Scenic Route

Here are a few pics of our most recent Life Event (not to diminish our recent visit with our 4 other little Life Events in Spokane--more to come, promise!) Kelby John Schreiner entered our world at 8:58 on August 14 th , weighing in at 7.12 lb and 21" long. He resembles his siblings a good deal. Natalie & Layla seem to have accepted him right into their little world. Layla seemed to be fascinated with his eyes and we had to really watch her! Randy & I (aka Papa & Granny) have been enjoying this little one immensely --though chasing after his sisters leaves us pretty pooped by the end of the day! Nikki/Mommy is doing great ; really bouncing back--looking absolutely beautiful to boot! But then, I think she made a stunning prego, too :) I almost have to slap her back onto the couch to rest, reminding her to "milk this for all it's worth!" Ahh...Life is good--thank You, Father. (Oh! And here is the quilt that Nikki picked out for me to make for Kelby:) ...

Tonight at midnight we will be winging our way back to the Land O' Plenty (USA)--God willing and Korean Air flies :) I thought I'd do a last blog from Mongolia with a few scenes that really struck me. Ulaanbaatar is in the process of building a bridge not to far from our apartment. Walking up to and over the work in progress, I was struck--as I often am--at the collision of modern and old ways. I took 2 pictures standing at a center point on the new bridge of the new road. One picture faces the new work and the other faces the way the new road will take toward our apartment building. You can see how the modern buildings stand out against the ger districts; or the other way around. On a less cerebral note, here is recipe for some STELLAR brownies I made for last week's Bible study ladies. Enjoy! COCOA BROWNIES 4 large eggs 1 cup sugur 1 cup brown sugar 8 oz melted butter 1 ¼ cups cocoa, sifted 2 tsp vanilla ½ cup flour, sifted ½ tsp kosher salt Preheat the oven to 30...

A few weekends ago Randy's company, Wagner Asia Equipment, held their annual picnic. This year deviated from our usual foray into Terlj National Park. Instead, we were treated to a new venue at a 13th-Century style park. We ended up stopping 4 different times: 1st stop the new HUGE statue of Chinggis. 2nd: a "13th-century" encampment (that's Randy and I sitting on the Khan's "13th-century" throne below). Next, we stopped a canyon set up as a 13th century arena. The company was divided into teams, as usual, for traditional Mongolian games. This year some teams dressed in traditional Mongolian costume (so no laughing at Randy! Is there anything more goofy than white people in other country's national costume?) and some in matching T-shirts. That's Randy's assistant, Shagai, giving us the peace sign. As soon as we all got settled in the "13th Century Arena," it started pouring rain! Below is my friend, Ruth, huddling in a 13th-Century...

Ah, the Problem with Prague... ...I don't know where to begin! The 4 1/2-hour train ride to get here from Berlin was stellar. We wound through beautiful river canyons lined with ancient villages & Victorian-era resorts--I saw my first European castle ruin on this train ride! It was perched high up on a rock formation; I almost fainted. (On the return trip we spotted several more!) Amazing. The first thing I learned about Prague was that things are almost always older than they look. On one hand it was like walking through a Disney Land theme park; but on closer inspection these 1,000-year-old buildings have just continued to morph with the times. Below is a picture taken inside the Hard Rock Cafe (!)--note how they let the ancient poke through the modern! Also, zoning codes forbid the changing of original interior spaces. Amazing! Our hotel (Best Western no less!) building has been a hostel since 1307!!! (Earlier records were lost due to a fire.) The hotel had a small eleva...