Skoobi the Explorer

I'm currently in Orlando for a few days, but before I came up I took Skoobi to the river by my house. She's never seen a big body of water before, and so I was curious how she would react. I don't have the funniest reactions recorded, but this should give you a decent idea...




The lapping of water is apparently not a soothing noise for my dog... She got a little better after a while. I'm really wondering how she'll react when we finally get her to the beach!

We Made It... :)

Well, as you can tell from the above photo, we made it! Up until the people at the Atlanta airport lost my dog, it was a great trip.

We arrived at the Vienna airport early (of course we did, this is me we're talking about!). I was tired and very stressed about the dog and worrying I didn't have all her paperwork. I never worried about Skoobi herself. Well, as we walked into the cavernous Vienna airport, Skoobi pitched the biggest hissy fit ever. She was so scared, she was just crying and whining and freaking out. And did it ever echo throughout the terminal! Oh my gosh! I was torn between feeling so embarrassed and feeling horrible for my dog! I was almost in tears, but I was also very tired.

I was the first person to check in, and the woman didn't even look at any of the paperwork I had for the dog. None... nothing... not a page. Why I bother to do things the legal and correct way, I'll never know. But off they took Skoobi, and they reassured me she would be fine.

I got on the plane a couple hours later, and there was a sticker on my seat letting me know Skoobi was on the plane. I had the seat next to me empty, and so I was thrilled with that. The flight was fine. Long, but no complaints. I'm toward the front of the plane, so I hurry through immigration after we land so I can grab my luggage and find the dog. I was the first person the check in remember, and so of course my baggage is the last off the plane.

But I had all five bags, and I rush over to get Skoobi - but she isn't there. Ok, I'm fine... I just need to wait. the door opens and I ask the man about my flight and he said all the dogs from the flight have been taken to where they are supposed to go. Um... where is my dog??

Two hours later, I am still in the international terminal and no one knows where Skoobi is. I am so upset by now because while the people are nice and seem to want to help, no one knows what to do or who to ask. One really nice guy said i should go through customs and go to the main terminal because maybe they just took her there by accident. So I ruch through as quick as I can, I find my folks and without a hi or hello I just say - "go look for my luggage - five bags, they lost the dog!" So I rush over to where the dog might be, but no one knows of a lost dog and said I should go to the lost baggage office. Aargh!

So, now I'm in tears. It's almost been three hours and no one knows where my dog is. People are making phone calls but not getting any answers. Finally, someone says they think they know where the dog is... there were seven dogs on the flight and Skoobi was the only one who should NOT have been transferred to cargo, so they think that is where she is by accident. Four hours after landing, the finally find Skoobi and confirm she is at cargo.

They said I could wait for her and they would bring her to me... but alas - they can't because she was brought in from overseas. So I have to go all the way back to the international terminal to claim her - not that I cared, mind you. Five hours after landing, I finally got a very stressed and sad Skoobi.

And that was the very condensed version of the story. It was awful not knowing where she was. And the poor thing hadn't had any food or water in ages. We got the the hotel and she just drank three bowls of water right away - which she proceeded to throw up. So, needless to say she had a very traumatic day.

But our drive the next day from Atlanta to Ft Pierce was pretty good. There was no way I was putting Skoobi back in her travel crate, and she was exceptionally good in the car. She either sat by me on the seat, or got down in-between the seat to keep mom and dad company upfront as you can see below.



She also took a nap in-between the seats. It was rather cute :)



Here she is today, her first full day in Florida resting in the shade - it's already so warm and humid here! I left snow and cold wind, and now I am wearing shorts and sandals. :) No complaints here!

Skoobi is adjusting much better than I thought.... she still hasn't met the cat, although they have smelled each others presence. For now, we are sharing the house between them - a couple hours the cat is locked away and Skoob runs free, then a couple hours me and Skoob are in the room and the cat runs free. It's a pain, but it works for now. I think it will all workout.


Oh, and how cool is the eagle flying around the neighborhood? It was so beautiful flying around, I'm glad I got a picture of it while it took a rest on the power pole.

Thanks so much for your prayers. The Skoobi getting lost experience is not one I want to relive anytime again soon! I am just very thankful she was found and is safely sleeping here next to me. I was thinking about how well traveled Skoobi is - even more so than most people I know! She's lived in Bosnia, Croatia, and now the US and has traveled through Slovenija and Austria. Not so bad for a poor little Bosnian street dog!

Arrival...

Just a quick update...  the very good news is that we made it to Atlanta.  The very bad news was they lost Skoobi at the Atlanta airport and no one knew where she was for four hours, and when they finally found her, it took another hour for me to get her.  Those four hours were beyond horrible, but she's sleeping here next to me quite content, so I'm very happy.  Happy would not have described me yesterday...

I'll post the whole story probably tomorrow when we get back to Ft Pierce.  Thank you so much for praying, and please continue to keep us in your prayers as we drive to Ft Pierce today.

The final countdown...

I am about to take a nap, but just wanted to say hi from Croatia one last time. I'm ready to go, and am looking forward to having the trip behind me. I am still so stressed about the dog. I know I have everything, I just...aargh. I hate that I have to do this now. I wish I had the opportunity to travel with her before this big trip just so I know for sure I have everything and I know what I'm doing.

Ok, well, I should nap so I don't be all cranky on my trip :) Thanks for your prayers. See you soon!

Travel Prayer...

Skoobi and I will be leaving for the airport at 2am Thursday morning (9pm EST Wednesday night) to catch our flight in Vienna. Our flight leaves at 10:30 Thursday morning (5:30am EST) and we should arrive in Atlanta around 5pm. The weather has turned horrible, spring has left for another round of winter so that is one concern. Even though I've checked many times, I'm still worried about flying with the dog. And this is first I've been out of bed since Thursday afternoon - I've been sick with some kind of coughing/sneezing/can't breathe/sinus thing. I have to finish cleaning the house, paying bills, and saying good bye to a few people in the next 48 hours, so please pray for strength and health as I do those things. Please pray for good border crossings, especially for no problems with the dog at the borders or airports. Pray for safety as we travel, and for my parents as well as they travel to Atlanta to pick us up and as we drive back to Ft Pierce on Friday. Thank you and I will see you soon!

Back to Bosnia

I spent last week in Bosnia - it was a great trip. I am so glad I was able to go and see my friends that I haven't seen in so long. Here is a bit of the trip at a glance...

I spent the first day with Janice, but I didn't get any pictures because we were going to meet up again but we failed. But we had fun playing games. We also hung out a bit with Joy and it was fun to see her as well.

I was able to spend half a day with Miss Lina... We ate some yummy Turkish doner kebobs for brunch. I miss those. This actually was posed with the jogurt on the nose, but a few minutes before, she really did have an unknown jogurt dot on the nose :) We also did some shopping, which of course was a lot of fun.

Walking around downtown, we spotted these two guys on the rooftop - what was funny was that if you look at the guy on the right closely, you'll see he has a laptop. Where else are you going to see two guys on a roof with a laptop? Ok, probably other places as well, but it just struck us as really funny.


It was so much fun to go up the hill (in a taxi, mind you) to my first home and visit Slavica and Zdeno. As usual she had a nice lunch waiting for me, and it was just nice to hang out with them and catch up. She just had some kind of stomach surgery 10 days before me visiting so she seemed to be recovering well.

It's always good to see Zdeno... he always cracks me up. He hasn't been able to find work in over a year, so that is a huge bummer. But otherwise, things seem to be going well for him.

Wendy and I went out the dinner at the brewery, and you cannot tell from this picture, but it seriously is the best parking job ever. Up a curb and literally, a half an inch at most away from the light pole. We were both quite impressed - it was a pretty sweet parking job.


Donovan and Jocelyn came down from Visoko and picked me up in Sarajevo and we hung out for a bit there and then for coffee with Bruegger in Visoko before heading to Zenica. This picture was taken right after Donovan dumped Coke droplets on my camera. It was actually kind of funny. I guess it's not funny now because you kind of had to be there.

In Zenica, I had dinner with Paula, Tiffany, and Beth. It was a blast.I miss them all so much. What crack-ups. I was so glad it worked out for all of us to get together.


I didn't know it, but there was a home group that night at Nedžada's house. It worked out perfectly for me to see Nedžada, Donata, Merlina, and Caca. They had no idea I was coming, so when Donata opened the door it was the first time I ever saw her perfectly speechless. Kind of fun for me :) It was really good to see all of them and to be a part of the small worship service. It was great to sing songs I know once again!

Of course I saw Nela and Andrej. I can't believe he will start school in the fall. We had a really nice time catching up. It was hard to say good-bye once again. Saying goodbye was definitely the bad side of the trip.

Nela and Andrej

My last evening, Slađan, Tiffany, and I went to my favorite place for čevapi. Oh my gosh... it was even better than I remembered. It was beyond fabulous. My shirt still smells like the restaurant. I really don't want to wash it, but yeah, it's gross so I will :)

Oh my goodness what a horrible picture of me - I was so tired! Tiffany looks fabulous as usual, and look at Slađan in the reflection. he was a pain as we're standing there smiling, and he's taking a video of us instead of a picture... boys... it was kind of funny, actually, but you have to be harsh with Slađan :)

Tiffany and I walked home from the restaurant, and after we were chatting for a couple hours, I realized ' "hmmm, I think I have a fever!" I didn't feel well most of that day, and sure enough, I had a slight fever. It broke in the night, and while I didn't feel great in the morning, I decided to take the bus back anyways. It wasn't so bad, but I was definitely glad to get home (to a very happy dog) and go to bed. I stayed in bed all day yesterday as well. I feel pretty much back to normal today, so I'm glad what ever I had didn't last.

So... there it is in a bit of a nutshell. It was so great to see people and to be where I feel at home. So much changed, but so much remained the same. I love Bosnia and all my friends there. I can't wait till my next visit...

Bittersweet

I made it to Bosnia safely last night. It was an uneventful trip which is always good. In ways it was almost if I had never left. My favorite mountains, my favorite bend in the river, all the trash in the river... It was kind of nice to sit in a smoke-filled restaurant for dinner last night. My clothes still smell like the burning cigarettes. It's not a smell I thought I would miss.

I've missed the character and charm of Bosnia. There is just something about this country that grabs you and wont let you go. I can't believe I haven't been here in over a year. A lot has changed, but so much remains the same. I knew I missed living here, but I didn't know how much till we crossed the border (and a smooth crossing it was, I may add).

I'm looking forward to seeing more friends today and the rest of the week. I wish my trip could be longer, but I'll just have to try to fit as much in as I can. I probably won't post again till I get back to Croatia, but then I'll post with pictures.

Till the weekend...

Some more pictures...

Here are a few more pictures of Jim and Carole's trip for your viewing pleasure :)



Carole and I at one of the villages.

Jim teaching a "Sunday School" class before the church meeting at the Hitching's house.

A very pretty picture of the Adriatic Sea from the island of Krk.

Me, Anita, and Carole at the Krk harbor

Jim and Carole and a day of mountain hiking

Jim on top of the world (and Carole is in the restaurant a few hundred feet down the mountain, and I'm in bed sleeping several kilometers away)

Karin gave us a beautiful cello concert before we left Lokve

Thanks for stopping by - come again soon!


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Pictures... finally

I know, I know... I should have been posting pictures all week, but between the water heater suddenly not working, an unexpected trip to the mountains, and lots of other stuff I didn't post any pictures... Here are a sampling of pictures from Jim and Carole's trip (They are kind of small since I am posting a lot of them... I didn't want them to take forever to download). I'll post some more later :)

I took the above picture of the castle... I think it's one of the best pictures I've ever taken. It's much prettier when you don't compress the file.

Carole was the guest speaker at our first women's tea. She did a great job sharing her testimony and really seemed to make a connection with some of the women. Pictured above are Anita, nancy, Ivana, Beba, Antonia, me, Branka, Dragica, and Carole.

The above picture was taken at the first gypsy camp we visited. The baby almost died a few weeks ago from choking on milk, but thankfully Bob was there and was able to rush the baby to the hospital.

Carole with just a handful of the gypsy kids.

This little one just captured Carole's heart.

Life in the village...

Nancy is leading a group of children in song at the second village we visited. It's so great to hear the kids sing in their own language. This village is such a contrast to the first.

Jim, Nancy, Bob, and Carole

Two of the guys Jim was able to befriend while he was here. On the right is Luka, Anita's son. There are so few mature Christian men here, I know Jim was a huge influence and encouragement to them. I know they long for Jim to come back again.

Anita took us to the mountains for a few days... had some good walks and some good rest. pictured above - Anita, Carole, Karin (she is Swiss and spends most of her time in Croatia working at the rehab center we are associated with up in the mountains. She really enjoyed our visit, especially the Bible studies Jim provided by the fire every evening. It was suich a blessing to her.) and Jim.


Jim, me, and Carole on the island of Krk.

I have hundreds more, but I think this will do for now, and hopefully leave you desiring more... not just a desire to see pictures, but to come and be a part of ministering here with us!

Success...

Ok, so it's probably one of the least attractive pictures I've ever taken of myself, but I just wanted to put a picture of me and the mutt together again :)


Thanks for your prayers. The trip wasn't the best, but it certainly wasn't the worst. At check-in, my bags were all slightly under-weight. That's a first. My flight left Orlando a bit early, so I wasn't worried about making my connection to Frankfurt in Charlotte at all. Ha! I look at my watch after waking from a nap and wonder "Um... why aren't we on the ground?" A few minutes later the pilot comes on and says there is bad weather and everyone is in a holding pattern over South Carolina. He said they estimated the landing time to another 45 minutes. That put us an hour late, but still time to catch my flight. 45 minutes later, we're still in the holding pattern and he gets back on and says "Well, they told us it will be at least another 45 minutes. If it's anything over that, we'll have to divert to Myrtle Beach because that will be the extent of our fuel." You know, you never really want to hear a pilot talk about "the extent of our fuel" even if that extent is longer than you plan on being in the air.

But I digress (as usual)... about 35 minutes into the second 45 minutes, he tells us we have been cleared to land. It was quite turbulent, but I've been in worse. But here's the kicker. We PULL UP to the gate at 4:15. My flight to Frankfurt leaves at 4:30. And of course, we are at the "A" gates, and my flight is at the "D" gates. The flight attendant gets on and says most all of the flights are delayed and to check the monitors when we get to the terminal. Yep... about 95% of the flights were delayed. But no, not mine! So me and this German family start booking it to gate D3. We were still a couple gates away when we heard the last call. But we made it with one person right behind me as the doors closed at 4:35. My first thought when I sat down - "Well, at least I wont' have to worry about my luggage when I get to Zagreb."

The flight is so long, and I didn't sleep as well as I hoped. I did watch the Rocky Balboa movie, and I really liked it. I thought it was very good - a very good ending to the series. Of course after the movie, there was some excitement as a old Indian man started to have chest pains. It looked like they slipped some nitro under his tongue, and apparently that helped.

I still hate Frankfurt airport. It's so confusing and I got lost again, but with plenty of time to catch my flight. That flight was late, but I was just happy to be on the final leg of my journey. I made it though the border with flying colors and a smile from the immigration guy. And then here is another kicker - I don't how in the world this happened, but ALL my luggage arrived with me. I have no idea how they got my stuff from the plane from Charlotte to the Frankfurt plane in 20 minutes. But I must say I was quite impressed.

Skoobi was very happy to see me, as I was her. Magdalena had lunch ready for me which was nice. I broke one of my rules, and after Magdalena left, I laid down and took about an hour nap. I was so insanely tired, I just didn't care. And since Skoobi snuggled up with me, I didn't want to get up and wake her in the process... :)

So, I'm slowly unpacking, trying to figure out why I no longer have CNN on the TV, and writing this blog. I'm going to take Skoobi out for a nice walk in a bit, and then hit the sack early. I'm still tired, and am looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight.

Thanks for your prayers... I'll be in touch again soon!

Talk to you soon...

I'll be heading out in a couple hours to the airport. There are so many of you I wanted to see or call and I just didn't have time... I'm sorry. The good news is that it's cheaper for me to call you from Croatia, so expect to hear from me in the next few weeks :)

Please pray for my flights today as bad weather is being forecast pretty much every where I'll be. I only have a bit over an hour to make my Frankfurt connection in Charlotte, so please pray the thunderstorms won't come till my Orlando flight takes off.

Thanks to all of you who housed me and taxied me places. It was really great to be here with family and friends. I'll update my blog when I get home tomorrow...

Update on my life...

I finally made it to my parents' house today. The last few days have been a mixture of fun and productivity. I've done some shopping, and in God's grace, hit many good sales and saved a lot of money on some clothes and shoes I needed. I went swimming and got some sun. Church on Sunday was great. I miss my church very much. It was very fun to meet two new babies - Charlotte and Lilia are just adorable. It always amazes me how quickly my friends' children grow up. There were some people I didn't recognize at the beginning of the service and realized half way through "Oh good grief - those adults are Dan and Dru's kids!" And of course, most of my friends' children are now taller than me... and they never seem to tire of pointing that out. "Miss LeAnne, Miss LeAnne - I can look you in the eye now..." "Miss LeAnne I can see the top of your head!"

Worship was wonderful - the entire service just meant so much. The longer I'm away, the more I appreciate my church and the people that for all these years have loved and cared for me. I've been affiliated with Covenant for 17 years, and a member for almost twelve. I'm truly blessed to be a part of the church. I had lunch with my pastors, their wives, two of my good friends and their families after church on Sunday. It's been good to catch up with people face to face instead of email and phone. Jay and Penni are always gracious hosts, and Lydia and Riley the beagle are always just enthralled with me... ok, not so much Riley, but Lydia and I have fun :)

Sunday I drove to the Sterns home... my dear friend Rachel and I have been incredibly close friends since freshman year of college. I love her and her family dearly, and I know they love me as well. I always have a blast there. Her husband, Pete, is just one of my favorite people. He's pretty high up in rank in the air force and is currently working at the Cape. I thought Pete was pretty cool when he worked at the Pentagon (remember my lunch there last furlough), but get this - he's one of the three people who has the power and authority to scrub a shuttle launch. How awesome is that?? Of course you never want to be the one to have to scrub a launch, but I mean seriously, that's power. :) Unfortunately I won't be able to go, but if I was, for this next shuttle launch Pete could have gotten me into a building with lots of buttons that make the shuttle "do things" (he said I couldn't touch any buttons though...) and I could wear head phones and listen to things, and then run to the roof and watch it blast off. I was drooling at the thought - I love that kind of stuff. The timing just won't work unfortunately... I really wanted to try and lunge for a button :) And I just love the Stern children, Abigail and Andrew. I could just throw them in my suitcase and haul them back to Croatia with me.

It's good to be with my folks tonight, and then tomorrow I get a haircut and drive back to Orlando with the folks to stay in a hotel to fly to Oregon early Wednesday morning. Uugh. The last thing I want to do is to get on a plane and head three more time zones to the west. BUT, I am looking forward very much to seeing my brother and sister, and my new sister in law and the nephews. It should be fun - if I can stay awake and be hungry at the appropriate times. My folks did make me one of my favorite meals tonight - speedies... Oh my gosh, they are fantastic... marinated meat skewered and grilled, then put on italian bread with ketchup - YUM!

OK, well, I will update again soon... thanks for stopping by! :)

I'm alive...!

But I can't even begin to tell you how sore I am!

Oh goodness...the cable cars are like... I don't even know. I thought it was going to be a big car that like 50 people fit into... oh no. They are only big enough for four people! What the heck? But it was a smooth ride up, actually, and I didn't panic at all. I even managed to look out the window a little and enjoy some of the view. OK, enjoy is REALLY stretching it, but I looked and I didn't free-fall and I'm alive.

We then walked up for a bit when we got off the cable car of death, and then walked to a restaurant. I just ate some almonds because, well, I wasn't hungry. But everyone else's food looked really good. Then we started the hike down. Oh goodness... it was such a a good workout. My knees are KILLING me. There were some really steep parts and I knew I was going to wipe out, but one of my students came along with us, and he made sure I didn't kill myself as I slowly but surely made my way down the mountain side.

Oh, let's see it was me, my student Zvonko, Branimir, Daniel and his girlfriend Magdalena. I was so glad Magdalena was there. It was so good to have a girl to talk to. I didn't realize how much I missed having some estrogen in my life. :) Here we are pictured below:
Zvonko, me, Magdalena, Daniel

It took about 2 and a half hours to walk down the mountain. It was a very nice day, and while I am so tired and in pain, it was definitely worth it. Afterwards, Daniel and Magdalena took m to her house and her mom feed me stuffed cabbage... what a delicious way to end the day! It was so good! And I was really glad to meet her family was well.

OK... well, just wanted you to know I didn't fall off the cable car :)

SUCCESS!!

I can't believe I'm writing from my apartment in Zagreb with my dog curled up under my legs... finally!!!

We made it through the borders no problem... we basically almost got waved through... just asked if we had the papers for the dog - they didn't even look at them, they glanced through the windows at the stuff and told us to have a nice trip. Jeff got complimented twice on his language at the Croatian border... that made his day :) What a huge blessing! Skoobi was awake the whole time, even with 150mg of dramamine, but she didn't throw up or drool or anything. It was such a smooth, GREAT trip... praise God :)

Skoobi is a still a little stressed, but I think she's finally falling asleep... we're going to go for a long walk and explore the park soon.

Thanks for your prayers... I don't know when I'll have adsl in the apartment, but there is an internet cafe near the church, and I have a dial-up account that I'm using now for when I'm home. It's a little expensive, but at least i can be connected.

Thank you again for your prayers... please pass along the good news that we made it!!

Hours to go...

Well... in about 9 hours Skoobi and I should be on our way to Zagreb. I have those pre-border butterflies once again, and I know Skoobi is stressed seeing all the suitcases stacked by the door yet again.

Everything is just kind of weird. I can't really explain it. I thought I'd be more emotional but I'm not. I can't decided if that bothers me. Am I just used to saying good-bye to people? Has all the craziness of the past month just hardened me? Even saying goodbye to Nela today, watching her cry, I just didn't seem to feel anything. I mean, I'm sad to be leaving, and I'm sad to be leaving her and Andrej... but why didn't I cry?

So today was mostly filled with saying goodbyes. Lots of people came by to see me and Skoobi and give well wishes and border blessings :) I was surprised by some people who didn't come or call today. But then again, I guess I'm not really surprised... just very disappointed.

I was able to eat my favorite Bosnian food both yesterday and today - cevapi - yum. So that was fun, and it was fun to eat it with friends and laugh and have some good times before I leave. So many people helped me out this week - Zoran closing my post office box, Nela helping close my cell phone account (you'd think both of those would be easy, wouldn't you... but no... it's like a badly scripted soap opera every time I try to do the simplest thing!), Lina washed two loads of clothes for me at Tiffany's house... Lots of little things that had to get done, and I'm just so thankful I had people to help out.

Do pray for our trip tomorrow. I have everything I need for Skoobi (I checked in several places and we asked at the border, so if I don't have everything I need for her I seriously think there will be an international incident), including her drugs for the trip. I don't have that much stuff to take in the van, and the stuff I have is pretty normal so there shouldn't be any border problems... I'm still nervous though, and will just be so relieved when we get through.

I don't know when I'll have consistent internet access, but I will be sure to post and let you all know we've made it safe and sound. But for the most part for the enxt couple weeks, no news will be good news... :)

A good trip to Zagreb - and I think Lina finally made it home, too...

Lina and I had a great trip to Zagreb. The only "trouble" was a horrible long line into Croatia on Thursday. We got waved through the Bosnian side and just waited and waited and waited to get through the Croatian side. It was just a lot of traffic though, so no big deal. The line was even longer to get into Croatia today, so we were glad we only had to wait an hour on Thursday.

So, I'm once again feeling good about Croatia. Thursday night Branimir gave Lina and I a whirlwind tour of where all the good shopping places are, and being the brilliant women we are we found them bez problema (without problems) the next day. I ordered a couch and a bed - Lina was quite helpful as I never ordered furniture before and she just did for her apartment. I bought the cutest shower curtain and another curtain for my bedroom. My furniture should be delivered in about three weeks - we shall see...

After that we went to town and ate Subway and hung out some with Branimir and Daniel. Then we took a different tram back to my apartment (brilliant AND adventurous are we) and explored my neighborhood some. We found some stores and stuff like that. Then we ate frozen pizza and moved stuff around the apartment, and cleaned the fridge.

We had a little bit of wait at the Croatian border going into Bosnia today. It was kind of funny, when we got to the Bosnian side, the border guy asked - "what's in the backseat?" (in Bosnian, of course) because I brought Skoobi's travel crate back with us. We were trying to explain it was a box for a dog, but our grammar was kind of off, and he kept asking "a what??" Finally he figured out what we were saying and he was like "Yeah, you need to work on your grammar." but he was laughing with us, so to je to. :)

Of course nothing could go totally right... About a half hour after Lina dropped me off, I realized I left my cell phone in her car! It's a about a 45 minute drive back to her house from Zenica, so she was almost home. But she graciously turned around and brought it back to me... Only for me to realize about 10 minutes after she left the second time, I left my wallet in her car! Thankfully she was still in Zenica, and I sheepishly grinned as she pulled in my driveway for the third time today... "Are you sure there is nothing else in the car?? Should I pop the trunk?" I'm really not an idiot, and I'm usually so much more together than that... Thanks. Lina for all your help in Zagreb, and for delivering me all my stuff :)

I think my fedex package is here, and I can pick that up Monday. I'm going back to Zagreb Tuesday (returning to Zenica Wednesday - I can't even begin to tell you how tired I am of making these trips! It will be so good to get there and stay put!!) with load of things, and then hopefully I can figure out how to get the last bit of stuff up there along with Skoobi sometime before this coming weekend... Please be praying something works out. I'm a little stressed. But over all, things are looking up and I'm once again looking forward to my move and all things Zagreb :)

My new place...

Well, here is a picture of my apartment building, taken from my tram stop across the street. I'm on the right side, on the 9th floor (8th floor if you're in Europe). Below are some pictures I took out the window:














I'm in a really good area... a straight shot and not even ten minutes off the highway, and maybe about 15-20 minutes to the airport. It's about a 20-25 minute tram ride downtown, and I have plenty of shops very close to me. There are also 2 big parks nearby to walk Skoobi. I met a couple neighbors while I was there... two old men. I didn't see nor hear anyone else, so that was a little bit interesting.

Here are some pictures of downtown... of the cathedral and the main square. Christmas sure is different in Zagreb!:
















I did get a lot accomplished - spent some time with my landlady, Ksenija, which was good. I was able to measure the apartment and realized I needed to sell a few more pieces of furniture... but thankfully my bed will fit where I want it to go - if the bedroom door comes off. I asked Daniel about it (he is an elder in the church and Ksenija's son) and I got the best response ever - "LeAnne... whatever you need - it's ok." I got an email from him today - the door is gone :) I also got a cell phone number and figured out my tram line. Oh, and I finally bought Skoobi's travel crate - yeah! Branimir was a big help in getting that done.

So, now I finish up packing and hope all goes well these few days before I move. I don't have too much to do, but what I have to do, I really need to get done. Do pray about the weather. I think we'll be ok. It finally snowed herein Zenica, but there hasn't been any yet in Zagreb. it wasn't fun walking on the ice today, but I thought you would enjoy the above pictures.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas... Blessings in the New Year!

Um... Where's Croatia??

I thought I'd share with you some of the information I've been learning about Croatia. Below is a map of Croatia (Zenica is right in the middle of Bosnia, above Sarajevo and slightly to the left). It's the oddest shaped country, but full of charm, history, and interesting tidbits!




Croatia is a small country with 56,500 square kilometers (km) of land and 32,000 square kilometers of sea. Croatia has 1,777 km of mainland coastal shoreline. It also has 1,185 islands with 4,012 km of of island shoreline and 2600 hours of sunshine every year. Of the 1,185 islands, only 66 of them are inhabited. Croatia has a population of around 4.8 million, with about a million people living in the capital of Zagreb.



There are seven national parks - three in the mountains (Risnjak, Paklenica, and Plitvice (which has an amazing 92 waterfalls connecting 16 lakes!) and four in the coastal area (Kornati, Mljet, Brijuni, and Krka). In regards to the mountains, the Dinaric Alps and a few smaller mountain ranges (Velebit and Velika Kapela) are found in Croatia. The highest point is 1,831 meters. Medvendica is the mountain that overlooks Zagreb from the north. Its highest peak is 1,035 meters.

And now, every time you use a ball-point pen, you can pray for me! S. Penkala, a Croatian engineer, created the first ball-point pen and the first fountain pen in 1906. And who knew CSI started in Croatia? Ok, well, not really, but Ivan Vučetić invented dactyloscopy - identification by fingerprints!

Ok, I guess this is enough for now... I'll post more as the time for the move gets closer!!