Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Rain Rain Go Away!
I woke up this morning to the booming of thunder! My first thought was, "oh no! Its Welcome Week!" We are on the brink of Welcome Week at Bethel University. TODAY begins the amazing phenomenon of freshman move-in! Freshman move-in days at Bethel are a spectacle to see! You pull up, are greeted by the president of the university, are directed towards your dorm where you park and are mobbed by loads and loads of volunteer movers (upperclassmen). They move all you stuff into your room (usually the right one) before you can blink! It is utterly amazing! But rain makes it not as fun, gives the day a little gloom, and probably makes it a little harder for the already weary and emotional parents and students. Please help me pray away the rain! We need it to be sunny today and tomorrow (at least until 2 I think. :-) )
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Surrender
Why is it so hard to surrender to God? Why is it so hard to follow the path He has laid out for us? Surrender should be so easy! All we have to do is open our hands and let God do His work. Why does it hurt sometimes? I've seen God lay things right in my lap and I don't know what to do! Its so easy, just let God do His work! He is God. He is Powerful. We plan and worry til we drive ourselves crazy only to find something completely different we could have never planned that God has for us. Just think of the story of Jonah. God told him, "Go to Nineveh". How hard would that have been? Yet, Jonah raised a fuss and...you can read the rest.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
That's Going to Be A Nightmare...That's Just Our Policy
I love Brian Regan's quote when talking about customer service "That's going to be a nightmare. That's just our policy!" Let me start out by saying that Ireland was great!!! I loved it!!! It was so much fun to explore and visit and make new friends. Photos coming soon. Getting there and back however was not great AT ALL!!! Let me draw it out for you.
We were scheduled to leave August 2 MSP to JFK to DUB
Our MSP to JFK flight was cancelled due to rain
So, after 4 hours on the phone, a rush to the airport, and 4 hours of running back and forth between ticket counters (I won't elaborate as to why) we got booked for a flight the next day through Atlanta. We arrived at DUB 24 hours later than expected and went through Atlanta not JFK but we and a bunch of other interrupted travel people got First Class from Atlanta to Dublin, so that was nice.
We were schedule to come home August 16 DUB to JFK to MSP
Our DUB to JFK flight was delayed 5 hours because the JFK to DUB flight our plane was making was delayed leaving JFK 5 hours again due to rain. So, we checked in, collected our food vouchers, hung out at Starbucks, met some neat Irish people, and 5 hours later boarded our flight. We were scheduled to make our connection if we landed on time. We landed on time but sat on the tarmack for a good half hour or so and missed our flight to MSP. We wandered around JFK because it is HUGE and poorly marked and the staff is of little help (told us to walk to terminal 4 when a very helpful man later told us to ride the tram!!!). We found our ticket counter and the ticket agent told us all the flights were booked, but told us the times for the next day and gave us a hotel and food voucher (again). We went to the Ramada bus pick up area. The bus came and had a fender bender with the Holiday Inn van so we had to wait for another Ramada bus! Then we spent the night (a whole 9 hours of it) in Ramada Plaza Inn at JFK and left 5:30 am to check in for standby for the 8:00 am flight to MSP! We sat and sat and sat and I almost threw up from stress! Then, the agent called our names!!!!!! We made the flight!!! We were soooooo happy!!!!!!!!!!! Horray.
In the end, out of our four originally scheduled flights we flew ONE of our flight numbers and NONE of the times. So so so frustrating!
We are home! I miss Ireland, but am glad to not be at JFK anymore.
We were scheduled to leave August 2 MSP to JFK to DUB
Our MSP to JFK flight was cancelled due to rain
So, after 4 hours on the phone, a rush to the airport, and 4 hours of running back and forth between ticket counters (I won't elaborate as to why) we got booked for a flight the next day through Atlanta. We arrived at DUB 24 hours later than expected and went through Atlanta not JFK but we and a bunch of other interrupted travel people got First Class from Atlanta to Dublin, so that was nice.
We were schedule to come home August 16 DUB to JFK to MSP
Our DUB to JFK flight was delayed 5 hours because the JFK to DUB flight our plane was making was delayed leaving JFK 5 hours again due to rain. So, we checked in, collected our food vouchers, hung out at Starbucks, met some neat Irish people, and 5 hours later boarded our flight. We were scheduled to make our connection if we landed on time. We landed on time but sat on the tarmack for a good half hour or so and missed our flight to MSP. We wandered around JFK because it is HUGE and poorly marked and the staff is of little help (told us to walk to terminal 4 when a very helpful man later told us to ride the tram!!!). We found our ticket counter and the ticket agent told us all the flights were booked, but told us the times for the next day and gave us a hotel and food voucher (again). We went to the Ramada bus pick up area. The bus came and had a fender bender with the Holiday Inn van so we had to wait for another Ramada bus! Then we spent the night (a whole 9 hours of it) in Ramada Plaza Inn at JFK and left 5:30 am to check in for standby for the 8:00 am flight to MSP! We sat and sat and sat and I almost threw up from stress! Then, the agent called our names!!!!!! We made the flight!!! We were soooooo happy!!!!!!!!!!! Horray.
In the end, out of our four originally scheduled flights we flew ONE of our flight numbers and NONE of the times. So so so frustrating!
We are home! I miss Ireland, but am glad to not be at JFK anymore.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Ireland - Part 2
It has been raining loads and loads!!! We have even had thunderstorms (odd for Ireland). Usually it rains for 20 minutes and is done for the day. Ethan frequently exclaims, "I con not bewieve it!" and everything Caiden does is "more than I've ever been" as in "my feet hurt more than they've ever been!" or "I'm hungrier than I've ever been in my life!" So funny! In a few days the crew comes home from conference and we will get to do some more touring (not that the Kildare Play Zone and Maynooth Spar haven't been grand)! Tomorrow Erin and I will minister to the neighbors the best we know how (by making them chocolate chip cookies). Unfortunately, there are no semi-sweet chocolates in Ireland and the Irish know little of soft cookies (their "biscuits" are usually rather hard and crunchy). So we make these every year and they love them!!! Well, I'm off to watch Failtre (full chur) Towers...an Irish show with pseudo celebrities running a hotel and one by one they get kicked off (Erin and I are curious how long it will be until we have it in the U.S.). Its the best we could find. Cheers!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Ireland - Part 1
After a canceled flight and a bump to first class to make up for it :-) we've finally arrived in Ireland!!!
We are having fun. At 5 and 3 years old, the boys are so sweet and funny. They even have accents. Yesterday morning, we were chatting about various things in the kitchen and they boys yelled "let's make gingerbread!" and we said, "um, maybe later. I'm not sure we have everything for that" and they replied "well, we have bread!" :-) Ha ha ha.
We are having fun. At 5 and 3 years old, the boys are so sweet and funny. They even have accents. Yesterday morning, we were chatting about various things in the kitchen and they boys yelled "let's make gingerbread!" and we said, "um, maybe later. I'm not sure we have everything for that" and they replied "well, we have bread!" :-) Ha ha ha.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Dress Rehearsal
Our flight to New York (to continue to Dublin) was cancelled today due to rain. So, after 3 hours on the phone (mostly on hold), a rush to the airport (they told us we were on a flight leaving for France soon), and 3 more hours at the airport being tossed from airline counter to airline counter (flight confirmed to Chicago, bags checked, flights Chi-town to Dublin oversold so unschedule flight, find bags) they informed us we will have to leave tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will have 4 hours in Atlanta. Upon checking out the airport website I am please to learn they have a Starbucks (though I doubt we'll need that) and a family favorite...Chick-fil-a!!!!!! Plus Coca-Cola is made in Atlanta. So being more stressed than I have in about a year, I am excited for these little things!!! Yum!
Tomorrow we will have 4 hours in Atlanta. Upon checking out the airport website I am please to learn they have a Starbucks (though I doubt we'll need that) and a family favorite...Chick-fil-a!!!!!! Plus Coca-Cola is made in Atlanta. So being more stressed than I have in about a year, I am excited for these little things!!! Yum!
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