Good Bye 2010, Hello 2011....

This last year has been full of up and downs, smiles and tears, joy and heartache. We thank the Lord for bringing us through it all with His peace.
























Peace and blessings for your new year.

Giveaway

Check out this great blog for a fun giveaway.

Abby's First Day of School Pictures

So, here are some pictures from the first day of school, finally.

Thoughts

I love Vienna. I love living here for an abundance of reasons. These include but are not limited to public transportation, schnitzel, bakeries on every corner (sometimes 2), 4 actual seasons, beautiful architecture.....the list goes on. Sometimes, however, I see something like this and wish I could run right out get the ingredients and whip this up. But alas, there are no Golden Grahams or mini marshmellows in Vienna. And while we're on the subject, Cool Whip is nonexistent, too. So, go ahead and enjoy some good ol' American food for me today. I guess I'll settle for some Belgian chocolate. Go ahead feel sorry for me, you know you want to :)

An October Challenge

I'm trying this challenge this month. I thought some of you might want to check it out and try it, too.

We Love Visitors

One of our favorite things about living here in Vienna is that we get to host visitors from time to time. Well, this last week was a flurry (sort of) of visitors. To start our week off, we were able to have a missionary couple in our home. Now, we didn't actually know this couple before picking them up to come to our little apartment, but we were thrilled to be able to open our home up to them. Merle and Jenny are missionaries in Bosnia and were actually in Vienna with a home school co-op group during a music history tour. BTW, how cool is that? While we didn't really get to see or spend time with them, I'm glad God has blessed us with a place that can be a place of rest for others, too. Merle and Jenny were here until Tuesday and then on Saturday one of our favorite people from Longmont, CO stopped by for a short visit. Bill is working in Budapest and had a bit of free time. We were so blessed that he chose to spend this precious down time with us. Abby and Katy loved him to pieces. It is always so nice to have a bit of home with us. Thanks for coming to see us, Bill!!!!



On a fun note. The first person, who does/has not live(d) in Vienna can tell me where this pic was taken will get a little surprise.

Correction

My mother in law is having her surgery next Monday. I don't know why I can't keep that date straight. I've had it all over the place in my mind.

Some thoughts on stuff....aka an update

In bullet points (warning these are in no particular order)

-My mom is having surgery today to repair a torn rotator cuff and my mother in law is having surgery tomorrow to repair a "leaky valve" in her heart. It's times like these that make it hard to be far away.
-My camera cord is still missing, and has become annoying at this point.
-Jake is in Germany until Friday. I miss him. The girls miss him.
-I finally made my birthday cake yesterday (only a week late). It is really yummy, but I do wish I could find a recipe that yielded only 5 cupcakes. My jeans would thank me.
-Abby is attending a bilingual school where half of her day is in English and half is in German. The English teacher is from the UK and Abby is now using words like clever and cross (angry) on a regular basis. LOVE IT!!!
-Katy's new thing is the grab my face and pull me in for kisses or wrap both her arms around my neck and give me little pats while she lays her head on my shoulder. LOVE TTHAT, too.
-Katy is pretty close to talking, I think.
-On Friday, I'm going over to my friend Claudia's house for my first official Austrian cooking lesson.
-Abby starts swimming lessons on Friday, too. Here in Austria, apparently kids do swimming lessons in the fall and winter. At an indoor pool of course.
-This week I am especially missing Elizabeth, Candice, Holly and Carla.
-The weather here has been soooo nice this week. I've taken the kids the playground everyday.
-I've had several occassions lately where an overwhelming sense of blessed has filled my soul. Not one of these events involved anything of great significance, just a brief moment of knowing where and to who I belong.

Well, we all survived the first week of a child in the public school system. We all celebrated her first day of school with Austrian and our own traditions. I have lots of super cute pictures of it all trapped on my camera. They are trapped because I can't find my cord that connects my camera to my computer. So, to the grandparents, I apologize profusiosly. I'm searching for the cord, but so far no luck. As soon as I find it I'll be posting the pictures and more details about the big day.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, this little girl starts first grade. This means I'll be dropping her off each day at a big school, with big kids, in a big city. She is super excited, and for the most part, I am too. I know she's going to do great!!! But man, my heart has been aching a bit the last week. I know every parent says this, but where has the time gone? This isn't the best picture, but I've been busy kissing this face instead of taking pictures.

Summer Time

Man, it has ended up being a crazy summer for us. We all left for the good ol' USA July 2nd. We had a great time together visiting family and enjoying the beautiful Colorado scenery. Jake was able to stay about 10 days before heading back home to Vienna. The girls and I stayed around until the 26th. Katy had an awesome time with the chicken pox. My mom was able to come visit for a week which was really great. Abby thought she was in hog heaven having both Nana and Grandma and her disposal 24 hours a day. Here are a few pics in no particular order.

Weekend fun

On Sunday afernoon we went to some friends' house for a BBQ and swimming. It was a great day!!

On Monday, we went to Ribs with the Hensals and Sheppards to celebrate a great year of English Kids Club. Katy really liked the ribs, too.

Dirty Rotten Crooks

So, yesterday I had the great experience of filing a police report in German. Yep, in German. Here's the quick version: The girls and I were in H&M yesterday checking out the big sale. There were tons of people checking it out with us, mostly moms with kids and strollers. I had picked out a few things and went to the register to pay, but when I opened my diaper bag to grab my wallet it was gone. After frantically searching the store and retracing my steps to the store I admitted defeat and called Jake. He sent me to the closest police station, which just happens to be next to the mall. I no sooner had explained to the police officer why I was there when another woman walked in and told the same story. So, apparently H&M was the hot spot yesterday. Thankfully, no major damage was done, I only lost about 60 euros. The only thing of real value were Abby's little curls from her first haircut. I've been carrying them around for 4 years, it just always made me smile to see them in there. Also, the girls and my residency permit cards were in there. Those will be the biggest pain to replace.
In my heart, I hope whoever felt a need to steal really needed what they found. Maybe it bought some kids a meal or helped pay the rent. At any rate, lessons learned. I'm blessed to have a Father who provides so richly for my needs.

Summer Cuts

Abby and I got a trim for the summer.

We went here yesterday with some friends and good times where had by all.




We were at the same place almost a year ago. Man what a difference a year makes.

Discovery

Thank you, Jake for loving me despite posting this :)

Never Too Early to Start

One Year

Yep, Kay is now a year old. Hard to believe. She's a walking, squwaking, laughing, hair pulling, Mama, Dada saying mess. We love her to pieces. We had her birthday party on Friday and everyone had a great time. It was quilt the international event with 3 nations represented. Happy Birthday Katy 'Beth!!!

Thanks Clark Huddle Group

We received another totally great package from some awesome people at MRCC. Thanks so much guys, we are LOVING all the goodies you send along.

Here comes trouble....

If you have problems starting the video move the slider thing over a bit and it should start.

She started taking steps at 10.5 months, but really just the last few days has she been walking with enthusiasm.

Questions from Abby

Jake just put in the movie Bambi for Abby. As some have noted, Abby likes to ask questions while watching movies, even movies she has seen a million times. Here were the 2 new ones she asked today.

"What does D-V-D spell?"

"Was any of this computer generated?"

Hmmm.....I"m sensing some disconnect between spelling and vocab ability.

And here's a quick pic of the 3 girls taken with Photobooth.



Katy is 11 months old today!!!!