Photo Sabatoger,rock star or silly teenager?

I swear every picture my daughter and her friends take, they are sticking there tongues out and or making the peace sign. EVERY picture, are they being funny, cute, annoying or do they really think they are some kind of Rock Star? When I take a picture of her I always say NO tongue! It's smile one, two, three NO tongue! Damn it Kate...delete okay one, two, three I mean it no tongue! ugh......teenagers!

My BFF Award goes to....

(Thanks Tami at http://ttmillersandboys.blogspot.com)

This BFF award goes to 4 friends nominated for being a great blogging friend. My 4 BFFs are listed below. In order to nominate a BFF you must list their blog and a reason why they were nominated.

1. Tami at http://ttmillersandboys.blogspot.com she gave me this award and I'm happy to call her a BFF . Tami was the very first non family member to comment on my blog and we have a lot in common. I love reading her blogs and hearing about her boys and their sports. She also brings a smile to many of my gray days here. Thanks Tami!

2. Joyce at http://perfect-beginning.blogspot.com because she has a quality about here that turns a bad day to good. She always has amazing recipes and looks for the joy in everyday.

3. Somer at http://lovetobreathe.blogspot.com she has the best attitude and spirit for life. I wish to be more like Somer, she radiates positive energy and fun. Her smile is contagious and has the cutest pugs!

4. Ina at http://ina-offret.blogspot.com is one of the kindness blogging buddies I have, she is honest with her opinions, has great taste. I love her attitude and spirit and her love for her pups and family.

If you don't already follow these lovely ladies please check out their blogs and see why I think they are great BFF's!

Collages

Many of you have ask how I've been doing the collages on my post. I use a website called picnik and a lot of it is free. http://www.picnik.com/
I don't have a photo shop or any good photo program on my computer so I joined for $24.95 a year and the limits of what you can do are endless.

Sophie

I was never really a big dog person, until Sophie came along. I think because we have had her since she was a puppy, there is a bond her and I. I love taking pictures of her. I know can you have too many pictures of your dog? NO! Sometimes she is good and poses and other times she is so annoyed. I really love her and can't imagine my life without Sophie.

My baby is sick....

Katelyn stayed home from school today with a stuffy,sniffy head cold....and I played with my zoom lens to my camera. I think she wished she was in school but I was happy to have the company.

How to kill 8 hours on a train......

Riding on a train anywhere in Europe is the only way to travel. Well actually it's our only choice, we don't have a car here. But I recommend it, it's low cost, efficient and painless, well some what painless. Eight hours is a long time to kill, we played cards, read, and listened to music. I tried to improve my Free Cell percentage and Katelyn took many pictures of herself.

We ate snacks, bad coffee and I slept a little. The scenery was amazing and eight hours flew by quickly.

Skiing at SkiWelt Austria

SkiWelt Austria Trip with Keeley Family

Austria Pictures

Kufstein and Ebbs Austria

Austria

Skiing in Austria was amazing and frustrating at the same time. I've always heard that in Europe there isn't the queue in ski lift lines like in the States. I would never believe the chaos getting on the first Gondola every morning. The pushing and shoving, if a gap opened someone would push into the spot. At first I was laughing, like are you kidding me this is stupid. But then I would get pissed and hold my ground and no body was getting past me. The race and fight just to get in the Gondola was even worse, words can't describe what I saw it was embarrassing the behavior and need to go ski was animalistic. I would laugh again and say you obviously need to ski worse than me, go ahead knock your self out!

There are many differences in ski resorts in America compared to Austria. Think America is so sue happy that they have stricter regulations there for the precautions are noticeable. I never saw ski patrol anywhere and limited signs for runs and out of bounds. There were many runs that on one side was a cliff, and in the States it would be fenced off.

Skiwelt is the largest ski resort in Austria, not only were there 91 ski lifts/gondolas but they also had 70 restaurants. Lots of people from many countries, but very few crowded runs. Towards the afternoon you started to see more accidents and out of control skiers due to the large in take of beer being consumed during the day. I think some would ski a run and drink a beer than ski another run etc... lots of drunk singing by days end.

My husband was on cloud nine and daughter too. For them to ski the Alps is a dream come true. Me on the other hand lost count of the falls and started counting the bruises. Sorry to say I never sung "the hills are alive with the sound of music" coming down the ski slopes, I mostly was swearing various combination of swears and made up a few new ones!

I can't walk! But I can shop!

This is where we have been skiing and why I can't walk today, without wincing and swearing! I really have no business being on this mountain and I know it, I just wish my husband knew it! Today I opted to shop instead of ski, I'm much better at that. I never got stuck once, didn't fall twenty times or swear once! Not a tear was shed or muscle failure, no aches and pains, no yelling at snowboarders, no pushing or shoving. The only words that came from my mouth were " do you take Visa?" It was a good day!

No Bathing suit allowed

I'm one of those prude Americans, that like to see nudity in the privacy of ones own home. If I happen to see nudity outside of home it is only acceptable in my mind if it’s a nice nude to look at.... like The David or like Edward Cullen or Beckham. My first half hour in Austria as beautiful and picturesque as it is was tainted by the naked man I saw coming from the Sauna room, old, fat, hairy not Beckham! Sauna and steam room here at our Hotel No bathing suits allowed!

Now imagine this sauna filled with naked, over weight Europeans and sorry really old! icky! I'm so sore and can barely walk from skiing but I just can't do naked!

The hills are alive with the sound of music!

That is what I will be singing obnoxiously while skiing in Austria this week!

Can't wait to share my pictures of this adventure..............................

I Heart today.......

Five Euros plus..............

This is what five Euros and 27 cents buys here in Germany.....

Butter toast Bread-.79 euro cents

Brie-.69 euro cents

Strawberries- 2.99 euros

Milk- .65 euro cents

Plastic bag to carry it in-.15 euro cents

Stop questioning and just do it!

This is our new "Bible" .........Do as the Germans Do! End of story!

I read this book before we moved here in preparation for what to expect. Didn't really mean a lot until we were here and experiencing things the book talked about. So I reread the "Bible" again and laughed how true it was.

But I still struggle accepting many things one being the lack of smiling and two the lack of waiting in lines. The books states, Germans have been known to smile, but unnecessary smiling is frowned on. A German man needs a good reason to smile. In fact, excessive smiling in most of Europe is indication of weak mindedness. Don't over due smiling around Germans. Okay now that's funny ...do we Americans over due smiling? Shame on us! So that explains the frownie faces I see everyday and possibly the starring maybe I'm over doing the smile. Note to self stop smiling you mindless American.

The lack of waiting on line is enough to drive you bonkers, today while waiting in the queue for my turn at the cash register a man comes right up and stands in front of me as if I wasn't even there. I was like Hello buddy line starts over there! Forget it you obviously need those socks and tie more then I need these hand warmers go for it buddy! But the book states, I mean the "Bible", the meek will wait forever, politeness is a sign of weakness and when there is an opening Germans will take it. One of the few places Germans will wait in line is the ATM , and that is the only place I have not been ditched. I so want to ditch someone in the ATM line just to see what would happen, but my luck it would be an American and they would go postal on me cause they are so sick of being ditched! So I will be a good mindless American smile and wait my turn, because it's what polite people DO!

Enjoying a semi nice day in Bremen.......

with a..............

walk in the country ....................

German manners or lack of........

One thing that drives us crazy here in Germany is how people stare. It's not a normal stare, " like oh I like her shoes,let me check them out". No its a long cold stare the kind that leaves you saying, "WHAT"....or makes you look behind to see if its something behind you, or possibly something on your face. It's rude and after awhile, sorry you get so tired of it, and defensive, maybe a little angry. On Friday the three of us walk into a crowded restaurant and I swear the whole restaurant turned and stared at us. At first you think okay maybe we walk in on a private party.....no that's not the case, they are just rude! How do you think I should get Germans to stop staring, wave at them, smile big like a crazy person or just glare back?

Sunshine in Bremen today!

Today the sun showed it's face

Happy flowers and Happy me!

Saying goodbye!

This weekend I have to say goodbye to my friend, Sheri and her family. They are leaving this adventure and heading home to Georgia to start the next adventure in their lives. She is the first American, and the first nice person I met in Germany. Our kids go to the same school and we are in Germany under the same situation, husbands job, length of stay etc... we clicked right away and became fast friends. I felt from day one I could be myself with Sheri ,we laughed at each others German experiences and ventured out to the unknown together. We had similar complaints, and fears, like not knowing what we are eating and a love for Starbucks. I couldn't have survived here without her, she has "wheels" and took me with her all the time even when it wasn't always convenient for her to get me she would. She took me to the Ikea when we were both trying to make our new German houses feel more like a home. Many times we visited the German version of a "mall", especially helpful when trying to buy Christmas tree and decorations. At least once a week or more she would take me for our big grocery shop days, I would load up on anything and everything and was truly thankful I had her and her "wheels" and didn't have to lug bags home on the bus.
She is a great friend and there are many days if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have left my house. I will miss her and her companionship so much. I'm glad we met and I know she will be a friend for life.

In the city
Starbucks!

Sophie gets to go BYE BYE.......

Today Sophie had an appointment at the groomers and got to go B.Y.E, B.Y.E. (we can never say those words out loud in our house or she heads for the door and waits) I don't know who misses having a car more Sophie or me! In Utah she would love to go on car rides, sticking her head out the window, panting and wagging her tail with joy. Well here in Germany the only time she is in a car is when she goes to "the farm" while we travel. But today was a special treat she got to go on a bus and the tram and a nice walk to her groomer appointment. Here she is with her Daddy enjoying her travels.

Sophie riding the bus

Sophie riding the tram

Here she is after her appointment on the tram....but she is ticked at her Dad for making her wear the "gentle leader" . It's not her fault she gets so excited she gets to go BYE BYE and can't walk without choking herself ! It was a great day to get out and walk and go BYE BYE!

The donkey ate my homework.....

Today I was caught off guard when my door bell rang at 9 am and there stood my German teacher. I said to her come in I didn't think we had lesson until Thursday? She said nein every Tuesday and Thursday. Yes but last Thursday you said okay Thursday at 9am so I just figured she must be busy this Tuesday who am I to ask. All along I'm thinking "oh s@#t I didn't do my homework" come on I had until Thursday! I started to panic what was I to do, to say, OMG I studied a bit a couple days ago, look the direction of my books a few times over the weekend, dusted around them....crap! Then it dawn on me I'm paying her and I'm an adult not a 14 year old that just got busted, calm down!

We continued our lesson from last week and moved on to irregular verbs and pronouns, pronoun replacement, etc.. ......so it was insane! So she is telling me I must practice my nouns, and pronouns and yada, yada,yada is all I hear or blah, blah, blah.... I know I'm the lazy student I learned about last lesson Peter or Paul whatever! But then she says to me, " how do they say in English about the donkey bridge?" I look at her with an expression the says "what the .... are you talking about and then I smile big like I'm going to start laughing. I feel it starting, you know the kind the starts inside, where your body shakes, but I stop myself. She is like oh never mind back to lesson and throws some German question my way like Where is the book? Well I'll tell you where the book is its on the donkey bridge with my homework!

Dedicated to the game

Football when I hear that word it does nothing for me, sorry never really been a loyal fan of any particular team or understood what a first down is. But I do enjoy a good Super Bowl party or even Football Nachos, a dinner I would make on Football nights which could be Monday night, Thursday night.....etc . My husband like most men is a die hard fan, but up until Saturday night we have gone without a TV for the last six months since moving to Germany. Last night like a die hard football fan my husband set the alarm clock to get up at 12:00 am and watch the Super Bowl and came back to bed at 4:00 am and woke at 6:30 am for work. Now that is dedication to the game!

Wii and TV make for a happy three!

Yes, we are the proud owners of a German Wii! (yeah!!clap,clap,clap) This means I can abandon my quest to improve my Freecell score I've been obsessed with on my computer and now become a Pro Wii Bowler or Pro Wii Tennis Champ all with endless possibilities. We were given a very nice gently used TV by a Co-Worker of Craig's it took some work but he finally got it working so not only do we have Wii but we also have BBC and German MTV and whole lot of other German channels that we may stumble on now and then . Now we are searching high and low for a Region Free DVD player so we can play movies from USA and Germany. I know what you are thinking aren't you suppose to be learning German? Ya Ya Ya right after I get SPORTY playing Wii !!