A Good Day.
Got some P90 X in right before Becky came and picked us up for some morning swimming! Oh my, I've never seen such a pool with an amazing children's area. We walked in and the kiddie pool was twice as big as my whole apartment. It had giant poles that were trees with jungle animals everywhere that squirted water out. It was incredible. Toys, tubes, and the BEST part was the floati... police car: equipped with steering wheel and horn. Maddix wasn't so sure about the pool (extremely against it) UNTIL he hopped in the car and walked himself all around the pool:) We stayed for a couple of hours and by the end he did NOT want to go.

I have to say, the swimming system here is extreme. They make you check your coats and shoes at the front. Then you walk down a hall and receive a wrist watch that you use to scan into your assigned locker. Everyone walks around naked. You Have to wear sandals, you HAVE to wear swim caps.

Maddix CRASHED after swim time:) For a long time.

We also went for a walk and on our way back into the building we met our neighbor that lives right below us with the dog. Quite a cute dog. Maddix almost broke into tears missing Nala. She said her name was Ava (doesn't speak English), very nice woman in her mid 60's I'd say.

For dinner prep tonight I was cutting olives and put one on Maddix's finger.

He decided he LOVED them and wanted MORE  on his fingers

It took a long time to get dinner prepped with this little boy snitching all my olives!

Homemade Pizzas

We got dinner cleaned up quickly, gave him a bath, and then Travis came home and I was old news.

Tonight he was a daddy's boy. He kept putting the binki in Travis' mouth and Trav would spit it out. Like a game of fetch :)
Now we get to enjoy a Friday night Movie before Trav heads into a full day of Saturday studying.

March 15, 2012

Today.
Today just started on the wrong foot when Travis informed me he was taking the hard drive (which contains all or movies) with him for the day to download notes onto. This meant I couldn't do my morning workout. Fine. Whatever.

This gave Maddix and I extra time together, and I was feeling a little sluggish anyway. So instead we took our time on breakfast. I stripped him down and I let him feed his oatmeal to himself... which obviously meant he had a bath next. We colored. We read books. Oh, we just had so much fun I almost didn't want to put him down for his nap which had to be anytime.... hmm, it was only 8:40am. We still had another hour. Although I have to mention that while in the tub, Maddix tried to comb his hair

With my raiser. That would be his hair in there

Usually that hour was spent with the two of us working out together.
FINALLY, his nap came. I wasn't feeling too well today, just fatigued, and all I wanted to do was take a nap. Maddix fell asleep around 10:30 and I went shortly after that. Shortly after that, Travis knocked on the door. This woke me up. This woke Maddix up. Neither of us were ready to be up, but neither of us went back to sleep. This added more time onto the day that I had to come up with things for us to do. So we:

Built a fort. Complete with cars area, sports area, and reading lounge

They just keep getting bigger

First entrance into the fort. He thought it was pretty cool

But while I was reading him a book I began to doze off and he yelled, "mommy!" I jumped awake and he laughed. This continued on where each jump start awake he would laugh even harder and I realized I had to get moving. So we:

Went for a walk and played soccer in a courtyard

Then he kicked the ball down a steep slope and I sprinted after it. Barely caught it at the edge of the sidewalk

Soccer is lame compared to a good dirt pile you can play in and lay in

It got cold fast. So we went home shortly after.
From there we played in the fort some more and re read the same books for the gazilianth time. While he napped, I watched a movie because I once again had a chill and that means being wrapped in a blanket. :)  From there we:

Had dinner.

In the fort (since daddy wasn't home), while watching BOLT; which was a hit with Maddix.

We finished dinner, turned off the movie, read two night time books, sang a few songs, and said our prayers. But I think he just fell asleep like a half hour ago. Now that he's asleep I'm going to head that way myself.

Goodnight.

~Rainy Day~

As I've mentioned before the heaters in our apartment have the knobs broken off them so it's a million degrees in our apartment, even when it's freezing outside. To counter the heat we keep the windows open (until I see bugs come in, and then I SHUT it... then it's too hot and it's opened once again), and last night it began to rain. The temp dropped quickly and I woke up EXTREMELY cold. Travis stole the blanket to top it off and I woke up with this chill hanging onto me.

Something to know about me: When I'm cold, I want NOTHING more than to wrap up in a blanket and watch movies all day. So today was our RaiNy DaY- LaZy DaY.

Maddix found entertainment in our mop bucket that I use to put laundry in. He pushed it all over the place, put toys in and out of it, and climbed in and out of it as well:)

Love this baby face of his

He also cracked me up, when I was folding laundry he brought me an outfit and kept saying, "please? please?" And he'd keep trying to put the shirts over his head. Can you guess what outfit he wanted me to put him in?

Of Course. He kept making the vroom noise and I promised him he could wear it tomorrow:)

Nothing too interesting happened today. We read books, watched a movie from inside his fort, colored, and cooked. I even got a short nap while he was asleep, not intentionally. I had turned on my language lesson and fell asleep maybe 5mins into it.
Other news: Travis purchased our plane tickets to Germany for Easter Break. We will get to spend 5 days there, maybe spend some time in Holland, and have a layover in Zurich. Travis literally did two cartwheels in a row when he finished booking the tickets:)
Then to top his night off, I made burritos, taco salads, and chips and salsa for dinner and he was ecstatic.

That was the day.

A Nearly Perfect day

Aside from not having Travis around, or other friends and family members, I imagine today was as close to perfect as a day could get. 

This morning started with me doing my work out and hitting a crashing moment where I laid on the floor and didn't want to keep going. This is when my trainer (didn't realize he was at the time), Maddix, squats down next to me and yells, "come on!" I looked at him trying SO hard not to laugh and jokingly said, " I don't think I can." Well he didn't take no for an answer so he persisted with his, "come on mommy's" until he kicked my butt into shape. 

I take it back. That is NOT how I started my day. I'm forgetting this other thing that happened before I got to work out. This morning I woke up to Maddix sitting on a chair, driving his cars on the table, and a smell filling up the room. I removed him from the chair to find it really wet and Maddix's pants soaked from his morning blow-out. More laundry, same chair from yesterday... time for larger diapers. 

Favorite part of today was when I had Maddix deep belly laughing just before his nap and he was laughing so hard he was crying. What I wouldn't give to have someone filming those moments that I can't be behind the camera for. 

Another great moment was when Maddix discovered yet ANOTHER place to play and hide in :

Travis' Closet

We played Peek-a-boo for quite some time.

Today we also colored a lot and I discovered that I can't leave him alone to color because he likes the fill of the erasers on his teeth and almost swallowed one. But he was VERY into coloring today. He also asked me to read him six or seven books as he fell asleep during nap time. We walked to the REAL to go shopping and when we came out there were no taxi's... that's never happened to me; for a split second I considered stealing the cart and bringing it back later. Instead I just called the cab company and they had one there in two mins tops. When I got back to the apt I realized I had a lot of heavy bags... and a baby... and I didn't quite know how I was going to get them all upstairs. This is when Maddix, on his own, started climbing up this little hill from our parking lot to our door and just led the way for me. When we reached the top I saw Travis across the way just getting home from school :) Such a wonderful blessing to know I'm Always being watched over. 

So then I made dinner while talking to my long lost sister, Mackenzie, had our realtor come over with a plumber to fix our sink and shower, went to rub some "lotion" on Maddix's belly that I bought at the store today... and realized it wasn't lotion after I rubbed it around. I had Mike (the realtor) translate it and it was body wash. Maddix started screaming and I went back to find the rash on his chest twice as large and a much hotter red. He kept screaming like it was burning and I started to panic because both the kitchen sink and the bathroom were occupied with handymen so I pulled out the purified water we had in the fridge and dowsed a towel with it. Then Maddix screamed because the water was SO ice cold. I started to cry and call for Travis to finish because i felt SO BAD for hurting him and grabbed the bag of redmans clay I received as a present for Jenny Steinagel (my second mother) and put it on his belly. He stopped crying so hard and basically sobbed himself to sleep.
Thank you Jenne for sending me with that gift. 

So it was a nearly perfect day. And tomorrow morning when we shower, it shouldn't be leaking, which will hopefully drive away the silverfish that like to dwell in leaks! Hurray! (hopefully)

P.s. Mackenzie, this is the hairstyle I was telling you about that I get out of the shower, let it dry curly, then take my straightener to it and add some pretty curls... just thought I'd show you.

What a Day, What a Day.

I wish I didn't always save the blog until the last thing I do at night. All day I think of things I want to record; funny things, heart warming things, even interesting things. And by the time I get to this point, My eyes are half way open, Travis is snoring away next to me and I'm not too sure my sentences even make sense. So some things to mention quickly:

• Today Trav said, " 'Sup Maddix?" And Maddix said, "Sup." Hilarious
• He now likes to eat his pretzels all at once like a big fat cigar, instead of one at a time
• Maddix is now calling his blanket, "puppy?"
• He sees us getting ready for prayer and says "knee" then gets on his knees for prayer
• Recently discovered the sound of his voice reverberating over the google chat and loves to use "Garette's" name as the word he shouts to hear his echo. 
• Today Maddix ran in place with me, grabbed his blanket and used it as a mat, put it next to mine and worked out, and also did some jumping exercises. Each day he picks up a new move.
• Maddix's leather jacket is missing :( 
• Maddix grabs the paper from the drawer, points to the colored pencils that he hasn't eaten yet and asks, "Cully?" (Cuh-lee) for can I color. 

 Started the day out with a mini run at 6am. My running partner makes me feel good about myself because for the first time, I'm the more in shape runner. After all the morning workouts and play time Maddix and I had Travis came home for lunch. I had been in the kitchen with Maddix sitting on a chair, wrapped in a few blankets while he woke up from his nap.
 
 Travis called me into the next room. Maddix let out a needy scream a minute later; I told him to hold on. He continued on, calling me to come NOW. When I went in I found him standing in a puddle of pee, the chair and both blankets covered in pee, and his diaper slid off to the side just enough that it left a gap for everything to come pouring out.

It was good, he needed a bath anyway, and his blanket was due to be washed.
So... then later, I'm doing dishes and cleaning up lunch and heard a thud. My sink often pops around with the temp change so I thought nothing of it and continued on with my dishes. Minutes later I realized my feet were filling a bit chilly and wet. I looked down and noticed my kitchen floor was layered in about 4inches of water.

 I don't know if you can see the white pipes under the sink in the right of this picture are unconnected. The middle piece decided to fall off, hence the thud, and all my dishes water went right on out, hence the lake in my kitchen.

It was a blessing though, it forced me to pull the cupboards and the stove away from the wall and gain a winning hand on the bug fight! Which I have been LOSING lately. Twice I have ran into the bathroom in the middle of the night without doing my routine flip on the light, check the floor, then enter the bathroom and I've just run in drowsely and looked down to see silverfish at my feet. Grr they make me so mad. SO there is no more mold, old food, or hiding bugs in my kitchen. I THINK I've gained the upper hand there. So although it took 2 1/2 hrs to clean up, it was a blessing. And it was such a blessing that this little critter stayed put almost the whole time.

Special Thank You to Disney's Pixar for creating Cars and Cars 2

The whole night just got really hectic and I almost backed out of going to our very first Ward Family night. BUT, I braved up, called a taxi, wrote the church address on a piece of paper to give the cabi in hopes that he'd get me there, and left poor Travis no dinner to come home too. I really did feel bad.

So glad we went to the family night. We did a fear factor style family night and it ended up being a real blast. Everyone loved Maddix. It was hilarious, when the Elders walked in they made their way around the room shaking everyone's hand. As soon as they sat down Maddix hopped off the chair and instantly started shaking everyone's hands, arm outstretched and palm open:) I really enjoyed the night and everyone took turns feeding Maddix some snacks from the games like a wandering pigeon in the park. Such a nut. Then there were a ton of lemons left over so I took some for our wash, but we did spare one for Maddix since he asked so nicely for a bite.

WhAt A bItTeR SwEeT DaY :)

~Welcome, Welcome Sabbath morning~

A quick apology for not blogging yesterday. My camera died and I was tired.
I also apologize for today's blog because I only have two quick pictures.

Maddix got his hair cut yesterday (by Travis, who did a wonderful job) and now he looks even bigger. I just can't handle how fast he's growing up!

Today the Johnson's had a big day at Church. It started with a sustaining for our new callings: Travis is now the Young Man's President, and I am the Young Woman's President (yes I wrote in singular form). We only have one of each. BUT we had four new investigators at church today! What a blessing... and what an amount of pressure.

Our second big point in church was that we were assigned talks on the Creation today. I felt extremely pressed to scrap my talk last night and rewrite it this morning and I'm glad I did. It's an interesting day for an investigator to go and here all about the Creation... they left with some questions. And Travis wrote a wonderful talk (from what I heard when I wasn't in the hall with Maddix) based around a talk given by Elder Nelson so poor Elder Kennedy had a hard/fun time trying to translate all the large terms that he didn't understand in English let alone to figure them out in Polish :)

Next Maddix had the opportunity to go to Primary! Pres. Mecham's wife is the Primary Pres for her two children and invited Maddix in.... 10mins later he got kicked out. Way to get kicked out of Primary for climbing in the window sill and attempting to jump over and over.... smooth.

And here's my other picture. Do you see that bruise on his ear? I didn't even know the ear could bruise! This just signifies how his life has been lately. I think he got it a few days ago when he close lined himself into our table while running. It could've been when he fell off the bed and hit his head on a metal handle several times, or when he face planted it into the entertainment center. I at least know it's not from today at Church when he smacked his face falling off a chair. No that's what gave him the cut down his nose that bled. And I know it's not from today when we were on a walk and he face planted into the sidewalk after one step.. that resulted in scraped up hands.

We're hoping it's just the teething throwing off his equilibrium because he's been grabbing at his ears a lot. Hopefully he doesn't need glasses :(. Then to top it off, the detergent we have here is extremely harsh on his skin and we have the gentlest kind, so he's been scratching a giant rash on his belly! Poor guy just can't catch a break. But he's fine as long as he's being entertained. 

Other than that, life keeps moving on. Always something around the corner and always too many moments passing behind me. So, we keep trucking on. Loving it here more than ever. Loving our Gospel experience here. The branch is incredible, and the missionaries are doing such a fantastic job. They just baptized someone and are about to extend baptismal dates to some others. Travis was even lucky enough to go teaching with them the other day. He loved it. And tonight we had them over for dinner. Dinner was AMAZING. It was mine and Travis' first time making lasagna. We made a spinach lasagna, salad, and fresh bakery bread... Heaven. There were no leftovers and I think we actually filled the Elders up. They looked they were hurting a little bit when they left this evening. I love having them over every other week. And I loved that lasagna. Wish I had snapped a photo!
Goodnight!

The belly rules the mind. ~Spanish Proverb

Food is the root of all evil.

I said I would post a picture of how the casserole turned out after losing power during the cooking process... and it turned out pretty well. All except that is was my first time cooking with Cabbage. Oh you remove the heart? It was a little crunchier than it needed to be but it still tasted good.

Also, did you notice the flowers in the background?! I found out the secret behind all the women carrying around the... tulips (duh, that's what type of flower it was): It Was Women's Rights Day. And my lovely husband brought me home some of the beautiful flowers and then we started a new tradition of watching Mamma Mia (if you listen to the music, it was perfect for Women's rights). Whether he knew it when he did it, he started a new tradition and I expect yellow tulips and Mamma Mia every March 8th from here on out.
It would've been cool also because yesterday Lacey and Troy had invited me to go to a 7hr day spa, all expenses paid, plus money for a babysitter so we could celebrate our rights to be pampered if I could find a sitter for Maddix... obviously I didn't find one.

Well for today's happenings: We ate all day. Oh excuse me, I ATE ALL DAY. Just all day.
Seriously, you can judge now; judge away.

I set out to make a new recipe, Baked Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese. Well because I snacked all day, by the time it finished, I was full. So we ate it for dinner as well. Besides missing two or three steps of salt and peppering it tasted great. Really, when we peppered it on our own it was quite tasty.

Well Maddix had a very rough day where it took most the day getting him to nap but tonight when Travis came home we accompanied him and his classmate, John, to the decatholon sporting goods store over at our Mall. We bought me a work out mat because Travis is tired of the bruises on my hips from working out on the wood floor. We also bought the tension bands, a full size soccer ball for Maddix, a swim suit for me, tiny bottoms for Maddix, and some disposable swim diapers... all for $68.00. Love Poland.

Aren't those little shorts so cute?! And ridiculous at the same time.

Okay and even cuter than his swim suit Maddix has picked up on a few of my P90 X moves and has started doing this march where he puts his arms out and tries to touch his knees to his hands and walks around the room. It's so funny but I love it. And today he further impressed me... he did his first push up. And now he does them all the time.

We're still enjoying ourselves, and trying to move forward. Becky has invited us to go swimming with her and her kids on Fridays (hence the suits), extended her daughter's babysitting abilities for if Travis and I want a date night, or if we want to go out with her and Pres. Mecham, she has informed us that they do game nights on Sunday nights that we're always invited too, and next week she asked if we'd want to go see The Hunger Games! So the Lord has blessed me with coming to a European country that seems almost Americanized. He has also seen fit to send us The Potters, and the Mecham's who offer us so many options that are easing us into having no family here. I couldn't be anymore blessed.

And to top it off... I have a running partner! Now that the weather has warmed up John, The classmate previously mentioned, has expressed the desire to run at 6am every morning and wondered if anyone else would like to join him... no one said yes, so I'm going too. His dad is a Police officer and taught him all the take downs and he's also very tall so I don't have to be afraid, and well Travis doesn't have to worry about anything happening because I'm not his TYPE....................................... (he's gay).

So Yee ha, let the running commence.

:)