I'm Living the GREAT ADVENTURE

WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN JANUARY

2009-01-30T13:23:00.005+01:00

Well, January has turned out to be a very busy month for us. We got to Fl. and started right in doing more things in the house. We have to have it ready to bring our stuff back this summer. We plan on returning to the states the end of May. So things have to be ready for our "stuff" to enter into a house that already has "stuff" in it.

There are still major things that had to be done, and we are getting them done. The biggest thing was getting rid of the old - old carpet in the house. We looked at laminate flooring but decided on carpet again. We wanted it to look Floridaish (probably not a real word, but you know what I mean) so we went with a pretty green carpet in the small living room and guest room/scrapbook room.
Out with the old...

In with the "new".

We had an old bamboo set of furniture on the porch, needed some attention, but the scale was good for the living room. We had the cushions reupholstered and hubby sanded and refinished the wood frames. It looks brand new. We are so happy with it. We donated the big, old hide-a-bed and a mismatched coffee table to a charity here in town - which made the living room seem much larger.

Painting, painting, and more painting. But we now have light rooms. In the guestroom/ scrapbooking room we put in the leftover counter top as a work are for me. I am going to enjoy it a lot.

My creative space (well, part of it.) Its not all complete but well on the way.

In between all of the work, we did make two weekend trips. We went to Lake Placid to see our brother and sister-in-law and their family. A fun thing we got to do was sit around a fire pit and make S'mores. Haven't done that in ages. We talked and laughed late into the evening. On Sunday Dick ministered at the church that Scott and Sylvia attend. We had a great time with the people there. Then back to the house for lunch and more visiting. It was a very fun weekend for use to be with the family.

Dick roasting marshmellows.

Scott and Sylvia getting the graham crackers, peanut butter and chocolate ready for the hot marshmellows.

The next weekend we went to Ft. Meyers to see our nephew and his wife and new baby. Little Emily Love is so sweet, and I enjoyed all of the cuddle time I got to have with her. It just wasn't a long enough visit, but better than not getting to see them at all.

Micah, Jen and Lil Miss Emily Love

After leaving there we went to Port Charlotte to visit Peter and Betty. We have known Peter since 1983 when he and our Son were in Bible College together. Peter has a ministry in Port Charlotte and we were invited to minister to their worship leaders, church leaders and Dick ministered on Sunday morning. We had a great weekend with them.

Peter and Betty and Dick.

Then back to work between trips. All in all it has been a very productive time for us. The only downfall was last Tuesday. We had been painting (I used a long handled paint roller to do walls) and a lot of bending. On Tuesday evening, we were having dinner guests and I turned wrong and put my back out. What a way to end our time in Fl. But...Wed. it was worse, so Dick had to see if he could change our return flight. We had favor with the airline, since our ticket was the "use it or loose it fare". They let us extend our return flight by a week. Now to get this back healed so I can drag my suitcase through the airport and on and off of the trian in Germany. I just don't understand Dick saying he couldn't handle 3 suitcases and 2 computer bags and a camera bag and me. So, this has been our month. Lots going on and lots of blessings from God.

One other exciting thing happened for me in January. I had my first 2 scrapbook layouts published in an on-line scrapbook magazine. The magazine is Ready,Set, Create. I had one layout that was a heritage layout accepted and another one about Ryan (our oldest grandson) going from new born to engaged entitled "Where did the time go?" Some of my online friends encouraged me to submit some of my layouts, so I did. If it were not for their encouragement, it probably wouldn't have happened, so THANK YOU Corey and Kimmie!

So, when we return to Germany I need to start thinking about the move. Sorting things to get rid of and what to bring back. And only 4 months to accomplish it all.

A NEW YEAR STARTING

2009-01-07T17:26:00.008+01:00

Wow...I can't believe its been so long since I updated this blog. I knew that December was a very busy month but I had hoped that to have done a little on the blog.

We started December getting ready to decorate our apartment for the Christmas season. I love Christmas and wanted to decorate early. Deep cleaned the living room to get ready, and the best laid plans just didn't come to pass. It was almost the week before Christmas before I got to start decorating. Too much going on.

The first weekend in Dec. we went to Arnsberg in western Germany. We love to go and visit with Esther and Randolph and their church. We had a great weekend of ministry and just fun and fellowship also.

We had a visiting teacher stay with us for 3 days. He was teaching the 2nd and 3rd year students. This is the 3rd year that he has come and taught at the school for Richards 3rd year class.

On the 11th we headed to North Germany, a village called Krogaspe. We have dear friends there, and we wanted to visit and take in a couple of Christmas Markets. On Friday we went to Lubeck for the first market. It was fun with Hans and Else, and the old part of Lubeck is quite interesting, so it was a good day. On Sat. Richard had to study for his sermon on Sunday morning, so Hans and Else and I went to another Christmas Market. It was amazing. We went to a farm where they had set up a huge craft market and outside other booths with many different types of items. I loved the craft market, and found several different types of things. Some stocking stuffer items, which I love to find. On Sunday we were at the church and had a wonderful time with the people there. This is a bitter sweet time for us, since we are realizing that we may never be back there again, since we leave to move back to the states the end of May.

Marguerite - Richard - Else

I made Christmas cards this year. It was the first time I have ever done that, and I was so pleased with how most of them turned out. I only sent them to people in Germany, since postage to the US is more expensive than the cards I made. People in the states got our e-mail greeting - sorry.

The last week of school before break was very busy. I had my last English lesson until the 3rd of Feb. We also had a Christmas party for the 3rd year class. It was fun. We had supper for them, and boy do they like to eat. It was a fun night and we laugh a lot. Three of the students will travel to the US for their practical studies for a month. One young man will be at the Church in Gillette. I am so excited about the, as he will be working with our daughter and son-in-law and some dear friends for the month. I love it when our family gets to meet some of our students.

On the 19th we had the leadership team to our apartment for dinner. It was our way of showing them our love and appreciation for their work at the school. We had a wonderful dinner, and lots of fun conversation and prayer. The leadership team prayed for me, since that morning I found out that I had bronchitis, and also that we would have a safe trip to the states. Such wonderful friends to have.

We were able to open our home to one of our students that didn't have a place to go for Christmas. Not a good home situation, so Richard had an opportunity to speak into his life about some ways to try to make things a little better in that situation. Christmas morning we read the Christmas story, opened our stocking gifts, and ate a special brunch. Sven left a little before noon to spend a couple of hours with his mother and then he left for Frankfurt. He flew out the next morning for Missouri. He will do his practical study there for the month of Jan.

On the 31st we took the train to Frankfurt, spent the night - and what a night that was - to leave the next morning for the states. New Years eve in downtown Frankfurt is not a restful place to be. We tried to go to sleep early because of the long travel day on the 1st, but from about 11:30 until about 1:00 there were more fireworks shot off than I have ever seen. We finally got up and watched them for a while, until they started to settle down a little. So, not a whole lot of sleep. Our flight on the 1st was great. We left right on time, and because of the weather we got in 1 hour early. Gave us a little more time to visit with my family (my sister and her husband and my mom and dad). We had a good visit with them, ate a Chinese meal and then headed back for the airport in Detroit.

Richard - Marguerite - Susie - Kit - Mom & Dad

Marguerite - Mom - Dad

Marguerite - Mom - Susie

Got into Tampa about 10:00, got the car and went to a hotel. We really needed some sleep by then. It was a little over 24 hours by that time that we had been up.

We are now in Leesberg, Fl. for the month of Jan. Trying to get some things done at the house so we will be able to move our stuff here in May. With a house full of stuff, and bringing 8 years worth of stuff from Germany, we need to organize. So, that about brings you up to date on what is going on in our lives at the moment.

A fun thing is - we are now a great Aunt and Uncle. Richards nephew Micha and his wife Jen had a baby girl on the 2nd of Jan. We will get to see Emily Love on the 15th or 16th. How fun. She looks like a beautiful little girl, and little girls are a scarcity in our family, so it will be fun to meet her.

Micha - Emily Love - Grandpa Scott - Grandma Sylvia

We wish each of you a New Year filled with many blessing. My New Years resolution is to try to keep up a little better this year on my blog. My goal is to update it at least once a week. We will see.

What a great thing to be involved in.

2008-12-04T23:02:00.004+01:00

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...

2008-12-01T22:38:00.002+01:00

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...

2008-11-29T14:31:00.012+01:00

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.

2008-11-11T20:35:00.003+01:00

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!

2008-10-23T19:24:00.003+02:00

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.

2008-10-14T20:31:00.004+02:00

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

2008-10-12T16:13:00.007+02:00

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.