Funeral and Fun

We got to Marietta on Tuesday late afternoon and settled in at my Dad's house where we are staying for the two weeks that we are in the U.S.

Glenn couldn't remember how to tie his tie! NO joke!

Visitation was on Wednesday from 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm at Mayes Ward Funeral Home, just across the street from Marietta First Baptist Church where the funeral was held the next day. We both had left some clothes here just in case but as it turned out, I had lost some weight since we left in December and the suit that I had planned to wear was too big! So, early on Wednesday morning shortly after the stores opened, I had to run find something to wear for the funeral!!!

The Borders had set up lots of pictures of Bill around the room and Beth did this great display of the 7 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

It was a nice walk down Memory Lane for the Borders.

I loved the picture of the 4 girls on the right hand side of the photo. This is of Sarah, Kate, Kari and Mallory, all 4 of them sporting their pierced noses! Mallory told me that once she saw Kari had her nose pierced, she wanted hers pierced too!

The Borders had placed candy dishes full of Starlight peppermints on every table in the visitation room in memory of Bill's sugar habit. Peppermints were his all-time favorite candy. I think he went from cigarettes to candy...

I loved this picture of Bill and Marguerites' 3 children: Darden, Carolyn and Glenn (left to right)

And here they are today, again left to right, Darden, Carolyn and Glenn.

The flowers were beautiful and Glenn and I were extremely touched by those that were sent for us. This one was sent by Mary and Alvin, our co-workers there in Budapest, and their son and his wife, also with our company. I couldn't bring any of the flowers back with me as a memento but I am bringing back the ceramic angel that adorned the basket of mixed plants.

This basket was sent by other member care co-workers who work with the NAME Affinity, Jerry and Kathy, Dave and Yvonne, and Dave and Sara. I would have loved to be able to keep the baskets that were given by our friends, especially the fern out of this one, but alas...I can't take live plants out of the country.

This one was sent by the company for which we work! We sure were surprised to see the card from the IMB. We also got sympathy cards from Dr. Eliff and Dr. Fort, which we certainly didn't expect!

And after the funeral, we've been doing a lot of this! Well, Marguerite and I have. Glenn has gone over most days and helped his mother go through tons of paperwork, Bill's clothes, her "office" and just run errands either with her or for her.

After Bill's funeral was over, we went over to Ed's house, our next door neighbor on Big Oaks Drive. If you recall, his lovely wife and our good friend, Jo, passed away in April. Glenn and I went with Ed to where she was buried and laid flowers on her gravesite. She is buried next to her first husband to whom she was married 40 years (I think that is correct). She was married to Ed for 20! She was an amazing lady and I will miss her dearly.

While Glenn has been over at his mother's house most days, I have been spending some time with my own family. My dad and I have gone to Wal-mart a few times. With the price of gas these days, we can't afford to go too many places!!!!

My sister, Karin, came into town and did some major shopping together (she went with me on the most dreaded shopping trips of all...to look for a bathing suit and summer shoes! BUT, we were successful!!!) One day my Dad took us to Sam's (because he has a Sam's card, and I don't) because I have a few things I wanted to buy from there to take back to BP. I sprung for lunch at Sam's! They have the best pizza!

On Thursday evening, we drove 2 hours north to meet Kate and Chris for a quick dinner. They are traveling through Tennessee visiting their old friends and then going on to North Carolina for a couple of days before coming to Marietta for a baby shower hosted jointly by my other sister, Elizabeth, and our nephews' wife, Beth. Unfortunately, we will already be back in BP before they come to Marietta for the baby shower...so we decided to drive half-way to meet them for 2 hours.

There are only 2 places to eat in Benton, Tennessee. Sonic and a diner and since Chris's favorite fast food place is Sonic, we ate there. Wow! Aren't Glenn and I big spenders!?!

Glenn's mom went with us and Kate took the picture of our 3 generations.

The next evening we met one of Glenn's old-time friends from his childhood, Brant, and his wife Peggy for dinner at Pasta Bella. We split a meal so we could order dessert. Pasta Bella has the most incredible desserts and, believe it or not, the desserts were so huge we brought half of it home for another day.

Peggy put her hand beside the cake slice so you could get a good perspective on the size of the pieces! Honestly, one slice is plenty for 4 people to share, especially after eating the huge dinner portions they serve!

Well, starting tomorrow, I will be cutting back on what I eat!

We return to BP on Tuesday evening so my next update might be a mix of U.S. and BP pictures. Have a great Memorial Day holiday!

Headed Home!

Glenn has been in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan for the past 8 days. While he was gone, I had a list of "projects" that I wanted to complete, such as get caught up on emails, do a little sewing, do an inventory on the school books in my basement, and the list goes on and on. Additionally, I wanted to do lots of cooking and baking because the day Glenn was to return, 4 couples would also start arriving in Budapest for the Member Care Team meeting that Glenn and I were hosting. They were going to stay at the Eden House up the street, but eat most of their meals here at our house where the meetings were going to be held.

Of my projects, I was able to get pretty much caught up with my work emails (but not my personal ones) but that was about it. I did spend 3 days in the kitchen preparing tons of food! I made 14 quarts of homemade ice cream using my new ice cream maker from Anne Quillen. I'm not sure which is my favorite: vanilla, mint chocolate chip, Snickers, or the fruit sherbet!

I also cut up red, green and yellow peppers to put in the freezer to have on hand for meals I'd planned. One quart-size baggie was full of pepper strips and another baggie was full of diced peppers. A third baggie was full of peppers, onions and mushrooms that I sauteed and froze for later in the week for omelettes. I baked (yes, in the oven) 4 packages of bacon to have in the fridge for several breakfast meals and BLT'. I baked a cake, grated 3 lbs. of cheese, made a crock pot of chili for the freezer to serve late in the week, and boiled, deboned and chopped 12 pieces of chicken for a casserole and chicken salad sandwiches. All of this, I made in advance and stuck in my deep freezer. It was full to the brim!

I also ran to Judit's house to pick up the duvet cover she made for me (she's a seamstress) to go with the bed skirt and pillows she'd made earlier this month. I am redoing the guest room and am having so much fun with all the gorgeous fabric I bought while we were in the U.S. from September through January! I wanted the room to be finished in case one of the couples ended up staying with us instead of at the Eden House.

I went grocery shopping for all the staples I needed to have on hand for meals (breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack) for that many people. You know, sugar, coffee, fresh fruit, milk, soft drinks, and don't forget the uber necessary toilet paper. I couldn't decide which brand to buy! This Ooops! brand is new here, and though I don't think the person who came up with the brand name is a native English speaker with a true understanding of what Ooops! means, I did go on and buy it just for the fun of it!

While I was pouring over the various brands of toilet paper, I was trying to decide, "Do I buy the 3-, 4-, or 5 ply paper? Do I buy it in orange, pink, blue or white? Do I need a 4 pack, 8 pack or 16 pack?" Decisions, decisions, decisions. In the end, I chose NOT to buy this brand called Selfness because what does Selfness mean, anyway? Obviously, another NON-native English speaker who is responsible for naming things!

While Glenn was gone and I was trying to do everything to get ready for all the folks, I also had to keep the yard cut, watered, dead flower heads pulled off and weeds dug up. I was sooooo hoping these flowers would wait to bloom a week later, just in time for our meeting, but they decided not to listen to my pleas! Aren't they gorgeous?

I had so much fun doing all this prep work but alas, the meeting was cancelled. We got word on Sunday morning that Glenn's father, Bill Borders, had passed away peacefully in his sleep earlier that day.

We called him Pa. He was a wonderful man and a terrific father. A quiet servant who never sought the spotlight. Glenn rescheduled his flight to come back to Budapest a day earlier (he arrived on Monday instead of Tuesday), and we are headed out on a 6:15 am flight tomorrow (Tuesday) for the U.S. We will be there for two weeks, staying with my father but spending much of the time over at the Borders' house. The funeral is Thursday. Pray for Glenn's mom. Not only is she emotionally sick, grieving the loss of her longest and dearest friend, she is also not feeling well physically.

So...all that food that I prepared is just going to sit in the freezer while we're gone and then Glenn and I will be able to enjoy all that ice cream when we get back!

Catch you next week, from America.

Fishing with feet!

It's been a busy week with Annette here. Once she started feeling up to it, I enlisted her help in a few projects around the house. :-)

We did the great clothes "Swap Out" that I have to do twice a year. European houses don't have closets so we have to use armoire's to hold our clothes. Glenn stores his clothes in the office and attic (out-of-season clothes) and I store mine in the armoire in the bedroom and in the basement (out-of-season clothes). It's a major ordeal to bring my out-of-season clothes up from the basement and not something I enjoy doing by myself.

Well, this time I had a ton of clothes to swap out because of my sister's generosity and our recent time in the U.S.. Last September when we were home was the first time in four years that I've been in the States during warm weather so the summer clothes I'd brought out with me in January of 2007 were looking pretty ragged. Karin bought me a lot of summer clothes and I bought a lot of summer clothes so between the two of us, I think I'm set for the next four years! I now own 25 paris of capris and 15 pairs of shorts (knee-length, of course). No joking or "ministerially speaking" either! I counted them! Karin lost weight two years ago and saved her pants for me so I now have 30 pairs of pants, about half of which need to be hemmed. (Karin is 3-4 inches taller than me.) I'm set for the next couple of years, for sure! Now, I just need to stay this same size!

Last week I told you about May 4th being our neighborhood dump day. It was pretty rough and ugly in front of our house for the past week. The Gypsies have been camping on the lot in their vehicle (the white vehicle on the other side of the dumpster) every night and hanging around every day to make sure they get to dig through the discarded stuff first.

Early on the 4th, and I mean EARLY, like 7 am, the city workers were outside with their noisy trucks to haul off everything the Gypsies left behind. Again, EARLY on the morning of the 5th, Glenn was watching the city workers cleaning up the bits and pieces that were left behind and raking the area clean.

And believe it or not, this is where the pile of junk was located...and see how clean the area is! They always do such a great job of cleaning up after dump day!

We love Mexican food! We get together for Bible study on Thursdays with the Doyles, Snyders and Clubbs so since Thursday was Cinqo de Mayo (May 5th), we decided that everyone would bring a Mexican dish to share.

What a spread! Another project that Annette (purple shirt) and I were going do while she was in town was to make a pinata to use as decoration at our Mexican meal but we never got it made. The only thing we got done on that project was to buy the bag of candy! :-(

On Friday, before Annette returned to London, she decided to treat us to a pedicure and foot massage in town. We had an 8:00 am reservation (the only reservations available when you wait until the day before to call!) for the two of us at the A-List Spa and Salon which is just a couple of blocks from Moscow Square (Moszkva Ter). When we got off the tram, I saw a wonderful sight! The second ARRIBA restaurant has opened right around the corner from where we go for medical care! So convenient! Arriba is similar to a Moe's or Chipotle, a Mexican "fast food" place two notches up from Taco Bell.

(Okay, the next 3 pictures are a little graphic...so if you've got a weak stomach or don't like looking at feet, you might want to skip the next 3 pictures.)

Our pedicure started off with the latest thing in pedicures...putting our feet into an aquarium filled with tiny fish that eat dead skin. It felt weird to have these fish nibbling at my feet! (It looked like I had leaches all over my feet.) We sat like this for 20 minutes while the fish ate and ate and ate!

Then after a little more work on our feet, they gave us the best 20 minute foot massage! Ahhh!

Then they gave us a nice couple of layers of toe polish. I got Racy Red! Unfortunately, the weather here is still too cool to wear sandals that show off my beautifully pedicured toes. It was a great ending to a wonderful 10 days with Annette and I hated to send her back to London! We had a great time and I'm hoping she'll come again!

Now it is back to the real world. Glenn heads out tomorrow for two new countries in Central Asia to meet some of our leaders and personnel in that part of the world. Since CA now falls under his leadership, he needs to learn more about what it is like to live and work there. I, however, am staying in BP and "holding down the fort", but wanted to show you some of what Glenn needed to do before heading out for 9 days.

He needed to recharge his cell phone. Actually, where he will be the first 4 days will be in the mountains and he will basically be incommunicado. I'm not sure why the cell phone needed to be charged, unless it is for the one day he will be available before he goes into the mountains.

When he went to Prague last week, our internet was knocked out due to a rain storm and I didn't know how to fix it...so Glenn walked me through all the steps of disconnecting the modem and the router, and showing me how to reset my computer when the internet comes back on....just in case we have another heavy rainfall! What would I do without my computer for 10 days? Ugh!

Then he gave me this nicely typed out schedule of our Member Care retreat that he and I will be hosting here in Budapest beginning the day he returns home! The three MC couples coming from France, U.K., and Turkey will be staying at the Eden House but the meetings and most meals will be at our house. Glenn typed this wonderful schedule so that I could start planning the meals and doing whatever pre-cooking and freezing could be done ahead of time.

He showed me where we store health files and other important documents.

He taught me how to work his travel alarm so that I can wake up in time to go walking with my walking partner. (Now, in my own defense...I already know how to set travel alarms but while he was in Prague, I couldn't figure out how to work the one he left behind. I even had Annette try to figure it out. As it turns out, I was doing it correctly, but I didn't realize how HARD you have to press the MODE button to get it to work!!!)

And he gave me some money and some bills to go pay while he is gone. All bills here get paid at the Post Office which is located in the Campona Mall.

An interesting side note here: some bills are delivered to your house by the company rather than delivered through the postal service. Also, they don't charge late fees here! If you don't pay your bill on time, they send you a second notice, and then if you haven't paid the bill by time the next one comes out, they just add it into the next months' bill! I'm not sure how many months you'd have to get behind in order for them to cut off your water or discontinue your phone service (because we always pay before the next months' bill comes)!

Now Glenn is upstairs printing out some pages of information for him to carry with him on his trip. Things like his boarding pass, contact info of where he will be staying, and his Bible reading schedule. Next he will email his Out of Bed report (OOB), which is something we send whenever we are going to be traveling. It lets our supervisors, co-workers and family members know where we will be and how to get in touch with us during our travels. Maybe one day I'll do a blog entry on our OOB report!

Anyway, I'm home for the week and have a list a mile long of projects I hope to work on while Glenn is gone. Nope, I won't be bored! I'll miss him but I won't be bored!!!

I think I'll be a nurse!

Well, not really, but I am playing nursemaid to a friend of mine this week who came for some eye care-lasik eye surgery. She'll be with us for 10 days. I am really enjoying having her with us because before the surgery we got to play a little.

We went into town Thursday to spend the day at the spa, something she and I both enjoy! Once she had her surgery, she wasn't able to swim anymore so we had to do it the day before!

We got in all the thermal pools inside and then hit the big ones outside. The temperature was perfect, even though the sky was sort of overcast. Who is that in those Foster Grants?

This is a classic photo! In all the tourist brochure pictures of the Szecheny Baths, they always show pictures of the men playing chess right here.

This is Annette's "BEFORE" picture on the way to the eye clinic. Notice the glasses?

And this is Annette's AFTER picture. She is still wearing the sunglasses and a baseball cap today, 3 days after her surgery, and all the lights are down low at our house since her eyes are so sensitive to the light. She should be back to normal in another couple of days.

Because of her light sensitivities, she can't see the eyesore that is outside our house! May 4 is Dump Day, the day everyone in the neighborhood is supposed to take their old, broken down furniture and appliances to a designated spot. The designated spot for our neighborhood is supposed to be down the street, but for some reason, folks are dumping their stuff in front of our place which USED to be the spot!

Our Christmas cactus is confused! Besides not getting any light for the past 3 days, it is blooming for Hungarian Mother's Day rather than for Christmas!

Glenn was in Prague from Tuesday through Friday for a meeting but he's back now. He'll be home for a little over a week and then he is off to two of the K-stan countries. I'll be staying home. I've never been to those two countries but I might be able to go some other time. For the time being, I will be home and enjoying it. And hopefully, getting caught up on some projects around here. :-)