And, they're off!

Today was the kids' first day of school, and we were ALL nervous about starting a new school in a new country. As I took these pictures, I was doing my best to keep from crying. I didn't want the kids to see my trepidation, because they were scared enough as it was. After we shot these photos, I drove the kids over a couple of blocks to catch their bus. It is a big, white bus that looks like a public, city bus - no familiar yellow school bus this year. After I watched them drive away, I had a moment of panic when I hoped they were on the right bus and would end up at the right school. Good news: they were, and they all survived their first day at BBIS (Berlin Brandenburg International School). Even though they are in middle, elementary, and preschool, all 4 kids attend the same school, which is very nice. They can look after each other, and I only have one school to keep track of.


Jessica started her last year of middle school - 8th grade. She was the most nervous to start today because she didn't meet any of her teachers yesterday at the New Student Orientation. They just told her to meet in the Middle School Hall and there would be get-to-know-you games and activities all day. In my prayers last night, I asked Heavenly Father to just help her find someone to eat lunch with today, as that was her biggest fear. Apparently my prayer was heard, because she told me she had a whole group to eat with, so big they had to move tables together. Thank you!


Pepper is starting his last year in elementary school - 5th grade for him. We were delighted yesterday at the Orientation to learn that his teacher, Ms. Benson, is from Michigan! She even showed us on her hand where her hometown is, so she is a true Michigander.


Adam was the most excited to start school - 3rd grade this year. He is very confident around people, and by the end of the New Student Orientation yesterday, he told me he already had 3 new friends. One of them, Matthew, is from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, so there is another home-connection. Adam will be sitting next to Matthew in his classroom, and if this friendship develops, I'm sure his teacher, Ms. Victor, will be moving them. Adam can be very chatty!

Lukie also started school today, although he started a bit later, so didn't get to ride the bus yet. He is in a little preschool class with the NICEST teacher I have ever met. I'm not sure she's real! Up until last week, we were not sure he was going to be able to go to school this year, because his potty-training was still a bit iffy. Luckily, he turned a corner, and has been independantly dry for almost a week. I can't believe he is starting school. He's been my little buddy during the day, and I'm going to miss him!

Now that the first day of school is over, I can heave a big sigh of relief. Getting everything arranged for school has been stressful. Now, I still have the school supplies/PE uniforms/lunch tickets to buy, but at least they are safely settled into their classes. Whew!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

We have just completed our first week in Berlin, and in between unpacking boxes and rearranging furniture, we have learned a few things about our new home city. I'll share them with you with this disclaimer: I am a brand-new, wet-behind-the-ears, novice to living in Berlin, so my perspective is colored by 40-plus years of living in America vs. 8 days of living in Germany. This is very much an account of life in Berlin as seen through the eyes of an American. Don't judge me.

The Good:

1. Nice, nice people in the Dahlem Ward. We had pizza with one family on Friday night, and another woman is taking me grocery shopping tomorrow to show me the ropes. I don't know how people move ANYWHERE without the church.

2. Scrambled eggs cooked with Gouda cheese. We are fans of cheesy-eggs, which in the U.S. meant eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese. Well, I haven't found cheddar cheese here yet, so we improvised with Gouda, and it is even more yummy! Soooo goooood!

3. Many people speak English, and they apologize to ME if we can't communicate well. I find this very kind, since I am the one who showed up to live in their country with almost no knowledge of the German language. I'm sure I should apologize, but I don't know how to say it in German. Something to look up in my pocket German/English dictionary...

4. No need for air conditioning. I know it is August, and people here keep telling my that it has been unusually hot, but I think it is delightful. Everything is green and blooming, and even in the hottest parts of the day, our house is cool thanks to 12-inch thick walls. Whoever built it back in 1918 sure knew what he was doing.

The Bad:

1. I need to buy shortening tomorrow at the grocery store, and I can't find a translation for it in my dictionary. I hope I will be able to explain it well enough to my new friend so we can buy it.

2. Cold showers. Our house has a solar water heater, which is very "green" and all that, but after a dark, cool night, there is no hot water in the tank. So when I got up at 7:00 this morning, I had a very fast, cold shower. Brad gets one most mornings because he gets up early for work, but today was my first experience with the cool water because I have been sleeping in until after 10:00 everyday (ummm, sleeping in. That should be under the Good heading...).

3. No Charmin. Enough said.

4. Burger King doesn't quite taste right. It's close, but somehow it isn't the same as a Whopper in the states. They also don't put ice in the drinks unless you specifically request it. They do, however, offer mayonaise to dip your french fries in. This is truly my dip of choice.

5. And speaking of drinks, don't get me started on the lack of Diet Dr. Pepper. Those of you who know me at all, know that back home I am rarely seen without a Diet DP close by. We found an American importer that has the regular Dr. Pepper, but not the diet. This has been a painful adjustment for me. There is lots of Diet Coke, thankfully, but it's just not the same fix. And, I may be crazy, but I don't think the Diet Coke we get here has the same fizz that it has in the U.S. I miss that crack of carbonation at the back of my throat when I take the first swig.

The Ugly:

1. Teeth. Oh, the teeth. Delightful people, bad teeth.

2. Weeds. Berlin is a lovely, green city with lots of space for parks and grass. But, it is all weedy and overgrown. I understand that the people here value a natural landscape, but to my eyes it looks unkempt.

3. Men's clothing. Let me first say that I think the average German man is very handsome. Tall, blond, thin, and athletic looking with chiseled facial features. But, they wear stuff here that would get them beat up in the States. Capris. Seriously, capris. Not loose, long shorts, but tight, fitted capris. Yeah, what I think of as only women's clothing. They are very common here this time of year; I think I see more men in capris than in long pants. One guy Brad and I saw at IKEA was wearing a deep v-neck red t-shirt, denim capris, and sassy red espadrilles (you know, those canvas shoes your mom wears that look like they have rope soles). He was shopping with his obviously girlfriend/wife, so this was a straight man. Maybe it was laundry day and he was borrowing her clothes...

4. This bathroom:

Yeah, this is the half-bath on our main floor that is meant for guests. Whoever chose the tile and the bronze fixtures, especially the scalloped sink, needs to be evaluated.


Well, I guess that is enough griping. I don't mean to gripe - I really am doing fine here - but I do still have my American Eyes, so I am especially noticing the differences between living here and living in America.

Kiss the American soil for me, would you?

Jessica's birthday

The "Adventure" begins!

Well, we are here. We have officially started our "adventure." Almost everyone who heard we were moving to Germany said something about it being a "Big Adventure". I think that was their nice way of saying we are pretty crazy to do something so Out-There, but good luck anyway.

We arrived in Berlin around noon (Berlin time) on Saturday after nearly 24 hours of plane travel. The kids did surprisingly well. The best leg of the trip was actually the longest. We had an eight-hour flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Luke amazed me with his ability to sleep in the weirdest, sitting-up positions, and the other three kids loved having their own movie screens to watch the movies of their choice. I barely noticed any of the kids during that ride. It took four flights to get us from Salt Lake City to Berlin, which was a lot of running around, hurry-or-we'll-miss-the-airplane connections. We made it though, with no delays or misses. I learned something valuable, too - when traveling from the U.S. to Berlin, go through Amsterdam. It is much more sensible/traveler-friendly airport than Frankfurt.

The only glich was that when we arrived in Berlin, the airline didn't have Brad's golf clubs. Those of you who know Brad realize that this is akin to Brad losing one of his children. So a bit of panic ensued as Brad rushed around the Berlin airport with the rest of us, and our 16 pieces of luggage, trailing behind in a zombie-like state. The clubs were not recovered, but Brad has daily contact with the airline, so hopefully they'll turn up soon.

We took a taxi from the airport to our house (Thank you Brad for finding a taxi big enough for all of us to fit in one - I'd been having nightmares of having to ride a taxi by myself and not being able to communicate with the driver where our house was!) and I finally got to see the house that will be our home for the next three years. My first impression...it's big and really messy. The movers unpacked almost all of the boxes, but didn't really put anything away. So, I have huge piles of STUFF to go through and organize. I was really overwhelmed Saturday night as I tried to wrap my sleep-deprived mind around where to put things. This house is great, but it isn't like an American house. The closets and storage aren't where I would expect them, so it doesn't immediately make sense where to put things. Now that I've been here a few days, I have a better sense of where things should go, but it's still weird.

To keep things concise, here are 10 things I've learned about the house:

1. Lots of hard floors. Mostly wood, some tile, even less carpet. And the carpet has no pad under it. After a day of walking around barefoot, my feet and legs just ache.

2. It smells funny - like a museum or old house. I hope Our Smell will start to permeate soon (and I hope Our Smell is better!).

3. I so wish it had a garbage disposal!!!!

4. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having our own fenced-in yard. It feels very private and sanctuary-like in the middle of big, scary, German-speaking Berlin.

5. Haven't totally figured out the oven, microwave, or dishwasher. All controls are in German and the temperature is Celcius, so I'm not really sure if the dishes are washed or my food is cooked. Haven't even looked at the washer and dryer yet. I'm sure they will freak me out tomorrow.

6. Could spend thousands of dollars (sorry, Euros!) at IKEA buying furniture to fill up all these big rooms. Did my old furniture shrink?

7. Now that I've figured out the Wood Blinds That Roll Down Over My Windows On The Outside, I think they are brilliant. They block the sun almost completely (we appreciate this as we try to combat jet-lag), and I will never have to dust them. Lovely!

8. Too many mirrors. Closets, random walls, even the entire back of my bedroom door have giant mirrors. Not only does this mean much Windex in my future, but it also scares me when I walk into an empty room, unwittingly catch my reflection in the corner of my eye, and think there is a robber in my house. I don't need this stress.

9. There are five toilets in the house, and none of them have the same flushing mechanism. The upside is that Luke finds this fascinating, so he has a renewed interest in using the potty. They are also all low enough for him to pee standing up. This is major for Luke.

10. The rose bushes on the side of the driveway have got to go. The driveway is very narrow, with a rock wall running along the driver's side. Some idiot planted rose bushes along the rock wall, so it is impossible to get into the car without snagging something (clothing, skin) on the thorny branches. Our landlady has an unhealthy (in my opinion) attachment to roses, so I don't know if we will be able to convince her to let us remove them. But I think these particular bushes are evil.

(These are all just initial impressions, and I'm sure they'll change and expand as I get more used to living here. I will post pictures once I have all the piles put away.)

On Sunday, we roused ourselves from jet-lagged unconsciousness in order to attend sacrament meeting in our new ward. It was nice because many of the people we met back in January when Brad and I visited remembered us and greeted us very warmly. One family was kind enough to invite us to their home that night for popcorn and ice cream, their family's Sunday night tradition (a delightful combination, I must add). The mom, Susanna, is the sister of my friend Eva from the Clarkston ward. They are American, living in Berlin because Susanna's husband James works for the foreign service. Susanna told me that she has a tradition with her visiting teachers (also both American) that every month they go to the Sony Center to see a chick flick for their "visit". The Sony Center is a big theater in the middle of Berlin that shows American movies in English. Susanna and her VT's sound like my kind of people.

Today was pretty low-key. The cable guy came and installed our internet service (much rejoicing!!), then Brad and I spent way too much time and money at IKEA buying closets and light fixtures. It's weird - in Germany, tenants must supply their own light fixtures, and the bedrooms rarely have built-in closets. It will be good to get the lights in. I'm tired of wandering around a dark house. And the closets will help with the pile-organizing. A bright spot at IKEA was when a clerk spoke to me in English. It gets old having Brad do all the talking while I stand there with a glazed, I-have-no-idea-what-everyone-is-saying look on my face. When the IKEA guy realized I didn't speak German and started talking to me in English, I nearly kissed him on the lips. I almost felt like a person again.

Well, my microwave clock is telling me it is 0:59, which means it is now 12:59 a.m. here in Berlin (they don't even tell time the same way here!), so I'd better call it a day. The sad thing is that Jessica, Pepper, and Adam are all still awake, too, because they all slept until noon today. An eight-hour time difference is hard to get used to...

Heck, EVERYTHING is hard to get used to...

Fun in August

White trash party

Field Trip

At the end of July, Brad's sister Becky arranged for all the nieces and nephews to tour the cement plant where she works.  So, we packed everyone up and went to Morgan to spend the day.

She had a co-worker friend of hers, Ernie, show us around.  He started with this model of the whole plant.  Do you love the hard hats?  We were required to wear hard hats and safety glasses the whole time, which the kids loved.  Real, live dress-up!

We got to go to the top of this ginormous tower.

All of us squeezed into the semi-scary, rickety elevator.

All of us on the top of the tower.  The view was amazing.

This is Becky, the one responsible for the tour and all the fun.

We got to look into the superhot furnace.

The furnace was so bright and hot, that the kids wore this mask to look into it.  Smile, Adam!

This is a big warehouse where they store piles and piles of disposable diaper scraps.  Becky's job is to arrange for companies to give their waste to the cement plant.  The cement plant uses the waste (diaper scraps, old rubber tires, etc.) to burn as fuel.  Pretty smart, eh?

After we toured the plant, we took all 16 kids to lunch at a little diner in Morgan.  It was crazy, but fun.  Thanks Becky!

Larson Bear Lake