friends

just a few of the special people in my life these last 2 years

Making Christmas cookies for our teachers.

As one of our Advent activities this year we made cookies for teachers at school. I told the kids that everyone would take a plate, but not everyone had to help if they didn't want to. We listened to Christmas music and got to work making chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles.

Adriana, Claudia and Catalina mixing a double batch of chocolate chips cookies...way too many by the way.

ummm...just a little bit of a flour fight took place

Claudia was a pro by the end of the night!

Kati rolling out a snickerdoodle.

Making traditions

This will be the 3rd Christmas for the kids at Casa Nadia and Casa Ana. They are already starting to enjoy family traditions, such as always decorating the tree on December 1st. It's so fun to watch all of them participate and enjoy preparing for the holiday season. Pray that we'd keep the focus on Jesus. Maria and Simona putting on the lights.
Casa Ana in their family picture.
Fanel unhooking Christmas ornaments.
Casa Nadia family

First snowfall!

I'm not even back in the country 24 hours and it snows for the first time. The kids are loving it and I have to say I had some fun too!

Giving Thanks

This morning my brother and I attempted to find a nintendo wii. The Kmart opened at 7 and when we got there at 6:40 there were already 100 people in line. Folks, it's Thanksgiving day, not the Friday after Thanksgiving. At 6:50 a lady came out to annouce that tickets had already been given out and that there were no more wiis. Not really a surprise considering we've been looking and calling places for 2 weeks and they always sell out in the first 15 minutes of the store being open. We checked out another Kmart and when we pulled into the parking lot at 7:02, we pulled right back out when we saw that the line was even longer as people were filing into the store.

But this is not a story about not being able to find game systems in this country.

As I was riding home I started to think about my Romanian friends and what they lived through during communism. The younger ones remember just being able to get oranges at Christmas. Others tell stories of waiting 4 hours in line for milk or meat and it not being available when it was their turn. One friend told a story of being 7 months pregnant, waiting in line and a riot starting around her...over vegetables.

We have so much to be thankful for here in America. Everything we need to survive, to live a healthy life is available. Most of our Thanksgiving tables are full, not only of food, but also of the ones we love. We are free to live, love, worship, speak, buy, drive, work, etc.

Tomorrow if you're joining the crowds on the biggest shopping day in America, be thankful you don't have to wait in line for milk and remember it's just stuff that will pass away, break, rust, or be stolen.

Kati's 13th birthday

I'm a little late with my posting, but we did have a grand celebration for Kati's birthday. The day before she and Catalina came over to watch a movie after school. On her day we did the typical celebration of singing, eating and opening presents, but we did add the twist of her favorite game, "steal the bacon." Great game, a little violent, lots of laughs.

Kati and Claudia have become pretty good roommates, perhaps even friends.

Cornel, aka Speedy Gonzales, steals the bacon (an empty water bottle) before Zorro has a chance.

Charlie and Margareta were able to join in the fun. Here is team 1 picking numbers. It's all very intense.

Vacation with the Lovelands

Day 1-boating with Rebecca's family; saw a shark then went tubing; ate the best ribs of my life...we're talkin' falling-off-the-bone good


Day 2-went to the hunting lease on the buggy (the monster truck of 4 wheelers/golf carts), had a cook out and camp fire

Day 3-another day at the hunting lease searching for hogs; not a one could we find until we stopped to take a picture and one walked out of the bushes 15 yards away; with our encouragement David hopped on the 4 wheeler to chase it down and shoot it;

Day 4-a little shopping and dinner with the Kuhls...elk steak...mmmmmm

Day 5-down time, a little more shopping and dinner and hang out time with Christ Fellowship

Day 6-departure to Disney

a fabulous week it was!

God Bless America

It's good to be home. I'm in Florida until the middle of November (maybe longer). I've got a new stateside cell phone number so email me if you wanna chat.

weekend warrior

i feel like i already defined myself as a weekend warrior sometime this summer, but i can't remember when it was. anyways, this weekend i went to "Scaunul Domnului," which means The Lord's Chair. if i'd known what i was getting into i would not have shown up on saturday morning. only after we were on the road did i find out that it's 4 hours up the mountain and 4 hours down. um...yes i've been getting a little more in shape with running/walking, but let's just say mountain climbing is not something i will ever be good at, or will ever even try again. i'm not going to go into details, because, well it's just too embarrassing. i did not make it all the way up the "hill," but i learned much and perhaps will write about this experience in one of my future books.

p.s. monday afternoon i went back to outward bound (ropes course) with the leadership of Livada. i attempted and succeeded on most of the obstacles...so basically what i'm trying to say is that i'm in pain from my head to my toes.

School for everyone!

This year everyone is going to school (not kindergarten). We spent a good part of last week buying school supplies and making sure everyone had what they needed. Sergiu, Fanel and Daniela have been taking about going to school since June and are ready. This morning I asked Sergiu if he was nervous and he said yes! Fanel and Daniela will be going to the private Romanian-American school in town. We decided to keep Sergiu at School #7 so he could be near his brothers (Madalin is there now and Daniel will hopefully be returning there in the fall). One praise is that ALL the kids are going to school in the morning this year.