Home

Above is a picture circa 1980 of my older sister Trisha, my Grandmom and me at Christmas(take note of all the green-the doors,couch and pj's!).

"Home is where the heart is" If that is true then I have many homes. As I get ready to head "home" to the states this week it brings up odd feelings because it is also "home" here in Brussels and to be honest I am "home" in Atlanta as well. It is an odd sensation to say you are going home to a place you have not actually lived in over 10 years and yet it completely feels like home. There is something so great about my time in PA-Family! I have a lot of family all over the world-not biological but people that I would do anything for and who would do anything for me. And yet there is something to be said about people who have literally known you your whole life-all 34+years of it!:)

People that remember this cheesy grin,

Or this great late 70's look!(At least the 70's were almost over by the time I came around-and I didn't get to enjoy the full feathered hair of my sisters-I just got the crooked bangs!)

They know I am not perfect so I can just be me! They know the Marissa who used to walk out of the house with ketchup all over her and not even realize it, who did not shower regularly until probably the 8th grade, who would follow them around like a lost puppy-just wanting to be a part of whatever they were a part of, who played sports all day every day, who always wanted to go places, who acted like she didn't want to be like her big sisters but who really wanted to do everything they did, who yelled at their boyfriends for not treating them right, who was a typical youngest sister! The girl with the crooked bangs, crooked teeth and mismatched clothes.

And so this week as I look forward to going HOME I am looking forward to a lot of things but the biggest one is just BEING with my family and enjoying each other. I am looking forward to the traditions of Christmas-cooking baking while listening to Johnny Mathis, all the kids sleeping on the floor at Grammy and Poppy's on Christmas eve, having breakfast casseroles, opening amazing stockings, going into Philly and so much more!

HOME- it's nice to have a lot of places to call home but for me there's nothing like the original!

PS-the picture above is the show you that the wings have been replaced and we have grown up past the 70's!

Thanksgiving and snow

Last saturday I celebrated Thanksgiving with my friends here in Brussels. It was a lovely day of cooking in Fiona and rasmus' amazing kitchen(pretty much any kitchen with an oven qualifies as amazing for me these days! but theirs even has a dishwasher!!), listening to Christmas music on their high-tech internet radio gadget, eating way to much food, laughing til our sides hurt(as if the food hadn't made them hurt enough), and then consuming dessert!

Fiona always decorates things so great-last year was a purple, black and white theme but this year it was a much more traditional fall colored them-yeah for the orange!!!

I totally forgot to take any pictures of the main meal but here we are digging into some dessert! I can't tell you how;) but I even managed to get Zielger's apple cider(anyone from PA will know what that is!)

This is some of us trying not to go into a turkey coma whilst sitting on their amazingly large and comfy sofa! We also got some american football on the computers for a little while-I have to say the europeans were not as into that as us americans.

This week has been a week of snow- There was even a snow day on thursday-not for the Belgian schools but the international schools went for it:) My street is scary steep even on the best of days so on snowy days most people are wise enough not to attempt driving up it. That meant that there were not many cars parked on the street and the neighborhood kids have been using it as their sledding hill. It's pretty fun to watch:) and last night they were out there at 12:30 enjoying themselves-I think I may have scared them with my stalking out the window:)

Here was my terrace yesterday-so pretty with all the snow-but at some point last night it got a little warmer and must have rained away the snow. But no worries it is snowing again as I write this!

I kissed the waiter

So perhaps I have lived in europe too long or perhaps it was just one of those nights but about a week ago my friend hannah was in town. Hannah is a friend i met while working at YoungLife camp in Canada 3 years ago. She had brought kids up for the week and we struck up a friendship. The next summer I again worked at camp and at the end of that time I needed a place to crash for a few days so Hannah let me crash with her in Seattle. I had not seen hannah in over 1 1/2 years but she recently moved to Ireland so we had great plans for visiting each other. Hannah finally came for her first visit to Brussels. It was kind of an insane work week so she was getting dragged around to all my various YoungLife stuff(good thing she's used to that!) The first night she was in town she came with me to basketball tryouts and then we came home to meet my friend fiona for dinner.

We don't often go out to eat but since it was getting late and I didn't have much in the way of creating a meal we decided to walk down to the Italian restaurant on the corner. When Liesl lived here we used to go to Cicio Bella a few times a month but it had been a while since I had been there. The people who work there are all Italian and speak mostly italian with a little french and english thrown in.

when we got there it was pretty empty so they seated us near the bar. we ordered our food and began chatting and enjoying ourselves. Throughout that night we apparently became the entertainment for all the staff:) It began when our waiter twice dropped stuff while he was serving us-first butter and then utensils. Our conversation was also creating a lot of laughter on our part so i think we began to attract attention.

Long story short- as the night went on a particular young and cute italian waiter began a slight flirtation with me. This led to us getting free dessert and drinks. we were having a lovely evening. After being there for several hours we decided it was time to head home. We got up to go and the cute young italian guy and I ended up in an uncomfortable closeness. I wasn't sure what was going on so I kissed him on the cheek and headed out.

I got out the door and looked at hannah and burst out, "i kissed the waiter!" we had a great laugh on the way home- I mean how many times do you get to kiss your young cute italian waiter?:)

Needless to say Hannah wanted to return to the restaurant every night after that!

Birthday reflection

I don't have a great memory when it comes to things that have happened in my life but my birthday is one day that I can usually remember what I was doing in the past. Last year my mom, dad, wanda and tori were here-my car broke down, we ate at Le Klepto for dinner and I opened my presents at about 11PM! 4 years ago on this day I had just moved to Belgium from Norway-I had been here maybe 3 days and knew about that same amount of people. 5 years ago I was in Norway. 10 years ago I was living in Atlanta-I had just moved there 2 months before. 15 years ago I was a sophomore in college living in a dorm and 20 years ago I was a freshmen in high school. Wow how time flies and how my life has gone in a direction I literally never dreamed of.

As most of you know every Wednesday morning I meet with a group of high school girls who come over to my place for breakfast and a Bible study. This semester we have been going through the book of Esther. Don't know if you know this or not but the name of God is not ever mentioned in the book. So as we began looking at the book we talked about that fact-that even though His name is not mentioned- His hand is all over the story. He was writing Esther's story from the very beginning. Every week we've talked about that fact that God is also writing our story even if we never audibly hear Him speak.

Yesterday morning we were looking at the 6th chapter and here is what hit me-within the first 4 verses you see God's timing perfectly. If you don't remember the story-look it up-it's amazing!! The king "just happens" to be up, he "just happens" to have read to him the story of Mordecai saving his life and Haman "just happens" to be in the hall when he asks. All of these "just happens" are really God's perfect timing and his plan.

My life-I don't foresee a time when my story is literally written down into a book like Esther's but at the same time my story is being written. I can see God's hand in the timing and direction of things. And though my memory often fails to recollect many of the events in my life I love that at least once I year I can look back and be amazed at how God has moved in my life. It is always an amazing reminder to me of His complete faithfulness. Seriously-as much as I loved the traveling even as a kid I NEVER imagined I would be living in another country, doing the most amazing job anyone could ever imagine, getting to know people from around the globe. I never would have imagined how much God has shown me and grown me and blown my mind away with His awesomeness(wow-sorry about all the rhyming!). This morning as I skipped french-oops! and lay in bed I was just reminded how much God has done in my life and the fact that YES at the time it sometimes hurts but looking back it is always amazing. So here's to another awesome year!

Some highlights of the past year: Cooked thanksgiving dinner by myself for 12 people, went snowboarding in the Alps-1st time, first concert in Belgium-Kelly Clarkson, bought a car all in French, Tenerife Spain, ran in a race with my sister-Trisha, learned how to wakeboard, Macedonia-2nd time, Spain-lots of it including Madrid and Barcelona, the shore with my family, working at Crooked Creek Ranch in Colorado, meeting Kate-my sweet friend Amybeth's-new baby girl from China. There are so many more!!!

Birthday celebrations begin

So Thursday is my birthday-woop woop!!:) My mom and my oldest sister Wanda both sent messages recently that I should be on the lookout for packages from them and that I should let them know when they get here-there's always some concern when crossing an ocean. Well my landlords-who are amazing! usually answer for any packages I get and then they put them on a shelf in the hallway. So for the last few days I have rounded the corner of the stairs anticipating seeing a package. I have gotten a few cards but so far none of the coveted packages. Today there was one there! Now-normally I would rip open the package and open everything in them but this year I have decided(we'll see how long it actually lasts) that I would leave any wrapped presents wrapped until my actual birthday.

This package was from Wanda-now whenever I describe Wanda's gift giving skills I usually talk in terms like, "She is the BEST gift giver ever," or "Wanda picked out the gift because she is the most creative!" so I knew there was going to be something GREAT in the package. I brought it into my apartment and dumped out the contents. Remember-I had decided that if it was wrapped I wouldn't open it but I also know my family and they tend to cram stuff that is not wrapped into packages:)!!! there were some reece's pieces-yum and candy corn-yeah! even a little plastic cockroach-thanks wanda:) but there was one thing especially eye-catching. Inside of a plastic bag there was a chick-fil-a paper bag. You know the kind your amazing chick- fil-a waffle fries and classic sandwich with extra pickles comes in!? I smiled- knowing my family is well aware of my love for chick-fil-a and knowing that they share it. BUT and here's the interesting part- there was something INSIDE the bag. I had a moment of concern-had Wanda really tried to send a chick-fil-a sandwich in the mail???!!- I would love her for it even if I wouldn't eat it so I opened up the bag with some trepidation and when i looked inside I burst out laughing!! There were probably 10 packets of Heinz Ketchup:) Now if you know me as an adult you may not be aware of this BUT my FIRST LOVE was Heinz Ketchup. As a kid I put it on EVERYTHING-and by everything I mean things like but not limited to: steak, lima beans, green beans, potatoes, mashed potatoes, chicken, bread-and pretty much everything else that made it on my plate. And the best part was-after pretty much every meal I had ketchup on my clothes somewhere! My love of ketchup continues to this day but has been partially replaced by my love of salsa AND I am also much better at keeping it off of my clothes! But Wanda remembers the good ole days and for that I say, "Hats off to you wanda, you truly are the BEST gift giver EVER!!"

Here is the bag and one of the packets of ketchup-the rest are getting put away for a rainy day:)

French Class

So I spend an insane amount of hours each week in French class and you would think that after a year of this I would be able to speak at least a little French-it is not true!

Last year I had an AMAZING teacher-Dominique-

she was lovely in every sense of the word- she was patient, hysterically funny- at least i think so- the fact that I didn't understand a good 70% of what she was saying may have made her funnier.

This year I have a teacher who does not know how to teach. I hate going to class every day and I am holding out because supposedly our regular teacher is on maternity leave and will be back in November-so just 3 more weeks of Brigitte!!

SO my strategy so far is to keep my mouth shut-because not only does Brigitte not know how to teach-she is also not very patient. But sometimes I do get called on and in those cases I hope for the best. Today was a day I could not avoid being called on. SO we were supposed to tell about someone famous. Problem is-we're all from different countries so one person's idea of famous might not be another's. So the first couple of people were speaking of some old French man-still don't know who that was. I decided that when it got close to my turn I needed a bathroom break-in the sincere hope that by the time I got back it would already be past me:) Well I got back just in time- lucky me-and found out they had changed people and now I was to tell about Shakira. Well obviously i know who that is but LITERALLY the ONLY thing I know about her is that she is a singer. And so I told my not so patient teacher that and she told me I could pick anyone. BRAIN FREEZE! I couldn't think of anyone. SO I picked Obama-problem being I know NOTHING about his childhood either. So I decided to make it up:) And said that he had gone to private school-at which point I was corrected by no less that 50% of my class! so then I decided to say he had been the senator for illinois. My teacher said -what?!" I said "illinois" she said "what?" I said the "l'etat illinois" and she said "oh illinois" with a french accent!! Seriously!! since it's an american city you'd think I could at least get that right- but NO!

Viva le francais!!

Autumn is here!

SO fall has officially fallen on Brussels-there for a while it was a little too early(august) for my taste but now that it's actually October I welcome the gorgeous fall colors, crisp air and opportunity to break out all my amazing fall sweaters that I love so dearly(orange being my favorite color makes fall extra special!) I can also neither confirm or deny the fact that Christmas lights are hanging in my living room and Amy Grant's Christmas Album may have gotten played for just a moment-ooops!

So the fall has been exciting and fun and I have been RUBBISH at taking photos to document it! Friday night was homecoming at ISB so there was football to be played and after a gorgeous fall day it started to pour at the exact moment that the football game began. But of course-as a faithful fan I stayed for almost a full half:) I also had plans to go to a ladies night at my friend Fiona's- we chatted and then watched a Jane Austin film-it doesn't get much more girlie than Jane Austin! Here are some pictures from the football game.

After a FULL day of pouring rain-which had started at the beginning of the football game Friday night and continued the whole way through Saturday-Today the sunshine is out so after a bike ride through the forest this morning I decided to go do a little photo shoot around my part of town. I won't bore you with all the pics but here are a few that show the signs of the season!