Back on dry land

We're back from the coast and we had a wonderful time! Lots of fun, relaxation, games, and awesome food! Every minute was wonderful. Enjoy the pics!

Off to the beach ...

We are off to the beach tomorrow for a vaction with the Muilenburgs. I can't wait to put my toes in the sand and splash in the ocean. We are really looking forward to it. Today we realized that we leave in exactly four weeks. Around 11:00pm tonight Pete said, "Honey, do realize that four weeks from right now we will be somewhere between Chicago and Warsaw?!" It's definitely starting to feel real and hit home, which makes the time we get to spend with friends and family even more special. Have a great week everyone!

A Taste of What's to Come

Today our friends Sean and Belma visited us. They are back in the states for the summer visiting us from their home in Ankara, Turkey. Belma is Turkish and Sean met her in Turkey last year while teaching abroad. We went to their wedding in Turkey last year and it was during that trip that we made the decision to pursue teaching abroad ourselves. We are so excited to be closer to them. They will be our family for a while when we are over there - we may even end up spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. What a blessing it is in life to have good friends!

Hooray for USPS!!!

Hooray for USPS!!! Our package arrived to Princeton, New Jersey this morning around 7:30 am. We are back on track for departure! T minus one month until Take Off!!!

Waiting on USPS ...

I was trying to find a picture of the house we will be living in next year (somewhere along the way I saw one - cute white house with red trim. It looks like a gingerbread house), but instead I found this picture. I thought is was kind of a cool view of the campus. Apparently there is skiing in those mountains pretty much right across the street.
Right now we are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of the package we sent to Princeton, New Jersey more than a week ago. We are trying not to freak out, but ... I may feel a freak out coming on if we don't here something by tomorrow.
Other than that, not much is new. Pete is looking through all of his baseball cards at the moment and I have been trying to put a syllabus together for an International Baccalaureate English class I will be teaching. Having been out of the classroom for a few years I am a little nervous about teaching again, but I am mostly excited!
This morning my mom and I finally went to pick out wedding pictures for a photo album. I am so excited to see it finished. We had the best photographer ever - Nicole Wickens. If anyone is ever in need of a photographer she is the best. I added a link to her website on the side bar. Check her out!

Christmas won't be the same ...

My main task this summer is to organize all of our pictures and get everything in albums, etc. before we leave. It's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have to deal with kids all day! I came across this picture and was reminded of how much fun we had last Christmas and how Christmas won't be the same next year. Andy and Ali we'll miss our midnight Christmas walk this year! You guys are the best ... we love you!

Officially a computer geek ...

I am now officially a computer geek. Last night I was up until all hours trying to figure out how to put a link on this sight. Having figured that out, today I decided to play around with the HTML trying to make my Blog a little more personalized. It was kind of fun ... maybe after Bulgaria I will go back to school and get a PhD in C0mputer Science :)
The big event of the day was trying to track down the package that we sent registered mail to Princeton, New Jersey. I thought the point of registered mail was being able to track it at all times, but apparently not. When we called USPS they had no record of our numer and were not very much help at all. When I told the lady what was in the package (our passports, visa documents, and pretty much everything we need to be allowed into the country of Bulgaria) she said, "Oh ... that would be bad if it got lost." Uhhh, yeah ... good point. Although the problem isn't settle yet, we feel a little better tonight after talking to several people. We'll see ... Other than that, we have just been trying to stay cool ... it was a million degrees outside today. I was beginning to forget what summer felt like, but today was summer full-blast.

Baptism... and I don't have a clue about HTML!

Today was a great day! I became a Godmother to cute little Reese, the son of my friends Becky and Em. What a wonderful honor and blessing. After the ceremony, we ate awesome Filipino food at Em and Becky's house and left stuffed with a smile on our faces. Tonight, however, I have been trying to figure out how to make this page a little more artsy fartsy and at least add a "Link" section. As I have no clue about HTML, I have no idea how to complete these tasks. Mike Snyder ... I may be requesting your services. For now, I'm off to bed :)

Giving this a whirl!

Well ... it's 12:50am and what am I doing ... setting up a Blog, what else would I be doing! Until a couple of days ago I had never looked at a Blog and didn't even know what it meant when my friend Shannon emailed me saying, "I just blogged you - I hope that was O.K.!" Now, after having spent the last few hours looking at Shannon and Molly's Blogs I think I am ready to give it a whirl. I think this will be a great way to keep up with everyone as we begin this new chapter in our lives where the setting is Bulgaria! Life certainly sends us in funny directions over the course of time! Today is the perfect day to begin to write about this adventure as we received our tickets in the mail this morning. On August 22nd we will depart from Portland, fly to Chicago, then head to Warsaw, Poland, where we will meet up with the rest of the new teachers and fly to Sofia, Bulgaria. Once there, we will spend a couple of days getting set up and then we will head out on a tour of Bulgaria finally ending up with the rest of the staff in a beach town on the Black Sea. To the left is the a picture of Ostrander Hall one of the buildings at the American College of Sofia where we will be teaching. I'm sure there will be many, many stories to tell over the next two years, so ... here's to the beginning: "Once upon a time a young newlywed couple accepted a teaching assignment in a far off land ...."