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!!