:: See Jane. See Jane cry. Cry Jane cry. ::

I used to wear this little dress when I was a bit older then Jane and I loved it. I can still remember sitting in church thinking about how pretty I was in my cute yellow dress (lots of modesty I know, but I was only 3 at the time). However when I was three I suffered from a bowl hair cut like most of my family when we were little. Bless my heart, but it was the early 80’s.

p.s. I am still not sure why Jane started to cry, but as suddenly as she started she stopped and then needed a hug and wanted to look in the mirror.

Nicolas Fehn

My new favorite Saturday Night Live character. His name is Nicolas Fehn and he is played by Fred Armisen. If you have nothing to do for the next three minutes and twenty four seconds, enjoy the clip by clicking on the play button below.

:: A Whosie-whatsit for the Thingamajig ::

The clothes line now has a clothes pin holder, Hooray! I know it's not as cute as my Grandma's clothes pin holder but was hers water proof, I don't think so.

Anyway I thought I would give you a quick update from the Jones household over the past week-ish.

Hornets killed in the house: 6
Spiders killed in the house: 2
Tear shed over said wee beasties: 0
Picnic tables put together: 1
Swing sets assembled: 1/2
Times Jane went potty in the toilet: 1
Times Jane went potty on the bathroom floor or similar: 3
Times Jane insisted on wearing "big girl underwear" but held it until her diaper was back on: a bajillion

So good times!

:: a cry for help ::

Every few months I have to bribe book recommendations out of all I encounter for my Book Club. This is always a difficult thing to do because we can't read just any book, because our Book Club is organized through the Church we need fairly "clean" books to read and review. They don't have to be PG or G rated books but maybe on the PG-13 level.

I will read books that I think would be great for book club but often times I have to nix them because they are a bit too violent or have too much sex in them (Mom, please don't be too scandalized).

Anyway, I am throwing myself at your feet, please in the name of all that is holy throw me a bone and give me some recommendations for Book Club. Just to give you an idea here are a few of the books we have read in the last year or so.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows By JKR
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
The Secret life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
A Long way from Chicago by Richard Peck


Here are a the few recommendations I have thus far, please help me add to them.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Friday night Knitters club by Kate Jacobs
The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey

:: Run Free Little Bob ::

Yep we finally set the kids free. It took them a while to see that it was in their own best interest to make a clean break. Don't worry though they eventually found the fruit snack trail that we left for them. That was enough of a distraction to let us sneak away.

Okay we didn't really set the kids free this time, but when I saw these pictures (Kgordee took them) it looked like we were returning our children from whence they came. We actually just went up the canyon with the kids. Good times.

:: Hattie McGee ::

I knitted most of this hat while in Germany, though I ran out of yarn
towards the shaping on the crown and had to finish it at home. The
yarn is leftover from a sweater I made for Jane. It was my first
completed/fully funtioning sweater and I am pretty freakin' proud of
it. I just have to add a zipper, maybe some flowers and I will post a
picture. Anyway I love my new hat even though this picture makes me look crazy. It's really hard to take a good picture of yourself wearing something, so back off.

:: Lunch in Munster ::

This was one of my favorite meals while in Germany. Kgord and I shared this yummy salad, steak with caramelized onion and herbed butter. Everything was very good and seasoned perfectly, but the soup was amazing. I'm not really a soup person but this potato soup was unforgettable.

It wasn't thick like chowder; it was more of a cream of potato soup with chopped bacon and thyme as a garnish. This meal was especially cozy because it rained almost the whole time we were in Munster. It really was hard to be too bothered by the rain because there was so much to see. Thank you Mom and Dad Jones, it was a great place to visit.

Swinging High at the Park

The weather today in Provo is perfect. We couldn't resist a trip to
the park. Spring has tried to peak through a few times only to be
foiled by more snow and cold. I really hope the sun is here to stay
this time. Josh is loving the swing!

:: Chocolate Bugs and High Tea ::

Jane and Josh as they open their big hollow chocolate bugs that we found for them at Rewe, a grocery store down the street from Grandma's and Pop Pop's apartment in Dortmund.

In the second picture Jane is offering me milk "Here's your milk," she says. Two seconds later the imaginary milk spills all over the table (I guess) and she says "Oh the freakin' milk!”. Oh my freakin' ears, where did my child pick this up? I'm pretty sure that one was me. Oops.

:: Day One ::

When we first arrived we went for a walk around Kgordees Parent's neighborhood in Dortmund, their part of town is called Hombruch. This is a little fruit and veg stand that looks just like the displays that are set up on market days. More on Market days later! The middle picture shows a fun pedestrian zone round the corner from the Jones's apartment, I think we counted six bakeries on this stretch of street, but we might have underestimated a bit.

This is a shot of a street in downtown Dortmund. Every where we went we ran into these pedestrian only promenades.

After a short tour of Dortmund with our professional tour guides (Kgordee’s parents) we took a longer then expected power nap. Kgordee’s parents had to go to the center that evening where they have activities for young adults in their ward/stake so we ventured off on our own.

We caught the subway downtown in search of food. It was pretty wet out but we found the donor kebab stand that we wanted to eat at. Kgordee had a hard time ordering (though let’s be honest if it was left up to me we would have starved) and we ended up with a Turkish kebab that was good but not what we wanted to order. We ate al fresco under a large umbrella at a table for some sit down restaurant. I had an orange Fanta and Kgordee had a Mezzo Mix (1/2 fanta and 1/2 coke) and oh how I love German Fanta.

We walked around a bit more and then headed home. Luckily we brought some umbrellas because on the way home it poured and the streets became little water ways. Getting around was pretty easy, Kgordee figured out the subway system and I fingered out how to get home once we were back in Hombruch.

It was so good to be back in Germany again, (last time in 2003 we spent most of our time in Vienna, which was amazing and only had a few days on either end of the trip in Germany) I love people watching, listening to them converse in German and seeing the beautiful architecture everywhere.

Vacations are always fun, but add on not having the kids with us plus being in a foreign country and that equals AMAZING. We had the non-responsibilities of teens yet (hopefully) the attention span to really appreciate the history and beauty before us.

:: Almost Home ::

We can't wait to get home, and see our twins. Just a few more hours
and we will be hugging them again. We have really enjoyed our trip to Germany and
we can't wait to share all of our pictures and fun times with you.
Thanks to all of you that made this possible, we are so blessed to
have such amazing friends and family.