Almost Two Years

Hi All,

From what I can tell I last wrote when Tamara was recovering from her surgery in February. And so, first of all I must thank so many of you for writing and wishing us well at that time, and keeping us in your prayers. We were truly blessed during that time.

I neglected sending an update for some time now. I feel like our lives are so normal. But, I have received a few requests to send out an update on our family. I will now attempt to do so. As always, if your email inbox is already too full, or you prefer to simply read updates on the blog, just let me know and I'll gladly stop including you on the updates.

It is a good time for an update since Ian's B-day is tomorrow. In Germany it is considered bad luck to talk about such an event before it happens, but since I am still an American and it's almost midnight now, I will break with the German tradition and take the risk. Ian will be 2 years old, which means, as you probably know - we have been in Germany for almost 2 years. Ian was three weeks old when we left the U.S. Ian's age helps us keep track of how long we have been here.

We will have a little barbecue and B-day celebration with some friends from our congregation tomorrow. The couple we invited have been great friends to our family since arriving in Germany. They are definitely like surrogate parents to us and grandparents to our children. The wife has taken care of Ian during church services for most Sundays for the past 18 months. When she prayed last week in church, Ian was totally excited to see her come down from the stand. Her taking Ian eases our burden during the church services immensely, especially since I serve about once a month as a translator for the English speaking members of the congregation during the service and am unable to sit with the family on those weeks.

Catching up on our family. I would like to start by mentioning that Tamara is doing fabulous. She is still taking iron tablets every day and B12 shots once a week, but has tremendous amounts of energy. It is wonderful to see her full of energy and able to do things. In fact, she was doing so well that after Emma started going to pre-school last May (called Kindergarten here in Germany), Tamara started walking Emma to pre-school almost every day. She combined this with a change in diet to lose some weight before her trip to America this summer. She did a great job and still gets compliments on her new look. Tamara was able to take Shantal with her to America for 2.5 weeks. They had a good time. Tamara came back refreshed and full of even more energy. It was great to see.

With Tamara away I took time off of work and was able to be a "full-time" dad for the 2.5 weeks. Wow, that was a great experience. I almost cried when I was back at work I missed the kids so much. It was hard, but tremendous to be with them. I realized that Tamara does a tremendous job with the kids, and was grateful for her return. Spencer was also profoundly grateful. After her arrival, Spencer thanked Tamara for cooked meals for about four days in a row. He never does this. I guess the joy at having nice meals again was just so overwhelming that the gratitude just couldn't be contained.

Now that Tamara is feeling better, I can start to be sick***. I have been seeing the doctor for some stomach/digestive track issues as I have trouble digesting milk products or too much meat. The problems could be related to the pancreas (in German the word for pancreas is very cool: die Bauchspeicheldrüse. It means- stomach spittle gland). It could also be the thyroid. I have started receiving vitamin shots, and the doctor is doing blood work to test more stuff. I recently felt quite aged when I ran out of my antacid medication (related to potential pancreas problems I take these) - I can't live without my prescription!

***By the way, it is totally normal to talk about one's health problems here in Germany. I seem to recall it being a bit taboo in the U.S. But, I like talking about health problems, b/c it detaches the problem from the person and makes the problem less personal, less hidden and scary. So, if you are grossed out, sorry - it was a German moment.

We seem to have a normal life now here in Germany. School is back in session. Hannah is back in gymnastics and has set a goal to be on the medal stand at the next meet in November and really enjoyed gymnastics during the Olympic Games. She was in the paper today for being in the gymnastics program last year.

Spencer has returned to playing soccer and is playing well. He was complimented by the coach twice this week on his play. He plans to join the Boy Scouts starting tomorrow and seems to have found peace in the school.

Shantal is struggling in school. She feels like all of the kids (especially the girls) are mean to her right now - some of course more than others. We are working on that one with the other parents (especially with the parents of the extra mean kids), but it is slow going. On a positive note, Shantal will be in a play on Saturday - she went to a theater day camp in the summer and we are excited for the performance this coming Saturday. She is very artistically skilled and seemed to have really enjoyed the theater camp.

A big decision is coming up for Shantal and Spencer this year - we must pick a new school for them for next year. This is the last year of grade school and they start secondary school next year. The teacher makes a recommendation regarding what type of school they should attend. This is where the teachers assign the kids to a school system that will lead down one of three career paths - essentially, blue collar, mixed, white collar. Having never done this before, we will be asking our friends a lot of questions and praying quite a bit.

Emma is very excited to be in pre-school. She even went to a B-day party all by herself a few weeks back. This was a very bid step for her. She used to cry when being dropped off at friend's houses. Now she is excited. Ian is growing up. He is doing everything a two year old does - except talking. The doctor is concerned and gave us some tips for helping him progress - mainly reading with him. The doctor will check in six months and see how it going. We are not too concerned - he comprehends wonderfully, and Hannah approached speaking in a similar manner.

One last note. I had a wonderful opportunity to see one of my former scouts a few weeks back (Micai). He was visiting Germany as part of a school exchange program. His family will host a young man from Germany later this fall for a few weeks. What a great experience to walk around the Ems river with him and my two boys and talk about life, how things have changed since we left, and what his plans for the future are. When we first started working together 5 years ago in Wisconsin, me as scoutmaster and Micai as a young teenage scout, who would have imagined such a moment.

We often think of friends back home and miss our associations with you. May the Lord's finest blessings flow into your lives.

Cheers,
Gardner

Mowing the Lawn

Ah, what a refreshing day I had today. I was able to mow the lawn. Normally I dread mowing the lawn (especially in rainy Düsseldorf - mowing wet grass is never fun). I've been mowing lawns for decades now. But this summer I had a break.

Tamara started mowing the lawn after returning from the U.S. and that has been awesome. It is especially helpful since I can only mow on Saturdays (nights are out since I get home so late, and Sundays are out for church) and about half of the Saturdays are rained out, so sometimes the lawn gets quite long before I can get to it. Enter my great wife. She has taking over mowing the lawn lately and it has been great.

Well today was a sunny Saturday and the grass was long, and I had time - so I jumped in to help Tamara out. When I was done I told my wife - that wasn't as dreadful as normal - thanks for the break honey.

Long Overdue Update

Hi All,

From what I can tell I last wrote when Tamara was recovering from her surgery in February. And so, first of all I must thank so many of you for writing and wishing us well at that time, and keeping us in your prayers. We were truly blessed during that time.

I neglected sending an update for some time now. I feel like our lives are so normal. But, I have received a few requests to send out an update on our family. I will now attempt to do so. As always, if your email inbox is already too full, or you prefer to simply read updates on the blog, just let me know and I'll gladly stop including you on the updates.

It is a good time for an update since Ian's B-day is tomorrow. In Germany it is considered bad luck to talk about such an event before it happens, but since I am still an American and it's almost midnight now, I will break with the German tradition and take the risk. Ian will be 2 years old, which means, as you probably know - we have been in Germany for almost 2 years. Ian was three weeks old when we left the U.S. Ian's age helps us keep track of how long we have been here.

We will have a little barbecue and B-day celebration with some friends from our congregation tomorrow. The couple we invited have been great friends to our family since arriving in Germany. They are definitely like surrogate parents to us and grandparents to our children. The wife has taken care of Ian during church services for most Sundays for the past 18 months. When she prayed last week in church, Ian was totally excited to see her come down from the stand. Her taking Ian eases our burden during the church services immensely, especially since I serve about once a month as a translator for the English speaking members of the congregation during the service and am unable to sit with the family on those weeks.

Catching up on our family. I would like to start by mentioning that Tamara is doing fabulous. She is still taking iron tablets every day and B12 shots once a week, but has tremendous amounts of energy. It is wonderful to see her full of energy and able to do things. In fact, she was doing so well that after Emma started going to pre-school last May (called Kindergarten here in Germany), Tamara started walking Emma to pre-school almost every day. She combined this with a change in diet to lose some weight before her trip to America this summer. She did a great job and still gets compliments on her new look. Tamara was able to take Shantal with her to America for 2.5 weeks. They had a good time. Tamara came back refreshed and full of even more energy. It was great to see.

With Tamara away I took time off of work and was able to be a "full-time" dad for the 2.5 weeks. Wow, that was a great experience. I almost cried when I was back at work I missed the kids so much. It was hard, but tremendous to be with them. I realized that Tamara does a tremendous job with the kids, and was grateful for her return. Spencer was also profoundly grateful. After her arrival, Spencer thanked Tamara for cooked meals for about four days in a row. He never does this. I guess the joy at having nice meals again was just so overwhelming that the gratitude just couldn't be contained.

Now that Tamara is feeling better, I can start to be sick***. I have been seeing the doctor for some stomach/digestive track issues as I have trouble digesting milk products or too much meat. The problems could be related to the pancreas (in German the word for pancreas is very cool: die Bauchspeicheldrüse. It means- stomach spittle gland). It could be the thyroid. I have started receiving vitamin shots, and the doctor is doing blood work to test more stuff. I recently felt quite aged when I ran out of my antacid medication (related to potential pancreas problems I take these) - I can't live without my prescription!
***By the way, it is totally normal to talk about one's health problems here in Germany. I seem to recall it being a bit taboo in the U.S. But, I like talking about health problems, b/c it detaches the problem from the person and makes the problem less personal, less hidden and scary. So, if you are grossed out, sorry - it was a German moment.

We seem to have a "normal" life now here in Germany. School is back in session. Hannah is back in gymnastics and has set a goal to be on the medal stand at the next meet in November and really enjoyed gymnastics during the Olympic Games. She was in the paper today for being in the gymnastics program last year. Spencer has returned to playing soccer and is playing well. He was complimented by the coach twice this week on his play. He plans to join the Boy Scouts starting tomorrow and seems to have found peace in the school. Shantal is struggling in school. She feels like all of the kids (especially the girls) are mean to her right now - some of course more than others. We are working on that one with the other parents (especially with the parents of the extra mean kids), but it is slow going. On a positive note, Shantal will be in a play on Saturday - she went to a theater day camp in the summer and we are excited for the performance this coming Saturday. She is very artistically skilled and seemed to have really enjoyed the theater camp.

A big decision is coming up for Shantal and Spencer this year - we must pick a new school for them for next year. This is the last year of grade school and they start secondary school next year. The teacher makes a recommendation regarding what type of school they should attend. This is where the teachers assign the kids to a school system that will lead down one of three career paths - essentially, blue collar, mixed, white collar. Having never done this before we will be asking our friends a lot of questions and praying quite a bit.

Emma is very excited to be in pre-school. She even went to a B-day party all by herself a few weeks back. This was a very bid step for her. She used to cry when being dropped off at friend's houses. Now she is excited. Ian is growing up. He is doing everything a two year old does - except talking. The doctor is concerned and gave us some tips for helping him progress - mainly reading with him. The doctor will check in six months and see how it it going. We are not too concerned - he comprehends wonderfully, and Hannah approached speaking in a similar manner.

One last note. I had a wonderful opportunity to see one of my former scouts a few weeks back. He was visiting Germany as part of a school exchange program. His family will host a young man from Germany later this fall for a few weeks. What a great experience to walk around the Ems river with him and my two boys and talk about life, how things have changed since we left, and what his plans for the future are. When we first started working together 5 years ago in Wisconsin, me as scoutmaster and the scout as a young teenager, who would have imagined such a moment.

We often think of friends back home and miss our associations with you. May the Lord's finest blessings flow into your lives.

Cheers,
Gardner

Ah, the Rhine

The Rhine is much smaller than the Mississippi as far as width goes. But there seems to be just as much activity on the Rhine as on there was on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers when I was a child.

Today while crossing the Rhine I noticed several barges in transit, some heading north, and some traveling south. What I didn't hear and missed a bit this morning was the horn of the barges. I don't often hear the horn when I am near the Rhine that I heard growing up near the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

The barge horn I remember growing up sounds just like a train horn. So when I hear a train horn, or a barge horn, I always think of the barges on the Mississippi.

Crossing the Rhine each day on the tram is a great pleasure.

Saying Hi in the Elevator

This still freaks me out every time it happens. I enter an elevator on the 1st floor (ground floor or floor 0 in Germany). Someone then enters the elevator on, let's say the 3rd floor, and they say hello to me.

My first reaction is almost always to think - "why is this person talking to me?"

Then I remember, ah yes, I am in Germany. This is normal. I then respond, still a bit startled, with a hello, or a good day.

A Huge Crush on Someone

Totally in love!

Wow, the kids are getting older. Over dinner tonight our school age children were talking about who was in love with whom among their school friends.

The subject came up because a boy was invited to a girl's B-day party that Hannah attended. Apparently that meant that the boy has a huge crush on the girl throwing the party. Hannah said, rather matter of fact, that wasn't the case. She knew this because the boy has a huge crush on someone else.

Then she said something really cute: I don't know who I should be "verknallt" in, using the German word in the middle of her English sentence. I rubbed her arm and said that's not to worry.

The great thing was she was so serious about it. She had said - this thing everyone is talking about - to have a crush on someone (verknallt) - hasn't happened to me. So, she decides to think about who she should have a crush on. Very adorable. Hannah has always had a gift for taking the complex things in life and making them simple. It reminds me of the conversation we had this summer about who Hannah should marry.

date mich up

This is a new German word. A verb, actually, that I heard in the hallway today. If you know German, you are already laughing. If you only know English, then replace the mich with me and you have

date me up

Since "date me up" doesn't make any sense in English I'll provide some more common English phrases include "update me"; "send me an update"; "get back to me with an update"; "provide me with the update"; "keep me up to date" or in slang "give me the latest [as soon as you have it]".

The English word update has already made it into the German language according to the online translation dictionary that I use at work, but only as a noun. The noun is used very commonly in business German, especially in Information Technology where I work. But I do not recall having heard the German verb form of update.

It struck me funny because of what happens in English if you directly translate the words.

We've all been there

A colleague of mine said this to another colleague when she said: "I sure am tired of washing our dishes in the shower."

I can think of a lot of responses to "I sure am tired of washing our dishes in the shower." But we've all been there, just wasn't on the list.

Responses such as "Say what!" "Did you just say, wash dishes in the shower?", and "Are you kidding me?" come to mind.

These responses came to mind because I grew up in a land where kitchens belong to the house and the phrase "They took everything but the kitchen sink" makes sense. Here in Germany the kitchen, with rare exception, does not belong to the house. In other words, when you move, you take everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink. This commonly results in living in a home without a kitchen for a few days, weeks, or even months, thus necessitating the washing of dishes in the nearest equivalent to a sink, i.e., the shower or bathtub.

I was reminded of this conversation today when I spoke with an English fellow who just moved to Düsseldorf and finished hunting for an apartment. He said he was extremely blessed to have found a place with a kitchen, and with lights (another item that does NOT belong to the house/apartment in Germany). We were equally blessed when we arrived and were grateful that they took everything but the kitchen.

Misstrauisch ohne Ende

This is a description of the Germans - by a German colleague of mine. It means:

Distrustful or Suspicious to no end

This was his response to the question: Why does Vodafone's website have an option for customers to Reject an "Online Goodie". The Online Goodies are discounts a customer receives for ordering their products online.

He said, of course you might want to reject the discount, because it could be tied to a contract extension, or a special rule that affects you adversely in the future.

It was funny.

I Love Crossing the Rhine

This morning I got to cross the Rhine riding on the U77. Every morning and every evening I get to the cross the Rhine. The frequency of this event does not diminish it's significance for me. I love crossing the Rhine.

I'll have to write more on this later. I Have to get back to work.

Why Germany?

A post back to a friend who asked about our chosen place of residence: Germany.

Thanks for such kind words. My family is truly great. They've changed my life forever. I recently took vacation from work while Tamara and our oldest, Shantal, went to the U.S. Boy, did I miss the kids when I went back to work.

Why Germany is a question I ask myself pretty much everyday. It still seems like such a crazy thing to have done, as we have made a complete transfer to this country (we're not "expats" with paid trips to the U.S. every year, international schools, etc.). We are planning on returning to the U.S., but the when, how, and where do we land in the U.S. are all very open questions. We would like to return in the summer of 2013.

My desire to live and work in Germany started while I served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (90-92). After returning to the U.S. the desire only intensified. The movie link at the end of the message captures pretty well the love one develops for the area where you serve.



The movie referred to is The Best Two Years, which captures a few months of one missionary's service and it's affect on his companion, himself, and those he taught.

An Inspiring Article

Wow! I was impressed when I read the latest article from Thomas S. Monson.

I'm not sure what it was about the article exactly. It seemed to have application to so many aspects of my life. It also seemed like anyone would benefit from it's message, which is why I posted it here.

Nice to speak English again

Wow! I was in a meeting today with two Irish project members. What a nice change. They were major contributors to the meeting and could understand me. I did not realize how much I miss that on this project.

German would not be too bad, but since 1/2 the project is English only. But trying to understand all the different varieties of continental English and not being understood just wear a man down. Naja, so ist das Leben (Oh well, that's life).

In Search of the Perfect Hamburger Bun

So, we've been in Germany for a while, and when Tamara recently placed hamburgers on the menu (I take the veggie version due to my persnickety and often peeved pancreas) I was quite excited, until I started dealing with the bun.

Why does the bun matter. I can't explain it, it just does. And, so these two small complaints, though piddly have been getting me out of sorts the last few days as I ate the veggie burgers and the subsequent leftovers.

I looked at Kulturvergleiche's blog, but didn't find a comparison on this topic.

Here are my complaints.

Number one - huge buns (from one store). I have to cut almost half of the bun off in order to enjoy eating the hamburger (I circle cut the bun so it is simply smaller in diameter - going in half didn't really work).

Number two - unsliced buns (from all stores). the buns are unsliced. that means you have to cut the buns in half in order to make a hamburger bun. For me this results in uneven top and bottom slices of bread - for instance a concave bottom and an obtuse top.

U.S. news is hilarious

Utah farmer fights back. That might have been my title to the article.

HOOPER, Utah - A farmer has erected a fence in his backyard made of three old cars sticking up in the air to send a message to new neighbors that he can do whatever he wants on his farm.

This little gem was on the main page on Yahoo.com. I am often amused by the fun articles that Yahoo places there. I should probably look elsewhere for good news, but Yahoo is where I check my email and it's convenient, and entertaining.

Back from Prague

To answer the question: Is Prague in the GPS? - Yes. Is the rest of the Czech Republic in the GPS? - Not so much. This made our trip down to Prague more entertaining than it already was - the kids were not happy to be back in the car again, and Tamara and I were pretty stressed out as it was.

What happened was that the main freeway running from Dresden to Usti Nad Labem (A17 in Germany) was not in the GPS. So the GPS kept telling us to exit the freeway and commonly showed us driving through lakes, and through the grass (green background instead of on a road). The A17 freeway looked new, but not that new. Once we got close to Prague and of course in Prague itself, the GPS performed beautifully.

The back-roading (according to the GPS) reminded me of my favorite parts of driving video games when I was a kid - going off the road when you are not supposed to. I used to see how long I could stay off road before the game died. I guess that was my first clue that I would someday go into software testing (my current role with my software consultancy). Unfortunately I'm testing telecom ordering systems and not video games, but . . . it's still testing.

Spencer & Hannah now Famous

Spencer and Hannah went on another outing together. A sort of summer day camp and they both made the paper together. They were both excited about the activities when they came home. They got to see Felix, the Spielmobil. A traveling library that goes to various locations in our city. Spencer still says he is not excited about being in the paper. I was excited and I still don't fully believe Spencer about not being excited.

Shantal is having fun at her Theater camp (except for one dog scare on Friday). She will be performing Max & Moritz, a famous children's story about little boys who get in trouble. The moral of the story is don't get in trouble, or the trouble will get you in the end.


The article/caption talks about a tour of the city that included a treasure hunt. This was followed by games and activities. They then visited the roving library and watched a movie together.