Secret Phrase

The other day I was working at the bakery, and as always as customers come in I ask how they're doing. As this particular customer came in, his response caught my attention.

me: Hi, how are you doing?
guy: Better than I deserve. How are you doing?
me: Better than I deserve!

If any of you are Dave Ramsey listeners, you understand. I have heard people on his radio show talk about using Dave's saying as a secret code to know who is working on becoming debt free, but never had I been able to use the phrase in any interactions I've ever had until now. I was so excited and immediately asked if he was a listener. He was, and he said that it made his day to meet another listener. He has been debt free for five years besides his mortgage, and his working on being able to pay cash for a $20,000 motorcycle. He encouraged me to do whatever it takes to become debt free. Our main debt is car debt and a bakery. I can't wait to be debt free, and I probably should start reading his book that's sitting on my bookshelf.

He said that when he orders pizza, he has a tip in each pocket: one for $2 and another for $50, and according to how the delivery guy answers the "how are you doing" question is how he decides how much to tip the guy. I answered the right way, but I don't think he saw or was prepared for our tip jar. *sad dance* But at least I made his day. He said that only two other times in his life have people answered using the secret phrase.

Does anyone speak Chinese?

I got this picture from one of my favorite people I met on my mission. She was Chinese going to school in France, and she was baptized the evening before I left the city. She gave me this picture as a way to remember our time and experiences we had together. The only thing is I can't remember what she told me it means. Do any of you understand Chinese who could give me a translation? If not, I'll just email the picture to some of my Chinese friends.

Our Morning Walk

Yesterday Sam and I were invited to go for a walk with two girls from the ward who live across the road in another apartment complex and one of their daughters who is 3 months younger than Sam. They try to go every morning that the sun is actually out. On our way home we made two stops: the first one by some flowers Sam was really excited about, and the second by the bakery to see Daddy Christopher.

My favorite Washington commercial

You have to watch this commercial. Just look how happy the penguin looks!

Finally a sunny day!

The past couple days we've actually had some sun, so yesterday we decided to go enjoy it especially since I had the day off. We got invited to a play-date at the park with three other little kids and their moms. Sam had a great time, and the park was perfect. It was right next to a local lake. Sam's favorite part was probably feeding the ducks. It was nice for me too to get to know some of the other moms in the ward.

Across the lake was another park with a beach and swimming area and a giant playground. We decided to have a picnic there for dinner.

Our New Home

I posted some pictures of our new place when we first moved in, but our place was a mess, and I only got a couple rooms. So here are a few more for those who haven't yet visited us.

This is our dining area/living room. The green futon is where Kierstin sleeps.

This is our skinny little kitchen.

This is our bathroom. It's pretty big. Behind the doors on the left are the washer and dryer.

This is Sam's room.

This is our bedroom. Our bedroom furniture almost didn't fit. It's pretty tight.

Week in Review

Since I didn't think that much of what happened this week was blog worthy, but people keep telling me I need to blog more frequently since we're now far away, here is a basic summary of our week.

Sam is doing much better about sleeping in his own bed. Every day gets better and he puts up less of a fight to take naps and go to bed. Twice, however, he fell out of his little toddler bed and ended up sleeping in our bed with us.

I made my first mocha. All this coffee stuff is so new to me. It's like a new language. Good thing we have great employees who love coffee and are willing to teach me how to make them all.

We have found two parks to play at. If the weather is better this week, we will explore more. It doesn't look like there are any good parks within walking distance besides a cute little dinosaur playground inside the mall across the street.

It has been unseasonably cold and rainy all week. Everyone says that June is a lot warmer and sunnier, so I have hope that that will change soon.

We bought a futon and a chair from craigslist. Kierstin will use the futon as a bed during her couple month stay here. We had a nice couple our age from our ward help us haul them up to our third floor apartment.

Speaking of Kierstin, she found a job for the summer working at a sports store similar to Fanzz. It's within walking distance in the mall. In other news, she got a ticket for running a red light. She was following Chris who was driving the Uhaul that picked up the futon, and she was in our Camry. Chris made it through while it was still green, but for Kierstin, it was a lovely shade of orange and the cop caught her. If I were the cop, I would've given her a break since she was brand new to the area and was following someone so she wouldn't get lost.

Friday night we went to a ward Strawberry Social at some camp sites the church owns. Some people camped out for the night, and others like us just came for the evening. It was fun meeting more people from our ward and getting to know better those we have already met. Sam had a lot of fun running around and getting dirty with the other kids.

And to end, here are some of our favorite things Sam is saying these days:

• motorcycle = wangungun

• when asked what a motorcyle says he says vroom vroom and then break noises
  

• refrigerator = fridgers

• snuggle = snuggun

• Kierstin = Dirdin

• diaper rash cream = nice

• macaroni and cheese = mac-cheese

• when asked "what's the nice word?" he says in a sweet voice "please mommy"

• he's also started talking in a hoarse/scary voice I like to call Evil Sam. It's hard to explain, but it's pretty funny. If any of you ever watch Mad TV, his voice is kind of like Stuart's voice.
  

Potty Training

I forgot to mention in the last post, but Sam has started using his little potty. I know he's still young, and I really don't think he'll be 100% potty trained anytime soon, but he's getting closer. Several times since we've been here, he has told us he needs to use the bathroom, and he actually goes--number 1 and 2! It's so exciting. I can't wait for the day when we don't have to buy diapers anymore!

Home Sweet Home

So in case you were wondering, we made it to Washington. Sam did OK during the drive, but he did have his moments. It's hard for a little guy to sit in a car all day. We drove up with Chris' parents and sister, arrived Saturday night, and then his parents left Sunday morning. Kierstin will be living with us for part of the summer.

Sunday at church was pretty rough. Having been cooped up in a car the whole day before, Sam wasn't really interested in sitting still through sacrament meeting. So he spent much of the time out in the foyer while I got to know some of the other mothers with wiggly kids. Nursery wasn't much better. He's usually pretty good about me leaving him, and he's generally pretty friendly with other kids, but when I sneaked out, he flipped out. Twice I tried, but the nursery leaders kept bringing him back out to us. So I stayed awhile with him, and the Chris let me go to Relief Society while he stayed with him. Maybe next week he'll do better. Sleeping through the night in our own respective beds is another struggle we're dealing with. Hopefully that too will get better with time.

Kierstin found a job today working at a sports store in the mall, so she will definitely be here probably till Lara's wedding in August. The deal was that if she couldn't find anything within two weeks, she had to go home. We bought a futon off of craigslist that she will use as a bed. We haven't picked it up yet, and I just hope that we can get it up to the third floor okay. It's pretty big and heavy.

I've started training at the bakery. The other employees have been really great teaching me everything, and it's been fun meeting our customers (especially the ones who feel compelled to share their whole life stories in our two-minute interaction! I love it!). I'm also learning a lot while figuring out how to do the books.

I'm so happy to be with Chris again. Being apart for 10 weeks was hard, and I don't recommend it to anyone. With our schedules as they are now--him working 4 to noon, and me working noon to 6--we get to see each other so much more than before when Chris was working two jobs and going to school (another thing I don't recommend to anyone). We can actually sit down and eat dinner as a family, and Sam is doing so much better with eating and trying new things.

Anyway, so we're alive. I'll try to be good about posting often now that all of you are so far away.

Let's-make-it-rain Park

For my family members, you know which park the Let's-make-it rain Park is. Well, the tradition continues. I had a little farewell picnic there last night with my SVU friends, and it was pretty wet! It was great to see everyone again! We had a great time catching up with each other and reminiscing about the old days. It's been eight years since our first semester of college at SVU (which at the time was SVC--it changed our 2nd semester there, I think). Thanks to the husbands who volunteered to play with the kids!
I hate saying goodbye, so we said see ya later instead. I had to say a special goodbye to Rheanna. She has been such a great friend for the past eight years. She was one of my first roommates at school. She was my crying buddy, and we would always help each other with our boy problems. At that time, we were dumb girls, and our theme song was "I Cain't Say No" from Oklahoma. After our first year of school, a bunch of us went up to Maine for a week, and it was so fun to meet her family. Another special memory was driving up the coast to Boston with my other roommate Elizabeth for Rheanna's wedding. Now collectively two weddings, four kids, and several moves later, we're still friends. I'll miss Rheanna and her cute family.

Hello, my name is Camilla, and I am a blogstalker

My sisters used to tell me how much time they spend on reading random people's blogs. They called it blogstalking, and I just didn't understand how that could be fun. However, recently I have discovered how many of my friends and acquaintances now have blogs. Also I was introduced to Bloglines where I can see in one place which of all my friends have recently blogged instead of clicking on links and checking every now and then for new blogs. What a waste of time! Anyway, so now I consider myself a blogstalker too (though I keep it to reading blogs of people I'm at least acquainted with). It's so fun to read what all these people are up to. It's even better than those mass emails we used to all send out with family updates and pictures. What did we do before the internet?! Write letters?! How strange is that?! :) It's so great that we can keep so many people connected in such a quick and easy way.

Au revoir mes soeurs!

Yesterday I had a nice picnic with some of my mission friends and their families. Soeur Wilson (on the left in blue) was the only one who was actually a companion of mine. We were in a trois-some in the MTC with Soeur Kamerath. Soeur Wilson is now married, and funny enough married a guy with the last name Wilson--obviously not a relative.

Soeur Martin (on my right) lived in the same apartment as me in Luxembourg my last six weeks in the mission. I had so much fun living with her and the three other soeurs. Since she is a native French speaker, she was always so helpful with teaching us correct French. She has since married one of the elders from our mission and they have the cutest little baby.

Soeur Byrne (on the far right) served in Geneva with me for several months, though she was in the other ward. For many of you reading this, whether you know this or not, Soeur Byrne knows your birthdays. She has an amazing gift for remembering dates--it's almost creepy how good she is! :) I always wanted to set her up with my brother, but in the end, they both found their absolute perfect matches. I have a rotten matchmaking record! They are expecting their first baby in two weeks!
Unfortunately, I forgot to pull out my camera again, so I missed my other two soeur friends who came: Soeur Larsen and Soeur Nelson. I didn't get the chance to serve with either of them, though I always wanted to. Soeur Larsen came out the same time as my first baby (trainee) and so I got to hear a lot about her through Soeur Thomas. And Soeur Larsen often came to cities just as I was leaving them. I really did want to serve with both of them, but I still consider them my soeurs.

Being a sister missionary is a lot different than many of you elders' experiences. Because there are so few sisters in the entire mission, you get to know all of them very well. And at least in our mission, we had Soeurs Conference twice a year at the mission home (and no, Chris, it's not where we gave each other makeup tips, had pillow fights, or did interpretive dancing--it was much better than that!). We have a special bond, and I'm happy we can stay close even as our lives take us far apart.

Trip to the Zoo

Saturday afternoon turned into a spontaneous trip to the zoo for about 19 of our family members. Here are a few pictures of some of us (I always forget to take my camera out, so sorry to the other 15 people I didn't get pictures of).