life altering europe

oh europe, you bring the crossroads to us.

of course devin's path is completely different because of the two years he spent living in sweden. nothing altered his course so drastically up to that point of his life.

 in germany, a few days before my nineteen birthday, i got my first european battlewound: a softened heart and a broken eye socket. i stood at the fork then, and tried to make the best decision i could.

then together we came back last summer. a particularly poignant decision occured in paris when our credit cards were frozen for renting bikes, we lost forty dollars, and we had booked our hotel for the month previous and had no where to stay- all in about five hours, and we were unclear about our future job. i think it was one of our lower notes in life. we plowed forward.

then of course came the miracle, on a flight home from europe in 2009 we met the owner of the company we now work for. hard to believe that was merely fate.

now, here again in twenty ten, revisitng the same tutelage, the same proving grounds. like how to have a soft heart, how to get by on less, and how to be away from family when the road gets tough.  

europe is no different than anywhere else. it's just a place to learn

our heaven on earth. 2009 interlocken, switzerland.

dinner wtihout the flash

we ate out. took pictures without a flash. saw the madrid basket ball team-long lurpy giants i tell you. asked for lemonade, the waiter didn't know what that was and gave me fanta instead - .20 liters of fanta for 3 euros. asked for frites, duh, and our accent was so bad they only understood when we asked in english. a new waiter came who could understand us. paid no tips or gratuity-it's worked in the price. learned a new lesson.

we learned, probably not the first time, that we could use more dates full of distraction-free time for nothing else but each other in a great atmosphere and enjoying good food. it is no wonder they tell us to continue to court(an underused term) in marriage. nothing beats it.

take home chronicles: dormers, skylights, and small attics

skylight, sky bright... i'm in love with skylights.

 we have a few of our own, and there is something really magical about seeing a pillar of light (when there is sun) streaming in overhead. it instinctively elevates thoughts, to say the least, not to mention all the cheery light washing over you. my grandma just installed two in her home, maybe when i'm a grandma i'll be able to afford such treasures.

because of space cramming, any and all rooms that fit in the small part of pitched roofs with windows that pok out are extremely common here. dormers as they call em, seem just my size and i'm considering converting my attic the minute i get home. love.

these are just a few of my favorte skylights, dormers, and attics from our stomping grounds here.

amazing.

meet my namesake

this is aunt marilee, my mothers sister. she is serving a full-time mission in mexico currently. her defining characteristic lies in her name, she is merry. her name is her guide. i love having someone to live up to, a namesake. i love being called aunt marilee, just like i so lovingly called her.

I think this is why i've always loved Helaman 5:6, because I can relate to Nephi and Lehi.  

"Helaman, Their father, named them Nephi and Lehi to remind them of the faith of their fathers. Likewise, many of us have embedded in our names a legacy of faith from ancestors who had soft hearts and found it easy to believe the word of God."

Michael T. Ringwood, “An Easiness and Willingness to Believe,” Ensign, Nov 2009, 100–102

are you named after anyone?

petite français

when my dad observed his first full ballet class last year he said to me afterward, "that was three hours of another language." it's true for any field of work-computer terms, anatomy names, fabric types, etc-we just have to learn the language. i should thank my heavenly stars that i took a few ballet classes in my day because if you know ballet, you can practically speak the language of love.

croix-cross
pas de chat-cat
glisse-glide
corps-body
en haut-top
tombé-fall
passé-past
coupé-cut
frappé-hit

sad that it took me coming across the puddle to realize that people actually use these words. whether at church, in the store, while reading the book of momon, or listening to a colleague, i usually flinch everytime i come across them, and proceed to rush to devin telling him that one of those words someone said was from ballet. my french is pathetic, almost as pathetic as the picture below. laughs on me. happy monday world.