A baby shower for Olena

Our dear Olena is having a baby soon...April 20 is her due date.  Today we celebrated with her by showering her with gifts and lots of love!

Look at that cute little baby bump!

Goodies for the little one!

Isn't the ducky cute?!  :)

Some of our tasty treats...sherbet punch, cupcakes, and kepta duona!  

Baby food tasting game...Bethany doesn't look too sure about it!

Bethany, Olena, and Krista

Alisha's awesome stork banner!

The ladies who celebrated!

Krista, Elena, Olena, Robin, and Alisha

Orinta, Janell, Leona, Natalija, Julia, Kristen, Allison, Amanda, me, Shari, Ilona, and Gretchen

The littlest attendee...Luka

Alisha and Amanda helped (along with Vaida) plan the shower with me

Beautiful mom-to-be!

Student Life Bowling Fun

For our March Student Life gathering we went bowling.  I've been wanting to go bowling since I came back to LT in June, but haven't been able to go until now.  I was stoked!  I didn't bowl well (an 82 both games), but had a fun time goofing around with my co-workers.  This is such a great group!  

This group is having a good time, wouldn't you say?!  

Josh and that crazy beard!

Lithuanian Lovelies!

Vaida, Andrea, and Egle

Bethany and Amanda

TriS fun!

This semester we have a GREAT TriS group!  They really enjoy one another and us!  We aren't scheduled to meet together again until after spring break, but they really wanted to get together.  Marlene and I compared schedules and found that we both had this evening free, so we had a "bonus TriS" meeting tonight   Just nachos and chatting.  It was a lot of fun to get to know this group a bit better.  They are bright, funny, and a real asset to our LCC community this semester!  

Taylor, Travis, and Caitlyn

me, Krista, Justine, and Marlene

Silliness!

Fun folks!  

Collecting money

One of the differences between here and America is that for baby showers a collection is taken up and the organizers purchase all the baby gifts.  In some ways it is nice because you don't have to make a trip to the store and your small contribution can be combined with others to buy something really nice.  I still miss the fun of picking out a really unique and special gift though.  This week I am helping throw a shower for Olena who works in my department.  Today Amanda and Vaida went door to door in the offices and collected money for the gifts.  It was really funny!

Amanda and Vaida out collecting

Here you can see Amanda's little belly that helped inspire larger donations!  :)

A visit from Estonia!

In the fall I went to a "Women of the Harvest" conference in Estonia.  One of my hopes from that conference was to make some new friends.  I DID!  Two of the gals I met at the conference are missionaries in Estonia and they came to visit me for the weekend!  Mindy and Beth are precious women who love the Lord and are serving Him with their whole hearts.  I so enjoyed the weekend of talking, laughing, taking in the sights of Klaipeda, playing games, and staying up way too late!  

whispering to the mouse in Old Town

Pretty faces

Mindy and Beth

Beth and me

Mindy and me at my favorite spot in Klaipeda

on the bridge going into Old Town 

Friends!

me, Mindy, and Beth

FYS reunion

My FYS class planned a surprise reunion/pizza party last week.  It was fun to spend some time with this group - hearing how their semester is going, what their plans are for spring break, etc.  I certainly do miss talking with them on a regular basis!

Martynas, Elvyra, Olha, Liucija, Laura, me, Artem, Natasha, and Iki

Matas

What's an FYS gathering without at least one crazy photo?!  :)

Faculty/Staff soccer and basketball

Last week we had a special sports night.  The basketball team played against the faculty/staff in a soccer game and the soccer team played against them in a basketball game.  I went over to watch the basketball game.  The faculty/staff team was beaten, but gave it a good try!  

The RDs played in the soccer game

Josh, Alisha, and Amanda

Alisha was excited about the game!

A blurry shot of the basketball game

At halftime there was a shooting contest. I participated in it.  Here I am...moving so quickly that all you can see is a blur!  Sadly, I did not win the contest, but I did have some fun!