pizza and masquerades

Here are some pics of the past week or so. Things have been busy with visitors, themed hot lunches and Christmas Banquets. I have been kept on my toes. It has been fun despite some of the insanity though. I am looking forward to a little break this weekend - I am going to see some German friends in Heidelberg - 1 of my campers from 3 years ago. :) Praise God for big groups going which means very cheap transportation. I am looking forward to Christmas break and seeing NY again - and my dear loved ones and friends. Right now though I will carry on and get to know these awesome girls that God created. It is an adventure! Thanks for your prayers! They are greatly needed! Enjoy the pics...




Emily and Steph - 2 of my very cool seniors of Wittlingen - I had some fun moments with both recently :)









Italian Restaurant Hot Lunch Friday - Witt girls eat well thanks to Witt Staff :)









The Christmas Banquet this year was a masquerade - here I am with 2 other BFA RA's :)











Me and my fellow Witt RA's at the banquet - Jessica, me, Kristi and Rachel

Here are all the Witt girls - aren't we lovely?

Thanksgiving...a little Early

Well Friends, Happy Dorm Thanksgiving to you! Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving 2 weeks early - because it gives us a chance to celebrate Christmas as a dorm before we leave mid-December. Also it is between Canadian and American Thanksgiving. It ended up being a really good time - I even got to make rolls from scratch for the first time - a couple hundred of them :) We had 6 turkeys and a ham and 49 people attending. It was a nice change of pace and everyone lingered at the table enjoying good food and fellowship. I am thankful that we were able to have such a good night. We later watched White Christmas to begin hailing in the Christmas season that is coming.

The girls are off today - I stayed home with those girls who didn't go ice skating. It is a fairly busy weekend - our play practice girls have big practice this weekend - their play is next weekend. The next few weekends will be filled!! I am glad to be here but I must say I look forward to going home to see my loved ones in NY as well. I will be going Dec. 17 and gone through Jan 4th.

Pray for me as I make decisions and need wisdom with different things. Pray that I would build good relationships and know when to say things to certain people. Pray that our team would grow stronger and communicate well. Pray also for finances - that God would continually provide for various needs and bills that need paid for.

Praise God for the chance to be here in the fall time. Praise God for great girls. Praise God for fun experiences. Praise God for great conversations. Praise God that I will be able to go home for Christmas!!

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving - enjoy!

A view of our full dining room

Our girls like pumpkin pie! :)

Cameron (our adopted dorm girl) and Shannon - they ate at my table :)

An amazing sunset that we saw tonight!
My first pumpkin that I carved last week with Jessica! :)

Autumn Times...

I thought I would share with you a bit of the autumn beauty that I see all the time these days here in Germany. I am thankful to be here to experience the seasons change in a different culture. The bottom pictures are from Herbstmesse with the whole school on Tuesday. It is a Fall Fair in Basel - we took 5 buses in - it was a huge carnival all over the city. I went on a few rides and had a few heart to hearts. It has been a good week. Yesterday was a holiday - All Saints Day - so it was a different type of day as all the kids were home. We had Lord of the Rings Marathons and carved pumpkins (I carved my first one ever :)) Lots of fun. It is nice to have the different pace to have different chances to spend time with the girls here. Today was pretty normal but I was reminded on a walk just how thankful to God I am that I get to minister here for the year. God is providing even when I am not sure how that is all going to work out. God knows what He's doing - I just need to trust him. Thank you for all your prayers - they are greatly appreciated!!






The sun peeks through the trees in the woods near Sitzenkirch - we were in search of castle ruins.







This is the castle we tried to find - we ended up on the other side :( - oops - It was a great hike though - so beautiful - God is amazing - so creative!!




Here is a glimpse of Herbstmesse -

quite a bright colored carnival!! Lots of activity!













Me and 2 of my girls - Rachel (my seat buddy of the day on the bus) and Autumn (quite the character who makes everyone smile!!)

More Scenes from the Open House

Here are some more pics from our open house this past Sunday. Good Job girls for putting it all together so well! It was quite the unity building experience!!





I had to show a pic of NY wall since it is my native state- it was a part of the North America section. All the continents were represented in our dorm. My section was Antarctica (since I am in the outermost parts it makes lots of sense).










We had different food stands in our "food court" - Chelsea - one of the McClary kids was serving EisCaffe (Iced Coffee) at our "Starbucks" (the logo in back of her was drawn and colored btw by one of the talented girls here:))











Tamara was one of our ticket agents - she made sure everyone got on the "flights" they wanted.










Josiah is another McClary child - he was a fellow crazy tourist with me.















Heather and Torri made sure everything was secure at each security checkpoint! :)