Happy Turkey Day!

Today I am so grateful for:

This Man.

This place.

And these people.

We hope you all have a great Thanksgiving holiday and take the time to think about all the wonderful things in your life!

MEDICA 2009!

Since the very first day we started working at Obelis the focus has been on preparing our team for the largest Medical convention in the world! This convention took place in Dusseldorf, Germany last week. It was an exhausting week, running around on our feet from 9-6 trying to sell Obelis' services to as many people as we could! If you know me, you know this gave me the worst anxiety I have ever experienced! Sales is really not my thing, but after the first day I was much more comfortable and was able to get the job done! By the end of the week our small team had made 1167 contacts! We worked hard, but the evenings were great! We were taken to the nicest restaurants in town and had the best time hanging out with all of the Obelis employees. And the best part... Rich got to share a room with the Boss men the whole week! ha. We stayed in a woman's home the whole week and somehow Rich was the lucky one who got to sleep with Gideon and Doram which made his week a little more interesting! They definately kept Rich busy running around and doing all the extra jobs like setting up and taking down the Obelis booth and anything else they could think of to throw his way! Our time here is almost up! We are trying to enjoy every minute we have left. Some of you requested some pics of our bosses (which by the way if you want any great stories on these two hilarious men just ask Rich!) and the event so here they are!

Barcelona, SPAIN!

A few weeks ago Rich and I went to Barcelona, Spain for four days with two other couples. Some of the things we saw were all of Gaudi's artwork and buildings, Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas, and Tibidabo. My favorites of Barcelona though are the beautiful views of the city you can find and the beach! After days of walking everywhere, we decided it was time to rent bikes! This was the best decision we could have ever made. We spent two hours riding around and along the beach in the sun (which we had so desperately missed since we NEVER see the sun in Brussels). Barcelona was another wonderful trip! It is a BEAUTIFUL city!

Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

Yesterday, November 1st, Richie turned 26! Going to Bastogne was all he wanted for his bday but of course we had to make his real bday special too! The day began with church like usual on Sunday and then there was a baptism right after. There is a family here that all decided to get baptized and Rich has been going with the missionaries to help teach them. Their eleven year old wanted Rich to baptize her so that was very special for him! After church I made Rich his "Bday Dinner" and then we invited two other American couples and another friend from church over for some cake and ice cream and games. The night was a success and I am so happy we were able to celebrate his bday with our new friends over here!Happy bday to my amazing husband! Love you LOTS!

Bastogne

This weekend Rich and I traveled to Bastogne. It is about three hours away from Brussels and the ride there was so beautiful. There were so many huge fields of cows and trees with all their bright colors. Fall is my favorite time of year! Once we reached Bastogne we tried to find a tour that would take us to the sites. The lady at the information center (in really broken Enlgish I might add) told us that there were no tours running that day (of course!) but we could walk to the sites. So like anyone else we thought well sure it is a beautiful day and walking never hurt anybody so we took off! At first it was ok because it only took about 20 minutes to get to the first monument which was made to honor all the American soldiers that died during the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne. After that we went to their Historical Museum and saw all the uniforms, weapons, and other cool war stuff! Everything was great up to this point until we started our trek to the next site where an hour later we found ourselves on this tiny road in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by cows! When we finally reached the next monument we were dreading the walk back and not too thrilled we tried WALKING everywhere! We should have known! But by some miracle, as we were taking pictures by the second monument a car pulled up with two men from America one a soldier and one a marine asking us where the next site was. We told them where they needed to head and slipped in the fact that we had been walking everywhere and the next thing we knew we were getting chauffeured to the remaining sites we wanted to see! At first I was pretty wary jumping in the car with two strange men, but we ended up having a blast with them and they couldn't have been nicer! The last site we went to see were the foxholes in the forest of the Ardennes. The soldiers stayed in these throughout the Battle of the Bulge to protect themselves and they are still there today! It was crazy to see. We walked out into the woods and you could see these foxholes everywhere among all the trees. I kept imagining what it must have been like. Especially since it is only November and already freezing outside! They spent a month holding back the Germans in the middle of the winter waiting out and sleeping in these foxholes! Incredible! This trip ended up being one we will never forget and it truly made me appreciate even more our American soldiers that fought so bravely in Bastogne!