Oops...

On Sunday Michal was so nice to take the trash out before my brothers came over to eat Crepes with us. However, he didn't get far... When he went down the stairs the paper bag ripped and our garbage ended up all down the stairs. I could do anything but laugh and laugh and laugh... and take some pictures of course.

Then on Monday, I was replacing the Ink Cartridge in our printer. It decided to spit up on me. Luckily, none got on my clothes or anywhere else. However, all I could do was laugh and laugh and laugh. But after about a half hour of scrubbing, I wasn't laughing anymore, because this is what my hands looked like...

I called my dad and told him that I needed a chemistry major to help me get the ink out. Wanna hear the response I got? "Good luck!" Then he told me to soak it in Bleach. 15 seconds of bleach on the hands and no more ink. I was so glad it worked.

I seriously think that I should have a blog just for all the "oops" things that I do!

This is what this weekend reminded me of...

Three years ago I was in the Holy Land for Easter. It is a sacred time for both Jews and Christians.

Jews celebrate passover, a time when the angel of death "passed over" those homes which had lamb's blood adorning the entrance to their homes. This was to seperate God's chosen people from the others living among them. In Jerusalem during this time the Kotel (area where the western/wailing wall is located) is packed with people coming from afar to celebrate and take part in the many festivities.

The Garden of Gethsemanae

Christians celebrate Easter a time where the Savior of the world was crucified and on the third day rose from the dead.

The Garden Tomb

Both are celebrations in which are so sacred and important, however... this area still remains an area of little or no peace. Turmoil is always present. Being there taught me more than I can ever express about love. Love that God has for me, and Love that God has for all people. I have never felt so much love in my entire life than the time when I went to the Garden of Gethsemanae for the first time. I was so overcome with the Spirit and have never in my life felt it as powerful as I did at this moment. It was a true testimony to me of the sacrifice of the Savior and all that he has done for me. It was an experience I will never forget, and one which broadened my understanding of the atonement. To that I am extremely grateful. I also felt so much love there when I was at midnight mass in the Church of the Holy Sepluchre. Just prior to midnight, on the eve of Easter, their is a large, massive crowd at this Church. Here I was shown so much love as one of the cardinals of the Holy Roman Catholic Church gave my friend, Krystyna, and I candles to walk in the procession with them. We followed behind several archbishops, cardinals, priests, and nuns. And it was an experience that I will never forget. Following the procession, just after mid-night everyone cheers and chants how Christ has risen. Every person within those walls embraces you. I didn't feel like it was an embrace passed down from tradition, but rather one to show me of their love and gratitude for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I was brought to tears as I shared a common belief with all the strangers there. We all were brothers and sisters, we all believed in Jesus Christ, and we all were showing love to our fellow men. It was a beautiful experience!

I am grateful I was there during this sacred time and that I am able to share my experiences with others.

Festival of Colors

Every year that I have lived in Utah County, I have wanted to attend Festival of Colors. (It is in Spanish Fork at the Hari Krishna Indian Temple. It is a celebration in which, In India, Festival of Colors announces the arrival of spring and the passing of winter. The festival breathes an atmosphere of social merriment where people throw their worries in the wind.) But every year something always comes up and I can't go. This year, however, was different because I was able to take Michal with me to experience this!

When we arrived we bought ourselves some chalk and waited around until it was time to throw our chalk on one another. We sang and danced and chanted with the thousands of people there celebrating and enjoying this annual festival.

When everyone starts throwing the chalk, it is so hard to breathe and there is so much in the air, that you can't even see the sun. Everyone said it smelled bad, but I thought it smelled like flowers.

Here is what we chanted and danced to:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

I even ran into some of my friends that I went to the Jerusalem Center with. It was sure fun to see them and hear about all of their adventures.

(Someone came by and dumped a whole bag of chalk on Sean's head that he looked like he was from the blue-man group)

However, the best part of all was that I got Michal to come with me! He said he would come on me if he didn't have to get dirty at all... well... as you can see... he sure did get dirty! But I think that secretly he had a lot of fun! I'm really glad he came along and was such a good sport.

A little bit of everything.

Random Thoughts:

• I got Photoshop. I have been wanting to "enhance" and "edit" my pictures from Paris before posting them, but I can spend hours and hours on this website and still have no clue what I am doing. I think that I need to get a Photoshop for dummies book. Or hire someone out there to teach me.
• Why is it that I run 2 to 3 miles every other day and still can't manage to lose a single pound this whole year? I've actually gained one pound since January 1. And why is it that when I went to Europe and walked everywhere that I went and ate crap all day long... i managed to lose 4 pounds and then gained it all back coming back to America even though I tried to do everything the exact same way.
• I love the beehive councelor in my ward. (I am her advisor). She really inspires me. She has so much faith, has so much patience, and so much love! I believe that's the reason why I'm in the ward is to learn from her... so I'm grateful that she helps me to be a better person.
• I learned how to crochet. I took pictures... don't laugh...

Whenever I used to think of crochet, I would think of my great-grandmother who was restricted to her rocking chair. My mom used to make me visit her, but I just remember that her house smelled funny. I hope that by learning how to crochet I can break this memory and think of my own accomplishments instead.

• I really want a piano. Really, really, really bad.

Here's the plus....

... I get to play and it relieves so much stress and is so healing and so fulfilling. I can't tell you how much Imiss playing the piano. I even have dreams about playing the piano...

Here's the not-so-plus...

... they are heavy

... I want a new one (not happening...too expensive)

... a Clavinova would be nice. a CLP or CVP 300 series... GH or GH3 model.... only it's a new technology toplay and sound like a real piano. You can easily move it... it's easy to store, transport, etc... but... once again - it's still pricey... and I don't have that kind of a budget with the jobs that we have...

Any suggestions? I'm open to possibilities.

• Why is it that around some people I feel like I am the "life" of the party and everyone laugh's at my jokes... but at around other people, I feel like everything that I say is so dumb, so I just keep quiet. Confidence can be so hard, yet can come so easy. I wish I could be the person that makes other people feel confident and good and comfortable around me so that they can be the best person they possibly can?
• Why does my nose hate my glasses so much? I love my new purple glasses that I got in Poland. The only thing is that my nose hates them. How do I know that they hate them? Because I break out like CRAZY where my glasses rest on my nose.
• We are selling Michal's car this weekend. I have been begging him to sell it since we got married... and now that he has actually decided to do it... why do I hesitate about going through with it? That one has really stumped me!
• I need a new hairdo - any suggestions? I am open to ANYTHING right now... so throw it out there.
• My brother helped me fill out my bracket for the NCAA tournament. I have no CLUE about basketball. I don't really like watching the sport at all... it's boring to me... they run from one side to the other and throw something in a basket and half the time it looks like they tripped over their own feet and a whistle gets blown, everything stops and then starts all over again. BOR-ING! Anyways... secretly since my work is doing a contest for whose bracket wins... I am kind of excited to know who gets eliminated to see if I win. Actually, to see if my brother wins (I told him i'd bake him cookies and I'd keep the grand prize of a scooter they are giving away). But I wish that they could just do all the games in one day so that I don't have to wait. I really hate waiting. I like to watch Survivor and the Amazing Race, but I can never complete a whole episode because i look up on Wikipedia who gets eliminated or voted out before the show ends (since it airs an hour earlier for Central Standard Time)... saves me a lot of anxiety knowing who is leaving. I always thought I wanted to be on a reality TV show, but man... have you seen how bad they have TRASHED the people on the bachelor/bachelorette lately. Maybe it's just that show. I wouldn't want people to make stuff up about me and see it on magazine covers at Wal-mart. It happens at church and that is already bad enough... the whole nation... I think I would just want to buy all the magazines so no one would have to see them, but that would defeat the whole purpose because then the magazines would think that they were making it big... when it was just me they were annoying.
• I wish that my Husband loved to play games instead of watching youtube videos about Trains at night. I couldn't think of something more boring to watch... but he loves it.
• I think that all the songs on the radio are dumb right now. I hate to admit it, but I agree with Michal on this one and they all lack talent. I have decided to pull out old CD's and re-live some great memories. They remind me of so many of my friends and family.
• St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays because you can dress up and look like an idiot and totally get away with it. You just blame it on the holiday. I learned how to play Scotland the Brave, on the bagpipes, in time for St. Patrick's day... Only one problem... St. Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland and converted many people there to the Catholic church. So how does the song "Scotland the Brave" have anything to do with the holiday? I don't know what I was thinking.

I believe that for now... these are all my random thoughts...

Our Recent Adventures

As most of you know... Michal and I recently took a trip to Europe where we were able to visit his family. Michal left about a week before me, as I was not able to take as much vacation time from my job. I quickly joined him in Berlin and we traveled to Wroclaw, Poland where I spend the next week meeting all of his friends and family. It was really nice to see where Michal was from and understand more about him and his past.

Food...

One of my absolute favorite things about Europe is the food. I love it! Every time we passed a PIEKARNIA (Polish Bakery) or CUKIERNIA (Polish Cafe), I begged Michal to go in and check out the different desserts and check out the various breads. I always had to try one without leaving. Above I bought all of those treats for about $4 USD. Now, in America... it probably would have cost me about 4 times that much. And the other picture above Michal made me try a special danish called MAKOWIEC. After trying it he told me that it had miniscule amounts of opium in it. There was also all the good homemade polish meals that I had there. Michal's Mom made us the best dinners and his grandma made us traditional Polish BARSZCZ, USZKAMI. I had BIGOS and ate so many good polish desserts at people's house. The most popular by far is this "torte"

As I ate this I asked if it had any Chocolate in it... (of course, Michal translated) and they replied to him saying "No, only Cocoa." Which is Chocolate, but being a missionary I have learned to eat many things that I never liked, Chocolate being one of them, so I ate this as well.

Michal's cousin Adam & Agnieszka Laskowski had us over for dinner several times and made incredible food. It was so delicious that I wished I could put away more. Agnieszka is such a good chef that she even has her own bakery where she makes tiny cookies. She sent us home with 6 boxes, but by the time we got home... there were only 3 left to share with friends here. They were my favorite... in fact I almost asked Michal for some more of those cookies for my Birthday, but I knew that it would be too much of a hassel to get them here and that they wouldn't arrive on time. Here are a few pictures of me visiting their bakery.

One thing that absolutely threw me off is that a Kitchen-aid mixer in Poland costs over $1,000 USD. This time it is 4 times as much in Poland than in America. I was surprised, but it made me realize not to take my mixer for granted.

Friends & Family....

Michal's family was so kind to me. I could communicate with them at all... but they were so kind to make me feel welcome and included. Big shout out to you guys and a big huge "DZIEKUJE"!!!

Michal's Grandma

Me & Michal's Mom

The Laskowski's

* I met a few others cousins in Michal's family and many other friends he grew up with and friends from church... I just don't have pictures of them.

Sites...

Here are my favorite pictures of Michal's city...

More to come about the rest of our trip in Europe... Including Berlin and Paris!

Wroclaw, Poland

Here in Poland...

Having lots of fun!

More to come soon...

Customer Service

I've often heard that if you have a bad experience with someone, you are likely to tell ELEVEN people. On the contrary, if you have a good experience with someone, you are likely to only tell TWO people. How odd that seems -

Well... Since this month was the month of giving. I truly was given some exceptional customer service.

1. Red Lobster

At the beginning of this month, Michal was in the mood for Red Lobster. I love their special Parmesan Crusted Tilapia. I went to order it, but it had been removed from the menu... so I asked my waiter what had happened to this item. He said that it is no longer a special, but he would see if the Chef could make one for me that night. He returned shortly to tell me that the Chef would make it but instead of it taking about 15 minutes to get our food - it would take about 30. Michal and I didn't mind, so we waited... and 15 minutes later both of our meals came out to us! I was so happy that I got my favorite meal, and it really meant a lot to me that Red Lobster went the extra mile. I had such a good experience there with our waiter taking care of us, that I will definitely return there!

2. Les Schwab Tires

On the way to work one morning, I went around a corner and hit a patch of black ice. I slid right into a huge snowbank and had to put my car in to 4-wheel drive to get it out. Several cars slowed down to make sure I was okay. But as I left and got on the freeway, if my car went over 55 mph, it would shake uncontrollably. Michal dropped off my car at Les Schwab (which was a 5 min walk from work) and it was ready in 20 minutes. I went to go and pick it up and pay for the damage - and they didn't charge me for the re-alignment that they had done. I thought it was very exceptional of them and you better believe that the next time I have a car problem, I am going there for service!

3. NuSkin Enterprises

Most of you know that I have worked at Nuskin this year. I have been treated really well there! Not only do I get about a lot of retail product a month, but this year for Christmas Nuskin really spoiled its employees!

We got our annual Christmas bonus, Christmas gift, Costco special + games, and package of products. But they surprised every employee with a second bonus - and a very, very, very generous one too! I started to get all teary eyed because it really meant a lot to me. We really needed that extra bonus and it helped us in numerous ways. Nuskin has shown me generous customer service since working there and I'm grateful that God helped me find this phenomenal job.

4. Gold's Gym

Okay, okay - I know that when hearing this Gym's name EVERYONE has a bad story about how they got ripped off or scammed big time. I was a victim of this too. I signed up for an hour of personal training for 6 months - and 4 months into my training (since I got a new trainer) I found out that it said I only had 30 minutes once a week. I wasn't furious, I was hurt. I tried to be so careful to sign up for what I wanted and Michal read the fine print to EVERYTHING so that we didn't become Gold's Gym victims. However, we ended up victims. My new personal trainer was super nice about things and kindly explained that she would only get paid for 30 minutes, so she didn't want me to be screwed, but she didn't want to get screwed either. So I called corporate. It was a pleasant experience. I didn't have to wait on hold forever and I explained my situation to the person on the other end of the phone. She said that my contract did say 30 minutes, but that she would see what she could do and ask me if she could call me back before they closed in about 20 minutes. I got a call 15 minutes after they closed and she said that she got the approval to change my contract to 60 minutes for the remainder of time remaining. She thanked me for being kind and patient with her on the phone. This really made an impact on me as it meant a lot to me that she was willing to change it based on my word alone.

Not only was Corporate extremely nice to me on the phone, but my new personal trainer has been amazing. She puts so much energy into helping me and making sure that I am getting the correct information and work-outs that I need. She is very enthusiastic and does a superb job. She goes above and beyond the call of duty and it has made a difference to me! Because of her, I would be willing to renew my contract once it expires.

5. Travel Agent & Delta

We recently went to a travel agent to book tickets to Poland. Michal's mom had a voucher for us to use (since her flight got bumped on her way home from our wedding)... and it was extremely kind of her to let us use this voucher. Usually when any flight is giving away a cheap international flight, they aren't too happy about it, but they were extremely kind and gave us any deal they could. Our travel agent was also so patient with us and got us SUPER good tickets for a STEAL. Plus she went out of her way to make sure that we had the non-stop flight from SLC to Paris going out and returning home so that customs wouldn't be horrific when we returned to the States. Not only did she really help us out and get us a deal for almost nothing, but she fed us lunch while we waited for her to do her magic, and she gave us really cool pencils that smell like grapes/oranges when you write with them. It was quite a great deal and I am so grateful that she really went out of her way to make this affordable for us to purchase.

6. My brother

Sam fixes phones. He is really good at it too. This month my phone broke, and he spent 2 days trying to fix it. After exhausting his resources, I figured I'd have to pay at least $100 for a new phone... but he gave it to me for free. It was extremely kind of him. Also, Sam got me a 3G 8GB iphone for Michal for about 1/3 of the price that a brand new one costs! I don't know how he does it - but not spending very much on this (could be) Christmas gift - it made me a very happy girl and it was really nice of him to help me get a steal of a deal! Thanks Sam!

Overall, I feel like all of these experiences expressed the Christmas spirit and I just wanted to thank each one of them for helping me feel special or saving me money in some way or another. I really appreciate it! Thank you!

Michal the Marathon Runner

Lately Michal & I have been really busy... I mean - who hasn't been? It's the Holiday season with Thanksgiving and then Christmas right around the corner...

Well, with all that we've been doing, we had someone at Church ask us if we were going inactive and why we haven't been lately. Michal jokingly said, "Oh, we've been trying out the other Churches in the area, so far we really like the Catholic church." And they believed him! Their mouth dropped open and they blinked their eyes (as if to make sure we were still standing in front of them)... and they were speechless, didn't know what to say or do. Told us that maybe they should get our home-teachers to stop by and make sure everything was okay. I think that we were justified in not being around the last two weekends because here is what we've been up to:

For Thanksgiving we went home to Layton to spend the time with my family. It was extremely nice to have 4 days off of work and just lounge around and spend all of your time with family. Michal had this crazy idea, it was partly my idea too, to get up early the day after Thanksgiving and go shopping. It was the first time that Michal has ever experienced Black Friday. We ended up getting OUT of the house around 5:10 am. I assumed that after Michal experienced the crazy shoppers of this day, he would not want to return. I was wrong. Michal loved it! We got all of our shopping done and spent hardly any money! We got such GREAT deals. Michal got himself a really nice coat from EXPRESS. It was normally $278.00 but we only paid $59.40. I got a coat too, for about 65% off from Banana Republic. We got steals at Wal-mart, and the best part about all of it was that we had a blast. Michal couldn't believe that people camped out in their trailers overnight. He couldn't get over how people were in Pajamas at Wal-mart and people were dressed up (or at least in Jeans) at Target. All-in-all we had fun and Michal couldn't believe how much money that we saved and he is now converted to black friday. He wants us to do all of our shopping on that day from now on. He is a smart man.

When we returned home from our Thanksgiving break, Michal got a surprise in the mail. His OFFICIAL green card came in the mail. He was so excited! I believe that for the next two days every time I saw him he was looking at his green card. And I do have to admit, it is interesting... they have made this card so hard to get a "fake" one. There are so many minute details, for example, all the pictures of the presidents of the United States are on the back of a size of a credit-card, but you can only tell that they are the Presidents when you tilt it in the light at a certain angle. I am really excited for him. The instant we got his Green Card meant that we can legally leave the country now. So he asks me, "Where do you want to go now....?" (More details to come soon!)

Last week Michal accomplished an even greater feat. He ran the ROCK AND ROLL LAS VEGAS MARATHON.

Yes he did it!

5 hours!

I got really nervous because I went outside to wait for him after 4 hours, and I didn't see him until like 6 hours. I knew that he would never take that long, but apparently because there was over 30,000 people who run this marathon they let about 1,000 people go in increments of 5 minutes. So he had to wait a little over an hour before he actually started running. While I was waiting for him, I was listening to the announcers comment... and I learned some pretty interesting facts about this marathon. There is a band who plays for you at about every mile marker. They had contestants from over 33 different countries and almost every state in the US. They had over 300 Elvis' who ran this race, numerous Santa-Claus', Mrs. Claus', Elves, Cavemen, and they even had a few dozen (yes dozen) couples who got married the night before and then ran the race together in wedding attire. Here are a few pictures of people that I caught running like this.

Here are the Elvis runners:

Here is the Caveman

Here are some married couples:

I was so proud of Michal for running this race! He did such a good job. Including the face and everything else we did, we had a blast in Vegas. We ate at some really awesome places, and we just shopped. It was such a fun trip - but don't even get me started on the LUXOR hotel. One piece of advice: If you want to stay there - DONT!

The Fun Theory

I saw one of these videos on a friends blog and thought that they were so clever.







This is why I love Sweden!

This Made My Day...

... I hope it makes yours too!