winter wonderland

this is the view outside our window that we woke up to this morning...a winter wonderland. it's just so beautiful when it's untouched and bright, and every little branch is covered in white. plus, it's great snowball snow! :) pretty impressive for the first (substantial) snow of the year!

give thanks

...for a church family that braves the cold all for the sake of fellowship and supporting their community

...that my father did not get injured while running around on the football field with high schoolers. :)


...for families to be together again

...for friends that have become family

...for wonderful traditions that stand the test of time and distance

Violet Ann Eloise Lewicki

...for new life

...for lifelong friendships

...for unconditional love

...for a God that answers our prayers...and grants patience for ones yet unanswered

...for everything HE has given us and so much more


give thanks


Our mouths were filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
“The LORD has done great things for them.”
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy.
Psalm 126

my 2 cents

this year we are struggling to form a freshmen girls basketball team. last year i only had 7 girls, and this year only 7 girls came out again. now before you go thinking that i'm scaring them all off before they even get to high school, it's not true....really. it's a trend that we are seeing in sports across the board at timothy christian. as coaches, we're stuck scratching our head and wondering why we have to beg kids to stay playing or search the halls far and wide to find enough bodies to fill our uniforms. i ran across this quote from a volleyball coach's blog in an entry titled "my love letter to athletics"...

“We need to encourage parents, coaches, sports leagues, the culture itself to go back to multiple sports participation. And there needs to be real off-seasons with unstructured play. No adults. No rules. No leagues. No registration cards. One of the best sentences a parent can utter is ‘Go outside and play.’ One of the worst is, ‘It’s nine a.m. Get in the car, we’re going to practice.’” (Warrior Girls)

"go outside and play." pretty sure i heard that one a time or two. but that "play" is now what i love. so i realized i need to say a big thank you to my parents and coaches who instilled in me a love for play with the right perspective....and my siblings and friends for being my teammates. a love for play in its pure, hard-working, sometimes unstructured but so very rewarding form.

from one to another

saturday marked the end of the timothy volleyball season this year. we made it to the regional final match, but lost in a tough 3 set match to immaculate conception high (in illinois, you go through regionals and then sectionals.....and you only play best of 3 matches). the girls played so hard and had some pretty amazing saves....at one point i even cracked the corner of my clipboard off b/c i was so excited about a diving save by our libero! :) i had such a great group of girls this year - of course we had our struggles, but they had so much fun as a group and had great team chemistry, which isn't really something you can coach.

with the end of volleyball comes the beginning of basketball. no rest for the weary - freshmen girls bball practice starts tomorrow afternoon! i think i have a small team again this year, so no worries about playing time or making sure the girls get in good shape. matt's already started bball season and has a full week of practice to go along with parent teacher conferences this week...it will be a busy week for him!

last weekend, i was able to go back to dordt to visit my brother, see a few volleyball games, and be at van den bosch's reception. it was a great weekend away to visit friends and family....and really fun to see some high level volleyball again.

some pictures of jill (and her baby #2) and i....

and with coach...

colorful

there is no doubt that fall is absolutely my favorite season - the sound of crunching leaves....volleyball season....harvest season....cool enough to open up the windows all day long....and of course all the reds, yellows, and oranges of trees and birds. yes, birds. it's not every day that i go for a run (i could end the sentence here, but that's not the point :) !) and see a man walking his parrot. well, i did...just last week. it made me a little nervous with it just perched on the man's arm with nothing restricting it from flying right off and right at me. i just avoided parrot eye contact and picked up my pace. thankfully no harm done, but i did find out that parrots are pretty loud birds - i could still hear it squawking after i was an entire block away, over the sound of my music. i guess parrot pets need some fresh air every once in a while too....

our volleyball season is nearing the end. we have 2 more conference games this week and then we start playoffs the following week. the girls have done great this year...our current record is 21-12, and 2 conference wins this week would put us in a 3-way tie for 1st in the conference. last week we honored eight seniors at our last home game. that was a little bittersweet...i have been coaching four of these seniors all 3 of my years here at timothy. they are a great group of girls and it won't be quite the same without them.

last week we also took part in a volley for the cure game. here's the team with their pink jerseys for the night...

matt's parents came to visit this weekend and toughed out a long day on the bleachers at my vball tournament. i've had family come to 3 of my 4 tournaments (outside of matt who is just the best trooper and statistician EVER for almost every single game!) and i feel so incredibly blessed to have that kind of love and support from family. and to top off a great weekend, we got a surprise visit from brent and becca late on saturday night too! what a great week and weekend!

happy fall everyone!

sista sista

kelli came down to visit this weekend and watch some volleyball. she toughed out a 12 hour day in the gym, sitting right next to me and coach reitsma on the bench the whole time. we make a pretty dynamic coaching combo....we finished 2nd in the tournament. :)

moving along

the summer slumber has ended. my schedule has picked up now....classes have started and i'm getting observation hours in a 3rd grade classroom 1-2 days a week. this semester i'm taking a literacy course for upper elementary and a practicum to go along with my hours.....but really i'm just itching to student teach. i'll be student teaching in the same 3rd grade class that i'm in this fall - it's at timothy, which works really great for coaching.

speaking of coaching, we're about 1/2 way through our season with a 9-8 record. every year presents its own challenges and this year we are really working on mental toughness...which i realized is a pretty hard thing to teach. so if anyone has any great ideas, please pass them along! here's the team...

oh and how could i forget - twins win the division! we better watch our back over here in chicagoland. :)

yah twins!

it can be a dangerous thing to be a twins fan in US cellular stadium...especially when joe mauer hits a 3 run home run and your cheers are surrounded by black and white stares and boos....or when they handily beat the white sox 2 nights in a row and crush their chances to catch up with the twins for the division. :)

over the past two wonderfully wedded years, i admit that i know more about the twins than i ever hoped or really thought possible. so now i find myself getting nervous/excited about their race for october.....and surprised that i am knowledgeable enough to know all this.

at the game on wednesday - the best we can do when target field is just a little too far away to see a game on a school night. :)

after mauer hit his 3 run home run!

wedding fun

this weekend my family...minus ben & bailey :(...went to cousin sarah and randy's wedding in holland. any slenk family reunion is a great time and this weekend was no exception! we danced until our feet hurt...took full advantage of the candy bar....and had lots of fun at the photo booth. our "van" picture didn't turn out the first time around...we may or may not have forgot that we were looking at a mirror image, not how it would turn out in the picture. :)

the second time around we figured it out! bailey, we missed you!

good times....

0-0

tonight we start the 2010 timothy christian volleyball season! after practicing for about 3 weeks, i am definitely ready to change things up and start playing some games. and play we will....from today through saturday, we will have 6 games and 1 practice. the team's looking good so far so i am really excited for the season. if you really want to check out what's going on with our team throughout the season, i have a blog for that too - tcvolleyball.blogspot.com. go trojans! :)

air & water show

a couple weeks ago we went to the air and water show in chicago. it's always something i've wanted to go to since living here, so this year we decided to brave the crowds. we found a nice place in the shade, got ourselves some subway and italian ice, and enjoyed the show....

the acrobat planes

parachuters

the blue angels were definitely my favorite

doing some of their tricks

off and running

ready or not.....here we go! volleyball tryouts start tomorrow night. if you think of it, i would greatly appreciate your prayers for the next 3 days. i have at least 18 girls trying out for the team this year, meaning i definitely have to make some cuts. so the next couple days will probably include lots of writing, scratching, rewriting....a hard time sleeping...and talking matt's ear of with all my thoughts. definitely my least favorite part of coaching. but after friday, i'm looking forward to another great season - should be fun!

finally home

after 2 weeks, 4 states, and roughly 1,500 miles later.....we are home. our 2010 summer vacation started off in edgerton, minnesota to visit family and friends. we were able to golf, bike at lake shetek, mow the lawn (something i actually really miss!), visit friends in sioux falls and sioux center, see how much dordt's campus has changed, go fishing, and just spend some good time with family and friends. unfortunately, i don't have any pictures from this first week...

after minnesota, we left for northern wisconsin to majestic pine lodge near hayward and spent and wonderfully relaxing week with my family. here are just a few pictures of that week...

i only tried my hand at fishing one morning and actually caught something.

every night the sunset was gorgeous!

one day we went to duluth, mn and got to see the tall ships going by the harbor. it was hard to believe that it's already been 2 years since matt and i went there on our honeymoon!

we also made a stop at amnicon falls state park.

and if we hadn't had enough vacation, we made a last minute decision to stop in chippewa falls on the way home and tour the leinenkugel's factory. of course, this was just a pit stop on our way to sheboygan. the only family members we hadn't seen on this vacation were brent and becca, so we just had to stop by and eat at the best pizza ranch there is!

a week in michigan

what a great wedding weekend! on friday night we went to dave and karissa (phelps) klyn's wedding in holland. it was the first time in 3 years that all of our senior year college roommates were able to be together in one place - what a great reunion! quite a bit has changed since then but it's crazy how easy it is to pick back up like we haven't missed a beat.

karissa and dave's wedding was on windmill island. it was a beautiful night!

saturday night was luke and ruth (nederhood) holtrop's wedding in grand rapids. it was so great to have our whole family together...we just had to go to michigan to do it! it's always such a beautiful thing to watch two people who love the Lord unit their lives in love.

i also took a group of girls to calvin volleyball camp this week. spending 5 days with 15 high school girls definitely proves to be a tiring week! i worked at the individual camp that was held during the day and then coached our girls for the team camp at night. i had to drive the girls back to chicago on friday morning after camp, repack my suitcase and come back to michigan for the weddings. so after a crazy, full week, it's great to be home and sleep in my own bed again!

earlier this month it was matt's birthday. he got to pick where we went out to eat, and not much to my surprise, he picked the fish co. restaurant that's in bass pro shops. :) they have a really cool 13,000 gallon fish tank and reeeally good food.

and my surprise birthday gift to him was this awesome painting, custom done by my cousin Elliot Slenk. pretty amazing, i'd say. our apartment has stark white walls right now, so it kinda looks like it's painted right on our walls, but when we change apartments in a few weeks, i'm sure it will have a very special spot.

that's about all for us....i hope everyone's having a great summer!

independence weekend

matt and i went to wisconsin for the weekend to meet up with his family at brent and becca's place in oostburg. we had a great time catching up with family and relaxing. we went to the beach to play some volleyball, freeze our bodies numb in lake michigan, watch some fireworks, and play some bocce ball. we also joined the record setting sales crowd at brent and becca's opening day for the sheboygan pizza ranch.

we also celebrated matt's birthday. here's my crazy husband with a couple of his presents and the wrapping paper that just kept on giving! :)

the sheboygan parade - here were a few of my favorite parts...first, the bagpipers

a dutch area parade is not complete without a few dutch dancers!

and the moment we all waited for - the pizza ranch car! brent's spreading the word of opening day

2 years!

it's hard to believe that our wedding was 2 years ago already! a lot has happened since then.....we've lived in 2 different states, 3 different apartments, i've had 2 different jobs (well, major jobs - i'm not counting dog walking and all those crazy part time ones i had when we first moved here!), and all in all we've had 2 wonderful years together. i thought i'd be fun to relive that day with a few pictures....