Twinkle Toes Bowtique

In Which I Talk About Trash

2012-02-09T16:18:00.000-05:00

We’re living in a country in which there’s a very specific procedure for handling one’s household refuse.

I’ve been warned by other expats:
Don’t mess up your trash or your neighbors will talk about you.
These people take trash and recycling very seriously.

I’ve actually woken up at night thinking about our trash.
I’m serious.

I certainly don’t want us to be that American family that can’t get with the program on trash collection and WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN OUR COUNTRY?

(You see, where we come from, we simply put any and all trash/recyclables out once a week and for a flat, monthly rate they came and hauled it away. No questions asked.
It could be one bag or the entire contents of one’s basement.)

The little town in which we live here in Luxembourg has a schedule and instructions for what trash you can set out and when.
See?
Look at it, all detailed and color coded.

And all those x’s and arrows?
Some weeks they like to change it up on us.

When we first arrived, we had to register our trash cans with the city.
I’m completely serious.
We were allowed two – one for d'ordures menageres (household trash) and one for dechets organiques (garden and yard waste.)

Then they gave us a little sticker to attach to the can for household trash. This little sticker contains our name, address and a microchip that’s scanned each time it’s picked up.

(It’s like NASA is all up in our trash business.)

There’s also a very specific form in which your trash can must be presented: lid opening facing the street and it must be completely closed. Absolutely nothing beyond what fits in that can. If you want to throw away anything large that doesn’t fit in the trash can, you must go to the city office and ask for a sticker to place on the item that you’re throwing away. Then you have to wait until the specific date indicated on the schedule to set it out. Oh, and you have to call them a few days in advance and tell them that there’s going to be a little something extra at the end of your driveway.

The best part about all this? This schedule is only through June.
The whole thing is going to change mid-year.

Anyways, the trash can is weighed and the microchip scanned and your monthly bill based on the weight of your trash.

All glass, paper, plastic and cardboard can be recycled for free.
But they don’t pick up recycled materials, so every other Saturday we have to take it to the parc de recyclage. They sure like people to drive things around themselves over here, don’t they?

I was telling Shawn this week that I really had been worried for nothing and I don’t think any of the neighbors ever talked about us because of our trash.

”Were you worried about people talking about us because we’re doing the trash wrong?”

“Well, yeah.”

“I’d be more worried that they were talking about us because you were outside taking a picture of our trash can.”

I’m sure he’s right.
(But it’s for the blog.)

Yep, Just Like Us

2012-02-07T15:12:00.000-05:00

“Hey Mommy! Guess what? There’s a new girl in my class at school and she’s from America just like us!”

“Really!? Did she tell you she was from America?”

“Umm, no, she didn’t tell me…”

“How did you know that’s where she’s from?”

“Well, because she speaks American, just like us.”

A Few Things

2012-02-04T06:12:00.000-05:00

Well, it didn’t start out the greatest, but as the week progressed, things were definitely on the upswing.

Except for this:
Shawn was traveling for work all week and came home Thursday night sicker than a dog.
Really siiiiiick. He had a nasty case of food poisoning that lasted about 14 hours.
Poor guy.
There was nothing I could do to help him, really, other than ask him if he was okay and if he needed anything. He got an email from the coordinator of the conference where he’d been, saying that quite a few people got sick on their way home.
He went to work Friday and I think he’s on the mend, although he’s a little sluggish.

As for the car seat issue, it all turned out just fine.
Hannah has a friend in her class at school who is just the sweetest little thing.
She’s British and has the manners and polish of someone who’s about to have tea with the queen herself. Couple that with her accent and she CRACKS ME UP.
Anyways, I texted her her mom and told her what happened with our car seat and she said that I could borrow theirs. She’s a godsend. She brought it over and Hannah and I went out and bought a new car seat so that Shawn and I each have one in our car. I know, I know. Something we should have done a long time ago.

****

On February 2 in Luxembourg, there’s a celebration called Liichtmessdag.
Children go door to door carrying colorful lanterns and singing the traditional Liichtmessdag song.
I did not know about this.
So when our doorbell rang we were surprised to be serenaded and unprepared to be asked for sweets. Luckily I had a bag of lollipops tucked away in the pantry and they seemed to be excited that they were from America. A few minutes after they left, the doorbell rang again. This time it was a lady introducing herself.
”My children said you’re American? I’m British and my husband is Icelandic and we live just behind you.”
We introduced ourselves and said we’d have tea in the next few weeks. It turns out she is a teacher at Hannah’s school. She left and I closed the door.
And realized that I was wearing a plastic badge that says “Medical Staff” and a toy stethoscope around my neck.

****

Friday after I dropped Hannah off at school, I went to the gym for Spinning.
The instructor (who still used our made up hand gestures) brought out the Latin party mix music and the flashing disco lights. There was even a black light.
I felt like I was, how do you say it? UP IN DA CLUB.
The only thing missing were my girls.
(We’ve been known to cut a rug at a wedding reception or two. See?)

(There are so many more pictures just like this one.)

Anyways, there was a group of Brazilian women in the spinning class and once the warm up was over and the tempo picked up, they were whooping, hollering and basically
Breaking.
It.
Down.
One even got off of her stationary bike and did a flamenco style dance.
Sister had some energy.

The first thing that came to my mind was: I’ll have what she’s having.

The last five minutes of the class is the cool down.
Shawn and I used to have a joke that no matter what time of day it was, if you scanned the stations on the radio in your car, you were certain to hear a song by Michael Bolton or Phil Collins.
Today I refined that joke to no matter where you are in the world, there’s always a Michael Bolton or Phil Collins song playing.
The cool down song?
“When A Man Loves A Woman,” by Michael Bolton.

****

When I picked Hannah up from school she asked if we could go to a café because she wanted a croissant. I couldn’t say no, especially since she said “croissant” in French.

And because she’s a great kid.

Friday night we picked up a pizza and stayed home.
Today we have no real plans, other than just hanging out together.
We’re laying low because we’ve got a couple of exciting little trips coming up this month.

That’s all I got for now.
Happy weekend!

Il Neige Au Luxembourg

2012-02-01T15:02:00.000-05:00

I have a friend who took French in high school.
(Well, I probably have a lot of friends that did.)
But this particular friend only remembers one single phrase.
Il neige.
That means it’s snowing.
So when la niege fell on this Luxembourgish/German/French speaking country,
it totally reminded me of her.
And made me smile.

Then my mind wandered to other family and friends that I miss.

And I got nostalgic for familiarity, normalcy and old routines.

But I quickly pulled myself out of it and back into the right now.

Because I have a feeling that someday I’ll be nostalgic for this moment.

If We Couldn’t Laugh We Would All Go Insane

2012-01-31T14:23:00.000-05:00

Hey Shawn -

Remember that day I accidentally put the dry-clean-only pants to your good suit in the washing machine? And then not realizing my mistake I put them in the dryer and the hem fell out, the waistband frayed and they shrunk beyond recognition?

And then my car slid backwards down the driveway and got stuck in the snow?

And then you left for a business trip in Frankfurt and realized you had Hannah’s car seat in your car after you’d already driven for two hours?

Yesterday sure was fun, wasn’t it?

A Tale of Two Dogs

2012-01-30T16:44:00.000-05:00

Or, perhaps A Tail of Two Dogs?

When we decided to move to Luxembourg, one of the big questions was what we would do with our dogs?

We have two.
Louie, our Old English Sheepdog.
(Sometimes he likes to wear Shawn’s shirts.)

And Jay.
He’s our mutt.
(But don’t tell him that.)

We went back and forth between bringing and leaving them.
In the end, we decided to bring them.

We have some really great friends and family members that took care of them for a few months until we went home to the US for Christmas.
Our plan was to bring them back with us after the holidays.

Did you know that the USDA has to be involved when you bring a pet overseas?
Well, they do.

We’ve gotten to know them and their checklists very well.

We had all the paperwork and boxes checked.
Or so we thought.

Just 8 days before our return to Luxembourg, we found out there was one more requirement which then required a 21 day window before the animals were allowed to travel.

So we returned from Christmas without them.

Last Friday, however, we were all reunited.
One of the airlines (thankfully not the one that lost our luggage twice on one trip) allows you to ship pets in the cargo area of the plane.
It’s like you’re checking a piece of luggage (in the form of a dog crate) but not actually getting on the plane yourself.
So Shawn’s parents, BLESS THEIR HEARTS, loaded both of our dogs up and put them on an airplane to Luxembourg.
Shawn picked them up at the airport Friday afternoon and met another expat doing the exact same thing as us, which was funny because we haven’t met a lot of expats that have brought pets along.

I’ll be really, really honest here.
I was kind of enjoying being pet free.
Shawn and I got Louie when we were first married, so there really hasn’t been a time when we didn’t have a dog.
Our dogs can be loud.
Their paws make wet, muddy messes on my kitchen floor.
And sometimes they embarrass us.
(Have I ever told you that Louie was voted class clown in his obedience training class? Or that once when Shawn was out of town Jay bolted out the back door and carried a pair of my undies to the next door neighbors?)

But we love them anyways.
They make these two people happy.

And that makes me happy.
So, welcome to Luxembourg, boys.
We’re all glad you’re here.
Really, really glad.

A Typical Day

2012-01-27T22:46:00.000-05:00

I get asked a lot about what a typical day living abroad is like,
so I pieced together some snippets of our daily activities.
This probably won’t be very exciting to read, but someday it will be fun for us to look back on what our life was like as newly arrived expats.

Here we go.

I get up, get dressed, and wake Hannah up.
I finish getting ready and help her get dressed (otherwise she might go to school with her shirt on backwards and mismatched socks.) I make breakfast while she makes her bed. After she eats, she brushes her teeth and I fix her hair.
Then we get our boots, coats and hats on and head out to school. Shawn usually leaves for work just before we do.

Her school is only a few miles from our house, but we drive towards Luxembourg City and traffic heading that way can be heavy in the mornings. We stream our favorite radio stations from the US through my phone, so we listen to familiar music while we drive.

(Busy morning at the roundabout)

Traffic and parking are ridiculous, so like many other parents, I park in a nearby neighborhood and we walk to the school.
Hannah puts her coat, hat, book bag and lunchbox in her cubby, changes out of her boots and we say goodbye.

We recently got a gym membership so a few days a week I’ve been going there after I drop Hannah off.
On this particular day, I went to a spinning class at the gym.
Or, “shhpinnink” as they say here.
I was told that the instructor speaks English.
But she didn’t.
She was very sweet to me, and serious about her shhpinnink.
We said bonjour and figured out quickly that we did not speak the same language. She began communicating with me in a series of made up hand gestures to tell me what was coming next.

I think I’m picking up on French more than I realize because I understood quite a bit.
(Even without the instructor’s hand gestures.)
Perhaps I should give myself more credit?

After working out, I shower and run to the grocery store to pick up what I need for that night’s dinner. Grocery shopping is a different experience in Europe than in the US because it’s not so much a chore, but an activity. Most people shop daily or every other day. Because food doesn’t contain preservatives as in the US, things don’t last as long. Also, refrigerators are small, so there’s not a lot of room to store enough for more than a few days. It’s not uncommon for Europeans to slowly browse their way through, stop to chat and then have coffee or tea at the café at the front of the store.
I’m not sure I will ever find grocery shopping to be leisurely.

(This is just a small section of the varieties of cheese. It can be overwhelming.)

Then I head home, put groceries away and maybe do a quick run through the house and straighten up. This is when I also have my quiet time and read.

Noon is probably my favorite time of day. I head back to Hannah’s school and wait in the lobby for the teacher to bring her class out. Sometimes if I am early, I check email, Facebook and catch up on a few blogs from my phone. When Hannah sees me, she runs through the doors and throws her arms around me. She’s become friends with a sweet little girl in her class and everyday we walk out with her and her mom.

As we drive home, we talk about school. Some days she is busting at the seams to tell me about her day and I get the lowdown on what they worked on, who sat next to whom at snack time, and who did what on the playground. Other days, I have to ask questions and piece things together.

When we get home, we have lunch and read some books or play with something that Hannah chooses.
Then it’s nap time.
School really wears her out.
Girlfriend can barely keep her eyes open.

For the next hour and a half, I race around the house to get stuff done – laundry, emptying and loading the dishwasher, cleaning and administrative things.
Because washing machines and dishwashers are so much smaller here than in the US, I feel like I am running them constantly.
Who am I kidding? I am running them constantly.
Because they are freakishly small. It’s like they belong in a doll house or something.

I usually have a million administrative things to do, and it always takes me about four times as long as it would at home in the US. This is partly due to the language barrier and partly because things just work differently here.
And I don’t have it all figured out yet.

On this particular day, I needed to call our internet provider because our service hasn’t been great lately. The call went like this:

Automatic answer: To continue in English, press 3.
Me: (Presses 3 and waits on hold.)
Customer Service Rep: Bonjour. Puis-je vous aider?
(Hello. May I help you?)
Me: Bonjour. Parles-vous Anglais?
(Hello. Do you speak English?)
Customer Service Rep: (In English) No, I only speak French.
Me: Um, ok, I pressed the button for English.
Customer Service Rep: I know. I’m sorry. My colleague who speaks English is with another customer. What is your name, account number and phone number? I will have him call you back.
Me: Can you help me?
Customer Service Rep: No, I don’t speak English.

Well.

That was quite a bit of English for someone who DOESN’T SPEAK ENGLISH.
It took another three days of similar phone calls to get anywhere.
But this is the way things go here – we’re getting used to it.

When Hannah wakes up, she has a snack and this is when she does a chore like helping me put clean clothes away. Then we do some sort of activity like painting or Play-Doh or maybe watching a video. If it’s decent outside (read: not raining or thick fog) we might go out to play. On this particular day, she wanted to use scraps of fabric to make leashes for her stuffed dogs.

Next we start dinner – helping in the kitchen is another of Hannah’s chores and this is probably her favorite. It’s lunchtime back at home in the US, so this is when we usually Skype with our family.

Most nights we eat as soon as Shawn walks in the door, but there are times when he works late hours and I save a plate for him. After dinner, we clean up and pack Hannah’s snack for school the next day.

The rest of the evening is spent playing, maybe watching a My Little Pony video, putting toys away and then bath time. After her bath, Shawn and I read to Hannah, say prayers with her and tuck her in.

Then Shawn and I will usually watch TV, hang out, and get things ready for the next day. This is when he fills me in on what’s going on at his work. I’ll also check Facebook and update my blog. I am usually in bed between 10:30 and 11.

On Friday night we always eat out. We have two or three places that we really like that are kid friendly and fairly quick. Like grocery shopping, going out to dinner is an event for Europeans and sometimes it can take 3 hours or more. That doesn’t sound all that fun with a 4 year old in tow, so we stick to the places that are a little more like what we’re used to.

Saturdays are family days. We usually take some sort or road trip or find something fun to do in Luxembourg. Last weekend, we went to an indoor water park/swimming pool, or “swimming bath,” as they say here. When we arrived, the sign said that “swimming costumes” were required. Shawn panicked for a minute when he remembered that many European pools will allow men to wear only Speedos. True story.

So he sent me in to check it out.
I asked the woman at the front desk if there was a requirement for a specific kind of bathing suit for men.
She laughed.
”Tell your hoozbaand zat he can wear zee American style swimming costume in zee pool.”
Whew.

On Sunday mornings we go to church. We’ve found two churches that we like here in Luxembourg, and honestly, we’ve been alternating between the two because we can’t really decide which one to stick with. Hannah gave her vote, but it’s based solely on the snack that they serve in the kids’ Sunday School class.

I stay busy from the time I get up until my head hits the pillow at night.
I love staying home, taking care of our house and my little family.
Living in a foreign country can be hard, but I wouldn’t trade this time and experience for anything.

If you’ve made it to the end of this post, bless your heart.
I hope I didn’t bore you.
As for me?
I’m going to bed.
Because I’m going to a shhpinnink class in the morning.

Insta-Friday

2012-01-20T12:03:00.000-05:00

Just popping in to share some random and silly moments captured this week on my cell phone.

While driving to Germany, we passed a big field of windmills.

There was no wind so they were standing perfectly still.
”Ya know, if the wind was blowing and those things were moving,” Shawn said, “in this weekend alone, they could generate enough electricity to lower the price of petrochemicals by next Friday.”

Well, I know something about windmills too.
Miss Illinois is afraid of them.

So there.

I’m sure he’s sorry he didn’t watch the 2012 Miss America Pageant with me.
(Although he did DVR it for me on a cable box at his parents’ house in the US, streamed it to my laptop via a Slingbox and then used a little USB transmitter do-dah thingy to display it on our TV here in Luxembourg.)

We drove up this tiny, narrow street.
And yes, we had to go through that tunnel up ahead.
It was about 2 inches wider than our car.
It’s amazing that neither side mirror got torn off.

There’s a Subway near our house and we go there every Sunday after church.
Some of the lunch meats have an odd quality about them, but for the most part it’s close to what you’d get in the US.
Except they still have the Sub Club Card and stamps.
Remember those?

The other day I was driving Hannah to school and a warning light came on in my car.
It said I had 53 kilometers until the gas tank would be empty.
I have no idea how far that is because as I’ve mentioned a time or twelve, I’m not so big on the metric system.

So after I dropped her off, I went to fill up.
In Lux, gas is called “petrol” and you buy it by the liter.
(Again, with the metric system.)
Notice that I’m wearing a plastic glove.
Yes, they give you gloves for pumping petrol.
That’s because it’s all diesel fuel and the pumps sometimes leak and drip and you do not want to wear that stuff around on your hands all day.

Hannah calls these “Sunday School crackers.”
I got them at a little shop that sells American products that you can’t get in grocery stores.
Sometimes a girl’s just gotta have some comfort food from home.
(And in case you’re wondering, that’s what our electrical outlets and light switches look like over here.)

Hannah has library day at school on Wednesdays. Each week, they get to pick one book to bring home. Last week she picked a book about a cat named Toffee who gets into lots of trouble. This week she picked a book about a cat named Toffee who makes a new friend. Apparently, Toffee has sequels. And apparently, she’s British. Or Canadian.

Finally – one for the grandparents.
May she always be this excited and enthusiastic about leaving for school in the mornings.
Amen and amen.

I’m linked up with Jeannette over at Life Rearranged.

Light on Words, Heavy on Photos

2012-01-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

You guys.
Oh, you guys.

Thank you so much for all the emails, ecards and text messages.
They were all so sweet and much needed.

Please know that we are fine. I promise.
I hope that my last post didn’t worry you.
We are just experiencing the normal emotions that expats experience.
But, we are determined not to let a little homesickness stop us from having fun.

We came to travel, and travel we will.

On Saturday, we took a little road trip to Saarburg, Germany.
Shawn worked a lot of hours last week so it was nice to have an entire day for just us.
Plus it was a great place to practice with the new camera.
I even ventured out of automatic and into (gulp) manual mode a little.

Melatonin And (A Wee Bit Of) Melancholy

2012-01-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Oh, the jet lag.
What a sneaky little fellow it is.
Annoying.
Shawn’s lucky - he can go days and days with little sleep and still function decently.
He can also fall asleep just about anywhere and anytime.
I have very specific requirements for my sleep and the jet lag really isn’t on the list.
We’ve been back for a week and yesterday was the first day I have felt rested.

Before we left the US, I bought some Melatonin. Several people told me that it gets you through the jet lag because it makes you tired when you’re supposed to be tired, which is only half of my problem with the jet lag.
(The other half is eating – the jet lag makes me hungry at ALL THE WRONG TIMES.)

Anyways, our first night back in Luxembourg, I took a Melatonin around 10PM.
I asked Shawn if he wanted one, too.

”Eh, I don’t need it. I’m pretty tired right now and jet lag doesn’t usually hit me until a day or two later,” he said.

”I think you should try it. Just in case you wake up and can’t go back to sleep. A six hour time difference is a lot. I just took one. All the cool kids are doing it.”

There’s nothing like using adolescent-style peer pressure tactics to get your husband to take an herbal sleep aid.

After an entire week of waking up from 2AM until 5AM, on Thursday night I fell asleep at 10 and woke up at 6.
I felt like a new woman.

So, Shawn and I have both been feeling homesick.
Like reeeeallly homesick.
It’s totally normal and expected.
We’ve read that knowing that this is normal is the sign of a well adjusted expat.
We’ll see. We don’t feel well adjusted right now. For the last week, we’ve talked more than once about buying one way tickets to the US.
Back in October, I went to a “spouses of expats” seminar and the instructor gave me this graph:

He told me that the culture shock stage occurs around the three month mark, which is right where we are. I’m sure it doesn’t help that we returned home to the US for Christmas so soon after our arrival here. We fell so easily back into what was comfortable. And now, returning to a place that is only slightly familiar, knowing just how different it is to visit than to live here, well, it’s been hard.

But.

Please don’t think that things have been all bad.

On Monday, when I dropped Hannah off at school, I went to the grocery store, loaded up on what we needed and headed to the check out line.
Do you see that? That little sign means that the cashier speaks English.

Not only that, but she was brand new at her job and a little slow on the scanning and punching. She kept telling me she was sorry. I told her it was no big deal. I’ve lived here less than 3 months. She was so kind and friendly to me – this doesn’t happen often. Believe me, I was as happy to be patient with her as I was to have a stranger be patient with me.

This doesn’t seem like much – but for me, on this day, I needed it. Totally made my day. Funny how an experience like this can change one’s perspective.

Also, Hannah is doing fantastic in school. Her teacher sent a note home at the end of her first week saying that she is adjusting very well, plays nicely with the other kids, listens well and is confident. And that makes this mama’s heart so, so happy.
(Especially the part about being confident.)

To our family and friends back home -
Call, text, email us.
Send pictures. Send videos.

We love hearing from you.
Familiar voices and faces would be medicine to these homesick hearts.

Separated by the Same Language

2012-01-12T04:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Hannah’s third day at the International School here in Luxembourg.
I’ve mentioned that her teacher is British, as are many of the students.

Late last week the teacher sent out an email saying that the Early Years students (that’s the US equivalent to preschool) would be using articles of clothing to work on matching, sorting, counting and learning about differences.

I dropped her off at 8:30 and picked her back up at noon.
From there, we headed home for lunch, read some books and got ready for nap time. I pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a long sleeved t-shirt and asked her if she wanted to change out of her school clothes and into something more comfortable.

”No, I want to keep this jumper on,” she said.
”You want to keep what on?” I asked.
”This. I just want to wear this jumper,” she said.
“What jumper?” I asked her.

Then I got it.
Remember Bridget Jones?
And the scene where Mark Darcy tells Bridget what he thinks of her?

“I realize that when I met you at the turkey curry buffet that I was unforgivably rude...and wearing a reindeer jumper...that my mother had given me the day before.”

This is the reindeer “jumper” that he wore to the turkey curry buffet.

And this is the “jumper” that Hannah wore to school yesterday.

To us, not so much a jumper as a sweater.
Thank goodness for pop culture references.
I guess I’m going to be needing them.
Who’d have thought that she’d pick up on an American English/British English difference so quickly?
There’s bound to be dozens more, I guess.

P.S. Hannah, you make me laugh.

Love,
Your Mum

The First Day

2012-01-09T16:44:00.000-05:00

We hit a big milestone today.
Hannah is officially a student.
Today she started preschool at an International school in Luxembourg.
When we moved here last fall, we decided to wait until after the holidays for her to start school because it seemed like a lot all at once.
Looking back, I think she would have been just fiiiiiine.
Parenting sure is a new game once school is involved, isn’t it?

She was so excited.
Shawn went to work late this morning so that he could go with us for the drop off.

Here she is outside her classroom, in front of her cubby.

When I picked her up, her teacher told me that she interacted very nicely with the other kids.
Have I mentioned that her teacher is British?
And that I could listen to her talk ALL DAY LONG?
Well, I could.
She calls the children “dah-ling” and describes things as “delightful.”
And she has a journal de classe system in which she writes a detailed summary of what happened that day for parents. It’s a scrapbook in the making, really.

Music is part of the curriculum on Mondays and I asked Hannah how it went.
”I got to play the triangle and I absolutely enjoyed it,” she said.
(She was 4 when I dropped her off. How was she 28 when I picked her up?)

And guess what? She already got her first homework assignment.

It was a successful first day.
So we celebrated with tacos for dinner and a special dessert after.
Hip hip for our little school girl.
Toy Story popsicles all around.

We Are Back

2012-01-08T15:12:00.001-05:00

We’re back in Luxembourg after a wonderful visit home to the US.
We really had a great Christmas.

Our day of travel was pretty uneventful, although it was a strange feeling when the airline attendant confirmed our destination.
”I don’t see a return flight. When will you be returning?”
This is our return flight.
”Oh, I see. You live in Luxembourg.”

Our travel and layover time totaled fourteen hours.
The big flight over the ocean occurs overnight but Shawn and I didn’t sleep much.
You see, a few hours in, the plane reaches daylight and not all of the passengers kept their window shades closed. Hannah didn’t seem to mind. She fell asleep soon after departure and didn’t wake up until we were landing.

AND! AND! All of our luggage was there!
As you can see, there was a lot of it.

It was kind of a hassle to haul all of it around, but totally worth it because we brought back stuff that we can’t get here or won’t buy it because it’s cheaper in the US.
Plus, Shawn does all the heavy lifting.
I’m mostly in charge of carry on items, snacks and potty breaks. I’ll take that.

It was obvious that our bags had been rummaged through at Customs. I’m certain that one would expect this when one’s suitcase contains, you know, components to build an electric dog fence and a remote controlled helicopter. I’m looking at you, Shawn. :-)

So, here we are.
We’ve been doing a little unpacking and settling back in.
Today we spent most of the afternoon in pajamas hunkered down in the living room watching movies.

We have a very exciting week ahead.
Hannah starts preschool tomorrow!

Girlfriends and Goals

2012-01-06T11:25:00.001-05:00

I have a really great group of girlfriends.
They’re cool chicks.
And I got to spend New Year’s Eve morning with them.

We’ve been friends for like a hundred years.
Various combinations of these girls have been roommates at one point or another.
We’ve been together for graduations, showers, vacations, weddings, new babies, funerals and a whole lot in between.
We’ve celebrated good times and prayed for each other through bad times.
You’ll be shocked to know that we’ve also camped together.
In tents.
Oh, yes sir, we did.
But don’t get me started on the white water rafting trip of 2002.
It’s too traumatic.
(Just know that it is never a good idea for a group of girls, with, how should I say it? LIMITED UPPER BODY STRENGTH to insist on putting the guys in a separate raft and take on wild rapids armed with nothing more than standard issue helmets and paddles, a rafting guide with little respect for the water, and a tube of Lip Smackers.)

They’re the kind of girls that even if we don’t talk or see each other for a while, it’s pretty easy to just pick right back up where we left off.
I am so glad we made this little get together happen.

(Pretend that there’s a clever transition here because I couldn’t think of anything.)

After I recapped our 2011, I started thinking about the things that I want to do or change in 2012.

Our house in Luxembourg is comfortable, but it doesn’t quite feel like home yet.
I want to make it feel like home.
I want to do everything I can for my family. I want to be gentler, kinder, more patient wife and mom. When I became a full time stay at home mom last summer, they became my full time job. I’ve only got one shot at this and I want to make it count.

I want to use this blog to keep a very real account of our time as expats in Europe. We are in a situation that not many people have experienced or have a point of reference for. Very few understand exactly what it’s like. I want to keep a record for our family to look back on someday. (And hopefully laugh.)

As for my phone – I need to shut ‘er down more often and just listen to the quiet. I need to eliminate noise and nonsense from Facebook and Twitter and find more quiet from reading actual books.

Shawn’s company offers French classes to spouses. With Hannah starting preschool, well, the opportunity and timing couldn’t be better. I’m not talking about becoming fluent, of course, but I want to learn the basics and build a vocabulary that consists of more than my current four sentences.

And exercise. I want to exercise more. (Mama’s been slacking.)

What about you? What are your goals and resolutions for 2012?

Oh, BTDubbs, Creative Mamma has a free, super cute printable 2012 calendar.
Go check it out. Print it.
It will look great in your kitchen.

2011: The Year in Review

2012-01-02T23:29:00.000-05:00

2011 was a big year for our family.
It was one of change.
It brought situations that required me to be brave in ways I’ve never been.
And pray about things I’d never even imagined.
2011 started pretty normal, but the second half felt like some crazy ride that wasn’t ever going to stop.

Here we go.

January
It was cold in Ohio! So we bundled up and played in the snow a lot.

I made Hannah a super kid cape.
She loved it.

February
Shawn spent a lot of this month traveling for work.
He went to Russia, Prague and Germany.
Hannah started swimming lessons.

I made this cute bag and matching flower.

March
Oh what fun we had in March!
We flew to San Antonio with Shawn while he was there for work.
We spent a day at a dude ranch in Bandero, Texas, the Cowboy Capital of the World.
Or, as we call it, “Hannah’s Dream Come True.”

I got to meet up with Julie, a blog friend turned real life friend.

I did a lot of crafting this month.
I made a belt for Hannah and some cards from leftover fabric scraps.
And I worked with another blogger at A Little Knick Knack to put together a series of sewing tutorials for beginners.

April
We celebrated Shawn’s birthday and Easter.
I was in love with Hannah’s dress and shoes.

Shawn’s company asked him to do a three year international assignment in Luxembourg.
We considered it, thought about it and prayed about it.
We didn’t tell anyone other than our parents.

May
We celebrated Mother’s Day.
My obsession with kids crafts involving handprints began when we made these:

One of my favorite projects was this faux necklace shirt:

At the end of May, we began sharing our news that we had decided to accept Shawn’s company’s offer to move to Luxembourg. We received excitement and support from most, but a slightly negative reaction from some. I won’t lie – this was disappointing.

June
We celebrated Father’s Day.
Hannah wore the sweetest dress ever.

But June was a rough month.
Just four days before Father’s Day, we found out that I had miscarried our second baby.
A few months later, I got up the nerve to write about it on the blog.
Since then, I have received dozens of emails from women offering support and sharing their own stories of loss.

July
I began to heal.
We celebrated July 4th with gusto, knowing it would be our last one in America for a few years.

I turned in my resignation at my job and became a full time stay at home mom.
Plans for our move to Europe began to fall into place.

August
Hannah went to Vacation Bible School and I (jokingly) became Administrative Assistant to my husband as we started to prepare for our big move.
Hannah had some firsts:
First Passport, horseback riding lesson and visit to the dentist.

Aunt Traci visited from California.

Shawn’s company sent us to Luxembourg for a house hunting trip.
While we were there we found a house, registered Hannah for school, set up our bank account and got a tiny glimpse of just how greatly our lives were about to change.

September
We celebrated my birthday and 11 years of marriage.
We said goodbye to Shawn’s grandma and had to have a difficult conversation with Hannah about death, heaven and eternity. She understood far beyond what we ever would have imagined.
”Did Jesus take her to heaven on a horse?”
”Do you think Great Grandma found our baby when she got to heaven?”
“What kind of dinners does God serve in heaven?”
Oh, that little girl.

The movers packed up the contents of our house and loaded them onto an oversea container.
But not before we refinished and reupholstered our dining room furniture.
Shawn left for Luxembourg at the end of the month and Hannah and I stayed in the US for a few weeks.

October
I got our house ready to be rented out, sold our cars and took care of a million other details.
We spent a morning at the apple orchard and I tried out my new camera.
(I have a lot to learn.)

Shawn had his first funny situation as a foreigner, while I spend the better part of the month searching for our lost cat.
Hannah was shocked to find out that costumes can be purchased at stores and not just made by moms. She went trick or treating and turned 4.

On her birthday, Hannah and I flew to meet Shawn at our new home in Luxembourg.
(With a lot of luggage.)

November
Oh, let the foreign fun begin.
We basically spent the month of November embarrassing ourselves and learning how to do daily tasks in a foreign country.
I developed a strong dislike for the metric system.
Aunt Traci visited us for Thanksgiving and for the first time ever she and I made the entire meal ourselves. Then we took a train ride to Paris and acted silly.

December
Christmas was in full swing in Luxembourg and we enjoyed every minute of it.
We visited Hannah’s school for a meet and greet day.
I continued my obsession with kiddo hand and footprint crafts.

We returned home to the US to celebrate Christmas with our families.
We saw Santa twice and on the second visit, Hannah hopped right into his sleigh with him.

Later this week, we’ll be saying goodbye to our family and friends and heading back to Luxembourg.
Hannah will be starting preschool when we return.
So, welcome 2012.
Let’s see what ya got.

Hey Girl. This is Funny.

2011-12-29T18:35:00.000-05:00

A friend recently hipped me to a new website.
Handmade Ryan Gosling.
(You know, Ryan Gosling the actor.)
Go there.
It’s fall down funny stuff.
If you like sewing and crafts, that is.

This one’s my favorite.
Did you know that my first job out of college was at JoAnn Fabrics Corporate Office?
That makes it even funnier to me.

Don’t tell anyone, but I totally checked to see if JoAnn’s really has an app.
They do.
I’m going to install it as soon as I get my laughter under control over here.

Some More Christmas

2011-12-28T10:48:00.000-05:00

We’re still here in the US and had a fantastic Christmas with our families.
You can see pictures of our past Christmases here.

Aunt Traci arrived in town late Christmas Eve and was here to surprise Hannah on Christmas morning. I’m pretty sure this was the best gift anyone could have given her.
These two have barely left each other’s side.
We’ve been cracking up because Hannah has taken to speaking on behalf of Aunt Traci.
”No thanks, me and Aunt Traci aren’t hungry.”
”Me and Aunt Traci just want to play ponies and paint my nails today.”

We spent some time with Shawn’s family at his grandpa’s house.
If you love antiques and artifacts from practically every time period in US history, well, grandpa’s basement is the place to go.

Last Christmas, we had to unexpectedly miss all the family festivities because Hannah got sick. This year, we traveled 4,000 miles from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to be with the people we love most. Who would have thought?

This next picture makes me smile.
Because, really.
Jammies, cousins and the juke box in Great Grandpa’s basement.

If that doesn’t make for some mighty fine Christmas memories, I don’t know what does.

To You, From Us

2011-12-24T09:06:00.000-05:00

Building and Constructing

2011-12-23T21:39:00.000-05:00

Hannah and I spent the better part of a day building and constructing.
First up: a gingerbread house.
I iced, she candied.

We left the gingerbread house out on the kitchen counter, front and center, so that Shawn would see it as soon as he got to my parents’ house late Thursday night.

”The decorations look great, but it might not be structurally, umm, sound.”
Oh, you mean those gaping holes between the house and roof?
Maybe we could fill them in with icing.
I guess it’s a good thing I don’t build houses for a living.
An engineer I am not.

This little girl didn’t seem to mind.

When Santa paid us a little visit last Sunday, he brought Hannah her very first set of Legos.
I might not be able to build a gingerbread house with structural integrity.
But Legos?
Don’t worry, Hannah.
Mama’s got this one.

We started out building a little pink car.

Then a tiny cottage, complete with an opening and closing door and window.

Then we got really ambitious.

No gaping holes here.
I’m not sure who had more fun - Hannah or me.

There’s No Place Like Home For the Holidays

2011-12-21T14:56:00.004-05:00

Hannah and I arrived in the US safe and sound last week. Shawn had to stay in Lux for work, but we decided to come early to have an extra week at home.
It was a long day of travel.
We flew from Luxembourg to Geneva to Newark to Cleveland.
That’s over 11 hours in flight.
And 4 hours of layovers.
Hannah rocked, as usual. The girl was born to travel.
Our flight out of Luxembourg was slightly delayed, which made things a little sketchy when we arrived in Geneva. We landed at 8:22 AM and our next flight left for the US at 9 AM.
That left 38 minutes to get off the plane and to the next one.
We made it.
Barely.
We sprinted to the gate. They were paging us in thick German accents over the PA system.
We ran as fast as we could, Hannah wearing her little backpack, me with my carry on bag and purse and both of us in bulky winter coats.
I’ve never prayed so hard while running through an airport in my life.
As soon as we boarded, they closed the door behind us.
The plane was moving towards the runway before we were settled in our seats.
9 hours and 12 minutes later, we were Stateside.
We exited the plane, collected our luggage, went through customs, got our luggage searched at customs, rechecked our luggage, went through security and made it to our gate in plenty of time.
Then we hopped on a flight to Cleveland where my parents picked us up.
I was never so glad to get to their house. Between all the running, collecting and moving luggage around the airport and the on and off of coats and shoes and trips through security, well, this mama needed a shower.

Hannah was excited to see that my mom had transformed their living room into a Christmas Wonderland.

Later that evening after Hannah went to bed, I sat down on the couch to watch some good old American HGTV. They were playing a marathon of Celebrity Homes: Holiday Decorating from the Stars and we were just about to see Kathy Lee’s holiday entertaining ideas. I’m not sure if it was the jet lag or the fact that I’d been awake for the last 21 hours, but I missed it completely and woke up at 1 AM.
That’s 7 AM in Luxembourg, so I was pretty much wide awake and ready to start the day.
Fortunately, I was able to go back to sleep and doze on and off until about 6:30 AM.
Darn jet lag.
On Sunday, Santa made a surprise little visit and brought Hannah her very first set of Legos.
(She accepted his gift and said thank you but didn’t want to sit on his lap. She watched from afar with Papa.)

Monday, we headed to a Christmas festival.
There was a lot to do.
But let’s be honest, we were only there for the horses.
(Live or otherwise.)

Shawn will be arriving here in the US later today.
We are so excited to see him and get our very first home leave started.

Coming To America!

2011-12-14T16:42:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow morning we’re getting on an airplane headed for this great place:

(source)

It’s where they serve ice in drinks at restaurants.
And give you free refills without even asking.
It’s where they will deliver a pizza to your house.

It’s the place where options abound and good customer service is easily had.

It’s where stores and gas stations are open past 6PM and on Sundays.

The land of the free? Absolutely.
But it’s also the land of convenience.

It’s where the roads are wide enough for two cars to pass without tearing each other’s side mirrors off. (This happened to us, btw.)
It’s where the houses have refrigerators large enough to hold groceries for a month.
And you can buy milk by the gallon.
It’s where the mailman will pick up and deliver mail right from your house.

But the best part about going to ‘Merica?

It’s where our favorite people are.
The ones we love most.
And we can’t wait to see them.

I’ll probably be taking a little break from the blog for the next week or so.
Because ye old laptop has an appointment with the Geek Squad as soon as we get home. These European outlets have zapped the energy from her battery, methinks.

But most importantly, I plan on spending as much time with family as I can and focusing on the real meaning of this season.

Oh, yea. Before I go…
I’m guest posting HERE with an easy little homemade gift idea.
Check it out.

This Little Girl

2011-12-13T16:04:00.000-05:00

We’ve been here in Luxembourg just over six weeks now.
When Hannah is older, I want her to know these things:

You hopped on the plane and flew here as if you’ve done it a million times.
You adjusted to a six hour time change that left me dragging for days.
You eat new foods to which you’re not accustomed.
You go places you’ve never been.
Where they speak languages you’ve never heard.

Twice when we have been at the grocery store you’ve repeated something you heard someone say in French. Then you covered your mouth and collapsed into a heap of giggles, as if you said something you weren’t supposed to.

You helped us unpack boxes.

And played quietly in your room while we tended to the things that temporarily took our attention away from you.

You’ve jumped right in to playing with other kids even though you have no idea what they’re saying. On this particular day, you played with two other little girls for almost an hour. When I asked you what their names were you shrugged your shoulders and said, “I don’t know. They speak French.”

You sit quietly and patiently in the car while we concentrate on unfamiliar streets, signs and signals. And while we regain our bearings when we (often) get lost.

This is not to say that everything has been perfect or even ideal.
Because it hasn’t.
Not even close.
This expat thing is the biggest, most difficult thing we’ve ever done.
We have not been without challenges and intense moments.

In the last six weeks, nearly every single thing that we know as normal became foreign and unknown.

But you, little girl, press on as if it all makes sense.
And we are so proud of you.

Christmas Handprint Crafts

2011-12-12T12:48:00.000-05:00

I’ve mentioned before that I love crafts that involve kiddo handprints.
It’s so much fun to look back and see how they’ve grown.

Last Mother’s Day, we made THIS.

Today, Hannah and I got the paints out again and made some Christmas art.
I wish I could say that I came up with all of these ideas myself.
The truth is that I’ve been pinning them on Pinterest for months now.

All you need is construction paper, paint, a few brushes and stickers.
Oh, and some little hands and feet, of course.
We started out by painting hers green.

Then we stamped them onto a piece of construction paper and made a Christmas tree.

I painted a trunk and she added stickers and details.

Next we painted her foot brown and I added the details to make baby Jesus in the manger.

Then we got silly.
Both of our fingerprints make this string of lights.
I kept thinking about that line from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation:
”The little lights aren’t twinkling.”
”I know that, Art, and thanks for noticing.”
That movie never gets old.

And finally, Rudy and two of his buddies.
Hannah’s precious thumbprints with my poor attempts at reindeer faces.

What a fun way to spend a cold morning.
We added four new decorations to our Christmas stash.
Our paintings aren’t perfect, but the memories we created sure come close.

Insta-Friday

2011-12-09T10:09:00.000-05:00

Here’s a little peek into our week through the eye of my cell phone.

Hannah and I went to a local mall to drop some of Shawn’s suits off at the dry cleaners.
While we were there, she rode a carousel and pretended to be an elf.

(She was a little too short to take full advantage of the elf cut-out.)

We had a bit of a hard time at the dry cleaners.
In my best French (which is laughable, by the way) I asked the woman at the counter if she spoke English.
She looked me square in the eye, wrinkled her forehead and said, “Nooooo! Français!”
Fortunately another customer stepped in and asked if she could help translate for me. She was Portuguese and spoke many languages, including perfect English.
You could barely detect an accent.
I wanted to put her in my purse and take her with me everywhere for the next three years.

Another part of the expat process is that we are required to get a physical and a chest
x-ray by a physician referred to us by my husband’s company. (Hannah doesn’t have to do this. She’s too young.)
Well, my appointment was this week.
The physical turned out to be the doctor asking me a bunch of questions about my medical history that I could have answered over the phone.
Then he asked me for my height and weight.
I had to answer him in pounds, feet and inches.
Because I have no idea how many kilograms and centimeters I am.
Other than getting out my phone and going to my metric system app, I am just not prepared to do math on the spot like that.

Anyways, on the way home Hannah and I spotted a castle so we got off the motorway at the next exit and drove through a little town until we found it.
There was a fence so we couldn’t get close.
I guess they were doing some restoration/construction on the inside.
Hannah suggested it was so that Belle and Mrs. Potts couldn’t escape.

This is Lucky. If you’ve ever been to our house, you’ve probably met him.

He’s Hannah’s absolute, hands-down favorite toy.
She plays with him every single day.
She brushes his tail and mane and puts ribbons and necklaces on him.
She feeds and waters him daily.
She makes sure that he gets plenty of rest before his races.
(He always wins first place.)

Today I came downstairs to find Hannah wearing a Santa hat and Lucky wearing a pair of Hannah’s underwear, and one of her socks on each hoof.

What will I do for entertainment when she starts school in January?

I’m linked up with Jeannette over at Life Rearranged.

Hannah’s Room & A Little Christmas Cheer

2011-12-08T17:24:00.001-05:00

If you ask Hannah about her favorite thing at our new house, she’ll tell you that it’s her room. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been collecting inexpensive little things to make her room comfortable and something that will grow with her.
It’s hard to believe that she will be 7 when we return to the US!

The deets:
Kid bed and mattress: Hand-me-down from a friend
Comforter, duvet and pillow: IKEA
Curtains: IKEA
Wall art: Target, on clearance
Rugs: Wal-Mart
Bow holder: made by me
Tissue pom-poms: recycled from her 3rd birthday party

Houses in Europe are build differently than in the US.
This has taken some getting used to.
There are no closets, so we have armoires and wardrobes.
There is also no carpeting. I’ve not seen or heard of a house here that has carpet.
Every room in our house has ceramic tile.
Which makes for chilly mornings.
So we have rugs. Lots and lots of rugs.

One of the things I wanted to do was create a little reading nook. When I was a kid, I loved to read and Hannah is no different. I found the purple chair at a little furniture store here in Luxembourg and we’ve already gotten our money’s worth. It’s like a bean bag chair, but much sturdier. It’s hard to see, but there’s a basket of favorite books next to the chair. Many days, “nap time” turns out to be “quiet reading time.”

(And yes, I shipped all six of those tissue paper pom-poms across the ocean. I wish you could have seen the look on the mover’s face when he opened the box containing them. He didn’t speak English, but he didn’t have to say a thing. Really, lady? You brought these things with you? Yes. I did.)

You probably noticed Hannah's Christmas tree on the little desk.
It was in her room last year.
This year, she decorated it completely by herself.

There’s her favorite – a cowgirl boot.

But wait a minute - what’s that ornament?
Oh, that’s just a little plastic dog from the basket of bathtub toys, of course.

And look. There’s Ariel.
But she lost her seashell top and her tail, so she’s covering up with a scrap of fabric left over from this project.

And this one makes my mama heart all warm and melty. It’s a little foil star that she made in Sunday school last week. She told us all about how the wise men followed a star like this to Bethlehem.

We also put up our little trees in the living room.
We’ll be home for Christmas, so we didn’t want to put up a big tree here, but we didn’t want to not have one, either. I brought these three pencil trees from home, along with a few special ornaments.

In just over a week, we will be leaving for the US to celebrate the holidays with those that we love most. We can’t wait!

How to Take Your Child to the Doctor in a Foreign Country

2011-12-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

1. Get a recommendation for a pediatrician from a friend you met at IKEA. Call the pediatrician’s office and schedule an appointment.

2. Arrive in front of the office and find a parking space on the street. Insert money into the parking meter and then realize that you’ve used the wrong coins and have paid for parking until 9:00 the next morning. Darn Euros.

3. Check in with the receptionist and say a quick prayer of thanks that she speaks English.

4. Wait until the doctor calls your name. Say a quick prayer of thanks that she speaks English.

5. Explain your child’s symptoms to the doctor.

6. Per the doctor’s instruction, collect a urine sample from your child in the tiny cup that she hands you.

7. You’ll then want to wash and sanitize your hands like nobody’s business because getting a urine sample from a 4 year old isn’t necessarily neat and tidy. Ask yourself why you don’t carry latex gloves in your purse.

8. Watch the doctor test the urine and learn that the sample will have to be sent to the Laboratoire de Microbiologie.

9. Learn that “sent to the Laboratoire de Microbiologie” means that YOU actually take it to the lab at the Clinique Pediatrique yourself. That’s correct. YOU YOURSELF will be driving your child’s urine sample to the lab. Wrap the sample in a tissue and put it in your purse. (Remind yourself to thank the friend who gave you a packet of tissues that say ‘Keep Calm and Carry On.’ Because if there ever was a time to carry on, it is now.)

10. Return to your car and enter the address that the doctor gave you for Clinique Pediatrique in your GPS. When your GPS says that it is not a valid address, simply change the building number and drive in that direction. Say a prayer that you will end up in the right place.

11. Find the Clinique Pediatrique and park in the underground parking lot.

12. Walk 1/4 mile to drop off the sample with the receptionist, as directed by the doctor.

13. Learn that the receptionist at the Clinique Pediatrique no longer takes samples and you must take it to “the Center Hospital.” Watch and listen as the receptionist points to exit signs and holds up one finger while saying, “One minute only.”

14. See a sign for “Municipal Hospital” and walk in that direction. Say a little prayer that this is the Center Hospital and that your assumption is correct that the receptionist meant it is just a one minute walk.

15. Send your husband a text and laugh at the absurdity that you’ve been carrying a cup of your child’s urine in your purse across town. Say a prayer of thanks that you had a zip lock bag in your car. And lots of alcohol based hand sanitizer.

16. Enter the Municipal Hospital and ask the man at the entrance if he speaks English. When he says that he does, retrieve your child’s urine sample from your purse, hold it up and show him the note from the doctor. Wait for him to nod his head vigorously and say, “Oui, Madam. You are in zee right place.”

17. Begin the process of submitting the sample, which is much like registering for surgery.

18. Listen as the man gives you directions up the stairs to the Laboratoire de Microbiologie, which is on Floor 1. Look at him confused until you remember that in Europe, the ground floor is called Floor 0 and what we would call Floor 2 in the US, is Floor 1.

19. Take a wrong turn and cover your child’s eyes to shield them from an EMT bringing in a trauma patient on a gurney.

20. Find the Laboratoire de Microbiologie. Silently cheer and do a dramatic fist pump. Read the sign on the door that says it closes at 18:00. Subtract 12. That’s 6PM. Look at your watch to see that it is 6:08. Knock on the door anyways.

21. Ask the man who answers the door if he speaks English. Again retrieve your child’s urine sample from your purse and hold it up, along with the note from the doctor.

22. Breathe a sigh of relief when he says that he is the person to process it. Return home and sanitize the inside of your purse.

23. Call the doctor’s office the next day to get the results. Wait for the doctor to “ring you back.”

24. Say a prayer of thanks that your child’s sample was normal and negative for infection.

25. Then say another prayer that no one in your family requires a blood test in the next three years.

Insta-Friday

2011-12-02T18:57:00.000-05:00

I’m linking up with Jeannette over at Life Rearranged again to share some sweet and silly moments captured by my cell phone this week.
Here goes.

Sisters.
Under the Eiffel Tower.
We tried to take a picture looking straight up the center.
I guess we were off a little.

We went to a meet and greet day at Hannah’s school.
In January she’ll start “Early Years,” (equivalent of preschool in the US) at the International School.
She’s excited.
So am I. But how did she get old enough for school already?

After we met her teacher, we toured the classroom and then they let the kids explore and play. Hannah went straight to the painting.

Christmas is in full swing here in Luxembourg.
I love it!

Tonight we were going out to dinner and got stuck in some traffic.
See that itty bitty car being lifted off the ground by a crane?
It was the culprit.
Someone squeezed their teeny tiny car in SIDEWAYS on the street and parked perpendicular to the other cars, with the back tires up on the sidewalk and the front tires sticking out in the street.
Turns out that the police don’t like that kind of thing here.
They halted traffic, brought in a tow truck with a crane, hooked some straps under the tires and hoisted it out.

A parking garage with spaces reserved in front just for the ladies?
Don’t mind if I do.

Come to think of it, the micro car dude would have been better off parking here.

Bonjour Paris: A Photo Overload

2011-11-29T07:05:00.000-05:00

When Shawn and I decided to accept his company’s offer to live abroad, one of the things that we said we would do while on this assignment is travel. Travel a lot.
It’s easy to city hop in Europe because everything is so close.
Since Aunt Traci is here we decided to take the two hour train ride to the City of Light.

We arrived bright and early.
Shawn was in charge of directions and navigation.
It’s a good job for him because he rocks at it.

Even though Hannah is probably too old to ride in a stroller, we took one along.
There’s no way we could ask her to walk around a city this big all day.
Plus, we could move faster and cover more ground with her in the stroller.
But it broke shortly after we arrived.
So my hubs pulled a MacGuyver and repaired it.
With a plastic bag and a twist tie thingy that he had in his backpack.
Oh, yes he did.

From the train station we took the Metro to our first stop: The Eiffel Tower.
From there we walked and walked.
By the time it got dark, we had walked through a Christmas Market, had lunch, walked the length of the Champs d’ Elysse, saw the Arc de Triomphe and Luxor Obelisk, had dinner and made our way back to the Eiffel Tower to get a few night pictures and catch the Metro back to the train station.

There’s certainly more to see and do.
But I think we did pretty well for just one day.
And having a preschooler in tow.
Who LOVED it, by the way.
Au revoir, Paris.
We’ll see you again soon.

Black Friday? No Doorbusters Here, Folks.

2011-11-27T18:54:00.000-05:00

We usually venture out a little on Thanksgiving weekend to do some shopping.
We’re not the hard core, camp out, stand in line all night types but we do enjoy a good sale.
And the people watching. Oh, the people watching.
Is there a better time to people watch than Black Friday?
Especially those hard core, camp out, stand in line all night types.

In Luxembourg, there’s no such thing as Black Friday.
Or Thanksgiving.
Obvs.
After we had our own Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, we spent Friday showing Aunt Traci around and soaking up some of the culture of our new city.
Shawn had to work so it was just the girls.

After the Christmas Market, we weren’t really ready to go home.
Another American expat had told me about a grocery store called Little Britain that carries British and American items that are difficult to find elsewhere.
Traci wasn’t about to pass this up because she loves the British.

We had a bit of trouble finding Little Britain because of a snafu with the GPS.
We drove back and forth a few times looking for it.
“This is a lot of time to spend looking for a grocery store,” I told Traci.
”Yea, but it’ll be worth it if they have salsa. And Cheez-Its.”

Totally.

After a few more go arounds of a roundabout and a demanding TURN AROUND WHEN POSSIBLE from the GPS, we gave up and I pulled into another grocery store to buy milk. Traci stayed in the car with Hannah.
As I was walking in, WHAT ARE THE CHANCES that the couple in front of me would be speaking English? British English?
Certainly they would know where Little Britain is.
So I asked if they did.
And they gave me specific directions.
“They have a lot of American food as well, but you’ll have to splash out,” the woman told me. I’ve been chuffed as nuts with the selection, though.”
(I think this is why Traci loves the British.)

We found Little Britain and went in.
I learned what “splash out” means.
This stuff is expensive.
A small(ish) bottle of Aunt Jemima pancake syrup was almost €8, which is like $10.50.
You don’t even want to know the price of a bag of chocolate chips.

And that’s how we spent Black Friday.
No ads. No doorbusters. No sales.
Just three girls, a Christmas market and the comfort of knowing that many of the things I thought I’d be missing from home are readily available.

For a splash out, of course.

Insta-Friday: Thanksgiving Style

2011-11-25T15:38:00.000-05:00

In Luxembourg, November 24 was just another Thursday.
But at our house we had a full blown, old fashioned Thanksgiving.

Wanna know the best part?

On Wednesday my sister arrived in Luxembourg.
All the way from Los Angeles.
That’s 5,700 miles and 18 hours of travel.
(Don’t even ask how many kilometers that is. I have no idea.)
After hearing “Is it time to go pick up Aunt Traci?” no less than 4,000 times that day, the moment finally arrived.

Hannah and Aunt Traci were back together again.
(You can read more about my sister here and here.)

I thought that the week couldn’t get any better.
Then Aunt Traci opened her Suitcase O’ Plenty.
She brought the giving to Thanksgiving.
Oh yes she did.
Pumpkin puree, evaporated milk and Ritz crackers.

And if you look closely, you’ll also see a can of French’s fried onions and some cream of mushroom soup. Hello, green bean casserole.

I’d mentioned to her in a text that there were some grocery items that I needed for the Turkey Day feast but haven’t been able to find here in Luxembourg.
And Aunt Traci didn’t disappoint.

Thursday morning, we stayed in our jammies and got our bird ready for roasting.

Poor Traci.
She was so jet lagged.
She kept saying that she felt like she was peeling carrots in the middle of the night.
A nine hour time change is a lot for one girl.

So Traci and Hannah took naps and I kept one eye on the bird and the other on the Macy’s Parade, thanks to my husband and Slingbox.
My oven is teeny tiny and operates on degrees Celsius and military time. I was worried that a.) the turkey wouldn’t fit and b.) that I would over or under cook it.

My fridge is also teeny tiny and the iced tea did not fit.
So I chilled it outside on the window sill.

Later that evening, my little helper assisted with setting the table.

Here’s our feast. I stuck to simple recipes.
You can find them on my Thanksgiving Menu Pinterest board.

(I didn’t over or under cook the bird. It was just right.)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends in America!
We love and miss you all!

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
Psalm 100:4-5

From Her Perspective

2011-11-22T15:12:00.001-05:00

“Mommy, I don’t know about Europe.”

“Why not?”

“Their cars are funny. They look like little meatballs.”

She’s kind of right.

At the Last Minute, A Furniture Makeover

2011-11-21T17:02:00.000-05:00

About six years ago, my grandma gave me a set of dining room furniture.
It has a table, four chairs, a buffet, an armoire and three leaves to make the table really big.

For six years, Shawn and I have been saying that we were going to give it a makeover.
Well, we finally did.

Wanna know when?

FOUR DAYS before the movers were coming to load up our stuff to ship to Europe.
Nothing like adding a 30 hour project to the most hectic time of our lives, right?

I mean, really. Who does stuff like this?

We hauled all the pieces out to the garage.
(We had some help. Ok, lots of help.)
We sanded and painted. Sanded and painted.
Wash, rinse, repeat.

Then I reupholstered the chairs.
It was way easier than I thought.
Good thing because it was a solo project.
I wasn’t sure about the fabric and to be honest, what I selected wasn’t my first choice.
But then I realized that if I selected a fabric with a pattern, I’d never get all the chairs to match and it would be impossible to properly line up the print. And I’d never be able to enjoy a meal at a table if the pattern on each of the chairs was all wonky and misaligned.
I’m kidding. Kind of.
Then I started getting all dizzy and high maintenance because WE CAN’T MOVE TO EUROPE UNTIL THESE CHAIRS ARE REUPHOLSTERED.

So I went with a whimsy and nonspecific print.
The fabric was on sale.
Which is good because I’m cheap. And picky.

I wish we had taken pictures of the process, but we were moving at such a FRANTIC PACE that there just wasn’t time. The paint was barely dry on the day the movers loaded all of it up into the oversea container. In fact, I wrapped every single piece in waxed paper so that the paint wouldn’t be damaged by the bubble wrap and cardboard.

And I may or may not have bolted upright in bed, awoken by a dream about the table floating in the middle of the Atlantic.

In the end, every piece made it unscathed, unscratched and unchipped.
And I’m digging my new dining room.

She’s On The Nice List

2011-11-20T15:17:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid, I loved getting things in the mail.
So does Hannah.

Last week, she got a very special letter from the North Pole.
”But how does he know that I’m in Luxembourg?”
Oh, he knows.
”But how will he find me if we go to America for Trissmas?”
Don’t worry, we’ll let him know.
”Will you email Santa and tell him that I’ll be in America for Trissmas?”
Absolutely.

(Thank you, Aunt Chris and Uncle Jerry for arranging this!)

We got another package with a Christmas shirt and lots of cards.

Thank you Demi Jackie, Papa Charlie, Demi Carol, Papa Bob and Great Grandpa T Car.
We love and miss you all.

Can’t wait to see you at Christmas!

Insta-Friday

2011-11-18T17:08:00.000-05:00

This week has been full of more learning and adapting.

Yesterday, Hannah and I went to a brunch with other wives from my husband’s company.
Some have been here in Lux for years, some for a few weeks like us.
It’s nice to talk to people who have been where we are and know what it’s like.

Because this expat thing, it ain’t easy.

Then we went to a grocery store.
Because that’s what we do. We try out grocery stores.

I was glad that Hannah asked to ride in the cart because there were so many people.
This was the biggest cheese counter I’ve ever seen.
There had to be over 100 varieties.

On the way home, we got stopped at railroad tracks for a passing train.
Hannah was excited and wanted me to take a picture.
We sat there for about 6 minutes, which is kind of a long time to anticipate a train.
But it gave me time to translate that sign.
A train can hide other one from it. Ah, got it.
There can be two trains but I might only be able to see one.
I’m getting better at translating the translations.
Finally we heard a whistle and I got the camera ready.
This is what I got.

It whizzed by us before the picture even snapped.
I laughed out loud because it was the smallest train I’ve ever seen.
“Mom, I don’t think that was a train. It was a bus.”

Our lights got installed today.
I totally studied up before the electrician got here.

I translated to French the words and phrases I thought I’d need.
Please come in. Lights. Ceiling. Extra bulb. Would you like a beverage?

I wrote them all down.

The electrician spoke a bit of English so I did my best with my little French cheat sheet.
After he’d been here for about 30 minutes, he said, “Frau, I am German.”
Oops.

I’ve had to be a little industrious because there are some things that you can’t buy here in Lux. Like chicken broth.
So I planned to make my own.
Then I found out that you can, as of very recent, buy it in the store.
You just have to look for it. IN THE MAYONNAISE AISLE.
Right. Found it. It comes in small glass jars and I could make a lot of it for way less than buying it.
So I did.

And now a fresh stash of broth is waiting to be put in next week’s Thanksgiving stuffing.

Open For Business

2011-11-16T14:40:00.000-05:00

Our guest room is all set up.
The bed is made.
The curtains are hung and the pillows have been fluffed.
We’re ready for visitors.

Who wants to be the first?
We’ll leave the light on for you.

Random-y Randomness

2011-11-13T05:03:00.000-05:00

Cooking and freezing was the order of the day at our house on Friday.
Which is funny because our freezer is approximately the size of two shoe boxes stacked on top of one another. See?

We’ve got the important things: Haagen Dazs, a few boo-boo bunnies and the tiniest little ice cube tray you’ve ever seen. It makes ice cubes for mice, I think.
Oh, and there's also a box of Hello Kitty popsicles that were purchased in a moment of weakness.
But no one will eat them.
They have an odd, almost floral flavor about them.
Have you ever wondered what perfume tastes like?
Try Hello Kitty popsicles to find out.

Anyways, the freezing. Partly due to excess.
And partly due to a bit of proactiveness.
Hannah wanted to bake cupcakes and I said yes.
At home in the US, this is a quick activity.
Here in Luxembourg, shopping for the ingredients alone is an all afternoon event for me, what with all the translating and such.

At the end, we had a lot of leftover buttercream icing.
So we froze it for future use.

We also made a big batch of homemade spaghetti sauce.
For nights when thawing sauce and boiling pasta noodles seems better than actually cooking.
It simmered for six hours and my, oh my did it smell good.

I filled three bags like this.
And that just about maxes out my freezer space.

In other non-cooking/freezing news, I got my little craft/sewing nook all set up on Friday.
I brought my sewing/embroidery machine and a couple of other craft items from home.
But I really kept it to a minimum because I wasn't sure how much I would actually do.
Now I wish I had brought more of my supplies.
Because when I spend an entire day surrounded by things that are not normal to me, this mama needs a little respite to normal.

In Luxembourg, when people move out of a house, they take the light fixtures and bulbs with them. Shawn ordered ours a few weeks ago and they should be installed next Friday.

(This post really is shaping up to be a page turner, isn’t it?)

Until then, I'll be making the most of the daylight and fumbling around in the dark at night.
I kid.
We have lamps.
But it will be nice to have something that looks not quite so dangerous.

We had two days of serious fog here in the Lux.
The kind that reminds you of the old school Scooby Doo episode where Shaggy whips out a butter knife and cuts a piece of the fog. And then Scooby eats it. (Weird.)
Anyway, we could barely see the house across the street from us. Which by the way, looks like this on non-foggy days. I just love the exposed brick on the garage.
So rustic and European.

Saturday we went to IKEA to pick up a few things.
When we got home, Shawn said, “I can’t believe you got two phone numbers at IKEA today.”
It’s true.
I made two new friends. Both in the cafeteria.
The first, Hannah and I ran into while in line for lunch.
We literally ran into her. With our cart. Oops.
I said, “Pardon. Sorry.”
She responded with, “That’s okay.”
IN ENGLISH!
She’s British and lives just minutes from us here in Luxembourg.
You can imagine Shawn’s surprise when he arrived at our designated meeting time and place in the cafeteria and we were eating lunch with our new British friend, her Danish husband and their baby.

The second, we also met in the cafeteria.
This time it was dinner.
(Yes, we were at IKEA that long.)
(And, yes we ate two meals there in one day. Don’t judge.)

Hannah and I were sitting at a little table and I noticed a woman wearing tall brown boots, black leggings and a mustardish colored peacoat. I’ve never been fashion forward enough to wear brown and black together, but she was rocking it.
Then I heard her speaking English to her two little girls.
I struck up a conversation with her (not about the boot/legging combination because that would just be weird) and she told me that she is from the Buckeye State.
Oh, you guys.
Then it turns out that WE WENT TO THE SAME HIGH SCHOOL for a short time until her family moved.
And, it gets better. She is Facebook friends with the gal who used to cut my hair.
And, oh, did we make a scene over that one.
NO! NO YOU ARE NOT! YOU KNOW EACH OTHER?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!
This was followed by a series of shrieks and giggles that only two American girls who’ve met at the IKEA cafeteria in Arlon, Belguim can appreciate.

I think I’ve used the word cafeteria enough for one post.

Happy Sunday!

Universally Funny

2011-11-10T16:24:00.001-05:00

Today Hannah and I played at the little playground in our neighborhood.
This made me giggle:

It also made our Dutch neighbors giggle.
They asked me to tell them the English word for the person who repairs drains.

Because plumber's crack is funny in any language.

Lundi. That Means Monday.

2011-11-09T17:04:00.000-05:00

This may be the most boring intro to a blog post I’ve ever written.
I’m warning you now.

Part of the expat process is that each member of our family has to register by reporting in person at our local commune, which is basically the administrative division of our town. They will issue us a declaration of arrival which is valid for three months. Later, we each will receive a residency visa on our Passports that will last the length of Shawn’s work permit in Luxembourg.

(See? I told you.)

All this to say: they want to know who we are, where we are living, what we are doing here and when we are leaving.

Shawn took care of his part when he arrived a few weeks ago.
Now Hannah and I got to take a turn.

I set the GPS with the address provided, Place de L’Eglise.
But Rue de L’Eglise appeared on the screen.
Should be the same thing, right?

I found out I was wrong 23 minutes later when TomTom blurted out that I had reached my destination. I was on the opposite side of Luxembourg City in what appeared to be the parking lot of an apartment building behind the railway station.

I pulled in a spot, got a snack for Hannah out of the emergency stash and regrouped.
This time, Place de L’Eglise. Here we come.
30 minutes and two juice boxes later we were back in business.
I pulled into the parking lot of our commune (which is about 2 minutes from our house, by the way) got Hannah out of her car seat and headed for the door.

Nothing was going to stop us now.

Except this:

It was Lundi and after 11:30.
And the door was locked.

(I’ve been doing this often, taking pictures of buildings and their heures d’ ouvertures. Otherwise I could never remember. Plus, this business of military time confuses me. Who wants to do math to know what time it is?)

I didn’t know what apres-midi freme meant, so I used the app on my phone to translate it.
Afternoon Farm. That’s what it said.
I mean, really. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

There was only one thing to do at this point and it included a bakery and a pastry big enough for two.

So, on Mardi we headed out bright and early.
We made it there in record time.

And I’m happy to say that our arrival has been declared.

Laundry and Literal Translations

2011-11-06T17:05:00.000-05:00

We’ve been here a full week now and I had yet to do a load of laundry.
It was piling up.

But my washing machine, she’s German. See?

And my dryer? Yep, she only speaks German, too.

(And there’s no English version of the manual available.)

Shawn downloaded a translation app on my phone for me.
Yesterday morning I headed to the laundry room, ready to translate, wash, dry and fold.

Only it wasn’t that simple.

Because literal translations don’t always make sense when placed in context.
Especially the context of, you know, laundry.

Some of them were obvious. Super Eco. Jeans. I got it. No translation needed.
Baumwolle? That one was easy. It means “cotton.”
Spulen, however, translates to “coils.” This would mean “spin,” right?
How about “flecken?” Well, that means “patches.”
Hmmmm. Interesting, but okay.
And what about “zeitvirwahl?” Time code.
I’ve never once used the term “time code” in reference to my laundry.
Oh, and let’s not forget about “schranktrocken.” That means “dry cabinet.”
I’m going to need a glass of dry wine before I figure this out.

So I called in the big guns.
I met a delightful lady here in Luxembourg who is a native German speaker.
Swiss German, to be exact.
She’s spent a lot of time in the US, so she gets American culture.
Which means she doesn’t think I'm crazy.
Or maybe she does, but she’s okay with it because she knows where I’m coming from.
I emailed her my list and she replied back with specific descriptions to each of the buttons on my washing machine and dryer. I can’t say thank you enough.
Neither can Shawn.
Now he’ll have clean clothes to wear to work.

Oh, and that “Jeans” cycle? It takes three hours and thirty one minutes to complete.
Literally translated, that is longer than the movie Braveheart. And Titanic.

I do believe that Caroline Ingalls could have washed all of her BAUMWOLLE flower print blouses and petticoats out in the wide, open prairie in less than three hours and thirty one minutes.

So, I’ll probably be sticking to the Super Eco cycle because it only takes one hour.
Or perhaps the 20 minute/3 kg cycle on occasion because that only takes, well, 20 minutes. (There they go again with the metric system. IT IS EVERYWHERE.)

And since the dryer takes a bit longer than I’m used to, I’ll probably wash one day, hang dry overnight and slap everything in the dryer the next morning.

So I guess that’s settled.
We can all rest easy now.

I’ve never felt such a sense of accomplishment over a basket of clean laundry.

A Few Firsts

2011-11-03T19:44:00.000-04:00

When we arrived in Europe on Saturday morning, Shawn picked us up from the airport.
He already had our first outing planned: picking up my car.

”You mean I have to drive? Now? Here?”
”Yes, yes and yes. The sooner you start, the easier it will be,” he said.

So we picked up my new (to me) car and I drove it almost 45 minutes to our house.
My sweet husband, bless his heart, searched high and low to find me an automatic.
You see, I don’t know how to drive stick.
And Europeans? Well, they like their stick shifts.
So an automatic is hard to come by.

I panicked a little, as one does when driving for the first time in a foreign country.
Then I saw this and panicked a little more.

Because 70 miles per hour is awfully fast for this foreigner to be driving.
Oh, wait. That’s kilometers. So that’s like…
I actually have no idea how many miles per hour that is.
I’m not very good at the metric system.

Wednesday, Shawn went back to work for the first time since Hannah and I have been here.
We got up and headed out early.
Ok, it was 11AM. But that’s 5AM where we come from.

We thought we’d check out a few local grocery stores.
In European grocery stores, all the shopping carts are at the entrance to the store and you put a coin in to unlock it. You get your coin back when you return it. Genius. Everyone returns their carts to the entrance of the store so there are no carts in the parking lot. No carts in the parking lot equals no dings on your car. Genius.

We picked up a few items and headed back to our little town.
To complicate things further, the name of our town can be pronounced in German and Luxembourgish.

When Shawn got home from work, he said that he had a meeting early the next day in Brussels and it made sense for him to go there now instead of in the morning and would we like to come along? I wasn’t totally up for staying in a strange house in a different country all alone and I’ve been living out of a suitcase for the last five weeks, so what’s one more night?
(Have you ever packed a suitcase from another suitcase that hasn’t yet been unpacked?)

Hannah and I stayed at the hotel while Shawn went to his meeting early the next morning.
And we both slept the sleep of angels.
It was dreamy.

Shawn picked us up after his meeting and we drove back to Luxembourg.
And by we, I mean I. Shawn took this pic as proof.

Doesn’t the blurry background make it look like I was going really fast?
Wow. I must have been driving A LOT OF KILOMETERS PER HOUR.
Don’t be fooled. I got passed and honked at more than once.

On the way home, we made a stop at IKEA.
(It was open this time.)

We picked up a few things and decided to eat while we were there.

We really tried to blend in with the Europeans.
But while we were eating Hannah yelled out, “Mom, do the French people know I’m four?”

And I’m sure that’s what gave us away.

11/1/11

2011-11-01T20:14:00.000-04:00

Today is a holiday in Europe.
That means that pretty much everything is closed.

Well.

IKEA’s website led us to believe that the store closest to us was, in fact, open, so we drove the 40 minutes to Belgium. I’ve never lived closer than 2 hours to an IKEA and I am giddy as all get out to be so close to storage solutions at such reasonable prices.

It was closed. We should have known.

So we decided to drive over to Trier, the oldest city in Germany. Knowing that all the shops and restaurants would be closed, we thought we could drive around and take in some of the historical sights.

We found this instead:

A German fair of some sort.
Not so much historical, but a sight.
So I tried my first schnitzel.

It’s basically meat (don’t even want to know what kind) that they pummel with a mallet, fry up and serve in a bun. It was a little dry, so I thought that I’d use the mustard bottle that was hanging upside down from a rope, and when I started squeezing (much like one would when milking a cow) the German woman at the booth started waving her hands frantically at me.
”Nien! Nein! Nein! Nein! German-German-German-KETCHUP-German-German-German.”

Ah, she wants me to put ketchup on it.
She grabbed the schnitzel right out of my hand and filled the bun with what appeared to be ketchup but turned out to be some sort of odd BBQ sauce mixture.

Next Shawn ordered two drinks: a Coke for him and a water for me.
This is what we got:

One Coke and one beer.
He’s not having much luck ordering drinks is he?
Oh, and there’s my schnitzel.
In case you wondered.

On the way out, there was a booth selling helium balloons.
We told Hannah she could get one.
She picked a pink horse.
We weren’t surprised.

Today was our fourth day in Europe.
And I’d say it was a pretty good one.

We Made It!

2011-10-29T17:26:00.000-04:00

Hannah and I arrived in Luxembourg today.
Our travels went a little like this:
4 suitcases totaling nearly 200 pounds checked.
1 child car seat checked.
1 carry on bag containing a dozen My Little Ponies and an easy access change of clothes.
Just in case.

Cleveland to Newark to Brussels to Luxembourg.
A shout out from the pilot to the birthday girl.
A fellow passenger whose cough sounded like a dog barking.
And another who rocked out with his Mac audio editor software for seven hours straight.
Compliments from the crew on a well behaved little girl.
(She is a great traveler.)
A tearful, joyful reunion when Shawn picked us up at the airport.

We had one small car sickness incident thanks to winding roads and rolling hills.
Good thing for the easy access change of clothes.

And finally, after five weeks of being apart, our little family is back together again.

So we celebrated at a local Subway.
We ordered our sandwiches in centimeters instead of inches.
We paid in Euros instead of Dollars.
And listened to disco music in French while we ate.

We spent our first night together in Europe at a hotel.
That’s because my husband is so thoughtful and wanted me to relax.
He thought I wouldn’t be able to in the sea of boxes and disorganization at our house.
He’s right.
But we’ll tackle that tomorrow.
For tonight, I’m just relieved to be here.

Four

2011-10-28T09:16:00.000-04:00

Dear Hannah,

If someone would have told me that in four years
you would grow from this little squishy baby…

Into this beauty of a little girl…

I wouldn’t have believed them.

Happy 4th Birthday, sweet girl!
Today, we are boarding a plane to our new home in Europe.
Here’s to the start of a fantastic adventure!

We love you more than you know.

Insta-Friday

2011-10-21T15:05:00.000-04:00

This week we shopped for Hannah’s Halloween costume.
We won’t be here for Halloween, so we went to an early trick-or-treat.
I asked her what she wanted to be.
”Maybe you can sew me a horse costume.”
Possibly. If my sewing machine weren’t on a boat to Europe.
(Yes, I know that their outlets and voltage are different than ours.
Or maybe it’s amps. Whatever. My husband got me some do-dads that will let me plug it in and use it without it bursting into flames.)

Anyways, we did find a horse costume.

But the princess costume won out. Probably because it lights up.

When I was a kid, my grandparents had cement poured in their driveway.
My sister and I stamped our hands into it while it was still wet.
Hannah got to do the same this week.

We spent some time waiting at the car dealership.
Waiting and waiting.
I can’t think of anything more boring.
But at least they had this cool kid area.
So only one of us was bored.

We have this little cat. But it’s kind of like we don’t have a cat because she hides 99% of the time. Most of my friends don’t believe that we have a cat because they’ve never seen her.

Well, she got lost.
She was gone for almost a month. That’s a long time for a cat who’s never been outside.
I put flyers in mailboxes and got call after call from neighbors who claimed to have seen her.
I searched and searched the woods near our house, but came up with nothing.
One neighbor suggested I set a humane trap. He even loaned me one.
Well, I caught a cat.
But it wasn’t mine.
Then I caught a turtle. And then a possum.
I’ll spare you the details of that.
I called every animal shelter and vet office in the area.
Two of them said they had a black and white cat brought in recently.
She wasn’t there.
I feared having to tell Hannah that her kitty was gone. She would have been heartbroken.
All the while, my husband is in Europe.
He was totally entertained by my updates on Operation Bring Kitty Home. (So was his boss.)
After another few days of cat chasing drama (and some creepiness from a neighbor) I finally found the cat.
She was practically in my backyard. Like 50 feet away. It figures.
My aunt helped me lure her out from under my next door neighbor’s shed.
You’ve never seen two grown women cheer and jump up and down over a cat like we did.
I hope no one saw us.

So, welcome home kitty.
It was a long month.
For you and me.
But mostly me.

11 Years

2011-10-19T18:25:00.000-04:00

I’ve been married 11 years (and like 5 weeks.)
But I forgot to blog about it on our actual anniversary.
Probably because we were getting ready to move.
And my husband was the best man in a friend’s wedding that same weekend.

I’ve seen a bunch of blog posts recently in which the writers share a list of the things they’ve learned in marriage.

Their lists are beautiful and their life lessons even more so.

Me, however?
I’d probably be more qualified to make a list of things not to say to your husband in order to have a successful marriage.

Lucky for me, my husband loves unconditionally and is quick to forgive.
And that’s just the start of his great qualities.

So, happy (belated) 11th anniversary to my sweet husband.

Click here to read about how we met.
(You’ll also get to see a picture of old school me.)

Apple Pie

2011-10-17T13:26:00.000-04:00

I mentioned that Hannah and I are staying with my parents until we leave for Europe.
We turned their kitchen into a little apple pie bakery.
There was a lot of peeling, slicing and mixing up in here.
And some tasting. Lots of tasting.
Yummy, sweet and tangy apples, fresh from the orchard.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the process.
But I did capture the finished product.

My favorite apples to use in pies are McIntosh and Jonathan.
They are a good mix of sweet and tart and don’t get mushy when baked.

Here’s one of my favorite recipes.
You’ll need:

2 pie crusts
8 cups of apples, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3/4 c white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp butter
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp milk

1. In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice. (I used lime juice because I forgot to buy lemon juice. It worked just fine.)
2. Mix sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add apples and toss to coat well.
3. Line your pie dish with crust. Full disclosure: I use store bought. (I’m impressed with folks who make theirs from scratch. But not impressed enough to do it myself.)
4. Fill crust lined pie dish with apples and dot with butter.
5. Place second pie crust on top and pinch the edges together. Cut slits in the top to vent.
6. Mix egg and milk and brush onto crust. This will make it golden and flaky!
7. Bake for 15 minutes at 425, then reduce to 350 for 45 minutes.

Share with your family.
Surprise a friend.
But don’t admit your crust is store bought.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss: My Story

2011-10-15T11:46:00.000-04:00

Today is October 15.
It’s a day that is near to my heart.
Today is the day we recognize pregnancy and infant loss.

I usually don’t share personal stuff like this, and I wasn’t sure that I ever would.
But I had some beautiful inspiration from some pretty amazing women who’ve been through the same thing I have.
And until four months ago, I was blissfully unaware.
But now I know.

So here goes.

I had no reason to believe that I’d ever be telling a story like this. My first pregnancy came very easily and was smooth and uneventful. Textbook, if you will. Our daughter was born healthy and beautiful, four days before her due date.

Fast forward to Spring, 2011. I suspected that I was pregnant and two home pregnancy tests and a blood test at the doctor’s office confirmed it. I scheduled my first ultrasound for a few weeks later.

On the morning of the ultrasound, I was about 9 1/2 weeks along. My husband had something at work come up that he had to take care of.
”Don’t worry. I'll take a video on my phone and ask for lots of print outs. Besides, we’ve done this before and there will be much more to see at the 20 week ultrasound,” I told him.

I arrived at the appointment and hopped onto the table. The technician got started and then said, “This is taking a little longer because I don’t think you’re as far along as we thought.” I crooked my head to see the screen and she turned it so that I could see.
”There it is. There’s your baby.”

Then the technician’s forehead wrinkled a bit and she studied the screen. “That’s the baby’s chest and I’m looking for a little flutter, the heartbeat.” Another few seconds passed.
”I’m going to have to get the doctor. Just relax here for a minute.”

I knew. They only go get the doctor if something is wrong.

She grabbed a few printouts from the ultrasound machine and left. Minutes later, she returned with my doctor. Normally I would be comforted to see him – Shawn and I both love and trust him - but he gave me a weak smile and took over the ultrasound.

”Have you had any bleeding or cramping?”
I hadn’t. Until this moment, I had no reason to believe anything was wrong. As far as I was concerned, my pregnancy had been progressing just as it should.

After another minute, he took my hand, helped me to sit up and said, “I’m so sorry. There’s no heartbeat, no movement and your baby is measuring smaller than it should for how far along you are. The most important thing for you to know is that this is not your fault and was not caused by something you did or did not do.”
I just starred at him, not knowing what to say, so I whispered, “thank you.”

At that moment, I became a member of a club which I never wanted to join: moms who’ve lost their babies far too soon.

”Take what time you need, call your husband and the nurse will walk you to my office. I’ll meet you there to talk about what will happen next.”

I called Shawn and through sobs, I managed to get out, “Ilostthebaby. No. Heartbeat.”
“I’m on my way,” he said.

Our gentle breeze of pending parenthood had just become a hurricane.

The kind nurse ushered me down the hall to the doctor’s office, hugged me and told me how sorry she was. Again, I managed a meek, “thank you” in between sobs. She left me to wait for the doctor.

The doctor returned and in his gentle, yet matter-of-fact way explained my options to me. We decided to not make any decisions at that moment. Shawn and I thought the best thing at that time was to just be still and wait. We scheduled a D&C for a week later, but hoped that during that time, my body would do what it needed to do.

I had no idea how difficult it would be to live those nine days, knowing that there was a baby inside me that I would never get to hold.

Early in the morning on the day of the D&C, my body began to let go of the pregnancy. It was unrelenting, painful and traumatic. Just as painful as labor, to be honest.

Shawn drove us to the hospital where we met my doctor.
The D&C was quick and I woke up feeling better than I thought I would. The sweet nurse who had started my IV and walked me to the OR told me that she also had a miscarriage. It was 26 years ago and she still thinks about it. I read somewhere that once you see that second pink line on a pregnancy test, you set a place at your table for your baby. So true.

“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” Ecclesiastes 11:5

So, now it’s been four months and my heart is healing.
The sting isn’t so harsh.
There are days that I don’t even think about it.
But there are reminders.
At a wedding a few weeks ago, as I helped my husband into his tux,
I thought, “I should be wearing a maternity dress to this wedding.”

Ugh.

I don’t know why this happened to us, or what God has planned for our family.
Will we try again?
Maybe. I don’t know.
Hannah may be the only child we are given to raise on this earth.
I am completely honest when I say that I am fine with that.
Because if I only have one, I’m so glad it’s her.

So I snuggle a little closer, giggle a little longer and hug her a little tighter.

Because God is good.
Even when it hurts.
And I know He’s holding my other baby until I can.

Insta-Friday

2011-10-14T14:38:00.000-04:00

This week has been crazy busy.

There's a lot to do when moving one's family and household to another country.

Along with the need-to-be-done things, we found a little time for some fun.

At the apple orchard, Hannah tracked down and cornered a cat.

Was I surprised?

Not at all.

This kid makes friends with animals everywhere we go.

At our 4 year well child check-up.

(Yes, we're a few weeks early.)

I still think the little paper gowns are adorbs.

She's right on track developmentally and still tall and thin.

So thankful for a healthy girl!

Hannah went to her very first football game this week.
All the players were about 4 feet tall.
So cute.
I pointed out the cheerleaders to her.
"Would you like to do that someday?"
"No, I think I just want to be a muskateer."

Speaking of football, we live 10 minutes from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
People come from all over the country to see it.
I've never been there.
But I did take a picture of my kid in one of their cut-outs at a local mall.
Does that count?

Look out, Jim Brown.

I think she's ready for the Dawg Pound.

Apple Picking

2011-10-10T16:54:00.000-04:00

We’ve had some beautiful fall weather the last few days.
So Hannah and I headed out to pick apples at a local orchard.
She kept calling it the “apple factory.”

She wanted to wear her Birthday Girl ribbon,
even though her birthday isn’t for two weeks.

So we decided to start the celebration early.

And I tried out my birthday present for the first time.
Hello, new camera.
I can’t wait to capture memories with you.

Skype, LOL and the Fashion Critic

2011-10-08T13:33:00.000-04:00

We recently introduced my parents to Skype.
With my sister 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles, and my little family about to move across the ocean, it only seemed right.

(My sister and I don’t Skype because we text. Like non-stop. All the live long day.)

But my parents don’t text.
They do email. And Facebook. But no text.

And now?
Now they know how to Skype.
We’ve reached a threshold of technological learning, my friends.

In fact, my mom recently announced to her Facebook friends, “I just Skyped with my daughter in LA with no issues. I totally got this.”

Then she added an “LOL” for good measure.

Since Hannah and I are hanging out at my parents’ house until we leave for Europe, we got to get in on the Skype action with my sister in LA.

For the record, we had no issues.
I totally got this.
LOL.

The conversation went a little like this:

Hannah: Aunt Traci, where are you?
Aunt Traci: I’m in California.
Hannah: Aunt Traci, I like your dress.
Aunt Traci: Thanks, Twinks!
Hannah: But it’s not much coverage.

And I don’t think that we’ve ever LOL’d harder.

Sleep Talking

2011-10-07T20:22:00.000-04:00

I’ve joked before that if Hannah is awake, she’s probably talking.
Well, I recently learned that if she’s asleep, she probably talking, too.
You see, I’ve been bunking with her in my sister’s old room for the last two weeks.

(Shawn’s already in Europe so we’re staying with my parents.)

(It takes quite some time to ship the contents of one’s household across the ocean.)

(And there’s no need for us to rush over there to stay in a hotel while he’s at work during the day.)

Anyways. The sleep talking.
This must be a new thing because I’ve never heard her do it before.
The first night, at about 3AM, I heard her say, “Mommy. Mommy?”
“What, honey?”
Nothing. Sound asleep.

The second night, it was a bunch of incomprehensible ramblings followed by,
“Thank you, your Majesty.”

A few nights later?
“No, Mommy. I don’t want my hair brushed.”

At this point, I actually got up and got a piece of paper to write this stuff down.

My favorite, however, was just last night.
”I’m not very good at French.”

That’s okay, sweetie, because neither are your parents.

I’d Like 1, But 4 Would Be Okay, Too

2011-10-03T13:06:00.000-04:00

Shawn sent me a text that made me giggle.
Totally worth recording for memory’s sake.

Sunday afternoon, he went through a McDonald’s drive thru, armed with his Google translator, to order a large Coke, or “Coca,” as the French say.

“Je voudrais une grande Coca, s'il vous plaît.”
I’d like one large Coke, please.

Over the speaker, a woman recited a string of crackly French.
Totally proud of himself and his new confidence in the French language, he assumed she was telling him his total and to pull around to the next window.

So he did what I totally would have done and replied with the two French words that we have down pat.

“Oui. Merci.”
Yes. Thank you.

Here’s what he ended up with.
That’s four grande Cocas.
We’re not exactly sure where he went wrong, but it probably had something to do with the, “Oui. Merci.”
And the new confidence in the French language.
And the assuming.

Let’s file this under:
Things We’ll Laugh About When We Become Adept at Living in a Foreign Country.

Insta-Friday, I mean Tuesday

2011-09-27T15:37:00.002-04:00

I’m totally late for the show this week.
I’m not even sneaking in during the overture.
I’m basically showing up after the curtain call.

It’s been a busy few weeks.

Anyways.
Shawn and I got to sneak away to the City of Brotherly Love for a wedding in which he was the best man.
College friends, two love birds tying the knot and
real Philly cheesesteak sandwiches.
What could be better?

The plans for the Kate and Pippa’s dresses were once the
most closely guarded secrets in England.
And now they are available for less than one dollar.

The movers were here for three days this week.
Packing, wrapping, taping and loading.
My house was in shambles.
And my nerves kinda were, too.
Those guys are beasts.
I had to look away as one carried our dresser down the stairs.
ON HIS BACK.

We have a shipment that will go via air and one
that goes on a big ocean liner across the Atlantic.
This is the one that will go to Luxembourg via air.
We were given an allotment of 500 pounds.
Ours totaled 487.
That’s because my husband is a rock star when it comes to planning and packing for our family.
But for himself?

Shawn: Have you seen our dresser?
Me: Ya mean the one that guy carried down the stairs ON HIS BACK?
Shawn: Yea, that one.
Me: They wrapped it in bubble wrap, cardboard and sealed it with about a mile of tape. It’s already on the truck.
Shawn: I’m gonna need you to run out and buy me some socks and underwear. Like today.

Freshly bathed and groomed, Louie and his BFF.

Speaking of Lou, lots of people have asked what
we’ll be doing with him when we move.
The answer is that he is coming with us!
But not until December.
Sad face.
He is staying with a good friend until we come home for Christmas. Then we’ll be taking him back with us.
Happy face.

I’m linked up with life rearranged.

Still On Planet Earth

2011-09-20T17:32:00.001-04:00

Remember when I said that this year’s 4th of July celebration was extra special to our family?

That’s because it was the last 4th of July that we will spend in America for a couple of years.

Last spring, my husband’s company asked him to take an expat assignment in Europe. And we said yes.

So, we’ve got our Passports all revved up and today the movers are here loading up our stuff to ship across the Atlantic to a tiny little country called Luxembourg, which borders France, Belgium and Germany.

Fortunately, my husband’s company offers French lessons to spouses.
Oui, I’m going to need them.

I broached the subject with Hannah a few months ago. We haven’t outright told her what is happening because we want to balance reality with the amount of information that her little 3 year old mind and emotions can handle. She knows that we are going on a big trip, on a big airplane and that we’ll be staying in a different house, but all (and I do mean all) of her toys are going to be there.

”Remember when we went to Texas with Daddy for his work? Do you want to go on another trip with him? This time we’ll go to Europe.”
She cupped my face in her little hands, looked me square in the eye and as serious as can be, she said, “Is that on planet Earth?”
I told her that it is.
“Well, okay then. I’ll go.”

I guess she’s got her limits, that girl.

I plan on recording all of our adventures on this little blog so that our friends and family can keep up with what we are doing. You might not see any sewing or crafting for a while…I’m not sure how much of that I’ll be doing once we get to Europe. But I can guarantee that we’ll be doing lots of traveling, experiencing as much of the culture as we can soak up, and probably embarrassing ourselves a little…

Talent

2011-09-14T23:57:00.000-04:00

On the day Hannah was born, as soon as I heard my husband say, “It’s a girl!” this is what I envisioned.
Tutus and tap shoes.

We tried that for a while and she liked it.
She still likes to twirl, boogie and shake.
But dance isn’t her thing.

This is.

Her passion is unwavering. Her excitement is contagious.
This little girl loves horses and everything
that goes along with them.

We went to two Mommy & Me riding classes this summer.
She has a natural way with horses.
(And other animals, for that matter.)
At the second class, she got to try the reigns and
she handled them like a champ.

My sweet Hannah,
No matter what you pursue or where your interests
and talents lie, I will always be cheering you on.
I’m your biggest fan.

Insta-Friday: The One Where They Lost My Luggage. A Lot.

2011-09-02T08:13:00.000-04:00

Hey there.
Here’s a little peek into what we’ve been up to through the eye of my celly.

Hubs and I went on a little plane ride. We woke up across the pond and jet lagged. Oh, and our luggage was lost.

But it was okay.
We sat around the hotel wearing t-shirts that the airline gave us as a consolation prize.

They finally delivered the luggage.
But it wasn’t ours.
They got it on the second try.

This little treat totally made up for the luggage debacle.
And my lunch misfortune earlier that day.
The one where my limited French and the waiter’s limited English resulted in me ordering a pot of mussles.
I’m lucky that my hubs is a good sport.
And that he actually likes those slippery little suckers.

These little fellas are just so cute.
But where would I put my luggage?
(If it had actually arrived at my destination, that is.)

There’s no getting around the fact that Crocs are just plain unsightly.
But this? The world’s largest Croc?
That’s just plain funny.

The hubs snapped this one of me in front of the Grand Ducal Palace.
What am I doing? I never really know.

We said goodbye to beautiful Luxembourg for now and headed stateside.
And guess what?
Our luggage was lost. Again.
This caused us to miss our connecting flight.
So we had to take another one.
But it landed two hours from our home, so we rented a car and drove the rest of the way.

They delivered the luggage two days later.
And they didn’t even give us t-shirts this time.

Go link up your cell phone pics over at life rearranged.

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

2011-08-24T11:18:00.000-04:00

The other night, Shawn came home from work exhausted, so after dinner, I decided to find a little activity that Hannah and I could do outside so that he could rest for a while.

We made sidewalk chalk paint!
It’s super easy and really cheap.

You’ll need:
cold water
corn starch
food coloring
paint brushes
dishes or containers for the paint

Mix 1/4 cup cold water and 1/4 cup corn starch. (Put the corn starch in first and then add the water. It mixes up way easier this way.)

Add food coloring.

Go crazy.
Mix colors.
This is a great lesson about primary and secondary colors for preschoolers.

Then let your little artist go to town.
Or to the driveway. Whatevs.
As the paint dries, it looks just like chalk!

We started out with sponge brushes, but they got torn up pretty quickly by the cement, so we found some regular old brushes in the garage.

Oh, and don’t forget to wear a strand of purple beads.

(Sometimes she’s a righty, sometimes a lefty.)

We used up nearly every drop of paint.
Next time, I think we’ll double our recipe.

Clean up is easy.
Hose down the driveway. Or don’t. Just wait for a big rain.
Toss the containers in the dishwasher and the kiddo in the bathtub.

Happy painting!

Insta-Friday

2011-08-19T15:22:00.000-04:00

Once again, I’m linking up with Jeanette over at Life Rearranged.

Here goes.

We went to the zoo this week.
Guess what we found in the gift shop?
A horse necklace.
Oh, yes we did.
But we didn’t buy this one. The one we have is plenty.

I made this yummy crock pot BBQ for dinner. It was a big hit.

I also did a lot of ironing this week.
Do you like my new ironing board cover?
I made it.
Tutorial here.

Little Miss and I had dentist appointments this week.
To the hygienist at the office:
I can think of much better tactics for getting a three year old to cooperate than telling her, “sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do.”
Let’s work on that chair side manner, mmkay?

My sister lives in sunny California.
Sometimes she surprises us with little things in the mail.
Thanks for the post card, Aunt Traci.
But, ya know what’s better than a post card?

Having you here for real!

Insta-Friday

2011-08-12T12:38:00.000-04:00

Little Miss had VBS this week. This gave me two hours each morning to be an administrative assistant to my husband.
He’s a pretty cool boss.
He even brought me iced tea.

I also did some grocery shopping.

I’ve always had a natural tendency toward cleanliness. It doesn’t help that I worked for a company that makes hand sanitizer. I probably know more about bacteria and other such infectious agents than the average person.

Germ-a-phobe much?

Well, you just never know who or what has come in contact with the produce at the grocery store. Here’s my little antibacterial solution for fruits and veggies. (You’re welcome.)
As soon as I get home from the grocery store, I mix 3 cups of water and 1 cup of white vinegar. I soak all my produce for a few minutes and then rinse in cold water. I promise you won’t taste a trace of vinegar and you’ll kill nearly every Germy McNasty in the bunch. Plus, your goodies will last longer in the fridge and vinegar is way cheaper than those washes you can buy in the store.

This little pool-haired lady got her first passport this week, along with a pamphlet titled:
“With Your US Passport, The World Is Yours.”
Indeed, the world is hers.

If you ride in my car during the summer months, I hope you don’t mind wind-blown hair. And, yes, sometimes I also have the air conditioning on. Relax. I only do it once in a while.

We went to a Mommy & Me horse back riding class this week. We started out on a pony.
We groomed and fed. We saddled up, cowgirl style.
We trotted and turned.
The instructor told me that Hannah would have taken the pony to a full out gallop if she would have let her.
She also asked if she and the pony could attempt some jumps.
The girl has no fear.

I generally don’t snap cell phone pics while driving.
But this little treasure?
Well, I couldn’t pass it up.
If you look closely, the sign on the back of the truck reads:

LADYS
I LOVE
BEING
FLASHED

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
I’d have been far more entertained by the attempt at a double entendre, but I was totally distracted by the misspelling of the plural form of “lady.”

I’m linked up with Jeannette over at life rearranged. Go visit her!

I Very Well May Never Windex This Mirror

2011-08-07T14:17:00.000-04:00

On Saturday mornings, Shawn always gets up with Hannah and lets me sleep in. Yep, he’s awesome like that. They usually watch cartoons, drink chocolate milk and build forts out of blankets while I get an extra hour and a half of rest.

Two Saturdays ago, I had an early appointment, and as I was about to sneak down the stairs, Hannah woke up, tip toed into our room and crawled into my spot in the bed. I returned a few hours later and asked Shawn what they did when I left.

“Well, I was hoping she’d fall back asleep but she kept running into the bathroom, then back into our room. Then she would stand on the pillows and run back to the bathroom,” he told me.

Turns out, this is what she was doing.

My lip gloss + mirror + sweet little kisses = priceless art.
And I’m keeping it forever.

Insta-Friday

2011-08-06T15:54:00.000-04:00

Sharing a little peek into what we’ve been up to…

Doing what cousins do – sitting on the same chair for a game of Barbie Fashionista while waiting for ice cream.

What’s a girl to do with a herd of horses that don’t have saddles? She fashions some out of Hello Kitty Band-Aids, that’s what. Creative and resourceful, no?

We are slowly and cautiously dipping our toes into some home schooling activities. This week we worked on some letters and numbers for preschoolers. (I think she’s gonna be a great student!)

My favorite thing about school was field trips, so we took one of our own. We went to the pet store where we counted fish and birds.

I don’t know about other guys, but my husband is downright rough on his dress pants. The hems on the pants he wears to work somehow end up a tattered mess. I finally took the time to repair seven pairs and now they’re good as new.

If you were impressed by all this mending, well, don’t be fooled. This is what my kitchen sink looks like.

Because I’m only one woman.

Happy Friday!
I’m linking up with Jeannette at life rearranged.

Career Change

2011-08-01T07:46:00.000-04:00

I’ve been working in Human Resources since I graduated from college. I worked full time until Hannah was born and when my maternity leave was coming to an end, I was given a great opportunity to work on a part time basis. I’ve been doing this for the last three and a half years. My typical schedule has been to work in the mornings and then be home after lunch. We have been blessed to have my parents take care of Hannah while I worked. I couldn’t have asked for a better deal, really.

With some changes coming soon for our family, Shawn and I have decided that it’s time for me to take an “extended leave” from corporate America and start a new job. So, last Friday I cleaned out my desk and turned in my laptop and company credit card.

This new job will be different. Quite different.
There is no paycheck.
No annual performance review.
And certainly no raises.
My bonuses will be paid in the form of hugs and kisses.
I’ll have no sick days.
No paid vacation.
And no personal days.

Oh, and the hours? I’ll pretty much be on call 24/7.
But really, I can’t think of a job I’d rather have.

Today is my first day as a full time stay at home mom.

I think this little girl is pretty excited about it.
And so am I.

Insta-Friday

2011-07-29T19:42:00.000-04:00

Once again, I’m linking up with Jeanette over at life rearranged for Insta-Friday to document my week by way of goofy pictures snapped on my cell phone.

One day last month I was driving and heard the most awful racket. I thought it was the muffler. (Because that’s about the only mechanical part I can identify on the underbelly of a car.) Turns out, I had a flat tire. After a small ordeal and the kindness of a stranger at a gas station, I was on my way with the spare tire in place of the flat one.

This is what my dashboard told me this week. Yep, the brand new tire that replaced the spare tire that replaced the flat tire now has low pressure. Sigh.

We made the most of a rainy day and did some puddle jumping.

I got my first pedi two years ago when I visited my sister in LA. I may or may not have become addicted.

Zhu-Zhu Pets. Cute at first, but they quickly become the most annoying toy known to man. Why didn’t anyone warn me?

I ran into some old friends and the next thing I knew, we were reliving some childhood memories with New Kids on the Block. Free tickets, free parking and seats in a suite. I don’t think I would have paid money to see them, but they do put on a good show. Don’t believe me? Just ask anyone who was there. And by anyone, I mean the 20,000 women in the 30-35 year age range. Oh yea, and like one guy. And he was on a laptop. I kid you not. Dude probably lost a bet or something.

What did you do this week?

Not Even Flava Flav Would Wear This

2011-07-20T16:03:00.000-04:00

So, two weekends ago we took Hannah to a small town fair. We had driven by earlier in the day and saw that they had pony rides for the kiddos. I may have mentioned a time or two that my little girl, well, she loves the ponies.
We made our way over to the ticket booth. Hannah and I got in line and chose a nice one named Carlos. I lifted her so that she could put one foot in the stirrup. Like a true cowgirl, she grabbed the horn, swung her other leg over and got situated in the saddle. Shawn stood on the sidelines to take pictures. We circled around the carousel a few times, waving to him as we passed.

“Mommy, will you get me a horse necklace?”

“Sure! I think that’s a great idea,” I said, picturing a dainty, elegant silhouette of a filly. Perhaps in silver, with Hannah’s monogram engraved on one side. It would be a keepsake. She would wrap it up in tissue paper and slide it into her suitcase when she goes off to college. And maybe even tuck it to her bouquet on her wedding day.

When our turn was over, I lifted her out of the saddle and we petted Carlos on his mane. As we were exiting the live animal area, Hannah ran over to a table displaying all kinds of chotchkies and said, “Here’s my horse necklace!”

Oh, dear. This was not the monogrammed keepsake I had envisioned. And since I had already told her I would get her a horse necklace, well, there was no turning back. This is what we came home with.

And to make it even better, the necklace and the horse itself light up in all colors of the rainbow and flash around like a strobe light.

When Mardi Gras rolls around, I guess we’ll be all set.

Insta-Friday: I Drank a Lot of Iced Tea This Week

2011-07-15T15:25:00.000-04:00

Once again, I'm linking up with Jeannett over at life rearranged to document what I’ve been up to all week by way of silly pics snapped with my celly.

This little lady started going to a summer camp for pre-schoolers a few mornings each week. Here she is with her backpack and lunch bag all ready to go.

And from the back. The sweetest little backpack I’ve ever seen. The school sent a note home requesting that kids’ names are written on all of their belongings in magic marker. Well, this just wouldn’t do, so I embroidered her name onto it.

I’m not a coffee drinker. Starbucks? Eh. I go maybe twice per year, and it’s only when the Pumpkin Spice Latte is on the menu. But iced tea? That’s a different story. And this iced green tea from Panera, now that’s my cup of tea.

Speaking of iced tea, McD’s has some of the best around. Thursday morning I was going through the drive thru to get a large half sweetened, half unsweetened with a lemon (pickiest iced tea order ever) and a car cut me off and pulled right in front of me. In the drive thru line. Right after I had placed my order. Which means that he had not placed an order. And when he got to the first window, the cashier said, “That’s $1.06, please, but, umm, I thought, umm you were a woman?” Dude almost paid for my iced tea AND messed up the whole line of drive thru customers. Who does that?! The guy in the photo below, apparently.

Now go visit Jeannett over at life rearranged.
You won’t be sorry.

Bathroom Rules

2011-07-14T19:28:00.001-04:00

source

Dear Hannah,
Washing and brushing?
You’re a pro.
Flossing?
You’re getting there.
The last rule?
Girlfriend, we need to work on this one.

Love,
Mommy

Insta-Friday, on a Saturday

2011-07-09T14:40:00.000-04:00

I’m loving Insta-Friday! It’s like a little scrapbook for all the pics I take with my celly during the week.

Chocolate milk for her. Chai tea for me.
Raisin bagels for both of us.

The hubster replaced all of our basement windows with these big, heavy duty glass block ones. He’s so handy.
Sometimes we call him Bob Villa.
There’s really no home improvement project he can’t do.

Buckeye fans are so clever.

Ice cream cones in the car.
File this one under “not my best idea.”

Pool time fun. Daddy never disappoints.

What says “summer” more than pony rides at a small town fair and cotton candy in the back of the car while waiting for fireworks?

We couldn’t be more Midwestern if we tried.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T13:05:00.001-04:00

This year’s 4th of July celebration was extra special for us.

I hope that you enjoyed the blessings of family, friends, freedom and all things American.

Because, really, I can’t think of a better place to be.

Insta-Friday

2011-07-01T18:21:00.001-04:00

Documenting the random by way of grainy cell phone pictures…

I love my hometown.

Seven for All Mankind jeans found at a consignment shop.
In my size. For $13. Score.

Healing. Slowly healing. I have amazing friends and family.

My girl sure loves this dog. Yes, those are Christmas jammies. Yes, today is July 1 and yes, they are a size too small.
My battles? I choose them.

My sister left a dress for me to alter for her.
Someone got her hands on it before I could.

I love me a cute pair of shoes. So does my girl. The pink jellies? I had a pair just like them when I was a kid. The light up Sketchers? My mother-in-law took her shopping and said she could pick out one thing at the store. She passed right over the Barbie dolls and toys and headed straight for the shoes.

Father’s Day

2011-06-19T13:43:00.000-04:00

I don’t have many words today, other than that
I am so, so thankful for these two.
I love you, Shawn.
Thank you for being a rockin’ husband and dad and for providing for and taking such good care of us.

2011-06-06T19:39:00.001-04:00

Have you started a Pinterest board? I did and I lovey-love it!
In the past, if I saw a project, recipe or sewing tutorial online that I wanted to try, I bookmarked it. Before long, I had a jumbled mess of bookmarked items taking up space on my navigation bar.

Now? All of those earmarked things are nicely displayed in one pretty place. It’s like a virtual bulletin board, really. Here’s mine. I’m just getting started, but I have big plans.

As you can see, there are lots of skirts and dresses that I want to make this summer. You can follow your friends on Pinterest and see what’s inspiring them. You can also see when others “pin” something from your own blog or website. It’s easy – just type in the following:

http://pinterest.com/source/ and add your blog address.

Here’s what others have “pinned” from my blog.

It looks like there are a quite a few dads who may be getting a photo frame for Father’s Day this year!

Happy pinning!

Three and a Half

2011-05-31T21:24:00.001-04:00

Dear Hannah,
Recently you turned 3 1/2.
I thought we’d do a little interview…

Q: What do you want to be when you get bigger?
A: A nurse. A cat nurse. Or an animal one.

Q:What makes mommy happy?
A: Our home.

Q: How does mommy make you laugh?
A: Oh, that laugh is almost funny like a frog.

Q: What did mommy do when she was little?
A: Go’d to school.

Q: How old is your mommy
A: Four. Are you four, Mommy?

Q: How tall is mommy?
A: This tall! (holding arms high)

Q: What mommy’s favorite thing to do?
A: Sewing shirts for me.

Q: What is mommy really good at?
A: Taking the trash out. And washing people.
(This is funny because I never take the trash out – Shawn does. And I have no idea what people she thinks I am washing.)

Q: What do you and mommy do together?
A: We like to do hairstyles.

Q: How do you know your mom loves you?
A: Everyone knows you like me!

Q: What does mommy like most about daddy?
A: You like his hair when it’s short, don’t ya?

Q: What store do you like to go to?
A: I like to go to the mall. I like to go to those fancy stores.

Q: What do you like to play?
A: I like to play with things in the tub and my horses. And your accessories.

Q: Where do you sleep?
A: In my bed, all cuddled up.

At 3 1/2, you are still taking a nap everyday. You can handle missing a nap every so often and sleep about 10 1/2 hours at night. We’ve been so fortunate that you have always been such a good sleeper.

You love counting, shapes and ABCs. You recognize and name all the letters and have started to write your name. You write the “H” and the “A” but you told me that you don’t really like “N’s” so we’ll have to work on that one.

You are still a little cowgirl. You put on your vest, bandana and cowgirl hat almost everyday and ride your horse. You like to line up all of your horses in the kitchen and tie them to the leg of the table, which you call “my hitching post.” You recently told us of an idea that you had in which we would move the cars out of our garage and keep a horse in there. You said that we would put a trough and hay in the driveway and a hitching post down by the mailbox. Your little imagination amazes us!

You finished your second swimming class last week and you loved every minute of it.

Your hair is as curly as ever and you recently got your first haircut. You were hesitant when I told you that Demi (grandma) was going to cut your hair. I assured you that she knew what she was doing and that she’s been cutting Papa’s hair since I was a little girl. You immediately said that you didn’t want Demi to cut your hair. I asked you why and you said, “Because I don’t want my hair like Papa’s!”

You are also really into playing in my make-up and getting your nails painted. About once a week, we put newspapers down in the bathroom and I paint your nails and you paint mine.

You are such a fun, giggly little girl and we are so glad that you love to travel as much as we do. In just 3 1/2 years, you have been to Los Angeles, New York City and San Antonio. And, sweet girl, we have many more exciting adventures in store for you soon! We love you more than you’ll ever know.

You Say Faux, I Say Fox

2011-05-11T14:42:00.001-04:00

When I see the word “faux” in print, in my mind, I pronounce it “fox.” Here’s the back story:
As newlyweds, Shawn and I bought an el cheapo faux leather ottoman for our living room. After a few days, I mentioned that I thought that the smell of the new “leather” ottoman had an odd quality about it.

“Well, that’s what we get for buying fox leather.”
”Fox leather?”
“Yea, that means fake leather. Faux, fox, whatever. It’s mostly plastic, ya know.”

Right.

I love the faux (fox) necklace shirts that I’ve been seeing around lately.
So I made one.
And I’ll show you how to make one too.

You’ll need:
Shirt in any style and color
Fabric paint in Velveteen finish
Fabric paint with sparkles
Anything you can find around your house that will make a round stamp (I used the end of a foam paint brush, the cap to a tube of chap stick, and the eraser end of a pencil.)

Start by finding the center of your shirt so that your necklace is symmetrical. To do this, I folded mine in half and pressed a seam down the center.

You’ll want to place a piece of cardboard between the two layers of the shirt so that the paint does not bleed through. I used the front of a cereal box.

Start painting your “beads” from the center of your shirt. Work your way up to the shoulder on one side and then the other.

I used the eraser end of a pencil to make small silver beads and the cap of a tube of chap stick to make a silver chain.

You can make as few or as many necklaces as you like.
Let the paint dry for about 4 hours.
Then comes the fun part! Turn your iron on and let it get hot and steamy. Hold the iron about 1/2 inch over the paint and blast it with steam. The steam will cause the velveteen paint to raise up, giving it the look of velvet.

After the steaming, I added a fabric flower with some scraps left from curtains that my grandma made for my aunt a while back. You can find the tutorial here. My friend Julie also has some great tutorials for fabric flowers that you can find here.
Totally adorbs.

This will be a wardrobe staple this summer and in the fall, I think it will look cute with a long sleeved shirt underneath.
I may even make one for myself!

Mother’s Day

2011-05-08T20:11:00.000-04:00

I love being her mom. I love it a lot.

We celebrated Mother’s Day with our families early in the weekend so that our little family could spend the day together on Sunday. I woke to some pampering and sweet gifts from my hubs and my best girl.
We went to church, had lunch and then took nice, long naps.

I am blessed beyond measure to have my little Hannah.
Some days I can’t believe that she’s mine.

And, to my own mom, thank you for helping me with laundry (there’s not a stain that she can’t get out), making chicken noodle soup when one of us is sick, teaching me to keep a clean house, how to shop for bargains and iron shirts. Thank you for always pulling through in a pinch and loving and taking such good care of Hannah!

Mama Likes It

2011-05-04T23:27:00.001-04:00

When Hannah was six weeks old, I imprinted her little hand into a piece of clay and made a Christmas tree ornament out of it.

Every couple of months, we put on old clothes, get the paint out and stamp her hands onto cardstock paper
that I file away in her baby album.

I love that I have these little treasures to help
me remember just how tiny she was.
It’s also fun for her to see how much she has grown.

For Mother’s Day this year, I thought that Hannah’s grandmas would like something with her little hand stamped onto it as well.

You’ll only need a couple of things:
Photo frame
Paint
Paint brush or sponge
Cardstock paper

Paint your child’s hand. This is Hannah’s favorite part!

Stamp it onto the cardstock.
We made two – one for each grandma.

Then I painted a stem, a few leaves and wrote
Hannah’s name and the year.

We put it into a frame and now we have the perfect
Mother’s Day gift for two of Hannah’s favorite ladies.

I love this flower as much as I love the little girl who
stamped her paint covered hand on to it.
And that, my friends, is a whole, whole lot.

Thanks to the Birthday Boy…

2011-05-03T15:02:00.001-04:00

…I know how to parallel park, remove wallpaper, eat with chopsticks and swing a golf club. I know how to hang a picture level, start a campfire, unclog a drain and change the oil in a car.
^{(Ok, not really the last one, but I know he’d teach me if I asked.)}

I am thankful for so many things about my husband.
So, this weekend was about celebrating him and his special day.

On Friday afternoon, after tearing myself away from Wills and Kate, Hannah and I picked up Shawn’s favorite ice cream cake, candles and balloons. This is probably a good place to mention that I spent the better part of the day watching the Royal wedding. Now, I didn’t get up at all hours of the night, but I did set ye old DVR on BBC and NBC. I hadn’t planned on getting so swept up in it all, but by the end of the weekend, I had watched the wedding about three times and DVR’d every single bit of royal wedding programming available, including the
Will and Kate movie on Lifetime. It’s embarrassing.

Anyways. Back to the birthday boy.

When we heard his car pull into the garage, I quickly lit the candles and we hid under the table. (Hannah’s idea.)
When he came around the corner into the kitchen,
we jumped out and surprised him.
Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures.

Saturday was beautiful so we spent it playing hopscotch

and riding the scooter

while Shawn did some yard work.

(Don’t tell her that I have been eating her
Easter candy everyday while she naps.)
(Or that she has plumber’s crack.)

Saturday night we headed to a cute sushi place for a little birthday date. He’s a champ at eating with chopsticks, my husband. Me? I do okay, but sometimes I look awkward.

When we got back home, I realized that we hadn’t gotten a picture together and no one was around to take one.
So, we balanced our camera up on the table and set the timer.
This is what we got. Not great, but it’ll do.

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband!
I love you and have so much to thank you for!