Arizona = little Nicaragua

The adventures continue here in this great land of Arizona!

Today while making dinner I heard my roommate scream "There's a gecko in our house!" I ran over to see it, but it had ran behind some blow up mattresses. Realizing that I had been prepared for this moment (seeing as though we had many lizards as pets in our house growing up and sometimes those lizards got our of their cage and it was up to us to catch them before mom found out! :) I started the hunt for our four legged friend.

I opened the door because surly the lizard would see it as its best escape route and run for the door. (I think that it slipped my mind that their brains are the size of a pea!) I moved the mattresses and nothing happened. I then looked behind the mirror that was leaning up against the wall and guess what I found?! (Those of you who said "The gecko!" would get credit only because you said the LOGICAL answer and the answer that I was expecting as well!) But in reality what I found was a scorpion!!! I jumped back a little, but then my missionary days all came flooding back to me. I had killed many of these creatures in my day- many that were half the size of my head! Okay- that is maybe an overstatement! I told my roommate that I would take care of it and headed off to get the broom. All professional scorpion killers know that this is your best weapon! :)

It did cross my mind that I should let the gecko eat the scorpion, but at the time I didn't know where the gecko was and I didn't want to risk the scorpion running into any other room! Plus, I didn't want to witness him getting eaten! So...I got into place ready for the kill. I felt like I was back in Nicaragua again as I raised the broom to deliver the blow! My heart began pounding with nervousness as I counted to 3. "1...2...3.." and nothing happened. I couldn't do it! So I counted again "1...2...3" and down the broom went. To be honest I don't know if it was dead before I hit it, but it definitely didn't move afterwards.

I scooped it up and sent it outside! I am still getting used to this blogging thing and I forgot to put something next to it to show the size! I could fib a little and say that imagine my hand next to it and the scorpion would be twice the size, but that wouldn't be true. Really and truly it was about the size of your index finger... ish...

Really I think he was just a baby...a baby the size of your finger!!!

One animal taken care of, now we had to find where our scurrying little friend went. I unrolled the blow up mattress and out it ran. I had my first glimpse and it was tiny and so cute!!! Again, that comes from having them as pets when I was little! I really would have loved to have kept him. Instantly, I began calling for him and Willie and I became best of friends...even though I doubt he caught on to that! I think that when Sarah said gecko I was thinking of the ugly lizards that climb the walls here and Nicaragua and eat bugs. This poor guy was so little and even though he tried, he couldn't climb for the life of him- but that didn't keep him from trying. I even had a pep talk with him and told him the exact route to getting to the front door, but the silly thing didn't listen! It ran behind the cabinet instead. Using the broom, I tried to scare him out by running it under the cabinet. He ran away towards the door a few times, but always came back to the darkness of the cabinet. However, all of a sudden he was gone! I had no idea where he went. I was SO confused! I had no idea how he could have vanished. For about 5 minutes I searched in all the little places he could have scampered to...and nothing happened. I was still holding the broom explaining my conundrum to Sarah when I looked at the bristles of the broom and there he was! I had somehow gotten him stuck when I was running the broom under the cabinets. Fearing the worst that I had squished my knew found friend, I took a closer look and I could see his stomach moving in and out! YEAH! He was alive and breathing! I guess lizards have 9 lives too! So, I ran and grabbed my camera to document the adventure. I could almost hear him say "would you hurry...I can barely breathe!" So after his photo shoot, I very carefully took him outside to untangle him. I used my child life skills to explain to him step by step how we would get him out. I could see fear in his eyes :) I moved each bristle one by one and I was able to free both of his legs and then his hands. As he climbed out, I realized just how beautiful he was. He kind of had a black and white design on his back and then as he ran away we noticed that his tail was bright blue! He was gorgeous! (We thought the blue was a rubber band in the broom! He knew it was in actuality him! )

Here is poor Willie when he was in the broom! Its like he was holding on for dear life! As you can see, he looks like he was squished! I'm so glad he survived. You can see his blue tail at the bottom of the broom as well.

I know this is blurry, but you can see how blue his tail is in this one!

I also looked it up on Google and apparently Willie is called a Skinks. I got this picture off of Google...and it may be a picture of our Willie out there in the wild...or it may be his twin...but nonetheless it looks mostly like him. Willie was skinnier and I think cuter...but I may be a little bias!

I had to hold back the tears as our little Willie ran off to the brush. I'm sure he had a good story to tell the fam about a ferocious black animal that tried to eat him, but how he miraculously escaped just when he thought it was all over!

He was a good little 10 minute pet! Thanks Willie for coming to play...glad I didn't kill you! :)

One more...

Okay- Here is the last post of Europe. I know, I know... Aaron posted all of his- long ago, but just remember- you all told me to and I quote "Take lots of pictures!" So here you go... Just know that I saved the prettiest ones for last! :)

Potsdam- The city of palaces This one was called Orangerie. I loved the rooms in this palace the most. Too bad we couldn't take pictures inside!

They were doing a little restoring while we were there as well- so we didn't get the "full" look of how it was way back when, but it was still beautiful!

Pentecost Hill-

Basically Aaron and I had a lot of fun pretending to be Royal during these days! This was towards the end of the trip. My favorite thing he said was "You know- if we were Royal, this is what our lives would be like! Sleeping in and walking around all day!" And I thought to myself- Yeah- I choose a Royal life- because this fabulous! Ü

One thing that I found funny that Aaron taught me was that the "Royals" would get bored because they were only allowed to do a few things, including playing cards, throwing parties and going to war! Therefore, they built places that they could go and visit. One of these places was Pentecost Hill. It really was super pretty.

The grounds were great! One definitely feels royal when walking in these tunnels!

And the structure itself was very King and Queen-esque!

They also built a few houses from other countries- that they could "plan" to go and visit. Just to give them something to do. They have the Russian House.

This cracked me up- like Aaron already put on his blog- because he was positive that that rock was telling him where the buried treasure was! It was covered in numbers and since we're both such mathematicians, we were sure that we could solve the mystery! Unfortunately- we came up with nothing!

We spent a little bit of time (actually more than a little) looking for the Chinese tea room! We were relieved and quite thankful when we finally found it!

This is what they thought Chinese people looked like! Interesting!

One thing I loved was that there were open fields and gardens that you could walk through. We found this little pavilion thing and decided to dance.

We also tried to do a dip- too bad it turned out looking like Aaron was throwing me on the ground! In his defense-This was my idea. I made him do this picture over and over again!




The New Palace was really nice. Except for the fact that there were way too many statues on it! I really wished that we could take pictures inside because some of the rooms were amazing.

Aaron was pretty adamant that I pose like a queen. I think its some obsession that he has with it!--- Okay, it is entirely possible that these pictures were my idea, but he is so fun to blame!

There were more pictures taken, but it turns out that I don't really know how to pose like a queen- so in order to save myself the embarrassment- I shall only choose this one to share!

Do you remember my story about how I wanted to watch Mr. Belvedere instead of the wall coming down- Well in Potsdam they have a palace called- you guessed it... The Belvedere!!!

So this ones for you Mom!!!

Then we have to Sanssouci palace. Meaning- without cares. Believe you me- I didn't feel any cares there!!! It was really beautiful.

I thought that the gardens there were breathtaking! I could have walked around there for hours!!! (Oh wait! We did! :))

One funny thing here was- remember how Aaron was my amazing tour guide-- well, while we were here, Aaron was telling me about Frederick the Great and how he was buried and moved a few times and then ultimately was buried there at Sanssouci with his 5 dogs and no one knows where his wife is buried. (Keep in mind Aaron's way of telling it was much more elegant than that!) Anyway, when he was done, we turned around and realized that there was a whole tour group behind us and the guide goes "And THATS the story of Frederick the Great!" It was so funny!


Anyways- Now that I have been home for a month- I am now finally finished documenting this trip for everyone (and believe it or not there are still many pictures that I didn't post on here!!!)

But before I go, I just had a few tributes to send out to a few people-

Jeff and Allie- The Dutch windmill. I took this just for you! (We even went up in it- I'll be honest, it was a little frightening to me. I didn't realize how much my fear of heights would manifest itself!)

Johnny- Do you recognize this place?! Its Frankfurt!!! I flew into this airport and I loved looking down on where you possibly walked!! Were you ever here?!

And finally- a dedication to all the cute German people. We were eating at this place and I just thought this German man was so cute! I had to get a picture of him. So I had Aaron "take a picture of me" but make sure he got the man in the back too! (So- don't focus on me... focus on the cute old man!)

Thanks Germany for being so good to me- and thanks Aaron for a wonderful time!

Cheap.

Yep- that one word pretty much describes me. I have always had a hard time spending a lot of money on things. If a shirt is over $30- its way too expensive! This has it's benefits of course- in that I can save money a little easier. However, it also has it's problems as well. When I first moved down here- I was shocked to see how much it was to get your hair done! It was almost double what I paid in Utah! So what did I do? I waited until I went back home to get it done! I had to endure many months of absolutely hating my hair, just because I didn't want to give in a pay an outrageous price!

Another example- my car, as we all know, has had a rough life. And currently only has 3 hubcaps due to the unfortunate event of the flat tire 8 months ago. That's right- 8 months have gone by and still I have 3 beautiful hubcaps and 1 old rusty looking tire! It's actually quite sad. I drove that stretch of highway many times looking for it, but apparently some person found it a hot commodity and took it home with them--because it was no where to be found! I did end up looking on line to buy another one a few months ago and was so impressed that I actually found the exact make and model that my others had! I was so excited! However when I hit the button to buy it, the error message said that they were no longer making that one because of the high frequency of it falling off- YOU THINK?! I was so bummed. So that means I need to either buy one that doesn't match the others- or pay the price for 4 new ones. As you can see, neither one was a good enough option and my poor car still has the one rusty tire that always makes me feel a little white trash like!

Well- this whole blog was actually inspired by the experience that seems to top them all! I don't know if you remember in one of my first blogs when I first move to AZ. I talked about how hot it was here in the summer and how the asphalt seemed to melt my shoes as I crossed it after work. Well- I had actually forgot that that phenomenon occurred until recently. Me being cheap- have worn the same shoes to work for the past year. When I bought them, I of course didn't want to pay the money and buy the "real" crocks for the hospital so I bought a nice little off brand at payless shoes. They've actually been really good to me. But recently I noticed that the constant wearing of these rubber shoes started to rub holes in the bottom. It kind of made me laugh (and reminded me of my mission), but I didn't do much about them- and really kind of forgot. That is until a few days ago. As I was crossing the asphalt in the parking lot- I began to feel a pain in my foot and that realized that my feet were burning! Literally! Because of the holes in my shoes, my socks were exposed to the lava that is called asphalt and they actually got a hole in them-I am convinced from being singed by the heat!Therefore my skin was what was hitting the ground unprotected! OUCH! Not a fun experience as I hobbled to get off the black top!

So I guess cheapness really isn't all that great huh! I'm realizing that I'm going to have to get feet replacement surgery if I don't just buck up and pay! And I am sure that that surgery would be much more costly than the 40 bucks that new shoes will cost!

I'm actually hoping that by posting this, I'll actually go out and buy the shoes tomorrow! lets see!

Viva Las Vegas!

So my roommates and I took a random last minute trip to Vegas this past weekend! It was so much fun! We decided to rent a car so that none of us would have to put wear and tear on our own cars. And the best part was it was only $11 total for each one of us!

The trip started very adventurously (who is surprised?) When we were booking the car rental, we went through the rental car at the airport. We talked about it and how much it was. As Sarah hit the submit button, she said- "Now guys, we can not back out of this! It says it 3 times that it was final." We all agreed and she hit the button. It took about 2 seconds for us to think- Why are we going to the airport when there is a rental car place down the road from us?! NONE of us- not one of us four had that thought! Why?! Who knows! And we couldn't change it! Even though we tried- the lady on the phone reminded us that it said it 3 times to make sure that we were sure! So I guess we were sure!

So we were off to the airport! My roommate decided to be the one to leave her car at the airport- since she didn't care if anything happened to it. (It was her car that overheated when we went to dinner for my birthday!) And can you guess what happened at the airport as well? Yep. Sarah and I ran in to get the car- and a few minutes later we were joined by the other 2 along with the words "My car just exploded". I soon found that that was a little dramatic- it really had just over heated, but poor Holly had to deal with it again. Luckily, her dad saved the day again and we were on our way in our $44 car rental. I was super surprised at how nice it was. I was expecting a beater, but we got a Ford Fusion with Texas licence plates! We felt the Texas pride the whole time, but too bad none of us could speak with a Southern accent! :)

We stayed at the Marriott Suites hotel! I thought it was super cute and nice. It had a King size bed and sofa bed. So we drew names of who would sleep on the "really nice bed" the first night and who would get stuck on the "not so comfy" sofa pull out bed! Low and behold my name was picked for the bed! YEA!!! That night as we went to bed I felt like I was miles away from Holly. It was if I had to yell to her to say goodnight! Yeah, I liked that big bed- everything about it was so comfortable! :) I was tempted to see if they would give it to me for free. I mean, they give us the shampoo and conditioner- why not the bed?! :)

Lets just say that the next night- the sofa bed didn't quite live up to the comfortableness of the King! Oh well- at least the other 2 got a good night sleep!

The purpose of going to Vegas was to watch the Blue Man group at the Venetian. We are super cheap girls so of course we bought the nosiest nose bleed tickets that we could! (Which were super outrageously priced anyway!) However, I tried to not think of that and enjoy it!

As we were walking around beforehand they had people that were dressed up like statues and slowly moved so that you knew that they were real. Kelly got her picture taken with them (see- me being cheap- that thought didnt even cross my mind! :) ) and then we went to find where the show was going to be. In walking around we saw these fake statues that looked like the Blue men from the group. Holly however, thought that they too were real life people and tried to talk to them and ask them if we could take out picture with them. Confused at what was happening, I asked her who she was talking to and then she said- "Oh! Are they not real?!" We laughed very very hard about that. I am SO thankful for memories like that- that will always stay with me and make me smile! Here are Sarah and Holly by the statue that Holly tried to talk to!

I guess you could say that they looked real! --kinda! :)

So... we headed off to the show- still laughing and wiping tears from our eyes. We went up the stairs to start our walk up the long staircase that awaited us. As we got there, we were informed that they were closing the upper balcony. (My guess- they didn't sell out the show). So we were informed that we were being upgraded! WAHOO! So Holly said- "wow, I would love to be upgraded to the front row!" We all laughed as well as the ticket guy. But then he said "Let me see what I can do." He came back with tickets on the 4th row!!! Wahoo! Holly totally redeemed herself!

The thing about the Blue man group is that the use a lot of paint with their drumming so they give the people on the first 5 rows ponchos to protect you from the paint! Super fun! That would have never happened on the 178th row that we had originally purchased!

This was a guy that was on a business trip that was sitting by us. I guess he felt comfortable enough being in our picture with us!

The sad part was that not one speck of paint fell upon our Poncho's! Oh well- at least we got to wear the stylish plastic wraps over our bodies that helped give our hair that nice static lift! :)

We had a blast on our one day in Vegas town! It was a perfect amount of time! I love these girls!!!

Voodoo magic!

I do have more pictures and stories of Germany, but I needed to post this since my adventures are still continuing now that I am home! :)

So before I left for Germany I was going through the games in the playroom at the hospital, to make sure that they had all the pieces. I came to a SpongeBoB Squarepants puzzle that had 100 pieces. I was pretty sure that it was missing some! I mean- what are the odds that all 100 would be there?!



I started counting the pieces, putting them in piles of 10- just to make it easier on myself. After counting to 10 many o time I had 4 pieces left over. Just as I thought. We were missing 6 pieces! BUT... I was quickly stumped. I counted the piles and there were 10 piles of 10! Quickly, going back over simple math in my head I reassured myself that 10 x10 was indeed 100! So...putting my brain to work, I came to the conclusion that there were 4 pieces from a different puzzle that were accidentally placed in the SpongeBob box.



So this time...as I went through them I looked at each piece as I put them in piles of 10. I did find one that was out of place, but at the end, was still left with 10 piles of 10 and 3 left over pieces! I think that I was too tired and focused on leaving to Germany, that I didn't really care too much. I put the pieces in the box and placed it back on the shelf. I figured, well it has MORE pieces so when kids put it together- they'll just have leftovers! (Yep- sounded like a pretty good plan to me.)



I forgot all about the Sponge Bob puzzle until earlier this week. I decided to again go through the games and make sure they were all in order. As I was doing so, I saw the SpongeBob box and had a thought come to mind that I had seen that box before! I counted out all the other puzzle pieces and they all came out to the number that they were supposed to. (Which is amazing to me! Each time I am sure that we'll be missing pieces!)



Then I took the SpongeBob box and prepared myself to count to 100. "I'll just make piles of 10" I thought to myself---and then it all came flooding back to me! Wait! I thought. Theres something funky with this puzzle! And I remembered that it had pieces from another puzzle in it! Figuring that it was simply that I was just not thinking properly before Germany, I started in on it again. And sure enough 10 piles of 10 with 3 left over! WHAT?! I did the math again- trying to see if I messed up somehow. Now, I don't claim to be a mathematician, but I came to the conclusion that in no way 10 x10 could actually equal 103!



I did it one more time VERY carefully and got the same result. Solution?! Well- it was so quiet on the floor I decided to put the silly thing together and find those extra pieces! And that I did. It actually went really fast (thanks to all those Christmas days of putting puzzles together!) I was actually enjoying myself as I put the puzzle together, but then as I was nearing the end, you'll would never guess what I found?! It was missing 5 pieces!!!! I was shocked! I think I even sat there with my mouth open trying staring at the picture. HOW COULD THIS BE?! Hmm.... How did I start this puzzle having +3 and now that it is all together I have -5?! Okay- "So I will count it again by taking each piece off of the picture it had made and place it pile and I will end up with nine piles of ten and one pile of 5..right?!" I thought to myself... Isnt that what normal math would do?! So I took each piece and made it into piles of 10. Very slowly and very carefully! and guess what?! I had 10 piles of 10 with 3 left over!!!! HOW?!



I don't know what kind of freaky magic that puzzle had- but I ended up just throwing it away! I didn't care enough about it to have it take precious space in my brain which I need for more important matters (Like figuring out what is happening on LOST! :) )

Here comes the fun!

Who knew that Berlin is also jammed packed with so many fun things as well! Here are some of the highlights of that "fun"! (Granted, Aaron has already blogged on a few of these things, but I hear that repetition is the way to remember right?!- I'm really doing this for you all, so that when you go to Berlin, you'll remember where to go! :) You can thank me later!

First of all- one of the best places on earth... and probably a little bit of heaven...The chocolate store! Hmm... that was a yummy place to go in and smell! As you know (from Aaron), there were tons of sculptures that were all chocolate (and we're guessing a lot of glue was added as well!)

Here's the Titanic. I look a little lost and confused I think! Aaron told me to do the pose "I'm flying Jack" from the movie, but I couldn't figure out how to position myself and not have it be awkward- and then a lot of people came in and the embarrassment factor entered the picture and well....this is what we got! Hmm... not exactly as I planned!

Aaron always seems to find the frogs for me to kiss. What is that supposed to mean?! I don't know what his obsession is, but at least he was willing to fight for me! It got pretty messy there- chocolate was flying everywhere- I mean, I'm surprised that we didn't get kicked out! :) The frog put up a pretty good fight though...

This again is the Reishtag building! When we walked in I knew exactly what it was! I was surprised that for the first time I didn't have to ask him what building it was again! I think that by this time I finally got it! Or maybe it was the chocolaty goodness around it that really got my brain working! :)

I think that heaven will be filled with similar things such as these! The thought of the yummy taste in my mouth was so over powering that I didn't know whether to eat it or just point and stare! I mean huge balls of chocolate just sitting there! I think you only get things like that in heaven- or in maybe also in Willy Wanka's chocolate factory!

And what is this?

Massive Teeter Totters in the middle of Berlin! So much fun! We were kind of goofy as well- but it was fun. The last teeter totter I was on was made of wood in the mountains of Nicaragua! Yeah, its been awhile and my rear was a little sore at the end of it! But boy was it worth it!

We really are just like children eh?!

One day while we were walking around, we sat at a little cafe to enjoy a nice cool treat. I tried many a time to be European during this trip. Don't you think that I totally fit in-- with my "bottled water" and all!

This other picture may at first glance appear to be simply a glass- but it is more! Do you see my relflection? Aaron was always trying to find new ways to photograph me! This one wins the prize!

I'm just going to put this picture in as proof of how restful it was there! I got to sleep in just about every day! And sleep,to me, totally falls under the fun category! I was really grateful that it wasn't go go go go the whole time! yeah, I like my sleep!

While walking around we passed Berlin's Lego land. It was way too expensive to go in- but at least they were kind enough to put a few Lego sculptures outside so that those of us "cheap" people could still kind of enjoy them! Ü It must be a dream come true for the people that build these! I mean- taking Legos and building things- for your job! How fun! Sign me up!

One thing that was fun was always smelling the flowers where-ever we went! I think that Aaron has a super power. He is able to smell flowers at anytime or place. One flower in particular always seemed to be calling his name- and he would search it out until we found it! Its the Lilac. They were beautiful and smelled wonderful! I think that Aaron could have stayed like this forever and would be so happy!

I loved that in the middle of Berlin there were open parks that were green and beautiful. We walked through many of them and had a great time! So many people were out and about riding bikes and walking. No wonder Europeans are in shape- they actually have good weather and nice places outside to exercise

During one of the walks, we passed the back part of the zoo. And you could actually see into it! Aaron, knowing of my love for the movie "Emperors New Groove" had me stand with the llamas! "Llama face!" Here is a picture of a clock that tells time in all parts of the world. I don't know the name of it (and since Aaron didn't blog about it, I can't cheat! :) ) Apparently its famous. I just found it cool that it still works. Then Aaron pointed out that my mission- Managua and his mission Santafe-Bogota were right by each other- Awww...so cute!

To me, I had to have a bratwurst from Germany! So one day while waiting for the S-Baun (basically the train) we finally got one!My first thought "Wo! Um..excuse me, I think you're missing half of the bread!" I guess that Germans use the bread to hold to hot dog. Ultimately the bread is eaten, but its purpose isn't to cover the whole thing-Just to protect your fingers. I think that it was one of my most favorite things that my taste buds have ever come in contact with! yumm!!! (except that I don't know what my face is doing! Just know that my insides were very happy! :) Train stations were really fun to me. So different than really anything that I had done before in the states. Here is the train station is London. This picture is with Maria who let us stay with her- THANKS AGAIN!!! She was wonderful! These other pictures were at train stations in Germany. Aaron thought that I looked so European because I was all in black. So I tried to act it as well and not smile. Yeah, I don't think I'll be getting the next modeling or acting contract! It was really hard to do it without smiling! So after the serious face wasn't working... I decided that "goofy" was the next best thing! How European do I look now?!

In one of the subways there was this picture on an ad- I don't necessarily think that it is "fun"- more like FREAKY! but it still made me laugh after awhile! And last but certainly not least...drum roll... The Temple! This is technically in Freiberg not Berlin though. Randomly I have a high school friend that lives over there with her family now. We met up at the temple and then went to lunch. It was great. The temple was little but I loved it! It was very beautiful!

So as you can see...during all the history lessons- there is still time for fun as well- And much fun was surly had! Now onto the palaces!!!