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.

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Daniel Kalanyos turned 11 on September 7th. Here he is showing off his new soccer jersey and hanging with the boys.

Not just play

Believe it or not, the kids at Casa Ana and Nadia, don't play all day every day. In the month of August, they help with the roasting of eggplant and canning vegetables for the winter. Roasting and cleaning over 300 pounds of eggplant. It only took 5 hours!
Cleaning "gogosari," a kind of red pepper that I don't think we have in the States, used to make zacusca, a red sauce that you spread on bread. Oh so good!

Soccer boys

Cornel taking a corner kick.

Zorro looking for a a teammate.

Daniel kicking it up the field.

Janos was out due to an injury, but he was there to support his buddies.

Bezid Lake

Our new favorite day trip (and sometimes overnight trip) about about an hour from here...Lacul Bezid. Years ago it was a town, but was made into a lake. The tops of trees stick out in some places, as do telephone poles and even a church steeple. You can rent boats...we took ours inside the church. It's great because in some places the kids can wade in and in others it's over 150 ft. deep! We love the lake!

I really was there

The problem with having the camera is that you always take the pictures, but are never in them. These aren't great, but I really was in Romania this summer!

Casa Ana family vacation

This week was a little different...I guess it always is with teenage girls. We did end up going camping...it drizzled on us most of the first day and downpoured as we were leaving the next day. We spent time at home as well, making pizza, watching movies, going to the weekend (at night as well), playing games. Kati and Rebecca making pizza!
Catalina and Simona in the lake.
Maria and Claudia hanging out in their tent.
Cornel is really beginning to shine. This summer he has finally come out of his shell. He's a delight to be around, makes jokes, loves to help out and is conscientious about his school work. I'm afraid to say it, but he never gets into trouble!

Casa Nadia family vacation

Well it wasn't the beach, but the kids from Nadia enjoyed a week of hanging out at the guest house, going to the weekend, watching movies, playing games, eating out, making pizza, and going to the lake.

Adi making his pizza...they love the corn and pineapple!
Iby and Marga singing and dancing to "High School Musical."
Laura and I making s'mores in the kitchen. We wanted to go camping, but it rained almost all week. We ended up having a "campfire" with the flahslight in the livingroom. We sang songs, made s'mores and had a dance party!
We thankfully were able to go to the lake on Friday. We drove all the way around, almost got stuck in the mud, almost tipped the van over, but we made it and it was beautiful.

Simona is 17!

On July 31 Simona turned 17! She was so surprised to receive what she wanted for her birthday...a digital camera. Since then the computer at the house has been filling up with pictures of her trip home with her siblings, Catalina's trip home to see her family, our camping trip, goodbye parties for staff, and many other events.

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this pics up. My laptop has entered into retirement unexpectedly and I don't make it to the office but about twice a month.