Thank You

I want to give a huge shout-out to Jenn from Munchkinland Designs. A couple weeks ago I hired Jenn to design my blog for me. I had seen her work on another blog and was really impressed with her style. I already had a vision and a template drawn out, and I had been attempting to work on the design myself but it was too much for me.

Working with Jenn was such a great experience. She truly brought my vision to life. THANK YOU Jenn for your hard work and total awesomeness! I LOVE it. Or I am IN love with it. I don’t know. But it makes me very happy!!!

I Did It...

I finally broke down and have "hired" someone to design the blog for me. I just couldn't do it anymore. Between work, school and kids, it was taking everything I had to try to design it out myself. It was going so slow and I reached a point where I just needed help.

I'm hoping very soon that the blog will be all done. I've already had the design drawn out. It was just a matter of getting it done. I'm so excited for this new change and am eagerly awaiting to show off the new blog design. :)

Stay tuned!

Big Dreams

I've spent a lot of time thinking about all of the things that I would love to be able to do for my brother and his kids. I've decided to write them down so that I can keep focusing and slowly work my way through some of these BIG dreams.

* Build an indoor bathroom in Nicu's house

* Add another room to Nicu's house and provide heating in every room

* Make improvements to the house - many things are falling apart

* Build a kitchen for Nicu's house

** My BIG dream is to fix up my brother's house (my old house) so that they can live comfortably. That's my biggest dream right now.

And someday, one day - I want to be able to purchase some land for myself and build a home in Straja where I could spend my summers with my kids. *Sigh* Now that's a big dream. :)

Current Projects

Because of the many different goals I have, I feel like I always have ongoing projects. I really try to focus on having a current project at hand that we are working on. Our next trip is scheduled for September 2010. Our main focus for this upcoming trip is to raise money to purchase a food supply for Nicu, Mihaela and the children. On our last trip, we were blessed to be able to purchase some food for Nicu. It was such a neat experience for us. We were so grateful to my cousin and his wife who took us shopping and recommended food items to us. It was a really emotional experience for me. I was in tears the whole time we were walking through the store and while we drove to his house. I just remember being hungry all the time as a little girl, and I was so excited to be able to bring them food. I am so thankful to everyone who donated items for our yard and bake sale, as well as those who donated the auction items and also donated money. And of course, so thankful to family, friends, neighbors and everyone else who came to our sale and purchased the items. :) Without their help, I would not have been able to do that. It was so rewarding for me to be able to purchase that food for my brother and his family.

My goal is to be able to do that same thing on our next trip. In my trip updates, I mentioned that Nicu and his family cook on a 2 burner camping stove that is set up on a little table in their room. I would love to be able to purchase a real stove for him. It would make their lives so much easier and more comfortable. The money that we raise will go towards purchasing this food supply as well as purchasing the stove.

** As always, we accept any donations - clothes, shoes, garage sale items, auction items, items to sell, monetary contributions, etc.

I Have Reunited With....

Nicu ~ my older brother

Mihaela ~ Nicu's wife

Gabriela, Andrei and Cristian ~ my niece and nephews

Florin ~ my older brother

Albina ~ my Aunt (my mother's older sister)

Ion - ~ my counsin (Albina's son)

Viorica ~ Ion's wife

Razvan ~ Ion's son

Saveta ~ my cousin (her mother & my mother are sisters)

Vasile ~ Saveta's husband

Elena - Saveta's daughter - we are the same age

Rodica - Saveta's daughter

Aurel ~ my Uncle (my mother's brother)

Zamfira ~ Aurel's wife

Vasile ~ Aurel's youngest son

Alex ~ Aurel's grandson

Vasile ~ my cousin (my father and his father are brothers)

Luminita ~ Vasile's wife

Larisa & Mirabella ~ Vasile's daughters

Mihai ~ my Uncle (my father's brother)
*I wasn't able to meet him in person on my first trip, but I hope to on my next trip.

Maria ~ Mihai's wife

Niculina ~ my neighbor

** While on our trip I met a lot of people who remembered me when I was a little girl. I also have more family members to reunite with. I have several family members who do not live in Romania. Some are in Germany and some are in Italy. I also found out that I have a half-brother from my father's first marriage. We were not able to meet in person when I was there, but I hope to meet him when we return again.

It's been amazing to me to see how many family members I have that are in Romania. I come from a large family.

New Changes Coming ...

Well, I decided that I would post more often on this blog because I have a lot more stories to tell and more pictures to show. Plus once I figure it out, I want to post some videos of our trip. First, I have to figure out how to get the video from the super tiny dvd onto my computer. It will be fun to post some videos.

I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to customize my blog. It took me awhile but I did manage to make a 3 column template. I was way excited about that. I consider myself pretty computer savvy, but I feel so overwhelmed and completely out of my element when trying to customize my blog. I drew out my template but I am still trying to find some tutorials on how to make buttons, backgrounds, my menu, etc. So much to learn!

Hopefully soon I can get this little blog of mine completely customized and post some more stories, pictures and some video. :)

Missing Home

Is it ok to say that I am really homesick for Romania right now? Well, actually ALL the time but especially right now. It probably has something to do with these photos I just received from my cousin Elena. Her parents live in Straja and she was just there visiting them. (She lives in Italy).

I know it's the dead of winter but oh how beautiful Straja looks blanketed with pure, white snow.

I miss Straja.