It’s that time of year again. Elisa and I have known each other for exactly 2 years–that’s all! We invited our friends to come over and bring a box of cereal, to celebrate the quirky get-together where we first met. A tradition in the past is that I make Elisa cry on this day. (That’s how I got her to remember me in the first place.) 🙂 This time Elisa got off easy though.
This year’s party was rambunctious because Baumanns and Sannemans were able to bring their kids. We mixed together sugar and preschool boys and a late night. It was hilarious. Milo dumped a box of cereal on the floor, and kids raced to see how much they could stuff in their mouths from off the rug. Kids teased each other about taking away the Froot Loops box. Mike Christian wanted to tease the kids by pretending to dump cereal on the ground, but really he closed the bag so it wouldn’t spill. Then he accidentally mixed up the boxes, and really did dump a box of cereal on the ground. Then we let Milo borrow our camera, and he invented a game of camera tag. He chased after the other kids and tried to flash the camera at them, and they tried to run away. We got funny pictures of kids under tables and bolting around corners and upside-down on the furniture. 🙂
Just because Elisa is super creative, I have to copy here the poem that she sent out after the party:
Cereal is my favorite treat
at any time of day.
T’was great for Chad and I to meet
in this very kooky way.
Thanks to those who came to eat
and brought a wide array.
We’re sorry it was not complete
as some could not come play.
We’ll repeat the feast replete
four months from next May!
I got a prescription for a pulled muscle in my chest this week. It had been bothering me for a week. First I thought it was indigestion, so I took Tums. The next day I thought I had cracked a rib. After another couple days it was giving me trouble sleeping and I thought it was coming from back trouble so I got a massage. By this time I had ruled out a heart attack because that wouldn’t last so long. Finally I figured out that if it wasn’t any of those other things, it must be a muscle pain. I had tried to get a doctor to look at it earlier, but the doctor’s office was too busy. “It’s going to take you 7 days to find an opening to diagnose chest pain?” I’m switching doctors now, BTW. After a while I found a clinic downtown that took care of me. I was given my first EKG at 30 years old. Elisa made me feel pretty young though by being surprised that I wouldn’t recognize what heartburn feels like.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had been causing cardiac arrest for Chad. We still haven’t gotten an approved proctor for me. I have worked ahead on the next units but I am going a little crazy. With Chad working later I find myself getting a lot done but being over-worked and frustrated each evening. I decided I’m going to start some solo day trips once a week to get back in touch with a world outside of my laptop and textbooks. So Rahel and I went with the kids to do a hike on the Zürich Ãœetliberg on Friday. We took a wrong turn towards the end and had to work pretty hard to haul the two sleeping kids and stroller up steep inclines and up stairs and down a very steep rooty stretch. It burned.
Baumann’s took us on another outing on Saturday. We rode our new Google bikes to their house. There might have been one fall along the way. 🙂 Who says you never forget how to ride a bike? By the way, my pride was hurt more than anything. Our bikes are still at the Baumann’s apartment because we were too tired to ride back. The hike was nice and the area reminded everyone of the Sound of Music. There was a church at the trail head with a wedding in progress. The girls wanted to stick around for a few minutes to see the bride. When the bride and groom exited the church, they got to release a bunch of doves. It was cool looking. Yes, for you guys that are asking, one of the doves did poop on the groom.
I taught two classes at church today. Months ago I accepted an assignment to teach Priesthood class today. And then I ended up teaching the other one just because the regular teacher was out of town. Normally the Sunday school class is taught in German. It was really hard for the students in there to go to a class in English. Only about half speak any English. Many needed translations, and many just gave up because the translation headsets looked too difficult. We’ve built our calluses up in our ears so it’s not so hard for us anymore. Elisa and I are used to getting translations at church, but lots of the older Swiss members aren’t used to it and don’t want to get used to it. Chad did a really good job of being sensitive to the fact that some people really didn’t like what was going on.
This Sunday I got a calling, after seven and a half months in the ward. Elisa was pretty happy. He always gets off easy. I’ll be the Sunday school president. I have to admit, that’s a pretty fun calling. You just have to make sure the classes are covered (which I haven’t done yet for this Sunday) and do some teacher workshops. I am really excited for Chad because I know he loves this calling. I would really like to be able to teach some of the classes myself. That’s extra incentive for me to study my German.
On Sunday evening we had the Baumanns over for dinner. It was a terrible day. Elisa promised to make banana creme pie. It was more for me than for anyone else. The pre-made crust burnt though. We didn’t have shortening for making a proper homemade crust. Tears were shed. The butter crust refused to roll out and then it just didn’t cook well. On top of that, Swiss ingredients make cooking some of my favorite recipes more challenging. The cream of chicken that we were going to use is usually condensed in a can. But here we buy dehydrated packages. It was so thin, and we knew it wasn’t going to work out. We did all sorts of mathematical computations about how much water we should be adding, or how much corn starch, or how much rice, etc. It just got more stressful all the time. I finally had to take a time out. Chad hates when I do that. But I didn’t want to take it out on him. I don’t like leaving the kitchen while Elisa is stressed out. But when I did, dinner seemed to start going a lot better. I just took my frustrations out on the kitchen. And the result was a very delicious dinner. The banana creme pudding came out fine, crust-free.
Baumann’s have two kids. Elisa told their oldest that the chicken curry dinner was yellow for the sunshine that day. She wanted to get him excited about the bright yellow color so he wasn’t afraid to eat the curry. She’s such a psychologist. Apparently during the meal (which he ate) he said to his mom in Swiss-German, “This really is sunshiny!” I like Milo–he’s awesome.
