A Night Out

Jake and I had an actual date last night. A full date, can you believe it? Bart and Tamika had offered to keep Abby overnight for us awhile back and so we finally took them up on it. We dropped her off right after Jake got out of school and then we hit the town. We went down to Mariahilfestrasse to grab a bite to eat. We just wanted something quick and small so we had McDonalds. I know, I know a night out and we got to McD's, well it was still early and we had other great plans. After our super, yummy snack we went to Starbucks. Again, I know we live in the birthplace of the modern coffeehouse and we go to the lame, American imitation. Well, Starbucks is totally smoke free and just happens to make a great Carmel Macciato. So, there. When you visit us, we'll be happy to take you somewhere authentic, until then I'll have my coffee sans lung cancer as much as possible. Anyway, back the date. After we finished our coffee we had a little time before the movie started so we just walked around and talked and looked in a few shops. After our window shopping we went to see "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." Jake had been waiting to see this movie for a couple of months and I'd say it was pretty good. A bit unrealistic, but good. After the movie and a huge tub-o-popcorn we headed to one of our favorite restraunts. It's near Stephandom and we love it. Its called Ribs. Yep, that's it, Ribs. Now, mind you we live in Austria and not in Memphis, but these are really good ribs. We pigged out throughly and then decided it was late, like 7:30 and headed home. A note about the time, is it just me or does having kids totally change your life? We really feel like we are livin' large if we are out past 6:00 pm. I remember when.....(sigh).
So, this morning we slept in till 8:30. Once again, kids sure change things. We went and had a Wiener fruestuck (breakfast) and then went to pick up Abby. Well, actually Jake picked her up and I went to meet Alisha to go to a fabric shop. All in all, a great date. I can't wait to do it again, hopefully in the next 6 months :)

Another Milestone

Well, we've reached another milestone in Vienna. All three of us are sick at the same time. Jake started in Sunday night with a cold/allergies and now Abby and I both have some sort of stomach bug. Jake went to German class today, but Abby and I stayed home and watched movies all day. Looks like we will do the same tomorrow. Enjoy your day!!!

Email Problems

I just wanted to post a note about our Vienna Team website and email addresses. If you have sent an email or tried to log onto the website recently, you've seen the problem. Feel free to leave a comment and I can send you an alternate email.

A Few Photos of Recent Happenings

Abby got a cute little bake set for Christmas and we finally got around to making one of the recipes in the book with it. It was a fun Mommy and Abby day!!!



We had lunch on Sunday with our friends and new fellow Wiener transplants, Bart, Tamika and Izabella. The girls had so much fun playing together. Don't ask me what is going on with Abby's bow.



In other news, I finally had some success in making dinner rolls. I fancy myself a decent cook, but somehow homemade bread (not in a machine) and rolls have always been beyond me. Well, thanks to this recipe I may have finally done it.

Home Again

We're back home in Vienna, again. We made it in last night, everyone tired, but not too worse for the wear. The trip was obviously very short so we didn't really have time to see Zagreb, oh well, maybe next time. Below is the one picture we took of the trip. It is Abby and I in front of the hotel where we stayed. You gotta love the internet for finding great deals.

Far from home

Greetings from Zagreb, Croatia. Yep, you're on the right blog, the Haskews just had to take an unexpected road trip today. Today, we went down to apply for our residency permits and were told that we needed to leave the country. Not to worry, this is not a permanent change of address, we're headed back to Vienna tomorrow. So why Croatia? Well, it is sort of a long bureaucratic story. But in brief, we are required to leave the country every 90 days. And, yes, we did do that back in November when we went to Germany, but this didn't qualify. There is some sort of agreement between several countries in Europe that allows you to travel between those countries without going through any kind of border patrol. On 29 December several new countries joined this agreement and now the closest places we can travel to are Switzerland, the UK and Croatia. Well, Croatia was actually the closest and cheapest on such short notice. So, here we are. I must say I never thought I would go to Croatia. In fact, my knowledge of the place basically consists of 2 things 1) there was a war here in very recent history and 2) Dr. Kovach on ER is from here. I know you're embarrassed for me and my lack of knowledge. Oh well, I've gotten over it, I'm sure you will too. Please pray for our safe return to Vienna and that the visa process will continue with no major hitches. We did manage to file our papers today and we only have to fax in a copy of the passport stamp we got today. Love to all.

Out and About

Today, we decided to see what was going on in the world beyond our door and went to Burger King. Let me say here that in the US we never went to BK to eat, but given our very limited family friendly choices here in Vienna, it has become one of our regular stops. There is a small play area with a slide, which Abby loves, and this gives Jake and me a chance to have an actual conversation. It was nice to get out of the house for a bit and to walk around the mall where this particular BK is located. So here a couple of pics of our day.


Abby in hew new coat from Santa aka Nana.


Jake and Abby taking a "ride". This stupid car took my euro. At today's exchange rate that is $1.46.