187 pictures of snow!

Okay, I won't show you all 187 pictures of the snow that I've taken in the past week, but how do you feel about 15?

Glenn and I went to Germany on Sunday, Jan. 24th for a conference for first-termers who have been on the field about a year. When we arrived in Germany, it was snowing and it snowed off and on the whole week we were there. We loved the beautiful countryside covered with soft snow about 8-10 inches deep! We hated to leave Germany because of not wanting to leave the snow, but when we arrived in Budapest at 1:00 am a week later, there was a little snow (3-4 inches) on the ground. We had a surprise gift from God the next morning when we woke up to huge snowflakes falling and about 8 inches on the ground! It snowed all day, and we now have a little over a foot of snow!

We've gone on long walks through the woods near our house for two days in a row and even though the temperature was below freezing, we worked up a sweat!

We saw families out enjoying the park nearby and even a few kids out with sleds on the hill in the woods.

Glenn was truly in his element! Notice that big smile?

I could enjoy the snow up to my knees, thanks to my niece Sarah who gave me a pair of snow pants (ski pants?) 3 years ago and snow boots she'd outgrown.

Glenn has enjoyed walking with his trekking poles. They allow him to measure the snow in various places and burn some extra calories as he lifts them up out of the snow.

Our house is beautiful with the snow on the trees and bushes!

This is the view from our balcony, overlooking our yard. My poor fruit trees!

The next pictures are from our trip in Germany. (Sorry, I uploaded the pictures in the wrong order. By the way, I got my new computer, thanks to some volunteers who hand carried it out for us. (Glenn ordered it and had it sent to Texas for the volunteers who were working at Emigrate to bring to us.) I went over to the other side this time and bought a Mac. (I know so little about computers that when someone asks me what kind I have, I tell them, "a white one".) I got the same one Kari has so that she could help me learn how to work it. She spent about 1 1/2 hours today via Skype helping me figure out how to download my pictures and store them!

Our last day in Germany before we flew out, we spent with some friends going to a small town that is known for their village houses, the town of Wornitz. The houses are pretty expensive (about $50 each, on average), but they are all hand-made and hand-painted, and therefore, "one of a kind", supposedly. Collectors items, you know.

We left the conference center at 5:30 am and stopped at a McDonald's for breakfast in Frankfurt. They had these machines where you could pre-order your meal and pay for it by credit card, and then step up to the counter to pick it up. It wasn't crowded enough to need to try it, but I thought it was interesting! In McDonald's, of all places! Do they exist there in America?

The trees were so beautiful! It looked like it had snowed and then started to melt and then froze, and snowed again. All the branches were an inch thick with the white crystals!

During the conference, we had two hours one afternoon that was free time so Glenn and I chose to walk in the snow. We saw several other families out, enjoying the fresh air so we asked one of them to snap this picture of us for you.

This was the view from our window.

Like a fairyland!

At the conference, we met one of our ladies who is from Cedartown, Georgia, which is about an hour from Marietta. Glenn's dad comes from Cedartown. Leslie recognized Glenn's great-grandmothers' maiden name, Hightower, as the owner of the Peak-Hightower lumber mill.

Glenn and I got caught in a snow storm during our short walk in the area and it was snowing so hard that we could barely see 50 feet in front of us!

We have really enjoyed the snow for the past week and will hate to see it melt away. Of course, after you've looked at all these pictures, you probably hope it disappears soon and that we will have something else to talk about next week!

On another note, Glenn and I are following the 6 week series, Rooted, that our home church in Marietta is doing. We have our own quiet time each morning, and then right after lunch we are doing the daily devotionals together. On Sundays, we listen to the sermon that goes with the series, and we are memorizing the weekly Bible verse. It has been good for us to do this together.

We're here for the next week. I'll be trying to figure out how to use my new computer and get caught up on the emails that came in last week while we were out of town. Ugh, that has got to be the worst thing about traveling so much. I feel like I am always behind in my correspondence. Oh well, job security. Have a good week!