Mar 28, 2009

Fun over Eats!

Today the family took me out to eat for my birthday. I had decided that I didn't want to go, diet you know but then they seemed so sad I gave in. The sacrifices I make for family!!

Joshua and Johnny goofing off or are they???

Hannah, Cody and I. The wind was terrible, that's my excuse for the bad hair.

No alcoholic beverages were consumed in the making of this film!




Can you read what the house special is for the day???

Okay so we got the daily menu or the daily special which consisted of:
mixed salad with vinegar and oil (the norm in Europe), calf medallions with mushroom sauce and njokiand paliÄŤinke (crepes) for desert. Yummy!!

The kids got two large pepperoni pizzas which they quickly devoured. Actually this place has the best pizza we have ever had in Croatia. There were two pieces left and Cody was trying to breath on them so no one else would eat them. Little did he know that to Josh it doesn't matter!Oh yea afterward we (the grown-ups) had cappuccino. Here are a couple photos from the inside of this little bistro.

I had to take a picture of this; the way the restaurants usually mark the bathrooms is with either a little girl sitting on a pot or a boy standing and doing his business. The first time I saw it I was a little disturbed. I'm not so much now, hmm, should I be concerned by that???
Oh yea and the outside of this place. No way a tourist would ever find it, it's family owned. In the front along the road is a cafić (coffee house that serves liquor too) but it's totally separated from the restaurant.


BTW, Don't know if you can see it or not but the place is called Barok, I guess like the the Barok era, so we're leaving and Cody says, "Hey if it isn't Barok, don't fix it!". HA, way too funny!!

That's the restaurant back there in the back to the left so if you are ever visiting Croatia you can drop in there for a few eats!
***Edited to say: the little green bottle of Johnny's is mineral water, okay now you know, no reason to start that rumor!! :0)

Tori

Mar 26, 2009

March 26, 1973

Guess what was waiting for me this morning? My kids bought me a rose from each of them and they made the sweetest DVD for me. They found tons of pictures of me throughout the years with them and they wrote a song about me. The pictures scrolled as they sang a very special song for me. I was bawling at the end and so thankful for great kids who love me.

Oh yea I'm officially 36 today, hence the title of this post!


Guess what happened last night! Usually our Wednesday night crowds in Cakovec have been really low lately. Last night we had 31 in the service which is great. The catch is that 21 of those 31 came in on Johnny's van route. He took a 9 passenger van to pick up3 or 4 people and came back with the 9 passenger van filled to the roof with 21 people. One of the little girls decided to invite some friends and 18 of them came. Amen, Jesus loves the little children and when better to catch their hearts for Jesus then when they are young?


Oh yea and I found the best place on the web yesterday. Sew Mamas is a message board for, well, Sewing Mamas. It's a great place for anyone who loves sewing and they have lots of free PDF patterns for download.

I downloaded the pattern for this bag yesterday and made it. It was my very first bag and I loved it. It was a total conquer thing with me and I had to finish it yesterday. I think it turned out rather well and I have a much better understanding of how these sorts of patterns work.

Head over and check out Sew Mamas and enjoy years of experience!




Tori

Mar 23, 2009

Sew Crazy!

Hey remember this post from a couple weeks ago well I finally finished it. I used the great tutorial at Sew Mama Sew and even though it's not a huge quilt it's still a quilt. Maybe this is the beginning of something beautiful, we'll see!



Okay so for my birthday which is on Thursday, 36 wonderful years, Thank you very much, Johnny got me a new MP3 player. My old one bit the dust after falling out of my van and onto the drive way and subsequently being ran over and squished to bits. Anyhow Johnny got me a new one and since I carry it in my purse I decided it needed a cutesy carrying case. I found a great tutorial for and an IPod Cozy over at Sew Mama Sew Blog and yesterday between church I made one from this fabric.

Don't look to closely at my stitches, you may be disappointed!

All buttoned up, albeit a little crooked but still ready to go!

Oh yea one more little thinggy, that has nothing to do with sewing, for Nina over at Portugal Bound.

Nina posted back around Valentines Day about a little get-to-gether she had and she posted this picture of her and her valentine sitting in their home. Well I noticed immediately that Nina has wonderful taste, no not her husband although they do make a very handsome couple but the couch. I like that couch. Actually I like it so much because it's mine!! Actually the one they are sitting on isn't mine but I have one just like it. How much of a kawinkidink is that?? I mean she lives in Portugal and I live in Croatia, we are bloggy friends and who would have thunk it?
Nina you have great taste!!


Anyhoo, I thought it was interesting!
Y'all have a great day!!

Tori

Mar 21, 2009

The moon, the south wind and other hindrances of Soul-winning


Johnny posted a great post today, and so true! Please drop by there, give it a read, and welcome a new blogger! (yes I'm a little partial to this one!)
TIA

Tori

Mar 14, 2009

I Love Croatia #1

Okay so I said I was going to do some I LOVE CROATIA posts and here's the very first one.

The week we left the US in May of 2000 there were three cases in Dallas of children being taken from their homes in the middle of the night. It was horrifying. When we arrived in Croatia our children were very young; Cody was 7, Joshua was 4 and Hannah was 2. I was to say the least a little bit protective.

After we arrived and settled in our house things began to slow down a bit. It was time for life and play for the kids. After school I would let them play in the front and I would sit on the porch and watch them. They never left my sight at any time. I was trained well from living in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and I knew how to watch over my brood.

Anyhow after being in Croatia for a few months the neighbor lady came over and asked to take Hannah (then 2) next door to her house for some treats. I was taken back by the gall of this lady asking to take my child without me and I sweetly declined the invitation. Later talking with on of the ladies in our little group of Christians I realized that that was totally normal here. Month after month I began to notice something; Croatia wasn't at all like the US. Croatia was actaully a very safe place for children to grow up. I had mentioned to a lady about abductions in the US and she sincerelly asked me, "What do they do with the little girls when they take them?". I couldn't believe that she didn't know what abductors did with their abductees. Could there really be a place on Earth where this didn't happen?

For many reasons Croatia is much safer than the US. For one, Croatia is so small that you could fit 3 or 4 Croatias in Texas. Croatia has 4.5 million poeple while the Dallas/Ft. Worth and surrounding areas have almost that many people. One other very crucial thing: Croatia is surrounded on all sides by armed border workers on duty 24 hours a day. It is very difficult to abduct a child in such a small countroled country.

I realize that the US and Croatia can't really be fairly compared because there are so many varibles but it is a very true statement that Croatia is at least 70% safer than the US.

We have been in Croatia for almost 9 years now and I have enjoyed allowing our kids to play without supervision. They have been priviledged to play and live as we did 30 years ago, making club houses in the woods and exploring the world around them. Our city is so safe that our kids could walk to the downtown part and be perfectly safe, if they stay out of the way of traffic. :0)
Croatia is so safe that it is totally normal to see 14 year old girls hitch-hiking along busy streets. Hitch-hiking is legal in Croatia and a well used form of transportation. No!, I do not let my kids hitch-hike but I believe for the most part they would be safe.

I'm declaring my love for the country God has called us to because it's so safe for our children.
Our children have grown without the fear that many children in America live with daily, for this reason, I LOVE CROATIA!

Tori

Mar 7, 2009

Cults and a new do!

Yesterday I took Hannah to the salon to get a haircut, she was way over do. So we try a new place because we have going to a lady that we're really not happy with, anyhow we tried this new place and had to wait for a little time. As we waited a little lady came in, she was probably around 65 and obviously pretty well off.

As we sat waiting for Hannah's turn the little lady (we'll call her Mae) turned to us and commented on how pretty Hannah's blue eyes were. I told her that she looked like her Daddy and we began conversing. Before long we were on the subject of schooling and as soon as I had to explain that she was home schooled it began to get interesting.

Mae said, hmmm and what do you do here in Croatia so I told her we worked in a Baptist Church and my husband was a preacher. She then asked how many members we had, so I told her that we had about 30. She shook her head and said "your church sure is small, why don't you have more members?". I thought to myself that 30 was a nice round number and if we could get all 30 there at the same time we'd be so happy.

Anyhow, she then asked, "If I come to your church, what do I get?". Actually she confused me and I had to ask what she meant. She then said, "Oh, If I come to your church I won't get anything I'll just have to give?" "And you Baptists are an American religion too, right?" As I started to tell her that we were a Bible religion she quickly moved on. By now I realized that she was one of the ones who made it well known that us Baptists were a cult.

Anyhow, after a thorough grilling from her and not much room to get in anymore than that Jesus was the head of our church it was finally her turn. I can't say that I was sad, it was like talking to a very snooty brick wall.

I realized though just how the general public see us. We're a cult in their eyes. They know nothing about us but what the priest tells them to believe. They really don't care to know who or what we are so I guess it's our job to tell them.

What's funny is that she went on about us going door to door passing out tracts and witnessing and it's really funny because guess whose neighborhood we're going to today??? HA! God is so good, we already had it planned before I met her.

On a serious note, I wasn't able to witness to Mae for many reasons. First off my language is decent but not good enough to witness in a the middle of a salon and not look like an uneducated idiot, and the atmosphere wasn't at all conducive to having such a personal conversation. I feel really bad that I met Mae but didn't tell her how to go to Heaven. Have you ever been there, in public with someone you know needs to be saved but some how you can't get the conversation turned to that or that little hint of pride or shame gets in the way? I know you have, we all have. It's funny how many people we pass on a daily basis and fail to share the most important news. I'm a bit ashamed but I'm sure it'll help me realize that every meeting with everyone may be the last for me and for them, then it'll be too late. Please pray for Mae.

Okay to Hannah's new do, (drum roll please).....



So there's Hannah after getting about 5 or so inches cut off. She really likes it and so do I.

Have a great Lord's Day!

Tori

Mar 5, 2009

I'm back!!!

Okay so we're back and actually to be honest, we were back yesterday. I got a little busy yesterday on a whim and started painting my living room. I know, I'm a bit odd.

Anyhow, the trip was fine. The weather was a little of a downer but at least it wasn't raining. I didn't get any good photos but here are a few from the van.

One of the main stations in Downtown Budapest.
Just some buildings. Don't know what caught my eye on this one.
Love this building, don't know what it is but it's lovely. I almost looks a bit Moorish.

The all popular tram system, saves a ton of time and the aggravation of finding a place to park.

When we come to Budapest we usually have several objectives. 1 shop, 2 eat anything American we can find. Look what they have in Budapest, Burger King!

And KFC!!!

And TGIFridays!!!! Okay so we actually stopped at this one. It's so funny how eating something familiar makes you feel like you're back in the states.
Cody showing his glass of Coke that comes with free refills which is unheard of in Europe at least our area. BTW, see the red stripped tables, how American is that???

Kiddos!!

Johnny and I, awww. Although this is a really weird photo, he doesn't at all look like that in real life, no he's quite handsome!!Here we are at the Libegö in Budapest. It's a ski lift type thinggy that goes to the top in Janos hill on the Buda side of Budapest. Oh did you know there were two sides? Budapest is made up of the Buda and Pest sides separated by the Danube River (no it's not blue).

Headed up the hill. Cody rode solo, Johnny and Josh and then Hannah and I.





Look who we found at the top! Santa, he doesn't live in the North Pole, he lives in Budapest. He was out for a little cross country skiing and even remembered his cute red cap! Click on the image to see it close up, he's even got the white beard and glasses!!

Oh yea and I almost forgot, we got to say goodbye to our friend Bro. Dave and also meet some new friends. Jim and Laura Pranger are taking over Bro. Dave's work in Budapest so I'm glad for that. They are both very nice folks and we're richer for having met them.


Anyhoo, I'm back!

Tori

Mar 1, 2009

Saying Goodbye!

Tomorrow we are headed up to Budapest, Hungary to say goodbye to a dear missionary friend of ours. He, his wife and his family of 13 kids have decided to return to the states to live and teach in a Bible college there. They have served for many years as missionaries in Budapest, Hungary and in Russia. They have so much insight to share with the new generation of missionaries and we know that God is going to use them greatly. I think every missions class in the states should be taught by a faithful veteran missionary who can teach from experience.

They were the closest "good" missionaries to us and we feel a real loss and since of solitude now that they are gone. It's strange to be the only ones like us (don't know if that's good or not) for 300 miles around.

Anyhow, we'll be gone Monday and Tuesday and return Tuesday evening with lots of pictures to share!!

Many thanks and well wishes to our friends The Frauenhofer Family as they begin a new phase in their service for out Lord. They are minus the youngest Frauenhofer, Lydia isn't in this picture, but that's most of them!


Tori