an update before we get back to business

I think things have calmed down enough after the craziness of school that I can get back here on a semi-regular basis. But first, here is a smallish update to bring y'all up to speed.

(Yes, I sometimes say y'all in real life. I married a good, old southern boy. What?)

School: Ended well. The biggest lesson I learned was that online school and I do not get along. The biggest surprise was that it wasn't for the reasons that I originally feared! More on this soon.

The holidays: Were awesome! We had Jason for so much of the time and it was beyond spectacular. I really wanted to do an "after the fact" blog entry detailing all the things we did but it's too overwhelming.

My 365 project: I am pushing the reset button tomorrow. I would love to backdate, but it would take me way too long with the internet speeds we deal with over here. So we'll consider that first week a "warm up" to the real start.

My 101 project: Still in the works! Remember that school is one of my goals on there, so I've been working on it steadily for the past three months.

Our next assignment: Since I last updated we have played around with the idea of many different locations. An assignment opportunity came up and Jason volunteered for it...but we were pretty sure he wouldn't get it. He volunteered mostly so that we wouldn't wonder "what if" sometime down the road. We've also had some HUGE talks about our future over the past couple of days. More on that soon as well. At any rate, we don't know anything for sure and likely will not know until sometime in MAY. Blah!

Blogging schedule: I would love to set up a regular weekly line-up but would really like some feedback on what might be wanted. Family and friends, feel free to e-mail me or comment below. If you are an anonymous reader (isn't that so much nicer than "lurker"?) feel free to post your ideas too. What would you like to see more of?

I hope everyone is doing well and still checking in!

hello...hello...hello...echo...echo...echo...

Yeah, so for the six of you who show up on a half-way regular basis...I'm coming back. No, really! I had to drop something to keep doing well at school. My choices were to quit feeding the blog or quit feeding the kids; I figured that the blog would still be around after a few weeks of neglect so it was probably safer to go this way. Hopefully you understand!

Exams tomorrow and Thursday. One last assignment in one of the classes. That is all that stands between me and (relative) freedom. See you in a few days!

P.S. By the way, I will be back-dating over on the 365 blog. I didn't give up; I just haven't had the time to upload and edit photos.

really? seriously?

Okay, I was going to save these until Wednesday (Speechless Wednesday, anyone?) but I just can't. I've waited nearly a week as it is.

I'm guessing all the Oompa Loompas working at Wonka are virgin females. I'm talking from the lowliest of factory workers to the publicists to the lawyers--everyone. It's the only possible explanation. Explanation for what? Well, for this:


Jason found these at the shoppette a few days ago. We can't be the only dirty-minded people around, right? Please tell me that we're not alone in wondering what on earth those daffy people at Wonka were thinking! Really?! Seriously?

And in case you think perhaps it's just the packaging is bad, that surely the product itself is not nearly so, well... Ahem. Anyway. That's what I thought. So we opened it up. See for yourself:

The mushroom part and all its implications is a whole different topic and one that I'll just ignore for now. I'm just completely shocked that this made it through the entire process from brainstorming until production. Surely they have one immature individual somewhere who looked at these and, well...

C'mon! We can't be alone here!

happy new year...and stuff

It has been super-quiet here at the old blog lately. Jason has been home and we've been enjoying some serious family time. We didn't really go anywhere, but we did all sorts of fun stuff around the house: mock gingerbread houses, salt dough ornaments, paper snowflakes, Christmas cookies, a ton of Wii playing, movies out the wazoo, and a whole lot more. I honestly did try to upload and post some of these activities; I just didn't have the time to go through the entire process. (Have I ever whined about the internet speed here? Yeah, it's bad.)

In addition to all that I have hit major "we're moving" mode. I have started cleaning out the basement of alllll of our unneeded baby items. If you are here in Germany you are probably familiar with the RYS site. If you aren't, it is a good place to get used (and sometimes new) items at (most of the time) reasonable prices. (No, I am not getting anything for saying that. Take that FTC.) In addition to the four Rubbermaid totes and various "big ticket" baby items I have photographed and posted, we have also taken 15 bags of children's clothes to the donation station here in the village. I knew we had a lot of stuff but holy moly! I'm afraid for when I start the toys. It's going to be ugly.

This will probably be another light week on the posting front. I have a couple major projects due in my classes and I've let myself get a little behind. I have to get cracking! I have started another blog however, and I want to put it out here. It's for my 365 Project (which is, of course, part of my 101 project). There won't be a lot of words going on over there; it's mostly just pictures. The goal is to have daily pictures, though. It will be interesting to see how that goes!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year. I cannot believe that 2010 is finally here! This is going to be such a huge year.