We could set some records here...

I've just come in from shoveling part of the driveway and shoveling down the snow banks on either side of our driveway. I've never done that before but it is already so high that I cannot see if cars are coming for me to pull out. I just checked the forecast, wanting to know if we're supposed to get MORE snow. Our local meteorologist Bill Steffen keeps a blog and he had some interesting facts to share.

1. This could be the Whitest Christmas Ever, all we need is one more inch on the ground, we have 21" and we need 22".

2. This could be the month for the most snow fall. We're at 49.8", apparently that puts us in 4th place right now.

3. We just may make the record of "cloudiest month ever". How's that for Seasonal Affective Disorder? We've had less than 8 hours of sunshine all December. Yikes, that's depressing.

The First "Snow Day"

I still can't believe it... school was closed today! I guess it's still a surprise because earlier this week, when everyone predicted it, I refused to accept that the last day of school before Christmas Break (read: Class Parties, etc...) would really be canceled. Our school decided to carry on like nothing would happen. Plus, those weather forecasters usually get so excited about storms that they exaggerate a little, I think. Anyway, I did prepare my students in case this did happen: basically reminding them that we'd have our party in January and they'd get their gift then... I was thinking this would prevent some tears if school really was closed. :) So, how do I feel about this whole thing? Hmmm.... considering I slept in until 9:30 and am still sitting here in my pajamas... GREAT!! Sorry to all of you out there in West Michigan with non-school-related jobs. :(

Announcing Mr. and Mrs. Joyner!

What a beautiful wedding, beautiful weekend, and beautiful couple! Pictures say more than words so I'll keep it very brief. This is the family praying around the couple at the rehearsal.

Party time at the rehearsal dinner. We're just CHILLIN' here right Amy?

Some royal treatment for the princess:

We love you Mrs. Joyner!!

First Dance with Tate:

"Cinderella dancing" with her father:

Amy and Becca show off some moves:

Congratulations you guys! We love you!

The Contents of My Camera

I uploaded the pictures from my camera onto my computer tonight and here are a few that I found. I was reminded about how crazy Michigan weather can really be! This is early-November:

We were gone the weekend we received our first snow (Nov. 16), so all our leaves are buried under this snow. (Zeeland, 5 miles east of us, didn't get any recordable amount of snow. ) After a week it rained and the sun came out so a lot of it melted. We took advantage of the nice day and worked outside (Nov 29). My husband is acting like a dork. :)
Yuck! I hate cleaning out the gutters. It is so cold because it's partly wet soggy leaves and partly ice chunks that you have to maneuver out of the trough. (I don't like this picture... it's just baggy clothes people.)
This is the next day! I managed to get up the Christmas lights JUST in time. I was still hanging the last few in the snow and Derek started waxing the car in the garage. Brrr! I took this as soon as I finished.
I thought I'd document just how low gasoline has come. I think it's funny to see a gallon of milk so much more that a gallon of gas!

Recovering at Home

Thanks for the prayers. TJ went home yesterday and is recovering well. I think this serious of a surgery will just take a lot of time to heal but everything seems to have gone well so far.

Happy December everybody! Can you believe Debbie's wedding is just 12 days away? I can't wait to leave the snow and head for some sunshine!

Prayers Please

Would you guys remember my cousin and her husband in your prayers tomorrow morning? He is going to have surgery on his heart. My cousin is going to try and update her Xanga site after the surgery to let everyone know how it went. We always get together with that side of the family at Thanksgiving but they live in Iowa so we won't be able to see them this year. Thanks everyone!

Winter is here!

I can't believe how quickly this fall season went. We had such warm weather that it felt like summer went so long. Then it turned cold and snowed. "Lake-affect snow" can really catch you off guard! I had to brush -- no, shovel-- off my car. Then Derek came home from work he was so surprised at my car. "Where'd you get all that snow?" he asked. "We didn't get a flake at work..." Yeah. He works 6 miles east of our house... we could've snow-blown the driveway that night!

Anyway, here's a picture of me in the bridesmaid dress BEFORE it snowed. Notice all the beautiful leaves behind me... They're now buried under all that snow.


Are you sure you want me in the wedding, Debbie?

Here's a better picture to leave you with: My niece and nephew a few days ago:

It's Report Card Season...

... Which requires me to take a break and play with Photo Booth for a moment. :)
I'm sitting at Derek's work for a change of scenery. Oh, don't believe me? Look, I'll take a picture of Derek... (scroll down...)

Yeah, he looks bored. I better finish this post so we can go home.
Shh.. he thinks I'm still working on report cards. Te he he...

Camping

Jason and I went camping with his parents on the south coast of Australia, about 4 hours from Sydney. The four of us went in a tiny hatch back car, and it was not roomie! We had stuff tied onto the roof racks, the trunk was full, and we had a pile of stuff between us in the back seat. Our camp site was in Green Patch, and was a two minute walk to the beach. The first night, there were blue bottle jellyfish washed up on the beach, so we didn't go swimming there. The next day we drove to a beach that was on the other side of the peninsula. The water was a lot colder then at our beach, our beach was in a bay. There were millions of tiny shells, I have never seen so many in one place. In the evening we went for a walk to look for kangaroos. Every evening the kangaroos and walllabies would come out and feed, it was pretty cool seeing them in the wild. We went down to the beach to watch the sunset and ended up finding a rock pool. There was a tiger shark, about 3 feet long, swiming around in the pool! I think it's the coolest animal I've ever seen in the wild! We also saw loads of parrots, a bilby, which is a little kangaroo like thing that people usually don't see cause they only come out at night (nice flashlight work Jason.)
All in all, it was a pretty awsome camping trip!

It's here!

Yay! I was so excited to get my mail today because Debbie's invitation came! It's really sharp, Debbie. I like it... and Tate doesn't have a middle name? My dad doesn't either. Many times he gets mailings and his middle name is my mom's name: James Pamela VZ...

So here's to you guys: Deborah Dawn and Tate Deborah!

Oh, yeah, I need to color my eyebrow again. Sorry about the picture, I had just come in from mowing the lawn.

Do you like the wall words I added to my dining room? It was really easy (just a sticker) and we've been meaning to put something on that wall, we just didn't know what. Amy's making me dinner tomorrow and we're going to try on the dresses and maybe go shoe shopping. Maybe we'll take a picture for you girls...

Oh, you have to check out the wedding website too. The engagement pictures are so cute!! (I'm not so sure about the large Texas flag painted on the building, but I guess everything's big in Texas...). Really, really cute though. Tate, you're so lucky.

Yup, this was a random posting. Back to grading papers... (sigh).

Sydney, Australia

I've now been in Australia for a week, and I really like it! The first few days were really hot, close to 100, but its been a bit cooler this week, maybe 70-80 or something.

One of the first days we were here, Jason and I went to Koala Park, a few blocks from his house. They had a lot of animals that are native to Australia, such as Emus, Wallabees, parots, cockatoos, flying foxes(bats) kookaburras. Since then I've seen the last four flying arund the city, kinda crazy. I got to pet a wombat as well as a koala. The koala was sooo soft! The best part of the day was going to see the kangaroos. I got to pet and feed them! Two of them had little joeys in their pouches which was pretty cool too.

New Zealand

So my friend from High School (Kara) and I went to visit Jes for two weeks in New Zealand. It was grand. Kara and I decided the best word to describe the country was majestic. So, so beautiful. And, so beautiful to be able to spend some time with my roomie once again!

We rented a car, went hiking, hung out, and saw all kinds of amazing stuff. Here's a few pictures, but you can check out the rest of them here.

Overlooking Queenstown.

Hiking past a waterfall.

At the Moeraki Boulders.

At the top of a mountain somewhere in Dunedin.

Approaching Mt. Cook.

My new niece!

Hannah

I'm one happy aunt!

This is my brother's third already. They make such. cute. children.

New Zealand!

This is Jason and I on the bus ride up to the Remarks...45 minutes up a dirt road with a pretty big drop on the side. Safty first!

Hi guys! I'm pretty excited about this blog site! I like the pictures and stories that you have posted!

I have been in New Zealand for the last three months and I have to say it is pretty sweet! I've been working at a ski resort called the Remarkables just out side of Queenstown on the South Island. It's a pretty fun little town, the resort is a lot of fun, defenently a lot smaller then the resorts in the states.

I went to Wanaka, a small town about an hour and a half from Queenstown. We went to a place called Puzzle world, which had an illusion room and tables with all sorts of games and puzzles.

It pretty much rained in town all weekend, so I didn't getto do the short hike I wanted, but that's ok, puzzle world was pretty sweet. Yesterday we went snowboarding at another resort. There was a bit of fresh snow and it was really fun. It was nice to get out of town for a bit.

I havn't actually developed any of my film, so I don't have more pictures to to put up yet, but maybe soon!

Amy's coming to visit me on monday and I'm really excited!

Love you guys!

Labor Day Hiking Adventure

This is a "before" shot.

Just before our sweet lunch break.

Aww! They are so cute :)

And, the MEN!

Labor day weekend, the Wrights, Hamiltons, Sarah and Becky Winkle and myself loaded into a minivan with our packs and headed to Manistee to hike a 20-ish mile loop on the North Country Trail and the Manistee River Trail. We hiked in a mile or two Friday night in the dark before finding the perfect camping spot -- which was extra lucky seeing as it was dark.

Saturday morning we got up and did a good amount of hiking in the morning before finding the perfect spot for lunch. It ended up turning into a four hour endeavor in which we ate, napped, swam, explored, and rode the river. So much fun!

After another hour or so of hiking we found our second campsite right next to the Manistee River. It was beautiful and so peaceful. We ate a delicious dinner, made a campfire, and enjoyed the stars. Sunday we did the final part of our loop on tired legs but still in good spirits.

It was a great weekend and the scenery was spectacular. So good for the soul to spend an entire weekend enjoying God's creation with great friends!

p.s. Julie -- I know this isn't very extensive so feel free to add/edit this post as you see fit!!

This one time...I went to Africa

We saw a family of Elephants -- they were so close we could see their eyelashes!

All dressed up for church on Sunday.

One of the girls in the village where the school will be.

So I promised Julie I would post about my trip to Africa. It was SO amazing. I was in Lusaka, Zambia for about two weeks. The group I was with was great...our team really worked well together. We held a camp for the first four days we were there for about 150 girls. We each worked with a small group of girls and then also did a session that the different groups rotated through during the week.

I was supposed to be in charge of games using balls ie kickball and foursquare. BUT, a few days before we left my boss asked if I would be willing to switch to having "Girl Talk" instead. So, for four days, I talked to 150 different girls about puberty, sex, their bodies, etc. It was a bit awkward at times, but in the long run I think I really was able to help some of them. A lot of those subjects are taboo and don't get discussed, so lots of the girls opened up and had some honest questions to ask.

We are building a school for orphaned and underprivileged children as well. So, I got to see the village where that is going to happen, and after meeting with the chief three days in a row my boss got land donated for the school -- so, so very awesome. It is so amazing to be a part of the work God is doing in the lives of women and children in Africa. I LOVE my job :)

And, I got to go on a Safari!!

Supposed to be working...

What do you do when you're supposed to be working on your classroom and you've already missed a day because you laid on the couch due to a cold that KICKED your butt yesterday?

Well, you play with your MacBook's Photo Booth of course! Here's some pictures to make you laugh: