enjoying the little things

I don't have a big event to report on, but I just wanted to check in and let you know how Chase is doing at Pathfinder school! The answer is: he's doing great! He passed both tests in his first week there which is a big accomplishment.  I guess the class started with 60 people and by the end of the first week there were only 40 people left.  He actually got to come home this weekend so we had an awesome couple of days together! I left on Friday afternoon to drive back to Schweinfurt to pick him up.  The school is actually held about 20 minutes outside of Schweinfurt in the middle of NOWHERE! We had no idea how to get there so last week when I dropped him off for the first time we did a little caravan action with someone that knew where it was.  So we thought we'd be tricky and "drop a pin" on the iPhone Google maps the day I dropped him off so it would be really easy for me to get back there to pick him up.  Well I was doing fine on Friday driving back there by myself using the pin to get there...until the GPS started taking me a different way and took me through a little village outside of Schweinfurt and into someone's driveway and proceeded to tell me that I reached my destination. HA. Yea right! I was preeeetty sure they didn't relocate pathfinder school to a local German's house. lol.  (Turns out there was no reception out there when we dropped the pin on the map so it just dropped one in the first area that had reception. I guess that makes sense. NOT!) So I was trying to figure out how in the world I would get there from where I was and decided to keep driving...decided I went too far out of the way...turned around...passed a deserted road that had a couple piles of logs...I did a double take because those piles of logs looked familiar (on the way back the first time I drove home, I took a wrong turn also and found myself on an empty road with just logs - THE SAME LOGS I JUST PASSED!) So I just turned onto that road and repeatedly said out loud, "please be the road I incorrectly turned on last trip." Well luckily, that was it - and I found my way to the middle of nowhere safely. Thank you God for making me take a wrong turn the first time around so that when I got lost again I recognized the wrong way haha. [[I apologize for taking way too long to explain my trip there, but it was too funny to only keep to myself.]]

So after we got back on Friday night, we had an awesome dinner.  I cooked a sauce all day.  For those of you who don't know, my "big fat Italian" family has a family recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce that is probably the most amazing thing you'll ever taste.  So I made that to go with Rigatoni (aka rigs), made a salad with the family recipe salad dressing, and created a recipe for garlic bread that was delicious! Well, old habits are hard to break and I cooked enough of everything for a family of ten haha. So we decided to invite some friends over - our very first dinner guests!!  Jason, Kate, and Kate's mom who is visiting right now all came over for dinner and stayed for hours! We just sat around, ate, drank, and talked - good old fashioned fun. :)  Saturday was just a serious "chill day" for us.  We actually didn't even leave the house once! I think that was just what we needed. Chase studied a little bit, we watched movies, and I tried out some more new recipes for dinner that night (I'm starting to cook a lot more, and I'm loving it!).  Then Sunday morning came way too quickly once again...I had to take Chase back around noon so we only had enough time for a little more studying on Chase's end and a big breakfast.  The drive back to the middle of nowhere went much more smoothly this time since I knew NOT to use the dropped pin haha.  We navigated the tiny, curvy roads and dodged all the German walkers to get there.  On Sundays here everything shuts down, no one works, and EVERYONE walks...EVERYWHERE! There were seriously hundreds of Germans out walking haha.  At one point, I came around a curve and there were probably nine people all in a line perpendicular to the road just walking along blocking any traffic.  I slowed down behind them and they all turned and gave me this look like, "why in the world are you driving on the road and ruining our walk?!" I actually felt bad for a second and started second guessing myself...then I remembered I was on a ROAD for crying out loud. But everything was fine when I got to stop at the Taco Bell on post in Schweinfurt.  Gosh I've missed Taco Bell so much. lol. I explored the PX there too and then headed home.  It's always a lot quieter and not as fun without Chase at home; but we only have five more days until the next time I get to venture back to pick him up. 

Oh and by the way, it's gotten so much colder in the past week...here is a screenshot I took on my phone at 9:00 this morning:

SIX BELOW!!!!

Yea - THAT'S cold!  So I'm going to go bundle up in my Snuggie and lots of blankets and catch up on the Grey's Anatomy from last week.  Keep the prayers coming so that Chase passes the two tests he has this week!!