Friday, August 27

So, these are pictures taken from Brenna's last day of Kindergarten - I love her attitude in the morning :-)

My new favorite flower that will forever remind me of Germany and our great town...

Two of Brenna's teachers - I will miss her Kindergarten and her teachers...

I think the title of the woman below would be the Kindergarten director - I loved the way Brenna said her name - it is Sarah (but the way the Germans say it puts emphasis on the last h - kind of a "Sar - ha" for the pronunciation). (I really need to send out letters to everyone over there - Brenna and I better get busy soon!!)

Getting ice cream on our last walk home. We bought an ice cream maker since returning as I have a mission to master our favorite Gelato flavours...

I let Brenna have free rein with making a creation with the sprinkles - I'm not sure how much she ate as well, but she did have fun while I was making supper that day :-)

Our landlord and his wife - they were great to us. Brenna will miss seeing them frequently...

These were our neighbors next door (the woman is the sister of our landlord's wife). (the picture below was taken the morning that we left Germany - it was sad leaving).

A yellow vehicle means mail to Brenna - it is going to take a little while before that is deprogramed from her mind (case in point, she saw a Stanley Steamer truck yesterday that was yellow and called out - the mail truck is here!).

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! Things are good here - still busy with boxes (blah - I'm tired of unpacking). Dustin and Brenna did some work on her playset yesterday, so we now have sand in the back yard. I didn't realize how much Justice would like the sand - he decided to join the fun right away and laid down in the sand! Hopefully, we can get him used to staying out of it shortly so that he can be outside with Brenna when she plays (he is so big for the sand box that he takes up half of it!).

Hmm, I can't think that too much else is going on here right now, lol. (I guess when you spend a whole day unpacking it is hard to think of a good story to go with it!)

Take Care!

Thursday, August 26

Today, I decided to share pictures from Brenna's birthday and also some recent fun with face paints. I loved the look on Brenna's face above with her SpongeBob card from Uncle Rusty :-) Below, hugging one of her new stuffed animals - she wants to name everything Slimey right now, so I think that is his current name, lol! (it is usually either Slimey or Spike - wondering how long it will be before everything is Hannah (that is her current favorite show)).

The beautiful cake made by my mom :-)

Mom and I sporting some face painting for the party :-)

Brenna blowing out the candles for the 2nd time (she blew the 1st ones out before Dustin even had them all lit and before we had a chance to sing, lol)

Brenna and I with our matching dresses that I made - (I think the color looks better on her - I haven't found any color that doesn't look great on her though, lol).

Out of the costumes...

Kayla Girl with her cat face - my sister and I did this one together (although I had the much easier part of it :-)

The 4 kids we did face painting with (I had thought about doing it during the party, but it was busy and I didn't even get a chance to visit with everyone, so these were all done at the end - but, I think they all look great!) (o.k., Brenna's doesn't look like much, she got started, but wasn't into it (I was going to do it the same as my mom's face - I think I have burnt my child out on face painting and pictures, lol).

I think Anthony made a good scary face (below) - he did one with each of the smiling girls...

At my parent's house last weekend - Brenna with her cousins :-) All the girls were butterfly fairies and Jackson had a scary face)

I let the kids paint mine after their's were all painted - I think I fell into the scary category, lol. They tried to put a mustasche on me, but too much black was applied to my right side of my face, so it is a little hard to see. You should have heard all the giggles going on with the 4 kids painting together - they sure had fun doing it and I wore it through the afternoon until after supper (and I think scared my grandparents as well when they stopped over, lol!)

the girls looking great!

Scary face!

I mentioned to Jackson that he was going to regret making this face some day - but it made me laugh enough that I had to post it - sorry (I have a great one of his sister as well - they are sure silly kids when they want to be!)!!!

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! Things are good here - unpacking is progressing. Brenna's room is unpacked, just need to put up curtains and some pictures on the walls and everything is done in there :-) Our bedroom is almost done as well (and all of the suitcases are finally unpacked :-) We made lots of head-ways on the kitchen yesterday - just need to wash up our plastic containers and then that room will be nearly finished! We still have lots of boxes in the garage and my craft room, but I am looking forward to a break this weekend when we go out with Dustin's parents and then to a birthday party on Sunday :-) We have washed loads of laundry this week too - it is nice to have a dryer and be able to keep all the items caught up :-)

We have heard that our sea shipment from Germany may arrive next week - it will be great to have all our stuff back in one house again (although we have already boxed up some items for goodwill :0)

I think we all have adjusted back to Ohio time now - glad to not have to think about another time change like we did on our visit trips before.

Well, I think that covers what has been happening here lately. If anyone needs any packing material or boxes, let me know ASAP (otherwise, they will be going in the trash or with the movers when they come next week).

Take Care!

Tuesday, August 24

Dustin was extremely busy last week - he ripped out all our old carpet, put in Brenna's new swingset, and repainted the laundry room (along with being around when the new carpet was installed and sweeping up after the new carpet was put in - what a man! Thanks for all your hard work Dustin - we love you!!!). Brenna loves her new swingset - now she can't wait for the sand to be added underneath :-) Dustin and I also painted a large majority of the house since we have returned - the living room and hall, our bedroom, and what will now be my craft room all have a new coat of paint :-). Below is a picture of the room after Dustin ripped out the carpet (we painted the gray on the walls with the old carpet still in - we painted everything before Brenna's birthday party and then put the carpet in after the party).

with our new carpet :-) (the furniture came today - sorry no picture yet with all the boxes still in the way - hopefully, we can get more of the boxes out tomorrow - we focused on Brenna's room and our bedroom today - hoping to get the kitchen back in order tomorrow :-)

Before new carpet

After new carpet (loved the picture with the sweeper ...)

Picture from today (minus the sweeper) of the new carpet (before the movers came). (notice all of the above pictures were taken with our newer point and shoot canon - the one below is my Nikon - I'm really not impressed with the canon in the above shots - but at least we have the other nicer camera (which wasn't at the house for Dustin to take pictures with as I had it with me at my parents - more great shots of people to follow in the next few days :-)

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! Things are still very busy here. The movers came today with our items from storage - boy do I have a lot of stuff (notice I didn't say we have a lot of stuff - most of the collection of stuff is mine - uh, oh - it is going to be a long week of going thru stuff!).

Last Thursday and Friday we had new carpet put in the house - it looks great, just need to vaccum it a few more times to clean up all the ends that came off when it was installed. Dustin spent last Wednesday ripping out all the old carpet - he did a great job (guess he should get the bonus for doing it himself rather than paying the carpet people to do it!). Dustin also painted the laundry room (wow does it look a lot better) and picked up and installed Brenna's new swingset (if I were him, I think I would need a spa day after all that work!).

So, this week will be spent putting our life back in order. I have lots more pictures to share this week too - our last days in Germany, Brenna's birthday party, face painting, kittens at my parents house, and a trip to the zoo. I did journal our last days in Germany, so I will try to catch everyone up on our last stories of our time there!

Take Care!

Wednesday, August 18

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! Things are still crazy around our house - we painted our first week (and Brenna got a chance to spend a great week with Dustin's parents - thank you so much!!) and then on Saturday the 14th we had Brenna's 4th birthday party (today is her birthday - Happy birthday Brenna - you are getting so big!). Lots of pictures to post - hopefully next week I will get them up on the computer. We just got our internet yesterday, but tomorrow and Friday we are getting new carpet installed (yeah - can't believe how different the house will look with new paint and carpet :-) With the lack of furniture, it is still very empty in the house (or at least upstairs), but our stuff from US storage will be delivered Tuesday of next week :-) Brenna is loving her new birthday gifts - we played our first CD in her new SpongeBob CD player this morning (Dustin and I gave her a Hannah Montana CD for her birthday), lots of Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, her new guitar, and her bead animals. Brenna met the neighbor girl next door, Elizabeth, and is having lots of fun playing with her :-)

Well, lots to do and play time to be attended too :-)

Take Care!

Saturday, August 7

Hello All!!

Well, we are back in Ohio safe and sound :-) Our flight yesterday was fairly uneventful - Brenna was well entertained with the TV (she watched Shrek and old Disney cartoons) and also paper and stickers (although those weren't nearly as entertaining this trip as the last). Brenna dozed off about an hour before landing and slept thru the landing (interesting tidbit here - Brenna slept through all the take offs and landings when she came home from Guatemala, and now it is funny to me that she slept thru the landing coming home from Germany). Brenna is such an experienced flier - although with the Germany adventure ending it will be interesting how soon she flies anywhere again. Justice did well getting dropped off for the flight (thank goodness we were able to check our bags in with the dog - the lines were unbelievable in Frankfurt) only snag there was we had to put a soft item in his crate, so I let him lay with my favorite pullover - I'm sure it is fine other than lots of dog hair (and maybe some dog drool). We were so excited to have the dog back and then our suitcases that we left Brenna's carseat behind (but it didn't take Dustin too long to go back in and get it - at least we remembered before we left the airport - although we didn't notice until after we were loading up my sister's car). Thanks for picking us up Renee - it was great visiting with you on the drive home :-) Love you girl!

I have been keeping notes on what has been going on since the movers packed up our items in Germany, but that will have to wait until after we have settled in a little more (lots to unpack, painting to be done and my hand writing to figure out...)

Hope all is well out there!!
Take Care!