More SNOW!!!!

Well, you may be tired of hearing about our snow, but it is so cool to actually have it and then to have this much! The first couple of pictures were taken just before bed last night. When we woke up this morning, we found that the entire city had shut down! It was 23 degrees and everything was covered with snow and ice! We were suppose to have a doctor's appointment today, but we called and told him that we couldn't come. Adam went down to check things out and found that our car was burried and was blocked between 2 other cars that were parked on both of our bumpers. Since we live on a hill, it is impossible to get out at all today. The doctor still wants to see me later today, but we will have to wait to see if we can even get out.

Adam took Emily out to play this morning at the park near our house and they had a great time playing in the snow. I have added some pictures of their fun adventure.

Brandie

These couple of pictures were taken about mid-night last night! It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

All of the kids were out of school today because all of the public transportation was shut down. It was fun to see everyone out playing and many people with video cameras. There was an electricity in the air that everyone was enjoying!

Emily wasn't sure what to do at first, but when she saw all of the other kids throwing snow, she joined right in! She had a great time and was thoroughly soaked and frozed by the time she came home!

The Weather Man Was Wrong

Adam posted this morning that the snow should be gone by lunchtime today, but they were wrong! It started snowing harder while we were eating lunch today and has not stopped. Since we live on the port, we usually don't see much accumulation, but it is 27 degrees and could drop more and it is laying everywhere! Emily and I are so excited because it has been so long since we have seen snow! If I wasn't pregnant, we would be up at the park area having a snowball fight and helping Emily build the smallest snowman in the history of man! Oh well! We are enjoying just watching it fall anyway.

Here are a few more pictures that we just took of our street. Enjoy!

Brandie

Winter Wonderland

One of the questions that we're most frequently asked is…“What’s the weather like in Greece?” It’s hot in the summer and nice in the winter. This winter has been very mild. For the most part, we've had temperatures in the 50's-60's. Where we're from Winter is cold and snowy, so we've enjoyed this weather.

Over the past week, the daily temperature has decreased by a few degrees each day. This morning we woke up with snow on the ground! This is the first time that we’ve had more than flurries at our house since the winter of 2005-2006. The snow will not last long (it may be gone before noon today), so we took a couple of pictures to show you.

Since our building is heated by a boiler (and we do not have control of our own heat) it’s turned on only twice a day (one time in the morning for a couple hours and one time at night for a couple hours). Right now, we’re wondering how we’re going to stay warm. I guess we’ll just make some hot chocolate and stay bundled up in the house.

From our balcony looking right.

From our balcony looking left.

Only 5 Weeks To Go

Dr. Dion told Brandie that she's only got five weeks left before the big day (of course, if the twins are fully developed and ready)!

Way to go Eli!

Being fans of the Indianapolis Colts, we really dislike the New England Patriots. We're glad their perfect season ended with a loss in the Super Bowl! We love it!!!

Need Some Help.

I need some help. I designed our website and blog by filling in templates with the appropriate information. I don't understand html or other complicated webdesigns. I would like to know how some of the people that read my blog (that have blogs of their own with cool, personalized headers) designed thier headers. What program did you use? How did you do it? I realize that the answer is probably going to be complicated...but if anybody has any suggestions on how to create a personalized header, we appreciate it. What I'm looking to do is us a pic of the family with some words and cool design. So please let me know if you have any suggestions or can help.

The Theme Of This New Year Is...New

The word “new” means, according to some dictionary that I found online, “Having been made or come into being only a short time ago; recent.” This word applies to our lives right now. I imagine a majority of the people that read this blog are familiar with our church, South Side Baptist Church (Springfield, MO). A couple of months ago, our pastor, Bud Everett, resigned from the pastorate and took a job with a group that will send the gospel to some countries in the world that lack much of a gospel witness (names have been withheld on purpose…not sure if it’s safe to say exactly where…so I will error on the side of caution). Anyway, that left our church without a pastor for the first time in a LONG time. Bro. Everett served the church for many fruitful years and he impacted us as a family in many ways. We will miss seeing him as much as we did. So, the church interviewed, nominated, and voted on Wayne Barron (our associate pastor) to follow as the next pastor of South Side. Wayne is a close friend of mine and a great Bible teacher. We worked closely with he and his wife April back in 2000-2001 in a high school class. The church is very fortunate to have this man in leadership. We’re excited about the future of the church!

Something else new, a little closer to our home, is a new Bible study we’ve started in a suburb of Athens called Glyfada. It is made up of women (from several countries including Greece) that are married to Greek men. This means that they do not necessarily have the opportunity to go to church faithfully. We meet on Tuesday mornings in a house located in the center of the town. It’s a great opportunity to disciple some ladies in a group setting that love God and want to grow spiritually.

The other new thing in our life right now is the new babies. The doctor today said that we’re going to look at having them on the 10th of March! Please pray that they will continue to grow and be ready at that time. If they’re not ready, then we’ll obviously wait until they’re ready…but Brandie is really hoping they will be ready by then. She grows more uncomfortable everyday. We’ve done a lot of work on our little home to prepare it for the arrival of two new little ones. It’s hard to imagine what it will take to survive the first three months, but we look forward to all the joys that parenting twins (and Emily) will bring.