My Once Upon a Time...

There’s nothing better than coming home and finding one of these lovely tree trimming notices from the city on your front door. I literally busted out every curse word I could think of when I saw it.   E s gibt nichts Schöneres als nach Hause zu kommen und eine Mahnung von der Stadt an der Haustür zu finden, die besagt, dass man seine Baeume trimmen muss. Als ich den Zettel gesehen habe, hab ich mit allen moeglichen Fluchwoertern, an die ich denken konnte, um mich geschmissen. They do this every year and I remember too well, how "fun" it was the year before and how we had to re-trim our tree three weeks in a row, because apparently we didn’t do a "good" job the first and second time. They require, that your branches hang no lower than 16ft from the street. Do they even know how tall 16ft is? I don’t think they do. They also give you a deadline and of course, we waited until the last day to start.   So you mig...

I’ve been contemplating for a long time if I should write publicly about my struggles on this blog and had already decided not to, but recently changed my mind. After all, this is my life story I’m writing here, documenting the good and the bad and I think now is the right time to tell our story. The last five months have been really hard. They were full of hope, disappointment, tears and worries. A rollercoaster of emotions. Katie and I decided a few years ago that the summer of 2012 would be the time, when we would try to start a family. If you know me, then you know that I love nothing more in life than children. I always knew that I wanted them and I can’t imagine my life without them. I was so excited when June arrived and we started the process, it’s all I ever thought about, all I could ever talk about. I was just beside myself, that this would be “it”, that we would have a baby and live happily ever after. I didn’t care that I had to go to dozens of doctor appoin...

Have you been booed yet? I saw the idea on pinterest a long time ago and was determined to start this tradition in our neighborhood this year. I’m all about traditions and I can already see how fun this is going to be with kids! It’s easy, you prepare two Halloween Giftbags for two of your neighbors, print out one of the million “You’ve been booed signs” that are out there on the internet, drop the bags secretly on your neighbors doorsteps and see if the ball gets rolling. Each neighbor, who receives a gift bag, is also supposed to make two giftbags for two other neighbors and then hang the “We’ve been booed” sign on their door or window, so they don’t get booed twice.   I had this great plan about making some delicious Halloween Cookies to put in my giftbags and it wasn’t until days later when I was on my way to the store to get all of the ingredients, that I was thinking: “No one in their right mind is going to eat Halloween Cookies that have been dropped on their door step, no...

A few months ago a friend of mine posted on facebook about this Outdoor Adventure Ropes Course in Flagstaff and I immediately knew that I wanted to check it out. I had done something similar many years ago in Germany and loved it, so last weekend Ashlie, Katie and I finally went.   Vor ein paar Monaten berichtete ein Bekannter von mir auf Facebook ueber einen Hochseilgarten in Flagstaff und ich wusste sofort, dass ich dahin musste. Ich hatte sowas Ähnliches schon mal vor vielen Jahren in Deutschland gemacht und habe es geliebt und so sind Ashlie, Katie und ich am Wochenende dorthin gefahren. They take you through a kids training course first, followed by four adult ropes courses, high up in the trees, that continually became harder as you went.   Katie is deathly afraid of heights and I was so proud of her for doing this with us and she did awesome! Zunaechst muss man ein Training auf dem Kinder Hochseilgarte mitmachen, gefolgt von vier Hochseilgärten fuer Erwa...