Did You Know?

Did you know that the lowest-cholesterol pork in the world is found in a special breed of pigs raised in Hungary? Yes, the Mangalica is the only pure-bred pig left in the country and has a higher level of non-saturated fatty acids (which is good for you) than other pigs. They are also cute because they are furry like sheep!

Did you know that Hungary has the second highest death rate from heart disease in the world? Slovakia is number one. It is because of their delicious langos (which is fried dough topped with shredded cheese and ham bits! This ham does not come from the Mangalica pig!)

Did you know that a Hungarian by the name of Doctor Zoltan Takats invented the JEDI knife which primarily detects cancerous cells in tissue while in use during surgery? It was voted one of the world's best new inventions at the World's Best Technologies Forum in February, 2008.




Did you know that in Hungary shower curtains rings are sold in packages of 10 but the shower curtains only have 8 holes? Shower curtains and rings must be packaged by the same company in America that puts 10 hot dogs in a package but only 8 buns in a bag.

Did you notice that I have 4 extra shower curtain rings instead of 2? (You are astute.) That is because we had to use 2 shower curtains to enclose our shower, which has one wall and is open on 3 sides.



Did you know that when we go on a vacation, the preparation and packing makes me wonder if it is worth it? Glenn and I leave Friday morning for Israel for 9 days of vacation. There is so much to do to go out of town, such as bring all the flowers down off the balcony so that our friend Alvin can water them when he waters the flowers in the yard. Notify our neighbors, lower all our shutters (for security purposes), empty the trash cans, take plastic bottles, paper, aluminum cans and glass jars to the recycling bins, straighten the house (because our house is occasionally used when the Eden House guesthouse is full and overflowing) and so on.



While we are out of town, we will miss the great strawberry harvesting! This is the first and probably the only strawberry from our patch we will get to eat this year. Unfortunately, they are all going to ripen while we are out of town. Not to worry though that they will go to waste... I told our next door neighbors to eat them while we are gone. It was rather comical, me trying to communicate via mime to tell our neighbors to "Please eat the strawberries."

Did you know that when nothing big happens in our life, you get pictures of our plants and a short blog?

I am not taking my computer with me on vacation (I feel like I am leaving a part of me behind!!!) so you will not have an update from me until we return from Israel May 31. How will I ever choose among the 400+ pictures that I will take to post on my next blog???? I'm not sure how I'll choose, but I bet you hope I find a way!!!

Did You Know?

Bye, Bye, Birdie!

Glenn and I went on a date on Friday night. He took me to a play that was being put on by high school students at a school that some of our mk's (missionary kids) attend, the International Christian School of Budapest or ICSB, for short.



The students did a great job! The name of it was Bye, Bye, Birdie!


That's Conrad Birdie in the gold lame' shirt

I remember watching the movie on TV when I was about 1o or 11 and loved it. That was back in the days of the Elvis Presley movies where boy meets girl, boy does something dumb, girl dumps boy, and then boy wins her back.



This play is a little different in that girl has boyfriend, manager wants one last publicity stunt before singer goes into army, singer kisses girl, boyfriend punches out singer, and girl swoons over boyfriend. Ah, the things that make life interesting.




And the young man with his arms up are why we went to see the play in the first place. He is one of our quietest MK's, and we saw a totally different side of him than we've ever seen before!

Saturday we drove out to Szentendre, a small tourist village (I've written about on here several times), to shop for a gift for a friend. Everyone was in Szentendre. It is not a big town, and every available parking spot was filled.

People were walking along the rivers' edge and enjoying the warmth of the sun's rays, and the man in the yellow shorts wanted to soak up more than his fair share of them! Do people do stuff like this in America? Have I been away so long that I forget that American's walk around in public half covered? Glenn and I were walking in our neighborhood last week and saw a woman about 30 years old wearing a tee shirt and thong underwear. Nothing else. Oh, except flip flops. She was weeding her yard in plain view. Does this happen in America too? Please tell me it is a Hungarian thing only.

I bought a traditional Hungarian outfit for when we speak about missions during our stateside assignment (formerly called furlough). Not that I'm ready for our next assignment, but I want to be ready when the time comes! Maybe I will show you a picture of it in our next blog update.

Speaking of the next blog update...I will update sometime later this week before we leave for Israel on Friday because I will not be taking my computer with me. We will be gone May 22-31. God has blessed us with this incredible trip and we are overwhelmed with the gift! We will be the guests of a college friend of Glenn's who takes 25-30 of his law students to Israel for 3 weeks; we will only be able to join them for 9 days. I'm thankful for those 9 days!!!

I must confess, in this world of technology and instant access via phones and computers, I am going to feel lost without my computer and easy access to the outer world. I just didn't realize how "connected" I am to my computer until I realized what I won't be able to do while on this trip!!! I won't be able to check emails, skype my Dad and kids, read my favorite blogs, nor do my own blog update! I hope I remember how to relax on this vacation!

Come Back Tomorrow!

Well, it's been such a full day that I didn't have time to update today. I promise to update on Monday morning, so please come back tomorrow!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is Mother's Day in America and as we recognize and honor the important role that our mothers have in our lives, I can't help but reminisce about my own wonderful mother who passed away in 1995. Corrie was what she was called by her friends, but she was lovingly called Pooh by my Dad and Mom by me. My mother was a believer in Jesus Christ and was actively involved in her local church, no matter where my Dad's military life took them. I remember a lot about my mom, but one of the things I most respect her for was that she would never talk about anyone in an unkind way. If she couldn't say it to your face, she wouldn't say it behind your back. She had a lot of qualities I admire and would do well to emulate today! I miss my mom but look forward to the day when she and I are singing in that heavenly choir (neither one of us has a good voice on this earth, and both of us are looking forward to that heavenly body with curly hair and a good voice.)




To every mother, we wish a Happy Mother's Day!


The first strawberries are showing


You can tell how our week has been by the first couple of pictures I put on the blog. If it has been a calm week, you get some mundane pictures showing the progress of our fruit. Actually, even if we had a busy week, you might get pictures of fruit because it is such an important part of who Glenn and I are and what we like to do! Glenn and I love working in our yard and it is one of the most beneficial forms of stress relief. Beneficial because we get to eat the rewards of our labor and helps keep us sane! I hope you have a hobby that helps you unwind.


Cobblestone street

Another thing that Glenn and I enjoy is walking. I could walk for 2-3 hours if I could find someone to walk with me. I'm a social walker much like others are social drinkers; they don't drink unless they are around others who are drinking. (I don't drink, except for the Lord's Supper, that is!) I don't walk unless I've got someone to walk with me. Did you know that exercise is also good for stress?


Mega-size wine press

As Glenn and I were walking this week in Budafok, we came across this wine press in someone's driveway. I sure hope they sell the wine they make rather than try to drink it all themselves!


My favorite past time-car shows!

On Saturday, Glenn and I spent most of the day with Mary and Alvin. They picked us up at 7:15 am for the first leg of our outing. YOU KNOW IT HAS TO BE SOMETHING GOOD FOR ME TO GET UP AT 6:45 AM ON A SATURDAY! We headed into town to the annual American Embassy garage sale and auction. How disappointing! When we got there, there was no sale; only furniture for auction! We didn't need any so we went to the local Christian school garage sale to see what goodies we could find that we don't really need.

At their garage sale we bought nickel and dime stuff. Several puzzles, books, a suit for Glenn, stuff like that. By now it is about 10 am, so we headed to Ikea for breakfast. (Darrin and Kesha taught us about Ikea's breakfast!) When we drove into the parking lot, we could see the beginnings of a car show! Only, these cars were convertibles!

Most of the cars were new cars, and there were only about 20 of them when we first got there. Sure made me think of our son Chris and all the car shows we went to when he was a teenager. Do you believe I miss them?

This red Farrari was Glenn's favorite. I think Mary liked it best too.

The motor in the Ferrari was located in the trunk and was visible through glass. Cool!

Well, after all that excitement, we headed to Metro, which is the European version of Sam's in America, only here things aren't any cheaper if you buy them in bulk! The only advantage to shopping at Metro is that things do come in bulk and you don't have to buy 20 packages of napkins with 20 in each package. Instead, at Metro you can buy a package of napkins with 250 in it!!!! What a concept!

After Metro, we stopped by Aldi on our way home. (There is an Aldi in Marietta on Powder Springs Road.) Boy, are we wild! Lest you think we have lost our minds, the purpose of going to Aldi was to buy some different brands that we can't generally get at our Tesco.

And when we got home and unloaded our "loot", we found the strangest thing in our mailbox. An advertisement for McDonald's with coupons!!! We've never seen advertisements for McDonald's since arriving, other than signs on the road indicating one up ahead in the next block. And fast food coupons??? Wow!

Today is Sunday and we were blessed by the testimony and baptism of Geza, a young man in our church.

After church we hung around and talked with a couple of people. This is fairly new for us because usually we head right out the door since we can't speak the language. I guess folks are getting used to us being there and they are becoming more comfortable in trying their English with us. One of the men told us today that there are actually a lot of people in the church who speak English. Do you think it would be okay if next Sunday I stand up and ask, "Would everyone that speaks English, please meet us outside the sanctuary after worship"?

This young man is Andras. He does a great job translating for us and we have grown really fond of him. (He came to Sunday dinner at our house a couple of months ago.) His younger brother David accepted Christ two weeks ago at a youth camp and gave a brief testimony at church about it this morning. Really, really neat time of worship today!

Guess where we went!

We went to France for a conference on crisis intervention. We flew out Sunday late afternoon, and the conference was Monday morning through Friday noon.



The conference was actually held 12 kilometers outside of Geneva, just over the border into France in a small village. The nearest town was Cessy. It was in the country, nestled in a valley with snow covered mountains in the distance. On a clear day, one can see Mount Blanc, which is the highest mountain in all of Switzerland.



The name of the organization that put on the conference was Le Rucher Ministries, a subsidiary of Mercy Ministries. Le Rucher means "bee farm" and got its name because the property used to actually be a bee farm. The folks that staff the conference and run the retreat center are of various nationalities, but they generally do the conferences in English because it is usually the language that most people have in common. The nationalities of the staff last week were German, French, Swiss, Dutch and American.




We had 15 participants, including several new staff who participated in order to learn some of the material themselves. Basically, the conference was on the three basic kinds of stress (chronic, acute, and trauma) and how to help people work through the impact that the stress has on them. That is, we learned how to debrief.

Susanna, a co-worker in Africa

Did you know that if you put any six randomly chosen people from anywhere in the world together and let them talk long enough, two of them will find a connection somehow? Well, we did! Susanna used to live in Daloa, Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire is the proper name) in West Africa at the same time we did! She worked with Mission Biblique for two years but unfortunately, our paths never crossed. Isn't it a small world??? She was attending the conference with her husband and this little tidbit of information came out in a conversation she had with Glenn over breakfast one morning. (I don't do breakfast-I prefer to sleep!)

The conference was good, very helpful, but very long days. We did not have much free time at all. Usually conference planners will give you a free afternoon to either rest or go sightseeing, but not our leader! We started at 8:30 am and went until 5:30 pm, then had dinner. Short break in the morning and afternoon, but not enough time to do anything other than run to the bathroom and get some coffee. (I don't drink coffee.) Even after dinner was over, we had reading assignments to do that took about an hour!

Glenn and I managed to get a walk in one evening through the village and in the countryside. It was very peaceful, lots of curvy roads. mostly going up hill!

We enjoyed this sign on someone's wall around their house. It means "Attention! Strange dog". Hmmm, wonder what the chien does that is so strange?

We passed grape vineyards, apple orchards, and groves of peach and cherry trees. Notice the yellow field in the distance?

We believe it is rapeseed that is used to make cooking oil. Hungary grows a lot of it too. The fields are gorgeous with their bright yellow flowers, especially when you are flying over them in a plane!

The conference ended with lunch on Friday, but our plane back to Budapest didn't leave until 8:30 pm so we had a couple of hours to kill in Geneva. We were dropped off at the airport in Geneva, Switzerland, stowed our bags for a couple of hours at the cost of an arm and a leg, and then caught a train into town. The train ride took 6 minutes from the airport to the center of town.

We were only 2 hours from Kari and Jonathan but weren't able to connect with them on this trip. Even though we saw them in February and will be seeing them again in August, I just about lost it when I saw this sign pointing the way to France. To be so close and not be able to see them was really hard.

We had about 3 hours to wander at our leisure so that's what we did. WithOUT a map in hand, Glenn had to pay attention to where we were going so we could get back to the train station that would take us back to the airport. That's just one of the MANY reasons I like to travel with him. :)

The disadvantage to our kind of sightseeing is that we often don't know what it is that we are seeing, such as this shrine, or whatever it is. It was pretty though!

The whole world was in Geneva!

I forgot to mention that Friday was a national holiday in most of Europe. It was Labor Day, and all the world must have been in Geneva. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We could not have asked for more perfect weather for strolling the streets of Geneva.

Pedestrian walkway along the Rhone River

We saw lots of tourists with their cameras (like us!), quite a few college age kids with their backpacks, and even this little dog was carrying his own bags!

Flowers were everywhere!

Bridge lined with flags for the holiday

I was surprised by the size of the Rhone River that runs through downtown Geneva. It was very wide! Much wider than the Danube River that runs through Budapest! There were lots of boats docked at the marinas, and quite a few folks cleaning their boats, getting them ready for the summer. I was also surprised at the overall "look" of the area across the river. It looked more like Greece with the mountains in the background, with the pristine, white buildings glimmering in the reflection of the water.

A HUGE fountain?

We don't really know what this is-other than a huge spray of water up in the air! It shoots up not far from the bank on the other side of the river, and as far as we can tell, has no purpose other than it is beautiful to see!

The American Market?

We happened upon this little store and decided to wander inside just to see what delicacies we are missing from America. This store, for as small as it was, carried a ton of grocery items that we don't usually see in Europe. In most grocery stores in Europe we can usually find at least one or two America products such as tortilla shells or Hellmans mayonaise, and it is always interesting to Glenn and me as to the randomness of what the store owners have chosen to sell from America! Of all things, why Karo syrup? Why grits? Why Pop-tarts? Well, this store had it all! Well, not all, but it had more than any other store I've seen so far in Europe.

Glenn and I had 8 Swiss francs left in change so with that amount we were able to buy 3 individually wrapped Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookies. Last of the big spenders!

Oh, and we picked up these Easter Peeps for someone special who loves them, but we won't be able to give them to him until August.

When we returned to Budapest, this is what welcomed us! All our Iris's are in full bloom. When we left last Sunday, I was afraid we would miss getting to enjoy them in all their splendor, but we got back just in time! This morning after returning from church, we took a stroll through our yard (took all of 5 minutes!) to look at all the growth of our flowers and fruit trees!

In our yard we now have a cherry tree (loaded with baby cherries!), an apricot tree (also loaded!), 1 almond, 2 apple, and 1 pear tree. We have grape vines, 5 raspberry bushes and 3 blackberry bushes, and this year we also have 15 strawberry plants! We've got lots of Iris's, Day Lilies, rose bushes, Tulips, Jonquils, several Clematis, Rhodedendron, 2 Hydrangea, Hostas, and a bunch for which I don't even know their names. Oh, and my 5 pots of spices (parsley, dill, rosemary, chives, and basil) and my cherry tomatoes. Lots of things to keep us busy on our days off!

And as if Glenn didn't have enough to do already, he put me a light in the gazebo so we could see better at night to water all the plants! I used to have to stand in front of the security light and wave my hands back and forth to get the light to come on so Glenn could see to put plants in the ground or water them when it was dark. Soon, very soon, the sun will stay up until about 10 pm and we won't have to worry about not being able to see! In fact, we will have to worry about getting our bedroom dark enough so we can sleep!!! But that is another problem for another blog entry!

By the way, when is Mother's Day in America?