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.