Seth and Sarah

Lot's Happening!

2010-01-25T17:11:00.006-05:00

Life continues to be exciting at the Yoder house. I won't even make excuses for the lack of posts the past 3 months. I can hardly believe February is just around the corner. Lots has happened since the beginning of November.

I had a wonderful trip to Brazil. Mom, Dad, and I stayed with my aunt Debra and grandpa at a beautiful condo right on the beach for two weeks. I enjoyed daily walks on the beach, time in the pool, lots of wonderful food, and good time catching up with family. A highlight was meeting my cousin Bruno's fiance and attending my first Brazilian bridal shower. It had been 10 years since my last visit to Brazil. How wonderful to return.

Since returning I have started a new job at Prairie View Elementary working as a paraprofessional in a functional skills classroom. I am being stretched everyday and learning valuable lessons that will help me when I have control of my own classroom.

Seth and Joel moved Crystal Valley Computers to a new location in Middlebury. They now have over twice the space and are excited about their location at the busy intersection of US 20 and SR 13. It was a lot of work to move everything, but we had lots of help from family and friends. Seth is relieved to be settled and is excited about all of the space they have to work with. Busy continues to be good and for this we are grateful.

My brother Colin proposed to Mackenzie at Thanksgiving and I am ecstatic about the upcoming wedding in September. We went dress shopping last weekend and I've enjoyed being involved in the planning.

I am looking foward the upcoming spring. Tennis conditioning at Bethany is starting in a week and official practices start in 6 weeks. I am going to have a great team this spring and am excited to spend more time at Bethany again.

Here are a few pictures from the past couple of months. A family picture taken on Christmas at Myron and Sheilas, a siblings picture from Rebekah's wedding, a Christmas picture ( I was very excited about the jumbo box of Goldfish crackers, and a picture from the wedding shower in Brazil.

Well I guess that is a quick update of the highlights. Hopefully it won't be another 3 months before we write again.

Sarah

Another milestone reached

2009-11-08T10:42:00.003-05:00

I am feeling pretty good this morning. I have officially completed all of my schoolwork. My student teaching is complete, my final portfolio has been turned in, and I am heading to the airport in 20 minutes for a 2 week trip to Brazil! It doesn't get much better than this except oh wait... I have a job waiting for me when I get back!

I have spent the past month searching webpages for jobs at any school in the area. I have been amazed at how few jobs are available. I guess I should have known with unemployment being so high in Elkhart County. Two principals have told me that they are being flooded with applications (100+) for every job they have open. People are desperate for jobs. I guess I just got lucky with an open teaching assistant position at Prairie View Elementary in Goshen. Knowing the principal definitely helped! I am excited to begin working in this setting when I get back. It will be a new experience for me to work with younger students and particularly students with special needs.

The best part is that because of the hours and location I will be able to continue coaching tennis at Bethany and finish out the year serving as a class sponsor. I feel very blessed. I expend so much energy worrying and somehow things always seem to work out! I need to do a better job of having faith.

Well that's all for now. Brazil here I come!

Fall Begets Winter

2009-10-17T22:02:00.004-04:00

This past week I gazed out the front window of the shop and watched the snowflakes disappear into the soaking wet parking lot. This finally confirms that the summer has gone and winter is here. For me, there are two seasons. The season when I am cold, and the season when I am not cold. It is now the season to be cold. Uncomfortable jackets, no shorts and t-shirts. No sandles. I think you can tell which season I prefer.

Time is ticking by at an amazing pace. Rebekah has been married for over a month. The business has been open for more than two and a half years. Sophie has filled our hearts with love for over three years. Sarah and I started dating more than nine years ago! We have reached the half way point of being in a relationship for the majority of our lives.

Sarah's student teaching is winding down. She has greatly enjoyed her experience and believes that she has finally found the career to which she was called. Things at Crystal Valley Computers are going well. I am faced with the struggles and delights of being self employed daily. Working with computers is not a deeply emotionally filling calling, but for some reason I believe it where God wants me.

Wedding Pictures

2009-09-06T23:04:00.004-04:00

Off and running...

2009-09-03T11:03:00.002-04:00

It has been several weeks since we've written, and its been an eventful couple of weeks. Rebekah and Chris got married. It was a fun weekend and a beautiful wedding. It was so wonderful to have our family in town. Grandpa and Aunt Debra came all the way from Brazil. Aunt Marg and Aunt Lisa were up a few days before the wedding as well. Colin and Mackenzie stayed at our house and we enjoyed having them around for the weekend. It is so wonderful to have family around!

Rebekah and Chris enjoyed a week at Seabrooke Island, South Carolina while the rest of us went back to the real world. I am finishing up my 4th week of student teaching and my 1st week of real teaching. I picked up two sections of government class this week and will add World History next week. I was fairly nervous the first day, but since then have been much more confident. The whole teaching thing feels very natural to me. I've enjoyed the creation process of making lessons and the actual class time with the students. It is a lot of work though! The next two weeks will be managable, but I think adding US History and a third prep will make things much more difficult in 2 weeks. My plan is to use the upcoming long weekend to get a lot of planning done.

In other news, Seth and I both have birthdays this weekend. The big 27. Wow that feels old. We are planning to spend time with my family Friday evening and his family Saturday. Rebekah is trying to talk us into a day trip to St. Joe on Monday too. We'll see how the weekend pans out though.

Life continues to change...

2009-08-15T09:49:00.003-04:00

Well life has changed. I just finished my first week of student teaching, 1 down and 12 to go. The first few weeks will be a lot of observation and then I will start taking over one class at a time, building up to full time teaching for a few weeks, and then handing classes back to Brent. It has been fun to be in the classrooms and experience a different part of school life than I have been used to for the past 4 years. It is hard to walk by my old office and see someone else in there though.

Sophie has completely healed from her eye injury. She ended up wearing the dreaded cone for 2 full weeks. We were so relieved when that finally came off. Oreo (Jeff and Mariko's dog) is here for the weekend while they are in Chicago celebrating their anniversary. It's fun for Sophie to have a playmate for a couple of days.

Rebekah and Chris are getting married a week from today! Craziness! It has come so quickly. I am excited about next weekend and all of the activities we will have going on. Colin and Mackenzie will be staying with us for the weekend and the big news is that my Grandpa and Aunt Debra are coming from Brazil for the wedding. They surprised us this past week with that news! It's been several years since I've seen Grandpa and a very long time since either of them have been in Goshen.

Another piece of big news is that Christie is engaged! I got the exciting phone call last night and am so thrilled for her and Scott!

Sad Sophie

2009-07-30T09:31:00.004-04:00

I can feel summer winding down with August quickly approaching. Big changes are just around the corner and I am feeling a mixture of excitement and apprehension. After four years I will be leaving my admissions office and moving into student teaching with Brent, a social studies teacher, at Bethany. The past few weeks I have begun to clean out my office and make space for the new admissions director. I am surprised at the amount of things I have accumulated over the past 4 years. I have one more week in the office and then starting August 11 I begin my student teaching responsibilities. This will keep me busy until mid November. From there I will be searching for second semester teaching positions or some other paying job to finish out the school year. I am hopeful something will fall into place fairly early on because I don't do well with unknowns, plus we will need some income from me. The whole being adults with responsibilities thing is kind of a drag!

On another note I finished my last class earlier this week. Over the past 18 months I have completed 11 classes through Goshen College and Indiana University and passed 2 state licensing tests to get ready for student teaching this fall. It felt amazing to take that last final and cross the last class off my list of things "to do." It has been a busy year and a half, but we survived!

On a sadder note, we had a medical emergency with Sophie last weekend. She and Della (Seth's parents new dog) got into a little scuffle at the farm and Sophie needed to be taken to the vet for stitches just below her eye. Thankfully the cut did not injure her eye, but unfortunately the incident happened after hours on Saturday evening, so we had to drive over to Mishawaka to the Animal Emergency Care Center in order to have a vet look at her. We left for the vet's office at 9pm and didn't get home until after 1am on Sunday morning. All in all it was a long evening, but also quite an adventure. Sophie is not happy about having to wear a cone for 10 days though!

keeping busy

2009-07-21T11:29:00.005-04:00

Can it really be the end of July already?! Amazing! I am always amazed at how quickly the summer weeks pass. I have been enjoying short mornings at work and lots of free afternoon and evenings to do whatever I feel like. Highlights from the past couple of weeks include a trip to Cedar Point with KP and a group of kids from Bethany, a weekend visit with Colin and Mackenzie to celebrate Rebekah's birthday, and time at home to scrapbook, read, nap, and more recently paint!

A couple of weeks ago Sheila came over to help me with a few projects around the house and together we tackled painting in two bedrooms and our porch railing. After learning a few lessons from an expert I tackled our downstairs bathroom alone. I must say I am feeling pretty proud of myself! Painting is very addicting. It is amazing what a fresh paint of coat does to a room! I think I will try and do our other bathroom yet this summer. I know it isn't that interesting, but I included pictures of some of my projects!

In other news Seth and I spent the weekend in Shipshiwana for his Yoder family reunion. It was good to have the entire family together. It had been several years since I'd seen some of his cousins. We enjoyed the Farmstead Inn, the ping pong tables, local shopping and restaurants, and time to play games and catch up with everyone.

Summer update

2009-07-03T19:46:00.007-04:00

I am in the midst of enjoying my two week summer vacation. I had this week off and next week as well. Truthfully I have been pretty boring this first week. I have one more class I need to finish before student teaching this fall and I decided to get it done in one week instead of having it hang over my head all summer. I am happy to report that I have 7 out of 8 lessons done! It helped to have Wimbledon on TV all week. I could justify watching so much tennis because I was working on school work at the same time! I should finish the last lesson sometime this weekend. It will feel great to have this last class done!

The rest of the vacation I am hoping to do some fun stuff! I want to spend some time at my parents pool, Sheila is going to help me do some painting, I want to catch up on my scrapbooking, and I plan on taking plenty of naps!

The highlight of my vacation so far was a day trip to St. Joe with Rebekah, Chris, and Zimms. Last Saturday we decided to go to the beach and rent kayaks for an afternoon. I had never kayaked before and was excited to try something new. It was a beautiful day too. We kayaked for a few hours in Lake Michigan. It was hard work! Afterwards we had a Chinese picnic and walked around downtown. We enjoyed the safari animal display! Rebekah's favorite animal was the rainbow giraffe!

Long overdue...

2009-06-17T11:01:00.003-04:00

I guess it is long past my turn to up date this thing! This past spring was so busy for me and things have just begun to slow down now. I tell the girls on my tennis team that I don't want to hear excuses from them, but here I go anyways, giving excuses!

I finished my 4th season as the head coach of the Bethany girls tennis team at the end of May. We had a good season and I am really excited about the future of the program. My varsity team had 1 junior, 4 sophomores, and 2 freshman this spring. I am so excited about returning everyone next spring. We finished the season 9-9, even with all of our inexperience. This group is going to be my next sectional winning team!

I finished my classes at Goshen College at the end of April and since then have taken one more class through Indiana University's education at a distance program. I have one last class to take this summer to fill in my missing credits. It is amazing to look at the my to-do list from a year and a half ago and know that I only have one more class plus student teaching to complete. It has been a crazy year, but I am really excited about the upcoming changes.

At this point there are a lot of details up in the air. I have applied for an open teaching position for next year and have found a few other openings at local schools I plan to apply for as well. The question will be if a school will be willing to give me a job, even though I won't be fully licensed until December. I am crossing my fingers and hoping to get lucky. If for some reason it doesn't work out though I will do my student teaching with Brent at Bethany this fall and look for a second semester job.

School ended a few weeks ago. It is always strange to be at the school in the summer without all of the students around. I directed a science day camp last week for kids in grades K-5. This is my 3rd summer running the program and I added some teaching responsibilities as well, just for more practice. This week is another set of camps that I am in charge of as well. The Bethany boys tennis coach and I are running a tennis camp in the morning for middle school students and I am overseeing other camps throughout the rest of the day. After this week things will slow down a lot!

Seth and I are also excited about seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat tonight at the Round Barn Theater in Warsaw. Grandpa and Martha were nice enough to offer us their tickets since they are out of town and Grandpa is recovering from surjery. I know we will enjoy the show tonight.

Well, that is a marathon catchup. I am excited about the rest of the summer. I have projects to work on around the house and of course Rebekah's upcoming wedding in August. I will also continue to pray and trust that details will begin to fall into place for next year. I don't handle uncertaintly well, so this is strecthing for me.

Sarah

Flying Months

2009-05-16T11:36:00.003-04:00

Wow, a whole month has gone by without a post. Again I will redouble my efforts and attempt to post more often.

The past month flew by. Sarah has been very busy with Tennis at Bethany and is gone nearly every evening. She also had a week where she visited Pittsburgh with students from Bethany for interterm. It was a good (albeit fun) experience for her.

Work has been good, with some weeks being crazy busy, and others being a bit more laid back. Our business continues to steadily increase and we are very excited to be making such headway even with the state of the economy in Middlebury. Having Joel and Daniel to work with has been quite the blessing and I can't imagine better guys to work with!

I am beginning to put together the 3.0 and 3.5 men's USTA tennis leagues for the summer and am very excited about it. It is always a lot of fun!

It sounds like the Loves may be looking to get themselves a dog! Seeing someone get a new dog always makes me happy. I love Dogs and if I didn't live in town I would defiantly have a couple more. I also think it is very important to rescue dogs rather then getting them from a breeder or a pet store. There are some great documentaries on Youtube about the conditions and the thought processes in puppy mills. The ones I have seen are abit too long and graphic to put on here.

Instead I thought I would include an 'adopt me' video. The problem is that I really like two of them , so I think I will need to include both.

Spring Break

2009-04-12T15:54:00.020-04:00

For the past week Sarah and I were at Lake of the Ozarks Missouri, thanks to my parents for letting us trade in their timeshare and thanks to Joel and Daniel for watching the shop on short notice!

We left on Tuesday morning and arrived back home today. The drive was around 8 hours and was comfortable thanks to Sarah's parents selling us their beautiful car at a price we could afford! Two things jumped out at us right as we arrived.

First of all, the luxurious amenities in the room which we are lacking at home.

Secondly, the amazing view from our front porch (and I am NOT talking about the lake...).

Wednesday was great! The weather was perfect and we began the day with some sleeping in (Seth) and going to the club's workout room (Sarah). Then I ran Sarah around the tennis courts for a while and taught her how to add some topspin to her forehand.

Of course, we had to sample some of the local gourmet cuisine.

The next day there was an unfortunate turn of events when I woke up with a very strong headcold. Somehow I went for almost two years with no major illness and I get knocked on my rear by a cold/flu during my only week off work in those two years!

Thankfully it was mainly just sinus issues accompanied by a fever, but it did put a damper on our plans for the next few days. I mainly stayed inside and slept while Sarah went out and bought all of the Crocs in the nearby outlet mall.

We also became very good at the game Sequence during my 'indoor' time.

Finally, Friday night I decided to brave the outside world and we went out for dinner and a movie. Sarah and I are a big fan of the animated films, and the only one that was playing was Monsters vs. Aliens. The movie was just alright. The animation was cool, but that's about it. By far, the best part of the movie was the clip below:

We are stoked about this one!!

More snow?

2009-02-24T11:30:00.004-05:00

After a week or two of good weather I was hoping that spring may be around the corner. However, mother nature had other plans in mind and I was unpleasantly surprised this week with buckets more of snow. (Yes...buckets)

Other then yearning desperately for spring, things are going pretty well. Business has been steady even through the terrible economic conditions of the area. We have been blessed with an incredible employee in Dan Love. Things sure couldn't have worked out better on that front.

Sarah has been very busy with work and school. She is feeling a bit overwhelmed. Still, she is looking forward to the girls tennis season starting up this spring.

I found a neat video that only some of you will enjoy. Some of you may find it sappy, so if you have no imagination or passion you should not play the video. :-P

One of the greatest literary heroes ever...or at least one of my favorite. Plus a great song. You can't go wrong!

By the way, the hero I was referring to was Sam of course.

We are off and running...sort of

2009-01-18T08:24:00.002-05:00

I was just starting to feel back into the swing of things when cold winter weather gave us a 4 day weekend! Not that I am complaining!

Seth is in Chicago this weekend playing in a tennis tournament with his dad. Rebekah is in town, although I really haven't seen her much. She and Chris are visiting different venues trying to decide on a reception location. Today they are driving to Lafayette for a Purdue basketball game, Rebekah's birthday gift for Chris.

I had the house to myself all last night. I got the first half of my semester's work done for one of my classes. (Yes! I was feeling productive!). Seth always said I was crazy. It is so hard for me to have a complete syllabus and not start working ahead. It is like a long to-do list just waiting to have things crossed off. Why wait until later, if I can get it done now! I also did a little scrapbooking. Sometimes it is nice to have the house to yourself for a day!

The vacation is over...

2009-01-06T10:27:00.005-05:00

Well, 6:00 a.m. yesterday morning came as quite a shock for me after having three weeks off from work. My plan this past weekend was to readjust my schedule back to the real world, but too many days of staying up late and sleeping in had caught up with me. These first couple of days might be a little rough, but hopefully soon I'll be back into the swing of things.

Seth and I had a wonderful Christmas, anniversary, and New Year's. We were fortunate to be able to spend time with both of our immediate families as well as some extended family. We spent two days after Christmas with the Stopher family in LaGrange and then visited with Aunt Lisa and her family on New Years Day.

A highlight of the vacation was a trip we made to Gatlinburg with my family. Mom and Dad had rented a beautiful cabin in the Smoky Mountains for a week. Seth and I celebrated our anniversary in Indianapolis, swung by Cincinnati to pick up Colin, and then drove south for a few days. Rebekah and Chris joined us a day later. We all enjoyed hiking, pool, time in the hot tub, episodes of The Office and The West Wing, trips to town, and lots of good food. It was a relaxing couple of days.

I was able to finish all the lessons in a correspondence class through Indiana University over the break. I just need to take the mid-term and final to finish everything off. I register for my next semester of classes at Goshen College today and begin class on Thursday. In some ways it is nice to be back to work and to have more structure to my days. I am ready to get going again. This semester I will only have 3 credits through Goshen College, so that shouldn't be too overwhelming.

We are looking forward to Rebekah moving home in about a month and to the upcoming wedding this summer/fall!

engagement rings and more

2008-12-26T17:38:00.000-05:00

We have had a few wonderful days. Rebekah came home for Christmas and she had a wonderful surprise the night before she drove home. Let's just say there was a handsome man with a ring waiting for her when she got home from work!

Seth and I have spent the past few days with family. Myron cooked us a unique lunch yesterday that included baby octopus and cows tongue. We enjoyed spending the first half of the day in Middlebury and then heading over to Goshen for the second half of the day. Unfortunately Colin was not able to come home for Christmas. It was the first time we were not all together on Christmas day, but we will all be together next week in Gatlinburg.

Seth and I will be celebrating our 5th anniversary tomorrow and the plan is to spend two days in Indianapolis before heading south to Tennessee for a few days at the cabin in Gatlinburg. I can't believe its been five years already. It is exciting to think about planning another wedding! We are very excited for Rebekah and Chris!

alumni night, party mix, and upcoming vacations

2008-12-08T11:49:00.001-05:00

What a busy weekend! Sheila took us out for dinner and a movie Friday evening. We enjoyed dinner at Hacienda (round one!) and the new Disney movie Bolt.

I was at Bethany almost all day on Alumni Saturday, arriving at 12:30 and not leaving until after 9pm! This is my second year keeping the official scorebook for home girls basketball games. They had a game at 1pm, the tennis team helped at the Alumni Chili Dinner from 3:30-5:00, Seth and I grabbed dinner with friends at Hacienda (round two!), and then we all came back for the boys basketball game at 6pm. I was the good luck charm as Seth, Joel, and Kyle all won prizes during the game!

We spent a good portion of the day on Sunday out in Middlebury with Sheila, Justin, and Stephanie. We helped Sheila set up the Christmas tree and other decorations, we made party mix, took the dogs for a romp in the woods, and sat around talking. It was a nice relaxing evening.

Things are slowing down. My fall semester at Goshen College is done and this is my last week at work before my 3 week Christmas vacation!

Thanksgiving Fun!

2008-12-03T11:41:00.005-05:00

Things have slowed down a little after the busy holiday weekend. Seth and I both enjoyed having 4 days off. We spent lunch and the afternoon with the Stophers and Seth's Yoder family on Thursday and the evening with my family. We helped celebrate Grandma Pauline's Thanksgiving birthday and were excited to have cousin Phil drive up from Louisville for the weekend. Chris joined us for Thanksgiving at my parents and we all enjoyed a rousing game of Imagine If. Ask Rebekah what dwarf we all thought she would be!

The rest of the weekend included movies, a Chinese Picnic, ping pong, long afternoon walks, afternoon naps, and a video game get together (I was not a part of this).

We had an exciting addition to our household for 4 days. Jeff and Mariko left Oreo with us while they traveled to New York. We enjoyed having Oreo around and by the end of the weekend I had figured out how to take both of them for runs! Talk about a challenge. I feel like I made quite the scene jogging on Greene Road trying to juggle two dogs! Oreo is a high energy dog who would only sleep at the foot of our bed. While I wouldn't say Oreo and Sophie are soul mates, they learned to tolerate each other! Sophie slept for a full day after Oreo left, she was so tired.

Friends Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T14:29:00.005-05:00

Last night was the first annual Friends Thanksgiving get together at our house. Seth and I were excited to have 13 friends over to celebrate an early Thanksgiving! I cooked my first turkey (with much success!)and between that and everyone bringing a dish to share we had a truly scrumptious dinner! It was a little bit of a struggle to get that many people around a table in our living room, but it all worked out.

After the meal we watched the Colt's play and did a few rounds of Mafia.I think it will definitely become a tradition!

I'm looking forward to having Rebekah and Colin home this weekend for Thanksgiving. Seth and I are spending Thursday afternoon in Middlebury with his family and Thursday evening in Goshen with my family. The four day weekend will be wonderful!

p.s. Mariko and I, along with lots of teenage girls, watched Twilight on Saturday, after standing in line to make sure we could get tickets! I read all four books this fall and was really excited to see the movie. Mariko and I decided we would need to see all of the movie together!

Group Projects, Brazil, and Babies...

2008-11-12T11:26:00.003-05:00

Can it already be the middle of November? I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by. I think taking classes this semester has just accelerated everything too. I can only assume next semester will be the same way.

My classes at Goshen College are beginning to wind down. I have a presentation in both of my classes and one final paper to turn in. No finals in either class, which I am not complaining about. The only bad thing is that the presentations are group projects! yuck! Why do teachers insist on assigning group projects. They are the bane of my existence.

Mom is in Brazil for the next 9 days. I am so jealous. We are having the first blast of winter weather this week and she gets to be in Brazil during the summer season. Life is not fair! I hope she can convince Aunt Debra and/or Uncle Kleber to come to the States this summer for my cousin Betsy's wedding. Seth has never met either of them. Mom is visiting to help celebrate Aunt Debra's birthday.

We got exciting news last weekend while we were hanging out at the Claassen's home on Friday night with Kevin and Kyle. Jeff and Mariko are expecting their first baby! They are going to be our first set of friends who live locally to have a baby. It should be fun and informative to watch! We are both so thrilled for them and the new baby Claassen that is due in May.

a weekend in Chicago

2008-10-29T09:12:00.002-04:00

This past weekend Seth and I went to Chicago to visit with Myron. We left early in the morning and spent a good part of the day in Chicago on Sunday. Myron took us to the most amazing fitness club I have ever seen. They had hundreds of cardio machines, beautiful indoor tennis courts, pools, a full size indoor track, restaurants, spa treatments, even a laundry room! We spent a couple hours there in the morning and I tried out all of the cardio machines I'd never done before. Myron and Seth did a tennis drill together and I did one later in the day as well. It was fun to have someone feeding me balls for a change!

We enjoyed spending time with Myron and seeing a little of the city. Myron took us to Paws, a no-kill animal shelter and we had fun looking at all of the animals available for adoption. They have tons of volunteers that help exercise the animals and come to play with them. Seth is convinced we need to get a friend for Sophie, but I am not so sure!

things slowing down a little bit...

2008-10-18T16:35:00.003-04:00

Seth and I are both enjoying a long weekend. I had a four day weekend for parent teacher conferences at Bethany and Seth took a couple of days off so we could spend some time together. We've been sleeping in, playing tennis, and we spent yesterday in Mishawaka. Seth drooled over TVs at Best Buy, we walked around the mall, browsed Barnes and Nobles, and ate dinner out.

It feels great to have my tennis season done. We did finally win a few matches, but it was a tough season for us overall. I am enjoying the extra time in the afternoons and evenings now. The past seven weeks were maybe the busiest of my life. Things ended at just about the right time. My class work has started to pick up and I just finished taking my midterms.

Rebekah is in town this weekend. She and Aunt Lisa drove up on Friday for a couple of days. Rebekah is interviewing for a job in St. Joe on Monday. She is still trying to relocate a little closer to us (oh wait, and Chris!).

looking forward to the weekend!

2008-09-18T10:47:00.003-04:00

I knew this semester would be hard, but I had no idea how tired I would be. I told Seth last night that I feel like all I do is run from one thing to the next. My days have started to look something like this...work, class, field placement, class, work, tennis, sleep. Nights when there aren't matches there always seems to be something else. Coaches meetings, faculty meetings, concession stand duties, or something else. I only come home at night to sleep. Poor Seth! Our fridge is empty and I am never home.

I'm not sure how much I will be able to update our blog over the next couple of months, especially because one of my teacher education requirements is to make 28 blog postings before December 14 on the issues of:

Studying Effective Teachers
Learning to Identify Allies
Practicing Democratic Principles
Developing Ways to Recharge my Battery
Taking My Education Seriously
Getting Political

So if you are bored and looking for a little heavier reading, check out the link to Sarah's TtT Blog, The Journey to Teaching. (TtT is the fancy shorthand for Transition to Teaching!)

I am looking forward to a weekend off from tennis. We have no matches until next Tuesday. I have some reading and studying to do this weekend, but that is all that is on my agenda. Oh besides celebrating Sheila's birthday this Saturday night! I hope all is well. If you have some energy to spare, send it my way!

Sarah

three weeks in...

2008-09-11T21:29:00.003-04:00

I am three weeks into my tennis season. Two weeks into my classes. And right now I am exhausted. Thank goodness it is Friday. I love having Fridays off. In some ways it makes being so busy during the rest of the week bearable.

It has been strange being in classes again. I have reading to do in the evenings, field experiences to do in between classes, and I am already starting to think about my bigger projects for the semester. I have found myself to be more cynical and conservative than the younger students in my classes. I don't feel like I have the wide eyed optimism that so many of them do. I guess being out of school for three years will do that to you.

Still it is good. It is exciting to be reading and spending time in classrooms. My field experience at Goshen Middle School is going to be really good for me. I forget what regular schools are like after spending so much time at Bethany.

Tennis season has been a challenge. We have a very young team and while we have talent, we have not won a match yet. I did get a midweek boast when we added another player from Ethiopia. She will definitely help us. I have to keep reminding myself that it is a rebuilding year. We'll get a win soon!

It is about to get crazy busy...

2008-08-19T13:47:00.002-04:00

Seth and I have spent the past two weekends in Indianapolis. My USTA tennis team won the state competition last weekend at Carmel Racquet Club and this past weekend we represented Indiana at a regional meet that included Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Unfortunately my team had a disappointingly 1-3 showing over the course of the weekend, but that didn't stop us from having a lot of fun. I went 3-0 at my singles position and played a fantastic match Sunday afternoon to close out my season. Seth and I enjoyed staying at a nice hotel adjacent to Keystone Mall, watching the Olympics late into the evening, and eating out at restaurants. He was a good sport all weekend sitting out in the sun and heat watching me play!

School is underway at Bethany and everyone seems to be settling into the routine. I begin tennis practices next Monday at Goshen College and start my classes on September 2. I am working hard to finish off my latest correspondence class, world history, before my GC classes begin. I turned in my last lesson today and am just waiting to take the final.

We were lucky amidst all that is going on to be able to spend time with Seth's aunt Gina and her family last Thursday night. They were visiting from Virginia for the week and got to go with Seth and Sophie on a creek walk before we left for the weekend. My sister was also in town again two weekends ago. Unfortunately it was for a family funeral, but still it is always good to see her. Rebekah is going through the process of trying to sell her home in Knoxville and probably couldn't have picked a more difficult time to try and sell property without taking too huge of a loss.

Other than that, not much is going on. Seth is busy at the store in Middlebury and we continue to be grateful for the success he and Joel are experiencing with their young business.

Blessings,
Sarah

weddings left and right

2008-08-05T11:45:00.003-04:00

Summer is supposed to be a time when things slow down, at least for me. The past few weeks haven't felt that way though. Two very good friends, Joel Bontrager and Josh Miller, got married at the end of July, my sister visited over her birthday, and my USTA tennis team has advanced out of local and district competition. We will compete this Saturday in Indianapolis for the state title! Everything has been very fun and exciting, but also exhausting.

Seth and I are very excited for our newly married friends and are looking forward to getting to know Jess and Vicki better. Seth was honored to be a groomsman in both of the weddings and Joel felt sorry for me so he asked me to be one of his attendants as well!

I feel summer quickly winding down. Bethany starts school next Thursday, my tennis season begins at Goshen College on the 25th of August, and I start classes at GC after Labor Day. It is going to be a busy year, no question about it! I am finishing up my 4th online class since November and still have 3 more to take over the next year, on top of my education classes. While things have been busy it feels good to be working towards a goal. I have enjoyed reading and thinking again.

We are looking forward to visiting with more family again over the next two weeks. Sheila's family is going to be in town next week and Rebekah is coming up for a quick weekend visit. Having a boyfriend in the area will make you crazy enough to make the 8 hour drive two times in one month! It's been good to see her more often!

Sheila and I are going to tackle a few more outdoor projects tomorrow. I want to repaint the front of the house and power wash all of our siding before tennis season begins and I don't have the energy to do anything else!

Sarah

It's been a busy two weeks

2008-07-12T22:20:00.006-04:00

It is hard to believe that my two weeks of summer vacation are coming to an end already. Time goes by so quickly.

Seth and I made a quick weekend trip to Chicago to kick off the start of my vacation. Seth planned the whole trip and had tickets for us to see a show each evening. We started with The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, followed by Blue Man Group, and the finale was Wicked! I loved all three of them, but Wicked was probably my favorite. Glinda just made me laugh the whole way through! The music, costumes, and story was great. Very clever. The highlight of the weekend was definitely when I got pulled on stage for a bit during the Blue Man Group performance. I couldn't believe it when they kept staring at me. Talk about a nerve wrecking experience! How would you like those three faces staring at you! I guess I got my 15 minutes of fame!

Seth and I undertook the project of refinishing our deck when when got back home. It was something Seth really wanted to do, so we got Myron and Sheila to help us with the project. It looks so much better now that it has been cleaned and stained.

I made a trip to Cedar Point with KP and a group of students from Bethany. We had a great day with very short lines. I could not believe I got onto the Millennium Force twice, with less than a 45 minute wait each time. Unbelievable! Seth and I waited close to 3 hours the first time we rode it.

The last couple days have been spent making some progress on my class work. I worked through the first half of my world history class and am ready for my final exam in economics. What a relief it will be to have that one done! I got accepted into Goshen College's Transition to Teaching program and will start classes this August. I have two class this this fall, one next spring, and then just student teaching. It feels great to be making some progress through all of the things I need to get done before I can become licensed.

The next couple of weeks will be busy too. I head back to work on Monday and we have two big weddings coming up with Joel's next weekend and Josh's the following week. I guess that is all for now! We'll update later after all of the weddings and make sure to post some pictures.

an Enchanted weekend!

2008-06-22T20:36:00.002-04:00

It has been a good weekend. Maybe even a great weekend! I got to see Traci yesterday. We spent all evening together catching up, reminiscing, and even talking about politics a little bit. I miss her so much and was glad for the time we were able to spend together. She and Jared are getting ready to spend a year doing service in Guatemala and I am really excited for them and all the new things coming up in their lives.

Seth and I got together with friends on Friday night. I got to see Kevin's new house in Elkhart, we grilled out for dinner, and played Rock Band for a couple of hours. Mariko and Kyle are amazing, but Seth and I can hold our own too!

Seth and I watched the movie Enchanted tonight. We laughed the whole way through it! What a fun movie. It isn't very often that you find a clean PG movie that keeps your attention the whole time. If you are looking for something amusing to watch I would definitely recommend it.

I have one more week of work before my two week vacation! I am really looking forward to that. I think Seth and I might take a little vacation somewhere in there! Nothing set in stone though.

I hear babies cry and I watch them grow...

2008-06-13T20:46:00.005-04:00

....they'll learn much more then we'll ever know.

Congradulations to my friends Jon and Gretchen Paulovich on the birth of their son Owen!

Also, wanted to share this wonderful song and video.

Seth

I planted my first garden!

2008-05-21T15:09:00.005-04:00

Well, I am sitting in my living room at 2:30 p.m. on a Thursday in sweat pants, so that can only mean two things. One, tennis season is over. Two, my schedule at Bethany is back to part time. The second part I am happy about, although this time of year I hate to feel like I am missing anything that is happening at school. As for tennis being done, I am always sad when a season ends. Even though it makes my days incredibly long, it is something that energizes me and gives me a focus that is beyond my usual selfish self.

This past season has been particularly great. I had an amazing group of players and a wonderful assistant coach. I will be sad to see Jeron leave this summer for Hesston, but am grateful for his help this spring. It is always amazing to meet someone who understands my passion for tennis and for coaching.

So what now? I am beginning to gear up for two full weeks of summer camps at Bethany. The biggest task is organizing Camp Invention, a science and math camp for around 50 first through fifth graders. I ran this camp last year and it was very successful. I am hoping the second year will be even better and I am looking forward to having some experience under my belt.

My summer tennis league starts tomorrow and I am working to organize summer tennis lessons and open courts for my high school players. I also want to read a lot of books, catch up on some scrapbooking, and continue to do little projects around the house. I dug up part of the backyard for my first garden. My helped me plant onions, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. We'll see how this goes! We have a busy summer with lots of weddings too. Andrea Skyrm, Josh Miller, Joel Bontrager, and Jeron are all getting married in June and July.

Seth is staying really busy at the computer shop. I think the long days and long weeks are really starting to catch up with him. I hope we can take some sort of vacation this summer to get away.

Well, that is all for now,
Sarah

Good News

2008-04-24T10:53:00.006-04:00

I got some very good news last week. Earlier this winter I spent 30-40 hours studying for the social studies Praxis II content knowledge test, which is a requirement for a teaching liscense in Indiana. I also needed to pass the test to be admitted into Goshen College's Transition to Teaching program this fall. I took the test at Notre Dame on March 15 and had to wait 5 agonizing weeks to get the results. I was so nervous about the test because several friends have told me about friends of theirs from college who had to take the test multiple times (one person 6 times!) before they passed. It was a tough test and there were lots of questions I didn't know the answer too, but amazingly I passed! It was a huge relief.

I am taking my last Praxis test Saturday morning. This second one will be much easier than the first one. It will feel good to have everything done.

I keep moving forward with my classes. I only have my final exam left to take for my second class and I am already registered for a third class. My goal is to finish two more classes by the end of this summer.

Tennis season is in full swing now. We only have 2 1/2 weeks until sectionals. This season has been wonderful. I've really enjoyed this group of players.

Seth and I are heading over to his parents house tonight for dinner. Dave and Sue are in town this week and we are really excited about seeing them. We have missed them since they moved to Colorado at the beginning of the school year. Sophie will be so excited to see them too. She has missed doggy day care this winter and spring.

Try something new.

2008-04-16T00:35:00.006-04:00

Well, I am getting closer and closer in my attempt to be able to appreciate all kinds of music.

Yeah, it is easy to tell people that this type of music is dumb or that type of music is crappy...but when someone tells me that they like Country, I want to be able to say "Yeah, Me and My Gang is pretty fun and Garth Brooks can craft quite the tune." Or perhaps someone says that they appreciate the lyrical quality of Metallica, and I can honestly say "Not only do I enjoy the depth of Unforgiven II, but I can headbang while singing along to Fuel."

Now, I don't generally like Country or Metallica type rock, but ther ARE good country songs and good hard rock songs...the trick is separating the quality from the crap.

Seriously, the only thing I am having trouble with is rap. Haven't even been close to finding a rap song I like. If someone would point me in the direction of a rap song I could appreciate for the poetic or musical value I would be in your debt!

So here is my latest find from genre that I don't usually love, but has produced a song that I do.

I always appreciate it when people point out new music to me (Thanks Kyle!), so if you have something for me to check out please don't hesitate to let me know!

Seth

Videos

2008-04-10T23:09:00.003-04:00

Since I have trouble expressing myself on the blog and can't seem to get myself motivated to update people on what is going on in my life I thought maybe I could make a goal to share some of my favorite You Tube videos and put a little blurb with each video.

We'll start off with a simple little Calvin and Hobbes video. This is mostly for my Mom, as we have always shared an appreciation for Calvin and Hobbes.

Seth

Go Lady Bruins!

2008-04-09T16:29:00.003-04:00

As my sister likes to remind me, it has been a long time since we updated our blog. This always seems to be the case during one of my tennis seasons. I am four weeks into my high school season and this week am enjoying some time off for spring break. We have already had 5 matches this year, which is a record before spring break, and I feel like I have spent the last four weeks being outside in the wind and the cold. It was an amazing change of pace this past weekend to visit Rebekah in Knoxville and experience mid 70s and sunshine. I hardly knew what to do with myself!

This tennis season has been amazing. Probably my favorite of all of the seasons I have coached since college. The group of girls on the team are hard working and fun to be with. I do not feel any sense of entitlement from them and I love how they are working hard every day to improve. Jeron Baker has been my JV coach this season and his help has been so amazing. I have valued his tennis insight and sense of humor. I already know that I will miss him desperately next spring when he moves to Hesston College to coach the men's and women's teams there!

As mentioned above, I made a quick trip to visit Rebekah this past weekend. Mom and I drove part way to Knoxville on Friday evening after my tennis match and the rest of the way Saturday morning. We spent a couple days with Rebekah enjoying the city of Knoxville, cheering on the lady Vols to their 8th national championship, watching The Office (Rebekah is a new fan!) and helping her catch up her scrapbook. I got to jog on Cherokee Blvd, shop at Reruns, eat out at amazing restaurants, and enjoy some beautiful weather. I figure my trips to Knoxville will soon come to a close. Rebekah is searching for jobs in the St. Joe area and is talking about putting her home on the market. It will be great to have her move closer to home but I will miss the trips south.

My plan for the rest of this week is to sleep in, jog with Sophie, finish up my government class (I only have 3 lessons left!) and reenergize for the second half of my tennis season! Go Bruins!

winter update

2008-03-06T10:44:00.005-05:00

Rebekah informed me last night that we hadn't updated our blog in a very long time. I guess she was right. I haven't had exciting trips to write about like she does! Our lives are a little more mundane. I can't seem to get Seth to write anything anymore, even though this was his brainchild.

I am enjoying my last week of regular life before the high school tennis season starts on Monday. I am really excited to have Jeron Baker, a friend from college and a former member of the Goshen College men's team, assistant coaching this spring with me. I think it is going to be great to work with him. I am excited for the JV team to have a coach who is there just for them too. This will allow me to focus more of my energies on the varsity team.

Seth and I joined a mixed doubles tennis league again this winter. We have played two matches and are currently 1-1. It has been interesting to play together. Seth had no idea how competitive I am with tennis and I am working on being encouraging and trying to enjoy recreational tennis. I know there is more to life than winning, but man I sure hate to lose tennis matches. We have 3 more matches scheduled over the next month and a half.

Colin is touring this week with the Camerata Singers from Bluffton over spring break. They are singing at Bethany later today and will be back in Goshen for a morning concert at our church on Sunday. Colin is providing the morning sermon! Seth and I are hosting 3 students overnight, so I have been gathering air mattresses, bedding, snacks, etc. I haven't seen Colin since Christmas so it will be good to catch up a little.

We had a minor emergency last night. I went into the garage to get a container of frozen blueberries from our deep freeze and I realized that our freezer wasn't working. We quickly assessed damages and moved meat, fruit, and cheese indoors to our smaller freezer and to mom and dad's house. Some meat was thawed and ruined, but most of the stuff towards the bottom was still frozen. I browned 15 lbs of hamburger last night and put two roasts in the crock pot in an attempt to salvage more meat. I wasn't planning to spend my evening doing any of that, but I guess life is always full of surprises.

Well that is all for now. My life is about to get crazy. I'll get Seth to write the next update!
Sarah

a whirlwind weekend

2008-02-04T12:21:00.000-05:00

In some ways it is nice to be back to work today, especially after a very busy weekend. I left early Thursday morning with all of the Bethany faculty, staff, and administrators for the Mennonite Educators Conference in Pittsburgh. We had meetings and workshops Thursday evening, all day Friday, and Saturday morning. The conference was actually better than I thought it would be. It was fun to be with coworkers in a setting outside of school. We ate meals together, played cards on the bus, and even went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat one evening. KP and I got to be roomies for the weekend too! Can't complain about that, although I couldn't get her to get up with me in the mornings to hit the fitness center. She laughed at me when I suggested it!

Last night we invited friends over to watch the Super Bowl. Fridley's, the bachelor pad, Dan, and KP all came over. We enjoyed a close game and felt good about another Manning winning the super bowl. If it couldn't be Peyton, at least it was Eli.

It is going to be another busy week. The girls basketball team has sectionals this week starting on Tuesday, so I could potentially be at games Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday night. I have conditioning and a Cornerstone Evening this Wednesday and a meeting at church on Thursday evening. It is going to be busy!

On another note, this past weekend the trial for the murder of Kari Nunemaker ended, 17 years after the fact. Even though I never met Kari I feel like she has been a part of my life because of the impact her death had on my mom. I was so little when she dissapeared and was later found dead, yet I vividly remember being at a basketball game where they announced that she was still missing. I can only imagine how much this shook a school and church community. Growing up I would sometimes get so frustrated with the curfews and rules my parents had for me, but reading about her story again in the newspapers I can only begin to imagine the terror a parent goes through when their child dissapears. I know my parents just did everything they could to protect my brother, sister, and me. I hope that Kari's family and friends can feel at peace with the conclusion of the trial.

pittsburgh and tennis tournaments

2008-01-29T14:47:00.000-05:00

Well I was kind of dreading this week when I thought ahead on Sunday to everything I had going on. Little Sibs Day on Monday, chapel on Tuesday, conditioning Wednesday, parent visits on all three days, plus leaving early Thursday morning for a 3 day trip to Pittsburgh for Mennonite Educators meetings with Bethany. Now that things are going it feels much more managable. I need to remember to break weeks down into days instead of looking at the big picture. Things don't feel as overwhelming that way.

I am trying to be excited about this upcoming weekend in Pittsburgh. I just hate that it will take up half of the weekend. The good news is that we are staying in a nice hotel and I get to room with my friend KP. That will make everything better. Too bad we have to go to lots of meetings and sit around all weekend listening to people talk.

Conditioning for the Bethany tennis team started last week. At my call out meeting a few weeks ago the team decided to start conditioning right away. As a coach I have to be excited about that, I just wasn't sure I was ready to get going. As always though, being around the girls gives me so much energy. It will be fun to start easing into the season again.

Seth is probably going to have more fun this weekend than me. He and Joel are signed up for a tennis tournament, both singles and doubles, over in Elkhart starting on Friday. He's spent the last few days trying to quickly get into better shape. We are going to try and hit tomorrow at the racquet club. It has been a couple months since either of us have picked out our racquets. It should at least be interesting!

gearing up for a 4 day weekend

2008-01-17T11:43:00.000-05:00

I think it is safe to say that Seth and I have adjusted to our regular work schedules again after an extended Christmas break for me. I am not as confident saying that about Sophie though. After months of her being able to play outside during the day while we are working, she has seemed very sad about being left at home alone. If it is possible for dogs to have depression than I am fairly certain that she is suffering from it. I do my best to spend time with her in the evenings, taking walks and playing with toys, but it isn't nearly as much fun as running around with 2 other dogs out in the country! At least she has Sue's chair to sit on when she is on our porch!

As far as I know we have no big plans for the weekend. We are having dinner tonight at the Claassen's, who we always enjoy getting together with. I am continueing to be the official book keeper at home girls basketball games and our second to last regular season game is this Saturday afternoon. I have really enjoyed being at the games and watching the teams compete. It has made me somewhat regretful that I did not play basketball all the way through high school, but there is no changing the past.

Seth and Joel continue to stay busy at the shop. We were all dissapointed last weekend to watch the Colts lose. Seth and I blame ourselves, because they never play well when we watch. Other than that, not much is going on.

Sarah

we disappeared again

2008-01-10T14:47:00.000-05:00

After doing so well with updating our blog this fall, I have fallen back behind again. You would think with three full weeks off that I would have had plenty of time to write an entry or two. Not the case though!

As I mentioned above, I had three full weeks off for Christmas. They were wonderful. I stayed up late, slept in, read books, watched TV, scrapbooked, jogged, did school work, spent time with friends and family, and just mainly relaxed. Coming back to school this week was not as difficult as I thought it would be. A part of me was ready for more structure to my days. The biggest adjustment is always altering my sleeping schedule.

Seth and I got to spend Christmas with both of our immediate families. We spent Christmas morning and early afternoon with my family and the later afternoon and evening in Middlebury with Seth's family. It is always good to be with family. Rebekah was able to come home for 11 days, which is the longest trip she's made home since she moved away 5 years ago. Although most of her time was spent with Chris Westerbeek. It was still good to have her around. Colin also had 3 weeks off from school. So everyone was around for an extended amount of time.

Seth and I spent New Year's Eve at Jeff and Mariko Claassen's house with friends and Seth and Joel moved into a new shop in Middlebury. Seth and I celebrated our 4th, yes 4th, anniversary at the end of December. Wow! I can't believe it has been 4 years already. We also said goodbye to Dave and Sue Bontrager as they moved to Colorado at the first of the year. We will miss not having them around.

I got a good chunk of my lessons done for the sociology class I am taking. I took my midterm earlier this week and will be ready for my final after I finish my last lesson. I have enjoyed reading, studying, and thinking again. I think I will start another class after I finish this one. Next on the list is a political science class. I have also signed up to take my social studies content Praxis test for the middle of March. This is a requirement for a teaching licence in Indiana. I also have to take a pre-professional test that I signed up to take in May. I want to get those two things done so that I can apply for next falls Transition to Teaching classes at Goshen College.

Well I think that covered the highlights from the last month of my life. This picture was taken on Christmas day and it was a momentous moment when Mom and Dad let Sophie come upstairs to be with the rest of the family. See how happy she looks in her Christmas sweater!

Oh yeah! I dyed my hair dark brown, but it actually came out black! Yikes! I am hoping it calms down a little!

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T08:50:00.000-05:00

I am looking forward to being a few hours away from the holiday weekend. Colin got home last night from Bluffton and Rebekah is driving home now. I am looking forward to seeing both of them this weekend. We will be adding someone else to our family Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow too with Chris being brave enough to spend time with the whole family!

Seth also has lots of family in town this weekend. Both the Yoder's and the Stopher's are around for a few days. It is going to be a busy weekend with lots of family stuff going on. We will see the Yoder's tomorrow around lunch time and the Stopher's on Sunday to celebrate Christmas. I am hoping for a chance to sit back and relax too!

I could easily get used to 3 day work weeks and 4 day weekends!

Not much is going on in our lives. Joel is out of town this week for Thanksgiving so Seth has been working long hours at the shop. I started my first correspondance class two nights ago and realized that I have gotten out of the habit of reading textbooks and thinking. I need to kick my brain back into gear.

I seem to keep hearing about babies everywhere. Brian and Cheryl are expecting another baby in June and we also found out that Jon and Gretchen are having a baby. Dad will have to come up with a new name for the Mast children when they add a 3rd. Twin Terrors won't apply anymore! Mom never liked that name anyways!

It looks like winter might finally be coming. Yesterday I went home after work and jogged around the block in shorts and a t-shirt. Tonight and tomorrow they are calling for 1-4 inches of lake effect snow. It might actually be time to put away the short sleeves and pull out the sweaters. The first snow is always fun though!

I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving weekend!

Sarah

Back to full time!

2007-11-15T11:02:00.000-05:00

Well it was an early morning today. We had a full faculty meeting at Bethany at 6:30a.m. Needless to say I did not do my usual morning workout today. That would have meant getting up at 4:45 and I just didn't feel like it this morning. I might take Sophie for a jog this afternoon when I get home. The only good thing about morning faculty meetings is that I get to head home a little earlier than usual

This has been my first week week back on a full time schedule. It has meant getting up an hour earlier in the morning and staying a few hours later. So far it hasn't been too bad. It helps when I have plenty to keep me busy.

Earlier this week I registered for a correspondance class through Indiana University(don't tell Dad! Purdue didn't have all the options that IU did!). I am taking Introduction to Sociology (I'm sure Rebekah is excited about this since!). I am pretty excited to get started. Each year I am given professional development money to take classes with and this is my first one. My plan is to take classes I would need to take for my secondary education social studies teaching liscense. I need 21 credits in subject area courses and 12 credits in education classes. My goal is to get two classes done this school year and possibly 2 more over the summer. Once I get my subject area classes done I can finish my education classses through Goshen College's transition to teaching program. I don't know 100% that this is what I want to do, but I am anxious to see how I feel about taking classes and if it gets me excited about possibly teaching. I know for sure I am ready for something new and I want a challenge. I think teaching would be a huge challenge and something really rewarding. We'll see what happens.

under armour running pants!

2007-11-02T10:10:00.000-04:00

I figured since Seth never updates this, I can change the background to something I like, but he wouldn't be thrilled about! I had to put my winter running pants on this morning for my jog with Sophie. It was 32 degrees and she was in heaven because she loves the cold weather, but is was pretty shocking to my system. I guess winter really is coming.

I am settling in for my second to last 3 day weekend of this school year. I start back to full time at Bethany in two weeks and really am not looking forward to it. The good news is that Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas is just a few weeks after that. Still, it is always a tough adjustment for me to go back to full time.

Not much on the itinerary for this weekend. I want to rent a carpet cleaner and do our carpets, I am keeping books at the Bethany girls basketball game on Saturday, and I am meeting Sue for lunch tomorrow at Applebees. I have been working on my albums for my 3 graduating seniors at Goshen College, which is always a fun little project. We are having our banquet in a few weeks and I always give a memory album to the seniors. Hopefully I'll get a nap in sometime too!

Have a good weekend,
Sarah

The beautiful city of Knoxville

2007-10-31T10:33:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I made a whirlwind trip to Knoxville to see Rebekah. I picked Colin up in Bluffton at noon on Friday after he finished his classes for the day and we drove the last 6 hours together. Singing along to music in the car with Colin and having someone to talk to sure made the trip go faster than if I would have been by myself!

We had such a good time with Rebekah. We got to eat pizza at Barley's on Friday, followed by an awful movie that we decided to turn off. We had all heard good things about Knocked Up, but it left a lot to be desired. Saturday morning Rebekah and I jogged first thing in the morning and then headed off to get our hair cut by Holly. The salon Rebekah goes to is so nice and fancy. They even have massaging chairs to sit in while you get your hair washed! I made Seth a happy man and cut off over 8 inches of my hair. It was a spur of the moment decision, but I am really pleased with out it looks. It was time for a change.

In the afternoon we hit Reruns at Market Square, my favorite shop in the entire world, and I bought some new clothes for the fall. We met Aunt Lisa and Uncle David for lunch at Panera, Colin test drove one of their motorcycles, and then we headed home for an afternoon nap.

In the evening we headed downtown to meet some of Rebekah's friends at the tailgating party and then I experienced my first college football game. We were treated to a great game that Tennessee ended up winning in overtime after blowing a 21-0 lead at halftime. I have never seen so much orange in my life or heard Rocky Top sung so many times!

We headed home first thing on Sunday morning and I got back home around 4pm with time to unpack and get things around for the week. Such a fun weekend! Thanks for having us come Rebekah!

Life without Diet Pepsi

2007-10-25T12:23:00.001-04:00

The big update in my life...

I have made a drastic decision to sever my ties to Diet Pepsi. Since finishing school and starting a regular desk job I have consistently increased the amount of diet pop that I drink. I was easily drinking 20 oz. a day during the week and more on the weekend. I am 100% addicted to this drink and have decided it can be doing nothing good for my body. So, 2 1/2 days ago I decided to quit cold turkey. I have had minor headaches to deal with, but nothing too awful. I am hopeful that I will be able to maintain my break from this addictive drink.

Life without tennis

2007-10-21T09:05:00.000-04:00

This past week was my first week without tennis. It always amazes me how much time I have in the afternoons and evenings to do whatever I want. I worked outside with mom one afternoon trimming everything to get things ready for winter, finished a brick edging I started during the summer, cleaned out the garage, cleaned up the house, watched TV (I'd missed my afternoon Gilmore Girl reruns from 5-6pm!), and even made an afternoon trip to Warsaw to see Coach Leon. I am more relieved this fall to be done with tennis than I was the past two seasons.

Last night Christie and Joel came over for dinner and games. Joel is starting to think that we only invite him over when we need a fourth person for games, which isn't true, but the last time he was over was 4th of July when Christie was over too. What he doesn't realize is that I like when he comes because than I am sure to beat at least one person! We played Scattergories and Dutch Blitz and had a lot of fun.

I am looking forward to making a trip to see Rebekah next weekend with Colin. I am going to pick him up in Bluffton and then we are driving to Knoxville together. Rebekah has tickets for us to see a UT football game. I hope we have a chance to eat at Barley's, shop at Reruns, and run down Cherokee Blvd too.

p.s. I dyed my hair dark red. Not so sure about it, but it is something different!

Where did September go?

2007-10-01T18:16:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe today is the first of October. I am still part time at Bethany, which is so wonderful, so this morning I was laying in bed trying to make myself get up and it was still dark at 7am! How awful! And we haven't even changed times yet. I hate getting up in the morning when it is dark. My days of running with Sophie in the morning are numbered.

Since our last update, I turned 25 and then one day later Seth turned 25 as well. I like to remind him that I am older and wiser than him! I don't think he agrees, but it doesn't stop me from saying it.

My tennis season is winding down. This is our last week of regular season matches and in two weekends is our conference tournament in Fort Wayne. We have been a team on the brink all season. Losing so many close matches. I keep waiting for all the pieces to fall today at the same time. I am hopeful that it will happen this week and then continue into tournament time.

The highlight of the last few weeks was a whirlwind trip I made to Tennessee two weekends ago. Aunt Debra and Uncle Kleber were in Galtinburg for the week, visiting with mom and dad and Aunt Lisa and Uncle David. This was the first time in 30 years that all of the sisters and their husbands were together. After my Saturday tennis match I drove to South Bend, took United Limo to Chicago, and flew to Knoxville. After running at Cherokee Blvd. Rebekah and I spent all day Sunday visiting with family. The highlight of the day in Gatlinburg was an old fashioned picture we took. I happened to mention remembering doing a picture like this many years ago and somehow we talked everyone into putting on costumes and posing for a bar scene picture! When asked if we wanted to do a conservative photo or a sexy photo we quickly opted for the sexy photo! How fun! It was so wonderful to see Aunt Debra and Uncle Kleber. It had been 7 years since I'd seen them. Much too long. I flew back home the next day then. It was such a short trip, but definitely worth it!

family reunions, weddings, and dancing movies

2007-08-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

I feel like it was just the first of August and I was thinking how I still had a few weeks left of summer before tennis begins at Goshen College. Well it is already to middle of August. Unbelievable!

There has been plenty going on. Last week my Yoder family was in town for grandpa's 80th birthday party open house. We did lots of meals together, took a new family picture, played cards (Seth and I could not beat Aunt Marg and Grandpa in Euchre! Ugg!), and just hung out.

Sheila returned from SST in Jamaica and Seth took off for a few days with his parents and brother to go to his Yoder reunion in Virginia. His family rented a large house that everyone could stay in together. They went white water rafting, played tennis, and watched lots of old family videos. I had to stay behind because we had faculty retreat at Bethany and I also had my yearly required IHSAA tennis meeting.

This was the first time that Seth has left me at home along since we've been married. I've had to leave several times for overnight tennis tournaments and school meetings. It was strange having the house to myself. I did enjoy watching some girly movies on Friday night that I knew Seth would find silly. It was great to have him get home last night though.

Yesterday I went to the wedding of one of my Goshen College tennis players, Katie Martin. I was a little disappointed about having to go by myself, but I ended up seeing a good friend from high school, Andrea Skyrm, that I hadn't seen in at least a year. It was great to catch up.

School starts at Bethany on Monday and tennis starts at Goshen College a week from Monday. It's time to get going again. It is amazing to think I am beginning my 3rd year at Bethany.

Summer winding down

2007-07-26T07:54:00.000-04:00

Rebekah informed me a few days ago that our blog was in need of a serious update. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Mom and I made a quick trip to Knoxville to visit Rebekah. We were there the weekend before her birthday to help her celebrate. I got to do all of my favorite things, pizza at Barleys, shopping at the Rerun, jogging on Cherokee Blvd, etc. I also had a chance to see the new Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix! It was great. I cannot believe how much I enjoy the Harry Potter story.

A week or so later I was able to read the final book as well. I feel a little badly about it. I had ordered it for Colin for his birthday months ago and it just happened to arrive in my mailbox on a day I knew he was at Cedar Point until very late. I could hardly stand having the book on my kitchen table. I decided I could read it before he got back. I read for 7 hours the first day and 5 hours the second day. Seth said I was no fun, but I had to know what happened in the end.

I have been at the Elkhart County Fair the last week. Bethany has a booth again this summer in the commercial building again that I am in charge of. Yuck! It is one of my least favorite things to do. The good news is that we have been sharing a booth with Crystal Valley Computers so Seth and Joel have been there to keep me company.

We only have about 3 weeks until school starts again. I can hardly believe the summer is almost done. I am starting to gear up for tennis at the college and another school cycle.

Lazy Summer Days

2007-07-03T16:27:00.000-04:00

I have been enjoying some lazy summer days the past week and a half. Wimbledon matches, scrapbooking, jogging, reading, cooking, and resale shopping have been keeping me busy. Sophie is getting spoiled rotten. We have been running every morning and taking walks most afternoons. She's also been running in the woods with Seth and playing with Missy and Oreo. I think she really enjoys having me home during the days. She rotates between napping inside and sunbathing outside. Life is pretty tough for her!

Last week I took a quick trip to French Lick with my family. We spent two nights at the French Lick Resort. Rebekah drove up from Tennessee to meet us for a few days. We swam, sunbathed, played tennis, used the fitness room, played cards and the boys golfed. We had a good time. Seth was able to spend one night with us and help celebrate Dad's birthday too. The best part of the trip was the indoor tennis courts. I was worried we would have trouble getting on them, but it turns out nobody else was playing tennis. Rebekah, Colin, Dad, Seth and I were able to play each day we were there.

Seth and I left a day earlier than everyone else because we both had tennis matches on Thursday with our USTA teams. I wanted to be back because my team is in first place and our match was against the team in second place. We won easily, but I was glad to be back, especially after tuning up my game in the indoor courts!

Christie is coming over tonight for dinner. T-bone steaks, salad, and green beans are on the menu. I think Joel is coming over as well so we'll probably get a few rounds of Euchure in! I haven't seen Christie in a long time, so it will be great to spend some time together.

We are celebrating the 4th with family. My great Aunt Alma is celebrating her 100 birthday tomorrow afternoon and most of the extended family will be there. In the evening we are heading to Seth's aunt and uncles house in LaGrange to spend the evening with the Stophers.

Fun on the boat

2007-06-23T10:27:00.001-04:00

Summer break is in full swing. Today begins my official summer vacation. Two full weeks off! Sophie and I started the weekend off with a run this morning and next we are going to go birthday shopping for dad.

We took Sophie out on the boat last weekend with Myron and Justin. We were excited to see how she would do. Let's just say that she wasn't too thrilled about the whole boat idea. For the most part she curled up in the corner of the boat and tried to disappear. We made her get into the water a little and she looked pretty scared. We just decided she needs more time to get used to it!

Some friends are coming over tonight for dinner and games. Shish'ka'bobs, with Mom's famous marinade, are on the menu!

sunny days chasing the clouds away

2007-05-31T17:17:00.000-04:00

This is Melissa and me in the process of getting beautiful!

School at Bethany ended yesterday. Today everything felt empty and quiet at work. I had forgotten how lonesome the summers can feel at Bethany. We had our end of the year banquet this afternoon and officially shift into summer mode next Monday. Outside of summer camp weeks I will only need to be at Bethany during summer office hours, 8:30-12:00! Yeah for short days.

I have 11 people taking tennis lessons with me this summer. I picked 6 dates this summer and am just packing the afternoons full of lessons. I have decided I want to buy a new digital camera with my tennis money. I love scrapbooking, but have never gotten excited about taking pictures. I am trying to change that.

I started a new summer project last night. I bought a new summer dress pattern and fun fabric. I've gotten all the easy stuff done. I preshrunk the fabric, cut out the pattern, cut out the fabric and am now ready for the hard stuff. I am somewhat hesitant to start sewing because I have so much trouble reading the directions. I am more of a hands on learner. Maybe I can convince Mom to help me this first time!

Tonight is my first summer tennis league match. We are playing over in Michigan City and I am actually a little nervous. My new team is having me play singles all season and I feel high expectations from them. I hope I don't dissapoint. My team is gunning for a bid to nationals this year!

4 Day Weekend

2007-05-25T14:14:00.001-04:00

Melissa used fish as part of her reception decorations! She wanted people to take them home after the wedding. I'm pretty sure she ended up with a lot of left over goldfish!

Today begins my 4 day weekend! Yeah! Got to love that. I am here at school for a quick meeting today at 2, but I decided it didn't count. Sophie and I got our run in this morning before the rain came down and I am planning on a nap and movie this afternoon after I get home.

A week ago I was hit by a car while I was waiting at a stop light. I was really lucky to walk away unhurt and with minimal damage to my car. The truck that hit me swerved at the last minute and just clipped my left side. I have a small dent and a few scratches and had to replace my blinker, but other than that was very lucky. I picked my car up this morning and am glad to have a left rear blinker again after driving around without one for a week. Talk about another accident waiting to happen! This accident was a reminder to me about how quickly things can happen. I can't even begin to count the number of times I drive from home to work or work to home and pull in to park, hardly remembering actually driving. We drive so often on auto piolot and it only takes a second of inattention for something awful to happen.

We don't have much planned for this weekend. Aaron Lehman is getting married tomorrow and Bethany's commencement is Sunday, but other than that I plan to get a lot of relaxing in!

I love Gilmore Girls Reruns!

2007-05-23T17:10:00.001-04:00

Yeah for free afternoons! Today officially begins my free afternoons and evenings. I had forgotten what it was like to have free time from 4-6pm. I get to watch Gilmore Girls reruns again! It's my favorite show. Seth isn't a huge fan, but I don't care. It makes me laugh.

I got to watch Seth play indoor soccer last night. It was the first one I've gotten to see this season. They play so late at night. When I had to be in to work at 7:30 and often didn't get home till after 7pm I didn't want to go to soccer games in Elkhart that started at 9pm. It's nice to be able to sleep in a little. It makes me feel okay about doing things in the evenings! I enjoyed watching them play, even though they lost 9-1.

Tonight is the big night! American Idol Finale Results Show! Seth and I haven't been religious this season, but we still did a pretty good job of following the season. I don't know if we will watch all 2 hours of the finale, but we will definitly be tuned in to the last 5 minutes!

Melissa's Wedding!

2007-05-22T13:24:00.001-04:00

Well I have heard from several people that we do not update our blog often enough. Since my husband seems to have lost interest, I guess it is up to me to keep posting, even though he started the blog!

My tennis season is done. We ended with a winning record 9-8 and lost to Jimtown in the sectionals. While it is always dissapointing to lose I was excited about being able to spend time in Berne on Friday and Saturday for Melissa's wedding! I helped do some set up for the reception on Friday afternoon, went to the rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner in the evening. They had a fun evening planned; a bonefire, hotdogs, s'mores, volleyball, horseshoes, etc.

Saturday morning Melissa and I got up at 5am so we could get a run in before all of the days activities. The morning of my wedding she got up and did Tae-bo with me, so this was kind of our tradition! We got 4 miles in before 6am and had time to shower and eat before heading off to get our hair done at 7am.

We had several hours of downtime before pictures at noon and the ceremony at 3pm. It was fun to hang out, do our nails, and primp and prine before everything. Melissa looked so beautiful in her dress! It was a fun, full day.

Now I am back to school, but have most of my afternons and evenings free. I don't know what will fill all of my free time yet. I do have some tennis players who are interested in taking lessons. My office hours will be less and less as the summer progresses, minus two weeks of summer camps I am in charge of. I am looking forward to reading lots of books and laying in the sun this summer. We have one week of school left and it is exciting to feel things winding down.

burgers and hot dogs

2007-04-23T13:29:00.000-04:00

Yeah for Interterm! This week is Interterm at Bethany, which means I am going to have a very easy week in comparison to the weeks since spring break. Almost all of my tennis players are out of town for the week so we are having no official practices and there are no matches scheduled until next Monday. I am looking forward to going home after school! I feel like I've had no afternoons or evenings at home. We are over half-way through the season though. I can't complain that the season is going by too slowly. We are currently 7-2 and should be able to win a good majority of our last matches before sectionals.

This past weekend was a family weekend. Seth and I spent time with my family on Saturday night, Colin was home for the weekend, and we spent the afternoon and early evening on Sunday with Seth's family. Sophie was spoiled rotten yesterday. She got to go for a jog in the morning, play with Missy after lunch, and run around the farm in the afternoon!

Joel and Emily are coming over tonight. We are going to grill burgers and hot dogs and just hang out. Maybe we can talk Seth into playing some Nerts!

Lazy Sunday

2007-04-15T14:45:00.000-04:00

Today has been a lazy day. I stayed up late last night watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and slept in this morning. No church for us. Especially because Seth was playing video games with friends until 4am! Sophie and I went for a run this morning and that is the extent of what I have done. I rewatched the Harry Potter movie again, because it was so good the first time and took a nap. It feels really good to be doing nothing.

I had a huge week last week. 3 tennis matches and practice on the other days pretty much filled up my afternoons and evenings. It was deathly cold this past week too. Anyone who calls tennis a sport for wimps is crazy! The good news is that we won all 3 of our matches which brings my varsity teams record to 3-1. (JV is 4-0). We have two matches during the week and 4 team invitationals this weekend. I expect another crazy week, but then the high school goes on Interterm so no tennis for a week.

Business at the shop has been great the past 2 weeks. Seth and Joel have been pleasantly surprised at the phone calls and walk-ins they've had! Seth has been putting in some long hours, but he is so much happier than he was working at Bashor!

Sarah

A Newly Christened 1/2 Marathoner!

2007-04-07T15:43:00.000-04:00

You'll have to excuse the long lag in updates! I have no excuse. I just haven't wanted to write anything the last two months. Maybe it is because nothing too exciting has happened recently or it could just be the blah months of February and March. Yes, I think that is it. I will blame the dreary months of Feb. and March.

This week has been spring break at Bethany. I spent 4 days in Knoxville with Rebekah at the beginning of the break and we had a few wonderful, exciting, full days. We got haircuts, ran a 1/2 marathon, cheered the Lady Vols on to a NCAA championship, shopped, ate at some amazing restaurants, watched movies (Running with Scissors should be avoided, the Pursuit of Happyness was very good!), biked, sunbathed, etc. I think Rebekah was ready for me to leave so she could relax!

The 1/2 marathon was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. I had trained here in the flatlands but the Tennessee mountains kicked my butt! Still it was a good experience and something I am proud to say I completed! I was a little worried about driving by myself, but 18 hours of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince kept me company down and back!

Seth and Joel have opened a computer shop in Middlebury. Today completes their first week of being open for business. The shop is great and both of them are excited about the location and the potential for growth. Call 825-8400 for Crystal Valley Computers and all your computer needs!

Sophie continues to be the love of our lives! She makes me happy and I think she is pretty content with us too!

Fun for Sophie

2007-02-03T10:35:00.000-05:00

Recently we have been trying to socialize Sophie with other dogs to try and help her not go crazy every time she sees one. She got to know Oreo a couple weeks ago, and last Sunday she got to know Georgia.

Georgia is half black lab and half pit bull. Sophie and Georgia played from about 9:30 AM until 12:30 PM...took an hour break, and then started playing again at 1:30 all the way until dinner.

Now...when most people think of playing they think of little tug of war with toys or maybe some sort of doggie tag, but these guys played "killer doggies" or some variation of that. This game means they run around the house as fast as they can and as soon as one of them catches the other, they wrestle each other to the ground.

Actually, it wasn't so much wrestling as street fighting. Anything goes, claws, fangs, even charging your adversary with your hindquarters! I had to cover the furniture with blankets because they were tearing around the house so fast they kept knocking all the cushions off!

Anyhow, they both had a blast. If anyone is looking to have their dog exercised, and they have a dog that loves to play, just let us know! Sophie would be more then happy to help out.

I am trying to convince Sarah that another puppy would really make Sophie a lot more calm around us, since she could use her extra energy to play with the puppy...but I haven't had any success convincing her as of yet.

Quick change of subject. Dad and I are playing in a tennis tourney this weekend in Elkhart. We are playing a level above where we signed because not enough people signed up for our level. We just got crushed our first match, but it was still a lot of fun. We are getting better, that is for sure!

Seth

2007-02-03T10:34:00.000-05:00

Well, at least it was a good workout for both of them.

2007-02-03T10:31:00.000-05:00

I don't know how well you can see it, but Sophie is soked. Now...dogs don't really sweat, so I can only assume this is all Georgia slobber. Ew!

no ESPN but let's go Roger and Serena!

2007-01-26T16:39:00.000-05:00

It has been a sad couple of weeks in the Yoder household. After losing our full cable package (which we never should have had to begin with) this fall because of a cut wire we have had to endure missing the entire Australian Open. Checking out websites for match scores and reading articles in the newspaper just hasn't been enough. It is tempting to upgrade our cable package just so we can watch the major tennis tournaments, but we just can't justify the extra expense at this point in our lives. Maybe someday in the near future.

The weekend is underway. Seth finished his last day at Bashor and is taking a nap on the couch now. I think he is feeling a mixture of sadness and excitement. It is hard leaving coworkers you really enjoy working with. We are meeting some of them tonight for dinner at BW3s to celebrate his last day of work.

Sophie was treated to an extra run this morning. During the winter I have only been able to run her on the weekends, but this morning I didn't have to be in to work until later in the morning, so we got a couple miles in. It is too dark in the winter to run in the mornings during the week. I feel better knowing cars can see me. She is so much better behaved after she runs a few miles. It zaps a lot of the puppy energy right out of her.

I have been reading a lot of books in my spare time. Dear John, The Memory Keepers Daughter, and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (again) are some of my most recent ones. I am always looking for new books to read. Rebekah and Mom do a good job of sharing books with me. But if you have read anything great, let me know!

Sarah

Some changes are a coming!

2007-01-23T10:33:00.000-05:00

I did not start this blog, but for some reason I am the only one to post updates! Those of you who are faithful readers need to give Seth a hard time about not pulling his weight!

It has been an exciting last couple of days. Seth and I watched, not one, but two football games on Sunday. For a pair of people who hardly understood football a year ago, this is a big deal! I wanted to go to bed early on Sunday, but the Colts made it too exciting!We'll look forward to cheering them on in two weeks when they face the Bears!

Mom and Dad came over for dinner on Sunday. We almost always go to their house when we get together so it was nice to have them spend time at our house. Mom enjoyed having someone else cook as well. Sophie was such a good puppy too. I talked to her before they came over and told her she had to behave and impress the guests that were coming over! I think she understood me!

Yesterday was Little Sibs Day at Bethany. We had 45 younger siblings visiting the school for the day. It is by far the biggest day I organize all year. I put together visitors packets for all our visitors and included games, puzzles, and coloring pages to help entertain them during classes. I also organized games and a scavanger hunt during lunch. Overall it is a really fun day. I was exhausted by the end of the day though.

Seth and I are preparing for some major changes in our life. No, we are not expecting a baby! Seth has given his two week notice to Bashor and will work his last day on Friday. He is working to start his own computer business. The plan is for him to work out of our house initially and to rent a shop if things go well. He is all the time working on computers for family and friends, even when he isn't trying to get business. Hopefully word of mouth and some advertising will continue to gain him business. We are both excited and nervous about trying something new! So if you are having any computer troubles just give Seth a call!

Sarah

I hate SPAM

2007-01-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

I can hardly believe that my 3 weeks of vacation are over! The Monday morning 5:45a.m. alarm was a rude awakening. This has been a painful week of adjusting back to my early to bed, early to rise schedule. It was wonderful to be able to stay up as late as I wanted and know I could sleep in the next morning.

Still, it is somewhat of a relief to be back on a schedule again. I had no trouble filling my days off, but I tend to be comforted by a routine. It's nice to be back at work feeling productive again. Not that my days off were not productive! I cleaned all the carpets in the house, made 4 photo albums for customers (some extra $!), and caught up with friends who were home for the holidays (Traci, Christie, Melissa, Andrea, and a group of classmates from high school). I got to spend lots of time with my sister, brother, and parents, read books, decorate the house for Christmas, go shopping, cook, take naps, and jog with Sophie!

I distanced myself from everything work related. I did not think about Bethany or coaching. I was lucky if I checked my personal email once a week and after opening my work email one week into vacation and being overwhelmed by my inbox, I decided not to look again until I came back to work. I cannot believe all the SPAM and pointless emails I get. It took me 3 hours on Monday to work my way through all my unread emails!

I think I have geared myself up for this portion of the school year. This is my busiest time at Bethany and spring break is a long ways off. My next 3 months will be devoted to visitors days, phone inquiries, parent tours, Jr. MYF nights, new applications, and the beginning of high school spring tennis. Once tennis starts, all remnants of a personal life will disappear. I will love every minute of it, but my life will be consumed. Maybe that is a good thing. Sometimes I focus too much on myself.

Well Happy 2007! My New Years Resolution is to go somewhere I've never been before. I'm thinking Seth and I will have to make a road trip this summer. Something new and exciting!

Sarah

Oops!

2006-12-30T23:12:00.000-05:00

Well, the other day I was messing around with the blogger settings and somehow Sarah's last post disappeared! I thought I would fill in what I remember from the post.

Hm...primarily it consisted of the report of our sick puppy. Sophie had been "fixed" and the surgery upset her stomach. She was throwing up all over the place. On top of that, she was licking her incision, which meant she had to wear the white blockercoller thingie. She hated it, as did we. She would literally not move after we put it on her. I would put it on before work, and when I got home I would find her in the exact same position. I felt so bad for her.

Anyhow...she is feeling better now. We rented a carpet cleaner and cleaned up all of the spots on our carpet.

We will have to give a Christmas update as soon as we can!

Seth

It is cold outside

2006-12-04T14:03:00.000-05:00

It was a busy weekend. Seth and I went out with Joel and Emily on Friday. We had dinner at Backyard BBQ, hung out at Gourmet Grinds, and then saw Flushed Away. I hadn't been inside Gourmet Grinds in a long time. We walked in and I started picking trash off the counters and straightening chairs without even thinking about it. Seth poked me and said, "what are you doing!?" It was just my instinct. I really enjoyed working there and was dissapointed that the people working weren't keeping it cleaner.

The movie Flushed Away was okay. It was almost to random for me, but still funny. At least it was light hearted. I feel like Seth and I tend to see really serious movies when we decide to go to the theater.

Last night the Goshen College tennis team came over for a Christmas party. I made pizza and had snacks. We decorated sugar cookies and made Christmas cards. The plan was to watch Home Alone, but we had such a good time talking and catching up that we didn't get around to it. They are such a great group. This is exam week and they are all heading home for Christmas this weekend. We're planning another get together at the beginning of second semester!

Tonight is the Bethany Christmas dinner. I didn't sign up to go last year, but changed my mind last minute and went as KP's date. I ended up having such a good time and now I am looking forward to going tonight! It definitly is starting to feel like Christmas. It is so cold out today and there is a little sprinkling of snow on the ground. We have our Christmas decorations out and the neighborhood is full of lights. We had a great Christmas chapel this morning at Bethany. I just love Christmas songs. I love Christmas time!

Sophie is recovering from surgery that she had last Thursday. There is no longer a chance of having baby Sophie's! She is pretty sore and has been really timid and docile. I feel bad for her because it looks like she is in a lot of pain, but it is nice that she will lay by me on the couch and not lose interest if I quit petting her. She should start feeling better in a couple weeks!

Well, that is all for now.

back to the grind

2006-11-28T14:23:00.000-05:00

Well my long weekend has come and gone. Why do weekends go by so much quicker than week days? I guess it doesn't help that we were very busy all weekend with different family get together. It is always good when Rebekah and Colin come home. I love spending time with them. I am pleased to announce that I have regained the Scattegories champion title. It was a heated match, but I came out just on top! Colin was a close second, with Rebekah somewhere back in the distance!

The entire weekend was spent with family and friends. We saw two movies in the theater (Deja vu and James Bond), neither that I would recommend highly, but still fun to see. Rebekah, Mom, and I spent an entire day working on scrapbooks and other projects and I got to see Christie Saturday afternoon. We had a yummy meal at Myron and Sheila's on Thanksgiving and were able to help celebrate Grandma Pauline's 80th birthday.

I am pleased to say my scrapbooks are 100% caught up, right to the last picture. So now I am hoping to work on a few albums for friends.

Monday things were back to normal. I have three full weeks at Bethany and then Christmas break, which is 3 weeks off. This is my big break for the year and I am already looking forward to it and dreaming of the possibilities.

turkey, mashed potatos, yum yum

2006-11-21T11:58:00.000-05:00

Short work weeks are wonderful! There is nothing better than working at a school. Fall break, Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, spring break, summer break! Fortunately Seth’s days off fall on Thursday and Friday this week. We got lucky! We have family things planned all day Thursday and most of the day Sunday. We will be spending Thursday afternoon with Seth’s extended Yoder family and Thursday evening with my immediate family. Sunday afternoon Seth’s Stopher family is getting together and Sunday evening is another Yoder get together. We are both looking forward to seeing family. I am especially excited to have both Rebekah and Colin coming home. Hopefully we will be able to get a few rounds of Euchre in. Rebekah and Colin can get tired of playing with us because we always beat them!

This picture is a reminder that not all days in northern Indiana are cold. Plus Christie is coming home this weekend and we are going to try and get together around all of our different family functions. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. Her brother Lance is over in Iraq and the holiday season is going to be a rough time for them. Pray for his safety.

Things at Bethany have been going well. This second year is much easier than last year. I feel like I kind of know what is going on now. I’ve enjoyed being able to take a framework that was given to me last year and run with it in new directions. I think we have some great new ideas for recruiting students to Bethany. Being full time hasn’t been as difficult of a transition as I imagined. Sometimes the anticipation is the worst part of change.

I am already beginning to think ahead to my Christmas break and all the things I want to do. I have several scrapbooks to work on for other people, but I am thinking about painting our bedroom. Currently it is a light green with dark green shades. We both love the colors but it doesn’t match the quilt grandma Stopher made for us for our wedding. I want to keep the quilt on our bed and make changes to everything else. Maybe I can convince Sheila to help me paint! She loves painting and has a good eye for colors. I have 3 full weeks off so that should be plenty of time for several projects.

The Christmas letter is written and ready to be sent, but I should probably wait until the first of December. Seth thinks I tend to jump the gun with my early Christmas letter preparation, but it is one of my favorite things to do! I love writing the letter, picking out the stationary, and sending pictures. I love getting them from our family and friends too!

Seth and I have so many blessings in our lives. There are some many things to be grateful for, most importanly family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving!

What a good looking group!

2006-11-15T12:52:00.000-05:00

Another update in less than a week! Wow! After Rebekah told me that she checks this everyday I decided we needed to be more faithful in our updating.

All is well in the Yoder household. The tennis banquet was wonderful last weekend. The food at Flytraps was fabulous. We had a room all to ourselves and had a great time reminising over the season, planning ahead to next fall, honoring our seniors, and just catching up in general. They are a great group of women. I miss not seeing them everyday. We are planning a Christmas get together before everyone heads home for the holidays. They want to decorate cookies, make cards, and watch Home Alone. Sounds like fun!

Seth and I are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week. Rebekah and Colin are both coming home and Seth has family that will be visiting as well. It will be great to have a few extra days off work and plenty of time to hang out with family. Rebekah, Mom, and I have some projects lined up that I am excited about tackeling!

I am watching Bethany's production of Over the River and Through the Woods this afternoon with the middle school. We saw an exert in chapel this morning and it was very funny. Anyone who is local, I would recommend seeing it. There are still tickets avaliable for this weekend. The small bit I saw was great!

Well that's all for now.
Sarah

tennis, friends, projects, etc.

2006-11-10T15:27:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends and Family!

I just finished my first full week back at Bethany. It was sad to wake up this morning and go to work after having Fridays off for the last 5 months. I guess I shouldn't complain, since I had 3 day weekends for so long. Still there were a few perks today that kept me happy.

I ate lunch with Christie this afternoon. She is home for a long weekend. It was good to catch up with her. Best friends are hard to come by and I have been so blessed to have her in my life since we were little. I just wish I could get her to move home. I'll just have to keep trying.

Tonight is the tennis banquet for Goshen College. We are having dinner at Flytraps in Elkhart and honoring our seniors. The seniors on this years team are so special. It is difficult to imagine what the team will be like without them next year. I made scarpbooks for the three of them with pictures, match write ups and newspaper articles from their seasons at Goshen College. It has become a tradition since my sophomore year of college. I really enjoy making them.

Fall is definitly here. It is getting dark so early in the evening and the air has turned crisp. I can't believe Thanksgiving is just two weeks away. After that Christmas is just around the corner. The days just fly by.
I am looking forward to a few projects in the coming weeks. I almost have my scrapbooks caught up and mom and I are talking about trying to make a crazy quilt. I have always loved the way they look. I want to make one that is bright and full of color. I also have a few Christmas projects, taking some ideas from a Pier One magazine. It is nice to have some spare time. I love tinkering!

Well, that is all for now. Seth and I both have Saturday and Sunday off together this weekend. That only happens once every 6 weeks, so we are pretty excited about spending the weekend together!

Sarah

Not much happening

2006-11-03T16:40:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends and Family!

Life has slowed down a lot over the last 3 weeks. My tennis season ended and all of a sudden I had afternoons and evenings completely free. What to do with myself? Well afternoon naps have become common place and Sophie and I are taking daily evening walks, but other than that I have a lot more time on my hands.

Rebekah came and spent last weekend with us. She was our first over night guest in the new house. Unfortunatly we do not have an extra bed, but she didn't complain about the comfy downstairs couch! Sadly she was in town because a very good friend of the family passed away. Death is hard to understand and grasp. It is painful to lose people you love. We played violin together and sang at the funeral. Hymn #154, This is My Father's World has taken on new meaning for me.

Still amidst all the sadness Rebekah and I had a lot of fun. We did some baking, some shopping, watched a movie, and plenty of football. She is a new Tennessee fan and she taught me Rocky Top! We sang it loud and proud with the other Tennessee fans. She took this picture of me and Sophie! I've turned into one of those crazy dog people who always talk about their dog and tell stories that other people don't care about. Sophie has just blessed our lives. She is so fun to have around, except in the morning when she wants to be let out and I want to sleep!

I am preparing to go back to full time work at Bethany. I am not looking forward to this, but it is a reality. I just struggle being in an office all day. Still, so many exciting things are happening at Bethany and I'm glad to help families who are thinking about sending their kids there. It was such a wonderful place for me.

Well, that is all for now. Seth did post something a few days ago, but I accidently erased it! I don't know how it happened. It may be another couple of months before you hear from him again! Take care.
Sarah

Just tournament left...

2006-10-06T09:22:00.001-04:00

The regular season is done! We finished 6-4 this year as opposed to4-6 last year. It is a step in the right direction. Improvement is always good. Next weekend is our conference tournament and we will fight for a spot in regionals next spring. It could happen, but we will have to upset Huntington. Anything is possible though and we have played very well the last 5 matches!

I finally have a weekend off. This is the first one since the middle of August. I kicked off my 3 day weekend by sleeping in this morning. After three matches in three days, two being away and causing very late nights, I thought it was a fitting start to the weekend! Seth has this weekend off too! We don't have a lot of plans, both of us are looking forward to just relaxing. We might see a movie and go out for dinner, but that will be the extent of our activities.

On more depressing news, we lost half our cable channels earlier this week. We had a problem with our cable line and when it was reinstalled half our channels were gone. We thought it was a mistake, but it turns out we were never supposed to have them. We are devestated about losing USA, no more Law and Order: SVU marathons!

Sophie continues to amuse us. Seth brought her yesterday to my tennis match and she just went crazy. So many things to look at. Dogs just love tennis balls! We installed an electric fence and started talking with a trainer to help us teach her basic commands. She learns quickly.

A new member of the family!

2006-09-06T14:18:00.000-04:00

No I am not pregnant, althought that is what everyone assumes whenever I say, "I have some exciting news!" I finally gave in to Seth. We now have our very own puppy. I prepared myself to hate her when Seth asked if we could keep her for a few days... for a trial run. She won me over though. It was her floppy ears and soft fur. Plus, she doesn't bark, she is house trained, and she hasn't chewed anything in the three weeks we've had her. Amazingly, she was already named Sophie, a name Seth and I both love. We had contemplated naming our first daughter Sophie, but I figure us naming our first dog Sophie is close enough! It has been fun to run with her in the mornings and she loves having her belly rubbed.

Sophie has way more energy than either of us, but the past two weekends we have taken her to Myron and Sheila and Dave and Sue's houses. She has just gone crazy playing with their dogs and being able to run free without fear of cars. It is fun having her around the house, especially when one of us is home alone. Maybe I will become a dog person after all (much to my parents dismay!).

On another note, it is now week 3 of Goshen College tennis. We have had lots of practices and a doubles scrimmage last weekend. This Saturday is our first conference match. I am really excited about the team. We have a very strong junior transfer and new freshman, along with all of our top players returning from last season. I think we will have a great season! Busy Busy Busy, especially once matches really get going.

Summer is winding down!

2006-08-08T13:38:00.000-04:00

Can the summer really be winding down already? School starts at Bethany next week and tennis starts at Goshen College the following week. Life is about to get busy again. I don't know if Seth is ready for me to do another season. It feels like I just finished at Bethany! Have three months already gone by?!

I think I am beginning to feel ready for another season. I am getting the nervous feelings again. I had them last year, but I thought it was first time coaching jitters. Maybe these will be feelings I get every year? It is just the unknowns of what team dynamics will be like. Last year was so wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a more willing group in my first season. This year there will be more expectations and we will have a bigger team. I struggled to get 7 players last year and it looks like we will easily have 9, maybe more this fall. The good news is I am confident we will have a more successful season this year. I have a couple strong recruits joining us this year! Oh the unknowns!

This summer I have been competing on a USTA 4.0 tennis team. We played 8 regular season matches, won our local, won our district, and are competing at the state level this weekend in Indy. It has been fun to be a part of a team again, as only a player. If we win this weekend we will move onto nationals! It is all very exciting.

I am beginning to look forward and question what my future career options may be. I am considering working towards getting my teaching license. I am already 3/4 of the way to having everything I need to teach high school social studies. I have found myself feeling jealous of the teachers at Bethany. They are preparing their classrooms for another year and a new group of students. I envy their relationship with the students and I love the school schedule. Still a part of me has always wanted to have my own business, a restaurant or retail shop. I may enroll for an online course and see how that goes. I guess I don't have to have everything figured out yet. I would appreciate a little direction though!

Traci's Wedding

2006-08-04T16:01:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was Traci's wedding. It was a busy couple of days with the rehearsal, bachlorette party, and the wedding. It was great to spend time with Traci and Andrea and to get all dolled up for the wedding. I felt like a princess! Too bad it was close to 1000 degrees outside with 100% humidity. I have never sweat so much in my life. Still the wedding was beautiful. I am excited for Jared and Traci as they begin their life together. I just wish I could convince them to move back to Indiana!

The Fair...Birthdays...Weddings...etc...

2006-07-20T11:52:00.000-04:00

Has it really already been a month since our last post? Unbelieveable. The summer is just flying by. I have been enjoying short work days and short work weeks. Bethany cut back office hours this summer to only Monday-Thursday from 8:30-12. That means I have had a lot of afternoons and evenings free to do other things!

The big thing in my life has been gearing up for the Elkhart County Fair, starting tomorrow. Bethany has a booth in one of the commercial buildings and it is my responsibility. I have been working hard to find volunteers to help man the booth and getting all of our displays ready. I will be living at the fair for the next 9 days so if you are going to be there come talk to me in commercial building F! It will be nice to be out of the office and I just love the fair. Who wouldn't love elephant ears, corn on the cob, country music, rides, and tons of animals! For some reason I always have to twist Seth's arm to get him to go with me!

Seth and I had a chance to go out on the boat with Myron and Sheila for the first time last weekend. It was a super hot day, just perfect for the boat. Myron had bought a new toy and we learned how to kneeboard! We are hoping we'll get a chance to go out again soon.

My sister was home last weekend for her birthday. It was a perfect weekend for lounging by the pool. It was great to see her again and catch up on everything happening in our lives. It was also fun to celebrate her birthday together. We all went out for dinner at Doc Pierce's in South Bend! One of my favorites!

Traci is home getting ready for her wedding next weekend! It has been great to have her home. We have had a chance to hang out! I miss not having her around. I am so excited for her wedding and hopefully seeing lots of old friends from high school.

"Aunt" Sarah

2006-06-21T10:05:00.000-04:00

In two hours I will begin my two week summer vacation! Bethany's offices are closed during the last week of June and the first week of July. I am leaving this afternoon with my family for a trip to Lexington. Mom, Dad, Colin, and I are meeting Rebekah. We tried to find someplace in between here and Knoxville so that we none of us had to drive too far. The plan includes reading, sleeping, swimming, golfing, tennis, shopping, hiking, etc. Unfortunately Seth was not able to get off work so he'll be home by himself for the next few days. Tripod won't even be there to keep him company. (We've been dogsitting for the past week while Myron, Justin, and Sheila are in Jamaica)
On to other news, Brian and Cheryl Mast had their baby a couple of days ago. Baby Mac has a little brother now! I got to hold Tristan Perry when he was just 14 hours old! I've never seen a baby that new before. He is a cutie and Mom is excited about being "grandma" again.

Taunting guy worse then violent women.

2006-06-20T18:16:00.000-04:00

Our country is not the only one with warped views of justice when it comes to gender violence. Check out this video.

Video

That is insane. Think if the genders were reversed. I'll bet the 'wardens' would have broken up the fight, and I am sure that the lone woman would not have been the only one arrested...

I Have My Life Back!

2006-05-31T14:09:00.000-04:00

This is a picture from banquet! I convinced Seth to go with me a couple weekends ago. Unfortunatly we did not have the station wagon to travel in this time! I look like a lobster because I was outside all day at sectionals!
I will be having a little more time on my hands now that tennis season is done. Our season ended with a 4-1 loss to Elkhart Central. I was proud of our effort and fight, but we were outmatched. Last night I had close to 40 people over for our tennis banquet. The girls came over for a pot luck dinner and their parents came over for dessert and awards. It was fun to reminisce. I think everyone had a great season.
Seth and I took a quick trip at the end of last week to Colorado. We met Myron, Sheila, and Justin in Denver and they drove us to their time share in Breckenridge. We had 3 days of white water rafting, shopping, eating, sunbathing, and relaxing. It was very fun and a nice break from our routine.
Colin returned from a 3 week trip to Europe with Bluffton's choir and Rebekah was home last weekend to celebrate Mom's 50th birthday. It was great to have everyone around.
I am part time at work now and am looking forward to 3 day weekends, sleeping in a little, working on our yard and flower beds, and spending time at home with Seth. We are trying to play tennis a couple times a week. Both of us joined traveling teams this summer. We have a big doubles match this Sunday. Me and Josh vs. Joel and Seth. It is double or nothing after Josh and I pounded them a few weeks ago. At stake is a steak dinner!

Sectional Champions!

2006-05-23T14:58:00.000-04:00

It appears from our blog that we have fallen off the face of the earth. Has it really been a month since we moved into our new, wonderful home? I guess so. Things have been busy during the last four weeks. Work at Bethany and tennis has consumed all my time and energy. (I'm sure Seth will vouch for that!) I have been going to bed so early and been no fun at all!
The good news is that all the hard work and time spent with the tennis team has payed off! We won the school's first tennis sectional last Saturday! It was so exciting and so close. I was on an emotional rollercoaster! We play our regional match tonight against Elkhart Central. Talk about David vs. Goliath! We'll see what happens. Anything is possible!

All Moved In

2006-04-26T13:09:00.001-04:00

This is a picture of our new home! It has 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, cathedral ceilings on the main floor that make everything feel very spacious, a large downstairs room that is perfect for having friends over, and a basement that is just the right size for a ping pong table! We feel very blessed that we found such a perfect place to live.

Thanks to the help of our mom's, Josh, Joel, and Justin, Seth and I were able to completely move in to our new home in about a day and a half. We got a good start last Friday afternoon and evening and actually spent our first night in the new house that night. I was gone most of the day on Saturday for a tennis tournament, which by the way we won!, and when I came back Seth had almost everything else moved in.

I spent most of the day Sunday unpacking and organizing and it is starting to feel a little like home. Both of us kind of feel like we are in a hotel or on vacation, stumbling around hallways looking for light switches and carefully counting steps in the dark. We are adjusting to having our stuff more spread out and enjoying the extra space. It still hasn't completely hit us that this wonderful new house is ours! We actually own it! We've decided we are almost adults now!

This week at Bethany is Interterm. Since it is my first year Allan decided it would be best for me to be around the office instead of going with a group. A part of me wanted to do something, but it is also nice to have my afternoons and evenings free with no tennis practice or matches. My team at Bethany is off to a phenomenal start this season. We are currently 9-0 as we gear up for the last 3 weeks of season. Next week will be pretty intense with 4 matches, but after that we will basically be gearing up for sectionals which we have a great chance of winning this year! It is very exciting!

Next week is my last week of being full time at Bethany. The busy time of year is over for recruiting and it will be wonderful to be home more. I will switch from 40 hours/week to 30 hours/week until the end of the school year and then it will be even less once summer break is here.

Having no tennis this week has given me the opportunity to spend some time with Traci, who is home for the week! We spent a few hours last night at Target, one of our favorite stores. She was registering for her wedding and I was buying a few things for the house. We are getting together tonight with Andrea Chupp too! I also think I will be able to see Melissa this weekend. She might be swinging through Goshen on Friday evening. I haven't seen her since Christmas so it will be fun to catch up.

Time to move!

2006-04-21T08:50:00.001-04:00

Just letting everyone know that today we are closing on our new house, and plan on doing a bit of moving tonight and tomorrow morning! We will keep everyone updated!

Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (1912)

2006-04-15T18:47:00.000-04:00

On this day (April 15) in 1912, the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. When the lifeboats were launched, it was "women and children first." Remember?

Quote from Wikipedia: At first, passengers were reluctant to leave the ostensibly safe Titanic, which showed no outward signs of being in imminent danger, and board small lifeboats. As a result, most of the boats were launched partially empty. One boat, boat number one, meant to hold 40 people, left Titanic with only 12 people on board. With "Women and children first" the imperative (see origin of phrase) for loading lifeboats, Second Officer Lightoller, who was loading boats on the port side, allowed men on only if oarsmen were needed and for no other reason, even if there was room. First Officer Murdoch, who was loading boats on the starboard side, let men on board if women were absent. As the ship's tilt became more apparent, people started to become nervous, and some lifeboats began leaving fully loaded. Shortly after 2:00 AM the waterline had reached the forward boat deck, and all the lifeboats, save for Collapsibles A and B, had been lowered. Collapsible D was the last lifeboat to be lowered from the davits with 44 of its 47 seats filled. The total number of vacancies was close to 475.

Origin of the phrase "women and children first":
Quote from Wikipedia: At 2 a.m. the following morning, the Birkenhead struck an uncharted rock near Danger Point (now near Gansbaai, Western Cape). The impact was so violent that the forward compartment of the lower troopdeck flooded instantly and over 100 soldiers were drowned in their hammocks. The surviving officers and men assembled on deck — Lt Col Seaton of the 74th Foot took charge of all military personnel and stressed the necessity of maintaining order and discipline to his officers. Distress rockets were fired, but there was no assistance available. Sixty men were detailed to man the pumps, while the rest were drawn up ito await orders. Thanks to poor maintenance and paint on the winches few of the ships' boats could be launched; eventually two cutters and a gig were launched, and all the women and children were placed in these boats which were rowed away from the wreck for safety. Only then did Captain Salmond order that those men who could swim should save themselves by swimming to the boats; Lt Col Seaton, however, recognising that rushing the lifeboats would risk swamping them and endangering the women and children, ordered the men to stand fast. The soldiers did not move, even as the ship broke up barely twenty minutes after striking the rock. Some of the soldiers managed to swim the 1.5 - 2 miles to shore over the next twelve hours, often hanging on to pieces of the wreck to stay afloat, but most either drowned or were taken by the frenzied sharks that quickly arrived on the scene.

It's so nice that men back then got to enjoy the Male Privileges™ benfits package that "The Patriarchy" gave them.

spring break

2006-04-08T22:21:00.000-04:00

Nothing beats a week off from work! This past week was spring break at Bethany. This meant no work or tennis for a week! Seth and I spent 4 days in Tennessee with Rebekah and 2 days in Chicago. It was wonderful! Plenty of sleep, good food (Chicago style pizza!) shopping, warm weather, SVU and Monk reruns, relaxing, etc. We enjoyed spending time in the mountains, seeing Rebekah's new condo and meeting her friends.
It has been back to the real world though, well at least for Seth. He had to go back to work right away. My real world starts again on Monday! A week away from Goshen, the apartment, and responsibilities was exactly what Seth and I needed though. I feel rested and reenergized. Seth is still adjusting to a new job, but some time away was good for him too.
We are mentally preparing for our move into the new house. We will need to start physically preparing soon too! I kind of don't know where to start though. Luckily we don't have too much stuff. We are looking forward to getting settled in and having people over to visit our new place. Look out! We may start recruiting some help!

we signed away our lives away!

2006-03-29T13:49:00.001-05:00

Hummm. Has it really been almost a month since we last posted? We sure have been struggling to keep this thing up to date! Seth and I have had some pretty big developments in the last few weeks. We are currently in the process of buying a home. We found a house we really liked in Colonial Farms two weeks ago and put an offer on the house. The owners came back with a counter-offer that we accepted. We met with the bank last week to finalize our loan and as far as I know we are all set to go. We close and move in on April 21, which is about 3 weeks away! How exciting! Minus feeling like we signed away our lives at the bank and with the realtor, we really looking forward to having a place to call our own!
Seth has also taken a new job at Bashor Homes. They offered him a full time position with day-time shifts that he just couldn't turn down, even though he loves his job at JDC. Our schedules had just been too off. I worked during the day time, with weekends off, and he was working the exact opposite. This last week has been difficult because he is working full time at Bashor and still finishing up quite a few hours at JDC that he was already scheduled for. His plan is to work a little at JDC too, just to keep his foot in the door, but he is doing too much now and is exhausted.
Tennis at the Bethany started for me 2 1/2 weeks ago. We practiced the 2 weeks in freezing cold, windy weather. It was pretty miserable! It is finally becoming nice and beginning to feel like spring. We had our first match last night against Goshen High School and both the varsity and jv won! It was very exciting with 2 three set matches and 2 tiebreakers!

My spring break starts Friday afternoon and Seth and I are going to visit Rebekah in Tennessee for a few days and then spend a couple days in Indy as well. We have been looking forward to this trip for a long time. It will be wonderful to get away and have a break from what has become our routine.
Sarah

What? A win?

2006-03-15T17:05:00.000-05:00

Well, we started our new soccer season last night. It is our third season. We have had only one win in the two previous seasons. However....somehow, the first game this season, we pulled off a win! We were up 2-0 at halftime, in the second half the other team came back and tied it up. They got many shots on goal, but our goalie Jeron Baker had an amazing game! Then, with less then 10 seconds to go, Pete pull one in the goal which allowed us our second win ever.

Next weekend (the 25th) is the big tennis match! Sarah's high school tennis team will be doing a scrimmage against some of my friends and I. It should be pretty fun. I have no idea how we will match up skill wise against the high school girls.

Alright, that's all for now! House hunting is fun and I am looking forward to updating you all on what we are finding.

Seth

House Hunting

2006-03-03T14:28:00.000-05:00

Well Seth and I have begun the process of house hunting... well sort of. In the last month we've looked at several houses, but nothing to serious yet. The word has gotten out in the Mennonite curcuit that we have started looking for our first house and we keep getting emails and phone calls from area Mennonites who know someone who is selling their house. It is amazing. These people don't even need to advertise or go through a realator, they just make an announcement at church or in the Goshen College weekly newsletter and BOOM word spreads. We have found one house that we liked a lot, but someone else made an offer the day after we looked at it and we didn't feel ready to make an offer ourselves. It felt too rushed. This house was awesome though. It had a huge living room with a fireplace, and a basement room we could put a ping pong table in, and best of all a tree house with a zip cord that ran to the basketball hoop! I guess it wasn't meant to be though.
Some days I am really ready to have a house, and than other days I am completely content in our apartment. We don't have any responsibilities with renting and that is very nice. But we are also feeling ready for a little more room, especially with the new addition to our family...the elliptical machine! It is also nice to have Joel just down the stairs from us now, but there are times that I get so sick of having to hear the people living around us. Renting and owning both have their own perks. At this point we are just keeping our eyes open! Happy Friday.

Running and Rent

2006-02-24T11:36:00.000-05:00

Another week has flown by. I can't believe how fast the days go by. The great thing is that the sun is up when I drive to Bethany in the morning. It was miserable driving to work in the dark the last few months. Can spring really be around the corner already?
I am two weeks into high school tennis conditioning already! The first day of conditioning they all had scared looks on their faces and I asked them if they were worried about conditioning. Over half of them said they were. I guess the word got out that I am a big believer in conditioning hard! They have worked so hard and I am really proud of them. Some of them are doing things they never thought they would be able to do. I still can't get over how they look at me with big eyes as if I know so much more than they do. They do whatever I tell them to do and just absorb everything I say. Coaching is amazing! I am really looking forward to this season. We start hitting everyday March 13th. It will be here before I know it.
The big plans for this weekend include buying Rent on dvd and watching it again. Seth and I have seen the movie twice in the theater and we both listen to the music at home and at work. I think it is safe to say that we are addicted. The music is phenomenal! If you haven't seen the musical movie we definitly recommend it.

This and That

2006-02-10T13:42:00.000-05:00

I guess Seth and I were thinking along the same lines. I was thinking about how long it had been since I'd posted and when I went to post something, I saw Seth had just added something yesterday. I guess I will give you all the updates on me, since Seth covered some of the more recent things in his life.

Work is busy. This is the time of year when everyone is visiting and starting to apply to Bethany. Since the middle of January I have been planning visitor's days every other week and helping prospective families go through the admissions process. I love being busy. I love coming to work and having tons to do so that time just flies by.

Tennis is starting to get busy. I am gearing up to begin conditioning with the high school team next week and this is the heavy recruiting time at the college. I met with one prospective player last weekend and I am meeting with two more today. Luckily I only have a small team. I can't imagine having to recruit for a team that needs more than 7-8 players. I already feel pretty good about GC's team next fall. I've signed a strong player from PA and am thinking the #1 player from Bethany will come as well! I will have conditioning with the high school team for a month and then we can start practicing outdoors in the middle of March. I am really looking forward to it! Hopefully it will start to warm up by then.

All of our leagues are winding down. I have about two weeks left of volleyball. Seth is done with tennis, and he has two more weeks of soccer. They have been fun, but it will be nice to have a few more evenings free.

The biggest news of all is that my Christmas present is supposed to come today! Seth ordered me an elliptical machine that I had been salivating over before Christmas. I thought it was way to expensive to buy, but Seth did some searching and found it online for half price! We have been waiting and waiting and waiting for it! I decided hell would probably freeze over before we got it, but it is supposed to be at our apartment as I speak! Knock on wood! The next question will be, can we assemble it! Hopefully two college degrees are enough to pull us through assembly instructions! We'll keep you posted on our progress!

Sarah

Update

2006-02-09T22:46:00.000-05:00

Ok, here is an update:

Tennis - Well, first of all...no one else signed up for the men's 3.0 tourney, so Dad and I had to play in the men's 3.5 tourney. This means the players were better. We were assuming we were going to get killed. However, things went surprisingly well! We lost both of our matches, but they were very close. We lost the first match 6-4, 6-2...the second was even closer 6-4, 7-5. We both played very well (other then not being able to get our first serves in!) and we had A LOT of fun!

Soccer - Still having a lot of fun. Lost our game pretty bad Monday, but we scored a lot of points and had a really good time. We are getting SO much better! I wish we could play ourselves when we started. We would kill ourselves!

Elliptical Machine - It is supposto be coming tomorrow! Yeah....this is what I ordered December 19th, hoping to get it about a week or two after Christmas. Lets just say it has been a nightmare. Never had this bad of an experience ordering something online.

That about covers it! I will try to do the next few posts with a bit less of an extended break!

Tennis tourney

2006-01-25T14:59:00.000-05:00

Just so you all know, as the Australian Open comes to a close, my dad and I will be entering our first tennis tourney. It is a 3.0 (very very low) rated men's doubles tourney being held in Elkhart. It will take place on the 4th and 5th of February.

We really have no idea what to expect, but are prepared for the possibility of a very quick loss. We are guaranteed two games, as there is a first round consolation bracket. Hopfully one of those two games we will be able to make competitive!

Either way, I am extremely excited about seeing how we fair against rated players!

2006-01-24T07:42:00.000-05:00

I am a man. Hath not a man eyes? Hath not a man hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed, and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a woman is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?

Wow...all in the same 24 hours!

2006-01-18T12:46:00.000-05:00

Two good things all in 24 hours!

First of all, last night Delight Electric won our first game! Yes, that is right...we had scored more points then the other team by the end of the game. Everyone played an amazing game! Jeff had a goal, and Kyle almost scored two or three times and almost had a ton of assists! Everybody just played awesome, and even though the ref only called fouls on us and not on the other team, we still managed to hang on for the win! I am not quite sure how this happened, but it did!

Now...for other big news. The Rainbow 6 - Lockdown for the PC demo (much different from console version) was released 45 min ago and I now have it 87% downloaded. I have been looking forward to this for quite some time. Hopfully I can convince some of my friends to start playing with me again and we can do some laddering and maybe join a league or two!

Alright, I hope things are going as well in your neck of the woods as they are in mine!

Seth

Big muscles...

2006-01-12T13:48:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that's right. I am going to be getting big muscles. Joel convinced a few of my friends and I to start working out. So, it is hard to believe, but Joel, Josh, Gnagey, and I are getting up to work out 5 days a week at 6:00. Um...yeah...that is a.m.

We will see how long it lasts. My primary motivation is currently getting in shape for our soccer league. I am also looking forward to looking like a stud and having my wife swoon every time I walk in the room.

Dad and I are also thinking of entering a 3.0 tennis tourney the first weekend in February, if I can get off of work! Hopfully he can stay healthy (not pull anything) and I can get in shape by that point.

Seth

What a Surprise!

2006-01-05T11:07:00.000-05:00

I have the most wonderful husband in the world! Seth sent me two dozen sweetheart roses at work today! What a nice surprise and what a pick me up! They are beautiful. All the women in the office keep stopping in to admire them and tell me how lucky I am!

3 weeks gone already?!

2006-01-04T13:40:00.000-05:00

It is hard to believe that my three weeks of vacation are done. Some of my friends wondered what in the world I was going to do with myself with three weeks off from work. Let me tell you, I did not struggle at all to find things to do! The time off was wonderful! I made a scrapebook for a woman I work with and started another for a friend of the family. I read two books, the newspaper cover to cover everyday, did daily SuDoKu puzzels, watched movies, stayed up late, slept in, took naps, did Christmas shopping, and spent lots of time with Seth, friends, and family.

Both Rebekah and Colin were home for Christmas and it was so great to have the whole family together. We had our usual sibling game of Scattergories, with an unusual outcome this year. Growing up Rebekah always won, I would come in a close second, and Colin was off somewhere in the distance. This year Colin put both Rebekah and me to shame, and not just once, but twice! So it wasn't a fluke! Our younger brother has intellectually surpassed us!

Seth and I made a trip to Pennsylvania soon after Christmas to celebrate with his Yoder family, not to be mistaken with my Yoder family. We drove to PA on the 27th, our 2 year anniversery, wow how time flies!, and spent a couple days in New Holland visiting with his aunts, uncles, grandma, and cousins. We then spent an evening with my family in Lemoyne on the way home. Aunt Marg was thrilled to have family come visit her for a change. This trip was wonderfully reminiscent of our freshman year spring break trip to PA, which was one highlight of college for us!

So now it is back to the real world. I am sure it will take me a little while to get back into my school routine again, but the fabulous memories from Christmas will carry me through. Happy January!
Sarah

Christmas 2005

2005-12-26T14:47:00.000-05:00

Well, Christmas is now past (for the most part). We have received and given our gifts with our immediate family, and are now getting ready to head out to PA to see my Dad's extended family. I am looking forward with great anticipation to seeing Joy, Phill, and my other cousins and Aunts and Uncles. It will just be a brief trip, but it will still be great to see everyone. I am working a very short shift tonight, and then we are leaving early tomorrow morning so we will make it in time for the gift exchange.

I have posted some pictures below. The selection I had was limited, as Sarah and I are still trying to get into the habit of taking pictures. Hopefully we will receive more from family and friends so I can share some of the better ones on here.

I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday. Through all of the hustle and bustle, remember to focus on the most amazing gift we have ever received.

2005-12-26T14:46:00.000-05:00

Here I am showing off some of my new gifts....now, if only I could play tennis outside in the winter!

2005-12-26T14:45:00.000-05:00

Dad is amazing me with his new magic trick.

2005-12-26T14:44:00.000-05:00

Sarah sporting her new top and sweatpants that my parents bought her.

2005-12-26T14:43:00.000-05:00

Mom is holding Sue and Greg's newly adopted baby. Doesn't she seriously look just like a doll??