ice skating and skating with words

saturday night some friends and i went ice skating in our neighborhood. there are ice skating rinks set up all over the city, and it's about 80 cents to rent skates and use the ice for an hour. i learned yesterday that it isn't really possible to stay on the ice for a full hour without having my face get nearly covered with a thin layer of ice. there are little shacks by the rinks where a person gets skates and should also come in to warm up every 20 minutes or so. i've learned my lesson and will definitely take advantage of the little wood stove next time i go skating. my goal is to go once a week for the rest of the winter.

this morning i had to tell a friend that i won't be attending her cell group. the day and location of her meeting don't really work for my schedule. not to mention that she speaks no english, and i don't speak enough mongolian to really be a fully functioning member of her group. at first she seemed ok with it but then she started lecturing me. this was rather difficult for me to take on several levels. i felt like a person who was trying to ice skate for the first time and couldn't seem to find her balance. thankfully i was able to talk with another friend about the situation and was assured that i am free to make my own decisions and she shouldn't have been pressuring me. even so, i don't know how much of my sense of being out of balance was solely based on language and how much of it is just different personalities and cultures.

here's to skating all winter! hopefully i will skate more in the literal sense than in my communications with friends. :)

christmas pictures

this year was my second ever christmas away from my family. even so i was blessed to spend christmas with my friend melanie's family, and they are becoming more and more like family for me here. her kids are 3 of the most adorable kids i've ever seen, and their sweet playful personalities make them so much fun to spend time with. here are a few pictures for you to enjoy:

it's officially winter here

how can i be so sure that it is winter?

because my eyelashes froze on the way to school this morning!!!!!! as you can see my hair froze, too.

thanksgiving

i have so many reasons to be thankful this year. perhaps one of the biggest reasons is that i could spend the past two weeks with my family in kentucky. it was SUCH a blessing to celebrate my sister's wedding, thanksgiving, and early christmas with them. here are a few specific things i am thankful for from my trip to the states:

* lacey and john's wedding was on saturday the 17th. my flight arrived late on wednesday night the 14th, and i had been nervous about feeling the effects of the long plane ride and jet lag. before i left mongolia i asked several people to ask the Father to give me extra room on the way over, so i could stretch out a bit and hopefully get some rest. not only did he give me extra room on the way to kentucky, but he gave me extra room on the way back to mongolia as well! the extra 5 inches of "economy plus" make a huge difference. :)

*lacey and john's wedding day was beautiful. their relationship is a beautiful testimony of how the Father can bring two people together when their hearts are set on him. my sister was glowing all day, and i have rarely seen a groom who adores his bride more than my new brother loves my sister. :) here they are after the ceremony:


*our family has 5 girls and a baby brother. john's family has 5 boys and a baby sister. this made the choice of bridesmaids and groomsmen a no brainer. it was a joy to be in a wedding with my sisters. and i think there will never be a more beautiful and well-matched bridal party - if i do say so myself. you can decide for yourself though:


*our family lives about an hour north of nashville, tn. every year the opryland hotel there does an amazing christmas light display. it is a holiday season tradition for us to go and look at the lights. we were able to do it this year on the friday after thanksgiving. even though the lights are almost the same every year, i still love to see them. just like thanksgiving without turkey isn't quite thanksgiving, the christmas season without seeing the lights at the opryland hotel isn't quite christmas for me. i was so blessed to go with my family this year. here we are minus lacey and john. (they were probably on the beach in hawaii at the time we took this picture, so i doubt they really missed seeing the lights. hehe):