How Great Thou Art =)

Friday night - Went to a Chinese restaurant in Detmold. It was...weird. The ice cream was good, though. The kids were super surprised and impressed that I knew how to use chopsticks, so that was nice.

Saturday - Rainy day. We were supposed to go to the open air museum a few towns over, but it was too cold and rainy to go. So as we were eating breakfast, we planned what to do all day. Wilhelm drove to the auto shop to get his windshield replaced. He took Levin with him. Alwina started making a Russian dish for lunch and baking a cake for dinner. I got out my laptop and started making a video from the pictures I've taken since I've been here. It's gonna be goooood :)
Then Wilhelm came home and we had lunch. The food we had is called Manti. It was sooo good!!!!

This is what the Manti looks like ^
So after lunch, we got ready for the Saturday night church service they have at 5 pm on Saturday nights. It's akin to our Wednesday night prayer service, except it's all in German. And they don't have Pastor Osborne to bring the house down ;)
After the prayer service, we all took a walk together. Then we came home and had cake. Mmmmm! Then we did family devos and went to bed. And I Skyped with my family and it was wonderful!

Sunday - Woke up super-exhausted. I wanted to tell Wilhelm and Alwina that I was going to stay home, but I ate breakfast and got dressed for church and made myself go because God is too awesome. I met a girl named Antonia who just got back from India. She's my age and she speaks English very well. She is going to sit by me in the church services and translate for me. What a blessing! So I actually understood the service today. After church, we rushed home and had lunch (leftover Manti...mmmm!), then Wilhelm and I drove to Bad Pyrmont where Bob and Gwen Webber's daughter, Sherrie, lives. She took us around the beautiful gardens in Bad Pyrmont (a picture is shown below):

Then, after we toured the gardens, we went walking down the main street of Bad Pyrmont to see the shops. Then we got ice cream!

That is my ice cream. As you can see, it was delicious :)
After the ice cream, it was time to leave. By the time we got back to the Dueck's house, I was exhausted, so I stayed home from the afternoon church service and took a nap. When I woke up, it was time to go to Alwina's parents' house for her mom's birthday party. I had a blast! They all sing and play instruments, so we sang hymns I know in English, and I would sing a verse of the English for them. I want to go back and visit them so bad, because their house is beautiful and they are wonderful people (even though I can't understand much of what they say!). Well, that's all I have for right now. But I do want to say that I Skyped with this amazing chica tonight:

More later!

PS: Don't lose your soul in Seoul! (You know who you are!)

Friday: The Day of Cleaning.

That's right, folks. Today is cleaning day. After breakfast, Levin helped me put my bed up so that Alwina would be able to clean my floors in my room. My job while she cleaned was to occupy the children. Not an easy feat when I can't understand most of what they're saying...lol

While Alwina cleaned the upstairs, I had the daily English lesson with Elias and Lionel. We reviewed the songs we've learned so far: "God is so Good," "This is the Day," "Jesus Loves Me," and "O Be Careful Little Eyes What You See." Then they each wrote a page of information about themselves. Ex: My name is Elias Dueck. I am 9 years old. I am from Germany. I live in Schieder-Schwalenberg. I have two brothers and no sisters....etc. I think on Monday we will make books out of these things, and they can draw pictures to go with each thing. They LOVE to draw. Elias has already given me a picture since I've been here. I love it.

After we did that, Alwina was done with the upstairs. I took the boys to the spielplatz (playground) for about an hour so Alwina could clean downstairs. It was during that time that I realized I need to learn at least some German so I can talk to Levin. Their form of discipline here is to talk it out with the boys, and that's hard for me to do when I can't speak German. I learned enough German to make up a song at the playground:
Langsam und langsam, spielen mit Levin;
Schnelle und schnelle, spielen mit Lionel.
In English, that means, "Slowly and slowly, playing with Levin; quickly and quickly, playing with Lionel." This is because Levin was always asking to go slower and Lionel always wanted to go faster. haha

I decided we should go back to the house when Lionel got a woodburn in his armpit...long story. By the time we got home, it was 1:30. So I played soccer and volleyball with the boys while Alwina got lunch ready. I feel bad playing when Alwina is working around the house, but she said it helps her work faster if the boys are occupied. So who am I to argue? ;)

Then we had lunch - spaghetti pasta with fried egg and hot dogs. Mmmm? haha It was actually pretty good. I miss actual spaghetti with tomato meat sauce, though. First meal to eat when I get back in the USA? Methinks so.

Now the boys are mowing the lawn while Alwina does the dishes. I needed a little bit of a break, so I'm sitting on the couch in my room updating you on my day! Yay! I probably won't post tonight, because one post each day is MORE than enough! =) Hope everything is wonderful where you are! More later <3

Also, post in your blog. Do it now. You know who you are.

Oh, Zee Ducks.

In retrospect, I probably should have watched this before I posted it. It is very boring. Oh well. haha Enjoy! ;)

And you should blog more. You know who you are.

The Day I Visited Family in Germany...

The Dueck family, that is.

This morning when I got up, Alwina, Elias, Lionel, Levin, and myself went to Wilhelm's brother's house for breakfast. We walked. And it was grand. The weather today was surprisingly warm, but very nice and breezy as well. Once we got to Nelly's house (that is Wilhelm's brother's wife's name...try and keep up. haha), I was RAVENOUS. So we sat down and ate lots of food. I will have to remember to take a picture of a typical German breakfast and post it. Because it's so different from breakfast in the U.S. Then after breakfast, the kids went outside and played (Lionel, Elias, Levin, Leone, and some more of Nelly's kids.) Alwina, Nelly, me, and three of Nelly's children were still inside. Little Stefan who is 11 months old and Miriam who is 14 and another daughter who is 12 (it's so hard for me to keep their names straight!) Miriam and her sister played the piano and flute for us, and they also gave us a tour of the house. It was very nice! Then it was time to go. Alwina, Levin, Leone and I walked back to the house while Elias and Lionel stayed at Nelly's so Miriam could bring them home later. Here's some pictures from the walk back. Precious :)

Someone found a dandelion!

Blowing the dandelion while Leone watched :)

She's jealous, I can tell ;)

They held hands pretty much the whole time. SO precious!!!

Other pictures will be available on Facebook, because my blog will not let me upload them. Boo =(
So after we got home, I took a nap. Because I was exhausted. Then, I got up at 3:30 and took a shower. Lionel and Elias were home by then, so we went outside and had our lesson for today. The song I taught them goes like this, "Oh, be careful little eyes what you see; oh, be careful little eyes what you see; for the Father up above is looking down in love; oh, be careful little eyes what you see..." and so on and so forth. Today, we learned the parts of the body (eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, tummy, neck, face, thumb, fingers, elbow, etc.). By that time, it was almost time for Wilhelm to get home from work. When he got home, we left to go to his sister's house for a visit (where Evelyn lives! Yay!). We had dinner at their house, and I ate wayyyy too much - per usual. Then Evelyn gave me a tour of the house which ended up in her room where we took silly pictures. Like so:

With glasses...

Without glasses. This is our angry face.

We planned this face.

Elephant!

Our dreamy faces...

Our embarrassed faces :/

Our confused faces o.O

Evelyn posing like a model on her staircase.

After we took pictures, we went out into her backyard and looked at her bunny, Horst. Pictures are on Facebook. Then we all took a walk around the neighborhood. It was great fun :)

After that, it was time to drive home. Everyone was really tired. Including me. So the fact of the matter is, I'm really dedicated to writing in this blog. So feel special. Even though I feel like only 3 people read it. And one of them is forced to - you know who you are!

More later <3

A Day in the Life of a German Guest...

More Skype-ocity.

No tags necessary, methinks. Oakie, Hannah, and Shahrah - get yourselves to Germany. Now. =D

Making Up For Lost Time...

I haven't posted in almost 48 hours! Sooooo sorry ;)

Anyway, yesterday was a much better day than I've had since I've been here. The jet lag is finally going away. Hooray! Also, Wilhelm's niece Evelyn came to spend the night last night and we stayed up a little too late ;) Yesterday, we went to the park (spielplatz) and I took some photos of the children - see Facebook for more! The weather was BE-A-UTIFUL! I was so happy.

Alwina eating her blueberry and pistachio ice cream... :)

Lionel eating his citrus ice cream. Which was really weird...

Levin eating chocolate and citrus ice cream. And just being cute.

Evelyn and me. I look rough, but she looks awesome. Per usual :)

Ice cream! Pistachio and Vanilla with chocolate chips. Yesness!

Making fishy faces! Probably the BEST picture EVERRRR!

 So those were pictures from yesterday and today. Obviously we got ice cream today. In case you didn't notice ;) Basically, awesome. One bad thing from today - Levin hit his head on a stone and cut it pretty bad.
His head. Not the stone. haha. Anyway, please pray for him. I don't want him to be super grouchy tomorrow or in a lot of pain. Because I can't speak German to soothe him!!!!

Now for some Skype goodness:

I Skyped with Hannah and Sara(h?) today.

When they finally realized I was taking pictures, this happened.

Then this.

And a little bit of this. Love it!

PTERODACTYL!!!!!

And I think that's a good way to end it.

Chillin' in Germany. Literally ;)

A Few Additions...

Also, I forgot to mention Levin made me read to him today. I actually made it through one whole children's book in German, and Alwina and Wilhelm said I did pretty well! :) Huzzah!

I wanted to post some pictures I have taken of my wonderful friends who have Skyped me since I've been gone:

Hannah and Danette making faces. Muahahaha!

Their reaction when they saw the picture I had taken of their faces. ;)

Smiling photo!

Danette's face is so priceless right here.

So here they are. Hope you both still love me after this! :)

Lachen und Weinen....

(Translation: Laughing and Crying...)

Last night I slept terribly. I cried a lot because my stomach hurt so bad. I prayed a lot, asking God to heal me and take the pain away so I could enjoy my time here and essentially so I could give Wilhelm and Alwina their money's worth. I finally got to sleep around 3:30 am after getting out my MP3 player and listening to some Christian worship music. Which helped a little with my homesickness as well. When my alarm went off at 7:30 am, I felt awful. I know there is a reason God has not healed me yet, but it's just so frustrating and scary dealing with this in a foreign country. I got up and did my devotions and purposed in my heart to not let how I was feeling keep me from going to church. At breakfast, I had two bites of an apple and 3 bites of toast. I literally could not stomach any more, and I felt like I was going to throw up. I told Alwina I felt this way, and I said I was scared to go to church feeling like this. She said it was okay, I could stay home, and that any time I was feeling bad, I shouldn't hesitate to tell her. I hugged her and started crying again. Seriously, this family must think I spend all my time crying and being sick. lol

After the family left for church, I called my Mom. Even though it was 3:30 am in the States, I knew she would answer. And she did. It was so good to hear her voice. She said the way I am feeling is probably my body's way of dealing with jet lag and being in another country. I hope she's right and that it goes away soon. When I got off the phone with her (and cried a little bit more), I feel asleep for about 3 hours. I woke up after the family had eaten lunch, so Alwina made me black tea (without caffeine) and white rice to settle my stomach. I played War with Lionel and Elias, then I taught them how to step it up to Egyptian Rat Slap. We'll see how they handle it the more they get used to it. After that, I was feeling a little better, so we played a game of Mexican Train with some dominoes they have. Here in Germany, they have Sunday night church again at 4 pm, so when Wilhelm and the boys left for church, I got back in bed and laid down for about 2 hours.

By the time I got up, it was time for Wilhelm's family to start arriving for his birthday celebration. He has 3 brothers (all married) and 1 sister (also married). They all came and brought their families. His parents were also here. Altogether, there were 13 adults (including me) and 16 kids in this house. Talk about overwhelming! They were all really nice, though. One of the girls, Evelina, speaks English very well. She stuck by me pretty much the entire time and translated things people would say in German to English so I could understand it. Wilhelm's two younger brothers, Waldemar and David, also spoke English pretty well. They talked to me too. So really, it wasn't that uncomfortable. I didn't eat very much, because my stomach is still very queasy, but I was able to eat a slice of cucumber, some pineapple, a few bites of steak (Wilhelm grilled out), and some cake (there's always room for cake, no matter how bad one is feeling!).

The conversation was very good. David asked me what I thought of whenever the word "Germany" was mentioned. I said bratwurst, sauerkraut, and the Autobahn. Then I asked what he thought of when hearing the word "American." Immediately, he said "fast food," and everyone started laughing. hahaha Nice to know what people think of us ;) He also said Americans are very laid back and relaxed and Germans are more disciplined and hardworking. For the most part, that seems to be true. lol

After dinner, we sang some hymns - "It is Well" and "How Great Thou Art" and one more I didn't recognize. They have a lot more verses to these hymns than we do! Also, it's hard to remember the correct English words when you're the only one singing in English! Another thing I noticed was that all the men and women had their wedding rings on their right hand. I told them that in America, we wear our wedding rings on our left hand. Waldemar said, "They do everything backwards in America." haha Later that night, David and Waldemar had disappeared upstairs, and Wilhelm said they were having a "Kicker Tournament." (In American English, that means they were playing foosball.) So Evelina and I went upstairs to watch, and then we got drawn into the fray. They were very impressed at my foosball skills ;) Of course.

Eventually, everyone had to leave. They all invited me to come visit them. So I'm the much-sought-after American girl. :) haha Anyway, time for bed. OH! And family devotions tonight were in Psalm 121. Great Psalm, and very applicable for how I'm feeling right now.

Keep the prayers coming!!!!

The Day I Visited Hamlin :)

This morning when I woke up I wasn't feeling well at all. But I figured it was just from lack of sleep and being hungry. So I ate breakfast with the family (raw smoked salmon...mmm) and took a shower. When I got out of the shower, I was feeling worse, but I didn't want to cancel plans to go to Hamlin (or Hameln as they spell it here), so I started doing my hair and makeup. The window in the bathroom was open and while I was putting on my makeup, the wind blew it open even more and knocked off a glass jar onto the floor. I tried to catch it before it fell, but it ended up shattering and cutting two of my fingers. Good times. So I had to put bandaids on to wear all day.
My nausea just got worse on the drive, and by the time we got to Hamlin, I felt like I was going to throw up. Alwina noticed I was quiet on the drive, so she asked if I was feeling sick. I said yes, so we went and bought a bottle of water and some motion sickness gum. Yes, gum. It helped a little. So we walked around the shops and I got very tired.
Then we drove home and I fell asleep in the car. When we got home, I crashed on the couch/bed in my room for 2 hours. When I woke up, Wilhelm was outside playing futbol (soccer) with Lionel and Elias. So precious! Then we had dinner, sang some songs, and did family devotions. Psalm 22 tonight. Good stuff :)
Tonight, I prayed that God would heal my body, because I don't like feeling this sick. Tomorrow I will be meeting a lot of German people who don't speak English. I'm nervous. Blech! I just want to have fun and be healthy!!! Pray for me, please.

First Day in Schieder-Schwalenberg....

(Yes, that is a mouthful to say. In the right accent also, don't forget. Hopefully I'll be sounding like a German native by the time I leave this place.)

Ho-kay, so...
This morning, I woke up. Good start, right? I felt so much better than I had yesterday. I took a shower (ahhhhhh!) and then started unpacking what clothes I could actually fit in my suitcase (which looked very meager when hung up and folded into the dresser). As I was unpacking, Alwina asked if I could take a break and eat some breakfast. Well, those of you who know me know what a silly question that is to ask. "Sure!" I said.
So we (and by we I mean myself, Alwina, and Levin) went to the table and said our prayer before we sat down, because they pray standing up here. Breakfast consisted of bread (or broht as they pronounce it), cheese (kesa), meat (vorte, I think?), jelly, tomatoes, and cucumbers (guacoms). She said they eat bread at every meal. I'm so down with that :)
Then, after breakfast, we went to the store so I could get some things. Here's some pictures from on the way:

The playground in their neighborhood.

Levin on his bike. Being a pro :)

Kindergarten. The same in any language (well, the same in English and German, anyway...)

The beautiful path we were walking on.

The street sign. SchiederSee is a part of Schieder-Schwalenberg.

The palace in their neighborhood. From the back.

Alwina and Levin posing :)

Levin wanted me to take a photo of him on the steps :)

The castle from the front.

Okay, so after we got back to the house, I finished unpacking and the other two boys (Lionel and Elias) arrived home shortly afterwards.

What their house looks like from the front.

Due to the amount of time it takes to upload pictures onto my blog, I might just refer you to my Facebook. Like, a lot. haha

After the boys got home, I toured the house with my camera and took many pictures of the inside.

The staircase. Which is one of my favorite staircases EVER.

My bathroom while I'm here. LOVE IT!

My shower. Yes, it will be a pain to clean. haha

The living room Where the kids LOVE to play games on the table. Which hurts my back because I'm an old woman.

The dining room table. Where the magic happens.

The kitchen. Lovely.

After the tour of the house (more in-depth pictures on Facebook), we played UNO! Then we ate lunch. Then we went down to the sea to play in the park. I posted a video of a ride down at the park that looked super fun. Lionel and Elias rode it for the first time, and Levin pouted because he wanted to ride it, but he's not old enough :(

The three boys. From left to right: Elias (9), Lionel (7), and Levin (3).

Levin and Lionel on an awesome contraption that's a mix between a see-saw and a merry-go-round.

Levin on the slide.

Levin cheesing out.

Elias lookin' legit.

Lionel BEING A SWEETIE! Yes, he picked those for me!

By the time we got home from the park, it was almost 5 o'clock. I taught Elias and Lionel how to play "Go Fish!" with the playing cards I brought. Then I taught them how to play "War." They, of course, love both games. I think we'll step it up later, and I'll teach them "Egyptian Rat Slap," though I might call it something else to make it more appealing. Maybe "War on Steroids"? What do you guys think? haha
After we played cards, dinner was ready. We had WAFFLES! I love this family so much already. =D Instead of putting butter and syrup on their waffles, they put either chocolate spread or this spread of sweet, thickened milk on. I like the chocolate spread the best.
When dinner was over, we did family devotions, which Wilhelm said we will do every night while I'm here. Baller!!! So he read my favorite Psalm tonight (Psalm 62) and I read it in English afterward. Then we all prayed and the boys went to bed. Wilhelm started to show me pictures of a mission trip he took, and my eyes grew heavy (and my heart was calling me to Skype anyway).
So now I'm getting ready for bed. And posting on here. Hamlin tomorrow! As in, Pied Piper home! I'm super stoked! More later =D