So we thought our next big adventure would be our weekend excursion to The Netherlands, but we were wrong; it turns out it happened before we even left. After we had been here for a few days, we were starting to run out of clothes, so in order to avoid the same situation we were in before our bags got here, I decided it was time for laundry.
The apartment we're staying at has a washer and dryer (which is pretty good, many Europeans don't use a dryer), and I had at least an idea of what all the words on the machine said. It is a top loader, so I worried about where to put the soap, but after a quick google search (what did we do before the internet?), I discovered the soap drawer. I separated the clothes, figured out which soap to use (interestingly, they use a different soap depending on whether or not it is whites or colors, all of the stuff for whites has bleach), and guessed on the amount because there was no handy indicator line like back home.
I closed the door and started it up. It started humming, so I walked out thinking things were good to go. After a few minutes, the buzzing stopped, and the "ende" light was flashing. Huh? Pretty sure my clothes weren't done yet. I pulled out my dictionary to make sure I didn't just misunderstand, but everything was what I thought. I started searching online for things like "how to turn on a German washer," but nothing had anything that solved my problem (I guess that's what it was like before the internet...). After about 30 minutes, I gave up and went back to working.
When Matty came home, we went back to work at trying to get the thing to turn on. I had to go Skype into a meeting, so I left him with the dictionary and his great problem solving abilities. Sure enough, after about 20 minutes, I heard the washer start up. It turns out the family who lives here turns the water off when they're not using it. Who would of thought?
Awhile later, we had some sparkling clean clothes. It's wonderful to have the dryer, but it's kind of funny. It takes forever and sounds like an airplane taking off then landing, then taking off then landing. We had a good time going to sleep that night. Good times, good times.
**We are over here for 6 weeks while Matt does an internship with the legal counsel for the church. We swapped apartments with a German family who were coming and doing research at BYU. It's been interesting so far, but we're having a great time!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Willkommen in Deutschland
So lots has happened since the last post. I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by.
Matt and I made it safely to Germany on Friday. We're sad to report, however, that our luggage did not. However, after a mini adventure of trying to figure out how to get our bags to us, we did got them a day later. Luckily Matt was smart and suggested we pack an extra outfit in our carry ons, so it wasn't the end of the world, but boy was I glad to get all of our things (how easy it is to take toiletries for granted...).
We've transitioned nicely. Matt started working, and I've been getting my hours here at the apartment. It's pretty amazing what technology allows us to do these days. I'm certainly grateful for it, otherwise there would be no European adventure for me. It is definitely different and more quiet to be working when everyone else is in a completely different time zone and sleeping for the majority of the day. My mornings are very busy with all the things that have been emailed to me, the middle of the day slows down a bit and then everything picks back up during the last hour or so when people start showing up at the office.
Despite my goal/promise to take pictures while we're here, I have only taken a couple of random shots. I blame it on the luggage fiasco...
The Asplunds, who are very close family friends of the Coxes, picked us up at the airport and showed around downtown. They also took us around the Church Office Building and introduced us to the people Matt Man would be working with. They have definitely taken good care of us; and we're very grateful to have them here.
We live outside the city, but it ended up being only about 3 miles away from Matt's office. The sad thing is, with traffic it takes around 30 minutes to get there. We learned that there is another senior missionary couple who live close to us, and they have been driving him in and back, so he saves a little time/hassle with the bus. He did have to ride the bus in for the first time this morning though. I was a little nervous. I gave him all the stops/transfers he needed. I walked him through the process and told him what to listen for on the intercom. I felt a little bit like an overprotective mother, but whatev, he made it there and didn't end up lost and unable to communicate (hah! They pretty much all speak English, but you know what I mean).
Anyway, we're excited to be here. It is quite the change to our usual routine, but we're enjoying the adventure. Next up: The Netherlands!
Matt and I made it safely to Germany on Friday. We're sad to report, however, that our luggage did not. However, after a mini adventure of trying to figure out how to get our bags to us, we did got them a day later. Luckily Matt was smart and suggested we pack an extra outfit in our carry ons, so it wasn't the end of the world, but boy was I glad to get all of our things (how easy it is to take toiletries for granted...).
We've transitioned nicely. Matt started working, and I've been getting my hours here at the apartment. It's pretty amazing what technology allows us to do these days. I'm certainly grateful for it, otherwise there would be no European adventure for me. It is definitely different and more quiet to be working when everyone else is in a completely different time zone and sleeping for the majority of the day. My mornings are very busy with all the things that have been emailed to me, the middle of the day slows down a bit and then everything picks back up during the last hour or so when people start showing up at the office.
Despite my goal/promise to take pictures while we're here, I have only taken a couple of random shots. I blame it on the luggage fiasco...
The Asplunds, who are very close family friends of the Coxes, picked us up at the airport and showed around downtown. They also took us around the Church Office Building and introduced us to the people Matt Man would be working with. They have definitely taken good care of us; and we're very grateful to have them here.
We live outside the city, but it ended up being only about 3 miles away from Matt's office. The sad thing is, with traffic it takes around 30 minutes to get there. We learned that there is another senior missionary couple who live close to us, and they have been driving him in and back, so he saves a little time/hassle with the bus. He did have to ride the bus in for the first time this morning though. I was a little nervous. I gave him all the stops/transfers he needed. I walked him through the process and told him what to listen for on the intercom. I felt a little bit like an overprotective mother, but whatev, he made it there and didn't end up lost and unable to communicate (hah! They pretty much all speak English, but you know what I mean).
Anyway, we're excited to be here. It is quite the change to our usual routine, but we're enjoying the adventure. Next up: The Netherlands!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
I made Matt Man a delicious dinner of spinach lasagne last night. I was feeling pretty good while it was in the oven cooking until I remembered something. I forgot the spinach! Oops, I guess I should say that I made Matt Man a delicious dinner of cheese lasagne. Ironically, Matt was talking to his friend while I was assembling the thing, and we found out they were also having lasagne. Additionally, they were having homemade garlic bread as well, which led Matt to say something along the lines of, "well, I guess your wife wins the good wife award this time..." We couldn't help but laugh as we ate our spinachless meal. Jewelyn, congrats, you definitely win the good wife award this time, but next time, watch out ;)
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Cause I'm the Taxman...
I did something big tonight; I did our taxes. Check one more thing off of the "big girl" list. Now those of you who were around for the trainwreck that was me taking accounting (bad news, seriously bad news), are probably a little concerned and wondering why my my finance/economic graduate husband didn't take the lead on this one, I'm happy to report that I am fairly confident that I did them right (at least I sure hope so...).
UW has what is called the VITA or volunteer tax assistance program. Ironically, I used this program before I started working there and thought it was just BYU that put it on, but it is actually UW who coordinates the local area. It's an awesome program where trained volunteers help people who make less than $49,000 can come and receive free tax assistance. (we estimate for every hour volunteered, a total of more than $1,750 is brought back into our community, that's a total of $6.2 million just last year!) I've taken advantage of this great program since I've become a financially contributing member of society. For some reason, this year, I decided it would be a good idea to leave another appointment open for someone else and use our other great resource www.myfreetaxes.com/utah to prepare our taxes for free by myself. Amazingly enough, a few hours later, we were good to go. I had our VITA coordinator look over everything to make sure I didn't mess it up TOO badly, and when she gave us the green light, I submitted it.
Anyway, there is only a little more than a month left (did you know this year's deadline is April 18, not 15? Random, I know...). If you need some help, dial 2-1-1 (like 4-1-1, but 2-1-1 and it will connect you to our office) or 801-374-2588; we actually still have some appointments left! You can also use the www.myfreetaxes.com/utah site that we used this year if you want to easy step-by-step instructions or even just a free way to file. You can also make up to I want to say $59,000 to qualify for the service.
Happy taxes!
UW has what is called the VITA or volunteer tax assistance program. Ironically, I used this program before I started working there and thought it was just BYU that put it on, but it is actually UW who coordinates the local area. It's an awesome program where trained volunteers help people who make less than $49,000 can come and receive free tax assistance. (we estimate for every hour volunteered, a total of more than $1,750 is brought back into our community, that's a total of $6.2 million just last year!) I've taken advantage of this great program since I've become a financially contributing member of society. For some reason, this year, I decided it would be a good idea to leave another appointment open for someone else and use our other great resource www.myfreetaxes.com/utah to prepare our taxes for free by myself. Amazingly enough, a few hours later, we were good to go. I had our VITA coordinator look over everything to make sure I didn't mess it up TOO badly, and when she gave us the green light, I submitted it.
Anyway, there is only a little more than a month left (did you know this year's deadline is April 18, not 15? Random, I know...). If you need some help, dial 2-1-1 (like 4-1-1, but 2-1-1 and it will connect you to our office) or 801-374-2588; we actually still have some appointments left! You can also use the www.myfreetaxes.com/utah site that we used this year if you want to easy step-by-step instructions or even just a free way to file. You can also make up to I want to say $59,000 to qualify for the service.
Happy taxes!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
You're Hot then You're Cold; You're Yes then You're No...
Kind of random post, but whatever...
So i have mentioned on more than one occasion the awful insulation that our apartment sadly possesses. Last winter, after it started cooling off outside, I had multiple mishaps with my nice warm morning shower suddenly and without explanations turning to freezing cold water. It was bad, pretty much every morning I would end up almost in tears (ok, so i maybe cried for reals a few times) because our hot water would suddenly be completely gone, not to return for a few hours.
As matt and I brainstormed to figure out what the problem was (and before we got too smelly from avoiding the shower...), the only thing we could think of was that the pipes were so cold it was quickly using everything our old waterheater could handle to have warm water reach the showerhead. While this didn't seem to make sense-- I have lived in the same cold winters here in Utah my whole life and never experienced this, and people live in much colder places, and i have never heard of them not having being forced to take a cold shower-- nothing else seemed to make sense either. This made us pretty sad and very unaware of how to fix our problem.
Luckily, we eventually noticed a pattern; when the heater turned on, our hot water disappeared. Now, I haven't ever heard/experienced this either, but it seemed a lot more likely than our other theory. So, now, we turn off our heater every morning before hopping into the shower. It's kind of sad to not have a warm house when you climb out, but I'll definitely take that over the ice shower any day.
This winter, I called around to try and find out what it would take to nip this issue in the bud (it is a BAD morning when you forget to turn the thing off or evening when you get home from work/school if you forget to turn it back on...). Unfortunately, pretty much every place thought that i was just a crazy woman and had no ideas for me.
Oh the joys of apartment living! Gotta love the funny quirks of this place.
So i have mentioned on more than one occasion the awful insulation that our apartment sadly possesses. Last winter, after it started cooling off outside, I had multiple mishaps with my nice warm morning shower suddenly and without explanations turning to freezing cold water. It was bad, pretty much every morning I would end up almost in tears (ok, so i maybe cried for reals a few times) because our hot water would suddenly be completely gone, not to return for a few hours.
As matt and I brainstormed to figure out what the problem was (and before we got too smelly from avoiding the shower...), the only thing we could think of was that the pipes were so cold it was quickly using everything our old waterheater could handle to have warm water reach the showerhead. While this didn't seem to make sense-- I have lived in the same cold winters here in Utah my whole life and never experienced this, and people live in much colder places, and i have never heard of them not having being forced to take a cold shower-- nothing else seemed to make sense either. This made us pretty sad and very unaware of how to fix our problem.
Luckily, we eventually noticed a pattern; when the heater turned on, our hot water disappeared. Now, I haven't ever heard/experienced this either, but it seemed a lot more likely than our other theory. So, now, we turn off our heater every morning before hopping into the shower. It's kind of sad to not have a warm house when you climb out, but I'll definitely take that over the ice shower any day.
This winter, I called around to try and find out what it would take to nip this issue in the bud (it is a BAD morning when you forget to turn the thing off or evening when you get home from work/school if you forget to turn it back on...). Unfortunately, pretty much every place thought that i was just a crazy woman and had no ideas for me.
Oh the joys of apartment living! Gotta love the funny quirks of this place.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Let the good times roll...
It's funny how life changes once you're married. We have been wanting to get together with a former roommate of Matt's who is getting married soon. Earlier in the week, we arranged to do something this weekend. They expressed interest in going country dancing, so we agreed and waited to hear back from them on the details.
We got the call yesterday morning. Dance instruction is from 9-9:30 and then the "real" dancing is after that, so we should pick them up at 8:45. We were both shocked, seriously? We wouldn't even be starting the evening's festivities until 9? That is the time we are usually headed home (oh who are we kidding, we are usually home WAY earlier!). It's pretty funny that just a few years ago (we got married 2 years ago this Saturday, go us!) leaving the house at 9 was such a normal and common occurrence (and ironically, most nights, not just one weekend night), but now, we were worried about making it through the evening.
Matt called me from the library around five asking if i wanted the "half-good news." Apparently former roommate's fiance (or is it fiancee, I always forget which is which) was not feeling well, so they asked to postpone. Now don't get me wrong, we're sad that she was sick, but man, we both felt a small sense of relief that we didn't have to start partying at such a late hour. Funny thing is, after we ate dinner, Matt got kind of a funny look on his face and said, "Man! Can you imagine? We wouldn't even be leaving for another hour!" I then had to remind him that it would have actually been not one, but two more hours before the activities even began.
Needless to say, we had a great evening at home, in our pajamas, just hanging out. Funny how things change :D
We got the call yesterday morning. Dance instruction is from 9-9:30 and then the "real" dancing is after that, so we should pick them up at 8:45. We were both shocked, seriously? We wouldn't even be starting the evening's festivities until 9? That is the time we are usually headed home (oh who are we kidding, we are usually home WAY earlier!). It's pretty funny that just a few years ago (we got married 2 years ago this Saturday, go us!) leaving the house at 9 was such a normal and common occurrence (and ironically, most nights, not just one weekend night), but now, we were worried about making it through the evening.
Matt called me from the library around five asking if i wanted the "half-good news." Apparently former roommate's fiance (or is it fiancee, I always forget which is which) was not feeling well, so they asked to postpone. Now don't get me wrong, we're sad that she was sick, but man, we both felt a small sense of relief that we didn't have to start partying at such a late hour. Funny thing is, after we ate dinner, Matt got kind of a funny look on his face and said, "Man! Can you imagine? We wouldn't even be leaving for another hour!" I then had to remind him that it would have actually been not one, but two more hours before the activities even began.
Needless to say, we had a great evening at home, in our pajamas, just hanging out. Funny how things change :D
Thursday, January 20, 2011
When you're helping you're happy and you sing as you go...
Last night, matt and I fulfilled one of our service duties and went to a shift at the Lindon Cannery. Growing up, I remember my mom working at the cannery and thinking it would be fun to do one day. Well, let's just say, it was everything I imagined and more.
When we got there, I was intrigued and a little afraid when the senior missionary told us we would be working on Pork and Beans. All of our plans changed though, when she realized we would be the evening's cleaning crew. We started out by washing up, putting on plastic aprons, gloves, hairnets (over the ears), goggles and rubber boots. Sadly, we were unable to take pictures, but think of the Honey Bunches of Oats commercials. Some of the girls were skeptical of the boots, but it was definitely a good thing. Within seconds, we were trudging inches of water.
Matt man and I (along with another dude) were assigned to clean 3 very large machinery-type pots and the surrounding platform. I sprayed everything down with foam. It was a pretty fun job, a hose that had so much foam spraying out that I almost lost the thing a time or two. Then we scrubbed everything down and then proceeded to use large hoses to rinse everything off. You've gotta love being able to spray everywhere/anywhere inside, it's like a little kids dream come true!
Anyway, to make a long story short, we had a great time. What seemed like a potentially nasty job ended up being a great time, something you don't really get to do anywhere else. (although we did luck out in not having to scrub trash cans...) Who knows what we'll end up doing next time!
When we got there, I was intrigued and a little afraid when the senior missionary told us we would be working on Pork and Beans. All of our plans changed though, when she realized we would be the evening's cleaning crew. We started out by washing up, putting on plastic aprons, gloves, hairnets (over the ears), goggles and rubber boots. Sadly, we were unable to take pictures, but think of the Honey Bunches of Oats commercials. Some of the girls were skeptical of the boots, but it was definitely a good thing. Within seconds, we were trudging inches of water.
Matt man and I (along with another dude) were assigned to clean 3 very large machinery-type pots and the surrounding platform. I sprayed everything down with foam. It was a pretty fun job, a hose that had so much foam spraying out that I almost lost the thing a time or two. Then we scrubbed everything down and then proceeded to use large hoses to rinse everything off. You've gotta love being able to spray everywhere/anywhere inside, it's like a little kids dream come true!
Anyway, to make a long story short, we had a great time. What seemed like a potentially nasty job ended up being a great time, something you don't really get to do anywhere else. (although we did luck out in not having to scrub trash cans...) Who knows what we'll end up doing next time!
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