Take me out to the ballgame

A few pics from the game, and yes they do actually all sing that song at the game with the weird organ music

Sleepy in Seattle... and others

This is in a toyshop in Seattle, pretty convincing, don't you think

Colleen and Sarah arrive!

And even more fun times roll in! Happily enough, Sarah and Colleen arrived almost a week early, so their host family was not quite ready to have them yet and so, YAY, I got to pseudo host them in the girls house (Amy's house) , which was really SUCH a treat, getting to spend almost 24 hours a day with these two was fantastic! I found it especially fun to get to know Colleen, Sarah's mom, more, as Sarah is a good friend of mine and becoming an even better one. Oh right, I should probably explain who these people are. Colleen and Sarah are from my church, Christ Church in Kenilworth and are also here for the conference, which actually starts today, how exciting, but anyway...

So I'll slot in some picture of what we've been up to: blueberry picking, with Rene and the 3 of us, doing some random downtown sightseeing, going to the farmers market, and as you can see in some of the photos, a couple from our church, who originally lived in Tacoma, took us out for a sunset on the bay in their boat. SO much fun, we drank coffee and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets, while sharing travel stories and random american accent incidents. One great thing that Colleen, Sarah and I share is an awe for is American trucks, and by that I mean bakkies, obviously! It seems that every truck you see is larger than the last one. Even this m becomorning, I saw the biggest one yet, with the most manic lights, it looked like a kid's toys that had gone wrong, weird! Hence, the pose with the truck, I'm considering changing professions toe a truck presenter cheerleader pom pom type, you know! Ok, maybe not!




One of the most spectacular things about Tacoma is Mount Ranier! This mountain is 7 times higher than Table mountain, but is freestanding, ie. there is no mountain range that surrounds it, so typically you can look up from anywhere in Tacoma and see this majestic, always snow-covered mountain towering above everything. For those of you who have been following this blog from its beginnings, you will remember my snow moments when I was here last time, those were all on Mount Rainier, for a recap, look at the post, Snowy in the Snow.

Anyway, things are fantastic here, sending all of you lots of love, see the pseudo kiss below!

Camping USA

So, my first weekend in Tacoma... and we went CAMPING! YEAH! I drove up with 5 others, including Michelle and Dustin, her boyfriend, so these pics are courtesy of Dustin, thanks dude! We went to a place on the north coast of Washington, near Port Angelous, yes, you can go look it up! It was rather cool, because looking across the oceany thing, you could see vancouver island, ie. Canada! So the photos at the top are from the campsite, the left is the beach at sunrise, middle and right, the view from where we were sleeping.




We met up there withanother 40 people from the church that I go to here, so it was lots of fun socializing/meeting people time! So, we arrived in the evening on the friday and stayed to the night of the Saturday, but saw amazing sunsets, went to two different beaches and the the most amazing lake. I even managed to brave the cold Pacific ocean and have a swim, aren't you proud? It was about 30 degrees though, so it would have been really sucky not to go into the water! To the left, is Michelle putting up the tent, while Adrienne (who also came up in our car) and I watch. Don't worry, we did help, just can't quite find those photos. ;) To the right is the lake that we swam in, it was the most beautifully clear lake I've ever seen.


So in the morning, we went for a walk on the beach and Michelle and I decided to do the sand warrior thing, with our war paint.
We did our own hot dog grilling on the fire, Michelle shows how it's done, while Dustin looks on in horror! ;) Then some of the other gals camping with us! Camping usa style is fun and pretty much the same as South African camping! Actually, most of the time, I had to snap myself out of thinking that I was actually in SA, isn't that wild?









Then the sunsets: Pretty pretty pretty! So pics are Michelle and Dustin, Michelle and me, Melisa (a good friend of mine) and me.










A deep moment: I feel SO blessed being here again just 5 months after I'd left! This is the one place besides Cape Town where I completely feel as if I'd been here forever. There's a sense of belonging and connection in a deep way here, not in the way that I'd want to come live here forever,(well, you never know) but just in terms of knowing that there'll always be a place here for me, that there will always be amazing deep friendships that I can pick up where I left off, that there are always people here wanting to walk through any situation with me and who love me deeply and THAT is such a privelege and blessing to me and I know that that can only be a God thing to have happened so quickly in the times I've been here. To be loved and known and appreciated in TWO places in the world is super cool! Thanks for you prayers and thoughts!
Lots of love to all of you!

Michelle&I messing around

Does this need any explaining?Michelle, one of my housemates(from now and last time I was here) and one of my most fabulous friends, and I are both serious posers!

Gaby in America!

So, these are going to be tiny little recaps, so that you can catch up with what's been going down here! So, I arrived in Tacoma on wed 19 July, after a fabulously long flight! When I arrived, I discovered that my bag was still in Joburg, as they had forgotten to load it onto the plane, but very efficiently it only took a day and a bit after I arrived to get delivered to my doorstep(plus, it meant I had to do a little shopping, oh darn)! It is SO much fun being back in the same house with my sisters here! So this is me on my arrival at the house, big smile as you can see! Krystal, my ex-roomate, Rene and Karen, a friend of mine, came to pick me up from the airport, SO much fun! Did I mention that it's been around 30 degrees most days?

The next day was Rene's birthday, so I got to spend the day with her, obviously first stop was the mall and then a birthday supper for Rene in the evening! I almost missed my bus to the mall and ended up running about 20 blocks to get to the right bus stop. I must have been quite a sight, because a guy stopped to ask me if I was alright, because I was running. Obviously people don't run in America or something! ;)

Going to America

Hello to all reading this blog!
Yes, that's right, I'm going to America again! Tomorrow night I will be whisking away to Tacoma, after a fantastic week's holiday with my fam!
So, watch this space for fun pics!

Snowy in the snow

Hi Everyone!

I can't believe that in such a short time I'm going to be able to hug and hold most of you! It's so exciting! You guys are all so important to me, and I'm overjoyed that I get to see you again so soon! YAY!

So my time here is winding down, sadly, in many respects! I've made such deep friends, especially with the gals in my house and some other people from church, that it's going to be tough to leave, but I have a sense that this is just the beginning of things for me and I'll either see these special people back here or at home when they come visit, so I don't have a huge feeling of loss!






I had the most AMAZING and special last weekend here, spending a day in the mountains, rolling around in the snow with Michelle and Erika, sinking waist deep into the snow every time you take a step (quite a workout I tell you) and it was just SO beautiful (check the pics)!













It was one of the only dry and clear days that we've had here this month, so that in itself was a miracle!! Then the next day Krystal and I set off for North West Trek, a kind of game reserve, which has a tram which goes through it and you can see all the animals and then another section with huge closed off areas for each other type of animals! So I had my first viewing of moose, beavers, skunks, bisen, elk (with their pretty antlers), bambis, cougars, lynx, bobcats, foxes, wolves, wolverines, and to top it off, we saw a porcupine dance just for us, was pretty cute! Krystal was so taken aback, because you don' t really ever see all the animals, some of them kind of hide in the back or don't come out during the tram ride, but we had all the animals practically in the tram they were so close. She kept on saying: 'Gaby, you just don't understand how weird this is!' What can I say, I'm blessed!

So, my last week of work too and I'm working on some uber cool projects, like doing a weight estimate for this one boat, which is similar to this picture, but we're remodeling it and improving the design. It's a psycho boat because it's used to pick up sand off the bottom of lakes, etc at one point, then carry it to another point and dump it. The cool part is that to dump it, the whole ship splits in two for the sand to get out. So it's a kind of engineering nightmare, so I'm working on part of the stability stuff to ensure the weight is cool, so it won't sink etc and so the centres of gravity are in the right place! Pretty sweet! My work people are so cool and they're having a party for me at lunch on Friday. One of the guys is making a cheesecake for me, isn't that just the sweetest thing! Plus, my boss and some of the people are taking me out to lunch on Thurs to say thank you! I feel so blessed, this time has been great, not quite what I want to be doing forever, bit too mechanical, but pretty cool nonetheless!

Well, I arrive home on Sunday night at 22:55 on klm597 and I'm so excited to see you guys!
Have a fabulous week, I know I will!

Lots and lots of love,
Gabs

Christmas Newsletter!

Hi y'all! So I'm trying this out as my new way of communicating with you guys! Let me know whether you like or not!

So... Christmas in Arizona! Christmas was such a blessed time for me, to be able to stay with a family who just loved me and accepted me as part of them for the time I was there was so special! So, I should explain, right? I went to Arizona to stay with Brian Watson and the family he's staying with(Susan, Jeff and the 5 kids, Zach, Gabe, Jael, Jake and Nat). If you don't know who Brian is, he's the dude posing to the left, what a cute little bracelet, don't ya think? So I got picked up from the airport by Bri and Ji, hahaha and got home to be greeted by a batch of rusks that Brian had made and some rooibos tea, which I, being the rooibos tea queen that I am, had brought along! Felt like home!

It was great just getting to hang out with Bri, to watch him in action at the chem labs at Arizona State University, even though he is doing nasty things to poor little mice(not Bri personally, of course). It's funny, cus we worked out that that's probably the most time we've ever spent solidly together and it happened to be on the other side of the world from home! Sometimes life is odd! We did an amazing sunset walk/hike up Squaw Peak (kind of equivalent to Lion's Head), and wow, what a sunset, it felt just like home, minus the water and add in a couple of cactii! See the pic! Other than that, Brian and I did some mall crawlin for last minute Christmas prezzies through Chandler fashion mall and Scottsdale fashion mall (we've decided to rename Cavendish as Cavendish fashion mall, as that seems the 'thing' to do), even Walmarts and Costco, too, some BIG shops, I tell you! I learned to appreciate Taco Bell, a mexican fast food place, who have pretty decent food for pretty decent prices, and we got to have lunch in this cute little park with ducks and stuff! I also learned to appreciate some heavier music, some good rock, and left there with many more cds than I came(and yes, I will be making all of you listen to it, it's really good stuff!)

Talking about music, I felt so blessed to be in such a musical family over in AZ. There was always some pretty good music coming out of the music room, whether it was Zach or Jeff on guitar or Jake or Bri on drums, it sounded pretty darn good! Jeff, the dad, has a cd out with some of his stuff on it, and Zach, the oldest son, a really cool guy, whose band has recently split up, has just joined Sanctus Real (a pretty popular christian rock band, for those of you who don't already have their cds, I know most of you do) as their guitarist, so it was pretty neat, hearing sanctus songs that haven't yet been released blasting out of the music room.

Brian and I went to a great candlelight Christmas Adam service (the night before Christmas eve, because Adam came before Eve, haha) that was held in a larny hotel! The service was great, with gentle worship songs and a time to just sit before the Lord and just remember what Christmas is about, the true meaning, you know! There is so much Christmas hype around here that I can imagine it must be pretty easy to just get so swept up in it, that you would totally forget what Christmas is all about, so it was good to just get some time of quiet and peace!

Then the Christmas rush! The whole family, including us, went to a Christmas eve program/service together, where Ji and another girl, were the opening act doing a ballet dance, and then we had some rousing Christmas carols, which kind of made you want to doosy do in the aisles(don't worry, I restrained myself). From there, it was to Jeff's parents house for that side of the family's christmas, so supper, gifts and games followed and it was tons of fun! Back home after that, for the late night present wrapping tradition and then an early start the next morning to go to Susans(the mom) mom's house for the day! What fun! Brian and I got our own specially made and embroidered-with-our-names-on-them-to-match-the-rest-of-the-family's stockings (a new tradition to start in ct) and I got presents from the whole family, something I really wasn't expecting, which kind of blew me away big time! I don't know, the sheer generosity and thoughtfulness of them was incredible, not just in the gifts, but just in sharing themselves with me, sharing their family, their time, with Susan checking up on me the whole time and making sure I was doing ok and just the huge amount of love lavished on me, by people who didn't know me at all, was so overwhelming, and was such a testament of God's love! It taught me a lot!

So, present opening was followed by american football in the garden (it was 26 degrees, which was fabulous), the watching basketball on tv, and then the famous Christmas lunch and an afternoon of chatting and playing games and watching movies, so all in all, a very all american Christmas, so great! ... And then home to Tacoma, where darling Carissa picked me up from the airport in the middle of the night!

So the Christmas season has ended, with me going to a total of 9 Christmas parties, quite insane, but loads of fun! Oooooo... before I forget, they held the New Song church(my church here)Christmas production here before I left and it was just incredible, they wrote new songs and the way they presented it was just so powerful, I've never seen anything like it! I'm going to try get a copy, so you guys can see it!

Well, lots of love to all of you, and drop me a line (via normal email) to tell me how you doing!
I have less than a month left here, isn't that wild!
See you soon,
Gabs/ Elle (a brief investigation into my american nickname, elle, revealed that it actually means foreigner(insane, hey), so it's decided: it's a keeper!)