Harlem, Grandparents, and Bears

Oh Hey!!

I know, I know. It’s been forever since I’ve written a blog!!! Well I’ve been keeping busy and have lots to share!

First! A few weeks ago I went to a Young Adult weekend at Catskills Christian Assembly in upstate New York! A friend of mine kind of runs things there so I was super excited to go. Besides the spiritual cleansing that a retreat promises, there was an added benefit of a possibility of seeing a bear! I drove up with Tamara and Danni (a new au pair!). We got caught in a hail storm on the way up, which was scary but thankfully, we survived!! 🙂

I didn’t take that many pictures, but as you can see it was a lot of fun! It rained for most of the weekend, but it still was a great time. There was even a bonfire (naturally, being the best blogger ever, I did not take a picture). The mountains where so beautiful and you could just feel Gods presence there. (I’m pretty sure if God where to come back to earth again, He would come in the form of a hillbilly)

And then it happened!!! I saw a bear!!

Not that bear

And not even these bears, but after close inspection of this photo I am sure that they are closely related to the bears that we saw. I’m thinking 2nd cousin on the papa bear’s side. Anyway, it was night time and about 5 or 6 of us were walking to the bonfire and about 100 feet away crossing under one of the trail lights is this big beautiful bear!! I’ve never seen a bear before, except for at the zoo. But that doesn’t really count because I doubt that they even know that they are bears. I was so amazed and excited. Not scared at all! (well it was walking away from us). Then, just as it walked out of sight, out popped two little baby cubs!! I really wanted them. I would name one Goldilocks (for the irony of it), and the other Herman (just sounds like a bear name). But they walked out of sight with their mother, unknowingly leaving me with a memory that will last a lifetime.

It was such a good time!!

Tamara was getting ready to leave to go home to Germany and really wanted to go check out a baptist church in Harlem that she had heard about, so Josh and I went with her. Now, I had never heard of this church before, but apparently at least 400 of the people in line with us had. It is called The Abyssinian Baptist Church (have you heard of it?). It is supposed to have one of the best gospel choirs around. We arrived at about 9am to attend the 11 o’clock service. The line we were in stretched the entire block and around the corner. Tamara had informed us that there was a dress code to get in, but a majority of the people in line apparently were not aware. Elders from the church walked up and down the line and pointed out anyone who was not dressed appropriately.
The dress code was:
Women-
No shorts
No jeans
No skirts above knee
No flip flops
Shoulders must be covered

Men-
No shorts
No T-shirts ( collared shirts only)
No sneakers
No jeans

Now this describes the wardrobe of every tourist ever, and the line did thin out quite a bit. We moved from being on the corner to about half way down the block. Tamara befriended a lovely German family who all were dressed “inappropriately”. She did her best to help them. Even lending them her sweater so that their daughter’s tube top could replace her short skirt (being the excellent blogger that I am, I did not think to photograph this… Even though we stood in line with them for 3 hours). 11 o’clock came and went and it wasn’t until 11:45 that we were told they only had enough seats for the first 80 or so people, which did not include us. It was with a sad and a heavy heart that the poor German girl pulled her tube top back up to her chest and gave Tamara back the sweater. But laughs were had and new Facebook friends were made.

Wow, I actually remembered to take a picture. (and by remember I mean, the other two people I was with stopped to take one… So it seemed to be a good idea)

The family I work for went on vacation to Portland for 10 days, so I had time off. I was actually really sad that I wouldn’t get to be with Emerson for a week ( too attached, I know) but it turned out that my grandfather was moving out of his house of 40+ years, so there was much to do. The best part was gathering all the glass that was garbage into a bag, and tossing out of a second floor window into a dumpster below.
Best. Sound. Ever.
(again, no picture… Sowwwiee)

Tamara went home last week 😦 I hate when a good friend leaves.
On the day that she left there was a huge back to school expo in Bridgeport where 600 backpacks full of supplies were handed out to needy families. Since I still had time off I went to help! It was a ton of fun and so many families were helped!!

I had many jobs that day, but at this point we were asked to get some of the kids to dance.

The lady with green hair just appeared off the street and started dancing with the kids. White girl can dance.

Last Tuesday was Ronja’s last day, so Josh and I went to NYC to spend time with her before she left. It was tricky finding her because she didn’t have a phone and there were soo many people at the Grand Central where we agreed to meet. But she found me and we all had a lovely day of walking around manhattan and visiting a local Target near the airport.

This was the only picture I thought to take that day… (I’m so good at this)

On the way to the airport I was able to have a SKYPE call with Victoria in Sweden!! It was so amazing to hear her voice again. 🙂 I miss her so much!! Finally we arrived at the airport. Saying goodbye to Ronja was so sad. But we shall meet again!! I really need to take a trip to Europe soon because I have so many friends over there now!!

Ok, well I’ve taken up enough of your time. I’ll try post more often so the blogs don’t get so long! thanks for reading!!

Oh, and the blog wouldn’t be complete without a cute picture of Emerson. 🙂

Ich Libe Dich!! ❤