Student Teacher

I appreciate your prayers for me and Nathan Lattanzi. He is going to be my student teacher starting Monday. He arrives from Chicago on Saturday morning and he'll stay until May. He'll be observing me teach science, as well as other teachers and other subjects.

I've never had a student teacher before so I am both nervous and excited about it. Nervous, because he'll be learning from me! Excited because at some point he'll have to teach my classes on his own and that will be helpful for me as I go into my third trimester of pregnancy.

Please pray for the following:

• that Nathan will learn a great deal (not just about teaching) while he's student teaching here
• that he has a smooth transition from college life to working life in a different culture
• that he quickly develops good relationships with other singles here (he already knows two women who live here now...small world.)
• that I have wisdom while working with him
• that we both will have complimentary personalities and it won't be an awkward thing to work together
• that my students would be respectful towards him (he's in his early twenties)

Thanks!!!!!

English Language Institute (ELI)

Unfortunately I am battling a cold right now. Yesterday my nose was SO sore and I was really tired, but had to teach ELI.

ELI is a free night of english classes during the week. Many hungarians are participating and appreciate the teachers. Attila Hajdu (pronounce Hi-Doo) teaches Hungarian and European history at ICSB and really has a burden to share the love of Christ with the community in Diosd. So he is the organizer of these classes. There is another group that organizes classes on two other nights during the week, but I wasn't available those nights, so I was excited when Attila announced he would be doing this. (Being a teacher in an english-speaking school all day kind of limits me to getting to know a lot of Hungarians.)

There are four levels of English that we are teaching and I am the teacher for level three. Many of my students know english quite well, but need confidence in speaking and listening. Well, because I wasn't feeling well yesterday and my voice sounded funny, I decided to give them a lot of worksheets for writing activities. There were times that we talked, but not as much as I normally do. BUT I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT COMBINING CLASSES! We have had temporary teachers for Level 4, which is mainly conversation. So, my 15 students plus the three students from level 4, brought my class size to 18!!! It was quite a full classroom. And I'm not sure how much the level 4 students got out of it, with them being used to mainly speaking. I'm sure it was helpful, and they always say "thank you" to me afterwards, but I'm going to have to think about some different strategies now so it can be worthwhile for everyone.

And there is a 30 minute break in the middle of the classes that Attila uses to spark spiritual discussion. There is usually an odd short movie to watch, which leads to questions that Attila wants the students to discuss at their table. And there's always water and pretzels or cookies too. (Oh, and this part is in Hungarian.)

I appreciate any prayers for these classes and the relationships that develop from them!

Pinewood Derby

Today Justin went to a Pinewood Derby organized by the Boy Scouts. The Cub Scouts built their cars and participated. Here are some pics that my hubbie took of this fun event. You can check out his blog for a video or two, but probably not until later this week.

the cars

the track

Trevor, the son of our 5th grade teacher at ICSB Noah is one of my 7th graders (he's the big kid in the middle)

Worship at Calvary Chapel in Budapest

My mom was interested in seeing our church and I found that I had taken a short video of the worship time last year. Justin and I attend Calvary Chapel in Budapest, or Golgota Kereszteny Gyulekezet.

This church is growing abundantly and is now up to three services on Sunday morning! Praise God! You can see how crowded it is and we are sitting in the overflow seats on the side.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Unfortunately our internet was on and off on Saturday, so I couldn't publish this right away.

Here is my Dad. His birthday is today (Jan 24) and I hope you had a great day, Dad!

I love you very much and we are so excited to give you another grandchild!! :)

Baby Custer at 20 weeks

Here is the latest pic of Baby Custer, now 20 weeks and 2 days. :) He or she is growing and healthy. (Only the doctor and the Lord knows what the sex is- we are choosing to wait to find out in June.)

The one above is of the upper torso and head. The lower pic is a magnification of the head. Any bright white that you see is bone. On the lower pic there is a small arrow pointing to the nasal bone.

Earlier in the week, we got to meet Zsuzsanna, the newest arrival at our school! I am pictured here with her mom, Edit, who taught Hungarian and German at ICSB. I've enjoyed getting to know Edit this past year, as her middle school classroom was right next to mine. We had lunch together a lot. She is no longer working at school, but taking care of her little girl now (she's around 20 days old). We had taken them dinner Tuesday night and got to spend about 30 minutes with them. Before we left, I remembered (which is a rare thing) that I had our camera with us.

Remove Completely

Here is a REALLY adorable and funny picture of my new niece. Her name is Amerie and she is my twin brother's second daughter. Her older sister, two-year old Zara, happened to see her on the floor sleeping and decided to put a sticker on her forehead, as well as some toys and diapers. (Mom was away for about one minute!)

For those wondering, no, Zara did not understand what the sticker said . :)

Here she is with my brother, Matt.

Science Fair Time

So, being the only middle school science teacher, I get to organize the annual ICSB Science Fair. (There is not one for high school to the relief of the students.) It's fun to see all the ideas of my students and the learning that occurs from such an event, but it is rather stressful preparing them (and their parents) for it. Since I teach international kids (American, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Korean, and more) I need to be very clear in what a science fair is and what is expected. Even many of the American students have never been in one since they've lived abroad most or all of their lives. It's a milestone in life for sure.


Every year I improve as far as my planning goes. Last year I decided to place a large calendar in the hallway specifically for preparing for science fair. There were several deadlines to remind my students as they passed it in the hallway. Well, I liked that idea and have done it this year, but this year I have more specific deadlines and each student got a copy of the calendar. I think it's certainly been a help to me to make sure my students are on top of things and their experiment won't be a last minute kind of thing.


It's really cool that in this community of missionary families, there are so many adults with science or math background. So it's been a blessing for the students to actually be judged by adults outside of school and can give them objective views about their experiments. And there are winners too! There are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medals awarded to students in each class. And one overall winner gets a monetary award, equivalent to about $50.


If you think of me, please pray for me and my students as we prepare for the science fair. It will be Monday, March 16, so we still have lots of time. And I still need to secure judges for that day. Since families are constantly moving, every year there are new judges I need to find.


Thanks for praying!


Here are a couple of pics from last year's science fair:

Ice Day and Teaching English

Today we have an "ice" day, meaning there is no school due to too much ice on the road. We have many kids who come from downtown Budapest, so it's just safer to stay home. It was a pleasant surprise to me. I really didn't think we'd get a free day due to weather. It's been cold, but there's been very little snow and just yesterday we got icy weather.

Actually, the staff at ICSB was allowed to go home early yesterday (2:30 pm) instead of staying after school for our weekly meetings. Any after school activities were also cancelled. Needless to say I was really excited to come home early, but then I remembered that I teach english to Hungarians on Wednesday nights. Since there is no way to contact all of the people coming to these free classes, we still had our classes. So, Justin and I just stayed at school until my class was over (it's from 6-8 pm). I got a lot done while we were at school, which was great, but I really did want to go home!

And my class started with three people and ended up with five! And only one of which I had taught before (a 13-year old). So, I was happy that I had new students to get to know. (Since this is an outreach to the community, anybody can come if they'd like to learn English, so I have all ages that I teach, from 13 years to about 60 years! One of my newest students is probably around 60 and he reminds me of Santa Claus!) It's an interesting class, but despite the difficulty with teaching different maturity levels, many have said how much they appreciate me and that they are learning from me. That makes me feel so great, especially since I am a science teacher by training and background. (I have to say, I am learning more about the english language myself!)

Christmas Break

We've been on Christmas break since December 18. It's been so good to get such a long break! We've been sleeping in VERY late, which is unlike me. But I guess that's what I will want to do now. Monday, January 5, we start school again. It will be a hard week for everyone, I believe.

December 17th was the night we had our staff Christmas dinner at Trofea Grill in Budapest. It was so nice! Here's a pic of us from that night.






December 19 through 21 we visited Krakow, Poland. Because of the train strike, we had to drive 7.5 hours to get there. Going through northern Slovakia and into Poland, it snowed. We arrived in Krakow around 2 pm and met up with a lady to show us to our apartment. It was so cozy and warm! I loved it. After meeting with her and putting our luggage in the apartment, we walked around. The location of our apartment was great! It was in the Old Town and when we turned the corner, there was one of the main streets all decorated with Christmas lights. The only thing I didn't like about visiting Krakow was how cold it was. We always had to duck into a shop or cafe to get warm, instead of being able to comfortably walk around as long as we wanted. Plus, I get tired more easily now. But I am glad we went and go to see some sites. I think going back in warmer weather would be more enjoyable, but who knows when we will be able to do that with a baby.



at Wawel Castle

Sadly, Justin got sick Christmas Eve and so we had to cancel dinner with the Andersons Christmas night. We were going to make grilled pizza again!! :( But I did make it to our other friends, the Rickard's house for lunch, minus Justin. It was nice and we had ham and all the sides: mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, bread, strawberry Jell-O. It was all delicious. There was another friend/co-worker of ours there without her husband too. He was also sick. It was nice, but would have been nicer with Justin.

Instead of going to the Andersons that night, we went ahead and opened our gifts. (I had stopped by school to pick up three packages!) That was fun and I think made Justin feel a bit better as it was a small escape from feeling terrible. Receiving an iPod helped too. :) Check out our web album of that time.

On New Year's Eve we went to a party of another family, which was a lot of fun. We met some new people and chatted with friends while munching on artichoke dip, cocktail weenies, mexican dip and chips and drinking punch. Dessert was also delicious with some hot chocolate. Around 11 pm, Justin and I participated with two other couples in The Newlywed Game. None of us were newlyweds, but it was fun nonetheless. We tied with another couple and learned a few things about each other for the next time we play it. :)

Other than that, we pretty much hung out at home, slept late, and watched movies. My brother will be proud to know that we watched the first three Die Hard movies in one day. Also, we watched Wall-e(thanks Mom and Dad!), A Christmas Carol with Patrick Stewart, National Treasure 2, Transporter 3, and A Night at the Museum. Not in that order, though. (I did get to hang out with my friend, Andrea a few times too.)

And tomorrow...the vacation ends. But I am anxious to hear about my students' holidays. They LOVE to share what they did.

Happy New Year!

Finally....another entry

Ok, so it's been a LONG while since I last said anything on this blog. A really cool thing has happened since my birthday...

We are PREGNANT! I am in my 18th week of pregnancy and am doing great. All doc appts have gone well and I've had no morning sickness, can you believe it? I've been tired a lot and get headaches more frequently than I ever have and my pelvis is sore. I've been reading a lot about being pregnant and labor and taking care of a baby from two books that our parents have sent: What to Expect When You're Expecting and Great Expectations. (Thanks, Moms and Dads!)

And I am only one of many women at our school that have recently had babies or is pregnant. The recruiter at our school, Kim, who is 8 months along, has told me that in this past year there have been 8 pregnancies! God is so good! We are really blessed to have so many new moms to go to if we need anything.

Justin and I will have our baby here in Budapest. Because of so many births recently and in years past, we know that the medical care for being pregnant and giving birth is safe and good. Our OB-GYN works at a clinic called First Med and the birth will take place at a hospital called Telki Hospital. We really like our doctor because he is a very sweet man and very caring. Surprisingly, we've had four ultrasounds already! They do them far more often here than in the States. It has been so great to see our baby growing inside me! Here are three pics:

6 weeks (confirmation of pregnancy)

10 weeks

16 weeks

It is so cool to see the heartbeat AND hear it!!! :)

Praise the Lord with us at this exciting time!!!