Our Lazy Day

I'm going to try posting from Windows Live Writer again and hope it does alright.  It's a lot simpler than Blogger, so I want to see if it works better on the second time around.

We've had a really nice and slow Saturday.  The Olympics started yesterday, but with the time delay, the opening ceremony came on here at 8:00 this morning.  We watched that for several hours this morning, then Sam took off to go to some stores.  He's returning my cell phone for I believe it's the 3rd time now.  I got the phone in January, but it's just never worked right.  It doesn't hold a charge.  It's completely unreliable.  Sometimes it holds a charge for a day, other times just a few hours.  It's never available when I need it, so really what's the point in having it?  The first time we took it back to Media Markt we were told that legally they had the right to fix it 3 times before we could request a replacement phone, so we're now on the 3rd return for the same problem and we'll see if I can get a different phone.

Several months ago Sam put in for another position within CYS and just two weeks ago he was selected for and accepted it.  He'll be the new Child & Youth Services Administrator, which is a brand new job so he doesn't know entirely what it will consist of.  Regardless, we think it's a good move for him.  He loves his job as SAS director and loves being in a position where he can interact with the kids, but this is a step up and overall a good thing.  I'm so proud of him.  His center is known to be a good place to work at because he's a great boss and his personality makes for a fun place to work.  I had a pretty good feeling he would be selected, but I'm happy that it worked out and I just hope he enjoys it too. 

Last weekend we  had Carmen, my friend from Hawaii, and her family over.  They arrived in Germany in December and are stationed in Heidelberg.  I thought we would have gotten together long before now, but it's not easy when we're both working and we only have the weekends.  Anyhow, it was nice to see them again.  We cooked out here at the house then took the train to downtown Stuttgart later in the afternoon.  Wouldn't you know I didn't get the camera out all day?  So... I have no pictures to show for that day.

Since June we've had a lot of construction taking place behind our house.  We were less than thrilled to know a house was going up behind us, but knew it was a possibility since we didn't own the land.  It's going to be a single family house then in front of it, closer to the road, there's going to be a double house built.  They really build the houses close together here.  It's been interesting watching the process.  I took a few pictures just when the basement was being dug and started, then forgot to take any more until just recently.  It's going to be quiet out back for several weeks now because the construction workers are on "holiday".  We've found that most people take their vacations during August.  A lot of family run restaurants close for several weeks during this  time too.

 

The back of our house as they started to dig the basement

                       More of the basement dug out

                               Starting on the basement

                               This is how it looks today

           What we see on the other side of our yard

As you can see the house is right out our back door, but at least we have a fence up and their yard will be dug down to the level of ours.  The stones and fence will provide a good barrier between us.  Sam's thinking about replacing the fence we have with a taller solid fence that would totally block the view.

Well, that's about it from here.  Until next time...