My Favorite Pianist

Sunday, April 20, 2008



Is it okay to take pictures in church? Hope so. I just had to! Keaton played the piano during praise and worship. And it is no surprise that his playing was wonderful. Grace, who leads worship, had asked him to play with the praise team. She had originally intended that he would gradually be worked in by first playing during the offering. When the two other pianist told her they would be out that Sunday, Keaton was in! He practiced and practiced. It was a wonderful day. I was so blessed to worship with Keaton on the piano and Haden playing guitar.

Weekend in Paris

April 26-28, 2008 I never understood all the fuss about Paris. That is until this weekend. The old part of the city is full of history and beauty.

We rented a VW van and armed with a map of France loaded the crew up and followed the signs to Paris. Getting to Paris was no problem. We had a few discussions about what various road signs meant and figured out the tolls by following the flow of traffic. Driving through Paris to reach our hotel is a whole other story. Have you ever driven through a round-a-bout in Paris? No order what so ever. The goal is to get off of it without getting hit. Lots of honking, yelling, accelerating and brake lights. (Leaving Paris we made three loops around the round- a- bout because we didn't know which exit to take! It was kind of fun. We were using our map quest directions in reverse. So it took a few loops to count the exits accurately. All the while the kids are laughing hysterically.) Thankfully we were able to leave the van parked at the hotel and take the train into the city center each day.

We checked into the hotel and caught a train to see the Eiffel Tower. It is enormous and beautiful and oh so graceful looking. The iron work reminds me of lace.

We walked around the city (partly because we were searching for the WC) taking in the architecture and loving the warm springtime weather that we haven't had in Basel. The flowering trees that lined both sides of many streets were in bloom. After a delicious dinner of roasted chicken, Asian noodles and vegetables we walked back to The Tower. Landon was happy to be eating ratatouille in Paris-you know the movie.

It was nearing dark by now and so we got in a very long line to buy tickets to ascend the tower. The closer we got to the ticket window the more of a chicken I became. We purchased our tickets and started to climb the 600 plus steps to the second level. I did not make it very far until I chickened out and abandoned my family. They have wonderful photos of the view.

That was day one in Paris.

Olivia really did not eat all that food. She had Robert's plate in front of her. She is quite a good little actress though!

Robert and I with our new biker friends. Keaton started to take a picture of the two of us when these two guys got into it. Then they took one of our family.

Blogging Again!

And I am so glad to be blogging again. I must admit that after our two weeks away from our apartment living in accommodations we lovingly call "the dump"and our Internet not working when we moved back into the apartment I just could not get blogging again because of my obsession that things be chronological and my lack of time to fill in all the blanks. Yesterday, I had a revelation that I could start from where we are now and then add the lost days in as I have time. To most folks not only would that seem obvious immediately but they would actually be able to carry through. It wasn't obvious to me and it took a while to be okay with an "unchronological" blog.

So from here on out, things might not be in the order they happened! I will post the date at the beginning on each post for those of you who prefer to know what order things happened in. There is much to tell about all that has occurred the past few weeks!

Up Date

It has been a while since I have been able to post an update and even this will be very brief. We are having a wonderful time with my dad here. I have many great stories and photos to post. Can't wait to get them up.

Currently we are in temporary living quarters and will be back in our apartment on April 12. A little oversight on the part of the agency we rented our apartment from. They failed to tell us that we would need to leave our apartment for two weeks during the world's largest jewelery show that takes place in Basel every year at this time. Our accommodations provided by the leasing company are economy to put it nicely. Did I not know and believe that God is in control of ALL things the situation would be worse. But knowing that, I know that He has given us an opportunity to show the love of the ONE TRUE GOD to our Hindu neighbors! They make being here purposeful. And they are the best cooks!! They cooked Indian food for us Tuesday night and we made Southern food for them Wednesday night-beans, rice, fried cornbread, fried potatoes and baked apples. Can't get much more Southern than that !

One morning we made biscuits and gravy for ourselves and Su mah, a young Indian woman. The rest of the Indian men are teasing her that she will return to India making Southern food for her new husband! She has only been married six months. I have lots of great pictures.

At the moment I am sitting in the stairwell- it is the only place I have an internet connection. The connection is too slow to get pictures up but I will do so a.s.a.p. My dad and Dayton leave Monday to return to the states. Please pray for their safe and unhindered travel.