Mountain Dew, Lice, and adventures in church

I've been here for two weeks.
It feels like I've already been here for months. And yet, I can't believe it's already been two weeks. Let's see what this week entailed....
I'm getting the schedule down with the girls finally. Well not all the way, but that is definitely getting easier.
I found a cafe that I love. During the day I get out of the house and spend time there, reading my book of mormon in German, writing in my journal, eating pastries or drinking hot chocolate or fanta. I love being here, and the house is great, the room is really becoming my own, but I really like to get out of the house, so going into the town and looking around is really nice for me.

Well a few things that happened this week...Well for one, one night I was exhausted. SO TIRED, and I had to go get the girls from school and knew I was just going to be so tired all night...so i left a little early, and bought a Mt. Dew. Now...Mt Dew bottles are GREEN here. Like...I was kinda scared to drink it, because...I was afraid I would turn into some teenage mutant ninja turtle or something. Nothing can be that acid green without having some radiation side affects.
Also, Cara had lice. I was like...OOOOOOOOHHH GRREEEEAAAATTTT. I spend a summer in India cuddling with kids crawling with lice and scavies and don't get either and I spend two weeks in Germany and I am goign to have lice. Luckily I didn't. Phew! breathe!

I also met my neighbors, they're from Seattle. They are awesome. Julie and Rob Platt. Julie is a lot like me...and a lot like my sisters. They have two boys, Charlie and Chad, and I love them. Boys are so easy to babysit! American kids are so easy to entertain! Here, Watch a movie. Here, draw a picture, here, beat up your brother. haha. No, but Julie and I connected really fast and I already know that she's going to be my haven here in this european foreign place. My little piece of America, with her American food and shipped costco stuff and american furniture and pottery barn.
Lastly was my experience getting to church on Sunday......watch this video to understand better.



Well Yeah....So that was my opposition to getting to church this week. I missed sacrament meeting, but I made it and it felt so good to be there. I am having my records moved to this ward, and There will be an English speaking tute class starting in February, but I'll probably opt for FHE on Mondays. We'll have to see. Well That's my week at a glance. Please write! I miss everyone. And leave comments. I love the comments. :) Hope you enjoyed the video.

Hope things are going well! LOVE Y'ALL!

We just did!

So Carola and I spend a lot of time talking and lately the topic of choice and questions has been how in the name of all that is holy did your mother have ten kids?
My answer is usually: I don't know...she just did.
I look back on all of this and I think I am really lucky to come as the youngest of my siblings. She kept saying things like,
How did she keep the house clean?--She didn't
When did she wash the dishes?--After we went to bed
Who drove you all to your different activities? --She did
Who cooked dinner?--She did
Every night?--Yep.
When did she sleep?--Well...she didn't.
How did you guys find time to get what you needed from your parents with that many siblings?
--I don't know..we Just did.

I never in my life have felt unloved from my siblings. And I most certainly have never felt unloved by my parents. I can't speak for my siblings, but I think we all pretty much feel this way. I always felt as a child that if my parents wouldn't take care of me, my siblings would. And they still do. I didn't care that there were dirty dishes, I didn't care that there was laundry everywhere. What I cared about was when my siblings would go to school my mom and I would go on morning walks through the orange groves. I cared that Russell would let me come swimming with him and Ed. I cared that Kendra would help me with my math when I needed it.
I also think my mother taught us to be independent in the sense that I remember doing my laundry when i was 10 years old. My mother would have done it, and I'm sure i didn't do it every time (I still don't do my laundry every time). I remember packing my own suitcases for vacations (we always had to buy me a new toothbrush and once a sunday dress) but they point is, my mom didn't do everything for us like most mothers do. She couldn't. She relied on us to do things and help each other do things.
So I don't know how we did it. I don't know how we stuck together and all loved each other and had a mother who raised 9 of us. I just know...
We just did it.

Riecht wie ein fuss....vielleicht schmeckt wie ein fuss

Smells like a foot...probably taste like a foot.
That's what I've discovered with the cheese here.

And whose brilliant idea was putting sardines in a can? I mean...gross.
ugh.

One Week Down. 51 to go!

Well I got through the first week.

It wasn't easy. I admit, I tried to put on this brave front making it seem that I was having a grand ol time, but the truth is I was extremely emotional and homesick for pretty much the whole week. So thank you for all your prayers and thoughts and emails of encouragement to help me get through this first week without my momma and puppy.

Well this week had some neat things. One moment that really helped me start to overcome my sadness of not being home was when I had to walk over to this stand that this little farmer has and buy some apples. So I asked him for a kilo in apples (in german) and he started getting the apples, but he started talking to me really fast and i just sat there and stared at him. He looked at me waiting for me to respond and I said, in german, "I'm sorry. I am from America and I don't speak German very well, so please speak slow." He said, "ah" as if he understood and slowed his speech to 85 mph rather than 90 mph through his gums. I just smiled, thrust two euro into his gnarled hand and escaped out into the cold. This is usually how our exchanges go.
But walking through the little village the farmer lives in, it was really neat. It was one of the first moments I stopped feeling homesick.

I've been able to walk through the village of oberursel and it was amazing. The town was first mentioned in histories in about the 1000 century, but it really became prosperous between 1400 and 1600. The houses are really old and the church sits on a hill in the middle of the village. Still to this day. The roads are really small and there are little staircases going in between the houses up the hill. It's amazing. (Russell and Kristi, you know exactly what I'm talking about, these little old European cities.) Anyway, I got a library card, yay!

My days start out about 7 am and I go down, get the girls breakfast. I pack them snacks, always apples, and then struggle to get them to eat. They just want to talk, not eat. So then I drive them to school (in the mercedes), occasionally stop at the bakery on my way home to buy bread (German bread...oh my gosh...yum). I have the whole day to myself while they're at school. Then I pick them up and well..that's where it changes each day with piano lessons and activities.
The last day Carola helped me take the girls to school, I got pulled over. I started to FREAK OUT. So I pulled over and Carola got out. They thought we had one of the kids not in a carseat, but we just showed them we did and they let us go. We got back in the car and sat there. then we looked at each other and both started to laugh. She said, my heart was pounding, and I said, not mine, it completely stopped.

Anna (9 yr old) brought home the class pet this week...a rabbit named......Coco Chanel. yep. Just like my puppy. I laughed when they told me its name. anyway, so the rabbit is the big hit at the house this weekend. But man, Sophia's friend, Emma spent the night on Friday, so when I picked them up from school, i not only had to fit in an extra child, but a rabbit, and all the rabbit gear. It took a while, but I finally did it. And poor Cara was smashed in the back of the car.

Yesterday, Michael (the father) and I took the kids to the swimming pool. Now, in Germany, each city has its own swimming pool, but they're so expensive, a lot of towns don't upkeep theirs. But Bad-Homburg has it's own swimming pool, and it's nice. Now let me describe nice. It has a shallow kids pool, a deeper lap pool, a huge like hot tub whirl pool, a kids hot tub whirl pool, a ice cold walking pool with these pebbles you walk on, apparently good for your legs, and then like a HUGE indoor fun pool center AND a huge outdoor fun center and a big waterslide. Yeah. Seriously. Oh not to mention HUGE dressing rooms and then a spa. A full functioning dayspa. It's pretty intense. But I guess it makes sense for this city to have this since Bad-Homburg used to be a spa-city for king wilhelm. Hence the castle here.



Anyway, we went into the pool and we had the three girls, Emma (a friend) and Aysha (another friend) and me and Michael. So 5 girls. He was like, this is a lot of kids. This is too much. Are you going to be okay? I just looked at him and said, Michael...it's going to be fine. And of course it was. But when we left he was like, wow. I'm exhausted, how are you? i just looked at him. I'm fine. I'm used to this. This is normal for me. Sooo...yeah. I'm fine. He laughed. They keep asking me, How did your mother do this with ten kids? I'm like...I don't know, she just did. And it worked. So funny they are afraid that their three girls are too much for me.

Today I got to go to church. I went to the international ward, which is about a 45 minute train ride, and then a 10 minute walk after that. it was raining pretty hard today, so when I got to church I was pretty cold and wet, but It felt so good to be in church. The missionaries introduced themselves and so did the bishop and the primary president. It was just so fantastic, and gospel doctrine was great, but it was in Relief Society that I met some great people. The Mission President and his family are in our ward, and his wife is just awesome.

I also met a family who lives in Oberursel. They are from Utah, but he works for Conoco, so they move all over the world. They moved in here in August from Abu Dhabi. They have a daughter 21, Jen, so it's nice to meet someone about my age who lives so close. They invited me to go to Denmark with them next weekend, but unfortunately I have to be home next Saturday night. I talked to another girl who told me about institute, and how to get involved.
The family took me home and said I was NOT going to take the train to church (which I'm really glad about, because round trip it would be 14 euro. which is about 56 euro a month for church and I'd do it, but I'm glad I don't have to.)

Anyway, There's my week. It feels good to be sunday, to sit in my room, work on my blog. I'm watching Gone with the Wind and just relaxing. I lvoe the emails I've been getting, so thank you for that. I love you all so much! Thanks for your prayers, keep them coming.

The girls made up a dance of course. And we had to sit and watch it. doesn't matter what language they speak, kids are all the same.

Here at last

Well I’m here.

Let’s see, I spent two days in New York with Russell and I had such a good time. I love him so much! We ate at Lombardi’s and Café Lalo from You’ve Got Mail, where Meg Ryan gets stood up by Tom Hanks, but she doesn’t know she’s actually stood up. He just antagonizes her. And we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and I almost got arrested. I got to go see him work. I mean I’ve been to his work before, but I got to see my brother be adorable and awesome and work. But all in all, I just love being with my brother. For the first time I felt like I was ready to stop visiting NYC and start living there. I love New York….er..I heart NY

I’m here with my family now in Germany. I had a long flight to Warsaw and even though it wasn’t, it felt like an even longer lay over in Warsaw, then a flight to Frankfurt. But I did get to see an amazing sunset. The sun is lower here than in Utah, so it always has that low feeling. I can't explain it. So it gets dark really early and the sun doesn't come up till like 8:30. Oh and it's FREEZING! I'm talking in the single digits.

It was so weird to get off the plane and see German everywhere. Michael and the girls were a few minutes late so I sat in the terminal internally freaking out that something had gone wrong. But he got there with the girls and they were shy as anything. They all learned to speak English from British examples so they all have little British accents. Not the easiest thing to understand. We got here and I sat up with the parents talking for a while. They’re awesome. I thought I wouldn’t get along with the father, but he’s really cool. More extroverted like me and Carola is more introverted, and in some ways…high strung.

They let me sleep in my first day, and I slept until 2 pm. We went to get the girls from school and she said, I think there’s a mormon church across the street from the girl’s school. I was happy to hear that but then as we pulled up…I saw that steeple with that familiar gold statue on top of it. It was the temple. I was like, Oh that’s not a church, that’s a temple! But there were apartments all around and a meeting house, so I went and saw what time meetings were. One meeting was at nine thirty and one at one thirty. My two least favorite church times. J hahaha. While Carola went to help the girls in choir and told me to go walk around and explore…umm..okay. So I went and got Hot chocolate from a café. I’m going to have to remember to take a book with me everywhere, like in India. But Germany is really like you imagine it. Old houses everywhere, tiny streets, cafes, shops, etc. It’s like you think. Our village sits right up next to another one called Bad-Homburg and it has a castle. Yep, an honest to goodness castle.

My room is on the top floor of the house, kinda attic like. It has a heater, but it’s still a little cold. Now I wish I would have followed mom's advice and packed my blanket, I bundle up at night. I’ve unpacked and moved in, but It still doesn’t feel like my place yet. I’m sure it will get there.

I've discovered that Christopher Plummer is attractive no matter what language he's dubbed in, Christopher Plummer is pretty dang attractive.

Well the kids will be home from school soon and I'd better be ready for them. Anna has violin and Sophia has something with her dad, so i have cara all to myself.

I'm a hobbit...I wander...I'm not lost...and I have short legs.

I have no idea where I am going. But I am not lost. I don't know what I want to do with my life. But it does not mean I don't have direction. I don't have a destination, but I enjoy where I am in the moment. I am happy.

I choose to be happy.

I am going to Germany in less that a month. For some reason I'm more scared to do this than I ever was to go to India. But I'm going. People keep asking me when they find out I'm scared, "Do you really have to go?" Of course I don't have to go. I don't have to do anything I don't want to. But I am going. I made a commitment, signed a contract. And Why the heck should I NOT do something simply because it frightens me?

"A life lived in Fear is a life half lived" -Strictly Ballroom-

I don't want to live a half lived life. I am not settling for mediocre. I want to live a life of excellence. And in the past few months I've learned what that entails. For one: Last night I was lying in bed, in anticipation of my last two finals I took this morning. I knew I would bomb them and it was in result of how uncommitted to my schooling I'd been this semester. I threw away my semester. I do this pretty much every semester. I will not commit to doing anymore schooling until I am willing to finish. I will not commit to do something I am not willing to see to the finish.
People keep asking why I'm going to Germany. Of course I tell them, I'm nannying, etc. But the truth is: I've always wanted to live in Germany. I just found a way. I look at my brother Russell, who I love and adore and love the life he has lead, studying in Italy, studying in New York, studying in California, being totally awesome. And I want those experiences, but I want them uniquely for me. I don't know what I want to do in a year when I get back from Germany, I have no clue. But that doesn't matter. I know where I'll be in a month. I know where I am now.

I recently read an old friend's blog and she had an entry about the things she's accomplished in the last 5 years. As I read her extraordinary and seemingly overachieving, but completely sincere resume of life experiences, I began to fill my heart sink. Maybe my life was completely mediocre. I could go on to explain how I comforted myself and the reasons I gave myself to make me feel better, but I came to this conclusion: who cares? You've always known you are completely the opposite kind of person she is, and all you need to worry about is fullfilling the things YOU want to do.
And I have
I've already knocked things off my 1o1 things to do before I die:
1-Volunteered in India
2-Seen a Broadway play in NYC
3-Seen the Taj Mahal
4-Sky Dive
5-Tandem biked on the beach
6-Eaten dinner on a beach
7-Gotten my own puppy
8-Performed in Ragtime
9-Played the Tambourine and sang in a band
10-Seen Sutton Foster Perform live
11-Learn Yoga
12-Ride a horse in a dress
13-Attend the Olympics

Sure I have a while to go, but I'm getting there, and it will be amazing how many I get knocked off living in Europe. I've learned that you just have to take one thing at a time, or two or three, and work until you knock them off your list.
I won't live my life in fear. I'm not going to stop myself from doing something because it seems looming or intimidating or scary. It's not fair to myself.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

Aye...there's the rub.

The most wonderful time of year

I love Christmas. I do. I love everything about it, the snow, the smells, the smiles, the trees, the lights, and of course being with my family. So it breaks my heart whenever someone tells me they don't like Christmas or they hate Christmas or Christmas is the worse time of year or something along those lines.

I found myself this year starting to get the attitude of, Oooooh it's Christmas again. And I started to think, how can I make this Christmas season personal for me.
Christmas is supposed to be a time of year where everyone is happy. And it's not about you being happy. It's about making the world happy. About connecting with the humans around you. I believe Charles Dickens said it perfectly in his novel, "A Christmas Carol."

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

I think that we also need to realize that this is one time of year we have a responsibility to make others happy. Not because we are asked to, not because we have an obligation, but because that's what you DO. To make this year better, I have decided for the next month I am going to focus on two things: gratitude and service.
I am going to focus more on the things I'm grateful for, the things that have been given to me in my life, the things i have and do that make my life as wonderful as it is. The other thing I'm going to focus on is service. On how I can make life happier, even if for a moment. Someone asked me how you find opportunities for service, and I realized, it doesn't have to be a big act that changes someone's life. It could be a smile, or opening a door, or participating in sunday school class, etc. Service is just about being aware of those around you and what you can do to make their day a little brighter. It's about being aware of someone other than yourself. :)
So it is the most wonderful time of the year, as long as we focus on what this season is really about, not about ME ME ME. Because if one stops worrying about one's self, then one will really be happy.
The other day, my friend asked me about my favorite tradition at Christmas. I said, after the nativity, after the kids go to sleep, my brothers and sisters and I stay up and help Santa. And watching how excited and happy everyone is to give to others and surprise....this night is the reason I love Christmas. Because no one is concerned about themselves, they understand Santa and why it's important to believe. He's more than just a jolly rotund man in a red suit. Santa is so much more. And watching my brothers and sisters and in-laws Christmas Eve is a reminder of what Christmas is really about.
So..."for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset....and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!"
--So Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you find a way to love and enjoy Christmas and have the most happy season in the world.