We had a car wreck!

Our broken car that we towed back to our house to sit there!

We are a bit shaken up and I am a bit bruised up but we are rejoicing that we are all okay. A deer ran out in front of the car that was in front of us and that car hit its breaks and then we hit ours but nothing, it was too late we hit and got jerked around. The car in probably a total loss and we will not be recover any money. Please pray that God will work it out like He always does. I can not explain how grateful we are that we are all okay. Thank you so much for your prayers, I am sure they are what has kept us safe. We have a lot to do this week to get ready to go to the US and we now have not car so not sure what we are going to do? I will try to keep you all informed!

Christmas Cookies

We had a really good family time tonight! We watched Narnia and then made our annual Christmas cookies. This year it was a little more fun because the kids could be more involved.

Here is a finished product of one that I made with extra dough

The "boys" decorating the cookies

of course it would not be family time if someone does not cry!

rolling and cutting out our cookies

Jordan just made a mess and ate the dough! She loved it!

I hope that you are busy making family memories with your children and enjoying every moment of these precious times. Did I mention that Christmas time is my favorite time of year! LOL

Our Tree and some decorations

I hope this post finds you warm and toasty wherever you are in the world. I thought I would show you some of our Christmas decorations and our tree. Notice the fake fireplace/heater next to the tree. It really does keep the room warm, behind all those curtains are windows so it stays cold in there in the winter and hot in the summer, but it sure is a beautiful view to sit and look out at! We made Christmas cookies tonight and they turned out great! I have some pictures to show you and I will send them in the next post.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow

We have experienced something very new for us, SNOW on the day after Thanksgiving! Being from Louisiana I have only seen it snow a handful of times there and it is usually in January or February, if at all. We went to the store and while we were in there is started to snow and by the time we came out the parking lot was covered and the boys were throwing snowballs they had made from the top of our car. The snowflakes were sooooo big and beautiful. I have to say that I was a little nervous on the car ride home because one spot we were at must have been a little slick because when Jon applied the breaks ever so lightly we wobbled and wiggled a little back and forth, good thing we were almost at a stop at the red light so we were not going fast. So instead of breaking we just downshifted and the rest of the ride home was fine. These pictures are of the kids when we arrived home. Jordan is just too cute she wanted to say that she had some snow but she kept saying, "look I got a snowman" :) Soooo precious. We have all of our Christmas decorations up (which is not a lot, at least not to my normal liking like we had in the states). It all looks great and the kids had a blast. They talked Jon into getting colored lights for the tree (we have always had white because he prefers it that way). I did not really care on way or the other about the lights, I grew up with colored lights but I also like the elegance of just the white. I can see why the kids like the colored ones though, it is more kid friendly tree this year. Hope you all enjoyed your day of shopping and resting or whatever you do the day after Thanksgiving. I did feel a little sad about missing the time with my mom to shop but I have to say that when it snowed I felt a lot better. There is definitely give and take about living in a foreign country. I do not get to go out shopping but I get to have SNOW!!!!

Catching up

We got a box in the mail today from my mom (thanks mom). She mainly sent it because I needed some thyroid medicine from the states and was running out but she always fills it and stuffs it as much as she can and the kids love opening them.

Jordan sporting her new "priness" stuff from Grammie!

(Notice the pj bottoms and socks) We got the packages this morning!

Logan eating a fruit by the foot he got today!

Hayden showing off the new car that he got in the box!

We took the kids to a duck pond at the base of the mountain to take their pictures today for our annual Christmas card and they loved it. It is cold here so that was funny for us because normally when we are taking out pictures for our Christmas cards it is hot and we are sweating in our outfits!

After getting some good shots (which I will post at a later date) we went shopping for the Thanksgiving dinner supplies! I will be making cornbread dressing for the first time (my mom makes to best ever, it is my grandmother's recipe that we have been having for Thanksgiving/Christmas since I could eat! It will be different this year because it will just be our little family around the table sharing what we are thankful for and eating a grand meal. I think the thing that I will miss most is the day after Thanksgiving shopping sales. I know you say that sounds funny but I am not so sure it is the shopping or the sales but it is the special time that I share with my mom that I am missing the most. We will just have to make up for it when she comes to visit in December!! Yep my mom, dad, sister and Brad (soon to be brother in law) are all coming on Dec. 26th. I am soooooo excited. I really do miss my family a bunch. They are so much fun to be around.

Well anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving no matter where you are in the world. There is so much to be thankful for. I know that I have been blessed beyond measure!

Long time to post

Well, hmm again it has been too long between posts. I do have a new blog though were I post my digital scrap artwork with freebies and links to a store that I sell kits in. You should go check out my new blog here.

In other news we went to a friends farm to help him harvest apples a few weeks back. When I say harvest I mean we, the whole family, was there from 9 am to 5 pm. We were on our knees picking up apples that had been shaken out of the trees. We harvested a total of1 and a half tons of apples!!! Our farmer friend presses them and makes fresh juice that he sells. He was able to press 800 liters from the apples we picked. Another family, the Bells was also there. We had a good time but our legs and back were sore for days :)

I was also able to go to an Opera premiere of Madam Butterfly. It was my first time ever attending an Opera. Yes, it was in Italian and the word's were put on screen in Slovene but it was still wonderful. My good friend Mateja's husband Robert works at the theater with the choirs and her son Zak was actually in the Opera as Madame Butterflies son. He is only 8 and he did a great job. I really did feel out of place though with tv cameras and high society people like doctors and people such as that all around. It was a unique experience that is for sure.

We had two friends over for dinner on Thursday of last week, both of who are lost. Jon got to witness to Edwin again and he is without excuse before God and now we just must wait on the Holy Spirit and Edwin's heart to be softened. I got to have an hour conversation about spiritual things and the Bible with Nina. She has been burned by the Catholic church and is skeptical of anything religious. She is really a post modernist because her view of things is that if I believe that a rock is my "god" then who am I to say that it is not. She said that whatever it is that helps you to be a better person is okay. I am praying that God would melt away the hard shell over her heart. I gave her some literature and one of my english Bibles. I think that she was touched that I would give her something she knows I value so much.

Last night, Sunday, we had our friends the Bells over to watch the cowboys game live. It was our evening and Randy Bell has bought the season. We had chili, cornbread and carrot cake. We had a great time with them although we were sick at how they played. During the game right after half time I was just sitting there watching the game and all of the sudden. I started to choke on what I guess was my own spit! I did this once last week as well but was able to get it out last week. Last night however I did not ever get it out because I had a horrible nights sleep and I woke up with my chest really tight and feeling horrible. I am not sure what is going on. I do feel that satan is attacking us and using my health. Jon is worried about me so he is doing the only thing he knows how, fasting and praying. I feel so humbled that my husband is taking me before the Lord in such a way.

On another note, the boys are going to start going to school two days a week for a couple of hours. You have to know somebody to get around all the red tape and my friend Mateja wanted to get the boys in school so they could be around Slovene kids. Pray that it will be a good experience for them and they will learn the language.

sick kid!!!!

Hello everyone, This post finds me very drained, I hope that it finds you doing well. Hayden our 5 year old has been very ill. Sunday night on the way home from church Hayden said he was really cold and that his head was really hot, "mommy I think I have fever". My response was honey I dont think so. He had been fine just minutes earlier. We got home and I went to feel his head just to appease him and he was on fire. I checked his temp and it was 104! YIKES I had no idea why because he had no other symptoms. I gave him some medicine and sent him to bed. Alot of waking up and a restless night continued. The next day he continued to have a high fever of 104. He now said that his throat was starting to hurt. So I look and he has white stuff on his tonsils. So I think he has strep. However he started to get ulcers all over his mouth so I started to researech online. I came across hands, foot and mouth disease, a virus that starts out with a fever and then you get blisters all in your mouth and then on your hands, feet and sometime even your rearend. So I looked him over and he had a blister on his hand and on his rearend. It has followed the virus to a T. He has had fever of 104 for three days. Today it has started to go down. His throat is horrible and his mouth looks diseased. He is in so much pain it is hard for him to eat. He has been such a trouper though. I am taking him to the doctor tomorrow in hopes that there is something that they can give him for the pain. It is very contagious so I will probably be in the house in quarintine for a few more weeks!!!! I am praying that the other two do not get it and even worse me!!!! I will keep you informed. Also Logan got 26 mosquito bites yesterday and he is allergic so they looked like he had the plague. Even though Hayden is sick and we are stuck in the house the kids are crazy and have a good time.

Romance

I wanted to let everyone know that I have a very sweet husband. He planned a date for us this past Sat. Our first one in Slovenia. We havent had one in 6 months LOL. I have to say that it is by far the best date that we have ever had. He surprised me and did all the planning. He started preparing me for the date the night before by sending me and e-card and leaving a cologne sprayed letter, with special made stationary, on my pillow. The next morning I had another e-card. That evening he picked up our baby sitters and I was lead to the car and given a long stem red rose and another special made card. All of this was soooo sweet and I have to say that I cried a little the night before because he was sooooo sweet. We went to see a movie, and it was really good. Then we went back to our car and I was presented with a long stem white rose and another card. We drove down to the river and walked along the river and he took pictures of my like I was some kind of model. It was fun. We got back into our car and drove to an Asian restaurant. It was sooooo delicious and they kept bringing more food. I was so stuffed when we left. A funny thing was when we got back to the car Jon had left the lights on and the battery was dead. Being a standard though I just pushed it a little and Jon popped it and we were on our way. When we arrived home I was given a yellow long stem rose. It was a wonderful evening!!!!! I can not even begin to express how much I appreciated the time we had together. I wanted to share our wonderful evening with all of my wonderful friends and family. Oh and I leave you with some pictures.

Cherries!!!

Cherries, cherries everywhere, so many cherries so many to spare!!!! We have several cherry trees in our yard, yummy. We have two sour cherry trees and three sweet ones. The sour cherries are what we use in pies and things like that. This past Sat. it was going to rain again and knock all of the ripe cherries off the tree so Jon got a ladder and picked some cherries. I had to find out what to do with them so, I went on the internet to find a recipe for homemade cherry pie and cherry pie filling. I found what I was looking for and went off to create my newest creation in the kitchen. I pitted the cherries, then cooked them, added sugar and gelatin to thicken it. Yummy pie filling was my finished product, I didnt have time that day to make the pie so I put them in the fridge and on another day I made my pie crust, which was surprisingly easy. It turned our great and I had some dough left over so Logan played with it like playdough. That gave me another idea for another day Ha Ha. I put my pie together and baked it and it turned out great!!! The next day I made the kids homemade playdough and Logan had a blast with it. I never knew how much I would enjoy cooking!!! Really, I used to hate it but I really enjoy making wonderful things for my family to eat.

weeds

I have a new appreciation for these "flowers". Dandelions here in Slovenia are considered a delicacy. They are not considered weeds like in America. They look so beautiful in a field. The Slovenes use the leaves as salad. They will go out and gather them in the field and wash them, mix them with oil and vinegar. Then they cook potatoes, chop them up and mix it all together. Just thought I would share what I see when I look at the field behind our house. Jon took this picture and added the verse this morning and I really like it.