Today our girls went to a birthday party out in Kostenets for a little girl who just turned 6. During the party, several of the kids got up and sang songs to the birthday girl. Sophie got up to sing a song as well. We were interested to hear which song she would sing. Would it be Mary Had a Little Lamb, or Row Row Row your Boat, or the alphabet song? We had no idea, but we expected it to be in English.
We were delighted when she, all on her own, started to sing a popular Bulgarian song! She did not know all the words, but the whole group joined in to help her with singing and clapping of hands. She had an ear to ear grin, as did everyone else in the room.
Afterward, Veronica got up and sang her own song which consisted of a mix of English, Bulgarian, and maybe even a few made up words randomly strung together. Everyone enjoyed her song as well as she sang and danced around.
Toward the end of the party, the little girls father and uncle invited David to go on a weekend hiking trip with them in the mountains this spring. Perhaps we will see a future blog post on that adventure.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Fire in the Kitchen
We have a gas/electric hybrid stove in our kitchen at our new home. Yesterday, for the first time, we turned the gas side on, and lit the stove. Everything was going well for a few minutes, but we noticed a strong gas smell. This smell was stronger than it should have been as the flame should be burning out the artificial sent added to the gas to allow the human nose to detect a gas leak.
It was not long before Sasha's acute eyes detected that there were flames coming from the drawer just under the range! These flames began growing quite quickly, and David swiftly ran to the other neighboring room to shut the gas off at the source and extinguish the flame.
There was no damage to the kitchen or any of our kitchen supplies. Our ladle was a bit warm, but everything was intact. David removed the drawer and found what he thought to be the source of our problems, but he did not dare try to fix it as this was gas we were dealing with. A mistake could cause a quick and fiery end to our new home (and likely us along with it). Rather we contacted the land lord and asked him to send someone from the gas company to come take a look at it.
Apparently, whoever installed the range did not properly attach the hose to the gas pipe. According to the gas man, we were fortunate that there was not an explosion. God was surely protecting us. Thank you to those of you who were praying for us.
Everything is hooked up properly now. The stove is working and we have no more smell of gas. Still, we may just stick with electric for a while.
It was not long before Sasha's acute eyes detected that there were flames coming from the drawer just under the range! These flames began growing quite quickly, and David swiftly ran to the other neighboring room to shut the gas off at the source and extinguish the flame.
There was no damage to the kitchen or any of our kitchen supplies. Our ladle was a bit warm, but everything was intact. David removed the drawer and found what he thought to be the source of our problems, but he did not dare try to fix it as this was gas we were dealing with. A mistake could cause a quick and fiery end to our new home (and likely us along with it). Rather we contacted the land lord and asked him to send someone from the gas company to come take a look at it.
Apparently, whoever installed the range did not properly attach the hose to the gas pipe. According to the gas man, we were fortunate that there was not an explosion. God was surely protecting us. Thank you to those of you who were praying for us.
Everything is hooked up properly now. The stove is working and we have no more smell of gas. Still, we may just stick with electric for a while.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Dave's Big Trip
Tomorrow David gets up early in the morning and begins a one week trip around Europe. While to most people this sounds like a fun adventure of sight seeing and relaxation, it will not be a very relaxing trip for Dave. He is going up to Lodz to oversee the shipping of our belongings to Sofia. After the truck is packed, David will get in our car and drive through 5 countries to Bulgaria where we will unpack our household and finally be settled for the first time since May!
This trip is the final part in a long journey that began last spring when we put our household into storage and returned to the US. It will be sad to say good-bye to Poland. We will miss our friends up there, some of whom have become like family to us. Poland will always have a special place in our hearts, and we have a feeling that this may not be the last time we see this land that was our home for four years. It is hard to believe that it has been 16 years since David took his first short-term trip to Poland. Much has changed since then.
While it is sad to say our final good-bye, we also rejoice in this new ministry that God has called us to, and we pray that He will be glorified through us in Bulgaria.
This trip is the final part in a long journey that began last spring when we put our household into storage and returned to the US. It will be sad to say good-bye to Poland. We will miss our friends up there, some of whom have become like family to us. Poland will always have a special place in our hearts, and we have a feeling that this may not be the last time we see this land that was our home for four years. It is hard to believe that it has been 16 years since David took his first short-term trip to Poland. Much has changed since then.
While it is sad to say our final good-bye, we also rejoice in this new ministry that God has called us to, and we pray that He will be glorified through us in Bulgaria.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Oreos
Milk's favorite cookie is here in Bulgaria. The girls were thrilled to discover that Oreos have made it into Bulgaria.
Also in other news, we are getting the key to our house tomorrow and on Monday David is flying to Poland to pick up our car and stuff that have been sitting in storage for the past 9 months. We are excited to be able to start settling into our new home hopefully by the end of next week. Sasha is going to spend the week in Kostenez doing homeschool with Sophia and taking care of our girls while David is away. Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Shepherd's Salad
Dave and I got to go on a data last night while my sister watched our girls. I was beating myself up for not bringing my camera because I really wanted to take a picture of the salads we ordered. But afterwards I googled it and found a picture of it and the actual recipe on on Eva's blog
I don't know Eva but I really liked her recipe and photo so I thought I would share it with everyone. She has a lot of awesome recipes but they are all in Bulgarian :)
so I thought I would share it with you. This is a typical Bulgarian salad that you can get in almost any restaurant here and it's especially popular in the summer. I've also translated the recipe for you.
Here is the recipe in Bulgarian and English:
Продукти за 4 порции:
300 гр домати
150 гр краставица
300 гр печени чушки
връзка пресен лук
150 гр мариновани гъби
150 гр сирене
150 гр шунка, филе
150 гр кашкавал
4 твърдо сварени яйца
3 с.л.растително масло
1/2 връзка магданоз
оцет и сол на вкус
маслини за украса
Начин на приготвяне:
Отцедете гъбите от маринатата, нарежете магданоза на дребно, шунката - на кубчета.
Измитите зеленчуци се нарязват, прибавят се магданоза, гъбите и шунката.
Сместа се разбърква леко, подправя се на вкус с оцет и сол, полива се с растителното масло.
Изсипва се в чиния, оформя се като купчинка и се поръсва с настърганите сирене и кашкавал.
Салатата се украсява с нарязани яйца, маслини и магданоз.
300 гр домати
150 гр краставица
300 гр печени чушки
връзка пресен лук
150 гр мариновани гъби
150 гр сирене
150 гр шунка, филе
150 гр кашкавал
4 твърдо сварени яйца
3 с.л.растително масло
1/2 връзка магданоз
оцет и сол на вкус
маслини за украса
Начин на приготвяне:
Отцедете гъбите от маринатата, нарежете магданоза на дребно, шунката - на кубчета.
Измитите зеленчуци се нарязват, прибавят се магданоза, гъбите и шунката.
Сместа се разбърква леко, подправя се на вкус с оцет и сол, полива се с растителното масло.
Изсипва се в чиния, оформя се като купчинка и се поръсва с настърганите сирене и кашкавал.
Салатата се украсява с нарязани яйца, маслини и магданоз.
Incredients for 4 servings
300 gr. Tomatoes (about 2 tomatoes)
150 gr. Cucumber (1 cucumber)
300 gr. Rosted peppers (peeled) . You can also use fresh peppers which you don’t need to peel but it tastes better with roasted peppers.
1 bunch Fresh green onions
150 gr. Marinated mushrooms
150 gr. Feta cheese
150 gr. Chopped ham
150gr. Yellow cheese
4 hard- boiled eggs
3 table spoons vegetable oil. Olive oil works great too.
½ bunch fresh parsley
Salt and vinegar to taste
Olives to decorate
Way to prepare: Drain the mushrooms from the marinade; chop the parsley and the ham. Chop the rest of the vegetables and place in a mixing bowl, add the ham, parsley and mushrooms. Stir the mix and add salt and vinegar to taste. Pour the vegetable oil on top. Place in a serving platter and grate the feta and yellow cheese on top. Decorate with the chopped eggs, olives and parsley.
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