I give up

Another mug got broken in the mail that I mailed to a customer. I'm so mad. I give up. I deleted the last few items in my etsy shop and just left my profile up so I can still shop. Argh!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB!!!

We love you!!!

Kelly, Haven, and Ethan

A Surprise

So we went downtown to get Rob's tattoo filled in, but they said his skin wasn't quite ready. (The tattoo was pretty big with lines close together.) So the tattoo artist said, "Well, I guess I have two hours free." To which I said, "Well, why don't you give me a tattoo instead?" HAHAHA! I just decided to get a tattoo! I had been thinking about it for awhile, but I hadn't taken the time to find a design. So I said to Rob I wanted a dove and he mentioned the Picasso dove (which is one of my favorite of his drawings). The tattoo artist showed me a dove that looked like the Picasso, but next to it was the one I got. I love it! If you don't, that's ok. Cuz I do and I'm the one who has to wear it! :)

Here's me getting the tattoo and NOT yelping in pain! (Even though I felt like it every once in awhile)

The finished design

Haven's reaction when she realized I got a tattoo!!!

Just for Fun

I went to get new ink cartridges for my printer at Media Markt, only to discover that I could buy a brand new, upgraded version of my printer for LESS than the two ink cartridges. So I got a new printer! So I've been printing for several hours now... All the new things that aren't in the sample book at the store. I can't wait to show it to the girls at the store!

Inspiration

Jennifer, I HAD to do a layout with these pictures! They were so inspiring! It's funny because I just told Corinnea that I wanted to thank you for the minis... but what could I do? Make a scrapbooking page? Haha! What do you think!

My 100th Post!

Conversations with a Boy

Me: You know what Ethan? You're handsome.
Ethan: No I'm NOT!
Me: Yes you are, and you're smart too.
Ethan: NO I'M NOT! I'm not handsome and I'm not smart!
Me: I think you just like to argue.
Ethan: Yea, I like to argue.

A new Addition

It's just been a week of "new!" When Haven went to get her hair cut she somehow ended up getting a cat! I'm still not exactly sure how it happened... She went with the hairdresser Friday afternoon to pick out which kitten she wanted and brought her home. No name yet. The kids keep calling her "Squeakers." After the Batman movie Emanuel wants to call her "Two Face." I don't THINK so! I'll probably just call her "kitty."

No Nap!

When Rob suggested some places Ethan could take his nap he held up three fingers and began ticking them off with this: (1) I don't want to take a nap in my bed. (2) I don't want to take a nap in YOUR bed. (3) I don't want to take a nap on the couch. I DON'T WANT TO TAKE A NAP. I took a little artistic license with the text because it was so Dr. Seuss-like!

A New Trick

I finally learned how to colorize just a section of a photo.

I'm so proud!

Interlaken, Switzerland

My mom at my brother's wedding.

Lean mean grillin machine

It just makes me happy!

Since Daddy wouldn't let me ship the BIG GRANDDADDY barrell pit to Germany, I had to settle for a little baby one. Notice handy table area on the front side and sidecar pit on the left. I cooked for 30 people tonight on this bad boy! It may seem small to some of you with huge monster gas grills... but I'm still hardcore charcoal. (Well actually I would cook on wood if I could, but I have to settle for charcoal.) So as far as charcoal pits go... this is my dream pit. Well, until I have a place for the Granddaddy barrell pit (and I have the strength to lift the lid.)

:)

Oh, and props to my man who spent five hours yesterday putting it together! He was rewarded tonight with wurst (sausage) and shish kabobs!

New "do"

Photo by Rob

Can Superheros enjoy Paragliding?

I posted this about a week ago, but I got the page finished today that goes with the story. So you get to enjoy it again. :)

Ethan with a paper airplane.

Ethan: It's like paragliding! (This is all he talks about right now...)
Me: Why don't you get one of your men to ride it?
Ethan: No...
Me: What about Superman?
Ethan: No, he doesn't need to paraglide. He can fly with his cape.
Me: What about Spiderman?
Ethan: No, he can use his web.
Me: Ironman?
Ethan: No, he can fly with the fire in his hands. (How does he know that? He hasn't even seen the movie! That's the power of BurgerKing toys, my friends.)
Me: Batman?
Ethan: No... he can fly with... he can fly with that thing. (The bat-copter, I'm assuming.)
Me: Is there any superhero who can paraglide?
Ethan: No...

And he returns to flying the paper airplane around the house!

Some Pages

Since I have nothing to blog about, here's some pages I made from our Switzerland trip.

Checking in

Sorry, nothing interesting to blog about... The weekend was pretty busy and the last two days were super busy. We switched to a new software for our government credit cards and it was really difficult to decipher. So that's what I did ALL DAY yesterday and this morning. We did go to Ikea today and buy new chairs for the dirty classroom. Tonight I was preparing some notes for tomorrow. On Monday we are teaching 25 people how to make sushi! So tomorrow we're having a practice. Mmmmm... sushi...

Whew! I'm on a roll!

Ethan about three days old. This is probably my all time favorite photo of him.

Pascalstrasse. The road between Vaihingen and Boeblingen.

A new layout

I knew how to do this technique already, but I hadn't done a layout like this yet. Today the scrapbooking forum I'm a member of had a challenge to do a layout that had the picture merged with the text. So I did this one.

Left to right: Uncle Aaron, Mom, Aunt Lugene, Uncle Bruce.

The Kids

Ethan in his new Spiderman costume. It's reversible. Spiderman on one side and Venom on the other side.

Haven and her ceramic piggy bank. She did such a good job painting her! The pattern is really cute!

Obsessive Compulsive Tendancies of a Three Year Old

1. Must wear socks 24/7.
2. Refuses to wear shorts. I don’t know why.
3. Must be fully dressed at all times, including sleeping.
4. Doors must be fully opened or fully closed.
5. No stepping on cracks.
6. Must not have dirty hands.
7. Must not have dirty shoes.
8. Lines up toys in perfectly straight lines.
9. Must have banana whole, not broken in half.
10. Ditto with sandwiches.
11. Only drinks milk, juice, and tea warm. Not hot. Not cold. Warm.
12. Do not eat food of OC 3-Year Old.

Ethan turns four tomorrow and I just don't know where the time went. This year has seriously flown by. He is so tall. So handsome. SO stubborn. So into superheros. And so easy to love! As I'm thinking about him turning four, I was reminded of all the funny things we noticed about him while he was three. Hence the list above. What will age four bring?

Happy Birthday

Three little monkeys have birthdays this week! So Happy Birthday!

Maleah turns 4
Ethan turns 4, July 16th

Emily turns 3, July 17th

I promise we didn't plan it that way! But it's fun since we're all friends!

Where's the Baby?

Ethan has watched "Ice Age" one too many times!

Here's links to two videos of Haven doing "commercials."

Put Your Sunglasses On

Clip Phone Clock

Gift Giving Idea

If anyone is looking for a fun gift for a little kid check out this website for a few cute personalized books. Of course I like the Spiderman one!

Family Jumps off a Mountain

No, I didn't jump. I stayed at the bottom to video and take pictures. That was exciting enough for me! They all loved it! When Ethan hit the ground he said, "Can we do it again?"

Just some pics

An ode to commercialism. Yuck.

Ethan having fun NOT obeying. (Yes, that's a diaper on his head.)

She'll be comin round the mountain when she comes...

Well, it was my turn to drive up the mountain to our hotel today. Gasp! Of all the days to decide to drive, today the clouds had set in around the mountain and I actually had to drive through them. It’s bad enough to drive uphill around curves, but to do it through thick clouds? Oh man. At least they were white clouds and not storm clouds. Well, our hotel is high enough that is was ABOVE the cloud cover. Now, the way the hotel is situated, we drive from Interlaken up one mountain and up and around to the next mountain over. So in the picture below it’s the mountain on one side of the lake. We drove through there to get to our mountain on the other side of the lake. Anyway, it was cool to look down on the clouds. And Ethan especially loved the idea of being high in the clouds.

A Room with a View

Ahhh. And God smiled on Switzerland. Ok, our room at the top of the friggin mountain has a spectacular view.

Rob and the kids enjoying the park.

I didn’t take any pictures of the conference tonight, but it was a totally awesome evening. The gospel choir from Paris International Baptist Church performed and Babbie Mason is our worship leader for the week. I had never heard her before, but apparently she is like the leading gospel singer in America. Man, I could see why. It was just a very awesome concert!

They should SAY that it’s at the TOP of the friggin mountain!

So we left tonight at around 7:30 pm and drove to Interlaken, Switzerland. The drive was really nice. No traffic, we already had the road tax sticker so they just waved us through the border, and the GPS got us easily through Zurich (sometimes a tricky area). Then we got to the Thunsee, one of the most beautiful lakes on the planet, and we were excited because we were so close. We stopped for a quick potty break for Ethan and the GPS said we only had 16km to go. Then she lost her mind and said 26km. Then she upped our destination time to like 30 more minutes. Then we started winding around the mountain. And we drove. And we drove. And we drove. When we ran out of road at the top of the mountain we were pretty stressed. Now let me interject here. This was not driving on straight flat roads. This was winding, steep, treacherous mountain roads. STRESSFUL! At the top of the mountain we stopped because we didn’t know the name of our hotel and we wanted to call or something because we ran out of road! Turned out to be a hotel we had PASSED several bends down the mountain. So we finally made our way down and to our room.

Packing GENIUS!

In this car:
Clothes for 4 people for one week.
Laptop and accessories
Big Camera
Video Camera
Portable DVD Player
Groceries
Toiletries
Toys
3 pillows
3 blankets
3 rain jackets
3 umbrellas
One big messenger bag
One Burberry Bag :)
Publicity Posters
Microphones
Sound System adaptors, plugs, and cables
Sound System SNAKE (massive cabling)
and (couldn’t leave home without it)
Nespresso machine and milk frother
Oh, and four people.

My Crafty Evening

No pics... gotta sleep. I think a made a million headbands tonight to sell at tomorrow's 4th of July Craft fair. Plus like two million loads of laundry and packing because we leave for Switzerland tomorrow night. If we have internet [free] at the hotel I will blog while I'm there. If not, Happy 4th! I'll be back in Germany on Thursday.

Bueller... Bueller...

Do you know what I'm watching right now? The Ferris Bueller TV SHOW! In German! Did you KNOW they made a TV show? This is ridiculous! You know who's in it? JENNIFER ANNISTON! I looked it up on imdb and apparently they did a whopping 13 episodes in 1990. It's SO bad! It's not even Matthew Broderick. Why would they even TRY?!?

In more interesting news, Haven was in the Citizen newspaper today! They haven't posted it on the website yet, but when they do I'll upload a link. It's a cute picture from the play.