I can finally blog!

So I'm finally able to blog again. We still don't have Internet or phone... All I have to say about that is if AT&T doesn't get their act together, they are going to miss out on our business. But thankfully, I found a way to blog using my iPhone.

Update on Papa: he's still in hospice and I don't think there has been any improvement. Please keep praying for him.

Today we went to my niece, Lydia's, birthday party. She turned 2 on the 4th. Crazy! Next thing I know, Heidi will be 2. I don't know if I'm ready for that! Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to post pics from my camera but I can post pics from my phone so I will leave you with the only 2 I got with my phone today.


Heidi playing outside at the party


Mimi pushing Heidi in a car

Prayers for Papa

Please pray for my Papa, Obed Wooldridge. He is in the hospital and his kidneys are failing. He has stopped eating and drinking. He also has pneumonia. They are trying to get his kidneys to function again, but there is only so much they can do. He may not have long to live. If this is God's will, then pray for my Dad, my Aunt Becky and Uncle Ronnie and the rest of our family. My parents drove to Snyder, Texas to be there with him today. I will keep everyone updated when I find anything out. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

House Hunting

I couldn't go to bed tonight without posting about our first official day of house hunting. Our Realtor was actually unable to show us houses today, but he had a coworker take us to several houses that we were wanting to look at in a nice neighborhood we have our eye on.

Clint and I both had one particular house high on our list of favorites just by seeing the information and photos on the internet. We were both very excited to see it in person. We come in the house and it is obvious the house has been lived in, but that they recently moved out. There were some things I found strange... it didn't look like they really took the time to clean it very much after moving out. There was one hole in the wall behind a door where the doorknob had banged into the wall. These things, however, seemed fairly minor. They could be fixed, or cleaned so we continued to look with somewhat interest.

We looked through the entire house and were getting a pretty good feeling about it in general, when we decided to check out the garage. I reached for the door and the moment I opened the door, this stench hit me in the face. I said, "What is that smell?!" We slowly entered the room, staying close to the door and quickly scanned the room. Clint was the first to mention the refrigerator. As I focused my gaze on the refrigerator, I looked in horror at the pool of blood leaking out of it. I just stood, frozen, trying to reason with myself that it wasn't what it looked like. In what seemed like slow motion, Clint reached for the door to open it, as I screamed inside my head... "Don't open it, I don't want to see what's inside!" But the words didn't come out. As the door to the freezer opened, the stench grew more and more disgusting. I was feeling sick at my stomach and I felt like I was about to be traumatized by what I saw. I was so scared to see what it was. The entire freezer, from top to bottom, was full of raw, rotting meat. Disgusting!!! Yet, I have never been more relieved to see rotting meat in my life. We quickly closed the door, while commenting on how disgusting it was, and left the garage as quickly as possible.

As we got back into fresh air, the Realtor asked... "If you could block that out, what did you think about the rest of the house?" I think I literally laughed and shook my head saying, "I can't block that out!" The rest of the day I haven't been able to block that out and I think I may have nightmares about it.

What kind of person would leave raw, rotting meat in the house they are trying to sell??? Some people are so crazy...

On a better note, we did see some really nice houses with no rotting meat in them. We have 2 houses that we are still interested in that we saw today. We are keeping them on our list and perhaps we will go back to see them next week.

Return to the USA

Clint, Heidi and I arrived in Oklahoma 9 days ago. I guess the past week has gone pretty smoothly. We are doing well and trying our best to adjust. We have had lots of good times spent with my family. It has been wonderful seeing Heidi play with her cousins and with Mimi and Papa. We bought a truck on Monday. That was pretty exciting and we are enjoying it.

Clint tried to unpack and put away his things a couple of days ago, but I guess I just kept putting it off until today. I finally unpacked the rest of the suitcases and put everything away and tried to make our rooms in my parents house as comfortable as possible. In some ways, I guess that was very satisfying to finally be out of our suitcases and living like normal people. In another way, it was a realization for me that we are officially living outside of Germany.

I sat down and looked at some photos, read some cards from dear friends and a few tears came to my eyes tonight. I wanted to wallow in self pity but I decided that would do me no good. I tried to just smile and look at the wonderful memories and then finished up organizing our room.

I have also been putting off writing on my blog. Every time I thought about writing something, no words came to mind. I almost feel guilty to talk about the good and fun times we are having with our family because I miss my friends in Germany so much and I don't want them to think that I don't miss them. But I know that I promised to write and to keep this updated for my friends as well. So I am really going to try to do the best I can.

I hope this blog post is not as depressing as I think it is. Actually, I will end the post with some photos to lift the spirit of the post. :)

I hope you are all doing well. Love you!


Heidi and Casen are quickly becoming friends. Casen is the son of my good friends Josh and Amanda. he is 10 days younger than Heidi.


I got to see some great friends the day after I arrived. Pictured here is Laura (my voice teacher in college), Heidi, me, April (roommate and good friend from college) and Amanda (good friend from college). It was wonderful getting to spend time with these girls! Thank you for making me feel so welcome!


Our truck! It's a 2000 GMC Yukon.


Us in front of our truck.


Heidi playing with her cousins: Claire- 3 years and Lydia- 21 months. They thought the funnest thing about the park was stomping in a puddle and getting dirty. :)


I think Clint had just as much fun (if not more) as the girls did in the pool. In the picture is also my brother, Jonathan.

Pause

Pause is German for stop, rest or break. I guess you could say I have been taking a "pause" from my blog lately. I just have found no time for it and I'm pretty sure that within the next few weeks I will not find time for it either. I think I am going to think through whether I keep the blog going or not. Maybe when we are back in the States I will have more time to do it, but let's face it... you can't always expect to have "more time" just because situations change. So I will think about it and see what I will do with it.

I would like to ask all of my *many* readers out there to be praying for us over the next several weeks. We are preparing to make a huge transition. We are leaving Germany on August 20th and moving back to Oklahoma. I can't express the emotions I have right now... there are so many. I definitely am excited to be with my family again. On the other hand, it breaks my heart to leave Chemnitz and the "family" I have here. Just pray for us... we would appreciate it.

I will leave you with a couple of pictures.


Velony and Heidi at the Pirate LST party


Ruben and Heidi at playgroup


Heidi enjoying her first German made car. :)

Women's Retreat

The first weekend in March I was able to go to a Women's Retreat at Burg Lichtenberg. We stayed in a youth hostel at a castle not too far from Kaiserslautern, Germany. It was a really nice youth hostel. The rooms were really like what I usually think of a youth hostel being- dirty, huge and just not that nice. The room we had was meant for about 6-7 people sleep in but we only had 5 in our room and it had it's own bathroom and shower. It was really nice. They also had a cafeteria with good food. The fellowship of course was really great. I got to meet a lot of new people and got to see friends I have known for awhile.


Lichtenberg Castle where we stayed.


Oberstein Felsenkirche (Rock Church)


Playing Phase 10


Stopping for ice cream


Having fun


The Chemnitz Ladies :) Doreen, me and Karen

Heidelberg and ABSS (Advanced Bible Study Series)

In February Clint, Heidi and I went on a trip to Heidelberg with a friend of ours, Steve Allison, from Abilene. He is a professor at ACU and came to speak at a seminar in Gemünden (near Frankfurt). We picked him up at the Frankfurt airport on a Sunday and drove to Heidelberg and enjoyed the rest of the day there and some of Monday looking around Heidelberg. We had a good time visiting with Steve.



In Heidelberg there is a famous monkey on a bridge there. He is holding a mirror in his left hand. There is a sign next to it that says: "Why are you looking at me? Haven't you seen the monkey in Heidelberg? Look around and you will probably see, more monkeys like me." Perhaps in the mirror??? Ha ha. I don't know really what it's about, but it's funny.



Heidi all bundled up to check out Heidelberg! We woke up Monday morning to snow!



This was the view from our hotel room on Monday morning. We were right by the bridge where the monkey was (at the bottom of that big tower is the monkey).



Checking out Heidelberg with Steve. Heidi was sleeping in her stroller. :)



We took a tour of the Heidelberg Castle. It is partly in ruins but there are still some areas that are intact and you can go inside. It was really interesting.



World's largest wine barrel at the Heidelberg Castle. It holds 55,100 gallons of wine.



We took a family picture outside of the castle.

At ABSS Heidi made LOTS of new friends! We saw old friends and made some new ones as well!



Heidi just loved Bill Wilson from Cologne, Germany and he loved her too!



Philippe, Dolores and Nathan Dauner from Marseille, France were there. Nathan is just a couple of months older than Heidi. They had a good time together. I guess it wiped Nathan out!



Roman from Bratislava, Slovakia, Jackie Halstead from Abilene, Texas and Peter from Kosice, Slovakia.



Heidi and Jesse Brazle from Antwerp, Belgium had a lot of fun playing!



Arlin and Pamela Hendrix from Lyon, France.



Roman from Bratislava, Slovakia- we are all supported by Champions Church of Christ in Houston!

I'll Fly Away

Our brother in Christ from Chemnitz, Rudolf (Rudi) Löffler, went to be with our Lord on March 14, 2009. We will be attending his memorial tomorrow afternoon. Please pray for his family and those whose lives he touched. He will be missed here on earth, but we know that he has joined our Father and is in much better hands.

"Some glad morning when this life is o'er,
I'll fly away;
To a home on God's celestial shore,
I'll fly away.

I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away.

When the shadows of this life have gone,
I'll fly away;
Like a bird from prison bars has flown,
I'll fly away.

I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away.

Just a few more weary days and then,
I'll fly away;
To a land where joy shall never end,
I'll fly away.

I'll fly away, Oh Glory
I'll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I'll fly away."


Rudi Löffler (1928-2009)

Heidi's 1 year photos

Heidi's birthday

On Heidi's birthday, Heidi and I were both sick. It was a shame. She had never been sick before, but thankfully it was only a mild cold with a little bit of a cough. Clint took her to the dr. that week and she got some cough medicine and some nose drops for her poor little stopped up nose. I didn't end up going to the dr. although I had really considered it. I felt really puny for a few days, but with sleeping and getting me rest I was back on my feet. Heidi's birthday was on a Tuesday so we decided not to do a party or celebrate a lot on that day. Instead, we planned on having a small party at home on Friday. Thankfully by then we were both feeling a lot better. On her actual birthday Clint and I gave her one present... bubbles! She loved them!



On Friday was the big party day! I made her a teddy bear birthday cake and her own special cupcake just for her! The cake turned out a lot cuter than I thought it was going to. I really don't have a lot of experience with cake decorating so I was a little nervous about it. I have to say that it tasted great too! Heidi loved her cupcake!





I can't believe our girl is 1 year old!

November

In November we did a lot of traveling. Heidi made her first trip to the States to see grandparents, uncles, aunts and lots of new friends! We were glad to be there for a little while so that we could see loved ones. We were in Oklahoma, Texas and Ohio.

Murder Mystery Dinner

Sophia invited us to take part in a Murder Mystery Dinner called "Krimi Total: Der Mythos der Familie" (Myths of the family). The game is actually something you can buy and it comes with a written storyline and characters. She assigned us our characters and we were given information about who our character was and how we should act, dress, etc. Our story was about a mafia family in the 1930s in Chicago. Throughout the evening we received new information and then we all began questioning each other about where we were, what we were doing and slowly revealing interesting facts about each other. It was a lot of fun and we did figure out who the killer was by the end of the night. Here is a collage that Sophia made of the evening.

Heidi is getting big!

Today Heidi pulled herself up to a standing position by herself for the first time! We have been wondering when it would happen. She has taken her time as far as that goes, but we knew that she would do it when she was ready. Just in the past couple of weeks we have seen her start breaking out of her shell. She is definitely not a risk taker and is pretty cautious as far as moving around and trying to do things on her own goes. Just until recently she would not even try to walk holding on to anything except our hands. Even if we let go of only one hand she was too scared to go further. Like I said, in the past couple of weeks she has slowly built her confidence up and will now walk a little bit more just holding on to one of our hands. But usually she still feels more confident when she is holding on to a couch with one hand and hold one of our fingers with the other hand. She is getting there though! This evening she did a little bit of cruising even without holding on to our hands. She is still very cautious about it though. Here is a video of the second time she pulled up today. I missed getting the first time on camera, but this is only a few minutes later. She was very proud of herself!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Catching up... October

Heidi is 1 year old!

Snow!

Ok, I'm skipping a few things to do a more up-to-date post. But, I will try to go back and cover other things later.

Last week(?) it snowed quite a bit and it all came at once. It snowed for a couple of days straight without stopping, or so it seemed. I will share some beautiful photos of it.

The day we woke up to the snow was a Sunday so we had to get out in it to go to church.

We took a quick family picture outside church before we went into the warmth.

Velony and the other kids had a great time after church playing in the snow.

Later, Heidi and I watched the snow from the warmth inside.

Monday morning was not so much fun... it had continued to snow throughout the night and Karen had to go to school in the morning so that is what happened... Clint pushed her out of the driveway.

Here in Germany it is required that you shovel a path on your property, especially on the sidewalk where others walk by. If you do not shovel and someone were to fall you could get fined or maybe worse(?).

A few weeks ago one of the men from church sent out a schedule of the men who would be on duty to shovel snow at the church building. They have a rotation where one man is responsible for one week at a time. On the schedule, Clint and I found probably one of the longest German words we have ever seen before. In German you can get some very long words because you can put many words together to make one word. Here is the word that we saw:

Gemeindehausschneeundeisberäumungsverantwortungsplanungsliste

Pretty amazing, huh? It basically just means: Church building snow and ice cleaning responsibility plan list or something to that effect. Just thought I would share that one! :)

Oh, one more thing... Heidi has now a total of 4 teeth! She got 3 new teeth all at the same time, in the last couple of days! I couldn't believe it when I saw them all at the same time! She turns 1 on Tuesday! Where has the time gone???