Finals week is finally over for me! I didn’t think I’d get stressed out about it that much, but I did. I was really hoping Tuesday’s classes would just be postponed till later in the afternoon or something, but no such luck there. History and speech went pretty well. Our speech teacher forgot to bring us the brownies he had promised us, though, because of the snow 
If you want a fun and fair speech teacher next semester, you should get Dr. Keith West; he actually made doing speeches fun!
My scary science final was yesterday morning. When I’m really stressed out about something that’s in the morning, my body turns into its own alarm clock, which is not fun. I woke up right on the dot at 4 a.m., 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 7 a.m., and 8 a.m. Wednesday morning… My brain doesn’t realize that sleep is more important than waking up way early for the test! With all my hard finals done, I just relaxed in my room all day yesterday and let my brain take a break.
Packing my car yesterday evening was a chore though. My dumb car is once again refusing to start, so I had to walk across two parking lots five times with armloads full of clothes and Christmas presents. My car door is also frozen somewhere in the shutting mechanism, so the door won’t stay shut on the driver’s side, so it’s going to be an interesting trip home tomorrow if I have to hold it closed the whole hour and a half home!
But even with all the crazy stuff happening with the car and the frantic checking of the room to make sure I don’t leave anything, I know break is going to be awesome! *Yay!* It’s starting tonight with me going to my grandpa’s house for dinner in Wichita and then off to hang out with friends in Wichita after that. I will definitely miss all my friends from Butler and the ones I’ve met in Wichita, but I’m ready to reconnect with my friends and family in old Council Grove over break!
What are your plans for break??
I just had an awesome weekend! All thanks to the great activities planned by your very own Butler Community College. On Friday night the Student Government Association had movie night at Warren theatre. If you have never been to the movie night that SGA puts on then you have got to make it to the next one. SGA passes out free movie passes to the first 60 students at the Warren Theater in Wichita. A free movie? You can bet I’m there! Movie night is the first Friday of every month. If you haven’t taken advantage of this then I expect to see you there next time. No car? Not a problem. Sign up for a ride in one of the school vans in the Student Life Center prior to the event. Even though you may not have asked, Old Dogs with John Travolta and Robin Williams was hilarious. I highly recommend it.
Then on Saturday I found out that we have some amazing talent on our campus. The dance and choir concert was really really good. I would put another really in there but it wouldn’t help explaining how much talent was on that stage. I of course had a favorite number. I didn’t plan on it but when you have the song Hawaiian Christmas attached to a performance you could do pretty much anything on that stage and I will like it. The whole show made sure that the entire audience was in the Christmas spirit when they left the theatre. It was a great show and I would love to thank all of the performers for putting so much time and dedication into their performances.
Sadly I had to pay for my fun days on Friday and Saturday. My Sunday was spent studying for finals. There may have been some football watching going on but I would never admit it to any of my teachers. I am the ever diligent student that forever looks forward to finals week. Good luck with finals everyone!
I would personally like to thank all of the stores for not having those amazing sales that happen every year on black Friday. Actually, I am not sure if it was a lack of sales or my sister was just not into it this year. I don’t really care but somehow I managed to miss out on the oh so amazing experience of being dragged out of my extremely warm bed into the freezing cold weather to wait in line at 3:00 in the morning at Best Buy, Target, or some other store that caught my sisters eye. All to save a couple hundred dollars. Every year that my sister drags me out to wait in line with her I tell myself I am going to be very rich one day and bribe all the managers of the stores to let us go in the night before. Problem solved.
I do love Thanksgiving though. It is one of the best holidays ever. There is always the promise of good food and in the event that the food is less than spectacular you always get to bring it up the next year, “remember that one year when your turkey was so dry and nobody would eat it”. It may be only my family that finds that funny, other families may find that slightly rude. My sister, our two dogs and I all loaded into our car and drove down to Norman, Oklahoma to spend Thanksgiving with my sister’s boyfriend. We ate more than we should have then fell asleep watching football. It was basically a preview of super bowl Sunday, which happens to be another favorite holiday of mine! My dogs love thanksgiving I think even more than I do as they cashed in on all the leftovers. And, since I am a vegetarian, they took up the slack and ate turkey on my behalf. (Don’t feel bad for me, my sister made sure I had plenty of vegetarian options. I don’t cook. I am the one everyone teases about the dry turkey and burned food.)
Like many others I was kind of sad to have to head back to Butler for classes. Then I headed off to work and classes today and realized I don’t really mind jumping back into classes and work. Life on campus is fun and it is so good to see everyone even if we were only off for one week. Do not get me wrong, I could very well do without finals, but it is a small price to pay to be around good people and friends to laugh with.
Thanksgiving break was awesome! (Except maybe a bit too short) I went home to Council Grove for the start of break and hung out at my friends’ house the first night. The next morning it was time to hit the road for my grandparents’ house. They live in Caney, KS, way over by Oklahoma, and the three-hour drive with my family and three-year-old brother is always interesting. Anyone who has taken a long car trip with their family knows what I’m talking about. I always find it interesting how the minute we get started on the drive, my brothers are all hungry at the same time, even though we just ate before we left.
This year we were able to have the whole Frye family there for the day and we fit all 22 of us into three tables in the living room. Usually we are missing a cousin or two since all the older ones have moved to other states. My cousin Sara had a baby a few months ago and it was awesome to see him for the first time! The food was wonderful, of course and many of us passed out after lunch while the others sat around talking and watching football.
Friday night we went to watch my Uncle Mark’s high school football team play in Oklahoma. They were playing in the State playoffs and ended up winning in a very exciting, very close game. Saturday I went to my friend Melinda’s house to help them decorate the house for Christmas. We couldn’t find a box with the main ornaments and decorations in it, so I’ll have to go back again when that is found. This is fine with me, because the baking afterwards is lots of fun! We made brownie cookies and mini gingerbread men 
Now it’s time to get my work ready and everything studied for finals next week and then it’s back to break time!
Hello! My name is Melissa “Sippy” Krau. I was born and raised on the awesome island of Maui. When I turned 20 I realized I was living on a small rock in the middle of the Pacific and decided I needed to move to the mainland. Here you can drive to another state not just drive and see more ocean. I somehow made my way to El Dorado Kansas and have been here for about 5 months. I am a sophomore here at Butler and, like all of the students who are not sure what they would like to do with the rest of their lives, I am majoring in liberal arts. I recently became a member of the Student Government Association.
I would like to apologize now for how often I may complain about this freezing weather you all have here in Kansas. It is a beautiful state even if it gets a tad bit freezing in the winters and the wind tries to peel the skin from your body. There are definitely no warm beaches and sunny comfortable winters here. The numerous open pastures on the side of the interstate and fields of sunflowers are something you will not see on Maui. You will also be unable to find any of those fat drifting snowflakes on Maui that I have had the pleasure of seeing here.
I love going to different school events whether it is sports, free movie night at the Warren, field trips to the town of Greensburg or programs in the dorms. If I am invited or hear about something fun and do not have to attend one of those pesky things called classes, I will be there. You will generally see my blogs about the different events that are happening at Butler and sometimes out in the community. You may get lucky and see other topics such as the lack of warm clothes available in the state of Kansas for me to purchase to help keep me warm this winter.
Cold weather time means less time spent outside for most people. My friends and I went ice-skating for fun the other day. And bowling and going to concerts are also fun indoor activities, but one thing I’m really looking forward to this winter season is time spent at the movie theater. I enjoy being able to get warm popcorn and sit in the movie theater, blocked from the cold, nasty weather outside and just sit and watch a movie on the big screen. So here are some movies I’m looking forward to seeing this season to get away from the cold:
Sci Fi- The Fourth Kind is presented as a dramatization of supposedly real events that took place in Nome, Alaska, circa 2000. The narration is interspersed with what we’re told is archival footage from therapy sessions, police tapes and interviews. The townspeople of Nome are experiencing sleep-disorders, which they believe are coming from owls, but psychiatrist Dr. Abbey Tyler finds that it’s much more than owls when she starts hypnotizing her patients to see what’s really going on at night.
Comedy- The Invention of Lying is the story of Mark (Ricky Gervais). Mark lives in a parallel universe to ours where people don’t lie. They can’t. Mark’s secretary bluntly tells him that she’s “loathed almost every minute I’ve worked for you,” and people never sugar-coat their opinions of others. If you don’t like the way your blind date looks, you say, “I don’t find you attractive,”- simple as that. But when Mark needs money from the bank to pay his rent, he finds an opportunity to change his circumstances when the computers at the bank are down. Mark invents lying, and quickly finds it easy to use and helpful in many situations with his friends, the authorities, and his job.
Here are a few movies I’ve already seen and highly suggest- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Paranormal Activity, The Time Traveler’s Wife
If you’re anything like me, then you are soooo ready for a break right now. And thank goodness there’s one coming up right around the corner! The next week and a half for me will be spent trying to get my grades back up in all my classes and getting my room ready for Thanksgiving Break check-out. I’ve seen some people’s rooms that might take the whole of two weeks just to clean and I’m glad we didn’t let ours get that bad! But it will take a day to get everything cleaned and swept so nothing’s growing under the bed by the time we get back.
Speaking of growing, I brought a potted plant to my room this week from home and it brings a lot of life to the room, so if you have an extra plant or even a fake one, I suggest trying it in your room. It really makes it feel homier to me.
Thanksgiving Break for me is going to consist of traveling to Caney, KS (near Tulsa) to see my grandparents and eating tons of my grandma’s homemade pies and my aunt’s famous cake rolls. Last year I actually managed to eat an ENTIRE peach pie all by myself in two days while we were there. Probably won’t be doing that again (gotta stick to my “staying fit” blog), but I’m definitely looking forward to a piece or two this year!
The Butler Ladies have one more tour of schools on the 24th, so we’ll be heading out a lot later than most people, but it will be interesting to see the campus with nearly everyone gone. What are your plans for Thanksgiving Break? Leave us a comment here or join our discussion board on Facebook and tell us about any family traditions you do every year or awesome plans you have for this year.
Zazzle.com is an online customizing store. You’re able to customize anything from shirts and cups, to skateboards and stamps!
I used zazzle.com to make my friend a shirt for his Christmas present. I was able to pick the color, the style of shirt, and the fabric. I was also able to upload my own picture and size it on the shirt so I’d know how it would look. They even include different models so you can see your shirts on different body types.
The site is incredibly easy to maneuver through and the pricing is very affordable. Simply go to the “Create” tab at the top of the site and look through the many options available for customizing awesome gifts for your friends and family. Not feeling creative? Zazzle also has a tab for looking at other people’s creations so you can shop for a gift that’s already been designed.
It’s free to create an account and their site gives you a quality guarantee! I had a slight problem with the first shirt I made, and it was a piece-of-cake having it sent back and replaced for free.
So if you’re in a rut trying to find that perfect hat or shirt for that special someone, design it yourself! You can make the gift they’ve always wanted and it really shows you care. Plus it’s just lots of fun!
A friend of mine brought something to my attention the other day that kind of made me think about and analyze the whole ‘judging experience’. After spending a week on the road, both practicing and attending a couple of contests, she asked me how the trip was. I explained to her how our trip started out with just a couple of people with slight illnesses but after spending a week in close contact with one another, every one of us caught the ‘mystery illness’ (oh no, hope it wasn’t…).
Anyway, I continued to explain that it might have spread due to the fact that we were standing in muddy cattle pens in very cold temperatures, under damp, misty and somewhat foggy skies. Think I might have seen something similar to the sun a few times. Over the course of the week our van became overly strewn with tissues and every voice became raspy and nasal. Each convenience store stop brought more cold medication and more cough drops. Except one stop, which brought us much more.
One break left us wishing we couldn’t smell as well as still could anyway. Grady came back from the restroom with a oily spot on his shirt and got in the van without a word. It wasn’t long before this very strong, cheap musky cologne smell penetrated the entire van. It was not long before someone asked Grady about the spot on his shirt.
“Oh, there was a machine in the restroom where you put in a quarter, stand close and it squirts out cologne on you.” He explained.
Wow! The only thing worse than the perfume in the beauty shop on senior’s day is a .25 cologne spritz from a truck stop restroom. I don’t think Grady will ever fully be able to remove that spot from his shirt.
So after explaining all of the perils of the week, she said, “Wow, sounds terrible.”
I was totally caught off guard by this comment. “What? Absolutely not! It was a really great trip!” I responded.
I went home and really gave some thought to her interpretation of our trip and why I did not see it like that at all and I came up with a few ideas about this. I think people that judge at the level that our judging team has reached might be different in some respects.
First, we are all highly competitive and we consistently reach for more. In doing so, I don’t think we see challenges as most people might. To us, challenges are just one more ‘hurdle’ that we believe we can conquer. The more hurdles placed in our way, the harder we work and the sweeter the victory. Our trip was amazing because we met the challenges head on and we went on to dominate at the Stockman Contest.
I think some people see themselves as victims of their lives, victims of the state of affairs of the world. The Butler Livestock Judging Team never see’s themselves as victims, no matter the circumstances. We only see challenges as one more hurdle that we will work hard to cross—and it is in the crossing itself where we find the fuel that drives us on to do it all again.
I have no doubt that each and everyone of my teammates will go on to lead highly successful lives. I do doubt however, that any one of them will ever find themselves a ‘victim’ of life. I am not quite sure whether the livestock judging itself gave us this perspective on life or whether we were all drawn to judging because this is an inherent trait. Either way, I’m so proud to be a part of it! I hope I always see the glass as half full!
“A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn’t see the clouds at all – he’s walking on them” – Leonard Louis Levinson
Even, as in our case, if the cloud was a little spritz of truck stop cologne.
Kat Robinson
Show week was awesome! It started off kind of scary with nearly half the mass choir sick and not able to go to rehearsals, but by Thursday night, almost everyone was either well or toughing it out and our shows started out awesome. Our first show’s theme was “The Road.” It featured songs from other countries, songs about driving, songs about places, and songs about the road to love.
The Butler Headliners
Thursday night my friend Melinda and her husband, Callahan, came down to watch my performance along with my old dance partner, Tim. After the first half of the show we left at intermission and got ice cream at Braum’s. The boys got double scoops of the brightest colors they had and were regretting the huge amount of ice cream by the end.
Jeniffer and I before Thursday's show
Friday night’s show went well and had a good crowd. Saturday afternoon’s performance went alright, the matinee shows are always the hardest to perform at because the crowd usually isn’t as wild and enthusiastic as in the evenings. Saturday night my parents came up to watch and we ate at Double D’s before the show. The food there is really good, especially their pancakes! Saturday night’s show was probably the best for my group (the Butler Ladies); and Chamber Singers, the mass choir, and Headliners all had wonderful shows that night as well. I’m not sure what to do with all my free time in the evenings now that show week is over, but with the next concert coming up in December, I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that much longer!
