My Once Upon a Time...

I guess it's fair to say that it's always a bad sign, when your washer and dryer starts to eat your clothes, ripping holes in them left and right and the clothes don't really come out any cleaner than when you put them in. Well, I guess that's what you get when you buy them used and abuse them for three more years. We have a huge "to do" list of house projects we would like to get done and we were actually saving to get our house painted, but when Katie's new sweater came out of the dryer with four quarter size holes in it, she readily agreed to let our HOA complain for a little bit longer about the age of our housepaint and go shopping for a new washer and dryer instead. I've been dreaming for some frontloaders for quite some time and when I knew I was getting new machines, I was beyond excited and I just knew I had to go all the way and do a complete laundry room makeover. This is the piece of crap I had to deal with, I took the picture afte...

A few weeks ago we were over at Katie's parents' house and Katie decided to "birdnap" an Angry Bird that her 14-year old brother Christian got as a present. At first, I didn't get it, but after Katie sent this text to her Brother, it was game on! Vor ein paar Wochen   waren wir  bei  Katie's   Eltern und   Katie  beschloss,  den Angry Bird von ihrem  14-jährigen   Bruder  Christian zu kidnappen. Anfangs   habe ich   nicht den Sinn dahinter verstanden,   aber nachdem   Katie  diese SMS zu ihrem Bruder  schickte, ging das Spiel los! It turned into a serious hostage situation and we just HAD to take it to the next level the following day...  Es   entwickelte sich in eine   ernste   Geiselnahme , und wir   mussten es am naechsten Tag einfach  aufs naechste Level fuehren... How could we top ourselves each day? We were plotting and scheming for the ...

One month has passed since Zuma was diagnosed with Epilepsy and a lot of people have asked me about him, so I thought I would give an update. The first weekend at home with him was stressful. Cosie was so aggressive towards him and we needed to keep them separate at all times, but also wanted to give them the chance to get used to each other again. We had to have Cosie on the leash, watching him like a hawk, and every time he showed any signs of aggression, we would put him in "time out".  I was so incredibly stressed out about going back to work on Monday. I felt worried, anxious and guilty. We had planned to leave Zuma in the backyard and Cosie in the house, but it was pouring rain that day, so we needed to have Zuma in the house, while we locked Cosie in the bedroom. Poor Guy. The following days we locked Zuma in the laundry room, which has a dog door to the outside and Cosie stayed in the house, which was also making me feel guilty, but was the only option we had. Un...

It’s a new year.  A new beginning.  A chance to reflect on your past and change your future.  To make resolutions to become a better person, partner, employee, sister, daughter, and friend. 2011 was a great year. I couldn’t have wished for more and I’m so thankful for everything I have in my life. Looking back at my pictures from the past year, I realize how lucky we were to be able to travel quite a bit and make memories we will keep forever. 2011 started out with a trip to Los Angeles, visiting Disneyland and the Beach , followed by a long weekend in paradise (Mexico) , my Birthday Trip with my parents in May to New York , another trip to Mexico , our Cruise through Turkey, Greece and Israel being one of the most amazing trips we have ever done and the year ended with – no surprises here – ANOTHER trip to Mexico over Thanksgiving . I gotta say, that’s pretty impressive how I crammed all of these vacations in the ten short vacation days I have every year! Okay ...