Snow!!

So it's been snowing quite a bit this week. I am loving every minute of it! Our little street was so beautiful tonight when I went out to shovel our driveway and sidewalk. It's hard to see in these pictures but we have a few inches of snow....except at the entrance to our driveway where I've been dumping all of the shovel fulls...we have about a foot piled high stretching the length of it! :)
Our Geman neighbors are so neat a tidy...they even shovel neatly. I have piles all over the place while their snow is no where to be seen in excess. They are also so very kind and neighborly, tonight they all came over and helped me finish our second driveway and even offered to salt it for us!

Here I am standing in our driveway and working to clear it, next I did the sidewalk here and then the driveway to the right of the garbage can...our shovel lasted until this last part and then decided to be 'kaput' as my neighbors kept calling it! :)

Our backyard and forest!

The little nut after her nap and before I went to shovel! She's such a funny little girl!

It's been amazing to see/hear all of people's reactions to the snow here, especially on base. Base is a melting pot of people from nearly every US state, some of which, obviously, do not see any snow. That being said, I was driving behind a Chevy pickup this morning that was going about 25 km/hr in a 100km/hr area... I am all for following the speed limit and for going slow when conditions are poor, but when the roads are clear and you're driving a 4-wheel drive truck...I think it's okay to at least go the posted limit.  :)

Watch, I've just jinxed myself....my next post will inevitably be of my fender-bender.  

I hope you're enjoying winter wherever it is you are and in whatever way it so chooses to express it's self! Meanwhile, I am here....enjoying our winter sanctuary of stillness.....gute nacht my friends!

Our Soldiers

Hi everyone!
I just wanted to send out a quick post to ask you to pray for our service men and women who are serving here in Germany and in other parts of our world. God has put it on my heart to share with you some of what I am noticing and experiencing while getting to know these amazing people.

 Since being here I have met many very enthusiastic, dedicated, and caring soldiers. I have learned about the types of jobs they do, what they do for fun, where they've traveled, where their from, and about their families. These are ordinary people, just like you and me, the only difference is that they have chosen to dedicate this time in their lives to serving the United States in the form of joining the military. And as we all know, with that decision comes the chance of being sent far away from all that you know and all that is familiar. While at work I can't tell you the number of times I have had a conversation with a soldier that began with "when my husband gets back from Afghanistan...," "I deploy this afternoon to Qatar for 6 mo so...," "I miss my wife, she gets back from Turkey on Sunday," "I'll be gone for 6 months to Iraq...," "I've calculated that my wife is 1,293 miles away, so while she is gone for a year I am going to run that many miles," or "I had to bring a guy back from ___  and I've been stuck in transit at the airport for three weeks and am trying to get back to ___." These types of conversations are so common here. There are many many men and women who are sacrificing so much to serve our country, some with their lives and others with countless hours away from their families and homes. These people need our prayers. I believe they not only need our prayers for their safety but for their happiness, spirits, and hearts as well. I haven't the slightest idea about what it's like to be a soldier so I can't say that I understand what they are going through exactly, but I have seen the faces of those who ARE experiencing these situations and their eyes say more than their words. Please pray for them.

   Along with these soldiers, please pray for their families at home (wherever home might be), it can't be easy to be away from your wife, husband, fiance, dad, mom, gf/bf, kids, friends, etc for 6 to15 months at a time. I have spoken with people and have heard them talk about adjusting to having their loved one leave for a period of time and then having to readjust to having them back after their time of service is over, it's difficult. Listening to teachers talk about the types of struggles that their students deal with while a parent is absent is so foreign to me. There is now a brand new generation of children that don't know what life without the effects of war is like. How difficult it must be for them to fully understand why their dad or mom has to leave and why they can't be there to tuck them in at night. Please pray, pray for families like this one who have had to say goodbye to their husband and father while he is at war.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/333915.html

   THE NEWS TRIBUNE. Published: April 13th, 2008 01:00 AM.

Kathy Fendelman tries to comfort her twins, Samantha and Benjamin, 9,

on Saturday after saying goodbye to their father, 1st Sgt. Barton Fendelman.

 He was leaving Philadelphia for eventual deployment to Iraq.

The soldier is a member of the 304th Civil Affairs Brigade.

It will be his second tour of duty in Iraq.

I have heard stories of the number of infidelities that occur while people are separated by deployments, it is so heartbreaking. There are so many temptations in the world already, throw in lonliness, stress, distance, and change and Satan has his ideal playground. Even for believers this is difficult, imagine what it must be like for those who don't have Jesus to lean on for strength and support.

   So I ask you to join with me in including these special men, women, and their families in your prayers. I pray that 2010 is a different kind of year for these soldiers, one that is refreshing, full of renewed strength, and that they might find a fresh sense of honor, duty and patriotism that will be a source of preserved determination to help them perservere through this calling that they have had to serve and protect our great nation.
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this petition and thank you in advance for your prayers!

Blessings,
Natalie

Bonjour en France!

                                              Food.

                                         French food.

            I had the best pastery I have ever tasted in my LIFE yesterday! And here is what it looked like:

You may be thinking to yourself, "Don't get too excited, we have those same ham filled croissants in the States, I had one for breakfast too," BUT I ordered mine from a woman who smiled and said "Bonjour" when I walked in the bell-clad door and "Bon appetit et bonne année" as I walked out to the tiny cobblestone French street! And what could make a fresh French (Austrian by origin actually) pastery taste better than buying it from an actual French bakery on the corner of a French town from a very French woman??

                        I have the answer....not much else.

I contend it was the best I've ever eaten......and I have another thought to share with you. The difference between us American women and French women. When confronted with these tasty delicacies, we Americans say "Oh wow, that was so good, I think I have room for another" and we happily enjoy a 2nd in the car on the drive to work. The French women, however, say "Oh wow, that was so good." and that's it....period...they leave the shop, they WALK down the street to work and aren't haunted by thoughts of "hmm maybe I can slip down there on my break, or at lunch and get another..." no, they're onto their next thing, and have already burned off the first one they ate!!

Needless to say....I am hoping to gather some European habits while I'm here! ;)

Here are a couple other treats we tried, and by we, I am telling you that I DID NOT eat everything myself.

By the end of the day, we found a fresh food market, it was HUGE! This market was a lot different than the German markets I've been to so far; there was a jaw dropping amount of fresh seafood, meat, and poultry on top of the fruits, cheese, wine, and vegetables. Note to self: French food markets, do them.

I have a feeling that many of my posts in the future will have something to do with food...be prepared.

We did do a few other things on top of eating great food. We walked all over the town, saw the Moselle river, visited one of the largest cathedrals in all of Europe (one of the top three), took lots of pictures, met some women from Holland, and I even got to use a tiny bit of my Spanish (not with the Dutch ladies though ;) )!

Here's me in front of the Moselle, and in the background you can see the cathedral! A huge thank you to Sonia for the fun, and very warm scarf...I have worn it soo much this winter!! This part of the city reminded me a bit of Venice, Italy.

Cathedral St. Etienne

This picture gives you an idea of the magnitude of this cathedral.

The stained glass windows were spectacular! The windows in this cathedral are actually "the largest expanses of stained glass in the world, they were made by the master craftsmen Hermann de Munster in the fourteenth century, and Valentin Bousch in the sixteenth." (wikipedia)

We ate at this tiny two story restaurant in the town center, I had a traditional entre from the region which constisted of ham, sausage, salad, and potatoes. The dessert was my favorite. Our waitor was fantastic (guy in backgroud), he was so gracious. This group of Americans came storming into the tiny room with all kinds of crazy, and he told us all about the menu and food, the wine, and even gave us a free dessert...tiramisu, I now like tiramisu, it was divine.

Le merci la France pendant un jour magnifique!

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

We spent three days last week in the medieval walled city of  Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria, south central Germany! It was the perfect place to be in the last few days before Christmas. We stayed in two different hotels, over 600 years old!
   We mostly walked around and shopped and tried out different German foods! We bought last minute Christmas gifts, ate cheese and wine, had Gluhwein at the Christmas market there and took a ton of pictures! I'll let the pictures do most of the talking....Stu the first few are for you, we thought of you the minute we saw this shop window!

I wanted to take a picture of my dad in front of this meat shop but this lady was standing there too, so my dad just put his arm around her and smiled, she was so cute! She thought it was so funny!

This is for you Stu! Wow, you walked into this place and your nose and taste buds were in Heaven immediately!

The meat shop is just to the left of this jeep, you can see the little elderly woman already standing in front of it. Isn't it just the most picturesque village street!

Many of you have seen this street and scene before, it's a pretty famous picture/street. A famous street in Rothenburg called Plönlein with Koboldzellersteig and Spitalgasse. (wikipedia.com)

After a long day of exploring and walking around, we picked up the essentials and headed back to our hotel for a snack before dinner...fresh bread, cheese (only the stinkiest will do), salami, and wine!
We walked out to a tip of the city that overhangs the valley below (the river Tauber runs there) and were able to see this view of the city in the fog and snow; with the faint bright colors of the houses and buildings, it was beautiful!

It was a great trip!

Merry Christmas!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

 Merry Christmas!!

I hope this season has found you warmly and that your heart has been gently softened towards the special meaning behind this holiday..our Savior's birth!

  I love this time of year, and not just because it's my birthday month or that Andes mints seem to be on display everywhere I look (although, not so much here in Germany). I love it because even amidst the craziness of life people seem to smile more, our similarites, rather than differences, seem to draw us closer together. All week I have been wishing people a "Merry Christmas" but in German! The celebration of our King's birth transcends borders and language barriers, how amazing!
  Here are a few pics of the beautiful German countryside from a walk Caroline and I took last week:
  We got a lot more snow after these were taken! It got here just in time for our vistors to have a white winter in Germany! You can also see some of the damage we did on bake day, as usual we covered all available counter space in the kitchen!

 It's an annual thing for all of the women in my family and some female friends (we kick the guys out for the day) to get together one day in early December and bake up to 12-15 different kinds of cookies to eat and share with friends and family! We look forward to a day of baking, eating homemade soup, frosting hundreds of cookies, reminiscing about the past and, delivering heaping plates of goodies to friends and neighbors! This year was different because we gave some to our German friends and they in turn shared with us some of their traditional cookies and birthday cake! We had to laugh, their's were savory and small, ours were heaping with frosting and much bigger (I'll post some of their cookies later)! See below:

The extended table filled quickly!

Okay so we didn't kick the guys out this year, and we had an additional helper holding the powdered sugar box. What a big helper she was!

One of our finished platters!

This has nothing to do with bake day but I decided to throw it in as well. I visited a neighboring Christmas market with some new friends and had my first crepe....with some Nutella, YUM! We met a few German people at this market, they couldn't believe that I'd left America and ended up in their 'small' city (about 180,000) for an "adventure," they thought it was pretty funny! Grass is always greener on the other side, huh!

This Christmas season in a new country has been so much fun, I am learning all the time and experiencing new things. I am so very thankful to Jesus for this opportunity and can't wait for whatever's up ahead!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that the joy that you've experienced celebrating Jesus' birth carries over throughout this coming new year and draws you closer to Him!
Happy New Year!

I have no words....

Extraordinary ordinaries:

  So I really had great intentions on keeping up better with this blog. I think in the back of my head I have been thinking that I had to have something spectacular and interesting to write about every time I posted and therefore I've been waiting. God is showing me, however, that it is often the most ordinary of circumstances and situations that can be the most extraordinary and memorable. So I will use this post to briefly catch you all up on some of the "extraordinary" things that have been happening in my life my first few months here in Germany.

  I am living here in our quiet little village, that just this morning awoke to a peaceful blanket of fresh snow. There is something about waking up to snow. You can almost tell it has snowed before even looking out your window, simply by the absolute silence that it brings. It isn't just silence, it's a peaceful silence, and I think there is a difference. I have many memories of waking up to snow at home. Our backyard and pasture stretches out and melts into the farmers corn field and all of it would be completely white, acres and acres of pure white snow. Some mornings, if I got up early enough, my dad would still be sitting on the couch with his coffee and a book with the fire crackling in the corner. The whole house was shrouded with a stillness that is hard to describe. Thinking about it now, it is easily a memory that at the time may have seemed ordinary but was actually much more.
   Our little village was the same quiet and carried the same peace this morning. The drive to church was beautiful. The fields, trees and houses had all been painted white during the night. The snow didn't accumulate to much, just enough to cover everything and make it actually feel like December. We loved it though. It is my first winter here in Europe, one I am sure to remember always. The houses here have been decorated and all display some kind of lights, nativity pyramids, wreaths, etc. I am learning that a lot of the traditions that we celebrate in the states originated here in Germany. Each town has their own Christmas market, some bigger than others. We went to our village's Christmas market and had some gluhwein and Annsley met St. Nicolas for the first time, he gave her an orange and some chocolates (she preferred the plastic bag they came in so we ate the treats instead ;) ) It was a  fun night.

  I am pretty much settled here and have the "big" things crossed off my list. For instance, I bought a car, got a cell phone (or a 'handy' as they're called here), insurance, visa, etc. and to top it off  I have found a job! God has graciously given me a way to stay here in Europe and to earn money! I am still hoping to be able to teach but for now I am content where I am. I am in a position where I come in contact with a wide variety of people each day. I am amazed at the differences between them and the stories that they share willingly or without meaning to through their eyes....this being the type of community it is, there are some pretty unique stories out there. I am new to this type of community and am learning a great deal daily. Along with familiarizing myself with the German community I am getting to know the American military community as well. I live in a place that has people from practically every U.S. state and countless countries, coming and going so frequently, all with different history and reasons for being where they are. I am learning about my own country while living in a different one, what a unique perspective this is. I have met people who have grown up in South Africa, are from the Philipines, Iceland, all over Europe and Asia and many other places. I love being surrounded by so much diversity and different languages. I enjoy asking the people I meet at work questions about themselves and hearing about their life. Most of the stories are what you would expect, but then there are others that you can in no way relate to. I am beginning to understand just how little I know and how much else there is out there other than what I have grown up experiencinig. Some people carry a burden and a weight that I have never had to bear. I will share some of these stories as time goes on.
  This is all I have for now. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers over these past weeks and months. I am loving life here and am so glad that I came. I do miss many of you and appreciate the calls, letters, and emails that you have sent.
  Until my next post...

                                               Merry Christmas!