day deux:

day two:

presenting our little village:

watched the sunrise. like from dark all the way to light, couldn't sleep and it was sooo pretty.

fell head over heels for little french speaking children: four playing around the clothesline in their backyard which opens up to a field, three next door riding trikes with mom, two playing tag in the grocery store, and one who counted to two (yes i know that much french) over and over again as she stole a cracker from the bakery in the grocery store.

laughed with devin until i cried-good tears. oh so therapeutic.

drove to ikea to get loaded up on supplies, and got lost. (while loving it here, i'm realizing many blessings about the USofA, like a GPS and a cell phone... and i'll stop there... sigh) after i got over missing out on our ikea visit, we ended up going to carrefour this time for food- and i was in utter shock at how difficult it is to grocery shop, like serious grocery shop, in a foreign land. i already am a slow grocery shopper, but now i'm crawling. it took two hours, patience, good eyes on how to copy cat for the scale in the produce section, more money than in the USofA, and out of it all we got out of it was food for half a week and laughed at in the checkout stand. huge incentive to learn the language, like enormous.

worked today, amazed what engineering and human machines can do. i feel like i'm living in the tv show, "it's a wrap." fascinating.

turned on the blow dryer for the first time, and blew the fuse in our converter-good thing we bought two. first time i went to europe i singed my hair to the root with my straightener-good thing it was short. you would think i'd learn.

discovered, on accident, a peanut butter which has the slightest resemblance of maple syrup mixed with peanut butter, which takes me back to waffles at my house as a kid. HEAVEN.

just two down, and i feel like i've been here for ages.

here we are

I am thinking i may try to log events from every day while we are here, excepting weekends.

pictures from my moving car of greater brussels area.

the half day we arrived plus day one:

sleeping fifteen hours after the awful jetlag.

not eating cause i was sleeping so much. waking up shakey. eating chocolate bars for breakfast.

sparkling water instead of water. guess i'll have to start liking this stuff.

a call to family and a few tears.

prophetic words, "hope ya know we had a hard time" soothing my soul.

realizing i'm not in utah anymore, fees to use public restrooms, i can wait.

pizza hut express: one large pizza=19.50 euros! guess we wont be eating out much.

2nd largest grocery chain next to walmart=carrefour. got sheets, dish scrubbers, food.

boxed milk, the kind that doesn't need to be refridgerated, is also not my favorite.

european yogurt on the other hand-mmmm can't get enough.

long drive through a part of brussels and mainly the country side, great.

absolutely dying to attend the ward on sunday.

really feeling the need to learn the language.

really feeling the Lord's love as I try and make this adjustment.

listening to mo-tab as i fell asleep and loving the lyrics that take me back to white christmas:

if you are worried and you can't sleep

just count your blessings instead of sheep

and you will fall asleep counting your blessings.

generally it was a day one full of growth. this experience is going to be really good for me

these hills are alive

another thing i will miss about utah is the layton hills. this is where i can officially say i fell in love with running-which i count as a miracle. these hills are alive with about one trillion runners per square inch, i swear everyone in our neighborhood has a few marathons tucked under his or her belt. to say it was an inspiration meeting all these runners would be an understatement. still, i cannot consider myself a runner, and yet i have gotten to the point where i enjoy it. these hills are my home. hopefully i can keep it up in the new country.

image from brussels 2009 marathon, ranked in the top 6 best races in europe. too bad it is on a sunday this year.

ps... less than four days left!

Heard this poem recently and find myself repeating the last two lines over and over again-it is that beautiful. Oh how I long to be a morning person, as most people that I admire are. Thankfully Devin is teaching me.

"I met God in the morning"

I met God in the morning

When the day was at its best,

And His presence came as sunshine,

Like a glory in my breast.

All day long His presence lingered,

All day long He stayed with me,

And we sailed in perfect calmness

O'er a very troubled sea.

Other ships were blown and battered,

Other ships were sore distressed,

But the winds that seemed to drive them,

Brought to me a peace and rest.

Then I thought of other mornings,

With a keen remorse of mind,

When I too had loosed the moorings,

With the presence left behind.

So, I think I know the secret,

Learned from many a troubled way:

You must seek God in the morning

If you want Him through the day!

By Ralph Cushman

pic in paris 2009

trio

we made a girls lunch date last week in salt lake, and trio was our place. (i told my beehives that i went to lunch earlier that day with my mom to cafe trio, and they thought it was a crazy cafe rio wanna-be. love em) the food was exceptional and i can't believe i have been missing out on this place. the salmon was amazing, and my butternut squash ravioli was so refreshing. i will surely be getting the rosemary flatbread appetizer again next time. yum.

such a princess

he couldn't take his eyes off that meatball for a pic

afterward we went next door to tulie bakery. it was a charming atmosphere-loved the brick walls, wooden tables and wall decor, and metal chairs. i thought it was good but am not dying to head go again.

it took us ten minutes to decide what to get at tulie, and at trio for that matter. isn't ordering food sometimes so hard?

if there is one thing i will miss in belgium it surely will be loved ones.

carpet of flowers

a few people have asked what i'm looking forward to doing in belgium, and i always say i want to see the castle where william tyndale was imprisoned and then killed in 1536 (you will remember that story from this past conference in his talk). it is only an hour from where we are living.

besides that, i haven't investigated much... until saturday. i googled images of brussles and these fantastic flower carpet pictures kept popping out. i thought it was a one time thing and was in awe of how pretty it was.

then a day later, i noticed that this flower carpet event happens every two years and the last time it happened was in 2008. i hunted down the date, and you can bet that this is where we will be on august 12, 2010!

ONE WEEK LEFT!

Good Things to Come

I've been a fan of this talk for years, and this author. Now that it is a film, it is fully amazing. Enjoy.

Its about time I tell ya

Here are three pics taken at the Belgium Airport almost one year ago. They had a future in them that we didn't know at the time...

our baggage

sleeping devin in front of a fav store

a store with a name fitting for me.

Why pics in this airport you ask?

well

big

news:

DEVIN AND I ARE MOVING TO BELGIUM IN AUGUST!

We are going for Devin's work. There is a factory an hour south of Brussels that Dev will take charge of. We plan to be there beginning of August til December. I got a work visa, and will work right alongside Devin. There is an apartment we will be staying in that the company owns in the same building as the factory. I can't wait to see it. The city is in the Walloon region, where French is the primary language. We are 2.5 hours from the Holland Temple.

I remember flying in to Belgium last year. It was early in the morning. There were green fields everywhere. The houses all resembled each other, and looked small and brown spotted with little blue pools. Then, I already had good vibes about the place because a friend has lived there and loved it. In the airport, three languages were spoken for any announcements made, one in French and one in Flemish(a French influenced dialect of Dutch) and of course English. Little did I know that the last country we traipsed around in, even if it was just for a wee three hour layover, on our way home from our backpacking rendezvous would be the next returning european destination for me and home for a little while. We know it won't be long term, at most about 6 months.

We are excited. We've felt the Lord supporting us. We feel humbled. We don't speak French-ahh! We have faith. We will miss our family terribly. We are excited for the challenge. We look forward to the missionary work. We are about two hours from Paris=we want and welcome visitors:) We've heard it is a beautiful country. We know that if we trust in God, all things will work together for our good.

On that note, there is much to be done in about a month. Namely, soak up America and family and see as many of you as possible before we leave! Gotta cram it in while we can!

girls camp and a bday

so girls camp was a success, even though i was mistaken many a time for one of the girls. i am enlivened and strengthened from the faith of others, not to mention how much i adore my sweet beehives. the scenery was a perfect retreat-yet glad to be home of course.

i got home on friday from camp and it was dev's birthday. toy story three in 3D, dinner with the fam, (check out devin's smile--wanna be nacho libre. he kills me), and perfect presents rounded off a great day. the weekend was spent in our sweet home, together and low key. can't ask for anything more.

no time

i leave for girls camp at 6 am tomorrow for four days. no showers. no cell phones. i sometimes long for that kind of simple life. sort of waldenesque. sounds grand to me. just wish i could get around the title "girls camp" and bring along devin:) guess we'll have to go camping on our own.

pic from interlocken switzerland. oh nine.