I'm baaaaaaaack!

Hah! Bet you thought I'd never write again. Well, you're wrong. Mike was able to post a new picture of us (the Kruse Team - yay!), I thought I'd let you all know what we've been up to.

Since I last posted (Aug 28, for cryin' out loud!), we've been quite busy with work and church activities. Mike let me work with a couple of families to help them find houses - lots of fun, but time-consuming. My fall months were mainly taken up with preparing for the mission trip to Costa Rica that ten of us from Village Parkway Baptist Church (VPBC) went on from Dec. 28 to Jan. 5.

To give you a little background, in March 2007, four of us from VPBC had traveled to Costa Rica to the site of the medical clinic that's being built by Drs. Judith and Alekcey Murillo in Paso Marcos. It's on the edge of a reservation of Cabecar Indians, and the two of them want to minister to this group of people's physical and spiritual needs. Three of us who had been there in March returned in December, and what a great time we had! But more about that later.

We had visitors in November - my little sister Katie and her family - husband Gary, son Kyle and his wife Nicole, and Katie and Gary's two daughters Kalleigh and Katrina. Hmmm...I just tried to find some of the pictures we took, and I don't remember where I put them. (We had our main PC crash right around that time, so it's a real pain trying to locate my files & docs from the device we put our stuff on from the old PC.) Anyway, Krissy & Gary were able to come home to visit too, and we all had a ball. It was the first time Katie & Gary and their family visited the Alamo and Riverwalk, and it was fun hosting them!

We also had Judith and Alekcey (the two doctors from Costa Rica) come visit us in November too. We were able to have a team meeting during that time, which was a big help in our planning for the mission trip. I DO have photos of their trip here - we got to see the Alamo (again!) because Alekcey had never been to the Riverwalk. In this pic you can see Jan & Steve Branson (our pastor and his wife), Alekcey & Judith, and me and Tammy McKeen (Mike was taking the picture). Steve, Tammy and I had all been to Costa Rica in March (and Ron Sweet too, but he hadn't gotten downtown in time for this picture). Anyway, Ron, Tammy and I were all on the team to return in December.

Our next big event was Thanksgiving which was wonderful! Everyone was able to be home for that! In fact, we had the chance to take a great family photo. I'll upload it too. And while I'm at it (and if I can find it), I'll upload the picture of my Black Forest Cherry cake so you can see that I did indeed accomplish that task in August.

I guess the most fun that Mike and I have had during the last few months has been watching our grandbaby Mollie grow! She's such a delight, and if you have been to the Jackson's blog, you know what I'm talking about. We had a great Christmas with the whole family, and it was a blast watching Mollie open her presents and play with the wrappings.

That's all for now - I'll write about our Costa Rica trip in my next blog (hopefully sooner than next summer!). By the way, I couldn't find my picture of the cake. Boo! I'll bet you think I really didn't make it now. But I did! I did! just ask Annie. She saw it (and ate it too!)