What a week!

This has been a most incredible week!  Even though it's been very busy, Glenn found time to pack his carry-on for our trip to Senegal ... to make sure he didn't forget one of the most important things

Glenn grew up with a book called Brave Cowboy Bill, and he has the original one, though it is in pretty awful shape, that he likes to read to the grandkids!  He's taking it to Senegal to read over and over with Alec! 

We've worked out in the yard a bit this week.   The Hyacinths are beautiful, way on the far side of our small yard.  Have you ever smelled ONE?  The first one we received several years ago had such a strong "fragrance" that we had to take it off the dining room table and put it outside!  Now we have a whole patch of them, and we can smell them when we enter our house, even though they are planted about 30 feet away!  Whew!

The cherry blossoms are at their fullest and are gorgeous!  This is a photo taken at night.  :-)

We've noticed a lot of Orchids in many windows as we walk through our neighborhood.  They evidently love the sun and many of our neighbors have the perfect window sill!   These are Orchids at my friend's house (Judit).

One of our families from Nagykanizsa was in town earlier this week and we met up with them for dinner one evening at a new Mexican restaurant, Gringos Amigos.  It is probably quickly becoming my new favorite place to eat, replacing a similar place called Arriba's!  

Though just a bit more expensive than Arriba's, it has a larger menu, more authentic atmosphere, and the best American tasting brownies!  The quesadilla was quite delicious!

Glenn and I met up with one of our couples from Ukraine about 5:00 pm on another evening to show them a bit of Budapest and then for dinner.  We walked and walked and walked and then ate.  While walking, we came upon this new sign at Heroes Square.  The sign changes colors, and was a popular place for selfies by many others.

So many people wanted their pictures taken in front of the sign that I had trouble getting a clear photo of it.  It was much easier from the backside!

On Friday night, we participated in the Budapest team meeting.  As is the custom here in Hungary, everyone takes off their shoes when they enter a house.  It's a really smart idea that Americans would do well to copy!  It sure does keep houses a lot cleaner.  Now, if only Glenn and I would take off our shoes before coming into our own home!

The team meeting included a simple dinner of sandwiches, each of us bringing something to contribute to the meal.  Fresh, sliced red peppers are very popular here as a side dish, much like Americans eat potato chips with sandwiches.  I've become quite fond of fresh red peppers!

This week I walked with Janet for an hour on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.   Karen, a friend of mine here in BP, and I met at Johnny's Diner for a shared lunch on Tuesday. Later that evening Glenn and I had a co-worker from Romania over for dinner.  Wednesday morning we both had dental appointments for general cleanings.  No cavities!  Yea!   At noon on Wednesday, I met one of our local wives for lunch to see how she is doing.  That evening, Glenn and I met the couple from Nagykanizsa for Mexican food at Gringos Amigos.  I walked with Judit for an hour and a half on Thursday after having walked with Janet earlier that morning. Later that afternoon, I met with Eva, our landlord's wife, to provide her opportunities to practice her English.  As soon as Eva left, Glenn and I hopped on public transportation and met up with the couple from Ukraine for dinner and sightseeing.   We got home a little before 10 pm.  (I was exhausted after having walked an hour with Janet, one and a half hours with Judit, and for about 3 hours with the couple that night.)  Friday, we had the team meeting, and on Saturday I went to a Turner Syndrome meeting with co-workers.  Like I said, it was a very busy week!

Home again, home again, ziggity zag!

We were in Greece this past week for a cluster meeting, and we had member care appointments with our fair share of the participants.  Our hotel was on the coast, but I only had time for one short walk on the pebbly beach with a friend of mine, Debbie.  Poor Glenn.  He didn't get a chance to go outside at all, other than to have a meeting on the terrace that overlooked the water!

On our way home in the Athens airport, we had a snack from the McDonald's McCafe.  While there, we watched a crew at the table right next to us doing a photo shoot of a McD's cup of coffee with 7 Days Croissants !  Evidently, the two have teamed up.  :-)

There were several families from the cluster meeting at the airport waiting to catch their flights with us at McDonald's.  We enjoyed a few laughs with these two!  Wherever they are, there will be a good time!

Once back in Budapest, on Saturday Glenn and I took our first bike ride of the year.  We rode all the way into downtown.  Unfortunately, we didn't think about how sore our bodies would be by time we got home...

We were amazed at how many people were out enjoying the gorgeous weather!  

And look (up) where we ended!  Definitely made it worth the trip...

Unfortunately, the neighborhood we live in is UPHILL from downtown (play on my words) and so the worst part of any bike ride is the last mile.  The photo doesn't do the hill justice!  

Soon we will be going to Senegal to be with our daughter when she has her baby so we've been buying up a "few things" for Kari, Jonathan, Alec and our new grand-daughter!  The pink sticky notes tell me how much the bags weigh so I can add cheese to the bags at the last minute.

We're here for a while, and then off to Slovenia, and then back again, then off to Senegal.  Can't wait!!!

Busy couple of weeks!

Glenn and I have been home since the end of January and have been able to take care of a few projects around the house, such as touch-up painting.  It's just not worth the effort to have our landlord paint the inside of the house so we periodically wield the roller and do it ourselves.  

We had a guest from Prague come stay with us for a few days.  Kim brought us a gift of pre-homemade packets of "Cake in a Mug".  If you aren't familiar with it, you basically mix small quantities of flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cocoa powder and put it in small baggies.  When you're ready to make it, you add milk, egg and oil, and pour into a large coffee mug, pop it into the microwave and bake on high for 1½ minutes.

Kim gave us a couple of caramel candy bars to break in half and stick a half piece into the middle of the batter before baking in the microwave.  Voila, an extra moist cake that is an individual size!

Joe came for dinner one night and we fixed the mug cakes for dessert.  Quite a hit!

My cousin, Anne, and her husband, Ron, came to Budapest to take a Danube River cruise, arriving 2 days before boarding the ship.  Glenn and I met them at the Marriott Hotel on the river this morning, and spent a couple of hours showing them the city.

We've had beautiful weather all week but, unfortunately, yesterday afternoon the wind, cooler temperatures and clouds blew in with a vengeance!  When we picked them up at the hotel this morning, it was raining and the wind was blowing so hard that our umbrellas turned inside out.  We were thrilled when the sun came out about noon.  I got to show my cousin and her husband our beautiful city at her finest!

We walked and walked and walked, and finally found a bench up in the Castle District, overlooking the city.

This is what we saw from our bench!  Notice that the trees are bare of leaves, but the grass is very green.  Spring is just around the corner!  Yea!  I'm so ready for warm weather.

If you look closely, you can see the Parliament building in the distance through the arch.  

And here is the Parliament building from up river.

When we walked Anne and Ron back, we saw this mailbox outside their hotel.  Kind of unique, isn't it?  The little white piece of paper on it says that the pick-up time is on Mondays between 3 and 5 pm.  Only once a week pick-up!  How interesting.  Hope those hotel guests didn't want postcards to family and friends to make it to the U.S. before them!

We'll be traveling again soon.  :-)  It's been nice to be home, but it will be nice to visit our folks again!

How Sweet It Is!

Ever since we returned from Christmas in Senegal where Kari served us (3 times!) some delicious homemade cinnamon rolls, I've wanted to make some for Glenn and me.  The full recipe makes 7 pie pans of the moistest, melt-in-your mouth maple flavored sweet rolls you'll ever eat!  I promise!  After a major hunt for aluminum foil pans through-out Budapest, finally finding them at Metro (think:  Sam's Club) on the outskirts of town, I was able to make some for our freezer.  We've got company coming for breakfast in the morning.  Guess what we're having???

Two weeks ago we hosted the girls high school basketball team from the Christian school in Bucharest, Romania, here in town for a basketball tournament against several other Christian schools across Europe.  There were 7 girls and a married couple as coach and chaperones, so 9 of them plus Glenn and me, all in our little house.  The girls slept on mattresses in the basement and the couple slept in our guest room.   We had a great time with them in the evenings, even though they were exhausted from playing all day.  While they were with us, 3 out of the 9 got sick, so we spent the next couple of days disinfecting the house and washing and airing the blankets that were used.   Unfortunately, it was too late as I caught what they had and spent the next 12 days on our couch.

Doubly unfortunate is that we were to have another large group of 11 people come and use our house for a team retreat while we went to visit 5 of our families but because I was sick, we had to cancel our trip and them using our house.  Hated to do that!

We now have more company, but this time it's just one person for 3 nights, and I'm feeling much better.  We were able to go into town on Saturday so that she could buy a souvenir for a niece.  We saw something we've not seen before in one of the small parks in town.  Can you tell what it is?  

Basically, it's a wooden frame built around the trunk of a tree, and "lovers" have attached locks to the frame as an indication of their forever love.

Here's an up close picture of the locks!  In our travels across Europe, we've come across this type of display before, but it is usually on bridges.  In fact, we noticed yesterday that people are starting to put padlocks on the Szabadsag Hid (Liberty Bridge) that crosses over the Danube River.  Does anyone do this in America???

Glenn and I have been living in Budapest now for 7 years, and I've noticed that the winters have gotten longer and harder for me to bear with each passing year.  Many people, particularly women, living in cold, dark countries often develop what is called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), whereby they experience a a mild case of depression, manifested by a lack of energy even though sleeping more, and serious carbohydrate cravings in the afternoon (causing weight gain, which is enough to depress any woman!)  Typically, the symptoms last until the sunshine arrives with spring.  

Eating nutritiously, getting regular exercise, and getting as much sun as possible are natural, healthy ways to combat SAD, but sometimes that is not enough, and so people often use light therapy to give them that extra boost they need.  I ordered a SAD light and have been using it now for 2 weeks, and have felt positive benefits.  Each morning when I first wake up, I turn on my SAD light and read my Bible for 30-45 minutes, and then I'm good to go for the day!  

Of course, I did spend 2 weeks in Senegal over Christmas, soaking up as much sun as I could on Kari's balcony and then we spent 2 weeks in Turkey where we had really nice weather.  Also, the weather in general in Budapest for the past 4 weeks has been milder than past winters so I might not have had as rough of a winter as previous ones, but hey, I'm still going to use this light and feel great!

P.S.

My light is not much bigger than a DVD, about an inch thick, and weighs less than a pound.  Perfect for traveling with me!

Got a busy week ahead with local member care visits and catching up on Skype calls!