The five of us (and many who attend our church) are waiting with bated breath to find out whether the house Megan and Chris want to buy and rent to the VS unit is going to be ours or not.

The house, which is located on the same cross-street we live on now (but at the Lake Mendota end) is gorgeous. I just walked by it yesterday. Three stories, possibly a basement, gable windows, a warm red color with yellow trim. It would undoubtedly be spacious enough for a whole unit of VSers.

An offer has already been made on the house, but there’s just enough room for the bidder to back out that we’re still crossing our fingers. Thanks for your perseverance, Megan and Chris!

The boys enjoy Annie's no-bake cookies.

I haven’t yet put any of my photos on the blog, so I figured it was past time to get my November and December ones out to you, faithful reader.

In November, in addition to the appearance of the Virgin Mary (see below), Annie impressed us with some delicious baking. One example of such dessertery was her no-bake chocolate cookies, which we relished (see above). I particularly like the way Ryan, Ben, and Andrew are so absorbed in the deliciousness that they’re oblivious to the camera.

The elusive Annie peers through the porthole to her baking station

Andrew plays Chubby Bunny with... I think Giant Cheetos

Jake, Ryan, and Max

Speaking of energy consumption… l

Ryan looks on as Ben assesses the window wrap situation

Our snow-covered Marquette Neighborhood home

We had so much snow that Wednesday that the buses stopped running, all the schools cancelled, and all the MVSers except Ben had the day off! We spent our snow day playing games inside, building things outside, and eating a picnic lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese. Yes, you can have a picnic in the dead of winter… if you have a super awesome fort like we did.

Snow Day Phase 10 with Andrew, Ryan, and Annie

The Menno Simons Snow Fort

Snow-Babushka stands sentinel

Gussied-Up Snow Woman also stands sentinel

Giant snowman outside the Weary Traveler (we later found out that Max made it)

Jolly Bob's, one of two Jamaican restaurants in a two-block radius

Snowy bicycles and morning glory climbing ropes outside Mother Fool's, Willy Street's favorite hipster coffee shop

So there you have it. Winter in Madison isn’t half as bad as I was afraid it would be. Especially when there are two frozen lakes to walk, snowshoe, ski, or run across (which I did today, by the way, and it was awesome).

The Virgin appeared to me in a water spill

You are looking at a photo I took on November 22nd, 2009, of a water spill on the dining room table in the MVS house.

I like to think of it as God’s way of saying, “I like it that Madison has an MVS unit.”

A brief description of my job placement has been part of my profile on this blog for some time, but here it is as a post in case you have not seen it yet.  My volunteer position is at an organization called Options in Community Living which supports people with developmental disabilities who are living in the community.  My specific task is to help with community building which means helping those with disabilities to interact with the greater Madison community.  I spend time trying to find volunteers who will take someone the organization supports out for coffee, to church, or any number of other things.  This is both a very rewarding and tough position.  If I help someone to form a relationship that will last for years and be a fulfilling part of someone’s life then I have greatly succeeded.  However, it is difficult and often downright annoying trying to find people who are willing to fill this role.  People in general are busy which makes it tough to take time our of their weekly schedule to spend an hour or two with someone.  I have made an effort to spend as much time as I can each week with people that I help to support.  This is in part due to my dislike for time spent sitting in an office, but also because I find this time spent with people to be much more rewarding and far less frustrating then time spent perusing though volunteer and timeshare websites.  Not to take away from the importance of facilitating the formation of life long friends ships:)  It is just tough when there aren’t many responses.   Overall my job placement has many challenges and many rewards at the same time, and can provide a growing experience for anyone who finds them self up to the challenge, or someone who wants to learn more about the social work industry.

Madison as a city is pretty cool.  Being the state capital and also having the main University of Wisconsin campus leads to plenty of fun things to do.  The city doesn’t feel big as it is easy to bike to almost any part of the city within a short amount of time which is nice.  However, the wintertime definitely puts a damper on getting out and doing things due to the cold.  I have found the motivation to continue to bike to work and occasionally the YMCA, but I usually don’t feel like biking around for the fun of it anymore.

Have a great week!

Ben

It was a cold, blustery day. We bundled up, hopped in the van, and drove over to Evjue Park, home of hapless sledders walking straight up the middle of a slicked-down hill. Up, up, up we went (far far away from the middle of the hill), and when we got to the top we found Jake, Erica, and Sara waiting for us with sleds. So many sleds!

There was Roundy, the purple plastic disc, which spun incessantly so you couldn’t tell which half of the hill was up and which was down.

There was the Torpedo, a black sled equipped with brakes but little to no steering. As I careened down the hill on the Torpedo, I had to belt out warnings to clumps of people who had toppled off their sleds (“Look out! I can’t steer!) while laughing hysterically.

Then there was Wipeout Willy, the grey sled I fell off no fewer than four times on the same run.

And my personal favorite, the Rainbow. “It’s fast,” said Ryan, and he wasn’t kidding. I watched him pelt away down the hill, flip at the bottom, and roll about ten feet off into the soft snow. And what about Erica and Sara’s ill-fated tandem run? They  must have hit a bump. Erica said, “We were going faster and faster, and I saw Max, and then I looked up and Sara was in the sky!”

Max was there with his giant kite. Reportedly he’d been letting it pull him across the ice on his ice skates. This time he was attempting to let it pull him down the hill. The wind was strong – it probably could’ve given him some serious velocity – but the hill acted as a windbreak, and as soon as he was over the crest it deflated. A valiant attempt nonetheless.

And of course there was the giant sled train of everyone: a pile-up at the bottom resulted in some pretty gnarly ice burn on Erica’s face and a few bruised ribs, but I think all involved would agree it was worth it. (Yes? No?)

Some Photos from the Fun!

Ben and Andrew on top of the…hill

The MVSers prepare for a final descent

Annie, Jake, and Erica take a rest

The MMC group poses before heading home

The folks at the Partnership for the National Trails System decided I should introduce myself in their newsletter, so I obliged with the piece that follows.

– Laura

I first fell in love with trails in high school, when I was running on them most mornings all summer and several afternoons a week during the school year. I was on the cross country team, you see, and training on trails honed our hill-climbing fitness and made us surefooted on rough terrain.

My teammates and I ran in Eagle Creek Park, a natural haven of nearly 4,000 acres in my native Indianapolis. It’s a big park – I got lost pretty regularly at first (that made for some long runs). Now, nine years later, I know every trail in that park – the rooty staircase on the Reservoir Run, the jack-in-the-pulpits surrounding a bench on the Volksmarch trail in the springtime, the maples whose trunks and leaves become pillars, arches, and stained glass on my favorite side trail. Whenever I run those trails, I feel like I’m seeing an old friend.

So why would I go all the way to Madison, Wisconsin, and leave Eagle Creek behind? To blaze some new trails, I suppose. I graduated last spring from a small school in northern Indiana called Goshen College, with an English major and a developing (and relatively mismatched) interest in sustainability. So I decided to commit to a year of service to try and link the language with the land.

The program through which I’m volunteering for the Partnership is called Mennonite Voluntary Service, and it’s a program of the Mennonite church, the small Protestant denomination I grew up in. MVS offers its volunteers a chance to work in a professional position of their choosing, in any of 22 locations all around the United States, unpaid but with basic living expenses provided. Madison appealed to me, having earned a reputation as a green city, and I soon came upon the Partnership for the National Trails System, headquartered in Madison, in my search for environment-related placement options.

I was intrigued: here was an organization that existed to improve and unite, not just one park or trail, but an entire (and extensive!) system of national trails. I’d hit paydirt – figuratively speaking, of course. Gary and Julia agreed to take me on as a part-time volunteer, and I started work at 222 South Hamilton in October. Since then, I’ve assisted with various mailings, a congressional directory, survey analyses, action alerts, and occasional copy editing. I’ve even made it out to Wisconsin’s own National Scenic Trail – as of December, I’ve been working half-time with the Ice Age Trail Alliance, a perfect pairing that lets me see how the Partnership interacts with one of its trail partners.

From one trail lover to another – thank you for all the work you do to preserve, protect, and maintain the beautiful places that stir us and keep us surefooted.

For us Wisconsin transplants, things can get a little hairy around Oconomowoc and Mazomanie. I found this site while searching the internet at work for info on a Wisconsin politician. If nothing else, maybe it’ll help us remember how to pronounce the mayor’s name…

More to the point, I learned that Ryan is getting a little publicity at WYOU. The modest fellow didn’t post this link to the WYOU blog, but I will!

Happy New Year to all, especially those considering joining MVS in the fall. I for one am excited to see what – and who – the new year will bring.