Birthday Week!

This past couple of weeks we've been overloaded with information. We went through some tough sessions this week and now we're wiped out. Luckily, we got to celebrate in the middle of the week for my birthday. We went to Cheesecake Factory for some delicious respite from cafeteria food. I also got a lot of emails and calls on my birthday, which was really nice. Some of them were from our team members in Prague I haven't even met yet! How nice! We're getting ready for our last few days now before we head to Texas and then to Prague. We've got some fun last-minute assignments, then commissioning, then we'll be off. I think it's just starting to hit us that we won't be seeing our friends that we've made here for quite a while and our family and friends back home for probably longer. So we plan to get in a lot of visiting while we're in Houston. I hope some of you are planning to come see us! We've really enjoyed our time here and we've learned a lot about the work that we have ahead of us. We've also really enjoyed the friends we've made here. It's really been a blessing to have people to just relax with and be goofy. We also got some pictures this past week of the apartment we'll be in when we get to Prague. That was kind of a reality check that we're actually going! Before it was this far away thing on the horizon...now it's here and we've actually seen where we'll be staying. Crazy! I've got another fun story for you but I don't have the pictures yet so I'll get that up soon. Anyway, here's our photo extravaganza for the week...



Okay, this is sideways but you can just tilt your head. We decided the end of the breadstick looked like a nose so I tried it out. It only worked if I leaned my head back...



Cute picture, huh? Yeah, we were falling over...



And here's the whole gang outside Cheesecake Factory.

Lately...

We've been pretty busy lately wrapping things up. It's hard to believe we'll be in Prague in less than 3 weeks. We're getting really excited about going. I thought I'd post some more pictures of what we've been up to lately.



Pretty much all we do for fun lately is go into town and go to Target. We found some weird red stools and a "pouf cushion." Weird, but fun.



Eating some yummy burgers at Red Robin!



The girls at Red Robin.



So we learned a new card game called Scum. Matt was conveniently Scum the first round and got to wear these cute bunny ears.



So our friend decided he wanted a mohawk (despite his wife's protests). Matt decided to help him out so I took some pictures as evidence.



Not happy...



And the results....It ended up being more of a fohawk.

Washington, D.C.

So we went to Washington yesterday. Our goal was to meet someone from the Czech Republic and we were gloriously unsuccessful. We did see the Czech and Hungarian embassies but we couldn't get into either one. We also found a statue of the first President of then Czechoslovakia. Apparently, he and Woodrow Wilson were buds because next summer they'll be unveiling a statue of ole' Woodrow in Prague to highlight the influence he had on Czech democracy. Anyway, another one of our assignments for the day was to eat an ethnic food we had never tried before for lunch. Again, we were quite unsuccessful. By 2 o'clock, we had discovered that both restaurants we had planned to visit were no longer in business and after walking for hours already, we were starving for lunch. So, we decided that the closest restaurant- which happened to be Chipotle- would have to do. (Hey, it's ethnic, and one of the couples we were with had never eaten there before.) After our adventures at the embassies and Masaryk's statue, we decided to do some sightseeing. We didn't get very much in, but what we saw was really neat. So here's our pictures from mine and Matt's first visit ever to Washington D.C.:



This was super cool. This is Marine One, the helicopter that carries the President. It was flying super fast and super low. I'm not sure if he was on his way to pick up or drop off, but there was another helicopter that flew the same route as this one right behind it. I wasn't quite fast enough to catch the second one.



Here's Matt and me in front of the Lincoln Memorial.



This is at the WWII Memorial. There's a pillar for each state and I just had to get my picture in front of Texas.



This is us in front of the Washington Monument. It was too big to fit in the picture but you've all seen it before...



This is the statue of Tomas Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia (before it became the Czech Republic).



This is the Czech Embassy where we couldn't even get past the gate. (Good thing we spent an hour getting to it.)

Shots and Burgers!!!

So this week had some not-so-fun moments. Matt and I got our second round of shots which included a TB skin test (so fun), the internet has been sketchy all week, and we found the meals this week to be less than appealing. So we heard about a great burger place nearby called Five Guys Burgers and Fries where we could get a cheap burger and some greasy fries. After practically living on sandwiches, salads, and cereal this weak (I feel like I'm wasting away!), we thought we deserved some good ole' American burgers. It was super yummy. It kind of reminded me of Kindcaid's in Fort Worth. Apparently it's a chain. I really don't care cause it was a dang good burger and really good, homemade french fries. Just kidding about wasting away. I'm just getting back into my jeans after our "last time" binge at all of our favorite restaurants in Houston. On a good note, though, Matt and I have been a lot more active lately. We've played indoor soccer the last two weeks and volleyball this past week. We even went jogging out in the woods/pastures yesterday. It's amazing how much you have time for when there's no TV. Yesterday was the first time it's been pretty and not freezing in about 2 weeks. It's been either cold and raining or just really cold and windy. This week the weather is suppose to be better except for Tuesday, which just so happens to be the day we're going to Washington D.C. I'm really excited about going but not so excited about it raining. Our goal in D.C., in addition to sight-seeing, is to find people in our people group that we will be living among when we get overseas. For us, that means we have to find some Czechs in D.C. We searched and searched on the internet this week and couldn't even find a Czech or Bohemian restaurant (Bohemia is the region of the Czech Republic we'll be living in). We did, however, find the Czech embassy and hope somebody there can point us in the right direction. There is also a Czech statue somewhere close to the embassy so we're going to check that out, too. So that's what we're up to lately. I can't believe we only have 4 more weeks left here. We'll be home before you know it (for 5 days). We hope you all are doing great! Here's some pictures from this week:


Matt and I were both sad about our shots. Last week, it took about 3 days for my arm to quit being sore. We did get some cool bandaids, though. Matt has a Dora the Explorer and I've got Sponge Bob. Matt's sleeve is rolled up because he just ripped his other bandaid off, not because he's trying to look cool.



This is our friends' 6-month old baby, Renae. She's having a little trouble with her beany.



Super cute! She's a little perturbed with me because I just took my sunglasses away from her. My bad...



YUM!! Our first bite of delicious burgers! I'm pretty sure it took me about 30 seconds to wolf mine down (I did get a junior burger, after all). Believe it or not, our order of fries was so big, Matt and I actually shared it and had leftovers...a first for us.