Surprise Party!

Last night my wonderful husband planned for me a Surprise Party, and boy, was I surprised!

He had been planning it for a couple weeks and timed everything perfectly.

Andy got a babysitter lined up and told me he was taking me out to eat the Fri. evening before my birthday. That sounded like fun because I have not been out to eat since we arrived in Hungary 3 months ago! We needed a date! Badly! But I am such a birthday party girl. I love to host them, plan them and Of course have them and it's the most fun when it's for me ;)

So I asked Andy if it was ok to have people over instead of going out to eat and saving that for a date night..but I wanted to play games, laugh, be loud and goofy and we had a babysitter! We just needed a place, not knowing he already had this planned! So he made up cheesy excuses and we went out to eat, and oops I got lost on the way there...too busy yackin' and having fun. So he had to make a discreet call and tell them it would be a little later.

On the way home from the restaurant Andy tells me we have to go to the Bartos' to sign some papers that we are taking to Immigration on Mon. which is true but we have until Monday and why not just sign them in the car on the way there?... Andy said we had to have at least 2 witnesses so it would make sense to sign them with both Andris' and Angie there to "witness" it. So, on MY birthday night we drive to their house to sign these stupid papers...

We are greeted at the door by Andris who is saying, "where's the blue pen, DID YOU BRING A BLUE, A BLUE PEN?" Later I found out that was "the sign" she is here.

So I walk in ( at this point I am thoroughly annoyed at having to stop by to sign stupid papers) and everyone is screaming and crammed all together in the kitchen..it took about 3 seconds for me to understand they were saying, "Happy Birthday" and singing. I was extremely surprised, and you know what I say..." do we still have to sign those papers" I'm so retarded.

We had cake and ice cream. Angie made my favorite, Confetti Cake! Peg got me an adorable little plant and Paul and Jill picked me beautiful Tulips from their own garden! I got my laughter, silliness, cards, cake and decorations! It was so much fun! Thank you everyone for coming! We made some great memories playing Quelf...which is a whole other story... ;)

Easter! He is Risen!

We had such a wonderful day! We had 20 people over for Easter lunch, student, staff, interns and friends. Everyone brought their favorite dishes. Novalie helped me with the Easter cake and decorations and she had a great time searching for eggs, Eden even found one!

We talked, ate and had an intense badmitton tournament. Andy and I lost... :(

The girls opened their Easter baskets from family back home and have been repeatedly watching "Dora Egg Hunting."

It was a perfect day to celebrate our Risen Saviour!

Cherry tree Almond tree


Andy pruning the grape vines.

These are just a few pictures of our amazing garden! We moved into a beautiful home and the icing on the cake is our yard. We have a cherry tree, a dozen rose bushes, 3 different types of grapes, a plum, pear, almond and lime tree. Not to mention over 10 different types of flowers including  daffodils, tulips and voilets.

It's been alot of work but the weather entices you outside and we can't get enough of our yard. We just planted a garden and have peas, beans, watermelons, catalopes, cucumbers, sunflowers, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, and will plant pumpkins and squash later.

Now we just pray that we grow green thumbs overnight and not kill it all :)

Hospital visit #2

Yes, we have made our 2nd trip already to the Hungarian hospital. This time it was me...
Last Wed. March 25th I woke up around 3am in excruciating pain...I thought I had a stomach ache from something I ate but it definitely felt different than just a stomach-ache. I went in and out of sleep until about 6am when the pain started again...I dealt with it the whole day, thinking it was food poisoning and I was just going to have to suck it up and wait 24-48 hours for it to pass. As the day went on it seemed to let up some so I ate some toast for dinner, not 30min. went by when the pain started again and I could not find any relief. We called friends and headed to the hospital Wed. night. We still do not have a vehicle so Paul drove us and Lilli came to translate.

When Eden burned her hands we took her to the Nagykata Clinic, this time we went to the Jaszberny Hospital. One town farther. I almost passed out on the very bumpy car ride over...

We get to the hospital and are greeted by a nurse smoking a cigarette in the Main foyer of the building...not outside. She starts asking me routine questions in between puffs and blows, so we are not seated or shown into the lobby but are "hanging" out with the smoking nurse answering questions about our passports and my pain. Another nurse shows up and escorts me into a small room where I am to have a EKG...not sure why, but it's routine in Hungary. So I am in pain, getting an EKG for my heart while it's my side that hurts. They are talking a mile a minute but we have no clue what they are saying, for all I know they could have been discussing the latest soccer game.

2 Doctors examine me and decide I need to have an ultrasound to check my appendix, since the greater pain was on my right side. So, I am told we are going to the next building over...ok, no problem. Except that the other building means I am to be wheeled outside in the freezing cold weather! Mind you,it's about midnight now. Praise the Lord they gave me my shirt and clothes back...

Side note:Awhile back we were having a conversation with a young girl her on staff who is pregnant about hospitals here in Hungary. She informed us that when you go into the hospital to deliver a baby you need to ring everything, and I mean EVERYTHING with you. Let me give you some examples...you have to provide your own sheet, pillow, blanket, fork,knife, spoon, cup, paper towels, bath towel, washcloth, TOILET PAPER, soap, and pain medicine (like Tylenol)...just to name a few things.

So the Lord new I would need to have that conversations, so before we headed to the hospital we grabbed tp, blankets etc etc.

Now back to my adventure being transferred to the "other" building by way of across the parking lot; I had my blanket so I didn't freeze on the way over. Forgot to tell you I was given an IV on the top of my arm not in the fold of your arm but closer to my elbow so my right arm is immobilized at this point and bleeding, never seen an IV wound bleed like that. Well, we make it to the other building and by this point whatever they gave me in the IV is kicking in so my nervous laughing has kicked in and I'm trying not to lose my cool. When I'm really, REALLY nervous I laugh or talk like a freakin' hyena a mile a minute. Anyways I go in for an ultrasound and they find kidney stones but no sign that they are trying to pass of have passed, My gallbladder and appendix are fine. So they are perplexed and have an x-ray done to double check.

So while the doctor is reviewing the x-ray I am taken back across the parking lot, through the freezing cold down the women's corridor to my room, which I will be sharing with an older women who is very sick. I asked, trying not to sound like a spoiled ungrateful American, "is she contagious". No answer... but I assume no, our translater informed me that they keep related illnesses together. The big blessing at this point is that Andy was allowed to stay in the room with me which is against hospital rules no men in women's rooms or vice versa except during set visitor's hours. Lilli also stayed to continue translating for us. I was given unknown medicine all through the night...

It's customary for all patients no matter what the illness or injury to stay over night to be observed. So we stayed over-night waiting until morning to hear the diagnosis: Kidney stones!

They came in about 5:30am the next morning to take my temperature and give me the diagnosis and treatment steps. I am to drink lots of water and walk on my heels? and try to go down steps...hmmm not exactly sure how to do that, but that was the end result of my visit. I walked out extremely sore and exhausted toting my blanket and roll of TP.

All is well now. I felt like a rag all through the wknd, but my energy returned full blast last Mon. My mind is now alert enough to write about our experience. It was a doozy.

I have no symptoms of passing any stones except the pain in the hospital, so in a couple months if there are no more "episodes" I will go in and see if they have passed just to double check.

Praise the Lord we are all well and healthy now!