My Birthday Party!

So in follow-up to my last blog with the pics of the birthday box, I thought I would show you how we used the stuff the church sent. We had a cluster training meeting in Spa, Belgium and my birthday landed right in the middle of that week. So I decided to take my loot along and have party with everybody there! Everyone had a GREAT time and they were all SO blessed by the generosity of my home church! Love you guys! Enjoy the pics!

A Birthday Belgian Waffle!
Sippin the plate clean (I bet my mom is SO proud right now!)Karaoke with Claire
Fun with balloons!

Wyatt with one of the LOUDEST noise makers EVER!!! The parents loved them! haha Claire with her Prize!
NO No No...the Donkey is THAT way

What would a party be with out cake smeared in someones face...

... or Guacamole if you're out of cake. Look at those BEAUTIFUL donkey tails!
Would you like a Pirate Mask or a REALLY LOUD noise maker!
And GO!
Sarah, the Queen of Musical Chairs....she won the adults round!

About to play pin the tail on the donkey!

Princess Claire with her treasure, including a tiara and a ring carefully picked out and sent over by the beautiful princess of Chats-a-lot!
A war of the noise makers!

Decorating donkey tails...Claire's was of course pink...and Will's was of course anything BUT pink!

Wyatt....I mean, Peg Leg Pete...
My party was invaded by pirates!
Look at all those kids and donkey tails! We had SOO much fun!

THANK YOU!!!!

Hello there!!

SO this post is simple. I have been reminded in the last week how much all of you support me and I just want to say THANK YOU!!!! Every few weeks I get a comment or a note from someone just saying they are praying for me! One story from this week and then I want to share some specific prayer requests with you since I haven't been very good at doing that.

Last Tuesday our doorbell rang and it was FedEx with a box for me downstairs. So I went down to the ground floor to meet him and signed for my package. He then proceeds to return to his truck and then emerges with an ENORMOUS 50lbs box!!! He said "Merci et pour vous!" I was shocked...I actually asked him..."For me?!? Really!!" haha So he left and then I turned around and realized that i was now going to have to take this wonderful, 50 lbs box of surprises up 4 flights of stairs!!! AHHH It was quite entertaining! When I did open it up it was a bithday box from my church with SO much amazing stuff in it! My favorite was the heart attack they sent me. For those who don't know that that is I have included a picture, but basically you cut out hearts and write messages on them and then secretly hang them on someones door or in their office. Kind of like teepeeing....but MUCH nicer!!! So they sent me the hearts and some tape which I hung up on my wall!

So thankyou WG! I love you guys and am SO blessed to have such a wonderful home church! Thanks to those of you who responded to my last blog and since then! Your short notes really do put a smile on my face and remind me that there are not only people praying for me at home, but people who love me as well! So thanks!

Some prayer requests:

Travel to Brussels, Belgium next week for a conference. Pray for safe travels and that attendees will been encouraged and challened.

Music Opportunities: If I'm honest, fear has held me back in some ways. I have been feeling some doubt in my abilities since I came and I know that has held me back from just jumpin into some of these musical areas. Please pray that God would give me a confidence that is build in Him and not me and that Satan would not be able to use that to hinder my involvement here

Meeting people in September: Pray that God would arrange meetings with students and that we would respond if we see opportunities to meet people.

Friends: Its hard to meet people here and I REALLY wanting people that i can just call to go to the movies with, or to go get some coffee. Pray that God would send some girls my way that I can truly call friends!

Love you all!!! And I would love to hear from you and hear what is going on in your lives...even if you think its mundane, I love the stories...I mean i certainly tell enough of them ;-)

My birthday box!!!

Look at all the stuff they sent! I'm actually standing in the box they sent it in!

A Heart attack! What you can't see is that EVERY one of those hearts has a message on it! :-D

Good Times Had by All!!

Hello from Massy, France.


Massy is the town where our school is at. The school is small, but there are about 50 others here studying with us. I am definitely being challenged. I understand the concepts being taught in my class since they are mostly review...however my teacher talks SOO fast! The first day she talked very slowly...and then I guess the 2nd day I think she had too much sugar before coming to class and ZOOOOM away she went! She is very animated which makes class fun sometimes.

So overall I am working very hard, learning, reviewing, and doing the homework we are given everyday. But don't worry, there is plenty of time for fun! :-P

Last weekend I went to EuroDisney and I thought I would share some of those photos. Also included are photos from our American soiree (we had tacos, chips and salsa, applepie with ice cream, and we line danced!) As well as pictures from the British soiree that took place tonight! Hope you enjoy them!

Thanks to those of you I have heard from in the last few weeks and I will attempt to reply to all of your emails...but there are many of you I would love to hear from. Now you know about the fun I'm having here...what are you doing? :-) Thanks again to you all!


Katie, Jeff, and I

Check out the guns! :-P

Crash's Coaster

Buzz Lightyear ride! I am a level 4!

Castle

Cotton Candy at the end of the day!

Amazing!

Fireworks!!!!

American Soiree

Line Dancing

Showing the Cotton Eyed Joe

Dosey-Do

Electric Slide

British and Netherlands Soiree

Dancin in the garden to Spice Girls!

Peek-a-boo

The Queen of Netherlands



Regine, the woman on the left, is my teacher

So there was a blue wig around....

Goodbye Marseille...

Well...at least for the next 3 weeks! :-)

Tomorrow I am headed to London for 3 days of wonderful vacation in a place where they speak English! Don't get me wrong...I am really comin along with the French, but it will be nice to understand everyone for a couple days. In fact it will probably be a little bit of a shock! :-P

After 3 days in London, Katie, Del, and I are off to Paris for a 3 week language school. We will be participating in an intense language course on a campus just outside of Paris. We will probably be doing alot of reveiw which will be wonderful since I am shocked when I realize how much I have forgotten! Also, we will have some free time so we are planning on getting out to see a few places...Normandy and Versaille being two of those.

So we are hoping that our French skills prove strong enough to survive the classes. Also there will be some side sessions that we are hoping will prove very helpful. The 2 I am taking are Biblical French and Singing in French (it is actually a little different than speaking).

So if you think about it, please pray that we will be safe in all the traveling we do in the next few weeks and that we are able to recall our French and remember what new stuff we learn while in the classes.

I love you all and thanks to those of you who have sent letters, emails, or facebook messages!

Marseille is....

Well lets just sum up whats goin on in Marseille right now!

Marseille:

...is HOT and HUMID! No air conditioner...temperatures in the upper 80s and 50% humidity makes for too much sweating. Now I know that those of you sittin back home in Phx in the 115 degree heat are laughing at me...but it really is very different. I mean....when just sitting at my house I start to sweat! No moving needed! I really don'tt like sweating unless I'm going for a run or have some other good excuse to be sweating :-) But...I'm not gonna complain cause you in Phx and just as hot as me...and I have friends in places that are even hotter than that!

....is pretty different during the summer. Alot of people go on vacation so our schedule is pretty free right now...but thats doesn't mean there still isn't stuff to do. A typical day for me includes

• a morning run,
• cool down in the park (cause its cooler than my apt) where people like to walk if they aren't working or where people like to bring their lunches to eat,
• go home and eat some lunch,
• clean up and go meet one of my language partners or if its Wed. we have an english club
• spend a little more time out in the community...shopping, going to our neighborhood boulangerie (bakery), going to a cafe, shopping for fruits and vegetables (I think the lady at the stand is starting to recognize me now! yeah!)
• and then I come home, make some dinner and call it a night

May seem like a simple schedule...and it is, but we are still concidering many other ways to get involved in the community, some of which we might try to start soon...and some of which won't start until September when school starts back up and people return from vacation. But as for now, there are alot of people out and about...hanging out in the shade at the park...eating ice cream and things resembling icees

....is a place for weird stories to happen. Replacing a light bulb the other night I slightly electrocuted myself... which then caused the circuit to blow for all the lights in our house. Would have been ok, but apparently something happened when it shocked me and when I tried to put the new bulb in with out touching the exposed wires this time....it sparked and blew BOTH the breakers for our house. So after flipping all the power back on, I promtly stopped trying to replace that lightbulb.

...will not be my home for 3 weeks in July and August. Katie, Del, and I are headed to Paris for an intensive French school where we will basically have an intense reveiw of the French that we have already learned a nd probably learn some new stuff too.

....is the site of our new English club held every Wed. night at 5 PM!!! This is exciting news. Basically we meet every week and speak English with whomever would like to come for 1 hour! Its a great way to get to know people and help them with their English.

....campuses are a great place to find language partners. I have had 16 responses to my fliers I put up on the campuses. I am hoping that those 16 responses will lead to about 5-6 weekly partners. We meet for about an hour, once a week, and speak half english and half french, so we are helping each other on language. Once again...a great way to meet people. I have met some really great people through the fliers! YEAH!!!

...is my home for now. I am enjoying the time I get to explore Marseille. There is still so much that I haven't seen in this town or in the towns surrounding it! However, I do miss all of you at home. All of you at the newly named West Greenway Bible Church (very excited about that by the way!). And although I am enjoying my new home, things can get quite lonely here at times... so, PLEASE, send me messages...facebook messages (apparently the newest fad at the WG)...emails...cards...packages!!!

I am going to repost my email for those of you that might not be on my email list...if you would like to be on the email list let me know!

godlymelody@hotmail.com

Thankyou all so much for your prayers...but please let me know how ya'll are doin! Love you guys!

Maroon 5!

Wednesday, May 28th we went to a concert in town. It was a French DJ and the American group, Maroon 5. We got there and we were able to get a spot about 15 feet from the stage! That was awesome. Of course it was raining! So here we are…all 5 of us that went…plus bout 1000 of our closest friends J packed like sardines trying to protect ourselves from the rain that varied between a mist and Pouring. Of course, when you put up your umbrella, the closest 6 people push to get under that umbrella, which then causes you loose your footing and lurch in one direction…which THEN causes you to poke your neighbor in the eye with your umbrella and them to respond with some VERY angry French comment! Oops!

So, I thought I would share these pictures with you! It was really fun! And come to find out, instead of just cheering for an encore…the French sing! They have these little chanting songs that they also sing at soccer games that they sing to show they want an encore. So enjoy the pictures!





We had fun!

So for those of you who may not be familiar with French fashion...if you don't have an umbrella here, you simply fashion a hood out of a grocery sack!

There were SO many people there!

Katie just can't WAIT for the concert to start!