Pumpkin Time

This past weekend Chris and I were able to fit in some fun fall things! Saturday, after we got up, we packed a bag and headed to Greenfield where we went to Tuttle's Orchard. There we picked pumpkins, had lunch, observed a bee hive, saw their apple orchard and bought some yummy apple cider and a caramel apple. We had fun seeing all the fall displays and doing the fall thing. After the orchard we headed downtown Indianapolis to drive around and spend some time down there. It was fun! I hadn't been downtown since we got back from Kenya, so it was fun to see the new hotel that has been built and all the improvements being made to the city in order to get it ready to host the Superbowl in 2012. Its crazy how much goes into that! We then headed down to the South side of Indy to Greenwood to see Chris' dad, Jeff, and step-mom, Debbie. It was fun to see them since it had been a while since we had last seen them. Debbie had just gotten out of the hospital earlier that morning. She had been in since Thursday with heart rhythm problems. She is doing well though, just glad to be back to normal and back at home! After Greenwood we headed to New Pal to Chris' mom and step-dad's house where we would spend the night. Sunday we got up and went to church then headed home and relaxed a bit before carving our Tuttle's pumpkins later that night! It was a great weekend.

But now the week has started, and it has gotten off to a rather rough start! Yesterday was a beautiful day, 78 degrees and mostly sunny. Today however was a completely different story! Its still around 70 degrees which is nice! I don't mind the cold holding off. However, we had a massive storm blow through that gave us tornado warnings, severe thunderstorms and some very high winds! Just about the time I was headed to my class, it got very dark outside and the sirens started going off and the rain started to pour down! A lot of the buildings here on campus went into lock down and moved everyone to the basement or ground floor of the building. Things got pretty chaotic for sure! But glad that is over with!

Here are some pictures from the weekend! Enjoy!

Part of a fall display at Tuttle's

Chris with the pumpkins we picked

The Indianapolis skyline with the new hotel, J.W. Marriott on the right

Me carving my pumpkin

Our carved pumpkins all lit up

Thanks for reading!

Lizz

Fall

Well goodness! I am so bad at keeping this updated now that we are back in the States! Either that or life just isn't that interesting anymore so we don't have as much to write about :)

School is keeping both of us plenty busy! Chris has has several interviews with CPA firms in Indianapolis the last couple weeks. Preparation for his graduation in May. He is hoping to hear back from some with job offers, but until then we are waiting and praying. I am keeping busy with all the reading and projects associated with all my classes. Even though I have a pretty light semester class wise, it seems like it is never ending homework wise.

October has arrived...it's hard to believe! Seems like just yesterday we were ringing in the new year and looking forward to all it brought. And now here we are almost at the end of the year! Yikes! But with October comes Fall. Fall and I have a bittersweet relationship. I love early fall, watching all the trees change colour. But...with fall comes cool temperatures and the promise of winter, which I strongly dislike! Thankfully this year has been different so far though! It was so dry this summer that the trees are not nearly as colourful as in the past. The leaves are just kind of dying and falling off. There are a few trees turning pretty, but its not the beautiful painting that it usually resembles. However, I am in love with the fact that the temperatures have not dropped yet! We have had a few cold days, but yesterday was almost 90 and this whole week is going to be 80 or above...I am OK with that!

I got out today and got some pictures of the few leaves turning in our neighborhood! Enjoy!

A pine tree branch, its leaves are not turning. I was just playing with depth of field here.

Changing trees by our road

Pretty yellow leaves

Pretty red leaves

Thanks for reading!

Lizz

State Fair

I am a little behind on this one! Its been a few weeks now since we went to the Indiana State Fair but I am just now getting time to sit down and go through the pictures and blog about it. Chris surprised me the week before school and took a day off to take me to the fair. It was a warm day, but we had a great time walking around and watching people. And eating fair food of course :) I love fairs! Enjoy the pics.

The Midway

Chris enjoying a corn dog

Food Booth

Old Farm Equipment

Enjoying an Elephant Ear

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Lizz

First Week

Well, we have survived our first week back to school and are starting our second week! I have a pretty light schedule this semester, and so will have lots of time to get things done around the house and keep up with all the reading I have to do. Chris has quite the busy semester. He only has classes two days a week, so he goes to work the other three. On the days he has class though, he is in class from 9:30am until about 3:30pm. And on Tuesdays he has a night class from 6-9. It seems that these classes are going to keep him hopping this semester. Already he has spent the weekend working and a big project at the library with another guy from his class. Please pray for him this semester that he doesn't get too worn out or stressed out with all that is going on for him.

The heat has been better the last few days...although yesterday we climbed back up to the 90s and will be there for the next several days! We are learning how to deal with it in this apartment without air conditioning, and finding that its not so bad, we just can't really do anything that requires too much physical exertion after about 2pm or else you will be so hot that you feel like you might die of heat exhaustion! So I work before class and right after class at cleaning around the place. As much as I like the heat, I am looking forward to slightly cooler weather for cleanings sake :)

Thank you all for keeping up with us! We do our best to keep you updated on what is going on in our lives. May you all have a blessed week!

Lizz

Surviving the Heat

It is hard to believe that we have been back from Kenya for almost two weeks now! Time is just going so fast. We have had to seriously adjust to life back in Indiana...and it has not always been easy! We arrived back to Indiana just in time for a week of 90+ temps and that surprised us! We were coming from cool, rainy Kenya and were used to having a fireplace fire almost every night and even sometime throughout the day. We were not prepared for the heat and humidity that greeted us. We have been surviving the heat one day at a time. It is rough living in an apartment with no AC during these very hot days! Thankfully we have a window unit in the bedroom so we are able to sleep well and not be miserable and hot through the night. Downstairs is another story however! The doors and windows are always wide open and we have several fans going to move the air around. Thankfully we are on a break from the HOT heat right now. It feels so much cooler in the apartment today for which I am very grateful!

Chris has been working since we got back. I'm so thankful he has a job and is able to provide for us! I have been cleaning the apartment after it sat for the three months we were in Kenya and was overtaken by spiders! I have also been working on unpacking and figuring out where the things we brought back from Kenya should go! School starts a week from today, so then our daily schedules will be more defined.

Thank you all for your continued prayers as we adjust back to life in Indiana. We still find ourselves suffering from culture shock every so often. Our hearts are still full and still processing all that we experienced. We will keep you updated as things continue happening in our lives! We appreciate you all!

Lizz

Back in the USA

Sorry it has taken me a while to let you all know that we made it back! We have been busy settling back into life here in the States. We arrived safely in Indianapolis on Thursday night. Our flight from Nairobi to London was on time and smooth. We had a 5 hour layover in London so we just walked around and played a few travel games before heading to our gate to get seats assigned and board the plane. We were rather delayed out of London. Took the luggage people a while after we were on the plane to finish loading the luggage and cargo and then someone on the plane was really sick so we had to wait for them to go back to their seat before we could take off. Once we left London, the flight was smooth, just long. We only had an hour and 15 minutes scheduled for a layover in Dallas and with us being just about a half hour late out of London, Chris and I began to stress out about whether we would make our flight from Dallas to Indianapolis or not. But we knew there was nothing we could do about it, so we just sat back and tried to enjoy the ride. We arrived in Dallas about 20 minutes later than we were supposed to. We were in the very back of the plane....so had to wait for everyone else to disembark before we could. Then we started running through the airport! But of course we had to go through US customs, which always has long lines, so that delayed us quite a bit. As soon as we got through customs we picked up all our checked bags (thankful that they all arrived with us in Dallas) and had to recheck them. Then we ran again until we got to the security checkpoint. We knew at that point that our Dallas to Indy flight was history. There was no way we could have made it. We still ran after security though, in the hopes that maybe, just maybe we could catch it. But alas, as we arrived at the counter, the ladies were just coming back in from pushing the plane back. Thankfully, two gates down, there was another flight to Indy that had been delayed since 1pm and was boarding just as we got there. The ladies were able to get us seats on that flight and we ran down to the gate, got in line and boarded the plane. That flight ended up being delayed over an hour more and we were sweltering sitting on the tarmac in the plane in 104 degree heat! But we were thankful we didn't have to spend the night in Dallas! When we arrived in Indy and went to pick up our luggage, we found that three of our pieces had come on the flight we were supposed to be on but one was missing and was not on the flight that we had managed to get on. So we reported the missing back to American Airlines and the lady said that it would come in late that night on another flight. So Friday morning, before we drove back up to our place in Muncie, we went to the airport to pick up our bag which had arrived very late Thursday night.

We are now back in Muncie and working on getting unpacked and laundry done and catching up on sleep! We are thankful that our trip is over...it was a very long day for us. Our hearts are still full from all we experienced this summer. We will continue to keep you all updated on what is going on in our lives and on the happenings of our journey into missions.

We are so thankful for all of you!

Lizz

Leaving the Country

Wow! Hard to believe that our time in Kenya has come to an end. We will be heading to the Nairobi airport in just a few minutes to begin our journey back to the US. Our hearts are full of all the things that we have seen and experienced, and our hearts are grieving at the fact that we have to say goodbye to it all. We know that Indiana is the next step in our journey though it is hard to leave. Pray for us as we leave that our trip would be safe and smooth. We are both dreading the long trip back...so please pray for God's peace to surround us this next 24+ hours.

Today was referendum day in Kenya. So far throughout the city things have been very calm and we thank the Lord for that. They started announcing the results just about an hour ago. Please pray for the country of Kenya that as more results are released everything stays peaceful. Please also pray for all the missionaries who are traveling tonight, and in the next few days, that everything along the roads would stay peaceful.

We will continue to blog even after we arrive back in the US. That way all of you who have been following us on this journey can continue to follow us and know what is happening in our lives. Thank you so much for praying with us these last few months. May the Lord continue to bless and keep you all.

Until we are on US soil,

Lizz