been a while

Obviously, I haven't blogged in a while, so if you're even checking this, thanks for sticking around!

You can check out Josh's blog for recent pictures of our trip to North Carolina for my brother-in-law's wedding. Congratulations, Jared and Heather!

I'm in the middle of a 3-week summer vacation before we start school again August 6. The last time I had a week off (Spring Break), I pretty much wasted the entire time. Nothing checked off the to-do list...no little gold stars on the sticker chart...not a good situation.

This week, however, I was determined to get some stuff done. We're nearing the end of the fix-it-up projects on our house, so I put my Dave's Paint Crew skills to work.

I'm proud to say that I checked everything off my list for last week: trim paint around the living room ceiling; clean the scary floor underneath the fridge and stove; trim paint behind said major appliances; catch up on laundry; pack up extra books in office; hang out with Shar and her kids; clean out leftovers from the fridge; finish scrapbooking summer pictures.

Yay for productivity! Gold star on the sticker chart! (don't worry...we don't really have one of those)

Josh has been pouring concrete and laying tile in our 2nd story bathroom, so I'm also his go-fer girl, running up and down the stairs to find mysterious things like the miter saw box, or the can of denatured alcohol, or a piece of scrapwood at least 25" but not longer than 36", or to hold the PVC pipe steady until the glue dries. I'm trying to be a good helper! Josh taught me how to use the sheet-rock saw, and I got to cut a hole in the wall for the air-return vent. Good times!

But honestly, I'm ready to go back to work. I think I'm getting house-fatigue...I like where we live, for the most part, but I am definitely ready to have a weekend without any fix-it projects.

I'm so grateful for Josh's skill and determination in getting our house ready to put on the market. We're getting better at working together on projects without arguing. I wish I had some wise insight or poetic application about the whole fixing-it-up-ness that we're going through, but my head's kind of empty right now.

That's what happens when you're on vacation.

Camping Trip!

This weekend a bunch of us from small group went up to Watkins Mill Campground, near Kearney. It was a hot weekend, but we had a shady campsite and a lake to swim in. We also had several cheeky raccoons who wanted to raid our food supply!

Here's Josh, whose fire-building skills kept him from getting voted off the island...

Here are the girls...we look pretty good right here, but you should have seen us with the sunburn/ lake swim/ no showers/ smelling like smoke and sweat and bug spray/ ketchup stains. Gorgeous! From the left are Cassie, Ashley, Becky, Denise and Sarah.


The boys invent a new breakfast favorite: scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese, and black pepper on tortillas. Camping Burritos!! From the left are Chad, Phil, Josh and Mike.

Chad prepares to cook another marshmallow. That's why they're called s'mores!
A good time was had by all! See you in September!

Joe and Mel

The school where I teach is in an old shopping mall. The mall manager is named Joe. He's in his early 60s, and he makes me miss both of my grandfathers.

Joe is in several grown-up Boy-Scout organizations like the Shriners, or maybe the Elks Club. He takes his wife square dancing on Friday night, and gives the teachers here free tickets to the Tonginoxie rodeo.

Usually Joe wears grey slacks and a Miller Security button-down short sleeve work shirt and black dress shoes, but today he came in wearing plaid golfing shorts and a white tank top.

With the dress shoes.

"Gonna be hot today," he told me.

Joe likes hearing stories about my life, and since we didn't have any students in yet, he pulled up a chair and I found all of our pictures on Josh's blog Flickr site.

Mel stopped by shortly after Joe did. Mel is the mall maintenance guy, who likes to grumble about the new mayor, the potholes in the parking lot, the worn out belt on the vacuum cleaner, and his kids who "just don't got no sense some of these days."

Joe and Mel stayed for an hour looking at pictures.

They argued about whether Josh looked better with or without facial hair, whether Anna and I looked alike or not, and which wedding picture they wanted a copy of to hang in their office (they finally decided on the one where we're putting gas in the RAV, still wearing our wedding clothes).

I showed them the pictures from our trip to the Topeka Zoo...Mel said, very seriously, that he had never liked giraffes, because they looked like they were "up to something."

Good times.

Cat & House - 2; Josh & Sarah - 0

It stormed all weekend in Kansas City, leaving us with a sopping wet yard, but fortunately a dry basement. I like thunderstorms and wish we had a bigger front porch to watch the wicked lightning and pounding rain.

Our cat, however, does not like storms. His tail gets all fuzzy, a la Calvin's buddy, Hobbes. On Saturday night, I was awakened by the simultaneous sounds of a crazy loud crack of thunder, Josh shouting in pain, and the cat scrambling out the door to find a safe hiding spot.

Scared by the thunder, Rio had used Josh's leg as a launch pad to leap off the bed, leaving behind four distinct puncture wounds and three deep scratches. Ouch! I'm not sure Rio felt all that bad about it...check out Rio's expression in this picture: Guilty as charged, Your Honor!

Score: Rio - 1; Josh - 0

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The second injury of the weekend occurred when I was getting ready for bed on Sunday evening. Our house is pretty old and occasionally quirky, one of those quirks being the 71.5" (5 feet 11 1/2 inches) bathroom door, compared to standard 80"(6 feet 6 inches) or 84" (6 feet 10 inches) interior door heights.

So I was hopping around the house (don't ask...I just like to hop sometimes. Anna knows...I think it started when I lived with her in Sioux Falls).

Anyway, I brushed my teeth, and then hopped out of the bathroom, straight smack up into the door frame of our previously mentioned tiny bathroom door. Now I'm almost 5' 9", and I'm a pretty good hopper, so that's a whole lot of hop-power slamming the top of my head into a wooden door frame 3 inches above me.

I saw stars.

I crumpled to the floor, swearing and sobbing at the same time. I felt like a moron.

Josh quickly got the bag of popcorn kernels from the freezer for my rapidly-rising goose egg and fixed a big mug of medicine that was equal parts rum and sprite, with a little lime juice.

Oh, the headache.

I quickly didn't care that the combination of the thunderstorm and a worn-out VCR tape had only picked up the audio from the TAR finale, with little broken snatches of video. I didn't even care that Eric and Pink won, and they're like my least favorite contestants ever, being a dreadful combination of "that guy" and every girl who lets herself get dragged along through life by that guy.

Josh put me to bed and made me swear off hopping, at least until we move to a different house with people-sized doorways.

Score: House - 1; Sarah - 0

Z O O !

For Josh's birthday, my parents took us to the Topeka Zoo. Josh's favorite animal was this little tamarin.


Mom and Sarie in the rain forest jungle.











Two little monkeys up in the tree.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Saturday is Josh's official special day, but we started celebrating early on Thursday evening with our Small Group friends at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was quite a party, complete with trivia games and the Miller Lite girls. We finished the evening back at Phil and Cassie's for root beer floats and video games. Happy 27th Birthday!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

Okay, so these pictures were taken in the parking lot of the place where I work. Most handicapped parking spots are marked with a yellow stick person sitting in a wheel chair. I honestly mean no disrespect for the actual people who need to use these handicapped parking spots... I'm just confused.

What is this guy doing? Hula-hooping? Cartwheels? The Pee-Wee Herman Dance?
Or what about here? I think I see the wheelchair guy, but is that the LochNess Monster on his lap?
This one reminds me of this cowboy thing my Grandpa Detrich used to have down at his office, where you tried to tip the little guy off of his stump, but he was balanced with a big long pole, like a tight-rope walker. Kind of hard to explain.

As is this:
This one is probably my favorite, considering that where I work is sort of ghetto.
This is the designated spot for gunmen to park. How thoughtful.

Not a Flannel Board Jesus

Here are a couple of the flannel boards I made for our Small Group. The first one is the Nativity, and the second is the Temptation in the Desert.

Coming up soon...The Feeding of the 5,000! That's a lot of little fish to cut out!!

The book we're reading continues to emphasize that Christ was not simply the meek, kind, flannel-clad figure we learned about in Sunday School. It's definitely challenging the way I think about Jesus and my relationship with Him.

Here are a few of the guys having an impromptu praise and worship session at the end of small group: Josh, Mike S., Chad and Phil.
And here are some of the girls I've been blessed to shepherd and fellowship with over the past 5 weeks: Cassie, Denise, myself & Becky.

Rescue Feline-1-1

So you may have heard that we have this cat, Rio, who is kind of quirky. He loves to sit up against the screen door and look outside at the trash blowing down our street and smell the fresh air.

This morning, Josh opened the window in the office, right next to the spot on the desk where Rio sits. The cat was enjoying the breeze, and then he realized that by batting the loose screen aside (another spring break non-project?), he could really get a taste of the great outdoors.

Before we knew it, Rio had his whole head, both front paws, and half of his sizable belly sticking out the window! He was hanging out over the side of the house, about 10 feet above the ground. Josh had to grab Rio's tail and then handfuls of fur to haul him back to safety.

Rio was yelling at Josh, Josh was yelling at Rio, and I...was laughing. I can't help it...at heart, I'm still a Detrich!

I am honestly growing to like our cat, and he's definitely proving valuable in the whole "practicing parenthood" thing. Note to self: Fix the screen before you have kids.

Things and things

How has it been almost a month since I last posted?? Apologies to those of you who still occasionally drop by this site to see if I have anything new to say.

Here are a few highlights from the past weeks:

*Josh and I celebrated our 1st "first sight" anniversary...February 25 was one year from the day we actually met in person. Praise to the Lord for allowing us to walk together in His presence and for His glory!

*My job at 500 Reach is going well. It's pretty rewarding to work with these people who are returning to school after facing some tough realities. I'm continually inspired and blessed by their personal stories and hard work.

*Small group continues to be awesome. We're through 3 chapters of The Jesus I Never Knew, and we're learning a lot! Good-bye, flannel-board Jesus!

This week we're trying live worship with Josh and Mike S on the guitar, and Phil on the violin. I'm sure it will be a joyful noise! We're anticipating adding two if not three new couples to the group...we're going to need more chairs!

I think everyone in our group is sort of surprised (or relieved?) to find that they enjoy hanging out with eachother outside of small group, too. It's like we knew we were all in it for Thursday Bible Study, but we've also had fun playing UNO and Speed Scrabble on the weekends, sharing meals and lots of laughter. What a blessing and a gift this fellowship is!

*Josh took a 4-day trip to Birmingham for Brice's wedding, and had many adventures including a St. Patrick's Day bachelor's party, karaoke, and probably a few stories that are better left in Alabama. The photographer referred to Josh as "the cute groomsman" which gave his ego a little boost.

*Husband-less for the first time in 4 months, I spent Friday night hanging out with BJ, Gail, Sharla, Donna, Emily, Tionna, Denise, and Tiffanie. What an amazing bunch of women! Southern comfort food, Friends quotes, silly stories, late-night Target runs...I felt like I was back in college. p.s. Girls...I'd love to see pictures of our adventures!

*Saturday I drove down to Inman, KS, (by McPherson) to visit my dear friend Jodi, and attend her sister's wedding shower. 30 women showed up for the "tea party" and to celebrate Melanie and Chuck. I love wearing hats and eating cucumber sandwiches!! Yay for marriage!!

Our wonderful friend Angie was back in the US (she's a missionary far-away), and several other college girls spent the night at the Lightner family farm. We giggled until after midnight.

*This week is Spring Break. I wish I could say I've been really productive and have completed many tasks like painting kitchen cabinet doors and grouting tile in our upstairs bathroom. However, much to Josh's dismay, I'm sure, I'm mostly catching up on lost sleep (see Busy Weekend, above) and distracting Josh while he's working from our home office. Tomorrow I'll head up to see Shar and her kids for the afternoon. The kitchen cabinets will still be there this summer, I'm sure.


*My sister Anna is spending the week in Lithuania, visiting the other country she loves.

*Next weekend we'll head up to Sioux Falls/The Farm for Schmeckfest. It will be so good to see my Aunt Linda and Uncle John, Grandma and Grandpa, and so many dear friends at The Crossing. Funny how the word "home" keeps redefining itself.

All in all, life is good...God is consistent and very real...