Valentine Dinner

Last weekend I headed up a Valentine's fundraiser dinner at my parish. It benefited EC's Newman Center's spring break mission trip. To be honest, I was a little worried about it because I was soooooo spoiled working with the students I had at WIU's Newman Center. There were 4 girls who were awesome in the kitchen and so I never had to dictate - they knew what to do and when to do it. But the EC students did not disappoint. Friday night we decorated and did some prep - they were great. Saturday they showed up on time and were so efficient we finished all our prep work with 40 minutes to spare.

The dinner was salad, chicken Parmesan, garlic bread, seasoned green beans and a baked potato with a chocolate dessert buffet at the end of the evening. Everything was plated and served to the couples who came. A FOCUS missionary gave a talk on love, Fr. led the couples as they renewed their vows and we then had them dance their first dance as a renewly married couple. After that was the Anniversary Dance; the "winning" couple was given a box of chocolates.

Everyone had a great time, every couple laughed and smiled all night long. Even the students loved it! After Mass the next day almost every couple who had attended came up to me to tell me how much they liked it. Hopefully more will come next year and we can really grow the event.

Some of my fave things:

- all the decorations either belonged to the church or my mom so they were FREE

- the evening grossed almost $900!

- one of the husbands told me he didn't know there was going to be dancing until he and his wife were leaving the house, but he said we did a good job with the songs. ;)

- in the kitchen we had a really great conversation about the Church and its teachings

- all the food turned out perfectly

- a elderly single woman came alone and during the dancing I asked one of the college students to ask her to dance. He just took off his apron, washed his hands and went right up to her. I was so impressed with him.

- The husband who won the Anniversary Dance told me that he really enjoyed the night, though it probably didn't hurt that he won the chocolates. He then said, "Those are the best things to win, when all you have to do is endure."

EC Homecoming

This weekend, 4 years after I graduated from college I went to my first Homecoming football game ever at Eureka College. It was GREAT seeing old friends and classmates, a lot of whom I still think of very fondly but haven't seen since graduation. A couple of things were odd - hanging out on the TKE lawn again, but this time I was holding a baby (though everyone else was holding beer); seeing SO many of my former classmates pushing strollers or holding babies; seeing people whose faces I remembered but whose names I could not recall. It was a lot of fun, and I'm very glad I went.

Today, I got out my photo albums from college. Here's two pictures in honor of two of the people I was most excited to see.

This one was taken in my dorm room at my "I'm going to San Francisco for the Summer" party.

This one was taken at the Senior Boat Party. I swear, even though it looks like he's touching me, he never did. Jacob is a perfect gentleman, which you maybe couldn't tell by his red boxers and his hat that reads, "Wisconsin: Land of Cowshit and Beer Farts."

EC kicks booty with St. Jude fundraiser

Eureka College has a total enrollment of 675 students, about 500 of which are residential, traditional students.

Yet, our tiny campus' Up 'til Dawn group raised more money for St. Jude Research Hospital than the ones on the campuses of WIU, Monmouth, Bradley, EIU, U of I, ISU or any other college / university in the state of Illinois.

The total amount raised: $24,641.22

Way to go, guys!

Staff Meeting

Today we had an all staff meeting at work. I had an announcement to make about the upcoming Staff Retreat that I'm helping to plan. After explaining all the plans I ended it by saying, "We spent a lot of time reviewing the surveys you filled out and trying to find a topic that would satisfy what you wanted. I think we've done it and picked a great topic. And if you don't like it, I'll be gone next year and you can plan it yourselves."

Luckily they laughed. But way to be professional, Bonnie.