Landon kept saying this on Friday as we walked through a huge CAVE! Some caves could feel like a cage but thankfully this one did not. On friday we drove an hour and a half by bus with our school to go on a field trip to Skocyanske jame (jame means cave in Slovene). We asked our teacher if we could take Landon with us and she said yes! The cave was a 3 kilometer walk (took us about an hour and a half to get through with a tour guide) and Landon walked the whole way! It was a beautiful cave with stalagmites and stalagtites all over the place, a beautiful river rushing through it and even a big bridge to cross in one part. At one point the tour guide said this cave was inhabited by 5 thousand bats (3 different species) and UNFORTUNATELY they are all in hibernation and we wouldn’t be able to see them! I thought “what do you mean unfortunately, don’t you mean FORTUNATELY!” Unfortunately, I was not able to take any pictures inside the cave but took a few from the outside. Right outside the cave the river (Reka in slovene) came out and dropped into a beautiful waterfall! It was just beautiful. Anyway, it was a great time, a very long day, but Landon was a trooper and it was so fun to see him interact with our classmates! I love how he loves people so well!
When landon woke up the next morning at 7:15am to this same sound, he said: “I was sleeping, then I wake up, it was louder and the house is shaking!” Funny kid.
Usually, Landon obeys and has a fairly good attitude going grocery shopping with me. The problem is that he gets bored because he is just sitting in the cart and not involved in the process. In many stores over here they have little shopping carts for the kids to push around, Landon loves it so much! He is learning how to steer the cart and watch out for fellow shoppers! He has a great attitude, puts the items in the cart, puts them up by the cashier, and sometimes I even give him the money to pay! Really, it is him shopping and not me-I’m just along for the ride ! We have such a good time together!
Last Sunday we drove up to Maribor, went to church, went out to eat with our teammates Andrej, Nina and Eva and then went to their newly re-modeled home!! When we first moved to Slovenia 2 months ago, they were in the middle of their big re-modeling project and so much was needed to be done. Brad helped Andrej for a couple of weeks before our language classes started. It was so great to see their house now, 2 months later, a lot is finished and they can now live in it!! We are so excited with them! We just keep thanking God for his faithfulness to us and to our teammates!
After class on Tuesday we drove back to IKEA (in Austria) and it was OPEN! We had a great time finding the things we need for our apartment! We had such a good time as a family and really were a great team! Landon was so tired (as shown in the picture), poor little guy. He fell asleep all the way home (and still slept a full night of sleep too!)
In the past week 3-4 times I have had an expectation for what we were going to do and then circumstances have completely changed and I needed to re-adjust my expectations and be flexible. For whatever reason this has been extremely difficult for me and I have really struggled each time. I am not quite sure why…could have to do with that little detail of moving overseas to a new country, but that’s not really a big deal…:)! Anyway, today after having canceled the trip once already we hopped in a car with some of our teammates and drove to Austria (1 hour and a half drive) to go to IKEA so that we can finish unpacking our house and get fully settled! We had a great ride down with our friends and arrived in the big IKEA parking lot only to find….that it was completely empty!!! Apparently, today was a major national holiday and EVERYTHING was closed!! The extremely ironic part is that when we lived in Germany this very same situation had happened to us at least 2-3 times!!! We always forget to check online and see if there is a major national holiday!! I looked at Brad and said “I wonder what God is teaching me!”. I am trying to be open handed about my schedule and expectations and know that His plans are better then my own. I thought I would take a picture of the hours that IKEA is supposed to be open…hmmm….:)
I know you all like hearing from Laurel more, but I thought I would hijack the blog for a second. So, I’m sure we have mentioned this before, but we live on a huge hill. There are certain positive and negatives that come with this. First the negative: It can be a bit stressful every time we go up our road. It’s a tiny one laner and if you meet somebody head on, the guy going up the hill has to find a place to pull over and let the other guy pass. There are a handful of places to turn off but it takes skillful maneuvering and can get very tricky at times. Also, when it rains now and when it will snow later it can be tough to get up the hill at all. We’ve been ok in our car so far, but when moving in David and Katka upstairs last week the big van just didn’t make it up. I can only imagine what it will be like in the snow and freezing rain.
The positives defintely out-weigh the negatives. We live on the hill called “Golovec.” It is beautiful and has many amazing walking/running/biking trails all over it. Part of the “pot” runs through it which is a path that goes around the city that was built in remembarance of the barb wire fence that was built around the city in WW2 to keep out invaders (the Italians and then the Nazi’s manned the fence). You can read more here: Pot We’ve been able to get out and walk or run a bunch on all the trails on Golovec and it’s just breathtaking (pun intended) everytime we get out. It’s just a few minute walk to find the trails from our house!
For those of you who know me pretty well know that I love pre-schoolers! I taught pre-school for 2 years and absolutely loved it. I come alive when I am teaching 4 and 5 year olds. I love how everything is exciting, they mostly have good attitudes and projects need to be the “hands on” kind! Ever since Landon was born I have wanted to do pre-school projects with him but he has not been ready up until this last year! Alas, we were traveling everywhere an moving overseas to a new country so I was unable to do very many projects with him! This week was the first week that life has felt “normal!” We are getting in a routine, most of our boxes are unpacked and the pre-school projects have begun in the Jenkins household! This week we made my favorite play dough, “Kool-Aid play dough.” Instead of using food coloring (it is so messy!) to dye the dough you use kool-aid and it makes the dough smell yummy too! Next, we made home made sugar cookies and used a leaf cookie cutter and frosted them in autumn colors! Today I cut out fall shapes (pumkin, leaves and a tree) out of potatoes, they make great stamps, and then we stamped them into paint and onto paper! We had a great time. I love intentionally spending time with my kid and appreciating who God made him to be! Yeah for fun projects to do with my kid that I love!!
This week we unpacked more boxes and we are starting to feel at home! A beautiful thankful spirit is welling up inside of us! We are thankful for many things! We are so thankful for our new apartment! I am so thankful that Landon still takes naps! He took a 3 hour nap yesterday and I had to wake him up! I turned on the light, opened the shades, took pictures of him and he still slept!
I am really thankful that we have the opportunity to focus on learning Slovene for this year! This language is quite complicated and I am really enjoying the chance to focus deeply on it. This morning we drove to Maribor to go to our church. It was so great to listen to the sermon and to write down all the words we recognized (80-90 words). Three weeks ago we didn’t know anything and now we can kind of understand the gist of what is going on! We are so thankful! We are also so thankful to have the opportunity to serve in Maribor! We love the city so much! The picture below is the view of a beautiful park right across the street from our church.
This week has suddenly turned quite cold. Everyday this week we have been so busy going to classes and unpacking our apartment. Poor Landon has been cooped up all week but on Friday we decided we needed to get out of the house and have a short family time. We went to a nearby park and let him ride his bike, his poor little hands were so cold! He actually asked to go home after a while because he was so cold! We are very thankful for our kid! We are thankful for family time and for his energetic little personality! We are thankful we could get him a bike and enjoy it with him! And, we are so thankful for all of you! We are thankful for your prayers and your friendship with us! We miss you all so much!
Well, we have been in Slovene class for three weeks now. We have heard for years how hard Slovene is to learn and now we are feeling that for ourselves. But, to quote our good friend Trisha, when you are learning a language it’s always important to look backwards and see the progress you have made rather than looking forward and getting overwhelmed at what lies ahead. As we look back we are amazed at how much we have learned in three short weeks and are very encouraged. But, the coolest part of language learning is seeing Landon pick stuff up. He can say a few things now and learns every day from the girl who watches him while we are in school. We finally were able to film him counting to ten . You may notice he corrects himself…ten points will be awarded to the person who can tell me which number he misses and which number he says twice. Keep praying for all of us…we need His help!!
Really, it is him shopping and not me-I’m just along for the ride 
