Monday, December 6, 2010

Talent Show

 

Our Ward Primary had a talent show this last Saturday.  For two weeks prior to this event Ethan had been talking about playing his harmonica for his talent.  He was so excited about it and kept getting after me to sign him up for it.  Well, being the procrastinator mom that I am, two days before the show, I finally sign him up.  The night before the show we were out late at a christmas market and when we got home he realized he hadn’t practiced at all for the show.  In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I had heard him play it.  He wanted us to set his alarm for 6 a.m. the next morning so he could practice.  Luckily we talked him into 7 a.m. because that is just insanely too early for a Saturday morning.  Turns out when he got up he couldn’t find his harmonica.  He looked everywhere.  He finally found it minutes before we left and of course we were running late.  So on the way over I talk him into playing it at least once so he would be somewhat prepared before getting up on stage.  I was so impressed with him.  When it was his turn, he went right up and played his harmonica without any hesitation and did a great job.  This kid won’t talk to people, but he has the confidence to play an instrument he hasn’t practiced in front of a room full of people.  Sometimes I wonder if we are related because I would definitely have to practice for a month before I would agree to perform in front of anyone.

 

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Another Learning Experience

 

Today I decided to go to Pflanzen-Kolle.  This place is amazing.  It’s a garden center that’s two levels with a craft section, a large christmas decoration section, and even a pet store with the cutest bunnies you’ve ever seen.  I saw that they were selling christmas trees the last time I was there, so I went today to see how much they are…turns out they are a lot more than I want to spend on a tree that’s dying.  Anyway, I didn’t want to come away empty handed so I decided to buy some poinsettas.  I decided on three different ones and a bag of potting soil.  I didn’t have any change with me, so I couldn’t get a cart.  I found one of those carrying baskets and I put half of my stuff in there and carried the other half.  When I went to purchase I got instructed in German that I could not put my basket on the counter and had to empty it and put it away before I could purchase anything…at least this is what I gathered from the hand gestures she was making because I didn’t understand any of it.  Once I made it through that part and paid for everything.  I gathered everything in my arms and started walking out.  Then I heard some more very stern instructions in German again.  I turned around, and yes, she was talking to me.  This time I could not figure out what she was saying, so I asked “Sprechen Sie English?” and of course she didn’t, but luckily another customer did and told me I had to wrap my plants before I could leave.  I was a little bit confused, but I walked over to the wrappings and tried to wrap my plants by watching someone else.  Apparently I wasn’t doing it right because she came over and showed me how.  I had to do the other two on my own after that.  Who knew that buying three little plants was going to be so difficult.  The thing I learned from all of this, is that these things don’t bother me anymore.  Who knew?  I feel embarrassed or stupid.  These are common feelings I used to get anytime I tried doing anything on my own in the economy.  I must be growing up or getting used to it so much that it’s normal now :)  Anyway, I had to take a picture of my cute little wrapped babies.  The two I wrapped are on the left.  I have to say, I did a pretty good job for my first time (after being instructed, that is) :)

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I realized when planting my little babies that the wrappings are an ingenious idea.  I did it all of the potting on the paper, which meant very little clean-up.  Also, I didn’t have to worry about the soil spilling all over in the car and I think it kept them warmer out in the freezing weather.  So, once again, the Germans have another great idea.  Maybe we do this in the U.S. too, but I’m not an experienced plant buyer…obviously :)

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Monday, November 29, 2010

Warm Sand

 

After freezing today, I started reminiscing about the good old days of warm sand between my toes and flip flops.  I don’t know if it’s a good thing to do or not, but I had to change my blog picture in hopes of creating happy, warm thoughts that will in turn trick my mind into thinking that I’m actually warm.  It may just be a cruel thing to do to myself.  We’ll see.  Either way, I think we have pretty cute feet :)

Starting off the Season Right

Halloween and Thanksgiving came and went so quickly that it didn’t really even feel like they happened.  So we are really wanting to get into the Christmas spirit this year.  This afternoon we wanted to do it right by going to our very first German Christmas Market.  It was as much fun as I thought it would be, but super cold.  We’ve been home for almost two hours now and my toes are still frozen.  I’m a little worried about this winter and whether or not I will survive it.  As you can see from the pictures, it is already snowing and sticking.  It sure does make things beautiful though.

The Christmas Market was full of good smelling food, yummy hot chocolate, shops with all kinds of fun trinkets, music, lights and christmas decorations.  It definitely got me into the spirit and of course we didn’t come away empty handed.  In fact, there are chocolate covered strawberries on a stick downstairs that I’m dying to try, but I have to wait for James to get home.  This is taking a lot of restraint and self-control on my part!

Ethan looks so happy and full of energy right here, ready to go explore the market.  It didn’t last though, he was dragging by the end and fell asleep on the way home.  I think that means he had a good time.

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That IS Ethan in the picture, if you can find him.  It was so pretty with all of the Christmas lights.  The picture doesn’t do it justice.

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Rudesheim was a great place to go for our first market, but it is not going to be our last.  We are going to try to go to another one this weekend, maybe in Weisbaden.  I can’t wait to see what we will find there.  I have the christmas shopping bug in me now.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Pastry

 

On Monday, Ethan and I decided to try our local bakery and then take our treats to the river to enjoy.  I wasn’t wanting anything sweet, so I decided to get a plain roll.  Ethan, on the other hand, had a hard time choosing with all of the different kinds of donuts they had.  He decided on this very fluffy looking one with white frosting and coconut on top.  On the way to the river, we talked bout sharing our treats so we could try each others.  He finally agreed upon sharing one bite, but anymore than that was not fair because I only had a roll and he had a donut.  When we pulled them out of the bag, we noticed his had some dark stuff on the outside.  To me, it looked like a chocolate filling and he got really excited.  We shared our first bites, then enjoyed our treats.  I was so hungry I finished my very tasty roll before he got to his center.  Come to find out, it was not chocolate in the middle.  I have no idea what it was.  I tasted a very strong cinnamon, sugar, some kind of fruit, like prunes or something, and some other very strong spices that I couldn’t distinguish.  Needless to say, he did not like it.  We tried squeezing it out, but it only made it worse.  Poor kid, was so disappointed and I didn’t have any of my roll to share with him.  That should teach us to order something I couldn’t pronounce.  He enjoyed collecting shells at the river anyway.

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Here are some pictures of our street, our gate to our house, and our front door.

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It doesn’t look like much, but we enjoy calling it home.  One of these days, if we ever get it done, I will post pictures of the inside.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Eltville and the Rhein

A few weeks ago James and I had the pleasure of watching some friends’ kids while they went on vacation.  It was very eye opening for all three of us.  I’m afraid we tend to get set in our ways and routines and so we had to do some adjusting, but we enjoyed having Grant and Sydney with us for the week.  One of the days we decided to get the kids out of the house and explore our cute little village, Eltville, and walk along the Rhein.  We are so fortunate to be only a ten minute walk from the river.DSCN0931 DSCN0930

The peach colored building on the corner on the right is our bakery.  Yes, it is only a couple of minutes from our house.  I ventured there for the first time today.  It was awesome!  I haven’t been that impressed with the other bakeries we’ve visited so far, but this one was sooo good.  I cannot wait to go back.  Ethan went with me and I took a picture of him with the treat he picked out.  I will have to post it and share the rest of the story soon.

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There are a lot of really cute shops down this strasse.  They are expensive, but their stuff is super cute.

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I love the cobblestone streets too, except when I’m in heals.  We were at the temple on Saturday and they have cobblestone walkways around the temple.  I wore heals and that was not so much fun.

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The leaves are so beautiful right now too.  I am loving fall here!

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Along the river they have all of these benches set up with these very cute trees.  I keep saying I’m going to come down here and enjoy a good book for an afternoon, but I’ve waited too long and now it is way too cold.  Who knows, maybe I’ll brave it anyway.

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Poor Ethan, just as I pushed the button to take this picture, he biffed it on the rocks.  I have such great timing.

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Here is our very own castle.

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Right next to the castle is this beautiful flower garden.  The smells in here are amazing.

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I would love to live in this place and have a view of the garden from my windows.

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Here’s another bench I want to come sit on and read.

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The doorway to the secret garden, as Ethan calls it.

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Friday, October 15, 2010

Auerbach Castle

Our first castle experience!!  We ventured there while we were still in the army hotel, so this was over a month ago.  This was before the leaves were really starting to turn colors and while we could still wear short sleeves.  I put a lot of pictures on here, but keep in mind that this is actually only about 1/3 of what I took.  It was hard to narrow it down, it was such a fun experience for us.

 

This is the outside of the castle as we walk up to it.

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These buildings are just outside the castle.  they have the restaurant, snack bar, and gift shop in them.

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It was so amazing to look out at the city and hills surrounding the castle.  It was very beautiful there and you felt very high up.

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This tree was my favorite part.

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I didn’t realize it until I looked back at these pictures and saw that Ethan was wearing his USA shirt.  That explains why people were staring at us so much.  You get a lot of stares when people realize you are American.  I try to have him avoid wearing that when we are out in the economy, but somehow it slipped passed me.  He’s just proud to be an American, I guess.  It’s his favorite shirt.

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If only I could get one of these for our house for time out.

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