flashbacks and baked goods

i guess the o-house girls really took that last blog post to heart. look at our trash can now:

it's march! what better way to celebrate than with a blog post? i absolutely love march for the following reasons:

1. march madness.

*i'm fully aware that i'll get crap from everyone but abby about this. i don't care. rock chalk.

2. my half-birthday is the 17th. (just in case you're the type of person who gives half- birthday gifts.)

3. sprrrrrrriiiiiinnnnngggg break! here's a flashback to yesteryear:

*jayne, SB will not be the same this year. but please come visit the o-house soon!

*o-house and friends in chi-town. good one, becca.

4. it's not february.

not that february wasn't great for the o-house girls. it was just very cold. inside and outside... (ahem, sydney.) but the chilly weather gave us an excuse to stay indoors and practice our baking skills (a.k.a. man-catching skills):

*blackberry cobbler. recipe courtesy of pioneer woman. mmmmm.

*mocha pie. also courtesy of pioneer woman. super rich and delicious. thank you to kelsey fink for making sure we mixed it for the full 20 + minutes.

*that's right. we're foxy and we make pie.

i don't think i saw jennie hull at all in the month of february. i was about to send out an amber alert, but luckily she appeared the other day. apparently she's been spending all of her time boiling eggs and running.

speaking of jennie hull, here’s a little o-house flashback to last semester. this is a new blog segment i like to call classic moments in o-house history:

now back in the golden era of the o-house, when toby lived here, syd was going out of town for the weekend. she was positively freaking out that we were going feel burdened by toby, or worse, forget to take care of him. in typical sydney fashion, she brought it up at least a dozen times and jennie and i assured her that we didn’t mind at all and that toby would be in mint condition when she got back.

so she left.

about five hours later it occurred to me that i hadn’t seen toby. i did a quick search, couldn’t find him, and concluded that jennie must have taken him somewhere.

a couple hours later, they still weren’t back. and keira and i got a little worried and went downstairs, where we found jennie, but no sign of our canine friend. it quickly became clear that jennie did not have toby, had never had toby, and that toby was long-gone from the o-house premises.

we hypothesized that he had somehow gotten untied in the backyard. by our calculations, he had been gone for up to seven hours, and was probably halfway back to Wichita. we frantically called syd, who had turned off her phone. naturally.

the obvious next course of action was to get in jennie’s convertible, put the top down and drive all over manhattan yelling:

“toby! toby! toby! toby!” and

“toby, come back to the o-house. we love you!” and

“toby, we have a delicious treat for you!” and

“TTTTTTOOOOOOBBBBBYYYYYYY!”

*clearly a post- search party reenactment on the porch.

no response. no sign of him. we finally had to concede defeat and head back to the o-house, where keira had a cake burning in the oven.

i started bracing myself for syd's reaction when she found out that toby was, in all likelihood, deceased. and then i thought about all the other millers and how they weren’t going to be too happy either. after all, syd’s dad once had one of their other dogs AIR-LIFTED to save its life.

so we sat around for awhile, eating burnt cake and reminiscing about toby’s life, and trying not to imagine him dead in a ditch somewhere, or lured into a stranger’s van.

and then my phone rang. it was bethany brabec, who was with syd. here’s a transcript of the conversation:

“bethany! ohmygosh. aaaaahhhh!”

“did you think you lost toby?”

“huh? what? no, WE DID LOSE TOBY!”

“no, you didn’t. syd left him with ashley for the weekend.”

“what?”

“yeah, she forgot to tell you.”

“that little-“ end of transcript.

and there you have it, the first of many classic o-house moments in history .

oh speaking of ashley, as an o-house BFF, she deserves a shout-out. we love her not only because she makes waffles in the shape of barnyard animals, but also because she took the o-house family pictures this year. and she is loud/hilarious/superhot:

ashley: come to the o-house more often. and bring your waffle iron and camera!

member of the week: sydney freaking miller

so you know how sometimes there’s a lot of trash in the trashcan, and instead of taking the trash out, people just keep piling stuff on top? and then you go to throw something away and the whole thing’s overflowing with banana peels and used Kleenex and other unpleasantries. and you say to yourself, “ugh. why do people do that? why don’t they just take out the trash?” but then to prove a point you go ahead and strategically place your trash on top… oh, that’s just the o-house?

well we were in such a state last week. i am fairly certain that the trash needed taken out for a solid three days. i know because there was no room for my empty cereal box, so i just put it back in the cupboard. sometimes its not that we’re lazy, it’s just that we’re busy. (but mostly, we're lazy.) and that’s when i decided that whoever took out the trash would be the o-house member of the week. guess who it was:

not sydney miller.

no, it was our very own abby trammel. i should have seen that one coming a mile away. abby has already been the o-house member of the week and therefore is ineligible to receive the honor again. sorry abs.

so i chose an alternative member of the week, who is equally deserving. that’s right:

SYDNEY MILLER.

there are any other reasons that syd deserves roommate of the week. i texted the other o-housers to see what they thought needed to be included in this post. here are a few responses:

“i think it is of vital importance that the capital of Australia was named after our very own sydney miller. and heath ledger and surfing came from there.” – jennie hull

“gotta do something about b**** week.”—abby trammel ( this is, of course, a term coined by sydney. and if you don’t know what it is, sorry. i have to keep this PG.)

now, obviously there are about 293418892 things about sydney that should be included in this post, but i don't have time to write all of them, and you don't have time to read them... unless you have no life. so instead of typing out a long list of syd's best attributes and idiosyncrasies, i am instead sharing her semi-fictitious daily schedule, which should give you a pretty clear indication of how wonderful she truly is. i now present:

a day in the life of sydney miller

6:38 am: wakes up

6:52: out the door

6:54: grabs some starbucks

7:00: prayer at the middle school

7:42: back at the o-house, making herself look like an adult

8:15: back to starbucks

*note: sydney doesn't dress like this on a regular basis. i'm merely proving the point that the girl loves her some starbucks.

8:28: starting the day at meadowlark, hanging out with all of her 87 year-old BFFs

9:30: meeting about what kind of jello to serve

12:30 done at meadowlark for the day… still no decision on the jello

12:38 lunch at the o-house, puts bagel bites in the oven

12:39 reading O magazine and talking to middle school girls online

1:17 needs some coffee, goes downstairs. remembers the bagel bites. smoke is pouring out of the oven. no big deal. has cinnamon sugar toast instead.

1:38 out the door to go to the younglife office

1:45 some sort of younglife meeting

2:30 pick up some middle school girls from school. go to sonic for happy hour. duh.

3:49 drop off middle schoolers at home, simultaneous conversation with bethany brabec about future life plans

4:00 locked out of the o-house. frantic ringing of the doorbell so that she doesn't miss a moment of OPRAH.

5:00 work out class

6:07 post workout trip to java, sees 47 people she knows.

6:41 baking cookies at the o-house/ kitchen counseling session with sarah hach

6:59 another attempt to burn down the o-house

7:30 younglife/wyldlife event #2 of the day. undoubtedly involves wearing some sort of weird costume

8:51 back at the o-house, time to put on sweat pants, watch real housewives of new york and drink mountain dew out of a wine glass

8:54 joined by the other o-house girls. discussion about that day’s episode of oprah. turns into discussion of syd’s career goals: marry rich and give away money.

9:23 time for another cup of coffee

9:25 sits in room, plots ways to be more edgy, watches grey’s anatomy online

9:53 writes 2 page paper about her feelings. homework is done for the week.

10:01 looks up recipes for the next o-house dinner

10:21 meeting on keira’s bed. discussion includes: other people’s relationships, pioneer woman recipes and shampoo.

11:28 bed time

2:38 am becca comes to bed.

3:19 am becca gets up for the day. syd never knows she was there.

the end.

syd: we love you so much. mostly because you brought toby into our lives and came up with the idea for the blog. and gave us lucky charms for valentine's day.

welcome back to the o-house.

dear blog readers,

i would like to begin with an apology. it has been six weeks (give or take) since the last o-house blog post, and that is far too long. i could blame it on my job, my internship, my classes, my various volunteer commitments and/or extended (although inadequate) time spent in a kia rondo, but i won’t do that. i will merely say that i am sorry, and that i am optimistic that the rest of the semester will be better.

the o-house girls returned to manhattan after a wonderful Christmas break. syd took a trip to seattle to see becca, and had a wonderful time eating crumpets and chocolate pasta with the melvins, including the british grandmum (which is a word i think i just invented). she was, however, disappointed with the lack of rainfall. shocker. see cute pic below:

to celebrate everyone coming home, we made a delicious hot fudge sundae cake, the uncooked version of which can be seen here:

sorry, i forgot to take a picture when it was done. but take my word, that it looked and tasted amazing after it came out of the oven. and here’s a photo of everyone else cooking while i avoid all things domestic under the pretense of “documenting for the blog”:

the most exciting happening at the o-house in recent weeks occurred on January 29. as you know (or should know), this is a very special day, i.e. KANSAS DAY and OPRAH’S BIRTHDAY. to celebrate, the o-house girls and friends made a dirt cake with an O made out of gummy worms on top. see cake and #1 oprah fans below:

the best part of the evening came in the form of our three distinguished guests. first up, former o-house inhabitant and current o-house bff, jayne long. here she is pictured with keira in one of their finest photos:

i would like to point out that i was hard pressed to find pictures from this evening that did not include jayne. she loves the camera. and the camera loves her, obviously. here she is again with the girls of pact crew, including distinguished guest #2 marion marie griffin:

marion has been to the o-house on multiple occasions, although you would never be able to convince sydney of such. as a result, every appearance she makes is met with exclamations of “welcome to the o-house! guys, marion has never been here before.”

and finally, here’s jayne again with our third guest: bethany ida brabec. she’s displaying her patented “sassy ass” face:

bethany is also an o-house alum. sometimes she forgets that doesn’t live here anymore. and i’m not complaining about that. i would gladly welcome her back to our bunk bed for a 3 a.m. conversation about the male gender, and i would give anything to hear, “i have to go to bed. i have to be at work in two hours.”

well this post is getting longer than i intended. let me close with this, the classic oprah “hug/handshake”:

thanks for visiting the o-house. in the words of my gramma, "hurry back."

p.s. sorry for the profanity. i couldn't resist.

i'm dreaming of an o-house christmas

pre-preface:

i want everyone to know that this blog post was written days ago. i've tried posting it multiple times, but my technological incompetencies have gotten the best of me. and so i'm making one more attempt as i sit alone at the o-house, missing my roommates and hoping that landlord dave doesn't burst through the door and see me without pants on.

preface:

i’d like to clear up some confusion caused by the last post. becca melvin’s ex-boyfriend “stu” is not a real person. stu is short for studio, where becca spends 97% of her time. hence the joke- "oh becca, are you going to hang out with stu again?" this was explained in an early post, which apparently not everyone read. my apologies to becca and everyone who thought that she was really dating someone named stu (which is an awful name. more of a thick soup than a name, really).

making Christmas lists has been all the rage at the o-house recently. i’m not going to post everyone’s list, obviously. but if you’re shopping for abby, just look at your grandma’s list and buy something from that. if however you’d like to save time/money and buy something for the house as a whole, please check out our collective list:

1. stairs that don't creak, a driveway that doesn't suck and a heated kitchen floor.

2. new house crushes. it's been awhile.

3. a studio so that becca can work from home, a library for abby and keira and a swimming pool for everyone else.

4. a remote for the dvd player. or batteries for the old one.

5. an alarm system: something really complicated with codes to push in and fingerprint scanners and a direct line to the riley county police department.

6. tickets to see oprah. duh.

7. a basement heater of which anthony fox and all of our dads approve. unlike his little guy:

8. permanent custody of toby.

9. shacker beds for everyone!

10. cooking lessons, or even better- a personal chef. here's why:

well, there ya go. merry christmas to all. see you next semester!

keira's title suggestion was too bad to use

confession: i used to hate thanksgiving. i’m not really sure why… some weird childhood thing. i think it had something to do with dressing up like a pilgrim at school or being forced to eat leftover turkey for a week straight. and i had this theory that thanksgiving was just like Christmas, minus all the good stuff about Christmas, i.e. presents, candy canes and mistletoe.

but at some point, i saw thanksgiving for what it really is: a three day break from school and possibly the one day of the year you get pumpkin pie. and while i (and all the other o-house girls) had a lovely thanksgiving this year at home with our families, i would be remiss if i didn’t blog about our second annual o-house thanksgiving, which was awesome as usual.

the idea was simple and brilliant and thought up by sydney miller. the o-house provides the turkey, and everyone else brings their favorite thanksgiving food. and then we spread out tablecloths on the floor and feast. now past experience tells us that some of the o-house girls are not domestically gifted. (namely me) and so this plan is sheer genius because syd takes care of the turkey and all we have to do is contribute some money and show up. and the turkey that she made turned out absolutely beautiful:

now of course, becca Melvin contributed some homemade stuffing that was absolutely delicious, and probably handed down by generations of melvins. and then jessie briggs brought these little guys that were almost too cute to eat:

and there are tons of pictures of all the food (see syd’s Facebook album), but what really made the party were all the hot party-goers. see here:

and here:

the evening was an overwhelming success, and the o-house realized all the things we have to be thankful for: amazing friends, incredible food, little sisters, crocheting, each other, and of course you- our blog readers. we love you all…. unless damry is reading this.