Pictures

I posted a few pictures of our flat in an album with a couple of pictures of other things here in Herrnhut :-) Check out the link at the side

Back at work

Tomorrow marks the end of the second week back at work at the Castle in Herrnhut. At the end of our time in the states Gabe and I were both feeling aimless and somewhat bored, and actually itching to get to work, but the transition back after two months off could still use a bit of motivation :-) The hard part for me is wanting to get out of bed every morning: it's dark and cold, and I don't want to get out of my warm bed to walk through the ice slick to work. However, back to work we are!
We came back at the beginning of a new Photo & Worship DTS--the students we had met and were living with in the Fall having just embarked on their 10 week outreaches. This new group is a fun one, but I've really only met the few that Gabe and I are living with. We are (until this weekend) living in a base apartment with 6 of the male students. They are quite the multinational group: 2 Americans, 1 German, 1 Indian, 1 Mauritian, and 1 Kenyan. They are fun, and living with them hasn't been bad (Not even as the only female!) But I am very much looking forward to some space of our own.
We'll move on Saturday just down the street to a small apartment that we will be sub-letting from another base couple who are away for a while. It's nice, and only includes the quirks of no heat in the bedroom in our freezing clime, and that the bathroom and kitchen are in the same room. I'm excited!
I'll post pictures when we're in :-)

Wedding

On December 20, 2009, Gabriel David Chartier and I got married! :-) It was a lovely wedding--everything that I could have wanted for the day, and I am loving married life. Of course there are challenges, and we've only faced the issues of sharing space and lifestyles so far, but it is always a pleasure to spend time with my husband.
After the wedding in Bellingham, WA we flew down to Fort Collins, CO to spend the holidays with Gabe's family and friends, and it has been a great time. In the morning, we'll be flying back up to WA for 10 days of non-crazy-pre-wedding family and friends time before we head back to Germany. Woot!

awesome

Gabe and I had an awesome post-Herrnhut/pre-home adventure in Frankfurt last weekend. As some of you may or may not know, in Germany there is an arranged ride-sharing website called mitfahrgelegenheit, and Gabe and I got to use it for the first time to travel from the Hut to Frankfurt. We were (well, I was...) concerned about travel arrangements--train is too long or expensive, housing in the city could be spendy as our arranged ride would get us there a few days too early, language barriers, typical German auto trunk sizes relative to American suitcases... Anyway, our driver told us over the phone that he had an empty flat that wasn't in use, as his kids are away at school--so we are welcome to stay there the night that we drive, because it will be so late when we get in. As it turned out, not only did we get to stay the first night in the city, but both nights with he and his wife, but they also took us to steak dinner, didn't charge us for the drive as a wedding present, and went to work late the morning of our flight so that he could serve us breakfast and drive us to the airport! How awesome is that!?! It was a great way to kick off a good trip home. And now we are busy reconnecting with family and friends in the midst of planning the final details for the wedding :-)

One Week!

In one weeks time Gabe and I are flying to Washington! Needless to say, we are excited and busy. We have all kinds of wrap-up work here in Germany before our two month vacation (woot!) and then we will plunge into the wonderful madness that is final wedding preparation :-) this includes, but is not limited to, building our wedding cake! making tree decorations, figuring out what food to have, enlisting/enslaving labor for the wedding day, and making as many important decisions and personal connections that it's possible to make in the frame of 2 1/2 weeks. whoopie!! Then we are off to CO for a "mini-honeymoon," and Christmas and New Years with Gabes family and friends--the closest trade off for only really being able to get married in one place at one time (although, friends here in Germany have asked if we'd have a live wedding feed, hahah!)
I'm off to try and get some more work done. Please pray for our safe travels, and health as we head into this crazy season! Much Love.

I'm coming home in one month!

Things are going well here in Herrnhut. This last weekend I celebrated at a surprise birthday/going away party for one of the couples on staff, ate Mexican Shabbat dinner, cooked Saturday dinner for the students (for which I get to take a morning off later this week :-) and hung out with Gabe. That's about the extent of excitement around here--we love to have birthday parties (and there are a lot of us so it happens often)-- but there isn't much else to do in our funny tiny town.

The weather got frigid again this weekend, and I heard that it's supposed to snow again. At least this time it really feels like fall out! There are parts of the path to work that are several inches deep in leaves, and they were fun to kick through this morning, but with the afternoon downpour, I doubt I will enjoy them the same way on the way home...

Wedding plans are plugging along. It's a bit hard for me to be so distant from it, and yet it approaches! My biggest helper and wonderful mother is now on a much deserved vacation, leaving my youngest sister to help with the mailing (yeah, we're a bit late) of the invitations :-)

Life is sweet, and I can't wait to connect with as many of you as possible when I am home/at the wedding!!!

Fall update

It is only mid-October and it has snowed! It snowed most of the day yesterday, and is reported to keep snowing off and on through next week. What a wonderful "Welcome Home" to Gabe and Toni, who return from Africa tomorrow :-)
I am (understandably) very excited for tomorrow evening to roll around-I am headed to Löbau to pick Gabe up around 8! The month has gone by quickly and there has been good work and connections for both of us, but I am definitely ready to spend the next months in the same place.
My job in the office at the base has been going well. I am trying to be proactive in a lull, knowing that things will get crazier when we try to organize various teams that will include nearly 100 people... it's nice now to have the freedom to help out in preparing our morning coffee break, organizing files and updating information, and trying to streamline the processes we have so that things run more smoothly. I also have that extra bit of time that I can spend wedding planning when I need to :-)
Gabe and I fly to WA on 1 December!!!! That's only 6 weeks away!!!!