Teaching English

The night I (Brad) got home from snowboarding I started to not feel very good.  Apparently I drank some bad water up on top of the mountain and apparently my body didn’t like it very much.  You can fill in the blanks.  The bummer part about this, aside from being violently ill, was that Laurel and I were supposed to join 3 others on our team to teach English in a Slovene school.  So, I stayed at home while Laurel joined the others and taught English all day, while I joined them the next day.  We taught a total of 10 classes, talked about the “American school system” until our faces turned blue and meet some really great students.  It really was a great time and really funny to hear their perception of American schools…they get most/all of their information from movies.  Trisha and David led the charge and did a fantastic job.

Snowboarding

Last week I (Brad) was able to go snowboarding with 3 other great guys, who are on our team out here.  It was incredibly refreshing to be up in the mountains on a gorgeous day with great company.  During the winter here in Ljubljana it is cloudy almost EVERY day.  It’s amazing actually.  So, to get up on the mountain and see God’s beautiful creation (and the sun) here in Slovenia was worth the trip.  But, aside from great boarding, beautiful mountains, good friends, the last run of the day made our stomachs hurt because of laughter.  Johnny and I had to return our rented snowboard boots at the TOP of the mountain, which left us with the choice to slide down on our snowboards.  It was like sledding times 10.  Because we were trying to steer with our feet the snow would shoot right up to our faces.  There was one moment where I actually panicked because I couldn’t breath with all the snow going into my mouth!  Here’s a few pics and the video…notice the progression of speed and David laughing at the end.

Marriage Conference

This last week Brad and I drove with Nina and Andrej to Krakaw, Poland. It was a super long drive (10hours) but was well worth it! Josiah Venture put on an AMAZING marriage conference. A foundation donated money so that we could attend the conference and not pay anything! Our whole Slovenia team was able to make it.  The teaching was EXCELLENT, stuff that we are going to look over and continue to talk about for the rest of our lives. God met us and spoke to us specifically and transformationally revealing heart issues. We are so thankful to Dave Patty for the great teaching.  The conference was at a beautiful really fancy hotel with great food!  We were so blessed and encouraged.  The only thing-it was -15C which is around 3F! It was freezing! When we went outside our faces burned from the cold.  Other then that it was amazing! Landon stayed in Slovenia with some friends of ours, thanks Christian and Ute for watching him! He keeps talking about you guys:)!

Sledding!

Today we went with our tutor Helena, her husband Aleš and their daughter Julia and Hondo, Trish and their son Caleb to go sledding!  We had SO much fun! First we walked and walked and walked up and up (in switch back fashion for at least an hour) all the way to the top of a huge hill. Up on the top is the border between Austria and Slovenia so that’s pretty cool. Then we all hopped onto sleds (Brad, Landon and I all on one) and rode all the way down! It was so crazy, in many parts it was super bumpy and you have to watch out for people that are trekking up the hill. Also, if you want you can go REALLY fast. We were extremely impressed with other sledders steering and navigational skills and were aware that we were lacking in that area! Slowly we got the hang of it and worked together pretty well. It was so much fun and we just laughed the whole way down! We really enjoyed being with our friends and were so thankful for this fun time!

Football!

Brad played football for 5 years and loved every minute of it.  When we were dating Brad sat  me down and re-lived the glory days with me by watching some of his old football videos.  When we moved to Slovenia never in a million years did we think he would be able to do anything related to American football! However, we were wrong! There are a few American football teams in Slovenia. He is now practicing with the Ljubljana team (the “Silver Hawks”-which is pretty fitting because Brad is getting some gray hair ) and is hoping to play!  The team is varied from 20-30ish year olds, so he is not too old to play!  Before his first day of practice he said that he didn’t feel 30 years old, but after practice he sure did! We are really thankful for this opportunity for him to connect with people, share Christ’s love, and maybe even speak some Slovene!

Italy!

This weekend we went with some friends to visit a friend. We were so thrilled to go to Italy and see our friend Connie. We met her when we were living in Germany.  We always love spending time with her, talking about spiritual things and just life things too.  She fed us incredibly and we enjoyed seeing where she lives. She has an apartment in an Estate! It is just gorgeous. The water in the pictures is the “moat” on the Estate. The picture below is of the “Parish” like what Collin’s job was in Pride and Prejudice. The whole place was just so cool. Thanks Connie for letting us come see you! We really enjoyed and soaked up every minute!

Back by popular demand

another hit single from Landon the mandon.

What we’re up to now…

I don’t think I have communicated what we are doing now, so here goes. Our semester got out before Christmas and spring semester doesn’t start until the middle of February.  In the meantime we have a wonderful tutor twice a week and I have been meeting with a friend and working on some language lesson stuff that we learned at MTI in Colorado. So, we are continuing to be proactive about learning the Slovene language and it has been nice to have a change of pace and not go to school every day but to still be learning in the meantime. Brad really is enjoying this break and I am too but will be ready for school to start because I really enjoy structure! Our friends Hondo and Trisha use our tutor also and it has been nice to work with them. We meet at their house twice a week and one couple watches the boys (their son Caleb and our son Landon) while the other couple learns and then we swap. It has worked out very nicely and we are so thankful for this great set up!

More art projects!

I am really enjoying the stage of life that Lando is in! He is very interested in doing hands on projects, playing with play dough, painting, writing, coloring, cutting, gluing ect.. He get’s so excited when I say “Let’s do a project.” I do realize that this might not always be, so I am trying to take advantage of it. So the other night Brad was working on his computer and so Landon and I put on our aprons (yes, my son has an apron but it has tractors on it, so it is quite manly…thank you very much! ) and dove into two painting projects. We painted with cars and we painted with bubbles and this is how it all turned out!

So, those are our projects! I’d say we have a little artist on our hands! I love watching him grow up. He did such a good job of following directions and enjoyed himself in the process. I am so thankful for this kid!

We are official!

After a long 11 month process of gathering all the needed documents, getting them translated and stamped, calling, waiting and calling some more…we drove to Italy and picked up our temporary resident permits/visas! We are so thankful and grateful that this long process is over! We have nice little stickers in our passports that declare we are officially living in the country of Slovenia!! It has been a long journey but we have clearly seen God’s hand and his fingerprints of faithfulness over this whole process.  Thank you so much for your prayers! Yesterday morning we hopped in the car and drove to Italy to be greeted by strong winds, rain and cold weather! That is why the only picture we have of this process is in the car where we were safe from the weather! Then we drove home to be greeted by heavy falling snow that continued to fall the whole day and through the night. It is currently hailing right now ! Needless to say, we are hoping to stay indoors today and are just so happy our paperwork is complete!