Home improvement

One of Seth's fellow photographers gave us his table this week! We used to have a circular table that squeezed three people in our kitchen; this new table will hold 4 comfortably--plus it has extra leaves! It's ideal for our situation...if we really wanted to, we could even pull it out into the living room for extravagant hosting.


We moved our circular table to the front window, snagged a thrift store tablecloth, and made a new shrine-like area! We're going to put some pictures of friends and family and make it a memory corner.


Our kitchen also has a new microwave holder/shelving unit. When I first moved it, we barely had any room. Now, we have more room than we know what to do with! We're working on getting some quality cooking supplies, so we hope to fill up the extra space with those. (and maybe junk food...)

Famous alumni

Dan, Krista, and I made the front page of Hope's alumni page of the Hope/Calvin game!

I wrote the word "fart" on a progress report

Yesterday was the coldest day in Philadelphia this year: 7 degrees, with a wind chill of negative 4. What did I do? Purchased an air conditioning unit for my room this spring. I got a great deal on the Maytag unit from Craigslist. Only used for a year, the couple using it is moving to Boston with central air, and it's in really good condition (plus it has an actual temperature gauge!). The guy asked for $50 for the unit and a brand new knife set. Since Seth and I needed one, he chipped in a few bucks for the knives, and I bought the knife set. Not too shabby!

Speaking of deals, here's a Coldstone coupon for free! It expires at the end of February.

Recently, I've really gotten into a website called StealDeals.Net. They have the web's best coupons posted each day throughout the day. The temptation is to spend unnecessary money to "save" so much. Fortunately, I think I have been able to hold myself back from

Tomorrow a bunch of students from my school are going to the opera Porgy and Bess. I get to go too! We had a grant pay for the buses, and the opera company is allowing us to come see the dress rehearsal for free. The kids have been staying after school a few days to listen to parts of the opera, read the story, and get familar with the story before the opera hits. I'll have to do the same thing! I've never seen a live opera before...the closest I've had was watching La Boheme for my First Year Seminar at Hope as a freshman. Should be a great experience!

So, I wrote on two students' progress reports that they had been making farting noises in my computer class. (yes, that means I used the word "fart" on a progress report). After reading that a few weeks ago, my principal--who's a nun, remember--came up to me today and asked me if they had improved their behavior. I said I haven't had a problem since progress reports. She was glad, but suggested that if I had any additional problems, that I should assign them a book report of this book. I laughed out loud (my class was in the room), but I laughed even harder when she told me that one of her close friends had given her that book for Christmas! That whole situation made my day. I love Sister Owen more every day.

Seth and I have recently made some major changes to our house furniture. I'll try to take pictures tomorrow! Let's just say that our house is looking more like a home. =)

Unbearable

The Bears started out so valiantly in tonight's Super Bowl. Then, Payton Manning dissected their defense with short passes with the skill of a surgeon. It was disappointing. Even the commercials didn't live up to expectations! Sarah and I watched the game with friends from Jefferson, most of whom cheered for the Bears for various reasons. My $20 Urlacher jersey didn't quite do the trick, as the Colts enjoyed Rex Grossman living up to his namesake.


The retreat this weekend, however, was wonderful. I'll have to write more later.

As we Chicago sports fans like to say, "there's always next year."

My first jersey

I purchased the first jersey of my life last week: a Chicago Bears Brian Urlacher 54 jersey from eBay. It arrived yesterday with great fanfare! I was pretty excited. Sure, it may be missing the little "official NFL" sticker from the front, but I'm okay with that. It still looks real!

Bring on the Colts...Urlacher and I are ready!

Serving at Liberti

This Sunday, one of the pastors at Liberti asked me to help greeting people. Melanie and I were assigned to bulletin duty. Seth snapped a picture of me, and here it is!

What timing!

I stayed home from school on Monday and Tuesday this week fighting my cold/virus infection. Gratefully, the snot has been coming less, cough dissipating, and energy levels continue to rise. After going to school for a half day on Wednesday (I only have morning classes, and my principal allowed me to go home early to sleep for the afternoon), I felt tired. But then the news of the day came through: we wouldn't have school on Thursday! It turns out that a pipe burst under the street and our resource room in the basement was flooded. The plumber needed to shut down the water to our school building, so we don't have school today! The timing couldn't be better. There's actually a chance we won't have school tomorrow either, so we'll see.

Last night Sarah and I went bowling with some friends from our home group at North Bowl Philly. I've decided that it's my second favorite place in Philadelphia--only behind Franklin Fountain! Bowling there is super cheap on Wednesday and Sunday nights ($2 special...each for shoes, per game, tator tots, or drinks). We took advantage of the offer! Somehow, I found my bowling stroke and had the best game I've ever had in my life! It's nice to showoff for your girlfriend every now and then. =)

This weekend Sarah, Seth, Melanie, some other Liberti folk and I are going on a retreat to paradise. No, not Wrigley Field, to Paradise, PA! The retreat's purpose is to learn more about Liberti--it's purpose, mission, people, and goals--as well as simply spending quality time with new friends. I'm excited for it! Sarah has wanted to go for well over a year now, but her exam schedule (and Michigan visits) always seemed to get in the way. I'm sure there will be pictures and stories to share when we return.