jfowens
osarahMonkeys are smarter than humans. I’ve been opening bananas wrong my whole life. See the video below and tell me that DOESN’T blow your mind.
As a side note, my husband just put a whole raw egg (uncracked) in Béni’s mouth and said “bring it to mama.” Our house is never dull.
PS No, he didn’t break it.
- Sarah
As our week winds down and we prepare for some relaxation this weekend (hopefully), I wanted to keep this post as simple as I hope our weekend is.
Photos from Eric & Christine’s visit last week!! Yay!
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I also posted this picture to Twitter (Twit Pic, which sounds like I’m calling my picture names). It was accompanied by the caption “One of the many reasons why I don’t shop for clothes at the PX.” I was surprised and impressed to get a response from the AAFES (PX company for you non-military folks) Twitter account in almost no time. Good job, AAFES! (I don’t find myself saying that often, so this is huge.)
Shönes Wochenende!
- Sarah
I wanted to write an extravagant post today complete with pictures, but due to yet another dishwasher malfunctioning and craziness at work, I’m settling for just ANY post on here.
If you’re not keeping score, here’s our record of broken appliances since our move three weeks ago:
washer – 1
dryer – 1
oven – 2 (broken once, but 2 separate things were wrong with it)
dishwasher – 2
portable A/Cs – 3 massive water leaks on our floor, ruining the hardwood in 2 different rooms
So that just leaves the refrigerator, which does have a cracked shelf, but I’m not worried about it right now. I just hope the whole fridge doesn’t break!
Sigh.
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We have had a lot of really great things happening lately too. Last week, Eric & Christine stopped by Heidelberg at the end of their vacation in Germany. We got the opportunity to show them where we live and share a little about our life over here while catching up with them. We even took them to the Kaffeehaus for dinner!
Also, about two weeks ago, we got to take Béni to go swimming for the first time. He LOVED it. Did I already post about this? I feel like I did. Sorry if this is a repeat. Anyway, we took him again on Saturday, and he had a great time again. That boy was definitely born to swim. (Really, labs are swimmers. They have webbed feet and they have an “otter tail”.)
Saturday was a big day — yes, it was the 4th of July and we could have stayed on post for fireworks, but we didn’t. We did our own thing. We started the day by taking Béni on the Straßenbahn (street car) downtown to the Hauptstraße (main street). We went in a few stores including Starbucks and Galeria Kaufhof (a department store). For lunch, John made hamburgers. After lunch, we took Béni to go swimming, and for dinner, John and I tried an excellent French restaurant called Hugo (the site is in German, but you get the idea). More on the restaurant tomorrow.
We decided to be wild and crazy and actually stay out past 8 PM, and ended up having a great time. We hung out in Altstadt (the old part of the city) at O’Reilly’s, which is an average Irish pub. We ended up walking down to the river afterward and stumbled across a fun little soul concert. I’m glad we stayed out “late!” We tried to go to a jazz club afterward, but the place looked kind of sketchy and no bands were playing that evening, so we finally headed home (still before midnight). It was a very happy and fun-filled 4th of July!
Sorry for the play-by-play style post. I am beat. Speaking of, it’s 8:45 PM, and we’re headed to bed. Too lame? Oh well.
- Sarah
Filed under: Awards, Our Goings On | Tags: blog award, camping, dance, ER, food, Honest Scrap, hyperhidrosis, languages, Norwegian, Photography, photojournalism, sweating
No, really, we got our first blog award! Thank you to purejoy at consider it pure JOYfor passing along this award. Purejoy and I have become blog friends over the past few months, and I really enjoy getting to know her through her blog updates – her daughter’s high school graduation, her family business, her lovely nature photos.
Shamefully, I have not updated the blog in over a week, because I have been putting off this post. I couldn’t think of enough items to complete the list below. Finally, however, I think I’ve done it. I’m supposed to tell 10 honest things about myself, so without thanking everyone who makes this blog possible (hah…ok maybe not so funny?), I’ll hop get to it:
1. My hands and feet sweat a lot. It’s embarrassing. This has plagued me ever since I was born. My mom remembers feeling my feet while I was nursing and noticing they were dripping with sweat. As I type this, my hands and feet are sweating (TMI? sorry). When I took piano lessons, I was always embarrassed that I left sweat all over the keys. My family used to joke that my hands would be ridiculously sweaty on my wedding day. However, they weren’t sweaty at all!
2. I love animals. I never knew it until we got Béni, though. He makes my heart melt at least once a day. Even when I’m mad at him, I love him and can’t wait to hug him again. I want another pet…
3. I love learning languages, but I haven’t learned German very well yet. I know, it’s embarrassing. My newest attempt to learn the language is by working with Rosetta Stone. Their old program wasn’t very good, but I’m loving their newest release. So far, it’s much better. I’m learning a lot more about grammar than I have previously understood.
4. I did not go on my first camping trip until I was 23. Late at night, I touched the top of a butane lantern with a few fingers on my left hand and got very painful second-degree burns instantly. I rolled around screaming on the tent floor. John thought I was laughing at first. I ended up in the ER with Vicodin and Morphine. We made it back to the camp site sometime after 3 am and spent the rest of the night there (it would have been about 5 am if we had driven back home and I just needed to get to sleep because of all the pain and the meds). I still can’t believe that happened. See photo below, taken in the tent upon our return from the ER:
5. While on the Morphine that night, I thought I saw an elephant in a tree outside our tent. I also swatted at invisible bugs in the tent.
6. I am 3/8 Norwegian. I speak Norwegian and still have family there, but I have never visited. I really hope I get to visit some day.
7. I did not try Taco Cabana, Sonic or Starbucks until I was in high school. The Starbucks thing may not have come around until HS, but the other two were definitely established way before then. I cannot believe the awesome fatty foods I missed out on. (Thanks, Mom!) 
8. I do not live olives. Every few years, I try one to see if my tastes have changed. They never do. Blech. Olives are disgusting.
9. My undergraduate degree is in photojournalism. I worked with a professional photographer in San Antonio for a few years before working for two other photographers in Austin for the last 1-2 years prior to moving to Germany. I would still like to be a photographer ifI could work whenever I felt like it and photograph whatever I wanted. Since I can’t do that, I am happier leaving it as a hobby. I seldom pick up my SLR camera these days, which has to do with a) free time or lack thereof and b) lack of a decent lens.
10. I won several flexibility and high kick contests in high school. I now have trouble touching my nose to my knees, and don’t even get me started on high kicks! I miss dance a lot…I danced from 4th grade until my senior year in high school. I took ballet, modern, tap and jazz and was on the pep squad and dance team. I was captain of the pep squad and made officer on the dance team; however, I resigned my senior year to concentrate on my studio dance classes and photography for the student newspaper and yearbook. Also (maybe this is cheating and is an 11th, but talk of high school reminded me…), I got my 1st job at 16 just because I wanted to work. I was a malt maker, hostess and server at a little burger restaurant. It was the most fun I have had at a job. I didn’t know how lucky I was, though, since it was my first job. After that job, I also worked at a little knick knack shop and my favorite restaurant ever — Alamo Cafe as a server (which was also a REALLY fun job).
Now, I am supposed to nominate 10 bloggers for this award as well. However, I am going to limit it to 2 as I have severely cut down the number of blogs I read these days (and I’m only awarding it to 2 so I’m not giving every blog I read this award!).
I am passing along this award to:
Roots and Rings - Chelsea is a phenomenal writer, and I look forward to reading her blog every week day. Her blog is a great way for me to stay in touch with a friend and get to experience her gift of writing on a regular basis…not to mention her posts are incredibly entertaining and often hilarious!
and
dreaming BIG dreams- Jamie blogs about her family and day to day life. Her husband is the pastor of worship at our church back home. One of the biggest things going on in her family’s lives right now is their adoption of two children from Haiti. Their journey has been inspiring to read about, and her dedication to and love for God is an excellent example for women.
The Rules:
(1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award {that would be me}
(2) Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
(3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
(4) Name 10 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
(5) Nominate 10 Honest Scrap Bloggers. (Apparently I break the rules)
(6) Post links to the 10 blogs you nominate.
(7) Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.
Yet another week has gone by where I repeatedly think about blogging but don’t actually get on the computer and blog. Oops.
Because I have gone so long without writing an actual post, I have a lot of random thoughts/news to share, so please bear with me through this extremely scattered post.
We have really gotten settled into the new place. We’re waiting on a few things and haven’t hung anything up yet, but it still feels like home. I promise I will post pictures as soon as we get things looking good and I can take a few snapshots.
Béni is doing well. With the exception of trying to eat our bathmat this morning and whining at us at 5 and 6 AM, he’s a sweetheart.
I have finished writing (but still need to edit) 2 of my 3 essays for my comprehensive exam. I have finished about half of the last question. I plan to finish on Saturday. Eek!
I have a midterm due for my last class on 30 June. I have to write a 4 page paper and do 5 more exercises from the book. My goal is to have this done by the end of the day today. It’s doable…
Work was crazy earlier this week. A site manager brought in 3 new hires on Tuesday for me to in process. Mind you, I had never done this before (neither had the site manager), and the only “training” I got for in processing employees was my own in processing experience on my first day a little over a month ago. Of course, it didn’t go very smoothly, but I tried my best! I was just told today, I have another employee to in process on Monday – I pushed it to Tuesday – people have to give me notice on these things!
I have decided my favorite phrase at work is “you need to discuss that with your supervisor.”
I brought small speakers to work so I can play music. It really helps brighten my day when no one else is in the office (which happens at least 50% of the time…no joke).
We are about to start paying down my student loans as I’m coming out of the deferment period in August. I can’t wait to see them start shrinking!
Our new washer smells like mildew. Our dryer smells like burning. Yes, burning. A repair man is coming out today.
The Culligan man is coming out today. We opted for delivery because we were having to buy 4-8 gallons/week from the commissary anyway, and the cost for delivery is roughly equivalent. I’m excited to have this luxury.
We dropped off a small rug at the dry cleaner on May 22nd. They told me it would take “awhile” without any indication of how long “awhile” is. We still hadn’t heard from them this week, so we gave them a call. After two days, we found out it had been sitting at the dry cleaner’s for awhile and no one bothered to call us because they didn’t take the time to unroll it and look at the claim check. They just counted it as unclaimed or something equally as lame.
Today is my sister and her husband’s 10th wedding anniversary. Awesome! Happy Anniversary, sis & D!
If I say “10 year,” it sounds like “tenure.”
That’s it for us this week. Oh, one more thing… It’s only 6 weeks until we visit the States!!!
- Sarah
It’s the start of the week again, and I’m back in my desk after a less than relaxing weekend (thank you, comprehensive exams — which still aren’t finished by the way). Anyway, welcome to “Not Me!” Monday – a chance for everyone to be brutally honest about what they have not been doing this week. Head over to MckMama’s blog, My Charming Kids, to see what others have not been up to this week!
I have been noticing relatively small spiders around the window area in my office lately. It’s not that big of a deal – I mean, I don’t like spiders, but I can kill the little ones without freaking out. Yet another little black spider was climbing around on the blinds by my desk on Friday, so I removed a shoe and swatted it. I’m pretty sure I missed it, but I peered under my desk to see if I could see it and give it one more quick stomp. Immediately, my attention was drawn elsewhere. The largest spider I have ever seen in person was inches from my knee on the radiator. Ew. I did not get increasingly more upset to the point of “freak out tears” and end up running outside to seek help in killing the spider. (And by seek help, I do not mean find someone else who would kill it without my help.) The only person outside was one of our cleaning ladies who only speaks German and Turkish. I did not beckon her indoors and plead with her to kill the spider, and she did not squish the spider with the tip of her flip flop and wipe the bug guts on the carpet below my chair…where I put my feet for 8 hours a day 5 days a week.
Yesterday I noticed Béni was chewing on something, which typically means he has gotten some paper or a small bit of clothing in his mouth. Generally, we try to remove it before he swallows. I pried his mouth open and began to pull a slender black thing (looked like dark wood) out from the side of his cheek. When I got it out of his mouth, I inspected the foreign object closer and discovered it had antennae. It was a bug! I did not proceed to scream the most girly scream I’ve screamed in over a year and run through the house (still screaming) to the bathroom where the screams turned to tears while I washed my hands. Nope, not me! Oh, and even if it did happen, it would not have excited Béni so much that he ran circles around me the whole time. (And my husband most certainly did not laugh at me.)
This past week, I was not even just a tad bit over emotional (thank you, hormones) and I did not have a complete break down after trying to get past the security guards to our apartment. Early last week, they had an issue at the gate where part of it broke so people could not enter the housing area without driving around and coming in a back gate. When the guard told me this, I did not start to get upset. By the time I turned around and was heading back to the main road, I had not gotten so upset that I was bawling. I did not call John in tears and say “I don’t know how to get home.” I am not that pathetic.
Ok, that’s it (thank goodness)! I did not have a very bug and tear-filled week!
Oh, and by the way, there’s something severely wrong with living in a place where it’s 57 at noon in mid-June. Brr.
- Sarah
We had our first guest in our new home this week! Our friend from Austin, Steve, was traveling back to the States from a few weeks of mission work in Africa and Central Asia and had an overnight layover in Frankfurt. He took the train to Heidelberg and arrived in around 11 PM on Tuesday night. We enjoyed visiting with him for the short time he was at our house (John took him back to the train station at 7:50 AM the next day), and it was great to see a familiar face.
It also gave us incentive to put the sheets on our guest bed. Our unpacking has come to a crawl as we started the work week and things got crazy. Hopefully we’ll have time this weekend to finish getting unpacked, and I will have time to also finish up my comps. Woo!
In less happy news, John and I both went to the dentist this morning. John had a cleaning, and I had the reallyfun stuff done – fillings. Did you know that white fillings only have a “life expectancy” of 4-5 years? I didn’t. Apparently one of mine wasn’t good anymore and had actually decayed a bit under the filling. (Gross, I know, but I think this is important to know if you have a white filling.) After 2 hours in the dentist chair, I got that filling fixed and one other tooth filled. Yuck. I (sadly and shamefully) have a few more to go. I swear I brush twice a day, floss and use Listerine. Perhaps this is a product of my distaste for milk? Meh…
This morning the phrase “drill baby drill” got a new meaning, and it wasn’t funny.
- Sarah
Normally, I think I have a fair amount to admit for my “Not Me!” Monday; however, today I think I’m too overwhelmed to come up with doozies.
For those of you who are unaware,”Not Me!” Monday is a chance for everyone to be brutally honest about what they have not been doing this week. Head over to MckMama’s blog, My Charming Kids, to see what others have not been up to this week!
Saturday morning, I wanted a cup of coffee, but after I poured myself a cup from the pot I brewed, I realized I didn’t have a spoon unpacked to measure out sugar and stir into my coffee. I did not come up with the brilliant idea of “scooping” sugar out of the container with a spatula, nor did I stir my coffee with said spatula. Not me.
Also, I spent the weekend moving and writing length papers. I did not get tired of writing, and I did not resort to copy/pasting from some old papers while writing the new ones. Not me!
Finally, when we moved out on Friday, I was not embarrassed at how dusty our apartment was. There were no dust bunnies to be seen – certainly none the size of Texas that were hiding under bookcases. I vacuum regularly and there were no dust bunnies to be seen, so I was not ashamed in the least!
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Thanks to my wonderful husband’s help, we got mostly unpacked this weekend. The only rooms that really need work now are the master and guest bedrooms. Over the weekend, I wrote about 25 pages for school, we unpacked the kitchen and living and dining rooms and ran several home-furnishing related errands. Oh, and we cleaned the old apartment.
Now I am le tired.
- Sarah
