primary colors

this one might be long. basically, i want to talk about the week with my parents here in bremen. and ALOT happened.

they had said that they wanted to come and help me with some of the little projects i have around the house, but i hadn't realized how seriously they meant it. here's the list of all the things my dad did that i can remember (i am sure there was more):
built my hanging shelf system,
a desk,
a coffee table,
a tp shelf in the loo,
put in the guest kitchen,
fixed door on my cabinat,
put up bamboo curtain rod,
cut tops for tea-box end tables,
put up metal "please feel free to smoke outside" sign mom gave me,
fixed an old wooden shelf,
assembled my desk drawers,
cut and layout the moulding in the living/dining room,
made a pull out trash bin holder in the main kitchen,
rehung the main kitchen shelves and added a knife magnet and hooks for mugs,
put up a message strip in the main kitchen,
stabalized/stylized my makeshift closet,
put a metal thingy on the livingroom floor where the door is,
and (in a minute i will go get him to) hung my coffee sacks on the wall.

mom also worked hard.. she
got the dried cat food stains off the walls of our hall,
thoroughly cleaned the kitchen,
dusted all my plants,
vacuumed my room intensly (every inch),
and did it all again after we messed it up.

now, just so no one thinks all they got to do was work, we also went to the hardware store. almost daily. one day twice. yeah, they know us there now. but they really WANTED to do all this. i tried to get them to have fun and go out to hamburg and do things with me, but it didn't work.. they were happiest while doing the jobs i dislike the most.

they arrived thursday and met some of the jesus freaks in typical hope house style.. they just stopped by unanounced. we were able to go together to cafe chance friday, and i think they were positively surprised at what it is like and the people. they didn't talk much to any of the guests, but had great conversations with some of the other volunteers.

saturday my close friends karo and ben came for breakfast. dad made the coffee, and when i went to throw out the grounds, there were none in the used filter- he'd put instant coffee into the perkelator! then went with us to the flea market where we got me two great old wooden boxes and a small metal one. i love old stuff like that.

on sunday we took the tram to the jesus freaks, and it was full of soccer fans. when it was time to get off, it was really full, and i couldn't see them, so as i pushed out, i just called "MOM! DAD! GET OUT!!" and the masses of rowdy fans parted before them like the red sea. i had been praying that they would get to meet hans, my favorite junkie, because i have told so much about him and i know they pray for him. i haven't seen him in a long time, though. and he came to church! it was very cool, he had a long conversation with mom in english- even though he quit school in the fifth grade.

my film project was due this week, and i had been having a lot of trouble with it. it was edited, but i couldn't get it to render and play out to a .mov or to a mini-dv tape. in desperation i ended up at my bosses house monday working on it for several hours, and mom came along. we finally got it working after much prayer and fiddeling. the show aired wednesday on pbs, it's a documentary about a YWAM team from fiji that was here. yeah, i hid a godly message in it. ;-)

showing mom around town was really fun, we went to schnoor which is a very old area with cute narrow streets, and i showed her a secret little way.. and we met a lady that lived in one of the houses. she took our picture and talked to us about the history. then we went to my favorite cafe and had lattes- hers was caramel with chunks and mine was banana split. yeah, i know it sound weird. but they are goooooood. that same night we were able to go out for indian food at a place i discovered when kate was here. the owner remembered me, and we all enjoyed it alot- EVEN DAD. as i was already feeling like the most blessed girl in bremen, karo messaged me and said she had 4 tea boxes for me (i already had 2 and earlier in the week she'd brought a third!) these are big wooden boxes with metal edges.. very cool. i collect them and make them into furniture, but they are hard to find. the coffee table dad made me is two of them on a base with wheels. we stayed up past till almost three in the morning talking and laughing.

unfortunatly i was sick this whole week still with the throat/tonsel thing i got the weekend before they came. it was ok for most of the week, but one night i felt so bad that i was throwing up, and last night the stuff started clearing, causing a deep cough, today i think i had a fever again and slept the afternoon away. but first i spent the morning with karo doing a girls wellness program... yeah, mom got a picture of us looking like ghosts with white masks.. tonight we all went over to karo and ben's for coffee and pastries. ben will drive us to the airport at 4am.

it's been a good nine days. too short really, for a trip to europe. especially since most of it was spent in my house working. i think they need to come again, do more fun stuff, go to hamburg and berlin and the ocean. but it was good to finally be able to show them what i do, introduce them to my people and ministry. and yeah, to get the projects done. the title is primary colors because my room seems so bright now that it is so clean. mom even vacuumed my red sofa and blue carpet. and dad built my desk out of a wonderful yellow wood with metal edges that he found at the hardware store. and i think our personalities are also about as different as the colors..

i wish i had picture, but my camera is still broken. when dd gives me the ones from his camera, i will post a few.