More dancers

The last bit is very creative. The treadmill dancer. I happen to think that Daph has incredible rhythm and nice choreography. Oh and I also like the pivot turns of Byrn.

Nicole's Mailing Address

Natalie gave me this address for Nicole. You all have to write her letters! No excuses.

Sister Nicole Herway
MTC #200
FRA-PAR 0428
2005 N 900 E
Provo, Ut 84604

sniff....

I'm allowed that today aren't I? Can I just say that I really don't like the departure level of the airport. But I love the arrival level. Guess you have to have one to have the other. That's on the order of a gospel principle, you have to have an opposition in all things! So just for today I'm allowing myself to be bummed. Have fun with Colie everyone! Even if it will only be a couple of hours. And she's off....

Thanks Colie for the update

Colie updated my background. Looks as nice as everybody else now. I have nothing to report for today. It's the week-end. The sun is out. We slept in. Had waffles for breakfast. Walked the Tervuren Lakes. Will have Thai food for dinner and plan to go to Kinepolis to see 'Kite Runner' and eat candy. Steve went downtown with friends, and Tom and Colie are going to work on their taxes. My kind of day!

she should be fine with her french accent

Just before Nicole leaves, I think you should see just why her accent will probably be flawless in a few months!

Nicole's Farewell Sunday

Today was Nicole's farewell at church. We all participated. I think it went very well. Steve bore his testimony about being grateful for the knowledge the Gospel has brought into his life. Mine was about developing Christlike attributes. My fav quote in my talk was from Sheri Dew. She said someone once paid her a compliment and said, "Sister Dew, I bet when you wake up in the morning the adversary says to himself, 'oh heck, she's awake again!' I would hope he feels that way about all of us b/c of our commitment to living the gospel!
Dad talked about having the spirit in our lives. Colie...well, she may want to say in her own blog, but the message I got was how much of a privilege it is to be on the Lord's errand.
I was doing just fine until the closing song and Dad and I were sharing the hymn book and he stopped singing because he was choked up. That did me in. Otherwise children, you would have been proud of me!
Tonight for FHE, Nicole gave the lesson on Presidents of the U.S. It was well done. We have had some great leaders. Hopefully it will continue! Happy Presidents Day tomorrow. Dad has to work, but Steve gets to sleep in.
Oh, and the wrestling update. Considering it was Europeans, he did ok. Of course he would have liked to have done better. There were 12 in his weight class, the top wrestlers in Europe. Of course they were all good! He did stay safe from injury. For that I am supremely grateful.
Finally, two new Herway baby boys on the way! Yahoo!

Happy Valentine's Day, and keep your fingers crossed

Everyone have a great Valentine's day. I have a confession. I asked Tom on Tuesday if he had gotten me anything for Valentine's day...only because I hadn't gotten him anything and I was hoping he would say 'no'. Luckily, he gave me this shagrinned (is that a word?) look and sheepishly said 'no'. Whew! We made a deal that we wouldn't do anything special this year and save our money for the big splurge to Hawaii this year.

I'm not suggesting this to anyone. I always think it's good to get a special note, or card and a date to dinner etc. It always helps to say 'I love you' and get a little mushy and all. But we are leaving for Germany tonight for Wrestling Europeans...
Which brings me to the cross your fingers bit. Everyone keep a prayer in your heart for Steve to not get injured and to play his very best!
Off to Wiesbaden till Saturday.

19 years ago today and about this time....

19 years ago today, and about this time, we landed in Belgium with our 5 children for a 3 year tour. I remember the airport was a mob scene and we had our carts and luggage and children and had no idea who was meeting us. And literally that's all I remember of that first day. Oh, except that when I looked at the washing machine in our temporary apartment, and it was oh so complicated to work and the directions were in French, I was hoping they would give me a ticket back home...I would have taken it and gone back to the US gladly!
Tom was sick (undiagnosed lyme's disease) and some of the kids had chicken pox....or was that an earlier flight to SLC from Va? It was the middle of a cold, dark, wet winter. The first day of school was Valentine's Day for the kids and the teachers made sure that all the classmates made cards for them.
I remember the mean witch upstairs that kept yelling at me in French b/c my children would ride the old elevator without an adult. I remember looking out of the window of the apartment downtown and wondering if I would ever be brave enough to drive. I remember the first time seeing the Grand Place, and our first night to leave Dan in charge while Tom and I went to dinner. We ordered a dish "American" and it was awful. The rare bad food ordered in a Belgian restaurant. I asked them to cook the fish and they were offended.
It all seems like a dream. And in fact it has been a dream to live here for so long. I was talking to Dad at lunch and we both said we would do it all over again if given the chance. (Although we would make different financial decisions!) I just had to share my thoughts on this our 19th anniversary of living in Belgium.

Oh, and I included a picture of myself just to prove that I was once young! And Mel, I just wanted you to see they young "Gunzy" as well!

It was a nice day

It was unusually warm today. So Nicole and I decided to go downtown. It was her idea. We took our books and sat in a square by the shopping area and enjoyed people watching and reading our books and soaking in the sunshine. We rode the metro down and back. Bought warm waffles. Window shopped a bit. And now she is making dinner. I think I might just not let her go on her mission. It's too fun to have a playmate in the house!
Wed we went to Antwerp. Rubens house is of course the tourist highlight, but we found a great shoe/purse shop that we dropped quite a sum in. Heidi, remember the 15euro boots you bought in Rome that we were all jealous about? Well, we beat your price. We found 10 euro boots that are fabulous! And the purse was only 5 euros...suede! What do you think???

Colie and Mum in London

Colie and I had a great 3 days in London this week. Of all the temples in Europe, it was the London temple she most wanted to see. Can't blame her because in my humble opinion, it truly has the most beautiful celestial room....thanks to Kathleen Bluth! I have included a picture from some of our adventures: the temple, the city, and the country. We stayed with Janelle and Verdonn Simmons. Janelle picked us up at the airport, drove us to the temple, met us downtown for the muscial "Billy Elliot" and drove us back to the airport. She's a good friend!
I do have to say that while we were downtown, we were able to fit in everything and MORE! We saw the terra cotta soldiers at the British museum (the tickets had been sold out for months, but we got in!) We saw two musicals, "Joseph" and "Billy Elliot" and went the the National Art Gallery, and saw a session of Parliament in the House of Commons. I don't think we could have been more blessed.
Oh, and at the temple, we were lucky enough to seal lots and lots of family names. So Nicole has done it all now...from baptisms to sealings. I think she is armed and ready for her mission now.