June 2011

We got back to Germany at the beginning of June and tried to get back into the swing of our lives here. It's strange to be gone for so long. I always wonder if Gabby is going to know me and she never disappoints. She is so aggressively loving when we get back from a trip. We can't go anywhere without her following us, meowing and purring the whole time. Those first few nights at home are interesting because Gabby just won't leave us alone and has to be near (on top of) us all night long. I don't have any proof that cats have dreams or nightmares, but I would suggest that Gabby does. Usually, after we've been gone a long time we'll hear her in the middle of the night meowing somewhere in the house ~ long, mornful meows. I have to call for her and she realizes we're home and all is right with the world again. She's such a baby.

Our roses were in full bloom when we got home. I just love our rose bushes!





Alot of evenings we'll go for a walk around our town. This evening Elly was ready to go and of course had "baby" in tow. We walked through the town cemetary, which is always interesting. We try to keep Elly quiet and respectful as we mosey through. Sam always comments that he wouldn't mind living right beside a cemetary. No bothersome neighbors and it would certainly be quiet. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't choose that though. It's peaceful to walk through, but I wouldn't want to live right next to one.












I ordered some training panties for Elly. I figured I better be prepared before attempting to potty train her. She found them really fun to play with and tried to get them on. I had been talking to her about going potty in the potty chair. I didn't have any plans to get her potty trained until we were settled back in Germany though. In a way she still seemed like my baby and it just didn't seem like she was old enough to be going potty like a big person already.

Since I am sooo far behind in this blog, it seems funny to be talking about her learning to go potty. It's the beginning of October as I write and it's been 6-8 weeks since I've changed a poopy diaper. I haven't worked too hard with her. She's pretty much potty trained herself and I'm now just waiting until after we have company in a couple of weeks to get her totally out of diapers. I figure it'll be a lot easier travelling without having to stop for potty breaks whenever she feels the need.

Elly's love of playgrounds continues. She LOVES it when we take her to play at one of the on-post playgrounds.

She was just discovering the swings at this point. She found it fun to lay on her belly on the swing.









One Saturday morning Sam took us to a strawberry patch to get some strawberries. For several years I'm mentioned wanting to find out where to pick them. Little did I know how easy it was to find. We picked about 1 1/2 gallons of them. I LOVE strawberries! I made up one batch of strawberry jam, but then realized I didn't have enough jars to make anymore, so I froze up the berries and will finish the jam making when I get my jars from Amazon.

Elly wasn't sure about picking them at first. She has a thing about touching alot of foods. I think that has something to do with how picky of an eater she is. She doesn't even want to touch the food. Anyhow, toward the end of the day she was picking some berries too.

A sink full of yummy strawberries!

Making the first batch of strawberry jam.



It seems like we often take pictures on Sunday mornings before heading out to church. That's a great example of how one-sided blogs can be. How we put out there just what we want people to see. More often than not we do not look all put together and picture ready. I guess that's why we like to take advantage of those times we're actually dressed and look put together. Those of you who actually know me know that usually when I'm at home I'm in sweats and a tee shirt with my hair in a pony tail. It's all about comfort :)





Another day, another walk around town. We love how there are so many different trails that we can take. We've lived in this town for 3 1/3 years and we're still discovering new trails that we've never been on before. The trails are so nice too. Most often they are paved walking trails and just beautiful. I love it when we come across goats or sheep along the way. Elly enjoyed looking at the goats this evening.












Our poor little fruit trees :( We have two cherry trees (one sweet, one sour), one nectarine tree, one plum tree and one apple tree. We have yet to harvest anything worthwhile. The very first year we had our apple tree it had 2 apples on it (we bought it that way) and they were so delicious. One year it had hundreds of blossoms, but never produced any fruit. This year it has two apples on it, but we'll see how they turn out. Usually, it seems bugs or slugs get to the fruit before we do. We've gotten just a couple of plums other years and the nectorine tree has never produced a thing. Here is the "harvest" from our cherry tree this year. Impressive...don't you think?

Our two apples...still growing.

Another Sunday morning. We didn't go to our regular church this particular morning. We went out to Patch because Dr. Ravi Zacharias was going to be preaching. I was looking forward to hearing him because I remember listening to his sermons on the radio through the years. He did not disappoint. It was a great message. Sam was sweet and stood in line with me to meet him. He was very nice and we were able to get a picture with him.



Well, that wraps up June. If I could just spend a day on this computer I might actually get caught up one of these days. I'm off to work on July. Until next time...