Beyond the Borders

2012-01-22T11:39:00.004-05:00

My friend Judit has a 17 year old daughter that studies all things dealing with textiles. She submitted an entry in a national competition that was open to anyone in Hungary (children through adults, amateurs to professionals) and Nikki's project was selected as one of the top 100 submissions! I'm not sure of all the details but each entry had to be made from natural materials and dealing with the Christmas theme. The top 100 entries were on display in a museum in City Park during the month of December.

Nikki made entirely by hand this marionette puppet of Mary and the baby Jesus.

Nikki fashioned the wire body and covered it with paper mache, painted the face and hands, and designed and stitched the clothes. I think she did an amazing job!

While we were in town, we stopped by the outdoor ice skating rink to get information on cost, hours and such. The location is beautiful but it is sooooo cold here that I wouldn't even consider going ice skating this week.

Even though it was in the high 20's, Judit suggested we walk around the lake. Fortunately, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing and it was bitterly cold, but it was a crystal clear day, and we've not had very many of them lately!

On Wednesday we took a trip to Keszthely in the western part of Hungary to visit with a couple of our family units there.

We stayed with David and Tina and had a "lovely" time (Tina has a British accent) visiting in their home and seeing the local sights.

They took us up to a mountain top where there is a small church and in the "garden" are almost life-size, wooden, carved statues depicting Christ on the cross with the two thieves beside him and several grieving women at his feet. It was so weird seeing it outside of Israel!

Keszthely sits on the shores of Lake Balaton, a huge resort area that is the heart of tourism in Hungary. We saw swans, geese and ducks on the lake but not a lot of tourists. All the smart ones were inside and warm.

On Thursday, Bethany and Michelle showed us around town and took us out to eat at this truly Hungarian tavern.

There were six of us in Keszthely: David, Tina, Bethany, Michelle, Glenn and me. What are the chances that 3 of the 6 would have ever lived in the same city years ago???? The odds are even smaller when it is a European city. Michelle, Tina and I all lived at one time in Mannheim, Germany!!!! What are the odds???

We had a great time getting to know those folks in Keszthely and enjoyed seeing their beautiful city!

We're home for another week and here's to hoping for some SNOW!

Bath time!

2012-01-15T08:04:00.003-05:00

Well, we've been back almost two weeks and it has been wonderful to be home. A couple of months ago we decided that for the month of January we were going to stay close to home. Hopefully, this would allow us an opportunity to do some local ministry and to visit with our co-workers that live elsewhere in Hungary. I have found a ministry outlet for the end of the month and we are headed to Keszthely later this week, both of which I will tell you about in later updates.

Earlier in the week Glenn saw that Tesco was having a Winter WOW Sale on their children's clothes. Being ever so frugal (Glenn) and not wanting to wait until the last minute (Cile), we decided to pick up a few clothes for Alec (our grandson in Senegal) that he will need NEXT CHRISTMAS when he comes to visit us. We got a winter coat with coordinating fleece hat and mittens, 2 pairs of pants, a red fleece shirt (that matches his grandpa's!), and two gray shirts. I hope we did a better job at guessing how big he will be this time next year than we did at guessing how big he would be this past Christmas. Almost everything we'd bought him was too big! It sure was fun to shop for baby clothes :-)

We had co-workers from one of our countries come to Budapest to shop and for the husband to catch a flight to America. We enjoyed having Carl, Julie, and Kelli with us for two nights. I told them I was going to put this picture of Carl lying on our couch on my blog, and that I considered his lying on the couch to be a high compliment to us; he felt at home in our home! We like it when friends feel at home with us!

On Thursday, I went to one of the thermal baths (Szechenyi) with Denise, one of our ladies who lives here in Budapest. She lives behind the famous Gellert Hotel and from her apartment you can see the Danube River. (She lives IN Budapest and I live on the outskirts of the city.)

Denise's family used to live waaaay on the other side of Budapest from us, and it would take forever to get to her house, which meant we rarely saw them. Recently, they moved into downtown and now we see them every other month or so, which is good--for me! We had a good time at the thermal bath even though the temperature outside was freezing cold!!!

At the end of December a water pipe burst in the wee hours of the morning and flooded the main floor and the basement apartment of the Eden House. The carpet in the basement needed to be taken out, sheetrock replastered, ceiling tiles replaced and walls repainted. One of our couples in town for medical care was having trouble with an allergic reaction to the mold and mildew so they stayed at our house Friday and Saturday night. Zoli, our taxi driver, picked them up at 5:00 am to take them to the airport to catch their flight back to their country. We've had a busy week, but it's been good. I think things are back to normal!

Have a great week!

Christmas in review

2012-01-06T13:44:00.018-05:00

We had a GREAT Christmas! In addition to celebrating the birth of the Christ child and enjoying all the hullabaloo that comes with Borders/Brown Christmas traditions, we rejoiced in seeing our children and grand-children. A side note-I hope my children noticed I put them first :-).

Chris, Jaz, Kate, Cile, Glenn, Kari, Jonathan and Alec

Ever since our kids were little ones in Ivory Coast, we have made Christmas cookies as a family. I'm not talking about the slice and bake kind, but rather, sugar cookies cut out in all the familiar Christmas shapes and then delicately and artistically painted (using children's kindergarten brushes) with dripping colored powdered sugar and heavily coated with sprinkles of all kinds. (My favorite sprinkle topping is Red-Hots!)

Through the years as our kids grew up, we've continued our tradition of decorating cookies, inviting our younger nieces and nephews as they got old enough to handle a paint brush. They're all grown up now but we continue the fun! At this years Christmas cookie party of 18 people, not counting our two new grandchildren, the ages ranged from 18 years of age to 79!!!

Chris, Kate, and Jazmine flew down from New Jersey for a week. Chris graduates as a P.A. in May and then will be looking for a job. Wonder if there is an opening at First Med Center here in Budapest???

She was the most beautiful present under the tree!

Such cute expressions!

Kari, Jonathan and Alec flew in from Senegal and spent two weeks with us in Marietta before going to visit Jonathan's family in Iowa.

Alec has a quick, beautiful smile!

Both Alec and Jazmine were into the full drool thing! No teeth yet, just lots of "liquid sugar".

They return to Senegal on Monday, the 11th.

We are so proud of our kids and love their spouses as if they were our own. It was so hard to say good-bye to our kids and their families.

We didn't do much running around during the holidays but we did get to visit with extended family. Jazmine sat quietly in Glenn's mom's lap (Queenie) one afternoon.

Both of our grand babies are swaddled before they are put down to go to sleep. Little Alec likes to play for several hours before he finally collapses! My Dad took a few turns at holding Alec while his mom was getting dressed.

As I mentioned earlier, we didn't do much running around. With two grandchildren, one or the other was either nursing or napping! Aren't my girls beautiful?

In between holding the babies, we let them have some tummy time on the floor. They enjoyed playing together, and six years from now, they will love this picture!

My girls, up close.

My sister Karin and her daughters Corrie and Morgan helped us with the babies. They are both good with babies, but Morgan has decided to be a great aunt to CORRIE'S KIDS.

My sister above is the one who got me hooked on Starbucks' no fat, with whip, white chocolate mocha with an extra pump! She gave us a Starbucks gift card that was "filled to the brim" (if you're old enough to recognize the coffee jingle) that never ran out. Just about every day we would go with the kids down the street to Starbucks to enjoy some sweet, hot java! Thanks, Karin!

Grampa Glenn takes a break with Jazzy.

I had to fight with Chris to hold his little girl!

The grandkids had a blast playing together!!!

We never succeeded in getting the "perfect" Christmas photo because it was impossible to get all four of us smiling and looking in the same direction at the same time but we loved holding them!

We managed to get out one afternoon to visit a few friends, such as Mr. Chupp, our next door neighbor on Big Oaks Drive. He is very special to our family.

I was able to visit with Amanda, one of my favorite students from North Cobb Christian School, and her cutie son. She is very special to me. Thanks, Amanda!

I managed to get by Walmart once or twice and was floored by the new size of marshmallows! Can you believe the size of these things???

The house Glenn grew up in all his life is being remodeled by Glenn's nephew and the foyer is about to get a covering of wallpaper. While all the family members were in town during the holidays, Stephen asked everyone who had ever lived in the house to write something on the wall that is being covered.

100 years from now when a new layer of wallpaper is being put up, the new owners will find and read the messages we left in 2011. Cool idea, eh?

Yes, it was a great Christmas and the best gift of all was getting to hold and play with my two grandchildren all day long! Of course, growing to love them so much just made it that much harder to say good-bye so we're just going to have to schedule another visit to see them this summer :-)

Hope you have a wonderful new year and that 2012 is the best yet!

Across the Pond

2011-12-11T13:35:00.005-05:00

Glenn and I were supposed to go to Ukraine for 10 days to visit our families there, and while on the trip, we would have spent Thanksgiving with one of our teams up country. Unfortunately, I fell sick shortly before our departure and wasn't well enough to travel so we stayed in Budapest. That meant we had 10 extra days at home with nothing on our calendar so I got lots of rest ... until Glenn fell sick also!

Once I was "back to normal", whatever that is, I was able to spend some time with Judit. She is a great seamstress and here is a wedding dress she was working on, in addition to my bedroom curtains (yes, finally!) and several Christmas outfits for missionaries with other organizations. From the number of fancy dresses she was making, I would guess that the other mission organizations have Christmas banquets in fancier restaurants than Glenn and I usually frequent :-).

For example, we are always on the hunt for a good pizza place. All of the Pizza Huts' have closed down so we tried New York Style Pizza with Dan and Janet. I think we will keep looking :-(

After two weeks back in Budapest, it was time to head to the U.S. for two Member Care meetings, back to back. I wanted to make some Peppermint Bark to take with me to share with our member care folks since it is soooo good.

And to make it look authentic, I put it in my Trader Joe's metal Christmas tin. I think everyone enjoyed it!

We flew into Atlanta on December 3rd and spent two nights with my Dad before driving up to Virginia to the Missionary Learning Center outside of Richmond.

Isn't it cool to see my Dad working at his laptop? He's so techy!

Glenn was putting on the first week of member care meetings for our personnel who work in Eurasia with us. It went really, really well. The sessions were good and the fellowship was great!

One of our members has a sister who lives here in the Richmond area and owns over 100 acres of lakefront property with a gorgeous house and adjoining pool house overlooking the lake that she has turned into a Celebration Center that hosts weddings, receptions and banquets. Kathy's sister offered to open her place up to us for an afternoon of fellowship and rest and to put on a wonderful Christmas banquet for us (at no charge!).

There were 4 tables set up in the "pool house" overlooking the lake for our private group! Because the weather was rainy and cold, we were inside rather than on the huge pool deck where she often hosts receptions. She also gave us a tour of her personal home that she and her husband built themselves. We counted 7 bathrooms, so that gives you an idea of the size of this house. I have never seen such a beautiful home with so many interesting nooks and crannies! Anyway, we spent our first afternoon together as the Eurasia Member Care team out at Paulanne's place and had a great time!

Our meeting began Wednesday morning and continued through Friday evening, but as the week wore on, Glenn knew we needed a special treat so had Mike pick us up some Krispy Kreme doughnuts. What trip to Richmond would be complete without Krispy Kreme???

When the weekend arrived, I finally managed to get over to the Starbucks in Short Pump, the nearest town!!! My sister Karin had left a Starbucks gift card for us at my Dad's house and this was my first opportunity to get a low-fat with whipped cream white chocolate mocha with an extra pump of white chocolate! Yum! I ate a salad for lunch to make sure I could afford the calories! THANKS, KAR!N! We will enjoy using it when we are with our kids too!!!

Over the weekend we had a game night. The men played Farkle, a mindless game of chance ...

... while the women played Bananagrams, an intensive, educationally stimulating game of Scrabble played against others. (The men didn't really bet money ... Harold just threw those dollars into the pot to look like they were betting!)

On Saturday afternoon, I went into Short Pump to meet up with my best friend from high school who drove down from the Washington, D.C. area (close to where we lived eons ago) to sip coffee and reminisce for a couple of hours. I can tell you Linn has not aged a bit! She is beautiful. She was one of my bridesmaids and it is always fun to see her and to get caught up on news!

And now it is Sunday, the day before we start our world-wide Member Care meeting with folks who do member care with our organization all over the globe. We will be here until Friday at noon, at which time we will quickly load our car and "fly" down to Marietta where Kari, Jonathan and Alec will be waiting on us! They arrive from Senegal December 13th, while we are still here in Virginia until the 16th. Chris and Kate and Jazmine arrive in Marietta on the 19th. :-)

This is Alec, our grandson. :-)

And this is Jazmine, our granddaughter! :-)

We're looking forward to this week, learning new things and seeing old friends, but we are also very excited about seeing our families, making Christmas cookies together, and spending Christmas with them!

I'm thankful for ...

2011-11-27T09:38:00.006-05:00

... so many things that it is impossible to list them here but let me give you a few. I am most grateful for the love that God has for me and am awed by how He gives and gives while I take and take, and yet He never stops loving me. My favorite word in the Bible is lavished, found in 1 John 3: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! It is such an exuberant word, over the top, rich and exquisite! God truly has lavished His blessings on us and we are very, very thankful for each and every one of them!

We are thankful for friends with whom we can fellowship around the table-not only on holidays but every day!

On Thanksgiving day we joined in the festivities at the Eden House with our personnel who serve throughout Hungary. We had turkey and all the trimmings, plus some! Macy's Thanksgiving parade was playing on the TV in the background. Several of us were watching the winter storm warnings with concern as they rolled across the bottom of the screen to make sure it wasn't going to hit where our families were living, not realizing it was a DVD of last year's parade that someone had brought to add ambiance to the festivities! The only thing missing was that there were no football games for the men to watch and not enough couches for everyone to lay on after having eaten too much.

I'm thankful for a husband who takes such good care of me, who is good with his hands (ahem-this blog is rated G) and spoils me rotten. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Glenn put new curtain rods up for me in the guest room so that I could finally finish redoing the room!!

On Friday, we went into downtown to browse through the Christmas Market (and I can't believe I didn't take a single picture of it!) to start officially the Christmas season. It was a dismally gray and cold day as we headed into town.

And it stayed that way alllllllllll day and throughout the whole weekend. It was so cold that we didn't stay long (and I didn't buy a thing!)

We had to step inside a few stores occasionally to thaw out! Sleds are for sale everywhere in anticipation of the snow that, according to our taxi driver/friend Zoli, should arrive this week!

I am always surprised to see that the sleds found here in Hungary are the old-fashion style that we find only on Currier & Ives cards in America. I'm just surprised that the style has not changed here in the past 50 years! I am thankful though for the walk down memory lane that I get to take each winter when I see these sleds for sale.

And I was VERY thankful for a warm house to come home to, a couple of Swiss Miss cocoa packets, a fleece blanket and a couch 6-8 feet from a TV! I was sooooo cold!

I read an article last night that said beginning December 1, landlord's in Hungary cannot evict tenants during the winter months for non-payment of rent fees. The article said that landlords are in high gear calling on the bailiffs to evict their tenants BEFORE the December 1 deadline and that in the past 7 weeks 3 people have committed suicide because of being evicted with no where to go. As the authorities were at her front door to evict her, one lady sent her daughter an SMS to say good-bye and then jumped off of her 9th floor apartment balcony to her death.

Hungary has an extremely high rate of unemployment, alcoholism, homelessness and suicide. It breaks my heart to see men, women and children wandering the streets, particularly when it is sooooo cold here. I am thankful for a warm house, warm bed, warm clothes and warm food.

And we are thankful for unexpected blessings that God brings our way! We were sitting in front of this couple in church this morning when they introduced themselves as Wally and Jeannette, here in Budapest for 2 weeks on vacation. We invited them to go out for lunch with us and found out that Wally and Jeannette are one of ours! That is, he pastors a Southern Baptist church in Texas, and it is because of many churches like his that we are able to minister as we do. Thank you Wally and Jeannette for such an enjoyable afternoon! It was a really nice ending to a great week in which we were reminded of so many blessings that we have received!

Hope you had a great week too!

What a weak, I mean week!

2011-11-20T11:54:00.003-05:00

I have always had a secret desire to take a week off and just hang around the house, watch a lot of movies, read as many books as I can, piddle on a few projects (I heard you laugh, Kari!), and basically see if I could ever come to a point of boredom. Of course, we'd rather spend our vacations with our families so I've never taken THAT week off, but when we got back from Turkey, I fell sick and had to take THIS week off!

While I was on the couch all week I couldn't take care of company we had from America. Erin was a former Journeyman with us here in Europe who, after she finished her two year term, went home and married her college sweetheart, Brad. They work for a university in America and were here in Budapest for the college fair at our local Christian school so stayed with us for 4 days.

But unfortunately, I didn't feel up to watching a bunch of movies, read or work on any projects. I'll have to save that for another week I guess.

After being housebound for 5 days, I was about to go crazy so Glenn took me to a movie. I didn't have a lot of energy so it was a perfect outing. When we got there, we found that the movie theatre has been sold to another company who had UPSIZED everything, including the price! The drinks and popcorn used to be reasonable sizes and reasonable prices but now they are as outrageous as in America!

By the way, this was the first movie we've seen in a theatre since we returned from our stateside assignment.

On the way home we stopped by Tesco to pick up some milk and I found a new product! English muffins! It seems that more and more "American" products are finding their way to Hungary! Wonder how many more years until Pop-tarts show up on our shelves???

We were supposed to leave for 10 days in Ukraine this past Friday but obviously we had to cancel. Hmmmm, what will I do with those 10 extra days???? Check here next week to find out!

Turkey Time

2011-11-13T12:35:00.006-05:00

Before we left for a cluster meeting in Turkey, I took a walk through our yard which was really suffering from lack of neglect and cold weather. The only thing in bloom were these humongous, gorgeous Chrysanthemums.

The flowers are so colorful and I have enjoyed them so much each time we pass by them on our way out the gate.

We arrived in Antalya, Turkey last Friday, 10 days ago. Above are our visas for entering the country, for which we paid $20 each. This was our 4th trip to Antalya, our 6th to Turkey.

Again, because we go to Turkey during the off season, we can stay in nice hotels for a pittance. Some of the hotels close for the off-season, some try to stay open. Those that stay open want to keep their staff year-round so that they don't have to keep hiring and training new folks every year so therefore they drop the prices extremely low in order to keep the hotel semi-full. And that is how we get to stay in these nice hotels :-)

And that is how we get to see some of the most fantastic views!

At these cluster meetings, there isn't a lot of free time, but I managed to get out and peruse the tourist shops which lined the main street that passed in front of the hotel.

We peeked over one of the walled yards and saw these young children playing in their school uniforms. It was sweet and reminded me of when our children were little and attending the local French school; they had cute little uniforms too!

And one last picture to give you a good laugh! We found this one store that advertises tattoos, only they spelled it wrnog.

On another note, we have company with us for this week that we are back in town. Erin used to be one of our Journeymen, having served for 2 years in Ukraine but our connection with her goes back to when our daughter Kari was a Journeyman in Senegal. Erin worked with Kari for two summers so when Erin came to Europe, we already felt we had a special relationship with her. She and her husband are here in town for a few days representing a university in Tennessee at the college fair at the local Christian school.

Next trip? Ukraine! More on that trip next week!

Here, there and everywhere!

2011-10-31T15:43:00.012-04:00

Having returned from the Serbia Team Retreat, we ran a few loads of laundry through our tiny European washing machine that takes 1 hour and 15 minutes PER (tiny) LOAD to wash, watered our plants, paid bills, made a few Skype calls, and then repacked our bags only to leave again two days later for Prague, Czech Republic.

Charles Bridge with hot air balloon in distance

Our trip actually had two purposes: to make member care visits with the families living in Prague and to attend the business portion of the European Affinity Global Leadership Team (AGLT). Don't feel too badly though that we were only home two nights between trips because I chose to go to Prague 2 days early in order to go with the AGLT ladies on a "Polish Pottery Run" to Boleslawic, Poland where they manufacture the beautiful, distinctive Polish pottery that I'm so fond of. While I was in Poland with the ladies, Glenn met with several of the families by himself, and then when I returned, we met with the rest of the families together.

It's a 3 hour drive from Prague so we left early in the morning to be able to shop all day until the stores closed at 5 pm. I counted 12 stores we visited, so by dinnertime we were hungry, weary and broke but happy! We found the cutest little log cabin restaurant that looked like it was plucked straight from the north Georgia mountains near Ellijay, complete with yard art and country artifacts!!

I had one of the best Polish dishes I've ever tasted at this little place!

And this is what I bought with my birthday and Christmas money that I've been saving for the past year. Well, it's not all for me ... the casserole dish on the far left was bought for a friend of mine. :-)

From Prague, we went back to BP for another two nights before heading to Malaga, Spain for a cluster meeting where we provided member care visits with all our personnel.

During the meeting time, I sat next to one of the ladies with a 32 ounce QuikTrip cup! It was a real shocker to see that! Made me feel like I was back in Georgia. Sure made me wish I could have one of their Coke Zero fountain drinks with crushed ice. Ahhhh! The things we miss!

First on the list, a bottle of fountain water!

At the start of the meeting to get everyone relaxed and familiar with one another, we began with a scavenger hunt. The purpose was to get us working as a team, to help us learn our way around the little town, and to learn about the Spanish culture by needing to ask questions of locals in order to locate the specific scavenged items.

Hmmm, where is the statue?

Another thing we had to find and photograph was a statue that was made depicting one of Picasso's paintings which meant that we had to stop locals to ask them what it was of and where it might be. Turns out there were a lot of British tourists in town who didn't know it and where it was and not a lot of Spaniards who spoke enough English to direct us, but we finally found it!

Picasso's Women Running on the Beach

We found out that Pablo Picasso is from Malaga and the town honored their citizen by having a statue made from his picture of Women Running on the Beach. Actually, we learned a lot about Spain through the scavenger hunt!

We also found that our little group is not very competitive and decided we'd rather stop and have a couple of drinks (Coke, of course) than win.

And this is the view out the back of the cafe' where we stopped for some refreshment. The weather and temperature was ideal for walking about town but a little cool for swimming.

The best part of the meeting though was getting to know our personnel better through the member care visits. Always a favorite with us!

Our return flight left Malaga at 6:45 AM so we had to wake up at the early hour of 4:30 AM. We had a 4-hour lay-over in Paris which meant we were there over the lunch hour, hence, how we came to find these funny signs! I've heard of French fries, the skinny little strips of deep fat fried potatoes, but I never knew that those deep fried fat wedges of potatoes are called American potatoes. Maybe this is France's way of retaliating?

And I loved this sign!!! On the menu board the chocolate chip cookie had a little sign taped to it that read (in French), "This recipe is a victim of it's own success", which is a cute way of saying that there are no chocolate chip cookies available.

Next trip? Antolya, Turkey. :-)

P.S. All photos used with permission

The First Time I Ever...

2011-10-16T10:02:00.007-04:00

I get so excited over some of the most insignificant things. Living in a foreign country gives us many opportunities to rejoice over so many things that in America were no big deal. For example, this week for the first time EVER I saw American-style whole wheat bread in Hungary!

Of course, it only had 16 slices and it cost $2 for the little loaf but it was soft and sliced and soooo good. May be the best $2 I spend each week! It is not easy to find soft sliced bread of any color but it's especially difficult to find a good, healthy, dark bread. I was told that the reason you don't find many dark breads in Hungary is because back in the communists' days, dark bread was all you could get, and now that the days of communism are over, they don't want anything that reminds them of those days. That's what I was told, anyway. Don't know if it is true or not....

Back to the whole wheat bread... I got the last loaf on the shelf at Tesco the other day and I'm hoping that it will continue to be available from now on, but I'm not getting my hopes up! Too many of our personnel across Europe have found a product that they really liked, and when there were no more on the shelves, would talk to the manager about reordering the such-and-such only to be told that they weren't going to stock it any more because they couldn't keep it on the shelves! Too many people kept buying it that they had to keep ordering it and restocking the shelves. Evidently, they didn't own the store; they were just working in it.

Glenn and I now have our own personal driver. Not really, but we like to think we do! Zoli is a taxi driver that we now call any time we need to travel to the airport or train station. He lived in New York for a few years so he speaks English well. We enjoy our conversations with him and hope to get to know him and his wife better. They attend the local Catholic church so we have that in common, except we attend a Baptist church. :-)

On Tuesday, Zoli took us to the train station and we headed south for the Serbia Team Retreat.

We spent one day in Novi Sad (population 400,000) with the team leaders Mike and Pam before heading to Brzece, a small town in the mountains for the retreat. (Yes, I spelled the town name correctly. Alex, I'd like to buy a vowel to put between the r and z, please.) Here we are standing in front of OUR Danube River as it passes through their town. I think Novi Sad, overlooking the Danube River, looks a lot like Budapest, only not quite as pretty. But then again, I might be just a wee bit prejudiced. :-)

Their town square was quite beautiful and quaint, and not nearly as crowded as ours are in Budapest.

We visited the fortress of Petrovaradin on the hillside overlooking the Danube River that reportedly has 16 miles of tunnels underground from which the Serbs were able to deter the Turks from advancing northward. It is a fortress that no enemy has ever taken throughout the ages. In the fort you could see holes in the walls barely off the ground from which guns would shoot the Turks (and all other enemies) as they tried to take the city. If you look carefully, you can see a door underneath the bridge where you could enter one of the many tunnels.

What time is it on this clock? 1:30? WRONG. Years ago when sailors would come around the bend of the river in their boats (maybe a little tipsy), they couldn't see the small hand of the clock to know what hour it was. The story goes that someone switched the hands and so that the long hand actually tells the hour now instead of the minutes. It evidently didn't matter the EXACT time to the sailors, it just mattered what hour of the day it was. So I took this photo at 6 o'clock-ish.

You can see pylons in the Danube River left-over from the bridge that was bombed and destroyed by the Germans in WWII.

On Thursday we headed to the mountains (to an out-of-season ski resort) for the Serbia Team Retreat. We loved the rolling countryside, the many grape vineyards that climbed the sides of the hills, and the bags and bags of red peppers and apples for sale, stacked up on the side of the narrow winding roads leading to the hotel.

Part of the retreat was spent going over everyone's Grip Birkman results so that they could learn what strengths each person brings to the team, which would give them a greater appreciation for the differences in their co-workers. Here, Pam, Mike and Carl are working "together" to build the tallest structure they can out of uncooked spaghetti noodles and marshmallows.

This team came in third place. :-(

The captain of the team that came in second place is very competitive and didn't like being in second place. He said that second place is just another word for losing. Ah, but it was fun watching the 3 teams work out their strategies, or not use a strategy at all!

This man led the Grip Birkman part of the retreat and did a good job. He won everyone's heart when he gave everyone Oreo cookies that he used for one of his examples and then let us eat them!

The retreat ended this afternoon and we head back to Novi Sad tomorrow and then on to Budapest on the night train. Glenn reserved a sleeper car for us so we will at least be able to stretch out and get a little sleep. (emphasis on little) We leave Novi Sad at 10 pm and arrive back in Budapest on Tuesday morning at 5 am. After running a few loads of laundry and repacking our suitcases, we leave for Prague on Wednesday morning. Do you know the song On the Road Again by Willie Nelson? That's my new song.

Catch you next week!

A great week!

2011-10-09T08:57:00.009-04:00

This picture should give you a clue as to what we did this week...

I ended last week's entry with David running in the Budapest 2011 marathon and Glenn, Debbie and me following him around the route to cheer him on. He didn't think it outrageously funny when the rest of us made comments about how sore and tired our feet were, at least not as funny as we did!

We figured he would be a little sore the day after the race so on Monday we went to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths.

Since we got a late start (somebody was awfully tired and sore and slept late! ME!), we decided to pack a lunch and eat a picnic in the park on the grounds of the baths. Why do sandwiches always taste better when eaten on a picnic???

We enjoyed going from one pool to another (they have different minerals in them and are different temperatures too) soaking in each one to get the various medicinal benefits they have to offer. We tried a couple of saunas too. I prefer the one with the eucalyptus aroma but the room is so foggy that I can't see where I am sitting. I'm always afraid I'm going to sit on someone's lap (other than Glenn's) by accident!

We stayed until our hands were like prunes and we were totally relaxed! Ahhhh!

After a couple of days of working from our home, we noticed the weather was about to turn cold and nasty so we planned a day in town to show David and Debbie the sights of the city. With a trusty map and our cute looking guide (Glenn), we headed into town for the day.

My daughter, Kari, discovered this perfect spot for taking family photos with the Parliament building in the background.

And it's been at least two months since I showed any photos of the tourist sites in town, so please bear with me ONCE AGAIN. This is of the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, my favorite bridge in town. (There are 8 bridges that cross the Danube River in the downtown area.) The Szechenyi bridge, completed in 1849, was the first permanent stone-bridge connecting the city of Buda on one side with the city of Pest on the other side of the river, and today is the most well-known bridge in Hungary.

Just north of the Szechenyi Chain Bridge is the Margaret Bridge (Margit Bridge, in Hungarian) and just beyond that bridge is the Margaret Island, which today is a city park that is popular with joggers, lovers, frisbee throwers, tourists and local citizens alike. Margaret Island sits in the middle of the Danube River, a short walk from the gorgeous Parliament building.

We spent some time up on Castle Hill overlooking the Danube River and the city of Budapest. It must have been a school holiday in several of our neighboring countries because we saw and heard many tour groups of high school students speaking different languages.

These 3 tourists are looking over at Fisherman's Bastion.

The white-stoned Fisherman's Bastion, is described as being Disney-esque because it is full of turrets, projections, parapets and climbing stairways. (That word "parapets", I got from a web site; it's a real word. I didn't make it up. It means "a defensive wall or elevation, often made of earth or stone, in a fortification." It was built in 1905. The seven towers represent the seven Magyar tribes that came to Hungary in 896 that eventually joined together to form Hungary, or Magyarorszag ... as it is called in Hungarian.

This monument, Shoes on the Danube Promenade, commemorates the death of Hungarians shot by the terrorizing Arrow Cross party in the winter of 1944-45. Containing 60 pairs of iron shoes, the monument is about 40 meters long. Even though this is not the only location where people were killed and dumped into the river (to save them the trouble of burials), it is symbolic of all the victims who were told to take off their shoes before being shot (because shoes were valuable belongings at that time). The iron shoes were placed on the bank of the Danube River in 2005.

A magnificent sight in the late afternoon with the sun reflecting off the words of Christ, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life", St. Stephen's Basilica is the largest church in Budapest and the second largest in the country. It is dedicated to Hungary's first king, St. Stephen, who is credited with bringing Christianity in 1000 to the seven warring tribes that came together to form Hungary.

More known for housing Hungary's most sacred treasure, the mummified right hand of St. Stephen, than for any worshipful experience or its' extravagant gold inlays inside, the church is a favorite among tourists and a must-see for those who out-of-curiosity want to see the mummified hand. It took 5 decades to complete and 3 architects to build due to several unfortunate mishaps, including a collapsed dome and 2 wars (the 1848-49 Revolution and the War of Independence). It was finally completed in 1906.

After all this sightseeing, of course we had to "show" Debbie and David the famous and delicious Kurtoskalacs! Sweet bread strips deftly wrapped around a wooden spindle, slowly baked until puffy and golden brown, unceremoniously dredged in cinnamon sugar, coconut flakes or chopped walnuts, and then while still scorchingly hot, slid into a cylindrical plastic bag, easy for pulling apart to devour, these Hungarian delicacies are the best!!! (How was that, Kari?) Glenn calls it Decadence on a Stick.

And while we were in town, we saw quite a few of these three-wheeled bicycle-carts for hauling tourists around whose shoes were not designed for hours and hours of walking on our cobblestone streets. This is a NEW thing for Budapest, having arrived this past summer. Don't they add class to the landscape of our city? At least they could have made them to fit in a little better with the quaintness of the architecture or chosen a more appropriate color, such as tan or beige!

While at the bus stop, Glenn and I enjoyed a good laugh. This is an advertisement of an American Express credit card, complete with a very popular Hungarian name. That's a little funny to me.

But it's sad that Hungarians are following too closely and too quickly in the debt-filled footsteps of overextended westerners, and it's especially sad that they are being encouraged to get it the American way-with an AMERICAN Express credit card.

Made my weekly way to Judit's house for some more English conversation on Tuesday. I really enjoy her friendship, but I have to keep reminding her to speak in English as much as she can; after all, that was the original point of my going to her house each week I am in town! It's amazing how much Hungarian I can understand! Anyway, I never plan ahead what we will talk about because there's usually enough going on at her house to keep us talking for an hour. Such as her flowering plants that are EVERYWHERE inside and around her house!

And this week, she learned the all-important English word "hedgehog". Now, how many times in her lifetime will she need to know the English word for this prickly little fellow? They found him lying on their driveway, drunk from pigging out on the rotting (fermented) figs fallen from the trees in their yard. It was really hard to get excited about petting this little creature. His quills are stiff and painful if you rub him wrong!

One day this week I took Debbie and a couple of ladies staying at the Eden House to a pottery outlet and we stopped for lunch at a roadside kiosk that makes from scratch the delicious langos that you've read about several times here on my blog. Sorry, the picture isn't light enough for you to see the four sweet batter langos deep-fat frying in oil!

The langos are light and fluffy but they sit pretty heavy in the stomach once they are laden with sour cream, ham bits or salmai (as pictured above), shredded cheese and garlic sauce! YUM!

After all my raving about it, I was relieved that Linda, Debbie and Jessie enjoyed the Hungarian specialty as much as I do

After almost a week of sunshine and unseasonably warm (mid-to upper 70's) temperatures, Saturday turned out cool and slightly overcast. Perfect for working out in the yard. But that's NOT me out there planting Jonquil and Daffodil bulbs under the apple tree in with Glenn. No, that is Debbie! She lives in an apartment in Moscow and misses being able to play in the dirt so she was thrilled to "have the opportunity" to work in the yard, which she did for hours and hours on Saturday! After having traveled so much this summer and early fall, our yard was in sad shape. Not sure why we planted Pansies since we will only be in Budapest for 14 nights between now and January 1. (No joke.) Who will be here to enjoy them???

We invited the Doyles, Jessie and, of course, David and Debbie who are still staying with us while waiting on their visas for Russia, for lunch on Sunday. I used a recipe from Elaine (who used to live here in Budapest) for a Mexican Chicken casserole. It seems all our personnel love Mexican food!

We leave on Tuesday for Serbia for a week. David and Debbie will still be here, waiting on those visas. Be back soon!

Run! Run! Run!

2011-10-02T13:26:00.006-04:00

This past week we were in Germany for Emigrate, a conference for our first-termers. I was successful at finding Sour Sticks (Brause Stachen), the candy I used to eat when I lived in Germany in middle school! Yea!

For the security of our personnel who live in closed countries, I can't show you any pictures of the meeting or the people who attended, but Asya allowed me to post her picture! She is Bulgarian and came to provide childcare while parents were in meetings, but in her real life she is in school to become a massage therapist. Do you believe I asked her to "practice" on me? You betcha! And I found out she used to live in Marietta, Georgia for two years!!

On another note ... when we arrived at the conference in Rehe, Germany, Glenn realized he'd left his beige windbreaker somewhere in the Frankfurt airport. At the end of Day 1 of the conference, Glenn couldn't find his fleece jacket that he'd left somewhere in the hotel. Two lost jackets in two days. Good thing the weather was nice!

Well, the day before we left Germany, after a dozen people asked him if he'd checked for his fleece jacket at the front desk of the hotel, he found his way down there, not really expecting to find it there. It had been turned in! Yea!

And then when we were about to fly back to Budapest, Glenn decided, on a whim and a wild shot, to check the lost and found at the airport. He found his jacket! Boy, was he happy! Can you imagine how much fun I would have had teasing him about losing everything!?!

The day after we returned from Germany, we were expecting Debbie and David to arrive to stay with us for 10 days while they re-apply for another visa for their country, so ... Glenn and I had a ton of things to do on Friday before they arrived on Saturday at 5 pm. We ran to the grocery store to stock up on fresh fruit, veggies and dairy products, and then for the rest of the day we made a huge pot of applesauce for freezing (apples were less than 25 cents per pound!!!!), baked an apple cake and a batch of brownies, made hummus, brewed a gallon of sweet ice tea, made from scratch 2 pounds of sausage patties and cooked them up, mixed up a double batch of biscuits, cooked and deboned chicken, and using the crock pot, made some southern pulled pork barbecue. By time I crawled into bed at midnight, I was exhausted and my feet were screaming, "Get off of me!"

I had to get all this stuff done on Friday because on Saturday morning and afternoon, we were helping the our friends, the Pollards, move from our neighborhood out to a house closer to the Christian school where their kids attend.

I spent the morning and afternoon sweeping spider webs from the ceilings, dusting the baseboards, window sills and closets, cleaning and sanitizing bathrooms, and mopping floors. I had such a good day!

David and Debbie arrived on time, and I was home in time, showered, and in the kitchen preparing dinner when they got to our house. :-)

David had registered for the Budapest Marathon (42.2 kilometers) that was on Sunday morning, beginning at 11 am so we all went into town to cheer him on.

There were different kinds of "runs", such as the full marathon, a half-marathon, Family Fun Run, Team relays, and a Kids Run and a race for those who are handicapped. In the FULL marathon that David ran, there were 3,000 runners!!! Can you imagine how many people were participating in all? Downtown Budapest was packed!

This is David's "heat" as he approached the starting line.

We were able to see David at 3 different points along the race and at the finish line as he crossed it! (David is in the third green shirt, on the center line.) He made it in 4 hours and 45 minutes! We are so proud of him, and we had a blast! Walking around in the hot sun, cheering joggers on for almost 5 hours would not have been much fun except that we knew someone, and that made all the difference. It was really a fun afternoon!!

Tomorrow, we are going to a thermal spa for David!

I'm so domestic!

2011-09-26T15:24:00.005-04:00

We were in town for a week and had lots to do but it was all fun stuff ...like having several families down from the Eden House for a meal, or going over to Dan and Janet's for a meal (since we haven't seen them in about 2 months!!!!).

I love talking with our kids on Skype amd getting caught up on their news, but especially the times when their babies are awake and we get to see them. It's amazing to Glenn and me how much Jazmine and Alec have grown just in the past 3-5 weeks since we've seen them!

Speaking of our kids, today is our son's birthday! We called Chris this morning at 7:30 am his time in New Jersey, but he was already at the hospital doing his rounds so all we could do was leave him our birthday wishes. We hope he had a good day and knows that we wish we could be there to celebrate with him, Kate and Jaz.

Judit, my Hungarian friend, invited me over to pick figs off her tree so I hauled Glenn over there on Thursday with my jumbo-size Tupperware bowl. I've never eaten a fig by itself before but I loved Glenn's mother's strawberry fig preserves that she used to make. I looked up the recipe on the internet and found that the figs never met a strawberry. What I mean is, there are no strawberries in the recipe but that you use strawberry jello (which I'm sure never met a strawberry either!) to flavor it.

Anyway, I cut up the figs (about 16 cups) and added 8 cups of sugar (yep, you read that right) and boiled them all together for about 30 minutes until it made a nice syrup and the figs were soft. I added 3 boxes of Jello (from America) and one strawberry gelatin packet (from Hungary), and one Sure-Jell (from America) and boiled for another 2 minutes.

While the preserves were still piping hot, I ladled them into canning jars, closed the lids tightly, and then placed the canning jars upside down in a basket lined with a thick beach towel (not that it matters to my fig story, but my mom and dad gave me that beach towel in 1994 so it has been around for a long time and we use it often. It's especially nice because it is a double-wide beach towel!)

Then we wrapped it again with a blanket and stuck it out of the way to let it cool down slowly for 3 days. The hot preserves and the slow cooling down process insures that a nice vacuum seal forms on the jars and then the jars can be stored in a cabinet until ready to eat.

And now I have 13 jars of strawberry fig preserves to share and enjoy for the next 3 years!!!! But aren't they pretty??? I feel so domestic!

Glenn and I left for Germany on Sunday morning for a week.

We flew Malev, the Hungarian airline, on a 7:55 am flight to Frankfort. It's a pretty nice airline, but I got tickled when I saw the tiny amount of lettuce on my cheese sandwich!

We are attending an Emigrate, a conference for our personnel who have been on the field about 9-12 months; kind of a refresher course on strategy and vision, and a time of encouragement. We are doing member care appointments with everyone.

And when we got to Frankfort, I was tickled again when I saw this sign that points to "Other Directions"!!! What??? Some things are just funny to me, and this was hilarious!

Well, off to bed. Morning comes early here and I've got a full day tomorrow. I'm having a great time getting to know all these "new" folks since it is a pretty small group (18 people, plus those of us who are facilitating, speaking or working). We head home on Friday.

Have a great week!

I see London, I see France...

2011-09-18T15:39:00.005-04:00

After a few days with Andy and Kaye, we went to the south side of London to spend a day or two with our boss and his wife, Mike and Julie. Glenn spent one day in the London office with Mike, asking questions, going over budgets, making plans for the future...

and then the day we were to fly out, they took us to the British coast to see the cliffs! We didn't go as far as the famous white cliffs of Dover, but almost. We saw some pretty impressive white cliffs!

The cliffs are chalk (pure calcium carbonate with black flecks of flint) and the water close to them is a whitish green because of all the chalk "dust". It was quite an awesome sight for miles and miles.

The cliffs, 10 miles long, drop as much as 107 meters down into the Strait of Dover, which separates England from France.

I was not about to trespass beyond the wire fence. Going to the edge of the cliffs is very dangerous as it can break off and plummet into the water below. This is also where some folks have committed suicide. I preferred to go down to the water's edge and look UP, rather than go to the edge and look DOWN.

We had taken a sack lunch and found a nice roadside park next to a sheep pasture for our scenic picnic. It was quite lovely. And quite a surprise to see a phone booth out in the country!! Who makes calls from out there? The shepherds??

And before we left London, Elaine (who used to live down the street from us in Budapest) and Julie took me to Costco! Can you believe it??? It was like I had walked into America. Even though I had recently been to America (three times, actually), I managed to buy a few items. Surprised, are you?

Then we got on a train and went to France via the Chunnel. It is called the Chunnel because it is a 50 kilometer tunnel built underneath the English Channel. Even though evidence shows the first mention of building a tunnel connecting France and England as early as 1802, construction did not begin until 1988. Yes, 180 years later. The Chunnel was 80% over budget when it was finally completed in 1994.

I love riding on trains. I think they are my favorite mode of transportation. I would love to go on a long ride to some exotic place, but I've slept in their sleeper cars. They aren't very comfortable!

We stayed in Gentilly, a suburb of Paris, with Jerry and Kathy who also do member care with us. They took us out to see the Chateau de Fontainebleau, originally built in the twelfth century. While there, I got to enjoy great Middle Eastern kebabs. Yum!

Chateau de Fontainebleau, a gorgeous castle about 55 kilometers south of Paris, has been inhabited by many, many kings and emperors throughout the history of France. Each king or queen has either built additions or remodeled sections of the castle according to their own taste or needs. It was interesting to see what was important to each leader, and the egos some of them had.

After visiting the chateau, we walked through the quaint little town of Fontainebleau and enjoyed the stroll among the shops.

And the pastry shops, called patisseries, were incredible! Truly edible!

We saw London, we saw France, but when we got home, we did our happy dance!

We love to travel to see our co-workers, but home is always a good place for us to be, even if it is for just a few days. How long? 6 days. Next stop? Germany. Auf Viedersehn! (That's "good-bye" in German.)

How do you say this in ... English?

2011-09-12T12:10:00.031-04:00

Sorry for the lapse in updating my blog. It was an incredibly busy week back in Budapest after being away for a month (2 weeks in U.S. and 2 weeks in Senegal). We had to do all the things we have to do when returning from a trip, like grocery shop, pay bills, do laundry, etc, and we had several families from the Eden House down for meals.

We were in Budapest for Labor Day, and the couple that manages the Eden House invited us down for a Labor Day cook-out with the guests. I had signed up to bring a dessert so that morning I made 6 quarts of ice cream as our contribution to the meal. (Next summer I'm going to keep track of how many quarts of ice cream I make.)

There were 10 adults and 3 children at the cook-out, and the burgers were soooo good.

I wanted to take a meal to one of our families in Budapest that evening though to help them out so I had to plan my schedule out very carefully to make sure I could get the meal to them on time!! (The wife had gone to the U.S. for a family emergency, taking her youngest child with her and leaving the older 3 children with her husband in Budapest.) I had calculated that, at the very latest, I needed to be back from the cook-out and working on the meal no later than 4:30 pm. I actually got home and started working on the meal at 4:20 so I had 10 grace minutes!

We were heading out of town on Thursday, so Glenn had to harvest our grapes before we could go. :-) We didn't have a huge crop this year so it didn't take a lot of time. Phew!

Thursday afternoon we flew to London to visit with one of our member care couples who are responsible for most of western Europe. They leave for their 6 month stateside assignment on Friday. Andy and Kaye live in South Gate, a suburb of London, and we really enjoy our time with them, wherever we are!

Kaye taught me how to eat the way the Brits do: with the fork turned upside down, and using the knife, scoop the food onto the backside of the fork, putting it in your mouth upside down. You never put your silverware down. I enjoyed the famous fish and chips!

Kaye and Andy also taught us that here in the U.K., chips are french fries, potato chips are crisps, biscuits are cookies, barbies are grills, and boots are trunks. Even though they speak English here, it is definitely a different English! We learned that instead of having garage sales, they have boot sales. On certain weekends, people will pay a small fee to park their car in a field and sell their good junk out of the trunk of their car!

Saturday we went into town to the Portobello Market, probably the most famous street market in the world. It is about 2 miles long of antique shops, local foods, clothing (new and used), and fleas.

It was packed!

There was one store that sold men's clothing, and part of the decor was that the walls were lined with antique sewing machines. Quite fabulous!

I kept losing Glenn in the crowds so I just looked for a man in a red shirt!

Just one block off the street was this book store that was made famous in the movie Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. Glenn and Andy took a "look see" inside while Kaye and I were in a different shop, and they found out that the book store is closing! I'm guessing it is because Amazon.uk is putting them out of business.

We were there over the lunch hour and looked around for something to eat but we decided we DIDN'T want this breakfast. At least, we didn't want baked beans which is part of a typical British breakfast!!

We got yummy steak sandwiches on this awesome bread. (By the way, according to some Brits that we met, the word 'awesome' has recently come into vogue in England.)

Does anyone use a telephone booth these days?

Throughout the city we found these blue circular signs that advertised where world famous people had lived, stayed, eaten... This one says that George Orwell, the novelist and political activist, 1903-1950, lived in this place.

Red double-decker buses were everywhere.

We hopped on one and rode it through the city to see things from up high!

We eventually got off when we got close to Buckingham Palace and walked the rest of the way.

When I was in middle school and living in Germany (my dad was in the army and stationed there), our family traveled to England to see the Queen. Well, not really, but we did get to see the changing of the guards here at Buckingham Palace!

This house was covered with beautiful, colorful flowers.

I thought this building was quite attractive.

And I loved all the red brick buildings.

This statue of Lord Nelson, who led in the Battle at Trafalgar against Napoleon, is located in Trafalgar Square. The lit dome in the distance on the left of the base is the tower of Big Ben. Did you know that Big Ben is actually the name of the BELL that hangs in the tower, not the big clock? I didn't.

Another view of Trafalgar Square. The red digital sign on the other side of the fountain is the count-down clock for the Olympics that will be in the U.K. next summer.

Glenn and I left Kaye and Andy's house and moved to the south side of London and are now staying with Mike and Julie. (Mike is one of our bosses.) Today, while Glenn and Mike went into the office to talk business, Julie, Elaine (who used to live in Budapest), and I went to COSTCO today! I felt like I was back in America!!!

We leave tomorrow (Tuesday) for Paris to visit with another member care couple for a few days so my next update will probably be of our time in France.

What is Senegal like?

2011-08-29T15:18:00.015-04:00

My blog post last week was more about Alec, Kari and Jonathan than what life has been like for us here in Senegal since we arrived a little over a week ago, but since I want to write about Alec...I'll do both. Let me warn you in advance, this is a long post. Well, there are a lot of pictures, anyway!

We were fortunate to be here for the baby dedication service at church when Kari and Jonathan promised to raise little Alec so that he could come to know and love the Lord with his whole heart, and to relinquish him to whatever plans the Lord has prepared in advance for him to do. It was a beautiful, meaningful service; we were able to stand with Kari and Jonathan, and Glenn gave them a blessing before the pastor prayed over them.

The first couple of weeks with Alec were rough as they tried to figure out his schedule and what his various cries mean...and I think they've got a good handle on it now. He has some reflux problems so they now know what to do to help him not vomit out what he's taken in. He is very social and didn't want to fall asleep for fear he might miss something. Because of this, he was not getting enough sleep so now we know to not let him get over stimulated before it is time for bed. He is doing much better and so are Mom and Dad! He is so precious!!!

Everyone that reads my blog with any regularity knows that I love homemade ice cream and make 50-60 quarts a year. I wanted to buy Kari an ice cream machine when they were in the States to put in their crate but Kari wasn't sure that they would be able to buy ice in Senegal to make the ice cream. I was thrilled when I found a small electric ice cream machine in Budapest that makes a quart of ice cream but that does not use ice!!! (It has a bowl that is filled with a liquid that you freeze for 8 hours and when you put the mixture in the bowl, the paddle stirs it and the coldness from the bowl freezes the ice cream.) Granted, it only makes a small amount at a time, but if the mixture is well chilled before you put it in the bowl to freeze, it makes enough for 3 servings after about 15 minutes of churning!!! We've made chocolate chip mint ice cream 3 times so far, and are going to try lime sorbet today. Yum!

I love a lot of the Senegalese dishes from our days in Ivory Coast and our previous visit to Senegal in 2003 (when Kari was a Journeyman) and I was looking forward to enjoying them again. Kari's house girl, Eliza, made a meal for us one day that has a caramelized onion sauce that you pour over chicken. The chicken is placed on a bed of french fries, encircled by chopped lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. It was delicious!

Kari and Jonathan go to the International Christian Fellowship of Dakar. (The pastor and his wife were friends of ours in Ivory Coast back in the early 90's so we already have a connection with their church!!) Last week the ladies in the mission organization with which Kari is affiliated gave her a baby shower. This week her church gave her a shower, and it was in the home of a family that works for the American Embassy (so the house was gorgeous!) I have enjoyed getting to know Kari and Jonathan's friends and co-workers, putting faces to their names after having heard about them for the past 7 months.

We were invited to dinner at the pastor's house on Wednesday evening, and I loved getting caught up on Joel and Elin's news from the past 18 years. Their son, now an adult and working elsewhere overseas, was 2 when we last saw him. Shortly after we left Ivory Coast, they had two daughters so we've gotten to know them a little during our visit here. We had Poulet Yassa for dinner that night and it was soooooo good, but I forgot to take any pictures. Sorry!

When Joel and Elin moved out to their neighborhood, they had a gorgeous view of the green country side, but in the past year or so, a strip of land behind their house has become the dump and squatters have built up against their house and yard wall. They don't mind the squatters so much as they do the smell from the burning trash...and the spoiled view off their roof-top terrace.

For the most part, we are staying close to home so that "Little Bit" (Alec) can get his sleep regularly (and because it is so hot outside!) but we did make a trip out to Malika Monkeys, a school that teaches young men a trade so that they can support their family. There are usually 6-10 men at the school at any given time, and they are also taught to read and write in French and Wolof, math, basic accounting, and the Bible. They make things like quilted bags, African clocks, carved wooden boats as serving pieces, animal statues, crosses made out of iron, authentic drums, and so on, to sell to tourists, but unfortunately, the director of the program just went to America and took most of their stock to sell in a store there in the U.S. that is run by her son.

I took most of the following pictures during our drive out to Malika Monkeys.

Notice the child about 3 years old that is playing unsupervised by himself out in the median-between heavy traffic on both sides? I have seen lots of young children playing in dangerous situations seemingly without adult's watching over them.

One of the biggest changes I have noticed is that there is much more trash on the ground this trip than there was in 2003. The population has increased tremendously since then, and I guess the infrastructure of garbage pickup hasn't been able to keep up with it.

I haven't seen as many stores being added as I have noticed things being sold out on the sidewalks. This is a hardware "store". :-)

Senegal is a Muslim country with a little animism mixed in. These boys have just finished their studies at a Koranic school, and are carrying home their Koranic boards...as opposed to their notebook.

She was willing to pose for a picture for me. Notice the goat? Wednesday is the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours. It is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and submissiveness to God and is the month in which they believe the first verses of the Koran (Qu'ran) were revealed to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The goat will be killed and eaten as part of the celebration of the end of Ramadan.

It is the middle of hot season here and so in the middle of the day, everyone is looking for the coolest place to take a nap. He found this nice shade tree and claimed his spot. Believe me, it was still hot under that tree!

We came during the mango season and between the four of us, we go through 4-5 mangos a day.

When we lived in Ivory Coast, Glenn was extremely allergic to the peeling/skin of mangos so I've been the one to peel and slice them for us each day.

After peeling the mangos, I like to suck the pits to get every last bit of the fruit off! I had to be careful though to make sure that the juice didn't drip down my arms and stain my clothes. Of all the tropical fruits available during the year, mangos are my favorite! Pineapples come in a close second.

Mufflers 'R Us?

Anyone need a slab of beef or a spare rib? Notice the cows' head on the table? I'm sure the table was wiped clean and sanitized before the guy put the cow on the table and started chopping. Yea, right! I'm sure the meat is only hanging out there in the heat for a short time before it is moved inside, into the ultra nice cooler and wrapped in germ-free butcher paper. Yea, right!

Women chit chatting. World-wide custom?

These brightly colored short buses are called Rapides, which is quite ironic since they don't really go very fast! Most of them are so weighted down with too many people inside and several hanging out the back, goats and produce on top, and wrecked and battered from so many accidents through the years that they can't go very fast. In addition, they stop about every block to let someone on or off so it's not like they can gain much speed!

In Ivory Coast, these Rapides were called Vingt-deux Places (22 Places), which is also ironic because most of the time there would be at least 30-35 people crammed inside, seated and standing, and always 2-4 men hanging off the back. This is the way of life here. The idea of getting or using a seat belt is unheard of, and what about car seats for children? No way.

I am so nervous behind one of the many Rapides because I am so afraid one of the guys is going to slip off and get run over!

Shoe store. What more can I say? Creative way to display the many styles in stock. Don't see what you'd like? Maybe I have something in my storeroom. Oh, I don't have a storeroom. Hmmm, let me run check with my buddy down the street to see if he has what you want. Be back in a jiffy. Dash, dash!

Nothing like letting everyone see your dirty laundry.

Looks like a town meeting.

Why carry something in your hands when you can carry it on your head? They start learning when they are young so that they...

can carry bigger stuff when they are older.

Well, thanks for sticking with me to the end.

We've had a great visit with Kari, Jonathan and Alec, but unfortunately, our visit ends tomorrow. We are headed back to Budapest, catching a 2 am flight out of Dakar early Thursday morning. Well, the good thing about a flight out that late is that there won't be much traffic!!!

GRAND KIDS!

2011-08-22T08:21:00.022-04:00

Last week I was in New Jersey, visiting with Chris (son) and Kate and precious little Jazmine, and now I am in Dakar, Senegal, visiting with Kari (daughter) and Jonathan and (also) precious Alec, and in between we took a 5 day trip to Georgia to visit with our families-to check on our parents.

Our 5 days in Marietta were packed with special times with family members. One of my favorite things was our "Girls Day Out" with my two sisters, Elizabeth and Karin. So, do we look alike? I've always thought they looked like each other and I was the odd one out but in this picture, I see some resemblance in our mouths.

We went with Glenn's mother to visit two of her friends that have been special to us through the years (Anne C. and Mary Jean W.) and stopped by Burger King for a quick lunch. As on each of our trips to the U.S., I am amazed at how things change in such a short time, and I always enjoy seeing what is "new". The new drink machines at Burger King are new since we were here in May! We have Burger King in Budapest. I wonder how many years it will be before these drink machines make it over there?!? They still don't have the "free refills/self-serve" at our Burger Kings so it may be a while before we get one of these fancy machines

Sunday "lupper" at Red Lobster was a fun time. We went after church on Sunday and service was so slow that we didn't leave there until close to 4 pm so we ended up eating both lunch and supper meals there in the middle of the afternoon.

Sister-in-law Becky was kind and brave and generously spent one full day shopping with me for things for Kari and Jonathan and Alec. We both love SAM's pizzas and enjoyed one for lunch, and in addition, she brought one home for her hubby for that night.

And what trip to Marietta would be complete without Glenn's favorite, The Varsity???

We flew from Atlanta to Budapest, repacked our suitcases, paid some bills, cut the grass, picked the apples and then flew out the next day to Senegal. I'm getting to be a pro at packing!

I know you've all be waiting for photos of Alec so here are a few. We are proud grandparents, for sure, and doubly blessed! We've got teeny tiny Jazzy and moving, muscular Alec and we love them so much!!! Holding those sweet babies bring back such wonderful memories of when our own children were infants.

Both Alec and Jazzy are good sleepers.

Alec likes sitting in Grampy Glenn's lap but really doesn't believe all his Grampy tells him about when his mother was a little girl.

Even though Alec will let me hold him, he prefers his mother. Natch!

He loves everything about his mother, even her pinkie.

Of course, he loves his daddy too. He feels very safe and comfy on Jonathan's chest.

And while Jonathan is babysitting Alec, Kari takes advantage of the "disconnection" to grab a few minutes of rest for herself.

The ladies of the organization with which Kari and Jonathan are affiliated had a baby shower for her the morning we arrived (boy, was I tired!) It was so nice to meet everyone that Kari talks works with and to put faces with their names.

One of the ladies Kari knew from her Journeymen days, when she was in Senegal from 2002-2004. Maggie was the daughter of Kari's supervisor and was 13 years old when Kari first met her. She is living again in Dakar, married and with a child of her own.

It has been hot here, in the mid- to upper 80's with 80%-90% humidity. Pretty hot and very sticky. Rainy season has begun and fortunately, when it rains, it cools things down a few degrees. One afternoon we went for a drive through the city. (A co-worker loaned Kari and Jonathan a vehicle to use while we are here which has been a blessing, and it has a wonderful feature called air conditioning!) I'm not sure which we enjoyed more...the sights or the cool air!

These are colorful fishing boats along the waters' edge.

We're not sure what the real deal is with the man on the stilts since this is not a traditional Senegalese art form or part of their dance, but it is a great money maker! He blocked the road until we gave him a few coins to move out of our way.

We still have a little over a week here so you'll see more of our time with Kari and Jonathan and little Alec the next time I update. Until then, "stay cool".

And all that JAZ!

2011-08-07T18:45:00.018-04:00

Glenn and I are in New Jersey.

This is our son, Chris.

This is Kate, Chris's wife and our daughter-in-law.

And this is Jazmine, Chris and Kate's daughter; our first grandchild.

Isn't she beautiful?

And this is their family, complete with the dog, Shadow.

What a wonderful family!

For the past week, I've held Jazmine as much as possible.

She said to me, "Mimi, I love you this much!"

She feels very comfortable with her grandpa!

Glenn used to hold our daughter, Kari, just like this when she was an infant!

We love it when she is awake.

She likes to be held, which is a good thing this week!

She has two doting grandma's!

The grandma's can't get enough of her!!

Four generations in one photo. Josephine, the great-grandmother, holds Jazmine as Kate and her mom, Barbara, stand behind them.

Chris, Kate, and Jazmine live with Kate's grandmother, Josephine, in the borough of Rutherford, which is one square mile. We walked into the next town, Lynhurst, for some Italian ice! It has been unbelievably hot since we arrived here so this was a nice treat.

Notice Glenn's tongue sticking out of his mouth?

It's a family trait. Chris does it, and Jazmine does too!

While I've been holding Jazmine, Glenn helped Chris with several projects around the house.

Not sure which one was the worker and which one was the supervisor.

Shortly after Glenn got out from underneath this wash basin made of concrete, the legs crumbled from age and collapsed! Glenn estimates it weighed about 100-125 pounds! I shudder to think of what COULD have happened!

They worked on plumbing projects and electrical ones too. Josephine was so thankful to have a new laundry area by time they finished!!!

They also worked on Chris's jeep one day.

Kate and I went shopping one day, leaving Jazmine with Chris and Glenn. She wanted to be near her daddy (and her daddy wanted to work on his jeep) so she napped in the front seat of the jeep while her daddy and grandpa worked on it.

After a week of me taking about a 1000 pictures, Jazmine said, "Please, no more pictures!" She is just like her daddy in this way. He lets me take about 3 pictures (if I can take them in 2 minutes or less...) and then he says, "No more pictures."

Well, she's in luck. We now have a grandson to oogle and ahhh over!

Alec Glenn Masson was born on July 31 to our daughter, Kari, and our son-in-law, Jonathan, who live in Dakar, Senegal. (More info on this wonderful event next week when we are in Senegal and I update my blog of our trip to see them!)

When Kari got home from the hospital and was feeling up to it, we held a family Skype call with video so we could see Kari, Jonathan and Alec. It was "way cool!"

We couldn't talk long because Alec was getting hungry but it was great to be able to see him via video on Skype. When I think of how far technology has progressed since the days we lived in Ivory Coast in the late 80's and early 90's, I realize how fortunate we are! It used to cost us $4 a MINUTE to call from Ivory Coast to talk to our parents, if we could get the call to go through on the "one" line out of the country!!! We can keep in touch so much easier these days via Skype, and using video is such a blessing!!!

We wanted to introduce cousins Jazmine and Alec to each other, but they didn't seem too excited about it. They just slept right through the video call!! I know in 5 or 6 years from now, they will be the best of buddies!

Kate's grandmother got great, inexpensive tickets to a Broadway play and asked if I wanted to go with her and Kate's mom to see it. Of course! So we drove about 10 minutes toward NYC and parked the car, hopped on a transit bus that took us to within one block from the theatre house.

We had about an hour and a half to walk around a little bit and get a bite to eat before the show started.

We walked and talked and enjoyed the perfect weather.

The sidewalks were an obstacle course, packed with ethnicities of every kind. A real mission field.

We stopped by a Starbucks to enjoy a drink before the show. "A low-fat, with whip, white chocolate mocha grande with an extra pump for me, please."

Barbara (Kate's mom) and I went to see Baby, It's You! Kate's grandmother went to see Catch Me If You Can, which was 10 blocks away.

It was a musical with all the songs I grew up on as a teenager so it was great fun! Soldier Boy, It's My Party (and I'll Cry If I Want To), Dedicated to the One I Love, I Met Him on a Sunday...

The description of the play is above. One of the most enjoyable evenings I've had.

On a TOTALLY different note, as we were walking through town today, I took this picture on the door of a local restaurant. Did they mean Re-Grand Opening, or Grand Re-Opening???

We are here for two more days and then we head to Atlanta for a few days to have a quick visit with our parents, and then on to Senegal (via one night in Budapest) to see Kari and Jonathan and meet Alec. We have been having a great time here with Chris and Kate, and Josephine (lovingly called Bub), taking it easy, holding Jazmine, and taking some long walks to burn off all Josephine's great Italian meals!!

Catch you later!

Double blessings!

2011-07-31T22:39:00.005-04:00

This has been a wonderful day! Glenn and I are in New Jersey now, visiting Chris and Kate and our first grandchild, Jazmine Eliza, and we got word this morning of the arrival of our second grandchild, Alec Glenn, born in Dakar, Senegal. We are doubly blessed, for sure!

I have a few photos to show you, but they start out back in Budapest.

The day before our departure, I went to Campona Mall to get my hair cut. While I was riding the escalator up to Klier Salon, I took this picture of a new ride for little kids! The animals are motorized and so move around, but I wasn't close enough to figure out how they are turned.

When we were at the airport to catch our flight to America, we grabbed a bite to eat at Burger King. Because sizes of food and drinks are so small here in Europe, when I was asked if I wanted to "upsize" my drink, I said, "yes, please". I was ASTOUNDED at the size of the Burger King drinks! I don't think they are this big in America!! I was expecting it to go from a small drink (16 oz.) to a medium (22 oz.), but it went to a 38 oz. drink!!!

Our flights from Budapest to London and then on to JFK in New York went without any problems, but the second we touched down in N.Y., our plane skidded to a stop way out on the runway and just sat there for the longest time. The pilot announced that we'd had a "mechanical failure" upon landing. We'd landed in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm, with grayness all around and sheets of rain blocking our visibility. However, I don't think the rain or wind had anything to do with our problem. We ended up having to sit way out on the runway for 30-45 minutes while we waited on the storm to subside and the vehicle to arrive that could tow our plane to the gate.

We spent Saturday just resting and hanging around the house. Glenn and Chris played some Boules in the backyard while I finished the book I'd started on the plane.

We've gone for several walks in the neighborhood. Jazmine loves our walks but she also has a tendency to sleep through most of them!

It's been quite warm here so little Jazmine stays cool by wearing nothing but a diaper most of the time. She's beautiful and I'm enjoying holding her!!!

We're here for another week so more pictures to come. For pictures of little Alec, you can find them on Kari's blog or her Facebook page. :-)

A great week!

2011-07-24T10:15:00.005-04:00

As we've had lots of young families staying at the Eden House for the past two weeks, Glenn and I have had quite a few families over for meals and let their young children swim in our kiddie pool. We've even done a fair amount of babysitting...

Glenn and I kept Bethany and Ethan twice while their parents went out with some friends and to a movie. The kids were great both times. Bethany rolled around contentedly on the floor in the living room and then out in the mud room, having a two-sided conversation with her dog, just having a great old time...until the Sandman overtook her. She fell asleep on the floor in the mud room! As soon as I realized she'd fallen asleep, I got a blanket for her to lay on. Neither of my kids EVER fell asleep while playing!

And Ethan? Well, he slept most of the time he was with us.

We must be boring. I'll have to work on that now that we have a grandchild. Give me a week or two and we will have grandchildren.

I just loved Bethany's teeny tiny purple and pink backpack. I'm going to have so much fun buying stuff like this for my grandchildren. (Don't worry, Kari and Jonathan. I'll buy a man purse for your little boy!)

Scott and JoEllen are on vacation this week so Glenn and I are covering for them at the Eden House. This morning we picked everyone up and took them to Danube International Baptist Church for worship (in English). This afternoon we will meet a couple in an hour or two to let them in, give them their room key, complete the paperwork, and show them to their room. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we will be taking various families to their doctor's appointments at First Med Centers. Busy, busy, busy!

Our blackberry bushes are slowly getting ripe. I hope a lot of them ripen in the next couple of days but I fear we will miss them entirely this year! Later this week we will be going to New Jersey to see Chris and Kate and meet our granddaughter, Jazmine, and then on to Senegal to see Kari and Jonathan and meet our grandson. (He's due Aug. 1 so we don't know his name yet!)

As you can see, unless they ripen quickly, we will not be able to enjoy very many of them this year!

The Doyles had to make an unplanned trip to the U.S. last week and so they gave us all their fruits and vegetables from their refrigerator. We've saved some to eat fresh during this coming week but Glenn chopped up the extras to put into our freezer for use when we get back.

These peppers are very, very hot and will burn your skin if you handle them much. We use these peppers to make our spicy salsa!

While Glenn was chopping peppers, I washed dishes from lunch and then started to pack a few things for going to Senegal. The suitcase of things going to New Jersey is upstairs. I have to keep them separated so that I don't put things in the wrong suitcase. We will visit in New Jersey for 10 days, make a quick trip to Atlanta to check on our parents, then fly back to BP for less than 24 hours before heading out for Senegal. Because we won't have much time here in BP in between trips, we are packing ahead of time for Senegal. I hope I remember to pack the cheese and sausage for Kari when we come back through BP!

Hope you have a great week!

Precious in pink!

2011-07-17T16:45:00.007-04:00

Last week, all of a sudden, I had an incredible spike in the number of viewers to my blog. Up from 23 a day to 66. I couldn't figure out why so many people were checking out my blog until someone mentioned they were all looking for pictures of my first grandchild. (Hey, let's get real. My blog isn't all that spectacular...especially if you read mine after Senegal Daily and Life in Jersey!)

So here she is, Jazmine Eliza Borderz. :-) She is the daughter of my son, Chris and his wife, Kate.

Before we saw any pictures of her, we asked Chris who she looked like, him or Kate??? Well, in keeping with Chris's typical response, he said, "She looks like a baby." Well, she definitely looks like a baby...

but she also definitely looks just like him when he was an infant!!!

We will be flying to New Jersey to see Chris and Kate and to meet our first grandchild on July 29. And yes, I'm counting down the days! 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

We're really getting into this grand-parenting thing. Yesterday, we went to Ikea to buy some toys, among other things. Glenn says they are for when the grandchildren visit and when families with young children come to visit, but I'm not so sure.

Glenn couldn't wait to get home to try them out!

I do have to admit that we have had a lot of company over for meals and to swim in our kiddie pool for the past week and we've wished we had some toys for their children. Actually, since July 6th, we've had one or two families over for lunch or dinner almost every single day, and tonight we had several families over for homemade ice cream.

It's been hot here for the past week so the pool has been a hit with the kids!

Big kids and little kids, alike!

During our ice cream fest, Glenn practiced feeding the Brummit's son while the men had lifeguard duty.

Little Bethany takes a break from swimming for a little snack.

And on a totally different note...a house is being built in the lot directly across the street from ours. Glenn has particularly enjoyed watching the men build it and comments almost daily about some of the differences in the way things are done here in Hungary as opposed to in the U.S. . There are several things they do that wouldn't be OSHA approved, such as working on the construction site shirtless and in your panties! I'm just glad he's not wearing a Speedo!

For family and friends who are keeping tabs on our grandchildren, Kari is counting down the days too! Her baby boy is due August 1, but I think she is hoping he will come a little early!

We're home this week, and you will find me in the kitchen!

I'm a grandmother!

2011-07-11T08:58:00.008-04:00

We arrived back in Budapest, well, I'm not sure when exactly. The summer is flying by so fast that I can't keep up with the days of the week at all. Glenn has to tell me that it is Saturday and time to take my weekly bath because the next morning we go to church. Well, it's not that bad, but almost! It goes more like this. "What day of the week is it?" "Hmmm, yesterday I went bike riding with Istvan, and his day off is on Wednesdays, so today must be Thursday."

When I ended my blog last week, I still had a bunch of photos from our trip to Turkey that I wanted to show you. Rather than show you ALL the photos I took, I am selecting a few of my favorites and breaking them into two blog updates. So here are a few more, and the last of this trip to Turkey.

I had the privilege of meeting Kelsey, one of our young ladies who serves in the Russian cluster, and then doing her member care appointment. One of the neat things about her is that she is from Cartersville, Georgia, just 20-25 minutes from us in Marietta! How cool is that?

One day we watched the hotel personnel set up the pool deck for a huge dinner banquet. We found out that it was a circumcision celebration for a young muslim boy, I'd guess around 8-10 years old. There was a huge crowd that gathered that night and we enjoyed watching from the balcony of the dining area that overlooked the pool, and oohing and ahhing over the ladies' gorgeous dresses. The evening had a beautiful sunset, perfect weather, and lots of loud music for dancing.

a real fixer upper!

We stayed a couple of extra days to get to know David and Debbie, our two newest members to the member care team. Glenn needed to "orient" them, such as how to write their annual goals, how the annual evaluation would be done, which countries and personnel would fall under their responsibilities, how to budget and what to budget for...and so on. They would work in the mornings and into the afternoons, and then take a break. During the break time, we'd often go for walks through town. That is the way I like to "sightsee".

On our last day in town, we ate at a neighborhood cafe so that we could eat some traditional Turkish food. The food was good in the hotel, but it was the same food day after day, for both lunch and dinner, so after a week (14 meals all tasting the same), I talked Glenn into eating out!

Traditional Turkish food is the kebab, which is grilled chicken or lamb, served with a salad of shredded carrots and cabbage, and a side of rice or french fries. Oh, and the most delicious pita bread placed on top! Yum!

Good thing we ate before we saw these hanging in the window next door! As we walked past the window with the carcasses hanging, I looked back to see Glenn with his fist closed, and his thumb pointing up and then down, then up again. I figured out he was trying to remember the way we learned in Africa to distinguish whether an animal (live) was a goat or a sheep: Goats tails are short and go up, and sheep tails are a little longer and go down. So, Glenn was looking at the tails and trying to decide if these were goats or sheep. I think he decided they were goats.

We found some beautiful Clematis vines growing on the front wall of one of the yards. I don't know how anyone can look at the detail of something like this flower and not realize there has to be a Creator to design something so intricate and beautiful as these flowers. I'd never seen a Clematis like this...until I got home, that is! Turns out that the one we bought and planted earlier in the spring in our yard was blooming when we got home and is the same species!!! What a nice surprise!!

So, now we're back in Budapest and back to our local "work". Glenn and I took Ryan and his two older children (who have been staying at the Eden House) to the hospital to visit his wife and their new son who was born on July 4th! Mom and baby are doing well. I am practicing being a grandmother by babysitting the older two this week while mom and dad go to the Embassy to get a passport for the new baby.

It's important that I practice being a grandmother a lot because I AM A GRANDMOTHER NOW!

Chris (our son) and Kate welcomed their beautiful daughter, Jazmine Eliza, into the world on July 4th (also!) Kate and Jazzy are doing well, and Chris, the proud daddy, is so glad to have mom and baby home "where they belong". So, now I need to practice being a grandmother so I can be a great one to my grandkids!

Pictures to come next week. If you can't wait a week to see them, click on the link to Chris and Kate's blog.

There's another family up at the Eden House with young children. We invited them down for a meal, and because it has been sooo hot here, we bought a small pool for them to play in. Speaking of hot, we hit 100 degrees yesterday, but mercifully, it is down to 87 degrees today. I WANTED to put on my bathing suit and get in the pool with the kids, but I had to settle for wearing shorts. Anyway, I am practicing being a grandmother. "Yes, you can go up there." "Yes, you can have a piece of candy." "Yes, I'll get in the pool with you."

I should be real good by time we get to New Jersey on July 29th to see Chris, Kate and Jazzy!

Glenn's real good with kids too, but we have to watch him. He likes to skirt those child labor laws and put kids to work. Somehow, he convinces them that they want to help him water the plants with the pool water! He must be related to Tom Sawyer!

Do we look old enough to be grandparents? If you think so, don't comment. :-)

Hungary,Turkey, Hungary

2011-07-03T14:43:00.008-04:00

Well, I'm late again! Sorry :-(

Two weeks ago we were in Budapest and I noticed how "up-town" we'd become! On both sides of our neighborhood we found these beautiful signs that welcome everyone to Budafok. We've gone big time!

When we were at the Budapest airport to fly to Turkey, I saw this huge poster and pondered on what the guy in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower was advertising with a baguette up against his ear and a map spread out before him. Maybe he was lost and was using the map to find his way? Well, the map won't help him because he's in the wrong country. It is a map of Rome! Yes, a map of Rome (it's written on the front of the map!)

We flew into Istanbul and then caught a taxi out to a small town about 45 minutes away called Selimpasa. It's on the coast of the Sea of Marmara. (We are here for the Russian cluster meeting, to do member care appointments.)

We met an American couple that run a travel agency here in Turkey. I go to the other side of the world and meet someone from Marietta, Georgia! How crazy is that? Chris and Angela were from Indian Hills on the other side of Cobb County. It is truly a small world.

Our hotel was small, overlooked the sea, and had, as found in most hotels in Europe, twin beds in each room. The pool was nice, but I never got in. Instead, I preferred to lay out by the sea in lounge chairs during the afternoon breaks. As always, I enjoy reading the funny wording on signs!

The dining room was huge, and half of the tables were outside on a covered porch overlooking the Sea of Marmara. Most days the weather was beautiful, but there were a few days that were cool (cold) and rainy, and boy, the wind blowing off the sea was a bit chilly!!!

Situated on the beach, the lone hotel was surrounded by quaint vacation villas covered with flowering vines and colorful bushes. We enjoyed walking through the neighborhood and ohhhing and ahhhing over all the beautifully landscaped yards.

There isn't a lot of commerce in the nearby town so I'm assuming most folks drive into Istanbul to work. There is, however, an open-air market on Sundays for the local folks to buy gorgeous fresh fruits and vegetables, and a host of other "necessities". Glenn and I bought a melon, peaches, cashews, and plums to snack on during the days here.

Because Turkey is a muslim country where modesty is a big deal, I was surprised to see a man selling the bras.

Locally made cheese for sale. I wasn't brave enough to try any.

Dried fruits, nuts, spices, cookies and so on...

And I loved the GAP jerseys! Of course, chances are pretty good they are either knock-offs or genuine fakes :-).

Glenn patiently walked with me through the housewares but I think he much preferred the tools, gadgets and hardware!

I saw some really neat kitchen items but I didn't NEED anything so all I did was browse. Any time I want to buy something, Glenn asks me if I'd rather buy it or go visit my children. Children win every time!

It is definitely watermelon season here and they are cheap! Our hotel had watermelon slices on the buffet line for every lunch and dinner meal since we arrived here over a week ago. I love watermelon so I've eaten it for dessert every day, twice a day!

We head back to BP tomorrow morning but I still have some pictures of this trip to show you so I may update before next Sunday. Stay tuned for more pictures of our time in Turkey.

Ukraine and Bulgaria

2011-06-18T17:23:00.010-04:00

I celebrated my 55th birthday on June 5th by inviting a couple of our friends over for cake and ice cream. As in the past 3 years, Alvin made my cake and we had some of the 14 quarts of homemade ice cream from our freezer. Alvin even decorated the cake with a fake barbie doll!!

In preparation for our 2 week trip to Ukraine and Bulgaria, we needed to pick some of the cherries before we left even though they weren't at the peak of their ripeness. A little afraid that neighbors would pick the tree clean while we were gone, we decided to pick a bunch for the freezer and then hoped there would be some on the top of the tree when we returned that were totally ripe. (Glenn picked about 8 quarts of really deep purple (very ripe) cherries when we got back into town so now we have more than we can possibly eat!)

I think we have enough cherries to last for a while!!!!

We left for our Black Sea Orthodox cluster meeting in Kiev, Ukraine on June 9th where we provided member care appointments. We were there for a week and the weather was quite nice. The two previous times we've been to Kiev, it was sticky and hot!!!

I don't know if you can see it or not, but there is a picture of Sponge Bob on the sign and believe it or not, the name of the car wash is Sponge Bob!!! Sponge Bob made it all the way to Ukraine.

Glenn and I enjoyed a good chuckle when we saw the billboard with the announcement of the upcoming Miss Blonde Ukraine competition! Evidently, true Ukrainian women have blonde hair!

After a week in Kiev and just before we left for the second week in Sofia, Bulgaria, Glenn had to do a load of laundry. He remembered to bring a clothesline. He's so smart and handy! (I just take enough to last the two weeks!)

On our way to the airport to catch our flight to Bulgaria, we talked the van driver into stopping for lunch at Domino's Pizza!!! Yes, Domino Pizza is in Ukraine and it was soooo good!

Janet, my walking partner in BP, was at the conference with us in Kiev to do testing for the children of our personnel. She was headed back to BP when we were going to Bulgaria and in the van with us...She enjoyed the pizza with us, as did Alex, the guy who drove us to the airport. Actually, his Ukrainian name is Sasha but it is Alex in English.

The rest of these photos are from Bulgaria.

Our hotel was just a few minutes from ancient Roman ruins. I enjoyed walking among them each afternoon during our break time.

Our last day in town we had a free afternoon so a dozen or so of us made a trip to a nearby village to do a little pottery shopping. We stopped by this site to check out the amphitheatre. I don't know anything about it since I wasn't around when our "guide" gave a little bit of the history. I didn't buy any pottery because I am saving my money for Polish pottery, even though the Bulgarian pottery is quite interesting.

I took a couple of pictures of some crazy signs we saw in Bulgaria. Does it really mean all you need at the hotel is clothes, underwear, accessories, bathing (???) and souvenirs?

Notice the top left? What is dental tourism?

#5 says, "Using of the swimming pool is against payment". What on earth does that mean???

And I loved this spice packet found in a little corner grocery store! "Seasoning for Tasty Food"? If the food is already tasty, why does it need seasoning? If it isn't tasty, why would you want to eat it?

Well, our time in Ukraine and Bulgaria is over and we are back in Budapest. We'll be here for 5 days before we head to Turkey for another cluster meeting. I'll update before we catch the next flight!

Before I close, I'd like to wish my father a Happy Father's Day! I have a wonderful Dad and I love him very much. Wish I could be there to tell him in person how much he means to me!

Happy Birthday to me!

2011-06-05T09:58:00.007-04:00

The beginning of this past week found us still in Marietta, Georgia. While I was in the U.S., I recognized a strange phenomenon. When we are overseas, we always enjoy looking for American products such as Oreos, cake mixes or Crisco in the various countries we visit. It's almost a game as we go from grocery store to grocery store just looking (and occasionally, but not often, buying) to see which American products can be found.

Well, when our daughter lived in France, I used to buy these wonderful spiced cookies each time we visited her and Jonathan. Then one day Kari introduced me to this delicious spread (looks like peanut butter, but a little creamier) with the same spiced taste. Lo, can you imagine how excited I got when I found the same thing available at Kroger in America???? I got almost as excited as I would when I would meet an African from the Ivory Coast!!! Far more excited than when I found Oreos in Greece!

It's a little expensive, but you really ought to try the cookies and the spread! This is the Lotus brand, the exact brand that Kari would buy for me in France! Let me know what you think about them!

Toward the end of our time in America, we celebrated Queenie and Pa's anniversary, even though Pa was no longer with us. Glenn's mother told us that Pa had already decided how he wanted to celebrate their 65th anniversary, and it was for the whole Borders clan to go with them to Outback Steak House. Pa had been saving for the event, which Glenn found in his bedside table, so "he" took the whole crew out for dinner just before Glenn and I returned to Budapest. To us, it was kind of odd that he wanted to go to Outback because Pa himself was a seafood lover...but we didn't argue! (How could we?)

Jackson, Beth and Stephen's son, dressed for the occasion with his smile and his cute little fedora.

We spent a lot of time with Glenn's family during the days, but I got to see my father a lot too. (More than usual because his "special friend", Emogene, was out in Texas with one of her sons.) Fortunately, Emogene flew back into town early on the day we were flying out, so we went to the airport to pick her up, and then ate together on the way home, and then she came over for dinner before we flew out late that night. She and my dad make a cute couple, don't you think?

We carried back with us 4 bags stuffed with clothes, food and books, and some items for 5 other people. Good friends from our church, Bobby and Kerry, picked us up from my father's house at 7 pm and took us to the Atlanta airport to catch our 11 pm flight out. They were both feeling kinda sickly with a bug their family had been passing around, but so far, we haven't had any of their symptoms. If they are reading this, we thank them very much!!! It was a huge favor they did for us and we appreciated it very much.

Now, every time we come home for a visit, folks are all the time telling us they'd like to come visit us in Budapest or we invite them to come visit us and no one ever comes. (Well, I shouldn't say EVER but I'm using literary license to make a point...) Lot's of folks have said, "I would have to get a passport" so we are going to make it easy for them. Go to the Powder Springs post office and get an application. We'd love to show you our beautiful city! And, to get your money's worth, stay long enough to run over to Vienna, Austria 2 hours away or up to Prague, Czech Republic that is 6 hours away!

We would love to have you come!

Anyway, the trip home was just the way I like them. UNeventful!

Our strawberry plants had started producing. We picked about 3 pounds of strawberries, cut them up and froze them for eating later over ice cream or in other desserts. Aren't they pretty? Glenn picked another 2-3 pounds yesterday so I now have 8 containers of strawberries in my freezer and there are tons more strawberries coming!

While in the U.S. I found this Hi and Lois comic strip that made me laugh and laugh and laugh! It fits me perfectly! And for those who can't read the small print, I've made a larger copy below in the next two photos!!! Hmmmm, I guess I'm not the ONLY one who likes a little bit of coffee with their whipped cream and white chocolate syrup!

Sounds just like me, doesn't it Karin and Kari?

Friday night we were invited to Melissa and Scott's for dinner. They are a young couple living here while Scott goes to the Central European University to study Ottoman Turk history. They live in downtown BP. When we left their apartment, we decided to walk part the way home. I loved this sign that indicates the direction to various countries, such as Poland, Croatia, and France! (The bottom sign says: Francia orszag, which is Country of France). Cool, eh?

This is the famous Astoria Hotel. At night, it is gorgeous. During the day, it is beautiful. I don't know which one is more impressive, day or night!

Today is my birthday and we have a few folks coming over for cake and homemade ice cream. (Remember the 14 quarts of ice cream I made just before going to the U.S. for the funeral? Well, I need help eating it or I will gain 10 kilos!) Alvin always makes me a birthday cake, so he is bringing it over when he comes. I love a party!

We head out this week for Ukraine for a meeting, then on to Bulgaria for another meeting. We will provide member care to our personnel. My role of TCK Education Consultant has officially been transferred to someone else as of June 1, so except for the emails coming in wishing me happy birthday, the daily onslaught of emails has slowed down. Now I can concentrate on helping Glenn with member care.

Take care! Because of our travels, I'm not sure when I will be able to update but I'll be back as soon as possible.

Funeral and Fun

2011-05-28T17:59:00.008-04:00

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!

2011-05-16T16:40:00.004-04:00

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!

2011-05-08T09:11:00.009-04:00

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!

2011-05-01T12:51:00.007-04:00

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. :-)

Kellemes Husveti Unnepeket!

2011-04-24T15:41:00.007-04:00

Happy Easter!

Here we are dressed in our Sunday best headed to church. We decided to go to Danube International Church this morning so that we could celebrate our Savior's victory over death in English, and the day was made even more special when Istvan, Glenn's Hungarian friend, said he would go with us! He enjoyed the service in English and said he'd like to go again sometime. Wow! We spent the rest of the day around the house until it was time to go to the Eden House for worship, again in English, with other missionaries in our organization. We needed a day of rest because the past week has been rather stressful.

We got terribly sad news mid-week that a dear friend of ours passed away. Jo Chupp and her husband, Ed, were our next door neighbors on Big Oaks Drive and we grew to love them very much. They were the kindest, most gracious couple I've ever met. I know Jo prayed for us and that meant so much to me. I will miss her very much and going home to Big Oaks Drive will only be half as much fun as it has been for all these years. I look forward to seeing Jo in heaven one day. I can almost hear her say, "And I won't be in this confounded wheelchair!"

Judit made me quite an Easter present. Or, should I say "presents"? She made me an Easter wreath to hang on my front door, decorated with colorful fabric eggs. She also decoupaged an empty green wine bottle (she knows my living room is green) and put 3 Pussy Willow tails in it on which to hang the 6 hand-painted eggs she and her daughter made for me! This is a typical Hungarian craft. They blew the eggs empty, then painted them (because all their eggs here are brown) with the typical Hungarian designs found on all their local crafts. Because she wasn't pleased with the way the green decoupaged wine bottle turned out, she went to the store and bought another bottle of wine (this one she left unopened, full of wine :-) and decoupaged it too. She wouldn't accept that I preferred the green (EMPTY) wine bottle so she made me take both of them. I should have taken a picture of the eggs hanging from the Pussy Willow branches in the bottle on the living room mantle to show you. (If you look at the picture of Glenn and me above, you can see two of the eggs hanging out from behind my left ear!)

We've had gorgeous weather this week and spring is very definitely here. Got my spices planted in pots for the steps again this year. Dill, Basil, Parsley, Chives, Rosemary, and two cherry tomato plants.

Our strawberry plants are taking over the "back yard". They are spreading as fast as the raspberry bushes! We should have our first strawberries in about 2 weeks and they will produce until early September! I love going outside and picking a few strawberries to go in my yogurt for breakfast.

Glenn has been having a good ol' time working out in the yard. He is a maniac with clippers so don't get near him unless you want a haircut! He "trimmed" the cedar tree and now my little garden will get lots of sunshine. We definitely have the most beautiful yard in our neighborhood.

Earlier this week around the corner from our house, I passed a dumpster in the street full of all kinds of bushes, bulbs and flowers that had been pulled up and thrown out. SCORE! Glenn and I went back with plastic bags to scavenge. (Is that a word?) (Have I no shame?) The owner of the home happened to be standing next to the dumpster when we got there, so I timidly asked her, "Do you speak English?" She does, in fact, quite well! "Do you mind if we dig through your dumpster to get some of the plants you're throwing out?" She told us she was redoing the landscape in her yard-getting rid of all the flowers and bushes and laying sod!! We got close to 150 double Jonquil bulbs, 3 flowering bushes of which I do not know the name, and 2 Peonie bushes! I have no shame but lots of plants!!!!!

Glenn has really enjoyed working in the yard this week but will take a break as he heads to Prague on Tuesday for a meeting. I won't be alone because I have a friend coming from London to spend 10 days with me. P-A-R-T-Y!

Have a great week!

Work and Play

2011-04-17T16:03:00.006-04:00

We (or I) had company come this week from Sunday through Thursday. Katie, the new Lead Education Consultant, came for 4 days for us to "talk shop". She has picked up some of my work for me so that I can move closer back to doing member care, which I've appreciated. I have loved working as the Education Consultant for Europe for these past 4 years, helping families with their educational concerns, but I have requested to be relieved of my consultant role because it is too difficult to do two full-time jobs and do them well. I am wanting to move back to member care full time.

If you remember .... last Sunday was Glenn's birthday and I gave him a 3-D puzzle of the Parliment building. Well, while I was meeting with Katie, Glenn was working on the puzzle.

Glenn numbered each piece before putting it in place so that we could take it apart and put it together again another time.

Piece by piece...

It slowly came together. Glenn was able to eavesdrop without being obvious about it. :-)

He completed it in three days.

And now it is on display in our living room for all to oooh and ahhh over.

And here is the real deal. This photo was taken earlier today while Glenn and I were in town.

Jimmy and Natalie, two of our former Journeymen, are in Budapest on a mission trip from the U.S. and are staying with us. They are here as media specialists to document Michael Frost, an Australian church planter and author, as he speaks on The Church in a Broken World at one of our local community centers (a ministry point place). Natalie went through the Orientation Center with us in Virginia 4+ years ago so we go way back. Jimmy and Natalie became sweet on each other 2 years ago when they both came to Budapest for the Journeyman Christmas that we hosted at the Eden House so we feel we had an integral part in the beginning of their relationship! :-)

We accompanied them into town this morning to help them meet up with the rest of their group who were staying in a hotel in downtown Budapest since they didn't know where they were going.

After connecting them with their group leader, Glenn and I decided to stay downtown and walk around for some exercise. Following are some of the things we saw...in no particular order.

We came across a store called Culinaris which is an import store that sells a lot of food items from around the world, including the U.S. There are now 3 Culinaris' in town.

We happened on the only one of the 3 that is open on Sunday, so we walked in to look around. They had all the normal goodies, like pancake syrup, Pop-tarts, cake mixes, Rice Krispies, Oreo cookies, etc. and they were for sale for an arm and leg, of course! If you know how to enlarge this photo, you may recognize Bazooka gum and Oreo Bits in the window for sale.

When the weather turns warm, all Hungarians come out. And they bring their dogs with them.

And their plastic baggies for cleaning up their dog messes. With this many dogs in one small patch of grass, that is important!

We also walked down to Margaret Island, a small island in the middle of the Danube River that has been transformed into a city park. We walked around the outer edges of the island and enjoyed a langos (a flat, fried piece of sweet dough smeared with sour cream and shredded cheese, lightly dribbled with a tasty garlic sauce). Yum!

We then walked back along the other side of the Danube River to the Gellert Hotel, passing the famous Szecheny Bridge with the lions (without their tongues???) where we caught the tram home.

Funny sight for the day-someone storing their summer tires out on their balcony. Guess they will be soon swapping and storing their winter tires up there.

I saw an add for Walmark brand Omega 3-6-9 pills and wondered if they were capitalizing on the American brand, Walmart. What do you think???

This sign points to Budafok, which is the area of Budapest where Glenn and I live. The sign says it is 10.1 kilometers to Budafok. Well, we didn't walk home but we probably did walk 10 kilometers in town today! We walked from 9:30 am until 2:00 pm, pretty much non-stop. Oh, my aching feet! And then we came home and took a nap. Tomorrow, if I can get out of bed, we'll know that the glucosamine tablets I've been taking for the past month work!!

Well, that's it for this week. Jimmy and Natalie are here until Wednesday, and then we'll have a quiet house for a few days before Annette comes to visit. But that's a story for the following week! I love having all this company!

Glenn almost missed his birthday!

2011-04-10T09:27:00.004-04:00

Yes, something happened this week that we have never experienced, and it almost kept Glenn from making it to his own birthday party!

With all the snow and salt, sand and grit on the road from the winter months, our car was looking pretty nasty so we took it to be washed. Granted, I never took our car to be washed in America (because Glenn or Chris always washed them by hand), but I've never even heard of washing a car with STEAM instead of water!!! Maybe it's because we lived in the south and washing with water wasn't a big deal in the dead of winter...It's possible that up north where it's much colder and snow is on the ground much longer that steam car washes exist. Anyway, for this southern lady, I'd never seen anyone wash a car using ONLY steam.

When I asked the guy if I could take a picture of him washing the car, I explained to him and his 2 buddies that they don't wash cars with steam in America where I came from, that we use water. He kinda had a puzzled look on his face, shrugged his shoulders, and then said, "Yes, take pictures." After taking a couple of pictures, as I was walking away, one of the 3 said something in Hungarian, of which the only word I understood was "American", and then the 3 of them burst out laughing. I'm not sure I want to know what he said. No, I'm sure I DON'T want to know!

But this tale doesn't have anything to do with Glenn almost missing his birthday party. Read on.

Turkey is plentiful here in Hungary, but you can't just walk into a grocery store and buy a 12-14 pound turkey for a special occasion. They raise turkeys until they are huge in size, bigger than any I've seen for sale in America, and then sell them already cut into breasts or legs, or ground up (like hamburger meat), and the remaining parts go into turkey sausages.

Anyway, since Glenn and I both prefer dark meat, we decided to go for just the drumsticks. To make the meal more festive, we used some spices that Kate brought us back from Kenya called Garam Masala. It was delicious! The only thing missing was the sweet potato casserole!

But that didn't have anything to do with why Glenn almost missed his own party!

Can you tell the difference in these two 10,000 forint bills? Well, maybe you can now that I've drawn your attention to it, but Glenn didn't. But the cashier at the store did! She called the store manager and several others over to try to communicate to him that the bill he'd just passed to her was counterfeit! He got a little nervous when the store manager got on the phone to call someone. Glenn figured he'd be learning all sorts of new Hungarian vocabulary words, like pokey, slammer, jailbird, inmate... and how mad I would be at him for not calling me to let me know he wouldn't be home in time for his birthday dinner/party later that evening!

Fortunately, they figured he was innocent and let him go. They even let him keep the counterfeit bill!!! A lot of good it will do us though. We're out $50, but it makes a good story. An expensive story, but a good one.

And he enjoyed telling the story later that evening when the Doyles, Clubbs and Snyders joined us for our first cook-out of 2011! Glenn grilled burgers and sausages (it's a Hungarian thing-anytime you have a guest over for a meal, you are supposed to offer 3 kinds of grilled meats. We're all Americans, so we compromised and served 2.)

Mary made Glenn a home-made German chocolate cake, his all-time favorite! We're not talking a box mix with a Betty Crocker tub of pecan coconut frosting. It was the real deal made from scratch! It was 3 layers and had tons of great tasting frosting!

For his birthday, I got Glenn a 3-D puzzle of the Hungarian Parliment building. We've set up the card table in our living room (or is that our dining room????) and he is starting to put it together as I write this blog. I'll have another picture next week of the finished product!

Have a great week! We have company coming this week for 3-4 days to work on education plans and I hope to have some good news for you in the very near future. Well, it's good news for me, but I hope to be able to share it with you soon!!

Sweet, Sweet Home!

2011-04-03T15:21:00.004-04:00

It is so good to be home! During the month of March, we only slept in our own bed a total of 6 nights so I am ready to be here for a while. I usually love to go, go, go, but after having been gone, gone, gone 5 out of the 8 weeks we've been back, I am ready to stay, stay, stay!

This has been a wonderful week. Each time we travel for any length of time, we have to give away, throw out or freeze any leftovers, dairy products, fruits and fresh vegetables. Since we were out of town for the past month, we didn't have anything in our refrigerator so after making a massive trip to Tesco and Auchan, our cubbards are finally full once again.

The yard is another thing that has demanded some of our time this past week. Basically, the last time we tended to it was just before we left for the States the end of August so it was in great need of some TLC! (tender, loving care) Now that the sun is shining and all the trees are budding, the weeds are cropping up everywhere! We made a trip to the plant nursery to buy some flowers to put in the ground to add some color to our yard, and everything looks so pretty now!

The only big news for this past week was the arrival of our crate from America. It arrived on Thursday-in excellent condition!

For the most part, we packed our clothes, books, decorations, favorite food items, tools, games, candles, another electric ice cream machine (thanks to Anne Q!), DVD's, dishes (including some Polish pottery), fabric, etc. in footlockers, plastic tubs and boxes. All in all, we had 62 cubic feet of goods that was shipped by boat in a large cardboard box (you can see it in the background against the front wall inside the truck).

I have to tell you something. A lot of time Americans get frustrated with the way things run (or don't run) overseas and since absence makes the heart grow fonder, we (Americans) tend to think no country is as good as the U.S.. Well, the shipping company that was to deliver our crate had said they would arrive on Thursday at 3:30 pm. Now, in America, the best we could have hoped for would have been a 2-3 hour window for the delivery, but here they said 3:30. Not between 3:30-4:00 pm even. Well, at 3:15 pm we got a call from the shipping company to let us know they were caught in traffic and would be 15 minutes late! Can you believe it??? As it turned out, they were only 5 minutes late, having arrived at 3:35 pm!!!

Would that have happened in America anywhere?

This is a top view of our worldly goods that arrived.

One of the first things I unpacked was a 92 oz. container of Orville Redenbacher popcorn from a special friend of mine. Glenn and I try to eat our main meal at lunch and snack on popcorn or omlettes at night. Even though we eat a lot of popcorn, it will probably take us a year to polish off this jug!!

While we were unpacking the footlockers down in the basement, I was talking with Kari on Skype. While I was talking with her, Glenn was hard at work opening all the boxes and footlockers and taking out his things, putting them away as he pulled them out.

Me? I got caught up in showing Kari everything as I pulled it out. Here I am showing her my coveted 64 oz. bottle of Ghirardelli White Chocolate syrup! It's my sister Karin's "fault" that I brought this back with me. Karin got me hooked on Starbuck's White Chocolate Mochas while I was in the States. Each time she came to town to visit, she treated me and that's what got me hooked on "coffee". I've already opened the bottle and enjoyed 2 cups of coffee.

Not a lot planned for this week-at least not worth writing about! I'll be busy working on education emails and making a few member care Skype calls during the day, and in the evening I'll work on a few house projects now that our crate has arrived.

We have a list of 10 projects that we'll be working on bit by bit this week. Things like hang our new family pictures, alphabetize our new DVD's into the old ones, paint the wall going up the stairs, take my new fabric to Judit so that she can make me a duvet, bedskirt and matching curtains for the guest bedroom, find room for all the new books we brought back with us (for personal enjoyment and for my work as education consultant for Europe). Ah! But it is sooo good to be home to be able to take care of things things finally!

Time for Turkey!

2011-03-29T15:17:00.005-04:00

I know, I'm late again, but this time I have a good reason that isn't my fault. Glenn and I went to Turkey for the Singles Retreat to provide member care and Turkey has blocked all internet users from accessing blogger.com. So, today's update will be a little longer than a typical update because it needs to cover 10 days :-).

We flew in and out of Istanbul but the retreat was actually held in southern Turkey in the tourist town of Antalya...on the beach.

This hotel is down the street from the one we actually stayed in. (The beach is behind it.) Ours wasn't quite this big but it was as nice. It's off season so we could stay for $55 a night and it's all-inclusive- that includes 3 meals a day, all the drinks at the bar (Diet Coke!) we wanted, all the amenities which include a bowling alley, a spa, and a water park that is amazing. Unfortunately, it was too cold to swim in the pools and the Mediterranean Sea.

The first couple of days there it was quite cool and overcast but the last couple of days were gorgeous. Another unfortunate thing...I forgot my bathing suit!

Thursday night was karaoke and my sweet husband was full of surprises! He sang Proud Mary to our group and even danced as he sang! I have it on video but I don't know how to upload it to my blog...but if you're interested, I can forward it to you!!!

The afternoons were free to go into town to sight see or to shop but Glenn and I stayed at the hotel and worked on emails except for one afternoon. The last day of the retreat we went to the market area in Old Town and walked around for several hours, enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful views.

The market was so colorful!!

Almost every 4th store was selling Turkish Delight, a special candy that I cannot fathom why anyone buys. It must be an "acquired taste" that I don't have yet! In fact, no one in our group seemed to care for it either.

When the retreat ended, we flew to Istanbul to spend a couple of days with two couples on our member care team who work in that part of the world to get to know them better and for Glenn to talk "shop" with them.

While we were there, I went to my favorite place-the grocery store! I could not believe the price of food there in Istanbul. This stack of sliced turkey, about 15 pieces, was $13 dollars!

The strawberries were beautiful, but they too were expensive.

I found a teeny tiny bottle of Pepsi in one of the stores. It was so cute!

Now, what does one need to do to get one of these in Budapest??? Would you believe I actually went inside to see what one doughnut cost and came out without one? Such strong willpower. One doughnut cost about $1.50!

When it was time to return to Budapest...first, we had to catch a taxi from the apartment...

then we took the ferry boat....

then we took a bus to the airport.

Yes, a taxi, ferry and a bus just to get to the airport!!! And then we took a plane home!

It is a little unnerving to board the plane to find an "evil eye" hanging inside the plane. (Do you see it? It's hanging up there at the top of the curtain.) These are EVERYWHERE in Turkey and in this part of the world, and for sale as tourist items as well as hanging in cars, in stores, in windows, etc for REAL. The meaning of the evil eye varies depending on the country, but it generally is believed to protect a person from getting the evil eye (or curse) from another person. I guess the evil eye is there for those who believe it can protect them from, well, plane crashes.

Well, we are home for a month and I am so ready to unpack my bags and buy groceries! Our crate should arrive on Thursday, if all goes well with the customs office tomorrow. We've got company coming later this month and I'm looking forward to it!

Take care, and I'll be back next Sunday!

Guess Where We Went?

2011-03-14T17:13:00.008-04:00

We went to JORDAN!

And the thing I will remember most about this trip was the Bedouin's camel that I rode out in the desert! (But more on that at the end of this lengthy blog update.) I didn't have internet at the house where we were staying so I couldn't update last week.

There were actually five things I really enjoyed. There were so many great places to eat! We ate Shawarmas several times which are Lebanese sandwich wraps filled with chicken or lamb. Deeelicious!

They had TGI Fridays, Fuddruckers, Applebees and Chili's! We ate at Fuddruckers 3 times in the weeks we were there because it was located next door to where the conference was held and because it was soooo good!

They also sold a lot of American products in their grocery stores. According to our source (our friends with whom we were staying), there are so many Jordanians that have lived in the U.S. that when they move back to Jordan, they want the food they grew to love in the U.S. Whatever the explanation, it was strange seeing so many products. They had lots more than these that I bought. Some of the prices were not too ridiculous so that made it nice. I bought Gherkins pickles because there is NOTHING like that available in Hungary.

I love Fritos but didn't buy any for Glenn and me because all they had were what I would call "individual serving sizes". They, however, call them "King size"! The bag was about $1, but would sell in America for 33 cents at Walmart.

My pictures are slightly out of order...after the conference was over we drove to Aqaba, located on the Red Sea, to meet with one of the men who lives in that area. Further down on the shoreline of the Red Sea, just a few kilometers down the beach from where I took this picture is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! We drove to the border of Saudi Arabia but did not cross over. We'll save that for another trip!

From this spot looking across the Red Sea you can see both Israel and Egypt, and Saudi Arabia is around the curve less than 3 miles away. Four interesting countries so close together!

Downtown Amman (pronounced "Ay-men") is very congested. In some ways, it reminded me of Greece because of all the white sandstone buildings, but in other ways, it reminded me of Romania because of all the plastic bags from stores that were littering the streets and fields. There are so many plastic bags being blown around that the bags are referred to as the national bird of Jordan. Someone could make a nice living if they would gather the plastic bags and weave them into baskets to sell to the tourists!

We also drove to Petra in southern Jordan to see the remains of an ancient Nabataean city that was built into the mountains more than 2200 years ago. Petra was built at a crossroad for all the caravans laden with Arabian frankincense and myrrh, Indian spices and silks, African ivory and animal hides. Scholars believe that Petra was where Moses disobediently struck the rock to bring forth water and lost his chance of entering the Promised Land.

The scenery was superb! Clouds left obvious shadows on the rocky, barren rolling hills.

Every once in a while you would see where someone was obviously watering their grass!!!! Otherwise, from one horizon to the other everything was dusty, dirty and dry. And tan-colored.

Not much vegetation out in the desert. Scrub trees like this one dotted the countryside.

The only variation was the size of the rocks, from sand to mountains, nothing but rocks of every size. Even though everything was the same color and not much more than rocks, it was such an awesome sight and I never got tired of looking at it. I took 364 pictures on the day we drove to Petra!

We often saw sheep and goats grazing on hillsides. I'm not sure what they were eating, unless it was rocks! We saw lots of shepherds riding on donkeys as they watched over their flocks. We also saw camels, with which I was fascinated!

As I stood overlooking the valley, I thought of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. I thought of what it must have been like to wear leather sandals and a flowing robe, climbing the hills, eating in the heat of the day and sleeping in the cool of the night. I sometimes wondered if anything in the Bible had happened on the very spot where I was standing.

Jordanians are very nationalistic. Lots of flags waving in response to the high winds.

What more can I say about rocks and rocky mountains except that I never tired of looking at them!

This is one small part of Petra. There were many, many big rocks (mountains) with houses dug out of the sides. In the heyday of Petra, there were also theatres, temples, tombs, marble streets lined with sandstone columns, public buildings, shops and 800 steps cut into the rock leading to a monastery (Petra's second most famed attraction) at the top of a mountain called Ad-Deir. The view from the top is spectacular!

The most famous of all sights in Petra is the Treasury, an elaborately carved facade. It was carved out of one mountain in the 1st century BC as a tomb of an important Nabataen king, measuring 33 yards wide and 47 yards high. I cannot describe it well enough to do it justice. You just have to go see it for yourself to really understand how magnificent it is! (Notice the camels in the foreground?)

Eventually the trade routes shifted and the demand for frankincense decreased as Christianity replaced pagan religions, causing Petra to fall into ruins. It was virtually abandoned in the 14th century and lost to the world until a Swiss "tourist" named Johann Ludwig Burckhardt rediscovered it in 1812.

And on our way home, we saw Bedouin's traveling across the countryside on camels, headed "home" to their tents for the evening.

When we saw a Bedouin walking with his camel on the side of the road we were on, we pulled over closer to take a picture. The man was so friendly and accommodating (I'm sure he thought we were crazy to want a picture of a camel!) and then he asked if I wanted to ride it. I was estatic and jumped at the opportunity, of course! This was a real Bedouin and not a tourist attraction.

When I was high on the camel's back, he asked (using hand gestures) if I wanted to ride the camel out to the base of the mountain that was in the distance. I sort of panicked. I didn't want to go by myself, and I didn't want to go that far away from Glenn and the couple with us so I told him I was content just to walk in that area. I rode a camel in Israel 2 years ago but it was for tourists. This was the real deal!

And now we have come to the end of this lengthy blog. Thanks for sticking with me to the end!

Glenn and I returned to Budapest on March 14 but are headed out again this Saturday for Turkey where we will attend the Singles Retreat and then visit with some of our personnel in Istanbul. I will have slept in my own bed a grand total of 6 nights in the month of March. Fortunately, I will be home all of April!

Take care, and I'll update next Sunday if I have internet access. If not, I'll do it asap!

Deja vu!

2011-02-27T10:13:00.003-05:00

Not only are Hungarians learning English at an alarming rate (or should that be "alarmingly good" for those of us here who haven't mastered the extremely difficult Hungarian language???), but they are becoming more and more western in their consumerism! When we were on our stateside assignment recently from September through January, I was surprised at some of the things that were popular in the United States.

These Crazy Bands topped the list of crazy things. I didn't get it. I still don't. Why does it matter what shape your rubber band is when it is in the bag with all the other bands, and what difference does it make when it is on something because it takes on the shape of the object that it is going around? I just don't get it. Guess it takes the mind of a 7 year old to see the value of it. Let's just say I was surprised to see them here!

My sister, Karin, and my daughter, Kari, would be proud of me. (Did you notice the name similarity?? Kari got her first name from Karin and her middle name from my other sister, Elizabeth.) I am learning to like coffee. Karin got me hooked on "low fat, with "whip", White Chocolate Mocha" at Starbucks while we were in the States. Unfortunately, the 3 Starbucks downtown don't carry White Chocolate Mochas. (Starbucks arrived in Budapest in August!!!) Fortunately, I've discovered Cafe Latte's!

We visited with one of our couples here in Budapest on a cold, cold day last week. As I took off my shoes just inside the front door (customary here--great idea as it keeps the house much, much cleaner!), the husband noticed me shiver and asked if I'd like a cup of coffee or tea. I was so cold, I told him I'd take a cup of coffee (even if I didn't drink it, I could warm my hands around the cup!) Anyway, they served me a latte and it was delicious! It had tons of sugar which I love, and it hardly had any coffee which I don't care for, so it was perfect. And the best thing about it is that it is healthy for me because of all the milk in it!!! On our way home, we jumped off the tram and hopped into Auchan (kind of like Walmart-- I know, now you don't feel sorry for me anymore) to buy this neat little gadget that is a battery-operated whip that froths the warm milk.

I mentioned previously that we had really cold weather earlier this week so we've been having fires in our small fireplace most of the week. I sure miss our big, beautiful, stone-walled fireplace on Big Oaks Drive, but I'm grateful to have this small one here. No one else we know in town has a fireplace so folks think it is really special, which it is. Anyway, Glenn found a source across the street from our house for firewood and bought all they had. (Now, I didn't say he found a cheap source.) They delivered it in this pallet, and then Glenn had to find a place to store all the wood that will last us for two more winters. We've got some in the basement and some under the house (but not under the kitchen window, which is how the burglar got into the house in January of 2010).

By the way, Glenn found out when he bought the firewood that the young man, 30-ish, spoke a little English. For those of you who have been here, he and his family own the construction business that is across from our house. This is the same company that loaned us the use of their forklift when we first arrived to download our crates from the truck-for $10!

At church this morning we had a guest speaker. He is an American (I didn't catch his name) and works with a Christian ministry in the U.S. He is currently in Hungary to teach some classes at a Hungarian Bible College. He was speaking this morning on the Old Testament prophecies and correlated some of them with what is going on in Egypt today. He was interesting...but I admit I don't know enough about the prophecies between Daniel and Revelation to know if what he said is true/interpreted correctly. I just know that when the Rapture comes, I'm going! It was good to hear the message in English. The Hungarian lady that translated is a member of our church. She and her husband speak English (though I don't believe we've ever met) and are home missionaries to the Hungarians.

We are going to attend a conference on Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills this week but I'm not going to tell you where it will be. It's a surprise so you'll have to come back to this site next Monday to find out where we are. I hope to have some interesting pictures for you next week. :-)

Malta, continued...

2011-02-20T15:00:00.009-05:00

Our week on the island of Malta went by quickly. Most of the week was spent doing member care appointments for each of the families...

and a few Skype calls to some families in between sessions...

But on Wednesday, all of us spent one afternoon in town doing ministry among the Maltese. We passed out tracts and packets of information about the local Baptist church and prayer-walked the old capital city of Mdina.

We had one free afternoon and so we went into a nearby town to do a little "sightseeing" and check out the local grocery stores. My thing! We found Pop-tarts, cake mixes, frosting tubs, brown sugar, yellow mustard, Swiss Miss Hot chocolate packets, and Dr. Pepper (including Dr. Pepper ZERO!)

This was a gorgeous church!

We stayed an extra day to enjoy the sights and to put some margins in our lives.

HUGE cactus plants everywhere!

The whole island is nothing but rock! I'm not sure how anything grows since the soil is so rocky, but there were lots and lots of these yellow flowers across the countryside!

Glenn poses for the first of many photos that day.

We climbed down near the water which was very choppy that afternoon.

We saw this awesome rock formation. There are boats that take folks into caves right here, but not at this time of year because of the waters being too rough. Since we missed out on that experience, we'll just have to come back another time!!

On Valentine's Day, Glenn and I walked into town for our special dinner and as we were strolling through the square, we saw these posters of Superman taped on the side of phone booths and store windows. There is a Bible verse, Philippians 4:13, written in Maltese on the posters: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It was just kind of unusual.

Thursday was the most beautiful day of the week but Friday morning Glenn and I woke to howling winds and gray skies. Turns out the winds were blowing at 65 miles per hour off the waters. Gale force winds of 5 and 6, whatever that means. Signs were blown off, trees lost their limbs, even a roof from a house was "relocated" due to the high winds. Evidently, Malta experiences these strong winds occasionally, but it really surprised us! I was surprised we were able to fly out on Saturday because the winds were still blowing, though not quite as fiercely.

We flew from Malta to Frankfurt, Germany where we had a 1 1/2 hour lay-over. When I went passed this water fountain, I was shocked! I've only seen an American-style water fountain one other place in the past four years! It's weird that something like a water fountain would be such a surprise.

And this was another surprise! Earlier today on our walk home from church, we saw this ambulance parked on the street and, if you can't read the fine print, it says on the side panel: Fire Department Pesthidegut. FIRE DEPARTMENT! The Hungarians have their own word for fire department so I was kind of surprised to see it written in English! Honestly, give me 10 years here and there won't be a language barrier anymore 'cuz everything will be in English!

It's good to be home!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T09:31:00.008-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Glenn and I are not real big on celebrating holidays with presents and fancy meals in a restaurant. I think it comes from our early married days when he was doing youth ministry and so often we were not able to celebrate our anniversary, birthdays or Valentine's Day because of church conflicts. We just got lax about it....but this year we did remember to buy each other something and I even remembered to wish him a happy Valentine's Day with a kiss this morning!! He beat me on the present though with a really nice diamond and sapphires necklace to match the earrings and ring he got me while we were in the U.S. He spoils me. I've got to do a better job this year of taking good care of him and spoiling him, which will mean some changes in my work load. More on that later in another blog post!

While Glenn and I were on STAS (stateside assignment), I bought small gifts for my Hungarian friend and her family.

This is Nikki modeling her Georgia sweatshirt. When I gave it to her, I drew a map of the U.S. and circled the place where the state of Georgia is located and explained that is where we were while in the U.S.. I told her I wanted her to have a souvenir of where I was from and I told her that the sweatshirt is also from the University of Georgia, which made it an even better gift because wearing university sweatshirts here in Hungary is really popular right now! For her mom, Judit, I gave her a fleece blanket with Georgia emblazoned on it (also from the University of Georgia). When I gave her husband his multi-bladed knife, he kept looking for the word Georgia on it!!! I think they liked their gifts a lot. They asked me why I brought them something from America and I had to explain that that is something we do in America to let someone know that we missed them and that we were thinking about them while we were gone. It's kind of amazing to realize that some of our customs are truly OUR customs, not shared by others.

On Saturday morning really, really early, we flew to Malta for the cluster meeting of our personnel who work with the Romany people group, often called Gypsies. We flew from Budapest to Germany, then down to Malta. The view of the Alps was breath-taking. The suns' glare makes it hard to see all the snow on them!

We will do member care appointments for all the personnel here and Glenn will lead two sessions, one on grief and one on setting margins and boundaries.

As we were being driven from the airport out to the hotel where we are staying, we passed this castle and city on the hillside. The driver told us it used to be the capital city of Malta years ago. We hope to have a little time later on during the week to do a little sightseeing on our own.

Malta used to be a British colony so they drive on the left-hand side of the road and the steering wheels are on the right-hand side. Man, that sure messes me up!

Going through round-points was weird! You just don't expect cars on your left to be waiting to come into the circle!! Notice the sign that has the arrows going in the opposite direction from the signs in America???

It's a weird sensation to see cars coming at you from the "wrong" side!

This is the coastline that is just a block from our hotel. Our hotel is on the "beach" but our room doesn't face the water. We have a nice view of the balconies of the hotel next to ours.

The land in the background is supposedly where Paul was shipwrecked. We haven't been over there yet to see it, but will before we leave the island.

I love the sign on the ice cream shop: Italian Ice Cream, the American Way. We're not sure what they mean by the American Way, but it probably has to do with the SIZE of the scoops!

This is the view down the other direction of the coastline. The water is amazingly clear but it looks cold! The temperatures here are in the mid-60's this week. Warmer than Budapest, but not so warm that I go out without a coat or jacket!

This is the main square in town, 2 blocks from our hotel. I've been able to walk down to it twice during long breaks just to get some exercise. Sitting all day is so hard for me!

Because today is Valentine's Day, we have the afternoon and evening off to go into town. Glenn took advantage of the free afternoon to work on his two sessions he's leading and to get with our computer guru to put some things on his computer and I'm working on this blog entry. Tonight, we are going to go into town to eat out in celebration of Valentine's Day. We are staying in Malta an extra day so we will do our sightseeing then.

The whole island is celebrating Valentine's Day! Tons of red flowers for sale on the side of the roads coming into town.

Well, I will update next weekend with more pictures of Malta, but this is about all I have up to this point. Take care!