Professional Sign Maker

We have spent the last couple days helping Comfort in her office.  Today I learned how to be a professional sign maker.  :)  I helped make one giant sign and about eight small metal signs.  I was pretty impressed with my first sign making attempt (shown below).  It was actually a HUGE two-sided sign.  It was fun to learn something new.

We continue to enjoy the scenery here.  Tonight on the way home, we saw a beautiful sunset.  These pictures don't do it justice, but hopefully you can imagine the beauty that we were able to see. 

 

 

Christmas and Star Gazing!

We have been having a great time as a family!  Tonight we celebrated Christmas together - my sister even provided a tree.  It was kind of funny because it was a Christmas Tree in a Box - a paper one that we put together before celebrating.

 It has been very relaxing.  We have been enjoying seeing the beauty around us change each day as weather conditions change (snow, sun, sunrise, clouds, sunset, etc).  We have also been playing games together and enjoying catching up.

 

 

Tonight Steve (Comfort's husband) brought his telescope up to the top of our little mountain.  He took us on a short tour of the night sky.  It was freezing, but amazingly beautiful.  We are going to go out again in a couple hours to see the things that weren't yet visible.

Montana!

We (my parent's and I) woke up at 4am in order to fly to Montana yesterday.  It was a pleasant flight with some great views as we got closer to Bozeman. 

 

We got into Bozeman in the afternoon, were picked up by Comfort and Steve and then grabbed some Wendy's on the way to see my sister's office.  It was really fun to see her office for the first time.  She has done such a nice job of fixing it up.  We were a bit surprised that it was warmer out here in Montana than it was in Ohio.  

We are staying in a really nice cottage up in the mountains.  It has a great view!   Here is shot out our window.  

This morning we woke up to a slight covering of new snow.  Here are two pictures, one from last night and one from this morning.  It has been beautiful so far and I look forward to another 10 days or so here with my family.

A Day of Parties

I am still trying to catch up on posts from our busy New Year's season.  On January 8th we hosted two New Year's parties.  Instead of trying to get these parties in before New Year's we decided to do them while the children had vacations so that we could spend more time with them. 

In the morning we hosted a party for all the children that we sponsor (except the youngest children's groups) at Saramoldaeva Orphanage.  We played games, did crafts, played more games, ate snacks, and gave them small gifts.  We even gave them an opportunity to write a letter to their sponsors.  They had a great time - so did we! 

In the evening we hosted a party for Rakhym.  We played games, shot off some great fireworks, ate grilled hamburgers (a first for these children) and even ended the evening singing happy birthday to the two boys.  The favorite games of the night were spoons and operation.  The evening went by extremely quickly, as 10pm came before we knew it and it was time to get them home so that they could get to sleep for their first day of school. 

This day marked the final day of our New Year's celebrations.  What a fun and busy month it was! 

Cell Phone

Today I got a local cell phone number.  Instead of posting my number online for anyone to see, I figured I'd just let you know that I have a cell phone and you can email me if you want the number.  :)  I have a limited number of minutes each month (with free nights and weekends).  I am also at my parent's house until Thursday so if you want to find me you can always call my parent's house as well.  Even though I am in the States, you can always use my Skype number (the US number I had while in Kazakhstan) to get in touch with me as well.  I will also try to keep my facebook profile updated with my current information, for those on facebook.