Feliz Navidad!

Hola Los Canarios!!!

These are the cute kiddos I'll be holidaying with. I am super excited to play with them, hold the little girl Amanda, and just have some good family time with Christina's Swedish fam!

Here's the lovely, super nice family that is allowing me to stay with them in the Canaries during their family vacation. It's a privilege, honor and pleasure to be able to meet them in the island! This is who I was with last year for Christmas as well, but I won't be celebrating actually Christmas day with them, I'm flying out the 26th.
And this is la playa in Lanzarote. I don't know if I'll be able to go to this particular one...I wish because look at it...a Minnesotans paradise!

This is where I'll be in the world. Dec. 26 - 31! So close to Africa...maybe I'll take a swim on over to Morocco or Western Sahara. or not. Oh, and closer to the equator which means WARMER!!

And this pic I below I believe is the Sports Resort we'll be at! Well, what can I say. The announcement that the Johan and Anna Maria are allowing me to come has made me so happy and now I'm about 100 times more excited for my holiday time off than I was before. Really, Christina...I feel so happy inside! Thank you!

Weather comparison

I admit....I miss the beauty of snow and frost. But I don't miss the freezing, freezing coldness that makes you have to start up your car 20 minutes before driving. My car, I mean bus, is always warm when I get in. It's just that I have to walk to and wait at the bus stop on average 20 minutes every time. Qué divertido!!

Thanks CBN Christmas Radio!

I am happy to of had this site sent to me because it's constant Christmas music, and the music on cd's I had my mom send me last year, I thought I saved the files on my hard drives, but I couldn't seem to find them. So, this is a life saver!!

Thankful for....

so many wonderful blessings in my life! I am not going to take time to name them all because it's late and I need to sleep. But, I'm so thankful for God's mercy, grace and love for us and for me, because we don't deserve it but He is still there for us, forgiving and loving us and wanting a great relationship with him even when we mess up. Family. I think I love my family more than any other family (but I'm biased) and miss playing games with them, and miss playing with my siblings kiddos! I didn't choose my family, but wouldn't want to be a part of any other! Friends. They are the family I choose. (Thanks Em, for that quote you wrote in one of the bridesmaid gifts you gave). Really, I'm very blessed with some of the great friends I have. The ones who have known me since Prims and the ones I've only known since being in Spain. I'm thankful for the convenience of things in America, and do look forward to that day when I get to enjoy it again. I'm grateful, blessed and thankful for always having everything I've ever needed or wanted, really. And I'm thankful for the internet and vonage.

cooler weather

The last few weeks have actually started to feel like fall weather. I know, it's crazy. Mid November and during the day (when it's sunny, which it usually is in Spain) and I'm getting hot and a bit sweaty...well, just walking to the weekly Friday fruit and veggie market! It's very cool in the morn and when the sun goes down...but I love the days...and would love them even more if I wasn't working inside a dark, editing suite all day, it's like a dungeon in a mansion! I have worn my winter jacket a few times, but just for short walks to the bus station. When I do go out when it will be dark and cool, which isn't too much, I've been trying to wear my amazing Italian made and bought, wine colored leather sexy jacket! I love that thing!

Another thing I've enjoyed this fall is that my housemates and I have been rotating making dinner for each other. So, there are 3 of us, but not for long because Brent is leaving in a week...sadness. But, one week I cook dinner, the next Clarisse and the next Brent. It's good to have a night off...although we helped Brent this last time...otherwise we would've been eating at 10 pm like the first time he cooked us a meal. I've been able to enjoy some French cooking/baking as well...mmmmm!! The sad thing is...listen to this Emily...the first time Clarisse made crepes, they were amazing! I could eat them just plain and yummy. In the recent weeks, she's attempted and they just are not working out. She thinks it's the flour she's using. Cheap flour from Aldi's not good for crepes...I don't know. Doesn't make sense....but seriously...so sad. And I don't mean they don't taste good...we just can't even eat em because they are sticking to the pan, not able to flip, not cooking properly...just a sad sad few attempts. I think she's given up until she goes home for Christmas to bring back some flour from there for us. I can't wait until next year. Em, I think of you every time we had or tried making crepes. you'd love it!

15.

Today is my 15 month mark. It's been a great 15. Here's some highlights from fall.

October has been a good month. First...it's been super warm here. In the 70's to be exact. But fall/winter is here because in the evenings when the sun is down, it's definitely cooler. Now I can wear cute jackets and boots! Also, my European travel buddy, Christina, traveled to Spain with her friend, Julia. They flew into Madrid, so for the afternoon/evening I went into Madrid to spend some good time with them. Christina also got to meet my cute Romanian friend, Marin. Good thing he came with...we had a photog for the pics of us 3 girls. You can see more on FB.

For Spains national holiday on Oct. 12, we went to Cuenca! Tiffany, Moises, Marin and I. Cuenca is a beautiful city, that is built on cliffs. It was a gorgeous fall day with summer temps! We hiked on the path to this bridge that had a great view of the hanging houses!

A couple of Sundays ago, we went to a park so I could take new missionary card pics for Denise and Kerry, pictured below. I LOVE this pic of them! My Fav!!

Last night the missionary kid school here had a Fall Festival. I rented a table for the "craft fair" part of it to sell my jewelry--which I spent the last straight 2 weeks making during my jewelry making marathons! So, this pic if you can tell, is of some guys jumping over this massive bonfire! Locos! I think one guy was Spanish and the others are some guy mk's.

One of the 'games' was to pay 1 euro to get 5 hits with a sledge hammer to these beaters. I passed, but kinda wished I would've done it. Good way to get aggression out.
I was happy near the beginning of the festival just to watch the sunset. So magnificent!! Colors were much better in real life. My camera phone doesn't do justice.
Here I am at my table. I guess my eyes are closed...silly me. So, I had lots to sell and had decent expectations since I didn't think they were priced okay. But, I left dissappointed because I only came out 7 euros ahead. sadness. Lots of labor. Not much success. But now I have pre made gifts! I still was hoping to make at least 50 euros. ah well.
At the beginning of October I went to a Romanian Young Adult conference with Marin and our friends from the Romanian church here. On the way home Marin, Dani and Lavinia stopped to pick some grapes from the fields. I guess it's okay because they were just left overs from the season. They were tasty!

Below is the barbacoa we had the last night of the conference. The people we stayed with (about 15-20 of us in a house) invited all their friends over. We had MANY people there. It was fun.
And this guy below is Brent, my new housemate for Oct and Nov. He's here for 2 months as an intern, checking out IMM and seeing if media missions if for him. He's like my little brother, he's 22. He makes me laugh just like my silly bros do. I don't have a pic of Clarisse yet, my French African housemate. I'll post one when I get one. But, us 3 have fun living in the mansion. We each have taken turns to cook for each other.

14 month post...a little late

First, this was on Foxnews.com headline today. Yes, the Muslim world is expanding, growing and stretching across many nations, not just the Middle East. We need to continue praying for a Holy Spirit breakthrough in their lives. Also, pray for IMM programs that are and will be broadcast into nations where we are not allowed into physically. God does use media to get His message out, then He is the one to touch their hearts! Amen!

Now, it's been 8 days past my 14 month anniversary here at IMM. Here's some of what I've been a part of this summer and fall! Have I ever posted about things I actually do at work? Maybe not...here it is!

This shot was difficult...a trucking, camera move shot that required me and Kerry and many many tries. This was for the Mark and Peter shoot.

Me with my director, producer, boss man, Christopher Gornold-Smith...in costume for the first time in many years...so I hear. I honestly did not know it was him when he walked onto set! 

Yes, I do audio for some shoots. Even with my near deaf ear. Nice of them to trust me. Look at that cute extra behind me...um,  the one with black hair  :)

I miss Ori!!

Oh yeah....we all have our times of acting at IMM. This was a first for me, in costume anyways. I got the privilege of being an extra market woman for the story of Ruth.

Do I look like a water fountain?

Our friends wedding

This past Saturday, I had another wedding to attend. And since I can never figure out how to upload the pics in the correct order, I have to talk about what we did after the wedding. Marin and I went into Madrid because I wanted to see Templo de Debod, pictured below. It's a place I've heard about but never been to. The people taking our picture posed us like this...kinda funny but sweet of them.

Emil and Anca are friends from the Romanian church. She's so cute, and she speaks English so she's a friend I can actually have a decent convo with! The couple was sooo happy and giddy, just like little kids in love! I'm so happy for them!

It was my birthday weekend, so basically Saturday was when I got to do fun things. My 27th birthday was the next day, Sunday, and the Helin family had me over for lunch after I went to church with Tiffany. Michael grilled some BBQ chicken...so yummy! Dawn Marie made huge baked potatoes and baked beans, and my requested Red Velvet cake for dessert! Then I spent a couple hours with Marin, he gave me flowers and we called my parents to wish them a happy anniversary and my twin, Shawny, to wish him a happy birthday! We called Amanda too, to leave a birthday message on her phone, but it never worked. So many wonderful things to celebrate on Sept. 20!!!

Marin & Ambra Sing

This past Friday night, Marin and his daughter Ambra sang "Solo Cristo" at the young adults service at the Romanian church. They are both talented...more talented than I when it comes to anything music! Ambra has a really good voice, although this video and audio is poor quality from my phone, so you can't really tell.

It's been....

a month since I last blogged. Wow! Well, those few of you who read this, know what's going on in life. I've been busy---with getting ready to go home for a little bit, then coming back to Spain and having jet lag and falling asleep at the computer. Then I got permission to date someone whom I really like. He treats me well. He's cute. He is unselfish. He is generous with the little he has. He cares about and loves his family. He tells me I'm pretty all the time. He prays a lot. He makes me smile. Okay, I don't think I need to say all the reasons why I like him, so I'll stop at that. Lots of things keep me busy these days. Since I think the only people who keep up with this are Alicia, Christina and maybe my family....why do I blog? I keep ya'll updated through emails and calls and let's not forget facebook. Sometimes I get annoyed with facebook. I feel like we all just want people to comment and compliment us on our lives...however boring or fascinating they are. I admit, I love being able to keep up with friends or not so much friends and see what's happening in their lives. Anyways, it's a love-hate relationship.

Alcalá festival!

This weekend there is some festivities going on in Alcalá. I went last night with some friends. The one thing I absolutely love about Spain and am going to miss so much when I move back to the states is being able to walk around outside, visit parks and plazas and people watch! They are everywhere here and I love them (the parks and plazas--not the people)!

It was a Roman theme...I think it was for the Alcalá holiday called Santos Niños. Anyways...they had a crepe stand...so Orialí and I shared a banana chocolate crepe! Mmmmm.

There was a concert at 10. We stayed for a few songs. I really really like they way they play the Spanish guitar and sing. This video is pretty poor..it's from my phone. I bought this guys CD for 5 euros because I feel like I should have real Spanish music.

OnE yEaR-pArT d

More places I visited!

Venice. I know, I already included Italy on one of my blogs...but I had to include some Venice pics because I loved that city. Here is one of me doing my favorite thing in Italia...eating gelato!! It was so cheap in Venice too...cheaper than Florence, but wait...Bellaria was even cheaper...so never mind about it being cheap in Venice.

I must say...I love cities on water!

And, one other country I missed---while in Italy, we took at day trip to the Republic of San Marino! I know...I'm spoiled and lovin' it!

And my most recent visit to a new land was in June when I visited Emerald Island. My MA friend, Bethany, was the person to visit in Ireland! Everything was green, or tinted green...seriously. It was crazy man. I think little green guys lived through this gate.

Beth and I taking a Sunday afternoon stroll in a park in Dublin.

So, I guess that's it. I think all my new countries visited are in these blogs. I'm very blessed to be in Spain working at IMM. I've been put to work with my editing skills...my fluency in Final Cut Pro is better than a year ago. I know more shortcuts and fun stuff like that. I've learned Color, DVD Studio Pro and some Motion-but I hope to become better skilled/fluent at these and more! I know a little more about compressing and all the various QT settings--but there are so stinking many, that it's hard to know what's what. I've used Photoshop a bit. I know how to transcode and use all the machines in our TOC. We have a great team at IMM and it'll be growing in the coming months and years. God has something big in store for us and for the ministry and for those who will view our programs!

Speaking of fluency a few sentence ago: mi español es mejor. Hablo español con amigos a veces pero necesito hablar mas y con mas personas. Yeah, my Spanish is better than last year, but still needs major improvement. But, I can say THANK YOU in lots of languages (spelling may be wrong): gracias-Spanish, danku bell-Nederlands, Dutch, danke shan-German, kiitos-Finnish, tack tack-Swedish, grazie-Italian, mutlumesc-Romanian, thanks a million-Irish English. Que bien!

My favorite language to listen to is ITALIAN!! They are so passionate. It's similar to Spanish so maybe I could understand something, probably more in reading it though. When I travel to other countries and come back to Spain I feel like its home, because the language isn't so foreign to me. I also like that I feel like I can recognize various languages being spoken-in Spain and other places. I may not understand what's being said, but I can usually know which language it is (okay...not all but some). Yeah for culture and new languages!!

one. year. part. c.

My European Christmas Vacation added many countries to my list of countries, including:

Denmark. I had a layover here on my way to the next country. But I don't have any photos to prove it. oop.s

Finland. I celebrated with Christina's (my friend from college) au pair family. The parents of the family she works for live in Helsinki, Finland. I experienced and enjoyed my first Swedish/Finnish traditional Christmas. For Christmas eve dinner, pictured here, we ate lots of varieties of seafood, which I usually don't like much, but this wasn't so bad. We had many sorts of salmon and caviar!! Yep, probably one of the most expensive meals I have and will ever eat!

Sweden. Christina and I enjoying the yummy yummy Swedish meatballs at one of her favorite cafes in Stockholm! We spend about 3 days in Sweden after Finland, then headed south.

Latvia. Our layover from Stockholm to Munich was here. Yes, we actually walked on the ground, outside when we had to get on a shuttle bus.

Germany. Land of my ancestory...but didn't find (or look for) any. Here we are in Munich.

Austria. New Years eve was spent in the land of the "Sound of Music." This is us on our tour of the sound of music. This is the gazebo used in the famous "16 going on 17" song!

There ya go. After Austria we crossed the border again to Germany and went to Fussen (where the famous Neuschwanstein and Ludwig castles are). Then up to the medieval town of Rothenburg and I flew out of Frankfurt back to Spain. This is was jam packed 13 day trip semi-across Europe. It was great! Fun! Lots of new language and culture! Yummy food! Great photos ops! Good times with friends!

1 Año. Part B.

Seriously...ever since I've been getting older, time seems to fly by. A year is like a snap of a finger. That's crazy man!

More fun traveling pictures: this is me at a windmill park in Holland. I spent a long weekend there over Thanksgiving to be with "family," the Thomassens-good family friends of mine and fellow missionaries. Yes, I love this picture of me.

This is me in Italia!! This is one of the countries I definitely wanted to visit while living in Europe and I actually got to go--work related! We had a Southern Europe Missionary retreat in Belaria, Italy. I took a couple days of vacation to visit Venice before, and Florence after (pictured below, me on the Ponte Vecchio).

Here are some more Spain images. This is me with Alexandra, a baby girl I often see at get togethers of friends from the church. She is adorable! Mmm. Her daddy is a Spaniard and her mommy is from Chicago. Her parents say she always seems comfortable around me and that she doesn't go to people she doesn't know very well....but I what can I say...I'm Auntie Crystal!! I love getting my baby time with her when I can since I'm so far away from my own!!

And these lovely ladies are Sephora and Orialí, my friends from France and Dominican Republic respectively. Sephora was here for May and June for an internship. Ori was studying in Madrid and was sort of an intern here, she's leaving at the end of August to go home :(

It makes me sad-because we have fun together and I can practice my Español with her. She'll be missed. But now I have a reason to go to the Dominican!!

One of the highlights of the year, truly, was having my 3 good girlfriends from home visit me for a week of fun in Andalucia, the southern part of Spain! Angela, Amanda and Emily flew over for a little spring break and to visit me of course! They were the first of my friends/family to visit me all the way from the states! We had a great time. It was so great to have close friends to talk with and just have fun! Thanks girls for coming!

At the end of my 1 year blogs, the first person to know (and tell me) how many new countries I've been in (including airport layovers) gets a big Spanish beso from me next time I see them!