our adventures

blessed

2011-09-06T20:42:00.000-05:00

friendships can reach many different levels, but nothing is quite as rich or valuable as the ones that can withstand hundreds of miles, years apart, and all the crazy things life throws at us. and how sweet it is when we have the opportunity to drop everything, even for a few short days to come together again. to laugh until my mouth is cemented into a permanent smile, my stomach hurts, and it looks like i'm really crying. to meld back into memories and feel carefree with the whole world before us. to see how much we've changed, where we've been, and just enjoy the fact that some things in life don't seem to change at that much after all. to stay up past midnight talking but somehow feeling so refreshed when the weekend is over. friendship is a blessing.

eyes to the sky

2011-08-22T19:26:00.003-05:00

we had a crazy attempt to see the air and water show downtown this weekend. when we left the train station with partly cloudy skies, we never expected to step out of union station to a full out thunderstorm. (so much for the hour by hour forecast!) we puddle jumped from subway to garrett's popcorn to old navy and finally to millennium park. after cramming more people than an umbrella is made to cover one more time, we were about ready to pack it in and go home when just like that -- blue skies. so after walking 3 miles with soggy feet, we got to see a shortened but still impressive air show. it was definitely a fun afternoon to remember!

sonja, joy, and i at the bean

i wish we took a video - the sound is just as impressive!

back to reality

2011-08-03T22:07:00.004-05:00

in a funny way, summer has flown by...yet door county seems like ages ago. so what has taken up our time during the whirlwind we called our summer? it went a little like this....

our summer began in the timothy christian gym and/or baseball field, sweating out hours in summer camps and, naturally, eating our fair share of freeze pops. one baseball camp, one basketball camp, a trip to door county, and three volleyball camps later....and june is over.

we waste no time over here in the van schepen home. the hour my last volleyball camp was done, we hit the road for iowa to embark on our month of travel. welcome to july.

in typical summer fashion, we put on more miles than we prefer to count. and praise God that they were all safe and smooth going. we started heading north to emo, ontario. with a little careful planning for our bathroom stops (with thanks to minnesota's government shutdown) and a successful border crossing, we started our travels off with a fun weekend celebrating jake and jolene's wedding.

thankfully, we had a twins game scheduled for july 4, otherwise i'm not so sure i was going to be able to convince my husband to come back out of north country. it was a battle of two loves for him, but the twins always win. :) it was a hot afternoon but a great game to watch with some pretty amazing company...and the twins won! moving on to edgerton, i had the privilege of experiencing my first dutch festival. a highlight of the trip, no doubt. from there it was back to iowa for a few days for a good bondfires and four wheeler rides.

moving on...cause we don't sit still very well...matt went on a fishing trip to minnesota and i went to michigan for calvin volleyball camp. i got to catch up with some college friends, all of whom are coaching their own vball teams. thankfully, we had A/C in the gyms to combat the record temperatures. but i could only escape the heat for so long. i think we will always reference the heat to...."at least it's not as hot as it was on the weekend of ben and bailey's wedding!" but the heat can't stop a good party and the wedding was absolutely beautiful with perfect evening temperatures to dance the night away. congrats ben and bailey!!

and that brings us back home....kinda. we are currently dog/house sitting so sleeping in my own bed is still a few days away. after that, the summer ends where it began....back in the TC gym. volleyball tryouts are a week away - the true sign of summer's end for me.

so there you have our summer in a nutshell. we plan on fully utilizing every last drop of summer in the coming weeks and hope you do the same!

door county

2011-06-17T18:49:00.009-05:00

there's something refreshing about wide open spaces. it's amazing to be in God's beautiful creation, especially when you get to spend it with people you love. matt and i were able to spend time with his family in door county this past week.

we had perfect weather to kayak 5 miles to see caves and part of a shipwreck (i don't have pictures of that) and go hiking at a couple different state parks. here's a few other highlights of the trip...

the water was pretty cold yet, so it was only ankle deep for me.

we went to a fish boil one night. i guess the fish boil master wasn't kidding when he asked everyone to step back 15 more feet before they burn the fat off the top of their boil! it may not seem like it from this picture, but that was some of the best fish i've had in a long time!

skipping rocks and beautiful sunsets - doesn't get much better!

we also saw many of the lighthouses on the peninsula. this one is the eagle bluff light house, and we saw at least 5 more.

matt and i also celebrated our 3rd anniversary this past week. God has taught us, stretched us, and showered His love on us these past 3 years, and i can't wait to see what he has in store for us this coming year! just a little walk down memory lane for that special day...

summer projects

2011-06-01T18:57:00.007-05:00

the graduation song is probably playing at the timothy christian 8th grade graduation as i type, so that means.....summer is officially here! tutoring and subbing have wrapped up until summer tutoring kicks off, so i've being doing other things to keep busy. here's my latest project....

all i needed was 3 yards of fabric...

...3 art canvases we had hanging around (the brown one is from a painting experiment gone wrong)

...a scissors, glue gun, and some HGTV on in the background - for great inspiration, of course - and ta-da! wall hangings for our bare bedroom walls. (the closest one is really more of a sage green color, but i couldn't get a picture to show it quite right)

everything went pretty smoothly, except this little bugger. pleating this fabric proved a little harder than i thought it would. otherwise, this was totally my kind of project - cheap, quick , and easy!

it's only taken me 3 years to get some decoration on our bedroom walls....that's a lot of HGTV just to give me a little inspiration :).

running and baseball

2011-05-17T13:01:00.005-05:00

a few weeks ago, i went up to michigan to run the calvin classic 5K with kelli. we strategically matched our running outfits so that the photographers around the course would take our picture.....

success! i think the photographer must have known i wasn't a calvin grad. but it was very nice of him to take the picture when we were close to the finish line - it appears as if we were cruising at this pace for the whole race. :)

a couple weeks later - the elim eagle's wings 5K. timothy christian represented quite well in this inaugural race. it was a little chilly before the race but perfect running weather.

finished! and i think this concludes my running season for the spring. i will admit i'm not the most motivated runner....i think i need a running buddy.

matt's baseball season also ended last week. they had a great year, finishing 15-9. i was very appreciative that we finally got some baseball weather the last week of the season and i am in short sleeves and not my winter coat!

the team - i was very proud of the fact that i knew everyone's name by the end of the season. i even had high school students asking me who people were during the games. :)

pe teacher for a day

2011-05-14T14:27:00.006-05:00

friday, may 13, 2011

8:15 am

i take my first pe class outside for a rousing game of speedball, ignoring all whines and begs to stay inside out of the heat. as expected, my sweat glands did not let me down and by just standing in the middle of the field as the ref, i successfully started sweating far more than the group of girls who refused to walk more than 10 steps without a little stern encouragement.

11:15 am

the rowdy freshmen bunch bounded outside with more enthusiasm than i came to expect for a high school pe class. i was also surprised at the spring temperatures that decided to grace our presence...a mere 3 hours after i was ready to resign myself to the fact that we were jumping right from winter to summer. now this is the type of weather i would like from now until september, please.

1:15 pm

on to a class of middle schoolers, who are both complaining and rejoicing that today is the last day to run the mile. i'm giving them a pep talk that the weather is beautiful and it's a great day to run. i take no more than two steps outside and i'm made into a liar. now i'm just trying to cover myself and come up with reasons why a brisk wind and temperatures that are a solid 25-30 degrees cooler than this morning are still prime running conditions. i don't think they believed me...especially when i couldn't hide the goosebumps on my arms.

someone please help me....what season are we in again???

color

2011-05-09T21:40:00.005-05:00

i didn't make it to tulip time this year but was very excited to get my tulip fix at the cantigny gardens. the only thing missing was a poffertjes and stroopwaffle stand! :)

we had a great weekend - marlin, karen, brent, and becca came to visit. saturday was a great day for baseball (aka - finally not raining!) and matt came away with 2 decisive wins. sunday was absolutely gorgeous and we had a beautiful day visiting the war museum and gardens at cantigny.

i love the color that is blooming all around us. the trees are now starting to lose their blooms, but the beautiful color is a welcome sign of spring to balance all the rain! now with warmer temperatures this week - ahh...i think we've finally brushed off the last taste of winter.

reading

2011-04-13T14:23:00.003-05:00

without student teaching and classes, i have more time on my hands. so i'm taking advantage of not having to read textbooks anymore and have become a little library worm. here are my recent reads (all in the past couple weeks - i wasn't lying about the book worm part!). they are all different genres and for a range of age levels, but i highly recommend all of them...

Same Kind of Different as Me (Ron Hall and Denver Moore)
Candle in the Darkness (Lynn Austin)
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
Crazy Love (Francis Chan)
Among the Imposters (Margaret Peterson Haddix)
Among the Betrayed (Margaret Peterson Haddix)

i love a good book suggestion, so if you have a favorite, please pass it along!

spring!

2011-04-04T17:26:00.006-05:00

i figured since the view outside our window has slightly changed since my last post, i better write again....

a few weeks ago nate and nicole spent a weekend of their spring break with us. nicole treated nate to a wrigley field tour and we tagged along, which was also my first time in the stadium. i think i'd like to go back when it's a little warmer!

fast forward a few weeks and it was spring break for matt and i. so we hopped in the car and drove 15 hours to denver with two other teachers from timothy. we survived western nebraska and eastern colorado with a rousing game of "my cows" and several bags of starburst jelly beans. we were able to catch up with family, some people matt got to know during his time student teaching, and enjoy the beautiful weather. only in denver can you wake up to snow and then enjoy 65 degrees in the afternoon! we went to red rocks on a beautiful sunday afternoon...

...went snow shoeing in rocky mountain national park. (the views were well worth the shortage of oxygen and these plain dwellers weren't used to!)

...and just enjoyed the view of majestic mountains!

in other news....student teaching is done! i was at timothy christian for 11 weeks in the 3rd grade and absolutely loved it. but my last day of student teaching also meant getting on the job hunt. i've been sending out my application a lot of places and had a few interviews since the beginning of the new year, but nothing has worked out. to be honest, it's really been a struggle for me. i'm starting to feel that matt belongs right where we are, but nothing is opening up for me...leaving me feeling a little confused as to what i should do or where i should look. filling out those applications and anxiously waiting by my phone and email is teaching me a lesson in patience and trust....but i'm not so good at it all the time. so as i wait, i trust that God will provide again in His timing, as he has so many times before. :)

well, that's about all from illinois. here's to ever warming temperatures and a sun-filled spring!

double snow day

2011-02-03T12:07:00.003-06:00

we already knew on tuesday afternoon that school was cancelled for wednesday, so we hunkered down for "blizzard 2011." this is what we woke up to on wednesday morning...

15+ inches on top of our picnic table

just as i was going to take matt's picture, the wind picked up and blew snow right in his face :)

in our section of the parking lot, we pull right up to a retaining wall. this van had snow that was level from the back of the van to the top of that retaining wall. when he dug out the van and pulled it out of the spot, we could read his license plate from an imprint in the snow drift!

our car just a couple spaces away from that van...the whole front end covered.

a weird drift next to the sonata.

matt digging out the front of the car.

so what do you do when 15"+ fall in less than 24 hours? well, we started off with a blizzard brunch with our neighbors...complete with scones, omlettes, and bacon. then we (or i should really say matt did most all of it) dug out our cars and our friends' cars, plus a couple other neighbors that were attempting to dig that much snow with anything from swiffers, ice cream buckets, rubbermaid lids, and ice scrapers. and that night we played some great rounds of wii bowling. i had the game of my life, bowling a 275 with 10 strikes and 1 spare....too bad i can't do that in real life!

that afternoon we got the news that we have snow day #2 today! apparently the side streets weren't plowed and we have very cold temperatures today, so we get to relax at home for another day. double snow days call for blizzard brunch #2....and the school work i put off from yesterday! i hope everyone stayed warm and safe this week!

teaching moments

2011-01-29T23:30:00.003-06:00

i experience my first read-in day at timothy christian this past friday. it's a day where all the kids from K-6 get to come to school in their pajamas with pillows, stuffed animals, and bags of books in tow. the whole day is dedicated to reading - reading silently, guest readers, reading with friends, teacher read alouds, reading with parents - you name it, we read it. matt was one of our guest readers, so it was nice that the kids could make that connection.

the other day i had a pretty great teaching moment. while the 3rd graders were working on their little netbooks with an online math program, one of the students raised her hand. usually they have questions about concepts that we haven't learned yet. but this time, the little girl says.....mrs. van schepen! this makes so much more sense to me now that you taught us about decimals! i will admit that i may have had a little bit of pride in that moment...forgive me. but i won't lie...it's nice to have verbal confirmation straight from the mouth of the students sometimes!

after next week i'll just about be 1/2 way done....crazy! i'm really enjoying my time and learning a lot....especially how hard my own mother worked when she taught AND took care of her family at the same time. it's just me and matt and i feel like i'm in a perpetual losing battle against our dirty clothes hamper! thanks, mom :)

a month in a nutshell

2011-01-21T17:05:00.007-06:00

i had full intentions of getting a post on here about Christmas break before i started student teaching. obviously that didn't happen. it was also a little bit of me not quite knowing how to adequately wrap up those 2 weeks into something coherent. so a month later, here is my attempt - please forgive the randomness....

Christmas break started with a weekend of emotional highs and lows. and since life keeps speeding along at its crazy pace, i'm left feeling inadequate in knowing what to say. how do you put into words a man that has fathered and mentored generations, loved without restriction, and would never think of putting himself before anyone else.....a man that raised a family in a commitment to Christ - truly showing how Great is His Faithfulness....a grandfather that knew and loved each one of his grandchildren in their own unique way, making everyone feel at home when they were with him. i guess it's the same with anyone that's lost someone they love. but we had a beautiful weekend celebrating grandpa's life and rejoicing that he is now painlessly praising our Lord on the streets of gold.

after a roller coaster of emotion that first weekend, matt and i set off for minnesota and then on to iowa. matt was able to ice fish...and i stayed by the heater to read my books and drink plenty of hot apple cider. thankfully, we had dry roads every day we had to travel - that part of christmas always stresses me out! one of my friends here in chicagoland told me she is just amazed at the amount of miles that we log. maybe i'm used to it already, but when you finish a 10 CD book on tape before you even start the trip home, and the back seat and trunk are packed pretty full....for 2 people!...i guess it's quite a trip.

and now it's on to student teaching. i'm in 3rd grade and love it! my school just does 1 placement, so i'll be there through the end of march. starting next week, i'll be teaching everything but reading and writing, so things are getting busy. i love the teaching part, just not all the formal write ups that i have to do for my college. my class is great (actually spoiling me too much b/c they are so well behaved) and my cooperating teacher's wonderful.....plus matt and i get to carpool! i'll have to take my camera with me some day and catch a few pictures.

the rest of our life is usually basketball. matt's done with basketball next weekend and i'm done the following weekend. matt's team just lost by 1 in their conference playoffs tonight to a tough team they beat 2 times in the regular season. my team is doing well - i think we are sitting 3rd in the conference but are just starting the second time through playing all the teams. they are a really fun group of girls to coach, but i won't lie - the afternoons will be nice to have back when i start teaching full time in february!

here's some pictures from Christmas break...

this present is matt in a nutshell - a Bill Nye bobblehead

tyler wins the prize for the most creatively wrapped present

it was a veeery frosty, beautiful morning when we left edgerton

i guess it's only appropriate that all i have is the crazy family picture on my camera...mom and dad - you should work on better faces for next year :)

the van wyk valley view farms version of the stonehenge

since i post so infrequently...and matt posts even less, i thought i should include some of his exciting things from the past week. first, he saved up and got the sale he was looking for to get this ice house. notice that it takes up our entire living room when it's in full form - this only lasted for about 15 minutes and then i made him put it back in the bag. :)

and matt finished his 3 year project of crocheting a blanket. yes, he did this all himself....he wanted me to make him one but i told him we had plenty of blankets. his response was....fine, teach me how to do it and i'll crochet one myself.....so he did! even to the point where he would take out a stitch if i did it b/c he wanted it to say he did the whole thing. it's quite impressive....and quite large.

well, i should probably start thinking about the teacher's manuals sitting all over my couch around me. matt and i are headed up to holland this weekend b/c timothy girls and boys basketball plays holland christian tomorrow, so it will be a short weekend! hope everyone has a great weekend!

winter wonderland

2010-12-04T23:02:00.004-06:00

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

2010-11-29T14:06:00.005-06:00

...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

2010-11-03T13:50:00.005-05:00

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

2010-10-31T17:43:00.003-05:00

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

2010-10-17T14:37:00.003-05:00

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

2010-09-27T20:44:00.003-05:00

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

2010-09-22T13:42:00.004-05:00

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!

2010-09-16T07:26:00.004-05:00

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

2010-09-07T13:00:00.003-05:00

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

2010-08-31T10:28:00.002-05:00

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

2010-08-26T21:21:00.004-05:00

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

2010-08-10T21:32:00.003-05:00

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

2010-08-08T11:41:00.008-05:00

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

2010-07-18T16:10:00.005-05:00

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

2010-07-06T21:43:00.005-05:00

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!

2010-06-14T22:09:00.006-05:00

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....

garage sales

2010-06-12T22:17:00.002-05:00

i'm a big fan of garage sales, especially when neighborhoods have them together so you can avoid the drive five blocks, park the car, drive five blocks, park the car routine. matt and i made our first garage sale sweep of the summer this weekend. matt found a vhs he uses every fall for class, but otherwise we just enjoyed the adventure of hunting for a good deal. and you never know what you are going to see along the way....

like multiples of the same things - lotions, tshirts, jewelry, and brownie mixes....yes, brownie mixes. for a little while i thought this couple was running a mini convenience store right out of their garage.

it's just the beginning of the summer....who knows what we will find on weekends to come!

ahhhh...summer nights

2010-05-24T20:31:00.003-05:00

it seemed to change to summer in a matter of a day and it's exciting to start smelling, hearing, and seeing everything i love about spring and summer....

the smell of mud....fresh cut grass....rain....flowers....
the sound of birds waking me up....cicadas at night....
late night sunsets....pink shoulders and noses....running barefoot in the grass....
riding with the window down and the music loud....
baseball....bags....grilling....bonfires....summer nights....

and the best thing of all? finishing that last day of school....matt's is next week wednesday and mine is june 11 - almost there!

this weekend i got to go up to michigan with my mom to play in a volleyball tournament and visit family. mom and i got a little more quality time in the car than we planned on, after crawling along I-80 around two different 5 car accidents within 1/4 mile of each other. oh, chicago traffic....you never seem to disappoint.

buying transportation

2010-05-01T16:56:00.007-05:00

we have been in the business of buying transportation lately...

first was a bike. the last bike i had was the pink and purple 10 speed that i got as a birthday present in grade school. i had brought it to college and it served me well. but after the chain rusted out and you could hear it squeak from a mile away, i figured other college students would appreciate a free bike. so after saving up for a while, i was able to buy a new one....

and second was a car! much to matt's disappointment, it was time to trade in the beretta. but he had a very proud moment when the manager talked to us after he inspected it for trade in value. he said...and i quote "that's the best beretta i've seen in a long time. you must have loved that car!" i have a feeling they don't see many berettas come through there, so i have to give him props...he's a pretty good car salesman - obviously he knew just what to say to my husband!

when we were finally ready to go home, matt jumped into the driver's seat, turned the ignition, and..... instantly a look of confusion and concern. i could only think - you've go to be kidding me! we've owned this thing for 5 minutes and something is wrong?

me - "matt, what's wrong? something with the car?"
matt - "well i turned the car on, but i don't hear anything. is it on?!"
me - laughing hysterically .... the car was definitely on :)

i think this qualifies as a - you know you've had an older car for a LONG time when...... no worries, the car is just fine and it's running great.

now we are ready for summer road trips and bike rides! :) i hope everyone is having a wonderful spring!

spring break

2010-04-09T15:50:00.004-05:00

last week was spring break for both of our schools, so i took off work and we headed out on a spring break adventure. we started off the week flying out to new mexico to visit tim & chels in zuni. it was great to see where they live, work, and the people they talk about. here's a few pictures...

we thought jeremiah looked pretty good in a twin's hat.....he only liked it for about 3 seconds. someday...

on monday, we hiked up DY, the mesa near zuni. zuni is in the background of the picture, and was awesome to get up that high and see for miles!

one night we also went to turtle rock to watch the sunset. once again....beautiful!

tuesday and wednesday we went to the grand canyon - matt and i's first time! on tuesday we went to a lot of lookout points and watched the sunset over the grand canyon at night. it was amazing just to take it all in! that night we camped out, and wednesday we hiked the kaibab trail. although a little chilly, we had a great time.

thursday we flew back to chicago, but not before i snapped a happy picture with jeremiah. the poor guy was working on 3 top teeth all week and usually just wanted chels. by the last day he was feeling better and i got a good smile. i told him he could practice saying my name for the next time we see him....but we just may have to visit again for that to happen! :)

after a few short hours of sleep, we unpacked and repacked our bags on friday morning and headed out to minneapolis for the 1st twins game in target field. zack, one of matt's college roommates, got us tickets.....matt was like a kid in a candy store. it was rainy all day, but as soon as we got to the stadium, the rain stopped and it was great weather!

and on our way home, we celebrated easter with family. this is just a little family game of carrot baseball. team siblings-with-spouses took the W this year, but team parents-and-unmarried-siblings did have an impressive showing....snapping the carrot top off the bat and breaking a ball in half.
and finally back to chicagoland. it was a great spring break....the only thing missing was a vacation day to recover from our vacation before monday rolled around!

children's books

2010-03-04T10:07:00.002-06:00

this quarter i'm taking a literacy course for K-4th grades, which means that i have spent a great deal of time in the children's section of our local library. i've read some really great books and now have a new found appreciation for them.....and realized that this section of the library is not made for people my height. the book shelves come up to about my hip, so for me to browse the top shelf, i have to stick out my rear end and crane my neck sideways in a very awkward way. with the bottom shelves, i usually just sit indian style on the ground, but my long legs take up most of the aisle. i know the obvious - the shelves are made for the little people. but i had to laugh the last time i was there....most of the people searching the shelves were the parents, while the kids were comfortably reading by the tables and on the couches. maybe i'm not the only one feeling like a giant among the children's books after all.

taking a break

2010-02-25T13:46:00.004-06:00

so what have we been up to for the past two months? well, january was a lot of basketball. matt and i both had teams to coach this year - he had 8th grade boys again and here's my team of freshmen girls. it was a lot of fun to coach them this year....it's easy to get to know your team quite well when it's so small. we ended up 16-4 on the year and were conference champs. they made me look quite good :).

this year i decide to brave the homecoming game crowds, but it was all worth it to see matt dance with the pommers in a father/daughter dance that they put on every year. one of his former students asked him to step in cause their dad couldn't make it. i have tried for years to get that boy to bust out a move at a wedding dance and i've got nothing so far.....so i wasn't going to miss this. (i think he's going to post the video someone took on facebook)

february has been the month of homework. school is going great and i'm a few weeks away from being 1/2 way done. but as any college student knows, the last few weeks are always the busiest. next quarter i have a 50 hour practicum (classroom observations) and in the fall i'll be student teaching....which also means that i'll be looking for my own teaching job in less than a year!

teaching is going well for matt. he enjoyed his february break between basketball and baseball...and i did too. he went to the chicago auto show with some friends a few weekends ago and has actually made it home from school before 5:00 several nights this month. but tryouts start for baseball on monday so he'll be off and running once more. he's coaching the jv by himself this year and has a lot of guys trying out for the team, so he also has the awful job of making cuts. it's hard to believe that the season should start already when i woke up to 4 inches of unexpected lake effect snow on my car this morning!

well i'm off to do another project for school. adios!

there's no place like home for the holidays

2010-01-01T15:55:00.005-06:00

there really is no place like home for the holidays! we were very blessed with good travelling weather, considering the storm that rolled through the midwest the week of Christmas! it was great to catch up with some friends and spend quality time with family. although much too short, we are thankful for the time we had.

we started off our trip in minnesota...

and then made it down to iowa, right before minnesota got pounded with lots and lots of snow!

this was our "sick" picture. the plan was to go to michigan for Christmas day, but ben came down with pneumonia so it was an iowa Christmas. dad, i think you need to work a little bit on your sick pose. :)

and the annual funny picture!

and speaking of being home for the holidays, i just got a call from matt. he survived his canadian dogsledding adventure! they are going to hit the road tonight and make it back by tomorrow morning. :) i've had many requests for him to post pictures, so i'll have him blog as soon as he can. i hope everyone has a great start to the new year!

'tis the season

2009-12-14T19:24:00.002-06:00

what's black, red, and itchy all over?

matt's sweater!

this past weekend we went to an ugly sweater bunko party and i think we did a pretty good job with the ugly part. you can't see it from the picture, but my sweater came complete with puff balls on the christmas tree, courtesy of the 8th grade social studies teacher who wears a different ugly sweater every day of school from december 1 until christmas vacation. matt wore this same sweater to school on friday for their ugly sweater competition and came home with the "itchiest sweater" award.

we have another ugly sweater party coming up with our small group from our church, and i'm going to wear pam's sweater for that party. there are more beads on this sweater than lights on a christmas tree!

the rest of our evenings are usually filled in the gym (big surprise, huh?) between practices and games, we are definitely getting our fill of basketball this winter. my team is tons of fun to coach, which is what really makes the season enjoyable...an undefeated record helps things out a little bit too :). but please don't think i'm being cocky...these girls are the ones making me look pretty good!

well, christmas break starts friday! we are heading out to minnesota, then dropping down to the farm for a couple days and finishing off our travels in michigan for christmas day. it will be a busy break with lots of great time with family and friends! so for the few days we will be home around the holidays we did a little bit of decorating in our apartment, and even got a tree this year to put our presents under.

end and begin

2009-11-20T22:31:00.003-06:00

today i am officially 1/4 of the way to getting my teaching certificate....all the papers are handed in and i just gave my last presentation today. now i'm on break until january 12 and loving the idea of this big thanksgiving and christmas break! the quarter went by really fast so if the rest of it goes this quickly...student teaching will be here before i know it!

we also had our first basketball game tonight. i'm coaching the freshmen girls team - we are small in numbers but big in talent. it's going to be fun...and when you only have 7 girls, you definitely don't have to worry about playing time questions!

i hope everyone has a very safe and happy Thanksgiving!

fall fun

2009-10-30T17:32:00.003-05:00

here's a little look at our fall....

the volleyball team went to Feed My Starving Children. it's a place that assembles dry food packs and sends them out to starving children all over the world. it's a great organization and we had a great time working there as a team...and i must say, look pretty good in our hair nets.

our volleyball team is now in regional playoffs. we won our first 2 games thursday night against chicago dyett and lisle high school. we are now in the regional championship and our next game is saturday against westmont. the girls are playing well so i'm hoping the game outcome matches what we can do.

last weekend we went to pam's birthday party. since we don't dress up to go out at night that often, i figured i better take a picture of the event. :)

and fall would not be complete without pumpkin carving! i will fully admit that matt was the master artist of our pumpkin....my contribution was cleaning out all the gunk.

metrodome magic

2009-10-06T20:51:00.002-05:00

for those of you watching the twins vs. tigers game and know my husband's extreme dedication to the minnesota twins, you could probably imagine what it was like in the van schepen apartment at about 8:45 pm tonight. picture this....matt running around the living room screaming, getting 5 consecutive phone calls and 2 texts....by the end he collapses in his lazy boy, out of breath from the excitement. it was a good thing i came home from my volleyball game when i did or i fear he would not have eaten supper until the game was over. it's like we had the metrodome magic right here in willowbrook illinois. go twins!

busy bee

2009-09-24T07:51:00.003-05:00

when people ask me what i'm up to these days, i feel like i need 5 minutes to explain myself, so i usually end up saying "oh a bunch of things." and that's really why i haven't had time to write anything in quite a while. the short answer is, it's a mix of the condo association, school, volleyball, and observation hours for school.....my planner and i are best friends.

volleyball is going really well. right now we are 12-5 and just getting into the conference games of our season, but the regular season is also just about 1/2 over - it's crazy how fast it's been going. here's a picture of the team...

let the season begin

2009-08-16T19:20:00.003-05:00

tomorrow is the official start to my first varsity volleyball coaching season. i am expecting as many as 20 girls to tryout, and with only 15 uniforms in my posession (and wanting to only have a 12-14 person team), i have my work cut out for me. i already forewarned matt that he may need to have an super listening ear and extra amount of patience for me in the next 3 days. and to his credit, he has been a wonderful husband so far as i throw out scenarios and volleyball jargon that probably interests him about as much as i understand his twins strategy talks.

school meetings start for matt next monday with school starting next wednesday. so before our lives get really busy once again, we decided to go to a kane county cougars game. the game was a great and it was a beautiful summer night, complete with a magic show and fireworks after the game. but only at a minor league game will an ottoman empire band be featured as the pre-game show......wouldn't this get you excited for a baseball game?

christoffels camping

2009-08-04T16:17:00.005-05:00

about 1 1/2 weeks ago, matt and i headed out to minnesota/south dakota for a little summer vacation for the christoffels family camping in yankton, sd and then made a short visit to edgerton. i never grew up doing much camping - we were always the family that visited those who were camping, sat around the campfire for a good long time, and then headed back to our own beds. but i thouroughly enjoyed being outside for 3 straight days and managed to come away with only 10 bug bites, a peeling nose, and probably a few extra pounds from all the great food.

i don't have many pictures, but here's matt trying to get tucker to play baseball with him.

and donna and i showing off our bean bag tournament trophy. you can't see it, but there's a spinning elephant on top that lights up - it's quite the trophy.

before camping we made a stop in sioux falls to visit tim, chels, jeremiah, and my south dakota parents, jerry and glady gerdes. it's so nice that we can still meet up, since chicago and zuni are quite a few miles apart! we also got to meet up with a bj and jill and kyle and bri for supper - it's always good to catch up with old friends.

and even before we got to sioux falls, we made a stop that i've been waiting to make for 6 years now. if you've ever taken interstate 680 west, you know what i'm talking about. it's that scenic view that always seems to be open when i'm not driving past or the weather's too bad to make it worthwhile. but this time it was open and the weather was beautiful and we made a little visit to the top of the tower. it was just a small pleasure to break up our trip a little....

all in all it was a great trip - very relaxing and exactly what i needed! life is back to norm in chicagoland now and volleyball tryouts start in less than 2 weeks!

happy birthday to matt

2009-07-13T20:22:00.006-05:00

matt's birthday was on thursday + i didn't work on friday = a birthday trip to the field of dreams

matt couldn't believe that i had lived in iowa my whole life and never been to the field of dreams. actually, no one in our family has. so we all piled into the car and took a leisurely drive to dyersville. it was an absolutely beautiful day to play ball. while we were there we also saw a bride a groom come take pictures...needless to say, once matt saw that, he was a little jealous.

i couldn't believe how tall the corn was already - i don't have it as my gauge of seasons passing anymore.

one thing in particular stuck out to me this weekend....color. after spending so much time surrounded by buildings and cars, i forget how beautiful the country is. miles and miles of the deepest green fields and trees, flowing up and down the hills and valleys....bright blue skys after finally making it out of a huge storm....a full sunset with only a barn or tree in the background. God's beauty truly amazes me.

and on a totally random note....as i was coming back from the grocery store today, i was about to pull onto our street when a momma duck jetted into the intersection, lagging behind her babies that had already crossed (i always thought she lead...but who knows). anyway, i found it so ironic that this small bird held up 4 lanes of impatient traffic for quite some time.......and they say tractors cause traffic jams. :)

summer time

2009-07-07T17:11:00.005-05:00

with the 4th of july, i guess summer has officially reached it's midpoint. it's hard to believe but we've definitely kept ourselves busy! after nate and nicole's wedding, we had minnesota visitors the past 3 weekends. it was so great to see everyone spend time together again. we love to have visitors!

one of those weekends we met up with friends and family at the twins vs. brewers game. it was a great game...pretty entertaining....but so were a few twins fans a couple rows up with a sign that read "thanks, wisconsin, for brent farve." now i know that favre can be easily misspelled but c'mon now, if you're going to talk smack about wisconsin IN wisconsin, at least get your grammar correct.

my summer nights have gotten a little bit more busy - i am now the varsity volleyball coach at timothy christian and i'm hurrying to try to get open gyms and league games arranged before the season starts. but i'm flying solo right now....we currently do not have a jv, freshman, or assistant varsity coach. so if anyone knows of someone in the western suburbs that would like to coach volleyball, call me! at least the numbers for my team won't be lacking - i think i have around 20 girls trying out for varsity alone in the fall. all in all, i'm really excited about it and hopefully my first season goes well.

i also decided to go back to school full time starting in september. i transferred schools and they had an opening for their full time schedule, so i'm excited to be able to get my teaching certificate even sooner. it may mean some changes with the job scene, but i'm still working those details out and praying everything works out well.

i hope everyone's having a great summer!

love and family

2009-06-18T10:08:00.007-05:00

we're back home after a whirlwind wedding weekend and i'm finally getting the chance to sit down and write after getting a few friendly reminders that i haven't updated in quite some time. so first, congratulations nate and nicole! few things are so beautiful as a love that is true and it was an honor to be a part of your special day. here are just a few pictures of the day...

and the day after the wedding, matt and i celebrated our 1 year anniversary! the year went so fast and i'm even more blessed today than yesterday to have matt as my husband. sorry, no pictures from that...we celebrated by having nate and nicole's leftover cake (ours was a little too freezer burned to enjoy more than i finger lick of frosting!) and driving back to chicago.

so june was weddings but may was all babies. congratulations to all our friends and family whose families have now grown from 2 to 3 :) - welcome to the world benjamin lewicki, jeremiah eisenga, cole van drunen, ethan landon, kylee wielenga, james van wyk, and avalene vander plas!

we also moved into our new apartment at the end of may. we're pretty much all settled in...we don't forget where things are, so that's a good sign. nothing's really on the walls, but here's a few pictures of our new place...visitors welcome any time!!

well that's about it with us. i'll leave you with a tribute to bruiser, so affectionately named by nicole...

some pictures from the twins game

2009-04-23T18:53:00.002-05:00

in the last month...

2009-04-19T18:41:00.004-05:00

it's a rainy sunday here and i thought i'd finally take some time to write again....if anyone checks this at all anymore. quite a bit has happened in the last month and i really can't believe it's nearing the end of april....because the end of april means summer is almost here....and summer means...weddings, friends having babies, moving to a new apartment, matt being home more, and probably lots of baseball :).

we have been on the search for a new place to live b/c the owners of the condo we live in now want to put it back on the market. in the beginning it was fun to look with a friend of ours that also needs a new place to live. but i've decided that this is a perfect example of too many options makes everything more complicated. and then of course being dutch doesn't help....always gotta see if there's a little better deal out there.

matt's down to 6 weeks left of his first year and i'm down to 3 weeks left of my first semester. i'm actually in the process of applying to a different school...one that's a little closer to where we live and i like how they run their masters program a little better too. plus, they offer morning classes on tuesday and thursday, which would be great for coaching in the fall. hopefully this new school accepts my transfer credits and i can continue on my way to teaching....eventually.

and kudos to my wonderful husband who pulled off a great birthday surprise for me last weekend. saturday morning i get a phone call from my dad. he's calling to say happy birthday a day early b/c he doesn't want to forget, and asks what we have going on for the day. i say, the twins are in town playing the white sox so we're going to the game. he says, man i wish i could go with you. i say, me too! he says, well why don't you open up your door cause i'm really sick of standing outside! i was surprised...stumped...shocked. up until this point i think matt had yet to pull off a complete surprise on me...i usually am too nosy and spoil at least a little bit of it....not on purpose of course...but this time i had no clue at all. so off we went to the sox/twins game, sitting in the 8th row down the 1st base line. freezing cold but totally worth it. it was a great birthday weekend.

well, i thought i would have more to write about....but i also have a self-nagging reminder that i should probably be working on my end of the year projects instead of blogging. i hope everyone is enjoying the start to a long awaited spring!

moon dance

2009-03-19T12:38:00.002-05:00

i have seen a dog that can moon dance. i'm not even lying, even though i didn't believe it myself until i saw it. a couple weeks ago at work, a resident brought her dog into the office....it was just a little one named "lady" (sorry i'm not good at all with types of dogs). and when you tell her to dance, she really can slide her little legs back and wiggle her little butt to something that resembles a moon dance...or at least as much of a moon dance that a dog would be able to do. she can even do other fun tricks like walk on her back legs and kiss your foot if told to "love" you. my job is interesting....at the oak brook club, you just never know what you're going to see.

starting last week i picked up some more part time employment at a printing/paper company. a teacher at timothy has a husband who has a big project there and needed a little extra help assembling the packets. so yet again, i add a random job to the resume of part-time, short-term employment. i enjoy it though.....especially when i say i get to work at dunder mifflin :).

i am really looking forward to this weekend. brother ben is coming for the last weekend of his spring break. brother nate and soon to be sister nicole are flying back into chicago from their break in florida. and friend kelsie is coming to interview at timothy! a full house - i love it! now the only problem is i have to go clean up the house and make sure we have enough food.

square root day

2009-03-03T17:39:00.001-06:00

oh, and happy square root day!

field museum

2009-03-03T11:22:00.003-06:00

i'm taking a break from researching in the library for a big paper that's due in only a couple weeks. getting back into writing papers has also resulted in getting back to procrastination. it's probably a good thing that we don't have internet at our place, otherwise i would be way too distracted to get anything done. anyway, classes are still going well and after this week, i think i'll be about 1/2 way done with the semester.

this weekend we went to the field museum downtown. we had to scope out the place because joy (friend and timothy kindergarten teacher) is going on a field trip this week with all the kindergarteners and their 5th grade buddies. we saw a lot of dinosaur fossils and stuffed animals. all very cool....especially when you get in for free :).

for me, going to museums is a lot like shopping. i'm really excited to go and completely enjoy myself for the first hour or two. and then when i start getting sluggish and my legs start getting a little heavy, i need to find something to eat....fast. luckily the field museum is equipped with a McDonalds!

here's a few pictures of our weekend.....

oh what a beautiful day

2009-02-10T12:54:00.002-06:00

right now i'm sitting in my living room, listening to some music and finishing up my homework....with the windows wide open - my favorite way to welcome spring. ok, so spring really isn't here yet but a day like today is an absolute blessing for the winter blues.

this weekend i was able to go to baby shower for Tori, a long time friend. i must admit that it's still an adjustment to see my friends pregnant, and with more friends' babies on the way, i'm starting the transition from buying off the wedding registries to putting onesies and diapers on the gift lists. but it's all been lots of fun...and i guess it is getting to that stage of life. matt tells me not to feel any pressure :).

the rest of the weekend was celebrating dad's birthday, getting a bridesmaid dress, and going to grandma's for sunday lunch, complete with getting stocked up on applesauce and paring knifes...oh, good times :). i wish i had a few pictures to show for the weekend or really anything that's been happening the past while (which usually isn't much more than work and class), but i've been slacking in that department a little bit. the only one i do have is nicole trying wedding dresses on (which obviously can't go on here for nate's little eyes) and the results of nate, jake, and matt's fishing trip. so here you go....

randomness

2009-01-24T13:00:00.007-06:00

i love the random happenings of life. the things that break up your day and make you realize that the world is small and life can be crazy.

on my second week of classes, i sat next to someone new and tried to start up some friendly conversation. not only do i find out that this girl is an athletic trainer (very similar to my undergraduate degree) and played volleyball, basketball, and softball in high school....but she also lives just one block from matt and i. we've gone by her complex tons of times, but it's just too bad that her job doesn't allow us to carpool.

in this very same class i have a professor that likes wholistic teaching which goes on tangents every which way......has no problem taking 2 hours to do class introductions in a class of about 20.....and a huge fan of the 10 second pause after everything she says. 3 1/2 hours of this at a time makes for a veeery interesting evening.

today i drug myself to the fitness center, feeling very unmotivated to work out by myself, doing the same old same old. i'm just about to push the start button on the treadmill and drown out the background noise with my headphones when i hear "lindsey?" behind me. instinctively i turn around and see....andrea van steenis walking towards me - a grade school and high school teammate and friend who lives very close to us but i've never seen since moving here. she just happen to recently get a membership to the same small, cheap fitness place and we just happen to be there at the same time of day. it was SO nice to have a work out buddy to pass the time away!!

ok...i have the full permission of my husband for this next one....

one of the students i tutor comes to our place. today when his mom picked him up, she noticed my newest crocheting project laying on the floor. she is a fellow yarn lover, in the knitting form. she then noticed the other blanket on the floor (property of my husband's working hands.) well, she was shocked that i would be working on 2 at once......i tried so hard to lie and protect matt from one of his students knowing of his new found habit.....but it slipped. the best part - i was totally redeemed when the mom told me that her son actually picked up knitting a while ago and made himself a scarf. we had a good time cracking jokes about the boys in our life taking a liking to yarn needle-work.

well that's about all. classes and work are going great and keeping me busy. i've been braving the world of trying new recipes, oh, once a week if i'm lucky. matt's still living, so we're all good! and it's still plenty cold for me to want spring to come more and more every day!

the haircut

2009-01-12T22:13:00.004-06:00

i finally decided that it was time to bite the bullet and find someone to cut my hair. after depending on friends that are professionals and even friends that aren't technically professionals for so many years i was at a loss to know exactly where to go. so with coupon in hand, i decided on a quick, cheap trim from great clips. my stylist was phyllis - a greek woman probably in her upper 40's with a thick accent.....and brutally honest. it started when she combed through my hair and there was some left in her comb. "you don't rinse. just like my kids. you must rinse. this hair...this is because you don't rinse." like an obedient child i nodded and promised i would rinse better. five seconds later she got a look of awful disgust on her face. "who cut your hair last?! you see this? very uneven." lying through my teeth i said it was a friend. the truth? during my unemployed stint this fall i got bored one morning and decided to see how hard it would be to give myself a trim. i knew it wasn't salon worthy but i didn't think that it was that uneven. apparently it was. (tori...i'm so sorry. :) please do not be totally appalled.) i got the hint that a stylist is not my calling, and definitely not on myself, when she continued to mutter under her breath how uneven my hair was for the rest of the time i was in the chair. and to top it all off, i asked phyllis to give me some side bangs at the end, to which she replied "this short?! no no. it will not blend. you come back next time and we will cut shorter. trust me. i do not lie to you." i decided not to fight it. i was only paying $9 and the whole experience was actually quite entertaining. now my only fear is that if i don't go back in 4-6 weeks as instructed, another phyllis scolding awaits me. :)

happy new year!

2009-01-03T14:22:00.005-06:00

new years eve was also our last christmas party for matt and i. being so busy with family and friends, we almost forgot about making time for it. but never fear....our lack of social options for the night allowed us to actually go out to eat for a date night, watch some great episodes of planet earth and the office (our gifts to each other), and enjoy greeting the new year together which really only involved watching a poorly hosted chicago station and then a rerun of the ball dropping. but here you have it, our first family christmas picture :).

we have also been enjoying the company of our guests since we returned from christmas travels. my sister kelli stayed with us for a few days after we returned. friday night nate and nicole stayed between their flight and driving home. and last night, my cousin justin stayed with us. it was so nice to see him and spend some quality time together.....since the last time that happened was the summer of '07.

a little update on my job. i'm starting to get the hang of what i'm doing, where things are, and what the procedures are at the oak brook club. although i'm still taking a lot of messages for the other two people in the office cause no one knows me and is probably still not sure if i know what i'm doing....but hey, i can totally handle that.....cause that also means that i don't have to deal with most problems either :). other than that i type up meeting minutes, sort out the mail, make the newsletter, and do some other organization project or whatever else is needed for the day. the days go by quickly and i'm enjoying it so far.

happy new year everyone!

have yourself a merry little christmas

2008-12-28T19:57:00.008-06:00

while i enjoy the last couple hours of my christmas break, i thought i would update this before the day to day routine starts back up again. i said this past week and a half was going to be a whirlwind trip and it definitely lived up to its expectations. on the 18th we woke up in the wee morning hours to beat the storm and traffic...it's hard to believe that 2 years ago, the time we woke up could have easily been my bed time! we made it to minnesota in time to go ice fishing. it was my rookie outing and i guess you could say that i had a little bit of beginners luck because the crappies that we will probably have for supper this week were caught by yours truly. :) i think matt was a little frustrated when he asked me how far down i was and my response was....oh i don't know, i just put it down until i can't see it anymore and then give it 1..2..and 1/2 more pulls of slack, and that's where i'm at. of course....

friday the 19th was brent and becca's wedding. it was a beautiful day and we were so grateful to be a part of it!

after surviving the -40 degree windchills the next couple days with a few christmas parties, we headed off to iowa, with a short detour to south dakota. chelsea and i planned on meeting up on saturday because her extended family christmas was going to meet in edgerton, but because of the weather, it was postponed. when matt saw how disappointed i was, he convinced me that we had to head west to sioux falls before heading south to my parents house because of the roads. the roads were really fine.....he called actually chels to make sure she was home so we could see them that morning, if only for an hour.

up to this point, our traveling days fell right in between storms and we had no problems. well, that wasn't so much the case for the next five days. we spent a whole 19 hours at my parents house before leaving early for michigan to try to get ahead of the storm. by the time we got to chicago, I-80 was just as bad as a country side road that had not been plowed, so we all piled into our condo for the night and had our christmas here. we even quickly made our own christmas tree out of garland from the wedding...worked out pretty well!

and then on our way from michigan back to chicago on friday, it took us 5 hours for a normal 2 hour trip. needless to say, we were ready to get out of the car but were very thankful that our caravan made it safely.

all in all, our crazy christmas break was great. we got to see lots of family and friends...and even though we would have liked to see a few more people or spend a little more time with them, we were reminded again of how blessed we are. we pray that all of you had a very merry christmas and enjoy the blessings to the start of a new year. may we always be assured that Jesus is our stronghold in the midst of any change and struggle.

employed :)

2008-12-08T20:47:00.005-06:00

i love reading other people's blogs and get a little disappointed when there's nothing new to read. and i know i don't write very often on here, but there's just not a whole lot going on in my life. for example, a typical day looks like this...

i wake up and am very soon eating cereal (what else would you expect!) while flipping back and forth between the today show and good morning america. if i don't have much on the agenda for the day, i usually keep the tv on for another hour to watch oprah. then i usually motivate myself to do some sort of household chore and figure out how i can get out of our place for the day. a couple times a week i go tutor some students in math. and then if matt or either of the high school varsity teams has a game, i'll go watch some bball at night. sounds ideal, huh? well it was.....for the first week or so. but this kind of schedule was really starting to take a serious toll on my emotions and attitude. but.......God has been faithful again and i am now employed! i got a call today with an offer for a part time administrative assistant position at a condo association. i think it's about 24 hours a week, but i'm discussing the final details on wednesday with him. and that's just perfect because i'll have a few days to do homework come january when i start classes for my masters in teaching. God is good.

this past friday night matt and i went to the timothy christian vs. chicago christian basketball game. it's a rivalry that is similar to a pella christian/pella game or western/unity....with a lot less fans to pack the stands. we asked another teacher to come with us, but she's really not into the whole sports scene. after we asked her, she says to us....you guys sure to do go to a lot of basketball games! (ok, so this was our 5th game in the past 4 nights but who's counting...). my response to her....going to basketball games is just what you do in the winter. isn't it? :)

it's hard to believe that in 9 short days we are going to be starting our whirlwind christmas tour starting in minnesota, making a very short stop in grinnell, and then continuing on to michigan only to return to chicagoland a short 10 days from when we started. we're starting to pray for safe, dry roads already. i hope everyone is enjoying their holiday shopping, parties, and other festivities!

i realized that we probably won't be getting christmas cards out this year, but here is the picture i would have used if we did. consider it our e-card. :) Merry Christmas!

thanksgiving

2008-12-01T12:11:00.003-06:00

happy belated thanksgiving to everyone! matt and i just returned from a great weekend - a relaxing 4 days that completely wore me out...if that's possible. when we arrived at the van wyk family farm, we were greeted by my mom, but a few short hours later we were in company of 6 more. and by noon the next day, we had a party of 13. celebrating a holiday of thanks while being surrounded by people you love - there's not much better. (we missed you ben!)

in this thanksgiving season, i am reminded again how much i am blessed. looking at the past year alone, i have so much to be thankful for.....a wonderful husband, new friends that have made and continue to make the transition to our new community so much easier, a place to live, matt having a job he loves, getting 2 more sisters-in-law in the next year, and a wonderful family...just to name a few things.

for the rest of the weekend, matt and i didn't stick around the whole time....unsurprisingly. on friday we made the trip up and back to hollandale minnesota for sara kooyenga and brian brower's wedding. what a beautiful wedding - congrats sara and brian!! and an added bonus....the beretta got to return to the homeland.....and for matt that was well worth it.

now it's back to normal...at least for 2 1/2 more weeks. then it's wedding and christmas time!!

the gym

2008-11-20T07:36:00.005-06:00

lately i have been trying to frequent myself at the gym....if a gym is what you can call it. it's just a small section of a strip mall and has couple rows of treadmills, ellipticals, and some other machines with a bunch of weights in the back. but it's cheap and it does the job. and as i pound away the steps on the tread mill, i've come up with my own "gym trends" as an attempt to avoid the boredom of working out when the scenery never changes.

it seems like every time i go, no matter what time of day, there are always a few kinds of people represented at our small gym. there's always someone-who-dresses-in-anything-that-i-would-think-would-be-very-uncomfortable....for example, jeans, sweatshirts, or polo shirts. then there's always the-guy-who-is-truckin-along-on-the-treadmill-sweatin-up-a-storm-and-wears-a-gray-shirt-which-really-shows-how-hard-he-is-sweating-and-working.....and they also seem to be the ones that make me feel guilty that i'm just jogging along at a comfortable pace. there's always a lady-that-can-walk-and-walk-and-walk-for-time-on-end-without-seeming-to-get-bored and the guy-who-can-run-on-the-treadmill-and-watch-the-tv-at-the-same-time (which is a pretty hard feat cuase the tvs are directly above the row of treadmills. i tried one time and almost fell off like a dizzy uncoordinated runner). and then there's me....i represent the does-a-girl-really-sweat-that-much-or-get-that-red-in-the-face-just-from-working-out-for-20 minutes? group.

every time. every group is represented. never fail.

and i'm not criticizing at all cause each and every one has the will power to be there, which we all know is pretty tough. actually, i'd just say a little "good job" to whoever my neighboring treadmiller might be......but i feel like i may get a look that says, stop talking to me during my misery, or keep your sweat to yourself.....so i'll just keep jogging along with my headphones on.

happenings of my life

2008-11-18T07:55:00.004-06:00

this is where last weekend brought me....back to iowa for my sister's state volleyball tournament. really, how could i resist watching good volleyball, especially with my little sis is playing? nevermind the long drive by myself....i guess you could say i take after my parents. :)

i can now say that we have had our first day of snow here in willowbrook. as much as i resisted it, even i will say that it was a very beautiful snow...it wasn't that cold outside, the wind was not blowing, it was coming down nice and soft like in a snow globe, and most importantly...most of it didn't stick on the ground. now if only the rest of winter could be exactly like that......needless to say, i had a happy husband.

well, my dog walking days are over and i'm keeping myself busy with some math tutoring a couple afternoons a week and then if i'm lucky, some substitute teaching. because my phone isn't exactly ringing off the hook for sub jobs, i got a tip from an 8th grader's mom of a part time office admin position. i applied for that, so we'll see if that will work out. otherwise, starting in january i will be begin night classes for the masters in teaching with certification program at aurora university! it's a 2 year program and in the end, i'll come out with a master's degree and a teaching certificate. getting to this point since moving here has been quite a whirlwind of emotions and questions, but i'm just glad to be moving forward and hopefully making more progress towards a career that i enjoy.....and just a job in general. :)

k 9

2008-11-10T15:02:00.003-06:00

this weekend matt and i decided take a shot at our amateur photography skills again. this time we went to the forest preserve that we pass every time we go to church or school. we were almost disappointed when we started walking down the path and ran into a leash-less dog area. we didn't have a dog or a permit so we found a map and headed a different direction. it was quite chilly, but at least we don't have any snow yet....

speaking of dogs, last week i expanded my resume since being here in the western suburbs by adding dog-walker to the list. yes, that's right...professional or not, i was paid to be a dog-walker. so i don't sound too desperate, a teacher at school had part of her house damaged by a fire. her dogs had to be confined to a smaller area while the repairs are done and she wanted someone to let the dogs out while the workers were in the house. and that's where i came into the picture.

i never realized how much of an adventure walking dogs can be......between not looking awkward doing a uncomfortable-paced walk/jog b/c the dogs keep pulling you faster and faster no matter how quickly you go.....or the ability to start conversations with people b/c they want to pet the dogs......or keeping them from ripping the leash out of your hand when they see another dog across the block or a flock of geese in an open lawn.....or the ever glorious job of being the pooper scooper......i guess it's all part of the job.

little things

2008-10-28T21:21:00.002-05:00

i think it’s ironic that the littlest things in life can make such a big difference...but it happens all the time. so maybe i shouldn’t be so surprised when God speaks big things in small ways. the other day i stopped by the school to pick up something and say hi to a few people. i started chatting with a teacher that matt and i have become good friends with and in no more than a couple minutes into our conversation, she was giving me a good dose of firm and pointed direction/encouragement. a vague example, i know, but the details are just that. what’s bigger is that i almost overlooked God’s gracious hand in the whole encounter until i retold the story to my mom and she pointed it out to me. i’ve been told a million times to listen to the still, quiet voice of God, and i try. but if i would listen a little harder…how much more could i really see and hear?

last week while matt was away at teacher convention, i decided to take a little trip of my own. so i called up my grandparents in michigan and less than 24 hours later showed up on their doorstep. the drive was absolutely gorgeous …the company was great…and i even came away with a dozen authentic Slenk pig-in-the-blankets. and the cherry on top was being able to make a quick stop in portage to visit a good college friend– i’d say it was a pretty successful trip!

and because i think every post is better with pictures, here are a few pictures of the season that i wish would hold on just a little bit longer…

constant changes

2008-10-20T21:52:00.001-05:00

in the whole 2 ½ months that we have lived in the western suburbs, no two weeks have seemed to be the same. i say that because i am once again the end of one thing and looking for something else to start. last friday marked the end of my time as an aide in kindergarten…which is what i thought would be the case a few weeks ago when i last wrote in my blog. but i was asked to return for two more weeks on a part time basis. now that it’s all said and done, i can honestly say that i really enjoyed my time in the school and was able to make a few friends through the deal. and by friends i mean people my own age, not the 5 and 6 year olds that tackled my legs with hugs every time i walked into the room. they give their friendship to almost anyone in a matter of…oh…a day.

so what’s the plan now? well, i am presently working on getting my substitute teacher certificate. hopefully i can stay busy with that and we’ll see where God leads me from there.

just one last story to cap off my life in the kindergarten classroom …the theme at timothy this year is “they will know we are Christians by our love” so for one activity, all the kids made these red and white bracelets with a heart bead on them. they weren’t allowed to wear them until the following day, so you can about imagine how excited they were to put them on when they came to school the next day. well one little boy ran over to the table and immediately turned to the teacher and i, shouting “i got my bling bling on!”…which all of the other kids immediately thought was funny and tried to repeat. i don’t know which made me laugh more…they boy that said it the first time or the little white girls that tried to imitate him.

and this week i will have another ending - our last volleyball game is wednesday. as i have said before, it’s been a great season and i’m really glad i had the opportunity to coach this bunch of girls. but now it’s my turn to play on a city league team and i’m verrrry excited about it.

september ending

2008-09-30T21:28:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-24T21:09:00.007-05:00

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

2008-09-17T20:40:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-09T12:36:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-02T21:59:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-01T12:28:00.004-05:00

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.

the wonder of dutch bingo

2008-08-24T16:01:00.006-05:00

sarah with the vander kooi kids

the summer wedding season is officially over for matt and i. our good friends, nate and sarah (schaap) dockter tied the knot last weekend, and it was so much fun to be able to hang out with old friends and celebrate a great relationship! above are a few pictures of the event - congratulations nate and sarah! (sorry...i never got a good pic of nate)

shortly after moving here, my friend pam cook told me that i need not worry, dutch bingo makes chicago much smaller. it only took about a week for me to realize that she was right...

our neighbor lady, florence, is one of my volleyball player's dad's aunts...and that dad is also a fellow teacher and coach at timothy. matt and i have been going to faith crc in elmhurst the past couple of weeks and their pastor, lee koning, was a classmate of my uncle ken. dave larson, the advancement director at timothy christian, randomly met my parents when they were making a trip around the u.p. and made a timothy christian connection...but mr. larson also knows my uncle ken and aunt sandy quite well. on friday we hung out with ken and pam and some of their friends...one of which i met on a recruiting trip to ontario last fall when i worked for dordt. when we were at church this morning, we stood up to sing the final song and i look over and see heidi (de rooi) koster - a pella christian classmate of my brother nate's that i hadn't seen in probably 7-8 years. while we were talking with her and her husband after the service, their small group leader came up to say hi and he was jake koerselman's boss while jake was on chicago semester. jake is matt's former roommate and teammate at nw. i really don't know if any other culture is quite like the dutch in their bingo game, but pam was right. it really does make chicago feel just a little bit smaller.

oh, and my volleyball team...we're looking pretty good after week 1 of practice. at least i don't have to guess at what their name is anymore. i try to talk to matt about my lineup dilemmas but it ends up turning into a conversation quite similar to when he asks my opinion about the twins lineup....a blank stare or completely uneducated, guessed solution. our first game is a week from tuesday, so we have some time to figure things out. i know - it's only jv. but right now that's the only thing on my schedule for the day, so i have plenty of time to think about great practices and game strategy. :)

daily happenings

2008-08-13T22:06:00.005-05:00

i like volleyball a lot. that's really no surprise to anyone that knows me. and quite frankly, it's my only contribution to our financial gain thus far. this week i started off my timothy christian volleyball experience with a 5th - 7th grade camp, and after 4 1/2 hours of camp, i've decided that i need to give a BIG thank you to all of the elementary coaches out there...which for me would include my own parents. don't get me wrong - the girls are fun and i enjoy being at the camp. but there's just so much more to coaching that age than the sport itself, and anyone who is in that role has a real talent.

ellie is probably the most entertaining. on day one, when her serve went over the net, she would pump her fists and quietly say "yesss" to her self. on day two she was asking if we could sprint instead of jog for our warmups. on day three, she kept saying over and over how much fun diving and rolling was while every other girl nervously looked at the mats. there truly is never a dull moment with her.

other than that, a large part of our evenings is spent watching the olympics. but the time difference is killing me. i haven't stayed up this late since college, but i just can't stop watching....along with the other 82 million americans that watched phelps last night.

pictures

2008-08-09T16:55:00.004-05:00

tomorrow will be one week that we have lived in willowbrook, and i think we've done a pretty good job of getting settled in to our new home. i took some pictures after we got all of our boxes moved out to the garage today. hopefully this link will work for you to see them - if it doesn't just let me know and i'll try again. i hope everyone has a great weekend!

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012060&l=1f7d4&id=148300755

village of willowbrook

2008-08-05T21:05:00.002-05:00

as our 3 car and 1 truck pulling a trailer caravan pulled into willowbrook, i immediately noticed a target, bed bath & beyond, jamba juice, chipotle, starbucks, panera, dunkin donuts, and sports authority all within two blocks of our new home. just a little bit different than what we are used to. and i must say that we have fully utilized our proximity to these locations to the fullest in just two days.

another hightlight - IKEA. i've always dreamed of going into one but never had the chance to....and it definitely lived up to my expectations. we were in search of a sofa couch to give our potential visitors a place to sit and even sleep. so just let us know if you are in chicago and you are more than welcome. and matt says it's a good thing we have the beretta to take on the challenge of taking our new futon home....he was proud. :)

last night we had a heart to heart with our neighbor. florence is a 87 year old woman who lives in the main floor of our complex. if you watched the weather, we had a few tornadoes come through the area. so instead of hanging out in the hallway, we knocked on florences door and chatted with her. waiting out the storm turned into sharing her life story. she's a sweet, dutch woman and invited us to her church next sunday. as florence says....we dutch need to stick together :).

after the boxes get all unpacked, we will try to put some pictures of our place on here. it's time to leave starbucks.