An in depth record of events

Nineteen years ago today the East German government announced that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. This announcement came after several weeks of civil unrest, and eventually paved the way for German reunification which was finalized the following October. On this day the long time symbol of the Iron Curtain (the Berlin Wall) was symbolically torn down and done away with (and technically small bits of it were physically torn down as well). In the weeks to follow bits were slowly chipped away by souvenir hunters among others, while later industrial equipment was used to remove the rest. This was a huge day in the history of Germany, Europe, and the world.

For some reason I was reading through an old journal of mine the other day. I had stumble across it as I was emptying some boxes (yes, we're still not entirely settled here), and started flipping through it. I had several journals when I was younger, none of them were kept as well as mine is now, but they would last for several months at a time. I was impressed with this one because I wrote almost every day for a little more than a year. Of course, most of it was utter nonsense, and not even stuff about all the boys I liked or anything. It just has a record of what I did each day, which was pretty boring. It was written in 1989 and 1990 while I was in 5th grade, and for some reason I ended all my entries by signing off with "goodbye dear diary" as if my diary's name was actually "dear diary". I noticed that I recorded the events of this historical day in all my 5th grade glory and detail. Here is my word for word entry for that day.

Dear Diary,
Today Mrs. Dreier is back. We had a book review this morning.
In science we played a fun game. In math I have no homework tonight. Tonight I'm going on a date with my mom. After school I played with Elizabeth. Today the walls of East Germany were opened. It's the first time since world war two. Well good bye dear diary.

I just found that highly entertaining the way my mind worked (and I'm sure some of you may still find it hightly entertaining the way my mind works now). This major piece of news was just thrown in the mix with my other very important activities, and mentioned in a rather nonchalant sort of way. It's interesting to see how much we change as we get older, as life gets more and more complicated and as the joys of having relatively no responsibilities disappear. Those things which at the time were all encompassing and all consuming and which were of course THE most important things in the world now just seem like insignificant drivel. Oh what I wouldn't give to somehow recapture that innocense and be able to hold onto it.

First Roll in the Snow

I like snow. I really do. I just don't always like having to wade through it to get to my car while dragging Emma around and then carrying loads of groceries back through while bringing the clingy slush right into my house. Puddles aren't my friend when they're inside. I do love looking at it (snow that is, not puddles in my house). I love the way it blankets the imperfections on the ground and makes everything look perfectly at peace. In my perfect world the snow would magically melt or just move out of my way when I needed to walk somewhere or drive. I like snow at the sides of the road. If I want to walk in it then I can choose to, I just don't like being forced to. Maybe that is really wierd, but na ja (sorry, german expression meaning oh well). At least it waited to really snow until after Halloween, but I was right about how short our Fall weather would last.

So with the adundance of snow we received yesterday I decided to be happy about it. Emma was excited all day long and couldn't wait until Eric got home so she could play outside. We bundled her up and took her out. She remembered very quickly how much fun she has throwing snow at Eric. And I remembered how much fun I have watching her do it.

Reverently? Quietly?

Okay, so I'm curious about something. Why won't some people take their kids out of church meetings?!! I am dumbfounded sometimes at how long people take to respond to their crying screaming children. What happened to being responsible and considerate to those around you? Now I know that anyone can have a reallly bad day, and sometimes you just can't win a battle against your kids no matter how hard you try, but I'm talking about serial offenders. You know, those people who NEVER take their child out, even if the kid continues screaming? It's one thing to quickly try to resolve the problem, and maybe with a tiny baby that might take a moment if you're trying to prepare a bottle or something, but if that doesn't work?

Maybe it's my upbringing that makes me think this way. My parents never let any of us misbehave at church, and if we did have a bad Sunday they would immediately take us out of the meeting and force us to remain sitting on their lap until we were ready to go back in. We never got to play and socialize with other kids while we were out there - that would have been rewarding us for misbehaving and would have taught us that if we are bad during the meeting we would get to go outside and play. Instead, we learned really early that it was much better to behave. This is how Eric and I have always been with Emma. We wouldn't hesitate to take her out, and then she had to stay on our lap. It was really hard when so many other parents just let their kids wander around, but Emma has learned that she needs to be quiet and reverent at church. We will have an occasional bad Sunday with her, but it is very very infrequent.

I am thinking about this because since moving into our new ward I have of course noticed some of these serial offenders. This isn't a new thing either, there have been people like this in every ward I have ever been in, and they probably exist in yours too. Last Sunday I seriously couldn't pay attention because of one child in particular. He was either too loud (laughing, crying, screeching, whatever) or was galavanting around playing with things, almost knocking things over, playing the piano (yes playing - his parents let him get all the way over there and start pounding keys before they finally got up and retrieved him), grabbing people's belongings, etc. What the?! And the thing that always baffles me is that these people are really nice and seem to responsible parents in every other way. Why doesn't this fall into the category of responsibility? Am I totally overreacting? I mean, I'm not sitting here fuming or anything, it's just kind of annoying. Especially when I'm having a Sunday when I'm really trying to pay attention and feel the Spirit.

I don't want to be staring, turning around to look, clearing my throat, etc. either. I have to believe that these people know their child is possibly disrupting the service for someone. And you can't always help either. If you're not sitting close enough, know them well enough, or just don't feel like it's your position to take their child out, there isn't much you can do. I feel sorry for people who have children who are always acting out, but it isn't entirely the child's fault. It always has something to do with the parenting. Now I'm definately not saying that I'm a perfect parent. HA! I'm the first one to point out my many flaws (which I don't usually have to do because it is so obvious how pathetic I am at this parenting thing). But I can say that Emma's behavior is not entirely because she is just an angel. She is a very good child most of the time, but she behaves the way she does because Eric and I have NEVER let her get away with anything, especially at the cost of someone else. Emma has never been the child wandering around the room with me chasing her down because I have never let her get away from me. And it's not that hard. And if she had been regularly bad or if she does have a bad Sunday (which again is almost never - I can't remember the last time we had to take her out), one of us would have sat out with her as many times as it took. Part of the sacrifice of being a parent while taking your children to church is that you might miss out on some of the meetings. It won't last forever, but at least you'll know other people aren't missing out because of you and yours.

And why, if your child is behaving just fine, is it okay to use them as an excuse to go out and sit and socialize? Why do people do this? And it's not that I haven't been tempted or don't love socializing, but that's not why we go to church. I wish I could say to people to please not talk (especially so loudly) right outside of a room where people are already straining to hear a lesson or talk due to some really loud kid whose parents won't take him out. Not that we'll always succeed, but some of us sometimes try to be spiritually edified instead of socially justified. Oh well, the church is still true whether or not I can hear it.

Now What?

We had fun trick or treating with Emma last night. She did such a good job yelling "trick or treat" and then holding up her pumpkin for the candy to be put in. Almost every house we went to we were told that she was the prettiest trick or treater yet. One house was so enamored with her that they gave her 3 large size candy bars! Yeah, that's what she needs. Her pumpkin was so full (and we didn't go to that many houses - maybe 20) with candy and other goodies that she was having a hard time carrying it. We had to help her out in between houses. We went over to my Grandma's house for her to visit, and went by my parents house. We also caught up with her cousins for a couple of houses. They were all so cute! (Please note that by this point in the evening most of Timothy's costume wasn't with him anymore - he did dress up more than that!)

But now that Halloween in over, what now? There aren't a lot of places that have Thanksgiving activities or decorations. I don't know of too many people who take their kids to Turkey patches to pick out a turkey. Plus, turkeys are really ugly. So, I'm trying to come up with some things to do with Emma that pertain to Autumn and/or Thanksgiving. I only have a few ideas, so if you have a fun idea or tradition or activity that you do or are planning on doing or have heard of, please let me know about it. I'm always looking for new ideas. It seems like Novemeber is such an empty month compared to October. I told Eric the other day a non-historical explanation for Thanksgiving. After October with all its fun, November comes and you don't do that much. So by the end of the month you are so depressed that you binge on yummy foods. So, to avoid that I'm looking forward to your ideas! Let's hope the nice weather keeps up too!