New blog

http://famleecalledtoserve2.blogspot.com
This is the link to our new blog! I will be so happy to be up and running again.

My techs are still working on making room on Picasa for more pictures. How frustrating. I don't know how to talk without pictures. Snow has come to Jena. Our hills are covered and it is beautiful - you'll have to imagine little homes going up our valley with smoke stacks spewing smoke and pine trees trying to stand tall as they bear the weight of the heavy snow. We are cozy in our apartment 8 stories up and overlooking it all. Our kids all spent the week end together to celebrate the blessing of our newest granddaughter - I love that the kids get together without us. Now if they get together without us when we are home, that won't be so good. I miss the famLee get togethers. We are planning a Christmas with the students that won't be going home to China and the Elders. Enjoy your December wherever you are!!

We got to go to an Ikea! It was fun to just walk around and look but we were on the look out for a closet and a desk for the Jena Elders. We found a desk that we thought would work but we weren't sure if it came in "wood color" so Duane asked a clerk. The clerk laughed and asked if it was for a misisonary apartment, told us he was a member and directed us to what would work best. There aren't that many members of the church here so it's really fun when we run into one. We loaded the car and headed home. The boxes went from the back window to a foot of the front window.  One box rubbed on Duane's ear the whole way home. Another apartment also needed dishes and kitchen supplies so we loaded up. I love Ikea!! I have a fun picture of the full car but until I figure out how to reduce the size of my pictures "blogger" won't let me download anymore pictures!!

Happy 41st Annivesary to us! We spent one night in the castle at Hohenstein. It was every-thing you would expect a castle to be- big, cold, and spooky! But now we can say we spent the night in a castle that was built in 1306 and remodeled in 1890. The next day we had lunch at another castle (cute menu, great food and service, and we were the only ones there). We also met with the missionaries to check their apartment (it's not all play!).

 And we were back in Jena in time to make dinner for Institute. I love it when they like it enough to almost lick their bowls! An Elder that we have worked with for seven months has served his two years and is headed home this week. He will be one of our life-long friends!

                                               

 International Night at church in Jena! So fun. We had food and a presentation from almost all of the countries represented: Guatemala, Cuba, Australia, China, Russia, Argentina, and the U.S. Lots of interesting food - we took apple crisp and McRibs. One lady brought all of the food that filled one of the tables - sandwiches German style, eggs, lots of fruit and cakes. Most people brought a sampling, she brought enough to fill everybody! That's the German way!!

The highlight of last week was a new bundle of joy!! We are so happy for Rich and Linda!

She brightened up our cold, cloudy days. Fall has definitely hit Germany. Out come the hats, wool coats, heavy tights, scarves and gloves. We are surrounded by a beautiful forest that is now orange, red, and yellow. If the white stuff would just stay away we'd enjoy the colors more! There is a cute little tree outside our apartment. One day it was full of green leaves, the next day all of the green leaves had fallen. They hadn't even had time to change color.

So this was too fun. I got to talk to my four sisters in Washington and all at the sametime!!  It was hard to hang up, we wanted to keep talking. 

 Home Evening tonight was with 12 Young Adults. Ten of them had never carved a pumpkin. Tonight they learned.

And most were proud of the results!

We pinned the nose on the pumpkin, pumpkin bowled, ate pumpkin squares and bloody fingers, and drank hot cider with floating eyeballs. We really had fun.



Finally, we're all together again. A few had already left and a few hadn't yet arrived, but this is almost all of us. The pot of stew I made fed about 25, not quite enough. They were so happy to be together, they are so loud when they are happy, they are such a great support system for each other, and they are always taking care of each other. Such great examples of love and acceptance. We're off to a great school year!

After a great week of running Rob and Sienna around Germany and having their help with the activities that we are involved in we put them on their plane exhausted! (Them and us!) We are so glad they were able to come and see what we do!!

In our 5-hour fast tour of Berlin we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial and Museum, Checkpoint Charlie, a few government buildings and many very impressive statues. Our friend and tour guide, Anne, did a great job of showing us what we wanted to see and she knew the subway and bus systems like she grew up in Berlin. After a good night's rest we got to see President Monson in the International Convention Center. And we got to do it all with Rob and Sienna!!

Just wanted to share this beautiful view down the path at Wartburg Castle in Eisenach. It was a rainy day but we had fun with Rob and Sienna anyway!

What a great week - checked more apts (the missionaries are such amazing people); some of these apartments were in cities where Duane served 42 years ago. We found one of his apartments and this fountain where he had his picture taken as a young missionary (same pose). We ended the week in Friedrichsdorf with the Senior Missionaries in the Frankfurt Mission. It was wonderful sharing experiences and testimonies with each other. We work, we play - all so rewarding!!



We meet with our District once a week.Such a fabulous group of hard workers. We celebrate with members. We give treats to clean apartments (Clean Fairies). We check 11 apartments every 6 weeks. They actually thank us for helping them learn how to clean. We eat at different restaurants as often as we can. We feed Elders when we go to visit. We explore little dorfs and cemeteries. In short - we eat, we feed,we meet, we teach, we investigate, we celebrate. What an adventure!! 

 

 

We must have had a busy week because we don't have many pictures. I've been working on a quilt for our next baby - I have a great sewing machine but it is tempermental, doesn't like to sew in straight lines and must like to hear me threaten its life every time the thread breaks. So, I gave up on matching seams of little pieces and started over again with a bigger, easier pattern.
We had a crazy match of ping pong one night and a week-long Fall Fest (similar to Sausage Fest in Richland) only there is no Bier Garten (it's everywhere). It was so fun to sit and people watch while we ate Currywuerst mit pommes. We don't know why all the celebrating but there have been fireworks most nights, a carnival and activities everywhere - what a fun place to be!

                     

 What a full, fun and rewarding week! We spoke in church, had a fun Home Evening, took treats to a sick friend, visited members and not-yet-members, toured the Document Center in Nurnberg, went to an uplifting Zone Conference, had a delicious dinner at a Mexican restaurant with friends from Colorado and Utah who are serving here, helped clear out brush and garbage for a walking path in a "Clean Up Jena Day," and walked through a city fair that had wonderful food, old cars and tons of people! The "Clean Up Jena Day" had 10 projects throughout the city. We made new friends while we worked (one from California) and saw way too many mice. The organizers said they were amazed by all the people from different countries who were volunteering at all of the projects. Dinner was served afterwards at the City Hall that was built in 1465. It was a great experience, hard work and fun to talk to so many people from different walks of life.

 More castles (Wasserburg), more historical sites (Goetha and Schiller in Weimar), more food and more silliness (Jena and Nurnberg) - all add up to more fun.