september ending

this is octoberfest...probably one of, if not the biggest event at timothy christian high school in the fall. about 3/4 of the student body gets dressed up in the most ridiculous, colorful, mismatched clothes they can find. there's a theme every year and then each class sing these crazy songs...some where they have used a tune and just change the words....and pretty much have a great time making fools of themselves. it's really hard to describe but it's quite the event, complete with it's own traditions...like freshman are not allowed to wear socks and only seniors are allowed on stage for the final number. as crazy and ridiculous as it was, i think every high school should have an octoberfest (and no, i don't know why they call it octoberfest when it's always held in september).

tonight my volleyball team played chicago christian, the best team that we have faced so far this season. it was quite an exciting game - we won the first game 25-22, lost the second by the same score, and won the third 25-21. i really knew it was an entertaining game when even matt told me so. :) the year is going really well and the girls are starting to move and read the ball and just learn as they play...it's great. with just 3 weeks or so left in the season, hopefully we can finish that strong too.

every once in a while i get asked about my job situation, and rightfully so since i've kinda been all over the place ever since we moved here. right now i'm pretty sure that i'm wrapping up my final week of aiding in the kindergarten. i'm not sure what's exactly happening once i leave, but i just do as i'm told and working for 2-3 weeks. after that i am going to go talk to a friend's sister-in-law about some temp work for a couple months. it's not something steady yet, but i'm just trusting that God will continue to provide, even if it is several short term things.

on a more serious note, this week the timothy christian community found out that mrs. venhousen, one of the discovery room teachers got diagnosed with stage four cancer, and it has spread all throughout her body. she has 2 kids in the high school, one on the freshman volleyball team, but i don't know her personally. it has hit everyone at school pretty hard, so even though you don't know her, we ask that you pray for mrs. venhousen's healing and the timothy community as a whole.

and to not end this on a sad note....congratulations to nate and nicole again!! so happy for you guys!! :)

the chicago life

you know you had a busy weekend when it's monday and you already feel like you need a break. that's kinda how matt and i felt this week, but it was well worth it because it was a great weekend! on friday we took my parents out to downtown naperville to try out a new chicago style pizza place. matt and i have already tried out giordano's and are slowly trying out all the chicago style pizza places that are supposedly "the best chicago style pizza ever." naperville brought us to lou malnati's. my vote thus far.....giordano's. matt is torn.

since living in chicago for almost 2 months, matt and i finally made it downtown for the first time on saturday afternoon/evening after my parents and sister left. we really didn't have a set plan, so we decided to start on the north side of michigan avenue and work our way south, just going to shops and places that caught our eye. the only set thing on our schedule was making a stop at ESPNzone and the ever famous bean. and we made sure to get out of there before the estatic cubs fans took after downtown.

and then we hit the new week running. i'm still attending kindergarden daily and i wish that i could remember half of the funny and frustrating things that happen. but while i'm there, i cover quite the span of roles....with everything from sticker chart manager to time-out watcher to gym time soccer player to trumpet maker. yes...trumpet maker. they have these bendy foam things in the classroom and i bet i had to make 7 trumpets today. i kinda felt like a balloon maker.

or today i was sitting at a table with three boys and they were going on and on about who was who's best friend and who could be which transformer during the next recess. "boys, you could just be a trio." i said in attempt to settle the dispute and get them back on task. "i have a churro!! it's long and got lots of cinnamon on it!!" one of the boys said really excitedly with huge eyes. really, what can you do but just laugh.

all thirteen of them are so brutally honest and yet try to get away with everything...so willing to give their love yet too often reacting with a shove....so eager to help yet clean up takes forever! ....so quickly to get in trouble yet so quickly to cry in remorse. it's all taken a while to get used to yet ironically refreshing at times.

here’s a few pictures from downtown…

this is jamari and caleb playing their trumpets. because i took their picture, they said they would "now be in a magazine and be rockstars" :)
madison and lydia with yet another one of my handiwork trumpets.

life in kindergarden

for the past three days i have been at timothy christian grade school with some short term employment. my job is to aide in the kindergarden for two weeks. and after three days, i definitely know why God gave certain people the gift to teach five year olds...if for the only reason that because people like me cannot. i can handle, and at times enjoy, a couple weeks of asking students to keep their hands to themselves, being the recipient of any and every story formulated in their little heads, and tying shoelaces 30 times a day. but i'll be completely honest...i could never do it for a full school year. although i completely enjoy snack time, nap time, and recess...and at least they make you laugh just when you've had about enough.

other than living in the kindergarden world...i have an interview with a physical therapy company on friday for a part time job. my volleyball team is still doing good with only about a month left in the season. and kelli and my mom are coming up for part of the weekend and i'm really excited to have them come!

this and that

this is my team...colleen, ashley, aimee (bottom)...anna, shelly, rachel, kari (middle)...cathy, erika, amanda, lauren (top). this is saturday, after we won our tournament! it turned out to be a pretty long day - being in the gym fro 8:30 am to 4:30 pm seems a lot longer than eight hours when you don't get to play any of them :). but it's been a good time so far and the girls are a lot of fun to coach.

well, after a long wait, i'm back on the job market. the grade school ended up only hiring one aide, and it was probably going to go to a former teacher from timothy. i have a few physical therapy companies suggested to me by one of my player's moms who is also a therapist, so hopefully something will work out pretty soon. in the mean time, i'm definitely getting my fill of oprah (which shows in the mornig here in chicago), trying to do a good job of keeping the apartment clean, and taking care of my allergy-stricken husband. :)

but i'm not complaining...the weather is turning to fall and i am completely enjoying the change to my favorite season!

0-1

the timothy christian sophomore volleyball team made its big debut last night, but it didn't quite turn out as we would have hoped. i think the four day weekend made us more rusty than relaxed, but considering that it was their first home match, you could tell the adrenaline was pumping and the nerves were high. me? i wasn't too nervous...but i definitely wasn't comfortable. the gym was a hot box....and we all know how easily i sweat! the games were close - i think the scores were 25-19 and 25-21 but i'm not 100% on that. see, i gave the girls who were sitting on the bench for that game some basic stat sheets, and on there was a place to put the final scores.....but all they wrote was a "won" and "lost" instead of the actual score. :) our next game is tomorrow so we'll see if we can get a win.

cities and farms

the differences between the western suburbs of chicago and the van wyk family farm in iowa are quite obvious. but there are some things that i just don't think about...like thursday at practice. i let the girls scrimmage for the last few minutes. the score was 5-5 and i yelled out to everyone that there was only 3 minutes of practice remaining. "oh man, it's going to be a close one!" one of my players said. to which i replied, "it's a barn burner!" i got a blank stare from her and she's like, "what in the world is a barn burner?"

i always thought that was a pretty universal phrase and maybe it is. either way i found it pretty funny, considering that most of my players have probably never been on a farm before. that's probably why they didn't seem as excited as i was when i told them i had great labor day weekend plans. i guess going to iowa doesn't really match up to a weekend at the house on lake michigan in their eyes. that's ok...going back to the wide open spaces, no traffic, big starry sky iowa was a wonderful weekend for us.

matt and i definitely did not sit still on our four day weekend. early friday morning we left for my parents house, took an hour break from the car and then hopped right back in and headed up to sioux center with my parents. in the 20 hours that we were in northwest iowa, we saw brent finish 5th in his cross country race, watched 2 exciting dordt volleyball matches-both going 5 games, and got to catch up with a lot of good friends. we headed straight from orange city to pella to catch a tailgating supper put on by dordt and a pella christian football game. dordt was gracious enough to give my husband supper as well, even though he happen to be wearing his nw apparel. :)

besides being able to do all those things and see so many people again, there were some additional perks to the weekend....dad and mom paying for some meals on the road.....going to pizza ranch again....and matt feeling safe enough to wear his twins shirts. overall it was a great weekend and even relaxing among the many miles and busy schedule.

and last but not least, another highlight was seeing nate's dog sydney while she is still a puppy....

nate thought it would be funny to give matt a dordt baseball sweatshirt to wear at the football game.....so matt willingly allowed sydney to bite at it.