Where does the time go?

Welcome Fall

Fall starts today and with the change of the season comes Football, cooler weather, and bundling up the little guy to go outside.  It takes a bit longer now to get ready to go out for our walks and Will doesn't mind getting all bundled up. He actually likes his car seat with the comfy blanket. We also bought a new hat for him that won't cover his eyes.  As he gets mad when he can't see when I put on the hats that are a bit too big.

Go Hawks!

He's a well dressed little guy and is starting to fit into some new outfits.  The Iowa warm-up Stacy got him almost fits. He's got plenty of gear to support the Packers, Brewers. Badgers, Hawks, and Golden Eagles.  He's just happy if any of his teams win or if they don't, we talk about them playing to the best of their ability. We've also had some talks about how the Brewers are blowing their post season hopes. I've also played the "Go Cubs Go!" song for him after I saw a story about it on the news.  Who knows...maybe he'll follow Chicago.  

Thank you for the Bedtime Toys

I have to make sure to thank Leo and Sandy Eckert and the Arcuri family for Will's new sleep toys. Let's just say they have been helpful as we have finally adjusted to the 7  hour time change! He is so cute because he actually grabs the toys and holds them!  Whatever works makes me happy and well rested.

Life back in Germany

Well, we are starting to adjust back to German life. Chad is traveling a lot again, but that is September and October.  Will and I are trying to keep busy and read a lot of books and go on walks.  The pace of life has slowed down again.  We have however booked travel to Dublin, Edinburgh, and London and might travel with Chad to Belgium next week.

When we were in the US, I realized how much faster pace my life was and how much bigger things were than here.  For example, in the US everything is more spread out and there are more parking lots and the stores are larger with more selection. Even the bottles on the shelves are bigger and you can buy in bulk.  We also noticed more SUVs. Chad and I now realize that we don't have to drive such big cars (although I did like driving the CRV again) because it just means you bring more stuff.  

We found ourselves glad to be back in the US and enjoyed seeing family and friends. We realized we have a learned a lot from our time in Germany that we might take with us when we return for good.  We'll probably bring more bags with us to the stores, buy less, think twice about the size of car we buy when we return, and maybe have more relaxing Sundays.  We'll see...we have 75% of our time ahead of us.

White or Wheat bread!

Another thing I noticed was that in the US, I only bought whole wheat bread.  Here in Germany I buy more french bread and have become a bread snob because I'll only eat it if it's not more than two days old.  I LOVE going to the bakery up the street and buying some fresh rolls and cheese.

Peppers & Chili

So last week I decided to make these Chocolate dessert tart things that reminded me of brownies. I read the box and recognized the pictures for the ingredients.  As I was making them I licked some of the brownie like batter from the spoon and my tongue got a bit hot. I thought...this is spicy. Well, I examined the box a bit and realized it also had the work "chili" on it.  Yeah lots of things have "chili" or "paprika" in them from chips to brownies.  I did enjoy the big bag of Doritos we bought in the US.

Will's Photo Shoot

Chad was gone last week and Will was being his typical "happy baby" self one morning so I snapped a few (or 100 digital) pictures.  I only saved half but I hope you were able to look at the ones I cropped and edited a bit. I LOVE my Mac!

I also realized last week that Will is really a cute baby! Now I knew this before but something happened last weekend that affirmed it.  I went to the store and printed a few of the pictures I took of him and this woman watched them print off the machine. When they were done she said something in German to me and I told her I spoke English. She then said in English that the baby was very very cute and looked like a model.  I smiled and said thank you and that he is a wonderful happy baby. What is interesting about this to me is that a German actually spoke to me. So often we walk down the street passing people and they avoid eye contact or if they make eye contact there is not even a smile.  I was pretty excited that someone said anything at all to me!