back to the grind

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

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!

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.

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

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