hi-lites

--Momo earned a helicopter with a button by pooping on the toilet.

--Happy B-day Emily!

--More peach pie from Bam, a caramely roast, and a many-varietied tomato salad from the Jasplund's garden.

--Phone call with Ingrid.

--Eva's first Barnard paper.

--A tour of the Clifford Family Farm (the only certified organic farm in Utah Valley) from Farmer John. Momo and Cecy got to pick and eat tomatoes and arugula, pet baby chicks and bunnies and see peacocks and a very large, very beautiful flock of chickens.

--THE ART OF FAMILY DINNER.

--26 pages written of the B's I.

--Daddy's Book of Mormon overview using Minerva Teichert paintings in home evening.

--THE FARMER'S MARKET is now my favorite event of the week.

--Primary rocked my world this week.

--The Gingerbread Man--written and illustrated by Cecily Asplund.

--Crazy muscle response medicine with one of Grandma Beth's far out doctors.

--Lula's new recipe for hot chocolate with pumpkin spice called "Lula's Cocoa Loco"

--Choir with Dr. Jaccard.

--Lula's new math class.

--Provo Reads--the whole town is reading "Tales of Desperaux" together.

--Clfford Farms eggs--the most beautiful and delicious I have ever tasted. For reals.

--Early fall skies.

I shaved my legs, am pursuing a boy with a rainbow mowhawk, and eat Nutella every day (or, how Europe has changed me)

First week of school. I am a little bit scared. Fortunately, I am in a class with Leander, and I have learned much of what they are teaching us already, but even so I rarely have any clue what is going on around me. I tear five 3 by 5 cards into quartes every night and make twenty flashcards, which I learn on the two different buses that I take to reach school. So it's not as though I'm not learning twenty new words a day, but it's also not as though I'm not scared to go back on Monday.
About the legs and underarms: On Monday, my sister pulled me aside and told me that I would not be accepted socially if I didn't shave. I resisted the urge to burn my bra right there in the kitchen and determined that I was already going to have trouble making friends, and should probably shave. So I did. I am exceedingly sad about it, though, and decided that I would give myself body hair as a Christmas present, because I will speak German and have friends by then.
About the boy: I said something (was ist dein leiblingsfarbe in dein haar?) that I'm sure was around 30% coherent, and he smiled at me, and I decided that he would be my boyfriend. Not that I've said anything to him since, but you know... don't want to be forward or anything.
About the Nutella: Does this need explaining? I think not.
I visited Erfurt yesterday, which was neat. Me and some family/ friends went shopping, and I admired all of the street performers and buildings. In the evening, I went to a party with big sister Annagret, where I was offered alchahol (I said no, but keep in mind that it would have been legal, as the drinking age is 16)and answered lots of questions (I won't lie, though: they were in English). I am kind of loving it a lot over here, though I really miss being able to talk to people. And here's something interesting: I haven't known a single person who I currently talk to for more than a week. I think that is a new thing for me.
I'm sorry if my English is getting worse. They said that would happen, and I am certainly getting no opportunity to use it.
It's really cold here, I want you all to know that. And not just between the house and the car-- Germans love fresh air, and the house is always the same temperature as outside (hopefully this will stop by the time it starts snowing, which will probably be next week). I wore my long johns to bed last night, and seriously considered getting my scarf, before I realized that that would mean getting out from under my comforter.
You know what else Germans love? Southern Utah. There was a delicate arch poster on the wall of one of my classrooms this week, and I tried to say, "I've been there!", but ended up with "Ich!....gehen... *blushes, sits down*". Which is cool.
I have no idea what to do about homework. I've tried to ask my brother for help, but I don't think he understood me. I would love advice on that aspect of things, because I don't even know what our assignments are.

For once in it's sad old life, the Hewitt Dining Hall was brimming with excellent food. My dinner consisted of (in this order):
Stir fry on rice noodles with broth and lime.
Carrot Cake.
4 fairly large pieces of brisket with gravy (so good.)
"Confetti" rice pilaf (not good.)
Salad with too much blue (bleu?) cheese dressing.
"Rosemary" polenta with tomato sauce.
To be fair, I didn't eat much salad. I did eat way too much of the bad pilaf, though, before I realized there was polenta to be had. But even still, I think Mackenzie would've been proud.
Now my dilemma is what to do next. The theme of this entry is: It Never Rains But It Pours. For the last few days I have been bored senseless. Bored to the point of cursing loudly alone in my room... But to be fair, not to the point of cleaning my room.
My to-do list today is as follows:

(Old things I have been putting off:)
Go to B.Babysitting office and find job.
Fold laundry.
Acquire fridge.
Clean room.
Clip fingernails (**acquire nail clippers)
(New things--assigned today:)
Switch stupid CompSci book for newer, bigger, 160 dollar Textbook entitled "Big Java".
Do first Econ problem set (algebra, mostly).
Read last 200 pages of Ragtime.
Fix painfully long Hindi assignment from last week.
Memorize Hindi vocab--pronouns and corresponding "to be" verbs.
Read first three chapters of OTHER compsci textbook.

And, last but not least, watch House season premiere at 8.
And also... buy Hindi books.
Crap.

week of labor day highlights

2 x IKEA--once with Bonnie and Emily, once with Kindra, Bam, Eliza, Kendall, Taylor, and Moses with frequent encounters with Emily's Dave working security there.

79 Degrees!

Picnic at Rock Canyon Park with Bam, Jasplunds, Eliza, Emily and Dave and a quick visit from Kate and Ken.

Chuck-a-rama with Bonnie and kids, in honor of Dad's absence.

Bam returns from Canada!

Bam's peach custard pie!

Bonnie's b-day party with the Whitakers at Grandma Beth.

George Handley's speech on Religious Values and Environmental Stewardship at Pioneer Park & the Living Green Festival on Saturday with Wade and Kendall, Lula and Cecily (MoMo had a playdate with Kindra during the talk.)

Daddy's back!

The Farmer's Market got HUGE! OK, not Union Square Farmer's Market Huge (have you checked this out yet Eva?), but about four or five times bigger than it was. Raquel gave me Ingrid's Provo Farmer's Market Bag. Cecily and Lula got to hang out with an owl and a hawk. I got to hang out with the Utah Valley Cohousing people, and eat a fantastic tamale from one of the booths.

87 new pics of Ingrid in Germany!!!!

Kindra's rhubarb cake with almond whipped cream.

Lula represents the Asplunds at the ward fish fry and plays her last night games of the season on the blocked off Locust Lane until 11 pm.

Mommy really digs George Pellecanos--writer for the Wire and fantastic mystery writer, a poet really. Mommy makes some progress on her own mystery novel, but feels all Evanovich/Grafton after reading Pellecanos.

Daddy is a Herb Alpert Arts award finalist!

Mommy is getting published in Fence!

Eva gets a mention in Jezebel--after only a week in NY!

Lula makes THE BEST cookies (Split Seconds from the cookie book) ALL BY HERSELF.

now i'm wishin that i didn't wear these shoes

I forgot to go to the Barnard Babysitters office again today... It will happen when the time is right. There was a crazy fiasco with the bank that was extremely inconvenient, and also boring, so I won't get into deets, but suffice it to say that the good people at JP Morgan Chase were kind enough to waive a 25 dollar fee out of the goodness of their hearts. Everyone who works there (men and women) is attractive and ethnic.
I bought an umbrella today, and wore my spray-painted boots for the first time (with my cut-off denim skirt from Karen, a black v-neck quarter-length-sleeve t-shirt, and my turkish flag earrings) which earned me quite a few approving glances from the oh-so-desirable Columbia boys (The lengths we Barnard girls go to... It's ridiculous).
Hindi is starting to be comprehensible (not the language, obviously. The class.)
Other than that, not much is going on these days.
Keep posting!
Love you.
Eva

jezebel

Apparently I'm the last to know that Eva is "the Barnard student" mentioned in this article. I want some mileage out of my daughter's fame, or infamy, as the case may be. Does everyone else already know this?

http://jezebel.com/5044483/let-us-hope-that-the-traditional-woman-is-resurrected-and-feminism-forever-banished-from-the-record-of-man

Ich leibe meine Gastfamilie!

I arrived at my host family's house yesterday, and they are very wonderful. I nearly cried when I left my Language Camp friends and started reading the heartfelt notes they had written in my journal on the train. As soon as I reached my HF, though, I determined that I would probably be for real crying when I got on the bus to the Frankfurt airport in June. They are super chill and okay with me walking around the house barefoot. They have "ein kleine Hund" named Charlie or something, and I have a quaint room with an excellent view of a pear tree. When I entered my room, I saw that there was a stuffed snowman on my pillow, and a flower and Kinder bar on my bedside table. Fer cute! I would tell you the German word for cute but
a. I can't remember it, and
b. It is one of the least cute words ever. In fact, it sounds a teensy bit vulgar. But all German words sound vulgar.

humid

I love coastal rain. It is better than other rain. Really.

Good News for Mommy

I just received this email today from one of my favorite lit journals!

Dear Lara,

Thanks so much for sending us your work. We'd like to publish "Des Esseintes . . ." and "Provencal . . ." in the Fall 2009 issue of Fence. Attached is a contract for you to fill out and return when you can.

best wishes,

Colie

Congrats Daddy!

Daddy was just notified that is a finalist for the Herb Alpert award for composers given out by Cal Arts--he is one of 20 finalists and the award is 75K!!!!! He was nominated anonymously. As a finalist, he gets special consideration for an artist's residency at MacDowell, Ucross, Hedgebrook and the like. We all know that Daddy rocks--nice to see some one else give him the props he deserves.

Sunday Dinner

Hi Girls--This is Mom, posting on Dad's computer. I thought you all might be homesick for Sunday dinner, so here's a little run-down on the meal. First, I'll start with potatoes, since they're vegetarian, vegan even, so Liza could eat them. I got the recipe from thepioneerwoman.com, and they're called crash hot potatoes. Ingredients include red potatoes, olive oil, kosher salt, cracked pepper, and chives from Tamara Call's garden. They were a hit with the diners. Here's a close-up so you can really understand the crunchy kosherness of these delicious little pommes de terres.



Onto the salads--the green salad was mine, and included orange cherry tomatoes nestled among the greens. They were so sweet with almost no acidity, verging on too sweet, but residing just enough on the tomato-y side to make them perfect. Emily composed the gorgeous red tomato salad with two kinds of tomatoes, which you can see from the different shades of red. The more purpley deeper colored tomatoes were an heirloom variety from the Frandsen's garden and the more common looking tomato from the Farmers' Market. Again topped with Tamara's chives, olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper. It was a delicious salad and I think we'll make another one for dinner tonight again.

Finally, the chicken, which I selected during a black-out at Albertson's. As Lula and Cecily stood sobbing, "Let's go home now!" I determined to find the last thing on my list and I felt my way through the meat section until I groped something that felt like a chicken. It felt fantastic! I couldn't tell what kind it was, or how much it was, but I decided to go out on a limb and purchase it anyway, and hope it wasn't 20 bucks. I got to the last working register (must have had some sort of back up power source) and bought my chicken (it was 7 bucks rather than the usual 5--but was a roaster and a little bigger than the normal birds I buy, and was also "all natural, no hormones, vegetarian fed, but not free-range --which would cost a lot more than seven.) Roasted the chicken for an hour at 400 degrees after liberally coating with coarse sea salt and cracked pepper. It was delish.

Finally, I have no pics of dessert, but Emily made summer pudding (berries and bread in a mold--beautiful and delicious), we had five varieties of ice cream, I made Grandma Eva's hot fudge sauce, and Liza made vegan brownies. Also, Liza played a movement from a Beethoven sonata on the piano, and she and Dad performed "Autumn Leaves" and "Angel Eyes"--she sang beautifully. Uncle Ray and Aunt Carol from Alberta were here, and Bonnie also stopped by. It was a lovely evening--we sat on the porch eating while it poured rain--nearly perfect but for the absence of our darling daughters.


xxoo,

Mom

Kollege

Went to bed at 7:30 last night. Really. Spent a LONG time yesterday on the phone with various people (we have free nights and weekends, correct?). Walked down to Riverside park and sat on a bench like a real New Yorker. I thought about bringing a newspaper, but I thought that would've been a little too much.
My roommate is a doll. She plays show tunes in the mornings and sings along, which is actually quite endearing. She insists on pointing the fan in my direction at night, even though it's her fan. She says living in Lebanon has made her immune to heat. She has curly hair, which makes me like her a good deal more.
My nail polish is starting to wear off, but hopefully I will have a regular babysitting job soon enough--I am going to an orientation on Thurs. to become a "Barnard Babysitter". I miss the kiddies so much. They would love it here. If we ever win the lottery, I think we should all take a family vacation to NY.
I think I am finally going to figure out how to do laundry today. I need to go to the bank. I'll stop by the West Side Market on my way back and eat some samples. One thing about New York City is that you can have fun by yourself if needs be. Not that I'm planning on becoming a recluse or anything, but it's a type of independence that I really enjoy.
Love you all, and love hearing from you. Keep posting!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Pretty quiet here w/o Eva and Ingrid. Cec and Lu are fairly settled in their new digs, although one of them usually manages to migrate upstairs during the night. Too cold or too scary or something down there. Moses is fun and funny as always, very upbeat for the most part. Mom is, I think, enjoying her new schedule. I am looking forward to seeing her new writing, although we are both keeping our work kind of under wraps for awhile. I am amazed at how creative and literary you all are. You all have a gift with words. Speaking of which, have you written any limericks or odes late, Ingrid? How is German coming along?

Sunday Highlights

Brother Williams' opening prayer in sacrament meeting: "We thank the for the bounteous plums and apricots and apples and the generous neighbors who share them."


Bishop Holland's story about finding his wedding ring in Holland Park in London when he was on his knees praying that he would find it. The idea that the ring could only be seen from knee level reminded me of yoga and of the practical aspect of our religion, as in the physical acts of going to a special place to pray, take sacrament, to sing with a group, etc., has spiritual implications. Practice.


Sister Manchun Dodge's story about a severe depression she recently came out of told in testimony meeting today with a candor that is often lacking in such meetings. She said the two things that kept her from committing suicide were the thought that her husband would be burdened with funeral expenses and her son would have to tell people that her business went sour. I also appreciated her joke about Cymbalta.


Homemade rice pudding, cranberry walnut bread, Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia.


Sunday Lowlight:

Sitting in church on the first official day as a family of five. :'(

Primary kids make all their "s's" sound like snake sounds in singing time.

Other Highlights of the Week:

Cecily cleaning up her sorting teddy bears in kindegarten while Mrs. Whitaker played the clean-up tune on her keyboard.


Momo starting and maintaining a brief conversation in Spanish with Latino farmers at the Farmer's Market.


Daddy attends ska movies with the boys.


Mommy, Lula and Cecily watch starring Raven for Saturday night movie night.


Mommy finishes volume one of Emily Dickinson-inspired poems, tentatively called .


Lula and Meri create a line of homemade perfumes.


Grandma Beth has the kids up to her house not once, but twice this week. Grandma rocks.


Bonnie babysits for the Casplunds--Daddy and Mommy sit outside at Sammy's for a long, long time watching the sky.


Festival Latino Americano--tiny carnival rides, masked wrestlers, weeping mariachi singers, tons of Latin American food.


Hand stretched flour tortillas, handmade chicken tamales with green salsa, honey lavendar lemonade, shortbread chocolate chip cookies, yellow cherry tomatoes, and the first, best small apples of the season. Love the farmers' market. Love downtown Provo.


Lula does flag corp at Wasatch. Gets up and ready on her own. Makes her own lunch.


Sunday dinner tonight with Emily and Eliza. :'( No Eva, Ingy or Bam.:'(


Mommy gets a lot done.

I am using my limited internet time to post here, because exoskeleto is the bomb.

Germany!!! I am here, finally. It is absolutely wonderful, and I am staying in a 700-yr-old nunnery with a group of really awesome, motivated, smart kids (the sort of kids who would go through the very arduous application process.) Hedersleben is exceedingly small, and full of mossy cobblestone. My favorite thing is sitting at my windowsill and reading/being harassed by 12-yr-old German boys. I have written a page a day in my journal, and am very proud of myself. The people who feed as are lovely and make us vegetarian food. 25% of the participants in this program are a vegetarian, and one of them is a vegan. We all eat a lot of potatoes and bread at big Hogwarts-style tables, and I have been teaching yoga classes in the boys dorms (you all should tell me your favorite pose, because I am at a bit of a loss). I also do a lot of sleeping/daisy chain weaving beneath or perched on one of the branches of the willow tree (huge, huge willow tree) and strolling through the streets of Hedersleben, or visiting one of the four stores in the city. I have been going to Catholic mass and watching conference talks on my computer, which is fun, except that I don't get sacrament (there are other Mormon girls, but no preisthood holders).
My roommate is awesome though. Her name is Emily, and she is fron San Diego, and is going to Princeton. She nudges me every ten minutes in the mornings until breakfast, and has lots of movies to watch on her laptop (we watched Casablanca last night).
Learning a new language is exhausting. But I love it.

Orientation blorientation

It is obviously amazing here. My roommate is the sweetest (and, lucky for me, most on-top-of-it) girl, and we've been rushing around all day getting hangers, bank accounts, and egg rolls. She also makes me attend all of the orientation events, no matter how boring. I have to admit I fell asleep during some dean or another's "enlightening" orientation-role-play-skit. I was in the back, though, and there are hundreds of us, so she didn't notice.
Don't worry, though, I'm definitely far from jaded right now.
I spent a few hours on the Columbia campus last night and was completely blown away by the beautiful architecture and the beautiful people walking through it (people here really are beautiful). I'm looking forward to our after-hours trip to the Met tonight (jealous yet?), but I've almost run out of cash, so I need to hurry up and deposit a check into my brand spankin' new Chase bank account (I was going to go with shitibank, but the Chase man accosted me and gave me twenty dollars. At the end, I was trying to convince him that Citibank wasn't all that bad and he took his sunglasses off and looked me in the eye and said "Yeah it's cute and all. But if you want STRENGTH you go with Chase." People here are crazy.)
They'll mail me my debit card in 5 days, which I am nervous about, but which I think I can finally handle. There actually isn't much reason to spend money around here--meals are taken care of, and other than transportation, that's about the only thing you need to pay for. Window shopping and walking around ends up being just as fun as anything you could think of to spend money on.
I did go through a lot, though, on the first day buying hangers, toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, conditioner, etc., and I'll have to spend a little more on laundry supplies sometime (although the last people to live in our room kindly left us their remaining detergent--hidden in a little corner of my closet).
Most of my clothes are dirty by now. It is incredibly sweaty around here, and the sweat isn't even effective because it's far too humid for any sort of evaporation to take place.
No matter, though.
I'm getting used to the whole damp feeling, and Rian says that it's all very crisp and clean feeling come fall, so maybe I'll just be able to appreciate that even more when it comes.
I'm trying to meet people. It's intimidating, but not as much as I thought it would be.
I've gotta go to my "security forum" now (we have a lot of forums) but I love you all.
If any of you are in contact with Ing, tell her that if she doesn't post on this blog I will not buy her a christmas present.

Monday Highlights

Eva Snow arrives at Barnard.

Ingy posts on facebook, but doesn't send a message to Mom.

Cecily tells Mrs. Whitaker that she is interested in, "Nothing. Actually, in evil things." She doesn't think the kitchen in Mrs. W's classroom will be fun because it's princess, and "All princesses like to do is cook and be pretty." Also, she wishes the girl's bathroom was on the left instead of the right because, "Left is my favorite direction."

Moses wonders if Eliza Campbell is big or little.

Mom makes a decent veggie stir fry with brown rice.

Eva buys a new toothbrush.

Lula decides that stray cat Mandarin is pregnant.

Eliza makes delicious vegan brownies.

Where is Ingrid?

Jesse Jackson, jr. gives a fantastic speech at the DNC. Mom cries.

Momo's highs and lows at dinner include, "I like spiderman briefs but he's really cool."

Lula discovers Netflix instant view movies.

Dad takes a walk to the Creamery with Mo and Cec.

Michelle Obama rocks the DNC in a really great-fitting dress. Thank you for not wearing a red suit.

Lula's fungus story, true to the original manuscript

The Orange Fungus

One night I was walkin along minding my oun bussnis and I was thusty So I got a glass of water and I heard a weird noise in my living room. I went in my living romm and I saw gros orange fungus So I told my dad. He came in with some spray. He tried to spay it but the fungus took it away and sprayed my dad. Then I saw the Fungus growing biger and biger. It soon grew so big, our house couldn’t hold it any more. Orange fungus spilled out onto the back lawn. That looked like the end of the fungus, it lay there so still it looked liveless. But, suddenly, it let out a big “Scream…” that woke up the whole neighborhood.
* Pop * pop pop pop * it grew legs then it a lump started to grow thet turned out to be a HEAD! The fungus walked right into our house and started digging thru our cupords. It looked like it smelled something good. It looked in the fridge and saw a big hunk of cheese. It grabed the cheese, stuffed it in his mouth and went back into the corner of my living room it started in and became even smaller then it was before. We learned from the adventur that when the fungus was mad, it grew bigger, and when it was happy it got smaller. After that day I was the proud owner of a pet fungis named
motzzarella. And we all lived happily ever after… even thou my dad had to get an eye patch.

The End

Baklava

So, I have seen a great deal less productivity in my life in the past week, vs the week before that in which I studied for 4 hours each night. I actually enjoyed that lifestyle, but am not sure about how to start it up again.
I guess I'll just have to buckle down.
I am almost finished with my host family application. All I have left is a letter to my host family and a few photos, and then I'll send it in. I really just am not sure what to say to them though. What do I want my host family to know about me?
Enchanted has not ceased to stop playing in our household since we got it. But I haven't gotten terribly sick of it yet, so hopefully I won't go insane for another little bit.
I gave a presentation in YW tonight about Turkey, which I thought went well, but perhaps was boring. I never know with these things.
I've stopped growing. I will remain 5'2" and 1/4 for the rest of my life.
But that's not a big problem for me. I don't really care much.

Cold Sores

I have been ill for the last two days, and am still recovering. I am going to get in the habit of posting every day things like this because soon (with any luck) you guys will not even know about them otherwise. The college sitch is thus:
Reed: Wait-listed--i.e. didn't get in, but nice try.
Barnard: Got in!!! Just need to find a spare 10 thou to make tuition next year...
UW: Same, but not a'tall worth it.
Westminster: Got in, would pay approx. 5,000 yearly for room + board.
ASU: We'll see, but if I get in, I'll graduate scot-free.
NYU: Rejected!
New School: Accepted! but even more expensive than Barnard...
Have not made much progress on my creative portfolio; have made relatively much more progress on the cook book.
I just got a new AP English Teacher (Diane Monson is what I call her, out of habit, we're supposed to call her Mrs. Monson, as opposed to every other teacher at our school with whom we are on first-name basis). She is kind of a hard ass, which I like normally, but I am both the most apathetic and the busiest I have ever been in my life, so it is sort of the wrong time for me. However, she is a phenomenal writer, and she has been giving me some good input on some of my writing, which I appreciate, and the workload for the class is actually quite bearable.
I'll post pictures of my portfolio thus far this week end (if I have time--I am working 4-close thurs-fri, and then 3-close sat).
Love you guys,
Eva