve, and Kevin (cousin). They got creamed. :( But hey, my dad bought us all Cubs hats... before we found out it was Cubs Cap Day (a.k.a. don't-buy-a-hat-cuz-we're-giving-them-away-for-free Day). Ha. At least the weather was nice, and we had good seats, right behind home plate, and right in front of the guys with the radar guns, and Katie Holmes and Chris Klein! Steve didn't believe me it was Katie Holmes, but I bet him it was, and I asked her. It was. I told her if she wasn't, I was going to tell her she looked like her, and she smiled. She couldn't take a picture with me, though. I guess I don't blame her. I would probably be worried that either it would end up in some magazine, or people would notice and come over and she wouldn't be able to watch the game. But they just may show up in the background of a picture of Kevin and my dad... ;) Anyway, other than that, my dad's "Welcome to Chicago", her "Thanks", and he and Chris talking a little about the game, that was about it. I could tell she was hoping not to be recognized, so I wanted to leave her alone. It must be so different being famous. People wishing they had the kind of life you have, while maybe you're wishing you could be like them and just cheer at a baseball game. Anyway, that was my adventure for the day. I've actually had quite a few for just another old summer...
I'm sure many more are to come in just a couple weeks!
Oh yeah, and Yay for Great America with Jen S! (And yes, we did go to the movies in our pajamas!)
~<3~ Jen
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -Professor Dumbledore, Harry Potter