Tag: park

No Delivery on Sunday

It’s possible that it could still happen with three and a half hours left, but there has been no delivery of the baby today. However, contractions have begun and things are definitely moving forward at this point. After I posted yesterday’s blog, Bethany was having regular “events” (as I’ll call them) with contractions happening about every hour. We were able to sleep last night even though she was contracting through the night. We honestly thought things were going to start heating up this morning so we decided not to try to get everyone to church in case something happened. But even though things have stayed constant, it’s still not enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. That being said, as I type Bethany has had some really regular contractions about fifteen minutes apart so we’ll see how this evening goes.

So without wanting to get too far from home, we tried to just stay around town today with the family. Mostly, we let Bethany rest at home and the kids, Papa and Nana, and myself walked the town a bit, played at the park, and played a lot in the back yard. Of course I kept watch on my phone, just waiting for any news from Bethany that would cause us to turnaround and head back towards our house, but still had a lot of fun walking and enjoying our little town here in Czech. I especially love showing Papa and Nana around and seeing their reactions to this little place. It reminds me of almost a year ago when we first arrived and had all of those same emotions. It’s wonderful to remember those days and to be to sort of relive them again.

I took a ton of photos today form our adventures, so here they are with captions beneath each.

Throwing rocks and sticks in the river is something we haven’t done in a while. You can see Titus on the right with his new sunglasses enjoying the beautiful weather and water. It’s still so fun to be able to walk to these places which are so close to our apartment.

Late this afternoon, after everyone had a nap, we spent some time in our landlord’s garden just sitting and swinging. Papa made some coffee so he and enjoyed some great conversation and time together. Later Titus joined us and wanted to swing with Papa so I got this photo of them. Hopefully Titus will learn from his Papa much wisdom!

Here’s a view I have often of Avery when she wants me to hold her. I was pitching to Titus in this moment but looked down and saw just how cute she was, so I got a photo.

I couldn’t resist. I had to get another one of Avery. She was showing me how she could twist her arms which she thought was pretty awesome.

While walking to dinner tonight we saw this ice cream cone that was freshly dropped on the ground.

We took Papa and Nana to a local Czech/Italian restaurant tonight (Bethany came too!) and the waitress brought the kids some colored pencils and coloring books. Titus was really proud of this one and said, “Dad, take a picture.”

After dinner we caught the tail end of a little kids festival in our town square, so we ended up buying a couple balloons. Avery had her heart (and eyes) set on this flower balloon which I couldn’t resist buying. This was her face when we got it tied to her wrist which was just hilarious.

Finally, here are the kids running towards our place with their new balloons. Even though we’re still waiting for baby, we’re enjoying the time together and having fun!

Tags baby, balloons, dinner, family, kids, park, river

365 Czech Republic

Theatrics and Retirement

We walked to the post office today. It was just Bethany, Avery, and me because Titus was at school. I was surprised that Bethany came considering she’s in her final week of pregnancy, but when I asked her why she wanted to come she replied, “just to get a little exercise.” It did feel nice to walk, even in the cool mid-fifty degree weather we had today. Avery couldn’t make the entire trip and finally said, “Daddy, can you carry me?” I guess those little legs of hers aren’t quite up to Czech standards yet. We’ll have to work on that.

Titus did a little walking today too with his preschool class. They went to the local theater to see some kind of performance and I was pretty surprised that they walked. After checking on Google, I found out that’s a half a mile walk, one way. For a group of preschool age kids to go a mile to see a one hour play is pretty impressive. Apparently they weren’t walking very fast because when Avery and I walked to pick him up, there was no one there except a bunch of parents hanging out around the school building. As each parent would approach the building I would hear them saying in Czech, “No… theater…” or at least those are the words I could pick out. About fifteen minutes later we saw the kids walking down the street and when they arrived Titus’ teacher told me in broken English that they were going to eat lunch and it wold be another fifteen minutes. I said, “no problem” and Avery and I just played in the school yard for a little bit together. I took a few of photos of the fun (below).

We’ve been counting down the days until Papa and Nana (Bethany’s parents) arrive for their first trip to Czech. They will arrive some time on Sunday and we’ll go across the street to the train station to pick them up (that’s still so cool to do and say). The kids are so excited and both of them keeping reminding us that it’s only “2 more days” until Papa and Nana come. We actually sent Nana a little video message today because this trip also marks the beginning of her retirement! Today was her first day “off the job” so to speak so we took the kid to the back yard and made a short video of them telling her “Happy Retirement Nana!” We hope you had a great day today and we’ll see you soon!

Tags Avery, fun, park, play, retirement, theater, tunnel

365 Czech Republic

The First Saturday in Spring

Post author By Shay
Post date March 21, 2015
No Comments on The First Saturday in Spring

Even though the weather people are forecasting rain and snow for tomorrow morning, we had incredible weather today! It really felt like a beautiful spring day so we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the sunshine. You’ll notice in the photo above that our kids are wearing jackets and that’s just because it’s what we’re used to doing, but they probably didn’t need them. We enjoyed the park this morning and Titus and Avery love going down the big red slide together. There were definitely a few more people there than normal because everyone agreed it was the perfect day to be outside.

Our friend Romi and Michal needed some help with a little video they were making. Michal is making a short commercial for a company that makes these stretchable laces for shoes. They are actually really convenient here in Czech because you have to take your shoes off often. In the above photo we actually went back to the park with Titus to get some shots of him wearing the laces on the playground equipment. If you look closely you can see he had special colored ones that he said were like Lightning McQueen (you know, the main character from Disney’s Cars). I also was part of the filming and we re-laced my shoes and I rode down the street on my skateboard. It was a fun little afternoon event and it was great to see our friends, especially on such a beautiful day.

I didn’t take any photos tonight, but I attended our church’s youth group which meets on Saturday night. It was a good night and Landen preached from Ephesians 4 on being part of the body of Christ. His wife Jenny translated for him, but for me it was nice to be able to hear some preaching in English. Afterwards we had a small group time that was a lot more challenging because of the language barrier. It’s always just another reminder to keep pursuing the language as hard as I can. One of the guys in our group translated for us which was nice, but it feels so awkward to talk about spiritual things and have to keep translating and listening that way. But overall it was a great night and I enjoyed being there.

After youth group I went to the store to get some things for tomorrow and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I turned down the dairy aisle and saw Philadelphia cream cheese! We have only heard rumors that it exists here in Czech and today was the first time I had seen it. Bethany says she may have seen it one other time, but I was excited and it was a double blessing because it was on sale. Bethany uses cream cheese in a few Crockpot dishes we like and of course in dessert so I bought a few of them. Sadly, there are no bagels in Czech to spread this creamy goodness on, but maybe we’ll have to dig up a recipe and start making our own?

I still can’t believe I’m writing this, but we continue to battle sickness in our house. This entire week both Bethany and I have struggling with sore throats and now the kids are starting to sneeze and have runny noses. Depending on how they are in the morning, we may just take them to the main service with us as opposed to going to their classes. With the weather going up and down, that definitely doesn’t help but we’ll just continue to pray and trust the Lord with these challenges.

Tags kids, outside, park, Saturday, sunshine, youth group

365 Czech Republic

St. Patrick’s Day, Playing Outside, and a Prayer Request

Post author By Shay
Post date March 17, 2015
No Comments on St. Patrick’s Day, Playing Outside, and a Prayer Request

It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m sure you saw many people today walking around wearing something green and tonight people around America (not so much Czech) will celebrate by throwing parties and drinking beer (on a related note, I have an entire story about witnessing a drunk driving accident on St. Patrick’s Day that I’ll never forget). It’s sad to me that this is how we (as Americans) celebrate on a day that is supposed to remember a Christian man who loved gospel of Jesus Christ (for more on that, see Kevin DeYoung’s excellent, short post today).

At the Josiah Venture office today there were a few people wearing green, and our Norther Irish friend, Rachael, brought green clover cookies for us to enjoy at our our meeting. They were (magically) delicious–sorry, I couldn’t resist. We had a great meeting a Bible study this morning from Philippians. I’d much rather be spending my St. Patrick’s Day around God’s Word then doing just about anything else!

Bethany took the kids to the park this afternoon and they said that had a great time. In fact, when I got home today the kids came running to the garage to tell me all about it. Above is a photo that Bethany got of the flowers near the park (and hey, there’s lots of green!). While they were there they even saw some kids from our church. Titus even found a new friend who was riding a little play motorcycle and Titus was just running around alongside him for a while. It’s been really nice to play outside and enjoy the warmer spring air. Here’s another photo from the park with Avery enjoying the sand.

Tomorrow Titus will head off to a longer day of preschool because they are doing a “school swap” thing where they bus the kids to another school in town about 10 minutes away. Normally we pick him up around noon but he’ll be staying until 3pm. I can tell that Bethany was prepping him today because he kept telling me all about what he’ll be doing tomorrow. He loves riding on the bus so I’m sure he’ll enjoy that. Below is a photo of the announcement about it at the school and we normally just use Google to try and translate it all. Thankfully this time around his teacher emailed Bethany directly about the trip and what she should pack for him. As I’ve been writing this, she as hard at work trying to get everything together for Titus’ backpack.

Our prayer request is simply that Titus would do well and not be scared. We have been memorizing a verse on fear together and we are continually reminding him of the words. He’ll be going tomorrow and Friday on these little trips so we’re hopeful that it will go well and that he would do alright. Thank you all for praying and for continuing to encourage us!

Tags outside, park, playing, preschool, St. Patrick's Day, Titus, trip, weather

365 Czech Republic

A Sunny Saturday

Today was the best day yet in regards to sickness. I’m feeling like my energy level are much higher and my head is starting to clear up, although I’m not out of the woods yet. I’m thankful for many who have prayed for our family during all the sickness!

We tried not to overdo it today, but we got a text message this morning from our friends, the Yormans, asking if we wanted to walk to the park and Lego store. We have only driven or walked past it the Lego store, so we were excited to go check it out. This was really the first time we’ve had an “outing” in a week so it was nice to just be out in the sunshine. For some reason Titus wanted to wear one of his new mustaches, so here’s a photo during our walk where he posed and said, “Dad, can you take a photo of me?”

As we walked the square right near our place, the crocuses were shining brightly against the green grass and we noticed they are all in a perfect half-moon shape. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Czechs did this on purpose. We have been seeing a lot of fresh flowers being planted of late and when you got to the store there are various sections of gardening and other things to get ready for spring. Here’s a photo of the white flowers in the half-moon shape.

We made it to the Lego store which was really fun. The kids were mostly just running around looking at all the Lego boxes from behind glass. We were only there a few minutes before other Czech friends just happen to walk in, including our language teacher Tamara! It was fun to see familiar faces and say hi. Here’s a wall of Legos that I took a photo of (below). It’s actually really nice to have everything behind glass because little hands can’t pick it up!

After the Lego fun, we made our way over to the park and hung out there for a while and just chatted while the kids played. Avery loves any toy she can sit on, so here she is playing on one of those springy rocker things.

Before long it was time for lunch and the Yormans invited us to join them at a local place in our town. I love Czech soup and this place has great soup, so we joined them and had a really fun time together. At one point Titus and their two boys, Beni and Caleb, were all playing a game on the iPhone (funny, it was a Lego game). Bethany took this photo of all three of them (below). Thanks, Yormans, for letting hang with you today!

Immediately after lunch we came home and took naps which was really nice. The sun was shining most of the day and it was nice to wake up and see it coming through our windows. We had our usual Saturday afternoon video chat with Bethany’s family and decided that it wouldn’t be best to push it too hard and try to make it to youth group tonight. We’re hopeful to go to church tomorrow and enjoy some fellowship there.

Tonight as we were video chatting with the family, Titus got out the mustaches again and quickly put one on my face. We were laughing about it and Titus wanted to take a photo of me. Here’s the photo that he got. I wish I had a photo of my dad to compare this to. We look a lot a like.

And now…I’m very sorry, but… I mustache.

Tags family, friends, Lego, lunch, mustache, park, store

365 Czech Republic

Playing Outside and Making Apple Pie

Post author By Shay
Post date October 25, 2014
1 Comment on Playing Outside and Making Apple Pie

The gray skies lifted today and the sun was shining so we went to the park for a few hours this morning/afternoon. It wasn’t only the sun that brought us outside, but I had told our friend Rachael that I would snap a few photos of her so she can send an updated photo to her ministry partners (one photo is below). For at least the last three weeks, I’ve been taking photos for friends so they all can can update their prayer cards and email newsletters. What’s funny is it’s almost identical to what I was doing in the States with family photos right around this time of year. Everyone is sending out family photos for the holidays and I usually would schedule shoots during October/November so it kind of feels like that only in a different part of the world.

Photos didn’t take long today so we just hung out at the park and played with the kids and talked to Rachael. It’s been a pretty full week of ministry things at JV so spending some time focused and outside the kids was really nice. Here’s a little video of us playing on the slide and some more photos I took since I had my camera gear with me.

When we were about to leave I notice Titus’ rain boots (which he uses almost daily right now) have a hole in them. This is bummer because it’s the only pair he has. We may have to go see if we can find another pair tomorrow because they’re important for him to have at school.

After the park we invited Rachael over to enjoy some Swedish pancakes for a late brunch. You would think that a late brunch would actually just be lunch, but things are just different in Europe. OK, I’m kidding about Europe, but I digress. Rachael was an extra blessing today in helping us pick up the house a bit. Bethany was working on the food and Rachael helped unload the dishes while I vacuumed. I had really hope we would get some time to clean today and so that was really nice to have some extra hands to help! Thanks Rachael!

We continue to struggle with sickness as a family. I have a been coughing pretty hard this past week and today was feeling really tired. I laid down with Titus and we took a pretty long nap today which is just rare anymore for me. I’m hoping this sickness doesn’t last too long.

Tonight we made apple pie! I bought a big thing of apples a few days ago and we finally had time today to have a good ol’ American class apple pie. It was a family effort and we served it up with a little vanilla ice cream. It was delicious if I do say so my self and here’s a few photos and a video to end our blog tonight.

Making apple pie tonight. Yum!

A video posted by Shay Thomason (@shaycam) on Oct 10, 2014 at 8:43am PDT

Tags apple pie, outside, park, photos, Rachael, sun

365 Czech Republic

Making Progress on Sunday

We’ve already shared before that Sundays in church have been tough with the kids. The summer months are especially hard in Czech because our church (photo above) doesn’t have Sunday school for the kids so we’re taking them to the main two hour service. We do our best to have them draw in a coloring book or even (yes, I’ll admit) play a game or two on the iPhone so as not to distract the service. In that past weeks we have ended up outside at some point just because they weren’t staying quiet enough to not disrupt the service. Today, by God’s amazing grace, was the first week we didn’t go outside! Friends have already told us they are praying for this and we saw that prayer answered today. It wasn’t perfect and there were moment’s of frustration, but the kids stayed the entire two hours and we definitely praise God for this little victory. After church we let the kids play in the church yard for a little bit and the photo below is of Avery and Titus walking around with huge branches. Avery’s face kills me in this photo.

Since we had Jonny with us at church we treated him to a pizza lunch in our time. I ordered three pizzas thinking they were small but they ended up being much bigger than I thought. Providentially our friend Rachael happened to be walking home from church and saw us eating so we asked her to join us and help us eat some of our extra slices. What’s amazing is we were able to feed six people for $24 and that included water (which you have to pay for) and a Czech favorite, Kofola soda. Not a bad deal!

This afternoon I drove Jonny over to the train station in Ostrava where he was catching his train to Prague. He and three of his friends are headed to Norway for six days to enjoy some camping and European exploration. While I at the station I saw another JV missionary, Jonathan Rosen, and he asked if I wanted to grab a quick cup of coffee before heading back home. I agreed and off we went to a little coffee shop in downtown Ostrava. Jonathan was actually the intern leader at the very first camp Bethany and I served at in 2012 so it was fun to catch up with him and see how ministry was going. He introduced me to a great little coffee shop and hopefully I’ll get a chance to take Bethany there some time.

At church this morning we were invited by a young Czech couple to hang at a river side park around 4pm. Because of my coffee with Jonathan I made us a little late to the park and it was a new park to us (one we hadn’t been to before) and we just couldn’t find the couple when we arrived. I was bummed, especially since it was really my fault we didn’t make it there by 4pm. Bethany wrote them on Facebook to apologize and hopefully reschedule and we literally just got a message back a few minutes ago saying that we actually didn’t miss them, but that we just didn’t walk far enough on the path to another park along the river. There are a lot of different parks along the river path but we just didn’t need to head further down…bummer. They said they’ll most likely be back there next week to so hopefully we can catch up then. That couple is due with their first child in just three weeks and it would be really fun to get to know them and catch up with them before the busyness of having a baby.

The little trip to the park wasn’t all bad because the kids got a little time to play and swing at the park we did find. We didn’t stay long because we needed to hit the grocery store and make dinner at home so off we went to the local Tesco. Bethany made another great dinner and we immediately did bath time with the kids when we were finished eating. We’re trying hard to get back into a rhythm with bed times and routines and it’s so nice to have a more settled home to do that.

It’s been a great past few days and Bethany commented tonight how much fun it’s been having so many different people in our home of late. In fact, both of us our a little worried we might start getting lonely here come fall because there’s just no one left to come and stay with us! I guess that’s just another reason to dive in and get to know the many people here, Czechs and other missionaries, and continue to build relationships right where we are. That’s really one of the main reasons we’re here and Lord willing we’ll be able to do just that in the months and weeks to come.

Tags church, coffee, friends, park

365 Czech Republic Friends

Another First: Dinner in a Czech Home

Post author By Shay
Post date July 24, 2014
1 Comment on Another First: Dinner in a Czech Home

This is what I saw when I walked in to the Creative Communications office this morning. Water…and lots of it.

All over the desks, on the keyboard of one of the computers, and on the floor. How did this happen you ask? Our office is on the third floor and the ceiling slopes. There are no windows on the walls but they are ceiling windows that open. They were left open all night (not by me, but I’ll protect the guilty on this blog). It was raining pretty good this morning so when I got there you can imagine my shock. Thankfully and amazingly nothing was broken! But still… talk about an early morning heart attack. Yikes.

Earlier this week we got invited by Marcel and Silvie to have dinner at their house. They live in our town and had already invited Yorman family over (American missionaries) so they asked if we wanted to join them. Marcel and Silvie are part of our church here and Marcel has been helping me get our Internet upgraded at our apartment. They are a sweet couple and have two little ones, Dennis and Julia. Here’s a picture of all of us (minus me, of course):

We enjoyed a great time tonight just talking and enjoying the time at a Czech home. Believe it or not, this was the very first meal we have ever had in a Czech home. Silvie made a delicious dinner. I have no idea what’s it’s called but she hand made this piecrust-like bread filled with eggs, ham, cabbage, cheese…mmm, so good–I had 3 helpings! Here’s a few photos of the all the food and the amazing vine covered patio area:

Before and after dinner the kids played in the beautiful back yard. There was a great swing set and lots of toys to play with. Behind their property were turkeys running around so I had to get a few shots of them too!

Marcel thought everyone had eaten too much and suggested a walk to the nearby park with all the kids. We all agreed and off we went! For the kids it was more of a run than a walk, but I didn’t expect the incredible park we went to. One of the things we’ve loved about Czech is just how kid friendly things are and even how there are parks with lots of things to play on that you won’t find in safety conscious America. Merry go rounds, zip lines, teeter totters–this park had it all!

Here’s a video of the kids and me on the merry go round (I gave it an old-timey feel because it felt like a blast from the past):

It was a really fun night with Marcel and his family and the Yorman family. We’re so thankful for their hospitality to us tonight and for making us feel welcome here in Czech!

Tags Czechs, dinner, first things first, park

365 Czech Republic

You’ve Got Mail

Yesterday when we visited our landlord she gave us a piece of paper and we were told we had some mail already waiting for us at the post office. Why did the mail go the post office and not to our apartment? I have no idea. But out of sheer curiosity we went to see what might be waiting for us.

We were instructed by our friends to go in, find the shortest line, give them our piece of paper and then say “Ya Ne Mluvim Cesky…Promotz Mi” or “I don’t speak Czech…help me.” So that’s exactly what I did. Actually, I added the word “Prosim” which means, “please.” The lady laughed and said something to me in Czech which I assume was along the lines of “you’re speaking Czech now, aren’t you?” She motioned to Bethany and I asking who’s name was on the paper and it was Bethany’s. Then she stood up, walked away for a bit, and came back with a letter. She asked for Bethany’s passport which we gave and after a minute we were on our way. Who was it from, you ask? It was the shipping company confirming that our container would be arriving in Germany tomorrow (July 2). I’ve been working with a local customs agent here and we’re hoping to have our container within a week!

After our mail time fun we walked over to one of the local playgrounds since the weather was so nice. Somewhere along the line someone told us that if the sun is out the Czcehs are out and that was definitely true this morning. The park was full of families with kids playing. Bethany observed that there’s just something universal about the way moms talk to their kids. Although the moms were speaking Czech, we knew they were saying things like “Be careful!” and “Good job, you did it!” to their kids. Bethany also said she looks forward to being able to communicate with the other moms some day at the park. I hope she gets that opportunity someday too.

We had homemade pizza for dinner tonight! Considering everything that’s quite an accomplishment and Bethany is a pro at the grocery store now. It was unspoken, but I think the pizza was our way of celebrating our first full week living in Český Těšín. It’s been a great week and we’re thankful to the Lord for His provision and care for us during this transition.

Tags Czech Republic, mail, park, post office