Well, this has been a good weekend...

...And it's not even Sunday yet!

Hmm, really, quite the weekend.  I have sum pix 4 u.

Sidenote: I wonder if texting language has impacted the use of "y'all" by teenagers in the Southern states.  There is no one-stroke version of "y'all", so I can only assume that Southern texters use "u" for the second-person plural pronoun, just like us Northerners.  I wonder if this increased usage of you/u by Southerners through texting has generalized to their spoken communication.  If I ever go for a Ph.D., maybe that will be my dissertation. End sidenote.

 Okay,  firstly......CORPSE FLOWER!!!! :) :)

The Corpse Flower is a rare plant stored in a UIUC greenhouse.  It only blooms every 10 years or so and is famous for smelling like death.  My favorite part of the Corpse Flower blooming is that someone had the brilliant idea to install a webcam pointing at passers-by.  I could have sat for hours watching the groups of people sniff the flower, grimace at the flower, pose with the flower while talking on their cell phone so that their buddy at home can do a Print-Screen of the webcam shot...etc.  (What is more pathetic-- standing in line to see a stinky flower on a Friday night, or sitting at home watching a live feed of other people sniffing a stinky flower on a Friday night?)  Personally, I didn't think it really smelled all that bad, as the smell of death goes.


Okay, next day... SPRINGFIELD!!!
Grandpa showed Tina, Jenny, and I around his hometown today.  Everyone agreed it was a truly terrific day. :)

Lincoln's Home

Lincoln's Tomb

we like fountains

Cozy Dog Drive-In "The Birthplace of the Corn Dog" :)

The girls learned more about Honest Abe today than they ever knew there was to know!  And they're hooked.  They have both expressed desires to buy books and learn more. :)

I am particularly glad that Tina went to the museum, because her previous information about Lincoln was....a bit backwards.  She told me, "In my country I learn Lincoln sell slaves, so black man kill Lincoln."

Um.......not quite. And I'm glad we got that cleared up.  :)

Oh, yeah, one of the many nice things about having Grandpa along is that he has a handy-dandy accessible parking tag, so we could park at meters all day long for FREE. Plus, the tag looked oh so natural hanging in the Bubblo....It looked much less idiosyncratic in my Buick than the 23-year-old driver usually does...

Also, Grandpa got quite a bit of storytelling in today, which is always fun.  I forgot how much I enjoy the one that begins with him driving a firetruck, sirens running, down a busy street in the middle of the day.  As he approaches an intersection, he sees a car approaching from a different direction.  "Well, sure, she'll stop; I'm a firetruck, see?" He thinks to himself.  Well, she doesn't stop, and the firetruck hits her.  Grandpa gets out and stick his hands into the window of the woman's car to unlock the door and see if she's okay.  "But I didn't see that she had two little dogs in the car with her.  So I stuck my hands in...[eyebrows raise] and they both bit me."  Haha.  End of story.

In other news (there's always something), Tina's new Bible finally came in, and we are so thankful.  I think this one will work well for her and our church system of me finding the correct place in her Chinese Bible.....  She continues to read her Bible story book and/or her Bible every day, and she really wants to learn.  So continued prayers are appreciated.

Other things could be mentioned, but this seems to be plenty for today.
Goodnight, thetical readers (I can no longer honestly call you hypothetical.....)