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

New Year's Resolution

One of my New Year's resolutions is to organize all of our paperwork. I don't know about you but I often just place my mail and other documents in a big pile, promising myself to put it away "later". Well, "later" doesn't come by very often, and the piles grow so large that I get discouraged just looking at it!

Einer meiner Neujahrs Vorsätze ist das Organisieren all unsere Papiere. Ich weiss nicht wie du es machst aber oft sammle ich meine Post einfach nur in kleinen Hügeln und versprech mir das ich sie "später" weg sortier . Na ja, "später" kommt nicht oft vorbei, und die kleinen Hügeln wachsen zu kleinen Bergen und ich hab dann oft keine Lust mich damit auseinander zusetzen!

On 2 Jan 2012 (mark that day in red in your calendar1 LOL), I took a big bucket and put in all those piles and loose papers around the house. I sorted through them (trash and "must-keep") and am now in the process of putting them in their binders! 

Am 2 Januar 2012 (markier dir den Tag rot im Kalender!)  nahm ich einen grossen Eimer und habe alle Berge und lose Papiere eingesammelt. Ich habe sie sortiert (Müll und "unbedingt-behalten") und bin jetzt im Prozess sie in ihre Ordner abzulegen.

I have the usual binders like Housing, Banking, Insurance, Cars and Dogs, Taxes, and VAT forms and one binder for each family member. But I also added some new ones like Closed Files. I will put things in that are no longer used but should be kept for reference for later. I also added one labeled Current Affairs. I've put in things like take out menus, work and school phone tree, our yearly membership cards for museums and such... basically any information that I need "right now"! 

Ich habe die normalen Ordner wie Haus/Wohnung, Finanzielles, Versicherungen, Autos und Hunde, Steuern, Mehrwert Steuer Formulare und einen Ordner für jedes Familien Mitglied. Aber ich habe auch neue Ordner angelegt für Abgeschlossenes. Ich werde dort Sachen ablegen die wir nicht mehr brauchen aber zur späteren Information behalten sollten. Ich habe auch einen Ordner der für Aktuelles. Ich habe dort Dinge wie Restaurant Menüs, Arbeit's und Schul Telefon Nummern, Mitgliedskarten... alles was ich "jetzt" gebrauchen könnte!

I hope to be done with it by this weekend! We'll see... :-)

Ich hoffe das ich bis dieses Wochenende damit fertig bin! Mal sehen... :-)

Take Care,

Me

A little bit of friendly Competion

Do you know all 50 States? I bet you do! But could you put the name on a blank map with the capital and the postal code abbreviations?  

Pasha has to do exactly that. Next week she and all her classmates will be tested on that! When she told me about that I realized that I couldn't do it! I know most of them but not all and I sure have my problems putting the tiny little upper east coast states correctly on the map. I talked to Martin and realized that he had the same problem. And with that a family competition was born!

We had the last 3 days to learn the state names, capitals and postal code abbreviations. And tonight exactly at 18.00 we will all sit down with a blank map in front of us and test each other. The winner will get a $50 iTunes card... 

...and it has my name written all over it!!! LOL! 

But we'll see tonight!

I'll let you know who got it!

Take care, 

Me

September won't be very sweet!

I have been examining my dietary life style the last few months. My dad was diagnosed with diabetes! he is able to manage it through diet but has insulin on hand for extreme days. Both my grandmothers on my dad's and my mom's side have/had also diabetes.

I have a very sweet tooth (as my thighs and behind can testify to it!) which worries me quite a bit. I don't want to end up being diabetic if I can help it. So I decided that I need to cut my sugar intake (as if that is so easy!) or at the very least drastically reduce it!

It took me a few months to come up with a plan gather my courage and will power to tackle this issue!

My plan is that I will cut out my daily candy bars, pastries/cakes and chocolates for the month of September. At the end, I am going to see how I feel without that additional sugar. Birthdays or holidays are exempt for the most part!!!

I know there will be days where I will fail. I guess you could say that I am a realistic! I am not going to beat myself up too much about it. But I also won't give up. 

P wants to cut down on her junk food as well. I am curious how that will go!? you know that kids are a synonym for sugar! LOL! 

I'll let you know how we are doing...

Do you have an addiction you want to work on?

Take care,

Me

P.S. Today is my first day and I already bought myself a Twix! Granted I haven't eaten it which makes me wonder if the act of allowing myself to have it, makes it easier to say no to eating it? Hmmm, something to ponder...

P.P.S. Do you remember how "Twix" used to be called "Raider"? 

I still remember all those commercials in which the people do the two finger gestures! 

Taking Pictures in the School Playground

We stopped by the school playground to take some family pictures.

Have you taken your family out to a special location for picture taking purposes?

Take care,

Me

A Working Vacation!

I am officially on vacation! Kinda, but that's okay! I have a huge to-do list! 

1. Clear out the garage!

2. Clear out the basement storage!

3. Clear out the basement bedroom!

4. Sew curtains for my bookshelves!

5. Finish the guest bedroom! 

I wonder how much of that I will be able to get done?

M will be at work... but P will help (at least she promised)! And I have Jake a.k.a. fuzzy face to keep me company! :-)

Take care,

Me

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...

Do Fish bite Humans?

M and I were stationed in Ft. Riley, KS for five very long years! Now, don't give me wrong, each place has its pros and cons, and we certainly enjoyed our tour. However, would we want to go back? Probably not.

But anyway, one of the places that I remember from KS is Milford Lake.  There we went for long walks,  had picnics with friends and family, learned to drive there, and I was bitten by a fish!

It was a very hot day which turned in to an even hotter and humid night. We decided to meet up with friends at Milford Lake to indulge in some midnight swimming. So off we ran into the clearly marked area for swimming. It was dark but enough light came from the lights of beach lights so that we could see what we were doing.

Have you ever swam in a lake at night? It's creepy! The further out you go the less you'll see. The guys were making all kinds of jokes like how lucky we all were that no baracudas and sharks were in this lake. Just creepy and it didn't really help me and my over active imagination...

Ha, the wonderful memories! Anyway, suddenly I felt a bit of a sting on my thigh and I decided that midnight swimming wasn't for me and left to dry off. Up by the cars, as I was drying off I checked the area were I felt the sting earlier and realized that I had some marks there. I checked in the light, and saw that there were bite marks! M still tells me that fish don't bite but I swear they do.

So fast forward about 8 years, and I am back with P and M at a lake in Austria. We decided to have dinner at a local shore restaurant. M ordered fresh fish from the lake, and this is what they brought...

Do you see the teeth? Aren't they just huge!?! I have never seen those kind of teeth on a fish. But then I normally don't buy fish that still has the head attached :-) I am now more than ever convinced that I was bitten by a fish! What do you think? Do fish bite humans? :-)

Take care,

Me

P.S. The fish was delicious! :-)

Camping at the Plansee

We have a few must-do-things planned this summer. One of them was a bike ride with overnight camping. M planned it all out

M and P went on a very long bike ride (30kms) to the Plansee in Austria.

They made it there in 3.5 hours with quite a few steep hills. I met up with them in the evening to bring them their camping gear. The weather was actually a bit chilly (15 degrees Celcius) and I was glad that I had opted out of this little adventure. Truth be told I hate camping. I want a comfy bed and my own bathroom! I had enough of the uncomfortableness and sharing thing in the Army!

M was miserable all night. He said that his back was hurting and that next time he would definitely bring an air matress along! P had no problem at all. She said that it just got a bit chilly around midnight. But M put a third sleeping bag over them and everybody got toasty again.

The next morning the sun was shining. And by the time I came to pick them up, the lake had heated up enough that swimming was a definite possibility!

Unfortunately I didn't have much time because I had to be back by lunch time for a surveillance at work. But we spontaneously stopped at the side of the road and climbed down to the shoreline. 

M changed in to his swimming trunks and took the plunge. The water was really warm and I wished that I had my bathing suit on. P didn't want to go back up to the car so she just jumped in with her clothes on.

Even Jake enjoyed himself. We threw a stick out in to the water and he swam out to retrieve it.

We definitely must go back on a hot day just to go swimming. I might get over my fear of fish biting me (another story to tell!) :-)

Take Care,

Me

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

Coming Off The Wall

I was cooking in the kitchen when I felt some wind and a big sound right behind me. You would never guess what happened!? The wall cabinet that held our microwave, indoor grill and some serving platters came crashing down! It landed on top of my glass mixing bowls which I had just used 2 seconds prior! 

I was worried that it landed on top of our Bose Iphone stereo system which my Iphone was currently on! But the bio trashcan (white rectangular thingy with blue lid right underneath) which I was using to clean up my mess  and the microwave which slid out in the fall prevented that part of the cabinet to crash it. I would have been beyond mad!

M wasn't mad about the cabinet falling off the wall... but boy, oh boy, he was upset that another one of our favorite mixing bowls was gone. Oh well, we'll shop for new ones :-) The only casualties of this great fall were 4 serving platters, 2 mixing bowls, one cabinet and the grill! That's not too bad! :-)

It's time to reorganize the kitchen!

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 Definite Keeper

I am always amazed how much I lucked out in the husband department. Not only does my husband adore and love me... he also walks the dog day and night..., and he cleans the kitchen every night!

I wonder what I did to deserve him...?! :-)

Take care,

Me

Easter Breakfast

The promised sunshine did not materialize this morning. But we still had our Easter Breakfast outside on our patio. M made toasted German Bread and eggs and cut up some melon as well. Isn't our breakfast table super cute with my new table runner :-)

We stopped halfway through breakfast to search for the eggs that our Easter bunny M hid this morning. He did a great job of hiding those darn things. It took as quite a while to find all the eggs and the nests.  Jake helped too and found an egg which he promptly ate...

The bounty was plentyful and I loved my letters that I got from M and P. 

Oh, and as we were reading our letters to each other, Jake took the opportunity to race out of our yard and lay a couple of "eggs" in our neighbor's yard. Not good! Can you see how the guilt is written all over his face?

Take Care,

Me

A trip to Weimar

For this year’s social studies project P’s teacher decided that each kid would have the opportunity to name a topic of their liking and to write an extensive report 8-10 pages plus a PowerPoint presentation. P decided on a rather heavy topic – “Children and Teenager in Concentration Camps”! I am torn in two… on one side, it is something that P is very interested in and we should encourage her, and on the other side, it is very heavy and gruesome! How can we work through this topic without her ending up getting nightmares from it?

Thinking about all this I had flashbacks of my visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp during 8th grade. It was one of the fieldtrips that would occupy my thoughts many years later. It had a large amount of children and teenagers from 1939 – 1945 but it was a labor camp and not a death camp.

I contacted the Buchenwald administration to find out what I had to do to book a private tour with them. I found out that they didn’t let children under the age of 15 participate in tours. In fact, if we would just show up for a tour it would be very likely that the tour guide would kick us off…

I explained to them that P had to do this project for the school and that I would appreciate any help in getting something arranged. Well, I didn’t hear from them for almost 3 weeks. But then I got an email stating that they had an exception and they would be happy to arrange a private tour if we would donate to the Memorial of Buchenwald.

With our written confirmation of the tour in hand, I booked a lovely hotel in the city of Weimar. I remembered the city from my visit 20 years a long time ago. :-) The houses were much neglected, paint was peeling, and everything was grey in grey. It didn’t have a welcoming atmosphere! I was very curious to how much the city changed…

Fast forward a few more weeks. Last Friday afternoon, we left to go on our little trip to Weimar. It took 5.5 hours. I drove all the way… yes, M took the opportunity to watch a few movies in the back with P and catch a nap or two :-)

The next day we took the opportunity to get a bit acquainted with the city since our tour didn’t start until 13.30. We stopped at a shopping facility to get some breakfast (which we really didn’t like much!), some items for snack/lunch/dinner and a couple of things that I forgot to pack like my deodorant. (I always seem to do that…!)

The city itself has changed so much! The only thing that I recognized was the Goethe house. Most of the houses are renovated and show of their beautiful architecture. There were parks everywhere that just invited you to stroll through them. Oh, we just wanted to get out of the car and walk around. But no can do!!! We had an appointment to make with our tour guide.

So, we plugged in the Buchenwald address in to our trusty TomTom and off we drove. The area is so beautiful. There is a long road (5k’s as we found out) named Blood Road from the gates of Buchenwald to the front of the memorial. There were several smaller houses that housed introductory exhibitions. We stopped at the second one and walked down to the first one. It was a big bell tower within a park. A huge bronzed sculpture of a group of men and a kid was right below the bell tower. Large steps led you down to three encased large excavated mass graves. The information tablet explained that over 10,000 patriots, resistance fighters and political prisoners from 18 nations were murdered and buried there. The atmosphere of this place was strangely very peaceful!

We walked around a bit more and then headed to the front of the actual camp. We met up with our tour guide Dr. Koch. He was very kind, sweet. He told us that he specifically researched our topic for our tour. We made him work really hard! Pasha had a few questions prepared for him to which she received not only answers but also a book that has been out of print since 1989! What a treasure…

M and I had one question that seemed to haunt us as we were driving through Weimar on our way to Buchenwald. How come the people of Weimar didn’t protest against the camp or at least helped the inmates? It’s not like they could claim that they didn’t know of the existence of the camp. It is clearly visible from the city. And can you imagine if you were a inmate there… you would be able to see the city from your prison… How horrible!

Dr. Koch explained that the citizens were huge followers of Hitler. In fact, Weimar was a favorite city of his. He visited the city 36 times! They were also told that these people were all criminals and deserved to be there. And the people who didn’t agree with the Nazis kept quiet because they didn’t want to end up there. As hard as it is I understand this yet I could never stand for it personally!

If you ever have the chance to see Weimar and Buchenwald do! It’s is definitely worth a visit…

Take care

Me