Not Much!

I am trying to stay focused and not go on too many detours on my quest to make some Christmas presents. I put away the books and told myself: "Finish those two quilts and as a reward you'll get to make a Christmas present!" It seems to be working because I made a backing and pin basted it! Now I need to quilt it :-)

Besides that not much is happening here. Pasha has been home sick for the last two days. Martin took off a couple of hours today to give her some company.

 

Hopefully she'll feel better in a couple of days!

 

Take care,

Me

It's finished! Simplicity 4055

Here is Pasha in her costume

Doesn't she look gorgeous? Looking back at it I find that it was worth all the time invested in this costume. it made her happy and she looks absolutely beautiful in it!

But as innocent as she looks... she can be the devil! Look what I found on my tv stand:

That's right! She permanently carved a star and her initials in my tv stand! And not even small carvings either. I placed a Euro 5 cent piece right next to it so you could see the scale of it. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry when I found it!

Take care,

Me

One for the Memories

If you spent just a few minutes in my company than you know that my cell phone is never far from me due to work. It's a cursed relationship :-)

Wenn du auch nur ein paar Minuten Zeit mit mir verbringst dann weisst du das mein Arbeitshandy nie weit weg von mir ist!

Anyway, my cell phone was ringing tonight and I automatically thought: "Who's calling? Did I forget to schedule someone's airport pick up?" I picked up and I heard this weird voice: "Hello, I am holding your chocolates hostage!" I knew immediately who the caller was! Pasha was sitting in her room playing with her pumpkin voice changer!

Mein Handy klingelte heute Abend und ich dachte automatisch: "Wer ruft mich denn an? Habe ich jemanden am Flughafen vergessen?" Ich habe den Anruf angenommen und hörte diese komische verzerrte Stimme: "Hallo, ich habe ihre Schokolade als Geisel genommen!" Ich wusste sofort wer angerufen hat! Pasha sass in ihrem Zimmer und spielte mit ihrem Kürbismikrofon!

I told her to stop it and left the room! I saw her leave her room a couple minutes later with her pumpkin and her cell phone in hand walking toward the patio! I knew she was up to no good! So I followed her and took a couple shots of her. 

Ich habe ihr gesagt das sie damit aufhören sollte und ging aus ihrem Zimmer. Ein paar Minuten später sah ich wie sie aus ihrem Zimmer mit ihrem Kürbismikrofon und ihrem Handy! Ich wusste das da nix Gutes raus kommen wird! Ich bin ihr gefolgt und habe in paar Bilder gemacht.

Next thing I hear is Martin's work cell phone ringing in the kitchen. He muttered: "Who the h... is calling me!?" Pasha through her pumpkin voice changer: "If you are not nice to your daughter I will have to kidnap your chocolates, your pooch, and your TV." Martin laughed and said: "If you know how important these things are too me than this must be an inside job!" Martin and I are still laughing about her!

Als naechstes hoere ich wie Martin's Arbeitshandy in der Kueche klingelt. Er sagte: "Wer ruft mich denn jetzt an!?" Pasha durch ihr Kürbismikrofon: "Wenn du nicht nett zu deiner Tochter bist dann werde ich deine Schokolade, deinen Hund und dein Fernseher entführen." Martin lachte und sagt: "Da du weisst wie wichtig diese Dinge sind für mich lässt es mich vermuten das dies ein Insider Job ist!" Martin und ich lachen immer noch!

I love my two nuttys!!!

Ich liebe meine zwei Verrückten!!!

Take care,

Me

80's Dance

Pasha is going to a 80's dance at the Teen Center. We googled some 80's outfits for inspiration and went shopping for her outfit during lunch. It took us Euro 16 and 20 minutes in H&M, C&A and Bijou Brigitte to put her outfit together. The t-shirt was Euro 3, the leggings Euro 4, the Zipper ear rings Euro 4, the flower hair band Euro 2, and the orange bangle Euro 3. She already had the leather jacket, the Converse shoes (one of each pair which she bought in SC), and the jeans shorts.

Pasha geht heute zu einem 80iger Jahre Tanz im Jugend Zentrum. Zur Inspiration haben wir '80iger Jahre Outfits' gegoogled und sind während der Mittagspause shoppen gegangen. 20 Minuten im C&A, H&M und Bijou Brigitte hatten wir ihr ganzes Outfit für 16 Euro zusammen. Das T-shirt war 3 Euro, die Leggings 4 Euro, the Reisverschluss-Ohrringe 4 Euro, das Blumenhaarband 2 Euro, and den orangenen Armreif 3 Euro. Sie hatte schon die Lederjacke, die Converse Schuhe (von jedem Paar einen die sie in sC gekauft hat) und die Jeans Shorts.

Take care,

Me

Be My Valentine

Last night was the Teen Center Valentine's Day dance. Pasha was worried all week that she wouldn't be able to go with her being sick for a week. But it worked itself all out in the end :-)

Gestern Abend war der Teen Center Valentinstag Tanz. Pasha hat sich die ganze Woche Sorgen gemacht das sie nicht in der Lage sein würde daran teilzunehmen. Aber die ganze Sorge war umsonst :-)

She had a blast. Several boys went all googly-eyed (is that even a word?) over her! Good gosh, if this happens now what will happen in a couple of years? We will have to lock her up in her room :-)

Sie hatte soviel Spass. Ein paar Jungs haben sich in die Pasha verguckt. Meine Güte, wenn das jetzt schon passiert was wird dann erst in ein paar Jahren los sein? Wir werden sie in ihr Zimmer einsperren müssen... :-)

She can be so sweet... but then you turn around and her naughty side comes out :-)

Sie kann so Süß sein... aber dann dreht man sich um und ihre "Teufelshörner" kommen raus :-)

Take care,

Me

Playing in the Snow

As you know it's been snowing here! As it usually does a lot :-)

Wie du weisst hat es hier geschneit! Wie es das natuerlich oft tut :-)

Pasha loves the snow and took the opportunity to play in it on a day off...

Pasha liebt Schnee und nutzte einen freien Tag um darin zu spielen...

She had so much fun that I had to call her in (3 hours later) when it got too dark to play outside!

Sie hatte so viel Spass das ich sie reinrufen musste (ca. 3 Studen spaeter) als es zu dunkel wurde um draussen zu spielen!

Having a Good Time

Okay, imagine the following scenario:

I am sitting on my sewing machine minding my own business (quilting) when Pasha drops in with a cup of hot chocolate and asks me if I would like to have some peppermint tea! Oh my, of course!

So she sits next to me and we chit chat while she is attending to her hot chocolate and I am drinking my tea while quilting and removing pins. (I like to do that you know!) We are having a grand old time...

But can you see what's wrong with that set up?

Well, let me come a bit closer...

Do you see it yet?

That's right, never place your tea cup right next to your pins box! You might drop some in by accident while you are laughing and having a grand old time... it kinda diverts your attention :-)  

Pasha finds this hilarious (of course), grabs my cup and runs to Martin (who was involved with Jake) to show off my newest accomplishment!

She comes back stating: "He didn't even crack a smile!"

Me (calling him out!): "Martin, where is your sense of humor!"

Pasha: "You can't blame him! I took it from him years ago!"

LOL!

Take care,

Me

Another P Story

I have another conversation with my daughter that I need to write down for me to remember!

Today Martin and Pasha were off from school/work. But I had to work :-( 

I had a tough time getting my lazy behind out of bed... ergo I was really late getting out of the house! I was running around getting dressed and being stressed and both Martin and Pasha (in particular) were bugging me!

Me (stressed!) : Don't bother me right now!

Pasha (calm!) : But I need an answer right now!

Me (stressed!!!) : I said don't bother me right now!

Pasha (calm!!!) : Are you having an attitude with me right now? You shouldn't because there is no reason to have an attitude right now!

Me not knowing what to say to that just walked out of the house to my sane office :-)

She is going to be a great mom one day!!! LOL

Take care, 

Me

1 Bag, 2 Bags!

P and I were out shopping recently. Well, not really... We were waiting for M to get done talking to a friend, and we wandered off in to the VAT office with all its wonderful little knick-knacks. We can always find stuff that needs a good home! One of them was this pink messenger bag! 

P had to have it. I know that she has at least 10 bags at home but she had very good arguments if I may say that in my defense! It was on sale (50% off) and it was the day before her b-day... I was sold!

P wanted it embroidered and M told her that she wasn't allowed to use it until it was done. He is so sneaky! He knew that I would have pushed it all the way down on my to-do list otherwise. Well, after we came home, P nagged me! Every five minutes she would ask me if I could get it done now because she wanted to take it on her shopping trip with her friend tomorrow. So we compromise: instead of embroidery, I would machine applique something!

She wanted her initials and the peace sign. So I typed her initials in Word and googled the peace sign. I printed it out, traced it on Pellon and ironed it on the bag. I sewed around the individual appliques so that they wouldn't come off after a while! 

Don't look too closely because it is a bit crooked! But she loves it and that's all that matters!

This was a fund and quick little project! The VAT store had another messenger bag in yellow. Maybe I need to get that...

This reminds me, I did buy another bag (the coolest and biggest shopping bag) in the VAT store but that is another story!

Take care,

Me

P.S. Bags are kind of tough to photograph by yourself! M was nice enough to hold the bag up. I was thinking about asking him to model it... but that would have been pushing my luck! He was already grumpy because he had to interrupt his AFN show! :-)

12... Time just flies by!

P had another b-day. She is now 12. Mind you, she is acting like she is 16

 ;-)

My baby is getting older and changing in front of my eyes!

But the one thing that never seems to change is her sense of humor,

her wit,

her kindness,

her love and understanding,

and her sense of humor!

I am proud that I can call her my daughter!

I am looking forward to hopefully many more years with her!

Take care,

Me

P.S. Thank You for all the calls and wonderful presents you guys sent our way! She truly felt loved and special...

S and her Aunt

I never had a really close relationship with any of my aunts. They lived an hour away from us and we saw each other on holidays or whenever my parents scheduled a visit. 

P is so lucky to have her aunt living only 5 minutes away from her. They have had a close relationship ever since we got stationed in Germany! My sister spoils her. She spoils her not only with things but most of all time! I hope they will continue to be this close to each other even when we eventually move on to our next assignment!

Take care,

Me

Parent-Child Relationship

I've started to work through our Venice pictures today. I came across two pictures that seem to perfectly show how the relationship between a pre-teen/teenage kid and the parent is:

On one hand you have the loving and cuddly side. The kid leans in to the parent, enjoying the love that is given to them. S/he accepts what the parent offers and harmony is all around them...

On the other hand, you have the situations in which the parent and the kid do not agree on anything! The kid wants to be independent and doesn't always make good choices... The parent watches on and in the end just wants to strangle them! Maybe some sense will come back to the kid... as if! :-)

I do have to admit that for the most part we enjoy those "strangling" moments! And just fleeting moments they are! Before you know it they are gone and the good times are back! 

In retrospect M and I often laugh about the stupidity from either her side or ours (but mostly hers! we are after all the all-knowing adults! LOL) that contributed to those tense moments! 

Take care,

Me

A Sunday Morning

The following statements are defining P’s morning today. Her room is a mess! She is missing her DSi and her Ipod!

 She saw them last when she shoved them somewhere on Tuesday. Today is Sunday! She didn’t say anything the first few days, and we were gone on Friday and Saturday.

Today, she needs them and started looking around. She finally came around to ask me for help. However, she also asked me not to yell at her when I entered her room. You see, I only go into her room (if I can help it) on Wednesday and Saturday to make sure she cleaned up her room. Well, to my defense, it always looked great when I checked!

Today, she asked me to help her. So I started to look in her closet and dresser, under pillows and in baskets. I shouldn’t have! She kept on telling me that I promised not to yell. My face got redder and redder… I was working really hard on not to yell! It didn’t work out though… In the end, I just broke down. Her pants in her dresser were all crazy, she had everything (shoes, clothes, books, cds) thrown in her bags. I was frustrated!?! She told me that I should learn to clean her room at her own pace! So I walked out of her room! The end result of this?

I was mad that her room was such a mess and she was crying because I yelled at her!

M came in to from his walk with Jake and talked to P about her situation. He explained that she could just take her trash out of her room as she was walking to the kitchen or the bathroom since she was doing that at least several times a day at least! In the end he asked her: “So on whom do you have to blame your messy room on?” Her answer: “The messy elf king!”

He walked off laughing and I had to smile at her! Shoot, it sure took the tension out of the situation!

Take care, 

Me

P.S. The photo was taking in Venice last weekend :-)

The Girl and the Pacific Ocean

P and I finally made it to Coronado Beach on Thursday. We left early that morning. We weren't sure if it was going to rain... It was still warm though!

P ran up to the water. I took some shots of her when I noticed the fin in the water (maybe 20 meters away from her!) I was about to tell her to come out of the water since I wasn't sure if there were sharks in the water. But then, up it came... dolphins! We both got so excited about it! 

If you click on the photo, it enlarges and you can see the fin!

Take care,

Me

The Diva

One thing that you can be sure of is that when you are around P you'll definitely will be entertained. We were shopping at the Horton Plaza down town San Diego. We walked into a second hand bookstore which had some knick knacks right at the entrance. She threw them on, struck a pose and said: "That's right, you want to be me!" LOL

Take care, 

Me

The Kid on the Shoe

One of the sights that P and I saw in San Diego was "The Kiss". P ran up to it, hopped on the shoe and struck a pose. I had to take a picture of this...

I told P to hop off right after I got the picture because other people were patiently waiting to take a picture as well. As it would have it, P hopped off to the back and saw that there was a sign... "Do not sit on the statues!" Uuuppppssss! :-)

Take Care,

Me

A Framing Project with P

P gave me a coupon for Christmas that promised me that she would work with me on a project. I was so super happy with this coupon that I held on to it for a while to make sure that I am not going to “waste” it!

As we looked at all our photos from our trip, P wanted to print out a ton of them and put them up in her room. I told her that those pictures needed to be displayed in style so we would have to get some pretty cool frames. We looked in the P.X. but they have only 2 picture frames in stock ( and I mean that they actually only have 2 each in the store!). P wanted at least 9 so that wouldn’t do. We looked around but couldn’t find what we wanted. They were either too expensive (Euro 81) or not her style!

So we picked up some plain wooden ones from Ikea where we paid Euro 5,40 for 3 packs of 3 each. 

You can’t beat that price! We also picked up some white paint and 2 brushes at OBI’s for Euro 13.

We got started right away without having to use sandpaper on the IKEA frames because they came already all smooth with no finish on them. One thin layer of paint was all that we needed. It gave the frame a nice white finish without covering the grain of the wood too much. 

There also wasn’t a long drying time at all. We were able to doodle on the first frame by the time we finished painting the last frame. We used regular colored sharpie pens for our “drawings”.

 P also drew a couple of characters of a show called “Adventure Time”. I never even heard of that show, but maybe you have?

Here are the frames on display in her room. 

It turned out better than we imagined. By the way, the little peace signs are the ones we picked up on Claire’s clearance shelf for $1.99 at that mall in Atlanta.

I loved working with P on this! It gave me the chance to do something with her while at the same time we were able to talk about everything that is going on with her right now…

Take care

Me