Days 20, 21, 22 and 23

The last several days have been a whirlwind.

I spent the first few wee hours of Sunday morning finishing the Risk game with my friends from college (Jeremiah, Dave, Chad, and Joe). We used to play this game a lot in college, but since it takes several hours for one game, most of us haven't had much time for it after getting married, getting jobs, and having kids. It was like old times.

I was delighted to hear that Jeremiah, Dave, and Chad (and their spouses) are all planning to join us in Cheonan, South Korea within the next 2 years. Jeremiah and Alyssa will probably be first, since Chad and Dave are both working on their Masters'. This has been one of my dreams for a long, long time. Also, Chad said he and Sunny (who is Korean) plan to make Cheonan their long term home. Whoopie!! Three cheers for long-termers!

On Sunday, we visited Christ Community Church, our church home before we came to Korea. For the month of June, they had been collecting an offering for our Tanzania mission trip. They extended their offering one week into July so that we could be there to talk about it. They are mailing a check to me this week for our church. Yeah!

Then, after church, we enjoyed a great day with my Dad's side of the family at my Uncle John's house. We ate Uncle John's great barbecue (yes, more American beef!). Then, some of us played a short poker tournament and enjoyed an old classic American game - horseshoes. (You throw a horseshoe at a metal stake, and you get points based on how close you can get.)

Unfortunately, I got sick somehow on Sunday morning, and I had an upset stomach and headache for most of Sunday and Monday. However, I think I'm finally over it now.

On Monday, we had a great breakfast at Cracker Barrel, a good old homecooking American restaurant, with old friends (Matt and Darci Johnson, Jen Moore, and Joe and Elena Willey - and Elena's mom). Good food and laughter all around.

Then we drove down to Arkansas to see my Mom's side of the family. We rented a car - to the tune of $200 - yikes! We made great time, and we were able to eat dinner with the family and play a few games. This is the first time in a long while that I've seen all of my Mom's brothers and sisters all together, so that was really nice.

Tuesday, was mostly the same - talking and games with family. Today, on Wednesday almost everyone left so from now on out it will just be my parents, my sister, and our family who will be hanging out with my grandparents. We'll pick up my sister from the airport tomorrow morning.