Berlin: Tuesday Touring.

So for those of you who don't know what I'm doing in Berlin, Katie and I are visiting her sister and brother-in-law Brittney and Casey and their two little girls Ellie and Peyton. They have been living in Berlin for the last six and a half months for Casey's job with Alba Berlin, Berlin's basketball team. Britt and Casey live right off the Ku'damm and less than a block away from The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which we can easily see from their windows.  The remains of the original church, which was built in the 1890s and the new rebuilt edifice erected in the early 1960s stand side by side. The original church was badly damaged in a 1943 bomb raid, but the damaged spire of the old church has been retained and has been turned into into a memorial hall.

The new church is a strange looking building with walls of blue stained glass. My cousin Lindsay, who lived in Berlin, serving a mission for the LDS Church for a year and a half, calls it "the Neon Church" because when you walk inside, everything sort of has this neon blue shadow.

After touring both the new and the old churches, Katie and I grabbed a currywurst. They sprinkle curry on the top of a sliced hot dog. Pretty good treat. You can see currywurst stands everywhere in Berlin.

That afternoon, we went to the Berlin Zoo with Britt and Ellie. I haven't been to a zoo in quite awhile, and going with an excited two year old was a lot of fun! We watched the elephants during their daily grooming session. And we called Ellie an "elliephant", which she thought was quite funny.

Ellie was especially looking forward to seeing the giraffes and the monkeys. The giraffes were one of my favorite animals there. I'm not sure why, but I loved the giraffes. They look so graceful with their long necks.

I also especially enjoyed the hippos quite a bit. It took a couple of minutes to convince Ellie that this hippo was only pretend.

Then we saw the real hippos.

We saved the monkeys for last since they were close to the exit we were going to use. Unfortunately, we were too late to go into the monkey enclosure. Apparently it closes to visitors fifteen minutes before the zoo closes. Ellie was very upset. Luckily, we found a couple of outdoor monkey cages and a couple of the monkeys walked right up close to the edge so we could see.

As usual, I've spent my fair share of time mesmerized by the clouds. Berlin has given us uncharacteristically sunny weather for the majority of our trip. Seeing the blue sky and the sun caused Ellie to say, "Mommy, it's so bright outside. The sun is shining," with a surprised expression, as if it were some novelty. Clearly, it's been pretty gray during their time here. Despite the chilly wind, we feel lucky to have had so many consecutive days of the sun shining.

Tuesday evening, we stayed home with Britt and the girls, while Casey was at practice. Katie and I picked up dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe and brought it home. A nice night at home after a day out and about is really my kind of vacation. Plus, look at that cute baby face! Who wouldn't want to have a night in with that cutie! :)

Rock on!

"I can't hear you and it's a tiger!" (With Def Leopard's guitar and placard in the background.)

Berlin City Tour

On Monday, as I mentioned before, Katie and I took a bus tour of the city and saw a lot of major tourist attractions. Among my favorites were the Brandenburg Gate which stood separating East and West Berlin.

The Berlin Wall was approximately fifty yards from the gate and is marked all throughout the city with a double line of stones to remind us where we once would not have been able to cross.

Katie and I remarked how when we were in fifth (she in sixth) grade, we would not have been able to walk through the Brandenburg gate, as we freely did on Monday morning. Incredible. Being there made me remember my friend Jennifer Dean from elementary school. Her mom was German, and her father American, I think. Her parents divorced when we were maybe in 3rd or 4th grade and a month after the Wall fell in fifth grade (9 November 1989), her mother packed up Jennifer and her sister and moved them back to Germany. I've wondered what became of her ever since.

Later that evening, Casey drove us (Katie and me) around to see a few more things up close. We walked around by the fountain in front of the Altes Museum and the Berliner Dom (pictured).

Across from the Adlon Hotel (where Michael Jackson hung his baby from a balcony), and bordering the Tiergarten, we walked around the Holocaust Memorial which was opened to the public in 2005. In the pictures, you can see that there are rows and rows of cement blocks varying in height from maybe three feet to fifteen feet. According to the architect, Peter Eisenman, the cement blocks are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. Interesting.

We drove by the famous Berlin TV Tower.

Then Casey bought us a Berlin favorite, thanks to the large Turkish population in Berlin, Doner Kebabs. They are similar to gyros, but much different and MUCH better. Tasty! Thanks Casey!

Delicious! (Thanks Lindsay for insisting that we don't miss this delightful meal!)

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Time flies.

I've been thinking about time a lot yesterday and today. Time in terms of speed. You know ... the rate at which children grow and mature, the rate at which a heart can be broken, the rate at which it heals, the rate at which it learns to love, the rate at which you travel to across oceans and continents, the rate at which one loses weight, the rate at which one gains it, the rate at which you earn money, the rate at which it can be spent...

Isn't it funny that the older you get, the faster life seems to go. Time really does seem to fly by. How flabbergasted one might be when they realize how much a child has grown in the last year, both physically and developmentally. But to that child, time seems to drone on and on. Is it because there is less in their brains to remember? Fewer memories to recall and process?

Lately, I've been playing the "one year ago today" game and realizing how drastically (yet simply) my life has changed. Mostly, the change is in my attitude toward life. A year ago today, I hated my job. I was working the same job I am today, but at different customer location, and thus it really was entirely different than it is for me today. I dreaded going to work. I literally cried some days on my way to work. I recall barely being able to get out of bed, I hated the idea of going to work so much. A year ago today, I had long become used to the "permanent" twitch in my right eye. What a difference a year can make. Today, - well, today I'm not at work.. - but today, I have a completely different feeling every day when I wake up. Work doesn't do me in. I enjoy going to work. I enjoy the people with whom I work. I love our front desk receptionist, Carolyn. She brightens my day. My co-worker is great to work with. It's just the two of us in this office, which could make for a hard working situation if we didn't get along, but we work really well together, complimenting each other's working styles well, picking up where the other one isn't as strong, etc. What a difference a year makes.

A year ago today, I wasn't dating M. A year ago today, I wasn't in Berlin. A year ago today, I was 15 pounds thinner than I am now. A year ago today, I was sitting in my music class with M, whom I'd never spoken to at that point. A year ago today, I was working out (haven't done that for a few weeks now). Wow. What a difference a year makes.

Just this evening, Katie and I were talking about how quickly Ellie has changed. She's almost two and a half years old. The last time I saw her she was not yet two. Definitely intelligent and advanced for an almost two year old. But today... just six months later, she is more verbal and emotionally grown up than most two years olds I've come into contact with. Today, she was jumping on the couch, trying to make Katie and me laugh. The second time she jumped and fell back, she hit her head squarely on the hard arm of the couch. She looked stunned, and started to cry a little. Katie tried to comfort her, but she wouldn't have it. Asking Katie to "leave me alone please," she found her "blankie" and covered her head for a few minutes. She wanted to experience her pain in peace. In many ways that's how a lot of adults are. We hurt or cry, and we want to be private about it. Ellie took about three or four minutes, then turned to Katie to say she was sorry (for crying?) and then she was fine. She was still holding her blankie and now sucking on her "bink", but she has learned how to comfort herself and move on. A fine lesson for me to remember when I'm wallowing in some sort of pain. :)

I also mentioned to Katie something about M, and then surprised myself halfway through my thought, "We've been dating for ... nearly seven months." Seven months! That's a long time. It's a short period of time, and a long period of time. But a significant period of time. It's funny how we look at it. And this thought was the catalyst for this post. Time is relative. Seven months could feel like an eternity, and in many cases is a long period of time. In seven months, a child changes drastically. In seven months, one could experience new blossoms, blazing heat, and a new-fallen snow. But how can seven months seem like such a long time and yet so short at the same time?!? I suppose for the same reasons that three days in Berlin already feels like a week and yet only 3 hours at the same time. Funny how that works.

Berlin: Halo!

Church in German wasn't much different than it has been in English, Tongan, Spanish, Lithuanian, or Russian. :) I sang the hymns in English, and attempted to hear as much as I could from the whispering German sister missionary, Sister Wittmack, who translated sacrament meeting for us. There were about 75 people in attendance. The topic for the day was missionary work. Elder Neumann sang a solo in English, a song with which I became familiar on my mission. I think it's called "O, Lord My Redeemer." It was a nice familiar reminder of missionary work for me.

For Sunday school, we went to Brittney's youth class, which consists of the three youth (three British - thus, English speaking - girls whose father and mother moved the family to Germany 11 years ago) and any English speaking visitors. Brittney teaches the class while trying to handle both Ellie (2.5 years) and Peyton (2 months) because the ward has not called a nursery teacher. The Bishop keeps telling them that he will, but they've lived here for seven months now, and they are still without. This week, there were a brother and a sister (14 and 16, respectively) who are living in Trier, Germany, where their father is teaching at the university. They are from New Mexico and will return there in about four months. Brittney did a great job teaching the lesson on missionary work, and it was really nice to be able to have it in English.

Relief Society was also about missionary work (are we sensing a theme here?), and the same sister missionary translated for us. For such a small ward, they have a mix of women in Relief Society: an American, a British woman, younger returned missionaries, older converts, visitors from other faiths, and out of town visitors like Katie and I, and the mother of the New Mexican siblings. Though it was all in German, it's nice to be able to feel the same Spirit and know that we are all hearing the same lesson each week. Their lesson was the lesson, I'd heard the week before in my Relief Society. (Also, probably not of interest to most, but I thought it was interesting that they had the exact same chair in the classrooms, as we had in Lithuania: light wood with green cushions and metal legs.) I guess the Europeans saints must shop at the same places. :)

Sunday was a long day for Ellie and Peyton. Peyton seems to have a never-ending case of colic. I was able to get her to sleep during church and held her the whole time, so she didn't wake up. But she always seems uncomfortable. As Katie has said, several times, "Life is hard, being Peyton." Poor Peyton. She's adorable though, and will hopefully (for Britt and Casey) grow out of this colic-stage soon.

Last night, all of us went to Casey's game against Ludwigsburg in the O2 World arena. They won. I can't remember the score, but it was something like 86-57. Casey plays for Alba Berlin, which is part of the German league, as well as the Euroleague. They seem to be a good team and Casey made some really great shots last night. I think he made every shot he attempted. Ellie gets really excited to go and see daddy's basketball games, and last night was no exception. She wore her miniature Jacobsen #4 jersey. Very fun. We spent much of the evening with Tori, the girlfriend of Casey's teammate and best friend in Berlin, Adam Chubb. She lives in Philadelphia, but has been here visiting Adam for the past two weeks and will be here for another week. Long distance relationships are difficult. She's a really nice girl though, so I can see why they both do their best to keep it going.

This morning (today is Monday), Katie and I took a site-seeing tour by bus to get an overall feeling of the city. The bus drove us past the majority of the most-visited tourists sites in the city and helped us get an idea of what we wanted to come back and see. It was about an hour and forty five minutes. (We took a tour like this when we were in Barcelona, because we only had a couple of days there and I've decided that I like this overall view of a city in a short time.)

After the tour, we came back to the house in time to see Ellie come home from kindergarten. She LOVES going to kindergarten. She told us about all her friends there, mostly the teachers and the older kids in her class. They don't separate the kids by age, so she has some five-year olds in her class. They, along with three of the teachers are her favorite friends.

Katie and I are now babysitting for Ellie and Peyton, while Britt and Casey are taking some time to celebrate Casey's birthday. His birthday is on Thursday, but today is his only day off this week. They are having a spa day (afternoon) and then will come home to change, feed Peyton, and then be of for dinner. I'm glad that we're here to take care of the girls for them. It also gives us some downtime at home. Maybe I should take a nap, since I keep waking up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep for two hours. Now, cross your fingers that Ellie and Peyton stay asleep and take their full afternoon naps! :)

(I'm not changing the times Blogger automatically posts. I'm not sure why, but it's still posting in Mountain Time. Right now local Berlin time, it's 1:55 pm.)

Berlin

We're here! After nearly 20 hours of traveling, we made it! Casey picked us up at the Berlin (TGL) airport shortly after 2pm local time and drove us home to their place in the Charlottenberg district of Berlin. Ellie had just woken up from her nap and was thrilled that we were arriving. Peyton woke up shortly after we got here and was not so thrilled. Apparently, she's rather fussy a lot of the time. But she's super cute, so it makes up for it. Britt said she likes to be held a lot, so I think we'll get along fine. :)

So going back to the start of our trip...

M kept me company as I packed and helped me rip a lot of my CDs into my iTunes, so that my iPod could be fully loaded for the journey. He kept teasing me that I had days and days worth of music, but he still very patiently and kindly plugged away at the stack.

Katie and I stayed up until about 2:00 am on Thursday night, in part because I felt like I'd have a better time sleeping on the flights if I was tired, but also we were finishing packing. M drove us to the airport on Friday at 10:30 am and by noon, we were off. As I wrote earlier, we had a layover in Dallas before our long trans-Atlantic haul. Boarding the plane in Dallas, I pulled out a Ziploc snack bag of goldfish for Katie... only the bags were mutilated. To say they were faulty or damaged was an understatement. It was as if a cat had clawed across the plastic bag. Needless to say, the goldfish started spilling in my backpack. So, Katie then pulled her blanket and pillow out of the plastic and held open the bag for me to pour the goldfish in, so that they wouldn't spill everywhere... only this plastic bag apparently didn't have a bottom and the fish spilled all over my chair and the floor! Ugh. Nice start to our flight. Haha. Actually the flight wasn't that bad at all. Rather uneventful, which is always good.

Once we arrived in London (Heathrow), it was about 7:00 am local time. We ate at a the Giraffe World Cafe (or something like that). After our layover, we boarded a very hot plane to Berlin. No, not a good looking plane, but a temperature-hot plane. I ended up sleeping that whole 2 hour flight to ward off feeling sick because it was so hot in there.

Casey was waiting for us outside of customs. He parked really close, so we were on the road almost immediately. Back at the house, unloaded all of the American treats and treasures we brought over for them. Ellie was especially excited about her new ballet leotards with attached skirts. She put on the blue one right away!

And Casey was especially excited about his Cap'n Crunch. He made himself a bowl straightway. :) Brittney, Ellie, Katie, and I took a walk up the street (Kurfurstendamm, colloquially abbreviated to the Ku-damm) to grab a Berliner Currywurst, which is a curry flavored hot-dog and a cinnamon and sugar crepe. Delish!

Ellie is hilariously entertaining. Brittney emailed Katie yesterday to let us know that Ellie was just as excited about our arrival as we were. She said, "Went to Subway for lunch today and Ellis INSISTED on buying an extra bag of chips that she kept saying were for Emery. She also told her teachers at school today that "Aunt Kat" is on an airplane today, coming to see her. :) Needless to say, she is VERY excited that you guys are coming." She is two and a half and about as tall as a four year old. About as smart as one, too. She goes to kindergarten (preschool) here and so she speaks German pretty well, evidently more than Britt and Casey. Every time she counts anything, it's in German. Apparently when she gets really upset at Brittney, Ellie "yells" at her in German! How can you stay upset for long if a two year old is yelling, "Nein, momm. Nein." I would just start laughing. One of her teachers at kindergarten is British, so she speaks to her in English... but that also results in Ellie learning and repeating some interesting phrases like, "Mom, I need a nappy change." or "Oh that's lovely." :)

Well, I'm doing my best to stay up until bedtime. It's now about 8:30 pm local time. I'm doing pretty well, actually. ...Crossing my fingers..., I think I won't have jet lag too bad at all.

Well that's it for now. Tomorrow we'll be going to church and then to one of Casey's games tomorrow night.

Deutschland, here we come!

So, as most of you know, Katie and I are on our way to Germany. We are sitting in the Dallas airport awaiting our departure to London, where will we change planes again and fly on to Berlin. We found what's called "The Comfort Lounge" here at DFW and now our layover here is very relaxing. In fact, while Katie stepped away to the restroom, the CEO and Executive VP of DFW stopped by to chat with me and see how I liked their new "Comfort Lounge."

Whoops! We have to run. We heard that "our" flight would be delayed, but then Katie just went to the gate (a few gates away from The Comfort Lounge) to double check that they were speaking about our flight. They weren't. Our flight is boarding, so off we go!

Sending off a friend.

Sometimes airports are a little much for me. Interestingly, I've always thought I love them because they mean the promise of a new destination, culture, site-seeing, or a familiar destination... either way they mean excitement. But two weeks ago this morning, I went to the airport to put a friend on the plane to Lithuania... to live. As you likely know, I love Lithuania, don't get me wrong. But right now, she (Lithuania) has my friend and I don't get her back for a long time. I know the world is small thanks to planes, the internet, Skype, etc. But I miss her already.

Thanks eBay!

In need of cash, in what feels like a desperate way, I have once again come back to eBay. Thank you eBay for finding people who want to buy all my "old" stuff. Thanks for finding Christine in Australia, who wanted to buy this pair of shoes for $45!

And thanks PayPal for accepting that money on my behalf and then giving me money back every time I use my debit card! Thanks.

Warm words.

M: (hugging me two weeks ago) Mmm, you smell nice.
**********

M: (as I opened the front door last Thursday night) Wow. You look pretty!

**********

M: (out of nowhere driving up State Street on Monday night) I'm really happy you're my girlfriend.

Well M, I'm happy you're my boyfriend. :)

Double Takes.

Okay, can I say, "Hilarious?"

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Post-Valentine's Day Wrap-up.

So it seems that many of you don't like it when a story is started and never finished. Am I right? Well, I can completely relate, so I thought I'd finish off my Valentine's Day "story" and let you know that M was in fact my Valentine. However, when I asked him to be my Valentine, his reply was, "That doesn't count; I already asked you to be mine." :)

M requested that I be ready at 11am on Valentine's Day, when he would come over and together, decide what matinee we wanted to see. But, I was so excited to sleep in on Saturday, that I was behind in getting ready. I texted M at about 1045 am to tell him I was running late. He replied, "No worries. I'll come over 1130 am." That was the perfect thing to hear. I love feeling un-rushed.

I was ready right at 1130 am when M arrived with these in hand.

I love stargazer lilies. They are so deliciously fragrant! And even better, M remembered how much I love them. Then, as we sat down in front of the computer checking out all of our movie options, the doorbell rang. Katie was in the kitchen making herself some lunch and had tuna-covered hands, so she asked, "Will you get that?" Then M said, "Yeah, why don't you get it." A little suspiciously, I walked to the front door to find these tuxedo-clad men.

Yes, they are a barbershop quartet. (M's dad is the tall one in the center.) My jaw dropped as I let them in. They began to sing to me from M. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I smiled the whole time. I was truly shocked. Happy, but also a little nervous that these four singing men were staring at me and only me for a full five minutes! But SO fun! When M told me I had a few surprises for Valentine's Day, I never would have guessed this one. :)

After my serenaders left, M and I decided on a movie. Confessions of a Shopaholic. We wanted something light and romantically comedic. On our way to the theatre, we stopped off at a new healthy fast food restaurant called Au Naturale. I've been wanting to try it and am happy to report that they do not disappoint! Take a look at their delectable menu here and stop by sometime and check them out. I would love to see them do well and be successful in changing the nature of fast food.

Being that it was Valentine's Day, I decided to wear these all day. (Okay, so I only made it from my house, to lunch, to window shopping, and to the theatre, but it was fun.)

After our movie, M dropped me off at home and I took a nap. How great is that?! He planned a nap for me into our day. Like it or not, I've learned that a woman needs her sleep.

Then dressed up and ready for a night out, M picked me up again at 6 pm and we headed down to this restaurant, where we ate on our first date. It was freezing and very windy outside. I was wearing a cute red and black dress with tall black sassy boots, which coupled with my car-length black wool coat, provided little protection from the cold as we waited to be seated. Good thing I had an "M" with me. They keep you pretty warm. ;)

But just before our food arrived, M disappeared for twenty minutes in the bathroom. I was pretty certain that he was getting my final Valentine's surprise ready to give me. But then he came back and just went about eating. No surprise, yet, I guess. Finally, he sighed saying, "It's not working." "What's not working?" "Your last surprise isn't working the way I had planned." I don't really remember exactly what he said at that point, but he finally asked me to listen to his coat pocket. (I was cold, so he'd given me his coat to put over my legs.) I listened, and heard his recorded voice coming from the pocket. Following the voice's request, I reached into the pocket and pulled out this:

Yes. You saw that right. He bought me a new phone! (Apparently, he and many of my other friends felt it was high time I had a new phone. I thought my little blue Samsung was just fine... I guess I was wrong. haha.) I was in a little bit of shock. I'm not always good with "big" gifts. I got a little overwhelmed, especially when I first started using it. Sensory overload. But isn't it beautiful?! I love it! One of my favorite features, which I'm sure many of you will roll your eyes at, is a four-level Sudoku application! M has me hooked on Challenge Sudoku on Facebook, so he was especially pleased to find out that the phone had my new favorite pastime as well. :) Thank you M!

Valentine's Day was grand. Not necessarily because it was Valentine's Day, but because M planned out the whole day. I generally don't do the whole commercial Valentine trip. You know, buying a lot of stuff that has hearts on it, or is full of tons of sugar, or stuffed animals holding fake velvet hearts. But I DO love sharing love with the people who matter most. And let's be honest, a designated day especially for loving isn't so bad. After all, I love love. Remember?

Thanks for a great day, M!

Golden Birthdays.

I've been remiss in documenting my life lately. So I'm going to backtrack slightly over the next couple of days. At the end of January, Derrick and M celebrated their "golden" birthdays.

Naturally, we had a party. "Golden Birthdays"

The night started with dinner at Buca di Beppo (Look how they're making at eyes at each other!),

followed by ice skating,

and culminated in all kinds of cake and ice cream. M had requested angel food cake with strawberry topping, which was delish, if I do say so myself. I  also made chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. And Katie made a favorite: funfetti cupcakes. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of our creations. The birthday boys seemed to have a good time, as did we all.

For his birthday, M received a 72-Hour Emergency Backpack from me, 

as well as dinner at The Mandarin, 

where the inside decor really makes you feel like you're in the middle of China,

eating this yummy food: Chicken Soong Imperial Lettuce Wraps,

Char Shu Wonton Soup,

and Five Taste Shrimp.

He also had his first professional massage at Sanctuary. Ah, bliss.

Happy (now, belated) birthday M!

Ridiculously charming! Can I have one of her?

Isn't she delightful!


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

M, will you be my Valentine?

A bit sappy sometimes, I am.

"I've been feeling all romantic lately," I say to M the other night. He chuckles, (you know that laugh that says, "I just think you're funny, but totally cute and I like when you feel all lovey because I know that you love me.") and says, "You're cute." Then he continues on suggesting that maybe I feel "all romantic lately because Valentine's Day is coming up and you know, you're supposed to feel all romantic this month."

Maybe he's right. But, whatever the reason, I like it. I AM a romantic. Sure, I stay am true to my pragmatic self, but when it comes to love... I admit... I love love. I'm a bit sappy sometimes. To love and be loved is like feeling the sun from both sides. Ah, let me bask in it. :)

"Love is the most powerful force in the world." ~Dallin H. Oaks

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Saturday, we had our annual Chinese New Year party at the end of the traditional two week-long New Year celebration. As I explained to our 14 guests, celebrating Chinese New Year brings a little comfort and piece of home for me, here in a "foreign land." It's probably my tenth or eleventh party. Fun fun. I loved being surrounded by good friends and yummy comfort food reminding me of home. For dinner, we ate potstickers, cashew chicken, orange chicken, and rice with delicious gai may baus for dessert! The gai may baus (coconut buns) were especially delicious. I need to try making them sometime. I remember when I first moved away from home, asking my mom to FedEx overnight me a dozen fresh gai may baus from Imperial Bakery. De-lish!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Running Monoblogue.

Do you ever find yourself blogging in your head throughout the day? You know, where you start thinking of all these great things to post? I call that a monoblogue. I do it a lot. Kind of obsessive-like, at times.

I'm sure that there are scientists and doctors right this very minute researching a cure for Blog-nesia. It's sort of like amnesia, where you forget (or in many cases ignore) other things in your life so you can blog or read blogs. It's a serious problem, people. I must get control of myself. Look at the time!

Did you know?

*Did you know that there is a sack of shoes in my closet that has been waiting to be taken to the shoe repair since October 2007? Yes, that's over a year.

*Did you know that in my basement food storage you will find 19 boxes of cereal and couscous? I clearly have a things with sales and double coupons. Is there a support group for addicted coupon users?

*Did you know that M brought me lunch today because I was a sick girl? (Or a sickie, as he calls it.) He's nice to me. I kinda like that man. It doesn't take much to make my day.

*Did you know that I have boxes of stationery and cards from my days working at "the paper shop," as my friend Kevin used to call it.

*Did you know that I was so sick and out of it that I nearly put the orange juice away in the cupboard the other day? My fever is finally gone today. Phew.

*Did you know that I've gotten 100% on all my tests so far in my math class?

*Did you know my favorite colors are red and blue? Okay, and black.

*Did you know Katie and I are going to Berlin for a week in March to visit these fun peeps? Yup, bought the tickets tonight.

That's all I got, folks.

God's got me covered.

You know that scratchy sore throat, which tells you that getting really sick is imminent? Yeah, well he arrived mid-day on Thursday. By Friday, I sounded like a man (and was in fact mistaken for M when I answered my own phone! Thanks Brian. :)) It got progressively worse Friday and into Saturday recruiting its friends congestion, cough, and fever. All the while, we were celebrating M's golden birthday. With my loins girded, fresh courage I took and ice skated with a fever of 101. Courage or stupidity? I'm not sure. My arm was by no means being twisted. I wanted M to have a terrific birthday celebration. Plus, I own my very own figure skates. How could I pass up the opportunity to don those beauties? And it was fun! Today, however, I stayed home from Church, still nursing my fever (along with a host of other awful symptoms that no meds or herbal remedies seem to touch). And I'm contemplating not going into work tomorrow. Ugh. I hate being sick. I do have to count my many blessings because I haven't been really sick for long time. So I can't really complain.

But can't I complain a little? Being sick as an adult is no fun. You don't really have anyone to take care of you and bring you chicken broth or tea or just wait on you like Mom would. No sick girl presents. No refills on your bedside glass of water. No wet washcloth to break your fever. But why should I mourn or think my lot is hard? When the coughing rages high, I feel no arm around me thrust. But every storm goes rolling by, when I repose in Him my trust. I may not have anyone to physically take care of me when I'm sick, but at least I know Heavenly Father's got me covered. All is well! All is well!