What a great thing to be involved in.

Cosmo Cricket (A scrap Company) has started out December with a BANG. They want to donate $1.00 for every person who posts a comment...just a Merry Christmas will do.

The ARE NOT giving anything away and you can tell. Only 219 people have commented, so that's only $219.00 to go to charity. So, please go to their blog and leave a little comment, and lets see how much money we can get them giving away to charity.

Go to their blog http://cosmocricket.blogspot.com/ and leave them a comment. Lets help them make this a good charitable donation!



Watching the snow fall outside our dining room window. So pretty (from the inside looking out.)


Yesterday was a very snowy day. It was beautiful from the inside looking out. Richard was in a picture taking mood so he took this one of the dining room window with the snow falling outside and a candle lit inside. Winter is a great time to light a lot of candles, which we do. It was such a cozy atmosphere and the picture turned out pretty, so wanted to share it with everyone.

I'M SO EXCITED...

I just found out this afternoon that I won a prize for the baby dedication layout that is posted on my blog. At Your Memories By Design, their Design Team comes up with challenges. One of them for the month of November was to do a layout with lots of texture. I did this layout with embossed photo frames and a lamb, flowers of fabric and paper and one that is an epoxy flower. Just scroll down the page to see the layout.

SO MUCH HAS BEEN GOING ON...

Time just has a way of whipping by with the blink of an eye. There is so much going on, and its mostly good things. I say that because I spent the better part of a week sick. That was not a good part.

First of all, today is a wonderful day. I just completed another year of my life. My darling husband has been having fun trying to pull all kinds of surprises on me. This morning he fixed me coffee, and gave me a great present. He was able to find a creamer and sugar bowl for our china. The pattern has been discontinued, and its hard to find pieces, but being the bargain hunter that he is, he found them on e-bay. We bought our china with anniversary gifts the first year we were in Germany. (I held on to the money for quite a while until I found what I really wanted for china). And we use it everyday. Its great. If we would have know that the price to buy more pieces would go up so high, we would have tried to buy them before they discontinued the pattern.

Next, he made a date with me a few days ago to take me to breakfast this morning. So, off we went to the restaurant. When I walked in the door, a group of staff members started singing Happy Birthday. What a shock it was. But such a fun one.

A couple of pictures from the big event. At breakfast with my darling hubby and at home with many expressions of love waiting to be opened.








On Thanksgiving - which isn't celebrated here in Germany like in the states - our leadership team took us out to celebrate the great day. They even asked Dick to tell a little bit about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it. We didn't have a traditional "turkey and trimmings" dinner but we did have a wonderful "Duck dinner with all of the trimmings." It was a wonderful evening with good friends and lots of laughter and joy. At the end of the evening they gave us a huge bouquet of roses.





We have so much to be thankful for. First of all, the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done in our lives. Then we have the most wonderful family any parents could have. 4 wonderful children and their spouses and then the added blessing of grandchildren. 11 grandchildren with one marrying into the family last August. Our family just keeps expanding with more blessings from the Lord. Then there is the opportunity to serve the Lord here in Germany at an international Bible school. The opportunity to speak into the lives of students from so many different places. I could keep going on and on but there wouldn't be enough time for people to read it all, so I will just say that I am truly a blessed woman.

Another thing we were able to partake of, was an amazing group of orphans from Africa, that sang and danced for over 2 hours. There was one young woman - probably early to mid-teen that gave an amazing testimony of how Jesus healed her of AIDS. She was born with this disease and now is completely free of it. Her previous tests had come back positive, but the last one she had, it came back normal. NO AIDS. She had everyone in tears by this time in her testimony. Now she is praying for her brother who also was born with this disease.

This group of children and adults have traveled all over Germany and so many people have been blessed by their songs and dancing. The girl with the pots on her head has learned how to concentrate and hold them steady as she dances. She started out with one and ended up with with 6 clay pots on her head.









So many things going on that we are able to partake of . Thank you for reading my blog. Be blessed. Until next time.

Can't believe how long its been since I posted here.

Well, a lot has happened in the last two weeks. We have been to Wornetz for a weekend of meetings. Richard did a men's meeting on Saturday morning the 25th on October. On Saturday afternoon I spoke for a woman's meeting. We both enjoyed our times with the people. On Sunday morning Richard preached for the Sunday morning church service. One thing he was invited to do was a baby dedication. There were two children that were dedicated that morning. One was the baby daughter of the Pastor and his wife. This baby is a miracle baby. While pregnant, the mom had some serious health issues, had to have massive doses of antibiotics and a couple of operations. With all of the trama to the mom and the medicines she was on, the Dr's kept saying they didn't know how it would affect the child. Well, to see her at 5 months old, she is a happy, alert little one.

The other child was a little boy. He was a little older and the parents were so blessed by the service. Its always so much fun to pray over the little ones like this.

It is in German, but it means...We come together to bless...
Now to get the little girls page done, so I can send them to the parents.

Another grandchild becomes a teenager. I can't believe how fast time goes. Of the 11 grandkids, 2 are in their 20's now, and 5 are teenagers and 4 are 10 and younger.

We stay very busy with all of activities at the school. This week Richard has had 2 full class schedule days, and tomorrow it is the same thing. Then he has no classes the rest of the week.
We have had special meeting to attend, a birthday party for one of the staff, getting together with the 3rd year students to hear about their mission trip, and the early morning staff meetings before classes start. But, we really love it, or we wouldn't be here.

I have gotten started on making my Christmas cards. I have about half of them made now, so this week its on the agenda to finish them and get my addresses put together. This is the first year I have actually done this. I have wanted to do it, but just put it off to long, and then it was to late to get it done, so store bought cards for people here in Germany.

Today I had my two ladies for English classes. It is always so much fun to get together with them. The lady that is about my age was so excited today. She said the time spent with me just talking in English helped her to speak to a couple from New Zealand last Sunday without any fear. YEA Elke. Today, she asked if she could just tell me about some of the German holiday traditions and what they represent. It was so fun to hear what the mean of many things is. From the Advent Wreath to the special holiday cookies and the Christmas Stollen. I think I am learning way more than she is. I get to help correct her English and I get a lot of information about Germany.

Here is a current layout of Richard and I. I am glad at our ages that we are still healthy and able to do so many awesome things.

I have to make this a priority!

I can get busy doing so many things that I forget to update my blog. And the reason for doing one is to keep people posted as to what is happening with me.

Well, I have two women that I am helping to learn English. On woman is my age and wants to go to Israel to work in a guest house. She has moderately good English, but know that she needs to get better, since she will be working with many English speaking people. She is such a delight to work with. This morning she forgot her book that she is studying, so we read our of the Bible - or I should say she read. Then we discussed the words she didn't understand. It was so good and rewarding. Not only to study English but to get some added Bible reading in also. Then she asked me to read and she would listen and see if she understood what was being read. She had more of an issue understanding. So we went through more words for understanding. Then she handed me the same translation that we had read, only in German, and asked me to read it to her. Well, I read the whole 37th chapter of Psalms in German. Yes...she had to correct my pronunciation many times, but I was amazed at how much I could read with out her help. She was very encouraging to me about my German. Oh...it is so hard. I wish I could have met her a few years ago, I think we could have been very good friends.

The other woman is a student at our Bible school. She had English in school, but that has been many years ago, and she has forgotten much of her English. She was doing better by the time our lesson time was up yesterday afternoon. She has to search for words (Oh I understand that) but she was communicating so that I understood all that she was saying. So, I think it will be fun working with both of these women. They both come to my home, so that helps me also.

Last weekend I spent my time doing a Scrapbook Crop. It was fun for me, since my dear husband got all of the meals for the weekend. And I had some wonderful meals. (At least I cleaned up after he fixed the meals - which is sometimes a pretty big task. heehee. ) I have so many pictures that I don't know if I will ever get caught up on the scrapping. But I am getting many layout done of our cruise during the summer. You can see some of my layouts on my creative blog. It... margueritescreativity.blogspot.com

Tomorrow we leave for a weekend of ministry. Richard will do a mens seminar on Sat. morning and I will do one on Sat. afternoon for the women. Then on Sunday morning Richard will preach for the Sunday service and we will also have the privilege of doing a baby dedication. The pastor and his wife have a 5 month old girl - after having 3 sons, and another couple are dedicating a little boy. These are always such fun time for us. The pastor and his wife are from South America - but of German decent. They were students of the Bible school for two years before he started to pastor the church. So its a joy to be able to go visit them.

Well, as many of you know, our oldest grandson got married in August. So, I want to share a layout about them. Its their first dance as husband and wife. The pictures were so cute that I wanted to share them with all of you. Thanks for stopping by. Please come back.

I just finished a wonderful supper the my darling husband fixed. He is so sweet. This afternoon he started looking for a different recipe for fixing chicken. He settled on a cream sauce with Leeks and onions in it, with the chicken simmered in it also, over rice. It was so good.

In the last couple of years he has started getting interested in cooking. We started out doing a lot of cooking together. Now, he will do the whole meal. He is always asking if he is taking over my territory. Well, the answer in no. If he enjoys it, I don't mind having him do it. I do still cook, and I am a pretty good cook. I think this is an outlet for him so I don't mind at all.

Yesterday was a pretty sad day. We were both pretty emotional. I got up to an e-mail that my favorite Aunt was in the hospital. She will be 81 on the 28th of this month. They don't know exactly what is wrong with her, but its been pretty difficult what ever she is going through. I just pray that she recovers from what ever she is going through.

There were several other situations of people we know and love that are dealing with life threatening issues - it was pretty heavy. So, we do have many people on our prayer list that need a lot of help and hope.

So, when I have days like this I think of my family and how thankful I am for them. As many of you know, we have 11 - sorry, its 12 wonderful grandchildren. Our oldest grandson just got married in August, so I keep forgetting that there are 12 now. They range in age from 22 to 2.
Since we live in Germany we don't get to see them as often as we would like. So I rely on pictures being sent to keep up with what is going on with them, how they are growing. You know, big events in their lives - sports - music - college - high school -elementary school - to pre school.

So yesterday I made a layout of our youngest son and his oldest son walking on an Oregon Beach. I just love looking at the picture, so though I would get it in my scrapbook, so I could see it better than looking on the computer of the picture. My creative outlet.

This picture also happens to fit the challenge #2 for a scrapbook site called Scrap Whispers. So I got two things in one accomplished. It helped me get out of the blues, and I got a challenge done. Hope you enjoy the layout.

Reid and Connor on an Oregon Beach in August 08.

ANOTHER ADVENTURE IN MY LIFE

I decided to start a blog. This way I can post pictures and keep you updated as to what is going on in my life. Sounds simple, but for someone that might be just a little "technically challenged" I have spent several hours trying to understand everything. So...for me to have gotten this far is a good thing.

Some of the things that I have been doing lately:
Having many guest in our home for meals. We are part of a staff group at the Bible School where we are. So last Monday evening we had our group for supper. I fixed soup, salad and hot rolls. For dessert I fixed American Apple Pie, with ice cream and/or cheddar cheese. American desserts are interesting for Germans to try. Much sweeter than they are used to and very different.

On Wednesday we had the 3rd year Bible School class that Richard leads here. There is only 9 in the class - which is a good size. Its called the Leadership School - students that feel they have a calling to be in a leadership position. They were getting ready for a 3 week mission trip to Turkey and Bulgaria. They came at 2:30 for a tour of the farm we live on. We live in a building that was built in 1127 as a Monastery. After the reformation it became a private dwelling - but the church building on the end of the building is still used for services every Sunday. There is much history surrounding this place, so our landlord gave the students a tour and told them all about the place. After the tour we had coffee and Texas Sheet Cake and visited. At 6:00 I gave them jobs to do to prepare the evening meal. We had Taco's (which several had never experienced eating before) and Corn Chips and a warm dip. It was fun watching them do as I had asked them. Setting the table - cooking, chopping, cleaning up. They did well.

Friday Oct. 3rd the team left at 11:30 to start their own adventure. We got to pray with them and see them on their way.

We went back to the school at 12:30 for a special lunch and program. Friday was German reunification day. The program started with those students that were from the former East Germany and other Eastern countries behind the "Wall" running through a paper wall that had been made, to give us a look at the excitement of being free to come and go within their own country. I was amazed at how emotional I got watching it. These people had lived behind the wall.


This is the "paper wall" that was placed over the doorway.











The "wall" coming down.













The people are FREE!!!!!












What an exciting program and great meal we had.

This past week was meetings, 4 young men from the 2nd year program at the Bible school came on Tuesday evening to have coffee and cookies and talk. It was fun to get to know these students better.

Between helping Richard, keeping up with regular house work, etc., I have been involved in some scrapbooking things.

During the summer I was in a contest at Scrapbook Playground. the contest was called the "Scrapbooking Olympics." They gave prizes for gold, silver and bronze places. I got the gold. I have received several wonderful prizes for this accomplishment. Wonderful scrapbooking supplies that I am using now.

One of them is on the YMBD web site. They are having a contest called "So You Think You Can Scrap". There were 53 entries and I made the first cut. The next voting is 18 & 19th, which I will put on this blog so you can see all of the wonderful entries. I cannot ask for people to vote for my layout, but I can invite people to go to the site and see all of the wonderful layouts and vote for their favorite one. They are numbered and you just vote for the number of your favorite layout. Pretty exciting.

On another site called "Scrap Whispers" they are doing a really fun thing. Like the old game of gossip we used to play as kids (at least that is what it was called when I was a kid) where you tell someone something and then the next person tells what they heard, etc. until the last person has to tell what they heard. Most times it was nothing like what it started out to be. Any way, this is where one person gets a scrapbook layout, and then has to make a layout of that layout. At the end of 6 or 7 weeks, we will see all of the layouts and the original and see how they look from beginning to end. There are 6 teams and they only do the layout one time per team member.

I just loved these pictures of Cason and Ali Hill. So this is one of the last layouts I have done. You will see lots of my grandkids in my layouts.

















Thanks for reading the first post in my blog. Hope you come often and leave me a note.