the girls having funs










Callie and me

thanks kristal for the sweet braclet!

Yeh, I'm a Brewers fan, and for the first time that I can ever remember, they are in first place. Wow!

IBL (Israel Baseball League)

The Israel Baseball League is the professional baseball league of Israel. In the IBL’s inaugural season, there will be six teams -- The Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, The Modi’in Miracle, The Netanya Tigers, The Petach Tikva Pioneers, The Ra'anana Express, and The Tel Aviv Lightning. Among the managers of the IBL’s teams are former Major League stars Art Shamsky, Ken Holtzman, and Ron Blomberg.

The IBL has quickly established itself as a League-of-Choice for the premier international baseball player. Already signed for its inaugural season are players from the United States, Canada, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Europe, and, of course, Israel. Players from additional countries are expected to be added over the coming months. The players signed all have significant baseball pedigrees, being alums from the Minor Leagues, national teams, college varsity teams, and other major baseball programs.

Opening Day for its premier season has been pegged to take place at Yarkon Sports Complex in the Baptist Village of Petach Tikva on June 24, 2007. The six teams each will play a 45-game schedule, augmented by a mid-season All-Star Game and a season-ending Championship Game.

CHECK OUT THESE LINKS...

http://israelbaseballleague.com/main/

http://www.israelbaseballleague.com/news/pressreleases/index.html?article_id=42

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1182409631210&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

IBL (Israel Baseball League)

opening pitch...










the teams...

friends enjoying opening day!

batting cage...

the game

the dugout...

Signing autographs...

The kids had a great time on opening night! They were getting all the autographs they could get. The players were more than just ball players on this night. They stand for something. These professional players are what every little boy dreams of being!

Laura, Katie, and me

beautiful, uh?

Out in this open space, there is a pocket of natural springs hidden.

God seems to have hidden a little piece of glory out here.






These purple flower-thistle looking plants are called Russian thistles. Pretty cool lookin'!

Gan HaShloshan

Yofi! Yofi! Beautiful, uh? This place is a natural spring in the middle of nowhere. It's like Gd hid these little pockets of beauty out here. I love it!

bad English, lol...

I'm glad they are keeping the rocks from jumping! We don't want rocks just jumping around all over the place, now do we?

my little girls...

I've been helping coach the junior girls.

They are my favorte! Aren't they cute?

softball friends...

soccer friends...

I've been hangin' out with some soccer friends.
I forgot how much fun soccer is! It's a lot of running, but I love it.
We are playing on a basketball court, so it's kind of like indoor soccer. I usually play about once a week.......good times!

Galilee

The Sea of Galilee at Sunset

Yofi, yofi...this means beautiful in Hebrw. It looks like I was just pasted on the picture, but I was really there.

The Sea of Galilee

As we were driving around the Sea of Galilee, I began to wonder when Jss was here. So I opened to the Gospels and began to search for the "Sea of Galilee". I soon realized that every time the "sea" is mentioned in the Gospels, it is refering to the Sea of Galilee. Wow! I never realized that. Jss walked on water, calmed the sea, called Peter and Andrew to follow Him, etc and so much more. It's not that big either! It's about the size of a lake. So Jss's teachings and miracles all happened in such a small area, right here!

Watch Out!

Watch out for land mines, yikes! I don't really know what they are for. I guess security, uh.

On the way to the Galilee

A friend, a sister, a teammate....

Friends...

Loquat Tree?

Have you ever seen a loquat tree, or ever heard of the fruit, loquat? Well, I hadn't until now. They are so good! It's kind of mix between a mango and a peach.

The loquat is indigenous to southeastern China. It was introduced into Japan and became naturalized there in very early times. And some how they got to this country, I don't know.

They are really expensive to buy in the store, but they grow right where I live, so we can eat them anytime we want.

Ol' Rex

My new running partner!

the beach!

the Mediterranean is so blue, and it's only a 30 minute drive!

Max Brenner

Ok, are you ready for this? This is a new Chocolate Restuarant. One just opened in NYC, but there has been one here for awhile. It's pretty much my favorite restuarant now! The menu has like 10 pages of all chocolate items, from drinks to deserts. And there is only one page of real food. Ok, so you have to check out this website. This dude, Max Brenner, is brilliant!
http://www.maxbrenner.com/

good times

a new softball friend, who I'll call LB. she introduced me to this glorious place.

mmm!

a friend enjoying a nummy strawberry white chocolate shake. that's right, white chocolate!

chocolate soup!!!???

Have you ever heard of such a thing? Chocolate soup!!! Wow, this is craziness!




It's full of marsh-mellows, chocolate chunks, and straw-berries. Does it get any better than this?

more chocolate

the station wagon

so this is my car for the time I am here, and praise the Father that they have provided a car for me.

pretty purple tree

right now the streets are lined with these trees...

The Dead Sea

Ok, who knew that there were palm trees in this country. I had no idea!

Wow, the Dead Sea is so salty! You just can't imagine how salty it is until you taste it. I about gagged, blah!!! And a little FYI for those of you who may go someday, don't get any of that water near your eyes. Ouch, it burns!!! Lol, from experience!

But it's so fun to swim in. You just float, and even you tried you coudn't sink yourself. We had a great time!

The Lowest Place on Earth

We are on our way to the Dead Sea, so hang on!