Short Trip to Europe

It's Sunday and I'll be home tomorrow night but I wanted to post a quick recap of the past few days.

Wednesday - arrived in Paris at 6am and went to the hotel. Myrna and I took a 2hr nap since we got almost zero sleep on the plane! From there we went and bought metro tickets and headed into the city! Stopped in Montmartre, had lunch at "my" café and then went on a hunt for Moulin Rouge. I have zero sense of direction but we followed my instincts anyway and after asking a couple of people we actually found it! From there we went to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and ended at the Arc de Triomphe followed by dinner at a café on the Champs-Elysées.

Thursday - flew to Kiev, had a meeting with a guy about Upward and then flew to Odessa. Oh, on our way to Kiev, I sat next to a Ukrainian guy who is fluent in Russian, French and Polish. I had a French newspaper so he knew I spoke French and halfway through the 3hr flight, he began to talk to me. Now, I didn't understand everything he said b/c my brain started hurting after a bit. Plus, we were close to the engines so I couldn't hear him really well anyway. The gist of it is that he is 60yrs old, has a wife, 3 children and a granddaughter. He's been flying back and forth to Africa for the past 10yrs for work, which is how he knows French. At some point he started talking about the Iraq war and the fires in California and all kinds of stuff. Sadly I didn't ever fully know what he was talking about so I mainly just listened! I felt so bad but he was so nice!!

Friday - MY BIRTHDAY! :) We slept in a bit, headed downtown and met a friend for lunch. We wandered in and out of a few stores and then headed to a football match. This was my first pro soccer game to go to and it was exciting! It was two Ukrainian cities playing and so of course we were pulling for Odessa. Sasha and Regina even bought me an Odessa scarf so that I could be a real fan. Odessa won 4-0. There were 2 red cards given to the other team and at least 2 yellow cards to a couple of different players too! After we scored at one point, the cheering section got really crazy and lit a couple of red flares and while we were watching them we started seeing yellow and blue chairs flying in the air! We think a fight started in the midst of it all... it was nuts!

Saturday - a guy came to Odessa from Lubni (?) to see Sasha and Regina's Upward soccer games so we spent the morning with him and Sasha told him about Upward and his experience. That afternoon we headed to the gym for their last games of the season. It's been raining like crazy so they haven't been able to play on the fields for a few weeks. The games were a blast and the kids have had so much fun.

Sunday - we went to church this morning and after the typical 3 sermons came home for homemade pizza. A missionary that used to live here was in town so he and his daughter joined us for the afternoon. Now we're about to leave to fly to Kiev and we'll fly back to the states tomorrow.

Pictures will come when I get home! In the meantime, thanks for your prayers... for the churches and Upward leagues in Ukraine and our travelling safety!

Doombah Chickensquirt

Sometimes when you have a stressful day or week, you need some silliness to break up the day. If we are honest, we have a lot more stressful days than not. Here is your dose of humor...

A. Follow the instructions to find your new name.

B. Once you have your new name, leave me a comment with it and your “old” name. If you want to email this to people, put your new name in the subject box and forward it to friends and family and co-workers.

And don't go all adult - a senior manager is now known far and wide as Dorky Gizzardsniffer!

The following is excerpted from a children's book, Captain Underpants And the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants, by Dave Pilkey, in which the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names.

So…

1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name:
a = snickle
b = doombah
c = goober
d = cheesey
e = crusty
f = greasy
g = dumbo
h = farcus
i = dorky
j = doofus
k = funky
l = boobie
m = sleezy
n = sloopy
o = fluffy
p = stinky
q = slimy
r = dorfus
s = snooty
t = tootsie
u = dipsy
v = sneezy
w = liver
x = skippy
y = dinky
z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name t o determine the first half of your new last name:
a = dippin
b = feather
c = batty
d = burger
e = chicken
f = barffy
g = lizard
h = waffle
i = farkle
j = monkey
k = flippin
l = fricken
m = bubble
n = rhino
o = potty
p = hamster
q = buckle
r = gizzard
s = lickin
t = snickle
u = chuckle
v = pickle
w = hubble
x = dingle
y = gorilla
z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:
a = butt
b = boob
c = face
d = nose
e = hump
f = breath
g = pants
h = shorts
i = lips
j = honker
k = head
l = tush
m = chunks
n = dunkin
o = brains
p = biscuits
q = toes
r = doodle
s = fanny
t = sniffer
u = sprinkles
v = frack
w = squirt
x = humperdinck
y = hiney
z = juice

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOUR NEW NAME IS... and leave your real name too :) !!

Remember that children laugh an average of 146 times a day; adults laugh an average of 4 times a day. Put more laughter in your day.

It has been the longest week ever...

You know when you're waiting on something and each day you think that will be the day you receive it? But then the end of the day comes and you realize it didn't come that day either? Yeah, that's been this week. ugh. It's ok though... some things are just out of my control and I'm trying to exercize some Daring Dependence on God. Luckily He knows that I'm a work in progress!

One thing I DID get this week was a replacement for my phone! YAY! I had a scare though as I left the store... I had sat in the parking lot for a few minutes resetting as much as I could so that it was "my" phone again. I pulled out and onto the road and opened my phone to see a text I had just received. But the screen was blank. Ok, maybe I'm imagining things. So I close the phone, the outside display shows me the time and everything as usual and I open the phone again. Nothing. Are you kidding me?? I pull into a parking lot to see if I can figure it out before running back to the store. The only option I had was to pop out the battery and put it in again. Praise the Lord it worked! Good night, did I really need that minutes after I had picked it up and days after I had broken the first one?? Negative, ghost rider! But, all has been good since. Whew!

sad...

Now, I'm a responsible person. I don't lose things, I don't break things, I always return things that I've borrowed (even if I've had them for months on end... you WILL eventually get it back!). However, it seems that with age these traits that I've prided myself on are slowly deteriorating. Yeah, yeah, I'm not really that old but I'm getting close to 30, people!

Anyway, Sunday night, this responsible young lady that you all know and love dropped her cell phone. I never said I didn't drop things... Well, I dropped it on the carpet in my apartment and it broke. It wasn't a huge deal because it was just a little crack. One of the sides where the phone flips up cracked, which caused the top part of the phone to sit a little crooked when it was open. I was laughing so hard at my "new" ghetto phone!

Well, I really shouldn't have laughed too hard because yesterday, that piece that cracked fully came off. The ONLY thing holding both pieces of my phone together is the wiring that makes it work! LOL! Luckily, I was able to take it to the shop on Monday and they are ordering me a new one and said I should have it in 3 to 5 days. So, hopefully by the end of the week I won't be toting around my sad little phone!