March chuckles

*Dan was telling us (me) about covering for a co-worker going on maternity leave next month. Derek offered, "I can help you, Dad. I'll answer your emails for you!" Dan asked how he'd reply. Derek, "I'll just write What the heck are you talking about?"

*Got a phone call from a private number. Answered and the person said a bunch in Finnish and 'Daniel'. I said, "Sorry, do you speak English?" Person said no. Hmm...OK. Goodbye then.

*The US vice president visited Finland on March 7. The week before Dan's work friends were teasing him, asking if the VP was coming to our house for dinner. You know, since we're American and he's American. Derek said, "I know we're not going to have him over for dinner. He probably has to eat at the president of Finland's house. But if he didn't, we'd be on the top ten list of places he could eat. Us and the Websters." (Websters are an American family from school/church.)

*In filling out the NCAA brackets, Lauren had Duke and Ohio State in the championship game.

*At church, the translator told us the name of the opening hymn and that so and so would be offering the benediction. He quickly corrected himself and said the person would be offering the opening prayer. Lauren leaned over and said, "That would have been the shortest Sacrament meeting ever."

*Sometimes I wear pajama bottoms when I go to pick up the kids from school. No reason to get all dressed for an hour round trip ride in the car. Wednesday, Derek came out to the car and opened the door."Do you have jeans on? Good." He wanted me to go inside and give a kid some information about his birthday party. I guess he only wanted me to do that if I wasn't wearing pj bottoms.

*Dan, while sitting in the sun: Am I sparkling?
Me, not looking up: No
Dan: Huh, still not a vampire.

*Derek got a new Pokemon game for his DS. He was playing and lamented, "This is the worst gym yet! You have to read books to figure out where to go. I'm playing a video game. I don't want to read!"

*In the hotel in Milan
Lauren: This bed is hard.
Me: I know. At least it's better than sleeping on the floor.
Lauren: Not by much.

*Went for a walk with Dan. When we started, light snow. Most of the path was clear and we could easily avoid the ice. On the way back, harder snow that covered everything. Dan slipped, flailed, and pretty much punched me in the face. Then, I slipped and hit my head. Worst walk ever!

After, I asked him what he would've done if I had passed out when I hit my head. He said, "Well, first I'd prop you up against the snow bank. Then I'd go back and get that beer can we saw and put it in your hand. That way people would think you were drunk and leave you alone. Then I'd go get the car." At this point, Derek is in hysterics. I am wondering why it's so important to prop me up.

A few hours later, I'm taking Lauren to a friend's house. We pull up and I get out of the car. Well, I try. Instead, I slip and slide underneath the car. When Lauren realizes I'm down she says, "Get up, Mommy!" Uh..I'm TRYING to, kid! When I got home and tell the boys I slipped yet again, Dan was literally in tears he was laughing so hard.

*Lauren to Derek: You know what I was saying when my face was in the lettuce bowl? I CAN'T BREATHE! (Me to myself: I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.)

*I'm actually kinda surprised how many times I've had to tell Derek we don't communicate in 'clicks'.

5K training update

Really, it should be 5K training BEGINNING! Since I told the world that I was signed up for a 5K, I've only been walking and even that stopped after my epic/painful fall. Enter YAKTRAX!

My sister was kind enough to ship a pair of these to me because Amazon UK won't ship some things to Finland. Food items, kitchen items, running items, computer mouse pads. Have I only gotten books from them??? Anyhow, kiitos, Nancy! 

The coils make it safe(r) to run or walk on snow and ice. I got them Monday morning and took them out for a test walk, still too nervous to run. No slipping at all! And I was purposefully looking for ice to walk on!

So tonight, I headed out with Lauren's iPod and a handy dandy training podcast for my first official run. I chose a podcast based on the guy's voice and the music, thinking they were all the same. Not so. This one I did tonight was a bit more ambitious than I was ready for. I will rectify this before my next run.

The important thing is I DID IT! It was not pretty. A phrase my cousins like to use kept coming to mind. Dying Ugly. I felt like I should have a sign on me. 'Running for the first time since junior high.' Then all the people I met on my run could see the sign and think "Well, that explains a lot."

I will not bore everyone with lots of updates, but this momentous first time was definitely blog worthy for me.

Super Saturday

There are 5 million people living in Finland. Of those, 5,000 are Mormon. Saturday 200 youth ages 14-18 and their leaders from all over the country came to our church building for Super Saturday; a day of fun classes, food, and a disco.

The kids from our ward who were 12 and 13 were asked to help prepare and run things. I was asked to help with the food. Lauren and I were at the church most of the day and we conned Dan and Derek into joining us for the dinner madness and clean up.

Our building is tiny (no gym) and hosting 200 people seemed like a logistical nightmare. We have maybe 35 parking spots. I couldn't figure out how it was all going to work, but it did. 

This is our chapel transformed for the disco. The pulpit and railing that are usually there on Sundays were dismantled and put in the RS room.

This is where I spent most of my time. The kitchen. It's attached to the back of the RS room and has an accordian door to block it off when needed. So even though the actual kitchen itself is super small, we had tables and space in the RS room to work. (I know this font is tiny, but I can't get it to change. Forgive me.)

Annika, in charge of pretty much everything on Saturday! Looking from the kitchen into the RS room.

The extremely small frig. We put food outside when it warmed up enough that it wouldn't freeze.

Cutting lunch meat for the snack. Me: Did I look creepy smiling with a knife? Lauren: Yeah, kinda.

Dinner went well. Taco salads. I especially enjoyed the Minute Maid pink lemonade that was donated by an Amerian family in the ward. Can't get that in the stores here. Lauren and Derek were on fire making sure things were filled. Dan and I worked the kitchen. (It wasn't just us. I'm just reporting on what us Detters did.)

Once clean up started I asked Derek to take pictures of the disco. He was enjoying hanging out by the DJ so I didn't think it was such a huge request. When I asked to see the pictures the following day he said he forgot to take them. Oh well.

Hold the crocodile, please.

This brand name made me laugh. As far as I can tell neither contains crocodile, crusty or otherwise.

Finnish 101

Many people in Finland speak English. Which on one hand is good because Finnish is a hard language to learn. On the other hand there's not much motivation for non-Finnish speakers to learn Finnish. On Sunday a guy said, "The only people who learn Finnish are Mormon missionaries and Finnish babies." Not entirely true, but funny.

Anyway, I have learned a little and want to remember it.

Some differences in letter pronunciation.

The letter J is pronounced like Y. So Elijah, is pronounced Eliyah. The informal word for yes is jo. Pronounced yo. A friend is named Janice. Finns call her Ya-niss. We had a child come to Nursery for the first time since I've been in. His name is Jose. Dad is Spanish? Mom is Finnish. He spoke some Spanish. I was stoked because I know more Spanish than Finnish. I called his name, pronounced like I learned in Spanish class. He didn't answer. Then I remembered and called him Yo-say. He looked at me.

The letter Y is pronounced like a cross between ooo and eww. When I say it I tend to just do the ooo. Hymn would be pronounced hooomn, with the N pronounced as well. The word hyvää, which means good is pronounced hooovah. It reminds me of the thing US Army guys yell.

R's are rolled. Some times. I'm not sure of the rule on that. I've had the R in my name rolled when people are speaking to me. I like how it sounds.

Extra letters.
The Finnish alphabet has the same letters as the English alphabet with two additions, ä and ö. They come at the end of the Finnish alphabet. I learned this from a puzzle in Nursery.

The letter ä is pronounced like the a in at.

The letter ö is pronouced like...this one is hard for me to get. Ioeww?  I've asked people and I'm still not sure. Any Finnish friends or returned missionaries want to jump in and get this one? There's an area of Helsinki called Töölö. Dan and I can't say it. I've had to spell it so people know what I'm talking about. And even then I have to say the O with the dots above it.

Accent.
Finns accent the first part of the word. I struggle with this. Example. The word for apple is omena. When we first got here, I kept saying oh-MEE-nah when it should be OH-mee-nah.

Pronunciation.
You pronounce words just like you see 'em. The lady at the bank told us to say every single letter and you'd probably say it right. It then took me four times of saying 'Rouholahti' for her to understand what I was saying.

Here's an email I got today.

Jos joku vielä ehtii lukea tämän, niin tämän päivän toiminnassa tarvitaan pyhiä kirjoituksia.

So, just say it like you see it. Easy, right? Um, yeah...

(The sender included an English translation."If you read this before tonight, the activity requires scriptures." In reference to the Faith in God meeting tonight for Derek.)

Lauren and Derek are probably going to laugh when they read this as their Finnish is far and away better than mine. Yeah, but I'm not taking a class like you two. I'm just living it.

Kitchen Scissors: An open letter to my family

I know there are more important things going on in the world than what goes on in our kitchen. I know that. But something has been bothering me and I've found blogging about it does two things. 1) It helps me let it go. If I write about it, I tend not to worry about it. 2) You read this blog and dare I say, remember some of the things you've read. This is helpful because we've discussed this before and you don't seem to remember.

So.

Kitchen scissors. You can tell which scissors are kitchen scissors by where they are kept. In our house, they are kept in the knife block, like so.

They are for use on food or food related items only.
A simple rule. One that should be easy to keep, yes? Especially since I have placed many other scissors around the house for your use and convenience.
Exhibit A-

On the kitchen counter across from the kitchen scissors, three pairs of scissors waiting for your use. The biggest pair are probably sewing scissors, but since I don't sew, please use them. I don't mind.

Exhibit B-

Scissors on the desk in the dining room, just steps from the kitchen.

I realize I am not Rachel Ray. However, occasionally I use the kitchen scissors for more than opening bags of french fries. And when I do, I don't want them to have been most recently used to cut hair off the vacuum roller or to dig gum out of the grooves of your shoe.

A simple request. Think before you grab for those scissors on the knife block. What am I going to use these for? Is it food related? More importantly, Is my mother/wife going to be upset if I use these scissors to cut________? If the answer to that last one is yes, back away from the knife block and go find one of the other five pairs available for your use.

Love,
Mom/Ruth

Scratching my head in the bathroom

Recap. Many showers in Finland, in Europe for that matter, are nothing more than a shower head on a wall and a drain on the floor. There's no shower door, no enclosure on the floor to keep the water in, nothing. That's why you have to squeegy the floor after every shower. Sure, you can purchase suction cupped plastic rods and a curtain and rig it up to be a 'regular' shower, but honestly, we've grown accustomed to the way it is. Dan mentioned that the showers back in the States on our last trip home made him feel claustrophobic.

Here's what's puzzling me. The placement of the toilet paper holder.

Yes, the toilet paper has a nifty metal cover. I like to think of it as a splash guard. (For the shower, people.) However, the cover does nothing for water that runs down the wall. And yes, it does run down the wall. How much depends on who is showering and how careful they're being about putting items back on the wall. Grab a bottle of shampoo and put it back directly over the toilet paper holder instead of to the side as shown? Chances are you've just created wet toilet paper. Not careful about rinsing your hair? Wet toilet paper. I don't understand why it was placed on that wall. There's another wall on the left side, totally empty. Chances of it being hit with water from the shower, very low. We could just not use the holder, but that would be too easy.

This interesting fixture is in our guest bathroon. They are also regular fixtures in public restrooms. I am 99% sure what it's used for. All I can say is I hope none of our guests ever use it because I do not want to clean it.

I can be happy!

The lesson this week in Nursery is 'I can be happy'. We're going to talk a lot about smiling. If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay. If you're happy and you know it then your face will surely show it.

Take home message:
When we choose to be happy, we can help others feel happy too.

Random things from Italy

If you are from a EU country and traveling to another EU country there is no passport control. From what I read on the Ryan Air site we non-EU people were supposed to make sure we went to passport control. When we got into Milan didn't see one, no one asked, so we kept going. That means no Italy stamp in our passports. Bummer we didn't get a stamp. I was also a little worried that we weren't entirely legal. Eeep. Maybe our visa to live in Finland covers it. Should probably do a little more research on that before our next trip, whenever that will be.

At the concert. We had to pick our tickets up at will call. We approached a security person and I asked him which way to go. He said, "If you talk slower, I'll be able to understand you." I felt really silly talking slow but it worked!

While on the bus tour. Stopped at a light, I noticed two old men on the sidewalk talking. They were EXTREMELY animated, so much so I thought they were going to come to blows. I've heard Italians use their whole bodies when they talk. I guess I'll never know if those two men were fighting or talking about the weather.

After our late lunch we decided we would not be hungry again before the concert at 8:30 but we probably would be hungry afterwards. We went to a hyper (super) market by the hotel called Carrefour for after concert food. HUGE! We entered through the fresh pasta, bakery and deli section. Oh my yummy. It was dizzying trying to decide what we wanted to get. It was here that Lauren and I decided we'd like to live in Milan. This sign reminded me of Wal Mart-

Mother daughter trip to Italy!

Thanks to Dan rearranging his schedule and discount airline Ryan Air, Lauren and I were able to go on a fun mother daughter trip to Milan this week. Joining us on our trip were friends Izumi and Julia.

Monday we got into Milan at 10:30 pm and found a taxi. The hour ride to our hotel was...scary. At least for me in the front seat it was. The driver was doing his best impression of a race car driver. His passing cars and trucks by barely moving into the next lane definitely elevated my blood pressure. At one point I grabbed the door handle. He told me, "Don't be afraid. I know traffic." Oh, that makes me feel tons better. Thank goodness it was late and there weren't many other cars.

Hotel

Window opened.

Metal shutter outside that could be raised and lowered.

We noticed other buildings with these or similar shutters.

It felt great to sleep with the window open.

What's the second toilet for? Hee hee.

Tuesday morning walking to the metro.

Lauren and Julia

On the metro. Izumi, Julia and me.

We did a bus/walking tour of Milan.

 L and me on the bus.

One of the first things that happened was our bus

got rear ended by a car.

First stop on the tour the Scala opera house.

Our group was walking along and we met up with a different tour group. The groups got mixed up and we ended up following the other tour group across the street while our group was at the entrance. We could still hear our guide so I didn't realize it until Izumi pointed out our group across the street. Whoops.

 Making memories.

Foyer of the opera house. No pictures allowed inside actual theater. Lots of red velvet and a ginormous chandelier. It was beautiful. I wish I knew more about opera so I could be even more impressed.

Across the street from the opera house,

a statue of Leonardo da Vinci and four of his pupils.

It rained most of our trip.

Walkway

For Derek.

It really surprised me to see a McDonald's here.

The other stores were Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Swavorski.

Still in the walkway. Legend has it if you turn your left heel in the bull's genitals your wishes will come true.

Would love to hear how that got started. And poor bull.

Next stop the Duomo of Milan.

The Duomo is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

A bronze statue of her adorns the main spire.

This reminds me of something...

Pictures inside that I'm not sure we were supposed to take.

My favorite stained glass window.

Statue by da Vinci of St. Bartholemew.

Our guide pointed out da Vinci's knowledge of anatomy is evident in this statue, even though it looks macabre.

Lauren thought it was awesome.

Julia was looking at this and an Italian lady came up to her.

She started kissing Julia and speaking to her in Italian while pointing at the girl in the art work.

Izumi understood enough to get that the lady thought Julia looked like the girl.

This castle was our next stop.

Outside the gates, Lauren had her first experience with a pushy vendor. Not cool.

Final stop of the tour The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

No pictures allowed in the room where the fresco was.

Here, the ceiling of the waiting area.

I don't remember what the guide called this area, but I thought of them as air-locks. Our group (only 25 people at a time) all entered this room. Once we were all in, the glass doors shown here closed and another set opened on the other side of the room. We went through two rooms like this.

They are designed to keep out pollution.

We were surprised by how big it was. It was not a 'normal' size painting you'd be able to hang above your couch. It's 15 feet by 29 feet...an entire wall. We were able to spend 15 minutes with the painting and then we had to clear out for the next group. Definitely worth every minute.

Lunch at a cafe.

Walking around Milan.

Lauren and Julia met Pinochio!

Good food everywhere!

Tuesday night, the main reason we went to Milan...

Taylor Swift!

Lauren got tickets for Christmas.

A night of firsts.

Lauren's first concert and Taylor's first concert in Italy!

She put on a great show!

Lauren said, "I think I would like to go to concerts more regularly."

Wednesday morning we went home.

The trip was a blast and

we loved hanging out with Izumi and Julia!

We also decided we would like to live in Milan if the opportunity ever presented itself.

Derek was estatic to get his gift from us:a vuvuzela!

It's loud and annoying. Hindsight is 20/20.

Dan's gift. He hasn't been making much noise with it.