This morning for breakfast, we had a rare and wonderful treat: 

American cereal!!

The boy on the left is J, who comes to our house in the mornings for seminary with me and Jess.  He eats breakfast with us, then catches the bus to school with our kids.  J's mom has access to the American embassy commissary, so she made a very gracious donation of Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Raisin Bran to our breakfast table.  Don't let the grumpy faces fool you - we were singing many praises this morning!

This Fall, I am enrolled in a German language class through the local Volkshochschule, which is like community education.   It meets 4 days a week for 4 hours per day, so it's pretty intense. 

I had my first class this morning, and I was kind of nervous.  Luckily, by the end of the class period, I was still breathing, and I found that it wasn't bad at all.  The class is made up of students from all over, so our only common language is German, which none of us can speak.  Nobody takes themselves too seriously, and it's no big deal to screw up.  I have to admire the teacher - she did a lot of pantomime, drawings, and repeating sentences over and over to make sure we understood what she was teaching us.

This is the building where the class is held.  My class meets on the second floor behind that row of windows.

Tonight for FHE, we weren't feeling super spiritual, so we had a family Dance Central competition.  Jess totally skunked us all.

Tonight, I went hometeaching with Brad.  We visited a couple in which the husband, Buck, is American and his wife is German.  Buck was here in the U.S. military when Berlin was an occupied city, and he met his wife when he was in the hospital - she was his nurse (isn't this romantic?).  He didn't speak German, and she didn't speak English, but after knowing each other only two weeks, he proposed and she accepted.  They've now been married 20+ years.  The amazing thing is that they still don't speak each other's language.  They understand each other fine, but he only speaks English, and she only speaks German, so every conversation is bilingual.

Another amazing thing is that Buck graduated from Orem High School, which is my high school.  He pulled out his old Tigerama yearbooks from the early 1970's, and I had a great time looking through them at pictures of my alma mater. 

This year, for one of my birthday gifts, Brad arranged for a housecleaner to come to the house once a week to do the heavy-duty cleaning (yes, AWESOME!!).  The woman he hired, Annalie, came for the first time today, and I think I'm in love.  She did a great job with the bathrooms, floors, and windows, but the cherry on top was my shoe closet. 

I totally did not expect her to organize and tidy the mess that is usually my shoes!

Let me remind you that my closet usually looks like this.

Just a random shot of some random street in Berlin.  This was a holy-crap-I-can't-believe-I-live-HERE moment.

After dinner tonight, Luke, Jess, Pep, and I retired to "The Cave" to watch our latest TV obsession, The Glee Project.

You knew this was coming, right?  It's the first day of school, so. . .

Jess, 10th grade

Pepper, 7th grade

Adam, 5th grade (he thought he was very clever to use two hands for "5")

Lukie, EC 5 (essentially kindergarten)

♪♫♫ It's the most wonderful tiiiime of the year. . . ♫♪♫

School starts tomorrow, and we are all packed and ready to go.  Yay!

So, are you sick of seeing my children asleep in random places at all hours of the day?

Yeah, so am I.  Stupid jet-lag.

I've learned that the German language creates new words by just adding existing words to each other.  This makes for some crazy-long words, which are totally intimidating to those of us who are trying--and mostly failing--to make sense of the dang language.

To illustrate my point, here is a sign I saw on a car:

I'm guessing this is a joke, since when I typed it into Google Translate, there was no translation.  But, now I'm intrigued. . .

Any German speakers out there have any idea what this is trying to say?

Here is Jess making her most bratty "teenager face" in honor of her 15th birthday.  

Luckily, she only makes this face in jest.  Aside from the occasional deleting of my photos (yep, still grumpy), she is really a delightful girl.  Jessica is easy-to-get-along-with, funny, considerate, helpful, and just plain cool.  I am so glad I have her in our otherwise Boy Family.  

I love you, Jess!

I am so grumpy.  So very, very grumpy.  I had the BEST picture of the day for today, but Jessica deleted it from my camera when she sneaked it upstairs to photograph herself in crazy make-up.  

SO grumpy!

So, I'm asking you use your imaginations.

Tonight, I went with my friends to a delish Greek restaurant for Girls' Night Out.  After a particular raucous conversation and much laughter, we snapped a picture of ourselves imitating this guy on the sign in front of the restaurant:

So imagine, if you will, six somewhat fabulous women with huge grins forming a Greek conga line.  One of them was wearing a bike helmet.

It was awesome.  Jessica totally owes me.

 Luke found this bottle in the recycling bin, and it had a tiny bit of old soda in the bottom.  He brought it to me--very excited--and this is the conversation that ensued:

Luke:  Mom!  I found this magic drink.  You should drink it!

Me:  No, thanks.

Luke:  No really, Mom!  It will turn you into a Knight Mom!

Me:  What's a Night Mom?

Luke:  You know, a Knight Mom!  You can be a mom of knights that fight!

Me:  No, thanks.

Luke (in a slightly whiny voice meant to be enticing): You can be a quee-ee-en!

Me: No, thanks.

Luke:  You can be a police woman!

Me:  No.

Luke:  You can be a gardener (pronounced "goad-no")!

Me:  Again, no.

Luke: You can be a cowgirl!

Me:  Sorry.

Luke: Come on Mom!  Why don't you want to be a queen?

Me: What does a queen do?

Luke:  She sits in her chair and reads a book.

Me (already sitting in my chair reading a book):  Uh, no.

So, even after a compelling argument on Luke's part, I did not drink the tablespoon of soda pop from the garbage.  I was tempted though.  Who doesn't want to be a Knight-mom/queen/police-woman/cowgirl/goad-no?

Yeah, the kids are still playing video games.  

Luke got a Toy Story 3 game for his birthday, but while we were in America, we didn't have an X-box to play it on.  So, I guess they are making up for the last month and a half when they had the game but couldn't play it.  I actually think it's kind of sweet that all the kids are enjoying playing such a "little kid game". 

Last Friday, I got a continuous glucose monitor to go with my insulin pump.  The idea is that I wear the CGM and it communicates with my pump so I will always know what my blood sugar is, rather than just checking it 4 times a day with the old method.  Medtronic made it sound like such a good idea, and I suppose it is from a medical standpoint.

 I love how the boxes picture a smooth, relaxed guy, and a contentedly reclining woman enjoying the ease and comfort of their diabetic supplies. 

They. Are. Liars.

I'm finding the reality to be less than perfect.  One of the features of the pump is that it alarms when my blood sugar levels are too high or too low.  Because I've just turned the clock upside down by traveling eight time zones, my body is readjusting to night and day sugar levels.  This means that I'm not stable through the night, so my pump is alarming every couple of hours.  NOT what I need right now as I'm trying to force myself to sleep during the German night.

Plus, the CGM is another button I have to attach to my body all the time.  I feel like the Bionic Woman, and not in a good way.  For the record, it is NOT comfortable to recline on your side when you have a sensor inserted under the skin on your hip and a big plastic button taped on top of it.

 I'm sure someday soon I will get used to this and it won't bug me anymore.  

But today is NOT THAT DAY.

Parenting at its finest.  

These boys were up half the night with jet lag, playing video games and making a big mess.  Today, I am too tired and unmotivated to do anything about it except close the playroom door and pretend it didn't happen.

Now that we're back in Berlin, these two photos pretty much capture our mood:

Tired.

And grumpy.

Welcome /*%@$#! Home.

We were all really bummed to have to get on an airplane and return to Germany this morning, but there was one bright spot in our travel.

When we arrived at JFK and were scurrying to catch our flight to Berlin, we heard Brad's name called over the loud speaker.  Brad went ahead to the gate agent, and when we caught up with him, he told us that we'd all been upgraded to business class for the over-seas flight.  Apparently, the flight was really full, so they'd gone through the list of Platinum passengers and upgraded them.  Because we were all in Brad's travel party, all six of us got to fly in cushy business class at no extra expense.  

This was one moment when I didn't mind that Brad travels so much!

Today was a sad day because it was our last in America before heading back to Germany for the year.  I hate saying good-bye to family, sunshine, English, porch-sitting, Walmart, Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry, wide roads, Cafe Rio, boating...etc, etc, etc.

But this good-bye was the saddest one of all:

When Pepper had to say good-bye to his best cousin Isaac, I lost it.  Those of you who know Pepper know that he has lots of challenges that make life just a little harder for him than the average 12-year old boy.  This makes it hard for him to make friends, which is heart-breaking for me to watch.  He has such an open spirit, so sometimes kids his age will manipulate him or take advantage of his desire to get close to them.

Not so with Isaac.  Isaac genuinely loves Pepper and is thrilled to spend every minute he can with him.  Isaac and his dad Casey invited Pepper to be the "manager" of Isaac's baseball team this summer, and have also let Pepper tag along with them to Isaac's other sports activities.  I have loved watching Pepper thrive in Isaac's presence - there is something about being around someone who thinks you are So Cool that brings out the best in everyone, and Pepper is no exception.  I think Pepper was 10 feet tall whenever Isaac was around, and it made my heart swell.  

There is nobody else like Isaac in Pepper's life, and I am so sad to separate them.  Because of how he treats my boy, Isaac will always have a firm place on my list of Favorite People.

Lagoon Day!!

My family has a tradition that we all meet for a day at Lagoon and party from open to close.  This year, it was made especially fun because our Larson Lagoon Day was the same day as Zach and Casey's work Lagoon Day, so we were able to spend the day with members of both sides of our family.  Perfect!

Today was the long-awaited premiere of The Help movie.  I went with my sisters, mom, and sister-in-law (Whitney joined us after this photo was taken) and it was awesome! 

I read the book last year and it was my favorite book of the year (it probably didn't hurt that I read it during our Alaska cruise).  Ever since I saw that a movie was being made, I've been anxious to see it.  So, my seesters and I made an Event out of it by grabbing lunch and hitting one of the very first showings.  The movie was exactly what I wanted it to be, and it made for a perfect almost-end-of-the-summer outing with my fam.

Lukie and his cousin A found a pair of Grandpa's old cowboy boots.  Even though they each only got to wear one, you can see they felt pretty tough.  Imagine how macho they'd be if they could wear two.

Best. Idea. Ever.

My dad has two computer screens hooked to the computer in his home office.  At first, I couldn't see the need, but now I'm a little addicted.  It is perfect for blogging - I can have a photo on one screen while I type on the other.  There is no switching back and forth between programs or documents - both are easily viewed simultaneously.  

When I grow up, I'm going to have two screens on my own computer, too.

While we were waiting for Sunday dinner, Brad's dad pulled out his remote control helicopter.  In about two seconds flat, he had a gaggle of grandkids clambering around him asking for a turn.

I spent most of today downtown, shopping for the random things we can't get in Germany - stuff like vanilla, tissue paper, and ranch dressing mix packets (I bought 64 packets of the ranch mix.  That should last us until Brad comes back to the States for work in November).  We also had some requests from our German friends for American products like Betty Crocker brownie mix and measuring cups/spoons for cooking.  

And, of course we had to stock up on American clothing brands for Jessica.  H&M in Germany is pretty great, but U.S.A. has its own style and sometimes it is just comfortable to dress like the Americans that we are.

No, Adam does not have leprosy.  

He just didn't put on sunscreen (despite being reminded by both Brad and me), so he came home from Bear Lake with a killer sunburn.  Hopefully, living with this will be punishment enough for him to take us seriously the next time we suggest sunblock.

This morning, I spent a lovely couple of hours with my mom, sisters and sisters-in-law at the Bear Lake Raspberry Days Market.  Then we met everyone at La Beau's for lunch.

...mmmmmm...I can just smell the fry sauce...

Today, we got up and headed to the beach, packing lunch to eat later.  

Yum.

There is nothing like a bunch of warm sandwiches wadded up in a bread sack sitting in the sand to get the old mouth watering.  

We spent most of the day on the boat because the water was shockingly smooth.  Lots of kids tubed, but Pepper stole the show with his wakeboarding skills.  This is his first year wakeboarding, and he took to it like a fish to...well...wakeboarding I guess.  He was awesome!

All 24 of my parents' grandchildren were up at the cabin today.  Yeah, it was pretty crowded, but in a good way.