Well, hey there!

So, yeah.  Looking at this, I see that my last blog entry was November of last year...9 months ago! Holy hell!  Well, needless to say, A LOT has changed since then.  I mentioned I was pregnant in my last post, well, that little nugget, Eleanor "Ellie" Olivia, is here and 14.5 weeks old!  She came into our lives on April 30 at 4:10pm.  This time, the labor was MUCH better than with Amelia and much quicker.  I won't go into details...yet...I'll save that for another post. 

Crazy how time flies.  The saying, "The days are long, but the years are short" is totally true.

 Ellie getting checked out by Daddy...

 Amelia is the proud big sister!!

Another thing that's happened is that Amelia has found her first BFF.  His name is Leon and they are pretty much inseparable. They go to the same day care, and his mom and I try to meet up at least once a week so that they get more playtime.  It is quite adorable to see them together.  But, they do have a love-hate relationship.  When they get into little tiffs, good lord they yell and scream at each other. But then they make up 2 minutes later, because, well, they are 2.  What is even cooler is that they are one day apart!  Leon's birthday is the day after Amelia's...can you say joint birthday party!!  YAY!

 Amelia and Leon

Life with two little ones is rough sometimes.  Rewarding but rough.  To say it's all sunshine and lollipops is a complete lie.  It's hard.  We have a downs...we have our ups.  But at the end of the day, we are a family, and that is what matters.

 Me and my girls...

Sweet Ellie at 9 weeks

In other big news, Markus and I have decided that we are going to take the plunge into home ownership.  We have a lot to build on in Hirschau from my most gracious in-laws.  And with the help of my parents and my in-laws, Markus and I are much closer to building our dream house!  

Our contractors are FischerHaus.  They build fertighaeuser (a prefab home, but not what you think...it will be to our specifications).  They are local and they are AWESOME!  We just finished the planning stage, and we should be getting the plans next week and they'll be off to the building committee of Hirschau for approval!  So exciting!  I know that there will be bumps along the way (there already are a few, which I'll elaborate further on later after we get the all clear from the city and county to build) but I"m sure it will be a great adventure!  Hopefully, I won't be so busy (read: lazy) that I don't update this.  I want this to also be a journal of our adventure in house building/home ownership!

If all goes to plan, we will have the basement built this year before the ground freezes, and the walls and the roof will go up within 3 days sometime in February or March.  Once the walls are up, we will get the keys in roughly 13 weeks!  So exciting!!

Do you have any experiences building a house or remodeling a house and have any advice??  I'm all ears!!

Yes, yes...I'm still alive.

I am alive and well here in the Oberpfalz...just hitting a blogging lull.  That and I have been puking for the better part of 4 months, so, I really haven't been wanting to blog...I've been wanting to not puke.  Now you are probably wondering why the hell I'm puking so much.  Well, that is because Markus and I are expecting #2 April 30, 2012.  :)  Exciting!  I just want to stop being nauseous all the damn time. And that time is coming...

With Amelia I was pretty much puking well into the 20th week (which will be in a few weeks, I'm in the 17th right now).  I really hope that won't be the case this time (and I have a good feeling it won't be since I'm already have days when I'm not too nauseous and I don't have to puke). 

Hmmm...let's see what else...
*I turned 30. 
*Amelia turned 2.
*Markus and I celebrated our 3 year church wedding anniversary. (We celebrated our 4 year state wedding anniversary in July.)
*Had a quick trip to the US to see my best friend Emily get married. 
*Had my first long trip without husband and child in a while...and by long, I mean 6 nights.
*Prayed to the porcelain god too many damn times, but everything is fine and dandy with baby #2.
*Missed the WEBMU 2011 in Cologne due to the aforementioned puking.  Hopefully we'll be there next year as a family of 4!
*I arranged a lovely weekend getaway for myself and 9 other ladies in the Czech Republic.  We were by far the loudest group there...
*I started teaching another English class, which is nice. 

I think that is pretty much it.  Maybe I'll get out of this blogging funk.  Who knows.  Maybe this will just be more of a sporadic blog when things get interesting or...you know...whenever...

Pfew!

August was one BUSY month here in the Meissner household!  My mom came to visit us on August 5th and just left on the 25th. 

It was awesome having mom here!  We did SO much!  I gave her a week to get adjusted and then we were off!  We went off to Weltenburg with some friends for a nice outing.  It was awesome.  When we got to Kelheim (the city where you pick up the ferry to go to Weltenburg) Antenne Bayern, a radio station here, was paying for everyone's ticket!  Score!  We only  had to pay for Charlie, but he listens to Antenne Bayern too!!  But his ticket was only 1.70, so it was cool.

At the little beach at Weletnburg...we were the ones in the tent, which ended up being more like a sauna...

 The girls enjoying a much deserved ice cream.

Then we were off for an adventure in Schwangau...yup, that is where the famed Neuschwanstein Castle is.  We stayed in a lovely little hotel about 10 minutes from the castle and the Tegelberg.  The weather was awesome while we were there.  A bit cool, but sunny, and seriously couldn't have asked for better.  Of course, there was a bit of drama.  Amelia decided that before I picked her up from Schneckenhaus (her day care) that she was the one that wanted to get the biggest wooden stool and tripped over the carpet and bit through her lip a bit.  Awesome.  So, I had to pick her up early and rush to her doctor and then the plastic surgeon to be sure she didn't need stitches, which she didn't.  But she was in quite a mood.  I would be too.  But, we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us, so I gave her some ibuprofen and set up her car dvd player and she was good to go. 

The quote of the trip came from her too.  The first morning that we were there, we were having breakfast and a lady was dressed head to toe in a floral spandex getup.  Yeah.  I couldn't make this up!  Anywho, when she walked by, Amelia started saying something that I couldn't understand because she had her pucky in (it was a long night and she was cranky in the morning, so I just let her have it).  It sounded like, "Get down", but I took the pucky out and she started pointing and saying, "Clown. Clown."  I nearly peed myself.

So, we went and toured the castle and walked around a bit, but we were all pretty tired, so we took it easy the rest of the afternoon.  The next day we headed to the Tegelberg and rode the Tegelbergbahn up tot he top of the mountain to walk around up there a bit and get a coffee with a view.  It was quite nice.  After about an hour, we headed back down.  Luckily, we were there early, so when we went up there weren't many people in the gondola, and going down we were the ONLY ones besides the driver.  It was nice.  We were able to chat with him and he said that he goes up and down roughly 60 times a day. 

 A passed out little munchkin...

We got on the road at about 11:30 and were heading home.  About 2  hours into the drive, Markus called to ask where we were and I told him.  He started saying, "Thank God!"  Wondering what the hell he meant, I asked him to elaborate.  He started to tell me that a paraglider FLEW into the Tegelbergbahn lines and that there were people stranded in the gondolas!!  Holy crap!  That could have been us!!  Mom and I were thanking our lucky stars that we left when we did!  Pfew!  Those poor people had to poop through a hole in the floor!  No way.  That would have been awful!

At the top of the Tegelberg

 Mom looking at what to get at the cafe with the best view!

 

 Coming down in the Tegelbergbahn...such a lovely view!

Anywho, we got back to Weiden safely and the next day headed to Hirschau for the lovely Stadtfest Hirschau.  It is always a rocking good time. :)

I gave mom a weekish to recover from the trips and then we got up before the sun did to head to Hamburg on Friday.  My lovely sister-in-law was celebrating her 30th there.  It was nice.  The drive was a bit hard at the beginning.  Amelia got a bit car sick.  I won't go into detail, but it was probably a bad idea to let her have strawberry yogurt before we left.  Lesson learned.

We got to Hamburg and walked around a bit, met up with Sabine, went out to dinner and then headed back to the hotel since we were all pooped.  Mom watched after the baby phone so that Markus and I could have a beer at the hotel bar.  The next day we went on a tour of Hamburg via 1) a Hafenrundfahrt (Harbor tour via boat) and then 2) a city tour with a double decker bus.  Amelia had a nice time, but passed out on the bus.  It was nice to go on the bus.  I saw some things that I haven't seen before. 

We headed back for some down time before Sabine's big party that evening.  There was a big fair going on right near our hotel, so we went there for a bit with Amelia.  It is called the "Dom" and is a huge festival/fair thing in Hamburg.  Amelia loved riding the carousel...as long as she could ride in the Eisenbahn (train) she was good to go!  After that, we went and picked mom up from the hotel and headed off for diner at this lovely little Italian place.

Sabine's party was nice.  It was in a cute little bar in the sternschanse (totally spelling it wrong).    Unfortunately, we couldn't stay too long.  For some reason the baby phone wasn't working properly, so we had to leave around 11.  However, the night of her party was also the night of the Schnsenfest or something like that.  In the past, it has been known for its riots and violence, and if Markus and I were to walk home, we would be walking right though there...ugh.  Luckily, when we got up to a major street, there was a taxi (thank you Jesus!) so we took that.  He drove us through the damn Schansen!  It was interesting to see, but then we came upon a police TANK! and about 3 armored busses and loads of police in riot gear and just loads of police patty wagons.  It was crazy.  I hadn't seen anything like that before.  Freaked me out a bit.  Luckily, it didn't get as violent as it usually does, but damn.  Just seeing those things made me pee my pants a little.

The next morning, mom and I ventured (at 6:30am) to the Fischmarkt.  It is one of those things that you just have to do when in Hamburg.  It is a HUGE market and you can buy just about anything there.  We got pasta from Nudel Oli and some chocolate from the Denmark Chocolate guy...and some of those flat peaches...YUM!  Markus was awesome and stayed with Amelia.

Anywho, the drive back was fine, nothing too exciting happened.  The next few days we took it easy and then mom and I did our trip to Nuremberg.  We just stay the night in Nuremberg before she flies out.  Gives us some mother/daughter time and it is quite nice.  We did a bit of shopping and a bit of eating and had just a really nice time.

It was sad to see her go, it always is, but I will be seeing her in about 20 days, so it is all good.  So, she left on a Thursday, and then on Friday, my good friends from Holland were coming down with their daughter.  That was a lovely weekend.  Amelia and Guusje got along swimmingly.  Of course, there were some disagreements about toys, but seriously, what do you expect from 2 two year olds??  It was nice having Guido and Manon here.  They are just great people and we had great conversations.  Such a nice time. 

Amelia and Guusje, new BFFs!!

They left on Sunday after breakfast and then on Monday, Markus' best friend from University, Hansi, came up for a night.  Poor Hansi.  I was so exhausted from it all that I passed out on the couch at around 9:30.  Then I got up and chatted for a bit, but then was off to bed at 10:15ish.  The boys stayed up until about 12:30 though, so it is all good.

Now it is just Charlie and me in the house this morning and it is quite nice just having some down time.  September is going to be busy as well.  I turn 30 and am throwing a huge party.  I'm a bit insane and have decided to cook for it...maybe we'll just end up ordering pizza, we'll see.  Then Amelia turns 2!  Where has the time gone?!?!  I leave for the US for a whirlwind trip to see my best friend Emliy get married, and then it is already October.  Hopefully October will be a bit quieter...we'll see...

The Death of a Legend...and other things.

So, first with the other things.  I have been in a bit of a blogging funk.  Loads of ideas of things to write about, but really no lust to actually sit down and write about them.  Maybe once things calm down around here a bit, then I will hopefully get back into blogging mode. 

However, today, I did learn of something and I thought it was most definitely blog worthy.  Well, at least for me to keep a little record of it.  I learned that my cat back in the States, Hobbes, has passed away.  He was seriously the best cat.

We got him way back in 1993.  He came from southern Utah from a little town Escalante.  Big long story as to how we came to get him from there, but nonetheless, he was a barn cat there, born the day my brother arrived.  So, as a keepsake, my brother got to keep him.

When we went to pick up my brother and Hobbes and bring them back to Texas, I was the one that got to smuggle him on the plane in a sling...luckily, the security checks weren't as crazy back then, and this was actually possible.  Hobbes was drugged so that he would sleep the whole way from Phoenix to Dallas (with a layover in El Paso) and I remember distinctly that he began waking up on our descent into Dallas Love Field.  I tried to tell my mom that the bag was moving (we had transferred him to a bag at the time) and he started to make some noises.  So every time that he would start to make some noises, I would have to cough or do something loud.  Quite funny, but not really at the time thinking that we were going to get arrested or something.

He became my partner in my adventures.  In our backyard in Dallas, we had a creek running through it with kind of a mini forest.  It was AWESOME!  As a kid there were all sorts of things to do back there, and now I had a companion who would always come with me on my adventures.  Hobbes would always follow me to see what I was up to back there.  It was nice.  We'd have one sided chats...but we all know that I was answering for him in my head...and sometimes out loud. 

There were loads of little rodents and birds back there too.  At least once a week he would bring me a kill and lay it nicely disemboweled on the floor at the foot of my bed.  Squirrels were his favorite.  One time he brought in a baby owl, which was still alive and uninjured.  He got pretty mad at me when I let him go.  Once we got Cali, our dog, they worked in teams.  I remember one time that Hobbes had killed a rat and brought it up to the porch.  Cali decided to play with it.  I must add here that she did have a squeeky rat toy that she loved, so I think she thought she was just playing with that.  She would toss it up in the air and then it made a loud "thunk" on the ground.  Mom heard this and wondered what the hell was going on, saw that it was a real rat and came up to get me to get rid of the damn thing.  I might add that it was also 7am or so. 

Hobbes was also one of the best cuddling cats.  He loved it to be draped over my shoulder and would stay like that for a while, even as I walked around the house doing stuff.  He would come up for snuggles, when he wanted them, and when he was done, he was off.  He'd do that little pawing thing, I always called it making cookies, on me, while purring really loudly and drooling like you wouldn't believe.

His absolute favorite thing in the world was cat nip.  He would lay on the table or the carpet and just roll in the stuff and act all drugged out afterwards. 

I am going to miss this sweet kitty.  It is going to be hard for me to go back to Texas and not automatically go to the back and yell out , "here kitty, kitty" for him to come for a snuggle.  I am grateful for the time that he was here and the times that we spent together and I am definitely grateful that Amelia got to meet this sweet soul.  I know she won't remember it, but I've got the pictures to prove it and more importantly I will remember it.

So, rest in peace my sweet Hobbes.  I, and the rest of the family will miss you greatly, but I know that you aren't in any more pain and that you are frolicking around with Walter and Spike in fields of cat nip.

One of his favorite places to drink water was from this fountain in the front courtyard in Wimberley...

Bild am Sonntag, you idiots!!!

Dear Bild am Sonntag,

You have lost a reader.  Not that I'm a loyal reader or anything, but I will definitely NEVER read/buy your "newspaper" again.  As I was flipping through todays paper, something caught my eye...something of GREAT importance.  You had an article in there about one of the people in a famous photo from September 11, 2001 after the fall of the World Trade Towers.  I read the headline, then DIRECTLY under the headline...something caught my eye...I'll see if you, my lovely readers, catch it...even if you don't read German, you should be able to catch this one...

Yeah, you catch that too!!!  YOU PUT IN 9. SEPTEMBER 2001!!!!  THE COMPLETELY WRONG DATE!!  So, me, being quite infuriated, give them a call.  Do you want to know the excuse that was given to me:  "Oh, the writer probably had an issue with the way Americans write their dates, you know, they call it 9.11.2001".  Yes lady.  I am American.  I know how to write the effing date...both in the US AND in Germany and if your writers don't, then they should be damn well fired.  Not only that, wasn't this article, which was on page 15, supposed to be read by an editor???  Listen Michael Remke (the author of this piece which I didn't read because I was absolutely infuriated), you need to catch up on the times here.  If you don't know that 9.11 is September 11, then really, should you be writing a piece about one of the most important events in American history??  Come the eff on!!!

Ok, I have to stop now before I work myself into a tizzy...

Major development

A major thing happened on April 27 at 6am here in Texas.  It was the last time that I nursed Amelia.  She cut back majorly the week before and then I figured I'd give it a try of saying "no booby" when she asked.  She took it quite well, and so we've just stuck with that.  It hasn't been bad at all.  She goes to sleep just fine and stays asleep too. :)  So, it is a bittersweet time for me, but I am quite proud of making it 19 and a half months with nursing my daughter. :)

Oopsie...

So, I know...I've been neglecting my blog a bit...ok, a lot.  BUT, in my defense, I've been teaching English, raising a child, traveling to Texas (more on that to come) and basically been super busy.  So, sorry to the four of you who read this.  My bad. ;)

I am in Texas right now and will be back in the Vaterland on Wednesday and the munchkin will be back at day care next Monday, so I'll have 4 hours to myself every day again and hopefully be able to catch the blog up then. :)