Sunday, September 1, 2013

Build Your Kingdom Here

Wow, it's my last day in the US and a lot of 'This is my last time doing ...' are popping up in my head!

I got to do a lot of fun things, got to meet old friends and also some new ones - for that I am so incredibly thankful!

Here are some things that I did this summer:

  • enjoy the Minnesotan weather
  • be thankful for AC
  • meet my baby sister
  • meet YFU friends - George, Karla, Rebecca, Pippu, Eva, Hung and Micah
  • go to the MOA three times
  • go to Chicago
  • rejoin Junction 180 (youth group)
  • visit Calvary
  • get the best quilt/blanket anyone has ever seen - thank you Bonnie!
  • go camping two times
  • see God's beautiful creation
  • drive 156 miles straight (with an AUTOMATIC car - one thing I've missed pretty much all the time was my precious clutch)
  • go up to Moorhead to visit Laura
  • learn again how to listen to eight conversations at once
  • meet Jess (twice!)
  • enjoy people's faces when they eat German chocolate :)
There was probably a lot more fun stuff, but it's so hard to put everything in words!

I am so glad that I was able to come stay with my family again, meet old friends and make new ones :)
This was an awesome summer that is over way too soon! I learned a lot and feel so blessed with all the ideas and memories I get to take home!

We sang this song in church at the beginning of my stay here and ever since it is one of those songs that I can just always listen to without getting tired of it :) It just always fills me with joy!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Ready or not

Well I wasn't really ready for another birthday yet, but I guess that didn't really matter :)

I had an awesome day, starting with going down to The Cities to meet Jess after just a little more than to years. Mitch went down there to pick up the Horol Missions Team from the airport and I thought it would be a nice opportunity to get there!
We met at Caribou to talk and catch up on each others lives, so good!

When we got back home I could already smell my birthday cake and I was really excited to have carrot cake again - something we need (more of) in Germany!

Somewhere between coming home and eating dinner Tirzah asked how old I was now and when Mitch said 'She's 19 now', Tirzah said 'Oh so you're a mom now?'. Best quote of the day!

I got to choose my favorite meal for supper just like every other Theis kid, thanks to Steph for cooking and baking for me!

While eating Mitch started a round of "Memories we have of when Kathi first came here" which was really fun to remember little things of my exchange year!

After supper we had the cake with ice cream - yummy!

Parents + birthday child photo
Now I just got home from a friend's goodbye party who is going to Uruguay this year - yay going abroad!

Thanks for all the congratulations, I had such a great day!

Sunday, August 4, 2013

10,000 Reasons

It's been way to long!

After two years I finally got back home. Kimmy said that today when I talked to her in church: "I didn't know you are home yet." - that made me smile!

I arrived at MSP at 6pm on Saturday July 20, 2013 after a long journey from Germany over the Netherlands, to Iceland and finally to America. As Steph mentioned in her blog post already the timing was perfect and neither of us had to wait for a long time :)

We stopped at the Albertville Outlet Mall on our way home where I bought new Nike shoes since I didn't bring any tennis shoes. Luckily I didn't have any problems with the time difference so that I just went to bed and woke up when everybody else did.

Church the next morning was so much fun! Just seeing everybody again and their reactions of seeing me again :) I saw Tracey and walked over to her and she looked so surprised! "I thought I would never see you again in MY LIFE!", is all she said for a while.
Missed my second church family so much!

On Friday Allie and I went to Panera for lunch. It was so nice to talk to you again girl! Sally picked me up later that day and we went out for dinner and saw a movie later. I just missed my little Japanerin and her humor :)

I didn't get a lot of sleep before we left on Saturday morning to go camping down by Rochester at Whitewater State Park. I just realized that the last time I went camping was probably two years ago when I went to Sonshine :) Steph also posted about our camping trip in multiple blog posts with 100 pictures os make sure you check that out!

Speaking of pictures, I brought my SLR camera that uses films - so no digital pictures to post here :) I will scan and post a few after I get home and got them developed but for now you'll only have my texts and Steph's pictures.

Anyway, we got home from camping on Wednesday and I left again on Thursday afternoon to go camping with the Youth Group up North in Schroeder.
The landscape up there is just so beautiful! It was so much fun! We focused on "being still and know that He is God", going through different Psalms and the Lord's Prayer. Besides that we went cliff jumping, swimming, hiking and climbing - such a great trip!

I just got home last night and was very happy to finally be able to sleep in my bed again. However, Tirzah claimed it back during my second camping trip so that she really wanted to sleep in it too - we ended up sharing it which was really funny since she is about half my size but used twice the room!

Church this morning was again really awesome, I met Kimmy - so great to see her :)

I'm going horseback riding now and to Youth Group later tonight... Life is GOOD!