Our God is Amazing!

I'm sitting here in my rocking chair, with praise music playing, candles lighting the room, as I sit and wait for Jay to get home. He's been out in the field for two weeks and I can't wait to see him again! But the reason for this post is simply to say how great our God is. He has been very near to me this week as I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't alone. "Our God is near, Our God is here"... those are the lyrics that just played. God always knows just what song to play, he knows just what verse we should read, he knows how to have friends call at just the right time, he lets the sun shine, the birds sing, and the flowers blossom, reminding us that he is always in control. I am just on cloud nine tonight as I think about how amazing our God is.

I encourage you all to remember this as our earth is blooming and spring is coming. He gives us all fresh starts and reminds us that he gave us his one and only son to die for us. How can we be so lucky!! Our landlord has quite the green thumb. He has a little garden right outside that is definitely showing signs of spring. I smile every time I walk out the door and see new signs of life.

I hope you are all enjoying the start of spring as much as I am!! YEAH GOD!!!

Heading to K-Town

It hasn't been too interesting of a week so not much to post. Other than school, I've been helping out with softball. We started on Monday, but haven't had the best weather. It was in the 20's on Monday, sleeted on Tuesday, and snowed on Wednesday. It's definitely not softball weather. We're waiting for the sun to shine!! The girls have a long ways to go. They don't have any basic fundamentals down, so there is lot of coaching to be done!! I'm excited for it though!

These aren't my girls, but I was reminded of it when I was thinking of softball. This is my friend Erica's middle child running bases. It was almost as cold during that softball game. I remember being wrapped up in a blanket for that game!

This weekend, I'm heading to Kaiserslautern, Germany. It's another post on the west side of the country. Odyssey of the Mind European Competition is being held this weekend. My kids didn't make it, but I'm going to watch. I'm hoping to learn several things from it that I can bring back and use next year if I coach again. Three teachers from our school are going to coach, so I'm riding along with one of them. Since Jay's out in the field, it's a great way to help the weekend go by! Should be fun!!

Pasta, Passion, & Pistols

We went to a Murder Mystery Dinner this weekend at our friends, Dan and Sandra. We brought along our friend Jeremy, who is a new soldier working with Jay. He just got in on Wednesday, so we drug him along with us. We all had a certrain part to play and dressed up as our part. Jay was an Italian business man who owned a vineyard. I was his vivacious fiance who was having his baby. This was a fact that we had to let the rest of the characters know. When Jay announced it, he made it sound so real. They weren't sure if we were acting or telling the truth. I made sure they all knew the answer real quick!! Later in the evening, Sandra had to clarify that he was just acting. Everyone did a great job acting, even though Elizabeth kissed my man!!! She was trying to take him from me in the skit!! We also had a bunch of wonderful food. I was stuffed by the end of the night! After we were done with our skit and we found out who the murderer was, we played a game of Catan. It was a great night overall! We had so much fun!!

I was Tara Misu and Jay was Rocco Scarfanzi.

Sandra as a Gypsy, Dan as a cook, Jeremy as Father Alfredo

It's Finally Official!

Even though Jay was supposed to be promoted at the end of February, both he and the commander have been too busy to get it done. Finally this week it happened! On Thursday, our troop had a Change of Command ceremony. We have a new commander and his wife took over the FRG. Both Jay and I are excited about these two. They should be good!! After that ceremony, the couple had provided food for a reception. We went to the day room with the rest of the troop, which is also where they had planned to do Jay's promotion. I stuck around (during my very long lunch break) so I could watch. The col. let me help pin, so that was exciting. Col. changed the rank on his chest and I changed the pin on his hat. Then Col. told me to give him a kiss.... that was quite difficult considered the shape our faces in. So, he got a cheek to cheek instead. It was the best I could do. So, we finally have a 1st Lt. on our hands!!! Yeah!!!

Putting his new rank on his hat.

Notice Jay laughing because I couldn't really kiss him!

Col, Jay, and our new Troop Commander

We're Famous

My sister has quite an obsession with socks, as do I. She likes the site LittleMissMatch. For our wedding, she found the perfect socks for us to wear. Yes.... we wore socks at our wedding. She sent our picture in to be put on the website. They liked it and put us on! How fun!!

http://www.littlemissmatched.com/Information/Your-photos

The Alps are not the same as Sundown

We have an eventful weekend as we traveled south to Austria for a three day ski trip. We left Friday morning and got there in the early evening. We headed out to the slopes first thing Saturday morning. It was an absolutely beautiful day with the sun shining! Jay attempted to teach me how to ski instead of putting me into a school. He did a good job, I just wasn't very good at doing what he said. I didn't have a problem staying up, I eventually learned how to turn, but stopping... well, that rarely happened gracefully. I was doing just fine on a nice blue (easy) hill when Jay thought we should change things up. He saw another hill that was a red (medium) but he didn't think it looked to bad. So, down we went. The top wasn't terrible, but there wasn't a lift where he thought there was. We had to keep going down and that's where I got into trouble. I was tumbling down the hill as fast as I could stand up and get going again. I finally made it to the bottom by walking. I was not a happy camper! I went back to my blue hill while Jay went on his own and challenged himself.

We went to a different resort on Sunday. These mountains were higher, which was good because it was raining down low and we wanted to get into the snow. It doesn't soak in as bad. We went up to the top of the mountain and got off the lift. All you could see was a sheet of white. The wind was blowing, it was snowing, and you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. I was scared out of my mind!! But, we had to get down somehow. We were trying to get to a blue hill for me to ski on, but in order to get there, you had to start on a red hill. So, we started down and it was wayyy to steep for me. I ended up sliding down the mountain on my butt for about a mile until we reached the blue route. It actually wasn't too bad. I sat on my skies and was having fun! The blue route was perfect as it wrapped around the mountain and wasn't too steep. Once we got to the bottom an hour later, I said I would stick to the beginner hill while Jay did a harder hill. Once he got back down, he wanted me to try the first hill again, so I agreed. We rode back up to the top and got out to still a white out. My only words were "how did you talk me into this!" I thought I would try to actually ski down the red hill this time instead of sled. I started down and about 20 feet later I tumbled hard. I twisted my knee pretty good, but tried to shake it off. We eventually got down to the bottom and all was well. I took it easy the rest of the day while Jay enjoyed the tough stuff!

We had one more day of skiing on Monday. It was another beautiful day with warm weather and sunshine. We went to an extremely high mountain as they had great parks to ski and snowboard in. I decided to sit the day out and give Jay a chance to ride what he wanted to and not wait for me. He had a blast going down all of the hills. It was a great resort with wide open paths and no trees in the way. I sat in a lounge chair the whole day and greatly enjoyed watching all of the skiers.

We had a great trip with wonderful weather! We may not get there again, so glad we took the chance!

Walking on Broken Glass

Jay has learned in the past year that I am not the most graceful person in the world. Tonight I managed to break my third glass since we have moved here. I have also broken a pyrex bowl and a small plate!! So, now that we are short another glass, we are down to three. We can't even have company over any more! I guess it's time to go buy some more. But I told Jay we can't spend too much money on them, in case I would have another accident. I need to put some super glue on my fingers when I'm in the kitchen!!!

Our First Anniversary

Our first anniversary wasn't what you would typically think of. I'm sure it was quite different from any of yours. On Sunday, Jay was out in the field. He's been out there for a week and has another week left. While he was busy training, I spent the day riding home from Poland. I thought about him the whole car ride, but that's about as good as it got! When I got home, this note, written in marker on scratch paper, was sitting on the table.

I couldn't help but smile! No, it's not ideal, but it's our life right now and for the next few years! Nothing is ever ideal in the Army. I just kept thinking about how fun it will be to read this in 10 or so years and think back about the lives we lived while in Germany. We are getting to do some amazing things over here that will probably never happen again. God has really blessed us! He has definitely blessed me by giving me such a wonderful guy to spend my life with!! What a great God we have!!

SO MUCH POTTERY!!!

I spent the weekend in Poland with two friends shopping for pottery. This was my first time pottery shopping, but I went with two very experienced ladies! They definitely knew what they were doing! We got into our town around 4:00 on Friday afternoon. We hit up several shops on the way and started the buying!! We are supper at a neat woodsy restaurant and then we found our hotel. The place was darling! It used to be an old barn, but has been restored and it so beautiful. The wood and stones added so much to it! We spent the ENTIRE day shopping on Saturday, from 9-6!! I was plum tuckered by the end of the day, and out of money!! I was amazed by how much pottery we saw. I had a picture in my mind what it might look like, but I had no idea! Pottery was stacked EVERYWHERE! I kept with the sales racks for the most part! I found some great deals, buying bowls, platters, and such for $5-10. Not bad!! Last night we ate supper in the hotel, which was delicious. We then sat on the couches in front of the fireplace, drank our hot chocolate, and chatted the evening away. It was so relaxing and enjoyable!! I had such a great time. We hit a few more stores up this morning on our way out of town. Our car was as full as possible, so we had to go home!! It was a great trip!!

The front of our hotel.

Our bedroom

More pottery!!

Before eating supper

This was what the trunk looked like by Saturday afternoon, only halfway down. By Sunday morning, not another bag was going to fit in the trunk. It was stuffed shut! We had to be careful closing the lid. The back seat was full of our suitcases and the floor was stuffed with more pottery. There was enough room for me to sit, but that's it!! Not a single thing more would fit in our car, literally!

1LT Jason Feldt

Jay received a new rank today as 1LT! Yeah for him!!! I didn't get to see him get promoted, but it was supposed to happen this morning before they left for the field. He had all of his new symbols ready to put on as soon as he was promoted. So, he gets to be a 1LT Platoon Leader now. No difference in his job discription, just a few more dollars on the pay check!! 18 more months until the next advancement!

I would have a picture to show you from his promotion, but things didn't work out like we had planned. Jay took the camera with him this morning and then was going to leave it in the car for me to come and get. I went to his car this afternoon, but it wasn't in there. So, he must not have had time before they headed out. So, I'll put a picture up as soon as I can.