Thanksgiving

My family always celebrates Thanksgiving on the Saturday after so I spent Thanksgiving Day with my friend, Julie, and her family. Her parents and brother were also there and we enjoyed quite the feast! I watched some football, took a nap, and enjoyed spending the day with my good friends. On Friday I traveled to my parents for a weekend with my family. I was especially excited this year because we were having a special guest. When I was 3 years old we had a foreign exchange student from Peru live with us for 9 months. Now she lives in Virginia and she was coming to spend the weekend with us. My sisters had taken a trip to Peru to visit her a few years ago but the rest of us had not seen her in 38 years. It was good to visit with her. We had a houseful of people, as we always do as there about 30 just in my immediate family, and enough food to feed us all a few times over! The best part, besides seeing Mely, was my mom's stuffing. She makes it from scratch and it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it! My family plays a lot of games when we're together and this weekend did not disappoint! And a few of us even took in a night of bowling with a several of my nieces and nephews. All in all it was a good weekend! You can go here for pictures if you're so inclined...

Birthday Wishes

Dan and Jill on their way to a costume party

Today is Jill's, my sister-in-law's, birthday. And just to show you what kind of person she is you should know that when I came upstairs this morning to make coffee she had left a donut on the counter for me in celebration of her birthday! Nice... But she is thoughtful that way. She even lets me play her person on Mario Kart Wii since there is only room for 4 people to play. :-) She is the most creative person I know and she is the best thing to have happened to my brother. She teaches kindergarten and one day when I was unemployed she paid me to do a little work in her classroom and I got to see her in action. All I can say is I was pretty amazed at what she does in the classroom. And I'm pretty amazed at what she does at home. She loves to make cards (something that I am NOT patient at) and every now and then she'll drag out her supplies and stock up. Which I love because then she lets me use them when I need one! (See? Thoughtful...) She makes her Christmas cards, her kids Halloween costumes, the curtains that hang in the kitchen, and the best soup you will ever eat! For all I know she probably got up early and made that donut she left me!

I am thankful for the relationship that we share...you see, I live in their basement. I have since the year my brother went overseas and she asked me to move in while he was gone. Since that time I have become a missionary and am now doing what I need to do to begin my ministry in south Brazil...and I still live in the basement. And it is a tremendous blessing to me! To not have to worry about a place to live and the things that go along with that... To have one less thing to worry about on this journey is a HUGE help to me and I don't say thank you to them enough for letting me "squat" in the room downstairs. So, THANK YOU, Jill! That simple act of you asking me to move in when Dan was gone has blessed me a hundred times over. Thanks for giving up what you do so I can live with you guys. Thanks for all the movie nights (even though our movie track record is NOT good!), for feeding me, for telling me you like having me here, for really wanting me to come to your birthday dinner, for always making me a birthday dinner, for being more like a sister than a sister-in-law...I could go on but I really want to eat that donut!

So, (as they say at Disney World) have a magical birthday! :-)
I love you...

Blackmail

Dan, my brother, just came down to see if I had any money. Turns out my nephew lost his tooth today and they didn't have very much change for the tooth fairy! Haha!! I scrounged around and came up with 85 cents to donate to the cause. My brother will never live this one down!! And I will forever immortalize this moment by blogging about it...you can thank me later, Dan! :-)

Remnants

Well it happened. Today we got snow. Now it wasn't a lot, mind you, but it was enough to coat the back of my car and my mirrors. Which in my opinion is too much! But nothing could damper my spirits today because tonight was the Starfield's "I Will Go" concert!! If, for some reason, you live in the Des Moines area and you did not go see them tonight you really missed out! What an amazing concert! So fun and so filled with worship! And all for only $10! I tried to take some pics on my cell phone but those never turn out. Here are the best two...


This is the band, "Above the Golden State". Actually it's just their lead guy b/c the rest of the band was back in Portland working. They (he) was pretty good...


And this is Starfield...

They will be in Davenport this Sunday night (November 9), 7pm, at Harvest Bible Chapel. If you live in that area I highly recommend going to this concert. Or you can look on their website to see when they might be in your area. And if you don't already have their CD "I Will Go" -- go out and get it!

Enough my of "infomercial". I just love this band! But I'm off to bed because tomorrow I get to hang out with my nephews all day! Sweet! G'night...