Utopence!

Last Tuesday, as we do every Tuesday evening, we got together with the Keens and with several of our Czech friends for dinner. Usually, we play sports games with these other couples and throughout last fall and winter we played floorball at a local high school gym. Floorball is a lot of fun and mostly like playing hockey, only in a gym instead of on ice. We've stopped for now because it's too hot in the summer to play in gyms here. Instead, we've begun meeting each week in the park across the street from where Josh and I live. After playing Frisbee we usually end up at our home or at the restaurant nearby for a light dinner (Czechs eat their largest meal of the day at lunch). Three weeks ago our friends taught us how to make Utopence (ew-toe-pen-se). As seen above, it's a pickled sausage stuffed with red bellpeppers and onions. You leave it for 2-3 weeks and then eat it for dinner with fresh bread. It was so much fun to learn to make this with them and to try something new together. I really enjoyed learning how to make it, but I wasn't looking forward to eating it. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of sausage, but I had never had pickled sausage and having been so consumed with nausea I was afraid to eat this with everyone watching:) So, I enjoyed serving others their food and I enjoyed great conversation with our friends, and then I tried a little after everyone had gone home for the night:) It was good and it wasn't much of a problem in the end:)



Thank you for all of the birthday messages I have received over the last few days!! I appreciate it so much! I've had a wonderful birthday weekend. On Friday mornings our team gets together for some time in prayer. This Friday, they surprised me with a pancake breakfast at the Keens. Then, for dinner, Josh suggested he and I make homemade pizza together. This is something we haven't done in a long time. We've been pretty busy over the past few months, and it's only increasing as we get ready for all of our summer activities, so, part of my birthday gift this weekend was 2 days of togetherness and hardly any work. It was awesome. We read and listened to music outside on our balcony in the gorgeous weather, we made meals together and also went to dinner together last night, we went shopping at Globus for a few things we've been wanting for the house, we watched a little t.v. together, and we slept in late. All things we don't normally do, so it has been a really relaxing and enjoyable weekend. This picture above is one Josh took this weekend. It's been 16 weeks now. It's starting to go by faster now that I feel better:). I still have days when I am sick, but it's not as often and I'm so thankful. I'm enjoying food more now, but still not like I used to. I've heard from some friends that they never fully enjoyed a meal again until after delivery. Otherwise, everything seems to be going along well. I'm looking forward to our appointment on Friday. No, we still aren't sure whether we want to find out the gender yet:) We may at least wait until the next visit and maybe we'll have decided by then! Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray that this baby is healthy and pray for us as we prepare together for it.