One night this week the kids were outside playing in the dark.  We had some nice Indian summer evenings so when they took out their flashlights I let them stay out "late" and have fun.  How many more evenings will the weather let them stay out, after all?  Well, in the dark, when mom can't see you, one may dare to push the rules a bit.  One did and the end result was they broke the pole on the umbrella clothesline.  Of course, I had no idea until the next morning when the sun came up.

Today the kids went out with Dad and dug the huge concrete anchor out that now had sharp rusty metal sticking out of it, thus leaving a nice deep hole in the yard.  Keep that in mind as I go on....

Being our house has been empty and much of our stuff has been in storage for 2 1/2 years there are some things that need replaced.  There are some "issues" with the house that we didn't have time and or money to address before we left for Hungary.  One of those was out 120 yr old house has a beautiful 120 yr old front door, that is warped and leaks allot of air.  From the post office we received a 10% of your order from Lowes card when we filed for our change of address-as well as some other discount cards and coupons.  So, we have used it to order and front door, at 120 yrs old and with a working transom it has to be special ordered to fit, and pick up some other items we need.  One of those, died in storage items, that needed replaced were our fire extinguishers. 

Back to the hole....one of the things we are working on with the kids this school year is being prepared/ safety/survival skills.  We have a deep hole in the yard.....we have a fire extinguisher that has "expired" and is no longer reliable.....a light bulb goes off in my husbands head, not too bad for a guy that just got in from Singapore last night!.  We have read and read and read over the years all kinds of survival books, seen videos, etc but here are some things you just can't practice easily.  We now have a deep hole in our yard.  One of the things we have learned about but never had the chance to try was to build a fire in a hole with a hole next to it for air. 

Within a few minutes hole number two is dug and our daughter starts working on the tunnel while our son is making shavings to start the fire with.  Now we get to practice fire building and learn how to use a fire extinguisher!  Not bad for a cool damp Saturday and a jet lagged husband.

And yes, I took pictures and will upload them to Flickr.

I'm so falling behind on keep up the blog!  But I don't need to tell you that.  We have had some funny moments over the past few weeks.  My favorite is the tailgate party at the recycling center.  OK, it wasn't actually a tailgate party but it sure looked like it when we pulled in one Saturday morning. 

Doug and I took a load of moving boxes over to the recycling center, a few blocks from our house.  As we pull in, there was a group of gentlemen sitting in lawn chairs with a table a thermos' of what I assume was coffee.  It was an odd scene.  The two cars in front of us we just finishing up once they left we pulled up.  Three of the five guys came over and helped us unload!  It reminded me of when I was a kid and the guy at the gas station filled the car up for you.  Being the Jeep was so full we had to leave the kids home it was wonderful to have the extra help.  I don't know if there are there every Saturday morning, but there were there that one.

Life has been an adventure the last few weeks as anyone that has every moved can tell you.  We have had lots of good times over the weeks even though I haven't had time to blog them.  We have also had those hair pulling moments...but that's the way life is.

Yesterday the last of our boxes arrived.  These boxes are the "big" shipment from Hungary.  We had about 75% of the previous shipment dealt with, but there were still un-packed boxes and items we had yet to find.  Add 248 MORE boxes and you can see why I'm taking a break and blogging.

One GIANT mystery has been solved.  The week before we moved Abby lost one shoe.  There were her only tennis shoes so we frantically looked for them.  She could fly without shoes!  We broke down and got her a pair of cheap shoes we affectionately call her Ugly Shoes.  Once landed in the US she got a new pair from one of the big box store....I honestly don't remember which one at this point.  Today they mystery of the lost shoe was solved.  I found it in a box full of items that we in the "storage" room in Hungary, which was in the basement under the stairs.  I have no idea how it got in there, 2 floors below her bedroom.  But at this point it really doesn't matter. 

Now if we could just solve the mystery of the missing silverware.  I have opened al the boxed marked kitchen and still no silverware!  Well it will either turn up by this weekend or I'll go out and get us a set of silverware.  The 4 for a $1 pieces we have been using are getting annoying, they bend easy and are sharp on the sides.  I've been counting down the days to finding our regular silverware......and now I can't find it.  Such is life.

What would you do at 10:00 pm on the night before the movers bring your furniture???  I'm sure it's not what we did!  As I was sending the kids to bed "that odor" started to drift in from outside..........the dog just went out for his last trip of the evening.....I'm tired so I'm a bit slow....then....OH NO!!!  I open the door and the dog comes running from the smelly side of the house.  I quickly close he door before he gets in and call to Doug.....Honey!  Your dog just got SKUNKED!!!

I go out and take another whiff, I don't think it was a direct hit.......but.......he stinks.  Now what??  We filled a bucket with warn soapy water and give him a scrub down on the deck.  He stands there!!  He's not crazy about being bathed, but he was quite accommodating.  He does love being toweled off, though.  But he did a better job then we did.  We usually bath him in the tub and dry him with dirty towels before he gets outside to shake.  This time around he got to shake first.  After five MAJOR shake outs we finally started to towel him, the towels we barely damp once we were done.  But he did have a wonderful romp with us.  He came it (yep that long thick hair was dry enough from his shaking and our toweling that we le him in) and ran loops all around the house upstairs and down.  Now he’s passed out on the living room floor.

The most surprising facts, Doug couldn't smell it at all.  The neighbor could smell it from a distance, the dog is in his face and it’s all around him.  Lucky guy!

This afternoon we will be making our exit from the house we have called home for the last 2 1/2 years and move over to a hotel in town.  This will give the children and me the ability to do something tomorrow while Doug is at his last day of work, here.  We have a nice long list of possible maybes for how we will spend our time.  We’ll see how the mood strikes us in the morning.  One of the other big reasons for moving to a hotel is so we don't have to get up at 3:00 am, or earlier, to finish packing on Thursday morning. We will be on someone else’s bedding and pots and pan will be done and put away.  We will also be 20 minute closer to the airport, in daytime traffic.  At 5:00 am it may only be a 10 minute improvement.  But the hotel will call the taxi for us and we will get the hotel rate to the airport.

I have all the bedding packed and the last load of laundry drying. It is a tight fit but, I think, we will make it.  I pray mercy for any TSA person that has to open one of our bags and look.....it will boggle their mind trying to get it all back in!  Once lunch is finished I will clean up the pans and pack them up (I couldn't live the 10 days without my pans....as the landlord are much too small for a family of 4, but are perfect for him - a bachelor).  Since internet access is not a free amenity in European hotels, and it's rather expensive to buy, this will be our last entry until we arrive in the US and have the "cable guy" over to hook up the house.

We did get the Red Bull air Races up on Flickr.  So, there are new pictures to look at.  I haven't even considered unloading camera that past week or so, so moving pictures will have to wait until we are settled back in.

 It seems like every plan we came up with for this last week has run into a roadblock.  The first plan was for us to go to the bank last Saturday and close our accounts and for Doug to come home early today, check out of the house and move to a hotel.  Having not walked into our bank since we opened the accounts we forgot that Hungarian banks still run the old style banking hours, they are open M-F 9-4!  Okay, we can squeeze that into Tuesday afternoon, too. 

We need to get the phone back into the landlord’s name.  He and Doug planned to meet at the office at the mall on Sunday at noon.  We stopped by Saturday to double check the hours they are open on Sunday, 10-6, no problem.  Sunday comes and they meet…the store is closed!  They ask and learn there is a technical difficulty and the other stores are open.  So they go over to the mall down the street.  It’s about a mile away on the same road, but takes about 10+ min to get to as the traffic is city traffic.  They get there and they, too, are closed!!!!  They give up, both discussed with the situation…add it to the Tuesday plans, but there is a small problem with that….Doug has a meeting at 4:30 that he MUST attend!  Oh, and the landlord decided he no longer wants to the buy the TV from us like he said he would when we signed the lease.  We do know where there is a used electronics store…hummm…how are we going to squeeze that into Tuesday, too?  Landlord is planning to meet us at the house about 7:00 to check us out then head over the phone office.  We may make it to the hotel by bedtime.

Monday things improved.  In asking around about the used electronics store, Doug found and engineer that will take the TV and DVD player off our hands!!  One stop off the list of to-do’s.  That 4:30 meeting is actually at 2:00!!  That made everything slide into do-able time slots.  So now, Doug will get off work at 11:30 and come home and pick the kids and I up.  Go to the bank and close the accounts, or at least start the process….we have been warned it’s not as simple as in the US.  There is a chance Doug could do this without me, but with both our names on the account and time being tight….he’s going to take me too, just in case.  Then we will come home and he’ll eat and call into his meeting.  Kid and I can get most of the luggage into the car.  Then he can tear down the internet and call the landlord who will come over and check us out, around 4:00 we are guessing.  We will then all head over to MOM Park and switch the phone to the landlord and head off to the hotel, getting us there in time to eat dinner at a “normal” time.

First a little background.  Today has been a L--O--N--G day.  We spent much of the day packing, sorting, and shifting of belongings, some more than once.  We are doing this while under the influence of allergies (and allergy medications)...so we aren't doing it as "intelligently" as it could be done.  So by evening we are getting rather tired.

Our car has a habit of needing new headlights every 4-5 months.  No one else Doug works with is having this problem with their company cars so we are assuming it is the pot hole/gravel/dirt roads we have to drive to get to our house.  Of course, 10 days before we move the headlight goes out, yet again.  The law says you must drive with your headlights on, so it not like we can get away with just not going out after dark. 

Doug and the kids went out and got a lamp this afternoon while I stayed home and worked on packing the luggage we are taking with us.  After dinner Doug and I grabbed the tools to remove the battery so we could put in the lamp, at lest it’s not in the dark for once, so far so good.  Unlock the car...... release the hood latch.......find the second one under the hood…...start lifting the hood..........insert brown trousers moment!  Coiled up on the air cleaner are two all black wild kittens who we're as freaked out as we were.  They go tearing off into the field as we sit there shaking our heads in disbelief. 

The car door was opened and closed.  We fumbled around for a few seconds trying to find the second release and then slowly (it’s rather heavy) opened the hood and propped it on the prop.  Both Doug and I let out a yell of surprise and then, and only then, did the kittens lifted their heads to look around, saw us and raced out of there.  It wasn't till they were up and jumping that I even knew what they were.  But it got us to thinking, Doug usually gets in shuts the door starts the engine and is gone in less time that it took us to open the hood.  How is it that we have never seen them before?

One of the difficulties about the move, for me, has been the lack of change in the house.  It just doesn't feel like we are moving.  Today that changed.

Two weeks ago we took 4 of the 6 bookcases in the living room and put them in  the garage  The landlord removed his items so we could have space to shift things.  Since the living room is a hybrid of the landlord’s items and ours we plan to remove all our furniture and put it in the garage to simplify things.  In taking those to the garage I moved all the furniture around and cleaned, then put it all back in a different place (one of my favorite things to do).  So it really didn't feel like anything was missing.

Today was the first noticeable change.  Our DVD collection (which is rather large) and the bookcase we bought to hold it moved to the basement.  There are big advantages to buying cheap furniture....the 10yr old and I can carry it ;).  We also moved the drying racks to the basement.  I stored them in the living room next to the door to the patio as that is where we used them.  Of course you would never find such a set-up in House Beautiful, but since they never thought to come and photograph the house, it wasn't a problem.  Now there is a BIG blank spot on the wall.

Finally our plans were "released to the wild".  On the patio we have/had 3 very large pepper plants that have done very well this summer.  Also within our first months here we found a dying chive plant at one of the stores.  For what would be about 25 cents we bought it and brought it home and nursed it back to health.  With the exception of the time in the US it has provide us with fresh chives for 2 1/2 years.  Even when we made our 6 week trip to the US this past winter it only took 2-3 days of watering before it was green and producing again.  So, those 4 plants have made the sojourn down to the lower garden to live "wild".  They will have to forage for their own water and nutrients now.

We have 2 new islands in the living room to navigate around, the air shipment and the items that we will pack with us.  The air island has a tea pots sitting inside a mixing bowl all attempting the balance on a pair of shoes and a bath towel.  All this, of course, is sitting on top of a less then level pile of things from kitchen storage container to jackets and laundry soap.  As long as we give it a wide berth, it should survive.  If not the small pile of long sleeved shirts beside it should break its fall.  We have similar piles in our bedroom. Since we spend so little time in there awake, there is little worry that they will tumble.

So, it's starting to look like we are moving are here.  Some time this weekend out nice big wooden coffee table will be lugged to the garage, along with the last big bookcase and wooden end table - I need more then a 10 yr olds help with that.  In its place we will put back the tinted glass coffee table of the landlords.  The big event will be in 67 hours when the movers show up and start taking all this stuff out of the house.  Monday night will be a big shocker!  But as I told the kids at lunch today, 2 weeks from right now we will be waking up in a hotel in the US and be getting ready to take Daddy to work!

Doug has a habit, when we go to cook outs, of hover around the fire/BBQ.  As parties progress it is inevitable that Doug will some how end up cooking.  Well, he now has the reputation on two continents!

Last night we were invited to one of Doug's co-workers house for dinner.  The group of men got along very well and wanted to say good-by.  It was amazing to watch, as the evening developed Doug ended up with the spatula and tongs and a BBQ grill full of burgers.  It was a wonderful evening of conversation and visiting, but I couldn't help chuckling that Doug was cooking.  We did let our host in on the "habit" Doug has as we were sitting down to eat.  He, too, found it quite funny that even here in Hungary Doug ended up at the grill.

Well we are getting down to the wire.  In 9 days the movers will get here to pack us up.  This coming week we will do the final organizing, pre-pack of our luggage and try to eat more of the food in the cupboards.  Three weeks from today we will be waking up in the US for the first time in 2 ½ years without a set of return tickets in our bag.

All of this is stressful and we all seem to be reacting to the stress differently.  Some are ignoring the situation, some are a bit grumpier then normal, and some need more attention then normal.  All four of us are displaying all of these at one time or another, at least we are taking turns – we aren’t all grumpy at the same time or all needing attention at the same time, etc….that would be difficult!

Communication is breaking down as no one really wants to think about what is coming.  Don't read that wrong, we are all excited about moving back to the US...but change is stressful.  I think we would all just rather go to bed one night here in Hungary and wake up in our beds in the US......not likely.  So we keep putting off decisions, like I'm doing now.

Instead of sitting at the table and working out the next 2 1/2 weeks worth of meals trying to use up what's in the house, I'm sitting at the computer.  After getting next weeks menu worked out my brain said enough already!  Now, I'm questioning how I'm going to cook meals the last 10 days we are here without any of our stuff.  How much of it do I really need?  How much should I take on the plane with us and therefore have those 10 days?? Those questions lead my mind into other questions....when should I give up on the pepper plants in the pots and dump them so we can pack the pots? How much clothing do we need to take on the plane?  What are the kids going to do for 10 days with no toys, books, DVD, computer?  So forth and so on....  Of course then the mind drifts to the US and things I'll need to do there....when should I start buying food?  How much?  Should I get the kids pants or wait as they both seem to be growing right now??   Are we going to be able to handle all the running around we want to do after 2 1/2 years of no running??  It seems like each question not only doesn't get an answer but instead leads to two or three more questions. 

But, yet, things are getting done, people are being feed and we are all happy.  In three weeks all this will be over and forgotten.  The fact that the decision was made in the 11^th hour instead of 2-3 or more days sooner will no longer matter as it all got done and the “turkey’s” will have landed.

With 32 days before we move back to the US and the movers coming in 22 days. The stress is mounting. Lists are being made all over the place on ever topic imaginable.  I'm a list maker.  Usually if I'm not jotting something down on paper, I likely looking for my notebook to jot it down in.  List on what need purchased in the US to get up up and running (mostly groceries), list of what I need to sort and how, lists of little things that need taken care of, so forth and so on.

Yet, this is the most relaxing stress I have ever felt.  Does that make sense??  International moving is a pain, but I doubt it's too much more stressful then any other move when you have "people" doing it.  Now, if we were moving ourselves....I'd be bald.  But those "people" only do certain tasks, one of which is boxing things up – glad they have that one, the rest is up to us....like with any other move.  I feel the pressure to get all this done, but then I really don't care if it does gets done....go figure.  Maybe it's because we are moving home, where I know how to fix most problems once we are there.  Or it could be because no major problems came up on the move over so I assume this will go smoothly, too.  There is always the chance that I've grown up in the past few years and realized I'm in control of so little of this there is no reason to worry about the stuff I can control...not likely!  I don't think I'll ever be that grown up.

More then likely I'm just sitting back and enjoying the calm before the storm. Here we have little to do on a daily bases.  Once we get to the US there will be swim lesson, basketball, bells, co-op activities and all the other things we have missed that past few years.  Maybe it good that I'm just sitting back and enjoying the stillness and not running around packing, checking, re-checking and all the stuff I usually do (or should be doing)...so what if the sheets or clothes get packed dirty, there are clean ones going too.  I can wash it all when we get there, if the mood strikes me ;)

Its summer time everywhere we look!  Yesterday we headed out for a place to go and stretch our legs, AKA let the kids run as they were getting loud and wiggly in the house.  It seemed like almost every road we drove down was under construction.  Road construction is done a bit differently here.

First there are a lot more people working on a "crew".  This is not because they do big areas all at once, but because they dig by hand!  There is usually a Bobcat on the site as well, and in a rare situation a back hoe but mostly a large group of very dark tan guys and allot of shovels.  Roads here are narrower then we are use to in the US, so construction slims them down quite a bit more, especially where they are working on replacing sewers down both sides of the road.  I really worry about our mirrors when driving down the road.  Afraid we will hit something or someone with them.

Clear and assured distance means something different here, too.  In Ohio construction means orange barrels about 5-8 feet from where they are working.  Here, there might be a plastic tape up, but more often not.  Often we are driving inches, not feet, away from the workers, equipment or sometimes the edge.  Needless to say it takes longer to get where your going because everyone is moving much slower as you never know when a "guy" will back up into the roadway.  But no one seems to "mind".  I mean there is always someone in a hurry, but most people just take it in stride....no beeping...no yelling...very little going out and around when they shouldn't.

The fun part yesterday was driving down the closed road.  We were driving down the "river road" which has very few exits off of on the Pest side.  We got on in Obuda and the next exit is downtown Budapest, 2-3 km away.  We were driving past lots of construction and following a few other cars and construction vehicles.  Eventually it was only us and a car from France that was behind us driving down this road and past they construction workers.  They were NOT watching for traffic Bobcats, tractors, dump trucks, workers all ignoring the cars.  We keep driving as there is no where else to go but forwards.  Finally, we get to the "end" and there is no place to go. Actually we could see where the road surface stopped before we got there, we weren't so far as the mud.

The road apparently is closed, but there are NO signs; nothing telling you not to go that way.  No construction worker along that 2-3 km road attempted to stop us and send us the other way, NOTHING.  We turned around watching all the way thinking we missed a sign, turn off, something.   All the way back to Obuda there was nothing to indicate not to drive on this road and we didn't miss any "exits".  It runs right beside the tram tracks...so there is a fence all along the one side, the river on the other.  We couldn't have gotten off any sooner, we only could have pulled into a restaurant – that must be where we "lost" the other cars.

Needless to say our (at least mine) nerves were frazzled as Doug had to dodge this and that.  Of course the kids are trying to play 20 questions with us on what is going on.  That always helps a stressful situation.  And "I don't know" is not an excepted answer....they keep asking assuming we gained some sort of knowledge in the last 5 seconds.  I apologize Mom and Dad, I'm sure I did they same to you when I was their age!  At least no one ended up in tears, trouble, or yelled at...so I guess we handled it well.

We did get off the river road and drive down the main road and go to the other island.  Kids played on the playground (watch Flickr for pictures – yes , I know Munch hasn’t made it there yet, either) and we walked and had an ice cream. So even though it started out a bit adventurous, end ended in a calm manor.

The trip home was planned to be a fast and un-eventful trip.  It almost was, till the last 40km!  We have yet to determine if the GPS "issues" was a blessing or the cause.

Our GPS software does not cover all of Europe.  We have Westerner Europe and Hungary.  Western Europe doesn't include Hungary, so when have to switch software chips along the route.  This really wasn't much of a problem on our way out of Hungary but it did cause a snag on the way back.

As we left Germany to come home we picked a city east of Vienna to set our course home.  Well....there is a town in Germany by almost the exact same name (just no "e" on the end).  It was along the same direction we needed to go, and honestly we didn't catch it right away.  We did catch that we have highways and toll roads turned off....it seemed every time we got near the highway we had to turn left away from it.  It was when we fixed that that we caught that the city was wrong. 

Since we were already in motion we just stuck Vienna into the GPS.  That fixed it and away we went.  All of a sudden, 4 1/2 hours later) the highway disappears and we are working our way through downtown Vienna in rush hour traffic.  OOPS!!  Lucky for us it ran us right past Schoenbrunn Castle where we were last Oct.  So we knew how to get out of town.....it just took a long time in traffic.  We finally got back on the A4 and headed towards home.  About 45 km from Budapest we stopped, stretched and used the restrooms.  We had about 1/4 tank of gas, plenty to get home on.

Back on the freeway drive 3-4 km and traffic.  OK, now what.  With in a minute the traffic is at a total standstill.  Must be construction, not that we have seen too much of that or had a slow down from that.  So we sit and creep for the next 10....15....20....30 mins.  Now it's been a half hour and we have moved MAYBE 300 feet.  Hmmm.....gas gauge is below 1/4 tank.  At this point people are getting out of their cars and trucks and looking down the road.  People are driving up the edges trying to get around traffic......this is NOT illegal here.  In fact one trucker got sick of it and pulled over into the edge so cars couldn't pass.  A cop got out of his car, ran up the road flashed his badge and told him to get out of the way and ran back to his car (we were beside the truck, so we saw it all happen).  Yep.....driving on the edge (sometimes going 5 cars wide on a 3 lane road) is legal, at least sometimes, in Hungary.  In order to make this story not as long as it took to get home I'll just explained that it took 3 hours to go 1 km.  Everyone had to get off the road - us off the exit ramp the westbound lane off the entrance ramp.  Yes, at this point we were below an 1/8 of a tank and the gas light was on. 

About 35 minutes (4 km) down the 1 (the road that is parallel to the M1) we found a gas station and filled up the tank.  We opted to stay on the 1 instead of following everyone back onto the M1.  We drive the 1 every week to get to the store so we knew where it would take us.  Originally it looked like we would be home about 4:00 in the afternoon.  After a quick stop at KFC to get some dinner (I had planned to cook dinner but at that point we weren't up to waiting for food) we got home about 8:45pm.

I went online on Saturday to see if I could find out what happened.  Apparently, there was a chemical spill on the highway and they had to empty the road to clean it up.  We still wonder if we had not "fallen" off the highway in Vienna and instead took the by pass, would we have missed the traffic jam, or been deeper into it where we couldn't get off?  We could see, driving down the 1, many cars and trucks that were "stuck" on the freeway....where there was no exit for them to get off.  That detour though Vienna, we have decided, was likely God's way of making it only a 4 hours delay for us!

Our third day in Munich we, again, got on the train this time heading to Dachau.  Dachau was the first Concentration camp and where people were trained to run the others.

It was an indescribable sensation being there.  We rented handset and took the audio tour.  We were able to enter the main building that has been transformed into a museum as well as a barracks that has been re-constructed.  As the mother of young kids I was afraid that this experience could get too intense for them, but it really was all presented in a way that good for them as well.  The kids only skimmed the surface on the information, they only listened to the basics, Doug and I dialed in some of the more detailed information.

Dachau was not as bad as most of the other camps.  Here the gas chamber was never used, only the crematorium for those that perished.  Don't get me wrong, life here was NOT easy and the threats and bad treatment are very real and people were very abused, just not gassed.

We left there with Doug having taken on 1 or 2 pictures.  It just didn't seem right to be taking "tourist" photos on such hallowed ground.  There was no cost to get in and only a tiny fee to rent the audio tour.  So, instead, we purchased a book and DVD with the photos and the facts.  Neither of which the kids really need to look at, at this time.  There are not too graphic, but still more information then we want to expose our 6 & 10 yr olds to at this time.  Both kids have a general understanding of where we were and what took place, and that's enough for now.  We can pull out the information and pictures when they are in high school and studying WWII.  Every school child in Germany is required to visit at least one concentration camp during their school years.  I'm glad mine went, it may not have made a big impact on  them now - but it will hit them when they are older.

The weather was nice and cool in Munich last week.  Daytime highs were in the 70's.  It's in the 90's in Budapest.  It's taking a bit of getting use to again.  Today we kept inside where it was cool till about 3:00.  Then we ventured out and headed over to Margit Island.  We hadn't been there since early spring, so it was a nice surprise to see flowers everywhere.

When we got home Ben decided he had had enough.  He wanted a hair cut!  Not a trim but a real cut, short like he use to wear it.  So out on the patio we went and 15 minutes later Ben looked like Ben!!  I cut a good 3 inches of that child.  It left a big enough pile that we actually had to sweep it up nd put it in the trash, usually we just let the wind and birds take care if it.  There aren't enough birds in our very wooded area to handle all that hair!  Of course monkeys see monkeys do came into play.  So Abby's hair, which was almost to her waist, now comes down to her shoulder blades.

Well, since not all of us are up yet this morning, I'll keep updating.

Wednesday we headed off to the train station to find the zoo.  Doug found information online about the zoo in Munich and it looked like a good plan for a day.  We discovered on our trip in on Monday while reading the guide book, there was no mention of the zoo.  At the hotel there were lots of brochures, none of the zoo.  Doug thought he remembered it was on an island in the middle of a river in Munich, but we really needed a bit more then that to find it.  So we ended up riding the train to the Main Station where the long distance trains, subway and local trains all come together, and found a tourist information center.  A quick look at the wall and still saw no information, so I stood in line.  The lady, who spoke very good English and I had just heard her speaking French to someone else, couldn't tell me anything about to zoo other then it's location and which train to take.  Since I had stood in the long line I confirmed our understanding of how to get to Dachau, our Thursday plans.  So back on the train, back to stops and onto another train.....love those partner tickets!

Once on the train we followed the map so we could get off on the right stop.  Got off ad just followed the other adults with kids....yep, that worked they led us right to the zoo.  I was a nice zoo.  Thye had a nice selection of animals.  They had the normal zebras, elephants and so forth.  They also had animals we couldn't identify.  Again, the signs were in German so we just enjoyed the four legged furry animals we couldn't identify. 

The kids got a chance to run around in an enclosure full of goats and chickens.  They really needed that climbing up and down the hills!  The petting area backed up to the playground, which was only half open as the big climbing area was getting repaired the day we were there.  Both kids climbed up the VERY high climbing frame to the long slide.  This climbing frame is not like the one on the north island here in town.  This one just had logs going every which way through the center for the kids to climb, not the shelves they are use to.  Ben made it up first but the shear drop down the slide was more then he cared for.  He got a bit of a friction burn on the way down when he pushed on the side trying to slow himself down.  Abby took two tries to get up.  I missed that her first attempt happened, but she climbed back down that time.  She tried again and got rather far up when she decided she really didn't like it, but by then she was far enough up that getting down was scarier then going up.  So she knuckled down and kept going.  Doug saw her on his way up so he went to the bottom of the slid to get a picture, not knowing the dilemma she was in.  The picture didn't turn out too good as the kids stop while still in the tube so the lightings not too good....but Daddy was right there when she landed and she climbed right into his lap for a minute to recover.

Dinner on Wednesday was a bit of a dilemma.  There wasn't much in the town we were staying in.  All the cafe's were closing up and the 2-3 restaurants weren't really open yet.  So...since we parked at the train station anyways....we jumped onto a train and went into town.  After walking around for a good hour, enjoying Marienplatz - the old part of the city, we finally got some really good sandwiches from a shop.  The only problem was that since we left the hotel with dinner in mind, we didn't have a camera with us......we needed one.

Tuesday was of first full day in Munich.  When we mentioned to people that we were going to go to Munich over shut down, everyone said we had to go to the technical museum.  So that was the plan for the day....The Deutsch Museum in Munich.  This is the largest technical museum in Europe, the guide book compare it to the Smithsonian in Washington.  Like the Smithsonian it has more then one location, we went to the main museum.  Our landlord said he went there years ago and spent 4days!  That seemed a bit much, but who's to argue.

We drove to the train station to get into town.  Munich has real reasonable prices for their public transport.  9€ will give you a partner ticket which is good for as many rides on the trains, subways as busses as you can do from the time you stamp it till 6am the next day.  This one ticket is good for five adults and one dog.  Kids over the age of 6 are considered half an adult, so one adult could travel with eight kids and a dog....but why would hey want to?  Needless to say we did public transit all week, wish we had such a system as good as that in Budapest!

The museum is a very short walk from a station, so we made it in good time.  On the way we discovered that the museum had about 10 miles of displays.  Yes, I said miles!!!  OK, the landlord wasn't crazy to spend 4 days there.  Needless to say we didn't see it all.  I'm not even sure if we really got to see a 1/4 of it.  There were some hands on things for the kids to do, but not near as much as was implied to us.  Maybe we missed a large hands-on section; it would have been easy to miss.  All in all it was a good day, kids got to play with some physics experiments (we did find that hands on section) and we got to watch experiment down with liquid nitrogen.  Everything, of course, was in German but a few signs had some English so we could decipher what we were looking at.

Food that day was a great success.  We found real German food at the cafeteria in the museum.  Then we asked at the hotel desk for a dinner suggestion.  We were looking for local food, she sent us to a wonder restaurant in the town we were staying in, Feldkirchen.  Both time we got 3 different meals and shared between the 4 of us.  The most interesting part is Doug actually had sauerkraut and liked it.  It was very different from what we have in the US, but ohhhh so good!  OK, the kids didn't care for it, but they have had very little sauerkraut as their dad doesn't like it, so I don't make it.

Keep checking our Flickr spot, we will be getting picture up sometime this week.

The trip to Munich was un-eventful. Munich is about 6 hours from Budapest, but that doesn't take into account stopping for highway passes, food, potty, etc.  The scenery is beautiful.  Fields of wheat, corn, sunflowers and windmills make up most of what there is to see.  Before moving to Europe we had no idea how much farm land there was here.  We were of the assumption that it was all big cities and suburbs, boy were we wrong!

Things changed when we got to Germany.  Germany, as you may have heard, has gone "green".  Doug and I have always been interested in green energy - solar, wind, etc.  So we have heard about the solar push in Germany and how the solar cell price should have dropped this year as Germany finished putting their solar collectors up - most solar cells being made for he past few years have been sold to Germany.  But reading it and see it are two different things.  Every house we drove by had 4 solar panels up to complete coverage of the southern part of their roof line covered.  Knowing the price of solar collectors not to mention the costs of batteries and invertors and the like, that was a mass undertaking.

We made it home from Munich; I'll blog more about our trip in days to come.  As when we come home from vacation things are always different around our house then how we left them.  Our landlord tries to get the "worst" jobs done while we are out of the house so as not to inconvenience us.  This trip was no exception.

We came home to new tiles on the terrace to the front door, new tiles on the "basement" terrace, re-newed concrete steps, new wood on the terrace railings - they old was in need of replacement and the metal rails needed a sanded and repainted.  These were all things we expected.  The paint he put on last week on the hand rail being striped back off was a surprise, well, sort of.  The paint he used didn't dry right.  It was very thick and after 4 days was still soft and sliding down the rail.  But stripping it back off is a nasty job!  I assumed a few more days and it would be cured and fine, guess it wasn't.

The big surprise was the second washing machine!  When the kids went up to bed last night they noticed a clothes washer in the bathroom!?  So going through my mind is, what's wrong with the one in the basement that I was planning on putting a load in tonight??  Skipped starting laundry till we had time to see the landlord and figure this out.

The washer is very odd looking; it is only 12 inch wide or so.  I can't see it doing much good, can't hold much can it??  So this morning when the landlord was here, still scraping paint, we asked what's with the washer.  He's had it for a while but it needed a part, apparently.  He has it now so he put it in thinking we could use it, the basement washer is just fine.  I heard him tell Doug that 2 washers should make your wife happy.   He's right, once we figured out how to use the upstairs one I now can see how nice it will be to be able to wash two loads at once!!  We tossed a few towels and underwear in - didn't look too big so we didn't take up much.  Once open, though, it will hold quite a bit!!!!  So between the two washers, I can do a nice large load of laundry all at once!

The other surprise was the main floor of the house is covered in a fine layer of “tile dust”.  Looks like they used the terrace off the living room to cut tiles while the house was opened up....so everything has a fine powder cover....BUT I can do laundry in half the time!!!  The dust just isn't near as annoying as it was before we turned on that washer.

I don't seem to get much done if I don't sit down and have goals for the day.  I get so much accomplished during the school year as we have a set routine....but in the summer, things seem to get more undone then done.  So, I set goals for yesterday and today.

With us moving back to the US in September, school is going to start later then usual.  The weeks before school are going to be very busy.....so.....I'm working now to get things ready for then.  This coming year we are going to be working through the unit Prepare and Pray.  It's a year long study using The Swiss Family Robinson as it's spine as we learn to be prepared.  Some of the topics covers are: knot tying, levers and fulcrums, maps and map making, plants, herbs, first aid, church history, world geography, as well as taking us through American history and parts of world history.  It's amazing all you can learn from one "story book".

Yesterday, was part one of the "main goal" to get prepared.....guess that fits in with the years study plan, LOL.  I went through the first two chapters and scheduled out what we would do when.  Finally, I looked online for availability of the suggested books.  Today, I'm entering all that into Homeschool Tracker.   It didn't seem too bad until I realized each "study question" related to a different school subject.  So, instead of entering "do questions 1-6", I broke it down:  Question 1 - Bible - faith, Question 2 - Geography - Latitude, Longitude, equator, etc, Question 3 - History - French Huguenots during WWII.....  I could lump them all into one, but then I can't go back and look over what we have done to see if there is an area that is week and needs some extras added in.

It's a slow process, but that's good for the kids.  They are making lunch using our last box of macaroni and cheese - which needs to be eaten before we move.  They are tossing in left over taco meat and topping with tomatoes.  It's good for them and I don't seem to give them enough chances to cook, and they enjoy doing it.  Another up side is once I have 2 chapters in I will have a months worth of school entered!!  Well, not counting math and English, but that easy....do the next lesson.   That doesn't take much prep time.

Better go, lunch is being served.

So, do you remember those hot summer days when you were a kid and had nothing to do?  Today is one of those days for my kids.  They were in from outside play by 10 AM, as it was getting hot.  They made me a birthday cake while it was still "cool" out and are now working on a new adventure.

Ben was downstairs playing on the computer while Abby was in the living room enjoying scissors and paper.  Some how all that turned into duct tape and popsicles stick rafts.  How they made the jump I don't know but they are having a blast.  They ran a few inches of water into the tub and found that one raft design worked and the other didn't.  What originally was a return to the living room for a bigger piece of tape has turned into a total re-design of the "S.S. Abby" complete with flags.  I think I’ll just crawl up on the couch with a magazine and see where this all leads.  Once they create an idea and go they have a ton of fun for hours and leave an inspiring mess behind!  But that’s OK some day in the not to distant future I’ll wish they we under foot and making messes….I’ll just enjoy it while I can.

One of my "local" - read that as Ohio - homeschool groups posed a question in our online e-mail group as to what our kids favorite TV shows were.  I responded back that ours like Green Acres and Mork and Mindy on DVD.  I mentioned that we didn't have TV here in Hungary right now do to odd rules and I wasn't sure if these were on in the US.

One mom wrote back asking if I might tell them what the odd rules were, she was curious.  We are more then willing to share our experiences, so I sent back an answer.  Then I realized other, too, may be interested in how other countries operate.  I was amazed by many of the differences, I expected some things (like paying bills) to be done much like in the US, WRONG!  Anyways, here is my reply to her.

Everything here is done by contract. When we were moving over we signed a 2 yr contact (that was 27 months long and I thought 2 yrs was only 24 months, glad I came to Hungary to get educated, LOL) for TV. That contract ended this past March.

If we wanted TV to continue we would have to sign another 2 yr contract.  Contracts here are in stone, if we signed a 2 yr contract we would have to pay for 2 years, even though we were moving back to the US this fall and would no longer live in Hungary and were no longer using the service. Hungarians have this problem, too, when they move from one part of town to another....they end up paying the "old" TV Company and the "new" one - but Hungarians rarely move.  Most buy a flat when they can afford one and live there forever. People will commute 2-3 hours each way for work, as it is so much easier then moving! Most people live where they grew-up, period.

This means we would also have to have a Hungarian bank account as bills can only be paid in cash at the post office or through the internet (no check, credit card, etc in this country) Transferring money from our US account to our HU account is not cheap and right now Doug's work pays that fee, but they won't once we move back. So a $40 TV bill would actually cost us about $120 a month to pay......so we are TV free, LOL.

There's you social studies lesson for today!

Late last week Doug’s boss mentioned that he heard on the radio that there was going to be a tournament in Visegrád over the weekend.  Didn’t have to tell us twice!  We did the grocery shopping on Friday night so that all day Saturday was free.

We got up and moving a bit slower then we would have liked, but it is only an hour drive to Visegrád so we still go there with lots to see and do.  As with all such events there were lots of vendors of food and wares.  But we kept our money to buy tickets to the Knights Tournament.  It was only 2100 FT per adult and 100 FT for kids!  That’s very reasonable, especially compared to what that would cost in the US.  2100 FT is about $10 and 100 FT is only 50 cents.

The first hour of the tournament was not too interesting.  It was a group of 6-8 “normal people”, actually they were sports people and local personalities, trying to do some of the event.  You could tell some of them have never thrown a javelin or shot a bow and arrow before.  It was almost scary watching them scale the castle.  They had to set up a 2x12 against the castle wall then run up it and hit a board on the wall as high up as they could.  Needless to say the board would slip and then would come crashing down. 

The main event was well worth sitting through the first.  It was just what you would expect sword fighting, jousting, amazing shots taken with bow and arrow from moving horses, etc.  Doug took about 500 pictures and only stopped because his battery died.  We only uploaded about 100.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimisod/

It was a great way to spend a Saturday, something the kids should never forget.

OK, nothing can top our trip back to the US this past December...but travelling back to Hungary wasn't as smooth as it could have been this trip either.  This time, though, Chicago had nothing to do with it!

Our flight out of Cleveland was looking good.  We sat next to Cinn-a-bun and waited for our plane, as we always do.  Just to "celebrate" this as our last trip to Hungary I caved in and planned to buy a cinnamon bun for us for breakfast.  Mom had lots of fruit cut up for us for breakfast at the house that we used as the first course for breakfast, then we had a bun at the airport an hour and a half later as we sat for an hour and a half waiting for the plane. 

All is looking great and we get on the plane.  It did arrive a bit late from Chicago, but we were only 15 minutes behind schedule and with a 4 hour layover in Chicago....who cares.  Everyone is on the plane and we aren’t moving.  I noticed it was a longer delay then normal....but I'm not really worried.  Then they came on the loud speaker...flights cancelled, flap won't work.  We all had to get off and re-book ourselves.  Be warned that the line at the gate’s ticket counter will fill up fast and take hours (they said 3-4) to get though, same with the main ticket counter.  They tell us to use our cell phones and call reservations.  WHAT!!  They want me to do what call who??

Nice thing is we travel business class so we were near the front of the plane - third in line at the gate's counter.  While in line I call reservations, after a minute or two standing in line my brain is coming online and figuring out what's going on, but it took a bit to get it through my thick skull.  Reservations tells me we are "protected" (I still don’t know what that means) and they have already booked us onto a Continental flight.  I just need to get to the ticket counter, get the paperwork and take it to Continental.  That sounds simple and quick.....no problem.

I get to the ticket counter and get in the business class line.  Good thing the "regular" line is backed up with many of our "plane mates".  After standing there 20 minutes with no one in front of me - business class line get waited on before "normal line" and there are only 2 ticket agents trying to deal with LOTS of people I go up and expect a 2-4 minute transaction while she prints up my paperwork, like they implied on the phone.  Nope.  Yes, it was less difficult as they had my flight to Chicago booked....but there was allot more to it.  End result we got our "FIM" and took it to Continental and they got us to Chicago before our flight to Frankfurt left.  All is normal, now, right?

All the paperwork was right, which is not always the case.  But in Frankfurt we are on the plane getting ready to taxi and take off for Budapest.  It this point I've got nasty butterflies in my stomach.  Not because of flying or the "issues" at the beginning of the flight.  But I hate taxies - not the drive around in a plane on the airport kind, the pay a driver to take you someplace kind.  I'm just never comfortable in a taxi - even when Doug is with us.  So I'm sitting there trying to relax and not stress out about needing to get a taxi when we get to Budapest.  Then...on the loud speaker we here...... "Sorry for the inconvenience but we are going to go back to the gate.  We need maintenance to look at something before we take off, just to be sure".  I start to giggle...what's the odds??  If I wasn't so tired and stressed already I might have cried.  So, we go back to the gate and the maintenance guys climb on and through the plane.  20 minutes later all is proclaimed well and we taxi off.

I had been expecting all though these flights that since we had to change carriers for the first flight and then switch back, my bags didn't get mark "priority" by Continental and Continental did not hand me baggage claim checks that the chances of my luggage of making it to Budapest with me was slim.  Well one did...they other was an hour behind us, LOL.  So while filling out the paper work to get our luggage back, I found a claim ticket/sticker Continental put on my United paperwork.  So I had that all along and didn't notice it - even though I had looked 4-5 times.  But at least I found it when I needed it.

It's going to be a hard sell to get me back on a plane to fly internationally again once we move home in September.  Not because we have had any really bad experiences, because we really haven't, but because we have had enough experiences that drained the strength right out of me that I'm ready for a nice long break.  Oh, the taxi ride, no big deal.  We made it to the house in one piece – which you would never have guessed would happen if you saw how they drive taxies in Budapest!

Sometimes coming home can be as stressful as not being at home.  The last few nights I have had laundry "nightmares".  I don't mean that I have had nasty laundry jobs....no I have been having laundry based bad dreams.  Why, you ask....well.....It's been an interesting few days back in Budapest.

The washer has been leaking a bit since the day we moved in.  Not a big deal....just a trickle of water.  While the kids and I were in the US Doug was home doing his own laundry.  This washer is different they the ones we have had in the US and they work differently.  My dear husband has not had much experience with our Hungarian washer and well.....they don't care much for one another.

International symbols have a big part in this story.  In the US we don't use many of these symbols, so we often don't recognize what they are to mean.  We figured out 90% of the road signs, but had to ask on a few.  I don't know what all the symbols mean on my clothes as washing instructions, but I can figure out what I must know.  The washer is also coded with international symbols instead of words.  The instruction book come ins in 10-15 language with one page for each language (if the info didn't fit on that one page then they didn't mention it). 

Well, Doug.....he he he....had a time of it when it came to the laundry.  The washer stopped one time and he opened it and woosh waters on the floor....it wasn't done (how he got it opened when it was locked I will not ask)!!  Then his whites didn't look white enough (I guess he didn't notice that his 10 yr old undershirts were no longer white before he put them in the washer) so he turned off the heater as the hot water must have caused his black work pants to bleed on his white shirts (his pants don't bleed - the jeans do....but that's another story).  So he started poking buttons.  Then this last week the washer isn't spinning out the water. 

The landlord comes by one day to do some work and notices the dripping clothes in the laundry room.  So he opens up the filter on the washer and gets "stuff" out.  Now, this isn't lint and string as you would assume....but large HU coins (the size of a quarter), hair clips, concrete??!! How in the world this "stuff" fit though those little holes we American's have no idea.  The landlord didn't see it as unusual.  So we go to start the next load (a day later- our first load since I returned home) and low and behold the water is coming out of the bottom of the washer as fast as it goes in.  Of course we are not there when it happens as they is a 10-20 second lag time from the time you turn on the washer and the time it stats - so Doug was already back upstairs.  Ben saw it and called us to alarm (about 10-15 min after we started the washer).

I was very jet lagged and had no brain function, so to say.  So, Doug had been doing laundry and was now mopping up 1/2" of water off the laundry room floor (finally those brass stops at every door that stick up an inch and really hurt when you forget they are there come in very handy).  Called the landlord and he's busy but will get he when he can.  Doug takes apart the filter and puts it back together....still leaks.  Finally - 2 hrs later - both guys are looking it over.  The landlord is trying to call service and saying we broke something while Doug is looking it over carefully.  His Coast Guard training comes in handy as he notices how this "dry lock" works.  It wasn't broken....just re-assembled wrong.  Once re-assembled it works perfectly.  No drips, trickles or floods.  I have laundry nightmares that night. I wake up startled trying to figure out how I'm going to wash clothes remembering the washer that still won't spin.

Next day (Sat) still no spin.  Doug's guessing the clutch is gone and the washer is toast.  Not a good thing.  We are OUT of towels so we are doing laundry (no more then 1 towel can be in a load due to weight and size of the washer), taking dripping clothes up the steps and hanging them outside to drip, then getting them in the dryer about 2 hours later once the dripping stops.  This is a S...L...O...W process!  I have more nightmares Sat night.

Today (Sunday) Doug asks me to look at the buttons and see if he got them all in the right place as he played with them a week ago and noticed that he still had it set of 1/2 size loads.  I look.  !!!!!?????  He had the spin turned off!!!!!  He thought that international symbol was water heater...it's not!  Heat is set with the thermostat next to it....he thought they were both heat control.  Amazing when you turn the spin button back on the washer goes through the spin cycle!!  So,72 hours after I come home and find out the washer is not acting right.....I find out it was operator error.  I hope to NOT dream about large kettle copper tubs, fire heated water and hand wringers tonight.

Doug's answer was "It was an honest mistake", hence the title of this story.

We made it!  We are back in the US for a few weeks.  The flights went well and transfer in Frankfurt went brilliantly.  With the cut backs in flights and shifting the timetable the layover in Frankfurt was only an hour and fifteen minutes.  Doable IF everything runs smoothly. 

Well, apparently this flight combination and the tight timing has not gone unnoticed.  As we got off the plane there was a huge bus sitting there to transport us to our next flight.  In Frankfurt we land on the tarmac and always need to get on a bus to get to the terminal....but this was different.  This was a double long bus sitting there with our next flight number on it with it soul purpose to get the children and I and one other business man through immigration and to our gate ASAP.  We, as usually, went for a nice tour around Frankfurt airport.  But the difference was we sopped at an immigration’s office all got off got stamped and then got back n the bus...no lines!  Then we drove on.  The next stop we all get off including the staff and they escort us through the airport, taking the back way, to our gate!  Usually we just get a bus to the terminal and dropped off, having to get ourselves to immigration and find our own gate.  Not usually too hard, but this was the first time we ever flew out of a gate that felt like a loading dock!  It was the only gate in the area and we took allot of "back halls" to get there.  It was quite an adventure.

Jet lag grabbed a hold of us pretty good this trip.  Morning #2 they kids and I were all up by 4:30 AM.  We pushed on and got a car purchased, took loads of "stuff" to the house, got the painting supplied for the first two rooms, and then collapsed.  Painting had to wait for another day.  Today is Day 5 and I think we have all turned the corner on the jet lag.  I'm getting up at 6, normal for me, and at ten to eight the kids are just starting to stir.

If you noticed there were a few weeks between making our waxed matches and testing them (project  #2).  Well we were busy during that time, learning other things.  One of which was knots.

Today we took those knot skills and put them to use.  The children have been working on learning the bowline, square, half hitch and Ben had added the prussic.  So armed with some knot knowledge, rope, and a tarp we went down to one of the lower levels in the back yard and experimented.  The kids learned how to make three different shelters, depending on their needs and situation. 

The first one was just draping the tarp over the line and staking it down.  Being this was a learning experience we asked the question of how you would stake this down.  Ben came up with a great way that was nothing like what Doug or I had thought of.   But in fact, may have been a better method.  Second we folded the tarp in thirds and turned in into a tube tent.  Similar to the first style, but lower and has a floor.  A good solution if you’re in a damp or cold location.  Finally, we made one similar to a parachute hanging from a branch in a tree.

As you can imagine this was a great photo taking opportunity.... so.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimisod/ ..... I took some.

Today we got back to the experiment we did with trying to water proof matches.  The best part is the results left us wanting more and opening up some more questions to explore.  But "part 2" will have to wait until we get moved.

The first thing we did was get a bowl of water and put 2 of each of the dipped matches in to soak, while we experiment with the dry one.  The first thing we noticed was the waxed matches were harder to light.  1 out of ever 4 flat out wouldn't light.  I did notice that the match tips were leaving a residue in the wax when we were dipping them a few weeks ago.  These matches (very cheap ones) didn't have much tolerance for getting wet, even with wax.  The doubled dipped matches wouldn't light until you removed some of the wax.  That a simple fix you can make with your fingernail.  At this point we are finding they are difficult to get started, but once started they burn slow.  This could be a great advantage if you are in a true survival situation.  The longer burning matches would give you a longer time to get your tinder started.

Now for the wet ones.  Before trying the ones soaking we just dipped some into water.  Just making them damp like they might get in your backpack if you were out in the rain.  They lit as well as the dry ones, just popped and crackled as the moisture evaporated.  Last we went to our matches that soaked.  Simulating more of a fall in the river or flipping of your canoe.  Fingers crossed.....they lit.  Again, they were difficult to get going and we had to scrap off some of the wax (and use a new striker), but we could have started a fire.

Now the last test was a quick dip of a non-waxed match.  No light, the tip rubbed off all over the striker, but not so much as a spark.

So what did we learn?  Waxed dipped matches are more water proof then non waxed.  Waxed matches are not as easy to light and you many need to remove some of the wax to get them started.  Waxed matches gum up the striker really fast.  If you are going to carry these in your backpack, you need to have allot of striking surface with you as well.  Double dipping isn't needed and isn't keeping things any dryer then single dipping. 

Next, we will try the same experiment with a better match.  We'll get a box of blue tips and try again.  May go on the hunt for some strike anywhere’s and see how those do as well.

We had one of those laid back weekends this week.  Saturday we did the normal shopping and then headed over to the library to exchange some books.  In the evening we pulled out our Survival Basics DVD and started watching it. 

Our homeschool group is going to do a survival co-op this coming year, so we have been looking over our books and resources this week in getting ready for that.  The kids wander in and out while we watched.  Ben watched more then Abby, but that's to be expected.

This afternoon we headed off for the woods down the street.  We took a left turn onto a path we never had ventured down before.  It was a steep climb up to the top of the hill.  It makes the steep road up to our street look very minor!  We used a different trail back down, looking for a more gradual decent.  It didn't work out that way, it was just as steep only much narrower and curvy.  The odd thing is, it was more fun then taking the normal path.  Yes our feet slipped; yes Abby ended up on her backside and slid a bit, but it was fun. 

The last 2-3 trips through the woods have been a chore.  Kids with the: are we done yet, arguing about who's leading, listing all the things they would rather be doing, and being VERY loud.  None of that this trip!  In fact when we got back to the trailhead, they wanted to go up the other trail!  Lucky for the "old folks" it was already past lunch time so with the promise of food we got them in the car and back home.

On the last few feet of the trail Doug found a nice limb.  He brought it home and while I made lunch he and the kids sat on the back patio and worked on making a figure 4 deadfall trap.  It came out very good.  I don't know if it would be "usable" as the limb was a bit thick.  But it was great practice and the kids (mostly Ben) really enjoyed watching.  Ben then went and got some kindling and started working one out for himself.

You can see more pictures and the final product at Flickr

Yesterday was Doug's Birthday.  This has been a rather drawn out birthday, this year.  It started by going to lunch on Sunday.  We splurged and went to Friday's near Hero Square (where we went on our elephant hunt).  It was nice to eat some American food.  They have to import the food from somewhere, because you just can't buy most of the "fixings" for their menu in Hungary.  We found a tiny watermelon and had that for snack that night.

Tuesday we had his birthday dinner because we knew he would be here.  He had to call into a meeting in Ohio that started at 3:00 and ended at 8:30 our time.  That's a long phone call!  Since it was that long and we can call the US for free from the house, he came home to make his call.  They broke for lunch just as our dinner was done, so we all got to eat lasagna together.

Now to Wednesday, his birthday proper:  As many of you know Doug does not like cake.  He likes a birthday watermelon.....in May.....he's nut's!  Well we found a tiny one, the past two years finding a watermelon has been easy here they were coming out about 3 weeks before his birthday.  I wonder if they are not importing them because of the exchange rates.  Anyways.....so I made mint brownies for last night as his cake.  The kids were climbing the walls all day, maybe they had been to perfect the day before when Doug spent the afternoon and evening on the phone.  Between dinner and snack all the horse play caught up with them and Abby got her thumb jammed.  She was in pain, but it looked OK. 

We did what both our mom's did when we were growing up....pulled out a bag of frozen veggies and plopped it on the "boo boo".  So she ate her brownie one handed, and did very well being she had to eat with her left.  After about an hour Doug and I started giving one another "that look".  Maybe she needs this looked at, it still hurt and is rather swollen even with the mixed veggies.

Doug headed to the basement and called the clinic we used when Abby fell and got a cut near her eye.  They patched him through to the on call Doctor who agreed an x-ray was in order....but they didn't have one.  They took our number and would call back with where to go in a few minutes.  They called with which hospital to go to and told us they had already contacted the hospital and they were expecting her.  To make a long story short, she has a broken thumb in two places.  She needed to go see a doctor at 2:00 on Monday.  It doesn't "look bad" from the x-rays, nothing needed set, but he will likely be in a cast for 3 weeks.  So, for her, all written school work is done for this school year.  Ben will have to finish up a few things but he should be done next week.  We are cutting a few things short, but we are a the next to last chapters in books, and the last chapter is mostly review.....which is how things will begin next year - with review.

To top it all off, last night there was a Mission 24 assignment on Flickr.  The word was caution!  We had a few good ideas we didn't et to use as the hospital run seemed a bit more important.  But they did get home in time for Doug to snap a picture of Abby and use that with something along the lines of "Caution when horse playing with your big brother, or you might get a broken thumb".  There are a few pictures there of her, and I'll try to get one of the cast later and put it on Photobucket.....they cast is different; it only goes 3/4 of the way around her arm.

Over the past weekend Doug started talking to Ben about different aspect of photography.  Abby has popped in and out of this "class" and has been modeled for the illustrations and samples they have been taking (she does love to have her picture taken!).

Doug has taken the kids out to get sunset pictures a few times now.  Last night we headed into the city center to see about getting some sunset pictures with Buda Castle in them.  Doug did this himself last week when he was in town having dinner with some co-worker that were in from Ohio.  So we had an early dinner, kids took early showers and we headed off for town.

There was allot of traffic that we didn't expect, but we did finally get into the city center and found a parking space.  The clouds were rolling in and it looked like the sunset was going o be a wash out.  There was absolutely no color.  OH, well off to Mc Donald’s to  have an ice cream while we let it get dark out.  Then back to the river front and we started taking night shots of the castle, Chan Bridge and anything else that looked "photographable".

It was a nice evening, getting us in rather late.  Doug has uploaded some of his pictures to flickr already.  We have unloaded the kids’ cameras, but they haven't seen their pictures yet.  Today after school I'll go through their pictures with each of them and they will pick which ones they want to upload.  Then Doug should get those up tonight.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimisod/       A sample of what you will find at flickr.