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:

Internet

I haven't been online much during the last two weeks. This is the reason why ....

For whatever reason my wireless decided not to work and this was the only way I was able to access Internet while in Veracruz. That's why I only spent very little time online. But it was the Lord's set up so that I could enjoy the real world for a while and not get tempted to work too much. :)

Vacation!!!

I am on vacation!!! With the Lord's and various friends' help I was able to travel half across the world to see my friends and take a vacation in Mexico! Fun, fun! Here are a few pictures for starters...

Off to the plane...














Dear Celeste picked me up and took me around the city and made sure I am safe and sound. Here we are on our way to see the Zocalo. Thanks, Celeste, for all your help! It's been fun seeing you again after all these years - what a treat!!!



















The main square in Mexico City














Oh, yeah, and David came with us for this outing also - thanks for all the laughs, David! It was great seeing you again!















On the way to Veracruz















Today we went to the beach and took Liz and Brandon. I will post more pictures later, for now just a real cute one of Brandon.

Narnia

Originally I was going to comment on our first day of spring and how it turned out to be the first day of snow, while the last day of winter was nice and sunny and fairly warm. But since I didn't get to take any pictures when it actually looked like Narnia outside I thought of looking through our picture folders to see if someone else did, and in the process I found this picture from our Family Birthday celebration. We had cheese for lunch that day but nobody wanted to take any from this serving plate so as not to ruin this piece of art. The guys really outdid themselves. :)

Just for fun...

Such a cute little kitty and already a drug addict! :)

To all of you wonderful ladies...

Happy women's day! Everyone is really going for it around here - flowers, cakes, presents, wine, parties. So enjoy your day wherever you are! Somebody wished me an ocean of love and I thought to pass it on to you too!

Last week

Last week was one of those weeks that could be dubbed Florence Nightingale week - at least for me. Most of the Home got sick with a flu with only a few survivors, me being one of them. So every couple hours I had to do my rounds to take care of the sick. Eventually, the baby got it too - her first sickness in her life, which is quite amazing considering her age (15 months) - and so I spent a lot of time with her as well to give her parents a break and an opportunity to rest and tank up after long sleepless nights. I think I was able to squeeze in only about 2 hours for my work during the whole week with my to do list getting longer and longer every day, but it was one of those "the worker is more important than the work" moments and I was amazed at the peace the Lord gave me not to worry about the work pile up. I guess the Feast did bring a few lessons home about trusting Him and resting in Him - it sure makes life much easier and more enjoyable!

Hot Dogs

Being the kitchen overseer, it's always nice to see when things are going well on the kitchen front and everyone is well-fed and happy. That "nice to see" was rather questionable the other day when I decided to branch out and got hot dogs for lunch. "Nothing much can go wrong" I thought and told the lunch cook that he should warm up the hot dogs for lunch. No questions asked so I went peacefully on my merry way. To my dismay, when I walked into the kitchen at lunch time, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. On the serving table there was a big steaming pot of something resembling dog food floating in some sort of soupish matter, along with brown pieces of plastic. Quite a sight to behold on an empty stomach! - I wish I took a picture of that thing!
The poor cook was all puzzled wondering why the hot dogs fell apart. It turned out that he didn't know that this thin kind of hot dogs that have a plastic cover need to be peeled first before boiling them and that they don't need to be boiled with different kinds of spices for an hour - actually they shouldn't be boiled for more than 3 to 5 minutes.
Thankfully, most people were in a good mood that day and after a few salvaging attempts quite a few folks ventured to eat at least some of it. And it eventually turned into a big joke and one of those memorable stories that we will be laughing at for years to come. I guess it usually takes these types of unexpected "disasters" to create memories that stick, doesn't it?
Through this whole ordeal I made an interesting observation though - that there are two types of people in regards to the visual side of food: The first group doesn't mind so much what their food looks like as long as it tastes good. The other group are the folks for whom the way the food looks is extremely important, and if it doesn't look appetizing they won't eat it even if they have to go hungry. Of course, there are also the "in-betweens", but it was very interesting to observe people's reactions and plates that lunch! I sure know which group I belong to and what my priorities are! ;)

Birthday Fun

Thank you everyone for all your wishes, birthday greetings, cards, your sweet words of friendship as well as your gifts and fun outings which all made my birthday very special. Of course, big applause to the One Who was behind the scenes arranging it all to make it into a real memorable occasion. He said He would organize it for me this year (with a little bit of my help) and He did a marvellous job! He sure is the best One to leave these kind of things with!
He started by changing my mindset explaining to me that I don't need to be tied to just one day but can stretch The day into a longer period of time and then it all started rolling and has been rolling ever since!
Starting from a visit to an Aquapark (can you imagine, it was the first time for me and sooooo much fun! - it did take our guys a long time to persuade me to actually go on a slide, but I think I prefered other things, esp. the "river" or the jacuzzi - definitely much more relaxing! :D), then two evenings we watched a movie, on the "real" day we had a celebration and a fun story telling time (it's amazing what you can find out about the people you live with in just one story telling evening!) and then I was reading through all the Birthday greetings and cards (they still keep coming!), went out to watch a movie, enjoyed a couple super fun forest outings, yesterday I was invited out for a birthday dinner and there are still two more things coming - ice-skating with the kids and another meal out! Now that's what I call a memorable birthday!

Here are my birthday cakes.... guess who made them?

All that is to say, thank you so much for doing your part to make it special for me! Whether little or big, it all added to the birthday fun! And I greately appreciate it!

Winter

The last two winters were so extreme and yet so opposite! Last year everything was covered in snow for some four months straight! There was no need to be "dreaming of a white Christmas" because everything was super white and frosty - very gorgeous.... and very cold too! It went down to minus 30°C for a few days and minus 20 was a daily average for a while. Here is a picture from a year ago - even that snowman had to wear gloves and a scarf not to get cold:


Well, this winter is the other way round - extremely warm ... at least for this place! :-) We had snow only for about 2 days in early December and other than that it's been more like autumn or spring with temperatures around plus 10°C, sometimes 15. But being the warmth lover that I am, I am really enjoying this winter! Here are a few pictures from our outing the other day:

2007 ... here we come!!

It wasn't one of those full moon nights when some people feel crazy enough to open a blog..., but it was one of those days when I finally couldn't resist the temptation - or rather some patiently gentle sweet loving pressure and encouragement from some :) - to try this way of sharing pictures and happenings with my friends. So here it is and although I can't promise that I will be one of those very faithful bloggers, I hope that it will accomplish its purpose and give you a glimpse into what I have been up to. And hey, maybe if I can live up to the motto of my favorite frog my blogging will not end with this post! ;) (By the way, that frog in the picture must have been the same frog that churned the butter out of cream - gets in trouble easily but somehow always finds a way out!)
So anyway, all that is to say... 2007 - here we come! With the butter... pardon me, better and the best!