the team is coming the team is coming!

just a few hours from now we'll be staring at the faces of our lovely, exhausted, completely unaware of what time it really is team members. hullabaloo.

here are a few pictures of our time so far. don't get too excited, we do promise they'll get better in the next few weeks!

this is the neighbor's house and the incredible view behind it. when we looked out the window of the airplane as we landed, the view was spectacular patches of different shades of green, much like the sections you see here. beautiful! today is an absolutely gorgeous day, 65 degrees and sunny (please don't hate me texans), the perfect day for the team to arrive!




we decided to take advantage of this lovely day by, drumroll please, doing laundry! they have a dryer but its very expensive to run so we've been doing our best to do laundry on sunny, dry days. i've gotta be honest - if i ever live somewhere that it would be feasible, i'd be totally into line drying my clothes. also i found out that i have a kitchen gadget that will enable me to make my own baby food someday. hippieeee.





well, the computer has decided it would rather not upload any more pictures right now, so we'll just keep you in anticipation. leaving to get the team in twenty minutes!

in other news.

i just came across a website that has some delightful, healthy recipes, and, what's even better, an entire section on cooking for 2! glory. i'm excited about our little home awaiting us in dallas and tonight is the perfect night to find some tasty treats to fill it up with. any favorite recipes are welcome!

lovely tonight.

(title credit goes to joshua radin who you need to listen to if you don't already.)

This afternoon and evening, Ernie and Nancy are out and Jared and I having a stay at "home" date/day off before the team comes tomorrow! Right now, Jared is playing Joshua Radin on the guitar (hence the blog title and the fact that words like "ecstasy" and "bliss" are breezing through my mind) and I'm, well, I'm blogging. We are so thrilled to have a day together and at the same time absolutely can't wait to see our team tomorrow. I can't believe its already time for them to come, this trip is going to fly by. We're doing our best to soak it up and remember the things we've seen, heard, and learned already. Its funny, I remember last time I came I told Nancy I wished I had written down everything she told me because we spent hours talking about marriage (it was 2 months or so before Jared and I got engaged), life, family, Jesus, scripture, being in the world and not of it, and so much more. She smiled and told me that if God was faithful enough to let me hear wisdom, He would be faithful to bring it to mind at the right time. Of course, He has, continues to, and will again.

Yesterday, we went to church in the morning and then Jessie (one of the other missionaries), and the Lewis family (the newer missionaries who just had a baby - Seth, Jessica, Daniel, and the new baby David) came for "dinner." Dinner, evidently, refers to the fact that its the biggest meal of the day, not the time of day it is served. So, they came for dinner at lunch time. We had a wonderful time with them and enjoyed hearing more about what they are in doing in the community, as well as getting to know Jessica's Mom who is here from Virginia helping with the baby. Then, last night we got to talk to the Perrys on skype for a while and then my little sister, Olivia for a few minutes! It was so great to get to talk to family and actually see them - it makes a big difference.

In other news, apparently Dr. Murano is no longer the president of A&M. Gotta love adult drama.

Love you guys dearly, off to hang out with the hub!

what we're doing these days.

Hello friends,

The last week has been filled with....everything!

The first few days of last week were spent sleeping and being awake at rather strange times, but we adjusted within 3 or 4 days and got in some good movies during our hours of sleeplessness (including Sleepless in Seattle, ironically enough). We stay up later here than we do at home for the most part because the sun doesn't really go completely down till around 10pm, so our bodies are still a little deceived. Fortunately, we get to sleep a tad later than we did while we were working in College Station :).

A large motivation behind this trip (specifically for Jared and me) has been a desire to see what the life of a missionary in a European, specifically Irish, context really looks like. So far, we've discovered quite a bit! Since we've been here, a young missionary couple has had a baby, a friend's grandmother has passed away, we've helped conduct interviews for a radio station position, made thousands (literally) of lecture note copies for Summer Bible Week, read some wonderful books, ate some great food, missed our friends and family, watched rain fall out the window every day, experienced an average of 60 degree weather, and a good bit more.

Most days we wake up with a vague idea of what the following hours will bring, which is a stark contrast to the 8-5 lives we were living before we came here. It has been an adjustment and continues to be (not to mention that we'll be jumping into an entirely new schedule different from either of the two previous when we move to Dallas), but we are grateful that God (and our hosts) are patient, and that we have the opportunity to see that an American schedule is not the only way of life and that what is done here is not wrong, it is simply different. And if we're talking preference...I think we may fit in a bit more with the mentality here than we do in the States :). We'll see what happens!

Love you all and would love to hear from you. Let me know if you'd like to be added to our prayer email list!

We're in Youghal, y'all!

We've arrived my friends! The title of my post is intended to be funny though most people probably don't get it, my apologies. The town we are living in is called "Youghal" - which is pronounced exactly how we say "y'all" in Texas. Crazy isn't it?

We arrived in Ireland around 4pm yesterday, so 10am in Texas. After a crazy amount of sleep, we are filling a bit out of it but great. Today, a group called "The Barnabas Players" from Prairie Bible College left so we had dinner (which is called "tea") with them - they have been here for the past three weeks doing sketches about creation, the gospel, and topics such as peer pressure, in the schools here - which is a really big deal. Praise God for open doors, we know that the team had great impact on the children and youth that watched them perform.

At the moment we're waiting to leave for a prayer meeting with some members of the recent church plant the Tromsness (our hosts) are involved with. It'll be fun to meet some more folks (one of them is a family who recently moved here from Hungary!) One of the new additions to the missionary team here in Ireland is a young family, Seth and Jessica, who have a little boy named Daniel and are expecting their second son, David, any day! Pray for them as they've recently moved, are in a totally new culture, and about to incur another huge change. They are incredibly well adjusted and seem to trust the Lord very deeply, pray for their continued trust and an easy birth :).

We'll do our best to post as often as we can. Much love!