Gezellig

O Christmas Tree...

2007-11-25T19:58:00.001-08:00

I had the pleasure of working at the Johnson Tree Farm this weekend. Farmer Rob (Johnson) and his family run the place. It sits on a beautiful patch of land about 25 minutes from our house. Farmer Rob is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He's a very kind man, with a huge heart. He loves kids, and is giving high-fives to 5-year-olds all day.

The Farm is a very special place. Not only can you hunt down your Christmas tree, but you can also take a wagon ride around the property, feed the goats, rabbits, and chickens, or curl up with some hot cocoa in front of the fire. It's neat to see so many families, many who have made a tradition of coming year after year.

Although this might come as a shock to some, I'm a proponent of real Christmas trees. Nothing artificial in my house! We need little reminders of creation in our houses, and the smell and feel and sight of a real tree help with that. I suppose the best would be to have a live tree, but I don't know enough about that yet, so a formerly live tree will have to do.

Inspiration

2007-11-23T17:25:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the day after Thanksgiving. We had the privilege of spending yesterday with our friends Cassie and Matthew and their family in Santa Cruz, and then capped the night off with the Waltons and their kids. It was a good day. Amazing food, and a lot of fun. Spending time with our friends and their families definitely made us miss our families all the more.

Last night, with the Waltons, we were discussing blogs. Ryan and Sam Walton have a blog that I enjoy reading. Sam mentioned that she has faithfully been checking our blog since July, every time, hoping for an update. Well, Sam, here it is! You have inspired us. One thing that was said last night was that "blogs are personal, not private." I think that's true. They can be like an open diary/journal. I feel like our blog has mostly been more of the "here's what we've been up to lately" type - at least when we're updating it. I'm going to venture into more of some thoughts and opinions that I have as well sometimes. I've never been a journaler, even after trying numerous times to start. Who knows, this probably won't last very long as well.

No thoughts or opinions right now, really. But, get ready, cause they're a comin'!

Busy, busy, busy...

2007-07-31T21:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting anything for awhile. We are officially moved in, although boxes of stuff we don't want to deal with abound. We love it here, and have been meeting some of the neighbors. It's been good to be out of the "bubble" of Mission Springs, although we did love it there.

One neighbor, Gino, gets the award for "loudest neighbor." In Gino's spare time, he works on Harleys. From what I've learned, the way to see if a Harley is working properly is to rev it up continuously for a couple of minutes. The louder it is, the better it's working.

Carrie has finally been enjoying a little respite from school. A few days ago, she just finished up her final paper for her summer class that she was taking. So, for a few days, Carrie is as foot-loose and fancy-free as Carrie can get.

I've been getting ready for the fall at work. The summer is not as chill as I was imagining, with seemingly way more work than there is time for. I know it will all get done, but there seems to be so much to do!

We did have a great time in Pennsylvania with Carrie's family, as well as attending Robin Haber's wedding. Matt and Amy (Carrie's sister) and family were able to come up from Florida, so all of the family was there. A couple of days by the pool, some breakfast burritos, a few nights of Man vs. Wild, and various projects rounded out our time there.

Here are some pics for you to enjoy:

Matt & Maya on her first backpacking trip!

Maya & Carrie taking a break.

SOLD!

2007-05-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

As of last Friday, Carrie and I are officially home owners! The house that we posted about 2 posts ago (the yellow house) is now ours. We closed Friday, by Friday night had all of the carpet torn up, and as of last night, removed the kitchen linoleum. Our new address is 290 Blair Street, Felton, CA, 95018.

You can view photos of our house/project by clicking on the Flickr thing on the right hand side of this page, just under our links. Try it out, let me know what you think. When you click on it, it will take you to my Flickr site, and then you can view the images as a slideshow (located on the right hand side under "jeremygeels' photostream").

Oh, and as you'll also see in the photos, I bought a scooter. Since Carrie and I only have her car and we are moving off of the Mission Springs grounds, I needed another mode of transportation. I know, it's pretty flashy, but it gets good gas mileage, Carrie can ride with me, and it looks old school.

How to Host an Open House

2007-04-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

With all of these open houses we've been going to, it makes us really excited to eventually hold open houses at our house, so we can demonstrate how much we've learned. Here's some of what we learned:
1. A knife-weilding skeleton placed in a chair in the living room can add that nice "homey" feel.
2. In case people have to use your bathroom during the open house, provide them with great reading material, especially magazines showcasing nude women.
3. A knife on the back of the couch is also a nice touch.
4. Dirty clothes strewn about, maybe throw in the occasional dirty Q-tip as well, helps the potential buyer get a realistic picture of life in the house.
5. A few posters of pot smokers never hurts.
6. If we end up having tenants, encourage the tenants to actually be in the house during the open house, lurking behind closed doors, waiting to scare you.

Get back on that horse...

2007-04-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite a week. So we put an offer down on the house in the previous post. This was our very first offer and pretty nerve-racking. Lots and lots of signing and intialing. Lots and lots of money. We found out yesterday morning that someone else had put in a little higher offer which was accepted.

In the same breath, our realtor then informed us of another house that had just come on the market in Felton, which is a little bit closer to Mission Springs. We looked at it yesterday and then put in an offer on this one. Not as much character as the other one, but bigger, and less expensive. More work needs to be done on this one, however. We'll find out about this one potentially by tomorrow (Friday) morning.

House Hunting

2007-03-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of months, Carrie and I have started to search for our dream house. We have been very fearful of the housing prices in California, but have friends that were able to pull it off, so figure there must be a way to make it happen.

We started off our journey by speaking with a real estate investor who is on the Mission Springs board. He worked with good friends of ours, Rob and Janelle, in the purchase of their first home. He encouraged us to go for it and said that even with our comparitively meager salaries, we could do it. The realtor we are actually working with is the mother of my assistant director. So we feel like we have some great people on our team!

We were trying to decide between condos and houses. You get a lot more condo for your money than a house, but you do have association dues every month. I'm fairly comfortable with redoing inside stuff, but structure issues and adding on rooms is a whole new ballgame - so that makes condos more tempting. But, we'll see. We just looked at a house that is 2 beds, 1 bathroom on a good-sized sunny lot and are pretty excited about it. We're considering putting an offer on it! Here's a couple of photos:

And the Hits Just Keep On Comin' - Carrieism pt. 3

2006-12-11T21:34:00.000-08:00

"You sound like a drowned rat!", says Carrie to Jeremy after he tries to whistle a fanfare.

Another Carrieism

2006-12-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

Cat's feet...instead of crow's feet, referring to the wrinkles around one's eyes.

Burrito Night

2006-10-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Ahhh! The guilt that I've felt for the past 5 weeks of not blogging is insurmountable! So, finally, here we go...

Carrie is still pushing through with teaching and learning. She's been working like a dog. Friday nights in the Geels' household now consist of getting burritos (which have been seeming to get progressively hotter as the weeks go by) and then working on school work. This weekend she is supposed to have her report cards done for the 1st quarter. Hard to believe she's been doing it for that long already! Her running has had to take a back seat, which she is not too happy about. Now she's only able to get in about 3 runs each week.

In her science class, the students are now learning about energy and electricity. They just got done with a unit on waste reduction, for which a big part of it was composting with worms. One cool experiment they're going to do with the current unit is to make ice cream in plastic bags and learn about heat transfer.

Most of you know this, but I am the new Director of Outdoor Education. I've been in the job for a few weeks now, and have been enjoying it. The best part is working with my staff. They are a great bunch, and I love getting to know them. Quite a few of them are from California, but there's a couple from Michigan & Pennsylvania, and one from Arizona, Iowa, and Oregon.

We are both looking forward to mid-December, when she'll be done with her classes from Bethany, and things at my work will slow down a bit. For Thanksgiving, we are going to Galena, IL, to celebrate with my dad's side of the family. Christmas will be spent with Carrie's sister and brother-in-law and kids in Florida. Those are the lights at the end of the tunnel for us.

Life

2006-09-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

This is what I was afraid of - I got all excited about the blog at first, lots of fanfare, and then I'm averaging about once a month. Honestly. Is this common in my family? Starting things, being super excited about them, and then almost forgeting about them?

Well, here's an update. Carrie has been enjoying the first few weeks of teaching at San Jose Christian School. She's teaching 6th grade Science and Bible. She was probably most excited about the science classes, as that's what her formal education is in, but I think is enjoying the bible classes as well. She's doing a fantastic job so far, while learning as much as the kids are.
Saturdays are no longer what they used to be, however, as she has begun taking classes at Bethany University to get her teaching credential, and then her master's. Those classes just kind of snuck up on us. We had a period of mourning, saying goodbye to lazy Saturdays, but then she just jumped right in.

You may be wondering what I do with all of this absent-Carrie time. Well, I've become domesticated. I told Carrie that while she was taking classes for 4 hours on Saturday afternoons, I would stay home and clean the house, get groceries, and other no-fun things. I'm in serious need of a blue plaid apron with matching bandana and a featherduster.

When I'm not cleaning or cooking, I'm trying to patiently wait to hear about a job. The Outdoor Education Director of our camp is leaving, and at present, I'm 1 of 2 final candidates. It's been a much longer process than I expected, but, I believe that's a good thing, as this is an important position. The Director oversees the outdoor ed program, as well as a group of 12 naturalists. Even though I'm a marketerist now and not a naturalist, I do work very closely with the program and current director, and am very familiar with it all. There are some exciting, brand new programs within the Outdoor Ed program that would be a lot of fun to develop, but we will see how it goes. I will let you know.

Carrieisms

2006-08-06T22:01:00.000-07:00

A sampling of phrases and terms that Carrie has said which will usually cause the listener to pause, as he/she tries to decipher what she actually means (I've included what she was shooting for in parentheses):
*Whirly (swirly)
*"Don't get your undies in a twisty tie" ("Don't get your undies in a bunch")
*Nervous toes (what Carrie asked me if I had before our wedding)
*"I feel like a pot of gold!" ("I feel like a million bucks!")
*Rhinecorn (Rincon - popular Santa Barbara surfing spot)
*"Dry as a doorknob" (the combination of "dry as a bone" and "dead as a doornail")

I'm sure there will be more to come. Hope you enjoyed it.

In order to make this somewhat interactive, how about if any of you out there who have had similar experiences with your spouse or friend or whatever, share with the rest of us!

Press Coverage on Our Church

2006-06-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of weeks, our church, Vintage Faith Church, has gotten some good press. The first article I saw was a cover story in the Santa Cruz Metro - a weekly arts and entertainment newspaper. I think it's a good article coming from a non-Christian author and newspaper. This church is definitely different in worship style than what Carrie or I grew up with, but the same in many aspects as well.

The second article to come out was in the Christian Reformed Church Banner. If you didn't get a chance to read it, click here. Rev. Mark Brouwer takes a look at the Emerging Church "movement." While it's not an article solely about our church, he does mention our pastor a couple of times. There's a part of the article that Carrie and I really appreciated:

"Jesus promised more than eternal forgiveness - he promised eternal life. People in the emerging church must ask, 'Isn't there more to the Christian life than just waiting for it to end so we can go to heaven?' Eddie Gibbs puts it this way: 'Emerging churches embrace the gospel of the kingdom as revealed in Mark 1:14-15. At the outset of the gospel narrative, the good news was not that Jesus was to die on the cross to forgive sins but that God had returned and all were invited to participate with him in this new way of life, in this redemption of the world. It is this gospel that the emerging church seeks to recover.'

The gospel of the kingdom has been a hallmark in Reformed theology long before it was promoted by the emerging church. It is here that Reformed Christians have much to offer the movement."

If you have a chance, we would love for you to read the articles and share your comments.

PB & B

2006-06-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

We wanted to share our "new" favorite treat with you--sliced bananas with a dollop of peanut butter! You might be thinking, "Wow, really orginal, guys! Way to go!" The key to the treat, however, is to put it in the freezer! We were at a potluck the other evening and Jer was sharing with us how when he was little his mom would make him this treat and stick a toothpick in each one. It sounded so good to me that it was the first thing I did when we walked in the door that night. Tonight we spiced it up a bit by adding a chocolate chip to each one. Mighty good as well! You should try it! Look at how excited, you too, can be while enjoying this treat!

Our Church

2006-05-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

Carrie and I had the pleasure of worshiping this morning with our church - Vintage Faith Church. This is the church that we have been a part of since we've moved out here. Recently, our church joined ministries with First Presbyterian Church of Santa Cruz. It's kind of a wierd relationship, as there is one set of buildings and one staff for two different churches. We aren't becoming "presbyterian," nor are they becoming non-denominational. One of the pastors compared it to a KFC/A&W - 2 eateries doing a whole lot of sharing under 1 roof.

It's actually kind of a cool story - allow me to explain. Vintage Faith Church (VFC) is actually a church plant of Santa Cruz Bible Church. We were meeting in their facilities, but the location wasn't the best. One of the visions of VFC is to have a presence in downtown Santa Cruz. So, we as a church were praying for options to open up downtown. An anonymous donor gave a bunch of money to purchase a building, but no one was selling space downtown. So, they were starting to consider other alternatives. Somehow our head pastor, Dan Kimball, heard that First Pres might be a good church to talk to. First Pres is in an amazing location - very close to downtown, a high school, a middle school, and their parking lot is used during the week for UCSC. So Dan calls First Pres' pastor up to talk about the possibilities. Their pastor then tells Dan that their church leadership had been praying about talking to Dan about the possibilities of joining ministries! God was clearly working in both of these churches, long before they knew it.

So since this Easter, our churches have been sharing. I think it's been going really well. The First Pres people have been really welcoming, and it's been great to have a better representation of the different generations (VFC was heavy on the 20 year-olds and light on everything else). We started a series today dealing with The DaVinci Code, looking at what we as Christians believe and how those beliefs originated. I'm really looking forward to it.

This photo was taken at our church a couple of weeks ago. It's only in Santa Cruz that you would come across this in the parking lot! (Those are wetsuits, in case you can't tell). Out for a surf before the gathering!

Dinner with Bridget

2006-05-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

Last night, Carrie and I had the pleasure of dining at the home of Bridget De Yager in San Jose. Bridget is a friend of mine (Jeremy) from high school and college. She now teaches at San Jose Christian - where Carrie will be next year! We're excited about that. It was great to catch up with her and look through some old pics. How crazy is it that we now live about the same distance from her in California that I did growing up in Iowa!

A New Job!

2006-05-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

Carrie and I are pleased to announce that Carrie will be teaching at San Jose Christian School next year! This seems like an answer to prayer, as we were wondering what she should do next year. She was hoping to get into a teaching credential and master's program starting June 2007, but we weren't sure what to do in the mean time. It turns out that San Jose Christian will pay for most, if not all, of her schooling for the credential and masters, while she teaches!

The position is 3/5's time. She'll teach 2 6th grade classes of science, and most likely 2 6th grade classes of Bible. Although it will be a little over a half-hour commute, she will be able to carpool with a good friend (who also happens to be the other 6th grade teacher) who lives in the area.

The superintendent, Al Kosters, not only hired Carrie, but also hired our brother-in-law, Craig Stiemsma, a few years back!

If you want to check out the school's website, you can find the link on the right hand side of this page.

Gezellig

2006-05-01T19:33:00.000-07:00

Hi. So we now have a blog. Why? Because we have very important, insightful thoughts that we are sure your life will be the better for. No, not really. We actually have a blog so that we can keep family and friends updated on our life with stories and photos. Yes, we could email. But, this seems cooler, and, you can read at your leisure. You don't have to be plagued with emails from us, but now the choice is up to YOU!

As you can see, our blog's name is "Gezellig." For all of our "if-you-ain't-Dutch-you-ain't-much-family-and-friends," Gezellig (Geh-ZEL-ick) is a Dutch word meaning cozy or comfortable. Jer's Dad used to say it a lot when he was visiting our house (cabin). We have great mental and actual pictures of him reclining in a borrowed Lazy-Boy from next door, right next to our wood stove, sleeping. When I googled gezellig, I ran across one page that said the California translation would be something like "kickback" or "chill out." Another page said that a gezellig environment is one that allows good times to happen.

So, out of all of this, arises the name for our blog...because it's an important memory we have of Dad...because we hope that when you read our blog, you'll have somewhat of a gezellig time...because we hope to share a lot of our good times with you.

We don't know how often we will update the blog or how long we'll keep doing it. Hopefully we'll be better at this than emailing. Check back often, and comment on the posts if you like. Let us know if you have questions.