Easter Weekend

I know I'm just blogging away. Bear with me. Since I use my blog as the basis for my journal I just want to document as much as possible now that I have a little time on my hand.
Easter Weekend for our family usually entailed lot's of terrific family time, good food, easter egg nest hunts and showing visitors, missionaries or friends around to the franconian Easter fountains or walking among the cherry blossoms. I missed not being able to see my adorable nieces and my nephew having the time of their life searching for their treats in our garden. I missed my Mom buying incredible amounts of Lindt Chocolate to hide for my Dad and my Dad trying to find the most ridiculous hiding spot for his treats for my Mom. And I missed our discussions about the Saviors role in our life. In addition to all that I missed Alicia's Birthday. In light of all of these events/traditions that mean so much to me I wanted to make sure that I used my easter weekend to the fullest and make the most of it despite of not being with my immediate family. And I am happy to report that I did! I had a GREAT weekend thanks to a lot of wonderful people. Most importantly though thanks to the oportunity of reflecting on the life of the savior and his sacrifice for us. I am so greatful to know that Jesus Christ is my savior, my redeemer and my loving Brother. He died for all of us and rose from the tomb to overcome death, thereby enabling us to one day return to our Heavenly Father and to become like Him. All we have to do is follow his invitation and 'Come unto him', 'Keep his commandments' and 'Do as He did'. I love Easter.
Alright. Here are some pictures (yes, AGAIN :) of my weekend...I'll comment on what I did.

I started out in Layton/Syrcause and spend some time with the Jensen Family. We had a lot of fun. There, I opened my Brithdaypresent /Camera. I dyed my hair and as tradition dictates Kathi styled it and did my make up. SHE IS 'tha BOMB' when it comes to anything 'looks' related.
Afterwards we took a trip up to my old stomping grounds in Logan. Anybody who knows me, knows how much I love going to Plays, Musicals, Orchestra or any live performances. USU has a pretty fantastic Arts and Music Program and being an Aggie myself I love going to their performances. It helps that they are usually free for students. This weekend they were showing 'Three Musketeers'. They did a great job. A few of my greatest friends came along. Needless to say, I had a blast! I love Logan! And I love my friends! They are all great examples to me.

 oops this picture was actually from a few weeks before. Never mind. I like it so I'll leave it :)

Left to right: Jacob, a terrific guy! He served his lds-mission in Germany! Erika, one of the sweetest gal's you'll ever meet who is currently waiting for her mission call (I can't wait to find out where she'll be going), and my former roomie and close friend Rebecca who recently graduated with her MASTERS. She's the brilliant one, I'll say! Next stop... Wayne and Sharon's. Words can't express how much I love and admire these two. They are just stupendous! I am so blessed to have them in my life. They are always there for me and so fun to be around.

Lo and behold who did I see again at their house? Yup, it's Simon Kopischke, one of the twins. I couldn't believe how grown he is. 16! I'm getting old. He came to stay in Utah for 5 weeks. It was fun to hear about his family.

After that I got to see my cousins in Murray and their adorable little kids. I just love family time. I don't know why I didn't take pictures! Next time!

Oh and because I didn't already get showered with love from so many people I stopped by the Harris's. They even gave me some Lindt Chocolate. My easter was finally complete! :) We talked about old times and it was great to catch up. I love these two! They are so kind. When ever I am with Sister Harris/Renee I just stand in awe at her musical talent. Last night she obliged me and played for me and then she let me play the piano. I could tell how rusty I'm getting. My fingers just wouldn't do what I wanted them too.

 Well, needless to say at the end of the weekend (which also included talking to my Grandmother in St. George and skyping with my family) I was blissfully happy and all puckered out!

Provo! The second!

Alright. Ready for another one? Ready or not, here it comes...

BYU Ward.

The infamous 'singles ward'. Although I've been going to singles wards for almost 2 years now, I have to admit, BYU Student wards are a class for themselves. I'll spare everyone details. Let's just say a lot of the stereotypes are true. After some adjustment I can honestly say that I love my ward though. Just barely I got home from a bunch of people inviting me to watch 'tangled' and half the ward came together. It was a lot of fun. I feel like it's a very friendly ward, I meet a lot of wonderful people and my Bishopric is amazing!!! The Bishop and his wife speak German. How lucky am I?!? I received a new calling as well and I'm excited to serve in it. I feel really fortunate to be able to go to church in such a great environment. Here is a picture of some of my new neighbors as well as fellow ward members. I still need some pictures of my room mates. They already gave their consent but we haven't been all together. Someday soon...

Here's our FHE Group

One of the highlights of the last week or two was the beginning of spring! I love the flowers and the blossoms. I can't explain how much I just wanted to go hike up our hill in Igensdorf and go to my favorite place and see all the cherry orchards, go look at the ornate 'Osterbrunnen' (Easter decorated fountains) or go to Nürnberg's "Hauptmarkt" and see all the spring flowers they sell. Oh, I miss my home! I love it here, don't get me wrong but I also love Germany so much. Well, finally the trees here gave me a little feel of home. I'm sure this sounds cheesy but oh well...I appreciated it!

Work has been really busy and still a bit intimidating. I learn so much though and I enjoy all the people I work with, which makes all the difference. I couldn't find a good picture online and did not yet have time to take a picture of where I work but here is the website

http://www.utahneurologicalclinic.com/

Alright. That's it folks. Now you got a glimpse of where I live, where I work and where I go to church. That pretty much covers the main areas of my life.

Provo! The first!

Welcome back to another one of my ramblings (is that even a word?:)...

My family in Germany has been bugging me about pictures of life in Provo. Good things take time, right? I didn't have a camera anyway! Well, lo and behold, about 3 weeks ago I received a mysteriously wrapped Amazon package. On it was a note saying,

"Happy Birthday Rike! Do NOT open this before May 10th. Love you!"

Deductive Reasoning tells me that anyone who knows me enough to spell my name right, knows when my birthday is, that I love surprises, my new address, and who knows I wanted a camera for a while will also know that there is no way on earth that I will be able to restrain myself from opening a package for over a month (especially if the packing label says what is in the package!) So, I documented me opening the package. Who ever you are, I hope you read this and that you will forgive me for opening your gift prematurely. I love it and dedicate all pictures I take with my fabulous new Sony Camera to you!

(Compare the quality of this picture taken with my cell phone with the following pictures! Forgive my "no-makeup-just woke up" self)

OK, moving right along! Here are a ton of pictures of my appartment in Provo. You asked for it! PS: you can click on any of the pictures and see them in original size :)

 (only the middle part of the shelf in the family room is mine)

 Of course my guitar (Cordelia) had to have a special place. I have to admit I still haven't gotten much better in playing her. But it's fun anyway.

 I will have to give this desk up as once I get a roommate but so far it's been nice to have this extra space.

 I am so excited to have these, mainly because I had to haul them around with me in my suitcases from Germany

 Sorry, I took this this morning and everyone had just made their breakfast and hadn't had time to do the dishes. Do you spy with your little eye my tiny herb green house on the table? It's growing!

 Except for my guitar none of this is mine. Jared and Richy if you were wondering, that Leonardo DeCaprio Poster is NOT mine! I have not yet become corrupted! :)

Apparently I outed myself as a German by planting these. I love flowers, what can I say!

Mom, for your benefit. Here's a picture with my new haircut/color. This was taken this morning and the sun was shining. I tried to get rid of the flash but almost every picture had the glare. Well, you know what my face looks like, just ignore the glare and enjoy the hair (haha...the rhyming was unintended!)

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase"

  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hope all of you living in the US were able to enjoy your Martin Luther King Day. I did.
One of the high lights of the day, was to get a quick surprise visit from some of my favorite people of all time.
Additionally I had great fun with my guitar and teaching Becca and Brandon a little bit (the guitar was bigger than Brandon which made it quite amusing), read a great book, applied for some more jobs, completed some homework and painted some more. All in all a relaxed, fun day. I also found my camera. Although it's hardly working I was excited to look through the pictures.Which reminds me, I was going to put pictures up of the boxes I painted so far. Most of them were for the boutique but some I made for Christmas presents or for fun.I didn't get pictures of all of them, but you can get the gest of it.

 

Oh, meet Cordelia! I'm so excited about my latest purchase! I waited a long time to save up for it. I checked way too many pawn shops, more that I care to admit and then I ended up buying it from an actual guitar store that had a great sales going on. It's a good thing too because I have no idea how to restring a guitar. This one had new ones on there so that bought me a bit more time before I have to learn how to do it myself.

Babysitting them youngens'

Hold on to your britches, because here we go on a whirl wind picture tour of my babysitting gig. 9 days, 3 kids, stomach flu, pink eye, 2 car issues and several fun little episodes = a stressful but entertaining time.

Stop 1... Wheeler Farm (this quaint little establishment is located south of Salt Lake. It took me prob. 20 min. to find the place once I was within a 4 block radius of it. Yeah. It was sad. Becca kept on saying how she thinks we were going in rounds. Well, we were :) So we came too late to do the milking or the tractor hay ride or any of the fun stuff, but still they seemed to enjoy themselves.

Stop 2...
Aquarium. All of these pictures were taken by my phone and I ran out of space. Therefor I do not have any pictures. But, never fear. I hope Cris, who came with us, will share his with me.

Stop 3...
Church. Well, I already briefed you on this one in my previous update so I will spare you any more mentioning of it. Let's just say it was an adventure :)

Stop 4. Cake-Bake and Attack of the chocolate dough.  Becca and Brandon love to cook and bake. A while back I let Becca make a spice cake and Brandon was really sad because he didn't get to help. So this time I promised him he could make the cake. He did really well. We filled it with chocolate and strawberry filling and made it look all fancy in the end. Becca got to help with the frosting after I picked her up from school. It was so yummy!

Hyrum was helpful by simply being content with occassional tickleing and singing. Isn't he just the cutest?!?

Stop 5. Science Fair and Salt Lake City
Becca loves everything science, astronomy, chemistry and biology related. Cris helped putting this on, so we stopped by and had a blast.

 These kids love that guy, as I'm sure everyone can tell from this picture. Thanks Cris for all your help!

Stop 6 PJ Pizza Party with Root beer floats (and of course Wheat thins for me). We watched the Never Ending Story. Brandon picked it at the Library. May I just say that movie is SAD! I cried twice and just thought it was odd. I don't know why but the kids loved it.

Well folks, this is it!! Thank you for touring with us. We hope you enjoyed the ride. Exits will be on your right marked by a red box with a white x. Please come again soon! Oh, you want an encore? Sure... :) here are just some random pics still worth showing.

The End. Adios, Auf Wiedersehen, Au Revoir and Good bye!!!