moving along

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

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

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

yah twins!

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

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

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

after mauer hit his 3 run home run!

wedding fun

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

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

good times....

0-0

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

air & water show

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

the acrobat planes

parachuters

the blue angels were definitely my favorite

doing some of their tricks

off and running

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

finally home

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

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

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

every night the sunset was gorgeous!

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

we also made a stop at amnicon falls state park.

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