Meine Klein Welt

California Dreamin’

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We’ve been in California for almost two weeks which means that our time here is almost over. 🙁

On June 20, my brother Derrick married his sweetheart Desire’e. It was a fantastic day, and we’re so glad that we got to be here for it!

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We made a quick trip to Santa Barbara last week to visit with friends. I got to show Matt Westmont for the first time, but it wasn’t very impressive because the whole place is under construction. I’ll just have to take him back up there next time. 🙂 I’m super thankful that we had some time to spend with my friends up there. I love them a lot!

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The rest of our California time is being spent in Idyllwild with my family. It’s so good to be home and visit for awhile. The only hard part of living in Vienna is missing my family. I’m so thankful for this time with them.

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Thanks for all of your prayers as we travel. We’re off to Florida on Monday. Klein family – here we come!

Matt’s Birthday

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This year we kept it low-key. Matt came home from the hospital two days before his birthday, so we decided to just have a few friends over to eat pizza and play games on the Wii. It was a fun night! Just right for a man on painkillers.

Picnik collage Matt's Birthday

Barn Dance

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On Saturday we went to our church’s 10th annual barn dance. We’re very glad we went not only because it was loads of fun, but because this is the last year they will be doing it. We got to get out of the city and spend time in the country. Yay!

Since we went a little early to help set-up, I got to run around and take a bunch of pictures of wildflowers and butterflies. It was such a beautiful day! (Mom, you would have loved the variety of wildflowers.)

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The food was really good. They had several different kinds of meat, veggie salads, potato salad, Knoedel (dumplings), and homemade apple pie.                 Y-U-M-M-Y!

The dancing was super fun to watch. It was mostly Scottish square dancing with a caller and everything. I say fun to watch because those dances were complicated! I just resorted to taking pictures. Matt resorted to eating apple pie. But our super coordinated friends Jeff, Bethany, and Sandi all got out there and danced away.

It was a great time to hang out with our church friends and work on meeting new people. We are really enjoying our church and the awesome people there. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us to build relationships at church. We really appreciate it.

There are lots of pictures here: Barn Dance

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The World Has Turned Upside-down

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It’s true. Something strange has indeed happened. I am now the Assistant Coach for our middle school girls’ basketball team. Yikes! I don’t know if my dad is going to be proud or very, very afraid for the world of basketball. As for me, I just think it means the world is a little topsy-turvy.

I’m excited, though, to try this new area of ministry. The girls are all very sweet. One of the great benefits is that I’m getting to spend time with some of the students who have moved on from elementary. I miss them when they head upstairs to the middle school!

The other really exciting part is that I get to spend some extra time with my dear friend Anne who is leaving at the end of this year to head back to the States. She is the head coach, and it’s out of love for her that I agreed to take on this little challenge.

Please feel free to pray for all of us. 🙂

Croatia

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My friend Sally and I went to Croatia for two days for a little relaxation before we head stateside to visit family and friends and, of course, to work on raising more support. What a beautiful country! We stayed at a great place called Hiža Suzanna. The owners are Nigel and Sue. They are amazing!

Because this was a last minute idea, we didn’t spend a lot of time researching where we were going. So, of course, we arrived late Sunday night to discover that Monday was a national holiday and everything would be closed. This wasn’t a problem though because Nigel went to the neighbors and gathered up food for us. We ate homemade sunflower seed bread, homemade cheese, cucumbers, plums, and dried prosciutto. It was yummy, and we got to have a real Croatian culinary experience.

Our goal in Croatia was to relax on the beach and recharge. Mission accomplished. Nigel directed us to a great beach and lent us snorkels and masks. We saw anemones, urchins, crabs, fish, and sea cucumbers. Fun!

If you ever decide to go to Croatia, I recommend staying with Nigel and Sue at Istra Život. Tell them Sally and I sent you. 🙂