Looking Back at September

Okay, so here's the deal...

I am torn between

posting something mediocre so that I can't be accused of never blogging

and

waiting until something inspires me to write something really funny or meaningful.

So, today we're going with mediocre...sorry friends.

September in a nutshell

September 1:    We had the best first day of school in a long time!  God is good and provided more than we could ask or imagine for Kyle and Brooke in their new Serbian school here in Belgrade.

Kyle meeting his classmates.

September 2:  We experienced the second great Dr. Pepper emergency in our lifetimes.  The first Dr. Pepper emergency (circa 2009) paled in comparison to the Dr. Pepper bombshells and carnage of the 2011 incident.  This might be worthy of a full blog next week.

This picture cannot nearly portray the damage done by 5 exploding cans of precious liquid, but it does depict the desperation to save as much as we could.

September 4:  AWANA Belgrade "Kicked Off"  It is already a huge blessing.  Some great people donated materials and we meet together with the Stevens family each Sunday evening for some time in the word.  The kids are decorating and eating our football cookies to celebrate our Kick Off night.  It is so fun to listen as the kids sing and practice their verses together and to hear them praying for God to move throughout the world.  We spent this month focusing on what God is doing in Europe.

September 6:  Fun dinner and fellowship with colleagues from out of town.  There was a small Coke Zero incident, but I think Susie and Robin have forgiven us now that they've had time to dry out and wash their clothes.

September 9-11:  This was the weekend that the lights did not go out in Belgrade (or at least nor at my house).  If you missed it you might want to read this post:

http://thefamilyisrael.blogspot.com/2011/09/night-lights-didnt-go-out-in-belgrade.html

This is the notice posted in our building about power outages.

September something: (I really don't remember the date, but this is what my counter tops looked like one mid-September afternoon)  We made salsa from scratch...about 20 jars of it in all.  It is yummy and we did it when tomatoes were extremely cheap.  They got down to about 12 or 15 cents per pound at one point.

September 16:  Trey's Belgrade soccer debut.  He went across the river to play with some new friends.  He hopes to spend more time with some of these guys.

September 17:  1st ever Belgrade sleepover event...The Hepners came to town and we left all the guys here and all the ladies headed over to K and J's for some girl time.  It was very fun.  

September 19:  Trey and I returned to language study after the summer break.  We are using a private tutor for the first time.  I wish I could say this is a joy, but alas it is not.  Out teacher is a blessing, but language learning just isn't fun.  Langue knowing is great...I keep telling myself to keep up the learning so the knowing will eventually come.

September 20:  The police for foreigners came to our door and gave me a heart attack.  A very large Serbian man flashed a badge at me and spoke quickly about why he was at my door.  I paniked as I realized who he said he was.  Trey wasn't home and I grabbed Connor to help me communicate.  When I realized his visit had nothing to do with me because he was just looking for one of my neighbors I quickly calmed down and was suddenly able to comprehend his words again.  

September 26-October 2:  Super busy and blessed time with a volunteer group from Texas who taught some English classes to help us kick off the new year for WorldNet.  Here is a friend's picture summary of the week:

http://sts-jennifer.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-week-in-pictures-kind-of.html

September 29-30:  Brooke and I made a quick trip to Novi Sad to help some friends sort and pack before they leave to go back to "Themerica" as their kids are calling it.

Well, thanks for hanging in there with me on this mediocre day in the world of blogging.  Maybe something funny will happen before next Sunday night.

Loku Noć

More than I can chew Part Two

Here is the second half of our summer pictures. 

Salzburg, Austria

We are on the grounds of the VonTrapp family home in Salzburg.

Remember the scene with the kids running "fa" while wearing playclothes made from bedroom curtains?
It was filmed right here.

Munich, Germany

Brooke with a street performer in Munich

Connor and Pop Pop at Nymphenburg Palace outside of Munich

Just Trey

I LOVE LOVE LOVE German public transport!  It is awesome. 

Locals in traditional dress in the beer garden

Kandern, Germany

Just us being silly at the train station

Connor checking out a map of his future home 

Kissy Kissy

Black Forest Academy...Where Connor will attend boarding school next year.  He wanted us to leave him there this year, but we're holding on to him as long as we can.  

 Switzerland

View from the cable car that was taking us up into the Alps.  Brooke needed to stop for a potty break and we ended up taking a side excursion.  It was very cool.

Us with Pop Pop high in the Swiss Alps

 Verona, Italy

Kyle outside a coliseum in Verona.

Venice, Italy

Sweet hat

Nice new glasses

Sweet Brookie

Pop Pop treated us to a gondola ride.  Priceless!

We came back from the trip and KK and Pop Pop left a couple of days later.  We got busy getting ready for school to start and took a quick trip to visit friends in southern Serbia.  If you haven't already...you should take the time to read the post entitled "Too Good Not to Blog It" to find out about my most memorable few hours of the summer.

I think I've bitten off more than I can chew... (Part One)

This is what happens when you go for months without blogging and want to catch everyone up on your life in one massive post.  Well, there were too many photos for one, so we'll make this a two part photo entry to take you on a quick journey through our summer.

June

This is the grassy area we are so grateful for just outside our new home.  Lots of grass and lots of buildings full of people we are hoping to get to know.

We celebrated Father's Day on Ada, an island in the middle of the river.  It is a really cool place.  Lots of green grass, lots of good food and even a 9 hole golf course.

Brooke in her newly decorated bedroom.  It is such a blessing to be living with stuff we own for the first time in 18 months.  The wall decorations are cool sticker things we found at a store in Novi Sad just before we moved.

Nana and Grandaddy came to visit in June.  This is their first authentic Serbian meal.  Our friend Snezena cooked more that we could eat.  The food just kept coming and coming.  Nana and Gradad were real troopers.  We had a two and a half hour meal and it was all in Serbian on a very HOT July afternoon.  We love this sweet family and are so grateful for their generosity and hospitality.

Trey and Grandaddy got to play at the golf course on the island.  Mike drove in from Novi Sad to join them.  It was an experience from what I heard.

July

The crew ready to head to the states for three weeks.  

My three with Cooper...my sister's little man...I am so sad that I didn't get to hug on him.  He is growing up so fast.

This is the mural on the wall in the Mexican restaurant where we ate in Budapest.  It was the first "real" Mexican we'd had in a year and a half and it was good.  Good enough for the angels as it seems.

While the kids were gone Trey and I went to Budapest to meet Jason and Christy.  I somehow didn't get one picture of our time together loaded onto this computer, but it was a huge blessing to have time with them.  We laughed a lot and ate a lot.  Great memories with great friends.

August

.Our new colleague Amy arrived in July and we explored part of old Belgrade with her one afternoon in early August...I need some better pictures of her.  (If only she weren't so evasive. ; ))

KK and Pop Pop brought the kids back in August.  Here are a few photos of our fun in Belgrade:

 We went on a ROAD TRIP while KK and Pop Pop were here.  Seven countries in six days!

Sebia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and back home.

Driving directions and toll booth tickets
The Swiss are the most proud of their roads.  It cost us 40 Euros to drive there and we were only in the country about 5 hours!  

Nice nap on the road

More napping

Connor never sleeps on trips.  It would be hard with those big smelly sister feet in your face I guess.

Killing time on the Austrian highway while things were shut down for about 45 minutes.  It was a beautiful place to be stuck.  We sang our way through the entire Sound of Music soundtrack while we waited.

The Night the Lights Didn't Go Out in Belgrade

So, if you found a notice taped up in your building stating that your power would be out for 13 hours on Sunday what kind of things would you do?

I'm sure you'd start thinking about what was in your frig and freezer; trying to come up with a plan for all that food not to ruin.  You'd call your friend Amy and ask to stash your stuff in her freezer.

This the only picture that I could find quickly of Amy who I used for her refrigeration potential.  Clearly, I need more pictures of her.  This has nothing to do with food, but you can now put a face with the name.

This is the food that I wanted to save.

I'm sure you'd also look at the weather forecast...Will it be hot?...Too hot to stay at home with no fans or klima?  You'd find out that of course it will be hot...one of the hottest days in the last couple of weeks up to about 93.  You'd then check on the budget and the movie schedule to see how and where you'd be spending your afternoon.

You'd, of course, plan to go out to eat since there is no way to cook.

You'd spend some time charging all your electronics and phones.

You'd try to decide whether to relocate the kid's AWANA meeting that is planned to be at your house at 4:00.

AWANA cuties

You'd remind everyone to take a key with them because you can't get out of the building without a key when there is no power and it's a LOOOOOOONG way back up to the 7th floor with no elevators working.

You'd plan to only come and go one time if at all possible because you've calculated the distance up and down said stairs.  It's nine flights when you consider the garage is at level -2.

You'd talk to a friend and find out that there might be no power anywhere in the city!!!  WHAT?!?!?!?

You'd panic because if this is true...

Why did you take the time to cart your groceries across town?  Just so that they could spoil in Amy's freezer and she would be the one throwing it all out?

Where will you eat?  McDonald's will not be serving Egg McMuffins with no power.

What will you do?  The movie theaters can't run air conditioners (or movies) without power.

You'd call a Serb you've recently met who lives nearby and completely confuse him because he's not heard about this.

You'd talk to another friend and check the electric company's website.


http://www.edb.co.rs/


You'd actually figure out what that website says (well, pretty much figure it out) and know that your address isn't included in either of the black boxex on the map.

Here's the map from the website.

You'd have no idea what to expect the next day, but you'd make sure everyone showered, just in case there is no hot water.

You'd go to sleep wondering; but not really, because that's kind of how life is around here.

You'd be thankful when you wake up to find that you do in fact have power and go downstairs to find out that your building decided that even though your block wasn't included in black boxed zones "It's better to be safe than sorry."

You'd eat at McDonald's anyway because like you they have power, but unlike you they have real sausage and hashbrowns.

You'd collect your food from Amy's place and have a pretty normal day.

Then you'd be really glad it all turned out like that because you didn't know what you were going to blog about.

Well, I guess that's what you'd do.  It's what we did.