Note to self

When riding a train and hoping to return on the same one sometime later on, check to see if the train station closes.

I've walked where Napolian walked...

Ludwigsburg Castle. Amazing place. 450+ rooms. Beautiful gardens. Shannon and I took the girls to the gardens on Saturday. Its a 20 or 30 minute walk from where we are in a town called Oßweil. After walking around in the gardens that where open, we got a lunch of sausage sandwiches and french fries. We ate in the park, then we bought ice (ice cream) and had a fun time getting it everywhere. Afterwards, we played in the park for a bit. The play place looks like a Swiss family Robinson house and is built around tress, so as you climb in it, we actually climb around branches and go up the trees. Amazingly fun.

Yesterday, Sunday afternoon, Shannon and I went back to the castle for an English tour. Apparently, Napolian had been their on several occasions to visit his friend, who he made king of Germany. So, I have walked where he had. I know, I deserve a pat on the back for that one! We only saw 65 of the rooms. My favorite was one with all different types of mirrors in it. I was itching to steal the tour guides' keys to spend hours exploring. No worries. I refrained.


Last night, I played football the European way and boy am I feeling it today. I was horrible, but it was all just for fun and fun was had.

Arrived

I love traveling....not just the going and doing something part, but the getting their part. yesterday, my flight to Atlanta from Detroit was delayed, so I just sat and watched people.....so fascinating. All people from all different walks of life. Caused me to wonder what their story was.....how did they end up here? What do their lives look like?
Because of the delay I had to book it to my gate to leave for Stuttgart...but made it in plenty of time to sit and wait. People make me laugh...they call for boarding and people all jump up to go stand in a line for 20 minutes. I wait my turn and enjoy the madness.
The flight from Atlanta was almost 9 hours....for some reason my body did not want to sleep, so it was movies, reading, and people watching for me. Oh, and I also have a knack for asking pretty dumb questions. The flight attended gave me a couple of "What in the world are you thinking?" looks.
I landed in Stuttgart, made it through immigration without any problems, then went and waited for my bag. And waited. And waited. Yup. No bag. Still in Atlanta. Fun stuff. Luckily, I had foresaw that this might be a problem, so I had my toothbrush and other such things in my carry on. My bag should get here tomorrow, and I will have no problem surviving until then. :)
Shannon met me at the airport. After a couple *little* problems (like going the wrong way and forgetting to pay for parking) we made it out of the airport....and directly onto the autobahn. We may have gotten slightly lost, driven 200 kl/h, almost hit a guard rail, and gotten a speeding ticket all in the course of 45 minutes. But that's all a maybe.

After getting to the house....
I ate breakfast at a local bakery, went for a walk around town and then out to some fields with the town in the background, bought a bus ticket *sorta* on my own, hung laundry out to dry, met some pretty cool people, had an amazing cappuccino at a little cafe, exchanged dollars for euros, broke a serving dish of the people I am staying with, played with some adorable little kids, learned a bit of German and have had a wonderful time chatting with Shannon and trying on some outfits.

I am ready for a nice long sleep, but am throughly enjoying myself!

Excitment!

The past couple of days have been crazy. I am a planner. As soon as I found out I was going to Germany, I sat down and wrote out lists of things that needed to be done between then and when I leave. I was am SO excited, that I am shaking in my heels. By just looking at me, people knew something different was up. My day to day for this week has completely changed. I am getting more done, being careful about how I spend my time, and everything just seems right. I am going to Germany people!!
In the midst of it all, this thought came, "How much different would my life be if I was THAT excited about going to heaven?" How careful would I be about my time? Would people be able to tell a difference in my life? How many people would I be telling about it?

"...they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hat prepared for them a city. "

The Weekend

Sunshine. When I ventured out to do a couple of errands on Friday, I thought it was unusually warm. I figured it was above freezing and because it has been so cold, I find that warm. Obliviously I was shocked to find out it was in the 60s. O glory be! I quickly neglected my to-do list and spent the day studying in the sun, going for a walk, and gathering sap out in the woods....I even ended up with a bit of sun on my face and arms. It's a start!

The couple I live with make maple syrup every year, so there is always a lot going on in March. A couple of weekends ago, we tapped the trees and set everything up in the woods. This week, because it warmed up so much, the sap ran. Its fun wading through mud, tramping around the woods, and hauling around buckets. A nice, quite, step back from life. So that was Friday.

The rest of the weekend was wet and overcast. With that and the time change, I was sleeeeepy.

Down south my family had a full weekend with a regatta, basketball tournament, quiz rally, and a wedding. It almost made me glad I was not there, because then I would have to decide what to be apart of. Almost.

My younger brother will be here at the end of the month for about a week. I firmed up plans with my mom last night. I am so excited. I asked him what he wanted to do while he was here, and I said, "There are so many, I don't think I could name them." We are going to have a great time.


Then this morning, I booked a ticket to a little place in this country.....


....I leave Thursday.

Slowly but surely, this week I have been developing a nice make-you-groggy cold. It has happened so gradually that I did not realize how nasty I sounded or looked. One of the Cubbies was telling me last night that she was "a little bit sick". I told her that it was okay because I was too. She looked at me and said, "You are a lot of bit sick!"

Random Fact # 53: C-o-m-p-e-t--i-t-i-v-e

Definitions:
Competition: active demand by two or more organisms or kinds of organisms for some environmental resource in short supply
Competitive: relating to, characterized by, or based on competition.


Every single person in my family is downright competitive. And we love it. We give our all on the field and then let it go (well, most of the time) once we are off. None of us buys into the "we are all winners" humbo-jumbo. Any day to day task has the potential of becoming a competition. When I was with my family a couple of months ago, I cam downstairs to all of them, including mom, holding each others' noses, as seen to the left. The occasion? A hold-your-breath contest. They had to hold each others' noses to insure that there would be no cheating.

I love 'em.

Breakfast...

....it's what's for supper on Sunday.
On most Sunday nights growing up my mom would make some type of breakfast food for supper. Normally we would have had a big meal after morning meeting but would be hungry again around supper time, especially if we had been somewhere that evening. Sometimes it would be eggs, or baked oatmeal, or pancakes, or anything else. I liked it.
So last night I made myself an omelet and some biscuits and cut up an apple. It was not near as good as mom's cooking, but I still enjoyed it. There was a certain comfort to it....just having something the same as it used to be. I guess that would be why they call things like that "Comfort Food". Whatever it was, I enjoyed the experience, plus, it gave me leftovers for this morning.
By the way, what is the difference between lunch, supper, and dinner?