The City called Konstanz

It's just the beginning of Autumn and Konstanz looks absolutely amazing. Michael and I went for a walk today and I took a couple of photos to try and capture this beautiful weather... The gardens are full of roses, the water in the lake is clear and beautiful, people are out and about on their bikes and autumn fashion is hitting the stores, I am so blessed it takes my breath away!

Here again

Well, here we are back in Germany for the 2010/2011 basketball season.

I tried to do the whole blog thing last time but I didn't really stick to it....This time, I hope to do a much better job.

So far we have pretty much settled into our new apartment. We are living in the city of Konstanz this year and I am so loving it! From our sixth floor apartment we can see most of the city and on a good day the Swiss Alps. God is faithful and His blessings just keep on coming!

We still have a few weeks before the season starts but Michael has begun some full on training with the team to make sure they are ready to dominate!!! Or at least stay in this new league!

My plans for the next 6-7 months is to finish my studies and do some research on starting a business. I would like to open a boutique that has all my, and Australian designer dresses. Its just a pipeline thought at the moment but I figure, what better time to do my research and start designing while I am over here in Germany!

If you have any ideas, please let me know! I want to be sure I cater for the people! SO your opinion is important!

Anyways, I'm off to finish some drawings! It feels good to be writing again!

Love and blessings X

A Season in a Season

I know, I know, it has been a long time since my last post and no, I have no excuses. But here I am with lots to say :)
It has been an interesting month or so... I'd say probably a time of growth and development for me personally. So here is the latest on whats been happening at the Lay's...
When we first arrived here in the beautiful land of Germany our expectations were high for me to slip straight into a job on the same army base that Michael was working at. Our thoughts were that we would have a couple of weeks to settle in, unpack and get familiar with our new surroundings, and then jump into work. BUT, things haven't really gone the way we invisioned. Michael has been able to get his old job back and has now landed a new job at the Bank, but for me, working is not as easy. Obviously I'm an Aussie and we Aussie's are called "Local Nationals" which means to work on the base we have to have a German Work Permit. To cut a really long, confusing and frustrating story short, I have figured out how to finally get a Work Permit but now find that no places on the Army base have room for a local national or even employ them. So we are back to square one in some sense.
Through out this time of running back and forth between German offices and the Army Base I started to think a lot about what I 'REALLY' want to do, what my passions are, and what I enjoy and like. I wrote down a bunch of stuff and put it to God, asking him to open doors and show me the direction I need to go in. Michael has been interested in shares and investing so he gave me a dvd and some directions and I tried to learn. After a couple of weeks I still couldn't get my head around it and had to admit to myself...and to Mike, that my strengths are definitely not in this area. SO we kept praying and then God started to open some doors for me.
SO, since then, I have found a school in Australia that has international external students...sounds perfect huh...so....drum roll please.................................... Natasha Lay has applied to study............................FASHION DESIGN!!!! As most of you know, I love fashion, a lot! and I have always had a passion for health and for women to feel beautiful about themselves. This course is a one year course and depending on how I like it I can continue my studies further.
Although our own visions for what we would do when we came to Germany did not come entirely true, God's vision did. And I know that I wouldn't be doing this if I jumped straight into work and kept busy with that.

Im beginning a new season in my new season and I cant wait to see what comes of it :)

Making a country a home

I know it has been a while since my last blog entry, I guess now that we have settled into some form of normality and routine I am trying to figure out what to write exactly. I talked to Michael about it, and he said to write from the heart...so here it goes...

Michael has to wake up at 6am every morning to be at work by 7am. Sometimes I wake up also and ride with him to the Army Base and spend the day there while he works. Once a week I'll do the washing at the loundromat at the Base, and I'll usually workout at the gym, hit the internet cafe or go shopping in the stores there too. It occupies my time and fills up my day instead of staying at home in the house all day.
But whatever my day contains, almost every morning I wake up and think 'I'm a wife'. It's still new to me, it still excites me, it's like an adventure everyday! I wake up next to the coolest guy in the universe, besides the Big JC of course, and pray with him, laugh with him, make breakfast for him, decide on things with him. Marriage has amazed me. It has blown all of my expectations out of the water and I can't imagine life without it now. God is a marvelous designer, and I'm sure glad he designed marriage...and Michael Lay :)
Anyways, enough with the mushy stuff I'm sure your thinking!
The passed few weeks have been pretty full on. With Michael working full time and training 3 nights a week and playing on the weekends we have to be smart with our time, and our quality time together. I did some investigating and found out there are Salsa classes on the Base every Thursday night, one night of the week Michael doesn't have training. SO, last Thursday was our first class and we had a blast!! It was beginners but obviously we smashed everyone else in the class :) hehe. We laughed and learnt to dance together, the perfect date really. So now we have commited our Thursday nights to Salsa dancing. Get ready to be blown away when we come back to Australia.
Last week Michael suggested we get out of the house for the weekend and stay in Konstanz, which is the City Michael plays basketball for. Its about 1.5hours away from our home in Aidlingen. SO we packed our bags Friday afternoon and headed for Konstanz. After Mike finished training on Friday night, the team and their ladies went out for a feast and a dance. It was a good time for the team to bond and for us girlies to meet and dance. On Saturday Mike and I hit the town for some retail therapy, well I did the retail therapy, Michael was just the fabulous husband, climbed the staricase of the biggest church I've ever seen and relaxed at the Bodensee Therme which is a MASSIVE Spa place with heated pools, spa's, sauna's, restaurants, bars and anything else relaxing you can think of! It was amazing to soak in the hot pool for the afternoon and let all the worries of the world float away.
Sunday was another day of relaxation as Michael played a game in the afternoon. So we just chilled at some friends house till 2pm then headed to the stadium. Konstanz played an AMAZING game against Ludwigsberg and Michael kicked some serious butt, winning by 30+ points. Brilliant, the perfect ending to a perfect weekend away. Sunday night we headed home and slept like babies :) I shall have some photos up soon!

20th September 2009

After about a week of shopping for furniture, kitchen wares, bedding, cleaning products and food our apartment is now looking clean and shiny and like two hungry people live here! Michael started training on Tuesday. He trains three nights a week in a city 1.5hrs away, so I make him a snack before he leaves at about 6:15pm and have dinner waiting for him when he gets home which is around midnight. It sounds pretty extreme but this first week hasn’t been too bad as I have has lots to do like put furniture together from IKEA, and clean the apartment as it was pretty dusty when we arrived.
Michael had his first game last night. His team won, even though Mike wasn’t playing his best. He put lotion of before the game so when he started to sweat, his hands got really sticky, making him miss some easy shots. But it was only the first game and they won anyways. The team had some good chemistry so they are on the right path to winning the championship. I met lots of people at the game which was really nice and refreshing, hopefully some new friendships will develop while we’re here.
This afternoon we went to an English speaking Gospel church on the Army base where Michael works. It was so amazing. I have never been to a Gospel church before but it was exactly the same as the Gospel churches you see in the movies ha-ha. During ‘meet and greet’ Michael and I were approached by almost everyone in the church with hugs and welcomes. It was so lovely to be worshipping the same God in another country in a church that genuinely loves Him. Amen! Both Michael and I were praying God would provide us with a church family and He did. So awesome!
So far, we both feel that everything is falling into place. God has eyes upon us, and His hand of protection.

The Lay's First Home

14th September 2009
Marrying the person you love is a beautiful thing, and the beginning of a new chapter in life. Marrying the person you love and moving to a foreign country with them, is a whole new ball game.
After just three weeks of marriage, a perfect wedding day, relaxing honeymoon and a week of packing my life into a suitcase, I find myself on a new couch in our new apartment, in a small town called Aidlingen, between the hills of south Germany.
While Michael is in a town an hour or so away from here picking up our car and getting everything squared away, I have unpacked our suitcases and tried to turn this little apartment into a place we can call home for the next 10 months. Yes, it’s my responsibility now to make a house, or should I say rabbit warren, into a home, our very first home together.
It’s a bazaar feeling, this isn’t my mother’s home, or my father’s home, it’s mine, ours. We have to make our own house rules, who will do what. ‘I’ will get to decide where the furniture goes and if people don’t like it, it doesn’t matter! Because this is the Lay home, and we like to do things differently.
As I’m unpacking and deciding what will go where I have a nervous twitch in my stomach. All I’m thinking is, I hope mum is proud of me and the way I’m making this house a home. I have spent practically my entire life under my mother’s roof. She’s taught me how to clean (clean REALLY good :)), cook, tuck bed sheets in the ‘right’ way, she has taught me so much about home, now it’s up to me to put all my learning into independent practice. Here it goes…