My not so secret secret.

So I know I have a problem. I am mildly obsessed with sugar. Mostly baked goods. One of my most common thoughts and questions to other people is, "what treat should I make?". I always want a treat. Always. No matter how full I am. It's embarrassing. I'm not a huge fan of Rachael Ray but I am 'forced' to watch it with Glad. She had some food guy on her show on Monday who talked about overeating. He had a quiz which let you know how severe of an over-eater you are. Let's just say I fell into the "need to seek professional help" category. Yeah. It said I should contact my nearest Over Eaters Anonymous group, I'm serious. Anyone want to go? Ha. I decided that I am strong enough to tackle this on my own. I gave up sugar the moment I saw my results. Mind over matter. A miracle happened- I am already over my sugar cravings. I never thought this day would come. A piece of chocolate cake still looks absolutely beautiful to me but I can say no and walk away. The only reason that I am divulging this information to the world is to let you all know that miracle are real! I told myself I can have a little treat on the weekend but I'm going to try and hold out if I can help it.

Here is the Quiz, if you dare. #16 kills me. Unfortunately I had to mark yes on that one too.

On a different note, is anyone else freaking out inside about the game tonight? I still don't have Bieber Fever but I have experienced Jimmermania. Agh... He is incredible.

"There is no chance, no fate, no destiny that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul."

-Elder Quentin L. Cook

Joy

My Dad picked me up from the airport last night and I've never been so happy to be home and to hear people speaking English. I tried really hard to actually speak German while I was there and my head hurt after ten days. When I landed, I got a couple texts from Janelle about our new Japanese exchange students that made the 20 hours of traveling completely worth it.

- "They made us krill for dinner."

- "Saki talks like a baby kitten."

I cannot wait to play with these girls before they leave. I've heard they are a riot. Anyways, back to my Dad. As we caught up on the drive home he told me about his week. He had finished his 'last' ward conference and I asked him what topic he chose. He said Moses 5:10 which reads:

"Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgressions my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God."

He focused on the line 'in this life I shall have joy'. I love that. As I laid in bed with crazy jet lag I couldn't help but think about how lucky I am and how much joy I have in my life. Sometimes I get tricked into feeling sorry for myself but then I realize that I have the greatest life I could possibly ask for.

Traveling is something that makes me very happy. I was so excited to go play in Germany with my little munch-kins. They are crazy, literally, but I love them with my whole heart.

They get the award for 'the most un-photogenic humans I've ever met'. This first picture was the 11th shot. It took that long to get all of their eyes open and smiling.... well sort of.

I got there the first day of carnival. It is a local holiday where everyone dresses up and gets drunk and stuff. When Cheryl and I drove to pick these two girls up from school there were two boys standing in the road with a rope strung across. They made you pay to get across! Genius. Why didn't I do stuff like that when I was young? People actually pay too. Punks.

Olivia is such a little diva. She loves her 'lederjacke' (leather jacket) and so I decided to bust mine out to join her cool club.

BERLIN:

After 8 hours of listening to an extremely rude GPS lady, getting stuck in a time warp (literally) and taking a wrong turn causing us to make the same wrong loop 3X in a row we finally made it to Berlin. It is a pretty cool city. It still has a communist feel to it but they are fixing up a lot of the city and it is becoming quite nice. My uncle Micheal said, "Gosh, this city was a lot more exciting twenty years ago when the soldiers were still patrolling the streets with machine guns." -which he said dead serious in his beautiful Arnold Schwarzenegger accent. ha. He was right.

This is the Reichstag. It is the parliament building. It suffered quite a bit during the war and wasn't completely restored until after the reunification of Germany. Now it is all fixed up.

Brandenburger Tor

Berliner Dom

Here it was in all its Third Reich glory.

After the war.

Now. It was so beautiful inside.

Berlin has 170 museums. We went to 1- The Pergamon. It was awesome. These are actual walls from Babylon. If you are interested in history at all this museum is a must see.

Lovely little market.

Our residence in Berlin. A.k.a.- The Cube.

Charlottenburg Palace.

Checkpoint Charlie.

Inside the cube.

Berg Schloss.

Germans love dipping their fries in Mayo. Gag.

Gosh I'm gonna miss these girls.

Oscar

I'm not going to lie, I wanted Jeff Bridges to win last night (because he was the bomb in True Grit) but I was just as happy for Colin Firth. Lately I have been trying to avoid R movies. Not that I used to be 'into them', but I am a sucker for war movies and they are all R, so I used to let them slide. Somehow I got talked into going to The Kings Speech. Let me tell you, I don't regret it one bit. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush were brilliant together. I would be fine with Colin being my King, even if he 'can't talk good'. Ha.

Speaking of royalty, is anyone else weirdly obsessed with the royal wedding coming up or is it just me? Every morning I turn on the Today Show while I help Glad get ready and I get so excited for any little tid bit about the wedding. I secretly thought I was going to be the one marrying Prince William, but Kate seems pretty cool.

This morning on The Price is Right one of the showcases included this little gem. A water scooter! When did this happen?! Do people really use these? Do you have to have a drivers license to operate it? Is swimming while you scuba dive really that hard for people?... Hard enough that you need to sit down? I have so many questions. This top picture kills me.

Things I like. No... things I love.

BOOKS!!!! Wow. I am so obsessed with reading lately. I decided that while I work for Glad this time around I need to use my time better. I try to read most of the afternoon. For a while I was reading 4 books at once. I decided that I needed to cut down to 1 or 2 at a time so I can feel the accomplishment of finishing one. Jordan recommended a book called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand who is the author of Seabiscuit. It is so interesting and captivating and motivating. It is about a track star named Louie Zamperini who competed in the '36 Olympics with Jesse Owens. When WWII started he joined the military and went through some CrAzY shiz. His attitude through all of his ordeals is so admirable. Ya'll should read it.

SHAKIRA. Gosh I love her and I'm not ashamed to say it.

If you didn't enjoy that video there is something wrong with you. Yeah I know it is a little scandalous but Nadal is a dream boat.

I used to try to be her in public. Now that I'm a little more mature I save my hip shaking for the privacy of my room, or on one occasion a small audience in the gnome home. Ha. They got lucky.

MERYL STREEP in Julie and Julia. I have never been that crazy about Meryl but I cannot get enough of her playing Julia Child. That voice KILLS me!! Watching that character makes me want to be passionate about everything I do. It also makes me want to be a chef. I wish they would have left out the whole blog part of that movie and just filmed her in Paris the whole time.

SCARLATTI. I don't know where he has been my whole life. I stumbled upon this piece a month ago and decided that I had to learn it. I have been practicing every second I can and this piece is blowing my mind. Scarlatti is known as being a "gymnast" on the piano and now I understand why. Hands are flying all over the place through the whole song. I am in love with it.

If you haven't seen the CARL BLOCH exhibit at BYU go do it right now!! It is wonderful. I have already gone three times and can't wait to go again.

I have a lot of other lovely things that I want to write about but I think that is enough for today.

Murder.

I know I talk about them a lot but they are my family so... deal wit it. Ann and John are gone all the time. This week they are in Hawaii so I am tag teaming the supervising with Ben Camp (another nephew). Claire and Aaron are the kids on the right in this photo. I love them with my whole heart. Aaron is the sweetest child I have ever met. I wish you all could meet him. He is a genius but always seems to be working in slow motion. He speaks in a mono-tone voice and is seriously NEVER in a hurry. Claire is the complete opposite. She talks a million miles a minute and is involved in 1,001 things all the time. They take such good care of each other.

I just made Claire a birthday dinner tonight and Aaron said he wanted to make her a cake all by himself. She requested carrot cake. Unfortunately the All Star game is on right now and it has taken his full attention. Here is the conversation I just heard from the living room:

Claire- "Aaron, make my cake!!"

Aaron- "I will. I will."

Claire- "Di said to use Bertas recipe because it has pineapple in it and she said it makes it moist."

Aaron looks at the recipe

Aaron- "Oh my gosh there are so many ingredients! Ugh.."

Aaron watches more of the basketball game

Claire- "Aaron!! Start making it!!

Aaron- "I will."

Claire- "Aaron hurry! We want to eat cake tonight!!"

Aaron looks at the recipe for a while

Claire- "Please let Riana help you, this is going to take you forever."

Aaron- "NO!"

5 minutes later Aaron is grating carrots on the couch

10 minutes later he is still grating carrots on the couch

Aaron- "...This sucks!"

Unless you are my family, you may not appreciate that but it had me laughing pretty hard.

Friday was a funny day. I bought Ryan tickets to go see Murder By Death. Seeing them live was on my bucket list. I introduced them to Ryan a couple months ago and he said he liked them, he may have just been humoring me but that was good enough for me. I printed out the tickets and looked at the address of the venue-- Bar Deluxe 666 S. State Street. What the wha?... 666?! I took him straight into the devils lair to see a band called Murder By Death. Ha ha. Good times.

I'm not exactly sure why I look like a deer in the headlights, but I do. I'm fairly confident that we were the only sober people in that bar. Hearing them play Brother was absolutely wonderful. I could have gone home happy if that was all they played, but they played a great set.

Their Cellist is incredible.

Life is good. 11 days till Germany. 2 1/2 months till New York. Summer is coming. Gladys is funny. The Piano is rocking my world. My life is filled with people I love.

Peace out.

Ich bin nach Deutschland gehen!

Well, I bought my ticket last night.

I'm going to blame it on Skype. I spoke with my family in Germany on Sunday and decided it's been too long. So what do I do?... buy a ticket for March 3. Best impulse decision yet.

Dusseldorf part 4.

I love this city. I'm so happy my aunt and uncle decided to live in the fashion hub of Germany. Good choice guys!

I need more of these girls in my life.