All in a days work.

Being utterly adorable takes a lot out of a man and his dog.

Nap Time. March 21, 2009

Travels

Austrian snowfall...

Edelweiss Lodge- Garmisch, Germany...

Riding up the Alps...

Ettal, Germany....

Ettal Monastery - Bavaria

:::German Blessing:::

Bavarian Lunch...

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Re: OMISSIONS

An excerpt from an email I received today from my best friend Carly:


"By the way, I have been reading your blog. I love the car. It is so nice. What a wonderful husband you have. And about the blog...I think you are omitting one other important person in your life.... :) I love that Matthew and your parents wanted to be in your blog on your birthday. Well, I am happy to hear from you. Love you more, Carly"


Okay Carly.... I get it. Read on.

Carly is the best kind of best friend... not because she wears silly goggles and swim caps but mainly because she flew out to Louisiana in the middle of August to visit me. It was there she taught me the craft of opening beer with a fork.... hiding behind cars during a bar brawl.... and that tator tots cure any hangover. I've learned a lot of other things from her throughout the years but these are of utmost importance.

So Carly....

Love you too, kid! This blogs for YOU!

Your friend,

Amy

I feel so very 'Sound of Music'

No time to write because we're in Edelweiss... not really on vacation because Chad's working and I'm just tagging along. I did just get a hot stone massage today and sat in the adult-only hot tub last night which reminds me of being on vacation but I must keep telling myself Chad is here to work and I need to continue working on my Capstone for school. Thought I would share some pictures from our non-vacation...

Chad looking pleased after dragging me uphill.... a 40 minute walk in 15 minutes....

Me... upset that I was dragged uphill in 15 minutes. Here I was trying not to lose my spatzel.

Neuschwanstein Castle. Also known as the Disney Castle since many believe it is the model for Cinderella's castle at the Disneyland parks.
View from our hotel room.

And where are the kids you might ask?

With friends.... who are HOPEFULLY still our friends when we return.

Our Stairwell

Our "stairwell" is crazy. Each building is broken down into three stairwells... A, B, or C. Each stairwell consists of six apartments. Our poor, pitiful stairwell only has six inhabitants.... total. Well, not counting canines. Anyways, I never really know what's going on around here but I know it's crazy. These are just some of the goings on today...

• We have a rain forest on our top floor. Apparently the building coordinator has quite a green thumb and our stairwell is pretty much a greenhouse in the winter time. These plants are watered of course.... indoors... in our stairwell. It makes for some great mornings of almost killing myself because I've slipped down concrete steps that were wet from plant water.
• Reclusive people live above us... or Apartment B 4 is haunted. We hear them.... though we never see them. Our neighbors promise they've seen some people go in there but I don't know about that.
• Daisy (neighbor's dog) likes to pee on the tile in the entry to our stairwell. I always know when she's peed there because one of two things happen. There's either a wet spot on the tile from where Kendra has cleaned the spot... or after the spot dissipates... Meatloaf spends an extra few seconds smelling the pee stain. She's also taken to peeing in the laundry room. Just for fun I imagine.
• Right outside our stairwell is an apartment type doorbell situation. Apartment numbers correspond to a buzzer where people can 'ring' your apartment. Unfortunately, some wires are crossed and B 6 actually rings B 2 (US) and B 6 never rings because Daisy ate the telephone cord and phone which rings when buzzed. Our stairwell door is never locked so I wish people would just walk in like the rest of us instead of buzzing people. (Safe right?)
• Our building has won building of the month just about every month in the past two years. I've thought about it and don't understand how it's possible that a stairwell wins when there's only two permanent residents. Four of us are temporary, unless there's those mystery people in B 4. But still! What makes those 2 or 4 people so special? I don't think we won this month... probably because Daisy pees in the entry to our stairwell. I'm sure that turned some people off.
• I was the only person around in our stairwell today but two men with briefcases mysteriously disappeared into one of the apartments today. ( I should really take that last one off because I fear I'm starting to look a little like the characters of 'Rear Window' in which case is a little frightening.)

I'm going now because I've freaked myself out.... not to mention totally proved that I'm either bored out of my mind or have nothing better to do* than watch what goes on in our crazy stairwell.

*I do have better things to do.... like my capstone for school... the one things standing in my way between me and my Masters. I'll get back to that now.

OMISSIONS

Leave it to my brother to turn my birthday around to include him... THIS IS THE MAN WHO LEFT HIS SISTER LAST YEAR BY HERSELF ON HER BIRTHDAY TO MAKE CUPCAKES AND DINNER FOR HERSELF (ON HER BIRTHDAY!!!).... ALONE... BY HERSELF...MAKING BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES! ALSO, MOM AND DAD.... YOU'RE NO BETTER... LEFT ME ALONE... ON MY BIRTHDAY... GALAVANTING ALL OVER EUROPE WHILE YOUR DAUGHTER'S 24TH YEAR OF LIFE SHOULD BE CELEBRATED. Anyways, this is an addition to yesterdays blog....

Below is the email I received from my mom this morning. You really only need to read the first few sentences... flight information does not pertain to this situation.

"Amy, Happy birthday from your parents. One time at 5:09 am. Matthew was upset that there were no pics of him on your blog but what is more upsetting is there are no pics of the two people who brought you into this world. It was a great blog except for that omission. Got your flight info, lucky you to get in on Thur, Rest up and be looking for us Fri around 11am and we will hit the town. Hope the packages got to you. We love you very much. Mom and Dad"


Here's what I have to say about that:

Pictured above is my brother, you may know him as Matthew. He's the same person who thinks he should be mentioned on my blog on my birthday. I'm not sure why, but here you go, Matt.

He's also the person who pokes his little head into my pictures and makes this face.

This is my mom, the 'woman who brought me into this world,' also known as Mary. She also finds joy in taunting my dog with strings of sausage.

This is my dad, he had a part in my creation as well, you know him as Roger. I can't really say anything about my dad except he's an alright guy. If it had been up to him he'd probably not have taken that trip to Europe last year and missed my birthday. I'm holding my mom accountable for that one.

So Mom, Dad & Matthew.... Happy Birthday to Me! Thanks for doing what you did and what you do! Just keep in mind... you asked for this!

Love your 25 year old daughter/sister,

Amy

I never did like numbers.

I'm 25 years old tomorrow. As if that was not bad enough, I have to turn 25 twice. Come 5:09 tomorrow morning I (in my mind) will be 25. Come 5:09 eight hours later in California, my mom will consider me 25. I guess it's not every birthday you turn the same age twice... you also don't become a quarter-of-a-Century old, nor get to celebrate it on two continents. For those reasons it deserves a little reflection.

I've heard in the grand scheme of things that 25 years of age is young. How do you explain it then if you're driving a 25 year old car.... which means you're driving something coughed up from the 80's... it's now old, or out of date. I've found the only instance where 25 is not considered 'old' (again, in MY opinion... it is my birthday!) is when it constitutes rings in trees or turtles. The trees and turtles do not count because they live 120 years or something ridiculous like that. In those instances, 25 is not old but I guess it's all relative.


Anyways, now that we all know I think 25 is semi-old (again... relative to my existance)... but since I refuse to let any birthday go by without serious contemplating... this is what I've come up with in my 25 years...


1) The saying goes, 'Live each day like it's your last,' however, I find it much more interesting to live it like your first... open, new & gitty with anticipation.


2)Love your family. Love your family. Love your family. I am so lucky because at 25, my family is growing & multiplying much quicker than it is diminishing. There's nothing short of amazing to hold a new little person, one who did not exist the day before, in your arms.

Giulia & Amy January 2006

3) Education is important but it's not everything. I think I've earned the right to say this because in my 25 years, I've spent 20 of them in academic institutions. I learned some good stuff there but the most important things about life I learned from my Grandpa and my dog. (More on that another day.)

A Meatloaf in the sun. April 2008

Grandpa and Amy. March 2005

4) Memories will fade... even if stoked continually... some things will disappear... some will remain... I'm still not sure why some stay longer than others. Thank God that we can perpetually 'freeze' memories nowadays courtesy of our Kodaks and Canons. You never know when you'll take a picture just because... and one day it becomes one of the smartest moves you've ever made. Here's one I took... it's not edited, cropped, or professional by any means... but it's great none the less.

Grandpa playing Nintendo's 'Duck Hunt.'

5) Even if you're scared for your life, don't run for the hills. You see, I used to be scared of a lot of things... the Giant Dipper, or all roller coasters in general, jumping off diving boards, removing my earrings (ugh, Lisa), and somethings still frighten me (flying, drowning, unibrows) but you must keep on or miss out. Those are your only options. So I'm keeping on. (Thanks Donna!)

It's been good.

(I can only imagine how much I'll know when I'm 50.)

I try to make sense of it all.

So the other day in lovely Stuttgart, Germany... it decided to snow again. It did not even snow enough to be worthwhile, just enough to cause staus (traffic jams) on the autobahn and make the grassy hills around here quite slick. We cancelled our day trip to France in fear that it would be snowing the whole way there and were glad of it when we woke up to... snow. I'm not sure when Mother Nature decided to turn it all around and give us this glorious day (seen in pictures below). We're on for France next weekend....

Stuttgart+handsome soldier+cute pooches= MY LIFE!

Me and My Little Man!



Blustery but beautiful...

On top of the World.

And Chad has been asking me for days if I've blogged about my 25th birthday present... so I can finally say 'yes'... here it is in all it's glory.

It's not a Mercedes, or a BMW... but it's mine...

and it's a gift from my husband...

and I love it.

.Ciao.