One last thing...

Maybe a couple more things.

I was drifting off to sleep last night and for some reason I thought of one of our neighbors in Germany.  We first crossed paths with this woman about a week after Abbey was born.  We were all out on a walk heading to a bakery in our neighborhood and this woman stopped us to take a look at the baby.  I knew I liked her immediately, because she used all sorts of adjectives like "süß" (sweet) and "schön" (beautiful).  The conversation sticks out in our mind because after her sweet compliments of Abigail, she proceeded to ask some rather personal questions, such as "Was I breastfeeding?"  Even though I answered in the affirmative, she continued to tell us all of the benefits of doing so.  It was awesome.  We walked away from the conversation checking with each other to make sure our translating was right!  She is an older woman, and she makes me smile because I would see her a couple of times a week.  She walked with a walker, and she almost always had her dog on a leash in one hand and a cigarette in the other hand.  Every few steps with the walker she would stop and take a puff.  This woman was so nice and she became a part of our lives.  We had many conversations (generally she contributed more than I did) about an extremely wide variety of topics.  I really wish I had snuck a picture of her for posterity sake, but hopefully she'll be etched in my mind for some time to come.  I bring this up for a couple of reasons... it is certainly a huge benefit to pedestrian society, because you meet and talk with all sorts of people you wouldn't meet otherwise, which is really cool.  I also wanted to point out that when taken at face value, Germans can be pretty stoic, but when you stop and talk to them or even offer a smile, they are really warm.

I also had to post one more Germany blog because I had a couple more pictures I wanted to use!

This is Katrin and Joah... Abbey spend a lot of Sunday mornings with them (Katrin's daughter, Liel isn't pictured). 

For Christmas some of our friends gave us a "date night."  It was so nice... we were able to go to our favorite restaurant and enjoy a very nice dinner!

Abigail and one of her friends on one of our last days in Germany...

This is Miss Laura.  Miss Laura is one of Abigail's favorite people.  When I broke my arms, Laura was Abbey's 2nd mom.  She and her husband are the ones who gave us the date night, and they took these pictures while they were babysitting.  I love the mouth full of peas...

I mentioned this in my "Last Days..." blog, but this is the brunch that the Tuesday Bible Study ladies had for me.

Off we go!

 

Last Days on Rathenaustrasse

We are officially back in the Mountain Time Zone.  And feeling the effects, let me assure you.  The last two nights have included getting up for a 3:30 am snack for the little one.  Who can blame her... it's lunch time according to her body!

The last 14 days in Germany were very busy.  We got a call from someone on Thanksgiving saying that they wanted to buy our kitchen, but they had to pick it up on Sunday (as in 4 days later).  This is what a kitchen looks like after all the cabinets and appliances are sold (and after your neighbor loans you a big table and Rubbermaid containers).

Right after Thanksgiving Stu left for his annual trip to Chicago and on Monday Abbey and I went to visit a friend in Italy (blog on that will be coming at a later time).  My computer decided to stop working in the midst of our last few days, so it put a bit of a kink on communicating.  Sigh.  I seem to have a bad affect on laptops.

We got some snow, so Abbey and I took advantage of our remaining few pedestrian days to walk around.  We always have to stop to look at the bunnies.

She has since decided she doesn't really like the snow very much.  If it gets on her shoes, she reaches down and says, "Off.  Off.  Off."  Our very girly-girl.  There isn't any snow on the ground in CO right now, so I'm sure she is happy with that.

We were out on a walk one day and I saw a craft booth selling various items.  The proceeds benefited the hospital where Abigail was born, so I decided to buy a pillow.  It was a good choice... she loves it and has to have it to sleep with in her cot now.

Sometimes when it's very quiet, Abbey will be sitting on a pillow looking at a book.  From what I have observed with toddlers, when there is silence, quiet book-reading usually isn't the norm.  If you click on the picture to see it larger, you will notice that the q-tips have been happily released from their box.

Every week Abbey and I go next door for a playgroup.  There are several kids around her age that go (some not pictured).  Poor Abigail had just returned from the doctor, having been diagnosed with bronchitis and an ear infection. 

One of the benefits of being sick is that she gets to watch a little TV.

We had a Ladies Night and went to the Erlangen Weihnachtsmarket (Christmas Market).  The snow certainly gave it an ambiance. 

Warming up with some tasty Greek food.  Yum!

The ladies at my church had a very nice international brunch on the last Tuesday before we left.  Abbey and I got to enjoy some scones with jam and cream, quiche, Chinese fried noodles, sausage (of course) and a lot of other dishes from different areas of the world.  I think I speak for Abbey and Stu when I say how much we will miss Erlangen.  We had such an amazing exposure to so many different cultures.  Thank you all for impacting our lives.

Our short time here (ctd.)

Here is the next group!

1. Being seated at a communal table with several other families.
2. Ending a sentence with "oder..."
3. The historical architecture (of course!).
4. Rouladen window shades (google it if you don't know).
5. Shops being closed on Sunday (I know it sounds crazy, but I really do think I'll miss it!  For a short time, anyway).
6. Having all of our family and friends come visit.
7. My wonderful neighbor.
8. Mustard.
9. Nürnberger sandwiches.
10. Tasty bread.

Our short time here...

As I have been strolling around town these past few days I've been thinking about the many things I will miss when we move from our town (which is set to be around Dec. 11).  We have had such a lovely time here.  I feel so blessed by the opportunity to experience a different culture (albeit a somewhat minor change as there are so many ex-pats in our area!).  In our short time here (slightly less than 2 years), we have experienced the growth of our family from 2 to 3, two encounters with the German hospital system, traveled to many different countries, made many friends, and in the process made thousands of memories and taken a few thousand pictures.  

I am cataloging some of my favorite aspects of being here.  Sure there are things that I won't miss, but what is the fun in remembering the negative, right?!  I am planning on doing more than one post because I don't have the brain power to remember so many things at one time.  Plus, I really should be organizing and "packing" right now.  And you guys really might not be that interested anyway.  It's really for my sake than anyone elses, I'm sure.

In no particular order... 


1. My daily walks to the store or into town.
2. Biergartens.
3. The neighboring toddler's little handprints on my back door, inviting "Ab-eeeeeyyyy" to come play.
4. The chiming bells of our neighborhood church.
5. My lovely lady friends from IJG and playgroup.
6. At our church, hearing all of the lovely accents from people coming from every area of the world, all coming together in a town in Franconia, Germany.
7. The extremely charming "Hauptstrasses" in all of the cities and villages, that are only for pedestrians.
8. The pastries.  Oh, the pastries.
9. Speaking a different language (Well, trying to speak a different language.  Butchering might be a more appropriate term).
10. The nice check-out ladies at the stores I frequent, who always are patient with my poor German and are always sweet to little A.

Taken one of the first days we were here...

Here we go again...

I've actually been "well" enough to blog for the past several days, I just haven't sat down to write.  The last few weeks have obviously been a bit of a departure from my normal day-to-day activities, so it's taken a bit of time to get used to cleaning, cooking, etc!  We had live-in help every day for the first three weeks (thanks, Grandma!) and another friend who has been helping out since early August. 
My latest report is this... no more casts, no more braces!  It's freedom from here out!  My range-of-motion is returning, albeit a bit more slowly than I had hoped for.  My right arm, which was actually the more severe break of the two, seems to be recovering more quickly than the left.  I'm sure most of that stems from the fact that I am right-handed so I probably have more strength and flexibility there.  Slow and steady wins the race, though, right?  I am hoping that I will be able to completely straighten both arms in the next couple of weeks, which means no physical therapy.
It has been an interesting (almost) six weeks.  I have learned a lot about myself, which is always good.  When you are unable to complete the simplest of tasks ("Can you scratch my nose for me?" or "Can I have a bite of the potatoes now, please?"), you learn just how important it is to be able to ask for and accept help.  I am so blessed by how frequently I didn't even need to ask, though.  We had dozens of people who offered things before we even realized we needed them, and were willing to help in any way possible.  Okay, maybe not everyone was wanting to scratch my nose for me, but from changing Abbey's diapers to cleaning and cooking, our needs and beyond were met.  God has blessed us with an amazing community here in Germany, and I am so grateful for His provision of such wonderful friends.  I have also been blessed with an extremely patient husband who had to put up with a lot of complaining on my part, as well as taking on the role of #1 caregiver to a 14 month old and 29 year old all while being the #1 breadwinner (well, really he's the only breadwinner).  I can't imagine how tiring that must have been!  Poor thing... I don't know how he stayed so patient with me saying, "Can you please brush the back of my teeth again?  They don't feel clean..." 
Thank you all for your prayer, encouragement and kind words.  They were uplifting and so helpful in a time that was relatively difficult for all of us.  I'm so glad things seem to be getting back to nomal.  I think if there's really any lesson that can be taken from this, it is that exercise is more harmful than it is good.  Well, maybe that's not the primary lesson.  It should probably be that one should frequently check the status of one's shoelaces whilst out-and-about.  Oh, and if you're falling, tuck-and-roll.  Hmmm... maybe there are several lessons that could be learned...

Randomness

A conglomeration of thoughts and musings! 
Last weekend we met some friends of ours in the Fränkische Schweiz (Franconian Switzerland).  It is a historic region made up of small towns, forests and big hills and valleys.  If you are interested, you can read more about the area HERE.  The goal was for the men to get to do some climbing and the rest of us would relax and play.  The weather turned out to be quite cool, so we didn't get to spend as much time picnicking as we had hoped, but we enjoyed a nice walk.  Even Giraffe was able to go.

Abigail has discovered that she really likes to carry things around.  We bought a new pair of shoes for her and they don't quite fit yet, so I left them in the bag.  It has since become her favorite purse.  She scootches around with it (she still doesn't crawl) and when she walks, a lot of the time she'll carry it.  It's really adorable.  We also received a pull-duck as a gift, and she is trying to pull it.  She generally just ends up picking it up and walking around with it, though.  

Mouse snack: 

I was in the store the other day and there was a nice looking seedless watermelon, so I decided to buy it.  I left a few chunks on the rind.  It was so funny watching Abbey crunching away at her watermelon.  She loved it... every time she would take a bite, she would get a huge smile and look at us.   

Yummy in our tummy!

The Wonders of a Tape Measurer

Abbey discovered our tape measurer the other night and was quite intrigued by it!  She spent several minutes pulling the tab and watching the tape come out, then letting it go so it would fly back into the cartridge.  She would then look for the tape on the other side of the cartridge.  She couldn't quite figure out what was going on...

On another note, I love it when the weather is warm so she can wear her cute summer clothes!

As you can see, I love the H&M plaids!

Summer

We woke up this morning to sunshine coming through our curtains at 5:15 am (and then went back to sleep).  It had been quite a few days since we had seen the sun in our town, so Abigail and I decided to take advantage of it!  We went on our normal walk, but we made a stop in a park downtown so Abigail could get out and stretch her legs. 

I generally don't mind cloudy and drizzly days, but it does limit what we can do outside quite a bit!  We crawled around and played in the grass for awhile.  I seemed to be (once again) one of the only moms that was acknowledging the warmer weather.  There were quite a few other kids with jackets on! 

This was my favorite part:

My first flower picked by my daughter.  We were walking along and she stopped dead in her tracks, plopped down and picked the flower.  She touched it, felt the petals and studied it, then she turned around looking for my hand and placed the beautiful little flower in my palm.  So lovely.  A few minutes later I was the lucky recipient of two rocks.  She really enjoys sharing her treasures.

On the way home we had to stop for some Eis (ice cream, that is).  Eis is an amazing phenomenon here in Germany in the summers.  On a warm sunny day, I would say 1 in 2 people, no matter their age is consuming ice cream outside in the sun.  It is so cool and a fun part of the culture!  So I had to indulge myself and I bought eine Kugel (1 scoop) Mint Eis in Waffeln (waffle cone)!  I also couldn't help myself with this... Abigail's first real taste of Eis.  I am pretty anti-sweets for her and we tend to eat pretty healthy.  I really was just curious to see what she did with it.  She barely stuck her tongue out and tasted it.  Then it was a full-fledge lunge to suck the ice cream as fast as she could.  She didn't get much, but she enjoyed what she did!  I can't say that I'm surprised... it was quite tasty.  I think more than anything she liked how cold and wet it was!

Remnants of our ice cream (as she tries to grab my phone):

Happy Summer!

Mom and Dad come to town - Birthday and Prague

My parents came to visit us a couple of weeks ago.  As always, we are very excited when we have family and friends willing to make the long trek to see us.  This visit was particularly exciting because in the midst of it we had a party to celebrate the little girl's birthday!  Cupcakes were eaten and songs were sung... what a wonderful time!

She ate her cupcake very daintily at first.  Once she was used to everyone's eyes being trained on her, she excitedly dug into it!

I love celebrating birthdays.  It's such a nice way to show someone how appreciative you are of their life and their place in yours!  We are so grateful for our little girl.  She is so beautiful and we love how excited she gets when she learns something new.  Her eyes light up and she has a look of pure elation.  She really enjoyed getting to know her Grammy and Grandad better.  Having someone's constant attention will certainly win hearts over!  I love that my parents were able to witness her growing and changing. 

The day after my parents arrived, we drove over to Prague.  Our navi took us on a bit of a sidetrip... in case you were wondering, Plzeň really isn't worth seeing.  The main reason for the drive to Prague was to visit my cousin, his wife and meet my new little nephew.  The little guy was so sweet... just 8 days old when we got there!

Prague was nice.  We were able to spend a few hours wandering the city and taking in all of the sights.  We visited the Old City and also Vyšehrad, which was nice because it was a little bit less touristy. 

I couldn't help myself... they were so tasty.

Here we are celebrating Abigail's actual birthday.  When she woke up on her birthday we opened some presents and then we ate cupcakes again that night!

Happy birthday, little one!