Square Dance Music

I finally found how to get some good country music in Germany. O.K., not sure about good, but it sure brought back some memories from Ricks College, when I was first introduced to such songs as Achy Breaky Heart, Boot Scootin Boogie, and No One Else On Earth. I got a CD with 40 songs (many of which I've heard before) from Amazon.de for only 6,68 € (roughly $10.50).

I ordered square dance music for an upcoming activity we are sponsoring with Shantal's class at school: a Daddy Daughter Dance at our house. This is a type of activity I miss from the states and from my congregation growing up. And since we have chosen life here in the German Democratic Republic for now, my only hope for having such an activity is to bring the activity here.

In order to make it unique or interesting for the German parents and kids, we've made square dancing the main attraction (we did a flag football superbowl in February for Spencer and boys in his class). This was a suggestion from one of the parents in the class and since all American children learn the dance in grade school, we thought it would be fit well.

I'm really looking forward to the activity with Shantal. We practiced some moves last night. I found some software that allows you to choreograph a dance routine (Face Corner, Allemande, Dosado, etc.). After choreographing the dance routine, the software will play the routine for you. This was extremely helpful, because I have not square danced since I was in grade school.

We are planning on inviting some friends over to practice - they have two boys and two girls in their family (mom, dad, boy, girl). That way we'll have nine people (eight dancers and a caller) and we can practice teaching someone other than our family and see what will and won't work.

It should be a good time. I hope several girls come. There are 10 girls (including Shantal) in the class.

Fatherhood

A Letter to some current missionaries from the youth program I worked in back in Wisconsin.

Hey we had a really good week this week. I am in my last two weeks of my contract at Tele2. I will start working for Vodafone on June 1st. I'm a little nervous about the change since I have worked at Tele2 since Oct, 2006 (we arrived in Germany in Sept, 2006). But I will rely on the Lord and trust that a way for success will be provided.

In trying to finish up my work at Tele2 we ran into some delays and had to work overtime - that meant working today on a state holiday. Since I wouldn't be working that long and there would only be a few people there I took Spencer to work with me. He is 9.5 years old now and loves the games at Lego.de. He found a cool elf-meter schiessen game (soccer penalty shot game). It is 2-player and I could play goalie while he shot (on the same keyboard) and vice versa. It was pretty fun.

Spencer also found that Playstation II is coming out with an Lego Indiana Jones game (like Lego Star Wars). It made me want to buy a Playstation. Ours is broken. The first problem with buying a playstation is that our kids are still young and will probably break this one as well (Ian 1.5 and Emma 3). The other problem for us living in Europe is that if we buy an American Playstation (cheaper) we can't play any games we buy in Europe. If we buy a European Playstation then we can't play any of our old games, but we could buy games here in Europe. Ah, the troubles of fatherhood.

Hectic Lives

Here is a letter I sent to some former members of my boy scout troop in Wisconsin. Two are serving missions (one in Utah, and one in Denmark).

Well, we have had some crazy adventures here in Germany, that is for sure. Here's a quick list of items that happened in February:
1) Became Elders Quorum President in the ward
2) Tamara had a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus)
3) My mom came for a 2 1/2 week stay
4) We held a father-son "superbowl" for Spencer's class at school - and taught the boys and fathers some American football
5) We started paying the big kids for grades (they got 35 € and 47 €. Grades are very important in grade school here. And I wanted to let the kids know how much. If they had pushed themselves a bit more, I think they could have earned around 75 €. Just to let you know how much are willing to show them that this is important).
6) I started writing down my thoughts on why I was motivated to move to Germany on an online blog for just my family members (It's such a crazy thing because we don't have a way back, yet. We knew that when we left, so why did we leave anyway?)
7) became really good friends with one of the families who watched the kids while Tamara was in the hospital (they are like grandparents to the kids here, which is really great)
8) took over a new role at work
9) Helped Spencer start playing soccer
10) I had a brilliant business idea (not sure if it will turn into anything, but trying to flesh out the idea is well worth the effort)
11) I had an endoscopy to see what is up with my stomach problems (that's the camera down the throat thingy)
12) We had a visit from a former missionary companion of mine (I haven't seen him in 16 years and now I see him again in Germany - crazy)

Anyone of the events (and there are more) has a great story behind it. I'll pick the story about Spencer playing soccer for some details because it fits for our fine missionary friends.

Spencer has had it very rough here in Germany. N, our 2nd exchange student, told us that school in Germany was much rougher than in the states. I didn't fully believe her, but I do now. One complication is that Spencer, of course, likes to fight back when people pick on him, and doesn't like to back down. This would otherwise be good, except that Spencer is not yet wise enough to know when to back down, and when to fight. He's a little short compared to the other boys, which also doesn't help his cause. And, on top of all that, Spencer was jumped by 5 kids shortly after joining his class in February of last year. Things have been rough since then, for us as parents, and of course, for Spencer. We are trying to pull out of the negative and look to the future and stay positive. One way to do that is to have Spencer play soccer (I believe this is thanks to A, our 1st exchange student).

When we went the first time, my goal was to look for the best player on the team, or one of the best players on the team and find a friend for Spencer, by inviting the boy over to dinner with his family. It took about two minutes to see which two players had the most respect. Then during the next 90 minutes I saw how the best and most respected player attacked Spencer and caused problems for him at every turn. Kicking the ball really hard instead of passing it, kick the ball at Spencer when he wasn't looking, tripping Spencer to get the ball away from him.

Afterwards I said, Spencer, be careful around that boy. He is dangerous and I thought we would invite the other boy over. I was a bit depressed, because I thought - here we go again. Spencer will be at such a disadvantage and not know how to find his way. I was heartbroken and unsure of how to proceed.

That night we read in the scriptures as a family. But before we started, we were all frustrated with each other and a bit in a bad mood. I looked around for someone to say the prayer. I knew I didn't feel like praying, and no one else was really ready either, we were all seething, except for my mother, who was still in town and helping with all of the work around the house. She said an amazing prayer. Pleading with the Lord for us, and mentioning all of the good things we do, and have done, and that the spirit of peace and love, the spirit of the Lord might be in our home. It was very comforting.

Short break for #13 on our month of February list

Ian is starting to get his molars. Every time Ian gets new teeth it is a major event. He is in so much pain with the teeth and wakes up every night for a few weeks. Then he goes back to being Ian again. I just finished hanging out with him for a while, gave him tylenol, a new diaper, a bottle and back to bed. He should sleep through now (it's about 10:30).

Back to the story. My mom's prayer really brought peace into the room, which was nice, and we started reading. We read the story about Ammon, a great story. And as we read I remembered that there were two brothers who went to preach the gospel to the Lamanites, Aaron and Ammon. Aaron had very little success because he went to normal everyday people in the land and tried to work with them. Ammon had great success. What he did is go right to the king and say I want to be a servant in your kingdom. Then he was the best servant in the court, even putting his own life in danger to defend the kings flocks. This impressed the king and he opened his heart to hear Ammon's words. Ammon's life was spared on several occasions and I felt great comfort as I read the following passage.

19:23 - Now we see that Ammon could not be slain, for the Lord had said unto Mosiah, his father: I will spare him, and it shall be unto him according to thy faith—therefore, Mosiah trusted him unto the Lord.

After reading this passage I knew what we had to do - we have to go to the King of Fußball in Homberg. I told my wife, mother, and Spencer. We planned out a day, last Friday night with the family. When the family sat down I gave a little bit of an introduction. I told the boy what we did. That we looked for the players in the team who were leaders in the team. And, when I saw how much respect the other boys have for him, and that I knew Spencer would not succeed without him. It was a great moment. I think it was great for the boy as well. I hope it will be. He is also just a boy and who wouldn't love to hear that. Obviously, Spencer still has a long road, and lots to learn, but I think we have made a good start and I think Spencer is headed in the right direction. And that was especially important after we had had such a rough start a year ago.

All the best to you and especially to the two Elders. May the Lord watch over you and bless you.
Gardner

Tamara's surgery - all looks good

Hi All,

Here is a quick update on Tamara. I have been able to see her twice in the last two days and she is doing great. When I saw her on the first day she was much more spirited than I expected, both directly after the surgery and that evening. Today me and the older kids brought flowers. She looked very good today. She was dressed in normal clothes /normal pajamas and could move around a bit more. It looks like a great start.

On the home front all is going well, but mainly due to help from friends, neighbors, and the relief society, or women's organization, in our congregation. Every time I thought I couldn't go on, or was about to give up on something, they were there. Today I was uncertain about how to take the kids outside (because the weather was nice), finish Hannah's homework and get her off to a friend's house, give Ian something to eat, help Shantal make a cute dessert (which she has been dying to make), and like ten other things I needed to do. That is when brother and sister B. showed up. The husband said where is Spencer I've got a soccer ball for him, the wife started playing with the babies and feeding Ian. With Hannah out the door I got the babies ready and Spencer, brother B., the babies and I went to play some soccer. Emma was so happy to walk with brother B. to the soccer field. Spencer and brother B. had a great time, as did the babies. The babies were so cute in the muddy grass. It was a blast. That also gave Shantal some time to create a wonderful dessert. Hannah came back from a friends

That evening another sister brought in dinner and we had no worries. Wow, it was awesome. That is just one example of help from friends, neighbors, and members of our congregation. Naturally, one receives help often, but it moves one so much more powerfully in your moments of deepest need. I told the B. family that we shouldn't wait until Tamara gets sick again to get together. We could use their help more often. Our kids could use their help more often. I know Tamara could. They said the same thing. I hope that we will.

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts. It was great to hear from so many about how they had experienced similar things and how life went on. My mother comes next week and I hope that Tamara's recovery will continue moving in a positive direction.

All the best,
Gardner

A Request

We have a challenging event ahead of us. Tamara will be heading to the hospital for a hysterectomy next week. Her tiredness had not completely gone away after taking iron and getting B12 shots and so the doctors looked a bit further. They asked about her periods and if there was a lot of bleeding. There has been. She was referred to a gynecologist. He said since we have all of our children, the best way to go is to have the hysterectomy, because otherwise the heavy bleeding would continue each month and the blood levels would always be down. Tamara wrote down all of the details on our blog.

Life has so many twists and turns, this is just the latest for us. It also quite a challenging time for me as I have had stomach problems as of late, causing me to miss a week of work a few weeks back. I have pain when my stomach becomes empty which indicates that I probably have ulcers in the duodenum, which is just below the stomach in the start of the intestines. I have to watch what types of food I eat, each 4-6 meals a day, and take anti-acid medication to reduce the acid build up at the end of each day. It's not overly fun, but the lack of pain is very nice. I will have to have an endoscopy in the next few weeks to see what to do next.

The announcement of the surgery seems to have come so fast that it is confusing at times. But, the speed has actually been a blessing. Work is relatively slow for me right now, plane tickets are relatively inexpensive which means that my mother is available to come and help with the kids, which will be a huge help and bring a great calm and reassuring spirit to the kids as well as help ease our burden. Our congregation, friends, and neighbors have also been a great help. They have offered to bring meals and take the kids to activities and let them play longer at their house. This is a huge help.

The kids have also been a great help. They are real pros at caring for the two babies. Spencer has postponed his soccer career by a few weeks until mom is back in shape to support him. Hannah is excited that grandma will be on this side of the pond for her birthday. I hope this will help mom regain some energy and strength. We sure realize how much we miss her at times like these. She is already making plans for farming out the kids a couple of times a week and on weekends. She is only replaceable by two - seven people. I should tell her that more often.

Please keep us in your hearts and prayers, especially this week.

Cheers,
Gardner