Sorry for the Interuption...

We are on vacation!!!!  

Next post to come on April 16th!

 Meditating on these verses today/this week. 

(From Isaiah 53)

He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised,
and we held him in low esteem. 
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.



But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him.


He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth. 


Overcome by the love of my Savior.

Silly Blaine

The Boys' Rooms

 This is currently Ryan and Colin's room!

 Tim and I are taking the Wood Shop class on post this weekend (couldn't be more excited!!!!!!!) and one of the first things on my list to build is a shelf for the boy's room to store all of their toys and books.  It has been on my "wish list" for probably a good two years now and it's getting so close to actually happening I can get kind-of giddy about it.

This is currently Blaine's room.  I drove to Vilseck (a different Post) about two weeks ago and bought the mattresses for the bunk beds and we have a safety rail on it's way from our good friend Amazon. :)  Tim's block leave is coming up in about a week and we plan to get a good start on switching him over to his big boy bed!  The room is SUPER tiny as is, so it will be nice once we can put the playpen away. 

 

Once we have Blaine pretty well "bed trained" we are entertaining the idea of switching him into the other room with Colin and letting Ryan have this room to himself (for now).  I'm excited with a whole new room to decorate and I already have a grand idea in my head, but it will most likely fall towards the end of the list of priorities.

Ryan is 6!!!

I'm not the type to cry over the fact that my "babies are growing up".  It doesn't bother me one bit.  I'm not big on birthdays either.  I'm learning.  We were able to celebrate Ryan's 6th Birthday on March 21st!  I am still amazed that how the baby that I carried in my belly is now 4 ft 0.5 in and 54 lbs., but I'm not the best at pondering the last year of my child's life and writing a sentimental "ulegy" for the age that is passing.  I came across an idea on Pinterest about asking your child the same questions every year and seeing how there response changes.  That I can do.  I looked at a few different lists and came up with 20 questions.  Some of the questions still seemed confusing to Ryan, but I'm excited to see his answers a few years from now.

Happy 6th Birthday Ryan!!!!

1. My favorite color is all of them.
2. My favorite snack is apples.
3. My favorite movie is Spy Kids.
4. The coolest person on earth is me.
5. My favorite thing to learn in school is about dinosaurs.
6. The thing I do most awesomely is clean.
7. If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go to my Grandma’s house.
8. The book that I am loving right now is Colors.
9. Three words that describe me are strong, handsome, and creative.
10. When I was little I used to go poop in my diaper.
11. My favorite season of the year is Winter.
12. One food I really dislike is white broccoli. 
13. If I could wish for only one thing it would be for a dinosaur toy.
14.  My best memory is when I had a dog. 
15.   My best friend is Elijah.
16. My favorite song is the song we sang in the car. 
17.   My favorite game is the fighting game on the Wii.
18. On my cake this year I want Star Wars! 
19.  The candy I like the best is sour candy. 
20.  When I grow up I want to be an Army guy.

Downtown Bamberg

February 17, 2012

About a month after we got here Tim and I were able to set up a date exchange with another couple.  Our friends offered to watch our boys first and the guys had a four-day weekend, so Tim and I headed out on Friday.  We ended up meeting up with one other couple and we took the bus downtown.  I only took my stock lens with me that day and I can't wait to go back out with my other lens!

 

There is a ton of shopping down-town.  There is a C&A, an H&M, Pimkie, Muller, The New Yorker, etc.  If you've ever been to Denver, Colorado it reminds me of the 16th Street Mall.  The amount of people you see above is very minimal compared to what it gets to be later in the afternoon/early evening, or on a Saturday.  There are also lots of street vendors/merchants selling fresh fruits/vegetables/flowers/honey/food/etc.  I have since learned there are 10x more vendors on Saturday than during the week, but I much prefer the smaller crowds during the week.

 Not quite up on my factual information yet, so I have NO idea what river this is.  Sad, no?  They do refer to that area though as Little Venice.  We have yet to walk over there to see it more closely, but I do know they offer boat and gondola rides.

This is a little food truck we came across.  Tim is taller than it!  It would be 10x funnier if I could get a picture of Tim in the driver's seat!  haha!

This is one of the large Catholic Cathedrals downtown; more commonly called The Dome.

I want to go back and shoot this again, but I love this building.

One of the MANY unique doors we have seen!

There is a high Turkish population in the area which means Turkish food!  The most famous is the Donor.  Traditionally it is made from lamb, but you can also get it with chicken (if available).  They seem to grill it on this large"stick" and then they take what looks like a set of clippers and shave the meat off the sides for your sandwich.  The meat is normally put inside flat-bread and you can add lettuce, onion, and some sort of sauce.  It is very good, but a large portion that I'm not sure I'd ever be able to finish.

 

Tim, John, and Carleen waiting on our food.

Coming Together

One month from getting our things and we are, for the most part, in working order!  There is still some organization left to do, but mainly decor.  These pics are from last Saturday and we've already had some additional changes.  The sideways DVD case has been removed and is now empty space that will hopefully, eventually be filled by some chair.  

I've let the curtains out to floor length; it just looks better to me.  I've been told they will eventually turn off the furnaces so it won't matter if they are covered or not.  In the mean time, they are open most of the time and if I do close them I can pick them up and set them in the window sill.  I'm still experimenting with the floating shelves, trying to figure out where to place everything, and trying to locate the spray paint I want so I can repaint a few things.

 

I was so excited to finally get this mirror hung!  I bought it at an Estate Sale in Oklahoma back in June for $25.00!  I just never rearranged our things in Texas to make it fit.  (This picture doesn't do it justice!)  The boxes in the back corner were dropped off at the Thrift Store yesterday and now stands a book shelf with all of our books and movies.  I still have to hem the curtains in this picture and find something to cover the door.  I also have plans for a bench under the mirror and possible a sofa table behind the couch for extra storage (mainly for all our photo albums).  I also need to find something that will work as an end table.

I went back and forth on what to do with the wall space in the dining room.  I really wanted to put the floating shelves in there and I new it would look really nice, but I was afraid they would create more trouble.  I envisioned the boys turning around in their chairs and trying to hang from the shelves.  :)

So gallery wall it is!  I still have about 10 pictures that I need to re-mat, and if you look close enough some that I need to print pictures for.  I love my book page wreath that my friend, Sarah, made me right before we left.  I was a little down-hearted when I pulled it out of the box and it seemed that pages were falling all over the place and it's shape was a little more oval than round, but with a little love it looks great.  It was also the first thing that I hung up in our new house!!!  I had to pull our only side table from the living room over to the dining room so I would have something to put our modem and phone on, since that is where the only jack is.

I am in the process of deciding on curtains for the dining room.  Most of the curtains in store here seem to be sheer.  I even bought some; one is hanging up now actually.  I just don't like it.  I do need curtains though!  A lot of the German houses, and some of the military housing have built in shutters that you can open and close.  For those it makes sense as to why most of the curtains are sheer, but we don't have those.  The sun comes through those windows between 4 and 5 PM and it's blinding!  I'm open to suggestions!!  For those of you who follow me on Pinterest, go to my 'For the Home' Board and look at what I've pinned and tell me what you like!  I was debating something with some red or blue, but with the 'beige' color of the walls (that seem to have a peachy tone) I'm leaning more towards something brown with a bold pattern.

More rooms to come!!