Giving thanks

What an excellent week we have had. I didn't have to work at all this week, so I got to hang out with some of my lady neighbor friends. On Monday, we painted. Look at this! Sarah did a sweet Cat in the Hat and Sabrina painted Alex and I anime-style. It was very fun and very relaxing.

For Alex's birthday, I took him rock climbing. This was only my 2nd time but Alex was a pro at it. I'm not a huge fan of heights but I scaled the walls pretty quickly. Alex did crazy stuff like climbing on horizantal cliff faces. Yikes!


We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Alex's family. I think we might have perfected our jalapeno soup recipe. We got to play a rousing game of Mad Gab, too. It was very nice.

We spent almost all yesterday with our Iraqi family. I took the mom and both daughters shopping at the Galleria. THAT was an experience! I have never been shopping on Black Friday before, especially not with two children under the age of 5. I took them to Old Navy and the mom loved it! The mom was awed by the beautiful mall and there was an ice skating show going on. I had quite an experience trying to corrale the children while the mom tried on some clothes. Not being able to speak Arabic definitely puts you at a disadvantage when a kid is crying. I put slippers on my hands and clapped them to distract her. It didn't work. The kids got tired around noon so we went home early. Hopefully, the mom and I will get to go by ourselves soon. She loves sales!

After shopping, Alex and I took the entire family to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was SO fun! They had never seen anything like it. It was really crowded but they had a blast. We are getting comfortable enough around them to joke and their English is really improving. I taught the mom the word "cute" and its proper usage. The dad kept saying "snack" instead of "snake" at the Aquarium and I explained the difference. Alex is going to start helping the dad look for a job. This next week, we are eating at a Middle Eastern restaurant to celebrate Alex's birthday and sometime we're going to go see "Baba Noel" (i.e. Santa Claus). So fun!

Wedding pictures!

If you are a glutton for punishment and would like to look at all 800ish pics of our wedding and engagement, click http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CZsnLZy5bMX0w. Furthermore, if you would like copies of said pictures, please note the name of the picture and let me know (alex.and.beth@gmail.com). I'll print them off at a Walgreens near you (classy, I know).

Ah, community living....

Sorry it's been a while. So many new friends, so little time to blog!





We FINALLY got our wedding album (our fault, not theirs). I'm currently uploading our pictures to my Shutterfly site, so I can share them with you. Stay tuned. I just started the upload and it says that it should be done in a day and four hours. So......



Oh gosh. We've been so busy with our new friends. This past weekend was loco. I went skateboarding with our mother-daughter neighbors. We did it for about an hour at a local park and it was SO FUN! Hopefully next time we go out, we'll get some pictures.

Then Alex and I went to this adorable little girl's first birthday party. It was fun shopping for her and it was even more fun to see her eat her cake and be surrounded by people that love her.

Sarah, my new neighbor friend, made this awesome bear cake. Please take note, because I will probably never have enough patience to make this.

After that, on Saturday, Alex and I went over to some other neighbors for dinner and it was just plain fun. We hung out and they told us about their lives. God is being so good in filling our time with opportunities to love on people. It certainly makes things interesting!

We have hung out more with our Iraqi family. Last week, we had them over for dinner at our place. I had to go to a Middle Eastern meat market to buy halal (similar to kosher) chicken for my chicken and rice. We also had lots of donations from family and they were SO appreciative. The wife wanted almost all the kitchen stuff we had so it was nice to help her feel more at home. Next Friday, I am taking all the females shopping at some malls and then we are all going to the Dallas World Aquarium. Super fun!

Tonight we took them to McDonalds to eat. It was interesting because we got to help them out with ordering food. Our cashier was hispanic and she asked where they were from. When Alex and I told her that they were from Iraq, she didn't know where it was. The realization struck me that this Iraqi family has to not only deal with learning English, but having to deal with the multicultural aspects of America.

My work is much better. We just started our new six weeks sessions at new schools. Both of the schools that I am at are wonderful! It's a nice change from the last session. One of the schools, Sam Tasby, is in the refugee area of Dallas so we have girls from all over the world. It is so neat! Alot of them don't speak English (they have been here a couple weeks) but they are just so sweet. The school has a really positive atmosphere that makes my job much easier. Also, I found out through facebook that an acquaintance, Kirsten, from college is a science teacher there so I went and found her this Monday and we had lunch. I'm getting to work with some different coworkers this time, so I'm excited about getting to know them better.

Alex's work is going....There have been a few mini crises that have disappeared after much prayer. We just signed another lease for a year, because we're not sure about what the job situation will be in January. I know he would appreciate your prayers about his career. He is trying to refocus on building relationships with his employees and loving on them.

We are so ready for Thanksgiving! Hopefully we'll get to see all of you soon.

Beth and Alex: The Fear Factor Edition

For those of you who doubt our ability (or at least MY ability) to eat or drink things that we think are gross, pay attention. Alex and I are mentoring an Iraqi refugee family through the International Rescue Committee. Our family is a mom, dad, 5 year old girl, and 11 month girl. The father had a contract with the Americans in Baghdad, and thus was targeted by al-Qaeda. The family had been refugees in Jordan for 4 years! We had our first actual meeting with them two weeks ago. At the mother's request, we went on a picnic with the family. Alex and I were concerned about the language issue and while it's certainly not easy, we are able to carry on good conversations and have lots of fun. We have all agreed that we can help them with English and they'll help us with Arabic. The dad is really outgoing and the mom is my age, so I feel we have some things in common. The girls are as cute as can be. We ended our picnic by swinging and playing on the playground.

This week, they wanted to cook us traditional Iraqi food. So, I showed up early with chocolate cake and all the necessary ingredients. The eldest daughter and I made it together without the use of a measuring cup. It looked really really soupy when we poured it into the pan, so I prayed that it would turn out okay and it did. Then Alex showed up from jury duty (more on that later) and we sat down to eat. This is what we were greeted with:

They also included a vegetable plate and some fried (and boiled) bulghar wheat meat pastries. I am proud to say that I, Beth Wise, ate some version of a chile relleno with meat, rice, and vegetables inside. I also ate something that looked like maroon broccoli. The meal actually tasted much better than I thought and I was pleased with that. Alex did a great job. So we successfully finished dinner (although the father wasn't pleased that they had leftovers). Then they break out the tea. For those of you who don't know, I may be a pickier eater than Alex, but I can at least gag things down. One of Alex's least favorite drinks is tea. In the Middle East, hot tea is the customary drink that you offer people when they come to your home (i.e. they drink it ALOT). So, after dinner, they make us both tea, without asking. I am able to drink mine. Alex keeps glancing at me as he takes miniscule sips. So, finally, I grabbed the chance to set my cup next to his and stealthily switch cups. What a good wife I am to rescue my husband from a sure and sudden death by tea. We then talked about the election (the dad likes McCain!) and the mom asked me about our coins, so I showed her which coin is a quarter, dime, etc....

Next week, Alex and I are having them over here for dinner. Future meetings will involve the grocery store, the zoo, and hopefully some parades. It should make for an interesting time. The reason I am not posting their pictures or names on the blog is because I do not know about their security situation, so it is better to be safe than sorry. If you would like to see some pictures we took with them, feel free to email us (alex.and.beth@gmail.com) and we'll send them to you if we know you.

I mentioned that Alex had jury duty this week. He reported on Monday and was glad to be picked. So he didn't have to work Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday! How nice! He really enjoyed learning about the judicial process and he ended up being the head juror.

This was my last week at these first 3 schools. We threw the girls a party and reviewed what we had talked about over the past 6 weeks. It was a fairly easy week and we had lots of cooperation (because we had food). On Wednesday, my partner, Jill, and I walked into 1st period and heard, "Yay! Girl Scouts!" instead of our usual "Ugh, Girl Scouts. (insert eye rolls and hissy fits)", and we thought we had walked into an alternate universe. Gosh. We start our new schools this next week and I'm excited about a fresh start. There was also some drama this past week involving the upper management at Girl Scouts (it's not all cookies and kumbayah). The direction of the program may be changing in the future because of some decisions made this week. I would have thought that a non-profit would be more stable than this, but I'm learning alot!

We've been hanging out with our neighbors alot. Our buddies, Rick and Sarah, who have the cutest baby in the world, helped me carve a stinkin' amazing pumpkin and I got to show Sarah the wonders of IKEA today. We've started having a weekly game night with a junior high girl and her mom. This Saturday, we're having a Ladies' Movie Night. It's so cool to have so many fun people within 10 seconds of us. You don't even have to drive anywhere!

The weekends have still been busy. Two weekends ago, Amy and Keith came up from College Station. We showed them around Alex and Beth's Dallas and had some good food. It was so encouraging to see them and fun to play hostess. Last weekend, my family came up to Frisco and we all spent the weekend at my aunt's house. Everyone did the Gary Burns 5K race on Saturday morning. Alex ran it (3.2 miles) in less than 30 minutes. Leah and I chilled at the back of the group with the clowns (I do think we beat the mascot dressed as the #7). If my sister posts pictures of the event, I'll put some up. Our friend, Kelli, from Arkansas was in town so we got dinner with her on Saturday.

Spiritually, God is being faithful in giving us the fellowship we need and continuing to give us opportunities to trust Him. We thank you for your continued prayers. Please let us know how we can be praying for you. Feel free to drop us a line anytime! We love you guys!

The busiest week of our life......

IMPORTANT! We have had an address change (same place, different address!) so, if you need our new one, please email us and we'll let you know!

Let's begin:

FUN STUFF

-Last Friday, Alex took me to Medieval Times for my birthday. Basically, it's a Renaissance Festival/ jousting tournament/dinner thing. It was really really fun. We ate our dinner, which was served to us by our "wench", without silverware. We sat in the yellow section and cheered for our knight, who looked like a brunette Heath Ledger (and he knew it). We also sat next to a couple who made out everytime the lights went out. Awesome. Alex and I had a great time. I'll have to scan the picture we bought that we took with the princess. :)

- We have been hanging out with our neighbors hardcore. I think it is safe to say that they make up the bulk of our Dallas friends. Last Saturday, Alex and I went to Screams, which is a Halloween theme park at the Scarborough Faire Grounds, where our neighbors, Richard and Susan, are working. It was SO fun! We loved getting to see them in action.

- This week we had a note on our door informing us that our address had changed. This was the first time that we've had an address change without moving. So, Alex and I decided to host a neighborhood "House Warming Party" to celebrate our "new" houses. We had a taco bar and a game night. We probably had 20 people in and out. It was so fun and I think we will have more of them!

-Tomorrow we meet our Iraqi family! It's a family of 4 and they have two baby girls. We are super pumped. We'll let you know how it goes.

WORK

- We are enjoying Alex's new schedule. Last weekend was uber-busy and the next few weekends will be busy too (but it's better than being bored!) The first week in November might be a little stressful for him because he has so much going on.

-I didn't have to go out to my schools this week, so I got to spend the week getting to know my coworkers. Fun girls! We all went out to lunch on Wednesday and spent an hour and a half chatting. This next lesson that we're doing is trying to emphasize how healthy choices can be easy and we're showing them how dancing can be exercise. So....we will teach them (or rather, learn from them) the cha-cha slide, cupid shuffle, the Macarena (!), Souljaboi, and then freestyle to Lil' Mama. Oh. my. gosh. This should be interesting....

SPIRITUAL THINGS

-So, now that Alex has weekends off and our Bible Study had kind of fizzled out, we started to think about what kind of church we wanted to go to. Institutional? House church? Established small groups? When we moved to Dallas last year, Dave from our Bryan house church gave me some Dallas HC contacts, so I emailed them to see what's up. The only reply I got back was from a woman named Liz. She told me that she and her husband, Eric, were not involved in a housechurch but they wanted to get dinner with us. So we set it for last Saturday night. Alex and I were kind of uncertain about how the meeting would go. They were the nicest people we have met since we've been here. We had a 2 hour spirit filled conversation.

Eric and Liz were hippies who became believers through the Discipleship movement, so they've been in HC's their whole spiritual lives. When they moved to Dallas though, they never really got plugged in. They shared with us that their form of fellowship is with individuals and really small, spontaneous groups. Basically, they do not have a set group or time that they spend with believers. This was very encouraging to Alex and I. Furthermore, they encouaraged us that God has given us this awesome opportunity to minister to our new friends at the apartment complex and we should continue to invest time in them. So, Alex and I have been praying about what to do about the whole church situation. We studied what fellowship really is and we've decided that God wants us to try the "fellowship on the fly" thing so that we can learn to depend on Him before we go to the Middle East.

This might be a hard idea for some of you to wrap your head around. Think about it like this: The Bible admonishes us to not give up meeting one another. If you think about fellowship as rechargable batteries, you need to get your batteries recharged. Some people have a structured way of charging their fellowship batteries (set time, place, group of people). What Alex and I will do is depend on the Lord for our next charge. He is already being faithful because our friends Amy and Keith are coming up for the weekend, and I'm sure we'll get to have some church time. This might sound like the easy way out (We don't have to go to church!) BUT I would rather have a set time and place because then I know exactly where we're getting spiritually fed. This will definitely challenge Alex and I to seek out the different places where God is. We're excited about this new chapter in our spritual lives and we would appreciate your prayers.

Along with that, God is teaching me how to live minstry, instead of it being a separate affair. If you look at Jesus's life, he had a tight knit group of friends, but he spent most of his time with people who didn't know who He was. It is so easy to have a group of friends that is mostly Christian because it is comfortable. But then, it is easy to fall into the trap of having a "ministry" once a week and letting it become something to check off your list. I defintely thought this way for most of my life but now that God is placing us in the midst of people who don't believe as we do, I am realizing how fulfilling and fun a life of ministry can be! In loving these people, we are discovering more about God's love and compassion, and we couldn't ask for more than that. Come visit us and meet our neighbors!

We love you guys. Please email us if you want our new address.

A drumroll please.....

Alex's partner just put in his two weeks notice, which means that Alex gets to move his schedule to Sunday through Thursday. We have Friday and Saturday to spend together! Yipee!

Who would have thought that we would be celebrating over Alex having weekends off?

Mama Mia

(WARNING: If you tend to feel vomitous at things that are sweet and/or romantic, you may want to avoid this post.)

Here's how sweet my husband is. I came home from work Monday to find a homemade menu for "Ill Forks" hanging outside my door. (An aside: We always drive by this restaurant on the tollway. It's sign says "III Forks". I always say that it's Italian (Ill Forks) which could mean "The Forks". Alex contends that the name of the restaurant is "Three Forks". Will we ever find out? Probably not. Carrying on.....) It was written in fake Italian-English. So, I open the door, and my husband greets me with a towel draped on his arm and a fake paper mustache on his face. He was also yelling, "I make you-a spicy-a meatball-a!" We then had an Italian dinner and it was lovely.

One more reason why I love that guy.