So I went to europe this summer and decided it is about time to do a post about it.

After having our flight plans over to europe seriously messed up by a volcano, VA, Arlene, Amber and I arrived in Barcelona, Spain to the delicious taste crema and fresh baked cresant rolls (courtesy of my Aunt Carme). After a day of rest in the town of Santpedor we set out across France and through monaco toward our goal of Trieste, Italy. I have never wondered about forigen toilets, our toilets here in the US work so well I jut figured it was the same in every industralized country. Wrong. In Spain the toilets had 2 different buttons to use to flush the toilets, in france it was similar to a shower stall with a hole in the ground. Who would have guess that? In trieste we stayed in the apartment of a missionary family right in the city. Interestingly enough, European people are rather superstitious. In Italy you eat your salad last during the meal because it is better for digestion, you don't go barefoot, and drafts in the house are not good.

The next day we wandered around and got a little lost in the city we saw the harbor got laughed a by the police while trying to take a picture, said "chow" a few times, saw roman ruins, ate gelato and took a tour of the city. It was amazing from sailboats, to a world war era jewish ghetto, we saw it all. After having a true Italian meal we went to bed. The next day we went to Mira Mara which is a castle of off the adriatic sea, afterwards we dove to the Italy/Slovenia border.

We then bagan our trek toward Salzburg, Austria. The Alps were absolutly beautiful! at one point during the trip we stopped in a field of flowers and took amazing pictures. It was cool and windy and absolutly breath-taking. Our first night in salzburg we went to a resterant to eat traditional austrian food. We walked through the door and immediatly were greeted in english! It must have been very easy to tell we were from the states. We ordered and ate amazing food the names of which I cannot remember how to spell. :-P When it came time to leave we had to run back to the hotel in the rain! While in salzburg I explored the city with Amber. We went in to cathedrals, and to street markets, we saw Mozart's statue, and ate chocolate.

We left Salzburg to head to Switzerland. On the way there, we stopped in Innsbruck, Austria. We walked around a bit and stopped at a bar to have apple strudle with vanilla sauce and espresso. We soon piled back into the 9 passenger van and continued back on our way toward Switzerland. *sidenote traffic in europe is insane, and not just on the autoban. Points to my uncle for navigating us through all the craziness. Nine passenger vans are rare, most people have a tiny car, a moped, or no car at all.

Upon our arrival to the city in switzerland our van's tire burst and the missionary's had to meet us at a gas station. This is where I had my only real problem on the trip. Due to the lack of space I slept outside in a pop up camper with my cousin Arlene. After we did our nightly devotions I decided to shine my flashlight around the camper to check for little critters. And that was when I saw IT. I say it because it really was so hideous it was undeserving of a name. None the less "it" was a huge spider! I jumped off the bed and saw another spider on the ceiling, then another in the corner. All the while IT was crawling around over my bed. I ran inside and was handed a can of bug spray. Which I handed to Arlene muttering the words " you do it. I can't handle this". Eventually, after Arlene vanquished all of my new "friends" I drifted off to sleep.

The next day we went wading in Lake Geneva and walked along the bike trail toward the "fort" where; due to the fact that it was 45 minutes from closing time, the family got to explore for free. We saw sword fighting and a museum. We climbed to the top and looked out of little peep holes to the outside. We ate pizza near swiss banks with birds that would fly up and eat crumbs out of our hand.

All to soon the road trip ended, and we were on our way back to Espana. A few days after we were back in spain. My aunt, uncle, and three younger cousins headed back to the states, leaving Virgina, Arlene, Amber and I in Spain with Tieta (auntie). We went to Barcelona, where we met Virginia and Arlene's cousins Daniel and Marcial. We saw the harbor, the Christopher Columbus statue, Sagrada Familia, catedral de barcelona, flower and food markets, living statues, fountians at Montjuic, and so much more.

One one of our last days there We went to Costa Brava to swim in the med. sea. It was while there that I realized that topless beaches in spain, really are just that; Topless. To the four girls and I headed out to the unoccupied rochs to take pictures and splash around in the water. We ate pallea for lunch and headed to a medival town to explore while we waited for shops to open up so we could do some final shopping in a little town famous for its ceramics. With that my tour to europ drew to a close with many fun adventures and pricless multi-cultural experiences it truly was a trip I will remember for the rest of my life. It would not have been possible if I had not had my devoted travel companions and best friends doing everything possible to ensure that I made it on this trip with them, Amber (hamburguesa), Virginia (VA), and Arlene (lene Bean).

I learned so much from this trip! I picked up a little espaniol, and learned a valuable lesson. Many places around the world need missionarys especially europe, a place there is such amazing people is also a place that desperatly needs to hear the message of Jesus Christ. Many people have heard about Jesus but, sadly, do not have a personal relationship with him. It is my hope that this will change.

Ever have one of "those" days? Well, I have been having one of "those" days for a week and a half. No matter what I do the day just dosen't seem to run smoothly. I get sick, forget a homework assignment, my partched gas tank. However, despite the numerous misfortunes that happen over the course of my day I have always had a good end. The ending today was 1 Corinthians 13:13 "Three things will last forever -faith, hope and love-and the greatest of these is love."

Just ending my day with these few, yet beautiful words brings a smile to my face!

comp. lab

I am in the computer lab, chilling with my girls. and I decided ( after being inspired by my talented sister's blog) to do a post... I am in the absoloutly fabulouse mac lab. Why you may ask are the moniters so big? Good question! I is because apple computers are so awesome they deserve more space. the end.

Above: Triste, Italy Plaza Below: Lake Geneva, Switzerland?

I am so excited! In May i am going to be taking my first oversea trip to europe. The other day i was able to google map a place I will be staying with missionaries in Switzerland, Avenue de Croix-de-Rive / Avenue de la Plage, it is a adorable house off of Lake Geneva. So pretty. I was also able to look up where I will be staying in spain ( although I forgot the address!) On May 16th I will get on an airplane ( for the first time ever!) on take a flight to Detroit where i will get on another flight to Amsterdam (holland, i think) and from there to Barcelona, Spain. I am traveling with realitives and after visiting with their family we will go several more places including Italy and Switzerland there are more countries we will be visiting and driving through (such as france and germany) although i don"t remember them all.

This is a quick easy recipe i got from my Grandma. I have made this recipe twice this week, I don't know the name for these tasty treats but when they are this good they don't really need one! To make them you take a pre made package of croissants ( the refrigerated one in a cylindrical shape) open it up, and unroll it's contents. Then spread Nutella on and roll them up. Bake for the appropiate amount of time indicated on the package, let cool, and in about 15 minutes there is a sweet snack!

Okay, so this was a suggested first post. The picture is one i painted one day while i was a little bored. This (if you can't tell) is a picture of a Hummingbird. The background was done first by cutting out the shape of the humming bird the placing the tissue paper on the canvas then, layering paper with modge- podge then painting it with a white metallic pearl then layering paper again and painting with watercolor to get the rainbow look. The yellow color on the wings is a shiny paper that has been placed in the appropiate area. I added shadowing on to the bird while the paint was still wet so that it would blend. That is about it, It certianly isn't anything special but it was a fun way to spend a afternoon!

This is the first post!!! Kell said, "Get a blog." and after much deliberation and prayer I followed her suggestion. That was scarsam, but really she said get a blog i said sure, why not?