September weekend off

My job requires me to be on call 24/7 for most of the school year. One break from that is the much anticipated "weekend off" each month. Each RD has 48 hours during which he/she can leave campus overnight, not answer any calls from GC people, and do whatever they want! One difficult thing about this is that to truly enjoy it you must actually stay somewhere other than your own home to enjoy the break - otherwise you hear the noise, are bothered by the phone and have people knocking on your door. This weekend was my weekend off and while I didn't travel far, I did get a nice break from work...

Friday afternoon/evening I went shopping in Mishawaka with a friend from church, Brenda Kaufman. We both have lost weight this year and were in need of a few new pieces for our wardrobe. I bought new jeans, new tennis shoes, 3 new jackets, some jewelry, and other assorted things. Here are some of my favorite purchases...

a new jacket/shirt/jewelry combo

my new tennis shoes

When we returned from Mishawaka I went out the Rissers place and stayed the night there. Saturday morning Deanna & I got up and went to Shipshewana for some shopping. For those of you who are not familiar with where I live it is about 20 - 30 minutes from a very large community of Amish people. The town of Shipshewana is a well known tourist area for those who are fascinated by the Amish. We've seen plenty of Amish in our lifetime, but do enjoy the slower pace of life, cute shops, and occassional bargains that can be found in Shipshewana!

Deanna and I getting back to our roots!

Deanna trying on a new hat for winter!

We ended our day at the Essenhaus in Middlebury. Again, for those of you who are not familiar with the area, the Essenhaus is a tourist attraction in Middlebury that has an Inn, an excellent restaurant, a bakery and several shops. We shopped in the shops, ate dinner at the restaraunt, and stayed overnight in the Inn. (Deanna had won a gift certificate for a free night's stay in the Inn from an alumni event at our high school - the owners are Bethany grads.) Denise joined us after dinner for the night which included swimming and a movie (Ratatouille).

My DELICIOUS dinner at the Essenhaus restaurant...turkey manhattan with cooked carrots!

Sunday we slept in a bit before checking out of the Inn and heading back to Goshen where we went out for lunch at El Camino and saw the movie "The Women" with some friends from GC -Nelda and Char. It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend away! :)