The view from Budapest

Ever since we arrived here in Budapest, the counsel that we have received from the staff that have been overseas for a long time is that one of the strategies for surviving here for the long haul is to make winter FUN! The best way that they have found to do this is to go skiing each year. They said that it developed great memories for their families and it gave them something to look forward to in the long, dark, cold winters. In fact, most of these families are “empty nesters” now and their kids still come back to Budapest each Christmas and many times they still go skiing together.

I loved skiing growing up so I’ve wanted to go ever since we arrived, but we never had the time or the money. This year the Lord provided the funds for us to go and so we are so excited.

We are going to western Austria to a town called Kirchdorf. We have a small apartment in this village. Three other families are going to be there with us so it should be a lot of fun. The kids will be in ski school for the week and Valerie will probably take a couple of lessons herself. It is killing me that I won’t be able to ski. I’ll be searching for good coffee shops and high speed internet while everyone else is skiing. I’ll look forward to evenings together with good food and games. It willalso be nice to have a little change of scenery as the walls of the house are closing in on me.

I’ll try to give you updates if I can find some internet access. Otherwise, you won’t hear from me until Jan 7th.

Happy New Year!!

[thumb:242:l]I’m a little late getting the pictures from Christmas uploaded (click the thumbnail to see more). We had a great time as a family. Since then we have been locked in our house in hibernation. Valerie has been a little sick so we haven’t gone anywhere. It has been video game, movie, board game, etc . . FEST.

I’m pretty addicted to Trent’s new game, Need for Speed Underground 2. It is basically a street racing game where you can build a car, race, earn money, and make more modifications to your car. I’ve found myself using terms like “My car is really tricked out,” “just a sec while I pimp my ride,” and other things that I would have never said in the past. I guess if Grant can be an X-Box Guru, then I can be a Game Cube Guru. It usually only lasts through the holidays as there is never time to play when real life returns.

I haven’t blogged much about my Fantasy Football team and most of you probably don’t care (except Grant & Rob), but it’s what I’m interested in so it is what I blog about.

I finished the season second to last after a pretty good start. I took the big risk in the draft by going for Donovan McNabb & Terrell Owens. They were sitting around in the 2nd and 3rd rounds and I just couldn’t pass them up. I was riding high halfway through the season tied for first place. Then T.O. went insane and McNabb gave up, so there went my year. I lost my next 6 games in a row and there went the season.

I did win my last game this past weekend to avoid being at the very bottom so there is some consolation in that. Maybe I won’t make the same mistake next year.

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Today was our annual trip to Budapest’s City Park (Varosliget) to go ice skating. It has become a tradition for us and many of the other American families here in Budapest. It is a great day to go because Hungarians are busy on Christmas Eve as today is when most of their Christmas activities happen (I thought it was interesting that the movie theaters were closed today, Christmas Eve, but open on Christmas). Therefore, it isn’t very crowded and we take the place over.

Kirby Ann had never skated before and at first she could hardly stand up. She got the hang of it though and we had to drag her off the ice by the end. She absolutely loved it! She never came off the ice and took a break in almost 2 hours. It was fun to watch her learn and see her enjoy it so much.

I watched from the sidelines this year, but I’ll be back in the game next year.

[thumb:216:l]Last year it didn’t snow until late January. This year we have had snow on at least 10 days already. We haven’t got huge accumulations and it usually melts in between, but it has snowed a lot. The kids seem to be enjoying it. Click on the picture to see more of their snowman creation from a couple of days ago.

Today, it is snowing and they are out there again making modifications to Frosty.

It is looking like we will have a White Christmas.

Here’s another recovery update. I’m 2 weeks and 2 days post-op and doing a little better every day. The biggest challenge is figuring out how much to do and how hard to push myself. The conventional wisdom on the recovery from this surgery is to do “normal” life as much as you can, but also to take it slow and allow the body to heal.

I seem to go between “do everything” to “do nothing” as I try to figure out my limits. I’ve been feeling much better over the past few days and I’ve been mostly out of pain. One of the things that they told me would be best for my recovery is to walk. I haven’t been able to do much walking because it is so snowy and icy here. If I were to walk in the neighborhood, I risk blowing my whole back out with a fall. Yesterday, Valerie suggested we take a trip to the mall so that I could walk some. I was feeling good, so that sounded great. We took the boys, ate at the food court and then I was off to walk. I walked to the Post Office at the other end of the mall and realized that I didn’t have enough money. So, I walked back to the other end of the mall where Valerie & the boys were in a toy store. After this lap, I realized that I was still in recovery. Some pain in the legs and some pain in my incision, but overall okay. I then made a second lap back to the post office and after that I was pretty worn out. I was tired and I was starting to have more and more incision pain. My stupid brace just rubs that incision like crazy.

After finishing a few errands and picking up Kirby Ann at pre-school I was pretty much wiped out and in pain. It was officially an “over-do-it” outing.

Today, I’m taking it easy. Valerie took the kids downtown to the Christmas Market for our annual kid’s shopping trip. They will all buy each other presents. I’m sad to miss it, but I know I couldn’t handle it. Tonight we have a Christmas party so I need to rest up.

[thumb:213:l] Kirby Ann, my 5 year old, is in her second year of Hungarian Pre-school (Óvoda in Hugarian). She loves every minute of it. Today was the Christmas party so everyone dressed up. Here she is with her teacher Rita and some of the other girls (click on the picture to see a couple of more).

She is even beginning to speak Hungarian. I think she has been understanding for a while, but now she is starting to speak. She can’t tell us what she says and doesn’t want to “play Hungarian” at home, but occasionally we catch her speaking to the other kids. She doesn’t say much yet, but I have a feeling in a few months the floodgates will open and she’ll start speaking a lot. She is way too social not to. I’m surprised she has held off this long.

We are thankful that she gets to have this wonderful cultural experience and that she loves it so much.

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Today was the big day that every family must go through. We’ve put it off (for obvious reasons) as long as we could, but at a week before Christmas it was time. Family Christmas Picture Day!!!

I figured since we would all be at church and we would all be moderately dressed up, it would be a good time. So, after church we ran across the street and Jerry took our picture. It was really, really cold. You can probably tell by our expressions. We could only get 4 pictures off before everyone had to sprint for the van, but I think we found one that will be acceptable.

It was great to be back at church and Ronnie Stevens was in his usual excellent form. He preached on the wise men and it was amazing. Go to the church website and download it, you won’t be sorry you did.

I finally uploaded some more pictures of our trip in Germany. Here’s some links for you to check them out:

Dec 4th Trip to Munich (on the day we thought we would be checking into the hospital)

Valerie & I in Straubing after surgery

I’ve been getting out regularly since I was released from the hospital. I’m supposed to walk everyday, but that has been difficult since there is snow and ice on the ground here.

Last night was Kendall’s School Christmas Concert and I was determined to go. It was snowing/raining/sleeting/etc . . . but I went anyway. It turned out that it stayed above freezing so it was just really wet and messy. I did okay through the hour and a half concert, but I was really tired afterwards. It didn’t hurt terribly, but I think I was just managing pain and discomfort the whole time. I was glad to get out and do something normal.

Today is a day with all the kids home, but I find myself up in the bed. I have to wear my brace anytime I’m out of bed and I can only stand the thing for so long. It puts pressure on my incision so I run out of gas after about an hour or so. Hopefully, I’ll have enough energy to hang out with the kids some today. I’m getting tired of being in the bed.

We’ll see how it goes!

I started this week attempting to read through the Bible (again!). I’ve started many times before, but I’ve never finished. I might not finish again this time, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth starting.

As I read through the first few chapters of Genesis, they talk about how everyone lived to be 800 to 900 years old. This is always amazing to me and I’m not sure it is something I would want. It seems like you would get pretty bored after a few hundred years.

The thing that hit me this time is that their backs held up for that long. If I needed a new disc at 37, how did they all make it to 950? I’m sure they were harder on their back than I have been. I mean they slept on the ground. Can you imagine sleeping on the ground for 900 years. Ouch!! That makes my back hurt.

It is just one more way that the scriptures amaze me.