sb10: the pictures

prior to spring break 2010, or SB10 as it will be referred to hereafter, i issued a challenge to the o-house girls: to submit one picture from their break that best encapsulated the week. other than that, there were no instructions. i have now taken the photos and created a little recap of everyone’s SB10. the photos go in ascending order of awesomeness.

6. sarah Hachmeister. i kind of forgot to take any pictures, other than a few while i was EXTREMELY bored driving to Natoma. i went home on Thursday, windows down, sunroof open, sunnies on. i drove back to manhattan on Friday, windows up, heater on full blast, windshield wipers/windows/road all covered in ice/snow. it was a perilous 3.25 hour trip to say the least.

5. jennie hull. jennie spent her SB10 moose hunting. here’s the moose she killed, jennie, and a high school boy. draw your own conclusions. just kidding. jennie went home, did a lot of sleeping in and mourning over her bird who died. also, her sister broke her collar bone. in two places. yikes.

4. keira masters. keira travelled to kcmo, where she met up with jayne long, josh tedder, kevin hubbard and yours truly. the weekend included watching ku dominate k-state, and dominating all the games at dave & busters. check out our 3000 + tickets. after her kc adventure, keira went back to Burlington for some quality time with the fam and a trip to the coat factory.

3. becca melvin. becca got to leave for SB10 early, as she went on a “field trip” to Portland, Oregon. i thought field trips were only for elementary students, but apparently i was wrong. and of course, becca would submit a super artsy photograph that makes everyone else’s look dumb. after spending some time in seattle, becca headed back to manhattan early. she was missing stu terribly. it was the longest they’d been apart in months.

2. sydney miller. what’s more exciting than going to Portland and seattle? how about going to a foreign country? that’s right, syd led a missions trip to Guatemala. she spent her SB10 building a concrete wall, hiking up mountains, perfecting her Spanish, spending quetzal and talking about Jesus with the Guatemalans.

and now you may be thinking, “what could possibly be better than spending a week in south America?”

answer: making the decision to enter holy matrimony.

1.abby trammel. SB10 marks engagement of abby trammel to kellan gregory. take a look at that rock:

the wedding is currently planned for summer 2011. that means that there’s still time for one of the other o-house girls to beat her to the altar. i mean i know it would have to be a short courtship, but THERE’S STILL A CHANCE! jk. congrats to kellan and abby! let the wedding planning begin!

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!

previously at the o-house

just wanted to catch you up on the latest happenings at the o-house:

on saturday, we had surprise party for distinguished o-house alum bethany brabec. there was some difficulty, as at the last minute bethany went rogue and tried to plan her own party. as sydney put it, “planning a surprise party for bethany is like planning a wedding for a wedding planner.” but by some miracle, she was actually surprised. side note: the o-house offers its condolences to nick brown on nebraska's loss in the big 12 championship, and apologizes for a certain roommate's complete lack of football knowledge. "why did they do the exact same thing again?"- referring to the instant replay.

at bethany’s request, party guests wore green t-shirts. i decided to take it a step further and dress completely like bethany, which led to the realization that i cannot pull off a side ponytail. please check out the face on katie pooler:



okay, here's a better one:



all this leads me to some exciting news:
coming soon- the bethany brabec blog post. whether you know bethany or not, you should be excited. because she is the most popular girl in manhattan, probably in the state of Kansas, and possibly in the entire Midwest. i could probably write an entire blog series on bethany. she’s THAT FUNNY.

more exciting news:
attention gentlemen- it’s official, becca melvin and stu have broken up. now’s the time to make your move. she’s still vulnerable and looking for a shoulder to cry on. and there’s a very strong possibility they could get back together next semester, so time is of the essence.


sydney miller’s super-edgy banana republic coat finally arrived, just in time for the blizzard.




jennie hull has made a new years’ resolution to spend more time upstairs. wooo hooo! we can take more hot pics like this:



news that is scary, not exciting:
the “sydney miller attempt at burning down the o-house” tally is at five. seriously, do not let her in your kitchen unless you’re standing nearby with a fire extinguisher. and abby can testify that even that is not a guarantee of your safety.

news that is neither scary or exciting:

syd and i have started an unofficial competition to see who can get locked out of the o-house the most times. so far, i’d say it’s pretty even. this problem could be eliminated if someone would let us hide a key outside (ahem, keira). but i don’t see that happening anytime soon… or ever, really.

finals week is next week! this tends to be the most eventful week of the year at the o-house, so prepare yourself for some great upcoming stories.

spotlight on: becca melvin

i was having difficulty deciding who to spotlight first. and then one day, syd came rushing up the stairs proclaiming, “i have something for the blog! you have to put this on there!” the incident in question turned out to be a great becca Melvin story, which i will now share:

background:

becca hails from seattle, which means that she’s way cooler than everyone else. she’s super artsy, and is going to be really rich because she’s a landscape architecture major. she spends about 25 hours a day at studio, which you may think is impossible given the laws of space and time, but becca finds a way to do it.

becca can go weeks at a time without sleep and still manage to look totally hot. and she’s domestic. the other morning she whipped up a salmon pepper frittata for breakfast. i don’t even know what the hell that is, but it sounds (and looks) delicious:

at this point, our male readers should be asking, “does she have a boyfriend?” and the shocking answer to that question is, “no, although the o-house likes to make jokes about her pretend bf ‘stu’.” (short for studio, get it?)

becca’s dad is from England. both of her parents are geniuses. and although i’ve never been to the Melvin household, i’m guessing that it was a fascinating place to grow up. they probably had tea and crumpets every afternoon and bought fresh fish from the market and took weekly trips to the space needle. and i know for a fact that they have an herb garden.

now back to the story:

all of this would lead me to believe that the melvins didn’t consume a lot of little debbie snack cakes. which is why, when becca was presented with the gift of an oatmeal cream pie, she had no idea what it was. well, she had an idea… a very wrong idea that it was an ICE CREAM SANDWICH, and so she put it in the freezer. enter sydney miller, lots of laughing and the classic picture posted above.

i told you: hot, half-British and completely oblivious to the existence of junk food.

these are just a few of the qualities that make becca Melvin the o-house MEMBER OF THE WEEK!!! check back next week when we spotlight another member/share a semi-embarrassing story about them.