The Winner

Lisa B. is the winner of the chef's hat and apron. Lisa, send me an email with your address and your choice of girl or boy fabric. Although, I think I already know. Thanks to everyone who left comments. I heart comments.

100th Post

I finally made it to my 100th post!!! Whew hoo!!! In order to celebrate, I'll have a little something for ya at the end of this post.

For Valentine's Day, Jake took his girls out to my favorite Austrian restaurant. They have the best food there. This has become our special occasion place to go. I always have the same thing, pork medallions with salami and mozzarella. Jake always has something different, but it is always good. I have been craving this place for months and finally got to feed the beast.



I made Abby a "cooker" hat and apron for her Valentine's Day gift. The poor kid had been wearing her Denver Broncos stocking cap when we cook. I think it turned out pretty cute. I would like to go on record and say that none of the following poses were coached. She's turning into such a drama girl, in the good way, most of the time. Valentine's Day isn't as big over here as in the US. There are no Valentine's parties at school or card sharing, no cute little shirts with goofy sayings on them. Flowers and chocolates are available, but I don't know how popular it is to give these to your sweetie. My sweetie did bring me some flowers, though.



One holiday that kids do celebrate at school is Faschings. To be honest, I still haven't completely figured out what this is all about. Possibly something to do with Lent and Easter, but am vague on the details. However, kids have a Fasching's party at school and dress up, sort of like Halloween. Abby dressed as Cinderella, since that's one of the costumes we had.


Part of her costume are these "glass" slippers. Abby loves them and one little girl in her class was enthralled with them as well. As we were getting ready to go the little girl was telling her mom how much she liked Abby's shoes. Abby took them off and handed them to the little girl and said she could borrow them. The mother tried to protest, but I assured her it was alright and she could just return them the next day. Abby looked at me and said, "I think that's what Jesus would want me to do, " with a big smile on her face. I was so proud of her.

Now, for the part you may have been waiting for. To celebrate the 100th post, I am giving away a chef's hat and apron set to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. The winner will be chosen at random and will have a choice of either a girl or boy set. I will choose the winner Sunday evening, Vienna time and post the winner here.

Talking with Abby

Yesterday, as we were sitting down to eat lunch after picking Abby up from kindergarten, I asked a simple question......

Me: Abby what did you do at school today?
Abby: Played with Tom.
Me: That sounds fun, what else did you do?
Abby: I found something green on my finger, it was a booger, so I hid in in the couch so no one could find it.

I have a new love also

From the day we first looked at our apartment in Vienna, I loved it. I love the location, the amount of room we have, our neighbors and many other things. I never imagined I would be able to live in such a great place on the mission field. My vision of what we would have here was be small, dark and in the middle of a busy city. I have been so grateful for God's blessing us with our home here. When we moved in there were already kitchen cabinets and appliance here, a rare thing in Vienna, so we were happy not to have to build a kitchen from the floor up. The only think I lacked was a dishwasher. I do have a double sink, another rarity in Vienna, so doing dishes by hand has not been too bad. Last week, however, my hand washing days came to an end. Jake and Ira installed a brand new dishwasher for me. We figured with the baby coming it would be nice to have a little help in the kitchen since we'll be having more dishes with bottles, etc. I love the feeling of loading up the dirty dishes and just walking away. Another bonus is it has freed up some countertop space by not having dishes drying all over the counter. Now, hopefully, by the end of the year, I might be able to get a clothes dryer. Man have my perceptions changed since arriving here. I took for granted so many things before coming here. I am so thankful God takes care of us and blesses us more than we ever deserved.

Finally, some pictures

Here are a few pictures. Some of these were taken before Christmas, but it is better late than never, right?


Eating Cotton Candy at the Christmas Market. She ate like 2 bites and then we had to throw the rest away.


Killing time while we await to apply for our residency permits in January. Fun times.


The snowman she built with Daddy.


Having fun making up her own game.


When you want Olive Garden food in Vienna, you search the internet for copycat recipes and then spend about 3 hours making said recipes. So worth it, even the hour clean up time.

Some projects

Here's are some of the little projects I would like to make before the baby comes:

Burp Cloth

Hooded Towel

Birthday gift for my niece and Valentine's Day gift for Abby (this one is already almost done!!)


Pt. 2 of above mentioned gifts

I'm also approaching my 100th post. That's very exciting!!! I'm contemplating a giveaway. We'll see what I come up with.

What's been happening?

Well, the blog has taken a back burner lately. Things seem to be running in full speed around here. Sure, I've had plenty of time to blog stock and do Facebook, but actually finding the the time to do a post, not happening. So, here are some a few highlights. The ongoing prep work for baby's arrival continues. I've been sewing up a storm and picking out paint colors. I've also done a bit of sewing for Abby and my neices--some pj bottoms. Jake and Abby were down for a week with the flu. This week ended with me being exhausted and having a slight emotional breakdown. After a long email to Carla, I'm feeling better. Next year, flu shots will be had by all. Jake has two Bible studies going on now, which require him to do a lot of prep work since they are both in German. I'm so proud of his German acquisition. I know he has been/is working so hard to get better and I think it is really paying off. We had our first English worship/devotional time this last Friday. For a while now we have been doing team worship totally in German, so it was nice to sing and read in our mother tongue. We had a few guests join us--fellow Christians. We are planning on doing these monthly. Jake and I have also been making plans for our furlough next summer--August and September. We'll have a new baby with us, which should make international travel, and just travel in general interesting. And finally, I had an OBGYN appointment today. She said everything looks perfect. Hoorah!!! I was totally exhausted after the 3 hour round trip, but managed to sneak in a short nap. To leave you, here is a recent pic of Abby. Not the best, but the grandparents can at least see her. Sorry, I'll try to do better.