Ladies Night with Maritza

Maritza Ross is a very sweet friend from many years ago in Daytona. She also speaks spanish and sometimes I feel like we were twins separated at birth. She moved to DC about 10 years ago. She has made many opportunities for us to spend time together for this season in DC. We meet regularly early in the morning at her gym as she inspires me to "pump iron". I didn't realize what a cream puff I really am. She also invited me to go out with her friends, sister-in-law and neighbors for sushi. I tried seaweed salad for the first time and loved it.

The Rawlson Clan

Whenever we get together with our longtime friends the Rawlsons there is always lots fun and food. Jon works in DC sometimes so Elyse and the kids joined him for their spring break and stayed with us for a long weekend. We had a fun trip to "castle park", a trip downtown to the Air and Space and Natural Science Museums, and a fun night out in Geogetown. Our night in Georgetown was especially enjoyable as we started by getting a few tapas (spanish appetizers) at a Spanish restaurant, then spring rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant and ended at a french bakery to share a couple desserts. At dinner one night we showed Matthew another strange thing Aunt Siobhan eats: seaweed salad but he wasn't too impressed. Thanks for making the trip Rawlsons the kids are still missing you!

A Snappy Visit

Part of the amazing grace of God in the many changes of the past few years is how he has knit our hearts with the folks in Corning. An integral part of that has been how dear the Snapp family has become to our family. Allen is the pastor of Grace Community Church in Corning where we will be going back to serve. His wife Janice and kids Jen, Jared and Matthew came to DC with him while he took a week of class at the PC. I unfortunately didn't take alot of pictures since we were busy having fun but Christian did. I especially liked his creative photography of Matthew and the Washington Monument.

Woodlawn Plantation with the Donovan Girls

This past Monday we had a truly integrated field trip when we visited Woodlawn Plantation. It was one of the stops on the "Underground Railroad". It amazes me that we walked where slaves had walked and were running to freedom. It made history very real. Mrs. Will gave us a tour of the house and incorporated many activities to help the girls get a feel for what life was like in the time of the plantation. They learned about wool spinning, butter churning, water fetching and even did a small play. The best part was being with the Donovans. Lisa brought fun props and they even brought snack to have out of old fashioned pails.

Hersey Caregroup International Potluck

The Hersey Caregroup from Covenant Life Church adopted our family this year with the intention of extending care during our time here. They helped get help for us moving in, welcomed us with peaches, took our family out to lunch, brought us apples in season and even surprised us we groceries. Why would they do all of this for a bunch of folks they hardly know? It is a refection of their love for Christ and His church. This past Sunday the group came over and we enjoyed an International Potluck. Many of the folks brought dishes from their native countries or states. Afterwards we sat around sharing the testimony of God' s work and faithfulness in many of the folks lives. What a sweet group of folks. They have indeed showed us much care. Thanks so much to the Hersey Caregroup for all you have done for us this year, we will miss you.

Ethnic Eating in DC

Well for those of you who know Matt and I, you would know that at times he has gone to great lengths to prove his love for me. This past date night was no exception. Realizing that the countdown is on and that we have another 11 weeks in DC I suggested we tried to eat food at as many ethnic restaurants as possible. Matt thought this was a fun idea until we arrived at our destination: an El Salvadorean restaurant this past Tuesday and found that there were bars on the windows. What was even better was that when we walked in no one spoke English. Can you say authentic ethnic! We tried meat pancakes called "papooses". They were like a flat dumplings. As we left I was so grateful for my gracious husband's willingness to be adventurous.

Square Dancing - Yahoooo!

Tonight our family went to a square dance fund raiser for the youth ministry and had a blast. Matt said we could go IF everyone participated the entire time and I'm proud to say that everyone not only participated but had a great time. Our friends, the Hughes, were also there dancing with us. Here are some fun photos from our night.

They also had some line dancing and eventually the party turned into a big country Ho Down! What a memory.

Home is where our heart will be!

We were in Corning in January looking around at houses and didn't seem to find much that fit into our budget. There was one house on our list that didn't look really nice and so we didn't even bother to look at it. While I was away in FL our friend and pastor Allen said they had looked at a house we might be interested in. It just happened to be the one we didn't think looked very good on line. Once he described the house and the bit of acreage it came with and that it was just a couple of minutes outside Corning we thought we should take it seriously. We jumped in our car and drove up to Corning and arrived late Friday night, by Saturday afternoon we had a signed contract and went home amazed at God's kindness. Matt is now getting all the paper work finallized but it looks like we will have a home when we head back to Corning in mid June.The stream showed above is not on the property we own but right outside it where the kids can walk to it.

Hurray for the Harveys

So what do you do when you came home after being away four days and find out that you need to leave over night in 12 hours and you have to leave your kids again and you are away from home? Well you call the cape crusaders Jeannie and Craig Harvey. They just happened to be available and took our kids while Matt and I ran up to Corning to look at a house (next blog will fill you in on the results of the trip). While we were away Craig and Jeannie took our kids to right outside National Airport where it feels like you could reach up and touch the planes. At the end of a hard day they all ended up in the jacuzzi where I heard there were fruit smoothies served. Rightly so they became Uncle Craig and Aunt Jeannie!