Annual Gingerbread House Event Comes to Serbia

We enjoyed bringing a favorite Israel family tradition to Serbia this year.  Several years ago we began building gingerbread houses as a family.  We started inviting friends and it grew into quite an event.  This year we skyped into the one back home and got to visit with some great friends while they built their own Christmas village.  Here in Serbia we enjoyed sharing our tradition with three families.  We started with a little bit of sharing about what our Christmas traditions are (in Serbian), read the book Santa's Favorite Story (in English), talked about our Savior and the gift of His birth, prayed, ate, and built.  I hope you enjoy the pictures...  

All the guys working hard.

Trey and Dragon building their fudbal stadium.

Đorđe, Kyle and Boris building their cottage.

Dali, Biljana, and Snežena working hard on our fairy tale cottage.

Brooke and Anja working...they inspired the rest of us...there was a lot of idea stealing!

Notice the detail...Nice field and bleachers guys.

Connor and Aleksa working on their northpole scene.

We had a great time and can't wait to share it again next year.  American friends reading this...are you jealous of the new building materials...we will kick bootie in winter '13 when we come back with our new secret weapon...watch out!

Lego Party

We had Kyle's "friend party" on the 11th.  He had 8 boys from his class at school and  some American colleagues came to share in the fun.  KK and Pop Pop were the surprise guests.  It was a great day.

Here are a few shots:

Check out this AWESOME cake that Jen made.  She made the cake from scratch and Kyle made the Lego creations for the decorations.

These are the results of the "Highest Lego Tower" game.  Way to go guys!

Silly boys.

Lego relay race.

Pin the "nub" on the Lego.  I'm sure there is a technical Lego term for this, but I have no idea what it is and an too lazy to look it up.

Srćan Rođendan Kyle...We sang in both languages.

Sturdiest pinata in history!

Check me out in the background...I was very afraid someone was going to be seriously injured.

It was a super party!

Enjoy...

Kyle Turns 7!!!

Yesterday was "MyKyle Jackson's" 7th birthday.  I can't believe it has already been seven years with our little man.  We had a great day.

We had orange pancakes with chocolate chips and orange whipped cream for breakfast and sang Happy Birthday.


Then we went to church and to Kyle's first soccer game as a 7 year old.  He passed candy out to his friends at church (Serbian tradition) and they sang Srećan Rođendan to him.

We came home and Connor went to get Birthday Pizza bez šampinjona (with out mushrooms).  We sang Happy Birthday again.

Trey helped some friends move and I took a nap and the kids watched movies in the fort they've built in the boys room.

We had cheese quesidillas and birthday cake that his sister decorated for him and sang Happy Birthday again.

He got to skype with Nana and Grandaddy and Aunt Robin and Cooper and they all sang Happy Birthday to him.

 He opened some presents and got to talk to KK on the phone.

Thanks Nana and Grandad

Thanks KK and Pop Pop

Thanks Aunt Robin and Cooper

We read the chapter titled "Everybody's Birthday" in the Box Car Children book we are reading right now and sang Happy Birthday one last time and kissed our 7 year old boy good-night and thanked the Lord for the blessing he is and the man of God he is going to become.

We will be having a LEGO party on Saturday celebrating with his Serbian friends and some surprise guests.  Look for pictures next weekend.

Our Two Left Feet

There has been a long silence here at TheFamilyIsrael blogspot.
I am going to blame it on one thing...(or technically two)...

OUR TWO LEFT FEET!!!

This post has nothing to do with the fact that we can't dance.  Well, I can't...Trey could and did back in the day when he was not attached to me and my rhythmically challenged self.

This post is about being old and and having the ailments to prove it.

We have in the last month each been diagnosed with conditions in our left feet that usually affect the elderly.

Trey has gout...what's that you ask?  Well, here is a link to fill you in...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout 
It seems this is a disease that traditionally affects elderly rich men who consume lots of alcohol.
We are not rich and Trey doesn't consume any alcohol...so, that just leaves us the "old" part.  After a crazy week of having strep throat and going to help with earthquake relief for a couple of days he woke up on the Saturday morning (11/13) with severe pain in his left big toe.

He has been in contact with a doctor in the states and has been to the doctor here and had some blood work done.  He has a bag of frozen veggies he puts on it, takes some medicine for the pain, puts it up when ever he can, and drinks lots of some sort of special water the doctors here have arthritic patients drink.  Brooke calls this his foot water.    It is pretty painful somedays and with all the walking we do he seems to be in a lot of pain by the time he goes to bed at night.

I woke up on the Sunday morning before Thanksgiving at the home of some amazing friends in Belgrade.  We were ready to go to the International Church there and have a fun afternoon with them.
My leg was hurting a little and so I sent everyone else and stayed at home.  Once I was alone things seemed to go down hill very rapidly.  After two hours (that felt like about 2 days) on the bathroom floor vomiting like I've never done before everyone returned.

My temperature was up to almost 103 degrees;  phone calls were made and Trey and Kyle (big Kyle) took me to a private clinic nearby.  They gave me an iv with some good drugs to stop the vomiting and did some blood work.  I was then transported by ambulance to the private hospital across town for observation.  I don't remember much of this, but Trey said it was cool when they would turn on the sirens and breeze past all the traffic on the bridge.

After lots of tests and blood work they were still concerned that we didn't know the source of the infection...then, on Monday morning my foot began to swell and turned the color of Santa's suit.  Ah ha, my friends, we have found the problem.

After a very cool looking dopplar scan of my whole leg to rule out blood clots, they started me on heavy duty iv antibiotics.  I stayed for a couple more days and then was discharged and headed back to Kyle and Jen's house with an iv port in my hand.  I went back and forth to the clinic each day for more iv drugs for three more days, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Belgrade with Kyle and Jen and I was released by the doctor and we came back home late Friday night.

I had a pretty serious strep infection in the skin and tissue in my left foot and leg.  Again...this is a condition usually found in elderly diabetic women.  I'm not diabetic and so that leaves...you guessed it...OLD!

This is the almost all the redness gone, still pretty swollen and molting phase.

I'm almost back to "normal" (whatever normal is).  The redness is almost gone and the swelling continues to lessen.  Now I'm molting.  All the old infected skin is slowly peeling away and leving pretty healthy soft skin that actually looks YOUNG!

I promised Kyle that I would put a link to their blog...he made a couple of posts about Thanksgiving with some pictures of us celebrating together.  Jen did it all.  We are of course most thankful for a God who heals and protects, and this year our number two was for friends who will rearrange their lives and their plans to minister to us.

http://lovegrowslovegoes.blogspot.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-serbian-style.html

Okay...stop reading right now if you are not a fan of people who give out tmi (too much information)...

Best part of the hospital stay...really amazingly nice staff of doctors and nurses who gave me great care.

Worst part of hospital stay...rectal thermometer...I hadn't experienced this since I was about two years old...there is really nothing else to say.

Connor turns 13!

 Wow!  How can my baby be 13 already?

Connor was the first Israel to celebrate his birthday here in Serbia.  His birthday was on Thursday.  We had a pretty low key day.  We had birthday pancakes for breakfast and soft chicken tacos with DR. PEPPER for dinner and a giant snickerdoodle double doozie cookie for dessert.  He got to open up some presents and the cards that we received from the states.  It was cool to get cards from old friends, new friends, and even his kindergarten teacher.

Connor is blowing out the candle on his birthday pancakes.

The family enjoys celebrating Connor's life with the Dr. Peppers we had been hoarding for several weeks.

Connor is blowing out the candles on his cookie cake

On Friday is when the real fun began.  We had seventeen thirteen year olds here to eat pizza, cake and go on an "Amazing Race" through Novi Sad.  Trey and I worked all week writing clues, gathering answers, and translating everything into Serbian.  I must admit; I was afraid I'd bitten off more than I could chew, but it turned out great.  We're thankful for lots of you lifting us up and to our friend Kirk for helping out at one of the locations.

Friends

And More Friends

And More friends

And More and More Friends

The kids didn't know about the show, so we let them view a clip of it and then sent them racing to 5 different locations with 7 different tasks throughout our town.  They really got into it.  We only lost one along the way. (Seriously, we did, but as far as I know everything is fine.)

At the finish line we ate cookies and tallied the points.  I enjoyed getting to know Connor's classmates and watching them interact with each other.  Kids here stay with the same group from first through the eighth grade.  They are like a little family after seven years together.

One of the tasks was to go to the pijaca (open air market) and use 50 dinar (about 69 cents)  to buy something red and present it to Connor as a gift at the finish line.

Things we learned:

Serbian girls do not eat pizza at parties.

It is customary to wait until everyone is gone and open the presents after the party.

These kids are really competitive and great sports.

Sometimes you receive live animals as gifts.

God is in the details.

Meet Ivan and Misho...the newest members of the Israel family


Bonus:

As we were finishing up the party in the town square where we had the finish line set up there was a sweet little "baka"  (grandma) there watching all the crazy happenings.  She began to talk to us and told us how sweet our kids were.  She teared up as she told us she'd had three children too, but they had all passed away.  As we continued our conversation we decided that she needs someone to talk to and I need someone to speak Serbian with.  She wrote down my phone number and I'm hoping to meet Jelena for coffee sometime this week.

Randi and the Not so Good, Things Didn't Go as Planned, I'm Really Tired, Pretty Bad Day.

***Disclaimer***
I love Judith Viorst's book, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  I don't want to break any copyright laws (it's been a bad enough day) and so this is me, trying to give credit where credit is due.   Thanks Judith for the inspiration.

This morning when I woke up it was raining and cold, and I hadn't washed the dishes from last night and I knew it was going to be a not so good, things aren't going to go as planned, I'm really tired, pretty bad day.

At breakfast the kids wanted to eat something other than cereal...they said, "Can't you just make pancakes and bacon and eggs?" and I said, "No!"  So so they ate cereal and complained.  I think I'll move to Australia.

On the way to Merkator for groceries on 10% off Tuesday it was still raining and I forgot my umbrella and my pants got wet in the driveway and the Merkator parking garage was so totally insane that I completely aborted the mission and tried to call Trey, but remembered I can't talk on the phone and drive without getting a ticket and so I pulled over to call him and ended up at the end of a dead end street and I knew it was going to be a not so good, things aren't going to go as planned, I'm really tired, pretty bad day.

We picked the kids up from school and dropped them off and went to Merkator and parked on the street this time and didn't have our umbrellas and it was STILL raining and we spent almost 9000 dinar and didn't even get anything fun and I think I'll move to Australia.

And then I pinched my booty on the broken toilet seat, and cleaned up the house because we had three different sets of visitors coming (I was praying they didn't have to pee while they were here, and that they wouldn't all arrive at the same time), and I knew it was going to be a not so good, things aren't going to go as planned, I'm really tired, pretty bad day.

I don't think toilet seats ever break in Australia.

And then I started cooking dinner and I didn't have time to make a yummy dessert and so we had store bought boxed cookies, and I burned the meatloaf (like to smithereens), and one of our visitors peed on Brooke's bed (I guess she had seen the toilet seat) and I said next week, I'm going to Australia.

It has been a not so good, things didn't go as planned, I'm really tired, pretty bad day.  

I think some days are like that...even in Australia.

So, here is the burned meatloaf.  And, in keeping with my day, the picture didn't rotate and so it is posted sideways and I can't figure out how to turn it around.  I bet if I was in Australia it would look right. 

Here is the pan the meatloaf came out of...it may never be the same.

Here is me...showing off my sad little supper.  Not a great picture, but hey...it hasn't been the best of days.

I was thinking just this week about how I always post these sweet little snapshots of our life.  I love my life.  I love where God has me and all the great things we get to experience and all the new people we are meeting and so I like you to see the fun stuff, but some days are like this one.  And so, here it is...the bad side.  I didn't have a quiet time and I didn't study language and things didn't go as planned, but tomorrow is a new day and I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Kyle Cooks Dinner

One thing that I've always hated is deciding what to cook for dinner.  I do much better when I have a plan for the week or the month.
As I was planning the menu for this week I asked everyone for an idea and told them they would help me cook the night we ate what they had picked.
Well, Kyle is the only one who followed through and here are the pictures...

He is chopping the cucumber for the Greek salad.

Here he is turning the чивапи, his favorite Serbian meat. 

Smashing taters...

Close up of the чивапи (chivoppy).

The completed meal.

One very proud little man.  We all enjoyed it.  Now I've just got to get the rest of them helping out this much.