Update on William

He continues to always make us laugh. This picture of William with his sock in his mouth made both Michelle and I just laugh and laugh.

Two big milestones this week: William began rolling over from his back onto his tummy. He hasn't gone the other way yet. Also, we began feeding him solids. This is his first mushed-up apple. I think most of it ended up on him, not in him.

It's fun to see his personality emerge. He started this game with Justin. The rules are pretty simple. He would quickly touch Justin's foot, pull back his legs, wait, then laugh when Justin would touch him. This went on for probably a solid five minutes.

First Post by Justin!

We wanted to let you know what's going on in our lives and in our ministry. So I thought that I, Justin, would take a minute to share about what I do at the International Christian School of Budapest (ICSB). In short, I wear many hats.



My primary role is one of the high school science teachers. I teach fresman Biology, sophomore Chemistry, sophomore Physical Science, and Physics for upper classmen. The picture above is of some students from the physics class working on an experiment.


But also, Michelle and I are the class sponsors for the freshman class. I also lead Bible study for the freshman guys once a week. Last, Michelle and I both volunteer for lots of events and activities.


All said, we're been involved with ICSB for over seven years now. It's been a rewarding time and I know that we wouldn't have traded this time for anything else.

It's been a while!

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a while, time has just gotten away from me. I can't believe it's already December!

English classes are going well. I'd like to do something special for my class, maybe invite them for dessert at my house or something. You can certainly pray about that, that the Lord would give me direction about what to do.

School is going well for Justin. However, the day before Thanksgiving, school was cancelled due to illnesses that affected about 30% of the student body. (Justin's entire physics class, four students, were out sick!) The school administrators felt it wise to give the students another day during the holiday break to get well. Thankfully, most students are feeling better and are back at school.

The 7th grade girls' Bible study is finishing up studying about characteristics of God. We've looked at how God is like a rescue worker (He's saved us from sin), like water (He refreshes us and purifies us), like a gift (He gave Himself as a gift to us), like a listener (He hears our prayers). Hannah (my co-leader) and I have encouraged the girls to apply what they've learned and think about how they are reflecting Christ to others. How can you be like a gift to someone? Who have you refreshed (encouraged) recently? It's been a good study and we'll end this semester in two weeks with a Christmas party!

Justin recently helped Boy Scout troop #839 on a camping trip. He taught them rope skills: tying knots and lashings. (I'll be honest, I got a little jealous when I found out he had eaten s'mores!)

Thanksgiving was great! This year we felt blessed to be able to host the meal with our "family away from family." I cooked turkey breast and green bean casserole and baked a pumpkin pie. Two other families were able to join us and combined they brought stuffing, corn pudding, salad, gravy, mashed potatoes, and apple pie. It was certainly a feast and we were thankful to eat great food with great friends! Thank you McLemores and Langs!

English Classes

Here are some pictures of the english class that I teach once a week. There are four levels offered and I teach the third level, so my students know a lot of english but want to improve. These classes are an evangelistic outreach for the community. We hope to spark discussion about the Christian faith. There is a 30-minute break in the middle of the classes so that we can do this and we want to develop relationships with our students so that we can share the love of Christ with them. Many ask why we chose to live in Hungary, which is a very good question! Please pray for me and the other teachers, Attila and Jeff.

Jeff's class

My class

This is the room we meet in for the break.

October 4, 2009

October 4th was my birthday (and my twin brother, Matt's! :)) and a lot of great things happened.

First, Justin made me breakfast in bed: Waffles!!!! :)

Second, William was dedicated at church. This means that he was prayed over by the pastor and we were prayed for as well. William did great and everyone when "awwwww!" when they saw him. Even the translator wanted to hold him. So sweet!!!

Third, we met a bunch of friends at Pizza Hut near our church. It is an annual occurence and I LOVE inviting people to share pizza with me because I just love pizza!! :) You can see what William thought of it.

Fourth, earlier in the week my in-laws sent me a Sacher Torte from Vienna. When they were here for William's birth, they took a trip to Vienna and brought one of these chocolate cakes back for us. I believe there is apricot jam in it, so it's a unique cake. We loved it! So I was so happy to get another one!!! We cut into the cake after Pizza Hut. And I was glad that two friends, Hannah and Scarlet, were able to share it with us! I didn't think to take a picture of it, but I have no doubt you can "google" it to find an image. :)

Laughter

What a creative God we have that He made laughter!!! It's wonderful!

A New School Year Has Begun

Wednesday, August 26th, was the first day of school at ICSB. Justin is teaching chemistry, physics, physical science, and biology this year. I am not teaching this year so that I can concentrate on raising William, who is growing like a weed!! :)

So, Justin's first day went well. He described it as typical first days (he's got block scheduling, so some of his classes don't meet everyday): passing out syllabi, going over procedures, rules and consequences, etc. And yes, he does give homework on the first day of school. :)

I've been doing fine at home, but it is odd that I am not at school. I LOVE being here for William, but I miss being in the classroom and getting to know the kids. And since there are new kids every year, I'll have to visit school at least once a week. I'm thinking that will help me stay connected. Also, I am continuing a Bible study with the 7th grade girls. That will be a lot of fun!

It's nice that I can have lunch with friends or just hang out with them and their kids. My wonderful friend Becky gave me a scrapbook that she wasn't using and so I'll start a new hobby with that. We'll see how it goes, because I'm not the craftiest person.

William had a doc appt this past Thursday and weighs just over 13 lbs now and is 25 inches long!!! Like I said, he is growing like a weed. It's SO awesome to see how he is growing and developing. He's still small but not as small as he was! And he's talking, smiling, laughing, and drooling! br>

Here are some pics. I wish I had gotten Justin to take some pics of his first day...but oh well.

William tired out Daddy! :)

Friends

This past weekend we spent a lot of time with friends!

Friday for lunch we went to hang out with the Andersons...Zach, Julie, Eli, and Jasper. Julie made these really great chicken quesadillas and I baked her and Jasper a chocolate cake to celebrate their birthdays. Eli and Jasper apparently really like cake. When it was time for cake all they could yell was CAKE! :) And Julie and Zach held William practically the whole time we were there! :)

Here is Zach and Eli playing a video game. It seemed as if Justin and Zach had their own language when they were playing these games and talking about them. (Julie and I just don't "get it".)

Saturday afternoon we had Emily over for lunch. She teaches AP Calculus, Geometry and Algebra II at ICSB, but don't let that fool you! She is a lot of fun to hang out with! :) And she loved holding William...as you can see, he enjoyed it too!


Isn't William a cutie? He's our little Aggie!

Saturday evening we went to have dinner with the McLemores and the Langs. Since Julie and her fam loved the chocolate cake, I made it again for this evening. It was just a fun, relaxed time. The McLemores have a 10 month old son, Thomas, who is adorable! And he really likes William and wants to touch him a lot. Here is a pic of one of his attempts. :)

Lunch with Friends

Wednesday, I had lunch with friends, Kim and Pam. They have some cuties of their own and it was nice to have lunch and chat. Thomas is looking at a book my in-laws sent William. It's called Gallop and it's a pretty cool book. Thomas seemed to enjoy it, he liked turning the pages. Can't wait for William to be able to focus on it!

Our Favorite Part of the Day

When William smiles!!! Justin finally got it on camera. He's been smiling in his sleep since he was born, but we never knew when he would do it. Now it's possible for us to make him smile! :)

Enjoy!

Fun Gifts!

While Oma and Opa were here, they got to know a few of our friends, including their kids. Miriam and Zach had great conversations with them and J's parents wanted to send them each a gift. They LOVED them!!! Here are some pics and a video from last evening when we gave the gifts to them: three horses for Miriam and a Dinobot for Zach. :)

Thank You Hatcher/De La Garza Family!

I don't know if this family knows about my blog, but they sent us (which means William) a care package! They are good friends of Justin's family and they sent lots of cute 12-18 month clothes, which he doesn't have yet, and two board books! One of the books is "First Words" and the other is "The Little Golden Bible Storybook". William and I have already read through the Bible story book. :)


William's gifts include two board books, socks, two jackets, two pairs of pants, two t-shirts, and a onesie!




THANK YOU SO MUCH HATCHER/DE LA GARZA FAMILY!

Sleep, a Bottle, and Ice Cream

William slept from 10:30 pm last night to about 6 am this morning! This is the second time he's had a long stretch of sleep! He did it once before from midnight to 6 am. Ahhhh! We all slept through the night. :)

And yesterday we gave him a bottle for the first time. He had no problems with that and drank 2 oz. of milk. We tried the bottle because we'd like to have regular weekly date nights. This past Monday, Justin and I left William with our friends, the Langs, and headed to the Cukraszda, a nearby cafe. We were only gone for an hour, but I was worried about William since he had been asleep for two hours by that point and we didn't have a bottle of milk for him just in case he got hungry/fussy. Well, he slept the whole time! Talk about an easy baby-sitting job! :) Miriam and Zach were a little disappointed with that because they wanted to "play" with him. (THANK YOU BECKY FOR BABYSITTING!)

So yesterday after we fed him, we headed to a nearby mall to enjoy ice cream and air conditioning with our friends, the McLemores. (It was 97 F yesterday!) It was nice and Pam and I even bought something for our sons at H&M! :) That was the first time I bought William any clothes, since we've been given so much from baby showers and care packages, so that was fun for me.

BBQ With the Hajdu Family

Yesterday we had a BBQ with the Hajdu Family. Attila works at ICSB as assistant to the director and is invaluable to the school! He is also the head of the english language classes that I taught this past year to Hungarians in the community and has started a church in Diosd. He has a real burden for reaching Hungarians for Christ! His wife's name is Kati and they have two cutie children and are expecting another in November! (Congrats!)

We had a lot of fun with them and it was a perfect day for a cookout! We had pork, chicken shishkabobs (sp?), salad, and ice cream! I was very happy to introduce them to a "Coke Float". Their words to describe it were "it's not too bad." :)

Here are some pics from our time together.

Attila and Kati
Sara and David (Sara's really studying a fly on the table.)
Kati LOVED holding William!
The men cooking

4th of July

Justin, William, and I spent the 4th with our friends, the Langs and McLemores. Aaron made some awesome cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and bratwurst. There was also corn on the cob, chips and dip, salad, cheesecake, and ice cream! We enjoyed hanging out with them.

Here are some pics from our time there...I am bummed I didn't take pics of the McLemores. :(

William enjoyed a nap most of the time.

Miriam and Zach look so cute holding him!

Becky and William
Fun kids!

Martonvasar

July 1 was our 9-year anniversary and we decided to celebrate by going to a nearby park. The park is in a town called Martonvasar and the palace on the park grounds used to belong to the Brunswik Family. It is now a Beethoven museum because Beethoven would visit the Brunswik's often. I believe they give Beethoven concerts throughout the summer as well.

It was a GREAT day! It started out overcast and a bit wet, but it cleared up soon and we had a little picnic with William. Here are some pics from our time there.