Monday, September 26, 2011

na mi van?

What's up?

This is my 700th post. Wow. I have had a lot to say I guess. Well, it has been a little over four and a half years since I started this blog, so I'd say 700 isn't too bad. :)

So what have the Yaikos been up to since it's been a few weeks since I last blogged? We've been keeping busy and enjoying our days. We've had over 20 people over for dinner, been on too many walks to count, visited with friends, made new friends, had the car fixed, cleaned and rearranged things, taken out new people to shop for things, lots of cooking and baking, spent time talking on the phone with people in four different countries, and made a call to poison control.

We continue to try to have people over every week for dinner. We have focused mainly on getting to know new people, but we have some "oldies but goodies" over as well. :) Kevin went on the staff retreat last weekend, and so a bunch of us women and kids got together while the hubbies were away at that.

The weather has remained gorgeous...this is the first week where thus far the forecast has temperatures staying below 80˚F. And while I am grateful for the sunshine and warm temps (that I'll most definitely be missing soon!), I am ready for fall and temps that are a bit cooler. We have had two rainy, dreary and cool days since we've been back, and I rearranged my menu each time because I woke up and decided that weather called for fall food, mainly soup. :) Although I have always liked apple crisp, it was something that I could easily pass up. But then I made this for the first time, and now, warm apple crisp with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of vanilla bean caramel sauce is hard to pass up! Delicious. Must try. You can ask about a dozen people around here whom I have made it for, and they will agree. :)

And I started to feel like an alcoholic because of all the vodka I was buying and storing in the pantry for awhile. Pure vanilla extract is hard to come by here (they use something different), so I decided to make my own. It takes months, and I decided if I started shortly after coming back, that it would be close to ready by Christmas. So now the top shelf of my pantry is stocked with bottles of vanilla being made as we speak. (And the woman who checked me out the day the vodka I wanted went on sale was probably a little confused, but she never questioned my purchase. I felt the need to tell her it was only to make vanilla extract!)

The car we are borrowing needed some work when we came back after the summer. I hate cars and all of the work they require. I am grateful that we don't have to use ours too often, and I am certainly grateful for the family who is letting us borrow their car while they've been in the States. They are supposed to come back after Christmas, and then we will need to buy a car. You can be praying about that!

I have spent time on the phone with people in four different countries to see when our shipment is coming here. (Did I tell you that we cleaned out our storage unit over the summer and decided to either get rid of stuff or ship it over here?) It has overall been a very frustrating process, but the woman in Hungary with whom I have been talking to for the last two weeks has been most helpful. It is unlike any customer service I have experienced in Hungary ever, as "customer service" is pretty much non-existent. She has been speedy in her responses and helpful, too. Our shipment arrived in Koper, Slovenia, and next it will make its journey to Budapest. We are hoping it will be here sometime next week, and we are praying for SUPER nice people in customs who will go through our stuff, tax us, and question things. We are praying for the best but being realistic in how it will actually go, as our short life experience here has taught us. We are still shocked that our stuff went to port in Slovenia, as most go through Germany...but at least it's on the continent now. Just have to make it the last little part here...after paying ridiculous port fees, customs, and taxes. I just want this all to be done!

Kate continues to keep us on our toes. Last week, I walked into our room and saw packages of gum and wrappers on the floor of our bedroom. I was trying to figure out where the gum had gone, as there were a half dozen foil wrappers on the floor. I asked Kate where she put the gum and hoped to get to it before it was all mushy and stuck somewhere. And she excitedly replied, "I ate it!!!" Not what I wanted to hear. The next few days resulted is very granular and odd smelling minty/gross poop. I still can't figure out how she got to the gum. It was three packs of Extra peppermint gum (that I brought back from the States because it's my favorite) that had been wrapped in plastic together (you know how multiple packages come together), and then each individual pack had been wrapped in plastic. She managed to get all of that off! I don't know how, especially since she asks me to unwrap the FOLDED PAPER off of her vitamin every morning. What a stinker.

And then yesterday morning as we are a few minutes away from leaving for church, Kevin comes downstairs and asks me what we should do because Kate may have just eaten deodorant. What?! It's on the highest shelf possible! But apparently she had dug out of the bathroom trash my old one that I had thrown out. I examined it carefully, and I couldn't see any marks by teeth or fingers in what was barely left below the plastic bottom to show that she had gotten some out. The back of the deodorant said that if swallowed, to seek medical attention immediately or call poison control. So we called the 24 hour poison control hotline in the US, and they said that she probably didn't get any and even if she did that it wasn't enough to be poisonous. They told us to just give her milk or water to drink to be safe. Thankfully, she was fine. But let me reiterate, what a stinker.

That was my quick and non-quick catch up of the last couple weeks. I have no pictures because I couldn't get the camera battery to charge. Very frustrating. But suddenly tonight, I tried again and now it is charging. Weird. Hopefully after tomorrow I will have some pictures of our trip to the zoo that we are taking. Seth is SO excited. Thanks to Michelle for inviting us!

Oh, and one last thing...big news! KEVIN GOT A CELL PHONE!!!!!!!!!! Yes, that's right, his first one ever. I can't believe this day has finally come. :) Wow. Wow. Wow.

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