Wednesday, November 29
Camp Geneva comes to Philadelphia
Yesterday I received a phone call out of the blue from Brian VandeWege (Chief). I must have stammered my first four words out of surprise, but he told me that he was in Philly with Kevin VanderKlok for a conference! He asked if I was free for dinner tomorrow (now today). On their tab! Consequently, I'm having dinner with Chief and Klok tonight in Center City! I can't wait.
Monday, November 27
Giving thanks
Thanksgiving break has come and gone, yet I still like I haven't even begun to express my gratitude to God and those around me. Isn't it funny that the United States is essentially the only country that NEEDS a holiday in order to stop and be thankful?
I'm back in Philly after a 54-hour hiatus in Michigan. It was wonderful to be home and spend time with family and friends. My excitement on the trip home was missing a flight in Detroit due to Philadelphia delays and catching a better flight to Grand Rapids instead of South Bend! I returned home with parents and Maria by 12:30 instead of the expected 1:00--even though I had 90 minute delays! It's cool how God works some things out.
While home, my family celebrated Thanksgiving with the De Boer tradition of flank steak. The day after Thanksgiving, however, we went out to Wild Chef, which is a Japanese steak house in Holland. They put on a nice show while cooking all the food in front of you. Delicious and entertaining! Perhaps my favorite part was when they made small bundles of rice and tossed them through the air to their customers, hoping for them to catch the rice in their mouths. Good fun!
Scott Parrott, Chris Marlink, and Peter Van Wylen came over Friday night. Peter had friends in town, but Chris and Scott spent the night. There's nothing like a good old fashioned sleep over! Since my bed is in Philly, I had to "make my couch" each day. My room just doesn't quite seem as much like my room when my bed is missing. Amazing how much sentiment can be associated with an inanimate object.
Seth dropped me off at the airport early Thursday morning, and two other friends from church picked me up on Saturday night. I had called them to get the best directions home using public transportation, and they insisted on picking me up instead! Another blessing.
Perhaps it's the return to work feelings after Thanksgiving, but I felt frazzled when school started today. Some of it was due to last minute things to do, and other teachers made it worse by having issues that required my immediate attention. The computer that I have all the others connected to in order to print was refusing to turn on, and the Internet itself was down everywhere. I had a slight panic attack, took a deep breath, and tried the first thing all good techies do when attacking a problem: restart. I restarted the modem and router which worked for the Internet. Then I tried several buttons on the computer to no avail. However, when I came back 2 hours later, the computer started up just fine! Those computers...I tell ya.
Tonight was a 2-hour training on safe touch/safe environment for all first year teachers. There was a good deal of grumbling about not getting paid or any academic credit for this extra time, but I think that Monday after Thanksgiving is the best scheduling possible for such things. Report cards are next week, however, and teachers are beginning to stress about them. I'm excited about getting next Friday off (Immaculate Conception, you know!)
Bedtime is quickly approaching here. Seth is in New York until Wednesday, so I have fulltime dog duty. Anyone's welcome to join us for a morning/evening walk! It's quite relaxing, actually. Pets are great.
I'm back in Philly after a 54-hour hiatus in Michigan. It was wonderful to be home and spend time with family and friends. My excitement on the trip home was missing a flight in Detroit due to Philadelphia delays and catching a better flight to Grand Rapids instead of South Bend! I returned home with parents and Maria by 12:30 instead of the expected 1:00--even though I had 90 minute delays! It's cool how God works some things out.
While home, my family celebrated Thanksgiving with the De Boer tradition of flank steak. The day after Thanksgiving, however, we went out to Wild Chef, which is a Japanese steak house in Holland. They put on a nice show while cooking all the food in front of you. Delicious and entertaining! Perhaps my favorite part was when they made small bundles of rice and tossed them through the air to their customers, hoping for them to catch the rice in their mouths. Good fun!
Scott Parrott, Chris Marlink, and Peter Van Wylen came over Friday night. Peter had friends in town, but Chris and Scott spent the night. There's nothing like a good old fashioned sleep over! Since my bed is in Philly, I had to "make my couch" each day. My room just doesn't quite seem as much like my room when my bed is missing. Amazing how much sentiment can be associated with an inanimate object.
Seth dropped me off at the airport early Thursday morning, and two other friends from church picked me up on Saturday night. I had called them to get the best directions home using public transportation, and they insisted on picking me up instead! Another blessing.
Perhaps it's the return to work feelings after Thanksgiving, but I felt frazzled when school started today. Some of it was due to last minute things to do, and other teachers made it worse by having issues that required my immediate attention. The computer that I have all the others connected to in order to print was refusing to turn on, and the Internet itself was down everywhere. I had a slight panic attack, took a deep breath, and tried the first thing all good techies do when attacking a problem: restart. I restarted the modem and router which worked for the Internet. Then I tried several buttons on the computer to no avail. However, when I came back 2 hours later, the computer started up just fine! Those computers...I tell ya.
Tonight was a 2-hour training on safe touch/safe environment for all first year teachers. There was a good deal of grumbling about not getting paid or any academic credit for this extra time, but I think that Monday after Thanksgiving is the best scheduling possible for such things. Report cards are next week, however, and teachers are beginning to stress about them. I'm excited about getting next Friday off (Immaculate Conception, you know!)
Bedtime is quickly approaching here. Seth is in New York until Wednesday, so I have fulltime dog duty. Anyone's welcome to join us for a morning/evening walk! It's quite relaxing, actually. Pets are great.
Wednesday, November 22
Holland or bust!
Seth and I are driving to the airport at 6:10 tomorrow morning, with my flight to arrive in South Bend at 11:08. Consequently, I should be home in the early afternoon! Can't wait.
Mass went really well today--better than I would have ever thought! More later, as I'd like to hit the sack now.
Mass went really well today--better than I would have ever thought! More later, as I'd like to hit the sack now.
Tuesday, November 21
Marathon pictures
And here are the pictures from the Philadelphia Marathon Dan and Krista ran on Sunday (and some extras from our weekend with them).
Me? Lead mass???
It's Thanksgiving week! And I'm excited.
This Thursday morning I board a flight from Philly to Detroit to South Bend. Thanksgiving Day my family and I will consume vast amounts of flank steak (we've never been much for turkey) and go for a game of bowling (two years ago dad got three strikes in a row--a turkey!). I can't wait to be there. I'm usually glad to go home, but I've never been this excited to do so. God has blessed me here in Philadelphia, and I haven't been homesick, yet I can't wait to see friends and family again. I will have to go back on Saturday afternoon...every moment counts!
Sarah finished up her exam on physical diagnosis today and already caught a ride home to Pittsburgh this afternoon. Somehow I'll have to survive 48 hours in Philly without her... =)
Tonight our home group had a Thanksgiving potluck! We had mounds and mounds of delicious food, along with beautiful fellowship. After eating for a while, we went around and shared how we saw God answer our prayers this year. I shared how God has been faithful with my move to Philadelphia and be constant in my life--even while bikes were stolen, cars towed and hit, and living and teaching in an entirely different culture. It was wonderful to hear others praise God for His work in their lives too. I tried to add to the family dinner/reunion feel by taking several pictures.
School is only a half day tomorrow. I'm a little nervous because I'm leading mass! Yep, that's right--the non-Catholic computer teacher is leading mass on the piano. Kinda crazy, but our music teacher quit a few weeks ago. We'll see how it goes! The resource room teacher is backing me up on guitar, and the 1st grade teacher is going to teach her kids the songs and sing along with us too. Should be an adventure! The perfectionist, loud Geneva-style side of me is nervous. I just need to remember that it's for God, not for man.
This Thursday morning I board a flight from Philly to Detroit to South Bend. Thanksgiving Day my family and I will consume vast amounts of flank steak (we've never been much for turkey) and go for a game of bowling (two years ago dad got three strikes in a row--a turkey!). I can't wait to be there. I'm usually glad to go home, but I've never been this excited to do so. God has blessed me here in Philadelphia, and I haven't been homesick, yet I can't wait to see friends and family again. I will have to go back on Saturday afternoon...every moment counts!
Sarah finished up her exam on physical diagnosis today and already caught a ride home to Pittsburgh this afternoon. Somehow I'll have to survive 48 hours in Philly without her... =)
Tonight our home group had a Thanksgiving potluck! We had mounds and mounds of delicious food, along with beautiful fellowship. After eating for a while, we went around and shared how we saw God answer our prayers this year. I shared how God has been faithful with my move to Philadelphia and be constant in my life--even while bikes were stolen, cars towed and hit, and living and teaching in an entirely different culture. It was wonderful to hear others praise God for His work in their lives too. I tried to add to the family dinner/reunion feel by taking several pictures.
School is only a half day tomorrow. I'm a little nervous because I'm leading mass! Yep, that's right--the non-Catholic computer teacher is leading mass on the piano. Kinda crazy, but our music teacher quit a few weeks ago. We'll see how it goes! The resource room teacher is backing me up on guitar, and the 1st grade teacher is going to teach her kids the songs and sing along with us too. Should be an adventure! The perfectionist, loud Geneva-style side of me is nervous. I just need to remember that it's for God, not for man.
Sunday, November 19
Dia de la marathon
Who'd of thought that the Philadelphia marathon would take me back to my days at Hope?Today Sarah and I got to cheer on Dan and Krista Carter as they ran their first marathon! They've been training together, and today they got to finally run it. Sarah and I made signs and went out to cheer them on as we rode bicycles and tried to keep up with them for a while. I had no idea it would be so fun to encourage random runners as they passed too! We made one sign that said "doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo (think Chariots of Fire!)", and if we were to do it over again, I would burn a CD and play it as runners passed. Whenever someone would have his/her name on a shirt, we would yell encouragement to them. Great fun! Dan and Krista were tuckered out when they were done, as you might imagine. Krista ran for over 21 miles, and Dan did all 26.2!!!!!! Unreal. It was a joy to be with them this weekend and experience such a life goal for them.
In the short time we were cheering on runners, we also saw a few people from Jefferson as well as Ashley, my 13-year-old 8th grader who ran the race too!! The next time I'm near a marathon, I would certainly enjoy watching it simply to cheer others on. What spiritual parallels!
Seth bought the video game Guitar Hero II for his PS2 today. Tonight we played it together. If you've never heard of it, it's the same concept of Dance Dance Revolution, only with a toy guitar instead of footpad. The game is somewhat addicting, but quite fun. I swear that if I was more familiar with pop culture songs, I would be better at the game. =)
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