Thanksgiving and beginning of Christmas season

Thanksgiving was a blast. We ended up having 12 adults and the Phipps' kids as well. The girls sat at the table and chatted while the guys sat in front of the TV and watched American football-LIVE!! Here we are at the table. We had Great Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and the US represented. The food was all delicious and since we didn't eat until 7PM we had to make sure to fill up quickly before bed! It was my first year being in charge of making most of the main dishes so I was pretty psyched that everything turned out so great. Liesl's apple pie was definitely the prettiest thing we served!

This past weekend was also the first weekend of Advent so the Christmas markets are now open all over Europe. We have a really nice one right here in Brussels so on the way to church Sunday Liesl and i walked through it. Here we are in the Grand Place where they have a large Christmas tree and a manger scene set up.

After church some of us decided to go ice skating- they set up a rink on one of the place's. Last year I watched people several times but never got out there myself so one of the things I wanted to do this year was actually go! It was so much fun- until is started to rain! Here are me and Reka trying not to fall!

the whole gang! We asked one guy to take our pic but he kept falling down so I didn't trust him with my camera:) then one of the workers came over and took the pic for us!

Fiona, Liesl and I!!

Can't wait to explore some of the other Christmas markets around - I will keep you posted!

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving. It is my FAVORITE holiday and I love that by living here in Belgium I get to spend it with people who have never experienced it before. This year I believe we are having 5 thanksgiving newbies! So fun! Mom-you would be proud- I am in charge of the turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin bread and delicious dessert!
Thankful for today: my lovely apartment, Christmas lights, candles that smell like apple pie, a comfy bed that I can fall into, photos, root beer, oven to bake things in, awesome parents who would do anything for me and come across an ocean to see me, sisters who love me even when I don't call, nieces and nephews who are some of the most amazing people in the world, memories, friends who let me stay at their place when I visit, games, sharpie pens, clicky pencils, gloves and hat on a cold day, Johnny Mathis Christmas music, Gram's potato stuffing, heaters, plane tickets, smiles and you-whoever is reading this of course:)
Have a GREAT THANKSGIVING!!

Too early for Christmas music?

This is the question I have had to ask myself over the past few weeks. Thanksgiving is not yet upon us but the weather is cold and dark and gloomy so what better to lift my spirits than a little Johnny Mathis or Bing Crosby? I have given in to the need for spirit lifting and begun to listen to Christmas music nonstop! It started last week when I had the girls over for breakfast-I put on some Johnny Mathis and it has not stopped. The pinacle was this week when the girls came over for breakfast- I not only played Charlie Brown Christmas music but lit lovely smelly candles on my mantle and pretty white ones in my fake fireplace. Made me just want to bake some cookies and hole up for the day!
So bring on the Christmas music!

new stuff

So the last few weeks have been busy-it seems like that is a common theme! 2 weeks ago we had our first NEW regional meeting in the Netherlands. Here is a pic of the "hat ladies" from the meeting. We decided that we were going to make a YL Int'l calendar-for recruitment purposes:)-we have a good beginning:)

We love our new region but keep wondering -why, if Portugal is part of our region, do we continue to have meetings in rainy, cold places?
Then last week I went to Germany to help out with a WyldLife weekend camp there. I was REALLY excited. Mostly because it meant getting to see and spend time with some really fun and awesome people! I did program at the camp-I was "Safety Stella" new york accent and all! For those of you that know me well- one of the highlights was that I got yet another YL t-shirt:) Adding to the wardrobe!
This coming week is thanksgiving- and you all know that it my FAVORITE holiday-who doesn't love food and hanging out with family(biological or not) without the pressures of gift buying that Christmas holds. Last year we did a YL team thanksgiving and I was very disappointed to find out that we would not be doing that this year. So we decided to do one with our friends but that is also kind of falling through - so Liesl and I MAY be making a drive down to Munich to join their team thanksgiving- that would be 3 years, 3 thanksgivings, 3 different countries for me:)
In other news- if you have not heard already- My friends and co-worker Liesl is moving back to the states at Christmas. YUK!!!!! It is going to be VERY sad coming back and not having her here but I am trying to avoid thinking about it until it is upon me-not sure if that's what the professionals would recommend but . . . SO the countdown is on-4 weeks!
Other fun news-I got an assignment at Malibu again for this summer- so I will be there the month of June!! Lovin' that!

Dublin and Real Halloween

Last week the schools here were on break so Liesl and I decided to catch a cheap flight and head to Dublin for a few days. It ended up being quite cold while we were there-we even got a few snowflakes on the 1st morning. Some amazing people- the Spriggs- offered their place to crash in. Rick even picked us up at the airport- they really are amazing!! After we dropped our bags at their place we headed into the city on the train- we got to take a gorgeous scenic train along the coast. One of our goals for the few days was to get a good book and sit in Starbucks and read for a few hours- and boy did we accomplish it! We found this awesome bookstore right near Trinity College and each got a book. Then we went over to Starbucks which was just across the street and got a drink and sat in these oh so comfy chairs for about 5 hours and just chatted and read. Here I am with my drink and my book:)

one of the things we did the second day was go to the Guinness factory where there is a museum tour which shows how they make it. The science that goes into that stuff- Who sat around and came up with it?!!! This is me trying the roasted Barley. Yes I have crazy eyes in this pic!

Liesl also had a goal of buying a genuine Irish sweater which we did and after she bought it we met some new friends outside the store:)

One of the cooler things we came upon was at Christ's Church. We tried to go in and walk around but they priest was outside and he said they were closed to visitors for the day but they would have Evensong at 6 PM. Well it was about 4:45 so we went across the street and got a coffee(me a hot choco cuz I don't drink coffee!) and then went back for the 6:00 service. It was great- all in song and chant and they have been doing a similar service for about 1000 years!! Here is a picture of the outside.

By Friday we were back in Brussels and a friend of ours had a Halloween party. Since trick-or-treating was last week it was just a fun night of games for the kids and chili for the adults. Here are the YL Brussels ladies. Liesl as Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Janet as herself, and me as Safety Stella! Pretty fun!

Birthday!

I celebrated another year of being alive- go me!- on Tuesday. It started out quite early- we had pancakes at ISB which meant a 6AM wake up! It was really fun- they all knew it was my birthday so they sang happy bday and all that good stuff. I was the designated pancake flipper of the day but did not get to eat any cuz we had so many students we ran out of cakes! good problem I guess! Then we went to the office and at lunch Claire, one of the HS students, brought me up a cake she had made! it was delicious! and very thoughtful-it made my day! Then at night a bunch of friends got together for dinner, pot luck, and games. They had asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said- carrot cake with cream cheese icing and to play games- no one ever plays games over here! It was really fun and funny to see peoples personalities come out- especially those who really don't like games-i didn't think those people existed til I moved over here-but they do! Here are a few pictures from the evenings festivities. Here are Janet, Fiona and I. The party was at Fiona's place.

Everyone chatting whilst standing around scrumptious food!

The spread- including carrot cake, pumpkin bread and spinach artichoke dip- my favorites!! thanks all of you wonderful cooks!

Me after I blew out my candle- take note that everyone has those noise makers you usually have at new years- cuz this was my new year!! it got REALLY loud for a few minutes while everyone went crazy with their noise makers.

Halloween is celebrated at weird times and in different ways over here. There are only a few neighborhoods that even do trick or treating. The way it works is if you live in that neighborhood and you would like to hand out candy you sign up ahead of time so they can put your house on a map they give out. Then if you want to participate by actually going and getting candy you are supposed to drop off a bag of candy at a drop off point the day before. Then those people distribute all the candy to the houses that said they would hand it out. All very interesting. So we went tick or treating Thursday in Overijse. We went with Paul and Janet and their kids as well as about 7 High schoolers. Here are 2 VERY small pics that you can click on to make bigger.

then Friday night one of the schools had their Halloween dance and they asked us to chaperon. We made it a girls night and invited some of our friends along- here are Cassandra, me, Fiona, Celine and Liesl. After the dance they all came back to my place and we ordered pizza and watched "When Harry met Sally." Fun girls night.

Really!! In what reality is this my life?!!

Seriously! There are so many time I think to myself, "Who would have thought?" So here is the reality of the past few weekends in my life. 2 weekends ago ISB had their homecoming so the teams from Paris came up to play against them Friday and Saturday. I have some dear friends that do YL in Paris- the Usrey's. Since they are AMAZING YL leaders they decided to take the 3 hour drive and come watch their friends play. Bonus for me cuz they got to come and see my apartment, we shared some tea and then after the games we went out to eat! Liesl joined us after the games and we went to Le Klepto(sound a little shady-i know!). We had such a great time and the older lady and gentleman next to us seemed to really enjoy our fun as well:) Here we are after enjoying a nice long dinner together!

Then last weekend it was off to Hungary for a ladies weekend with the all the women who either work for or has a spouse who works for YL in Europe. We stayed in a cute little town called Szentendre which is just outside Budapest. The 3 of us who came from Brussels had a very early start-we met at 5:30 AM to drive to the airport. When we got there and checked in the woman asked us if we would be willing to get bumped because they had overbooked. It would mean we would actually get a direct flight(instead of the layover one we had) and we would get 175 euro. I said yes but turned to Liesl and Janet and cynically said, "yeah but they never actually need you to get bumped-they always just ask." and the lady behind the counter started laughing at me. She told us to go to our regular gate and if they needed us to be bumped they would let us know there. So we were sitting there enjoying some lagging conversation(it was too early) when we hear our names called over the loudspeaker! I started to actually believe that perhaps we would get bumped since they usually only call the people who actually do get bumped. SO we walk up to the counter with smiles on our faces thinking we are about to get a direct flight and 175 euros only to be told they don't need us to get bumped-BUMMER!!! so we had to have a layover in Munich which ended up being like 2 hours longer than it was supposed to be because of fog there. Anyway we got to Budapest 2 hours late but it was well worth it when we stepped outside to GORGEOUS weather!!
Here is a picture of me in one of the little alley streets in Szentendre.

When we went up this alley we smelled something wonderful and found this little stand with a long line. So we paid our 300 whatevers(I don't remember what the money was called) and got this funnel cake like thing that was lovely!! This is my friend Kate pointing out our scrumptious pastry.

There were tons of little churches in the town- they were all really quaint but this one had these beautiful fall leaves out front!

This is just at one of the shops selling painted pottery.

Saturday night we went into town to eat at a Hungarian restaurant. It was really cool. The main room had tons and tons of musical instruments hanging from the ceiling and walls. We were in a smaller rooms that had doors to close it off. Apparently they had been warned that YL women are loud:) Here is my little table. Again I ate with the Usreys(2 weekends in a row!) as well as Kristy. Kristy did a great job of entertaining us with here hysterical stories!

SO that really is my life. Yes I do work in between the many travels:) It still amazes me the places I have gotten to see and experience while I have been here. But I have to say that the best part of last weekend was just being with women who totally "get it." They know exactly what I go through on a daily basis-living in another country and doing ministry. 4 times while we were there we got together and did worship and then our friend Paula talked to us. She challenged us with the question, "Who do you run to?" The last day we all got to celebrate the things God has done in our lives over the past year. It was truly a privilege to sit in a room full of beautiful, wise, Godly women and cry with them and cheer with them over the things God is doing in and around them. What a blessing! It is always good to be reminded of the bigger picture when sitting in the midst of it.

No Leprechaun's!

So my Ireland adventure was a success. I flew into Shannon where mom and dad and Aunt carol and uncle ed picked me up at the airport. I didn't check any bags so I was out of the airport before actual landing time! Pretty good Ryan air! We wound our way through the Irish countryside- not for the faint of stomach -and got to their "house" around 11:30pm. The next day we headed off to the Cliffs of Moher- it just sounds ominous!! They were gorgeous! Here are just a couple of picks. It was really windy and a few times sprinkled on us but for the most part it was actually quite nice.

Here I am going where I shouldn't:) go figure!!

After the Cliffs we drove along the coast for a few hours just taking in the amazing scenery. I was a little obsessed with the cemeteries- they really do have tons of these Celtic crosses everywhere.

On Tuesday we decided to do the Ring of Kerry but needed a hearty english breakfast to get us going! SO we stopped in this cute little town and ate in a little cafe- really we did not get an english breakfast that morning- just some great scones, bagels, and other breakfast delights.

This is some of the scenery along the ring of Kerry- I took tons of pictures but you get the idea- it's gorgeous!

That night we stopped in Kilarney just to walk around for a bit. This is my favorite store of the night. Great little book store with an upstairs. When I went in books were just crammed everywhere-gotta love it!! When I am old and gray I am going to own a little bookstore in Ireland-decision made!

This is my last day in Ireland. We went to the town of Innis for a little to walk around. This is Dad, Mom and I outside a flower shop.

This is my favorite picture of mom and I. It is in the Bunratty Castle that we went to. They also have an amazing folk park museum where they have brought in homes from all over Ireland. In some of the houses there were actually older women baking bread! Yummy!!

Here's the outside of the Castle.

This was in the Folk park part. They had all these little shops that you could go in and see what they would have been like during different time periods. They also had all of these bike sitting around. They weren't chained or anything. Just propped up against walls and things. To bad the tires were flat or we coulda raced down mainstreet!

So GREAT trip. Makes me want to go back and explore Ireland a bit- and for 35 Euro round trip- Why not?!!!

Heading off to Ireland

Yes- tonight I leave Belgium and head to Shannon, Ireland!! I am so excited- I mean in what world did I ever think I would be going to Ireland to meet my parents and aunt and uncle-Have Carol and Ed ever even used their passports before?

Before I go I figured I would catch you up on the comings and goings of my life:) Cuz I know you are all waiting with bated breath. Ok so I know I told you all that at the end of the summer I went to Germany for a week to take an apologetics class. Here are a few pictures from that class. Kate, Lyndsey and I outside of our classroom. And then a picture from the last day when we made s'mores. It was really hot and in the middle of the day but we had the supplies so we went for it:)

This is a picture of the little town where we were staying. One day a few of us went on a hike. It was quite fun- we even took "senior pictures" The only one I had on my camera was Kate's- so enjoy her "senior picture:)"

The week after we got back from our class was busy spent getting things organized for a semester of activity. Before we did all of that though our YL team headed out to an abbey. Once a month we try to do a solitude day where we go out and spend a few hours of quiet. It is a great time to really weed through all the things going through my head and have really good time with the Lord. The abbey that we go to is gorgeous. Here are just a few pictures of it.

And finally-we went to a fun concert downtown that same week. Rue Royale is a husband and wife band. Liesl had met them in the states through a good friend of hers and so she was very excited to go see them. So Liesl, Fiona and I went downtown to watch them play at a little bar. They really were great! Here we are at the concert and then a picture of the band.

Well that's all for now- I think that's enough! I will have more news once I get back from Ireland!! Oh yeah- one other fun thing that I do not have pictures of-Friday night one of the International schools had an under the lights football game- pretty fun!!! American football under the lights in Belgium!

Meeting a fellow blogger!

Crazy story! On Monday I was walking out of the office around 4pm. I had the Boer boys with me and we were ready for a crazy afternoon- we had to go to the Brown's house(where I am staying this week while their parents are out of town) to make sure Nate got in Ok and then take the Boer's home and get Ricky ready for soccer and take him to soccer and then go back to the Brown house. Fun times!! So anyway back to the story- I was walking out of the offices(which are on the ISB campus) and a woman stops me and knows my name. At first I assume she was at church on Sunday-because I stood up and gave and announcement for WyldLife. But then she tells me she recognizes me from my blog! You know how on blogger you can hit the "next blog" button at the top- well she hit that button at some point last year and found my blog. Apparently at the time her family was getting ready to move to Belgium so she kept up with it. And now her family is here!! She said she never thought she would actually meet me but what a small world we live in!! Here is Julie's blog http://thebiasiblog.blogspot.com/ if you wanna check it out. What a fun day!!

Girl's night in Antwerpen

Ok so these pictures are quite small I know but I stole them from Celine's facebook so I can not help the size. But you can click on them to make them bigger I think- yeah go ahead and try! Friday night me and Liesl took the train to Antwerpen to meet up with Celine. She was done being a doctor for the week and so we thought it would be fun to meet up for dinner and then drive back to Brussels with her. We ended up finding this amazing little restaurant. It was all brick and stained glass. And they had this awesome piano guy playing live music. It was so lovely. We just sat around and chatted for quite a while because the atmosphere was so nice. Then we left there and walked around the place for a bit and went and got a hot chocolate-love that they serve it with a little cookie and piece of chocolate! MMMMmm -come visit and you can have some too- hint hint!!

Rest of August

I know!! I know!! everyone is telling me I need to update this thing. And as much as I stalk other peoples blog you'd think I would be on top of mine- but alas I am not! Here goes. The summer ended up being so much better than I imagine on my return to Belgium. I really got to know some fun people and enjoy being in Europe. It still amazes me how I would show up to a reseraunt or shop and there would be a sign posted saying they were close for a month- I mean these europeans know how to do it right! It's not all about making all the money you can possibly make- they actually take time to enjoy their lives. Oh yeah- and the Olympics- I mean I am generally obsessed with them so i spent many an hour over at my bosses house watching their cable TV-it was a bit sad having to watch the BBC version because part of what I love is all the back stories on the athletes and they only gave us British back stories. But even they loved Phelps which was fun! Then. . .

From August 15-19 I took 7 boys and 2 high school leaders to Wyldlife camp in Wales. It was a lot of fun-along with a lot of rain and a lot of sheep poo! I don't think I have ever done laundry so fast as when I got back from camp-it all smelled like sheep! Not that the middle school boys even noticed or said anything.

After camp I had a day to sleep-Yeah - and a day to pack before heading off to Germany to take an apolgetics class. It was really fun because 2 friends who live and do ministry in Madrid flew in here and we drove down together. It took us about 7 hours to get there. I hadn't done a road trip by car in a while so it was really fun to be crammed in a car, laughing with great friends. The class was amazing and it was great time with friends. We had some great conversations about why we do the things we do. It really opened my eyes to that fact that I do and think so many things purely based on the culture that I grew up in and not necissarily because that is how it is supposed to be in Christ. Again it amazes me that I get to study these things as part of my job. I will try to post some pics from the week once I get them on my computer.

So things are in full swing here-I will try to update more often!!

Day in Cologne

Yesterday I decided to take a day trip to Germany. At first I thought I would go to Bonn. We had a basketball game there last year and stayed overnight outside the town and I wanted to explore it a little. But after looking at it I decided that Cologne was just a little closer and possibly a bit more historic so that's where I set off to. I mappy'ed the directions and left around 8:30 AM-knowing it would take 2 hours to get there. I followed the general directions and then signs to "Koln zentrum" and just parked in the first lot I came to. I HATE driving and parking in the city- any city. I didn't have a map or any idea where the public transport was so I just followed some people- hoping the would be heading toward the center too. Sure enough they led me to a metro stop. So I took the metro to the regional train hub- figuring that there would be a tourist info somewhere nearby. See how smart I am becoming in my old age:) Sure enough- as soon as I came out of the metro- there was the wonderful "i" for information! I bought a 20 cent map. Before I went anywhere I checked out the goregous cathedral that was in the main square. Here's a picture of the outside. Just a little history- it is a gothic style cathedral that was built from 1248-1880, yes that means ittook over 600 years to complete. And it was the world's tallest structure until the Washington monument was built- pretty amazing!

Then I wandered off to see what I could find in this city that was founded in the year 38 BC. And wouldn't you know that I found that oldest of all shop- STARBUCK'S- so of course I had to get my frapp since we can't in Belgium.

Then I walked over to the Rhine. When I traveled to Europe back in 99 me and my friends Pam took a boat tour down the Rhine to see some of the amazing castles along there. This time I just took it in from land.

Then I began to walk to some things labeled on my 2o cent map. It said there were some medievil parts of a wall. The map, however, was slightly decieving and I had to walk quite a ways to get there. But it was worth here. He is one of the old city gates. Pretty cool- just sitting there in the middle of a shopping area.

Here is me and the guy i affectionately call "statue man." He was guarding one of the ruins-I think he was kind of a slacker though cuz he looks like he's sleeping!

Here's another gate in another part of the city.

Oh and wouldn't you know- that they make cologne in Cologne. I am sorry but NO I did not buy any- I will have to save that for another trip.

For dinner I went to the Hard Rock- I know -I am a sucker for corporate America but free refills on soda and a real hamburger- REALLY!! It was great- I had brought one of the books I have to read for my class this month so I just relaxed, drank my refills of soda, read, and enjoyed the music!

Towards the end of the day I was a bit hot and my feet were tired so I sat in a park and there was this crazy guy singing. Thought you might enjoy him:)

After all of the exploring I headed back to the Starbucks to use the restroom. I thought I would just head home but then I saw these comfy chairs upstairs and this lovely Jazz music was playing and there were window views of the square. . . so I sat for about 45 minutes and again pulled out my book to read and began to wonder why Brussels has no chill coffee shops where one can just go and listen to jazz and read. Maybe that will be YL's next adventure here- a coffee shop!:) and I don't even drink coffee!!!