Maxer

Max was star of the week last week and this is his poster all about him:

Green is his favorite color.  He loves the various foods on their, especially mashed potatoes!  His favorite book is Asterix and Obelix.   I love that they love something I loved as a child!  He likes outdoors, winter and Christmas and his family.  He is a sweet boy who will give back rubs and comb mom's hair and give hugs and kisses whenever anyone needs it.  Of course he will also slam his brother to the ground so hard I have to watch for concussions.  He is great at math, but needs a little extra help in reading.   Mostly I think that is because he likes to just guess at words instead of doing all that work to sound them out.  His teacher said that she has never had to move his clip to a different color (other than green- I wonder if that is why green is his favorite color!?)  I told her that she would see some crying if she ever did have to move it.  Max does not like to be wrong!!
Max has lots of friends.  He got extra treats one day from the bus monitor and when I asked him why, he said he helped out by volunteering to sit next to someone that nobody else would sit by.  He talked with the boy too instead of just playing his gameboy or whatever on the way home.  (They have a 45 minute bus ride.)
The other day was the children's program at church and he sang his little heart out.  He sat right next to the teacher and kept tabs on the whole program so he wouldn't miss his part and when it was his part, he got up and said it all without reading, because I told him that I expected him to do that.  Love that kid!

1 in 5 ain't bad, right?

When we got here, I got a calling into the RS Presidency.  I haven't been in RS much, ever, so it's a new experience for me.  Top that off with learning about the Stuttgart area and trying to remember any German in my brain and not knowing anyone in the ward.  Then put the cherrie on top that we had to go back on emergency leave soon after the call.  It's been kind of a tough road.

 I am in charge of the monthly activities.  For my very first activity I left early, so I could set up and ended up arriving 1/2 hour late to the activity.  I hadn't factored in the stupid Stuttgart traffic- it's as bad as D.C. traffic!  I was seriously bummed, because it was the getting to know you activity and I missed over half the people's presentations.  A person that is in charge of getting people to teach stuff to others, really should know what people like and are good at.  It's always helpful!

My first time teaching- we were out of town.  Yep, so far the President is really excited that she has called me to be her counselor.  I'm either not there or not helpful!

Finally, I made it to Super Saturday and this time with decorations and fun stuff.  Yeah me!

We did a class on Thai cooking,

 Mexican cooking,

 photography, living in Germany (taught by a lady who had lived her over 11 years and a German sister who had married an American service member), pendant making

Super cute advent calendar pendant or

celebratory triangle pendant

 and crocheted headbands.

Emma went in not really knowing how to crochet and came out in two hours with a finished head band!

  We also had travel tip ideas to England and Amsterdam and a table were they could chalk board paint something.  The crochet class was full of people who didn't know the first thing about crochet. 

These ladies were some of the few that actually knew how to crochet to begin with.

 I came in 1/2 hour into it and there were a few that still didn't have the concept of a slip knot. 

See our cute instructor helping the teenagers out!

 The teacher was wonderful and stayed all three hours for anyone that wanted her to.  Most of the class stayed for 2 hours and then about 1/2 of them stayed for the last hour as well. 

 Afterwards we had mexican food, salads and desserts for lunch.  It turned out fabulous.  My enrichment leader that was just called did a great job.  I am seriously lucky to have her.  I could give it all to her and she would do amazing stuff, but then I feel guilty, so I have to do something.  This time I came up with the decorations.  I decided on a superhero theme for super saturday. 

 I spray painted a bunch of boxes black and put squares of yellow on them to look like buildings and then I used my boys superhero toys to help decorate.  

We put superhero symbols on cups (just google superhero decorations and you come up with all kinds of fun stuff you can download!)  This was the food table, so it looks a little bare without all the food.

Homemade marshmallows, pumpkin bread, hot chocolate and OJ, since we started at 9 am.  My enrichment leader thought it would be a good idea and I agreed!  Smart lady!

and I made signs for all the classes  that turned out super cute!

  I don't know if anyone noticed or got it, but I think it was still worth it!

Sunday I had to teach, since I switched (see above paragraph.)  We have been fighting the stomach bug in our house (actually the whole Stuttgart area is fighting it!)  I decided to try and fast anyway. It actually felt really good not to have any food in my system.  Unfortunately, at the very end of Sunday School I started to get all shaky and light headed.  I quickly broke my fast and ate a hand full of nuts.  Those didn't quite take effect by the time I had to start teaching.  I could barely stand, let alone try to put pictures up.  I was shaking like a leaf and on top of that I was crying at everything.  Rob asked me what kind of things made me cry.  I told him- everything- the word "the" made me cry!  Seriously, it was embarrassing.  No one likes to listen to a blubbering idiot!  About half way through the lesson, the nuts kicked in and I was fine.  The ladies are wonderful here and really tried to help out by thinking of anything and everything they could to share and in the end we went over time.  I don't think it came out very coherent, but we did have at least one a-ha moment, thanks to our wonderful President.  (Our lesson was on Peter's sermon on making our calling and election sure 2 Peter 1:3-8)

So far my score is 1 good thing in 5 months.  That's not too bad for a newbie, right? Not if you factor in the living in a new country and a new culture and all.  (Too bad most of them know that it's not really new to me!  Darn those getting to know you activities!)