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!

Build Your Kingdom Here 

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!

Ready or not

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!

10,000 Reasons

It's your life

Happy Birthday Mitch :)

Miss you and I wish I could be there!

- Kathi Barbie ;)

It's your life

The Story

Happy 45th Birthday Mom!

I enjoyed go seeing a movie with you and I hope you did too :)

Love you <3

The Story

Just The Way You Are

Wow, it's been quite a while since I posted my last post.

What was 'Wonderful to me' then actually costs me a lot of time right now so I guess that's one of the reasons why I didn't blog. That and the fact that nothing really exciting happened...

BUT it was Eden's birthday yesterday and I thought I should post something about that :)

Happy belated Birthday to...

... the best roommate you could ever think of

... a very special friend

... a teenage girl

... my little sister

I really miss you and I hope you had a great day!

Just The Way You Are 

 

Wonderful to me

Okay, I think I might post pictures of Christmas some other day. All the pictures are on my computer and I usually write my blog posts with my laptop - I'm too lazy to put them on my laptop also - so I guess you're just going to have to wait :D

However I really wanted to post about this:

Yesterday I went to a YFU - Youth For Understanding - meeting (of members). Here in Germany YFU separates the whole country into different groups (national committees) and I'm part of the one called 'Westfalen'. On this map, you can see where the different committees are. The meeting lasted about 10 hours and we had a lot of different things to talk about. We also voted for a new head of our group :) Since YFU is a non-profit organization/association almost all of the people working for it are volunteers. I think there are about 30 people working in the main office full-time but the rest is volunteering :)

We also have various representatives for different aspect. For example there is one representative for publicity. That person's job is to organize presentations about YFU (e.g.: in schools,...).

Then there are also representatives for:

• cooperation (keeps members motivated and helps wherever he/she can) 
• publication (responsible for the yearbook and some other stuff that is released by YFU during the year)
• interviews (has to find rooms, team members, etc. for the interviews of the applicants who want to go do an exchange year)
• preparation (organizes the orientations for the students that are going to leave)
• follow-up (organizes the orientations for the students that just got back)

We voted for all of those and a couple other ones - it's hard to find the right translation so I just didn't list them. Anyway I was voted to be representative too and I will take care of the parents :) Meaning I will organize meetings/orientations for the parents of the students that will leave to go abroad this summer. It's my job to be available to them in case they have problems and I will have to find a location and team for the meetings. I'm really excited for that even though I thought it would take up too much time in the beginning. I was asked if I was willing to do it a few weeks before the meeting yesterday and after I thought about it for a while I really wanted to do it! I think it's a great way to get more involved with my exchange organization :)

I'm going to take some pictures now for my art project ;)

Wonderful to me

Something Beautiful

So here it is - later then I expected - my blog post about December 25th.

On the 25th we did our gift giving at about 1pm instead of doing it on the evening of the 24th. Usually that's how you do it in Germany, but since my mom is a nurse and had to work that night we just did it on the 25th.

This is what I got for Christmas:

• 5 pair of tights
• 3 books
• 2 DVDs
• a gift certificate for a jewelry store
• chocolate
• 2 rolls of film (black and white) that I need for an Art Project
• a gift certificate to our 'local' book store

Here are a few pictures of the gift giving :)

Our Christmas tree

The presents

Four candles for Advent

Unwrapping my tights :)

dad unwrapping his first present

Got 'To Save a Life' on DVD - Love that movie!!!

Eating my chocolate Santa

My jewelry store gift certificate :)

Loved Christmas!
Post about the 26th comes soon, but now I have to get ready for New Year's Eve :) Guests coming in an hour ;)

Something Beautiful

Power of the Cross

Christmas was amazing!

My mom had to work on Christmas Eve and I thought we should do the gift giving on the 25th like I had it last year in America :) So for Christmas Eve Mama, Papa and me first went to church at 4pm, then we ate at my grandparents house (the ones who live right next to us) and after that my mom left for work and me and my dad headed to my aunt and uncle's. We had a fun night with them, my cousin and my grandma! We played 'Who am I?!' where everybody gets a post-it note (with a persons name on it) stuck to his or hers forehead and you then have to ask question about 'yourself' that the other people can answer with yes or no.

For example on my note it said 'Joan of Arc' so I was Joan of Arc, but because it was on my forehead I didn't know that, everybody else could read it though, So when it was my turn I asked questions like:

• Am I a person? (yes)
• Am I still alive (no)
• Did I die more than 100 years ago? (yes)
• Am I female? (yes)
• Did I live in Germany? (no)
• Did I come from America? (no)
• Was I from France? (yes)

Then you just have to go on asking or try to guess who you are. Joan of Arc was the only female, dead woman that I could think of that lived in France so then it was pretty easy... My dad was Bruce Springsteen, my aunt Angela Merkel (our president), my cousin was Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, and my uncle was Steve Jobs. I really like that game :)
After that we talked for quite a while and also my other aunt and uncle (my dad's brother and his wife) came over for about an hour or so... Then we played 'Black Stories' for a while. It's similar to 'Who am I': one person draws a card and reads out the title and short sentence about the story from the first side of the card. He himself then reads the back of the card and the other people have to ask him questions that he can answer with yes or no until they know what happened in the story.

I guess it was around 1am that dad and I left and we then went to bed pretty quick :)
I will post about the 25th and 26th soon - with pictures :D

Power of the Cross

Without you

Post number 100 goes to my big brother :)

Happy Birthday Br♥di

Hope you are having a fantastic time in Ecuador and - besides your birthday - a nice Christmas and a Happy New Year :)

I love you so much and I'm really, really proud of you - for mastering all the hardships over there in Ecuador ;)

Looking forward to celebrating your next birthday WITH you!

Without you