Life Group on Sunday....

While the Casey's are in the states (during November), Life Group is once again meeting at our house. This Sunday, it was us, Daniel and Simona (who got married in August) and Daniel's sister-in-law, Simona, who has come a few times in the past. It went really well and was very refreshing. I love it when Life Group is like that.

Catch-up Month....

Well, since we are alone in Ancona (referring to Team members) we are taking this extra time to try and catch up on some "bonus" tasks. You know those things that always seem to have a lower priority level. On the back burner, waiting till a rainy day, etc.... I am wanting to upload all of our John curriculum to the internet for other churches to download and use. It has no words written on it, so they can be used in any language. Each has a color story card and a color sheet. I have the stories for each in Italian only, but I plan on making them in English too (eventually). There are about 23 weeks of the John curriculum and it was a huge undertaking to produce it (there are also videos for each week - in Italian, of course). We are working on the book of Judges right now and after that we will do a study on Creation and then Luke. Lots to create, but that is what God has equipped me for, so it brings me lots of joy to do it.

Casey Good-bye

We just said good-bye to the Casey's. Sniff..Sniff The upside is that they will only be gone for about a month. It is going to be a wierd month though. Matt and I will be the only team members in Ancona! This will by far be the longest amount of time that we will have been alone here. Thank the Lord we have three wonderful team mates in Perugia!!! And that God is growing relationships with our Italian friends.
There is so much going on this month so I know it will go by fast. We have English every Friday, Life Group on Sundays, Perugia visit about mid month when the guys are going to see Cold Play in concet, Thanksgiving, a coffee house and a Micheal Bouble concert! Don't start to think we are big concert goers. These are the only two concerts we have gone to in I don't even know how long but it just so happens they fall in the same month. Not that there is anything wrong with that! Going to concerts more often I mean. I enjoy going to concerts we just don't take the time to go.
At any rate, I am sure we will keep ourselves busy with all there is to do but today I am a little bit sad to say good-bye to my friends.

Halloween

Happy Halloween! I have always loved Halloween. I know some people think it is a bad holiday to celebrate but growing up it was a huge holiday in my family. My dad's business made it a big holiday. I remember changing my mind a thousand times on what I was going to dress up as for Halloween. I think I was just about everything at some time or another...fun stuff. As I got older Halloween started to mean pitching in at dad's store. It was always fun to work because the whole family was there together working and some of the same employes come back each year to work just at Halloween. Now that we are in Italy and Halloween isn't celebrated as much here we don't really do that much. I am sure we will watch Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, a Halloween classic, and maybe a scary movie or something. Of course, I am sporting my Old Navy Halloween shirt and my candy corn earings!
On another note Brandy left Ancona today. She is on her way to Perugia to spend her last 5 days with the Roterts. Brandy was a great intern. I can't say enough good things about her. I will miss you Brandy!!!

Finished, stronger and better than new!

Reinforcing the bottom....

Here I am in the middle of it.

The Couch "In the beginning"

The Couch

We noticed last week that one side of our couch was making lots of creeking sounds when you sat one it. One day I had to take the cover off so I could wash it and when I did you could see that the arm of the couch was seperating from the rest of the couch! Not a good thing. We have only had this couch less than 4 years and already it is falling apart. Matt assured me he could fix it. So yesterday I was at LaVia with Brandy and we came back to my house to eat lunch. When we walked in the door there was our couch all ripped apart! The apolstery pulled back and the arm taken off with pieces of wood laying everywhere. Matt had started working on it and it was at that point where it looks really bad and in the back of my mind I am thinking 'I sure do hope he can put that back together'. But sure enough by last night he had it all put back together and stronger than ever. He is such a handy guy to have around!

Weekend with the Roterts

The Roterts were here this weekend. They just left to catch the train. I am always a little bit sad when they leave. We had a good weekend though. Friday they didn't get here until around seven but we had taco salad for dinner and watched some TV together. Saturday was a kid's ministry activity day and we went bowling. We had a really good group turn out, about 27 people including 4 families that are not members of our church. Today was life group and McDonald's for lunch. All in all a very fun weekend! Always made more fun when our friends are visiting.
This week begins Brandy's last week here in Ancona as my intern. I am really going to miss her! Not only because of her friendship but because when she leaves I will have the whole kids English outreach all on my own. Brandy don't leave!!!!