I warned you! Lots of photos of Alec!

Oh, the week has flown by and we only have one week left before we say good-bye.  Fortunately, they are coming back in 6 1/2 months to spend Christmas with us.  Wonder if there is any chance Chris, Kate and Jazmine will be able to join us too???

Alec didn't feel well when he arrived last week and then his temperature spiked pretty high one day so we took him to the doctor at First Med Center who told us he had a virus.  

It was so difficult to watch him when he felt so poorly.  Of course, we don't have pictures of him when he was sick.  Once he started to feel better, he then broke out with a terrible rash that then made him feel pretty miserable again.  Turns out he had the Roseola virus!

He is much better now and is back to eating and sleeping well.

We've stayed pretty close to home this past week with all the sickness.  With Jonathan, Alec, Glenn and me feeling poorly with one thing or the other, someone wasn't up to much running around.   It was four days before we even went to the grocery store!

Alec still likes to be swaddled when he sleeps, and he loves his African doll we got him from Ikea, so we swaddled him too and let him nap next to Alec.   So sweet!

And this is the baby's momma.  Our daughter, Kari.  She's as beautiful as Alec is cute.

He has such a beautiful smile.    As he has gotten older, he looks more and more like Kari to me.

And this is the baby's dad.   Jonathan gets up with Alec in the mornings, changes his diaper, gives him a bottle, and takes care of him until Kari wakes up an hour or two later.   He's a good dad.

Alec loves the water!  While he was taking his bath one day, Kari and Jonathan skyped with someone in Jonathan's family.  Isn't that cool?    I love technology.  

Kari is a good mom.   Alec is lucky to have her as his mother.

Alec loves to give his mom kisses.  Unfortunately, when he kisses, he opens his mouth and practically bites you!

Each morning I've had the pleasure of taking Alec for a walk in the yard.  We check out which flowers are about to bloom and how many strawberries need to be picked.  

Alec is a good eater, especially when he feels well.  Good eater, but not particularly neat  :-)

Just about every day we go for a walk in the neighborhood.  We have a stroller, but he prefers the front pack so we take turns carrying him. 

While we were out on one of our walks, we passed this loaf of bread lying outside someone's gate.  We decided this was some kind of home delivery!    

Everyone was feeling well and Alec had slept well last night, so today we took a ride into downtown to give everyone a break from the house.   

Alec loves sightseeing in Budapest!!!

Alec's here!!!

To get the full story of Kari, Jonathan and Alec's arrival, scroll down to the previous blog update and read it first, then come back to this one!

They made it!

This is the face of one precious grandson and one proud grandfather!

Alec trying on his new hat!

Glenn and I had bought a few things for Alec, one of which is a soft, black doll from Ikea that is not much smaller than Alec himself.  We had the toys laying out on the bed and Alec went first for the purple and green stuffed giraffe that rattles but when he saw the black baby doll, he lunged straight for it!  Guess it made him feel like he was back home!  BTW--I did ask Kari AND JONATHAN if it was okay if we gave Alec a doll and stressed that it would be a black one, and they were both okay with it.  When our kids were not much older than Alec and we were moving to Ivory Coast, a dear friend, Annie Manley, made each of them black Cabbage Patch dolls that they loved.  We still have them to this day.  Well loved.

Anyway, we're so glad to have Kari, Jonathan and Alec with us for the next two weeks.  I can assure you that next weeks' blog update will be 99% pictures of Alec.  You've been warned!    :-)

Anyone that read my blog in the past few weeks knows that we were excited about Kari, Jonathan and Alec visiting us this week.  I'm sad to say their plane out of Dakar had a 5 hour delay in departing so they missed their connecting flight out of Lisbon, Portugal.  :-(   Unfortunately, the airlines didn't have another flight out that they could catch, but fortunately, the airlines put them up in a hotel for the night, with food vouchers and everything, and they are coming later today.  Actually, right now they should be on the plane and taxiing down the runway!  So, once they arrive this evening, I will come back and post a picture of them.

But in the meantime, you will have to read "filler" since I'd counted on this blog update being about them!

So, I'll tell you about what Glenn and I have been up to this week, getting ready for them to come.  I've been harvesting the cilantro that I planted and freezing it for use in salsa during the cold winter months.  Cilantro is hard to come by here in Budapest so I planted two small bunches and have enjoyed watching it grow!  No joke.  I go out and check on it at least once a day!  I babied it during our windstorm earlier this week, and I cut off the older leaves almost daily so that it will keep producing until the ground gets hot.  Once the ground gets too warm, it bolts (produces flowers ... and when the flowers come, the taste goes).  

While I've been cleaning, disinfecting, shopping and organizing, Glenn has been working out in the yard. Our Peonies are doing beautifully this year!

Glenn has tried to stay ahead of the Dandelions (I'm not sure I should capitalize that word, Dandelion!  It is a weed, and I don't want to give any respect to weeds that grows as viciously as they do in our yard!)

This morning after worshipping at Danube International Church this morning, Glenn and I decided to walk on the newly installed jogging track that goes around the perimeter of a neighborhood park to see how far it goes.  What we didn't realize is that there is a whole huge park on the other side of the hill!  (Our church is on the other side of the hill in the background.)  As we climbed the small hill on the jogging track, we saw these tents and decided to check out the festivities.  Evidently, it was a karate exhibition.  This picture only shows you about 1/3 of it.  As we walked on, we came to an outdoor gym with new equipment, tennis courts, more picnic tables, two really nice children's playgrounds, one of which was equipped with a huge children's sandbox and running water in the middle of it--designed for children to make mud pies!  Children were there in their bathing suits to play in the mud!  I can't wait to take Alec and Jazmine in a couple of years!!

This afternoon, in an effort to keep Glenn out of the house so he didn't dirty it before the kids get here, we ate outside under our gazebo and then sat under a tree in the yard in our lounge chairs.  This is what the Sabbath is all about!  It was perfect weather.  Slight breeze, sunshine dappling through the leaves of the Almond tree, birds singing. Perfect.  And the company was great too!  Glenn was in a talkative mood ... Except he wanted to talk about our budget and that is never good news!  :-(

Well, I'll add another picture tonight or tomorrow of K, J & A!  

Have a great week!

Serbia is the first country we visited when we arrived on the field 5+ years ago so it has a special place in my heart.  We're also good friends with most of the folks!  This is our third visit there.

We started the week off in Kraljevo, Serbia with one of our families.  A really neat family and lots of fun!

Then we drove down to Cacak to visit with another great family.  Notice the signs are in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabet?

This family in Cacak (pronounced Cha-chak) is one of the first families that we visited when we came 5 years ago.   We go waaaay back!  Carl and Julie took us to a quaint "country" restaurant that had a telephone pole running right through the middle of it!  The food was delicious, too!

I love their little town with all it's veggie stands;  I especially love this one that is out of the back of a station wagon.  Each night the station wagon is filled with their produce where it is stored, and it stays parked overnight there (and where it has been for YEARS by the looks of it!) and then pulled out the next morning and stacked on the sidewalk for sale.

Carl loves to tinker and one of his great inventions is this cup holder out of a tissue box!  I shouldn't laugh; it was quite ingenious and it worked!  I might ask him to make me one too since our car doesn't have a cup holder.  

We then headed up to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, where we visited with two families and a Journeyman.  When we stay with families in their homes, we try to be as easy on them as we can and interrupt their schedule as little as possible.   Mom continued with homeschooling in the living room while Glenn and I worked on emails.  We were having a great time so hated to leave our friends there in Serbia but we needed to get on back to Budapest ... 

We returned to Budapest on Thursday and spent all day Friday sterilizing the baby items we've gathered for our grandson's visit this coming weekend before Glenn left for another trip (without me) on Saturday.  He gets back in town on Friday.  We've got a car seat, stroller, high chair, bath tub, play mat, Pack 'N Play, backpack and a "few" toys for little Alec!  Oh, and electric outlet plugs!

Okay, Kari and Jonathan.  We're ready.  You can come on!

My worst nightmare came true!

I've been practicing holding babies in preparation for the arrival of my grandson on May 19th (and his parents, Kari and Jonathan).

I went into town to visit with Melissa and got to hold her precious daughter, Ellie.  She is such a beautiful little bundle and sat so contentedly on my lap while her mom and I sipped cups of coffee.  They will be moving to Turkey in August and we will miss them very much.

I loved chatting with Melissa but I've had way too many cups of coffee with white chocolate lately and gained a few pounds.  Because of this, I've had to start seriously exercising to get them off by summer.

I've started jogging again.

  

For years my worst nightmare has been that while I'm out walking or jogging, I'll suddenly come across a dead body in a ditch.  That's exactly what happened--except it was in the Danube River, and it wasn't a dead body BUT IT SURE DID LOOK LIKE IT!  It was Saturday morning about 9:30 am and there weren't yet a lot of people on the pathway along the river so I was mostly alone.  It was creepy.   My heart pounding, I tried to talk myself out of believing it had finally come true.  Eventually, I was able to flag down a passing biker and ask him if he thought it was a body floating in the river.  He didn't think so, so I decided to believe him.  Of course, Glenn has had a great time teasing me about it!  (I think I know from whom my daughter gets her irrational fears.)

Istvan came for lunch last Sunday after church.  I learned a trick about putting a hole in hamburger patties to make them cook faster and more evenly, and Glenn has practiced grilling them this week.  Oh, yum!

Practice makes perfect;  he has mastered the grilling of the burgers!  More burgers grilled outside and lunch again in the gazebo with David and Tina!

Tina was born in the U.K., and even though she is now an American citizen, she still eats like a Brit.  Brits use their knife to push food on the backside of the fork, and then put the fork in their mouth upside down.  Basically, they use the backside of their fork like we use a spoon!  

Monday was a holiday and I talked Glenn into going into downtown with Istvan to celebrate without me so that I could have the house to myself, no interruptions, and do a little sewing for my grand babies.  It was so nice and quiet, and I finished one of the two outfits, so one more to go before June 2 when I go to the U.S..

Last weekend, one of our TCK's (third culture kids) that graduated last year premiered a movie he wrote and filmed with the help of a few friends and adults in our community.  He has a great love for producing movies and has been accepted to BIOLA University to study film production.  This photo is of the red carpet and the cast members who walked on it as they were being introduced to the audience.  It was a big deal!  His parents hosted a big cast party, and about 75 people came for the showing of the movie.  It was awesome!

We're off again on Monday for a short trip to Serbia.  

Czech Republic and Poland

I've been writing this blog now for 5 years and find it difficult to find new things to share with you but 

when I found this jeep, I thought, "Ah, ha! Finally something new!"

We started the week in Hradec, Czech Republic with our friends Harold and Ginger.  A special treat was Harold's fresh salsa, but we also enjoyed visiting the 6 bazars in town.  Bazars are second-hand shops, much like our thrift stores in America.  I found and bought a crystal bowl with a sticker that says it was made in the German Democratic Republic!  East Germany before the wall fell!  Can you believe I bought it for $5?!?   

I do not know the name of the river that flows through the center of Hradec but it is one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen. 

When I was uploading this photo, I told Glenn I was going to have to change coats for our next trip.  Every recent photo has me looking exactly the same!

Cool reflection of the buildings and trees, isn't it?  The river was so still that it made the reflection very clear.

This photo is for my son-in-law, Jonathan.  This is a Czech kolache, a type of pastry that he grew up eating as a child in Iowa.  There must have been a Czech community in the Cedar Rapids area for him to have eaten these when he was younger.  

Leaving Hradec, with the help of our GPS, we meandered our way  through the quaint towns scattered randomly across the plains and beneath rolling hills to Wroclaw, Poland.  We saw rows and rows of trees filled with mistletoe!  

Each village we passed through had their own church just off the main street.

As we entered Wroclaw, we saw a wonderful sight!  It doesn't get much better than this!  Both Starbucks and Pizza Hut, both in the same block, next door to each other!  We ate lunch at Pizza Hut in town before heading over to Scott and Denise's apartment but I made Glenn promise he wouldn't tell them where we ate lunch.  Glad I had Glenn promise because as it turned out, Pizza Hut is where they wanted to eat dinner so I got pizza twice in one day!  Yea!

While we were in Poland, Denise and I took a road trip to Boleslawice, the town that manufactures the famous Polish pottery.  Spent my birthday and Christmas money that I've been saving for a year and bought a few pieces to give as gifts!  Would you believe I totally forgot to take pictures???

We returned to BP on Saturday evening in time to welcome Robin and Randy to town.  We showed them the major sites and then enjoyed a typical Hungarian meal on Vaci Street.  

This platter of fried meats, fried potatoes, rice and a salad of pickled cabbage is described as "good for two people".   Can you believe it???   Well, we ordered it to be shared among the four of us and it was plenty!  It was also delicious!

While we were walking around town, we were stopped by a bike rally to raise awareness of the need for bike lanes.   It is a big deal here.   There must have been 3000 people on bikes, a bakers dozen wearing skates, a handful of scooters, and even a couple of unicycles!

Even children joined in on the fun!

We're home for a bit.  I love my nest!