What really counts...

Today Emma, our youngest, had to have an emergency appendectomy. This picture was taken as they wheeled her down the hall to surgery. Everything went well and she's now resting across the room from me.



It really made us think about all the blessings God has given us. Our hearts go out to our friends that are having to celebrate Christmas for the first time without their father or husband or mom or daughter. We took some time tonight to pray for them.

We are so thankful for the family God has given us and don't want to waste one minute of the precious time God has given us with them.

Don't mess with the old man!

I tried to get everyone else to quit when I was only a little bit ahead.  But no... they had to keep going until someone dominated and won.  I guess they learned not to mess with the old man. (Actually, I got really lucky!)

This picture was taken just before Ryan "committed suicide" on the Pay Luxury Tax square and lost his last $12.  I had already crushed the other four players :)

Future plumber

Gotta love the Christmas market... You're liable to see anything! (I wonder if he feels a draft?)

Cool historic day

So today, with Robin in the USA and the kids in school, I thought I would enjoy the beautiful day and go for a prayer hike. I had found a Celtic grave site and a Roman Villa on a local map recently and decided to go check them out.

It turns out that the grave was a burial mound of the Celtic Allemani tribe from the 7th or 8th century. It wasn’t a very big mound (at least not anymore, since its excavation), but the grave was lined with large stones on both sides and had been covered over with large stones as well. Apparently the person interred here was a person of standing in the tribe. Interestingly, it was very narrow and shallow grave.

On the way back to the car I found the Roman Villa. Actually it was a farm house from the 2nd or 3rd century. Only the foundation remains today . It had a nice courtyard with a couple of stables on one end, with an adjoining living area. The living area was small, and consisted of a few very small rooms.

But what was amazing to me was the fact that this foundation survived almost 2000 years. It’s crazy to think that this building was built in New Testament times. The last picture shows what it would have looked like in its heyday.

And these are only a couple of hundreds of such sites in our area. I love the Black Forest!

Awesome day in Zurich!

Zurich Main Train Station

Last weekend I taught a Saturday Youth Leader Workshop and then spoke in a youth service on Sunday morning in Zurich, Switzerland. I had a blast! It was great getting to know the leaders and the students.

Robin and the kids met me on Sunday for church. Afterwards we went to go grab a bite to eat before driving home (a little over an hour). It took a 30 min search because of construction (even using the GPS!), but we finally found Dominos Pizza. This may not be a big deal for our friends in the USA, but Dominos are very few and far between here, so this was a real treat.

Since we were so close to Lake Zurich, we decided to eat our pizza at the lake shore. This turned out to be an awesome idea!!!! The sun was shining, the water was calm, you could see the Alps faintly in the background (see the boat picture below), and we even got to hand-feed the swans. What a great day this was!!!

I'm attaching a bunch of pictures we took so you can get a better idea of what it was like.

PS. We decided it was time to go when one swan started hissing at us when we wouldn't give it anymore pizza crust :)

A Series of Unfortunate Events...

Emma was having a birthday party the other day. I had spent a long time decorating a birthday cake that I made for her. So, Jon knew how important this cake was. (There aren't decorated cakes here like there are in the States in the grocery stores)

So, I was taking care of getting the girls' swimsuits on for the pool party while Jon was in charge of getting everything out of the van. He had the cake in one hand and a basket of goodies in another hand while he was trying to close the trunk. Well, the cake wobbled and to save the cake, Jon sacrificed his finger in the hatchback door.

The nail immediately turned reddish purple and we think it actually broke the tip of the finger. So, after a weekend of pain, Jon decided to go to the Dr. where the nail was lanced and drained to relieve the pressure.

I just had to include the photo of the bandage that the Dr. put on his finger. It gave me a good laugh!

Wish I had my camera...

Robin and I were in The Hague last weekend meeting with some church planters.  It was a good, quick trip.

After we were done, and before we would start the 7 hr. trip home, we visited the "boardwalk" there for a few minutes.  We decided to have a cup of coffee.  The coffee was great and the scenery was gorgeous! 

As we enjoyed our coffee and marveled at the people swimming in the cold North Sea in cool, windy weather, we saw something that I wish I could have captured on film.  The guy pictured below (who is easily over 300 lbs.) is wearing the typical European Speedo swim trunks.  What you can't see in this photo (because my phone camera is good, but not THAT good) is a male "Tramp Stamp"!

A "Tramp Stamp" is the name given to the horizontal tattoo some women get across the top of the behind.  I have NEVER seen it on a guy before.  I was laughing hysterically... so hard, in fact, that Robin had to tell me to laugh a bit more quietly.  Thankfully, the guy didn't hear me because of the surf, but it was definitely a funny experience.