Friday was hole-digging day. Brad had decided that Sunday was going to have baptisms for some of the soldiers, and it was going to be a field baptism. That means, we went out and dug a hole in his back yard big enough to dunk people in. During the digging process (and by we I mean Mac and Will, with myself as supervisor, photographer, and coffee-fetcher. When I offered to be on digging detail, I was told that I could go play with my little sandcastle set. Brad has his picture here digging, but he only turned up the tip of
a shovel-full for the sake of a photograph), it snowed, and hailed, and sleeted, and the sun shone. O spring weather in Germany, how strange thou art. In German there's a saying, "April, April, er weiss nicht was er will," (April, April, he doesn't know what he wants) and it's sooo true. The weather is crazy!! Anyways, as they started, the guys were like, "It's been raining so much the ground is nice and wet, this should be no problem, as long as there aren't really many rocks." A few shovel-fulls later, they discovered the boulders. We were out there for 4 hours before it was finished. I got sick. :(
Saturday was Easter-preparation day, but included a hike to the castle. Much of the day was spent cleaning and cooking and getting ready for the next day's invasion. I made a potato salad, the recipe of which I must remember to brink home with me. Mmmm-mmmm. Yummy! One of the hams was cooked, and a bunch of other stuff prepared. We did take a nice hike up to Brad's castle, and I got to sing. Gordon even sang with me, which always makes things more fun. There were snowball fights on the way, and another once we actually got to the castle. Jonathan and I ran and locked ourselves (literally) into the castle to get away from the onslaught. Mac had to use his 'key' and free us again. That night we watched Ben-Hur, and I managed to stay awake for the whole movie!Sunday morning, snow had fallen, but I was determined to still where my little Easter dress, and 
I did. People looked at me like I was crazy, but that's okay. I was determined. The service was good, and when we came home there was a mild frenzy of getting ready, and then sort of a calm before the storm spent playing Left Right Center and the piano. There were over 50 people for our Easter meal. Tables and chairs upstairs and down, tons of food (about 40 lbs of ham and a turkey and tons of potatoes and deviled eggs and so much more), people on couches and oustide and everywhere. After lunch, we sang some songs and then went outside for our field baptism. 
We'd filled the hole up with hot water from the downstairs shower so that the poor soldiers wouldn't freeze to death, and the sun had come out and melted the remains of the snow. Five soldiers were baptized, and wrapped warmly in towels as soon as they got out. Next came an Easter Egg Hunt for the little kids (of which there were many!) and I got to be Chief Easter Egg Hider (woo-hoo!). Once that was over people started trickling home, and when they'd left, there were still almost 20 people staying here. Having 50+ people over makes a house a mess, so we set to work doing a basic cleaning before watching our movie and then saying our goodnights.
I did. People looked at me like I was crazy, but that's okay. I was determined. The service was good, and when we came home there was a mild frenzy of getting ready, and then sort of a calm before the storm spent playing Left Right Center and the piano. There were over 50 people for our Easter meal. Tables and chairs upstairs and down, tons of food (about 40 lbs of ham and a turkey and tons of potatoes and deviled eggs and so much more), people on couches and oustide and everywhere. After lunch, we sang some songs and then went outside for our field baptism. 
We'd filled the hole up with hot water from the downstairs shower so that the poor soldiers wouldn't freeze to death, and the sun had come out and melted the remains of the snow. Five soldiers were baptized, and wrapped warmly in towels as soon as they got out. Next came an Easter Egg Hunt for the little kids (of which there were many!) and I got to be Chief Easter Egg Hider (woo-hoo!). Once that was over people started trickling home, and when they'd left, there were still almost 20 people staying here. Having 50+ people over makes a house a mess, so we set to work doing a basic cleaning before watching our movie and then saying our goodnights.
Today was re-clean-up day, with a thorough scrubbing of the house from top to bottom, helpful since there were still 12 of us. All the beds full, plus people sleeping on couches! Incredible. After clean-up and some down time, some of us took another hike to the castle. Then came dinner, and the soldiers were back off to post. Most of them have four-day weekends coming up again, and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again soon. The house seems so empty once they're gone, especially after such a full weekend as this one was!
Sorry for the long read, folks, it was a long, fun, and busy weekend! And I'll be home in 2 weeks!!!
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