TGIF... Almost

This morning I woke up and didn't even realize it was Friday. Perhaps THIS week has gone by the fastest of all our weeks here. It's hard to think we've been here almost two months. And so, once I realized today was the weekend I was extremely excited for the day. I even woke up to Maddix playing with a new toy that came inside of one of our Kinder Eggs

A kinder egg is a hollow chocolate egg with a toy inside. And this toy is a 3-wheeled toy with a sail that you blow into to make it move... He got the hang of it. 

Travis went to his classes while Maddix and I did some exercising. I love when he actually does the work outs with me. Then we waited to go swimming only to receive a text that the day plans would be different. I was sort of glad because I was feeling off today.
Instead we went to the Mecham's and made some homemade fudge for our Conference and Dessert party Travis, Maddix, and I are having with the Elders and one of the investigators and helped them get ready for their weekend trip. When we got home I was feeling even worse.
I made dinner, Minestrone Soup. It's a recipe that I've been extremely excited for, but with my stomach off tonight, it tasted awful (Travis loved it).

I came into the room tonight snacking on my dried peaches to try and settle my stomach and told Travis that even my peaches tasted off with my stomach upset. Travis ate one and looked into the tub... "Well I think they're bad." SO... I think I've been eating bad dried fruit and now I have, I don't know, food poisoning? It's no fun. Stupid Polish standards on food being so low. Well that ruined our Friday night Party plans... if we'd had any.

THEN to end the night I went into the the bathroom to get ready for bed, only to find a giant puddle on the floor and a nauseatingly overpowering smell wafting into the hall. Come to find out somehow our airfreshener got a hole punctured in the bottom of it and the ENTIRE full can is now fuming up our apartment. So now I feel like I'm getting high... and I want to vomit. Why would people purposely choose to stiff fumes? Seriously? What morons! I probably could've written more interesting things about the day, but I am about to pass out from this smell. Time to open more windows!

ReAdY or nOt HeRe I CoMe

It seemed like today everyone/thing was operating on a hide and seek timeline. The weather for one, was extremely odd. We joked that the Lord was trying to answer everyone's prayers concerning the weather... looks like someone prayed for a little snow, sleet, hail, rain, extreme winds, and beautiful sunshine because we got it all and in 2 minute intervals. Finally the sun stayed long enough to entice Maddix and I out for a walk... then we got stuck in a short rain for a couple of minutes. Right when we got home it started to hail again. Weird.

Travis also made random and quick appearances in and out of the house today. He kept forgetting all his books and coats and would only come in for maybe.. 2 minutes at a time. Funny.

And then there was Maddix's first real game of Hide and seek! I SO enjoyed it! He loved to look for me and would start shouting my name when it was taking too long. He's still learning however; every time I told him to hide I would say, "ready or not here I come..." and he would run into the hall laughing. I didn't even care, it was just fun to have a new game. We also rough housed, read some books, played this funny screaming game, played superheros, and then colored while watching t.v. while the heater guys put knobs on our heaters!!! Hallelujah the apartment is cooling down.

And then tonight when Travis knocked on the door Maddix jumped off the couch and yelled, "coming!" He was SO EXCITED to see Travis, he didn't leave his side the rest of the night. He even went to Travis and said, "hand," led him to the couch, sat him down, and shared his bucket of pretzels... he rarely shares food:) He was so sad when it was time for bed. Shh.. don't tell anyone, I was feeling guilty for taking him away from Travis so I snuck one of his cars into his bed. He found it as I was leaving the room and was as happy as could be that 'he'd hid a car and forgot until now...'
Here are some pictures from the day:

This was our first ever puppet show. At first I was performing it and then he took over and saved the show

He controlled the puppets while I sang different Disney songs that fit each scenario:)

Then it was super hero time. Did you know blankie's double as capes?! Duh mom

At this moment it was both raining and hailing... and was sunny. Just couldn't make up it's mind

I wish I could've captured how I found him before he rolled. You know how babies sleep with their butts in the air? Well he was, plus his pants had slipped off his bum so his diaper was just highlighted in the air

And then finally our daddy came home!

Sharing of the pretzels

This picture melts my heart. Travis layed down to pretend to sleep so Maddix hopped up and was pretending to sleep, but the look in his eyes is just pure admiration for his papa. I hope it's always that way.

Today was a fun day and it was all over the place, and I was just glad I could burn some of Maddix's energy for once.

March 28, 2012

Tuesday: Well, Travis headed to school still in the midst of his grueling midterms and Maddix and I prepared to go grocery shopping with Becky. I had a ring from the doorbell and this normally freaks me out. It's not such a shock these days as it happens SO often. I wasn't planning on anyone coming. I said a quick prayer to know whether or not I should open the door and I got a strong resolve that I should. I'm so glad I did. It was the sweetest older man who was here to take measurements to order knobs for our heaters!! Hurray! He spoke just enough English, I spoke just enough Polish that we got the measurements done and set up time for him to come and fix the heaters tomorrow! I'm SO ecstatic to have them turned off!

So we then made our way to the store with Becky and it wasn't one of the most pleasant of trips. Maddix was so cranky and whiny. Although our bill was much cheaper because the produce has plummeted in price thanks to the farmers markets opening up! I love that produce is in season now. So I was leaving Maddix with Becky for a moment while I ran to another isle when I felt prompted to move him from where he was. I didn't listen soon enough. I literally brushed off the prompting and then realized I needed to listen to it, but it was too late. I turned around to hear the shattering noise of a large green olive jar, and then saw Maddix smiling up at me. Ah! He is driving me CRAZY this past week! I don't know if I'll survive the terrible twos! That was just the tip of the shopping experience... it just got more stressful from there. But the end of the night was a make up for it.

That night we had our first YW/YM activities!!

Yes, we have one young woman, and one young man (soon to be two! We have a boy who is being baptized in a week or so). Travis and Mikołaj (Meek-oh-eye) stayed at the church (church as in we have a flat in a building that has three rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. This is where we have sacrament and Sunday school) to plan out how they wanted to do their activities, as well as to just try and explain what on earth Young Men's is even about. This is the first Mutual Organization to be introduced to the Lublin Branch and we are blessed enough to help establish it. Meanwhile us girls went to the Mecham's and watched the YW broadcast. Then afterward we ended up just having an old fashion gab session until late into the night. Can't remember the last time I stayed up late just talking.

Today was... well... it was pleasant until Maddix Jeckle decided to replace Maddix Hide and he turned into the terrible two monster. We cleaned, DEEP cleaned today because I found two LARGE silverfish in the bathroom last night and that's always my push to have a cleaning day. Later I tried to get him outside because it was sunny and we're expected to have rain for the next week but once we got outside that's when Maddix made the switch. He ran through piles of poop, through the soccer ball into the gutter full of muck, and screamed "NO!" repeatedly when I tried to keep him in a safe area. Oh he also kicked his shoe off before running through the poo. So I told him he lost the right to be outside, that it was time to go it. On the way in there was this dirty puddle and I was carrying a very dirty soccer ball (which he managed to smear all over his clothes) so my hands were full and I knew what he was thinking. I told him nicely to stay out of it. He continued to close in on it. So I sternly told him basically, "DON'T-YOU-DARE..." We locked eyes and the challenge was on. You can guess what he chose. It resulted in a smacked bottom and me grabbing him to go back inside. Meanwhile He's screaming, "NO! No mommy NO!" And all the people are looking at me like I can't control this baby... which is why it's stupid to have children anyway; duh. Let me just tell you, we were only outside 10 minutes, and this was sort of a bad turning point for us through the rest of the day. We did not get a long with each other and I can't tell if he doesn't understand some of the things I tell him/ ask him, or if he just doesn't respect me because he listens when Travis puts his foot down... but ohhhh noooo, noooo mommy can get seriously angry and stern but it has no affect on him. GRR! This is NOT a fun stage. 
A few of the Good Moments we had with each other:

Being my helper with the dishes while I'm doing dinner

Spinach Tortellini (It turned out so much better this time)

At first he was hiding. Then he realized it sort of echoed inside the bucket , so he decided to sing

And essentially that was our day. Onto the next. Thursdays... yuck. Probably my least favorite day of the week now a days. 
Goodnight. 

Game Time

Well, it's the beginning of the fourth quarter here at the Johnson's and Travis is ever so busy studying his play books (school books), just trying to win this game (midterms)! 

He's memorizing each play individually and so far that's allowed us pull ahead during these last three quarters, but there can always be game changers in the last quarter, like having all your receivers blocked when you need them open ( brain farts in the testing center), getting knocked out cold by a line-backer (having your body give in to unconsciousness because you're so tired), or throwing a beautiful pass you're confident on... only to have it intercepted and ran for an opposing touchdown (thinking you aced an exam only to find out you got blown away) 

Travis always tells me he stopped playing football because he was too little, but seems to me like he's playing right now. And as of lately he's been playing his game like a star quarterback. Go get 'em in the fourth quarter Trav! Just remember there's a sweet and beloved prize at the end of a winning game: the dumping of the Gatoraid... or in our case- A trip to Germany, so just hang in there! 

And this time you don't have to wear a name tag!

 And so for a report on today: I think we have officially fallen into a routine; something that I was hoping we would find so much so we could start to feel settled. But now that we've found it, I find it hard to blog for fear that you will read the same things ever couple of days :) More swimming, more cleaning, more language lessons, and more pics of Maddix with in the four walls of our apt. Now I'm almost feeling like we don't have enough time to be creative and spontaneous......... ha ha just kidding, we have LOADS of time (the beauty of being a stay at home mom). Oh dear, what am I saying? I'm not even sure. It's late. I'm trying to stay up with Travis so he doesn't have to study alone and I'm sure I'll regret saving the blog until this late again when I read over it in the morning and find errors and lots of rambling. 

So to wrap up, I guess my point is what's wrong with women? Huh? Why can't we ever be satisfied? When we're happy, we want more... to keep moving forward. When life's moving forward... it's just moving TOO fast. When our hair is long we would kill for a pixi cut and vise versa. When we're being rude, sometimes we're not even mad. When we're sad most the time there's no good reason. . . . 

What's wrong with us women? 

Sometimes when I look like this on the outside:

I Really feel like THIS on the inside:

And I get the feeling most the time it's due to THIS:

Okay, I'm falling asleep. G'night.

Living for the Weekend: What a Novel Concept

I LOVE not working; it really makes me realize why people get excited for the weekends. Saturday Travis was fortunate enough to go partake in a baptism for our branch; he was a witness. He told me when he got home, "I can't think of a better way to start my day:)" THEN... he spent the rest of the day studying. To get out of his hair Maddix and I accompanied the Mecham's on an outing to the Lake:

We had a great time, and it was such a beautiful area.
Then today we thoroughly enjoyed church, took part in our first Branch Council meeting, and then for dinner tonight we not only were fortunate of having the missionaries over for fajita's but also an investigator who was quite pleasant.
I love the weekends

A Day with the Mecham's

Well, it's official: I don't think I'll ever love another ward the way I love this ward. Each and every member here has such a special roll they play here in establishing the Gospel in Poland, as well as the special roll they are playing in my life in helping me be here.
While Travis is studying his days away and taking tests through the nights, Maddix and I enjoyed a day with the Mecham's.
This morning started with a swim at the pool. One of these times I am going to figure out how on earth to get a picture of this place because it is amazing. Maddix did great. He is growing in confidence more and more each time and today when he fell face first under the water he didn't panic or cry as long after as I thought he would.
We returned home where he went down for a very long nap. Then we went and played at the park:

Enjoying the teeter totter 

First time at the Park on Castle grounds

So this little boy kept trying to play with Maddix. This is him trying to get the sand out of his hair. Later they teeter tottered.. .then he kept squeezing Maddix's hand real hard and I wanted to jump in and break it up. Maddix kept saying, "get off, get off," and "mom! Mom!" Once he pulled himself free he turned to the boy and said, "NO!" while slapping him in the chest... it was hard for me to scold him for hitting on that one.  

A little soccer time

Running around

After all our park time we returned to the Mecham home where we took Negra for a walk to another park just near their home:

Negra kept walking next to Maddix and trying to lick his face

I liked this pathway that led straight from the park to their house.  

After our walk I agreed to stay at the Mecham's while they went out to dinner and the kids and I stayed behind to play games and eat Pizza. We put on Cars 2 for Maddix and my over stimulated/ extremely tired little boy sat in a pile of blankets and tried not to fall asleep. When they returned we all headed to my apartment to put Maddix to bed, set the kids up with some movies on our computer, and then Pres Mecham/Becky, and Travis/ and I geared up to go see Hunger Games! As I was getting in the fridge to get Maddix some Milk and I noticed a faint smell. I picked the carton of milk up and it bowed in from the pressure shifting around. When I opened it... it sort of smelled off. I opened our other milk and the smell overpowered me. I opened another milk and it was bad as well. I looked at the celery and it was rancid... I think I lost quite a bit of items in my fridge and I don't know why. It's like everything in my door is nearly ruined. I will investigate it in the morning because I don't think I can stomach the smell of any of it tonight... frustrating.
Hunger Games, however, was incredible. Very much worth the wait. Very much lived up to all my expectations. We even enjoyed some Italian Ice just before the movie. I love that in Poland we got to go see a movie in English (Polish Subtitles), in really comfy seats, on an I-Max screen, with assigned seating, and little crowd, on a Friday night for $6.00 a ticket.I think that was first time every going to a movie on a Friday night; ever. It was Sweet.
It was a great day, and tomorrow Travis gets to go with Pres Mecham to go take place in a baptism:) He's really excited.
G'night!

A Fast Week

Wasn't I just posting about my amazing weekend? Isn't Tomorrow Friday and it's the weekend all over again? Man this week went by so so fast. So a quick breakdown:
Monday: Swimming and Grocery shopping. That pretty much took up the WHOLE day. Lucky for Maddix Bailey (my young woman in the ward) volunteered to babysit him and he got to go and play with their neighbor's black lab, Negra.

Cleaning up after our swim

Tuesday: Clean, Clean, Cleaned! All day long. We partied so hard over the weekend that without a dishwasher or a drier, the house sort of fell apart. So I started at 7am and finished that evening

See, the sun was setting over my clean kitchen

I finished just in time to go do my young women's lesson as well as have dinner with the Mecham's. Travis was kind enough to take Maddix out back to play with the dog while us girls did our lesson, then we had tostadas for dinner!

Wednesday: Lazy Day because I wasn't feeling well, it was raining out, and we received some pretty bad information about our student loans... but I will explain that later when we have more information. Just know that for now we're fine and the Lord is blessing us with the calm assurety that everything will turn out fine.

Maddix found ways to entertain himself by doing pull-ups using our heating bar:) They were legitimate pull-ups too!

Thursday: Took it easy, but did some cleaning, read a lot of books, & took care of some financials on the computer. So our computer has been running hot and we've been propping it up on things for air flow...

... today I used my phone to prop it up, and this is what I found after. I also walked up to the REAL carrying Maddix the entire time there and back because we were in a hurry, and met a new friend on the way home. Her name was Claudia (Clowdia). She was just this little girl, probably 10 yrs old, who was walking up ahead of us when she heard Maddix being loud. Finally she just stopped walking and waited for us to catch up. Once we caught up she came and walked side by side with me. She was adoarable; honestly my first impression was that she was a little angel. She just had a light about her. I asked her in Polish if she spoke any English and she shook her head no. I told her I only understood a little Polish and she just smiled at me. We didn't talk, but she just stared and smiled at Maddix and I like she knew us, or knew something about us, or I just don't know.... she just made us an impression on me. When he got to the point where we were going different directions I told her goodbye and watched her walk behind a wall. I waited to cross the road and peeked back to find her still watching us from around the corner. She jumped and giggled when we made eye contact then waived goodbye and disappeared.
So then we had dinner:

We had Broccoli and Chicken Alfredo Fettuccine on Wheat Noodles and the sauce contained no milk, heavy cream, or butter. Go figure.

When Travis finally got home tonight Maddix and I had been having a rough last few hours and I couldn't bare him any longer. I begged Travis for a moment which he kindly gave me and I went for a walk. When I came home I found my boys wrestling to loud grungy music. Travis was trying to get Maddix's energy out for me. Then after dinner I had a dirty kitchen to clean and Travis was missing Maddix so he took his first turn reading him his bedtime stories.

My how time flies...

 I was so touched listening to them read and how Travis would get a kick out of the parts in the Books that Maddix would react too, parts that I've grown used too. He really is so interactive with these stories. He's so smart.
So smart that he's recently decided he doesn't like his diapers. So one thing we purchased at the store today was a potty training seat to put up on the toilet seat. My goal for the next while is to just get him used to sitting on it. He freaked out at first but would calm down as I distracted him. Wouldn't that cool if we moved out of diapers?

We can dream:)

A Fun weekend... Monday responsibilities

This weekend was so much fun. 

I already wrote about Sat and Sunday's are just always great. Maddix fell asleep at church once again, and Sis. Gładun (Gwah-doon) gave a wonderful sunday school lesson, with some tasty Polish Desserts. 

The whole day was very lazy, very relaxed, and went by extremely fast. 

Now today, Monday started with a morning trip to the pool again. Then Maddix crashed and napped for 2 1/2 hrs and was not happy I woke him up. Becky took us to her house where her daughter, Bailey babysat Maddix and the rest of us went on a day long grocery shopping spree. It was pretty nice to not have Maddix at the store with me, but funny enough in the few hours we were gone I really missed him now that I'm used to him being around all the time. He had fun though, they had cars from Cars 2 that he does NOT have so he loved those, and they got to play with the neighbor's black lab Negro (Nay-grow) and Bailey said Maddix just LOVED the doggy. 

Essentially that was our past few days.

I will get caught up on my house cleaning, putting the groceries away, give Maddix a bath, plan the Young Women's activity, my language lesson, and a few other things then I will Post a much better blog. 

p.s. Travis is right in the Middle of his midterms for 18 classes, so if I don't mention him for the next few weeks, no he did not die, he just wishes he did:O) I'll let you know if he survives. 

Have a good night!

~~~HaPpY St. PaTrIcK's DaY~~~~

Pre-post: I completely forgot to write two of the funniest things Maddix did yesterday. One: when we were coming home from our walk, there was a group of 4 or 5 girls speaking English and they were cute. Maddix thought so at least. He instantly released my hand and ran right into the middle of them. He said, "hey," and proceeded to give them hi-fives. THEN he wrapped his arm around one of the girls legs and started hugging her while waving 'hi' to the rest of the group :) What a lady's man. Then number TWO: It's a long story but my realtor was coming over to finish fixing the sink and I had the silly feeling to place my scriptures on our little entrance stand where he would see them since we've mentioned before that we're Mormon. Well he showed up with a friend and went to work fixing the sink. While I was picking up the front room I heard a, "what is this?" I peeked in the hall and Maddix was handing the scriptures to the friends who flipped in open back and forth before handing it back to me. You go get 'um Elder Maddix.

okay! So for Today, as stated before: Happy St. Patrick's day; and what a beautiful one it was. We were actually 52degrees today and the sun was shining with out a single cloud in front of it. We live on the south-east and south west corner of the building so we have two extra windows and I LOVE all the light we get all day long.
After Maddix's nap Travis took a break from studying and we all went for a walk to find a Doner (Duner) for lunch sine I've been craving one for awhile.  While we were out we ended up exploring some more of the area in our neighborhood.

The man to the right of Travis was this street violinist and he was playing the most beautiful classical pieces that just set the mood for the whole street and we couldn't help but put some money his case. A few blocks later, it was the same story with a young man playing the accordion; it felt like we were walking through some cobble stones streets of Italy. I love when people actually earn the money instead of hassling you for it!

Kisses for the goat

At the castle

The Lion

We had so much fun walking around. And there were couples all over the castle grounds today. It was like a movie when the single girl looks around and sees only couples as far as the eye can see and they're all being cute, making out, or taking mushy pictures together. Glad I'm not single. But even more disturbing than all that, I saw some very old, very saggy, very wide old woman standing inside some door with her shirt pulled all the way up examining herself in the reflection... I think she forgot that we could all see her on the other side.... gag. Even after that sight though we still managed to go and get our first Polish ice cream cones (inspired by EVERYONE walking around with them). They were very tasty with the strawberry sauce drizzled on top. After that we wrapped up our outing and made our way home where Maddix had fun running and chasing me up the sidewalk

Then for dinner we celebrated the day by eating all green foods. Little did Maddix know that his drink we devoured was chalk full of spinach underneath everything else coating the taste:)

Hope you caught that little Leprechaun today and found the luck 'o the Irish! And if you happened to find his pot of Gold could you share some?! Because today I was on pinterest looking up new recipes for next week and I found this:

If there were anything I could do (aside from selling Maddix) to get this... I would do it. But it's like 80 pounds=$110 dollars........ SO... if found that gold... :) You know how to reach me.
Happy Day, and hope you wore green!