Invitations are finished!!

This is the invitation I've been working on for the past several days. I'm in charge of our Dining-In this summer. I feel like I'm planning a wedding again! I have finally finished 220 invites to send out to all our ladies!! I will be glad when this event is over!!

I had a deadline to meet of getting the invites mailed out by tomorrow! If it wasn't for the help of my wonderful friends Elizabeth and Angie, I don't know if I could have finished on time. I would have been up all night tonight working on it! Elizabeth came over again tonight to help me complete them all! I am so grateful for their help!! Ladies, you're the best!! Thanks so much!

Here is a stack of them, all addressed and ready to go!

One of my trusty helpers! I told Elizabeth I would cook for her if she would come over and help! She was served a delightful frozen pizza!! That's the best I could do for getting home 2 minutes before she came over!

As Elizabeth was getting ready to leave, I showed her the outfit that Jay sent back from Afghanistan. It is a traditional outfit that the men wear on a normal basis. The top is normal, like a dress that goes down to the knees. But the pants... well.... not so normal!

I still can't figure out how they are supposed to work! They just don't make any sense to me. Jay was hoping that my mom would be able to do some work on them and make them wearable. Not quite sure how she's going to do it, but it can be a summer project for her! Elizabeth got a good laugh out of them... as did I when she tried them on!

Now that my school work is done and the invitations are ready to go, it's time for bed! Sweet dreams everyone!

Deployed Spouses Retreat

I am home after a great weekend in Garmisch, for a CAV Deployed Spouses Retreat. I headed down after school on Friday. We had a session Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning. We were given Saturday afternoon to do as we please! I was really tempted to stay at the hotel, relax, read, and take a nap, but went out with some friends instead. We took a little trip over to the Linderhof Castle, one of King Ludwig's. I have been there before with Jay, but went along anyway. The place wasn't nearly as pretty because there were no flowers and the trees were still bare. Nonetheless, the sun was out and it was an absolutely beautiful day! We sat outside the castle for a long time, simply enjoying the down time!

These are some of the ladies from the conference. We all went together to see the castle.

Linderhof Castle.... as you can see in the background, no pretty trees or flowers yet.

After a long drive back to Schweinfurt, I was ready to be home. I had a lot of work to do! I needed to write lesson plans, go to the commissary, and make 250 invitations!!! I had already asked Elizabeth to come over to help me, but then had a call that we were invited to go eat grilled food at our friends Angie and Jon! How can you turn down grilling, especially on such a nice day!! So what I had hours upon hours of work to do, this sounded like a lot more fun! So, I packed up my car with my invitation supplies and headed over. I had two lovely ladies help me out. I was cutting while Elizabeth and Angie were glueing, punching, and threading ribbon! I still have more to do, but they were a HUGE help!! I don't think I could have finished them without these ladies! In the mean time, Jon was slaving over the grill and preparing our supper for us. This is what he created!

Grilled steak and veggie kabobs!! How can you get much better than that on a sunny Sunday evening? Because my friends know me so well and spoil me rotten... these were made especially for me...

All meat and no veggies!! They were so tasty!! After we were all done eating, we had some after supper entertainment! Noah did some dancing for us! He is just so sweet! I have a movie of it, but can't figure out how to link it... so unless someone tells me, you'll have to miss it!

Thanks Houston family for feeding me tonight! It was absolutely delicious!!! I enjoyed the company and the help on the invitations!!

Service Project 2010

Home again! Finally!! It's been two weeks since I've slept in my bed and I must say I am really enjoying it this weekend! (This is why it's been so long since I've posted.) Two weeks ago I spent the week watching two kids. Their mom had surgery and dad's deployed, so I had the kids. I stayed at their house, took them to school and practices in the afternoon, then home and to bed. We'll just say I am definitely not ready for motherhood yet. I'm sure starting with an infant will break me in, but going straight to a 9 and 12 year old is not easy! I dropped the kids off Friday night and then came home to pack for the next week. I jumped on a bus at 2:00 Saturday morning and headed to Ostrava, Czech Republic. After a 15 hour bus ride, we finally arrived!

That is where I spent the week for Club Beyond Service Project. Club Beyond is a youth ministry for middle school and high school students in DODDS schools. We went to a high school in Ostrava to do some work. We taught a lot of ESL classes to the students and also did some physical labor outside on the school grounds. I went to do the behind the scenes work. I really enjoyed my job. I wasn't in charge of any students, which was a great break for me. Instead, I spent hours on the computer, helping to prepare for the week. I helped with schedules, lesson plans, and gathering of matierals. Because I like to be organized and I enjoy creating spreadsheets on the computer, this job fit me like a glove!

This is the site I saw outside our hotel window.... yes that is snow falling! That snow turned into rain and fell the entire week! Definitely not idea weather, but we all survived!

This was our head translator and the head master (principal) of the school. The head master didn't speak any english, so our translator did a lot of work!

Here are a few pictures from our week with the high schoolers in the Czech school.

The kids did a lot of relational work with each other. It was exciting to see their friendships grow!

We also had a group of kids in PE classes all day. This was good proof at why Americans are fat compared to Europeans. After stretching, they ran ladders up and down the court. The last three people in each group had to do sit-ups!

In the afternoons, after school was out, we put on several workshops for the kids. Throughout the week, we played basketball, volleyball, frisbee, baseball, soccer, American football, board games, crafts, and cooking. We made rice crispie treats with the kids. They don't have marshmallows over there, so this was a really special treat for them. They devoured them! One of the days that it was pouring outside, we played a game of Jeopardy. The categories were split between Czech facts and US facts. This pictures is of the Jeopardy game.

The one in charge of the week.... our fearless leader, Elizabeth!

She did an AMAZING job of being organized and making sure everything ran smooth. I had a great time working with her and rooming with her!

After we got back to the hotel after being at the school all day, we ate supper and then had Club. We sang some songs, watched a slideshow of pictures from the day, and listened to a speaker.

It was a great trip over all! It was so exciting to see God moving in such amazing ways! Unfortunately I won't be able to go next year because Jay and I should be (key words) gone by then! But, I will still get to go to Beach Break with the middle school Club kids this summer! Something I'm defintiely looking forward to.

Rugs, Rugs, and MORE Rugs!!

I am one very spoiled girl!! My husband sure must love me a lot!!! Here's why...

The big gift that every wife with a deployed soldier to Afghanistan waits for is a rug!! These rugs aren't your every day, run of the mill rugs. They are all hand stitched and absolutely beautiful!! You can find them in so many vibrant colors!

I received a package a few weeks ago with these rugs in it!!

This second one is made out of camel hair. It's very course and was stinky when I opened the box. The smell has worn out by now! What a neat keep sake for us!

I got a call from Jay a week or so ago and he said he was sending a big black box home with his cold weather gear in it. He won't need the gear again, so he wants to clear it out of his bags so he has more space. When I received the black box, I opened it to find....

This one is made entirely out of silk. It's very shiny. Jay said it was a bit on the expensive side, so it will be one for the wall, not the floor!

This is a prayer rug that the Afghans use.

Another one made out of camel hair. It is hand stitched, with things to do with the war. It has the US and Afghan flags on the top. An outline of the country, with the names of surrounding countries around the outside. In the middle right, it says. Rout of Terriors with help of American and Britian. The grammar isn't the best on it, but that's because they don't know English very well. This will be so neat to have many years down the road!

Of course there were clothes in the box too. I took them out and packed them in boxes to the back room. I surely wasn't expecting all of these! I did ask Jay to send me a rug this year, after seeing many others from the last deployment.... but I got way more than I asked for!! What a wonderful husband I have!!

Skiing on the Zugspitze

Last weekend I went with some friends down to Garmisch, Germany. I actually went down to babysit the kids while the mom was at a conference. Lucky for me, I had the fun job! On Friday night, we went swimming in the pool. On Saturday morning, we were up early and got ourselves bundled up for the slopes! I drove half way up the Zugspitze, which is the tallest mountain in Germany. There wasn't much snow on the ground, so we had to go high up. We then took a cable car up the rest of the mountain. I felt like we were going straight up, the angle was so steep! At the top of the mountain, we had to switch cable cars and go part way down the other side. We were now completely surrounded by mountains. It was so beautiful! I sent the kids down the slopes and I stood there enjoying God's creation.

Then it was my turn to go down! Unforunately, one of the kids had a difficult time getting up the slope, so we didn't get many runs in. The few that I had were so great! I was nervous going skiing because I'm not very good, but I did these runs like a pro!! I wish I could have done a few more rounds.... but maybe next year!

Sunday morning I went to the small service they had at the resort. It felt good to hear about God's glory while being surrounded by his glory! After that, there was one more session in the conference, so I took four kids to the pool again! While they were swimming, I decided to sit out and read. I rarely have time to read, so this was great!

Overall, it was a nice weekend! I enjoyed having a bit of downtime. And being in the mountains.... how much better can you get!!