Frohe Oster!!!

For those who might not have guessed it, "Frohe Oster" is German for "Have a most excellent Easter". Yes, it was quite the wild weekend here in Deutschland. Easter's pretty big here with the Germans. Tree branches are decorated with fancy painted eggs, special cakes line the bakery shelves, and chocolate is abundant! We tried to take full advantage of the extra days Jason got off from work to enjoy the fantastic weather and spirit of the season.

On Friday we took a rental car back to the Netherlands to visit the temple in The Hague. We were a little dubious driving there and seeing black clouds on the horizon, but in the end the weather was just as nice by the North Sea as it was in Germany. It appeared that the Dutch were just as much into Easter as the Germans (and they make really good Easter cakes!).

With a car at our disposal, Saturday was errands day. Besides our normal weekly stuff, we managed to find a great stroller and carseat for the baby. And then....it was baking time!!! Our landlady had kindly given us two homemade German Easter cakes in the shape of a lamb and a bunny. It was unexpected, but quite delicious.


Sooo, in an effort to repay the deed, we attempted super-duper chocolate cupcakes! Unfortunately, we were lacking a little on the super-duper front as all the cupcake tops fell off. Oops! Fortunately, Laura is a baking genius, and in no time at all we turned them into CAKE BALLS (we decided that "cake balls" wasn't that great of a name, nor nearly descriptive enough, so we now affectionately refer to them as "Chocolate Cake Coconut Truffles").


In addition to our baking fiasco, Jason got to play handyman and put together some nice patio furniture that our landlady supplied us with.


Later that day, we hopped in the car for a driving adventure. Our adventure found us in Stadt Blankenberg; an old walled city on top of a hill. We were able to explore what is left of the castle and walk around the city, which is still within the remains of the wall and has plenty of people living in it!

(Laura in front of the tower and entrance to Stadt Blankenberg)

(Jason in front of a 400 year old Wine Press a.k.a. Baumkelter)

(One of the castle towers)

(Approaching the Castle!)

(Laura heading into a castle tower)

(The view of the beautiful valley from the castle)

(The view of the city from the castle)

(One of the city streets. Big enough for one car only.)

Sunday began with a great time at church. Great lessons, great talks and a gift of hand-painted eggs from the missionaries. We drove to a beautiful park on the Rhine for an afternoon walk before the rental car needed to be returned.

(Jason taking a break in the park)

Sunday evening had us enjoying a ham dinner and special talks and videos on Christ. We also gave a Norwegian Easter tradition a try called Egg Knocking. It was great fun! Monday involved spring cleaning and making brunch for the missionaries. On the menu was: Ham & Egg Casserole, Mandarin-Spinach salad with homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette, fried breakfast potatoes and cake (with fruit and homemade vanilla pudding)!

(Jason with the yummy food!)

That wraps up our weekend. We have been very fortunate to have good weather and have been trying to make the most of it. The pregnancy is going very well and we are getting excited to meet our little man.

(Laura in week 30)

We hope you all had an equally great Easter weekend. May the Lord bless you all.

Love,

Jason & Laura

Monkey Business

Hello World!

It's about time we made another update. Funny how fast time flies by! The last month and a bit have been chock full of school, work, and baby preparation busyness. Laura is already 28 weeks along. Not long ago, we visited an ultrasound specialist who measured all the baby's organs and bones. Apparently, he's a LONG baby! Actually, based on the measurements and what we've read in all the pregnancy literature, we think he might be a little older than what the docs say, but who knows! Anyhow, the coolest part of that visit was the 4D Doppler images they took of the rascal. Very cool!
The weekend we had that particular doctor's appointment was pretty busy, so we decided to rent a car to make the getting around a little bit easier. We thought to try a cheap rental company called Sixti with whom you can rent a car for just 10 euros a day! Granted, the cars are small, and not all that terrific, but who can complain for that price. Anyhow, when Jason went to pick the car up after work on Friday, he was told that the car we'd booked wasn't available, soooo...we would have to drive a Mini Cooper instead! It was actually a lot of fun. Not much for trunk space, mind you, but boy could it take corners!



This past weekend was also Jason's birthday...and yes, it was a birthday weekend. From Friday to Monday, we did something fun each day. Jason took the day off work on Friday, we rented a car, and we drove to Holland to go to the temple. We had absolutely beautiful weather. Unfortunately, the Dutch tulips weren't in full bloom yet, sooo...we're just going to have to go back to get pictures! While we were there we did manage to take a walk around Zoetermeer's lovely pedestrian shopping district AND find some absolutely amazing natural peanut butter! Peanut butter is hard enough to find in Germany, let alone good quality stuff. It was a veritable gold mine!

On Saturday, after our normal weekend errands, we went for dinner at the China Paradise Ocean Restaurant in Bonn. It's a huge triple decker boat seated on the Rhein River that looks like it was pulled right out of Hong Kong. The buffet was pretty decent for being in Germany.

Sunday found us baking cakes after church to take to Jason's work. It's tradition in his office for people celebrating their birthday to share cake with everyone else. A mighty fine tradition if you ask us! Anything for cake!! We shared a little bit of it with missionaries who came over for dinner that night.

Finally, on Monday (Jason's actual birthday), came the big surpise. During the day, Laura had been put her mad baking skills to work, and surprised Jason with the most incredible peanut-butter monkey-faced rice krispy treat EVER MADE IN THE WHOLE WORLD AND BEYOND!! Seriously, though, this monkey kicks butt. And tastes pretty good. But since we couldn't eat him for dinner, we decided on homemade waffles instead with whipped cream and strawberries.

Here's a picture of us sporting the shirts that Jason's grandparents sent from Canada for his birthday.


And finally, just because we think it's absolutely hilarious, here's a picture of a dog that regularly carries his master's bakery goods home from the bakery every week. Who wouldn't want a dog like that? Just hope he doesn't slobber too much.

Well, it's been a crazy month, and it's going to get crazier. We hope everyone is doing fantastic. Jason thanks everyone for their birthday wellwishes. Have a wonderful time back in Canada!

Love you all!

Laura & Jason

Wij houden van pannenkoeken!

Goedendag! (That's Dutch for "Howdy!")

Last weekend we spent an amazing three days in the Land of Tulips. We rented a car Friday afternoon and drove to the Netherlands, which is only about two hours away. We spent that evening attending the temple just outside of The Hague. It's located in a small city named Zoetermeer. Beautiful and intimate, the temple is located on a small parcel of land. The local church building used to be there, but they tore it down to build the temple! The temple has an underground parking lot complete with a distribution center. But one of the coolest hallmarks is the enormous 4oo kg brass door that adorns the front of the building. Incredible! (the hinges had to be changed twice!)

We started Saturday by attending a second session of the temple (can't get enough of a good thing, right?), and then headed to Amsterdam. Fortunately, we'd been advised not to try and park downtown, so we only had to wait ONE hour at the edge of the city for a parking spot at a Park and Ride. The transit system there is pretty amazing, though. In the city we cruised the canals by boat, ate Dutch pancakes, and took in the enormous diversity of people, architecture, and history. We even got to see the famous house of Anne Frank!

Sunday found us traveling through Leiden, Noordwijk, and The Hague. We attended a small English-speaking Church branch in Leiden and enjoyed their warm welcome. We then cruised the coastline of the North Sea before hunting down a few windmills for good measure. Before heading back to Germany, we drove through The Hague and saw their parliament on the water. It was a truly fantasic time.

Otherwise, things are going well for all 2.5 of us. School and work keep us plenty occupied. This weekend we found our new favorite place to stop and enjoy our little village: the local gelatto cafe - complete with an Italian owner! Mmm...we love gelatto!

We hope everyone is well and enjoy your weekend!

Love,

Laura and Jason

Us outside the Haag Netherlands Temple

The Haag Temple

A view of the front entrance.

Jason standing along one of the many canals in Amsterdam

Look closely...the house on the right is sinking!

There are over 2500 houseboats that line the canals in Amsterdam. Most of them are used as full-time residences.

There are more bikes than people in Amsterdam (and that's a fact!). We saw quite a few of these bikes around town.

Hoisting hooks on the warehouses-turned luxury homes in Amsterdam. Once used to hoist freight into the warehouses, they are still used for furniture since the stairways are too narrow.

Jason in front of Anne Frank's house.

The worlds most public urinal. Laura is not so impressed.

The Noordzee

A trip to Holland would not have been complete without taking a snapshot of a windmill.

18 Weeks, 5 Days....and counting!

Happy New Year Family and Friends!

After celebrating the new year somewhere over the Atlantic we have arrived back to our busy schedule in Germany. Things are going well and we have been getting much done (although some of our luggage is still sitting in our living room...).

An update on Christmas:
We thoroughly enjoyed surprising everyone in Canada with our Christmas News! (1+1=3! For those of you who may not know, that's the equation for a baby.) That's right, come June, we will be a family of 3. Christmas was full of surprises, good news, family, friends, puzzles and plenty of food. Before heading for Canada, we enjoyed some Christmas traditions of our own. One of them being that we put our 2008 Christmas Decoration on our tree. Upon arriving in Canada, we were delighted to surprise everyone and then partake in Graham Cracker House/train building (an English Family Tradition). Our time in Canada was brief but we enjoyed spending time with all of our family.

We seem to have brought the snow back with us and we have a picture below of what we woke up to our first morning home. Only yesterday did the last of the snow melt away. It is such a rarity here for snow to last that long that most people don't have shovels. We saw many people using garden shovels, pieces of wood, or anything else that might push the heavy snow off to the side. It was an interesting sight to see.

An update since arriving home:
IT"S ALLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE! We have heard our baby's heartbeat. That was a wonderful experience (and seriously cool). Things with the pregnancy are going well. Laura is excited to be nearing the half way mark and to have a little baby bump. Jason is excited to know what the gender of the baby is (although we're not telling...at least not yet). Life in the new year has been spent studying (for Laura) and working (for Jason) during the week...and sometimes longer. Weekends are significantly more entertaining and tasty. This past Saturday we baked aplenty! Whole Wheat Vegetarian Pizza, Whole Grain Bread, Bran Muffins, Whole Wheat Crackers and (our indulgence) Angel Food Cupcakes with whipped cream and fresh egyptian strawberries. The missionaries will get the pleasure of tasting the last item tonight! We have also started our hand at sprouting. We're only on day 2 of rinsing, so we'll update more on that later. There are also a few pictures of our apartment up as well.

In the next couple weeks things will get even busier, but that's the best way to be. There is never a shortage of things to do with our callings at church, school, work, and getting ready to welcome a munchkin into the world. We are so excited and feel incredibly blessed. We'll do our best to keep in touch and post updated pictures.

Love you all!

Laura & Jason

Our Christmas puzzle, all finished and just in time for Christmas!

Jason putting up our 2008 Christmas Ornament.

Our very tasty, Graham Cracker Christmas Candy Train.

A mid-day picture of the beautiful white stuff we woke up to! Pretty to look at.

Our cozy bedroom. Thanks to Ikea, we actually have a blanket that covers the whole bed. It's common to have two single blankets for a double bed. That was our setup for over a month until Ikea finally had something larger in stock. Now there is more cuddle room!

The kitchen. Small, but we still manage to both be in here on the weekends to cook and bake together. It's one of our favorite things to do.

Jason pulling down our attic access. It's pretty spacious up there.

Laura's Baby Bump. 18 Weeks 4 days.

Our delicious pizza, 1kg loaf of bread, and bran muffins!

Crackers!!!

Dessert. Yum.

Hot off the press!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Happy weekend everyone! Things have been very busy on this side of the world and we are finally gearing up for Christmas. This weekend we put up our tree, checked out the Medieval Christmas Market in Siegburg and "schneed" our windows. It's all very exciting and we have pictures of it all for you to see. The tree was quite the success. Jason put it together and lasted only a few moments with the lights before Laura took over. The Medieval Market was AWESOME! All the people at the booths were dressed in period costume, there were jesters, interesting food and Sankt Nicholas even made a visit. We took a video of a medieval merry-go-round that was hand cranked, but failed to figure out how to put up a video yet. If we figure that out, we will be sure to put it up. Schneeing (which we've adapted as a verb) was a new experience but it was great fun. We also took some pictures of our apartment but we'll put those up in a later post.

That's all for our weekend. Hope that all is well!

Love you all!

Jason & Laura

Yes, that is a giant Toblerone that weighs in at 4.5 kg . It was a beautiful sight.

Laura with the puzzle that we decided to take on. It's coming along...

Jason with the top of our tree!

Laura putting on the lights.

Us with the finished result. YAY!!!

Laura not too sure what she is about to eat. We bought it from a booth that had a pig's head on a stick. It did taste REALLY good though!

Jason taking a break.

Some big bags of spices and tea.

The BEST way to bake bread!

Heading back to the train station. The Monestary is the building in the back on the hill.

SCHNEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In a CAN!

Jason concentrating VERY hard as he prepares the stencil.

Laura showing the stencil on the window, ready to be schneed.

SCHNEEEING!!!!!

The final result!