Our Trip to Yosemite

These are pictures of our trip to Yosemite.  There are many on here that might be repeats but I just felt like putting them all on anyways.

 

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May Day!

Welcome to the beautiful month of MAY!! Many things have been going on in the life of Dan and Jenn since our last post in March. Our lives have been very busy with Spring Break, school programs and life in general.

School is rapidly coming to an end; meaning Dan and I will have successfully completed our first year teaching. Both Dan and I have signed our contracts for next year and are excited to begin our second year hopefully knowing more than we knew last year. Dan is going to have the same teaching assignment as he did this year...me on the other hand...I am going to be a 2 day computer 3 day Kindergarten teacher. I am SUPER excited to be a Kindergarten teacher!

In other news, Dan and I are ready for summer vacation to come. We will be heading out to CA for about 3 weeks. It will be nice to get out of Demotte for some time and enjoy the city life again. Apparently, we do not like to be "lazy" during the summer becuase we are already pretty much all booked up. School ends, Dan leaves for DC while I am in my last week of school, Dan comes back from DC only to take a class at a local college, my parents come, we move to our duplex, we head up to MI for my cousin's wedding, celebrate our 1 year anniversary, leave for CA, stay there for 3 weeks, head to Mackinac Island with the Broersma's, return to Demotte, I take a class for a week, then school planning begins again.
Maybe next year we'll take it slow...maybe...

God Bless!!

What to do during spring break…

So I’m sitting here on spring break with not much to do.  Jennifer still has school this week and then spring break next week.  Plus, she has the car each day so I really don’t have anything to do nor can I really go anywhere.  Which had led me to try out knew things…one of these things is this activity called twitter.  Let me explain.

Twittering is basically blogging on the go in short spurts.  I never thought it would be something I would get into, but after just a short afternoon of it, it is really a lot of fun.  Of course, no one is reading my twitters right now, but that hasn’t slowed me down.  If you’re interested, this is a link to it.  http://www.twitter.com/djb6. 

Anyways, that’s all I’ve got right now.  I will probably rent a video game or something for the remainder of spring break.  I had great plans to do school work but don’t really feel like it.  We will see if I get to it early in the week, or later. 

Potential New Home

This blog is for the soul purpose of putting the pictures up that we took today of the potential new home Jennifer and I might have next year.  We will see.

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A TRUE heat wave...

As I sit here updating our post, our windows are open and I am wearing jeans and a t-shirt!! Why you might ask? It is 53 degrees outside!!!!! Yes my friends, a true heat wave has come through. Anywho, I am really posting because last weekend Dan and I went up to MI unbeknownst to his family. The only person that knew was my younger brother, Justin. Dan and I walked into the Broersma's house around 2am EST. Mike, Dan's younger brother, was visiting as well and was still up. All the the doors were locked at thier house and we don't have a key, so Mike thought we were trying to break-in or something. Tara, on the other hand, was already asleep until she saw the light on in the adjacent room. Half asleep, Tara opened our door said "there's people in there" and went back to bed. Dan's parents had NO CLUE!! We surprised them in the morning. First Dad Broersma in the kitchen, then Mom Broersma as she was coming down the stairs.

It's always fun surprising people. I think it's even better when it is your family. It was good to see the Broersma family again. Our main objective that weekend was to hang out with Justin because hadn't seen him since the beginning of December. So, we saw Justin A LOT! Which was a good thing. Of course, he told me that I was not allowed to come up the following weekend because that would just be too much :) Gotta love Justin.

Justin took us to see the house he is living in next year with some of his guy friends. It looks like a pretty nice house! The pictures make it look kinda small, but Justin assures me it is much bigger on the inside.

Now a couple pictures of Justin-an update on what he looks like with all his hair chopped off.

Before

After

He refused to look at the camera, so that's the best I have :)

I'm off to enjoy the nice weather...and clean more of the apartment :)

The Frozen Tundra we call home

Before Dan and I moved down here, I was reassured that Indiana winters were no where in comparison as bad is Michigan winters...until Dan and I moved down here...Apparently, this year Indiana is experiencing a winter that surpasses all others. Let me illustrate for you...our high yesterday was -2 degrees.... NEGATIVE TWO DEGREES!!!!!!!!!! That does not even include wind chill which was -35 degrees...yes you saw that correctly NEGATIVE THIRTY FIVE!!! At least Dan didn't have school yesterday. Of course, I didn't have it today and he did-but his school is to the point where they would have to add days at the end of the school year.

I like to describe our city as the frozen tundra...flat, windy, and FRIGID. The weatherman even described the temperature as BRUTAL today- BRUTAL!!! It was SO cold this morning that our car didn't start. I guess that's what happens in -17 degree temperatures...If any of you have a spare $500 PLEASE send me to the wonderful California. I need to thaw out!

The only redeeming fact is that the sun is shinning. Needless to say, this does NOTHING for the temperature--but it sure makes Jennifer a little easier to deal with :)

Here's some pictures of my schools playground yesterday:
Beautiful, I know...Rumor has it a heat wave is coming through and we might reach 20 degrees on Saturday-then 35 degrees next week!!! Let's pray that heat wave comes.

Until next time,

God Bless

January?

So we’re working our way through January now.  It has been one of those months where nothing exciting seems to be happening.  It has been extremely snowy and very cold.  Tomorrow, our high is –2.  Hopefully Jennifer will be able to add some pictures of what it looks like outside.

I don’t really have anything else to say.  To be honest, I’m trying out a new blogging program right now so this is sort of like a test.  Hopefully it goes well.

Our 6 Month Anniversary

Well, we just celebrated our six month anniversary and we took a few pictures. I thought I would put them here so you can all see it. First we stopped at Jennifer's school to print a coupon for a free appetizer (it was a good deal), and then we realized as we walked into the school there was water ALL OVER THE PLACE...Apparently, an air conditioner in the library broke and was pouring water out for quite a while, since it was a snow day on Friday. Here are those pictures:

This is what we first saw as we walked in.

This is the door to the library.

Here is the water actually falling out of the ceiling. The doors were shut in the library for an entire day of this so when we walked in, it was very humid!

Here is the floor in the computer room, which is right next door to the library. It wasn't a pretty site.
That's all the pictures we have the leaky school...it was an adventure. But after that, we did end up going out to eat at a place called Houlihans. Here are a few pictures of that:

These were the coasters we thought were pretty funny.

Here are the plates, they were cool.

That's all from our trip.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas!

The other day, Dan and I went out and bought ourselves a Christmas tree! We even have presents to go underneath! Super exciting. Here is a wonderful picture of our quaint tree:
Now a little more up close to see the beautiful angel Dan made when he was just a little tyke ;)
One week until Jeremy and Jackie arrive!!!! 5 days of school left for me and 6.5 left for Dan. We'll see if it works out!

God Bless!

Only in Michigan...

Last weekend Dan and I ventured up to Michigan. I don't really feel like doing a whole post on that weekend. But, I did want to post these pictures.
This is something that you will only see in Michigan:

Only in Michigan would you see a deer strapped to the top of a car...

Here's a picture of me and Dan in the place we got married 5 months ago:

ok that's all. bye bye!

Our Trip to St. Louis, MO

This past weekend Dan and I joined his parents and Tara on a trip to St. Louis for Tara's soccer tournament. Neither Dan nor I had actually visited St. Louis before. In between soccer games on Saturday we were able to visit the famous Arch of St. Louis. Now, I have seen this thing before but I had never ventured up it. Needless to say, it was a very interesting experience. I thoroughly enjoyed every part of the weekend. It was great to be able to relax a little outside of Demotte for a while.

Now for some pictures to highlight the trip:

that's Tara in the center
our attempt to take a picture with the arch...that's a tough feat!
some of the soccer girls (Tara on the far left)
yep that's how high it is

a view of the car from the very top-it's the green van in the center of the photo
the itty-bitty windows we got to look through...or at least Dan looked through :)
I wasn't into the whole leaning over thing...but Dan found something he liked...
A baseball field
to get to the top of the arch you had to ride in these ridiculously small pods that hold 5 people...as you can tell...Tara enjoyed it more than me :)
It was beautiful there. Fabulous fall colors and seventy five degree sun shining weather! We could not have asked for a better weekend.

Now it is back to the swing of things. I have parent teacher conferences Thursday and Friday. I am anxious to see what these will be like. Not having my own class makes it hard for me to plan ahead for these. Jr. High conferences are a free for all. The parents show up and go to whatever teacher they want to talk to. We'll see if any talk to me :) Dan is still busy at school, working hard. The soccer season is over so he can refocus on his classes.
But of course, we are counting the days until our next relaxing weekend. Thanksgiving can not come soon enough. Then there is Christmas when we finally get to see Jeremy and Jackie again. It will be nice to see my family for a change :)

Happy October!

So this might be a little late...but...

HAPPY OCTOBER!!

The weather is beginning to cool and the leaves are beginning to change. Fall is in the air :) Now if we could only find an apple orchard to pick some apples and drink some awesome apple cider everything would be perfect! Oh and some pumpkin spice donuts would be nice too ;) If only Demotte had a Robinettes.


Well, I must be off to 6th grade art now. Until later!

A Chicago Weekend

This past weekend Dan's family came down to celebrate his birthday on the 18th of September. Since we live so close to Chicago and had not visited since our moving to Indiana, we decided to head up to the windy city and see some sites...

Here's a few pictures to highlight our adventures:

The wonderful Shedd Aquarium...fyi teachers get in FREE!!!

Do you think he knows there's something sticking out of his head?
They feed the eels by attaching a plastic fork to a pvc pipe with duct tape...greatest invention EVER!
Lovely Sea Stars
A view of the city
Millennium Park

A shot in the bean :)

And now for the wedding parade...let's count how many weddings were at Millennium Park...
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
probably the best pizza place I've been to in the Midwest!!

Another thing I found to be interesting:
This-
was on the corner of-
(Wabash)

and (Wacker)
am I the only one that finds that funny??

oh well...Here's a closing picture of the sunset

Not much else is going on in our lives here in Demotte, IN. Dan is mid season in being the assistant soccer coach at Demotte Christian School. Meanwhile I am keeping rather busy at Crown Point Christian school trying to figure out how to be a Pre-K-8th grade computer teacher,5th-8th grade art teacher, a 6th grade reading and writing teacher and a network administrator...Life has truly been an adventurous journey that only God knows the plans for.