BOOO Dudes!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

This is the first year that we didn't go around trick or treating, but we still carved our pumpkin and Colin put on his costume! He is going to have a party Friday so will have lots more fun then. He dressed up tonight hoping to scare some trick or treaters but it was too cold for him to stay outside too long, especially since he is trying to get over his brochitus. I went bowling and wore my sequined devil horns and tail. I don't know if it helped me bowl well or not but I sure had fun! Life is too short to be too serious all the time right? Colin and Bill said they got two groups of trick or treaters...one was a group of 13 girls...ALL dressed up like witches! Imagine that! So anyway, the last picture for a photo a day for a month....Colin in his costume..and his jackOlantern. I think his pumpkin looks a LOT like his mask doesn't it? Cool!!

Getting ready for Halloween!

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures in a few days....you know how weekends are. Saturday Colin was still feeling under the weather so he slept in and Bill and I went to the big yard sale they had in the big tent at Patrick Henry Village (the army base where the boys go to school and most military folks around here live there). We found some jeans for Colin, replaced his game boy that got stolen from our Jeep (right in our own driveway! That and a bunch of CDs are GONE!) and Bill found a laptop computer. He has been wanting one for awhile so that was a worthwhile trip for sure. We also went to a flea market in the evening and I got a bunch of small gourds for Colin's Halloween party. He is going to have his party next weekend since he THOUGHT he was going to be camping this weekend and Halloween night is a school night. Did everyone remember to set their clocks back from daylight savings time? We had to get on the internet to find the instructions for Bill's watch so we could reset it but otherwise no problem. I used that extra time to get some more shuteye! I LOVE to sleep late!!!



Sunday we all went out and did some more shopping for Colin's big party. We lucked out at the PX...all the Halloween stuff was 50% off! yeah! We got a cool huge creepy skeleton ghost thing that we hung up in the courtyard and some other goodies. We also got most of the groceries we will need for the treats. I will get the fresh veggies the day of the party so they don't go bad. As the day went on Colin's cough really started to get pretty bad and he was slowing down. By the time we got home he was pretty tired and then around 9PM he felt warm. We took his temperature and it was up to 102.2! Guess who didn't go to school Monday! My photo for the day is the wagon I decorated with Colin's pumpkin and his gourds.



Since Colin stayed home from school Monday we decided we better take him over to see the doctor and find out why this fever wanted to hang around for so long. Luckily we were able to get him an appointment without any trouble and didn't have to wait to long in the waiting room either. Poor Colin has bronchitus and the Dr. also asked us to go and get an Xray of his chest to see if he has pnemonia. He said that regardless of which one he would be prescribed the same medicine so we didn't need to wait for the results of the Xray. So home we went with a bag full of medicines for Colin to take and a note to show to his teachers so they wouldn't think he has been playing hooky all this time! Thank goodness the antibiotic he prescribed is a strong fast acting one. Colin should be back in school Wednesday. My photo of the day is all poor Colin's medicine...

A sick car and a sick kiddo...

Just like your kids need checkups every year so does my car. It's really cool too...I have little lights on my dashboard that go from green to yellow to red to let me know when it is time to take it in. Unfortunately my car isn't the newest car on the road, but it gets me where I need to go pretty reliably. This time during it's checkup we found out that it had a broken strut arm thingy and so if I didn't want to worry about having a wheel fall off someday I had to get that fixed up. Luckily our car repair place is just a few doors down from our house and I am able to just walk home. The guys who run the shop are really nice and do a great job keeping my car going and Bill says that we don't have to worry about them trying to fix something that doesn't need to be fixed. My car was all fixed up yesterday and I was able to pick it up so my photo of the day is of Thomas, our car's doctor. (Hi Thomas!)



This weekend Colin was SUPPOSED to go on a campout with the Boy Scouts and I was supposed to go to the gym this morning with my friend Karen. INSTEAD I opted out of the gym (welllll....new things sometimes are tricky!) and while I was hope the phone rang and on the other end of the line was the school nurse telling me that Colin had a 101 degree temperature and I needed to come and get him. Poor guy! Well it is a good thing I didn't go to the gym anyway. I got Colin home and some Motrin into him and he slept the afternoon away on the couch. Bill and I had to coordinate and drive the food to the Scout Hut (I forgot to mention that Colin was "grubmaster" for this trip so we had a fridge full of food and also the Jeep had the stuff that didn't need to be cold.) Hopefully Colin will feel better tomorrow and can hook up with the scouts for their activities in the afternoon. They are going to earn their shooting sports merit badge and will be on the target range. We are keeping up with the Motrin so that fever stays down!!! My photo for today is poor Colin getting his temperature taken by the school nurse.

Passing the Hugs

Thank you Cathy Territo for sharing this with me! Cathy is one of my friends from the boards at Scrap That Moment and she has a blog too. I was checking it out this morning and saw the coolest video short I just HAVE to share it with everyone here too! I have been sending the link out in my emails as well. If you haven't smiled today then definately click on this link and you will find yourself smiling and if you aren't careful you might even get misty eyed too. (I did!) So without any further ado.....Passing on The Hugs! Click on it!

More daily pix!

I have been busy trying to get some ideas in the works for my Design Team projects for this month at Scrap That Moment so I have been late getting my pictures of the day up. (Plus I liked that kitty picture so much I hated to see it not be the one that is on top when you open my blog....heehee)



I came across this cute little decoration the other day when I was at the checkout counter in the PX. I just had to have it! So now it is riding around with me in my car. That is my Oct 23 photo. TOo fun!

Tuesday we were awakened by the sound of a LOT of rain falling outside. It was so loud I thought it was the wind blowing, but even then if it was the wind it was a storm. Bill said it was pouring so much that he could have taken a shower in the courtyard if he had wanted to. (I'm sure our neighbors are pleased that he didn't!) By the time I got up the rain had gone but the wind was blowing so hard I couldn't keep the windows of the house open. I think the wind blew all the rain clouds away. The wind kept pulling the windows closed so hard that I was afraid the glass would break. Before I closed the windows I got a picture of the curtains blowing out. (It was the only way I could think of to get a picture of the wind...)



Today I had to stay at home cuz my car had to go to the shop to get its every so often inspection. I'm not sure how often it goes in....the lights on the dashboard go from green to yellow to red and when they inspect it they reset them to green for me. At least the shop is just down on the corner from our house...I just walked home after I dropped it off. This afternoon I walked around the corner to other way to visit my friend Karen and her doggies. Her dogs think that I come by just to see them, they get so excited. I got a picture of my buddy Savannah for today's photo. Isn't she cute? She is so sweet.

What a GORGEOUS weekend!

I can't believe it is more than halfway through October already but it is. We have had the house windows open all weekend and Colin even wore shorts Sunday and was not the least bit chilly. We just talked to Jeffrey on the phone and he was saying it has been SNOWING in Nebraska...what a difference! Amazing. Saturday we went to a local farm to get our jack-o-lantern pumpkin. They didn't have all that many to choose from but Colin found one he liked so that's all that mattered. They were also selling freshly pressed apple juice from a huge vat. You buy the jug and they give you whatever amount you want. We just got a liter because we didn't know if we would like it or not. Well it was like drinking a liquid apple...INCREDIBLY fresh and sweet and delicious...there is NO comparison to the stuff we buy in the store. We will be back to fill our jug next time for sure. Just as we left I spotted a cute kitten taking a nap in a straw filled wagon surrounded by gourds. I couldn't resist petting him and getting a few pictures. He was so sweet! So you KNOW what my picture for Saturday has to be!




Sunday was another pretty day so we drove over towards the town of Worms where we used to live 12 years ago. After poking around in a few flea markets we took a nice drive in the countryside and strolled around a few picturesque villages before it got too dark for pictures so we headed home. One of the places we poked around in was another apple farm..there was what looked like a HUGE bunker filled with apples. There were jugs of juice stacked all over and the smell of apples made it almost like we could taste them. So to finish out what kinda sounds like the total apple weekend I chose a picture of just a FEW of the apples in the pile for my photo of the day for Sunday.

A few days of photos

I was feeling kinda crummy yesterday so I didn't get my photo of the day up. It was weird...I was feeling fine, went out to run some errands (including stopping by the Arts and Crafts store for some ModPodge and magnets and they had PRIMA flowers!), when just as I was finishing up in the commissary (grocery store on the base) I started feeling incredibly achy and sore all over. I wasn't sick to my stomach or sniffly or coughing or anything...I just HURT! We had an easy dinner of tacos and I hung out on the couch most of the night. Dunno what it was but I feel MUCH better today. Weird. So anyways..the picture for yesterday is the sign out in front of the arts and crafts store. My big excitement for the day..whoohooo!



Sooo...here it is Friday evening. Colin is in front of the TV doing what he does most nights when he gets home from school...emptying his pockets. I found a neat box at the flea market last weekend for him to put his treasures in cuz wow he carries a LOT of stuff in his pockets every day. I got a picture of him as he was sorting through it all. I think I'm gonna do a scrapbook page about it all. It is amazing how much stuff a pair of cargo pants will hold! Yes...all the stuff in that box in the picture and even more was in his pockets today..and most days!

I got Tagged!!!!

I feel like one of the popular kids!! LOL Or maybe Eeyore the donkey..."Thanks for noticing me..." Too fun!!!!! Thanks Nancy!!!

Umm now...this is how it works...
Nancy Jones tagged me and now I gotta come up with 5 Random things related to the number 5...and also 5 weird things about me. THEN I tag some more people and THEY have to do it too. Hmmm...who is gonna get tagged next. Are there no 'tag backs'? LOL Well I better get thinking about my 5 random things first....

1. I have 5 Mountain Dews left in my fridge. (Time to get more!)
2. I need to return 5 things to the library today.
3. If you add up the numbers in our house number it comes out to 5.
4. There are 5 people logged in at Scrap That Moment right now.
5. There are 5 cushions on our corner sectional.

Hmmmm...5 weird things about me...maybe I should call Bill, I'm sure he could think up 5 REAL fast! Meee..weird??? Nawwwww....

1. I am VERy loud during my bowling league. Hey..I like to have fun! One of my son's friends told me last week to eat less sugar. Nope! Oh...and did I mention I am SHY! Yes I am really, you would think the shy girl would be QUIET!
2. I like eggs for breakfast...but you GOTTA have meat with them or forget it!
3. Fingernail polish makes my fingernails feel like they can't breathe!! I can FEEL them suffocating under it! Ewww!
4. I like my fries with mayo and buffalo wing sauce.
5. I dream about the dog I had when I was a kid all the time.

OK....nuff about ME....lets seee...who is gonna get tagged next??!
Hmmm....Lynette Daniel cmon down!!!! Cari Locken..yup, you've been tagged!!! Di Hickman...it's your turn!!! Chelsea Kocina....I chose you!! Robin B.....you get to play too!!! Heeheee....no tag backs!!! LOL

Bill the Chef

Bill is a GREAT cook! He is good at figuring out what tastes good and just making stuff. I need a recipe and amounts and all that. We grew a bunch of zuccini in our garden this year and he came up with a great way to use it. We all love it, I bet you would to! My garden is pretty much finished for this year but Bill found a zucchini out there today so we got to have him masterpiece one last time.


Bill's Zucchini Tomato Potato side dish

Slice up zuccinni from garden
Suate in olive oil with italian spices til soft or til it's brown.
Dice up canned potatoes
either use can of tomatoes or dice up same amount of fresh ones
When the zuccinni is pretty much cooked throw in tbsp minced garlic and stir in
Add tomatoes and potatoes
let it warm through, only takes a few minutes
You can add celery if you want...we had some this time so we did but you don't have to.
add seasoned bread crumbs (a cup?)
mix it up and enjoy!

Tuesday night is league night!

I joined a mixed bowling league this fall and Tuesday is our night to go out and play. It has been so much fun. I used to league bowl way back when Bill and I first got married but I stopped when the boys were born and never really went back to it. Jeffrey bowled on a youth league the past two years and is quite good. I am so glad that I decided to join again. My first week I didn't score so well but every week I have improved and gotten into my groove again. Last week I got a 175! I like to get excited and cheer for everyone and try to get the others to get into it too. After all what's the point of it if not to get out and have some fun?!

To the country!

Sunday we headed south of Dublin to explore the countryside. Unfortunately it was a fairly wet day and we had to take refuge in the car for part of it. We started out in a small village just in the mountains called Enniskerry and headed through the mountains to Glendalough "the valley of the two lakes". There is a 6th century monastic site there with picturesque ruins you can wander around and look through and lots of stone crosses. We also hiked up to a waterfall that is between the two lakes and had some lunch at a kiosk there. After that we headed up and up a VERY steep narrow road to follow the scenic Military Road. It is said to be some of the emptiest and most rugged landscapes in the county. I read that they filmed some of the battle scenes from the movie Braveheart there because of the great expanses of nothing. That is the part of the trip Colin said he enjoyed the most...he calls it "the nothing". It truly was a unique kind of landscape, no trees, very few buildings, just rocks and blanket bog. We saw a few waterfalls and a group of sheep but mostly fog and bog. Unfortunately the fog and rain made it impossible to get a picture that does it justice.

All my friends live in there!

That's why my friend Karen says when her computer or internet is down..."I can't be without it...all my friends live in there!!!" It's amazing how we have come to rely on our computers every day. We booked our entire Ireland trip online: tickets, car rental, lodging, everything! Our kids need to use the computer too...their teachers assume that everyone has internet and have a special website they use to keep us informed about homework and things. No more notes home in the backpacks. Today was a computer day for us. Colin had a paper to do, I did some (very basic) digital scrapbooking so I could update my blog, Bill did business, we all entertained ourselves and communicated with friends and family. So that's why my photo for Oct. 16 is our computer. What would we do without it?

Éirinn go Brách!

I bet you thought I was going to forget to share some more pictures and stuff from our Ireland trip (maybe you were hoping I would! LOL). No way!

Our first day we decided to spend in Dublin. I asked the lady who manages the hostel we stayed in for advice on the best way to get into the city and park and she recommended we park in a nearby suburb and take the bus in. The place she told us to park in was perfect, the buses came every 10 minutes and I didn't have to try to brave the Dublin city traffic. The bus let us out right next to the Spire. The Spire is a 400ft. tall tapering steel column, the tallest sculpture in the world. We walked from there to Temple Bar, Dublin's cultural center where we got a tourist map and figured out our plan of attack for the rest of the day. We backtracked to the Ha'penny Bridge (so named because at one time it was the only pedestrian bridge over the river and the toll to cross was one half penny) so I could get a few pictures then headed towards Trinity College so we could see the Book of Kells. We had to wait in a line to get in to the library where the book is kept and it was very crowded. The Book of Kells is a transcription of the Bible's 4 gospels dating from the year 800 and is decorated with all sorts of drawings and designs. After we finished there we walked to Christ Church Cathedral and looked around in there. It has a different feel than other cathedrals we have visited but is very beautiful. Bill and I were fascinated with the floor tiles and we both took several pictures of just the floor! After that we went back across the river to try to visit St. Michan's Church. We had read in a guidebook that there the bodies in the vault are preserved into mummies and Colin just HAD to get a look at that! Unfortunately by the time we got there the church had closed. So we trudged up the hill to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is the largest cathedral in Ireland and is said to be located on the site where a holy well was that St. Patrick used for baptisms. The church is full of old flags and heraldic banners, many in tatters and barely holding together. Fascinating! As we walked back towards the river was stopped by Dublin Castle, but it had closed already also so we could only take pictures of the outsides of it. We walked through the Temple Bar area before heading to our bus stop and got a feel of the evening pub crowd and enjoyed seeing the colorful pub fronts and hearing the music and laugher and singing from the open doors as we walked by. We were very footsore and tired by the time we got back to our car, and had a quick fish and chips takeout meal before heading to bed.

Enjoy it while it lasts...

It has been SO incredibly nice out the past week! Definately not the typical grey, wet, chilly miserable kinda fall weather that I expect to have here. The sky has been blue, the sun has been shining...who can complain?! I couldn't resist dragging out the BBQ last night and cooking some steaks. It won't be long before I won't be able to do that so I better enjoy it while I can. Sooo...today's photo of the day for Oct. 15 is my nice hot coals. And yes...the steaks were magnificent!!!

Empty Nest weekend!

Colin went on a boy scout camping trip to Stuttgart this weekend so Bill and I have the house all to ourselves! So that is my picture of the day for Oct. 13.

A kid free house...that doesn't happen very often. I met Bill at his office after I dropped Colin off and we went to downtown Heidelberg to enjoy the nice evening. Surprisingly it was very quiet even though the weather was gorgeous and the stores were open. We mostly poked around some streets we haven't been down before and looked in an antique shop we like before stopping for dinner at Mandy's...a simple but good Thai restaurant. There is a flea market today in Heidelberg...so we are going to go see what treasures we can find. Whoohoo!!

When we were downtown we happened on a display that was created out of a whole bunch of blocks of wood that they apparently sent around to different schools around the world and had kids decorate on the theme of peace. They had them all put together in a big fence kinda thing and I guess it goes from town to town or something. Very interesting. So I kinda fudged on the picture of the day...I chose 2 so you can see them all put together and also a closeup of a few of them. It was a neat exhibit.

What did the momma tomato say to the baby tomato?

......"KETCHUP!" (as she bonks him on the head)

And that's what I need to do today...catch up on my photo for every day in October.

Here's the photo for Oct. 6....




We left for Ireland Friday. The whole trip went very smoothly, no traffic trouble or delays in the airport and the directions we were given to where we were staying were great. It was a bit tricky at first getting used to driving on the left and shifting with my left hand, but it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. (The last time we rented a car where we had to drive on the left we asked for an automatic transmission but forgot to this time.) We stopped at a fish and chips place Slane where our hostel is and then went and checked into our room. What a nice cozy place it was! We were greeted by their sheepdog "Shep" and borrowed a few travel books and a deck of cards from the sitting room before settling in for the night.

The next morning I asked the lady for her recommendation on where to park in Dublin and she suggested driving to the town of Ashbourne and taking the bus from there so that's what we did. It was a great tip and we didn't have to worry about navigating city traffic and dealing with parking. I will tell more about our Dublin day in another post. Here is a picture I took of a guy playing a fiddle on the street downtown. What an interesting character!




Sunday we decided to take a drive in the countryside south of Dublin. It was a very wet day, but we expected that so off we went with our umbrellas. Everything was so GREEN and beautiful. We all wished we had more time to explore and take it all in.



Monday was our last day...we had a tough time deciding what to do. There were several things we wanted to do in Dublin but had run out of time to do them, and we loved the countryside and wanted to see more of that too. Colin was pretty excited about going back into Dublin so that is what we ended up doing. One of the things we did was tour the Guiness storehouse. When we have been to Ireland in the past we all got a kick out of the fun Guiness ads on pubs and things...so it is only natural that the picture for today is of a big Guiness ad.



Tuesday came too soon. We all hated to leave Ireland, especially since we woke up to a GORGEOUS day..the sky was blue, the sun was shining and there was an interesting mist rising from the ground. We got up early and did a bit more sightseeing of the countryside before we had to be at the airport. My picture of the day is one of those.



We all know what happens after you return from a trip. Time to unpack and do laundry. So yup...that's what the picture for Wednesday is....




WHEW! Here we are...Oct. 12. One of the things that Bill likes to do is watch, bid on and sometimes win things on Ebay Germany, especially furniture and other old or antique items. Last week he bid on and won a table for 1 Euro. We went to pick it up after he got off work since the seller lives nearby. We don't know if we will be keeping this table or taking it to the base thrift store to sell or what. We thought we would have to put it on the roof of the Jeep to bring it home and I was planning on that being my photo for today, but we were surprised to find that it fit in the back of the Jeep if we put the seats flat. When we got home they got the table out before I could get a shot of it so instead my photo for today is Colin and Bill putting the back of the Jeep back in order after we took the table out.

If I'm a stay at home mom, why am I always in the car?

Today was one of those kinda days....

Here is my list of Things To Do Today:

Choose photos to print for Jeffrey
Burn them to CD
Gather up Jeffrey's coat and some other items and put them in box to mail.
Take Bill's glasses to optical shop (if I had made this list and taken it with me I wouldn't have forgotten to do this one! OOPS!)
Buy new CDs to replace ones that were stolen that belonged to the library.
Buy phone cards to send to Jeffrey.
Buy book for Colin to read on trip.
Have pictures printed at photo shop.
Mail packages. (I didn't get the pictures from photo shop in time for this one)
Pick up price stickers at thrift store.
Drop off CDs to library.
Pick up Colin from youth activities center.
Get home and get things ready to pack for trip.

WHEW! And of course the regular stuff of the day....laundry, meals, dishes.

Soooo...that's why my picture for today is of me at the wheel of my car...cuz that is where I was for much of the day.

You gotta look UP!

Today I had several errands to run. We had to order heating oil for our house...there isn't much showing on the dipstick and I sure don't wanna run out! We don't have the furnace on the winter setting yet so there is no heat in the radiators but we do need it for hot water. They can't come out until next Wednesday! I hope it holds out. That's one errand that didn't work out like I had hoped. Then I had to go to the library and return books, movies and tell them about the CDs that were in our Jeep and got stolen to see what they wanted us to do about that. Another not so fun errand. My last one before heading home was to the shoppette to pick up some phone cards so Jeffrey can call us..and I wanted to grab a magazine and a book for Colin too. The lines were long, but I want to get those cards in the mail for him tomorrow so I was willing to wait. And I get up there and get a new cashier...who with his eagle eyes notices that my checks are imprinted with Bill's name and mine isn't on there. I write checks ALL the time!! He had to go ask his manager...who had to come out and tell me that no they could not accept it. I KNOW I have even wrote checks and gave them to that same manager before and had them accepted! Ah well..there was nowhere to get by arguing so I just had to go on home. Colin was waiting in the car when I came up...I wasn't looking anywhere but at the sidewalk and towards the car...I was MAD! Colin hopped out of the car just as I got to it and said to me loudly "MOM...STOP!....LOOK!!!!" and pointed at the sky. The photo doesn't do it justice. It was one of those kinda amazing WOW sunsets. Thank you Colin! Thank you God!

It's raining again....

Remember that old song by the group Supertramp? Well it has been going around in my head for too many days now! It is pretty typical for it to be pretty wet and grey in the Fall in Germany...but I still hate it when it happens. Di Hickman, one of the gals on Scrap That Moment has given us the idea of a Photo a Day challenge for this month. I'm game! This photo is going to be mine for Oct. 1 and 2 cuz it pretty much rained all day for those days and I got a late start on the challenge.