The Most Wonderful Time

Mitch and I have had nothing but a wonderful time with friends and family since we got home.

It all started after a long trip home with flight delays and Mitch getting sick. With low morale we had the best surprise from Nathan and Adrienne sitting at our door for us when we got home:
Then we enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal, first with my family, then with Mitch's. Making apple pies with mom was a highlight
Then I hosted a bridal shower for Stacey--it was only fitting since she hosted mine. I can't wait for her to get married tomorrow!

While Mitch and I were in Vernal I got to make all these SUPER CUTE scarves with my two sister-in-laws Lauren and Keera.
Then Mitch got upset when I made him smile for the picture with the Provo Tabernacle burning down.
And lastly, but not least, I got to spend Saturday with my Aunt and cousin making homemade chocolate candies. My talented cousin Alissa made me a matching apron--it fits perfectly. These two ladies taught me how to make Chocolate Souflee and Creme Brulee. Needless to say, they are the best and I love them.
Up next: Stacey's wedding, skiing, Christmas in Alpine, Parties with friends, and New Year's in Vernal. December is turning out yet again to be the most wonderful time of the year.

Too bad it will end on a low when my sister and her family move away to Florida (but what a fun vacation it will be to visit them there)

Apology

We all knew it would happen--as soon as I got home from Belgium my blogging frequency seriously declined. Once school starts up again in January and I'm required to use a computer more, I WILL post more. But for now, my lame excuse is that I want to post some pictures of what I have done since I have been home. I haven't gotten around to putting the pictures on my computer yet though, so I am procrastinating. My apologies. But until then, HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

And don't worry, I'm still keeping up to date on your blogs! :)

Welcome Christmas

After a sad good-bye at work to the best co-interns and supervisors,

Mitch and I enjoyed our Thanksgiving by packing and eating a traditional Belgian meal (to not remind of us home where everyone else was feasting)
And then on Friday and Saturday we got to enjoy the Christmas markets in Brussels and Brugge. The one in Brussels is FABULOUS with the giant Christmas tree and Nativitiy in the middle of the grand square, then the long street of lights, booths, an out-door skating rink, a tobagan run, and a Ferris Wheel! Who needs the London Eye when you have Brussels at Christmas?

The Christmas Tree looks rather small compared to the giant building, but it was huge.

It has been a terrific end to a terrific adventure. Now I hope the last day of cleaning goes by quick enough so that we can come home! (Pray for good weather too)

One Week....

In one week I will be on one of these

GOING HOME

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Harry Potter and the Scriptures

I consider myself a Harry Potter Fanatic. I've read all the books at least three times, and my favorite ones perhaps 4 or 5 times. I love the movies, even if some of them are cheesy or poorly made, and I have been known to day dream of life at Hogwarts on occasion.

On facebook, everyone is talking about how amazing Harry Potter is. Its almost as if its a contest to see who exactly is more devoted to Harry. And I found myself wondering what the world would be like if everyone loved the scriptures as much as they love Harry Potter.

I even wished myself once that the scriptures could be as fun to read as Harry is. I think I would read the scriptures A LOT more if they were. Then I realized, there are so many stories from the scriptures that ARE just as good.

For example, think of having to work for 14 YEARS to marry the love of your life? If that were a classic book it could have potential to top Pride and Prejudice for the ultimate love story. And what about the war stories in Alma? There are so many good ones that could beat out the Patriot or Gladiator for the epic battle movie. We think watching a man trying to survive on an isalnd like in Cast Away is fascinating; well what about watching people try and survive in a boat "tight like unto a dish" without having any idea of where they are going?

I have learned two important principles that I need to always remeber. First, the scriptures aren't meant to entertain, they are meant to to teach us faith and obedience. And second, maybe I should devote my heart better to the scriptures than to Harry, because the stories are just as motivating, and what is even cooler-they are TRUE stories.

So, I still love Harry, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to read the books over and over again. But I've decided to instead of devoting my time to telling people on facebook about how obsessed I am with Harry, to make a better effort to apply that love and devotion to the scriptures. I think it will be very rewarding.

And P.S. Harry Potter does have some awesome ties to our relgious beliefs. Thanks to Allison I am learning some really neat connections.

Do you ever think about which scripture stories would make for the greatest books or movies?

Bing

Mitch and I are finished with our big excursions through Europe. We are slowing down and getting ready to go home. Our internships are slowing down as well; my supervisor isn't giving me any big projects since I won't be here to finish them. So work is a little slow, and I'm afraid the next couple weeks might be a little slow as well. Sure it will be wonderful to enjoy Belgium one last week, but even then....we are running out of things to do in Brussels.

Tonight I decided to pull out Bing; afterall, there is no Thanksgiving here in Europe--so its on to Christmas. And thank goodness for Bing, he took all my worries of a slow week away as I sat and dreamed about a wonderful christmas at home with family. I love you Bing.

Counting Down

I think the reality that I am leaving in just over 2 weeks is starting to sink in. But luckily this week I had a couple things to distract me from the sadness of leaving beautiful Europe.

First, Liz, who is living in Prague with Mitch's cousin right now came to visit us. In two short days we showed her Brussels, Ypres, and Brugge. We also froze our bottoms off in the cold rain and wind. Thanks for coming Liz, we love you and miss you already! For the rest of you who did not come and visit us. . . oh well, your loss I guess.

Since Thursday was Armistice Day (end of WWI) we went to Ypres to see a parade and ceremony at a famous battle site that is now a huge memorial. There were thousands of these little poppies covering the place to honor the fallen soldiers. It was very touching.
This was part of the parade of solidiers. . .

One of the things that is making me more than anxious to go back home is that it is now almost always raining and cold, and I suffer from lack of good rain shoes. I know it will be freezing back at home, but at least I will have the proper attire. I'm too cheap to buy it here for 2 weeks.

So for now, I'm mostly excited to go home. But then I look at cute pictures like this one and know that as soon as I do get home I'll miss the excitment of discovering a new place in Europe every weekend and having Mitch all to myself all the time. But the longer I am here the more I miss family and friends. . . it is tough not to have both worlds huh?

Praha

Prague was one of the highlights of our entire stay in Europe for sure. This city is a MUST-SEE in Europe. It really is one of the coolest, most impressive cities. Every where you turned in Prague you had an awesome view.

Besides being in this amazing city, we got to stay with Mitch's cousin Heather and her awesome family. It was sooo nice to be in a house again with delicious home-cooked meals and kids running all over the place. We truly felt at home.

This is what Mitch and I will look like in 12 years with six kids. . . these are Heather's kids that we got to hang out with. Sooo cute!

Heather and Spence took us out to eat at an authentic Czech Resturaunt in a small little town. It was super yummy. I am not a fan of the pickeled cabbage however. After dinner we went and saw Prague at night.

"Czech" out Chuck Norris--I was so excited to come up with that to put on the blog

For some reason he is everywhere in Prague. . .

Throughout Western Europe I could see the scars of the world wars. But in Prague, it was different. I saw the scars of communism. The patches in the columns are all spots of bullet holes from 1989. Cool huh?

This dark, ugly, cement building is a communist-era building. Most of Prague has beauitful, ornate buildings, but every now and then you see these ugly buildings that remind us of the past.

It was a wonderful trip and we hope to make it back there some day.

Thank you so much, Darrington Family.

London

Yes, we had a blast. We did it all--we saw Westminster Abbey (loved the Poet's Corner), St. Paul's Cathedral (soo impressive inside), WICKED, Tower of London, British Musuem (my favorites were the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon stuff), British Library (Magna Carta, Guttenburg Bible, Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre, etc.), Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, etc.

We wish we could have seen more plays since there are so many good ones playing. The Underground Tube can be quite a mess, but you really feel like you are in a tube. And since London is sooo expensive, we stayed in some somewhat cheap but totally sketchy places. What an adventure. We got to ride inside a bus inside a train inside the chunnel in our excursion to and from London (I have pictures to prove it). On the way there about two hours before we got to London the little boy in the seats across from us pooped his pants--it stunk so bad. But other than that, we LOVED it. We plan on spending a lot more time in the UK one day.

Halloween

So Halloween is totally an American imposed holiday here. The kids do not dress up and go trick-or-treating, but all the stores still sell halloween decorations anyway.


Hooray for our ward that threw a Halloween party for the primary and youth so the kids did get to have a trick-or-treating experience. Mitch and I were recruited last-minute to help with the party since we are in the primary now. So we came up with very improvised costumes.


Mitch was a pirate. He had way too much fun planning his costume instead of doing homework. He used our umbrella for his hook and made a sword out of wooden spoons.
I was a cat with some creep gummy fangs. I made my ears out of our cereal box. The red eye makes me look scary! I bet you wouldn't like to get bit by me!

These are some of our cute primary kids getting ready to do the donut eating contest.

Mitch is trying his hardest.

And today, one of my supervisors--the sweetest lady, got me this chocolate jack-o-lantern stuffed with chocolates! She said she wanted me to enjoy this because she knew that otherwise I would be missing Halloween back home! Cute huh? It made my day!

Anyway, we are celebrating Halloween this weekend in LONDON!!!!!

What are you doing? HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Tags and Little Women

Do you remember in junior high when you would get all those mass-emails that you had to answer a bunch of questions. And then at the end you had to forward it on to several other people in order for some special wish to come true? Sadly I think I gave in and filled one of those out once a upon a time, and I have regreted it ever since.

Well, this pretty lady decided to tag me in a question game. Since I know the intended purpose was not some mass email thing, and I love her dearly and the questions she asks, I'm going to answer them. But I'm not going to tag new people to answer these questions. Instead since I know there are about 7 of you who regularly read this blog, you can think of how you would answer these questions yourself (you don't even have to blog about it, but you are more than welcome to).



Okay, here we go:



1. Assuming your life had a soundtrack, what song would accompany the happiest moments and what song would accompany the most embarrassing ones? Why?

Answer: The two worst questions someone could ask me are 1. What is my favorite movie? and
2. What is my favorite song?. I never have a specific answer. I feel I am too complex of a being to get the full satisfaction of every aspect of life out of just one movie or just one song. There are simply too many good ones out there. Therefore, I have several favorite movies and songs. And on the mention of songs--I'm so bad at remembering all the words to songs, let alone know their meaning, to determine whether a song idealizes a part of my life.

Lame answer? tough

2. Would you rather live your entire life in Pocatello, Idaho or Beaver, Utah

Answer: Beaver--closer to Lake Powell. Enough said.

3. If you could travel through time, to which era would you want to travel and who would you want to meet?

Answer: This question does not say I have to travel BACK through time...so I would pick to go FORWARD in time and meet two people 1. Myself as an old woman that has already lived a full life, and 2. Christ at the Millenium.

4. Which sister do you identify with most and why do you think that is?




Answer: Okay this question is why I even felt like this whole thing was worthy of a blog post.

Background information:
My Mother's favorite movie is Little Women.
I have 6 sisters

My answer to this question is totally lame again--I feel I relate to them all in a certain way. But that isn't what matters. I want to just tell you how much I love Little Women.

This story reminds me a lot of my life--growing up in a predominately female house with sisters of such different personalities but as the best of friends. My mother would also be the one, if I were sick with fever, to bring the fever down instead of the doctor.

Mitch is my best friend and the person I would pick to spend forever with; but there are some bonds that can only be made between girls. I think that is why only women truly appreciate masterpieces like Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, and Pride and Prejudice.

Cheers to my sisters and the special bond that we have--especially dear Katie who spent so many nights on the couch in the basement with me so we could watch Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, or Pride and Prejudice together.

Observations

Do you ever wonder where the world is going?

I do. Whenever someone brings up the second law of thermodynamics, or that the world keeps spinning into chaos, my head starts spinning into thoughts.
While I've been here in Europe I've been formulating pictures in my mind of where Europe is headed by observirng what is around me. For example:

Bikes. With the exception of smoking, Europe is going green. Bikes are the new cars. Not only are they cheaper, but they are easier to deal with in a crowded city and they save the air.

Public, open-air Urinals. Europe seems to have found a way to charge for all the necessities in life. Drinking fountains are unheard of, and public restrooms for free? Not a chance. But....boys will be boys, and as a way to keep 'em from just going in the streets, they invented these public urinals. You can find them in the middle of the sidewalk, which is most convenient as Mitch would say. So besides finding a way to charge for everything, the world is also becoming incerasingly innovative.

(Sadly this innovative idea is only for men. The elimination of gender discrimination is an innovative idea still needing improvement.)

Market Integration. As an economics student, I love this idea. I would argue that the pros far out weigh the cons for more market integration. A Domino's Pizza in Amsterdam is just another example of local companies expanding to other markets. Some people would call this "Westernization" but there is a lot more to it that they fail to mention. I won't dwelve into this topic just now but I'll just mention that I think it is a direction the world is headed--more cultural and economic integration. We are all entitled to our own opinions on this matter.

The world may be increasinly forward thinking, looking for ways to expand markets, or innovate, or save the environment, but the world is not forgetful. Most of Europe has different ideological views than I do, but understanding thier past makes me know why they view things differently. I observe that people in Europe do not forget the wars that have torn this continent apart. I admire them for their remembrance, for I truly believe that it is critical for the world to remember and learn from the past.

What have you observed?

Callings

Mitch and I got a calling in our ward--primary workers! We were excited but a little nervous because we were assigned to the french-speaking sunbeams (the youngest kids). That meant just Mitch could really communicate with them. So Sunday we went to primary for the first time, and when it was time for music time the Primary President said, "okay, you two are up!" What!?!!? We didn't know we were in charge of music time too! So we winged it on the spot. And to top it off the primary program is in a month--two Sundays of which we will be gone. So we have two more times left to practice with the children before the program. Don't worry, its not like we have to learn all these new songs in English; no we get to learn them in French too, and even sometimes in portuguese, russian, and sign language! (thank goodness I took ASL 101 recently). I'm sure the program will turn out great cause the children are so stinking cute, but it won't be because of my fabulous french pronunciation and conducting skills. Needless to say, Mitch and I will be praying for help the next few weeks! Wish us luck!

Half Way

We are at the half-way mark. We have used up half of our time here in Europe. Did it go by quickly to you? It did for me.

Now I wonder if the second half will feel shorter or longer. . .

what do you think?

Amster, Amster

. . . . yes I know you were thinking it (Dam, Dam, Dam).


I got to go to Amsterdam!



Don't worry though, we avoided the Red Light district (the prostitute area of town) and did not go in this Sex Musuem. I found it amusing that all the people in line were men and this guy came out smiling so I took a picture.


We did get to enjoy the flower market however, and see all the fabulous bulbs on sale--unfortunately we won't be here in the spring to enjoy the tulips in bloom in the fields.

We loved wandering the streets here. It was so beautiful with the fall and the leaves changing and falling. The buildings are so picture-esque and EVERYONE rides a bike. I loved it here-but I would have to complain about the city not being very "pedestrian friendly"--I nearly got killed by a biker because I thought I was walking on the sidewalk and all of a sudden it changed into a bike lane! If I had a bike there, I would love it though.

That says "I am Amsterdam"

We got to go to Anne Frank's house (hiding place) and the Van Gough musuem. The Van Gough musuem was by far one of my favorite musuems ever--it may be because I love so many of Van Gough's works as well as Monet and Daubigny who were also featured.

It was a beautiful day in Amsterdam and we enjoyed ourselves immensely!
How was your weekend?

Uncomfortable

Sometimes I feel like I get a slap to the face that reminds me I am an outsider in a foreign land.

For example, when the young lady at the cash register tells me something in French and I have no idea what she is saying so she rolls her eyes at me and says something else to the customers behind me and they all start laughing . . . then I feel uncomfortable.

Or when the girl at the other cash-register asks me if I speak English, and then tries to pull the incorrect change scheme on me--at least I know I have some decent math skills--"non, non" I say to her when she tries to short me 5 euro. She glares at me and gives me the rest of my money. I look back and see everyone in line staring at me. . . I feel uncomfortable

Maybe I should just find a different supermarket. But they have my favorite cereal, so, for now, I'll suck up the uncomfortable, because it is worth it.

Brugge

If ever there were a city to just drop your current life and run away to and discover the most blissful life, BRUGGE is the city! Oh man, please come visit me right now and I will take you here, I promise it won't dissappoint. And I was so relieved to actually discover that Belgium has a fall season (there are not enough trees in downtown Brussels to do fall justice). I think Mitch and I may retire here.

And, I'm still enjoying the frittes, waffles, and chocolate beyond measure. Please don't judge when Mitch and I come back heavier. We are doing our best to supplement our diet with some apples, broccoli, and lots of walking.