Random bits of life:
* I picked 18 quarts of strawberries last night.  It was lovely.  Picking strawberries is one of my favorite activities.

* I took my parents some strawberries. My Dad gave me almost 2 pounds of asparagus and a vase full of roses and I was able to see my parents and favorite two youngest siblings.  I definitely received the better end of the deal.

* I am very proud of my siblings, all of them. Whenever I have a chance to mention how awesome they are, I usually do.  It makes me sad that other people don't seem to enjoy spending time with their family. I am very thankful for mine.

* I am glad I have a talented, smart little brother and I am glad I have multiple, beautiful sisters.

* I am playing in a soccer tournament on Saturday.  Yikes.

* I reserved my spot in Paris for June!!  In the first two weeks of June, I am working only 1 and a half days, taking 2 vacation days, 1 holiday, and being paid for 5 days in Europe.  It is going to be sweet (catching up on the work on all my teams is NOT going to be sweet, but I am not going to think about that until I come back -  ha).

* Jared is really funny.  If you have a chance you should come and see him play Felix Unger in the Odd couple in the 3rd and 4th weekends in June.   

* The longer I work, the more thankful I am for all those HORRIBLE engineering projects and teams that I was on.  It has completely and fully prepared me for the real world of terrible projects and crazy people. It is amazing to me that many of these people are in positions of authority. Moreover, it is even more incredible to me that the world works.  God must really hold the whole thing together.  I don't think that verse in Colossians just means that he holds the universe (matter) together, which I believe he does too, but also the every working of people and their stupidity. 

* I really like the new slogan on Ikea's new catalogs.  This is one more reason I love Ikea! I could not more fully agree ("A home does not have to be big, just smart").  That is how my brain sees the world.  I see spaces and I think about the most efficient use of a space.  I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to work for them!!! That is my dream engineering job.  Yes, owning my own Bed and Breakfast is still top of my list. 

Pictures from my week

One of my favorite parts of the laundry is matching up the socks. This is 18 pairs of Jared's sock after only six days. I guess working two jobs and going to the gym is excuse to go through that many socks in one week. Crazy.

This is a baby dress or kids shirt that I sewed last week. I think the pattern is so adorable.  I am not a huge fan of the fabric, but I like to experiment with new patterns and not so great fabric in case I mess up.

I cleaned my whole house thoroughly this week.  It smells so good.  I opened all the window and cleaned them out.  This is what they looked like before.  How does so much dirt get five feet into the air?!?

This is an old shirt of mine that has shrunk.  Note the sleeves and bottom are too short.

I am working on turning it into a child's dress.  The belt is going to be different and I am thinking of putting lace on the bottom of the dress.

Friday I went over to my niece (whom I think I have caught a cold from) and my nephews house to babysit and make gingerbread.  These are all the pictures I had time for.  ha.

And finally, Michelle came this weekend to hang out with my family and me!  Yay, for Michelle and for Anna who takes beautiful pictures. 

Two pictures by Anna.
One by Jared.

Saturday night we went to Cambridge to view Annie's photos in a art gallery. She has even sold a picture of Jared and I. We think it is weird/funny that we are hanging in some person in DC's home or office.

My lovely sister and I. I love spending time with siblings! :) YAY!

We are married. I can do this now! :)

And the last picture is for my brother's movie which you should fan on facebook so you can come to the premier. You should definitely go watch the trailer on youtube.

Isn't it funny how certain things come to remind you of memories and places you have been. I went to pack Jared's lunch one morning last week and as I was filling a baggie with pretzels, I stuck one in my mouth. The first thing I thought of was England and Sarah and our hostel room. We had packed a bag of pretzels and after three days of eating them we were entirely sick of pretzels and willing to spend more money on other foods. I love my sisters.

I received a present that Jared opened yesterday. I was cutting up vegetables in the kitchen and he came in and said, "if I promise to write three thank you notes may I open one more gift?" So I said yes. And he brought in this package that looked like a framed picture. I wasn't really paying attention because I didn't care that much about presents at that moment. I was trying out new kitchen stuff!! Jared couldn't figure out the card and so he came over and showed it to me. I couldn't figure it out either... maybe you can.


So we decided that maybe the present itself would hold some clues... So we opened the UGLY gold wrapping paper and it was a old bulletin board attached to a large think wrapped in a big white sheet. I still wasn't really paying attention and was sitting over at the counter thinking, "that is weird... I hope it is something that we will actually like...".

And than Jared opened it and showed it to me and I wanted to cry... This is a bad picture of the painting. But it is a huge canvas of Corduroy that my sister painted. Isn't it beautiful? I will try to get a better picture of it later once I hang it up in the living room. Sarah, you are amazing and I am so honored to receive one of your paintings!! Thank you so much!

For the many of you that have asked to see Jared's house I post this picture.
I was telling him that I love pink dogwoods and I wished that we could have one someday. So he sent me a picture and said, "like this one?" Apparently Jared has had a pink dogwood in his yard since he moved in last May and I never noticed (in my defense I have only been over there four times and the tree wouldn't have had its flowers in bloom when I went).

So here is a picture of my adorable house-to-be!! And my lovely pink dogwood-to-be. So exciting. I can't wait to be able to wake up and look out my front window at this beautiful tree. Love love love. Isn't Jared's house adorable?!? I adore it. And he has planted a whole bunch of bushes and plants recently too so the front looks even better. :) Oh, and note the white handrail... I painted that with Anna's help.

I love Jared.

3. 22. means 111 days...

I'm back. The flight back was the worst landing that I have experienced. It was rough for half and hour and I was so sick. The guy four seats over from us threw up; I really felt like it, but I refused. ha. I'm now unpacking and doing homework that is due tomorrow. The trip was awesome. Germany was so amazing. Wandering around the Maginot line for three hours with the Sperows was so much fun!! London was pretty cool. The Underground is impressive; I enjoyed riding on it and changing trains. I saw Sherlock Holmes's house, ate in the pub where Narnia and LOTRs was read for the first time by CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, and saw so many other neat things. I will try to have pictures uploaded and more stories by next week, but I have a midterm and lots of homework and 60 pages to write by the end of April... (I could start that later, but I should probably work on that now).

Oh, 111 days until I marry Jared and I don't have to leave him anymore and we can take little trips together. Isn't the date cool? It is 3.22. and we have 111 days left... how neat is that little number trick?!?! I love it.

And Sarah is a great travel partner if you are looking for one. She loves to travel.

Day four:
Monday, March 16, 2009

Today Sarah and I left on a train at 9:05 and headed to Heidelberg (which really isn't early unless you stayed up until 3am talking - I love Sarah). It is really weird traveling when you don't know the language. Two college guys found out that we were American because they handed their camera to us and said, "photo photo?" And since we responded in English they decided to sit with us. BLEAH. And ask us dumb questions the entire trip. I can't even explain how many stupid questions they asked and how they talked about how they were over here for three months, but had no idea what they were doing (each of them told us something different) or what the countries looked like or what tickests to buy... it was pretty sad. They didn't even have a map!! Man, I is funny now, but it was annoying then. ha. Sarah and I thought we were helpless until we met these guys. Wow.

We arrived in Heidelberg at 11:00 and took a bus to the bottom of the hill where the castle (click castle for the home page and pictures) sat, but we decided to go find lunch and wander around the old town for a few hours first. About 2:00 we figured we should stop wandering, give up on finding lunch, and get up to the castle if we wanted to see it. Several switchbacks later, we made it to the top and the back of the castle (things are so poorly marked around here as touristy things go... I mean shouldn't there be huge signs all around pointing you up the right roads? We just took random roads until we found the hill and some paths going up to the castle).

We wandered around the castle, took a guided tour, and wandered around some more. Then we walked around the gardens and in the moat. The grounds were beautiful. After all that, we walked down 310 steps from the castle to the city, walked over 2 kilometers back to our train station (which left at 17:05 or 5:05), road two hours home (7.05), walked 15 minutes (7:20) to the Sperows, and were greeted with, "we are so glad you are still alive" and dinner. :)

Dinner was shintzal, green beans, roasted potatoes, and brown bread, followed by Black Forest Cake and Lemon Celo. Mrs. Sperow says she loves company because she gets to have all her favorite foods. Believe me, if you come, she will feed you. I have eaten so much and gone to so many neat places thanks to them. I know they love company... So come and experience so many awesome things (hint hint Mom and Dad). Heidelberg seemed a little touristy, but other then that the city was gorgeous and fun to wander about (as you can see from the FIVE straight hours of wandering we did). My feet are tired.

I leave you with a picture of one of the towers that fell. This was done by the french during the thirty year war. The walls are 17 feet thick and they couldn't hurt it from the outside so once they got inside they blew it up from the inside. We saw it from the ground and it is really impressive. It is HUGE! Oh, and American tourists are so annoying and loud. It is embarassing.

Two days until London. Tomorrow we are touring France and some WWII historical stuff. Woohoo. Mrs. Sperow is taking off work early and taking us. :D It will be so much more fun.

A ruin must be rightly situated, to be effective. This one could not have been better placed. It stands upon a commanding elevation, it is buried in green woods, there is no level ground about it, but, on the contrary, there are wooded terraces upon terraces, and one looks down through shining leaves into profound chasms and abysses where twilight reigns and the sun cannot intrude. Nature knows how to garnish a ruin to get the best effect. One of these old towers is split down the middle, and one half has tumbled aside. It tumbled in such a way as to establish itself in a picturesque attitude. Then all it lacked was a fitting drapery, and Nature has furnished that; she has robed the rugged mass in flowers and verdure, and made it a charm to the eye. The standing half exposes its arched and cavernous rooms to you, like open, toothless mouths; there, too, the vines and flowers have done their work of grace. The rear portion of the tower has not been neglected, either, but is clothed with a clinging garment of polished ivy which hides the wounds and stains of time. Even the top is not left bare, but is crowned with a flourishing group of trees & shrubs. Misfortune has done for this old tower what it has done for the human character sometimes−improved it. --Mark Twain

And the only thing I truely miss is Jared...

Day one:

Friday, March 13, 2009
Sarah and I left for the airport, after only having five hours of sleep because we stayed up late to watch a basketball game with six overtimes. Wow! We tried to sleep on the plane, but they kept waking us up to feed us. First is was a snack, then dinner, then breakfast. No one I know eats dinner five hours before they eat breakfast... I hate flying, but I can honestly say this was the smoothest landing that I have ever endured. I didn't even know we were so close to the airport until I looked over out the window and the ground was right there and we landed. We sat in the middle of the middle row next to two big people. So moving around was pretty much impossible.

Day two:

Saturday, March 14, 2009
I am not sure where the one day ended and the other one began. I'll just start at when we arrived at the airport. We arrived and cleared customs super fast and looked at the clock and it was 6:15am and the Sperows weren't getting there until 8. YIKES. We both felt so tired and so BLEH after being in the same position for so long. However, after some people watching and a nice walk outside in the 30 degree day, we woke up. The people are really fun to watch over here.

The Sperows picked us up at 8 and drove us to downtown Frankfurt where we walked around the old flea market (thing tables and tables of the most random things... phones, camera, cutting boards, shoes, carpets, tin boxes, dice... it went on and on and on). Then we went to the old town part of Frankfurt and saw the town square!!! Oh my goodness, Germany is adorable. We had coffee at a little shop with a crazy owner named Luegi. He was Italian and had a son that set a Guinness Book of World Records record and other tale tales. Very amusing. Click to see a bad translation of a story about him and a video. Click story for the story and video for the video.

From there we went to Mainz, the home of Gutenberg. First we got lost in these crazy back streets (like you see in car chases in the Bourne movies, but much cooler because we are actually there!!) and for about half and hour we drove in circles because of our crazy GPS system. It was hilarious. Being with the Sperows is so much fun (Aunt Suzanne and Mom, you should definitely come visit soon. They treat you so well and know all these cool places to go, but not quite how to get there so ever day is an adventure and we get to see random little roads by mistake - I personally think they plan it - heh, but it is awesome and you should come!). We finally found the place we wanted to have lunch and we had sausage and soup and bread. So good! Man, the food is good around here. Mrs. Sperow gave us some of her Snitzal. Oh, wow. It was amazing. We toured Guetengerg's museum and read all the English words. We saw three REAL Gutenberg Bibles (SO COOL!) and some that were hand written and even older. I was fascinated by the security system. heh. It was really awesome. And we walked around the old town and all the neat little back streets and cool old houses. I can't even explain how adorable these towns are. So awesome.

Finally, we ended the day by going to Worms and just got to the Cathedral (they have an old one in almost every town) in time to see inside and see the crypt with old dead people from 900. Crazy. We walked around the grounds and the old town there and got our pictures taken at the memorial with Luther's famous quote (in German) on it. So great! The memorial had many of the reformers. And we got ice cream (which was also great) and then we came home. I walked where Martin Luther walked!!!

It is rather gray here and kinda flat. But the old towns have so much charm and history. Can you believe we saw a Gutenberg Bible and got to walk where Martin Luther walked?!? How is that for an awesome day. Well, I think it is dinner time. And then I think it is Apple Strudel time. Tomorrow we are having lunch at a castle and I am totally ordering schnitzel (because Mrs. Sperow let me try hers today - put it on my plate and told me to try it - heh, Jared it is great, we share food!! :) ) tomorrow. And for dinner we are having vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce (called Himbeer). Yum.

P.S. Did I say that the Sperows are awesome and so much fun to be around. It is great to see them after so many years and actually get to talk to them. I was too little to actually hold real conversations with them when they left. They have treated us so well.

P.P.S. I got my first wedding gift today. :) They gave me one of those German things that has the fan blades and spins around. It has a nativity scene on the bottom. I can't wait to display it at Christmas. It will always be one of my favorite Christmas items, along with my runner that I made. I will get to tell my kids all about my trip to Germany and about the Sperows and how neat they are and how glad I am that they are in my life. God is so good to me. He has blessed me with so much. I don't thank Him enough. Just being alive is exciting and I am so grateful for the chance to travel around and with such cool people. Sarah is the perfect traveling partner. She makes traveling so easy. I love it. I love her. I can't believe how much great stuff I have seen and how much more we are packing into this trip. London is three days! I am so excited about that.