Ariana at 3 and 1/2.

I totally meant to post this back in May but completely forgot about doing it. I'm here now, I don't care that it's late, I'm doing it anyways.

Recently I wrote down some things I wanted to remember about Ariana at 3.5. Here they are.

+ She is going to be a flower girl for my best friends wedding this September. She has been so excited and recently she took some of my flowers from my garden and sprinkled the flower petals on some passing ants and said "look they are getting married!".

+ She usually wakes up around 8/8:30am and goes to be at 8pm. She doesn't take a nap unless we are in the car going somewhere mid afternoon then sometimes she falls asleep.

+ She thinks we should get 5 pets for her. 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 gah-draf (giraffe) and 1 hamster.

+ Her favorite animal is the gah-draf (giraffe)

+ She loves to climb the apple trees in our backyard.

+ She recognizes all her letters and knows their sounds and can name things that start with the letters.

+ She weights 34 pounds and is about to move up from her carseat into a big girl booster seat.

+ She told me when she turns 5 she wants to be a channel surfer and can I please buy her a channel surfboard.

+ She loves playing birthday and pretending to bake you a cake in her kitchen and giving you imaginary presents you have to open.

+ She wants a brother AND a sister.

+ Some of my friends are pregnant and her new game is to stuff a toy inside her shirt and pretend to be pregnant too. The other day we were out shopping and she put her stuffed bunny in her shirt. When I told her to take him out now we were about to go in the store, she told me "no, he's not ready to be born yet".

+ Bain-danes (bandaids) are a new obsession and every little bump needs one.

+ She always wants to floss her teeth, randomly.

+ She loves finding and holding slugs (gross).

+ She can count up to 13 and then it turns to eleven-teen, eighteen and some mumbles.

+ She LOVES mushrooms and eats them first off her plate or out of her pasta. She also LOVES shrimp.

+ She likes to eat raw broccoli with ranch, apples, m&m's, goldfish, cheese, cucumbers, honey greek yogurt, pepperonis, jumbalya sausage and rice, green and orange tic-tacs, grits with eggs, peanut butter-nutella-honey toast, pizza, bread with olive oil, clementines, fruit roll ups, green grapes, spaghetti, pancakes, Spaghetti O's with hotdogs, and bacon.

+ She dislikes to eat onions, peppers, soda, garlic, anything spicy, and anything with nuts.

+ She wants her sunglasses all the time when we're in the car.

+ Her favorite songs are Jackson-Johnny Cash, Sherry-The 4 Seasons, Blackbird - The Beatles, Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's, and the Good Morning song and Miss Molly Had A Dolly song off her preschool CD.

+ Her favorite movie currently is Beauty And The Beast.

+ She loves going to the library and getting new books to read.

+ She loves Fancy Nancy stories right now.

+ Her favorite thing at the park is the slide.

+ She makes up her own songs - and they rhyme!

You Know You're Stationed in Germany When...

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Living in Germany is a truly unique experience. Richard and I have been living here for over a year and a half now. I thought it would be fun to put together a list that talks about some of the things we experience over here. I've heard of all of these and experienced all but 1 or 2 myself. Some of these are annoying, shocking, funny or just plain different from what we're used to. But, it's all in good fun and part of the joy and experience of living overseas.

Life is all about making memories and having a good time together and part of my reason for making this list is to have it to look back on later. If you live or have lived in Germany I'm sure you can relate to many of these items on the list. Enjoy!

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You know you're living in Germany when...

- You ask for water at a restaurant and it's carbonated. Eww.

- It costs more to call your neighbor than it does to call your family back in America.

- Most houses don't have A/C.

- You've discovered the joys of the shelf in your toilet. (If you live here, you know what I mean)

- You've fried one (or more) of your electronics. RIP flatiron.

- You have gotten lost (even with a GPS) trying to get to a friends house. I swear I don't know how anybody gets around this country without a GPS.

- You have to pay to use a shopping cart.

- You see children as young as 4 walking home along, and crossing, busy streets after preschool.

- Your house doesn't have any closets. You have to buy or rent wardrobes.

- You've bought a flight to Paris for less than it takes to fill your car with gas.

- If it's sunny outside you go out right then because if you go change your clothes, chances are the sunshine will be replaced with rain and you'll have missed out.

- You have lugged 25 pound transformers up and down your stairs just to use an American appliance in your kitchen.

- You've been trapped in a store if you didn't buy anything because of the Do Not Enter doors at the registers and entrances.

- You discover a sex shop next to a children's store.

- People scowl at you if you try to give a friendly wave.

- You can be driving 100 mph on the autobahn and people are still flying around you fast enough to make your car shake.

- People bring their dogs into nice restaurants.

- You've been warned not to do yard work on a Sunday or you will be reported to the Polezei.

- Light switches for your bathroom are on the outside. (This is especially fun if you have little ones and company comes over!)

- You never get ice in your drink.

- You have to bring your own bags and bag your own groceries at the store.

- Leaving a tip at a restaurant can be seen as rude.

- The refrigerator in your kitchen is about the size of the one in your old college dorm room.

- German M&M's don't taste the same as American ones. Neither does Diet Coke.

- You can't stand the taste of watery American beer now and only want European beer.

- You've cooked a big Thanksgiving meal in your tiny German oven - one dish at a time.

- You've have to pay to use a public restroom.

- You've had friends say to you "If people aren't rude, it's not Germany"

- You live next door to a horse, cow, chicken, duck or camel, in a town.

- When you say "Sprechen zie English" every single person says "a little" but then carries on a conversation fluently.

- You've gotten stuck behind a 90 year old riding a bicycle on the road, more than once.

- You've bought fresh delicious German pretzels out of a vending machine at the grocery store for practically pocket change.

- At first you hated them but know you've come to love your rolladens (metal window shades) when you find out the sun rises at 5 am in the summer in Germany. Every house everywhere should have those!

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Have anything to add? 
If you live here, or have lived here, I'd love to hear your memories. Things you miss or DON'T miss let me know!!

**Photo is one I took looking down on our village at sunset.

Savings for Santa

I know that it's only September. And Christmas is still a few months away. But that's not how the mind of a 2 1/2 year old works. 

Ariana has a piggy bank in her room. Since in October (11 months ago) anytime she finds some change, she takes it and puts it in her piggy. Every time she adds to it, she loves to shake it and hear how much she has in there.

Now, don't go robbing us ::giggle:: because I'm about to reveal how much cash is in Ariana's room.

As of today, she's saved $37.89 + 5.45 Euro!

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I asked her what she was saving her money for.

This is that conversation.

Me: Wow, you have a lot of money. What are you saving it for?

 

Ariana: (very matter of factly) Santa

Me: Oh really, Santa? You're going to give Santa your money?

Ariana: No, it's for presents.

Me: You're going to buy presents with it? That's a good idea. What kind of presents are you going to buy?

Ariana: TOYS!!

Me: What kind of toys?

Ariana: (without missing a beat) A robot.       I think Santa would like that.

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Kids and their imaginations.

You can't beat them!

Celebrating the Dad Life today!

Today is Father's Day.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!

I thought it would be appropriate to share this hilarious video from YouTube. The Dad Life is dedicated to all the cool Dads out there who roll like this, we love you!!! haha!!!!

Rich is working 12's today so we're hoping he gets a lunch break so we can go spend some time with him but so far it's not looking great. I'm making him his favorite dinner tonight -- meatloaf, broccoli casserole and brown rice. Happy Father's day my love! And to all the other awesome dads, hope today is a great day with your kids! Hugs to all!!

xo's

Cat

Creep Magnet

Creep: (noun) a perverted or annoying person that is able to create a sensation of uneasiness or disgust to the people around them.

Creep Magnet: (noun) a person who possesses the extraordinary ability to attract creeps. 

ie: ME

Has anyone else been asked by a random stranger to marry them in the parking lot of a gas station??? No, just me then. Alrighty. Good times.

Yes, that is a true story. I was in college and a guy randomly tells me he loves me, standing outside a gas station. I just stare at him, shocked at what I just heard, and then he says, with a totally serious look on his face....will you marry me? 

Umm, no! Weirdo!

I guess I'll call him Creep 1.

Here are some stories of other creeps I've encountered.

Creep 2: Walking my dogs around the neighborhood, and a creepy guy sitting on his steps calls out to me. "Hey hottie", or something to that effect. After he asked me for my number, which I denied him, and asked if I wanted to "hang", at which point I started walking faster, I informed him I was married. Yet, that didn't stop him. This occurred several times over the course of a few months. He would always hit on me if he was out the same time as me. Once, he even started walking down the street behind me. After that, I started taking a different route, but I wasn't happy about it. I should be able to walk around my own neighborhood if I want to!

Creep 3: Walking through the Wal-Mart freezer section and a guy stops me to tell me that I was the most beautiful woman he's seen. He can't even focus on getting picking his frozen pizza because he's just staring me down. Ok then.

Creep 4: The most recent, and possibly the most creepy creep. Back-story: Our house had a leak in the roof a few weeks ago, and since the snow has melted and the weather has been nice, a crew has been coming to our house to work on it the past few days. It's 3 guys and usually they are around the back side of the house were I can't really see them. I see them walk past the living room windows to from to time getting supplies. And I hear them cutting wood and hammering and such throughout the morning. No big deal. Yesterday, I'm going about my normal day to day things, and doing some cleaning. I'm moping the kitchen and I look over out of the corner of my eye at the glass door in the kitchen. There, I see one of the guys standing by the door just staring at me. Looking in the window. Watching me moping. Not working. Not anywhere near supplies. I stopped mopping and look him dead in the eye. Luckily he decided it was time to move on. CREEPY!!!!!

What is it that attracts the creeps?

Am I the only one or do other people have weird things happen like this too?

Seriously, what possess people!?!

If you have some creepy stories, please PLEASE share them!!

(disclosure: the definitions at the top of this post are made up and all in good fun!)

Ariana has Bieber Fever {VIDEO!!}

This is the best thing EVER!!!
Thank you Dallas for uploading this video for me!

Ariana loves Justin Bieber. Seriously, the child KNOWS when his songs come on the radio and she requests his music videos on the computer.

Since we were driving from Nebraska to Georgia (22 hours) I decided to get her a Bieber CD for the road. This video isn't the best quality but I just HAD to post it.

We were listening to "Baby"  aka her favorite Justin Bieber song and I looked back cause she was holding the case and I could hear her talking in the backseat. I looked back to find this...



She was saying "I love Bieber"!!!!!!

You can hear it the best at the very end at about 22 seconds, and then to make it even better she says "mine!" hahahahaha!!!!

She even does a little shimmy that he does at one point. She's only 20 months old!!!!
Crazy girl, I love her! :)

xo's
Cat