Oh Baby! Oh Baby!

When we were in Copenhagen, we bought a little present for our soon to arrive grandson. And the day after we returned to Germany, we got the call that Mark and Beth were at the hospital, and Nolan was on the way.

At first I thought it was too soon, because I'd wanted to be there. But then it hit me that God has, as always, perfect timing. By the time I get there in 2 weeks, the competing grandma will have had her 2 weeks fill, and the new mom and dad may be ready for a small break. Therefore, I will get lots of "BABY TIME!" of my own. Woohoo!

So Nolan Martin Spicer was born at 11:23am Dallas time, 6:23pm Germany time. And there have already been a few pics sent my way, but my favorite so far is the same one my daughter Sharayah posted on her blog. So I'll just post it again.

Is he not absolutely adorable and precious? More precious than the Precious Moment in the pic with him. Just looking at him defines: "precious moment".

Of course, when I finally get back to Texas with my own camera, the pictures will start flowin'.

The second great news we received on Monday, March 29th, was that Mark had proposed to Beth, and Beth said "Yes!". So we'll get to enjoy not only our grandbaby boy, but also a wedding. Yahooooooozie!!

Copenhagen Adventure

We went to Copenhagen for a Microsoft Summit and got a day of sightseeing on Saturday. Our Plaza hotel was next to the main train station in the city. So I got pics for my dad...



We took several trains throughout the countryside. This was one of the old moss covered train stations along our route.


We went to Fredricksburg Slot, a castle in Hillerod.



It was even surrounded by a moat...


Here's a pic for mom, from the many curios inside filled with treasures.


It was a fun castle tour. We were free to explore the place. We saw the dining hall, the bedrooms, the sitting rooms, the great room, and the chapel...


Loved the red of the stained glass windows.


One of my favorite things in walking around these old buildings, is hearing the creaking of the old hardwood floors, and imagining life back when the floors didn't creak so much. And the other thing I love, is looking out the windows that distort the image outside and give a somewhat artistic view.

Paris Pics

Okay, I'm a week behind on posting my pics. Here they are!

Rain was forecast for our Paris weekend, but we prayed and God had the clouds hold back. It was overcast and a little cool, so when not inside the museums, we snuggled up on the top of our open air tour bus.

Our first stop was the Musee Du Louvre - Galeries des Antiques.


Beautiful statues and paintings. We saw the Venice de Milo and Athena Nike and Marty had goosebumps as we approached the Mona Lisa. It was a world of wonder. This was one of my newfound favorites.


We saw DaVincis, Rodins, Raphaels, Ingres, LeBruns, Delacroix, LeNains, Boudins, Bourdons, and Caravaggios. We wanted to see Monets, Manets, Pissaros, Sisneys, Gaugins, Renoirs, and Van Goghs, but those French Impressionists were rebels against the art represented in the Louvre, and so the art there ends around the period of 1850. So we had to go over to Musee d'Orsay to see our favorites. I've come to appreciate yet another artist, Camille Corot, during our adventure through the Louvre.


We walked into one room and saw this massive painting. Another couple was there wondering what it was, saying "The Rapture?" and we had an opportunity to share the gospel via this image of "Pentecost... the day tongues of fire came down and caused the followers of Christ to be able to speak on all of the languages of those gathered in Jerusalem."


After the Louvre, we took a tour bus to see the city. I love the bridges of Paris.


I took this picture of an old lamppost on one of the bridges, and it was in a black and white postcard we picked up for Sharayah's friend Liz dating back to the 1900s.


Our bus took us down the famous Champs Elysee, where we dined on fine French food and drank a Bourdeux wine.


And it's difficult to describe how truly huge the Arc D'Triumph is, until you see it up close with people walking around the base.


Then we finally made it to La Tour Eiffel. I've been looking forward to this since I was a kid taking French in Jr. High. It was marvelous. I took lots of pics, but with an overcast sky it was tough to get something really nice. This is as close as I got. We didn't go to the top because the line was like 3 hours long.


We hopped back on our tour bus and caught a couple of gorgeous sunset shots.




The next day, we visited Notre Dame.


The stained glass inside was truly gorgeous and inspiring.


Our final stop was at Sharayah's recommendation. Sacre Coeur, the Roman Byzantine basilica, overlooking Paris. The view of the city was marvelous, though none of my pics of it came out so well.


Paris... I look forward to a return visit!

Oui! Oui! I'm in Parieeee!

It's my birthday weekend, and so we decided to try a different type of adventure. We drove to the Munich airport, went to the "Last Minute" desk and just said, "We want to go somewhere. What's cheap?" The girl said, "When do you want to go?" We answered in unison, "Now!" She looked at us kindda funny, and Marty said, "This is the 'Last Minute' desk right? We want to do something... last minute." She grinned and started looking things up.

"Berlin," she offered, "Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, Athens, Budapest" So many choices. It turned out that the Paris deal offered the flight leaving the soonest (within the hour) and coming back the latest on Sunday night. And it was only 250euros each. So we took it!

On the drive to the airport, I'd been praying (actually started this request last night) that God would give us something totally amazing. That we would go somewhere new and that He'd know exactly what to do... where to send us. I had a dollar (i.e. euro) figure in my head, and when the deal was done, it matched up. That's just how God always does things when you let him... perfectly!

Paris! I've always wanted to go to Paris. Four years of French class and a teacher who spent her summers here, worked up a desire in me to be in "Gay PariE" (you have to say it that way with the "E" at the end, and roll your "R" just a little). That and Disney movies like The Aristocats. Anyway, I made it. A couple hours in a plane, an hour in a bus, and a walk through the light rain.

We're in the Hauteville Opera Hotel, in the only room on the 5th floor, 501. We're calling it the Penthouse, though it's anything but. Yet it works in every way... pente being five in Latin. Literally, the door to our room is at the top of a spiral staircase, and it's the only room up here. We have a balcony with a view to the narrow streets below. It Rocks!!

It's European small, but it's cool. Nice little bathroom with a hot shower, which is something we always look forward to in hotels since it's difficult to get a strong flow of hot water in our apartment. We ventured out onto the city streets and found a little cafe en Francais where we had delicious food, and met a sweet waitress named Amela from Tunisia.

We talked about the intrigue of meeting people from all over the world. And we determined that by the time we visit the U.S. again in a few weeks, we'll have been in France one week, Denmark the next, Germany the next, Canada the next, and then the U.S.A. We'll have visited 5 countries in 5 weeks. Awesome!!

Maybe I'll run into my fav French teacher here: Miss Dorsey.

God is good!

It's My Birthday & I'll Pinch If I Want To...

Whaddup? The Germans are whack! With as big a deal as Oktoberfest is here and their love of bier going to the point of having it for breakfast, one would truly think that they would celebrate St. Patty's Day! But no! I walk into work today celebrating the "Wearing of the Green", I express "Frohe St Patty's Tage!!", and they hardly acknowledge the holiday.

Gave me a good excuse to pinch alot of people! That and the fact that it's my birthday gave me every reason in the world. I enjoyed every minute of it. When one guy said, "What was that for?" as he rubbed his shoulder, I told him to tell my Irish boss, Ian O'Casey, that is was for his sake. /grin

It's been a good birthday. We had steak dinner at the Moritz, as well as creme brulee for dessert. The birthday weekend plans appear to be more promising, so I'll let you in on those as they come to fruition.

G'nite all!

Exercise and the Art of Working Out

So for Lent Marty started this thing of doing pushups and increasing the number each day, even if by only one. He's already to 400 a day, and at the incremental pace he's going, I don't know how he's going to keep it up, but hey, it's cool.

Recently he bought some Everlast pushup handles, similar to the Perfect Pushup things, but they aren't so heavy. We must travel light with all the traveling we do. So I decided to give it a try. I'm now up to 55 pushups myself. Woohoo!

Now don't get me wrong. He doesn't do one big set of 400 pushups or even sets of 15 or 20 all in a row, and I don't do 55 all at once either. We break them up through out our workout in the evening. I'm typically doing 15 to 20 at a time, and then doing something else. And it's getting easier and easier to reach 20, so I may soon go for more.

Eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn... that's me counting pushups... in German.

Hopefully this will turn into a habit for life... a healthier life.

Hi Ho Hi Ho... It's Off to...

WORK i go...

This week has been a week of work, work, work. Back in Germany, working to support the project going on in Canada. I should have stayed there... maybe. Most days I've been at work around 9 or 10am and worked until midnight or 1 or 2. It's that crazy time of trying to get all the systems in working order. Usually this happens at go-live, but fortunately this is a project with a plan to get it all in order well in advance for User Acceptance Testing and training, so we're living the nightmare 2 months BEFORE we go live. It's at least more bearable this way.

I don't usually write about work at all, mainly because one of the themes of my life has been "I work to live... I don't live to work." So my life is not at all about work. Work is just a method to the madness of what is Life. In order to live, I need to work. This is even Biblical. (II Thessalonians 3:10)

I will note however, that I have a great job. I'm incredibly thankful to God for giving me such an amazing opportunity at a good company, to travel the world, and work with and serve fellow co-workers in so many places and in so many ways.

I think that God is equipping me for a different kind of work. We'll see. The future holds so much. I'm looking forward to it.