OK, My Turn

Well Davey beat me to it...and he took some of my things that I wanted to use, oh well, I think I can still come up with 10 things.

1. I grew up in Eufaula, a small town in Oklahoma, with lots of Aunts, Uncles and cousins around. My mom is the youngest of 14 kids, 13 of them grew up and had kids of their own. My dad is an only child, so he had a big adjustment to make! I lost my accent pretty quick in California after being teased so badly, but every now and then it will sneak back in when I say certain words. I also sometimes use words and phrases that people here don't understand (those who speak perfect English). Even Davey has never heard some of the sayings and words that I use!
(Just a bit of trivia for any of you that listen to country music, Carrie Underwood has a song called 'I ain't in Checotah anymore', which is the neighbor city to Eufauala and she mentions things about my home town in the song...makes me home sick sometimes...)

2. I have always, for as long I can remember, wanted to speak German and come to Germany. I was the one who always took German in school instead of Spanish. Never knew why at the time...isn't God cool! I can remember telling people in high school (before being a Christian) 'I will go to Germany someday, even I just get off the plane and right back on, I will go. And when I go I will go to the Blackforest'. Now 15 years later I live in Germany, in the 'capital' of the Blackforest...wow! That's all I can say. (Sure am glad God changed my hubby's heart! ; ) )

3. In contrast to my husband, I never had much interest in Australia...until my sister married an Australian and moved there about 12 years ago! Now I love the place as well! The two weeks we spent there after our wedding were great.

4. I was a band geek in high school, and proud to admit it! I played clarinet in marching band and concert band, and a little bit of saxaphone in jazz band. I also sang in the choir. We had a great music teacher, Mr. Weinburger, he was very energetic very funny.

5. Davey didn't propose on stage that Thursday night. He said 'gotcha'...but he never said will you marry me, except in an email a few months before that...he's lucky the answer was yes to both things! Most of our courting was done over email, Davey was still in Germany and I was already back in California. We emailed for 5 months before we saw each other again!

6. I never planned on being a missionary. I was studying German in college and got the opportunity to come to Germany for 3 months in order to experience the language and culture first hand. I met Davey on that trip, he arrived here in Freiburg from the Bible college in Austria the same weekend I arrived from S.D.. We never knew each other in America. The first time we spent any amount of time there together was when our first son was born in 2000. We lived in Murrieta for almost a year.

7. I love to play badmiton. When Davey and I got married he made fun of me and said it wasn't a real sport...then he played once with my dad, and changed his mind. My dad has a net set up in our front yard year round. When I was a kid my cousins and Aunts and Uncles would come over and play until late at night, we had a flood light on the porch to light it up when it got too dark.

8. I love where God has placed our family. I love our city and the people here. I love hearing my kids speak German and English with no accent in either one! The way they can switch languages back and forth blows me away! I get confused! I think we live in one of the most beautiful cities I have been to. It has such charm!

9. All 4 of my kids were born within 3-4 hours of the first 'real' contraction. The first and last with a mild pain reliever, the two in the middle 'au natrual'. I can't complain...

10. I have learned to cook things here that I would never do at home. There are things that we can't get here so I have learned to make them from scratch. I have to make most of my thanksgiving stuff from scratch, like the pumpkin pie. I start with a real pumpkin and cut it up and cook it down and go from there. Cranberry sauce too, I can get fresh cranberries so I make the sauce myself. Tortillas are something I make pretty often. We can buy them here now, but only since about 3 years(I know that is the wrong way to say that, but my English is failing), and they are not very good. It's fun, it takes a little more time, but it is worth it. And the kids are getting big enough to help and they love to when they can.

So there are my 10 things. That was harder than I thought! I don't even know 10 other people who blog!

I have other things to post, but it will have to wait til later. There is so much going on right now! For now though I have let the lunch dishes sit on the table long enough! So as soon as I can I will post about the Women's retreat last weekend and my trip to Luxemburg!