It's time for da Caymans mon!

 In 12 hours we will be on our way to Chicago to get on a plane to go to the CAYMAN ISLANDS! I am all packed up and ready to go...I hope. At 4:00am, my parents will drive the Nelsons, Meghan, Rianne and me to O'Hare. There we board a plane to Miami to get a flight to the Caymans. I am so excited...my hips have clenched! I'll try to keep this updated with some pics while we're there. Catch you cats on the flipflop lata!

snorkel anyone?

Vuvuzela!

Last night was one the funnest nights EVA! My family, Rami, Jason, Aaron, and Carrie all went to an Admirals game last night. And they gave out vuvuzelas!! Our group had to be the most obnoxious group there. It was the bomb. The other awesome part of the night was that we were one of them fancy V.I.P. boxes. I guess you could say that my dad has some sweet connections. Oh, and the fact that we were in a box was made known to everyone within earshot to hear Jason yell, "I'm in a box!"

Before the game started, Rami, Carrie, Rianne and I walked around the entire arena blowing the vuvuzelas. Obnoxious? Yes. Incredibly fun and worth the tingling of the lips for the rest of the night? YES! The great thing about these pretty cheap vuvuzelas is that they leave this very attractive red ring around the top of the upper lip. Said ring was still there this morning, along with a little swolleness...still worth it though! The noise never gets old. Of course the Admirals lost, but it was made up by the amazing time spent with my family and second family. 

I had the wonderful pleasure of driving the car with Aaron, Carrie, and Rianne in it. Those three + vuvuzelas = an incredible distraction to the driver! Fortunately, we made it home to live to see another great adventure. Like perhaps...the CAYMAN ISLANDS in 3 days!


~Katie~

Milwaukee Tourism

First off, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know my family sure did!

Matt the amazing tour guide

One cool thing about having a guest from out of town, in this case out of the country, is that we get to do touristy stuff in Milwaukee. Yesterday we took a trip out to the Sprecher brewery. I learned two new things about our native beer/soda company. The first, is that they are in fact native to Milwaukee. Yes, that probably is something that I should have known already. Don't judge. The second, is that they actually brew beer! I had no idea. They actually started out as a beer brewery, then added soda a couple years later. I guess you learn somethin new every day! After a quick tour by an amazing tour guide, Matt a.k.a Dwight Schrute, we got to sample their stuff. No, I did not have any beer. Don't have a cow. But their root beer was delish!

Sample time!

Bill, dad, Duchene and 3 goofs in the back

 Today we went to The Domes. For those non-locals, they are three domes filled with flowers. Sounds fascinating, doesn't it? Well it is! One dome is tropical, one is desert, and the other is the "Show Dome". The contents of said dome are seasonal. Right now it's all Christmasy. It was a nice relaxing time of walking and lots of pictures. Tomorrow night is the much anticipated Admirals game!

Me and my momma

They obviously did not want me to sit with them. Anna and Emma so rudely pushed me off!

~Katie~

Good times in the hood...or house

Yesterday we celebrated Anna and Emma's 9th birthday! I still cannot believe that they are this old already. It seems just like yesterday that we brought them home to be with us. God has been so good!

 We spent the afternoon making Christmas cookies. Well, there goes my diet...but it sure is worth it. I am really grateful that we got to share this tradition with Duchene. He seemed to be having a good time. This was also the first year that my dad got to be home while we were making the cookies. It made it that much more special.

Later that night, it was time to go out for their birthday dinner. We have a tradition where the birthday girl (or girls) get to choose the place for dinner, keeping it a secret from the rest of the kids. Then everyone has to close their eyes on the way to dinner. The car ride is full of guesses and sometimes complaining that it's pointless to close eyes because we all know where we are know...but that rarely happens. ;) We got to Stonefire Pizza only to find that it was closed for the night. Fortunately, Anna and Emma had a backup. On to Dave & Busters we went.

When we got home, we did the ol' cake and ice cream, then presents. I know that they're growing up because my parents got them Nintendo DS's. Scary! Usually the birthday kid gets to choose a movie to watch, but seeing as how it was already midnight when we were done, we decided to wait on that. I'm pretty sure they want to watch the first Narnia. They're hooked after seeing Dawn Treader.

Happy birthday Anna and Emma!

 
Showing hope -
 ~Katie~

Success

I just finished playing the piano at the Majestic...success! The day was spent with butterflies in my stomach, and worrying about what I was going to wear. As I said before, I couldn't wear jeans, t-shirt, or tennis shoes. Anyone who knows me know that this pretty much makes up my wardrobe! Fortunately I have the best "little" sister in the world. She pulled a dress out of our closet that I totally forgot about. Go figure. Because it was black, I got to wear my awesome purple heels with it. Yay!

The best part of the night was making $10 in tips (I'll up it next time!) and four movie passes. And I guess it was nice to see Abby, my best friend whom I NEVER SEE ANY MORE! But whatever. I'm not upset. I'm just angry. ;-) No really, it was really sweet that she took the time to come and see me play. While I was playing the piano, the rest of the family and Duchene went to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Anna and Emma really liked Caspian! True Hardin girls.

Anna, Emma, Rianne, Venera, dad, me, Duchene, mom, Bill

Needless to say, I am going to play there again. I kind of got a feel for what songs will get people's attention and what songs are kind of duds. Just a couple adjustments to my set list and I should be able to up my tippage!

Showing hope -
 ~Katie~

Shh! It's a secret...

I have a secret...but you're never going to know...OK, maybe you are. That's probably why I'm telling you that I have a secret. Are you ready for this? Maybe I won't tell you. I mean, it's a HUGE secret! You probably can't handle the truth, so I'll just go...

Fine! Here it is...

I

am

addicted

to....

SHOES!

 

Yeah, that's probably not as exciting as I hyped it up to be. But there is no denying the fact that I LOVE shoes! It's getting to the point where my family has threatened to get me professional help. Well, maybe not, but you get it. It's a sickness. This picture doesn't do my collection justice. I still have boots, golf shoes, soccer shoes, running shoes (these make me wonder), volleyball shoes, etc. My prize shoes are the orange Pumas and the purple Graceland heels from Germany.

I'm glad I finally got that off my chest. There is another secret, but I KNOW that you are not ready for that. Not yet....

 Stay tuned.

Christmas Time Is Here

After procrastinating long enough, I finally got all of my Christmas shopping done! And I did it all in less than an hour. Yay me! Speaking of procrastinating, I am going to be playing the piano at the Majestic movie theater on Friday night (8-10) and I have yet to pick out all of my songs. I have a a basic idea, but I still have a lot to figure out. Oh, and I also have to wear something nice, ie; no jeans, t-shirts, or tennis shoes. I'll have to do some diggin' in my closet! This will be my first time doing something like this, and I am not a fan of being the center of attention, so please pray for me. I'm just a little nervous!

OK, on to more seriousness. I believe that this is going to be one of the best Christmas's ever. We get to share God's gift of His Son with Duchene. I don't know how much of it he is going to understand, but I pray that he will take at least a little something back to Haiti with him. 

Well, I better end this before I piddle in my pants. Love you all!

Showing hope -
 ~Katie~

Fútbol and Coke

Fútbol and Coke is the best way to describe today. I spent a couple hours watching fútbol with Duchene, while he drank about five cans of Coke today. He sure loves his sugar and caffeine! While watching a couple games, Bill and I discovered that his favorite player is Ronaldinho. Duchene told us that he used to play a lot of soccer, er, I mean fútbol, back in Haiti, but he had to stop when he got the tumor in his jaw. The sad thing is that he most likely will not be able to play any more because his jaw is so fragile. At least for quite a while anyways. 

After a couple hours of the tele, I decided I needed a little bit of our fresh 1° weather and set up our Christmas lights with my mom. Yeah it's the 14th, but better late than never! We now have the best light display in our court, if I do say so myself. Once that task was completed, I took Anna and Emma to the store to get my mom a birthday card and some purty flowers...happy birthday mom! Then we got to eat at my mom's favorite restaurant: The Cheesecake Factory. YUM. All in all, it was a pretty fantastical day!


Showing hope - 
 ~Katie~

Duchenne...who is he?

Last night my family got to meet Duchenne. He is such a wonderful person...and he has really cool hair! For however long he is going to be here, I have two goals. 1) To find out tons about him so that I am sad when he leaves. 2) Help him with his English. The second goal is kind of a work in progress and it is going to be a team effort. He told us last night that his English is not very good, but with time here it will get better.

Because of the nature of his surgery, he does not have any bottom teeth so he cannot chew food. Therefore, we had an interesting request: pureed pizza. Lo and behold, the restaurant was able to do it. That was a first, both for them and for us. Along with this, we are finding out a lot of his likes and dislikes. For instance, he loves Bob Marley! Oh, and vanilla ice cream, not chocolate (YES!). He likes strawberries, cheesecake, milkshakes, and coffee. But the coffee has to be very sweet; like seven sugars sweet. He is 28, plays the bass, and I believe he is going to school for accounting. I will have to clarify that though.

I can't think of any more yet, but that's only from the first night! Things are going great so far! Please keep the prayers goin. Much obliged. :)

Showing hope -
~Katie~

Adventure time!

Speaking of adventures (see previous post), my family is about to embark on one right now! One of my dad's patients is going to be staying in our house for a little while. It might end up being a couple weeks. The cool thing is that he is from Haiti! I know absolutely nothing about him other than he just had a tumor removed and that his name is Duchenne. We are all super excited! I'm sure that God is going to bless this time, both for us and for Duchenne. Tonight we are going out to dinner with him. This is going to be fun! I don't know where he stands with the Lord, so please be praying that we could be a help to him. Here we go!


Showing hope -
~Katie~

I'm back!

...and I can't believe it's been over a year since I've been on here! I've had a few adventures over this past year, some not so good, but for the most part they have been the best times of my life! Let's see if I can do a quick recap of my life since I got back from China. Here goes...

Almost the minute I got home from China, I had a new job at a little hockey store called, well, Hockey Haven. My time there ended in April, due to some issues with a co-worker. The choice was entirely mine to leave though and I'm still friends with everyone there. I know God had me there for a reason. Through my employment there, I developed a good friendship with my manager. I've been able to share my faith with him a little bit. I can see the wheels turning in his head, but it's all in God's hands.

From the friendships that I formed there, I've gotten connected to a bunch of different hockey leagues. This has enabled me to start playing a lot more hockey, which has made me really happy. The womens team that I play for sometimes, Brew City Blades, has officially put me on their roster for this season as a sub. It feels really great to be part of a team again. I pray that God can use me as His light to these women. As far as I know, I'm the only believer on the team. It's always exciting to see what God will do in these situations!

Another adventure that I started last October is Taekwondo. Never thought I would be doing it, but boy am I glad that I am! My sisters and I have made some really great friends here and we're having a great time. Rianne and I are now blue belts, and Anna and Emma are purple belts. Rianne and I have had the awesome opportunity to witness to one of our friends there. God is definitely working in his heart! I'm excited to see what else God has in store for David.

This picture is from our first belt graduation in the beginning of this year.

2010 kicked off with the biggest adventure of all. Rianne and I had the opportunity to visit Stephanie (a friend from the China trip) in Germany!! What a trip! We had the privilege of sharing this trip with our good friend Karmen, another China buddy. January 28th-February 8th consisted of us traipsing around Germany, France, and Austria. We had the time of our lives! Here's a couple pictures to some the trip up:

The four of us at The Louvre

Notre Dame

Chillin' in the Alps

Neuschwanstein Castle

This is getting a little lengthy, so I'll just try to sum everything up real quick: my brother graduated college in May with a bachelor in sport management from Liberty University. Oh, and he graduated summa cum laude. Very proud of him! My sister-in-law is expecting a girl in about two weeks now. It's going to be a crazy month! I spent my summer working at Willow Run Golf Club again. That marked my third summer there. Of course I did the traditional Lifest with the Froncek's and Kendrick, who is now my best friend's FIANCE! crazy. We're growing up. I guess that pretty much brings us to now.

Right now, I'm patiently (ha!) waiting for God's direction in my life. As I wait, I have another little adventure coming up with my sister...the Cayman Islands! My friend Carrie invited us to go with her family in the first week of January. So freaking excited! 18 more days and we'll be on our way...


Showing hope -
~Katie~