postcard anyone?

I am leaving in 4 days and I feel like I am in countdown mode. Nothing going on but waiting at this point. If you would like a postcard from the other side of the world, please send me your address and I will add you to my list! rachelvarney@sbcglobal.net

where I'm headed....

Well, faithful and not so faithful readers, I am about to embark on my next grand adventure. A week from Friday I am leaving for Mariupol, Ukraine to teach English with Friend Speak and, yes, some friends as well. I will be travelling with 3 other girls (from the Ukraine Touch This shirt pics) and we will be there for 14 days. Here's where I'm headed:

I am meeting a group that has already departed for Ukraine and, I'm told, took right at 24 hours to make their journey from the states. WHEW! Long weekend next week! I am looking forward to doing some outreach/mission work as it has been quite a while since I was on a Spring Break campaign back at ACU. My friend Tanya is already there and has had some very encouraging news about readers, etc. so far.

At the end of my time in Ukraine, I will be journeying on with Amy to Italy for 6 days. We will be strolling the streets of Rome and Florence and taking a new little excursion out to Sorrento and Pompei. Here's what I have to look forward to there:

I am so excited to be away and across the pond once more, but I am getting sad to leave my Joey for so long. We talk at least 5 times a day when one of us is out of town and that will be out of the question in Europe. I'll miss him greatly....but how can I pass up an opportunity like this one?

Mural Take 2

This is a photograph and my sketch for the second mural at our school. It is considerably more complicated than the first.

I didn't think I would like this one, but it turned out better than the aquarium! Which do you like best?

More paints...

Don't get mad Jamie, but I've been painting more things that are not your picture of Venice. Sorry!

My principal has been asking me for about 6 months to paint two murals at my school. During school it sounded like too much work, but she agreed to help me with it if we worked on it this summer. Hooray! Unfortunately, she is no help, other than to point out what she wants different, but I do have another teacher friend to shoulder the workload and we surprisinly had a lot of fun today.

We planned yesterday and I got JoAnn's to give us a 20% discount on paint. We rummaged thru the art closet and found supplies, and even a bucket of blue house paint from a couple of years ago. (still good! being a packrat is paying off finally!)

Today we worked for about 4 hours (an hour of which was paint drying time) and ended up with this:

That's Sharon painting the big fish there. She helps me with Art Club and has become a really close friend at work over the past 3 years. Couldn't have done this without her!

Next week we are doing the other pole on the opposite side of the school with a outdoor/park scene. But how could it compare with this cutie?

See how much it brightens the drab hallway? I hate to admit it, but my principal was right...it's a great addition!

A New Addition to the Fam

After one and a half years of marriage, Joe and I have added something important into our lives...my childhood piano! Mom and Dad had put it in storage when I went to college so it has been stored away for about 10 years now. It still sounds beautiful and looks just like I remember it. Dad bought it for me when I was about 7 and began taking piano lessons. I remember the first flowers anyone ever gave me were my daddy sending me roses for my first recital. It was funny when I got up this morning and came around the corner. Yipes! What's that big thing in my living room? Oh yeah, it's my piano! We still need to get it tuned and find that bench with all my music in it. And I need to brush up on chords and notes, but I'm really excited about having it in MY home now.

The road to getting the piano was a bit sticky (the delivery men came 2 days late and I literally waited all day yesterday for them until almost 8pm). And a kink was thrown into my excitement when our garage door decided to pull apart and trap my poor car inside last night. But, in reality, nothing can take away from the joy of this piano. It's like someone just plucked up a piece of my childhood and laid it at my door.