Kick Start Your Good Health!

Today, I am excited to introduce you to some friends of mine who have the most amazing app created that can simplify your struggle in having a healthy lifestyle.

But, first let me tell you how I met these motivated peeps.

I was working in the U.S. and they were over on a summer work program. They were working two jobs and still managed to come to work smiling, even though they were burning the candle at both ends.

Both Evelina and Pavel worked their way up from busing and expo kitchen work to serving.  Not an easy task for non native English speaker who do not live full-time in the U.S., but they managed! It shows how motivated they are.

Later, I found out they were working to pay for the highly expensive American University in Sofia, Bulgaria. The cost of the tuition is the same as a public university in the U.S. That kind of tuition is outrageous in Eastern Europe. But they managed with some scholarships and very hard work.

Presently, they are working to make eating healthy easier for everyone with an app. Let me introduce you to my friends and their endeavor.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1313992172/eatwell-app-eating-healthy-made-easy

If you can help get them closer to the goal of meeting the goal that would be awesome.  And remember, the money is only taken from your account if the project meets its goal. Thanks for reading!

Here’s to your health!

 

While we were gone dva (2)

My trip home started out with a quick zip down to Florida. My parents and Grandfather were a sight for sore eyes. We even got to visit with some cousins who live near by!

There was a bit of Serbian “flavor” in our trip south as well. We visited with my wonderful friend “S” who now lives a few towns over. I met her and her little lovelies in Novi Sad Serbia for the first time Christmas 2010(?). We had been writing back and forth for some time and skyping…She and her family made my Christmas away from home so special. I now consider them family too.

Patriotic neighbors
I just love these old civil war era homes. I saw Pennsylvania with new eyes and it was beautiful!

For Thanksgiving, I was was with my brother and sister in Pennsylvania about a thousand miles north of Florida eating my face off with turkey and all the fixings.  Oh how I have missed the GMO, preservative ripe, processed to death food of the US. I did not deny myself anything. T25 workouts are now a must for my lard laden body!

A week or so later, I was thrilled to be able to go back to the place I called HOME for the last 20 years. Ocean City, Maryland!

I saw so many of my sorely missed friends and the  Atlantic Ocean. My heart was so happy and sad to see them all knowing is was just for a couple of very short days.

Thanks to my very dear friend MN who I sadly have no pics of. She let me crash at her condo. We are truly grateful for such a wonderful place to stay. We had some hearty talks I wish could have stretched on for days.

Salmon dinner made by my oldest friends, “P&M” in OC made one of my evenings absolutely perfect. My eyes can easily fill with tears just thinking about how happy I was to see them and Mr. L.P. Thank you so much for taking time to see Munchkin and me.

Munchkin had a blast playing with all the Christmas merry making toys and decor.

Reunited with with work buddies and their offspring was the most hilarious fun time. Munchkin was joined by a set of twins a year older than her and a little boy just two months her junior. They had a great time running around together and beating each other with crab mallets.  No permanent damage was done. 😉

Crab buckets are the best protection against crab mallets!

So many good friends and just not enough time!! I love you all so much!

If it wasn’t so cold, cold, Cold and windy or we would have walked down to the ocean for beach pic. Next time…

Then it was back to PA for more time with the siblings and cousins. At the end of the trip I got to pick up some side-work with my brother and we finally had some quality time to chat. He works with a a bunch of Bosnian people in Carlisle, PA. While we waited for work and chatted I met a few of them. They understood my Serbian as crappy as it is. They were patient and happy to talk about life in former Yugoslavia, give advice and discuss the problems in Balkan lands.

Signs are in Bosnian and in English… soon French may also be added!

The funny thing about Serbs and Bosnians and maybe even Croatians. When you are living in country so far from home the ache of recent wars and wounds still healing are less of a problem. The shared language culture are bandages.

They were a joy to chat with. They understand the difficulty of living far from home in a land whose culture is exotic. All of them come home about once a year and one even confessed he cries every time he is leaving his country of birth. This is pretty common for most expats.Land of birth, home of your family and friends, the land of your culture and traditions is a hard thing to leave even for a better life or a loved one.

Sometimes the joys of the adventurous expat life is so far eclipsed by the  loss and distance. The heart breaks over and over.  I miss my friends and family. I didn’t cry until I returned to Serbia.

The Munchkin is just happy to have her Mommy and Daddy back together again. She won’t go to sleep unless we are on either side of her. The joy on her face is priceless! She doesn’t care where she is as long as we are there too.

Photography Friday~ Zubetinac

More Fairy Tale village pics!

Fresh fruit from the village.

Last week I spent 4 days in the beautiful village of Zubetinac. I have posted about It before, but the pics were taken in late winter/early spring. It is like another world with the colors of summer giving it a make over.

Baba was watching her munchkins in the garden

It was a great get away for the little one and I. Not terribly relaxing… We were guests of my Serbian besty and her two little ones (pictured above). Most of the time we were minding the three dwarfs. Our only reprieve was when they slept.

I was glad to get away with my pal. Girl time is priceless. Like water for my friend parched soul. I only regret there are no pics of the two of us.

These two flowers will take our place.

The Munchkin turns One!

Last night, We had a wonderful group of close friends come to celebrate the first year of the munchkin’s life.

Blowing out the candle

All three the January, February, and March 2012 babies got to play together.   They are all walking now, and have less than 10 teeth between them. 😉

Jan, Feb, March girls

 

We still have some more celebrating yet, but this was the big shebang! It is a tradition here to celebrate the First birthday before the actual date. But we chose Saturday, because most people don’t work, not for the sake of tradition.

There are lots of traditions here for the first birthday, mostly revolving around a child being Christened in the church. They baptize the child, and cut locks of hair from the child. Then when you return home from the church there are still more of they traditions to follow. The Kum (pronouned KOOM) or Best man from the wedding has to cut another lock of hair and maybe give a speech.

All the traditions are very nice. But this was stressful enough for me. I am glad we did not have to do all the regularly scheduled Serbian traditions on this day as well.

Trying to plan a birthday party when only one person in the house speaks both languages and the other two women try to understand each other it is a bit more hectic. Throw in some PMS and different cultural ideas and it can turn ugly. It didn’t though. It only got a little harried when The muz (husband) heard his father planned to bring a roasted suckling pig. (That was  a jolt of Culture shock!) This was the day before the party and after all the food prep and planning had been done.

The only little piggies at the party. Yummy bread piglets. With pepper seeds for eyes and Rye for the nostrils.

I will admit I was a bit miffed that mama was making my little one’s first cake. I had planned for the cup cakes I was making to be her cake. But that was lost on the mama and I was too tired of trying to explain. In the end it turned out better that way. The recipe I tried for the frosting was horrid. It was better to use her cake.

I did get lucky with the cup cakes frosting. At the last-minute there was some pudding left over that make a nice topping for the cup cakes.

International baking is much more difficult than one would imagine. The flour around the world is NOT the same. It tastes different so do some of the other ingredients. Making the finish product taste different from it does in your home country.

Our flour comes from our families fields. After the harvest, they take it to a mill where it is ground. It is not processed and bleached like the flour you buy at the store. You can imagine how that can change things.

The Munchkin is awake now. Must go carry on with the day. More about the party tomorrow.

Dobar Dan