Mom's Visit and a Wedding

Having my mom here for the past week was wonderful. She arrived on the 21st and I took the train from Weiden to Nuremberg airport to meet her. Friday and Saturday we just puttered around the apartment - jet lag coming here is much harder to get over than going back home I've found. We got so much done; it was so fun. We sewed a ton (my machine works through a converter hooray!), got my next quilt project completely cut out, hung up a bunch of things I've been procrastinating on, and I practiced driving Stanley/manual. You really have to gun that sucker out of first. Not the biggest fan, but it will do for the next yearish. We took one daytrip to Nuremberg - it was grey all day but the rain held off which is saying something since it drizzled all day, everyday (no exaggeration) here in the town I live. My mom and I noticed sun two or three times all week. Regardless, it was so wonderful to have her here all week and I will definitely miss her around here.

(messy sewing room, the way it should be)

(beginnings of a quilt, half way done cutting things out)


(big PlayMobil man outside a shop in Nuremberg)

The wedding was great, it was so nice to see my family. The day I spent traveling each way was a little excessive and definitely tired me out but I am doing fine today.

(me and the parents)

The boy is doing fine, he practically never stops moving these days and he definitely responds when people (read: JM) poke my stomach. JM thinks this is hilarious. I think he is going to be a terror when he is a toddler. Oh boy...

I am currently up in my newly organized/functional sewing room just working on my quilt! My mom and I also stopped by the on base craft store which is surprisingly well stocked. Not near stateside quilt stores but beggers can't be choosers and it is pretty nice on the whole. Another thing - it is so nice to have someone to leisurely shop with. It's totally a boy trait but quite obviously JM doesn't exactly want to 'stroll' through shops.

Of course, now that we don't have a visitor the weather outside is gorgeous. 70s and sunny. Thanks Murphy's law. It looks like EK is going to visit for two weeks next month which would be lots of fun if she did.

Is it too early to start the countdown to when I'll see family again and visit the states? Let's see... 4 and 5 months to family (S and Y sides, respectively), and 6.5 months till the states? Can't come soon enough! Although I think I am all traveled out (plane wise) for awhile though, at least until July when JM and I will travel to Norway for a week to see the fjords and other sights and even then that's only a 3.5 hour flight so that is nothing compared to the almost 10 hour flight my mom and I took to NC! And EK and I won't be flying anywhere, just train and car so that is more than fine by me.

For now I am pretty okay with staying around the apartment!

Things I Miss

(Ticket and Ranger)

Dogs. I have come to realize that canines are very multipurpose. Not only do they provide the obvious companionship but they keep your kitchen floor crumb free! Seriously! I miss it. Yesterday I caught myself wondering, "how in the world does this kitchen floor get dirtier faster than the floor at home which stood up to more people and more pets--" and that's when it hit me. Our springers do many things well (chase cats, retrieve things, bring in early morning presents in the form of squirrels, moles, and the occassional oppossum, and leave nose prints over every window-y surface) but one thing they, as all dogs, are quite skilled in is licking crumbs off floors. I'm convinced my kitchen floor would stay cleaner longer if only we had a canine companion. However neither JM nor I want to put a dog through a trans-Atlantic flight and quarantine upon our return to the states so we are waiting till we get back. After that I have no doubt 'dog' will be the third thing on our 'to buy' list right after a truck and a place to live.

In other news - my mom comes on Friday! HOORAY! I am taking the train to the airport to meet her since she'll have two biggish suitcases and I just bought my ticket today. The train station is about a 10 minute drive away from our apartment so that is super convenient and I finally found a really easy to use Deutsche Bahn website in English to buy my tickets at! Babybarth kicks so strongly these days you can actually feel his feet (I am guessing it's a foot? Maybe an elbow) on the sides of my stomach sometimes. JM and I are pretty set in our idea to go to Norway this July to see the fjords for 5 or 6 days. Plane tickets are pretty reasonable and we'd either rent a car or get around via train and there are tons of websites devoted to booking English speaking fjord cruises that vary from 1-3 days in length. The Norwegian Krone is pretty decent compared to the USD too although I'm sure, it being a Scandanavian country, everything will be more expensive regardless but it's our "big" summer vacation so that's okay by us.

Definitely looking forward to this upcoming weekend/week with my mom - we are going to do lots of projects, putter around downtown Weiden, go on base a few times, and maybe take a daytrip or two! And at the end of the week I fly to NC for a family wedding I am standing up in so I will get to see a bunch more of my family! I will surely post pictures of all our adventures.

Accomplishments and Upcoming Visitors

YES. I can drive manual. It's not a smooth ride 100 percent of the time but I'd say it is smooth 80 percent of the time. Yesterday was the first day I drove around post and didn't stall once. I even managed to stop/start on a hill....we'll just leave out the part where I squealed the tires while an MP watched. At least I didn't stall it five times in a row like the last time I was on a hill, and no one beeped at me impatiently. I still don't think I'd feel comfortable driving to base alone (about a 25-30 minute drive) but I will very soon. Poor Stanley, he has endured so much this past week. He is a trooper of a car. JM calls it the clown car, it is certainly the appropriate color and size. So, adios #9 on my list of things to do in 1001 days! Or should I say tschuss? Also, driving around Schirmitz on Monday I noticed that there MAY BE plastic recycling at the top of the hill we live on... this could potentially be glorious. Right now, we only have plastic picked up at our apartment once a month which is super annoying. We end up storing bags of empty plastic containers in our storage room downstairs (this is what everyone else does too but it is still irritating!). I never realized I was getting spoiled in America by having recyclable pick up every week. So if I could get rid of plastics myself by walking a short distance I would definitely do that.

I also get to cross off #63 (catch up on printing my pictures); 180 prints from Shutterfly arrived on Monday and on Tuesday I organized them (they oddly weren't in chronological order), labeled them, and put them in my album! It was definitely a pot of coffee kind of project.

MY MOM COMES IN NINE DAYS! I am pretty excited about it too. We're going to quilt and hang out, and perhaps take a few day trips to some nearby cities. In the running is Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary), Czechslovakia and Heidelberg, Germany. Speaking of quilting the fabric I ordered just showed up too so I spent yesterday looking at that and futzing around with combinations to start my newest quilt. I'm not completely satisified with the combination I have picked out right now but I'm not sure what needs to be changed, I need a second opinion and Lord knows JM would just stare at me in silence if I asked him so I will wait till the mom shows up. On the subject of sewing/quilting, a part time job at the Craft Store on base opened up and you must have experience sewing, quilting and/or cross stitching - of which I have experience in all three! It would be awesome to get a part time job there and they are open such weird/short hours it wouldn't be hard to go back after Babybarth (thanks to TB for coining that name) is born. They are closed Sun/Mon and when they are open are only open from like noon-4 or 11-5. AND I'd get to hang out in a craft store all day. I'd probably volunteer to work their Saturday hours since JM could stay home with Babybarth of course. I am getting a little ahead of myself though, I still have to turn in my resume.

Blog again soon.