The Joshua Yoder Blog

What is up everybody! I am back with another fun interview! This time I got to talk with a recent addition to the club of Motherhood and her name is Hannah Laboon. Get to know her experiences of being a new mom. Enjoy! JY: Was being mom something that you have always wanted to do? HL: I heard this quote the other day about Motherhood and I think it sums it up perfectly. "It's everything you always knew, but nothing you ever did before." I always knew that part of my purpose here was to be a mother and in a a lot of ways I felt like a mother long before I actually had a child of my own through the ways I showed up in sisterhood, friendship, etc. JY: What was going through your head when you were told that you were becoming a mother? HL: It took me over four years to conceive with some failed attempts along the way. This last time being told I was going to be a mother, I just felt so sure that this time it was real. I knew the years of hard work, letting go of fears, giftin...

Hello again everybody! I am back with another interview with another mother as we grow closer to Mother's Day. This time it is Angela Mariee! JY: Was being mom something that you have always wanted to do? AM: Being a mom was definitely something I feel like I've always wanted to do. Ever since I was little I've always thought about getting married and having lots of kids. JY: What was going through your head when you were told that you were becoming a mother? AM: I was beyond excited but scared. Sadly, my first pregnancy ended in a loss. But for the first healthy one, I was very anxious but so ready. JY: Were there any concerns at first? AM: Yes! At first I was concerned about my babies health. Of course mine kept going downhill, everything was a mess. Personally I felt like I wasn't going to be a good mom. I doubted myself a lot.  JY: What was like seeing your child for the first time? AM: That is a feeling you can't really describe. There's not enough words in...

Hello everyone! Today I wanted to do something a little different. With Mother's Day just a few weeks away, I wanted to do some interview stories with mothers and learn about their experiences. Reason being is because I am trying to help bring us all closer together and learn about each other and what we are all going through in life. My first guest is Danielle Bunch. JY: Was being mom something that you have always wanted to do? DB: Yes, I have always wanted to be a mother. JY: What was going through your head when you were told that you were becoming a mother? DB: Well, I found out at 17 that I was going to be a mom and I cried because at first, I wasn't sure I was ready to be a mom at the time. But I refused to give up on him. JY: Were there any concerns at first? DB: I had many concerns at first was being a good mom. Was I going to be able to give everything he deserves. JY: What was like seeing your child for the first time? DB: Seeing my children for the first time was lo...

 Talk about a defining moments in things that make you. This film was a big part of my childhood and it made me a fan of actor Vin Diesel. The movie is called xXx which came out in 2002 which also starred Samuel Jackson, Asia Argento and Marton Csokas. This movie is so awesome and looking back on it, the film just represented where society was at that time. The whole extreme sports like snowboarding, rock climbing, hang gliding, etc were heavily featured in this movie and I loved every single bit of it. Vin Diesel plays a thrill seeker named Xander Cage who becomes a reluctant spy for the United States government as they need him to infiltrate a Russian terrorist group called Anarchy 99 led by Yorgi (Marton Csokas) who plans on creating a complete lawlessness around the world. He plans to do this by launching a biochemical weapon. Dude! This movie was a big reason why I became a fan of Vin Diesel. He was so cool being Xander Cage and I really wish I could be like Cage was in real l...

WOW! It is very hard to believe that on this day April 25, 2000, I lost one of the most fun and loving people that I have ever known. And I called him Pap! It really is true about how time flies, it still feels like only yesterday that I was told that Pap had past away. It was my first experience with death in my life and honestly, didn't handle it too well. For nearly ten years, my Pap never failed to make me smile and laugh. Heck! I always looked forward to seeing him and Nan when I was a kid. Some of my personal favorite memories with Pap was when he took me and my big brother Cody to go see the Merf Dog. I also loved when every time that we would leave and we forgot to hug him, he would begin to "cry" that we didn't hug him and we ended up running back up the porch step and give him and Nan and BIG Hug. Baseball season would come around and he be there watching the Cardinals play and I be sitting there with him and having fun. I remember hanging out in the backyar...

 This was such a creative show and I wish was still around to this very day. But what I didn't know was that Junkyard Wars was actually the US version of a UK show called Scrapheap Challenge that was created in 1998. The concept of the show was two teams of four with three regular members, a designated captain along with an expert in field of the particular challenge that episode. Then each team will go out into the junkyard and collect the parts needed to create their awesome machines that will be used to compete against the other team in a variety of challenges. What I loved about the show was the seeing these guys run around a junkyard and took parts and used them to create new things. In fact, I still found it very hard to believe that they were able to get these parts to work for their vehicles. But it was incredible to see nonetheless. Honestly, I haven't seen the show in a very long time and it sucks that the US version didn't last long. The Scrapheap Challenge in th...

 Well football fans! We are getting closer to one of my favorite things about the sport and that is the NFL draft. The draft will be held at good ole Green Bay, Wisconsin home of the Green Bay Packers and will begin this coming Thursday April 24 on ESPN, NFL Network, etc. I love the draft! Mainly because I myself have always enjoyed trying to build a team. I have always found it interesting to see how teams draft and why they believe the player that they have selected will help change the culture of their respective franchises. As tradition there will be seven rounds with a total of 257 picks throughout this three day event. With having the worse win-loss record from last season, the Tennessee Titans will have the first pick of the 2025 NFL Draft. The runner ups in the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs will have the Mt. Irrelevant pick which for those who don't know is the very last pick in the Draft. Both the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens will have the most selecti...

 Well last night, Chad and I went out to Milroy to the Smoke House Griddle to watch the rock band known as Downfall. This was going to be the first time that either Chad or myself have gotten to witness these guys playing. There are five members in the band with lead singer Jason Satta, Jeremiah Shafer on rhythm guitar, Dusty Sipes who was also on rhythm guitar, Beau Cabassa on bass and Zach Roll as the drummer. The first time I heard of these guys was through my friendship with Dusty for I have know now for quite some time. When I saw that his band was playing at the Smoke House, I figure me and Chad would go out and see them play. Plus, it isn't too often we go to Milroy, plus I can not even remember the last time I was ever at the Smoke House Griddle. We showed up a little bit early and got to meet and chat with the drummer of the band Zach Roll. Really good dude! Then Dusty arrived and it was really good to catch up with him. For a while Dusty was there for me as a counselor fo...

 I can't believe that it has been 15 years since we lost a great musician in Peter Steele who was the lead singer of the legendary gothic metal band Type-O Negative. The started in the late 80s and went all the way to 2010 due to the unfortunate death of Steele. But during this time the band had compiled a total of seven studio albums, three live albums, two compilation albums, two video albums, sixteen singles and ten music videos. The first album called Slow, Deep and Hard came out in 1991 with their final album Dead Again came out in 2007. The common themes in Type-O Negative songs involve romance, depression and death, which relates to me in a lot of ways. These guys were a big part of the 90s especially when the albums Bloody Kisses and then later October Rust came out. And still to this very day, these songs hold up. Such great songs like Christian Woman, Black No 1, Dark Side of the Womb, Blood and Fire, Green Man, Wolf Moon, Love you to Death, Halloween In Heaven and My Gir...

 I wish shows like this anymore and it is a shame because this was such a unique show that I greatly enjoyed. Robot Wars was created by Tom Gutteridge and Stephen Carsey and debuted on the BBC Two with the original run that went from 1998 to 2004. There was also another series of Robot Wars that went from 2016 to 2018. The series follows a team of amateurs and professional roboteers who control robots to fight one another inside the Robot Wars arena that includes hazards for them to avoid as well as much bigger and heavier robots known as the House Robots. Some of the ways you and your robot can win during battles is either, winning by KO where the robot who doesn't respond within a certain time limit, or you could push your opponent into the Pit, you could toss your opponent out of the arena and finally it could go down to a judges' decision. Kind of like in boxing. Although originally the show was hosted by Jeremy Clarkson who I know as the host of Top Gear. The first time I ...

 Well it had been quite a while since my twin brother Chad and I got ourselves some comic books and so we decided to back to Milroy and visit the Big Valley Antique Center. As always, it is fun to go and check out all of the cool stuff that is there whether it be sports memorabilia which there was plenty of. Most of the sports were signed helmets, jerseys, etc from different athletes from variety of different sports, but it is mostly Penn State memorabilia. It never stops amazing me with how much that Big Valley has in terms of historic stuff. Getting to see what people had to use whether it be for business or just general use really makes me appreciate things and also incredible to see how far we have come on so many things. But back to why we came there in the first place, COMIC BOOKS! The last time we went there we definitely scored big and today was no different. Last time I had plenty of Daredevil and Punisher comics along with a few independent ones. What is better than havin...

Recently I decided to look back on some old films from my younger days and see how I felt about it now that I am a bit older and one of those said films is Daredevil which made its way to the silver screen in 2003. Now Daredevil is one of my personal favorite comic book characters ever so this movie was something that I really wanted to see. The movie stars Ben Affleck and according to Affleck, he himself was a big fan of Daredevil and was super excited about getting the role. In fact, he even read a ton of Daredevil comics in order to faithfully portray the character faithfully. Which I appreciate that! When I first saw the movie, I thought it was alright, I didn't really feel that it truly captured the dark and gritty feel of the world that Daredevil lives in which is Hell's Kitchen. To add on to that point, it kind of felt a little goofy to me which again is so not Daredevil. And honestly, I didn't think any differently during the re-watch of this film. Again, I didn...

 Well folks, another year of college basketball has been completed. Both Men's Women's championships have been crowned as the Florida Gators have won the Men's title while UConn came out on top in the Women's finals. The Women's championship was first and to put it nicely, UConn dominated South Carolina 82-59. Sarah Strong led the Lady Huskies with a double-double scoring 24 points and collected 15 rebounds. Azzi Fudd also scored 24 points while Paige Bueckers added another 17 points. Meanwhile for South Carolina, both Joyce Edwards and Tessa Johnson led with a team high of 10 points. Then just yesterday, Florida once again used a second half offensive surge to carry themselves to victory and win their third National Championship as a program with the final score of 65-63 over the Houston Cougars. Will Richard led the Gators with 18 points and eight rebounds. Alex Condon had 12 points and seven rebounds while Walter Clayton Jr tacked on 11 points, seven assists and ...

 This past weekend, Chad and I went down to check out the auction going on at the Lewistown Community Center courtesy of the St. Vincent DePaul Society who are associated with the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church. The St. Vincent DePaul Society was using this auction to help raise funds for those who are in need. Which is really cool to see honestly, we don't really get to hear about stories like this too often. Chad and I were very excited to go and see what was there and who knows, maybe find something to get ourselves. And found stuff we did! There were plenty of simple everyday items like glassware and other knick-knacks. But there were also a ton of cool religious pieces of art which I just so happened to get myself. Me and Chad also got another very special item at the event as well, but this time it was more of a family present. You see, we have become Uncles for the second time as our older brother Cody and his lovely wife Christine are having another baby. More specifica...

 Well ladies and gentlemen, we are finally here! Where at first there were many, but now we are down to just two teams and we will soon learn who is going to walk out with the Men's National Basketball Championship. Will be the Houston Cougars? Or Will it be the Florida Gators? Going into the final four, what I found amazing was how they were all the number seeds in their respective brackets. Which rarely even happens, in fact the last time this even happened was in 2008 nearly 20 years ago. Those four teams were Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina and UCLA. The first game we found ourselves with a major upset as the Houston Cougars came from behind and knocked off the Duke Blue Devils by the final score of 70-67. Cooper Flagg led Duke with 27 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Meanwhile for Houston, they were led by J'Wan Roberts who had himself a double-double scoring 11 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. During the second game, Florida defeated the Auburn Tigers with th...

 Oh man, this band was a huge part in shaping me into what I am today and that band is Korn. This incredible band were a key factor in the rise of the musical genre called Nu-Metal which for those who don't know is a mixture of rap and metal. The first time that I remember witnessing Korn was during one of my personal favorite shows to watch as a kid and that was Total Request Live and I got watch a couple of their songs Got The Life and Freak on A Leash. I was hooked from there on out. What I didn't realize that these guys have been around since the early 90s starting with a demo called Neidermayer's Mind. Outside of that, Korn has a total of 14 albums with the first being Korn in 1994 to their latest one in 2022 with Requiem. These albums featured such amazing songs like Got the Life, Freak on a Leash of course. But there were also songs like Justin, Blind, Clown, No Place to Hide, Falling Away from Me, Coming Undone, Twister Transistor, Let the Guilt go, Start the Healin...