Missed Photos read 'a wonderful new year...not'

here are the pictures they didn't work the first time sorry

What a wonderful New Year....NOT!!!!

After a wonderful Christmas with the family, Richard and I had a sucky New Year. We both got the stomach virus that was going around SLC. It consisted of vomiting and major diarrhea, you cannot go more than a room away from a bathroom because there is no warning when it comes…it just comes!!! It causes you to get extremely dehydrated, which physiologically makes your muscles cramp. So not only are you constantly expelling liquid from both ends but every muscle in your body is aching. Needless we celebrated our New Years hooked up to IVs in the Emergency Room at Pioneer Valley Hospital in complete misery.

After recovering from that we continued life as normal, but I had the added bonus to plan for a wedding. My soon to be sister-in-law is getting married in September so we planned to go to bridal fairs together. I never realized how much a person can spend on a wedding…it is insane!!!! I want a nice wedding to remember-special to Richard and me, and that is what we are going to have… Our wedding.

To top off the New Year Richard's grand parents give him a truck, at no cost, just gives it to him. As he pulls in the drive way it dies. A week and a couple hundred later it works. Then a week after that on the way to the hospital the clutch goes. So another week and another couple hundred and it works. Well something was still not right so yet another week and another hundred and now it works just fine…knock on wood.

Well on Jan 26 around 2pm on my way home from work a (here come the racial slurs) stupid un-insured non-english speaking Mexican runs a red light and smashes…let me repeat SMASHES into my car. I get out to look at the damage and he says, “I from mexico…no insurance… I pay… I pay…give me your number…I pay.” Luckily for me there was a cop who saw the accident and came over. I had to file a police report-that whole shebang. I hit my head on the side of the car and got a major head ache and had to go to the hospital (Pioneer Valley, home away from home) There I got checked out with nothing but whip-lash. But my head has not stopped hurting so more medical testing is being looked into. Here are some pictures of the car. I was hit on the driver’s side front tire to the end of the front end, it shifted everything over by about 6 inches. My guess is that I will need a new hood, bumper, and 2 fenders, a door, and a window.

So I want to make sure that everyone else is having a better year so far than I am!!!! And you all better be. I love you and wish you the best.

Totally Random

When I lived in New York and Nevada I would get compliments on my long straight freshly washed hair. Since moving to Utah, strangers approach me weekly complimenting me on my long, full head of hair. No lie, people approach me at the grocery store, doctor's office, and even at the temple! So what's the big deal you ask? Well, I only get compliments from Utahns when my hair is 3 or more days dirty and I have to back-comb it so it doesn't stick to my head. I never get compliments when my hair is freshly washed, shiny, straightened or styled. So this leads me to believe that one of the following is true about Utahns: 1) they long for the big hair of the 80s and their sense of style is freakishly antiquated, 2) they have no sense of style, or 3) they only compliment my hair when it's dirty to be nice. Either way it is really beginning to freak me out!

To make matters worse. Yesterday a complete stranger complimented my fingernails and asked me where I got them done. The only response I could muster was, "I grew them."

God help me; I need a break from Utah!

WazUp?

Some news to share...

Meghann and Richard have found a place for the wedding/reception. It's a greenhouse garden reception hall. From what I saw it looks beautiful. Meg will tell you more later.

Jeff applied for a promotion and got it. He is now the Branch Chief of the Aircraft
Sustainment Wing (division). (That makes him equivalent to a Major in the Air Force.)


Meggie and Richard's bird, Twilight, doesn't like Jeff because of his beard.
Here is a once in a life time shot of the two of them together.

Love to all!

Hi everybody. Some of you have asked about the wedding plans. Well, we are still working on them. The date is set for June 30, and it will be in Salt Lake City -- somewhere. The place is still undetermined. I want an out-of-doors late afternoon wedding (4 ish), then a family dinner, then a reception (6:30 ish) Sorry nothing set in stone yet. But at least you have the date! I hope you can schedule to attend.
love ya
Megs

Happy Birthday Sammy!

A picture is worth a thousand words!
Sam, would you please buy a doll liederhosen costume for our 37" Sammy Elf?
Hey Sam, dad wants you to pass the salt!
Ducky sends her love.
Happy 19th Sammy!

Guess What?

I've been dating this really cute, adorable, amazing guy Richard for nine months. On December 22nd he became my fiance. That's right--I'm engaged!!!!!! Wedding date is set for June 30, 2007. (This is only 5 days after Samantha gets home from Germany.) More info to come at later date.


The ring is a family heirloom from Richard's mother's side. It has 6 small diamonds around a larger center diamond.










This is a picture of me and my sweetie taken during our family annual river rafting trip (July 2006). This is my favorite picture of us. It shows our adventurous side. He is an EMT-I and works at Pioneer Valley Hospital in the Emergency Room. That is where we met--I work in the Lab at the Hospital. Richard's hobbies include ultimate fighting, jujitsu martial arts, snow boarding, mountain biking, hunting, and just about every other out-of-doors activity and sport.

See I told you he was a cutie!!!!!!


Merry Christmas. Love to all!

Concerned about flying with Robyn

Beverly, do you know of an over the counter seditive i could give robyn to sleep on an airplain? one that wont harm her.

Samantha Elf

We have a 37 inch daily reminder of Sammy on our kitchen table. On the scarf I put a small angel pin and a larger heart pin with a sister poem on it. On the hat we put a picture of Sammy blowing us a kiss. The Smile on our Samantha Elf reminds us of Sam's beautiful smile. The Samantha Elf helps us not miss her so much especially during the holidays. WE LOVE YOU SAM!

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving Family!

Hello agian! I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. My family here decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner so I won't feel homesick, but the trick is, I have to cook it!! I've help my mom for years with Thanksgiving dinner but I don't really pay close attention to things like that, I just help. Well now I'm stuck learning how to make a Turkey, let alone ALL the other food...Oops! I wish I knew what I was doing. This calls for a mommy and daddy to the rescue!

Other than that, Germany is great. I have to addmit that I haven't been feeling my best for the last while but I've been working on it. I have been sick for two weeks cause it's getting colder and I have to ride my bike every morning to school. I've just started feeling better. I've been keeping busy here, for the most part. I am in the community theater, surprise surprise I know. I have also been doing a lot with my host mom, running erands mostly but if I can help I try. I have friends but only do things on the weekend with them. And my teachers in school are taking me more seriously, which is a bad thing cause now I have to much homework and I only understand every third word. Over my head! Well that is about whats going on here in Deutschland for me. Surprised it's only 5 sentences? I am!

Happy Thanksgiving Family!! I wanted to tell you know how thankful I am for everyone of you. I wouldn't be here if I didn't have you guys. Every single one of you mean so much to me. Love you, Take care.

**Samantha-isms** (lost in Danglish) ....To feel = "tasten" in German, that one is self-explanatory. I know I lost my Sanity but I didn't think I was getting my five senses mix up....until now.

You all know I love pickles!! Pickles pickles pickles I'll eat them anywhere, anyhow, anytime. Love Pickles, yummy!! Now that you know how much I love eating pickles, guess what pickle mean in German???......ZIT. that's right, zit. Now with that in mind go back and read the first few sentences again. YEP, I know....gross! I deffinatley made that mistake. I actually said that, I love eating pickles, of course I got a lot of grossed out looks...I actually felt like vomitting after all that....So now I hope you all enjoy eating your pickles and that it "feels" good. Thank you, Thank ya very much....peace out

The Drumm's new addition!!!

Wow! This is my beautifull family.

Bethany Elaine Drumm arived on Monday the 13th of November at 3:24pm. Weighing at 8 bls 1 oz.

They induced me at 12:00pm, broke my water around 2:00pm (while diolated at a 5) and checked my cervex again an hour later. The nurse said, "Oh! I can't find your cervex!! Your ready!" Doc. Swainston was in the middle of a C-section and said to hold for 5 min. I started to get the urge to push right before he came in. He checked me and said,
"Yep! There's a baby in there."
"Are you sure?" lol
"Well, we'll soon find out. Do you feel a contraction?"
"Yeah, I feel one right now."
"Okay, push."
2 1/2 mins later, Bethany was born.

Emilee loves her baby sister. "Bunny" as she calls her. Emilee has been wonderful. Bethany sleeps through the night and isn't colicy and takes my milk really well. She also takes a pacifier and a bottle. I wanted to test a bottle the other day to see if Josh would be able to take me to a Birthday movie ("stranger then fiction"-great movie) while mom watched the kids. :) Even Emilee did well without us. It could be cause we left Emilee with Mom for a whole 24 hours the day Bethany was born, with the help of Aunt Beverly (thank you). I have a beautifull family and it just keeps getting more beautifull.

Bethany doesn't look like Emilee. She looks just like baby pic's of Josh. But they both have my double-jointed thombs. ;) And we think Bethany might have my green eyes.

Well, it all feels like another dream. I'm ready to do it again!!! :) Well, maybe I should wait a while and just enjoy the moments with my new family.

i found some pics

hey guys i found these pictures i took that i forgot all about. hope you like it. its nothing fancy but you guys look great.

lots of love,

sarah

Happy Birthday Dylan!

What's worse than one teenage boy playing "Halo 2?"

Answer: 15 teenage boys playing "Halo 2."

For Dylan's 16th b-day party he had the Halo party of the century. Seven tvs, two router stations, and 15 controllers attached to 15 pairs of teenage boys hands spread out from the garage, dining room, hallway, and livingroom. The noise level could be compared to a sonic boom except it lasted for 7 hours... 6 pizzas, 5 boys sleeping over, 4 cases of pop, 3 quarts of ice cream, 2 cakes, and a partridge in a pear tree!

I'm glad he will only turn 16 once. All in all I think he had FUN.

And yes, he does have his driving permit. He got it last month.

Samantha-isms..My struggles with taking it literally

How cute am I? I love those pictures...by the way, Donnie is the guy is the first picture. I love my Donnie! So, now the good stuff. There are so many things here I think of that make me laugh and I wanted to share them with you. Yes, I do think.. These are some German words that always make me laugh... But it's only because, at the moment, I'm thinking in Doinglish....German/English. (I explain the Samantha-ism before telling it, Samantha-ism = ** )

1. The word "trip" in German is Fart, and that word always makes me laugh. So when I say, "I'm going on a school trip to Paris" this is how it sounds from me, "I'm going to Paris on a class..hee hee...fart....(checks turning red) hee hee."
**"You have to fart to get anywhere around here, what a trip!"**

2. I found it odd that, coming straight from the dictionary, Chaste, Modesty, Well-behaved, decency,and good manners all have the same word. "Sittsam" or how I see it, **"SIT SAM!" "Don't play with the boys, just sit there."**

3. The word "Sinn" in German means "to have a sense of something, consciousness"..**sinning, consciousness, sinning, consciousness, I'm so confused...what do I do? Oh I get it, sinning is like being conscious!..?"** ( that probably wasn't a good one to follow the last one)

4. In German "to be horny", sexually, and "to think something is extremely cool, or interesting" is the same word. "Geil" so you have to watch out how you use that word. **True story, I said once, wow that tree makes me horny...I wanted to say, I find that tree extremely cool..Oops!**

5. The word "Smoking" has nothing to do with smoking. Only in the form of have we use it as slang...Wow she's smokin! In German it means "dinner jacket, Tuxedo...to be wearing" **Germans wouldn't understand when the American girls see a half naked guy at the beach and we say He's smokin! The Germans would say, no he's not....he's half naked...he's horny!**

And you would only get that one if you paid attention to # 4.

Well I think I'm done for now, but I'll let you know when I find something else that is completely stupid forth telling you... I'm still alive..

p.s. You know you are an American in Germany when you are the only one in your gym class that doesn't smoke....and you're still the one dragging behind, gasping for air.

From Sam (Via Beverly)

Pic 1: Friends from language camp.
Pic 2: Looking out over Hedersleben.
Pic 3: The courtyard of language camp which is a renovated old monastery.
Pic 4: Hi Guys! I'm having tons of fun!


Sam's computer won't let her send pictures, so she sent me some using her host mama's computer. She also sends the following Samantha-ism.

Samantha is looking for her Sanity. She lost it when she left Hedersleben. If you have any information about where her Sanity might be, please contact her asap.

Hedersleben was where she was for language camp. Apparently school and life have caught up with her and stolen her sanity. At least she's in good company with herself because she's always been a little insane anyway!

Here are the finished pictures of Elliots room, we'll post some of our house soon, I've been busy getting things organized. We also bought a new car a 2005 Mazda6 hatchback, its pretty nice, nicer then any other car we owned so we're kinda excited.

Buzz, buzzz, buzzz

So much has happened in the past few weeks. Busy, busy, busy--I should be a bee! We learned last week that Jeff's medical condition was caused by the medicine the Doctor prescribed to counteract the side effect of yet another medicine. And to top it all off the Doctor had the wrong diagnosis and Jeff was on a medicine he didn't even need! Now I understand why Doctors are nicknamed "pill pushers." I also found out the reason I've been in so much pain this summer is that my hip is about two inches out of alignment and my s-i joint is locked. Physical therapy has been wonderful so far. I hate growing old!!!!!!!!!

Sam hasn't had time to add anything lately so I will update you the best I can. Sam's school is taking a field trip (I think she said for four days) to France. Nice field trip. I never had school field trips like this when I was in school. A week after this trip, she will be spending 5 days in another part of Germany with a friend she made through the exchange program. With hope we will all see some pictures from Sam -- Hint, hint, are you reading this Sam?

Did You Already Forget About Me?

Hey Hey Hey, remember me? That's right Sam I Am. Soooo Germany is practically amazing, of course. I got to my host family's house yesterday, it's beautiful! I'm in love with the town, their house, my host parents, my 4 year old host brother, my baby sister, the food, the cars, EVERYTHING!! There is so much to tell you and so little time. I've eaten so much food, I'm always full and NEVER Hungry.
Everything is so beautiful, I can't wait to send you all pictures... Hopefully soon. I start school tomorrow morning. I go in with my host mom, Aruna, and then later I'll be getting registered to live here. The only friends I've made thus far are my host family and a few of their friends, of course they are all almost 30 and older but they all act like kids.
So far I'm surviving. I think that's the best news I can give you. Maybe next time I'll have more time to good into detail about some of my experiences. I just wanted to make sure you all still remember who I am. I have been gone now for about a month, YIKES! Nine more..But who's counting.....Not me. I could live here forever.

Thanks mom for keeping the Samanthaisms alive. I definitely have more for you, but I'll give them to you later....ok fine I'll give you one now to keep ya'll happy.

*** "The only things that run in my family are noses..............and kitties!"

Much Love und Viel Glück zu alle. Bitte vergess mich nicht...

Liebe Deine Austaschulerlin in Deutschland,
Sammy Sam Sam Po-well

Robyn Verena Rockwood is here!

hi everyone! i just wanted to let everyone know that Robyn is here. she arrived on aug 30th my water broke at 4am and i had her by 6:40am. speaking of things happening fast, huh! well she is 3weeks and 3days early but is very healthy. she was 6lbs 2oz, 18in long. here are some pics of our special day!

It's all happening so fast!

well i went to the doctor today and he said i was 3 centimeters dialated and 70% effaced. so what that means is that i can have her in the next week or 2. he said that i will for sure haveing her before her due date. i am so excited about it. i just thought i would let you know so you can expect a call from me soon! love ya all!