hanging with the B and S families

Always a pleasure hanging with these lovely people.
We went for a walk to get ice cream and on our way back we stopped at a playground/skate park, the boys played around, Miss K was loving her mini paddling pool and bubbles and Claudia and I enjoyed the sun and taking turns of cooling our feet in the kiddy pool haha Perfection!
On our way home we stopped at Romy & Paul's place to say hi to her and her friend, funniest thing chatting with the two of them in their window set in the orange wall :) You can see the picture she took of us standing down there here.
Loving summer this year :)

Sunday morning thought

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,

they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

planted in the house of the Lord;

they will flourish in the courts of our God.

They will still bear fruit in old age,

they will stay fresh and green,

proclaiming, "The Lord is upright;

he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

Psalm 92:12-15

Love these verses! What a promise...
Totally missing being planted in the house at the moment due to working at the festival.
Had a short window and decided to walk up the closest hill to spend some time with God this morning. So refreshing and totally needed :)
Once again grateful for an amazing God, Jesus & salvation, the global church and all the people in my world.
Life is great, hope you have a wonderful weekend everyone x

brownies

I'm not a chocolaty person but this will win me over every time :) Everything from licking the bowl to eating the gooey brownie itself. Yum yum yum

card games on a Sunday night

There is nothing like playing a game of cards to round up a lovely weekend.
I never remember the rules of all these games from one time to the other but I have the best time anyway. And if I ever win, I claim beginners luck haha

Jetty's face looking disfigured but it's only a bite of apple

love the poker face haha

fun things to do on a Sunday morning

Had some hang time with Zeke on Sunday morning.
The plan was to walk to the park,

which took a while as he had to count every fence post there was :) Which turned into singing a numbers song and after a few repetitions singing the song in different voices!!!
Stopped in at Starbucks to have some breakfast.

Such a cheeky kid!
Took some pictures with Paddington bear.

The picture he took of me looking through the hole...

"I did it Yaya, I did it."

Of course we never made it to the park, but sometimes the journey is more fun than the destination!

money and wealth

Can't tell you how good it is to be back at my home church. I love God and His house and still feel spoilt to be part of something as great as this.
As money has been such a big topic everywhere - credit crunch anyone!! - we all got a book on it today. How good is that. Considering that Britain is the number one leader in personal debt, it's great that our leaders give away thousands of copies of this book, so people can get the God perspective on finance!

sunshine and MuteMath

We had the most gorgeous weather today. Clear blue skies and abundant sunshine!
Tried to read my book outside by the pool, but had to go inside as I started to get really red. This might be my summer after all haha. Anne, Sarah and I even went to a popsticle place mmmmmh.

Fun things today were, talking to my friend Simon, who always makes me laugh. Can't wait to spend New Year with him. Dance party extraordinary awaits :)
And I still can't stop laughing, talked to my youngest brother Joachim today and he told me that our brother was rapping at kids church this morning and he had mixed a beat specifically for that occasion. Muhahahaha Decided we were gonna call him U-Dawg from now on and later he sent me this picture

If that is not terrifying, I don't know what is :) Love them, they are crazy!!!!

When I talked to my favourite 2 year old yesterday, he wanted to see more photos of his Yaya so I played around with photo booth while sitting outside today :) These are for you Zeke Zeke

love this dress, thanks Lidinha x

Off to see MuteMath in a bit. A dream will come true yippie yay. More on that tomorrow x

God encounters and soccer games

Today something happened that has never happened to me before... I blew up in front of someone, like a crazy volcano that erupted out of no-where. Usually I am the most mellow person ever and would never pick a fight, this all changed when I head butted with this person.
After all this happened and I'm feeling like the last person anyone would like to have around them, I walk into church and they had baptisms and after we sang The Redeemed. A song, written by someone from within my church and I just started weeping before God. It was extraordinary, a sense of coming home and all the anger and negativity melted away and I felt like being lost in a sea of grace!!
Isn't God amazing, when you're at your worst and feel like this is the end, He comes and lifts you up and seats you at His feet, just to be there in the presence of the King. Words cannot express how much I love Him.

As I said before, I love quiet Sundays so the rest of the day was chilled out. Lunch, hanging with my Tennessee family, skyping friends and family, watching Robert play football(soccer for all you Americans), watching movies, more knitting, playing board games, etc There's nothing better!!

Some photos of what's been going on...

Sarah, Anne and Yaya waiting to be seated at Friday's

These are two photos from yesterdays Oktoberfest -  which was a fun experience. It's always rather amusing when people try to dress up in German/Austrian traditional clothing. So wrong somehow!

I forgot how fun it is to watch little boys play ball. Some of them are almost scared to hit the ball others turn around when you cheer them on and others are like little rascals that fight like crazy just to get that ball.

and on a side note, I got to talk to this little man today... and than I missed his parents again... so need to catch up with them!!! If you are reading this, MISS YOU lots London family. love love love

how I love lazy Sundays

So I missed church today. Don't exactly know how that happened but for the first service everyone slept in, apart from Anne who was at church around 7.30am to set up, and while I was in the shower everyone else left to go to the second one.

Can't tell you how much I miss church back home. There is something powerful when you gather as one on Sundays and the presence of God is there. I truly am blessed to have that environment in my life and am all the more thankful for where I have been positioned in life. It could be so so different and I'm experiencing that right now.

Got to talk to my family though which was nice. The time difference we are having at the moment is horrible, even Australia was a lot easier for some reason!!

As it was raining all day it was a lazy day... watching TV, knitting, eating left overs, playing board games, etc. It's so amazing when there is no rush to be anywhere. Makes you slow down and enjoy life a   whole lot more!

The football game yesterday was fun. Vanderbilt Commodores vs Ole Miss

Rather boring game I have to admit. Despite a packed stadium the home team lost tragically but I'd always return for the people watching part of it!

Back to the fashion world tomorrow. Can't wait to hear weekend stories - Jeff was a judge at the Miss Tennessee pageant. He wanted Anne and me to come last night but I could never do that. Would feel sick about the whole deal. Has nobody learnt anything from Little Miss Sunshine???