Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Wednesday, September 30




Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! I can't believe that today is the last day of September - where did the month go??? We have had really nice weather here (although it really is getting a little dry - I can't believe how many days in a row we have had without rain, lol!!) (but it is still damp enough that the laundry takes 2 days to dry, ugh...). I wasn't feeling like myself yesterday afternoon and Brenna didn't nap - so it wasn't a great afternoon here!! I thought it would be fun when Brenna didn't nap to do some scrapbooking for her - not a great idea with a somewhat tired child...I did get done what I had hoped to, but we were both grouchy with each other at the end - bummer!!! I heard Brenna giving her stuffed animals time outs today (I am pretty sure that is the result of the 2 time outs she had yesterday...some days I wonder if it is my grouchy days that has more time outs or if it really is her pushing her boundaries with me??).

Every day on the way home from kindergarten, I have Brenna walk and we sing silly songs together. Her favorite right now is the bumble bee song from Dustin's mom (although we have modified it to be "bringing home a baby Brenna bee..." - she loves it and requests it daily, lol). I am going to have to really start learning some new songs - it is a fun way to walk home every day!

I worked on finishing some luggage tags today for one of our friends over here. I was really happy with the way they turned out - hopefully she (and the kids receiving them) will be too! I made one for Dustin (belated birthday gift from Brenna - it even has her picture on it) and one for Brenna. They both have glow in the dark thread decorations - Brenna loves that right now and had to show Daddy how they worked when he got home today. Only one more to make and then on to the next project - not quite ready to go back to my quilt yet - I think I will be making some shirts and an apron next :-)
I am down to German class just once a week. It is bittersweet as I am now looking forward to having more of my own time, but sad that I really won't learn as much of the language as I had hoped...
I found a website that publishes blogs into books - I can't wait to put that together :-) I did a digital one and now have a pdf "book" of all our posts together (and it is backed up on CD and our external hard drive). http://blog2print.sharedbook.com/blogworld/printmyblog/index.html
Well, I think that is it for today. Tomorrow will be a busy baking day with our American friends. I think I will have to take my camera and get some pics from that, lol!
Take Care!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Monday, September 28

These horses were the coolest part of Oktoberfest for Brenna - and of course when we could see them this clearly without the crowd all around, she was asleep! The HofBrau Munchen was one of the beer tents we were able to get into (security is crazy at Oktoberfest - be prepared not to see the inside of lots of tents if you don't have a reservation!!!) - it was a crazy party and very loud - but I think I preferred that tent to the second one we went into.





In the picture above, I wasn't at a great angle with the sun (it was nice weather, but the sun made getting some pics harder!!), but I love that you can see it is the entrance for Oktoberfest (or at least one that has a great big sign!!)

Another pic of Brenna sleeping at Oktoberfest! Below some barrels on the horse drawn carriages.

Brenna actually did get to touch this horse here - she really liked him!!

Inside one of the beer tents - this was the second one we went to. It didn't seem as crazy as the first one - more order here (and not so many people standing on their seats with beer steins in hand, lol)
The first beer tent we went into below - hmm, this is what I would have expected at Oktoberfest and I wasn't disappointed for the party going on at 1 pm in the afternoon!! As you can even see from the picture - voices were raised with the beer, lol!!
Trying to get a picture to show how many people were there - my pics just didn't do it justice, lol!!
Olympic park in Munich
Brenna racing me up the hill - I love her face!! (although you might have to click on this picture to really see the laugh!!)
The BMW museum in Munich - really cool building.
Thanks for taking this pic Noah - I love how cheesy Brenna was in it, lol!!
After our long day in Munich, the only picture of my uncle while he was here and it was in front of our car in the parking garage - how sad is that!!

One of the statues in Baden-Baden - she was happy to pose for this picture for my uncle, but wouldn't take one with me, lol

Brenna wants us to know that she wants a pink bike, lol. She was ready to take this one home and go try to ride it, lol!!

Pictures in Strausburg while strolling around

Brenna is all about these feet shots now - I have at least 10 more on the camera from various times, lol!!


Below, is my very upset daughter after her cup went over one of the locks in Strausburg. I was blamed for losing it, and promised a replacement at the next stop (boy did I get hosed on the replacement one - it was 7 Euro!!!). Don't you just love the hand on her hip!!
Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there!!! Things are going good here - just tired for all our wonderful travels for the weekend!! We had a very nice visit with my uncle when he was here - the weather was absolutely perfect for his whole visit here!! (btw - Justice is missing him already - he was very spoiled with the extra attention!!).

So, what have we been doing??? On Friday evening, Dustin ended up working later than expected, so we went to one of our favorite restraunts here in our town and had supper - yummy!! My uncle had a chance to eat some wonderful french fries here - I'm pretty sure he agreed that you could make a meal out of the fries here!! On Saturday, my uncle and I took Justice for a long morning walk and then we went to Strausburg, France, Baden-Baden, and Kappelwindeck (here close to our town). Our visit to Strausberg was great - I think we all could have strolled around for quite awhile!!! And - other good news - Brenna is pretty much over her fear of the potty over here :-) What a relief that she is getting excited about going while we are out and no more tears (from her and me!!)!!! We made a quick stop at Cora on the way out of France - had to show my uncle all the cheese and meat counters there (and pick up a few yummy french items :-) From France, we went straight to the Kappelwindeck/Burg Windeck (old castle ruins here) with a great view! Our camera got buried in our back-pack (but the battery was almost dead anyway - oops - we only took one picture in Baden-Baden before it died - guess we were lucky all day in France!) - so our second trip there without any pics from our camera!! We came home really quick and gave Brenna supper and Justice too, then back out to Baden-Baden. We spent a short amount of time in Baden-Baden showing the downtown sites (which seemed so few after our morning adventures!), but we all really enjoyed our cold treat there. My uncle had chocolate ice cream with rum and cherries - I think he was pretty happy with his selection - like Black Forest cake in an ice cream version!! Brenna shared Daddy's spaghetti ice - she loves getting to share that with him (and I ended up with Brenna's cone - she didn't want it as soon as she knew what Dustin was getting, lol). Brenna was spoiled with stuffed animals all weekend - we added one on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday to the family - she loves being the new mom to the gang (o.k. - funny story here - Brenna only really, really wanted one of these animals, the other two I believe are really ones that Dustin and I couldn't live without her having, lol. She picked out a new "pet" raccoon on Thursday (I really wanted the skunk - which started the whole stuffed animal weekend, lol) - she named him Ricky. On Saturday, we found a cute stuffed store in France - they had a really adorable train track growth chart (umm - not sure why I didn't take a picture, but I will have to see if I can find it on line, maybe I could make something similar) which got us into the store. I think all the grown-ups in the store that day wanted to buy more stuff than Brenna did - she ended up with a new pet snail that can come home and stay with us (and he is on wheels and can be walked around the apartment) - I believe she has settled on the name slimmey - hmmm, wonder where she got that name, lol. That was Dustin's bday present for Brenna for his bday, lol (he was the one who had to buy it for her!!). On our way to Munich we found some inexpensive stuffed animals at one of the rest areas, so mommy rewarded her with a new pet alligator - her name is Patches!! I'm going to have to get a picture of this new crew soon!!!)

Brenna and I stopped on Friday on our walk home for cake from Cafe Schnurr here in our town. It is the favorite pastry shop of a lot of the local German's here. We sampled one of each kind of cake they had made that day (I should have taken a picture of these - the cakes/tortes here are beautiful - but I didn't think about that (nor did I think about getting pictures of the enormous pretzels/hot dogs at Oktoberfest!!!)). So, that was our cake for Dustin's bday for the weekend. I am still hoping to make some no-bakes for him today. I didn't expect Brenna to have a long day at Kindergarten today, but I don't leave to pick her up for another 40 minutes - they are feeding them lunch today (hmm - reading the signs outside her door in German is not going so well for me...). Hopefully, Brenna is having fun with that as she was exhausted from our weekend (she didn't really nap yesterday except for on Dustin's shoulder - maybe 30 minutes, and then she didn't fall asleep in the car until about 11:30 last night).

Yesterday, we went to Oktoberfest in Munich. I wish I would have had my video camera to capture the people, noise, food, etc. Pictures just can't do it justice on the atmosphere!! Brenna was wiped out from the early morning and car ride, so she slept through about 30 minutes of the walk around - but she still was a good trooper with all the travel! I could not believe all the people dressed in traditional clothes (o.k. - I have to admit that I was stunned by the amount of cleavage that I saw yesterday - it was crazy how many dress to expose, lol!!) - but it was really neat to see!! After we walked around a little bit at Oktoberfest, we took some subway stops to some other sites of Munich. We stopped by the BMW museum (and Brenna and I used their nice restrooms, lol), Olympic park (although we didn't get too close to it), and the English gardens. Brenna really enjoyed running up the hill (and then she rolled down too) - she was ready to get out and move!! We parted ways with my uncle in Munich (hope he had a good train trip back to Munich and than to his final destination). It should only be about 2 hours 30 minutes home from where we parked our car (we parked and then took a train into Munich - smart thinking), but with traffic around Stuttgart it took about 6 hours to get home. Poor Justice was trapped in his crate for a very, very long day (but he did o.k. - he is either pouting today or really missing my uncle - not sure which, lol).

I think that about covers our travels - we had really great food and fun while my uncle was visiting. I really enjoyed showing him the area we live in and I'm extremely glad that the weather was as nice as it was! Hope you enjoy the mass number of pics from this weekend - rather than break them up in posts, I'm just going to try to put them all up today!!

(btw - it was a good thing I had extra time today, I was able to get laundry going, german class done, and the long blog post up today!!)
Take Care!!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Sunday, September 27


Hello All!!!

I am so exhausted today - we just spent 6 hours in the car on the ride home for what should have been 2 1/2 hours at the most...Brenna did great and I'm sure I will have lots of great pics to share soon!!! Here is Brenna asleep at Oktoberfest if you can believe that!!

Happy birthday Jill - hope you had a great day!
Take Care!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Friday, September 25




Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! Things have been busy here the last few days. Yesterday, we did lots of hiking (Brenna probably walked 4 miles yesterday - you go girl!!!)! She was somewhat tired out today, but she walked both to and from kindergarten today. We both took a nap today - sorry to my uncle for being horrible German hosts!!
This afternoon, Brenna made the above card for my parents' anniversary - hope you guys have a great day today!!! We love you!! (but sorry - the card is on our fridge and you probably won't get it at your house!!)...
Here are a few of the projects that I recently completed for our American friends over here that are leaving us shortly :-( I think they all turned out really cute - hope the kids all love them!!! We have a fun weekend of sightseeing planned - I'm sure we will have good pictures to share on Monday!!
Dustin turns 30 tomorrow - I'm going to say today - Happy birthday - we all love you!!!!
Take Care!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Thursday, September 24








Hello All!!!
Hope all is well out there. We have had a busy few days here. My uncle is here now from Colorado for a weekend visit - so I'm sure I will have lots of new pictures coming :-)
I finished up some projects here (no, not my quilt - I'm not that ambitious!) (sorry, no pics today - hopefully tomorrow). Brenna can't wait for me to make her something now, lol!!! She really wants something with some glow in the dark thread on it.
As promised - here is the "world according to Brenna" hope you enjoy her photo style - I know it sure entertained me today!
Well, gotta go - lots to do in the next few days!!
Take Care!

Brenna's pics -

Monday, September 21, 2009

Monday, September 21


Brenna and I doing yoga - she had a great time entertaining my sister and her husband with her yoga skills!!! Can you see that we were both trying to reach our toes below - I have a lot harder time with it than Brenna, lol!!!
Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there. Things are going well here - keeping very busy over the last few days. We went out for errands on Saturday (not sure why it seems like they took all day???) - and hooray - Brenna used one of the public potties along the way (of course we had to bribe her - but hey, success is success in my book :-) (it was our hope to be out long enough for her to need to use one of the public restrooms - we had originally planned a long road trip on Sunday, but we have postponed that for the moment - anyway, we are working to get her over her fear of public restrooms - so our weekend was successful in that respect - I love German restrooms :-), lol). We had planned a trip to Switzerland for Sunday, but we didn't make it (it was my fault - I was too worried the weather was going to be lousy and who wants to drive 3 + hours for 40 degree F weather and rain...) - we ended up going to Heidelberg instead. Our trip to Heidelberg was good though as it got us all out of the house, but not too far away (in case Brenna had any accidents). We managed to get Brenna on the potty twice (again with bribery...) - needless to say I was very excited (so sad that this is what is exciting in my days sometimes...)!

Brenna had a good day at school today - good weather again too so I made our daily stop by the ice cream shop (although I only got a cone for Brenna :-) I hope that will always be a fun memory in my mind is our time with walks and the ice cream shop :-)
Brenna loved doing yoga with me this weekend - she is a great helper, loves to get the mat out and then direct us!! She had her camera out and got some fun pictures during this time (I uploaded them to the computer today - what a fun time to look at the world according to Brenna - I promise my next post will have at least one of her pics!), so I of course got my camera out, lol. Brenna loves the self-timer option on the camera - boy did I get some funny ones this time, but I'm only sharing the best ones of both of us here!!
Well, that is it for today - Dustin isn't feeling well :-( He flies off to England tomorrow and won't be back until late on Wednesday. Hopefully, he will feel better by then!
Take Care!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Friday, September 18

Before Brenna went to school yesterday and below with her best buddy Justice!

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. I had a yucky feeling day yesterday - I had a headache all day and finally went to bed before Brenna did last night!!! However, I did get pictures ready to post yesterday - hope you enjoy them!
So else happened this week??? Hmm - on Wednesday, Brenna spilled apple juice on herself and ended up coming home in someone else's clothes - somewhat crazy to go pick her up and not recognize her in her "new" outfit. I'm not exactly sure why they didn't use any of the clothes I packed for her, but with the language barrier - I'm just not going to worry about it. Brenna and I played Barbies in the afternoon and she even took one of the bunch with us on our walk. She really liked showing the next door neighbor the doll. Brenna's doll also got to experience park grass and sidewalk as well, lol!! Yesterday, I didn't do much of anything. We had planned to make pretzels in the afternoon, but with feeling so crummy - we ended up coloring in her color wonder books instead. My fridge was full of artwork yesterday, lol!!! Hopefully, we can make up the pretzel animals today (although part of the point in making these was to have them to take to school - not the best idea to make them on Friday!!!!).
Well, I guess I better get busy with everything else. The sun is shining today (it was gloomy all day yesterday which went "nicely" with my headache) so I hope to take the dog out for a walk this morning between loads of laundry (boy do I LOVE the fact that it takes 2 days for the laundry to dry right now - fun, fun, fun!!!)
Take Care!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tuesday, September 15


Brenna modeling her cousin's new apron (which I had to hide after the pics because she was all about keeping it even though it doesn't have her name on it, lol)! Below is the back of the apron - I tried a new design - hope the girls enjoy it - I think it does help with the fit.


As with the apron I made for Brenna yesterday - the apron is completely reversible (although I made Mikayla's plain on the other side as I thought she would like to match her mommy!!).

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there. Things are going well here - the sun is shining today and it is a nice cool September day (I am really loving September here - the days are cool in the 60s and 70s - hopefully we will stay around those temps and not get any hotter :-)...

Brenna had a good day at Kindergarten (although she did start tearing up a little when I left today...) - we stopped for her ice cream on the way home (we obviously have been stopping too frequently as the lady behind the counter already knew what we were going to get, lol). At least I am clearing out Dustin's change stash - he probably had 20 Euro in change sitting around here!! I thought Brenna looked very cute in her Tour de France shirt today - hope you enjoy the pics from before school :-)
While Brenna was in school today - I made an apron for Brenna's cousin Mikayla - hopefully she will enjoy having an apron that matches the one her mommy has!!! Brenna did a pretty good job modeling it for me and she is very excited that Mikayla has an apron that is the same design (I may have to send this to Mikayla so that Brenna and her can wear matching aprons while they skype, lol).
Not sure now if I am going to go back to my quilt project or work on one of my many other projects - hmmm.....
Well, I think that is it for today (or at least our morning)!
Take Care!