I love the sea!

I will post some pictures later. For now I just wanted to say, "I love the sea and am enjoying every moment of it!" This year the Lord has been so good to me in this regard.

Bunny

Our kids have a cute little white bunny that they take care of. The other day someone decided to let the bunny out of his cage to let him get some fresh air and excercise running around the garden. Well, it turned out somewhat differently as the bunny got scared of something and hid under a car and somehow made his way into the engine. It took us good 45 minutes to figure out how to get him out before something gets chewed up. Finally the guys had to unscrew some engine cover behind the wheels to get to the bunny. Thankfully, everything worked out well, only the bunny wasn't that white anymore - on the other hand, the engine wasn't so black. ;)

Some wedding photos

So we made it safely there and back and had a blast while there! The good ol' CEAD got rented for this special event. - I definitely didn't expect to go back there again! But it proved to be just the perfect house for hosting this. On the actual wedding day we counted some 111 people attending, with about 70 staying overnight, and the house was just perfect! - I mean, everyone fit. ;-) I got to stay in the little house, away from all the hubbub and in the coolest room (it was Sahara weather during those days and the rest of the rooms were almost unlivable during the day). Anyway, here are a few photos. For some reason my camera decided to go on strike during the ceremony, so it took me a while to collect a few pictures from someone else. They are not very clear, but at least give an idea.

The theme of the wedding was medieval and everyone was supposed to dress up accordingly - and a lot of the people actually did. The wedding was happening in a forest. Here are the musicians:


This is the actual ceremony:




After the ceremony we went back to the house where we had a party, people had a few songs for the newlyweds...


They fed all 111 people a nice dinner and afterwards served some drinks. The sangrilla was really yummy, right Tino?

Oh well, all is well that ends well. Enough of partying, back to work!

I'm going to a wedding!

I think this will be a fun weekend - tomorrow we will travel to attend Danny and Lani's wedding. Fun fun! Thanks for keeping our trip in your prayers!

Blissful moments

On a nice hot day there is nothing like refreshing cool water. This fountain just got filled up with cool clean water and I couldn't resist it. I like summer. :)

Sweet dreams...

Tonight I will sleep really well after doing a big shopping and going for an unexpected 5-hour drive. (Did I mention I also helped organize tonight's vespers?) Someone said that it was a "Jenny Mitty" day. Well, I don't know about that, it was only the Lord that gave me the strength to do it all. Anyway, sweet dreams....

My niece

Last weekend I went to visit my relatives after not seeing them for a year. A fun new addition was my niece. Last time I saw her she was a very tiny baby so seeing her walk and communicate was fun.

Four leaf clover

Did that ever happen to you that you expected a certain reaction from someone and they reacted in a totally different way? - And I don't mean when instead of 'yes' they say 'no', but I mean the kind of reaction that just wouldn't even cross your mind in the particular situation you are in. Well, something like that happened to me the other day. I found a four leaf clover and I thought I would give it to someone as a simple token of appreciation. Not that I think that four leaf clovers bring luck as some believe, but it definitely isn't every day you find one.
As I walked into the kitchen, there was a girl that just recently arrived at our home and I felt that the Lord wants me to give it to her to cheer her day. So I told her I had something for her and gave it to her. You should have seen her eyes lit up and this big smile spread across her face! 'Wow, that was surely worth it', I thought. I actually didn't expect such a great response over this little clover, but hey, it was meant to cheer her up after all, so praise God for that.
But this is when the unexpected happened which left me totally speechless - she said, 'Thank you! I like clovers. Did you know you can eat them?' And she ate it! I was so surprised at this turn of events that I just didn't know what to say or how to respond. I think I finally said something like 'really', and that's all I could come up with.
Later on I was trying to figure out what to think of this unexpected twist and the best I could do was to conclude that at least she will like it in our home since our lawn is covered in clovers - the three leaf kind, but I don't think the number of leaves matters in this case.

This made me laugh...

Someone sent me a link to this video clip which made me laugh -



I love you, all of my German friends out there! ;)

It's been a while since I was able to post anything. Mainly because the past few weeks I was helping to take care of a toddler girl. Her parents went on a trip and her teacher that would be normally with her got sick. So most of my free time was occupied by this sweet rascal girl. Of course, it's not that I was with her all the time, others have done their share too, and she knows what fun things each person has to offer. The other day I had to distract her with something and so we went to see if we can find some fun animal pictures or videos online. Sure enough, she loved it and now she knows what my desk has to offer! Lots of cats, dogs, horses and what have you. But the all time favorite is this one -

I think this was the first time she actually saw a panda so she added a new word to her vocabulary - she thinks that a panda bear is called "achoo". :)

Beach

And of course, there was the beach!!! It's been nearly three years since I lived by the sea, and being the water lover that I am I really missed it! So having this opportunity to spend time at the beach was quite refreshing, to say the least.




It was just way too nice - :)

Acuario

There are a few more highlights from my trip to Veracruz. One is the Aquarium that Rose and I went to visit. It was great to get to know who our neighbours are when swimming in the sea. Here I am including photos of some of the fishies and stuff we got to see:

Not again...

These days I don't travel by plane that much, actually, within the last three years I only took two trips by plane - one locally three years ago and the other on this trip to Mexico. But on both trips upon arrival I found my brand new bottle of deodorant empty - the top broke and the contents got sprayed out into my bag under the weight of all the other suitcases. Oh, well, gotta stay on the positive note - at least this time it happened on my way home so I have plenty of other clothes to wear before these "nicely" smelling ones get washed. :)

Up the river

One day a friend came over with a motor boat to take us up the river - this time we went a bit further and with less effort than the kayak could take us.

Kayak

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there is a canal connecting the river and the sea right in the back yard of the house. So the first day Hana took me out in the kayak to explore the river. I really enjoyed it. We didn't take a picture that time, but later on I went with Rose and that time we had a photo taken.


There is a funny story connected with these two trips. There were two sets of oars. When I went the first time with Hana, she asked me which one I wanted to use and I chose the black one and Hana took the other one. On the way, she kept commenting how it's such a good exercise. I thought that was funny because I didn't feel anything and figured that maybe I just wasn't working hard enough or that I was much more fit. (- How conceited can I get?) Well, that second option didn't make that much sense knowing that Hana is a professional mom with quite a hefty bundle of a two year old "baby" that's not one of the lightest. :)
It all became clear when the second time I let Rose chose which oars to take and she chose the black one. Using the other set, my arms started hurting after the first fifty meters and I realized that this other set of oars is made of metal and super heavy. It felt like I was paddling with a weight lifting bar! It sure made for a good work out, but it didn't get us very far, ha! Very soon my job turned out to be making sure that the thing is out of the water and not hindering our progress, while Rose merrily paddled the kayak along the way.
The end of the story is that later on a team lent the kayak to some neighbours in exchange for a ride on a ski jet and the neighbours somehow let that heavy set drown. Too bad - no more weight lifting exercises during kayaking!
And Hana, hats off to you! You did much better than I did!

Pyramids

I am back home now and knowing that I won't have that much time for blogging once I get home, I decided to write the posts about my time in Mexico on the plane. So now I just need to type them and add pictures. Am I getting smart or what?
I had such a wonderful time in Mexico! It's been a while since I was able to have a real vacation and this was just perfect in every way. I am very thankful to the Lord and everyone who made it possible. I already posted some pictures about my first few days in Mexico City, now I will focus on the bulk of my vacation which I spent in Veracruz. Thanks so much, dear Veracruz Home, for having Rose and me, and for making our stay special in every way!
Rose came from Guadalajara for this occassion and so we were able to have a little Czech get together. It was indeed special as we haven't seen each other for nearly five years. Here is Hana, Rose and I.



This picture was taken at the local pyramids where Hana and Andrew took us on the first weekend. Hana and the kids provisioned the enterance for all of us and we spent a couple of hours there including having a picnic. Here are a few photos: