Here's where you'll find me.

I've completed my classroom. Another year of teaching fourth grade at Siouxland Community Christian School coming up! I'm excited about this year. I think it will be a good one. I've had a lot of time to prepare, so I'm feeling relaxed going into it, and it doesn't hurt that I'll have an EASY class. Nine girls. That's it. Just nine. Just girls. I'm pumped.

I was telling my sister today that it will be great b/c if I'm ever in need of a time filler I can just throw out the option of braiding hair, or drawing on backs. What girl doesn't enjoy those things? Of course there will probably one girl who doesn't like doing those things, but my odds are good. Any girly activity suggestions?

So, here's my room. Come visit anytime!

I'm off to pick out my outfit for the first day of school!

Joshua Radin

I'm loving Joshua Radin right now!

Check out his music if you can. Maybe you have a subscription to an online music provider?? Check out Joshua Radin!

Happy Anniversary, Luke!

Thanks for three great years, Luke!

Maybe Keith and Mandy want to use this picture as their posterboard for camp next summer? :)

Renaissance: Correctionville style

This last weekend was an unexpected enjoyment.

A friend of the Demarest family wrote two fables that were set in the Renaissance era. Luke and I refused the offer to be in them at first, but then were suckered into it. We had one scene where Luke was a prince and I was a peasant. We were in love. I was pregnant, but Prince didn't know it. He left me to go explore the world. Feeling alone and without other options, my character got an abortion. I had to act "disshelved." That was a challenge, but I think it affected some people. In the other fable, Luke and I were just townspeople with a daughter waiting to partake of a feast. There was a man on stilts...this was so fun to see. These pictures feature Luke juggling, Luke/Deb/Gabe/Terri/"daughters" in line for feast and waiting, finally the tall man is standing up next to the castle. Later that night at Gabe and Terri's new digs we played Sequence and Apples to Apples, then went to lay in the road and look at the meteor shower. What a great night.

Sunday morning saw Luke attending church in Sioux City, and me in Correctionville. A tubing trip planned for Sunday afternoon and Luke's inability to go b/c of work was the reason for our split. I had some alone time in a park before the service for about an hour and felt refreshed. My church service was great and the subsequent events for dinner and tubing felt God-ordained. Finally I had the chance to talk with Terri, new sister-in-law, about faith and where she's at now. I'm so thankful she's in our family now.

So, weekend was good...got to make them count now that there's only one left until school starts.

Jerry Gazaway

I thought for sure I'd be able to find a picture of Jerry online somewhere, because everybody knows Jerry Gazaway, but alas, there is no picture, and not everybody reading this will know Jerry Gazaway. What is the world coming to??

Today I am at Panera and I was reminded of Jerry Gazaway. Jerry is a friend from Marshalltown who is best remembered by me as the man who took me and my sisters closest in age to Burger King about two Saturdays every month during the summer, and sometimes during the school year. If we were lucky, after lunch he would take us on a "who cares tour" around Marshalltown. To me, Jerry was the man who had lived in Marshalltown for FOREVER and who had a story to tell about every place we saw. Sometimes he just drove us around and showed us all the places in Marshalltown where he had put in playground equipment. Even though he had lived there so long, he still managed to get "lost" and would need our directions to get us home. He was the first person I knew to own a cell phone and it was hilarious to call Mom from the car as we pulled in. Cell phones were crazy! Jerry would also take us to roller skate at Skatetown every once in a while. What a great sport he was. I'm not sure now what he did for all those hours as we skated and danced on the floor. I'm sure he was just happy to see us having fun, and happy to give our mom a little bit of a break. Sometimes we got to invite our friends to go skating with us. That was just amazing. This is when Ashlee Duimstra was introduced to the wonderful Jerry.

The reason I thought of Jerry today was simply because I was sitting here at Panera (heavenly in itself) and I saw a man who was probably Jerry's age when he took us out (50's), sitting with four girls. They were probably his daughters, because there are probably not many people in the world who would treat multiple girls, they are not related to, to lunch on a Saturday afternoon out of the goodness of their heart. God knows we needed Jerry, maybe he needed us too.?. Anyway all these girls looked related and I'm willing to bet they got to pick Panera this morning. We always picked Burger King. Jerry would say we could go ANYWHERE, but we always said Burger King. If it were now, I might pick Pizza Ranch; the best thing to happen to Marshalltown since the Greg Roush family moved back. :) As the man left with his daughters he looked incredibly happy. That's what I remember about Jerry too, and about us as we left with our Happy Meal toys. We always ordered Happy Meals, even though Jerry would tell us it was not McDonalds. I think at some point we finally did start ordering Kid's Meals.

Thank you to Jerry.

Why must we all get older? This makes me so sad. I think this would be a good time in my life to hit the "Freeze time" button. It's a little depressing to think about how the Jerrys in my life are day-by-day getting older and I'm not there with them to enjoy our days together. I may see these friends the next time I find myself in Marshalltown, but it doesn't seem like enough. By God's grace I will be able to adequately express my thankfulness the next time we meet.

I can't think of the verse right now, but I know that somewhere in the Bible it says that if it is possible for you to give, you should give without hesitation. Give time, money, and PRAISE. I love giving and receiving praise. Time and sometimes money are a lot more difficult for me to give. I hope I can praise the Jerrys sometime soon.

Now it's time for the best part about Panera: the icy mocha. YUM.

Farmers Get a Snow Day!

I wonder if the farmers thought of today as a snow day. I get really excited when it snows and school is cancelled. Today it rained all day (first time that's happened this summer by the way) and I was excited for the farmers. I was also excited for the construction workers. They got a "snow" day! I should probably call it a rain day.

So, my goals for this summer are getting checked off one-by-one. Since this is my first summer at home since we've been married, I had many things I wanted to do that I just haven't had the chance to even think about. (Anyone who teaches may understand how certain things seem impossible during the school year.) For example, I used my bread maker and my fancy salad bowl. It seems ridiculous b/c I could have easily used these things earlier, I don't know what I've been waiting for.

Anyway, another goal I had was to kayak down the Little Sioux River. Luke and I started at Noon today and in 2 1/2 hours we had rowed 20 miles. It was a perfect day to do it--very cool and breezy, and we finished right when it started raining. I love going down the river. We've tubed before, and swam it, and gone in a canoe. This time it was just me and Luke and it was peaceful on the river. We saw blue herons and dodged sand bars. I thought the day couldn't get much better...but then there was a thunderstorm! Yes! I wished there was a video store around so that I could rent Twister.