How We Celebrated

We do not usually do much to celebrate Valentine's Day mostly because Anthony's birthday falls in the same week. This year, however, our chapel sponsored a dinner for couples. How could we pass up a free dinner with friends at a cool place?!





Our friend, and single coworker, Heather, watched the kids for the evening. They love her, so it was a treat for them too. She is also one of my most fashionable friends with the added benefit of being my size, so she gladly took the role of my personal dresser for the evening. It was really fun to get dressed-up and feel pretty for a night.










We are blessed with many good friends at our chapel. So, on top of a nice meal, we had great company.





And some fun entertainment which included Anthony serenading me. You have to admit it takes some guts to pull out Boys-2-Men at a church function! :)

It was really a wonderful evening! And I even got a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from Anthony on Valentines Day. I know, I'm spoiled! ;)




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Dance Videos

Here are the videos from Grace Studio's performance of the Nutcracker and their Winter Showcase.

This is Alethias performance in the Nutcracker as a little snowflake:

And this is Anthony's hip-hop class performance in the Winter Showcase:

Our Little Snowflake

In December Alethia's ballet class danced in the Nutcracker.  I have to say that all of the preballet dances were just so stinking cute from the little mice to the German dancers who threw candy out at the audience!  Alethia's class were the little snowflakes.  She loved performing on stage and getting so much attention.  They had two shows and Granny got to be here for the first one.  She had lots of others come to see her dance, as well.

Gin & Granny

Alethia with her ballet teacher, Miss Jenny

The Hooke family

Miss Gracie & Destiny

Heather & Kat (one of our students who was also in the ballet)

After the Nutcracker, the dance studio hosted a winter showcase for the non-ballet classes to perform.  This year Anthony taught a hip hop class at the studio with students from age 7 to adult.  This was their first performance.  It was really fun to see him and his students dance.

I'm so proud of both of my dancers!  This semester, Anthony will be teaching a children's hip-hop class and a teen/adult class.  Alethia is moving up from preballet to beginning ballet.  And I'm thinking about trying a dance class myself this semester?! 

***Videos to be posted soon!:)

Budapest, Hungary

A few weeks ago, Anthony and I had an opportunity to take a short retreat away from the kids.  This was our first time away from them together.  Although it was difficult to leave them for 4 days, it was really nice to have my husband all to myself! 

View of Budapest from the citadel - Buda on the left with the castle grounds and Pest on the right with the Parliament building.  Margaret Island is in the middle of the Danube river beyond the second bridge. 

This retreat was provided by The Christian Hospitality Network and Christ Fellowship Church and was such a blessing to us.  We stayed in a nice spa hotel on Margaret Island in the middle of the Danube River.  The retreat was created to care for missionaries on the field and the group was so thoughtful about our needs.  We were treated to great lodging, two filling meals a day, massages, gifts, and medical care.  Both Anthony and I were seen by doctors who were helpful and encouraging and who offered solutions to long-term medical needs we have had.  The team of individuals who sponsored the event were so encouraging, thoughtful, and loving.  They even contacted Stateside friends to deliver notes of encouragement to us from them.  In the evenings, an optional time of worship and devotion was offered.  It was such a beautiful window into heaven as missionaries from dozens of countries representing many ministries came together in fellowship to worship the living God.  And, of course, my social husband made friends with the team and connected over discussing music ministry.  This led, at the end of the week, to them giving him the brand new acoustic/electric guitar they had brought with them.  Anthony was stoked and has been using it at youth group every week since. 

Besides the blessings of the retreat itself, we were able to really get some needed rest.  Without kids to interrupt a good night's sleep for the first time in nearly 5 years, we were able to catch-up on some sleep.  It was also awesome to get  uninterrupted time with my man!  It was so fun to connect and get a large quantity of quality time together. 

We even got great exercise as we experienced Budapest on foot.  We really enjoyed the city with its interesting history and eclectic influences on architecture and culture.  One afternoon we hit the hop-on, hop-off tour bus to get to see the sights further out.  The best time to view Budapest, though, was at night.  We would walk down to the bridge at the end of the island and see the parliament building, the castle, the churches and the citadel all lit up. 

Military amphitheater remains from Roman times

Roman ruins on Margaret Island

Budapest at night - Parliament building on left and castle grounds on right

The kids did great without us for a few days.  Many thanks goes out to our co-worker, Heather, for taking them on while holding down ministry programs for the week! 

10 Incredible Years

August 18, 2001

 Thinking today about an afternoon 10 years ago...a lovely August day in Portland, surrounded by friends and family, feeling beautiful and full of hope and joy and walking down the aisle towards my best friend.  I cannot believe it has been 10 years since that day!

So far marriage has been an incredible journey filled with adventure, challenges, joys, tears, difficulties, beautiful memories...

We met nearly 13 years ago in the first weeks of college at Multnomah.  We dated for 3 years before getting married.

In our first two years of marriage, we lived with another couple (our best friends) for a year, took on our first full-time youth pastor position, graduated college and were accepted at candidacy with Cadence International.  We spent the next year and a half traveling the States and raising support as missionaries with Cadence. 

In January of 2005 we arrived in Germany for our first field assignment at Dexheim.  In 2006 we moved to Kaiserslautern (where we have been ever since).  In 2007, we kicked off the year with the birth of our first baby, Alethia, who has added so much passion and spunk to our lives. 

Masami was born in 2008.  His charm and energy has further enhanced our life.

It truly has been an incredible 10 years of life together!  Thank you, Anthony, for all the joy and love you bring to my life.  I am honored to get the next 10 years with you!

Us in Switzerland in May

When Pandamania leads to Pneumonia

We spent another week volunteering at VBS at our chapel.  We had much the same roles as the previous week, but they crammed 5 mornings of VBS into 2 long days.  It went well for the most part.  The pre-schoolers that I was working with had some melt-downs in the middle of the day and several took naps.  Our kids did great.  Even though this week was a repeat for them, they still enjoyed the songs, stories, and crafts a second time around. In the week since then, it has been really fun to watch them further process what they learned and hearing them say "thank you God!" as they realize His hand in their day. 



Anthony's middle school group had a great turn-out of teens who volunteered at VBS.  Then, after the first day, they loaded-up, headed to dinner and did a scavenger hunt at the mall on base.  They all slept over at the youth building and volunteered at VBS the next day.  The teens had a great time and were a big help.  Here is a music video they made for VBS:



I guess it was all just too much for Anthony, though.  The morning after VBS was over, he woke-up with a fever and feeling sick.  After spending the weekend struggling through with no sign of his fever lessening, he went to the doctor on Monday.  Turns out...he has a pretty serious case of Pneumonia.  His blood test came back with numbers off the chart pointing to a very bad infection.  He is currently on bed-rest until Monday which will probably be extended into next week.  Please pray for a quick and full recovery!

Anthony Turns 30!

We celebrated the life of my amazing husband over the weekend.  I really wish we could have done more, but alas, life and budget restricted the planning.  So, we made the most of what we had and rang in a new decade for him with a great evening out.

A wonderful friend took the kids for us, giving us a nice long evening to enjoy.  We hit the road with a couple of friends to help us celebrate and headed to our favorite restaurant in Germany: Die Kartoffel.  They serve these awesome steaks on hot stones so you cook them yourself, then have the choice of three amazing dipping sauces.  And of course, since the restaurant is called "The Potato," you get a big baked potato drowning in the best sour cream ever.  It is a pretty fantastic experience and a very special treat for us. 

 We hit up the Eis Cafe afterwards for Choco Becher and Lattes. 

Alethia was very concerned that she would miss out on all of the celebrating...she loves to sing "Happy Birthday".  So, the next morning, the kids and I walked down to two different bakeries in our village looking for the perfect morning treat.  We made up a breakfast-in-bed tray complete with "flowers" that Alethia picked on our walk, a homemade card that the kids helped make, and croissants with a birthday candle. 

Anthony works hard in ministry and for our family!  He loves students well and is a bright light for Christ among them.  He also loves me and our children well!  He sacrifices a lot to be available to us and to love on us.  And he loves the Lord!  I feel honored to watch him over the years as he has grown in the Lord and to get to do life with him.  Thank you, Lord, for 30 years of Anthony and bless us with many, many more!  So, here's to Anthony...Cheers!