BHG 100 Days of Holidays!!!

Oh how cool is this, it's time for Better Homes and Gardens' 100 Days of Holidays again! Yea!!! I love it and they have some of the best ideas. Here are just a few wonderful pics from their Decorating with Gourds slide show.

Have fun looking, I'm going to!

Little Trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia

After we lost Nanny last week the stress of not being able to be home with family got to us a little bit. So we decided to take a short little trip to Ljubljana, the capitol of Slovenia. It's not too far from us and so we drove up there to take a look-see. The drive was beautiful and pretty eventful.
After about 30 minutes into the drive we met these nice folks along the road side.

Oh it's been so long since we have had a conversation with these people that we were in shock.
After getting to know them a bit we decided we better do as they ask. We followed them to the nearest town, that wasn't actually near at all and proceeded to take care of the ticket the way you do when your in a foreign country. I videoed some of the fun, below. As always I hate the way I sound, I'm sad to hear that I haven't lost my Texas accent, but oh well.

People in Europe have no problem staring. Actually there's not a lot of entertainments here so I guess that's the entertainment. I'm sad to say I have taken to watching people while I drink coffee in town too but I'm more discreet.

Oh we saw this sign at one of the petrol stations. If you know that the NA means ON it's pretty funny. It actually reads, Coffee On the Potty. Aww, how funny!

The little lift thinggy to the top of the hill. Cool!

Over the city if Ljubljana stands a small mountain with the old town castle atop it. This is a view from the top of the little elevator thinggy.We found this guy on one of the stairs going into the castle, and no I didn't pet it!
Very pretty picture, lovely!
Another view of the town from above, very European and very clean.

There is a really pretty river running around the castle hill. Alone one side it's lined with shops of all kinds, had to take a look.

Up at the castle with my honey!
For those of you who have never been to Europe, the one thing Europe has that the US doesn't is thousands of ways to flush the toilet. Really, everything from push button, to step on stopper, pull string and tons more. Anyhow, I thought it was funny and the bowl itself was clean that's odd!
Do I easily amuse of what. This is the catch inside the bathroom door, it's was totally heavy and the knob was larger than my hand. I'm just thinking what is it necessary to have such heavy-duty latches on the inside of the stall? I mean who's going to try to break in and why???
I had to catch this shot. It the sign at the entrance of the castle. It plainly says that you are not allowed to drive your car, climb on the rails, ride your bike or walk on the grass but they graciously allow you to bring your dog and pick your nose! HA!
The family, typically American, see the caps!
With my window obsession, I love this one. See how old it is and where the old hinges used to be to cover this window. Surely some poor prisoner was inside there at one time. Ohh spooky!
Another shot!
Any yet another.
And one more, actually this one is a great one. Those are the Alps you see in the distance. Just north of Slovenia is Austria.
The kiddos.




A few from inside the castle. One part is now used for a bistro and you can tour the whole place, almost.

HEADING HOME...

Vintage Night Dress

Hey y'all, guess what I've been up to other than no-good!
While in Alabama on furlough I came across a Hancock Fabrics and decided to take a look around. Little did I know going in that they were having their 99 cent pattern sale. Every pattern in the store was only 99 cents. I went nuts and bought a few. This is one of my 99 cent sweeties and I'm glad I got it. It's very difficult to find night gowns here and since we only wear dresses to bed also it's kinda a necessity. Anyhoo, I found some of the cutest, vintage looking material at the facotry the other day and thought about this pattern.
So this is what I came up with. It's obviously not really vintage but it looks kinda vintage to me.
Actually I made some adjustments to the pattern. The sleeves were super wide so I made a box-pleat from the bottom of the sleeve up about 5 inches. After adding the bias tape to the wrist area I took some of the bias tape and made a small bow for the top of the box-pleat. I think it turned out nicely and it looks so old.
If you havn't noticed I went nuts with the bias tape. Actually I got out my Clover bias tape makers and made all the tape for the dress. I bias taped the neck, arm holes, and hem too. I love it!
Oh yea and I added a little detail with this fun appliqued heart at the bottom. It really does feel like a homemade vintage night dress, I think I want one now!
Anyhow, this is my attempt at Vintage wear, I love it and Hannah does too.

Lest We Forget...

...the men and women who lost their lives in the attack on America, September 11, 2001.

~~~*~~~

I remember that day. We were at home awaiting out language teacher. We had been in Croatia just over a year and we were finally over the blunt of the culture shock.


We readied our books and things and decided to take the next 30 minutes to watch some Fox News. As we turned on the TV we were shocked into silence. Was this really happening? What does this mean for us. Where's the number to the embassy? We were scared and dismayed.


The door bell rang and shocked us back to reality. Svjetlana, our tutor was here and as quickly as she walked into the living room and seen what was going on tears began to stream down her face. She said it reminder her so much of the Bosnian wars of which she was part.


We all sat in silence and watched yet another plane hit the tower in real time. It almost felt
like the world, as we knew it, had been shaken and it had.


Anyway, this is where I was on September 11th and I'll never forget.


Where were you on September 11th? Post it and then comment to let me know and I'll add your story to the list below.

~Check out Jungle Mom for her memories of Sept. 11th.

~Charity also posted a bit about where she was on that day.

A Great Loss

This past week our dear Nanny died after a long battle with cancer. We were incredibly close to Nanny and thus far it has been the hardest trials we've dealt with on the field.

One of the hardest things about being on the field is that you just can't up and fly home in case of family emergency. To us this was just that, a family emergency and one of the hardest things our family has had to face in a while.

The problem with losing a loved-one in the states and being so separated by oceans is that without a funeral there really isn't a close to grieving. It feels like the loss isn't real and it terribly hard to except the loss. After a week of depression and many tears we are finally getting over the initial shock of losing someone who has been so dear to us.

We will miss you forever Nanny and our hearts ache with your absence, we love you!

Below is the obituary that appeared in the Star Telegram paper:

Doris Miller, 79, of Arlington passed away Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008, at an Arlington hospital after a long battle with cancer surrounded by her children.
Service: 11 a.m. Saturday at Hillcrest Church of Christ, 1401 Hillcrest, Arlington, with Woody Woodrow officiating. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Moore Funeral Home.
Doris was a loving mom, nanny and great-nanny as well as a great friend to many. She was an active member of Hillcrest Church of Christ and a devoted volunteer with Hearts & Hands.
She was preceded in death by her husband, James Miller; parents, Schley and Pearl Reeves; and sister, Lorraine Patterson.
Survivors: Daughters, Sandy Zahir and her husband, Bijan, of Arlington, Nancy Leslie and her husband, John, of Mansfield and Joan Turner and her husband, Mike, of Springtown; son, Jim Miller and his wife, Rebecca, of Arlington; brother, Dewey Reeves of Tecumseh, Okla.; sister, Bernice Kilgrew of Tulsa, Okla.; nine grandchildren; and six great- grandchildren.

Calling All Missionary Wives!

Hey Y'all! Kerry over at LeiseLife is getting ready to take her first furlough and needs some tips for a successful furlough. I have thought of a few that helped us but now I'm coming up empty handed.
I know with all your experience you must have many good tips tucked in your brain just waiting to be shared so please comment and include any tips for a successful furlough and I'll then post them here in this post. Kerry will be so happy!

Tips for a Successful and Enjoyable Furlough

1. Take time to stop and smell the roses, Enjoy your furlough!

2. Always keep a binder of thank you cards next to your appointed place in the car so you can write thank-yous as soon as you leave a church.

3. Begin calling and booking meetings way in advance of actually arriving in the states.

4. When you have an open church day, visit a church that you don't have a meeting with.

5. I would have to say, based on recent experience, consider carefully buying the things you wish to take back to the field. It will not be cheap! Take back only things that cannot be obtained on your field for love nor money. ---Rhonda, veteran missionary wife in Chile

6. Try not to worry about what's going on while you're gone. ---Rhonda, veteran missionary wife in Chile

7. Enjoy yourself!! ---Rhonda, veteran missionary wife in Chile

8. I kept a journal about everything we did, and it served several purposes: to keep a record of each church we visited, offerings and thank-you's written, special people we met and how to keep in touch with them, parks/sights visited along the way, funny things the kids said/did that I wanted to remember... I'm so glad I did that! ---Tammy in Guatemala

9. Don't pressure your children to perform or behave differently than normal. Plan some down time between meetings. If you push your kids too much they will come to associate the US as a bad experience and never want anything to do with it! I've seen it happen. ---Rita, veteran missionary wife in Paraguay

10. One thing we did was take pictures of each church sign and if possible the Pastor's family to create a prayer album. This way the children realize we are dependent on these people for our support and are more appreciative. They also recognize the church the next furlough and it does not seem so strange to them. ---Rita, veteran missionary wife in Paraguay

11. OH! And plan on gaining weight! LOL! ---Rita, veteran missionary wife in Paraguay

12. What I did was asked each Pastor's wife of the supporting (and non-supporting) churches to sign my Bible. Most of the time people are always asking the Pastor to sign, but I asked the Pastor's wife. I use it for prayer time as I am praying that I have there name as well. I had some who wrote special notes in my Bible. I treasure each and every one of them. ---A Sinner Saved By Grace



13. Your Tip Here

Yea, an Air Show!

Two weeks ago (yes I'm posting late) we took the family to the annual air show in Pribislavec, just a short little drive from our house. The mass of people was unbelievable. Our town has about 25,000 people and I bet 10,000 were at the show. This was the first air show for us so we were amazed.

There was the coolest Red Bull stunt plane and and he actually flew that thing like he drank about 50 of those little Red Bulls. He was awesome!

Then they have a group of 5 WWII planes and they were amazingly coordinated. They flew within inches of eachothers wings. Very cool!

Oh yea here's a very amateur video of the stunt plane, please forgive the chitter-chatter in the background, that's Joshua our 13 year old. :0)

HOW DOES HE DO THAT??

We only got to stay for two hours of the 6 hour show. We missed the MIG that came and broke the sound barrier and several other really awesome planes. Anyhow it was so much fun and the kids loved it, thats what matters, right?

57 States?

So are the delegates from those extra states GOP or the other major party?