Mamma Mia!!!

I am really hoping this is the last post without Hungary Pics, but I do have to say that I love, love, LOVE this movie!! It is probably one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time. Seriously! I think it helped that I went with some stellar ladies that belted out the tunes along with me and danced with me to all the groovy music. I grew up on Abba. I had the cassettes, and I went through TWO Greatest Hits CDs because I trashed them so much. My sister (and even brothers) had their CDs and so it was great knowing all the words to the songs. But even if you don't, you will run out to get the CD and want to GET to know the music. At the end of the movie, I stood up and had to knock myself back to my senses. For a moment I forgot that I was in Hungary and 28 years old. We saw the movie in English and acted my shoe size during the whole movie. (10 by the way. and I know a few VERY mature ten year-olds BTW.) Anyway, if you haven't seen it, I hope you disregard my post and think it's going to be horrible, so you can be blown away, and if you HAVE seen it, the funniest part was DOT DOT DOT ! Oh kill me now! Sarah Galan, this movie is ten times better than Hair Spray. :) You all need a good girls night ....

These are the cute girls I went with. "Team Fekete" is what I call ourselves.
Good fun, good company, good movie = good combination of an AWESOME girls' night.

Three's a Crowd

Yes, another post without pictures and you know I am hard up for material without pics when I have to respond to a TAG!! But here ya go! (This is actually a combination of THREE different tags that I have gotten...)

Three names you go by:

1. Monique 2. Mo 3. Mommy

Three things you are wearing right now:

1. Costco Ralph Lauren Brown Shorts 2. Downeast Pinkish shirt 3. Brown and Pink Crocs

Three restaurants I love:

1. Cafe Rio (duh) 2. Panera Bread 3. Chick Fil-A

Three of your favorite things to do:

1. Play with my family 2. Play Sports 3. Play!

Three trips to plan on this year:

1. Trip to Margerite Island 2. Trip to Poland 3. Trip to Germany

Three things you want very badly:

1. My Zits to go away 2. All my shipped stuff to get here including my camera cord!!! 3. To see more of Europe

Three Pets you have/had:

1. Earl (Beta fish) 2. Dima (Beta fish) 3. Chancho (Beta fish)

Three people who you think will do this: (and the people who haven't done it yet...)

1. Shel 2. Shilae 3. Sarah

Three things you did yesterday:

1. Saw Mamma Mia, laughed until it hurt, and had dinner with the best group of women I could ask for here in Hungary! 2. Played with my family 3. Dot Dot Dot -for my girls who saw Mamma Mia ;)

Three things you ate today:

1. Maple and Brown Sugar Life 2. Mexican Bubbaloo 3. Hungarian 1.5% Milk - which is yummo!

Three goals:

1. Start my preschool again here in Hungary 2. Workout 3. Finish Dylan's 1st year scrapbook by November.. he's one next month!

Three fears:

1. Moths!!! 2. My kids getting hurt/taken 3. God.. in a good way, though.

Three things you plan on doing today:

1. BBQ with friends 2. Play at the Park 3. Play tennis and Princess Uno

Three things you plan on doing tomorrow:

1. Go to Ikea on Public with family 2. Games with Friends 3. Make Pancakes and Bacon for breakfast

Three Favorite Holidays:

1. Christmas 2. Thanksgiving 3. Cinco de Mayo :) jk. My birthday

Three favorite beverages:

1. Jamba Juice Mango a-Go Go 2. Hungarian Pear Juice 3. Mexican Orange Juice

Now, here's what you're supposed to do.
Copy my list on a new blog page, delete my answers and type in your answers.

LIFE w/ Jake

Since I can't get pictures from my camera yet, I thought I'd post about something VERY important. I found a cereal that is better than my other favorite. Maple and Brown sugar Life seriously is manna. But only in milk. If any of you know me, then you know that I love to snack on Life. The original. Oh and all you that I have tricked bringing baggies of it for the "kids?" Oh no. You thought wrong. I still prefer Original life to snack on, but the Maple and Brown Sugar Life is the better of the two in milk.

Quotes Of The Day:

Haley: "I wish I were a unicorn."
Mom: "Really? Why?"
Haley: "Because I want to fly. I've NEVER been able to fly before. (sigh) And I think it would just be easier."

Mom: "Maleia it's time to do your hair."
Maleia: "A girl's tu-do what a girl's got tu-do. Mommy, what's 'tu-do' mean?"

P.S. Jake is back!! When we traveled to Utah this summer, Maleia was going through Jake withdrawals. Jake is a 25 year old guy that taught her nursery class at church and she had a MAJOR crush on him. So we go to Utah, and she all of a sudden has an imaginary friend named Jake. We had to hold his hand, tuck him in, and yes, even seatbelt him in the car. When the car was full, sorry Jake, you had to sit on the ground and Maleia would hold your hand crying for you. Anyway, Jake is now visiting Hungary. Now that Haley has gone to school, Jake is now her best friend again. Just now Maleia came over to me and told me that Jake is in timeout because he bit Cinderella. That Jake is quite the troublemaker at times, but I gotta love him. He is also so talented. Maleia woke me up last night to tell me that she couldn't sleep because Jake was singing and dancing on his bed. It's a love/hate relationship. Jake, I need my sleep.

Haley's FIRST day of AISB

(Picture made possible by Haley's teacher who posted it on facebook. I took LOTS o' pictures, but am still waiting on the cord, sorry! I especially like the two goof ball cuties on the left! Work it!)

Something MUST be wrong with the clocks in our house because the 7 1/2 hours that Haley was away from me her first day of Kindergarten went by sooooo slowly! :) I was proud of myself. I didn't even cry. When the bus got there I spoke to the driver in my broken Hungarian to make sure he was taking my child to the right school and got on the bus with her (oh, no you didn't!! I hear you saying) to make sure that she could buckle her seatbelt okay and to (yes) give her a kiss and hug goodbye. Then, as I saw her drive away in her small, blue bus I got tears in my eyes not only because Haley is going to Kindergarten and leaving to a big big world, but also because Maleia was so sad that she couldn't go with Haley. It seriously broke my heart to see those big tears come from her eyes as she sat there hugging me watching her big sister be lifted away to school oblivion. "But mommy. I am a big girl. I want to go on the 'stool-bus' too!!! I want to go to 'Kindergerten' too mommy, PLEEEEEASE???!!" I got her calmed down as I told her that we were going to walk to the store today, which is not very fun by the way, because it is uphill and pretty far away, but we have no car and our friends weren't going to the store for us to hitch a ride. We could have lasted another day, but Maleia LOVES going to the store with me and we needed a distraction, so we went. I was surprised at how much fun it was talking to Maleia the whole way there. Usually I am talking to both Haley and Maleia and, let's face it, Haley is a talker -wonder where she gets it from- and so poor Maleia seldom gets a word in edgewise. So I got to spend some very needed quality time with my little Maleia. She is so sweet. As I was revelling in the bliss of this mother-daughter bonding time with Dylan scoping out the cars and trucks that went by and making car sounds and pointing to everything saying "that? that?", she brought me back to reality when I asked what she wanted for her birthday. I was expecting the usual answers, "A piggy pet and a piggy bike," but I got, "Mommy. All I want is to be 5 so I can go on the blue bus and go to 'Kindergerten' with Haley." "You don't want a piggy pet?" "No. (sigh) I want to be 5." Poor Maleia! That's it! I am starting my preschool again! She needs something so badly and I love preschool, so I am doing it! There. I know I told some that I was going on a Preschool haitus this year, but if you know me at all, I just can't not do it.

Okay, back to Haley. Her class is really diverse. We just keep getting more and more ethnic in our schools. She went from my Preschool where she had all kids from similar church backgrounds and ethnicity, to Pre-K where she was the only caucasion the first day, to a class in Hungary where all the children are from 10 different countries and 9 kids speak at least some English. (Korean, Chinese, Polish, Danish, Hungarian, French, Spanish, Croatian, and English.)

Haley is so funny. When she got home I wanted to know all about Kindergarten and she went off for about 20 minutes straight and after a while she told me, "I sat next to a boy named Belosz or something and I was talking and talking to him, but then I wasn't sure if he spoke English, but I just kept talking and talking, and then I think he does speak English because he nodded his head like this (head nodding with eyebrows raised) and even laughed when I laughed sometimes, but then he would speak Spanish to another boy, but I think he might just understand me maybe and not speak English too much." :) This is so Haley. I bet that boy will learn English in no time with Haley sitting next to him. Brandon said that his name is Hungarian, so I bet he was speaking Hungarian and she just doesn't know the difference.

Tonight was no struggle to get her ready for bed. She was already nodding off during prayers and she immediately went to sleep as I was scratching her back. What a day! She even loved the hot lunch there and I am sooo impressed with the entire school!! It's amazing. 3 playgrounds, 2 gyms, a swimming pool, 2 teachers in her class of 16, etc. etc. I can go on and on, but basically I am just so glad that Haley loves school. That is really what it comes down to. A comfortable learning atmosohere where she loves to learn and grow. You can find it in many places, yes, but I am so glad we are here.

Now if only I can figure out how to see the settings of my blog in English instead of Hungarian...??? Haley, can you learn tomorrow and let me know? :)

Madre Tribute

Karen Stewart

I have been meaning to pay tribute to the most hard-working, amazing woman I know. My mother. She has the most successful Real Estate business in San Carlos, Mexico, and I will go out on a limb and even say in the whole State of Sonora, MX since she is merging with another company that states THEY are the best, so why do they want to merge with my mom, huh? Hmmmm... She really is so talented and beautiful. She even got the "Pretty Girl of the Day" in San Carlos yesterday and her picture posted on their website and everything! woohoo! :) I'm so proud. She is so great that she doesn't even know it. Isn't that always the case with outstanding people? They have no clue. So here you go mom. You, my dear, are AMAZING!

Here is her website : www.seaside-realty.net

Some quirks that make her so fun:

She likes to punctuate with a lot of periods at the end of her sentences...
She has called me 'Darlin' for as long as I can remember
She has a wicked, twisted (literally) backhand in tennis that I have never seen anyone duplicate
She is sooo forgiving it is scary sometimes (can someone be too Christlike?)
She sometimes has a little snort when she laughs REALLY hard that makes me love being around her. You know you are funny when you get the little snort.
She loves glue guns. She has glued things to the wall that you can't even imagine. Clocks, etc.
She emails and checks her email more than I do.
She is a closet piano player and is better than she thinks she is.
She can literally do a million things at one time. She can watch a show, talk on the phone, eat, check her planner, and quilt all at the same time.
She uses those fat pens that have four colors in them and color codes everything in her planner
After she writes something down, she goes back (out of habit) and gives them curls, goes over the words again to make them darker and more cursive like. It's hard to explain, but it's a cute habit.
She uses Neosporin on her face every night. Did I let her beauty secret out of the bag?
She doesn't like to drink milk so much, though she grew up on a dairy farm. weird, huh?
She has always loved ice. Especially the little ice cubes. She used to and still does chew them and puts them in her drink always. Heaven forbid anyone not refill the ice cube trays in our house. It was a sin.
She used to be allergic to strawberries. I have no idea when she grew out of it.
She loves palm trees so much that at last count she has 58 palm trees either living, drawn, or pictured in, on, or around her house and office.


If choosing between anything and her kids, her kids would win out hands down. Now THAT is love! :)

And the winner is. . . .

This is a little comparison between common things found in Hungary and America because (duh) they can be quite different. And sometimes I took the little things for granted living in America (another duh) and then I have noticed some things where I wonder, Why don't we do this in America? One of you, and you know who you are, wanted to know about the quirky European things that they have here, so here you go.

Shopping Carts:
America- They make them so kid friendly and safe when you take the time to find the one that has both ends of the strap fully functional or wrestle with the cart to get it unstuck from the others. They also make them into cars or trucks that the kids can "drive" around the store taking all the things from the bottom shelves without you noticing or make them dual or even TRIPLE seated for those unruly triplets and older kids, but they are both lugs and are quite the workout.

Hungary- First, you have to put in a 100 Forint piece coin into the cart to get it unstuck from the group which makes it so convenient when you have three kids running around the parking lot and you don't have a 100 piece, but you have a 50 piece and bills, so you have to go all the way in the store and then all the way out of the store just to get a cart. They do end up getting their carts back because when you bring the cart back, you connect them together and your coin pops back out and I will need that 100 Forint in the winter time. Also, those dumb wheels. UG! Have you ever been to Ikea and shopped with their all-wheel-turn shopping carts? Yup, I too thought they were fun at first, but they are a pain in the cahoot when it is full of stuff and you are trying to weave between Hungarians as you try to say "Bochatok" in your best non-American accent. Innovative way to get your carts back, but a pain.

Winner: America for sure! I don't even care how many boogers there are on those steering wheels. (Okay, so I totally wipe them first. You caught me.) But they are out of my hair while I shop.

Toilets:
America: Flush is on the side and many places have automatic water, soap, and dryers. LOVE that. And they are big!

Hungary: You cannot fit a double stroller in the bathrooms (WC is what they call them). Don't try. You will get old ladies mad and you can't even turn on the charm because they don't understand you. Smile and wave. The flush is a button on the top. For some reason I REALLY like that. I don't know why, but it seems so sanitary to me. I told you, I don't know why. They flush with gusto too.

Winner: TIE!

Bugs:
America: I felt like you couldn't open a window without a screen on it and you had to strategically open and close the doors so that flies wouldn't come in. Ready... OPEN now SHUT IT SHUT IT SHUT IT QUICK! Good job. Only two flies came in that time! And forget going out at dusk without laods of bug spray. You could quite possible get eaten alive. Fo real.

Hungary: Not that buggy. Yes, there are bugs. Pretty cool ones for that matter, but their windows seldom have screens and you can leave the door open without a screen for hours just for the breeze. Yes, there are mosquitos, but they are nay objectionable in my opinion.

Winner- Hungary!! (finally on the scoreboard)

No-name brands:
America: EVERY major chain has them and they are quite comparible (most of the time) but are more often than not just nice having another choice in the shopping convenience.

Hungary: The big stores have them here too! Surprise surprise! And many times their no-name brand is the only choice, which is neither good or bad in my opionion of being here a week and a half so far. But in two cases so far, they have been a better choice. Funny. not Ha-ha funny, just funny. In Tesco, the BIG British owned Wal-Mart-like store, their Tesco brand is in both Hungarian and English as well, so that makes it great.

Winner: TIE. I would say I was leaning toward Hungry because of the shock value that they actually have it, but it's pretty much the same.

Festivals:
America: I've been to many a festival where there is dancing and crafts and food. Oh the food! You almost ho just for the over-priced delicious fat-full food. Let's face it, we know how to party.

Hungary: We just went to one this weekend and it was pretty much the same, just a different culture. Not surprising was the over-priced delicious fat-full food that they had around every corner and which we bought a lot of, but everything was so new and exciting. I was a little taken aback that we didn't buy any crafts, but then I thought about how a lot of the things there were homemade soaps, t-shirts with 'Budapest' bedazzled everywhere, georgeous dresses, shawls, magnets, jewlry, pottery, and bird calls. Nothing really caught my eye and I figure we'll be here a while and could get most of that stuff for cheaper elsewhere. But the FOOD! It was so great. I had fun trying to speak, too.

winner: TIE! (Just for the fact that it was so fun and new, though nothing beats our 4th of July festivals in Woodland Park Colorado, Rodeos, and Hot Air Balloon Festivals. They both even had the same gross Port-a-Potties...ew.)

Public Traqnsportation:
America: huh? We have buses, I think. Okay, to be completely fair, I heard NYC pubic transport is awesome, but I haven't been there, so the only experience of Public was when we were in Utah and we only had one car and I dropped off Brandon 1/2 mile away from our house so he can take the busses for free with a student card to school and work, so that I can go to school and then my other two jobs where there is no way I could take Public and then I went to go and pick him up at work because it was faster for me to do that than for him to take the Bus home. Oh, and if he missed his bus in the morning, I think he had to wait another 20 minutes for the right bus to campus. Oh and the Metro in DC was tolerable just so that you didn't have to find parking in DC. Fun for the kids, but again, you had to drive forever to get to a metro, then spend a lot of money to travel. eh. Not impressive.

Hungary: They have buses coming every 5 minutes every two blocks. There is a HUGE metro with underground tunnels, a mono rail, and fast trains that can take you from country to country. I haven't ridden the underground metros or the fast trains yet, but I can imagine. woa nelly! We took Public (that's what it is called out here. Public.) to church on Sunday and dispite lugging three kids 15 minutes to the Bus stop, it was very easy. Brandon was pretty nervous on Saturday when we went to the festival since he hadn't been there before, but we were just fine. We didn't understand much, but he could tell enough to get us where we needed to be. FUN! Now if I can only get my kids to not touch the yucky handrails everywhere... I guess I'd rather them hold my hand to be safe than have them touch those things. On the other hand, we did get our Malaria, Typhoid, Polio, Rabies, MMR, Chicken pox, Something-else-pox and more shots before we got here, so lick away! That makes us pretty much Superman, right? The quirky thing about the busses here is that you have to buy these tickets somewhere else and then you get them punched when you get on the buses, metro, or mono rail. You use the same tickets wherever you go. NOW I know where 'bus ticket' and 'train ticket' came from. On our buses the money goes clang clang clang, remember?

winner: Hungary- hands down. (Sorry if you have The Wheels on the Bus in your head now.)

Overall:
Phew! 5 is pleanty right now. Hungary is in the lead so far. I promise pictures ARE coming... More often than not, we find things that are merely different and not so much better or worse than what we know. Just different and that's what makes this place unique and makes it all the while to find those little surprises as we go.

Jesus . . . what can't he do?

QOTD from Haley:

Haley - "How does Santa know all our names?"
Mom - "He's the smartest man on earth."
Haley - "Wow! Does he know Jesus? Jesus is the smartest man in Heaven."

QOTD from Maleia:

Friend at the Park: "Oh Maleia. Look at your dimples!"
Maleia: "I can't right now. I can see my tongue though. THEE?"
Friend at the Park: (laughing) "You are adorable! Who gave you those dimples?"
Maleia: Jesus did!

The funny thing was that I was about to tell her all the people in our family that have dimples before Maleia blurted out her answer, but I liked her answer better. :)

I Heart Hungary!!

Yes. I am in love. This place rocks!!! I will attempt to sum up our adventure so far: (pictures will have to come when I can find my cord, which might have been packed and shipped...)

1. The Plane ride: The 2 hours to NY were fine. Thanks to the Harpers who waited with us and helped us with our luggage because we didn't leave on time. All other flights were cancelled, but ours happened to be fine after a few delays. hmmm. Good thing we had a 3 hour layover to catch our next flight. We left from NY "on time" but we stayed on the Tarmac for 2 hours before they would let us go. They just opened up some airports that were closed due to weather, so there were REALLY long lines of airplanes. Then the wind changed, so they shut down the runway we were going to fly on and made us go on another runway facing a different direction. . . more LOOOONG lines. Then the plane in front of us broke down right before it's turn, so we had to wait for that to get fixed or moved, too. We are a HUGE plane, so we couldn't just go around it. The flight was 9 hours but I figure the kids slept for about 6 of those hours, not including the 2 on the runway. phew. It took 2 days for most of us to figure out the time difference. It does a toll on the body. Maleia, B and I were fine, but Dylan and Haley had a rough go and finally are okay.

2. We landed to a welcoming committee consisting of half of B's office, our social sponsor, and a driver to help us overlaod three carts to truck our things into a large government van and the government suburban. I took pictures of the "Welcome to Budapest" sign in front of customs. Then another one of B in front of Customs signing paperwork and such. I got some meeeean looks and whatever they yelled at me sounded pretty important. B had to tell me that I shouldn't have done that. I just smiled and waved which made them even more caustic. I wasn't in Budapest for one minute and I was already in trouble. :) oops. Note to all ya'll who plan on coming. Don't do it. They get rather upset. Or do it and play dumb. "What? I'm just a dumb American blogger who takes pictures of everything."

3. We drive to our house... someone pinch me. I keep thinking, "they must have made a mistake," but apparently we scored pretty big. I know they told us that we have 4 1/2 bathrooms, but I still haven't found one... it's . . somewhere . . . Anyway, we just feel very blessed to live in a great home. They gave us a china hutch. Any suggestions on what to put in there? I was just going to put in our crystal temple that was on top of our wedding cake and some other breakables, but it's pretty big and we aren't that fancy to have that many matching dishes let alone china.

4. Some friends (I call them friends because I feel like I already know them since I have been emailing them for over 6 months) brought us dinner that first night and then invited us over the next night along with three other families for an amazing dinner. They work in the Atache' side of the State Dept. so they know how to throw a party. Their house is exactly like ours and they have four kids. Then the third night B's office mate brought over dinner as well, then another family invited us over the following night, so we have not starved yet. Also, our social sponsors supplied us with a fridge, freezer, and cupboard full of food for us. VERY nice. Also, every day we have been invited by someone on the compound to go somewhere in the city with them.

5. Church on Sunday: The Branch president came and picked us up and brought us to our church which is ten minutes away from our home. It is right next to the metro station which will be nice until we get our car. It is a small branch consisting of 4 stable families with some visitors, singles, and some Hungarians who are trying to learn English and come to their own Ward beforehand. It is only 2 hours long and of course it was really easy to meet everyone. Two of the four families are young couples, so we are excited. One with 3 kids the same sexes and ages of our kiddos, and another with a 15 month old. hooray! Church ran just fine, but as the Primary President was telling me how my kids were. She told me that Haley knew ALL the songs and even helped her out with some of the words and then when they were all coloring, Maleia yelled, "Wow! This looks like a butt!" Nice Maleia. Nice. Great first impression. To make it even better I bent down and told her that we don't use that word at church and she replies, "Oh yeah. I forgot. We only say those words at home and when we get really mad." ??What?? (sigh) I really don't know where she got that from, but I bet my face was bright red.

6. North American Womens Association (NAWA) -pronounced (Now-wah)- is a group of ladies that get together for a play group every Tuesday at a different part of the city every week. I got a ride with another friend on the compound, along with 3 of her kids, and we got to go to a really neat park hosted by one of the girls I met at church. Both of the young mothers at church attend this as well, so this will be a great opportunity for us to go out and see the city and to get to know the roads. By the way, the roads are NUTS!! Driving here is close to a nightmare, but I'm excited to try. Some people have drivers or only use public transport, but (hehe) I can't wait to tackle the Budapest travel roads. We will be getting Diplomatic plates, so that will be nice, too, but still sooo crazy! There are signs everywhere and when I was asking my friend what the different ones mean (she has been here for two years) she wouldn't even know some of them. The Hungarians would often put two signs that contradicted each other on the same road. When all else fails, look to see which one is newer looking... sounds fun, huh?

7. All in all we are so grateful and as excited as ever to live here. B LOVES LOVES LOVES his job, which means more to me than anything else ever would, and I have fallen in love with this place. My kids have friends on the compound already and we feel like we belong here already. . . now if only we can find friends that like to play board games, sports, or Rock Band. . .

8. Please come and visit. We already feel like we could be excellent tour guides with all the information that we have received and the places we have already been. I still only know 7 words, but my goal is one new word a day, so after a year I should know 365 right? And hey, I'm above average right now. We've only been here 6 days! :) See you all soon, right???

QOTD:

Maleia: "Mommy, can you do my hair like a Deer's?"
Mom: "How do I do that, babe?"
Maleia: "You know. Two pointy things out like this." (Pulls her short hair out to the sides)
Mom: "Aren't those called piggy tails?"
Maleia: "Piggies have only one curly tail. And believe me. I know piggies."