Yvonne

Guest Blog Post- Songs

2012-02-23T16:52:00.002+01:00

So, this is actually Giuliana writing this blog post this week! Pretty exciting, right? I thought it'd be cool if I guest posted this week. So here I am.

Okay so what has been on my mind a lot lately? Songs. I'm not really sure why, but I've just been singing a lot. Especially when Mom and I went to Pirmasens on the train, I couldn't stop singing! I don't know why! But the songs "Set fire to the Rain" by ADELE and "Dear John" by Taylor Swift were just stuck in my head all day!

Later that day, Hailey Shumate (she also came with us to Pirmasens) told me that "Set Fire to the Rain" would always remind her of me from now on. Then it got me thinking, what songs remind me of which people? I came up with a lot just for our family. Here are the results.

Dad -

1. Without a doubt- Hotel California by Eagles reminds me of my dad! Every time we listen to his iPod that is the first song we hear.

"BUT THEY JUST CAN'T KILL THE BEAST!" Haha

2. Of course, this song reminds me of my dad just because he's the one who first showed me this song, and its truly one of my favorite old-ish songs. It brings back such good memories! :)

3. The next song is one of the FEW contemporary songs that my dad actually likes. I also love how he changes the lyrics to " And my daddy said stay away from Giuliana!"

Listen to Love Story (it should start playing when you go to the website)
(it won't let me listen to that song here in Germany on Youtube)

4. The last song that reminds me of my dad is.. "Fire" by The Pointer Sisters! If you've noticed, a lot of the songs my daddy likes have to do with Romeo and Juliet. Just saying. Hahaha

Bryan -
The only reason I bought this song on iTunes was because Bryan kept on singing this song over Christmas break and it kinda grew on me! So here is "I Just Wanna Run" by Downtown Fiction. An alternate version he likes to sing is "I just wanna smootch!"

Clint-

Remember when Clint set the background of our little Nokia phone to Lady Madonna, that he composed on the phone? Well I will forever associate that song with him!

Spencer-

1. Of course. Is there any question why this reminds me of Spencer?

2. Bootsaneenee! Bootsaneenee! Bootsaneene Bootsanee-nay!

Mom-

She used to hate this song, but now she thinks its catchy. I really don't associate many song with Mom because we like the same music. But this song really does remind me of her!

Listen to Fire Burning by Sean Kingston (you will probably not like it) but oh well :) Mom likes it. Because it says "birthday cake" in the lyrics.

Songs are funny, like that. I have so many good memories associated with these songs! I'm glad I got to share!

~Giuliana

The Dentist-Then and Now

2012-02-16T16:39:00.001+01:00

When I was growing up, I was never afraid or nervous to go to the Dentist. In fact, I quite looked forward to going to the dentist because I knew that when my check up was done I would get to pick a toy out of the "treasure box". We always went to the same dentist, Dr. Gilbert. He had an office
quite close to our house and usually my mom drove me but as I got older, I often got to ride my bike. He had a small dental office on Union Street on the upstairs level of this building that also had tenants living in the building. The waiting room was the worst part of his office because in that day and age people were allowed to smoke and there was always some smoker sitting there waiting to be called in for their appointment. Also the music that was played in the office was from WROW which was was a station that played horrible elevator music. The good thing about his office was he always had some "Highlights" magazines and I could catch up on the latest issues. When I was in elementary school and had a dentist appointment, I only saw Dr. Gilbert. There was no dental hygienist at that time that looked me over and cleaned my teeth. I suppose Dr. Gilbert did it all. I do remember he had a secretary or office manager who handled the appointments and billing but that was about it. She sat at a desk against a wall and there was always a white florescent light shining above her appointment book. She was always the one to call me in. As Dr. Gilbert worked on my teeth he would often hum to the bad elevator music that played in his office. His hum was quite nasal but I'm thinking he must have liked that kind of music. Sometimes he would even break out with the lyrics of the song but usually he was just humming along. I must have been in 4th or 5th grade when I found out I had a cavity. I was not scared to get a filling and in fact it proved to be quite an enjoyable experience. Why was it so enjoyable? Because Dr. Gilbert used Nitrous Oxide! Every time I had a cavity filled, I got nitrous oxide. I remember being in the chair and he would put the mask on me and start the nitrous oxide. What a sensation, as if I was moving futher away into a tunnel and yet there I sat. I was still aware of everything he said to me but the sensation was most enjoyable. At that time I didn't even realize the numbing shot was painful. Everyone always called Nitrous oxide, laughing gas and I couldn't understand why it was called laughing gas as I never laughed. One day, when I was probably 13 or so, I found myself at the dentist getting a cavity filled. I got some laughing gas and my mind wandered to something that struck me as funny and I started laughing. I realized then why it was called laughing gas because it was really hard to stop laughing about this dumb thing I had thought of. Ahhh...these wonderful memories of the dentist. By the time I got to high school Dr. Gilbert had hired himself a hygienist and that was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. She was alright but I really liked Dr. Gilbert as he was friendly to me and pretty funny. Below is a picture of Dr. Gilbert. He is the man, second from the left wearing the plaid jacket. He looks just as I remember him although I remember he wore glasses at some point but probably when he was older. I was 11 years old when this picture was taken.

So, why am I blogging about the dentist? Mostly because yesterday I went to the dentist and I looked around and realized how much dentistry has changed through the years. First of all I spend most of my time with the hygienist. She sets me up in a chair, gives me a bib and safety glasses and then she herself puts on gloves, a mask and safefy glasses as well. Thank you very much aids virus. I don't think Dr. Gilbert had any of this stuff on except a white or green dental jacket. I'm wondering if he wore any kind of gloves or if he just washed his hands a lot, but I just don't recall that detail and I'm thinking he didn't wear gloves when I was young. After the hygienist is done scraping away at my teeth, blowing air on them, brushing them, flossing them and then squirting water on them and sucking it up with a tube, I wait for the dentist to show up and look at my teeth. He spends about 1 minute of his time poking around and making pronouncements about my teeth while the hygienist is busily recording everything he says. Then that's it, I'm free to go. I hardly said an entire sentence to the dentist and I'm not even sure what his name was. I think it was Dr. Lee, but I only know that because they have pictures of all the workers in this Dental office and I noticed his picture and his name underneath the picture. So, gone are the days of a sink to rinse and spit into next to the dental chair. Gone are the days when the dentist does all of the cleaning, and brushing. Gone are the days of laughing gas. Gone are the days when the dentist will actually have a nice conversation with you. I should make one more comment about laughing gas. When I was in college a conversation was struck up about going to the dentist. All my friends told me how they hated the dentist. When I asked why they said, because it was painful! I remember asking them, "Didn't your dentist use laughing gas?" They all looked at me like I had corn growing out of my ears. I came to realize that most dentists did not use nitrous oxide on their patients. In fact, since leaving home and having to find many dentists through the years, I have yet to find one that uses it. I have come to dread going to the dentist because it mostly means pain. My appointment yesterday was the least painful in years. I got a good report except I was informed that I needed to replace 3 fillings as they were very old. So old in fact, I'm quite sure they are fillings Dr. Gilbert put in when I was a kid. I couldn't help think, soon to be gone the last physical evidence of Dr. Gilbert's workings on my teeth. The one thing I know about getting these fillings replaced; it certainly won't be as enjoyable as the first time they got filled. Three cheers for Dr. Gilbert!

Sushezi!

2012-02-09T22:22:00.001+01:00

The first time I ever tried Sushi was in Alabama. Yes, Alabama! Clint was getting ready for his mission to Taiwan and right before we were to leave for Utah I told Clint I would take him our to lunch. He picked this place called Tokoyo, which was a Japenese Restaurant right there in Prattville. Clint showed me what to order, and how to eat it. I was hooked! Since that day I have loved Sushi and have since tried many different kinds of Sushi at different places. There is a place in Utah called Sushi-ya that my boys love going to. You can pay 20 dollars for all you can eat Sushi but you better make sure you can eat what you order, otherwise they will make you pay extra for what you don't eat. It's a good place to try all different kinds of Sushi. So, recently Giuliana had a really good Laurels class activity. They asked Sister Ford who is 100% Japenese to come in and teach them how to make Sushi. That evening they walked out with some beautiful looking Sushi.Giuliana told me that it was quite easy and she thought we could make it at home. I was excited at the prospect and went out and bought all the ingredients to make our own homemade Sushi. Weeks went by and we never got around to making this Sushi. Then one day Misa Ford asked our family to come over for a Sushi night at their house. Did we ever! It just so happened Spencer and Bryan were home for the holidays and they were really looking forward to this dining experience. This experience didn't disappint and I found out that sushi can be a build your own experience-kind of like building a taco. It doesn't have to be little round discs. It can be cone shaped or taco shaped. We had all sorts of things to put in it as well like, shrimp, chicken, (cooked of course), smoked salmon, pickled radish, cucumber, avocado, imitation crab and rice. It was a wonderful experience.

As I was straining my brain on what to get Giuliana for Christmas I came across an interesting gadget. It is called a Sushezi and it makes Sushi. I read the reviews on it and it sounded pretty good so I got it for her. She loved it! Now all we had to do was try it out to see if it really worked. When we heard Mark Gillespie got his mission call to Japan we decided in honor of his mission call we would make a batch of Sushi for dinner using the Sushezi.

Here is what it looks like out of the box. It opens up and you take the plunger thing out. You fill up the cavity with rice and then put whatever you like in the middle, shrimp, tuna avocado, whatever. Then you snap it closed like the top picture and you take the plunger and push it out of the end!

You push it out onto some seaweed paper and wrap the paper around it and wet the seam so it's closed. Cut it in slices and....................

Walla! Beautiful Sushi. Pretty cool huh! We put avocado and shrimp an in one. crab and cucumber in the other. Both were delicious. We dipped them in soy sauce mixed with wasabi. Delish!

Victorian Day

2012-02-02T20:34:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago, Giuliana had to participate in Victorian Day. This is a day she was not supposed to use technology such as computers, cars, TV's, radio, or dishwashers. She was supposed to spend her day doing things that were being done in Vicotorian days. Well, I have a vague idea of when the Victorian Age was and I believe it was most of the 1800's and perhaps even early 1900's. I suppose Giuliana is studying about Britain because when I think of the 1800's in the US I think of the civil war, I think of the wild west, and I think of expansion. I don't think about refined people in refined clothes sipping tea and visiting manors for weeks at a time. (Yes, I've read Pride and Predjudice!) Anyway, if you have been reading my posts you saw how Giuliana was dressed as I posted some pictures of her. I thought it would be fun to post the video she made of her Victorian Day. She handed this video in instead of writing a report about it and her teacher loved it. I didn't realize I was featured in it until it was a completed project and she showed it to her class! How embarassing, I'm actually in my pajamas but luckily my face isn't featured. Enjoy!

So speaking of Victorian day, I actually own 2 pieces of furniture that come from that time period. The first one that many of you have seen is my grandfather clock. I bought this at an antique store it it comes froms Leed's England. It is approximately 200 years old, with a hand painted face. I really love it although it doesn't keep excact time I often look at it and wonder whose house it was in and who owned it.

This second piece of furniture is not from England at all so technically it is probably not "Victorian". But it comes from the same time period. This piece of furniture is called a "Fire Trunk" This furniture was used in a mill and the top of it can lift off like a trunk. You can see the handles on the side. So if there was a fire they didn't need to get the whole piece out. They could store their most important documents on the top half and lift it off the base and make a run for it. Anyway, I'm just doing my part in honor of Giuliana's Victorian Day!

Talents

2012-01-26T12:04:00.001+01:00

I've always wanted to be artistic. I know it runs in my family because I have siblings that are really artistic. My brother Eric is really good at drawing as is my sister Deanne. One day I asked Deanne, "How do you know how to draw things so they look like the thing you are trying to draw?" She replied, "Oh, I just think about it in my mind and then I draw it." Okay, I do that too, but something happens from my brain to my hand and it doesn't look like the thing I'm trying to draw." I mean, I know exactly what a dog looks like but I think my brain doesn't add enough details like proportion. I'm not sure what the problem is but I cannot draw just from my mind. If I have a simple picture to copy I can usually get it to look somewhat similar to the original, but most people would not want my copy. Sadly I did not get that artistic gene that runs in my family-and it's something I've always wanted. Giuliana got a gift in the mail from a friend of hers who is a wonderful artist. He is Giuliana's age and when someone has a birthday or something to celebrate he often draws something for them and gives it to them as a gift. Giuliana has collected some little drawings from this young man and has them hanging all over her room. The above picture Giuliana received int he mail yesterday as a Christmas gift. I was stunned, as was Giuliana. She loved, loved, loved it! I started thinking of all the talented people around me and the things they have created and given to me or let me use for the time being. As I walked from room to room yesterday I saw my house was filled with wonderful items created by others. I will share some of them.

Christina, my cute little niece sent me these for Christmas. She used her artistic skills to make me the cute necklace on the right and then covered a notebook with fun paper for me to use. I love them both and I will use both the notebook and wear the necklace. It was a fun surprise to get that.

This is a picture my friend AJ Fowler painted for me when I lived in Italy. I was her visiting teacher and one day I noticed a beautiful painting of some Texas Bluebonnets in her livingroom. I told her how much I admired the picture and she commented that she didn't think she did a very good job on it as she is just learning to paint. It was then I realized that she had painted the picture that I thought was so lovely. I asked if she would be willing to try painting a picture for me of the Bay of Naples. She was reluctant but finally agreed-I even told her I would pay her-but she didn't want to be paid. In the end this is the picture I received. I love it for 2 reasons, because I loved the way it looked and because AJ painted for me. I did end up giving her some money for it just because I knew she put a lot of work into it.

My sister Laura made me this cute plate. It's perfect and I put it out every year at Thanksgiving time. Laura is really good at sewing and making these kind of craft things and it's always exciting to get something from her.

My sister-in-law Stacey is another artistic person. I received this picture for Christmas this year and it has been hanging in my house ever since.

I wish I could keep this but alas, Spencer made this in his wood shop class, so it's really his. I will just borrow it until he has a place of his own. Clint made a beautiful chest like this also but he kept his in Utah. Oh the talent that runs in our family!

Here is a sampler my mom made and turned it into a little quilt. I love samplers and have spent a lot of time doing X-stich samplers, but this is one of my favorites.

A cute ceramic pot Giuliana created. You would think this pot was for me since there is a "Y" on it but I'm pretty sure Giuliana will take it to BYU with her when she goes to college! But at least I get to enjoy it in the house as long as Giuliana lives here.

Okay, this looks a bit cluttery but this is a cute utility box Bryan made for me one year. It sits atop a desk in Spencer's old room and it was filled with office supplies but it looks like I need to clean it out. Again, I think someday Bryan will want it back but I'll use it for now.

I have several things Deanne has made me but I'm always in awe of her drawing talent. Here is a T-shirt she designed for my Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. I thought was so cute, although it's a little hard to see from this picture. Believe me it's adorable.

Maybe there is a wood working gene that runs in our family. Here is a frame my brother Doug designed and gave to me. It hold these small church posters that we love. Giuliana has hijacked the frame and put it in her room, but luckily for me, when she leaves for college, the frame stays!

Here is a metal toolbox of sorts that Clint made in his metal shop. It turned out beautifully and looks better than the things I find in the store.
So as you can see I am surrounded by incredibly gifted people who share their gifts and talents with me. Now I'm not trying to say I don't have any talents because I think I do, they are just not those visible artistic talents that I've always longed for. The past 10 years or so I have tried my hand at crocheting. I have spent hours trying to decipher directions and practicing stitches. I am not like my grandmother who can whip out a full size blanket in a weeks time. My blankets often take 2-3 years to complete and I'm always amazed that I was able to do it. They are not the best looking blankets in the world but I work at it-what I'm saying is, it doesn't come naturally. The more I do the more confidence I have gained. I mostly have made these blankets for my children, but every once in a while I'm brave enough to make one for someone else besides my children. Here are a few blankets I have made that past couple of years.

A blanket I made for Giuliana. It is folded in half in this picture but it was pretty fun to make.

A blanket I made for Bryan for college. After I was done, I couldn't believe I actually made it.

My most recent completed project. This is a blanket I made for Spencer for college. It turned out quite nice. Even though I need a pattern for every project I do, and even though I can't think of how to do things without directions,and even though I don't know how to put colors and patterns together, I am thankful for the people who do know how to do this and share it with me as it brings me a lot of joy. Yay for talents!

Exercise!

2012-01-19T22:49:00.001+01:00

I usually go to the gym several times a week and work out on the treadmills. This week, however, Giuliana had Monday and Tuesday off so I had no need to go into the base so instead I told her she could come with me and walk 4 miles on the bike path. I actually prefer the gym because the treadmills have a TV attached to them, (not that it makes it any less painfull), I can control the speeds in which I walk and I don't have to deal with the elements outside. Well it was a beautiful sunny day on Monday and although we have had mild weather all winter, it suddenly turned really cold. It was about 20 degrees outside and the frost on the ground never melted all day. and Giuliana got ready to go. The above picture shows what she decided to wear. I was a bit alarmed since it was freezing cold and told her she had to at least wear a sweatshirt which she did but under that sweatshirt is a t-shirt that she thought would suffice. As you can see below, I'm wearing jeans, with long johns underneath and about 4 long sleeved shirts under my sweatshirt, along with gloves and a hat. As we started to walk, Giuliana started getting more and more embarrassed. We would pass a German couple and they would wait until we were about 10 feet in front of them and then they would start talking. I'm pretty sure I knew what they were saying. Probably something like, "Look at that silly American girl wearing shorts in this weather!" By the time we got home, her legs were bright red and she was pretty cold all over.

I convinced Giuliana to go walking with me again on Tuesday. Unfortunately, she was doing her "Victorian" day where she was only allowed to wear a skirt all day and not use any modern technology. So now she is still not really dressed appropriately for the weather but I think she was a lot warmer since she was wearing a down coat and a wool hat. Once again she felt embarrassed passing people on the bike path wearing a skirt in 20 degree weather.

We did notice her shadow when we were walking and noticed she made the perfect shadow of a teapot. I thnk it was that hat that really made her look like that.

Finally, Judging from how she was dressed to exercise these past days you wouldn't realize how incredibly smart and fashion conscious she really is. So here is a picture of her in her new glasses looking smart, and looking at her frames you can tell she really is fashion conscious!

England

2012-01-12T22:34:00.000+01:00

For Thanksgiving 2011 we decided to go to England instead of doing the traditional turkey dinner. Here are the highlights.

Okay, so it's not the Beatles but it's the closest we got to Abbey Road. We did however stop off at the British library and see the Beatles exhibit there. The British Library is pretty amazing in that it has a display of the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible, original writings and drawings displayed by Leonardo DiVinci and so much more! It's an incredible place to visit not only because it's free but it's full of history. I'm a little embarrassed to admit my favorite thing to look at was the Beatles exhibit. They had their music available to listen to on headphones too!

Yup, Paul and I decided to take a little side trip to Hogwarts. Good times.

Here we are in front of the London Eye. As you can see it's blue skies above and although a bit windy a good day to take a spin on it. So we did. It took about 30 minutes to make one rotation around but it was worth the money because you could see for miles and miles. Unusual weather for London but we were happy it cooperated for us.

Here you can see Giuliana and her friends jumping for joy because this clock is ticking the time down until the London Olympics. Behind the clock is the National Gallery and we popped in there for a few minutes and saw some amazing Monets and this historical painting below.

Paul was so excited when he saw this original painting. I think he used to teach about whatever this even is depicting in his History Class at the AF Academy. Sadly I do not know what it is all about.

Giuliana and her friend Allison eagerly awaiting the start of Wicked!

We found this church building as we were walking to the Natural History Museum. It is either being razed or renivated. I'm not sure which because we saw signs that said both. You can see it looks like there are offices attached to the church so we are not sure what the church used this building for. Maybe it was the mission office at one time. Who knows.

Check out this huge ship in a bottle. It was pretty cool looking and it was by the Olympic countdown clock.

This is a super old graveyard we would pass every morning on the way to catch a train, and then walk by it at night when we were going back to out hotel. It was pretty scary at night but I loved looking at the names and dates of the people buried there. There are some really old dates on those tombstones.

Here's my last picture. Yes, we did see all the historical sites too and so here's the only picture of a touristy site. I figure everyone has see the historical things a million times but thought I better include at least one picture so I have a record that I really was in England. This picture was taken from the London Eye and you can see Big Ben, Parliament, and West Minter Abbey. These are beautiful sites and I thought them particularly beautiful at night all lit up. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at night. I'm hoping to go back as England is now one of my favorite places of all time!

Plants and Trees

2012-01-04T10:35:00.000+01:00

In 2010 I received a beautiful Orchid from the German couple who rent their house to us. It had 2 beautiful blooms on it that lasted for months. Eventually, by March, the petals on the blooms fell off, one by one, and I was left with a funny looking plant. The plant has big green leaves on the bottom and the roots were climbing up our of the pot and then there was this green stick sticking up from the pot. I was told to just keep watering it once a week or so and maybe it would bloom again. So that's what I did. This past October I noticed the plant was changing. By mid November I had a gorgeous orchid once again but this time with 6 blooms! I love this Orchid and it brings some cheeriness to the dreary rainy days we often have in Germany.

Here is a close up view.

Here you can see the big green leaves and the roots trying to escape the pot. You can imagine what this plant looks like when the blooms fall off.

This is how it looks as of January 4, 2012. Beautiful!

We have had a really mild winter so far this year. This I am happy about. I took a few pictures in mid November just to show that I still had a Geranium in bloom and still had yellow leaves hanging on for dear life outside my kitchen window. Sadly the yellow leaves are gone but my Geranium is still alive and thriving on my back porch.

Here are my hedges in the back yard. Quite pretty in the autumn.

Here is a view out my back window. You can see the farmer behind us has a Christmas Tree farm.

Switzerland!

2011-11-11T18:34:00.000+01:00

Here we are sitting in front of the Swiss Temple. We could actually see the Swiss Temple out of our window at the hotel!

Paul wanted to get a picture of our hotel room. We stayed at the Etap Hotel which are very reasonable, clean, but super de duper small. What you see is pretty much the entire room. There is a double bed on the bottom with a bunk on top. There was one small window lined up perfectly to see the temple even though it was a few miles away. There is no closet but if you look closely you can see part of a hanger up by the 4th rung of the ladder. They provided about 3 hangers and you could hang your stuff on the side of the bed. Right next to the ladder is a tiny little shower and next to that is a tiny little toilet. It was standing room only in the shower and the bathroom. Neither of the doors to these two things locked. We didn't spend much time in the room but it really wasn't bad.

This is downtown Bern. We found a cool violin shop. Apparently this guy custom makes violins.

Giuliana and I standing by the big clock in center of Bern. I believe this is a 15th century clock tower but it was also a prison and a guard tower.

Can you guess what was sold in this shop? Yup, glasses.

This is the walkplatz in Bern. On each side is covered shopping and it's the longest covered shopping promanade in Europe. We bought some yummy Berliners, and even Giuliana found something she wanted for Christmas.

We decided to take a trip to Trummelbach falls but unfortunately they were closed. We found this cool waterfall instead.

Here we are in Grindewald. We hiked up this hiking trail from the village and we kept going farther and farther up the mountain and we kept seeing hotels randomly spread all over the mountain side. This of course is for all the skiers that will start descending on the mountain in 2 weeks. It was such a beautiful day, I hope they end up getting some snow because it was like a spring day that day.

We could hear the cow bells as we were hiking. They were off in the distance but it was so quiet that it was not hard to hear them. We finally spotted some cows in the distance grazing. This cow we saw on the way out of town. I think wearing a bell that big would be irritating but I suppose the cows are used to it. They clang at the slightest movement the cow makes.

2011-10-10T18:12:00.000+02:00

We had a great summer and we were happy that we had family members who came to visit us this past summer. This picture we took while Mark and Robin and family came to visit. We went to visit a city in Germany called Rothenberg and went into a cool cathedral. I thought this was a great picture of everyone singing in the choir seats. I'm sure we weren't supposed be in those choir seats but I thought it made for a great picture.

When Bryan came home from BYU we made him get a job. He was not exactly thrilled about doing that since he gets some ROTC pay every month after field training. He worked for about 2 months at the BX in the furniture dept. He hated the job but it paid for his imac he got right before school started. Here he is, hard at work listening to someone complain to him on the phone.

Right before Bryan left for field training in Alabama we took a quick trip to Italy to visit his old mission. We took our first stop in Sardenia and attended church at the nice building they have there. It was a really small branch but the people were nice even when I couldn't understand what they were saying.

From there we went to Rome and had to throw in our coins at Trevi Fountain. It was raining and so I look a little drenched in this picture.

From Rome we headed south to Naples and then took a day trip to Sorrento. Giuliana and Spencer had to try out the swimming and the water was beautiful. Sorrento is a nice little town and are know for their inlaid wood products and I think ceramics.

We met up with the Adams family in Rome and I think this is St Peter's cathedral, Vatican City. They were a fun family to be around and of course we went inside to see the Pieta. The girl next to Giuliana is the girl Spencer took to Prom this year.

Back to Naples. Eating Pizza Margarita. Yum Yum, one of the best things to do while visiting Napoli!

This is a typical site in Naples. People gingerly balance their trash until it can go no higher and then it tumles to the ground, and then people start the exercise all over again.

This is Ercolano. It's like a mini-pompeii except the art work was preserved magnificently from the ash that covered it up for centuries. They are still excavating parts of it and there is even original wood. I thought it was amazing.

In August we took a trip to the States. It was a little scary because we were flying Space Available and we weren't sure where we would end up. We actually ended up in Maine and so drove down to NY to visit Mom and Dad. One of the activities we did was kayaking on the Mohawk River. That was a lot of fun and I think we will do that again next time we visit.

Here's a nice family portrait, except we are missing Paul and Clint. I suppose Paul is the one taking this picture, and Clint, well, he's having fun in Taiwan. Bryan just completed field training and met us in NY. He got new glasses too! I like this picture, although I have a sneaking suspicion that Spencer is standing on his toes.

From NY we were able to secure buddy passes on Jet Blue, thanks to Bill and Elaina. We were trying for a flight to Utah, Nevada or Arizona. The only flight that had extra seats was Nevada so we cashed in on flight 777 to Las Vegas. We drove to Utah and stayed for a day or two and then went to Colorado to visit with Dan and Laura. They took us on a bike ride down Vail Pass and it was really enjoyable since it was all downhill. I guess it wasn't much in the way of exercise but I liked it.

Sometimes we would stop along the way. Spencer decided to dunk his head in this river which started a trend. Pretty soon, everyone felt the need to dunk their head in the river. I refrained.

The next day all the girls except for Selina had an ear piercing party. If you look closely you can see all the little earrings in their ears. Christina was sad the entire time the girls were getting their ears pierced because Laura told her she wasn't old enough. Christina cried and cried and just when all hope was lost, Laura changed her mind. Chirstina was all smiles after that.

Not to be left out, Spencer got his ear pierced as well. Hahahaha! Just kidding. He put some magnetic balls on his earlobes but they look real!

2011-07-19T18:38:00.001+02:00

Wow, has it really been 4 months since I posted anything. That is incredible to me since I was so busy from January to March with doing seminary lessons everyday and yet I still seemed to find time to work on my blog. Now that seminary is over, I seem to be busier than ever and I never quite feel the motivation to post anything new. I have done quite a bit between March and July but it makes me tired just thinking of where I can find pictures of all the events and cool places I have been.
I have been reading some books these past couple of months. One book that I highly reccommend is the book-"Nothing to Envy". It's a non-fiction book that follows the story of 3 North Koreans and how they were able to get out of North Korea. It's an interesting read and it made me think that unifying North and South Korea will pretty much be impossible in the long run. I don't even think South Korea wants to unify because the North Koreans that are able to get out are kind of difficult to work with and a drain on the South Korean society. I honestly can't understand why there hasn't been a civil uprising in that country-it's like all the people are sheep.
The other book I read was another non-fiction book called "The Glass Castle". After reading this book I staarted wondering how much of these non-fiction books really tell the truth. I start thinking that perhaps the author is embellishing stories just to be more shocking to the reader. Anyway, The Glass Castle is about this totally dysfunctional Mom and Dad who have 4 kids but can't seem to ever stay in one place as the Dad is constantly unemployed and the mom is just nuts, (in my opinion) Again, it's an interesting read, but I found many parts of the book hard to believe because if the events are true, those parents should have been arrested for neglect.
Non-fiction is not the only thing I read, I've been reading the Charles Dickens classic, "Little Dorrit" for almost a year now. I'm more than 1/2 way through and I like it but it's slow going. Charles Dickens spends a lot of time describing things and so when I finally get to a conversation in the book, I'm excited as I know the story will go forward. I've always liked Dickens as I think he could really read people and describe them perfectly. The people Dickens describes are the same types of people you can find today, in this day and age and I find that humorous.

Along with the book reading, our family has taken some pretty good trips. We took a trip to Luxembourg in April. Here we are at Patton's grave. Patton was not originally placed in the front of the cemetery, because the army believes after one dies you are just like everyone else and you don't get a "special" spot to be buried. So they buried him among the troops. The problem with that was, everyone wanted to find Patton's grave and so pretty soon the cemetery had a really worn down muddy spot around his grave which ruined the grass and the graves around Patton's. At a certain point, many American's wanted their loved ones repatriated to the USA and so many of the bodies were sent back home. That meant they had to move alot of bodies so that the cemetary looked good. While in this phase Mrs Patton asked if Gen. Patton's could be relocated to the front of the cemetery since Patton loved his troops so much and would want them to know he would lead them no matter what. The army said "No Way", but that they would give him a spot in one of the aisles so that would help not make such a big mess around the other graves. Well, Mrs. Patton was disappointed in their decision so she called upon her good friend-Charlotte, Dutchess of Luxembourg. Charlotte did her magic by basically threatening to move Patton to the National Cathedral instead, so the Army allowed Patton to be moved to the front of the cemetery. It's a pretty cool story.
The second picture here is a picture of us down in the tunnels below luxembourg. These are called the Casemates. There was built for underground defenses in 1644. The Spanish built them and then I think the French extended the tunnels. It was fortunate they were built as the people in Luxembourg were able to use them during WWII as bomb shelters. The tunnels are pretty extensive and we only saw a small part of them.

Here I am along with Spencer and we are in the casemates by a big cannon. It was pretty damp down there.

2011-03-05T16:20:00.001+01:00

This picture was taken in November. Notice the water is at a normal level. In my next post, you can see the same picture and see how high the water is.

These are just grassy fields along the bike path we ride on. You'll notice in my most recent post the flooding that has taken place.

This is part of the bike path and it seems quite provincial.

This is what the Glan river usually looks like.

2011-03-05T15:56:00.002+01:00

Here I am and it is late January. For some reason we have had a thaw and everything is flooding. You can compare them to my blog above.

Here is the glan river and it has spilled over it's banks. In fact you would never know there were any banks to begin with.

Here Paul and I are riding over this bridge. In my earlier post you can see the exact same picture except we aren't in it and the water is lower.

Here is our bike path. We really couldn't ride down that way as we would have been up to our waist in water so we rode the way Paul is facing and didn't have any problems.

Typical tourist pictures of Prague

2011-02-05T12:13:00.000+01:00

Here I am standing at the entrance to some cathedrals and palaces. After you walk through the entrance there are several cathedrals and many many palaces. The palaces however, kind of just look like pretty buildings.

I'm standing at an overlook and behind me is the city of Prague.

I was at the end of the St. Charles Bridge when I noticed that they had built these buildings at the edge of the river. They planned for the river however and it looks a little like something you would see in Venice.

Here is a nice picture of the center of Prague. Once again there are a lot of churches and different kinds of building all connected to each other. The Czechs are really proud of all their beautiful buildings and how unique each one is.

I thought this was reallly cool. This is the inside of the music museum and you can see it's multiple stories but it's the architecture inside that was so coo;. (They had a Beatles exhibit going on when we went inside.)

Here is the famous medieval astronomical clock. It is really cool and located in the Old Town square of Prague. The clock displays the time, the position on the sun and moon, and has 12 apostles that are displayed every hour. There is a calander clock on the bottom of the astronomical clock but that was added in the late 1800's. Oh yea I noticed at around 5:00 every evening they would have trumpeteers at the top of this clock tower come out and blow their trumpets. That was pretty cool, but unfortunately I did not take a picture of the top of this clock tower.

This is the Czech High School where Spencer spent quite a bit of time working with other Model UN students. I couldn't believe what a beautiful high school it was.

I am standing in a park and behind me is the Charles Bridge. You can see the black statues on the bridge. They are slowly replacing these black statues with replica's and putting these black statues in a museum. I like the black statues better than the new ones they've replaced them with.

Here is a nice scenic view of downtown Prague. This is one of my favorite pictuers.

This is the oldest functioning Jewish synagogue in Prague. It looks like it's just a facade but it really is a building.

Typical downtown street in Prague.

I'm backtracking now-this is back at the place where all the palaces were. This palace had this really cool design all over the whole building. The design was made by the Italians and it was made by placing wet cememt on the building and then carving in the design before it hardened. It was really beautiful. I wasn't surprised that the Italians came up with this method as it's similar to how cameos are made, except there is no cement involved but they carve cameos out of shells and can create different colors depending how much they carve into it.

Quirky Prague pictures

2011-01-20T16:02:00.034+01:00

This is the John Lennon wall which came about when John Lennon was killed. The communists ruled at that time and so it was dangerous to voice your beliefs and opinions. Many people did so anyway at the risk of being arrested. It still stands today and there are lots of remnants of candles nearby.

This picture is located under the statue of St John, keeper of the bridges. They say if you rub the dog, you'll come back to Prague! Apparently lots of people want to come back to Prague!

Ok, I'm not really sure why there were a bunch of naked baby statue but there were about 3 or 4 of them by the river and boy were they strange!

This was some big antenne that the Czech's purposely made to look like the Eiffel Tower.

These are locks that people put on this fence when they get married. I'm at the end of the fence but there were hundreds of locks attached to the bars of this fence.

Giuliana wants to know why this guy is guarding an oversized dog house.

The narrow green building is the smallest hotel in Prague. I think they can accommodate 6 people.

This is a giant metronome. There used to be a huge statue of Stalin there but after Stalins crimes came to light, the gov't blew it up with dynamite in the middle of the night. When they were trying to figure out what statue to replace it with, they decided not to put a person up because they thought that in time that person would become corrupt also. So they decided to construct a metronome and it's pretty cool because it really works.

Anyway, I'll end the quirky pictures now. I'll soon put up the more famous sites in Prague.

Midnight in Germany 2011! Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T00:35:00.000+01:00

Here is a short video of the fireworks that went off at midnight here in our little village of Glan-Munchweiler! I'm pretty amazed that all the locals had pretty good fireworks. Not only was everyone shooting off fireworks but the church bells were all ringing although that's hard to hear in my little video. We lit a few bottle rockets, sparklers and firecrackers but the best show was right on our back balcony.

Interesting things I see daily in Germany

2010-12-27T11:30:00.000+01:00

One day I looked out my kitchen window and this is what I saw. Most people wouldn't find this interesting unless you happen to be my dad! Can anyone besides my Mom and Dad tell me why this is interesting?

Here's a close up to give you a better look!

Weather

2010-12-20T11:53:00.004+01:00

My Neighbor keeps lying to me! he said it was going to be sunny today and just look how the weather turned out!