Hello

Well here he is . . . Oisin (pronounced AH-SHEEN)

He's my little friend!

It's insane to think back to 3 months ago when watching him was SO HARD!!!! And to think it's kind of easy now. We're just friends. I've always loved babies- but really- I only ever thought they were capable of just being adorable. But Oisin and I are FRIENDS. I KNOW him! I feel like he knows me too. Every other day something random will happen and we just start laughing together . . . for a really long time! I don't know. He's learning how to stand by himself right now and when he does he just looks at me and I can see in his face he's saying, "Look at me!!! I'm doing it! I'm awesome!!!" And then I scream for him and we smile and then he leans forward to snuggle me. I never realized how much two people can communicate without saying anything at all. I've just learned so much through him and I love him! He's just a sweet little person. Sometimes I feel like he's the King. I feed him by the spoon, wipe his butt and yes- I even iron his clothes. What he says goes. It's kind funny to me- even though sometimes its not funny at all.

Well, I turned 27 a couple weeks ago. Three months prior I was kind of having a mid-life crisis. Every other day I was freaking out about turning 27 and how that is OLD!!! But a week before the actual B-Day I finally felt fine about it. And now I just feel like a hot 27 year old. And I feel fine about that. I meant to take a picture with my gifts but it just never happened. I got a beautiful scarf from Pat and Bard the Beedle (J.K Rowling's new book) from Randy and HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL music from my parents (WOOHOO!!!) and Dan in Real Life from Greg. Everyday the first 1 1/2 months we were here I'd say, "Greg, can I buy Dan in Real Life on Itunes?" And he'd say no. Everyday I wanted to watch it. And I've already watched it twice now! I just love that movie.

Well, we have a new ward now. It's downtown and only a half hour away versus the hour and a half we had before (so much better!) We LOVE IT!!!! The first week I was still sick so I stayed home and Greg came back to tell me there are a TON of Brazilians in the ward! So that was exciting! And he goes on to tell me that French is basically everyone's 2nd language. There are atleast 10 different nationalities in our ward- Taiwan, Philippines, Brazil, Portugal, Africa, Russia to name some. The members were really excited to have the new members so they threw us a party the night before my first sunday. There was food from all the different countries. Honestly, 10 tables of food that I'd never seen before in my life. Greg tried all the African food. Everyone was really nice, but I couldn't understand what anyone was saying. Within 3 minutes of walking in the building and having kissed stranger's cheeks and hearing nothing but French I thought to myself, "I should have been studying French all day instead of . . ." I felt really out of my element and really insecure. We played a quick game and this one woman, Louisette, kept speaking French to me. And she spoke REALLY, REALLY, REALLY fast! I never knew what she was saying, and yet she kept talking to me the whole time. And after each sentence or so she'd pause and wait for me to answer and I'd just stare at her and smile feeling really awkward and then she kept going. I didn't understand why she was talking to me. She knew I didn't understand. But because she kept talking, it made me feel really comfortable around her- like she didn't care I couldn't speak French.

We also have new callings. Greg is 2nd counselor in the Elders Quorum. I am the Primary Pianist and Sunbeams Teacher. I LOVE IT!!! I just have a little keyboard in the back and the whole Primary experience is English and French all over the place! We sing in both languages, teach in both languages. My class is just in English. I have 6 little 4 year olds. I've been really surprised how my classes are actually going well! I thought it would be a rougher start- though by the last 5 minutes things get a little crazy! The first sunday was the funniest. I was pretty sure somebody pooped his pants, but wasn't sure who and didn't really know what to do about it even if I did know who it was. And the opening prayer was, "Dear Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ AMEN!" With intense speed! I thought about asking him to say it again with something in the middle, but didn't. And then the closing prayer was, "A . . . B . . . C . . . D". I'm talking the slowest ABC's in history. I tried to stop him a couple times in the middle so we could have a real prayer but he just stared at me the entire time and kept on going! We had interesting prayers today too. One little girl honestly prayed for 3 MINUTES! In her prayer we found out that her dog died, how he died, that she got a new dog and didn't want him to die and how she doesn't like being late to school and always is." That was just funny. The things you can learn in little children's prayers. But basically I'm loving it and they're all really cute.

And yesterday we went to Brugges . . .

These are a bunch of TINY houses where women kind of like nuns live. They wouldn't let you take pictures inside but they were so OLD looking, and very tiny.

We were really excited to go to Brugges! We went during Christmas Break but it was really rushed, so we were anxious to get back!

I didn't know this, but I guess just about all of Michelangelo's work is in Italy- but this is one of the few works that made it out. It was pretty.

Doesn't this make you think about Snow White? Can you believe people actually lived in teeny houses like this? And really, someone probably lives there right now.

Ok it looks like that is a normal door- NO! It's no more than 3 feet high. It is SO small. There were all these little miniature doors along the canals and Greg and I kept wondering what they were for and if they were ever used and then we saw one open! We thought it was exciting.

When I first moved here, I thought these were the weirdest trees I'd ever seen. So weird, in fact, that there happens to be one in a Harry Potter movie and I thought they made up a weird looking tree just for the movie, and then I moved here. Guess it's real, after all.

This is the first hamburger I've had in 4 months. It was good. They were playing American Oldies music too. It just felt like home. I haven't been missing home, and it didn't make me miss home- but it felt like I was home and it felt good. As I was eating and thinking how it's been so long since I've had a hamburger- I was also thinking about how they just don't have hamburger places here. Instead they have polish dog places. That's the fast food that's everywhere here. A big fat sausage hanging out of a little bun that's less than half the weeny's length. I used to think it was the sickest thing I'd ever seen and couldn't believe that everyone was eating them- but since the German experience, I could eat one whenever. It also made me think that my brother in law, Mike, would love it here. (before he married my sister, he ate 90 hot dogs a week)

And then it was time to go home.

It was a great day. The only downside was that our FAVORITE chocolate shop was CLOSED!! It was honestly half the reason we went!! But we ended up going to another chocolate shop that we normally wouldn't have gone to and it was really good! So it ended up being a good thing.