Norddeutschland- Kannst du die Nordseeluft riechen?

Auf besonderen Wunsch meiner werten Frau Mama, hier nun ein Eintrag zum Thema Norddeutschland. Mama hat sich mehr Bilder vom Norden Deutschlands gewuenscht... damit man die Nordseeluft herausschnuppern kann! Gluecklicherweise hat Karin uns ein cooles Panoramabild von ihrem (alten) Telefon geschickt. Da kann man doch salzige Meerluft riechen, oder Mama?!

Natalie sagt zwar, dass dieses Bild nichts mit Nordseeluft zu tun hat, aber ich denke, es sollte schon einen Platz in unserem Blog finden, denn schliesslich haben die Kartoffelgesichter die Heider Luft genossen... bevor sie verzehrt wurden... die armen Kartoffeln!
Und Karin hat sich sooooo viel Muehe gegeben, die zwei Kartoffelgesichter zu erschaffen. Sie haben sogar ein "face lift" von Karin persoenlich bekommen. Aber ich kann Mama schon verstehen. Der Kartoffelsalat war einfach koestlich! Lecker, lecker! Ich habe versucht, den Kartoffelsalat hier zu machen, als wir gegrillt haben, aber irgendwie schmeckte der nicht so wie bei Mama... seufz!

Ansonsten haben wir noch ein paar Bilder vom Heider Marktfrieden. Karin und ich haben uns die tollsten Attraktionen angesehen und Natalie wollte natuerlich auch eine Attraktion sein. Sieht sie nicht witzig aus?! Natalie hat ausserdem noch ein Wonder Woman Armband auf dem Heider Marktfrieden gekauft. Vielleicht sollte sie sich als Wonder Woman fuer Halloween verkleiden, hihi!
Ok, das war's fuer heute Abend... ich muss jetzt duschen und dann ins Bett gehen. Demnaechst gibt es mehr vom Norden. Versprochen, Mama!

Baby guppies

We have baby guppies!!! The female guppy we bought last week had babies!! I counted 7 new babies in our tank. Isn't that exciting?! Can you see them? Some were hiding in the plants. Aren't they cute?!
I also wanted to put a nice picture of the mom on here, but she was too fast... sorry!

Halloween is Here...It's Scary!

Ulli carved her first pumpkin this year. Can you guess which one belongs to her? And which one belongs to me? Wendy came and carved too. Wendy's is the most creative... What does that say about Ulli and me?

It's been a long time since I carved a pumpkin. It must have been more than five years, since Ulli hasn't ever had the chance to carve one. I believe Ulli enjoyed the experience. We have some more pumpkins that we got from Grandma. As soon as we get some time, we'll carve some more.
In terms of scary things happening for Halloween, we had our foundation "fixed" last Friday. The foundation people were supposed to come out Thursday, but didn't. Grr. Anyway, it's turned out that the little cracks are now huge ones. The "repairs" that were done by the people who sold the house to us, have been exposed. We also have a whole bunch of cracks throughout the office and downstairs in the basement as well. We're working with the company to get some repairs done.
When we were checking out the cracks in the sheet rock in the basement, we found mold. Yes, mold. We checked the rest of the basement and found more in the rat room. Now we know that it was our house that was making Chrys sick. We weren't just making things up in our heads when we thought that Chrys was doing better at my parents' house.
So, we have to have the mold people come in and help clean that up and we'll have to expose the foundation in the basement to seal up the cracks. So much fun stuff to look forward to. And we thought we were getting a grip on all of the repairs. We still have to have the plumbing fixed! Just the sewer line got fixed.
I guess we won't be getting a garage any time soon. No fence either. That means no dog. Ugh. I guess Squeak will just have to be an almost only child for a bit longer. She doesn't really get to play with the fish. So, she probably feels like an only child. She does get jealous of the fish though. She'll do a high five when I'm feeding the fish. I'm not sure why she does that. It's not like I give her any fish food. Strange cat.

Procrastination: Part II

So, I'm back. It's UEA! That means NO SCHOOL!!! I'm waiting for the foundation people to get here to fix our foundation. Whee. Ulli's off at the dentist. She'll run a few errands after that. What a great way to spend our day off.
Woohoo!
I thought I'd try to add a few details about our trip to Germany. The day after our ceremony, we had a bbq. There was lots of yummy food and great company! We had a good time. It was good to see some of our German friends and it was even better to have our families together.
Ulli and Karin personalized some genuine German rocks for the occasion. Everyone got a purple rock with his/her name on it. Perfect souvenirs for all of our guests!
This is the same day that we tried to explain American football. It was a bit confusing, but a lot of fun! We even got my mom out to play with us! I don't think she's ever played football with us before. She's played volleyball, but no football. Come to think of it, my dad never played football with us either. So it was pretty exciting and we all had a lot of good laughs.

We did some more sight-seeing together in the next few days before heading off to Munich. I think that's where I left off the last time I actually updated the blog.
(Becky, you were right--it's a lot more work than I thought it'd be!)
The day we arrived in Munich, we went to Dachau. I know I mentioned that before, but I think it deserves a little bit more than just a mention. It was Ulli's first visit to a concentration camp. It was a very sobering experience. Becky and I went back in 1996 during our first trip to Germany. Even though I've been to another concentration camp since, it doesn't make the experience any less powerful. The next day we visited the famous German castles. We went to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. Ulli and my parents have never been. Becky and I have been three times now. We went with the exchange group in 1996, and in 2003 (I think) we went with Ingrid, Kevin, and Maggie. It is interesting to hear the different stories from the different tour guides. Each guided tour is different. Even so, I don't think we need to go again. It's expensive!
One of my favorite things around the castles is this road sign! Isn't it great?!
Ulli got to experience Germany as a tourist. I think she found that rather strange, but interesting at the same time. I'm not sure if she'll want to play tourist again though. It's much more expensive than the way we are used to traveling through Germany. It's also a lot more work. Staying with family and friends is much cheaper and they don't charge us a fee for their company.
The last day in Munich, we got to meet up with Heidi and Ingrid. Both are good friends of mine from Koengen. Originally, they were my German friends' mothers, but I would definitely have to say they're not just my friends' mothers. They're my friends. I haven't been able to catch up with my friends from southern Germany in a while. It's been over three years since I last saw them. Where does the time go?!

Heidi and Ingrid took an early train to Munich and spent the morning and part of the afternoon with us. It was the first time my parents got to meet them. We took a bus tour of Munich together and then had lunch before Becky, Kevin, and my parents had to catch their train to Switzerland.
After Becky, Kevin, and my parents caught their train, we went for coffee with Heidi and Ingrid. We met up with Michael, Heidi's husband. We only got a few hours together, but it was good to see them all again. Don't get me wrong. I love my German family in the North, but I miss my family in the South too.
Ulli and I caught our train and headed to Reinheim, where we visited Oma number one. Oma in Reinheim was happy to see us and we were happy to see her too. She tried to feed us two or three times what we could eat. We did our best, but it was just too much food!
We ran a few errands for her while we were there, but mostly, we just got to hang out and chat. We shared our pictures with her. I ran the images through the TV and she got a real kick out of that. I did that three years ago too, but she still thought it was cool. When I took the picture, they were too busy looking at the TV screen to look into the camera! I look like a hunchback! That's a fan back there! I swear!
After a couple of days with Oma in Reinheim, we hopped on another train to visit Oma number two: Oma auf'm Hagen. She is in a new apartment. It's really nice and has a little balcony and everything. It's also VERY clean. She should come and visit us! She could help us get our place to sparkle like her house!
We got to eat more great food and we also visited Rolf (Ulli's step-dad) and his family. We had a bbq with them. Rolf is an awesome grill-master! Lots of yummy food!!! Martina's (Rolf's wife) house is also very clean. Spotless! Martina is a lovely hostess, but she doesn't let you help clean up. Not even a little bit. We did manage to get a few of the dishes into the kitchen without her knowing! It was all we could manage.
At the bbq, Ulli got a lovely sunburn. She likes the sun...a little too much sometimes. We watched the final game of the European Cup. Germany vs. Spain. Stupid Spanish bastards won. Grr. It was disappointing, but Germany was really great about making it to the finals.

Again, we ate tons of great food during our visit. We left the following day. We took another train to Buende and Oma number three, actually, Oma and Opa. The last time we visited Oma and Opa, Opa drank us under the table! He really loves his wine. He knows his wine.

This year we got some more great wine as a gift, along with some homemade jam.
Oma and Tante Marlies still run up and down the stairs at their house like they're kids! It's crazy!
We had coffee and cake, then lunch, then more coffee and cake, then dinner, then dessert. We only stayed one night, but, man, I was so full! The next morning we had breakfast and then lunch. We thought we were going to get out of eating the rest of the cake from the day before, but we ended up having coffee with cake again! I just couldn't eat any more.
It was good to see everybody again, but the Oma-Tour always leaves us stuffed full of lots of great food.
In the end, we took another train to Hamburg. There we met up with Karin, Sigrid, and Jens. And I think I'll write more later....