Kids

Just wanted to follow up about the Children of the World choir. They were so cute! I wish I could take all of them home with me. After church, we stayed and helped serve them lunch. After everyone had finished eating and they were getting ready to pack up to leave, they all stood against the wall and got the attention of everyone who helped with lunch and they sang the chorus from "Thank You for Giving to the Lord" by Ray Boltz:

Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am a life that was changed
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am so glad you gave

It was so touching and was not the first time those precious children brought tears to my eyes. Even though none of them will remember specific indivduals years from now, they will remember their experience of traveling in America and the kindness and warmth they were shown. It breaks my heart that those kids will have to go back to their home countries in 10 months, but it stirred my heart onto something much bigger. It reminded me of the pain and suffering that the world holds, and that even if I can't go to these places, I can give my prayers and money for these causes. I'm so glad that we have such a big God who can take care of not only me, but all the precious children of the world, the ones who are hurting and lonely and sad. I'm reminded of how thankful I am that I was priveledged to be born in America. I realize that I really don't know hardship. That's kind of a hard pill to swallow. My heart was blessed beyond measure by those kids. Just a few thoughts.

Children of the World

This past Wednesday I started my accounting class. It went well and I think I will enjoy it. I remembered I don't miss all the reading from college though!

Tomorrow at church we are having World Hope's Children of the World Choir. Two of the girls from the choir are staying with Mom & Ashley tonight. We just got back from being over there to eat dinner and hang out with them. They have two little girls, ages 7 & 8. Lilly is from India and Rochel is from the Philippines. They were so cute! Lilly really took to Anthony. She sat across from Anthony at dinner and she would just grin at him. Then later, they were playing with some ice packs, and she kept "getting" Anthony with her ice pack. She absolutely loved him! When we went to leave, she ran straight to him to give him a hugh - I had to ask for mine! Haha. They call adults "auntie" and "uncle": it was sweet to hear her call him uncle. Mom says this group of kids has only been in the US for 3 weeks, so their English was broken at best, but they sure were sweet. I am so excited to see their concert tomorrow at church. Vicky, her brother Evan, and roommate Becky, will be visiting for the day so they can see the concert too. Vicky hasn't seen the house yet, so that will be fun to have them here! (I took a few pictures of the girls on Mom's camera, so hopefully I will get those pictures and post them soon - meanwhile, that is a picture of the kids on the Central US tour - I'm not sure if that is from this group, the picture is kind of small, but it gives you a good idea!)

Also, Anthony and I are going to be leading the 7th and 8th grade Sunday School class starting next week. Jeremy has a video series so we'll be using that and then having discussion about it. We are excited about starting that. We have really enjoyed spending time with the kids in that age group - they are a great bunch of kids!

That's all for tonight!

Well, it has been a long time since I posted, due to some technical difficulties with posting the photos, which I still seem to be having... but here we go.

Last weekend, we went to Baltimore to see a Red Sox game, which was Anthony's birthday present. We went to the game at Camden Yards on Friday evening. Here are a few pictures from that:

The last one is Manny Ramirez out in left field! The Red Sox didn't win, but we had a really great time and would love to go to another game sometime.

On Saturday, we went to the Baltimore Aquarium. My favorite part was the dolphin show we saw:

It was a really nice weekend getaway for us before Anthony gets busy with school again.

The shed is also coming along, although it has slowed down a lot since Anthony has been back at school for the past week. He has really done a good job with it and I am so proud of my handy husband!

Frog

I was out watering the plants tonight and something caught my eye. It was a tiny little baby frog. I didn't get a picture of it, though I should have. It hopped away from me and was sitting on one of the leaves of the plant; that's how small it was. It was really cute and made me happy, so I just wanted to share that. :)

I'm Behind!

I should have posted long before now, but here is a long overdue update on our lives.

Last weekend, we visited Laura in Knoxville, TN. Me, Anthony, and my mom went. We were there from Friday till Sunday and we had a wonderful time. It was really good because I think Laura and Anthony got to know each other better and just hang out and have fun together. Anthony came into my life after Laura and I had gone our separate ways for college, so obviously he knew she was one of my best friends, but they had never gotten to spend much time around each other, so it was nice since they got to do that on the trip! We went to Dixie Stampede on Saturday. Here are a few pictures from while we were waiting for the show:

Mom, Laura, & Anthony in the rockers


"Laverne & Shirley" hanging out with the horse - just like old times :)


Aren't we cute? (Except for me looking like a fat lard! Pictures sure are good motivation for exercise!)



Just before we went to Tennesse, Anthony finished up with summer school. So he has been on "break" this last week. He has been busy working on our shed for the back yard. Here is some of the progress he has made:



He actually has the entire foundation done now and is working on walls now. We just ordered the doors and windows this evening, so hopefully they will be here soon. It doesn't look like he'll be able to have it done before he goes back to school, just because of the special order business, but he certainly has a good start on it.

This weekend we had Matt & Amanda here to visit. They left this evening, but we had a really nice time visiting with them. It's so nice just to be able to hang out with them. I miss Amanda and my roommate days and all the fun we had together! I cannot wait till their baby girl is born in November!

Also, on an exciting note for me, I am going to be taking an accounting class this fall at Blue Ridge Community College. I really am enjoying the accounting aspects of my job and I plan to pursue my associates degree in accounting now. I'm going to take my time but hopefully one day I can reach that goal. It's going to be a Wednesday night class so unfortunately I'm going to have to miss church on Wednesday nights until December. I am very excited to be doing school again though. I have missed it since I graduated.

Well, that's about all that is new in our lives for now. This coming weekend, we are going to Baltimore on Friday for a Red Sox/Orioles game. We are staying overnight on Friday and will probably go to the aquarium and just hang out on Saturday before we come home. It will be a nice little getaway for us before Anthony gets back to school again!