Pictures from Trier

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip to Trier a few months ago...the run down looking structure is Constantine's Roman Bath from the outside, you can actually see it from the road, there is also a picture of James and me in front of it (we have better pictures but we haven't scanned them yet...). The hall way pic and the pic with the grayish, black structure on the left are from the Porta Nigra (The Black Gate). Then there is another random one of James and me, I think we were in front of the palace gardens or something...Like I said we have more pics from Trier (these were taken with our video camera) but we haven't scanned them in, a project for me this week! Anyways, enjoy the pics, YAY!

Spiders

I've decided that we have a spider infestation in our house...and they're not little spiders (well okay, some of them are but still) they're BIG ones. I'm talkin' at least the size of a quarter if not bigger! AAHHH!! I wasn't too upset with the idea of having spiders living in my house so long as they stayed in the basement, where I don't go very often. I've already killed about 5 or so down there and James killed a big one down there a few weeks ago and I haven't seen one since...until last night...

It was a little after midnight, I was in the living room and the lights were dim. I had just finished watching an old episode of Seventh Heaven, a show my mom and I used to watch together all them time, and Saturday Night Live was coming on next. So I got comfy on the couch and curled up under a nice warm blanket and got ready to be entertained. A few minutes into the show I thought I saw something scurry across the floor towards the TV, my first thought was, "AHHH a ROACH!!" but then I remembered that I was in Germany, a land free of roaches (or so I hear). My next thought was, "Well, maybe I didn't see anything, but just in case I'm gonna turn on another light..." So, I got up slowly so as not to scare whatever it was (if anything) that I saw and proceeded to turn on the over head light. Sure enough in all it's glory sitting right by the TV stand was a monstrous spider! I thought it might help the situation to freak out a little, so I did, but once I composed myself I went down into the basement to get the RAID, I had been keeping it down there 'cause that's where all the spiders had been up till this point. I came back upstairs, raid in hand and walked over the to the big guy, said my goodbyes and sprayed him...but he was quick and I didn't get him quite enough for my comfort before he ran underneath my piano. So I waited and eventually he came out and started climbing the wall next to the piano and I drowned him in raid, he didn't last but a few seconds after that, so yes ladies and gentlemen, I am a murderer, but only of spiders and other creepy, crawly things! Because I had used so much raid I had to leave the room and go upstairs to my bedroom so as not to gas myself, that stuff is lethal! So that was my adventure for the evening!

I all have to say is I can't wait for James to come home so he can be my hero and kill the big nasties for me!

Morning Dedication

A Puritan Prayer from the book The Valley of Vision:

ALMIGHTY GOD,
As I cross the threshold of this day
I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends, to thy care;
Watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me.
Incline my heart to thy ways;
Mould me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms clay;
May my lips be a well-tuned harp to sound thy praise;
Let those around see me living by thy Spirit,
trampling the world underfoot,
unconformed to lying vanities,
transformed by a renewed mind,
clad in the entire armour of God,
shining as a never-dimmed light,
showing holiness in all my doings.
Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands.
May I travel miry paths with a life pure from spot or stain.
In needful transactions let me affection be in heaven,
and my love soar upwards in flames of fire,
my gaze fixed on unseen things,
my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility,
mockery of earth and its vanities.
May I view all things in the mirror of eternity,
waiting for the coming of my Lord,
listening for the last trumpet call,
hastening unto the new heaven and earth.
Order this day all my communications according to thy wisdom,
and to the gain of mutual good.
Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable.
May I speak each word as if my last word,
and walk each step as my final one.
If my life should end today, let this be my best day.

New Toy

So, I have a new toy and it's name is moogle. Well not really but that's what my background is on my new LAPTOP, yay!! My sweet husband purchased a Dell laptop for me about a month ago 'cause my desktop pc is slowly dieing on me. Thanks to the help of my mom my new pc arrived last Thursday. James laughed at me a lot during the whole setup process because I kept saying stuff like, "Wow, it's so nice to see that I can actually upgrade things on my computer without it telling me that it can't install the new upgrades!" I guess he's never had a computer that couldn't or wouldn't install new downloads for upgrading things, oh well. Anyways, it's a very nice pc and runs so smoothly and plays games pretty smoothly too! We just bought this game called Guild Wars, it's an online adventure type game, but it's pretty fun my character is already at level 8 and I've only been playing for a few days! Fun times!

Other than that, there's not a whole lot of new things going on around here. James was running a range (not really sure what all goes on there but I do know they shoot guns and sometimes people get hurt or die, rarely but it happens) all last week. Things went well for him which was good, nobody died or got hurt which is always a plus! Then that Friday was a mandatory fun day for the battalion (which includes James' unit). They call it an Organizational Day but it wasn't really that organized...it was pretty lame, on the upside though I got to spend all day with James, which was nice. Let's see, what else...James is here for most of this week then he's off to the field again for at least 2 weeks and he leaves on Friday. There's a possibility that they will extended their time out there, hopefully not but who knows. Again on the upside, because they are missing a three day weekend (this weekend) they'll be given an extra one at the end of October, so that's cool. Other than that nothing else to report except that sometime in November James and I will be going to Rome! I'm super excited!! Our flight, round trip for the both of us will cost about 4 Euro cents which is about 6 or 8 cents, CRAZY! Okay so that doesn't include taxes or our bag fees but still the actual flight only costs that much. In reality we'll probably be paying something like 20-25 bucks round trip which is pretty friggin' SWEET!! Aight that's it, peace!