2011 Highlights

Well the original plan was to do a month by month recap of 2011.  However, as I was looking through my pictures of the last year, I came to the realization that the first half of it was pretty boring and uneventful.  It mostly consisted of work.  I was at the Home for the Handicapped and while I enjoyed the actual job, I did not enjoy the hours.  Between having class two nights a week and working four nights a week, my social life left much to be desired.  So instead I'll just do highlights of the year.

The first one I'm not sure can be considered a highlight since it involved a lot of destruction, but it definitely left an impact on me.  Going down to Athens after the tornado outbreak and driving through my old neighborhood left me standing in awe of the power of God.  From both the nature side of things and the stories I heard of how he protected so many people.

A weekend trip to southern Illinois with my mom's side of the family for my cousin's wedding was a lot of fun:)

Girl's Camp is always a highlight of my year.  This year I was able to co-counsel with my good friend Katie and we were dubbed the "Pure Fashion" cabin although both of us are more comfortable in jeans and t-shirts rather than anything too fashionable.

The month of July I got to spend in Morelia, Mexico, trying to learn some Spanish.  The people I met and the things I got to do gave me an experience I will not soon forget.

Soon after getting home from Mexico (and Phoenix and Denver), Cassie and me headed out to the east coast for a much anticipated vacation.  Visiting old friends, making new friends, spending a day in Boston, a day at the Rhode Island beach and driving A LOT.

The majority of my Fall season was spent working at the grain elevator.  And yes, it is a highlight:)  Lots of long but fun hours.

Thanksgiving and Christmas were of course filled with family and friends. 

Angie is not choking her son.  She's merely trying to get him to look at the camera.

The year ended with my niece's first birthday party.  When she was born last December, there were a few things causing concern for her health but God healed her completely and she is happy and healthy as can be!  Don't let the chubby cheeks fool you though; she's really just a little peanut, only in the 15th percentile.  But such a sweet peanut!

Here's to another year!

JUGS

Our annual JUGS night was tonight:)  Just Us Girls Shopping for those who are wondering.  Although the shopping has pretty much gone by the wayside and has turned into just eating out.  But JUGE just doesn't have the same feel.  My aunt and all the neices have done it for about 20 years now.  So, tonight there were going to be 8 of us.  Then one got sick.  So Bev decided to stay home with her.  Then another decided since they weren't going, she was just going to go home.  But the rest of us were all geared up to go so we still did.  It was a bummer that it didn't happen like it was supposed to but we still had fun.  And at one point in our supper, the waiter came to our table with a message saying that Bev had called the restaurant and bought us 2 desserts to share between us!  Those clean plates you see in the picture?  It took us about 1 minute to devour the molten chocolate lava cake that had been occupying them.

Maybe next year we'll all be together again:)

Good Friends And A Fan Club

Whenever Erin D makes a lengthy trip back to the states, we usually try to do something together with us two and her cousin/my friend Lisa.  Monday night we met at Olive Garden (yum) for supper.  It was there that I invited them to come to our Christmas program we were having at church on Wednesday.  They asked if they could hold up signs cheering me on while I was singing.  There were so many people there that I never got to see them after the program but....

(picture is at the restaurant)

when I got out to my car later that night I found it decorated with these signs:)  Now, they were sitting way up in the back of the balcony so they could have actually gotten away with holding them up but it's a good thing they didn't.  I would have busted my gut and never been able to sing!  But it was really funny to see these on my car.  Those two never cease to make me laugh and brighten my day:)

Thursday I found out Mark and Bekah were up from Athens and would be in Bloomington for lunch on Friday so we arranged to meet at FlatTop Grill. (another yum)  It was really fun, but so crowded and busy that my lunch break ended up being almost 2 hours.  And I even left the restaurant a lot earlier than they did!  But oh so worth it. 

My dad has been in Haiti since last Thursday and he's coming home tonight.  He hasn't been gone any longer than he usually is but I guess since it's Christmas time it seems longer.  I'm ready for him to be home.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Happenings Of Late

FIESTA TIME!!!

It was good to see Jarrin again and get together for her birthday the night before Thanksgiving..... complete with a pinata (yes, I know the "n" needs a squiggly, I just don't know how to do it on here). 

Aeschleman Thanksgiving- having a little bit of fun with the candy corn, playing games, watching the kiddos all run around and even getting an airplane ride!  I haven't done that since I was a wee one:)

Somewhere in there was a game night where I left my camera in the car and didn't get any pictures.  Then a group of us went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  We split up for supper and once we were at the concert it wasn't good picture taking environment so I only got this one from the restaurant.  It was a good time though.  The music gets a little loud but I had neon pink earplugs so all was well.  Two different drivers in our clan got stopped that night- both for having a headlight out.  It was kind of comical:)

Good times, good times.

My family served lunch at church today, now I'm off to practice singing for the church Christmas program and then we have all church caroling tonight.  No Sunday afternoon nap for me today! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know Thanksgiving isn't here yet but seeing as how the next couple days are about to get pretty busy I figured I'd just put this up now.  Happy Thanksgiving from some of the cutest little Pilgrims and Indians I know!  Even though they're all in big school now, they're still pretty cute:)

Have a blessed weekend!

Booooored.

Welp.  I'm bored.  Really not gonna made a habit of posting at work but really, folks.  When I got back from lunch the internet and phone were both down.  Now the internet is up and running again but still no phones.  I've done all I can do with no phones.  Now I'm just stuck.  1 1/2 hours to kill.  Aside from making wire art from all the paper clips I found while organizing this office.... maybe I should do that:)  Make different designs, take pictures and post them for all to see.  You could vote on your favorite one.  Eh, nevermind.  They would all be things like, a circle, an oval, and maybe a triangle.  Art was never really my forte. 
I could be leaving for Mexico tomorrow.  Wish I was.  But I decided to skip this year since I knew I would be just starting a new job.  Now I'm rethinking that decision.  But there's good news.  I found a Mexican restaurant here in Bloomington (really close to work) that seems really authentic.  At least, moreso than most places I've eaten around here.  I went there on Tuesday and got chiles rellenos and they were just like my house mom in Morelia made them.  Mmmmmmm...........

Go Check This Out

Hey everyone, head over to Sarah's blog (just click on the link) for a chance to win this book.  She talks about it a lot more, but the point is to just go check it out and learn more.  Sarah, if you're reading this I hope you don't mind me posting this.  I was just pretty touched this morning while I was reading about it.

Catch Up

Well harvest is officially over.  It was a sad day in my life:(  But never fear, I have recovered and am ready to move on!

This past weekend I went down to Athens for the first time since June.  It was soooo good to be back.  It was our annual homecoming weekend, filled with people, bluegrass and BBQ.  There was a bus from central IL that took a group down.  It was filled with people that I hardly ever see so between them and the Athens folks it was a great weekend for catching up on old friendships and even establishing a couple new ones.  I was planning to stay until Monday morning but I heard rumor that the bus was stopping at Patti's Settlement (which is only about the best restaurant EVER) on the way home.  So Sunday after church I quick packed up and followed them home.  And it was worth it.
Saturday morning I took Devin out to the usual places we go.... CasaBlanca (our favorite Mexican restaurant) and putt putt golfing (his request every single time we're together).  As we were getting ready to leave he decided to invite his older brother, Brennan.  So, like any normal 8th grade boy he quickly accepted the lunch invitation:)  It was fun though.  Brennan's a good kid.  And of course, both of them were THRILLED to take a picture when we were finished.

And I was just as thrilled to take a picture with the nasty Halloween decorations.

Tomorrow I start my new job!  I'll be working for an agency called Visiting Angels.  It's a non-medical homecare agency.  Caregivers do anything from running errands, cooking, cleaning, bathing or even just sitting and being a companion.  I'm going to be in the Bloomington office doing scheduling and stuff as the "Care Coordinator".  I'm pretty excited about it and think I'll like it.  There's definitely a part of me that is sad to officially hang up my "preschool teacher" jacket.  When I came back from Mexico this summer I would never have guessed this is what would be opening up for me.  I felt pretty strongly that I should look around here first but had kind of planned to start thinking about moving back to Alabama or somewhere if nothing worked out.  God did nothing short of swinging the doors to this job open wide and pushing me right on through and I feel really good about it.  I know his hand has been in it.

In other news, I just took a bike ride this afternoon.  The first half I was feeling great.  Almost to the point of being proud of how fit I was for going that speed for that long.  Then I turned around to head home.  Uphill.  Against the wind.  And no longer proud:)

Fun, Fabulous Fall Festivities:)

The times I haven't been working have been filled with some pretty fun and typical fall activites.  One night we went to "Hardy's Reindeer Ranch" way out in the boonies.  And I do mean boonies.  It was fun though.  Went through the corn maze and raced around on these pedal cart thingies.

One Sunday afternoon some of us headed to a state park not to far from here to do some hiking.  The weather was perfect and we had a lot of fun.  I had a bunch more really cute pictures but after seeing them, I decided "new camera" will be my Christmas list this year. 

Our friend Javon was visiting from Indiana and on Saturday a group of us met for lunch to celebrate Katrina's birthday.  Upon hearing she had never been in a combine, I was so excited to accompany her on her very first ride in the field:)  I just always assume people coming from farming communities have ridden one before but I guess not. 

And a sidenote:  When one's car spends all day parked at the elevator during harvest, it will get very very dirty.

No Social Life...

So.  I haven't posted in awhile.  I don't have that much to talk about.  Want to know what I've been doing?







Working.








That's about it.  It's not a bad thing, mind you.  In case you forgot, I had about two months where I didn't have a job and I spent a lot of money trying to learn spanish/experiencing a different culture/making new friends......  So all the work is good.  The hours are long.  Almost a 55 hour week. 

Yes.  I realize to some people that is normal.  But in this case I am not some people.  But hey- once I start working a 40 hour week again it's going to feel like a vacation!  I still like my job too.  I'll be kind of sad once harvest is over.

I have a job offer for when I'm done with the elevator.  And I have a couple other resumes out there too so we'll see.  Don't know for sure yet what I'll be doing but it feels like after over a year of not really knowing what I'm doing and where I belong, things are finally settling down.  But again, we'll see.  One thing the past year + two months has taught me (or at least tried to teach me) is truly finding my identity in Christ.  I am no longer Sarah Hodel, the preschool teacher, the Queenwood girl, the girl from Alabama, the girl who works full time... blah blah blah.  My identiy changed more than once in that time frame and it has been reinforced that I am Sarah Hodel, just trying to be what, where and who God wants me to be.  And as far as I'm concerned, that's a good spot to be in.

Well, I have absolutely no good reason to still be awake right now.  It's hard getting up early to face the long days but I love the fact that it usually gets me to bed early, when I should.  If I stay up late like I typically enjoy doing, well, that's just bad.  One would be suprised how mentally and physically draining a grain elevator can be.  Again, maybe those "some people" would laugh and point at me.  But now it's 11:00 and it's rare that I see this hour these days.  I think it's a subconcious thing.  I only have to work 7 hours tomorrow instead of 10,11, 12, 13.... so in my head I'm thinking I can stay up later?  Who knows.  But I do know that now I'm starting to ramble.  And I'm tired enough that every other word I type is spelled wrong, so good night!

A Journey With Ruth

Some of my closest friends and I are getting ready to start a new Bible study.  It's been way too long since I've had a small group and I am SO excited!  I'm just getting ready to do the very first lesson so I can't say for sure that it's good but from just flipping through the book I'm pretty sure I won't be dissapointed.  Has anybody ever done this one?  I'll let you know later if I would reccommend it or not:)

We're Rollin' Now!

Well harvest is in full swing.  They called me on Tuesday to see if I could come in for awhile because they were starting to have a few farmers go.  (Can't remember if I mentioned it, but I'm working at the elevator again through harvest.)  So I went in around noon thinking I would be there for a few hours and it turned into a full 8 hour day.  But it's been good though.  Aside from trying to get used to an early schedule, that is.  I really don't mind getting up early as long as I get to bed on decent time.  And I love the job.  It's long hours and six days a week unless I ask off for something.  But it's a fun job and if all goes smoothe it will be over in two months or less.  So for that amount of time, I can handle long days.  And I love talking to the farmers and truckers that come in.  It's just fun!

Here is the place where I was going to put a cute little picture of a combine that I found online but it just doesn't seem to be working like I think it should.  So just use your imagination and maybe I'll get some real pictures of my own in the next few days.  Happy harvesting!

Freedoms

Tonight I feel somewhat compelled to share what I wrote in my journal.  I'm not a huge journaler.  If that's a word.  I typically only write when something is on my mind, when I'm going through a struggle or when I realize "Hey, it's been almost two months since I've written something..... maybe I should!"  I have friends who blaze through their journals like they're going out of style, but that's just not me.  Anyway, tonight freedom is on my mind.  Mostly spiritual freedom. 
Persecution is something we all know happens.  Most likely, many of us have done our fair share of praying for the persecuted church.  For some people, it may be just another thing on the prayer list.  For some, they feel very passionate about it.  Either way, it's probably not something that we desperately hope happens to us.  Some people want it for the sake of deepening their walks with Christ.  I am not one of those people.  I can't decide if that makes me feel guilty or not.  But anyway, onto what I wrote tonight.

Ten years ago marks a day when this nation was crying out to God.  We were unified as a contry and as a body of Christ.  Today we are so far from that place.  Yesterday, Marshall was threatened to be killed by a drug cartel.  Praise Jesus he boldly stood firm in his faith and trusted in the Lord.  Praise God that for now he is still okay.  But all this has made me think.  I am so thankful for my freedom to worship.  I praise God that I can worship without fear.  I lift up my brothers and sisters who don't have this freedom, and I plead with the Lord that it will never be taken away.  But I am not promised this freedom.  I am not promised that I will never be in that situation.  The Bible says not to fear what man can do to the body, but rather the soul.  But the truth is, I fear what he can do to the body.  Mostly because I fear that through that, he can get to my soul.  I don't fear death.  I fear torture.  I fear watching my loved ones suffer.  I fear that through those horrible things, I will cave.  And the only thing I can do about it is plead for faith to believe that in that situation, God will be there.  He will sustain.  Faith to believe that in that situation, I will feel the supernatural power of God.  I can only hope and pray that I will remain faithful to the end.

I'm not sure why I chose to put this out there tonight.  It really does nothing but make me feel vulnerable and exposed.  Maybe one of you secret readers (because I know most of you are secret readers) can connect with this.  Now, more than ever, we need each other as believers.  Please join me in praying for strength in the body of Christ.  Let's band together.  One analogy I have always remembered from a sermon is about uncooked spaghetti noodles.  If you take one or even just a few noodles, they are very easily broken.  But if you have a fistful, and they are all together, it's nearly impossible to break them.  And yes, I think of that every time I made spaghetti:)

A Splendid Weekend Indeed

A Splendid Friend Indeed is the name of a book I used to read to my kiddos.  It was a cute book and now sometimes when I'm thinking of a good friend that line runs through my head.  So, while I definitely had a splendid weekend indeed, I indeed also have some splendid friends to brag about.  Friday night we went to the Peoria Riverfront for my birthday and ate at Joe's Crabshack.  I rarely go down to the river so it was something fun for a change.  After supper we saw carriage rides and somebody suggested doing it.  So we did.  Making fun of the fact that we were taking a carriage ride through downtown Peoria, but it was a good time anyway.

Mclane, Jason and Dave

Lydia, me, Crystal, Katrina, LeaAnn, Emily and Leah

Seriously love this girl.  When I met her a few years ago I never knew how well I would get to know her and how much I would absolutely love her.  She's so Awesome!!

Group shot at the Ice Cream Shack

Those friends have blessed my life more than I ever knew they would.  I've probably talked about them all before but hey, why not again?  I knew a few before I moved to Athens but most of them I met while I was there.  While I was living there, MOST of my friends got married and moved on.  But as they did, God brought this group into my life which made my transition back to central IL that much easier.  They frequented Alabama due to a few family connections and thanks to those family connections I had a great group to come home to. 

Saturday was my birthday supper with my family.  I just like this picture because it took mom forever to find a camera that worked and everyone was singing while she was looking around.  So when she snapped this one, they were finally singing the last "you" of the song after dragging it out for about three whole minutes.  That's a long time for  the "Happy Birthday" song to last.  It was just funny when they finally got the last word out.

Sunday night cookout at LeaAnn's new cute farmhouse.  Same splendid friends, some splendid games, conversations and a VERY splendid grain bin singing.

Serious girls, serious.

Okay now smile!

Monday night supper with most of the family at Grandpa and Grandma Hodel's.  "Smile kids!!"  No reaction...  But they're still pretty cute.

Sweet little Bugs.  LOVE her!!!

So there you have it.  A Splendid Weekend Indeed.

Surviving Irene

Last summer you might remember that there was a big group of people from Rockville, CT that came to the preschool and spent a whole week completely rehauling the place.  New ceiling/lights, new paint, new carpet, new toilets.... the whole works.  They were an awesome group and my roommate at the time and I decided that going to visit them was completely necessary.  So, finally, a year later, we had the dates all picked out and we were excited and ready to go!  Then the news said there was going to be a hurricane hit CT when we were planning to be there.  There were a couple people who questioned if we should still go but there was never really any other option for us.  We were going.  So, last Friday, I drove out to her house in IN.  She was at work and was going to get home around 1:00 in the morning.  The original plan was to leave Saturday about 6 AM but long story short, we ended up leaving her house about 1:30 AM instead.  I had slept for an hour at her house and we decided to keep taking turns sleeping in the car rather than wait until 6 to leave.  Between the two of us there was about 5 1/2 hours of sleeping.  Including the hour I had earlier at her house.  But we made it in great time so I guess it was worth it.  Saturday night the hurricane hit and while there was a lot of branches and several trees down, the damage wasn't terrible.  Nobody had power though.  700,000 people out of 1 million in CT lost power.  But that was really the extent of it all.  Saturday night and Sunday were spent catching up with our friends from last summer.  I didn't get any pictures those two days but it was great seeing them all again.  Then Monday, the storm had passed, the weather was beautiful, and we headed up to spend the day in Boston. 

We had never been there before and it was so fun!!!  We weren't expecting such strong Brooklyn-like accents there so after our first encounter with a Boston native, we (okay mostly Cass) had a great time trying to copy them.  We decided to take this trolley that had 9 different stops throughout the city.  We could get off and on at whatever stops we wanted to all day long.

That's us on the trolley.  We saw a lot of cool things.  Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church where they hung the two lanterns.  You know.... one if by land, two if by sea?  I found myself repeating "Up you patriots!  Arise you minutemen!  The British are coming!  The British are coming!"  I think it probably sounded better when Paul said it.

We went inside the church where I discovered you could go up into the tower where the lanterns were hung.  With my new found interest in the Revolutionary War, I thought that would be the coolest thing ever.  So I asked the girl working there and she said the last group of the day had just left at 4:30.  It was 4:39.  I was sorely dissapointed. 

This place we ate at for lunch, the Quincy Market, had just about any kind of food you were in the mood for, a bunch of little shops, and street performers.  None of which we were overly impressed with.  And, you just never know who you might see while walking along the streets of Boston.  A Revolutionary War soldier perhaps?

We had been invited to spend Tuesday at the beach with a family we knew from last summer.  And much to my delight, the beach we were going to was in Rhode Island.  Ever since reading a book that was set in RI, I've wanted to go there.  The book just made it sound so nice and quaint.  It did not dissapoint.  We spent the day lounging, getting to know our friends better, skim boarding (not me), and finding all sorts of beach creatures.  And since the hurricane had just come through there were some pretty decent size waves for crashing in the ocean.  It was a great day:)

Once we got home from the beach we decided to go ahead and leave that night.  Which meant saying goodbye to our awesome hostesseseseses.  Seriously, these people are great.  We hated to leave them. 

We drove about 4 hours and stopped at a dumpy Knights Inn for some solid sleep this time.  We were wiped out from the beach and decided driving through the night probably wasn't the best idea this time around.  We got back to Cassie's about 5:30 so I decided to go to church with her and spend the night.  After supper, she all of a sudden dissapeared from the table.  I didn't think a whole lot of it because she's always doing something random.  But when she came back, she was holding a cake lit with candles and decorated with Snow White and the 7 dwarfs that she had found in a drawer.  We decided those little figurines had to be from the 80's.  Her mom just happened to have a cake for supper and since my birthday is Saturday, this was the result.  Complete with a party hat:)

I finally got home today around 2:30.  I have had one great summer but it is GOOD to be home and not think about leaving again soon.

Well here is a very small sampling of my pictures from this summer.  If I would have been putting pictures up the whole time there would probably have been a lot more description with each one.  But most of these I've already talked about so since I already spent lots of time putting them on facebook, a small description will have to do.  I don't quite have the gumption to type it all out again, and you most likely don't have the gumption to read it all again.  So without further ado... small descriptions.

The four of us students that went to Mexico City and then to see the pyramids.  By far one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

The boys ordered worms for lunch.  I ate one just to say I ate it.  And only because it was fried and crispy.  I never would have done it if they were still soft.  It tasted kind of like a corn nut.  The boys, however, ate worm tacos.  Nasty!!!

The copper making place we visited.  It was really cool to watch and it was like a step back in time since they did everything by hand there.

Waiting for a taxi in the rain.  After a few minutes the boy in the red remembered he also had an umbrella so then we didn't have to share.  But the real reason for putting the picture on here is the guy in the denim jacket.  That's Jose, who I talked about in an earlier post.  The one who felt like a younger brother to me.

Going out for tacos in Ixtlan.

In Mexico, there's stores for just about anything.  The paper store, the tortilla store, the ice cream store... and in Ixtlan there's also the casket store!

Some of the boys from the class that Gloria taught and I pretended to know Spanish good enough to help.

The truck the kids from neighboring towns piled onto coming to and from VBS.  I think the most we had that week was 70 or 80 on the truck but they said in the past it's been over 100.  Mass chaos is the only way to describe it.

Diana (next to me) and Tara (purple shirt) were also there that week to help with VBS.  The other girl, Maggie, is from Ixtlan.

Back in Morelia... this is the famous aqueduct.  As you follow it down the road, the arches get smaller and smaller until they are just a few inches off the groung.

Onto Magdalena.  Joel and Kristi's youngest boy, Beni, was SO fun to play with.  He's at such a great age:)

Sweet little Soraya.  This is what she did most of the time I was there.

The four older boys.  From L to R: Angel, Jose, Issac and Daniel.

Quick shot with los Lemans before leaving Tuesday morning.

Now in Phoenix.  I met up with my friend Maryann who I hadn't seen in five years.  It was great to see her again and catch up.

The Phoenix part of my family: Amanda, Trevor, Sue, Joe, Brandon and Phoebe the dog.  If I ever come to the point in my life where I find myself living alone and wanting a pet for a companion, a Phoebe dog is what I want.

My Saturday night social life in Denver.  My cousin Jared and two of his roommates, Tucker and Jake.  A few of us went tubing down some rapids earlier that day but I have no pictures.  Only bruises to show for it.  And believe me, you don't want to see those.

On Monday in Denver, my aunt Boni and I took the boys to the zoo.  I didn't get any pictures of all of us there.  Only on the way to the airport (the first time) did I quick snap a couple of the boys.  Here's David.

And Mighty Mike!  When I got bumped I thought maybe then I would remember to get a picture of Ed and Boni but it just didn't happen.  It was fun to have that extra day in Denver but by the time I got back to Roanoke Wednesday night, I was ready.

So, there's that very small sampling of my pictures!