Friday, November 14

Hello All!!!

Things are going well here - Brenna and I have had a relatively quiet day today. I'm really looking forward to Dustin not traveling for the next two weeks though!!! I'm not cut out to be a single parent and I'm much to spoiled with my very good and helpful husband....

We skipped music class today - Brenna didn't sleep well last night and after last week, I didn't want to fight with her on it. So we stayed in and made edible peanut butter playdough (which was much too good for playing with in Brenna's opinion and better to eat :-), watched Mary Poppins and then went over to the grocery store for some needed supplies. I was going to try to get a picture of Brenna playing with the "playdough", but it went much too quickly!! She is definetly a peanut butter fiend like her father :-)

I let Brenna play with her lantern today - so hopefully, you will enjoy the pictures there. She got some dog hair on her hand - and I loved how puffed up her checks were to blow it off :-)

I'm going to try to make a plan of what we will be doing tomorrow sometime today - I think the best right now is the zoo in Stuttgart. It is only about 1 hour drive and fairly inexpensive. Something I looked at this morning (I think it was in a book..) said it was one of the nicest in Europe.

Not too much else to report so far today - the sun is shining and it is a beautiful, chilly day in Germany :-)

Take Care!!

Thursday, November 13

Hello All!!

Well - we didn't get everything done on our list today, but we did get a lot done :-) Brenna and I had German class this morning and then we went to the sale at the Haus de Gastes. The sale was only for toys/books/CDs/DVDs - but we still picked up some good stuff. I got a new CD that I know that Brenna will enjoy dancing to (in German) and small cooking (metal pots) pots/pans for Brenna (boy, are they loud!!). We had a quiet afternoon and Dustin actually was able to get off work early to join us for the lantern walk (wow, was it cold outside - my hands were numb when we got home!!). It was cute to see the lanterns all lit-up, but of course, I forgot my camera today... Oh, well - Brenna wasn't really in a smiling mood for the walk anyway - just kind of straight faced...
We didn't make it to the grocery store or to the weight watcher meeting (to pick up some snacks) - I guess I will just have to see what I can make here with what is available :-)
Dustin is off to England tonight :-( At least he comes home tomorrow and we will be able to spend the weekend together. Not sure yet what we are going to do. We talked about seeing more castles (which I think would be fun), but I haven't checked the weather forcast yet to see if it will pleasant for that.
Anyway - I'm going to try to turn in early tonight. Sorry - no new pictures today - I'm sure we will have some after the weekend (if not tomorrow :-)
Take Care!!

Wednesday, November 12

Hello All!!

Yea! - Dustin is back in Germany (although not home yet at this writing) :-) I'm sure Brenna will be very glad to see him tomorrow (and I will be glad to see him today). Brenna and I had kinder group this morning and finished our lantern - the kids get to march with them tomorrow evening - I hope Brenna will want to carry it :-) I will try to get a picture with her tomorrow with it, but no promises there :-) It started to rain on the way back, so luckily the lantern did fit under her stroller :-)

Tomorrow promises to be a busy day with German class and the walk in the evening. I also found out that the Kindergarten here (similar to a U.S. preschool) will be having a sale tomorrow close by with clothes and toys :-) I have been waiting for this to try to get some more clothes for Brenna even if they are just for playing in the dirt :-) Hopefully, I can find her some skirts and tights as that is all she wants to wear right now.

Not too much else went on today... I haven't decided if Brenna and I will decorate the dog bone cookies - I'm thinking not, they are good the way they are and not messy to let Brenna have them. The dog sure thinks they look tasty when Brenna gets one :-)

Anyway, I need to get my German homework done for tomorrow...

Take care and enjoy Brenna's fashion sense today and her lantern for tomorrow :-)

Tuesday, November 11

Hello All!!

Hope you all are doing well. Brenna and I are missing Dustin, but other than that, we are doing well :-) It rained this morning - so Brenna and I worked on making cutout cookies for the first time together :-) (and for the first time on my own for me!!). Brenna had lots of fun and I wish you all could have seen how covered in flour she was. There are only a few cookie cutters that I have here - o.k. the only ones I have are the ones that Renee gave me that are dog bone shaped - hope you enjoy the picture of this one :-) Brenna loved them - I think she is going to be a little confused the next time we buy Justice dog bone shaped treats :-) The landlord left a star cutter - so we have a few of those as well, but since it isn't Christmas yet - I thought the dog bone shaped ones were more appropriate :-)

We managed to get some laundry done this morning and took the dog for a nice walk after Brenna woke up from her nap. This morning, I caught some sun rising over the Black Forest before the clouds came in - hope you enjoy that picture. It was much more impressive a site this morning in person :-)

Well, that is all for now!! Take Care!!

Monday, November 10

Hello All!!!

Not too much to report on our day today... We cleaned the apartment this morning - Brenna likes playing with the duster, but does get bored after awhile (heck - I can't blame her - who likes to clean...). We walked to the local grocery store for lunch food and I bought Brenna ice cream since Dustin isn't here to eat it - she was very excited for her special treat and gobbled it right up :-) We had German class today - I really need to practice and study more, but it is hard with Dustin traveling and other things to do around here...

We only took Justice for a short walk today as it was really windy (but fairly warm) - but a least it was some walk... Maybe someday - he will be a dog caring this big of a stick - we thought it was so funny to see this dog at the Castle this weekend :-) (The dog is not Justice - but kind of looks like him :-)

Also, thought we would share the horses that we saw (and Brenna loved) on our trip to the castles as well :-)

Take Care!!

Sunday, November 9

Hello All!!

We had a relatively quiet day today as we worked on house work and getting some recipes tested. I made my Grandma's recipe for vanilla pudding today - the pudding tasted good, but I did scorch some on the bottom - I'm sure I will get better on that one... Also, made my mom's yeast rolls - these came out better this time than last :-) I think these are ready to go for Thanksgiving.

We tried to get Brenna out for a walk and playtime, but it started to rain about 10 minutes from the house :-(

Dustin is getting ready for his travels this week and he was surprised with me not needing the car. I have found that for most of what I need, the car doesn't do me any good - it is better to walk to the closer stores. At least I adopted that part of the European lifestyle over here :-)

I also worked on an embroidery while Brenna was napping today - it is pictured above - it was on a really soft blanket and turned out really cute (for some friends with a new baby over here) :-) I think I may have to make this one for Brenna too as she really loved it :-)

Also, thought I would share some of my fall pictures from today. These were taken at the park just a few steps from our apartment.

Well - Take Care!!!

Saturday, November 8

Hello All -

The castles were great fun today - very beautiful and we could not have asked for a better behaved Brenna :-) She loved the "Sleeping Beauty" Castle and looked at each room and said "My Room"!! Dustin said that she will have to find someone later in life to support that desire :-)

The weather was great - sometimes kind of cloudy, but other times we had a great blue sky.

We got a later start than we had hoped today so we didn't make it to the church today - I'm sure we will catch it another day. We bought a season (year) pass to visit castles in Bavaria - so that should be some nice day trips for all of us. The GPS system was great - much better than the paper directions I had from Google and even the castle website.

I'm going to have to create a silly book for Brenna at some point of all the great places she sleep in - she slept on the way from the one castle to the other - only about 20 minutes though.

I decided since Disney based their park castle on the castle today to take Brenna's mouse ears - hope you enjoy the sillyness.

Luckily we found some nice guys that helped carry Brenna up the stairs at the second castle today and extended her nap - thank goodness for the kindness of strangers over here :-)

I'm sure I will think of more to tell about tomorrow, but hopefully the pictures can tell some of the story today. Not sure what Dustin and Brenna were looking at in the first picture - but I love the seriousness on their faces (Brenna had just woke up from her nap - so she really wasn't awake yet).

Take Care!