I'm a little late with this

but back in June before the whole seizure thinggy, we headed out to Graz, Austria (home on Schwarzenegger) for a little summer fun. We just walked around and enjoyed the view, Austria is a beautiful country. Anyhoo, Graz has several large hills and so we took off to the top of one for a look-see. 

Luckily we didn't have to take the stairs up, there is a shorter little tram thinggy that takes you up for a small fee and let me tell you it was so worth it. 

At the top we discovered this guy playing for his supper. He was good and entertaining. The girls enjoyed dancing around to his music.
I totally fell in love with this clock. Is it amazing or what and it actually worked. 


On the other side of the clock was this beautiful little garden. We had a ball taking photos under the rose laced trellis. 

BTW, we went to Austria kinda as a celebration of our 19 wedding anniversary. Since it's only about 45 minutes from home it's not too costly and it's another country!
The view from the top of the hill was awesome. Graz is breath-taking.


Oh yea and check out the hippo shaped building to the left, a little of the 21st century amidst the past.
I think this metal shell shaped thinggy in the river was a coffee bar, I think!

On the way back down we took the stiars and found a great place to catch a photo. 



Thought about hitching a ride with this guy buy decided against it. It does look like a sure fire weight loss plan though.


The next photos were taken from the inside of an Austrian armory, billions of swords, suits of armor and killing stuff. We weren't allowed to film inside so I filmed through the windows.


Can you imagine this being your view from your window?

I fell in love with this roof. Isn't this the most interesting roof ever. I love the different shape tiles. Beautiful!

Oh yea and out one of the windows was the charming little bistro. So sweet.

One of the more intesting buildings in town was this one that had a fresco painted all over the outside. 

I also love all the detail on the fasad of the buildings.


Kids were exhausted and ready to go home.

Took this one just because.

Don't know who he is but he must be someone important. If you know, give me a hollar!

Oh the Swarovski building was incredible. The detail was so intricate and interesting.
Okay the video down below I took while we were walking back to the van. The bells starting ringing and regardless of their origin I loved it and thought you would too.
WARNINGThis video has links on it to other videos on Photobucket. Please keep in mind that PB is not a Christian place and therefore all sorts of evil could be at the end of any of these links. I have tried to remove the links but with no luck. :0(



On our way out of town I saw this chair, a little bit big for my living room but I like the color!

Anyhowm, thanks for sharing my trip with me. There are some serious perks to being a missionary in Europe, Graz, Austria is one of them!

another 14 miles and a story

Okay so today Traci and I headed out at 6:30 to ride not knowing how extremely fatigued our legs were from yesterday. If we had been smart we would have just taken the short 5 mile ride but NOOOOO, we opted for the long ride with one little change. We wouldn't take an extra leg of the route but we would shorten the route but about 3 or 4 miles. When we got to the turning point we decided to go for it and so we took off. 

The extra stretch is down a long corn lined country road and back to where we trun to go home. 

At the end of the road I stopped to wait for Traci before we turned around to head back. On the side of the road there was an old farmer selling potatoes. So I'm sitting there trying to recover from the ride so far and the man gets out to chat. Our convo. goes like this:

HIM: where you coming from?


ME: from pribislavec through Belica, Mala Subota

HIM: you need to ride that at least 5 times. (that would be 70 miles)

ME: no, I think once is plenty

HIM: you girls sure like those cakes huh? Ate a few too many?

ME: huh? (in shock) uh, yea 

HIM: you're fine just like you are (as if that would make up for the cake remark)

I translated and Traci and I broke out into a delirious laugh. 

Anyhow, we made the 14 miles. I'm pretty proud of that. Tomorrow, I think 5 miles is plenty.

Cycling, who me?

Yea, me! This morning I managed to ride 14 miles, not only 14 miles but I also burned 1500 calories too! Oh yea! Super great feeling of accomplishment. Heading out tomorrow too at 6:30 in the morning. YEA, I can do it!

SparkPeople WI #2

Okay so I'm blogging my weight loss progress thus far. Keeping in mind that I was in the hospital for 4 days, I have lost 11 lbs. I'm pretty excited about that!

I have a really long way to go but I'm on my way. Traci and I have been riding our bikes in the morning, 10 miles in two days. YEA!
Oh yea and you know what is so awesome with SparkPeople? You can map your riding or walking routes with Google Maps and it tells you exactly how far you went and how many calories were burned.
I have mapped out 3 different routes with the below map being the longest. It's 8.31 miles.

If you are trying to lose weight of keep your weight in check then SparkPeople is a great tool. they have everything from food trackers, fitness trackers, support and tons of resources. God ahead and give them a try, it's all free and tell them ToriLeslie sent you!


Anyhow, this is my progress so far. My ultimate goal for this year is to be down 40 lbs, before we head to furlough the end of December. I don't want to pack on furlough weight on top of the extra fluff I'm already sporting. You missionary ladies know what I'm talking about!

I'll be back in a month to update you on my progress, as for now, the STATS are below!

6/30 - 7/26/ 

11 lbs. lost

Praise the Lord!!

Okay so all I can say is: PRAISE THE LORD! Today we went to some private clinics and the swelling of the optic nerve is gone with only a little swollen vessels and....no tumors or bleeding in he brain!!! PRAISE THE LORD! 

I can't even tell you how much of a relief it was to hear that my brain was healthy. 

When the dr. mentioned something about tumors or bleeding in the brain  I immediately started preparing myself, subconsciously. I had to come to the place where I gave it all to the Lord and was willing to except whatever happened. I wasn't happy with the possibility of being ill but somehow my mind dealt with it without my knowledge. 

Anyhow, I was elated and honestly can't stop praising the Lord! HE IS SO GOOD!

There are still a few questions but the important ones have been answered positively. 

I want to thank all of you who prayed. In times of trouble real friends are revealed!!!

How quickly life changes.

So Sunday was Friend Day in Varaždin and we had a great day. We didn't have anyone saved but we had several visitors and a great day of fellowship. The church in Varaždin is growing weekly or at least having visitors in the services. The new building is such a blesing and so much larger than the old one. We have a nursery upstairs along with a room for SS and a kitchen. We're ecstatic and can't wait to see what God is going to do with this new work. 

Bro. Scott and Cody singing.

Sunday night after the services in Čakovec we came home and laid around a bit before bed. About 12:30 my head began to hit really bad and it continued until I feel asleep. I don't like to take medicines so I usually try to sleep my headaches off. Anyhow, at 1:30 I woke up with a pounding headache and Johnny suggested I go ahead and take something for it. I headed downstairs and then back up. When I started to go into my bedroom I felt a rush of nausea, I told johnny I had to vomit and I took a step into the bathroom. The next thing I knew I was on the ground trying to find which way was up. I called for Johnny while grabbing the radiator to pull myself up. I opened my eyes a minute or so later and had no idea how I got to where I was laying. Johnny said that it looked as if I had a seizure and he was calling our equivalent of 911. The paramedics came and the next thing I knew I was being admitted.
Monday morning the tests began. They weren't for sure but they thought it could either be bleeding on the brain, a stroke or even a tumor. The CT scan didn't show any bleeding or tumors. They pretty much ruled out a stroke. Anyhow over the next 3 days they ran all sorts of tests and found a problem with swelling in the back of my eyes. I have perfect blood pressure, sugar, thyroid and all so there was really no reason for this swelling except maybe a brain problem.

They also found out that C4 and C5 in my cervical spine and deteriorating. They said I have the cervical spine of an old woman, I call my neck EDNA now.

I have a doctors appointment on Monday, then to the eye specialist on Wednesday or Thursday and then an MRI on Friday. Please pray with me that the MRI will find nothing and that they can treat my eye problem. I guess for my neck, just pray for God's healing.

I'm home after 4 days but Johnny's making sure I'm taking it easy, he's so good.

Oh yea and Yesterday was Hannah's 13th birthday. We officially have all teenagers. Please pray that we survive!!

Public Service Announcement

Okay all you bloggers out there who don't already have an RSS feed on your blog this post is for you. 

Okay have you seen this little orange thinggy floating around Blogville, well it's the icon for a RSS feed. 

Why is this needed???

Well the RSS feed for your blog makes it super simple to add your blog to a reader. Let's say, If I come to your blog and I like your blog and want to add it to my Google Reader, Bloglines or whichever reader I use I could simply click this icon and it would automatically being me to the page to mark your blog.

The RSS feed is very useful and honestly it's a little bit of a hassle to have to add blog feeds to my reader manually. I love being able to add your wonderful blogs to my reader without having to go through several clicks. I'm a one-click kinda gal!

There are lots of ways to add a link for your RSS feed to your page. There are lots of widgets out there that are neat and really easy to use like the one in the pic below. You can get it here. 

                    

Or even easier is the one blogger provides in it's Gadget section. It's called SUBSCRIPTION LINKS and it's as easy as pointing and clicking. 

            

Once you add one of these handy dandy little gadgets then all of us out in Blogville can easily add you to our readers. 

Trust me, you'll be a better blogger for adding it!

THIS HAS BEEN A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Sometimes you have to fight!

It's true, sometimes we have to fight for the things that are really important in life. 

I run a van route to Gypsy village in Trnovec which is about 25 minutes from church. I usually have 9 or 10 kids come on the van but this last Sunday was different. 

3 children got in the van and shut the door. I was confused. "Where are the others?", I asked. The kids proceeded to tell me that they weren't allowed to come to our church any more.

I was in shock. If you have ever been a "bus captain" then you know what I was feeling. You get close to these kids. They become "your kids". 

So the kids told me that there was one old woman in their village that was spreading lies about our church. 

She said that if you were christened in a Catholic church and then you went to a Baptist church than that meant that you served two different gods. Then she said that as Baptists we allow our sons and daughters to marry each other, within one family, brothers and sisters. WHAT?? Are you kidding me? We found out later from one of Bro. Sam's new converts that this rumor has been circulation for years and it sounds like it was started by someone in the Catholic church. She also said that if you were a Baptist or went to one of our churches than you would have ciaos in the home. That Baptists had very crazy homes and had no peace. 

Anyhow, I drove my 3 kids to church and was so upset. It was like someone had taken something from me of great value and SHE did. After church when I took the kids home I made an date to come back out there to the village and have an open meeting of sorts for them to ask anything they wanted so the lies could be cleared up. 

Yesterday Johnny, myself, Bro. Rich, Bro. Sam, Bro. Scott and Bro. Alen all went out to the village. The parents of the 3 children welcomed us to their home and Bro. Rich began to witness to these folks. He went through the plan of salvation very thoroughly and then gave those who wanted to an opportunity to be saved. Both parents of the 3 children prayed and a few others standing around also. Praise the Lord! I don't pretend to know the hearts of these people but it doesn't take a lot to ask Jesus to save you. 

After the Gospel was presented we answered questions, well Johnny and Bro. Rich basically. After wards the  dad of the 3 told said, "So what I'm understanding is that you keep coming back to the Bible, that's what is so important." WOW, he got it!

As we were getting ready to leave tons of children came up to me and asked if they could come to church. It was sad because I only have a 9 seater van and there were way more than 9 children who wanted to come. Praise the Lord! He is so good to give us ministries and people to serve. I'm blessed to know these children and maybe, just maybe one day I'll see one or more of them give their lives to Jesus to reach their own people. That's my prayer and I know He hears it.

Some things and people are worth fighting for. Sometimes we give up way too easy and the Devil easily wins the battle. We need to get tough and fight back a little, claim what is God's for God.