Eventful week

Monday marked our 7 year anniversary of arriving here in Slovenia! Kathy Codanti came over and even made brownies! Then we recalled with the kids what those early days were like and how different it is now that we feel at home here.

We've become quite attached to American Idol. Every week we watch and revel in our American-ness, snacking on imported goodies like Oreo cookies or brownies. Christina, our co-worker has joined the hysteria and for our last week together with our American Idol family she prepared a special imported yellow-cake-from-a-box to celebrate!
Blake turned 12 on tuesday. And we celebrated him with his school mates on thursday. Johnny and Brooke Stevens loaned us Rock Band and the kids LOVED it! Blake has the best birthday parties through his youth worker connections. Good thing we had to give it back though. Josh and I sneaked down and played quite a bit after the kids had gone to bed. I was getting quite good on bass.

I need to figure out how to put a picture of David Cook right here, because after the party goers left the Jackson family showed up and we watched the American Idol finale. We had decided we'd be happy either way because we really liked both Davids. But in the end we realized that it was quite the opposite! We didn't want either one to lose!

Friday,we kept the party train going and celebrated Kendra's 8th birthday a little early. She had her school friends over for traditional cake and ice cream and party games. They wrapped up the night by watching Surf's Up in Slovene. It was a great encouragement to see our kids watch and laugh right along with the others. Their language abilities have grown over the years!

My new favorite recipe

My sister-in-law Connie made this recipe last time we visited them. I asked her to send it to me and now it's become something I make often. When you find those good ones you have to pass them on! It's especially great when you have family members eating at different times and want to keep dinner warm.

Chicken Escondido
1 lb chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 large can of black beans (or dry, soaked)
16 oz jar salsa
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
2 TB olive oil
2 TB balsamic vinegar
Saute tomatoes and garlic in the olive oil. (If the sundried tomatoes come in oil just dump the whole thing in and saute in that.)
Add chicken and cook until done.
Add salsa and black beans.
Simmer five minutes.
Serve over brown rice.


Also, just an update on our nephew Caleb. He and Connie flew back to Czech yesterday. After a very long 6 weeks away from Dave and the other children the doctors were able to determine (the short story) that Caleb's intestines have been over active and have complicated his system to the point of pain and irritation. He's now on a plan for calming them down and his pain level is down from a 9 or 10 to a 6 or 7. So he's on the path to recovery! Thank you for your prayers for them!

At home in Slovenia

For the last 5 years or so I have been driving by the village of Bizovik and praying that we might be able to live there. We've loved the house we have been renting but since we plan to live here for many years we have this longing to really put down roots. Imagine my delight when we stumbled on the possibility! I'm not sure where the Lord will take us in this but I am enjoying the process. Josh has set up a blog about the process if you're interested in taking a look. http://www.pattyhouse.blogspot.com

JV Spring Staff Conference

Last week was spent with our Josiah Venture Family in the Czech Republic. Our kids had a week off from school so we took the whole family and made the 7 hour trek in our van. Don Christiansen made the journey with us. The weekend before he spoke at our church on finances, tithing and remembering it's all God's! It was a great time with him. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture. You'd have seen just how fond we are of him. One night Blake told him at the dinner table, "You're like one of those people who has changed our diapers or something!" I guess that's his way of saying Don felt like family!
We always try to take a team photo. This one is just of the moms and babies. Amy Woodard with her arms full of Abigail and Elijah. (Also known as "Beebee" and "Beebee" to Luke!) Then me with Luke, and Laurel with Landon. Brad and Laurel Jenkins, are transitioning from their work with Malachi to join us. They drove from Germany with their son Landon. Now we're just missing baby Caleb, Hondo and Trisha's son!
We've got a delightful team and really enjoyed being together. Our older children learned and performed Godspell with CYT, Christian Youth Theater. They were brilliant!


I know I've already posted this photo of Blake and Caleb, Dave and Connie's second son. Today is a big day for him and I thought you might join us in prayer. Caleb has had a history of intestinal pain but for the last 5 months it's been increasing. It's gotten so bad that he and Connie flew to the states for further help. This morning they will do a colonoscopy and endoscopy. If there are no results from those, the doctor wants to do a capsule endoscopy as well. It's been a real mystery for the past few months and Caleb has lost weight and been in a lot of pain. You can read more on Connie's blog if you are interested.
http://livingbylysa.blogspot.com/



Couldn't resist this shot of Kendra!

We're on our way

Last time we were in the US as a family we looked like this. We are on our way for an extended visit again and now we look like this:

If you have some time this summer and would like to see our transformation (baby included...dog sadly not available!) we would love to hear from you!
Our plan right now is to be in the Denver, Colorado area June 16-23. Portland, Oregon June 24 -July 27 and Kennewick, Washington July 28- August17. I'm planning our schedule these days and we'd love any excuse to visit Taco Bell or Starbucks and hear all about you and yours!

Crikvenica

Every year our church goes on a retreat to the coast of Croatia in the town of Crikvenica. The ocean is literally across the street! Our first year there was about 4 or 5 years ago. And every year it is one of my favorite things we do! These people just become more and more dear. And I love the non-stop time we all spend together. Plus it's great practice for me in Slovene!
We left Friday afternoon and that was quite the turn around since I'd just flown in on Wednesday morning. But that meant I didn't have to try and be super mom. I just unloaded the peanut butter and oreos and loaded up supplies for the family and we hit the road!

This year Josh and I got to share on Saturday morning. He spoke with the men and I spoke with the women. The theme was challenging times this weekend. So he addressed what it means to be courageous men and I talked about remaining soft and not giving way to fear. Later we had discussion groups where they talked about application. It's always exciting to hear how the Lord can tailor his word to our own individual situations!

The pictures I'm posting are from Sunday morning. As a sunday school teacher I took a turn leading the children's program. Our dear friend Miso helped me. He dressed up as Peter and we "ran" into him on the beach cooking some fish just like Jesus had done in the last chapter of John. He told the kids how he was just remembering how Jesus had challenged him to feed his sheep. And when Peter asked "What about John", Jesus said, "What is that to you? You follow me." Then we talked some about how it doesn't matter what our friends are doing or not doing. It's important that we focus on what has Jesus asked us to do. Then we ate fish (stuff Josh had smoked earlier) and bread and threw rocks in the water.

The ocean and the great outdoors was a bit distracting. But some of the conversations which followed showed that kids were listening! and that's always a thrill for me! Thanks Miso! I mean Peter!

Women's Retreat

I spent this weekend with an amazing group of women! Last week I flew in to my parent's place and had a few days to get over jet lag. We laughed a lot and wondered when was the last time it was just the three of us.

Then on Friday morning my mom and I jumped in the car with Lynda Neidlinger, my mom's best friend and a woman who has been like a second mother to me. We drove to Spokane and met up with my cousin Stacia and her oldest daughter and then made our way to the retreat.

That first night I got a taste of what fun this was going to be! The women of Columbia Christian were so open and inviting and the Lord had set us up for a sweet time of growing and learning together.

I talked about four main roles the Holy Spirit has in our lives and how our old sinful nature (a.k.a. Sarx in Greek) as well as satan the accuser, hold us back from listening and following. I loved telling stories about how our family has been applying these truths and I had spent good time with two of my favorite teachers before hand, Andrea Pitcher and Dave Patty. So I was fully loaded with ideas, applications and quotes! I even quoted Blaker! Hey, when you've got something good to say it doesn't matter if you're 11 going on 12; it's still worth quoting!


Saturday for a real visual, we did a skit Andrea had told me about. I invited my mother to be the Holy Spirit and my cousin Stac to be Sarx. Poor Stac got teased quite a bit and they thought it was pretty funny that my mother was the Holy Spirit!

Later in the afternoon Dana Mohr had made this "No Sarx" symbol! It cracked me up and I loved her creative way of expressing that! It was so exciting to see the Holy Spirit gently work in very specific ways in these dear ladies lives!