Another Week Sept.26-Oct.2

I’m so glad that September is over. It was a busy, messy, box-filled, work-filled, travel-lacking month. Darin worked long hours and I did the rest of the stuff which included avoiding rooms and rooms of boxes. Oh, and piles and piles of laundry. It was clean laundry, so I should get points for that much.


Finally on Thursday Darin took a “use or lose” day and we unpacked a room of boxes! I think it was when he saw my face and knew he’d better “use” it before I “lose” it. I felt so accomplished, when I was inside the room, but as soon as I stepped out…BAM! met with multiple messes as a result of 1 clean room. Moving stinks. Big!

Friday, another “use or lose” day, so we took out the van seats and loaded 3 kids in the van and headed to that wonderland called, IKEA. We wondered and wondered. I got multiple ideas for reinventing the wheel. That is my term for what I am doing because you see, closets and drawers exist, and I know the beauty of them. They just don’t exist in my German home, however, so I am trying to reinvent everything. Lets talk junk drawer for a minute…everyone has one. Dump it out. Now, where are you going to put all that necessary junky stuff without a drawer? Where do I put the flashlight or the stray battery? Tape, scissors, a handful of paperclips and an old keychain? Necessary junk. In bin and basket all over the place, that is where. Now I feel like it is put away, but I also feel like junk drawers are everywhere. Ugh. Back to IKEA…we picked up a bunch of shelves for the bathrooms and bedrooms, so that I can get towels and clothes off the floor and onto something useful. We got a van full of stuff, but plan on making another trip in the near future to fill in the holes that pop up every time we open a box and I’ve got rooms of boxes left.

The weather has been beautiful, an Indian summer my landlord said. But by Mittwoch (Wednesday) it should all change. Mittwoch is the answer that all Germans give. The weather must always change on a Wednesday. One of the only neighborly phrases that I know is “Beautiful weather today, isn’t it?” (In German of course…I’m practically fluent) Whenever I see my cute little old man neighbor out in his amazing garden (his gardening reminds me of my grandpa Davis, but he smiles more than grandpa did and I don’t think he goes to a pool hall for lunch) I talk about the weather. He then says something about Mittwoch and how it is all ‘a changing. My landlord, Mittwoch. What is it about Mittwoch? I asked Darin how they all know that it will be getting bad by Wednesday and that funny guy told me that they probably watch TV. OH, TV! I have totally forgotten what TV is. I forgot that you could watch things like weather and news. Mittwoch, another reason for me to get a TV. Darin is always working, but I really miss TV. Hopefully by Mittwoch.

A note on how we watch conference because I know that my grandma is wondering about it.  We are 8 hours ahead of live conference, so we watched the Saturday morning session on the computer while eating dinner.  We didn't watch the Saturday night session.  Sunday morning Darin and Davis went to the church for the rebroadcast of the Priesthood session.  I thought that they should have gone at 2 AM and watched it live, but I'm not a guy and don't get to vote.  While they were gone the kids and I watched another session.  We watched the Sunday morning session during dinner again and we'll have to try to fit in the other sessions.  It all came in rather well, but occasionally it would cause the speakers to repeat themselves or stutter a bit, which would cause Jag to laugh and then repeat it over and over interspersed with laughter.  That kid!  He was also the first to point out when he was SURE that a person wasn't a native English speaker.  He is smart as a whip. We really enjoyed being able to watch conference, but to be able to watch it at our time of choosing was pretty awesome as well.