I got mail!

I got a nice envelope in the mail today covered with Star Wars stamps which I thought would be the most exciting thing about the envelope because nothing really exciting usually comes in envelopes that aren't padded. I took a little while to study the stamps; C3PO, Luke Skywalker, Chewie and Han Solo, the Millenium Falcon, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Yoda, a lightsaber battle, and Boba Fett (I don't know if I spelled all those right but I don't want to take the time to look it all up) before I actually opened the envelope to see what was inside. I pulled out a stack of papers, still not knowing what it was because the first page was handwriting I didn't recognize with some scribbles. I skipped to the bottom of the paper without reading it and realized it was from my cousin and her daughter, who is 3 or 4 I think, had added her part (the scribbles were N's because here name starts with N). I scanned the rest of the pages, looking at the names only and was happy to see I was the recipient of letters from the family Christmas party. I went straight to my room and read through all of them. It was so good to hear from everyone. I was sad that I didn't get to go but Germany is still a good place to be. Less than two months though until I can say that I live in Utah again. Apparently I just can't stay away from the place, this will be the second time in two years that I've moved back, the first being when I decided school in Idaho wasn't for me. The moving gene inherited from my dad is in me, but it keeps pulling me back home. Maybe this means I should just tell people I'm from Utah from now on. Nah, I'll stick with my usual answer, the US.

Hamburg

I went to Hamburg a few weekends ago to stay with my friend and have a little Thanksgiving feast. The next day we roamed the streets of Hamburg for a little while and came across this little park. The first draw was a slide, but then it ended up getting better by the second. I even wrestled an alligator!






And then because it was so much fun Janae gave it a whirl as well.









There was a cool pirate ship wreck so Nichole and Janae climbed aboard to find some treasure.








There may not have been treasure but at least now we know if we ever find a real pirate ship that still floats, Janae is going to be the captain.





And since we're girls of course you can't see the front of a ship and not think of Titanic so here Nichole is playing the part of Rose and Janae is playing the role of Jack. And scene!





Next in our discoveries were a few small houses. Nichole and I wedged ourselves into one of them. I know that Hamburg is a big city and they want to fit as many apartments as possible in here, but really this is a little too much... Or should I say too little.







I'm not really sure why but Nichole felt the need to try and climb out above the door. Good thing it didn't quite work and she got a little stuck.

I tried to be cool and slide out real quick but that didn't really work to well either.

Check it out! It's Snoopy! We decided it was small enough and it's basically the shape of a dog house so why not.


Our adventure then took us to the Christmas Market in the town square by the City Hall. This picture took 3 minutes to take (at least) because we had gotten there just after the train had driven by so we had to wait for it to go all the way around and come back. Let me tell you, it was a long row of booths. And because the train took so long to come I got bored and frustrated and made this face.

All the Christmas lights at the market.

The Three Amigos. Janae, Maren, Nichole

The coolest Burger King in the world! It's freaking sweet!



I'm super stretchy!

We found our own little castle. They had some kid toys just out on the street so of course I had to play.

I'm supposed to be ripping down the castle because I'm a giant.

Tired

I know I shouldn't be complaining because there are a lot people that have it worse off (aka people with babies) but I'm super tired. This morning I went to wake one of the girls up at 6:20 to get ready for school and she told me she didn't have to go until 9:30. Now it shouldn't be that big of a deal but I don't have to wake up the other kid until around 7 so that means I lost an hour of sleep because once I wake up and walk on that cold tile downstairs I have the hardest time getting back to sleep. Not fun. Any way, I was doing alright until around 12 and I fell asleep for half an hour or so and since then I've been pooped. I'm ready for today to be done with.

First Snow

Sunday morning I woke up to my window covered in a thin layer of snow. As I looked outside my other window I saw the big fluffy flakes falling through the light of the street lamp next to our driveway. It was the first winter wonderland of the season. Too bad the snow didn't really stick to the ground and since it was about 6:30 in the morning and I only had 15 minutes left to get ready I didn't have a chance to go play in it. Some day though it will snow again and hopefully next time I will be able to go for a walk in the snow. That's one of my favorite things to do, walk down a quiet street as the snow falls silently and sticking to the ground enough for it to crunch under my feet. Catching snowflakes on on my tongue is one of my favorite games. What can I say? I'm still a kid at heart.

Craziness

I am so not ready for motherhood. Why am I in charge of two kids? Especially two kids with so much attitude. My goodness. I'm not sure what I did but lately both the girls have been very moody and have quite the attitude. Some times they tell me that I don't do enough help around the house and I should help more when they get ready for school or I should help them with their homework but then when I do they get mad at me and tell me to leave them alone. I can't do anything to please these kids now a days. And I don't know what I did to make them so mad at me either. Kids are just way too confusing and I'm glad these aren't mine. Hopefully my kids will turn out very different from these two.

Bad Milk

As I was eating breakfast today I had to get a new liter of milk out. I had just poured the cereal in my bowl and opened up the milk when I knew something was going to be wrong. As I pulled the tab off the milk, the fresh sealer, I noticed a build up of fat that is not normal especially for 1,5% fat. I put the lid back on and shook it up thinking it just needed a good shake. Boy was I wrong. The milk came out a little chunky. Then I realized why. You can buy two different kinds of milk here, fresh and chemical. The fresh always needs to be refrigerated where as the chemical can sit on your shelf in the pantry for a month or three. Normally we buy the chemical because we have a small frige and there is no room for milk but apparently it was fresh this time sitting on the shelf. So basically we now have nine more liters of chunky milk waiting to be drained.

The first blog

So I decided that writing a blog would be a little easier than sending an email. I tend to blog more than I write emails for some reason and it's easier to post pictures and videos here. This post won't be very long because I just sent the email catching up for the past month but in the future I will be posting almost every day with a small update of things that happened during the day so that you all can get a better idea of what my life is like here in Germany.

This was just a short trip to the beach in Büsum with my friend Janae who came and helped me with the kids at the beginning of October while my host parents / employers were in the US.

I do like a good ice cream cone now and then. It was pretty messy, but I managed it eventually. Ok, really this is just a fake ice cream cone out side one of the ice cream shops here in Heide.

It isn't the best picture in the world but this is me with the girls. We are on our way to the North East Sea Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal) to watch the big freight ships go by. From what Dirk said, the canal has the heaviest ship traffic in the world.