The Button Box

I recalled a beloved memory the other day about the afternoons spent at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Anchorage and/or California. There was that dollhouse with all the old dolls  and frilly dresses. There were the books filled with paper dolls. That's how I learned to cut in straight lines! I remember sitting with Grandma while we cut out the clothes and asking her how she could cut so perfectly. She looked at me and said, "Karly, when you're as old as me you'll have just as much practice and be just as perfect." I still remember that when I use scissors. :) I also think of Shannon and how she tattled on my for holding the scissors the wrong way. Then there were all the dress up clothes that we could never get enough of! Silk and lace and everything that makes your eyes brighten as a little girl! Actually, at any age. Then we have the pooping duck that gives you jelly beans from the behind! I'm carrying on that tradition with Jojo and Gereon. If I look to my right from where I'm sitting, there's a crochet duck that Grandma sent me filled with jelly beans for the kids. But the memory that makes me the happiest today is the button box. It seems silly, but that box brought hours of fun! Sorting through and finding matches, finding our top 3 favorite buttons, organizing by color, the games were endless. And it brings me back to the fascination that children have and how vital that is for life to thrive. So, go find your button box and thrive away!!!

Let's see... dancing, singing, playing with hair, acting, drawing, commercials, building tree houses, and drinking hot chocolate. Girls sure know how to have fun!!! Jojo invited 3 friends over the other week and they began their afternoon outside building and creating a home in the trees. When they came inside, I made then hot chocolate with whipped cream and then we played a team competition where I chose activities for them to complete and then chose a winning team. This was a BIG hit! We were busy the entire afternoon with all sorts of tasks. They were unbelievably darling. Hearing two little German girls singing Karneval songs just about sent me over the edge. :) Ahh, priceless moments these are!!!

Jojo and I have been speaking so ridiculously to each other lately. We were playing a game the other day called "Das Verrückte Labyrinth" which means the crazy labyrinth. I asked her, "But why is it a verrückte labyrinth?" And she replied, "Because there's a Fee and a Schlange!" (A fairy and a dragon) I burst out laughing and told her we really needed to stop mixing our sentences with random German or English words. But at the same time, it makes me laugh so much!!! It just isn't the best method for teaching her proper English. At the breakfast table one morning she started singing along with the radio and knew every single word! And here is what she was singing: "When I'm drunk in the morning, I'm calling you, you might be lonely, lonely!" Yes, that is exactly what I wanted her to learn in English. Thank you, German radio so very much.

I was writing an email to my dad and it made me think of my last day in Alaska before I left to come back to Germany. After I figured out I'd missed my flight, Dad paid for Katie and I to stay at a hotel together so I could catch my other flight in the morning without having to drive back into town. It was such a relief from all the stress and emotions that I had from leaving and we had such a blessed evening together. After we settled into our room, we walked over to a steakhouse and had seafood with dad. It was so delicious and our conversation was really enjoyable and as I sat there with thoughts running through my head about leaving and all the emotions behind it, I felt a strong contentment of where I was and who I was with. It was the last sort of evening I would have chosen for my ending in Alaska, but it was far better than I could have ever pictured. I am so thankful for it, and it's one of those odd memories that from the outside seem to have no bright spot of significance, yet on the inside they are infinitely precious. And somehow, those unexpected moments are the very best ones.

After a fun evening at an Irish pub with a friend of mine and church in the morning, I walked over an hour through Düsseldorf along the Rhine to visit Julia and Stephen, who I stayed with for two weeks back when I first came here and had no job. As I got closer to the church where they live (next to it) I looked to my left at the river and was suddenly right back in the shoes of a scared girl in a foreign world, not sure where the next day would take her. I saw the bench that overlooks the river where I would sit for hours, praying and thinking, crying and wondering. And then I walked up to the front door of the two people who took care of me when I needed help the most. I was warmly welcomed and came into the living room to have tea and biscuits while we caught up after over a year of not seeing each other. It was charming and British, exactly how I remember. :) There was a bowl of cream to put on the bisquits with jams and some small cookies. They even brought out a special loose leave tea from Sri Lanka that they save for special guests! So we sat there and sipped our tea and enjoyed enriching conversation. It was a blessed afternoon! And today, I'm looking out upon a beautiful, sunshiny day and I can smell the spring air just begging me to go bike through it! The birds are chirping, the snow is gone and I LOVE SPRING!!! 

Oh, and I'm considering studying Anthropology in the Netherlands!!!