Hannah's Hotshots - Macie & Sara

I decided to do two hotshots today because I have been wanting to spotlight Sara John, yet since she reminds me so much of Macie, I wanted to write about Macie as well.  They are both so strong in their beliefs and in life... tough women.  They both fiercely love their husbands, family, friends, and their God.  They are both ridiculously sweet, but competitiveness oozes from them in certain situations.  They both have a love for people and their stories, and long to understand and to listen and to help.  They are both two women I certainly admire.  

I chose my favorite recent pictures of each.

Macie & Christopher

Sara & Phil

Sara and Phil (how beautiful is her sari??)

Macie (her father, who I adore, is on the left)

Since arriving in Germany, several couples have made us feel extremely at home, one of those being the John's, Sara & Phil. 

Name: Sara McKechnie John

Age: young

Relationship: friend and co-expat

First Impressions: quiet, athletic, competitive

Memories:
- Ninja please
- her running out of the Japanese restaurant laughing
- sledding Zugspitze (she picked it up faster than the rest of us)
- her 'legacy' answer... specifically the part regarding the love for her husband and the love for her Creator
- excitement at her family's castle in Scotland
- her answer to the comedian when she asked what her favorite part of Scotland was... 'my family's castle'... 'ohh, we've got time!'
- her being so understanding with my unknown spiritual status and willingness to do do a Bible study with me
- her baking abilities

Reason she is a Hotshot: I was hoping to find a quote that could adequately describe Sara, but no such luck, so I will say two things: 
1. She is one of those people that when you meet her and talk with her, you realize immediately that there is something different about her.  You cannot put your finger on it, but there is something tough yet compassionate that resonates.
2. She is someone with a strong moral compass, yet completely understanding.  When I said some things awhile back that I wasn't proud of and it recently bit me in the ass, she was the first person I thought of to talk to about it.  I ultimately decided the best thing to do was drop it, but I think that says a lot coming from me who does not easily or frequently talk to anyone other than Billy regarding things that really bother me.


Name: Macie Kennedy Sueuga

Age: approximately one month older than me

Relationship: true friend and sisters

First Impressions: BASKETBALL COMPETITION... and she's tall and left handed like me! (she was like 5'2" in the sixed grade, and I do not think she grew anymore :)

Memories:
- meeting on the bus
- all of her boyfriends
- hermie and bambi
- all-star softball
- JV basketball (Greta giving us horrible nicknames)
- her support of my basketball and sticking up for me
- Charleston
- trying out for middle school volleyball together
- FBC youth group
- basketball camps together (making up lies)
- her always remembering when my father died
- her walking into Bible study and talking about meeting Christopher

Reason she is a Hotshot: A hotshot is someone that I want to highlight because they had been on my heart that week. A hotshot is someone who has left fingerprints on my life after having touched it.  My life, and who I am, is covered in Macie's fingerprints.  She taught me so much, and while we had our ups and downs, I will forever love her and fight for her like the last green m&m in the bowl.   

Holy Social Life

Let's start out with the most important happening in the past week....

BILLY PASSED HIS DRIVER'S TEST!

I am so proud of him.  If you remember my post from before, the driving license tests are absolutely no joke over here, and now we are the proud owners of two German driving licenses. 

Since my 'poor me, I travel all over Europe and get called names by Germans' post, I have not had time to breathe. As mentioned before, we have found the lakes and pools in the area, so we did our best to ensure we were enjoying the rare heat and sunshine in Germany as much as possible. The Freibad West (swimming pool open to public with small fee) in Nuremberg is probably our favorite pool to go to.  Not only can we slide down the waterslide, but they have three levels of diving boards... the highest of which is 10 meters (~32 ft.)!  

The Hernandez's (JP and Andi), who I have referred to before with the newborn baby, returned from an extended stay in the US, so we went over to their place to see Dominic and cook dinner.  That weekend was also the football cookout, and despite the one comment that threw me for a loop, it was a really incredible time.  The food was simply wonderful, and it was great to spend some time with his teammates.  After the cookout we went to a club until the sun came up.  It was a CRAZY NIGHT to say the least.  We missed our bus, and I walked around seven miles to get home...

Kyle's cake and Billy's message at the cookout

My Stellas that one of the players gave me...

The next week we went to a cookout for a friend, Manu, that we have met through our neighbors.  She is a teacher here in Germany.  Per usual, the food was outstanding, and we enjoyed laughing and PFEFFY until the early morning.

Cookout for Manu's Birthday

Sparklers!

That same week, I noticed on Facebook that one of the girls I have become friends with, Kelley, had been posting about a basketball team.  I gave her a call, found out the details, and before I know it I am playing basketball again.  It is a Bavarian team (the German state we live in), so we travel to different towns for away games.  After a couple practices, the coach told me he thought I should move up to the first league.  I decided to go watch a practice, and somehow in the Germglish we were speaking, the first league coach told everyone I was their new teammate.  Whoa Woady!  Did I say that?  I thought I was watching?!  Anyway so I am now on the first league team - definitely not a starter, but if I learn the plays and work hard, I think I can definitely get some good PT.  I will certainly get in shape and improve my skills on this team, but I kind of really wish I was still playing with Kelley though.

In a matter of two weeks, Kelley and I have become pretty good friends.  I offended and insulted her when we first moved here by not showing up to a taco night at her house (I took a nap and didn't wake up) and talking smack about Lynchburg (I didn't realize she was from there); hence the 8 months until we actually started hanging out.  She somehow just makes me really feel myself... although she has that personality where I would imagine that many of the girls her would call her one of their closest friends. 

Kelley is on the left with us at Bergkirchweih

Kelley, Janet, and I at Bergkirchweih

With Siemens, Adidas, and Areva all in the greater Nuremberg area, there are many, many expatriates.  Way before we arrived, several social groups (HenHaus, International Women's Group) had been established for the accompanying wives since the transition typically tends to be more difficult for that person.  However these groups tend to be more geared towards women with children over 30.  Since we have been here, a few of the younger women took the initiative to form a group aimed to satisfy the social needs of some of the younger women without children, thus ChicHaus.  They schedule a dinner, happy hour, 'explore Germany', book club meeting, and more each month.  Anyway, I attended my first ChicHaus event to an art gallery last week with Kelley.  I cannot even begin to explain the shenanigans that transpired.  Regardless, it was pretty darn fun in my opinion! 

The End

This past weekend, still not having fully recovered from the art gallery, we went to Bamberg to see the Bamberg Bears play and we went to Brooke Forth's 30th birthday.  Sara made the cute little hats... why can't I come up with ideas like that?!?!?

Brooke's Birthday

TeKILLya

Sunday we went into Nuremberg to spend the afternoon grilling and watching football with some of the girls I met at the art gallery.  This week I continued with my basketball practices, and I cannot really feel my body.  I also went to a bible study at Sara's house... we are doing one of the Beth Moore studies, Breaking Free.  I am excited to spend meaningful time with Sara, Brooke, and Kelley, as well as focus on something deeper than reality TV.

My weeks are all work and basketball and ChicHaus events from 6:30am until 10:30pm... much better than work, ride home, stream American TV shows... but I need some time alone with my B now.  I haven't even had time to celebrate his driving test with him!

And no worries... lil Goose is still doing just fine...

My sweet, sweet boy